Virtual Greyhawk Con 4

 

Greyhawk campaign update

After running Robert J. Kuntz's "Dark Druids", module "I1 - Dwellers of the Forbidden City" and Carlos A. Lising's "A5 - Kill Marquessa!", the first two set in the Suss forest and the last one on the northern coast of the Pomarj, in which the party discovered clues, but not explored, of a lost Temple of the Eye, recovered the Urn, killed one of Markesa's clones and raided one of her strongholds (where they killed Sturm Bucholtz but Markesa managed to escape), they returned through Celene to their lands in Verbobonc. Oh, by the way, I made Markesa a drow, as if all her wickedness and evil were not enough. 

During their stay in Celene they became acquainted, through Countess Tillahi, whom they've rescued from the Temple of Elemental Evil in the past, with Melf Brightflame. They left with them the Urn and a map they've captured from Markesa's stronghold for further study. Not long before they received a letter to travel back to Celene. Melf had devised the possible location of two other Temples of the Eye, one in the Jotens Mts. near SW Sterich and the other in the Hellfurnaces Mts. to the SW of the Yeomanry. The party agreed to investigate them and they traveled to the neighborhood of the first site through a magical mirror at Countess Tillahi's estate.

The idea behind the different Temples of the Eye (under the Temple of Elemental Evil, in the caverns of the Dark Druids, in the dungeons of the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief and bellow the Halls of the Fire Giant King) come, except the one in Dark Druids, from Greyhawk Grognard's series of posts about the Elder Elemental God.

Now I'm running a kind of "Return to..." of module "G1 - Steading of the Hill Giant Chief", in which the place above has been raided by a previous party and killed most of the giants (some escaped), and below the ogres and orcs revolted against the remaining giants and bugbears. The orcs chopped the heads of the hill giants and put them on pikes around the steading. This has been loosely inspired by a short fiction story called "Return to the Steading" by Bart Carroll that appeared on Dragon+ issue 11. 

So far the party has killed the ogres, charmed one of the three orc leaders and bribed the other two with part of the ogre's treasure (mostly copper coins, copper ingots, cheap jewelry and false gems). That way the orcs, that are able miners, agreed to clear the path to the sealed temple. Meanwhile a frost giant envoy mounted on a mammoth and escorted with two winter wolves showed up with a message to Chief Nosra. 

An epic battle ensued with the party victorious, although some gravely wounded, with one of the cavalier' retainer unconscious and his warhorse dead. The thief managed to decipher the message: a conclave of giant chieftains will take place next full moon in the Halls of King Snurre, and Chief Nosra should attend "using the gift and following the instructions". The party will now have to find out what that gift is and how to use it.

Greyhawk campaign update

Campaign continues with the addition of a new player character, Meriven Davers. She is a Patriarch of St. Cuthbert and also a veteran from the Temple of Elemental Evil in another campaign. Meriven is from Verbobonc and was assessing the situation on the Wild Coast when the party arrived to Narwell, travelling from Safeton on their way to their possessions in Hommlet, Nulb, Twilight Falls and Sobanwych.

I am running "Lord of the Scarlet Tide" from Dungeon Magazine #85 by James Jacobs. Even though it's an adventure for 3e, I'm using it anyway with a few alterations for 1e. I wanted to introduce the Underdark and its inhabitants (kuo-toa, drow, mind flayers and deep gnomes to name a few) to the players as a foreshadow of what's coming next. 

The party have managed to reach an abandoned kuo-toa city and must now retrieve a powerful item from a temple dedicated to Bilbdoolpoolp to put an end to the deadly red tide that's affecting the town of Narwell. 

Rionna

This character was created for another of Aron Clark's D&D Holmes games. This time he ran the adventure "The Black Tower" (1981) by Midkemia Press. 

Rionna is a thief and the rest of the party members are:

Ademor the Minotaur (Justin)

Bel-Shaar, cleric of Set (Nick)

Chet the Wizard (Brian)

Balthos (Peter)

Melisar (Aaron)

S 10, I 15, W 9, D 17, C 17, Ch 8

https://www.deviantart.com/toshi13go/art/Arbalist-700116216

Ekhard the Faceless

This character was created for one of Aron Clark's D&D Holmes games. He has been exploring the mega dungeon of  "Morthimion" by Gabor Lux. Ekhart is a  human cleric of Phieran the Broken (god of suffering) and henchmen of Shawn. The rest of the party members are:

Shawn, male human magic-user 

Rakol, male human fighter

Crystal, female human magic-user (Rakol's henchmen)

Kolbrand, male human thief (Rakol's henchmen)

Tark, dwarf fighter

Chunn, male fighter/thief (Tark's henchmen)

Modicum, male elf

Boraks, male human fighter (Modicum's henchmen)

He has been disfigured by fire and was saved by Shawn.

S 10, I 7, W 15, D 9, C 15, Ch 3 

Shawn Guardian of the Black Flame

 

This character was created for one of Aron Clark's D&D Holmes games. He has been exploring the mega dungeon of  "Morthimion" by Gabor Lux. Shawn is a young human magic-user and the rest of the party members are:

Ekhart the Faceless, male human cleric of Phieran (Shawn's henchmen) 

Rakol, male human fighter (Peter)

Crystal, female human magic-user (Rakol's henchmen)

Kolbrand, male human thief (Rakol's henchmen)

Tark, dwarf fighter (Stu)

Chunn, male fighter/thief (Tark's henchmen)

Modicum, male elf (Randall)

Boraks, male human fighter (Modicum's henchmen)

He carries a staff with a magical black candle found in Morthimion's dungeons. Its flame never extinguishes and within its light he can se the aura of magical objects.

S 8, I 15, W 6, D 8, C 9, Ch 8

We also went through "Fane of the Poisoned Prophesies" by Guy Fullerton and "The Hyqueous Vaults" also by Fullerton and others like Allan T. Grohe, Jr.

Greyhawk campaign update

After surviving A1-4 Scourge of the Slavelords and a miraculous escape  from the Pomarj, the party is now in the lands of Safeton on its way back across the Gnarley Forest to their lands; the Moathouse, which its rebuilding by a dwarven/gnomish workforce from the Kron Hills should be finished by now, and their fiefdoms in Nulb, Twilight Falls and Sobanwych, all of them granted by the Viscount of Verbobonc for their role in defeating the T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil and rescue of Prince Thrommel of Furyondy. 

Sadly, some Slavelords, both major (Stalman Klim, Nerelas and Ajaktsu) and minor (Markessa, Sturm Bucholtz), have survived the fall of Suderham and will surely seek revenge upon our heroes for disrupting their lucrative business. So far, the party magic-user has used a Crystal Ball to pry the whereabouts of Stalman Klim and Markessa but couldn't ascertain their actual locations.

My plans are to have the party go through Carlos A. Lising's A5 - Kill Marquessa and A6 - Die, Marquessa Die! before dwelling into the GDQ series, with the addition of Joe Bloch's D4 - City of Spiders and Q2 - Web of Souls. I'm specially ignoring the G series since most of the party have already played it. I hope Q2 will be already published by that time.

The group has a special vendetta with Markessa (which I made a drow) since they were horrified by her experiments and also because she stole from them some valuable magic items. I plan to use all this to link them to the Underdark and into the classic drow series.

Old school dice tower

This weekend finally arrived this dice tower inspired and based on the cover art designed by D.A Trampier from the original first edition D&D Player's Handbook. By removing the head topper you can insert the dices to roll. It's a straight chute so the dices come out at considerable speed. Be sure to have a tray to catch them or you'll be crawling looking for them! I would've preferred something like the usual dice towers, where you can hear the dices bump inside the chute. The fire is LED illuminated and has a switch to turn it on and off, but it would have been better if it was a flickering one. Besides those minor improvements it looks great 

Virtual Greyhawk Con 2 recap

I've just found the time to write about the games I played at Virtual Greyhawk Con 2.

Friday - I played a gnoll druid named Tharakx in "Escape from the Vault of the Drow" run by DM Josh. The rest of the party were:

• Sifu, a dwarven paladin
• Elengos, an elven warlock
• Ourxrek, a gnoll fighter
• Grek, a troglodyte monk

We were taken by hobgoblin servants to the fungus fields with other slaves. Once there we were given saws and carts. While working a group of bugbears separated us from the rest of the slaves and gave us a copper symbol of one of the drow houses and a bag of coins to do some job. Their were about to explain the job when several giant spiders attacked the everyone working in the fields.

After defeating the spiders and the bugbears, we took their equipment and decided to follow the spiders who had taken several prisoners, one of them a dwarf that knew an alternate exit from the Vault. After crossing the mushroom forest we arrived at the edge of the Vault and spotted the spiders entering a cave mouth 60' above the ground. We were lucky to spot at the entrance of the cave a roper that fed on the silk-wrapped corpses dropped by the spiders. Then we proceeded to kill it by missile fire and climbed into the cave. The tunnel led to a chamber where the prisoners were webbed to the walls. My druid shifted into a spider and started to free them while the rest fought the spiders that jumped on us. 

In the end we killed the spiders, freed the prisoners and escaped the Vault.

Saturday - I played my old character Alof, a human cleric of St. Cuthbert from Verbobonc, in the "The Tomb of Tasbraev Tenneb" run by DM Leslie. The rest of the party were:

• Krovas the Tall, a human fighter/thief from Safeton,
• Enoch Pratt, a human fighter from Hardby,
• Kred, a dwarven fighter,
• Taira Trelop, a female half-elf thief

After exploring the area the group decided to investigate a stone circle that supposedly hid an entrance to the tomb. The stones were covered by a strange moss and there was a charred corpse nearby. The moss attacked Krovas mind and we burned it with flaming oil from a safe distance. Then we found a slab that hid a ladder to a room. In the room started a spiral staircase anchored on one side and separated from the wall, where a strange mucus oozed down. Several side passages opened but we kept going down, until we arrived to a square room that had another spiral staircase. When we looked down we saw the mucus was flowing up! After some deliberation we continued down through the stair but felt we were going up. Arrived to a circular domed room with smooth and repulsive mauve lighting, The dome portrayed an eclipsing sun that if looked at too long caused vertigo. Corridors with murals  exited the room, both depicting two moons in different phasing (full & crescent), a green/brown/blue planet with white polar parts (the Flanaess) and a fourth planet jet black with purple light. Also an inverted ziggurat with a red skull. The west corridor led to another circular room partially collapsed with rubble. Some footprints could be seen in the dust and also some bits of torn cloth and flecks of dried blood. The east corridor ended in a dragon mouth and led to another circular room with a bronze statue of a medusa with ruby eyes upon a pedestal in the center. There were statues of different people in different poses surrounding the pedestal. Krovas tries to move a statue but it breaks, screams and starts to bleed. We hear a sound of stone grating over stone, then saw some footprints on the dusty floor and ended capturing a hooded figure named Chum.  Alof uses his ESP ability on him and finds he fears someone. He then pulls the tail of the medusa 3 times and a secret door shows. After a corridor and a  T-intersection we go to the right and find a barred door. We go down a flight of stairs and find a chamber with a table, a chair and another door. Krovas realizes Chum must have had an invisibility ring and back to get it. Meanwhile the rest opens the door and finds Mayra, the prisoner girl. We go to the other branch of the T-intersection and find more prisoners in cages and pits of dead bodies. The girl turns into an Avernal Maiden surrisig and attacking Alof! She casts Darkness, Alof casts Light, and the rest attack her. She flies away and starts calling her father. A pit fiend appears and we flee.

Sunday - I played Emerly Gosre, a female cleric, and our group was instructed by Lady Eclavdra, Queen of the Vault, and Lyme, Lord Mage of House Eilservs, to kill the drow sage Erastoriûl Ka’arndrik who has betrayed your masters. The rest of the party were:

• Pharmakeia, female assassin, 
• Nivara, female fighter,
• Deleri Karv, male magic user, 
• Veldrin, male fighter/magic user

We were to navigate the monster infested sewers of the Vault to the basement of the Carnelian Tower, the residence of the sage. In the sewers we found a hag that tried to sell us some souls and, after our refusal, attacked us. When magical and physical attacks failed, Emerly sent her to its plane with an Abjure spell. We reached the basement of the tower and encountered a silver filament slime, an ooze-like creature that shoot tendrils that we found, the hard way, it sucked your memory, and was immune to magical attacks. We decided to flee before it ended up depleting our resources. After that we came across an altar and realized there was no more time to play, failing our mission. Most certainly our heads in pikes now decorate the entrance of House Eilservs...

Bonus - With the gift certificate I won from Frog God games I got the Swords & Wizardry PDF version of the following: 

• Against Tsathogga 
• Baron's Gambit 
• Grimmsgate 
• Cyclopean Deeps Chapter 1 
• Cyclopean Deeps Chapter 2

My Virtual Greyhawk Con 2 Schedule - update

Yesterday I received a notification that the event I was going to participate on Saturday got cancelled. Luckily there were still some events with available places and I managed to get into one. Here's my updated schedule for Virtual Greyhawk Con 2.

Hobbs & Friends of the OSR zines

This week, after a long wait,  I finally received from Goodman Games the three Hobbs & Friends of the OSR zines by fellow gamer and friend Jason Hobbs.

#1 Excavation of the Tomb of Lorninane - a mini-dungeon location centered around an excavation site.

#2 Bettlebee Ridge - a starting town surrounding the Ridge with buildings, detailing their content and the various people living there.

#3 Halfmen of Hirsute Hollow - DCC adventure to be played between Sailors of the StarlessSea and Well of Souls.

In the first two you can takea glimpse at Jason's homebrew game world called the Emergent Empires.

All of them have cool art by Craig Brasco and Hawk.

You can get them from DriveThruRPG too.

James Earl Mackie

  James Earl “Jimmy” Mackie, was born on March 17th, 1855 (Age 24) in Sewanee, Tennessee. 

His father died during the Civil War at Third Battle of Chattanooga in 1863, and he and his mother fled to Nashville. After a pause in the hostilities, they moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1865. 

His mother died in 1869, shortly after they arrived in Little Rock, Arkansas, where some relatives lived. He didn’t stay long with them and decided to go West to Fort Smith, where many refugee slaves, orphans, Southern Unionists, and others came here to escape the guerrilla warfare raging in Arkansas, Missouri, and the Border States. The place, despite the absence of federal troops since 1871, thrived and was a bustling community full of brothels, saloons and outlaws, just across the river from Indian Territory (Coyote Confederation).

After robbing a bank in Fort Smith he fled to Tulsa, in the Coyote Territories, and changed his name to Jordan Eugene “Dusk” McCoy. There is a bounty of $600 for his capture. When money ran out he traveled South into Texas and, with two associates, tried to rob a bank in Dallas. The heist went awry, with one of his associates dead and another missing. Unable to go back to the Coyote Territories he fled towards the Mexican border and now goes by the name of Johnatan Edmund Mackay, AKA John E. “Johnny” Mackay.

Aylen the Black & Fress

Aylen the magic-user and Fress the thief were created for a D&D Holmes game run by Aron Clark. Fist, we played The Lichway (1978) by Abie Fiore taht was published in White Dwarf magazine #9. The rest of the party were:

Tark (dwarf)

Balzon (fighter)

Franz (fighter)

Caspian (magic-user)

Later, after exploring The Lichway we delved into The Halls of Tizun Thane (1980), also by Abie Fiore, from White Dwarf magazine #18. This time the party had some new members:

Rollo (thief)

Chad (fighter)

What follows is a summary I put together after the fall of Aylen & Fress.

"Pressed by the fact that Fress wouldn't be able to control Lokota the demon much longer, Rollo and Aylen agreed to move forward into Thaark's four-story tower. Chad followed with his lantern. The bottom room was a richly furnished dining room with a long table fully dressed with china and glassware occupying the center. On one end of the table, a fireplace big enough to roast a boar with a 12-inch tall figurine of a casting magic user on the mantle and a dragon skull on the wall above it. On the other end he table a big mirror. Rollo checked the fireplace but found nothing. While Lokota waited here the rest went through a door and up a spiral staircase. The room was relaxing lounge with rugs and comfortable chairs, and also a fireplace. Upon inspection the group discovered the fireplaces were connected, so Fress and Rollo decided to climb the chimney while Aylen and Chad went up the spiral stairs. Lokota waited in this room after laboriously navigating the staircase. The thieves, Rollo carrying just his sword and Fress a dagger, a torch and his waterskin, nimbly ascended the sooty shaft into a dark room smelling of wool and parchment. Strange snores and mumbling could be heard from the room above. Rollo opened the heavy door to let Aylen and Chad in, the torchbearer's lantern revealing a library with countless tomes, some opened in wooden stands, with the floor covered by a thick woolen rug. Fress called Lokota to get there too. Aylen cast Detect Magic hoping to find something of interest here but only perceived a strong dweomer emanating from the room above. Lokota started to make a strange keening noise that was reciprocated from above and a thunderous voice could be heard through the fireplace. 'Who dares to enter my dominions unannounced!?'

The sound of heavy footsteps lumbering down the stairs set everyone but Lokota, that stood its ground, into motion. Rollo hid around a corner, Aylen behind a bookstand, while Chad and Fress tied a rope to a metal ring and threw a rope down the chimney. Thaark, an apeish fur-covered brute clad in a purple robe and wizard hat, both too small for its frame, bursted into the room. The group was slow to react but the demon looked confused by what he saw. Rollo and Fress tried to sweet talk the fiend but things didn't turned as expected and the demon started to cast! Rollo swung his sword but missed. Fress emptied his waterskin on Thaark. The demon cast Charm Person on Fress but the thief resisted. Lokota moved in and launched a barrage of attacks (claws, talons and beak). Aylen cast Frost Shroud on the demons, freezing the water and dealing more damage. Rollo took a step back and reached for his bow but with his frostbitten fingers couldn't take a shot. Fress moved next to Aylen, that was casting again, to retrieve some holy water from her back pack. Thaark used his magic again, this time a blast of fire engulfed the room. Aylen, Fress and Chad fell burned to the ground. Rollo dived away just in time avoiding the flames. The room started to burn, wood, parchment and wool feeding the blaze. Lokota, apparently unaffected by the fire, lounged forward and teared Thaark's flesh with claws and talons, killing the demon, but also grazing Rollo with its beak in its charge. The surviving thief, ignoring Lokota now free from its master, grabbed some potion from the shelves and urged the demon to help him. Lokota agreed and rushed to help Aylen and Fress; poor Chad was a charred corpse beyond all hope. Sadly, despite Rollo's bravery and efforts none of them made it through.

There he stood, face to face with a masterless demon that longed for a heart to be free. He offered the hearts of his fallen companions, that the demon gladly accepted. As Rollo escaped, Lokota feasted on the corpses Aylen and Fress before flying away from the inferno of what once were Tizun's Halls.

Nimue

This one is a long overdue post about one of my favorites characters so far, one with I've had countless hours of fun and met some wonderful people.

Nimue, a cleric of Cthulhu, was created for a DDC RPG campaign run by Edgar Johnson that would start with The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom.

The rest of the party were:

Banvha the 1st level Halfling
Aram the 1st level Cleric
Vane the 2nd level Warrior
Klaus the 1st level Thief
Grumble the 1st level Dwarf
Jerkal (Gerbil) the 2nd level Wizard

Also, Nimue had a 1st level Warforged named Sybian, an old "murder machine" that we found in an abandoned basement and was given  to her to use in her super creepy rituals.

Here's a little background on it by Adam Muszkiewicz;

"The first thing we found (which happened off-camera and we retconned in as an explanation of where Gabriel's new PC came from) was a man-sized automaton of some sort that we managed to get working somehow and who then joined up with the Purple Tentacle team. Thus, the legend of Sybian the Whoreforged was born. Is he a pleasure-bot of some lost species of super-hedonists? Or perhaps the personal orgasmatron of a dowager-queen from a repressed society of sexual prudes? For now, the only thing that is certain is that Sybian has a "pole-arm" and knows how to use it. Oh, and he has a lantern built into his noggin, so we periodically have to make sure he's all oiled up."

Later, we playtested an adventure that would become DCC #87 Against the Atomic Overlord by Edgar Johnson. I got really excited when Doug Kovacs asked about Nimue to be on the cover. 

DK: I need to sell Nimue to Joseph Goodman.
Me: Tell him she's like a Red Sonja but with dark hair.

DK: Done.

Here'e the video of  What's New at Goodman Games Gary Con 2015 where the module was presented and Doug talks a bit about the characters on the cover, around the 39:00 mark.

 

There are a couple of blog posts about Nimue: Dealing with Dissaproval and The Ritual.

László Béla

László Béla was my character in a Never Going Home campaign run by Adam Muszkiewicz.

He was a veteran of the Austro-Hungarian campaign against Serbia in 1915. The experience left him with a medal and a thousand yard stare. In 1916, during the Burislov offensive in the Russian front, his home village got destroyed in the fighting. Later that year, he received German training in the village of Beuveille, near Doncourt-lès-Longuyon, as the new cadre of the Austro-Hungarian army assault battalions (Jagdkommandos).

In early 1917, he was transferred to the Romanian front as part of a  secret project involving the newly developed A7V German tank.

After that, things started to get spooky...

Nabunassir of Larsa

This character was made for Jason Hobbs Lost in Agata (Emergent Empires) game using the Old-Schools Essentials rules.

Nabunassir is a magic-user of Argonot descent from the former state city of Larsa.

He follows Istreus, the Master of Secrets, god of knowledge, learning, and magic. His holy symbol is the crescent or the tower, while his sacred animal is the owl. The mages and scholars of the Tower of Knowledge pay him allegiance. His worship is conducted in secret, and only the initiated know the meaning of the mantra, “no sooner spoken than broken”.

He belongs to the Cylindros branch of mages, as opposed to the Conicus one.

Zola & Cree

Zola was my first character in Jay Murphy's game set in Rom'Myr Dying Earth and using the Basic Fantasy RPG ruleset. He was a thief from the city of Valla'Tair that ended killed by a bator in the Yonni'Hor mountains.

Drawing by Jay Murphy

Cree was a monster hunter and thief also from Valla'Tair. He had a more extended career, having the chance to explore the multi-verse before coming back to deal with some unfinished business in Valla'Tair, the starting campaign city.

You can check Jay's blog or watch the games on his YouTube channel.

Olobaris

This was my character on Larry Hamilton's Delvers Deep game.

Olobaris is an elven magic user from the Verdant Vale and (former) follower of LUMENOR. His mentor has sent him to The Deep to find its secrets and harvest rare materials for the manufacture of scrolls and potions.

He wears green and blue robes with a dagger on his belt, and leans on a wooden staff. A guard dog named Argo is always by his side.

He spends his downtime in Delvington drawing or scribing scrolls, providing he has enough time.

After his first delve he joined one of the Delving Organizations, the United Delvers.

In his second delve he became Herald of XAGIS, after the party awakened the god of Snow, Crossorads and Magic Users. Now he is spreading his word in Delvington, having attracted a few followers and the atention of other faiths. He has traveled East past the The Deep to Hillford and the surrounding hills to plunder some old tombs.

Hundolfr Æsbiornsson

 

Following the steps of his Nordborn brethren Haf Skappson, just like many others before him, he came to explore the mythic jungles of Kalmatta and plunder whatever treasures there might be among the overgrown ruins.

A Purple Caecilian worm smashed him like a dog rolling in poop.

Check the Kalmatta sessions here!

Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells quick reference sheet

Just recently, I came across this cool and useful quick reference sheet for the Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells rules set made by Starship & Steel.