Sisters of the Axe

After coming across this picture on SirLarkins Pendragon campaign write-up I decided Sisters of the Axe might be a cool thing to have in Albion...

More to follow - but no Tigers unfortunately.......wolves maybe......

Orc Spartans - Training Dungeon Session 4

Team Thud and Blunder session 4 while Mummy took the car to the car hospital..........9.30am prompt start.......

We left the clerics room and went to the shaft - having carefully scouted about - the whole of TT&B decided to creep to the shaft room........Lukas failed and banged his sheild off a stone wall........
This caused a bit of consternation both to the bold adventurers and the kobolds who started creeping up the corridor ......

I decided the first couple would be Held by the helpful clerics seeing no reason a hold person cant go through a wall of force....

Down to TD level 3 - Galathrun and Ashnut the gnome carefully scouted the "hall of many ways" (35) .......up came the rest of TT&B - a bit more scouting was done and it was decided to amble along to the corridor going to the orcs room (30) - without scouting - and bimble down it...........not surprisingly the sentry saw them....called his fellows and a shieldwall and flanking move was set up by the Orc Witchdoctor
(I love WD's!)

Galathrun the Destroyer of Worlds, Goblins and Centipedes and Lukas the Disemboweller* took the first rank on, losing initiative because the orcs had spears.....Galathrun got hit and Lukas got a critical hit to the chest for maximum damage - I decided an instant death save was required - which was made - phew
They felled exactly one orc between them.............the orc shieldwall's effectiveness being inversely proportional to our heroes effort against the goblins

Lukas retreated for some healing .........and left Galathrun the Destroyer to it..........to the hummed tune of Brave Sir Robin - ok he was on -1 hp......B-)
Rowenta stepped in with a cure ...........Galathrun wounded one of the five orcs forming the shieldwall.............at this point the kindly DM asked was anybody else apart from Galathrun and Lukas going to do anything or just stand and watch................plink ............a lightbulb moment..........sleep on the orcs............by the wizardette...

9 was rolled four of the five orcs fell asleep - the remaining one made his morale check and hefted his shield and spear in a Spartan manner.........and the door was held long enough for the flanking group of the bigger chaps to be recalled ..........four of them.........with the shaman attempting hold person on Galathrun the Heroic......save made .........today was a good day for saving throws..........B-)

Lukas reentered the fray with some shiny new hit points and a critical was applied to an orc - starting at the left arm and ending in 26 damage (cut in half *)
Still the Spartan orcs held - another hit was landed on Lukas in retaliation a mere 2 damage -

Galathrun felled a wounded one and Ashnut pitched in with his sling

The orcs morale held - Spartiate-like - and two more were felled - with no hits on our heroes........

TT&B gained the initiative .......the final orc was smitten by Lukas to -3 hp and the WDoctor legged it.........I made his selection of spells slightly less than my favourite kobold as more a supporting magic role rather than a lead from the front.............the bodies were searched and assorted equipment looted - including 3 molotov oil bombs.............

They didnt bother dispatching the sleeping orcs - or at least it wasnt mentioned - we have had several conversations about I wasnt going to assume he was creeping/listening/searching etc unless he said so..............

The orc W/D legged it to see if he can do a deal with the bugbears.........

Sooo..........we then went back and investigated the right passage off the hall ..........leading to the "payoff room" (36)..........multiple attempts at listenng....nothing......yet more attempts at listening at two of the four doors - nothing - we tried to break the door down - locked - we tried hitting the lock with our sword.......the sword got stuck in the door..............

Elyra rather sweetly suggested maybe one of the more light fingered types should pick the b****y lock.............which Ashnut managed........
The room was entered to a bit of head scratching - although the conclusion was arrived at the tokens went in the slots........one of "those" conversations followed .....

"I put the tokens in the slots"
"Nothing happens"
"Why not"
"Perhaps you need all of them in a particular order"
"Oh yeah - we swap them round and try again"
"Nothing happens"
"Why not"
"Why do you think?"
"We havnt got all of them"...................

Having decided against - eventually.............. leaving the tokens we had in the slots...........

Off they went to the potion room (26) ......and a bit of potion testing occured ......

A potion of gaseous form was tipped onto the floor to "see if it did anything"
The others were tested by randomly nominated people who were then expected to hand the bottle over to Lukas having tested them......this was given short shrift by anybody who tested them........

Possible uses for oil of depetrification caused a long "blip" ............Elyra then expounded (in her role as DMs hint device and having 16 Int).......at length...........on the possible uses of oil apart from drinking,keeping weapons well oiled and axles greased or lighting lamps with...............and as was put forth tipping on the floor to see if it made it slippery.............
We left the room with much eye rolling and head shaking by the Hermione clone and discovered ........

ta-dah! The puzzle room.(27)

Being nearly ten he is familiar enough fortunately with puzzles to spot what it was so I just gave a straight Int save to spot a bit that might be moved then a Str save to move it round....
Also todays session was a spur of the moment 25 mins before thing so had to improvise........even using the attribute saves it took a good 15 minutes .....

Hurrah - progress had been made - the puzzle revealed its secret ...............still the wandering monster table was devoid of rolls apart from adventurers...................

Round the looping passageway to the central hall we first scouted..........surprising the rats and nipping through their room (37) while spiking the door shut .......surprise roll ............they managed to surprise the two men and a goblin who I described and he still didnt catch on who it was because of the Goblin..........
An Int save on a 1 revealed the newcomers to be Fergus, Mach and the remaining Goblin archer (Grobsek).......who had been converted using an ancient WD article

Next exit off the hall it was decided to investigate the ghoul room................mwhahah...............

But we listened.......and heard movement ..........the door was booted open and they were advanced on by grey skinned creatures in rags with sharp teeth and talons.........after a bit of being scared witless - I decided the clerics would be able to spot putrescent undead as part of their training and both .........failed to turn..........

A moment of blind panic ensued ............I decided a bit of a "time out" was necessary to analyse all the dubious tactical choices being put forward

In the end it was decided to secure the door and retreat ...............initiative was rolled.............a draw ......the cruel DM decided one person would have to behave menacingly to dissuade them while another secured the door................into the breach stepped.............Lukas the Shredded One.............
4 hits from 6 attacks took him to -4 hp and paralysed but the door was secured.........temporarily.............

They retreated to the hallway of many exits - having explored a few this session............Lukas paralysed and got a couple of cures from the clerics while Elyra took charge .........having the most intelligence...........I then had Elyra feed him information because he has Ashnut the Gnome to run as well..............

So it was decided the molotovs would be lit and lobbed at the ghouls as they came a-hunting...........the molotovs were given to a random selection of people (Elyra and Ashnut)............the ghouls broke the door down in two rounds ..........yes it took them that long really............and they advanced menacingly ............

Heroes initiative and the molotovs sailed into the passage in a holocaust of flame and tinkling ceramic........one direct hit (2d6) one indirect (1d6) getting a total of six ghouls............four fell on impromptu pyres ...........Grobsek the Goblin plied his bow and Ashnut his sling - another two fell and the others ran away towards the bugbear lair.............hmmm.........where the Orc shaman is.........B-)

Dragging a paralysed and scraped Lukas with them it was mooted to be lunchtime and thats where we left it...........our brave heroes barricaded themselves in the puzzle room to relearn spells and paralysis to wear off...............

Food Glorious Food

Since there have been spurious and unfounded reports in certain areas of the Blogopolis I dont offer my erudite and learned readers food (all 10 of you!) refreshments.........

Hopefully the above will suffice ..........B-)

Experience Points

After long agonising about experience points ("levelling up" as the resident medium sized person calls it) while doing Daddy Grognards Training Dungeon for which the party dont accrue xps.
I decided it was time to come up with an xp system that didnt....

1) Involve loads of book-keeping.....hes nearly 10 makes neat maps but gets distracted (very) easily!
2) Didnt involve awarding 1GP = 1XP which I've not done for ages - monetary loot is reward enough in itself
3) Doesnt involve excessive xps for magic items gained - bearing in mind a +1 cloak to a 1st level thief/rogue is most of a level
4) Doesnt involve calculating an xp per hit point value (see 1)...DM/CK laziness on my part...

I hit on the following:

1HD = 100 xp - from Philotomy Jurament's page - this I think is fair and averages out the book-keeping involved for whose charater did what and when.
Halved if driven off or captured

500xp per plus of magic item be it misc magic or weapon (plus 50% if +1/+2 vs dungeon masters.....)

500xp per dose for one shot items such as potions

100xp per spell level LEARNED and COPIED

100xp per spell level from scroll when USED in game as opposed to shoved in a backpack and sold later .....

50xp x number of levels of party members for non combat encounters important to the adventure ....eg speaking nicely to an NPC and they garner a USEFUL piece of information to the quest.....loosely extrapolated from The Rusty Battleaxe..(thanks!)


Comments/critiques as always welcome.....yes I am aware of trading gp for xp for carousing after adventures ......but my player is 10 ......lets not go there B-)

Terrific Ten

Welcome to biopunk the latest soul to encounter this corner of the blogopolis - thanks for your comment!


@ Ancient Vaults - you're right - no stilton I'm afraid - will this do for now? B-)

Poll Goblinoids or Beastmen

I'm torn with indecision between the two for my game in Albion (qv)....

I dont know whether to go with the traditional Goblinoids or the more chaotic warped Beastheaded Men.......

Albion - an overview

Daddy Grognards Training Dungeon is nearly done - one quest object to recover - and then Team Thud and Blunder are bound for the warlike kingdoms of Albion.

In an earlier post I said I had to come up with an idea a nearly ten year old might engage with - so was Albion conceived for the following reasons.

1) Free map, easily identifiable which can be redrawn into Kingdoms...(Saxon,Celtic,Norse and "other")......ideas to be firmed up....the party are first level and not likely to go far....
2) Fits with the influences said young person has thus far encountered. (see previous link .....no there wont be any Kung Fu Robin Hood stuff.....B-)
3) A good excuse for me as DM/CK/GM to introduce all sorts of elements and ideas from diverse sources

Now I'm not really a top down GM in any shape of form - unlike my good pal Daddy Grognards VERY impressive campaign history post. .....I dont intend doing anything of the sort apart from an overview and then add to it from the ground up - this is how I've always done it and it suits my style of game. People, settlements and locations take shape as the adventurers encounter them from a page of jotted notes.....
The same can be said of ruins/dungeons - historically in the setting the only possible source of ruins/dungeons is the now withdrawn equivalent of the "Romans", the Dwarves who live in what approximates as Lancashire on a real world UK map..B-) with more (un)natural sites being around before the "Romans" appeared

The "Romans" withdrew xx years ago long before the PCs started out.....I'll fill in the xx as and when I need to.

The country is split into several kingdoms - of which the PCs are natives of one - they hail from a village - in the Kingdom of Mercia - in other words the middle bit!
I havnt got much further than that, but envisage points of light even in the more civilised areas giving the opportunity for things best not spoken of to lurk....

I need to do a map of the Kingdom of Mercia at some point with a nod in the direction of whats on the Borders.....where naturally there is a Keep/Fort on the Borderlands (slightly amended) which has an eye to expanding into a Haunted Keep - from Dragonsfoot - again tweaked a little.

There are all manner of unpleasantnesses - Undead,Dark Druids, Brigands, Evil Wizards and Sorceresses, Norsemen,Celts,Picts and beasties of all stripes....
On which note gentle reader(s) feel free to vote!

More to follow as things develop.

Noble Nine!

Welcome to Rob L the latest poor soul to wander into my little corner of the blogosphere!

Eastern Kobold Bloc - Training Dungeon Session 3

We start the action in the Zombie Masters room(24) .....and left soon after no mention of searching the Cleric or the cowering zombies as predicted - we then did a wander with a nod in the direction of scouting back to the ogre lair........(shame about not looting the Cleric really looking at his AC I'd decided he'd got half plate and a Dex bonus)

The hall of the Ogrelord was now empty apart from the six zombies - now under kobold control milling about......... (they'd been told to do this to spring the trap as below......)
Witchdoctor in left passage as you look at TD map with the solitary slinger, elite kobolds concealed behind the jutting out bit as a mobile reserve........the ogre and kobold chief concealed in the passageway to the goodly clerics chapel..(18).....

All orchestrated from his vantage point by the witchdoctor.....couldnt have worked better.....apart from one thing..

TT&B emerged and walked right into the trap, taking the diagonal passage towards where the good clerics are....as they were crossing the hall the W/Doctor blasted Elyra to -3 hp with a magic missile..............it was decided Rowenta being quite statuesque could drag/carry her

the elite guard circled round to fling darts into the back of Team Thud and Blunder.

The witchdoctor snuck off to see if he could "acquire" the other zombies - he did...........B-)

The ogre and kobold chief backing the boss up with stabbing spear ............surprised them............splat..........large spiked club swung with surprise hits Lukas to -3 hp

This left Galathrun and Ashnut facing the Ogre and Kobold chief........all I can say is good job gnomes get -4 to be hit by ogres .....Mr Ogre needed 20, total not natural to hit him!.

A storm of flung darts came in wounding Fergus and Rowenta - for whom the only option was to close with the elite guards.........

Galathrun,Ashnut the ogre and kobold all missed (kobold was stabbing from between the ogres legs with a spear)

Back to the other end of the corridor - Fergus was hit to -4 hp, remained conscious (made his Con save and carried on battling at a heavy penalty......)

Galathrun and Ashnut carried on while Lukas - who also made his Con save to remain conscious applied a bandage to get him to -1 hp

Now the bit where HTA get lucky and avoid a TPK by the skin of their teeth...........Galathrun plying his shortsword and dagger combo masterfully got a 20 - yes I saw it rolled - the d30 rule was thought of - we got an 8 - plus Galathruns impressive damage bonus under C&C rules (+3) , total 11, doubled for a critical = 22 damage to the ogre of 26 hp I rolled ..........not bad..............4hp left

things were looking hairy at the other end of the corridor ..........apart from I'd forgotten in the excitement that wizards can share their familiars hp - and thought it fair to summon the book to see if it made a difference...............Marmalade has 4hp...........Elyra was on -4..............I decided Marmalade would give her all 4 hp so she was at least conscious again.............so Elyra on 0hp and Marmalade on 0hp................Lukas on -1 now because of bandaging, Fergus on -4. Rowenta on her last few hp, Galathrun and Ashnut both ok..................

Fergus took a bit of overkill from the witchdoctor's second 2d4+2 magic missile (3rdlvl WD) who was now back with his new shuffly friends..........-12 hp...........splurgle.........
I did decide that Fergus having made his roll to come back would go and find Mach and try to persuade/shame him into another go - which worked.....more on that later.

Rowenta smote one of the four elite guards attacking her to the floor.....giving them pause for thought.............

Ashnut and Galathrun both made their Dex saves to switch - losing initiative, Galathrun missed,Ashnut clouted the ogre with his club, rolling between the ogres legs 6 damage..............hurrah for TT&B............crash went the ogre - the kobold chief didnt fancy his chances with the Mystery Man and the Gnome, made his dex save to avoid the falling ogre and legged it round the corner

So now we had a battle at one end of the corridor - Rowenta hit another elite guard but didnt smite him to the floor, four misses for the kobolds, Elyra gasped out her last sleep - got 8 HD worth and put the lot of them to sleep ............Rowenta spotted a wall of decaying zombies advancing towards them behind which was a capering and very happy Witchdoctor..............

Even Lukas at this point decided discretion might be the better part of valour so our intrepid neophytes withdrew/limped/straggled chased by the odd dart up the passageway to the Trapped Clerics (18) Chapel......which they entered......after pointing out it wasnt really socially acceptable to rummage through the clerics cells.........a bit of meaningful social interaction occured and an exchange of news - the Clerics offered their services in battling the Zombies after being told of the shift in power in exchange for a quest............spells recovered and healed up some hours later............they went up to the room that contains the shaft to level three.............................and had a bit of a video game moment deciding that finishing level 2 was required first..............despite the senior clerics words of wisdom that zombies and kobolds might be too strong for them...............so...........with an "I know what I'm doing and zombies arent very tough"...........we headed back to the what is henceforth the Kobold Hall (15).............ambling past the passageway in which they got bottled up the first time - a storm of darts hit them from the side - on they went - with the kobolds encroaching.............they got to the bottom to see two ranks of zombies and a capering witchdoctor...............Rowenta dropped her holy symbol on a 1..........forwards shuffled the zombies........................Galathrun and Elyra both started casting glances over their shoulders along with the suggestion of " this REALLY isnt a good idea"............so they ran back past a dart storm to the chapel - who were pleased to see them........again......... after so short a time ...............a bit more free healing was done........and level three was breached..........B-)

Lukas and Galathrun manfully and half-elffully (is that a word?!...B-)........) battered the door down - made their Dex saves to stay on their feet and were attacked by a swarm of chitin............a long combat ensued with the two of them in the door (we've learned about doors and frontage at least) a few nips by the centipedes were got in - five in total - all the saves at +4 were made and we explored as far as the hallway to the north, the blocked passage wasnt noted as no mention of careful looking was made.................

At which point the medium sized persons attention span expired and after a dialogue about where to rest – Team Thud and Blunder ascended the shaft and went back to the Clerics.........there we left it ..........now we are five...........at the moment............

'Eroic Eight

Welcome to James from the Underdark Gazette - good to see you....and nice blog!

Magnificent Seven

Welcome to bat- the most recent addition to the bunch of good people who read my infrequently posted "stuff" and publisher of cool magic items beasties and other goodness on a near daily basis as far as I can tell....B-)

Obituary for an Evil Cleric - Team Thud and Blunder session 2

TT&B left the wolf room (8)......no "wanderers" again and visited the spider room (1)...........which was enough to do away with its poison bite of Mach the Horrendously Strong......who failed his Wis save to come back - and didnt - at least not this session........

Two small gems were recovered............

We finally encountered the wizard and thief(10)......a magic mouth told them to go away - so they dithered - then the "mystery man" was told to open the door a fraction and look (he successfully listened first)..................there then followed a long conversation about what could be seen in a room if a door was opened just to peep through...........resolved by the use of a real life door as a prop ..(this is one of the great things about gaming with kids - they think their characters have all sorts of innate abilities, usable at will)..........Galathrun and Lukas emerged into the room to be confronted by the wizard behind his desk and the thief skulking by the door (who wasnt spotted)...............(luckily for Lukas it didnt kick off or he would have got the sneak hit)

The wizard said - "Go away minions and mind your own business"...... so they did.............ok I thought being a kindly and just DM....no hostilities were initiated on either side so we'll leave it there for now......

We then investigated the goblin lair(2) of which there were 4 archers left - who positioned themselves cleverly in the two corners of the room opposite the door, having heard the party lumbering round, spiked it shut with whatever was to hand and took up defensive positions - arrows nocked.

A brief interlude followed while TT&B tried to get the door open...........5 minutes later the dice gods smiled on the remote chance and the door was splintered open to a storm of goblin arrows...well 8 in total, 4 hits...Lukas and Galathrun were both hit being the strong chaps opening the door.....they then split into two to go after the goblins - Lukas and Rowenta in one corner, Fergus and Galathrun the other - 3 goblins were slain and some randomly generated loot garnered.....
Rowenta used both her cures and Fergus one of his and most folk were mended........

Hurrah but a bit of moping about Mach......a bit of randomly generated Goblin treasure - duly written on notes sheet was snapped up.........lottery win - noted on neatly kept loot paper.....

We then went and re-investigated the "slime room"(5)having had a conversation about not ordering clerics to heal but asking them nicely ......and the view expressed "on Pukemon I dont do heal till they have 1hp".......

My reply somewhat exasperated reply- "Forget pukemon - most people wont carry on on 1hp"..........Pukemon has a lot to answer for it seems.......still we seem to be making headway.....

The secret panel was spotted by Fergus...... - Lukas and Elyra having taken some damage from a swim in the slime pool = one unhappy wizardette.....

We had some dithering on the platform around what to do with the locked panel and how to get it open......decided we couldnt be a**ed to think about it and expressed an interest in the shaft the gnome had looked at..........

Carefully ignoring the rusty iron spike we used our grapnel attached to the side of the pit and rope to descend......Elyra had a near miss but they all got down safely......

Out of the hall and onto TD Level 2- we went "up" and around the corridor to the statue room (25)...........more dithering ........eventually we decided to try firing a crossbow bolt at the statues arms.........nothing......(not surprisingly!!!)


"Perhaps the join implies they're meant to be moved" suggested the soggy and unhappy MU - who really was having a bad day in the TD so far........

Hurrah - we got the skeleton warrior - who got some awful attack rolls and failed to hit even one of his statues.....Lukas cleverly used his warhammer and the d30 rule without prompting and the skeleton warrior was bone splinters...............HTA took the sword (amended to a large broadsword of masterful quality... +1 to hit and damage)...........I dont want to overload them with magic before hitting the mean kingdoms of Albion ...........

They carelessly completely ignored the antique half plate armour as well..........

Next the gnome was sent to scout along the passageway leading to the ogre hall (16)..............came back with a report of "a figure at the end of the passage" having made his skulkiness roll............

We then boldly marched up to the kobold sentry - who alerted his fellows - which led to a bit of a dialogue about "a figure" meaning human and therefore friendly, I wasnt about to describe it if he didnt ask and he didnt - legged it down past the Zombies room .....paused .....one trap got set off and we decided to turn and fight.............
More dithering and a rush by a a dozen kobolds - the bigger ones in reserve with the ogre - (which the party were unaware of)

Elyra the Unhappy to the rescue (again) with a sleep - did ten of them -all dispatched ............one sliced with shiny new sword and the other one legged it.


Then the zombie trap was sprung - having passed their room - (with nowhere to go I thought I'd reward the Too Much Effort Cant Be A*sed with a little surprise) - however the dice gods REALLY were smiling on TT&B this week ..............the zombies shuffled out ............BOTH Fergus and Rowenta succeeded in turning them at a penalty because of the evil cleric

(I decided they got half each and being in slightly different spots with different lines of sight) ...

(the first ever roll of the d12 came up 12 - followed by 10)..........anyway............half the zombies went back in the room ....away...pushing past their creator...and nowhere to go...............the other half shambled along the corridor ...........into where the ogre and reserves were waiting in ambush.......

Back to the room - a moment of tactical insight occured which is that flawless I really cant find fault with.......Lukas, Galathrun and the Gnome Ashnut were nominated to go into the room and smite the cleric while Fergus and Rowenta tried to counter any undoing of their turning efforts.................

The idea seems to have been got from some browser game of other that thieves are good at fighting...........most odd..........

The cleric decided he'd rather regain control of what was left of his undead shield - not unreasonably - and succeeded with the half dozen he could now see - only to be countered by BOTH the party clerics again.........who both scored more than he did..........cowering zombies............cleric couldnt do anything having tried to get his followers in order.......

Large broadsword non proficient was swung - 20 - critical - and a natural 20 is always a natural 20 after all - 24 damage to Evil Cleric in one go......gout, gout splurgle....

Much rushing round and an impromptu cabaret ensued.......he was that pleased .............

Evil cleric was dispatched permanently no chances to beg or grovel for mercy .....................and thats where we left it - because tea time happened

– and Mummys word drowns out all others and must be obeyed....;-)