Impulse buying

My RPG wish list has gone down one item, because I've just bought The Dungeon Alphabet (Expanded Third Printing) from Goodman Games. I'm going to have to wait 2 or 3 weeks until it reaches Uruguay, but it's worth the waiting. It was cheaper to have send it directly via USPS, than first to a P.O. box in Miami and then here by a courier.

I guess it was because of the adrenaline still kicking after an awesome DCC session (we're through Jewels of the Carnifex), in which my level 2 wizard, Formerly Ian, spellburned his Strength and Stamina down to 1, and his Agility down to 2. It was a near death situation where he burned 5 points to cast a Sleep, then 10 more points for another Sleep (both with meager results), and finally 1 point to cast Invoke Patron, asking the Metal Gods to smite the enemy leader (some kind of undead demi-god). Like all the corruption he already has was not enough: no hair whatsoever (it grows back naturally and 1 inch with each Sleep spell cast), yellow eyes, shriveled and folded back ears, cloven hooves instead of feet, his Patron God mark in his forehead (Judas Priest cross), and a self-inflicted carving on his right cheek (Derek Riggs logo).

This last spell had him metal spikes grown all over his body and gave each member of the party a +5 bonus on their next action. We didn't die so far, so we might have a chance to make it alive after all.

Let's see if I make another purchase after the next session!

Dealing with disapproval

After the Divine Order of the Purple Tentacle defeated a tentacled monstrosity, summoned by the Bloody Successors on their onslaught to the neighborhood, Nimue knew what she had to do. During the battle, she called upon the favor of the Elder One and failed. Now she will have to appease them. So, before leaving, she ordered her urchin followers to cut a couple of tentacles.

Kormaki, cleric of the Metal God of Thunder and fellow member of the Order, had the Captain of the Gate somewhat healed. The poor bastard lost his sanity when the creature attacked, and spend the battle crouching and whimpering on the doorsteps of a nearby house. She decided he'd make a good offering and sent an urchin on some errands.

That night, dressed in her best silks, and followed by a couple of her urchins who carried between them a coffer of black wood and inlaid with silver, she went to find the Captain. She found him at "The Rare Cauldron" tavern drinking with other officers of House Wazi. While she crossed the main room, the urchins went upstairs, left the coffer in a previously rented room and waited in the corridor. 

Everyone stopped drinking, eating, laughing and speaking as she graciously approached the Captain's table. She leaned over to him, whispered something in his ear and turned away. Such was the power of her mellow voice, that he stood and followed her, without finishing his drink, saluting his comrades or donning his rogatywka.

Once upstairs in the gloomy room, and after a couple of honeyed words, the Captain found himself laying naked on the bed, and before he could ask anything, a gentle touch from Nimue left him paralyzed. What promised to be an exciting night, was soon to become a nightmare. With her back to him, she let her silks fall to the floor as she opened the lid of the ebony coffer and begun muttering a litany. 

When she straddled naked over him, he saw, to his horror, that her arms have been transformed into tentacles which she sensually wriggled all over him. Sheer waves of pleasure swept over him, as she contorted and repeatedly called, in a strange language, for He who awaits asleep in the depths...

ya Nimue mnahn' Cthulhunyth stell'bsna ee ngfhayak hlirgh orr'e

Candlelight flickered and extinguished as an unfelt gust passed over it. The Captain silently screamed in terror, as he felt his soul sucked into a void of utter darkness by hundreds of hungry tiny tendrils, taking away the deceitful moment of elation. Tears of joy ran down Nimue's cheeks as she realized that her offering has been accepted.

Tonight we honored the DCC spirit

Tonight we had the most brutal DCC session since we started playing the Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad campaign. After almost having not one, but two, TPKs in the same combat, four of the six characters walked out alive. Absalom the Elf, Aram the Cleric, Morfans the Dwarf and Formerly Ian the Wizard emerged from the Undercity of Ur-Hadad with the bodies of Jerkal the Wizard and Claive the Fighter, after fighting the Toothmen shaman and his guards.

Things started rolling downhill when Jerkal misfired a sleep spell, sending all his allies but Formerly Ian asleep. The standing wizard managed to wake up Claive and send several Toothmen, including their shaman, asleep, only to be brought down by the guard leader. Claive charged the brute, waking everyone up with a mighty deed. Aram healed Formerly Ian, who in his turn also misfired a sleep spell, sending all his allies asleep but Morfans. The dwarf managed to woke everyone up with the same mighty deed while charging the guard leader. The toothman attacked Formerly Ian bringing him down, again. 

By now the shaman was awake and cast a huge fireball on the party. Only Aram and Morfans saved. Now Aram, after healing Absalom, had the difficult task to chose, between Jerkal, Claive and Formerly Ian, which one will he save next. Meanwhile Morfans charged madly at the shaman almost killing him. Formerly Ian saw the light, while Jerkal and Claive met their maker. The survivors, fueled by the death of their companions, renewed their attacks on the toothmen, killing the shaman and the guard leader. The last two toothmen in their last stand managed to bring Formerly Ian down for the third time, after being hacked to pieces.

By killing the shaman toothman the group saved Vayne from the collar-bomb.

Claive, we'll always remember your attack sprees with the Spear of the Lizard King. Jerkal, we'll always remember your Flaming Glands. You'll both be missed.

The ritual

One by one the seven men arrived to the house. They were received by an grim looking warforged that gave them a key. They were ordered to get into a side room, remove every possessions from themselves, which could be locked into one of the seven chests available, and to return wearing only a black hooded robe. Not one of them dared to contradict Sybian, the pole-armed automaton.

Each was led through a set of double doors into a bigger room. A bed covered in black silk sheets stood enclosed by a circle of also black candles, all lit, but their light was not enough to reveal the whole room. Ten feet from the candles were seven mahogany and leather seats forming a circle. A stool with a silver goblet containing an unknown beverage stood next to each seat.

One by one, in silence, they took their places. All kept their hoods up. No one spoke. No one dared to to look around or taste what was in the goblets. When the seven men were seated, they heard the doors being closed... and locked. The air, sweetened by the candle's smoke, filled with expectation.

"Welcome...", said from the surrounding darkness the same mellow voice that asked them to come today. Nimue, clad in a translucent silky gown that left nothing to imagination, entered the circle of light and lay graciously on the bed. "Please drink...", she said with a vague gesture and they, with their eyes fixed on her, obeyed. She knelt and started to hum while contorting her almost perfect body. The light of the candles flickered as her gown fell, her humming and sinuous movements gaining tempo.

Then everything went dark.

Chairs screeched and fell. Stools tumbled. Goblets clattered through the floor. Cries, gasps, pleas, screams could be heard as the purple tentacle beer made effect and the ritual reached its climax. All the hidden fears, obscure desires and lowest urges crept from the deepest and darkest corners of the seven souls. The humming went on as the unnameables rose from murky blackness to claim the offerings.

Each time one of the seven were taken, a wave of absolute pleasure invaded Nimue's body raising the pitch of her humming. Surge after surge of delight and joy rippled through her body until all yelling, bawls and bellows subsided, and she lay gasping, sweaty and exhausted on the bed.

Then everything went silent.

Won a minor magic item

How? I won The Preakness 138 contest set up by +Erik Jensen! Had to name the first two horses across the line, winner/closest gets a minor magic item based on those horses' names. The contenders were: Orb, Goldencents, Titletown Five, Departing, Mylute, Oxbow, Will Take Charge, Govenor Charlie and Itsmyluckyday. I chose Oxbow because of the owners' colors (black and yellow) were the same of my favourite local soccer team, and Itsmyluckyday because I just felt lucky.

Being Gimli my main FLAILSNAILS character:

"Gimli stumbles across what seems to be a length of ribbon snagged on a tree; although wary for a trap of some sort, he plucks the adornment from the branch, and instinctively knows its magical worth.

The Oxbow Lucky-Day is a 16" length of supple, tanned ox-hide, just over an inch wide, decoratively forked at each end. When worn in the hair and tied in a bow, the Oxbow Lucky-Day provides its charm - the wearer's first saving throw each day is at +1. Should the wearer ever mistreat a bovine while wearing or carrying the magic strip of leather, the Oxbow Lucky-Day will dissolve into dust. (For the record, stabbing a minotaur would technically count as 'mistreating a bovine' for these purposes)."

Gimli will tie his bushy red beard with the new-found charm, just above where he tucks it into his belt.

Thanks Erik!

Dungeons of Dread Illustration Bookltes Online as Free Downloads!

"Welcome to Dungeons of Dread, the archival collection of adventure modules S1 through S4. All four of these scenarios are durable fan favorite's that have stood the test of time, albeit for very different reasons…."

Nicely done WotC!

What Kind of D&D Character Would You Be?

I Am A: True Neutral Human Wizard (5th Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-11
Dexterity-12
Constitution-11
Intelligence-12
Wisdom-15
Charisma-12

Alignment:
True Neutral A true neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. He doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most true neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil after all, he would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, he's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way. Some true neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run. True neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you act naturally, without prejudice or compulsion. However, true neutral can be a dangerous alignment when it represents apathy, indifference, and a lack of conviction.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Blogfest

Blog word count

http://timc.idv.tw/wordcloud/en/

Oskara Xiann

Oskara, a Twi'lek Bounty Hunter, is one of the pre-gen characters of the Star Wars Edge of the Empire RPG game.

"Oskara was always quick, clever and lucky enough to stay ahead of the press gangs... but her sister Makara was not. When Makara was nabbed by Aqualish thugs, Oskara had to act fast to keep her sister out of the mines. She offered her own unique services to the gang leader instead, claiming to be an experienced bounty hunter. Suprisingly, her first job for the gang went well and Oskara soon thrived under the tutelage of a veteran bounty hunter named Gyax. She was called on to perform more and more duties for the spice mining gang, and as long as she did well Makara was safe.

But then Oskara was "loaned out" to a Hutt gangster on Tatooine named Teemo. And things started to come undone. Teemo paid her quite well, but in the course of her bounty-hunting work for the Hutt she uncovered a plot against the Ryll-mining gang on Ryloth. The Hutt was going to seize their territory... and there would be no more guarantees of safety for Makara. Oskara decided to team up with Teemo's favorite gladiator, a Wookiee named Lowhhrick, and one of his best pilots, a human named Pash. Alongside her new companions Oskara has sent a warning to her compatriots on Rhylo and is now fleenig Teemo's revenge.

Oskara seems jaded and cynical at first, having seen much of the worst the galaxy has to offer at a young age. She is careful not to get too attached to anyone or anything. She is a professional bounty hunter and takes a serious approach to her work. focusing on results rather than any emotional considerations."

BRAWN 2 AGILITY 4 INTELLECT 2 CUNNING 2 WILLPOWER 2 PRESENCE 3

EDIT: I decided her to have Xiann as last name; a commonly given name meaning, "spider" in the Twi'leki language.

Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

I always wanted to play the Star Wars D6 RPG but never got the chance, so when +Adam Muszkiewicz announced this game, I immediately jumped in. I didn't know what EotE was, so I walked into the hangout convinced I was going to play SW D6. Really. :)

Then when the mechanics were explained I thought/said, "Hey, this is much like _Hollowpoint_!" which I guess was the first thing I played via hangout ever. I liked it so much that I even bought the rules. 

Now back to SW. And then, when everyone got their characters ready, the intro was played. I was like "Geez, I'm gonna be in Star Wars movie!" 

From the available pre-gen characters I chose to play Oskara, a Twi'lek bounty hunter. The shooting-piloting-sneakiness combo was too good to miss. I got the chance to do a lot of shooting with a blaster carbine (killing gamorreans and storm troopers) and a laser canon from a YT-1300 (destroying TIE fighters). Also some sneaking guiding the group through the alleys of Mos Shuuta. Hope to do some piloting next time.

The rest of the group escaping from "Mouse Shita" like Bear said were:

+Bear Wojtek  - Pash, Human Smuggler

+Wayne Snyder - Lowhhrick, Wookie Hired Gun (Gladiator)

+Nathaniel Hull - 41-VEX, Droid Colonist (Medic)

+Larry Moore  - Mathus, Human Technician

Thanks to Adam and the rest of the guys, it was a great game. I'm looking forward the next session!

Attack of the Frawgs - Session #2

Last Monday we played the second and final session of the DCC module Attack of the Frawgs. 

The characters spent the night in the brewery at the shores of the Dead Goblin Lake. They had to restrain the intoxicated ones, including the brewer, to prevent them from running into the woods haunted by horrible hallucinations. The night passed without any incident, though nobody really had much rest. In the morning they questioned the brewer about what happened, but the poor man couldn't say much. For him it was only a bad night with worse dreams, product of having too many samples from his newest brew. He asked the party to keep this to themselves, since he had a reputation to keep, and shared what food and good beer he had.

Since +Bear Wojtek couldn't make it, we decided his funnel would return to the town of Sagewood, with the bodies of the dwarven rat-catcher and dead trapper. After they left, the rest gathered to decide the next step. The elven navigator climbed to the second floor of the brewery and, with his spyglass, checked the northern shore of the lake. Meanwhile the minstrel recalled a tale about a cave behind the waterfall, but the noble and the barrister argued it was not a tale. The barrister said that the previous owner of those lands, a quarrelsome one according to the noble, was sued by someone who had an accident there, for not having that area properly signposted about its dangers.

That settled the matter and the party decided to explore that area. They took the long route following the trappers' path around the lake. The short route, through dense wooded hills, was discarded when the elven forester spoke of dangerous creatures from the Black Corruption lands wandering the area. On their way, they came across three fiendish crabs feeding on the corpse of a trapped gicastor, but stayed away from them. Upon reaching the northern shore, thanks to the elven forester, they managed to avoid a couple of gicastor's traps. Now the party had 4 traps!

Then they found an inlet where the water stank, and dead fish and birds floated on the sludge, along with the corpse of some kind of humanoid. The radish farmer tried to use one of the traps, attached to a a length of chain, to fish the corpse from the viscous mire. He failed and the sludge splashed on him burning his skin. The  poor thing was already dead when he fell on the trap. It sprung and closed its mandibles on his corpse, spilling his guts in the water. Gruesome sight.

After that, the elven forester picked up a trail of large webbed footprints in the muddy shore. They led to the waterfall and the cave beyond. The elf tied a rope around his waist and started climbing the slippery rocks. His eyes were adjusting to the lack of light, when a croaking sound came from the cave and a big humanoid figured, wielding a seashell mace, towered over him. Meanwhile the parsnip farmer started to climb but slipped, couldn't keep his balance and fell, splitting his head on the rocks. The rest of the party make it to the top while a smaller frawg a makeshift spear joined the fight. This scrimmage ended with the big frawg fleeing into the cave badly wounded and the smaller one and the urchin dead.

+Adam Muszkiewicz summed what followed very well:

"I'm playing through +Stephen Newton's module Attack of the Frawgs and up until this moment, the weirdest thing was giant beavers. Then, all of the sudden, things got really strange, and very DCC!"

The party lit some torches and pushed into the cave where they we attacked by two hopping frawgs, while the wounded one stood by a female creature that was laying mucous covered eggs in the back of the cavern. When she saw the attackers, she bleated a deafening screech and started to lay the eggs into a stream. The party split with some fighting the hoppers and some closing on the spawning creature and her guard. Some even dived into the stream to prevent the eggs reach the lake. After a bloody fight all the foul creatures were defeated , but the dwarven miner, the noble and the rope maker died in the fight.

The survivors make it back to Sagewood without further incidents, where they were received as heroes and spent the night in the local tavern telling the curious about their recent adventure.

As treasure they found, "a leather satchel ornately decorated with the embroidery of a kraken raising from the sea. It was designed with loops to carefully carry  3 long thin objects about the size and shape of candles.", a pouch with an iron key (brewery), a periapt, another scales and several eggs. They sold the scales, the periapt and the eggs to a cleric and sage, and the traps to a dealer.

Every surviving characters got enough XP to make it to 1st level:

+Adam Muszkiewicz (Dwarven miner, Parsnip farmer, Elven Forrester, Minstrel)

+Justin Williams (Dwarven herder, Elven Navigator, Noble, Radish farmer)

+Tim Mulry (Elven Barrister, Urchin (f), Ostler, Rope maker)

Oh, and btw I've also got The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk to run!

Metal Gods of Ur-Haddad - Last Session

+Wayne Snyder summed up last night session pretty well:

"I was feeling pretty kick ass last night when I maxed out the rolls for Jerkal the Blazin's Flaming hands spell last night. Twice! Dude was a virtual walking flame thrower. Awesome. Only to be completely side lined later in the same turn when The Wizard Formerly Known As Ian cast Sleep and his mighty dice had him sleep every enemy in the room (5) who wasn't already asleep from his previous Sleep spells. The blood fueled sci-fi and sorcery birthing chamber of the hideous serpent men was looking like serpent man sorcerer sleep over party and we calmly walked through poking holes in the sleeping snake men like it was nothing. Ian is the sleep master. When it's good, it's so good, and when it's bad, he's in a magical coma for a week."

The Wizard Formerly Known As Ian cast 5 Sleep spells in a row, sending into a deep slumber between 2 and 4 serpent men each time. And grew five inches of hair too! That streak granted him the nickname of "The Sandman".

Having defeated the serpent men and destroyed their wicked breeding machine, the party, instead of leaving the place (Chuck and Jerkal were paralyzed, and Vayne badly wounded), decided to keep exploring for more treasure. That's when Wizard Formerly Known As Ian ran out of luck or lost the favour of the Metal Gods. He fumbled a Sleep spell and fell into a coma. With the serpent men closing in the group grabbed their out-of-action comrades and ran the hell out of the Mysterious Temple of the Serpent God. 

We sailed all the way back from Samsara to Ur-Haddad avoiding a huge storm. Upon arrival, we handed the Eyes of the Serpent to Amor Ba'Gish, the wizard who employed (and poisoned) us, along with the chest  full of platinum bars we were supposed to give Balas Forktongue (who we found dead, tortured and killed by the Serpent kin) as payment for the Eyes. After receiving the antidote and a succulent reward we headed to celebrate, with the promise of more jobs from the wizard.

25.000 visits!

What can I say? Just thanks for taking the time to drop by this humble corner of the web. :)

Brom

Brom the Ranger started as a 3rd level NPC in my LL/AEC sandbox campaign in Blackmoor (Greyhawk) now on hold. He was a guide for the party during the firsts sessions and then, when they grew more powerful, he returned to his homeland.

He must be in his late 20's or early 30's, but you can't exactly tell because of his weathered skin. He keeps his beard short and carries his long oily black hair in a plait. He wars a leather armor with studded shoulders and carries a longsword, a longbow and a hunting spear.

That was it until +Gabriel Harley set up a FLAILSNAILS LL/AEC game for 3rd level characters, set in his world called Evenoria. It was his first game via Google+ Hangouts and everything went really well. I enjoyed it a lot and am looking forward to the next session.

The rest of the adventuring party were:

• +Charles W played Orias the Toad, a Curmudgeon. 
• +Chris Hales played Nack the Monk 
• +Nathan Black played Henry the Fighter.

You can read the session recap here.

STR 16 DEX 18 CON 12 INT 12 WIS 12 CHA 11

Attack of the Frawgs - Session #1

Last year I won the DCC module Attack of the Frawgs on a contest by Tenkar's Tavern and I promised to DM it on a G+ hangout sometime. And that time came yesterday. Since some guys from the Metal Gods of Ur-Haddad game were on Spring Break, and didn't want to wait a whole week to play again, I jumped in and put this game up. It's been some time since I last ran a game and it was my first time running a DCC one, so I must confess I was a bit nervous.

"Your day began with typical banality and after twelve hours of hard labour you were settling in for a quiet dinner of stewed pork and ale at The Brave Trapper Inn. Many locals were enjoying each other's company as well as their meals [when] Torfist crashed through the door and everything changed. "We've been attacked!" Torfist cried as he staggered in bloody and disheveled."

And so an "angry mob with torches and pitchforks" went into the night to find what happened.

+Adam Muszkiewicz (Dwarven miner, Parsnip farmer, Elven Forrester, Minstrel)

+Bear Wojtek (Elven forrester (f), Dwarven rat-catcher (f), Beadle, Weaver (f))

+Justin Williams (Dwarven herder, Elven Navigator, Noble, Radish farmer)

 +Tim Mulry (Elven Barrister, Urchin (f), Stablehand, Rope maker)

The group was a balanced mix of experienced DCC players (Adam and Bear), and completely new ones to the rules (Justin and Tim).

After about 3 hours of gaming we did almost 2/3 of the adventure with only the dwarven rat-catcher killed by a gicastor (bear-sized beaver), the dwarven herder limping after stepping into a gicastor trap and the weaver tripping balls after drinking tainted water.

So far they killed a gicastor and two freshwater crab fiends. They found a coil 50' of of rope ("Loot by the foot!"), two gicastor traps (someone suggested to join them with a chain and make a crazy nunchaku), a pair of climbing boots, 6 clubs, 4 daggers, 2 hand axes and a sling. Also found the body of a dead trapper, the local brewer hallucinating in the brewery and a strange scale hidden there.

Thanks guys for joining the game and see you next Monday for the grand finale!

P.S. Thanks to +Stephen Newton for writing the adventure.

Read An RPG Book In Public Week

Gygax magazine

Gygax magazine will be available on January 26th at 2pm EST.

http://gygaxmagazine.com/

My second "convention"

Well, we don't really have conventions down here, but as I once said here, I like how it sounds. :)

I had prepared a Labyrinth Lord adventure and was really excited about DMing again for people that are not my regular players. But things not always go as you plan.

I should have been there earlier, because upon arriving there were already five tables, four of them (D&D 3.5e, Transformers, Marvel Heroes and Dresden Files) were full with 5 or 6 players each, and one with only two players. Since it looked there weren't any more people coming, I decided to join this last table.

The setting was Tron: Uprising using tweaked Mutants & Masterminds rules. Being familiar with the setting only through the movies Tron and Tron Legacy (TIL there were also comics and series), I must say I enjoyed it very much. It was an infiltration mission: hack someones's identity disc, get into a spaceship, retrieve some information from it and sabotage some tanks it was carrying as a cover-up. We finished early because we chickened out and skipped the fight with the boss. Why fight if we already have the information we came for?

I proposed then a short LL game, but two guys wanted to try The Day After Ragnarok so, never having played it, I tagged along. A group of 4 mercenaries, working for MI6, sail to an island, in Japanese occupied SE Asia, to retrieve the blueprints of some WMD from an abandoned base. The side of the island we arrived was littered with shipwrecks so I suggested to circle it. "Since I've been running this adventure no one ever suggested that!", laughed the DM. Upon turning the eastern cape we saw a Japanese destroyer anchored and quickly turned back, anchored between the shipwrecks and went ashore. We found a crazy old Nazi scientist which we interrogated and learned where the base was. He tried to drug us with some food, then escaped, he was then shot, captured and killed. We found the abandoned base deep in the jungle: barracks, labs and office buildings, an airfield and a huge hangar laid there deserted. We approached the hangar and were met with gunfire from the inside. Retreated to the tree line chased by Japanese troops and a German mechwarrior. We managed to escape back to the boat and away from the island.

The bad: I couldn't DM and get my LL Society points.

The good: I had the chance to play two games I haven't played before.

Seasons Greetings

Thanks +Wayne Snyder, fellow adventurer from Thursday's hangout DCC game!