Shadows of Saltmarsh Amazing Adventures! Rpg Session Report #5 - Confronting Evil

   So tonight's session picks right up from last game session here on the blog.  We began by having our party let the Deep One hybrids let go & had the other half of the adventurers go upstairs in the house to free the captives! 

We got upstairs & almost immediately got into trouble with finding two giant spiders that dropped onto the party. Then it was a tangling fight in the hallway then up the stairs to free another sea elf that was being held. Afterward the party found that the house wasn't as unoccupied as it seemed. They found two secret rooms and the laboratory of the Alchemist. 
They also found the Alchemist's corpse & they examined the room. Things were going good for the party until the corpse moved! The Alchemist isn't dead you see but a lich! 
The party lost two members who were  hit by spells. Then it was gun fire and confusion! The party bolted! They left the haunted mansion so damn fast! 
Yes running is an option folks! They have no idea if thier team mates are alive or dead!
The party regrouped on the beach and needs another plan of attack! They have no idea what type of undead the Alchemist is. So thier going into the house by the use of the smuggler's caves coming up. I've gotten so damn tired of the players who have played this adventure calling it a Scooby Doo romp. Not this time folks. 
The Alchemist is a criminal mastermind and quite dangerous! He's also out for blood after using a speak to the dead spell on the corpses of the party members. 

The smuggler's caverns are now guarded by Deep One hybrid thugs. They've got four warriors covering the cavern & secret enterances. 
Then the party saw the rest of the Deep Ones exitting the sea. Things are getting dicey. They managed to get the two sea elven prisoners out! 
And they found a chest of weird greenish gold artifacts that seem to have been buried by the Deep Ones! We ended here. 

Shadows of Saltmarsh Amazing Adventures! Rpg Session Report #4

 Tonight's game sees the player's PC's finding the lizardmen tribesmen in dire straits because of the smugglers. This puts the PC's square in the middle of the Saltmarsh situation. This picks right up from the last week's game session. 

The situation is very dire because of the rise in the number of Deep One warriors who have been harrying the lizardmen's people. They were imported into New York City as workers for the harvesting of some of the underwater crops that are used in high end resturant food. They have also been employed for many of the high risk underwater & ship's repair  around the city's docks. These lizardmen have been managed from Plum Island's government facility. 
Deep One tribesmen and warriors have been raiding not only the docks but some of the local non humans. Waverider in last week's game got some of the lowdown. 
We've started exploring the house from the bottom sea caves up through the house itself. We've been exploring the upper part of the house when last week we heard noise from upstairs on the second floor. 
We the  heard noise from upstairs and ran straight into two pirate captains! They had short swords drawn and there was a fight in the stairs as well as the hallway. 

We retreated as guns came out our archer Red Arrow was able to disarm them. A close look showed that these two were Deep One hybrids! Now we had two captives and proceeded to question them about what they were smuggling. They have captives upstairs and if we didn't let them go they'd be murdered! We ended here! 

Shadows of Saltmarsh Amazing Adventures! Rpg Session Report #3

 We pick up with the party fighting smugglers on the beaches of the manor house in U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. Instead we were able to scatter the pirates with some carefully placed gas bombs.And we were able to sieze the Sea Wasp. This session picks right up from last week's session. 

We searched the beach and almost got ambushed by a pack of sea orcs, as well as mergnolls. These guys were part of the Deep Ones forces. 

Our own hero Waverider has been helping his own people the mermen around New York harbor. The Deep Ones have been battling them for centuries now. 
There have been incursions from the Deep Ones also on the Sea Elves terrority from Long Island. 
This goes back to the truce of 1952 which has been set up among the power house underwater humanoid tribes in the area. But something has been stirring up trouble among the tribes. The best guess of our two underwater heroes is that it's the Deep Ones. The village of Saltmarsh has been a haven for smugglers & pirates dating back before the 1700's. There have been rumors of undead horrors that date back to pre 1600's and can be traced back to Plum Island. 

The Plum Island facility has had rumors of lizardmen cryptids and strange monsters seen around the area. The mansion front door was locked and trapped. Nightslayer our night thief opened the locks without a problem. The interior of the house looked abandoned. However there were drag marks on the floor up too a book case. 
There were several bullet holes in the interior furnature of the house. The rooms looked lived in. 
We came face to face with two skeletons within the manor. Two of our party adventurers blasted the skeletons low and high with powers without report. This meant that the neighbors didn't see gun reports or gun play. We found sleeping bags and two ships log books. 
This is when we heard noise from upstairs & this is where we ended! 

Shadows of Saltmarsh Amazing Adventures! Rpg Session Report #2

 Our party was called in because people have been going missing in the Saltmarsh village & neighborhood. All of our investigations centered around the old Alchemist's mansion. This mansion has been abandoned since his operations were busted up ages ago. 

This session report plugs right into our Amazing Adventures meeting right here on the blog.  We rolled in and were told that there had been activity within the mansion. Strange lights and weird creatures have been seen around the mansion. 
Our own Silver Spider has been keeping an eye on the mansion. He's detected cut throats and pirates around the mansion. His own team has been accosted by these ruffians several times. 
Own on Waverider the underwater wonder came face to face with Deep Ones. The waters off of New York City in 1952 was the terrority of the New England mermen. There has been a truce between these two underwater tribal powers. Something has stirred up these two powerhouses in the area.

Saltmarsh back in the 1700's were the abode of pirates and sea terrors. These forces never left according to the locals. And the 'Alchemist' & his brood has controlled the area since the 1700's. 

Now there's talk of strange lizardlike monsters out in the fens and salt swamps around the Saltmarsh neighborhood/village area. We found out that there have been a small series of explosions near the beach. The locals subscribe that it might be explosives left over from the War. 

Some of the locals aren't sure though. There have been lots of ships and other strange sail craft that have been seen around the beaches. 
After investigating the beach area we came across several rowboats and launches from several sail craft. Our party engaged in a small skirmish with a bunch of sea dogs on the beach. No shots were exchanged and fists flew. The sea dogs fled into the rowboats. Next we're going to begin investigating the mansion! 
Amazing Adventures! does a good job of blending the usual Castles & Crusades system to a more modern twist! 

Shadows of Saltmarsh Amazing Adventures! Rpg Session Report #1- Updated!

 

The Green Man a menace to the PC's coming up.


I've just started an Amazing Adventures rpg  by Jason Vey game last night. The PC's ended up crossing over into an alternative world time line of 2100. This blog post picks right up from November 19th blog post. 

The mono skyscrapers of the preserved New York Sky line greeted them. This was after tracking down the cybernetically enhanced courier of Nazi dimensional traveler  from 1952. The world of these Nazi is world where Operation Spark in 1943 succeeded in killing Hitler(or did it). Germany sued for piece in the world courts but continues hostilities with the Allies They turned over the hierarchy & infrastructure of the German high command responsible for the Final Solution  
Israel was founded much earlier in this world & continues to play a part in Western affairs.

This Nazi Germany has been locked in a Cold War with the Allies since the war's 'end' & continues to operate through powered agents, individuals, & teams. Now they've been raiding alternative dimensions & time lines. They've stumbled upon the world of 2100 where the countryside has mostly been abandoned & come across a Great Race of Yith library beneath the ruins of a castle in up state New York. These ruins have recently been unearthed in the upper part of New York state. Authorities have moved in to secure the site. 


What the characters also learned is the criminal mastermind known as 'the Alchemist' has been running a slave trade & human traffic ring in New York city of this alternative 1952.This bastard controls all of the major smuggling & drug traffic from the Salt Marsh neighborhood down on the water fronts. He has ties to the Nazi smuggling agents into New York. Their latest agent came in on the Sea Witch.



Yes I'm running U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmash by Don Trumball with a Troll Lords Amazing Adventures pulp/super hero spin. So I'm dumping the whole Scooby Doo aspect of U1 & turning the Alchemist into a lich/pulp villain of incredibly evil aspect.

The Gates of Quasqueton - Into The Borderlands - The Forces of Chaos - B1 Insearch Of the Unknown & Worlds Without Number/Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg - Session Report Two

 The party in this morning's game faced down two companies of Orcs & the forces of Chaos assisting a necromancer. The party has thier own partners in the form of  the Zidhe Elves. And they got cornered right outside the Dwarven vaults of Azen Radokh! The necromancer in this morning's game wanted to parley. The party were having none of it! 

They kept the necromancer's half Orc major demo talking enough to allow the Elven party to gain access to the vault. And one of the party used a ring of teleportation to teleport back to the keep of  Quasqueton. This is so the ranger PC can warn the rest of the party. 
The Formorians who are actually incharge of the Orcs are not happy at all about where things are going. The party spotted the  Culach Hero and lord of the Fomorians Lord Culach across the field of battle. The party are not happy campers because of the fact that he's both a giant and a 7th level wizard as well! 

And this means that he's taken a personal interest within the party and claims the vaults of the Dwarves as his personal property. So he's got our characters in his sights! 
And will the party get B2 Keep on the Borderland's fortress to help them in time?! Or will the Orcs get a far more dangerous helping of humanoids to join them?! 

Meanwhile  the Zidhe Elves know of a wonder weapon near the capital of the Borderlands. But will they get too it in time?! The player's PC's have thier backs against the wall and they weren't expecting one of the campaign's heavy hitters to show up on the field of battle today. 

Now I'm working off of DM Steve's notes & working with a good deal of a learning curve here. And by using a twist on Stars Without Numbers and Worlds Without Number here mixed with a good deal of ACK's things have been moving along well. Hopefully next game we'll see the PC's in the Dwarven vaults! 

The Gates of Quasqueton - Into The Borderlands - B1 Insearch Of the Unknown & Worlds Without Number/Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg - Session Report One

 Into the Borderlands, well it looks like I've got to take over a friend's World without Numbers game campaign today. And if you'll recall last year I actually got to play in DM Steve's Worlds without Number game and the session report is available right over here.  This morning's game got into some very interesting bits with the PC's defending the keep of  Quasqueton from maraudering forces of Chaos! 

Sunday's game session incorporated quite a bit of Adventurer, Conqueror, King into the mix as the forces of Chaos descended on the keep! We had three PC deaths as they went to engage a troll giant champion. We used CM4-01 FOMORIAN HERO NORC (50MM TALL) for this bastard and things went from bad to worse. 

The rest of the PC's had to use the Great Race of Yith gateway below the keep of  Quasqueton & call in other forces. 
The forces of Chaos continued to advance on our hereos. And things went from bad to worse as B2 Keep on the Borderlands humanoid army closed in! 

The players spilt the party on today's game with one half going to grab a Dwarven weapon from the dwarven vault of Azen Radokh. 
And the other half going deep into the forbidden lands of  the Zidhe Elves. 
The Zidhe decided to answer the ancient treaties and contracts!  The PC's then brought in reenforcements through the gate! 
Things got really nasty fast as the forces of Chaos's necromancer began the task of raising the dead as zombies and skeletons against the keep! And this is even with the Zidhe Elves! 

We're gonna half to put the call to other keeps! So B2 Keep on the Borderland is coming into focus here! 

Word has been sent to the other keep which is manned by other PC's in DM Steve's game. But a funeral and death in the family is preventing him from running this and so I've had to take over DMing. Meanwhile  the Zidhe Elves know of a wonder weapon near the capital of the Borderlands.

I'm working off another DM's notes here and DM Steve has incorporated a good number of Alternative Armies Hordes of the Future into his campaign. This includes a huge number of conversions over to Stars Without Number. And so I've made a copy of his campaign notes and have been going through them. Great looks like there's going to be a bit of a learning curve here for me. 

I'm going to have a bit a time shoving in my own Stars Without Numbers/Orbital Decay bits into the back of this campaign. More coming up as I play catch up with campaign notes and more. 

Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign Commentary -Lovecraft showdown - A Warriors of The Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg - Actual Play Event Part III

 Jesus this was a hard fight as we battled higher caste Mi Go warriors, and we had to call on Green Martian warriors to help turn the tide. Two hours of melee & fracus we were able to destroy the Mi Go swarm of warriors. We hate these things. This play report is going to pick right up from here.  We destroyed any magic items left behind. 

Classic Call of Cthulhu rpg artwork used without permission.

After 'saving' the Green martians & making sure the necromancer was utterly destroyed. We began the process of healing, rounding up any stray Martians, checking the egg clutches, and trying to find out where the Mi Go might also have come from. And here's where my own contribution comes in. Ages ago we came across Gregorius21778: The Mi-Go Outpost inside of the Red Mesa.

According to our Green Martian warrior scouts the Mesa appeared over night after the necromancer appeared near the Green Martian drover's routes. And the Green Martians started to disappear. So Gregorius21778: The Mi-Go Outpost inside of the Red Mesa is a 'pay what you want' adventure encounter. And it's actually well suited as a topper to this mini Mars campaign. 
And now we've got clear this mesa and this is going to take time. We're well supplied by our Green benefactors. 

Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign Commentary -Lovecraft showdown - A Warriors of The Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg - Actual Play Event Part II

 Alright so it's been beyond busy & we almost got slaughtered dealing with the Mi Go their charges and the held Green Martian village. We set the village fission reactor to blow and then moved our forces into position around what passes for a mini hive among the village center. Planting several plasma grenades around the parameter of the hive we moved into the necromancer's villa. 

Because of the fact that the Martian houses were on stilts were were being very cautious to take out guards with as much stealth as possible. We've lost men & resources before when dealing with the MiGo and their followers. 

Most of these we've had run in's from various DM's were  using the Cthuloid Bestiary a free OSR Lovecraftian monster manual here. 

We knew that all Hell would soon be breaking out and we camped out at the top of the dead sea bottom bowl's ridge before setting off the charges. We positioned our scouts & snipers over the bowl to take out any stray MiGo after the mini hive went up! 

Wolf mutant from Bronze Age Miniatures available here. 

And we set off the charges while our own necromancer readied chain lightning for the hand rails surrounding the village. And then all Hell broke loose as the charges went off. We're using  Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu so we know exactly what's coming. And our second necromancer had a fireball waiting for the black wizard ie MiGo minion. Fortunately the dice were with us this game. 

But we started to run outta of time when we saw black MiGo warrior caste come over the rise! These things are nasty & we are not happy because they were baring brain cylinders when the world went weird for our group! psionics! 
Continued next week! 

Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign Commentary -Lovecraft showdown - A Warriors of The Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg - Actual Play Event

 Last night's Mars game took place in the low lands where we able to finally catch a break with an abandoned Martian city. And our Green warrior guide bid us leave.  The party began the task of looking through several of the buildings for white apes or monster mutants. We rolled on the random encounter tables only to run into a few Green warrior drovers. We shared a quiet night & resupplied trading ammo,water, and food with our fellow travelers. The party bid our Green drover buddies good bye & onward we pressed. 

Further down East we started to see fires in the distance & then the smell of battle. We charged up our laser crossbows & started to move quickly double timing it along the fallen orange ridges. And that's when we heard our first grunts of the Black Tongue. That meant only one thing and that was Orc mercenaries. We've faced these things numerous times & then we saw the dark wizard leading them! 

We spotted the dark wizard, some sort of armored cyborg knight & then it was a Mi Go scientist caste standing next the wizard that got our attention. Our party is Stellar Legion & we've taken on every sorta of weirdness. But the party hates the Mi Go most of all. We've lost numerous party members to the dust ups we've had with Mi Go. 
Most of these we've had run in's from various DM's using the Cthuloid Bestiary a free OSR Lovecraftian monster manual here. 

The biggest problem is that the Mi Go engineers & scientists never travel alone. Mi Go Scientists are incredibly dangerous;"Hit Dice: 3+1 (15) Armour Class: 15 Saving Throw: 14 Movement: 12/12 (Fly) Sanity Loss: 0/1d10 No. Enc. 4d4 (10) Intelligence: Exceptional Alignment: Lawful Neutral XP: 400 Stiletto: 1d6 (4), the target takes two points of bleeding damage each round (save ends). Acid Fog: 1d4, the mi-go releases acidic fog at an opponent in sight. The target is paralysed for one round. Phase Crystal: The mi-go gains a +2 AC bonus until the end of the next round. All ranged attack against the mi-go made during this time are made at a -3 penalty. This ability can only be used once." 
And there was no way we could take on a load of some 60 plus orcs, & the Mi Go drone warriors  lurking nearby. What the Hell were the Mi Go doing on Mars?! They left the solar system nearly 10 or 20 years ago. We tangled with the strays, the occasional drone warrior brain raiding party. But this almost looked like a whole other level & we decided to take a smoke break. The player's then sent in three scouts including Sargent Wolf whose incharge of the other scouts to investigate the situation. 

Wolf mutant from Bronze Age Miniatures available here. 

And the scouts telepathically relayed that the village/water processing facility was a Green warrior clan that we'd dealt with previously. And there were egg bearing mothers & Green kids among the civilians. Then the honor of the Stellar Legion was committed. And we were also using Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu so it's in our wheel house to take back this village. 
This post is also going to pick back up from here. So we're taking our time & planning our next move. 

Enter The Desert Muton - A White Star rpg , Warriors of The Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg - Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign- Actual Play Event

 So if you've been following the progress of the current campaign then you know that things are about to get very messy the player's PC's think that they've escaped the Red Shadows. But nothing could be further from the truth! 
The Red Shadows have seen this as an opportunity to test our their new Desert Muton cybernetic trooper! 

Now I've got to give credit where credit is due. This is a custom Red Shadow Muton figure from Histank.com forum's member 46 Zone here. The figure hails from 2018 but it's very topical with the players never even having heard of a Muton. 

Red Shadows Desert Muton Trooper 

AC: 6 

Hit Dice 4

HDE/XP: 3/77

Total Hitpoints:+4 

Movement:13   

Special: See Below 
Attack: By Weapon 

13 Weapon Mini missile anti personal load 1d6+2, or 7 Homer Anti Personel Mini missiles  2d6+3 able to follow targets for 40 yards around corners & obstacles,6 Cracker Mini missile Loads 3d6+1, Laser pistol side arm  1d6+2

Special Abilities - Hive Link with the Shadow A.I., Immune to charm, telepathy, and any mind influencing abilities. The Red Shadows are in constant cybertelepathic contact with the Shadow A.I. 

See All System - The Muton is equiped with incredible sensor systems having darkvision, infravision, & other more esoteric sensors built into it's cybernetic systems. So the Muton gains a +3 to all rolls related to finding & tracking targets 

Charlie Desert Cybernetic Systems - the Muton is immune to all overheating & desert conditions. The Desert Muton can stay submerged in the sands of Mars for years  at a clip before being activated. It's systems are sealed against the harsh sand conditions 

Programmed Tracking - The Muton is able to track targets through even the harshed conditions easily. +4 on all Tracking rolls 

The Mutons are cybernetically convert Red Shadow troopers who have been completely cybernetically converted into the ultimate loyal cyber soldier. They are able to operate in a wide variety of planetary conditions and including outer space. Their mini missiles have a range of 120 feet and can explode under the Muton's control. The Shadow A.I. can see through any of it's Muton able to take control at a moment's notice to be in the middle of the action. 

So the PC's find themselves in the middle of a weapons test with a deadly advesary will they survive?! 

Deeper Then a Red Shadow - A White Star rpg , Warriors of The Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg - Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign- Actual Play Event

 So in last night's second game the party got in way deep over their heads as we pick from last session here.  The party ran across a Green martian mother & child that was about to be bug food & had to make a snap decision. 

Shadow wasn't playing and released a very nasty combat bot & things got heated from there with the party's necromancer grudging saving the party & the mother and child with the last charge on the teleport spell scroll. 
They ended up about four miles away from the bug hive and deeper still into Red Shadow turf. The party however was shown a way out by the Green martian mother through a snaking mount pass around the Red Shadow base. This went right by a mine field around one of the most deadly fields where the Red Shaow's Skeletron ships were sent out on raids. And the party didn't linger marking the trail and getting outta of there as quickly. 
And just as they were leaving?! They ran into a Red Shadow cyborg soldier! 

 Red Shadow cyborg soldier

AC: 7 

Hit Dice 3 

HDE/XP: 3/76

Total Hitpoints:+3

Movement:12  

Special: See Below 
Attack: Weapon Laser pistol 1d6+2 or Laser Rifle 2d6+3 

Special Abilities - Hive Link with the Shadow A.I., Immune to charm, telepathy, and any mind influencing abilities. The Red Shadows are in constant cybertelepathic contact with the Shadow A.I. 

The Red Shadows are the dregs of humanity, recruited from the mercenary and criminal underworlds all around the world. Initially drawn by promises of riches, these men are subjected to extreme brainwashing techniques and a punishing training schedule intended to transform them into unthinking minions 

The party had to take him out fast and the party peppered the Red Shadow Cyborg trooper with arrows, spells, & finally burnt the body with oil just to be sure. They would be noticed in less then a half an hour and the party would be noticed! The party quickly got outta of there. But did they manage to get away?! 

Night of the Norni Affair - A White Star rpg , Warriors of The Red Planet & Hyperborea rpg - Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign- Actual Play Event

 The party made it's way back to citadel of the White Hand & the more senior's reaction was priceless. What is a Gamma World Cryptic alliance doing on a colonized Mars?! Well they didn't have long to contemplate the thought as the citadel was surrounded by landed pirate raiders belonging to Magic Pig Media's Outer Space Raiders: The Norni. The Norni were a client race of the Hyperboreans who were resettled upon some of Jupiter's moons during the war. They're mid level NPC thugs driven by a rather nasty void knight for a leader. This session report picks right up from this blog entry here. 

The party were out gunned, out weaponed, and had little reason to go against the Norni in a straight up fight. So they decided to wait until the pirates had left before seeing if any of the monks were alive. Their Hyperborean patron had confirmed their suspicions about the White Hand that they were holding a supply of the Plutonian drug. This goes wayback to 2017's campaign here.  The party found the monks alive after the pirates had left. And though the pirates hadn't gotten the Plutonian drug they had taken several valuable pieces of high super science artifacts used for healing. 
And that's when one of the monks attacked dropping his Aihais illusion. The Norni chaos monk was more then a match for two of the party until Ricky's Zeta assassin stepped in and finished him with a poisoned dagger to the back. The monks swarmed in to heal the pirate/monk but the poison was very fast acting. But Rick's black circle neromancer had a trick up his sleeve with a 'speak with dead' scroll at the ready. To say that the White Hand monks were pissed about this is putting it mildly. The adventurers don't care as their actually agents working for the Stellar Legion who will take on just about any misfits as long as their loyal to the legion. 

The party isn't in the mood for caring about the monks at this point. But then the monks informed the party that citadel was being watched by more alien spiders. The party geared up weapons with the White Hand informing the party that wasn't necessary as their own ranks boasted some high ranking psionists. The party didn't want any of this business and called in an air strike on the spiders. 

After the airstrike the party went out in the desert surrounding the citadel looking for any signs of surviving spiders. And that's when they found a Norni pirate signer one specifically calibrated to call in the spiders. And that's when the party's scouts rolled in and began tracking the bastard spy across the wastes. The rest of the party said their good byes to the White Hand swearing to recover the super science devices and they went after the spy. 
Things didn't go as planned when they ran smack into a rather large & dangeorus tanker spider. Will they survive?! 

Trolling In The Darkness - - Greyhawk Castles & Crusades Mixed session report III

 Having stuffed our pockets with treasure and provisions we moved on rounding the corner of the dungeon. This is going to pick up right from our last session as we rounded a corner & came face to face with another hobb and four of his warriors. And they looked at us as we all heard a roar in the darkness & then they simply bolted past us! 

Playing in someone else's Greyhawk campaign using the Castles & Crusades rpg system has been interesting to say the least. There's a couple of truths that one faces when the goblins & hobbs we were fighting suddenly scatter in the middle of combat. Greyhawk is in point of fact a vast setting unto itself. And its easy to see why it take

The dungeon under the  ruins that we were in didn't matter all that much because when the dice are not going your way the following thruths become evident. Trolls on encounter tables are exceedingly dangerous. Surviving allows disease to be a huge factor. And torches as well as flammable oil can mean the difference between dealing with a horror movie situation or turning the tide with fast thinking. 

The rest of the night was getting every last fricking piece of troll flesh & burning it. We didn't care about the horde of goblins that we'd seen earlier. Trolls are a problem especially dealing with DM Steve's passion for using the larger varieties of C&C gaint cave trolls often employed by hobbs & goblins. These often turn on their 'employers' & eat the whole colony. 

Now we used a ball of string to map our way back to the store room that we'd barracaded ourselves in a couple of game sessions ago. And were mapping our way through this underground maze under a set of ruins. We came to a temple area that had been repurposed by the goblins & orcs. But we moved past it because of the smell of troll dung. 
And that's when we hit a piece of scap metal from the Warden having slammed into Greyhawk ages ago. This huge slab of metal might be a wall or simply debris that wedged itself in the underworld of this complex. We found the edge of it after feeling for its edge in the darkness & came face to face with a group of hobgoblin adventurer NPC's. And our knight spoke enough hobgoblin to call a parley before we got into a melee. They were down here for a rite of passage being 26 Summers old & actually wanted no trouble. The hobgoblins had a blood oath vendetta against the orcs of the skull rippers tribe who resided down here. We were after artifacts & other sundry items for our wizard patron. So there wasn't any reason to fight. A quick trade of a copy of our map and some food netted us a magic ring from them. And then it was wishing each other luck & moving on. Our party told them about the trolls in this area & the goblin tribes with their huge hobbs. The hobgoblins wanted to trade for more arrows to which we were more then happy to do. The young hobgoblin warriors were scared of the hobbs and we noted this. 
There's something quite frightening about hobgoblin warriors even if their away from their tribe being scared of hobbs?! 

They're coming down off the walls! - Greyhawk Castles & Crusades Mixed session report II

 So tonight's DM Steve game saw me step from behind the screen once again & get a chance to play Castles & Crusades. This game session report is going to pick right up from last blog post here.  We took up positions amid ruined columns & debris at the bottom of this dungeon. 

And as we were taking stock of our situation one of the idio erm adventurers wanted to light a torch in the middle of this dungeon. Already we'd seen evidence of orc inhabitation & caught sight of goblin activity in the area near us. Namely discarded & broken arrows with lots of human blood on them. Never a good sign. We did light the torches & my God I'm sorry we did! The walls of this former ruin were literally crawling with goblins! They were lightly armored, armed with short bows, and daggers! And there were hundreds of them! 
And that's when we decided to run! That's right we ran like our lives depened upon it with torches in the dark until we reached a door. It was unlocked! We took the opportunity to bolt in then take stock of the situation after we bolted the door. We were quiet,very quiet in point of fact. Checked the store room we found ourselves in for traps, rats, extra. But it was an ordinary store room with a couple of skeletons with in it. We quickly separated heads from bodies & quietly separated the bones. Then looked around for giant rats! Fortunately there wasn't a single one! Whar we found were extra arrows, sling stones, etc. left behind by the former adventurers whose skeletons we found. 
As everyone else was taking stock of the room, my PC listened at the door. Experience in DM Steve's campagin had taught us well. There had to be a fresh water source nearby to support the goblin population & their orc or hob masters. And that's when I heard something big just outside the door. We extinuished the totches. And our cleric silently prayed to her gods. 

Jusr outside the door I heard the heavy foot falls of the monster and what seemed like thousands of tinier foot falls joining it. We stayed put for almost an hour as the sounds passed the door again & again. The door was baracaded by this time as we quietly handed ruined furnature & debris to block the door temporarily. 
When the coast was clear we left & moved into one of the side hall ways off the main ruin's hall. And we figured out our problem we landed smack into a goblin nest site! This ruin was two former buildings that had crashed into each other & the halls were actually in the other building. That's when we heard the shrill voices of some creatures with the shadows of torchlight coming our way down the hall. Again we ducked into another room until the orc patrol passed!
I got a chance to get a good look at these orcs & their armor, weapons, etc. were all in good repair. They wore armor similar but not quite the same as the goblins! We've got a series of well orgnized goblins, orcs, hobbs, and hobgoblins all armed to the teeth. This whole affair was making  me as a player very nervous. 
So I pulled the other players aside on smoke break and told them my theory that we needed to get out of here fast. There were way too much activity that screamed goblin hive and orc overseers! And we weren't finding anything to contradicted this! 
We rouned the next hallway corner and came face to face with a hobb along his 4 goblin henchmen. We didn't want to face down a raging hobgoblin strong man with hormone issues. I mainaged a lucky roll doing damage to his back with my daggers! And that's when it became pile up on the hobb & his henchmen. 
After combat we looted the bodies & talked about how rich they were which was worrisome! Why?! Because there had been other adventurers down here.