Magicking Up the Magic Missile (for Shadowdark)

Ok, now that my co-players have been whining about Shadowdark magical casting, it's my turn. Or Bloggah's turn, at least.

"Hey! Look at this! I found this old tome in your archives! It has all sorts of magic!"

"Um, that's my AD&D Player's Handbook. And I'd appreciate if you didn't get mouse pâte, or whatever it is you're eating, on the pages."

"Just a moment.... I could have three magic missiles? What is this sorcery?!?" 

"Well, some of the rules scale the spell at higher levels."

"Where can I get some of that?"

"Tim said you'd have to do some research."

"Bah! If I knew there would be reading involved, I would have just kept that cursed bow!" 

***

So yeah, at the end of last night's session we were kibitzing on how some spells scale in Shadowdark, but not others. For instance Dremont (Ken) is rolling multiple d6s for his Cure Wounds spell at this point. But, as is expected of a TTRPG, homebrewing happens, and Tim tasked Bloggah (or me) with coming up with a scaled Magic Missile spell worthy(?) of Shadowdark.

I came up with three:

Magic Missile and Magic Missile Accessories (For Shadowdark)

Magic Missile is a cornerstone of any self-respecting wizard's spell-book. So much so, that the spell has earned a permanent ADV status among the spells, allowing a bit more ease in manipulation of the arcane forces required to cast it out into the fray.

That said, any number of mages from various schools, collectives, and haunts have experimented with bolstering this rather pedestrian spell to better represent the powers and skills of its caster. In other words, to make a bigger, badder, boom.

Of the variants, three casting adaptations have emerged to take lead among the choices. 

All spell variations have Duration and Range as per Magic Missile and may be cast with ADV spellcasting check once learned.

1. The Bigger Caliber: At 3rd, 5th, and 7th levels, the missile damage die size is increased by one (d6, d8, d10, respectively). The spellcasting DC remains as Tier 1 (DC11).

2. The Bigger Missile: At 3rd, 5th, and 7th levels, the damage of the missile increases by one d4 (2d4, 3d4, 4d4, respectively). DC increases according to spell tier.

3. The “Mirv:” At 3rd, 5th, and 7th levels, the number of missiles is increased by one (2, 3, and 4, respectively). The missiles may be individually targeted, or all focused on a single target. DC increases according to spell tier. No one knows where this nickname came from.

Note: Due to the unpredictability and mutability of arcane energies, any individual mage must select one version of the spell to specialize in once they advance to 3rd level. To learn the selected advanced Magic Missile variant, the mage must successfully make a Tier 3 (DC14) spellcasting check. Failure means that they are stuck with the basic version, and have a sneaking suspicion that other spellcasters are giggling about them behind their back.

Note 2: Not playtested. Cast at your own risk. The Scorn Chapter of the Guild of Arcane Knowledge accepts no responsibility or liability for spell mishaps, performance anxiety, singed eyebrows, or rifts in the space-time continuum.

BAZAP!

Campaign Journal: Wherein Slick Goes Poking About

 Full house, keeping their heads down at the Chalice and Cock inn:

• Slick: Thief
• Fred: Thief
• Fulvus: Halfling
• Jax: Barbarian
• Orzu: Gnome
• Rondel: Elf

The city just felt different. More troops billeted in the bivouac areas outside of the walls. Fiery speeches from the steps of the temple extolling the City's and Theocracy's right to the western lands and duty to push back both Chaos and the forces of Chirath and the Hougan Duchy. Just the good ol' general beating of the drums of war.

Yo, listen up!

Ideas were bandied about as to how to seek out old contacts, possible allies. Brother Sigeric was known to have been incarcerated by the Council, but perhaps some of his 'orphans' were still about. The military commander, Alonso Ngom, had seemed amicable during their last sojourn in town, but now? The surviving rescued patrol members had shared info in the past, and Petre Gagua had shared a copy of the patrol's journal with the party. The Council was a no-go, after the last interactions. And those Paragons of the Comet were a bunch of assholes.

Frederick questioned Burga, the establishment's owner. She knew that St. Vivinna's Home for the Wayward was under new management, but a couple of the 'orphans' happened to work in her kitchen. She sent out word, and a few made themselves available to get a feeling of the word on the street.

It was confirmed that Sigeric was still at the temple's dungeon, getting 'reeducated.' Time for some recon. Does this city have sewers? Most certainly. Anyone who might be a guide? I know someone, but she's an odd duck. We're used to that.

Mini Review: Nuul Dice & Hexacube Dice

Behold, the Dice Goblin approacheth.

Picked up a couple of sets of math rocks recently, and sharing my thoughts on them for you, my dear reader(s).

First off, the Nuul 2d6 pair. I was alerted of these via an Agranak Studios video. As an unrepentant aficionado of the 2d6 reaction roll and its various uses, I picked up a pair from Tower House Creative via their Etsy page. The original run was 250 sets, and as of this writing, the dice are still available.

I received the dice, along with an instruction insert, bookmark (currently in my Shadowdark rules holding the 'Wizards Mishaps' page), a sticker, and a couple of random dice.  

The dice are a good quality resin in a dark pearlescent green ('malachite' per the maker). Each is a d6 with numeral outlined with an icon. The purpose of the icon is to give information on the reaction and personality of an NPC. For instance, a 'skull' icon represents hostile or chaotic, and a 'mist' icon represents uncertain or neutral. The icons may be read singularly, or in pairs. The dice come with instructions on interpretations of the paired rolls (in a d66 format!) to provide suggested reactions or behaviors.

They Met at a Tavern 6: Into the Macceum Sewers

Last-minute Meetup game on Veteran's Day, since the Shadowdark campaign took the week off. I had two players sign up, but only one showed - Brian, a Repeat Offender. The Shorter Half was also present. Run for whoever shows. 

We were set up for a Shadowdark session, and with two players, I had Brian pick two PCs from the pile. 

• Brian: Gashyakh, half-orc priest, and Ham Biddulph, halfling thief
• Seana: Muckdakk, half-orc fighter

All were boosted to 2nd level.

The three were introduced as recent arrivals in an unnamed City. As non-citizens, there were few legitimate job opportunities. But the Sewer Patrol was always hiring...

Some time ago, I cobbled together the Macceum Sewer II, a rewrite of a Tim Shorts creation. I'd never run it, although I'd gotten a message or two from people who had with some success. 

Anyway...

The three "heroes" hiked up their waders and took their Sewer-Patrol issued shovels and slime-scrapers (pay docked if they would lose a tool) and headed into a section of the City's sewer to inspect and perhaps clear out a bit of vermin.

D66 MORE Ways to Die

Death is not unique. But occasionally some of the forms in which it approaches are at least uncommon or unexpected...

Boo!

So we return to the terminal randomness of the D66 table for several other ways for a PC to take leave of the mortal realm...

Download me here

This one borrowed a bit from the Fiend Folio, among other occurrences...

Byeee!

Note: I'm currently reading The Book of Elsewhere, co-written by Keanu Reeves (yes) and China Mieville, centering around an 80,000 year old warrior who can be killed, but who cannot die. If that makes sense. About 2/3 of the way through - it's getting... interesting. Oh, and there's and equally unkillable babirusa...

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Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog Part 9 - Wherein Bloggah Becomes an Archer

Hey Bloggah, nice bow. Hadn't noticed you carry it before.

What do you mean? I've always had this bow. It's an old family heirloom.

Are you sure? And why do I smell roses?

****

Ok, so we woke up, good and early, and recovered from the skullchildren adventure of the day before. Something told us that we needed to venture back into the Harrowing, but we weren't really in the mood yet...

Columbo was already out the door, off shopping, probably. We might as well do the same. I was still curious about that spell cast on the creepy kids. Only one place in town that might be able to help with that, so I took Nigel's advice and went down to the Guild of Arcane Knowledge. Tarin and Dremont, not having anything better to do, tagged along. 

The place is pretty snazzy. Tower (of course) surrounded by a wall pierced with arches. People milling around, looking like they're on business. I go up to a guy in a robe with a bad cold, ask him about the spell. He doesn't know, sneezes into his sleeve, asks if I'm a member. Nope.

Ok, I gotta sign up. Go down the hall, turn right, not left. That's cause left looked something like this:

Bigger on the inside and all that. 

Ok, right was the recruitment office. Got the spiel, signed with the bloody thumbprint, turned over a few coins. Asked them about the spell, got sent back across the hall. You guys got a scroll for this? 

They go looking to see what they can find. In the meantime, I look around. What's on the counter over here?

Interesting, a bow. Too bad it's not my thing. Hmm, smells like roses. Interesting. I'll just take a closer look. 

Interesting. This is my family's heirloom bow, originally owned by my seven-greats-grandfather Bagwell. It has never left my hand. 

I walk out. The clerks are making some commotion behind me. Maybe they mislabeled something in their card catalog.

Campaign Journal: You're Sailing Back to Where?!?

 Let's see, who's standing on the beach?

• Slick: Thief
• Fred: Thief
• Fulvus: Halfling
• Jax: Barbarian
• plus various extras

The party stood on the bloody beach as the carrion birds began to circle and dusk approached. Xandra Ironhide's surviving dwarven marines dragged back to their ship, where the rowers, exhausted by Rondel's haste spell awaited. They were not moving until at least morning.

Fine. Slick had a roll-call to make with his newly pressed crew, and we might as well take advantage of the camp. Slick counted out the eight surviving sailors of his new ship. Six were normal humans, and two showed signs of mutation (scales and beast-eyes, respectively). A couple of the crew also had some useful skills, such as sketchy portside contacts and questionable surgical skills. A fine start to a seafaring life...

The camp was tossed a bit more prior to bedtime, revealing logbooks, a spellbook, and a couple of jars containing mysterious substances. Probably nothing to be concerned about, here in a Chaos mutant camp...

The party slept. As they slumbered, Jax had a vision. She found herself looking over the shoulder of an armored knight. From the surrounding fog emerged a veiled figure accompanied by three great cats. She addressed the knight, and Jax found herself a mere observer. “I see Chaos rising again. Not since I intercepted part of Medeg's comet has it been this active.” The knight nodded. “And you have a new bearer. This one's not a knight, but seems honorable... They are seeking to recover the Barrier. That is good. I feel that my followers in the north also are seeking this knowledge, but something had fogged my vision of them. 

"Two things to remember. First: remember where the armies fell. That may be of aid. And when reconstructing the lenses, remember the shards. For like finds like, and some Chaos may be necessary..." With that, the vision ends. Nothing like a god to be helpfully cryptic.

The rest of the night passed quietly, except for a pair of scavenging monitor lizards. Slick was going to leave them un-accosted, but when they lost interest in the battle dead and began to enter camp, he decided murder needed to happen. Fulvus and others joined, and the two reptiles were slain (+1 head for the brewery wall).

The two ships sailed back to the dwarven island of Thaehaspho in the morning, uneventfully.

The Potato Barons, A Shorts Interlude

Damnit Tim. 

First of all, you tempt poor Bloggah in the Guild of Arcane Lore, then you post up this perfectly cromulent little map, complete with the descriptive sentence: "Two potato farmers, brothers Burke and McHale, have several acres of potatoes. They have titled themselves the Potato Barons."

Fine, a brief bit of freewriting to occupy my evening and expand upon my flippant comments on your Reddit posts...

***

Two potato farmers, brothers Burke and McHale, have several acres of potatoes. They've dubbed themselves the Potato Barons. A decade ago, they homesteaded the acreage under a land charter from the local baron, Ser Erasmus Cludge. The land has been generous to the two farmers, and they easily raise a surplus of tubers to support themselves beyond the baron's annual tithes. Their groaning carts of potatoes are a welcome sight at the local markets in the summer and autumn, particularly as winter begins to set in and folks stock up their root cellars.

Their homes are set up along the trade road on the north shore of the local stream, Bruderware Creek. The stream provides irrigation water (and the occasional giant frog). Burke, a lifelong bachelor, has a compact house. Out front are his storehouse/tool shed and private distillery, in which he concocts a reasonably good vodka for sale, gifts, and bribes for the local tax collector. McHale's home is a larger two-story structure, which also incorporates a stable for the brothers' draft animals. McHale, his wife Lizzy, and their son Arejay sleep in a mezzanine over the stable. Both homes are surrounded by low walls of mortared river stone.

Several years ago, an ankheg was causing problems for the farmers. A group of wandering heroes were able to defeat the beast. In reward for assisting them, Burke and McHale, gave the adventurers a cart full of potatoes. Surprisingly, the party was very happy with the reward. 

In defense against any other ankheg incursions, as well as roaming ruffians/adventuring parties, Burke and McHale have contracted with local conjurer-artificer Skandeleous Krank to create guardians to fend off threats. Krank, always a proponent of “Conjure Locally,” produced for them a pair of potato-golems to watch over their fields... 

Hey, you work with what you got...

Say Hi to Burke and McHale here

(Complete with monster stats and a bit of surprise artwork)

Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog Part 8: Children of the Scorn

Title blatantly stolen from Joe and Paul.

Whoa, you look rough. 

Tell me about it... Damned kids...

(Note: Bloggah has missed a couple-few sessions due to work and travel)

***

So there we were, standing on the edge of the Harrow. We looked at the decrepit and collapsed buildings as the fog cleared. This place needs some urban renewal...

Creeping through a vacant lot, we find ourselves surrounded by a bunch of kids with skull faces, or skull masks. Is it a holiday?

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One approaches with another of those accursed cards. Columbo lets the kid slide it onto his shield, in case it explodes. Nope. I look at it. Image of the Forest Spirit on one side (lot of good it will do here) and an old, complex sigil on the back. Something to do the the Ash Elves, I hear.

Are they going to attack us? Of course they're going to attack us...

Fine.

D66 Ways to Die

Howdy all,

Out of town on family matters, so delayed on posting up various game session reports and other meanderings. But I did plan ahead and stashed a couple of new lists for placeholders and postings in the meantime:

Oh what could this be about?

Oh, the myriad ways for out PCs to die - some glorious, most ignomious. A preliminary list of deaths and demises. A few of which I've experienced or witnessed in game sessions of yore. 

Download it here

And don't worry, if you don't find your PC's chosen doom, I've got another list floating about.

Surprise!

D66 Ships

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It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted due to work travel and a few days at the farm, setting things of fire (mostly on purpose).

Now that the party (particularly Slick) has a ship, let's have a list of ships that may be encountered in dock or on the high seas as your party adventures around their respective globe... 

So have some ships, their features, and a few suggested forms:

Download me here

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Many descriptions I used, as well as other ship forms and illustrations, may be found here.

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This post was brought to you with the support of Athena.

The party will be trying out their new ship during this week's session. Its new name TBA...

Campaign Journal: A Not-So Idyll Isle

Full house for the session:

• Jax - Barbarian
• Fulvus - Halfling
• Rondel - Elf
• Frederick - Thief
• Orzu - Gnome
• Slick - Thief 

We opened with Slick, Orzu, and Jax returning to port with their shipload of goods and evidence of servant-manikin trade to Chirath. 

In the meantime, Frederick, Fulvus, and Rondel were in the dwarven archives with Snorri Barrelbranch and a number of other archivists. They had located ledgers documenting dates and names associated with the original Barrier lens crafting, as well as the factions who had commissioned the work. 

As they pored over the volumes, Rondel's elf eyes caught movement among the shelves and folios. An individual, camouflaged against the background, momentarily visible as their camo adjusted to their shifting position. Rondel let off an arrow, followed by Fulvus, alerted to the commotion. The intruder expired, their hue-shifting skin fading with them. 

Everyone was looking over the body, when a cry let loose from Snorri and his assistants. The archivist clutched at a wound, yelling that the ledger was stolen. A second, similarly attributed intruder fled the archives, book in hand. Rondel got a shot off, but the interloper fled. The party followed the cries and commotion, finally reaching the docks just as the intruder dove into the water, being pursued by a hail of spears and arrows. 

Just as the pirate gallery rolled in. Look what we got! Who cares? We gotta go - the ledger's been stolen! Rondel cast locate object, sensing the book moving away to the west before fading out of range.

The PCs all hopped onto Xandra Ironhide's smaller galley, back-rowing out into the open. This boat only rowed and sailed. No fancy steam propulsion on this one. A sail was seen disappearing into a fog bank - That's our prey.

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D66 Wands

Back with more D66 mischief. This time - magic wands!

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Roll up a wand's power, what it is constructed of, and any fancy embellishments to give it that "special something."

The Wands Are Here

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And for more D66 goodness, feel free to peruse my "Baker's Dozen of D66 Lists."

Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog Part 7: The Road to Scorn

Oop – new file on the the tablet. Let's see what it holds. And why does my tablet smell like rotted cabbage?

***

Time to leave Hounds Head. The guys are done with the forest for the time being. Don't blame them. The town is buttoning up for winter anyhow. I drop my loose silver with the kin, no reason to have it loading me down. Everyone loads their packs – goodbye for now.

It's Columbo, Dremont, Burns and Gunrey, and me.

South of town, we run into a dozen mercs. Yellow Falcon banner. Their captain, a halfing called Millicent Stout, says they are headed to Hounds to winter there and do some work for Ivanoff. Columbo offers to sell her the map to the northman barrow, might as well unload that bit of cursed parchment. He's not too keen with math, but we each finally get fifteen silver out of the deal. Millicent gives us some news of Scorn, where to watch our step and all that. Burns, the stabby kid, asks about their corps, and she gives him a coin to show the guard, maybe get him some honest training.

On the way past, a goblin cousin laboring under a towering pack tosses me a crystal hook. Might be useful he says. I tell him where to find the kin, and he thanks me and stomps off after the rest of the “Falcons.”

I noodle with it while we walk, do some oogabooga at it. Seems it can be stuck to a wall and hang there. Fancy coathook. For really heavy coats.

The road's quiet. That's good. We come upon a tree with some hanging dead. Looks likes they were stripped and gutted, nothing left but for the crows. This place it so welcoming.

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They Met at a Tavern 5: Raiding the Wine-seller with Shadowdark

Time for another Meetup one-shot at the brewery. I've been meaning to run Shadowdark, since I've been playing in Tim's Komor campaign, so here we go. Had a full table, with folks grabbing pre-gens or bringing their own cannon fodder/characters:

• Seana: Burl, dwarf fighter (bald)
• Brian: Theo, human priest (ridged cap)
• Selwyn: Roman: human thief (fur-lined hood)
• Claire: Poker: halfling thief (beret)
• Dakota: Borl: human wizard (gem-encrusted helmet)

As per usual, started off with some random headgear and a few quick RP questions. I also bumped everyone to 2nd level for a bit of resiliency. I had a few options for adventure, and we settled on a city adventure, since that held more opportunities for thievery.

So the party was lodging on the cheap in the dock district of Chirath... Brother Theo visited the local temple to his faith (nature-oriented, neutral, silver pinecone holy symbol) looking for some charity and/or a task. Father Anselmo greeted the acolyte, and reported that through conversations with colleagues of other temples, foul necromancy was afoot in the city. Unfortunately, the suspected necromancer was a well-regarded businessman. Perhaps a party of 'independent contractors' from out of town could rid the city of this troublesome necromancer. Payment in goodwill and whatever they could lift.

Time to go wine-tasting.

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The party paid a visit to "Saint Sephaton's Wine Garden." They were seated by greeter Gaz Hamati.  Looking at their meagre coin, they ordered the house red. The servers brought out glasses of wine and some bread and cheese. The PCs looked around at the other clientele, some of whom had bottles of better vintages brought to their tables. 

Proprietor Vito Mitras made his way around the tables, making sure everyone was satisfied. Time to sneak. The two thieves made their way to the 'facilities.' Poker did the halfling disappearing thing and created a distraction of knocking over some glasses. Roman crept upstairs, and Poker downstairs. Roman found Mitras' quarters and rooted through the desk until he found a coin purse and a secret compartment with a hidden ledger. Poker, in the meantime, made it downstairs into the wine seller. Although distracted by the cheese wheels and hanging prosciutto, an underlying scent of death indicated something amiss. After some poking about, she found the secret door to the catacombs. She made use of it to hide as an employee came down to collect some refreshments. Back up, and a bit of subterfuge by the two PCs to get back to the table. Let's pay the tab and see what we found.

Review: A Trio of Card Decks

Time to take a look at a few bits of Kickstarter loot that have been knocking around in my office:

First off, Crawl Cards: Overland, from BPB Games. I pledged at the $10 level for a POD discount coupon for the physical cards plus pdf. The supplement is a deck of 50 cards, each with six hexes. Hexes are color/graphic coded for terrain, along with features associates with one or more hexes (structures, settlements, monsters, unique terrain, etc.). Each card also has a brief description on the back for one or two unique features found within the six-hex area. The cards are designed for 5e, but are generally system agnostic in their descriptions.

Let's pull one. 

Card GO-07: "Blood Soaked Vale" The six hexes include three mountainous terrain, one swamp, on grassland, and two ruins/settlements (the hexes of interest).

Ooo. A mystery and the grumpy dead. Always a good start. Since the cards are meant to be used in sandbox style adventuring, the designers recommend drawing three cards and picking one that best fits as an adjacent region or continuation of a narration. 

(Draws three...)

The cards are titled "A Darker Path," "Radical Freedom," and "Rasekuhe." Cards 2 and 3 describe dwarven anarchists and a couple of farming and ranching communities, so the themes aren't particularly consistent with the original card. 

Campaign Journal: Piracy, ho!

Another small night, with work conflicts and other miscellany. 

• Slick - thief
• Orzu - gnome
• Jax - barbarian

Not a worry, let's mess around in Morn Kolduhr and get to know the Sea Dwarves. The Wolverine was undergoing repairs from its run-in with the Chaos ship, so everyone was sitting tight, anyhow.

First of all, they were excited to get to work experimenting with making ruby glass. Orzu, as a "cousin," was enlisted to pick the best rubies from the collection pilfered by the characters. Orzu has no idea what he's doing. That said, he had Jax hold up the selected gems while focusing a light spell through them using Slick's jewelers loupe. Somehow, he was able to discern gem quality via the various kaleidoscope patterns projected onto the walls. 

Well then, he had to oversee the glass casting process, as well. Orzu was dragged off, deeper into the mountain's heart to somewhere near its volcanic core, where the special forges were located. Sweltering in oversized protective gear, he observed the dwarves mixing the rubies with optical sand and melting it down into a 1/3 scale prototype disk. Satisfied with their experiments, the dwarves led the desiccated gnome back to the main city. The PCs inventoried where lenses, either broken or intact, were located to the best of their knowledge along the Barrier strongholds, and how to contact allies to possibly retrieve them for recasting. 

Durkan Dildran, tundra nomad and Slick's current hench, was getting a bit claustrophobic in the subterranean city, and a dwarf, Thorin Duskborn, offered to guide them to one of the city's several cliffside lookouts for a bit of fresh air and sky above their heads. While en route, the dwarf noted that Slick seemed to be of an 'acquisitional' nature, as he'd been poking around during his time in the city. Slick admitted as much, and the dwarf, amused told him not to worry, and that he and his brother had an ongoing challenge of making and picking locks. His brother, of course, being the exiled Urin Duskborn. Slick pulled out the lock gifted to him by Urin, and its craftmanship was immediately recognized by Thorin. In exchange, Thorin gave Slick a very nice set of lockpicks, to aid his middling skills...

The trio watched the sea and sky, and played with the lookout's telescopes. Soon enough, Thorin's ears perked up. "Ship! Sounds like a grain hauler. Bread and ale! Wanna come along?" Dumb question.

The three hurried to the docks and grabbed Jax and Orzu along the way.

Onto a large raiding galley and off!

The ship cruised towards its prey, sails full and rowers pulling. Slick noticed that his hat was flapping and jingling a bit more than one might expect from speeds capable for a galley. Thorin smiled. "C'mon down. You don't think we can row this fast with our stubby arms, do you?" And into the hold they went, to a compartment at the stern of the ship manned (dwarved) by several nervous dwarves in protective gear handling heavy riveted and welded metal spheres that rattled and spat steam. The spheres were placed and replaced in racks, adding whatever compressed forces to mechanisms driving the ship forward. 

Like this, but dwarves

A Baker's Dozen of D66 Tables

A collection of random D66 lists originally posted on my blog (plus an extra!) for use, abuse, or inspiration at your table. Contents include: shrine locations, weird goblins, intelligent swords, apocalypses, and more!

Drivethrurpg Link

Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog Part 6, Death by Crowdsurfing

Looking a bit down, there Bloggah - rough day out?

***

Meh. We're still in our trees, it's dark, and the dead are on the march. Oh yeah, it's snowing now, too. Definitely not giving this part of the Komor Forest a good review.

And we still don't have a cleric-type. Dremont, you are on The List.

Anyway, best we can tell, the dead are marching east. Hopefully we can just stay quiet, and they won't notice us...

Damnit, there are a few with glowing red eyes. One pauses, scans around, and starts up Elinar's tree. It's got fierce, sharp skeletal claws, making quick work of that tree. I try to see if magic is driving it, but something goes haywire, and, well, Columbo is not magical.

I hear Elinar casting something, but something goes wrong for her, too, and suddenly she's hanging from a branch, cackling like an idiot. So much for the stealthy bit. 

That skeleton homes in on her, clawing her. The boys do their best, and I zap it, but that damn thing's tough. It gets ahold of Elinar, and she tumbles into the morass of marching undead. Damn.

The Mosh Pit of Death

D66 Apocalypses

It's the end of the world as we know it, but sometimes the end is a good beginning. If there is anything left to begin again from. 

Anyway, time for another D66 list of fun and frivolity. This time, various world-ending events, whether to prevent them, accelerate their oncoming, or just go along for the ride...

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D66 Apocalypses:
11: Sun explodes
12: Snowball world – Global ice age
13: Intelligence suck – Everything gets dumb
14: Cannibal corpse – Everything eats everything
15: Undead arise – Braaaiinnnsss
16: Slime everywhere – Why does the green slime stop with just one adventurer?
21: Alien farm – We'll make great pets...
22: Green hell – Greenhouse effect, plants engulf everything, kudzu reigns.
23: Eldritch awakening – Portals from beyond
24: Spiders!
25: Floods rise
26: Waters recede
31: Warring gods – Indifferent to the mortal collateral damage
32: Ennui – Sigh....
33: Sexplosion – Too busy getting busy.
34: Out of control goblin automatons – Tinkering gone wrong
35: Nuclear winter
36: Nuclear summer - Very brief, hot.
41: Giant asteroid
42: Giant volcano
43: Giant kaiju
44: Jumbo shrimp – Not sure, just went with the running theme...
45: Octopus revolution – I, for one, welcome our cephalopod overlords
46: Corvid uprising – You know they're up to something
51: Planetary alignment – Or misalignment
52: Misdealt Deck of Many Things
53: Portable Hole/Bag of Holding mishap
54: Arcane chain reaction
55: Rampaging moose – Moose are skairy
56: Nanorobotic grey goo
61: Robot uprising
62: Black hole
63: Atmospheric collapse
64: Time travel mishap – Who stepped on the butterfly?
65: Accelerated evolution
66: Hell unleashed

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Download the list here

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Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog Part 5, Lost and Found

Damnit, where's my tablet? Oh, there it is, under the couch. And why does it smell like sulfur?

***

...this card game on this magic book is clearly rigged...

Oh hi. 

So we left the shrine after not being attacked by undead, bears, or anything else. The forest around the hills was pretty thick. We looked at the map we had. It's pretty vague, but we figured out where we should? be... After a lot of armwaving and pointing, we decided to go north, or what we though was north. 

It wasn't north.

Fine. We found a small cave to huddle in, the day lost. At least nothing was living in it. We had Columbo sleep by the entrance so he could block it up... He said he saw some flash of light that night, but I think he was just lighting his farts.

We got back at it the next day. Travel was uneventful. Thankfully. We saw some deer, but left them alone. They're scary.

click

The ground was marshy, and we noticed some gray tendrils of fog in the trees. Best to avoid. The trees opened up and we found a grassy area with a bunch of half-buried stones. Elinar tried to read the scratchings on them, but no luck. Turns out Jer-Jom had some book-learning, too, but he skipped class that day. Columbo dug around, and found a line of stones, with their flat sides facing east. At least we have our directions figured out. It was getting late, so we retreated under the trees to camp in the drizzle. I was on watch when something moved around in the grass. 

Campaign Journal: To the Smoking Isles

Full house tonight:

Jax - Barbarian
Fulvus - Halfling
Rondel - Elf
Frederick - Thief
Orzu - Gnome
Slick - Thief 

Anyway, with Beladon the elf reportedly raging and on the hunt for those who cleaned out his vaults (and killed his mimic), it was time for a bit of a vacation of the marine kind the the Smoking Isles and the Sea Dwarves. 

A communique to Yornick, and a message back to be at the docks near the fishmonger's at midnight. The party made their silent way to the docks, to see a familiar fishing caravel, the Wolverine, and Captain Albergati. The captain welcomed them aboard, and the lightless boat sipped from the dock. The captain had ferried people and material to the sea dwarves before. It wasn't the most comfortable interaction, but he was up for it, recognizing a favor.

The journey was fortunately uneventful, but for some squalls and a few patrolling sharks. None of which were swept up in a tornado. As the boat neared shoals between a pair of great curved seamounts, Meiffo and Siti, a second ship approached and hailed the Wolverine. Fortunately, it was simply another merchantman, its captain warning of some hazardous winds and currents. Albergati shared his gratitude, and sailed on. The Wolverine dropped sails to maneuver the the shoals, and was nearly through when the watch called another ship on approach emerging from a fog bank. 

Another merchantman? Nope, the catapult stone holing the deck said otherwise. Time to cowboy up. Jax took the ship's scorpion and fired off a bolt, going wide. As the attacking ship neared, the various bowmen took shots, attempting to set sails on fire. Slick had some explosive paste from Hugo, and focused fire on the opposite's catapult, causing it some damage. The opposite ship's members began to fire at Jax and the two spellcasters, once they revealed themselves.  

Albergati and the opposite ship raced one another, sometimes pulling apart, sometimes closing. Occasionally, the party found a opposite combatant or spellcaster among them, whether by teleport, swimming, or flight. Damn mutants. Somewhere in this, Jax got webbed, putting the scorpion out of commission. Orzu handicapped the other ship with a convincing sharknado, and others caused enough fire damage to slow its pursuit.

The Stonewill Estate: Another Quick-and-Dirty Encounter

I feel like I've just been recounting and documenting my various campaign moments, and owe the world some creativity that's more than a grumpy goblin mage ranting...

So returning again to my campaign to provide a bit of content that someone may find useful for their sessions. Another Breaking and Entering, as happens in cities now and then. This one is the space developed for my "Repossessing the Possessed" session, where the party dealt with a horde of creepy dolls, but especially the one they were sent to retrieve.

I filled out the rooms with brief descriptions, and distributed the treasure that I had originally rolled up for the session. I added a few details to make the location more generic and flexible (hopefully) and fixed a couple of inconsistencies from play.

Additionally, I provided info for multiple avenues of access, whether street-level or subterranean.

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So find your way into Stonewill Estate here...

Hope you all are having an enjoyable Labor Day weekend. I was planning on running a Shadowdark one-shot, but had to cancel due to a sick dog. Family priorities.

Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog Part 4, Poking the Bear

Saw some movement from my office. "Hello? Oh, it's you..."

A goblin wearing what looked like a tattered bathrobe stomped in. "Here's you magic tablet thing. Fukking Columbo..." He tossed it on the couch and stomped out. 

"Yo, what's up?"

"Read about it..." he grumbled over his shoulder, slammed the door, and disappeared into the night. Ok then. Let's see what we've got here.  

***

Hi. Been a week. We been hanging around Hound's Head, getting resupplied and rested. I got my fancy silver dagger, plus found that I could read that scroll Rig-Rot found out by his magic tree. Lets me see magic stuff. Could be handy.

Elinar kept trying to talk to the voices in her head, but they don't really seem to be answering. 

Columbo got his fancy ring from some dwarf god, but wants to get rid of it. I don't get that. Never satisfied, that guy. 

Jer-Jom and Elinar's orphans are itching to get out, and we got a map to a Northman barrow. Sounds good. Talked to Blake. He likes curiosities. Turns out the map is a copy of one of his. He points out a couple of landmarks, might save us some trouble. Or not. But Blake's eager to learn what we learn, so gives us a couple of healing potions. After all if we don't get back, he don't learn nothing.

Time to head out. We got a good wagon road to follow, so easy walking, and no killer deer, as far as we see. But someone had some bad luck in front of us. Find a couple of stinky bodies. Human and halfling. Looks like something killed them and rifled their pockets. I poke at them with my pole. Some flies rise up, but at least the dead don't. 

Dremond decides to poke at them more directly. My granduncle Moldgut always said to watch to things that eat dead things. Dremond didn't have an uncle, I guess, as he screamed like a little girl when a rot grub latched onto him. Roll eyes. Burn it off (and him too a little, oops). I take my pole to remove a necklace from one of the bodies. See? No rot grubs. It looks liks a holy symbol to Delaquain. Didn't help them.

artist's rendition

Saint Sephaton's Wine Garden (a quick-and-dirty encounter)

As I mentioned in the prior entry, Slick and Orzu took care of a little bit of necromantic housekeeping on behalf of the local temple. but not until after enjoying a bit of wine and cheese. 

The encounter was built on the fly, using a spare map in hand, as well as a necromancer's spell list and a few lightly modified undead. It's pretty bone-simple, but perhaps a useful side hook for a few adventurers trolling about in a city. So I'm sharing a lightly edited encounter for anyone's table. Enjoy.

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Download Saint Sephaton's Wine Garden

(Edit: added sewer access option for PCs who don't mind getting their feet dirty)

Campaign Journal: Odd Jobs

Well, it looks like everyone got into a bad batch of hydra meat. It's getting a bit ripe. Well, except for:

• Slick: thief
• Orzu: gnome

With their comrades laid low or otherwise indisposed, the two PCs were left twiddling their thumbs. Casting about town, there was news of an attack on a patrol by Opharel forces. Concerning, as the two duchies had been in detente for some time. 

The two decided to visit the Temple of Garond, as the party had a writ of support from Proctor Armin, thanking them for their support of the temple in Neuforde. Prior Jaume Magrans was happy to chat with them and offer the temple's support while they were in town. That said, he did have a task of a sensitive nature that a pair of idle adventurers might be interested in. Although the problem of the Chaos mutants was one many leaders' minds, other nefarious things were afoot. Namely, necromancy. One of the local merchants, wine-seller Zadok Meir, may have a side gig going...  Sounds good. We like to keep the dead dead. 

But first, they needed some muscle. Orzu has Torvald to absorb some damage, but Slick's hench Flick is back at Cobalt Lake, helping the naga Queen Adra's crew.

Let's talk to Akreos. He has spare bodies. Particularly, Dukan Dildran, a flamboyant warrior from the northern tundra. A business call to Akreos. What would it take to free him? We could use his skills. Akreos is a businessman, willing to entertain an offer. Or more importantly, entertain his audience. And, in contrast to some of the criminals that end up in the arena, Dildran is a free man captured by the duchy's patrols. Ok, we can fake his death, I'll make some anonymous side bets to offset the loss. But you need to get his agreement. He's a proud one. Down to the gladiator pits, and cells of incarcerated combatants. Some negotiation and gaining of trust, and the northern nomad agreed to freedom in exchange for some help putting down the dead.

For game purposes, "NPC Jax" agreed to fake a few blows with the flat of her blade at the appropriate time, while Orzu cast an illusion of a convincing mortal wound. Slick and Torvard would wait in the wings as stretcher bearers to whisk the "dead" combatant away. All set.

But first, the wine-seller for a bit of recon. And snacks. Slick and Orzu ordered a couple of glasses and a charcuterie board. After a bit, Slick excused himself to hit the head. A quick twist of his ring, and invisible Slick checked out the back areas of the establishment. Kitchen, check. Servers, check. Stairs down, check. Slick slid down the steps to confirm a wine cellar. But there was a subtle undercurrent of decay. Not the most attractive bouquet. Hmm... Recon done, he slipped back upstairs and visibility to exit the place.

Source

Dragonflight 2024, Part the Third: OSE and Wrestling with Kabrel's Tower

 Sunday morning found me at the head of the table once again. Let's get the roll call:

• Travis: Cedric - cleric, mohawk (Travis is a member of a group of us who play periodically at Around the Table Games)
• Ben: Gobble deGook - halfling, wide-brimmed hat (returning after yesterday's game)
• Daniel: Garvin LeBoul - fighter, helm, human image faceplate
• Pete: Fenzig - elf, short hood
• Van: Boffin - dwarf, bald, with topknot
• Zegan: Grim Greycastle - fighter, pointed helm

I remembered to write down the headgear today. 

Full table. My habit is to have five slots for game seats, but I always have a mental 'extra' seat available for waiting list folks, etc. Today, I had a no-show (last day of a 3-day con, fatigue happens), and Van and his son Zegan stopped by to see if I could spare a seat. Certainly.

Today, we're revisiting Kabrel's Tower, the objective of a pair of excursions early in the campaign. I had written up a synthesis of the two prior adventures for the purposes of the convention or other one-shots.

Of course the party is starting at Neuforde, with conversations with various NPCs in town - the mayor, , the priest, the halflings, and the elves. The group also got to see the snake map, as well as the spiel about Chaos mutants raiding the area. Off to find the nearest Node on the map...

Sometime into their journey, the party was set upon by a Chaos mutant raiding party - about six mooks and a leader on horseback. 

Here horsie...

Dragonflight 2024, Part the Second: OSE and Return to Ha’Tak Temple

Saturday afternoon, I hosted the first of two B/X-OSE games. 

First of all, I gotta figure what to run. My usual M.O. is to have a selection of adventures, and depending on the number and vibe of the group, I'll pick something. One thing I had this year that I didn't have prior years is a set of pre-run abandoned fortifications and other structures for the party to clear - the "Nodes" of my campaign. So a few of those maps ended up in my bag, as well.

Who showed up?

• John: "Ahairak" - dwarf (John is a repeat offender)
• Mike: "Ward" - Magic user 
• Wayne: "Lefty" - thief
• Sean: "Elbolas" - elf (Sean has also played in a con came with me before)
• Ben: "Brother Bartholomew" - cleric

We got everyone equipped from the "Random Headgear" table and set off. I forgot to write down the headgear, but I know that the mage ended up with an open-faced samurai helm. 

It just so happened that I had a copy of the campaign's "Snake Map" tucked into one of my rulebooks. Well, that's a sign.

We're going to clear a Node. And, yes, it's going to be the Ha'Tak Temple. Because I want to mess with a party using Cormac MacGiobhan!, bomb-throwing hermit.

Brief scenario intro - the map is provided as a rubbing taken from a standing stone, and the party being recruited by the local temple to investigate the suspected location near the "tail" as a location within a string of fortifications or watches. Oh, and twisted things have been raiding in the wilderness.

Off they go.

Twisted thing. Of course it's a Tumorous Spider. 

A crippled, lurching spider should be easy prey for a crack adventuring party, right? Not based on the number of whiffs that occurred. Thankfully, the spider sucked just as bad.

Dragonflight 2024, Part the First: Deathbringer Among the Barrows

Yes, I'm backed up on play reports. 

Ran three games this year at Dragonflight, held in Bellevue, Washington. The total attendance this year over three days was 1050 souls, a few of whom sat at my table.

The first of the three games was Professor DM's "Deathbringer," which I've run as a one-shot a few times. Who showed up?

• Mystic: "Morgue" - scoundrel
• Nick: "Grunk" - deathbringer
• Eric: "Larry" - plague doctor
• Christian: "K" - grimscribe
• Don: "Jerry" - plague doctor

As before, I ran Tim Shorts' "Requiem for Atticus Stumps" mini-adventure. I had booked a two-hour slot for this session, so used the scenario for its flexibility. I warmed up the players for play with a few questions (Who in the party owes you money, how did you get in trouble in the last town, why are you far from home, etc.).

The party, desperate from whatever "miseries" they had rolled up in chargen, took the bait.

Travel and negotiation with Harlow went smoothly, and the halfling took up spear and lantern to lead them to the selected barrows. The grimscribe cast dancing lights to provide some illumination in the forest and keep people from tripping over tree roots. Harlow avoided any encounters.

Barrow #1: The flowers surrounding the barrow remained unidentified (although Jerry did place several in his mask). Removing stones went without a mishap, someone noticing about halfway through the process the warning runes carved into them....

Harlow, as usual, lit the lantern with a flinch, refusing to explain or yield it to the party. He illuminated the barrow from the entrance. 

Morgue was suspicious of the metallic urn but urged Grunk to break it open anyhow (scoundrels...). So Grunk took the brunt of the gas trap. Morgue thanked him and recovered a silver dagger and some coin.  

Grunk and Jerry easily tossed the stone slab. Larry poked at the coffin, causing the spectre to rise. The fight was on. Morgue failed to get a good sneak attack in, but other characters made the best of it. The spectre was able to drain some strength from Morgue. K attempted to magic missile the thing, but rolled a crit failure. Doh! Thankfully the outcome dice were merciful, and the spell merely fizzled away.

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Finally, Larry bombed the thing with a potion, and it faded to darkness. A scroll and some jewelry were recovered, but no death coins. The PCs dusted themselves off and asked Harlow about other options.