Chronicles of Midgard

My Midgard : Britannia campaign finished way back in January of this year but I have had thoughts bubbling away in my mind since then on what to do next with the ruleset as I really enjoyed where it led me last time.

I did start painting a few of the unfinished Celts that I used in the Britannia campaign in the hope that I may play another one-off Romans versus Britons scenario at some point soon, but my enthusiasm has dropped off for them as that campaign is in the past now. I also dug out my GW and Medbury Lord of the Rings style orcs to see if they would get my creative juices flowing again, but I am experiencing a bit of painters block at the moment - I think mostly due to my slowly diminishing eye sight; I just cannot seem to fine focus anymore even with decent glasses. 

With that avenue on hiatus at the moment, I decided to look at the system from an actual gaming perspective. I felt that the original rulebook needed just a few extra scenarios to give more options for the gamer to stop things from becoming a bit samey. I was able to write my own scenario for the final battle of my Britannia campaign, but that was hard work. Something "official" would be nice.

And, in answer to my thoughts, along comes James Morris, the Midgard rules author and of Mogsymakes fame, with a brand new supplement called Chronicles of Midgard that has arrived in the nick of time. It is choc-full of new scenarios and ideas, as well as a mini-campaign set in the period of Alfred the Great's battles against the Viking incursions of Guthrum, that will give me the impetus to get going again with this rule set.

Chronicles of Midgard

Again, like the original rulebook, the production values are extremely high; lots of lovely colour paintings and pictures of miniatures in action. The layout is easy to navigate, and the inclusion of an Index again makes things so much easier to find.

With regards the content, as mentioned above, we get 15 new scenarios with this supplement, bringing the total available for use now to 20 - a goodly amount in anyone's books. They are also written for use with a variety of geographical locations in mind, as well as a couple of them being final stand options to bring a campaign to a neat close.

There is also the inclusion of a system, as mentioned above, for running a King Alfred versus Guthrum campaign. Actually, the campaign is presented in two formats, so the campaign can be run either as a map-based set of scenarios or as a liner campaign where scenarios follow on one from the other in a set sequence. Both are well thought out and both will be very useful depending on how you want to run your gaming world.

Both of the participating armies are carefully limited in certain ways to make troop choice more "realistic". If only I had some Anglo-Saxon and Viking figures to make up the armies. However, as Midgard is so easy to manipulate into what is needed from a game system, there is nothing to stop me from using other armies as proxies for the two presented. I am itching to get my orcs sorted to fight against either my Rohan or Gondor armies. Many figures still require a fair lick of paint, but this could be my major project for this year provided my eyes are up for it. The figures can then also be used for other games system I want to get off the ground - Five Leagues from the Borderlands and Rangers of Shadowdeep for starters.

Vecna (#1) - The Outpost

The usual crowd got together again on Thursday for our latest D&D outing on Fantasy Grounds. I actually thought that the Saltmarsh campaign had finished completely, but I think this seems to be a continuation as we started in Saltmarsh and the theme seemed to carry on. I will try to find out by next week whether this was a continuation of the Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign or something that the DM has cobbled onto the end of it.

EDIT: It look like this is a new campaign - Vecna. I won't go looking anything up about it as I don't want to spoil anything. I will update the post headings a and when I find out more.

After a big battle at the Spire, the denizens of Saltmarsh narrowly overcame the sahuagin threat. 

A few months later...

Life began to return to normal in Saltmarsh, but we had become more well-known in town due to our exploits. As a result, we were invited by the local dwarf population to the one hundred year celebration of some copper mines that they were currently working.

The trip to somewhere called something like Duvagoia took several days by sea, and when we had landed, it took us and our three dwarven guides a further half-day on foot to reach an outpost, where we rested up for the night to get out of the heavy rain. We were generously plied with food and ale and left to our own devices - we did our best to escape the downpour.

The Dwarf Outpost

Gladreth was the only one of us that didn't get too drunk on the alcohol offered. Maybe because of this she was the most alert and therefore the first to be hit by an arrow that was shot from the undergrowth to our west.

It took us a while to come out of our drunken stupor, but by the time we had we were on the back foot against the attacking drow warriors. Gladreth, however, cast a Fireball that severely injured several of their warband thus buying us a little time to recover.

The fighters in our party rapidly gained injuries as the arrows sent our way were coated in some sort of green-gunk poison which added to the pain inflicted upon them. I managed to cast a Prayer of Healing to undo some of the damage, but the injuries kept piling on. As things looked like they were about to get worse for us, Gladreth spotted an opportunity to use a Lightning Bolt and some Magic Missiles to even the odds a little.

After the Drow encounter

It was a tough fight, but we eventually overcame the drow warband. We gathered their bodies for burial and stripped them of their belongings, amongst which were some small coins/medallions embossed with the likeness of a dwarf god. We drew lots for the watch rota and settled in for the night.

The night seemed to pass uneventfully, except for the constant rain, but when the dawn finally broke we noticed that somehow all of the drow bodies had been removed and our three dwarf companions had been taken. The place was covered in spider webs and a set of tracks headed off westwards towards the mines.

We followed the tracks for about two hours before we arrived at our destination. Many of the huts outside the mine had been burned and were still smouldering, and there were several dead dwarfs lying around the place in amongst pools of blood and silk cocoons. Many of the bodies had the same green gunk we saw on the drow weapons in their wounds. It was obvious that the celebrations had been interrupted by a savage attack which appeared to leave everyone dead or missing.

We scouted the area and managed to find a few maps of the mine and the surrounding area and a few ledgers of the mine's output and expenses (the mine seemed to be very profitable from the records).

Six hours later, the rain was still coming down, so we decided finish up our search and head towards the mine for some shelter. It was whilst we searched the last few huts that we managed to find a single dwarf survivor amongst the carnage - he had escaped by burying himself beneath a mound of his dead friends. He told Gladreth what had happened as she was the only one who could speak Dwarfish; the mine had been attacked out of nowhere by drow and spiders whilst the workers were celebrating the finding of a new, very rich, vein of copper - there were no survivors, and the rainstorm had washed away most of the blood by the time we got here. A short while later, the slain dwarfs rose from the dead and headed towards the mine.

We gave the dwarf directions back to our boat and finalised our investigation. In the final crate we searched we found three wands/rods that contained something that rattled when they were shaken. The box held a warning that they contained black powder.

Byrhtnoth and the Battle of Maldon

The second trip out over the school break also included my youngest daughter (who is actually at university) as well as my youngest son. This time we went for something a little closer to home both time-wise and geographically; we went to visit the town and local environs of the Battle of Maldon from late Anglo-Saxon times.

The Ealdorman of Essex, Byrhtnoth, died at the Battle of Maldon on 10/11th August 991 AD and a tragic poem about the event was written in Anglo-Saxon soon after - we still have over 300 lines of it surviving.

The plaque at the bottom of the statue at the end of Maldon promenade.

Our day started by visiting the small museum in Maldon that houses the Maldon Tapestry (really an embroidery). It costs nothing to enter but I left a few pounds in the collection jar to help keep it running. The first two panels were of most interest to me but the rest of the embroidery was worth a look at and a quick read of the guide book the staff lent me explained what everything meant.

The 1st Panel

The 2nd Panel

These first two panels tell the story of Maldon's foundation and the battle that occurred nearby just over one thousand years ago. I won't go into the details as all that history can be found elsewhere on the web.

After spending a little more time looking at a few more of the exhibits we wandered up the road to view a couple of churches. The first had a statue/carving of Byrhtnoth on the outside, whilst the second has the only triangular tower in the UK.

Byrhtnoth carving on a local church

The only triangular church tower in the UK apparently

I had heard internet rumours that there was a stained glass window in his honour in one of the churches, but I was unable to find that on our travels.

Next we headed down to the estuary, via a local bakery where we picked up some lovely cakes for a snack, to the modern statue of the ealdorman at the end of the promenade. This is a nice little walk as it takes in lots of local historical flavour; Thames barges, historical fishing huts and local crafts stalls, as well as lots of places to eat and a huge recreational park.

We got to the end of the promenade and took a few moments to look at the modern bronze statue of Byrhtnoth. The plaque from the first picture is located here (it can be seen just behind the statue, to the right, in the first picture below).

Ealdorman Byrhtnoth (front)

Ealdorman Byrhtnoth (rear)

The plinth tells the story of the Battle of Maldon

Unfortunately (or fortunately?), the sun was very strong today so none of my pictures of the plinth turned out particularly well (the best of them is shown above).

No visit would have been complete without visiting the actual battle site. This was a lot harder to find than initially expected. We looked all over the place but could not find the National Trust sign that I found on the internet that denotes where it is thought the battle took place.

The National Trust sign for the battle site

We found the causeway (or a modernised version of it) and looked around there for several hundred meters in each direction but only found a modern National Trust sign that only mentioned the battle in passing - it was more about the wetlands recovery and bird species in the area (fascinating in its own way but not what I was looking for today). Maybe the above sign has been removed in favour of the newer signage? If anyone knows about this I would love to hear from you about it in the comments.

Northey Island causeway

My daughter was becoming a little tired from all the walking (at least 5 miles was covered today), so only my son and I walked over the causeway (we had to be careful as it was very slippery), but there was nothing within easy reach that was of interest. What looks like water in the above photo is in fact a huge expanse of mud flats as the tide was out at the time of our visit.

We headed back to the car park after the visit, almost exactly three hours after we left (just in time, as the ticket expired after three hours). We chatted about all that we had seen on the walk back but were a little upset by the fact we didn't see the actual battle site according to the missing signage. That said, we were heartened by a comment one of the ladies in the museum made whilst I was chatting to her about the tapestry - a local historian seems to think that the battle site might not have been where The National Trust sign was but further into town, due to the fact a Viking Age (10th century) sword was found at a construction site a few decades back. This may have been a coincidental find, but nothing has been found at the "official" site anyway to corroborate that theory. Something for future historians and archaeologists to ponder?

Like Tuesday's visit to the Ramses exhibition, we had a wonderful day out and caught some of the spring sun's early rays to boot!

Ramses and the Pharaoh's Gold Exhibition

As it was the school holidays last week, I decided to take my youngest son to see the new Ramses and the Pharoah's Gold exhibition at Battersea Power Station in London on Tuesday 7th April 2026. I had kept it a secret from him until the actual day and he only got to know exactly where we were headed when we stepped outside the tube station close by the venue and he saw the advertising signs.

Exhibition Flyer

I have a passing interest in Egyptology and warfare of the time (hence why I generally comment about these kinds of outings on the blog) but I have never actually studied the period. I have various qualifications in Palaeontology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Archaeology and History (mostly Greek, Roman and Medieval), but the nearest I got to studying Egypt was probably just a few modules on the Levant and its environs.

So, this was going to be fairly new ground for me, and I think I was as exited as my son when he finally found out where we were headed this day. The exhibition itself runs through a potted history of Ramses' life and there is a selection of around 180 artifacts related to the 19th Dynasty and a few items from dynasties either side of his reign.

I won't go into too many details just in case anyone wants to see the splendour on offer, but I can say that I heartily recommend this exhibition for those with any interest in the period at all. It is a limited time-span exhibition, so will most likely nothing like it will be seen again in the UK for several years/decades.

That said, in keeping with this blog, there are a few exhibits/items that I would like to mention; there were a couple of weapons alongside the other dazzling golden jewellery on display, and one hall was devoted to the Battle of Kadesh - Ramses great victory over the Hittite Empire.

I was quite surprised to find out that quivers used in Egyptian warfare from this period were made of wood and painted to represent animal hide.

Bow and wooden quiver

There was also a very ornate bronze dagger on display.

Bronze Dagger

Some blurb about the dagger

The photos do not do the dagger justice - it really was a thing of beauty.

Anyway, we both thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition - we were in there for just over two hours. Despite it being a school break visit, it wasn't too busy, so we got the time to explore at our leisure and we were able to see and read about every item in that time. For what it was, it was not too expensive either. Unfortunately the exhibition hard-back guide book (that contains details of all the exhibits in glorious colour) was a little out of my reach at £45 - if I had the money, it would have been a must-have memento.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#31) - The Spire VII

In the previous encounter we had taken a battering, so most of the remaining Healing potions were used up trying to get us back to some semblance of good health.

We decided to head westwards first, and the coral pink walled room we next encountered only contained a table and a few benches. However, the mural on the wall was quite outstanding; a large tentacled beast, some whales and giant squid were in action against what we presumed must be some mythological sahuagin heroes. On the table was a silver medallion engraved with a shark and twelve tridents in a star shape. We pocketed the medallion.

The next room was tiled in a deep green. As well as a large bed of seaweed along the north wall there was a spear, a mirror and a coffer with a slot in it the same size as the silver medallion we found in the previous chamber. Navda attempted to open the coffer with the coin, but he somehow managed to miss the trap blade which cut him. Inside the coffer was a bag of rubies, a small stone box with six green potions (which we later found out to be made from Rapture Weed), a gold statue of a shark, a very nice scaled cloak (Cloak of Protection) and a very expensive looking canvas bag. Navda expected the bag to contain something, and his hunch proved correct as his searches revealed a green gem in the lining.

The south wall revealed a hairline crack that denoted a secret door that led to another secret door that opened out into the corridor with the stairs down that we had encountered a while earlier on our travels.

As we had now run out of areas to explore westwards, we decided to head back east and explore that area before we headed down the stairwell. As we moved back towards the main throne room, we heard a bit of a commotion coming from that direction. Navda managed to creep forward and reveal that four sahuagin warriors had entered the throne room and were investigating the bodies and gore floating within it. We decided to go south instead to avoid them as we were not in a fit state for much more fighting.

Unfortunately, as we traversed the corridors southwards we heard more noise from ahead of us; we were about to be trapped. Drakkon could take no more and charged around the corner, the rest of us followed leaving Dharion as rear-guard.

The four sahuagin around the corner were taken by surprise but soon regained their composure when they realised it was only one warrior against them. The sudden arrival of Druss halted them, but one of the sahuagin cast a dazzling light spell that dazed them both. Navda tried to shoot round the corner, but he too was dazed. Luckily, light is my domain and I was able to overcome the spell and used my Radiance of the Dawn special ability. This hurt the sahuagin enough for Drakkon to recover just as one of the warriors rushed past him. He was able to add more hurt to its magical injury as it passed, and between Gladreth's Firebolt and Navda's and Dharion's archery the sahuagin warrior met its demise.

Drakkon was isolated by now and the three sahuagin warriors took him down. To stop any further desecration of our comrade, Dharion managed to kill one of the remining sahuagin with his trusty bow and Gladreth used her magical abilities to stop another from advancing. My Warding Flare stopped me from being attacked whilst tying to administer to Drakkon. Unfortunately, the other sahuagin warrior cut me down.

Whilst I was unconscious, Druss recovered from being dazzled and helped Dharion to kill the third sahuagin warrior. The fourth fell to a combination of everyone else's attacks, with the final blow dealt again by Dharion's archery. Using his last few Healing spells, Dharion brought Drakkon and me round again. We decided that as things were now too dangerous to stay around much longer we should head for the exit.

A final look at where we explored in the Spire

We retraced our steps further southwards towards the stairs out, but in the corridor just before the exit chamber we encountered a school of sharks. Navda and Drakkon quickly dispatched two of the sharks before us and Gladreth and Dharion another that was approaching from our rear. With one remaining shark before us, we could feel a larger commotion approaching the area; it felt like the whole complex was awakening. The last remining shark in our way was killed by Drakkon and we were then, finally, able to climb the stairs out of there.

The upper level was still empty luckily, so we were able to get out of the dungeon and to our rendezvous point in the marsh without any further encounters.

At the rendezvous, we were met not only with the escape boat, but with a small army. We reported to the commander the situation in the spire and gave him all of the intelligence we were able to gather. He called forth his troops and advanced upon the sahuagin hideout.

The return to Saltmarsh was uneventful, and we were ushered straight away into the presence of the town council. We were debriefed and then fully Healed before being given our 1,700 gold crown reward. We were also gifted with a magical longbow which went to Dharion, a magical shield that would catch arrows, and an ioun stone which I somehow managed to acquire, but do not know what to do with just yet.

With that, I think we have completed the whole of the Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign. We levelled up - we are now all 7th level - and updated our character sheets accordingly. We divvied up the treasure and sold what we had found on our adventures. We then bought anything that we had the money for to enhance our character - I bought a stack of Potions of Healing.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing this campaign. Fantasy Grounds worked pretty well in allowing us to immerse ourselves into the adventure - along with Discord for the communications (voice) part, this felt as close to a face-to-face series of sessions as we could get. I recommend this setup to anyone that has a bunch of gaming buddies that cannot meet up often enough in real-life due to time constraints and distance circumstances.

The DM has another scenario lined up that we may use these characters again for. Or, maybe, we will roll up new ones if we feel like a change of pace. I guess we will find out what is happening next session.