BECMI D&D cover 3D sculpture at Lucca Games & Comics 2024

A wonderful 3D sculpture of Larry Elmore's famous art piece for the cover of the BECMI D&D edition appeared this November at Lucca Comics & Games 2024 (Italy) and it was painted live for the audience by artist Silvia Corso.

More pictures of this wonderful rendering can be found in the D&D BECMI Italia page on Facebook.

Campaign update

After the characters managed to disrupt a ritual in the (Hidden) Shrine of the Elder Elemental God from D4 City of Spiders, the power balance in Erelhei-Cinlu was severely altered. As House Eilservs and its allies were exposed as followers of the EEG, the other houses along with the Fane of Lolth, swiftly moved to punish the heretics.  

The characters were in part also responsible of the failure of the Eilservs' plans with the giants in the surface. After dealing with the problems in the Vault, Eclavdra would certainly seek vengeance, directly or through proxies, for all these setbacks.

Taking advantage of this schism, the dissidents of the Vault decided to push forward their plans. Through their leader, Nilonim, they came in contact with the party, helping them leaving the Vault. They managed to do this disguised as slaves in a drow merchant caravan. 

In return, the rebel leader asked them for their support in one of two important missions to the cause: 1) rescue Teregim, Nilonim's second in command and recently captured, from the dungeons of the Fane of Lolth before the priestesses have the chance to torture and question him, or 2) help Captain Eclan and his crew (Area B2/24 Encyclopaedia Subterranica) hijack the two galleys from the Fane's wharf cavern (Area 20 D3 Vault of the Drow). 

"Captain Eclan has been in contact with Nilonim and together they plan an uprising in Erelhei-Cinlu. In the chaos of the uprising, they hope to lead a mass escape of slaves and other disaffected inhabitants of the Vault by way of boats and barges on the Pitchy Flow."

Encyclopaedi Subterranica p.99

Virtual Greyhawk Con 5

 

Another Virtual Greyhawk Con has passed where I had the chance to play in a couple of games on Saturday and on Sunday attend "Ask the Experts" seminar.

The first game was Shield Land Patrol run by Anna B. Meyer who was testing an early build of her Hawk Tales FRPG ruleset.

"Join a Shield Lands Patrol to guard the Needfest (CY 599) celebrations. Guard the frontier of the liberated lands against Iuzian machinations." 

We managed to avoid some undead scouts and a murder of strange crows and ravens that could change into other awful things, ambush a stray broken wagon guarded by goblins and trolls, to finally infiltrate the Iuzian camp. There we found not only goblins, orcs, and mercenary men from the North, but also Iuzian clerics and their bone-claw guards led by Vedvenek, a flock of dretches and their skull-masked shepherd, and Glushnag the Mighty (hobgoblin Bar15) with his hobgoblin army. 

There was a brutal and bloody end to it. You can watch the stream of the game here on Anna's Twitch channel.

The second game was Zavod written by Carlos A. Lising for OSRIC. 

"A terrible theft has occurred at the famous Menagerie in the Free City! Daring bandits have managed to steal into the zoo of the fantastic and spirit away a mated pair of prized Rust Monsters. Will your group of heroes be able to locate the valuable monsters and return them safely?"

Since we were only two players, each of us was managing 4 characters, two rangers and two druids. We managed to avoid most of the dangers, even an enraged owlbear that we stopped with an Entangle spell and talked it down with a Speak With Animals and some rations, and got to the final scenario where we faced the responsible for the missing creatures and its fearsome bodyguards.  

One of my rangers fell in the final combat but was saved by the druids and the final boss was in the end subdued with a Charm Person or Mammal spell that allowed us to get to the rust monsters, take them back to the City of Greyhawk and get the reward. Fun time.

On Sunday the closing "Ask the Experts" seminar hosted by Jay "Lord Gosumba" Scott and Anna B. Meyer with legend Roger E. Moore, Denis "Maldin" Tetreault, Allan T. Grohe "Grodog", Joseph "GreyhawGrognard" Bloch, and Carlos A. Lising as guests. Greyhawk Achievement Awards were given to three very deserving persons: Roger Moore, Anna Meyer and Carlos Lising. Congratulations! It was a very emotive moment.

You can watch the stream of the seminar here on Lord Gosumba's Twitch channel.

Norebo's Gamble

I came up with this house rule for a player's character, half-orc fighter/cleric, to add some flavor to the class.

Clerics of Norebo can call their deity's favor once a day. All results are valid for the round the call is made.

Roll 2d8.

2. Gambler automatically hits his next attack or makes the next saving throw.

3. One enemy gets a -3 to his next attack or saving throw.

4. Gambler gets a +2 to his next attack or save.

5. One enemy gets a -1 to his next attack or saving throw.

6. Gambler does maximum damage on his next attack.

7. Nothing happens. Lose 50 gp/level.

8-10. Nothing happens. Lose 100 gp/level.

11. Nothing happens. Lose 50 gp/level.

12. One enemy does minimum damage on his next attack.

13. Gambler gets a +1 to his next attack or saving throw.

14. One enemy gets a -2 to his next attack or saving throw.

15. Gambler gets a +3 to his next attack or saving throw.

16. One enemy automatically misses his next attack or saving throw.

Order of the Gauntlet

Back in June 2023 I led my group into the Giants' trilogy (G1-2-3 modules), but it started in a somehow different way inspired by a short fiction story called Return to the Steading by Bart Carroll that appeared online on Dragon+ magazine.

Even though the story was set in the Forgotten Realms, it could perfectly be applied to the World of Greyhawk.

"Commander Steeplejack had led the original raid against the steading, gathering other heroes from the Order of the Gauntlet. While some in his party had continued on, advancing their fight against frost giants and fire giants farther north, Steeplejack stayed to claim the steading for his own stronghold."

Based loosely on that part of the story I came up with an alternate start to the trilogy:

"A party of adventurers from the Order of the Gauntlet have recently attacked the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief and, while the hill giants were fighting them, the orc and ogre slaves have turned on their bugbear and hill giant guardians. The adventurers inflicted huge casualties, slaying most of the giants and routing the rest (females and younglings, a couple of stone giants and a fire giant) but had to retreat due to heavy wounds and shortage of spells. Despite that, the raid was considered a success and their efforts were needed elsewhere. The ogres and orcs now control the place and, in a show of despise to the giants that had them enslaved, they have beheaded most of the corpses, setting their heads in pikes on the entrances to the steading."

Later on the story we can read:

"[...] recognized Gleep the Eyebiter, Cloyer the Magsman, and Roaky Swerked—all heroes from Steeplejack’s original party."

So, I ditched this Commander Steeplejack completely and had the Order founded by the original tournament characters that appeared in the G1 module.

• Gleep Wurp the Eyebiter (human, MU12)
• Cloyer Bulse the Magsman (human, T13)
• Roaky Swerked (human, C12)
• Frush O'Suggill (human, F14)
• Fonkin Hoddypeak (high elf, F5/MU8)
• Flerd Trantle (human, C9)
• Redmod Dumple (dwarf, F9)
• Faffle Dwe'o-mercraeft (human, MU9)
• Beek Gwenders of Croodle (half-elf, R9)

Then, I made them agents of the Kingdom of Keoland that operate mainly in the Earldom of Sterich and Duchy of Geoff, and to a lesser extent in the Gran March and the Yeomanry. There are chapters of the Order on each of the aforementioned realms to gather intelligence about the giants' activities and coordinate actions against them in the he Crystalmist, Jotens and Hellfurnaces.

Finally I created the Order's heraldry using CoaMaker.

The party came in contact with the first three members of the Order (Gleep, Cloyer and Roaky). Also had a new player character being a low rank member of it, that was held prisoner in the dungeons of the Hall of the Fire Giant King (G3) and rescued by the party.