Monday, February 26, 2024

GaryCon XVI Schedule

I finally got my tickets for some games at GaryCon XVI. Not all the games I wanted (diamond, platinum and gold badges got to pick first) but alas.  



On Thursday I'll play "The Sample Dungeon" - Introduced by Dr. J. Eric Holmes in the Basic Edition of Dungeons and Dragons (1977) was the springboard to realms of imagination many of us were first introduced to with that blue book. Come drink from the cup of nostalgia and again venture into the ruined tower of Zenopus.

Nothing better that some old school game to start the convention.

For Friday I got tickets for "The Doom Beneath Welkwood Part One (Greyhawk)" - lways spring and the leaves never change color, corruption has crept in. A mysterious druid who lived in an immense grove of roanwood trees and guarded the forest has vanished. An adventure for 4th level (10,000 XP) characters. 

Being a Greyhawk fan since I started playing D&D back in 1988, I'm really looking forward to it. 

Saturday will be the main course! "Legends of Wargaming: Battle of Brown Hills" - This Chainmail fantasy scenario by Gary Gygax was first played by the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association and the Castle & Crusades Society in 1971. Session will be run at 330 Center St. in the same basement where Gary played it 50 years ago! Test your tactical skills in this exciting miniatures game at the roots of Dungeons & Dragons. 

This would be my first miniature game ever. It's a paid event ($50) but totally worth it to celebrate D&D's 50th Anniversary.

The final game on Sunday will be another miniatures game "Ford Over Troubled Waters" - Orcs/goblins hold Castle Ost! The Civilized Races hold Giant's Keep. Between them is lie the ruins of the old Fordhold, with a dragon living there! Who will take Fordhold? Who will defeat the dragon and claim its hoard? Take one of two sides and fight to the finish using Chaos Wars: a fun set of old school miniatures rules with lots of 25mm Ral Partha figures on the table! Prizes awarded to players!

It is run by Michael "Chgowiz" Shorten a long time online friend who I will finally meet in person at the convention. 

The schedule leaves plenty of room to play pickup games and meet new people and old friends I met at GenCon back in 2014. 

Monday, December 11, 2023

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. 

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

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.

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

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!

Sunday, September 24, 2023

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...

Thursday, August 10, 2023

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!

Monday, July 31, 2023

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!

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

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.

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Virtual Greyhawk Con 4

 




Friday, June 30, 2023

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.

Friday, January 14, 2022

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. 

Saturday, December 11, 2021

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



Friday, December 10, 2021

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 

Thursday, December 09, 2021

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.

Wednesday, December 08, 2021

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 DQ 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.

Tuesday, December 07, 2021

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 



Monday, December 06, 2021

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

Monday, September 27, 2021

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.



Saturday, September 25, 2021

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.






Friday, September 17, 2021

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.


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