SNFC Substitution - Halfling Pit Fight!

As theres no Saturday Night Fight Club this week I thought I'd offer this as a substitute (and because I hates Hobbitses) and I always liked the pit fighting part in the first Conan film.

Anybody ever play or remember A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade?
Lets assume for a moment there arent a party of adventurers rampaging through the fort and the match goes ahead without intervention........

Well in Room 33 of the Upper Level - Servants Quarters the following match is happening.....

Halfling - Level 0 (1+1 HD) AC 10 - but lets give him 16 Dex (so AC 8)
D 1-3 Tableleg
hp: 7

Against......

A Badger - HD 1+2 AC 4 d 1-3 Bite
hp:8

Round 1 initiative : Hobbit 4 + 2 for Dex reaction = 6, Badger 6 (5 with movement penalty)
Hobbit to hit: 16 damage : 3
Badger now has 5 hp - these little chaps are vicious in a tight spot!
Badger to hit: : 18 - hit - 2 damage
Hobbit also has 5 hp

Gladiators ready!
Round 2.....
Badger initiative:4
Hobbit initiative:3

Badger to hit: 6..................ohhhhh
Hobbit to hit: 16.......booooo ........1 damage
End of round 2 Hobbit 5 hp, Badger 4 hp........

The crowd of goblins and kobolds in the room are going wild.................

Round 3:
Hobbit initiative 5
Badger 5
simultaneous!
both hit!.........Badger 3, Hobbit 1 (puny chairleg clubs for you!)
End of round three its all even again - Hobbit 2 hp, Badger 3 hp.........

Round four:
Initiative..........simultaneous again - 4 apiece!
Hobbit hits........badger...........misses..............
1 damage to the badger giving him 2 hp left and still in with a chance........

Round five:
Initiative: Badger 4 Hobbit 8 (!)
Both miss...........which will no doubt attact a few missiles from the crowd (they are kobolds and goblins after all!)

Round six:
Initiative: Hobbit - 3 Badger 4 (no doubt the Hobbits thinking about 3rd breakfast!)
Badger to hit........20.......
Hobbit to hit...........9.......

Damage to hobbit 6 ............-3 hp and gouting!
BADGER WINS.............despite having his back legs tied together in the adventure description and an initiative penalty!................

Now that surprised even me at the end!

So Mr Badger what are the good things in life?.................

Small Peoples Poll

Well - the Gnomes, Goblins and Ratfolk came out nearly neck and neck!

0 (yes thats zero votes) for the Hobbitses!

Oh how we hates them........and now we dont have to have them in our games either....oh no preciousss..........now where did I put that Ring? B-)

First XV

Welcome to Leopardi aka Dungeondad!

Its tea and cake time again.......B-)

Training Dungeon Session 6 - The Final Enemy

Our intrepid heroes woke in the Ogres loot room and without prompting investigated the water area on Level 3

After some sensible ideas about exploring some underwater swimming (1/3 Con rounds to hold breath was done)
At the furthest duration before air ran out the locked grille was discovered.......

Round they trotted to directly above it (no prompting)

And investigated further - locked.grille......Grobsek the Goblin sneak thief/archer took a dip .......and after some fiddling with his trusty bent nail, adding bonuses and penalties the lock was sprung....

Grobsek was assisted out spluttering and coughing and Mach and Lukas went to do the strongman business and failed........I decided they'd succeed on 1-4 ......5 was rolled .........which set the tone for later on......

The grille was shifted on the second attempt and the final clay token retrieved...............hurrah ............high 5's for Team Thud and Blunder

We then went haring off to the puzzle/payoff room - at last a WM roll came up - adventurers - mwhahaha........

So - the puzzle was solved - and the GPs poured out - 1000gp - reaction was something like I would have to winning the Euromillions megarollover draw!

“We're going to sit and count them” was announced.............just as they were getting to the end of the pile (998) they all fell asleep.............

and woke to a room devoid of GPs........They'd been mugged by the Neutral MU and his thief henchman from level 1 who had been following their progress with interest and thought they'd make a few quick GPs.

I may have been a bit soft but thought they deserved a chance to at least ambush the Neutral MU and his sneaky friend using the multi level shaft which the NPCs wouldnt be aware of...........working on the assumption sleep lasts one turn and the baddies would have to bundle stuff into a sack nip back to their basecamp then out etc..........

A bit of dice rolling later calculating movements and rare use of the movement with not much strength laden with heavy sacks......added to Grobsek the Goblins helpful hints they managed to get into position to ambush by the entrance....

The party was split - three by the exit and two (Lukas and Rowenta skulking in the side passages) with Grobsek the Goblin lurking and keeping lookout.......

Grobsek wasnt spotted as the thief and wizard wandered past him ....so followed ............until Max said he wanted him to try a backstab........made surprise.........got a 1.....

Lukas and Rowenta swiped at the wizard with surprise and both missed.............

A knife fight ensued between Grobsek wielding long knives (d1-5) and the thief with two daggers........

a 16 was rolled - enough to hit the thief – the once per session roll of the d30 for damage was nominated..............1.............

Wicked DM nearly rolling on floor chortling uncontrollably...............

Lukas and Rowenta won initiative and Lukas got a 20 – verified as rolled properly as it came to rest against the DMs screen........

Massive damage to the now ex wizard............chest critical

The thief defeated Grobsek in the knife fight and started backing away...........

The three by the entrance had heard the scuffle and I decided it'd take the rest of that round to get there and they could do something next round..........

Hurrah - TT&B won initiative as the thief turned to leg it with the sack full of loot...............

Glancing blow from Fergus with a javelin..........

Up stepped Mach.............we were standing next to each other by now - new smoky transparent d20 was rolled.....the Dice Gods smiled!

.........20..............

........4 got on the d6 plus Machs impressive strength bonus (+3) - doubled ...........14 damage ..........splot.........sack of gold recovered and TD exited -


I decided on a GP split for all involved and the faffing about with magic items started..........despite Lukas wanting everything the kindly DM pointed out some were more suited to certain classes than others..........

Next up – the big bad kingdoms of Albion await!

Goblinoids Win

The goblinoids won by a tiny margin on the poll - which means I'm going to have to use both.

Thanks for your votes and comments good people of the Blogopolis!

Berserker!

The above Frank Frazetta picture always caught my eye as the epitome of berserking barbarian hero

I dont know about you good people out there - personally I've never been happy with any of the published Berserker/Battlerager apart from maybe the WD Articles one which has been given a few tweaks in previous games as follows:

Requirements: Str:15 Dex:11 Con:15
Level Advancement: As Ranger
Armour: Chainmail or lighter
Sheild: Yes - but gnawed on then thrown away when berserk/raging
Hit dice: d10 (to 11th level)

Races: Human,Dwarf, Half Orc and Half Ogre

Berserking:
Must spend one round chewing on shield,favourite nail etc....
+2 to hit and +1 PER LEVEL damage for duration of battle madness
Lasts one round per level plus one round - must make a WIS save to end fury early or will attack nearest being - including friendlies (!)
Will carry on fighting to -10 hp (or death depending on ruleset)

Thats the bare bones from memory - it has been play tested extensively over the last 2o years and works ............B-)

Happy Slaying!

Formidable Fourteen!

Welcome to Joe the Lawyer - I've stumbled across your blog previously - I hope you find something of interest in this little corner of the blogscape!

Before I'm reminded from certain quarters about refreshments - hope this is sufficient!

Bakers Dozen

Welcome to The Acrobatic Flea to my little fortified watchtower in the Blogopolis

Have some tea and bikkits because its that time of day!

Mystery Man Slain - Training Dungeon Session 5

Following the Molotov-ing of the Ghouls TT&B rested in the puzzle room next to the Potion Room.........

After some mapping recap we wandered back to the Spartan Orcs room - empty – and, not proceeding very carefully wandered past the shaft and followed the passageway to the Bugbear bait room ........- harking back to the Carrion Crawlers it was mentioned to look round carefully this time............spotted the door............looking and listening was forgotten and the door was booted open to be confronted with the remaining five Orc Spartans in shield-wall formation with the Orc witchdoctor behind

- I've decided shield-wall gives a further +1 bonus to AC from being protected by the chaps adjacent.

The Bugbear brothers/triplets were skulking to the left of the door in the corner as the map is looked at........

No further mention of looking, adopting any form of formation was mentioned or anything else apart from seeing there was only five orcs including the witchdoctor - who started doing a chant - Lukas, Mach, Galathrun and Fergus were nominated to charge in with very mixed results.....
Mach smote one to the ground as did Lukas.....Fergus missed...........

Galathrun the Destroyer of Worlds Goblins and Centipedes at last showed he was mortal - taking a critical for maximum damage and going to -5 hp...........and expired several rounds later........the combat lasted seven rounds before anybody was free to do anything other than fight........

Meanwhile the Bugbear brothers crept out and surprised the non fighter members of TT&B - Ashnut fell to two bashes with spiky maces to -8 hp(and also expired) and Elyra was bashed to -4 hp.

Which left Rowenta and Grobsek the Goblin Archer...........so back to the brave warriors fighting the Spartan Orcs - another round of attacks ensued - the Orcs rolling low this time - one minor hit - with a reply of another Orc downed leaving three...........

To be fair it did occur the Bugbear Bros were now behind the fighter types - and Lukas and Fergus disengaged - leaving Mach to fight the three remaining Spartans!

Rowenta and Grobsek managed to hurt a Bugbear to about half hps between them - Rowenta got bashed back to half hp

(I'm seriously thinking of making her into an Amazon cleric of some sort, eschewing St Cuthbert)

Return of hits in both directions on the two bold warriors and the Bugbears........

The orcs all missed Mach - with him hitting one back with a critical 20 - felling it - down to two.........

The bold warriors on the bugbears got hit to 1hp apiece - but Fergus wounded his in return.........Lukas dropped his new shiny sword.........

Rowenta missed her Bugbear and got hit to 1hp.......the Bugbear took a glancing hit from a barbed Goblin arrow........the goblin being at a bit of a penalty firing into melee at a bigger target

Mach felled another Orc - and got wounded to 2hp in return

(The intrepid heroes now had about 12 hp between them - 6 of which were the Goblin archers............B-).............)

Lukas got a 20 - critical - and smote his Bugbear to the floor..............Fergus wounded his and was missed in return - the bugbears had hit a low rolling patch........

Rowenta finished her bugbear - and Elyra remembered her Potion of Extra Healing and took half of it - making her Con -5 roll ......her cons only 10

To cut a long story short..........the Bugbear Bros and Orcs were dispatched .........barely ........Lukas ended up on -2 hp and got a dose of the Potion.

Two "dead" Ashnut and Galathrun the Mystery Man................

The Golden Chalice necessary to free the trapped but friendly Clerics was recovered and some resting, curing and mourning for fallen companions was done ...



Back to the Clerics on level 2 we went - who offered to help out with the Kobolds and the Zombies - I shan't describe it in vast detail - having SIX clerics to turn the Zombies it was a bit one sided - the remaining Kobolds including the Witchdoctor were all slept.........the only major problem and star of the whole combat was the Ogre Zombie who battered the biggest Cleric to a quivering bloody pulp along with hurting Lukas and one of the lesser clerics.............Rowenta took pity on Lukas and did a cure.........

that done ........we investigated the now Kobold Hall (carefully) and the switch was spotted ...... I had to use the on/off principle of a real switch to illustrate the point.............so it got pressed it twice ...........and Lukas got speared.........3-18 damage with save vs Dex for half dmage which he made............so only half (6)

Back to the real life light switch and the suggestion if you wanted to protect something with a trap operated by a switch would you leave it on or off?

On ....was the reply............hurrah .............the switch was switched off and the traps disabled...............to be confronted with a double locked door..........

You will recall here all the thieves were slain by the Bugbears

Fifteen minutes of dithering followed till I started rolling wandering monsters behind the screen.............and dropped the helpful hint via Elyra ......what normally opens locks................keys............at last we were getting somewhere...................

So Elyra and orange cat familiar were sent off for keys - they took a while - finding and freeing Ragnar the Skald imprisoned in the Oubliette then dawdling back after searching the bodies!

There they rested – some more permanently than others – it nearly being the end of the excellent Daddy Grognard Training Dungeon – for beginning players of all ages and sizes.........B-)

What Happens when you call your local Warlord "Stupid Idiot"

This is taken a bit out of context compared to my other posts but I'm still chuckling now....

So there we are neophyte adventurers wandering down the road .....

In the spirit of Old Schoolness I thought it might be a good opportunity for them to meet some of the movers and shakers in their part of the world on an incognito mission to the Oracle in the Forest....

So, they met Uhtred, Warlord of Mercia and the (soon to be) Queen AEthelflaed who were having a bit of wagon trouble....(good excuse to introduce attribute check xps)

Lukas helped Uhtred mend the wagon - and called him "stupid idiot" ...because he kept calling him "laddie".........
I really didnt think anybody would call a "heavily muscled warrior in his 40s, with lots of scars, stripped to the waist holding the corner of a wagon up" - "idiot"
I give two chances as well to revise what was going to be said........

So after a couple of punches (two of many possible multiple attacks) and stunning damage to Lukas they accompanied the strangers to the Kings Head in Melford......

Oh well at least they got noticed........B-)

Dice Bag!

I was reading a discussion somewhere about dicebags - and picked this little beauty up for less than £5 inc shipping from the US on Ebay.

Its listed as a 5x7 Tarot bag - check out Annabelles Ebay Shop if anybodys interested.

Starting Hit Points

I've decided to houserule that characters start with their Con score as physical hit points at 1st level to save them being mauled/trampled to death by domestic animals.
This represents the real "toughness" damage they can take.

Its not quite the +20 hp kicker at 1st level Hackmaster gives and to my mind makes already frail first level characters more survivable - most can now take a couple of good whacks. The appropriate HD is then gained at subsequent levels as "non physical" HPs.

Of course this means corporeal monsters have more hit points as well......

Floaty things like wraiths use their listed Int/Wis as a base then add the appropriate HD.

I think this may actually work without wrecking the mechanics too much......B-)

Terrific Twelfth

Welcome Kathulu .......I hope you mind something remotely interesting in my little corner of the Blogscape

Biscuits added..........to keep certain people happy..........B-)

Hobgoblins

These chaps from the Wychwood Brewery are what I always see Hobgoblins as being like.

I'm therefore going to remove Orcs pig-faced or otherwise altogether and have a general lump of goblinoids consisting of Goblins/Hobgoblins/Bugbears


Is that heresy I wonder?!........B-)

Enlightened Eleven...

A warm welcome to my corner of the blogopolis to Dungeonmum!

Before ancient vaults reminds me of my lack of hospitality again heres some tea and bikkits........