Castle Zagyg - The End

"This Friday [September 21st], my Castle Zagyg crew finished up the dungeon I had been running every other Friday night, and all involved in the final ending were rewarded with a T-shirt that reads "I beat Castle Zagyg and all I got was this goddamned T-shirt" as a gift from Zagyg himself. It gives plus 1 to AC when worn under any armor, stacks with anything, and as befits a gift from Zagyg, the writing on the T-shirt glows through any armor and is clearly visible to all."

Thanks Joe!

Castle Zagyg - sessions 11 & 12

Sessions #11 (September 7th) and #12 (September 14th)

The various members of the adventurous party between the two sessions:

"Nathaniel" (human thief)*
Gogax (halfling thief)
Thidrek (sleestak)
Maragon (human fighter?)**
Norfolk (halfling thief)
Darf (dwarven fighter)
Nick the Pike (human fighter)
Hairy and Stinky (Darf's Bugbear henchmen)
Kellan (human illusionist)

Kip (human fighter, Kellan's follower)

Gimli of Geoff (dwarven fighter)
Morgan (human barbarian, Gimli's follower)***

* couldn't remember the chracter's name
** later chaged his name to Biff (Joe kept mingling between Maragon and Morgan)
*** later changed his name to Conan (Joe kept mingling between Morgan and Maragon)

Previously on Castle Zagyg (in Joe's words): 

"Your castle is getting flooded with refugees from both the elven forest and human cities and towns nearby. Apparently they have been invaded by dragon armies, and many people fled to the castle that was so powerful that apparently they withstood a dragon army assault lead by 6 dragons.

They also tell you that the dragon army is in the march this way again, but they're not worried since you all held them off last time with such ease. They have full faith in Gimli and his crew."

Into the Fortress

We took the same route than last time through the dungeons below until the dwarven chapel and then all the way up into a large dining room. There, ghosts wandered about and offered real food & drinks to the party. Most were wary about them until some dared to try it. Not all the effects were good, Conan got turned into a bumblebee, Gogax's skin turned green and Norfolk stank like fish and grew boar tusks.

Continuing exploring the level found that bandits have made their hideout here. We killed two dogs and a guard, and captured another guard that, tied and gagged, we used to open all doors. He was known as "The Gimp". More bandits were found and killed, until only the leader and his plump mistress remained.

We then found a large room full of piles of refuse, which we decided to search for hidden treasure. Kellan turned his Robe of Scintillating Colors mesmerizing the giant rats and black centipedes that moved to attack us as soon as be begun disturbing the piles. Once killed the vermin we continued searching and found invisible spriggans in the fireplace, which were also killed. Among other things we found  a magic pipe that could be the key to control the castle.

Paraphrasing Chris Hales post on G+ about the second session:

"On the second foray into the castle we found and killed:  some [more] spriggans, a ghost, a couple of skeletons and their skeletal children. Sadly we lost Conan (Gimli's barbarian follower) to the ghost, and a dozen goblins and a couple of War Dogs  due to various traps. Also one of the fighters, recruited among the refugees, lost all his hair due to a spriggan trick.

We found a lot of coin and several magic items: a trapped keg that releases poison gas, a ring of protection, a broom of flying that only works on the 3 levels of the fortress), an ever burning exquisite quality cigar, some "insanity apples" (save vs Poison or eater goes insane for 48 hours and then dies).

On the funny side, Nathaniel's thief decided to use one of the bathrooms we found. He triggered a poison gas trap that left him blinded for an hour. It might have been permanent but for the ready water-source he used to flush out his eyes. [Gimli fell into a double pit trap.]

In the final room we cleared, Kellan used his Robe of Scintillating Colors to stun the remaining goblins and Nathaniel's thief. While they were incapacitated, the valuables they hoarded during the clearing of the level were taken from them and fairly distributed among the party."

Back from the castle, Conan was given a proper burial, burning him in a funeral pyre with all his possessions.

The end draws near

Before leaving for another foray into the fortress, the town blacksmith, also a dwarf, gave Gimli an armor made of red dragon scales. It gives the same protection as a platemal (+1) and provides extra protection against fire damage (+5 on saves).

Paraphrasing another Chris Hales post on G+:

"Castle Zagyg is wrapping up soon. The next session may be the last for that setting.

An army of Dragonmen [draconians] & Dragons is marching towards Castle Zagyg. It arrives in 30 hours, although the PCs do not know when they will arrive.

[Meanwhile] some additional Castle Zagyg defense/contingency plans [are being made].

We've already got the cave entrances closed off. Behind those entrances are passages filled with as many traps as the refugees have managed to construct in the week or so they've been down there working.

There are functioning defensive siege weapons on the walls, as well as a functioning ballista on one of the inner walls. Additionally there is a magically powered siege weapon in the inner courtyard capable of firing anything, smaller than 3 feet diameter, up to hundreds of yards over the walls. Each of these weapons have stores of ammo from previous preparations. 

Kellan has been cultivating 3 varieties of mushrooms at Castle Zagyg for quite a while, several caves, long cleared, are filled with the different types. Entry in to these caves, without proper preparations could be hazardous. Since we can, Kellan will send refugees outside the walls to scatter spores of two types of mushrooms every night we can after the refugees begin arriving. The hope is that these will germinate and create clouds of spores as they are trampled by the approaching army.

The varieties that will be spread were never given specific names by +Joe Dimech, but both were acquired in Castle Zagyg. The first, which I call the Sleep Shrooms, are yellow and upon ingestion of the flesh or inhalation of the spores cause "deep sleep for 7-12 hours". The second [type], which I call Pacification Mushrooms, maintain an aura of spores about themselves and upon inhalation of those spores calm the target to a non-violent state.

Additionally there are "Shrieker Mushrooms" which emit an amazingly loud shriek when a creature moves in to their range (I do not know what the range is). These can be spread as well, but I would suggest less liberally. They could act as alarms to warn us of approach from the forested areas or by invisible or stealthy enemies, like their scouts.

The Ghosts [from the Fortress, who] we were able to convince to join the defense of the castle, might make excellent assassins to dispatch enemies, should they succumb to the sleep/pacification spores.

Perhaps this is a minor point, but we should collect whatever gold/silver/cash we can from the refugees so we can afford to buy whatever magic items the Zagyg merchants have for sale. There are items they've had previously that I would have liked to have now, that we just couldn't afford. We should be able to send them to scavenge whatever money they can from the nearby town. Fighting the merchants seems a bad idea as they are very tough and numerous.

It isn't ideal, but the refugees can plan to escape through the Mars Gate if the Castle is lost. Castle Zagyg supposedly has various doors to other worlds, we've only found one, which leads to a John Carter of Mars-type world. Heavily barricading the cave entrance leading to this area should be a priority to avoid access to the gate from being lost.

We should talk to Cobbler Eggler, if only to make sure he gets out alive. Although he only makes shoes, we should check him to see if he has anything interesting for sale. 

We should talk to the Merchants every time we suspect they may have something for sale. Roll random items is fun, and often very helpful."

The defense plans look solid to Gimli and he wholly agrees on collecting whatever valuables the refugees have to buy from the Merchants and/or EGGler. Also, Kellan could make illusions of treasure around the statues in front of the chapel, so that any dragon approaching would be attacked by them.

Gimli will organize groups of refugees to make any repairs that the walls/ramparts/towers may need .

"That's it for now. This is going to be rough..."

Castle Zagyg - sessions 9&10

Double ration of Castle Zagyg! :)

Session #9 (August 3rd)

The party:

Bobo (flying monkey)
Nipun (human fighter)

Einharr Thorshammer (human cleric)
Kellan (human illusionist)
Kip (human fighter, Kellan's follower)

Gimli of Geoff (dwarven fighter)

The Dragonlance heroes returned weary and wounded from their foray into the castle, after fighting against rats, bandits and undead, and retreating from a gray ooze. Anyway, Flint and Caramon were happy carrying a huge cask of dwarven ale which they generously shared with the party. Raistlin found a treaty about herbs, which Kellan was interested to read. 

After the Dragonlance  heroes left we set to explore a tower flanked by two giant ibis statues. Bobo flew over it and discovered a trapdoor on top. Ropes were secured and thrown down for everyone to climb up.  We entered the tower through the trap door and went all the way down until we found a couple of crypts, each with three sarcophagi. The first three were ghouls and the other were zombies. In the bottom of one of the zombies' sarcophagus Gimli found a secret passage going down. It was a trap! The steps were just an illusion and everyone was sucked down a chute.

We were on an uncharted part of the dungeons, but soon found our way and decided to pay the elves and half-orcs a visit before going up. We bought from them a Potion of Dragon Control, an Elven Chaimail and a Platemail (+1).

When we reached the surface, the surprise was huge, for the tree town and surroundings were under attack by an army of at leas 2000 draconians and human mercenaries led by 6 red dragons! We quickly let the people into the castle and devised a plan to lure the dragons. Kellan created an illusion of a huge treasure hoard in the courtyard. When the dragons came Gimli drank the potion and managed to control 4 of the 6 red dragons. The controlled dragon killed their kin and were ordered to start attacking the draconians. When the draconians attacked the castle Gimli sensed he could also control them, and so they were ordered to attack the dragons. The battle ended with half the dragons dead and most of the army dead or scattered.

After that Einharr left and Gustav the Beligerant came. Also Morgan the barbarian became Gimli's follower. The Dragonlance heroes went on their quest to find a staff that restored the healing powers of cleric in their realm.

The party:

Bobo (flying monkey)
Nipun (human fighter)

Gustav the Beligerant (human fighter)

Kellan (human illusionist)
Kip (human fighter, Kellan's follower)

Gimli of Geoff (dwarven fighter)

Morgan (human barbarian, Gimli's follower)

The new party set to explore another tower manned by bandits. Kellan cast Invisibility 10' radius on the party before reaching the tower. Bobo entered by one of the windows and set alight the bandits' bedrolls creating chaos among them. When one of the three guards on top of the tower came down, Bobo went up and pushed one down to his death and managed to kill another with his sword. He the secured and threw ropes for the rest to climb up. Still invisible the party commanded the bandits to surrender, which they did fearing we were ghosts. They were ordered to leave all valuables, armor and weapons, then take all the food to the recently attacked town and help to rebuilt it. If they failed to do so we will haunt them forever. They quickly obeyed and left, and we continued to explore the tower.

Going down we encountered a pair of orc shamans performing a ritual around a corpse. We took advantage of being invisible to kill one and badly wound another. Interrogated he said the ritual was to regain lost powers, and also that he controlled a dozen of undead that were below. We killed him and instantly heard the undead began to move below. We opened a door and let them came one by one until they were all dead, again.

Below, in the undead room, there was a metal box in the room but it was locked. We searched the room until we found the key under a round rock. It was a catapult missile that had breached the tower long ago. The box contained a book and a pearl, which we knew were cursed when Kellan took them.

Before proceeding below we rolled the rock down the stairs. When we descended we found a trapdoor in the floor with a big rock on top. Not ours, but another. We moved the rock and opened the trap. A shackled skeleton with green flaming eyes appeared. He asked to free him and threw his bones into the river. We just threw both rocks at him but missed, and he grew in size and a trident appeared in his bony hand. We threw flaming oil at him until it became a pile of ashes.

And with that we completed the towers of the second wall. Next time we were going to the towers flanking the Castle Zagyg itself.

---

Session #10 (August 4th)

The party:

Ahab (human fighter)
Einharr Thorshammer (human cleric)
Jerek (half-elven mountebank) played by fellow Greyhawker Joseph Bloch.
Gustav the Beligerant (human fighter)

Kellan (human illusionist)
Kip (human fighter, Kellan's follower)

Gimli of Geoff (dwarven fighter)

Morgan (human barbarian, Gimli's follower)

We entered the tower through the dwarven god chapel where we fought some dwarves and gnomes. We ran into a filthy mad druid who told us mice were his friends. When asked if he minded us looking around he just excused himself and went to his chambers upstairs. When some retching noises came from above most of the group went up after Kellan cats Invisibility 10' radius, except Kellan, Kip, Gimli and Morgan. The druid turned to be a were-rat and giant rats and rats attacked the group. Below, Gimli and Morgan also were attacked by the same kind of creatures after opening a door. Gustav managed to push the were-rat downstairs while Gimli drank a Potion of Animal Control.  He commanded the giants and common rats to attack the were-rat while Kip hacked at it.

The were-rat had two coffers and they were locked. Lacking a thief in the group, Morgan hacked at one of them breaking the lock. Whe he opened it a hidden blade wounded him. The now enraged barbarian, began hacking the other one, only to release a cloud of poisonous gas that weakened everyone in the room. In his hoard the were-rat had a magical spear (+1/+3 vs. lycans), a symbol of Celestian and a rusty platemail.

Going up the tower, we came across a room that had a huge wasps nest. Gimli drank another potion, this time a Potion of Bug Repelling, and the wasps just flew away from him. We hacked the nest apart but found nothing. But, behind a door, hanging from the wall,  there was a bejeweled scabbard with a dagger. The blade had dwarven runes on it, that Gimli read as "Greenflame". When spoken the blade of the magical dagger (+2) became covered with green flames that made 1d6 of extra damage. Gustav claimed the dagger for himself, as did Jerek the mountebank. Dice were rolled and Jerek won the dagger. Having lost the dagger Gustav claimed the magical spear, and so did Gimli. Dice were rolled again, and this time Gustav won the spear.

Continuing up the tower some storage rooms were found and centipedes emerged from the rotten supplies. Since the Potion of Bug Repelling was still working, they retreated from Gimli, but Kellan used his Robe of Scintillating Colors to dazzle the creatures. And so the centipedes were hacked to pieces. Reaching the top of the tower, an angry griffon met the party which returned the attack. In the battle Jerek fell and was saved by Gimli's Potion of Healing (I couldn't let a fellow Greyhawker lose his character!). The creature was dismembered since someone said its various parts were useful for making potions.

Until next session!

Castle Zagyg - session 8

Session #8 (July 13th)

Joethelawyer's Wondrous Imaginings: Castle Zagyg, Meet Raistlin.: So shit got crazy last night.  A couple sessions ago, one of my players was actually able to buy a ring of three wishes (rolled randomly!), ...

Castle Zagyg - session 7

Session #7 (July 4th)

And once again David Brawley on his blog wrote it first. :)

The party:

Kellan (human illusionist)
Kip (human fighter, Kellan's follower)

Nick the Pike (human fighter)

Gimli of Geoff (dwarven fighter)

"Returning from the jousting fields of Harflur, Nick the Pike again joined Kellan and Gimli in cleaning out the caves and corridors under Castle Zagyg. Much of the time was spent mapping out areas that had been previously skipped, and most of these areas had recently been cleaned out. The adventurers that the group had chased into the elves’ cave seem to have survived. Finding a back entrance into the elves’ cave Kellan and Gimli checked what the elves had in stock. It turns out it was some fairly impressive items, including one that I don’t even want to mention. According to the elves most of the items had been traded in/sold to the by the other adventurers! The party was in utter shock and disbelief that the other adventurers would sell such a potent item…

After a relatively uneventful day spent mapping out empty corridors, they returned to the castle via the canyon path. The sounds of battle caught their ears as they approached the gate. The goblins standing guard yelled out that adventurers had broken into the castle! Opening the gate the party rushed in to see a gnome illusionist, a human wizard, two plate armored fighters, and a plate armored cleric. Kellan cast Fear, causing one of the fighters to flee, while Nick tossed his Javelin of Lightening, dropping the gnome and injuring the cleric. Kip shot an arrow, hitting the wizard. Gimli poisoned his war hammer.

In return the wizard dropped a massive fireball on the party, killing the goblins and men-at-arms, and seriously injuring the party. The cleric attempted to blind Kellan, but he shrugged darkness off. The remaining fighter positioned himself between the party and his spellcasters. Nick and Gimli charged at the fighter who fended off their blows. Kellan blinded the enemy fighter while Kip slipped around stabbing the wizard.

Again seizing the initiative, the enemy cleric blinded Kellan, and the wizard held Gimli. Kip skewered the wizard, while Kellan conjured a goblin hero to attempt to rally the terrified goblin defenders of the castle. Unfortunately the fact that Kellan was blind caused the phantasmal goblin to alternately float several inches above the ground, or sink knee deep into it. Nick pushed past the blinded fighter, sinking his ax deep into the cleric who dropped his mace and fell to his knees in surrender. The fighter and cleric were stripped, bound, and interrogated.

The captured adventurers told the party that they returned their treasure to the town, hence their lack of gold. It was decided that the blind fighter would be escorted back to the town to get ransom for the cleric and for the removal of the blindness. When after 3 days the fighter did not return, the cleric was executed and given to the remaining goblins."

Castle Zagyg - Sesisons 5&6 recap

Session #5 (June 22nd)

The party:

Kellan (human illusionist)
Kip (human fighter, Kellan's follower)
Carma (elven fighter/thief?)
Grimclaw (human cleric, Carma's follower)
Celmar(?) (human magic user)
Deerbeer (Celmar's war dog)
Gimli of Geoff (dwarf fighter)

Before continuing exploring the caves below Castle Zagyg, Gimli has to get a new armor, so he ordered a chain mail suit from the pirate city of Freeport. After it arrived, the party went to the see the elven traders to see what other magic items they had. Kellan and Carma bought Gimli a shield (+1) and a ring of protection (+1). Now with the dwarf properly set, the party with a group of goblins went tot clear a bat cave under one of the towers. Before the cleansing we scrapped a couple of buckets of a strange phosphorescent lichen from the walls. A net was set on the entrance to trap any fleeing bats and fire grenades thrown into the cavern ceiling. We didn't want all the guano on the floor to catch fire and explode.

Maybe it was the smoke, the smell of burnt bats or the commotion that attracted an ogre to investigate. As the goblins fled, Carma, Kip and Gimli charged at the ogre while Kellan, Grimclaw and Celmar casted spells at it. The ogre seemed to resist every spell and landed a vicious hit on Kip! Finally we managed to hit the ogre enough to make him flee, only to face an owl bear. While he two beasts fought each other we and our goblin minions threw arrows, spears, javelins and bolts at them. The owl bear killed the ogre and we killed the owl bear.

We then went off to find the ogre's lair. It was one of the many caves in the ravine surrounding the castle. This one was blocked by a heavy portcullis and led to a dungeon that connected to the orc compound we've previously explored. It's good to tie lose ends.

And at the end of the session Gimli reached level 3!

---

Session #6 (June 29th)

The party:

Kellan (human illusionist)
Kip (human fighter, Kellan's follower)
Corkin (human bard)
Gimli of Geoff (dwarf fighter)

Continuing with task of clearing the caves, the party went to get rid of some snakes that were holed up in a nearby cave with a pond. As soon as we entered the cave snakes came out of the walls into the pond and begun swimming towards us. We retreated and poured the content of some alchemical grenades in the water, and set in on fire. The smoke made the snakes come out of the cave but the goblins hacked them down. We took the bodies of the snakes to the goblin shaman who managed to extract 3 doses of venom from them.

We told the goblin shaman about the grey ooze that lurked behind a secret door in his shrine. He didn't know about it, so we invited him to come along with us since we were going to kill it. Last time fire and cold didn't harmed it, so this time we took salt and goblin moonshine. Upon arrival to the place we threw that at it, but it didn't worked. It was then when Corkin took out his wand (some kind of laser gun actually, from another FLAILSNAILS game) and shot at the thing making a hole in it! He shot it again an the ooze melted away.

(At this point Corkin left)

We continued exploring the passage and it ended in a cavern with a pool of water. There were some strange mushrooms and an unconscious rat beside them. We threw the rat into the water and some snails crawled out of the water. A goblin delicatessen since they feasted on them. A sinkhole could be seen at the bottom of it about 40' down. A corridor with some stairs going up was opposite to us across the pool. We sent some goblins across and up the stairs. Soon we heard horrible cries of pain and we hurried to the spot. A couple of goblins we covered in a green slime that was eating them alive. Kellan used his wand of cold on one and Gimli threw a couple of fire grenades to the other, killing both goblins and slime. Up the stairs we found the corpses of some gnolls and following the corridor we came outside to the ravine.

Then we came back to the pool and Kellan casted invisibility to Gimli. Gimli stripped of his armor and dived for the sinkhole. A short underwater tunnel led to another cave with an iron door. He carefully opened it and some stairs going down led to an archway with runes. He closed the door and went back to inform. Soon all the party was in this new cavern. After donning his armor Gimli went exploring ahead and as soon as he reached the archway all the party was teleported to an unknown place!

The party was in a corridor in front of a door. We opened the door and we found... an armory! We took everything we could, the goblins armed themselves to their teeth and we wet exploring. At some point we killed some spiders, found a golden ring, some gnomish whiskey and half a dozen potions. Then Kellan drank a potion of treasure finding and we begun following his directions. We explored for a log time until we found 4 dwarves and 6 gnomes in a chapel to the dwarven god of gold, gems, greed, avarice, cunning and treachery. Gimli was so excited to see his kin that forgot he was invisible and ran to hug the leader. This surprised the dwarves and gnomes who drew their weapons. The spell broke and Gimli apologized for his behavior. The dwarves offered food and drink and asked for news from outside since they lived there and guarded the passage to other parts of the castle. After that Gimli made an offering to the god and on his way back noticed a secret door. It was the door that led to the treasure they were looking for! At that point the atmosphere was thick with distrust so we left.

Only to came the following day with almost two dozen goblins and attacked the dwarves and gnomes. We opened with a volley of fire grenades and javelins before charging into melee. A huge fight followed with several dead goblins, as well as all the gnomes, and all the dwarves except two. Kellan wanted to kill them but Gimli opposed, so we looted the treasure and the bodies, tied up he prisoners and left.

Gimli got a plate mail (+1), a shield (+2) and a war hammer (+2), and also loads of gold and XPs that took him right to level 5!

Castle Zagyg - Session 3 & 4 recap

Session #3 (May 26th)

Explored a ladder in the gatehouse that went down. after a series of corridors we found four cells, one with an old goblin and another with a half-orc. We hacked at the doors to liberate them and the noise attracted the orc guards. We tried to ambush them but they retreated and came with reinforcements. Sir Digby summoned a Dimetrodon which he couldn't control. Luckily, it went after one group of orcs and we went after the other.

We could hear the sounds of the dino wreaked havoc among the orcs. Meanwhile, somewhere on the orcish compound we reached a dead end with a locked door. Behind it we could hear some grunts. The barbarian kicked the door and two wild boars ruched forward while an orc shaman casted from inside the room. The battle ended with the boars and shaman dead, but also with Sir Digby's bear mount and half-orc new retainer down. Exploring the room we found a secret room with an altar and an idol. The jeweled cup on the altar was to much for Gimli who tried to grab it, only to suffer the effects of a fear spell and leave in panic, running  as fast as his short legs allowed. The party looted the place and went to find the dwarf, which they found at the bottom of a pit with only minor bruises.

We continued exploring the dungeons and found a maze of rooms, all with four doors each. We kept to our left until we heard muffled screams from other rooms of the maze. We hurried until we entered a bigger room. The orc's screams became louder as well as the Dimetrodon's roar, so we spiked the door. The orcs died horribly and blood poured under the door.

---

Session #4 (June 8th)

I was going to write about last session but David Brawley on his blog did it pretty well:

"After introductions were made, the group decided to allow Nick to join them on their next run to pacify the local area. The whole place was honeycombed with caves, in addition to the dungeon proper.

Before heading out, the gnome decided to test some wall of death invention that he intended to bring into the dungeons with him. It exploded, taking out a couple of his goblin assistants. About the same time a group of soldiers and adventurers demanded that the adventurers turn over control of the castle to them. This request was denied - with catapult fire and a summoned wingless wyrm that had a strange spined fin on its back. The soldiers turned tail and ran, but the adventuring party split and headed around toward the back of the castle. The adventurers then suited up, picked about two dozen goblins, and gave chase to the adventurers that headed north around the castle, hiding in the woods off to that side.

The enemy adventurers took refuge in one of the already cleared out caves. Knowing of a secret back entrance, the adventurers sneaked through to the secret door, sending Nick back out with the goblins to create a pincer action. It worked exactly as planned. There was a suit of plate mail that Nick wanted to lay claim to, but the spoils went to Korath.

Departing the caves, the party then took off after the other half of the enemy party. According to the goblin lookouts, they also took refuge in one of the caves. This time however, it wasn’t one that was previously explored. The party sent in the goblins first, charging and screaming... followed immediately by the sound of about two dozen bodies hitting the floor, followed by a voice calling out in welcome.

After some negotiation the party discovered that the elves and their bodyguards are dimension hopping observers of this dungeon. Weird, but ok. They apparently trade in some of the magical items from the dungeon, which Nick’s companions took advantage of. The enemy adventurers that the party was chasing had used one of the gates into the dungeon that was within the lair of the elves. The party opted to finish clearing out the caves around the castle, rather than chase the adventurers around the dungeon.

The first cave contained a kobold lair, which the goblins sacked with relish, especially when the armory was discovered with the far superior equipment to what the goblins carried. Eventually the kobold King Wigglerock was found and his iron crown taken forcibly. There was a discussion about setting up a puppet king, but given the goblins were already under the parties command and the enmity between the goblins and kobolds it was decided that the kobold lair would be cleared. With the judicious use of flaming oil, they were quickly wiped out. In the throne room a secret door was discovered, leading to a large dirty cave, which quickly turned out to be owned by an ogre who swatted goblins like they were bugs. The ogre, in spite of his size and strength, fell to the parties combined power very quickly.

Among the other finds was a goblin prisoner from a splinter tribe. Seeing this as an opportunity to reunite the goblin tribes (and thus increase their own power) the party decided to return to the castle and show the rescued goblin how good his cousins had it. The next morning the party headed out to the caves of the splinter tribe.

Sir. Digby Chicken Caesar and the rescued goblin headed into the cave to begin negotiations. After the wild night the rescued goblin had, it didn’t take long. Clearing all the goblins out of the caves and into the castle took most of the day, but once done the party wasted no time doing a very thorough search. While the goblins had cleared out just about everything (not including their place of worship and shaman’s cave which were left alone) they apparently never discovered 2 secret doors. One opened to reveal a set of stairs guarded by a lumpy slime that seemed to ignore both fire and ice. The party resealed that door. The other door revealed a secret treasury which included much gold and several wondrous items, including an ion stone, a javelin of lightning, and a magical short sword!

Calling it a day, the party returned to the castle to divide the spoils."

Gimli lost his platemail to the grey ooze but won the ioun stone of AC +1!

Castle Zagyg - Sessions 1 & 2 recap

Session #1 (May 11th)

On our way from the pirate town of Freeport to the castle we had an encounter with about half a dozen guards from it. They all bore an insignia consisting of a "C" over two crossed swords (or was the other way around?). Anyway, Arma seemed to have a cursed sword that makes him attack anyone hostile, so into battle we went. The result: all guards killed. We looted some armor and weapons (mostly for the henchmen), coins, a horn (carried by the patrol leader) and all the insignia.

The party continued its route to the castle and before reaching it, we discussed several ways to approach the gatehouse. We agreed that the ones with the badges will pose as a returning patrol and the others would be new recruits. Luckily the barbican gaes opened and there was no need to blow the horn, since nobody remembered how many times were needed.

Once inside the gates shut behind us and a voice asked for 10 g.p. per each one to cross. After paying the toll we crossed the bridge and entered a huge open courtyard with several buildings. The most noticeable was a church-like construction with its main door flanked by two statues. Graham threw a stone at one window breaking the glass. The statues animated and closed on him, breathing fire and wielding tridents. Graham took cover behind his henchmen who died like the good meatshields they were. Graham then retreated and so did the statues.

We later checked a half-ruined house to the North and were attacked by 3 goblins. They threw their spears at us and then surrendered. They were jailors and didn't give us much information. We opened two rooms next to the jail and found ale and weapons. We got the jailors drunk and locked them in their cage.

Then we explored south and found a series of abandoned stalls until we reached one that housed a goblin merchant (pickled rats!). We went back to get the remaining beer and sold it to the merchant. Then explored a ruined tower thick with cobwebs. After burning the cobwebs a couple of spiders dropped on us. Gimli was bit by one and botched his saving throw! Luckily, Arma carried a potion of sweetwater and Gimli was saved. We found a magic ruby in the possessions of a dead body wrapped in a cocoon. After clearing the tower we commisioned a goblin carpenter to repair the door and floors. To pay him we had to buy the beer back from the merchant.

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Session #2 (May 18th)

I was going to write about last session but Joe theLawyer on his blog did it pretty well:

"The players assaulted the goblins in the gatehouse. They cleared them out in under 10 minutes of game time, in a record-breaking bloody slaughterfest. Then they did something that surprised me---after killing the "king", the one remaining surrendering goblin was appointed to "king" over all the rest of the goblins, by the players at swordpoint, with the players as his advisers.

After a couple of failed intelligence checks, it was made clear to the new king what the role of "advisers" was in relation to the king, after he was shown the bloody corpse of the old king. 

The new king made a grand proclamation of his new status to the remaining goblins, all words being under two syllables, and after promising the goblins booze and most of the former king's prostitutes, he was celebrated as the new king. The small group of humans at the outer gates were scared off, and somehow now the players control, through their goblin king, a chunk of the castle upper works."
 

Since we're going to "[...] make this into a regular campaign for the core group, while allowing any other FLAILSNAILS guys to join in if they want.[...]" there were a couple of changes in the party. With the XPs of this session Arma, the cursed elven fighter/thief, and Graham, the human monkish fighter/magic-user, both reached level 5, so they both left and were replaced by Karma (a level 4 elven fighter/thief) and Digby (a level 4 goblin magic-user). Gimli is now a level 2 fighter and has a morning star +1 that belonged to the goblin king.

Looking forward to the next session! ;)

FLAISNAILS on G+

On Friday 11th I played my first FLAILSNAILS (Free Location And Inclusion Laws Supporting New And Interesting Leisure Situations) game on G+. The game was run by JoeTheLawyer and along with Chris K., Steven G., Darcy W., Chris H., we explored Castle Zagyg!

I brought in my first character ever: Gimli of Geoff, a dwarven fighter from 1e AD&D. It was level 5 by the time he died in the Temple of the Elemental Evil. I had it toned it down to 1st level since it was my first FLAISNAILS game. The rest of the party were:

• Arma, Elven fighter/thief
• Kellan, Human illusionist
• Graham, Human monkish fighter/mage (whatever that is, LOL)
• Flak, Human fighter

I really enjoyed it a lot. Thanks guys!

EDIT: Last Friday we played again and I had a blast! Recaps of both sessions will follow soon.