Castle Amber - FLAILSNAILS

A long due session recap. On October 20th I played in the gran finale of Castle Amber game by Shawn Sanford. 

The party:

Sol Irthosian, Fighter level 6

Kellan, Illusionist level 8

Zingaro, Cleric level 3

Grogar Nox, Fighter level 1

Sir the Fist, Cleric/Fighter/Magic User levels 5/5/5

Grimpaw, Cleric level 3

Malice, Assassin level 5

After killing the blue dragon and a wyvern last session, the group continued exploring the tomb in search of Stephen Amber. Gimli kicked a door open only to find a 14' tall stone giant not happy at all to be interrupted in such a way. Kellan used his Wand of Wonders and to our fortune the giant was slowed. Everyone closed to attack it and rapidly it fell under the blows of the groups. 

He had a chest that Gimli opened with a crowbar and inside we found 5000 gp, a magical sword, an ivory scroll case and two vials. Sir the Fist rushed to read the content of the scroll case, but alas it was cursed and he turned into fly inside an amber stone. Luckily one of the clerics had a Remove Curse memorized and he was back to normal. Grogar went for the long sword and felt something when he held it. It was a sentient sword! It was a +1/+2 vs. spell users sword, but also could detect traps and invisibility at will. Meanwhile Grimpaw couldn't decide which vial taste first, and so he checked the vials for marks or tags, the he smelled them, checked their colors and consistencies, but still was undecided. Sir helped him by grabbing one and drink it. One was a Potion of Clairaudience and the other a Potion of Invisibility.

Then we found a manticore in another room and Kellan used again his Wand of Wonders, this time engulfing the whole room in darkness. Then Sir the Fist threw a Fireball into the darkened room. One of the clerics dispelled the darkness with a Light spell and everyone threw missiles at the manticore that retaliated with its dangerous spikes. After killing it we found its treasure, about 3000 gp, all melted. We cut it into nuggets and distributed it among us.

There were two doors in that room. One led to a room with fiery walls and an ember-covered floor, that we decided not to explore. The other has a small beach beyond the door and was full of water. Sir the Fist and Sol (or Grogar?) flew in the carpet and spotted a huge Great White. Someone suggested to start chumming the waters with the manticore and so we did. That lured the shark close enough to fire missiles at it while shooting at it with guns from above. We also chummed the water more with manticore poisonous spikes inside the entrails. The shark ate them and died.

Across the room another door led to a room occupied by a 5-headed hydra! Several intents to attack it from the carpet went wrong. Kellan suggested to go invisible. He cast Greater Invisibilty on Gimli and Sir flew it to the hydra. While Gimli battled single-handed the hydra, Sir flew Grimpaw, then Sol, and the Sir himself descended. The hydra was soon dead.

From there a single door led to the tomb of Stephen Amber. A tapestry hung behind the coffin and Sol prompted us to burn it. We did so and a robed man with a golden crown appeared. We had saved the king!
Everything vanished in a mist and we were all back to the castle, where the king tanked us all and produced from his robes valued gifts for everyone.

Gimli got a ring worth 10000 gp and Malice the Elf Assassin with his gift was able to pay his debt to the dwarf. 

Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad - Sessions 1 & 2

Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad is a campaign played every Thursday on G+ Hangouts by Edgar Johnson and Adam Muszkiewicz using Dungeon Crawl Classics. We played two sessions and so far it's been a blast!

This is my first time playing DCC and beginning with four 0-level characters is really fun, since the variety lets you do things that couldn't be done with only one character. It's a simple game system and the game fast-paced. I begun with a corn farmer, a dwarven miner, an urchin and a minstrel. The urchin died on the first session and the corn farmer on the second.

Session 1: http://revdoctoredj.blogspot.com/2012/10/metal-gods-of-ur-hadad-session-1.html

Session 2: http://revdoctoredj.blogspot.com/2012/11/metal-gods-of-ur-hadadcrypt-of-lizard.html

Era RPG Game Intro @ DriveThruRPG

In April 2012 my friend Gerardo Tasistro created UY RPG Publications, and now is launching a preview of its first creation, the Era RPG:

Click to download

"This booklet will introduce you to the basic mechanics and game play for Era in the Imperium setting.  Imperium is set in the world of Raakad.  A mixture of Greek and Roman cultures, crisscrossed by nomadic tribes, mystical forest creatures, elves, dwarves and foul orcs."

Now available for downloading at DriveThruRPG!

Hidden Temple of the Five - FLAILSNALS

Last week along with +Gerardo Tasistro, we took up +James Aulds offer to enter the "Hidden Temple of the Five" for a quick one shot. James wanted to test it before showing it to his group.

A mudslide on the side of a hill known as "The Pit Hill" which revealed a flight of steps going down into the depths. Morgan the Barbarian, Antii the Specialist and his follower Lutka the Fighter explored the place. I came with this map but seriuoslyI doubt it is accurate:

This was James' feedback after the session (my comments between brackets):

"general dunegeneering common sense, spiking doors, probing with poles (100xp)

using brazier boats and not becoming giant catfish food (100xp) [It was a cool idea I guess, and we were lucky in our rolls too.]

[Regarding the brazier boats Gerardo said later on a post: "I did not take my armor off while crossing an underground river on a bronze disk for a boat. I mean, my character was an INT 7 barbarian so OK, maybe I was playing character, but to be honest it didn't spring in my mind to warn the other player."]

defeating sake para elemental (375xp) [It rose from mouldy rice and water!]

gemstones (8) in 4 pairs (total 315 gp) [We found this in the garbage after killing the sake elemental.]

• red pair (80gp)
• green pair (70gp)
• yellow pair (120gp)
• small blue pair (45 gp)

trying to talk to/taunt a ghoul (10xp) [It emerged from one of five leather covered pits and after trying that, we fled. Luckly because there were five of them!]

fleeing bettles (25xp) [They were under the sand guarding six stone statues, and appeared when Antii went to try to put the gems back into the statues' eyes. He tried several times and when he failed. James said: "You know, they might not be magical gems..." :)]

burning the mold room (150xp)

totals 430xp for each player and 215 xp for the henchmen

yall were not really in much danger at anytime with your levels since i did it for a 1st level group but thank you for popping it open

the towns folk are raising a group to try to kill the five armed ghoul now, they will most likely meet the goblins that are being sent in after yall tomorrow night, and a catfish and some irritated beetles"

We had a great time and would definitely like to play with the guys again.

Familiar bags

This magic item is based on this article by Erik Tenkar. Art by Teo Tayobobayo.

The Familiar Bags, are a set of three tiny leather saddlebags with bronze buckles, the size of a small pouch, that can be strapped to the back of the spell caster's familiar. Each bag can hold 2 cubic feet or 10 pounds of material. In that way the caster can can store spell components, vials, potions or even coins and gems. 

A set of Familiar Bags weights 3 pounds and costs 1250 gold pieces.