Day 1, Star Trap campaign begins!

Last night the inaugural session of a new Star Trap campaign happened, with players from work and played in our office. A few days ago we went through initial character creation based solely on class and races from Heroes From The Fallen Lands. I was pleased that the players all decided to roll stats in order and pick character class and race based on that, although this is probably a little to do with the their limited exposure to Dungeons & Dragons.

One player had never played any form of D&D, two had mostly played CRPGS and the final player of the four had played tabletop D&D many years ago.

The characters, Thanus dwarven war-priest of Kord, Lucan an elven thief, Helja the dwarf knight and Riardon an eladrin evoker-mage started their adventures in the fading city of Corsent, that sits a days march from the Star Trap dungeon. The characters had heard rumours about how the dungeon reached so far down into the earth that it opened onto the underdark and that a group of mystics had studied the dungeon, known as the Toolizith Cabal. After donating a few silver pieces to the Kordian temple Thanus learned that beings from the Astral sea were said to avoid some sort of garden that somehow exists in the dungeon.

At last the fellowship set off, only to be waylaid before the city gates by thugs from the Scorpion gang. A band of cutthroats hated even by fellow thieves because of their vicious practices. The gang leader demanded they give over all their valuables, claiming they'd all die in the dungeon and it was a waste to let fine weapons and armour rot below. The fight was fairly short and a decisive victory to the party, however one of the Scorpions escaped.


Arriving at the dungeon gates, the party was met with a hail of crossbow bolts from the surrounding ravine walls, they quickly entered through giant doorway and faced with two doors and a vast corridor disappearing off into the darkness they took a door, only to discover a goblin guard detachment waiting behind it. A fierce battle erupted, with Helja rushing into combat with the goblin warriors and the Eladrine unleashing a fountain of flame down the hall. A well placed backstab sneak attack arrow by Lucan almost killed the a howling acolyte of the goblin god Maglubiyet in one shot, however it lived long enough to causes two huge fists of divine force to push the dwarf knight back. After disposing of two goblins, more appeared from a side door and joined the fray, and with the knight now badly wounded things started to look desperate. Thankfully the healing power of Kord brought back life to the party and they triumphantly chased down and killed the stragglers who sought escape.

So what now for the group? Will the contain to explore the goblin haunt or delve further into the unknown?


   

16,000 words

Star Trap Dungeon just hit 16,000 words. The first half of the level contains 86 location, about 2/3rds of which are now documented. The second half maybe slightly smaller, but will probably push the whole level to over 150 locations, which include two goblin clans, a death trap, the necromantic device of Thadrak the Black, The mushroom kingdom and several entirely secret areas. 

It looks like I'm going to start running the dungeon with some of my work colleagues in the next few weeks, which will force an accelerated pace in dungeon design.

I'm using Google Docs to write it, as it's entirely portable and I really don't care if Google scan it for targeting keywords. GD is absolutely fine for this kind of stuff, as right now it's just for me and requires no fancy layout or formating, which I'd do in InDesign anyway. 

SVA XIII Warhammer 40K pictures

Last weekend I went to the SVA Campaign in Reading, which is a two-day WH40K riot. It's designed to have backstory and lots of odd missions. Players are encouraged to bring unusual armies, rather than tournament lists. Unfortunately some people don't quite understand what that means, so there were several Inquistor warbands with lots of rifleman dreadnoughts death-cult assassins and crusaders, but other than that it was a huge amount of fun. I went with four friends, Toby, Dan, Michael and Monkey, and we all played in the forces of disorder team, who I'm glad to say won. I managed 2 wins and 3 loses, one latter against a Inquistor list. There was also a great deal of beer and I have to report that Reading is blessed with at least one excellent Curry house. Anyway, pics!

The Forces Of Thrak The Babbler, Daemon Prince - my Chaos Space Marine army. Consisting of Plague Marines, Khorne Beserkers, Chaos Marines, Plague Toad Obliterators, Terminators and a Greater Daemon. Not shown is the Plague Tower and laboratory of the Khem-Master Fabius Bile.

Toby's Deffproof Ork Boyz. Not shown is his MEGAstompa.

Three of the four super heavies we took. Toby's Stompa, Dan's Chaos Warhound and my Plague Tower. Dan made the Plague Tower for me for my birthday. One of the best presents I've ever had. Not shown is Micheal's Heirodule which was as ever beautifully presented. The small thing at the front is an Ork Boy, shown for scale.

My Daemon Prince got hit by Rifleman Dreadnought autocannons, and all four scored wounds. The dice indicate my armour saves, which only one needed to 3+ for it to survive.

Pretty beakies

Mekdread Orks. So many kans.

Toby's amazing Ork warband. Built and painted in 3 weeks, the man is superhuman.

Close up of his stompa.

The winner of the painting challenge. Personally I thought Toby's Orks better, but he won the slayer challenge, after tabling many many opponents.

A close up of the Plague Tower. Those are Terminators in the foreground.

My last game, which was a complete blast. Turn one, hiding.

My opponent was fielding a Rogue Trader model army. The model in the centre is a Contemptor. We agreed that his whole force has been hit by a Ork shrink ray.

Anyone facing a Daemon Prince and about to be assaulted by Khorne Berserkers is right to feel they may not make it another round.

And then the Greater Daemon turned up. This game was so much fun as I had to table my opponent in 5 turns, but any units destroyed just went into reserve. Because of the campiagn point system, my opponent managed to do very well because he kept killing my HQs. My opponent, Mike, was such fun to play that I even though I was exhausted I didn't want the game to end.

Baron Hakkonein The Thrice Blessed

Here my Daemon Prince work in process. I still need to shade the green armour, which along with the iron banding willl match with my Death Guard. There is also the base to do, along with various touching up, but I'm pretty happy. I'm a better modeller than painter, and I'm not a great modeller, so for the baron to turn out reasonably well brings me happiness.

The 'wings' are similar to Blight Drone props, and added to the model by someone with real talent. The original model was an old Ral Partha Ettin. The rats head is of course from a rat ogre.

I'm not sure about the skin tone, they are a little too healthy to be considered pallid and not yellow enough to evoke maggoty. So I may add a light wash. I'll probably also quickshade the armour parts.

The model next to him is a Chaos Lord made from Iron Armour, Grey Knight parts, Chaos Warrior body and a very old left handed pistol I found on a model I bought of ebay. I'm thinking of painting him brass to stand out amongst the red of the Khorne and the green of Nurgle marines.