Legacies of Exera: Session 17

 

After wiping off the troll blood from the parties faces, the party once against continues up the mountain. after sometime Clarence notices large nests on the rocky outcroppings of the mountains up above the party. Claren whispers the party about moving carefully and how everyone should make as little noise as possible. Despite the best efforts, enough noise is made that alerts the winged humanoid creatures that were not noticed previously. A group of nesting harpies fly down to greet the party but the harpies quickly finds themselves outmatches and eventually all of the harpies fall to the blades and magics of the Firetop Crusaders. 

Dusting themselves off, the party continues their journey up the mountain and the trail quickly becomes steeper and steeper. As the party struggles with the incline. Shadowgrumble grumbles and informs A’anri about dragon ants just in time to warn the party before reaching the top of the mountain where a large cave is located. As the party sets foot into the clearing before the cave, they are met with a horde of these dragons ants spewing acid and trying to make the party their lunch. Gareth yells to the party to stay back as Gareth charges into the mass of the Dragon ants, takes some acid to the face, and creates a killing field of psychic energy that decimates the fire ants colony. The rest of the party is quickly jumps to the aid of Gareth to make sure Gareth does not become lunch for the remaining dragon ants. The party enjoys a moments of calm as the last dragon ants falls and a discussion is held to how they are going to deal with the cave and more importantly, what is probably lurking in the cave.

Vladimir sneaks into the cave and notices three cave bears and a sleeping giant moments before the cave bears notice Vladimir and the cave bears roars wake the sleeping giant who bellows in frustration and rage. The rest of the party hears the growls and the giant and instantly rush into the cave mouth to come to the aid of Vladimir who finds himself cornered by the save bears moments before the giant launches Vladimir across the cave with one mighty blow. As the party deals with the charging cave bears the giant starts hurling boulders at them which quickly makes the party realize everyone needs to spread out as the party continues to focus on down the cave bears first. 

During the melee, the giant causes a massive rockslide that buries Vladimir and A’anri which in turn takes them out of the fight. Harl realizes that the giant is smarter the average giant as the giant continues to duck behind some stone outcropping to use as cover after throwing stones at the party and calls out we need to get closer to get rid of giant’s advantage. Gareth takes the initiative and employs dimension swap to remove the stone the giant was hiding behind as the giant takes out Gareth with a blow from the giant’s club. Before the giant can lift this giant’s club for another attack Enama charges the gaint as Helestina casts a spell that increases Enama’s size moments before her fists smash into the giants face.

The giant reacts with exploding gemstones that only leave Helestina and Harl standing in the dust. Helestina finds some cover as Harl draws the giant’s attention so Helestina can safely put the giant to sleep. As the giant falls to the floor, Harl delivers the final blow with a point blank eldritch blast ending the giants existence.

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PLAYER NOTES: Oh wow, this session was filled with back to back major encounters definitely designed to reduce everyone’s resources before the big battle at the end. We defiantly got lucky with harpies as everyone made their saves against the harpies songs and the death field destroyed the horde of dragons ants that saved everyone some serious attrition. The Dice Gods were not Vladimir’s friend as the stealth roll was completed fumbled which caused a rush to action before a plan could be created or even the thought of an attempt to parley with the giant. The DM used some good tactics with the giant they kept us at bay and the giant was able to use his own attacks as well as lair triggers to pick us apart. There were also some critical hits that made the situation worse and I was almost sure there was going to be a total party kill. When all of the dust settled, it was me and Helestina were left but we were hanging on by a thread and ended up with some lucky rolls of our own. After the giant was downed, time was spent reviving the other party members and searching the rest of the cave until the treasure was found. 

Hot Grail Winter

 

I have not put in a lot of major effort of tracking down my "Grail" games in a long time. My list of grail games is small and usually includes games I had when I was younger then went the way of the dinosaurs for various reasons or games that did not survive one of my purges which I highly regret. 

Due to happenstance and some serious luck, I have been able to acquire a good number of my grail games over the last month. This has made me overly happy with lots of feelings of content. There are still a few games on my grail list but I guess those will come in time. 

For those of you at home that does not know what a grail is, it is a highly sought after game (or other object) that is difficult to come by for numerous reasons but the common reasons include being out of print, low print runs, and popular when it was released so people are reluctant to part with them for those who have then. The term grail comes from the "Holy Grail" and the epic quests that follow its hunt. Same could be said about Excalibur and so on. 

1.The First Fantasy Campaign by Dave Arneson: Well, I do not know what else can be said about this legendary tome that houses Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign from the early years. This includes the maps and the various dungeon levels that were explored and have yet to be explored. I have owned the pdf copy for a while now (which I printed out and bound for easier reading) but the original copy has always alluded me because people like to sell their copies for around $300-600 dollars and that is just to rich for my blood and people should be ashamed of themselves. I got lucky and ran into (online meeting) a person who had a copy and was willing to barter for it. The copy is in a good condition except for pages 51-56ish that have come free from the staples. I have looked into getting in rebound in a hardback but I am unsure if the paper is going to be to brittle and the rebinding place is about a 45 minute drive from where I live. Still do not know what I am going to do about that aspect but regardless, I am beyond exciting to have an original copy in my hands. Sadly, the PDF has been removed by Judges Guild for reasons I am not privy to.

2. Dust Devils: Stories in the Old West: This game was initially released in 2002 (the same year the game won a bunch of awards including Best Indue Game) and got a Revenged Edition in 2007 - I common consensus is that the changes made the game even more enjoyable. I first encountered this game circa 2009 when I played in a three part story ran by someone at a local store. This was one of the first "story" focused games that I experienced and probably was one of the first of the "story game" genre in general. It was also an excellent entry into the “conflict resolution” era of game design. That is, folks play and describe and build toward a conflict, and when a facilitator decides a conflict is at hand, then you stop narrating and switch over to the resolution game. The game does not used dice, but uses a deck of cards and some poker chips. I have to say, playing Dust Devils was one of the most rewarding gaming experiences I have and there intense experiences when facing my character’s Devils. The thing about your Devil is that not only do you name the dark drive (misogyny, greed, racism, cold-bloodlessness, whatever), you also write a little sentence about your character’s perspective on why they are the way they are. Same with your past and present lines. It is a great and innovative process. But I digress, after I played in the short little adventure I was not able to acquire a copy at the time due to finances and then as the years went on the game sold out and became hard to find. Once again, I got lucky that I ran into Matt Snyder (digitally) and he was willing to look around for a copy and sign it even! I really can't wait to get this to the table. 

3. Toon Deluxe Edition: This game was initially released by Steve Jackson Games in 1984, had a handful of supplements, and the Deluxe Edition was released in 1991 that included all the stuff from Toon Silly Stuff, Son of Toon, and Toon Strikes Again. This is one of my old Game Master's favorite filler game when there was not enough players to play in the regular campaign or would be a quick pick up game on a just hanging out night. I never ended up getting the game at the time and actually completely forgot about its existence until I cam across a youtube video talking about it, which increased my nostalgia by 9,000! I then set out on a quest to try to track down a copy but all of the copies I came across were going for obscene prices but by dumb luck I came across someone selling a lot of books and this was included and the person was willing to let it go for a reasonable price that I could not pass up. 

4.Vampire the Masquerade (2nd Edition, First Printing): Believe it not (I am sure I have mentioned this somewhere on this blog) that my first role playing experience was not Dungeons and Dragons and had nothing to do with the fantasy genre. I cut my ganging teeth on Vampire the Masquerade 2nd edition at a comic store in the early nineties. I was actually there for an anime convention and to play Magic and I noticed this group in the corner with various vampire books and character sheets. The people at the table noticed my interest and invited me over, explained what they were doing, and I guess my eyes must have lit up because they invited me to play and helped me make a character. My first character was an Assamite named Val - he was a righteous bastard. Anyway, I actually still have my copy but the pages were falling out of the binding and for awhile I have been looking for a mint copy that is safe to read through without causing more damage. I was able to acquire a copy in mint condition and an easy price and I am happy as a vampire in a blood bank. 

 

5. Basic Role-Playing - An Introductory Guide: I have had a handful of great experiences with various BRP games but outside that handful, a lot of the time the experience fell flat. This failure had to do more with the over complication of the system then anything else. When I learned that the BRP system originally existed in a 16-page booklet, I was ecstatic but quickly found it was something that was hard to get as Chaosium itself did not sell any copies and claimed to not even possess a digital copy. I came to find out that there were multiple printings of this booklet that was included in some of the original box sets of Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, and Worlds of Wonder. By some dumb luck, I was able to acquire two copies for under $15 each. 

These are my current acquisitions at the moment. For those that are interested I am still in the hunt for:

• Vampire the Masquerade 1st Edition
• Dogs in the Vineyard
• Dune: Chronicles of the Imperium (Last Unicorn Games)
• TSR Presents Deities and Demigods (1st-2nd Printing with the Cthulhu and Melnibonean pantheons) 
• Ghostbusters Box Set from West End Games)
• Gamma World Box Set, 2nd Edition
  

Legacies of Exera: Session 16

 

As the party recovers after a long rest on the mountain the party decides to head back up the mountain and it does not take long for the party to encounter a band of Yeti people that was led by the Chief. The party members were able to seize the initiative and slay the chieftain of the Yeti people. After the chieftain fell, the rest of the chieftains war band retreated and the party decided to let them go without further incident. 

The party eventually came across a section of the winding path that is overgrown with plans and vines. Harl stops the party to assess the situation and throws a stone into the overgrowth which does not elicit a reaction. Gareth then sends one of the his conjured pets to investigate the overgrowth area and as soon as the pet boar entered the area the plants and vines came alive and started to attack the boar. The party quickly responds and decides the best course of action is to clear out the plants for safety which they do without much trouble. 

Once the plants were cleared, the up the mountain continues but as the party rounds the bend, they discover a pair of basilisk’s fighting over a carcass and with the last encounter with one of these beasts (including the horrified look of the statues) fresh in everyone’s mind the party proceeds with caution but acts quickly. Gareth quickly sets up a teleportation trap as the rest of the party closes their eyes to engage with the mystical beasts. The basilisks charge but before the creatures are able to make contact with anyone the basilisks are teleported right off the mountain and drop to their dooms. 

Before the party is able to round the next section of the winding mountain path, Helestina notices a huge hulking shadow and calls a warning to the rest of the party which respond quickly to getting off quick attacks before the creature shows itself in a fit of rage. Gareth recognizes the creature instantly and calls out troll! The party focuses their efforts as Helestina slows the creatures natural abilities with fire before the party is able to slay the creature permanently. 

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PLAYER NOTES: This session was a lot of back to back encounters and we got lucky with both the basilisks and the troll. The basilisks because of Gareth’s shenanigans and then the Troll as Gareth’s player succeeded on the roll to know what the creature was. This defiantly helped everyone deal with the regeneration aspect of the troll instead of us figuring out what was going on after awhile.