tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69354844366020826012024-03-08T06:34:04.080-05:00Wampus CountryErik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.comBlogger338125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-60936652233137854792022-10-11T08:40:00.001-04:002022-10-11T08:40:25.578-04:00Legends of Law: Von Hoff<p> Wampus Country has had its share of heroes, both in antiquity and in the modern era, but perhaps none is held up as the flower of knighthood quite as much as the crusading paladin known as Von Hoff.</p><p>During the last days of the Peacock Throne, as that great empire and its rivals all crumbled into smaller, warring kingdoms, Von Hoff made his name as a swordsman and scion of Law. It is said he began his career as a healer and hospitaller but soon took to errant deeds, plunging himself into those lawless border regions and taking on subhumans, trolls, criminal syndicates, and the like with equal glee. His famous steed was an immense black tiger, gifted to him by the Lost Gods of the Sixty-Sixth Path (who were less Lost in those days, we imagine). This red-eyed beast, more intelligent than most men, served as Von Hoff's battle-companion for many years; they say the tiger could leap incredible distances.</p><p>At some point, Von Hoff departed from the blasted Painlands and resettled in what is today Trident Bay. There he built a watchtower and recruited a retinue of crimson-cloaked heroes to watch over the bay. Again, an entire region was kept safe due to Von Hoff's vigilance. Von Hoff and his Watch staved off more than one incursion of hostile fish-men and crab-men; the paladin himself was awarded an enchanted trident by some deity of the sea. Legend tells us that this legendary trident - today known to sorcerers as <i>Tempest-tide</i>- holds within it a fragment of Von Hoff's mind, and perhaps his musical talent as well. The weapon is held, alongside others of similar puissance, within Old Man Hut-Tep's lethal museum deep underneath the mountain peak called Smokestack Lightning.</p><p>Von Hoff's resting-place is unknown; some have suggested it is deep within an eerie tower - perhaps his original watchtower - which rises from the sea every seven years, off the coast in Trident Bay. Local tales offer the possibility that, should the fish-men once again rise to attack the dry lands, Von Hoff himself will climb out of his tomb to repel them.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiE22UK4hyHg-dlyBz2jGmp4vQGJ2sQDfBpyaiyKrTvacZzRNf7jt3EkztimCYJz5uXlkjqhSrelfWshSDu86ShOZYzFzq3PuPH0-Jooecapmv9E13x_6NjmhgdPG1GGKNwc_0YKLlQg_4EGp5zd6-GJct0eHLjvC3jfmz_3zP7PGKEUuUzoEkjrYB2" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="693" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiE22UK4hyHg-dlyBz2jGmp4vQGJ2sQDfBpyaiyKrTvacZzRNf7jt3EkztimCYJz5uXlkjqhSrelfWshSDu86ShOZYzFzq3PuPH0-Jooecapmv9E13x_6NjmhgdPG1GGKNwc_0YKLlQg_4EGp5zd6-GJct0eHLjvC3jfmz_3zP7PGKEUuUzoEkjrYB2" width="320" /></a></div><p></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-36989096854673233722022-10-03T16:32:00.000-04:002022-10-03T16:32:05.183-04:00Cosmic Connections<p> <i>My fellow wizards, adventuring-frontiersmen, and priests of suitable repute - we have gathered here today in this dubious saloon to cogitate. To place together our mighty brains, and come up with a solution, a path, a strategy to confront that which is ailing our beloved Wampus Country.</i></p><p><i>As you all well know, for several years now, fell things have been on the rise.</i></p><p><i>Nine years past, the deviltry of Hell and its cruel representatives here - that nefarious association known as the Web - attempted to secure the so-called Egg of the Phoenix. Thankfully, they were foiled. [1]</i></p><p><i>Eight years ago, the archdevil Fyvee invaded our realm with his retinue of fashionably evil spawn. Praise the petty gods, he was mostly repulsed. [2]</i></p><p><i>Since that time, we have not been so lucky. The unearthing of the Eye of the Leviathan has brought woe to the land. Evil stirs. Dark shadows grow long - and bold. Chaotic creatures not seen since cave paintings gallop across the land. [3]</i></p><p><i>In Snollygoster Swamp, the pig-men beat war drums and sing the songs of their god, Porcus. They have been so bold as to murder and kidnap some of the elders of the frog folk. [4] There are rumors that even now, they capture and tame snollygosters as beasts of war, awaiting a signal from beyond.</i></p><p><i>North, in the Snowdeeps, civil war continues among the giant tribes. That ongoing conflict has occasionally spilled into our own green lands, with destruction in its wake. [5]</i></p><p><i>Our sources in the east report an army, gathered across the desert, has marched nearly to the edge of the Badlands, and may soon be upon us in Thistlemarch and River-Town, if it so wishes. At the head of this army, they say, stands a mysterious dark magician. [6]</i></p><p><i>And now, the seers and augurists paint a bleak picture. Many of them see the same sorts of images - a war in the heavens, a black blade, a feathered serpent. We do not yet know what it means. But we must presume we are on the brink of a very dark age here in Wampus Country.</i></p><p><i>A very dark age indeed.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFtX-rzU_ksn2Oi0uw4GwjRXKKz2lf_CYUim_glOT5eTgYv0SiW6W-HMkCnKAe80lYnvEhTMHJCKSA2-0n2qsEXl4h6eveCKfpC5zYmix38ypy0KYCU1sy4horQg4jjyQB8IT8gCzJZ1n76_ctdA8WmdyPqr5wwZYpLwbf6A3Je5koaTokdD6azFzS" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="554" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFtX-rzU_ksn2Oi0uw4GwjRXKKz2lf_CYUim_glOT5eTgYv0SiW6W-HMkCnKAe80lYnvEhTMHJCKSA2-0n2qsEXl4h6eveCKfpC5zYmix38ypy0KYCU1sy4horQg4jjyQB8IT8gCzJZ1n76_ctdA8WmdyPqr5wwZYpLwbf6A3Je5koaTokdD6azFzS" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>This kind of thing is going on constantly.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0NpDojkt2Ts" width="320" youtube-src-id="0NpDojkt2Ts"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRUqNhmn950qtrwPiAAUH1U34zDpuoFaqLCnozfVKykhc1SJrGeqLGDpozIB5QyPc8FeuOk8jOX68Y5tHCw8U9UveT-s-KZfEWz7wN-hJjvCXml6f7t44rkcB1zQjBVfxZnE06dsamh3qEEAwEbSh-9rcSI_ubj3NW3jmBjG1_GH18JZ5cJvuc_XqT/s1326/stormbringerconsequences.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="892" data-original-width="1326" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRUqNhmn950qtrwPiAAUH1U34zDpuoFaqLCnozfVKykhc1SJrGeqLGDpozIB5QyPc8FeuOk8jOX68Y5tHCw8U9UveT-s-KZfEWz7wN-hJjvCXml6f7t44rkcB1zQjBVfxZnE06dsamh3qEEAwEbSh-9rcSI_ubj3NW3jmBjG1_GH18JZ5cJvuc_XqT/w515-h346/stormbringerconsequences.png" width="515" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><b>ENDNOTES</b></p><p>1. It's true, in 2013 the Rat-House Bastards and some allies played through an adaptation of the module <i>Egg of the Phoenix</i>. The artifact itself was given to witches for disposal. Where it now sits...no PCs know.</p><p>2. It's true! In 2014 an archdevil and his warbands pierced the Midnight Sea and arrived in Wampus Country. Thankfully only a handful of tieflings survived the incursion and subsequent battles.</p><p>3. Also true. The Company of the Black Pearl marched around Wampus Country with an artifact that increased and attracted Evil Stuff for several years. Lots of goat-men on the rise, and chaotic minotaurs to boot. Rumblings about a dark Hoofed God.</p><p>4. Super true. Happened during a Wampus Country session run at Hoffcon; luckily the PCs managed to rescue the frogfolk priestess Big Mama Mumu from the clutches of the porcs.</p><p>5. Certainly true. The Critter Gitters in 2021 dealt with some of the fallout of a giant power struggle caused by something the Rat-House Bastards did in 2012.</p><p>6. Truly true. The Critter Gitters watched the beginnings of this army form over a year ago but did not intercede at the time.</p><p><br /></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-19106529548703404832022-09-18T18:09:00.000-04:002022-09-18T18:09:02.599-04:00ERB and Not ERB<p> Typically when people first read Edgar Rice Burroughs, it's the big three - Tarzan, John Carter, and maybe Pellucidar. These are the best-known Burroughs for good reason, but there are some second-tier books I've read recently that I really enjoyed. There are also plenty of homages, continuations, and pastiche that might be worth looking at as well. Below, a few I've recently digested.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhqRAAOedOXvC1cb6-Rlyenb7Yoz6nDQNjgXwLYp69dP-66-YpSSppBnvmv7JkFAYTaloUBTqrtJe4pmeishoUfFUeDJu90urC4TzRsQpx0TvuEBF2NRUzN98KuphcyWMOm4hfI8kopQvwaQ99Vh3FF8hL6QEzJ6Sx2rWb-ikVzZAgvxjSon5tFOv71" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="306" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhqRAAOedOXvC1cb6-Rlyenb7Yoz6nDQNjgXwLYp69dP-66-YpSSppBnvmv7JkFAYTaloUBTqrtJe4pmeishoUfFUeDJu90urC4TzRsQpx0TvuEBF2NRUzN98KuphcyWMOm4hfI8kopQvwaQ99Vh3FF8hL6QEzJ6Sx2rWb-ikVzZAgvxjSon5tFOv71" width="147" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A ton of well-described fight scenes in this one.<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monster_Men"><b>The Monster Men</b></a> (1913). Burroughs' take on Frankenstein/Moreau - maybe - set in the South Pacific. It has monstrous created men, steaming jungles, and pirates! I listened to this on Librivox and enjoyed it greatly. Once I'd finished, I found myself wondering why this one hadn't been adapted to the screen.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2j1dfOKxbaBUjwrFWfILle3ArOAVH8A4NXHlPB2dwfnIeXDiXpGTY4BraOray4fPht-q3kAgJBBQ9PdstS8qp2WhCjDMoMhkvxfaI9yplvcfBA9V89SpLJeZAQ_Ymdj_m_5o_pT4CjNm-Va-ixokQ2SDnFBb8zy508HswwDgpXIaszrBKhWvVH0aG/s1842/moonmaid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1842" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2j1dfOKxbaBUjwrFWfILle3ArOAVH8A4NXHlPB2dwfnIeXDiXpGTY4BraOray4fPht-q3kAgJBBQ9PdstS8qp2WhCjDMoMhkvxfaI9yplvcfBA9V89SpLJeZAQ_Ymdj_m_5o_pT4CjNm-Va-ixokQ2SDnFBb8zy508HswwDgpXIaszrBKhWvVH0aG/s320/moonmaid.jpg" width="208" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A nice counterpoint to see how ERB does Carter that isn't Carter (if you've never read Carson or Innes, I guess). Look, it has cannibal centaurs, that should sell itself.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv_S0XgvKUin6PeEGNMBd0q6bvCxiv0_UIdasPj13dXTwPPh6oC-ZqTK4KTP2-QKZAiKjjtJ1cxA44X4FsCfaMjGdro8LgVp9v-U2-tc3LY30p3_xVBLaMdXcVrYG0Zmc-444t6fxx2ejCD95Jgo7VZEgmk5LEMa-eGrQR7g20K9AefC8le4oPNFAG/s499/moonmen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="326" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv_S0XgvKUin6PeEGNMBd0q6bvCxiv0_UIdasPj13dXTwPPh6oC-ZqTK4KTP2-QKZAiKjjtJ1cxA44X4FsCfaMjGdro8LgVp9v-U2-tc3LY30p3_xVBLaMdXcVrYG0Zmc-444t6fxx2ejCD95Jgo7VZEgmk5LEMa-eGrQR7g20K9AefC8le4oPNFAG/s320/moonmen.jpg" width="209" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now that I've read the tales within, I have quibbles about this cover, but you can't beat an action cover that makes you want to read the book.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Maid">The Moon Maid</a> & The Moon Men</b> (1922...but some parts earlier...). Burroughs stitched together a sword-and-planet adventure, a political tale previously rejected by editors, and an adventuresome part three conclusion into a solid thrillogy. The first part, <i>The Moon Maid</i>, is the most Burroughsian at first blush due to the exotic location and classic tropes, but the three parts together actually feature a lot of Burroughs staples. Good action throughout, including some fairly big battles. I strongly recommend these.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhchg0NDouJKf-2hh7WQoeWMwP-K-yims3J00ggcOxc1005hv-dMuC4KvmrAu7D7G93RTV-oHQKA7-0T6hp-FomRnxDm99AYRLaZPjA9VJOLMWVkwhC18tPG0voH_s_A3YMqubHQdh0Md81y0zv1NaE3s4i-CfhXmf1A2z63gaONPuxSvBk_kLYvrFD" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="311" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhchg0NDouJKf-2hh7WQoeWMwP-K-yims3J00ggcOxc1005hv-dMuC4KvmrAu7D7G93RTV-oHQKA7-0T6hp-FomRnxDm99AYRLaZPjA9VJOLMWVkwhC18tPG0voH_s_A3YMqubHQdh0Md81y0zv1NaE3s4i-CfhXmf1A2z63gaONPuxSvBk_kLYvrFD" width="149" /></a></div><br /><b>Time's Last Gift</b>. I enjoy Philip Jose Farmer for the most part, and he has his share of pastiche characters. "Spoilers" about this novel are all over the internet for you to read on your own if you wish, but suffice it to say there are Burroughs ties within. A story of time-traveling researchers in the Magdalenian period, <i>Time's Last Gift</i> was a pretty breezy read, with some good drama and action.<br /><br /><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF9H-74dwhnPaIkKCGI2a-2lkJ3VMr6N_inW5ykLrNS1HyYTR66kLpi2S796ueOkmmnzEdQ9XIct4udQTBntHK84WBly71fYzwNnB1_DyJB-gZc2b-21GNrGOjVt_VicQH6A5aCrJPCTu3ZZCGWbU8puqrInAr80mSPVtb-7HG38jtMAhCm62JYgDz/s744/dejah.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="744" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF9H-74dwhnPaIkKCGI2a-2lkJ3VMr6N_inW5ykLrNS1HyYTR66kLpi2S796ueOkmmnzEdQ9XIct4udQTBntHK84WBly71fYzwNnB1_DyJB-gZc2b-21GNrGOjVt_VicQH6A5aCrJPCTu3ZZCGWbU8puqrInAr80mSPVtb-7HG38jtMAhCm62JYgDz/s320/dejah.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's not as "yass queen slay" as you might think.</td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>Dejah Thoris</b>. Dynamite Comics. The John Carter comics from Dynamite are kind of all over the map. Warlord of Mars is a workmanlike retelling of several of the novels; the most recent series, John Carter of Mars, is just plain ugly. In-between these, Dynamite published a 37-issue run of Dejah Thoris, featuring the princess' pulpy adventures prior to John Carter's arrival - and I really enjoyed this comic. Nice art, enjoyable adventures, recurring villains and themes that tie the whole run together. The second DJ series, and the limited series, aren't as good. A little more detail on this comic <a href="https://twitter.com/daydreamtiger1/status/1566380640697712640">here in my Twitter thread.</a></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgwL74X4r6setjqKb41kL41R5N7JV7ApsfPTVVDZjy1yqs9kehZQHgIyG6u8J-HC-QzUB3Czkes3dSBp81PteYmMaBnA3r_RGygJTTUR9-66mRv0mod3RtbcJcaRzWS0P8LMkFrBukJu4ZrhP1qGSyHwktD6bOOtjoxST2oD2HTUIG5_Cxh-IT23DV/s1346/colossus.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1346" data-original-width="1088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgwL74X4r6setjqKb41kL41R5N7JV7ApsfPTVVDZjy1yqs9kehZQHgIyG6u8J-HC-QzUB3Czkes3dSBp81PteYmMaBnA3r_RGygJTTUR9-66mRv0mod3RtbcJcaRzWS0P8LMkFrBukJu4ZrhP1qGSyHwktD6bOOtjoxST2oD2HTUIG5_Cxh-IT23DV/s320/colossus.png" width="259" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Airships versus giant laser colossus. Come on, people, this is dope.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-72686925728810014442022-09-06T14:30:00.002-04:002022-09-06T14:30:34.486-04:00D&D Comics, part one: the 5e era<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi_mhEfYphccmnqYvp_zD373hs4pnkjPh0ykN0R8C1WJ7o7Ve8Vc2x0I47XVmCsEEeJMY4Xx0nadtqTvh0KU4zcP_KDXMNtIuqeB8b9JQwD6o3Ypua_2N24S4DF5oUyxCWApLLu0zALaRL59unMMXDs2GkCaSd5nPAYhdVm-WycdF9wKZLvk-ThYOgx" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="1206" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi_mhEfYphccmnqYvp_zD373hs4pnkjPh0ykN0R8C1WJ7o7Ve8Vc2x0I47XVmCsEEeJMY4Xx0nadtqTvh0KU4zcP_KDXMNtIuqeB8b9JQwD6o3Ypua_2N24S4DF5oUyxCWApLLu0zALaRL59unMMXDs2GkCaSd5nPAYhdVm-WycdF9wKZLvk-ThYOgx" width="302" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dragon vs Giant action from <i>Frost Giant's Fury</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> Various publishers have had the rights to Dungeons & Dragons in comic book form over the years. As I read (or in some cases, re-read) through these volumes, I'll summarize my recommendations here on the blog.</p><p>Here's the bottom line: the D&D comics from IDW are a mixed bag at best.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmy2Ssoqd8nb1NGb6XRYwA9a5nfMoj6HAht8PRahPWRA03AQSndjwDzrFBVYUJul7Z1Zb1ME3b_MllBcDJZFDizyAeai2iq_fsaQ6FbKP4_T7P_qSJw5ePID1jzVDg23_KZ2rwKZYEYOr4CoOY8Ss6I522TCZQC6SZsOFSTfVP9sHvwui4wP8TSwwH" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="832" data-original-width="570" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmy2Ssoqd8nb1NGb6XRYwA9a5nfMoj6HAht8PRahPWRA03AQSndjwDzrFBVYUJul7Z1Zb1ME3b_MllBcDJZFDizyAeai2iq_fsaQ6FbKP4_T7P_qSJw5ePID1jzVDg23_KZ2rwKZYEYOr4CoOY8Ss6I522TCZQC6SZsOFSTfVP9sHvwui4wP8TSwwH" width="164" /></a></div><br /><br />While some runs are good adventure comics, others are a mess - featuring disappointing writing, sub-par art, or both. The "Baldur's Gate" series of mini-series occasionally has some highlights but is burdened by its product-of-the-year tie-in nature, and the insufferable "comedy" of Minsc & Boo. The lead characters in that run <i>who are not Minsc</i> do tend to grow over time and get more interesting.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvnAe0Lg40XJIJwbqeQEQWJoaXjff2FT7JHS9PcIaqNgtMv51sCFcmj0rU-akuA3wbpS5ITb6X7RJtFJir22FwqJZCWGOtbeS1uNpnhtyyS65JmlPEyiI5Us46zS_pwMa8-GVPdGjqPuOYk1a9Oj7fdnJOrq7wwPwqOIyraUCmiPrL4KfYkFGrWuMC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="876" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvnAe0Lg40XJIJwbqeQEQWJoaXjff2FT7JHS9PcIaqNgtMv51sCFcmj0rU-akuA3wbpS5ITb6X7RJtFJir22FwqJZCWGOtbeS1uNpnhtyyS65JmlPEyiI5Us46zS_pwMa8-GVPdGjqPuOYk1a9Oj7fdnJOrq7wwPwqOIyraUCmiPrL4KfYkFGrWuMC" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>None of these are "run out and get it!" recommendations, but sometimes you find TPBs marked down, or single-issues in bargain bins.</p><p><br /></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjh-asYt71iUx7-HMBYwI2A0FDZpd-8JnEzPysCxOsMB-S-KMWMYK2Ddju3Gvdzk08jImhb82lkdjJZ5ku6kg-E4M5kovP3RFdbk7uMhVv39pCHSqvasTHZByDRrBaUYSgSSn0S3IGvqh32602yELHKMnkBVN3pD03ShH7L5_APA5oxTch8F4-cana8" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="710" data-original-width="692" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjh-asYt71iUx7-HMBYwI2A0FDZpd-8JnEzPysCxOsMB-S-KMWMYK2Ddju3Gvdzk08jImhb82lkdjJZ5ku6kg-E4M5kovP3RFdbk7uMhVv39pCHSqvasTHZByDRrBaUYSgSSn0S3IGvqh32602yELHKMnkBVN3pD03ShH7L5_APA5oxTch8F4-cana8" width="234" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>At The Spine of the World</i></td></tr></tbody></table><b>RECOMMENDED:</b></p><p><i>At The Spine Of The World</i>. I liked this Icewind Dale mini-series - the art is nice, the story is well-presented. Bonus points for being self-contained and having precisely zero Minsc in it.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjiibYXUdCTPXrj2ZjrXxZxpfVif79ex0M6zGmWbFyOWKGM06wY5h39l8jdSfqIYeNzClfUbhWd78jxYEjXR7XsGoug7NQzVHEil7ZtaPr-qHXIMpiovN36-l0Ny9jI3EwVrFNIigNnf2iWZW1HWL4idLMeLba_VijyOSNEIsORHtuYg-41gjIYAhz9" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1232" data-original-width="1618" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjiibYXUdCTPXrj2ZjrXxZxpfVif79ex0M6zGmWbFyOWKGM06wY5h39l8jdSfqIYeNzClfUbhWd78jxYEjXR7XsGoug7NQzVHEil7ZtaPr-qHXIMpiovN36-l0Ny9jI3EwVrFNIigNnf2iWZW1HWL4idLMeLba_VijyOSNEIsORHtuYg-41gjIYAhz9" width="315" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Frost Giant's Fury</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJUbv-xa3yrK4-q6eXptw5OgI0C0c0IIlgo6c31CX-LXoO2UWGwYWtmHlrFtRaswrZbloHLzEz-1SdbalrRQmgz90l96xNMCukVRsfvcfx97STyj0FPaMNG4VY6H5SwCyWccOoPS1nI6cG1uP0s64Q28GUu3Lzdtg3C9O3z0HfvuO5b-nXJqOfqESt" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="818" data-original-width="1966" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJUbv-xa3yrK4-q6eXptw5OgI0C0c0IIlgo6c31CX-LXoO2UWGwYWtmHlrFtRaswrZbloHLzEz-1SdbalrRQmgz90l96xNMCukVRsfvcfx97STyj0FPaMNG4VY6H5SwCyWccOoPS1nI6cG1uP0s64Q28GUu3Lzdtg3C9O3z0HfvuO5b-nXJqOfqESt" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Infernal Tides</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><b>OKAY:</b></p><p><i>Frost Giant's Fury</i>. Best of the Minsc & Boo series as far as sword-and-sorcery action.</p><p><i>Infernal Tides</i>. One of the better Minsc & Boo outings.</p><p><i>Mindbreaker</i>. Minsc & Boo vs mind flayers.</p><p><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgGqNdhIF4RafMXxN75E0K9WMgH636ELp0KSt5b7r5knOxX5hEny44HdsO7tmzoSJgnwwP-tYVgs82-PcH6hXXHhZ5kB-JCYyw7klxHw7hUVJ0OcQZ20geV6CsyDBQLbxQnW7prS7rmeOJTZj29jTClk3efRzGf3RDJHeskTAjev_HBcCA3Au28WoIj" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1198" data-original-width="1154" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgGqNdhIF4RafMXxN75E0K9WMgH636ELp0KSt5b7r5knOxX5hEny44HdsO7tmzoSJgnwwP-tYVgs82-PcH6hXXHhZ5kB-JCYyw7klxHw7hUVJ0OcQZ20geV6CsyDBQLbxQnW7prS7rmeOJTZj29jTClk3efRzGf3RDJHeskTAjev_HBcCA3Au28WoIj" width="231" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Mindbreaker </i>ties in with the <i>Baldur's Gate 3</i> vidya game </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>NOT RECOMMENDED:</b></p><p><i>Legends of Baldur's Gate</i>. The start of our current troubles - the beginning of the Minsc saga.</p><p><i>Shadows of the Vampire</i>. Minsc & Boo in Ravenloft. I note that one of the main characters gets a consequence in this run, but they have failed to pull the trigger on that obvious consequence 25 issues later.</p><p><i>Evil At Baldur's Gate</i>. More Minsc & Boo. So much investment in this series!</p><p><i>A Darkened Wish</i>. An ambitious story jammed incautiously into five issues of dubious art.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjNzeICDKgITDnkKWY9Ap6aMq_-7ewxOmz2cM2_UhvXBL99bTlSGt5qvfdmVqJWS-S3MSKd90EdZGGH-EmjQq4_qomE4sW1RyxL18w8N73JnMztMd67EADADjFOgH3g-LpQhxgRzTpWP-9iWQTlVq3TldD5qjuhjIN8Kk_2DW9a6PrLV0uK0tBO08mh" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1384" data-original-width="1108" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjNzeICDKgITDnkKWY9Ap6aMq_-7ewxOmz2cM2_UhvXBL99bTlSGt5qvfdmVqJWS-S3MSKd90EdZGGH-EmjQq4_qomE4sW1RyxL18w8N73JnMztMd67EADADjFOgH3g-LpQhxgRzTpWP-9iWQTlVq3TldD5qjuhjIN8Kk_2DW9a6PrLV0uK0tBO08mh" width="192" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Actual action shot of a dragonborn from <i>A Darkened Wish. </i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><i>Ravenloft: Orphan of Agony Isle</i>. Set in the reimagined 5e Ravenloft, this one's about Viktra Mordenheim, the brilliant scientist and abusive weirdo, as well as the girl she's experimenting on, and Viktra's former lover Elise (the monster). The art is very 2022, and the pacing tells me the writer wants this story to be a slow-burn mystery and maybe a dysfunctional love triangle. Unfortunately it's burning so slowly I can't possibly care about the characters. Things look up a tad in issue #3 as Elise arrives, but I can't promise I'm going to finish this one.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgniRyDRywocFZwJb7OxJFHDLe3AMiu8o0l8rJpEsA64TDmueIxGfAL1uS6MlMHzwThitN2EeMTb2odaDRHjMn3IHigdm0M4o9u3PSH7DXwGIkFvoElbqlaAlMidk_Uvb92yKYXMmKTKRPtRHB6LClYpZcawjlWiWwmQdwYz6-zeLLLlWEYRkY-5aO8" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1134" data-original-width="520" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgniRyDRywocFZwJb7OxJFHDLe3AMiu8o0l8rJpEsA64TDmueIxGfAL1uS6MlMHzwThitN2EeMTb2odaDRHjMn3IHigdm0M4o9u3PSH7DXwGIkFvoElbqlaAlMidk_Uvb92yKYXMmKTKRPtRHB6LClYpZcawjlWiWwmQdwYz6-zeLLLlWEYRkY-5aO8" width="110" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Orphan of Agony Isle</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br /></p><p><br /><br /></p><p><br /></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-30609218404513206322022-08-30T09:48:00.001-04:002022-08-30T09:48:00.213-04:00Gunsi versus the B-Series<p> Gunsi the Squirrel, my son's fighter, pushed through a good bit of adventure during the lockdown and post-lockdown period. Since we were running a single PC, I was using lower-level published TSR-era material as a skeleton to challenge a fifth-, then sixth-level 5e PC. Gunsi has been searching for his missing sister for some time in the campaign, and he wanted to follow rumors about a squirrel city in the Lumberlands. In order to get to the Lumberlands most directly, Gunsi elected to travel through the region known as Three Rivers.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEdUutkqV35yReT5wB4MI_2YpFqCT0-IOEIn66Ftn_-ZqVVocazPPiGe02sVQab3RPkSWok2fXMuzwa85lA1FmWs0N7C3MEbqQCm07ZDlTVl3zRLMA4c77EFXmLRLfBl44OAh9L2VhU0bFYozdJAXo43EmBh4ONkKB0NU96wQe-bTTS0jyJnObU8O5/s1186/jadehare.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="1110" data-original-width="1186" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEdUutkqV35yReT5wB4MI_2YpFqCT0-IOEIn66Ftn_-ZqVVocazPPiGe02sVQab3RPkSWok2fXMuzwa85lA1FmWs0N7C3MEbqQCm07ZDlTVl3zRLMA4c77EFXmLRLfBl44OAh9L2VhU0bFYozdJAXo43EmBh4ONkKB0NU96wQe-bTTS0jyJnObU8O5/s320/jadehare.png" width="320" /></i></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Check out what I can do to water with but a wave of my hand! Isn't it WEIRD?</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Along the road, Gunsi teamed up with another PC, Juniper Muffington (thief, spy, girl-of-the-camp) in an attempt to recover the missing Jade Hare statuette. They didn't get very far in their exploration of the dungeon -- they both blew their stealth and got jammed up by a mess of goblins. Licking their (considerable) wounds, Juniper and Gunsi noped out of that dungeon and never went back. The Mad Warlock Abu-Ghabar eventually took the enchanted statue back to his Master in the east.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfzrZPEjpm8bNDxGSra5As7Aq5QSvOAZd12Ytvypa679LV0QTWJhRny44oiv-p1hYv6MzeKq4DhEY9M6e4gY7zrq-2RNUH4Yg2XqwxLhPMlZC0_zvJB2JVbMg18YYyZzyMxezcmqhmGjTUK8MBUx4QHMGvKri-Prv9a8j2PQvL7H6yOJso_zde5TQ1/s1048/jadehare2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="946" data-original-width="1048" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfzrZPEjpm8bNDxGSra5As7Aq5QSvOAZd12Ytvypa679LV0QTWJhRny44oiv-p1hYv6MzeKq4DhEY9M6e4gY7zrq-2RNUH4Yg2XqwxLhPMlZC0_zvJB2JVbMg18YYyZzyMxezcmqhmGjTUK8MBUx4QHMGvKri-Prv9a8j2PQvL7H6yOJso_zde5TQ1/s320/jadehare2.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>Gunsi continued on into Three Rivers, arriving at the fortress-town of Ironwrack. As a sympathetic hero type, the squirrel got mixed up with some revolutionaries trying to overthrow the master of the fortress, who de facto ruled the countryside and controlled the road. Gunsi agreed to sneak into Ironwrack and steal a possibly-enchanted jewel, but he wanted some help (those goblin-scars were still fresh). I generated some rebels for him to choose from as a henchman, and soon Gunsi was on his way, accompanied by milquetoast cleric Martholomew Rambleshart. Sneaking into the fortress by underground means, Gunsi did manage to secure the Eye, but unfortunately poor Marty was killed. The mystic eye was delivered to the rebels, and Gunsi continued his journey deeper into Three Rivers.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0USu49lhREPqA7Wa5MZB46YQQwPiOIGcbbiKQ9aHAQPqgOq6TQheJMrr08shXELkDIDRYGFEuYQx96qWzrIGQz_EeTZHeqJO_yqSmZGNyEaC8msijihZESZPxizi5p7KKbiyxoQ29X0GkGe0lVa95OOm_gIWnz3swSuZcCt1gUFMtlZQCxnjG9cye/s1294/nights2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="688" data-original-width="1294" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0USu49lhREPqA7Wa5MZB46YQQwPiOIGcbbiKQ9aHAQPqgOq6TQheJMrr08shXELkDIDRYGFEuYQx96qWzrIGQz_EeTZHeqJO_yqSmZGNyEaC8msijihZESZPxizi5p7KKbiyxoQ29X0GkGe0lVa95OOm_gIWnz3swSuZcCt1gUFMtlZQCxnjG9cye/s320/nights2.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>As he traveled, Gunsi came to see that Three Rivers had a goblin problem. He experienced a raid on a ranch, chased down some warbands, tangled with the local evil slaver faction, and so forth. Multiple sessions of this. Gunsi was doing fine and earning some xp but I think he was getting tired of making ends meet doing goblin stuff. Finally he had enough money saved to hire some mercenaries to support him as he goes upriver to tackle the Goblin King. A successful assault (and on New Year's Eve, no less), although Gunsi did not investigate the lower levels of the place - it was enough to slay the Goblin King. Gunsi took his winnings and kitted up for the long wilderness travel to the Lumberlands...</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8I7_ZaaI2Dxup7EyJBn8wX4q711HtOM23g8XzcRce0yPj1VizfR2mGhdA14vrZsi4IQ8Si9x4PDCanlRvEo_tm0S0_33jxJvP2-03c57D7UYqPy7p7aXjNFlS9uGQsQ-ZytbAhBYYGfXkiD3oSl0pwyUk7Xcqes9-BRDl1QIHi1CGyUpw_EQdH1mY/s1436/nights.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="1436" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8I7_ZaaI2Dxup7EyJBn8wX4q711HtOM23g8XzcRce0yPj1VizfR2mGhdA14vrZsi4IQ8Si9x4PDCanlRvEo_tm0S0_33jxJvP2-03c57D7UYqPy7p7aXjNFlS9uGQsQ-ZytbAhBYYGfXkiD3oSl0pwyUk7Xcqes9-BRDl1QIHi1CGyUpw_EQdH1mY/s320/nights.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Night's Dark Terror <i>is awesome and I wish I'd used more of it in play.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>During this period I fielded material from <i>The Jade Hare</i>, <i>B10 Night's Dark Terror</i>, and <i>DDA3 Eye of Traldar</i>. I had <i>DDA4 The Dymrak Dread</i> ready for a session as well, but never used it. It was a twofold experiment, both the one-on-one adventuring, and seeding a single map with content from several thematically-related modules. </p><p><br /></p><p>Results to note for the campaign:</p><p>* The Mad Warlock takes the possibly-powerful Jade Hare to his Master in the desert, possibly increasing the Master's power. (The Critter Gitters group would later tangle with the Master's forces in the east).</p><p>* A certain hidden city in Night's Dark Terror remains undiscovered.</p><p>* The goblin activity in Three Rivers was put down; should take several years for the goblins there to rebuild their numbers.</p><p>* Those in Three Rivers who would like to see the Lord of Ironwrack deposed have been encouraged and empowered.</p><p><br /></p><p>Principles to pay attention to:</p><p>* PCs can and do fail. They fail, they give up, they run away. This is proper.</p><p>* PCs can get bored of what's in front of them. When they want to walk away from it, LET THEM.</p><p>* Things that happen in your campaign must have consequences, even if the PCs who triggered the consequence never see it.</p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-46612894177182596422022-08-26T07:51:00.004-04:002022-08-26T07:51:50.406-04:00Beacon of the Lizard King<p>This post contains spoilers for TSR-era modules. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaHc0ZDhqvtRoG3VgkID2BnRl5ZWJyp4W6nm3UIW0GX5E4xdkYZelAky6hL_AhoHuE11HrmEi78GqNXv1qEakCGWh_ZDD9J8_tv4gK36G__Q-jrAnYgODLPqhFb5dDt5S70qZCIOTbHbWs1bvq41w8cEeFIF2ijsykydo0z1k3QFgCXff5rnmItjvg/s1478/beacon3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="808" data-original-width="1478" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaHc0ZDhqvtRoG3VgkID2BnRl5ZWJyp4W6nm3UIW0GX5E4xdkYZelAky6hL_AhoHuE11HrmEi78GqNXv1qEakCGWh_ZDD9J8_tv4gK36G__Q-jrAnYgODLPqhFb5dDt5S70qZCIOTbHbWs1bvq41w8cEeFIF2ijsykydo0z1k3QFgCXff5rnmItjvg/s320/beacon3.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>Today's post is a little bit about dismembering published adventures and stitching them together. There's plenty of discussion out there about whether modules are worth using, and if so, how best to use them. Do you run them straight? Re-skin most of it? Or cannibalize it for parts? In today's example, we're somewhere between ghoulishly stealing parts and a Frankenstein re-skinning. </p><p>I was running 5e for some folks and wanted to steal liberally from a TSR-era adventure, so I was looking at the I-series modules. There's this bit of overlap that intrigued me... <b>I2 Tomb of the Lizard King</b> gives us the vampire lizardman Sakatha. <b>I7 Baltron's Beacon</b> happens to have a (quite alive) lizard chieftain, Yiss, raising an army in the swamp. Both NPCs have pet dragons. What if they were the same dude? Couldn't I just replace Yiss with Sakatha, and put all this stuff on the same map? Answer: yes.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4H74rnR9dnyfZYMNLVTsUuhv4FDPiqC585My0VXBjJOZmWUvIWiXArtPEgD3gdyknVxUcIIq_65X3Ozh1-NjK3WGN5mdAYFn-90YtgLUEJbPePJxSxpiuBLdq7uoFE_Oz1D-1aHYuJ2JY6NEGMpf3PbVryXt335qHGbBXM8IM725BfGagDmbX_cU/s768/ahyiss.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="670" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4H74rnR9dnyfZYMNLVTsUuhv4FDPiqC585My0VXBjJOZmWUvIWiXArtPEgD3gdyknVxUcIIq_65X3Ozh1-NjK3WGN5mdAYFn-90YtgLUEJbPePJxSxpiuBLdq7uoFE_Oz1D-1aHYuJ2JY6NEGMpf3PbVryXt335qHGbBXM8IM725BfGagDmbX_cU/s320/ahyiss.png" width="279" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>AH YISS it ya boi comin' at ya with the latest swamp nonsense, pound that like button</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>First thing I did was dub the vampire lizard emperor Ah Yiss. There's the stupid joke there (I envisioned players saying AWWWW YISS!) but the sound pattern of the joke name also suggested a pseudo-Mayan thing, so that's what I went with for the lizardfolk here. I kept the lizard king's pan lung dragon mount from <i>Beacon</i>, because why wouldn't you? So we have Ah Yiss and his rising forces out in the swamp surrounding his tomb, plop that on the map. The only thing we're using from <i>Tomb</i> is the swamp and the tomb - we're ignoring all the intro stuff in that module.</p><p>Now we take a look at <i>Baltron's Beacon</i> and see it's about a ruined keep where various parts of the complex are held by (competing) nasties, and the PCs are expected to investigate the newly-lit eponymous beacon. Easy-peasy. Plop the keep on the map over here. Be ready with appropriate NPCs who can offer information about the place or steer the PCs into the great swamp.</p><p>Game-time came around, and for the initial session I had only three PCs present:</p><p>Blitz Donner, thunder priest</p><p>Gunsi the Squirrel, sellsword</p><p>Lini the Tortle, swamp warrior (new PC)</p><p>Just as you would've done, I made sure new PC Lini had knowledge of the area - a way to get info download to the group but also tie the new PC right into things. Lini's band of tortles had been recently displaced from the swamp as the lizardfolk got frisky (following Ah Yiss waking up). Now Blitz and Gunsi had arrived in this small swamp-adjacent village that was overrun by expatriate tortles. Tensions weren't too bad yet, but clearly the situation was untenable. When the PCs also heard about the lighting of the strange beacon in the swamp, they knew the whole thing was chock full of xp, and resolved to head into the swamp with Lini as their local guide. I was thrilled that we had avoided the hamfisted "please go do this" sections of both modules. It seems like multiple pages are wasted on these vanilla expository bits in every otherwise-raidable module.</p><p>The guys tromp through the swamp - I think there was a wilderness encounter, can't remember - and make it to the keep relatively unmolested. They scout around and decide to attempt to go in from the TOP of the thing, I think in part because this is 5e and 2/3 of the group can levitate or whatever. That caper brings them face-to-face with this guy, his bugbear pals, and his pet hieracosphinx:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT73G8yESM8LcEdsKvYvfVKOK9hgYRKXTeHtfkk3T3NrgdSJhPVZ7zC6Mg6NcGVD2121YhMpofogRC3x7AHcjtWP7S4GGpe3JDrF9S9_gfpDIpAjQ83XU4O3MDsSsp0rV4RAEbkH6SkS3xFXDT7VYfywpxZDg2SFjxhRieMJkfcbvwoVbgnaB3E0bN/s508/antarcus.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="212" data-original-width="508" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT73G8yESM8LcEdsKvYvfVKOK9hgYRKXTeHtfkk3T3NrgdSJhPVZ7zC6Mg6NcGVD2121YhMpofogRC3x7AHcjtWP7S4GGpe3JDrF9S9_gfpDIpAjQ83XU4O3MDsSsp0rV4RAEbkH6SkS3xFXDT7VYfywpxZDg2SFjxhRieMJkfcbvwoVbgnaB3E0bN/s320/antarcus.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>There is nearly a skirmish, then there is a parley, and next thing you know the PCs are begrudging allies (frenemies?) of Antarcus Giantbane. He spares them and dispatches them back into the swamp to scout for other warbands and report back to him - since he's lightly allied with the lizards and, as a 9th-level fighter, knows this keep is inevitably going to be the only defensible position if and when stuff goes down. The PCs agree to do the scouting and depart. Never to return.</p><p>I mean "never to return" twofold there - first because the PCs agreed they were going to burn this guy and were not going to even pretend to work for him, and second because these PCs never got together again. At the end of the session, they were trudging back toward the village, with minimal xp and essentially no treasure. COVID hysteria hit and people stopped seeing one another, so that was the last in-person game for that group, which did not successfully slide online.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3sgvPGai3ft6GdpB0L_Tgrsj4Vq9nt3TbAjgGq4m1mrJ-x7EklKYipttVF460FD_7_8PQSZlAqInzmEaagiBkGNTdYq8gZ0vFlVAfwc1kgMNXostEXv_CJm_oGFZ_qpJInJS5i0pe4648nG97PGYZVkQY4YRyf88AVExDz2hUO6ypQ1Tardn9nW4n/s1444/beacon1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1444" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3sgvPGai3ft6GdpB0L_Tgrsj4Vq9nt3TbAjgGq4m1mrJ-x7EklKYipttVF460FD_7_8PQSZlAqInzmEaagiBkGNTdYq8gZ0vFlVAfwc1kgMNXostEXv_CJm_oGFZ_qpJInJS5i0pe4648nG97PGYZVkQY4YRyf88AVExDz2hUO6ypQ1Tardn9nW4n/s320/beacon1.png" width="320" /></i></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Sometimes a fallen ranger pays a little too much attention to his sphinx</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>But time marches on, and the campaign exists outside of one playgroup, so we have to look at what happened next. That's my job as the DM, to keep the world moving even when players aren't putting their grubby paws all over it.</p><p>Gunsi the Squirrel got on the road and headed toward the region called Three Rivers, on his way toward the Lumberlands. We know this because Gunsi's player is my son, so COVID didn't stop him interacting with the campaign. He had a teamup with another PC and then a series of solo adventures in Three Rivers which we may talk about another time. Today, Gunsi is sitting in the town of Squeamish, in the Lumberlands.</p><p>Blitz and Lini haven't played again, so I have to presume, absent player actions, they stayed somewhere near that whole swamp nonsense. The more important question is, what's going on two years later with Ah Yiss the vampire, his dragon steed, and his lizardman army? Fantastic question. I should've run it at the time, and didn't. I know now I could've - should've - run a sweet big battle at the keep between some defenders (or the villagers) and the lizards. I'm sure I have wargamer pals who would've happily adjudicated that for me. But now, two years later, I think I need to just weave from whole cloth based on what was likely to happen.</p><p>There's this:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ho489N2HUcyG7Vz3RVsrVJ7rcLZ11ephllkYNfhvaRP9AZehZ67eVw-7znmq64JEvrQ-v-oWCwLnXHdwDnjo8eVNE3q3bkZ0fI6-H0rP21bAhC-UQ4wZSeYHDZoeVTPuyfASlopbrRem-ePEHNik71vPrxiiejZApAsT5TnfDMrXBtCJGxoqBwQw/s544/beacon2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="544" data-original-width="478" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ho489N2HUcyG7Vz3RVsrVJ7rcLZ11ephllkYNfhvaRP9AZehZ67eVw-7znmq64JEvrQ-v-oWCwLnXHdwDnjo8eVNE3q3bkZ0fI6-H0rP21bAhC-UQ4wZSeYHDZoeVTPuyfASlopbrRem-ePEHNik71vPrxiiejZApAsT5TnfDMrXBtCJGxoqBwQw/s320/beacon2.png" width="281" /></a></div><p>Absent the intervention of PCs or some other regional power, it seems inevitable to me that the risen Ah Yiss, with his lizard horde and assorted evil non-lizard allies, would control the great swamp pretty completely. Perhaps Antacus advises him, and also Leptor (the 9th-level wizard from Beacon), and Ah Yiss still has those brigands from Tomb in his employ. This alliance may even control the demonic blackflame in the keep. And potentially they have a good number of magical items as well - not just arms and armor, but assorted potions and things. With two years to consolidate, it's a safe bet that Ah Yiss rules the area, and is now ready to consider expansion, or reach out for further allies. Worth noting that this swamp is up north on the map, and is not Snollygoster Swamp, so (for now) Ah Yiss doesn't have any dinosaurs to command.</p><p>Looks like trouble for certain parts of Wampus Country. And Ah Yiss isn't the only nefarious army-builder on the map...</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-7514718225859280562022-08-15T16:41:00.003-04:002022-08-15T16:41:52.807-04:00Colony of Death (and Rabbits)<p> If you haven't checked out the new online rpg store in town, <b><a href="https://biggeekemporium.com/">Big Geek Emporium</a></b>, you should. It's early days but this is a good time to stress-test the place and investigate products from small presses with which you may not be familiar. And some you know - I uploaded some Wampus Country pdfs up there as well. I picked up some stuff at the Emporium last night, including <i>Colony of Death</i> (which I already had somewhere) - so I want to tell you a bit about these adventures.</p><p><b><i>Colony of Death</i></b>, by Mark Hess, is a mini-setting for Lamentations of the Flame Princess that brings the action to 17th-century colonial Maryland. As a Maryland native who went to college at St. Mary's, I'm already partial to the gimmick. But, bias aside, Hess does a good job here of giving us an interesting basic setup - the colony, a hexmap to populate, and random encounter tables that reflect the time period but also inject suitable weirdness. There are also several short adventures, or adventure setups.</p><p>The first adventure in the collection has the PCs dealing with a mystery and a serial killer (we did say LotFP), but importantly one of the likely rewards for dealing with the issue is a land grant. This kind of setup is imperative to getting the PCs thinking of themselves as movers and shakers rather than murderhobos - once they own some farmland upriver, they'll have a homebase, something to invest in, something to defend, and they're going to really start giving a damn about what goes on in the colony. Other adventure setups feature Pennsylvania Dutch-style hex magic and the conflict between two magical critters, some awful Viking relics, and of course a good old-fashioned witch-burning. There is a short appendix about the contemporary tobacco industry which you're going to want to have the players read once they set up some tobacco farms on their land! A supplemental page that comes with the book (and is PWYW elsewhere) details a new sorcerous foe, the buffalo shaman.</p><p><b><i>The Doom That Came To Chapman Farm</i></b> is a full adventure for <i>Colony of Death</i> - if you're running CoD, go ahead and pick this one up as well, but you could run this adventure transplanted to your game quite easily. The adventure is all about a descendant of magician John Dee who comes to the colony and immediately gets in over his head with magic he hasn't mastered. Now you have this demonically-possessed axe-murderer holed up in the Chapmans' house, with hostages. Oh, and there's something awful in the barn. Nicely illustrated in black and white, this adventure brings the weird and would make a pretty good con one-shot to boot.</p><p>Unrelated to <i>Colony of Death</i> is <b><i>Rise of the Lagomorphs</i></b>, the cover of which sells itself ably with the medieval illustration of a giant rabbit decapitating a man with an immense sword. In this LotFP adventure - set in England but easily repositioned to Maryland in my opinion - something bizarre is mutating the local rabbits. They become legion, then they become big and intelligent, and then... The whole thing moves fast, the rabbits are aggressive dog-sized specimens one day, and man-sized and intelligent soon after. Run this thing like a horror movie and I think you'll get your payoff. The PCs will do battle with the newly-uplifted army of rabbits, led by their charismatic king... this one could be a con session as well if you paced it right. Definitely memorable.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibW5mNM-nrbbXZHlovAvpcjTbthzNQz_G9PNngxhDuVyJ0UMFoqY95v2oJ3y8p-UYne2i7fXV2e2fFAmjYMrZw-l5Quq2Jse4HchfmRSktetkcKPO2S38jsJci2drYtBx2_V6ZDm0YPyaUI_mcYYal6hWv7SRGXP7q8cFE900D0rKiqHpZmOTvxM1w" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="198" data-original-width="255" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibW5mNM-nrbbXZHlovAvpcjTbthzNQz_G9PNngxhDuVyJ0UMFoqY95v2oJ3y8p-UYne2i7fXV2e2fFAmjYMrZw-l5Quq2Jse4HchfmRSktetkcKPO2S38jsJci2drYtBx2_V6ZDm0YPyaUI_mcYYal6hWv7SRGXP7q8cFE900D0rKiqHpZmOTvxM1w" width="309" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-82131452131862211082022-08-09T08:35:00.002-04:002022-08-09T08:35:29.879-04:00The Mysterious Valley<p> There's so much material out there for D&Dlike games, it's almost impossible to be exposed to all of it. In aid of this dilemma, today I want to highlight a particular issue of <i>DAMN</i> magazine.</p><p><i>DAMN</i> - standing for <i>DCC Adventure Magazine and News</i> - was a short run of Dungeon Crawl Classics-focused magazines. Each one is stuffed to the gills with adventures, and then-current news of DCC third-party releases and shenanigans. It started out under the aegis of one publisher but ended up with Mystic Bull Games. There was a kickstarter to get the thing going, and the three issues are great, but eventually it became too much to produce regularly. That's a shame, but don't let that discourage you from looking at these. Each issue has several adventures, by known DCC authors like the inimitable Daniel Bishop and the doughty Paul Wolfe. They're available at Goodman Games and at DriveThru.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfKnL52P-kMmJ7o4ayEd09WiYxwHv2RScTovPxY0X1UWjlEgG8-S2BZwLOqOdbTugf48wsAEg_WbE1xde8KpPlRktQ92SRcG5wEldO-0iizy1ImtX0jhToiEF8KEJFt6pALo0kIj5wgc39cA4niOJBdCZLoRAW6sgEFyhTwho33DfPYvu44D3fHjT/s850/damn2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="850" data-original-width="804" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfKnL52P-kMmJ7o4ayEd09WiYxwHv2RScTovPxY0X1UWjlEgG8-S2BZwLOqOdbTugf48wsAEg_WbE1xde8KpPlRktQ92SRcG5wEldO-0iizy1ImtX0jhToiEF8KEJFt6pALo0kIj5wgc39cA4niOJBdCZLoRAW6sgEFyhTwho33DfPYvu44D3fHjT/s320/damn2.png" width="303" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Forgotten Reavers of Praeder Peak</i> has nasty worm-men, and they aren't even the lead baddie.</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>One issue in particular is the specimen I wish to call to your attention: <a href="https://goodman-games.com/store/product/d-a-m-n-magazine-winter-2017/">it's issue #1, with the cyclops on the cover.</a> All the material in this one is solid - definitely check out Paul Wolfe's <i>Praeder Peak</i> adventure featuring vikings in the jungle, memory-swapping, and an undead menace - but the highlight is Daniel Bishop's <i>The Mysterious Valley</i>.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiflXgnWNNyTHZY4u3gxauXK8z5hukgaxezBeHDZwuU2lTydAnazeuit-9F3jcLolZtfq4rF-g8uxBmz5NdwQUya7K62_2urP6kcXM5TCp4kShSlxt3iwX4DaTWyxXxCCSOa5yWC8NzxDpJSanfRDJbc5X2fJIEw2u5pmzaCyBnu9vvnFUwK40wCh6R/s1466/dAMN.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1466" data-original-width="1090" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiflXgnWNNyTHZY4u3gxauXK8z5hukgaxezBeHDZwuU2lTydAnazeuit-9F3jcLolZtfq4rF-g8uxBmz5NdwQUya7K62_2urP6kcXM5TCp4kShSlxt3iwX4DaTWyxXxCCSOa5yWC8NzxDpJSanfRDJbc5X2fJIEw2u5pmzaCyBnu9vvnFUwK40wCh6R/s320/dAMN.png" width="238" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Only ten dollars, and beyond worth it.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Here's the pitch: a jungle hexcrawl nicely populated with <b>everything Ray Harryhausen created</b>.</p><p>That's enough, right? You want the adventure now, surely. </p><p><i>The Mysterious Valley</i> isn't just a handful of Harryhausen-inspired locations, it's a full hexcrawl with dinosaurs and natives and ruins, appropriate tables, factions, and all the monsters you would hope are in there. Cyclops. Rhedosaur. <i>Clash of the Titans</i> stuff. All in one tropical valley that would work great appended to the Isle of Dread, or Chult, or sandwiched between some arctic glaciers Savage Land-style. You're going to get plenty of sessions out of your PCs tromping around this joint. Just oozing with flavor.</p><p>If you're running DCC this is a no-brainer. Anything 3.x-adjacent could run this on the fly, and if you're using an old-school engine, you can easily adapt it. You can read Daniel's account of the issue's creation <a href="http://dcctreasures.blogspot.com/2016/11/damn-1-dcc-rpg-adventure-magazine-and.html">here</a>. Go get this adventure.</p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-71715468272537063462022-08-06T10:34:00.003-04:002022-08-06T10:37:11.393-04:00Revisiting the Golden Crab Mallet Awards<p> In 2017, for TridentCon, we attempted to run The Golden Crab Mallet Awards - clearly the premiere rpg-related awards process. We solicited pdf entries in two categories: "Free Product" and "Fun Adventure". That was it. We had five judges, three from TridentCon, and two volunteers from The Internet. The nominees would be read by the judges, there would be voting, and the winners would be announced at TridentCon 2017, showering great prestige upon those who wore the laurels.</p><p>Since it's GenCon and Ennies Nonsense Time, let's look back at those products and the winners from five years ago.</p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">FUN ADVENTURE</span></b></p><p><b>First Place: <i>Crypts of Indormancy</i></b>, Ezra Claverie, Melsonian Arts Council</p><p><b>Second Place: <i>Mortzengersturm</i></b>, Trey Causey & Jeff Call, Hydra Cooperative</p><p><b>Honorable Mention: <i>Veins of the Earth</i></b>, Patrick Stuart, LotFP</p><p><b>Honorable Mention: <i>Escape From The Shrouded Fen</i></b>, Terry Olson, Purple Sorcerer</p><p><i>Twenty Dungeon Starters</i>, Marshall Miller & Mark Tygart</p><p><i>The Necropolis of Nuromen</i>, Justin Becker, Dreamscape Design</p><p><i>The Palace of Alkmeenon</i>, David Baity, Sanctum Media</p><p><i>Excavation of the Tomb of Lorninane</i>, Jason Hobbs, Hobbs & Friends</p><p><i>Blood In The Chocolate</i>, Kiel Chenier, LotFP</p><p><i>Broodmother Skyfortress</i>, Jeff Rients, LotFP</p><p>First off, note the nice participation by small publishers you've heard of - I am very grateful that TridentCon was regularly privileged with assistance from small publishers, whether it was in an endeavor like this, or in providing prize support for the con.</p><p>I still haven't run <i>Crypts of Indormancy</i>, and I should. I've run <i>Mortzengersturm</i>, though - which is no surprise given the tone of the thing and my own preferences. I also ran <i>Excavation of the Tomb of Lorninane</i> at some point, although I don't remember much about how that session went.</p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">FREE PRODUCT</span></b></p><p><b>First Place: <i>Vacation At The Shore</i></b>, Noah Stevens, Hapless Henchman</p><p><b>Second Place: <i>Blueholme Prentice Rules</i></b>, Michael Thomas, Dreamscape Design</p><p><b>Honorable Mention: <i>Sanctum Secorum #23</i></b>, Sanctum Media</p><p><b>Honorable Mention: <i>Guild Dogs Guild Generator</i></b>, Michael Raston</p><p><i>Troika!</i>, Daniel Sell, Melsonian Arts Council</p><p><i>Tombs of Atuan</i>, Mark Tygart</p><p><i>The Tall Witch</i>, Daimon Games</p><p>"Free Product" is a weird category since it can include rules, adventures, curated lists, or who-knows-what. I need to take another look at <i>Tombs of Atuan</i>, I've forgotten what that one was all about! There is so much free content out there, including stuff on blogs, that you could fuel your imagination and your campaign for years to come without ever throwing a coin into the coffer of Some Controversial PDF Reseller.</p><p><br /></p><p>I strongly encourage you to support small publishers, independent authors, and blogger-types by checking out their stuff! Maybe it's time to do a 2022 Golden Crab Mallet Awards?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtAbNVkOLryi4Ff59Rd9p7iu_UNYIjuilGMqDjctVFyPaFFenaqbh8GaD9krEFoiRrI_o3N_jvG7WamS6lyLUUMGM5tcF6dRRKs43tt1-P9wuKbdBmuovQod_96DA8RHb4ZESy19Dz-NbPr6lcOpO3VYddkYxw9QqsWsQEZdwdsWNDTqTQubar5ReC/s3600/OldSchoolTTG%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3297" data-original-width="3600" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtAbNVkOLryi4Ff59Rd9p7iu_UNYIjuilGMqDjctVFyPaFFenaqbh8GaD9krEFoiRrI_o3N_jvG7WamS6lyLUUMGM5tcF6dRRKs43tt1-P9wuKbdBmuovQod_96DA8RHb4ZESy19Dz-NbPr6lcOpO3VYddkYxw9QqsWsQEZdwdsWNDTqTQubar5ReC/s320/OldSchoolTTG%20(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-12776996999132689202022-08-03T08:00:00.110-04:002022-08-03T08:00:00.233-04:00I Want My Mummy<p> The other day, frolicking in the pool, our six-year-old was going on and on about some kind of imaginary Egyptian adventure, with pyramids, mummies that tried to eat him, and 'ancient autographs' (I presume he meant artifacts, but what do I know). The result, of course, is this blogpost. First, some cannibal mummies... we tend to associate flesh-eating with zombies, and blood-drinking with vampires, but then there are those great scenes in the modern version of <i>The Mummy</i> where Imhotep regenerates himself by absorbing those who desecrated his resting-place. What if more mummies could do that?</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhOjYDRIhdCAS7rRaHeuASCaNRMaVDeOQZvolTzazZvnISmtWPVxlAOaaUUXkCQ03k5jIZFooTbGvWsc-z_5ER2SZIoShKkva5bZXvVZ2lJFD-xPwSRolCnE-pWOsh5z3stlPWc2clizwKpbuHTJAIETlGBagnD6OFBoFVWMU6buG8GRJwTLdjkoZ_O" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="986" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhOjYDRIhdCAS7rRaHeuASCaNRMaVDeOQZvolTzazZvnISmtWPVxlAOaaUUXkCQ03k5jIZFooTbGvWsc-z_5ER2SZIoShKkva5bZXvVZ2lJFD-xPwSRolCnE-pWOsh5z3stlPWc2clizwKpbuHTJAIETlGBagnD6OFBoFVWMU6buG8GRJwTLdjkoZ_O" width="308" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p><b>CANNIBAL MUMMIES OF HUL THAZZAR</b></p><p>The necromantic arts of mummification may predate human civilization, but surely they were mastered by the dark sorcerers of the <a href="http://wampuscountry.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-table-and-map.html">Painlands</a>, in particular the kingdom scholars today know as the Eye culture. The fabled Hul Thazzar, known to poets as the City of Stars, lies buried in the sands to this day, but its rulers, princelings, and priests wait patiently in hidden sarcophagi that dot the entire face of what is now Wampus Country. While it is thought that the practice of mummification was first practiced on the ruling Sky Pharaohs, by the end of the Eye civilization a thousand years later, even the lowliest thunder-priest was likely to be so entombed. It is these lesser, later mummies so often encountered by today's tomb-robbers and adventurers.</p><p>On occasion, however, an older, more powerful mummy is awakened - one who bears undiluted the blood of the Sky Pharaohs, perhaps, or dates to an earlier age. Such a mummy wakes with insatiable hunger, and consumes the living in order to grow hearty and more powerful. A mummy or mummy lord like this might have one or more of the following abilities.</p><p><b>Grave-born Hunger.</b> As the mummy slays and then consumes the living, it grows more powerful. For every hit die of intelligent life it eats, the mummy gains 1d6 hit points (either healing damage, or gaining new non-temporary hit points). If the mummy eats a spellcaster, it will "learn" 1d4 levels of spells which it can then cast (this may be four 1st-level or one 4th level, etc, depending on what the caster knew).</p><p><b>Solar Strength</b>. Mummies from a sun-worshipping culture, once awakened, may strive to reach daylight. A sun-fueled mummy, upon bathing in real sunlight, will heal 1d8 damage per hit die and lose its vulnerability to fire until nightfall.</p><p><b>Storm Fury</b>. Mummies from a storm-worshipping culture (like those of late-period Hul Thazzar) will seek out rainstorms (a good soaking will heal 1d6 damage per hit die), and attract lightning strikes. A storm mummy struck by lightning from any source (watch out, wizards) will convert the damage to healing and/or temporary hit points and become electrified (+1d4 electrical damage to its touch or slam attacks).</p><p><br /></p><p><b>THE SHIELD OF THE SLEEPERS</b></p><p>These enchanted shields were once carried by the war-brothers of a life-affirming order of priests who sought to destroy undead and return whatever portion of human soul remained within those abominations back to their eternal rest.</p><p>The <i>shield of the sleeper</i>s is in all respects a <i>shield +1</i> until borne by a cleric or paladin who destroys an undead creature. Thenceforth, two powers manifest:</p><p><b>The Power of Life Compels You</b>. The shield manifests imagery similar or compatible to the cleric's holy symbol on the face, and may serve as a holy symbol in all respects. Further, the cleric enjoys a +2 saving throw bonus against the ancillary powers of any undead (paralyzation, charm, mummy rot) while the shield is in hand.</p><p><b>Ancient Autographs</b>. Each time the cleric, bearing the shield, destroys an undead creature, that creature's name in life appears in very small script on the inside of the shield. When the cleric has personally accrued 100 hit dice of undead destroyed (and names recorded), the shield becomes +2. Clever clerics will have other uses for the names of the undead as well.</p><p>If the owner of the shield fails to carry it for three days, it resets to being a <i>shield +1</i>.</p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-42137388453756585432022-07-31T08:03:00.003-04:002022-07-31T08:03:56.491-04:00#JULYGANTIC - What's Next?<p> In reading through all these Giant-related adventures and sourcebooks, occasionally some ideas sparked - things I would want to try, were I writing up some adventure sites for each of the classic Giants. </p><p>Early on, after reading <i>Crypt of the Death Giants</i>, I knew doing something with a giant tomb or burial complex would be a fun write-up. For whatever reason, rather than thinking about the big giants, my mind went immediately to hill giants - in particular hill giants as mound-builders, late paleolithic or early Bronze Age, that sort of thing. The trick here is how to make the site interesting without just saying "okay, undead hill giants". You'd want some of that, yes, but unless it's a small site, there would need to be something else going on. Maybe throw some modern-day hill giants into the mix, some internal strife or rivalry. A question of royal descent, or rival ancestor cults, so "who is actually buried here" starts to matter more than the cool-factor of bashing undead giants (which is still cool, but benefits from some slight context).</p><p>Stone giants are more difficult for me. We've seen several riffs on making stone giants memorable beyond the Monster Manual basics, and I think some of them (stone giant monks!) are a bit of a stretch. How do you do novel stone giants without doing the same "talking to stones", <i>stone shape</i>, rock carving rune stuff? Maybe this is the spot to indulge my love of "giants on huge beasts". Purple worm? Could we do a Mad Max gang of stone giants who ride small purple worms or other beasts through the ancient colossal worm-tunnels?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidjh4fN3zmdbbjti5I64XHPMteVLTFzK1LRaAnvfpoluE4hgShXxUkG9DyZX83i1xZmxqWEHeS4JdPEqPkN_oO08fg45u4n53Y_7F15iIfwNxsu9af7xAQPP6xdtjtX0h9wT6ptrux3lHR5HRajuLje6ygiSs2vZrdPE4fNBRfzfhzC_neSKttWq36/s1392/Screenshot%202022-05-10%20193630.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="932" data-original-width="1392" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidjh4fN3zmdbbjti5I64XHPMteVLTFzK1LRaAnvfpoluE4hgShXxUkG9DyZX83i1xZmxqWEHeS4JdPEqPkN_oO08fg45u4n53Y_7F15iIfwNxsu9af7xAQPP6xdtjtX0h9wT6ptrux3lHR5HRajuLje6ygiSs2vZrdPE4fNBRfzfhzC_neSKttWq36/s320/Screenshot%202022-05-10%20193630.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>For the storm giant, I'd write up a single storm/sea giant who lives in a lake and really play up the tutelary spirit angle. The giant is the lake and the lake is the giant, and the smallfolk of the fishing village treat him like the demigod he is. Perhaps I'd make him a literal demigod, and truly tied to the lake - as in, he can't leave. Maybe his ancestors could, back when the lake was better-tied to rivers and things, but with the changing landscape this isolated mountain lake is both the giant's kingdom and his prison. You could do the whole thing where he needs a bride, that would be suitably fairy-tale. You think the PCs want to be matchmakers for the lake giant? What would they get out of it? Things to think about.</p><p>I know for a frost giant location I'd want to eschew the traditional "frozen viking" thing and use a different skin for the frost giants - probably do a riff on cartoon Soviets. Frost giants with ushanka and furred longcoats, then riff on either Soviet-era nonsense or Peter the Great type stuff as desired. I have this mental image of a potemkin village sculpted out of ice, but I don't have a why yet, and that's what would have to drive the adventure. But a setup with a Dear Leader/Burgomeister Meisterburger type, with limited troops, might suggest a scenario more appropriate for sneaking around by PCs of lower than standard level for dealing with frost giants, and that would have some value.</p><p>The idea of a vast subterranean fire giant city intrigues me, but I think that's too ambitious to actually write up in a shareable form. Perhaps a mountaintop trading post where the fire giants interact with other giants, or other races. What would such a thing look like, and who would visit it? Maybe envision a mixture of frontier trading post and a stock exchange. I like the idea of it, but I haven't figured how to weaponize it as a useful adventure site yet.</p><p>Finally, for the cloud giants, it has to be a cloud island. In this case, I'm thinking of a cloud giant palace with a village on the large island, fallen into disrepute. The previous ruler(s) are gone, and now the spendthrift, layabout son is in charge, and this new Raja is a mess. He's turned the place into a debauched salon for all of his hipster friends where they lay around drinking fashionable beverages, talking petty trash, pretending to be philosophers, that sort of thing. Is there something up there the PCs need? Is it worth overthrowing the Raja?</p><p>I've jotted all these down in a googledoc and will keep messing with them. Who knows, maybe they'll see full writeup here on the blog, or via another venue eventually. The key to these things is to keep thinking, keep experimenting, and most of all - keep playing.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAGX1Rjc-YTeBURCF3Kf6prV3GoZ3MeS-HCCnsiP7GVdGR4HCwylSnGS3_oLS-y9AAcSQ3ELp4PXUOvasbyGZVCM7m7F2qNxwGIqD3gtPlUtxUViroUvNj1HNT8lhppTrGzgTmyAXTaUbTUakSGmHoWZEkoca7deyr7xO6eWLNloiQVAoMuaQ2TcYr/s1086/frozen1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="1086" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAGX1Rjc-YTeBURCF3Kf6prV3GoZ3MeS-HCCnsiP7GVdGR4HCwylSnGS3_oLS-y9AAcSQ3ELp4PXUOvasbyGZVCM7m7F2qNxwGIqD3gtPlUtxUViroUvNj1HNT8lhppTrGzgTmyAXTaUbTUakSGmHoWZEkoca7deyr7xO6eWLNloiQVAoMuaQ2TcYr/s320/frozen1.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-63618143503239797682022-07-30T06:17:00.002-04:002022-08-03T16:06:31.406-04:00#JULYGANTIC in Summary - The Best<p> Here we are, wrapping up #JULYGANTIC - a whole month of giants.</p><p>The experiment was a failure on several important levels. Firstly, because I didn't manage to run any giant-related adventures this month (or any D&D at all). Playing > Writing About. The second failing was that nobody else got in on the hashtag, far as I can tell. Oh well, this is why we try things. I hope it's been entertaining for regular readers, maybe picked up some new readers, and introduced folks to adventures they didn't know were out there.</p><p>The success of JULYGANTIC is that I cranked out so many posts - some short, some longer, but building some discipline in pre-writing and scheduling blogposts was probably worth it for me. And now of course I must be acknowledged as the world's greatest expert in giant-themed adventures. Or something.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgdDP0YUMkMgMkM-_tKOUwXZaqfYraXxLTpQExRn0ZWjTWGRgPDW6vixnMiDiZujNpWky8cgQ3Ls3nSlg6_mN22sfgpPgA8q-VGv53EyUmrOkEsr1z0yXuInU6OKBwjwkK732BZ2rfF6bhLrw6K7rmFnMkImo8WWFyhH0-WPdJTQOIeE8bO5j8FbzQq" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1215" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgdDP0YUMkMgMkM-_tKOUwXZaqfYraXxLTpQExRn0ZWjTWGRgPDW6vixnMiDiZujNpWky8cgQ3Ls3nSlg6_mN22sfgpPgA8q-VGv53EyUmrOkEsr1z0yXuInU6OKBwjwkK732BZ2rfF6bhLrw6K7rmFnMkImo8WWFyhH0-WPdJTQOIeE8bO5j8FbzQq" width="316" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: white;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="color: white;">Of all the material I read through in the past two months, these are the adventures I would consider running (and these are maybe in order of preference, but I'm not 100% on that):</span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Dark Clouds Gather</i></b>. Nicely-done TSR-era adventure with strong "exotic" S&S vibe.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>In Vino Gigantus</i></b>. 5e jam with solid fairy-tale and old-school-grind undertone.</span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Ark of the Mountains</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. 5e DDAL adventure that seems adaptable to a great romp on a flying ship.</span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Aerie of the Cloud Giant Strategos</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. AD&D/OSRIC module, suitable for pairing with Against the Giants or running by itself.</span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Sanctuary of Belches</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. 5e dungeon with an interesting setup.</span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Ancient Blood</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. AD&D, nice Beowulf/curses vibe.</span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Them Apples</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. AD&D, low-level low-power sneak-heist with good humor potential.</span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Palace In The Sky</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. AD&D, solid cloud giant flying-island adventure with motivated NPCs.</span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Warrens of the Stone Giant Thane</i></b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. 4e, good representation of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Against the Giants</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> model.</span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are sections or encounters from a number of other adventures that I would consider stealing outright and dropping on a hexmap, but the above are the ones that make me say “huh, I could run this”. Obviously I’m biased - some of the scenarios there are ones that have a fun/gonzo/goofy factor higher than average. I didn't discuss it in this series, but I've run </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Cloud Giant's Bargain</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> twice, and I think there's good stuff to be used there as well. </span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was also surprised and pleased with the content in all three of the giant-themed sourcebooks I read during #JULYGANTIC. While I really only recommend </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Giantcraft</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for Forgotten Realms/5e DMs, Legends & Lairs </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Giant Lore</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and Role-Aids </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Giants</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> were both solid reads full of useable ideas.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tomorrow's post will cover "giant concepts inspired by all this reading" - some ideas I want to throw out in the ether and maybe develop and add to my own campaign map.</span></span></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-21421887582737642932022-07-29T02:30:00.178-04:002022-07-29T02:30:00.214-04:00#JULYGANTIC: Giant Lore & Giants<p><b>GIANT LORE</b></p><p> Remember all those <i>Legends & Lairs</i> books that came out during Third Edition. They did one on <i>Giant Lore </i>- let's see how much novelty and inspiration it holds! Keep in mind that since this is from the d20 era, a good bit of it may be pretty easily compatible with 5e or any Pathfinder with a few tweaks. More work required for OSR of course.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3deaYeuVFFitvjaoAjdFINp_-aUqRR5izWEKAsAZRY42HrSdoTKXlbQPKs-n02jVXbXfeN-0WwQ4xWWZ0u9cScCUSH-eKCRGOWU-cP3kHKJJ7F7R1-LLBBriIh_FjLikyXjudbf4nalb9npwE-UgofYHzii5jE3XpAeGnBV2n0sNPXktSZDGD6uRC/s1174/giantlore1.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="770" data-original-width="1174" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3deaYeuVFFitvjaoAjdFINp_-aUqRR5izWEKAsAZRY42HrSdoTKXlbQPKs-n02jVXbXfeN-0WwQ4xWWZ0u9cScCUSH-eKCRGOWU-cP3kHKJJ7F7R1-LLBBriIh_FjLikyXjudbf4nalb9npwE-UgofYHzii5jE3XpAeGnBV2n0sNPXktSZDGD6uRC/s320/giantlore1.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dire frost troll, at your service.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>The first chapter offers new giants. The giant amazons, with their beguiling gaze, are suitably pulpy and a nice spin. The half-ogre, half-hobgoblin brutigans don't do much for me, though. Dire frost trolls at first seem like something you don't need separate stats for, but then they give them an interesting battle howl and some spell resistance (because they're from the dawn of time and stuff) and we start to see how we might want to use a monster. Next are ghost giants, who aren't ghosts, but instead stealthy mercenaries with shadow powers. Ninja giants, anybody? If you're doing Shadowfell stuff, maybe these guys could play a role. Glutton giants, self-explanatory. Nightmare giants that literally puppet sleeping victims like marionettes hanging from their astral silver cords? Now that's interesting. Some variant trolls up next. Finally the tinkerkin, who are giant crafters; I think this statblock makes more sense as a one-off faerie giant thing than yet another subspecies or caste of giants, but you could put one of these guys somewhere on a mountain hex and just let the magic happen.</p><p>This being 3e, the next chapter is templates for giants. We get Avarice, Envy, Wrath, and Plague- all pretty interesting - and then rules for giant-kin lycanthropes. There's a little templating subsystem for giant lycanthropes of course, but most intriguing are the sample ones they have statted out - the ogre were-rhino and the fire giant were-tyrannosaur in particular. What if King Snurre turned into a tyrannosaur mid-combat? One of the templates in this chapter is "troll-blooded", which is painfully 3e. Why do we need an entire template for this instead of just saying "this giant regenerates at rate x"? I guess because they add a rending attack. This one fails the "wow I wouldn't have thought of that" test hard. Regardless, if you know you're running a lot of giants - especially if they're mostly the same type - maybe a look at this template chapter will provide some variation to keep your players from yawning. This is followed by a chapter of prestige classes (thankfully they're <i>for</i> giants and don't rehash giant-hunting), which will serve the same purpose for our 3.x friends.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK2n8MfMI018OVOTOUyM59oXa9nR0yHbvLnUxfIA7ISpX9RMbITbE71_Gc8_Eg96Dq9OPhD5N4qaREQE24QSxK07Qh7NQtQiugqb8_S8qpzxd04aKGEIiLqL5LePcKKF_oouOmxShX-Q8iAcEdMVzzhE2X8ftUHeEHh793XgSdFIQwDD4UrEkgZmBc/s1258/giantlore2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="1258" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK2n8MfMI018OVOTOUyM59oXa9nR0yHbvLnUxfIA7ISpX9RMbITbE71_Gc8_Eg96Dq9OPhD5N4qaREQE24QSxK07Qh7NQtQiugqb8_S8qpzxd04aKGEIiLqL5LePcKKF_oouOmxShX-Q8iAcEdMVzzhE2X8ftUHeEHh793XgSdFIQwDD4UrEkgZmBc/s320/giantlore2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Do all the <i>Legends & Lairs</i> have art this dope?</td></tr></tbody></table><p>The feats chapter which follows is full of some pretty standard attempts at specializing giants, but it might serve to inspire. Of interest is the optional "hammerfall" attack which giants may perform, hurling themselves forward to crush smaller creatures. We are given details and cost for armor for Large and larger creatures, which could come in handy. Next up are some spells which...well, other than <i>true enlarge</i>, have nothing to do with giants.</p><p>The magic items have more giant flavor to them for sure. There are giant drums, some weapons, and a cloak which turns a giant into a waterfall. That's very cool, and there's your encounter right there in the item description.</p><p>Dang it, the last chapter is about prestige classes for people who aren't giants. We get a giant slayer (of course), and the more interesting giant-seed, who emulates a particular kind of giant. Feats are provided here as well.</p><p>As someone who isn't going to use a good chunk of this book, I have to say the parts I do find intriguing - the new monsters, the magic items, the templates and general inspiration - are probably worth the five bucks this pdf costs. If you're planning a giant-focused campaign - and we've been talking about several of them on the blog this month - dropping the five bucks for these inspirations is probably worth it, even if you're running a pre-d20 version of D&D. Now I'm wondering if any of the other <i>Legends & Lairs</i> are worth it...</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDb7Jf-6s-sKgGU-EyGCtnSVN0zB5p7z5NdPEu8Xdhjve5jKsStZ7SFUUtQwFEgqTDBqLPwINEIE0dhdiaCSmroj_KxW9jRLnMZsIJA0qNkx8WSF8F7dj23GeRQxSuEG8jVU4zwmr1dKZVqvnkfQnet4ve72C8zKcOYWS87E1XY0PkOQNjFRH9nr5f/s1240/giantlore3.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="782" data-original-width="1240" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDb7Jf-6s-sKgGU-EyGCtnSVN0zB5p7z5NdPEu8Xdhjve5jKsStZ7SFUUtQwFEgqTDBqLPwINEIE0dhdiaCSmroj_KxW9jRLnMZsIJA0qNkx8WSF8F7dj23GeRQxSuEG8jVU4zwmr1dKZVqvnkfQnet4ve72C8zKcOYWS87E1XY0PkOQNjFRH9nr5f/s320/giantlore3.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wizard in the corner has some serious B/X vibes.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>GIANTS</b></p><p>Back in the 80s Mayfair Games gave us the "Role Aids" series of AD&D-compatible supplements; <i>Giants</i> is not only all about giants, but designed to accompany a series of Grenadier miniatures. I remember the Role Aids ads in Dragon magazine - <i>Lich Lords</i> in particular - but the only one I ever owned was one of the monster books.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8oHIO-WJrO25keiDH5wZ6a2kOgVMnSFQBPEnYFiiF23qnjIpdwBC0QZRXIyZS-VqOTqBL2_QfopyAj-8h_3WW2ZQaYSJj1ZJeLfIzfHdq-QsBwsTbZaOC6p5ZqE-TeR3Qe5tLHSpUPpwpKaBYQ4mOaeGakikWmp0jnGmBqEePo5Mel-E2UinEaFc0/s1444/giants1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1026" data-original-width="1444" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8oHIO-WJrO25keiDH5wZ6a2kOgVMnSFQBPEnYFiiF23qnjIpdwBC0QZRXIyZS-VqOTqBL2_QfopyAj-8h_3WW2ZQaYSJj1ZJeLfIzfHdq-QsBwsTbZaOC6p5ZqE-TeR3Qe5tLHSpUPpwpKaBYQ4mOaeGakikWmp0jnGmBqEePo5Mel-E2UinEaFc0/s320/giants1.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Giant magic is to be feared!</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>The work begins with an origin story for the giant races involving Titans, runemagic, and other concepts you've seen before, but mixed in a nice way. It features not only a unified giant society at one point (like we see in Faerun's Ostoria), but also a fairly recent giant civil war, which is pretty intriguing, and the idea of fire giant vs frost giant (and various allies on both sides) makes good mythic sense. There's a good section about giant biology, and information on giant society in general (including their pets). Finally, we're introduced to giant magic in the form of runecasting as well as the giant's curse. Throughout, <i>Giants</i> keeps its subjects mythical and magical. The first section of the book is rounded out by note on giant weaponry, and using giants as player characters (!).</p><p>Then we get into the giants by type! Each subsection follows the same pattern - we get a description of the giant type, stats, a map of a lair, stats for pets and companions, and appropriate magic items and hooks. Not too shabby.</p><p>The Titans are shining Hellenic good guys, as per the Monster Manual, with pet sphinxes and shedu.</p><p>The warped Chaos Giants get a random feature generator, lots of background (because these aren't standard AD&D giants I guess), spells, items. One of their typical spells calls nearby creatures of chaos, which could be a neat encounter.</p><p>The Dwarven Giant seems a strange concept at first, but they could fill an interesting role in your campaign. They are Lawful, dwarflike in temperament, and often friendly to small-folk. Plus they have pet xorn!</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7jTE6G4Y_Pu3WV5Ec0t9f62oDoZwGgOBJwdtbhswNKPWj450fg-XuolXZ6-ZCeXl3dRHfz6_C1emJ7ITs7IyBGhem1j8xUzC9JhqaIDDa6I3d7EXDcr36lc_rh9yYm5rXIoQSF6zFDQU_SIRFE0ozb6j3CfYAKb4FvzcHw4J6LhKvUHTozReoyV50/s1102/giants2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="950" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7jTE6G4Y_Pu3WV5Ec0t9f62oDoZwGgOBJwdtbhswNKPWj450fg-XuolXZ6-ZCeXl3dRHfz6_C1emJ7ITs7IyBGhem1j8xUzC9JhqaIDDa6I3d7EXDcr36lc_rh9yYm5rXIoQSF6zFDQU_SIRFE0ozb6j3CfYAKb4FvzcHw4J6LhKvUHTozReoyV50/s320/giants2.png" width="276" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just your friendly neighborhood dwarven giant!</td></tr></tbody></table><p>The Fire Giants here are pretty standard, although the bonus pets (lava snakes!) are cool. </p><p>Forest Giants are huge druid/ranger types, with all the tropes that entails. Giant squirrels, tree-shepherds, the whole nine yards.</p><p>Frost Giants, too, hew close to their <i>Monster Manual</i> origins, although in the <i>Giants</i> telling of things, the Frost Giants are the progenitors of some of these variant species. One of the magic items here turns a giant into a snow-shark that can swim through snow and ice; that's pretty keen, but I think I'd want to just give that power to some frost giants were-snow-sharks and see where it takes us.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB-ueoCyPTl3IWtJcPWdcdhEMGAp-7YlA5Nr3FOOwygvcnbr0c4xLLE9pIo6g2lg5Yq613SP8w3V2zYNI-UbigsrgoxygglZtO_doZoPf8_0zMu32dRGzbpGZUcUQOPzYHCOudfXSIJ72LpeOAomP47QWb15HEtuC-CkvtqOjKMT_a0Ywm0i99b7hw/s1292/giants3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="1292" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB-ueoCyPTl3IWtJcPWdcdhEMGAp-7YlA5Nr3FOOwygvcnbr0c4xLLE9pIo6g2lg5Yq613SP8w3V2zYNI-UbigsrgoxygglZtO_doZoPf8_0zMu32dRGzbpGZUcUQOPzYHCOudfXSIJ72LpeOAomP47QWb15HEtuC-CkvtqOjKMT_a0Ywm0i99b7hw/s320/giants3.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You want to do a 'cattle raid of Cooley' gimmick with gorgons? Could be very cool...</td></tr></tbody></table><br />The Hill Giants in this book have as their pets giant weasels and a kind of small tyrannosaur (which hunts in packs), and they use gorgons as beasts of burden. The Sea and Stone giants deliver some minor variation from what you'd expect (the Stone giants in this book keep strange cats in their caverns). Here the Storm giants are the offspring of Chaos and Frost. We also get a writeup on Two-Headed Giants, primitive and dangerous.</p><p>The last giant is the Death Giant, of which there is only one, though he has many avatars. He's basically the grim reaper for giants, or the Black Racer if you know your Fourth World. The last connection between the giants scattered around the multiverse and their plane of origin.</p><p>Next up we have a section detailing the city of Clanfast, where giants come together to trade and have council. I don't think I've seen "mixed city of giants" written up before in a product. Lots of info and potential encounters here, especially in the part of the city where the dreams of the Titans take material form. There's an underworld, too, of course.</p><p>Mayfair's <i>Giants</i> is pretty interesting. If you're looking for a substantially-different take on giants, this book will certainly provide that. The couple novel giant types are interesting, as are the surprising twists on a few of them. The lair maps might come in handy, too.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjAjlY8U6ciL1nUPqj7Au2CkCSShWZA3XMjsNDFj8w60XSh3pcv-eRgWObX2N8CBw-eTGRmwvmwq37J0bDxsC6WQ-hR2pr3U7SDJkpbMuu91YIDE3LbnwNf1eSGELlt5oQDPsoGOlQlnjVqkI7mS1HJsyXNELM7KlrA0vyOdHwjXRwzcJ6c3bcFXNs1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="738" data-original-width="374" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjAjlY8U6ciL1nUPqj7Au2CkCSShWZA3XMjsNDFj8w60XSh3pcv-eRgWObX2N8CBw-eTGRmwvmwq37J0bDxsC6WQ-hR2pr3U7SDJkpbMuu91YIDE3LbnwNf1eSGELlt5oQDPsoGOlQlnjVqkI7mS1HJsyXNELM7KlrA0vyOdHwjXRwzcJ6c3bcFXNs1" width="122" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-71151952671271639042022-07-28T15:35:00.000-04:002022-07-28T15:35:01.204-04:00#JULYGANTIC: In Vino Gigantus<p> Today's read-through is of the Frog God adventure In Vino Gigantus, penned by TridentCon attendee James Spahn. It's for lower-level 5e characters. Let's read!</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Kydh1aNmb-lB_dPAsAKskxEbKLxf5uTyJ2Lt5rfewPwyeTH3SuuotI1ZVb5JY-Pm6YSag2bOkUji0iqOecTrYkuGA6FlqwalEuN_bir8BgC14Qy_tku1lFoWhnf5fnq8GisL7Vxz0vvF9MyHLTXgvKcrJwCwqxQ11esUL3RNzzoPmf5IDLVyOyaY/s1444/invino2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="940" data-original-width="1444" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Kydh1aNmb-lB_dPAsAKskxEbKLxf5uTyJ2Lt5rfewPwyeTH3SuuotI1ZVb5JY-Pm6YSag2bOkUji0iqOecTrYkuGA6FlqwalEuN_bir8BgC14Qy_tku1lFoWhnf5fnq8GisL7Vxz0vvF9MyHLTXgvKcrJwCwqxQ11esUL3RNzzoPmf5IDLVyOyaY/s320/invino2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In theory you could append the Wine Cellar to any old Cloud Castle map...</td></tr></tbody></table><p>The gimmick: a debauched storm giant noble shanghais the PCs into dealing with his flooded wine cellar. That's it, that's the setup - prepare for Basement Adventure, but at ten times normal size.</p><p>The adventure starts with the PCs being magically taken and transported to the flying home of the storm giant lush, where he proceeds to read an entire column of boxed text while the PCs eat an amazing repast in his hall. Attacking Clovis the giant and his ogre servants (not to mention his ogre mage butler) is probably a bad idea at this level. Far better to take the job - there's pay at the end, after all. Unrelated gripe: vanilla ogres as the servitors of a fancy storm giant noble don't sit right with me...I'd have to reskin them as tempest ogres (whatever that means), or give them bird heads or something. Eagle-headed ogres in fine livery sounds pretty fantastic to me.</p><p>The wine cellar is immense by small-folk standards, and contains "mundane" hazards like giant centipedes, rats, and frogs so you can do a proper <i>Incredible Shrinking Man</i> homage (and you should). PCs will want to climb up on barrels and furniture as the adventure moves on, so there's a good bit of potential verticality throughout. There do seem to be some scenes here where we're imagining the storm giant being even bigger than the 'canon' thirty feet or so - I think for a setup like this the PCs work best at "action figure size" but really they ought to be one-fifth the height of the storm giant? The fight with the salt & pepper shakers makes less sense with bigger PCs. Regardless, the whole adventure has size in mind - how are you going to pull the giant wine bottle that opens the secret door, that sort of thing. There's a basement kitchen, a cold-storage room, and so forth. Beware the weasels!</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimKt4MFsNbLZr0UbHGwzf72xv3NLb0LiSa0mYeXytSd6KujRCiQlDtHQkvs2wEqI29AlpS-YHPNS-tu9hVtrl0KC7_YKYogi7vqAR0Nff14qZY_c7Q2a42s1gfSeIQANn3U25XJ3Dw1vf8jOMbh_zxMA5wPKPxqk1dqfrptK0bUtuCIA2gAxvMDP0e/s1610/invino1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="1610" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimKt4MFsNbLZr0UbHGwzf72xv3NLb0LiSa0mYeXytSd6KujRCiQlDtHQkvs2wEqI29AlpS-YHPNS-tu9hVtrl0KC7_YKYogi7vqAR0Nff14qZY_c7Q2a42s1gfSeIQANn3U25XJ3Dw1vf8jOMbh_zxMA5wPKPxqk1dqfrptK0bUtuCIA2gAxvMDP0e/s320/invino1.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So many salt and pepper jokes you could do</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>One interesting bit is that there's another adventuring party down here. Clovis sent them on the same mission you're on and then either forgot or presumed they failed, but here they still are. Some other solid encounters follow, including the feral undead cats - yes, you read that right - and plenty of giant rats and spiders. There are a <i>lot</i> of critters down here, especially if you trigger a lot of random encounters in the long slog across the biggest rooms - which means this adventure is potentially more lethal than it first seems. Maybe that's why Clovis gives you healing potions at the start!</p><p>Eventually the heroes will find the storm giant's dog (Donner the Thunder Terrier), who is both captive of the giant spiders and the actual cause of the flooding. What group of PCs wouldn't try to save the giant lightning dog? This is a neat fight, with Donner's panicked thunder-barks causing the unstable foundation beneath your feet to crumble away, falling into the cloudstuff and sky below.</p><p>All in all, this is a solid low- or even mid-level scenario. It could work as a DCC funnel or fit in a con slot if you dialed back on the extra random encounters. I could see myself using this - the memorable parts, besides the dog, are going to be the interaction with the 'big' environment and how the PCs get around some of the obstacles.</p><p><br /></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-5530970243895755622022-07-27T10:38:00.158-04:002022-07-27T16:57:13.972-04:00#JULYGANTIC: Dark Clouds Gather<p> <i>Dark Clouds Gather</i> is an AD&D adventure for levels 7-9, produced by TSR UK. There is a lot going on here, and there are cloud giants in it, so that's my excuse to read through it thoroughly now. Plenty of people suggest the TSR UK stuff is better than many of the US-produced modules of the time - let's see.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimRV_5LW5l8MojmGfJrFQYWzwle23H7KcDuveLtGrsvbyvOD7H8OuAI5w0ZVUPP6IzGiVSl2gow0uGLJkGZVqF10_LhgG3SNYRmEPWBYfFzTdN6m1xlUAxr53gX1XDF4XCc6dw_rz9q_k5vY78k9-LBLKhshLOzqIWpBIqLMrx2CmsjIWZDFNmHR18/s1034/darkcloudscover.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="946" data-original-width="1034" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimRV_5LW5l8MojmGfJrFQYWzwle23H7KcDuveLtGrsvbyvOD7H8OuAI5w0ZVUPP6IzGiVSl2gow0uGLJkGZVqF10_LhgG3SNYRmEPWBYfFzTdN6m1xlUAxr53gX1XDF4XCc6dw_rz9q_k5vY78k9-LBLKhshLOzqIWpBIqLMrx2CmsjIWZDFNmHR18/s320/darkcloudscover.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flying scimitar-baboon wants you dead.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>The ancient backstory here involves an archmage (Devral) teaming up with aaracokraa and good cloud giants to deal with the evil mind-witch Yesorkh and her winged baboon henchmen. Yesorkh was defeated and trapped in a gem, but now has been freed by an irresponsible cloud giant. Obviously her plans for world domination pick up where they left off, and we have our adventure.</p><p>The hook as presented involves the PCs coming upon some townsfolk trying to kill an aaracokra that they presume is a demon. Already converting this adventure to 5e assumptions is out the window, isn't it. The heroes witness a mockery of a trial for the feathered devil; if they intervene, they too are accused of being in league with dark forces, and we end up with a trial by combat. Obviously the PCs will win this one against the burliest villager, so now they have the aaracokra Tcho'eh as a pal, and can hear his tale.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdkfnAA2AiORH5vhM542MyHGA0f6NtKcL6z41BcEAJCY_GVx186YhIFv6227yEBZsgLJO1Z1edkFa9V0_0OsJaAG2WeyhTGtXu_0dsAxkZ35pGvH2LUpix0I5A9q0nsQPFZe1mgCW3IJbRFbXsS8DEpJTJ4S0zgznDatcJnFDMbFUapk5Q28vWpxl5/s1516/darkclouds.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1516" data-original-width="1150" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdkfnAA2AiORH5vhM542MyHGA0f6NtKcL6z41BcEAJCY_GVx186YhIFv6227yEBZsgLJO1Z1edkFa9V0_0OsJaAG2WeyhTGtXu_0dsAxkZ35pGvH2LUpix0I5A9q0nsQPFZe1mgCW3IJbRFbXsS8DEpJTJ4S0zgznDatcJnFDMbFUapk5Q28vWpxl5/s320/darkclouds.png" width="243" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A memorable ascent to the birdfolk aerie.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Tcho'eh wants the PCs to come with him to Tikki-ti-jarra, home of the aaracokra, to assist with the raids on their nests. Apparently the bird-shaman saw the PCs in a vision and sent Tcho-'eh out into the world of man to find them. Help me, Obi-Wan! There's an overland trek through a mountain pass.</p><p>In the next section, the heroes visit Tikki-ti-jarra, demesne of the aaracokra where, after a misunderstanding, Tcho'eh takes the PCs before the shaman. The shaman tells the PCs how a cloud giant and his army of winged baboons ("snow demons") are wiping out the bird-folk; and that said giant operates out of a cloud castle. CLOUD CASTLE ALERT now you have my attention even more. Unfortunately, the shaman's exposition triggers the cloud castle showing up and attacking. How dreadfully inconvenient.</p><p>Several waves of ba'atun (baboon dudes) wreak havoc on Tikki-ti-jarra; the module gives details on the units within the swarm and when they should arrive, round by round. PCs can help fight them off, but the numbers are too great, and by the time the ba'atun return to the cloud castle, Tikki-ti-jarra is in ruins, with most of the aarakocra slain.</p><p><br /></p><p>The shaman tells of a vision he's had of a flying craft shaped like a fish, which is somehow key in overthrowing the cloud giant. The PCs, able to recognize a chapter transition, agree to seek out this skyfish in hopes of using it against the ba'atun. Following the shaman's vision, off we go to see the wisdom of the giant eagles. Meanwhile, the remaining aarakocra will bury the dead and then head to the last birdfolk refuge.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJp6DProd-X20hsh8LaT29IkRLiqMD__a6-7H3sjydCc7kkgBZq4R0Y9-z-XcR1gwo8H6zj2qV8vla5y2_j8MPKG_Gmd0PUI8KsM0uUfrQUW4viGX8B2k7C5s4wvSDK33nh7adNA0hE777W7bY8jhqt3qQCfLkZbzTop40MreJxC9ZtaVr7-oPWmFx/s1436/darkclouds2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1348" data-original-width="1436" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJp6DProd-X20hsh8LaT29IkRLiqMD__a6-7H3sjydCc7kkgBZq4R0Y9-z-XcR1gwo8H6zj2qV8vla5y2_j8MPKG_Gmd0PUI8KsM0uUfrQUW4viGX8B2k7C5s4wvSDK33nh7adNA0hE777W7bY8jhqt3qQCfLkZbzTop40MreJxC9ZtaVr7-oPWmFx/s320/darkclouds2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hey look, giants!</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>The giant eagles understand some of the imagery in the shaman's vision, and give directions to the tower of ice that appeared in the dream. PCs head toward Mount Ederglow, help out some dwarves against frost giants (yay GIANTS), and the dwarves show the way. Lots of trudging through snowy mountain passes - you could add quite a few encounters here if you needed to, although maybe the mutant flying polar owlbears are sufficient. Since there are frost giants around and we're in the icy mountains, of course there are remorhaz. It's some kind of rule.</p><p>On the way to the skyfish and Devral's crystalline citadel, there's a nice encounter with spriggans. Gotta love the spriggans, and in this case it's combat with them, then they show up later in short-folk form to try to trick the PCs. Once in the citadel, it's appropriately got some magical traps and puzzles - this ancient wizardess knew what she was doing. There's exposition to be found here about Yesorkh as well, so perhaps the PCs can start to piece together what's going on. The point here is to get powered-up here at the home of Yesorkh's ancient enemy, Devral. PCs are supposed to get control of the skyfish craft (and maybe the glass griffon that's here as well). Time to rendezvous at the birdfolk rally point and prepare to assault the cloud castle.</p><p>You could run the whole battle with minis, and the adventure suggests keeping track using hex paper and the AD&D air combat rules. Bully for you if you do it this way! There's also a simpler version where the castle and assaulters are moving directly toward one another, but either way, you're going to have to track a mess of stuff. The PCs in the skyfish are accompanied by the remaining aarakocra and the giant eagles, the air elemental the birdfolk immediately summon (remember this is AD&D, they can do that because they are not meant to be a PC race) and the baddies have a mess of ba'atun. The individual winged baboons aren't awful - although in a pack they'd be nasty - but each unit has a leader who can shoot ice bolts and webs. I don't want to be five thousand feet above ground using <i>wings of flying</i> and get hit by a <i>web</i> spell, do you? Eventually the baddies send out some manticores as well.</p><p>Those who finally assault the castle itself have more ba'atun to deal with, as well as some hill giants and ogres. The music room in the castle contains a sentient talking harp, for extra cloud giant bonus points. Pursuing big bad Yesorkh (who is possessing the body of the cloud giant, Lachlan) you'll tangle with a pair of <i>hasted</i> verbeeg as well. You can rescue Lachlan's children, which is a good idea. Nasty ba'atun evil priests guarantee there are some undead to mess with here as well. Like a proper BBEG, if Yesorkh can escape, she attempts it.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD_FmD8mode_p83FVpHitIxGkPzKg7asHYwahp0xhMb5zVmwuWKmKplJ1Y9-9nlKlln4AbKLMItzctYvNwwQZghB2t1cyO4lIhOPPkazNddiWcCX6bfl6CuGRUgHT8VtZMBLjAprNkvbHYxXdGZgsVS76fra-wupmEkDBpVkgr913yk4Gsn5QxJ87O/s1636/darkclouds3.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1510" data-original-width="1636" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD_FmD8mode_p83FVpHitIxGkPzKg7asHYwahp0xhMb5zVmwuWKmKplJ1Y9-9nlKlln4AbKLMItzctYvNwwQZghB2t1cyO4lIhOPPkazNddiWcCX6bfl6CuGRUgHT8VtZMBLjAprNkvbHYxXdGZgsVS76fra-wupmEkDBpVkgr913yk4Gsn5QxJ87O/s320/darkclouds3.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ready for a big aerial battle?</td></tr></tbody></table><p>There's a good amount of treasure here, including spellbooks. You can score even more treasure if you managed to drive Yesorkh out of Lachlan without the giant being killed. I imagine if you're a party of mid-to-high level AD&D characters, having a neutral good cloud giant with a flying castle in your debt would be pretty useful. If you're playing AD&D with gold-for-xp and training rules (but I repeat myself), you'll probably be happy at the end of this saga. Except the part where the authors say you can't steal the cloud castle. /sigh</p><p><i>Dark Clouds Gather</i> is pretty great. It's got a sword-and-sorcery vibe for the bad guys, the locations are sufficiently exotic, and the magic feels magical. The least-satisfying bit is the beginning with the villagers, who are generic European types - if you moved this whole thing to the faux-Himalayas you might be better off in that respect. There's a lot of content here, I wouldn't try to run a chunk of <i>Dark Clouds Gather</i> for a con slot or as a one-shot, even if you trimmed it hardcore you'd be missing out. Given the snowy mountain angle you could drop this just about anywhere. The ba'atun make for cool enemies throughout. The tone in <i>Dark Clouds Gather</i> might even lend itself to Dungeon Crawl Classics or Hyperborea.</p><p>If you're running a game that can handle birdfolk as PCs, then this is the right module to run to unlock that option - by the end of it, the aarakocra (this tribe at least) are reduced to almost nil, so you'd have a good reason to add a birdfolk to the party to quest around and look for the other lost bird tribes (or whatever).</p><p><i>Dark Clouds Gather </i>is pretty linear as-written, because it follows the epic storyline. You could tie in some side-stuff to make it feel less linear, or maybe not push the PCs as hard and see what they do. Maybe they don't help the aarakocra, and the ba'atun wipe them out in your campaign; you'll still have Yesorkh flying around as something to deal with.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfgHP4mpTzY8abMF4nWa6AhD-cT9H_mvWTr-eo0sFSw_Z2oZKAjDqDL6vFfIJiqm-Gq3gx0lreocmCvjxJZA_HhTYlMbvfa1dffszqV1s_7ZKMV399Od_xSsXF8sfojE2rfk7H_fimMXyCMdfOdz6aEo7xqO-MCe_qhJKTJq1RFl7BDWE4c4nOYMuJ/s886/baatun.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="886" data-original-width="710" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfgHP4mpTzY8abMF4nWa6AhD-cT9H_mvWTr-eo0sFSw_Z2oZKAjDqDL6vFfIJiqm-Gq3gx0lreocmCvjxJZA_HhTYlMbvfa1dffszqV1s_7ZKMV399Od_xSsXF8sfojE2rfk7H_fimMXyCMdfOdz6aEo7xqO-MCe_qhJKTJq1RFl7BDWE4c4nOYMuJ/s320/baatun.png" width="256" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dark Clouds Gather</i> has nice illustrations throughout, including most NPCs.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-42635368673988772432022-07-26T02:00:00.119-04:002022-07-26T02:00:00.203-04:00#JULYGANTIC: A Dearth of Fire Giants<p> I didn't play or run any of Season Three of D&D Adventurers League, but I know there was a bit with fire giants, so I grabbed those episodes and got to reading. Same goal as before - is there anything here worth stealing?</p><p>The gimmick in Season Three - "Rage of Demons" - is tied to the Out of the Abyss hardback adventure, in which demon lords show up and throw the Underdark into disarray. The backstory on the episodes we care about here is that fire giants from the subterranean city of Maerimydra have pushed into, and taken over, the drow outpost of Szith Morcane. Now I don't know about you, but while I often think of fire giants as having halls under mountains, I guess I didn't really think about them as Underdark types, so now I'm thinking an entire subterranean fire giant city is kind of a badass idea. Naturally the juxtaposition of drow and fire giants puts us in mind of <i>Against the Giants</i>, if we are so inclined...</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWIc5-hz4ulg8crPB4SnlUug67Nqvs6p7IOQBKkfL8RyZtePU9L5UaVBuc7haNY6aElTMXH9Z3o5fOHTMQsZ7p9JiUOWbOp4QhTPJ81q3RfclqWK5vpVQ9XCcLnfLoZDSfc_-PVNeouqzz7s9S9KpuxyIF4jfDGP4aIgcvbPjl_vPML8SSyxZW2-x6/s524/firegiant.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="492" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWIc5-hz4ulg8crPB4SnlUug67Nqvs6p7IOQBKkfL8RyZtePU9L5UaVBuc7haNY6aElTMXH9Z3o5fOHTMQsZ7p9JiUOWbOp4QhTPJ81q3RfclqWK5vpVQ9XCcLnfLoZDSfc_-PVNeouqzz7s9S9KpuxyIF4jfDGP4aIgcvbPjl_vPML8SSyxZW2-x6/s320/firegiant.png" width="300" /></i></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Grrr I'm nowhere to be found in these adventures about Fire Giants!" <br />- Argath The Slight Exaggerator</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p>DDEX03-03 <b>THE OCCUPATION OF SZITH MORCANE</b> (Tier Two)</p><p>There is <i>so much</i> exposition. See, a faction of death-worshipping drow, led by an archmage and a half-fiend, overthrew the Lolth-worshippers in Maerimydra. However, since then, that faction had its ass kicked by a group of fire giants led by the original half-fiend's kid, a six-fingered type called Hledh. Hledh is a descendant of Graz'zt, a famous demon lord who is now walking around the Underdark beneath Hillsfar thanks to the setup of <i>Out of the Abyss</i>. The eponymous Szith Morcane is a distant outpost of Maerimydra, and now that the fire giant stuff is going on, a mess of drow refugees from that city are swelling Szith Morcane, but with the fire giants constantly attacking, the only place to flee now is through a recently-opened sinkhole to the surface. /deep breath I'm confused, are the PCs going to be asked to help the drow death-cultists? I know drow are a standard playable thing in 5e, but death-cultists?</p><p>The story starts when, on the road, the PCs come across a famous bard who has just survived a drow attack and captured one of them. The PCs go with her to Elventree and get some exposition. Meet several NPCs. Finally exposition about the drow outpost and the fire giants. There's a wrestling match to convince one of the NPCs that the PCs can handle the mission of going down to Szith Morcane. We're several scenes into the adventure at this point and the PCs haven't done much. Why couldn't they be the ones to fight the drow and capture one? Why the NPC theatre?</p><p>The heroes go to The Waydown, a sinkhole that leads to the underdark, and talk to more NPCs. All the NPCs have names and you'd better remember them because I bet they turn up again whether you want them to or not. Finally the PCs descend into the hole. We're six pages into the adventure proper and the PCs haven't seen any action except the solo wrestling contest, unless of course they elected to jump that bard in the road in the first place.</p><p>You head down an underground river, fight some kuo-toa, then come upon derro hunting myconids. If you rescue the myconids, they are friendly and can take you to their mind flayer buddy who knows where there's a portal to get to Szith Morcane easily. This bit probably plays best if the myconids neglect to mention that their friend Huum is an illithid, but regardless, he's a "I'll help you for a price" type and can get you to the portal.</p><p>Finally you get to Szith Morcane to find that the drow outpost has been absolutely rocked by fire giants, demons, and their drow and quaggoth slaves. The best way to climb across the initial chasm is by carefully walking an enormous spiderweb -- this is a neat scene and worth replicating. We see the leg of the immense spider, but it doesn't attack for some reason. Guess it's a cutscene.</p><p>Within Szith Morcane, there are drow prisoners to free, demon-led patrols to deal with, and of course drow and demons to fight. Oh man, there's only a single fire giant here, with some drow buddies, to interrogate the drow wizard. One giant? I feel suckered.</p><p>This scenario is like an Underdark Greatest Hits thing, with drow and kuo-toa and some quaggoth and duergar in there...oh, and myconids... but it's a mess.</p><p><br /></p><p>DDEX03-15 <b>SZITH MORCANE UNBOUND</b> (Tier Two)</p><p>In this scenario the heroes try to retake the outpost of Szith Morcane (there are intervening adventures all about gathering more Underdark allies like the myconids). The adventure starts out with some wilderness (underdark) encounter options and interesting terrain features to use. When the PCs get to Szith Morcane, they cross over on the web pathways again. The outpost is guarded by azer and hellhounds as you make your way toward Dengor, the fire giant commander.</p><p>The next chapter gives information on the enemy forces and how to run chunks of it, using the PCs' allies to assist without overshining the party. Actual numbers of foes that can be whittled down - this seems to be a lot more improvisation allowed than I'm accustomed to in a DDAL scenario. Optional scenes are detailed for contacting the drow resistance and some stone giants, and bringing them to your side. The authors provide lots of optional encounters - azer, drow, etc., even a bronze/shadow dragon that might be convinced to assist your cause. Having the dragon means the dragon fights and kills the behir that's coming up, so you don't have to. I suppose this could all feel appropriately cinematic if you ran it right and your group was amenable, but handing the PCs a dragon they've just met will never feel like a great payoff - you're better off actually meeting the dragon several adventures ago.</p><p>When you actually run the attack on Szith Morcane, it's all about drow and azer and hellhounds, then some fire giants, including Dengor, who has some cleric abilities. Oh, and salamanders, of course. There are also helmed horrors, because at this stage in 5e everybody had some and DDAL isn't allowed to invent monsters. There's a cool flaming warhammer to grab -- but it loses its enchantment after a couple hours. Come on, DDAL.</p><p><br /></p><p>Two other adventures in this Season ostensibly deal with Maerimydra - 03-04 <i>It's All In The Blood</i> and the double-sized 03-15 <i>Assault on Maerimydra</i>. In both cases, the only fire giants who appear are fiend-blooded and of minor consequence to the plot; this Season is about demons. You're not going to find giant content here to steal.</p><p>In fact, there isn't much giant content in the two Szith Morcane adventures, either, unless we're counting the azer and salamanders. And because they've taken over a drow outpost, while there's a spider-shaped room, there's nothing particularly 'fire giant' going on there to steal for your home-made fire giant demense. Shame, that.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-80313469163826532522022-07-25T06:54:00.000-04:002022-07-25T06:54:36.782-04:00#JULYGANTIC Giantslayer<p> Pathfinder has a giant-focused Adventure Path called Giantslayer. Let's take a look.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GFtxEkq0WizyYrpe3hlndvvNMLJUpArs8OnWpiVT2_YCNzRU3mJn8A0lUdCik_e03QEnbNl8ZkrGL9l-RuibJT6MCdI8T9knZfl7crzWic5QkGkB-nZ1zGMxuKq35na3oQMcqacxvGkYwecsIkPIp6n3OkF-l43jfI9hMoq-i6DDAr8ldwa7fbOa/s1504/pfgiants4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="964" data-original-width="1504" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GFtxEkq0WizyYrpe3hlndvvNMLJUpArs8OnWpiVT2_YCNzRU3mJn8A0lUdCik_e03QEnbNl8ZkrGL9l-RuibJT6MCdI8T9knZfl7crzWic5QkGkB-nZ1zGMxuKq35na3oQMcqacxvGkYwecsIkPIp6n3OkF-l43jfI9hMoq-i6DDAr8ldwa7fbOa/s320/pfgiants4.png" width="320" /></i></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Pathfinder chapter headings sell adventure and peril better than WotC covers. Pure facts.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>BATTLE of BLOODMARCH HILL</b></p><p>In the town of Trunau, the PCs start out investigating a murder, but soon find that there are orcs looking for a giant's tomb. The town is situated in human lands near orc lands, so there are plenty of half-orc citizens of the town, and the adventure plays on this tension. Eventually the hill giant chieftain Grenseldek leads her orcs in a siege of the town. The siege includes a subsystem whereby PCs gain "resolve points" which help determine the larger fate of the town based on the PC actions. At the end of the siege, the PCs face Crusher, the cave giant ally of the orcish horde. CRUSHER KNOWS ONLY PAIN. </p><p>The orcs seek, and have located during the siege, the subterranean tomb of an old hill giant hero. That's the goal - to get in there. So of course the PCs chase 'em in! Obviously things are timed such that you don't catch up to the orcs until the final chamber, duh. Within the tomb the PCs will find half of a map to a great giantslayer's tomb, and some pretty badass armor relative to the level of the PCs.</p><p>Minimal actual giant content in the adventure part of this one, which is understandable given the level range. There are of course lore details about giants in Golarion, some feats and spells.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjOq_fnYK0UT_PJw8txkSLJyT8WBBO_IoHxCJXmD_6i31fzUdcYj_KeLIT3PxuXlSDB0_vXChP6TmhbQbRynm9XyrarzPLP7byjmnNnpunQNpN9gITTQh8tWCrY2ogdu9nwl3W3hfcAOe3GuqG2z2cI14rdlBSis-hCjgjhYegyMk586L3ZwrLkCt5/s1506/pfgiants.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="952" data-original-width="1506" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjOq_fnYK0UT_PJw8txkSLJyT8WBBO_IoHxCJXmD_6i31fzUdcYj_KeLIT3PxuXlSDB0_vXChP6TmhbQbRynm9XyrarzPLP7byjmnNnpunQNpN9gITTQh8tWCrY2ogdu9nwl3W3hfcAOe3GuqG2z2cI14rdlBSis-hCjgjhYegyMk586L3ZwrLkCt5/s320/pfgiants.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>THE HILL GIANT'S PLEDGE</b></p><p>In part two, the PCs head up the river to the marsh to find the rest of the orc/giant problem. There are some interesting river encounters herein, and more of the "good orcs and bad orcs" theme. Finally you arrive at the Ghostlight Marsh (and be aware, marsh giants are the next step in the PF giant CR ladder). So there's a marsh giant, ogres, more orcs, and some swamp hazards, before attacking/infiltrating the orcish fortress. The place is crawling with orcs and a couple giants, and the chapel has a good-guy ghost of a cleric in it, which is probably a nice break from all the orcs.</p><p>So it turns out that Grenseldek, the leader of this band of hill giants, ogres, and orcs, has attempted to offer her hand in matrimony to a storm giant (more about him later in the AP, surely). Grenseldek has assembled a mighty dowry of treasure here, but her bid to be queen has been cruelly rebuffed by the storm tyrant, who is of course far above her station. Defeating Grenseldek not only protects the town of Trunau, but gets the PCs the other half of the map to the giantslayer's tomb. And knowledge that this storm giant tyrant guy is out there, of course.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi5mo15se3xFnAles2lwO5FVWPy5TmnKotEmU72CF0eWCh8so5ATmAOH6s7drXMfcjREYPIenZdKNMySPkUNf_tvQA9RMWkVSU2wqNhmh1gQDVmF0hDCu6TcYKZlCikQMc1pKZBGQ1mD6S-PlVBnwVzcmWEvhK9T2w5yhdDOquPd5Da9N4dGgmw8Z1/s1182/pfgiants2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1182" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi5mo15se3xFnAles2lwO5FVWPy5TmnKotEmU72CF0eWCh8so5ATmAOH6s7drXMfcjREYPIenZdKNMySPkUNf_tvQA9RMWkVSU2wqNhmh1gQDVmF0hDCu6TcYKZlCikQMc1pKZBGQ1mD6S-PlVBnwVzcmWEvhK9T2w5yhdDOquPd5Da9N4dGgmw8Z1/s320/pfgiants2.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>FORGE OF THE GIANT GOD</b></p><p>Volstus the Storm Tyrant is gathering an army in a hidden valley in the Mindspin Mountains. But nearer to Trunau is the dwarf giantslayer tomb, which probably contains special steel that won the last war against the giants. Obviously we need to use our map and go there!</p><p>The small tomb itself is occupied by some rather nasty ettercaps, including the corrupted dwarf/ettercap monstrosity "Stilgrit, the Mother of Spiders", who is as gross as you'd expect. This map and encounters might be worth stealing just as a brilliant ettercap lair. The tomb-proper also features the accursed murderer who killed the giantslayer in the first place, and a couple interesting magic items.</p><p>When the PCs get to the valley, there are lots of little places to explore and encounters, including both the non-giant (perytons! leucrotta!) and the giant (hill giants, some giant wights). Since the valley was once home to a giant civilization, it is littered with ruined shrines and the like. Eventually they get to the end of the valley with the Cathedral where all the giants are gathering. Sneaking past all the encamped ogres, ettins, and giants will be a challenge, but once you've done so, you can get into the Cathedral itself, deal with its guardians, and confront the stone giant Urathash, who's in charge here. Oh, and Urathash has a dragon.</p><p>The gimmick here is that once PCs have access to the forge in the cathedral, they can return here to use the forge's magic powers - one of which is, in conjunction with the magic hammer from the first book, to resize giant-sized arms and armor, even magical ones. Like that nasty weapon the boss of the next module used? Bring it here and shrink it so your barbarian can use it. It's a neat idea - one that would play out more in a less story-driven campaign I suspect. How often do we expect PCs to come back here?</p><p>The bestiary in this one has some neat stuff, like mongrel giants (ie giants of one type with some ancestry of another), and the living cave painting, which sounds very cool and maybe now that I've said it you don't actually need stats for it. The page of mongrel giant variants is worth looking at to spice up your <i>Storm King's Thunder</i> or <i>Against the Giants</i>.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMWIeXSc1cp5KrqVOAXR_ITzxylGM4oE0a9RHTSvWQKcreUmrgEuMLBeA3Y_VC6YuGKyThzCPX-7tePw1ba4OBGlAp5m0ia67hIOAmURCoytHgWPwo7J7rZH9obmjb2vaby73vq7qQyJCbWg1JUFo-RkUMNRcBCtwE7sKL_DH7t7t8ZEyDBfDmTUa8/s1314/pfgiants3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="850" data-original-width="1314" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMWIeXSc1cp5KrqVOAXR_ITzxylGM4oE0a9RHTSvWQKcreUmrgEuMLBeA3Y_VC6YuGKyThzCPX-7tePw1ba4OBGlAp5m0ia67hIOAmURCoytHgWPwo7J7rZH9obmjb2vaby73vq7qQyJCbWg1JUFo-RkUMNRcBCtwE7sKL_DH7t7t8ZEyDBfDmTUa8/s320/pfgiants3.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Cyclops eyebeam goes pew pew</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>ICE TOMB OF THE GIANT QUEEN</b></p><p>Undead frost giant queen. There's your hook. Skirkatla is one of the Storm Tyrant's lieutenants, and this adventure is her chance to shine - and maybe betray the Tyrant.</p><p>The PCs head to the frost giant village and their job there is to disperse the forces by means of sabotage, not direct combat. Pathfinder being Pathfinder, we now have some mechanics for earning Sabotage Points (which are good, and undermine the giant army) but also Outrage Points, which are bad because it means you're convincing the giants they're under direct attack. The higher the Outrage meter goes, the more vigilant and trigger-happy the giants get, increasing patrols and scouts, adding wicked undead stuff to night patrols, and so forth. It's a conceit, but an interesting one, and I wonder how well it works in play. It reminds me of the Chaos index in <i>Hill Cantons</i> material.</p><p>We get a map and description of an entire frost giant town and its inhabitants (possibly worth stealing); what the PCs do next is up to them. This is one of those setups when you wonder what a stealth-heavy party would do with it - sneaking invisibly into the meadhall, that sort of thing. Plenty of giants (not just frost) and other things to tangle with here, including an immense wickerman. If the heroes are successful in getting enough giants to abandon the village, they'll have access to Skirkatla's Crypt.</p><p>The crypt is a decent-sized one-level dungeon! What's in here? Some frost giants, sure, but also some nasty necromantic creations - an icy mammoth and a huge centauroid headless horseman among them. Ghosts, undead frost giants -- this is reminding me of <i>Crypt of the Death Giants</i>. Push through the whole thing and defeat Skirkatla and her tomb giant minions, and you walk out with some nice treasure and a map to the fire giants. Tradition!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV_wDQ5K5J0w35UAuaKrSGio-mlKKVw-GX83OruLNahlhXO-ss9IttRqU0DkcL5WDtGvWzohZvcbAc_Xgf2r9AkndWKapgQYxGj-dqKT1C4zN5_tPhwk-5KYUKS9SswWhqhnsSXNXtImRcQN4LTL5_l_-tyOupGgjdRZ2DaLEgA4maPOweRDiuki2l/s1370/pfgiants5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="1370" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV_wDQ5K5J0w35UAuaKrSGio-mlKKVw-GX83OruLNahlhXO-ss9IttRqU0DkcL5WDtGvWzohZvcbAc_Xgf2r9AkndWKapgQYxGj-dqKT1C4zN5_tPhwk-5KYUKS9SswWhqhnsSXNXtImRcQN4LTL5_l_-tyOupGgjdRZ2DaLEgA4maPOweRDiuki2l/s320/pfgiants5.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>ANVIL OF FIRE</b></p><p>Speaking of tradition, the fire giants are in a subterranean complex beneath a volcanic caldera. Plenty of giants and trolls, and thank goodness there's an otyugh in the midden. Hellhounds, of course.</p><p>Ashpeak is a training-grounds for fire giants (and now other giants). They have a magic rod that builds walls so the giants can practice knocking them down, and if that isn't a PF/3.x solution to a problem, then I don't know what is. The concept of having mock castles and keeps for the giants to train against is intriguing, but it doesn't seem to result in a really interesting scenario here. Plenty of traps, though.</p><p>The upper levels have the forge/smeltworks you'd expect in a fire giant lair, plus the inevitable salamanders (there you are, Perry!). Then there's the red dragon rookery...yikes. If you make it past here, you enter the levels containing the King and Queen, and it's still a rough go up here. </p><p>When you defeat the fire giants, you learn that the Storm Tyrant's flying castle is moored above the volcano. The adventure says you don't have any downtime between this adventure and the next, but you do have time to run back to the Cathedral to shrink some weapons if you're quick about it (?).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtcSyYQ1v3Cizg9sQr_loDE1ki5NdRB9u_RdFNAOLe1aUQwi320USv3TzhIAiR6gNANxsQFb8aiDxR-1sObQUJ4sHF7xUaJt9NozeElScmlvM2TyDm3DjRdY5wT0YeswV4epBYwXijPGKZ-iSQ1Yo2JNHRfWfB7cZprHnpykiOa5Vavn8y7d9q8iNV/s1526/pfgiants6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="798" data-original-width="1526" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtcSyYQ1v3Cizg9sQr_loDE1ki5NdRB9u_RdFNAOLe1aUQwi320USv3TzhIAiR6gNANxsQFb8aiDxR-1sObQUJ4sHF7xUaJt9NozeElScmlvM2TyDm3DjRdY5wT0YeswV4epBYwXijPGKZ-iSQ1Yo2JNHRfWfB7cZprHnpykiOa5Vavn8y7d9q8iNV/s320/pfgiants6.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>SHADOW OF THE STORM GIANT</b></p><p>Volstus the Storm Tyrant has a flying castle and an orb of red dragonkind. You can imagine where this is going. The PCs have to cross the top of the caldera and penetrate the force field around the castle, and the giants know they're coming. Just getting to the castle will require dealing with some ash giants, giant scorpions, and a giant who throws alchemical bombs.</p><p>Ironcloud Keep is big, and well-defended. In addition to giants, trolls, magical beasties, and the like, there are traps - some crazy ones. A 15th-level orc general. Weird stuff. Over fifty rooms of this. That's not a complaint, this is a huge dungeon. This will take a while. There are all sorts of evil ambassadors for variety. Oozes. More weird stuff. An old red dragon. And, finally, Volstus the Storm Tyrant. These last battles will go easier for you if you made friends with the dragon two adventures back.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBbKOJs4HETY1YB4tEZZYMljb9LxDBIprjNmQtRjRD-H9nqK0xl04F0CrS4mhU4c5pMf0QIMoVWIIoAEcTTRiiAw59iN0xaDlPZXeKMZc25ff4WJk7VsbyNxpZRjn1Cu7mkpKEQzpWWVmELe25kF8W4wkT8qHkdyb81X1ghoc2HH8ypO7OJi2iAC1H/s1476/pfgiants7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="924" data-original-width="1476" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBbKOJs4HETY1YB4tEZZYMljb9LxDBIprjNmQtRjRD-H9nqK0xl04F0CrS4mhU4c5pMf0QIMoVWIIoAEcTTRiiAw59iN0xaDlPZXeKMZc25ff4WJk7VsbyNxpZRjn1Cu7mkpKEQzpWWVmELe25kF8W4wkT8qHkdyb81X1ghoc2HH8ypO7OJi2iAC1H/s320/pfgiants7.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>IN SUMMARY</b></p><p>Writing an homage to <i>Against the Giants</i> isn't easy. You have the giant ladder to play with, and certain things you have to throw in there, but you need to do it in a way that feels fresh. Both SKT and Giantslayer took a shot at it, with mixed results in both. That's the nature of it.</p><p>Luckily, we thieves and cannibals can steal from one to supplement the other, or weld them both into an unholy ettin of fun. There are encounters and lairs in Giantslayer worth stealing for your game, and perhaps less metaplot to excise while you're doing it relative to SKT. However, if you're adapting this for non-PF, you're going to miss out on some of the nice PF mechanical cleverness (much of which I'm sure I don't appreciate in reading through these).</p><p>If you're only going to pick up one of these to steal from, go with <i>Forge of the Giant God</i> or <i>Ice Tomb of the Giant Queen</i>. There's more stealable stuff per page in these two, and Forge in particular is low enough level that you're more likely to get a chance to run it.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-80743936198229804722022-07-24T06:43:00.000-04:002022-07-24T06:43:56.879-04:00#JULYGANTIC: Colossus, Arise!<p><i> Colossus, Arise</i> is a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure by Harley Stroh. It's ostensibly for Level 8 DCC characters, which might mean something like level 15ish AD&D characters or the equivalent. It's a suitably high-level jam. Let's read!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnv_pkUfkdWC3zJKurxyvVpMC07VFfqdDhiqq6loe2PNq4_0nAfzLc3N4spx5ECUGD9o1yqOoZ71ugTmTyItbWj45qI7zSGpugFDiTEdYZEvM5Wlla2cgLQrcT566SgKEjpdaZutbKxBgSX5Fg0T3DnI8xlTOLXognRpME20SWONEDAm2v61WX3iqW/s696/colossus4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="696" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnv_pkUfkdWC3zJKurxyvVpMC07VFfqdDhiqq6loe2PNq4_0nAfzLc3N4spx5ECUGD9o1yqOoZ71ugTmTyItbWj45qI7zSGpugFDiTEdYZEvM5Wlla2cgLQrcT566SgKEjpdaZutbKxBgSX5Fg0T3DnI8xlTOLXognRpME20SWONEDAm2v61WX3iqW/s320/colossus4.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>Short exposition: the temple-city of Stylos, long-buried and home to some giant post-Atlantean types called the Ur-Lireans, is back. The Ur-Lireans want to conquer, destroy, and bring about the Fourth Age of Man (pssst, that means you Third Age types need to die). To do this, they're going to raise up an army of uplifted giant half-breeds (the Sons of the Second Age), let them purge the world so the titans can return, and in the mix is the fact that the baddies' HQ sits atop the corpse of the gigantic chaos champion Cadixtat, the eponymous Colossus, who was put down by titans in a previous age. Got that? Evil giant Atlanteans, half-giants, Colossus.</p><p>The adventure starts with some reasons the PCs might care about what's going on, and notes that we're presuming the Ur-Lireans have been active for a bit, so all the random wilderness encounters around Stylos will be themed to this adventure at this point. I'll point out that all of this Ur-Lirean and Cadixtat stuff will pay off far better if you seed it in the campaign earlier - but you already know that. Colossus, Arise isn't one of those DCC modules that lends itself to being run, trimmed and fast-paced in a con slot.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEithB47ZuXrm22-v2Uccm4MSv64M5qYi8jgwreqhDJNm-QgztvxWUeE4yrLiBsNnGFxOkINB85mAsRpYnbvWWKhpzrWBmb1YCCA_daI1LhL4l8gaSF7VmYYgCIJqyZDLpuk1WljUKH1WCyqtiecdt1uDuyCBq5HpXzkmJOuehj2vum-M0fXxDYI3OhW/s1284/colossus.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1144" data-original-width="1284" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEithB47ZuXrm22-v2Uccm4MSv64M5qYi8jgwreqhDJNm-QgztvxWUeE4yrLiBsNnGFxOkINB85mAsRpYnbvWWKhpzrWBmb1YCCA_daI1LhL4l8gaSF7VmYYgCIJqyZDLpuk1WljUKH1WCyqtiecdt1uDuyCBq5HpXzkmJOuehj2vum-M0fXxDYI3OhW/s320/colossus.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>The ruins of the city of Stylos are crawling with Sons of the Second Age, but the only building really standing is the baddie HQ, the House of Cadixtat. We're given a random table but not much more on the ruins themselves - you may want to use something here to plus-up the ruins if you think your group is going to want to really skulk about them. But of course if they're mission-oriented, they're going to want to immediately sneak to the House of Cadixtat. The only Sons allowed inside HQ are Master Goat and his seven animal-themed pals, but they each get a cool bestial helmet; unfortunately they're all identical dudes other than the Master. I figure some players will expect the guy in the wolf helmet to fight differently than the guy in the hawk helmet, and so forth - might be worth jotting down some notes on ways to implement that during the fight. The dude in the bull helmet should absolutely charge the PCs.</p><p>The encounters in the House all have "play value" in the sense that there's something special going on. Here, the guys chained to the walls have a chance of busting out each round and changing the combat entirely; there, we have some prayer beads that grant a vision (complete with a handout). Drink the wrong thing, fall asleep for a century. DCC modules are often very good at giving you these toys to help create memorable moments at the table. One of the big things here is an Ur-Lirean metal that has antimagic properties - surely your team's wizard will want to mess with that...</p><p>Level two is where things get weirder. First of all, the veil between life and death is thin here, so there's a neat mechanic whereby the ghosts of dead PCs, henchmen, and so forth might show up to offer a warning. Again, this module demands regular campaign play, not a one-shot. PCs can tangle with a prophetess enshrouded in magical flames, and then there's the hel-ooze, which is the cerebral fluid of the dead-not-quite-dead colossus. There's an ossuary with some nasty runes, and a secret door that you'll probably find (but what if you don't?). </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGogYmJ0LtdPdzDEB48vYdudIAxMODreeW8x0I-NH6JZ_P2xqXQNl0YOFDTKBa3pPCF-HoYr93A_tklrJ7uKY5N7gaARNNUkZU3-nFEBpUKSiiE7TKJrAiwXZS2MKLnKva6pOGYVZ9FA5x9G9v8vVgk0f3F43Fcu-WXOMjS8rZKrbH3lCUy8ldZKT2/s1168/colossus3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1120" data-original-width="1168" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGogYmJ0LtdPdzDEB48vYdudIAxMODreeW8x0I-NH6JZ_P2xqXQNl0YOFDTKBa3pPCF-HoYr93A_tklrJ7uKY5N7gaARNNUkZU3-nFEBpUKSiiE7TKJrAiwXZS2MKLnKva6pOGYVZ9FA5x9G9v8vVgk0f3F43Fcu-WXOMjS8rZKrbH3lCUy8ldZKT2/s320/colossus3.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>The Ur-Lireans are busting open Cadixtat's canopic jars and using his bodily fluids for foul purposes, and thankfully we have a whole sidebar on what happens if PCs drink those fluids. And there's plenty of this hel-ooze around, including in the room where the army of Fourth Men are waiting to hatch from eggs. Lots of weird sword-and-sorcery imagery in this one, and a lot of Law versus Chaos stuff that permeates many of the DCC modules. The lead Ur-Lirean, the Handmaiden, is performing the ceremony that will end the Third Age, awaken Cadixtat the Colossus, and so forth - can the PCs stop her in time? You're going to hope they can't because dealing with the Colossus is the payoff here.</p><p>The first important bit is fighting off the colossal brain and the living hel-ooze. Once this is taken care of, the PCs might think they've won, but unfortunately there's still the body. Undead, headless titan corpse, anyone? Without the controlling force of his brain, the resurrected Cadixtat proceeds to attack everything in sight (well, not in sight - you know what I mean). There's a table for it and everything! A couple possible ways to kill this horrible thing are suggested, but PC ingenuity might find an even better way.</p><p><i>Colossus Arise</i> is a good DCC adventure by several measures - it uses the themes common to that line (including Law vs Chaos, corruption, and obvious weird tale inspiration), it has "toys" throughout that encourage lethal experimentation and/or thoughtful play, and it's pretty linear. In a sense it's a good high-level bookend to <i>Sailors on the Starless Sea</i>. It would definitely be fun to run or play, but absolutely will benefit from being used as the high-level capstone to an ongoing campaign.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS6uCzaSTNyzq557uFBLMJvwUEpszFAAnWW5vOGkI3YYzcrCK66EC-YtOW72yy_aZkwRRooabOFj0f0ug1Q2AtLVXW9rV6ZaQO65m-5E_fq8B7wlMwILY9R8Zml33AeCwxXz9oyxyddP1nYftm0zpEQjKbdvxx3ZJ-d5j0KH3T7zA8XgRWCvMCsdka/s946/colossus2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="742" data-original-width="946" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS6uCzaSTNyzq557uFBLMJvwUEpszFAAnWW5vOGkI3YYzcrCK66EC-YtOW72yy_aZkwRRooabOFj0f0ug1Q2AtLVXW9rV6ZaQO65m-5E_fq8B7wlMwILY9R8Zml33AeCwxXz9oyxyddP1nYftm0zpEQjKbdvxx3ZJ-d5j0KH3T7zA8XgRWCvMCsdka/s320/colossus2.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-69025617827974413542022-07-23T07:07:00.000-04:002022-07-23T07:07:00.605-04:00#JULYGANTIC: Broodmother Skyfortress <p> <i>Broodmother Skyfortress</i> was celebrated on release because everybody liked Jeff Rients and his blog (fair enough). Unfortunately, I don't think it's much of an adventure (here comes the hate mail, and I could use the clicks I guess). </p><p>Let's read!</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdPcsYq4cxhL-ompgnfxcgC5SPzLcZSwzE2BLRv1g4aXFXfxVaWo-JwsAbn3lks_-XYrofCcEOeQ4_D_fzFWWAmE8wVwjUtDpN9lv38ruugPttcmQ9xr-AXgDJarMbmX5XtFVQGb-NYBcj-9e7VjNC1cn78NR3_gGGWHuraDjnpcTSIULRW49nulEO/s1078/brood2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="970" data-original-width="1078" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdPcsYq4cxhL-ompgnfxcgC5SPzLcZSwzE2BLRv1g4aXFXfxVaWo-JwsAbn3lks_-XYrofCcEOeQ4_D_fzFWWAmE8wVwjUtDpN9lv38ruugPttcmQ9xr-AXgDJarMbmX5XtFVQGb-NYBcj-9e7VjNC1cn78NR3_gGGWHuraDjnpcTSIULRW49nulEO/s320/brood2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SHARKATAURS!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>SPOILERS FOLLOW</b></p><p>1. <i>Broodmother Skyfortress</i> is two things - a collection of Jeff's blogposts (which we won't address here), and an adventure outline involving unleashing some destructive sky-giants upon your precious campaign world. I think, in form, the adventure is more like a stream-of-consciousness discussion masquerading as an adventure outline. Whether that floats your boat may vary. If this content had been released in 2020 instead of 2016, it would've been a series of YouTube videos.</p><p>2. The concept of the adventure is that a castle full of giants floats into the region, and the giants start tearing things up. Great! Only these are space giants of the shark-centaur variety rather than folklore giants. BECAUSE GONZO. If you aren't ready to add sharkspace elephagiants to your campaign world, get your snowflake head out of your ass, this is LotFP and you should be ready to destroy your campaign at the drop of a hat. So you can buy another LotFP adventure and destroy the next campaign! Also please note that, other than the potential to change the face of your game world, this adventure is tonally different than the "standard" alt-Europe LotFP adventure. If you chase <i>Better Than Any Man</i> with this thing, either your players are going to get whiplash or you aren't making <i>Broodmother</i> sufficiently wahoo.</p><p>3. The seven "giants" that live in the skyfortress are absolutely massive and require some dedicated, if simple, rules. Each has a personality etc. Rients includes some optional rules tweaks suitable for making any giant (even non-shark ones) scarier. The tone throughout these descriptions is conversational, which means the book is NOT the pinnacle of the faboo-fashionable "information presentation" OSR subculture - not by a long shot. Those people will still love this book, though, because Rients. I do like the individual giants - they have gimmicks and designators rather than names, as if they were named by the obsessive fans of <i>Broodmother Skyfortress</i> (Cannon, 1983) who have seen the film a thousand times on laserdisc and own the 'making of' book that came out in Japan.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbcMhCP-2B9LMqIOfl3ki1c2wfF6ETdZdR4f25CxYn5qKBkaWfKJNB-9CkeXNezY0YP9H_0y-rzo49Bz8zaVQSezLeyTUQOwdd1AbcXShSyoCe0OPD0VngdKSyTy8oXeJz6JPKvkno3xT8v7SOyeUVplmXK06DqQcDi4cBLenFdmuDGuTl8XFfGl3O/s932/brood.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="212" data-original-width="932" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbcMhCP-2B9LMqIOfl3ki1c2wfF6ETdZdR4f25CxYn5qKBkaWfKJNB-9CkeXNezY0YP9H_0y-rzo49Bz8zaVQSezLeyTUQOwdd1AbcXShSyoCe0OPD0VngdKSyTy8oXeJz6JPKvkno3xT8v7SOyeUVplmXK06DqQcDi4cBLenFdmuDGuTl8XFfGl3O/w601-h137/brood.png" width="601" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I guess Rients' audience here is...who exactly? New-schoolers?</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>4. The art in here is good, but many of the pictures that aren't of the shark-giant adventure seem to be of Rients in various wizardly poses. I'm sorry, but that's weird. Did Jeff get to keep all the originals on those? Was that in the contract? I'm all for not taking ourselves seriously (are you new here?) but this gag isn't doing it for me. There is a TON of art in this book; the Kirby-homage stuff is my favorite of course.</p><p>5. Random tables to determine the sky-giants' origin and what that means in the context of dealing with them. Fine, although I'm not convinced this does anything for replayability of the module, it's just randomization for the heck of it. Rients is trying to get the reader/GM to think about certain questions, and the cascade effects of the choices they make. </p><p>6. The next section is event tables and wandering encounters for the Skyfortress. As PCs explore the skyfortress, engaging (or avoiding!) the giants, they'll learn a few things about its origin. The maps are nice, although I wish they were in the encounter section instead of at the back. I also kinda wish there were a black-and-white version of the maps in the pdf for printing (I know, that's crazy talk, who's going to actually run this?)</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7q6Va7n7HWwSEhaRSv2o3eYz4ZyxfhURkot6e2AghDhzFLN3Y7kpBFfdPEdjJbF8ApTj9cPOspyAcLnNL18NMdcOzxI1gPzKbEB_Ks1dJsLEAUUtqjRa9LLnM4-N3_mvKy2lvYTGHtgpGIEqaZ5IxyGyumggd8dridJoIEJTOUg3fQF_C7nKw9B54/s972/brood3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="972" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7q6Va7n7HWwSEhaRSv2o3eYz4ZyxfhURkot6e2AghDhzFLN3Y7kpBFfdPEdjJbF8ApTj9cPOspyAcLnNL18NMdcOzxI1gPzKbEB_Ks1dJsLEAUUtqjRa9LLnM4-N3_mvKy2lvYTGHtgpGIEqaZ5IxyGyumggd8dridJoIEJTOUg3fQF_C7nKw9B54/w497-h160/brood3.png" width="497" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Whether this is true or not it still sounds like why-even-try excuse-making.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b></p><p>I'm going to poke around and see if I can find a review of <i>Broodmother Skyfortress</i> from someone who actually ran it as an adventure, rather than shout COOL! at the first half and then actually give the second half (the blog reprints) a close reading.</p><p><i>Broodmother Skyfortress</i> is a chain of thought-experiments showing how Jeff Rients would come up with a gonzo, world-changing adventure (with maximum Kirby dots). As an adventure outline, it does its job minimally - which is a bug or a feature depending on what you're looking for. I think it's a stunningly long book for as anemic as the adventure itself is. Rients' voice comes through in the writing, which is great for an advice column, maybe less so for an actual adventure. <i>Broodmother Skyfortress</i> is an advice column (or YouTube series) masquerading as an adventure.</p><p>"You can't criticize it like it's an adventure, it's more/different than that" Nope, you can keep that nonsense to yourself. The book advertises itself as an adventure. Take it up with Raggi.</p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-73561376116786547782022-07-22T03:00:00.117-04:002022-07-22T03:00:00.209-04:00#JULYGANTIC A Mighty Miscellany<p> If you hop over to DriveThru, there's a lot of giant-related content available. Lists, stock art, battlemaps, and of course adventures. I've selected a few to look at here; being a sucker for cloud giants, it's mostly cloud giant stuff. Are all published cloud giant flying-castles basically the same? It turns out...pretty much yes.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>MONSTROUS LAIR #57: CLOUD GIANT'S CASTLE</b></p><p>Raging Swan Press has a whole series of these supplements with different themes; obviously I chose the cloud giant one as a representative sample. The intent of the product is to provide ideas and tables themed around a certain kind of lair, which you, the harried DM, then use to plus-up a published scenario or something from your own addled brain. It's really only two pages of content, the rest is the OGL and an ad for Patreon, etc. The lists include features outside the castle, items to spruce up rooms, appearances for some cloud giants, trinkets, and more. I think the lists are pretty good - especially when they lean toward fairy-tale stuff. If you're running a published adventure that already has a lot of good details and intriguing "toys to play with", these lists will be less useful to you, but if you're starting from scratch, or using something bare-bones, tossing these two pages in your DM binder might be worth it.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>QUICK MICRO DUNGEONS: CLOUD GIANT'S CASTLE</b></p><p>Bugbear games offers this cloud giant castle as part of its series of largely system neutral short adventures. This is a quick-and-dirty sky-castle in which Baron Cirrus has abducted a princess (because that's what cloud giants do in fairy tales). The castle's pretty generic, which is good or bad depending on what you're looking for. The Baron employs ogres, hobgoblins, and goblins, and there's also an ettin and a mage. The stables may contain up to ten wyverns! The hand-drawn maps look like maps you drew yourself. So this whole thing is very basic, but because of that could be run without having really pre-read it. Could be good for keeping around for when 'cloud giant' turns up on the wilderness encounter table.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>CLOUD GIANT'S TOWER</b></p><p>Castles & Crusades produced this four-page James Ward adventure! The gimmick here is that the cloud giant is in ill health and has lost control of his cloud-island. There are a mess of orcs, a dragon to bribe, an elf to rescue, lots of treasure (some of it cursed), and a few minor twists. I question a few things about this adventure, such as why is there a fountain of deadly poison in the room where the giant sleeps? Is this why he's sick? Why didn't James Ward bother to give the giant a name? The giant is the only one who can move the tower, via mental command, and when he kicks the (large) bucket, the tower will crash to the ground. It's almost like the author doesn't want PCs to steal the cloud giant tower, which is LAME. They should at least be able to try, and to make things worse! The giant is so sickly that he's easy to coup de grace -- which means we've been given an adventure containing a dragon you don't fight, and a giant you don't fight. Enjoy the orcs, I guess?</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpAokMP1mBboSKf6EjqYAm0O7jusjTp12Ergw4Mhf7LcZiGELR7KANvZzI99QTOWEIj3_bKYWDmwOc_UhoOIxtWFgYeP8iOkMHOptKcHfWcztdmphnqq4k_96Fjgz5yY3EWcHfljif6pQON18xQ4Fy4dO5b-xCMEoG4P5reN3VwpG8mwi88AsPuR7w/s1406/giantswrath.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1180" data-original-width="1406" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpAokMP1mBboSKf6EjqYAm0O7jusjTp12Ergw4Mhf7LcZiGELR7KANvZzI99QTOWEIj3_bKYWDmwOc_UhoOIxtWFgYeP8iOkMHOptKcHfWcztdmphnqq4k_96Fjgz5yY3EWcHfljif6pQON18xQ4Fy4dO5b-xCMEoG4P5reN3VwpG8mwi88AsPuR7w/s320/giantswrath.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>THE GIANT'S WRATH</b></p><p>Castles & Crusades again, this time a full-length adventure for levels 3-5. It is unrelated to <i><a href="http://wampuscountry.blogspot.com/2022/07/julygantic-giants-rapture.html">Giant's Rapture</a></i>. Time to go to sea and stop the rapacious raids of the Fomorian Sea Giants! From an island in the Otherworld, a mage called Stormgazer leads the giants and dark fey in their assaults on the mortal world as he searches for his missing children. PCs will engage with some raiding fairy forces and then head to the Otherworld via the sea.</p><p>A Celtic-themed journey into the seas of faerie sounds GREAT, and this adventure looks pretty good, but I wish the writing were a little trimmed back. It's a big verbose and not presented in an easy-to-run way. There are a couple suggested island encounters for en route - you could definitely do a whole Dawn Treader or Odysseus vibe here. Once you get to Stormgazer's isle, you can make your way through his fortification (good mix of monsters here, and some nice treasure). The adventure assumes once you get to Stormgazer, you are assumed not to fight him (he's kick your asses, I guess), but instead to hear his motivations for the raids, and then agree to seek out his three children lost in the mortal world, and return them to him. Fairy tale goodness! The adventure nicely notes that disproportionate time may have passed in the mortal world, depending on how you want to run your Otherworld.</p><p>The heroes return to the world of man and head to Caerleon, home to Arthur. Yes, that Arthur. The three faery children are there, among other orphans, having been hidden in the mortal world by their mother for fear of their mad father Stormgazer. There's an elf spy in the court who spirits away the kids, and at the same time the faerie forces lay siege to the place, so the PCs fight in that big battle, then head out to locate the kids' mother.</p><p>Once they have the mother in tow (there's a hag involved in that), it's back to sailing to the Otherworld to give Stormgazer the business. Good thing it's a whole trip, because this NPC has a page of exposition to throw at you. Fight Stormgazer and you earn the faerie mother's rewards, and of course the raids stop. I am confused and disappointed that the magic items she gives you are bog-standard out of the DMG rather than Cool Celtic Things.</p><p>I think Giant's Wrath would make a good adventure, or adventure framework, for a Celtic-heavy game or a pseudohistorical one. I'd probably add more "on the seas of faerie" stuff and more Arthur action, but the structure of this adventure is sound and should produce robust Celtic myth pastiche.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigJvp3Z1Pq9hjN0XRnOK2hx-8KUlRdNiQUAm7Y1pP11VGuyrlqku95HcYwk1Wo9F7b_-_t3JN4Pa5X4BgqzbFMngIsHksIcqerNFS7BocZHIwxnun2EK3OsY_CCaoRpg2cC0qn9WWDXqFMIDqEQ6Oa3GOMCYB2WiDw2-Bx2LWSFhNRBINlSGVTHKUX/s1272/giantswrath2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1272" data-original-width="718" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigJvp3Z1Pq9hjN0XRnOK2hx-8KUlRdNiQUAm7Y1pP11VGuyrlqku95HcYwk1Wo9F7b_-_t3JN4Pa5X4BgqzbFMngIsHksIcqerNFS7BocZHIwxnun2EK3OsY_CCaoRpg2cC0qn9WWDXqFMIDqEQ6Oa3GOMCYB2WiDw2-Bx2LWSFhNRBINlSGVTHKUX/s320/giantswrath2.png" width="181" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-59022566732317704842022-07-21T08:41:00.204-04:002022-07-21T08:41:00.227-04:00#JULYGANTIC Up in the Sky!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Cloud giants! Storm giants! Today we take a look at some more adventures featuring the sky giants as well as cloud islands.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnQwrZYDt4xPnnyMxnfX6FqFkPRUhaUVsWmOVAU_qan5x3XinQ9el4sc20GWldAmzRCsruKRb7bHBZ6b55Oo-nLSRmlQxZ7asyH-PtCV21nAaA_PmaXRGP4CgiVAihwwRUW4a_WlF8S__yZmrxh1bH6hFcJUIs1GnEKXgFIYzRdnj5p7-HhYNRmIm3/s1206/aeriestrategos.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="1206" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnQwrZYDt4xPnnyMxnfX6FqFkPRUhaUVsWmOVAU_qan5x3XinQ9el4sc20GWldAmzRCsruKRb7bHBZ6b55Oo-nLSRmlQxZ7asyH-PtCV21nAaA_PmaXRGP4CgiVAihwwRUW4a_WlF8S__yZmrxh1bH6hFcJUIs1GnEKXgFIYzRdnj5p7-HhYNRmIm3/s320/aeriestrategos.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><b> AERIE OF THE CLOUD GIANT STRATEGOS</b><p></p><p>I'm partial to cloud giants, so Joseph Browning's <i>Aerie of the Cloud Giant Strategos</i> was an easy pickup. It's an OSRIC adventure for levels 9-14 - let's check it out.</p><p>Aerie is meant to follow G1-3 as an alternative path, avoiding "the Drow thing" and moving the action into cloud giant territory. The adventure location is the immense cloud island Synnefonisi, and the castle which rests upon it. The island is currently anchored to a volcano (just like the one in <i>Shadow of the Storm Tyrant</i>), but in this case the anchor is a branching beanstalk providing access to different parts of the island. The adventure provides a rundown of how the cloud island works, and its inhabitants, at the very beginning of the book - the various cloud and fog giant commanders, the dragon, and so forth. The Strategos has several human wizards in his employ - if this were a later edition we might've seen a cloud giant with caster abilities fulfilling this role. As is traditional with <i>Against the Giants </i>homages, there are visitors/ambassadors present - in this case, a pair of noble lamia with an Egyptian theme.</p><p>The cloud island is several miles across, and half of it has been nurtured with soil and allowed to turn into grazing-land for cattle, and a verdant forest. This provides PCs an interesting opportunity - you could hide in that forest a long time, making scouting runs and strikes at the castle. In fact, there's been a druid living in this forest for the last six years, doing precisely that. The druid, Bodhmal, can serve as a patron and ally for the PCs.</p><p>Castle Nephothantos, demesne of the Strategos, isn't the biggest castle map you've ever seen in D&D, but it's pretty darn big with plenty of encounter locations. The setup is as old-school as it comes: encounters in locations, occasional NPCs with short motivational notes, but none of the "ongoing intrigue/metaplot" you'd get from a modern version. It's not a trap-laden dungeon (although the magical pillars are pretty cool), it's a lived-in castle, so the majority of the challenges here are the inhabitants. In addition to the myriad cloud giants, the several nasty high-level wizards, and the lamia, there are other things here and there - mihstu, elementals, etc. Plenty of monetary treasure, some killer magical items, and even spellbooks are to be had by a thorough party. Also of note are some original magic items that look fun. Enchanted shuriken that turn into spiders when they hit!</p><p>If you're running the original <i>Against the Giants</i> with an old-school system and looking for another step on the giant ladder, this might be the one to grab. Given the choice to call the leader a Strategos, and his lieutenant the Hypostrategos, I do wish there was more Classical stuff in there.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqHYQSJU_m-Sz3wkMKCQC9kDnEJo1oo8eh-qwNaf9ALXJ3zSq4t-gs8Sm5AeBKiMqN5LkVtxzVGWmVly6rwA7Fv9pAL0Ddpcbig83l6-qV5YypdSFBm6pKbqd5KRlwurz_cEub1EzoyYA1YR4KrsF2QMlCVxQcmewfSUdZZ-FUuJ3pNU8kJL-D5-fk/s1248/aerie1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1248" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqHYQSJU_m-Sz3wkMKCQC9kDnEJo1oo8eh-qwNaf9ALXJ3zSq4t-gs8Sm5AeBKiMqN5LkVtxzVGWmVly6rwA7Fv9pAL0Ddpcbig83l6-qV5YypdSFBm6pKbqd5KRlwurz_cEub1EzoyYA1YR4KrsF2QMlCVxQcmewfSUdZZ-FUuJ3pNU8kJL-D5-fk/s320/aerie1.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>PALACE IN THE SKY</b></p><p>Dungeon Magazine #16 gives us Palace In The Sky for levels 7-10. The setup here is that livestock go missing, there are giant footprints that just end...so cloud giants. PCs will have to track and deal with these cloud giant raiders, their wizard ally, and their bugbear guards.</p><p>The raiders' cloud island is a decent size. There's a landing dock with some flying rowboats, commanded by voice, and a bugbear guardhouse. A cloud dragon! More mihstu! Definitely jam all cloud-related monsters in a cloud giant adventure! Snark aside, I've never used or fought a mihstu, so I guess I need to rectify that. They drain CON, so that could be pretty snazzy. This island also has a forest on it, which the cloud giants established as a hunting preserve, so it's full of critters. Ditto the lake. If they can steal this island, the PCs will enjoy a very fine headquarters indeed.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmyuG20VNmUEIfCFPIOMyd8rp12X77eRMnHOJkPIVx-R_U9sWpMT7bnThMb8XSLXqxgqFFpf2rmw-E9mgEOi48RJaUoCcHZGiKGKdFgRrgfSPCj_OmBbZpwFXPDVoRvQ9zxl6W_CG-WD0ad5AiR4oxk9ZAJYSTiBUtqSvqJIMh_nFHQmdR5cmMSBw1/s1166/palace.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1166" data-original-width="920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmyuG20VNmUEIfCFPIOMyd8rp12X77eRMnHOJkPIVx-R_U9sWpMT7bnThMb8XSLXqxgqFFpf2rmw-E9mgEOi48RJaUoCcHZGiKGKdFgRrgfSPCj_OmBbZpwFXPDVoRvQ9zxl6W_CG-WD0ad5AiR4oxk9ZAJYSTiBUtqSvqJIMh_nFHQmdR5cmMSBw1/s320/palace.png" width="252" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>There actually aren't that many cloud giants on this island; but they all have names, and goals, and personalities, and there's some friction going on between the leader and his cousin. The giants keep an insane monk as a jester. Lots of nice little details here - for example, in the Game Room it notes that the cloud giants love chess and would be happy to play the PCs using this giant chess set. There's a gnoll butler! In the dungeons beneath the castle, there are some prisoners you can free from their two-headed troll jailer, and assorted other monsters, some of which I was surprised to see (the thessalhydra, the beholder). The wizard Sazor Stratos maintains his own tower on the island, but there isn't much to it.</p><p>All in all, <i>Palace In The Sky</i> is a solid location for its era. It hits all the "I wanna run a cloud island" marks pretty well. I'll note that there's an 'Adventures in Filbar' module out, <i>Lofty Pursuits</i>, with a very similar gimmick, but I haven't read it.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFayjRDjPQLZRD1DsPUnbTgUdrSv6rSQdAcYAu2ZbuJFMFo-rSD_Hq-rrAE11xit0RcRK0lBE9x4JhaS1nDdI0GUGEGmFnV4DTHCOUn113x26-ZyCU5mwOTc02OyBIsw1ffj4boBumFUUiyFNXYJWwXkU_NyXozkweEGE6sGZir6RECZl3rTBl02WT/s898/palace2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="898" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFayjRDjPQLZRD1DsPUnbTgUdrSv6rSQdAcYAu2ZbuJFMFo-rSD_Hq-rrAE11xit0RcRK0lBE9x4JhaS1nDdI0GUGEGmFnV4DTHCOUn113x26-ZyCU5mwOTc02OyBIsw1ffj4boBumFUUiyFNXYJWwXkU_NyXozkweEGE6sGZir6RECZl3rTBl02WT/s320/palace2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love the retro sci-fi cloud-island controls in this Dykstra illustration.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>STORMING THE CLOUDS</b></p><p>Storming the Clouds is one of the scenarios in <i>Dungeon Delve</i> for 4th Edition. As such, we can expect it to be heavily focused on staged combat scenarios rather than exploration. And indeed, it's just three combat encounters strung together by an overarching goal - in this case, disrupting the ritual of some storm titans trying to return a primordial to the world. It's an Encounter Level 27-29 thing, which is spectacularly high-end. There are a few bullets suggesting how to expand it. Let's see if there's anything worth stealing.</p><p>The first encounter is with some storm giants and some bluespawn defenders, which look like some kind of huge blue-dragon-derived humanoid, so we're keeping with the storm theme. There are "ice clouds" in the area providing concealment but also causing cold damage if you start or end your turn in them. You can really see that these 4e delves are meant as tactical exercises, and I don't say that to deride - it is what it is. And there's opportunity here - if you're the sort of DM who maybe isn't great at always scratching that tactical itch for your players, perhaps lifting encounter setups from a 4e adventure might help out. Read through something like this and see how painstakingly they've put concealment, verticality, choke-points, environmental hazards on the map; and see how the monsters they've chosen potentially interact to shape the battle. This is an aspect of the game that I know I'm not great at, so sometimes I need to read this sort of encounter with my wargamer brain turned on, and be willing to learn something.</p><p>The next room, accessible via the rune-circle in the previous one, is fire-themed. You now face a Superior Fire Titan (478 hp), some dragonborn, and a Great Conflagration, which is apparently an immense air-fire elemental. This is pretty cool stuff, it's just so high-level that you might have to look at this entire set of encounters for ideas and then dial the thing waaaay back to suit your needs. For example, you wouldn't want to drop this encounter in King Snurre's palace as-is! Jets of fire spurt out of the walls, there are lava cauldrons to kick over, and a floating dais. See what I mean about environments to play with? The final encounter is storm-themed, and it's a colossus, two storm titans, and two storm gorgons. Storm gorgons have lightning & thunder breath, of course. There are lightning rods that shoot lightning at anything in range here.</p><p>I can't recommend this scenario as an adventure, it's too short and too 4e for easy conversion in either direction. However, if you come across a copy of <i>Dungeon Delve</i> cheap, there's plenty in it worth looking at for ideas and general adaptation.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijv22X_81NqHwdEhxnAXbdoULEOOVIZTZdmkZcOBhNbsEOwiDTK03RE05CxlfZP-cguXqhiiBnQHqSJZixnWu0MQtb_99PeCQTtRQdDod6rf0fqVNJsT0lNYP1vhi38NM0G5BsNWBoZvWR5eUYPJOWLoIzUvCwJu5KOMSEDMqqb3H__vdEX1caJOPT/s642/delve.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="302" data-original-width="642" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijv22X_81NqHwdEhxnAXbdoULEOOVIZTZdmkZcOBhNbsEOwiDTK03RE05CxlfZP-cguXqhiiBnQHqSJZixnWu0MQtb_99PeCQTtRQdDod6rf0fqVNJsT0lNYP1vhi38NM0G5BsNWBoZvWR5eUYPJOWLoIzUvCwJu5KOMSEDMqqb3H__vdEX1caJOPT/s320/delve.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the level at which we're operating here.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSuIyL6hLhfG98FIPFmvbDimEWejRx48BU__5pZnIL36j488KUe7UO12fi3i2ryJxrBUtgkb7mawzbLvFAv5_3qHxPgFxVWGNkc6u_eXIYyj-0a8Pp5tGsmWq_fH5PDrxkwrFD3Pwi7IumY2q7IyTE0P0DyjGDR49_A83diUvXVpjDgbCezsvMeDSB/s1580/cirria.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1580" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSuIyL6hLhfG98FIPFmvbDimEWejRx48BU__5pZnIL36j488KUe7UO12fi3i2ryJxrBUtgkb7mawzbLvFAv5_3qHxPgFxVWGNkc6u_eXIYyj-0a8Pp5tGsmWq_fH5PDrxkwrFD3Pwi7IumY2q7IyTE0P0DyjGDR49_A83diUvXVpjDgbCezsvMeDSB/s320/cirria.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ooh look, fantasy art with colors in it</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>THE PLIGHT OF CIRRIA</b></p><p>Dungeon #9 presents this level 8-12 adventure that involves tracking an archmage through the jungle (eventually to a cloud castle) to rescue a cloud dragon. There's a page of backstory, but the bottom line is that you're working for cloud dragon Cirria to rescue her mate Cumulus, who's been taken by the archmage Ezoran (in a <i>prison of Zagyg</i>, no less). You have a vague map from the archmage to assist you in tromping through the jungle. There's a hexmap for the jungle, and it's populated with good tropey jungle stuff - killer piranhas, a yuan-ti temple, a cyclopskin lair. Enough stuff here to get extra sessions out of for sure.</p><p>The cloud fortress itself, which Ezoran took from a cloud giant, is pretty standard. Vapor rats! Some good little details here (there's a girdle of giant strength, but it's in the form of a yellow silk sash). The castle has a rotating-room gimmick with plenty of traps. There's also a golem about, but the real threats are Ezoran and his partner Draxella, both of whom are formidable mages. Ezoran is a worshiper of Fraz-Urb'luu, but you could swap in any demonic association here to tie the adventure to your campaign.</p><p>I like this one, it has some neat stuff in it and you could likely get multiple sessions out of it if you ran the overland travel portion. If you go look at Bryce's review of this one at Ten Foot Pole, you'll note he found it 'tedious', but the one guy in the comments who <i>actually ran the adventure</i> had a blast with it. Funny how that works, huh.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWijhHPH-ORDYsYjKT5Bc8vc-G14deODxNr8fWsyvtO3SnJdfaXIdBi254Pf-ByVL1dIGPrbkHy6Z8rdw-It9yH_HiQ1_xPh5xhLrQfgv78oaewkV_H16VGC3IIj3Y1kwgT6izNg3iufk0kMvtjcY3CsOoAfSpo7oTGi0nwo1_5N4Qc3pHtAJXZR6f/s882/cirria2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="882" data-original-width="704" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWijhHPH-ORDYsYjKT5Bc8vc-G14deODxNr8fWsyvtO3SnJdfaXIdBi254Pf-ByVL1dIGPrbkHy6Z8rdw-It9yH_HiQ1_xPh5xhLrQfgv78oaewkV_H16VGC3IIj3Y1kwgT6izNg3iufk0kMvtjcY3CsOoAfSpo7oTGi0nwo1_5N4Qc3pHtAJXZR6f/s320/cirria2.png" width="255" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Consider renaming the cloud dragon to 'Agador Spartacus'</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-704986368280613442022-07-20T06:20:00.000-04:002022-07-20T06:20:29.248-04:00#JULYGANTIC: Storm King Adjacent Adventures<p> At this point we've spent a goodly amount of time talking about Storm King's Thunder and the DDAL adventures that go along with it:</p><p>In Stealing Storm King's Thunder part one, we looked at stealing the giant lords' lairs for use in your home game. Then in part two we examined the metaplot ending of SKT, again with an eye toward stripping it for parts.</p><p>In Running Parnast, I looked back on the tier one modules from Season 5, and then we also took a look at the tier two Hartkiller's Horn sequence - which I haven't run.</p><p>Now for one last stop on the Storm King's Railroad! A look at some scenarios that are related to the whole epic plotline...</p><p><br /></p><p><b>THE IRON BARON</b></p><p>DDEP05-01, <i><b>The Iron Baron</b></i>, sees the PCs infiltrating a fire giant facility in order to rescue prisoners and sabotage the eponymous Baron's efforts to build a pair of immense magma bombards. You can see how thematically this rolls right along with Duke Zalto and his mecha. Disguised as mercenary caravaneers, the PCs make their way into the complex and then split up with different goals by level. Tier One groups (levels 1-5) are charged with freeing prisoners; Tier Two groups (6-10) sabotage the forge portion of the facility. In the final sequence, the lowbies fight the Captain of the Guard on the way out, and the mid-levels face the Iron Baron himself (and lieutenants). </p><p>I think you could absolutely run this as less of a con event and just use a single PC group, the maps, and the encounters, and let the PCs figure out how they want to sabotage the place themselves. Keep in mind that part of what makes the epic fun, though, is the multi-table aspect...when I played through <i>The Iron Baron</i> at a con, I remember the tension in the air as each table waited for the others to pass inspection and not blow everybody's cover!</p><p>The encounters in this one are fairly straightforward, but played with an eye toward stealth will be even better. Yes, there's a salamander and some hell hounds.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGR2Gu0tH-mdaiPxUWmZHFbQFIuLLRnwqkMrvkZsIU2igbJDr9OrtD47eIe8mhG66Ds6XLuUOqH3uHg-80XA1oJEAs1MwK9fR9rPgLZVTKPr5YxWf3REUfeQ95X4lteP4Z4A9NgOWHTBkF5rG1l0sInL7zuUln6ORqJSlKnAjU-IFSapxeSo1KUejf/s640/hatred.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="640" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGR2Gu0tH-mdaiPxUWmZHFbQFIuLLRnwqkMrvkZsIU2igbJDr9OrtD47eIe8mhG66Ds6XLuUOqH3uHg-80XA1oJEAs1MwK9fR9rPgLZVTKPr5YxWf3REUfeQ95X4lteP4Z4A9NgOWHTBkF5rG1l0sInL7zuUln6ORqJSlKnAjU-IFSapxeSo1KUejf/s320/hatred.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>I don't mind saying that this is the coolest thing that happened to any of my DDAL PCs, and if I ran 'The Iron Baron' in some non-5e system I would absolutely still use this on the survivors.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><b>DURLAG'S TOWER, DURLAG'S TOMB</b></p><p>DDAL05-08 and -09 are the two-part Tier Three sequence that lay the groundwork for some of the shenanigans later in the season. Cloud giant nasty Baron Rajiram seeks the secrets of the tower of Durlag, a dwarven hero - and the PCs must delve into this trap-riddled place and the tomb below to stop him. Oh, and the tower is made of special stone populated by dwarven spirits, and reflects magic. It's a race into the tower ahead of Rajiram's forces. Regrettably this adventure takes what I call the "Undermountain method" of challenging higher-level characters, and that's by making half of their cool stuff not work. You can't teleport or phase within the tower, etc. While there are reasonable in-world explanations for why a magic architect would set things up this way, it definitely serves to neuter PCs, and in a canned scenario like this, the PCs don't have the opportunity to prep/research/avoid the neutering at all. There are some puzzle-traps, and plenty of nasty threats - invisible assassins, slaads, a beholder zombie (!), a nutty druid, invisible stalkers, nalfeshnee demons, more slaads...what is the theme here?...it's a mish-mash. Reminder that this is not a plane-hopping wizard's tower, it belonged to a dwarven hero with the nickname 'Trollkiller'. </p><p>Part two, the tomb, has some deathtraps and devils. Similar statuary throughout the tower and tomb will carry some clues if the PCs are good observers or are spun up on their dwarven religion. When the characters try to leave after exploring the tomb - hopefully after recovering a macguffin - they're jumped by agents of Baron Rajiram. All in all, this two-parter really does nothing for me. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>REEDUCATION, RECLAMATION</b></p><p>DDAL05-14 and 05-15 are the next Tier Three pair of adventures. Your patron went to the ruined wizard school because the ghost of the wizard who founded it has been seen again - and he supposedly knew something about (giant) rune magic. When she went to check out the school, she never came back etc etc. PCs show up, fight some giants, and then delve into the chambers beneath the school where the wizard hid. When you get down there you get to fight a vampire AND your patron, who has been charmed by the vampire. That's a pleasant surprise I wouldn't have expected. As the PCs depart, sky pirates approach, which leads to the second adventure.</p><p>In the second adventure, you'll be excited to hear there's a guy you have to protect because he is KEY to the adventure, since he controls the teleport portals in and out. Your assignment is to stop the pirates from looting the library. Pirates and nagas and sudoku golems, oh my! I don't think there's anything to recommend this sequence, it's mostly a bunch of pirate fights, none of them particularly interesting. And there's almost zero Actual Giant Content, which might actually serve as a nice break if you're playing through these in order, but for our looting purposes is a disappointment.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>MYSTERIOUS ISLE/EYE OF XXIPHU</b></p><p>DDAL05-18, <i>The Mysterious Isle</i>, and DDAL05-19, <i>Eye of Xxiphu</i>, bring back the threat of Baron Rajiram the cloud giant pirate, and provide the only Tier Four (levels 17-20) content for this Season's regular (non-Epic) play. Interestingly, these are the two scenarios in Season Five that actually relate to the Kraken Society stuff in SKT. An artifact from the ancient aboleth city of Xxiphu is now in the hands of a morkoth who has hidden it on the mysterious isle. The cloud giant Dworkin (lieutenant to Rajiram) seeks the powerful Eye, so we're off to the races.</p><p>I get that there's limited time and a certain expectation of format in organized play, but SO MANY of these scenarios have a ham-fisted "your patron sends you to do this distant thing because it's metaplot important" beginning. In this case, after your patron takes an expository dump, she issues extra magic items (surely a sign this is going to be rough?) and then mounts you on bronze dragons who give you a ride to the adventure. Wasted opportunity: the dragons have neither names nor personalities, but you're encouraged to talk to them.</p><p>When you get close to the island, there are aquatic elves with intel on the giants, then sharks attack. Lots of possible combats on your way to the island, as multiple factions want the Eye of Xxiphu. There are some pretty clever setups here with some of the combats, combining threats, illusions, and traps.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBtKLMCANOv9C7TNXrsqiWqLlzOpfKTqha3f71ghhusPAbMVQS9y5G08EwX4L5jjF21M3myj8VywTXMvz-vBhJT5q1gWXuWKH3b2bOSj-J4OOOqOAIuk8_qRYgCCgii9zvM9VCTSUsUauC6XRIpZT9vslus--eybikbOcZKuoDjDhcI7GsRpVZPkB2/s638/xxiphu1.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="638" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBtKLMCANOv9C7TNXrsqiWqLlzOpfKTqha3f71ghhusPAbMVQS9y5G08EwX4L5jjF21M3myj8VywTXMvz-vBhJT5q1gWXuWKH3b2bOSj-J4OOOqOAIuk8_qRYgCCgii9zvM9VCTSUsUauC6XRIpZT9vslus--eybikbOcZKuoDjDhcI7GsRpVZPkB2/s320/xxiphu1.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>It is imperative in this adventure game that nobody explore, get lost, or fail.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />You'll encounter plenty of sahuagin loyal to the Kraken Society who are here to take the Eye of Xxiphu away from the psychic illusion-casting morkoth who runs the place. When you succeed, the magic of the Eye teleports you home, but unstuck in time, so you arrive in the past when your patron is much younger. You'll have to go back through the portal and fix things, but thankfully that portal will stay open long enough for a long rest first, thank the 5e Gods!<div><br /></div><div>When you get back, the Eye has screwed up magic so that some of your standard powers don't work right, or at all. I hate this Undermountain nonsense, it is NOT appropriately writing an adventure aimed at high-level characters to throw their powers out the window.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kudos to Merric Blackman for the 'Tooth of the Damned' encounter here, which contains a reference to Black Dougal. Otherwise the scenario has more traps, combat, illusions like the first part since we're still dealing with the morkoth. There's a neat bit with the PCs potentially piloting crystal golem bodies. After the morkoth is dealt with, the PCs chase the cloud giant wizard's skyship, mounted on the dragons. Okay, this suitable high-level crap, although it would be more meaningful if the characters had negotiated with (or dominated) the dragons instead of having them handed to them... but at this point I'm not going to complain. PCs on dragons chasing a skyship, let's do this. Your patron's pseudodragon helps by flitting about and granting advantage to each of you in turn. I don't know how I feel about that kind of a forced "I'm helping!" gimmick. Aren't the NPCs doing enough in this adventure? This final battle is big, a little convoluted, and going to be challenging to run.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think there are things worth stealing from this pair of adventures if you're willing to strip out the NPC theatre. The underwater illusion-supplemented fights are intriguing, and the massive end battle will be memorable.<br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>ARK OF THE MOUNTAINS</b></p><p>DDEP05-02, <b><i>Ark of the Mountains</i></b>, has the PCs trying to stop the cloud giant pirate Rajiram and his flying galleon by exploring an ancient dwarven flying ship (the Ark). Rajiram wants his runestone back - it was probably located by PCs or their allies during the <i>Durlag's Tower</i> adventures in the Tier Three sequence. As an epic, just like with The Iron Baron, Ark of the Mountains is designed to be run with multiple tables at varying levels, as the different PC groups investigate different decks of the ship, etc. Far as I can tell it might run fine for a single group as well. The gimmick here is that the Ark is in mid-combat with Rajiram's galleon, and you have to explore the old ship to get the weapons functioning again, that sort of thing. The ship has guardians and traps - and in addition, giant boarders from teh galleon will show up as well. Because it's a multi-table epic, you'll also have baddies wandering around the ship (ie from table to table). Time for some chaos!</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYZzXoPtyZakm7TnFZsJOvdZ3AaxamiBFHpAtRFVezWXrNBMlikDNoVygK_Dg9nVZ3j6KRL86VR5xW6hyVpJ4hwQGHaksYBT8Q8qzLFsI2ITd6dXcnNI9BGI-Xme8MUdfp93muy3LxnLefWf39Qz2agsX6D-zCdsFJJ02GpEXHH_UZrjJyQdHXdvOx/s638/guardians.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="274" data-original-width="638" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYZzXoPtyZakm7TnFZsJOvdZ3AaxamiBFHpAtRFVezWXrNBMlikDNoVygK_Dg9nVZ3j6KRL86VR5xW6hyVpJ4hwQGHaksYBT8Q8qzLFsI2ITd6dXcnNI9BGI-Xme8MUdfp93muy3LxnLefWf39Qz2agsX6D-zCdsFJJ02GpEXHH_UZrjJyQdHXdvOx/s320/guardians.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Much of it is adjusted by party level, but there's some crazy stuff here regardless</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />There are four sections of the ship, and the adventure wants your group (or each group, if it's run as an epic) to complete three of the quests in order to 'win' and allow the Ark to defeat the sky-galleon. I have to admit, I'd be inclined to run an adaptation of this. <div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnyUunz0fRXJ1GzRoXYGvrN26HkgvkVCo3wGsP7zHXlvxdwPTnZpB5TtxPocOjomK3J6SsrHmmuPWLJrqAm3onKHbk48oeW6vaZi9-XAGLVE0vis-SKva11WC8mhT3ArDOrMlSrQuMZQyhSRQI4acqnU3y0x_Q6tTJ6SLuXH4U1g0kp0NX7DIA-2qy/s1476/ark.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1212" data-original-width="1476" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnyUunz0fRXJ1GzRoXYGvrN26HkgvkVCo3wGsP7zHXlvxdwPTnZpB5TtxPocOjomK3J6SsrHmmuPWLJrqAm3onKHbk48oeW6vaZi9-XAGLVE0vis-SKva11WC8mhT3ArDOrMlSrQuMZQyhSRQI4acqnU3y0x_Q6tTJ6SLuXH4U1g0kp0NX7DIA-2qy/s320/ark.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Best DDAL handout ever?<br /><br /></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div></div>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-57526605164241878992022-07-19T12:30:00.137-04:002022-07-19T12:30:00.215-04:00#JULYGANTIC Frosty Situations<p> Frost giants seem to get the most play - is it the viking thing? Strong elemental flavoring + the viking thing probably does it. Let's take a look at a few more frost giant-related adventures.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>ANCIENT BLOOD</b></p><p>Dungeon magazine #20, for AD&D, levels 3-5. This viking-themed jaunt starts with the PCs couriering a shipment of black lotus. Yes, really! The journey may feature encounters with mundane animals, a hag, and some half-ogres with mastodons (love it).</p><p>When the heroes get to the village to make their delivery, the real nonsense starts. You deliver the black lotus to the chieftain, and during the evening feast, he tells the tale of the frost giant king Mok-Turoknin and the giant-slayer Rognvald. It's a long story, and at the end of it, the candles blow out and the ghost of Mok-Turoknin bursts into the meadhall, chops the chieftain in twain with his ghost-axe, cackles and fades out. Well, there's a start to things! Maybe start this one at the delivery!</p><p>How to end the ongoing curse? The answer is provided by NPCs: go to the frost giant's tomb, find Rognvald's giant-slaying sword, and get back here before the next full moon, when Mok-Turoknin's ghost is sure to strike again. This is all fine stuff but I wish it weren't a mid-game expository dump and instead the PCs could find it out on their own, or intuit it. So it's off into the frozen giant-lands, where mammoths and devil-dogs and quaggoths dwell. (Three cheers for quaggoths)</p><p>We're told that recent seismic activity has shaken the frost giant's hall, causing a) new monsters to be able to get in, and b) Mok-Turoknin's axe to fall from the hand of his frozen corpse, thus stirring the ghost, causing the chieftain's nightmares, and so forth. Earthquakes in D&D have a lot to answer for, they do this stuff all the time.</p><p>The Hall has some neat stuff in it, but man this adventure is wordy. Sign of the times I guess. It has the standard arctic foes - ice lizards, white pudding, snow-variant beetles and the like, and of course the inevitable remorhaz. It's a frost giant's hall, but there aren't any giants here - the place is long-abandoned and in ruin. The tomb of Mok-Turoknin is short but does feature barbarian skeletons (that's fun to say), and it's where you might find the giant-slaying sword Thorgrim, which can cause its wielder to fly into a berserk rage in the presence of giants (so that'll be a surprise for the PC that walks away with it, since there are no actual giants here). The PCs can either put Mok-Turoknin to rest (avoiding combat), or screw it up and have to fight his apparition (not an advisable course).</p><p>This adventure has potential. I think it benefits from actually doing the overland horrible snow-trudging portion, really punch the desolation angle. Tonally it would fit pretty nicely with <i>Doom of the Savage Kings</i>. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBuwjSa3cHnnOptpoKWySh4iS_BSyGOwSZRWwgnhMcxLJ79J3LTLy8CL4tsCUYngOJOCYXBfmyh6-Q9OkClwZi1HfeX-RBYd0BejFzEZVOQpDuPPAZQFRTHPY4b7Z3A5obIwvM5y3oSiPRlRUl0Egur8cIrBrz35aC8WSaqUA4MOOtMHaNrJ_tIdLr/s982/ancientblood.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="982" data-original-width="896" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBuwjSa3cHnnOptpoKWySh4iS_BSyGOwSZRWwgnhMcxLJ79J3LTLy8CL4tsCUYngOJOCYXBfmyh6-Q9OkClwZi1HfeX-RBYd0BejFzEZVOQpDuPPAZQFRTHPY4b7Z3A5obIwvM5y3oSiPRlRUl0Egur8cIrBrz35aC8WSaqUA4MOOtMHaNrJ_tIdLr/s320/ancientblood.png" width="292" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>FROZEN CASTLE</b></p><p><i>Frozen Castle </i>is for 11th-level 5e characters, and was released as expansion content for <i>Tyranny of Dragons. </i>Don't let that fool you, though - believe the cover art, this is a giant adventure. It involves chasing after a crashed flying castle and potentially getting it running again, and while its designed to be a certain castle from <i>Tyranny</i>, you could run this by itself with a suitable motivation.</p><p>The map gives us an orc tribe loyal to the frost giants, a dwarven settlement, and the meadhall of Brunvild, frost giant chieftain. There's also the cloud giant Blagothkus, a white dragon, some werebears, a colony of yeti... plenty of stuff going on, some of it environmental, and a lot of it factional - stuff you could really leverage as a PC.</p><p>The issue is that since <i>Frozen Castle</i> is meant as extra content for <i>Hoard of the Dragon Queen</i>, it doesn't have the maps of the cloud castle or the glacier. So on its own, it's less useful as an adventure in itself; however, if you're looking for some bits & pieces to drop on a corner of your tundra map, this supplement has something for you.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD2u7ej5CwicrTmE-4B3_snWFWKOduqdMNN3GLm4uYwi48EQp7u2C6Cw0z2qggVoZCQ3ciPXIKBz970K_VfQ1L_BTCoWflVlDnbjMKs8hlRRAT9_GDizxok_if8TjqQ14j367lrngXxvdu648KFKw-fHX29_cdCHUHaoEtSj7qk5tj7wVFozaA73IA/s1086/frozen1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="1086" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD2u7ej5CwicrTmE-4B3_snWFWKOduqdMNN3GLm4uYwi48EQp7u2C6Cw0z2qggVoZCQ3ciPXIKBz970K_VfQ1L_BTCoWflVlDnbjMKs8hlRRAT9_GDizxok_if8TjqQ14j367lrngXxvdu648KFKw-fHX29_cdCHUHaoEtSj7qk5tj7wVFozaA73IA/s320/frozen1.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>A GIANT RANSOM</b></p><p><i>A Giant Ransom</i> was released in chunks during the 3e era on the WotC website; it's for 11th-level characters. The Duke's cargo train, moving belongings to his new keep, was waylaid by giants. The most important thing stolen was a golden lion statue; in order to avoid conflict, the Duke offers the giants a ransom to return the statue, and they agree. The PCs are called in to provide security for the exchange. Unfortunately, the white dragon Whildenstrank knows what's going on, and is prepping to steal the statue...</p><p>The PCs are within sight of the frost giants as the dragon swoops down and attacks; by the time they get to the site of the battle, it's all over. The surviving giants suspect the dragon was working for the Duke, and the PCs head off to follow the dragon. Along the way they encounter Velg, a frost giant ranger and dragon-hunter, who can either be fought or talked to for information. </p><p>Later, the PCs are attacked by arctic landsharks bursting up from under the ice and snow (this is for sure the most original encounter in the adventure). When that battle ends, the ice beneath the PCs crumbles and collapses (no roll here, tickets please). PCs can dig themselves out, head through some ice caverns, engage with winter wolves and a remorhaz...and then fight the dragon.</p><p>There's not much here that you wouldn't have put together yourself. The idea of a white dragon dominating a pack of winter wolves into being his minions is neat.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIDcdJ4lWgvx33mcdUeBTzvDRhXkSg78C8dlRpN4zmwW7kqvCn3v7meZD_lZ7J3DS6DJ8xHbJaadl1WwQ1qLxLQ6cW2d61qACgWa6QKCpvuiOJeWwb308r1o4AkufRaa8MW1jKTTpjKgv8qakuBUyTwPQalJ8v4nVoLDxp_psMrcvhoKbuXz2u0GhG/s1482/whitedeath.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1342" data-original-width="1482" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIDcdJ4lWgvx33mcdUeBTzvDRhXkSg78C8dlRpN4zmwW7kqvCn3v7meZD_lZ7J3DS6DJ8xHbJaadl1WwQ1qLxLQ6cW2d61qACgWa6QKCpvuiOJeWwb308r1o4AkufRaa8MW1jKTTpjKgv8qakuBUyTwPQalJ8v4nVoLDxp_psMrcvhoKbuXz2u0GhG/s320/whitedeath.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>WHITE DEATH</b></p><p>Dungeon magazine #6, for AD&D levels 4-7. A snowy town has placed a sizeable bounty on a white dragon - go get 'em. The rumors the PCs get make the dragon out to be worse than it actually is - would be interesting to see that play out at the table. </p><p>The journey to the dragon's den has a wilderness encounter table and talks about arctic weather conditions. That encounter table has some frost giants on it, as well as winter wolves, remorhaz, ice toads...you know the drill. This adventure will work better if those frost giants are a known quantity and potentially have intel on the dragon.</p><p>The lair itself is small... the gimmick here is that atop the pile of treasure is a dead, older dragon, preserved by the cold and the ministrations of the current dragon occupant, who awaits to leap down on invaders. Also, that treasure pile is fake. Also, the young dragon was previously subdued and in captivity, so attempts to subdue it make it go berserk instead. That's a lot of screw-yous in a row, I think the results are going to vary by table. There is real treasure here - some monetary (but maybe not enough to stave off anger after the bait-and-switch), and some magical (good stuff, but hidden). One thing the adventure doesn't address - but which your PCs will ask about - is whether the preserved dead dragon yields enough scales and hide to do KEWL DRAGONY ARMOR STUFF with. They will ask. They <i>should</i> ask. And in that case, the real treasure from this encounter is two dragon corpses.</p><p>This is an okay setup, it's definitely from the "we've all fought dragons a dozen times and want something with a twist" era. I think this would work far better plopped on a map than as a "here's what we're doing tonight" adventure.</p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-80083454929488876872022-07-18T15:49:00.000-04:002022-07-18T15:49:41.050-04:00#JULYGANTIC: Aesirhamar<p> Nestled in the pages of Dragon issue #90, <i>Aesirhamar</i> by Roger E. Moore is an AD&D adventure for characters of 9th or higher level.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Mk_LJGvMaFZCRkkSoDd-HDv-uFvfmJDCAhubxSgKBAnUhDK3ot81OB7Z6R9dk_eSaFetdtKpuCDvpvpkmCmUjFoGw47JoGDmh3TfUYz4RalTCKsM5yigpRtN52ipuG7xjwsloZ3DspEglkJIKtg27UQ1Emtpe4D0IeiyHwueYv3pSZgxaeoGpeg_/s1094/aesirhamar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1010" data-original-width="1094" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Mk_LJGvMaFZCRkkSoDd-HDv-uFvfmJDCAhubxSgKBAnUhDK3ot81OB7Z6R9dk_eSaFetdtKpuCDvpvpkmCmUjFoGw47JoGDmh3TfUYz4RalTCKsM5yigpRtN52ipuG7xjwsloZ3DspEglkJIKtg27UQ1Emtpe4D0IeiyHwueYv3pSZgxaeoGpeg_/s320/aesirhamar.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dammit, Bjorn, stop shouting 'Ricola' every time I blow this thing. You're freaking out the berserkers.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>Seeking revenge on Thor for killing his brothers, the mighty giant Hargnar kidnaps the dwarf Brokkir and bullies him into agreeing to forge a weapon as mighty as Mjolnir. Brokkir returns to Midgard and works with his brother Dwalin to forge the weapon they call Aesirhamar. Unfortunately both brothers covet what Hargnar has promised - Thor's house as a reward once the god lays dead - and scheming begins. Dwalin curses the weapon such that any non-dwarf who wields it will kill the first dwarf they see, and reward the second one they see. You can guess where this is going - Brokkir, concerned about just such a betrayal, throws a curse on Aesirhamar so that the wielder will reward the first dwarf, and slay the second. The game is afoot, and Moore gives us a suitably Wagnerian setup here. Brokkir heads across Bifrost, and his treacherous brother Dwalin follows invisibly.</p><p>Heimdall thinks Brokkir is acting sketchy and of course he can see Dwalin...so he sends a valkyrie to Midgard to check things out, and soon learns that the dwarves have likely been forging a major weapon. Heimdall tells the Aesir, but none of them can locate the dwarves by magic, and Odin's not around. Wanting to stymie whatever's going on with the dwarves, but cautious about a potential god-slaying weapon being out on the streets of Gladsheim, the gods come up with the obvious ploy of getting some mortal heroes to find the dwarves...Interestingly Moore tells us the adventure is designed for three or four 9th level (or higher!) characters. That's a small number for a classic table, but I can see why you'd want to do "trio of heroes" for something like this.</p><p>PCs are contacted by the gods, hike up Bifrost, and meet Heimdall, and get the exposition and the quest. If they're reluctant, there's always geas. Here's a map to Jotunheim, crossing the river at this ferry is recommended. TIME TO QUEST! Hopefully the PCs don't attack the two giants who run the ferry, because like many giants in Gladsheim, these guys have caster levels in addition to being whoopass Jotunheim giants.</p><p>Once across, PCs can try to track the dwarves through the desert and into the mountains. Interestingly, the adventure spends some time talking about these locales and hiking among them, but doesn't provide a particular encounter chart. You'll want to work that up ahead of time if you want it to be suitably Asgardian and not just your "usual" desert and mountain tables. You'll be pleased to hear that you make it to the giant community of Smoke-Top two days after the dwarves regardless.</p><p>Brokkir has already given the hammer to Hargnar, and the dueling curses ("random curse") has taken effect. Hargnar slew Brokkir, then wounded Dwalin. Dwalin high-tailed it out of there and hopes to find an ally to help him escape Jotunheim. When the PCs make it to Smoke-Top, they have a choice of passes by which to enter, each with a different encounter (a fire-wyrm, trolls, two different groups of giants). Once you're on Smoke-Top, there are a mess of caves and settlements around - this is where we find our obligatory encounter table, featuring everything from wild ettins to frost giant kids at play.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdAYGbS1pNQHoGSQh3gEv3Wg87XvuY92PYP9sLMUmt1vj75rrO_uZVD7jjcxgbL1wkv6drYSwz8d6OIOkibRxIj97OR0Nh6dBKfVJdUNRCesNvZYHRt4JeSe5JcRc3g827iNhFIULl2VEPQ7erYuaLF_ef_3S41GiIrEf5V35NcWE4EAPODjOe20BS/s1662/aesirhamar2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1408" data-original-width="1662" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdAYGbS1pNQHoGSQh3gEv3Wg87XvuY92PYP9sLMUmt1vj75rrO_uZVD7jjcxgbL1wkv6drYSwz8d6OIOkibRxIj97OR0Nh6dBKfVJdUNRCesNvZYHRt4JeSe5JcRc3g827iNhFIULl2VEPQ7erYuaLF_ef_3S41GiIrEf5V35NcWE4EAPODjOe20BS/s320/aesirhamar2.png" width="320" /></a></div>Also on that encounter table is our boy Hargnar, looking for dwarves to kill. Hargnar is only as strong as a storm giant (!) but with the extra powers of Aesirhamar - to include spell-stealing - he's going to be quite an encounter if played right. Fight too long or too loud and other giants will surely come to his aid. Dwalin the dwarf lies on the encounter table, too. But chances are you won't encounter either of them immediately, so we're supplied with details on a whole mess of giant-halls and caves and a temple to Thrym and all that sort of stuff. There's lots to do (and slay, if you're so inclined). Regrettably all of the giants' magic gear was Gladsheim-made and thus will lose its enchantment if brought back to Midgard. LAME. Obviously you can't keep Aesirhamar, you're supposed to bring it back to the Aesir and be suitably rewarded - potentially with up to two wishes per PC. That's no joke.<p></p><p><i>Aesirhamar</i> is an outline of a scenario, with a map and a mess of locations on it. It's funny that it looks anemic compared to so many modern adventures (bloated or otherwise), but there really is plenty to work with here. Everything you need to run the adventure is here, it's just lean and mean without boxed text and hand-holding. If you have a couple Aesir-worshipping PCs in your campaign who might make it to name level, take a look at <i>Aesirhamar</i> as a possible vacation to Gladsheim.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYY0iKR5ReSTmiCSPqeVICoy91S9B3Cf653-0PRCm71SOKvSToYYOuJLW8G4CqTHLwRps_6p73YHA2j-0YbzoyhH8dj3kbBNCUcbbMjppJbtkAwwiQqjoIQQ00RQELABWZtIlPym09yv-Ifj2sPSE8j2P7QzChk5D16LF3GzPa3LMKSE7UPpHDKiWT/s1774/thunder2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="1774" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYY0iKR5ReSTmiCSPqeVICoy91S9B3Cf653-0PRCm71SOKvSToYYOuJLW8G4CqTHLwRps_6p73YHA2j-0YbzoyhH8dj3kbBNCUcbbMjppJbtkAwwiQqjoIQQ00RQELABWZtIlPym09yv-Ifj2sPSE8j2P7QzChk5D16LF3GzPa3LMKSE7UPpHDKiWT/s320/thunder2.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><p><b>BONUS READ-THROUGH: THUNDER OVER JOTUNHEIM</b></p><p>Thunder Over Jotunheim is a solo adventure for Marvel Super Heroes, in which Thor goes to Jotunheim (duh). The book contains all the stats up front, both for your hero Thor and the baddies; then there's a guide to running MSH combats solo, with some randomization for actions NPCs will take, or spells they might cast. The whole thing uses the MAGIC VIEWER (ie a red piece of film - you remember these from your Transformers perhaps) to reveal encounter numbers on the map, as well as text in the book.</p><p>The plot: Loki has stolen Frey's magic sword and is raising an army of giants. Boom, time to roll. You don't need any more exposition than that. Stop Loki, prevent the giants from marching, bring back Frey's sword.</p><p>Thor's journey begins with a waking-dream of Karnilla, who offers you a one-use magical item, one of six, to aid you on your journey. This is where the replay comes in, gang. From there the encounters are out of order like a Choose Thine Own Adventure saga; you have to pointcrawl across the map and reveal which encounter to read.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyB7LPkYw5W2NRUti1kfPUQIW8bZm9hggzOXG0FO_FfZPqR2b-zSfIG7MvhhXbxDd6c1J1N6ShSu3vWrH-4BMitVOLOC9ooZhJMnsEe1AuWSXJ3vFxE4pUu_2rp7gVv_gCO0_z32gZkjA_bnGl49pMxtC0JmxwxI-ct2Xi5SWBozWIRNaHJAzWWQkS/s1018/thunder3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1018" data-original-width="840" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyB7LPkYw5W2NRUti1kfPUQIW8bZm9hggzOXG0FO_FfZPqR2b-zSfIG7MvhhXbxDd6c1J1N6ShSu3vWrH-4BMitVOLOC9ooZhJMnsEe1AuWSXJ3vFxE4pUu_2rp7gVv_gCO0_z32gZkjA_bnGl49pMxtC0JmxwxI-ct2Xi5SWBozWIRNaHJAzWWQkS/s320/thunder3.png" width="264" /></a></div><p>There's plenty to do on the map. Fight trolls, giant wolves, lava-men, a stone golem. Encounter a mysterious hag, a giant spider, a talking lizard, and the Swamp of Endless Flame! All kinds of neat stuff, all perfectly themey. Not a lot of actual giants, though. Lots of choice-points for Thor throughout, complemented by a little bit of new art and some selections from Walt Simonson.</p><p>I have no idea how well this module - or any of the MAGIC VIEWER experiments from that era - sold for TSR. But this one is a solid amusement, even if it needs more giants. There are a couple encounters in here where you might say "oh fun, I'll absolutely steal that for D&D".</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtD-ncYYVCcyC4c_x7IFjX1eiCrF-VX96V6VAdkViFqgzG5xAWbjsQSZdXibfI4XQ-AxGlYnGoOS-VHWTSR7NmFUiQGTx68BWqjKrNDu5vESxX2gJJNDiK__xC1pLlXFyyAprOGaLgNODcji_4DftrjpcwMYvVNqsIHvkEFgRMEOBbkJcvjHIMGjSh/s1564/thunder.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1310" data-original-width="1564" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtD-ncYYVCcyC4c_x7IFjX1eiCrF-VX96V6VAdkViFqgzG5xAWbjsQSZdXibfI4XQ-AxGlYnGoOS-VHWTSR7NmFUiQGTx68BWqjKrNDu5vESxX2gJJNDiK__xC1pLlXFyyAprOGaLgNODcji_4DftrjpcwMYvVNqsIHvkEFgRMEOBbkJcvjHIMGjSh/s320/thunder.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935484436602082601.post-55461752604288955272022-07-17T07:05:00.001-04:002022-07-17T07:12:05.018-04:00#JULYGANTIC The Hartkiller Sequence<p> Although I ran the entire Parnast sequence from DDAL's Season 5, I didn't run any of the other stuff save this first adventure we'll talk about below. The Tier Two (levels 5-10) sequence deals with Hartkiller's Horn. The valley of Hartsvale was the scene for major conflict between giants and humans in antiquity, when the giant demigod Hartkiller rallied the human side against his kin. These adventures all take place in that region (including the village of Stagwick and Hartkiller's old castle, Hartwick), and play off that history. Let's take a look at these and see if they're worth running or stealing from.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>DDAL05-04 In Dire Need</b></p><p>The frost giant Jarl Ryndolg and his army of giants and ogres seeks the artifact Hartkiller's Horn. Some dwarven soldiers are trapped, under siege. Time for PCs to go rescue them! Regrettably these adventures tend to have the same "your Patron tells you to do it" opening. Alas, organized play!</p><p>Some time is spent discussing cold weather and travel in the Icespire mountains - the eighteen miles you have to go will not be easy given the snow and storms. Flight is not a good option. The adventure offers a selection of optional wilderness encounters and events. As you get closer to the rescue site, you come across a frozen dwarf's remains.</p><p>Once you arrive, the DM must figure out how late you were in arriving and how many dwarves are already dead. Kudos to the author for using actual passage of in-game time as the measure here rather than some artificial construct. How shall we get past the besieging ogres to extract the dwarves, who lie at the bottom of a gorge? The adventure offers some pretty interesting stuff at the ogre camp - ways to sneak around, things to interact with. There's also the classic "challenge to ritual combat" option.</p><p>No matter how the PCs get down into the gorge, there's a timer here - hill giants are coming. You're given a full roster of the dwarven soldiers, complete with names, and a table to generate personalities as needed. The dwarves at the bottom of the gorge found a holy runestone relic thing and an open giant-sized sarcophagus - that may be important later. I really like that the author does not prescribe a particular way of solving the issues, and addresses several more likely courses of action the PCs may take. There will certainly be combat with ogres, giants, and winter wolves, but more interesting is trying to scale the gorge.</p><p>There is a "set-piece escape" offered in which the characters cause an avalanche and use the sarcophagus lid as a toboggan to slide down the mountain. Certainly memorable, and it's the ending I used when running the scenario at a convention.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGuf7xcMhe-kA6rOhHiJmKGJgU5vAPgEBz_2Ju4XbJ4z_ztn4w9S5h_H90Of_HXBdohDYJzWC3je71cFwMJ0pORpZ95f_uhKBkFcMm_ggy95kXtKlkVACuGx--mlv1h4my-Qx4elefLb-uJ0WhSSQ6htCkgURzGQ4po-aCRcc1GtJj1o1_Y0bSRpOT/s1024/frostgiants.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="706" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGuf7xcMhe-kA6rOhHiJmKGJgU5vAPgEBz_2Ju4XbJ4z_ztn4w9S5h_H90Of_HXBdohDYJzWC3je71cFwMJ0pORpZ95f_uhKBkFcMm_ggy95kXtKlkVACuGx--mlv1h4my-Qx4elefLb-uJ0WhSSQ6htCkgURzGQ4po-aCRcc1GtJj1o1_Y0bSRpOT/s320/frostgiants.png" width="221" /></i></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>I told this AI website to draw Frost Giants.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>DDAL05-05 A Dish Best Served Cold</b></p><p>Blood Riders eager to whack a giant have kidnapped a young frost giant and claimed that they were attacked, breaking the uneasy peace in the region. What a bunch of liars. While internal factions of Blood Riders argue about whether to kill the giant, the giant's mother is searching for him and informs a frontier scout. This is where the PCs come in - can they locate the kidnapped giant and solve this situation before it breaks into further hostitilies?</p><p>The scenario begins with frontier scout Wum Burdun introducing the Frost Giant Mom and explaining the predicament. This would be far more effective if Wum were someone the PCs had met before, and trusted. To get to the Blood Riders, you have two paths - fast and dangerous, or slow and less-dangerous. At least the PCs get a choice here! There is risk of exhaustion either way (and exhaustion is no joke in 5e). Better to move at a heroic pace through the perils of the Icespires. When they find the abandoned camp, they grab some clues and continue on the Riders' trail.</p><p>The trail takes you to a river befouled with pixie dust (magic ensues) that also features a random encounter and the potential discovery of the corpse of a Blood Rider, killed to maintain order. Really the interesting bit here is the river's random effects, and the fact that the random encounter (be it treant, ettin, hag, or orc) know about the river and will take advantage of it. The treants and hags here are interesting and have their own goals - I can't help but feel these types of encounters would have more resonance if the PCs at least knew of these named NPCs.</p><p>Eventually the PCs make it to the new Blood Rider camp, where they can assault the place, stealthily free the young giant from his cage, or try to talk the Riders into freeing him. The negotiation is essentially a skill challenge, as-written. </p><p>Interestingly from a DDAL standpoint, there's a note in the rewards section about characters who might have a story award from a Tier One adventure in the Parnast series. Totally possible, even likely, that a character would play through Uninvited Guests and then later, having levelled-up, play this scenario. Nice to see that interplay, since the Tiered sequences are often treated as very separate things.</p><p>Note that the last two adventures are tagged as two hours in length! You have to keep a serious pace moving on these if you want to hit that goal.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>DDAL 05-11 Forgotten Traditions</b></p><p>PCs are dispatched to meet with a stone giant, and discover the location of ancient Hotun-Shul complex, where they will learn more about rune magic and what's going on with this Jarl nonsense.</p><p>The Halls of Hotun-Shul are a small dungeon with pockets of wild magic and dead magic. Much of the place alternates traps, magic stuff to interact with (watch out for the elementals!), and artwork that serves as an expository dump. There's also a giant ghost you can talk to. Very little combat during this exploratory phase, but the PCs can't leave Hotun-Shul without tangling with the Rune-Forged Guardian. This critter is a tough fight, and sure to be a memorable set-piece if your PCs survive.</p><p>I like that this scenario has lots of options provided - alternate traps and encounters to use. There are encounters you're supposed to substitute if certain faction members are present, as well. This looks like a good trap-focused dungeon for dropping in.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggT6sdCSEK-r6csqmJ1_B5Uul-qRefEuVMY_lsZJU8zJQ3iV4iIksKG95gOmTZrxOw68hb59yGa--z-C3pAJSDzWEC_K0ajdjo0uDI_bcY2eqQ0Vs7jOzmvWhXPlyxnQLg4JKrC45rEHV7v2igVOtPmz54PSaSu-J2mPD9HaGA_ONKXLR3bvUK7GFP/s1514/Screenshot%202022-05-10%20072614.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="972" data-original-width="1514" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggT6sdCSEK-r6csqmJ1_B5Uul-qRefEuVMY_lsZJU8zJQ3iV4iIksKG95gOmTZrxOw68hb59yGa--z-C3pAJSDzWEC_K0ajdjo0uDI_bcY2eqQ0Vs7jOzmvWhXPlyxnQLg4JKrC45rEHV7v2igVOtPmz54PSaSu-J2mPD9HaGA_ONKXLR3bvUK7GFP/s320/Screenshot%202022-05-10%20072614.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>DDAL05-13 Jarl Rising</b></p><p>PCs are sent north to find an ancient redoubt to view the strength of the Jarl's army, but their appointed scout has been killed by ogres. What do? Why, work your way through several giant encounters along the way, that's what. The encounters as offered are pretty vanilla other than one featuring a rope bridge across a chasm.</p><p>The scout's notes can be deciphered to help this whole process. When the PCs get to the redoubt of Ise Festing, there's a fight with some ogres there, then the PCs can use the enormous ancient spyglass to look at a distant plain and see the armies gathered there.</p><p>That's it, that's the whole adventure. You return to your Patron and report back what you saw. I feel like any party that runs through this one without doing the next one would rightfully feel like they lacked a conclusion.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>DDAL05-17 Hartkiller's Horn</b></p><p>Jarl Ryndolg, claiming to possess the Hartkiller's Horn artifact, finally attacks the Hartsvale. Giants and ogres from all over have answered the call of the Horn, gathering for war!</p><p>King Hartwick wants the PCs to go investigate a particular area of weirdness, but before they can pack up and leave, Ryndolg issues a challenge. Three days hence, Jarl Ryndolg will do battle with the lord of the valley for ownership of the place - thus potentially foregoing the bloodshed of the valley's residents. King Hartwick has no expectation of being able to win that fight, by the way.</p><p>The PCs head out, and along the way clash with a giant search party from whom they might learn a few things about who Ryndolg is and what he seeks.</p><p>Next the PCs find Hartkiller - who is risen from the dead and slowly regenerating. Hartkiller is of course the true lord of the valley...but he also envisions a world in which the smallfolks serve giants, so maybe we don't want him to win this fight either. For Hartkiller to regenerate properly, the PCs will have to hunt on his behalf - either something more mundane like a remorhaz, or perhaps the legendary Beast of Talos (a super-remorhaz).</p><p>The next chapter is the showdown, and it can go down several ways: Hartkiller can challenge the Jarl (and based on what he ate, things will be different), or Hartwick can do it, or one of the PCs can do it. I am relieved that the PC option is in here, I really believed they were going to mandate the NPC theatre. Once the fight starts, minions join in to attack the champion's allies.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLUtRXH-iGXQma3NqXIkAffwheKCnNhe1eGcWMbjObpDOr5349FirqyD3FIBqJpRrsbDtle5oXCHLAhr17CmNFmv6u1LyKt4Qu3fh9ftbOs6ytUr9_0PYUqsg4houvKGIniX7UOxMPPFf6o0VFQ1n7J2AXE-T8N9c9VQ3tS6wZTUZDN8FT_I9FnswE/s622/Screenshot%202022-07-03%20101211.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="204" data-original-width="622" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLUtRXH-iGXQma3NqXIkAffwheKCnNhe1eGcWMbjObpDOr5349FirqyD3FIBqJpRrsbDtle5oXCHLAhr17CmNFmv6u1LyKt4Qu3fh9ftbOs6ytUr9_0PYUqsg4houvKGIniX7UOxMPPFf6o0VFQ1n7J2AXE-T8N9c9VQ3tS6wZTUZDN8FT_I9FnswE/s320/Screenshot%202022-07-03%20101211.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You won the single combat as the defender of the Valley, but don't get any of the spoils. Hooray.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>The payoff to this adventure requires PC investment in the region and the lore. It would be best if they've heard of the Beast of Talos before, for example.</p><p><br /></p><p>Overall, I think the Hartvale stuff isn't as interesting as the Parnast sequence, and there's less to cannibalize. I do believe you could take these scenarios and hammer them together into something cool for your game table, but it would require some work and a meaningful map. Come to think of it, nothing in this sequence really relies on the 'shattering of the Ordnung' metaplot from SKT, which is a blessing. All you need is one upstart frost giant.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Erik Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232284705834559450noreply@blogger.com0