D&D post game 8-27 part #2

Now that the party had reaped their bloody revenge, they thought it prudent to find another avenue for adventure.

Now that the dwarves were excavating and exploring their subterranean transit system there is plenty of work for a group of adventuring types. There was work for mining crew bodyguards, but that didn’t sound super exciting. However, the idea of exploring the long lost underground ruins sounded much more interesting.

They group chatted with the archeology and explorers guild and decided to work for them. They were assigned a scribe to travel with them to chronicle and collect any locations and antiquities they found. A skinny bookworm of a human named Lucas Fudderth, Novice Scribe 2^nd Class. They were set to go and just needed a quick nights rest.

That is when they noticed a small flying creature following them and muttering to itself. This creature made two appearances before it’s owner/creator made an appearance of his own. The party had a meet and greet with an intense looking elven mage named Ramalad. This raven haired wizard was looking to hire the party to help him obtain entrance to the sealed wizard tower of one  (long dead) Heinrich “The Mad Enchanter.”

It seems his tower has been sealed for years and without the proper incantations and/or associated items, there is no way to enter the tower. However, Ramalad had discovered a way to circumvent the wards. He just needed an item long lost until recently, a six foot tall standing mirror. He just needs the party to retrieve it for him. Why?

D&D post game 8-27 part #1

This past weekend our intrepid party of adventurers gained another follower, an elven bard (played by my son). He was welcomed to the party with open arms and quickly realized he had no idea what he was getting himself into.

After a bit of conversation about what to get invested in, I interjected a reminder about a certain shady underworld drug lord kingpin-ish guy and the oath they swore to get him. Well that made their next choice a simple one, they were off to get some payback on the guy who sent a bunch of goons after them the game prior. I’m sure they would have remembered him eventually, but a little nudge in the right direction didn’t hurt.

A bit later the group was outside the location of a known drug warehouse and known location of the seedy underworld boss Mr. Dykstra. A plan was hatched to start the building on fire to lure out their target. While the mage and bard were doing that, the thief, barbarian and monk went in search of a rear or secret exit. Then everything went a bit akimbo.

D&D pre-game 8-27-16

Never has there been such a boom of business in the town of Stonekeep. A large contingent of dwarves has set up a small way station outside of the city.

It seems to function as a base camp, resupply station, aid station, staging area and a field hospital. All manner of goods and sundries are being purchased.

The long lost dwarven tunnel system, beneath the Midland Realms, has been found and there was much celebration by the dwarves from Ferrous Spur. Sadly, the celebration did not last long. Less than a week after the discovery, the area surrounding and beneath Ferrous Spur was besieged by forces of goblins, orcs, bugbears and the treacherous dark dwarves. It seems these forces want to capture these tunnels to further their own fiendish plans.

 

This has left the contingent near Stonekeep in a bit of a lurch. There is need for labor to clean and clear the tunnels. There is need for added protection for the workers underground. After a few hundred years many creatures have taken up residence in the tunnels and various chambers, and it seems they do not want to be disturbed, moved or are just excited about a new food source in their area.

 

There is also a need for anyone willing to explore the various chambers, off shoot tunnels and rooms that are being found running alongside the railway. A branch of the dwarven archeology school and the Stonekeep Explorers League are running various excursions into these areas. They too are in need of volunteers to help in the mapping of these areas as well as added protection as this is just as dangerous as  the cleaning  of the tunnels.

Post 13.1 miles and a game store

Alright. School is back in session and afternoons in our house are chaotic with  all  the drop-offs and pick-ups from various afterschool activities.

A quick recap of our trip to Michigan.

 

Saturday we chilled out in Cadillac, Michigan. Sunday we hiked a ½ marathon. It was a race to everybody else.

We had great weather we felt great. The trail was fun and optically pleasing. We finished way under the time we thought we would finish. I actually passed ten people by just walking at a descent clip. Hell, I even placed in the to four in my age group with our time. Never thought that would happen.

 

My trusty hiking hat and the giant ass medal everyone gets for running/walking these things.
I guess big medals are a running/walking a long distance reward type thing?

Plus, there is a nice little after race party. When you finish they have a ton of food, drink and even beer. It is a nice gesture and after 3 hours of hiking one tends create an appetite.

It was a damn fine experience.

 

Monthly book roundup

A quick hit of the books I read this month.

Arthas : Rise of the Lich King

Well diving back into fantasy I grabbed this little novel. Feels like a 100 years now since I originally played the Lich King/Northrend expansion on World of Warcraft. Looking back I should have read this before playing it. It would have made the events, story, missions and dungeons make a ton more sense to me.

The story of the rise and fall of Arthas Menethil is damn descent. There is a bit about Thrall and the orcs. It touches on the blood elves. There is Sylvanas and the undead. The whole lot about the whys, whats and hows of Northrend. It was a damn fun read!

I would say a must read for any fan of the MMORPG.

Bleeding Corwns and 13.3 miles

Last night Volbeat played our local state fair. Why? I have no idea but I'm damn glad they did!

Sure we had to suffer through Black Wizard and Killswitch Engage, but it was worth the wait.

Seriously? Black Wizard? Who are they?

A sweet near full moon over the concert last night.

Made it look pretty sweet.

 Their set list was tight. 

They didn't chat and pander they just played a bunch of awesome music.

The beer was practically water and went down way too easy.

There were no ass hats around us.

It all made for a damn good show.

 

 Now I am packing for our three day weekend in Michigan.

 I was coaxed into a half marathon this weekend. 

We were up here last year cheering on my lady's brother and sister-in-law.

We talked about it then and it slowly came to pass that we would come back and do this.

I'm not super pumped about it today, but hopefully by Saturday I will be?

Preacher season 1...

.....or the comic book translation continues to disappoint this week.

Well after some time I finally finished watching AMC’s version of Preacher. You know the tale of a holy man who lost his faith and then gets invaded by the offspring of a demon/angel baby; thus giving him the “Word of God.” Throw in his ex-girlfriend, and Irish vampire, a patron Saint of Killers. A clandestine organization set on starting the apocalypse. Then sprinkle in a ton of quirky characters. Have the preacher searching for God to get answers to his questions (which is the main plot of this sorted tale)  and a side story where the preacher becomes a local cop.

No before I started watching the show I pushed through the comic book series again. It was a favorite of mine in the late 90’s-early 2000. It was irreverent, depraved, bigoted, racy, uber violent, blasphemous, at times wildly ridiculous, and bizarre. So yeah, I loved everything about it.

Now after a reread, it is still descent, but it hasn’t aged well. It is a very late 90’s comic. Most of those don’t hold up very well, yet I’ve heard the Authority does…..

However, even though it is not as awesome as I remember it (due my aging and adulthood nonsense) it is still a good series and worth a read if you have then chance.

Now the T.V. show is a completely different animal than the comic. It was said that the source material was going to be deviated from. Well duh. There is a ton of stuff in there that no network, sans HBO, would want. This was already done with The Walking Dead and I was ok with it until season 6. I could accept the changes they would make to the Preacher comic. Right?

Well I was wrong.

Suicide Squad .... facepalm

The posters should have told me what to expect.

Heavy sigh.

Suicide Squad.

Where to start?

Alright for the 7 people unaware of the idea of this film.

Suicide Squad is a movie about a group of DC lesser villains who are rounded up by the government to do black ops missions. They are controlled with a bomb in their neck so they "behave." This is thrown together by a secret agency, Argus, run by Amanda Waller.

Now there is an ancient being opens a portal thing in a city. The military can't stop it. So, send in some lesser villains to stop her.

Ugh.

I'll say this first. I wanted this movie to be good. I had what people call hope.

Why?

Well it looked like Dirty Dozen meets Escape From New York with a team of comic book bad guys. This sounded great on paper. Why wouldn't it? All that sounds awesome! Two movies that I love. A great concept.

How did they screw this up? 

Slipknot's face says all you need to know about this movie.

Gen Con 2016 final thoughts....

Hannah in her full Harley Quinn outfit.
Even had Harley Quinn Chucks!
I have taught her well!

Well Gen Con 2016 is over and I have once again shared what I did with anyone willing to look.

My final rando thoughts on the weekend………..

As we left Indiana last Sunday I realized that I completely forgot to check out the painting competition. That is the first time in the dozen plus years I have gone that I didn’t look at all the stuff people painted. My second Gen Con regret this year!

I heard they were expanding the convention floor and if they did then it worked. That or attendance was down from the last couple of years. It just didn’t seem as cramped on Saturday as years prior. Actually for us, Friday felt more crammed than Saturday. That never happens.

Once again Wizards o’ the Coast ditches the show. It is still so wrong to not have a big D&D presence on the convention floor. Looks like they only care about the West Coast now. Guess we boring fly-over states aren’t worth the hassle. Just frustrating.

Gen Con 2016 people pics

Well not as many people shots as years prior, but here are a few that stood out for one reason or another.

Lego Superman?

Gotta love a wookie!

Especially a large costume wookie with movie sound effects.

Gen Con 2016 some stuff to see

Legendary card game based on Big trouble in Little China was a thing this year.

I loathe card games, but I loe me some Big Trouble.

This might not be the real Pork Chop Express, but it was still damn awesome!

Privateer Press-bunch of pretty stuff

 The Con exclusive Skarre and finally the Inflictor/Seether new kit.

New Black 13th- meh

Like the long rifle gun mage guy.

Some rando high and uppity elf caster person solo.

Wraith Witch Agathea looks better in person

Circle Druid reindeer cavalry

Gen Con 2016 stuff we played

I can say I played a lot more stuff this year than in previous years. That made for less time exploring and taking pics of people, minis and places.

That was sort of a downer. Still spending more time running game demos was a good time too.

Pandemic Cthulhu version

This was a game I was really interested in going into the convention. We got to play a full game and not just a few rounds. That was awesome!

The game itself. Well it plays like Pandemic, but for me it was a ton more fun. Instead of stopping epidemics and outbreaks worldwide, you are trying to stop cultists from helping the elder gods from breaking thru into our world. It is set in the Lovecraftian world and that is also a big draw since those are some great stories.

We got a game with a nice couple who have played it before and they were able to walk us thru a bit more than the guy running the demo. We ending up closing two of the four portals, but still summoned Cthulhu and lost the game.

Difficult and an uphill battle type game, but really fast and fun. They were completely sold out by Friday afternoon. We’ll be buying this as  soon as it hits the interweb. Personally, the best and most fun game I played all weekend!

 

Poop the card game

Well I’m still a child I guess because I couldn’t stop laughing at this game. It is called Poop and is a different take on the Uno game. Your cards are all numbered and have a picture of poop on them. There is a toilet card that has a number on it. That number is the number of associated poop cards that can go in without clogging said toilet. Your goal is to flush/ discard all your poop cards before your opponents and try not to clog the toilet in the process. There are cards that force other players to hold their nose, make flush noises, grunt or make a straining face while playing. If they have these cards plaid on them and fail to do said action, then they gain more poop cards.

Yes this game is wildly juvenile. Yes this game will turn off a lot of people. At the same time is simple, fast and pretty fun. They were also sold out of this game or I would have bought it to play with the kids.

Brimstone expansion Trederra

We got a run thru the Terredan Expansion for Brimstone. This is set in an alien world version of WWI trench warfare. Why? Well this game has all these open portals to crazy alien worlds, lost cities, deadly swamps and what have you. See, an alien world with WWI trench warfare is completely fine to have cowboys (and associated tropes) exploring.

This was a quick little game. It was game play mechanics, which we could skip over, two rooms, one fight and any resolution. Becky played the prospector with his pick and canteen full of booze and I played the official cowboy with pistol and lasso. Well we explored. We became irradiated. We walked through a room full of land mines. We faced more radiation. We were attacked by radiation monsters with radiation abilities fueled by radiation. Yeah it was a stupid amount of that going on there. We got completely annihilated by the mutants we fought. However, this game did drive her to purchase the old prospector for our game.

Crazy expansion. Had a lot of cool trench tiles that were also reverse mine tiles. Very difficult enemies. Very difficult world mechanics. We passed for now. We want to try and keep it less technological and this expansion adds too many high tech gizmos. Weird wild West is still what we prefer to play when it comes to Brimstone.

Gen Con Treasures 2016

Well after a few days we return home tired and loaded with treasures.

Gen Con 2016 is history. Here is how we will remember it.

Gen Con week #3 What to play?

Stuff I’m really hoping to try.

There are a few board games that have popped up on my radar that I would love to demo. Hopefully they are available. Hopefully.

From Mantic games comes a Walking Dead game with solid root tot the comic.

Have zombies and thier games jumped the proverbial shark?

Has to be better than the show. Right?

Slasher movie meets board game?

This is completely in our wheelhouse.

Gen Con week #2 Stuff!

Stuff I’m looking to buy….

Well Privateer is releasing their new warcasters or should I say newly promoted from minor to legit warcasters. So I’m hoping to grab the new Aiakos.

He looks pretty beefy and still keeps a bit of his Predator look about him.

After him….well if they have a box of the new undead robot crows I will probably get a box of them. They look too silly for me not to use. Seriously! Undead cyborg crows! Yeah I’m all over that.

Besides those I’m not looking to grab anymore Warmachine/Hordes stuff. Well unless there is some crazy stupiod sale like last year and I get bonjacks, banes and bone grinders for 1/3^rd the price.

Gen Con Week #1 Prep

 Well we are prepping and looking forward to this coming Friday and Saturday in Indianapolis for another Gen Con.

 

I am quickly finishing up Hannah’s pop gun for her Harley Quinn, Batman animated version not the Hot Topic Suicide Squad version, costume. It is my first attempt at modification + minor fabrication.

Cap gun

PVC pipe bits and cap

Cork

Twine

Eye hooks

Sheet styrene

Charm bracelet bit

Flat black spray paint

Post game wrap 7-30-16

Our intrepid adventurers were rejoined by their wizard friend this past weekend. It seems he had wandered off on a vision quest, or more than likely had tied one on with some ladies. He was probably laid up in some seedy inn lying in a gossamer blanket of ecstasy for the past week.

Wherever he was, he found his way back to the party right in time to be thrust into another series of unfortunate events.

It seems Jeffery, the new-ish dragonborn rogue, had at slighted a local “businessman” by stealing his property some time ago. After a bit of investigation the wizard discovered that the stolen map and land deed were actually two parts of a dwarven map that must lead to some sort of long lost short bearded person treasure. Plans were made and the group decided to strike out in the morning for fortune and glory.

As the fellas struck to find a soft bed for the night, they were ambushed by nefarious cloaked brigands, because that is what those types are want to do. This of course led to a few small confrontations in the street, late at night, that saw our heroes triumphant. Well a bit bruised and battered, but victorious After a collection of enemy heads were taken and left as a warning outside the inn, the party turned in for the night, but at a crossroad. Do they go after the guy who sent hired goons to attack them, or head out for a chance to find some dwarf treasure?

Vengeance upon these goons and their boss was put to the side, as the party decided to go forth on a treasure hunt.