D&D pre-game 6-22-18

The Argenian Wastelands...Silver Town. A once prosperous silver mining town, now a decepit collection of broken down buildings.

A small fire crackles at the end of the street. Several misshapen bodies lie in the street twitching, melting and smoldering. A quartet of people circle the area driving weapons into the bodies to confirm they are no longer "alive."

Lukas Fudderer stands over the burnt remains of the demon preacher that caused all this.  He removes another vial of holy water and slowly pours in on the remains. The burnt and brittle bones begin to snap and pop as the consecrated fluid touches them. A low and long ghostly moan can be heard originating from the body. Lukas shudders and takes a step back as the burnt skeleton begins to crumble and blow away in the hot dry wind.

The remaining citizens have long since fled the town. The quartet was able to question a woman and her child before she raced from town. They where able to calm her down and get a smattering of information from her. They discovered that the silver mine went belly-up years ago. The miners had hit a strange pocket of darkness and then days later strange creatures appeared and began to destroy the mine. They boarded it up a day later. The town slowly went under and then this past year strange eldritch creatures began to arrive at night from the mine. These attacks occurred randomly for the next few years. People went into the mine to stop these beasts, but never returned. A month ago the preacher arrived and defended the town at night from the attacks. It was easy to follow he as he appeared to be the town's savior.They had no idea he was a demon creature in human form.
The party gives the woman some food, water and gold as she grabs her child and runs out of town. They warn her of travelling through the Argenian Wastelands alone, but she won't listen and runs off with her child.

Well the quartet stands in the center of the now empty town. They begin to discuss options when they notice that the sun has moved beyond the distant hills. Night is approaching and now they have to wonder if they will have to defend themselves from whatever lives in the mine and stay in town, or to push on farther into the wastelands to try and find the lair of the warlock Ariahiri Didani.

Back from vacation!

Shooo! Get out of her Nyan Cat!

Now with that bit of business over with.....

The family trucked out to the Black Hills of South Dakota last week.

Here are just a few pics of awesome nature and hiking locals.

This was an great scramble up a quarter mile or more of loose wet rocks.

We loved it...wife hated it.

It was totally worth it to make it to the caves at the top.

Had a great view of Spearfish Canyon from the top too.

Day 5

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1

It beginz

Wait...what?!?!?!

D&D Post Game Part 2

Silver Town shenanigans!

After arriving at Silver Town they party discovered it wasn’t as empty as they were lead to believe. It seems a few townsfolk remained and they were being given a real hellfire and brimstone sermon.

The trio made their way down the main and seemingly only street in this town. After a few hundred feet they discovered the source of the heavily religious ranting. A crowd of around thirty people were gathered around a giant pile of lumber and brush. A top this pile of dry flammable wood was their acquaintance and benefactor Lukas Fudderer gagged and bound to a pole. Beside him was a bearded human man dressed in flowing dusty red robes. He was still belting out his sermon about the evils of magic, demons and such.

The barbarian developed a plan to hopefully free Lukas without incident. They would say they were bounty hunters and were here to claim Lukas. This way they could drag him off safely and hopefully without resistance from the crowd.

The party made their way up and into the mob. Most of the citizens ignored them the rest gave them a wide berth, until they saw the dragonborn. It was then that the crowd began to get nervous and murmur curses under their breath. The barbarian made it over halfway to the unlit pyre and announced they were bounty hunters from Wychlight and were here to collect Lukas Fudderer for high crimes.

(persuasion/ intimidation rolls were made and made  very well but……..)

It was then that the holy man turned his rhetoric against the party. He referred to them as unwanted outsiders and cohorts of the bound mage. He made sure to drive home the point that a half-orc and a dragonman had come to rescue this mage. It was more proof that this man was evil as was conspiring with races tainted by evil and magic. He ordered the crowd to restrain these three. The crowd suddenly devolved into half slavering bloodthirsty mob or equal parts scared and confused.

D&D Post Game 5-2-2018 part 1

Wychlight in the Voodun Lounge

After a few days of swamp travel and battles our trio of adventurers is relaxing with food and drink. They are discussing their next move: return home, travel after the rampaging barbarian tribes, or investigate the strange gold currency. That is when a pair of filthy, ragged looking and very Southern sounding dwarves walk into the bar and begin questioning and investigating all the patrons.

They eventually notice a dragonborn, human and half-orc sitting at a table. They rush over to them, check a small sheet of paper and then begin to spin a story to the trio. The story is a bit sketchy sounding to the trio, but that is when the dwarves produce a small package and place it on the table.

The monk opens it to discover a rolled map, a small bag of gold coins, a vial of grey powder, a letter and a small stack of notes. The letter is from an occasional employer and minor acquaintance Lukas Fudderer. He has an opportunity to discover lost artifacts and information pertaining to a long lost magical city. This time his information has led him into the Argenian Wastelands and to a small mining village. This is where the party can find him. The they will all travel to find the hidden lair of a long thought dead Tiefling warlock. He also has left some notes for the party to pay the dwarves with the coins in the bag, where they can acquire some restorative  and healing potions from a witch doctor friend of his, a map to the last known location of Silver Town, and a vial of teleportation powder that will blink the trio to his last known location.

The party pays the dwarves who instantly begin to whoop and holler about their new found fortune ( 30 gold ). They send the monk to witch doctor. They then activate the teleport powder. There is a flash of light and they are no longer in Wychlight, but atop a small hill looking over a near barren wasteland off to  South and the Twilight Fens to the North. As they take in their surroundings they notice five water skins hanging from a small tree. The bark has the letters L.F. carved into it. It appears Lukas was making sure the group had extra water for their trip through the wastelands. The party grabs the waterskins and begins their descent down toward the rocky wastes.

Several hours and three times that in miles later they have gone from green and soggy ground to dry , rocky and unseasonably warm. The vegetation has quickly turned to scrub brush, briars and patches of tall dry grass. They have seen little fauna besides the occasional lizard, snake, bugs and small chirpy birds. There is also the faint scent of rotten eggs they notice when they get a breeze.

As they crest their eight rocky bluff they find their route drops down into  a shallow valley. As they descend they can see what looks to be a wagon, several crates and possibly  a trio of bodies lying on the ground. They slowly approach and then send the rogue to investigate further.

He easily sneaks up to the wagon and begins to investigate….

Empty, full of dust and very old looking. It has been here for some time.

The crates…..

Empty and in the same shape as the wagon.

The approaches the bodies….

They are clothes full of twigs and straw?

Solo review

Well the first and maybe only origin story for the Star Wars franchise is out now.

 

Solo: A Star Wars Story.


I went into this film with very low expectations. Mostly due to the troubles with story, director swapping, the cast stories, the knowledge that any peril Han would be in was pointless as we all know he (Chewie and Lando) would all survive, and the fact I didn’t feel the need the back story of Han Solo.


I left feeling pretty entertained.

PLOT

This is the story of how Han goes from a street rat on Corellia to becoming the beginnings of a profitable smuggling career pre Mos Eisley in New Hope. Along the way we get how he meets Chewie, gains his signature DL-44 pistol, see how he wins the Falcon from Lando and of course flies the Kessel Run. Yeah it checks all those boxes and a few more. This isn’t spoiler territory here we all saw this in the trailers. This is all done within a heist story about stealing Coaxium, or spaceship hyper fuel for the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate.

The Great Train Robbery: A Star Wars Story

Han, Chewie, Lando, Woody Harrleson and Daenerys Targaryen (Han’s first love interest) form a team to go steal some Coaxium. Along the way all the Han stuff happens that I explained above. Once again no spoiler there we all saw this happen in the trailers. Then there is the minor twist to the heist, which we should all see coming like most heist movies.

Back after a short hiatus

This has happened too much lately and it is good/bad.

After a couple of weeks I am back to the blog-o-shere.

I took some time to run the gambit of video games, movies and outdoor improvements/ lots of mulch.

I'll be back to post my take on the Solo movie, and recap the last D&D game we played.

Then I have thoughts on Battletech, Darkest Dungeon and Battle Chasers: Nightwar to toss out there.

A refreshing break, but now back to it!