Dragon Armies 17 Rats in the Walls

So our illustrious ranger puts his clever plan into action. Five drow guards prove no match for our party. After the raid the party returns to the hidey hole to celebrate. Two hours later the drow outpost is manned by 10 guards. The party returns to attack again. However this time as the guards are being overwhelmed, one of them puts a horn to his lips and sounds the alarm. As they retreat towards the hidey hole they are peppered by crossbow bolts from the permanent darkness area that covers their escape route. They charge into the darkness only to be bushwhacked by a black dragon exterminator. A desperate melee ensues. However eventually the party gains the upper hand and retreats to the hidey hole to celebrate again. The next day the dwarves spying on the main chamber report the arrival of a small blue goblin with a flute accompanied by a eight foot tall insectiod creature with powerful forearms and a weird set of four eyes (umber hulk). Once again the party sallies forth, at which point a force of 30 drow led by a priestess of Loth attacks immediately from the darkness. As they battle this set of foes they are charged from behind by drow spider knights. The party eventually turns the tide against the drow at which point the spider knights grab the fallen body of the priestess of Loth and race off to the south. The party decides not to pursue, but retreat to their hidey hole. As they retreat they hear a loud thump as the drow reinforcements trigger the block trap in the drowstopper secret door. However, whats this? To their horror they hear the sound of claws scrapping on stone as the umber hulk begins breaking through the stone block. The party rushes back to defend the secret entrance. As they begin their battle with the umber hulk, the little blue goblin blows a shrill note on his flute and disappears. Eventually the umber hulk is slain, and the drow warriors are dispersed, but what happened to the little blue goblin? As the party starts back the hobbit in the lead has to nimbly dodge a backup block trap which comes thundering down to block their retreat. Slowly the awful truth of where the little blue goblin is dawns on them. More next time (hopefully a lot sooner than last times 6 week gap).

Comments in English only please

Finally got the Google translate to find out what all those Chinese comments said. I am probably limiting free speach in China by cutting down on their porn site links, but those posts had to go. From now on I will be deleting posts in languages other than english.

P.S. Posts with hidden links in long strings of ...... will also be deleted

Massive Battle

In addition to being a roleplayer, I also own a number of miniture armies. One of my great joys in DMing is being able to go to the miniture table and put a hundred orcs on the table (I can do too, just you watch me!). It happened again last night as my party using their usual tactics decided that rather than sneak through the pirate capital to free the elvish slaves from the slave pens(yes my adventure log is a little behind this point in the campaign), they would carve their way through the 500 strong pirate band. But somehow after cutting their way from the very secret sumarine base to the central keep of the pirate stronghold (ignoring the secret tunnels and watereways leading towards the pirate town down below). They are supprised to find the outer perimeter manned by 50 Orcish crossbow men. I go to the miniture closet. And heres one of the other great features of using actual minitures, rather than saying you see 48 heavily armed orcs, one guy in leather and two guys in robes, when the party asks if there are any usual people mixed in with the orcs I can say look at the minitures and decide for yourself. The look on the parties face when their opening volley of fireballs is returned in kind, is definately woth it. Of course orcish crossbowmen melt like snow in a rainstorm once the fireballs begin to fly. So after the inital exchange of fire one of the robed men opens a box and the entire tower is enshrouded in mists. When the wind wall clears a portion of the mist the next round the battlements are completely clear, with nary an orc to flick the digitus impudicus (had to use that) at the party. Once the chest beating stops the party finds this was just the cover the blackspawn ninja needed to get up close and personal.

P.S. Read this post on Odysseus versus Achilles for the aplication of the lessons of Greek myth to old school roleplaying. Unfortunately my players are following the Achilles route right. Oh well Glorious Death awiats them.

Chaos et Barberie

Been plunking away at my translation of Chaos et Barberie from pascal. I have gotten enough into it to see that it is mostly OGL with a few twists. Google translate does a good job on French and my high school can handle the rest (it went a lot better once I figured out "telecharger" means "download" not "insert credit card here"). However some work remains to rework into something that flows smooth in English. Perhaps I'll try focusing on the parts that a little different than stock OGL. Not quite sure about the intellectual property issues either, but I suppose since he is giving the original away for free I should be able to do the same with the translation.

Dragon Armies 16

When we last left our intrepid adventurers they were enjoying a bowl of mushroom soup in the secret hidey-hole of the last remaining dwarves of Blackstone mine. The dwarves explain that since the drow invasion the Tunnel Brothers have been honeycombing the mines with secret tunnels to spy on the drow, and developed their "Drowstopper special": a secret door, a 16 ton block dead fall trap, and another secret door behind it at an elevation other than floor level. There is usually a secret switch on the dwarven which deactivates the trap, which you can set if you need to go out, but usual the dwarves just use strategically placed spy holes to watch and listen. Having been at this a few months, the dwarves have of course picked up a few rumors.

• The dark elves are building an altar to their dark gods


• There are over 150 drow warriors in the mines


• One female elven priestess seems to be in charge, although she is assisted by two others and accompanied by a male elf in robes.
  
• The dark elves need royal elven blood to consecrate their altar


• When the altar is complete it will be usable as a gateway bring dark forces in from other parts of the world


• The dark elves have struck a deal with the Black Dragon pirates to use an elven royal the pirates hold captive to consecrate the altar


• The altar is nearing completion, the captive will brought soon


• Although the lesser treasuries of Blackstone mine have been looted, the great treasury has not been found


• When the mines were overrun the master artificer set off an explosion in the workshops which buried the tools and equipment needed for the manufacture of constructs under tons of rubble


• Buried in the rubble is a book which explains the manufacture of amanitium constructs and how to control them

They also provided the players with the map below

***Warning not for the faint of heart, my players have rated this map worst player handout ever***

After reviewing the map, and inspecting the amount of rubble in the workshop (a lot!!). The party formulates a cunning plan (unlike the rangers "lets drop down from the secret door in the ceiling of the main hall and kick their ass"). They will tunnel into the sleeping quarters of the high priestess and slay her by surprise. Unfortunately two days into the seven days required for the secret tunnel a band of black dragon spawn shows up to reinforce the drow, and the ranger comes up with an alternative plan "Lets attack the guard post we past on the way here". More next time.

The Wandering Blogger

Ah yes, where were we gentle reader. I am afraid I have been reading other blogs and neglecting my own for a week or so. I could blog about time wasted on french roleplaying sites (gorgeous maps pascal). Or the hunt for a definitive answer on the banning of the sale of children's books printed before 1985 (its amazing what congress passes when they can't pass Health care reform, Banking regulations, or even appropriate money for government agencies on time. It appears the used bookstores are now marking the pre-1985 books as "collectibles"). Or even that I am glad to see my collage buddy Bruce is still running the blind sniper tournament, even though when I was there I was aways too busy prepping the Dungeons and Dragons Tourney to play. Besides wandering aimlessly for four hours only to be wiped out by someone you didn't even see is not my idea of fun (however, a quick peek at the Judge's master map was always hilarious). But no, you want to hear about Dungeons and Dragons so I'll get to work on that right away...

Dragon Armies 15 Meet the Dwarves

So after diving through the trap door our Dwarven adventurer winds up in a tunnel network face to face with Yellow Bill. Yellow Bill explains that he and 11 other dwarves are all that remain of the dwavern City of Blackstone Mine. Blackstone mine used to be famous for its adamantium mine, the shrine of the Golden Hammer, as well as the adamantium constructs it made. Several months ago Blackstone mine was overrun by a drow army. After King Hrothgar and his shield thanes fell in battle what few dwarves that remained retreated to the secret tunnels to eke out a meager existence staging hit-and-run raids and foraging the fungus caverns below. One of the raids did successfully recover King Hrothgar's crown and return it to the throne room, but none of the survivors felt they had a good enough blood line to claim the throne themselves. For some reason the drow don't seem to bother the adamantium constructs in either the throne room or the Shrine of the Hammer. However they are hard at work forcing their slaves to build a dark altar of adamantium in the central hall of Blackstone mine. A quick review of dwarven genealogies (only 10 minutes) reveals that the parties dwarf is closer to the Royal bloodline (after all he is second cousin once removed to Kings), but having hung out with "Yellow"(wink wink nudge nudge) Bill too long he decides to decline the offer of Kingship of this glorious city. Yellow Bill has yet one more piece of disturbing news. Although the golden hammer of the Shrine of the Golden Hammer rested within in the shrine until last week, a loud explosion then collapsed part of the roof damaging the guardian constructs. Shortly after this the golden hammer disappeared. Strangely enough, Leather Larry disappeared about the same time. Once the conversations have concluded Yellow Bill and the party's dwarf return to the rest of the party via a secret tunnel which bypasses the throne room. After the party's dwarf vouches for the rest of the party, they are invited back to hidden living quarters off the secret passage for some mushroom soup and some needed sleep.

P.S. I used the above sketch to flesh out character ideas for the few remaining soles of this once proud City. Drawing can be very useful for designing NPCs even if I am not Frank Frazetta or Michangelo. I find drawing figures allows ones brain to process character ideas subconsciously while drawing. Note also although there is a label for Leather Larry there is no picture because he's gone (he likes it that way too!)