tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66798115044847370022023-12-15T16:07:17.359-08:00Dungeons of KlangHerman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.comBlogger125125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-69528053847186267542022-02-21T11:44:00.002-08:002022-02-21T11:44:31.547-08:00Dungeon Meshi for Dungeons and Dragons: Ape to Bear <p style="text-align: left;"> I was talking to a friend on twitter. This is my one internet friend I have who I met in person at a con. He wanted a supplement based on some Manga. Now, Manga is largely reactionary brain poison and this one is probably no exception. But that is what we like now. We love our little cartoons. We love our little Goku's and our 2,000 year old dragons that look like sexualized twelve-year-olds. We love it. <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrQJR0NawhujbBeE1ZdVaKWZ473CKvnPEJa9JqdohaMJ0DEbumZjIdUMliho9G7f-Ccyhm_os1xBqMAmX_75EBTQulzlBZjWwv8AliSNWah3M4FdyyCl_6dBvmB1NpuFyvcc-CQJ4goKo3cHOd0sQsUV-qD-ANMS_ux_Db8Qn9-iuu3H_7m2wlHelY=s956" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="956" data-original-width="860" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrQJR0NawhujbBeE1ZdVaKWZ473CKvnPEJa9JqdohaMJ0DEbumZjIdUMliho9G7f-Ccyhm_os1xBqMAmX_75EBTQulzlBZjWwv8AliSNWah3M4FdyyCl_6dBvmB1NpuFyvcc-CQJ4goKo3cHOd0sQsUV-qD-ANMS_ux_Db8Qn9-iuu3H_7m2wlHelY=s320" width="288" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">WE LOVE IT!!!<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Because we love it I am taking all the monsters from the Blueholme™ Journeymanne™ rules and making a Dungeon Meshi Supplement for it. This is officially what all the monsters in Blueholme™ taste like unless <a href="https://dreamscapedesign.net/" target="_blank">Michael Thomas</a> states otherwise.<br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"> A</h3><p><br /><b>Apes:</b> We got 3 sizes of apes. I remember seeing video as a kid of people eating a monkey’s brain. I remember the monkey still being alive. A quick google reveals that this is probably bullshit. So let’s not do Orientalism and save our PCs from prion disease. <br /><br />Sometimes nobles will coerce peasants or serfs to eat ape brains raw. Then the Nobles keep the peasants on their lands as hermits and show them off at garden parties. The guests get to watch over the course of a few months the peasants go insane and then die. <br /><br />The rest of the meat tastes tough and gamey. You are going to need to cook it slow with lots of extra fat.<br /><br /><b><br />Amazon:</b> Oh boy. Should you eat women? Would you eat women? Every bite of an Amazon you take gives you one misogyny point. Every time your character speaks you have to roll a d20 and if you don’t roll higher than your misogyny points you character complains about child support instead of saying what you intended them to say. <br /><br /><br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhhmprsrW0S8H5VLcZ0IFwPhYy9fvrISnuH08gcS3JDQ73mnpCeMhf4rr7nEU9s8QrcCOT04cJTc4hy3oqN_hUi164J1SEvizueZPeYozFbIZr05vGOD2K3kH333TRUWlgOs98eq9ANigpfma7wdwnDSu8BecnPTsaT1edKxR1xO6G2o6SQ_f_zXEnQ=s417" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="323" data-original-width="417" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhhmprsrW0S8H5VLcZ0IFwPhYy9fvrISnuH08gcS3JDQ73mnpCeMhf4rr7nEU9s8QrcCOT04cJTc4hy3oqN_hUi164J1SEvizueZPeYozFbIZr05vGOD2K3kH333TRUWlgOs98eq9ANigpfma7wdwnDSu8BecnPTsaT1edKxR1xO6G2o6SQ_f_zXEnQ=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Also Angels look like these weird things.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>Angel:</b> Ok you want a high level adventure. Here is a high level adventure anyone that feeds a immortal being to other immortal beings without them finding out gets 20k experience per hd per God that does the eating.<br /><br /><b>Ants:</b> I ate bugs once. They weren’t that good. Apparently ants tasted different depending on species but I read that big ants are bitter with a nutty taste. So giant ants would probably have a really bitter taste. <br /><br /> probably soak in water and add an acid like lemon juice to remove the bitterness. or sugar curing.<br /><br /><br /></p><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">B</h3><p><br /><b>Bandit: </b>Let’s be real if you are running a world based with a Feudal system. Then the bandits are probably the good guys. The nobles are bad. Kings are bad. There is no such thing as a good king if they were good they wouldn’t be kings grow up. But look if you want to eat the good guys go for it. Bandits taste like normal humans but every time you eat one there is a 20% chance you develop class consciousness and start crying, Unless you are a noble or an aristocrat. <br /><br /><b><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjuK1V_aR8rBD4jDTDP2Sbyupm1w67qYkOfpLDvy17lVlHLKAhg4Zl0Us-hNsJ4Cc1rSs0FbyLea9DRLJT7vrYrNWxx3gbFeFWnWZpGzMgrjv8UctY4ItSiNdCXrSmcTFrmbd3DxIIUX2Q58IKsZPtGu6xNSmv2J6nZtD5FHDLuWSZj-GzOKUMqZaW1=s426" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="426" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjuK1V_aR8rBD4jDTDP2Sbyupm1w67qYkOfpLDvy17lVlHLKAhg4Zl0Us-hNsJ4Cc1rSs0FbyLea9DRLJT7vrYrNWxx3gbFeFWnWZpGzMgrjv8UctY4ItSiNdCXrSmcTFrmbd3DxIIUX2Q58IKsZPtGu6xNSmv2J6nZtD5FHDLuWSZj-GzOKUMqZaW1=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stop making basilisks look cool. The dumber they look the more humiliating it is to be killed by one.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Basilisk:</b> Many cultures eat Lizards, very few eat lizard kings. The meat is delicious fried. The meat is succulent roasted as long as there is enough fat in the pan. Don’t forget to baste it. But watch out brave adventurer, you might acquire a taste for royalty. After eating the Basilisk save vs Gaze (We are using Blueholme™ rules here) or you are overcome with a desire to eat the rich and powerful. This desire can only be quelled by a bestow curse spell restoring your false class consciousness.<br /><b><br />Bat:</b> You want to eat some bats. You can’t eat bats. That’s how you start a Covid epidemic. Where have you been these past few years. Or maybe not who knows anymore who can we trust. When someone first tries to eat a bat flip a coin heads they become patient zero for the novel Coronavirus. Tails, and Covid comes from a lab and they are totally fine.<br /><br /><b>Bear:</b> You can eat bear meat but you better thank the bear’s ghost first or you will get trichinosis. You also have a 1 in 6 chance of getting trichinosis if you don’t fully cook the meat. Make a stew. Michael Thomas should have put some more fatty monsters in his bestiary because once again we have a monster that is going to need some added fat in the recipe to make the meat tender. Or some acid. Unfortunately slimes are in the second half of the alphabet. But yeah spoilers: Slimes used in small quantities in recipes are going to make a lot of this tough meat tender. <br /><br />Also FYI trichinosis will give you diarrhea and maybe kill you. Do not just cook this on a stick over the fire!</p>Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-44283963475480889252022-02-11T10:27:00.002-08:002022-02-11T10:27:25.103-08:00Night's Dark Terror Session: I Lost Track 1<p> <span style="font-size: x-large;">W</span>e're in a burning village. There are dog headed babies and dog-headed women running screaming. I don't know what's going on. I missed the last session. I have a magic mace now and a lot of people are dead. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-left: 40px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjj2DmH3tYwC3QXk0dkHGq4mZEmb9872hh2_UnlMWYerLtKvra9WrsUvh6UOGVsL1NroTg4E-wmg9swx9a5d19zUroKt160y0SACCz9ITX7RvDaMDi3zDLZcS3KIzwcfl_sEvsGAM0fa281dobVnn42AUMX4gwc64lEJok25R1xzZuSSNy9OFZn8gCQ=s1608" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1608" data-original-width="1065" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjj2DmH3tYwC3QXk0dkHGq4mZEmb9872hh2_UnlMWYerLtKvra9WrsUvh6UOGVsL1NroTg4E-wmg9swx9a5d19zUroKt160y0SACCz9ITX7RvDaMDi3zDLZcS3KIzwcfl_sEvsGAM0fa281dobVnn42AUMX4gwc64lEJok25R1xzZuSSNy9OFZn8gCQ=s320" width="212" /></a></div>"oh, what's that noise. Yelling? hmmm. Let's go towards it. Oh look a shack with a prisoner in it. I guess it was ok to massacre this entire village then. They had a prisoner. That means they're evil." The prisoner is an ugly elf with a stupid name. He is in a loin cloth. We give him a cape and ask him about his backstory. He conveniently has amnesia. He finds some leather armor but I want to remember him in his cape and loin cloth. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiwj8Nrzh67HwSf_hq7cRhh2BGL5inDmaYS5Oncu2dGThpN_wKaLmIAUmXtz-weftWihcZj2i2iun55hQI3q4-Z9iI6_HDksXetjgwapMjIh4nHP6ezLuXsxZ8oaXZ5ucLeWwm3YXAGu104gCR6gXjKqx7OVR5MfbF1vnnuKnHWywC8kV_WHiG5a4l9=s1797" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1797" data-original-width="1210" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiwj8Nrzh67HwSf_hq7cRhh2BGL5inDmaYS5Oncu2dGThpN_wKaLmIAUmXtz-weftWihcZj2i2iun55hQI3q4-Z9iI6_HDksXetjgwapMjIh4nHP6ezLuXsxZ8oaXZ5ucLeWwm3YXAGu104gCR6gXjKqx7OVR5MfbF1vnnuKnHWywC8kV_WHiG5a4l9=s320" width="215" /></a></div><p>Next we return to the other village. The village of people we don't kill. The people there look like short squat Joe Rogans. There is another class of people there not pictured who all look like Patton Oswalt or something probably. It is 3 am or so but we have to investigate a crime. The suspect is a blog god. He is accused of killing 3 Joe Rogans and destroying a gate. We were planning on killing the blob god anyway and stealing his treasure anyway so this is a good justification, a <i>Causus Belli </i>if you will. </p><p><br /></p><p>First we have to go on a quest that involves shitting in a pond (British modules were really weird). At the pond we find out that the Joe Rogan's are racist against our goblins. We pull a bunch of their podcasts but continue working with them. </p><p>Next we go to, I don't know wherever we are supposed to be going. It is H3 on the map or something and you know what? I am not going to talk about what happened. I don't want to encourage copy cat behavior. Instead I am going to focus on t he victims. Three Beautiful Goblins cut down in the prime for their lives.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhraEk1AFgMN5quZRECubntaF0sDYZ_-XVYBoIE0HFEXeZ3hAE1E-nULyVE_BTISG9eZ1UuJB-mWoUGm28iOWRTdfRJKCTx1kQIae5PhxuaRjM1R-JS4VszB7qU6MNvwlW1F_nkAXNGkmOE12C8ivGw7UENfH3fTRQhZ763r4whJxigoVpeTg7Kj4xQ=s1617" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1617" data-original-width="1396" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhraEk1AFgMN5quZRECubntaF0sDYZ_-XVYBoIE0HFEXeZ3hAE1E-nULyVE_BTISG9eZ1UuJB-mWoUGm28iOWRTdfRJKCTx1kQIae5PhxuaRjM1R-JS4VszB7qU6MNvwlW1F_nkAXNGkmOE12C8ivGw7UENfH3fTRQhZ763r4whJxigoVpeTg7Kj4xQ=s320" width="276" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Never Forget<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>First there was guy in a vest. He leaves behind his goblin comrades and had dreams to be a chef. He was always there to help a comrade with a joke or a smile. His vest was cool and he had plans to put some patches on it when he got back to commemorate his adventure.</p><p>Next there was monacle and scarf guy. He loved pickles and was kind to animals.</p><p>Finally there was female guy. The only woman in the group she was able to hold her own in male dominated environment and really earned the respect of the guys. Not that she should have had to fight as hard as she did to earn that respect. She was a real trailblazer, who was snuffed out before her time. I guess she lived her life like a candle in the wind. She was a light against the darkness even though it was dangerous for he to even exist in the spaces she occupied.<br /></p>Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-78570473985447451382021-07-31T08:37:00.000-07:002021-07-31T08:37:32.894-07:00Fleshing out Portown After a Trip to the Coast<p> <br /></p><p>I really think that there is a place on the Zenopus Archives where he
talks about how Port Town was based on some Coastal town in Northern
California. I have now been to such a town, Mendocino California. I
wandered the coast looking for places where smugglers would meet. late
at night and trade goods away from the eyes of the law. Of course there
were sea caves but there were also small islets that only existed when
the tide was low. <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOSx4DVDdLdt56Nb6wtk8dNhJp_7_sZE_GwfzZmKimbtnidRJtjuGoWfm5az8s2MjYWEfAYxwXN9aScGq8ARAW6rDPae9PMHSaDxT7B5c8JZnw9xcsVq2wC8R64SPki8t4UjlrSvh_CpE/s2048/PXL_20210727_182402672.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOSx4DVDdLdt56Nb6wtk8dNhJp_7_sZE_GwfzZmKimbtnidRJtjuGoWfm5az8s2MjYWEfAYxwXN9aScGq8ARAW6rDPae9PMHSaDxT7B5c8JZnw9xcsVq2wC8R64SPki8t4UjlrSvh_CpE/s320/PXL_20210727_182402672.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Near the deepest part of the Cove you can see a cave entrance. These were up and down the coast. It's easy to imagine them being deep and leading to an underground smuggler's lair. Or imagine the water washing all the way under the graveyard and taking the bodies away. The lost souls are washed out to sea. They become angry and crawl to shore reanimated by a hatred for the living. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjldRiDk0Kp-sXZgId-sGtD3YnIx1lzkD4wzCo1tfL9UI2azc3C0M8UnbhxGLKgrzKd4eobTds4Ov4PbZli_9faCljD3kgng4MqwDJQnfxGP884K5IJfZhcg-RFmToanLQ0dIhDRDPmsIA/s2048/PXL_20210727_183037366.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjldRiDk0Kp-sXZgId-sGtD3YnIx1lzkD4wzCo1tfL9UI2azc3C0M8UnbhxGLKgrzKd4eobTds4Ov4PbZli_9faCljD3kgng4MqwDJQnfxGP884K5IJfZhcg-RFmToanLQ0dIhDRDPmsIA/s320/PXL_20210727_183037366.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Perhaps not far away enough for meeting at night to exchange contraband but there were numerous islets like this ready to plunge beneath the sea when the tied came in.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>Of Course there were also arches and sea caves were giant crabs or whatever could hide out. I am thinking sirens that call out to lost children. There was also a colony of bees living in the rocks. They were not as exciting as sirens but they were real and I had to avoid them to get to the outcropping I wanted to get to.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdLBlxb9pm7pbjH-gydq5QG9gsp_cFoSATbjR-NFpW_d_d_cK1dYz3-WY91nUZEKpTTYcGPNg3OkzlGkvV2NThTyUkCyuQsFVPEVcZQG0xjEV90KL124E9pq3G4VD0DJLAIJtZimvUWCo/s2048/PXL_20210727_185801920.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdLBlxb9pm7pbjH-gydq5QG9gsp_cFoSATbjR-NFpW_d_d_cK1dYz3-WY91nUZEKpTTYcGPNg3OkzlGkvV2NThTyUkCyuQsFVPEVcZQG0xjEV90KL124E9pq3G4VD0DJLAIJtZimvUWCo/s320/PXL_20210727_185801920.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clearly the home of a giant lobster who feeds on the kelp in the bay<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvEQydxb7TW2u8cwgkmzrUEtM0Pp4ZEZL1eA95zm0O6xE_k6I5E1lps3Bk0r6RFhIZnlRLaE10X8pwhiCxEdmaZsP3Entp-hbzFhQq6LLcHSc7i7_REW2iLqO2Du-JeR46qJF_6THZwcQ/s2048/PXL_20210727_185913487.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvEQydxb7TW2u8cwgkmzrUEtM0Pp4ZEZL1eA95zm0O6xE_k6I5E1lps3Bk0r6RFhIZnlRLaE10X8pwhiCxEdmaZsP3Entp-hbzFhQq6LLcHSc7i7_REW2iLqO2Du-JeR46qJF_6THZwcQ/s320/PXL_20210727_185913487.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Come closer child let me sing to you.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxxHOTgoA7VloooI93p9Py2wVpvOkbqYUZfu2zYHCITMaCu_dLn5fwQV1Xr6QtZdlLKDY41RWIAYbW-zErrncXMuhbdWI-21hi3aEnSj-xTuFSbLB1SZgf2Z5nQHnbjE36CUjuharhfd8/s2048/PXL_20210727_183007216.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxxHOTgoA7VloooI93p9Py2wVpvOkbqYUZfu2zYHCITMaCu_dLn5fwQV1Xr6QtZdlLKDY41RWIAYbW-zErrncXMuhbdWI-21hi3aEnSj-xTuFSbLB1SZgf2Z5nQHnbjE36CUjuharhfd8/s320/PXL_20210727_183007216.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Also you could have an encounter with some seabirds that lead you to some treasure in their nest like a locket.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJKnbVZH6tBrotm7vAXlez238EK4iVWG-SjtCNuyv40s8T4wlKAMRnX6V88go7kfp2haOQLYdBNXqZcXOcNNWG4sRXJrkRwDaN4ZklnAGEs9CZDKq0wnA7l2ltU3mn91VgAkZ_mcteYUo/s2048/PXL_20210727_180749878.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJKnbVZH6tBrotm7vAXlez238EK4iVWG-SjtCNuyv40s8T4wlKAMRnX6V88go7kfp2haOQLYdBNXqZcXOcNNWG4sRXJrkRwDaN4ZklnAGEs9CZDKq0wnA7l2ltU3mn91VgAkZ_mcteYUo/s320/PXL_20210727_180749878.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There was this spooky tree with dead limbs covered in moss or something. I would put this in the graveyard in Portown and have smugglers meet here to negotiate with ghouls on moonless nights. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7FFHUPPUNdy36f05NqsdyoPeUGD168sPXRRAHItuFh-LAzzkoilol1MOPRAfJo5IR1gg_aiorONf482g4ChkYXRc6IB2YJ4VSX0DrWKGeJXhA9-QiIt8I23qfzAF_wNeEVz0EMWQUKdQ/s2048/PXL_20210727_183808694.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7FFHUPPUNdy36f05NqsdyoPeUGD168sPXRRAHItuFh-LAzzkoilol1MOPRAfJo5IR1gg_aiorONf482g4ChkYXRc6IB2YJ4VSX0DrWKGeJXhA9-QiIt8I23qfzAF_wNeEVz0EMWQUKdQ/s320/PXL_20210727_183808694.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finally people had carved skulls and faces into the sandstone on the cliff. I could imagine a hidden sandstone altar carved in a hard to reach place or just that the citizens of Portown carve the faces of their sailors that die at sea into the sides of the cliffs. Imagine a sandstone relief to those lost at sea stretching all the way back to the founding of Portown. What clues and secrets would be embedded there?<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-24798419774250034612021-07-19T18:23:00.001-07:002021-07-19T18:23:33.730-07:00Night's Dark Terror Sessions 9 &10: Tower of the Abusive Narcissist<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_DE7_KyL66b3xzQQYJq829AQybJ6kduX3m5Z-lThKpGy99aeZLQGNU8RyNbqGeDiWqsgzbTlYuMKr0nJNcBkPBfk2zJJ8h0rXd4yqo-8hF31TR5ueW1pqDRuPWd9iJ_QZvyilYZfAYX4//" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="252" data-original-width="563" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_DE7_KyL66b3xzQQYJq829AQybJ6kduX3m5Z-lThKpGy99aeZLQGNU8RyNbqGeDiWqsgzbTlYuMKr0nJNcBkPBfk2zJJ8h0rXd4yqo-8hF31TR5ueW1pqDRuPWd9iJ_QZvyilYZfAYX4//" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Imagine spending the better part of a session listening to the cleric talk to some stupid wolves that have nothing to do with anything. That is what it is like to play D&D with me.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> Session 9: Talking to Wolves and killing a Cow.<br /><br />I don’t feel like a lot happened this session because my character spent like half an hour talking to some wolves. That’s my bad. That one is definitely on me. The wolf conversation was largely fruitless<br /><br />Then we went to Lake Titicaca where the bad guy is. He is a wizard and he wants this tapestry thing. We accidentally rescue the guy we were supposed to rescue. Or maybe that was what we were trying to do. I can’t remember.<br /><br />This guy we were trying to rescue was all “go after the evil wizard and take his treasure!” we were all “Dude you look terrible, you have been tortured, get your priorities straight we are taking you home!”<br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjI2oLEh4AraFeoLVdGk_ZdDRcMXiAOU-zgelwxFkHhUc5M9Sq4ztDh-_Zh6kxYVXsuhI8PFlXNyXCcq7hdsak2sdXdxHkCkFykpt5qUElBh53FkuVMAKpNNWAjWMYC0vK048LcAZJTz0//" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="295" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjI2oLEh4AraFeoLVdGk_ZdDRcMXiAOU-zgelwxFkHhUc5M9Sq4ztDh-_Zh6kxYVXsuhI8PFlXNyXCcq7hdsak2sdXdxHkCkFykpt5qUElBh53FkuVMAKpNNWAjWMYC0vK048LcAZJTz0//" width="209" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We killed this guy. It was no big deal<br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />Anyway we made a new goblin friend named Jithers. We killed a bunch of stuff in front of him. Including the hobgoblin who we were hoping would help us kill the rapey horse man. At first we were trying to get a job working in his posse but he wouldn’t let us join because he was racist.<br /><br />Anyway Jithers had a lot of trauma related issues we hoped to work through in the next session.<br /><br />Session 10: Raised by Narcissists<br /><br />Jithers had a really hard go of it. Through our continued talks with Jithers we were able to lay out the whole pattern of abuse. The evil wizard had classic Borderline Personality Disorder with serious narcissistic tendencies. Jithers had developed a really unhealthy attachment. <br /><br />We told Jithers that he could come live on a horse farm and animal therapy. We offered him a way out but he just wasn’t ready to take it. I think this evil wizard character has been built up into an omnipotent godlike character in his mind to the point where Jithers cannot imagine himself as a separate distinct entity.<br /><br />So, we left Jithers and took the guy we rescued, who was wondering why his homestead was now being marketed as a therapy retreat for goblins.<br /><br />When we found our horses they were being dry humped by evil baboons. So we started humping those baboons back to establish alpha dominance. Long story short; it worked. As we humped the baboons into submission we gazed back to the evil wizards tower and saw Jithers gazing out the window at us. It was a really gut wrenching experience.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWHOWFmfEfE_9ncO0JF7Xh3o8Z8U-DfTCbvbW6GSyMfJr1Ygq_dvW_-7aUUif_t4p853QZzWnHggUcnLqFkFJuk2f0YNguvohyphenhyphenbS8j4pKsFCwwrgfBxRuqVvrSuub7Q5iqhWLDIzksJxo//" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="206" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWHOWFmfEfE_9ncO0JF7Xh3o8Z8U-DfTCbvbW6GSyMfJr1Ygq_dvW_-7aUUif_t4p853QZzWnHggUcnLqFkFJuk2f0YNguvohyphenhyphenbS8j4pKsFCwwrgfBxRuqVvrSuub7Q5iqhWLDIzksJxo//" width="207" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just thinking about life after a hard day humping and being humped.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />On an unrelated note, one of the other players couldn’t be there so he let someone else control your character. This is really dangerous not because your character will die but because when you get back your character will be into some weird stuff. Oso the fighters new thing is pissing on everything. He pissed on a baboon. HE pissed on the wizard’s tower. He pissed on the dead wizard. Spoiler: we kill the wizard.<br /><br />Oso wrote a long letter to the evil wizard in his pee telling him that we had the thingy he was looking for and to come and get it. Then we went home to the goblin therapy horse farm and got ready. We did like an A-Team montage. There was this whole battle. Then the wizard came and it was scary for a bit but I guess he didn’t know fireball so we all lived. After he was dead Oso pissed on him and then we had to loot his body after it was covered in Oso’s urine. Oops. <br /><br />I know it is gauche to bring you weird fetishes into the game but I swear we are not into pee stuff (that I know of) so it is ok. Besides, this is More Calvin and Hobbes bumper sticker peeing than sex peeing.<br /></p><br /><br /><br /><p></p>Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-52534040977146313802021-06-16T13:49:00.001-07:002021-06-16T13:49:33.321-07:00Night's Dark Terror Session 8: Grooming Horses the Bad Way<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr2JLABCpFuG2-mX81VdJtQLtrlKG-k1kbxg8yVfHoEk64rt59CLn67Yw6AsthfFiEtf4C5IWjgIUE9zvKFF3hzmHGqXP0VZkgrZrpcHjMk741p-Vs4EgskV-6Ik7UyWWVIOGs6cphqMo/s588/loshad+rape.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr2JLABCpFuG2-mX81VdJtQLtrlKG-k1kbxg8yVfHoEk64rt59CLn67Yw6AsthfFiEtf4C5IWjgIUE9zvKFF3hzmHGqXP0VZkgrZrpcHjMk741p-Vs4EgskV-6Ik7UyWWVIOGs6cphqMo/w340-h400/loshad+rape.png" width="340" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TSR UK, You should be ashamed.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwi_6Ity2I-bP4JFsM1ZIckl7-WdI1NP7N7wckgIyucOVM2GXAOjqIydQhyhnss4f0gcmlL0o1txXUewCF-l1jYFNsnWAEAO3JgjGpeiwT23og2WtuXzp4PG-9ckXEHTgz9UZGH-BkZvg/s365/Bytor+grossed+out.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="232" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwi_6Ity2I-bP4JFsM1ZIckl7-WdI1NP7N7wckgIyucOVM2GXAOjqIydQhyhnss4f0gcmlL0o1txXUewCF-l1jYFNsnWAEAO3JgjGpeiwT23og2WtuXzp4PG-9ckXEHTgz9UZGH-BkZvg/s320/Bytor+grossed+out.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bytor Goldenbeard was horrified.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> Last session I said we would have to kill more stuff in the petrified forest lair of the Wolfsex goblins or whatever they are called. We did. We slaughtered them. We did it for money; money we have no hope of spending. We did it just to look at the money We did it just because we could. I felt debased. <br /><br />Little did Yutnib and company know that standing in that den of goblins covered in goblin viscera breathing in goblin blood and feces and sweat, that was as clean as they were going to feel all session. <br /><br />They had to talk to Loshad again. The party had hit a dead end. The trail leading to the guy we were looking for had run cold. It turns out Loshad had known about the human trafficking operation the whole time and had just neglected to tell us. He had been letting us run around like assholes. We came crawling back to him begging him to tell us how to save the people that had been kidnapped by this ancient cult or something (I am not exactly sure what is going on honestly). <br /><br />Loshad refused unless we did him a favor. He wanted us to kill a werewolf. We asked why. I wish we had not asked why. So it turned out that Loshad had been ‘in love’ with this horse. A regular horse not a magic talking horse. This horse was the property of a woman who became a werewolf (through no fault of her own near as we can tell). As a werewolf she ate the horse that was Loshad’s “lover.” <br /><br />We were all repulsed. This guy wanted us to kill a sentient being because this sentient being killed a non sentient being for food. Also he was having sex with the non sentient being. We wanted to slay this pervert right there but we could not because he was the only one who knew where the spooky city of whatever it is we are trying to find is. <br /><br />Naturally the party was disgusted. Some were disgusted because this horse guy was disguising himself as a regular horse to have sex with horses. Others were disgusted because we spent ninety minutes or so discussing the ethics of a half horse half man taking the shape of a regular horse to have sex with horses instead of continuing on with the adventure.<br /><br />Regardless I think we all agree we need to kill<br /><br /> this creepy rapey horseman. <br /></p>Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-85885153533381658512021-05-11T12:20:00.000-07:002021-05-11T12:20:10.517-07:00Nights Dark Terror Interlude: Stolen Content<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihNEtgEg6n-uaPZSHQvLSlB0qjAzE7e_cv4nkAEvObcYif1jLqnSpVxBy_w08LmgXWl2ocnPeSyA1VC0Wt5voAcgwkLNz7K00itQV5-9GTpRHscNhEIf6cXLRjuAgMT_hJdh5tLcJ56Vs/s2048/IMG_0961.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihNEtgEg6n-uaPZSHQvLSlB0qjAzE7e_cv4nkAEvObcYif1jLqnSpVxBy_w08LmgXWl2ocnPeSyA1VC0Wt5voAcgwkLNz7K00itQV5-9GTpRHscNhEIf6cXLRjuAgMT_hJdh5tLcJ56Vs/w400-h300/IMG_0961.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The dungeon master no doubt about to go insane from isolation recreated some scenes from our last session with his dolls. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPG0q7gyiS5XgoqygzhVbkhsi_2iIwyPb2btQeNlk0fSguT_cQvBbhsjdG5pf7pZi1SIrdvOs96mvHgoUkm2lp5ardFLXc0u2d2eEH3FcsmJUCh8IUfv6Rny31hTm4QVwD3oGhiik9P54/s2048/IMG_0962.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPG0q7gyiS5XgoqygzhVbkhsi_2iIwyPb2btQeNlk0fSguT_cQvBbhsjdG5pf7pZi1SIrdvOs96mvHgoUkm2lp5ardFLXc0u2d2eEH3FcsmJUCh8IUfv6Rny31hTm4QVwD3oGhiik9P54/w640-h480/IMG_0962.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>We were fighting some goblins in a petrified forest. The dm and I made those big petrified trees about a year or so ago out of poster tube and coffee grounds. The smaller logs are dowel with coffee grounds. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOpZdn58lZJIm4coaf_LZIoj0ZaKP33SKZOW4LA9j2kOFAmc1UneM7uNivNanWGRoAfqtuk-OikK2rOhYz68v7mIIX3f37IyglVuToVT1CbVxj0iQFPxlfQGYVMlr6xLs7inOcA3mVa4s/s2048/IMG_0964.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOpZdn58lZJIm4coaf_LZIoj0ZaKP33SKZOW4LA9j2kOFAmc1UneM7uNivNanWGRoAfqtuk-OikK2rOhYz68v7mIIX3f37IyglVuToVT1CbVxj0iQFPxlfQGYVMlr6xLs7inOcA3mVa4s/w400-h300/IMG_0964.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>He got minis to play Frostgrave with me but I fled to California so he is all alone. If anyone is in the Philadelphia area and wants to play Frostgrave reach out. It will probably give him the motivation to base his minis.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWOPTV988y_ogjdUVAAwPoAV4O3U2qMcEiJaZLhoQanPMP482ye3nWKTQPQGslrYubO096gffw3hh-kV79ov0kbbJmpI2lhSveWR5zy43i1DaaD0_4bX7t-nYLRqFqhM8r-ziv1xN6llo/s2048/IMG_0975.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWOPTV988y_ogjdUVAAwPoAV4O3U2qMcEiJaZLhoQanPMP482ye3nWKTQPQGslrYubO096gffw3hh-kV79ov0kbbJmpI2lhSveWR5zy43i1DaaD0_4bX7t-nYLRqFqhM8r-ziv1xN6llo/w400-h300/IMG_0975.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> Maybe one day we will get to play in person again instead of over roll20 or zoom.<br /><p></p>Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-6415972711520968872021-05-04T11:34:00.000-07:002021-05-04T11:34:08.635-07:00Night's Dark Terror Session Report: Hate the Police and See Through All Time and Space<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUkiOhGftH4QXyyzdbgoCHHoVXczezrJmUg64EHgH9leFumX7UNXKqp5O9I0DtEwYVJjrpKFUHYIi-E7ZghIoUu7bOg33k7N7AO95vogWYIzU1sj-MQi-tjNxC5mKsw-xzKllpFomgr7g/s1140/hobgoblin.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1010" data-original-width="1140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUkiOhGftH4QXyyzdbgoCHHoVXczezrJmUg64EHgH9leFumX7UNXKqp5O9I0DtEwYVJjrpKFUHYIi-E7ZghIoUu7bOg33k7N7AO95vogWYIzU1sj-MQi-tjNxC5mKsw-xzKllpFomgr7g/s320/hobgoblin.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hobgoblins. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><h4 style="text-align: left;"> Session 6: Hate the Police<br /></h4><p>This session we do some more nonsense in the cave with the orcs and rescue this gnome we were supposed to rescue last time.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg69UjO7ldosV4ad7Y32Bv5tb0nNyECQJPl3uc39DjSMItoosYNUwmBYSc79wWlifp6dLCAwQc3kpXx2tsTFvXPV4qt9rgbvgrchSzrT3e4ei6X5LisVEjseWrhKyR63AfVWi6iB_YEg6k/s646/Loshad.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="646" data-original-width="646" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg69UjO7ldosV4ad7Y32Bv5tb0nNyECQJPl3uc39DjSMItoosYNUwmBYSc79wWlifp6dLCAwQc3kpXx2tsTFvXPV4qt9rgbvgrchSzrT3e4ei6X5LisVEjseWrhKyR63AfVWi6iB_YEg6k/s320/Loshad.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">He knows what he did.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />More importantly my cleric memorized speak with animals because I have never had a character memorize that spell ever. Obviously, I talk to my horse. Uh oh Turns out the creepy horse guy from before his name is just the Russian word for horse has been up to some funny business with our horses! <br /><br />We confront him later when he is trying fine us for riding our horses too long. He tells us he is prepared to issue a citation for Horsey Negligence. We tell him that we know that he is a perverted corrupt half-horse horse cop. He rides (or I guess he just runs cause he is the horse) away and we start looking for his archenemy, who is this wolf who breathes cold breath or something (I don’t know it doesn’t really sound that scary to me).</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1I71IloUc8nIE1R-BIKD5xGn9Z42WciUAw96wLkEP1H2hygaDCb2XopTM6kCzg0ka9-T97kVnBAUXkOQ2gITvhLEM4UYNi3K5babJ6Wdr_0dB8_A6MdamdwtuX4ZMKbT67lUU8X-3C90/s1600/Screen+Shot+2021-05-04+at+11.02.16+AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="978" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1I71IloUc8nIE1R-BIKD5xGn9Z42WciUAw96wLkEP1H2hygaDCb2XopTM6kCzg0ka9-T97kVnBAUXkOQ2gITvhLEM4UYNi3K5babJ6Wdr_0dB8_A6MdamdwtuX4ZMKbT67lUU8X-3C90/s320/Screen+Shot+2021-05-04+at+11.02.16+AM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vlack
the Spooky Hobgoblin has a magic wolf and bat friends. He is really
into watching us sleep. We chase after him to figure out what his deal
was and he got very confrontational so you know he is up to something
weird.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNZGKbGCY584tMr5idMGR3V4kSJyXl5TaQ4x5aNwmIfSK1_ngF8UC6P2W0Fz0i8cj7QukM2VsiHoz9LP4SQHv8MjIDLunvC-6W2pq9lUsMHP82E9KQ7u2dYHm9xxPanEMgRYNVGjrMWhI/s942/bat.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="942" data-original-width="652" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNZGKbGCY584tMr5idMGR3V4kSJyXl5TaQ4x5aNwmIfSK1_ngF8UC6P2W0Fz0i8cj7QukM2VsiHoz9LP4SQHv8MjIDLunvC-6W2pq9lUsMHP82E9KQ7u2dYHm9xxPanEMgRYNVGjrMWhI/s320/bat.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vlack has bat friends<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNZGKbGCY584tMr5idMGR3V4kSJyXl5TaQ4x5aNwmIfSK1_ngF8UC6P2W0Fz0i8cj7QukM2VsiHoz9LP4SQHv8MjIDLunvC-6W2pq9lUsMHP82E9KQ7u2dYHm9xxPanEMgRYNVGjrMWhI/s942/bat.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />Anyway we find the wolf and this hobgoblin guy riding it and they are totally unreasonable. They do not want to chase down the horse abuser. Instead we fight him (turns out cold wolf breath only does like 1d6 damage or something so no big deal).</p><p></p><br /><p><br /><br />Also I talk to some bats. and the magic user, Io charmed a hobgoblin and we named him “Hob Lowe”. <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCnjGm0OzI7XwWggCkSx8Up4EOUlsfXQ9W-hUIvOyxYO_GVul5yANK9Pc0lP0D6piOLAB-YXJro506VdTvFdAS_JjUTfWHRuzVOvoJTgd0pDtKI6vR8_x_A7TuJ2lYEWOO27qwiB3bNIg/s488/hob+lowe.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="388" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCnjGm0OzI7XwWggCkSx8Up4EOUlsfXQ9W-hUIvOyxYO_GVul5yANK9Pc0lP0D6piOLAB-YXJro506VdTvFdAS_JjUTfWHRuzVOvoJTgd0pDtKI6vR8_x_A7TuJ2lYEWOO27qwiB3bNIg/s320/hob+lowe.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hob
Lowe our charmed goblin also seems to have very limited knowledge about
his life before he became charmed. He can tell us very little about
what he was doing with the main bad guy Vlack the spooky Hobgoblin. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Session 7: Seeing through all Time and Space</h4><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHYuElN_eFXE7_2Hr0EiiGCi69j4AzhMWHu2vbE0M2rcmV4gnGUUK-UgbSCScvl_iyn5IKRwjvqjKQI4HudaFATnj6HrPw0e9GJ-XR6uCO18rC25tysEweNu_iYSC8mW15VQ5t2-6BLng/s606/piranhas.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="606" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHYuElN_eFXE7_2Hr0EiiGCi69j4AzhMWHu2vbE0M2rcmV4gnGUUK-UgbSCScvl_iyn5IKRwjvqjKQI4HudaFATnj6HrPw0e9GJ-XR6uCO18rC25tysEweNu_iYSC8mW15VQ5t2-6BLng/s320/piranhas.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We had to cross a stream filled with piranhas, which was pretty classic.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>was a real turning point for Bytor Goldenbeard, our stout and hearty dwarf. You see, Yutnib the cleric (that’s my guy( who is a girl)) was plotting a way to kill or subjugate the horseman fro his continued transgressions against defenseless horses. Bytor asks “wait is this all real, with the citations and horses?”</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOgtIw9mvcPd-pKA2EsiItIqIWmCWdJH9Hv68JYXo9_lLBg_p0YjiM93V001MLwlC5dVE87-uvQjjc8Hh4dXoJoU9GNKeWxuNZI2bUDiyQ_xk3tdlNmMz6IGLI3EecySs-McPNYgfMwis/s1020/scrud+by+the+wooden+snake.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="492" data-original-width="1020" height="96" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOgtIw9mvcPd-pKA2EsiItIqIWmCWdJH9Hv68JYXo9_lLBg_p0YjiM93V001MLwlC5dVE87-uvQjjc8Hh4dXoJoU9GNKeWxuNZI2bUDiyQ_xk3tdlNmMz6IGLI3EecySs-McPNYgfMwis/w200-h96/scrud+by+the+wooden+snake.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The snake guys had a cool snake statue outside their house.<br />Here is Scrud Pud posing with it.<br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> Yutnib insists that it is real but now it seems like we are living in a
fractured unreality. How can we say which part of our shared unreality
is ’real’ and which isn’t? When we were joking about the horse guy being
a sexual predator was that a joke. Did the fact that the players
playing the characters and the dm all seemed to buy into and laugh at
the joke make it a real part of our shared reality? </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY48JWpg5Cxtr09YnIB3l-ocJYFF7sQQLp011ceG_K-T3kI-4TGRG4afShVHelquUN-fPTR3m_CIeFLEIdoBj94pWMAYjxVzyEmJW48LK2GVIgKN-IuiHm5gMlAFOmzmnM24CzrEwWkDs/s1152/cool+graffitti.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="1152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY48JWpg5Cxtr09YnIB3l-ocJYFF7sQQLp011ceG_K-T3kI-4TGRG4afShVHelquUN-fPTR3m_CIeFLEIdoBj94pWMAYjxVzyEmJW48LK2GVIgKN-IuiHm5gMlAFOmzmnM24CzrEwWkDs/s320/cool+graffitti.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside the snake boy house there was some really cool graffiti by the wolf boys. We asked the snake boys if they wanted revenge but they wanted to die instead.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Can we undo it? Are Yutnib and Bytor now living in parallel unrealities where the horse guy both is and isn’t a pervy cop? Is one of our characters having a schizoid embolism? Are both? Will the walls of unreality come crashing down around us? Are we now playing Philip K. Dick & Dragons? Are we playing two different games? What is the nature of this game we are playing?<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDBGKq2kLf_t-UlHSq42My-B6Utjm6P1AZSqO2StkUIRSieriOcVnP5IHMsTo_ryPNjlknj1hyscTXGJ1O5pGOBlsmMFsxb7343BHySCub-S1EVCPMhxPp7G4BwwQ4ua6x_aHN6XU3p-w/s1438/wolf+boys.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="854" data-original-width="1438" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDBGKq2kLf_t-UlHSq42My-B6Utjm6P1AZSqO2StkUIRSieriOcVnP5IHMsTo_ryPNjlknj1hyscTXGJ1O5pGOBlsmMFsxb7343BHySCub-S1EVCPMhxPp7G4BwwQ4ua6x_aHN6XU3p-w/w400-h238/wolf+boys.png" width="400" /></a><br />we also did some stuff actually related to what the module is actually about. So we kill a bunch of stuff.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2gEDct9YkWIEaACnyVtuR-i1D97Dg3vujXOhhWrN4_-jqWK8JST4S3936VEw4SzhCQgBA1w4dPqlSAfmFFkyd8tcSbQFloDFeC7ehzqDPhunp9vDvz-sNqNRDio62gOtqlrxGqvsncXY/s936/Screen+Shot+2021-05-04+at+11.04.43+AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="862" data-original-width="936" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2gEDct9YkWIEaACnyVtuR-i1D97Dg3vujXOhhWrN4_-jqWK8JST4S3936VEw4SzhCQgBA1w4dPqlSAfmFFkyd8tcSbQFloDFeC7ehzqDPhunp9vDvz-sNqNRDio62gOtqlrxGqvsncXY/s320/Screen+Shot+2021-05-04+at+11.04.43+AM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hob Lowe died in a daring raid on the wolf boys<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-244168586901296322021-04-20T09:20:00.001-07:002021-04-20T09:40:13.060-07:00 The Sublime Aesthetics of the Endless Pounding<h4 style="text-align: left;"> A Response to Ben Laurence</h4><p style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dN8Z7y_QcwE" width="321" youtube-src-id="dN8Z7y_QcwE"></iframe></p><p style="text-align: center;">We'll get to this later patient reader.<br /></p><p><br /></p><blockquote>GREATNESS of dimension is a powerful cause of the sublime. This is too evident, and the observation too common, to need any illustration: it is not so common to consider in what ways greatness of dimension, vastness of extent or quantity, has the most striking effect.<br /> -Edmund Burke</blockquote>Since the 1970’s people have been rolling dice and missing goblins. Then those goblins have missed them. There have been times when this process has repeated itself interminably, countless times. There have also been times when a Superhero and an evil Lama have traded blows bashing each other for d6 damage at a time over countless 1 minute combat rounds.<br /><br />Dear reader, I know that the first scenario begins as farcical but quickly turns to astonishment and “Astonishment, as I (‘I’ here means Edmund Burke not me) have said, is the effect of the sublime in its highest degree.” The second scenario goes right to the heart of the sublime a fight between titans with a greatness of dimension. It has a most striking effect on anyone with a soul attuned to the sensuality of struggle.<br /><br />There is however a very bad man who does not share our sense of aesthetic refinement dear reader. That man is <a href="http://maziriansgarden.blogspot.com/2021/04/injury-and-abstract-combat-round.html?m=0#comment-form" target="_blank">Ben Laurence and he has written a blog post of pure philistinism</a>. Steel yourself dear reader I am about to quote him at length: <br /><br />(T)here’s something weird about how you can stab Lancelot with a knife 24 times with no chance of killing him. It suggests video game thinking, as if he had a life bar that could be "full" or "empty", a life bar that grew with each level, and shrunk eat time you got hacked with a sword. (Indeed, it may well have been the source of that video game thinking in part.) My objection to this picture is rather an aesthetic one, both a repulsion to the aesthetic of the life bar, as well as to the associated picture of people taking and dishing out endless beatings, like when the Hulk fights Thor.<br /><br />As you can see Ben Laurence has entangled the idea of long fights where bashing happens and super heroes. I imagine that this entanglement comes not just from comic books but from the recent Marvel Movies. I imagine that Ben is sick of the Marvel Movies and that this has created a distaste for protracted melee combat. These video game and Marvel associations have created an association in his head that he terms this the “endless pounding aesthetic.” <br /><br />I want to highlight what I said in the last paragraph, that “in his head” part because the rules and mechanics of Dnd really only take on aesthetic qualities when our minds interpret them into events. Dnd primarily exists aesthetically in our private and shared mental spaces. I would argue (some other time) even when we use miniatures and other play aids. The endless pounding aesthetic is an outgrowth of Marvel Movies or video games because the is what we have been feeding ourselves aesthetically. To alter the aesthetics of endless pounding we don’t need to change the rules or mechanics, but our internal appendix N. If you will. <p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4MqmpL6X_8w" width="320" youtube-src-id="4MqmpL6X_8w"></iframe> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Here we see the long fight with both endless small wounds and lot of missing <br /></div><p><br />Endless pounding is not the sole provenance of the action movies of late stage capitalism. It is also native to middle stage capitalism (I guess I’m going to call it that). Watch Errol Flynn in <u>Robin Hood</u>. He fights a one on one protracted battle. The length of the battle is how we know it is important. It dazzles and astonishes us. As the battle wears on we see more desperation, cuts, and superficial wounds across Flynn’s face. The battle develops its own narrative. It ebbs and flows it has time for quips. That is the sublime naturing of endless pounding; narrative heft generated through length attrition, “greatness of dimension” as Edmund Burke would say.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8Bm0RIs-VJU" width="320" youtube-src-id="8Bm0RIs-VJU"></iframe> </p><p style="text-align: center;">This clip shows the OD&D one minute combat round in that they hit each other and then stand around waiting to get hit back <br /></p><p> Another classic example occurs in <u>The Quiet Man</u>. John Wayne and some other actor guy fight it out across the town and then take a break for drinks. What would be a minor squabble between to men takes on an epic quality because of its massive length. The meaning and the import of the fight is conveyed to the audience and by audience I mean both the townsfolk in the movie and us the viewers through endless pounding. It is also here that I will first note that sometimes when two guys pound each other endlessly they start to like each other.<br />The apotheosis of endless pounding comes from John Carpenter’s <u>They Live</u>. <a href="https://youtu.be/TVwKjGbz60k" target="_blank">Slavoj Žižek has done an excellent job discussing how meaning and narrative are conveyed through the fight</a> but I want to highlight it for the fact that that meaning is all buried under brutal interminable testosterone fueled pounding. By the end our protagonists are left bruised and brutalized. They have gradually chipped away at each other’s stamina. This fight also does not result in death but in a closer mutual understanding between its belligerents. <br /><br />Armed with these cultural touchstones we can imagine endless pounding as a way to sublimate the common scrapper or ruffian into an epic warrior and a meaningless melee into a profound struggle through the sheer magnitude of its dimension. The meaningless becomes meaningful through astonishment.<br /><br />I was not being completely honest earlier when I dismissed the aesthetic implications of mechanics in our games. If we want to invoke the power of the endless struggle of 20th Century film we may need a mechanical way to show that the magnitude of a fight can astonish and change the belligerents, most notably pounding between two men leads to affection.<br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Bromance Pounding Rule:</h3><p><br />This rule is designed to codify the fact that when two manly men engage in an endless pounding it can stimulate manly respect and affection. When two men engage in battle they may grow into friends and instead of killing each other wind up embracing.<br /><br />The rule is applied in the following manner<br /><br />Step 1: The Dm decides that a fight is between two men. This is solely at Dm’s discretion as to what that means. Factors to be considered include but are not limited to: alignment, intelligence level, gender, character class. You may wish to limit this to fights involving fighters or “fighting-men” <br /><br />Step 2: The Dm sets what we we call the “Bromance Number” to 0.<br /><br />Step 3: Every time someone takes damage in the fight increase the Bromance Number by 1.<br /><br />Step 4: If the Bromance Number is Greater than 1, add lowest Charisma modifier to the Bromance Number and roll a d20. If the result is lower than the Bromance Number, the fighters no longer wish to fight but to embrace and tell the other how strong and manly they are. <br /><br />This rule will hopefully help the players to appreciate the sublime aesthetics of endless pounding.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br />Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-22940944363347279482021-03-29T18:00:00.001-07:002021-03-29T18:00:43.850-07:00Night's Dark Terror Session Report: SACRIFICE! SACRIFICE!<p> Session Five<br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAJ7IADU25hxMscqi95x4tSjvD8fbJigID1r6bLsXCbKHA0IMDEijZMeKzM1TbC4p8ssWkjtC_dVa7ECZ4yDOKnXYj1DUQguKndeu-jUi4_J2mWw-EA8_axnXrvIBiHZW-19CixEORAb0/s946/dwarf.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="946" data-original-width="636" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAJ7IADU25hxMscqi95x4tSjvD8fbJigID1r6bLsXCbKHA0IMDEijZMeKzM1TbC4p8ssWkjtC_dVa7ECZ4yDOKnXYj1DUQguKndeu-jUi4_J2mWw-EA8_axnXrvIBiHZW-19CixEORAb0/w215-h320/dwarf.png" width="215" /></a></td><td style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These Dwarves were kind of miserable and unlikable.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <br /></p><p>The party heads to the north to hang out with some dwarves. The dwarves are not happy to see Scrud Pud because they are racist. They like gnomes thought apparently. I guess gnomes are like the model minority of the dwarf world or maybe they have one gnome who is like a token so that they can deflect when they are called out on their bullshit. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFBMmzhD6dofyBcCSlvqhpbK4T3dXBvJxsLpQjsZIGC9spyroPw69Ju_I9QRtaPClbYBhs6_1kXBlmTEDCcnVeaXHP5A3U4u0XAwtI4QSfyuvnaZfv2krQu9A9RzhRm9dPVaR5QDVR2Z4/s850/gnome.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="850" data-original-width="596" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFBMmzhD6dofyBcCSlvqhpbK4T3dXBvJxsLpQjsZIGC9spyroPw69Ju_I9QRtaPClbYBhs6_1kXBlmTEDCcnVeaXHP5A3U4u0XAwtI4QSfyuvnaZfv2krQu9A9RzhRm9dPVaR5QDVR2Z4/s320/gnome.png" /></a><br />Anyway this gnome is named Vissarion and his brother is name Caesarean. Vissarion want us to go find his missing brother, who was captured by orcs (maybe) with some dwarven miners. We say ok. Spoiler: We never found any of those guys.</p><p><br />We go into some abandoned ancient mines to look for the missing guys. Our dwarf walks into a trap that seemed to be pretty well labeled on the player map.<br /><br />We kill a lot of orcs and capture two of them.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirWdYg2cP8jtVOJLPiEokgzl4y4jfBSjXDUC_8Djbo1L2JujBuN8EsqSub7E8tx8-Cx74aaBd5Kqu7BbKaWaUF6Td4XTpHhh0dG7N0MaQV_apLBcq7xjP6BoCJxfqMCH3iQ7CbTdVasfw/s524/orc.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="518" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirWdYg2cP8jtVOJLPiEokgzl4y4jfBSjXDUC_8Djbo1L2JujBuN8EsqSub7E8tx8-Cx74aaBd5Kqu7BbKaWaUF6Td4XTpHhh0dG7N0MaQV_apLBcq7xjP6BoCJxfqMCH3iQ7CbTdVasfw/s320/orc.png" /></a><br /> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We find out they worship a giant spider. Wait. I think maybe the gnome wanted us to kill the spider. All the dwarfs and the gnome called it the ‘black beast’ or something and we were like “hey guys you can’t say stuff like that anymore” and then they got embarrassed and started calling it the ‘blue eyed beast.’</p><p>So anyway it turns out that the orcs (who may have been stand-ins for
racist caricatures of indigenous people) worshipped the spider as a god
and made human (or demihuman) sacrifices to it. <br /> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWNx3e5yIGkBZdzjAWAQ77w1SLxrl8467DwlF5pQcDuMOeBEtjMP2E0ZOwMtzs-x0XCb1yvgGluxSLg7Y_O03kXlz_S6IomASYtjlZKsf6RvM-hiFYoiy5VFJiybgc-Sb-KlkP1nL6CTo/s698/orcthief.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="698" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWNx3e5yIGkBZdzjAWAQ77w1SLxrl8467DwlF5pQcDuMOeBEtjMP2E0ZOwMtzs-x0XCb1yvgGluxSLg7Y_O03kXlz_S6IomASYtjlZKsf6RvM-hiFYoiy5VFJiybgc-Sb-KlkP1nL6CTo/s320/orcthief.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I almost forgot. The thief almost died again<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>We trick/intimidate the orcs into showing us where their god is by telling them we are going to sacrifice the dwarf NPCs with us. At first the NPCs did not seem to like this plan but the cleric winked a them. <br /><br />Long story short we found the spider god and did colonialism to it. Then went to hang out with the dwarves. <br /><br />ok ok one last detail. We set the giant spider god on fire and then one of the orcs tried to put the fire out and fell into the fire and died. The other orc was paralyzed and had to watch the whole thing. We left him alive.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv9p3tWbc_BRJ6ukuCqr1OZlAAnz_T9obUrpUz0W2lHOmxyQ5BEamC4heySdI54ORjMnlqVYA3vBYNSRSFTZ0No4HFIP_AAytm1OcQnrdVEqlsaG8xSO6xLOMxssLOu96v2LLfg2wOTTY/s604/spider.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="420" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv9p3tWbc_BRJ6ukuCqr1OZlAAnz_T9obUrpUz0W2lHOmxyQ5BEamC4heySdI54ORjMnlqVYA3vBYNSRSFTZ0No4HFIP_AAytm1OcQnrdVEqlsaG8xSO6xLOMxssLOu96v2LLfg2wOTTY/s320/spider.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I didn't make the spider look scary enough; he was actually kind of tough.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />The end</p><br /><br /><br />Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-62024270012996170352021-03-25T19:30:00.003-07:002021-03-25T19:30:47.887-07:00The Days are Long, So are the Months... (Here’s March)<p> After not recording very much information, due to a serious amount of time spent writing something of an autobiographical fiction for herself, Theodora has returned to the page to record the Nese Gard Adventurers time in the dungeons. The following document will cover the past three sessions including a rather EPIC birthday session done entirely in costume - by the players. </p><p><br /></p><p>We begin with Ember’s death. </p><p><br /></p><p>AGAIN.</p><p><br /></p><p>No one is amused.</p><p><br /></p><p>No one is excited to return to the dungeon to face the Black Pudding again and loot Ember’s body. It is unknown the reach and expanse of the Pudding. Would it still be in the same spot or would it be constantly on the move?</p><p><br /></p><p>The team ventured to the tavern before stopping by to visit Xylarthan (who had returned and told the group that Nupo was indeed a spy. He suspected some spell had been used on the entire continent to cause mass memory erasure. Removing the gods, many parts of religion and the calendar from the populous’ memory).</p><p><br /></p><p>There they met an elf who looked LITERALLY SHOCKINGLY LIKE Ember. Her name was Phoenix. She was apparently Ember’s sister. Lucky, that.</p><p><br /></p><p>She wanted information on what happened to her sister. The group was surprised by her very existence as Ember hadn’t been very open or into sharing about herself, her past, her family. Phoenix however implied that the two elvish women had been close. Theodora was suspect. She wondered if there was far more to that story than was shared. </p><p><br /></p><p>Phoenix (also known as “not-Ember”) was interested in items her sister had been carrying, or finding the remains of her sister to send them off in the elvish way. </p><p><br /></p><p>The party had only bad news for her.</p><p><br /></p><p>Theodora was more suspicious.</p><p><br /></p><p>Whatever, sometimes you just have to let shit play out. She doesn’t even know how fucking suspicious she is.</p><p><br /></p><p>Theodora still wore the Elaphore Ring but the keen sword and a number of other artifacts could still possibly be on Ember’s body. The group opted to make there way back there and find out. </p><p><br /></p><p>They travelled to the room of the mating Kobolds. The kind, still wearing the hat Theodora had given him was there in a special mating room. He was wearing a mostly destroyed but familiar set of armor. </p><p><br /></p><p>The lizards asked the party to join the in egg laying. Phoenix did her best to act/play laying an egg, while stealing an egg from another Kobold and passing it off as her own. For this she was invited to visit the king. The group counted the numbers, noted the treasure, and moved on, still returning to Ember’s corpse. </p><p><br /></p><p>As they edged their way along it became clear that Ember was nothing more than a gross back smear on the floor. And the Black Pudding was still near by. They abandoned their dreams of looting her body and instead hatched a plan to murder the mating Kobolds and rob them of their treasure. Especially hoping to find some of Ember’s items among the hoard.</p><p><br /></p><p>All went to plan. Sort of. The group stormed the room, Theodora won over the Kobolds by offering an egg, but instead of laying one she cast web on the group. From there they were stabbed/executed. And put to sleep.</p><p><br /></p><p>The group waited. Merriweather was ready to back stab, the others to attack. </p><p><br /></p><p>As the group of Kobolds with the king emerged, melee was entered. Merriweather dealt a crushing blow to the king but was injured. Theodora cast sleep. The king was killed by Ves who also was dangerous injured. </p><p><br /></p><p>She died before the group could escape. Merriweather got out with her life, though injured. Sven, Phoenix, and Theodora were largely unscathed. </p><p><br /></p><p>The party killed all of the Kobolds, including the king. They went forth and crushed/destroyed all of the eggs. They looted their treasure and stole back all of Ember’s items.</p><p><br /></p><p>The party walked away with 1500 gold, 2025 silver, 2 gems (non magical), and the Keen sword.</p><p><br /></p><p>This was not split with the hired men this time because the team had forgotten to hire them.</p><p><br /></p><p>During their off time the group worried over Ves, whose corpse was cooling at Xylarthan’s tower, waiting for resurrection.</p><p><br /></p><p>(In an amazing turn of events the entire party showed up for this session in full character to celebrate the DM’s birthday. Sneak Peak...)</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYZNzpHz2QcvrvMkhKIyMvHa4RUlMQINFZnlNvO6BKTj8U6ZHtNF0EGsJgg9oseocOeGCgD2k97wRloXRUj2YVikeUnksuJVNApUQPA07LHreqDXDfDHYfV6ayNKgzUvuSnx5rHl8TH0c/s2048/DC701B2A-0D79-4692-A4A3-B664B91E30D4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYZNzpHz2QcvrvMkhKIyMvHa4RUlMQINFZnlNvO6BKTj8U6ZHtNF0EGsJgg9oseocOeGCgD2k97wRloXRUj2YVikeUnksuJVNApUQPA07LHreqDXDfDHYfV6ayNKgzUvuSnx5rHl8TH0c/s320/DC701B2A-0D79-4692-A4A3-B664B91E30D4.jpeg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">(Deposed) Empress Theodora</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF9jFQW4tWAdjkhz-Q_zZGGjn3m841S9eZapohiu7lWi7MbKKP1f9nf9Y3P8DL-K1er_NepCzYot-YcYG0EQupBQM46f9rtGCCzZfAdazeQ3SlzIFWcKl2Yo3hCHAPrteQJlJvom9ZInc/s1440/C1CFAEA3-6BEB-4DC9-A795-7A945F7FC54A.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF9jFQW4tWAdjkhz-Q_zZGGjn3m841S9eZapohiu7lWi7MbKKP1f9nf9Y3P8DL-K1er_NepCzYot-YcYG0EQupBQM46f9rtGCCzZfAdazeQ3SlzIFWcKl2Yo3hCHAPrteQJlJvom9ZInc/s320/C1CFAEA3-6BEB-4DC9-A795-7A945F7FC54A.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Svenasus the Pegasus </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSEfDj_JZG2UCZfqmKCTn7jjMvqbk7TUXGEBAipKVN-pBs_3Bt1Tnf-7GFOoBB4qrzMjiMZVRIREHheVZf3XwNp2C8teFdqH1X0DJMg-qZ_cxM6gIfQs8OxjwJIQSnofTe_IoowVQQ2bM/s1440/80EB983C-CB08-4EA3-AA6C-A00D924C3538.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSEfDj_JZG2UCZfqmKCTn7jjMvqbk7TUXGEBAipKVN-pBs_3Bt1Tnf-7GFOoBB4qrzMjiMZVRIREHheVZf3XwNp2C8teFdqH1X0DJMg-qZ_cxM6gIfQs8OxjwJIQSnofTe_IoowVQQ2bM/s320/80EB983C-CB08-4EA3-AA6C-A00D924C3538.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">DM/Birthday Boy</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje_3hKqPOIpcFgF7suZ-klfKqhDzT7wiA7NVqivivNVa_co96VTZNeSPU1TjQ3agaHU19WQyubEw0bXvft5IG95Eq7-DAAiwLiY2tkMRrh-94ME4fxu1CbQqFHzGnLQ_Dtf_SsjQwZRus/s2048/6B3B209F-B7EF-40C9-BAF6-EFDAB2FB3AB2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje_3hKqPOIpcFgF7suZ-klfKqhDzT7wiA7NVqivivNVa_co96VTZNeSPU1TjQ3agaHU19WQyubEw0bXvft5IG95Eq7-DAAiwLiY2tkMRrh-94ME4fxu1CbQqFHzGnLQ_Dtf_SsjQwZRus/s320/6B3B209F-B7EF-40C9-BAF6-EFDAB2FB3AB2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Group Zoom Shot</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIdXvJL3dl0YNwb57LDArRTJAUoRzOberz52mBfgxNYhN8MgfoCNMeMNsUcDekaCx1_q3vyNh91n6bnJnY2gCimJ1LcwD5cI47czVidX1EJNRjyEZfeANmiyESq9lciWb7JlcgTUMBoOM/s1440/2F5A631D-9DC2-48B0-8F26-F7C7C1476199.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIdXvJL3dl0YNwb57LDArRTJAUoRzOberz52mBfgxNYhN8MgfoCNMeMNsUcDekaCx1_q3vyNh91n6bnJnY2gCimJ1LcwD5cI47czVidX1EJNRjyEZfeANmiyESq9lciWb7JlcgTUMBoOM/s320/2F5A631D-9DC2-48B0-8F26-F7C7C1476199.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Phoenix (the NEW Ember :P)</div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p>Ves, hidden under a shroud, emerged from her cocoon a beautiful butterfly, AKA as a gnome! WOO! Two gnomes in the party.</p><p><br /></p><p>And from there they ventured forth. Nupo had still not returned, Moogle was still as the shop acting like a cry baby, and the hired man signed up for another campaign (Idiots).</p><p><br /></p><p>Theodora flirted with Dingle out of loneliness (See Theodora’s backstory fiction for more).</p><p><br /></p><p>The team made quick work of heading for the third level and the chapel, hoping to venture down the northern corridor. </p><p><br /></p><p>They did not make it. As usual. </p><p><br /></p><p>Instead they opted to turn east at a corridor just beyond the slug room and corridor which lead to the stairs to the third level realizing the area was fresh and unplucked, so to speak. </p><p><br /></p><p>The followed a corridor where they found a square room filled with the long rotted, mummified corpses of lizard people. To the south they found a room with a statue at the center. That statue turned our to be Heget, the frog headed goddess of fertility, worshipped buy the dagonites. An inscription lead Theodora to climb the statue and cut her finger, there she ate a bite of ration, waiting to see if she would be healed. She was not.</p><p><br /></p><p>Her next idea, almost joking, was to suckle from the statues teat. People though quickly jumped on this idea and no one would test it, but Theodora, “because she was already up there”. Guess what? The statue produced life saving milk from its rock hard nipples.</p><p><br /></p><p>The group quickly (as quickly as possible, it was slow) expressed milk into their mouths and spit it out into their empty wine skins to keep the milk for future use.</p><p><br /></p><p>Next they checked the east door. This lead to another corridor. The door at the other end had noises behind it that made the group uncomfortable. They skipped it.</p><p><br /></p><p>The door to the north also exposed a corridor. At the end of that corridor was another door. On the other side was a room filled with statue arms growing out of the ground and a desiccated corpse (we have seen so many my iPad just guesses the word desiccated now...).</p><p><br /></p><p>Ves, brave as ever, now a gnome, just started moving around. Like she had learned NO lessons. And she made it about six hands before one turned and grabbed her, crushing her leg. </p><p><br /></p><p>The party managed to free her, grab the corpse, and remove the gems many of the hands were holding when Ves cast Protection from Evil on herself. </p><p><br /></p><p>There was a door on the other side but only Ves could venture that far so she did not explore too much. They returned to the main hall, which lead to the third level but went straight across, west. There they found a door with a skull carved into the rock above it and went right on it. As they always do. </p><p><br /></p><p>There was running water through the room and while looking around Phoenix and Theodora, with Night Vision, noticed the heat reading of some very fast moving creatures. Fearing the Weresharks, and knowing they couldn’t be too far from their liar, the party turned tail and ran, Theodora magically closing the door.</p><p><br /></p><p>They made it back to the surface with 9 Onyx gems, worth 150 gold each and 50 garnets. </p><p><br /></p><p>They made a hefty sum and the hired men were happy to finally be paid. And not dead.</p><p><br /></p><p>They hired men were so happy they signed up yet again the following week. </p><p><br /></p><p>So Ves the gnome, Theodroa the gnome, Svenasus the Pegasus, and Phoenix the Elf (sibling, supposedly) went into the dungeon. </p><p><br /></p><p>They once again had to leave their (lazy) orphans behind because they make the hired men uncomfortable. It was one or the other and for the particular mission it seemed better to have the hired men honestly. </p><p><br /></p><p>The group is slow to start and Theodora knows she needs to leave a bit early for a prior engagement. </p><p><br /></p><p>The group checks in with Moogle who is becoming a real PIP. And then makes their way into the dungeon, heading straight for the second level, at least. </p><p><br /></p><p>Theodora has leveled up and while partying with Xylarthan the past week to celebrate (and flirt) has managed to learn Fireball and Fly. Fireball is awesome but makes her nervous but Fly is super cool!</p><p><br /></p><p>The party maneuvers past some goblins on the first level and manages to make it back to the second where they find many of the corpses they know to be there - GONE. As well as much of the fungus. </p><p><br /></p><p>The find the Goblin and Trog bodies gone. The Owl Bear. The fungus. But then come across a Carrion Crawler! They battle it and win. Yentil is paralyzed.</p><p><br /></p><p>They give him week old milk from the statue which he can not swallow. And is probably old and sour. It does not help.</p><p><br /></p><p>They are forced to go back to the pool room, which happens to have a second slug monster in it (fucking fuck) but the group does not engage and runs for it, escaping into the hallway. They opt to further explore the passage ways of last time. </p><p><br /></p><p>As the party moves down the passage way south of the slug room Ves moves ahead to glance around a corner, carefully, as Theodora is on high alert. A second Carrion Crawler grabs her by the leg and drags her off. The group is briefly stunned but tries to formulate a plan!</p><p><br /></p><p>They hurl Yentil’s paralyzed corpse as a diversion, trap, for the crawler, hoping it will come back. </p><p><br /></p><p>It does not.</p><p><br /></p><p>So they follow, rendering the old lizard corpse room. </p><p><br /></p><p>Even those with Night Vision can not see much with the corpses but Theodora hears movement and casts Sleep in the general direction. </p><p><br /></p><p>They manage to kill the Crawler and save Ves, whose foot has been managed by the creatures mouth, and escape. </p><p><br /></p><p>They do not find the Crawlers nest/lair. </p><p><br /></p><p>Yentil is miraculously still there when the party returns. Sven carries the two paralyzed players out of the dungeon and they all return to the surface ALIVE, which is something.</p><p><br /></p><p>And so, now, to wait and see if Ves needs a peg leg (fingers crossed!)</p><p><br /></p><p>XOXO - Theodora</p><div><br /></div>Theodorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767660023969146276noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-58844229994564366322021-03-15T11:42:00.004-07:002021-03-15T11:42:32.180-07:00Death and Dying and Everything Inbetween: Two Sessions, One Report (2/21 and 2/28)<p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">I wrote this and shared it but forgot to post.</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">So, our adventurers are at it again. And they have two weeks of death and destruction to report upon. Sadly.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"> </span></p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Last week our intrepid team set out to secure some hired men, which they did, chat with Xylarthan, which they did, and buy some shit at Nupo’s, which they did. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Theodora discovered during extensive research that Ember could possibly be restored without the use of the reincarnation spell. It would technically be possible to have the Were-Shark curse upon her reversed by the 12th level magic user. Reincarnation could possibly have been needed afterward but at least she would no longer be a Were-Shark. Big positives. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">However, the Were-Shark blood that flowed through her veins had already done the job of bringing her back to life. So once the curse was removed, Ember was back to her old self again. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Outside of the fact that she was convinced to share her magic weapons and items and handed the twin magic daggers to Ves. (Very out of character :P )</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Upon visiting Nupo’s before entering the dungeon the team was met with Moogle, a young teenaged orphan boy. He was minding Nupo’s shop while the older gnome was on a trip of unknown origin. It was out of character for him to be gone and it was also stated that he had been agitated and anxious before leaving. The team worried about him, though Moogle had no further information to share with the team. They vowed to look into it further, when they returned from the dungeon. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Instead they purchased a number of items and promised to pay on the usual payment schedule of once a month to the unknowing boy. (He was suspicious) The team tipped him to make up for it and the other comments of SOME members of the party that may have made the boy nervous. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Once in the dungeons though the team was singularly minded. They wanted to get to the third level, the chapel and the tunnel opposite, headed north, in hopes of finding the Dagonite people. Or an idol. Or both (the best option).</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The party moved so quickly they were required to rest in the slug room, which was actually a pretty new experience for them. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">As they made their way along the corridor beyond they saw no evidence of Lorna Doone, nor Ember’s lost Valkyrie spear, and they studiously avoided getting any closer to the Pool room and a possible Were-Shark encounter. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">So down to the third level they went, via the long and winding stair case. Previously our adventurers have gone south and into the chapel so, hoping to find the Dagonites and/or an idol they move down the northward corridor. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">It’s not long before they turn west and when the passage turns back to the north once more they are confronted by a monster that is seemingly made up from poop/feces. It has the look of the bodily function and smells strongly of sulphur. The creatures voice is high pitched by melodic and eerie. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">It asks the party to approach, to hug it. They refuse for a multitude of reasons. Instead they engage in battle with it. Zook, the hired man is killed. Theodora presents a silver cross and shoves it toward the creature. This seems to somewhat hold it at bay while the party retreats backward toward the stairs and then into the chapel. The creature seems to be afraid of the room and stays back, retreating down the hall.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The party moves into the martini glass shaped entrance of the chapel and sets immediately to mapping the space to help with their understanding. The last time they had been there maps had come out different and confused.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">They see the wide corridor leading off to the pit to the west and continue east. Along the south wall they see a series of columns. To the south remains the room with the corpse, from whom they had stolen the map in a previous session. Continuing east, in the north wall they pass a locked door with a bronze eye. Continuing further the come to a second twin door. The group follows the corridor and heads south where they pass three shallow alcoves each holding a sad looking cherub. Two narrower passages lead further south but the party turns to the west. There they find another door on the south wall and a wider, 30’ foot corridor. The hall ends in a football shaped room where they had previously seen the broken body of a knight who had fallen from an unknown place at an unknown height.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Running low on time the adventurers returned to the martini glass opening to the cathedral and onto the stairwell that would return them to the second level of the dungeon.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Unfortunately it would not be so easy. They were once again met by the flaming, sulfurous poop monster (gollum?). Theodora used the silver cross on it again only to discover that the being was on pretending to be bothered by the religious artifact (at least in her non-cleric hands).</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The group would escape thanks to protection from evil and running. They made it back to the surface, passed by Moogal, promised him some money in passing, and bid a fond farewell to Zook (RIP).</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The following week passed in a blur. Theodora had been writing a lot, being secretive. Ember was shifty, anxious, not like herself. Ves got busy. Sven kept talking about moving in with some dude. And Lorna Doone was still fucking dead and probably a Were-Shark in the dungeon. The team hoped at least she was happy.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">And it was in that frame of mind that Theodora, as an olive branch, reached out to Ember. She had been dead. Felt the icy hand of it running along her spine. Death changes a person. Even if you have felt dead inside, until you are actually dead, you can not understand the emptiness, the hollow ache of it under your breast. So the gnome offered a lunch date, maybe a bit of adventuring. She knew that killing something would help improve the elf’s spirits. But first drinks!</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The orphans were left behind under the care of Sven. Everyone was unsure of this decision but it was decided Ves may be yet worse.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Ember and Theodora rolled into the tavern, went straight to the bar and ordered drinks (a tankard of ale and tea respectively), asked for the daily special, and turned to check out the room as any smart adventurer does. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">(The special was Seitan. Theodora shrugged. Ember ordered a bucket. It would turn out that she had no idea that Seitan was not a kind of chicken.)</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">There was a dwarf sat alone at a table with a pile of food in front of her looking lost, confused, and as all of the other tables were full Ember and Theodora appeared at her side asking to join her. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The dwarf, Merriweather Boom Boom, was indeed confused, not sure how she had arrived to town, where she was from or who she even really was. The food in front of her had arrived without prompting and Ember who had been sampling the platter immediately stopped. NEVER eat food when you don’t know how it arrived, or who it came from. Life lessons, learned.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The two adventurers found Merriweather interesting as her story seemed close to what both women had experienced upon their deaths and/or changes. And honestly, they were always happy to welcome a new member to the party. Especially pretty dwarves who seemed to have a penchant for thieving.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Excusing herself to the restroom, Theodora told Merriweather to avoid further gifts of food or drink, and that they two women had a brief errands to run but would be back so please stay until they returned. This was agreed upon.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Ember and Theodora travelled below into the basement of the tavern and made their way to Xylarthan’s tower.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">It was discussed that they were all very concerned about Nupo. Xylarthan agree to open a dimensional door and go to the larger nearby town and ask for information regarding the gnome. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The idea that he may have once been a spy was brought up and that he could have knowledge the rest of the group was lacking. Worry loomed. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Theodora worried over Xylarthan leaving. He promised to keep her updated/stay in touch. What more can an apprentice with some kind of feelings expect?</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The 12th level magic user had no more information on the gems the group sold to him but he was still wearing them, floating around his head.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Theodora and Ember return to the tavern to look for Merriweather Boom Boom and found her again at the table but now surrounded by a troop of dwarves men. The adventurers joined her and found themselves very welcome. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Using eye contact and a few subtle phrases the group of women worked up a way to distract the dwarf men (More drinks and Theodora showing a view of down her tunic) as they Merriweather picked their pockets. She managed to get some gold, silver and electrum pieces off of two out the the three. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">After that the women fled, with a solid excuse that after eating all of the Seitan, Ember was going to be ill, and that they needed to visit the alleyway. The dwarves went to buy another round and await their returns. Instead the group went to Nupo’s to shop and return to the dungeons.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Moogle was still there, running the shop. He felt slighted by Ember and Theodora for not paying him during their last visit. This was annoying.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Merriweather made some solid purchases for a trip into the dungeon, including a silver quarrel, in case the were-shark returned. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The party was looking for holy water (in case they again came across the poop gollum). Moogle only agreed to look if the party paid at least some of what they owed. This was agreed upon reluctantly. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Holy water was obtained, half of the bill was paid, a dinner offer was proffered and rejected (Moogle has no manners), and some unreadable letters regarding Nupo were obtained. The letters were to go immediately to Xylarthan.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The team ventured into the dungeon through Nupo’s basement, Merriweather blushing and flirting with young Moogle, the group dragging her away with a solid shake of their heads. They progressed quickly through the dungeon, only stopping briefly to offer a hat to the tiny lizard dog-like creatures who demanded it of them, as they returned to the dungeon entrance of the tower.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Xylarthan had not yet left and was happy for the letters; he would read them in transit and report back to the group when he returned. Theodora offered to swing by to water his plants.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Back in the dungeon the group set off through the rough hewn tunnel to the room with the spiral staircase; however, upon their arrival, they heard the telltale sounds of gargoyles creaking throughout the space and promptly shut the door, turning and heading back the way that they had come from. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The party backtracked and went all the way past Xylarthan’s tower entrance and back to the lizard room. Upon arrival it was clear that the one who had “won” the hat had been made king and was helping quite a bit with egg/young “production”. The team, mildly disgusted and trying not to look, made their way across the space. Theodora offered the “king” a red ribbon that she was carrying on her person, he was thrilled. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The adventurers opted to try a new door. They entered the western most door of the three doors on the south wall. It was a map room. Perhaps they had seen that room before, Theodora was hazy on that fact. But the map made so much sense finally, understanding the names and places, the god represented, as they previously had not. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Theodora set to copying the map down as Ember examined the room and looked for secret doors or traps.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Information obtained from the map:</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Ereshkigal, town in mentioned.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">There is a large continent, somewhat heart shaped.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Ocean surround it, filled with classical sea monsters, etc.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The map is ringed by constellations like the zodiac.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Istus, a known goddess was linked to Inanna.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Chronoplus (seen as an eye) is directly above the map and is linked to Boccob (seen as an eye also). The look of some kind of lobster/insect creature.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Heget is seen in the west as a frog.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Nefertem is to the south.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Yhoundeh is also to the south, seen as an elk.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Shezmu is also to the south, seen as a lion.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Nang Kwak is to the east, seen as a reaper.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Nergul is the dark moon.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Nodens is to the west, seen as the dreamer.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">No secret doors are found and so the group returns to find the small lizards still mating and enjoying themselves. Theodora smiles and offers the king a mirror so that he may seen himself in all of his glory. The gift is happily accepted and the party try the middle door on the southern wall.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">They walk along the corridor there and come to a door in the south wall, this door leads to a room filled with trash and rat corpses. Moving along to the west there is a door and beyond another corridor. To the north is a room with six cloaked figures chanting, the team avoided them. The door on the furthest west wall opened to a room with shelving around it but with no light it was hard to tell exactly what was in there. Theodora had a flash back and was nervous that they could be approaching a sinister sounding wraith known as the Ship Builder.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">A door along the south wall confirmed this fact but instead of entering the group retreated quickly, avoiding the wraith and the room where the “Gwar Cum” monster had been killed. Theodora felt a storage room had been tied in around there and an exit through the other side of the Gwar room. The area had been a confusing maze of empty rooms she recalled so the party returned to the corridor, wending along toward the north and west.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">A door was located on the east wall with a spiral staircase leading up to a mansion where Herbert the Half-hearted and Theodora had once taken cloaks. The team had never actually cleared the exit/entrance though, unfortunately. (Check back on that?)</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Finally the corridor terminated in a north/south corridor that was familiar. The group was fairly certain it was the place they had met Sexy Long Beard.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Seeing no reason to stop at the moment Ember pushed on ahead of the group and headed north toward the area where there had been a door. The elf found a door to the east, opened it, and found creatures (men?) battling?</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Finally as Ember moved along something black and viscose dropped and fell from above, which quickly burned Ember, ripping through her like acid, armor and flesh. </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Ember begged the party to loot her body as she died but they were terrified. Theodora took the Ring of Elafor to see through walls and then the party escaped swearing to come back and fulfill Ember’s dying wish or looting her body.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Dun Dun Dun...</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;" /><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">- Theodora</span></div>Theodorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767660023969146276noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-11409634559315918082021-03-09T16:09:00.003-08:002021-05-17T10:51:19.540-07:00NIght's Dark Terror Session Report: Wandering Around in a Field<p> At the beginning of the session I tried a cute trick to find out the thief’s name. I said, “hey I noticed everyone else has the name of their character on their little roll20 token except the thief.” “yeah the thief’s name is too long,” said someone who was not playing the thief. The guy playing the thief said nothing. So, as I write this I still don’t know the name of the thief he is only ever referred to as the thief.<br /><br />Anyway, session 4 started on a mission to go to some place marked with a question mark on the map we found at Scrud Pud’s house. This was kind of a bad idea; it turned out but first we met a weird horse dude and killed the ferry owner from the first session (my god said it was ok. he was a douche). <br /><br />He was a centaur and he could turn into a horse. I had so many questions but my character didn’t know him well enough to ask any of them. My character is a respecter of boundaries. </p><p> </p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqwjMoMWreJJx5PSOHJyG9funN4YGAFEzxLYc5yarQmmd_o1nUj4KEnTW_3XczWtC0gn23wiZrGuIFBbs31xtE_O6GLIC4pakM3kCImyd5LuYkCKTS5qQhWwWY6Ag9DLYgWMAEit_Quqs/s2048/manhorse.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1772" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqwjMoMWreJJx5PSOHJyG9funN4YGAFEzxLYc5yarQmmd_o1nUj4KEnTW_3XczWtC0gn23wiZrGuIFBbs31xtE_O6GLIC4pakM3kCImyd5LuYkCKTS5qQhWwWY6Ag9DLYgWMAEit_Quqs/s320/manhorse.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">much better.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2j2mUb-FZhSPK1zeHXBssa9oYog7fhMaqB-2fTv7TaaxfipbWUu6Fg9L8hhJ_JDSQsW24nMq3yVmo5qD7lZr82Kbk4fflf40l7h13sfPYzxDFWaGIdoUYn-M5J8UYLa1rrgptUOrX2ak/s772/image.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="498" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2j2mUb-FZhSPK1zeHXBssa9oYog7fhMaqB-2fTv7TaaxfipbWUu6Fg9L8hhJ_JDSQsW24nMq3yVmo5qD7lZr82Kbk4fflf40l7h13sfPYzxDFWaGIdoUYn-M5J8UYLa1rrgptUOrX2ak/w227-h320/image.png" width="227" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the picture the dm provided,much too sexy. Frankly it's distracting.</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><br />Anyway, this horse dude tells us that he doesn’t like the guy we are working for and we are like, “neither do we, so, do you want us to kill him?” He starts backpedaling. Turns out he is more of a reformer than a revolutionary. He just wants us to tell the guy to be nicer to horses or something. Also, his name is just the Russian word for horse. <br /><br />He takes us to the place we are going and lets us know we will all die if we go in there. We poke around for a bit and decide that we agree with him. This is really the OSR lesson for our 5th edition players. There is no overarching story and you get to pick your battles and picking your battles is part of the skill of this style of playing. ok. editorializing over. </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYVrCv3FnfCJlG0owlrx3hfXekf8ogRf6qx0JQ3j_lurbUuykM9pFiQldZ5Jj_t-UE48orj3IgFVHmdFzqH2RTVn9bWYDpKwrVgDP4CgEHgm_Om1nISeAKJjTb1RLKU8ls_LTXWcqt010/s1915/wraiths.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1912" data-original-width="1915" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYVrCv3FnfCJlG0owlrx3hfXekf8ogRf6qx0JQ3j_lurbUuykM9pFiQldZ5Jj_t-UE48orj3IgFVHmdFzqH2RTVn9bWYDpKwrVgDP4CgEHgm_Om1nISeAKJjTb1RLKU8ls_LTXWcqt010/s320/wraiths.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The blurriness of my camera makes them even spookier<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>Horse man is surprised we are still alive and offers to take us to some elves to get some magic so we won’t die to all the spooky business we just encountered (it was too spooky to even mention in this recap). <br /><br />Of course the elves have some stupid problem we have to deal with so we go to some island and commit some war crimes to take care of the problem. There was another spooky place on the island but we were not in the mood.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1834" data-original-width="1927" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0uREwZAzKy6uADNT55iB2heflcLErdRkdBx2yo9ultweHFrwpLd1_aEaNctTmQpGzBNP_nm3IOOhbLrXh9oUsnY-T8_X4-gh6EUGAmp34BPQLBl-hbmm2fT42_X3xkzVXZp1eK2Q3mqc/s320/skeletonhorde.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yeah. no thank you.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0uREwZAzKy6uADNT55iB2heflcLErdRkdBx2yo9ultweHFrwpLd1_aEaNctTmQpGzBNP_nm3IOOhbLrXh9oUsnY-T8_X4-gh6EUGAmp34BPQLBl-hbmm2fT42_X3xkzVXZp1eK2Q3mqc/s1927/skeletonhorde.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then we had a party with the elves. We were all such good time boys (and girls) that the elves said we should go hang out with the dwarves next.<br /></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br />The end</p><br /><div><br /></div>Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-20599662338062066272021-03-08T15:58:00.004-08:002021-05-17T10:51:37.433-07:00Night's Dark Terror Session Report: Horses Aren't Important Anymore<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid70_eCobEJ5cJMWSuFFlKN0zFFB_Ow6ytj5F7j1435mukFwcYq6hiygY4QPMYzPi2B0of4_SpaG6_T1L6QLl_-R7-N3GZ8vN2rg3Zcb3Fqa2i_a_yetWaQAKnOKW16IfoGMtH_-z6HgI/s1388/scrudpudstanding.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1388" data-original-width="1076" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid70_eCobEJ5cJMWSuFFlKN0zFFB_Ow6ytj5F7j1435mukFwcYq6hiygY4QPMYzPi2B0of4_SpaG6_T1L6QLl_-R7-N3GZ8vN2rg3Zcb3Fqa2i_a_yetWaQAKnOKW16IfoGMtH_-z6HgI/s320/scrudpudstanding.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">most importantly Scrud Pud is still around<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> Session 3:<br /><br />I have figured out the name of everyone’s character except for the thief. I am now too embarrassed to ask. <br /><br />The dwarf is named Bytor<br />The magic user is named Io<br />The fighting man is named Oso<br />My Cleric is named Yutnib.</p><p><br /><br />Hold on I am going to check the email chain for the name of the thief… Nope, the guy playing the thief doesn’t send emails either.<br /><br />Anyway, our characters don’t even get to go to sleep before we have to go after these horses. Also we are looking for a map not a scroll? So, anyway the NPCs decide we have to go after their horses and we are like ok fine. Scrud Pud rides with Yutnib.<br /><br />We ride until we find some dead goblins and horses. They are being eaten by giant gross beetles. The beetles attack us on sight. We do our best to ignore them and ride away. I am not trying to fight a bunch of stupid beetles for no reason. I have found in my experience that the monsters that will be the most embarrassing to die to are the most dangerous.<br /></p><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlPfr6HEujWIYJkwH_gXQ83vF3ziWVv_jcAHCfJcilrQabQv3d8qx4DMNZb3XGPw3cbzL78ItnNTYNKXnzHYGbtKf9mvRdgPGgIWa65Jb4vf1BTgbpxJTTi8aYO9cC20PuuPnMJkyM87o/s2547/deadhorses.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="676" data-original-width="2547" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlPfr6HEujWIYJkwH_gXQ83vF3ziWVv_jcAHCfJcilrQabQv3d8qx4DMNZb3XGPw3cbzL78ItnNTYNKXnzHYGbtKf9mvRdgPGgIWa65Jb4vf1BTgbpxJTTi8aYO9cC20PuuPnMJkyM87o/s320/deadhorses.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br />Then there is a female goblin running through the woods. she gets eaten by beetles. It seemed kind of unnecessary and needlessly gory, but you know The Dymrak Woods, or wherever we are, are a tough place. <br /><br />Anyway we keep riding and there is some sketchy elf horse trader who has apparently been living less than a day’s ride from the fort where the horse breeders have been living but the horse breeders never knew she existed, but the goblins apparently did and the goblins sold the horses to these sketchy horse breeder. <br /><br />We get into a discussion of whether the elf horsetrader and her bandit suboordinates are bonafide purchasers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bona_fide_purchaser the elf is losing the argument and resorts to both physical and magical violence. Luckily, she puts her own men to sleep with the sleep. She apparently didn’t read the description closely enough before casting i into the melee. Also the thief stabbed her in the back. while she was stabbing the party in the back. <br /><br />Anyway we take the horses and her stuff. Her stuff includes a spell book. I whine unti the spellbook contains charm person so we can charm Scrud Pud and make him our friend forever. I told the dm that if he didn’t put charm person in the spell book I would derail the whole campaign and make the whole party go on a quest to get the charm person spell.<br /><br />When we get back to the fort it turns out that no one even cares about the horses anymore because the guy that told us to get involved in this whole horse debacle has been kidnapped by goblins. The conversation went something like this:<br /><br />NPC guy: Waaah!!! Save my brother!<br /><br />Us: Yeah… so about these horses we just murdered a bunch of people over…<br /><br />NPC guy : Waaahhh my brother. Go do that instead.<br /><br />Us: ok, I guess. <br /><br />So we go to see if this guy is at Scrud Pud’s house. He isn’t. no one is. There are some stirge though. We kill them and then we fight some type of vicious rodent. Scrud Pud although charmed and friendly seemed to have precious little intel on his own home where he had presumably lived his entire life. Poor guy must be traumatized.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW4VSsGlqppyniMOOIRhD-rrqgekmsrmjfpxCo5y6iNsz5H4nD31_3ZhkhoUVWY8AggDVO-37KNbPMQ4SJZIOcAWcZ7xH8sSKHvuUbbSEMN_2fXqFHDzkjY-vForwqHdovSnf8EUxaePw/s1252/stirgebird.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1248" data-original-width="1252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW4VSsGlqppyniMOOIRhD-rrqgekmsrmjfpxCo5y6iNsz5H4nD31_3ZhkhoUVWY8AggDVO-37KNbPMQ4SJZIOcAWcZ7xH8sSKHvuUbbSEMN_2fXqFHDzkjY-vForwqHdovSnf8EUxaePw/s320/stirgebird.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is a my best rendering of a stirge<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /><br />The thief almost dies disarming a trap. The trap was an exploding magic ruby. The thief then wondered why a goblin lair would have such a sophisticated magic trap in a goblin lair. The dungeon master gives him an icy blank stare and then begins describing the contents of the treasure chest. There is a map that seems to depict plans for goblin raids or something.<br /><br />We head back to fort to rest and heal. <br /><br /></p><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4umtgQLkmBYDZKa_C80c1d7KwQ3fBw5BiZbUWJRruyVvqwqZiV-NXU2o93DhyphenhyphendBTk30e_xUABebfxO6ZsgUmFtIvgkgxIboLXd3ucKFQicNn-Kf-KvEigHmCWl3dttRAd92CXzz7A874/s1062/thief+arm.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="914" data-original-width="1062" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4umtgQLkmBYDZKa_C80c1d7KwQ3fBw5BiZbUWJRruyVvqwqZiV-NXU2o93DhyphenhyphendBTk30e_xUABebfxO6ZsgUmFtIvgkgxIboLXd3ucKFQicNn-Kf-KvEigHmCWl3dttRAd92CXzz7A874/s320/thief+arm.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The thief's arm caught on fire<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-73244555710384436472021-02-15T08:57:00.001-08:002021-02-15T08:57:58.639-08:00What Happens to lost Hirelings? The Hireling Abandonment Table<h4 style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlnrB2d-GzuX7f6SXSd_H7omR5JtWkzXnxEruovgaQqz5ks0MWj7qY7wFu1yqinlsU3yYxVcnwszaHsBo8UgXm9bTDVu0ozlAoLvsx_j62fqSDB8xpB0fs-9QuojBhI0GQezFLGlDWLIY/s756/hirelings.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="756" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlnrB2d-GzuX7f6SXSd_H7omR5JtWkzXnxEruovgaQqz5ks0MWj7qY7wFu1yqinlsU3yYxVcnwszaHsBo8UgXm9bTDVu0ozlAoLvsx_j62fqSDB8xpB0fs-9QuojBhI0GQezFLGlDWLIY/s320/hirelings.png" width="320" /></a></div></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">Here’s a thing that happened a couple weeks ago:</h4><p></p><blockquote><i>Sexy Long Beard was the first to throw himself in and be whisked away. The rest of the group followed behind with some serious trepidation. They were dragged along on the least fun water ride of their life eventually falling into a quickly running stream. Sven and Theodora leapt from the waters, following the surprisingly lithe Sexy Long Beard. Ves and Ember jumped out after them. The hired men had far more issues.<br />Adonis, Dinkle, X, and Y, were swept away, unable to escape the torrent of water and washed over another waterfall and out of view, only their screams to be heard. Z was the only one to escape. He immediately wished to look for his fellows but was stopped buy the group and convinced to stay with them.</i><br /></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><p></p><blockquote><p></p><blockquote><p> </p><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><h4>Because of this I had to figure out what happened to the hirelings. </h4></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote>So here is my solution:<br /><br /><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Hireling Abandonment Table</h3><p><br />For each hireling lost during a delve roll on the Hireling Abandonment Table.<br />Hirelings that are lost in the same room can be rolled together and share a fate.<br />Add 1 to the roll for each level below the surface the hireling is and subtract 1 from the roll for each hireling lost in the same room. If the result is that the hireling is lost reroll on the chart every week until he is held hostage killed or escapes.<br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse;">
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">1</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">Hireling escapes from dungeon with a haul of treasure. roll treasure type A.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">2</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">Hireling escapes from dungeon.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">3</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">Hireling is lost. place on wandering monster table one level above where lost or 1st level of dungeon if already on 1st level.</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">4</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">Hireling is lost. place on wandering monster table on same level where lost.</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">5</span></p>
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<td style="border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; height: 35px; padding: 4px; width: 137px;" valign="top">
<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">Hireling is lost. place on wandering monster table one level below where lost.</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">6</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">Hireling held one level above where lost or 1st level of dungeon if already on 1st level</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">7</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">Hireling held hostage on same level where lost.</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">8</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">Hireling held hostage by creatures one dungeon level below where lost.</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">9</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">Dead place corpse and equipment on wandering monster table for dungeon floor where last seen</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">10</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">Dead place corpse on wandering monster table for dungeon floor where last seen</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">11</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">Dead place head on wandering monster table for floor of dungeon the hireling was last seen</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: x-small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font: 10px "Helvetica Neue";">Very Dead body missing forever</span></p>
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</table><p>It is worth noting that my dungeon has an ample supply of fungus to eat and most denizens are not immediately hostile. You may wish to make a more deadly table or to roll more often than 1/week.</p>Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-76126878864461573192021-02-13T13:00:00.003-08:002021-02-13T13:07:01.377-08:00The Day of The Were-Shark (Alternate Title: Sharknado Meets The Dungeon and People Fucking Die) - February 7th 2021<p> The day actually started out more than normal. It was quiet. Some characters might have thought it an uninteresting morning. </p><p><br /></p><p>Theodora had learned the ventriloquism spell from Xylarthan; Ember and Ves chose not to learn an additional spell when there was some disagreements regarding cost of knowledge.</p><p><br /></p><p>Leaving the orphans behind at their stronghold, Nese Gard; Theodora, Sven, Ves, Ember, and Lorna Doone, along with the (possible) treasure map they had discovered on the <span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleTallBody; font-size: 16px;">desiccated</span> corpse they found in the dungeon, travelled to the only place of religious knowledge they could think of. The House of Nodens. There they met up with a priest (or high monk) who they had once upon a time discovered in the dungeons, Ludul. He was more than happy to help and answer any questions. Religion was his calling after all. He was a student of it. </p><p><br /></p><p>Theodora, herself interested in local religions as they were so different from those of her homeland, had many questions. </p><p><br /></p><p>The party came to find out that local months shared names with many of the local deities. </p><p><br /></p><p>**Gods**</p><p><br /></p><p>(First Month) Chronoplus/Chronos - Time (Male)</p><p>(Second Month) Boccob - Magic</p><p>(Third Month) Heget - Fertility (Female, has the head of a Frog, worshiped by Dagonites - a fish and frog humanoid)</p><p>(Fourth Month) Yahondeh - ?</p><p>(Fifth Month) Nefertem - Beauty (Male, represented by the Lily, Good/Lawful)</p><p>(Sixth Month) Inanna - ?</p><p>(Seventh Month) Shezmu - ? </p><p>(Eight Month) Donblas - Justice (Male, Golden, appears as a beautiful man or a cherubic baby) - **Idol Recovered, known as The Butt Plug, stuck permanently in the dungeon</p><p>(Ninth Month) Nang Kwak - ?</p><p>(Tenth Month) Istus - Fate (Female, Neutral)</p><p>(Eleventh Month) Nodens - Sleep (Male, worshipped by a sect of ancient Elves who lived in the dungeons and survived on mushrooms) - **Idol Recovered </p><p>(Twelfth Month) Arawn - Otherworld/Underworld - Death (Male, Lawful)</p><p><br /></p><p>Nergul - Entropy (Male, Chaotic, appears as a many headed dragon, a man, a demon, or a snake)</p><p>Ereshkigal - possible Goddess</p><p>Dagon - possible God (possible God of the Dagonites?)</p><p>Arawn’s Spine - Mountain range named for Arwan </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Theodora had many more questions. While Ludul new of three gods that represented Death there were none that represented Birth, which she found strange. It was equally strange that the man seemed to have holes in his memory or knowledge. Almost as if Ludul had forgotten the information. He asked if the party wished to speak with some of the Elves living in the temple who had long worshipped Nodens and perhaps knew more.</p><p><br /></p><p>They agreed. Theodora made an offering of coin and a flask of wine and the group joined the worshippers for a simple lunch. At that time they were able to speak with many of the Elves there who were ancient and had long lived in the dungeons. They told the part a few more interesting pieces of history/religion.</p><p><br /></p><p>**Further Information**</p><p><br /></p><p>Nergul had fought Donblas. Like two sides of the same coin; one beautiful, golden, and lawful, the other demonic, dark, and chaotic (though Nergul had fallen to Chaos and had not always been Chaotic). </p><p><br /></p><p>The Elves knew of the Goddess Heget, a fertility goddess who had been worshipped by dungeon humanoids known as the Dagonites (a fish and frog people). The Elves did not know their exact home or if they even still existed but thought they might offer more insight. The Elves also referenced a Serpent people who had been their enemies. Both groups likely lived on at least the third floor of the dungeon or possibly lower. </p><p><br /></p><p>They also spoke of an Ancient Library that they had seen in their dreams of the dungeon. It was a massive room filled with many many books. It was a carved out proper room, not a natural cavern. The library was staffed by ancient humans, those who had lived long ago, and were beautiful young maidens. They could not help the party place where the library may be in the dungeon but it was suggested that a member of the party could hope to find it by taken Noden’s sleep potion and entering the dreams of the Elves in the future. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The party ventured to Nupos’ to make some purchases and then to the tavern to see if any townsfolk had more religious information for them. That was a resounding no. However, their hired men were there and had recovered from their dark and scary time being abandoned in the dungeon with no light for two weeks and were willing to join the party once again. So they journeyed down into the basement and beyond into the dungeon. </p><p><br /></p><p>They quickly found their way to the Goblin Battle room and went down the spiral staircase. From there the party travelled to the Trog Battle room but upon opening the door found a party of eight Goblins. Sigh.</p><p><br /></p><p>The party can no skirt by the Goblins but don’t wish to provoke a fight, instead they open by asking what religion the Goblins are and if they have heard of the Dagonites or Donblas. They whips them into a frenzy, focused on Sven, who had mentioned the names. And thus a battle ensued.</p><p><br /></p><p>Theodora could not use magic as the Goblins surrounded Sven and she would have injured her friend as well as their attackers so the group entered into melee. Fairly quickly one Goblin had was nearly decapitated by a viscous attack and another had its chest caved in by Sven’s hooves. </p><p><br /></p><p>Sven sustained some damage as the Goblins seemed heavily focused on attacking him, but with the help of their hired men, the adventurers eventually prevailed, killing all eight attackers. Theodora and Lorna Doone went through their belongings. Their swords and weapons were shoddy and deemed worthless. They had on them 43 copper pieces and nothing else of value so their bodies were left. </p><p><br /></p><p>Wanting to map some sections of the dungeon that the party was unsure of they made their easy south toward the slug room but turned off to the west following a corridor, which lead them back to the room with the <span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleTallBody; font-size: 16px;">desiccated</span> corpse where they had liberated the floating red and green gems. They continued west and rediscovered the hall where they had met the Mushroom people, which housed the fountain with an Owl Bear turned to stone at it’s center. At the end of the corridor was a bas relief of a snake.</p><p><br /></p><p>They came across a group of insect-like humanoids who Ember was able to converse with in Elvish. They had possibly seen the Dagonite people before and suggested the party head to the third level of the dungeon and then travel north, where they had previously headed south.</p><p><br /></p><p>Continuing through the south door proved not possible at the time so the group went back to the Slug Room , continued south, and made it to the long corridor beyond the stone bridge. The party made their way back to the pool room to explore the far western wall, which they found held no significance. </p><p><br /></p><p>With only a little time remaining before they planned to return to the surface the group opted to check down the eastern most corridor on the south wall, just to peek and see if there was anything worth taking, examining, etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>They found a long corridor over 100 feet long that ended in an rounded section of wall with a statue. The statue was large, life sized, and on a plinth of stone. It could not be easily moved. It was an Elven warrior fighting a snake with the word “Forget” carved into it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ember wondered if the statue could be an idol. There was no exact definitions on the size of the idols. It was also significant as the Elves had mentioned their dungeon enemies, the serpent people, and the party had learned about Nergul the Chaotic god who could appear as a snake/serpent. There had also been the relief of the serpent on the wall. </p><p><br /></p><p>It was suggested that the other corridor could hold a similar statue and that maybe with a second statue we would know more as there have been many dualistic qualities to the dungeon as of late. Ves offered to quickly check the other corridor, taking the lantern with them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Theodora, Sven, Ember and Lorna Doone began to walk down the corridor as well to go back to the pool room. The hired men with them.</p><p><br /></p><p>As they walked down the parallel corridor Ves saw the space open into a large room and then heard something coming toward them. They turned to hightail it out of there. As they made it back to the pool room the rest of the party was just exiting the previous corridor. And the creatures attacked.</p><p><br /></p><p>Theodora stepped forward and cast sleep on the creatures, which did nothing. Sven and Ember attacked. The hired men, afraid, turned and ran for the exist, heading north. Theodora told them to open and hold the door to the Slug Room and the adventurers would follow. Ves cast Protection from Evil on themselves.</p><p><br /></p><p>The beasts looked like humanoid sharks. They had the front arms of humans with talons and powerful hind legs resembling a dog. </p><p><br /></p><p>Ember used the Valkyrie spear and cause damage to one of them. The others appeared to heal almost immediately when attacked making them appear indestructible when faced with non-magical weapons. However, Ember was the only member of the party with magical weapons.</p><p><br /></p><p>Theodora chose not to waste another spell on the creatures and turned for the door, running. Ember went to retrieve her spear, which was lodged in one of the creatures but as she did it chomped into her midsection, tearing her apart. She was very near death and unconscious. </p><p><br /></p><p>Another creature set on Ves and Lorna Doone also turned to run and escape down the corridor. Sven was able to grab Ember with his teeth and drag her away from the wounded creature, and run. Ves fought the beast off her themselves and also made to run. </p><p><br /></p><p>Heading down the corridor the shark humanoids gave chase. The hired men had in fact held the door. Theodora entered the Slug Room with Sven and Ves coming from behind but Lorna, wearing heavy plate armor had fallen somewhat further back from the group. One of the creatures snapped at her back and was able to grab ahold of her, biting into her body and killing her almost instantly. </p><p><br /></p><p>No one was capable or able to return for Lorna as they were already carrying Ember but without Lorna to heals her wounds Ember succumbed to her injuries before the party could even make it back to the first floor of the dungeon.</p><p><br /></p><p>They thankfully did not run into any more monsters on their way out of the dungeon and travelled immediately to Xylarthan’s tower to see what could be done for Ember and to ask what those creatures could have possibly been.</p><p><br /></p><p>Xylarthan confirmed Theodora’s nervous suspicion. They were Were-Sharks. And once bitten by a Were-Shark, the bitten party, would also become a Were-Shark.</p><p><br /></p><p>Lorna’s body had been abandoned to the dungeon and it was likely she would become one of their race and the same was possibly true for Ember. The wizard was not entirely sure. The adventurers offered to pay for her to be reincarnated, which Xylarthan agreed to but first he would need to do some research. Theodora offered more of her time than usual as his apprentice in order to help Ember and a rather untoward suggestion of what exactly she planned to do with that additional time was made. </p><p><br /></p><p>In the mean time Ember was chained up in the tower and the preparations for her reincarnation began with Xylarthan and Theodora busy at work.</p><p><br /></p><p>And with heavy hearts the remaining members of the team returned to their stronghold to check on their orphans and wait for more news.</p><p><br /></p><p>- Theodora</p><div><br /></div>Theodorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767660023969146276noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-76090672927025570882021-02-13T12:55:00.003-08:002021-02-13T12:55:53.854-08:00Night's Dark Terror Playthrough<p> </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl-7CznwoXMUJn2LP4PHzW7ShocjGDAS6-DG0BZ441UaF2G1nDwCzxk_7igzk2TFvLt3atttwij2Y0nzbt1eKYAOxWw1a6kJdiR07Q92iXQsf0C6l8rk-he8KMSM8RDCtDMmgr8HIe6us/s1188/Yutnib+the+Cleric.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1188" data-original-width="1078" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl-7CznwoXMUJn2LP4PHzW7ShocjGDAS6-DG0BZ441UaF2G1nDwCzxk_7igzk2TFvLt3atttwij2Y0nzbt1eKYAOxWw1a6kJdiR07Q92iXQsf0C6l8rk-he8KMSM8RDCtDMmgr8HIe6us/s320/Yutnib+the+Cleric.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is my character as you can see I put a lot of work into this drawing<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Ok I’m playing through Night’s Dark Terror online. Some people have characters with high ability scores. I somehow managed to roll nothing higher than a 10. I named my character Yutnib. She’s a cleric.<br /><p></p><p>Session 1:<br /><br />Anyway we start out the game in Karmeikos, probably. I
don’t really remember but I am pretty sure and even though my character
is lawful she has somehow found herself in the stocks. People are
throwing food at her. Next to her is a thief. So I guess my character is
kind of like Jesus Except there is only one thief and She’s not being
crucified and she is a level 3 cleric and not the son of god.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQciTGLWl-cIZ60UHfNZw8QPTP3YhOq6neCtgGGkyCOoumlst0Op9fFFfjmYBWe6zShW9UoEaUDsQ0T_DAEAab4ll3KLrKGaQiSjGaFYTJC-VfWwS1saJTY_O0_oJPhmDKgIV0Y-20lc/s2048/bytor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQciTGLWl-cIZ60UHfNZw8QPTP3YhOq6neCtgGGkyCOoumlst0Op9fFFfjmYBWe6zShW9UoEaUDsQ0T_DAEAab4ll3KLrKGaQiSjGaFYTJC-VfWwS1saJTY_O0_oJPhmDKgIV0Y-20lc/s320/bytor.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is what you look like when you have an 18 strength. Also I am just going to be stealing everyone's art<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />Anyway
luckily, the guards are distracted by a play put on by a theater
company that was called something like the “Fart Hole theater Company”.
Not exactly but close enough. So we get freed by the rest of the party
who buy into the idea that they would free criminals they don’t know
from the stocks in broad daylight and then go on an adventure with them.
<br /><br />Also there is a guy that is willing to hire us right out of the
stocks. He pays us 100gp each to go get some horses from a place called
Sukiskyn. We get on a boat the next day. The boat is being rowed
upstream. We try not to dwell on the labor conditions of the oarsmen.
Luckily, we are distracted from the class disparity by a goblin attack. <br /><br />They
stop are boat with a chain across river and some sort of hastily
constructed rock edifice (that part wasn’t entirely clear). Anyway we
can neither go up the river nor drift back. One of the oarsmen is
working for the goblins Yutnib hits him. He dies somehow later. The
point is we were wrong to feeling sorry for the working class because
they could all be secretly in league with goblins. <br /><br />We repel the
goblins after something to do with one of our party members crawling to
shore on the chain and then coming back without doing anything.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBKVXXzU3JKny6IOc7GRtT4X0BJc3C5bvASz0WRoirnpH9LhbTbl7G3C8R1415EExEyc1iF7HybWONgHhyVUbRAmd2OY17xwBbvASK_S8qil21XbX2Uk202z-xseD3hJze83MWW9ypNa4/s1272/IO_Level3_Conjurer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1272" data-original-width="1140" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBKVXXzU3JKny6IOc7GRtT4X0BJc3C5bvASz0WRoirnpH9LhbTbl7G3C8R1415EExEyc1iF7HybWONgHhyVUbRAmd2OY17xwBbvASK_S8qil21XbX2Uk202z-xseD3hJze83MWW9ypNa4/s320/IO_Level3_Conjurer.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The magic user is 3d<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <br /></div><p>We
make it to our destination, which is some person’s house. She is dead.
We don’t find her but we find her bear. Yutnib feeds the bear. The thief
finds the body of the person we were supposed to meet and mutilates the
corpse. this angers the bear. Everyone fights the bear. I was rooting
for the bear. IO the magic user casts web and traps the bear. We cut our
comrades free and go to sleep. </p><p><br />Session 2:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihkTRMPqwDH0x3ua3ei_qe2AZ4Iwq73baklxlHcv1kblpyUg3ZE7ArUjd5TCiZKMxWVWcqvm6JaNMqokuLjW__irX0a7Cf9vG4ov8oOXw4zcTsu4VSsIjETslyE4det1qKMUhwjw1r-4s/s2048/IMG_5764.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihkTRMPqwDH0x3ua3ei_qe2AZ4Iwq73baklxlHcv1kblpyUg3ZE7ArUjd5TCiZKMxWVWcqvm6JaNMqokuLjW__irX0a7Cf9vG4ov8oOXw4zcTsu4VSsIjETslyE4det1qKMUhwjw1r-4s/w320-h245/IMG_5764.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is Scrud Pud, team mascot <br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div><br />In session two we met Scrud Pud The Goblin and fed him bagels. We are in some fort and there are no horses because goblins took them. Scrud Pud says they are looking for an ancient scroll or something. So.. maybe the goblins think the horses have them? <br /><br />There was also a long battle where the goblins were trying to kill us. They didn’t. Scrud Pud the goblin was very sad because the goblin leader was killed. That was our bad.<br /><br />If no one else remembers we are going to have to ask the NPCs what we are supposed to be doing again. <br />In session two we met Scrud Pud The Goblin and fed him bagels. We are in some fort and there are no horses because goblins took them. Scrud Pud says they are looking for an ancient scroll or something. So.. maybe the goblins think the horses have them? <br /><br />There was also a long battle where the goblins were trying to kill us. They didn’t. Scrud Pud the goblin was very sad because the goblin leader was killed. That was our bad.<br /><br />If no one else remembers we are going to have to ask the NPCs what we are supposed to be doing again. <br /><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjei5i_TdWk6HJ3K7v8uqy980wmsnF9nekXzQ86Jw0V7YaNdg_ynmKXv_xgh1-9_sMUN71qfQ5VxRSls3LWxeQ2EzVuf7ftPvYjD4z0_tcuNwtNu6ATgdS1QCZkbjXxAhvbZV0BSPbnsy4/s575/SCRUDPUD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="575" data-original-width="298" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjei5i_TdWk6HJ3K7v8uqy980wmsnF9nekXzQ86Jw0V7YaNdg_ynmKXv_xgh1-9_sMUN71qfQ5VxRSls3LWxeQ2EzVuf7ftPvYjD4z0_tcuNwtNu6ATgdS1QCZkbjXxAhvbZV0BSPbnsy4/s320/SCRUDPUD.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is a more idealized rendition of Scrud Pud<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-45449009294015268192021-02-03T14:10:00.002-08:002021-02-03T14:10:35.677-08:00Naked Goblins, Haunted Hired Men, and an Orphan That Pooped a Gem; Recap 1/31/2021<p>We return to our adventure with the group sifting through their young ward’s feces after she swallowed a potentially hazardous/magical red gem, which the group had found floating around a decaying corpse sitting on a throne. </p><p><br /></p><p>The orphans continued to be tied together to prevent them from running away and getting hurt. But they have been fed good meals and taken for walks outside of the tower, though within the walls of the grounds. </p><p><br /></p><p>Sven was nominated to use his hooves, as it seemed more sanitary, to go through the poop.</p><p><br /></p><p>The gem was recovered, the team rejoiced, and set off for a visit to Xylarthan’s tower. The orphans joined, still attached to one another, for safety, and sat on Sven’s back.</p><p><br /></p><p>As the adventurers travelled through the bar they again announced that they would be looking for their lost hired men. While also pointing out that the children were being safely cared for. Other patrons seemed suspicious and wary of the group.</p><p><br /></p><p>Xylarthan did not know anything about the gems specifically outside of the fact that they were magical. He moved them around his head and showed the group that they floated around his head as well. </p><p><br /></p><p>He offered them 250 gold pieces per gem.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ember took a gem to see if the gems would float for her as well. They did.</p><p><br /></p><p>The group however still voted to sell the gems and allow Xylarthan to study them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Xylarthan also expressed some serious concerned for the safety of the orphans. He offered 50 gold per orphan but was denied. The group is intent on training the children with a skill for adventuring. And may possibly need their assistance in the dungeon at some point.</p><p><br /></p><p>When that was settled they returned to the dungeon to begin their search for a connection between the current dungeon and the section where the Mushroom people lived in hopes of connecting all of their current maps.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was decided that it would be safer for the group, with the children on Sven’s back, to go down the spiral staircase in the old Goblin Battle room. It was determined the room was safe after Ember listened at the door and it appeared the living gargoyles had left the room. The group did find the body of Ernie, a former hired man, and Ember took his spear for “protection”.</p><p><br /></p><p>They reappeared at the bottom of the stairs in the church room with the “butt plug” idol, which was also empty.</p><p><br /></p><p>It didn’t take long to move through to the “Slug” room where the adventurers opted to go through the southern door across the water. They walked down the corridor until it turned off to the west and followed along that way, hoping to bypass the heaviest amounts of fungus and reach the far western areas previously unmapped. </p><p><br /></p><p>The hallway spilled out into a large room, too large to see all of the details but there was a large pool in the center, about 10 feet from each wall, and within the pool was 12 bathing, laughing, goblins. They were naked.</p><p><br /></p><p>The group cringed a little and then skirted around the edge of the room, hoping to avoid being noticed. There was a wide corridor on the north wall that the adventurers aimed for but they did not escape the goblin’s notice. </p><p><br /></p><p>Things quickly escalated as the goblins started climbing out of the pool. Theodora stepped forward to cast sleep as they moved toward their weapons and managed to put 9 of the 12 to sleep. The team then fought the final remaining goblins. Ember hit one while the rest of the team moved forward. Theodora cast burning hands, killing the remaining goblin and burning the other two. They chose to flee.</p><p><br /></p><p>The group did what they do best and went through other people’s possessions. The goblins had with them a small decorated chest. There was an old crank on the side. Inside of the chest was 3000 silver pieces, which were loaded into Sven’s saddle bags.</p><p><br /></p><p>When the crank was turned the chest played a haunting melody, which no one recognized. It too was loaded up.</p><p><br /></p><p>Journeying down the northern corridor the team came to a room where the water continued to flow. Continuing north they came to the passage that had been filled with an almost moving, slithering, fungus and turned to the east instead. This brought them to another turn and another corridor, closer to the Owl Bear’s nest. And then they stumbled upon their former hired men; Dingle, X, Y, and Z. They were processing some trauma and dealing with a massive amount of shit.</p><p><br /></p><p>The group removed them from the dungeon as they had always stated that they would, fulfilling that promise. And in their guilt spent 750 gold (!!! WTF) on food and drinks, and I can only assume some kind of “entertainment” in hopes of placating the men and helping them feel somewhat better.</p><p><br /></p><p>- Theodora</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Theodorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767660023969146276noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-55910027197654625302021-01-24T18:28:00.001-08:002021-01-24T18:28:25.879-08:00The Adventurers, the Orphans, and the Gems, Recap 1/24/21<p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 28.37px; font-weight: bold;">The Adventurers, the Orphans, and the Gems</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The team spent the last week preparing for their upcoming adventure; reaching out to a local home for orphaned children and requesting to take in a child or two around the age of seven or eight. They also did a little shopping. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">They received two orphans; a boy and a girl, twins, named Pongo and Perdita. The teams fed them a quality filling meal and informed them that they would be learning the way of the adventurer. The twins seemed less interested than the group had hoped. They the group honestly wasn’t sure how long the twins would be around for. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Leaving their strong hold the group ventured to the local tavern. It was discovered through this venture that no one had seen the hired men who had gone with them into the dungeon the week prior. The group had hoped that the men had found their own way out after disappearing over the edge of the underground stream.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">They loudly announced to all listening, who would not make eye contact with them, that they intended to take their orphans into the dungeon for vocational training AND to find their former hired men who were missing. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">But first, they set off to meet with Xylarthan, traveling underneath the bar, through the dungeons, and into his tower. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Xylarthan offered little information in regards to the grand cathedral of the dungeon or the broken vial the group had collected. He did tell them that the vial was very old. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">He had more information though about Grishknack, the supposed Vampire ruler of the now named Klargarsar. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Grishknack (the vampire part was an unsubstantiated rumor so status unknown) was the ruler of the tower and the town before Raglam, when the town was known as Grishknack. He is believed to be dead, killed by Raglam and his followers, but it is possible that he only disappeared and is still somewhere, waiting.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The group, with some answers, promised to visit again soon, and slipped back into the dungeon. They made their way along the corridor to the fountain covered in angels, and remembering it’s healing powers for those of Lawful Good status, Sven, with the aid of Theodora filled a flask of the water to take with the party. They hoped it would help to heal Sven or the orphans if their was an incident or any sort.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Turning back around they followed the corridor back to the west and past the corridor to the tower. They walked through the circular room and came to the door at the other end, finding, of course, a corridor. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The team opted to go south where the corridor swiftly (after 10 feet) turned off to the west and almost immediately were confronted with a “couple of dudes” which actually meant five kobolds, who were unhappy with company. They asked our adventurers for their treasure. The group played off the traditional, “We’re broke as a joke” routine. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Finally they offered two of Embers apples, Sven explaining that they were magic, giving the consumer magically advanced strength. The Kobolds were intrigued. Theodora sweetened the pot with the offer of adding a dagger to the bounty; so they could cut the two apples and share them easier. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The deal was struck. However the group had to turn around as the Kobolds were pissed when they began following them down the passage way.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">And so they returned east and turned back to head north. And then west further down the corridor. Making what they would find out was a square. Before they discovered this though they entered the room in the center of the passages. The center held a pit of unknown depth. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Ember was the only one interested in leaning over the edge and as she did a tentacle came out of the hole, grasping for her, thankfully missing. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The party got out of theirs as fast as fucking possible as other tentacle began coming up to join their compatriot. The door was rapidly spiked closed.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Continuing south our adventurers found a door, once opened they realized they were back to the naturally hewed rock corridor that would lead them back to the three doomed room, which lead back to Nupo’s basement. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">So they turned around and set off east, then north, and followed the corridor until finally reaching the Tower magic sewage run off stream that they had been looking for.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Ember and Ves loaded onto the raft that the group had bought, brought, and dragged through the dungeon up until this point and off they went!</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Sven, loaded up with Theodora and the orphan children, scared and crying after their short time in the dungeon, waited a moment longer.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">As their raft rode the rapids of the sewage stream, Ves became dislodged, losing the lantern to the waters, and nearby drowning. Ember, who managed to stay on the raft attempted to help them, by using a grappling hook, managing to connect with the stone bridge above, and grab Ves before they disappeared over the edge that the hired men had been lost to the week before. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">At this time Sven and his passengers splashed over the edge and launched themselves, thanks to the Pegasus’ incredible strength, onto the banks. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Theodora using her Infra-vision, was able to spot Ves and Ember gripping precariously to the rope and lit a torch, guiding Sven to save their friends. Sven, using his teeth, pulled their rope and the two adventurers to safety. They were wet and fairly pissed. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The orphans were still fucking crying so Theodora attempted to calm them and fed them a snack.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The team opted to follow the path of their lost hired men, because they are good people who actually want to help, sometimes. And save their crumbling reputations. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Through the west door of the slug room there was a a vestibule and then another room. Which, of course, had more fucking Kobolds, who took Sven a little too seriously when he asked if they had seen any dead people. It turned out, they WANTED to see dead people and the team would do. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Ember was lanced by a spear. And the group escaped through the only other door on the north wall as the assholes cackled behind them.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The travelled along another corridor, damp, before being confronted by a fungus wall to the north, a fungus covered and possibly moving corridor to the west, and a door to the east.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">They opted for the door.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Inside was a dedicated corpse in an ancient robe on a throne. Beside him were two hovering gems, a red and a green. Ember riffled his pockets. Theodora examined his hollow face.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The team, led by Ember, decided to take the gems and be prepared to run. The first was knocked from its position and picked up in a cloak. The second was grabbed by the orphan, Perdita, who refused to hand it over and swallowed it. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The girl made a run for it. Ember threatened to kill her. Her brother all but bit off Theodora’s ear before she could stop him and fled. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The girl was let go and the two were put to sleep by Theordora, Ember collected them, while still threatening to disembowel the girl. But instead they were hog-tied together and thrown over Sven’s back. The team was getting that fucking jewel back one way or another.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">After that, they opted to just leave, and find out what the jewels were and maybe lock up the orphans for life. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The Kobolds were gone, the group travelled back through the slug room, the north, and back to the well. Theodora levitated Sven up the passage as he held the rest of the party. They exited through Nupo’s basement. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Nupo’s isn’t even surprised anymore. He almost just seems disappointed.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The orphans awoke. The group fed them on their straw bed. But nothing was over. They would get that jewel. And they were definitely going to need to speak to Xylarthan again.</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">- Theodora</span></p>Theodorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767660023969146276noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-46689830301917486502021-01-18T12:27:00.000-08:002021-01-18T12:27:15.473-08:00I published QAnon Cyberpunk with Boomer Characteristics<p>I am republishing an article I put on medium this Morning. I am also putting it up here because I haven't been working on anything else and I'm proud of it:</p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Cyberpunk with Boomer Characteristics</h3><p><br /> With only a few more days until the inauguration of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., therе seems to be no more room for QAnon, no more cracks in the future of the consensus model of reality of the future for its ecstatic mental paroxysms to slip through, to feed off. A lot of people have consigned QAnon to the dustbin of history. I would love to join them. I also think QAnon is dying, but in the same way that Pizzagate died. There will be a reconstitution and a reformation. QAnon is an aesthetic practice, and a ritualistic information processing methodology that can be easily transformed and reapplied. As others have pointed QAnon is also a LARP or some sort of augmented reality game. The purpose of this article is to nail down exactly what kind of LARP it is and to discuss what aspects are transferable. I can state categorically that QAnon is a Christian millennialist Shadowrun LARP. There, you can stop reading. Although, I will spend the rest of this screed explaining what that means and how it came about.<br /><br /><u>Millennialist Boomerism and Cyberpunk</u> <br /> I am not going to trace the history of Qanon from Clancyesque surrealism to apocalyptic millennialist prophecy in any detail. Other people are much more coherent at that and have done masterful jobs showing the way that Anons imagine themselves to be playing spymaster. Those narratives and aesthetics gave birth to the movement and are responsible for some of its key plot points (i.e., Q is a government intelligence officer; the military is inherently good and the potential savior of the American people, and so on). I have a lot of nostalgia for this era and the almost baroque level of ornamentation heaped on to their bizarre extrapolations from the minutiae of Hillary Clinton’s life. This era focused on pictures of politicians who may or may not (but definitely are) wearing ankle monitors, strings of numbers that might be GPS data. The explanations and exegeses have ornate winding conspiratorial lyricism almost like an art nouveau vine (perhaps I was wrong to refer to the baroque; I think art nouveau is a better metaphor for their ramblings). These reveries were clearly in the security state thriller genre. With the Cold War gone and the War on Terror (somehow lacks the same appeal) however the paranoia was directed solely at domestic targets and internal political enemies.<br /> At this point in early QAnon the explicit narrative is pure security state thriller tropes. Q’s posts are descriptions of future covert state actions against Donald Trump’s political enemies. The difference is anonymous 4chan users and later 8chan users have taken the role of the security analysts. It is this democratization of security work that begins to incorporate elements of Cyberpunk. Cyberpunk can be traces at least as far back as Bruce Bethke’s story, Cyberpunk. Cyberpunk constructs a dialectically opposed reality to the one found in Tom Clancy novels and Cold War saber rattling. The world of Cyberpunk is one where the old guard is out of touch and not highly competent operatives. The protagonists are teenagers who enjoy sowing chaos through computer hacking with no aim or ideology. They are seemingly motivated by a motiveless malignancy or a compulsion to delinquency. However, the idea of the renegade hacker has entered into the trope blender that is QAnon. The result is QAnon’s merger of the Right's fetishization of the strong father figure found in the statist fantasies of Tom Clancy with the Cyberpunk tropes of the 1980’s.<br /> Of course, QAnon is not the first movement to integrate the fantasy of the rogue computer hacker into the fantasy of the uber-competent undercover government operative. QAnon’s innovation is the refusal to integrate these two things into a coherent narrative. The Government is at once a bastion of good and a satanic pedophile ring. Anons are simultaneously anti-government hackers and loyal patriots. We can listen to an individual Anon’s justifications for how these contradictions are resolved, but any individual Anon’s explanation or ‘head canon’ cannot be understood to be the official narrative. The resolutions to the contradiction are individual; it is only the contradictions that are universal. It is here that QAnon pushes itself into Phillip K. Dick territory. However, we cannot follow them there yet. First we must discuss how the praxis of QAnon is informed by their non-synthesis of statist spycraft fiction and libertarian cyberpunk fiction.<br /> Ironically the plot of the short story, Cyberpunk, is of little use here. It is more instructive on the reality of the Qanon arc than its internal symbolism and praxis. It tells the story of a protagonist, who has contempt for adults seemingly unable understand all the sophisticated stuff that he can do on a computer, and ends when his dalliances on the computer are shown to be incapable of keeping him from being sent to military school. In the end the virtual world of cyberspace is no match for the coercive power of meat-space.<br /><br /><u>Surrealism in Rebellion and Bootlicking</u><br /> The QAnon aesthetic is much more in line with the early work of William Gibson. A Q drop has similar narrative contrivances to Neuromancer. The narrator has a way of making the read feel like an insider being addressed by another insider. It creates an intimacy based on the illusion of a shared lexicon and knowledge base, while teaching that lexicon and knowledge to the reader. It makes the reader feel smart and cool:<br /></p><blockquote>Case was twenty-four. At twenty-two, he’d been a cowboy a rustler, one of the best in the Sprawl. He’d been trained by the best, by McCoy Pauley and Bobby Quine, legends in the biz. He’d operated on an almost permanent adrenaline high, a byproduct of youth and proficiency, jacked into a custom cyberspace deck that projected his disembodied consciousness into the consensual hallucination that was the matrix. A thief he’d worked for other, wealthier thieves, employers who provided the exotic software required to penetrate the bright walls of corporate systems, opening windows into rich fields of data (William Gibson, Neuromancer).</blockquote>See, very cool. You feel like a hip insider being informed by another hip insider of the doings of third hip insider. Neuromancer creates a conceptual framework for playing around on the internet while pretending you are doing something important. It also establishes the main plot outline of QAnon. There are people, Anons, sometimes known as “bakers,” who take posts/“drops”/“crumbs” on 8chan, or earlier on 4chan, and interpret them in a way that tells the story of a secret government operation. <br />This process is analogous to what a ‘decker’ does in Neuromancer. There is a mission from a shadowy employer. The protagonist goes on a computer and does things on the internet that allow them to extract secret information. The secret information slowly paints a bigger picture of a reality that is only discoverable through further interaction with internet. The nature of the secret becomes increasingly bizarre until it is revealed that there is a highly sophisticated artificial intelligence pulling the strings and suggestions of extra-terrestrial involvement.<br /> The QAnon ‘consensual hallucination’ is that they are also engaged in this process of discovery at the behest of actors in the U.S. government. This is The LARP; it feels like an ‘almost permanent adrenaline high.’ There is the ecstasy of decoding a post. There is the fear response from obsessing over cannibal pedophiles. There is the reassurance that there are good guys in control that comes from the more boomer-oriented, Clancyesque roots of the conspiracy theory. There is the feeling of superiority that comes from having secret knowledge, which is perhaps the uniting thread between QAnon's literary antecedents. I am sure I could go on, but the point is that these feelings coalesce into a kind of ecstasy.<br /> I said the LARP was a Shadowrun LARP because it does not just incorporate aspects of spycraft and cyberpunk; it is also fundamentally relies on a belief in the supernatural. Shadowrun is the roleplaying game that united these two things. In Shadowrun you could be a shaman or a hacker. People pretending to be Shaman’s and hackers had to work together to complete missions. QAnon is a movement that has room for a guy named Praying Medic and a guy that claims to be communicating with himself from the future via a quantum computer. Shadowrun pioneered that integration. QAnon has replaced the Shamanistic magic of Shadowrun with the divine magic of prayer. Other than that (and the absence of other races of humanoid from the core canon) the praxis of Anons follows a Shadowrun adventure: a the mysterious patron gives you a mission. Then you move to a location while shooting stuff. At the location, you log onto a computer and do computer hacker stuff. As you repeat this process, you uncover a larger conspiracy plot. <br /> Qanon has adopted and adapted this process with one notable exception. Until recently, the part about going outside and committing crimes was downplayed. Anons were never told to do anything in the real world except perhaps buy merchandise and contribute to crowdfunding campaigns. In fact, they were encouraged to simply ”enjoy the show.” The job of the Anon was to bear witness to a secret war using investigative acumen and a computer. Anons are actually engaged in a mixture of a mixture of googling and free association. As the predictions of the Q and the Anons started to fail tension developed between Anon’s image of themselves as ‘independent researchers’ and the continued failure of their research to produce any results that coincided with objective reality. This tension resolved itself by incorporating spiritualism. Once QAnon incorporated fantasy tropes, it became too compelling and fun to collapse. Like Shadowrun, it was a place where incongruous fantasies could coexist in a sort of mélange or potpourri. Anon’s were now engaged in spiritual warfare. Anons conclusions, like, “Hillary Clinton will be executed” or, “their will be mass arrests” began to take on the qualities of prophesies or supplications to a higher power. More and more you would see Anons say things like, “God is in control.” QAnon began to resemble a priesthood. The LARP became one were cyber priests prayed and spoke prophecy into being over Facebook and Twitter. <br /><br /><u>WWG1WGA and Mercerism</u><br />I am skipping over a lot of the whackier aspects of QAnon. The whackier parts-the clones and stuff- have roots in mental illness and Philip K. Dick. I know, the whole thing has its roots in mental illness. It’s a “schizoid embolism”, a “consensual hallucination.” I would never call it a cult; it’s not that organized. It is more of a gnostic Christian practice. It is a real-world analog to Mercerism from, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but dumber. Just read this; let it wash over your mind: <br /><blockquote>The man, Wilbur Mercer, plodded ahead, and, as he clutched the handles, John Isidore gradually experienced a waning of the living room in which he stood; the dilapidated furniture and walls ebbed out and he ceased to experience them at all. He found himself, instead, as always before, entering into the landscape of drab hill, drab sky. And at the same time he no longer witnessed the climb of the elderly man. His own feet now scraped, sought purchase, among the familiar loose stones; he felt the same old painful, irregular roughness beneath his feet and once again smelled the acrid haze of the sky - not Earth's sky but that of some place alien, distant, and yet, by means of the empathy box, instantly available. He had crossed over in the usual perplexing fashion; physical merging - accompanied by mental and spiritual identification - with Wilbur Mercer had reoccurred. As it did for everyone who at this moment clutched the handles, either here on Earth or on one of the colony planets. He experienced them, the others, incorporated the babble of their thoughts, heard in his own brain the noise of their many individual existences. They - and he - cared about one thing; this fusion of their mentalities oriented their attention on the hill, the climb, the need to ascend. Step by step it evolved, so slowly as to be nearly imperceptible. But it was there. Higher, he thought as stones rattled downward under his feet. Today we are higher than yesterday, and tomorrow - he, the compound figure of Wilbur Mercer, glanced up to view the ascent ahead. Impossible to make out the end. Too far. But it would come (William K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep).</blockquote>There, that’s QAnon. “Where We Go One We Go All” is their motto. The purpose of the gematria, the praying, all of it is to achieve unity with a higher purpose. Not to win. Not to actually get the pedophiles. It is to join with people through this entity known as Q and bear witness to his deed through this arcane process of decoding these cryptic missives. Once you understand them you have in a way made yourself one with his consciousness and joined with him. There is a larger war, a nebulous spiritual war that occurs secretly behind the scenes. Only traces of it appear in our reality as codes in music videos or popular movies. Our reality is a veil, and behind that veil is Q and Trump and the white hats. Your job as an Anon is to bear witness and in bearing witness you meld with Q and Trump and all of the white hats. You also join with your fellow Anons into this one entity that exists to fight spiritual evil. <br /> This profoundly religious experience is not going to be debunked. It must be robbed of its transformative power. Once QAnon can no longer provide spiritual ecstasy, it will be replaced or reformed into something that can continue to provide that experience. Falling into QAnon belief is a process that begins with feeling alienated by where your country is headed, and then it provides you with comfort, excitement and intrigue. Finally, once you are hooked, it provides you with ecstatic religious experience. It is as intoxicating and nourishing as Mercerism is. It acknowledges the evil of the world without asking Anons to understand or truly confront it. Or as in, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, “A Mercerite sensed evil without understanding it. Put another way, a Mercerite was free to locate the nebulous presence of The Killers wherever he saw fit.” This is what makes Mercerism and QAnon so resilient. The evil is nebulous. The shared reality is the reality of the experience of believing in QAnon. It is a form of Gnosticism. <br /> QAnon is world of intrigue and divinity that invites participation and shared world-building. It purports to give people, through prayer, the power to purge evil from the U.S. Government. This formula is compelling and not going anywhere. The new version of QAnon may take some time to constitute itself after Biden’s inauguration but it will be back if it ever even goes away.<br /><p></p><p><br /></p>Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-82295604308788949242021-01-17T19:05:00.001-08:002021-01-17T19:05:26.498-08:001/17/2021 Summary - Sexy Long Beard and the Way to Level 3<p> Sexy Long Beard and the Way to Level 3</p><p>Theodora, experiencing an epic hangover from a night at the tavern with Sven is pretty hungover and out of it for the first half hour of exploring and has almost no memory of what was said or went down. She knows that due to not having the Feather Fall spell the adventuring team opted to enter through Nupo’s basement. By the time she had really come to herself, processing a greasy breakfast and an ale, that the group were already in a corridor previously unexplored. There were three new hired men; X, Y, and Z. As well as “original” hired men; Adonis, Dinkle, and Ernie.</p><p><br /></p><p>This was the corridor running parallel to the one just to the west where Ember had fallen through a trap door/hole. There was some confusion as to spacing and how this corridor fit into the dungeon they had previously mapped but things seemed to come together over time. </p><p><br /></p><p>There was a door into a further corridor and around this point Lorna Doone felt ill and had to return to the surface. She took with her the ghost of hired man Ernie, in hopes of helping them both at the infirmary. </p><p><br /></p><p>The rest of the party continued onward finding a door in the left wall where Ember heard a grinding sound which reminded the group of the gargoyles they had previously encountered, so they skipped the room and continued on. The corridor ultimately terminated in another door, which again the group pussed out on opening, instead choosing to try a corridor in the east wall.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, as they turned, heading back, there was the sound of a small, barely intelligible voice following them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ember and Ves were down the corridor, heading east, as Sven and Theodora turned back to see a little, skinny man, wearing nothing but his own very long hair, behind them. He had long hair, and an exceptionally long beard. It covered private areas but little else. Both were understandably nervous so Sven turned on the Chainmail Chick charm. It worked. The man was enchanted.</p><p><br /></p><p>He had clearly been in the dungeon for a very long time without human contact. But he agreed to join the group and lead them to the third level through the twisted maze of corridors, if he could ride upon Sven’s back. Theodora, understanding the need to get deeper in the dungeon and feeling compassion for the strangle little man, scooted back and made way. </p><p><br /></p><p>He claimed to no longer know or remember his name, as he had lived in the dungeon for so long, but Sven gifted him with the name “Sexy Long Beard” with his excessive charm.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sexy Long Beard only remembered the vampire leader of Clargarsar, Grishknock. The group tried to explain that where was no vampire in the tour, but Sexy Long Beard could not comprehend this fact it seemed.</p><p><br /></p><p>He was a strange little man but a good guide as the group moved through the dungeon. They took the corridor in the east wall, twisting with it, and eventually returning to the room with the spiral staircase, the gargoyles, and what was likely the dead body of Ernie, but no one looked long enough or hard enough to know.</p><p><br /></p><p>Note: Sexy Long Beard explained that the Well was the fastest way to the third level of the dungeon, but AGAIN due to the lack of Feather Fall is was a difficult route to take with a large Pegasus. So the group chose what was a longer route.</p><p><br /></p><p>They travelled through the north door in the spiral staircase room, narrowly escaping the gargoyles thanks to a quickly slammed door and the Hold Portal spell and travelled along a winding dirt and stone passage way that twisted and turned, clearly hewn from he very stone of the dungeon. Theodora recognized the passage and tried to find and use whatever maps and memories she had of the space from earlier adventuring.</p><p><br /></p><p>The group continued on with shocking little intervention. There were a few Kobolds distracted by apples. They twist and turned, Sexy Long Beard cackling about the corridors which lead into corridors. Until they came to an area, which was clearly under the old tower. Beneath it sewage ran, not traditional sewage, more like magic run off sewage. </p><p><br /></p><p>Sexy Long Beard was the first to throw himself in and be whisked away. The rest of the group followed behind with some serious trepidation. They were dragged along on the least fun water ride of their life eventually falling into a quickly running stream. Sven and Theodora leapt from the waters, following the surprisingly lithe Sexy Long Beard. Ves and Ember jumped out after them. The hired men had far more issues.</p><p><br /></p><p>Adonis, Dinkle, X, and Y, were swept away, unable to escape the torrent of water and washed over another waterfall and out of view, only their screams to be heard. Z was the only one to escape. He immediately wished to look for his fellows but was stopped buy the group and convinced to stay with them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Theodora immediately recognized the room as she had previously been part of a battle against a giant slug in that room and found an idol. In fact the bridge one of her compatriots had built with magic was still there, across the stream.</p><p><br /></p><p>The team chose to cross said bridge and go through the southward door.</p><p><br /></p><p>Behind the door was a corridor (surprise). And while the party occasionally got distracted, Sexy Long Beard reminded them that the third level was slow close, just to the south. So they continued and after like 140 feet they entered a thirty by thirty room with a door on the opposite wall. Through the door was an intersection, leading west, east and south, and again they went south. </p><p><br /></p><p>This FINALLY lead to a stairwell that meandered, twisting and turning, until depositing the group on the third level!</p><p><br /></p><p>They found themselves in a room, massive and cavernous, similar to a church of some sort. The room was so large that Sven, with Theodora on his back, could fly above.</p><p><br /></p><p>There was an apse with a pit and offering bowl. There was artwork of people falling from heaven and an inscription to do with a child, tithing, and offering, and submitting. It reminded Theodora of the inscription on the massive elf sculpture to do with glory and sacrifice. But alas the group realized they had no children to sacrifice, terrifying the hired man, and moved to explore more. The hired man at this time ran for his life... </p><p>(It’s so hard to find good help.)</p><p><br /></p><p>As the did this Ember offered a jewel - nothing. Some blood -nada. </p><p><br /></p><p>The south corridor, which was huge, had niches with cherub statues. Heads with Wings. And their faces were disgusted.</p><p><br /></p><p>So the group travelled East. The found a room on the south wall, it smelled like death and decay. In the center was a person in a robe but they were mummified, decayed, but clutched a vellum scroll, it was a map of the forests above group. The team opted to save it for later. </p><p>They exited the room from the opposite side and entered another massive cathedral like room. The apse in this one was more football shaved and held a Dias with a body upon it. The body was only bones and armor at that point and looked as though it had been dropped from an immense height. Sven and Theodora fly upward but determined it could not have come from even the ceiling to cause such damage. It was a mystery. </p><p><br /></p><p>Ember rifled his pockets.</p><p><br /></p><p>Gold (625 pieces) and 4 gems were recovered and taken. At this time it was decided to head back and due to their companion Lorna Doone being in the infirmary, the group opted to return to the surface to meet backup with her rather than spend the night in the small room of death.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sexy Long Beard had at this point vanished. The group briefly mourned his loss. Especially Theodora who had found the old coot amusing and helpful. Even while others questioned him. She hoped they would find him (alive) again soon.</p><p><br /></p><p>The return journey was unremarkable thanks to their handy maps. The group returned through Nupo’s basement and vowed to have the Feather Fall spell for the following day of adventuring for a quick return to the third level!</p><div><br /></div>Theodorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767660023969146276noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-51349810255711664502020-12-20T18:09:00.002-08:002020-12-20T18:09:23.820-08:00The Cat People That Weren’t Cat People At All<p></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span style="font-size: 17.46px;">In today’s pre-Christmas holiday adventure, our team of intrepid characters set out once again in hopes of finding the third level of the dungeon. Spoiler. They were once again thwarted.</span><span style="font-size: 17.46px;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">They team - Theodora, Ember, Svenasus the Pegasus, Ves, and Lorna Doone travelled to the local tavern to hire some fighters. They paid 20 gold pieces and were able to hire six men who would each receive half a share. The party agreed to this knowing first, they had been pulling very little lately, and second, most of these guys were probably doomed to die grisly deaths due to the party’s callous behavior.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The fighters, named A, B, C, D, E, and F (promised names only if they survived and returned on a second adventure), were wary but set off with the team to enter the dungeon through the mansion basement entrance. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Svenasus was again dropped first and with the help of Ves’ feather fall spell hit the ground slightly less hard than last time (there were some weight miscalculation issues) and only took 6 points of damage.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The rest of the party followed on ropes.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The team noticed that a previously spiked door, keeping the naked hairless humanoid cat people locked up, were missing and the group collectively shuddered. They immediately moved to follow their path from last week into the large room, down the hall, and to the crossroad. Back to the even larger room with the elvin statue that had come to life previously.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The statue was waiting for them. But the team was prepared. Ves cast Dispel Magic stopping the statue in it’s place, still repeating the same words from last time. Lorna Coone set to smashing it to pieces, for the valuable metals inside, with her mace. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The group opened the second chest from last week and a secret door opened on the west wall. Lorna stayed behind with F (holding the door), as well as C and E to guard/help her. The rest of the group went through the secret door. To the north were wall paintings representing the good and heavenly and to the south were the bad and earthly. Ember removed the daggers on the wall with a green stone (the opposite having red stones) from the south, earthly side.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The party then returned to the larger room and the chest. Placing the daggers inside did nothing. Nor did it reveal anything else on the statues pedestal. So they moved onto the pit. The pit seemed very deep so the group sent two hired men down 100 feet of rope, held by Svenasus. It wasn’t long enough so another 100 feet were added and one made went to what seemed to be the bottom where he started screaming. He was pulled up and was physically fine but emotionally broken and screaming about ghosts.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The party didn’t have time to examine this further as F told them that the naked cat people had just entered the room. They didn’t look as much like cats as the party thought but they were hairless and eyeless and creepy. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Theodora used her Fireball scroll and burned them all to death. And the party decided to go back to the cat room from the beginning and see if there was an idle there.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Lorna had finished collecting all of the precious metals and they were loaded into Sven’s saddle bags. And the party departed. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Opening the door to the “cat” room hallway presented the group with four more “cat” people, some large and some small. A fight ensued. There was spear jabbing, daggers, and Burning Hands. They were all vanquished. They party went to the room and moved across it to find another door. On the other side was a corridor and a room filled with snakes. And the party, knowing their time was just about done, turned back and returned to the shaft. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Theodora cast Levitate on Svenasus, as every one grabbed a hold of him, and the party was transported up and to the mansion again...</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">No richer, and with no more idols...</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">- Theodora</span></p>Theodorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767660023969146276noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-3858820584481663722020-12-13T14:04:00.004-08:002020-12-13T14:04:48.708-08:00<p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 22.92px; font-weight: bold;">Return to the Mansion Entrance - 12/13/20</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The intrepid group of adventurers, this time Ves, Theodora, and Svenasus the Pegasus, opted to venture down the shaft through an abandoned, ruined mansion into the dungeon. Svenasus had to just drop down, sustaining some damage. The others climbed down with rope.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Theodora had some familiarity with the entrance, haven taken in before, but the rest of the party was new to that part of the dungeon.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">They group entered a 30 by 30 foot room with doors to the north, south, and west. To the north, Theodora remembered looting so the group went south. There they discovered a room filled with naked scary humanoids as well as goblin like creatures who frightened the group badly enough that they turned, spiking the door three times and the following door was spiked as well. The eyes will haunt them.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">And so they ventured west. In that room, a large space that seemed silent and empty, there were Bugbears. The adventures tried to escape through a door on the south wall as Theodora burned the monsters with Burning Hands. This mostly singed and angered them. But the party escaped, even after almost leaving Theodora behind to her fate (she took 4 hit points of damage).</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The Bugbears gave chase and Theodora used Push to hold the door closed. The group moved down the corridor and to the west, to the east they saw the Bugbears who followed them but then fell back. The monsters did not follow them to the large bronze doors emblazoned with snakes. Theodora remembered as snake monster behind those doors who demnbaded to be fed. The group turned away. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">They circled around and ended up back in the main room, heading back into the Bugbear room and headed north this time. They saw a door but then heard the same Bugbears behind them. This time they fought.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The Bugbears inflicted damage on the party and then Theodoras put them to sleep and the group killed them as they slept. Taking what little money they had.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">They went through a door in the west wall and entered another hallway. At the intersection they could go south but this appeared to head back to the snake room. Or go west but this path headed upwards. Or north which was a graduated down tunnel, so they took this path. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">The group ended up in a very large room, they could not make out all of it. There were two large chests along the east wall. One which demanded glory, the other sacrifice. Further along the north wall was a slab, a table, which had cracked and lead down into a pit. And in front of it was a large elvish statue figure with a sword through its chest. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Ves casted protection from evil on theirself and opened the glory trunk, it was empty, but as they did this, the statue came to life, pulling the sword from its chest. It was 10 feet tall. The group chose to run for it and come back with more people to fight another’s day, exited the way they came, and levitated to the surface.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">Ves and Theodora visited Xylarthan and Ves learned the Feather Fall spell for when they party returns.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.8px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">And now it is time to rest.</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 17.46px;">- Theodora the Gnome</span></p>Theodorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767660023969146276noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-64097074777518995622020-10-30T17:15:00.004-07:002020-10-30T17:15:53.506-07:00Gygaxian Spontaneous Generation and a More Involved Procedure for Setting up your Demense<p>You're Playing OD&D. You get your fighting-man to 9th level. He raises and army with all his gold. He travels to a hex on the map. He rolls to see if there are any monsters in that hex. He kills the monsters. There are now 2d4 villages in that hex. Each has 1d4 *100 people.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">
Where did they come from? Were they always there?</h4>
Maybe each hex on a map has villages. This would mean that the wilderness is not so wild and that when a party is travelling (I am not British, just an asshole) through the wilderness they should be more likely to meet a village as they are to meet 1d4 manticores or whatever. Despite this the OD&D tables from Wilderness and Adventures shows that "Men" have a 1 in 4 chance of appearing, suggesting that there are not in fact 2d4 villages in every hex.<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcfmM9Byl1Gs1kKLRBRa5xnZ30lhwqlszGh12Ur0_Eatd6hmgHQvTTkceS6M2_E9NAeCXIi-Cf_6_BeXwfIjCaOI_tVzTA8eBqGr26WdYSBGSF9IoNngI6pkvEwkq-KoKXc5lHLpYv2Bk/s2018/Screen+Shot+2020-10-30+at+7.42.47+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1128" data-original-width="2018" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcfmM9Byl1Gs1kKLRBRa5xnZ30lhwqlszGh12Ur0_Eatd6hmgHQvTTkceS6M2_E9NAeCXIi-Cf_6_BeXwfIjCaOI_tVzTA8eBqGr26WdYSBGSF9IoNngI6pkvEwkq-KoKXc5lHLpYv2Bk/s320/Screen+Shot+2020-10-30+at+7.42.47+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><h4 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ok, What if they weren't always there then where did they come from?</h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I think as far as Gygax is concerned the answer is, "who cares? Don't worry about it." These people are spawned out of the wilderness in units of whole villages waiting to be taxed. This might be ok in a world with spells and gods. Maybe you build a castle and a god comes down and breathes life into some piles of clay and they become your peasants, a <i>publica ex dei (</i>I don't actually know Latin either)<i>.</i></div><h4 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What if I don't like that and want a bunch of new stupid rules?</h4><div>Well, let's go back to the part where you travel to the hex and check for monsters. Let's say if that hex is empty there are no people in the hex. If you build your stronghold here, you get 0 villages for your first year. Then after each year there is a 1% chance that a village will spring up for every 100 gold that you have spent on your stronghold and/or demesne generally. Roll 1d4 and multiply by 100 to see how big the village is. Then roll 2d4 if that number is less than or equal to the number of villages your demesne has than you will stop attracting more villages to your demesne.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now let's say the hex is full. Whatever monsters you found there are the population of that hex. So if you find amazons in your hex and you subjugate them you become the lord of the amazons and your villages are populated by amazons. Did you find goblins? Congratulations goblin King! Did you find undead? You've got spooky boys who probably don't pay taxes! If your population consists of creatures with more than 4hd then the population of each village is 1d4 * 10. If your population consists of creatures with more than 6hd then the population of each village is 1d4. If you get dragons there is only one village, but hey you are a dragon lord. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>
Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-73853883791911873842020-10-21T22:24:00.000-07:002020-10-21T22:24:11.575-07:00More on Dungeon Mapping and Darkness<p></p><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE3vOif1yWy6hhqI3W-UF6aP-SwpK-Q3wj7698ZuJyC-wB8oGWLelniRhb6ZKIF43THc6iX7EgD8sfMtgBvETv_NvzetLepjLyydBP9fdCmI4Niki-KzhfA9KYJp1dc6mqCCfh2S-_9yE//" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img data-original-height="798" data-original-width="1432" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE3vOif1yWy6hhqI3W-UF6aP-SwpK-Q3wj7698ZuJyC-wB8oGWLelniRhb6ZKIF43THc6iX7EgD8sfMtgBvETv_NvzetLepjLyydBP9fdCmI4Niki-KzhfA9KYJp1dc6mqCCfh2S-_9yE/w640-h356/Screen+Shot+2020-10-18+at+2.30.10+PM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here be Monsters<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />My last post triggered another one of these reactions:<br /><p></p><div class="_3cjCphgls6DH-irkVaA0GM" data-test-id="comment"><div class="_292iotee39Lmt0MkQZ2hPV RichTextJSON-root" style="color: #1a1a1b;"><blockquote class="_28lDeogZhLGXvE95QRPeDL"><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM"></p><blockquote>There
is an element in old school d&d that having players map their own
map based on the DMs descriptions is prone to a misunderstanding and
incorrect mapping, which is a part of the game that Gygax really seemed
to be into, as much as his "gotcha!" Tricks he seemed to encourage. So
when the party goes back into the dungeon and find out that they
mismapped the section of the graph paper with a dungeon corridor by 30',
it's more frustrating that fun.</blockquote><p></p></blockquote><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">Once again, I get it. People think it is annoying to try and make a map. This is an aspect of the dnd that
has been excised from the rules in the last few editions. My internet friend quoted above continued on with this other common thing you hear often when talking about player mapping:<br /></p><blockquote class="_28lDeogZhLGXvE95QRPeDL"><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM"></p><blockquote>Logically,
if you've been somewhere before, chances are you'll have a good idea
how to navigate back to a location the next day (unless you fell down a
pit or some other involuntary moment happened)</blockquote><p></p></blockquote><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">As logical as this may seem it is not true for being underground. I
have been in a pitch black cave with a torch (an electric torch, which is better than a flaming stick). You can't see a whole
cavern at once and it is very difficult to get the dimensions or a
mental model of the space in your head. It is super easy to get lost in a
dark cave: </p><blockquote><p>From our first step into subterranean darkness, our hippocampus,
which so reliably guides us through the surface world, goes on the
fritz, like a radio that has lost reception. We are cut off from the
guidance of the stars, from the sun and the moon. Even the horizon
vanishes—if not for gravity, we’d scarcely know up from down. All of the
subtle cues that might orient us on the surface—cloud formations,
plant-growth patterns, animal tracks, wind direction—disappear.
Underground, we lose even the guide of our own shadow.</p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">Down
in a tight cave passage, or in the bounded folds of a catacomb, our
field of view is blinkered, never reaching beyond the next twist or
kink. As the cave historian William White observed, you never really <i>see </i>a whole cave—only one sliver at a time. When we navigate a landscape, wrote Rebecca Solnit in <i>A Field Guide to Getting Lost</i>,
we are reading our surroundings as a text, studying “the language of
the earth itself”; the underground is a blank page, or a page scribbled
with language we cannot decipher. <a class="_3t5uN8xUmg0TOwRCOGQEcU" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/getting-lost-cave-labyrinth-brain/582865/" rel="noopener nofollow ugc" target="_blank">https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/getting-lost-cave-labyrinth-brain/582865/</a>(You should seriously read the whole article. I am going to get the book the article is base on.) </p></blockquote><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="text-align: left;">Here is another <a href="https://nltimes.nl/2015/08/05/21-hour-ordeal-lost-maastricht-students-rescued-cave">account</a> of people getting lost in a cave once their light went out they had no mental model of the cave and couldn't navigate out. Then check out the Wikipedia article on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mine_exploration">Mine Exploration.</a><br /></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">Player
mapping is I think supposed to simulate this. When a player asks how
big a room is and their character has a torch with a 30' radius of
light. I imagine and sometimes describe to the players how they need to
travel from one end to the other counting paces while their comrades
wait in the darkness. One wall disappears. you count. Then a corner
appears. You turn. the corner disappears there is a door way, you pass
that it is engulfed in darkness then another corner. Eventually you
have the perimeter. Then you push out blindly into the middle of the
room. slowly. You might trip. If you've been quiet enough it is
conceivable that there is still something sleeping there. <br /></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">Patrick Stuart from of False Machine has written a lot about light on his blog during the writing of Veins of the Earth <br /></p><div class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="margin-left: 80px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2014/03/light-is-initiative.html">http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2014/03/light-is-initiative.html</a></div><div class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="margin-left: 80px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-lume.html">http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-lume.html</a></div><div class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="margin-left: 80px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-law-of-light.html">http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-law-of-light.html</a></div><div class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="margin-left: 80px; text-align: left;">Here is an interesting narrative about the role of light in underground combat: <br /></div><div class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="margin-left: 80px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2013/12/ever-so-quietly-we-gained-on-them.html">http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2013/12/ever-so-quietly-we-gained-on-them.html</a> <br /></div><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM"> Under
these conditions it is highly plausible that you might make a mistake
mapping fumbling around on your tiny island of light in a sea of
darkness scraping your grease pencil or charcoal nub on your vellum or
sheet of papyrus. Here is another excerpt from the Atlantic Article; Apparently real world delvers had just as much trouble mapping as frustrated Dnd players:<br /></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM"></p><blockquote>Even when they did manage to make measurements, meanwhile, the
explorers’ spatial perception was so warped by the caprices of the
environment that their findings would be wildly off the mark. On a 1672
expedition in Slovenia, for example, an explorer plumbed a winding cave
passage and recorded its length at six miles, when in reality, he had
traveled only a quarter mile. The surveys and maps that emerged from
these early expeditions were often so divergent from reality that some
caves are now effectively unrecognizable. Today, we can only read the
old reports as small, mysterious poems about imaginary places.</blockquote> <p></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">Maybe you still aren't convinced. Maybe you think that the artificial seeming dungeons would not be as disorienting as natural caverns. Plenty of people have gotten lost in the Paris catacombs. <a href="https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/teens-found-lost-in-paris-catacombs">Here is one account.</a> I would also encourage you to watch this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnyPuH5LFbI ">Youtuber get lost in the Paris Catacombs</a>; notice how feeble the light seems and the knee deep water. </p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1666" data-original-width="1536" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJsrWoc-OX3OFlVg6r2GWXiPnsPapsi3ZPlMxNSFlFASv7N6PEcbIM80O4rNxd6KTc1RB7c2hyphenhyphenBoQn5BnfXRTBxKfxU7JXgbtsPeAk_fqoAMLruq8EpHPJfFDic95rl1SDhtx6GUBgpig//" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="221" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These maps make me think of the early maps that cavers would make, "a mysterious poem about an imaginary place."<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJsrWoc-OX3OFlVg6r2GWXiPnsPapsi3ZPlMxNSFlFASv7N6PEcbIM80O4rNxd6KTc1RB7c2hyphenhyphenBoQn5BnfXRTBxKfxU7JXgbtsPeAk_fqoAMLruq8EpHPJfFDic95rl1SDhtx6GUBgpig//" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div>Also imagine the party members that stand still shrouded in darkness watching this orb of light move off in the distance with no accurate way to no how far away the light is. Imagine the dread they feel when they think that the light might go out and their comrade is alone in a sea of dark and they have no idea what happened. You can see some of that in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-Az062ce2k">these</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dxmTzjuLNY">videos</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmFcRBiIse8">made</a> at the artificial caves under Castle Valkenburg in The Netherlands (these are the caves I was in. It was amazing; if you ever have the chance take a tour of these caves).<br /><p></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1482" data-original-width="1536" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxRWNARTIo6a7TO4TWHeq0tChERWk4VxSb80qyzQg7XOYCgKA6jrfaTxLeCgsQhmbDERciXU527n4pCnfH_s-Nj7OGxteSKLrdcJX-VR83pcRyfjvvN2Lx9yMHiHaL4iIgeEcuEFjGiog//" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="249" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's interesting that these maps were labeled by of exploration. It supports my idea that player maps are often adventure logs rather than surveys.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxRWNARTIo6a7TO4TWHeq0tChERWk4VxSb80qyzQg7XOYCgKA6jrfaTxLeCgsQhmbDERciXU527n4pCnfH_s-Nj7OGxteSKLrdcJX-VR83pcRyfjvvN2Lx9yMHiHaL4iIgeEcuEFjGiog//" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div>So you may think player mapping is annoying and you might not think it is fun but it the way that Dnd recreates the disorientation of being underground and the trouble of mapping labyrinths while robbed of all the things that humans use to orient themselves. If you do not want to simulate that in your games that is more than fine. You have the support of the last three version of Dnd. However, If you think that your character would not need to make a map and that your character would "have a good idea how to navigate back to where they were before," you are just wrong and have a very unrealistic idea about what it is like to be underground. <br /><p></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">Also check out what the caves under Castle Valkenburg <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI7zb2aOiHY">with a bunch of flashing lights</a> <br /></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM"><br /></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM"><br /></p></div></div>Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6679811504484737002.post-54022361314174937352020-10-12T16:13:00.004-07:002020-10-12T16:13:51.271-07:00When and How Players Should Map: In which I Ramble on until I Tell you to Match the Type of Mapping you are doing to the Type of Adventure you are on.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I
run a very old school game and I won't draw maps for my players when exploring dungeons. I like mapping, A good map is very useful and hopefully rewarding to make. Here are some things I think a dungeon map is good for: </div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>lets the
players know where they've been</li><li>serves as a kind of adventure log </li><li>helps players plot goals for the next
session</li><li>can help the party find secret doors </li><li>can help the party circumvent random encounters</li></ul> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My players are less enthused about mapping. More recent fantasy rpgs have done away with having players create their own maps of dungeons and other environs. Several blogs in past few years have also come out against requiring players to make their own maps. Here's a reasonably popular blog summing up the anti mapping sentiment:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><blockquote><a href="https://dmdavid.com/tag/mapping-or-not-fun-things-that-dungeons-dragons-players-abandoned-part-1/">For years, mapping formed a part of D&D that players tolerated, but
that few questioned. Then, this revolutionary game seemed so fresh and
intoxicating that even duties like mapping found love, just a lot less
than the game’s <strong>actual</strong> fun parts.</a> </blockquote><blockquote><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>-DM David <br /></blockquote><p>Here is Geoffrey from the comments, he also hates mapping: <br /></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><blockquote><p><cite><b class="fn"><a class="url" href="http://pastgo.net" rel="external nofollow ugc"></a></b></cite></p></blockquote></div><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><blockquote><p><cite><b class="fn"><a class="url" href="http://pastgo.net" rel="external nofollow ugc">Geoffrey Greer</a></b> </cite><a href="https://dmdavid.com/tag/mapping-or-not-fun-things-that-dungeons-dragons-players-abandoned-part-1/#comment-394323"><time datetime="2016-05-14T10:19:48-05:00">May 14, 2016 at 10:19 am</time></a>
</p><section class="comment-content comment">
<p>Enjoyed this reflection, David. I’ve always thought that mapping
was stupid. We used to do it all the time with 2nd edition, but then it
seemed ridiculous and unrealistic. I mean, if we accept that the
player-characters have the time and luxury to make a reliable map (and
often times the DM would assist to make sure they were correct!), then
why bother? Just let the DM answer all the questions you might have and
direct you accordingly? And if the DM *wasn’t* clear with
directions/descriptions, then there’d be an argument when discrepancies
emerged.</p>
<p>Of course, with the advent of erasable, gridded mats, or even model
dungeon-construction toys, mapping became unnecessary, and the “fog of
war” was all you had to worry about.</p>
<p>I dislike mapping so much because of the immense time-suck, that I
even look for ways to not have to make maps in the first place–AS A DM.
lol During the 2E days, I had a copy of Ruins of Undermountain, but we
never played that for what it was. I just looked for small sections of
the map that had the kinds of tunnels and rooms I wanted, photocopied
the area, then used a marker to black-out the sections I didn’t need so
the map would be self-contained. A few notes in the margin, and then
ta-da! A dungeon map. I have long sought a good system for random
dungeon generation, since nobody really cares about the *shape* of the
dungeon as much as the *adventure* inside it.o</p></section></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The last sentence of Geoffrey's comment does the most work in illustrating why people don't like mapping. They don't think that mapping is part of the adventure. And you know what if the don't think that mapping is part of the adventure then it doesn't have to be for them. In an old school dungeon players get to decide what their goals. If they can have fun without making a map then they don't have to make a map. What I don't like is when players shift the map making responsibility to the dungeon master. The dungeon master has done enough work already. If players don't want to make a map then they should figure out another way to achieve at least some of the goals I outlined above.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here is an idea from <a href="https://theangrygm.com/lost-player-skills-mapping/">the Angry Dm:</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><blockquote>
<p>First, let’s throw out the notion that it is in any way necessary for the party to produce a map of the same quality as one of <em>Pathfinder’s</em>
in house cartographers. That s$&% is useless and pointless and it
sets the bar way too high. Instead, let’s agree that the best way to map
is the way that those of us who ever played a game <em>Zork</em> already knew – one of the old <em>Zork</em>
games before graphics were invented that is. All the party needs is a
flowchart. A room is just a box with a name in it. A connection between
rooms is just a hash mark on the wall between the rooms. A hallway is
just a line. That’s it. Quick and dirty.</p>
<p>The point is that a player’s map isn’t meant to be a f$&%
architectural rendering. It’s just meant to show how to get from room to
room and which rooms are where. Basically, a player’s map just needs to
answer some very basic questions:</p>
<ul><li>How the hell did we get here?</li><li>How the hell do we get back?</li><li>Where the hell do we go next?</li><li>Where the hell is that room with the statue with the missing eyes because now we have those two eye-shaped gems?</li></ul>
<p>In other words, players don’t need a map. They need a flowchart.
That’s it. Hell, it’s really just a list of rooms with identifying
features and some way of showing how to get from one to another. These
are perfectly fine player’s maps:</p></blockquote> I think this is a great idea a flow chart can serve most of the purposes that an accurate map does. The only limitations of a flow chart are in avoiding random encounters and finding secret doors. Let's see what the comments have to say:<br />
<div class="comment-content"><p></p><blockquote>No. Just no. Ten years of having to
map other people’s fucking dungeons has taught me this is a waste of
time. Getting rid of this was key to actually enjoying dungeons First
of all, the reality is that verbal language is a shitty ass way to
describe room shape, unless, as you say, all of your rooms are
conveniently rectangular with at least one single distinctive feature
and no complex spatial relationships. This describes almost no
interesting building ever. Caves arent rectangular either.<br />
More to the point, in real life, people have strong spatial awareness,
which means walking around they rapidly build a spatial map. This does
not apply to verbal descriptions, and adds an excessive amount of mental
effort to the roll.<br />
A key component of playing an rpg is being able to feel present and
oriented in person. Making accidental fuck ups about basic room shape
and orientation rampant makes that practically impossible. It’s even
worse if you run a large group and people cant always make it every week
(such is life). Then half the players have no clue where they are, and
find it hard to contribute. I say this, and half of the people I play
with work with building maps, now, though I suppose they didnt at the
time.<br />
Works well for wilderness crawls, though. I do like a basic global map
to remind people of “you started in that village, and there are
mountains over there”, but this may relate more to the issue of “large
group, occasionally players cant make it” issue.</blockquote><p></p>
</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ok, wow. Also this doesn't really address what the blogpost was about at all.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Anyway, here are some maps from my two most recent sessions:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrbB7lx_Adzc-uk-kPIADpPgXeF3t2JGjkxcXpVil7if8JGObSkF5UyXJMibT5tLl7de45SH-LjoZJEnW6_Eb0JVRkeX43dw8Rmitu5TSUDjaQYfOG_TK4E1-1KLzISjsRHbl3evptmx4/s4000/P1000388.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrbB7lx_Adzc-uk-kPIADpPgXeF3t2JGjkxcXpVil7if8JGObSkF5UyXJMibT5tLl7de45SH-LjoZJEnW6_Eb0JVRkeX43dw8Rmitu5TSUDjaQYfOG_TK4E1-1KLzISjsRHbl3evptmx4/s320/P1000388.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This map has a lot of pretty colors and attempts to be to scale. I am not going to say whether or not it accurately depicts the dungeon. That would be telling. This map was made while the party was trying to locate a treasure trove.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXabXf9vfok9WKYnxo3SxcKXjpqecy3UXR4amMWPd_N_NtO57g7rjPSTpQwvcQ6r6cTJ9YnjazqppPZS3As8MeIS-az89w5RUf9sbXsSnHFZXstloxlYEbOlaYjF-ZIXft1vA261777NM/s2048/P1000390.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXabXf9vfok9WKYnxo3SxcKXjpqecy3UXR4amMWPd_N_NtO57g7rjPSTpQwvcQ6r6cTJ9YnjazqppPZS3As8MeIS-az89w5RUf9sbXsSnHFZXstloxlYEbOlaYjF-ZIXft1vA261777NM/s320/P1000390.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This map is from the following session. It is much less organized. You can see that there were mistakes made when deciding where to start mapping from (the safest bet is always the middle of the page). This map functions more as a diary of the adventure than as an accurate map that a 3rd party could use to guide themselves.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div></div> The first map would be ok for trying to find secret doors and does a great job of depicting the encounters that the players had during the session. The second map depicts a long journey but in a disjointed way. It might not do a good job at helping the party explore further or retrace their steps. It does do a good job of providing snapshots of the parties adventure throughout the delve. We can see that they were followed by cats, that one of them drank beer. It lists prominent landmarks that may be worth returning to but isn't clear on exactly how to get them. I think that when like here the party is documenting a broad sweep of the dungeon, a flow chart is better than trying to construct an accurate map. The first map was made while the party was doing a more focused search of an area while looking for a specific item. When doing something like this all the benefits that a detailed map give are important. You can see that more care was put into the dimensions of this map and I think that reflects the task that the party was engaging in. <p></p><p>Maps are a record of an expedition and players should tailor the type of mapping they are doing to the type of expedition they are on. If there is a unity between the purpose of expedition and the type of mapping that players are doing then the maps will be more useful and more rewarding to make<br /></p><p><br /></p>Herman Klanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12871343761727674308noreply@blogger.com2