Weird War II monster factory 3

The "Widowmaker" demon is the most powerful of the common extradimensionals and the only one to demonstrate any significant intelligence. Though apparently unable to direct the actions of the lesser abominations, widowmakers are able to use the natural instincts of these monsters to their own advantage. They will use the extremely aggressive racknees and devil dogs as cannon fodder before moving in to mop up any survivors. Besides their enormous ripping claws, the most terrifying aspect of the widowmaker is its mind blast attack, which can render several foes helpless before the demon moves in to rend its victims limb from limb.


STR 5D6+9 (ave. 26-27)
CON 3D6+6 (ave. 16-17)
SIZ 5D6+9 (ave. 26-27)
INT 2D6+6 (ave. 13)
POW 3D6+3 (ave. 13-14)
DEX 2D6+3 (ave. 10)
APP 1D6 (ave. 3-4)
Move: 8 Hit points: 21-22 Damage bonus: +2D6
Armour: 4 pt carapace
Attacks: Claw 50% 1D10+db (bleeding)
Skills: Dodge 30%, Hide 30%, Jump 20%, Listen 35%, Sense 50%, Spot 35%, Stealth 20%, Track 30%
Powers: Super Sense (Infrared Vision) 2, Mind Blast

-Rognar-

Weird War II monster factory 2

Devil Dogs are the second most common of the dimensional horrors, after racknees. The size of a riding horse, but with the ferocity of a badger, devil dogs are a nightmare of fangs and claws. They are not as fast as racknees, so they often fall upon victims already crippled by the smaller, faster abominations that precede them. Otherwise, they use their greater strength to hunt prey which has managed to find some protection from racknees, such has locking themselves in a car or room.


STR 4D6+3 (ave. 17)
CON 3D6 (ave. 10-11)
SIZ 3D6+6 (ave. 16-17)
INT 5
POW 2D6 (ave. 7)
DEX 2D6+6 (ave. 13)
APP 1D6 (ave. 3-4)
Move: 10 Hit points: 13-14 Damage bonus: +1D6
Armour: 2 pt hide
Attacks: Bite 50% 1D8+db (bleeding)
Skills: Dodge 40%, Hide 30%, Jump 50%, Listen 35%, Sense 50%, Spot 35%, Stealth 40%, Track 50%
Powers: Super Sense (Infrared Vision) 2

-Rognar-

Weird War II monster factory 1

This new series of posts will reveal new monsters created for my "Tommies at the Gates of Hell" Weird War II campaign for BRP. Only monsters that have already appeared in the campaign, now into its third session, will be presented.

Though details are sketchy at this point, it is clear that Nazi scientists have released some kind of monster apocalypse upon the war-ravaged European continent. The carnage has been horrific. The Allies are in full retreat, leaving civilians behind to face an onslaught of horrors from some alien dimension. Whole nations have been depopulated, including Germany itself.

Small pockets of survivors struggle daily against the waves of alien abominations that sweep across the land, including a small group of British soldiers and Belgian civilians near the city of Rochfort. This is where the story begins.

The Horrors:

Racknees are six-legged arachnoids the size of large dogs, but with the speed of a race horse. Though not displaying any discernible intelligence, racknees are exceedingly cruel. They rarely kill their prey immediately, preferring instead to take one or two large bites from the victim's legs or flanks and then moving on, leaving the wounded person or animal to bleed out.


STR 2D6+6 (ave. 13)
CON 3D6 (ave. 10-11)
SIZ 1D6+3 (ave. 6-7)
INT 5
POW 2D6 (ave. 7)
DEX 3D6+6 (ave. 16-17)
APP 1D6 (ave. 3-4)
Move: 12 Hit points:8-9 Damage bonus: none
Armour: 2 pt carapace
Attacks: Bite 50% 1D10+db (bleeding)
Skills: Dodge 50%, Hide 40%, Jump 50%, Listen 35%, Sense 50%, Spot 35%, Stealth 40%, Track 30%
Powers: Super Sense (Infrared Vision) 2

-Rognar-

Weird War II - The Sons of Solomon and the OSI

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, more commonly known as the Knights Templar, was a powerful Christian military order charged with the defense of the Holy Land during the Crusades. From humble beginnings, the Knights Templar grew to become a wealthy organization, with holdings from the eastern Mediterranean to the British Isles. With the fall of the Crusader States in the late 13th century, the Knights Templar lost its primary function as an order of fighting monks, becoming, in effect, a multinational bank with a standing army. This was a situation which caused both envy and fear among the kings of Europe. In 1307, King Philip IV of France, with the grudging support of Pope Clement V, brought the hammer down on the Knights Templar, executing its leaders and seizing its assets under trumped up charges of heresy and corruption. The Templars were no more, or so the official historical record says.

During the time the Knights Templar resided in Jerusalem, they were exposed to the ancient knowledge of Greece, Persia and Egypt. They learned of prophecy and the mysteries of the world beyond the frontiers of Christendom and they grew powerful in the practice of sorcery. Although their accusers did not realize it, some of the Templars really were guilty of the crimes of which they were accused. Forseeing their own demise, they orchestrated events to ensure the survival of their inner circle of sorcerers and their most valuable and potent treasures and magicks. Escaping to Scotland, which was under papal excommunication at the time, the surviving Templars eventually made their way to North America. Abandoning their old name and their association with the Roman Catholic Church, they became the Sons of Solomon, a fraternal order of sorcerers dedicated to understanding the true nature of the universe and defending humanity from the horrors of the void. They remained very secretive for centuries, but questions persisted. Only a handful of Templars were executed and a minority were absorbed in other orders. This still left many hundreds of Templars unaccounted for. Rumours of a secret order circulated and it was assumed, of course, that much of the wealth of the Knights Templar remained in the hands of that group. As the population of the United States grew, it became more difficult for the Sons of Solomon to keep their activities secret. So, they created Freemasonry. Purposefully secretive and incorporating many symbols associated with the Knights Templar, the Freemasons drew the attention of those who believed the Knights Templar persisted. They were well-funded and they attracted a lot of powerful men, especially in 18th-century America. Once fully-established, the Sons of Solomon drew away from the Freemasons, secure in the knowledge that they could retain their anonymity. In truth, the Freemasons, though steeped in mystical traditions, never had much understanding or belief in the arcane basis of their rituals. They were little more than decoys, providing cover for the true power, the Sons of Solomon.

Throughout their history, the Sons of Solomon have fought many evil sorcerers, who sought power through alliances with horrors of the void. The most prominent include Vlad Dracul and his son, Vlad Tepes, Countess Elizabeth Báthory and Rasputin. Throughout the centuries, their power was always sufficient to ensure the enemies of humanity could not establish a foothold in our dimension. However, the seers of the Sons of Solomon saw a rising darkness as the Nazis rose to prominence in Germany. Their visions were cryptic and hazy. A great, malevolent force was rising in the heart of Europe and for the first time, the Sons of Solomon felt their power was inadequate to contain the enemy. Using their Freemason connections, the Sons worked to influence the US and UK governments and militaries. They arranged for the creation of the OSI to serve as their eyes and ears on the battlefronts of Europe. Embedded within the Allied armies, but not part of them, the OSI would investigate incidents of a weird or supernatural nature, always seeking to ascertain what Nazi sorcerers were doing. They even recruited the great British sorcerer, Aleister Crowley, despite his unsavoury reputation and far too public profile. Crowley's sorcerous delvings proved immensely invaluable, giving the OSI much-needed intelligence into the activities of the Ahnenerbe. Sadly, his scrying efforts would eventually cost Crowley his sanity, but without him, the Nazis would have surely proved victorious in the war.

-Rognar-

Weird War II - The Thule Society and the Ahnenerbe

The Thule Society and the Ahnenerbe were both real organizations. The former was a secret society formed in Germany in the dying days of WWI. The Thule Society was created to advance a theory of German racial superiority based on the works of 19th-century mystic, Helena Blavatsky. Though never a large organization, several of its members would be influential in the early days of the Nazi party. Rudolf Hess and Hans Frank were known to be active members, while Dietrich Eckart, Heinrich Himmler, Alfred Rosenburg and Hermann Göring were believed to have had some association. The formal association between the Thule Society and the German Worker's Party (later to become the Nazi Party) was severed at Hitler's insistence in 1920 and the organization was dissolved in 1925. However, one of its founders, Rudolf von Sebottendorff revived it briefly in 1933. The Nazis moved to suppress the organization and von Subottendorff was imprisoned briefly, before being released and fleeing to Turkey. That is where the official history of the Thule Society ends and the unofficial history begins. Rudolf Hess still believed in the theories of the Thule Society, even if the Führer did not. Working behind the scenes for the next several years, he aided the Thule Society, providing documents and money to former members, allowing them to escape Germany and set up branches of the organization in Istanbul and London. During that time, Thule members delved deeper into the occult, learning about sorcery and psychic powers, parallel dimensions and extraterrestrial beings. The mysticism of Madame Blavatsky, the racist theories of Houston Stewart Chamberlain and the speculations regarding Atlantis advanced by Ignatius Donnelly, combined with their own occult experimentation and their sense of betrayal by Hitler, forged a powerful league of sorcerers determined to overthrow the Führer and bring about an Aryan superpower that would encorporate all the Anglo-Germanic nations of the world, including Britain and America.

The sorcerers and psychics of the Thule Society faced a difficult dilemma in the early stages of the war. They wanted to undermine Hitler, but the success of the military campaigns in Poland and France served their interests. Furthermore, what efforts they did undertake were easily countered by Nazi blood mages, who were far more numerous and powerful than the Thules realized. In fact, Nazi occult research had advanced far more than that of the Thule Society. A secretive bureau within the SS known as the Ahnenerbe, created by Himmler, was advancing the theories of the Thule Society far beyond anything that had been conceived of before. Formed in 1935, they had, by the start of the war, made contact and even alliances with extradimensional beings. They had learned much from these entities and their sorcerous knowledge had grown exponentially. Opponents, such as the Thule Society and the Sons of Solomon (descendants of the Knights Templar from which the OSI would be formed), were no match for the sorcerers of the Ahnenerbe. Indeed, only Aleister Crowley, Britain's most powerful sorcerer, had any insight into what the Ahnenerbe was capable of and his grip on sanity was failing by then. Oddly enough, the Ahnenerbe and the Thule Society were working toward the same goal, removal of Hitler and the establishment of an Aryan empire that would span the globe. However, the Ahnenerbe had far more ambition and could see much farther into realms of space and time that were beyond the modest abilities of the Thules. They needed to keep the Führer around for awhile longer until their grand plan could be fully realized. On December 25, 1944 at a place of horror in southern Poland, the first stage of that plan came to fruition.

-Rognar-

Sorcery in Weird War II

Sorcery, as it's presented in the core rulebook of Basic RolePlaying, is actually a small subset of a much larger set of options broadly outlined in the Stormbringer and Elric! roleplaying games. For those familiar with Call of Cthulhu, which also uses sorcery, the biggest difference is the variety of offensive, defensive and utility spells available. CoC tends to view sorcery as something performed under special conditions, requiring detailed rituals and much preparation. Except for a handful of offensive and defensive spells such as the Elder Sign, most CoC spells involve contacting various Mythos entities or summoning/binding servitor races. For this reason, sorcery is a pursuit best avoided by most right-thinking characters in Call of Cthulhu, except in cases of extreme duress. And, of course, the very act of performing sorcery in CoC has a corrosive effect on one's sanity.

In BRP and Stormbringer, sorcery is more common and has no sanity implications, although the requisite POW score is prohibitive, ensuring that sorcerers are a rare breed. There are three main types of sorcery and typically, a high-level sorcerer will be adept in all three. These are spells, runes and summonings. Spells represent the default form of sorcery, the type to which most low-level sorcerers will be limited. Spells have the advantages of being quick to prepare and demanding modest power point expenditures, although durations are quite short. This is the type of sorcery used most often in combat.

Runes, as the name implies, require the preparation of an inscribed symbol which will trigger a sorcerous effect when certain conditions are met. Runes can persist for days or even years until triggered, making them useful for setting traps. Some runes duplicate the effects of spells, while others offer unique options such as wards or alarms. Most forms of Lawful sorcery are runic.

In game terms, summonings work just like spells, except they are more detailed and require greater preparation. In that respect, they are similar to Call of Cthulhu sorcery. Sorcerers can summon demons or elementals. There are also some necromantic summonings which allow a sorcerer to summon spirits to inhabit prepared corpses or even living hosts. In the latter case, the spirit of the victim is destroyed and the summoned spirit takes possession of the body. The newly-created undead is then bound to the service of the necromancer. Summoned entities are often bound, either in their living state or as the animating essence of some powerful magic item. The summoner has to spend enough power points to define the summoned creature. A fully-formed demon servant will be more costly because points will have to be spent to define physical characteristics such as STR, SIZ, CON, DEX and Move as well as POW and INT. Such a demon would require far more power points than even the most powerful sorcerer would have available. Therefore, a means of storing power points is needed to cast summonings. This requires significant preparation. Also, binding demons, elementals and undead requires the sacrifice of POW points. This is a particularly demanding requirement and one only considered by truly powerful summoners.

-Rognar-

More on allegiences

In the previous post, I talked about earning points in allegiences in order to define your character's motivations. Now I'll discuss what sorts of actions earn those points. As one might expect, it is easier to earn points for a Chaos allegience than either Law or Balance. Betrayal, wanton violence and vandalism are all ways that can potentially earn Chaos allegience points. Another way is the use of sorcery. Sorcery is inherently Chaotic, although there are a handful of Lawful spells and runes. Ironically, even the casting of Lawful sorcery can earn Chaos points, unless the sorcerer atones afterwards. A sorcerer with a Lawful allegience has to walk a fine line, using his powers reluctantly and always mindful of his allegience budget. Needless to say, demon summoning and necromancy are extremely Chaotic forms of sorcery and should never be pursued by Lawful sorcerers.

Law stresses self-discipline and respect for authority. A character with a Lawful allegience will depend on skills rather than sorcery or supernatural aid. Advancement of skills to high levels will earn Law allegience points. Other Lawful actions include obeying one's superiors and destruction of obviously Chaotic constructs such as summoned demons and animated corpses.

Balance is, perhaps, the most difficult path to follow. It demands much of its followers, including, sometimes, the ultimate sacrifice. An adherent of Balance must be merciful and a defender of the weak. He must resist both tyranny and anarchy without resorting to either. He may use sorcery as long as it serves the greater good, but must never dabble in summoning or necromancy. Any effort on the part of a character with a Balance allegience, either through the use of sorcery or skill, that prevents death and destruction will be worthy of allegience points.

-Rognar-

Allegiences in Weird War II

Basic RolePlaying does not use an alignment system the way Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder do. Rather, a character has multiple allegiences and builds up points in them depending on his actions. To use D&D as an example, the GM might decide to create five allegiences; Good, Evil, Law, Chaos and Neutrality. A character would typically start out with 1d6-2 pts. in each and then gain more points in one or more of the allegiences through the campaign. If one allegience exceeds any other by 20 pts. or more, that allegience becomes dominant and may attract the attention of powers who share that allegience. For example, a novice cleric of a lawful diety might not attract much notice from either his god or the hierarchy of his church. However, if he acts in an exemplary fashion and accumulates a lot of points for his Law allegience, he may be rewarded for his piety. Of course, if he acted in a chaotic manner and his Chaos allegience began to overshadow his Law allegience, the resulting attention he would receive would not be welcome. Furthermore, when a character reaches 100 pts. in one of his allegiences, he may be approached by a supernatural agent to recruit him to serve as a champion for some diety or similar powerful being.

In my upcoming Weird War II campaign, I will be using the Law-Balance-Chaos allegience system introduced in the Stormbringer role-playing game. Although, Good and Evil are not explicitly represented in this arrangement, it is generally accepted that the closer one gets to perfect Balance, the more "Good" characteristics one displays. Extreme Law is oppressive and hidebound, while extreme Chaos is anarchic and destructive. To illustrate this, I have created a graph showing where all the various powers in the campaign fall along the Law-Balance-Chaos axis:



As you can see, I've added a Good axis projecting from Balance. I define Good as respect for life and beauty and a capacity for self-sacrifice. Those organizations that demonstrate such qualities tend to cluster close to Balance, while the more evil and destructive organizations tend to find themselves at the chaotic or lawful ends of the scale.

-Rognar-

New campaign wiki

For those who will be participating in my new BRP Weird War II campaign (and for those interested onlookers), I have started a campaign wiki entitled "Tommies at the Gates of Hell". You can find the link in the link list on this page. The introduction has been posted and more information will come soon.

-Rognar-

Gaming Kingmaker

We've completed a year of nation-building in our Kingmaker campaign and have learned a few things about gaming the system. I will outline some basics and then suggest a house rule to make the building process more rational.

1.Build a Shrine early. It is the cheapest building unit in the game that makes items. A DC 20 Economy roll and you have 2 BP. A Shrine will pay for itself faster than anything else.
2.Pedal to the metal on Economy and Stability, Loyalty can wait. Your early goal is to make Economy rolls, so you want to up the Economy modifier with cheap units that give Economy bonuses, such as Smith, Tannery and Mill. These units also have the virtue of providing Stability bonuses as well. Missing Stability checks isn't quite as dire as missing Economy checks, but they do cause Unrest which penalizes your Economy rolls. If you start to get a few Unrest points, build some House units. You don't want to fall into an Unrest death spiral.
3.Don't expand too fast and keep your consumption at zero. Farmland reduces consumption. Claim and farm just enough hexes to keep your consumption at zero. Adding hexes makes your Control DC go up and makes it more likely you will fail your Economy rolls. You should always keep your Economy modifier close to your Control DC. I can't stress this enough, missing Economy checks sucks.
4.Take advantage of cost savings offered by big buildings. After you have a nice comfortable little barony, with Economy and Stability modifiers in the low 20s, take a few months to build your treasury and then build something big. It will save a fortune in future building costs. Also, plan ahead. Don't build a Market, then build a Waterfront. Hold off and build that Waterfront. The Market will be much cheaper.

We built our city with the intention of maximizing economic output and with little regard for logic or the wishes of the citizenry and the rules do not penalize us for it. For example, our town has a tannery, a smithy and a mill, but no shops, inns or taverns. The reason for this is because craftsmen tend to contribute to Economy and Stability, while services tend to contribute to Economy and Loyalty. Stability is more important than Loyalty, at least at the beginning, so the service sector gets neglected and the town's business profile becomes unbalanced. I think there is a simple and logical solution to this dilemma. Since the Stability of any nation depends, to some extent, on the general happiness of the people, make it a rule that the kingdom's Stability modifier can never be more than 5 points above the Loyalty modifier.

-Rognar-

Kingmaker report #3

As our initial stipend from the swordlords of Restov begins to dwindle, building projects become less ambitious. In the fourth month since the founding of the Barony of Drekmore, we decide to switch our efforts to our borders. We accept the offer from Chief Sootscale to join our fief. A mutual defense pact is signed and part of the kobold cave complex is made available to us in times of national emergency. We also build roads into the kobold territory and stake out some nearby farmland. Beckwitt is none too happy to be working road construction in kobold territory, but what can you do?

Satan! That no good, lowdown, sneaky, smelly bastard. Never trust a sorceror, especially if he's a tiefling. I go drinking with him for one night and he talks me into volunteering to build a road for a month. Do you know how much work that is? Oh and on off-days we will just help clearing the farm fields. Next time he wants to go for a drink, I'll throw him in the lake.

Those kobolds give me the willies, but they can work when they want to. It would have taken much longer to clear that land without their help. Still, I wouldn't want them in Dunwin. The Baron seems to have a handle on them. He has them sticking close to the caverns and they have laid up some supplies and fortified the place a little. The local farmers have been told they could go there in case of trouble.

In the fifth month, we attract a tanner to our growing town. Craftsmen are the lifeblood of any town and the addition of a tannery is most welcome news. We had set our edicts to include one festival this year. Since it is harvest time, this is a good time to let the people have some fun. Once again, we hear from Beckwitt:

I had a good month, work in Dunwin was slack with just some housing and the tannery going up. Out on the farms, the first harvest is coming in. The weather has been so good, the Baron thinks we will fit in another crop before winter. The harvest has been bigger than thought and most folks are happy.

Satan must have realised he pushed me too far last month. He has been real nice and even paid for a night at the Aphrodisia House, when I got back from working in the boonies. He can be a real nice guy. We have even started playing cards again, of course, only when we are playing on a team against someone else.

Tomorrow is the big harvest festival and the Baron promises it will be a great time. I'm not sure Erastil knows how to party, but I sure do. There will be some free drinks and a nice meal. I helped start the pig roast this afternoon.

A half year has past and our grand diplomat has been recalled to Dunwin. Batholomew Hester, besides being our eyes and ears in the courts of Brevoy, is also a paladin of Erastil. The Baron, the High Priest and the Grand Diplomat, all holy men in the service of Erastil, have gathered together to consecrate the first holy shrine in Dunwin. Though not all the town's inhabitants are adherents, most are and the service is well-attended. Father Jhod and his acolytes begin work immediately, producing healing potions and other items for the greater good of Drekmore. The following month, we expand our borders a little further north, before the cold winter months settle in. Anything to add, Beckwitt:

When you're busy, time sure does fly. We are celebrating our six months of existence and things are going well. None of my debts seem to have followed me from Brevoy, the boom times continue here and everyone seems happy. The crazy pace of the first few months has slowed a little.

I have a new job, and I get to hang out with Satan most days. He hired me on in the treasury department even though I don't know much about it, he says he 'll watch out for me. I know my letters and numbers and mostly I copy stuff from one book to another. There's only five of us working in the treasury, so I feel mighty important.

We built a Shrine to Erastil a month back and it has generated some economic benefits, or that's what Satan tells me. Just in the last two weeks we claimed some more land to the north and have started some roads and farms in the area. The Kobolds made a big deal of going up there and burning down some tree. Crazy buggers.

We will take a few months to consolidate or territory and build our treasury. We have an ambitious plan to build up our waterfront next year. Piers, drydocks and warehouses will hopefully attract merchants and shipbuilders, allowing Drekmore to become Brevoy's doorway to the south.

-Rognar-

Kingmaker report #2

Progress is being made on the expansion of Drekmore. To keep us updated, I have asked Beckwitt, sometime friend and drinking buddy of Satan, to offer his views from the point of view of a commoner on the streets of Dunwin.

Founding a kingdom is damn hard work and don't ever let anyone tell ya different. Bloody Satan the Sorceror with his silver tongue, he convinced me to join up and come out here to the middle of nowhere. I had a nice house and I could have paid my debts eventually.

This first month has gone well, I think. The castle looks like a castle, if you don't look too hard. The layout for more buildings is ready and hopefully we can build some real houses soon and get out of these damn tents.

Satan and I had a drink last night and he mentioned that the treasury is a little better off than expected. Something about all the fish in the lake and the natural radish patches. It was nice that things were so quiet. From all the stories you would think there was a bandit behind every tree, but this month has been peaceful. We have done well and our reward will probably be to work harder.

In the second month, we decided to begin expanding. We need farmland and we have to get going on the road northward. We also need to start building our economy, so we built a smithy and enticed a blacksmith to immigrate. We also received an emissary from Chief Sootscale, the leader of a nearby band of kobolds. We had encountered the kobolds during our initial clearances and had developed a friendly relationship. The emissaries expressed the Chief's desire to join our growing barony. More from Beckwitt:

Second month and all I got is more blisters. A blacksmith shows up and we gotta build him a workshop, while I live in a tent? Sure I know his job is important but come on, I just want a roof that don't leak.

Besides me it seems most of the people here are happy, they probably didn't have Satan Snaketongue convince them to come. Baron Dakros has done a fine job, he works hard and don't spend too much time talking at us. I guess we all see winter a few months ahead and want to be ready.

We started some farms to the north along the river, I still can't remember all the names. I guess those crazy kobolds to the northeast asked to join the kingdom, don't know what the kings will say about that. Seems they like our style and see our human ways as superior.

Had beers with Satan last night and lost at cards to that shark. Don't know why we play, I should just hand over my money right away. Seems we are a happy crew and that has made us more efficient. That has carried over to the treasury in general, sounds like boom times.

By the third month, we have begun to attract some attention from the wider world. First off, Lady Helibet and her retinue arrived to offer their services to our growing number of labourers. While the Baron and the High Priest do not endorse such activities, both are wordly men and are willing to overlook the appearance of a new brothel in town.

Secondly, Dunwin has attracted its first celebrity visitor, the famed bard, Kvothe Lightfinger. The castle was made available for the distinguished guest and several prominent (and somewhat adventurous) patrons from Restov came to meet him.

We also addressed our growing housing shortage, by building several permanent homes for our earliest immigrants. What say you, Beckwitt:

Woohoo, what a month! A house, a brothel and entertainment in the same month. Poor Satan, I found a better way to lose my money than playing cards with him. The Aphrodisia House is the best.

Things have been chaotic around here all month. Some of the new people were grumbling about how us first settlers got the best spots, but what did they think? We was going to choose to live in swampland? Anyway, the Baron talked to some of them and they seemed to accept his explanation.

Well, right after we got going on the houses our first official visitor showed up. One of the most famous bards in all the land showed up on the Baron's doorstep. Kvothe Lightfinger, master of six strings came to Dunwin! Well you can't say no to him when he asks to stay. So, he stayed the whole month. We had people from all over come to town to hear him play music and tell stories. I tell you, we barely got half the work done this month as we done in the last two. Everyone was cutting out early to see what Kvothe was doing.

Satan says he actually came to hear about the exploration of these lands. I figure Satan's just jealous. He seems just a small man beside Kvothe. Anyways, we are still waiting to hear if the Sootscales are going to join, seems like the Baron is stalling a little, but he did mention they have some nice land with a good river that you could travel on.

-Rognar-

Thanks to Tayloritos for his commentaries from Beckwitt.

Kingmaker report #1

The Stag Lord and his bandits have been destroyed and it is now time for our group to build our fief. Dakros, priest of Erastil, has assumed the throne of the newly-founded Barony of Drekmore and has established his capital city (ok, town...ok, small gathering of tents surrounding a ruin) of Dunwin on the site of the Stag Lord's fort. Satan, the mysterious southerner with a faint aroma of brimstone, has taken over the treasury. The witch, Rahasia has assumed responsibility for magical and scholarly affairs. Halak, our stout ranger and woodsman, has been tasked with defense of the hinterland, while the warrior, Lung, will command the city guard and ensure the rule of law is maintained within the realm. Several other courtiers have also been appointed to deal with internal security, foreign affairs and the spiritual and worldly well-being of the people.

Our first task is the repair and expansion of the Stag Lord's stronghold such that it may serve as a suitable seat of power. With a generous stipend from the swordlords of Restov, construction has begun and should be completed within a month. We have also brought in labourers to clear the land around the castle so that construction of the town may proceed and begin the efforts to build a road north to Oleg's trading post to provide a vital connection to Brevoy. Assuming all goes well, we will then begin our expansion northward, building the road, opening up farmland and attracting craftsmen to Dunwin.

-Rognar-

Kingmaker begins

Rising from the ruin of our unfinished Blackmoor mini-campaign, we rush headlong into Kingmaker. No question, this AP is different from any of the others we've played. I've read it's very "old-school", but to be perfectly honest, I don't remember doing a lot of hex-mapping back in the day. My recollection is that we spent a lot of time underground, be it in the Tomb of Horrors, the Lost Caverns of Tsocjanth or the Temple of Elemental Evil. I suspect my 15 year-old self would probably have viewed this sort of systematic mapping exercise as a bit like homework, something I had little patience for if memory serves. However, that was before I learned the joys of turn-based computer strategy games like Sid Meier's Civilization, which bear a much closer resemblance to Kingmaker than anything I remember doing with AD&D.


There is one AD&D 2e campaign setting which does come to mind, however, when I read the player's guide for Kingmaker and that is Birthright. TSR started getting very experimental with 2e campaign settings, releasing oddities such as Dark Sun, Spelljammer and Planescape, but Birthright may have been the most unusual. It could be played as a straight-up medieval fantasy campaign, but it also had the option of playing as rulers of small kingdoms, battling to expand and develop one's holdings. There were cards for various military units that could be purchased to build your kingdom's army and rules for governance and economics. It was a remarkably well-done setting, one of my personal favourites, and won the Origins Award for the Best Rolepaying Supplement of 1995, but it never achieved much market success. There were just too many D&D campaign settings back then

Blackmoor campaign, recap pt.5

Forced to abandon our favoured Saturday night game time, we gathered on Friday night, tired, distracted and a bit giddy, to begin the onslaught on the Temple of the Frog. Clearly, nothing good was going to come from this.

Earlier we had the opportunity to witness the might of the Frog as a foolish froghemoth decided to assault the town. Although several unfortunates met their demise in the gaping maw of the beast, the temple guards and the monks were able to muster quickly and drive off the monstrosity. The monks were armed with strange rod-like weapons that shot beams of light which caused great damage to the froghemoth. They were truly impressive.

The next day we prepared our infiltration. Now GWAR isn't the most stealthy band of warmongers to ever grace the lands of Blackmoor, so we used all the stealth magicks we had at our disposal to at least get them into the temple undetected. From that point on, the gnome alchemist scouted ahead using his sneaky juice and a little bit of trickery to get around. At one point, he happened into a room full of swarms of dire tadpoles which bored into his flesh. They had to be carved out with a dagger. Worst of all, the gnome was rendered visible as a result and had a lot of perceptive bad guys to slip past to get back to his comrades. Naturally, the gnome was spotted and it was on.

The party did have some element of surprise, so the resistance was a bit disorganized at first. We killed a few temple guards and one of the weird monks with the deadly beam rod. We fought our way to the room with the man-eating tadpoles and this time we were ready. The alchemist lobbed an acid bomb into the room and the tadpoles were destroyed. Then GWAR charged in...and were promptly trapped as giant stone blocks descended on both sides of the room, sealing both exits. Then water started filling the room...and then sharks with frickin' lasers on their heads (ok, I made that last part up). Fortunately, the members of GWAR ate their Wheaties that morning and some heavy lifting was able to extricate them from the room. The gnome fiddled with the mechanism and locked the trap, preventing further problems (snicker). We knew there were guards beyond, so our warlock decided to try to bluff them into opening the door. Dressing as a guard, he convinced them that the intruders were defeated and that he needed to enter to make a report. The bluff check was made and the door was opened. Two-thirds of GWAR then busted in, but fatigue and questionable judgement struck Dark, the cleric. He decided to cast obscuring mist while remaining inside the tadpole room. The spell worked fine, but it did nothing to prevent one of the guards from tripping the trap again from his side. The stone blocks fell, the water flowed and Dark was all alone in the room. It was now a race against time. The guards had to be dispatched so the trap could be disarmed and Dark spared. To add to the difficulty, another of the beam weapon monks appeared with an ogre zombie. The fighter, the barbarian and the warlock battled inside the guard room, the cleric practiced breath-holding techniques and the gnome used his wall-climbing juice and his fast-running juice to go around the other way and flank the bad guys. It was close, but the battle was won and the cleric was saved. We did a bit more exploring, briefly held a female rogue prisoner (before killing her because she wouldn't spill the beans) and very nearly caused one of the captured beam rods to explode, but we finally succumbed to fatigue. The Frog would live for another day.

-Rognar-

Blackmoor campaign, recap pt.4

After resting up, following our little dust-up with the slavers in the ziggurat, we decided to explore the rest of the dungeon. We found a large statue of some sort of frog-like humanoid and more of those mysterious runes. After setting off a "trap" that cures wounds, we found a room with a large, rune-covered structure that emitted sparks and gouts of flame. After some examination, we determined it to be some sort of seal, imprisoning a powerful evil. Naturally, we set about trying to break it. The warlock hit it with an eldritch blast and got hosed with acid for his trouble. Touching runes and throwing rocks proved equally futile. So we did what any self-respecting party of adventurers would do, we gave up.

We headed back to South Pym. Since we had no further opportunity to cause mayhem at the ziggurat, we figured it was time to settle the score with Toxinu, the cartographer that sold us the magic map. We arrived to find his shop burned down and him gone. It was proving difficult to find someone or something to kill today. That's when a representative of Master Bilch, the self-appointed mayor of Boggybottom approached us. He said Bilch wanted to meet with us in Boggybottom and that we had some mutual interests to discuss. Given that this was a trip of several weeks, there was some reluctance to drop everything and head off to meet Bilch. After much discussion, it was decided to go to Boggybottom, but not before going back to Lake Gloomy. We had heard from Senora, the wizardess who first directed us to Toxinu, that a more powerful member of the Cabal was in Lake Gloomy, appointed by the King to administer the Barony of the Lakes until the fate of the baroness was determined. We figured he might be able to translate our mysterious writings for us.

We went to visit to new ruler of the barony and after a convincing performance from our silver-tongued warlock, he agreed to look at the writings. After a couple of days, he told us that the writings were over 10,000 years old, of a language associated with an ancient empire that ruled these lands long before men. He also told us that there were two different dialects present. Most of the writings were of the same style, but one set which we had found on one tablet in the ziggurat were of a different and possibly newer version of the language. He also informed us that he had sent for a scholar who was an expert in such matters.

The next day, when the expert arrived to study the writings, we were offered a hundred gold pieces and sent on our way. It was all we could do to avoid slaughtering half the town in retaliation. Instead, the gnome maxed out his stealth capabilities and headed in to the baroness' keep to spy on the proceedings. It took all the patience the gnome could muster, but he was able to view the scholar's notes. he determined that the writings fortold of the release of an evil frog god when a set of indeterminate conditions were met. This suggests the current activities of the Frog are aimed at bringing this prophecy to completion.

At this point, we figured it was time to pay a visit to Master Bilch. A long voyage and some pointless reconnaissance later, we finally managed a meeting. Bilch revealed that he had a slaving operation of his own and that he assumed we originally showed up in Boggybottom to cause him trouble. Once he concluded that we were after the Frog, a rival of his, he decided to seek an alliance so that we could work toward bringing down a common foe. He suggested we attempt to sign on with the Frog. He told us of a Frog recruiter he had uncovered in Kenville and a password to use to establish contact. The stage was set for the final climax.

Following some parting macho posturing, we left Boggybottom and headed for Kenville. We found the recruiter, an incautious drunkard, and made contact. In no time at all, we were on a boat headed for, you guessed it, Frog Island. We were blindfolded for the last couple hours of our trip and when the blindfolds were removed, we disembarked and entered a scummy, foggy little hamlet named Frog Town. We had a look around and quickly noted the slave pens and a large temple surrounded by a stout wall. It was clear, we had found what we were looking for. That night we asked a few questions and did a bit of spying at the temple. Although it's doubtful what we discovered would be of much help in the upcoming battle, we did uncover a fair bit of simmering animosity between long-time residents of the town and the relatively new Froggies. Would the locals be of any use? That remains to be seen. Next session, the confrontation.

-Rognar-

Blackmoor campaign, recap pt.3

When we last left our intrepid adventurers, we had just wiped out an Afridhi hit squad. We continued on toward the settlement our warlock had spotted the night before. The stealthy gnome took out a sentry, allowing us complete surprise. A group of about 30 armed Afidhi and a sizable number of slaves were gathering up supplies and heading for the river. Apparently, some sort of base was being built, but our arrival compelled the Afridhi to pack up and leave. We split up into two groups. The gnome and the warlock moved quickly and stealthily to the river to cut off retreat, while GWAR set themselves up on the ridge overlooking the camp to rain death down upon them.

What followed was carnage. It turned out the hit squad we wiped out earlier included most of the high-level members of their group. Even though their sheer numbers proved somewhat dangerous, and at one point, the gnome found himself in a bit of a tight spot, in the end, no Afridhi lived to see another sunrise. We had captured two barges loaded with supplies and a group of slaves willing to help us transport the barges to the nearest town in exchange for their freedom. Although we learned little, except that the Afridhi were searching for some sort of artifact, we did come away from the expedition with a sizable haul.

Of course, we still had a reason for going to Tiger Island, to learn what we could about the silver ore we had taken from an earlier group of slavers, and we hadn't accomplished anything as far as that was concerned. So we decided to return. We hired a smuggler to take us back (and didn't kill him). We completely searched the island. We still didn't find any silver mines, but we did uncover a partially buried statue that the Afridhi had been excavating. The statue itself was missing, but the base was intact and bore some writings in a strange language none of us could decipher. With no magical means of translating the writings, we transcribed them for later analysis. We then recovered the boat we originally came to the island on and went back to the little fishing village we first headed out from. Since we had killed the fisherman whose boat we were using, we decided it was best to slaughter the village as well, lest we be accused of going soft. With the deed done, we decided to head back to Lake Gloomy in hopes there would be someone there who could translate the writings we had found.

Lake Gloomy was as bizarre as ever. We couldn't find anyone in town with the necessary skills to translate the writings, although in truth, we didn't spend much time looking because we got sidetracked. Clearly something was amiss. There were significantly fewer children in town than when we had last been here. When asked about it, the locals simply claimed the children had left to join the circus. No one seemed the slightest bit bothered by this, suggesting some sort of magical compulsion was at work. We decided to seek an audience with the Baroness, whose keep was just outside of town. Upon arrival, we learned that the Baroness and her personal retinue (that sizable force of cavalry we had encountered a few days earlier) had also disappeared. Holy hell, this dung pit was getting deeper by the day.

We were told that the Baroness was last headed south to another craptastic little resort town called South Pym. The main claim to fame of this lovely vacation spot was the acid rain. Yes, apparently the rain in South Pym dissolves metal armour and weapons in short order...and it rains a lot. We also got word that a member of the Wizard's Cabal lived in South Pym and she might be able to translate our writings. So, despite the grave misgivings of our metal-clad contingent, we headed for South Pym.

Upon arrival in South Pym, we learned from the local authorities that the Baroness and her road crew had disappeared utterly and completely while investigating something in the swamp. Not a single scrap of evidence as to their whereabouts was uncovered. The guard offered to have one of his men lead us to their last known location, an offer we graciously accepted. But first things first. We needed some way to deal with the rain. No way was GWAR going to walk around in leather gherkins wielding pointy sticks. We headed off to see the town's alchemist, a gnome (apparently gnomes control the alchemy racket in these parts). He had a supply of an alchemical agent that could protect metal for awhile. We bought the entire stock. Then we headed off to see the wizardess we had heard about. She turned out to be less than we had hoped and was of little use, although she did direct us to a mapmaker in town who had a map with similar writings on it. The cartographer did indeed, have such a map, a treasure map, in fact, which he was willing to sell to us. Since no one in our party can Sense Motive worth a damn, we had little reason to doubt it was all legit, so we bought the map.

After noting that South Pym also seemed to have a relative scarcity of young'uns, we asked around and indeed, the "circus" had come to town here too. If we had any discernable conscience at all, we would probably have been outraged by now. As it was, we mostly noted it as curious and went about our business. So, at this point, we had intended to go have a look after the Baroness, but suddenly the gnome and the barbarian had a powerful hankering to follow our newly acquired map instead. It seemed a tad unusual, but every one went along since, you know, that gnome is a smart little fella.

The "X" on the map was a ziggurat mostly buried in the swamp. We entered through the top and explored around a bit. We found some tracks that led to a lower level where we eventually ran into a small group of sightseers, a child, an armsman and a spellcaster. Needless to say, the child was actually a halfling rogue and hostilities quickly ensued. The wizard in the back hit us with a slow spell that was effective against most of us. That cramped our style a bit, but all it meant was that it took us a little longer to beat them down. We actually managed to take the fighter alive and question him. He revealed that he was a Frog's man and he was able to point out on a map where he was intending to take us if he had successfully subdued us. As he spoke, he was finding it hard to breathe. Some sort of magic effect was finishing what we started. Before we could learn any more, he was dead.

We decided to call it a night.

-Rognar-

Blackmoor campaign, recap pt.2

The time had arrived to leave Boggybottom. We had accumulated a fair bit of treasure, much of it in the form of magic weapons and armour, which had to be sold off. So, we headed back to Vestfold. We hoped to learn more about the Frog, but our contact Walter was not familiar with the name. After spending some of our blood money on wine, women and song, we were on the road again. We headed to Lake Gloomy to seek out Yanos Hunter. Since Lake Gloomy could be accessed by land from Vestfold, we decided to buy horses, or in the case of the gnome, a mangy, ill-tempered riding dog. Lake Gloomy was weird, to say the least. The town was immaculately clean, from its polished bronze gates to its litter-free streets. There was a definite Potemkin village vibe in this place. We had no luck finding Yanos Hunter in Lake Gloomy, but we did hear that servants were being hired in large numbers to work on the new fortifications in Ram's Hold, a fort on the far western edge of Blackmoor territory. This sounded suspicious, so we headed west to see what was going on on the Afridhi frontier.

We encountered a group of "merchants" heading east along the road, who we promptly killed. Not surprisingly, they too were slavers, either that, or they were planning to sell shackles and rope in Lake Gloomy. We also found some unusual silver ore in a hidden compartment in their wagon. Another enlightened discussion with the recently departed indicated that this latest group of slavers was recruited in Southport. Yikes! That be Afridhi territory. This was turning out to be big.

We continued on the road toward Ram's Hold when we encountered a large company of mounted knights. We briefly considered our options and decided to keep a civil tongue. Good thing too, for it turned out to be the personal entourage of the Baroness of the Lakes. She had been inspecting the repairs of the fortifications in Ram's Hold. We learned that no new fortifications were being built. As we suspected, the Lake Gloomy recruitment drive was a sham. Stupidity can be a harsh mistress.

We continued to Ram's Hold and our worst fears were realized. The place was crawling with halflings. Ugh! By this point, we knew there would be no point looking for information on the slavers since they bypassed this town, but we were able to gain some information about the silver ore we had recovered. A local jeweler suggested it probably came from a place called Tiger Island. We had a decision to make. Follow the clue about Southport or Tiger Island. In the end, it was decided to go to Tiger Island. It was closer and it wasn't in Afridhi lands.

We hired a local fisherman to ferry us to the island, then promptly killed him and seized his boat. Hey, that's just how we roll. Our warlock did some airborne reconnaissance and found evidence of a large settlement in the high ground at the west end of the island. The next day, we headed west, then noticed some sentries, who also noticed us. We knew they would come for us, so we prepared an ambush. Once the enemy appeared, we demonstrated our usual tactical brilliance by breaking cover and charging blindly. It was a tough fight. They had spellcasters among their ranks and many hit points were expended. Khaeliss, our fighter, even hovered briefly at death's door, but ultimately we prevailed. As we gathered the dead and looted their remains, one unmistakeable conclusion was drawn. These were Afridhi warriors.

-Rognar-

Blackmoor campaign, recap pt.1

Dark, Brogesterfel, Shiz, Khaeliss and Crushack are hired by some guy named Walter to find out more about an uptick in slaver activity in the Great Dismal Swamp. In the finest rpg tradition, Walter's patron is unknown to us, but we happily take the job anyway. It pays well (1000gp per man) and we collectively lack any real moral compass anyway. Heading out of Vestfold, the gateway between the more respectable parts of Blackmoor and the swampy, dismal bits, we charter a boat to Kenville, the first port-of-call on the way into the swamp.

Managing to successfully avoid killing anyone in Kenville, a feat we would not achieve again, we soon learned that some slaver activity has been rumoured in Boggybottom, a scummy little hole to the south. We travelled there overland, acquiring a cow along the way. Upon arrival, we proceeded to the seedier of the two local taverns, the Soggy Bottom Bar and Grill (off Route 9). We didn't learn much there, but we did manage to needlessly kill a bunch of people, steal the cash box and take the corpses away for later animation. So, all-in-all, it was a fairly successful outing.

The next day, we headed to the only other watering hole in town, the Wet Whistle, and got down to the business of actually gathering information. We soon learned about a couple of working girls who have been picking up strangers, who have not been seen again. We went on stakeout and soon found out that the local lovelies were setting the guys up to be shanghaied. We crashed the parties, there were some deaths, but we managed to accidentally take a couple of guys alive. That led us to our fateful encounter with the elven slavemaster, Zedd, and his gang.

The ensuing dustup left Shiz, Zedd and three of the slavers dead. Moments later, Korianton, a friend of Shiz, arrived bearing an important message for our dearly departed evoker. Naturally, upon learning of the demise of Shiz, he promptly offered to join our group and we accepted, no questions asked. I said NO QUESTIONS ASKED!

The next day, Dark had a brief, but informative discussion with the dead elf and we learned about the Frog. At first, we assumed the Frog was a person, although later information would indicate that it was actually an organization. Anyway, Zedd was a Frogger,....or Froggie or something. Finally, we had a clue.

Of course, by now, we had attracted some attention. We had killed some slavers and caused some local disruption to their operation. An attempted assassination was inevitable. Stealthy Brogesterfel took out the assassins with a couple of well-placed acid bombs. We found a note on one of the dead rogues with our descriptions. Another round of speaking with dead people gained us a name, Yanos Hunter, and a place, Lake Gloomy.

...break, time to go home, more later...

-Rognar-

Adventure Path vs Sandbox

We played another session of my campaign Saturday night. I think everyone had a good time and this time there were no character deaths, although Tayloritos character dropped to zero hp, staggering him but not killing him.

The PCs are an interesting bunch although they are designed to do an adventure path and are not as effective in a sandbox. Part of it is play style. The adventure paths move you along the story with very little effort on PCs parts. Information gathering is limited to a dice roll or two and its usually pretty obvious where to go next if you have any choice at. Roll-playing (combat skills) is more important then Role-Playing (non-combat). I think part of the reason this has been so entertaining is that everyone has been willing to take part in the non combat parts of the game - brawling with drunks, flirting with floosies, robbing sleeping guards and containing their hatred of halflings!

With this campaign I am trying to make the world as real as I can so there is lots of stuff going on, much of it not related to the main plot at all. Throw in a few red herrings and it can be pretty difficult to figure out how to advance the quest. The PCs are starting to be more tactical in combat laying ambushes and shutting down enemy casters but they still have a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. A classic moment was when Dero-bane said, "Maybe we should interrogate these guys" only to realize the last one had just been killed. Ooops. Speak with Dead is nice but when the dead are compelled to speak they will be cryptic and vague.

But all is not lost. There are still several clues left to follow up and the plot is still advancing even if they don't see it yet. The PCs now have a name to attach to the enemy but its nature is still unclear.

And they got their first taste of Afhridi and caught a glimpse of the Baroness of the Lakes. Cool!