Minotaur smack-down and a choice - Drow or Dragon?

 Just like the party but with more powers

Players are right to fear the Drow. AD&D traditionally starts hard. You have a handful of hit points and have to scramble for your wins. Then you hit mid level and a buffer of hit points protect you from mistakes. The beasts of the monster manual fall before your might, particularly creatures that are sacks of hit points with no powers. Things seem easy. Which is why Gygax introduced Drow. Drow, like players, don’t play fair. They cast spells, use poison, have magic resistance and allow the DM to indulge in mean underhanded tactics. The kicker is their sweet loot, like Drow cloaks and adamantium chainmail, decay in the sunlight. The pay-off for battling them isn’t always great. Drow were Gygax’s leveler, they make things tough again.

Which is why I was a disappointed when the group decided to avoid drow territory preferring to take their chances dragon hunting. The group love killing dragons and rightly so, they tend to be rich!

Things that happened last game were:

• Milgos the mage thief, Betty the swordswoman, Chuck the priest and Ratnik the barbaric tribesman ventured into the silent halls of the Mountain Trolls. The signs of the Troll purge obvious to all. Great piles of burnt bones lay where the heroes had stacked them in pyres and the walls remained scarred from the assault of both magical fire and ice. Nothing was foolish enough to assault the band in this place.
• A Minotaur outpost was discovered with the beasts seizing the initiative, charging into the narrow confines of the tunnels to do battle. This made casting area effect spells a risky proposition. Milgos fled and was head butted twice by great bull headed men who pursued. Betty barely withstood the barrage of axe blows and Ratnik fell. Chuck kept folk alive by channeling Dunethain’s power into healing spells. Soon Ratnik was back in the fight, three Minotaurs were caught in a web and the tide turned. The party had been horribly mauled by their first encounter and retreated to the city of Khare to lick their wounds.
• In Khare Chuck scrounged some healing scrolls from the curators of the library which served as Dunethain's temple.
• The second venture saw Milgo’s scouting and as soon as he heard the lowing of Minotaurs he let fly with a devastating fireball into the darkness. The burning Minotaurs fled in panic, setting off a crossbow trap. Those not killed by the trap had their throats slit.
• The parties own dark elf assessed the trap and determined it was of Drow manufacture. He retrieved a number of bolts from the device then decided to leave what lay beyond the traps protection alone. As far as he knew the trap marked the beginning of Drow territory.
• The group turned north as Milgos recalled a tale of a dragon lairing in that direction. The northern tunnels where part of an abandoned mine. Many of the tunnels looked dangerously unstable with one collapsing before their eyes.
• Shrieking fungus sounded the alarm in a fungus covered chamber. Lizard like rooster creatures raced in to investigate. Chuck hurled a mine cart into the chamber disrupting a patch of yellow mold at a critical moment slaying two of the monsters.
• Past the abandoned mines and fungus the group found a snake temple. In a pillared hall a huge constrictor attacked them and at one point swallowed Ratnik. The henchman was spared the indignity of dying in a snake’s stomach as the party eviscerated the creature. Chuck was so incensed at the snakes audacity for swallowing one of the Dunethain's favoured that he hacked off the head of the beast, Conan style!
• An ominous pair of double doors was discovered beyond which the party suspect lairs the dragon. The dragon they hunt had defeated the party very early on in their careers, though Ugh is the only character to have survived that initial encounter. The band retreated to plan their next move.

Snakes often get chopped in the head

Nostalgia, Cave Demons and Sorcery!

I ran an AD&D game on Google+ recently. Part of running older games is recapturing the wonder and excitement I experienced as a kid, nostalgia I guess. I had pondered creating a sandbox setting for the game I’m running and figured that I should draw on the things that inspired me when I was growing up. The major influences were Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf books, games of Talisman, Warhammer 3e and countless readings of D&D Red Box. Visually Gary Chalk and John Blanche were huge influences on me. While I am reminiscing, Callum an old DM and friend, joined the game calling in from NSW. Excellent!

Gary Chalk illustrated my childhood.

Callum had rolled up Chuck the dwarven cleric/fighter and zealot of Dunethoin. Dunethoin is the god of secrets and mysteries. Brendan brought Milgos and his henchwoman Betty. After a substantial Google+ hic-up killed about an hour of game time we got underway and achieved the following:

·       Chuck met Milgos in one of Khare’s many taverns and immediately made all present aware of his zealous unwavering faith. Milgos was not impressed by the dwarf's fanaticism. He had recently taken up the title of 'Milgos the Glum' as he brooded on the loss of his dark elf form.

·       Chuck was looking to explore the location of some cyclopean ruins that were held by a band of Slaang worshipping marauders. Slaang is the chaotic god of malice.

·       Upon arriving at the caves they were questioned by a man concealed in the undergrowth who insisted he was a hermit and that the group had to leave as there were “definitely no cyclopean ruins here to explore, thank you very much.” After a drawn out conversation Chuck became suspicious and peered into the cave. While the ‘hermit’ had stalled for time a band of marauders had gathered at the caves entrance. Combat was swift thanks to a hold person spell and some terrible rolls.

·       Efforts to push the ‘held’ marauders off a cliff face were interrupted by the main marauder group led by a Witch of Slaang. Once they were dispatched a marauder was spared and brow beaten into forsaking his god Slaang and instead worshipping Dunethoin.

·       Chuck’s new ‘ally’ spilled the beans on the caves layout and features mentioning some tunnels that were too small for the bulky marauders to explore. These tunnels would be ignored.

·       The witch’s body turned to mist and began to float away but was frozen solid by Milgos’ magic. The frozen chunks were then scooped into a bag of holding.

·       A cave demon was found and dispatched. Milgos’ displacer cloak gave him the confidence to enter melee.

·       A giant stone head was discovered in the cave demons lair. It was said to allow direct communication with the god Slaang who would grant a wish to any who bested him in a contest of wits. Milgos was torn but would have no truck with dark gods despite his desire to return to his drow form. Chuck got out his chisel and defaced the head ruining it.

·       Further exploration found a survivor of a prior expedition, Mad Mord, who gave them some extra information on the cyclopean ruins which the players didn’t really pick up on. Probably because at this point we were rushing things.

Sorcery! The feared Cave Demon turns out to be a manticore. 

The adventure I ran was a homebrew influenced by the Sorcery! series of books, specifically the Shamutanti Hills, with an eye to fine tune it into a one page dungeon entry. No adventure survives contact with the players and despite my fatigue on the night I picked up on a few things that didn’t really work:

·       The adventure needed more detail as the caves were overshadowed by combat. Callum thought they were moving through a dungeon when they were moving through natural caves. This could also be because the fighting started well before any exploration.

·       More build up was required. There was a big fight at the entrance and then some rushed and muddled exploring.

·       Some other sort of opponent beyond the marauders and the cave demon was required. Is there room in the caves for another faction if I space things out?

·       The puzzle, which led to the portal concealing a cool encounter and substantial treasure, was either too well hidden or simply not picked up on by the players. The primary goal seemed to be clear the dungeon of monsters first and if there's any play time left explore.

·       I got the impression the players weren’t impressed with re-skinned humanoids preferring to battle the classic creatures. The players searched in vain for the spell book of a witch after she was killed. They became disheartened and queried how she could cast spells. It’s hardly my job as a DM to explain that she was a re-skinned ogre-mage.

·       The marauders were re-skinned minotaur’s with a random mutation. Thanks to the random mutation roll one of the marauders could psionically cast sleep. I think this met with raised eyebrows that he cast a spell without a spell book and do it while wearing armour. This is probably a bit of the old 3e fairness/monsters built like players mindset creeping in. 

I’ll keep working on this adventure and the Sorcery! setting as I think both have potential. It was great gaming with both Brendan and Callum. It has been far too many years. Nostalgia is a good thing.

Caves of Chaos, burning oil and how we roll.

Pete, Optimus Prime and I have gamed together for most of our lives. We tend towards farce, mucking around and disrupting the DM’s plans at every turn. Yet we keep coming back. When someone runs a pre-written adventure like Optimus Prime's Barony of the Damned or Pete’s Power Behind the Throne we take things seriously for the most part. 

These adventures worked for us.

But if its one of our written adventures look out. Perhaps this is due to their one-shot nature. Lately I’ve been thinking about doing the following to prevent frustration on my part as the DM:

• Discourage disruptive PC’s like Halflings. Halflings are inevitably played as squeaky voiced Mickey Mouse clones. The voice will eventually drive you mad. One occasion saw the group play Barbarians as cavemen that don’t play nice with society. Which makes sense but made the city based adventure planned for the night problematic.
• Curtail oil. It’s rules effectiveness sees it used till it becomes a monotonous crutch. I have seen oil flasks ruled as alchemist fire as opposed to lamp oil. This makes sense given the flammability and raw damage and I should reduce availability accordingly. It was amusing to see it used as a tool for assassination though.
• Hand wave as much ‘town’ as I can. My problem with the ‘town’ is that one person does their own thing for a bit leaving the others bored. I have been in this position many times. Bored or frustrated players tend to set things, like taverns, on fire. Therefore I hand wave the whole thing “gain d3 hirelings each and buy whatever you like off the equipment list within reason.” To me the adventure happens at the adventure site, be it a ruin or dungeon, and not in the village.
• Hirelings are a finite resource. Players become frustrated at not being allowed to hire a dozen hirelings post expedition to replace losses.  I have come to see the pool of hirelings as a finite resource but my players don’t see things this way. 

Last Friday we gamed. I wasn’t sure what to run and had been speed-reading Tomb of the Iron God and Dwimmermount. I settled for something I knew. B2 Keep on the Borderlands. After swift character creation we began at the ravine’s entrance with the players facing a series of caves. I decided to pick things up from where the last group had left off. A Halfling fighter, Half Orc assassin and a mob of hirelings headed straight to the Temple of Evil Chaos. There was much burning. The following happened:

Goblins always show up as wandering monsters.

• A reaction roll dictated that a wandering group of goblins was friendly. A roll on the Monster Business chart saw they were rock painting. They offered to serve as guides in return for a shovel and ’magic’ whistle.
• Booted feet caused loud echoes in the temple corridors and so all footwear was abandoned. The Half Orc and Halfling crept ahead with the Halfling abandoning his armour, favouring stealth. Before going into combat the Halfling would have a hireling strap him back into his armour.
• A horde of skeletons were delicately roped together and their weapons deftly stolen. They would only animate if the gem they guarded was touched or if assaulted. Ultimately they animated and promptly fell over each other becoming tangled. They were easily dispatched. Had this been a straight up fight they party would have been butchered.
• A horde of zombies was lured into an expansive field of oil laid out as a trap by the adventurers. Their brainless shambling approach saw them badly burned and then simply dispatched. Another TPK avoided.
• A band of acolytes were interrupted as they complained about a ‘priest’ who was not sending enough victims their way. The players found out the usefulness of maces as we again used the AD&D Weapon verse Armour charts. Pete wasn’t impressed and I am reconsidering it’s use.
• Excursion number one was a great success and the Half Orc assassin levelled up!
• A trip to town saw the heroes desperate for oil. They went door-to-door begging for supplies and offering ludicrous prices. They also hired a Priest of Thunder and his acolytes.
• Further exploration of the Temple of Evil Chaos saw the group barge in on a second band of acolytes. During the melee the Priest of Thunder betrayed them. All the hirelings, including the goblin guides, were slain. The high priests efforts to cast powerful spells like hold person were disrupted by lucky blows before the spells could be completed. The dice were running hot for the players.
• Powerful chaotic artefacts were cautiously liberated, being lassoed onto a cloak before being bundled up. They would later inflict their curse when touched while being cleaned. The curse was seen as a frustration to the players and honestly was better resolved quickly and painlessly with a shabbily role-played trip to the priest back in town. There they blatantly hinted that they were cursed till the priest cast a remove curse spell.
• A second horde of zombies was lured into a field of burning oil and suffered greatly for their brainlessness. The arrival of the Temple’s High Priest saw the Halfling fail his save verse spells and become paralysed. The Half Orc grabbed him and legged it, lighting several flasks of oil behind him to cover his retreat.
• Excursion two was a great success, despite all the hirelings being butchered, as the traitorous Priest of Thunder was loaded with magic gear. Everyone levelled! No one would hire on with them nor was there additional oil for sale.
• With no one in the tavern willing to join them the players looked to recruit from the monstrous populace for their next assault on the Temple. A wandering monster roll determined a band of goblins setting snares in the woods; the reaction roll said they weren’t immediately hostile. The Half Orc’s appearance helped and soon they were directed to the orc caves. Some solid role-playing saw the recruitment of 10 orc warriors and an ogre mercenary.
• The Temple High Priest was caught by surprise as he organised an ambush. The ogre cut him down and his zombies were dispatched. While prior hirelings had not been used as fodder the orcs certainly were.
• The main temple was discovered. The Halfling failed a save and was hypnotised by some pretty temple lights. A horde of skeletons descended upon the group. It was a dramatic and close fight but once more the dice favoured the hero’s. A bloody ogre was their only ally left standing.
• With the battle over the assassin put a war hammer into the ogre’s eye. The assassin had had a few attempts to assassinate creatures and on every occasion he had failed his % chance of success roll. This attempt was no different. He did automatically hit on each attempt and, thanks to another lucky roll, the damage inflicted was just enough to kill the ogre outright. The two heroes’ then looted the temple and the ogre’s lair.
• Excursion three was a great success and everyone levelled again! The treasure in the temple is insanely high and the pair now has impressive magic armour, shields and weapons. As both characters are now level 4 I suspect the Caves of Chaos may not be as much of a challenge going forward.

Ogre 'ally' prior to war hammer to face incident.

It was 3 am when we finished gaming. Once again the Caves of Chaos produced the goods. It thoroughly deserves its status as a classic. There is just so much you can do with the module.

B2 - Quick play Caves of Chaos

The Keep on the Borderlands holds fond memories for many

Keep on the Borderlands is held as a prime example of how to set-up a sandbox and run an action packed game. Some label it a meat grinder, it can be. I wanted to run a pick-up game while the regular DM was overseas. I selected Keep on the Borderlands and started things where the action is, the Caves of Chaos. It worked great.

Pacing in a game is critical, particularly for a pick-up game. We game from 6 to 9 on Wednesday nights. That's three hours to cram as much D&D in as possible. I wanted to include character generation. Normally character generation slows everything to a crawl, particularly if you don't have enough books on hand. Things get worse when you start buying equipment and look to hire men at arms. So I used Jeff Reints character generation as a party game. Jeff makes judicious use of index cards and I had bought a stack on my lunch break. They proved handy. Each character managed to fit on a single card! 

Owlbear wins

Inspired by this blog entry at Hill Cantons blog I produced a random starting equipment chart to speed things along. The random weapons were modified to account for Weapon v Armour Class. This is something I have never used before as it adds a layer of complexity to the game and slows combat down. Stuart from Strange Magic inspired me to incorporate the bonus/penally different weapons had against various armour directly into the hit roll. His post about it is here. The group ended up as a band of elves accompanied by a Paladin. Their adventuring highlights include:

• Adam naming his hireling Rob in the hope that I would not kill him. As it transpired Rob was the first to die. His next hireling was called Bob <sigh>.
• Negotiations with Gnolls saw them directed to a bears den.
• The Paladin called out a challenge from the entrance to the bears lair asking it to fight them in fair combat. The band then set about preparing an ambush.
• The bear turned out to be an Owlbear. The party fell one by one to the creatures claws and hug. As each character died they took on the role of a plucky hireling. Adam's elven cleric/mage was the last man standing and was unlucky not to land a killing blow with his hammer. Instead the elf was decapitated by a swipe from the beast as he desperately attempted a sleep spell.

Everyone is Half-Orc

I was a little crestfallen about the TPK but the group took it in their stride. In fact it had been a lot of fun for all. The advantage with Jeff's party game creation method is that no one was that attached to a character. Lightning fast character generation produces some odd results you wouldn't have come up with on your own. 10 minutes after the TPK a new group was ready to face the Caves of Chaos. In the secret allocation of Race and Class everyone had selected Half-Orc fighters. Some had a dash of Assassin and one did a reasonable impersonation of a Cleric. Highlights for the second group include:

• Shane has a d30. It was used to generate the first letter of the PC's. We ended up with Half-Orcs called Zerbo and Xerxes.
• Tracking their first batch of 'good' characters hoping to kill them and take their stuff. Everyone knows parties are at their most vulnerable on their way out of a dungeon and these Half-Orcs were a cunning lot.
• A battered Owlbear was put to the sword. The bodies of their first party were looted and the equipment redistributed. This is the first time I have seen a group loot their 'own' bodies. Bizarre.
• One of the Gnolls who'd mislead the group was found half eaten in the Owlbear's lair. He had headed into the caves to see how the party had fared before falling to the raging monster.
• Grey Oozes were smacked off ceilings. They proceeded to corrode halberds and armour before being dispatched.
• After conquering the Owlbear lair the group headed to their next randomly selected cave. It just so happened to contain the biggest bad in the place. The Minotaur gave them a run for their money.
• Noting the bovine smell at the cave entrance, Chris determined that whoever lived within the cave owned cattle which in turn meant that they would be rich. Thus the group should enter and take everything. His rational explanation for the bull manure smell was perfect in its naivety.
• Shooting into combat is a bad idea. A luckless hireling disrupted the Half-Orc cleric's command spell at a crucial juncture. To make up for it the hireling discarded his crossbow and waded into close combat. He was impaled on the minotaurs horns the following round. 
• The hero's overcame the Minotaur and found a substantial amount of treasure. In all likelihood enough to level despite their multi-classing.

Minotaur - the true source of the bovine smell

Thanks to Adam, Chris and Shane for an excellent game that I had a blast running. In 2.5 hours we went through character generation twice and completed some tough parts of the Caves of Chaos. That's a lot of game for a short period of time. The perfect amount of time for a drop in and have a go game.

Oldhammer - Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition - Orcs verse Chaos

Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition was a staple of my high school years. This time we figured on a bigger battle than our chaos warband skirimishes. We would field over 100 models on each side. Optimus Prime suggested we put everything on the table, points be damned. I fielded my Orc army, most of which was painted in highschool. It was light on goblins as I had stolen their bases for another project. The Orcs opted for big solid blocks of infantry while Chaos went with many smaller bands to set-up flank attacks. As my army was horribly outnumbered we wracked our brains for a scenario that would make for a satisfying battle. Flames of War had me thinking about objectives and so we set some bottle caps on my side of the board representing the nectar of the gods that the Goblinoids would have to defend for 6 turns. We would do battle on a heavily forested board.

Smaug and his Orc army Smaug - small winged firebreathing dragon - 250 points Smaug's Buddy - Manticore - 200 points 12 Orc arrer boys 20 Black Orcs with halberds 20 Orc boys with halberds (Ruglud's armoured orcs) 15 Gobbo's with 3 Goblin Fanatics 12 Wolf riders 1 Wolf drawn chariot (without scythed wheels)

Ravening hordes of Chaos 3 blocks of 10 Maruaders 2 blocks of 10 Beastmen 3 stupidity prone Trolls 6 Ogres 5 blocks of 10 Chaos Thugs Tiberius the feeble - Chaos Warrior serving as General

SETUP AND DEPLOYMENT

Tiberius keeps a watchful eye over the Trolls and his horde in general.

Starting positions. The bottle caps are the objectives while the abundance of trees will prove more of an annoyance than anything else.

UNITS IN RESERVE
Mini Smaug and his Orc army	Ravening hordes of Chaos

DEPLOYMENT SUMMARY

Mini Smaug and his Orc army: The Dragon and Manticore anchor the lines with the aim of holding the objectives. Each is supported by a block of solid orc infantry. Ravening hordes of Chaos: Small groups of elite troops spread wide. Maximum coverage that ended up being hindered by the terrain and saw forward units blocking the advance of those behind.

TURN 1

The chariot rattles forward, the Orc boys march over to the objective. Manticore takes to the air.

COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
Mini Smaug and his Orc army	Ravening hordes of Chaos Smaug got lucky and toasted a Chaos Thug with his fiery breath.

TURN 1 SUMMARY

Mini Smaug and his Orc army: General advance. We consult the flying rules. By the end of the night we still don't know how the fly-by attack rules work. Animosity rears it's ugly head as the Black Orcs spend the turn hurling abuse at the neighbouring gobbo's. Ravening hordes of Chaos: Another general advance hindered by forgetting to reserve move. We then adopt a 'march' rule that came to be the norm in later editions of Warhammer.

TURN 2

The chariot crashes home and we learn the wierd and unique rules for chariots in hand to hand

COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
Mini Smaug and his Orc army	Ravening hordes of Chaos 1 unit of Chaos Thugs A handful of Chaos Thugs crushed under a chariots wheels. 1 Troll killed by a gobbo fanatic

TURN 2 SUMMARY

Mini Smaug and his Orc army: The chariot crashes home then gets mired in combat. The Goblin fanatics are released and combined with Smaug's breath destroy a unit of Chaos Thugs and a Troll. The regeneration rolls were unkind to the Chaos General all game with not a single success. Ravening hordes of Chaos: The horde continue to advance. The powerful Chaos Mauraders are delayed by the units ahead and find it difficult to get into combat.

TURN 3

The Goblin fanatics whirl back into their parent unit killing 5 and routing the gobbo's

The Beastmen learn that it's hard to wound an Orc. The Ogre's lurk in a nearby wood.

COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
Mini Smaug and his Orc army 5 Gobbo's. 1 wolf rider chariot	Ravening hordes of Chaos 1 unit of Chaos Thugs A handful of Chaos Thugs crushed under a chariots wheels. 1 Troll

TURN 3 SUMMARY

Mini Smaug and his Orc army: The fanatics, lured out by a screen of Chaos thugs, now whirl around uncontrolled. One ploughs back into it's parent unit causing carnage. The Manticore does a fly-by on the beastmen killing one. It will spend the rest of the day puzzling out the intricacies of the aerial rules, banking slowly to the right and playing no further part in the game. Ravening hordes of Chaos: The beastmen charge into the block of Orc Halberds. They are ground down and slowly pushed back and yet they will not break. Tiberius the Chaos Warrior herds his trolls into the cover of a nearby wood. The wolf rider chariot is swamped and pulled apart. The rules said it ran amok but it made more sense to say it was smashed to pieces.

TURN 4

The Black Orcs charge a troll, drive it back into the forest and then are swamped by Chaos Thugs and Ogres!

Orc Halberds push back the hordes and delay more powerful units from getting involved.

COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
Mini Smaug and his Orc army 5 Gobbo's. 4 Black Orcs 1 wolf rider chariot	Ravening hordes of Chaos 1 unit of Chaos Thugs A handful of Chaos Thugs crushed under a chariots wheels. 3 Trolls 1 beastman

TURN 4 SUMMARY

Mini Smaug and his Orc army: Smaug charges into the forest and tears apart a troll which fails to regenerate. The Black orcs charge and are counter charged by Ogres and Thugs. The Thugs are hurled back by the Black Orc General and his troops but the flanking ogres prove a difficult proposition. Ravening hordes of Chaos: A troll tears down 3 Black Orcs before succuming to halberd blows. The Ogres and Thugs fell another Black Orc while the Orc Halberds on the left flank are slowly surrounded.

TURN 5

Tiberius the Chaos Warrior and General of the horde is incinerated by Smaugs fiery breathe

Halberd wielding Orcs surrounded by a herd of Beastmen.

Panic ensues as a unit of Thugs charge Smaug and are butchered.

COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
Mini Smaug and his Orc army 5 Gobbo's. 5 Black Orcs 6 Orc Halberds 2 Gobbo wolf riders 1 wolf rider chariot	Ravening hordes of Chaos 2 units of Chaos Thugs A handful of Chaos Thugs crushed under a chariots wheels. 3 Trolls Tiberius - Chaos Warrior General 4 Beastmen - killed by Halberd wielding orcs

TURN 5 SUMMARY

Mini Smaug and his Orc army: The wolf riders charge on the far right flank and get bogged down in a fight that goes no where. The Orc Arrer boys fire volleys into the horde and turn back an assualt by Chaos Thugs. Smaug incinerates the enemy general and destroys a unit of thugs single handedly. Ravening hordes of Chaos: The Black orcs are slowly pushed back and wrapped around by the ogres. A suicide charge by some thugs into Smaug and their predictable anihilation causes ripples of panic throughout the Chaos forces. The Beastmen swarm around the Orc Halberds charging them in the rear. The Orcs nerve holds and they hurl the Beastmen back.

TURN 6

It all comes down to this. Halberd Orcs swarmed by the Ravening Hordes.

COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
Mini Smaug and his Orc army 5 Gobbo's. 5 Black Orcs 8 Orc Halberds 4 Gobbo wolf riders 1 wolf drawn chariot	Ravening hordes of Chaos 2 units of Chaos Thugs A handful of Chaos Thugs crushed under a chariots wheels. 3 Trolls Tiberius - Chaos Warrior General A handful of thugs torn down by wold riders 1 Ogre 6 Beastment butchered over many rounds by the Halberd Orcs

TURN 6 SUMMARY

Mini Smaug and his Orc army: The left flank and the associated objective was held thanks to those brave Orc Boys who defied the odds and pushed back the Horde time and time again. In the final turn they were surrounded on all sides and refused to panic. Ravening hordes of Chaos: Everything is thrown at the left flank but the dice gods are cruel and the Orcs hold.

The dragon proved too tough for the right flank. Aerial rules are painful to understand and the manticore would have been better spent on the ground. It's ineptitude left it's flank ripe for the taking. However the dice gods were not on the side of the Ravening Horde and the Orc Halberds did surprisingly well. The Orcs were equipped as their models were, with halberds. This gave them a slight edge in pitched battle as the Ravening Hordes came to the table with only standard equipment. Every little bit counts but in the end Orcish endurance won out. The objectives were held for the required 6 turns. A good game and a reminder of just how crunchy the rules for the 3rd edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle are.

Generated by WWPD's BatRepper Software.

The Fane of St Toad

‘Ugh, a little help here.’ - Osric as he confronts the formless spawn.

In a hovel on the outskirts of a pig farm Mugwort, lay-priest and seer of Tsathoggua the demon toad, clutched his forehead and writhed in pain on the muddy floor. Rance, a fellow lay-priest, looked on with concern. ‘What do you see Mugwort?’

His companion struggled to answer through teeth clenched in pain. ‘I see the temple defiled. The shrine to the holy amphibious trinity, to St Toad himself has been breached by heathens.’

‘I see them set out on a forgotten path to the Fane. A half elf leads an armoured oaf and a Halfling wench. He holds a tattered map. It leads to the most sacred of sites. The place we had long thought lost they have found!’ Mugwort became excited and leapt to his feet. “We must go there at once!’

Rance placed a calming hand on Mugwort’s shoulder. ‘Calm yourself brother. It would take us many days to journey there, if indeed your vision would be enough to guide us. This group you mention reminds me of the Westwood Warriors. Tsathoggua knows them well for they have crossed him before. They slew our high priest many months ago. You will recall the massacre in the tunnels of Enlandrin. Odd though for they are missing their wizard. Tell me what else do you see?’

‘The intruders cross the threshold. They examine each thing in turn, the murals, altar and sacred font but they do so carefully for they are no fools. They regard the idols with cowed reverence for they know Tsathoggua’s power in this place. They can feel it. They are the flies in the house toads. The half elf is called by the darkness of an alcove. He trembles before the sacred idol of K’Tehe the Destroyer. Curiosity gets the better of him and he prods the formless spawn of Tsathoggua that lies dormant in an offering bowl. The ooze bubbles into life. They have awoken the guardian and will pay the price.’

‘That is the end of them. No one can stand before the fury of the formless spawn of Tsathoggua. A fitting end I say…’

‘Hold your celebrations for the vision continues. They battle in Tsathoggua’s sacred hall. Their steel does nothing. I see the formless spawn splitting and now there are two. The heathens realize their insignificance before such an implacable foe.  The bewildered look on their faces is a blessing from Tsathoggua. The half elf flees like a craven. The armoured oaf retreats to cower behind a pit. Like desperate fools they assault the spawn with furniture, they push at the sacred oozing forms with pews and altars. Woe! Oh great calamity! The spawn have been cast into the sacred pit, pushed in by the ludicrous failings of the heathens.’

‘All is not lost brother. The formless spawn will rise from the pit and finish them. They are not so easily defeated.’

“Cruel injustice! I see the heathens tearing down the Fane's great stone doors. They are using them to seal the pit. The formless spawn is trapped! They continue to search and touch nothing this time. They venture down the stairs. I see them walk the corridors. They have found the breeding chamber. They squirm uncomfortably. The murals and the divine ideas contained within revolt them. Their tiny minds cannot comprehend what they see. They seize the wicked toad idol. It toys with them as it speaks to their minds.’

Rance ventured hopefully ‘Tsathoggua can be most persuasive. Perhaps one of them will turn. The rewards for service are great and the wicked toad idol and its power to enslave with but a thought is a worthy prize.’

‘Alas their hearts are steeped in detestable virtue. They do not heed the relic’s entreaties. They move again now to the crypts. The armoured oaf approaches a coffin. He removes the lid and is suitably punished for disturbing the righteous rest of the dead. The blessed of Tsathoggua, half toad and half man, assail them. Mummified, they absorb the blows of their foes. They seem impervious to the arrows of the half elf. The Halfling’s feeble gods will not answer her desperate prayers here in the heart of Tsathoggua‘s temple. They know they are doomed yet still they battle on.’

‘About time they perished. I could not think of a more suitable ending than to be slain by the blessed of Tsathoggua.’

‘Woe brother Rance! I see the blessed torn asunder by the hated armoured oaf and a simple spear thrust from the half elf. We are undone. The Fane of St Toad lies undefended. The heathens retreat but will not be gone long.’ Mugwort shook his head clearing it of the vision. ‘We must gather our strength and head to the Fane at once. Our god has shown me the way. We will put an end to these blasphemers once and for all.’

Continuity and the Cthulhu Campaign

Hint: African magic is never beneficial

How is a second batch of investigators meant to pick up the pieces from a failed investigation? The various conceits such as prior investigators leaving detailed notes always rang false to me. One option could be to play policemen investigating the disappearance of the prior investigators and then trying hard not to act on knowledge these fresh characters wouldn’t have. I must admit I find it hard not to meta-game in these situations. How do you keep sensible continuity vital to the believability of a clue laden Cthulhu story after a party wipe? Which leads me to a second thought.

Can you fail in a role-playing game? As people say character death and insanity in Cthulhu are expected and yet it’s still an odd feeling to have a character perish. My character in Cthulhu is probably dead and that’s OK. I suspect my next character will be a lot more paranoid and I’ll probably power game his stats as much as I can so that I pass those critical rolls. I have to wonder if you’re playing Cthulhu in the spirit of the game if you have martial arts, explosives and shotguns at 95%? Here’s what could well amount to Monty’s last tale:

Well this is a grim situation we find ourselves in. It seems the questionable folk of the Juju house were indeed cultists. I had suspected as much but chose the noble path of not giving in to racial stereotyping and this is the result it seems. Struck down by invisible Nubian warriors. In the dead of night the blighters are difficult to see. I would tell you of events from the start so that in the likely event that I am sacrificed to some nameless bloody tongued god you may pick up the pieces and continue the investigation. I trust you shall be more paranoid than I and shoot all those of colour on sight. This could of course become problematic should your investigations lead you to Kenya. Regardless here is what transpired before my present predicament.

Our first trip to Harlem was an unpleasant affair. Drunks abound in this ghetto. The Juju house sold African gewgaws of little consequence. Our enquiries of the old shop owner got us an introduction to Mokungo who we were to meet late that night. I noticed a key about the shop owner’s neck and ascertained that there was a basement beneath the shop. An inner voice told me to pull a gun on the owner but I resisted the temptation for such would be the actions of a mad man. Oh how I regret not acting on that instinct now.

It's ones duty to formulate an escape plan

We left the Juju house with little to show for our efforts except for the feeling that the African was hampering our investigations. Instead we turned our attention to Erica Carlysle, sister of the clearly doomed expedition leader Roger Carlyle. We got her attention by hinting that her brother was still alive. This got us our audience, where Erica told us of a Nubian princess who had bent Roger to her will. She also provided us with several texts that gave her the heebee jeebees. In addition she told us of Roger’s constant nightmares but not what they were about, as Roger would not tell anyone. Finally she signed a letter giving us access to his psychiatric records.

We had an 8 o’clock appointment with Mokungo and returned to the Juju house. Suspecting skulduggery we staked out the shop for a good 10 minutes. Seeing no one enter and deciding we had best see what was afoot we headed in. Mokungo was there as was Silas the storeowner. Not liking the situation I chose to remain at the door and watch the alley while Dr Raymond Howser approached the Africans and engaged them in a short conversation. I recall a panicked shriek from Dr Raymond just prior to being struck on the head by a metal object. We had fallen into a trap and it is most unlikely that we shall survive.