This was on the heels of Portal. Players had just enough time to bring 1-2 PCs to 1st level. They also decided to grab a couple seasoned veterans before heading out (a good idea since this module is designed for 2nd level PCs).
Cast:
Buckers McMoney: Warrior/1
Gareck: Wizard/1
Steig: Warrior/1
Grimhelm: Cleric/1
Malik: Thief/2
Carl: Thief/1
Fairas: Elf/1
Groot the Pious: Cleric/3
"We made it back alive! We're all mighty heroes now!" No sooner do the former blue-collar workers make it back to their quaint little village and proverbially Level Up than word comes in that the nearby forest, Tamarack Weald, is infested with a danger that has started infecting the outlying areas. Two night ago, Orb Weavers made it as far as Brandy Hollow, a halfling thorp beyond the northwest treeline, and made off with sheep and young Olo Nudd. Representatives from Brandy Hollow have traveled to the primarily-human village to ask for assistance, and offer a hefty reward - 100 GP - for the safe return of their shepherd boy, Olo. With little medieval dollar signs in their eyes, the fledglings grab a couple local friends (Malik and Groot) and make haste toward the Tamarack Weald to hunt some spiders.
Once inside the forest, a jaunt down the main path takes them into a small clearing, across which is woven a large circular web (about 20 ft in diameter). A spider just over a foot long is seen scurrying to the top of the web. As the party tries to determine which tactic to use, it drops into their midst (totally missing its attempted leap onto Steig). A second Weaver, similar in size, joins in shortly, this time succeeding in an aerial attack. Fairas tries out her new Flaming Hands specialty, and a ton of worms manifest underfoot, making the fairly brief combat quite messy. Knowing they're after a halfling, they're hesitant about cutting down the cocooned lumps in the midst of the web, but soon realize they're simply desiccated remains of small animals.
The obstructing web is cut through and the continue down the path. Everyone is now keeping an eye out for further attacks from above, and the fine silvery cord strung between the treetops above the path is easily spotted. The party comes to a halt, does a thorough search, and finds a camouflaged trap door -- not a trapdoor spider, mind you, but a trap door. Wooden. Hinged. Leading into the ground. Malik and Carl determine that the door itself is not further trapped. When opened, the door swings downward as expected, and they see thick webbing strung like a net about 10 feet down. Everyone decides to bypass it, because "spiders don't burrow" and it didn't look like their halfling target was in the web.
They continue until a large clearing - well, a boggy clearing, if that's a clearing at all. There are 6 pathways radiating outward, and they [unknowingly] choose the shortest way around to the direct path. They skirt between the edges of the bog and treeline to the right and get ambushed by an Orb Weaver about 3 feet in length (this netted a few squeamish shudders around the table). While there is a little damage inflicted, everyone saves vs. the poison from the bites. Coming to the east edge, a wide path becomes visible. A series of webs about 12 feet above are strung along like the entrance like a banner. The word "FALTCHEH" is woven into it ("Great, we get to fight Charlotte now?"), and Fairas recognizes the Elven word in the silk, "Welcome." In defiance, she thrusts her Flaming Hands upward....and the reinforced foliage goes up with the webbing. *WHOOSH* - there's a blast of damage to the entire party, and the worms go up like cheap firework toys. ("Poor worms!")
All are now on guard as they wind their way uneventfully along the next path for ten minutes or so, searching high and low as they go. As the path widens once more, the eight-foot section of ground covered in silken lines is easily discovered and - remembering last time - destroyed with fire sent via flaming arrow before entering the clearing that turns out to be a dead end [no pun intended]. The Stygian Orb Weaver Queen waits for them in the center of her 30-foot web. The bloating, pulsating abdomen and shifting green rorschach-like markings [I do love that description!] take everyone aback for a moment. Fairas recalls the welcome message and comes to the conclusion that the Weaver Queen must be intelligent. Half the group thought Fairas should try to talk to her in Elven and ask for the boy, but they couldn't come to a decision, so Gareck steps in and tries to throw a Choking Cloud toward the web. And fails. A dazzling effect similar to Color Spray is sent in return, which blinds Fairas and Grimhelm. Buckers, Steig, and Groot rush in to close combat. Malik and Carl work on scaling the webbing, getting in a flanked attack or two. Grimhelm recovers first and joins in. Poor Fairas is out of commission. The Queen attempts to escape but is kept in range by the sneaky thieves until she takes enough damage to cause her to fall from the web, where she is quickly dispatched.
Carl heads for one of the silk-wrapped form in the web that looks body-shaped - and finds a dead humanoid with lizard features. Malik tries to scuttle over to another cocoon, loses his balance, and saves himself by thrusting his dagger out to gain purchase - and sadly discovers that not all of the Queen's captures are dead yet. With the warriors standing below to catch the findings, Malik uncovers three dwarves, one of whom is immediately healed by the team of clerics standing by, and Carl rescues Olo, the halfling boy.
Behind the giant web is a trove of sorts with many sacs hanging from the trees. Malik finds one with a small wooden chest of currency and a large gem. His innocent whistling certainly rouses suspicion within the rest of the party. Carl plunges into another, finding quite a haul. Fairas, feeling she needed a bit of closure, joins the thieves behind the web, and finds a decayed corpse of an Elf of obvious stature, judging from the armor and sword he'd carried. The word "Morclaiv" is engraved upon the blade, which translates to "might goblin slayer". This leaves her with quite a few questions: Who is this Elf? What brought him here? How did he come to die here, after apparently doing so well against goblins? Why did the web contain the Elven greeting? Did the Orb Weavers speak/understand the Elven language?
After haggling over the dwarves' pipe-leaf stash the Orb Weavers had taken, the troupe gladly escorts the four rescued short 'uns back to the village, retracing their steps around the bog and making sure that no new webs have formed. Pretty smart for people who'd just been farmers a couple days ago.
Credits:
"The Treacherous Cobtrabs", Appendix N Adventures / Brave Halfling Publishing
Post-adventure math
Buckers McMoney: +9 XP
Gareck: +9 XP
Steig: +9 XP
Grimhelm: +9 XP
Malik: +9 XP, -1 Luck
Carl: +9 XP
Fairas: +9 XP, +1 Luck
Groot the Pious: +9 XP
LOOT: 114 SP / 153 GP (includes reward) / 25 CP / 54 EP / copper arm band (20 GP) / 2 casks of pipe-leaf (70 GP) / Dwarven map / 1 fiery gem (200 GP) / sky blue silk cloth / Elven chain mail / Morclaiv (Elven longsword)
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
The Portal Under the Stars ~ 07.21.2013
As mentioned earlier, Road Crew game #4 was the beginning of what promises to be more of a campaign setting vs. the convention-style play. The first major change I personally felt was that I now have to adjust my sales pitch to appeal to the folks that are dealing with 0-level funnel characters. In a world of "Pathfinder or bust", I was grateful to the FLGS guys for their assistance.
Very happy I'd run this one in the past as a funnel. Made me a lot more comfortable in the public setting.
Each player started with 4 0-lvl pre-generated PCs (courtesy of Purple Sorcerer, of course). 25% fatality rate.
Bad Judge: No character roster this time around.
Players:
Troy (2 PCs dead)
Kirk (1 PC dead)
Neil (2 PCs dead)
Curtiss (0 fatalities)
Rose (0 fatalities)
Old Man Roberts (not Old Man Winters, you damn kids) confesses on his death bed that he wished he'd explored further the last time the Empty Star created a portal by the old stone mounds. Instead, he'd been spooked by the iron men and ran away instead of pursuing gold and glory. The villages take up their shovels and pitchforks and promise to take the chance he missed out on.
Greed is strong with this crew. The star pattern set into the portal door looks as if it's made from jewels, so instantly the jeweler wants to try to pry some of the stones out of the door. Luckily someone steps in and stops him. The enameled armor on the statues just inside, however... Those look like what Old Man Roberts had described. They quickly discover why he ran as one of Neil's PCs finds a spear thrown so hard, he is pinned to the mortar of the wall behind him. (Death #1.) The others scuttle around the doorway, checking the attack angles of the other statues and timing their approaches into the room so as to avoid the other three spears (and then taking the time to arm and armor themselves).
The monument hall is just as entertaining as I'd remembered -- only this time the party decided to split into FOUR directions. Had to take it one room at a time, one round at a time.
The giant flame-shooting statue took out one of Kirk's PCs right away (#2), and later one of Troy's who just wasn't quick enough (#3). Even though the details of sword and grimoire were made of stone, a couple of Curtiss's PCs and one of Kirk's were determined to climb the statue and avoid its jet-flame attack while trying to pry gems out of the neck piece (succeeded on a handful). Some also took damage when the fire attack jammed and exploded back toward the body of the statue itself.
The immortal demon-snake in the scrying chamber went out way too easily. One of Troy's PCs scored a max damage crit. The decor in the throne room was concerning, but not consuming.
The shaky piles of bones in the chieftains' burial chamber, however, took revenge on another of Neil's PCs (#4) for disturbing them, and did plenty of non-critical damage to other PCs as well before they yelled out for reinforcements from their comrades.
The gazing pool throws everyone for a loop. There's diffused light coming from below. There's humanoid statues seemingly made of glass that hover near those holding torches. A couple PCs wander through the door and down the stairs, but aren't interested in the war room. Finally one of Rose's PCs leans in and works one of the small crystals out of the bottom of the pool. When bubbles appear, so does the proverbial light bulb, and suddenly three characters have others holding their feet while they pull out the crystals. Good thing, as they each get bonuses to their Reflex saves when the pool finally gives way and they are nearly pulled through with the current. Everyone now rushes to join forces (finally!) downstairs. This takes approximately two rounds, which is exactly what is needed to neutralize the potential threat: As they throw open the next door, they arrive in time to witness the last of the clay soldiers turning to a muddy mess.
The source of the light below is a glowing ball atop the throne of the clay warlord. His generals are already piles of dust on the dais before him. Everyone inclined/equipped for melee combat begins the long run toward the throne. The warlord's spear takes out another of Troy's PCs (#5), but the ranged attacks from the PCs taking the long way around do in the warlord.
It takes a bit of work, but the secret door beyond the throne is finally breached. After moving objects around with no success, they finally figured out that the concave depression in the stone table is the same size as the crystal ball that lights up the room of the army. It goes dark when removed from the throne, but when placed on the table it presents the group with the face of a goat giving them a cryptic message about astral voyages.
Credits:
"The Portal Under the Stars", Joseph Goodman / Goodman Games
Post-adventure math
+10 XP to all surviving PCs
LOOT: 3 spears / 4 sets black enameled scale mail / 40 crystals / bronze demon-faced rod / copper brazier / longsword / long bow / 40 arrows & quiver / battle axe / ancient tome
Very happy I'd run this one in the past as a funnel. Made me a lot more comfortable in the public setting.
Each player started with 4 0-lvl pre-generated PCs (courtesy of Purple Sorcerer, of course). 25% fatality rate.
Bad Judge: No character roster this time around.
Players:
Troy (2 PCs dead)
Kirk (1 PC dead)
Neil (2 PCs dead)
Curtiss (0 fatalities)
Rose (0 fatalities)
Old Man Roberts (not Old Man Winters, you damn kids) confesses on his death bed that he wished he'd explored further the last time the Empty Star created a portal by the old stone mounds. Instead, he'd been spooked by the iron men and ran away instead of pursuing gold and glory. The villages take up their shovels and pitchforks and promise to take the chance he missed out on.
Greed is strong with this crew. The star pattern set into the portal door looks as if it's made from jewels, so instantly the jeweler wants to try to pry some of the stones out of the door. Luckily someone steps in and stops him. The enameled armor on the statues just inside, however... Those look like what Old Man Roberts had described. They quickly discover why he ran as one of Neil's PCs finds a spear thrown so hard, he is pinned to the mortar of the wall behind him. (Death #1.) The others scuttle around the doorway, checking the attack angles of the other statues and timing their approaches into the room so as to avoid the other three spears (and then taking the time to arm and armor themselves).
The monument hall is just as entertaining as I'd remembered -- only this time the party decided to split into FOUR directions. Had to take it one room at a time, one round at a time.
The giant flame-shooting statue took out one of Kirk's PCs right away (#2), and later one of Troy's who just wasn't quick enough (#3). Even though the details of sword and grimoire were made of stone, a couple of Curtiss's PCs and one of Kirk's were determined to climb the statue and avoid its jet-flame attack while trying to pry gems out of the neck piece (succeeded on a handful). Some also took damage when the fire attack jammed and exploded back toward the body of the statue itself.
The immortal demon-snake in the scrying chamber went out way too easily. One of Troy's PCs scored a max damage crit. The decor in the throne room was concerning, but not consuming.
The shaky piles of bones in the chieftains' burial chamber, however, took revenge on another of Neil's PCs (#4) for disturbing them, and did plenty of non-critical damage to other PCs as well before they yelled out for reinforcements from their comrades.
The gazing pool throws everyone for a loop. There's diffused light coming from below. There's humanoid statues seemingly made of glass that hover near those holding torches. A couple PCs wander through the door and down the stairs, but aren't interested in the war room. Finally one of Rose's PCs leans in and works one of the small crystals out of the bottom of the pool. When bubbles appear, so does the proverbial light bulb, and suddenly three characters have others holding their feet while they pull out the crystals. Good thing, as they each get bonuses to their Reflex saves when the pool finally gives way and they are nearly pulled through with the current. Everyone now rushes to join forces (finally!) downstairs. This takes approximately two rounds, which is exactly what is needed to neutralize the potential threat: As they throw open the next door, they arrive in time to witness the last of the clay soldiers turning to a muddy mess.
The source of the light below is a glowing ball atop the throne of the clay warlord. His generals are already piles of dust on the dais before him. Everyone inclined/equipped for melee combat begins the long run toward the throne. The warlord's spear takes out another of Troy's PCs (#5), but the ranged attacks from the PCs taking the long way around do in the warlord.
It takes a bit of work, but the secret door beyond the throne is finally breached. After moving objects around with no success, they finally figured out that the concave depression in the stone table is the same size as the crystal ball that lights up the room of the army. It goes dark when removed from the throne, but when placed on the table it presents the group with the face of a goat giving them a cryptic message about astral voyages.
Credits:
"The Portal Under the Stars", Joseph Goodman / Goodman Games
Post-adventure math
+10 XP to all surviving PCs
LOOT: 3 spears / 4 sets black enameled scale mail / 40 crystals / bronze demon-faced rod / copper brazier / longsword / long bow / 40 arrows & quiver / battle axe / ancient tome
The Tower Out of Time ~ 06.15.2013
Free RPG Day Goodness from Goodman Games!
Cast:
Tumare the Round - Cleric/2
Arrgo the Axe - Dwarf/2
Nederom - Dwarf/2
Ulfuric Stormcloak - Warrior/2
Spiffle Wonderkin - Halfling/2
Mephisto - Wizard/2
Phillip J. Smith - Thief/2
The group gathers after a long, hard, dirty adventure that's netted them zero treasure. They wearily head back into their hometown, grumbling and dragging themselves to the pub for a much-needed fortified beverage to lift their spirits. The villagers they greet along the way scuttle out their way, muttering about a "bearded star" or scream crazily in their faces about abominations and plagues and the end of days. Now they really need that drink. But before they can relax in the pub, a trio of woodcutters burst in breathlessly, pointing toward the weird ray of light pointing skyward from a tower of some sort that just .... appeared in the forest earlier today. The beam is easily confirmed, even in daylight, but having been burned by the last expedition, the party holds out until the local constabulary offers a grand total of 50 GP for the services of investigating the weirdness -- and hopefully ridding the village of any issues that may arise from it.
They beeline for the beacon, but are interrupted by a wide, dark lake. "This was just a forest yesterday, right?" The jagged, glossy black stones making up the beach are mistaken for black diamonds and collected for later trade. They make their way around and quickly find the largest blister-like opening of the tower/structure before them. The odd, organic appearance of the tower doesn't deter them much; in fact, the swirling thunderheads above encourage them to find a way to plunge inside. (Or, rather, "permeate" - but that was declared a bad word by the wizard.)
The prehistoric atmosphere makes them cautious but does not heighten their awareness of their surroundings, and they are quickly jumped by the pair of Green Spitters in the Arboretum. Much "amok" ensues and Ulfuric is the only one landing blows until Mephisto steps in with Color Spray. Not about to go home empty-handed this time, Phillip frees 4 teeth from one of the spitters, as they're certainly rare goods. Tumare's deity disagrees with his desire to heal his cohorts...repeatedly.
Of course this skirmish gives the Ape-men above a heads-up, so there is no breather when the party emerges from the ramp onto the next level. Mephisto Enlarges Ulfuric to two times his size, evening the fight considerably. The Cerebraleeches only succeed in stunning Tumare, which seems fitting. Arrgo and Nederom make a good team, with Spiffle sliding in to dispatch the primates by hitting them in their "ape-ly bits". Phillip....not so good. When all is finally settled...
Tumare: "I'm gonna try to heal the thief."
Phillip: "Oh crap!"
When they discover the Antehuman pen, Mephisto comes to the rescue with Comprehend Languages. I'm still not sure if they were being kind or chaotic by setting the Antehumans free, directing them toward the village.
Climbing up to the next level, the foodstuffs are bypassed (especially after looking at the raw meat swarming with flies that the apes had been munching on) as are the caged rodents. While the party discusses keeping the rat-like things as pets -- or bringing them back for the Antehumans as pets -- H'lisk's voice sounds. The party is disrespectful as a whole, resulting in radio silence as the Sibilant Wonder proceeds to attempt to arm himself with protective spells -- and fails/loses every single one. Phillip and Spiffle rush up the next ramp -- the one time Phillip doesn't check for traps -- and trigger the rampway trap. Little Spiffle takes the brunt of the explosive damage. The door at the bottom of the ramp now weakened, Ulfuric (still twice his size) muscles it out of the way. They're stuck by the door at the top of the ramp long enough to arm the electric charge [due to time concerns, I put the door puzzle at the end of the trapped rampway to make sure we'd get to use the fun tiles posted here] and Ulfuric howls in pain as he insists on bashing through that door too (finally succeeding).
The standoff in the beacon chamber with H'lisk is embarrassingly brief. Not a single spell goes off for the poor snake-dude. The ape-men do a bit more damage, but the group's combat strategy is pretty sound. Once no foes remain, their first goal is to deactivate the beacon. Tubes are pulled from the three Antehumans, killing each instantly. No heed is paid to the strange, fleshy bladder-like contraption against the wall, for better or for worse.
The serpentine-lined door already used, the final chamber is easy to enter, and the Giant Trilobites (I found this as a reference) delay the party only momentarily before they get to ransack for any remaining loot. Not sure what else to do with this structure (see above re: ignoring the fleshy contraption), they snag the gold and call it a day, limping back to town as fast as they can in hopes of finding someone besides Tumare to heal them. Toward the opposite end of the forest, they hear a mechanized hum as the void-craft misses its target by a few miles.
Credits:
"The Tower Out of Time", Michael Curtis / Goodman Games
No post-adventure math this time around... definitely one-shot characters.
Free RPG Day 2013 ~ The *Unofficial* Recap
As shared on the Goodman/DCC forums:
Free RPG Day 2013 ~ unofficial recap from SW FL
FLGS opened at 10am. Based on RSVP #'s in our local Meetup Group, I prepped Tower Out of Time to be run twice. 4 other GMs showed up prepared to run something, but by 11:30 the paltry turnout made it clear that only one game would be going on at any one time. (The store also had 3-4 other events going on, including 2 tournaments. Oy.)
TooT went pretty well, despite one guy who had never sat at a table to play without a computer and was getting increasingly frustrated. "No gold again?!" "How much XP for that?" ...and so on, as he's use to getting instant rewards after every single deed in the D&D MMORPG. (At least he understood initiative. And I was floored that he was willing to give a tabletop game a shot, much less a non-D&D game.) In contrast, the rest of the table, stole the show, and I was basically there to set the scene, keep track of initiative, and be amused. Failures were spectacular. Deity disapproval abounded, to the point of terrorizing the party. (Cleric: "I'm gonna try to heal the thief." Thief: "Oh crap!") H'lilsk couldn't roll a spell check to save his life, and despite the halfling & thief storming into the trapped hallway (the one time the thief stopped checking first), the combats went pretty quickly and they were generally successful and ended up wading in squishy ape-ly bits. [I do plan to work the released & befuddled out-of-time antehumans into an upcoming adventure.]
Our FLGS didn't get around to ordering the Free RPG Day swag in time, but with major, MAJOR props to Goodman staff, I was able to give folks a choice of Goodman-issued goodies before they left. It had them roll a d30 for choice of who picked first, just as many convention GMs have done. In addition to the Road Crew swag, they were pretty blown away, and I succeeded in my quest to make Goodman Games the hero of the day!
As we wrapped up, David Przybyla joined us, and I flabbergasted him by demanding he sign my hard copy of The Way Station. Good way to start his day.
The head count dwindled after that, and Troy had prepped some really pretty visuals for a quick DCC run so we hopped into that. The effort he put into the temple construction resulted in phones snapping pics amidst combat. The wizard saved the girl in distress, who happened to be the warrior's sister, and the halfling took the found potions willy-nilly 'cause they smelled good. We completed the first part, but were unable to finish the follow-up since half the table had to bail at 8pm. After more evangelising the merits of DCC, converting D&D/Pathfinder players, and having people in the store tell us "I wish I'd known, I would've played", I think we got home around 10pm.
Lessons learned:
-Make sure the FLGS has DCC RPG books in stock when I'm there. They sold out before 5pm.
-Visit the store more frequently (it's an hour away) and drum up interest a week ahead of time. Maybe even give the store a sign-up sheet in advance.
-If someone RSVP's online, email/text/call them and personally confirm ahead of time. Out of 15, 6 players showed up. It was a bit disheartening.
-Start trolling the Free RPG Day site for on-sale dates in January 2014.
-Bring a cooler and buy 4x the normal order at Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe of choice, because there's no way I can leave for refills.
Free RPG Day 2013 ~ unofficial recap from SW FL
FLGS opened at 10am. Based on RSVP #'s in our local Meetup Group, I prepped Tower Out of Time to be run twice. 4 other GMs showed up prepared to run something, but by 11:30 the paltry turnout made it clear that only one game would be going on at any one time. (The store also had 3-4 other events going on, including 2 tournaments. Oy.)
TooT went pretty well, despite one guy who had never sat at a table to play without a computer and was getting increasingly frustrated. "No gold again?!" "How much XP for that?" ...and so on, as he's use to getting instant rewards after every single deed in the D&D MMORPG. (At least he understood initiative. And I was floored that he was willing to give a tabletop game a shot, much less a non-D&D game.) In contrast, the rest of the table, stole the show, and I was basically there to set the scene, keep track of initiative, and be amused. Failures were spectacular. Deity disapproval abounded, to the point of terrorizing the party. (Cleric: "I'm gonna try to heal the thief." Thief: "Oh crap!") H'lilsk couldn't roll a spell check to save his life, and despite the halfling & thief storming into the trapped hallway (the one time the thief stopped checking first), the combats went pretty quickly and they were generally successful and ended up wading in squishy ape-ly bits. [I do plan to work the released & befuddled out-of-time antehumans into an upcoming adventure.]
Our FLGS didn't get around to ordering the Free RPG Day swag in time, but with major, MAJOR props to Goodman staff, I was able to give folks a choice of Goodman-issued goodies before they left. It had them roll a d30 for choice of who picked first, just as many convention GMs have done. In addition to the Road Crew swag, they were pretty blown away, and I succeeded in my quest to make Goodman Games the hero of the day!
As we wrapped up, David Przybyla joined us, and I flabbergasted him by demanding he sign my hard copy of The Way Station. Good way to start his day.
The head count dwindled after that, and Troy had prepped some really pretty visuals for a quick DCC run so we hopped into that. The effort he put into the temple construction resulted in phones snapping pics amidst combat. The wizard saved the girl in distress, who happened to be the warrior's sister, and the halfling took the found potions willy-nilly 'cause they smelled good. We completed the first part, but were unable to finish the follow-up since half the table had to bail at 8pm. After more evangelising the merits of DCC, converting D&D/Pathfinder players, and having people in the store tell us "I wish I'd known, I would've played", I think we got home around 10pm.
Lessons learned:
-Make sure the FLGS has DCC RPG books in stock when I'm there. They sold out before 5pm.
-Visit the store more frequently (it's an hour away) and drum up interest a week ahead of time. Maybe even give the store a sign-up sheet in advance.
-If someone RSVP's online, email/text/call them and personally confirm ahead of time. Out of 15, 6 players showed up. It was a bit disheartening.
-Start trolling the Free RPG Day site for on-sale dates in January 2014.
-Bring a cooler and buy 4x the normal order at Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe of choice, because there's no way I can leave for refills.
Bone Hoard of the Dancing Horror ~ 04.07.13
(Note: Oh holy crap. Running for the 3rd time in public - and this time for 8 people, 3 of whom are prior GM's of mine. No pressure.)
Cast:
Bjorn Bloodshield: Warrior/2
Larry Lightfingers: Thief/2
Groot the Pious: Cleric/3
Gappa: Cleric/2
Elec: Elf/2
Tim: Wizard/3
Bash the Mighty: Warrior/2
Silent Cal: Halfling/3
The last wizard got fried (to put it lightly) the last time Bjorn and Groot got together. So, before they could go e'splorin' further, they thought it best to find some more able bodies...and another wizard...although they may not mention what happened to poor Viktor.
They find Tim. Tim jumps at the chance to join them. Tim even has something he'd been looking into: Dellspero the Philosopher had long ago relocated his own workshop to an underground location, and Tim yearned to check it out. The fact that it may have once been a temple of Chaos lords was unimportant, really...as was the fact that the earthquake burying the area in rubble was probably caused by the Chaos entities themselves in revenge for Dellspero's creation(s) within their depths.
The party chooses to enter from the east, which brings them in directly before the store room, and Bjorn and Larry investigated the hidden alchemical stores. Bash the Mighty barges in and insists on tying the Golden Balloon of Dallspero to his wrist. The vials of a glittering, opalescent liquid are taken for further research.
Then they stumble upon the boneless leech-rats. While these are large and scary -- Tim and Elec immediately Enlarge Bash the Mighty Balloon Holder and Bjorn to protect them, with some hilarious effects -- they are truly ineffectual lumps of flesh that are squished out easily (1 HP each). The things keep coming out round after round and the party runs in circles around the chamber, stomping as they go.
The moment the coast is clear, they flee into what appeared to be an alcove. After discerning that the pearly liquid dripping from the barnacle-like growth from the ceiling is similar to that found in the store room, Elec manages to destroy the growth and withstood minimal effects from the fluid. The candles by the statues on either side, however, stymie everyone for quite some time. [This room took up over an hour of play time.] Casting Detect Evil finds nothing. The numbers of candles near the male and female statues are uneven, so they move them around. The candles are all the same color, so now they're mixed. Larry lights what turns out to be a candle of the silver flame. When no visible effect besides the flame itself manifests, he lets it burn down. Elec illuminates a candle of the dark flame, which swallows that side of the room in blackness, and he succumbs to the immediate feeling of bleakness. Gappa splashes a vial of holy water over the candle to extinguish it...and someone bags the rest of the candles (again, all mixed up now).
The "enhanced" boneless leech-rats that greet them afterward are a bit of a surprise, and manage to do a little damage before Silent Cal discovers the crawlspace to the hidden shrine. He comes back for religious reinforcement after finding a skull and a pair of shinbones on an altar in there. Gappa calls upon his deity using Second Sight, and makes the well-informed decision to destroy the remains -- granting him a permanent +1 to his Luck.
At this point, both northward passages the party has found are blocked with rubble from the earthquake, and will take a good deal of time to clear. They elect to go back toward the east, where the hallway is a little more stable. This, of course, leads directly to the grand hall cut in half by the giant rift filled with nacreous fluid -- which looks very much like that they've already collected -- and the home to the Dancing Horror. Unsurprisingly, the wizards join in Enlarging party members: Bjorn, Bash the Mighty Giant Unburned Balloon Holder, and Silent Cal, the halfling -- who is suddenly three times his size for three days -- and the party concentrates their efforts on dismantling the undead horror (Cal trips once while getting used to his new stature). Elec fails twice in a row when attempting to cast Sleep. The Horror doles out a bit of damage, but nothing special. Groot gets the glory of the killing blow....and first dibs on dodging the explosion of ichor that showers down on everyone in the area.
The resulting Hoardling forms slowly, as to not be noticed while everyone continues the brazen expedition of this former temple.
Biting spiders in the adjacent rooms? No threat. The Hoardling who's shuffled off to the old crypt in search of more bones? Anticlimactic. Examining books briefly but not taking them for future perusal? Too bad for them. Leech rats under the bed? Jumbo-Bjorn and the clerics break the bed. In fact, the rest of the dungeon is primarily a hurried treasure hunt with little regard for further obstacles. Even the little tin soldiers who stand guard over the Fellblade of Dellspero are nothing more than nuisances, especially when nobody fails the Will save for the room's Confusion effect. Miraculously, Bash managed to keep the Golden Balloon intact until a tin soldier jumps off a shelf toward it.
[If I run this again in the future, I may block off passage via the route they took, to ensure they visit certain areas first and make sure they get the most out of this entertaining module. Wish such a large group, it was difficult to move them along with their repeated investigations of the shrine candles, and the resulting time crunch meant they missed over 100 GP in loot.]
Credits:
"Bone Hoard of the Dancing Horror", Daniel Bishop / Purple Duck Games
Post-adventure math
Bjorn Bloodshield: +12 XP
Groot the Pious: +13 XP
Gappa: +13 XP, +1 Luck
Elec: +13 XP
Silent Cal: +13 XP
Larry Lightfingers: +13 XP
Tim: +13 XP
Bash the Mighty/Giant/Unburned: +13 XP, +1 Luck
LOOT: 3 vials of nacreous fluid / 6 yellow candles (2 silver / 4 dark flame, indistinguishable from each other before lighting) / small jade statuette of wood nymph (50 GP) / set of horn spoons (12 CP) / silver candelabra (15 GP) / gold & ruby bracelet (250 GP) / Fellblade of Dellspero: +1 lawful two-handed sword, Int 8 (Empathy), SP: Jail the Guilty; Detect Water 40' radius, +4 Strength to wielder
Cast:
Bjorn Bloodshield: Warrior/2
Larry Lightfingers: Thief/2
Groot the Pious: Cleric/3
Gappa: Cleric/2
Elec: Elf/2
Tim: Wizard/3
Bash the Mighty: Warrior/2
Silent Cal: Halfling/3
The last wizard got fried (to put it lightly) the last time Bjorn and Groot got together. So, before they could go e'splorin' further, they thought it best to find some more able bodies...and another wizard...although they may not mention what happened to poor Viktor.
They find Tim. Tim jumps at the chance to join them. Tim even has something he'd been looking into: Dellspero the Philosopher had long ago relocated his own workshop to an underground location, and Tim yearned to check it out. The fact that it may have once been a temple of Chaos lords was unimportant, really...as was the fact that the earthquake burying the area in rubble was probably caused by the Chaos entities themselves in revenge for Dellspero's creation(s) within their depths.
The party chooses to enter from the east, which brings them in directly before the store room, and Bjorn and Larry investigated the hidden alchemical stores. Bash the Mighty barges in and insists on tying the Golden Balloon of Dallspero to his wrist. The vials of a glittering, opalescent liquid are taken for further research.
Then they stumble upon the boneless leech-rats. While these are large and scary -- Tim and Elec immediately Enlarge Bash the Mighty Balloon Holder and Bjorn to protect them, with some hilarious effects -- they are truly ineffectual lumps of flesh that are squished out easily (1 HP each). The things keep coming out round after round and the party runs in circles around the chamber, stomping as they go.
The moment the coast is clear, they flee into what appeared to be an alcove. After discerning that the pearly liquid dripping from the barnacle-like growth from the ceiling is similar to that found in the store room, Elec manages to destroy the growth and withstood minimal effects from the fluid. The candles by the statues on either side, however, stymie everyone for quite some time. [This room took up over an hour of play time.] Casting Detect Evil finds nothing. The numbers of candles near the male and female statues are uneven, so they move them around. The candles are all the same color, so now they're mixed. Larry lights what turns out to be a candle of the silver flame. When no visible effect besides the flame itself manifests, he lets it burn down. Elec illuminates a candle of the dark flame, which swallows that side of the room in blackness, and he succumbs to the immediate feeling of bleakness. Gappa splashes a vial of holy water over the candle to extinguish it...and someone bags the rest of the candles (again, all mixed up now).
The "enhanced" boneless leech-rats that greet them afterward are a bit of a surprise, and manage to do a little damage before Silent Cal discovers the crawlspace to the hidden shrine. He comes back for religious reinforcement after finding a skull and a pair of shinbones on an altar in there. Gappa calls upon his deity using Second Sight, and makes the well-informed decision to destroy the remains -- granting him a permanent +1 to his Luck.
At this point, both northward passages the party has found are blocked with rubble from the earthquake, and will take a good deal of time to clear. They elect to go back toward the east, where the hallway is a little more stable. This, of course, leads directly to the grand hall cut in half by the giant rift filled with nacreous fluid -- which looks very much like that they've already collected -- and the home to the Dancing Horror. Unsurprisingly, the wizards join in Enlarging party members: Bjorn, Bash the Mighty Giant Unburned Balloon Holder, and Silent Cal, the halfling -- who is suddenly three times his size for three days -- and the party concentrates their efforts on dismantling the undead horror (Cal trips once while getting used to his new stature). Elec fails twice in a row when attempting to cast Sleep. The Horror doles out a bit of damage, but nothing special. Groot gets the glory of the killing blow....and first dibs on dodging the explosion of ichor that showers down on everyone in the area.
The resulting Hoardling forms slowly, as to not be noticed while everyone continues the brazen expedition of this former temple.
Biting spiders in the adjacent rooms? No threat. The Hoardling who's shuffled off to the old crypt in search of more bones? Anticlimactic. Examining books briefly but not taking them for future perusal? Too bad for them. Leech rats under the bed? Jumbo-Bjorn and the clerics break the bed. In fact, the rest of the dungeon is primarily a hurried treasure hunt with little regard for further obstacles. Even the little tin soldiers who stand guard over the Fellblade of Dellspero are nothing more than nuisances, especially when nobody fails the Will save for the room's Confusion effect. Miraculously, Bash managed to keep the Golden Balloon intact until a tin soldier jumps off a shelf toward it.
[If I run this again in the future, I may block off passage via the route they took, to ensure they visit certain areas first and make sure they get the most out of this entertaining module. Wish such a large group, it was difficult to move them along with their repeated investigations of the shrine candles, and the resulting time crunch meant they missed over 100 GP in loot.]
Credits:
"Bone Hoard of the Dancing Horror", Daniel Bishop / Purple Duck Games
Post-adventure math
Bjorn Bloodshield: +12 XP
Groot the Pious: +13 XP
Gappa: +13 XP, +1 Luck
Elec: +13 XP
Silent Cal: +13 XP
Larry Lightfingers: +13 XP
Tim: +13 XP
Bash the Mighty/Giant/Unburned: +13 XP, +1 Luck
LOOT: 3 vials of nacreous fluid / 6 yellow candles (2 silver / 4 dark flame, indistinguishable from each other before lighting) / small jade statuette of wood nymph (50 GP) / set of horn spoons (12 CP) / silver candelabra (15 GP) / gold & ruby bracelet (250 GP) / Fellblade of Dellspero: +1 lawful two-handed sword, Int 8 (Empathy), SP: Jail the Guilty; Detect Water 40' radius, +4 Strength to wielder
"Show me on the hex map where the bad man touched you..."
Oh-so-many things about Gen Con Indy 2013 were so wrong ...but so right.
While +Marooned was the priority (gotta pay the piper who's paying me, after all), every other ounce of energy belonged to Goodman Games. The performance schedule heavily conflicted with the gaming schedule, and for the first time ever I skivved off a gig. I've never even called in sick before, but there was no way in hell I was giving up the single ticket we scored for one of +Harley Stroh's games.
My evenings were also taken up with DCC RPG awesomeness. Flying solo was new, but I felt confident enough to pull it off -- and I ended each evening by heading up to the suite some friends had landed for the Con, where I inevitably met people who were walking back toward my hotel at dark o'thirty a.m.
So, to recap: Lots of DCC people. Not enough DCC RPG gaming. Waaaaaay too little sleep. Survived on espresso & adrenaline/excitement. The drive home was....interesting.
The important pics are here; those & the extraneous pics are here.
While +Marooned was the priority (gotta pay the piper who's paying me, after all), every other ounce of energy belonged to Goodman Games. The performance schedule heavily conflicted with the gaming schedule, and for the first time ever I skivved off a gig. I've never even called in sick before, but there was no way in hell I was giving up the single ticket we scored for one of +Harley Stroh's games.
My evenings were also taken up with DCC RPG awesomeness. Flying solo was new, but I felt confident enough to pull it off -- and I ended each evening by heading up to the suite some friends had landed for the Con, where I inevitably met people who were walking back toward my hotel at dark o'thirty a.m.
So, to recap: Lots of DCC people. Not enough DCC RPG gaming. Waaaaaay too little sleep. Survived on espresso & adrenaline/excitement. The drive home was....interesting.
The important pics are here; those & the extraneous pics are here.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Filky goodness
I'm working on four (yes, 4) post-session write-ups from the Road Crew adventures. Was hoping to get them all kicked out while in the midst of the pre-Gen Con travels...
It's no secret that I perform at Gen Con. I was hoping to keep it a little separate from my DCC enthusiasm. That -- and my chronicling plans -- went by the wayside when Mr. Stroh wormed his way into our brains at the beginning of our road trip with filk ideas.
For all the verses and video clips that surface onto G+ by either myself, the hubby, or Dieter... I don't apologize one bit. Harley started it.
And y'all thought I was a fangirl before...
It's no secret that I perform at Gen Con. I was hoping to keep it a little separate from my DCC enthusiasm. That -- and my chronicling plans -- went by the wayside when Mr. Stroh wormed his way into our brains at the beginning of our road trip with filk ideas.
For all the verses and video clips that surface onto G+ by either myself, the hubby, or Dieter... I don't apologize one bit. Harley started it.
And y'all thought I was a fangirl before...
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