Rhu's Sunday night game ~ The Forbidden Temple

[Rhuvein]

Game is on . . . but if Aergraith plays in nwelte's game, and Gringnr can't make it - then I'll let Penny make the call as to whether or not she would game tonight.

I'm more than happy to run the game for one person and can handle all the other PCs for the session.

[Penny-Whistle]

Gosh. Maybe we should play next week when everyone can make it.

[Rhuvein]

Gosh. Maybe we should play next week when everyone can make it.

Sure, since the guys will miss a lot of action.

But I just wanted you to make the decision because I don't want to deprive you of gaming.

So, I'll see everybody next week.

Happy Valentine's Day!

[Penny-Whistle]

Happy Valentine's Day!

As much as I would like to play it feels better to have everyone there. I really appreciate your consideration though. =)

[Rhuvein]

Thanks.

Ice cold and snowy here.

But I'll make some mudslides and all of us will watch Downton Abbey whilst eating Moose Munch!

Hope you guys have a great evening as well!

[Rhuvein]

Another thought . . perhaps after B1, mebbe we can do some gaming/delving into The Lost City of Gaxmoor. I've always like this module, but never gave it a go with my face to face gaming group.

Anyway, with the new release - I've been re-reading sections of the book and it has some fabulous material to be explored and enjoyed by a PC group.

[Rhuvein]

I hate to do this, but I'm also offering two other mods if y'all are interested.

T1 Village of Hommlet by Gary

or

L3 Deep Dwarven Delve by Len Lakofka. This module is rare.

Both take place in Greyhawk.

[alcyone]

I've played T1 so probably wouldn't want do that again soon. L3 sounds interesting.

[Rhuvein]

I've played T1 so probably wouldn't want do that again soon. L3 sounds interesting.

Ahh, yes I knew you (and me for a bit) went through ToEE, but didn't know if nwelte actually ran VoHommlet first.

Anyway, I'll read L3 again - just to be sure it's worthwhile.

[Rhuvein]

Session I journal complete.

Just wanted to alert y'all as it has been a few weeks since we played.

[Gringnr]

I will be there tonight. I have missed you guys. I am also building a new comp on Tuesday and should begaming in style after that.

See you soon!

[Gringnr]

Also I am extremely down with the rare module...never heard of it, coukd be a blast.

[Rhuvein]

I will be there tonight. I have missed you guys. I am also building a new comp on Tuesday and should begaming in style after that.

See you soon!

Cool!

[Rhuvein]

The first GEN CON® convention was a tremendous success. Almost 100 people had shown
up for the Saturday convention sponsored by the International Federation of Wargaming, E.
Gary Gygax, Vice President. We had prepared the Horticulture Hall the Friday before, setting
up the tables and game areas—although we had no vendors that first year. Avalon Hill and
Strategy & Tactics board games dominated the convention. People also played Diplomacy
and a few miniatures games, the Napoleonics games having the largest displays.
On the following Sunday, we took the morning to clean up the hall. Afterward, we were
invited to play a set of medieval miniatures rules that Gary was working on. He had quite a
large collection of 40mm Elastolin figures and we used them to playtest the rules. Believe it
or not, this was the inception of the Dungeons & Dragons game. Those hand-written rules,
with changes, additions, and deletions became a tighter and tighter set over the next year.
Gary got Don Lowry to produce the book that he called the Chainmail rules. It was a
60-or-so-page booklet with an ugly yellow cover. In the rear of the book was the tail that
ended up wagging the dog: the 'Fantasy Supplement' section.
The most important fantasy novel of the day was J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Gary
had taken a few of the creatures from that work (Balrog, Hobbits, Ents, etc., as well as races
of beings: Dwarves, Elves, and Orcs) and made the 'Fantasy Supplement.' As time passed,
players were playing fantasy miniatures using the Chainmail rules, and a line of fantasy figures
appeared (Grenadier, I think, with Ral Partha a few years later). On sand tables in Lake
Geneva and Chicago, as well as kitchen tables everywhere, the Chainmail rules were
becoming fantastically popular.
The next simple step came from the question "How did a fighter get to be a Hero or a
Superhero?" This caused the concept of levels and training as well as sliding saving throws
based on level. From there, it was a year or two until the Dungeons & Dragons game came
out in a humble boxed set. It was the germ of an idea that spread like wildfire on both high
school and college campuses all over the US.
I had been at the first GEN CON convention (in fact, I ran the GEN CON II convention the following
year). I got to play on Gary's sand table and was at a few of the initial playtests.
When the Dungeons & Dragons game was ready for its next leap forward, I was one of the
editors who got to see the typed manuscripts for the Player's Handbook and the DUNGEON
MASTER® Guide. I got to write a bunch of spells and add a few pages here and there in both
books—with Gary always being the final arbitrator, of course.
I wrote some short articles for DRAGON® Magazine before my regular column, called
"Leomund's Tiny Hut," which ran almost monthly for four or five years. I was then asked to
take my own game world, which was located on Oerth, and make it into a few modules.
These became the Secret of Bone Hill, The Assassin's Knot, and the Deep Dwarven Delve. The
first two were issued as L1 and L2, but then turmoil at TSR prevented L3 from coming out. It sat
in the TSR archives for these twenty years!
Finally someone found it and decided to organize it for publication. What you see in
front of you is that organized work; more than what was submitted twenty years ago, but not
fully up to today's AD&D® standard. We decided that depth and clarification were what was
needed, as opposed to changing the backbone of the material altogether.
So, from the crypts of TSR, is DEEP DWARVEN DELVE!
— Len Lakofka

[Rhuvein]

By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes:

[Rhuvein]

MT server is up!

Game on!

[Rhuvein]

Session II - The Temple of Hecate

The adventurers:

Aergraith as:

Sir Elderberry Scrubroot, the wildly bold and audacious gnome rogue
and
Iko Treeblight, gnome wizard whose magical power is ascending and he now wields the Blue Fate.

Gringnr as:

Sir Gringnr, the mighty dwarf cleric with the love of GOLD.

Penny as:

Dame Penny-Whistle Scrubroot, the practical and wise gnome cleric
and
Yutso, the vivacious and unpredictable gnome druid.

Rhuvein as:

Lucius T. Hamfoot, halfling archer from Knobhill.


The action:

The adventures sit down and relax in the wild grass off the side of the Imperial Road after the shock of seeing the Death Night and his Nightmare Steed.

Lucius pulls out a flask of Valunan Fireamber and takes a swig and passes it around to any who wish to imbibe. "That was the worse thing I've ever seen in my life. If fact, I never knew such things existed. This must be a terrible and evil place, we best be very careful." When the flask comes back to him, he take another smaller swig and caps the flask to put it away.

"I guess the wonderful thing that we can take away from this encounter is that where there is great evil, there must be great or greater good!", the hafling muses and notices the way his fellow adventurers are looking at him. "Of course, you all know this very well. From what you've told me about the quests you've been on, the Gods are certainly with you . . . as well as the Great King Argenteus!"

"Hey that reminds me!" Lucius takes of a chain that was around his neck and looks at a silver dragon charm and then shows the party and says, "Me granddad gave this to me when I left and said to keep it with me always. Will it be helpful to me?"

Everyone in the group laughs, smiles and nods their heads affirmatively.

The adventurers get on their horses and ride through the Lion's Gate pausing briefly to show their reverence for the great sculpture.

After they pass the gate and approach the Temple of Hecate, they are astonished to see a wild and crazy scene in and around the area.

Harpies and imps flying around along with vicious large rats running through and underneath the rubble from broken pillars and large parts of the stone roof structure. Some dire corbys are seen north of the temple watching to see what happens.

As you approach, one of the harpies begins to sing in an attempt to captivate the party so the others can attack them.

Just then out of the woods playing pipes is a satyr followed by others with bows and spear. The singing harpy stops and they all turn to fly away. Too late, several harpies are hit with spear and arrows and scream out in pain. The giant rats scatter and the imps quickly fly away. The dire corbys also disappear into the woods.

A few moments pass and suddenly a huge chimera appears out of the sky and lands in the center of the temple. It is truly menacing ~ a frightening amalgam of a lion, large goat and a red dragon. The satyr quickly run away and the creature looks at the adventurers and begins to advance.

Materializing out of the air rides a hero on a flying horse. He holds a block of lead on a long spear and flies straight at the chimera. The heros shoves the lead into the gullet of the creature, who breaths fire and melts the lead which suffocates the monster. The creature explodes into magical flames and is gone from temple.

Bellerophon waves and flies off into the sky on Pegasus.

The party decides to descend the eastern staircase down into the temple dungeon. They move carefully south along a long corridor that ends and goes west. Around the corner they see a crypt fronted by curved iron bars. A plaque above tells the party that this is the tomb of Titus, a cleric of Hecate. On the floor are some bones and Iko suspects the gate is warded.

The adventurers continue west past the crypt and see a large room covered in what looks like spider webs. From the next crypt a man in a toga walks out and says hello. He is quite hairy with large eyes and a small reddish mouth. He tells that there is treasure in the room and the party is welcome to it. He says the large spider went away.

Suddenly a large werespider comes out of the webbed room and attacks the party. The group engages in battle and then the hairy man transforms into another werespider. The lycans inflict some bites upon several members to the party, but the heroes are able to kill the evil creatures.

They search the webbed room to fine some treasure.

The group continues east and at the intersection where the corridor goes north, they encounters awful smelling ghasts. The putrid creatures advance and the heroes engage. One is turned and flees, and the others are chopped up in pieces. The party run and catch the other undead creature and kill it.

End session.

[Rhuvein]

Session II XP = 374 per PC!

Treasure found:

1 Robe of useful items having the following patchs:

dagger
bull's eye lantern filled and lit
mirror - highly polished 2X4 ft. steel
10 ft. pole
hemp rope 50 ft.
large sack
bag of gems (10 worth 100gps each)
row boat 12 ft long
wooden ladder 24 ft
bag of gps 100
iron door 10 ft X10 ft - attaches and hinges itself
window 2ft X 4ft X 4ft
a mule w/saddle bags
an open pit - 10ft X 10ft X 10ft

A potion

An amulet of natural armor (made of hard translucent fossilized resin produced by extinct coniferous trees of the Tertiary period, typically yellowish in color and silver) on a silver chain

A rusty iron xiphos

[Penny-Whistle]

Thanks for the writeup!

I was just listening to the interview with Mike and Liz and I thought I would probably like to try Victorious. I'm not normally interested in superheroes because the stories tend to make the characters too god-like. Where's the fun if everything is easy? But from their description it sounds like the game doesn't have to be that way at all.

Do you have their adventure about Henry Jekyll? Would Victorious be something you'd be interested in playing during your time slot? No problem if not. We could probably try it over here if you want to use the games you mentioned and especially if you've already started prepping for them.

[Rhuvein]

Haha, I've just spent the last several hours reading some of Victorious which gave me an idea for a character and then I went googling and reading for more.

My very first thought was - can I play a halfling? More in jest since the game is humans (or mebbe Martians). And then I thought of one of my favorite artists ~ Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. I have several prints of his hanging in my family room.

Anyway, an amazing life he had even if it was short. He was friends with Oscar Wilde and lived during the Victorian age.

[Pardon me, if you know all this]

So I go downstairs and look at one of the prints I have and it's Aristide Bruant at the Ambassadeurs nightclub in Paris as painted by his friend Henri. His life I was not aware of but it seemed very interesting as well and I'm thinking of playing a thespian type but with some secret super abilities or some such.



We can try Victorious right after our current game, if you like.

Can I assume that you will be the Genteel Magistrate (I see Mike uses the term Grand Magistrate as well)?

[Penny-Whistle]

Cool! I was mostly just wondering if you had it and were open to playing it. We should ask the others what they think. btw: I am happy to play any of the games you mentioned. The rare one offfers a unique opportunity and kudos to you for having it and offering to run it.

[Rhuvein]

Cool! I was mostly just wondering if you had it and were open to playing it. We should ask the others what they think. btw: I am happy to play any of the games you mentioned. The rare one offfers a unique opportunity and kudos to you for having it and offering to run it.

Thanks, and thank you for the reminder - I had wanted to mention that I do indeed need to ask Gringnr what he thinks before going forward.

We can talk about it during our next session.

[DMMike]

If you guys decide to play Victorious, I'd love to hear your experiences and critiques of the system. If you need 'em, I've got the Clockwork Crimes QS adventure as well as Hyde and Seek (though the latter should be in the rulebook). I've even got the follow on adventure V1 A Night for jackals if you'd like to give it some last minute playtest.

Write me at my last name (all lower case) 69 at that gmail place and I can send what I've got so far over!

Mike

[Rhuvein]

If you guys decide to play Victorious, I'd love to hear your experiences and critiques of the system.

Mike

I'm certain we're going try it and so we'll let you know how it goes!

[Penny-Whistle]

If you guys decide to play Victorious, I'd love to hear your experiences and critiques of the system. If you need 'em, I've got the Clockwork Crimes QS adventure as well as Hyde and Seek (though the latter should be in the rulebook). I've even got the follow on adventure V1 A Night for jackals if you'd like to give it some last minute playtest.

Write me at my last name (all lower case) 69 at that gmail place and I can send what I've got so far over!

Mike

Wow. That's really generous. Thanks so much!

[Rhuvein]

Incidentally, Iko Treeblight has been knighted by King Argenteus and accepted into the Order of Argentians in addition to being appointed lay monk representing Fountains Abbey!

Certain benefits will be assigned shortly.

[Rhuvein]

I've still been too lazy to hook up my scanner and old computer, but since I was photographing my bowling ball I snapped a pic of a pic:

[Penny-Whistle]

Wow! You guys are so cute. And what an amazing place to visit.

[Gringnr]

Do I need to be running the same version of maptool as you guys? I just installed it on the new comp, and I installed the newest version.

[Rhuvein]

Wow! You guys are so cute. And what an amazing place to visit.

Thanks. Sheesh, that was about 27 years ago! A Catholic priest took the picture, God Bless him!