3.X s.2: ...and very bad eggs.

After having cleared out the ancient tomb, the scholars of fortune chose to head north towards the Greenvale. Though this meant they'd have to brave the dangers of the Witchfell for longer, by their reckoning the benefits of not having to pay loot tax to the Legion outweighed this. Despite the difficult terrain, they made good time, and day by day the Wyvernscrown Mountains drew nearer. The Mother must have smiled on them, and for days nothing untoward befell them.

3.X s.1: The Tomb of the Ancient King . . . on a shoestring

This session was the first test run of 3.X Ajax Configuration, the D&D hack I've been working on lately. The adventure was based on The Tomb of the Ancient King, a dungeon I created for the Labyrinth Lord game. It featured a type of construct I'd dubbed the Questing Bird, and as it was a combat light scenario, little converting needed to be done. The main obstacle in this adventure was the series of riddles posed by the birds. As the module as written had very little action in it, I also threw in a mummy just to, eh . . . liven it up a little.


The combat set-up ran well, but I noticed a few loose nuts and bolts, all easily fixed. The magic system unsurprisingly revealed more unwanted noises, and it couldn't quite reach top speed. Still, we found the causes for most of these problems, and I expect it'll run a lot better once it's been overhauled. 


The party this time consisted of a Rogue, a Fighter, and a Spell Caster, all 3rd level. A henchman also invited himself along - something that fuelled much paranoia. The players are still waiting for him to poison them and run off with their loot.

~o~

Ria and her husband Eadwaccer are struggling to get by, but the last delve they mounted barely made enough to pay for their expenses. Luckily the dwarf they had recruited for the job got himself eaten by a freakishly large frog, and thus did not claim his share. After they'd sold off the loot, they were left with just enough to purchase a box of books from the estate of a deceased and debt-ridden gnomish merchant. Having gone through every scrap of parchment in the box, Ria finally had a lead on what might well be the dungeon of their dreams.

Historical References: Dominion of Langrim

This is a return to an old category. This time I'll look at a few aspects of the fantasy setting of Langrim, a pseudo-medieval affair with monsters, wizards and paladins. As usual, these images are drawn from our own history, and the intention is to provide a common frame of reference between myself and the players.

These jolly fellows are Byzantine cataphracts from around the 11th century. This is how the Legion appears, although they've swapped the scimitars for longswords.

Here we have a breakdown of the equipment of a Norman Knight. This is how most of the Knights of Greenvale roll. There will be some amongst them who wear plate, perhaps even full plate, but by and large most warriors on the island wear chain.

The bastle was a common sight on the Anglo-Scottish border in the 16th and 17th centuries. In this age of frequent skirmishes and prolonged unrest, these fortified farmhouses offered some protection from reivers and raids across the border. In the Dominion the threat comes from goblins and other evil creatures of the dark.

Lastly there's the motte-and-bailey castle. The Normans really dug these, and while they have several drawbacks compared to the stone fortifications that became all the rage in later centuries, they should work well against an enemy who rarely stays in the field once the sun rises. They also have the added advantage of being comparatively cheap to raise, and though labour intensive, cheap to maintain.




[Picture source: 1, 3 & 4 regretfully unknown; 2 - WrathDT]

Ravenscroft village

The village of Ravenscroft lies south of Thorgan's Pass, in the remote Goblin Downs [map]. The village is known for little besides it being the staging point for expeditions into the Ruins of Dwergard and the dwarven mines of the area. Apart from the village, there is but one other settlement in this part of the downs, the farm of Drina's Bastle.

LL s.2: The Ettin of the Arrandmoors

Our party:
Jiminy Trinkets, lvl. 1 Gnome Illusioninst
Kael, lvl. 1 Human Fighter
Josiah, lvl 1 Half-elf Ranger
Kong, Pookie, and Apollo, 2 HD war dogs
Rufus, 1HD guard dog

When Kael and Jiminy returned to Barrelhead, the villagers gave them a hero's welcome. During the feast thrown in their honour, they met Josiah, a half-elven ranger who'd heard about the goblins, but arrived too late to be join the raid. That evening the the three decided to join forces, and that they would follow up on a story they heard from a travelling merchant.

Legion's Rest

The largest city in the Dominion of Langrim is Legion's Rest. It is also the oldest, and some of it's structures date back to the century before the Isolation. In those days it had a population of about 2,500, but these days more than 4,000 people live within the crumbling walls. The crowded streets are lined with rickety buildings and ruins from the days of the Empire. Farmers, beggars, tradesmen and merchants all mill through the narrow alleys and muddy streets.

I had hoped to have a more detailed post up by the game on Friday, but as I've now just gotten a puppy, I find myself a little preoccupied.

Hex: The Ruins of Dwergard

Christian was nice enough to send me some hexmap templates, and last night I had to take this one out for a spin. This is hex 14-t of the Langrim map, and it shows the area surrounding the Ruins of Dwergard. The map is 25 miles across, with each hex measuring 2.5 miles. The biggest problem I ran into was how to list my coordinates, and the way I ended up doing it doesn't strike me as ideal, but it'll work for now.

The following is the background information on the Ruins of Dwergard:

The dwarves of the Järnafíorin clan came to Langrim from their distant homeland, some time before the Isolation. They had charters from the Emperor giving them exclusive rights to mine the mountains on the main island. A cold winter, some one hundred years after the last ship, a goblin surge washed over the land, leaving farms and villages in ruins. The people fled behind the walls of the larger towns, and after a hard winter with many battles fought, the remaining goblins withdrew from the surface. 


No one ever saw the dwarves of Järnafíorin again after the Goblinwinter of 107. Their last stand has become a fixture in the island's folklore, and the ruins of their stronghold the target of many an adventure. Some of those who seek it out return with pieces of the fabled Hoard of the Dwarves, but many others never come back. The hills and mountains around Dwergard is infested with goblins and monsters, and the dwarven keep and mines are said to be littered with traps and ancient war machines, and haunted by the ghosts of the dwarves who fell there.

The GM's map, as well as some dungeons and encounter tables, are in the works. These will be posted at a later date, dependant on campaign progression.

LL s. 1: Cleaning out Ogre Hill

Wherein two young adventurers return home from their first paying job to find that their hamlet has been raided repeatedly over the last days. 

Returning readers will remember the Chapter-posts from the Pius Chronicles, and I would just like to mention that I will be playing with the format a bit in the LL-reports.

The Dominion of Langrim

Storyteller's note: This is the basic information available about the sandbox as of now. If the game flows, more material will follow.

The six islands that form the Dominion of Langrim lies somewhere North-West of the world, surrounded by seemingly endless watery wastes. The climate is cold and humid, with snowy winters and wet summers. The human and demi-human population, all but a few living on Langrim, the largest of the islands, are sustained by farming the rich soil, and by fishing in the bountiful waters off the coast.