A talking raven & other hijinx - Strahd Session 2

Possible spoilers. 

Yesterday our 5e group reconvened in Barovia.  Twas quite funny.  The morning after speaking with Madame Ava, we got up stretched had a bit to eat and then started talking to the locals.  Whilst gathering some information we found out that the Village of Barovia wasn't too far.  We made the decision to go off and see what we could find there.  (a bit meta) I figured that it would be a good place to start.

All of the players other than me had basically forgotten all of their notes, specifically the premonitions from Ava.  Thankfully I could slighlty make out some of my notes.  (note I'll start taking notes on my tablet during play so I can actually read it!).

As we were walking to Barovia we saw a strange sight!  I skeleton riding a Skeletal horse.  Weirdness.  It passed us as we did the ye old hobbit hide behind a tree schitck.  We decided much to the chagrin of my wife that we would follow the skeleton.

A few hours passed and we stumbled up on this rather large bridge.  On the bridge were a few gargoyles.  The bridge looked mildly rickety, so my silly barbarian cleric decided to run across it.  Successful athletics check!  (My rolling was sub par at best yesterday, those darn wiz dice were not my friends).  The illusionist decided to turn himself into a skeleton as well and follow the skeleton across the bridge.  Thankfully nothing weird happened.  But we were all concerned about the gargoyles.

We noticed that the bridge spanned a waterfall, to which I had a premonition about a vampire and a mage duelling it out here.

We decided against really doing to much exploring around the bridge.  I have no idea why, but the DM was looking at us like "seriously?" lol.   We did however notice that a raven was sitting and watching us.  I cast "speak with animals" and had a very entertaining conversation with the Raven (which i kept calling a crow for some reason).

Note: It is always fun when something like this happens, it gave me some fuel for the next time I"m gming and a player wants to speak to an animal.

The raven gave us some useful information, and appeared to be following us to see what we were up to.  Our GM kept sticking his nose in his armpit like he was fluffing his feathers. so awesome!

Anyways, we decide to make a bee line back to the village of Barovia, as we stand in the shadows of a road leading to a castle.  At one point my wife's character was like, why don't we go off to that castle??  to which META we were all like NOPE we will probably die!

I am guessing she was a bit frustrated as far as where we were going next, since we were a bit A.D.D. about what we were doing.

Cue encounter!

A bunch of wolves & direwolves caught us by surprise on the road back to the village.

Rather than being in the background my Cleric decided to charge into the fray and was casting offensive spells left and right.  To which I got my butt seriously kicked!

Lying prone on the ground, the other players managed to take out the rest of the wolves, while I was making death saving throws.  As I stated earlier my dice were not rolling the best, and for the save's I grabbed my friend Adam's big d20s!  Which I should have started with in all likely hood.

And that is where we ended for the day.  We went off to a awesome taco joint and i had a giant burrito and a jartos (mmmmm Mexican soda pop!)

And to top off the fun day, my buddy Adam bought me the 5e PHB for my birthday.

So I'm guessing I'll be making some characters for the rest of the day!  I find that the easiest way for me to learn a new system is to create characters.  So first up a dragon born sorcerer, and then a bunch of other weirdo combinations.

YAH!

Oh and here's a epic table that could be used for Strahd, or maybe something else. http://draconicmagazine.com/articles/random-table-1

I'm manically happy!

I bought myself a birthday present!  (It's not my birthday yet, but a few days from now).  I've been toying with buying "Blacksand" and "Titan" for a long time.  I used to have them when I was a kid, and I honestly miss them so much.   I finally took the plunge!  and the really good news is that they may get here while I'm on vacation! WoooO!

I honestly can't wait to run Blacksand, it's going to be crazy fun!

The question that is now coming to my mind, do I run it with the new AFF 2.0 rules? or do I convert it and run it basic fantasy.  I haven't quite decided yet.

OH MAN! Seriously over the moon here.  T minus 4.5 hours and I'm home drinking a beer.

The funny thing about being a nerd when your 36 is that everything that you loved as a child is being marketed to you, honestly its the best time to be alive.  The new Turtles movie is out.  Of course on my list is to buy up some old He-Man toys when I have some money (or the new versions that are super friggin cool!) 

Not to mention the new versions of AD&D 2e reprints that are bad assery!  (although I probably won't buy em since my original versions are still in decent shape.)

Happy Friday Kids!

*Strahd tomorrow

The Gods Must Be Crazy d20 table

Change is a part of life. 

1.  All of the local farmers crops have been growing five times the size as normal! Giant carrots anybody?

2.  Lakes, Rivers and streams have been deluged with a new species, they seem to be able to talk, and think for themselves.

3.  Manic weather of late, one day snow, the next day rain, the day after that it's beautifully sunny out.

4.  There have been large rumblings in the mountains, a scout was sent out to check it out.  He found that two god's had materialized and were playing a game of catch.

5.  A large city has materialized off the coast, it was long forgotten, but it appears that the oceans have subsided a bit.

6.  Humans are being born with strange mutations, never seen before.

7.  The power of cleric's has increased ten fold in the last few months.  The ability to heal and spells known.

8.  Trees of gold have sprouted!  Leading to a huge economic crisis.  Local authority's have decided upon a new system for commerce.

9.  All horses and riding mammals have unexpectedly left their keepers, whether they seek greener pastures, or the will of the Gods has yet to be determined.

10.  A new moon has appeared in the sky, it has caused major havoc to ecosystems.  Floods and earthquakes have begun.

11.  A strange mist has crept up into the world, villagers have tied ropes from house to house in order to make their way around.

12.  Seven gilded swords have been found, they have strange runes written upon the hilts.  None can read them.

13.  All ability to fly has been suspended, birds, dragons, griffons wander the roads on foot.  Spells fail.

14.  Gravity has been increased so much that people have a difficult time getting up in the morning.

15.  Things have randomly started changing colour.

16.  All daughters in the last year have been born as hermaphrodites.

17.  Meteor's have descended smashing specific strongholds.

18.  A extremely large tome has been found, it measures 30 feet by 20 feet.  Within it are recipes for soup, among other things.

19.  Consistently every night howls in the distance get louder.  Something is driving the wolves mad.

20.   Days and nights have been cut in half, 6 hours of each, the calender has almost doubled in length.

The moment you realize you should

Probably blog about something but nothing is really coming to you.  So you do a bit of surfing and find a few interesting links instead.

Here's a list of some Old School Zines - http://rendedpress.blogspot.ca/p/old-school-zines.html

Here is an interesting blog about Old School Roleplaying - bit of a introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isb4RQjHt8E

Aquelarre — Translated Introduction This looks rather interesting - http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/184527/Aquelarre--Translated-Introduction?src=newest_free_titles - This Introduction represents the first completed pages of our English translation of the classic Spanish RPG, Aquelarre.

I got mildly excited about this - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17445?src=DTRPGFB

World Builder's Guidebook (2e)

Never read it before, have any of you? 

I quite like the Adventures in Filbar series, I've got some good ideas from it for my own campaign. 

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/184642/FVS8--Penchant-for-Adventure--3?src=newest_free_titles

Oh and I'm going on vacation soon, so there's this stupid meme. 

Hopefully I didn't loose you.  I have a bit of writing to do while I'm on vaycay.  This weekend we are playing some 5e Curse of Strahd!  I was hoping for some "Deck DnD", but it appears the weather is not going to cooperate at all.  Balls!

In the next few weeks the old school group is going to reconvene, they will probably finish up "The tomb of gardag the strange".  To which I'm not entirely happy with the adventure as it stands.  Regardless of some of the cool reviews I've got for it.

It appears that the old school group quite likes wandering around the country side (hex crawlin!), and whatever comes up comes up.  So I am thinking that I need to incorporate a whole bunch more of that!  I have a few ideas cooking, just a matter of sitting down and writing them.

That's about it for today.

Here's a metal version of an Adele song.

This week is writing mode!

My Wife asked me recently "had I written anything lately?".  My answer was YES!  But what she was really asking was had I written anything that I had released on drivethru, and the answer is no.  I've been working diligently on this campaign.  I had a bunch of encounters on the road written, and the players managed to bust thru most of them a few sessions ago.  So I'm going to have to go and write some more stuff!

Unlike most hex crawls, this one nothing is really written.  I'm going to spend sometime working thru the rest of the hexes.  I did do a bit of a start on it, but some of its been thrown out as the campaign takes shape.

I think once, we get thru this whole thing and it actually is written I'll put it out there.  So far there's lots of interesting things coming up.  The big bad guy has taken shape thanks to some help from the comments on the blog.  The horde of Hobgoblins are going to be riding "War Toads", ala Zak S's "War Snails".

I still have to come up with an idea for Wiazrdly figure.  I'm thinking a NPC that hangs out with the PCs probably.

After I killed Tindleweed in the last campaign, he created a new character, that's basically a BEEFCAKE!  Which is going to be fun to watch him play.  He actually asked me the following: 

"Can you give me +2 to my strength, if I -7 to both my Wisdom and Int?".  LMFAO.  I gave him a bit of a deal on it, I think It was -2 to both. 

I've been looking at the adventure i started with +Thaumiel Nerub of +D-oom Products , and I need to get back to that.  Thankfully I'm on vacation next week so I'm going to attempt to hunker down.

As well I need to work on a bunch of random tables and pop em into google drive for when I play.  Just quick and easy things like halfling, dwarf and elf names.

Yup this is a WHOLE lotta A.D.D. type post this morning.

5 days till vacation.

6 days till we re-convene our 5e group for some more Strahd awesomeness

Massive member-old school session 5

Just finished up a session, super funny as usual. The title comes from silly discussion prior to the actual game. We reconvened in the tomb of gardag the strange. The players decided to go thru the west door Into a set of stairs. And they triggered a trap. To which the half ling cleric fell down and almost died.

After some rope heroics they managed to get oxana on solid ground and promptly went north. They found a zombie in a iron maiden. Killed it and went to the next room. The room contained green slime and after a previous encounter they decided, f*** that room. The PC's found a large cavern and we're immediately set upon by a insect swarm. One of the players lit a torch and attempted to smoke em out. After that room they found what appeared to be a bit of a treasure hoard. Piles of the clothes, rope, a whip,armour. The wizard twindleweed saw a fly tunic in the pile and decided it was his.

Prior the dwarf thru a rock into the room to see if by chance it was an illusion. The wizard ran into the room and promptly fell down a hole. RIP twindleweed. The player's looted the room, and had a silent drink to the memory of their wizard friend. Then looted his corpse. The thief grabbed the whip. To which I said, that whip belongs in a museum.

The PC's went off to another room and found a bunch of humans half dead tied to a pole. The low wisdom thief yelled What ho!

as per usual.

And a bunch of morlocks appeared, blood thirsty.

next session it should be that we are finishing up the tomb and after that hopefully the players will take a look again at the newsletter I gave them and see if they can find a Quest from there I still need to work on some NPCs and finish up elerds keep.

I think I will probably use one of the maps that Dyson has drawn for the cape keep along with the latest DMG to create all of the background information Merchants tavern's exedra

This is what happens when a player rolls on the background chart

Received this from one of my old school players.
You can download the "mildly plausible backgrounds" here.

Private message to the DM, I wrote a passage in the book of Twindleweed where paranoid old Twindleweed tries to figure out what to do about his god problem. He comes to the solution that he should secretly pledge his allegiance to Loki and have the Knights of the Free Lord of Never Winter Wood do Loki's bidding in exchange for protection from the wrath of Odin. The following is that passage: I suppose at some point I’ll need to address the mastodon in the room. Or should I say the one-eyed mastodon in Valhalla. My issues with Odin leave me troubled, despite him not killing me yet at any moment my life could be forfeit and while I’m sure Valhalla will be a nice place I’m not quite ready to give up the sins of the flesh just yet. Flinklitior has recommended that I make peace with Odin, make an offering and see if I can get back into his good graces.

While this would solve my problem of impending doom around any corner by the hands of an omnipotent being, it is unsatisfactory because I hate Odin. How dare he abandon me, for such a crime of indulging myself? I replaced the offering, all bee it with a substance of far lesser value, but he never takes the offerings anyways. All of the herb would have stayed there to rot until some priest got tired of the smell. My problem truly lies with Odin’s omnipotence; his power is unmatchable by any being in this realm of existence. However it occurs to me that his power is not unmatched in all realms. His omnipotence is over me however not over all things, the other gods for example are not bound to his power, they fight each other as men and elves and dwarfs do in this realm.

Perhaps this is my answer, if I was to pledge my services to another god in exchange for protection from Odin I could live free of my fear. But whom shall I contact and what do I have to offer? I need a being who would agree and see value in my service, for if I am refused Odin will hear of it and I will be stuffed and cooked over the sun for all eternity. Loki the trickster god, he is always plotting and scheming.

My services could useful to him. He would see me an asset perhaps and lying to fellow gods is certainly something that he may do. But what do I have to offer? Well the Knights of the Free Lord of Never Winter Woods are a good start, Flinklitior may be a dope but he a royal dope. I have his ear and he looks for me for counsel, I could have the Free Knights do Loki’s bidding. Perhaps this will be enough, I have to hope so as the alternative is making peace with the vial horse turd Odin.

Well, let it be known Loki. I have a proposition for you. Come forth and hear my offer for you.