Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog #13: The Slogging

Well, doesn't smell like burning, at least.

A day of opposites, now I'm freezing my giblets off. 

You're looking a bit blue there, I noticed.

Out of the frying pan, into the freezer, as my great-aunt Stusseesz used to say...

****

So there we were, on top of that pillar, listening to the water below. I thought I might try a bit of flight, but only managed to flap my arms. Dremont was not impressed. Hey, I tried to cast before I jumped off, at least.

We saw some movement in the gloom of the cavern, now that we were getting accustomed. Something pale and snaky moving along the base of the pillar.

"Here I go again..."

Obviously, it was the former owner of the snakeskin on the top of the pillar. We laid low, but the snake only wanted to snack on a couple of giant cave crickets living in crevices on the pillar. It receded into the dark. 

I fixed the rope we'd salvaged to my magic hook, and lowered myself down the rock face. I found a ledge, and beckoned Dremont down. By this method, we trolleyed ourselves down the pillar to the water below.

Boy was it cold. The old goblets were up in my throat... We froze (both meanings of the word) as the snake loitered across the water. It slithered off, and we shivered our way to the bank to work our way downstream.

Things were going well. Just more giant crickets. Mostly harmless...

d66 MORE Things to Put Things Into

Because perhaps the first batch didn't have that perfect container...

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Download me here

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Oh dang, this is my 600th post! Just checked my blog metrics. It's been a productive year of campaigning as well as original content...

Campaign Journal: Layin' Low

Who's up to no good tonight? 

• Jax
• Frederick
• Slick
• Rondel
• Orzu

After their murder-heist, the party promptly left the artificer's shop the way they had entered. As they exited into the sewers, the sounds of alarms rang from above, followed by the breaking down of the workshop's front door and some poor city guard succumbing to a buzzsaw trap.

Oops.

They collected themselves and prepared to backtrack out of the sewer, bereft of their deceased guide. A roiling in the water warned them that another hazard approached, and they tussled with another chimera, this one fungal in appearance. It got in a couple of attacks, and entangled Slick with its tongue. There was much panicked hacking, along with Torvald falling headlong into the muck after dropping his trident. Eww.

The monstrosity vanquished, the party returned to their entry point. The streets were alive with guards and commotion as the word spread that the artificer had been killed and his shop ransacked. Slick invisibly scouted, seeing the city gates slamming closed and patrols heading toward the harbors.

The gang made it back to the Chalice & Cock by stealth and luck. Outside, patrols were breaking doors, arresting people, generally being rude. The proprietor Burgah stashed the party in the cellar and managed to dissuade a patrol that broke down her door that her business was closed and unoccupied.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog Part 12 - The Smoldering

What's that smell? Did someone set a goat on fire?

Not funny, man. Been a rough one. And we're not through it yet...

(Missed a session due to the Thanksgiving holiday - that session of fact-finding and Tarim being on his best behavior is here. While I'm on Recap #12, the overall campaign is at Session #17.)

***

Columbo, Dremont, Tarim, and I set off for the abandoned Temple of Delaquain outside of town, where our various sources told us that demons may lurk in an older temple beneath the structure. Are we sure this is wise? The gang was stocked up on blessed weapons (at least those who aren't demon-possessed - looking at you, Columbo) and "daggerweed," a herb said to grant certain resistances to demonic threats.

We trudged through sideways snow north of town. Fortunately Dremont found an abandoned track, and we trudges with a bit more ease. Found some hoof tracks with what looked like a snake following 'em. A bit cold for a snake, but this is the Komor Forest... Columbo has an insight and waves his demon ring around, making up some commands and such. Out of the forest steps this thing: 

Wasn't able to retrieve the monster pic,
And this is what AI gave me for
"jaguar with snake head and tail"😂 

Must be what he had a vision of, made flesh. More mumbo-jumbo and the thing lets him ride it. Now he's going to be even more insufferable. Names it Harley. Some dwarven tradition, I understand. I fire up the Lantern of Pain and illuminate the way for the gang. 

We come across what must be the temple ruins. Place is half-collapsed, surrounded by bones. Whoa, big demon with spear. The boys whack at it, and I missile it while noticing there is more movement from the north in the depths of the temple. Great. More demons. I should really try some of that daggerweed. 

About then, the lantern fades out, goddammit. I try to get it re-illuminated, when one of the demons hits me with something that unfortunately ignites the oil in my pack.

Good news, we have light. Bad news. It's me. Stop, drop and roll...

A Shorts Visit to the Hamlet of Riddenfield

Welcome to Riddenfield

Tim did it again - tossed a small settlement out into the ether for us to find. And made a comment about the bears scratching their butts on trees. I'm sure there is something more interesting than that in any woods near a Tim settlement.

something interesting

Have another quick writeup of the locals and their personal demon....

D66 Containers to Put Stuff Into

Because that thing you are looking for needs to be stored inside another thing.

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Download me here 

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Campaign Journal: Into the Artificer's Lab

Welcome to yet another installment of my paltry campaign. I hope my USAian readers are busily digesting yesterday's feasts and didn't get into too many arguments with relatives...

Who's here?

• Jax- Barbarian
• Slick – Thief
• Orzu – Illusionist
• Rondel – Elf

So, to start, we were down a couple of players, plus Rondel's player was late due to a work commitment. And Slick's player needed to make it a short night due to a family commitment.  OK. So this is where things need to be flexible. First of all, we had previously planned on a break-in/heist, which needed spell resources from Rondel and Henry C. Plus we don't want to cheat someone from some potential fun. And I wasn't going to just sit and kibbitz for an hour. What's in my bag?

Well, I had a cavern map that I'd scribbled some stuff on. But not the one I was thinking of. Did I write different scenarios on multiple printouts of the same map? Wouldn't be the first time. Nevermind. I can remember enough to fill some time.

So Petre Gagua shows up at the tavern, concerned about a finding that he hadn't been able to get the Council's ear on. So the three party members saddled up and followed the captain out into the countryside. Sure enough, a settlement had been razed, and signs of murder and/or abduction. Always wholesome. Tracking drag-marks and prints, the group caught up with a trio of unsavory characters dragging a body. Stabbing occurred, and it was determined that they weren't undead, just very unpleasant. The trio wore tattered robes with rough markings of Khador painted on them. Orzu ripped open the robes, but nothing significant was found. Oh, and they had filed-down teeth. This wasn't looking promising.

Following more track, they found a cavern. Slick heard chanting, and rappelled down a steep shaft, finding compatriots to the original three chanting to a rough-hewn idol to Khador, as well as snacking on someone's leg. Lovely.

Returning to the party, all charged down the main passageway, overwhelming a pair of guards before they were able to defend themselves or alert their comrades. Orzu returned back to the shaft, casting down an illusory failed adventurer as a distraction. Successful with this ruse, the party was able to do some more shanking and retrieve some minor goodies. Upon closer inspection, the idol appeared to be a hybrid of the old and new versions of Khador. Unhinged, either way. 

With this, Faith Perpetual began its messaging to Jax. More unpleasantness was afoot... Suddenly, her feet weren't really her own, and off they went, deeper into the cavern, to confront... whatever. Standing on an isle in a pond was a figure, chanting among more deformed statues to Khador. Jax slogged through the pond, striking at the figure, but missing. Goober joined in, and got a serious singeing from the being's strike. Fortunately, Slick and Petre were able to join, and the being was gang-tackled to death. Or additional death, perhaps. Orzu, wielding a dagger, cut the thing's robes off, revealing a slightly glowing object in its chest. Yes, this was the thing. Jax cleaved it open, revealing...

Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog Part 11: Wherein Doomsinger Gets His Bell Rung...

"Yeahgg! Get these beasts off me!"

"Down, dogs... Hey, they can't help it if you're eye to eye with a greyhound. Besides, you look like a chew toy.

"How's things?"

"Not bad, although I lost some coin at the fighting pit. Tarim got his dome rocked."

"Wow, that's a surprise. Bit off more than he could chew?"

"You don't know the half of it. You got any more of that amyonaise stuff?"

"Mayonnaise? Yeah, there's a squeeze bottle in the fridge."

"No way! This is the best! Shots!"

"Oh god..."

****

With Columbo's interpersonal skills in full force, we decided to boogie it over to the Adventurer's Guild, to stash the mithril, as well as see what options there may be for legal representation, just in case...

The last day of the Festival of Serath was in full force, with citizens bringing offerings to be burned in a hollow man, as well as offerings to help keep the oil burning in the temple, as it were... Tarim, always the curious sort, wandered over to check on the procedings, or perhaps start a holy war. Either/or. Sure enough, he got caught up in some disagreement with an acolyte while trying to "help" some fellow whose offering wasn't deemed suitable. Then ended up punching said fellow in the nose. I don't understand these barbarian religious traditions.

Columbo and I hastened to the Guild while Tarim wandered off to buy yet another suit of armor. We were able to secure Columbo's mitril in a hopefully dwarf-proof lockbox. Back to the armorer, where Tarim was getting upsold on a "membership" where he'd get first dibs on paying extra for armor with fancy bits. His coin... Columbo dropped of his masterwork armor, showing significant wear and tear from undead giant fighting. The repair lead time was several days, so he picked up some commoner's armor to slum it in the meantime.

That done, Tarim and I took the side streets back to Godfrey's place (our fixer). But he was distracted by the sounds of the fighting pits... Of course he signed up in the open category. This should be fun. 

Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog Part 10 - The Cards Fall Where They May...

"Dude! Get out of the fridge!"

"No way! This stuff is wondrous! I've never had such a delicacy!"

"You're eating mayonnaise straight from the jar! Forget it - you can keep it. Hey, where's your bow?"

"What bow?"

****

...and with that, Columbo winds up to whack the elf. And disappears...

Doomsinger yells at the elf, asking where the dwarf went, and spooky elf just says, "I've showed him a possibility..." They guy is really starting to be a pain.

Whatever, I'm gonna take pot shots at those undead over in the corner.

Doom swings at the elf - because that what he does. Dremont gets a good smite in. I shoot an arrow off into the dark somewhere. With that, the elf, obviously intimidated by our martial prowess, poofs! out of there. Dremont finds a card that he dropped, and likewise poofs away.

Damnit, now we need to find two new dwarves. I scramble onto the pedestal where the elf was standing, see what's left, if anything. Sure enough, a card. Big surprise. It has four figures on it, obviously your favorite heroes. Images of two, the dwarves, seem to be fading away. Great. Doomsinger is getting antsy, he doesn't care for this magical mystery tour. 

Ok, magic magic magic. What does it do - how do I turn this around, get the dwarves back? This card has time magic, so they may be when as much as where... Hmm, if I could turn back time. Oh well, can't hurt. I flip the card.

Two rifts open, and spit out a pair of dwarves. Woohoo! I am magic!

The rifts stay open. And a demon follows Columbo. Boo, I'm not magic enough.

You're as cold as ice...

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 four (added based on a comment from Ken):

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

2. The Sniper: Missile damage is increased to d6+1, and is also rolled with Advantage. The spellcasting DC remains as Tier 1 (DC11).

3. The “Mirv:” At 3^rd, 5^th, and 7^th 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.

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

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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