Family Fun Time with Magic Shotguns

Last night my family attempted to play Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower. We only made it a few rooms deep into the first quest before we needed to call it quits. Not because the game wasn’t fun, but one kid had to go to bed, and my wife needed to go out and I needed to read the rules some more to figure things out. Over all I think it’s a sweet game and hopefully I’ll have a better report to give later.

The Mad Scientist's Lab!

The scene in which I liberated the X4360 Shotgun!
Yes, Thats a space marine scout...

An interesting thing happened though. My youngest daughter asked today if she could run us through a roleplaying scenario of her own design tonight. I was unsure how it would turn out but went with it anyway. She asked for all the minis I had and the big block of graph paper.

This table was trapped with electricity.

She ran us through the dungeon and I have to say that for the first time running something with no real rules to speak of it was pretty fun! I was amazed at how well she managed to come up with ideas on the fly and the creativity of her dungeon.

Goblins came out of this box when we opened it. 

 

The background was that our group had been hunting an evil goblin named Ghooda. We were ambushed in the forest and pushed down a hole that we couldn’t get out of because of a force field that kept us in. We soon learned that this was a magical laboratory in which an evil scientist experimented on people who had been going missing in the area nearby. The best part was when my character managed to get a magic weapon which was called the “X4360 Shotgun” which I liberated from one of the experimented on dungeon denizens.

This pool of water was poisoned. 

I was really inspired by the simplicity and free flowing nature of the game and how much fun we had. So much so that I think I’m going to try something like this of my own design in the near future!

In the final encounter we managed to escape the Dungeon!

The Chapel of Larithyon

This weekend my wife and I went on a little road trip into the Eastern Townships. This bucolic little area is full of neat places to explore. One place we visited was a small mountain that had a chapel built on top. As we explored some of the trails I felt as if I'd wandered into some sort of enchanted rocky woodland. It got me to thinking, who builds a chapel on top of a mountain anyway? As I thought about it I  imagined a cleric of Saint Cuthbert who built a wilderness chapel years ago in Greyhawk's Stark Mounds. Being in the wilderness it became a ripe target for the enemies of Good. 

Background

This chapel was built by Larithyon, a human cleric of Saint Cuthbert in the Stark Mounds. Here he worshiped his deity and battled evil. He collected many religious works that are still to this day preserved in the library. After his death he was interred by his acolytes and his magical mace hidden behind a bas relief. Much later the chapel fell into disuse. It became a site of pilgrimage until the Giant invasions of 583 CY. Today a mindflayer and his minions have taken over the site and use it as a base to raid for fresh meat and brains. The Gargoyle (located at 2b) and the mind flayer have a truce but are not actually allied with one another and for the right price might be willing to reveal the mindflayer's secret lair in 4g.

Chapel Grounds

1a. A number of small mountain trails lead down the mountain.

1b. An Intellect Devourer runs around here (MM 191)

The Rectory

2a. Grimlock Shaman lives here 

2b. Secret passage down to (4f). Gargoyle Guard Post (on roof)

The Chapel Proper

3a. Grimlock lookout post (MM 175)

3b. Defiled Altar

3c. Stairs down to (4a)

3d. Grimlock Lair

The Crypt

4a. Stairwell

4b. Crypts

i. Larithyon's Crypt

ii. Bones and rubble

iii. Empty Crypt 

4c. Bas Relief of Saint Cuthbert fighting Iuz hidden within is Larithyon's magical Mace

4d. Ancient Library containing many religious and sacred religious works 

4e. Mindflayer Laboratory 

4f. Secret entry from Rectory (2b)

4g. Secret Mindflayer Lair (MM 222)

Map by Dyson Logos

The Liberation of Geoff

 It has been way to long since I’ve sat down at the kitchen table with a bunch of friends and rolled some dice. I’ve been playing a lot of Magic but the itch to run a game is becoming too great to ignore. Since I’ve been on summer break I’ve had time to start brainstorming ideas and trying to plan out a campaign. As I put pen to paper I was reminded of one of my first D&D memories. I’ve probably previously written about this somewhere on this blog of playing in the “Steading of the Hill Giant Chief”, and of how my character, an ineffective illusionist, who turned invisible during a massive battle in the main hall of the Steading. Since then I’ve always wanted to run or play in the “Against the Giants” trilogy.

I love this cover!

Much later, when I finally started roleplaying on a regular basis a friend of mine showed me the Liberation of Geoff book. The cover of that book still to this day evokes a feeling of fear and wonder in me. I seem to recall reading somewhere that Monte Cook said that this is what good D&D book covers should do. They should provide a sense of action and adventure, a promise of what awaits those that delve into the world held between those covers. I love how those two characters are either getting ready to ambush those two giants, or they are hiding from them know that if they are found they are as good as dead. I almost prefer that it be the latter. I feel like in some ways “Against the Giants” is more of a series of infiltration and spy missions than hack and slash combat ones. But then I guess there’s nothing wrong with opening a can of whip ass on giants either…

Long story short, I’ve been planning a D&D 5e sandbox campaign in the Lost Lands of Geoff (The name of the former Grand Duchy still makes me cringe however). As I went through my old note books I even discovered that I still have ideas written down from 2008! Furthermore, I’ve been following and very impressed with Simon Forster’s “Against the Giants” campaign that’s now at session 214! You can read all about it at his “The Sky is Full of Dust” blog. This campaign was started in 2012 and is still running 4 years later! So clearly there is lots of adventuring to be had in this part of Greyhawk. I love the idea of the characters taking on the role of resistance fighters. One of the ideas I had was to modify the liberated city of Hochoch and make it more like Osgiliath in “Lord of the Rings” movie. The liberated portion of the city would be a highly defended and rebuilt area on the East Bank of the river, while on the West bank would be city ruins infested with bandits, monsters and other hazards. The basic hook is that there is little fight left in the people to take back the Grand Duchy. Even if there was, there is even less money to finance and support an army. Instead, Grand Duke Owen I, has sent out word to bands of adventurers across the land. Letters of Mark are being given out to help liberate the lands. Great rewards await those adventuring companies brave enough to strike out into the dangerous wilderness and help the brave people still trapped in slavery behind enemy lines.    

How I envision the City of Hochoch in my campaign.