Little Odo's Grand Adventures

Games Workshop Goblins for Hordes of the Things

2012-05-26T17:57:00.002+01:00

These are the other figures I managed to complete this morning...

They are two units of Goblin Spears. As mentioned in a previous post, I make my bases slightly deeper (but proper frontage - 60mm) than standard as I want them to convey the appearance of lots of warriors as befits the title Hordes of the Things. For standard units of Blades and Spear I put five figures on each base.

The figures themselves are from Games Workshop, from their plastic Warhammer range. I am not too keen on their comical faces, but I think I have toned them down enough by not doing them in the standard green that GW paint them. They are actually quite large compared to the Harboth's Black Mountain Boys I painted a while back, but still fit in with the rest of the emerging 24 point army. I think I will have to go down the Tolkien road and say that the terms 'Goblin' and 'Orc' are interchangeable for the same 'race' of beings.

I still have three bases of goblin archers to glue up to add to the army, as well as a box of Night Goblins, which I will probably use as hordes. I am hoping to get these ready by the summer so I can fight them against the Barbarian army completed last year. I still have loads of old Citadel Night Goblins too, but I am not sure whether to use them on HotT bases or as individually mounted foes for fantasy RPG.

Next up (but it will be quite a while) should be loads of Norman milites, and Alex has a stack of Elves from a variety of manufacturers on the go for his own HotT army and LotR SBG.

Korum Proudfoot

2012-05-26T17:33:00.000+01:00

I managed to complete a few figures this morning. It has been a while since I actually finished anything, but I feel better now a small space has appeared on my paint station. I also managed to clean-up, base and undercoat a big stack of Norman cavalry. These will eventually form four conrois of knights.

Anyway, here is a picture of Korum Proudfoot - my latest AD&D character...

This miniature, by e-M4, was bought from Forlorn Hope games and cost just over a quid! Result.

I may grab a few more from them over the coming weeks to knock up a selection of demi-humn adventurers; of which I have a severe lack.

Khorvaire - Session 6 - 23/05/12

2012-05-26T10:48:00.000+01:00

Session 6: The Dungeon Complex – Part 2 (23^rd May 2012)

The cast of heroes

Arken (Half-Elf Cleric) – leader of the party

Bardan (Human Fighter) – the muscle

Knil (Elf Ranger) – the tracker

Rioja Hyrule (Human Mage) – the wizard

Korum Proudfoot (Halfling Thief) – the scout

Damien (Human Fighter) - the extra muscle (absent from this session)

The Darkness (day 21)

The party decided to rest up and take stock of their adventures so far. At a quick estimate, they realised that they had spent the best part of two days in the magical complex and dark dungeon; alternately testing their skills to the highest degree and resting up. After another good rest, the party considered their next moves. They decided to retrace their steps to the T-junction at the foot of the stairs they entered the dark dungeon by. Once past the doorway, they slowly approached a room the mirror image of the first one in which they encountered the first skeletons. This room was empty. Expecting the worst, Korum scouted ahead again with trepidation in his steps. The next room also turned out to be empty. The exit from this room, however, led straight onto a T-junction. They decided to head to the left as that seemed to be an area that could be quickly covered as it would fill in a gap on their map.

Approaching the room slowly, Korum heard the sound of bones rubbing together. He readied himself with two vials of Holy Water and stepped over the threshold. His presence was immediately felt by the two skeletons within and they advanced on him with wicked grins on their maws. Korum let loose the vials of water but these didn’t seem to have much effect. He retreated to the safety of the rest of the party declaring what he had encountered. Arken, the cleric, stepped forward and called upon his god, Din, to rid this world of such abominations. The skeletons crumbled to dust. The party cautiously entered the room and discovered a chest in the corner. The lock was no challenge to Korum, and soon the treasure within was revealed; a suit of plate armour and two vials of red liquid. Rioja got to work on appraising the latest haul, revealing that the armour was magical and the vials contained Potions of Extra Healing. The vials disappeared into the cleric’s pack and the armour was handed to Bardan.

The party retraced their steps to the T-Junction and carried on along the other branch. The corridor ended at another T-junction. Again the party decided to turn left. Korum, creeping ahead of the party as usual was able to report back that at the end of the corridor was a large room with two other exits further down the wall from which he entered. Unfortunately there were also two large skeletons armed with rusted blades. These were of a similar size to the ones encountered in the fountain room, and were deemed to be of great danger. Arken Blessed the party and cast Sanctuary upon himself and the party readied themselves for combat. As they advanced into the chamber, the skeletons locked their gazes upon the cleric. The ranger and thief let loose with their shafts but Knil was again unlucky in that his bowstring snapped again! Korum’s bolt flew true though and hit one of the skeletons. Bardan, arriving slightly late (obviously fitting into his new armour), charged into the combat with the cleric, who didn’t have time to turn the undead due to casting protective spells upon his fellow travellers. After a brief melee, one of the skeletons crumbled to dust at the hands of the party, but the other was slightly trickier. Bardan enveloped the second skeleton in a great bear hug preventing it from using its rusted weapon. Korum lined up a massive blow to its neck but this failed to dispel the creature. Bardan carried on squeezing ever more tightly, feeling bones snap and grind under the pressure. The blue fire in the eye sockets dimmed as its magical life was snuffed out. It too crumbled to dust.

There was nothing else in the room, so the party quickly decided to vacate it. They unanimously decided to take the first exit along the wall. Cautiously moving forward, the party advanced through a short twisting corridor, past a side turning and upon turning right came across a small niche in the wall. This turned out to be nothing more than an aborted attempt to construct another smaller corridor. The party left this area quickly and carried on tracing their path around more twisting corridors until they arrived back at the skeleton room they had just recently left. Realising they had walked a circuit, they decided to check out the second exit from the room, in the knowledge that they still had one more side turning to explore behind them.

The Key to the Door

The second exit led down a very long, dark corridor. Cautiously they rounded a corner and shortly after another, doubling-back, then the corridor opened out into a large, high-ceilinged room. On the same wall they entered the room was a very large door complete with two ornate handles, a key hole and runes upon the surface. Korum, the chattiest of the party started to ask Rioja what he thought the runes might mean but all everyone heard was a load of gibberish. He tried talking in every language he knew but still nobody was any wiser. Rioja tried to get the Halfling to talk sense, but it seemed he was the only one who could make himself understood. Korum, writing down what he thought was a perfectly legible script, handed it to Rioja, but the sentence turned out to be gibberish. The party, confused by this lack of being able to understand each other, slowly backed out of the room until they could find a place where they could talk to one another again in the Common tongue. Finding a spot just around the first corner, they discussed this new conundrum. Above the chatter of the party, Korum caught the approaching sound of many boned feet clacking on the floor. Coming down the corridor were a great number of skeletons with three of their larger compatriots in tow.

A decision was quickly reached that the tougher party members would hold off this approaching horde to give the mage more time to decipher the runes and work out what the runes meant. Korum would accompany him in case his skills were needed. The mage and thief returned to the room with a few pre-agreed signals arranged to ease communication and left their compatriots to face the oncoming skeletons.

Dem Dry Bones

Arken started the combat by summoning a Dust devil. Meanwhile, Knil knocked and let fly a couple of arrows that flew true and hit their target. Arken then commanded his Dust Devil to take out the oncoming horde of bones and attempted to turn as many as he could before the melee was joined. His god, Din, answered his prayer and a skeleton crumbled to dust. Bardan stepped to the front just as the skeletons were drawing close to the Dust Devil. Lighting a rag stuffed into a bottle of blessed alcohol, Bardan threw the concoction at the oncoming skeletons. The resulting explosion rocked the corridor and five of the approaching horde crumbled to dust. When the flames died down, the party saw to their horror that even more skeletons were bearing down on the party; things were not looking good as six of these were now of the larger type.

Writing down the runes at a feverish pace, Rioja’s fear was getting the better of him. The sounds of battle just around the corner had unnerved him and his concentration wavered. This puzzle would need more thought in a quieter and less stressful environment. Korum, his days as a burglar coming back to him, looked around for somewhere a key may be kept. The only place available was above the door on the wide lintel. He motioned for Rioja to give him a boost but between them they didn’t have the height or strength to get up there. They knew that time was running out for their companions, so they decided that they would need to support them in order to present a united front rather than a split force that could be taken apart in two separate skirmishes.

Korum and Rioja raced back to the fight to be confronted by another loud explosion and the sight of two of the larger skeletons staggering under the impact of the flames. The extra crossbow bolts and Magic Missiles fired into the fight gave the party breathing space to reform their ranks, but at this point the Dust Devil dissipated. Slowly but surely, the party ground down the opposition, but not before Arken and Bardan took many serious wounds. As the battle progressed, the party realised that without any more reinforcements arriving for the undead, they stood a good chance of getting through the melee. Arken, battered and bloodied, started a little song and dance, taunting the skeletons and drawing their wrath from the rest of the party. This gave Bardan, Knil and Korum time to redress their battle lines in order to take down the last remaining large skeletons. Just as the party thought victory was in their grasp, Bardan fumbled and struck Arken with his great axe, dropping it in the process. The remaining two skeletons saw their chance and redoubled their efforts, but the unarmed Bardan was now their target. Sensing victory, the foremost skeleton attacked with more vigour, but fumbled his attack and smashed his sword arm on the wall, losing both the sword and the limb! The following attack saw it do the same again to its other arm in its rage! Bardan and Knil stepped away from this now (h)armless skeleton and concentrated their attacks on the remaining one to keep it away from the injured cleric and weapon less fighter. The longsword of Knil hacked into it, but Korum missed his chance of dispatching it from the rear by dropping his short sword. Bardan, meanwhile, tried to grapple the armless skeleton but failed to get to grips with it. Knil and Arken distracted the last able-bodied skeleton, giving Korum enough time to draw his second short sword and dispatch it with the deftest of blows. The final, armless skeleton crumbled to dust under the hammer of Arken.

Inspecting their wounds and recovering their dropped weapons the party set about trying to heal up, but a shout from Korum halted any more magic being prepared. The sound of more bony footsteps and the chink of chain mail approaching had them clutching for their weapons and preparing the last of their offensive spells.

The last of the skeletons was rapidly traversing the length of the corridor. This one seemed far more deadly than any of the others they had encountered so far. A volley of arrows sped down the corridor and found their mark, but the skeleton just shrugged them off. Korum’s crossbow string snapped; the curse of missile fire in this dungeon struck again – perhaps the dungeon builders had designed it thus as the calamities with bows had so far been many. Another bloody conflict was joined, but the numbers in the party would be more telling this time. Many blows and counter-blows were struck, and fumbles on either side led to weapons becoming embedded in the walls or floor, which led to the combat going on longer than it ordinarily would. Bardan’s axe had again flung from his grasp, so Knil threw him his longsword. This pleased the fighter no end and his combat prowess improved greatly in the confines of the corridor. Maybe his axe was just too big to swing in these smaller confines? The smaller form of Korum allowed him to get behind the skeleton whilst its attention was on the burly warriors ahead of it. Two well placed strikes severed its spine and neck and it crumbled to the ground. The armour and weaponry crumbled to a rusty stain just as the bones turned to dust.

This fight had sorely tested the party. Many wounds needed to be healed and spells retaken, so the party decided to find a safe place to hole up to accomplish this. They decided to head back to the crossroads by the little niche as that gave them the best of all vantage points. Whilst the magic users regained their spells and the warrior and cleric were healed of their many wounds, Korum and Knil, who were mostly uninjured, decided to explore the last of the complex. They headed straight into the room on the opposite side of the crossroads in the hope of negating any further threats. All that greeted them was disturbed earth; most likely the ground from which the skeletons were summoned forth. However, there were not enough holes to account for the amount of skeletons they had encountered. Korum poked through a few of the disturbed areas in the hope of finding some gold coins but all he was rewarded with was dirt. The two scouts backed out of the room and headed right at the crossroads, signalling the room was all clear to the rest of the party as they passed them.

After a sharp right the corridor headed on to a very large room. This room also had lots of disturbed earth. This must have been where the rest of the skeletons had come from. Again, searching for a few coppers in the graves, Korum poked around in the dirt. This time luck was with him and he called for the ranger to help him haul a large chest out of the earth. Korum popped the lock very easily to find the chest full of gold coins. Plunging his fingers into the hoard, Korum realised there were a few other things in there too. He pulled out a ring and an urn which he handed to the ranger, and finally a small bag of gems that disappeared straight into one of his many pockets without being seen by Knil. These were taken back to the rest of the party. By now, Rioja was able to use his magic to work out that the ring was for a light descent from heights and the urn was able to dispel magic within its confines. Rioja took the urn and Korum was thought to be the best recipient of the ring as he did most of the climbing.

The Key to the Door II

As there was still a bit of time required to fully recover all of their spells, the magic users decided it was best if Knil stood guard over them whilst Bardan and Korum went to investigate the door again. A plan was devised before entering the realms of gibberish. When they got to the door, Bardan boosted Korum up onto the door lintel so he could search for a key. It seemed likely that the dungeon makers didn’t leave their keys under doormats or on door lintels, but they did leave another set of runes. Korum took a rubbing of them and the pair returned to the rest of the party.

Unfortunately, any language, whether written or spoken, in this room wound up as gibberish unless it was a mage who attempted it. The rubbing turned out to be next to useless. Rioja decided he needed to see the carvings for himself, so the whole party returned to the door. Rioja approached the large double portal; cast Spider Climb upon himself and climbed to the top of the door. He saw the runes and instantly realised they were the key to the similar runes carved upon the door. The code when cracked read “The key is in my hand”. He returned to stand in front of the door and spoke the magical words. A large golden key appeared in his hands. He tried the key in the door, which proved to open easily. The valves swung open effortlessly, letting in the bright afternoon sun, which temporarily blinded the party members.

Waiting a few minutes for their eyes to adjust, the party took stock of their surroundings – they were just a short distance still from the wizard’s tower. Rioja closed the dungeon doors and locked them. As the adventurers moved away from the huge double doors, they realised that they were very well hidden by the designers, and they would only be found if specifically looked for.

The party returned to the tower to collect their horse and wagon and continue their journey. They decided it would be most prudent to stay in the tower over night, during which time Korum made a final sweep of the upper rooms. Unfortunately, he found nothing new to help them on their quest. Exiting the tower next morning, they locked the door behind them and started away from the stronghold to the dolorous tones of “Who goes there?”

Another day, another Town (day 22)

Consulting their maps of the area, the party looked for a town within easy distance. There was a town marked on the map not a day’s travel from the tower. They decided to set off in that direction for a bit of carousing and trading.

An uneventful journey saw the party reach the walled town by late afternoon. Approaching the main gate they were stopped by the town guard; four heavily armed and armoured men, who looked like they would brook no trouble. Asking the party’s purposes in coming to town, and being happy with what they heard, they let the party through the gates and gave them directions to the nearest inn, under duress of heavy punishment for any trouble caused.

The party entered the courtyard of the unimaginatively named “The Large Tavern” and handed over their transport into the care of the ostler. They entered the common room and approached the bar. The landlord greeted them in a jovial manner and asked them if they would like a room. The adventurers requested a room each with a hot bath and meals for the next three days. Once booked, the party cleaned themselves up and headed back to the common room with the exception of Arken who headed out in search of his local temple. Whilst he was out praying to his god, Din, and making a large donation to the temple’s coffers, the fighter and thief drank and ate themselves into a stupor and were helped up to their rooms by the more sober mage and ranger. Arken returned to find the other two were now also drunk, so they retired to their beds thankful that the doors and walls were thick enough to stop the loud snoring coming from their companions’ rooms.

After a large breakfast the adventurers headed out to the town’s markets in search of magical weapons and trinkets. Several merchants were visited but no good deals were forthcoming. Still, they had a couple more days in which to pick up some new equipment.

Further extracts from the diary of Rioja Hyrule

2012-05-17T15:00:00.000+01:00

Whilst Rioja was recovering from his ordeal against the skeletons, Korum snuck another peak into his personal diary. Here follows Rioja's latest entry ...

From the diary of Rioja Hyrule:

(written by Russell, Rioja's alter-ego)

---

I have never had much time for gods and godesses. My grounding in rational, alchemical studies has always lead me to dimiss the legends and stories of gods as just that: legend and story. But the events of today have made me question my beliefs...

After the challenges of might, of traps, and of archery, when one of study appeared I felt sure that was my area to excel. "What chance has the god botherer and his silly rituals compared to the rational study and real knowledge I have!?" I quickly decoded the glyphs in the room, identified the meanings of them, and assigned people to their logical positions in the room, but to no avail. All the other logical solutions I tried also failed.

And then Arken has a quick work with his god Din, and the solution is revealed. All my hours of thought, all my rational logic, all out-done in seconds by this fire-god Din! My beliefs in the rational alchemical processes of my chosen career are strong, yet I find myself drawn to find out more about this Din god. I shall, henceforth, not dismiss Arken's god, and try to learn more from him about this Din.

Khorvaire - Session5 - 16/05/12

2012-05-17T13:12:00.000+01:00

Session 5: The Dungeon Complex (16^th May 2012)

The cast of heroes

Arken (Half-Elf Cleric) – leader of the party

Bardan (Human Fighter) – the muscle

Knil (Elf Ranger) – the tracker

Rioja Hyrule (Human Mage) – the wizard

Korum Proudfoot (Halfling Thief) – the scout

Damien (Human Fighter) - the extra muscle (absent from this session)

The Corridor of Traps (part 2 - day 19 continued)

Making secure the wooden bed-plank bridge across the second section of traps allowed Korum to resume his duties as scout. He proceeded to cross the bridge and was soon contemplating what to do at the third section. He didn’t encounter the invisible barrier as expected. Tentatively he started to put more and more pressure onto the floor. After a short while, a pressure plate below him shifted and two medium sized square holes opened up opposite each other in the wall of the fourth section at chest height for a human; there appeared to be pipes of some kind contained within them. Returning to the party he explained what he had seen and they decided things were becoming too risky to continue in this fashion. A plan was devised that the Halfling would have Spider Climb cast on him, and he would crawl across the ceiling trailing a rope or two behind him, spiked at a variety of places to allow others following behind him to have good purchase too. He managed to complete his traversal of the rest of the room without incident. Suspended from the end of the rope, he tested the floor of the seventh section of the room by dropping stones onto it but they just skittered away randomly as stones would. He decided to drop his spare short sword. This disappeared upon reaching the floor and a clattering sound behind the rest of the party startled them. It was not an enemy they noticed to their relief but Korum’s sword. The final section was a teleport of some sort. To test the trap again, Korum threw one of his pebbles with force whilst the party watched for its arrival at the other end of the room. It appeared about four feet off the ground and pinged to the floor.

There were now just a few short seconds before the spell wore off, which gave him just enough time to open the door at the far end with his feet and swing into the next room – another rest area with the usual food stuffs and beds. He called back to the party to grab his sword and follow him across the ropes. They all managed to do this without mishap.

Now was deemed a good time to rest up and prepare new spells in readiness for any new challenges ahead. Now that he was feeling better (the lurgy had spread to Damien at this point) Rioja was handed all of the magical stuff that was found in the previous few rooms and asked to work out what they were. He discovered that the party were in possession of a Ring of Protection (+1), a Cloak of Protection (+1), and two spell scrolls (Miracle Growth – the spell that had badly backfired in the wizard’s tower, and another that still needed a little further study). The protective gear was given to Bardan the fighter to make him more effective in combat and Rioja tucked the scrolls away into the voluminous sleeves of his robes.

After a well-earned rest and the divvying up of magical treasure, the party opened the other door in the resting chamber and proceeded down the spiral staircase to be greeted by a door slightly ajar.

The Guardians of the Pit

Korum peered through the door and noticed a small room with a high vaulted ceiling and a door opposite the one he was peering through with a motif of an archer above it. He entered the ante-room and crossed to the door. He tried to open the door but it seemed to be seamlessly shut with no external means of entry. He called in the rest of the party who took a good look around the ante-chamber. Knil spotted a small stone protuberance in the centre of the ceiling. He knocked an arrow and hit it squarely in the centre. The seal on the door disappeared and the door slowly swung open to reveal a large room with a balcony to either side, a large, deep pit that traversed the entire width of the chamber and a drawbridge opposite the party’s entrance suspended by what appeared to be two chains. On the balconies were four man-sized figures with bows in their hands.

Knil shot an arrow at the first figure, but his arrow seemed to just ping away with the sound of steel on stone. The stone warriors returned fire. Korum added his light crossbow to the fusillade and a fire-fight erupted between the party and the stone guardians. After several fumbles on either side which resulted in Knil snapping his bowstring, one of the stone guardians dropping its bow and another stumbling into the pit to a long six second drop, the guardians were eventually overcome. The ranger and thief now had free rein to try to dislodge the drawbridge by shooting at the drawbridge chains which did not pass through the wall to a lowering mechanism as expected, but were attached directly to the wall behind. Knil’s shot was true, but Korum missed. The supporting chains turned out to be painted ropes and cut easily. With only one rope cut, the drawbridge began to twist and buckle. Knil quickly knocked another arrow and fired true again. The drawbridge hit the party’s side of the pit with a wrenching clang. It had landed in a twisted fashion and was most likely damaged.

Behind where the drawbridge had previously stood vertically was another door. This door had the image of a cowled scholar reading from an open book before him. Korum took up his usual position at the front of the party and tentatively crossed the fallen drawbridge. The rest of the party followed without incident. Korum was about to test the new found door for traps and open it, but Bardan had become a little weary of the time wasting and itched to get into violent action. He pushed aside the Halfling and booted the door open. The party were faced with a large room with a floor covered in a grid of ten by ten squares and another door opposite.

The Level Square Room

Bardan stormed in and stopped on the first of the squares. On the wall opposite appeared a set of glowing runes. He left the room to tell the party his findings, but as he left the runes disappeared. Confused, he re-entered and the runes reappeared. Each party member took their turn and as they entered, a set of runes appeared up on the opposite wall at the end of one of the rows of squares; but always in the same row for each particular party member. Rioja was able to decipher the runes which basically gave the names of a variety of class level titles. They tried force and magic, but were unable to open the door opposite due to some sort of force field protecting the handle. After trying and failing with several logical sequences consisting of the party members’ classes, their current levels, level 5 (these were the levels to which the class titles referred) and so on as positions to stand on the rows of squares, they fell back on the cleric asking for divine intervention. His god imparted the knowledge of the riddle’s solution to him and the party assumed the positions suggested (on the fifth plus actual level attained by the character square in their appropriate column). Nothing happened. Bardan was within an arm’s length of the door, so he tried reaching over to open it. There was no sign of the force field and it glided open smoothly to reveal another of the resting rooms.

The party decided to rest up and relearn spells before continuing on.

Into the Darkness

After resting, the adventurers set off again in their usual party order. Korum, leading from the front decided to scout ahead. What greeted him beyond the door of this room was darkness. This was the first room they had encountered in the complex below ground that was not magically lit. Torches and lanterns were lit, and Korum proceeded down the revealed spiral staircase. At the bottom of the stairs was a rotten door; only one third of which was still attached to its hinges. The party clambered through the gap in the door made by the lack of wood when Korum happened to glance down and spot a design on some of the rotted and splintered wood. Piecing it together he made out a symbol that included a pair of crossed swords the same as those on a previous door, with some open books below, and a holy symbol overlaying it all. The party made a note of the symbol and continued on down another set of stairs that led to a small, narrow corridor no taller or wider than a human, which led onto a T-junction.

There was a cloying smell of decay pervading the corridor, so the party took a quick consensus and decided to turn left. After a short walk, the corridor widened and a faint scuffling and clicking sound emanated from ahead. Into the lamplight advanced four skeletons; a blue fire of malevolence dancing in their eye sockets. Arken called upon his deity for protection from such unnatural beings and two instantly fell to the floor and turned to dust. The other two continued their baneful advance. A melee ensued between the two remaining skeletons and the fighters in the party. All of their hits seemed to cause minimal damage to the undead, but the damage doled out by the skeletons was certainly felt in full force. Bardan, covered in many cuts finally caused one to fall to dust but the final skeleton was still in action. Whilst it fought Bardan and Arken to the front, Korum had got behind it and struck it a fateful blow, severing the spinal chord and causing it too to finally fall to dust.

Breathing heavily and sore from their ordeal, the party moved on, following a series of twisting corridors that ended in a large room. Korum, scouting ahead again was able to approach it and peer in without being seen. In this room was a massive pile of dust and a large chest in one corner. Korum threw a torch onto the dust in the hope of destroying anything before it formed, but his actions only resulted in clouds of rancid smoke. The fire was quickly kicked out by Bardan. Korum approached the chest but was unable to open the lock. Bardan, however, impatient as ever, smashed the lock off with his great axe. Inside were three potions and a large pile of gold coins. Whilst the coins were divvyed up by Korum, Rioja identified the potions as potions of healing. The party decided to rest up, heal and make up several vials of blessed water.

Away in the other direction from the chest was another corridor, which ended in a T-junction. The party decided to turn right this time. Korum, scouting ahead saw that the corridor ended in a small room with another skeleton in it. This skeleton, however, seemed to have a glowing ball of fire within its belly. Returning back to the party unnoticed by this new threat, he collected two vials of Holy Water and returned to the room. He took careful aim and let loose. The vials hit, diminishing the size of the glowing orb of fire but not seeming to perturb the skeleton which advanced upon the source of its drenching. Arken called upon his god’s help to turn it but this failed, so the rest of the party steamed in. Bardan struck with his great axe, Knil with his bow and Arken and Korum managed to loose off another couple of vials of Holy Water. The skeleton reached into its body to remove the greatly reduced ball of fire and launched it at Bardan. Luckily this only really singed his eyebrows and burned off his beard but this angered the fighter no end. He careened into the skeleton, driving it to the floor with his greater bulk. Arken casually pulled the stoppers of his last two vials of water and poured them directly over the skeleton. The skeleton was reduced to a pile of dust.

This room contained nothing else of interest and no other exits, so the party returned to the T-junction and tried the left hand corridor this time. After traversing a few more twisting corridors the party were called to a halt by Korum, who mentioned that there was a large room ahead, with two very large armed and armoured skeletons guarding a fountain and pool of what looked like water.

Arken strode into the room calling upon his deity to aid them in their time of need, but it seemed that he was ignored again. Rioja, who until now had played a decidedly reticent part in combat, conjured up some Magic Missiles. These struck the first skeleton true and caused a massive amount of damage, but the lumbering hulk of bones began to bear down on the party, closely followed by its uninjured companion. Arken realised that these skeletons were of a more robust type than those previously encountered, so he cast a Bless spell on his companions, to stiffen their resolve. Barden charged headlong into the combat and Knil notched an arrow, but again luck was not on his side and he fumbled his shot for the third time by dropping his bow. Korum meanwhile scouted around the combat and headed for the fountain, wondering if this held the answer to their dilemma.

Rioja, again, chimed in with his Magic Missile spell and the first skeleton crumbled to dust. Knil, his bow retrieved, made a superb shot that staggered the remaining skeleton. Bardan’s axe combined with Arken’s Spiritual Hammer finished it off, just as Korum had finished searching the fountain for a clue to the undeads’ demise. Not realising the battle was over he cupped his hands and took a large gulp of the liquid. Strength flowed through his limbs, so he invited his companions over to imbibe. All were rewarded with a feeling of greater strength, clearness of mind or ease of movement.

Taking stock of the safety in their surroundings, the party healed up and started to discuss their next options. The needs of the fighter having greater defensive capabilities were discussed, as well as those of the thief. Perhaps when they were able to get back to civilisation they could pool their resources and buy a decent set of magical armour for Bardan and redistribute the other items around the party members who needed them the most.

Khorvaire - The Journey so far

2012-05-10T17:45:00.000+01:00

Just thought I'd publish the map of where the adventurers have been so far on their journeys. The map is from an official D&D campaign set, but the DM (Craig) has reduced the size of the continent from being about the size of North America to an island quite a bit smaller to fit his own purposes. Journey times are listed in days, with going much easier on known roads.

Khorvaire - Session 4 - 09/05/12

2012-05-10T16:33:00.000+01:00

Session 4: The Underground Caverns (9^th May 2012)

The cast of heroes

Arken (Half-Elf Cleric) – leader of the party

Bardan (Human Fighter) – the muscle
Knil (Elf Ranger) – the tracker
Rioja Hyrule (Human Mage) – the wizard (absent from this session)
Korum Proudfoot (Halfling Thief) – the scout
Damien (Human Fighter) - the extra muscle

The Tower (day 18 continued)

That afternoon, after everyone had rested, it was decided to make safe the tower and camp there for the night before heading on further into Troll country. The horses were unhitched from the cart and led into the ground floor of the tower to keep them safe from any night prowlers. Korum remembered he had not searched the rest of the upper storey so he proceeded back to the cupboard that had not been opened. Inside he found three scrolls; two were obviously magical and were handed to Arken for safe keeping until they could be handed over to Rioja the mage. The third scroll, however, told of the previous resident’s experiments with spells and of a large underground complex that was set up to see what could be done with it and the spells cast upon it if left to its own devices afterwards. Vague directions to this complex were given, but it could be told from the description that it was less than a mile away.

As the party started to settle for the night there was a rapping at the door. Bardan raised his axe whilst Arken ushered in a weary traveller in need of food and shelter. This new arrival seemed trustworthy enough, so the party shared their rations with him and swapped tales of adventure. The rest of the night passed uneventfully.

The Caverns (day 19)

The party of adventurers set off in search of the dungeon complex with their new ally, Damien, in tow. After an hour or so of looking, Knil finally stumbled across a small hand dug opening in the side of a hill.

Korum took the lead in heading on down the corridor revealed, closely followed by the two fighters. A short distance into the hill they espied a large cavern, which was lit by torches. The walls were decorated with crudely stitched together tapestries of mismatch hues upon the walls. Tables and beds were strewn at random across the floor and a cage was positioned off to the left hand side. The ten or so goblinoid inhabitants were not happy at the intrusion and started to advance upon what they thought was a singular Halfling – meat was back on the menu for tonight. Korum spoke to them in their own language, trying to placate them and buy time for his support to arrive, asking them about a hidden complex in the hills. This forestalled the main goblin, who glanced over his right shoulder in the direction of a particularly drab hanging, before starting to draw his rusted scimitar. The party, meanwhile, had readjusted their order, drawn weapons and prepared spells. The ranger stepped up next to Korum and they let loose their darts into the midst of the advancing warband. The two fighters peeled off either side and hugged the walls in the hope of gaining advantage from a pincer movement. The cleric cast his summoning spell and a dust devil kicked up in the midst of their adversaries. The fight was short and brutal; the goblins went down in a flurry of blows in the space of a few short minutes until only one was left. This final critter was grabbed by Bardan and slammed against the nearest wall, knocking it unconscious.

This lull now gave the party time to investigate the rest of the cavern. The crude tapestries were just what they appeared; decorative items, except for the last one that was in the direction the goblin glanced over its shoulder. Behind this particular tapestry was an iron-bound door covered in runes. Nothing else was found of value in the room.

The goblin finally came round from his stupor and was coerced into giving away the location of his treasure: it was buried in a shallow pit beneath one of the tables. This amounted to 20gp per party member when divvied up, and a magical cloak which Arken saw fit to purloin for further study. The goblin was bundled into the cage for safe keeping, but as he posed too much of a threat (in case more of his brethren returned later) and begged for release from this cruel world, he was put to the sword.

The party returned to the door to attempt to decipher the runes and see what lay beyond. The runes were beyond their skills to interpret for the moment, so Korum started to copy them down for later study. The rest of the party, meanwhile, tried to figure out how to get the door open, when the lock suddenly clicked and the door popped open just as Korum finished writing the runes down. Puzzled but not worried, he pushed open the door and proceeded down the magically lit corridor. This short corridor headed down a slope and ended in a small circular room with a door opposite the entrance the party came in. Above the door opposite was a pair of crossed swords. Korum proceeded boldly across the room and easily popped the lock, but the solid metal door would not budge. Each fighter took a turn but only managed to injure their pride. It was decided after a short while to tie a rope to it and have the three strongest party members pull it open. It took a while but eventually ground open despite the hinges being well oiled. The party advanced through, but before anyone could think to prop it open, the door slammed shut on them. There were no locks or handles on this side; the party must advance never to return.

The Arena

The opened door revealed a short corridor leading to an arena with a portcullis opposite the entrance the party were positioned in. Not quite sure what to make of this, the party stopped to consider their options. Bardan, however, heedless of danger strode into the arena. A mirror image of himself appeared twenty paces away from him and began to unlimber its great double bladed axe. Damien tried to enter the fray to help his comrade but an invisible magical barrier prevented him from doing so. Bardan knew he was about to fight himself to the death! The fight didn’t go well initially for Bardan and, upon orders from the cleric, he gave ground until he was in range of a Bless spell, to improve his chances. The magic didn’t enter the arena, but affected the rest of the party cramped into the small entrance way. The fight then turned in Bardan’s favour and he was able to slay his doppelganger. As soon as his double was killed, the body disappeared and Damien and Arken tumbled into the arena. Instantaneously, a double of Damien appeared. This fight would be easier as it was three on one, but Bardan’s wounds needed tending. Damien, however, made short work of his double. The barrier dropped again, and Korum, riding piggy-back on Knil’s shoulders bundled into the arena. A copy of Knil appeared. This fight proved to be long lasting but not many blows actually landed. Finally, a hefty back-stab from the thief and hits from Knil and Damien dispatched the apparition. The portcullis opposite raised and the party were free to continue.

After a quick scout ahead to ascertain any further dangers, Korum reported back on a room filled with comfy beds and food and drink aplenty. Arken, Bardan and Knil decided to stay in the arena to rest and heal up, but Damien and Korum fancied spending some well earned RnR in the comfy room.

The Corridor of Traps

After several hours of rest, the two adventurers in the bedroom awakened fresh as could be. The others knew they had spent their time on a hard arena floor. The door opposite their entrance had been spiked to stop it opening whilst the party took their rest, and it was now down to Korum to do what he did best. He opened the ordinary door, and scouted ahead again. The corridor beyond the door led down a semi-spiral stairway and ended at another heavy metal door with a sovereign icon above it. The door’s handle, this time, was tiny and it was doubtful whether a rope could be tied around it. Korum, whose hands were smallest, attempted to pull on the handle, but rather than the door moving, a lock suddenly appeared. It took all of his skill to open the lock to reveal a long room with lines spaced evenly across the floor dividing it into seven sections. The walls and ceiling were of honeycombed rock and the floor was smooth, compacted earth. Bardan and Damien tied a rope about themselves and then around the Halfling in preparation for the forthcoming ordeals.

Neck hairs bristling with anticipation, Korum skimmed one of his pebbles across the floor where it bounced on several sections and hit the opposite wall with a click. Nothing untoward happened. Cautiously, he entered the room. There was a hissing sound and he dived for the floor, but not before being hit by three darts; as many again whizzing overhead where he was but a moment ago. The poison got to work straight away and he felt his limbs go weak. He knew it wasn’t a fatal poison but he would be weak for a long time. The fighters pulled him out and took him upstairs to the sleeping chamber in the hope that he would heal more quickly.

Knil, the second most nimble of the party quickly stepped across the first section: there was no hiss of launched darts this time. Aware the second section was most probably trapped too, he threw down a gold coin a step away and, as nothing had happened to it, he stepped onto where the coin lay. The floor quickly gave way but Knil was prepared for this as he leapt for the safety of the third section. However, he did not make it. A magical barrier had appeared and he bounced back down the hole that had opened beneath him. He landed with a bump about ten feet down, next to a skeleton with a disarticulated leg. The party were stunned by this and quickly traversed the first section to see what they could do to help. When they got to the edge of the hole that Knil had disappeared down they started laughing as they saw him smashing the skeleton to powder with its own leg. He swore that he had seen it move.

In the hope of keeping the trap open so that no-one else fell down it, the fighters brought down some of the planks from the beds upstairs. This had the desired effect of keeping the trap open, but the magical barrier remained in place. Knil climbed out of the hole and remembering what Korum had done earlier threw a stone. The stone bounced back from the barrier. Pulling up the wooden planks, they allowed the trap door to close and tried skimming the stone again. The stone passed through without hitting the invisible barrier. They decided to make a sort of wooden bridge to get across the trap-door section. Whilst this was being done, Korum had awoken, feeling fully refreshed and returned downstairs to rejoin the party. He had finally worked out what the inscription above the first door in the cavern had said…

“Those who enter do so at their own peril. It is likely you will not return this way. Once you pass however, if you are strong, clever and cunning enough, great riches and fame await.”

A Day Off work

2012-05-03T11:33:00.000+01:00

Normally when I take a day off work I have something else to do. Not so today. I have a day where I can do what I like until 3pm when I collect the kids from school.

Sooo, I have taken the opportunity to catch up with my gaming and later on will get some reading and DVD watching done.

I have written up the latest foray into Khorvaire below. We are four weeks into the adventure (but three of us have only played for 3 of them) and things are developing nicely. The DM is good at keeping the suspense going and is not a full on hack and slash merchant (which is nice). There are the occasional fights, granted, but they do not detract from the otherwise supernatural feel of the adventure. I am certainly looking forward to next week's foray.

Also, below, you will find the finally completed Chronicle Hobgoblins. Along with dozens of other minis, they have been sat on my paint station for several weeks in an almost finished state. Why is it I can paint them up to almost completion and then stop?

During the last few months I have been buying up the remaining Games Workshop metal minis that I need to complete certain armies before everything turns Finecast TM. I have missed out on the Dwarf Captains/Banner Bearers now though, so I will have to resort to Ebay for those I think. I will next be moving onto the realms of Men to complete those collections. Alex has been busy accruing the last few Elves he needs.

We also put in an order to Forlorn Hope Games. They stock a wide variety of old skool figures at very reasonable prices that include the P&P. Check them out. I ordered up a few Dwarfs for HotT, a Halfling to play Korum, and Alex ordered five more Elves to add another spear regiment to his HotT Elven army. I will try to clean up and put some primer onto the Halfling today if I get the time. Hopefully I can get him to a half decent state ready for gaming next week. I just hope he doesn't suffer from new figure syndrome and die in the first adventure he is used for!

Nick Lund's Chronicle Hobgoblins

2012-05-03T11:17:00.002+01:00

I have had these figures for many, many years. They were bought when they first came out. I saw them in an advert in White Dwarf, so I saved my pocket money and whizzed up to a shop somewhere in London. My memory is hazy of the precise location of said establishment, but I do remember I went with my mate Steve and it was hammering down with rain. I bought what I thought was every unique Chronicle Hobgoblin in the shop, but when I got home I found I had a couple of doubles - ho hum. Still, 20 of these critters is more than enough for a D&D encounter or a SoBH warband.

The warband approaches a lone farmstead...

The leader and assorted warriors (I always thought the leader mini was huge at the time as most minis were 25mm scale- however, over time, scale creep has meant he is not so imposing anymore)...

Two handed weapons at the ready- doors will splinter...

A few views across the river in either direction...

Finishing these has cleared room for me to start on another largish project - more goblins for HotT. I am determined to get another army to 24 points by the summer so I can play against Alex a few times. I have a Barbarian army ready to go, so just need a set of adversaries for them. I am nearly there with both Goblins and Dwarfs, but as I have a couple of boxes of GW plastic goblins, these should be easiest to sort out and base up.

Khorvaire - Session 3 - 02/05/12

2012-05-03T10:18:00.000+01:00

Session 3: Wizard’s Tower (2^nd May 2012)

The cast of heroes

Arken (Half-Elf Cleric) – leader of the party
Bardan (Human Fighter) – the muscle
Knil (Elf Ranger) – the tracker
Korum Proudfoot (Halfling Thief) – the scout
Rioja Hyrule (Human Mage) – the wizard
NPC (Human) - the guide

The second day (planar time)

After a quick repast and breaking camp, the party continued to follow the tracks they were pursuing the day before. After an hour of walking through the trees, the tracks they were following made an abrupt turn to the right. These tracks continued in a semi-circular path and seemed to rejoin what would have been the original path if it had continued in a straight line. Something was clearly being circumvented by the creature being tracked.

Knil the ranger and Korum the thief proceeded to the middle of the diversionary area and found a large clearing. It was decided neither would enter the clearing unless help was at hand, so Knil returned to the party to bring them hither. Korum stayed behind to keep watch on the glade. A few minutes later the party arrived, but there was no sign of Korum. Fearing the worst the party spread out to look for him, but he had only wandered off looking for clues. He had found carvings on some of the trees which he showed to Rioja, the resident mage. Rioja recalled that these were sigils to warn of a place protected by unicorns. Everyone was a little uneasy about entering the glade, except Arken, who strode straight in and started to set up camp. The others tried to follow one-by-one, but were overcome by feelings of paranoia and fear. They decided to make camp outside the glade.

Whilst camp was being made, Korum tried to work a few things out. He asked Arken to pull up a blade of grass; it stayed in his hand. Korum then cut an overhanging branch from a tree. The part within the area of the glade fell to the ground but the part still in the forest disappeared as expected: there was something different about the glade. Korum and Knil decided to find out how far the tracks they were originally following went, so decided to spend sometime pursuing this further. They travelled for about forty five minutes before a hill started to rise before them. As they approached the hill, they noticed that there was a crudely made entrance dug into the hill-side. The ranger scouted ahead, and climber a tree for a better view of the environs, whilst Korum checked out the entrance to the lair. Korum did not see much except that the entrance led into a short tunnel, which opened out into a small chamber and then continued on opposite for some distance. There was no sign of the creatures they were tracking. Knil, meanwhile, had climbed the tree and observed that the plane they were on consisted of concentric circles of mountains in the distance, hills and plains in the middle distance and forest right down to the central glade. It was most definitely an artificial construct. Suddenly, a bright light shone from the camp. Not knowing what it was, the duo sped back to the camp to find out what was going on. Just before Korum turned off the track, he took time to set a trip wire across the path. It turned out that the cleric had been casting spells to attract the attention of unicorns, but nothing seemed to have worked so far. A watch was set but the only event of note was a cry of pain on second watch. Korum noted that this came from the direction in which he had set his trap.

The third day (planar time)

The next morning, the party decided to investigate what may have happened to cause the cry in the night. Propped up against a tree, one of the creatures that had attacked them previously was nursing a broken leg. It was quickly bound and carried back to camp by Bardan. Rioja suggested the creature be thrown into the clearing to attract the attention of the unicorns. After waiting about ten minutes, a couple of loud cracks were heard and a unicorn appeared in the glade. It noticed the critter, skewered it with its horn and wandered off to the opposite side of the glade from the party to eat the grass there. The creature’s corpse disappeared.

Arken approached the unicorn and began telling it of the party’s quest. He withdrew the dragon orb from his cloak pocket, and it proceeded to shine very brightly. After a short while, the unicorn gestured to the party to get to the centre of the clearing and sit down. The party gathered their belongings and did as they were bid. The unicorn galloped around the party in ever decreasing circles until all of a sudden the party were transported back to the tunnel from which they entered the realm. Feeling that they may have been duped, Arken attempted to climb the ladder again, but it was noticed that there was a horn beneath the cloak he had been sitting on.

The first part of their quest had been completed.

Back in the real world (5^th day continued)

The torches which had been left at the bottom of the shaft when they entered the realm of the unicorn were still burning, so the party deduced they had not been gone for long. Korum took one and made his way to the other end of the tunnel complex. He made his way up the ladder and into the study without any problems, but upon going up into the house and looking outside, the sky was pitch black. Fearing the worst, he returned to the party and set his last few torches at the bottom of the shaft, then the ones he carried were set at the other end of the tunnel and, finally, the lantern was lit and placed amongst the party. They decided to wait a few hours before venturing out again, so that the magic users could regain their spells and everyone could rest. There were no incidents on any of the watches set.

Return to civilisation (days 6-10)

Upon returning to the barn outside, they sought out their guide, who was no worse for wear. He explained that nothing untoward had happened whilst they were gone, but couldn’t help thinking why they would want to spend a whole day in a tunnel.

The following three days were spent travelling back to the fishing village on the lake, retracing the steps that brought them to their last adventure.

Upon their return to the fishing village, the adventurers decided to sell their boat and re-provision themselves for the trip into troll country. They found a merchant who may have a contact who would buy the boat from them but the price would not be what they expected. They agreed to wait for the merchant to arrange a deal with his compatriot. The merchant returned and the haggling started. Arken was interested in buying some magical items, if available, and the haggling turned round to how much the party were willing to pay for a set of magical darts; the boat being part of the exchange price. A deal could not be agreed upon, even with Bardan growling about legs being broken and towns being burned down, so Arken took payment for the boat and let the merchant go on his way. Realising that they would need all the magic they could get their hands on, it was agreed that Korum and Knil would try to gain access to these treasures another way.

Seeing as the fishing village was a small settlement, it was easy to find out where the merchant lived. The party waited until after dark, cast charm, silence and darkness onto the little thief and sent him on his way. He made it to the merchant’s house where he snuck inside. There was nothing of note to be found downstairs, so he headed up into the chamber above to find the merchant fast asleep. After taking precautions of oiling door hinges and checking for traps, Korum headed to the trunk at the foot of the bed. It was too heavy to carry, so he checked it over for traps and attempted to open it. The locks wouldn’t budge but a high pitched screaming greeted his ears. Panicked into thinking that the merchant may now be awoken from his slumber he made to exit quickly, but remembered that the silence spell protected him. The merchant still lay abed undisturbed. Being that the lock had defeated him, Korum used a hammer and spike to force open the chest. Inside was a wealth of goodies; the darts, a set of arrows, a sword, some clothing and furs, a few pouches of coins and gems. He left the sword and clothing but secreted the rest across his person. Backing slowly out of the room, aware that the spells could end at any moment, he spiked shut the bedroom door and made his getaway. Upon returning to the party, he told them of his adventure and handed over the darts and arrows – there was no need to let them know about the gems and coins!

The carts were ready to go, so the adventurers saddled up and left straight away.

Journey into Troll Country (days 11-17)

The journey westwards was quite uneventful. Tall stories and scary facts were told of what trolls were and what they could do. They knew they would have a fight on their hands to capture or kill such a creature.

After travelling for about a week down the main caravan route, the trees and shrubbery they were travelling through suddenly appeared dead. Everything one side of a line was living and fruitful, and on the other side the trees were dead and dry. As night was approaching, the party decided to make camp for the night. Watch fires were set and a rota for sentry duty arranged. Knil the ranger took first watch, and no sooner had he settled into his routine than he espied a slightly larger than goblin sized silvery apparition appear on the edge of his vision. This non-corporeal apparition approached slowly, but deliberately to wards the camp and started to moan. Knil woke the two magic users, who in turn awoke the fighter and thief. Weapons were readied, but Arken raised his holy symbol aloft and strode towards the silvery being crying “Oi, you, begone from here*”. The apparition promptly disappeared. The Halfling commented that that was the most unusual turning of dead he had ever heard in his life.

(* - as this is a family rated site, the actual words could not be repeated but the first word began with F and the last word ended with F).

The Tower (day 18)

The following morning, the party set out again along the caravan route towards troll country. The blasted trees were still in abundance and no animals or birds could be seen or heard. After a few hours travelling, Rioja the mage spotted the top of a tower hidden amongst the trees. The party approached with due caution and tied off the cart and horses a short distance from it. The ranger and thief approached with trepidation but could only find a single large door at the base, and a few arrow slits higher up the tall, cylindrical building. After walking around the tower they realised it was very quiet, and no challenge had been shouted out. The Halfling decided to try the door. A booming voice asked who they were. Unusually stumped for words, the Halfling could only mumble under his breath. The loud voice brought the rest of the party to the door. The door was tried again, only for the same message to relay itself. Bardan was not impressed, so he struck the door with his axe. He was hit in the foot by a bolt of lightning, making him howl in pain and the same voice boomed for the party to go away. His temper got the better of him, so he tried again, hoping that he could withstand the damage until he had caved in the door. He was hit by another bolt and dragged from the vicinity to be healed by Arken.

Plan B was called into action. Rioja cast Spider Climb onto Korum, who then shimmied up the walls of the tower and lowered his rope. It was a fifty foot rope, but as the tower was sixty feet high it didn’t reach all the way to the ground. Bardan boosted Arken up onto the rope and he climbed to the top of the tower too – in case the Halfling got himself into trouble. A few loose window panes were deftly removed and the Halfling climbed in through the window. He dropped silently to the floor and took a look around. There was a tall wardrobe to one side and a large carpet on the floor. The carpet was swiftly dragged aside to reveal a trap door. Korum tested it for traps and heaved it open. Below him he saw what looked like a study; a desk to one side, several large bookcases filled with books, papers all over the desk, a stairwell leading down, a painted sigil on the floor and lying across the middle of the sigil, a dead body that looked like it had been there a while. He called for Arken to follow him into the upper room and explained what he had seen. As soon as Arken’s feet hit the stone work he proceeded to be violently ill. He crawled to the side of the room to recover his dignity.

Not wanting to land on the sigil below Korum cooked up a plan to drop down the rope ladder and swing to land on the desk. However, before he could do that, the cleric had summoned a small elemental to scour the room for traps and so on. This had the undesired affect of disrupting all of the paper work on the desk. Once the commotion had dissipated, Korum dropped down into the room as planned and held the ladder for Arken, who was feeling a little better now.

Korum descended the stairwell to the bottom of the tower (there was nothing of note on the way down) and proceeded to the front door. He made to pull it open but was, again, greeted with the booming voice demanding “Who goes there?” “Friend” squeaked the little thief in reply and the door opened to his touch. The rest of the party quickly entered and strode up to the study room.

Rioja made directly for the books and rapidly found the one that was open on the desk before the air elemental disturbed it. He let the book fall open naturally to the page that would have been open when the magic was being cast and discovered quickly that the sigil painted on the floor had a few mistakes in it that would have led to this magician’s untimely demise. The calligraphy within the book showed that this was a magical growth spell; the upshot of the poor drawing on the floor being the death of the mage casting it and the reversal of the effect on the surrounding countryside. Rioja realised that this was, in fact, the magician’s spell book, so stole off to a quiet area to study it.

Korum and Bardan decided to investigate the desk, and upon turning out the drawers one-by-one found a hoard of gold coins (which Bardan divided up rather unevenly because he could not count), a few piles of old papers which were delivered directly to Rioja and a small case of six phials containing a muddy brown liquid. Arken opened one and sipped at it. After feeling no ill effects decided to down the rest. Barda and the ranger followed suit, but Korum, who was thirsty, chugged down two. He felt a bit sick afterwards but somehow, when he recovered, he felt a bit healthier than he had ever done (Con raised by 1 point). The other adventurers felt the same way, except Rioja who didn’t touch his; he was saving it for later.

Extract from Rioja Hyrule's diary

2012-04-26T10:56:00.002+01:00

Whilst the rest of the party are sleeping, Korum Proudfoot gets bored on watch. He has struck up a good friendship and level of trust with all of his new companions, but he is forever curious. Since arriving on the new plane looking for unicorns, he has found Rioja Hyrule's diary and scroll collection. He has decided to copy them down for 'safe keeping'. Keep it quiet, no-one knows of these night time purloinings...

Map of Khorvaire...

Extracts from Rioja Hyrule's diary...

written by Russell, who plays the magic user in our game - I don't wish to have it thought I'd steal his IP - unlike Korum! :-)
From the diary of Rioja Hyrule (the day we found the hidden study):

Today we got our first real clues about unicorns, after spending days adrift in this strangely dark wilderness. After the terrors of the night in the barn, we discovered in another of the buildings a hidden study, filled with tomes of unicorn research, along with research notes of the inhabitant, of whom there was no sight.

In the main house we'd found books of fairy tales which included references to unicorns, but in the hidden study there was more scholarly work. Some were detailed collections of the mythology of unicorns, and other legendary creatures. Some speculated on the other planes of existence these creatures inhabited. Others chronicled those who'd claimed to have been to these planes.

Unfortunately the best of these claims was by one "Ilfrid the Unsane". He claimed that in certain areas of land one could dig down, along, then up again, and enter one of these plains. He even claimed to have been there and back, returning with a unicorn horn as proof!

The notes taken by the house's researcher took these claims far more seriously than any of our party did. He was studying many of these "planeswalking" rumours in the books, but had highlighted this Ilfrid's instructions and clearly believed them. He was even planning how to protect himself once he got through to the other side, deciding to take weapons rather than trust in hired help.

I'm unsure who is more 'unsane' - Mr Unsane, or the unsane researcher that wanted to follow him!

...

From the diary of Rioja Hyrule (the day we found the tunnel):

Yesterday's mockery of Ilfrid's story has proven unwise. A hidden passageway discovered in the hidden study led us down, then along, then up... teleporting us into what is clearly a different plane. No unicorns here, instead the dead body of the researcher, slashed repeatedly, greeted us.

We found more of his research notes upon his person, initially commenting on the very bright moon, but quickly turning into the scribbles of a man afraid of the forest that surrounded him. He reported seeing many man-sized creates in the forest. We assume it was these breasts that killed him.

Given this turn of events, I decided to take the rumours in the books I've brought more seriously. Before bed all I learn is that unicorns are said to live deep within forests, but are only ever seen on the outskirts or plains near forests. I would dearly love to read more, but I must study the new scroll I have obtained to fully understand it magical powers.

AD&D Campaign - Session 2 - 25/04/12

2012-04-26T10:40:00.000+01:00

Session 2: Other Planes (25^th April 2012)

The cast of heroes

Arken (Half-Elf Cleric) – leader of the party

Bardan (Human Fighter) – the muscle
Knil (Elf Ranger) – the tracker
Rioja Hyrule (Human Mage) – the wizard
Korum Proudfoot (Halfling Thief) – the scout
NPC (Human) - the guide

The fourth day (morning)

After an uneventful night, the adventurers rose from what little slumber they could manage and began to prepare for their next day’s journey further south. Whilst stacking firewood, the Elf spotted a small dust cloud in the distance. The party took up a variety of defensive positions, with Arken the Cleric, Bardan the Fighter, Rioja the Mage and the Guide continuing to look like they were collecting the supply of firewood, whilst Knil the Ranger and Korum the Thief took up position in the upper storey of the barn to get a good view on the yard below, bow and crossbow at the ready. The cloud slowly revealed a small cart with a single occupant.

The adventurers in the yard hailed their greetings and the journeyman alighted from his cart. After a brief discussion it was found out that he was an itinerant merchant on the plains. Whilst discussing his wares it turned out the merchant had a magical sword in his stock (determined by the subtle use of the Cleric’s divine magic). Negotiations got off to a poor start after the initial price of 2,500 Gold was asked, so the merchant called for help from his hired muscle that was lying down in the back of the cart. With a fully armoured warrior at his side the merchant became more confident. He started his negotiations from what he thought was the stronger position. Arken and Bardan were dismayed by his lack of movement on the price, due to not being able to find that amount of cash, so offered the party’s services as part payment. The merchant was unconvinced the party could offer him more protection than his own hired sword and a scuffle started. Seeing this from his vantage point in the barn, Korum let loose with his crossbow at the merchant as he was the least armoured. The bolt flew true and hit him in the arm. Weapons were readied again on both sides, but Arken diplomatically defused the situation and healed the merchant after a little argument over whether the bolt should be pushed through the arm or withdrawn. Tempers steadied, so Arken, again, offered the protective services of the party in part payment for the sword. The merchant would not budge and decided to take his leave. Arken smashed one of the cart’s wheels using his divine magic and the negotiations now turned in favour of the party. Knil saw the scuffle about to start up again so shot at the horse pulling the merchant’s cart. It hit the horse’s rump causing it to buck and throw the merchant from the cart. The merchant’s guard was cowed by threats from Bardan and the obvious superior fire power of the party, so the merchant had no choice but to agree to the party’s terms. The sword passed into the party’s possession.

It was decided that the party would move out after they had rested, fixed the cart wheel (which Rioja did using his newly learned Mending spell) and collected firewood for their journey. Korum had, in the meantime, come down from his hidey-hole but Knil remained hidden (the party still needed an ace up their sleeves) and idle chatter was entered into. The merchant mentioned that he knew the owner of the house but hadn’t seen him in quite a while. He asked the party what they were doing out here in the plains, but their answer of “looking for unicorns” was met with a snort of derision and the snippet that the owner of this farmstead was obsessed with unicorns. Once the conversation was over and the wheel on his cart fixed, the merchant mentioned he had another client to see. He left the sword and the party to their own devices and took off in a cloud of dust.

Whilst waiting for the cleric to recover from his magical exertions, Rioja and Korum decided to explore the rest of the farmstead; there was one building they had not entered yet. The other three stood guard over Arken and worked on completing the tasks in readiness for moving on.

The house

The two adventurers entered the third building but found it relatively empty. There were many small, carved unicorns dotted all over the room and a few items of furniture. A few of the unicorns found their way into a variety of pockets of both the mage and the thief. There was a half-eaten meal on the table, but any thoughts of eating it were firmly put away as the food was rotten and smelled awful. After checking the safety of the flight of stairs at one end of the room, which led up to a small sleeping chamber, the pair of adventurers continued on. Searching this upper storey room only provided more carved unicorns but, behind a closet, a door was discovered. After a swift search for traps, Korum opened the door which led down into darkness.

Rioja decided to go back to the rest of the party to enlist their help, but Korum couldn’t wait so continued on alone. At the bottom of the stairs, the thief saw that the narrow passageway hidden in the walls opened out into a small study. He lit a few torches to make things easier to see and scoured the room. There was a huge desk in the middle of the room and a large book case against one wall. The desk had a couple of books open on it, alongside a large number of hand-written papers. Further searching revealed more books on the shelves of the book case, more of the small, carved unicorns, but one much larger one. Korum made a mental note of everything, carefully picked up the papers and books on the desk and made his way back to the rest of the party.

Korum gave the scrolls and books over to the magic users of the party and described what he had seen. It was mutually decided they would send the rest of the day searching through the office and stay one more night at the farmstead – anyway, the merchant still hadn’t come back.

The whole party, except for the guide, returned to the underground office to search it. The first place that was looked at was the desk. It had six drawers. Korum opened these in swift succession revealing more hand-written documents, a scroll with strange writing on it (which Rioja snapped up with great gusto), a shiny new short sword (which Korum buckled on), a magical ring (which Arken purloined) and a couple of purses containing gold coins that Korum secreted away on his person without anyone else seeing. The desk was searched thoroughly but upon trying to push the last drawer back in, it caught on something. Korum couldn’t work out what was blocking it so got Bardan to give it a tug. The front of the drawer came off in his hands. Realising there may be something important behind the drawer, Korum asked Bardan to shift the desk so he could see; it didn’t budge. Bardan used his great axe and tried to smash it out of the way but the axe bounced off a solid steel interior. All the wooden panels of the desk were removed revealing a solid metal desk set into the concreted ground. This convinced the party that there must be something beneath it. Korum thought it may be a combination type release mechanism so started playing with the drawers, pulling them out and pushing them in, in a variety of logical sequences. Rioja remembered seeing some numbers “5 1 3” on a piece of the paper he had just skimmed through and realised that they may be part of a sequence – possibly for the desk.

Their research was going to take some time, so the magic using side of the party retired back to the barn to read, digest and discuss the books and scrolls that had been found. Many clues to the owner of the farmstead and his search for unicorns were found but most importantly it was discovered that the scroll was the Magic Missile spell, which Rioja copied into his spell book. The ring turned out to be some form of protective ring which Arken deduced with an augury. He gave it to the mage who was the least protected of the party.

Korum worked out the remaining sequence by listening carefully to the clicks and the movement of the drawers in and out of the desk. Once the correct combination was found (513426), the desk popped up from its concrete slots and easily swung round. Bardan and Korum decided they would leave the exploration under the desk until the morrow, as the day was starting to wane. They grabbed the largest carved unicorn (which happened to be painted), reset the desk into its slots and closed the doors on their way out.

The guide and Knil had finished their preparations for the night; setting the fire places and so on, so the party set watches. Nothing happened of note except that on the third watch a scream was heard in the distance. It may have been from a person, an animal or even the wind playing tricks, but Korum could not tell.

The fifth day: Going underground

After a good rest and a hearty breakfast, the party decided to split up to investigate both the desk and the merchant’s tracks. Knil, Bardan and Arken followed the tracks made by the merchant, the guide looked after the horses and a cart and started to collect the wood for that night, and Korum and Rioja decided to head back down to the basement office.

The cart tracks left the farmstead, heading south, but after only a short distance, the merchant’s cart was espied. The horse and the merchant were severely mauled as if by some wild creature, but there was no sign of the guard and confusing tracks everywhere. The party searched the cart for anything of use but didn’t find anything except a pouch of gold that Arken pocketed. They returned to the farmstead.

Meanwhile, Rioja and Korum had returned to the desk, input the code and sprung open the mechanism. They easily pushed the desk aside, although it creaked a little through disuse, and saw a bare earth floor beneath. The earth wasn’t compacted and was quite easy to remove by hand, but the trowel found under the desk proved more than sufficient to reveal a wooden trapdoor beneath. This was pulled open to reveal a dark shaft with a ladder on one wall leading down. Korum made to go straight down but Rioja warned him of the dangers of descending into dark places without any support. Korum chose to ignore the advice and made his way down the shaft. The shaft descended about 30’ and then led away along a featureless corridor for about 50’ and turned right. This part of the corridor led on for about 10’ before another shaft led directly upwards at the end of it. Korum’s infravision could not make out more than 20’ up the shaft so he lit a few torches. In the meantime, Rioja had heard a noise upstairs, so went back to investigate. Luckily the commotion was just the rest of the party returning.

Whilst Rioja was away convincing the party to join them down the shaft (it was a very tight fit for Bardan) Korum investigated the upper part of the shaft further. It seemed to be a wall of darkness, but not like the darkness that had been assailing the party for the previous few nights. He took a torch with him up the ladder set into the wall and noticed that the torch could go into and be withdrawn without any damage. He then took a pebble from his pocket and threw it up into the darkness. It did not come back down.

By now the rest of the party had caught up and decided what to do. He explained what had happened and Rioja revealed that this situation was very similar to something he had read in the papers that were found. Arken asked if he could borrow the mage’s ring and if anyone had any rope. When Korum supplied it he tied it around his ankle, gave the other end to Bardan to hold and ascended the ladder to the darkness. He put his ringed hand in but felt nothing untoward, although his hand started to numb slightly. When he withdrew it, it was perfectly OK. He decided to climb right in. The rope attached to his ankle fell down from the shaft, severed a few feet from where his foot would have been. He didn’t come back down. Bardan decided to follow his compatriot leaving the rest of the party to ponder their situation.

After careful deliberation they decided to follow their two friends. Korum headed back to the barn and told their guide what they were doing. He said that if they didn’t return within 5 days, the cart, horses and all provisions etc would be his to do with as he pleased. He offered to join them, proffering his abilities as a guide and an archer, but Korum declined saying they needed someone to guard their possessions. He grabbed a few bags of rations and water and headed back to the shaft.

Another plane

Knil, Rioja and Korum had a quick, final discussion on the merits of the facts about accessing other planes of existence contained in the material read the night before, then proceeded to climb up the ladder.

They passed through a zone of numbing cold and emerged in a forest. There was no sign of the shaft they had just come up, but looking around they saw that Bardan was propped up against a tree and Arken was motionless on the forest floor.

Luckily both were just resting and they began to explain what had happened to them since they had arrived. They realised time was measured differently here and the days seemed to be only 9 hours long when watching the motion of the sun. When they arrived they had found the mauled body of the owner of the farmstead. They had also discovered that if wood was cut from a tree, or grass was plucked from the ground, the removed item disappeared. They realised that they didn’t have enough firewood for a long night if the terrors of the previous few nights returned; just a few torches that Korum had brought with him.

After a quick discussion they decided to head deeper into the forest rather than out onto the plains towards the mountains that could be seen through the boles of the trees. As the day wore on, a set of tracks crossed their path. They decided to follow them as the three-toed feet seemed to match the claw pattern of the wounds on the dead investigator back in the clearing.

Night was closing in fast, so they decided it would be time to make camp for rest. They moved away from the tracks and found a small alcove in which they could huddle. No fire was lit, so they ate a cold meal, much to the disgruntlement of Korum. They set watches and turned in to sleep.

A few hours into the night, the moon rose; it was very bright, matching the descriptions from the papers that had been read. Maybe they were onto something here? Is this the place where unicorns were found? That question would need to be answered over the coming days. On the final watch, Bardan spotted movement amongst the trees. He picked up his axe and moved towards the others to wake them. Just as he was doing this, a man-sized humanoid shape exploded from the shadows and made directly for him. Claws flashed at Bardan, scoring gashes upon his body similar to those seen previously on the dead investigator, but his axe returned the compliment. Confused by being woken in such a start both the thief and ranger fired into the combat narrowly missing Bardan. Arken was next into the combat, and whilst the ranger reloaded his bow, Korum headed round behind the creature. By the time Rioja has started preparing his offensive spell, Bardan and Arken had made short work of the creature. It fell to the ground dead.

However, within seconds of it hitting the forest floor, the body had disappeared leaving only bloodstains on the weapons that had hit it.

New Blog title

2012-04-22T22:42:00.000+01:00

I thought the old blog name was a little tired and needed a bit of razzing up. So, after much scratching of heads (they don't call me Zaphod junior for nothing) I came up with the latest title; actually, I had just been watching Wallace and Gromit with the kids and it kind of leapt out at me. Now, I'm not sure what that change is going to do to everyone's Blogger links (presumably it is based on the URL rather than anything like the actual name of the blog, so there shouldn't be any issues), but you never know with these things.

I've not really been up to much painting wise recently, but those Chronicle Hobgoblins are so very close to completion (next week, I promise). I have managed to get some actual gaming in, which is always great, and hopefully more of the same this week too. I have so many ideas buzzing around my head now due to all of these influences: there's my old set of gaming chums who I pbm with, Duncan and SoBH, and now the AD&D gang down at the Lewisham club to add to the mix.

I am hoping to get back to doing some painting again this coming weekend as I have quite a bit on my paint station: the aforementioned Hobgoblins, a very large force of Norman Knights, the rest of my Rohan army and the finishing touches to a HotT goblin and orc army too.

AD&D campaign - Session 1 - 18/04/2012

2012-04-19T11:33:00.000+01:00

Well, I plucked up the courage over the weekend and emailed a local-ish RPG club. The Role Play Haven is based in Lewisham, south-east London, which is on my way home from work. The club meets every Wednesday evening.

So, I attended my first AD&D session for nigh on 20 years last night, but I wasn't the only one. A coulpe of other new members appeared on the same day and we were all invited to participate in an AD&D Ver2 campaign. As with all new campaigns and gaming groups, it takes a little bit of time to get into and remember all the place/character/player names. Anyway, here is a write up of our first adventure in this campaign (it has only been running for a couple of weeks prior to us joining). Place and character names have been purposefully left out due to not being able to remember any but my own so far but, as time goes on, these details will be fleshed out.

Session 1: The Quest Begins (18^th April 2012)

Prologue

In a previous session, the party had come into possession of an orb that supposedly contains the nemesis of a great evil. They had discovered a few clues on how to activate it; namely, it required a Unicorn’s horn, a Troll’s heart and another unknown ingredient.

A Chance Meeting

The three new characters, a human wizard, an Elf fighter and the Halfling thief, Korum Proudfoot, were hired to guard a caravan that was due to travel from one town to the next (an estuary port). The members of the original party, a human fighter and a half-Elf cleric, were also hired as extra muscle, but their intent was to be able to travel safely to the port. Upon setting off, the party got to know one another and the story of the orb came up in conversation. The original party members had clues as to where a mythical Unicorn may be found – the southern plains. All agreed to join in the quest for finding these items.

The port

The caravan journey was uneventful and the party arrived safely in the port. After such a dusty, boring journey the party decided to whet their whistles in a local inn. After throwing a couple of GPs each onto the counter, the party managed to book themselves a cosy room or two with ale and breakfast thrown in. They then started asking around for ways to get to the large inland lake which was situated on the border of the plains, up river from the port. Word soon got to them that a certain one-eyed salt would be able to aid them. With this information gained, the Halfling went out to pick some pockets to gain a little extra cash to pay for his room, and the fighter and cleric decided to pay a visit on this one-eyed captain.

After many unsuccessful negotiations with other captains for passage up river (most failed due to cost or unwillingness to travel that way), the old captain was found. He was drunk and belligerent and would not hire out his boat (which he called a ship). The party decided to try to buy the vessel from him, in which they succeeded in doing but then found that they didn’t have a crew. The one-eyed captain mentioned he might be able to serve in this capacity; for a fee! The party decided to retire to the inn for the night and continue their journey on the morrow.

The fishing village

Upon awakening, the party packed their belongings and headed to the harbour to board their new boat. The captain was good for his word and welcomed them aboard their new acquisition. The hold was well stocked with rations and many, many kegs of beer, which the captain started helping himself to as soon as he was able. Despite being a drunk, he was an able captain, sailing with any breeze that sprung up and with the oars manned by all except the Halfling in calmer weather; they made good time reaching the fishing village.

Upon arrival, the cleric approached the local authorities and paid them the harbouring stipend and a hefty bonus of 20GP to make sure that their boat didn’t sail away before they returned from their journeys south onto the plains. The old captain was left to his own devices; the boat was well stocked with beer!

The cleric sought out a tavern and started asking around if anyone knew if there were any Unicorns in the vicinity. After guffaws of laughter from the patrons of the tavern, he decided to leave the establishment to find the rest of the party and help them look for transportation to the southern part of the plains. In the meantime, the Halfling had investigated the local stables (no unicorns there!) and the others had noticed a handful of carts and wagons situated close by.

When they all met up again, a drunken reveller erupted from the tavern and started cavorting around with a chair leg held to his forehead proclaiming that he was a unicorn. He was ignored and the party entered the tavern to try to arrange transportation.

There were several merchants sat at a table and these were approached first. None of them wished to help to begin with, but eventually one was talked into negotiating a price. Negotiations did not go well, and his price remained high despite the cleric’s liberal use of magic to persuade him otherwise. The merchant promised to meet them the next day with his cart and made his way home. The cleric and fighter decided to follow him, caught up with him, and with a liberal use of muscle power and healing spells persuaded him he could do it cheaper than his previously quoted price. They let him go on the promise of transportation for the morrow.

Meanwhile, one of the merchants pulled out what he said was a Unicorn horn. It looked like a horn from the mythical creature but the Halfling did not trust the merchant and said he would have his friend check it over on the morrow. The party retired to their boat for sleep, setting watches, but the night passed quietly.

After a good night’s sleep the party made their way to the stables where they were due to meet the merchant, only to find his wagon gone. This caused them a little consternation, so they returned to the tavern to find another who may take up their offer of gold for passage across the plains. The cleric checked over the Unicorn horn and declared it magical, but the party would not pay the price being asked. They stole it instead!

Another patron of the tavern mentioned that he was a guide for the Plains and knew them quite well. After a quick negotiation, the party agreed to his price. Whilst the guide was hitching up his horse to his cart, the Elf checked out the tracks from the other merchant’s cart. They headed due south but were around four hours old, so the party set off in pursuit of the missing merchant as he was travelling in the general direction they were headed.

The Plains

The tracks were quite clear for a while, and the journey remained uneventful until the late afternoon when the Elf espied a cart in the middle of nowhere. They approached it cautiously but found it to be completely empty. The cart was surrounded by dozens of sets of hoof prints but nothing else. The guide mentioned that there were many horse traders on these plains as it was good country for raising stock. The party decided to wait for a horse trader to appear so they could salvage the second cart. They didn’t have to wait long for a dust cloud to appear on the horizon. A band of a dozen horse traders rode up and hailed the party. The adventurers negotiated for three new horses (two to pull the abandoned wagon and a spare) and hitched them up in a caravan. They travelled on for a few more hours until the light started to fade and stopped to make camp for the night. They asked their guide if he had seen any Unicorns, but he just gave a wry smile and said that he hadn’t. He was then presented with the stolen horn, but all he did was grab it, snap it in half revealing it was a simulacrum and asked how much they paid for it. When it was revealed they hadn’t paid a copper for it, he sounded his relief and mentioned that this was a common merchant’s trick.

The first night

The adventurers set two watches and a couple of camp fires and settled down for the night. During the second watch, the Elf and half-Elf spotted movement in the darkness all around them. They couldn’t make anything out using their infravision so lit a few more torches and woke the rest of the party. When shapes appeared in the darkness, the party approached them with torches, but the shapes retreated from the flames and melted away again. The Halfling lit a fire arrow and shot it from his crossbow at the shapes but even though the bolt hit nothing solid, the darkness edged away from it. Similarly, a light spell from eth cleric only served to push the shadows back temporarily. The night seemed to last a little longer than it should have done and the adventurers started their journey next day a little more tired than when they went to their bedrolls.

The second night

The second day was no different to the first; unending horse country to every horizon. The guide started to doze in his seat, but the horses seemed to know where they were going, so the party let the carts plod along whilst they stopped off to gather firewood, dried horse dung and whatever else they could find for making fires and torches. Towards evening they spotted a small farmstead in the distance. They approached with caution but were greeted at the threshold by a friendly goodwife who offered them use of her home for the night in return for just good company and tales of the outside world. The party repaid her kindness with providing the food for the evening meal and plenty of beer. The goodwife provided a few dust covered bottles of excellent quality wine. She mentioned she didn’t get many visitors and that her husband was away south on a fool’s errand looking for Unicorns! He had been gone a while but had not returned yet, although he mentioned he may be gone for a couple of months.

The party set watches throughout the night but nothing happened until third watch when the half-Elf cleric spotted movement in the darkness again. He awoke the rest of the party and they secured the wagons and horses by setting more fires around them for safety. Their responses to the encroaching shadows within the dark were the same as the night before, but they did notice that the darkness could actually move around the sentinel fires like water flows around a stone. This was disconcerting as the fires would need to be set in complete circles and corridors to stop the darkness’ approaches. However, before the dawn approached, the darkness slipped away.

The third night

After saying their goodbyes to the goodly woman, leaving her more food and beer in return for more of her good wine, the party set off again. They soon picked up a trail and decided to follow it as it didn’t take them too far off their own path. The guide had slept throughout the previous night’s encounters, so was fully refreshed. Nothing much occurred throughout the journey, other than the occasional stop to water the horses and collect more combustible materials. Towards evening they spotted a small hamlet of four or five buildings in the distance. They approached it cautiously but found there was little movement to be seen. The ground was covered in horse tracks, but strangely the tracks became an orderly track between the buildings only to become chaotic again on the other side of the village. The Halfling jumped off the wagon and cautiously crept into what seemed the principal building. After carefully picking his way around the inside he declared it empty of inhabitants and traps – the inch thick dust layer probably went some way to alleviating any nervousness they had.

The party stripped the house of all its wooden furniture and pulled the wagons and horses into the nearby barn, where they proceeded to light a fire at each entrance and in the middle, thus dispelling all shadows that may have lurked in the corners. They settled down to sleep, setting watch in turns again.

Well into the third watch, the half-elf again spotted movements outside. He awoke the rest of the party who took up defensive positions. He opened the door a crack, but a strong gust of wind blew the door fully open and extinguished all of the fires within the barn. He quickly cast a light spell and the darkness was pushed back fifteen feet. There was movement within the darkness again, but this time it seemed to coalesce into a more or less humanoid shape; two arms, a head and body. The cleric pulled back from the edge of the light and decided to apply his shield arm with doubled up chain mail. He approached the light/dark boundary again and placed half of his arm (that with the shield and mail) over it. The fighter held his other arm in case he needed to be pulled back in a hurry. The dark shape started to coalesce again and leapt at the proffered arm. The cleric cast an offensive spell and the Halfling, who was on the first floor, shot a bolt at the shape. The bolt passed straight through the shape and it could be heard thudding into the ground beneath it, but the Spiritual Hammer dealt a blow to the dweller in the dark and it retreated. Magic could harm whatever was hidden in the darkness.

The fires were relit and the rest of the night passed without incident.

AD&D Version1 Characters

2012-04-11T22:27:00.000+01:00

These are the stats I got from randomly rolling 11 characters on the online random character generation system on the Dragonsfoot website.

	Sex	Class	Align	Str	Int	Wis	Dex	Con	Cha	Age	Height	Weight
1	Male	Ranger	NG	16	13	15	12	14	15	21	5'10"	175lbs
2	Male	Fighter	CN	16	9	15	12	15	15	17	6'2"	182lbs
3	Male	Fighter	CG	16	11	13	11	14	9	17	6'3.5"	197lbs
4	Male	Fighter	CG	17	8	10	13	14	15	17	6'11"	218lbs
5	Male	Thief	CN	13	14	10	16	11	13	20	5'0"	127lbs
6	Male	Cleric	NG	13	14	17	12	13	8	21	6'6"	175lbs
7	Male	Magic User	CG	12	15	14	13	6	15	31	5'7"	175lbs

8	Female	Fighter	NG	15	13	11	11	13	13	16	5'1.5"	135lbs
9	Female	Thief	CN	12	12	14	15	10	11	20	5'6"	125lbs
10	Female	Cleric	NG	10	14	15	13	15	12	22	5'1.5"	132lbs
11	Female	Magic User	CG	10	15	12	14	13	10	29	4'9"	168lbs

These stats give me quite a bit to work with, and from the stat lines alone I can see some real characters in there; for example, the female mage who is 4'9" tall and weighs in at 168lbs, or the male fighter at 6'11" and 218lbs. I can see the interactions between these two already. The leader of the band was a specially rolled Ranger (I had visions of Strider with this one) and I rolled up a mixture from the four major classes. I will undoubtedly roll some other rarer classes in future once party attrition has set in, but I was aiming for an initial eight characters to start with. These will be a mixture of pbm characters for my online gaming chums and the rest will be NPCs that I will control. I will be using these in my forthcoming Village of Hommlet campaign. All will have maximum HP at 1st level, have minimal equipment (just the clothes they stand up in, specific class tools and a weapon each), and they will each have a pouch of silver to buy further equipment and to pay for their board and lodgings. The rest of their kit will have to be scavenged, stolen or acquired in some other way.

The Village of Hommlet module is actually quite a tough one (I ran it when I first started out playing D&D many moons ago), so that is why all the characters will start off with maximum HPs. I am hoping it will last for a year or two play time, utilising a variety of playing styles (PBM, face-to-face etc.) and come to a reasonable conclusion.

The map is ready, I now need to go back and re-read the module and plan how to introduce the players to each other. There are several sub-plots and I have to create a back-story/quest for each character too that needs to be accomplished some time during the campaign.

I will work on this from time to time over the next few weeks and publish any new info as I finalise it. I may also need to try to find some miniatures for these and their adversaries too.

Songs of Blades and Heroes: Beyond the Andraswald

2012-04-09T08:36:00.001+01:00

Saturday saw the hordes of the Cantwara descend upon the Suth Sexena. A crossing of the border through the great Andraswald was needed to disguise the numbers involved. Upon arrival at Chez Dunc, battle, or more accurately three battles, commenced.

We started off with a Songs of the Splintered Lands match up. An ambush was set up by the lord Basil Stag Hare and his two cousins; Sage Longfletch (an archer of reknown) and Thyme Grass Runner (a spearman of great repute). They were aided and abetted by Salt Brockley (a heavily armoured badger) and a motley assembly of four shrews who were contantly foaming at the mouth in a berserk rage; perhaps they hadn't had enough beer the night before or the Easter Bunny was not due in their neck of the woods on the morrow and they would miss out on the chocolate eggs?

Anyway, Dunc has pictures and a Bat Rep of the encounter in his Tome of Legendary Encounters. I really must start taking down a camera so I can report on these shindigs too. This first battle consisted of my SSL warband above fighting against a well-balanced crew of badgers, mice and magic. What we took away from this encounter was the effectiveness of the Hare archer, the unpredictability of raging shrews and that one must protect the magician at all costs if there are ranged attacks available. This time my dice rolls were either very high (resulting in my badger staying alive against far superior foes) or very low (especially the inability to activate due to many very low rolls in succession). This first encounter all turned on the Gruesome kill and the resulting Morale checks, followed almost straight away by loss of the Mouse leader resulting in further Morale checks.

The second encounter had my same SSL warband encounter a bunch of doughty Dwarfs. This time Dunc did the ambushing. His Hero on Bear made short work of my Hare archer (a wise move considering how effective he was in the previous battle) before he could inflict any damage and due to my poor activation rolls, my other hard hitters (the Badger and other two Hares) hardly moved before the Dwarfs got to them. I lost the Hare Spearman very quickly too, but in reply I was able to take out the Hero on Bear. My host started to break up due to poor activation rolls and were spread all over the field and were sure to be butchered one at a time. Then my luck changed with the dice and the whole tide of battle turned. A couple more Dwarfs fell and due to the small size of the warband, soon hit 50% and required a Morale check. "Hold Fast!" seemed to be the battle call of the Dwarfs (Dunc was beginning to catch my bug of activation failure) from that point on and the remainder were quickly mopped up. Two nil to the Kentishmen.

The third, and final, battle saw Dunc's all conquering Saxon army pitted against a very small but heavily armed Dwarf warband (in 28mm this time). The board was twice the size to incorporate the larger scale. Dunc charged his cavalry at the slow moving Dwarfs only to have them cut down very rapidly. His infantry followed up and some got into the combat quite quickly. A Dwarf fell to his champion but he was then beaten off by the rest of the slow moving warband. A couple more kills courtesy of the Dwarf Crossbows led to a rout, and from then on the war cry of the Saxons was "Run Away! Run Away!" The rest of the Saxon warband were slaughtered or ran off the board, the final chap being Gruesomely Killed. We learned a good deal from this battle -
1) Do not split your forces, especially fast moving cavalry as they wind up isolated and easily cut down.
2) Dwarfs are rock hard and will generally win a toe-to-toe battle.
3) Dwarfs also have crossbows and can hit from a distance.

Anyway, frivolities over, we retired to Dunc's Great Hall to repast on more fantastic cuisine courtesy of Mrs Dunc and a chat about all things gaming and books we are currently reading.

A rematch is in the offing - maybe Dunc has something up his sleevies to crush the eastern barbarians next time round? We also both thought about the possibility of playing Saga, which we both promised to pick up maybe at Salute or elsewhere before we next meet. I have a big stack of Norman cavalry on my painting bench, so maybe I could pit those against Dunc's Saxon dogs?

Princesses and Rainbows

2012-04-03T22:12:00.000+01:00

I ordered a few figures from EBob for my daughters a few weeks back. I got them a queen and lady miniature each to start their painting careers on. My youngest daughter, Cerys (she's six), finished hers the weekend just gone.

Here is the maid...

And here is the queen...

She chose the colours and did all of the painting herself. I glued them to the bases (not letting her near superglue just yet) but she PVAd the sand and static grass.

I think she has done a cracking job considering she has only done school paintings and a paint by numbers previously - nothing three dimensional. The flash has bleached them out a little but there isn't any shading on them so far. I will grab a few more for her to paint soon, and see about doing some shading and highlighting. She had her first taste of dry brushing on the sand on the base.

More of Alex's LotR minis

2012-04-01T17:48:00.000+01:00

We were all busy with the brushes this weekend. First up are Alex's efforts. He has moved along with his Lord of the Rings figures and managed to complete 3 major heroes with another few almost ready.

First up is a mounted Aragorn. He has started to put some of his leaders onto display bases, as have I. This is to allow them to be more easily seen on the battle field as well as give them a more distinguished look...

Next up is Elrond. For some reason he decided not to paint the eyes and it gives the figure a weird look. It only took him a few hours to paint though.

Finally, here is Alex's favourite Elven hero - Glorfindel. Again he put this onto a display base and put a lot more effort into the cloak and armour (which can't really be seen in the photo).

He has also just recently bought a few more Elven Heavy Spearmen to go with the ones he painted up last year. He is collecting an Elven army for LotR, as they are his favourite army. I guess I will have to get my orcs and goblins painted soon so I can battle him.

Songs of Splintered Lands - The Druid's Children III

2012-03-11T17:50:00.000Z

Here are the final figures for the Splintered Lands army I ordered up. Now I need to get them into battle and see how they fare. First up are the Badger Command warriors...

And, the final warband of shrews...

I also knocked up one of my really old Ral Partha miniatures - a vampire. It is very much based on the Hammer Count Dracula. I really don't know what happened with this one - it only took me an hour to paint; and it really shows. There was very little detail on the figure to begin with and I think I have made a right hash of the face. At a distance though, it actually looks fine, and the cloak looks really good.

I also managed to get a couple of the Chronicle Hobgoblins under way, and my daughters put a few more colours onto their figures. Hopefully these will be ready by next week.

Songs of Splintered Lands - The Druid's Children II

2012-03-08T17:10:00.000Z

A few more miniatures for my Splintered Lands collection were finished up today. I just had to varnish them and add some static grass, so it wasn't too much effort.

First up are a Mouse Warband, very much based on the Redwall colour scheme...

Next up is a collection of miniatures that are not part of any other warband. I do not know what the first one is, but the middle one is a hedgehog and the right hand miniature is a mole...

I still have two more sets of figures to complete; a couple of badgers for a bit of heavy-hitting and a small warband of shrews. I hope to complete these at the weekend.

I am also toying with whether to start on the Chronicle Hobgoblins or my massive Norman mounted contingent next. I'll see how the paint brush falls this weekend and take it from there. It may even be something completely new to the workbench.

Wargames Soldiers & Strategy 59

2012-03-06T20:55:00.000Z

Well, I succumbed to yet another magazine today. Whilst browsing in Smith's waiting for my train to arrive on Platform 7 at Victoria Station, I decided this would be a definite one for me. Lots and lots of Viking goodness.

Used without permission - Karwansaray Publishers

Contents of interest to me, is as follows...
pp18-21 - Ancients scenario (Pyrrhus vs Sparta)
pp28-53 - Lots of Viking based articles
pp58-60 - Playtest of War and Conquest rules
pp62-63 - Article on the Army Painter Dip that I use for most of my models

Quite a bit this month in actual fact, and a lot to get my teeth into. I have the Gripping Beast plastic Viking box set, so I think I will have to make use of them very soon. I may have to invest in the Saga rules soon just to see how they play. I have tons of Normans and Vikings, so these may be the two factions I will start with.

Songs of Splintered Lands - The Druid's Children

2012-03-04T17:19:00.000Z

At long last I have finished up some of the Splintered Light minis that Dunc ordered up for me several months ago. These were about 90% done within only a week or two of getting them, but for some reason I ground to a halt on them, always finding something else to do rather than finish them. This happened with some of my Roman units too. Anyway, at least I was able to get the brushes out recently and finish a large part of them. I have split them into warbands and colour coded them accordingly...

Otter Warband...

Hare Warband...

Squirrel Warband...

These figures always remind me of the children's cartoon Redwall (based on Brian Jacques' books of the same name). Perhaps that was Splintered Light's intentions? Anyway, they certainly got me pulled into the world of the Splintered Lands; specifically the Druid's Children faction. The miniatures bring to mind the adventures of Martin the Warrior, Basil Stag Hare and Cluny the Scourge. Its great having kids to introduce one to these things, and even better when they take an interest in dad's toys.

Last weekend I ordered up a few minis from EBob's Rebellion range. For once, these were not for me or Alex, but my two daughters. They have been busy today putting some paint onto one of them each. Once they are completed I will photograph them and stick them up here on the blog. These are their first minis, and apart from the cutting and gluing, they will be doing all of the rest.

Grey Knights Terminators

2012-03-04T14:18:00.000Z

Alex finished off some Grey Knights today. He hasn't really had the painting bug this year so far, but he managed to pick up the paint brushes and get these Space Marines completed. He has lost his painting mojo recently, he said, because he is bored of the ones he is doing and they seem to be never ending. I had to tell him to persevere and so he did. This malaise hits me every now and again too (especially when I have been on a unit for a long time - those Splintered Lands minis just recently), so I know where he is coming from.

Grey Knight Sergeant...

Grey Knight Banner Bearer...

Grey Knight Medic...

Grey Knight Terminator 1...

Grey Knight Terminator 2...

I am hoping he will get some more minis finished soon, and he assured me he will; he has some LotR minis he wants to complete and some Teutonic Knights.

I, meanwhile, am working to finish those Splintered Lands minis. I should have a fair few finished by this evening.

Games Workshop

2012-03-01T15:08:00.000Z

I took a trip to my local Games Workshop the weekend just past and noticed quite a few changes there. They no longer sell metal miniatures for any of their ranges in store - they are going through the phases of replacing them with resin FineCast models. I'm not a great fan of resin, so I decided to start buying up my backlist of metal miniatures forthwith from their online store (which I ordered at their bricks and mortar shop this time round). I don't have that many to buy to finish my LotR armies, but will probably need to get my skates on before they are all sold out and/or converted to resin mouldings.

What I was coming on to saying was; although metals are being dropped from their ranges and they have had yet another of their stupendous price hikes, the store was absolutely heaving with customers. OK, many were playing at the tables, but many (myself included) were also buying stuff. So, my take on this seems to be that GW are doing just as well as they always have (their Year End Report recently showed a good profit) no matter what they do with their ranges. Sure, they cheese off some customers with their policies (me included here), but we all seem to go back for more. There's no doubting the quality of their plastic minis (jury is still out for me on the resins), but the price bothers me somewhat. I haven't bought much stuff from them until very recently because of the high prices, but they seem to have hooked into my inner 'collection geek' syndrome, with the "discontinue a range/product and see them come flooding in" technique.

I daresay I will be buying more from GW just to round out my LotR armies, but after that I will probably be sucked in for 'The Hobbit' stuff when it comes out. They have their barbed tentacles sunk into my flesh for a few years more yet to come.

20,000 Page Views

2012-02-23T12:48:00.000Z

Another milestone has been hit on the blog. A year or two back the hit counter was hovering around the 3-4,000 mark and I never really saw it growing that quickly, so thank you very much to my readers and followers.
I haven't been up to much in the last week or two gaming wise as it has been full on at home and work, along with all that entails. I did manage to order up some plastic LotR Easterling Kataphracts, one of the new source books "The Kingdoms of Men" and a new can of Army Painter spray matt varnish. This varnish should now encourage me to get a move on with some of the outstanding minis on my work table, and move onto more of the back log. It should hopefully get me back in the groove to finish my Rohan army - 24 Riders and 36 Warriors have been completed - just the elites, captains and heroes to go now. I will then probably match them up with the Easterlings I have from GW and EBob's Balchoth. A big stack of orcs to bolster their numbers should also do the trick.

I will be taking a trip to GW this weekend to pick up a few more paints that have either run out, dried up or been watered down too much to be useful any more. I should then be able to get onto those Chronicle Hobgoblins I undercoated and based a few weeks back.

Actually, one thing I did manage to do last weekend was roll up a few AD&D characters - just the bare bones mind, so this weekend I may flesh them out wiht names an dsome basic equipment. I like to play low level adventures with poorly equipped characters, as it makes it more of a challenge and more fun in my mind. I compensate for the lack of armour etc at 1st level by allowing characters to have maximum Hit Points by class and Con bonus. They tend to last a little longer and it allows them to scavenge the armour and weapons needed to progress further. I will play some solo adventures with these characters in order to get the feel back for AD&D in general, as my grasp of the combat system etc. in particular is very rusty.