"The Core" - FLAILSNAILS game on G+

On Tuesday night we ventured into "The Core", a megadungeon set inside a (dormant?) volcano created by +Chris Kusel.

On the first foray it was just Finloss, a half elven fighter/thief level 1/1 (AD&D ), and his henchmen Orion, a 1st level human enchanter (3.5e). Since Chris was using Castle & Crusades plus some D&D/Hackmaster tweaks, it was not a problem the characters were from different editions.

As far as we know, there are two possible entrances to "The Core", a main entrance through a temple and a "backdoor" through a lava chute. We decided to take the last one. This natural chute went down and deep into the mountain, until it became clear it has been worked out. Doors and side corridors appeared. Ignoring a door on the left of the main tunnel, we took a side corridor to the right until we reached a door. Finloss listened and heard voices on the other side. Anticipating trouble Orion casted Mage Armor on himself. Then Finloss yanked the door open and surprised 3 humans playing cards and drinking around a table. Orion casted Sleep and they fell into a deep slumber. They were quickly stripped of armor, weapons and other possessions, then tied and gagged. They are bore a symbol resembling fangs which identified a demonic cult responsible for several attacks and disappearances in the surrounding area. That was enough reason to slain them in their sleep.

A door led to another room which contained the beds and trunks of the guards. We rummaged through their belongings taking any valuable. Another door opened into a more lavishly furnished room. A stand with a book and a padlocked trunk stood out. Finloss easyly opened the lock but suspecting the trunk trapped, opened it carefully and a dart shot from inside, missing him. In the trunk he found a couple of potions, a silver circlet wrappend in cloth, and a pouch of coins. Orion inspected the book which resulted to be a spellbook! We grabbed all these things and before leaving spiked a door that exited the room with a dagger. We took the bundles with armor and weapons from the guards and quickly left the place.

On our way out we encountered some strange red round creatures, two feet wide, several eyes, a pair of appendages they used to crawl, and a maw full of pointy teeth. When they closed to melee Orion casted Burning Hands and they exploded damaging both Finloss and Orion. The pair of adventurers now badly wounded rushed out of the dungeons praying they didn't encounter anyone on their way back to town.

They reached the nearby town safely, and spent several days healing their wounds, and selling and inspecting their loot. The spellbook had wizard spells Sleep, Identify, Tenser Floating Disc, Jump and Magic Missile. The next day he casted Identify on the circlet, which resulted to be a Circlet of Persuasion. The potions were of Cure Light Wounds and Invisibility. After that they were ready for a second incursion.

This time they were joined by a redheaded elven 4th level fighter named Etan. The trio went again into the dungeons through the "backdoor" entrance. They went to the same place they've been on the previous foray. Finloss listened at the door and heard voices. Orion sent his rat under the door but it came back scurrying, so the party left and went back to the main tunnel.

The tunnel widened like a funnel with corridors that opened left and right. They checked the first on the left. It went straight and led to two sets of double doors. Theone on the right were of polished metal with no hinges or handles. The one on the left were wooden and richly carved. These opened into a huge domed amphitheater. We descended the terraces and upon reaching what would be the stage level Finloss found a secret door. He crawled into a tight space and came behind the curtain into a place full of ropes, pulleys and counterweights and two one-way secret doors opened back into the amphitheater.

On the stage there were two doors one on each side. Etan listened at one and heard nothing. Finloss listened at the other and heard some rustles. The party prepared to open it, Etan at the front with shield and sword, Finloss from second rank with his spear and Orion behind ready after casting Mage Armor on himself. Inside of what used to be a dressing room, there were four masked humanoids that slowly advanced towards the door. They all fell under Etan's sword, Finloss's spear and Orion's Magic Missile and Ray of Frost. Nothing of value there, but in the other dressing there were some jewels (ring, earrings and bracelet) to be found, and hidden among the clothes a spear engraved with runes. The group left and decided to inspect the metal doors that, when pushed sideways open easily. The room was also metallic and on one wall there was a triangular indentation.

Back in the main corridor, the party explored the next passage on the left. It led to an octagonal room with a big diamond in the center. Everyone smelled trap and left the diamond alone, but searched the room finding two secret doors. Exploring one of them, they found a corridor that had two doors at the end. One room was empty, but in the other 6 skeletons were guarding 3 teak wood trunks, so combat ensued. The undead were soon but a pile of bones, and the party dragged the trunks full of silver to the main passage.

They were at it when up ahead, a couple of hobgoblins emerged from the wall! They commanded the party to surrender but Etan ignored and tauntingly turned her back on them. The hobs took the bait and charged. Etan turned and fired a couple of arrows at them. On fell on the spot and the other, wounded, turned to flee. Another arrow flew and the creature fell. Upon inspection the group found they were carrying a sealed bag with coins. The seal bore the fangs of the cult. It was then that Finloss came with a plan: impersonate the hobgoblins and take the bag to the guards to catch them off-guard.

So they did, and when the guards opened, Orion casted Sleep on them. This time all fell except one, so Etan fired an arrow at him, hitting, and Finloss charged with his spear, missing. The guard took his mace and attacked Finloss hitting him really hard. Etan interposed between them and attacked the guard, almost killing him. He surrendered, so they bound and gagged him. They then stripped all of weapons, armor and possessions, and killed the sleeping guards. Finloss drank the Potion of Cure Light Wounds, and the group left dragging the trunks behind.

Once in town they delivered the prisoner, a cleric of the cult, to the authorities and claimed the reward. Inspecting all the loot, the bracelet and spear were magic, a Bracelet of Shadows (+2 AC) and a Spear of Pinning.

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!), ...

Rust - TPK

What follows is Greg Chrstopher's recap as posted in G+:

"[Alex] avoided a TPK last night. [His] character survived by going back to town with a cough. "

"First, they tried to go aggro on the ghouls again. This resulted in Gerardo being shot at point blank range by two guys with shotguns. He survived only by the grace of metal armor. But he was captured, along with Gabriel, and the door was closed again. Gabriel was offered a deal to go south and kill some farmers, if he did that they would release Gerardo after he healed up from his wounds (they treated him).

So they went south, pretended to be nice to the farmers, got a warm meal, and then had a whispered conversation on the porch about killing all the farmers. They didn't realize one of the farmer's kids was under the porch until he tossed a grenade up there.

Ray grabbed the grenade but couldn't throw it in time. He was reduced to a bloody mess with 1 hp. Gabriel opened the door into the house, unloaded a full clip and hit only... 1 dude. For 4 damage, which was stopped by armor. So.... Gabriel took a barrage of fire from 8 people and was critically wounded. Then Jason, sensing he was about to die, threw Ray's broken body over his shoulder and ran to the end of the porch. The chief farmer came around the corner with a shotgun and dropped him, killing Ray with the splash damage.

Then, standing over the two wounded PCs, he said....

"Bobby, go fire up the woodchipper".

And then the session ended.

Well, it ended after I described Gerardo getting a fighter jet that the ghouls had in their base up and running, but he crashed it into the ground. There is an inside joke there, but I have written enough here for now :)"


EDIT:

whoop whoop
whoop whoop
terrain terrain
pull up
pull up
whoop whoop

:)

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."

Rust

Last Tuesday (July 3rd) night we continued playtesting +Greg Chistopher's RUST RPG.

A tiny UAV appeared near the antenna, so Alex and I decided to follow it. It went south across Highway 40 and into some hills. It reached a small valley where it met a robot and it perched to its shoulder, then walked away until they came to what looked like a storage door on the side of a hill. The door opened and the robot entered. As the door came down we ran for it, but Alex fell behind. I entered just as the door closed behind me. Pitch black. Just the sound of the robot walking ahead. I lit a flashlight pointing down.

"What's that light?", says a voice in the dark.

I turned it down and moved to the side following the door. Footsteps approach. The sound of a lever being pulled and the door starts to open. On the outside Alex moves closer to the side of the door pistol ready. Two ghouls (like in Fallout), one with a shotgun and one with a pistol, point their weapons at me.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?", the ghoul with the shotgun asks.

"Nothing, just exploring. I followed the robot", I answer holding my hands up.

"He looks suspicious, let's take it to Ames. Got any gun?", say the other ghoul.

I slowly got my pistol out and throw it outside. BLAM! BLAM BLAM! The ghoul with the shotgun gets shot in the head and drops dead. BLAM! BLAM BLAM! The other ghoul goes down heavily wounded. I pull out my combat knife and put it on his throat.

"Drop your weapon or you are dead!", I say to the wounded ghoul.

The sound of a lever being pulled and the door starts to shut. BLAM! A shot hits near me as I roll outside. The door shuts down.

We've pissed the ghouls. Next time we'll send the guy with the fireman's axe.

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!

Rust

Last Tuesday we enjoyed play testing on G+ Hangouts, +Greg Christopher's new post-apocalyptic RPG game called Rust. Character creation was easy (abilities, survival & technical skills, equipment) and we got playing right away. I liked the skill mechanics and combat tactics.

The game was sandbox style: a town on a highway-river crossing, a small map of the surroundings and some rumors. What else do you need? Thanks +Gerardo Tasistro, +Alex Mayo, +Jason Hobbs and +Ray Case for a great time and Greg for putting this game up!

Until next Tuesday.

P.S: And we also used +Tabletop Forge!

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.

---

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.

Maure Castle game in Google+ Hangout

Last Saturday night, and after a year, we got back together to play some Dungeons & Dragons. Thanks to Google+ Hangout, five players from four different countries (Uruguay, Panama, Mexico and Ireland) gathered around a virtual table. I think we're participating in a revolution on how RPGs are being played.

We also took the opportunity to test the Tabletop Forge app ( http://tabletopforge.com/). Everyone liked the app and we successfully used the dice roller and combat tracker, but had some issues with the battle map and one of the players had some problems with his Internet connection (Telmex: you suck!).

The party continued the exploration of the Chamber of Antiquities (Dragon #124), one of the many levels under the ruins of Maure Castle.

Kentsui Inowe, Human (Mnk14)

Quinath Leafholder, Elf (Ftr4/Wiz8/Sps2)

Kamar, Human (Ftr6/EWM1/Ken7)

Kir'Orist Mithalvarin, Elf (Clr9/Lor6)

Jerry, Human (Rog14)

Last session, a year ago, Inowe almost got killed by a creature they identified as a hordling and the party decided to go to the Free City of Greyhawk. There the group contacted former member Orist (cleric of Boccob) and hired the services of Jerry, a skilled rogue. Denar, a cleric of Heironeous, stayed in the city (the player couldn't join the game). The group returned to the castle and picked up where they left. From there they explored a meeting room with an ornated large wooden table surrounded by a dozen of also ornate wooden chairs that bore an stylized M. An iron door led to another room with five statues of armor-clad warriors surrounding a low pedestal. Atop of the pedestal was a crystal box with a sparkling ring inside. Quinath send an unseen servant to retrieve the box, but when it picked it up the statues animated and destroyed the servant. Inowe threw one of the chairs at the box and knocked it from the pedestal, leaving it out of sight. She then tried to hook it with her kama but to no avail. Seen that Quinath cast invisibility on his homunculus and fly on himself. The homunculus flew close to the ceiling (10' high) until it was above the box. Meanwhile Quinath flew also close to the ceiling until he saw the box. The statues animated and two of them closed on Quinath. One of them jumped and managed to land a blow with his bastard sword. Quinath cast levitate on the box and flew from the room, but not before one of the guardians hit him again. The box levitated to the ceiling and the homunculus pushed it towards the door. The guardians followed Quinath but Orist cast stone shape and made a semi-circular 6' high wall on the door to prevent that.

Jerry the rogue examined the box for traps while Kamar stood in guard in case the guardians decided to follow. Quinath cast Grease on the wall in case the guardians managed to climb across. Orist recognized the ring as a Dragon Eye ring. while at it one guardian managed to climb the wall but fell due to the Grease and was hacked down by Kamar. The same fate met the second guardian. Quinath then flew back into the room and cast Cone of Cold on the remaining three guardians. Two reached the wall and one managed to hit Quinath who cast Wall of Fire on them and retreated. Those two guardians climbed the wall and jumped on Kamar who managed to kill one. Orist cast Harm on the other killing him. The remaining guardian returned to his post by the altar and back to stone.

And with that ended the Hangout. :)

Joe Black

This character was created for a Google+ Hangout game using the Hollowpoint set of rules (GM: John Johnson).

He's a 35 y.o. ex-military (sniper) member of the Monster Hunter International agency.

Traits:
1. Memento of your first monster encounter?
Werewolf tooth necklace.
2.  You don't have a lot of scruples, but you would "never do this".
Shoot women or children.
3. That one time in Utah you took a souvenir...
A bible. He collects bibles from motels.
4. This is a hard job, but you love it because "you get to do this".
Love to kill monsters more than people (but he'll do it if he has to).
5. You're a pro and you know you're a pro because you always "do this".
Always get the job done whatever it takes.

Skills:
Kill - 5
Dig - 4
Take - 3
Con - 2
Cool - 1
Terror - 0

Mission:
Primary Objective - Retrieve or destroy "The Nameless Book", an ancient arcane tome stolen from the Monster Hunter International's vaults.
Secondary Objective - Neutralize a former MHI agent known as "The Scorpion", who had gone rogue and supposedly took the tome.

Status:
Wounded on the shoulder (OUT).

Musings from the Dungeon: Hollowpoint: Review & Actual Play report

Last Saturday I joined my first Google+ gaming Hangout. It was a game using the Hollowpoint system which I've read reviews about it but never tried before. It was something completely different from what I've played before. Simple and fast character creation allows the players to jump right into the action.

On the following link you can read about a more complete review about the system and the game report by John Johnson the GM: Musings from the Dungeon: Hollowpoint: Review & Actual Play report:

Gaming Hangouts on Google+

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