UK Games Expo 2016

All the people and a bus

I went to the UK Games Expo at the NEC Birmingham, and this is my after action statement.

TL;DR unless you only play Games Workshop war games, why weren’t you there? It was awesome.

A couple of months ago I decided to go to UK Games Expo on a ‘whim’. The line-up looked great, and having had such a good day running HATECON ONE, I thought I’d try a games convention purely as an attendee. I’ve not been to one without being sat behind a stall for 15 years and reckoned I owed it to myself. I also made the conscious decision to not particularly organize a group visit, mostly to push myself into being more proactively social.

Since I was late in booking, I missed staying in the Hilton where most of the gaming was occurring, and stayed in the very comfortable Crowne Plaza, 5 minutes walk from the venues and which serves the best morning filter coffee I’ve had in a UK hotel. It was not a cheap hotel though.

Arriving on Thursday, I explored a bit, picked up my pre-paid ticket and then went and had a pint and chat in the main bar with another ‘solo’ who had posted on Twitter that they were also foot-loose. This was a great start. Tick the being social box.

Otherworld miniatures *heart*

Square Hex *auto kickstarter back*

On Friday I waited for the queues to die down before going into the main hall, where I immediately fell into the traders pattern of running around, not really taking anything in and being in a rush. Dumb. But I did immediately pick up a copy of The Cthulhu Hack, so not that dumb. After reminding myself I was in no rush, I started to wander and started to take in the huge scale of the trade floor, which is similar size to Salute but with wider spacing between the stalls. The variety of board game stalls, demos and traders was really impressive, and several of my favourite companies were there including Otherworld miniatures, Osprey, Square Hex, James Raggi, Leisure Games, Oathsworn, and All Rolled up. There were quite a few non-GW miniature games being rep’d including a huge Star Wars Fantasy Flight area, but I think it was the Meeple People with their boardgame library and play area that really stood out. Honestly, if you’re a board gamer you could play 24hrs a day here quite easily, with the right drugs.

I played two organized play games, an Adventurers League Strahd side quest which was a lot of fun, although I had to reign in my noble lawful good paladin roleplaying, cos it would be easy to grandstand and become THAT dysfunctional player. The second game was meant to be A Shadows Of The Demon Lord game, but it wasn’t where my ticket said it was and nobody could find it, so I (very easily) joined a Call Of Cthulhu game instead. Definitely not the worst way to spend 4 hours but the group was a slower pace than I’m used to, and I was reminded why Trail Of Cthulhu is the better system for investigative roleplaying by the very example I use to sell it. The Alienist with a 78% Library Use skill couldn’t make the roll over and over again.  

Some HATE (James, Dee, Greg & Tim) members came up on the Saturday and after shopping and chin wagging, I ran an improv impromptu game of The Black Hack for them, with a vague Moorcockian Eternal Champions theme. I continue to be impressed with how good The Black Hat is for theatre of the mind D&D, and I had a huge amount of fun running it.

Much beer was drunk, at slightly frightening hotel bar prices. It was great catching up with old and new friends (Colette, Ian, Bruce, etc), and it really is a big part of the reason to go for whole convention rather than just a day.

Ralph and me

On Sunday afternoon I booth sat for Ralph Horsley for awhile, and then just hung out with him which I’ve not had a chance to do since the early days of Dragonmeet. Top dude.

In summary I’d say you’d be absolutely crazy not to go to UK Games Expo next year if you’re a board or miniature gamer who likes cons. If you’re a roleplayer who enjoys convention games then it’s also a must, but book your games early as you’ll want a least one game a day and while there maybe lots of lots of games being run, there are over a thousand roleplayers also wanting to play. The only people I suspect wouldn’t get much from it are GW only war gamers, as neither GW nor FW were there, and there was no hardcore war gaming space that I saw. If you like X-Wing or similar model based tabletop games, you’d be in heaven though. The atmosphere was very relaxed, very friendly and I didn’t see any fuckwittery at all.

For things that might improve the experience even further I’d say would be to improve the tannoy system so that it didn’t deafen. Move the talks out of the trade hall, as they were understandably loud. See if the Hilton has temporary partitions to break up some of the sound in the play rooms, where it was quite noisy at times. Have a code of conduct front and centre in the programme. Maybe bunch up birds of a feather stalls so that, for example, the RPG companies are closer together. And as ever, get the bars to stock good tequila.

Jame Raggi and me, all the metal

Daleks 

Osprey Joe and me  

The one and only Bez (and Dan, is also one and only)

Oathsworn / Sensible Shoes

The Cthulhu Hack & it's genius Flashlight / Smokes mechanic

Dwimmermount Session 22 - Frost Giant Ate The Donkey

(It's been awhile since I posted - work meant I had little time to write up sessions, then holidays meant we didn't play, so the session diary is behind)

After defeating the evil mage Varazes and his minotaur bodyguard Bok last session, the party started searching the rest of the area. A hermetically sealed chamber nearby was too tempting for Calphis the mage who used a precious charge from Rod Of Opening to gain access to what lay beyond. The party were disappointed, as all that was behind the door were stasis chambers, two of which were occupied by a man and woman wearing unusual but non-descript clothes. A debate formed around trying to release them, with Bittersalt suggesting it was too dangerous to the inhabitants and Grigor feeling it was too dangerous to the party. Brother Spenzar, was overcome by knowledge-lust, started pressing buttons on the devices and quickly hit the right combination to drain and release the woman.

After a few moments of confusion, the woman named Arethusa, who appeared to be in her late thirties starting speaking in archaic High Thulian. The party were wary, they knew that she might be a Termaxian and so tried to ascertain when she had been frozen, which turned out to be about 300 years ago, around the time Turms Termax was coming into power. She claimed that she maintained the machines within the fortress-dungeon and that she was something called a technomage. Lots of questioning ensued, and eventually her assistant Colluthus was also released.

The pool of life, as she called the room Varazes had been hold up in, wasn’t initially intended to be used to create beastmen, and that in her time the device that did so wasn’t there but she had heard some of the biomancers talk about it. She said she could turn the beastman maker off if she could get something called an environment suit, and that such a suit might still be in one of the panic rooms north of the party, since they were well hidden.

The party decide they needed to rest, but not before retrieving some supplies from their pack donkey, left outside the dungeon. So they return to the surface, quite a horrific trip for the two maintenance mages due to the damage and changes that have happen in the last 300 years. Finally the reach the the surface only to find the donkey has been attacked and the camp destroyed. Huge foot prints in bloody mud suggest the frost giant found and destroyed their belongings.
Reluctant to go back to Muntberg with a still working beastman machine, the party holed up in one of the rooms they’d rested in before and then went and retrieve a pair of environment suits. Also in the panic room were some healing potions and a dirk designed to fend off the hobgoblins, should they ever rebel, which at the time was a concern according to Arethusa.

The machine is switched off, and the party start pushing on through unexplored areas. They reach a chamber that still has a working glowglobe to find it full of thorny bush, which immediately animate and attack the party. They dispose of these blood sucking plants quickly, thanks to several natural 20’s and move to the next room which is filled with cactus that shoot off large spines in their direction. The liberal use of burning oil puts pay to these floral menances. At this point Mags, our friendly barlady at Bethnal Green Working Men’s club called time, so we finished it there.

It was fantastic to get back into the regular game, and I’m almost sorry I have to skip a week due to my Snowboarding holiday that coming up. Can’t wait for the next session, and I have a pile of models that need painting as the party start thinking about going down to the 3rd level, known as The House Of Portals.    

Dwimmermount 5e D&D Session 15 - Reach out and touch faith

After a brief discussion on the merits of using the stairs the Orcs guarded, returning to civilisation and using the stairs where they stood, the party felt there would be more treasure somewhere the Orcs had not been and that they weren’t yet ready to return to Muntberg. So they took the dark stairs down, noting the carved sign saying ‘Reliquary’ above the entrance way. The most immediate change they found was that the walls and floor were fair smoother and uniform than the rock carved passages of The Path Of Mavors. Errol the dwarf remember a legend that spoke of mixing alchemicals together with stone dust to make something called concrete, and suggested that this might be that material.

The chamber at the bottom of the stairs presented four exits, and so they took the nearest one which appeared to be a corridor in parallel to the stairs. It ended in a door that had a faded green wooden panel nailed onto the sturdy oak with brass studs. Since no sound came from beyond, Bittersalt pushed the door open and entered. The chamber beyond was very dark, and apart from a door, and a carved triangle symbol in the centre of the room it was empty. The party filled in to examine things a little more closely. Out of the four corners of the chamber coalesced cloaked beings made from the shadows. Brother Spenzar recognised these fell things as Shadows, creatures from the plane of shadows and very closely related to undead. Thankfully the party weren’t surprised, but still the Shadows were fast and resistant to normal weapons. Worse still their touch not only rotted the flesh but drained the strength and energy of it’s victim, and party felt this chill touch almost immediately. Zoilus’ magical sword did cut through things, as did the combined magics of Brother Spenzar, Calphis and Flandar. Bittersalt’s parrying saved her withering damage, and her blade did still chop away at the Shadow that attacked her. Paulo, in tremendous fear at being surrounded by these creatures of undeath shot through the door and ran off down the corridor. Once Zoilus had defeated his foe, he moved to help the others, which combined with well aimed magical attacks defeated the Shadows, that dissipated back into shadows of the empty chamber. Bittersalt went running after Paulo, following vague dusty tracks, only to come to large chamber where they ran out with no sign of the boy. Calling out to no avail, Bittersalt feared the worst and went to fetch the rest of the party.

Shadows appear

The chamber where the tracks ended was unusual in itself, having several columns and a bizarre statue, but the party were more concerned with Paulo’s safety than exploring and decided to press on. Flandar’s invisible familiar was sent off to the east along wide 20 ft passage. It passed a door and then the corridor turn at angle, at which point the familiar returned.  

Deciding to investigate this first door, the party walked in on a group of five tall goblinmen, all of whom carried themselves in a militaristic, and clearly well trained fashion. They formed a line immediately, with the halberdiers protecting the their bow men but held off attacking. They demanded the party reveal what they were doing here, who in return demand to know if they’ve seen Paulo. The hobgoblins confirm they’ve taken the boy captive, for questioning and that he won’t be hurt if he is cooperative. The party are at boiling point, and tell the hobgoblins to go a get him but the hobgoblin’s refuse and want to know what the party are doing on this level. A standoff develops, but on the insistence the party one hobgoblin leaves by a second door. A few moments later the a larger unit of hobgoblins run into the room, lead by a red robed goblinman. The party were massively outnumbered, but the hawks in the party were itchy to try their mettle against these foes. Fortunately calmer heads prevailed. The robed hobgoblin ask the party what year it was, once again asked them what they were doing here and why they’d come. The party were evasive and talked about exploring, which for the moment seemed enough for the leader. He told them that Paulo was with their captain, and confirmed he was unharmed. He said they surrender him to the party if the party rid the western areas of the Reliquary of the undead menace that had sprang up. Without much choice, they party agreed. They learnt that the black metal coated Eldritch Dead that had so plague them on the first level were tomb guards, and not considered a threat or enemy by the hobgoblins, but all other undead were and to be destroyed on sight. Without any other obvious options the party agree and left, heading back to the chamber that Paulo had be snatched from.

A cohort of hobgoblins

Here they investigated the chamber more thoroughly. Seven columns lined the room, while statue of geometric shapes stood against a far wall. The columns had an Old Thulian letter carved into each one of them, and Bittersalt quickly released they spelt out the Old Thulian for truth. Once she said it aloud, she had a vision of a strange featureless figure, who tells her she is not worthy. On hearing this from her, Calphis also speaks the word ‘truth’. His vision is of a silvery egg and he is told he is worthy. Upon coming around, he releases he can channel the power of gods and use it to detect poisons and disease.

Fearing this strange magic, the rest of the party fell silent and the party left the room, pushing north and west.

The next chamber contained four columns, made from the perfect glass material they’d seen on the 1st level. Each column contain an element - one was filed with rock, another was green and had bubbles floating up from time to time, the third contained a rich red flame while the last appeared empty. On the floor was a mosaic map, that may well have been of the whole world. Something the none in the party, not even Bittersalt, had seen before. The mosaics meant the maps was fairly basic though.

This chamber lead to another closed to door, beyond which was ancient carpenter's workshop, covered in dust and with many rusted tools. Two simple coffins were lent up against a bench, and as the party entered one of the coffins started shifting slightly. A crossbow was fired a near point blank range into the coffin, and out burst a howling wight, screaming wordless curses and clutching a gladius. The party leapt into action, attacking the undead thing. The second coffins rocked furiously and a second wight smashed it’s way out of it’s rotting tomb. The party’s martial abilities showed off here, and apart from a horrible wilting wound on Errol the dwarf the party managed to destroy both wights, taking their heads as proof of their questing. Brother Spenzar’s powers against undead are brutal, when they work.

Another chamber, again with pillars presents itself next. Each pillar appears to made from one of the six fabled magical metals, and represents a fortune in gold. The columns are adamant (dull gray), areonite (reddish copper) azoth (silvery black), moonsilver (silvery white), orichalcum (golden bronze), and starmetal (silvery grey). Bittersalt is impressed by the display of wealth and power it represents. However since the party is reluctant to linger anywhere too long, and don’t have the easy means to take any of the metals they press on through doors and corridors until they reach the next room.

This area contains a number of strange devices made of metals and vitreum glass. Copper dials are attached to this tall devices, and within four hobgoblins, completely unmoving and lifeless. A dull hum resonants with the chamber. The party stare in wonder, and discuss what these machines represent. The don’t however tinker with them.

After deciding to start heading east, the party find what appears to be an alchemist's laboratory, still filled with odd glass bowls, tubes and pipes. Bottles of liquids line the counters, and cabinets hold containers of chalky tablets. Since there are no further undead here, the party return the way the came and north, rather than going even further east, where they suspect the hobgoblins are based.

A room with tall strange devices is discovered. These devices however more numerous, do not contain anyone inside, and is ignored. Yet another empty chamber lies beyond that, before the party find a odd room, with nothing but a huge tapestry in it. The tapestry depicts Terms Turmax, the thrice-blessed, stood nobly but with a fiery, winged version of him behind, as if in ascendance. Bittersalt sees a small fortune, while Brother Spenzar sees heresy and sets about igniting the wall hanging. As smoke starts to fill the room, the party notice that it billows further out into the room from one spot, and once the tapestry has been destroyed search successfully for a secret door. A small circular safe-room lies behind it, filled with nothing but wooden carved heads and a single stone statue head, that of the god Mavors.

We left it here. The group had raced through a good number of locations, and I’ve probably missed out some important details, so if anyone from the group remembers something, comment and I’ll update it.

The gang, and one of the other RPG groups in the background

A very enjoyable session, with a good mix of fighting, talking and wonder. There is plenty more of all three coming up. 

Otherworld Skirmish Game Review

I have to admit that when I read the eagerly anticipated fantasy skirmish rules from Otherworld Miniatures I was a little disappointed. The rules seemed just a little bland and I couldn't see the hook. After playing it last night, I can say that it's a fantastic game to play and I'm really excited about giving it another go.

Since I'm not very good a learning rules from a book,  I was lucky enough to play against one of my regular D&D'ers, Jon, who has always had a keen I for the minutiae of rules and that certainly helped speed up our understanding. I brought to the HATE Club a set of pig faced orcs, some undead and four really old Games Workshop Disciples of Red Redemption to use a cultists.

I quickly made up two very basic 120gp factions, using a companion in each, with 4 orcs with halberds, 3 with crossbows and a shame for the orc faction and 3 cultists, 3 ghouls, a wight and a shadow for undead faction.

Undead Faction

I'd set up some dungeon terrain - parts of which I been given on the night (did I mention, I love the generosity and spirit of HATErs?). Then we got started. The shadow needed to be summoned, so I gave the Wretched Priest undead leader magic(2) and +1 Intelligence to ensure he/she got it off. My Monstrous Myrmidon had +1 hits, for 3, light armour and leader(1) for extra activation - which I kept forgetting.

Pig Faced Faction

I think we pretty much misinterpreted a least one rule a round, which is great because it meant we were definitely learning and discovering. It quickly became apparent that the damned status of undead is very nasty, and is something we need to dig into more online as it's very easy to lock down a faction using it. Weakened is also vicious, but since ghouls aren't too tough it didn't feel unbalanced in the end. I think I felt for awhile completely outgunned, but actually a few lucky armour saves kept me in the game and meant we ended on a draw, one model each both of who fled after failing morale checks.

Initial setup

Orcs turn one

My lone Orc crossbow man tempts the ghouls from their lair. 

He actually survives the charge attacks.

All undead cause fear, and orcs have a 50% chance of being scared.

More undead and their cultists emerge

A couple of rounds later, there isn't much left in the forgotten chamber.

The activation system, which means that generally you can only use half you models a turn is brilliant at creating internal tension, forcing you to really think about what it is you want to achieve each round. The statuses are a little brutal, in a fun way. I did think that a gentleman's agreement to tell your opponent what types you're taking i.e. men, monster, humanoids, undead, demons, etc, might be in order because I can see that a undead list with lots of ghouls would be very nasty.  The luck and fate systems definitely help give you a just a little more tactical ability, and stop the game being solely about dice arbitration.

I think £25 for the rules is a decent price. It's full colour scenic pictures of their model range is glorious, and works as intended, as you definitely want to go a buy so more of them. The tokens and cards aren't essential, but I think to you'll want them to make things easier. I suspect I'd use glass beads for activation in future though. I suspect, and hope, that they'll produce a monster manual for the creatures not covered - carrion crawlers for example. I'm also looking forward to trying a game with the adventure cards, which we didn't use to help speed things up.

So the game goes into my mainline game systems, to play repeatedly and so I hope a few more people at the club give it a try.



    

Hobby Holiday Day 3 - practice what you preach.

Todays goals were to get some paint onto the terrain, finish off the Gnolls and varnish a bunch of models that have been waiting to go into my RPG KR case, which doesn't now nearly have enough room for all my fantasy stuff. And then to head down to the HATE Club, set up and try out Dungeon Saga that Ronnie Renton from Mantic Games had kindly agreed to demo.

Once again my planning was sub-par and I hadn't counted on my tube of black acrylic paint not being anywhere to be found. I suspect I threw it out as it had dried up. There isn't much point using GW black on the scale I need it for for the terrain, so I went once again into Wood Green and found a large tub of Windsor & Newton black acrylic with really high pigmentation. The weather wasn't great, and started to drizzle, so I retreated back to the hobby-cave and finished painting the Gnolls, which have come out really well. I've been using fine gravel and PVC glue on black round bases for most of my RPG stuff, as it neutral enough to work for dungeons, caves and outdoors, and this worked very well for the Gnolls and Carrion Crawlers I needed doing.

Since it had dried up, I went and made a start on the terrain, using a mixture of black, white, dark brown, straw and occasional splashes of bronze. I've found this works really well for my Executioners Chapter Space Marine bases, that use the same scheme as the terrain. It generally creates a good dungeon stone feel, but with hints of warmth and interesting metallics. I use blister pack packing foam to sponge on the colour, in three layers - dark, lighter and highlights, one at a time. This means that there are four layers to the terrain, which might seem like over kill but it's very effective and since the resin is so nicely done it would be a shame to not take the extra time. There will be some time spent picking out detail and apply airbrush candle glow later.

The weather and having to leave the house meant I was running out of time though, so quickly got some dark layers on about a third of the terrain, did a lighter layer on a subsection for fun and matt varnished the models. All in all not a bad days hobbying.

Gnolls attack!

Dungeon dwellers!

Gauntlet-style view

After packing up, I went drove down to the club. While driving would have been a perfect opportunity to take some of my larger models for a big 40K game, I spotted that Mantic were demoing at the club again, and this time running Dungeon Saga, which definitely has caught me eye. So after doing my committee member duties - aka lugging heaving gaming boards around and collecting the fees and managed to get a game in. Even in the beginner game, which admitted was made harder by the addition of an elite dwarf zombie, it was clear what a tactical game it is, how fast the basic stuff is and how relatively easy it is to pick up, and at £50, I will be picking it up! EDIT - And I just heard Ronnie has offered Club goings a discount! On a side note, we had 19 roleplayers, in 3 groups playing 5e D&D, DCCRPG and Dark Heresy last night, which is a club record and means the RPG room was full. All in all I think 70 people attended, which isn't bad a for Wednesday night in East London.

Ronnie from Mantic with the Necromancer's (GM) rulesheet. 

In game action. This is the smallest map for the introductory adventure.

   

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 12 - Paulo Must Die!

The party once again descend into the belly of the mountain. Their chatter is pulled up short by the discovery of severed orc heads sat in front of each statue in the entrance chamber. These heads show signs of combat, and are a couple of days old based on the smell. The party decide this is the handy work of the dwarves they met in their last foray.

Their own map once again comes in handy as they decide to avoid the central corridors and work their way back to the caves via the norther

n rooms, partially to avoid the orcs. They reach the area with the entrance to the caves without incident and a quick check of the map reveals a door they’ve not tried. Bittersalt in her usual style throws open the door, revealing a crumbling library room which has mostly been cleared out. However a quick a search reveals three interesting items, a handwritten copy of Ancient & Worthy Arts Of War, a set of rules for a precursor to Dragonchess and an arcane scroll of dispel magic. The group remember that the ghosts were playing some sort of chess-like game, and decide to return to them later. The fighters, who could all benefit from reading the manual set it aside for later use.

They approach the caves very cautiously, but find the first chambers empty. Returning to the lair of the giant crab spiders, they attempt to burn them out again by torching the massive of webs that cover the area. Nothing emerges, but the sound of bones and a few coins falling to the floor as the bundles of the dead unravel.

The chamber called by the kobold ‘the moon pool’ lies ahead, and this intriguing and unusual chamber does indeed contain a pool of the purest water the characters have ever seen. The party spot a hole in the roof of the cave, some 50 feet above them, from which sunlight comes in. While the party are interested, their nerves are a little on edge so they decide to return to the cave when they feel the region is safer so they press on, straight into an ambush.

Paulo is the only one in the party spot the kobolds and spiders hiding within the next cave. With a warning shout he hurls a sling stone at a spider that’s sprung out from the deep recesses of  stone but in his panic misses. A swarm of kobolds surround the party, while a couple of giant spiders crawl across the walls to them. This time however the party are ready, armoured in superior protection and better trained they quickly dispatch the kobolds and spiders with fairly minimal injuries. Flandar the warlock wished to try out the dagger he’d taken from the fight with the shadow demon, but finds the blade didn’t appear to do anything special and it almost seemed disappointed in how it was used.

Statues of dwarves fill the next beautiful cave. It’s like a cemetery, except the dwarves are all young and appear unhurt. Brother Spenzar realises that the dwarves are aligned in a grid, and that 30 to 50 dwarves are missing. This room proves to be extremely puzzling for the party, who question Errol about his childhood. Errol of course is foundling, left at an orphanage and knows nothing of his dwarven heritage. There is a distinct feeling of unease, especially since Errol has start casting arcane spells; something no dwarf has ever done before. Bittersalt and the others suspect that these dwarves are somehow connected to the kobolds that infest Dwimmermount.

With no real conclusions, they push on. From up a steep slope the voice of a dwarf came, ‘who goes there?’. The dwarf beyond, who called himself Gundrun is a little unhinged. He talked about his children. He asked Errol if he had a child, and that if he did he didn’t need to worry as Gundrun with the queen’s help could fix them. With growing fear, the party knew that whoever this Gundrun was, he was responsible in someway for the kobolds. They drew their weapons and attacked.

The dwarf was surrounded by kobolds, but with more room to maneuver Errol’s fire magic immediately started to remove foes from the field of battle. Calphis and Paulo stayed at the back while everyone else moved in. Then from the dark corridor beyond a hideous voice called out ’Gundrun! Why are you disturbing my work?! Gundrun you little worm! What are you doing?’ and with that, reality split in front of them and a vast, fat spider with too many glowing eyes crawled out of the tear. Before the party was the Spawn of Arach-Nache and queen to the kobolds of Dwimmermount.

The party immediately throw everything they have at the creature, who bites Errol with it’s poisonous beak-mouth. His dwarven resilience protects him from the worst of the damage though and the returning attacks and spells do 61 points of damage in a single round of combat. 3rd level characters can start to put the pain on big monsters.

The spider reappears and bites Paulo

The queen slips back into the ethereal realm, but not before summoning four giant spiders in her place. The party are in combat in numerous spots in the cavern, with Calphis casting a sleep spell that targets the spiders, Zoilus engaging the dwarven fighter and Bittersalt and Errol switching between the two.

The queen returns and attacks Bittersalt, whose new found parrying skills win the day. Zoilus throws himself on the back of the beast in a frothing rage. Again they party score vicious wounds against the demonic spider, with waves of magic missiles from Calphis’ wand hurting it. Again it phases out of reality. Most of the kobolds are asleep or dead, with Flandar dispatching anything still breathing and Calphis trusting his armour and getting in close, leaving Paulo to hurl sling shots from the back. It’s then that spider thing appears, and sinks it’s horrible fangs into the lad, pumping venom into his small frame. Paulo is dying and trapped behind the enormous bulk for the spider. Immediately everyone swings round and attacks the spawn, and thankfully do enough combined damage to cause it to be sucked back into the abyss. Brother Spenzar leaps to the boys aid, and keeps him from death’s door. It was very, very close.

The Spawn Of Arach-Tache is dragged back to the Abyss

We left it there. We’ve got a new space to play in, which is well away from the 40k’ers who were having a loud interclub (HATE vs Titans vs Overlords) drinking/gaming match. I’m pleased to say HATE came last on points and 1st on booze consumed, as always. Anyway the space is really very cool, if on that particular night a little smelly and can fit four RPG groups. We’re expecting there to be 2-3 regular groups now, so this is very welcome. Everyone in our group are definitely becoming friends, and this leads to a lot of chat before and during the game. While a part of me wants to focus the group on the adventure because there is so much ‘cool shit’ ahead, roleplaying really is a social thing and I’ve really fallen on my feet with my players.

Our new RPG space, the 'cavern bar' at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club

That all said and done, I’m very much looking forward to the next session, and the revelations it may bring.      

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 6 - Gelatinous Cube!

While it looked like the party might take their first journey to the city of Adamas at the end of last session, the lure of gold keep them at Dwimmermount. They buried their treasure further down the slope amongst some Thulian and then set camp once again near the entrance. During the night Bittersalt was broken from her meditative trance by far off sounds and the distance glow of a fire. Reaching for her sea captain’s telescope she saw at first what she thought was a very pale man walk down the slopes of the mountain past Dwimmermount clutching a burning torch. She then realised the torch was infact a tree, and the man none other than a frost giant! He was a long way away and no exactly heading towards the party, so while this event was alarming it didn’t appear to be an immediate threat.

Once back in the dungeon the group went hunting to see if the giant rat poison Bittersalt laid out had an effect. Although the salt fish was gone, there weren’t any immediate signs of dead rats.

At this point the parties map started to prove it’s worth. They decided to try and join some sections up, and in so doing discovered some slight inaccuracies, but now have a much better overall view of the dungeon surround the entrance. They then backtracked to the corridor which had ended in the locked room with the Wight and all the glorious loot they found last session. Here they went the other way and found another door, which opened into what clearly was a chapel to Mavors. Once again it had defiled, but more importantly the Termaxians had left more Eldritch Dead to guard the chamber, and a fight with the black skeletons ensued. The party felt like they were beginning to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and relatively quickly put down these six undead. Two handed swords, wielded by strong fighters are great at doing a lot of damage.

The party search the frescoed chamber thoroughly, and discovered that the age worn altar had a mechanism that swung a secret door open behind it. With slightly more trepidation than previously displayed, the door was opened and the party discovered a small sack of treasure, including a magical scarab. Also in the secret room was the head of the statue of Mavors that they suspected was from the defiled statue in the entrance room. With great gusto they immediately set off back towards the entrance with Zoilus leading the way.

Horror met them within a few short strides, for in the darkness a huge cube of living gelatinous biomorph acid had been following behind them for sometime. The translucent thing was almost impossible to spot, and the normally hyper aware barbarian was completely taken by surprised (rolled a 1) and engulfed by the Gelatinous Cube mid sentence. At this point there were hoots from the players, who loved coming up against such an iconic D&D monster. The barbarian was badly injured by the acids that smothered him, and would have killed a lesser mortal but he fought his way out and was pulled back behind the rest of the rapidly retreating party. Retreating all save Brother Spenzar, who having seen the danger the party was in the deep concentration of a Bless spell. The Gelatinous cube squeezed forward and grab the priest, who after a brief tug of war was pulled back out of it’s jelly. The party hurled all their available missiles, both magical and mundane into it, and were successful in destroying it’s essential form, turning it into a puddle of inanimate bioacids.  

After healing the barbarian and priest as much as they could they cautiously made their way back to the entrance and set the head of Mavors back in its rightful place. They watched in awe as the cracks disappeared and the statue returned to it’s original glory. Then a glow came about them, and the each felt blessed by the god of war as a reward. This manifested as everyone getting an inspiration point.

We left it there. It was a shorter session than usual, but everyone including me had a great time and I certainly look forward to the next session.

In club news, a new roleplaying group has moved their games night to the club and since it is partially made up of old school friends and a group I played in a long time back it's doubly nice to see. Zoilus' player Ed is also going to running a Dungeon Crawl Classics game in the near future which I'm very excited about. 

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 5 - Undead unleashed!

The party, along with their torchbearer and lock picker Paulo, descend once more into the ancient halls of Dwimmermount. Bittersalt wished to put out some her giant rat poison, and thinking she knew the way, headed south from entrance hall, this however wasn’t a way they’d been before (your humble DM was at fault here). However her keen hearing detected footsteps approaching, things were marching in step and headed her way, so she retreated back to the main hall where the rest of the party were once again commenting on her recklessness.

From the gloom approached six horrific animated skeletons. They clutched antique khopesh swords or spears and bronze shields, and moved like well trained soldiers. However it was their bones that drew the most interested, for they were covered in the magical silvery-black metal Azoth. even with the warnings from Bittersalt the party failed to maximize their circumstance and attacked as individuals rather than as a team. A few blows were traded, and Tyche the luck goddess seemed to have deserted them, with the barbarian Zoilus taking a critical blow. His incredible fortitude saw him recover and beat back these Eldritch dead. To his horror though he saw his weapons were less effective than they should be.

Brother Spenzar, seeing that the party might be in trouble called upon Typhon to turn back these undead spirits. Throwing all his will and might into the exorcism, his holy power was deadened by the protective Azoth. At that moment the desecrated statue of Typhon that he’d cast down in anger days before stirred and rays of white light shot into the undead, temporarily flaying the power from the metal and allowing Spenzar’s turning to drive some of the skeletons back. Typhon’s reward was forthcoming after all. The battled continued, and still Tyche was in a cruel mood, with Errol charging down and wilding overshooting the skeletons so that he became trapped between their front lines and those who had retreated in the face of Spenzar’s fierce righteousness. It was a tough fight, and the party were exhausted at the end of it.

Realising ‘their’ mistake with the map, they explored the two new doors that southern corridor present. Behind the first was an odd room that had a large iron face of Turms Termax attached to the far western wall, and mouldering benches lined up facing it. When the party approached a strange sound murmured from face. After applying a little oil to the jaw, it spoke out in Old Thulian “Ask a question, if you have one. I’ll answer truthfully, but then you’re done.” Wishing to have nothing to do with cursed Termaxian magic, the party left without speaking to the face.

Seeing that the chamber from the other door contained the disturbing black basalt monolith they’d already found they amended their maps and saw how everything joined up. They then found an empty set of ceils, and rested for an hour to regain some of their powers.

After debating the next steps the decided to push north, away from where they’d spend much of their time so far. Going through the doors leading north from the entrance they discovered a round chamber lined with six fearsome demon masks. Remembering something from history, Brother Spenzar correctly identified them as Thulian Warmasks, used by the ancient Thulians to cower their beastmen armies. Bittersalt, after a cursory check to see how the masks were attached to the wall pulled one off, to be rewarded by cloud of biologically corrosive poison gas! With her lungs burning from the poison, Bittersalt collapsed to the floor after falling a save versus poison, followed by a series of tense death saving throws. Thankfully she survived, and was dragged backwards away from the room and was healed by Spenzar. Using mage hand cantrips, the masks were pulled from wall and tossed into the parties loot bag.

Reaching yet another junction, the party go west and find the corridor ends in a heavy locked door covered in protective iron. The door is successfully unlocked and pulled open. A terrible sight welcomes the party, as stood in the room is menacing figure silently screaming at them. The pale skinned, once human thing looks ancient and a blackness surrounds it, sucking the energy from the very air. It launches itself on Bittersalt, grasping her head with it’s two frozen hands. Bittersalt feels the very life drain from her, as the horrible Wight attacks.

This time however Tyche is very much with party, as swords and spells slam into the once living guardian. It goes down very quickly and fails to drink anymore life force from the elf. As the shadows recede and the Wight dies again, the party spy a large metal chest. While Calphis fails to pick it’s complex lock, Paulo’s small and nimble fingers prove their worth and the heavy padlock is removed. The chest contains a fortune in treasure! Golden candlesticks, bowls and other items lie on top a pile of old Thulian coins. The parties eyes widen as they spot the beautiful longsword, untouched by age that also rests within the chest. After searching through, an ivory and silver wand is removed along with a magical broach.  

We finished the session here, with the party considerably richer than they were and with talk of a trip to the city of Adamas to sell the items they have discovered.

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 4 - Henchman, allies and drunken tongues

Mattias The Wizard

The party decide that they needed time to rest, train, research and contemplate for a week to better prepare them for their return to Dwimmermount (i.e. level up). During this period they also set about selling the golden shields they’d retrieved from the dungeon and seeing if they could fence the Orc weapons and armour they’d taken. Since Zolius the Hyperborean had spent some time working the bellows of the blacksmith’s forge and was well like by the blacksmith and his apprentices, they got a good deal on the ransacked Orc equipment. Both Bittersalt the Elf and Errol the Dwarf ordered Splint armour, which would take about a month to make. Larenz Arquem, the blacksmith, wouldn’t buy the shields though as he thought them too decorative for his customers who he described as militia-farmers. He mentioned that the Petre brothers, Bynde and Aurri, were in town and these merchants both bought and sold unusual items.

After perusing their wares, including the fine, glum soled dragonskin boots, Bittersalt and Calphas the Mage set about bargaining a price for the shields, both sides walking away feeling like that had struck a reasonable deal. This also gave the party some more local coin. Around this time, Zolius set up a ‘wrestle the barbarian’ stall to help him work out, and given his particular physical qualities he was successful in attracting custom.

During the third night Calphas awoke to find a thief feeling from his room. Chasing after the thief and trying to alert his companions, he saw that the culprit is no more than a boy. His cries of ‘stop thief’ alerted the watch who turned the same corner as the boy. These two guardsman roughly backhanded the boy to the dirt and quiz Calphas. The boy is found to be clutching the mage’s daypurse. The guards haul the boy off, telling the assembled party members that he’ll be tried at the Midday Court by the bailiff in two days, and the sentence would be the chopping off of the boys hands. Bittersalt in particular is outraged by this, and Calphas, who grew up on the streets, has some sympathy for the boy.

On the day of the Midday Court the party gather and enter the actual keep for the first time. It’s much more militaristic than town, with many armed guardsman in well kept uniforms and weapons. In the meeting chamber, the bailiff Lambert sits at a long table, flanked by veterans. Louys Herit, the head priest of Typhon is also their, watching the proceedings. The boy, named Paulo Dewilt, is dragged in and it’s clear he has been badly treated. Lambert calls the case, the guardsmen who captured the boy give the details to which Lambert scowls and curses the boy. He asked for witnesses, and Calphas steps forward but claims he did not sees the boys face, so can’t formally identify him. Lambert asks if it was his purse the boy had about him, to which Calphas is forced to agree.

The boys mother, a washerwoman, bursts in and pleads for mercy for her boy, but Lambert is adamant and sentences the boy to death, by having his hands chopped off. He sets a blood price of 20 gold pieces on the boy. Bittersalt immediately steps forward and says she’ll pay the price. The others in the party are somewhat reluctant, but the boys nimbleness and stealth have impressed them, and they are afterall without a burglar. The terrified boy is handed over to Bittersalt, and his mother promises her eternal gratitude, particularly when the party say they are taking him on.      

Paulo Dewilt, lockpicker

The night before they are due to leave, they are sat around the tavern when they are approached by man wearing dark blue esoteric clothes, he introduces himself as Mattias of Salander. He asks if perhaps the party are in need of the services of a wizard. A drunken Bittersalt questions him, and asks if he can juggle to which the characters flagons rise up and starting circling in the air. “Can you turn someone in a frog?” asks Bittersalt, to which Mattias says, “No, the polymorph other spell is beyond my skill”. The banter continues for awhile, and the conversation turns to the identification of magical items. Bittersalt immediately pulls out the vial of strange red liquid found near the dead dwarves. The wizards goes very quiet and demands to know where this liquid is from, saying that it might be an infusion of Azoth that can used to combine the essences of different creatures. He says that some arcanists propose that it’s this liquid was somehow used to create the first beastmen. He then once again demands to know where they got it from, and then asks them if the doors to Dwimmermount are open, which Bittersalt says that he already knows the answer. Brother Spenzar is furious at the revelation. Mattias says that he’ll aid the party in anyway he can, and is very interested in any magical oddities they discover. The party cautiously agreed to work with Mattias if he kept his silence, to which he replied that it was in his own interests to keep the opening of the dungeon secret.

We ended the session here, as it was 10pm and there wouldn’t be time to do anything meaningful in the dungeon, although they did purchase a mule and some tents to allow them to carry more loot and camp in the wilderness rather than having to return to Muntburg so often.  

All in all, a very enjoyable session of pure roleplaying. Our physical environment, at games club sometimes makes it a little difficult to hear and be heard, so we need to try and get into the back room whenever possible. Willards playing of the drunken elf earned him an inspiration point, but everyone played their characters really well and it was both a humorous and engaging evening. I'm really looking forward to seeing where the characters go when they return to the dungeon itself.

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 3 - A rescue and return to the surface

Snacks!

Knowing that I'd be away immediately following our sessions, one of the players (Jonathan) very kindly wrote up last session.

In the aftermath of the second ambush of the day our brave heroes had a quick discussion over the freshly slain Orcs. To continue exploring, to find a room and fortify for the night or leave the mountain and return to town having gained a bit of gold and a few weapons to sell. A quick vote was called and it was decided that we would check out a few rooms and make way back to the entrance.

Bitter Salt lead the way showing us all the meaning of stealth by sneaking forward then calling loudly back what she saw, an oddly carved door. Calphis recognized the carvings as those of a playhouse and together he, Bitter Salt and Flandar checked out the room while Errol, Zollus and Brother Spenzar guarded the rear making sure no more Orcs would ambush them.

Bitter Salt walked brazenly into the room not waiting for Calphis to check for traps. The room was a designed with a stage and a large curtain which Bitter Salt once again proved her stealth skills didn't quite match up her combat ability and with a loud crash the curtain came crashing down.

Thankfully no Orcs where hiding and after a quick search Calphis and Bitter Salt found a hidden stage passageway with another door. Hearing the sounds of someone being tortured the group quickly gathered and decided that it was time for a little ambush of their own. A simple ambush was devised, open the door and shoot the closest Orcs. With a quick prayer to Typhon the door was opened and the trap sprung.

Not all went exactly as planned. On seeing the three Orcs beating a Dwarf, Calphis failed to control his fear and his spell missed wildly, Brother Spenzar called upon Typhon to burn the closest Orc and Zollus upon seeing the Orcs flew into a wild rage and forgetting the plan charged forward into melee against a different Orc dealing it a mighty blow. Bitter Salt's shot missed and struck Zollus but bounced off his armor. Errols shot also went wide and Flandar's summoned cloud of poison failed to infect the tough Orcs.

Now the Orcs overcome the shock of the ambush Calphis panicked and missed once again with his spell, Brother Spenzar did yet more damage but now the Orcs were able to retaliate. The Orcs fighting Zollus pulled out a hand axe but his wound was too great and the axe shot out of his hand killing his burning companion. The third unwounded Orc tried to run past Zollus to escape but he dispatched it as it tried to flee then dispatched the last one.

The sound of more Orcs enjoying themselves in the next room caused our heroes to grab the dwarf and move back the way they came. The Dwarf said his name was Balfur and from Muntburg and begged them to flee the Orcs and return to town of course the promise of 500 gold coins had nothing to do with the decision made. Leaving as quickly as possible they saw a few rats the size of dogs running away with some left over Orcs.

Nothing followed the brave adventures' out into the world, talking to Balfur they heard that he was attacked by Skeletal warriors and after two days hard travel they reached Muntburg dropped off Belfur with his family getting him to promise not to speak that he had been in the mountain. Brother Spenzar went to stay at his Church (edit: Where he arranged to report on the goings on in Dwimmermount, keep the parties entrance a secret and will swap ancient gold coin for less mysterious modern coins) while the rest went to get a well earned hot meal at the Flagon And Scroll with a vast amount of Ale and a half dozen chickens (one for Typhon of course).

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 2 - Deeper into the Path Of Mavors

After a short rest, during which the fallen recuperated and the others search the bodies of the orcs, the party decided they wanted to avoid further confrontation with the violent and hardy orcs so left to try another door from statuary hall. However the heads of Turms Termax sat upon the statues of five of the gods of the Great Church were too tempting for the vandals in the party and too blasphemous for Brother Spenzar and they set about knocking them down one by one, but not before Spenzar rocked the statue of the woman back and forth enough to topple that too. While a din was made, the strange too-loud crash of the first head was not repeated.  

Opening the door in the north east they found an empty guard room, replete with smashed weapon racks and cobwebs. This chamber had a locked door in the north, and deciding to be a little more cautious the wizard Calphis checked the door for traps. He found something that made him suspicious, possibly a tiny magical rune of fire scratched into the metal of the lock plate. After some talk of smashing the door with the hammer of barbarian Zolius or using the warlock’s Eldritch Strike the party decided it was too dangerous and once again returned to the main hall.

This time they set off through the massive double areonite doors in the east, beyond which lay a well appointed 20 foot wide corridor that disappeared into the deep darkness. Both the north and south walls were punctuated by alcove set doors. Investigating the first door in the north wall they party uncovered a grisly sight, another guard room with the stone bodies of three dead dwarves in a pool of possibly alchemical red liquid. The dwarves had been murdered, and one had swelling indicating some kind of poisonous sting. Searching the bodies the party looted weapons, armour, rope, relatively fresh dwarven trail bread and a strange cylindrical hard leather wine skin, with unusual dwarven design carved into it. The chamber had a further door too, to the east which the party opened and discovered some kind of apparatus.  Metal rods, cogs and poles rested in grooves cut into the floor attached to which were a variety of purpose built weapon-like metal shapes. Along the south wall a metal cabinet with polished wooden rods sticking out of the top suggested some kind of control mechanism. Overall the device reminded some of the party of jousting training constructions.

Rather than risk injury, the party perhaps wisely beat a retreat to the main corridor where they continue further down, seeing a statue in the dark down the hall. Opening the south door they were confronted with an eerie sight, two apparitions, human guards dressed in archaic gear sat at a ghostly table arguing over the rules of the ancient game of zatrikio, of which the party only knew the name. Brother Spenzar dropped an amount of holy water onto the unresponsive apparitions, to no effect and determined that they were magical, not spiritual in nature, yet were not illusions.

With nothing to loot and without any way to interact with these apparitions the party went through the doors to the west to find yet another battle damaged and dusty waiting room which they exited through the southern door. This chamber, which had exits to the east and west was unusual in that the debris had been recently cleared away from the centre of the room where a odd 3ft tall black basalt pillar stood. Strange and unintelligible runes covered the surface of the pillar. Again the party avoided interacting with the thing.

Following the door to the east, the corridor beyond turned south and ended in another chamber. This one had two things of interest to the party, a large if fragile mahogany throne and three beautifully made blue and gold shields hanging from the wall behind it. While the wizard investigated the throne, looking for secret draws and seating himself upon the throne, they others carefully took the ornate but functional shields down from the walls in the assumption that they’d be able to sell them.

The elf Bittersalt, who had been increasingly disappointed by the lack of saleable items so far was particularly happy with this and in a fit of rash excitement threw open the doors to the west only to be hit by crossbow bolts fired by two of the six orcs that were clearly prepared for the party in the chamber beyond. A desperate fight ensued in which the elf immediately fell to the blades of the orcs, shortly followed by the barbarian. Calphis used both his sleep spells, evening the odds and Brother Spenzar used his potion of healing on the barbarian, whose rage was so great and wild and beserk that he struck the cleric with his sword. Fortunately he then charged in amongst the orcs hacking one in two immediately. The dwarf joined him in the melee and the two set about their deadly work with efficiency. Flandar the warlock, seeing the moment was dire stepped into combat himself, leveling his hellish rebuke at an orc who struck him, incinerating the beastman. The party, almost against the odds, won the day and immediately put the sleeping orcs to death.

Finally though they were rewarded with coin, and found the orcs had a sack of 500 old Thulian gold pieces.

This is where we ended the session, with the party out of healing, spells and many of them wounded but with tangible treasure. Brother Spenzar vehemently entreated the others to tithe a portion of all treasures to Typhon, lord of civilisation and justice and much to my astonishment they agreed to. Impressive roleplaying from both him and the other players.

I’m really looking forward to the next session in two weeks. Once again the players proved to be both good humoured and willing to get involved in the world around them. They managed to travel to a number of plot-rooms that may make more sense later. I get a bit of anticlimax blues when getting ready and then starting a new campaign but this session completely dispelled it if I had it at all this time.