Odds and Ends

The other day, I clicked on Amazon.com to look for the current release date of A Dance with Dragons in paperback.  I noticed I had one item in my shopping cart, and couldn't remember what it was.

Clicking on the cart, it was a used copy of the AD&D Monster Manual (now sold and unavailable).  I'd stuck it there back when WotC announced the reprinting of the AD&D core three books.  I'd briefly thought about buying them, but I've got the PHB and DMG.  Used Monster Manuals in good condition are under $10 on Amazon.  So I'd put it in my cart but never bought it.

Well, I decided to look for another copy, since the one I'd tagged already sold.  Found another listed in "very good" condition for just under $9.  Then I noticed a copy of Oriental Adventures for about the same price.  And a copy of the MM2 for around $6.  With domestic shipping to my parents' house, the whole deal was just around $35, the price of the reprint MM without shipping.

We're going to be ordering some clothes for our son online (much cheaper, even with shipping costs, than buying them here in Korea), so my folks can just throw the books in with the clothes when they ship them. 

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After our game of Arkham Horror, Josh, Pat and Alex all were asking when I'm finally going to get around to running some Flying Swordsmen.  Friday nights are good for them, so as soon as I get some adventures ready, I'll try to get them - and anyone else who wants to play - on G+ for some FS wuxia action.

So expect a bit more FS content around here in the coming months.  It's about time I got back to promoting it anyway.  It's just shy of 1000 downloads on my Mediafire account, and in only four months.  Not bad.

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We will be moving to a new apartment in about two weeks.  I need to remember to write up a Beast of the Week monster and schedule its posting, as I may be without internet access besides on my phone the last weekend of July.

We're past the half-way point with the year.  My plan to create 52 new monsters is going along well.  I'll compile all of them at the end of the year, and in January I'll have a comprehensive download of 2012's Beasts. 

I'm not sure if I'll continue into 2013, though.  We'll see. 

Arkham Horror

Yesterday afternoon, the old board game group minus Steve (me, Pat, Josh, and Alex) got together to play the board game Arkham Horror.  The premise of this cooperative game is that one of the Great Old Ones is about to awaken.  Monster spawning gates to other worlds are opening around Arkham, Mass (circa 1927).  Investigators have to stop the monsters, explore the other worlds, and then shut the gates before the Old One awakens.  If it does awaken, the investigators then need to fight hard to stop it.

It's a pretty fun game.  The basic turn order rules were fairly simple, but there's a LOT of minutia to deal with, and lots of little things to remember.  We definitely made a few mistakes early on, and I'm not 100% certain we were playing everything correctly even at the end.  If you're into modern board games, this is definitely an "Ameritrash" game, not a "Euro" game. 

In our game yesterday, we were facing the awakening of Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods.  Its powers were that Dark Young (one of the tougher monsters) became "endless" meaning that when killed, they return to the monster cup for recycling, rather than being kept as tokens to be spent.  The other power was that all monsters' Toughness (hit points) increased by one.  So monsters were fairly tough in the game we played, but that didn't stop us from killing lots of them and generally keeping the monster population under control while we explored and closed/sealed the gates.  (Yes, we ended up winning before old Shubby was too close to awakening.)

We had a bit of good luck with our character draws, in that we had some nice complementary characters.  Alex, in particular, had a great character ability which let him declare a reroll of missed dice (keep successes you've already rolled) once per turn.  That really helped a lot, especially with the combat rolls.  My character, the dilettante, got $1 automatically each turn, which allowed me to buy plenty of unique items, scoring two of the Elder Seal cards during the game (Josh also got one of them), which allow for automatic gate sealing.  Six gates sealed is a win condition.

One thing that hampered us later in the game was that the Mythos Card drawn at the end of each turn shows where a gate will open.  But we had a long run of either places where we had already placed a seal or else where a gate was already open, which causes a "monster surge" where lots of monsters appear at once.  Several stationary monsters had collected at one of the gates, and even our best monster hunter Alex (who had lots of good spells and items and that reroll ability) wasn't sure he could take them down.  In the end, though, a few more gates opened at other locations, and we quickly explored them and shut them, winning the game.

I'd definitely like to try this game again.  The fact that you draw a random Great Old One, and random investigators (although some people of course select them) means it's a game that should have a high replay value.  And even though we beat the game on our first time playing it (well, except for Pat who has played it a few times before), I don't think we would be certain of beating it again in the future.

So if you like complex, long board games with lots of randomness (aka Ameritrash), and are a fan of HPL and the Mythos, definitely give this game a try.

Beast of the Week: Ossagi

Last night, I got home to find my wife and son were out.  Got a call about 5 minutes later, just before I was about to call her to see where they were.  They were at a restaurant having dinner with my sister-in-law.  I headed down to the restaurant and found my son, his cousins, and the owners' kid running around being "scared" by "ossagi" [오싹이].  Asking what ossagi was, they tell me it's a ghost.  According to my son, "It comes and goes."  "From the mirror," his cousin adds. 

I'd never heard of this type of Korean ghost before, so I immediately start plying my wife and sister-in-law with questions.  The best they can tell me is that it's transparent/invisible (the word for both is the same in Korean).  And a coward.  At home, my wife sends some text messages to the sister-in-law's friend who introduced ossagi to the kids.  Turns out it's a children's book character, sorta like the Korean version of Casper the Friendly Ghost.  Only he's a scaredy-cat. 

So here's an attempt to turn Ossagi into a D&D monster. One that requires a bit more challenge than just "roll to hit, roll damage" or Clerical Turning to conquer.

Ossagi*
Armor Class: 7 (13)
Hit Dice: 2**
Move: fly 150 (50)
Attacks: 1
Damage: special
No. Appearing: 1d4 (--)
Save As: Magic-User 2
Morale: 4
Treasure Type: N+O
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 30


Ossagi are transparent undead spirit creatures that haunt mirrors.  They are drawn to magical auras, and can drain magic items of their power, or even steal the spells from the brains of spell-casters.  Ossagi can use mirrors to travel, similar to a dimension door spell, as long as they have a mirror to enter and one to exit within 360'.  When they attack, they do no physical damage, but instead drain one magic item, chosen at random, carried by the victim of its potency.  Permanent items are unusable for 1d4 Turns.  Charged items lose 1d6 charges.  One-use items are destroyed.  A spell-caster might instead be targeted, losing one of the highest level spells memorized at random.  In any case, a Save vs. Spells is allowed to avoid the magical drain.  Ossagi are cowardly, and often flee battles.  They are Turned by Clerics as Skeletons, except they cannot be destroyed by a Turn attempt (treat all D or D+ results as T).  Adventurers who have been victims of an ossagi attack often wish to chase them down.  When they are destroyed, their bodies explode in a magical burst, recharging any items drained by the ossagi, and refreshing the memorized spells of any caster.  In addition, the mirror in which the ossagi lairs will shatter, often dropping potions and scrolls.

The Luau of Death

Last night we played in Justin's Vaults of Ur game on G+.  Our cast consisted of myself as Thidrek the Sleestak, Jeremy as Ripper the Orc, Dean as Elder Karl the Cleric (Dean, you need a blog), and Alexei as Maya the Elf.  My buddy Steve, of the old Ebisu Group and now the 3d6 blog, came to observe a bit, but since he was at the in-laws', and was maybe having connection problems, he didn't stay long.

Steve, I hope you liked what you saw, even though it was mostly just the pre-game firing of projectiles at feces.

We opened the game the next morning after our last session.  Ripper came to the Hive after his carousing with Oogliata's Amazonian Orc Legion, and we hashed out plans to deal with the Red Men/mercenaries.

After much debating - MUCH debating - Thidrek's plan of a pre-emptive strike on the mercenaries in the wee hours of the morning was shot down.  We decided to go out into the ruins in case the mercs did come out, so we could ambush them.  And if they didn't come out, we would return with stories of how we totally looted the hell house they told us to go to, and that there was more treasure waiting - and that we'd invite them to our celebratory feast where there would be plenty of wine, women, and exotic lotus powders (the Luau of Death).  We figured one or the other of those stories would lure them out.

So we camped in the ruins.  And waited. 

Some lizard men approached.  Ripper and Elder Karl presented themselves, and the lizardmen attacked.  We managed to defeat them, but Elder Karl went into negative hit points.  With some Hive healing goop, we brought him around, but he was weakened from being so close to death.  We heard fighting to the south, back toward the Hive, and when we investigated we found some Spiked Circle thugs fighting some Red Men.  We intervened.  Elder Karl used his stone hand to good effect, crushing lots of the Spiked Circle guys with stones.  We also managed to capture one of them.

The Red Men wanted the captive, but we insisted that he was our prisoner, and took him to Forager.  We interrogated him, and learned that the fresco images we'd seen under the Hive, of portents in the sky, demons and diseased men fighting heroes in Ur, etc. is connected to their demon lord, Harkon.  The Spiked Circle are capturing people for use in sacrifices to provide souls for Harkon's return.

We took our prisoner up into the heights of the Hive to the "great minds above."  They turned out to be super-intelligent spiders (sorta like Aranea from the Isle of Dread).  They read the prisoner's mind while we poked through their collected stuff.  Maya found some spell books, and got a sleep spell and maybe one more.  Thidrek and Elder Karl looked out the window, and saw some places of interest for future adventures.  Ripper got a new bug claw axe, similar to Forager's, and Maya took a new spear to replace the one she broke fighting the lizard men.  Oh, and one of the spiders kept asking Thidrek if it could dissect him, as they'd never met a Sleestak before.  I declined their offer.  Maybe next time.

Anyway, the brain probe left the goon in a poor state, but we learned that just before the attack, three Spiked Circle members went into some sort of tunnel.  Seems important.  We're sure they're up to no good.

So we've still got the mercs to deal with, Forager's political power play to assist in, and Spiked Circle shenanigans to figure out as well.  Who knows when we'll ever get our new headquarters sorted out, and get a chance to explore the Observatory we spotted north of the Zoo, or make our way towards the Golden Pyramid in the center of the city.

I've gotta say, though, the sandbox game can really pay off in a good way when things like this happen.  We're all really enjoying the story that's developing, and our characters are evolving as it happens.

Beast of the Week: Yothga

Taking more inspiration from REH, here's one of the denizens of Tsotha-lanti's dungeons below the Scarlet Citadel, the Yothga.

Yothga
Armor Class: 8 (12)
Hit Dice: 3*
Move: nil
Attacks: 2 vines
Damage: 1d6 + special
No. Appearing: 1d4 (2d4)
Save As: Fighter 3
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: nil
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 50

Yothgas are large, intelligent vines with narrow, pointed leaves and unnatural red flowers.  They are said to come from Hell, the Dimension of Nightmares, or the cursed planet Yag.  None know for certain.  A Yothga is immobile, but can lash out with its vines up to 30' away.  Those hit by the vines must Save vs. Spells or suffer the effects of a feeblemind spell (Int becomes 3) until released from the plant's grasp.  Spellcasters ensnared by a yothga lose their spellcasting ability for 1d6+6 Turns after being released, as the plant feeds on mental energy.  If destroyed but not uprooted, the Yothga can regrow in 1d4 weeks.  Rumors warn that uprooting one is dangerous, though, as the roots go down to Hell, and strange things may be pulled up with a yothga's roots.

The Scarlet Citadel

Been a while since I read it now (still taking a little break from the Howard, reading Lovecraft on my commute, so I don't get too far ahead in my reading compared to my posting about the Conan stories), so last night I paged through the story again just as a refresher.

The Scarlet Citadel is the second story Howard wrote to feature King Conan, but it shares quite a few features of the other adventurer Conan stories Howard had been writing after The Phoenix on the Sword.  The story begins with Conan the sole survivor on his side of a massive battle (again).  This time, the kings of Ophir and Koth, working under the direction of the wizard Tsotha-lanti, have lured Conan and his Poitanian cavalry into a trap.  Rather than have archers or hordes of spearmen kill Conan, Tsotha-lanti personally comes up and uses his "magic" (a poisoned ring in this case) to paralyze Conan, and take him prisoner. 

Conan of course refuses the ridiculous offer the kings make him to give up his throne, so he's tossed in the dungeons under Tsotha-lanti's fortress.  He escapes, wanders the labyrinthine passages until he meets a rival wizard, Pelias, and then with the help of Pelias' magic, returns to Aquilonia to battle it out with the usurping nobleman in league with the two kings.

It's a pretty good story.  Not top tier Conan, but still really good.  It's also dripping with D&Disms.  Tsotha-lanti seems to be the sort of wizard who has some actual arcane power, but really just uses science when he can (Clarke's Law and all that) since it's easier.  Still, the poison ring trick seems like a Hold Person spell in action (or maybe Hold Monster, since Conan is Name Level).  The dungeons under the eponymous Scarlet Citadel appear to be a fairly standard megadungeon full of monsters and oddities, built by ancient pre-human civilizations and discovered by Tsotha-lanti and used for his own purposes. 

I can easily imagine Dave Arneson and his buddies, playing out some Hyborian wargames using Chainmail, and someone suggesting, "Wouldn't it be cool if we played out Conan's escape from the Scarlet Citadel with the Man-to-Man rules?"  Pure speculation on my part, of course, but it was likely stories like this one that helped inspire the jump from wargames to role playing games.

Enter the Dungeon

Last night, I tried to get a game going to try out the D&D Next playtest stuff.  Didn't happen.  Josh, Pat and Alex had all expressed interest, but were busy playing Axis and Allies.  A few of the other Busan Gamers were busy, so couldn't play.  It was just me, Jeremy and Dean.  I put out a call on G+ to see if anyone's interested, but since I'm not a big G+ user, I didnt' attract any players.  Or maybe it's just that D&D Next didn't attract anyone.  Maybe there's the feedback for WotC.  Put out a random call of "Wanna play some D&D Next?" and get no responses.

Anyway, with just the three of us, and Jeremy beat from the previous night's excursion, we switched gears and they ran their Vaults of Ur PCs in my Megadungeon.  It went alright.  Elder Karl and Ripper awoke in the town of Silverwood, and quickly learned of the existence of the dungeon, and several rumors about things therein.  They hired a pair of spearmen, Geisler and Kessel, bought them crossbows as well, then set out for the ruins.

In the above ground castle ruins, they explored a dangerously ruined and empty tower, then worked their way along the curtain wall to anther tower in better shape, where they found an unguarded treasure chest full of silver coins.  While hauling it down the tower with ropes (the tower had a ladder, not steps), a trio of Elves came and just watched them at work.  When they finally got the chest down, the Elven spokesman asked rather abruptly if he could search the contents of the box.  After a bit of skeptical questioning from our heroes, the Elf explained that he and his companions were searching for an heirloom gem of their lord's, stolen by Hobgoblins.*  They were allowed to search the box, didn't find their gem, and left.

The party took their loot back to town, bought jewelry to carry the treasure more easily, had lunch, then headed back to the ruins.

The explorers next decided to head down the main entrance to the dungeons.  The first room was full of broken gear, spoiled rations, and other detritus left by previous explorers, and there was plenty of graffiti on the walls.  Ripper decided to write up his exploits in Ur, while Elder Karl and his spearman went to investigate the north door.  They found a large hallway, and a little ways up encountered a zombie mule.  Karl quickly turned it, then heard the saddlebags jingling as it ran away.  The whole party gave chase.

They found the mule being skewered by some strange quadrupedal, two headed shapes at the edge of their light.  Ripper yelled out an insulting challenge, and the shapes charged.  Kobolds riding goats, and armed with lances.  Their initial charge and the heroes' defense resulted in 0 hits for double damage (a shame).  Four of the kobolds, and one of the goats shield bashed by Ripper, soon went down, with the last kobold captured.  The party was able to recover the zombie mule's loot, and was retracing their steps when they heard iron-shod boots approaching, and in greater numbers than their party.  They made a run for the exit, assuming they were approaching hobgoblins, and went back to town.

It was a fun little session, and it's got me wanting to run my dungeon more.


*The gem was actually found by Jeremy and Brian's other characters when I ran my megadungeon for them a while back.  Those Elves will be pissed when they find out...