tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17696853869333526712024-03-23T06:14:33.492-04:00Tales from the TowerDanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.comBlogger112125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-27237332171124117482017-09-28T01:20:00.002-04:002017-10-01T03:22:19.375-04:00Portfolio Images from an old CD from a while ago<br />
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This one contains some game art, a few 3d images I created from 3d CAD models, some 2d line art drawings etc. Again, fun work!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGdz9CdA_miHoGFZWMKjxFJ64nLDZ32huMvCv9-aCLmV-EayB0Q-TPL_YeXUOWg5S1Ys3F1i9BE4MN3lCV4qIV0pSEtn0x4yZD3sq59wnXRRJL-vJljseRjqdXSNCC8yQSY7hc30oP6Vqg/s1600/AIRWAR.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="32" data-original-width="32" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGdz9CdA_miHoGFZWMKjxFJ64nLDZ32huMvCv9-aCLmV-EayB0Q-TPL_YeXUOWg5S1Ys3F1i9BE4MN3lCV4qIV0pSEtn0x4yZD3sq59wnXRRJL-vJljseRjqdXSNCC8yQSY7hc30oP6Vqg/s1600/AIRWAR.BMP" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Air Warrior pilot wings icon in 16 colors - looks blurry if displayed larger...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9peFqkwSr4JbJLYOrDnQmJOFEAWi6Ve12Ii-TqidtWBi7s08zTsyMYcCQAlEtcIcwBtuCeCYVjZlPbXeKTDvnBdK6rfWDss9acXia18cnp8cXPMTJ0LFAJVV8NoKzHCUKimleA1w5ujLM/s1600/binary.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1343" data-original-width="1046" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9peFqkwSr4JbJLYOrDnQmJOFEAWi6Ve12Ii-TqidtWBi7s08zTsyMYcCQAlEtcIcwBtuCeCYVjZlPbXeKTDvnBdK6rfWDss9acXia18cnp8cXPMTJ0LFAJVV8NoKzHCUKimleA1w5ujLM/s640/binary.JPG" width="498" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Binary spaceship from ICE's silent Death space miniatures combat game drawn with Ink on Vellum and then the shadows were added in Photoshop.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sarn Casle from the ICE's Middle Earth Role Playing The Shire module</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crossed Swords stone icon tile for ICE's Rolemaster Role Playing Game.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4wzLgVJWz9xenN2Pu3j-aHENcY4D-6wDnxfViiMZ8Ee5XbDn4swEqrVJE2_Qj37G-VpxJQehICbkRGhShTNJYpDuIVznkIRvWkEk2OaNLAMnyoEzqlrKleYMnHvbRhv73Kecg7nbRaXPI/s1600/CstlPrsp.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="640" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4wzLgVJWz9xenN2Pu3j-aHENcY4D-6wDnxfViiMZ8Ee5XbDn4swEqrVJE2_Qj37G-VpxJQehICbkRGhShTNJYpDuIVznkIRvWkEk2OaNLAMnyoEzqlrKleYMnHvbRhv73Kecg7nbRaXPI/s640/CstlPrsp.BMP" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drew this for Iron Crown Enterprises for the Shire MERP module back in the day. It was generated from a 3d model, converted to 2d in AutoCAD, and then I added all of the wood print block style shadow lines and stuff in a 2d CAD file. Kind of old school but it gives it that wood carving old school wood block print look like some of the other castles renderings I drew for them back in the mid to late nineties that were popular back in the days before modern graphics (see game art page for more of these images).</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Isle of Kesmai Computer Game Cover Map done for the Kesmai Corporation in the late '90s with Photoshop before they were bought out by Electronic Arts.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy761CgE8WkuDOaboP-Jw3G4JFB7dlKRD7gCqbMaUhxTcj-f9PyZ56N9G6By7jbb7K_kzK7jbgcj7gpKJE_K7eYCn-0OB9G53E2xjI1WVusvEhYz_sEY4o0AdhRqlB8gOJW1Rm8NmQ6v-3/s1600/ELCAP.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy761CgE8WkuDOaboP-Jw3G4JFB7dlKRD7gCqbMaUhxTcj-f9PyZ56N9G6By7jbb7K_kzK7jbgcj7gpKJE_K7eYCn-0OB9G53E2xjI1WVusvEhYz_sEY4o0AdhRqlB8gOJW1Rm8NmQ6v-3/s640/ELCAP.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A rendering I did of El Capitain using a 3d world viewing imaging program. Can't even remember what it was called but it was fun to play with... They had one for Mars too - you picked the coordinates, the view, and the viewing perspective angles and stuff...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIrZ1d42zioT_mvCxF77O28kJsBKSy1vUpahFlaQbmlxqfdIirhmx3CHsLMvN4weErzEJI-ju9hH4ibKUjsjcmQJORR9WVaWnWOjC6qJcr8ahg8H518YtUkf2L3DmK2hGjbks6PVwOK6bU/s1600/FEDISOVW.GIF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1152" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIrZ1d42zioT_mvCxF77O28kJsBKSy1vUpahFlaQbmlxqfdIirhmx3CHsLMvN4weErzEJI-ju9hH4ibKUjsjcmQJORR9WVaWnWOjC6qJcr8ahg8H518YtUkf2L3DmK2hGjbks6PVwOK6bU/s640/FEDISOVW.GIF" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">3D model rendering drawn in Arris as a wire frame CAD drawing rendered in 256 colors while working for CMSS Architects back in the early nineties in Virginia Beach. They were one of the few Savings and Loans that survived the Savings and Loan scandal, crisis and meltdown back in the day in the late '80s early nineties when I started working for Architects back then. This was drawn in 1991 or 1992 while working for CMSS Architects with John Craus (my boss) at the time. The building is still in Innsbrook and I drive by it every now and again. Not sure who owns it now - Towne Bank as of one of the photos from 2015. Need to go by there to verify. It's just a few minutes from Innsbrook and the HH Hunt Homes office where I currently work..<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">.</span><br />
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These are some photos I found of this building in Insbrook in Richmond VA after this one was built - fun work! Again, one of the clients remarked to me at the time "and they pay you to do this work?" lol (more fun work)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poisoned dagger tile...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sword tile</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dagger tile</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU8Ocuq0_8mhcevcLCfx40Zd_FfR7qXZuLb6UL17_PQAedCSN92NGHIh6mX2WoZ9io31fz6RTM8Ze1-f1z11QG84cR-4QM0cxNjT6AC3g-SOheFcbpzrLruJkNyAx992ow4_5Rnr4tm_MX/s1600/Kesmai2.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="511" data-original-width="1200" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU8Ocuq0_8mhcevcLCfx40Zd_FfR7qXZuLb6UL17_PQAedCSN92NGHIh6mX2WoZ9io31fz6RTM8Ze1-f1z11QG84cR-4QM0cxNjT6AC3g-SOheFcbpzrLruJkNyAx992ow4_5Rnr4tm_MX/s640/Kesmai2.bmp" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More Isle of Kesmai tiles and stuff...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wood block style Lugash Orc tower rendering and plan for Iron Crown Enterprises Dol Guldur Module in Southern Mirkwood I think. This is one of my all time favorites. The module was written by David Woolpy and he did a lot of the concept art in low rez, I merely brought it to life using AutoCAD and a 300 dpi printer on glossy print paper back in the day. Pretty phenomenal results from such low tech hardware and sotware. When Coleman Charleton from ICE (the editor) saw these he remarked that they were the best illos he had ever seen while working there other the years. Spent way to much time on these but hey, it was Middle Earth so I didn't mind making $10 an hour or something when it was all said and done... lol</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhrM1k_LIM-cAWac8VR6IIRtmQp_3zGD_4FV5V9ypj0Oyg3L9fjX8vzcC4YfKDmNKiUwRjYmcOYI97KruBeelUoaMrse4MjKAS9LrNlXdU0aWuMnfNnpjxvB3uJ_emeMSYW2-DvIxzDC5j/s1600/lugelev.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhrM1k_LIM-cAWac8VR6IIRtmQp_3zGD_4FV5V9ypj0Oyg3L9fjX8vzcC4YfKDmNKiUwRjYmcOYI97KruBeelUoaMrse4MjKAS9LrNlXdU0aWuMnfNnpjxvB3uJ_emeMSYW2-DvIxzDC5j/s1600/lugelev.BMP" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Lugash Orc Tower from the Dol Guldur module in southern Mirkwood - if you zoom in real close on the Gargoyles at the top you in the AutoCAD file you see they are smiling with a devilish grin and you can see their faces and other details (probably didn't show up on the jpg and bmp renderings though but fun to draw nonethless)... lol I'll print out a closeup of that at some point just for laughs (still have the CAD files of this and the others).</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Ai2ZQmGA2zwSWYPsByYbqyCwc1kPGDsk99GcXRfybF2TkZSrhdqpIcmqY6qLd6NzVr00ikbvVeziWzQZh368jVl049ZodiJCXEFrC3vuCfIATDvRlaqKJaTnHitKEYUCtmIqIxNggIx_/s1600/lugelev.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="321" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Ai2ZQmGA2zwSWYPsByYbqyCwc1kPGDsk99GcXRfybF2TkZSrhdqpIcmqY6qLd6NzVr00ikbvVeziWzQZh368jVl049ZodiJCXEFrC3vuCfIATDvRlaqKJaTnHitKEYUCtmIqIxNggIx_/s400/lugelev.JPG" width="283" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another view of the Lugash Orc Tower...</td></tr>
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<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/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0SZue9O-hVzoaZO5-iywuOftC3Db0yp2368gUSiusQ59y2H3eU0i8UUjRqG3VTmmYHB46ulXSAWFnJcL1CSbOUSk5X-2UKKwHX90KgobNTm5o0t21XSdzWja0pSz_6jrKHqT0yx05sqgv/s1600/Nfatlerr.GIF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="100" data-original-width="300" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0SZue9O-hVzoaZO5-iywuOftC3Db0yp2368gUSiusQ59y2H3eU0i8UUjRqG3VTmmYHB46ulXSAWFnJcL1CSbOUSk5X-2UKKwHX90KgobNTm5o0t21XSdzWja0pSz_6jrKHqT0yx05sqgv/s320/Nfatlerr.GIF" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh damn! Your P-51 Mustang is in trouble! This was a status icon drawn in 16 colors for Kesmai's Air Warrior online flight simulator game before EA bought them out and shut down the Charlottesville office...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggXiE4l9pumyj2KKyX1BDPhtj6_jRO96-GutsT7NU0sfrWG_P9ZEQqt4ybKr_0-KKqq_nBHSTo7XHVJY2KDvM_9Q55FE7343cxidGtf-G_u6ikkxx4RY5AQclVld0_6UW7WpQpSWa2wwfb/s1600/palace.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="770" data-original-width="770" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggXiE4l9pumyj2KKyX1BDPhtj6_jRO96-GutsT7NU0sfrWG_P9ZEQqt4ybKr_0-KKqq_nBHSTo7XHVJY2KDvM_9Q55FE7343cxidGtf-G_u6ikkxx4RY5AQclVld0_6UW7WpQpSWa2wwfb/s640/palace.bmp" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another ICE plan drawn of the Citadel of the Maestas - 1st Floor Plan from the Lake Town module</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7tNzWPXxLJyul7-zkQ9CW5-1He2MupkvpH-9PkZbC6Dt7irDLLZy1DWXQWpb6vqERnpWDQbZm6ej8BjsOPr4DOwubFO-Xrv3qtte9dQMha9ChRwR_LN-mIF8mRZjgBAgZsFVJGn9FmaUW/s1600/potion.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7tNzWPXxLJyul7-zkQ9CW5-1He2MupkvpH-9PkZbC6Dt7irDLLZy1DWXQWpb6vqERnpWDQbZm6ej8BjsOPr4DOwubFO-Xrv3qtte9dQMha9ChRwR_LN-mIF8mRZjgBAgZsFVJGn9FmaUW/s1600/potion.bmp" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Potion stone tile icon for Rolemaster with ICE</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcY9HPr2zQPfxEvnQvLhOWTNBgG4EzDH1_4e1eSUSvMnMhB9TIb5HZOYJYEFDihcFDUA4TPRCp29QGQjCM4_TofTkHbfDxYRxnQHi1m1y9LZ799OuJhEuCi7n3fVf411SDcVVT3-HWfGmu/s1600/pteradon.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1327" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcY9HPr2zQPfxEvnQvLhOWTNBgG4EzDH1_4e1eSUSvMnMhB9TIb5HZOYJYEFDihcFDUA4TPRCp29QGQjCM4_TofTkHbfDxYRxnQHi1m1y9LZ799OuJhEuCi7n3fVf411SDcVVT3-HWfGmu/s640/pteradon.JPG" width="530" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pteradon spaceship rendering from their Silent Death Spaceship combat miniatures game. I actually scanned in the prototype Pewter miniatures and then traced over them with Ink on Vellum, then added the shadows in Photoshop. Love black and white and grey scale line art! It's so punchy!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSQZdEM_SF-1vaHJpW3NfiwqmGcOJPkpjA8g33RaJ-t0jIheuk-TENhPyOgSDXfdrT2hlB0eDQFN6HW7B5YN0JFOCi0b_jpx2cOSui-cA7Xs2xwhhDZnypNbX_k4phJBZ-XAM0koIo2q9q/s1600/pulsar.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1432" data-original-width="1121" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSQZdEM_SF-1vaHJpW3NfiwqmGcOJPkpjA8g33RaJ-t0jIheuk-TENhPyOgSDXfdrT2hlB0eDQFN6HW7B5YN0JFOCi0b_jpx2cOSui-cA7Xs2xwhhDZnypNbX_k4phJBZ-XAM0koIo2q9q/s640/pulsar.JPG" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pulsar spaceship from ICE's Silent Death game</td></tr>
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<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/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnyb3k57h_Yw2WHHeqta06ymXEYNEFho-8CNgnTho-xTa3OBIdfYxKcP8t0gTxLOurRe3ELeIWj1l4-FoWMkJ_yKA4UISXiMbsnkFivlWjOz1LVI8QSaDVW-HwOghdsDWpL8CxYCPxLV7L/s1600/quark.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1375" data-original-width="922" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnyb3k57h_Yw2WHHeqta06ymXEYNEFho-8CNgnTho-xTa3OBIdfYxKcP8t0gTxLOurRe3ELeIWj1l4-FoWMkJ_yKA4UISXiMbsnkFivlWjOz1LVI8QSaDVW-HwOghdsDWpL8CxYCPxLV7L/s640/quark.JPG" width="429" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Binary spaceship from ICE's Silent Death game</td></tr>
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<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/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNoW38TsZQvR_qaMKPQfPzrneN27ylVBu1zUSQLNOXxKj1MrciSeCuEYLt-Wj5mpDOfPuUwLyyOCjd1DVadouz6iBDg7FsRj7xAMk6_mGXwAhVgVmMek_pkK4phHKQJSy2RcHB5Js0R_r2/s1600/rat.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNoW38TsZQvR_qaMKPQfPzrneN27ylVBu1zUSQLNOXxKj1MrciSeCuEYLt-Wj5mpDOfPuUwLyyOCjd1DVadouz6iBDg7FsRj7xAMk6_mGXwAhVgVmMek_pkK4phHKQJSy2RcHB5Js0R_r2/s1600/rat.BMP" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rat Icon from ICE's Rolemaster RPG Game</td></tr>
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<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/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibEseWeHSL0159lC_QwmmU4nOuLG_W3rellumG9NpdH6CrT15ybgJkK4tC9GIHAifmyh2wWzNZWsT4Xjj5iMyon65O9YnFwJMBGEEljjcR4gfByxgEcZ_MyI5VNkgAWMvh3GfCiSH3E_yq/s1600/Rtefrico.GIF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="64" data-original-width="64" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibEseWeHSL0159lC_QwmmU4nOuLG_W3rellumG9NpdH6CrT15ybgJkK4tC9GIHAifmyh2wWzNZWsT4Xjj5iMyon65O9YnFwJMBGEEljjcR4gfByxgEcZ_MyI5VNkgAWMvh3GfCiSH3E_yq/s1600/Rtefrico.GIF" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Air Warrior game tile from Kesmai's flight simulator game drawn in 16 colors - pixel pushing they called it... lol (if I publish this file any larger it's blurry since it's only 16 colors thus the small image)</td></tr>
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<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/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU4LzRROuiZufRfjmIyABr0Z5N_dzBFWhGkQXFZvPQbYxHILm7tROeog9hHesvBlErD75K11qzsJ-mSiplnRbANDSLQxgqHLNKqLUwQmgfVm0KPpJmcFLP3FIbBqtXPaAUWwKX63GjuEGI/s1600/Shire.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1134" data-original-width="732" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU4LzRROuiZufRfjmIyABr0Z5N_dzBFWhGkQXFZvPQbYxHILm7tROeog9hHesvBlErD75K11qzsJ-mSiplnRbANDSLQxgqHLNKqLUwQmgfVm0KPpJmcFLP3FIbBqtXPaAUWwKX63GjuEGI/s640/Shire.bmp" width="413" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map of the Shire from ICE's MERP module the Shire</td></tr>
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<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/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK3a-U5Ix54y7O99yyhvIToj3IyAa_fTz7kMGSPZpVDUww5_lEn1Oh1Ukbdhf5WkcAboORST_0ZiQ7SCP5hpFBDrBeWsqNHEGSlcEPbyXCzE0WmC3jvyz5EWQqWrJW8e4V52I5_HWJjV7O/s1600/skull.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="241" data-original-width="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK3a-U5Ix54y7O99yyhvIToj3IyAa_fTz7kMGSPZpVDUww5_lEn1Oh1Ukbdhf5WkcAboORST_0ZiQ7SCP5hpFBDrBeWsqNHEGSlcEPbyXCzE0WmC3jvyz5EWQqWrJW8e4V52I5_HWJjV7O/s1600/skull.bmp" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flaming skull icon from ICE's Rolemaster game</td></tr>
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<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/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXMhdKXzIk9kfqlVjdGUvTkZCHYjOc1ml1o_imuidVsxdWEdoEyF80BLkcqhG3pkBap5-m2_xT-jJWTWgjeEZhsc5BgnrkRkSc39TAq-gWLcBsrNgj1piMYSeI4-17SSwk4FypRqvPR-vT/s1600/Skullalt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXMhdKXzIk9kfqlVjdGUvTkZCHYjOc1ml1o_imuidVsxdWEdoEyF80BLkcqhG3pkBap5-m2_xT-jJWTWgjeEZhsc5BgnrkRkSc39TAq-gWLcBsrNgj1piMYSeI4-17SSwk4FypRqvPR-vT/s1600/Skullalt.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The skull alter and the defeated Minotaur from Kesmai's Isle of Kesmai game... Fun stuff! 256 colors.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsxxZYmiNMNF0T30Z9GyH1QgW6m0UKoUzGPGlsktMXQvk3Nmu-uf9boseH7C8DZeDlN7wcLOabQJCR39i0VdKSR5ZeozLf1mUmZtgsQwf7V55vms6LVLZ25GPhBVnSD1r6O7w-_c8Kc0BS/s1600/StoneAxe.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="238" data-original-width="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsxxZYmiNMNF0T30Z9GyH1QgW6m0UKoUzGPGlsktMXQvk3Nmu-uf9boseH7C8DZeDlN7wcLOabQJCR39i0VdKSR5ZeozLf1mUmZtgsQwf7V55vms6LVLZ25GPhBVnSD1r6O7w-_c8Kc0BS/s1600/StoneAxe.BMP" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Primitive neanderthal Axe or something from ICE's Rolemaster game</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5TSNVohHn9mkhkrbaiJmeruH11O7kR_0qiKeggxjvojn6riExFQPQg5P1NrGOzd6zvBeuorH7Q8-h9qs7zjJkEyi34-N0oi2Mub5iAEPWHDhN2A-e8QuQ1ORe9Gc7cZ24ohMUse73hy9H/s1600/T34D.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5TSNVohHn9mkhkrbaiJmeruH11O7kR_0qiKeggxjvojn6riExFQPQg5P1NrGOzd6zvBeuorH7Q8-h9qs7zjJkEyi34-N0oi2Mub5iAEPWHDhN2A-e8QuQ1ORe9Gc7cZ24ohMUse73hy9H/s1600/T34D.BMP" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">T34 Icon for Kesmai's Air Warrior - this is one of those profile images they used in WWII to identify certain tanks, planes, and ships so you knew what you were up against. Yes, if you are the Germans you want to drop your bombs on this one... lol</td></tr>
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<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/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje0Lwx9r6DcuM7cuxJoz7NI9UKAigfbQt6u9_TGSSc3zL-TfQpIJtpOajHo5XXA9EQzOoVELVWKs8XmUmAu-hVLAgDDAefzTvvx2vjDGqCX5ArK278h6BK47zzwuHTql6-xGT2Eng8uZoK/s1600/TheGap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="864" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje0Lwx9r6DcuM7cuxJoz7NI9UKAigfbQt6u9_TGSSc3zL-TfQpIJtpOajHo5XXA9EQzOoVELVWKs8XmUmAu-hVLAgDDAefzTvvx2vjDGqCX5ArK278h6BK47zzwuHTql6-xGT2Eng8uZoK/s400/TheGap.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">3D model rendering of the GAP corporate headquarters done by the Green Dean's architectural company in Charlottesville. William McDonough. I did the wire frame model and the renderings for this one too in 256 colors back in the first Iteration of Arktek back in the mid 1990s as a freelancer for my friend and class mate Antonio Martinez after we graduated when I took over Arktek from him as my own company.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibISeJk0TSOk7XyOzuxLqXQ1tvM_XdFh38Nit1R3tuDGUEn0XvPDTCZMae_-R-samRwqrQ8Jjt4dKVxJGuZgBrEuNZ2LuoED1HkFR5fWlzKIXwlliuEFstD2l43i6Jbwgx5w9TRBS9gMxh/s1600/gap1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="360" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibISeJk0TSOk7XyOzuxLqXQ1tvM_XdFh38Nit1R3tuDGUEn0XvPDTCZMae_-R-samRwqrQ8Jjt4dKVxJGuZgBrEuNZ2LuoED1HkFR5fWlzKIXwlliuEFstD2l43i6Jbwgx5w9TRBS9gMxh/s640/gap1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS_DLqyi-183eVrDIspj6c0ZpUNvX_DDqhVkZtL5Vl-VE2QHkF93M8BN5OdROkbDWFSXccrGKZHWFKqpXUjGknF7VjRvNDuT1308tjaxtf24oKOIjptW9hZzsRj2p-q5hG_GdZEOs4yj7o/s1600/Town.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="389" height="636" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS_DLqyi-183eVrDIspj6c0ZpUNvX_DDqhVkZtL5Vl-VE2QHkF93M8BN5OdROkbDWFSXccrGKZHWFKqpXUjGknF7VjRvNDuT1308tjaxtf24oKOIjptW9hZzsRj2p-q5hG_GdZEOs4yj7o/s640/Town.bmp" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nice little doggie! Isle of Kesmai city tile game play screen capture</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtg9TwoD-jJTLYF6jDzBtIMpI62lDSY4_TfpeQYpeDVptP0c9yOByJ0KowyvQhRWM0UDEHL9gKIVqvWPxRgQ044NIj4k-3C9PauXX9aSHxIzffNcRUTVhR5nlqQL5KgpriTi6KCRHGPQRu/s1600/Wwi_ico.GIF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="64" data-original-width="64" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtg9TwoD-jJTLYF6jDzBtIMpI62lDSY4_TfpeQYpeDVptP0c9yOByJ0KowyvQhRWM0UDEHL9gKIVqvWPxRgQ044NIj4k-3C9PauXX9aSHxIzffNcRUTVhR5nlqQL5KgpriTi6KCRHGPQRu/s1600/Wwi_ico.GIF" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Air Warrior Biplane tile image drawn in 16 colors</td></tr>
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<br />Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com43tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-14822990125338470192017-09-27T23:51:00.002-04:002017-09-28T00:05:02.389-04:00Kesmai Corporation Isle of Kesmai computer game screen caps from the late '90s...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3JjF3ME_UqOqdCjhAMoYkMKLJ7kOKoSXthFQqnNXHhyNqI5KYKJ-3U-dmD62qdDrI516qU7xJyEO8Wh60r9LVrHej2mC2rqb0k6Z6dZPvybU3FQsruNT8xrJrj0Iq7u7sQpJOrbP4D5xI/s1600/shot2.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="638" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3JjF3ME_UqOqdCjhAMoYkMKLJ7kOKoSXthFQqnNXHhyNqI5KYKJ-3U-dmD62qdDrI516qU7xJyEO8Wh60r9LVrHej2mC2rqb0k6Z6dZPvybU3FQsruNT8xrJrj0Iq7u7sQpJOrbP4D5xI/s640/shot2.bmp" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidA0ZgYUdUi4QpTfqyar2XoNs6REBJotuUjnFsQqI-LZ0Tza6Bf8vLEe-pSr1g10YiYtGVtdkOmiMl12tHIOyrLYayqJB-EdmPd665sxZCr6lECoEyAnktuBDZhLRuDLva-ggRYZ5hZYkM/s1600/SS.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="642" height="498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidA0ZgYUdUi4QpTfqyar2XoNs6REBJotuUjnFsQqI-LZ0Tza6Bf8vLEe-pSr1g10YiYtGVtdkOmiMl12tHIOyrLYayqJB-EdmPd665sxZCr6lECoEyAnktuBDZhLRuDLva-ggRYZ5hZYkM/s640/SS.BMP" width="640" /></a></div>
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Most of these images were drawn with a combination of Photoshop, PC Paint, and Windows Paint in 256 colors - yeah I was an old school pixel pusher back in the day baby!<br />
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I did most of the graphics pieces parts and they put the game together. I didn't draw the background, the stat info on the lower right or the text but I did most of the tiles in the actual game that they programmed into the game except for some of the characters and stuff (walls, doors, floors, furniture, features etc.). Fun work but seriously old school 256 color graphics from the dawn of the computer game age!Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-73200836031610653402017-09-27T23:22:00.005-04:002017-09-27T23:42:08.745-04:00More Kesmai Corporation Isle of Kesmai imagesSorry it's been so long since I've blogged here guys. Here's some more fun Isle of Kesmai images showing the various stages of creating the Isle of Kesmai cover map and a few more Isle of Kesmai images. Enjoy! (all files created using photoshop):<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-w6fFf0C7d0QzvC1FkmbCirxUUz9xB5gKmiZsqrdAARB9NE4FcteTU3GHbc1bUq4sGdWJQb3Yov9FNwJGakPs-SGICNvrp8dGilZ50FCRIMkQe3xhuoINWHByGF7cpoy7GPo1z06S3DGr/s1600/PARCHMNT.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="450" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-w6fFf0C7d0QzvC1FkmbCirxUUz9xB5gKmiZsqrdAARB9NE4FcteTU3GHbc1bUq4sGdWJQb3Yov9FNwJGakPs-SGICNvrp8dGilZ50FCRIMkQe3xhuoINWHByGF7cpoy7GPo1z06S3DGr/s640/PARCHMNT.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Literally scanned in a crumpled piece of velum and then added the borders from a black and white drawing and then gave it the sepia tone for the parchment background.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwLzb10FnBwhxteWrODV2xUcwJu5-Z9V03Firl12H2zC7dUIsv1fsHCJg7uJLjc3WMMjWAQWGq_8M4tOgf06Yuz3BgRbX2b4n1PzYkUQrSI0EZE4KeVYzx2RJPxWQ1c8hRnLfPg0EF8bng/s1600/DOMAN.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="287" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwLzb10FnBwhxteWrODV2xUcwJu5-Z9V03Firl12H2zC7dUIsv1fsHCJg7uJLjc3WMMjWAQWGq_8M4tOgf06Yuz3BgRbX2b4n1PzYkUQrSI0EZE4KeVYzx2RJPxWQ1c8hRnLfPg0EF8bng/s640/DOMAN.JPG" width="456" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the initial Map I drew using Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro or whatever before I blurred it up in Photoshop.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOVXH54H92O6Zm4ICyqPnOo8RhhsgTzphJ3FicvshJFF1T_889HSBThh3oVM843qAtdHc6tHxKx_xT-yS9w1tsg80QtYJiwI7rTTj4E9FNz6drVRBsADl1cqGS5I77wZ8IyjARc9NCYZrW/s1600/DOMAN2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="327" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOVXH54H92O6Zm4ICyqPnOo8RhhsgTzphJ3FicvshJFF1T_889HSBThh3oVM843qAtdHc6tHxKx_xT-yS9w1tsg80QtYJiwI7rTTj4E9FNz6drVRBsADl1cqGS5I77wZ8IyjARc9NCYZrW/s640/DOMAN2.JPG" width="520" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here is the blurred up drawing</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwFS8IAWYXrVyQrppxp7lwpelGlVf0RQN19eYrtihzxKQMT41q1P7nGpV_2TG75gjKVNM7VNw0-JmScOwYDvna8Abfh1rPDQSd7l53F7WeDPMJ-dFXT2qpezZBEbxxzDJ8h82qtYxMStfs/s1600/DRAGON.TIF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="45" data-original-width="76" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwFS8IAWYXrVyQrppxp7lwpelGlVf0RQN19eYrtihzxKQMT41q1P7nGpV_2TG75gjKVNM7VNw0-JmScOwYDvna8Abfh1rPDQSd7l53F7WeDPMJ-dFXT2qpezZBEbxxzDJ8h82qtYxMStfs/s200/DRAGON.TIF" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's the dragon added to the sea...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRsSQrD1JrLkyLRoRNTRcRFwr9W0RDBpMt6Mi-2Qbl8LOszNieCYJ-Npsm8V_uWM2ByH42TDH9vjnSNf4wf8HCpoQlOcm7Ri724wCQbCW1SoM-ifpUk6QQJK1Ezn-sU_PT73_y2gn2UHSs/s1600/NRTHAROW.TIF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="51" data-original-width="43" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRsSQrD1JrLkyLRoRNTRcRFwr9W0RDBpMt6Mi-2Qbl8LOszNieCYJ-Npsm8V_uWM2ByH42TDH9vjnSNf4wf8HCpoQlOcm7Ri724wCQbCW1SoM-ifpUk6QQJK1Ezn-sU_PT73_y2gn2UHSs/s200/NRTHAROW.TIF" width="168" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And the north arrow...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCYhrdwB1QN-OIbWPraMBgiSxg3T0gMf_Kdw-yRiDTbzBplcsZc01BJ_hDWxCdCIqPBEYVXP4PXm8X6KQo4vHcHCUgCZHE-O34StTGuApSEkiVEZgFrenWeUje3RQsvjG8kQWf3VFCet31/s1600/DMANSHT2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="450" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCYhrdwB1QN-OIbWPraMBgiSxg3T0gMf_Kdw-yRiDTbzBplcsZc01BJ_hDWxCdCIqPBEYVXP4PXm8X6KQo4vHcHCUgCZHE-O34StTGuApSEkiVEZgFrenWeUje3RQsvjG8kQWf3VFCet31/s640/DMANSHT2.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This one is the blurred map added to the parchment and background...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilum9xORhiBBsESpuEyPvkByhc-SxrYE7LBfv1wiQXZ7dvm4sK5nwZqfPwob6ADf_bkgLZomqQZ_6sOJpK4r_TejuUsLn45Nc4vDq110Up6thdrQyMespI6op-5Cp5kybavQLzLJzw7zQj/s1600/DOMANSHT.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="450" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilum9xORhiBBsESpuEyPvkByhc-SxrYE7LBfv1wiQXZ7dvm4sK5nwZqfPwob6ADf_bkgLZomqQZ_6sOJpK4r_TejuUsLn45Nc4vDq110Up6thdrQyMespI6op-5Cp5kybavQLzLJzw7zQj/s640/DOMANSHT.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And here is the final piece - quite a bit of work went into this. It was the final version of the whole drawing and was on the cover page of the game or something if I recall correctly.</td></tr>
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Fun work from back in the days when I was working for computer and role playing game companies in Charlottesville back in the mid to late '90s as a freelancer. EA eventually bought out the Kesmai Corporation and poached their Battletech software among other programs and then shut down the Charlottesville office unfortunately. I'd still do this kind of work today if there was someone local to do it for - again very fun work and very gratifying when it is all finally put together.Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-50236691204387577132016-11-14T22:30:00.003-05:002017-09-29T20:52:01.931-04:00Kesmai Corporation Illustrations for the Isle of Kesmai computer gamePixel drawings done in the late '90s for Kesmai which eventually got bought out by EA.<br />
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Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-80760235955032406032014-05-17T06:33:00.001-04:002014-05-18T04:47:53.798-04:00Old Dungeon Page Found in Dad's attic last week from the early '80sI was going through the attic at dad's house the other day and came across a single page of a dungeon that I had written up long ago (probably in the early '80s before I went to college). I was really into writing up dungeon adventures and drawing world maps and stuff before I got distracted by college, my future career, and other related future pursuits.<br />
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I'm posting this dungeon page image now because it gave me a chuckle while reading through it, especially with regards to the Grey Ooze trapped in a barrel in room #13 which will only attack the party if they are foolish enough to turn the spigot on on the barrel in the old kitchen just to see what will happen in that event (evil DM chuckles with delight as the players might do something like turning on the spigot which they would be better off not doing... lol) It made me laugh when I read it and reminded me of how much fun I had writing up dungeons for D&D and AD&D as a kid and how creative I was with writing up dungeons for these game at the time.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwvH0wDM5zf4EftMwm8auX29tq6zyKwAoxlSBbXQwXbs8BjpdQBvCGCUDAL7nBc8vFGjX9N8yur3JqA88msFeAD1fORHi1bo6DnwZLvV_p4Bo9Y1fiapQVyMkptXE7w_UCUndBI-PzpBzu/s1600/The+Old+Kitchen+from+an+Old+Dungeon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwvH0wDM5zf4EftMwm8auX29tq6zyKwAoxlSBbXQwXbs8BjpdQBvCGCUDAL7nBc8vFGjX9N8yur3JqA88msFeAD1fORHi1bo6DnwZLvV_p4Bo9Y1fiapQVyMkptXE7w_UCUndBI-PzpBzu/s1600/The+Old+Kitchen+from+an+Old+Dungeon.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
Anyway, there's plenty more where this came from and I have the rest of the pages of this dungeon adventure and other dungeons that were written up long ago in my mom's attic and in her house. I'll try to piece together all of the stuff that I wrote up back then as I recover the old dungeon adventure pages and clear out the attic and will post them here when possible. In the future given, time I will endeavor to redraw the dungeon floor plans for all of this stuff up with complete write ups, and as complete adventures. I will probably post the drafts of these adventures for free initially and may even sell them as complete adventure PDFs later sometime in the not too distant future once they have been polished up a bit. It's a lot of fun rediscovering your childhood with stuff like this, and in the meantime as I make further discoveries of a similar nature, I'll post them here and make some fun blog posts at the same time...Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-69570163291730043422014-02-09T03:49:00.002-05:002014-05-17T22:09:49.486-04:00Playing through An Old Classic now with the new re-print - Against the Slave Lords<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDN2t7McWqxtkRKcB1Kuj4aY6HeCphjrPFy7t0Hnsr0fmjVjm6RipmJ0duktwMOAXVDVx-4q4v_LF71PguqdoC44lSt3yR4yuxjH5T0NOR2cNPdGSu8ZXdzlymDbQS-f1qUyfsA0x44T3G/s1600/Against+the+Slave+Lords.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDN2t7McWqxtkRKcB1Kuj4aY6HeCphjrPFy7t0Hnsr0fmjVjm6RipmJ0duktwMOAXVDVx-4q4v_LF71PguqdoC44lSt3yR4yuxjH5T0NOR2cNPdGSu8ZXdzlymDbQS-f1qUyfsA0x44T3G/s1600/Against+the+Slave+Lords.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
Sorry for the long absence with the blog but real life got in the way. My dad died last year and I'm still taking care of my mom's estate in the meantime (she had a stroke in 2007 and I've had my hands full dealing with that for the last six years) not to mention work obligations. Anyway, I'm not trying to make excuses or anything but I'll get back to blogging about old school games in the near future. We are currently playing in a B/X D&D game for the "A" series otherwise known as the Slavers series. Our GM is using the WOTC re-release of that series and we are currently playing the new introductory module that was added to the new book. We are currently 3rd level or so and are about to enter the Slave Pits of the Undercity. Stay tuned for future recaps and campaign info updates on the current campaign as it unfolds...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7sA_wQ8Wr5i7Z6IM5_Yx_xLWXtc7OrOW3guTW98RSW64jNDlCIa1_73DnheT3IJ4KiCk7iL7Lm5hITFx3LcdebrknPjVil8T0tl90D6JT8lydnpHRQzSJ7BSIzRtwW9_IaKoyQASBUg4k/s1600/slavepits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7sA_wQ8Wr5i7Z6IM5_Yx_xLWXtc7OrOW3guTW98RSW64jNDlCIa1_73DnheT3IJ4KiCk7iL7Lm5hITFx3LcdebrknPjVil8T0tl90D6JT8lydnpHRQzSJ7BSIzRtwW9_IaKoyQASBUg4k/s1600/slavepits.jpg" height="320" width="248" /></a>The current campaign is set in our GM's world of Moog in the outlying regions beyond the City of Vermistdadt which was the setting for our previous Swords and Wizardry White Box city campaign. I'll post more info on the current setting as well as more becomes available in an effort to help the GM flesh out the campaign setting info. The World of Moog borrows heavily from the old Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing game and miniature combat game default world. It is a gritty Swords and Sorcery type of setting that reminds me a lot of Fritz Leiber's World of Lankhmar where his awesome Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories take place. The City of Vermistadt is a lot like the City of Lankhmar but with Warhammer types of gods and denizens (sort of a mashup) and the land of Moog can be roughly equated to Leiber's world of Nehwon coupled with influences from the Warhammer setting as well. It is a fun setting to play in for a Swords and Sorcery type of game and often includes certain elements that might be considered a bit gonzo which adds a bit of dark comedic entertainment to the setting.<br />
<br />
You can read a few older recaps of the Vermistadt White Box games which are posted posted at the blog here <a href="http://iguanaslair.blogspot.com/2011/08/entrance-to-hollowheim-and-demise-of.html">http://iguanaslair.blogspot.com/2011/08/entrance-to-hollowheim-and-demise-of.html</a><br />
and here <a href="http://iguanaslair.blogspot.com/2012/03/lock-stock-and-one-smoking-wand-of.html">http://iguanaslair.blogspot.com/2012/03/lock-stock-and-one-smoking-wand-of.html</a>. Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-31799376805730602872013-06-13T05:28:00.005-04:002013-06-13T15:17:27.728-04:00Averlorn Campaign - Adventure Module X1 The Lair of the Kopru<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #bf9000;">Recap from 10/26/2012 Averlorn Session</span></div>
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While the
other characters were waiting for the four to explore the area beyond the deep
water in the large room, and after the water had receded quite a bit when it
drained down the stair case, they noticed that what we had previously though
was a dead crab in the middle of the room was in fact a very large clam!
At this point they realized that we had most likely found the location of the
fabled giant black pearl that we were sent to retrieve – it was likely to be
found within the shell of the giant clam!<br />
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After the advance group returned to the remaining party members, and Skeorn and the barbarian showed
the rest of the group how to circumvent the deep water by going down the other
hallway without having to swim, the group descended the staircase beyond
the second portcullis at the landing. When we got to the bottom we
noticed that it was very hot and steamy due to all of the water running down the
stairs and into the heat of the room below. We also surmised that there was
some sort of natural heat source down here like lava or boiling geysers or
something. So we decided to go back up the stairs for a bit until the
steam went away or diminished somewhat, and so that we could give our Monk an opportunity to attempt to extricate
the giant black pearl from the maw of the giant clam…<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Giant Clam did in fact contain the fabled black pearl!
After using the trademark maneuver "Monkey steals the peach" Amul the
Monk snatched the giant black pearl from the giant Clam before it could snap
its shell closed upon his hand! So we succeeded in our primary task of
acquiring the gift of the giant pearl for the God King!<br />
<br />
We continued to adventure in the City of the Ancients to the lower level after
camping and resting up for the night. At the bottom of the staircase leading downward, the party encountered an underground steam-geyser cavern containing large pools of boiling mud with walkways leading into it along the edges of the cavern on the left and right of the cavern walls. As we explored the further, we found that the cavern was very hot and humid as one would expect from such an underground infernal region.
Little did we know that we were being watched and stalked by a creature dwelling in the bubbling mud called a Kopru - it
looked something like this with a lamprey mouth:<br />
<br />
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We found out later that the Kopru were heat loving amphibians of great intelligence
and power. This creature lurked in the
pool of hot boiling mud and used its spell like abilities to dominate and charm
the party! Once the submersed creature cast its spell like charm abilities upon the group, both Narseal the Sun Elf and our Thugee war priest Skeorn began to attack the
party with their weapons after having been charmed by the evil creature! Luckily they were quickly
subdued by Lorinar the Wizard with the use of his Wand of Paralysis! The
party quickly tied up the two charmed characters and returned to the canoes outside and
the village beyond the lake and Taboo Island. The two tied up characters were not very happy
with their incarceration but after we explained to them that it was necessary
due to the evil enchantment that was placed upon them by the Kopru, they forgave us for the transgression. When we arrived at the village, the local
witch doctor dispelled the evil Voodoo Magic that was placed upon them by casting dispel magic and remove curse upon the two
affected party members. It was
determined that the island was named <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Voodoo</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype></st1:place> for a reason and
we decided it was best to let sleeping Kopru lie as they were a very dangerous
and powerful foe to contend with.<br />
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After the group rested and healed up from the ordeal, we
searched the outer rim of the crater and found the trail that led out of the crater to the north that the tribesmen from Taboo Isle had told us about. After a few encounters with pteranodons and
dire wolves, we found the ravine with the vein of corbitumite that had an estimated
value of 25,000 g.p. if we were able to successfully mine the corbitumite vein and ship it's contents back to the mainland!!!
We quickly realized that we could be rich if we were able to organize a mercantile mining and shipping operation from the Isle of Dread to extricate the precious fuel and transport it via in order to ship it back to the mainland so we proceeded with setting up the operation with the means at our disposal.<br />
<br />
With the mission complete we decided to return to the mainland in order to report in to
the Brotherhood of the Black Crowes and to bestow our gift of the giant black
peal upon the God King in order to conclude our quest.<br />
<br />
ADVENTURE FINI!!!</div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-89894955251166958712013-04-24T01:39:00.003-04:002013-04-24T14:55:20.221-04:00Averlorn Campaign - Adventure Module X1 The Lower Levels of the Temple<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">RECAP from 10/19/2012 Averlorn Session</span></b><br />
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We started off by searching the area around the first secret
door that we had found previously. We found
spy holes looking out over entry area, rotted ropes and levers that did nothing
when pulled. Ragnar the Thugee War
Wizard and Skeorn the Thugee Cleric got a rash from a yellow mold like
substance that they touched while searching rubble in the corner. We also found large stone feet on the steps
outside above where the destroyed statue used to be.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii7Wfln8kK7rn50MsgcT3EAjeVOWEhdZWf-YkHEClzsvXcnOJN6YKC0nQINBZHkFKbUbjTj3GlXYbTuCdBkkkD5ZZhBG5QJkdeYrLKRdRlNG1Xle7zg-iOlpXPfZ4Z3B3aZqUo3ENebPTP/s1600/ogre_face_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii7Wfln8kK7rn50MsgcT3EAjeVOWEhdZWf-YkHEClzsvXcnOJN6YKC0nQINBZHkFKbUbjTj3GlXYbTuCdBkkkD5ZZhBG5QJkdeYrLKRdRlNG1Xle7zg-iOlpXPfZ4Z3B3aZqUo3ENebPTP/s320/ogre_face_web.jpg" width="243" /></a>The group then opened the secret door and found stairs that
led to a platform over the giant stone face in the large room beyond the entry
corridor where we had fought the natives in the previous session. Skeorn pulled a lever and fire shot out of
the mouth and set the firepit alight again!
While searching below the stairs, Skeorn fell into a trap door and took
some damage. He was in a room full of
statues - four on two walls and two on another wall with a passage leading out
of the room. While searching the
statues, Ragnar disturbed a group of four deadly poisonous cobras! Unfortunately, three of the four bit him and
he failed all three saving throws! (he
rolled a 2, a 2 and a 3) It was only a
matter of time before he died but Skorn had memorized Delay Poison and cast it
on him to buy him some time. We got back
into the canoes and paddled back to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">village</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Mantru</st1:placename></st1:place>
across the lake to see if there was anything that the villagers could do for
him but all the village shaman could do was cast delay poison again which
bought him another four hours and then he died.
We gave him a proper Viking funeral and put him in a canoe piled with
wood, set it alight and sent it adrift into the lake to burn up and eventually
sink to the bottom, so that he could rest in <st1:place w:st="on">Valhalla</st1:place>
with the good graces of Odin.</div>
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There was another Thugee barbarian warrior that had recently
arrived at the village from the ship and he joined the group in Ragnar’s
place. So we headed back to <st1:placename w:st="on">Taboo</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype>
in our canoes and resumed our search of the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city> of the Gods. Several party members climbed back down into
the room below the trap door and resumed the search. Amul the Monk used his speak with animals ability to talk to
the cobras and asked them if it was OK if we searched the statues and they said
it was OK as long as we didn't bother them.
Besides, they said we were too big to eat and they were sorry they
killed our friend but that he had startled them and they were merely acting in
self defense. </div>
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So after searching the room, one of the elves found a secret
door in one corner of the room but we didn't open it right away. Also, Skeorn had set off a pressure plate or
something that caused a portcullis to fall over the only other portal out of
the room. The fighter types combined
their strength to try to lift it but couldn't get it to budge. Skeorn opened up a door in another corner
that had a puddle of water on the floor around it and sure enough, just like we
feared, the room quickly filled up with water which flooded down the hallway
past the portcullis and we were forced to wade in waist deep water from that
point on since the entire floor was now flooded.</div>
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So we opened up the secret door and came out into a hallway
at a three way intersection. This entire
area was now flooded as well. We traveled
down one of the branches of the hallway with Skeorn the Thugee War priest and
our new barbarian comrade in the lead. The
corridor went on for a ways and then we went up a short flight of stairs to a
landing and down a short flight of stairs to a continuation of the
hallway. Once he got to the other side
of the hallway beyond the second set of steps, he felt something brush up against
his leg and then was attacked by three normal sized crocodiles! After a brief melee, the three reptiles were
killed by the two warriors with some help from the monk and one of the elves
wielding spears and afterwards we resumed our search. At the end of the long hallway was another
flooded room in which there was a very wicked looking mace hanging on the
wall! Skeorn picked it up and kept it
since it was even more wicked looking than the one he had and looked like the
kind of weapon that would suit a Thugee War priest of Odin!</div>
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The group searched the room and the barbarian found a small
purse with some gold coins in it and a couple of small coral statues that appeared
to be worth a decent amount of money!
Aside from these items though, there was nothing else in the room. We resumed our search and back tracked back
to the three way intersection and went down another passageway. This hallway was lined with a group of cell
blocks on both sides with wrought iron bars from floor to ceiling and locked
gates designed to keep prisoners in, though it had long ago been
abandoned. At the end of the hallway we
found a torture chamber that was similarly abandoned and there were old decayed
and rusty implements of torture lying about.
So we went back out into the hallway and down at one end there was a
door that Skeorn opened. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha2tvPXSVCdz1QSLtcWsUoAX2poxsqnSvZzgoEp2w2TFgBa9xm0EC6HolYu1gEfX0XiNlqQZBnnwRHlsPa1Ur-6IxeMwB3VKvbR_0QmBxNK4epc3DNSS61Q2q5mziwH7RzREXD3rdlqCqs/s1600/Giant+Crab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha2tvPXSVCdz1QSLtcWsUoAX2poxsqnSvZzgoEp2w2TFgBa9xm0EC6HolYu1gEfX0XiNlqQZBnnwRHlsPa1Ur-6IxeMwB3VKvbR_0QmBxNK4epc3DNSS61Q2q5mziwH7RzREXD3rdlqCqs/s400/Giant+Crab.jpg" width="310" /></a>Beyond was another flooded room but this one was very large
being some seventy feet square. As
Skeorn waded out into the water, he realized that he was on a landing that had
stairs off of it going down deeper into the water! Realizing that the water was very deep, the
Thugee cleric and the barbarian stripped off their armor so they could swim and
left their armor hanging on the statues back in the first room to keep it from
sitting in the murky water and rusting away. Skeorn swam across to the other
side of the room. There he found a wide
passageway in the middle of the one wall with a 20’ wide set of stairs leading
up. Unfortunately, the stairs were
blocked with rubble from a cave in, and it looked like the entire staircase
area had suffered a cave in long ago and collapsed. So he couldn’t go up that way. He swam across to the other side opposite the
original landing and ended up at a shallower area which appeared to be a another
set of semi circular steps in the water below, leading up to a quarter round
dais landing at the highest point before finally reaching another portal that
led out of the room. </div>
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As he started walking up the stairs through the continually
decreasing depth of water over them, he was attacked by two very large giant
crabs that swam up out of the depth of the water of the room and tried to maul him
with their four giant pincers! So Skeorn
had no armored protection aside from his shield and during the fight, they
managed to cut him up a little, but fortunately, he had help from the archers
and wizards across the room on the landing on the other side who pin-cushioned
the giant crustaceans with arrows while the two wizards hit them with magical
missiles. We managed to kill one and
hurt the other badly enough that Skeorn was able to finish it off with his
mace.</div>
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Once the crabs were defeated, he was joined by the
barbarian, the Monk Amul and Lorinar the Elvish wizard and the four swam across
the room after him searching the deep water briefly. While swimming across the water the barbarian
spotted what looked to be a giant dead crab on the bottom but didn’t think
anything of it so the three continued across to join Skeorn in the hallway on
the other side. With Skeorn leading the
way, the group made its way past some apparent rat tunnels in the walls and to
another door at the end of the hallway.
Skeorn entered the room with the barbarian and it appeared to be empty
so he started heading to the door on the other side of the room. </div>
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As he was walking through the waist deep water, he stepped
over a tripwire and suddenly a gout of burning oil gushed out of an opening in
the wall into the room and the hallway beyond burning the four characters with
an oily substance that stuck to their skin!
(kind of like Napalm!) As the
four retreated to get away from the burning oil floating on top of the water,
they continued getting burned until Lorinar realized that going under the water
actually helped to put the fire out. So
the four party members were burned a little but not too badly. After a few healing spells were cast, the
group resumed their search. This time
Skeorn swam over the trip wire to get to the door beyond and didn’t set off the
trap again. When he opened the door, all
of the water that had recently flooded the hallway and the other areas beyond rushed
out and flooded out into the hall knocking Skeorn off of his feet, and he was
pushed into an iron portcullis 10’ down the hall beyond. He was a little bruised and battered but
otherwise all right.</div>
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After the water drained out of the hallway we could see that
beyond the portcullis was a stair leading down and another door on the left at
the top of the landing. We could also
clearly see the trip wire on the floor that set off the burning oil trap which
we could now simply step over. He opened
up the door and in the hallway beyond was what appeared to be a well going down
further into the earth with gouts of heat and steam billowing up from it! Whatever was down there was boiling and hot
and best to be avoided. The barbarian
easily jumped across the well and Skeorn carefully went around it hugging the
walls. Beyond the well was another
really long passageway which the two followed until they came to the other
portcullis at the other end in the first room with the statues in it! So they retrieved their armor and put it back
on and went back around to the rest of the group that was still waiting in the
larger room above the large flooded room that the others had previously swam
accross.</div>
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While the other characters were waiting for the four to
explore the area beyond the deep water in the large room, and after the water
had receded quite a bit when it drained down the stair case, they noticed that
what we had previously though was a dead crab in the middle of the room was in
fact a very large clam! At this point we
realized that we had most likely found the location of the fabled giant black
pearl that we were sent to retrieve – it was likely to be found within the shell
of the giant clam! So Skeorn and the
barbarian showed the rest of the group how to circumvent the deep water by
going down the other hallway without having to swim and the group descended the
stair case beyond the second portcullis at the landing. When we got to the bottom we noticed it was
very hot and steamy due to all of the water running down the staircase into the
heat of the room below. We surmised that
there was some sort of natural heat source down here like lava or boiling
geysers or something. So we decided to
go back up the stairs for a bit until the steam went away or diminished a bit
and our allow our Monk to attempt to extricate the giant black pearl from the
maw of the giant clam…</div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000;">TO BE CONTINUED…</span></div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-64924650644978547352013-04-18T01:30:00.002-04:002013-04-18T01:50:27.872-04:00Averlorn Campaign - Adventure Module X1 The Monks Finest Hour: Fists of Fury!<span style="color: #bf9000;">RECAP from 10/13/2012 Averlorn Session</span><br />
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I have to say that was the most enjoyable battle we've had
since switching over to AD&D - it was very cool. I was thinking about it a
bit today and Amul really made the difference in that fight - first, he rolled
a 20 to catch an arrow in mid air and knocked another one out of the air away
from him while still in the entry tunnel after the two fighters had charged up
the stairs to the left of the tunnel to engage the archers. After realizing
that the arrows were poisoned, he fired the one that he caught from his bow and
hit one of the tribal leaders that was charging towards the rest of the group
at the tunnel entrance. This warrior failed his save and his eyes rolled up inside
of his head and he started frothing at the mouth and dropped to the floor
twitching and spasming in convulsions. Shortly afterwards, Amul finally turned
invisible from the potion of invisibility he had taken previously, and ran up
the stair with Narsil the Elf and Tobin's Ranger heading towards the archers on
the balcony above. Before the two armored fighters even made it up the stairs
they got swarmed by the warriors on the floor from below and had to turn around
and fight them to fend them off. Since Amul had finally turned invisible when
the natives reached the stair, he managed to quickly slip away from the fight
up the stair past the two fighters onto the middle of the balcony overlooking
the large room below. He fired his bow and managed to kill one or two of the
archers on the balcony and became visible while the rest of the archers
repositioned themselves further down the balcony and around the corner so they
could get shots at the rest of the group and at the monk. </div>
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In the following round, Amul realized that the shaman on the
bottom of the stairs was about to cast something really nasty on the two
fighters (Tony told us later it was hold person which could have been game over
for those two guys if they had failed their saves since they were being swarmed
by warriors) so he picked up a quiver of the poisoned arrows from the archer he
had just dropped and fired two of them at the Shaman! The first one missed but
the second one hit its mark before the spell was completed, and all of a sudden
the shaman went all glassy eyed and dropped onto the stair with white froth
coming out of his mouth and started twitching convulsively! Meanwhile, the
battle below raged on with the two clerics in plate mail holding the hallway
against a large group of warriors with Lorinar the Elvish Wizard behind them.
Lorinar managed to cast his sleep spell and dropped all of the natives on the
floor outside of the tunnel (including Skeorn, our Thuggee Cleric), except for
the ones that charged our guide Quoyoga who suddenly turned visible in the
middle of the room next to the central firepit as he was trying to cast sleep
on the rest of the archers on the balcony! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggqwGYdPhxdpYihGioQB-PZh1BqBukaPV9XekN4eHZMFDg3tgcnFsbpmzzmdTreVcTj_424goiNA4ZX9iIU6O9c6VKCfFvayC3rwnjQB5u3iyV-OvGWih_rLi7iZLI6U5qK9g5sfNLqWqG/s1600/indiana-jones-angry-natives.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggqwGYdPhxdpYihGioQB-PZh1BqBukaPV9XekN4eHZMFDg3tgcnFsbpmzzmdTreVcTj_424goiNA4ZX9iIU6O9c6VKCfFvayC3rwnjQB5u3iyV-OvGWih_rLi7iZLI6U5qK9g5sfNLqWqG/s400/indiana-jones-angry-natives.jpg" width="400" /></a>As if Amul hadn't already done enough to swing the battle in
our favor, he was left with a stark choice - go through one of the doors off of
the balcony to get out of site of the remaining ten or so archers on the
railing, and effectively withdraw from the battle, climb down to the floor and
risk being peppered by poisoned puffer fish venom arrows, or engage the
remaining archers on the balcony in hand to hand by himself so they couldn't
shoot him with their poisoned arrows! And wisely, he chose the latter option
and luckily for him initiative was tied on that round! So instead of his usual
two attacks with his fists of doom, since his weapon speed was 1 and their
weapon speed was 4 (they were using clubs) he got to make four attacks in the
round against the four guys around him! (when there is an initiative tie in
AD&D you use the difference between the two weapon speeds - in this case it
was 4 - 1 = 3 which meant that his attacks were three times faster than the
clubs so he got two extra attacks!). And of course, one was a crit so he did
damage and rolled his stunning attack and stunned one guy right before killing
him, and the other three hits resulted in three more archers going down! It was
like Bruce Lee just opened up a can of whoopass on a bunch of mooks and they
were dropping like flies! </div>
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Meanwhile, Rollo joined the fray on the stairs after
charging the mob of natives there that were attacking the fighters and kept
them from fleeing while the two fighters kept pounding on them from above on
the steps. Narsil and the Ranger eventually managed to slay their leader after
a fierce melee - Tony said he was a 7th level fighter after the battle!
Meanwhile, Amul, I mean Bruce Lee, started Karate chopping the rest of the
archers on the balcony and a few more went down and the rest started climbing
down the large demon head statue at the end of the balcony to the floor below
to get away from his fists of fury. Prior to that, the guys that had ganged up
on Quoyoga had him outnumbered five to one and managed to drop him since he
became visible in the center of the room before he could get his sleep spell
off (he was lightly armored like our opponents). Seeing his plight, our Thugee
War priest Skeorn, who Lorinar had awakened, single handedly charged them to
try to save our guide. Two engaged him in melee and the other three started
climbing up the rope to try to make it out through the hole in the ceiling
along with some of the archers that had climbed down to the floor by this
point.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS-mslbOY1ziaaF-MLB-ct4VMTQKseYGgJnNSucmI1Sf_zlmPDF-5EkGS9HrF5SDd-gJnr1MR12F9Z-IAOKwU0QJV8kuJcDTgGK9oshY7NLW_QJWk4Dgx_PvPBU4Gw4T5-hmdlmU7Cd4nH/s1600/The+Black+Company.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS-mslbOY1ziaaF-MLB-ct4VMTQKseYGgJnNSucmI1Sf_zlmPDF-5EkGS9HrF5SDd-gJnr1MR12F9Z-IAOKwU0QJV8kuJcDTgGK9oshY7NLW_QJWk4Dgx_PvPBU4Gw4T5-hmdlmU7Cd4nH/s320/The+Black+Company.jpg" width="198" /></a>Lorinar fired a few times with his bow and missed but Amul decided he was going
to try to bring the lot of them down in one shot and aimed for the rope! It was
a thick rope so it wasn't an impossible shot (Tony gave it an AC of 2) and he
managed to hit it with one of his arrows! Then Tony figured out the rope's hit
points after it failed an item saving throw to see if it actually took enough
damage to break, and Allen rolled maximum damage or close to it and it did!
Then Tony rolled to see how many guys took a d6 damage from the fall (they
probably had less than six hit points) and he rolled a six! So one guy sprained
his ankle and the rest of them were killed in the fall! Afterwards it was mop
up time and Lorinar managed to kill one of the guys fleeing down the face of
the statue with his bow and finally, the rest of them, seeing the futility of
the situation surrendered! All of their leaders were gone, their children had
managed to escape up the rope but the remaining archers, women combatants and
warriors (only about 15 left out of 40 initially) had had enough and laid down
their weapons seeing that they could not prevail. </div>
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After the battle we found a +1 spear and a +2 longsword
amongst them and a bunch of gems, a potion of flying and a nugget of
Corbitimite around the leader's neck on a string! We asked the survivors where
they had found that and they said that only the leaders knew where the
corbitumite vein was located but if we could find it and successfully mine it,
we would all be rich! Corbitumite is the fuel that powers the fires that drive
the Dragonships and is a very valuable commodity. So we brought our prisoners
back to the island and the villagers of Mantru were astonished that not only
were their enemies not demons like they believed (they were all wearing scary
demon masks), but they were in fact humans like themselves, and they were even
more amazed that we managed to prevail against them and bring what remained of
the tribe to them for judgement! So after they debated their fate, they had the
remaining evil men amongst their enemies summarily executed (they were evil
cannibals after all) and kept the women as slaves. We went back to the island
afterwards and searched the big central room which served as their lair and
found a couple of secret doors. Also, there was a tunnel leading through the
big statue's head in the main chamber opposite the entry hallway that went
straight for a ways and then turned to the right but since it was late we
called the session there.<br />
<br />
All I have to say is that Allen had the game of his life playing the Monk who
was in his element against numerous low level lightly armored foes. That
situation was really the best kind of fight for a mid level monk who is fast
and has multiple punch attacks. I'm pretty sure he single handedly killed or
poisoned like 15 or more of them out of the 40 (poisoned leader down below with
arrow, killed another archer on the balcony with his bow, poisoned the shaman,
killed another six or so archers by himself on the balcony, shot the rope that
killed another six!) and I may have missed one or two in the count - it was a
really fun and eventful session... </div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000;">TO BE CONTINUED...</span></div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-63589926369865950362013-04-17T01:36:00.002-04:002013-04-17T02:37:26.037-04:00Averlorn Campaign - Adventure Module X1 The City of the Ancients<span style="color: #bf9000;">RECAP from 10/5/12 Averlorn Session</span><br />
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Note: this recap was mostly written by Allen who was playing Amul
the Monk at the time with edits and supplements at the end during the combat with
the natives. He posted the original
recap on the <a href="http://battlebuddy.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=12">Battlebuddies RPG Forum</a> which was created and is run by our GM Scadgrad. Allen's original recap can be found at the forum here:</div>
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<a href="http://battlebuddy.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5728">Allen's original recap on Battlebuddies</a><br />
<br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn1oJQAi_L9jKt5o8mbUP6FtjK3Jhzx4a6y_o7IaVMkxvYZgf0GE6lcQI1B6fDDcAlyH2vriIIxtZDhWe6aCm1EU_IobC_vh0knEQUJBGAWsA8YJSdLys2z_Bj4_eLso-FkzBZ81gSOvyY/s1600/El+Capitain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn1oJQAi_L9jKt5o8mbUP6FtjK3Jhzx4a6y_o7IaVMkxvYZgf0GE6lcQI1B6fDDcAlyH2vriIIxtZDhWe6aCm1EU_IobC_vh0knEQUJBGAWsA8YJSdLys2z_Bj4_eLso-FkzBZ81gSOvyY/s1600/El+Capitain.jpg" /></a>We camped at the base of the mountain. The party
needed a day or two to process all of the meat we acquired from killing several
elk during a hunt that occurred during the session before (our rations were low
and we were supplementing our food by hunting - elk and Pterodactyl jerky
needed to be made). The party was accosted by a dino-armadillo creature during
the third watch that did some damage, but we were able to put it down in short
order.<br />
<br />
The following morning the party climbed the
mountain using the rope of climbing - it was a near vertical climb! After a
brief encounter with some Pterodactyls while we were climbing (we batted them
away) the crows reached the summit and found out that we were on top of a
volcano! The party spent the night
in sub- 0 temperatures which resulted in frostbite damage for everyone - it was
perhaps the coldest night we have ever spent!! In fact it was colder than......<br />
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The following day, we ascended into the Caldera
valley. Here it was very warm and
tropical on the valley floor and the crows spotted a village on the floor of
the valley below. We guessed it had about one hundred or so island natives as
inhabitants. The village was set up for
fishing the large lake at the center of the volcano. They seemed
hostile at first, but after figuring out we were friendly they accepted us - and,
I mean accepted us! They had no concept
of personal property - simply put, what they had was ours and what we had was
theirs! The characters were all assigned
to live with different family groups and we were one with the community!<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTFszyuD5EYXuUIsgdmcumYRFud0SaQ7kBlJzCen9BTFUeT-MYnhQwVpfdHWEE4_HCoySyBdMdKITrtxQ8bWG3BcdBXeXklpr0a1B0dpuAdkw54DiTUP2Tm8oTTJ4H9xQVxZbXHrYaE3kh/s1600/Beach+Party.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTFszyuD5EYXuUIsgdmcumYRFud0SaQ7kBlJzCen9BTFUeT-MYnhQwVpfdHWEE4_HCoySyBdMdKITrtxQ8bWG3BcdBXeXklpr0a1B0dpuAdkw54DiTUP2Tm8oTTJ4H9xQVxZbXHrYaE3kh/s320/Beach+Party.jpg" width="320" /></a>Amul mentioned to the village community that 'our sister' Paladin
Sierra was an unmarried female (a nice military-style practical joke since she
was a Paladin!)<br />
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People of note:<br />
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THE CHIEF - a small stone statue - (this might be a god idol), but we were to
respect it and talk to it as if it was a real person. </div>
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Oo-lot - "the talking chief" seemed to be the
leader and was very old, friendly, and scarred.</div>
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Fon-o – the Village Shaman was an old leader type who worshiped the "Sky God".</span><br />
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After staying for a while to rest up and replenish our nourishment and supplies,
the group found it had been totally befriended by the village. At this point the village elders asked us to
destroy the "Devils" that lived on the island in the middle of the lake. The island was called "<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Taboo</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype></st1:place>". According to the elders these devils regularly
hunted, captured, and preyed on the villagers. After agreeing to help
them in this matter, the party set off across the lake to attack the “Devils”.
Upon our arrival, we found some "ancient ruins" which was what we had
been seeking - the fabled City of the Ancients!!!<br />
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We crossed the lake from the village to the island in the
middle in canoes provide to us by the villagers for the assault. After an initial investigation of the old
temple face on the edge of the lake, we went up some steps and found a hallway
leading into darkness. The hallway was
filled with rubble so we could only proceed single file. The crows began the advance into the hallway and
suddenly, the Paladin in front was attacked by five spear men. They were defending the "choke
point" at the end of the tunnel so we couldn't really bring all of our
forces to bear - only two people could fight at a time including one with a
spear behind the Paladin. These spear men then raised the alarm alerting their
companions beyond the entry. During the
initial melee, three spear men were killed and then the guards fell back into
what appeared to be a large room beyond the entry corridor. More natives charged in to block our entrance into
the room, but we beat them back and finally cleared the choke point and they
left a rearguard of two natives behind to cover their retreat who were finally
overcome.<br />
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During the melee we wounded one of their leaders (a spear
guy) who took 17 hits and fell back with the rest of them. When it was over, Sierra was up front with Narsil
the Sun Elf behind her and Rollo the dwarf was behind him with the rest of the
party following behind in single file.
The Paladin could see many more in the large room beyond including
archers, and it looked like they were waiting for us to charge into the room in
order to let loose with a volley of arrows and spears - and that's where we
left it. We also thought that these devils were nothing more than evil
humans in 'devil' costumes. No
gold or items where found but we did find a nice village and what seems to be
the "City of the Ancients" so it was a productive session. The next session is looking like a scrum from
the get go and should be exciting... </div>
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TO BE CONTINUED...</span></div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-67011783199050625492013-03-29T01:27:00.001-04:002013-04-24T14:53:45.339-04:00Averlorn Campaign - Adventure Module X1 the Isle of Dread <span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>Recaps from 9/14/12 and 9/22/12 Averlorn Sessions</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>Part I - the Voyage</b></span></div>
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The Brotherhood of the Black Crowes had a new assignment for
the group. A map had recently been found
by some adventurers and it was discovered that when heated, the location of a distant
jungle island called the Isle of Dread showed up on the parchment. There was also an account that indicated that
a vast sum of riches and even a huge black pearl were hidden in a long lost
City of the Gods located somewhere on the island. We were assigned by the Brotherhood the task
of finding the huge black pearl to give to the God King as a present, but were
allowed to keep other treasures where found there minus 10% for the Brotherhood
for arranging passage and setting up the whole expedition. Several of our group were not used to sea
travel and were ill for the first few days but eventually found there sea
legs. During the sea voyage, the ship
was attacked by a very large bird of prey that killed a few sailors before the
group finally managed to hit it with several magic missiles and arrows and finally, Ragnar’s sleep spell which brought it down.
Afterwards, we made it to Harbor Reach without any problems. </div>
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The group brought aboard a quantity of trade goods to trade
with the locals at the island upon our arrival.
When we boarded the ship the Golden lass, we noticed that Captain Jerran
Colbertis had similar ideas, as he had stashed aboard the ship a large quantity
of wine to trade in the port cities along the way since otherwise, the ship
would have been empty sailing from port to port which would have been a wasted
opportunity to trade some goods and make some money. So once we arrived in Harbor Reach we decided
to do likewise since it was known that good wine was made in that city but not
necessarily in our next port of call which was the City of <st1:city w:st="on">Zarathus</st1:city>.
Zarathus was another coastal city within the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Ertris</st1:placename></st1:place>
further to the south of Harbor Reach. So
when we finally arrived in Zarathus, the group managed to find a buyer for the
wine and both the group and the Captain sold their wine to some merchants in a
deal arranged in the Crippled Ape Tavern, a quiet little inn frequented by
traders. Once there, we made some
inquiries as to what might be available in the islands and what they might want
in trade, and used the profits from the wine sale to buy even more trade goods
to trade with the natives of the island.</div>
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We sailed from Zarathus and had to outrun a violent storm by
tacking along its edge but eventually made it to the Isle of Dread unharmed. The isle was located in
or near the Great Banks to the southeast if Zarathus. When we arrived, we found the natives of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">village</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Tonnora</st1:placename></st1:place> to be very friendly and eager to
trade with us. We found out that they
had ample supplies of ivory, coffee beans, and a beautiful and rare type of
teak wood with a bluish purple color to trade, but they really lacked raw metal
ore and glazed pottery and were eager to try and set up some sort of regular
trading between our peoples. We
offloaded the trade goods and they loaded up the ship with about 5,000 g.p.
worth of the ivory, rare wood, and coffee beans that they could gather or had
on hand which we could sell for a tidy profit once back home or on the way
there.</div>
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The other thing we discovered was that the natives had a
matriarchal society – the women ruled the tribes but the men were still the
warriors and held positions of authority like their spokesman Augma of the Hawk
Clan. There was also a witch doctor that
eyed us suspiciously but we didn't really converse with him. The village was one of many on the main
island and nearby islands, but this one in particular was located on the
southern tip of the main island in order to guard a massive stone wall across a
narrow peninsula of land that separated the human inhabitants on this end of the
island from the many dangers further inland.</div>
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The wall looked like it was a thousand years old and the
natives said it had been built by the gods.
The wall had four huge seventy foot tall by a hundred foot square towers
interspersed at regular intervals along its length, and a massive gate straight
out of the movie King Kong, and was built to protect against the great beasts
and rampaging humanoids found further to the north of the island. The area beyond the walls had been cleared
for a ways to allow archers to keep the wandering creatures from the island
from getting too close to the walls and assaulting them. Beyond that was another line of defense which had often helped to keep the larger predators away from the walls – the tar
pits. Augma also said the villagers regularly
visited the tar pits in order to collect the tar for waterproofing the thatched roofs of
their huts and for other uses, but rarely ventured any further than that. When we asked him to pinpoint the location of
the City of the Gods on our map, he pointed to an area in the northeast of the
island before the island narrowed down to a point further to the north and
east.</div>
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Within the town itself, we noticed that there was a central
pyramid and four mounds at each of the cardinal points surrounded by a circular
wooden palisade. We were told that the
ancestors were buried within the mounds and that there was one such mound for
each of the clans (such as the Elk clan or instance). We asked Augma about the ancestors but he
didn’t want to talk about them – he said something about bad juju. When we asked if they had had any recent
visitors from the mainland the leader said some other visitors had arrived
earlier in the spring that spoke a different language and also said that they had
been forced to land because their ship had been damaged in a storm. He also told us that there were cannibals
living on some of the outer islands as well and to be wary of them. When we asked him about the City of the Gods
he said that his people believed that the gods actually lived there and built
the place.</div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>Part II - the Isle of Dread</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #bf9000;"><br /></span></div>
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So after the trade goods had been distributed and loaded
aboard the ship, we provisioned ourselves and prepared to set forth further
into the island beyond the great wall.
The villagers agreed to provide us with some porters and a guide for a
nominal payment and we loaded up and set forth into the teeming jungle. About halfway to the tar pits we set up camp
for the evening and shortly into the first watch there was trouble. Lorinar and Rollo were on the first watch
when the camp was attacked by a large group of Rock Baboons! We did our best to alert the camp but they
were on us before everyone could even wake up and defend ourselves.
Several of the characters were wounded and four of the six porters were
rent by the savage beasts limb from limb and killed in a grisly fashion. Lorinar somehow managed to get a sleep spell
off and managed to stay unscathed in the fray, but nearly everyone else
in the group was wounded by the time we managed to slay the last of them. At this point we found out that our guide
Quyoga had some healing abilities since he also helped us to treat the
wounded. We also noticed that he wasn't quite like the other natives – he was Sea Blooded! (from Realms of Crawling
Chaos).</div>
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So on the following day we resumed our journey and
eventually made it to the tar pits…</div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>Next session…</b></span></div>
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It was a fun session.
Tony rolled up a Sea Blooded fighter/cleric/shaman dude to play so we we
would have a bit of healing - he turned out to be our guide which made it believable. The first potential encounter was at night
during one of the watches when a group of zombies came close to the camp -
Quoyoga went into the woods and said he would take care of it and Lorinar saw
him leading the zombies away! At that
point we were thinking they really were into ancestor worship because he said
the "ancestors" are restless or something along those lines.<br />
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We continued our march through the hills and
eventually into the jungle again and on another night, the group was nearly
attacked by four gigantic bears (the biggest ones in the monster manual) so we
decided to flee that encounter after Lorinar and Ragnar managed to slow them
down with Stinking Cloud and Web spells.
One failed its save and was incapacitated by the cloud and the others
had to go around or through the web but the spells bought us enough time to get
away. Unfortunately, our hasty
withdrawal meant we lost a week or so of rations which were left behind, though
that was better than becoming bear food ourselves! These bears were huge and probably would have
run us over and tore us to shreds! So
after that we kept going and entered an area of limestone hills that had caves
everywhere and our guide told us not to go into the caves. He said there was a tribe of white apes
somewhere on the islands that drove the original inhabitants out but we weren't
sure what was in the caves so we heeded his advice and continued on. After that, we had another encounter during
our watch with a pair of saber tooth tigers that were also huge and very
hungry! This time they were on us before
we could get our stinking cloud and web spells off and it was a tough fight but
we managed to slay them and only took a few wounds. </div>
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After that we kept going and eventually hit a mountain range
which we decided to cross. On the other
side we came to a deep canyon (like the size of the grand canyon!) with a river way at
the bottom. We noticed that off to the
left was a rope bridge across it straight out of an Indiana Jones movie or
something! So the monk cautiously
crossed the bridge and made it about halfway across, but then suddenly three
Pteranodon's appeared in the sky above and started diving down towards him! This was their hunting grounds apparently and
they were hungry for some monk meat! Fortunately, monks are fast (they move 15") and he quaffed half of
his invisibility potion, turned invisible and made it back to the side that the
group was on before they got to him. So
the Pteradon's swooped in on the party and a fierce melee ensued. Lorinar cast magic missile on one, the
paladin, Quoyoga and Narsil killed another, then Ragnar cast sleep in the
comical finale and slept another one, put the Paladin and Abscondias to sleep,
but not before Abscondias got off a magic missile spell and killed the third one on the way
down and then the wizard hit the ground for a dirt nap afterwards, since both spells went
off in the same segment! That was pretty
funny but that's where we left it. We
can see the plateau where the City of the Gods is supposed to be located beyond
the canyon and the only thing between us and it is the rope bridge and the
river gorge. It was a fun and exciting
session - I have to say that this module is pretty cool! It has a very Indiana Jones/King Kong/Rudyard
Kipling story feel to it...</div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-41508955257403179792013-01-25T02:07:00.001-05:002013-01-28T02:13:39.597-05:00Averlorn Campaign - A Murder Most Foul and an Evil Tome bound in human flesh...<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">Recap from 1/20/2013 Averlorn Online Session using Map Tools</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglvzqL5LdYexZv4IsP2GL2GxMC1Y9QhytKfEjMhCpbEHjJH6WdfOFCmTE4ERq1OGZi9BoO6VPG-vUm4umt2mO_FxcAlmCOgUrPlNOZi802yD6x35c0CB_EDz3B_TxI6HUiTB0YPV8Hug-u/s1600/Necronomicon+Army+of+Darkness.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglvzqL5LdYexZv4IsP2GL2GxMC1Y9QhytKfEjMhCpbEHjJH6WdfOFCmTE4ERq1OGZi9BoO6VPG-vUm4umt2mO_FxcAlmCOgUrPlNOZi802yD6x35c0CB_EDz3B_TxI6HUiTB0YPV8Hug-u/s1600/Necronomicon+Army+of+Darkness.gif" /></a>I don't usually blog recaps about our online game using <a href="http://rptools.net/">MapTools</a>, but I took a lot of notes during the 1/23/2013 session which was mostly a story
based adventure within the City of <st1:city w:st="on">Caursetti</st1:city>
in the Archipelago. I thought it would be worthwhile endeavor to
post a recap here since it has all of the elements of a good murder mystery.
The background was that as our campaign started, we were hired to escort
one Gundar Thoricson, a Wealthy Thugee merchant, on a ship bound for Caursetti. The ship hit rough waters and possibly shoals, and sank off of the Devil's
Cape, also know as point Chuddoc on the southern tip of the Island<st1:place w:st="on"> </st1:place>of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename>.
The cape was known to be prowled by Sahugin (Sea Devils) and sure enough,
we were attacked by them while floundering in the water and trying to swim for
the shore. During the fight, our benefactor Gundar was slain and the Sea
Devils tried to make off with his possessions, including a curious puzzle box
which we found out later contained some kind of Arcane Tome, not unlike
the Necronomicon, which just so happened to be bound in human skin.
Amazingly, the group of 1st level characters managed to fend off two
Sahugin while in the water who were slain during the fight, and we later dove
into the shallows to retrieve both the puzzle box and his enchanted short
sword.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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What follows is a recap of the session in Caursetti where
we were trying to extricate ourselves from a tricky legal and political
situation within the Gleaming City of Arches. We had employed an Elven
Sage by the name of Lady Erslantz, a Sea Elf wizard, to identify the foul tome
bound in human skin for us. The next day when no one answered the
door, our wizard cast Reduce on the door to gain entry suspecting foul play.
Sure enough, they found the body of Lady Erslantz and her handmaiden and
a strange substance on both the blade and the floor. It appeared that the
lady had been strangled in her sleep and that her handmaiden
and servant had first been hit by some sort of magical attack (like
magic missile) and then gored by some fell creature, where-after she
bled out and died. The group left the premises and the door returned to
normal size, and they notified the city watch that they were supposed to meet
them at a certain time, and when they didn't answer that they went straight to
the watch to ask them to investigate since they suspected foul play. Of
course, the city guard immediately assumed they were guilty of the crime and
what follows is the narrative that occurred afterwards when we tried to extricate ourselves
from a legal and potentially political situation within a country with strict
laws, that just so happened to be at war with their enemy in Mallithorn which
is led by Ravishar the Undying:<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sorrin, our Gnomish Cleric/Illusionist met with Frunsharn the learned, the gnome illusionist
in order to discuss the enchantment on the door to one of the hideouts of Arham
of the Cult of the Red Snake that we found in <a href="http://www.xrpshop.citymax.com/catalog/item/3906568/3605787.htm">the Pod Caverns of the Sinister Shroom</a> (Arham
was apparently Grakhirt’s former master). He said that the magic on the
door was likely triggered by touching it and that if you could avoid touching
it while trying to open it somehow, that you might avoid the
enchantments. He also said that the knock or dispel illusion could work
to defeat the illusionary defenses along with a few other enchantments. One of our companions was laid low by a powerful illusion spell in a previous session that had been placed on the door and was in a comatose like state. Frunshar's efforts to revive the unwitting halfling met with failure and he remained in a deep magical slumber.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are two armed camps in the Falconbridge neighborhood
of Caursetti. One of these is the Iron Keep which is a huge fortress
where the Brotherhood of the Black Crowes are stationed and quartered.
The Crowes are an order of fanatical warrior monks in the service of the God
King. It is almost a city unto itself and occupies an area almost equal
in size to a borough of the city. The other one is the Embassy of the Sea
Elves in Caursetti. The Sea elf<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">kingdom</st1:placetype><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></st1:place></st1:placetype> </st1:place>of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placename w:st="on">Alatheon</st1:placename>, which
lies is to the Northwest of the island, has a smaller fortress and embassy
located in Falconbridge to represent its interests in the kingdom. It
contains a small Elven contingent, and when within the embassy compound, one is
considered to be upon Elven ground and subject to Elven laws.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Beyond the entrance to the Elven Embassy we were greeted by
one Finoleth Oldemain – a star elf who told the group that he would talk to
them about our problem. During this time the characters there noticed a
strange occurrence and commotion outside – a flight of Sea Elf dragons were
approaching the city in a long slow formation in order to indicate that they
held no hostile intent towards the city. He went on to say that he spoke
with his dead cousin the Elven sage a few hours ago (presumably using the Speak
with Dead Spell) and that she was confused about what transpired the night that
she died (she was murdered by some fell creature shortly after starting the
task of investigating the Evil book’s magical properties). She told the
ambassador that she was tasked to identify an item, but that she died violently
under uncertain conditions shortly after beginning the process of
identification.<o:p></o:p></div>
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After he looked at the sword of the servant that we
produced, and the oily substance on it, he indicated that it was a foe from
Malithorn that attacked and had slain his cousins. He said the sword
belonged to the Sage’s handmaiden Kaselris and that the family of the slain
handmaiden would want it back so the characters gave it to him.<o:p></o:p></div>
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They also told him about the book that the group had
obtained from Gundar Thoricson that had presumably caused the
enchantment. They produced it from the puzzle box for him to see and he
said that he believed that a considerable enchantment was on it to protect it
from prying eyes. He also said that Sea Elf Nobles and sages were often
able to provide identification of such arcane items as this. When the
group told him that we were attacked by the Sahugin off of the Devil’s cape
when Gundar Thoricson was killed (he was carrying the book at the time), he
explained that the Sahugin can sense magic. When our ship went down off
of the Devil’s cape, the book was what likely drew them to us, for the book
clearly has powerful magical properties. He indicated that we might want
to rid ourselves of such a foul and evil thing (it is bound in human skin after
all), and if we were to toss it into the sea in the area around Caursetti or
the Elven holdings, that it was unlikely to be found by the Sahugin or others
at the bottom of the ocean. The Sahugin in the area mostly live in the
seas around Devils point (point Chuddoc) but are not known to prowl in the
areas around Caursetti or where the Sea Elves reside.<o:p></o:p></div>
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He also told the group that Rallemon of Ilimus is a potent
wizard and Archmage who is well connected within the city of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on">Carusetti</st1:city>.
He said it was wise to deal with him cautiously with regard to such powerful
and evil magical artifacts. He went on to say that he is known to
interact with the enemy (Ravishar’s minions) and that he frequently travelled
freely amongst them. He also said that he has powerful allies amongst the
wizards in iron keep, Home of the Brotherhood of the Black Crowes who are the
faithful servants of the God King. He went on to explain that it was
quite likely that the enemy would get the book if we sold it to Rallemon
according to the ambassador.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Afterwards, he said that the group is currently in a
compromised situation with regards to the slain elves that we employed to
investigate the book. He explained that the constabulary in the borough
that we were residing in (God’s walk) is a man of ambitious political desires,
and wields his power and influence in order to prove that he has full control
over his borough in order to further his future political aspirations. He
then said that he will not stop until this matter is resolved. The legal
system in the great city is not what one would normally expect based on those
found in other realms, but that the neighborhood, and others like it, are ruled
with an iron fist especially the more affluent and secure neighborhoods in the
city.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One option he presented, which he said would not be cheap,
would be to have a close associate of the Sea Elf ambassador carry the item to
Tol Alatheon where a wizard of the court could ascertain its properties and
potential dangers. He then said that we could secure passage on a human
vessel and leave an advocate here from the Sea Elf embassy to answer to the
charges, upon our honor that we would return at a later date if required by the
powers that be in Caursetti. He then said that the relatives of the slain
cousins were unlikely to press charges in the matter of the deaths of their
kinsmen, since other elves (including star elves) were involved in the alleged
crime. The only possible criminal charges to be brought were breaking and
entering using sorcery which can carry the penalty of death in Caursetti,
especially in the more affluent and strictly controlled boroughs such as Gods
Walk and Falconbridge.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
He indicated that he would send a representative (a
barrister or lawyer) to meet with us to aid us in this matter. He also
said he would send an associate to the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></st1:place></st1:placetype> </st1:place>of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placename w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Alatheon</st1:placename><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></st1:placename> in order
to negotiate for us to have the elves there identify the book and its
properties safely, though it would likely be a costly endeavor. “There
are spells that predate our world that are exceedingly dangerous which may be
contained in the book. We don’t want those spells to fall into the hands
of the mortals” according to the Ambassador. On the other hand, he said
it may just be a spell book with protective magics bound into it that had
caused the deaths of the elves.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The star elves in the group trust the Elven ambassador
implicitly. If a good deal can be made, he and his associates will do
right by us and we will be justly rewarded as a result of the
transaction. During the meeting at the Elven embassy, an entire wing of
Elven Blue Dragons were seen flying from the windows, and later landed in the
courtyard below making a great commotion. It was a very formal affair
during which the bodies of the slain elves were taken away to the Elven court
in Tol Alatheon to the northwest some 200-300 miles away.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Meanwhile, Thorvald the Thugee Barbarian, the Volkyr Monk
Scetis, Gash the human fighter, the dwarven fighter Niric Dragonbane, and
Sorrin the Gnome Illusionist/Cleric went to the dock district in Grimward to
try and negotiate passage to the Devil’s cape aboard a ship so that we could
investigate the hideouts of<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><i> </i></b></span>Arham
of the Cult of the Red Snake that we had found notated on the map from
Grakhirt’s lair. Thorvald learned on good authority from a relatively
sober Thugee sailor about the Broken Wife Inn which was to be found within the
city (we had a document that Gundar was to meet him about the book before his
demise). It is located in the Coinbridge neighborhood across the river.
There are two neighborhoods south of city and across the river in Caursetti
that are rough neighborhoods to say the least. Coinbridge is only
marginally safer than the nearby South Hill neighborhood, both of which are
considered to be rough parts of town. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A local inn owner then told the Scetis the Monk of one
Captain Jettit Obergin who is the master and captain of the Fickle Shark which
makes the run from Caursetti to the Devil’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cape</st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></st1:place> regularly. When we
arrived at the ship at the docks, it was apparent that the crew was busily
making preparations to depart. The Fickle Shark is a simple merchant
vessel that appeared to be well kept and run from our observations. He
said that they were not going in that direction but we negotiated a price for
passage to the Devil’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cape</st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></st1:place> aboard ship, and embarked
at the end of the session two hours after the evening meal.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Later that evening before we departed, we were approached
in the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Inn</st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></st1:place> of the Scorned Weasel in
Gods Walk by a sea elf named Aefelearth Bale Bitterbriar. He had been
appointed by the Elven Ambassador as our barrister and we told him everything
that transpired concerning the book and the death of the Elven sage and her
servant. His Sun Elf bodyguards showed up at the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Inn</st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></st1:place> as a show of force to keep
the local constable from trying any monkey business. He said from the
information that we gave him that he could stall the proceedings for five to
seven years. In our defense he said the Elves in our group were honor
bound to protect their cousins out of fear for their safety which justified
their illegal entry onto the premises.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_E3GWP8yA0gJbzFlb8OWXnvefA4ncXDwRZx9dZ_LWDl82zBvOiLFDbsV_Zo2noxS2WGt69pos4z6tK4qq19WXaMwGByJQvDNWwz-gQPZ3bu2R2Jhnx_qYbGDArjGUf_JA_7CR7Adkdbqf/s1600/deep+one.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_E3GWP8yA0gJbzFlb8OWXnvefA4ncXDwRZx9dZ_LWDl82zBvOiLFDbsV_Zo2noxS2WGt69pos4z6tK4qq19WXaMwGByJQvDNWwz-gQPZ3bu2R2Jhnx_qYbGDArjGUf_JA_7CR7Adkdbqf/s1600/deep+one.jpg" /></a>Afterwards, when we met with Rallemon he said he was a
trader of magical items, some of which were ancient and some of which were of a
more recent manufacture, and that he had clients in the west that would pay top
dollar for the more rare magical items, particularly those considered to be
forgotten lore. When questioned about the lands of Ravishar to the east
he said that the border between the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></st1:place></st1:placetype> </st1:place>of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placename w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Raegeleth</st1:placename><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></st1:placename> (the god
king’s realm) and the lands of Ravishar is known to be defended by demons and
the like, but that the coastal villages were not unlike normal Volkyr towns
found elsewhere on the island. Their denizens typically live in fear and
are in a perpetual state of servitude to Ravishar the Undying. He
inquired about the rumors of some demon unleashed from an evil book and
inferred that he thought that we were somehow involved, but we declined to
comment on the matter.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There was a glisten of water on the floor behind him that
we noticed as he was walking out the door of the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on">Inn</st1:place>.
I mentioned to the DM that maybe he was a Deep One (Shades of Shadows Over
Innsmouth) and he said he wasn’t – at least not yet anyway… LOL<o:p></o:p></div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-39146510852600086892013-01-14T23:01:00.002-05:002013-01-22T04:37:52.640-05:00Averlorn Campaign - Cities and Towns of the Archipelago<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNHJJ5M9UtbTVk97UPLPOtqKVQj4qVMOkJVRehdJi8kGs2UL1i-mM6kcrP2xXqeIxZUufeNcFLatdzgs30x7Jw-9zvtecEiXCoqYMYLs7u_shDvRuiOQeZsmFo4kRC9nfJ22H5cFunuxYI/s1600/egypt_image6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNHJJ5M9UtbTVk97UPLPOtqKVQj4qVMOkJVRehdJi8kGs2UL1i-mM6kcrP2xXqeIxZUufeNcFLatdzgs30x7Jw-9zvtecEiXCoqYMYLs7u_shDvRuiOQeZsmFo4kRC9nfJ22H5cFunuxYI/s320/egypt_image6.jpg" width="219" /></a></div>
<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The Gleaming City of Cauersetti</span></i></b> with her renowned arched
bridges lies some seven days west of the Free City of Harbor Reach across the
shallow ink-black sea. Cauersetti is the
capital of the Volkyr <st1:placetype w:st="on">kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Raegelith</st1:placename> which lies on the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename></st1:place>
in the northern reaches of the archipelago. The city can be found along the
western coast of the island. Iron Keep
is a fortress in the Falconbridge neighborhood of the city (a nice part of
town) where the Brotherhood of the Black Crows are garrisoned (a mercenary
Brotherhood of warrior monks who serve the God King). Grimward is a dangerous vermin infested nasty
quarter of the city adjacent to the dock district. Other notable city quarters include a few
rough neighborhoods such as Devil’s ward and Serpents walk, but there are much
more well patrolled and peaceful districts such as Falconbridge, Merchant’s Ward
and God’s walk among others. Some of the
great arches of the city are decorative in nature but the majority actually
serve as bridges that connect the various districts of the city that are
separated by the many waterways that wind and weave their way through the great
metropolis.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkU9evUfVkNmhvCqKKlTmpP0f2sc_G51ydBlUCC9Eho6pdShuX7062RZsJclMks-cJV0uxnKThwOup_8i5408xLIngWXTpq37xCjyV1zs1_QH3Lx1az84DcGwtomsfRNwyctaPOOw4G-iQ/s1600/egypt+seven-wonder-ancient-world-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkU9evUfVkNmhvCqKKlTmpP0f2sc_G51ydBlUCC9Eho6pdShuX7062RZsJclMks-cJV0uxnKThwOup_8i5408xLIngWXTpq37xCjyV1zs1_QH3Lx1az84DcGwtomsfRNwyctaPOOw4G-iQ/s320/egypt+seven-wonder-ancient-world-1.jpg" width="320" /></a>The God King reigns supreme in Caursetti and much of
Rhagheara and he alone has the sole power and authority to awaken the Imperial
dragons – a special type of dragon given to the god king long ago by the
Elves. It is rumored that the Elves
often come to Caursetti when the Imperial Dragons are awakened in order to help
the God King’s dragon masters handle them, for they are the most powerful of
their kind and the ability to control them is counted amongst the lost
knowledge forgotten by most of mankind but that the Elves still yet retain. It is also rumored that the Elves are
desirous of acquiring one of the Imperial Dragons though none can say for
sure. When the Imperial dragons are
summoned forth from their caves by the God King during times of war or strife,
they fly high into the air above Caursetti to light the great beacons with
their blue dragon fire – a magnificent site to behold!</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The Free City of Cinnoros a.k.a. Harbor Reach</span></i></b> – Harbor Reach is a prosperous protectorate
of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of
<st1:placename w:st="on">Thebos</st1:placename></st1:place> which sits on an arm of land
that reaches into the ocean far to the east of Thebos along the coast. The city is quite young and surrounded by untamed lands but well
located to defend itself. Harbor Reach
is a bustling center of trade and commerce and is an important trading port
linking Thebos to the busy trade routes up and down the coast with the
Archipelago to the west. The city is a place the three primary
human races of Averlorn regularly get together for trade. Seven days to the West across the shallow sea lies the
distant <st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename> and the gleaming city of <st1:place w:st="on">Caursetti</st1:place>.
Harbor Reach is not as large or as old as Caursetti and trade frequently
occurs between the two cities due to their close proximity. Cinnoros hosts a large fleet of merchant vessels many of which are
owned by its wealthy merchant families and the city boasts quite a large navy
and an active fishing fleet as well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZxLpS_-5acOeJGBbAHkd0549VH-vLMnQNCJCtKrtW8_Zkgw4ig89EHp2ViyYrySnFLebXnJjVgFVaujinaX2v_s4t917a_E3jJFQsVhCx4IbGeY0GaGfoTSqgxe849ctAq_jIAo5KhFIb/s1600/City+from+Conan+the+Barbarian+%2313.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZxLpS_-5acOeJGBbAHkd0549VH-vLMnQNCJCtKrtW8_Zkgw4ig89EHp2ViyYrySnFLebXnJjVgFVaujinaX2v_s4t917a_E3jJFQsVhCx4IbGeY0GaGfoTSqgxe849ctAq_jIAo5KhFIb/s400/City+from+Conan+the+Barbarian+%2313.jpg" width="400" /></a>Though
it is a protectorate of Thebos, Cinnoros maintains a modicum of independence
from the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Theban</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype></st1:place> owing to its remote location,
and people of all sorts seeking independence from the Theban kings or other
tyrants often seek refuge here where they are far away and somewhat free from
their former rulers or masters. The
result is that is Harbor Reach is considered a free city and boasts a wide
variety of different cultures and races of people from many corners of
Averlorn, including rogues, sailors, fishermen, refugees, former slaves,
traders, mercenaries and adventurers all thrown together into the lively and
interesting confines of the city. It is
a sanctuary of sorts for a wide variety of transient travelling folk and those
who call it home, and it functions somewhat as its own city state with its own
local laws and governance. The reality is
that like the kingdoms of the trench, it is really a remote backwater and is
only protected by Thebos because of its importance as a gateway to maritime
trade along the coast. This invariably
means that the senate in Grand Oryx rarely troubles themselves with the day to
day goings on in the city unless there is a direct threat to its interests
concerning trade and mercantile activity including war and the occasional act
of piracy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The city
does have a very large Oryxian guild presence due to the bustling maritime
trade that occurs there, and it is sometimes referred to as “Little Grand Oryx”
for this reason. The city is well
protected and has a very active and visible city watch, except in some of the
rougher neighborhoods on the southern end of town. The port in the harbor typically moors
hundreds of ships at a time and the aerodrome is also very busy and usually hosts
thirty or more dragon ships moored there on any given day.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The port
city and shipping running in and out of Harbor reach is often plagued by roving
bands of pirates which raid up and down the coastline looking to plunder
lightly defended maritime shipping targets.
Adventurers, bounty hunters and mercenaries are often hired in the city
to hunt down and eliminate these troublesome piratical bands and their leaders
who prey upon the merchant vessels that frequent the port city.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">Dark Eel Grove</span></i></b> – a small town between Orcwall and Caursetti. There was some trouble here recently Trouble
the daughter of a trader’s cousin disappeared.
A party was sent out to find her but a Halfling was the only survivor of
search party to return.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">Point Chudoc a.k.a. the Devil’s Cape</span></i></b> – point Chudoc and the
town of the same name and lands nearby are located on the southwestern cape of
the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename></st1:place>. Point Chudoc is also called the Devil’s <st1:place w:st="on">Cape</st1:place> because of the rock shoal and rough seas that cause
so many shipwrecks here, and because of the many Sahugin that are known to
prowl its waters. About three miles
inland from the beach, one can see a small square Norman style keep which
guards the small human village that is nearby and serves as the seat of the
Barony. The town and keep are on the
outskirts of the god king’s realm and the keep serves as a border outpost to
guard against incursions by the forces of Malithorn. The keep was was built by a minor noble named
Emir Korin who was given the land by the God King and charged with the task of
defending his borders from Ravishar’s dark hosts.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaUgxWmc9RkBCEADem0fyyucVIhSAoZtBe3N1m6Jz9dF1k6ITdoOm3llKZwNkVIMCgDCaSWl-HFSH7JJZbuC47mtQyKt7rqV3vrEAcw4HMbq5Tc8QSq05hiDAgvNxieF7KoqMbn9yVb_09/s1600/DevilsCape_WIP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaUgxWmc9RkBCEADem0fyyucVIhSAoZtBe3N1m6Jz9dF1k6ITdoOm3llKZwNkVIMCgDCaSWl-HFSH7JJZbuC47mtQyKt7rqV3vrEAcw4HMbq5Tc8QSq05hiDAgvNxieF7KoqMbn9yVb_09/s640/DevilsCape_WIP.jpg" width="492" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">Orcwall</span></i></b> – a.k.a. <a href="http://iguanaslair.blogspot.com/2012/09/dungeon-module-b2-keep-on-borderlands.html">the Keep on the Borderlands</a> is situated as a
bulwark between the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Raegeleth</st1:placename></st1:place> and
Mallithorn. The keep not as well defended
as we originally thought – the baron has not been seen in some time and is
presumed dead. He has been gone for 9 months or more as of the time of the
Black Crowe’s adventure there.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEUuq8T-TY1fzPEz3rOR7SpEjEjv-JtaMT6PA4_mBqjFv8uSG7tq4DPzzGmN2ZBxc8IwCU7AsFR-mL7hvCxzoiAg8gld0OmySTAUvVsq9gn48LBojWa7lFTYiNpdyqU14Mm4t8U8WEyXRq/s1600/arenjun_market.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEUuq8T-TY1fzPEz3rOR7SpEjEjv-JtaMT6PA4_mBqjFv8uSG7tq4DPzzGmN2ZBxc8IwCU7AsFR-mL7hvCxzoiAg8gld0OmySTAUvVsq9gn48LBojWa7lFTYiNpdyqU14Mm4t8U8WEyXRq/s400/arenjun_market.jpg" width="168" /></a><b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The City of <st1:city w:st="on">Rav'mheken</st1:city></span></i></b> – The
capital of the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Malithorn</st1:placename> is the city of <st1:city w:st="on">Rav</st1:city>
‘mheken which lies within a network of smaller islands off the eastern coast of
<st1:place w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:place>.
These islands are an extension of the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Malithorn</st1:placename>, most of which lies on
the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename></st1:place> in the Southeastern portion of
the island. Ravishar the Undying holds
court in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">tower</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Nol Gremmen</st1:placename></st1:place> which
overlooks the forbidding sea cliffs perched high above the city.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">Tol Alatheon</span></i></b> – a sea elf community and trading out post which
is often incorrectly referred to as Alatheon, lies in the Northeast of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename></st1:place> along the coast. The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Alatheon</st1:placename></st1:place> itself is to the Northwest – silly
elves and their bizarre naming conventions.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">Zarathus</span></i></b> – an Etrisian coastal city much like Harbor
Reach. Zarathus is also a free city and
a bustling center of trade and maritime commerce. Zarathus is about a one week ship’s ride to
the south of Harbor Reach. Overlooking
its busy harbor is a huge statue of Thor.
Despite the fact that the people of Zarathus are primarily of Ardrois
stock, they worship a mixture of Greek and Norse gods. The Crippled Ape Inn is a favorite of
travelers and is usually relatively quiet.</div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-77110194564498800412013-01-14T22:53:00.003-05:002013-01-27T04:11:19.591-05:00Averlorn Campaign - Lands and Islands in and Around the ArchipelagoThe Archipelago is a sprawling island chain running north to
south which lies across the shallow sea from the eastern coast of <st1:place w:st="on">Averlorn</st1:place> and the
free cities of Harbor Reach and Zarathus.
The island chain is about the same size of all of the British Isles
combined and starts in the warmer southern climate of the Grand Banks and
stretches all the way to the north off of the coast of <st1:place w:st="on">Fallen
Leutra</st1:place> and the Northern Reaches covering a vast stretch of ocean
from north to south.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjye3UNJtobW-8gWErj_KSVszRiv9CovSzsot_3M5ev2kgjqEkusBejtMwu67JYWzi2mRk3sSrJSm_KbAfyReofjev4b5-sCdY0t_ntMbb34vtE8u5q4ti-ke0fZ-DaQvn1Nck2wuchcRVH/s1600/imrryr2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjye3UNJtobW-8gWErj_KSVszRiv9CovSzsot_3M5ev2kgjqEkusBejtMwu67JYWzi2mRk3sSrJSm_KbAfyReofjev4b5-sCdY0t_ntMbb34vtE8u5q4ti-ke0fZ-DaQvn1Nck2wuchcRVH/s320/imrryr2.jpg" width="242" /></a></div>
<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The <st1:placetype w:st="on">Sea</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Elf</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of Alatheon</span></i></b> - the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Alatheon</st1:placename>
lies to the north of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename></st1:place>. The kingdom maintains a series of trading
settlements, outposts of a sort on nearby islands including Rhageara. These are
always found near the communities of their Volkyr allies and with names such as
Tol Alatheon or Dur Alatheon, their names are the source of some confusion
among men.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The Archipelago</span></i></b> - The Archipelago is series of islands and
island chains that is about the Size of all of the <st1:place w:st="on">British
Isles</st1:place> combined. On the seas
of the Archipelago, the Thugee often find themselves at odds with the sea elf
culture and the Volkyr (the predominant and native human culture of the
Archipelago). Currently, there is no state of war, but that's primarily because
the Thugee are so disorganized and lack a central governing body. Throw in the occasional pirate ship along with
the vicious sea devils and you can see that the seas of the Archipelago are
quite lawless. The Thugee's chief
antagonists are the Sea Elves, and occasionally, Mountain Elf raiders (sky
wolves) who see themselves as the masters of the sky.</div>
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There are a few relatively large and xenophobic Elven
communities in the Archipelago. These
realms are feudal and ruled by a monarchy chosen from one of the castes (they
have a rotating monarchy not unlike what you see in Brusts' work). In that
society, a Sun Elf would be seen as a soldier or perhaps a minor noble.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">Big <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Croc</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype></st1:place></span></i></b> - this island is or was a
notorious pirate hangout. The last group
of pirates that were there came to a poor end 20-30 years ago. Their hideout was reputed to be located in a
series of caves found on the south side of the island off of the main inlet
nearby.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">Ertris</span></i></b> – This <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">State</st1:placetype></st1:place> is the principle
rival of Grand Oryx. Though considerably
smaller in populace than Thebos, the Adroisian city state of Ertris wields
surprising military might. The superior
natural resources of Ertris which exists in spite of her relatively small
geographical area, allows the Ertrisians to field a formidable fleet of
dragonships. Tensions between the Ertris
and Grand Oryx are always high and the occasional conflicts occur typically in
the skies over the Scourge.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">Fallen Leutra</span></i></b> – This land is in the distant Northern
Reaches and its primary inhabitants are the Thugee tribes of Leutra, the
Northmen of Averlorn. In the distant
past, the Serpent Men Empire in Leutra stretched over much of the known world.
Their greatest cities and temples were swallowed up by the vastness of the
Scourge long ago but many ruins of their once great empire remain in the region
of Leutra along with scattered populations of serpent men and lizard men.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Farault</st1:placename></st1:place></span></i></b> – this
nearly deserted island is north of Caursetti.
Long ago, the Thugee erected rune stones of power here and it is seen by
the Thugee as a sacred site. The Stones
of creation, as they are called, are purported to have healing power. When Grumlor, the leader of the Black Crowes
was sick (it was said that he was cursed by the gods) the healers of the Brotherhood
needed the magic of stones to heal him and sent an expedition to the island to
retrieve rubbings of the stones in order to perform powerful healing magics for
their leader.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The <st1:placetype w:st="on">Sea</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Elf</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of Golfyria</span></i></b> - the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Golfyria</st1:placename> lies to the west of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename></st1:place>.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The Great Banks</span></i></b> – These savage Polynesian like jungle islands
begin southeast of the Archipelago not far from the mainland. Sea Elves and humans alike live in small
villages scattered in and near the Great Banks.
The Volkyr people, a Polynesian like race of island dwellers, originally
migrated to the Archipelago from the grand banks and the aboriginal people
still dwell here.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The <st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Ilimus</st1:placename></span></i></b> – a Thugee island far to the North of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename></st1:place>. The island is home to one or more
of the few scattered Thugee clan holdings in the north of the Archipelago
island chain.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The <st1:placetype w:st="on">Sea</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Elf</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of Lothalyn</span></i></b> – The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Lothalyn</st1:placename></st1:place> is quite distant from
Rhagheara, lying in the southwest of the Archipelago far closer in fact to the
mainland. It is a single kingdom spread across a vast stretch of islands.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The <st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Malithorn</st1:placename></span></i></b> – Malithorn lies in the
Southeastern portion of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename></st1:place> and is a
poor swampy stretch of inhospitable land. A network of smaller islands lying
off the coast is also part of the Realm of Malithorn and it is here that
Ravishar the Undying holds court. His <st1:placetype w:st="on">tower</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Nol Gremmen</st1:placename>
overlooks a forbidding stretch of sea cliffs perched high above the city of <st1:place w:st="on">Rav'mheken</st1:place>. Ravishar
periodically pits his armies against both the Sea Elf lands and the vast
holdings of the God King and his Barons. The Undead Lord, for it is almost
certain that he is either a lich or similar unliving monstrosity, shows very
little interest in actually conquering the island, only in slowly spreading his
influence and wresting away lands for his many nobles to control and rule. Not
surprisingly, these borders do not remain settled for very long and frequent
raiding from both sides often results in certain swatches of land changing
hands with alarming frequency.</div>
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Ravishar’s humanoid armies consist primarily of goblins and
orcs that bear the distinctive yellow and black Killer Bee symbol painted on
their shields. Evil clerics follow
Ravishar but usually worship Orcus or other demon gods. The Thugee of Fallen Leutra and the Northern
reaches hold no love for Ravishar since so many of their kind have fallen under
his sway, and it is said he uses their stock to create some of his orc soldiers. For as long as anyone can remember the God
King’s country has been at war with the minions of Malithorn. The last war was merely three years ago.</div>
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The forces of ravisher usually slay their enemies using
illusion, guile and deceit to achieve their ends and things are often not as
they seem. They often hire assassins to
do these deeds who frequently use poisoned weapons. </div>
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Ravishar is a great ally of the various Thugee tribes and
most of the humans who dwell in his domain are of Thugee descent. With these
hearty folk he produces a surprisingly potent breed of Orc, creatures that form
the bulk of his armies, supplemented by horrendous necromantic constructs.
Ravsihar the Undying is an ancient being of unsurpassing evil and malice. His
deeds are even known in other lands and he appears to have contacts and minion
in many lands. Though a number of his followers are indeed Necromancers, his
relationship with the Cult of Orcus is strained and may be the result of a
splinter cell born sometime ago within Malithorn.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">Nadsul il Alatheon</span> –</i></b> Nadsul il Alatheon is a trading outpost on
a small island in the north of the Archipelago not far from the Ardrois city of
<st1:place w:st="on">Harbor Reach</st1:place>
and is something akin to a military outpost given the assaults and raids it has
endured over the years.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The Northern Reaches</span></i></b> – The ancestral lands of the Thugee who
make up for their primitive ships and barbarous ways through shear numbers and
tenacity. The Thugee are raiders, not
invaders and often move on rather than moving in when seeking new targets once
an area has been plundered. Their dragonships are not as advanced as those of
the other races, though their naval power is quite potent, but not focused in
any groups larger than a clan squadron.
There are other inhabitants in the Northern reaches besides the Thugee
tribes including other human and demi human settlements.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The <st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Raegleth</st1:placename></span></i></b> – the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Raegeleth</st1:placename> lies in the north of the
Archipelago along the western coast of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename></st1:place>. The God King Reigns supreme in the golden
domed three arched city of <st1:place w:st="on">Caursetti</st1:place>
and has the sole power and authority to awaken the Imperial dragons during
times of strife and war. His generals
control vast armies and fleets all sworn to serve him unto death making Raegleth
one of the most powerful Kingdoms found in all of the Archipelago. Caursetti is located on the northeast coast
and the lands to the south are farm more unsettled and controlled by a number
of small baronies which guard the ever changing border with Malithorn.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename></st1:place></span> – </i></b>Rhaghaera,
the largest and principle island of the Archipelago, lies in the northern
reaches of the island chain. The island is broken into three separate kingdoms;
Raegeleth in the north and along the western coast, the Sea Elf holdings of
Alatheon along the northeast coast, and the cruel <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Mallithorn</st1:placename></st1:place>
in the south.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Thebos</st1:placename></st1:place></span></i></b> –
Ancient Thebos is the country that sits on the volcanic plateau that rises
above the scourge that includes the great City State of Grand Oryx and the
surrounding areas of Lykaedia (the Anvil) and the planes of the Pangaeus to the
north of Grand Oryx. It is far inland
and to the east of the free city of Harbor Reach.</div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-53087813758446692702012-12-24T02:52:00.002-05:002012-12-25T02:59:47.559-05:00ICE Rolemaster Standard System, 3rd edition, and 4th edition Stone Rune Trade Dress IllustrationsWhile doing freelance layout illustrations and artwork for Iron Crown Enterprises in the mid to late 1990's I was tasked with drawing various trade dress illustrations for the new Rolemaster Standard System line. One of the assistant art directors took notice of the stone borders I did for the <a href="http://iguanaslair.blogspot.com/2011/04/ice-merp-illustrations-from-moria.html">MERP Moria module</a> previously, and decided to use a similar style of "trade dress" for the new Rolemaster line of rule books at the time in order to help promote the new product line. Following this description are scans of the original trade dress illustrations for the various types of magic found in Rolemaster derived from Spell Law, followed by runes for the various Rolemaster skills, racial types and character class abilities. They were drawn with ink on vellum and done after the initial prototype drawing style was accepted by ICE for the entire series of illustrations completed for the books.<br />
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The first three runes below are my interpretation of the Essence Rune, the Mentalism Rune and the Channeling Rune from the original Spell Law book. The runes that follow were originally envisioned as spell casting runes for the various other classes and sub-classes of spell casters and magical spells found in the tome.<br />
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<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/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgem2dtinP6tlWOux706szGqE-s4qPA9v4h-jQ5CGHPROeusi6n_-m8kRNzzpDS3yvukrWyK7lXQodXU80zguNmQS7k78sFaU6zxXpg9Mq5P6EOaKJJ3bF6w-OmiWw95mKyKWSBflnwe2MK/s1600/Spell+Runes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgem2dtinP6tlWOux706szGqE-s4qPA9v4h-jQ5CGHPROeusi6n_-m8kRNzzpDS3yvukrWyK7lXQodXU80zguNmQS7k78sFaU6zxXpg9Mq5P6EOaKJJ3bF6w-OmiWw95mKyKWSBflnwe2MK/s640/Spell+Runes.jpg" width="465" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rolemaster Standard System, 3rd / 4th Ed. Spell Runes</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Following this series of books, I was tasked with creating a series of runes to be used as trade dress for the various skills and racial abilities of the Rolemaster Standard System Core Rules. The following rune drawings were generated in the process of creating the books and primarily depicted character classes, races and even a few abilities and skill class types.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyu9IeRg1Z56nUfMV36KeTpNyKYsyKpiJJ3G-eV8Q3c57d05Px4555B8zZjYODkYlQ8MV3ukX4ndaFRl7zVG08bJrA9TJgv2SEZ7Oz3nYNDtAjr2oriWRdz1Oez2e9noknkTnfiYAlBts7/s1600/Rolemaster+Runes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyu9IeRg1Z56nUfMV36KeTpNyKYsyKpiJJ3G-eV8Q3c57d05Px4555B8zZjYODkYlQ8MV3ukX4ndaFRl7zVG08bJrA9TJgv2SEZ7Oz3nYNDtAjr2oriWRdz1Oez2e9noknkTnfiYAlBts7/s640/Rolemaster+Runes.jpg" width="464" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rolemaster Standard System, 3rd / 4th Ed. Skill, Class and Racial Runes</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Following this series of drawings were a few various and miscellaneous runes done to fill in the gaps in the remaining product line as needed after the initial set of drawings were completed.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZzJbUfs5yvAwjgpk7tiU8Gkmy7TrKFd0fv16L04lpi2T383GYfXLZ_StU1QBNjG_lkA6P_f64MevhG68pKcxobEgRSITKLzciCUtNS2QX9hkD_4nhPkBEiH43f_wHgOAjntzNHlTocafA/s1600/crosswds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZzJbUfs5yvAwjgpk7tiU8Gkmy7TrKFd0fv16L04lpi2T383GYfXLZ_StU1QBNjG_lkA6P_f64MevhG68pKcxobEgRSITKLzciCUtNS2QX9hkD_4nhPkBEiH43f_wHgOAjntzNHlTocafA/s200/crosswds.jpg" width="195" /></a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7sppdZclrJBk_rcjhgbg-8dFyURs6PESBp-2NfidHusxA_G9EVHM9RLT90-1Eh0MQXeqhf7mkxmSLYEIAwsu50Ag_GPlr15BNUh5njdJzd_XKjZf64lt9khUIs-0YXSP9k7EFsWnkPfZx/s1600/rat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7sppdZclrJBk_rcjhgbg-8dFyURs6PESBp-2NfidHusxA_G9EVHM9RLT90-1Eh0MQXeqhf7mkxmSLYEIAwsu50Ag_GPlr15BNUh5njdJzd_XKjZf64lt9khUIs-0YXSP9k7EFsWnkPfZx/s200/rat.jpg" width="197" /></span></a></td></tr>
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Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-28791860073452889502012-12-19T23:51:00.000-05:002012-12-20T00:22:34.051-05:00Averlorn Campaign - Dungeon Module B2 The Minotaur and Owl Bear's Lairs, the Gnolls and the Shrine of Evil Chaos!<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">Recap from 1/21/2012 and beyond...</span></b><br />
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After finally defeating the last of the Bugbears, the group
turned its attention to the enchanted labyrinth we had explored previously with
the confusion spell on it. After some
time we eventually found the Minotaur’s cave at the end of the Labyrinth and it
was quickly defeated mostly due to the casting of multiple magic missiles in quick succession by the three wizards in the party as the others engaged it
in melee. We found some great magic
items in its lair which were divvied up amongst the group. Following our foray into the enchanted
Minotaur’s maze, we returned to the Owlbear’s lair and awakened the beast in
order to defeat it and steal its treasure.
It was a much tougher encounter than we had anticipated as the ferocious
creature managed to bear hug and rend one of our fighters hurting him badly but eventually,
the beast was defeated. At this point we
turned our attention to the other side of the complex again and entered the
Gnoll’s lair. After several tough
combats we eventually took out the Gnolls and their leader and relieved them of
their treasure.<br />
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Within the Gnoll Chieftain’s quarters we found a fireplace
with a chimney above that lead to the surface, and which was wide enough to gain
access to or egress from the place by someone able to make the climb. We also found a secret door in the Gnoll
Chieftan’s room that led to a corridor where we found a pair of Boots of
Elvenkind on the body of a dead thief that had succumbed to his wounds in the
little used hallway long ago. The
hallway led into a little used storage room where we were surprised by and fought
a Gelatinous Cube! At first we didn't see it and of course were surprised, but it was eventually defeated after a
close call with one of the group that was nearly consumed by its quivering yet
transparent body. Within its gelatinous body we
found a magic wand and some other items and a few coins. Beyond the storage room was a series of
tunnels that contained several doors. Our
Monk Amul even managed to find a staircase that led upwards at the end of the
hallway but we didn't explore the area any further afterwards. After these adventures we returned to the
keep to rest for a while and eventually returned to the Caves of Chaos for more
exploration.</div>
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We decided to enter the last cave within the box canyon of
the complex that we had not yet explored.
The cave mouth in the center of the box canyon was surrounded by a
number of twisted and misshapen trees giving the whole place a less than
wholesome feel and an eerie and unnatural quiet ensued giving one the
impression that even nature was afraid of this place. As we entered the cave mouth, it led into a
10’ hallway that spilled into a larger 20’ wide hallway in which all of the
sounds we made seemed to be amplified due to the slick glassy surface of the
worn down smooth stone floor. This made
it very difficult to hear anything but the noises that we made as we walked
down the corridor. We continued
exploring the complex and made it to a corner of the corridor that had two
doors on either wall of the outside of the corner. The one on the right led to a set of stairs
down, so we decided to mark it on the map but leave it unexplored for now. We surmised that it may have led to the
stairs leading up that we found beyond the Gnoll’s lair since that area was on
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Oddly enough, while we were checking out the doors, we were
surprised in the noisy hallway by a large group of zombies due to the excess
amount of noise we were making since it was hard to hear anything else but ourselves. As the battle ensued, our clerics failed
to turn the foul undead creatures with their holy symbols and things were
looking grim for the group as our fighters were taking a beating. Just as it looked like we were about to turn
the tide of the combat, the other door opened up and we were confronted by a
group of four evil clerics and a fierce melee ensued on both sides of the
group. One of them cast a command spell
on one of the fighters and told him to “die” though he only dropped to the floor for a
round.</div>
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We were hemmed in at this point and things were looking grim
for the group, but one of the spellcasters made good use of a Protection from
Undead scroll that we had acquired elsewhere in the complex, and read it aloud
to save the day as we managed to defeat the vile undead creatures. At the same time, Lorinar cast stinking cloud
on the group of clerics in the room just after the door opened and they were
immediately incapacitated by the gas and were gagging and vomiting on the floor
of the room. We used a rope and grapple
hook to retrieve them from the cloud filled room and relieved them of their
belongings and their lives. They had a
number of odd looking amulets on them which we found out later were in fact
evil and we also took their robes which we thought might be useful later.</div>
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Having had a full adventuring day we decided to return to
the keep to rest and recover from our exploits.
On the following day, we returned but decided not to walk right into the
front door of the evil cave complex where we had fought the zombies and clerics
previously and announce our presence to our enemies. Instead, we decided to enter the complex by a
different route that might attract less attention. So this time, our Monk Amul shimmied down the
chimney to the Gnoll Chieftan’s quarters below and the group followed down the
rope he had used. We started exploring
the area beyond the secret door and store room and Amul scouted ahead a bit to
determine if the stair at the end of the hallway connected to the area with the
undead and clerics and he determined that it did.</div>
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Rather than ascend to that level, or explore a couple of
other passages that branched off from the main passage, we decided to open
another door that was in the hallway instead.
The door was bolted shut so after prying it open, we descended a set of
stairs beyond into an old dusty crypt chamber below to search for loot. Within were a number of coffins and
sarcophagi which we proceeded to search.
When we opened up one of the sarcophagi an ancient and evil creature
within sprang to life and attacked the group – it was a level draining
Wight! A fierce and tense melee ensued
in which our Paladin was hit by the malevolent and evil being and was drained
of a life energy level before we finally managed to slay the horrific
creature. Within a secret compartment
hidden in its resting place we found a magical sword and a magical scroll. After this combat we returned to the keep to
rest and recoup. At this time we
discovered that the keep was bristling with activity and that the entire area
was on alert for an attack from a large group of marauding humanoids that had
been spotted nearby and that had attacked a few farmsteads!<br />
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<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">TO BE CONTINUED...</span></b></div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-18820535816315089002012-11-08T00:37:00.000-05:002012-11-08T02:08:36.813-05:00Averlorn Campaign - Dungeon Module B2 Into the Bugbear's Lair<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">Recap from 1-13-2012 </span></b> <br />
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The Brotherhood of the Black Crowes returned to the scene of
the previous action with fresh reinforcements tasked with avenging their fallen
comrades and recovering their bodies if possible. This time, knowing that there
was the possibility of being hit from two sides again, Lorinar cast Stinking
Cloud on the tunnel to the right to keep the Bugbears on that side from
attacking (the duration of that spell is semi permanent meaning it lasts for 24
hours per our house rules) while we raided the chambers down the left hand
branch of the tunnels. No sooner had he cast it than two Bugbears appeared
seemingly out of nowhere and surprised the group. A brief struggle ensued and
they were overcome in short order.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqR0BlvKf1-qxMBd8e5tWnYESB4NxowOjl7pdk_Mt9NW-65qIoqhe8NekytY_Gj_unlR_AOYaAjDzB5rPxWBHglDaynDoqbMn62WCy3DoF6Bnj4AnXMtXGAOxZE0qmpGGne5kBp0KIL4hj/s1600/bugbear+leader.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqR0BlvKf1-qxMBd8e5tWnYESB4NxowOjl7pdk_Mt9NW-65qIoqhe8NekytY_Gj_unlR_AOYaAjDzB5rPxWBHglDaynDoqbMn62WCy3DoF6Bnj4AnXMtXGAOxZE0qmpGGne5kBp0KIL4hj/s200/bugbear+leader.gif" width="200" /></a>We went down to the room on the left and it
was empty so we went up the stairs since that's where the leader that we killed
came from last time we were here, and was the most likely location of the good
loot. There was a door on the left and a passage straight ahead. The monk
listened and heard Bugbears whispering so we decided to open the door. Before
we could though, the bugbears on the other side opened it instead and surprised us again! A fierce combat
ensued between the new bugbear leader and his two female cohorts and they were
finally overcome after an epic struggle. We looted the room and went down the
hallway and found a storage room with lines of catnip laid out on a table that
turned out to be a Thugee (Norse) shield that we later determined was magical.
We bagged up the catnip for further use since it appeared to be a favorite of
bugbears, grabbed the shield and a cask of oil and left the other foodstuffs
there to be retrieved later. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4J0Kkj22OkYcCnUlEU7gBL7qgzgFPWqzqDB3eeDu1t-W-3IUL2AK-I1j6xH_fWIgQnVFMKq-NfN1Zs6oNlEEWapmcTxf66Gzs7Tl9n60T_5RJuGrMed-UPEwnKMpH6itMGlAb_nTQLIVK/s1600/Monsters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4J0Kkj22OkYcCnUlEU7gBL7qgzgFPWqzqDB3eeDu1t-W-3IUL2AK-I1j6xH_fWIgQnVFMKq-NfN1Zs6oNlEEWapmcTxf66Gzs7Tl9n60T_5RJuGrMed-UPEwnKMpH6itMGlAb_nTQLIVK/s320/Monsters.jpg" width="320" /></a>Lorinar also found a secret door in the room that led into a
natural cavern that branched into three separate tunnels that led out of it. In the room were three giant fire beetles that
attacked the group! When the group entered the room to attack them, we got a dizzy
feeling so Lorinar, Ragnar and our new sea elf warrior ally Narsil backtracked
to the secret door and discovered that the effect went away when you left the
room - the cavern was enchanted with some sort of disorienting magical effect! The others defeated the Fire Beatles in melee combat and then couldn't figure out which way was
the way back to the secret door since they were disoriented! Some guessed correctly but the others did
not and started blundering further into the maze. Since we were out of healing spells we decided not to risk exploring these
tunnels any further since we could get lost in there for some time with no way to heal
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So we went back out of the Bugbear lair and back into the
cave below that smelled of death. There were bodies of dead adventurers and
humanoids everywhere that appeared to have been killed by some sort of large
predator. We searched the bodies and found a small amount of coinage but were
attacked by a group of giant rats that were quickly dispatched. The monk
listened and heard the sound of some large creature snoring and obviously
asleep. Our new wizard Abscondias Akbar commanded his Figurine of Wondrous
Power to turn into its owl form and we sent it in to scout ahead. It discovered a
sleeping Owl Bear in a chamber at the end of one of the passages and we decided
to let sleeping owlbears lie and headed back to the keep to rest up and recover
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The next day we returned to the caves and the Bugbear lair
right before the affect of the Stinking Cloud wore off. When it was gone we
went down the hallway which led to a "T" intersection and turned
right down a staircase. Below were six bugbears with spears (the ones we had
fought before that killed Illundria) and our vengeance was at hand! Two of the
wizards cast sleep and five of the six bugbears and our new Paladin Sierra
dropped to the floor. We awoke Sierra and killed the remaining bugbear and
found some keys and coinage on their bodies. The keys opened up the doors to
two prison cells further down the hallways in both directions. The first
contained a number of humanoids including a large Bugbear that swore he would
help us to defeat the other Bugbears and not attack us (this was verified with
Amul's Scroll of Truth). The other prisoner we released was a very strong
wildman fighter who appeared to be crazy. He was very intent on getting into
"some killing" and the paladin noticed that he had an evil aura about
him! He proceeded to arm and armor himself from the fallen Bugbear's weapons
and armor and went up the stairs urging us to go kill the remaining bugbears.
Meanwhile, we found two more humans in the other cell along with more
humanoids. We released the humanoids and freed the humans who vowed to fight
for us and said they were former adventurers who had been captured. The wildman
at the top of the stair was urging us forward before we could equip the two
humans. Finally, our Thugee cleric Skjeorn had had enough of his ranting and
cast hold person on him and we disarmed him and returned him to his cell - he
was evil after all and couldn't be trusted. </div>
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the last remaining passageway where we encountered a large number of Bugbears
including females and young that appeared to be imminently hostile, so two of
the wizards cast sleep and knocked them all out and it was over - the Bugbear
lair had been defeated and our fallen comrades had been avenged! So having
successfully completed our mission (though we never found the bodies) we left
the Bugbear lair and pondered our next move.
Since we hadn't really been injured too badly, and had most of our
healing spells we decided to either enter the enchanted caverns or return to
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A brief note - despite it being Friday the 13th, our luck
was normal in this game. We won roughly half of our initiative rolls and were
only surprised by the bugbears roughly half of the time. This made a huge
impact on the final outcome of the session and contributed to our successful
foray. During the previous fight with
the Bugbears, not only were we surprised on the initial encounter, we never
won initiative (lost 5 in a row) and only tied twice after that and half of the
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<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">TO BE CONTINUED…</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-85548328038848375852012-10-19T19:42:00.002-04:002012-10-20T20:11:34.704-04:00NIGHT RIDER - Fiction from High School and a Cool 3D Drawing of Skull Castle!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Holmes Basic Sample Dungeon Cross Section</td></tr>
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I was poking around in the attic the other day and finally found my two copies of Gallery Magazine that I worked on as the Science Fiction Editor back in high school. I wrote two science fiction/fantasy stories for the magazine during that time but distinctly remember writing the second piece as a junior in 1983 because in essence, it was my first ever written recap of D&D play, and also my first attempt at fiction writing. Rather than just writing it from a blank piece of paper which I have always had a hard time doing, I wrote up an AD&D adventure centered around a wizard's keep called Skull Castle and the story itself is called "A Visit to Skull Castle". So where did I get the idea for skull castle you might ask? The Holmes Basic D&D sample dungeon cross section for Skull Mountain of course! For the second story, I ran a friend of mine through the adventure that I wrote during study hall - yeah, we weren't studying real hard, but it was for the school magazine after all! I took notes during play about what happened and afterwards, I wrote up a recap of the adventure as a basis for the second magazine story. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir860JXSuYIFafkVSKm5Sx2I9tBauDlbMr-OHB6H_gq015IGDq5R7ykFHlAFaEOW0EJDPJb184cZ1b4RkC2Pzj6IwgcKZRNYSzvTd4ntoU5EzWhBdHFh-D7ulAqncHhEzIzOsVy2HMc409/s1600/Castle+by+David+MacAulay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir860JXSuYIFafkVSKm5Sx2I9tBauDlbMr-OHB6H_gq015IGDq5R7ykFHlAFaEOW0EJDPJb184cZ1b4RkC2Pzj6IwgcKZRNYSzvTd4ntoU5EzWhBdHFh-D7ulAqncHhEzIzOsVy2HMc409/s320/Castle+by+David+MacAulay.jpg" width="244" /></a>I totally forgot about the fact that I had done this little prequel story first while in 10th grade in the 1982 edition of Gallery Magazine, and that it included a very cool 3D view of the castle that I drew up and inked for the story! I was just learning drafting at the time (I took a drafting class in 9th grade in high school and eventually got a degree in architecture) but had drawn up many a dungeon plan prior to drawing this. In fact, if it wasn't for D&D I probably would have never become an architect in the first place. The castle drawing actually looks like a perspective but may have been an isometric type of drawing though if so, it's it doesn't look like its in the usual 30/60 degree angle format (but it may be). I'll have to slap this sucker on the old drafting board and see if it really is a true perspective or an isometric drawing. Either way, it's a precursor to some of the cool castle drawings I did for Iron Crown Enterprises back in the day, a few of which were 3D perspectives or isometric/axonometric projections like this one. It also illustrates my fanaticism and intense interest in castle design and construction and castle drawing which was a direct result of playing D&D as a kid.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I had a book when I was a kid (though I'm not sure where it is now) simply entitled Castle by David MacAulay (see Amazon link here: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Castle-David-Macaulay/dp/0395329205">Castle by David MacAulay</a>) which describes how the Norman Conquerors built their castles to control Wales after their conquest of England in 1066. The book is wonderfully illustrated and includes
plans, perspectives and illustrations of a fictitious castle supposedly built
in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">Wales</st1:country></st1:place>
following the Norman Conquest. The drawings
are very detailed and take you from design through construction, and even
illustrate a siege of the castle at the end by an opposing army.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span>This is where I learned the most about how actual historical castles were really built, and the book is highly recommended reading for anyone who has an interest in this topic, especially gamers and military history buffs. I went on to earn a minor degree in Architectural History from UVA along with a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Design, and wrote my minor thesis on, you guessed it, the Evolution of the Tower Keep in Medieval England. That's up in the attic too and maybe someday I'll scan that in to post here as well.</span><br />
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In the meantime, enjoy my first foray into fiction writing and an early 3D castle drawing in the story below. I'll post the recap of the actual adventure from the 1983 publication of Gallery Magazine as a followup to this blog post. I'll see if I can find the original plan layout for this castle and the dungeon write up to post here as well, but my guess is I've lost it at this point. There's nothing to keep me from re-creating the castle plan and D&D adventure write up from the recap and the drawing below though!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKfmzJety3aSqoV5jvmElqVUudK9rGkRBHXe32peDC_HVEA3fjzpCraY-DLPJOkmUElp1lZjUrOJRmwHU04VKcHwyPyVqdQ1G9_Wx8TxbYYTRxp3m2nZeWR-735sdy3N-HQJsxh1bY-3Py/s1600/Night+Rider+Skull+Castle+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKfmzJety3aSqoV5jvmElqVUudK9rGkRBHXe32peDC_HVEA3fjzpCraY-DLPJOkmUElp1lZjUrOJRmwHU04VKcHwyPyVqdQ1G9_Wx8TxbYYTRxp3m2nZeWR-735sdy3N-HQJsxh1bY-3Py/s1600/Night+Rider+Skull+Castle+small.jpg" /></a><br />
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Copyright notice: All original artwork and works of fiction on this page are copyrighted by the original writer and artist, Daniel Cruger. This story and artwork may be downloaded and used for
personal use only and may not be reproduced for commercial purposes in any way
without the express written consent of the owner.</div>
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<br />Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-74850798532035211062012-10-15T04:41:00.001-04:002012-11-08T01:55:30.247-05:00Averlorn Campaign - Dungeon Module B2 Of Hobgoblins, Bugbears, and a Fatal Foray<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">Recaps from 12-16-2011 and 1-6-2012</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #bf9000;"><i>Part 1 The Hobgoblin's Lair</i></span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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After the initial encounter with the goblins, we continued searching their lair and eventually found the chief’s quarters where we fought their leader, several guards and several female goblins and managed to kill them all. We found a tapestry woven with silver and gold threads that was worth a fair sum of gold and a pewter bowl and some additional coinage as well. In the next room we found a store room which was guarded by four more goblins and managed to slay them in a brief but fierce melee. The room mostly contained ordinary supplies of no great worth.</div>
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We kept exploring the other side of the complex and went up a couple of flights of stairs which ended at a door. We opened the door and encountered a large group of Hobgoblins which the wizards managed to put to sleep without too much trouble. After the hobgoblins were put to the sword we continued exploring the Hobgoblin’s lair and eventually came into a prison/torture chamber occupied by two hobgoblins, one of which was wielding a whip. After a short melee, the hobgoblins were dispatched and we released a plump merchant, two men at arms and the merchant’s wife who were chained to the wall. The merchant told us he would give us a reward for rescuing him and his wife said she would give us a magical dagger as well. The two mercenaries who were formerly the merchant’s guards agreed to fight for us as men at arms if we would arm and armor them in exchange for rescuing them. Since we had released prisoners that needed to be returned to the keep safely, we decided it was a good time to go back at this point.</div>
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Once we collected our rewards and equipped our new men at arms, we returned to the Caves of Chaos once again to resume the exploration. This time, we entered the next cave entrance up higher on the hill past the hidden entrance to the Ogre’s lair. There was a closed door at this entrance with a sign on it written in common which said “Come in, we’d like to have you for dinner!” Amul the monk examined the locked door and found a hidden latch on the outside that slid the bolt open to allow entry into the hallway beyond. The group went down the right hand corridor since the areas to the left looked familiar - we had explored these other areas previously including the torture chamber/prison and the room connecting to the Goblin’s lair. As we walked down the hall, the group was attacked by a group of six guards in a room off of the hallway. A brief but fierce melee ensued and the six hobgoblins were dispatched without too much difficulty. And that’s where we ended the session.</div>
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In the next session, we started off in the hobgoblin lair having just fought the guards in the room on the left of the hallway. We knew we had company coming because we could hear them moving down the hall, so we fell back into the room and formed a line with Fauna and Sulethri attempting to block the entrance with the others behind them in the room. A mob of hobgoblins showed up in the hallway with their leader behind them exhorting them to push into the room. We held them back for a round or so but then they broke through on Sulethri's side, and swarmed around the wizards Lorinar and Ragnar on the left. The rest of the group behind the front line guys couldn't do much to help so both spellcasters attempted to cast sleep while being engaged in melee with their shield spells up.</div>
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Ragnar got hit and lost his spell but Lorinar managed to get his Sleep Spell off and the crisis was averted as all of the lower hit die hobgoblins (except for the leader) plus our two henchmen were knocked out. The leader tried to flee but Amul, Fauna and Lorinar chased him down at the door and the elf managed to put two arrows in him doing maximum damage with both arrows and killed him, just as the others rained blows down on him. We dispatched the rest of the hobgoblins and searched their lair where we found an armory stocked full of weapons and armor including two suits of plate mail, one of which was dwarf sized which we gave to Rollo the fighter/cleric. We gave one suit of plate mail to one of our henchmen fighters as well. We also found a potion and a magic wand.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #bf9000;"><i>Part 2 The Bugbear’s Lair</i></span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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After sacking the Hobgoblins lair and looting it thoroughly, the group fell back to the keep and paid the local cleric to cast some healing on the two characters that went down in the previous fight who were lucky enough to survive with only broken limbs. Then we sold and divvied up the loot. After all of this was taken care of and we acquired provisions, we headed back to the Caves of Chaos and decided to explore some of the caves on the right side of the valley during this trip. Amul the monk checked out one cave on the lower right side near the valley floor but it "smelled of death" so we bypassed it. Then we went up the hill to the cave just to the left of the last orc lair we had previously sacked. There was a sign at the door in three languages inviting any and all humanoids in for dinner (or to be dinner rather). It said come in and report to the room on the left for a meal. I can't believe we did it but we walked right in and did just that and were surprised by three Bugbears! (Talk about walking into the trap...) That wasn't the worst of it though (we could have handled them) but one rang a gong and alerted the whole complex to our presence, so we decided to fall back down the hall a bit since there was a stair on our right side and there would surely be more coming up behind us. Sure enough, a really big leader Bugbear came down the stair to join the others and more started coming down the hall behind us!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIHH05c2EgITeZGtw4h1pywofYYgZ2XZ49OiGvYYakF0PjAGU4PPgoaZQ_ouXnEu6NZK4Q3EOAlNKSAarpnfir0PVofSvoHMEo3CkP8LsbGQv91J4fofaiHJpMk1oMSKcLmB1TYVb2GVtb/s1600/Bugbear+Trampier.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIHH05c2EgITeZGtw4h1pywofYYgZ2XZ49OiGvYYakF0PjAGU4PPgoaZQ_ouXnEu6NZK4Q3EOAlNKSAarpnfir0PVofSvoHMEo3CkP8LsbGQv91J4fofaiHJpMk1oMSKcLmB1TYVb2GVtb/s400/Bugbear+Trampier.jpg" width="400" /></a>So we fell back further so that we would at least be able to escape back out the way we came if things got bad and things started going south shortly thereafter. Fauna went down on the front line of the group to the left and about six bugbears showed up in the hallway on the right and threw their spears at the two mercenaries covering our rear. One of them went down with a spear in his chest (he was dead) and that left one 1st level mercenary between the bugbears and the wizards! He didn't last long and went down as well and then they were on Illundria and Ragnar. Lorinar and the Monk retreated out the hallway (the Monk was carrying the fallen Fauna) and beckoned the others to follow while they still had a chance since it was looking like we could lose the entire party at this point if we stayed to fight. But Illundria and Skjeorn opted to stay and to try and cast spells to cover the retreat or make a heroic last stand. Skjeorn cast hold person on the leader who failed his save and Sulethri the half orc warrior managed to kill him. The group had only killed about four Bugbears at this point out of eleven or twelve. Illundria got hit and lost her spell and Ragnar got hit and was hurt badly but was still standing at the end of the round. Lorinar yelled “get out while you still can, I'll cover your retreat!” And the others attempted to run. Sulethri was hit as he attempted to flee and went down as was Illundria and she fell as well. Lorinar cast stinking cloud in the cave mouth to prevent them from following us and we waited about an hour but the others never emerged. The DM told us afterwards that they both rolled 3’s on their <a href="http://trollandflame.blogspot.com/2010/04/deadlier-death-and-dismemberment.html">Death and Dismemberment rolls</a> and were finished.</div>
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Fauna the Ranger rolled a 4 on her <a href="http://trollandflame.blogspot.com/2010/04/deadlier-death-and-dismemberment.html">Death and Dismemberment</a> roll and lost her arm! It could have been worse, she could have died but fortunately made her saving throw against death. On the way back we encountered a group of four ogres blocking the way along the road who tried to attack us but we successfully evaded them and made it back to the keep.</div>
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It was an exciting but brutal session. The decision made by Illundria and Skjeorn to stay and fight in such a hopeless situation ended up being a bad call but it inspired Sulethri to stand with them and it cost two of the three dearly. The group had been fairly lucky in the caves so far with only one loss, but our luck clearly ran out during this session. The decision to walk right into the trap was what led up to the disaster in the first place though and was not very well thought out but luck was not with the Brotherhood of the Black Crowes that day. First we were surprised by the Bugbears, then we lost initiative five times in a row (talk about unlucky!) and then only got two simultaneous initiative rolls at the end using B/X group initiative. Group initiative works fine except when you have abhorrent luck like that. When you can’t win initiative things can get ugly real fast as they did in this session. So in that entire combat, we never won a single initiative and paid the price! That was the difference right there since Illundria lost her Color Spray spell when she got hit. Also, we have had many characters go down previously but had been very lucky with the Death and Dismemberment rolls, but that luck ran out as well during this session. This was what you call the classic low level funnel to weed out the weak and unfit so that only the strongest survive - three characters and two NPC henchmen were lost in the RPG Cuisinart of doom known as the CAVES OF CHAOS!!!</div>
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After we returned to the keep and rested for a bit, Fauna decided that her adventuring days were over at least for the time being – she could still use her sword and could even wear a shield on the stump of her arm but could no longer use her bow so she left the keep and returned to Caursetti to return to more mundane duties with the Brotherhood and perhaps even retire as a soldier. A few days later, a female Paladin by the name of Sierra arrived from Caursetti as her replacement. She was sent by the brotherhood after they heard of the betrayal by the evil clerics in the keep, as it was suspected that this was the work of Evil Acolytes of our arch enemy Ravishar the Undying and holy reinforcements were in order!</div>
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<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">TO BE CONTINUED…</span></b></div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-16276846765429581132012-10-14T20:46:00.000-04:002012-10-15T00:10:14.310-04:00Averlorn Campaign - Dungeon Module B2 Of Orcs, Goblins, an Ogre, and a Viking Funeral<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">Recap from 12-9-2011</span></b><br />
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The session began with our group having just discovered the
trip wire for the net trap in the entry hallway to the third cave on the right
side of the box canyon. We decided to set off the net trap
intentionally to set up a trap of our own!
The monk used a grappling hook and a rope and we all stood back at the
cave mouth before he pulled the trip wire.
When the net fell, there were all kinds of noisy bells and cans attached to it that made a huge ruckus and acted as an alarm, and we started screaming like we were
trapped in the net and saying things like "Oh god, I'm trapped in the net - help!"</div>
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Not surprisingly, a
bunch of orcs showed up but we managed to surprise them and Illundria and
Ragnar cast sleep and color spray and knocked them out and it was over real
fast (about nine orcs went down). After
the brief surprise attack in the entry corridor, we made our way into their lair
and their humanoid womenfolk attacked us and we killed them but let the young ones
go. Afterwards, we went down the right
hand hallway and an Orc guard sounded the alarm and ran into a room and we
followed him.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjxcr5XgGwt9cUASAmgF1ER_g9jWI8ieiiTKsURJiG3qqEbu9pWXXfv2MWdkGc3U0MIl4Iih7OmAG1-yrZVxyxo6tdz4bJsv5wRH0NoYt-JtpjGhB72S787X4j1cqfO4tUO28auhKtViDY/s1600/Orc+Warriors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjxcr5XgGwt9cUASAmgF1ER_g9jWI8ieiiTKsURJiG3qqEbu9pWXXfv2MWdkGc3U0MIl4Iih7OmAG1-yrZVxyxo6tdz4bJsv5wRH0NoYt-JtpjGhB72S787X4j1cqfO4tUO28auhKtViDY/s320/Orc+Warriors.jpg" width="320" /></a>There we fought with the
guard, a few more orcs and the Orc’s tribal leader. The leader was a big burly orc who could
both swing his sword and throw his axe in the same round, and in one round he
threw the axe at Viktor wounding him badly and then followed up by landing a
powerful blow with his sword and killed him!
(<i>The damage totals for both the axe and sword were a 7 and an 8 -
ouch!</i>) After the battle, the player
playing Viktor rolled a 4 on his death and dismemberment roll (from <a href="http://trollandflame.blogspot.com/2010/04/deadlier-death-and-dismemberment.html">Troll and Flame's Death and Dismemberment Table</a>), and the result
was that he lost his arm and bled out despite our attempts to save him - OH THE
HUMANITY!!!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKosAo59ZQbW0QWytD8inHN963dO4bKKCOMP7nxWIMCf4VNUQy8_Nx4u7b4O8DFIZ-dJzdjBtKZyBJ8Eobj-IOrjoxGJBeG3hMl0hyYaecVCzjCvoRX0Z6WrxGtuwdqb2FIX0vQMYywJlz/s1600/Ogre2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKosAo59ZQbW0QWytD8inHN963dO4bKKCOMP7nxWIMCf4VNUQy8_Nx4u7b4O8DFIZ-dJzdjBtKZyBJ8Eobj-IOrjoxGJBeG3hMl0hyYaecVCzjCvoRX0Z6WrxGtuwdqb2FIX0vQMYywJlz/s1600/Ogre2.JPG" /></a>So we went back to the keep and buried our Nordic comrade. We wanted to give him a Viking funeral but
unfortunately we were in the hills far away from the ocean and didn't have a boat. Afterwards, we met up with a new Thugee
cleric named Skeorn who was at the keep and looking for adventure. Once we were ready, we headed back to the
caves but on the way, the party had to evade a group of four giant ants by
throwing food behind us as we ran. They were huge
(as big as horses) and probably would have killed us all if we hadn't outrun
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When we finally made it back to the caves, Rollo suggested
that we see what was in the hidden cave behind the foliage on the left side of
the valley this time. It was immediately
to the right of the goblin’s cave that we had retreated from the first time we
visited the Caves of Chaos, so we figured it may have been another less obvious way into
their lair. We went into the tunnel and
into a cave beyond and fought a very large Ogre briefly until Amul pulled his
heart out and then took a bite out of it - he succeeded in using his Monk's death
blow and killed him in round two with his bare hands! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsCqjVteZLy3GpPGTxdDSDU368oiYRtYITq3vhuCi13tb7jOUG-W25p1TCUbbpdD5L5cBpVKIUfcF-MaobSKOSzOxF0BCbLtBkMftADsSszG1PDy62PwXB-Kzejp_ZC5_9hZaD2nmEhgvg/s1600/Goblins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsCqjVteZLy3GpPGTxdDSDU368oiYRtYITq3vhuCi13tb7jOUG-W25p1TCUbbpdD5L5cBpVKIUfcF-MaobSKOSzOxF0BCbLtBkMftADsSszG1PDy62PwXB-Kzejp_ZC5_9hZaD2nmEhgvg/s320/Goblins.jpg" width="320" /></a>We searched the Ogre's lair and found some treasure in the first and the room beyond. There was a secret door in the Ogre's lair beyond the first
cave and it opened up into a large room with six goblin
guards in it. They started chucking
spears at us after sounding the alarm, and we got into a ranged duel and killed
most of them but two ran away to sound the alarm and then another ten showed
up. We traded ranged shots with six of
them and engaged four in melee and after the four went down we charged the rest
and won the day! That's where we left it
- the goblin lair is now eerily quiet!</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">OUR FALLEN COMRADE VIKKTOR IS NOW FEASTING IN <st1:place w:st="on">VALHALLA</st1:place> WITH ODIN AND THOR!!!</span></i></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">TO BE CONTINUED...</span></b></div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-32868538976092904652012-09-30T21:43:00.005-04:002012-09-30T23:33:18.126-04:00Averlorn Campaign: Dungeon Module B2 The Kobold lair and a Wicked Betrayal<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">Recap from 11/25/2011</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqAHIHuPDv3bLVdkb5q15lm_ngIGeC5UbFsE4hyLHw49fwGbc3GjaOjRajN7jJR4CFJYnFa6Hjc_suIuGUsY3bOQkie3cEVm9UFshWmhnMFDbCVLZ3UGxPvH2rB5bZT4lku0qffgPSS02f/s1600/Aleena+by+Larry+Elmore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqAHIHuPDv3bLVdkb5q15lm_ngIGeC5UbFsE4hyLHw49fwGbc3GjaOjRajN7jJR4CFJYnFa6Hjc_suIuGUsY3bOQkie3cEVm9UFshWmhnMFDbCVLZ3UGxPvH2rB5bZT4lku0qffgPSS02f/s320/Aleena+by+Larry+Elmore.jpg" width="217" /></a>After a bit of carousing at the inn with our newfound
wealth, we decided to return to the Caves of Chaos to continue our
exploration. While we were sitting at a
table at the inn discussing our plans, we were approached by a cleric of Bast
the Cat God who was very interested in our discussions about the caves. He told us he would like to join our group to help us fight the evil humanoids at the caves along with his two young acolytes for a share of the treasure.
We didn’t really know anything about him so we asked the bartender if we could trust him and he replied that he hadn’t heard anything bad about the priests. So we agreed to let them join our next foray
into the caves, though we still weren’t sure if we could trust him and his acolytes or not. We set out from the keep once again and travelled down the road heading east and onto the trail
in the woods that led to the caves, and made it there without any problems. We decided to try the next cave on the right side
of the box canyon past the orc lair we had previously explored. There were a few large trees near the
entrance and above the cave mouth on the hillside but we didn’t really pay them any notice and proceeded into the tunnel opening.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxuYt6WT9eby8Js3i6rBl-U2VSriBFFmX8O4_eAGuQUzXyFwPsTMuXm09Xtf2WYH3Ufn2m7iE0seRbYeODLI3kwJY6Lfwe_raW7ardrWaSJBnQlQWx8B27EzL0LkQS8t1BbyLsQLVe-lCs/s1600/Kobolds+Rosloff.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxuYt6WT9eby8Js3i6rBl-U2VSriBFFmX8O4_eAGuQUzXyFwPsTMuXm09Xtf2WYH3Ufn2m7iE0seRbYeODLI3kwJY6Lfwe_raW7ardrWaSJBnQlQWx8B27EzL0LkQS8t1BbyLsQLVe-lCs/s320/Kobolds+Rosloff.png" width="320" /></a>The new clerics who had joined the group initially offered to stay in the
back but since we weren’t sure if we could really trust them, we left
Amul the monk and Rollo the dwarf in the rear so they could keep an eye on
them. Once the group had gone a little ways
into the tunnel, the characters in the front including Fauna, Ragnar and Viktor,
suddenly fell into a pit trap and several characters behind them also fell in and piled in
on top of them! As soon as this happened
the adventurers in the rear of the group were attacked by a large group of
kobolds that came out from hiding in the adjacent trees that we had noticed on
the way in! To make matters worse, as
soon as the kobolds attacked, the three clerics turned on the group and their
leader started casting a spell, while the two acolytes started attacking the
characters in the middle of the group with their maces!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip_AbXz2jSvv6y7b_IrUuJDWqIFBpHnzQMQCAjm-Os97bkYEiDHMrEBgMJ2f9h2iMTd_GbFWbhmSFATNaS7rUSQ5XMEEPhd0_kxilFU3wH8iJcXgOpX2K6FALZd9y6EbraQj8ARoDLXOiA/s1600/kobolds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip_AbXz2jSvv6y7b_IrUuJDWqIFBpHnzQMQCAjm-Os97bkYEiDHMrEBgMJ2f9h2iMTd_GbFWbhmSFATNaS7rUSQ5XMEEPhd0_kxilFU3wH8iJcXgOpX2K6FALZd9y6EbraQj8ARoDLXOiA/s400/kobolds.jpg" width="308" /></a>The group was caught completely off guard by these attacks and we
could hear more kobolds approaching the pit from inside the tunnel. The two characters in the rear fought
desperately to fend off the attacking kobolds and were nearly overwhelmed,
while the characters in the middle of the party battled the priests. In the first round of combat, things were
looking dicey for the two adventurers in the back as they were caught between
the evil priests and the kobolds and fighting for their lives. Fortunately for the group, Lorinar was able
to cast a sleep spell on the melee in the rear of the group and managed to put
the kobolds to sleep and Illundria cast Color spray on the priests right in
front of her and managed to knock out the priests as well! As we started helping the wounded characters
out of the pit and dispatched our fallen foes, more kobolds came into the
tunnel beyond the pit to attack the group! We managed
to get everyone out of the pit while the kobolds beyond threw their spears at
us. We were now faced with a large
number of kobolds in the tunnel and it was apparent that the entire lair had been alerted!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQBUa4NFvUCeJmicbK3j6Q6dxsHXXeH-xOWVkzhRw8mU5C1NO9gCJfUvTaIEZ2elCQNd67sWd4w0z4XW1_i6Ho7zJEn8HLzsr7jCvvfNTEyPw0eZQ-h645NuZqG0dZnVHmNlM3psK2gOHX/s1600/kobold+erol+otus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQBUa4NFvUCeJmicbK3j6Q6dxsHXXeH-xOWVkzhRw8mU5C1NO9gCJfUvTaIEZ2elCQNd67sWd4w0z4XW1_i6Ho7zJEn8HLzsr7jCvvfNTEyPw0eZQ-h645NuZqG0dZnVHmNlM3psK2gOHX/s320/kobold+erol+otus.jpg" width="320" /></a>Lorinar and Ragnar started throwing flasks of oil at the
kobolds across the pit which was followed up by a burning torch from Ragnar and
several kobolds went down in the flames, several more were hurt from the splash damage, and a few more
were killed by arrows from our archers.
After the initial group of kobolds beyond the pit was dispatched, three
more showed up at the end of the hallway and started firing arrows at the group at the edge of the pit. We exchanged missile fire with them from
across the pit for a little while but at this point, Viktor the Thugee fighter
had had enough and jumped across the edge of the corner of the pit into the
hallway beyond to charge the archers! At
about the same time, more kobolds began streaming into the hallway from beyond
the archer’s firing positions at the end of the hallway. Viktor charged the mass of kobolds and began to
wade into them wreaking havoc with his sword as Thugee warriors are known to do from time to
time. He was followed by the ranger and
the half orc and they gradually pushed the mass of kobolds back down the
hallway killing several of them in the process.
To the rear of the front line group, the spellcasters started throwing
burning oil onto the kobolds over our front lines beyond, inflicting even more
casualties. The pitched battle was over
in a matter of minutes and afterwards the hallway was littered with burned and
dead kobold bodies.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiuanvSJTUWQeFvJYSLrGm1I7cfuM-_5fRuIXffChj9vcA_aILVdgmFZptvc-nFDJmIj5O-6IKuFZ58SJvMX9OmrXPYiirLXXLSenjl3tQc_W2yCEtzOFfTpj5ANHOgPM7tx4CeW2Jrvx7/s1600/kobold_chief.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiuanvSJTUWQeFvJYSLrGm1I7cfuM-_5fRuIXffChj9vcA_aILVdgmFZptvc-nFDJmIj5O-6IKuFZ58SJvMX9OmrXPYiirLXXLSenjl3tQc_W2yCEtzOFfTpj5ANHOgPM7tx4CeW2Jrvx7/s320/kobold_chief.jpg" width="289" /></a>After defeating the Kobolds the group was left standing
there in the hallway pondering our next course of action. We were pretty beat up but assumed that there
may be some loot to be had in their lair.
Since we were out of healing spells aside from a few cure light wounds
potions, we decided to call it a day and try to make it back to the keep alive
and return later for the kobold’s loot. The
group fell back to heal up after collecting a nice suit of plate mail, an
ornate mace and a very nice shield from the leader of the evil clerics that
looked like they could be magical along with some coinage.</div>
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The following day we returned and explored the kobold lair a
bit more and found the leader’s chamber in the back of the complex to be
occupied by a big burly kobold and his five mates and a brief but deadly melee
ensued. When it was over, we searched
the lair and found some treasure but it wasn’t a lot - apparently, these particular kobolds weren't very wealthy. We continued our exploration and decided to check out the third cave mouth on the right side of the box canyon. After our recent
experience with the pit trap in the kobold lair, we decided to be a bit more
cautious this time and had Amul the monk and Rollo the dwarf search ahead of
the group in the tunnel for traps. Sure
enough, they found a trip wire that would set off a net trap intended to
drop down onto an unwary party and trap them just beyond the tunnel entrance! At that point it was getting late so we
decided to call the session.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">TO BE CONTINUED…</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-74425561534770088092012-09-29T02:40:00.004-04:002012-09-30T23:21:10.014-04:00Averlorn Campaign: Dungeon Module B2 The Caves of Chaos<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">Recap from 11/11/2011</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT1wCH9DMuLnbwo2p0Y4V_PXxUaKEWKGIpmETvDrxKAdTmZC-Qv3N0OfO6JFevNWm2JgtnhTRHisVN9atdrIc25TRdz0bPEy0nk6w91tRCl7bKGBIzWnCsE9EAS7AyW_BjIkeOBtep_nqd/s1600/Orc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT1wCH9DMuLnbwo2p0Y4V_PXxUaKEWKGIpmETvDrxKAdTmZC-Qv3N0OfO6JFevNWm2JgtnhTRHisVN9atdrIc25TRdz0bPEy0nk6w91tRCl7bKGBIzWnCsE9EAS7AyW_BjIkeOBtep_nqd/s320/Orc.jpg" width="251" /></a>After our first near disastrous foray into the Caves of Chaos, we
decided to try the caves on the right side of the hill this time rather than
the goblin lair on the left. Shortly
after entering the cave we were greeted by a grisly site – there was a hallway
filled with niches at about head height in which were placed the skulls of various
humans and humanoids in various stages of decay. One of them was even an orc skull – we found
out later it was actually a guard pretending to be dead orc head and keeping
watch on the hallway from a watch post on the other side! Of course he
sounded the alarm and we were attacked by a group of 4 orcs that came out of a
hallway further into the complex! To
make matters worse, four more orcs appeared out of the right hand corridor to
hit us from the right side! A fierce but
brief battle ensued in which most of the orcs were slain but a few were driven
back to the left hallway further into their lair. The group gave chase into a banquet hall and
was greeted by more orc warriors streaming out of another passage on the far
side of the room to engage us in melee.</div>
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The adventurers of the brotherhood held their ground and
pelted them with magic missile and bow fire and killed the remaining orcs in
the room. There were two hallways at the
opposite end of the room, one of which the other orcs had come from, and we
cautiously entered through the hallway on the right and were met by a huge
group of orc women and children and another group of male orc warriors! Their numbers, including the women and young
totaled more than 30 orcs and it was clear that we were about to be in for a
tough fight as we had stumbled into the main common area of the lair! Our fighters in the front including Viktor
the Thugee fighter, Sulethri the Fighter Cleric, Fauna the Ranger and Rollo the
Dwarvish Fighter Cleric foolishly rushed into the room and were quickly
surrounded by the mass of orcs! The
women in particular may have been small and weak but they were incensed by the
fact that we had killed so many of their male warriors and attacked us with
rolling pins, cleavers, clubs, hammers, knives and whatever other weapons they
could get their hands on, and even the young that could fight got into the fray. To make matters worse, the remaining orcs
that weren't engaged in melee filed past the pressed front line group and
quickly had Amul the Monk, Lorinar the Elvish wizard, Illundria the gnome
illusionist and Ragnar the Thugee war wizard backed into the corner fighting
for their lives with no fighters to protect them! The two groups were cut off from each other
and the front line group was completely surrounded!</div>
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During the fierce melee that ensued, the male orc warriors
were the first to go down brought down by our front line group, but then our
fighting front started dropping one by one as the enraged orcish women swarmed
all around them hurting them one nick and cut at a time with multiple flank and
rear attacks. Meanwhile, in the back the
wizards and the monk were unable to cast any spells and were fighting for their
lives! They were fighting desperately with
their backs to the wall and gradually retreated towards the hallway where we entered
the room from in order to avoid being cut off by the fierce onslaught of the orcish
females in the room. The orcs numbers
had been reduced significantly at this point, and they were nearly at half of
their original number. In the main fight
in the center of the room, the party members started dropping one by one. First Viktor the fighter went down, then Fauna the Ranger went down, and then
Sulethri until there was but one left standing - Rollo the Dwarven fighter cleric was still
soldiering on despite the losses and the odds after having taken a beating. He managed to take another couple of the
females down and at the same time, the wizards and the monk managed to take
down a few more as well, though the Thugee war wizard and Illundria the Gnome
were both down now as well.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQXLJVyKwiDwwOqIYiK2p3uJKCQeihP3q4aSrAQGuEl7s9TDCiiQIwTSZYuqib-Y_MMYvIsbGSE3OavJ8q_g_iNKKSAoh-_LItg1jOxjw1riGloooXVPtiv3Q3gzi06SVLaKqDttPI9Xgx/s1600/Dwarf+Axe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQXLJVyKwiDwwOqIYiK2p3uJKCQeihP3q4aSrAQGuEl7s9TDCiiQIwTSZYuqib-Y_MMYvIsbGSE3OavJ8q_g_iNKKSAoh-_LItg1jOxjw1riGloooXVPtiv3Q3gzi06SVLaKqDttPI9Xgx/s320/Dwarf+Axe.jpg" width="320" /></a>Things were getting desperate and Lorinar and Amul, seeing
that there were only three of their number left standing and that there was
little hope of rescuing the surrounded Rollo, decided that discretion was the
better part of valor and withdrew from the combat while they still could,
before they too were surrounded by the vengeful orc females and dragged
down. Meanwhile, Rollo was still
battling away and managed to keep on fighting, and the orc’s numbers were below
half so they had to make a morale check – and they failed! The remaining orcs fled the room leaving the
triumphant Dwarven warrior alone with a pile of bloody orc bodies and a number
of gravely wounded friends strewn around him.
Hearing the route of the orcs behind them, Lorinar and Amul returned to
the room to assist Rollo and the rest of their wounded comrades. We started checking on them to see see if
they were still alive and to make the dreaded <a href="http://trollandflame.blogspot.com/2010/04/deadlier-death-and-dismemberment.html">Death and Dismemberment Table</a> rolls. Amazingly none of them were dead or wounded too badly – Sulethri and
Viktor had just been knocked unconscious, Ragnar and Illundria were merely
dazed and stunned and Fauna was just bruised and battered and had been knocked
off of her feet (we got really lucky on the rolls). Rollo and Sulethri did what they could to heal
everyone’s wounds, and the beaten and battered party of adventurers limped back
to the keep at Orcwald to rest and recuperate.</div>
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A few days later we returned to the caves and the orc lair
and found and defeated their leader, a big burly orc and his two female mates
who fought fiercely to protect him but to no avail. We searched the complex thoroughly and found
a small chamber in the back of the leader’s quarters which contained a cache of
treasure and weapons and even a number of magic items. We even found a secret door in the leader’s
chamber but the monk couldn’t figure out how to open it, so we left with our
loot and decided to take a little break from the caves for a while and enjoy
some of our newfound loot at the keep.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">TO BE CONTINUED…</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-36966021742686373062012-09-27T20:37:00.005-04:002012-09-30T21:49:07.378-04:00Averlorn Campaign: Dungeon Module B2 The Keep on the Borderlands<br />
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<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">Recap from 11/4/2011</span> <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9gOJPAcOQFLhtZn00KwqmjnC_bNbA-Z4gRf_kT3n8ewRXZwoIQwl1u5gmOzi4cWpmFqaDvNWTn5oVaX5Ux2JPAxRhzq3M051p5vXIvX0ioLqWhdhiClo4mECCIp9Ew2kH3JY3K0FsZuX/s1600/B2+The+Keep+on+the+Borderlands.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9gOJPAcOQFLhtZn00KwqmjnC_bNbA-Z4gRf_kT3n8ewRXZwoIQwl1u5gmOzi4cWpmFqaDvNWTn5oVaX5Ux2JPAxRhzq3M051p5vXIvX0ioLqWhdhiClo4mECCIp9Ew2kH3JY3K0FsZuX/s400/B2+The+Keep+on+the+Borderlands.jpg" width="313" /></a>The Brotherhood of the Black Crowes had a new mission for
our young group of warriors. Vizier Melkot,
the master in charge of affairs of an arcane nature for the Crowes, needed us
to escort one of his associates to a keep on the edge of the God King’s realm
along the border with the wicked realm of Malithorn. The <st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Raegeleth</st1:placename> on the <st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename>
where the God King reins supreme had been in a near constant state of war with
the forces of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Malithorn</st1:placename></st1:place>, part of
which was also on the island. Malithorn
was ruled by their evil and most likely undead leader Ravishar the
Undying. For as long as anyone can
remember the God King’s country and army has been at war with the minions of
Malithorn. Some of the combatants are
humans of Volkyr or Thugee descent but a large percentage of his army is
comprised of evil humanoids of various types sworn to serve him. The last full blown war was merely three
years ago, though most of the regular and more recent incursions have been on a
much smaller scale. These incursions usually
consisted primarily of small scouting and raiding parties sent forth by both
sides to test the strength and gather information about the enemy. On both sides of the border there are arrayed
a number of baronies and dukedoms granted by the two rulers to these petty Dukes
and Barons for the sole purpose of guarding their border outposts against incursions
by the forces from the other side.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZiDfGsSPTefOpBNTjizHLkzQfA6gU3C-Qy_GTzdFtmfPQlj95YkUO-mNmpghegOEYltlJeO3jBygC9KFuNcrk-jaHOBqC8cweb1362zadkL2JO2ReDOTfprCN3kzdmqHNcuCrYN5kDbo/s1600/vikings-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZiDfGsSPTefOpBNTjizHLkzQfA6gU3C-Qy_GTzdFtmfPQlj95YkUO-mNmpghegOEYltlJeO3jBygC9KFuNcrk-jaHOBqC8cweb1362zadkL2JO2ReDOTfprCN3kzdmqHNcuCrYN5kDbo/s400/vikings-1.jpg" width="400" /></a>One such border outpost was a rather large fortress or keep
and a small town by the name of Orcwald.
Our orders were to escort one Rallemon of Illimus to the outpost and
town of <st1:city w:st="on">Orcwald</st1:city>
safely, wait for him to conduct his business there, and then to escort him
safely back to Caursetti. Rallemon was
an arcane spellcaster of some sort and he was known to have many enemies,
particularly among the forces, assassins and spies of Malithorn who would like to see him
dead. Therefore, Vizier Melkot
explained, it was of the utmost importance that we escort him safely to and
from the border outpost in order to protect him from his many enemies. As we were leaving Caursetti, we had to
travel through the Grimward district of town after leaving the Iron Keep of the
Brotherhood within the city. Grimward is
a rough neighborhood in Caursetti adjacent to the dock districts. As we were travelling past the many ships
moored along the docks we couldn't help but notice that one of them was a
Thugee privateer by the name of the Demon’s Echo and Captained by one Titus
Blackwell. The Demon’s echo was flying a
black flag with a skull and flames that day as we walked past her mooring. It is rumored that the ship and crew are of
questionable origins and are thought to be pirates by the common folk.</div>
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As we were passing the area where the ship was moored, we
were accosted by a rather large group of Thugee sailors that were most
definitely crewmen of the Demon’s echo out looking for trouble. We told them we didn’t want any trouble and
tried to warn them off but they attacked us anyway in broad daylight! We did our best to protect Rallemon, for it
was pretty obvious that he was the one they were after, and a fierce battle
ensued. In the end it took a sleep spell
to take down the remaining group of pirates that weren't killed in the struggle
though several of our comrades were wounded as well. So with this abortive attempt to leave the
city disrupted, we returned to Iron Keep to seek healing for our wounded and to
give the brotherhood our captive Thugee pirates to be ransomed back to their
people for attacking us and causing an armed altercation in the city of <st1:city w:st="on">Caursetti</st1:city>. The proper authorities were also notified
about the altercation of course.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhBHD6WgmepocwIbCmVCsWjGKCdkkXKoAzkOw0TvPMcipxYavAWqsgOPs0LAdlY8teq6pMV1WlskZ0NnPeeMz8PmvekvbimzzIrDPzpka8t5jj6vzuGcP3Td4MqUDdopYg95vlheOxnQL1/s1600/The+Keep+on+the+Borderlands.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhBHD6WgmepocwIbCmVCsWjGKCdkkXKoAzkOw0TvPMcipxYavAWqsgOPs0LAdlY8teq6pMV1WlskZ0NnPeeMz8PmvekvbimzzIrDPzpka8t5jj6vzuGcP3Td4MqUDdopYg95vlheOxnQL1/s400/The+Keep+on+the+Borderlands.png" width="400" /></a>So finally, we had all of that taken care of and left town
post haste since it was getting late and the fight with the Thugee had delayed
our departure. When we arrived at a
travelling Inn in a small hamlet along the way, the innkeeper tried to warn us
away by saying he was closed, but we insisted that we were paying customers and
soldiers in the service of the God King, and urgently needed accommodations so
he let us in. His mood was improved when
we offered to pay him double his customary rates for a stay at the inn. During the night, we heard a loud noise
downstairs and Viktor the Thugee went down to investigate, sword in hand. It appeared that we had been followed as more
Thugee, probably from the ship, were asking to be let in to stay the
night. The Inkeeper was trying to tell
them it was too late and they would have to wait until the next day but they
were pretty persistent and wouldn't take no for an answer. When they saw the large Thugee come down the
stairs wielding his weapons and ready for battle, they thought better of the
idea and left the inn post haste. We
never heard from or saw them again but our guess was these were the enemies of
Ralleman that the Vizier had warned us about and were likely spies of Malithorn
as well. So we did our job and kept
Rallemon safe.</div>
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After another day of journeying along the road, we finally
arrived at Dungeon Module B2 the Keep On the Borderlands! Once there, Rallemon went off to take care of
his business and we started investigating our new environs at the keep and the small
town of <st1:city w:st="on">Orcwald</st1:city>. We immediately went to the tavern and ordered
drinks and accommodations and started hearing rumors of a series of Caves
nearby called the Caves of Chaos from which no adventurers had ever returned! This piqued our interest and then we heard
another rumor that said “If you get lost, beware the eaters of men”! This was followed by yet another rumor –
“Beware the Mad Hermit!” and yet another rumor that “a magic wand was lost in
the caves”. We were very interested in
the caves at this point since we had some time to kill while waiting for
Rallemon to take care of his business, so we decided to buy some provisions and
adventuring gear and seek out adventure and wealth at the Caves of Chaos!</div>
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We followed the well worn trails as best as we could from
the descriptions we received from the bartender at the inn and soon enough we
entered a box canyon with a multitude of caves at different altitudes all
around the canyon. So we decided to go
into the first cave on the left and shortly after we entered, we were greeted
by an avalanche of spears and javelins and heard shouts of “Bree Yark”. This was followed by more shouts to the right
of us from another passageway, and it was apparent that we were about to be
attacked from two sides simultaneously.
To make matters worse, we heard something very large and angry coming
from the direction of the goblins on the right hand side with the goblins
urging it on and shouting words of encouragement. We returned a volley of missiles after a
number of our group had been hit and the spellcasters prepared to cast their
sleep and color spray spells – but then the rest of the group thought that
discretion was the better part of valor and withdrew from the tunnel leaving
the wizards standing there all alone to take on the onrushing goblins! Seeing their protection flee before them the
wizards and the illusionist aborted their spell casting and fled as well to
avoid being killed or captured by the goblins.</div>
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It was apparent that we made the right call to fall back
especially with reinforcements coming from the other side to flank us and hem
us in. Had we tried to tough it out in
that fight, we probably would have all died so in the end it was the right
call. We returned to the keep having located
and ventured into the Caves of Chaos and boasted upon our return that we were
the first adventurers to ever return alive from the Caves of Chaos! Of course once back, we found out that that
was really a jest and that plenty of adventurers had in fact returned with loot
and stories of all of the evil humanoids that they had had to fight there,
though a number of them had not returned.
Based on our recent experience, we were well aware of the dangers,
having narrowly escaped the caves inhabitants to fight another day.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">TO BE CONTINUED…</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-71566677975664882682012-09-26T03:49:00.001-04:002012-09-29T03:01:31.972-04:00Averlorn Campaign - The Island of Farault<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">Recaps from 10/15/2011 and 10/22/2011</span></b><br />
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After finishing up Dungeon Module G2 the Glacial Rift of the
Frost Giant Jarl with our high level group, we decided to take a break from the
high level game and start out with a new group of characters in a first level
game. This was mostly to get a fresh
start since more than half of the players in the last group joined after we had
reached around 5<sup>th</sup> level or so and so didn’t have an opportunity to
start their low level characters from scratch.
So once characters were rolled up, we began the game in the gleaming
City of <st1:city w:st="on">Caursetti</st1:city>, Capital of the God King in
the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Raegeleth</st1:placename>
which lies in the north of the Archipelago along the western coast of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename></st1:place>. We were all part of an order of monk like
warriors called the Brotherhood of the Black Crowes and were basically
indentured servants to the order for a period of 20 years. The Brotherhood was in service to the God
King and served as his elite troops in times of war and were based out of a fortress
called Iron Keep in the Falconbridge neighborhood of Caursetti, one of the
nicer neighborhoods in town.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizbcgPwz574hVl_ABalXBtFsk32LgU-REeJK2Cp2_infOPCwLbtwJrawzUbRAv4C5e_6W2AsLLi0fE_MqRDOqgLyV5byXV9-9e9n6vSPya7EBSCHExtFQQ90Go63-eGjaWQdQKFq6jiRIa/s1600/Kobold+Monster+Manual.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizbcgPwz574hVl_ABalXBtFsk32LgU-REeJK2Cp2_infOPCwLbtwJrawzUbRAv4C5e_6W2AsLLi0fE_MqRDOqgLyV5byXV9-9e9n6vSPya7EBSCHExtFQQ90Go63-eGjaWQdQKFq6jiRIa/s400/Kobold+Monster+Manual.jpg" width="280" /></a>Vizier Proldier who recruited and trained us, told us our
training was complete and that our squad was to report to the office of Hroldave
the Vizier for our first assignment. So
the group went over to Hroldave’s office and first he congratulated us on
completing our training. Then he told us
the Brotherhood had an important mission for us. We were to sail to a distant island called the
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Farault</st1:placename></st1:place>.
There we were to locate a number of very large Thugee Rune stones which
were said to have magical properties and make charcoal rubbings of the stones
on large sheets of parchment, and bring the rubbings back to the Brotherhood. He went on further to say that the reason for
the mission was that our leader, a Thugee warrior named Grumlor, was sick and
some even went as far as to say he was cursed by the gods. There was said to be potent healing magics
contained in the inscriptions on the rune stones which were thought to be able
to heal him, and it was of the utmost importance that we return at once with the
rubbings once obtained so that a cure could be effected. He wished us good luck and made sure we were
supplied and ready to go and sent us on our way. </div>
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After a boat ride of a week or so, we finally arrived at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Farault</st1:placename></st1:place> to look for the stones. The group consisted of Rollo, a dwarvish
fighter/cleric, Sulethri a half orc fighter/cleric, Illundria a gnomish
Illusionist and Fauna a human Ranger, Viktor a Thugee Fighter, Amul the Monk, and my character Finolthir the elf (Labyrinth
Lord Elf class). We put ashore in a
skiff and noticed that something was following us in the water which looked
almost humanoid in shape. We knew there
were Sea Devils about (Sahugin) and even heard tales of Mermen and Mermaids but none of us had ever
seen any. After the boat was pulled
ashore they swam away down the shoreline away from us and out of site. We trudged ashore and found a well worn path
running down the center of the small island and chose to go right. After a ways, we came across a very unusual
scene – there was a large group of kobolds coaxing on several very large draft
lizards that were pulling several very large rune stones that had been bound
and moved onto skids for transport! This was exactly
what we had come to the island to seek and there they were before us. Even stranger, the kobolds appeared to be
lead by a Duergar warrior, one of the evil deep dwarves of legend! </div>
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Seeing our prize at hand we didn’t hesitate and attacked the
group in order to secure the stones! Unfortunately,
we lost initiative and the Duergar, who turned out to be a Druid, cast entangle
and several of our group was held fast by the vines and plants that quickly
sprang forth from the ground to entwine around their arms and legs! Fortunately, after the initial setback, we
finally managed to take down the bulk of the kobolds with a well timed sleep
spell. The Duergar proved to be another
matter entirely – he was a stout warrior and led the remaining kobolds in a
pitched battle. A few of our number were hurt badly, and things were looking grim for a time, but the group finally
managed to slay the leader and the remaining kobolds including most of the ones
that were asleep. We proceeded to loot
the bodies and then took rubbings of the stones to take back to the ship. We left one kobold alive to question and he
told us there was a village down the other end of the path from the direction that we had
just come from where we might find more of the rune stones.</div>
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We asked him where his group got the stones from initially and he indicated the direction
that we were headed on the path, so we led our captive along the trail to the place where
the rune stones were originally dug out of the ground. It appeared that there were still a half
dozen or so left but there were still several more, including the
ones we had found along the path previously, that had been dug out and
relocated recently as evidenced by the freshly shoveled soil. So we proceeded to make rubbings
of these stones and decided to start heading back to the ship since it was
nearing the end of the day, since we didn’t want to spend the night on the island due
to the dangers. On the way back we
encountered another group of kobolds and our prisoner was killed in the melee
but we made it safely back to the ship.</div>
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The next session we picked up where we left off but with a
slightly different set of characters. This
time we had Amul the Monk, Sulethri the half orc Fighter/Cleric, my Elf Finolthir
and a different fighter but Rollo our Dwarven fighter/cleric, Illundria our
gnomish illusionist, Viktor the Thugee fighter and our Ranger Fauna were not able to make it to shore due
to an illness they had contracted on the island. We soldiered on despite being short handed.</div>
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We returned to the island for the second time and made it to
the crossroads of the two paths and went left down the trail this time, since that's where our
now deceased Kobold captive said the village was. This turned out to be a lie of course - we
should have expected nothing less from the lying little Kobold worm. What we found instead were four stone behive
shaped huts which actually turned out to be burial structures (like the ones
found in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Ireland</st1:country-region>). On the way there, we were attacked by seven
small kobold zombies! Horror gripped us as we realized that several were likely to be the very same kobolds we had slain only the day before! We killed a couple
and the cleric managed to turn the rest and we pressed on towards the
"village" before they returned.
When we got there we found out that it wasn't really a village at all or
at least a living village anyway. We
entered the first beehive/hut/tomb and shortly after we went in, the rest of
the kobold zombies returned and we had a short but savage melee at the entrance
to the place where we managed to slay the rest.
The tomb had been previously looted and contained no treasure.</div>
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We went to the second tomb and entered it and surprised a
group of two kobolds and another Duergar who turned out to be a cleric this
time. In the chamber with them were some
recently opened tombs and the remains of the dead scattered about. They had clearly just looted the tomb and we
managed to surprise them. We concentrated
our attacks on the Duergar since he was the obvious leader, and either Amul or Sulethri rolled a 20 and he was killed pretty quickly. We then killed one
of the kobolds and the other ran away.
Tony told us afterwards that he was a second level cleric and that we were
incredibly lucky to have killed him so quickly but our other fighter was badly
hurt.</div>
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So we went to the third beehive shaped stone tomb and
entered and were greeted by a bizarre sight - there was a Dragon Ogre
standing on the sarcophagus that was shouting and gesticulating wildly about
something in Draconic. The sarcophagi
appeared to be the last missing stone since it had Thugee runes all over
it! Finolthir determined that dragon
ogres are extra planar beings, so this thing had somehow been brought to this plane
through a gate of some sort, probably by the same method as the Duergar from Nifelheim. Finolthir attempted to speak to it in
Draconic but it was just spouting off gibberish - something about a Loki
worshipper (the Duergar) but it was mostly incompressible nonsense. So we backed up and left the structure to
figure out what to do, since it didn't attack us or appear to threaten us except
with its insane tirade. When we started
discussing what to do, it came out and attacked us! So we had another pitched battle and managed
to kill it pretty quickly (I think Amul or Sulethri rolled yet another 20).</div>
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We gathered up its loot (it had some gold and a few magic
items) and made our last rubbing of the rune stone and our mission was
completed. There was one last beehive to
investigate, but we decided to quit while we were ahead since we had
accomplished our mission and the fighter was hurt (Sulethri failed to cast a healing spell
since his <st1:state w:st="on">Wisdom score</st1:state> was so low he had to roll for spell failure when he cast it). Rather than just head back at that point, we
decided to go back to the island the next day to see what was in the last tomb
hoping to find more treasure. </div>
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When we arrived the next day we found it to be sealed
meaning the kobolds and dwarves hadn't looted it yet. We set about opening it up which required
removing some rocks and entered.
Unfortunately, there were two ghouls inside (and no treasure!) and a
desperate melee ensued. We managed to
kill one but the fighter/cleric failed his turn check and then was paralyzed. We hurt the other badly but then the fighter
was also paralyzed. Things were looking
grim so Finolthir stepped up to try and deliver the killing blow since Elves
are immune to Ghoul paralysis, but unfortunately, they aren't immune to claw,
claw, bite (three attacks) which resulted in six hit points of damage and he
was down and awaiting the dreaded death and dismemberment roll (he only had
three hit points to begin with). So then Amul the Monk backed up into the light and fired his bow and missed. The ghoul came at him but he retreated
outdoors and it didn't follow, but went back to dine on one of its victims which
turned out to be the Finolthir so he was now dead. The other two were still alive though and the
Monk went back to the door and in to try and kill it (it was either try or let
all three die) and he rolled a 20 to hit it with his bow and managed to kill
the last ghoul!</div>
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So it went down to the wire but three of the four characters
managed to survive. On the one hand, we
probably shouldn't have gone back - our mission was accomplished with minimal
casualties and we found some treasure to boot.
On the other hand, we were greedy and thought there would be more
treasure there but there wasn't, and one character died but it could have been
much worse. Three twenties rolled by the
group helped us to avert disaster in the end and the loss of one first level
character was not the end of the world – I rolled up a new Elf wizard to
replace him for the next session.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #bf9000;">TO BE CONTINUED…</span></b></div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769685386933352671.post-46769570304450890462012-09-01T17:33:00.003-04:002012-09-26T16:29:55.384-04:00Averlorn Campaign: Predominant Races of the Archipelago<br />
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The predominant human races found in the archipelago are
the Thugee and the Volkyr peoples who are also two of the three primary human
races found in the World of Averlorn. The Volkyr resemble the people of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on">Egypt</st1:country-region><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in both appearance and culture while
the Thugee are a warlike race that bears some similarities to Norse Vikings
found in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>during the middle ages. Amongst
the islands of the Archipelago can be found yet a third major race – that of
the Sea Elves. Living amongst the Sea Elves are Elves of other castes
typically found in Elven society.</div>
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The third primary human race in
Averlorn sometimes found in the islands consists of the men of Ardrois stock
such as those found in Thebos and similar civilizations such as Chalcyx, Ertris
and Manthinea. The Ardrois dwell
primarily on the mainland and in coastal areas and cities such as Harbor Reach
and Zarathus, and further inland. They are modeled after the ancient
Greeks and Romans and even Germanic peoples in both appearance and culture.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The Volkyr</span></i></b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>– In the Archipelago beyond the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Shallow</st1:placename><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placetype w:st="on">Sea</st1:placetype></st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>the
dominant culture is that of the Volkyr and their stalwart allies the Sea Elves.
These two communities have lived in peace since the earliest days of man's
recorded history, a situation unique among the various tribes of humanity and
demi-humans alike. They share technologies, many customs and to the casual
visitor it appears that the Volkyr (folk of the sea) have modeled many aspects
of their culture after those found among the sea elves. The Volkyr aren't
ancient Egyptians so much as they are a fantasy culture which posits
Egyptian-esque culture in a medieval setting. They style themselves as
the most civilized of the human cultures concentrating more on trade then on
warfare. The Volkyr are a Polynesian
like people who originally migrated to the Archipelago from the southern
islands of the Great Banks among others.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoSyVdb8KDak0cMN3zKpSMqATQQxCpKFL8ryg-HzqXGv6jJK3R6A3ot95ZWEMQMVaGwTcnZ6Px8w7N_486e9NAlgvDCKtW175b8l8VS980vKOGe_Z3CQTBHBjDEftS30wg38EUHm3JY757/s1600/Egyptian_Warriors_Wallpaper_hp7ct.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoSyVdb8KDak0cMN3zKpSMqATQQxCpKFL8ryg-HzqXGv6jJK3R6A3ot95ZWEMQMVaGwTcnZ6Px8w7N_486e9NAlgvDCKtW175b8l8VS980vKOGe_Z3CQTBHBjDEftS30wg38EUHm3JY757/s400/Egyptian_Warriors_Wallpaper_hp7ct.jpg" width="400" /></a>The Volkyr place a great value on learning and the arts.
They consider their society to be a model of civilization and take great pride
in the relative cleanliness of their cities, in considerable contrast to the
squalor that can be found in the Theban cities of Harbor Reach and distant
Grand Oryx. Personal appearance is of considerable importance to most Volkyr
and they are fastidiously concerned with personal hygiene, bathing often and
keeping their facial hair neatly trimmed. Men folk wear their hair in very
short, practical styles, often displaying rather ornate goatees or smartly
trimmed moustaches. Some Volkyr warriors go so far as to shave their heads and
faces, thus denying enemy combatants anything to grab onto during battle. Both
men and women use scents and makeup, eyeliner in particular is common. Volkyr
warriors often paint fierce-looking designs on their face which adds to their
reputation for being savage opponents in battle.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Physically, the Volkyr are a dark-skinned race of humans
with black hair and piercing dark eyes. They are on average a bit smaller than
the Ardrois folk and not as muscular as the average Thugee. They are exceptional
seamen and ply the waters the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Shallow</st1:placename><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placetype w:st="on">Sea</st1:placetype></st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in their sleek triple-lateen ships.
Volkyr weaponry is finely made and shows a distinct Elven influence. They favor
the longer Elven spear style, the subtle curve of the Elven Sword, and the Sea
Bow.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Volkyr are a pious religious people who worship their
great leader the God King along with a dizzying array of Egyptian gods –
Anubis, Ra, Set, Osiris, Horus, Isis, Bast (the Cat God), Sobek (the crocodile
got) among others. The Volkyr hold a patronizing view of the Thugee
people – they say the Sons of Loki are three times cursed though they are
tolerated in Volkry society as many Thugee dwell amongst them in their
settlements. Blue dragons are sacred among the Volkry people, which is a
long standing tradition. Wizards often seek out blue dragons in order to
learn from them the ancient Forgotten Lore spells of antiquity lost through the
sands of time. Players seeking out Blue Dragons for such knowledge may
use any charisma bonus they may have while speaking with them to help determine
how cooperative the ancient wyrms may be about such queries.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnvJsClEb6N4WDR26lRmoSBHH9fFRPtuJ-VasrgpEyIOd_wB3jpb-Kuup2FbZ4nOWpe69_aDSfYL0yB6r6FzumwG3B2q-tGW896PTLmAjjeJBlsGXlgprWiLX5oEGuzuAsx7xdITBQkNHP/s1600/Elf+Monster+Manual.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnvJsClEb6N4WDR26lRmoSBHH9fFRPtuJ-VasrgpEyIOd_wB3jpb-Kuup2FbZ4nOWpe69_aDSfYL0yB6r6FzumwG3B2q-tGW896PTLmAjjeJBlsGXlgprWiLX5oEGuzuAsx7xdITBQkNHP/s320/Elf+Monster+Manual.jpg" width="252" /></a><b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The Sea Elves</span></i></b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>-
the other predominant race found in the Archipelago is that of the demi human
Sea Elves. The Sea elves generally live along the coast, are a nautical
trading race, and are quite hardy for elves.
They usually live in small coastal villages near the Great Banks and in
small kingdoms scattered about the Archipelago. The Sea elves are far
more organized than the elves found in Thebos and other areas inland and trade
regularly with the Volkyr.</div>
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To the Sea Elves, the Archipelago is<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>considered
their ancestral homeland though part of it is currently under the guardianship
of the Volkyr. There exist several small Sea Elf kingdoms and holdings scattered
about the Archipelago on some of the smaller islands.</div>
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<i><b><span style="color: #bf9000;">The Sea Elf Kingdoms of the Archipelago</span></b> -</i> The Sea Elf King or
Archmagi holds dominion over three principle realms, holding court according to
an ancient schedule understood only by the elves themselves. The exact nature
of governance employed by the sea elves is quite mysterious and appears to also
be part of some long standing tradition of rotating kings. Within each realm
lies one of three magnificent <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Elven</st1:placename><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placetype w:st="on">Sea</st1:placetype><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placetype w:st="on">Towers</st1:placetype></st1:place> which is the local seat of
authority for each realm perched ever watchful on the cliffs above the endless
waves.</div>
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The Kingdom of Alatheon is actually an island which lies to the north of
the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Rhaghaera</st1:placename></st1:place>, while the Kingdom of Golfyria lies to the
west. Lothalyn is quite distant, lying in the southwest of the Archipelago far
closer in fact to the mainland. It is a single kingdom spread across a vast
stretch of islands. In spite of the vast distances and their relatively slight
population, the sea elves are actually the dominant political power in the
Archipelago. This is due largely to the unusual number of dragons found in the
islands and their deference if not outright servitude to the sea elves. The <st1:street w:st="on">Sea Elf Court</st1:street> and
all of their kith and kin enjoy the favor of both Io and his son Bahamut due to
ancient pacts and favors from times lost to the remembrance of other sentient
races. Naturally, the preponderance of
dragons in the area has resulted in far fewer Dragonships in the skies of the
islands than might be found elsewhere in Averlorn.</div>
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The Sea Elves maintain a series of trading settlements,
outposts of a sort. These are always found near the communities of their Volkyr
allies and with names such as Tol Alatheon or Dur Alatheon, they are the source
of some confusion among men. Nadsul il Alatheon is a trading outpost on a small
island not far from the Ardrois city of <st1:place w:st="on">Harbor
Reach</st1:place> and is something akin to a military outpost
given the assaults and raids it has endured over the years. The Sea Elves are
quite fond of the Volkyr, but view Thugee as little better than Orcs and the
Ardrois of the City States with great suspicion. </div>
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The Sea Elves are often at odds with the Thugee and there
exists racial enmity between their two peoples as the Thugee seem intent on
raiding their holdings and generally causing them harm when given the
chance. The enmity that exists between elves and the Thugee (the Northmen
of Averlorn) is long standing and encounters are usually a “no quarters asked,
none given” sort of affair. In matters of warfare and defense, the Sea
Elves favor the Elven Longsword, the Sea Bow, and the Elven Dragon Spear.
More info about the Sea Elves, the Elven cast system and Elven culture in
Averlorn can be found here:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://savageswordofscadgrad.blogspot.com/2010/12/players-may-choose-from-standard-races.html">The Savage Sword of Scadgrad: Dwarves and Elves of Averlorn</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #bf9000;">The Thugee</span></i></b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>– the Thugee are a
Viking-inspired race of sub-humans, strong of limb, but dim of wit, possessing
brutal features and slightly pronounced canine teeth. They are the Norse
raiders of the Middle Ages raiding the coastline and islands in their sleek and
sturdy long ships and striking terror into the heart of their victims.
They can be found in the Archipelago living alongside the primary native human
race of the area - the Volkyr, and in a few scattered clan holdings in the
north of the island chain. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Though the Thugee often raid in the Archipelago and are
viewed as savage barbarians by most civilized cultures, quite a few have
actually settled in the area. Although they are not the native or
predominant race of humans, their numbers are on the rise due to continued
raiding and settlement activity, not unlike the Vikings that settled in
England, Russia and other places they raided in our world - in the end they
were just looking for a better life than the harsh cold north. Their
ancestral homeland can be found in the distant Northern Reaches of the mainland
along the coast and in a region called fallen Leutra where the ancient reptile
races once held sway.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Thugee are fantastic sailors, navigators, ship builders
and explorers who ply the coasts in their long boats in search of plunder and
better lands. Their weapons of choice include the bearded Thugee Axe
(hand axe – also useful as a throwing axe), the Battle Axe, the Great Sword,
the Broadsword, the Spear, and the Short Bow while they typically wear chainmail,
Norse helms and carry large round wooden hide covered embossed shields.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Thugee in the Archipelago are scattered among the
islands like the pebbles along the beach. They have a few permanent communities
in the islands immediately off the coast of <st1:place w:st="on">Fallen Leutra</st1:place>
at what one might call the edge of the Northern Reaches. They are not given to
city building and rarely dwell in communities larger than a few hundred
families. They view any non-Thugee as inferior and a source of goods, slaves,
wives, etc. A considerable number of Thugee have fallen under the sway of
Ravishar resulting in a daunting presence of Northmen residing in Malithorn.
Still others have found their way to Caeursetti and environs and now live in
relative peace as subjects of the God King.</div>
Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04473393141669242603noreply@blogger.com2