You get

One nasty dagger, a pouch full of buttons, a tooth pick.

How were you caught?

Lack of Finesse: Turns out walking right up to someone, holding direct eye contact, and shoving your hands straight into their pockets and purses is a great way to be immediately arrested.
Mini Man Alarm: Bit by a pocket homunculus, your yelps gave you away.
Outplayed: Your last mark was a master counter-thief, every pence you thought you took from them somehow ended with every last thing you owned being transferred to them.
Betrayed: One of your companions pointed you out to the sheriff, who used your capture as a feather in their cap.
Loud Mouthed: After buying several rounds of ales, a stranger asked you how you came upon such good fortunes. You quickly learned that honesty is not always the best policy.
Divination: After retiring from a career of adventuring, the local hedge mage decided to become a village detective.

What was the oddest thing you lifted?

Tiny Totem of Confidence: A figure of a local deity carved from smooth stone, when it belly is rubbed you can hear affirmations in your head.
Digestible Treasure: One purse full of imitation coins, the gold nothing but foil. The chocolate internals at least is a rare treat.
Psychedelic Mold: The leather purse your stole from a visiting druid contained only patches of moist growth inside. Ingesting this made you acutely aware of the secret lives of colors and the varies polyhedral shapes living in-between wood grains.
Pouch of Devouring: Fanged on the inside, this bag whines if not provided with a weekly meal. Seemingly able to digest all sorts of organic and inorganic material you can it into it without producing waste. Or at least, without producing waste as of yet.
Monster Teeth: Unsettlingly, the local miller had a purse practically bursting with a variety of fangs, teeth, and claws. You are unsure if you should report them to someone, or if you can use these in some kind of ritual.
Lovely Lich’s Locket: Unsure who it belonged to, but someone in your village kept a heart-shaped locket with a rendition of the Dread Lich Pestulentia. Can you use this to your advantage?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

You Get

A dramatic outfit, a set of makeup, a withered rose.

What was your final performance?

Avant-garde: You experimental one-person-show perplexed even the most diabolical coalition of warlocks who cursed you to never play again.
Offensive: The prince did not enjoy the laughter of the crowd responding to your musical accusations of his romantic failings.
Injury: The exotic beast seller promised you that your purchased owlbear was toothless. Turns out beaks are just as deadly.
Maddening: A travelling astronomer pitched you a sheet music inspired by vibrations they claimed to hear while looking into the night sky. Your fluting rendered the audience into a gibbering, howling state, rasping in fear and admiration of something called “the dwellers beyond the veil of space.” Not exactly your theater’s name so you didn’t take it as praise.
Timidity: Your one and only performance involved you staring wide-eyed into the audience for several minutes. When you finally opened your mouth to speak your lines you were caught in anxiety-induced dry heaving. Everyone uncomfortable got up and just walked out.
Cursed: The various poems you recited mocked all variety of unnatural beings and their believers as delusional. A wayward godling found your atheism disquieting and cursed you to be a magnet for the supernatural.

You made off with this trinket from your troupe:

Simian Skull: Sometimes confused for monster bones, this fanged skull smells faintly of exotic fruits.
Massive Prop Weapon: A gnarly blade resembling one of the many gods’ weapons, much more intimidating until its revealed to be a wood-and-wool replica.
Speculative Future Clothing: A peculiar cotton t-shaped tunic, and rough blue trousers with a peculiar buckling apparatus near the front of the waist. This outfit is based on a fictional codex of time traveling serf to the far futures.
Tome of Troubling Limericks: These verses become less bawdy the further into the book you get, and become more and more harrowing.
Many Faced Mask: This leather and plaster mask appears mundane, but every time it is slipped off it takes the countenance of a random creature of legend.
Stage Double: Seeing as how you are out of work, your double also is. They continue to follow you day to day, but not without regularly complaining that you ruined their career.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

You get

A green tunic marked by a few holes, a painted wooden pence, a threatening short bow.

What ended your run from the law?

Snitching: You reported on fellow scoundrels out-of-law. Your name was cleared, but you made a few enemies.
Humiliated: You were captured, put into the stockades, and the whole town got a good laugh by throwing rotten food and eggs at you for a week. Now the urchins point and laugh, calling you Stinky Salad.
Conscience: The first time you tried to grift or rob anything a small child looked at you in shame, you have since recanted your ways, fearing the gaze of the innocent.
Remuneration: You turned yourself in, and were fined everything you own. Routinely you witness the Baron’s snotty son misusing your former prized possessions.
Loophole: Turns out your crimes were not really crimes. You spent all the time living off the land, so you need to make the oncoming years count, and everyone feels a ton of pity for you.
Betrayal: You strolled into the town and pinned and made a bold-faced lie that you were framed. Nobody really liked the miller who suffered the wrath of your pointed finger, but many say his daughter has declared revenge upon you.

What weird trinket did you stumble upon on your journeys?

Eternal Hat: The hat you wear upon your head always produces a new hat underneath when you take the previous one off. Every hat is distasteful and out of style. You haven’t figured out how to bare your head since putting the initial hat on. None of the removed hats retain this odd affect.
Comedic Apple: This piece of fruit won’t stop telling groan-worthy jokes and puns that barely work. You think your companions are going to eat it out of annoyance.
A Very Stupid Parrot: This gorgeous bird is willing to follow commands, but always misinterprets them in astonishingly bad ways.
Fireworks: You stole a crate of very moldy fireworks off of a wagon. Somewhere less than half a dozen still function, although not predictably.
Lasso of Fibs: When bound by this rope, the victim may not say anything that is true.
Tin Can of Partial Message: A single word may be shouted into this tin can, and then next time someone holds it up to their ear, they hear it. Its also very strict about compound words and you almost feel like its judging you when “strawberry” gets repeated as only “berry.”

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Barrowmaze Open Table Sessions 27-29

Session 27

Players

Barmox the Magic-User, played by Stripe
Glarg the Fighter, played by Trusty McGurk
Rocco the Fighter, played by Daryl
Robber Key the Thief, played by Robert
Sena the Ranger, played by Malley
Sky the Druid, played by Captain Caveman

Summary

Krothos sends goons to search after Sena, apprehending magic items to provide to Mazzahs the town mage for divination purposes. The party decides to relocate to bogtown. One the way they are approached by a witch-hunter from the church named Magnus Raich, and his quarry, a supposed binder of demons named Lennard.

Suspecting foul play, the group attacks this hunter in the night, slaying him and releasing his captive, who is a deacon from Bogtown, and an enemy of the Bishop of Aerik. The group sets him off towards Helix, telling him to find the Chapel of St. Ygg there.

Off of the corpse of the witch hunter the party retrieves a wand of paralysis, cloak of elven kind, and a supplied. They proceed to Bogtown and meet many of the locals. They meet with the Mother of Toads, the local wizard. They stop into the Toasty Troll Inn and Glarg and Key make quick friends with some scoundrels, hinting that they are looking for work, they are sent to a chapel to St. Ygg, obviously a front for criminal activity.

In attempted subtle fashion, the “priest” says that the current “pope” is unfit for duty, given over to extravagances and a up-and-coming “cardinal” would very much like the head of their “church” disposed of by outsiders, with a wink and a nudge.

They are then pointed to a shrine to Janus out in the Bog, and instructed of a ritual that may transport worshippers to a sister-shrine in the barrowmarsh or back, for a sacrifice of wealth or goods.

Session 28

Players

Barmox the Magic-User, played Stripe
Boris the Barbarian, played by Modest Mace
Glarg the Fighter, played by Trusty McGurk
Lathan the Half-Elf, played by Ragnar
Robber Key the Thief, played Robert
Sena the Ranger, played by Malley
Sky the Druid, played by Captain Caveman

Summary

The party investigates Mecit Manor, traversing through the haunted estate, stumbling upon a corpse in a yellow-mold filled bed, encountering violent fungi, ghouls, and an easily-scared ghost butler, who startles Sena forcing her to run. In her sprinting she steps through some water-damaged floorboards and falls through to a torture chamber below. She spends rounds cowering in the dark before getting her wits about her and using her magic rope to climb back up.

Bertelan the Butler tells the party that the manor of the house, Lamric Mecit is upstairs. They find small demonic creatures trashing the furniture in the estate, and poor Boris the Barbarian is defaced by one of the chaotic creatures.

Twisting a series of crow sculptures on a display in the room a secret passage is opened to the master bedroom, mired in filth with the windows boarded up. The sheets are thrown off the bed by the being resting upon it, Lord Lamric in full regalia, even wearing boots to bed.

He accused the party of awaking him, but Ragnar says that they have traveled long from Barrowmaze, bringing the Mecit family blade home.

Overjoy the young lord asks them to hand it over and breaks out some brandy to celebrate, mentioning of further quests he has for the party to fulfill. The entire party is very apprehensive, and after some investigating, sneaking, and mind reading they realize the lord is not as he appears, so Ragnar leaps into battle, striking the creature.

The young lord is transformed before the group’s eyes into an eight-foot tall woman in decrepit clothing, with ruinous claws and hatefull eyes. All the adventurers leap in to slay her, but she is able to shift in and out of the material realm, avoiding their blows. Barmox steps up and uses his wand of paralysis, disabling the creature just enough for the party to decapitate the crone.

For their reward the party finds a massive horde of jewels and a silvered dining set, and they retrieve a massive oil painting of the manor, selling it to the “head grocer” in Bogtown.

Session 29

Players

Barkface the Druid, played by EvilTables
Barmox the Magic-User, played by Stripe
Lathan the Half-Elf, played by Ragnar
Robber Key the Thief, played by Robert
Sky the Druid, played by Captain Caveman

Summary

The party continues their search of Mecit Manor. Deciding to investigate the attached Wizard’s tower. They encounter haunted rooms along the way, acquiring a log of the manor and spell scrolls. Entering into the trapped tower, a wizard’s assistant named Humfra shouts down from the second floor that if there are any spiders with them, he will release the dogs, referring to a chained collection of ghasts and ghouls.

Ragnar casts Charm Person on this being, and learns that the wizard Orias sleeps deep in the earth, having been blessed by the Dark Lord with vampirism. They ask to be led to his study, a library and alchemical lab on the third floor, noting all the windows having been blacked out. They spy a multitude of potions, a spellbook on a plinth, and a chest full of wealth. They also are seen by a crow, and Humfra confirms this to be his master’s familiar.

Barmox asks for Humfra to bring the creature closer to him, and while the one-eyed assistant is warning the crow to not try pecking out his good eye, Barmox sleeps the both of them. They slay the familiar, bound and gag the assistant, and kill off the undead guards of the tower.

Barkface detects danger in the room from the book, the chest and some potions, and worries that the master would know of the familiar’s death, so the group decides to aim for slaying the vampire sooner rather than alter.

Entering into the basement they see a variety of barrels stored under the tower. They enter through two double doors and into a barracks filled with rat men. A deadly melee is engaged, multiple party members are struck by the ferocious creatures, but the Druids cast heat metal on their chain, burning many of them and forcing the creatures to run. Barmox’s wand comes in handy yet ago, disabling many of the combatants.

Deciding they are too injured to proceed, they return to the tower, collecting the potions that did not detect as dangerous, carefully grabbing the tome without touching it, and plundering the vampire’s chest for a ransom of gems, platinum, and electrum.

They decide to camp out in the woods overnight, fearing that the vampire will travel to Bogtown seeking revenge.

Failed Career: Merchant

You get

A nice floppy hat, a pouch of spices you accidentally mixed together, a small club you used to chase away thieves and savvy hagglers.

How was your career ruined?

Ridiculous inventory – Turns out very few people are interested in purchasing “The deed to 1 Goblin.”
Cursed product – That weird sky rock you sold to the baron cracked, besetting the fief with vapors of an intelligible color. You decided to skip town before anyone traced the source.
Lost investment – The spice ship you paid for almost reached the Duchy before it was wrecked by the marauding merfolk. If only you had coin enough to hire muscle to go retrieve the wreckage.
Limitless discount – Your initial idea of giving someone a coupon redeemable for 10% off of a purchase for ever 100 gold pieces spent drew lots of return customers. Then someone had the bright idea to cash in 10 at once and take everything.
Hunted – Your specialty of monster teeth and claws came back to bite you in more ways than one when a troll regenerated from a poorly bleached fang.
Planar legal fees – Thinking this nasty-looking silver sword you were traded by an adventurer would net you a pretty penny, you were met with headache when a strange-looking figure stepped out of a portal threatening legal action as your “crystal sphere” didn’t have the license associated with selling such a weapon.

What was one interesting trade that you kept?

Riddle Skull – A human skull that responds to the words “riddle me” with a unique riddle, up to once per day. Getting the riddle wrong enrages the skull who spends the better part of an hour trying to bite you. You were told something great would happen if you got three days in a row correct, but have yet to do so.
Rodent Automata – Brass and tin mechanical mouse. Will follow instructions of up to four or five sentences spoken to it before being wound up. Afterwards it will buzz and hum and go about completing the task, best it can as a small, robotic mouse. Unfortunately its winding only sustains it for about ten minutes.
Wand of Clutter – Gesturing this wand at a sorted collection of dishware, clothing, or any nick-knacks will compel the items to get up, run around in disarray and come to rest in a mess over a 10 foot by 10 foot area.
Tricorn of True North – A decent hat that will rotate atop your dome, always pointing north when worn.
Iridescent Salamander – Small lizard-like creature that secretes a lightly-glowing fluid once a day when agitated. This substance glows with about the luminance of a candle and glows in a variety of colors. The salamander unfortunately also bites when angered.
Man’s Best Boot – This single leather boot follows you with the upmost loyalty and even pants like a dog. It isn’t able to bark, but will excitedly tap or stomp the ground.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Nausicaä FKR Catch-Up (Session 4)

Playing catch-up on the session reports for my Valley of the Wind game over on the FKR Collective Discord. We took a bit of hiatus off for the holidays as well as some work scheduling difficulties, so we played one session months ago, and one session just last week which I will make a post for soon. So this is a report for a session we played back in November.

This will be the short format I’ve been trying out on my Barrowmaze reports. Feel free to leave feedback, especially if you are a player in this game and I’ve forgotten details.

Cast

Player Characters

Ezel the wanderer, played by Truzzy_02
Gaspar “Sarge” Brunel, pilot and sharpshooter played by ceacelessCarbine
Nessa, a spy-on-the-run, played by Ven (gendernihilist).

NPCs

Olmay, young child found aboard a downed ship
Belsinde, Olmay’s mother and military scientist for Torumekia
Imnion, Torumekian mechanic

Summary

Returning to the group in a circular viewing chamber, looking down into a three-story room filled with the grey substance, the horrific man-shaped creature with the shiny dome helmet, and multiple prisoners latticed up in the goo.
The group coordinates a dual plan, many utilizing an ancient elevator shaft to get down into the first floor, while Gaspar shoots the creature with his seed cloud gun, freezing it temporarily.
Nessa and Ezel make their way to free two captured prisoners, but the helmet on the monstrous figures falls into the pool, animating into a worm-like shape, that slams and strikes both of them, injuring them both.
Nessa’s captures “helmet” falls into the goo, producing yet another threat. (I think I forgot to mention in the last report that they fought a dog-like creature with one of these, Nessa found her nullification effects temporarily held it off and was able to retrieve the helmet after Gaspar shot the creature).
Ezel utilizes a pressurized container taken from the circular, slamming into the creature but knocking him back.
The party continues to scramble, multiple gambits are run as the group frees Olmay’s mother and another prisoner.
Ezel is knocked unconscious and dragged by one of the creatures, heading towards a northern section of the complex as the party is separated.
Circling through the halls, the group reconvenes on the other side of Ezel as he is coming to, slowing and distracting his captor.
Ezel utilized a quick flint and spark wheel to immolate the arm of his capture. The flames turning the twisting gelatinous structure into cracked and brittle char.
Regrouping, the party plans their escape.

Thoughts

Lots of fun, lots of planning, and a lot of hectic rolls as many of the characters came very close to the risk of death – something I always leave on the table when anyone is wounded but making risky actions.

Lots of fun, inventive play. Lots of awesome in-character planning, coordinated attacks, fun use of powers and equipment, and overall a great environment.

Some of the details may be a bit sparse because this is off of notes I made months ago, so anything I forgot or got wrong I apologize for.

Vayra’s 10 Setting Questions

The blogosphere has been doing a bunch of these setting questions recently, I believe initially (re)starting with Vayra’s 10 Questions. I wanted to jump on this bandwagon and answer for one of my long running settings, which I am currently running twice monthly with long time friends and con pals.

Because I’m silly and facetious and sometimes like to both embrace and poke fun at fantasy spellings I always type the name of this setting out as ÆЯÞ, not that anyone in setting calls the world that. This is mostly medieval fantasy with a lot of your typical “fantasyland” assumptions – wizards, dwarves, fallen magical empires, etc. I’ll be answering in context of a small isle the current campaign is taking place on – Ringland or in silly fantasy conlang – Morydysg. I am also using my house system Primeval 2d6.

1. What class knows the most martial arts? Are they real martial arts like kung fu, or made up ones like krav maga?

There aren’t character classes, but for starting characters most of the nobility is going to be trained in some amount of fencing and maybe some grappling and archery. Especially so for knights and the like. If a character begins attached to an organization such as the undead-hunting Greycloaks or the Bronze Flame exorcists will be trained to fight their usual enemies, but its not exactly “the most.”

2. Can I start out having already made a deal with the devil or do I have to do that in game?

Absolutely. In addition to most characters who have leveraged into magic, demonic pacts is always a possible event in character creation. The exiles of heaven are legion and always looking to bargain.

3. Do you want me to write an 8-page backstory? Can I write an 8-page backstory, if I want to? If I write something down in it like I’m the timelost princess of the brass city and the daughter of the sun and I commanded legions in the Hell War but was betrayed by my father’s vizier but I don’t know that, or that I’m elf conan and cooler than everyone else, will that be true?

Please no on the eight pages. After character generation, which includes some life pathing, if you want to go back and fill in details I absolutely welcome that. If that turns out to be eight pages then I guess you do you, but I am not going to read that. Give me 2-5 bullet points please.

Also pretty much anything tonally out of the game (medieval society + typical fantasy land) or outside of general power assumptions (lowish fantasy, don’t want to commit to being “low” since players can be wizards and have like a gnome infestation or something, but generally around starting level OD&D power levels) will be “known” by your character but not true until proven at the table.

4. If I eat someone’s heart, will I gain their powers? What about their brain?

It depends on who they and you are. In many cases a parasitic demon will want to feast on the life blood of a victim and will provide magic as compensation, so you could get it that way. If your meal is inherently magic then you’ll definitely retain some of their lingering power, but it is unlikely you will be able to hold onto it for long. Eating the flesh of fey is in particular dangerous, being much closer to the primordial soup of chaos than humans, potentially wracking or unmaking you.

5. These classes are boring, can I be one from somewhere else? What about from a different system entirely?

Probably not? I kind of like boring – I’d rather be shown awesome stuff than told something is awesome, and I feel a lot of classes tell more than show. But I’m always up to conversing and making a compromise. Since I don’t have classes I think it would be easy for you to just tell me what you want and we roll with it.

6. If I make a sword, which one of us gets to name it?

On Ringland you’d be able to name it. But there are places in the world where guild structures are such that only masters are allowed to name the product of their craft. Its not (usually) enforced through judicious measures, but kind of like if you put on a blackbelt and walked into a martial arts gym without the experience – you’d be in for a rough time with the locals.

7. Am I allowed to kill the other player characters? What would I have to do to be allowed to? Do I win if I kill them all? Actually, how do I win in general?

Depends on the campaign but I often play with players having lots of characters all over the place, so its absolutely possible that there will be player character killing. One player even murdered one of his own characters with another recently for nefarious purposes.

8. What language stands in for ‘Common’? Or what are we all talking to each other in? Like the party, mostly, but also everyone else?

On Ringland its Gwevian, the language of the dominant culture on the island. There are large pockets of cultures on the island, old and new, who speak their own language and may not know this language. Its usually assumed player characters can speak with each other unless someone is playing something atypical.

9. How do I learn how to talk to rocks? No not once a day just, like, normally?

You’ll need to learn some form of spirit speech and get the environment right for each particular rock, based on the personality of the inhabiting spirit(s). The Church abhors this as they do not agree with the animistic interpretation that some folk of the isle have, and believe this is just a demon hiding out in a stone.

10. Which kinds of wizards get to serve kings and live in towers and shit and which ones are run out of town or stoned to death in the streets? Can I be both? At the same time?

Cozy wizards are those chartered by the Order of the Ebon Serpent and has proven their utility to the nobility. Also potentially if they are in a secret demon cult that the particular noble is in or wants to be in and they keep it hush-hush and giggle and wink at each other and cross their fingers while attending Church.

Unchartered wizards, those who track with demons, anyone who creates a clone of another or deals heavily in planar magics (as the Church professes that the world is “All There Is”), or generally wizards who have utilized magic in the harm of others will be burned alive. You can definitely be both at the same time. The notion of “chartering” is not universally accepted among the isle, and different cultures have different interpretations of what is accepted magic and what is damnable.

White Box Home Printing

Over the years I’ve done a few home prints of the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons and its started to get actually good. I just wanted to share pictures and provide advice that I have found to work for me.

So while not terribly historically accurate, I have opted to use the WotC reprints, but I have utilized the original covers. I have them saved from a specific website where you can find pdfs of games for archival purposes, but I think these are now unavailable. I am sure if you asked the right person for the original covers they’d send you a link.

To print them in booklet form I used Adobe Acrobat, although I’m sure many pdf programs can print in booklet style. I printed the covers separate from the internal contents so that I could print them on different kinds of paper.

I printed the internal contents on 20 lbs. recycled paper – I have found actually printing on cheaper printer feels better for me for a use-copy. When the paper is too high quality the booklets become difficult to flip through, in addition to increasing the size of each booklet. I then printed the covers onto premium 80 lbs. white cardstock in color.

Afterwards I very gently fold over the pages and the cover, kind of rolling it in the middle without actually creasing it. I used to use a Scor-Pal but I found the actual crease on larger pamphlets creates kind of tiers of pages that affects use-in-hand. Your mileage may vary.

Once I have an obvious center I staple it twice using a long-arm stapler. I don’t really measure the position along the spine, or pre-hole the cover or anything. I just measure from the short edge of the cover to the center, and approximate two places nearish to the ends to staple.

Now that the actual booklet is constructed I start creasing the spine. I’ll very carefully apply pressure until the book mostly lays shut, and afterwards I’ll use a rubber roller to really flatten it out.

With the book sufficiently flattened, I flip open the cover and stick the internal pages into a paper slicer, aligning to whatever pages seem to be sticking out the least, and chop them down to a consistent size when closed. Again nothing terribly precise. Just stick the pages into the slicer, line up so excess page spill is past the blade, then chop.

For the actual white box I could have tried to look for something closer to the actual white box, or even apply paper to a smallish board game, but I opted instead for white corrugated box like this. Its sturdy, and since you have to buy it in a big pack its super useful for keeping all those zines you’ll be getting from Zine Quest in.

With the supplements, reference sheets, Chainmail and Swords & Spells its a pretty tight fit. Obviously if it was just the 3LBBs I could also stash some dice and other stuff, but its packed to the brim with additionals. I don’t heavily use the supplements, but every once and a while I’ll grab something from them, so I like to have them nearby.

Anyway, none of the above is rocket science, I just thought I’d share my process. I’d love to hear from you if you’ve done something similar, for your favorite game, adventure, supplement, daemonic spellbook, etc.

Barrowmaze Open Table Session 26

Summary

Quite a few new adventurers enter into the fray as the party returns to their initial entrance to the Barrowmaze. Therein they battle with stirges supping on a recently deceased adventurer. They discover a secret shrine to a demonic patron, and a magic-user pledges service to an unnamed entity asking to be led to the thief that took his scroll. In pursuit of this scoundrel, the group witnesses a massive Beastfolk, several times larger than they usually encounter as it immediately rushes them, trying to tear the adventurers limb from limb. After a bit of trying to sprint around it they group enters into combat, pinning the beast in a doorway and eventually dispatching it. Late into the night Sena uses her Ring of Invisibility to break into Krotho’s manor, leaving the head of the beastfolk in his chambers, torching his undergarments in the hall before sneaking out.

Cast

Player Characters

Barmox the Magic-User, played by Stripe
Glarg Grumblebeard, played by Trusty
Jollen the Druid, played by Xenken
Key the Thief, played by Robert
Rocco the Fighter, played by Daryl
Sena the Ranger, played by Malley
Slaine the Hermit, played by Dio

Hirelings

Manks the Cleric of Hathor

Rewards

3 sapphires worth 600gp
A coin-purse of 50gp
A bag full of chipped jewels worth 200gp
A silver dagger designed for ritualistic sacrifice
187.5 total party combat xp

Thoughts

It was a good game, a little hectic given that we had 5 new players. I need to remember to both instigate a Caller when we have lots of players, and to actively utilize them. Even when I have a caller I often forget and respond to absolutely everyone.

I also know due to the size of the game a few players had technical difficulties and unfortunately missed some of the material, which I feel bad about. I think this is unfortunately just chalked up to Discord, each person’s individual setup, and Roll20, but if anyone has recommendation I’d love to hear them.

There were a few questions of utilizing Floating Disc, a notoriously specific spell, in a very general fashion. While I love creativity, I do think the specifics of a spell is kind of a social contract. Some requested exampled were to use it as a wedge for a door, or as a bludgeoning device. Both are clever interpretations of the spell, but why I ruled against those is that it somewhat mitigates the usability things like Hold Portal or Magic Missile. That said, I’m always game for suggestions.

Overall I enjoyed it, but I do feel like I should move back to my policy of trying to keep at most 6 players. When playing online really my sweet spot is 3-5 players. I love being able to share this game with lots of people, but I also think that my strengths as a ref lay in kind of my free formy conversational manner, which can cause a lot of downtime when the table is packed.

Anyway, thank you for reading, and hopefully this shorter format will help me stay on pace with play reports.

Barrowmaze Open Table Catch-Up 15-25

The amount of session reports that I am “behind” on is almost a large than ones I have written – the last one was for October 11th. Since then there has been 16 Sundays (not including the most recent which I’ll write its own report for). Out of those 5 were missed sessions, most for holidays, my birthday, and just general end of the year stuff.

So that means I am missing reports for sessions 15-25. Of course there’s no way I’ll be able to summarize those, track down exactly everyone who played, etc. but I’ll try to very, very briefly outline what happened so I can pick up regular reporting again. I won’t be able to highlight everything but here’s some details:

The party stole a fantastic painting out of the noble’s tomb, and Sky the Druid used some mind-reading to deftly negotiate with H.H.R. Huffnpuff for a massive sum of wealth.
Removing the painting released a vault extending into some caves, releasing a hulking biped insectoid monster that they manage to dash away from.
Ambushed by a rival adventuring party, the group aggressively charges and slays two of their adversaries, scaring off the remaining three and claiming the fallen’s magic items for themselves.
While investigating a sole tomb, Ragnar the Half-Elf touched an ominous tome and was transported away to an alien realm to do battle with a small grey sorcerer atop a floating throne. Striking the magic-user twice, Ragnar was returned to the tomb with access to the tome.
The group discovered a demonic brazier that seems to extinguish flame.
Returning to the site of a previous massacre – the water logged tomb filled with a diorama of an elven warrior battling lizardmen, Sena the Ranger used her rope of climbing to remove the sword while the party ducked out of the tomb before the statue guardians attacked.
Sena continued her construction of a canal to the mounds, and as it neared completion some of her laborers came to her panicked that many decided to plunder a nearby religious site for a frog cult, after hearing the monks left for a pilgrimage, but were lost within.
The party traversed the magical threats in the tomb, with Martin the Cleric using wards to protect them from rampaging Frogoyles, finding the lost laborer who was infected with some sort of frog curse, the holy man exorcised it from the poor man’s body.
One of their hirelings was eaten whole by a mummified frogman, and the party fled sealing the dead within, burning religious iconography as they beat their retreat.
Barmox the Magic-User found some very enlightening weed and pipe in the shrine, and returned to share it with Huffnpuff, gaining magical insights as he took a deep hit.
Sky befriended a diseased alpha rat, and led it on many adventures before it was consumed by green slime.
They party found an ever-flowing cup, producing holy water, ale, or mead, or even sometimes potions. Two party members were slain by stone guardians in its retrieval.
The group stumbled upon corpses ambulated by a swarming mass of rotgrubs. After deadly combat Sky’s faithful mutt Foamy was found panting with the foul swarm digging into her skin. Sky immediately enacted dagger-surgery to get them out, narrowly saving his dog.
The group plundered an ancient library of an old pestilence cult, but not before battling with the entombed high priest who drained some of Lathan’s lifeforce. Their rewards were hundreds of pounds of books they were able to make a good exchange for, and a multitude of magical incenses, powders, and salves.
Sena’s canal ended, and Krothos the local lord immediately set to taxing it, giving the party 1 free pass on the canal as a reward. Sena punched his advisor, and Krothos let them off with a warning, heading off to drink and gamble.

Tons more occurred in addition to the above. As I go through my notes I’ll return here to add, but for now I think this is a decent summary. I apologize that I haven’t catalogued everyone who played in these games, and my apologies if I haven’t highlighted one of your favorite moments, but I definitely encourage you to comment if you played or remember any details and I’ll update this post.

Later this week I’ll write up the most recent session, and hopefully get caught up on my Open Table Valley of the Wind Game.

Thank you!