Thursday 27 August 2015

Dwimmermount 5e D&D Session 15 - Reach out and touch faith

After a brief discussion on the merits of using the stairs the Orcs guarded, returning to civilisation and using the stairs where they stood, the party felt there would be more treasure somewhere the Orcs had not been and that they weren’t yet ready to return to Muntberg. So they took the dark stairs down, noting the carved sign saying ‘Reliquary’ above the entrance way. The most immediate change they found was that the walls and floor were fair smoother and uniform than the rock carved passages of The Path Of Mavors. Errol the dwarf remember a legend that spoke of mixing alchemicals together with stone dust to make something called concrete, and suggested that this might be that material.

The chamber at the bottom of the stairs presented four exits, and so they took the nearest one which appeared to be a corridor in parallel to the stairs. It ended in a door that had a faded green wooden panel nailed onto the sturdy oak with brass studs. Since no sound came from beyond, Bittersalt pushed the door open and entered. The chamber beyond was very dark, and apart from a door, and a carved triangle symbol in the centre of the room it was empty. The party filled in to examine things a little more closely. Out of the four corners of the chamber coalesced cloaked beings made from the shadows. Brother Spenzar recognised these fell things as Shadows, creatures from the plane of shadows and very closely related to undead. Thankfully the party weren’t surprised, but still the Shadows were fast and resistant to normal weapons. Worse still their touch not only rotted the flesh but drained the strength and energy of it’s victim, and party felt this chill touch almost immediately. Zoilus’ magical sword did cut through things, as did the combined magics of Brother Spenzar, Calphis and Flandar. Bittersalt’s parrying saved her withering damage, and her blade did still chop away at the Shadow that attacked her. Paulo, in tremendous fear at being surrounded by these creatures of undeath shot through the door and ran off down the corridor. Once Zoilus had defeated his foe, he moved to help the others, which combined with well aimed magical attacks defeated the Shadows, that dissipated back into shadows of the empty chamber. Bittersalt went running after Paulo, following vague dusty tracks, only to come to large chamber where they ran out with no sign of the boy. Calling out to no avail, Bittersalt feared the worst and went to fetch the rest of the party.
Shadows appear



The chamber where the tracks ended was unusual in itself, having several columns and a bizarre statue, but the party were more concerned with Paulo’s safety than exploring and decided to press on. Flandar’s invisible familiar was sent off to the east along wide 20 ft passage. It passed a door and then the corridor turn at angle, at which point the familiar returned.  

Deciding to investigate this first door, the party walked in on a group of five tall goblinmen, all of whom carried themselves in a militaristic, and clearly well trained fashion. They formed a line immediately, with the halberdiers protecting the their bow men but held off attacking. They demanded the party reveal what they were doing here, who in return demand to know if they’ve seen Paulo. The hobgoblins confirm they’ve taken the boy captive, for questioning and that he won’t be hurt if he is cooperative. The party are at boiling point, and tell the hobgoblins to go a get him but the hobgoblin’s refuse and want to know what the party are doing on this level. A standoff develops, but on the insistence the party one hobgoblin leaves by a second door. A few moments later the a larger unit of hobgoblins run into the room, lead by a red robed goblinman. The party were massively outnumbered, but the hawks in the party were itchy to try their mettle against these foes. Fortunately calmer heads prevailed. The robed hobgoblin ask the party what year it was, once again asked them what they were doing here and why they’d come. The party were evasive and talked about exploring, which for the moment seemed enough for the leader. He told them that Paulo was with their captain, and confirmed he was unharmed. He said they surrender him to the party if the party rid the western areas of the Reliquary of the undead menace that had sprang up. Without much choice, they party agreed. They learnt that the black metal coated Eldritch Dead that had so plague them on the first level were tomb guards, and not considered a threat or enemy by the hobgoblins, but all other undead were and to be destroyed on sight. Without any other obvious options the party agree and left, heading back to the chamber that Paulo had be snatched from.
A cohort of hobgoblins



Here they investigated the chamber more thoroughly. Seven columns lined the room, while statue of geometric shapes stood against a far wall. The columns had an Old Thulian letter carved into each one of them, and Bittersalt quickly released they spelt out the Old Thulian for truth. Once she said it aloud, she had a vision of a strange featureless figure, who tells her she is not worthy. On hearing this from her, Calphis also speaks the word ‘truth’. His vision is of a silvery egg and he is told he is worthy. Upon coming around, he releases he can channel the power of gods and use it to detect poisons and disease.

Fearing this strange magic, the rest of the party fell silent and the party left the room, pushing north and west.

The next chamber contained four columns, made from the perfect glass material they’d seen on the 1st level. Each column contain an element - one was filed with rock, another was green and had bubbles floating up from time to time, the third contained a rich red flame while the last appeared empty. On the floor was a mosaic map, that may well have been of the whole world. Something the none in the party, not even Bittersalt, had seen before. The mosaics meant the maps was fairly basic though.

This chamber lead to another closed to door, beyond which was ancient carpenter's workshop, covered in dust and with many rusted tools. Two simple coffins were lent up against a bench, and as the party entered one of the coffins started shifting slightly. A crossbow was fired a near point blank range into the coffin, and out burst a howling wight, screaming wordless curses and clutching a gladius. The party leapt into action, attacking the undead thing. The second coffins rocked furiously and a second wight smashed it’s way out of it’s rotting tomb. The party’s martial abilities showed off here, and apart from a horrible wilting wound on Errol the dwarf the party managed to destroy both wights, taking their heads as proof of their questing. Brother Spenzar’s powers against undead are brutal, when they work.

Another chamber, again with pillars presents itself next. Each pillar appears to made from one of the six fabled magical metals, and represents a fortune in gold. The columns are adamant (dull gray), areonite (reddish copper) azoth (silvery black), moonsilver (silvery white), orichalcum (golden bronze), and starmetal (silvery grey). Bittersalt is impressed by the display of wealth and power it represents. However since the party is reluctant to linger anywhere too long, and don’t have the easy means to take any of the metals they press on through doors and corridors until they reach the next room.

This area contains a number of strange devices made of metals and vitreum glass. Copper dials are attached to this tall devices, and within four hobgoblins, completely unmoving and lifeless. A dull hum resonants with the chamber. The party stare in wonder, and discuss what these machines represent. The don’t however tinker with them.

After deciding to start heading east, the party find what appears to be an alchemist's laboratory, still filled with odd glass bowls, tubes and pipes. Bottles of liquids line the counters, and cabinets hold containers of chalky tablets. Since there are no further undead here, the party return the way the came and north, rather than going even further east, where they suspect the hobgoblins are based.

A room with tall strange devices is discovered. These devices however more numerous, do not contain anyone inside, and is ignored. Yet another empty chamber lies beyond that, before the party find a odd room, with nothing but a huge tapestry in it. The tapestry depicts Terms Turmax, the thrice-blessed, stood nobly but with a fiery, winged version of him behind, as if in ascendance. Bittersalt sees a small fortune, while Brother Spenzar sees heresy and sets about igniting the wall hanging. As smoke starts to fill the room, the party notice that it billows further out into the room from one spot, and once the tapestry has been destroyed search successfully for a secret door. A small circular safe-room lies behind it, filled with nothing but wooden carved heads and a single stone statue head, that of the god Mavors.

We left it here. The group had raced through a good number of locations, and I’ve probably missed out some important details, so if anyone from the group remembers something, comment and I’ll update it.
The gang, and one of the other RPG groups in the background


A very enjoyable session, with a good mix of fighting, talking and wonder. There is plenty more of all three coming up. 

Otherworld Skirmish Game Review

I have to admit that when I read the eagerly anticipated fantasy skirmish rules from Otherworld Miniatures I was a little disappointed. The rules seemed just a little bland and I couldn't see the hook. After playing it last night, I can say that it's a fantastic game to play and I'm really excited about giving it another go.

Since I'm not very good a learning rules from a book,  I was lucky enough to play against one of my regular D&D'ers, Jon, who has always had a keen I for the minutiae of rules and that certainly helped speed up our understanding. I brought to the HATE Club a set of pig faced orcs, some undead and four really old Games Workshop Disciples of Red Redemption to use a cultists.

I quickly made up two very basic 120gp factions, using a companion in each, with 4 orcs with halberds, 3 with crossbows and a shame for the orc faction and 3 cultists, 3 ghouls, a wight and a shadow for undead faction.


Undead Faction
I'd set up some dungeon terrain - parts of which I been given on the night (did I mention, I love the generosity and spirit of HATErs?). Then we got started. The shadow needed to be summoned, so I gave the Wretched Priest undead leader magic(2) and +1 Intelligence to ensure he/she got it off. My Monstrous Myrmidon had +1 hits, for 3, light armour and leader(1) for extra activation - which I kept forgetting.

Pig Faced Faction

I think we pretty much misinterpreted a least one rule a round, which is great because it meant we were definitely learning and discovering. It quickly became apparent that the damned status of undead is very nasty, and is something we need to dig into more online as it's very easy to lock down a faction using it. Weakened is also vicious, but since ghouls aren't too tough it didn't feel unbalanced in the end. I think I felt for awhile completely outgunned, but actually a few lucky armour saves kept me in the game and meant we ended on a draw, one model each both of who fled after failing morale checks.
Initial setup

Orcs turn one

My lone Orc crossbow man tempts the ghouls from their lair. 

He actually survives the charge attacks.

All undead cause fear, and orcs have a 50% chance of being scared.

More undead and their cultists emerge

A couple of rounds later, there isn't much left in the forgotten chamber.

The activation system, which means that generally you can only use half you models a turn is brilliant at creating internal tension, forcing you to really think about what it is you want to achieve each round. The statuses are a little brutal, in a fun way. I did think that a gentleman's agreement to tell your opponent what types you're taking i.e. men, monster, humanoids, undead, demons, etc, might be in order because I can see that a undead list with lots of ghouls would be very nasty.  The luck and fate systems definitely help give you a just a little more tactical ability, and stop the game being solely about dice arbitration.

I think £25 for the rules is a decent price. It's full colour scenic pictures of their model range is glorious, and works as intended, as you definitely want to go a buy so more of them. The tokens and cards aren't essential, but I think to you'll want them to make things easier. I suspect I'd use glass beads for activation in future though. I suspect, and hope, that they'll produce a monster manual for the creatures not covered - carrion crawlers for example. I'm also looking forward to trying a game with the adventure cards, which we didn't use to help speed things up.

So the game goes into my mainline game systems, to play repeatedly and so I hope a few more people at the club give it a try.



    


Saturday 15 August 2015

Hobby Holiday Day 4 - Rain stopped play

It was a miserable windy day with vast quantities of rain falling from the sky. This meant I didn't get very far with painting the dungeon terrain at all, and packed it up to stop the moisture damaging the primer.

Since this left me rather deflated, and I do need to chill out before the new job, I spent the day watching TV and cooking. Since cooking is a hobby in my book, it very much counts. I marinaded some chicken wings in dry jerk seasoning mixed with everyday seasoning, vegetable oil and a little water to make a thick paste. This isn't a blistering hot jerk, but is incredibly flavourful. I fried them in batches, in a wok with the oil covering about half the chicken. They turned out like this.


I also made an apple and blackberry crumble, using vegan margarine since I've a few friends who are vegan that pop round from time to time and it's nice to offer something tasty for everyone. The blackberries are from the garden and we've had a bumper crop this year.



Since day 4 was technically the last day of my hobby holiday, I spent an hour (at least) tiding the hobby room. I bought a nail display stand for £5 on Amazon, thinking that it would hold most of my paints. It really doesn't, I've got fair more than I think and it's one of the reasons I want the stand, so that I use more of my colours. I'm definitely ordering another one, as it's already incredibly useful.

Finally I thought I sort through and clean up the 2000AD Judge Dredd models I've accrued, through gifts and a kickstarter. It turns out I've got more than I thought, and two sets of Dark Judges. Infinity is increasing in popularity at the club, so maybe I can use them for that. I also reckon they might make a fun Mega Hive One Adeptus Arbites Inquistor team for 40K. They really don't look difficult to paint.

Tomorrow my wife has a day off and we've driving to Margate to see the sea and Perry Grayson exhibition there.

    

Thursday 13 August 2015

Hobby Holiday Day 3 - practice what you preach.

Todays goals were to get some paint onto the terrain, finish off the Gnolls and varnish a bunch of models that have been waiting to go into my RPG KR case, which doesn't now nearly have enough room for all my fantasy stuff. And then to head down to the HATE Club, set up and try out Dungeon Saga that Ronnie Renton from Mantic Games had kindly agreed to demo.

Once again my planning was sub-par and I hadn't counted on my tube of black acrylic paint not being anywhere to be found. I suspect I threw it out as it had dried up. There isn't much point using GW black on the scale I need it for for the terrain, so I went once again into Wood Green and found a large tub of Windsor & Newton black acrylic with really high pigmentation. The weather wasn't great, and started to drizzle, so I retreated back to the hobby-cave and finished painting the Gnolls, which have come out really well. I've been using fine gravel and PVC glue on black round bases for most of my RPG stuff, as it neutral enough to work for dungeons, caves and outdoors, and this worked very well for the Gnolls and Carrion Crawlers I needed doing.

Since it had dried up, I went and made a start on the terrain, using a mixture of black, white, dark brown, straw and occasional splashes of bronze. I've found this works really well for my Executioners Chapter Space Marine bases, that use the same scheme as the terrain. It generally creates a good dungeon stone feel, but with hints of warmth and interesting metallics. I use blister pack packing foam to sponge on the colour, in three layers - dark, lighter and highlights, one at a time. This means that there are four layers to the terrain, which might seem like over kill but it's very effective and since the resin is so nicely done it would be a shame to not take the extra time. There will be some time spent picking out detail and apply airbrush candle glow later.

The weather and having to leave the house meant I was running out of time though, so quickly got some dark layers on about a third of the terrain, did a lighter layer on a subsection for fun and matt varnished the models. All in all not a bad days hobbying.



Gnolls attack!


Dungeon dwellers!

Gauntlet-style view


After packing up, I went drove down to the club. While driving would have been a perfect opportunity to take some of my larger models for a big 40K game, I spotted that Mantic were demoing at the club again, and this time running Dungeon Saga, which definitely has caught me eye. So after doing my committee member duties - aka lugging heaving gaming boards around and collecting the fees and managed to get a game in. Even in the beginner game, which admitted was made harder by the addition of an elite dwarf zombie, it was clear what a tactical game it is, how fast the basic stuff is and how relatively easy it is to pick up, and at £50, I will be picking it up! EDIT - And I just heard Ronnie has offered Club goings a discount! On a side note, we had 19 roleplayers, in 3 groups playing 5e D&D, DCCRPG and Dark Heresy last night, which is a club record and means the RPG room was full. All in all I think 70 people attended, which isn't bad a for Wednesday night in East London.

Ronnie from Mantic with the Necromancer's (GM) rulesheet. 

In game action. This is the smallest map for the introductory adventure.






   


Wednesday 12 August 2015

Hobby Holiday Day 2 - environmentally unfriendly

So yesterday was day two of my hobby holiday. I set out to base coat all of my Malice RPG dungeon terrain, and try and get a base colour tone down too. To start with, it all needed a wash, using warm water and washing up liquid, I fairly roughly removed any mould removal agent still on the resin. While doing this I discovered that some of the smaller doors hadn't had all of their pouring tracks removed. In general these terrain pieces are extremely clean and bubble free. They're really good quality, far better than is forged at a certain world renowned resin maker. So while the pieces dried I took off excess resin and started tinkering with hobby project #13747 - more on this later.

Drying terrain

Giving it 45 minutes, it was overcast so not ideal drying weather, I started using Halfords Matt Black car spray. This is a good primer, as long as the models have been cleaned. It gives a uniform base, rarely drips and is cheaper than modelling black primers, which I often find aren't as good anyway. I hadn't planned particularly well here, as one can did about 70% of the first run, and I had many more runs to do. Thankfully I also had most of a can of GW black primer, and most of can of Army Painter black primer. Unfortunately, it was pretty clear that this wasn't going to be enough either.
Half way through the action
Thankfully Wood Green near where I leave has a Halfords, so after lunch I went down and picked up two more cans, and of the course of another couple of hours I finished off spraying the dungeon terrain. I probably ended up using three and half full cans of spray.
I think I need to order more corridor sections. Customs duty is a pain.

All finished.
At this point is was beginning to drizzle, so I covered the spray table with a waterproof ground sheet and went inside to go and paint some more on my Gnolls. I didn't get to get any colour on the terrain, maybe tomorrow will be better weather.

These Gnolls are lovely models, but I really struggled connecting with them initially and wasn't particularly impressed with my test model. However experimenting with their skin colour and using a wet palette has produced results I'm much happier with. They look a lot more animalistic and menacing now. I hope to finish them off tomorrow.

Gnolls phase 2
So back to hobby project #13747. I recently picked up a two player set of cheap arcade buttons and joysticks as well as a Raspberry Pi 2. I've been fancying making an arcade emulator for a long time, so thought I'd get some bits together to give it a try. I also found a Raspberry Pi arcade emulator install image called PiPlay, making it all almost too easy. However it's early days for the emulator and did need some of my creaking old Linux knowledge to get working properly. Anyway, screen shots from my fledgling home arcade!

Home screen

Galaxians

Super Mario World, I'm already beginning to understand that the rom scene is very chaotic.
And finally, this one is also taking up some of my time, in a good way. 

Tuesday 11 August 2015

Hobby Holiday Day 1

I've a week of holiday, between jobs and since my wife can only join me for a day, I've got four days of hobbying. Day one was a slow start, as had a dentist appointment, did some shopping prepared dinner. Since cooking is definitely hobby and some of the shopping was geek stuff, I still consider it productive. However I did manage to paint my second Otherworld Wight, make a start on the four more Gnolls and a tiny bit on my non-Otherworld Pig-Faced Orc.


There is another reason I'm going to be distracted this week, as we have a new member of family who joined us from Wood Green Cat Sanctuary on Sunday. She's without a name while we figure out her personality, which so far seems to be mostly cuddling and play fighting.

Tuesday 4 August 2015

In defence of the failed Kickstarter

Table flipping considered harmful
I’ve read thoughtfully written blog posts and articles on failed kickstarters, how they ruin the reputation of talented people and talk almost in terms of fraud. These have convinced me that I approach Kickstarters differently to the authors.

When I back a kickstarter, I don’t assume it will deliver. I’m prepared to live with the disappointment that I may never get anything for the money I spend. It’s a risk I think worth taking. This isn’t from the experience I’ve had backing sixty three odd projects. Three of those projects failed to raise the funds, and several have been very late but not a single one yet has failed to deliver at all. My experience comes from twenty five years of software engineering where I’ve seen millions and millions of pounds spent on projects that don’t deliver. It the ‘real world’ projects fail often.

There is a huge debate about what Kickstarter is, and it doesn’t in reality matter what I think it is, except to me. And since I’m the consumer, it’s also all that matters to me. Kickstarter is a place to help kickstart, there is a clue in the name, cool projects. It’s not a online shop where I can get a discount for early adoption of finished products. That means there is always a journey for the creator to get from where they are now to getting something in my hands and that means there is risk.    

Kickstarter projects which are said to fail are also often criticised for poorly communicating when things aren’t working out as planned. Again, I turn to my job and I look at every single staff survey, HR report or management retrospective I’ve ever seen and I remember they all say that poor comms is the number one complaint, the number one issue to tackle. Humans it seems aren’t good, unless they are well-trained, at delivering bad news when they are personally under pressure. Having run a Kickstarter (£33,641 raised against a goal of £8,000, delivered two months late - here) I know how much emotional commitment it takes, which can only amplify the problem. So when people fail to communicate properly, I’m disappointed, but not surprised and not angry. I know that the creators are beating themselves up plenty, and pouring oil on that fire won’t make things better. 

On a final note, creatives fall into two broad camps, artists and illustrators. Artists create for themselves and hope that others will like their creation enough to spend money on the idea, while illustrators use the seeds of ideas that others have previously said they are willing to pay for to create great works. Neither is better, neither is more creative and I’m lucky enough to know both very talented creators and illustrators. Several of the artists wouldn’t go near Kickstarter, despite it being an ideal way for them to live, because they know they’d be harangued by backers demanding that the artists follow their vision and not her own. And several of the illustrators I know wouldn’t go near it again, because they couldn’t please all of the people all of the time. This worries me personally because it moves Kickstarter away from the thing I think it is, and towards the thing I don’t want it to be. 

So be supportive of the honest kickstarter creator, whether they fail or succeed. 

Friday 24 July 2015

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 14 - One rules lawyer to rule them all.

The group have been effortlessly dealing with missing attendees by blaming the memory loss on the effects of the spider venom, so Calphis’ player returned and roleplayed it out. I see this autonomy a real strength, and since I think my players now ‘get’ the thematic style of Dwimmermount I’m delighted when the do it.

The first order of the day was to go and revisit the game playing apparitions, since Calphis had spent some time reading the High Thulian book on the Dragonchess precursor game, popular 200 years before. After consulting their own maps, they correctly figured out the route and quickly made their way to the chamber. Calphis tentatively moved the chess pieces to their correct pieces, satisfy whatever ancient rules argument the apparitions had. They gently faded into nothing. With them gone, the whole party sensed a warm and appreciative glow enter their form and felt the blessing of the Asana, goddess of strategy, heroism and science.

Looking at their map they realised the set of double doors at the south end of the main corridor section hadn’t been explored. These doors were made from red areonite metal and were very impressive. Opening the doors they found a sacked barracks, with weapons racks and armour stands, cots and smashed tables littering the large round room. Movement caught Paulo’s eye and out scuttled massive centipedes. Then warm red glows appeared from giant fire beetles that also pushed themselves out from behind the mouldering woodwork. Erroll summoned fire with his burning hands spell and took out a couple of centipedes. The rest of the party rushed in and quickly put pay the giant insects, with very little injury, despite one of the beetle belching biofire. The room was search, and all that was found were air vents that must have enabled these critters to travel into and out of their lair.

The absence of the Orcs that had been so prevalent in the south made the party pause and decide to check the room the beastmen had made their station. They had spotted a door that they’d not looked into, and upon approach noted it was in remarkably good condition with the oak seemingly recently oiled. Without any sign of traps they entered to find an immaculately clean and tidy officers quarters. A solid pine desk with a leather writing cover also held parchment, strange wooden quills and fresh ink. Brother Spenzar used some charcoal to take a rubbing from the parchments and discovered a set of orders in High Thulian, ordering the deployment of Hobgoblins to disrupt the flanks of the rebels. Bittersalt takes the pristine blank found on the bed and the room is given a thorough search but reveals nothing further. It’s only when they leave the room that Calphis realises that his Light spell hadn’t diminished the whole time they’ve been in the room. They attribute the immaculate condition of the room to some sort of timelessness, but why it hasn’t been ransacked by orcs or other inhabitants can’t be explained.
 
Bittersalt suggest that the party go and collect some Azoth from the bubble room. She’s been carrying some clay pots and thought that if the bubbles were safely burst, Azoth might be collected in them. This plan works well, and the party have a clay pot full of the magical silver-black metal liquid. They investigate the doors off the bubble room, finding a latrine room, a dining room and a kitchen. Paulo spots a secret door in the kitchen, and the party push the wall section that must be on some sort of rollers along to the side. This reveals a blank chamber, except for another door and vicious red demon, with daggers for claws and spikes crowning it’s head and shoulders. It immediately launches itself at them, but the quick thinking wizard launches magic missiles into it, causing it to disappear immediately with none of the dragging back to the abyss sorcery they’d seen in their previous two encounters with demons. Warily they push into the room itself and open the second door, revealing a chamber with a single table in it on which lies hundreds of silver coins, several rock-gems and a strange triangular metal rod. Calphis recognises the ruins as been symbols of transmutation, and suspects this may be a magical rod of some kind.


Once they’re done the party decide to try their luck with the main corridor eastern doors. These are even more unusual. Made from a white material, with an almost pearl-like finish, it didnt sound like metal when struck and had a perfect door seem. On the side of the door was a square of metal with three pieces of the white material, two triangles above and below a circular section. The party tried to force the doors open using their combined strength to no avail. They also tried pushing the circle and triangles, but nothing worked. The triangular rod was pushed against the triangles with no result. Frustrated the party moved on to the next set of double doors in the far north of the dungeon. Behind these they found another barracks much like the room in the south but without the giant insects.

Finally they explored beyond the last door they had on their map. They found the room beyond had more apparitions in it, this time with Thulian soldiers, wearing solid leather armour, standing over human remains. The soldiers seemed to be taking orders to go and reinforce some part of the dungeon. Brother Spenzar decides to sprinkle holy water over the remains and give them the last rites on the bones, successfully releasing the apparitions and giving the party the blessing of Mavors, lord of the first level of the dungeon.

The Eldritch Dead
This guardroom also contained another door, which the party took. The chamber beyond was a large L shaped room with ten Eldritch Dead, These azoth encased skeletal warriors immediately formed up ranks as the party attacked. Once again magic was hurled in the party’s opening salvo. Zoilus entered a furious rage, while Flandar activated his dread Armour Of Hadar made powerful by his consumption of the waters of the moon pool. The backlash against the skeleton that attacked him disintegrated it on the spot. Brother Spenzar manages to turn three of them, despite their resistance to clerical powers. But their newfound prowess meant that this time the party dispatched skeletons very quickly.



However the warriors who had advanced into the further reaches of the room became overcome with false memories that flood their heads. A battle between Thulian warriors and hordes of beastmen led by red skinned elves, fighting within the dungeon against chaotics creatures, Guardsmen torturing wizards, a noble bearded man be led towards a headsman, other magicians leading warriors into battle against a ragtag army.
As these memories dim, the party realise that this final room contains another stairwell down, going further into the depths of the mountain.

It was here we left the session. The party had done a huge amount of exploration this session, and have now been everywhere on the first level. So, the question is what next. They have a number of magical items they have yet to identify. They’ve got a set of gems and some treasure to dispose of. And of course two different stairs going down.

The session was great, with lots of opportunity to embellish the text and reveal further history. I had driven down, which gave me the opportunity to take my 3d dungeon floor parts, and leave a box of RPG stuff at the club. This should reduce my load when I’m travelling from work, which is a very good thing. A box of miniatures, dice, a PHB, the dungeon itself, cardstock floor plans and pens weight a far amount, usually more than a 1500 pt Warhammer 40K army and rule books. As usual, I’m left really looking forward to the next session. I had half expected I’d want to take from DMing or 5e at this point, but that’s not materialised at all, and I wish we could play more often. We’ve talked about playing for a day one weekend, and I love the idea. However I’ve got a lot of painting to do now that the 1st level is done. I have to admit to a certain amount of pride in having every single model for a 68 room dungeon level painted, and many of them to a pretty decent standard.             

Monday 20 July 2015

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 13 - Bittersalt, trap detector extraordinaire!

Searching the dead dwarf, the party retrieve his magical suit of dwarven sized chainmail and functionally perfect magical warhammer.

A quick scout of the local caves is followed by a short rest to recover after the battle with the spider demon. The party have discovered a number of passages leading away from where they met the mad dwarf, and decide to press further into the caves rather than using a newly  discovered doorway or returning the way they came.

One cave, which is clearly the nest of the spider, contains a dwarven statue that is half twisted and melted. A heavy bronze chest is found to contain approximately a thousand gold coins and clearly represents the wealth the demon had collected. Another cave, which the party had ignored on the way through was crudely boarded up. After pulling down the woodwork, the party discover a statue to the luck goddess Tyche. She has her cupped hands outstretched in front of her, with several gold coins laying in her palms. The party’s response is mixed, with some adding to the coins and Bittersalt snatching from the pile. The latter unluckily coincides with the ceiling collapsing in on top of her, severely wounding her and trapping her. After pulling her out, Brother Spenzar replaces the coins that were taken.

The Moonpool
The party then travel back to the moonpool, where a very skillful throw results in the party have a climbing rope securely affixed and enabling them to climb up to the hole in the cavern's ceiling. Bittersalt works her way up, falls, climbs again and finds that the opening is as expected on the side of the mountain. From this particular vantage point she see that near the very summit of the Dwimmermount is a huge metal doorway, wider than it is tall. Due to the angle of the mountain, and the ledges before it, this doorway, which is possibly 60ft across wouldn’t normally be visible from most approaches to the mountain. There isn’t much space around the hole, spoiling the parties initial plan to camp on the mountain. Much is discussed about what this may mean.

The rest of the party investigate the water itself, and Errol risks a sip after remembering that the moon themselves are said to have arcane properties. A strange transformation occurs, and the gnome feels the strength of his magic grow, at the cost of the well of power that it comes from. Calphis immediately fills every potion and bottle he has with water from moon pool.

The final section of the cave system is explored but ends in dead end, that is for everyone but the dwarf. He continues walking straight towards the walls and then through them. The party realise a powerful illusion is upon the wall here, but that dwarves, or at least Erroll, is unaffected by it. The cave continues going up for awhile and then into a large, sealed cave. Once again, Erroll makes a comment about this being a new entrance to the dungeon, but only he can see the small entranceway that leads to the outside and a narrow path that goes down the side of the mountain. Clearly the dwarves have had a back entrance to the dungeon they’ve not let on about.

The party rest overnight in the cavern chamber hidden by the illusionary walls, although return to the moonpool once the moon is at it’s zenith to observe how it interacts with the pool. A beam of moonlight shines down, causing the entire pool and chamber to glow brightly in silvery light.

In the morning the party double back towards the doorway they discovered, leading they suspect back into the dungeon and indeed it does. They travel through a series of mostly empty rooms, the party are lucky enough to discover a human sized chainmail shirt that seems to be coated with the black and silver magical metal Azoth. They also come across a circular room that is covered in a mosaic depicting a map of the lands around Dwimmermount. It shows the ruined citadel of Winterburg and a ruined city named Lloraec. Many forts and military positions are also shown. Bittersalt opens a door to shot in the stomach by a poisoned dart of some size, however the chamber is marked by the presence of broad stairway down into the gloom.

We ended the session here. Will the party descend immediately, or will the follow up on the few remaining door and passages they’ve left unexplored? One thing I’ve really been reminded of is how useful a map is to the players, and how well they’ve managed to keep theirs updated. It was another really good season, and this write up doesn’t really do justice to the interesting locations and sense of exploration the session had. Also, these session diaries have hit the 10k word count, which is strangely pleasing.  

Monday 29 June 2015

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 12 - Paulo Must Die!

The party once again descend into the belly of the mountain. Their chatter is pulled up short by the discovery of severed orc heads sat in front of each statue in the entrance chamber. These heads show signs of combat, and are a couple of days old based on the smell. The party decide this is the handy work of the dwarves they met in their last foray.

Their own map once again comes in handy as they decide to avoid the central corridors and work their way back to the caves via the norther

n rooms, partially to avoid the orcs. They reach the area with the entrance to the caves without incident and a quick check of the map reveals a door they’ve not tried. Bittersalt in her usual style throws open the door, revealing a crumbling library room which has mostly been cleared out. However a quick a search reveals three interesting items, a handwritten copy of Ancient & Worthy Arts Of War, a set of rules for a precursor to Dragonchess and an arcane scroll of dispel magic. The group remember that the ghosts were playing some sort of chess-like game, and decide to return to them later. The fighters, who could all benefit from reading the manual set it aside for later use.

They approach the caves very cautiously, but find the first chambers empty. Returning to the lair of the giant crab spiders, they attempt to burn them out again by torching the massive of webs that cover the area. Nothing emerges, but the sound of bones and a few coins falling to the floor as the bundles of the dead unravel.

The chamber called by the kobold ‘the moon pool’ lies ahead, and this intriguing and unusual chamber does indeed contain a pool of the purest water the characters have ever seen. The party spot a hole in the roof of the cave, some 50 feet above them, from which sunlight comes in. While the party are interested, their nerves are a little on edge so they decide to return to the cave when they feel the region is safer so they press on, straight into an ambush.

Paulo is the only one in the party spot the kobolds and spiders hiding within the next cave. With a warning shout he hurls a sling stone at a spider that’s sprung out from the deep recesses of  stone but in his panic misses. A swarm of kobolds surround the party, while a couple of giant spiders crawl across the walls to them. This time however the party are ready, armoured in superior protection and better trained they quickly dispatch the kobolds and spiders with fairly minimal injuries. Flandar the warlock wished to try out the dagger he’d taken from the fight with the shadow demon, but finds the blade didn’t appear to do anything special and it almost seemed disappointed in how it was used.

Statues of dwarves fill the next beautiful cave. It’s like a cemetery, except the dwarves are all young and appear unhurt. Brother Spenzar realises that the dwarves are aligned in a grid, and that 30 to 50 dwarves are missing. This room proves to be extremely puzzling for the party, who question Errol about his childhood. Errol of course is foundling, left at an orphanage and knows nothing of his dwarven heritage. There is a distinct feeling of unease, especially since Errol has start casting arcane spells; something no dwarf has ever done before. Bittersalt and the others suspect that these dwarves are somehow connected to the kobolds that infest Dwimmermount.

With no real conclusions, they push on. From up a steep slope the voice of a dwarf came, ‘who goes there?’. The dwarf beyond, who called himself Gundrun is a little unhinged. He talked about his children. He asked Errol if he had a child, and that if he did he didn’t need to worry as Gundrun with the queen’s help could fix them. With growing fear, the party knew that whoever this Gundrun was, he was responsible in someway for the kobolds. They drew their weapons and attacked.

The dwarf was surrounded by kobolds, but with more room to maneuver Errol’s fire magic immediately started to remove foes from the field of battle. Calphis and Paulo stayed at the back while everyone else moved in. Then from the dark corridor beyond a hideous voice called out ’Gundrun! Why are you disturbing my work?! Gundrun you little worm! What are you doing?’ and with that, reality split in front of them and a vast, fat spider with too many glowing eyes crawled out of the tear. Before the party was the Spawn of Arach-Nache and queen to the kobolds of Dwimmermount.

The party immediately throw everything they have at the creature, who bites Errol with it’s poisonous beak-mouth. His dwarven resilience protects him from the worst of the damage though and the returning attacks and spells do 61 points of damage in a single round of combat. 3rd level characters can start to put the pain on big monsters.

The spider reappears and bites Paulo
The queen slips back into the ethereal realm, but not before summoning four giant spiders in her place. The party are in combat in numerous spots in the cavern, with Calphis casting a sleep spell that targets the spiders, Zoilus engaging the dwarven fighter and Bittersalt and Errol switching between the two.

The queen returns and attacks Bittersalt, whose new found parrying skills win the day. Zoilus throws himself on the back of the beast in a frothing rage. Again they party score vicious wounds against the demonic spider, with waves of magic missiles from Calphis’ wand hurting it. Again it phases out of reality. Most of the kobolds are asleep or dead, with Flandar dispatching anything still breathing and Calphis trusting his armour and getting in close, leaving Paulo to hurl sling shots from the back. It’s then that spider thing appears, and sinks it’s horrible fangs into the lad, pumping venom into his small frame. Paulo is dying and trapped behind the enormous bulk for the spider. Immediately everyone swings round and attacks the spawn, and thankfully do enough combined damage to cause it to be sucked back into the abyss. Brother Spenzar leaps to the boys aid, and keeps him from death’s door. It was very, very close.
The Spawn Of Arach-Tache is dragged back to the Abyss

We left it there. We’ve got a new space to play in, which is well away from the 40k’ers who were having a loud interclub (HATE vs Titans vs Overlords) drinking/gaming match. I’m pleased to say HATE came last on points and 1st on booze consumed, as always. Anyway the space is really very cool, if on that particular night a little smelly and can fit four RPG groups. We’re expecting there to be 2-3 regular groups now, so this is very welcome. Everyone in our group are definitely becoming friends, and this leads to a lot of chat before and during the game. While a part of me wants to focus the group on the adventure because there is so much ‘cool shit’ ahead, roleplaying really is a social thing and I’ve really fallen on my feet with my players.

Our new RPG space, the 'cavern bar' at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club
That all said and done, I’m very much looking forward to the next session, and the revelations it may bring.      

Thursday 11 June 2015

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 11 - Don’t eat the stuffing

The battle for the baby starts
Bittersalt got a 23 for her initiative and went first. Despite her usual uncaring bravado and swagger, her instinct is to save the infant, and rushes forward to snatch the baby away from the goat-man. Surprisingly weak, she easily snatches the baby and tries to tumble away but has overreached and only just gets past the blacked skinned being. This thing spins around and claws at her head. It’s fingers pass through her as if insubstantial, dragging fleeting filaments of sanity out of her mind, doing psychic damage. She then managed to get the baby into the arms of Paulo.

Errol bounds out of the forest, as most of the naked congregation start screaming and running. He smashes his hammer into the goat-man, and quick as a flash a transformation occurs. Standing before them is tall smokey shadow, all horns and gloating teeth, Brother Spenzar pales, and whispers “Shadow demon”.
Brother Spenzar measures Heresy 

The leaders of the congregation draw weapons, the haughty woman bares a pair of shortsword and the cynical man has a scimitar and dagger in his hands before they know it. The burly thug had hidden a mace, while the other guard who had scouted ahead took off a huge longbow. Finally one of the followers, who remained at the edge of the group starts chanting. This cultist fanatic started chanting in a miserable droning tone, and cast a spell of holding on the elf. She however was of strong mind and resisted it.

Zoilus moved in, trying to keep his allies and the child safe by avoiding his infamous rages. A barbarian such is still a deathdealer when calm though. Calphis the warrior mage shot bolt after bolt of magical force into the demon from the wand he’d found in Dwimmermount, while the warlock pounded free standing targets with his eldritch blasts.

A mixture of vicious close combat and magical blasts fills the battlefield. Errol surprises everyone by launching a scorching cone of fire from his hands, worrying Calphis that the demon has somehow possessed him. Flandar summons the freezing void of the stars about him and encases himself in the Armour Of Hadar, to which the cultist has no response and is blasted in the face by the gnome. Brother Spenzar brings the pure light of Typhon upon the demon which reels from its lawful glare. The demon fails to strike again, and even with it’s abyssal essence resisting nonmagical attacks, it is brought down. Errol’s last glimpse of it is of it’s 6 fingered claws desperately clinging to reality as it is sucked back in the abyss.


However the remaining human fighters are clearly veterans and right with relentless accuracy. Even the goats are not safe, as a firebolt goes wide and cooks one off. The battle though is eventually won by the party, and all the cultists are put to the sword. Paulo, scare and hiding in the woods, has kept the infant safe so they return to Adamas and rest before meeting with Saidon in the morning. Bittersalt takes care of baby, asking for some milk in the Inn she is staying in. The racism that elves face rears it’s ugly head as the watch bang on her door demanding the ‘stolen baby’ be handed over. It takes invoking the name of Saidon the High Archivist to fend them off.

The next day the party pay another visit to the archivist. When they explain that the cult was some kind of front for a shadow demon the high priest is visibly shaken and shows far more concern than he previously exhibited. He said he wanted the party back in Dwimmermount and acting as his eyes as soon as possible. Taking them into his secret arming room behind his main chamber he gave them a single scroll of protection against demons and each a potion of healing. He also provided them all with horses to speed their journey back to Muntburg and Dwimmermount. On his own side he said that he’d heard nothing from Typhon’s Fists, the adventuring party he’d sent to Dwimmermount when he’d heard rumours of the fall of the shield around the dungeon.

The party left Adamas immediately, stopping in Muntburg to drop of the baby, who they’d named Olivar, with Paulo’s mother who they felt would be best placed to look after him. The blacksmith had finished the sets of splint mail armour he’d been making for Errol and Bittersalt, who were both impressed with his handy work. Then party left again for the vast stair before the gates of Dwimmermount, with the aim of destroying the spider queen of the kobolds.

We left it there. The combat session was fun, with the players being 3rd level they have more options now and it was a good gauge for me to judge what they can and can’t face. It was by far the most complex we’ve had, and certainly the shape of things to come as the dungeon wakes up and things more foul and magical start to make their plays within its depth.
 
Before initiative rolls
Late battle
The Shadow Demon appears!