Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog #14 - The Slogging Part 2: The Sloggening

Get out of the fridge! And stop chugging the Caesar dressing!

This is better than maynaise! You know what this would go great with? Tiny dried fish!

Whatever. Close the door. How's the adventure - You're still alive, I see.

For now. Never know what's on the horizon, man. 

***

We're standing next to the old shrine. At least we know where we are. The snow's still coming down.

Hey Dremont, ya wanna see if your forest spirit will give us a hand here?

So he comes up with some prayer mumbo jumbo, asking for light (I'd ask for heat, but you do you, Dremont). 

Thankfully, his prayer worked out, and the spirit appeared, as a blue-tinted elf. They pointed to the old tower, and suddenly it was whole again. We had a safe place to bivy, but the spirit warned us not to stay long. Because reasons.

The place was stocked with a fire and food. We ate our fill, and stuffed our packs. Done with that, we went up to the second floor. A library. More poking around. I sussed out the patterns in a book that could make me levitate. That might be helpful. Dremont said he found a map to a magic warhammer. Hey, as long as its more reliable than your spells...

Oh, there's a third floor. OK. Looks like a star-viewing place. There's a sundial in the middle of the room. But its got three of those pointy vanes instead of just one. There's a couple magic candles sitting around (light, no heat, don't burn out). I take one and play with the sundial. What could be the harm? As I move the light back and forth, we see the view outside the window changing. Snow, no snow... Hmmm. Maybe I should put the candle back.  

Secret Santicorn 2024: Another Horror

Once again, from the depths of the OSR Discord craws the Santicorn, leaving the gifts of writing prompts to the good(?) denizens of the server.

You got shutteredroom’s prompt, “The Real Monster of which the Shitting Log of Catalonia is the sanity-protecting bowdlerization.”

First, a quick visit to Webster's to check something....

bowdlerization:
noun
The deletion of all passages considered to be indecent.
Similar: bowdlerisation, expurgation
The action or instance of bowdlerizing; the omission or removal of material considered vulgar or indecent.
The act of deleting or modifying all passages considered to be indecent. 

OK, gotcha. That's what I thought...

***

The portal from the Void opened, and the Entity entered the world. Fools twisted by promises of power and ancient knowledges from before the time that Men walked the land had called it, at a great cost of life and sanity. For, they knew, great power comes at great cost. Particularly if it is others that are paying with their lives. So they had spread war and desolation in their pursuit of this favor.

And desolation they received in turn. For the Entity had no interest in wisdom or power. Just madness and destruction. And piddling little evolved apes were not of consequence. XXX walked the land, its energies from outside of space burning a halo of destruction where it went.

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However, some of these apes had slivers of power. Whether by craft, or energies arcane or divine. So they fought XXX, desperately and to little effect. After all, fighting a being whose name itself caused fear and madness was a nigh-impossible task. Only the Sightless, paladins blinded of all vision except that which saw auras of evil, were able to stand long before its predations.

They called upon their god, YYY, to aid them against this desolation in living form.

D66 Good Dogs

Dogs have been our companions for at least 10,000 years. And any adventuring party worth their salt should have a canine buddy among their rolls. After all, Goober has been the most consistently successful to-hit roll in our game since his first appearance as a one-shot buddy.

Bad drawings of good dogs

That said, dogs have been bred for a myriad of purposes by the humans who domesticated them: hunting, guarding, tracking, beasts of burden, companionship...

So what oddball breeds have appeared in Fantasy Land(tm)? Let's take a look at a few...

Download these good boys here.

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Ok, I got a Secret Santicon entry to finish writing. Later, all. 

A Visit to Brindlegrit Gatehouse

Jackson finally came out from under whatever rock he normally hides under with a new map. 

Sure, I haven't done a quick setting writeup for a bit. Well ok, for three weeks. 

The place looks like a run down bit of border wall, perhaps occupied by a handful of ne'er do wells and/or other colorful folk, pretending that they hold this section of a decaying trade road, abandoned by a power that no longer has the administration or reach to maintain its border posts.

So welcome to Brindlegrit Gatehouse.

The location is home to a few folks, looking to take advantage of the location. Accompanying the description is a list of possible happenings on the day that the party shows up. And a newish PC/NPC class, the Hedge Mage. 

As I've noted in my Shadowdark rundowns, I do enjoy a bit of randomness to my magic (no matter how much the other players whine about it). In fact, since Bloggah is described as a mage who doesn't exactly know how magic works, I select all of his spells randomly. So, expanding on that idea, the hedge mage is not a formal scholar of the magical realm, but a dabbler and collector. Therefore, all new magical spells come to them via a roll of the dice. And, sometimes, a bit of other brands of magic sneaks in, giving them some unexpected perks or abilities...

It's Christmas Eve, so Merry Christmas to you pagans who have adopted the holiday. It's been a challenging year behind the scenes at Leicester's Rambles HQ, but we're hanging in there, as is the way of my people. There has been some stability and joy buried within, so we are fortunate to be where we are at this time of life. 

So enjoy the holiday time, reflect on the year, look backward and forward, and take that deep cleansing breath. Or be like Betty. Relax, grab your Squishmallow, and let it all hang out.

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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