Mordheim Lately...

A couple weeks ago, Rod, Rob, Carson, Phil and I played a couple games of Mordheim. As usual, Rod's Skaven kicked all our butts. My lizardmen are beginning to fare a bit better though, on the whole. If I remember correctly (which I might not), in the second game, Phil's Witch Hunters were eliminated first, followed by Rob's Undead, then Carson's beautifully painted Carnival of Chaos. After blinking in the final showdown with the Skaven, Tzempest Fujiit's Captain Bok made his survival roll with a "Madness" result, followed by the result for "Stupidity." With sadness, I dismissed the poor old reptile from the warband (after taking his equipment and spells, as I learned the rules allow) and promoted Chelahak to Captain (my rating came down to about 200). Later, I converted and painted more lizardmen especially for Mordheim. I included a couple of undead lizardmen for Robby, since one of them is now a zombie in his warband. B. and I painted minis for her warband in progress, which will probably be Mordheim Widows, Sisters of Sigmar or possibly just Middenheimers. She wants 5-6 female heroes and as many big dumb guys to fight for them as her captain can afford to hire and equip. I see no reason she can't learn the game with a bit of help. We painted up a dozen models or so, and I just need to write up the sheet for her. She may only be 6, but she is smart and really determined. Her enthusiasm is so infectious.

Because I have a wedding gig Dec. 29 there will be no game that day. I also have a New Year's Eve gig. But my plan is to game 2 weeks in a row, Jan 5 & 12. Remember our new starting time is 3:00, which I think works best for everybody. Let me know if not. I would like to play some more Mordheim on the 5th, and D&D on the 12th, but I'm flexible. Also, in the next couple of months, I'd like to play some Magic; probably a booster draft or constructed at the meeting room upstairs from Old Town Hobby on a Saturday or two (starting at about 10 am) in March or so. And yes, more Star Wars games will be forthcoming; I just feel like I need to organize a few ideas first.

I have thought about it and decided to go along for the 4th Edition D&D ride when the time comes. That's right, I'm up for buying my fourth each of the PH, DMG and MM later this year. I'm sorry (but not too sorry) to suggest that the way to go is not to fight new editions, just buy each new version right away (or when you can) so you can enjoy them for the longest possible amount of time before the inevitable expansions put everything out of balance again. Then, only buy the expansions that you will really use. I can't imagine being stuck in 2nd Edition right now, even though it was a big improvement over Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1st). 3rd was SO MUCH better than 2nd, and I honestly believe 4th Edition will be that much better again. So I'm going to start socking away my extra spending money now. I can't wait to see what direction my favorite game takes next. I think it's going to look a lot like the newest Star Wars rules book, with simpler basics but more room for customization of skills, professions, spells, equipment, etc.
--Dave

November Sessions

A couple of game sessions in October

The new Pathfinder campaign characters should now be about 4th level. They’ve battled a lot of goblins, including a nasty goblin druid in a briar patch. Other encounters have included goblin dogs, sinspawn (Kind of like a living evil zombie that came from a rune well. These monsters are so filled with hate, they can sense hate and tend to attack whoever has the least amount of hate), an aasimar cleric/abomination, and an evil wizard… You typical D&D stuff. It’s been fun running the old-school dungeon crawl. The party has a witch doctor (basically a mage), a spell-sword (essentially a fighter), a cleric, a Spartan-style fighter, a barbarian, a ninja (yeah, rogue), a luck-blade (uh-huh, fighter), and a bard (when Phil makes it), not counting NPCs and hirelings. In last Saturday’s session, the party managed to coordinate well with each other in one large encounter using stealth, spider venom and swords. Well done guys.
Our next session will be Saturday, November 3rd at 3:00pm sharp.

Pathfinder (the new D&D campaign)

(During his late night "activities," Cedric found read and this journal. There were only a few entries and a lot of blank pages. As it was hardbound and covered in red silk, it appeared valuable. As it was also monogramed on the cover and stamped on every page with the Foxglove family crest bearing the initials "A.F." it was obviously impossible to fence. Being somewhat curious, Cedric had plenty of time to read it before returning it to its spot in the pack under the bed of one of Aldern's three manservants when they were all staying at the Rusty Dragon Inn in Sandpoint.)

Verbatum journal of the Honorable Aldern Foxglove
Sworn to be a word for word transcription by his loyal manservant,
B. Quire Sutler III, calligrapher

Erastilday
Oh, the posh life at the Magnimar estate can be so boring. The most exciting thing I seem to do is put marmalade jam on my scones in the morning. I must get out more, I feel so alone. The Whencheslasses did mention that diva Allishanda will journey from here to play the role of Avisera the harpy queen in the Sandpoint Theatre's new production coming over the week-end. The Swallowtail Festival will also be happening to consecrate that magnificent new Sandpoint Cathedral as well, and being a contibuting patron of both I must of course attend, and it's only a short ride.

Iomeday
My manservants and I rode to Sandpoint, attended by my ever loyal hunting dog, Spoticus. At one point, Spoticus seemed to bristle and bark at some nothing or other on the way. Antonio and Cleopold agreed with me that it was probably just a bird. Bernard thought he saw something green moving low in the bushes. Funny, I don't recall any of the local birds having green colouration.
We're staying at the Rusty Dragon tonight. It's not posh, but it has a rustic charm. How I love Ameiko's spicy cooking and adventurous tales.

Abaday
Oh, the horror, the horror, the horror! At the apex of a five-year buildup, Sandpoint's cathedral concecration celebration, the Swallowtail Festival, transformed into a nightmare today, much as a swallowtail butterfly transforms from a catapillar. No, only not beautiful, ugly. A nightmare, I tell you! Are you writing this down, Bernard? Goblins attacked Sandpoint today. What do you mean, you told me you saw something yesterday? Anyway it could have been much worse if not for the Saviors of Sandpoint! Everyone was running away but my legs just froze. I am such a coward. A horrible goblin cut Spoticus down and I would have been next a second later if not for that beautiful Varissian woman Wren. While everyone else ran away, she swung her great big sword and killed that crazy singing monster like it was nothing. She saved my life, and her friends saved the town. When everyone else ran away, they fought back. Not like five years ago when the goblins burned down half of Sandpoint and Chopper killed people like they were chickens on Banquet Day. Oh, this new crop of heroes must be rewarded, especially Wren, my angel, my personal saviour. How confident, prepared and able to strike without hesitation. Everything around her seems to stagger and shake, fall and break in her presence. Or maybe that's just me. Oh why are my frozen noble knees trembling? Wren, Wren, Wren, Wren, Wren. If not for you I would be dead and buried in the Sandpoint Boneyard, probably with no headstone because goblins eat people's heads. Oh by the gods, Wren, thank you for saving my life.
Her friends are nearly as amazing as she is!
Eliza is a beautiful elven maiden, strong with a spear and klar shield and with true aim. While I stood frozen by fear, she must have skewered three or four of those big headed green devils. She's always wearing her shirt of thick hide and a long red cape. Her simple focus and skill is absolutely breathtaking.
Lorvok is a crazy wild haired magician, the likes of whom I have never met before in my travels. Wild haired and unkempt like a homeless man, he seemed to have come right out of the wilderness like the goblins themselves, but with the power of a Shoanti warlock or something he pointed his finger and a bolt of red darted from him to a goblin, knocking that big toothed villian to the ground from his perch atop a building. Don't get me wrong, I've met a wizard before, maybe two. But to see real magic in action, wow! That was something incredible. Oh, why am I such a dullard compared to Lorvok, why am I so well kept. I'm like a domesticated animal in comparison to his wild freedom and power. Why did I spend my school days hunting and gambling instead of learning about the magical arts?
Another of the heroes is a guy named Clive, who used a sword in each hand to kill goblins. His ability with swords is itself like some kind of a magical spell. Yes, Clive is a hero, one of the Saviors of Sandpoint. He's also a pretty good cook and has helped Ameiko in the kitchen when she gets busy.
Cedric, who has served as Sandpoint's town barber, was another who stood and fought. He wore black and disappeared in the shadows only to reappear and attack a goblin unexpectedly. Oh, how clever! How delightful! I wish I were more like Cedric! I asked about his weapon once and he told me it was called a "War Razor." Wonderful! I wonder what else Cedric can do?
During the battle, a grey elf sang songs! Who would do that? I think he said his name is Anar Sereg' Wethlinloki Auta Migula Orgo or something. I keep calling him Otto, but I'm sure that's not right, I'm just a dumb human, born yesterday compared to him. He sang and fought, and his strong elven voice seemed to bulster the others and belittle the mighty goblin army. For an elf, he's an enormous fellow, probably ten stones in weight and taller than me, over two yards. What a well-equipped hero he is, wearing studded leather armor and armed as he is with bow, sword, spear, shield and voice! His versatility is truly astonishing, it seems he knows a little bit about everything, and can do a bit of everything. Though he is a master of no one single trade, I think he knows something about elven magic. When Ameiko was too busy to entertain guests, he took his turn on the stage at the Rusty Dragon.
Brother Tokarius, for being a man of religion and healing, is ferocious in a fight! He prays to the sun goddess Sarenrae. I've seen him helping out at the cathedral, even though Father Zantus prays to Desna. Sandpoint is not so big as Magnimar, and I find it wonderfully refreshing to see six different faiths cooperating at such a level. So one minute, Tokarius was helping in ceremonies, and the next, the goblins attacked and he did not hesitate for a second before charging at them, bashing their heads in with his mace, one after the other, even attacking with his shield. All this while everyone else ran away and I stood frozen in my tracks while Spoticus did my fighting for me. Tokarius talks surprisingly tough, like a soldier. But while his speech may seem rough or even almost rude for a man of the cloth, his actions speak more loudly. After the battle, he healed everyone he could without hesitation. He is a holy man of action, while I, for all my wealth, am no one at all in comparison.
Gelt, a mighty half-orc barbarian, led the fight against the goblins attacking the other end of town. I was not close enough to see him in battle, but he joined us later. How is it possible for anyone to be so big and strong? One of his arms is larger than my torso, though I dare say my torso is getting pudgier all the time. Too much marmalade and scones.

Anyway, the goblins had torches and would have burned the town down again if not for these heroes, and everyone in Sandpoint is very grateful. I certainly am.

Gozrehday
I gave the Saviors of Sandpoint the "keys to the city" and a tour, guided mostly by my myself and my manservant Antonio, who is a wonderful attendent, quick to get a chair for me or speak in my stead when my voice becomes tired. I bought the heroes some trinkets in town, then some horses for Wren joined us later on a delightful boar hunt in Tickwood. It turns out she had fallen down a well earlier and missed the tour. I certainly missed Wren. Wren, Wren! I am so glad she was able to join us on the hunt. We felled a boar and brought it back to the Rusty Dragon. Ameiko cooked it up and we had a grand old evening together. It is a pity that I must soon return to my affairs at the estate in Magnimar.

Sarenday
Mayor Deverin called Sandpoint's "New crop of heroes" in for a meeting at the town hall this morning. I wish I were one of them. Sherriff Hemlock left them in charge of keeping the town secure, then left for Magnimar to acquire soldiers. I do feel secure with these heroes around me. How could I not? Though I do worry the goblins may return. I hear five years ago they attacked in much larger numbers.

Shelynday
An elven woman, named Shalelu Andosana, I think, left town today. I think she is some sort of ranger hired by the Sandpoint town council to scout the hinterlands. I wonder what she told them before she went back into her favorite woods? Did some shopping today. The Curious Goblin had some new books in. I wonder if I should pick up an extra copy of what Gelt is reading so we can discuss it together? I'm sure his tough guy routine is just an act and he is actually an articulate man of words. No one could really be as big, strong and simple as he seems to be.

Desnaday
I did not see Ameiko at breakfast this morning. I wonder where she is?

------------- (no further journal entries)------------

Key to the City (Key to Sandpoint Map)
1. Sandpoint Cathedral 2. Sandpoint Boneyard 3. The White Deer 4. The Way North 5. Jeweler 6. Junker's Edge 7. Gorvi's Shack 8. Sage 9. Locksmith 10. Sandpoint Garrison 11. Sandpoint Town Hall 12. Savah's Armory 13. Risa's Place 14. Rovanky Tannery 15. Red Dog Smithy 16. The Pillbug's Pantry (note: Cedric's barber is located near here) 17. Bottled Solutions 18. Cracktooth's Tavern 19. House of Blue Stones 20. Sandpoint Glassworks 21. Sandpoint Saveries 22. The Curious Goblin 23. Sandpoint Theatre 24. Carpenter's Guild 25. Sandpoint Lumber Mill 26. General Store 27. Turandarok Academy 28. Madame Mvashti's House 29. Grocer's Hall 30. Vernah's Fine Clothing 31. Wheen's Wagons 32. Ccarnetti Mill 33. The Hagfish 34. Valdemar Fishmarket 35. Sandpoint Market 36. Sandpoint Meat Market 37. The Rusty Dragon 38. Goblin Squash Stables 39. Two Knight Brewery 40. Sandpoint Mercantile League 41. Sandpoint Boutique 42. Fatman's Feedbag 43. The Pixie's Kitten 44. The Feathered Serpent 45. Hannah's 46. Sandpoint Shipyard 47. Valdemar Manor 48. Scarnetti Manor 49. Kaijitsu Manor 50. Deverin Manor

In yesterday's session, I did a flashback of Aldern's Sandpoint tour, and the group cleared out the goblins in the glassworks to rescue Ameiko Kaijitsu. It turned out that her brother Tsuto was controlling the goblins. There are plans afoot at Thistletop for another attack though...maybe 200 goblins and some other weird stuff. Gotta go More next time

Experience: Over two sessions, the xp total is exactly 3,000. Everyone is 3rd level exactly.
Treasure: Um, I think everybody got about 500 gp total over the two sessions between what was found and what was awarded by Aldern and other merchants in rewards.
Next session: Saturday, October 13, 3:00 pm until ??

Aarde Reunion * Ant Guy

Last weekend, gamers were coming out of the woodwork, it seemed. Along with the regulars like Rod, Rob, Carson, Jon and Phil were Shawn, Alma, Marshall, Chaun, Jesse and I'm probably forgetting somebody. Thank you all for coming. I used minis to help keep track of several small combats that occurred on Monster Island, where some of the first characters in this campaign started. Another group began around Appleton, but that's another story. All of the encounters were actually recycled from earlier in the campaign and represented a last-ditch effort on the part of the purple order drow invaders to come up with large numbers of monsters tough and hard enough to defeat the party. In the end, the drow general heading this effort attempted to surrender to the party and was denied the opportunity so he teleported away to safety. But basically, it looks like at this point the drow are reconsidering their invasion of Aarde, especially since the other elves split from their alliance.
XP: 3,500
Treasure: Pride.
Next session: 3-9 pm or so, Saturday September 8. We will probably play Star Wars and also begin the new Pathfinder D&D campaign with first level characters!

MUTANTS & MASTERMINDS
In Carson's M&M Heroes campaign, my Ant Guy helped defeat a Soviet version of Captain America, with the help of Perseus and Lady Eagle. Now Ant Guy's got a mole machine. It was cool.

Mordheim, Mutants & Masterminds

Rob, Rod, Phil and I played three games of four-player Mordheim using three big battlemats and my growing collection of ruins for terrain over the ol' pool table. I made a square 6-story gutted apartment that should be pretty good. Rod's Skaven suffered some losses this time, but even so they did not lose even one skirmish, or miss one survival roll. Phil started a Witch Hunters warband, Rob alternated between Orcs and Undead, and I played my Lizardmen. Although I gained and lost a few henchmen and one hero, the scaly guys are getting better overall as I am adjusting my strategy a bit, which helped in the third battle. Speaking of spells, I was fairly lucky with mine going off, and especially lucky for some enemy spells that did not go off--especially warpfire (I think that's what it would have been). I find it helps to keep my guys close together, but not too close because of area of effect spells. I'm getting better at counter-charges but also knowing when to hold back and hit from a distance. It also helped that I made so many 6+ armor saves, a lot of leadership checks and no small number of survival rolls. I have six heroes that are continually getting more skills and lizardmen equipment such as javelins and bolas, but the real changes have been to the henchmen. Several battles ago, I decided against replacing the Kroxigor again for now because he's so expensive and draws so much fire from crossbows and warplock pistols, though I really liked his Move of 6 and fighting skills. It's much the same situation I found myself in with my Osterlander warband. If I had spent those gold crowns on other things, both of these warbands would be a bit stronger by now. I've gone from 6 to 3 Henchmen and now have two Skinks that are basically archers and one Saurus who will never fire a ranged weapon. Nine is a bit nicer number when it comes time for selling wyrdstone, but it exposes my six heroes to more risk. My "Zhempest Fugitt" Lizardmen Temple Guard of the 401st Spawning now have a warband rating of 222, but still got a +2, +0, and +1 underdog xp bonuses in the three skirmishes.
You might want to check out the Mordheim Town Cryer entry Penny found online about the Mordheim Widows warband, it looked kind of interesting, and it makes you think about an important aspect of Mordheim.

Later, Carson joined us at Rod's to run his heroes campaign. My new character ANT has mutant ant powers: he can basically corrode a target with fire ant acid, disintigrate, build or repair things with waves of ants, or turn into a super strong, armored giant ant. Special phoernomes and mind links allow him to influence and communicate with his "human colony." He can even change into a colony of mutated ants that can burrow through the ground at 25-100 mph. Rod's character, PsiFire is psionic; she can read minds and burn things. Rob's character is a super-strong faceless rock-man who can't stop growing. The game, Mutants and Masterminds is great; you can basically design your character to do just about anything you can imagine until you run out of points. It's pretty easy, similar to the d20 system so it's quick to learn. Because it's a superhero game, the characters are crazily powerful. It's like Mutant X meets X-Men meets Heroes in Los Angeles in the 1980's. There are several rival pro-mutant and anti-mutant groups (and organizations in the middle) competing for control, plenty of interesting politics and character and npc interactions. For example, a mutant called Switch, who was thought dead, re-appeared but had no body because his power is to switch psyches and he was switched out when his body was slain. All of our minds and bodies got scrambled up in the middle of a battle, so we couldn't tell who the bad guys were! Carson is a great GM and I had fun. Thanks!

Star Wars - Stuck behind the shield

On a routine medical delivery the Akbar's Trap crew were assured would be both well-paying and safe, the party found themselves defending a royal fortress shortly after landing their medium freighter. An Imperial star destroyer was turbolasering the area from orbit, but the fortress had good ion cannons and other weapons, as well as shields that went up shortly after the party landed and were still holding up against the energy barrage. So the Empire, following their typical routine sent drop ships full of stormtrooper demolition crews, AT-AT and AT-ST walkers, hovertanks, etc.
The party had to defend the power generators so that the shields would hold in order to prevent the inevitable TIE bomber wave that would follow if it did. Fortunately, the fortress also had a good steelcrete wall and royal guards to fill the gaps; but the party's help was definitely needed. Jaina, Destro, Jon's Jedi, and the Bothan (played by Shawn S.) all fought very fiercely while Pieda set up a triache area under the ship to protect and treat the wounded. Destro got behind enemy lines with his flutterpack and took out at least three officers and two vehicles. Jaina showed prowess with her rifle, and also blew up a light grav tank with a rocket. Jon's Jedi used his lightsaber to keep too many stormtroopers from coming through the gap closest to the power generators, often deflecting their own shots back at them, and taking out as many as three in a round, and causing a bit of hesitation for others.
The Bothan consistantly took out a stormtrooper each round, though he was badly wounded toward the end of the battle. At one point, Pieda lightsabered a stormtrooper in half because he was shooting at patients. Jarn, using a comport Destro installed in a drop ship officer's computer, was able to forge a retreat order that confused about 25 stormtroopers for a round or two. Then, 10 royal Corellian Corvettes arrived and decimated the remaining Imperial ground troops and vehicles, forcing the Star Destroyer to fall back. Destro, from an AT-AT he had captured, gave the surrender order and narrowly avoided becoming a victim of friendly fire.
XP: 3,000
Ship Fund Credits: Net 500,000 (gross 2,000,000 minus 1,500,000 expenses)
Source: Hideouts & Strongholds (West End Games)
Current character levels: 8th-11th or so
Next session: Sat, Aug. 11, 2007 2-8pm

Note: For D&D in the near future, I am going to be running Pathfinder, which will be a new campaign. I'm guessing I'll be ready to start running it in October or so with new characters. I would like come to a stopping place in my current D&D campaign story line before that, so we should probably run 3 hr./3 hr. split Star Wars/D&D sessions (like we used to) for a while. I'm really looking forward to running Pathfinder, because the Paizo people have done excellent work with Dragon and Dungeon magazines and I just want to go along for the ride for once. I'm sure I will have adjustments I will make to the material, though. Ask me about it next time you see me; I will have some early player information and you might want to think about what your new character will be for this exciting new campaign!

Star Wars -- The Books & Dice Role-Playing Game

So anyway... I ran Rod, Rob, Carson, Phil and Marshall through an 8-hour session of Star Wars yesterday. Dabbo the Hutt directed the party to investigate the Empire's strength in a backwater sector of the galaxy. After visiting half a dozen worlds intimidated by the mere threat of Imperial attack, and learning that the Imperial presence in the sector was limited to just one star system, the party worked its way there. As is typically the case, each world had bits of local interest, alien races and cultures, potential allies and enemies and trade opportunities. Law levels varied from draconian to lax. Cap'n Gracus sold spice and old inventory from the ship's cargo hold. Destro, Jaina, Gracus, Were-Rat and the Bothan collected a few bounties: a Devaronian slave runner, a human spice run payment-skipper, a rogue droid murderer named Necron, and a Twi-lek thief. Several of the worlds were mere fuel stops along the way to the final confrontation with the Empire's presence in the sector.

Ultimately, the group reverted to one of its oldest and best tricks in dealing with the Empire: joining it as high-ranking agents. Using Jarn's amazing computer skills and Gracus' and Destro's incredible skills of deception and manipulation, the two rival star destroyers in the system were each turned against the sector's main weapons platform and disabled. In the case of the first star destroyer, Jackpot sabotaged the power and hyperdrive systems by reducing the hyperspace field generator reach area and activating it, putting power and propulsion systems in hyperspace while leaving the rest of the star destroyer floating dead in space. Meanwhile, Gracus charmed the pants off the savvy female star destroyer cap'n. Destro, through a series of simple bribes and some misdirection, elegantly orchestrated Imperial intelligence to turn the weapons platform administrator against the two star destroyers and vice versa. Yes, it all sounds crazy but it actually worked. In terms of power and military hardware, the Imperial weapons platform is easily capable of controlling the sector. But now, with its corrupt administrator influenced by Destro's bribes, Hutt interests in the sector will not only be allowed, they will be protected.

XP: 5,000
Next session: Sat. July 28, 3-9 pm

Mordheim & Star Wars

Last week, I took my big box of Mordheim terrain, minis etc. over to Rod's on a Thursday night. I was on vacation and school had just gotten out for summer. What started as a couple of games kind of kept going. At first B. played too, then she fell asleep on the couch while the DVD of Transformers and Beast Wars played over and over. Rob's orcs, though a large warband, were out-shot and out-fought by Rod's skaven, as were my Osterlanders (Shane used them once) and my old lizard men. Uh, we kind of kept playing. Rob tried his Vampire Count, but that didn't work out against the skaven either. Rod's been playing skaven for a long time, and he seems to have it figured out. All heroes, no hired swords. Three melee specialists with swords and tail fighting when they get the skills. Three ranged specialists with braces of warplock pistols and eagle eye for distance when they get the skills. Infiltration, which can single handedly help win a lot of the scenerios. Dawn came, as did a couple of actual deer into the yard (yes, fawns downtown). By sunrise my lizardmen warband rating had gone from the 140's to the 200's, but they didn't win even once, and my Kroxigor failed his survival check. Man I love Mordheim though.

Today, I ran Star Wars from 2-8 for Phil, Rob, Carson and Marshul. I mostly ran from the old West End Games' Star Wars Planets Collection again. The party went up against the Loag, a cult of assasins on the world of Merisee (p. 156). They defended a biochemist who had hired them for protection from the assasins and from Imperial agents. The main battle was fought in the House of Utozz Prime Brewery, brewers of Merisee Smooth, though the party also fought giant bugs on the steaming jungle of neighboring Meriss III. Jaina, with the help of Marshul's Bothan scoundrel and Cap'n Garrick, was able to locate Parnoz Zedon IV and collect his 25,000 credit bounty. Later, the party risked three black holes and with the help of Forlorn Sky's navigation, made the Kessel run. Garrick bought two tons of spice with the help of a bankroll Jackpot had been saving until needed by the party. After a narrow escape from a large number of well-armed, seasoned pirates, the party was able to get away, achieving something that even gave the great Han Solo difficulty. See more notes below.
XP: 4,000
Ship Fund: Re-assessed. Dobbo the Hutt removed half of the 5 million visible in the ship fund, then Jackpot added 40 million; then 26 million (or so) was spent on spice worth 10 times as much. Also, the cargo hold is more full (about 3/4) of scrapped ships and vehicles than previously thought due to the party's repeated successes and subsequent scavanging. The cargo hold now contains enough vehicles and/or parts for about four starfighters, one hovertank (+1 treaded custom one), one submarine, one air fighter similar to those from the Battle of Hoth, and at least two dozen hover bikes, trucks, and other vehicles. In addition, there are lots of capital ship parts as well as semi-refined ores, as Akbar's Trap is fitted with mining equipment. Though the ship has retractable fuel scoops, there is currently no starship fuel stored on board. But there are considerable personal treasures purchased or saved by PCs and NPCs, including large quantities of computer equipment hoarded by Jarn, droids and parts collected by pretty much everybody (especially Jackpot), luxury goods belonging to Cap'n Garrick, medical supplies of Pieda's, extra man-portable and small vehicle munitions belonging mostly to Jaina, Destro, Forlorn Sky and Archu King. Tools and equipment of Mike Skruyabutavich's. Oh, and the party purchased how many tons of beer on Merisee? I think it was 20 or more... But Akbar's Trap is a medium freighter with about a 200 ton capacity.
Next session: Saturday, July 14, 2-8 pm or so.

My 85th Post: Star Wars session Sat. 6/16/07

Rod and Rob played Destro and Jaina in my Post-Episode VI Star Wars RPG campaign yesterday. At the urging of their Hutt boss, the party found themselves infiltrating the prothium blaster gas system Killaniri as vendors to the Czerka Weapons Corp. Jarn Thro secured the needed vendor identification codes and ship marking decals. On the world of Mutanda, encircled by dozens of Imperial star destroyers, Pieda flew right in and landed Akbar's Trap at Justa Starport, near another 50 or so light to medium starfreighters. At this underground facility, Destro and Jaina got the lay of the land, mixing company with vendors from Czerka, BlasTech Corp. and Blethern Gas Industries as well as Imperial officers, civilian workers and a few of Mutanda's Horansi natives, who live on the surface largely ignored, except for a few mercenaries, poachers and hunting expedition leaders.

The Horansi are civilized but somewhat primative and resemble great predatory cats. Their tribal conflicts and racial and philosophical differences have split them into the tigerlike Kasa, the lionlike Gorvan, the leopardlike Treka and the pantherlike Mashi. Mostly, their native weapons have been limited to bows and spears. Destro and Jaina met their Gorvan contact, and working with him, they infiltrated and easily defeated his tribes foes in rival Kasa and Treka villages. In return for a more secure Gorvan region and services and weapons delivered by the party, valuable native animals were authorized for offworld delivery. In terms of credits, this will depend on what price this live cargo will bring elsewhere, but 20 tons of live herd, predatory and novelty creatures are now in the Akbar's Trap cargo hold, in return for a mere 2 tons of Hutt weapons.

As it turned out, an elusive Mashi named Sw'isi was an Alliance spy, but unfortunately the network of Imperial spies spread misinformation and used Destro, Jaina and the Gorvan tribe to smoke the Mashi out. But Destro broke in on the Imperial takedown of the Mashi, and after intimidating the entire group with a thermal detonator, he took data discs outlining the local spy networks as well as prothium gas production and delivery information. Using his new flutterpack, Destro flew away clean.

Jaina, with the help of this information, the party and the dirty rotten attorney Milus, managed to freeze her arm on a carbonite prothium processing tank, then sue Czerka Corp. for 1.25 million credits, settled out of court. In order not to submit to this defeat, Imperial agents attempted to apprehend Milus, but were prevented from doing so by Jackpot. Details are unclear, but may involve an unknown gas used in an Imperial star destroyer hallway, and possibly some unknown method of biological memory erasure similar to the procedure used on droids.

Experience: 3,000 xp
Ship Fund: +1.25 million credits, +20 tons exotic animals, -2 tons weapons
Next session: Saturday, June 30, 2007 2-8pm (subject to change)

I saw the brand new Star Wars rulebook. It's pretty straightforward. From what I can tell, the D20 system is getting better all the time. This newest update should streamline the game even more, speed up play and make it even more fun. Personally, since the game sessions I run are very short-story oriented, the rules actually matter a lot less to me as GM than most people would think. I tend to memorize the newest set of rules just by using it and yes, even though I can't really afford to, I try to keep up with the latest set of rules for Star Wars and D&D. In the long run, it's better that way because you don't get behind and you can enjoy each edition for its maximum possible life. So yeah, I okayed Rod and Rob to go ahead and update their characters to latest edition rules. But DON'T WORRY, they're easier if anything, not harder, and characters from the previous edition easily translate just fine. I think I get what Wizards of the Coast is doing with Star Wars: they've found a way to make it quicker for new players to create a character, while at the same time making it easier for veteran players like us to customize our characters more easily than before. I especially like the section on Droids. I could have a lot of fun with the Droid building guidelines.

Whew. All of that being said, for the session I ran yesterday, I referred to one of my old West End Games references, the Star Wars Planets Collection (1994). This book, like the GURPS Space planetary references, is good enough that you can open to just about any random page and have plenty of fresh ideas for a session. All you have to do is ad lib a few things, and you're good to go. So yeah, when it comes to role playing games, I like the newest rules, but when it comes to adventure ideas, the new stuff is great, but nothing is ever too old either so don't get rid of it. I have some old MegaTraveller ideas that I still use. I even incorporate Warhammer 40,000 ideas. I read a lot of fantasy and science fiction, and watch a lot of Scifi Channel also, and I file it all away in my mind, for possible future use of anything in some future session. And yet when I'm actually running a game, I usually start with just one big idea for a session, but I improvise and use a lot of index cards. I add some color and detail but I really try to keep the game moving.

Mordheim, Mordheim & Alternity

Over the weekend I played Roddy's Skaven warband a few times and my Osterlanders kept losing. So I allied with them when we played Rob's giant orc warband (we won, almost entirely thanks to Rod's Skaven). My Osterlander rednecks currently have a rating of about 200, and I just hired two more jaegers and now have 5 heroes and 5 henchmen total, including my third ogre (that's right, the first two failed survival checks) and my second priestess (now the warband only has one spell, bear's paw, instead of the three I was up to before). I still like playing this warband, but I'm seriously thinking about re-building one of my old lizardmen or reichlander Mordheim warbands, or trying one I haven't yet, maybe witch hunters. I miss having lots of crossbows. My old Brettonian group was pretty fun too, with good spells and horses. I don't know. Maybe I should just make my own group of Skaven.

We played Shane's new Alternity campaign at Rod's later on, and my character is basically an alien medic/pilot/hvy wpns guy who is a medivac specialist. His name is Gus, but they call him Mac, and his race look like cybernetic humans. The campaign so far is very military in nature and I think my character will be a useful NPC on weeks when I can't make the game. I wouldn't call Gus well-rounded but for being a new character he's pretty good at what he does. The first session, he made most of his pilot, air vehicle and treat injury dice checks. We are using the original Alternity system, which is weird but elegant in design. You just never have enough skill points.

That was a lot of gaming for me, about 14 straight hours' worth. My usual is about 6. But typically I only play about two sessions a month.

Fergus at Rod's D&D Game Sat night

Rod ran his epic-level D&D campaign Saturday night. Shawn S., Marshall, Shane, and Rob were there too. I played Admiral Fergus Dowrimple, head of the Arcane Order etc., etc. He's level 42 and super rich. Cedric's invaders from the moon were after 5 artifacts. As a party, we did what we could to save lives and property. And we did what armies could not: fight epic monsters. Ultimately, we were victorious but that was not a sure thing. I think there were at least 3 character deaths though certainly nothing like that is permanent for epic D&D characters.

We fought giant robots, epic undead, far realm creatures, etc. on five battlefields. The artifacts included a pyramid's moon beam, a lizardman thing etc.

A(D&D) Scanner Darkly * Death of a Pirate

Yesterday's D&D game was based loosely on Phillip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly." Shopping for masterwork magic items brought the party to Lhevix, a newer city on Aarde built by Khadgar, the g-d of gold and fire (a retired elven sorcerer character of Rod's). Currently, the city's police force is the most feared in the world. The administrative structure of Lhevix is efficient, but sometimes arbitrary. Periods of extreme funding have been followed by years of non-funding and neglect. Over time, this has led to the current chief of police resorting to magic in order to fulfill his duties to protect the city.

Here's a little bit of his background and back story. Loved and feared, Lhevix's Police Chief Klondin Fire-eye is, like so many of Lhevix's high administrators, an epic wizard. Also like many of Khadgar's administrators he was given a title and a lump sum of 100,000 gp, then he was trusted and/or ignored and forgotten. In Fire-Eye's case, he was Geased to protect the city from threatening crimes, and then left to his own devices. In his true form he happens to have been born a goblin. The depraved hedonists, thieves and thugs of the city were running rampant and nobody cared. Few individuals could have or would have accomplished what Fire-eye did: serving and protecting the largest, richest, most crime-infested city in on Aarde with no budget, policy, oversight or recognition. For ten years, any person wanting to become a constable was hired by Fire-eye, and their salary was paid out of his own pocket. But 20 times their number was needed for the job, probably more. So he used the resources he had to pad their numbers: goblins from the Fire Giant islands, who were actually highly skilled. But despite Lhevix's cosmopolitan makeup, the goblins were not accepted, especially as constables. A strange new drug called Black Root appeared in the back alleys of the taverns, and it was alluring and incapacitating large numbers of the city's best artisans, threatening the very lustre of the city. So Fire-eye used another resource he had: magic. He stayed up nights working to give Lhevix's underpaid constables the tools they needed to infiltrate and enforce social order in every corner of the city: hats of disguise, invisible golems, lots of wizard eyes and a chamber full of crystal balls so his goblin-padded forces could watch everyone, everywhere in Lhevix and beyond. It really bothered people, which is probably why it worked. Pleased with the end result, Khadgar, who served as his own chief of finance, trusting this to no one, noticed Chief Fire-eye and remembered to resume funding his department at appropriate levels. This was a few years ago. Now, Fire-Eye's evening watch captain is a dwarf named Captain Oskar, in charge of over 200 constables (143 of them happen to be goblins). Through all of this the Fire Giant Island goblins have proven trustworthy constables, perhaps from their training by the Fire Giants, perhaps out of respect for Fire-Eye's powerful magic and certainly from awe of the much greater power of Khadgar himself. Incidently, the Fire Giant Islands no longer have any trained constables and are in utter chaos, as these prized individuals are all working for much better pay at Lhevix.

Due primarily to Khadgar's reputation for wealth and his standing policies to provide the most outrageous pay in the world for the best wizards and artisans, Lhevix has risen to the top of Aardes cities in wealth and population. Also, under the direct protection of a deity, Lhevix has completely avoided the turmoil of the Purple Order's drow moon elf invasion. So here of all places can be found enforced chaos and state-sanctioned weirdness. A ring of ash 20 miles in every direction can be found, but there are no evil drow moon-elf invaders in sight as Khadgar watches over his beloved city of strange tall towers and stranger citizens.

So anyway, Cap'n Fergus, Joseph, Revan, Taito, Black-Eyed Bill, Lola, a couple bards, a flying gnome dragon guy, and a githyanki or githzeri walk into a bar in this town, see, and... And it turns out that Captain Oskar has been posessed by the Weaver King (hee hee) into smuggling his intoxicating venom "black root" into Lhevix. Not Oskar, his split personality. In fact, the very guy he was pursuing during his career turned out to be himself, and he didn't even know. For years. This is the part of the plot I lifted from A Scanner Darkly.

Of course, the party caught him and knows everything now. The take-down was kind of challenging though because of Captain Oskar's position, but the party did it easily. But Khadgar was grateful, because the Weaver King's BLACK ROOT venom was the only way the Purple Order could hurt Lhevix.

But where is the Weaver King? No one knows, yet.

XP: 2000 GP: 50,000
Next session: Sat. June 2, 3pm

STAR WARS
Jaina and Garrick led the group in counterattacking a whole slew of pirates in starfighters after they ambushed Akbar's Trap while it was scooping fuel at a gas giant. Then Destro did his thing and practically with his eyes closed he and Jarn took out their base, which was loaded for bear with tractor beams. Actually, that's about it. Oh yeah, the rich old head of the pirates paid off the party to not kill him, and make a braintape and DNA sample for later, so the party made about five million credits.

Experience: 2,000
Credits: 5,000,000 (to ship fund)

Osterlanders lose, regain ogre

A couple of weeks ago, we played Mordheim. Unfortunately I forgot to blog, so I forgot some details. I remember that I could and should have voluntarily routed but didn't, then got crushed and the ogre failed his survival check but one of the Kin got "The Lad's Got Talent" and became a hero. The next skirmish whent better, and after exploration and selling some equipment at a loss, my Osterlanders have an ogre again. So my warband rating went down, then went back up again.
As I remember it, Rod played nastily-fast Skaven, Carson played Marionbergers with blackpowder weapons and Robby played a Vampire and a couple of his loser sidekicks.

Then we went to Izzy's and said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANE!"

Does that sound about right? Ah, I guess.

Lepi! Larry! Crackers!

Our Star Wars session on Sat. 4/21/07 involved the expansion and protection of Dabbo the Hutt's enterprises, in this case, having the party run alcohol to the Lepi (they look like giant rabbit-people) and see about recruiting for Dabbo's various strip bars and brothels. As it turned out, the Lepi world Couchin IV, with an uncharted population in the trillions, was more than ready, willing and able to meet with any requests made by Destro, and the Lepi Consolidated Governments even subsidized the trades, goods, offworld travel, visitation perks and services involved. The party were initially greeted like rock stars, and offers of special favors came pouring in. Destro was given a Hef-like suite, complete with red velvet decor and women galore, and he even sold a brain tape for 1,000,000 credits. Much Later, a news item appeared that the Empire had outlawed brain tape technology due to agent comprimise (no agent names were remotely connected to Destro) on Couchin IV; two more star destroyers were immediately sent to "deal with the issue once and for all." The Lepi Consolidated Governments were said to be cooperating and summary executions followed. Jarn Thro will not discuss his visit beyond saying the first hour was great, but after the first time he bruised his pelvis it was no fun for him. He refused ten 1,000,000-credit brain tape offers, saying the mass of information in his mind would overwhelm and kill any small-headed Lepi the technology tried to stuff it into. Jaina recalls kicking butt at some crazy rock concert, winning the spice lottery, getting laid (though the Lepi males are much lamer than the females), riot police, going on a killing rampage, being in a "hospital"--and now having a complete HATRED of the Lepi that she refuses to explain (and don't ask unless you want your ass kicked by her). Months later, bloody riots are taking place in several Lepi cities, led by angry rabbit people who share her attitudes and have unstoppable urges to break and burn things. The ship's pilot and surgeon, Pieda Bowman II, a triple class noble/jedi counseler/soldier has for his past several levels been a follower of the Jedi counsellor code of chastity. Pieda was heroically able to resist the unrelenting Lepi pheornomes and advances for a full day and a half before submitting to a couple of weeks of pleasure; he now faces horrible pangs internal guilt along with memories of complete satisfaction. He accepted a 1,000,000-credit brain tape offer during his stay at the brothel. His next level will probably be in soldier, or possibly noble. Cap'n Garrick had a great time and hoped all his shipmates would too, though he says he's not one to kiss and tell (except maybe if he's drunk). Jackpot disappeared from the ship and spoke with no one, and later revealed that among his "gambling winnings" are a large amount of spice and a flash copy of the Lepi Consolidated Governments braintape population archive and he is eager so share with the party if they wish. Akbar's Trap left Couchin IV with 400 "entertainment industry workers" in the cargo hold. According to Dabbo's delivery routes, these workers were to be dropped off at 30 or so of his brothels and strip bars on various worlds. Most of the drop offs were quick and routine; each worker contract netted the party's share about 20,000 hard credits before fuel and other expenses.

However, on one pristine, resource-rich tundra world, war raged between a Hutt-rebel alliance and the Empire. Due to powerful orbital turbolasers and lack of cover, Akbar's Trap had to be carefully hidden and regularly moved while the party joined the fight against the Imperials. Both sides were playing a shell game with small underground bases and snow speeder bikes. Jaina and her customized tank were in their element in this environment; a bit slower perhaps than a speeder bike, but with DR 20, highly resistant to their weapons. Armed with a starship missile system, Jaina obliterated snow speeder bikes and larger air vehicles, a base with 12 vehicles in one shot and pretty much wreaked havoc and left enormous smoking craters in her wake. She was able to recover a data pad that revealed a map of an Imperial mine field and the location of their bases nearby. Destro was able to dodge speeder bike attacks and respond by throwing thermal detonators at them, leaving behind small craters here and there. Once the coast was clear, he hid his speeder bike, put on his stealth suit and headed down ventillation shafts of small hidden underground Imperial snowspeeder bike outposts. With a bit of help from Jarn, Destro rigged the camera/computer auto destruct system of each base to be in control of the Hutt-rebel alliance instead of the Empire. Since one of the bases had 12 snowtroopers present, but a capacity for 200 or more snowtroopers, Destro and Jarn would be able to wait until the right moment when the base was reinforced and resupplied. Their job done for the moment, Akbar's Trap went on to make more deliveries after this short but successful mission.

Experience: 6,000
Credits: Individuals see above;
Ship fund will be up at least 4,000,000 credits overall.
Next session: 2 weeks from now, Saturday, May 5, 3:00 pm.

Kamaliofi, city of winged folk

Today, Me, Phil, Rob, Carson, Rod and Shane played D&D. We got a late start, but played a bit long.
The game focused on the winged folk island city-state of Kamaliofi, located among the Outsider islands of my own Aarde campaign. While I have detailed most of Aarde's major cities already, there are countless possibilities within the game for creating small cities and areas such as this. Shane created a monk, Clarvin, who is very different from Carson's Taito. Clarvin is a peaceful sort who has taken a vow of poverty. Yet he can manage an AC of up to 50 using absolutely no equipment (Carson's cartoon of the character depicts him naked, bot that's a bit of an exaggeration). Uniquely among the party, Clarvin is also quite peaceful by nature, focused on defense, disarming, negotiation and nonlethal combat.
After exploring the offerings of the small city of Kamaliofi and its winged folk, the group decided to pursue the local Vecna cult, which also served as the thieves' guild. After battling yeti-ettins, the party located the hideout, named the "Gjomyr Order of the Phymich Imkan," but really just hq for a bunch of thugs. Beyond the entrance concealed by illusion along the face of a rocky mountain was a frescoed hallway depicting a one-winged Vecna; just beyond that was a 60' wide pit trap, 50' deep, with water and spikes at the bottom. When the party failed to give the password, the trap was activated, but all survived. Beyond the double doors, the party fought and defeated cult members who were mostly evil assassins, rogues and sorcerers.
This was a pretty long session, focused just on D&D (no Star Wars today), so experience was 6,000 for those who role-played for the entire session (2,500 xp for half-session). Treasure was pretty good at 11,000 gp total value per character; however all of Clarvin's share of the treasure automatically goes to the poor. While much of the treasure is in artisan-cut star rose quartz, several property deeds, contracts and other documents were in the thieves' guild's possession.
Next session: Saturday, April 7 12 Noon Sharp.

St. Patrick's Day D&D and Magic: The Gathering

Aaron E., Jon G., Rod, Rob, Penny and I played D&D for the first half of the session. Carson was sick, and Phil didn't make it. The wizard Noctorium, Gemberlion the Flying Gnome, Joseph, Revan, Geena, Lola and all the NPCs (plus Carson's characters Black-Eyed Bill and Taito) returned to the thrice-restored Temple of Transformation. There, they once again faced the usual Jaramonian mongrelmen and assorted strange crossover mutations. Much more powerful now, the party easily approached through the strange landscape, where no flora or fauna is normal in any way, ants have monkey faces and trees have grass for bark.

Crossing the mutation wave about a mile from the pyramid, the PCs each resisted the effects, except for Noctorium. Strangely, randomly (I had Aaron make the rolls on the chart I made) it was his left hand (once again) that was effected. Even more strangely, it was again transmuted into an Eagle's Claw as it had been long ago, out of 20 items on my list. The only thing different was that it turned blue this time. I considered this and after a contest of wills (as with an intelligent magic item) and several dice rolls, Noctorium somehow absorbed the strange energy and his claw is now a +4 weapon that will also function as a spell foci, and the wizard gained two levels.

The main battle took place inside the pyramid, where the party faced Tuplegorp, a beholder-lynerian hydra aberration. Floating 85 feet up in the inner chamber, Tuplegorp had 16 eyestalk-heads each on a hydra-length snake head, each with spell effects more powerful than a beholder's. Beyond the reach of melee attacks from non-flying party members, Tuplegorp blasted the group from above, turning party members to stone, freezing, frying, splashing acid and fingers of death from above, magically charming, disintigrating, telekinesis-ing--seemingly at will. Three voices--the two singing bards and a dread pirate's battle cries -- became two, than one, and then just the sounds of battle. Worse, two heads were growing from each of the places where heads had been severed by the twin longswords of Lola, who had used her boots of teleportation to jump on top of Tuplegorp before being paralyzed. Fortunately, fireballs from Fergus and Noctorium stopped this growth. The geyser of arrows from Geena, Henderson, Mick the Gangly and the other NPCs was reduced to just Geena, the mighty dwarven archeress. Likewise, spells from Noctorium, Joseph, Fergus and the bards Telpin and Daybill had been silenced. Even the slippery goblin rogue Blip lay immobile, swarming with insects. Most of the party had been effectively removed from combat without actually being slain.

After a while it was down to just Geena, Revan and Tuplegorp. Then Geena's will was magically subverted and she was charmed into inaction by one of the beholder-hydra's head-stalks. The paladin Revan on his pegasis had been stabbing the body of the beast heroically, but to no avail; this portion of its body was immune to physical attacks. The monster was definitely wounded, and now Revan's sword burst into flame and he dispatched it.

Experience: 4,000 xp Treasure: 8,000 gp

Magic
Jon brought Coldsnap boosters, and five of us played a draft. Penny won with her green/white Aurochs/Kjeldoran Warcry deck (how fitting for St. Patrick's Day!). Aaron's red/white deck was great overall and was a very near second. My deck of fliers was mostly blue with splashes of white and black. It did okay, but just didn't have the speed or focus so I landed somewhere in the middle. Rob's deck was black and blue with good graveyard recursion and creature control, and he probably would have beaten me if he had been a bit more lucky; he did okay and won quite a few games. Jon's green/red deck was well constructed and his game play was good; his games were close and several could have gone his way if his card parity had been better. Overall we had a great time.

Vs. Imperials at Cartuthan

STAR WARS - entire Sat. session. Summary:
Rod, Rob and I were joined by Phil and Alma toward the end of our Star Wars RPG game Sat. 2/17/07. Jaina and Destro leveled to 9th when xp was awarded at the end; Forlorn Sky leveled (to 7th or 8th I think). Henwa Sishe got laid, as did Jaina (in two unrelated events).

The adventure: The medium freighter "Akbar's Trap," still working as a Hutt mercenary/merchant vessel posing as a Seinar Fleet Systems Inc., touched down at Figure City on the Imperial slave world of Cartuthan. Destro arranged for a trade of the cargo of 38 Vratix(?) workers for equal value in turbolasers, military rations and med kits. Jaina met with rebel contacts Ethan Sunchiller and (later) Quiver Singe and Darfinia, who were personally sent to Cartuthan by Princess Leia herself to investigate the loss of this world to the Imperials. Until recently, it was a high-population, high-technology free world considered an asset by the Rebels.
After a recent "low resource" invasion incorporating the deadly Sith microparasite Kazoth-36, Cartuthan is now a low-population world, yet it has retained it's high levels of technology and resources under the iron grip of the now minimal needed force of Stormtroopers who easily control the remaining population, most of whom are concentrated in just three cities: Figure City, Uldani and Itch. Most of the people are essentially slaves, though the typical Imperial-approved corporations operate here to provide for the needs of Imperal officers. There's a bit of a night life for this reason.

Basically, Destro broke in to access an Imperial officer's computer and Jarn Thro (the amazing Humpty-dumptyish alien three-eyed hacker) arranged an extra shipment of Imperial goods to fill the party's cargo bay. And after the "sale," the party tracked down the very workers they had sold into slavery and shut down power and communications to that remote compound, neutralized Imperial forces there and evacuated the slaves to the party's ship. The firefight was intense at times, but in the end the only casualties were about a dozen Imperial stormtroopers and officers. Several of the party members were wounded, but Pieda Bowman was able to attend to their needs. Meanwhile, Jackpot took advantage of the high-technology here to purchase a Re-bot, a droid that converts raw materials into specific, useful parts. These droids are specific to my campaign, and only available on high-technology worlds.

Because of the actions of a handful of Hutt mercenaries working with just three Rebel agents, Cartuthan is likely to be a free world in just three to six years. The fast-breeding, insectlike, Bacta-producing Vratix(?) are capable (in my campaign) of laying 1-3,000 eggs per year, with young reaching adulthood in less than 3 years. Normally considered unimportant lab technicians , the Vratix tend to be ignored, and that would be the case here too. Except the party also lent the Rebels powerful mining equipment and military data, just enough so that (along with having their own Re-bots) the Vratix will be hidden long enough to breed, train and equip forces that will easily overwhelm the Imperial forces currently stationed on Cartuthan when the time comes.

Not that the Hutt mercenaries always want to be the "good guys." They basically swindled their way into a 350,000 credit profit on the Cartuthan mission. That's some serious money for the ship fund.

Session length: 6 hours. Experience: 3,000 (500 xp per hour of game time)
+Story Bonus of 500 xp for a total of 3,500 xp.

Next session: Sunday, March 4, 2007 (D&D &/or Star Wars).
--Dave

New raid on Soboff

Saturday 2/3/07
Led by Revan and Joseph Prex, the party attacked deep into the heart of Soboff, the home moon of the invading drow armies. Deep within they found shattered boulders of a broken world, held together by gigantic spiderwebs. Gargantuan and colossal spiders, drow priestesses, eldrich moon knights, umber hulks, half golems, driders, spider knights and other troop types were fought in one long encounter about a quarter-mile below the surface. Far outnumbered and facing down powerful enemies, many of whom had high-level spells at their disposal, the party prevailed against the odds.
Revan's ability to quickly remove single, powerful threats such as the colossal spiders, along with Joseph's mass healing and summoned angel factored prominently in the victory. Geena's sharp eyes and far-flying arrows slew many enemies before they could get within range to attack, beating the evil elves at their own game. Henderson and Mick successfully removed many threatening archers--up close and personal. Fergus was a one-man fireball war machine, casting quickened or maximized versions every round and removing many threats. Blip climbed atop an enormous boulder above the moon army troops and severed the spider webs, crushing many and injuring others with the inevitable shards. The dread pirate Black-Eyed Bill, along with the bards Daybill and Telpin, provided their usual all-important party-boosting support.

Experience: 6,000 Treasure: 6,000
Current character levels: 12th-18th
Next session: Sat. Feb 17, noon

Avalos Gemini's Demise

Phil, Rod, Carson and Rob, and Bel (for a bit) continued the D&D adventure from a few weeks ago today (Sat 1/20).
The success of the party was not a certain, sure thing. If Joseph hadn't seen past the illusions of the Vision Chambe; and if he had not asked Cuthbert "15 questions," the group might have been too weakened by wandering encounters by the end to deal with the final encounter with the vampire titans, and would not have destroyed their coffins prior to fighting them later. Without the mighty Taito's monster-killing fists, the entire party could easily have been defeated in any one of many battles against colossal two headed cerburus undead puking dogs, titan skeletons, a zombie dragon, colossal spiders, golems and of course vampire titans. Had Revan not slain the dragon Grizlok in his new undead form (yes, a second time), and generally been so studly, things could have gone differently. Were it not for Were-Rat's green-skinned fighter and Lola's whirling blades, the party might still have been victorious... or maybe not in the closer encounters. Black-Eyed Bill's, Daybill's and Telpin's party-buffing encouragement over the course of the adventure definitely helped. Fergus' spell support and Geena's and Mick the Gangly's ranged support certainly made a difference as well, helping the party deal not only with enemies but boiling blood, scrying globes, illusions, and vampire coffin soil.

Yet it was a goblin rogue named Blip the Forsaken, whom the party helped long ago, who possibly saved the whole party in the end by destroying the anti-magic field in Avalos Gemini's throne room. He had slipped into the floating castle ahead of the party and befriended three kobolds whom he convinced to provide a bit of extra help.

XP 8,000
GP 33,000

Star Wars Sun. Jan. 7 '07

Noon to 6 pm we played Star Wars the whole session. Phil, Carson, Robby, Jon and Rod all made it, Bel joined us for a bit and we consumed the usual tableful of coffee, snacks and sodas.

On the war-torn world of Beliray, the Hutt-rebel alliance fighters in the city of Ertiston received an arms shipment from a group of Hutt mercenaries flying a strange, aquatic non-Seinar freighter with Seinar Corp. markings (Akbar's Trap). The ship was attacked by Imperial vessels and damaged, but managed to deliver over 1,000,000 cr. worth of weapons, netting a tidy profit of 275,000 cr. to split amongst themselves--if they could help fend of the Empire for the three days needed for repairs to their ship.

Each of them went to work immediately upon landing in the middle of the war zone, where stormtroopers and Hutt/rebels fought building to building. Destro snuck into an Imperial H.Q. building, where he jacked into the computer so Jarn Thro could hack droids for a diversion while Destro set charges. Jaina Briel fought stormtroopers in the streets and looted wherever possible, eventually hotwiring an AT-ST walker. Garik Gracus, after brokering the weapons sale with The Spike, went back to help repair his ship. JP-12 "Jackpot" got a protective oil bath, then installed himself with the Imperial commissary concession machines as a caffeinator, then rendered all the equipment (including the 50 or more Stormtrooper armor/uniforms of those who were dining there) obselete by vaporizing his large pot of brown paintlike "brew." Pieda Bowman II set up a triach center, MASH unit and hospital station to treat the many wounded; ultimately he was able to install a Bacta tank on the ship, a highly valuable gift to the party from the grateful Vratix natives. Mike Skaruyabutavich fixed the ship--a day early. Forlorn Sky was the sole survivor of an attack on an Imperial hovertank over a block wide that was ultimately destroyed by orbital turbolaser fire from an Imperial Star Destroyer, the blast was diverted away at an angle by one of the systems the party had delivered earlier to the city of Ertiston, and right into the giant tank, vaporizing it instantly. Archu King fired the grounded ship's weapons mercilessly at all enemies who came within range. The Trandoshan Jedi Drael Gracks fought and defeated large numbers of stormtroopers after cutting into their barracks with his light saber. Though some of the party were wounded, all survived.

Experience: 4,500

Ship fund info: Beliray system Notes: see above
Trade profit: 275,000 cr. Repair/fuel expenses: 43,000 cr.
Offloaded: "defensive systems" Cargo purchased: none
Other: Loaded Bacta tank, AT/ST Walker

Next session: Sunday, January 21 at noon

P.S.: I'm thinking 10am on a Saturday at Old Town Hobby in the next couple months for another Magic booster draft, but I need to check with everybody first.