Loot!

This weekend arrived a pretty cool haul. Just in time for Christmas.

I got the "Zogonia: Slice of Death" comic book (64 pages of strips collected from Dragon magazine) and the AD&D 2e Forgotten Realms "Menzoberranzan Boxed Set", used but in great shape and complete with booklets, maps and cards, both from eBay. Also the "BDKR1: The Unofficial Living Greyhawk Bandit Kingdoms Summary" from Amazon and, last but not least, the "Holmes & Clark" rules set by my friend Aron Clark from DriveThruRPG.

I am planning on using Menzoberranzan in my Greyhawk game, but still don't know how exactly. Maybe by making it a rival city of Erelhei-Cinlu, where the majority of the drow worship the Elder Elemental God instead of Lolth? Also I need to decide where to put it. Maybe beneath the Jotens Mts. near Sterich? That would be a good place if I want to run the city of Istvin trilogy in the future.

About the "Bandit Kingdoms Summary" I've read many good reviews as a "must have" source of documentation and inspiration for developing adventures in the area. Looking forward to pair it with Ravensrook: A Grimdark Urban Fantasy Setting running as the city of Rookroost.

Also thinking of using "Holmes & Clark" as the rule set for my next Greyhawk campaign set in the Lands of Cantona on the Wild Coast, initially though to be run under Labyrinth Lord. 

Kothar's tower

I turned the photo of an old pigeon's tower from my neighborhood (now a public library) into the mage's tower for one of my players. I used Photopea online and a Wacom Intuos tablet.

It was an abandoned tower and, when Kothar the mage was given the rights over the lands around the village of Twilight Falls, he took residence there. He set up a lab and hired an alchemist. Right now he's having the top tier being built of wood, since the village is in the Gnarley Forest. It was too expensive to have it built of stone like the rest of the tower.

Virtual Greyhawk Con 4 report

 

This past weekend was Virtual Greyhawk Con 4 and I had the chance to play in a couple of games and also attend the "Ask the Experts" roundtable that closed the event.

On Saturday I played on Mike "Von Molkew" Mossberger's game "Mystery in Midmeadow", where we were a party of high level characters (mine was Hurrick, a dwarf bounty hunter) at the service of King Lynwerd of Nyrond. Mysterious attacks on Pholtan guerrillas prompted the summon of our group to investigate the area of Crystal Springs. The hints dropped by the DM, both in the thorough pre-game information and during the game, pointed (the players, not the characters) to the mythical drow! 

We had a skirmish with the dark eleves, managed to take one down and were taking out his corpse as proof, when more came and drove us deeper into the caves. We hit a dead end and thought that was it, when we were rescued by strange beings known as rockseer elves, antagonistic to the drow.

They asked about us and the surface world, and asked our help to prevent the drow completing a ritual of opening a portal that could give access the the Plane of Fey/Fading Lands. After handwaving a couple of encounters (a cavern filled with plant and fungi, and another cavern with a dragon skeleton/spectral dragon) we reached the cavern where the ritual was taking place. There, along with the portal, the drow and their half-drow half-spider guards, was a waterfall running upwards! It was the magical origin of the Franz River. After defeating the drow the rockseer elves sealed the place, gave us a letter to take to King Lynwerd and a magical ruby.

The caves under Cristal Springs

It's a dead end!

Mike has a deep knowledge on the setting and rules, that he complemented with some beautiful maps on Owlbear Rodeo. I forgot to take some captures but you can see them here.

~ o ~

Later that day I played on Allan "grodog" Grohe's home game (runs every other Saturday) in which the party is currently at Dyvers, the City of Sails, where the group entrepreneurs are trying to sell the local temple of Nerull a pair of gems taken from a secluded and abandoned(?) temple of Nerull beneath Castle Greyhawk.  So far, so good...

~ o ~

The next day, on Sunday, I played on Allan's game "Halls of the Iron Golems". A strange magical helix has appeared over the Free City of Greyhawk, causing magic to act in chaotic and unpredictable ways. A group of high level adventurers (mine was Barilar Willowbeard, a half-elf druid) was gathered to solve the problem. They needed to delve into the 12th level of Castle Greyhawk, find Heward's Mystical Organ and play a certain tune. 

On our way we encountered a glassteel skeleton golem, that resonated when struck by melee weapons damaging the attackers, and a giant slug. After some twists and turns, but always proceeding in a north-northwest direction, a trapped stair threw the party into a slide that split us into two chambers: one filled with water and one with a yellow poisonous gas, both chambers with skeletons at the bottom that tried to keep us down. Quick thinking, the use of magic items, and even a roll on the potion miscibility table, helps us escape the trap.

Halls of the Iron Golems

We entered the level in the circular chamber on the low-right and proceeded on the highlighted path. The triangular chamber was where we fought the skeleton and the giant slug. After descending the spiral staircase we found a corridor and a trap door up at a dead-end. We emerged on the stairs to the left and ended in the hexagonal rooms after the split chamber. We needed to reach the circular concentrical place in the center of the map. An amphitheater maybe?

~ o ~

All in all, a fun weekend full of online gaming. Looking forward to next year's Virtual Greyhawk Con!

Back to F2F games

Yesterday I ran my first face-to-face game since the Covid-19 pandemic. One of my players, who lives in Mexico, is here in Uruguay for a month, so we're looking forward for more face-to-face games. The common feeling around the table, besides the joy of being gathered together, was "How much I missed rolling real dice!". We had one player remote on Meet on a laptop facing the map and miniatures.

The party (an 8th level Cavalier, a 9th level Magic-User, an 8th level Cleric of St. Cuthbert, a 9th level Thief-Acrobat and a 4th level Bard) is going through "G3 - Halls of the Fire Giant King". So far, they've managed to kill King Snurre, about 20 of his fire giants, as well as many of his hell hound pets. Out of spells and exhausted but alive, accompanied by a charmed gnoll, they've retired to a cave nearby to rest and recover. 

A certain dwarf that witnessed the carnage that party made, decided to grab his gear and treasure, and leave the Halls along with the gnolls. An angry and mourning Queen Frupy will certainly muster the remaining forces and lay some nasty surprises for the intruders...

Latest acquisitions

 

Last month I backed up Joseph Bloch's latest Kickstarter for the 10th Anniversary of his mega-dungeon "Castle of the Mad Archmage". I chose the digital copy since I already have the original one in print, and it will make a suitable addition to it. Everything that the Greyhawk Grognard has ever published about it, all in one single tome!

This month Robert J. Kuntz, through Three Line Studio, digitally released "The Return of Robilar". A complete guide of this iconic D&D and World of Greyhawk figure; his stats, history, magical items, companions (Otto and Quij), mounts (3 green dragons!) and more. A must have to celebrate the Lord of the Green Dragons 50th birthday!

GaryCon XVI

 

Last Saturday 29th I got my Silver Badge for Gary Con XVI (March 21st - 24th, 2024). I'm going with a friend, fellow gamer and player in my campaigns, and looking forward to meet in person many online friends for the first time (Aron Clark, James Richards, Michael "ChgoWiz" Shorten, Jason Hobbs, Allan "grodog" Grohe Jr.), and others I haven't seen since Gen Con 2014 like DCC artist Doug Kovacs. Also, it would be great to meet some World of Greyhawk streamers I've been following and supporting for some time like Jay "Lord Gosumba" Scott, Anna Meyer and Joseph "Greyhawk Grognard" Bloch.

This trip is like a pilgrimage to the Mecca of Dungeons & Dragons, and it gets more significance since it's celebrating the 50th anniversary of the creation of D&D. We plan to make the most of it by playing some games, hanging out with cool people, visiting the former TSR HQ, and both Gary Gygax's home and memorial.

Looking forward to it!

AD&D with the kids

I've had this post in backburner as a draft for a while and I think it's time to wrap it up. 

On the weekend of May 21st three of my nephews stayed for a sleepover. One is 10, one is 11, just like my son, and the oldest is 14. He was the one that asked me if I could run some D&D for them. I said yes right away and went to gather all my AD&D 1e stuff: PHB, DMG, MM, battle mat, miniatures and dice tower. I also took from my bookshelf the module B1-9 "In Search of Adventure" which I've never used before. 

This was not the first time they've played D&D. I've already ran a couple of one-shot games for them, but that was long ago. They loved it, but I guess they were too young to really appreciate the game. 

I started like it was the first time they were playing, explaining the attributes and rolling some dices to created their characters. I used the 4d6 drop lower method and maximum hit points at 1st level. Then it was the time for the races and classes. After a while they had Jibbeth the elf fighter, Rip the gnome fighter, Gurk the half-orc cleric and Eduardo the elf thief. 

I distributed some armor and weapons suitable for their race/class choices, and the asked them what would they put in a backpack before going adventuring. Food, water, beer and rope were their choices. I had them note that, even if all could see in the dark, they would need some light source for certain tasks. Torches, flint & steel and oil were then added to the equipment list. They were ready!

I put some choices on the table about what to do next: 1) A wealthy noble had acquired a ruined castle near the town and wanted it cleared of critters. 2) An elven merchant needed to send a message to his town deep in the woods. 3) Rumors of a renegade cleric and a band of orcs were harassing the border farms. Which way would they go?

After a brief discussion, and pondering of pros and cons, they decided to explore the abandoned castle. So off they went into CASTLE CALDWELL. They explored the upper works and found some goblins that they tried to talk to, with little luck. A fight followed and ended with a couple of dead goblins, one escaped with the last one surrendered and promised to serve the half-orc cleric. Then they found some giant mosquitoes (stirges) from which they fled after the goblin was attacked and killed. I threw in a large furry humanoid (bugbear), leader of the goblins that went to see what was all the ruckus, to see how they did, and after some lucky rolls they managed to defeat it. They left the castle back to town with some treasure to spend and some wounds to heal.

On their second foray into the castle they found a female cleric, that posed as a prisoner of some bandits (I didn't use the traders), but was actually their leader. She was thankful and sought revenge, so they agreed to help her. They found the thieves and when combat broke she turned on them! The thieves were slain but the cleric escaped. They took the bandit's treasure and continued exploring. The group came across some small dog-men (kobolds) that the half-orc quickly subdued into his service. The creatures told them about the fire-spitting beetles (I didn't use the wolves) and they decided to investigate. The hungry beetles attacked them on sight, but they managed to defeat the monsters. They cleverly took their fiery glands to sell in town. The party left the castle with more treasure and a retinue of kobolds.

After recovering from their wounds, selling some treasure and getting better equipment, they went back to the castle to finish exploring, only to find there were some dungeons below. They went down and were puzzled by the clean rooms and corridors. A cubic mass of semi-transparent jelly (gelatinous cube) surprised them but they managed to escape.

We ended the session here.

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.