D&D Next: Salt Drake

Salt Drake

Evil Large beast

Initiative +4

AC 16

HP 110

Str 15 (+2)     Dex 18 (+4)    
Con 16 (+3)    Int 10 (+0)        
Wis 16 (+6)     Cha 7 (-2)

Space/Reach 10 feet/20 feet

Speed 120 feet

Melee Attack claws +4/+4 (2d4+2 slashing/

2d4+2 slashing) and bite +5 (1d6+2 piercing)

Special Traits resistance to ice damage; vulnerable to fire damage

XP 475

    Resistance salt drakes have ice damage halved against them.

    Vulnerability salt drakes have fire damage doubled against them.

    Combat:  Salt drakes are very intelligent and are very good at observation and complex tasks.  Their bodies are very fluid and they can move quickly and can strike at surprising distance with their claws.  They prefer to avoid direct combat and prefer to ambush their prey.

     Habitat and Socity:  Salt drakes are created through a magical ritual generally practiced by Cults of Nilat the Corrupter.  The process requires a goose egg and close to 3 years of foul ceremonies.  Salt drakes are easily trained, but prefer to their independence.  They are the smartest of the drakes and do not give up on a task.

    Legend and Lore:  The bones of salt drakes are actually salt and there is a large diamond found on their skull.  The sage, Korwin of Nuln believes the diamond is the source of their phenomenal intellect. The diamond is known to be widely sought for several powerful divination spells.

DnD Next is copyright Wizards of the Coast.  This a fan work and not a challenge to their copyright in any way.

Duchy of St. Cuthbert Session 4

The Cast:
Mars the Wild, 1st Level Wood Elf Ranger and his pet wolf, Praxis.

Tesla, 1st Level Tellurian Rogue.

Gronk, 1st Level Half-Orc Fighter.

Zeus Sunderstorm, 1st Level Demi-God Fighter.

Crisper Milleus Lafontaine IV, 1st Level Cleric of Pelor (came late).

• After finding the Idol of Perrin and Rektor the Warden Hammer, Bludenhare's Mine began shaking violently. And while trying to escape, the group defeated a fire elemental and fought two azer warriors. They defeated one warrior and the other surrendered, telling them that they needed to escape whatever foul magic was trying to bring the Mine down on all of their heads.

• As they moved back into the Holy Forge, they spotted a salt drake lurking in the hallway. Amidst the falling stones and tremors, the group battled the salt drake, even getting the azer's aid. While the beast flowed around them like water, they prevailed and reduced the monster to it's salty bones, including a large diamond embedded in it's skull. Finally, they made a hasty retreat out of the Mine to safety.

• Once outside the azer told them that a great evil was uncovered here, nearly 700 years ago and they had burned the evil back into the earth, keeping watch over it ever since. The fiery warrior ask that they take a scroll to the dwarf librarian, Bertram the Bookish, at Golen's Hall. He then bid them his farewell.

• While all of this was going on, Zeus began to examine the diamond taken from the salt drake and felt the presence of someone or something gazing at him through the gemstone. He quickly put the diamond away.

• The group quickly made their way to the library at Golen Hall and waited close to an hour to see Bertram, as he had a special project taking up most of his time. They showed him the scroll and the skull and diamond from the drake, further, they explained about the slaying of an ember and shadow drake, as well. Bertram was concerned and offered them the possibility of further work after he spoke with his High Priest, Klangorr Heatblast. He also gave them meal vouchers and told them about the Chroma, a cult dedicated to Nilat the Corrupter. Bertram felt that the presence of a white, red, and black drake was a bad sign and was certain that blue and green drakes would soon appear in the Duchy. He asked them to return in a day or two to see what he might have for them.

• The adventurers then went to Shorwald Keep to return the Idol of Perrin to Verilous the wise. He was much more accommodating this time, almost friendly and they received their reward easily. Feeling they could trust him, they shared their experience with the salt drake with him. Verilous may have been even more concerned than Bertram and asked to hire their services, in case more drakes or the Corrupted showed up. He offered to put them up at the West Wind, the finest inn in nearby Newhom for at least 7 days, regardless of what occurred. The group agreed, but explained they had a meeting tomorrow.

• Wanting to relax and unwind the group made the short journey to the West Wind, where 3 rooms were waiting for them. Most of the group mingled in the tavern on the bottom floor after dinner and met the Elders, a society of the most successful citizens of the Duchy, who were having a meeting that night. The Elders thanked them for their work and bought them drinks.

• Zeus went back to his room after dinner and began exploring the simple, yet elegant room he shared with Crisper. While looking out the small window in his room, he was shocked to see a man draped in black silk from head to toe, clinging outside his window right above the fighter's head. Quick thinking on the Zeus's part blocked a powerful blow from his assailant and hurled the man 3 stories to the road below. The warrior attracted the attention of his group and those left in the tavern, as he rushed outside to check on his attacker. As the fighter inspected the corpse, he found a tattoo of crossed femurs on his inner right left wrist and hidden stilettos sheathed to his right hand. Sheriff Wiggins arrived to check in and have the body hauled away and one of the Elders recognized the strange tattoo as the brand of the Brotherhood of Bones and Teeth. The Brotherhood, plagued the Duchy a few hundred years ago and their ranks were believed purged from this part of the world.

• The group finally got a good night's rest and headed to Golen Hall early in the morning. Once again, the waited for close to an hour for Bertram to tear himself from his project. The librarian was glad to see them and asked if they'd used their meal vouchers. He then said that his High Priest had given him permission to hire them to help with the Chroma and the Mine. Bertram shared with them that Garvin the Shadespeaker's use of the Idol had not uncovered a hidden vein of precious metal, but an underground river known as the Drudge. The part of the river under the Mine was home to fish men and their demoniac ceremonies to their lobster goddess. Blundehare's dwarves dug to deep into the fish men's territory and fell under the lunatic spell of the fish goddess and "spawned with her children". When word of this reached Jarl Golen, he prayed long to Moradin for help and guidance.

• Moradin answered by offering the Jarl help from fire dwarves or azer of the elemental plane of fire. The azer were oathsworn to Moradin to destroy any incursion of the fish men and their goddess, who lurks in the Murky Depths of the elemental plane of water, onto the prime material plane. However, Moradin required Golen Hall's High Priest, Fero Kilnheart to take several sacred objects on the crusade with the fire dwarves to bolster the mission. The azer and Kilnheart invaded the Mine and were left with no choice but to purge the survivors of the Mine, as they had been tainted by the fish men and had become creatures abominable to Moradin. During the purge, Fero, who carried the sacred objects, was separated and fell to the fish-tainted survivors, but not before hiding his sacred charges away in a secret chamber with his dying breath. The azer found the opening to the river and used mystic wards to seal the fish men off from the surface, though the wards were weakened without the presence of Moradin's sacred objects. The fire dwarves then kept vigil of the Mine for the next 700 years.

• Bertram asked the group to find the opening to the river and destroy it, to this end, the group was giving "old dynamite".

• The group took a wagon to the Mine, but spied a sapphire drake lurking around the opening. The group attacked it with dynamite, but the monster split into 2 smaller monsters before the explosive could detonate. After a long, hard and vicious battle both monsters fell to their magic and weapons. The group diligently began picking up the shattered sapphires that littered the ground.

The Gathering Session 9

The Cast:
Variel, Elven Priest of Corellon Larethian
Link, Elven Fighter
Draco, Dragonborn Rogue
Tesla, Tellurian Rogue
Jacob the Rooster, Halfling Cleric of Markus

•  The Ebon Handed Janissary's agent, Rolf had recovered Jacob's body from the ruins of the monolith where he had blown the mysterious horn, and brought the cleric to his master.  A slim pulse remained, but Jacob's eyes were burned out.  It was only the Salubri's Eye that had orbited him, that now allowed him to see.  The Janissary questioned him, but no information about the Gatherers were gleamed.

•  Upon defeating Variel, Link, Draco, and Tesla, the Janissary's agents reunited the group with the Rooster at an oupost provided by House Levin'Xar.  All five slowly awoke to find themselves seated in chairs, in a fungi lit room, their hounds bound by spider silk, their feet chained to the floor and their mouths gagged.  A single drow guard set close by, reading from some tome, and all 3 xenos were gathered in the room with them.  They filled the damp, dim room with the smell of rotten fish and burning hair.  Upon seeing that all of them were finally awake, the drow guard excused herself and the Ebon Handed Janissary limped into their company.  A heavy cloak obscured his features and he brandished a shadowy staff that exuded a strange aura.  He questioned them about why the followed him and seems disappointed to learn it was to recover the Kuo-Toa eggs.  He lost interest and quickly left them and called for two of his xenos to follow.

•  As the drow guard returned to her post, Link was able to break his bonds and Tesla used his mental powers to subdue her.  Some quick thinking allowed the group to be freed and Variel was able to frighten the remaining xeno with prayers to Corallon.  A swift battle, left a single drow guard surrendering to them.  He was willing to escort them out of the outpost, since his House had no quarrel with the group, as the Janissary's goals were not shared by his House.

•  The guard escorted them a short way into the wild underdark and wished them luck on their endeavors.  The group brainstormed on possible plans and decided to confront the Levin'Xar matron with the Janissary's plan to raise Crosis the Purger.

•  The group had no resistance gaining entrance to House Levin'Xar since they were already known as the Lightbringers retinue and after a long wait, gained a meeting with Matron Keela'Vor.  She was shocked to learn of the Ebon Handed Janissary's plan for the map she'd bartered and offered them access to a similar, but older map in her House's vault.  She proved willing turn over the eggs as well, but wanted an endorsement of the Lightbringer and a future favor.  Both parties agreed to the terms and a quick treaty was formed.

•  Variel used a ritual to teleport the group back to A'Yanna and return her people's eggs, as they'd promised.  Variel's careful wording of the ritual allowed his magic to pull Barracus and Martin with them.  The group was shocked to see the smith's "condition" cured and Martin seemed set on staying with A'Yanna.  They began preparing for to hunt the Jannisary.

Tales from the Fallen Empire for the DCC RPG

While I'm slowly finding time to read my Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG from Goodman Games (as much as I was looking forward to it, playtesting DnD Next have taken up my time), I've been keeping up with this 3rd Party project since it was announced on the Goodman Forums.

Tales from the Fallen Empire: Post-Apocalyptic Sword and Sorcery looks great.  

I haven't backed it yet, but hope that I can find the money.

And while I'm still making my way through it, I can't recommend the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG enough.  I was involved in a very early playtest back in 2011 with Dieter Zimmerman (a phenomenal DM) and the between the Open Playtest and the talent behind the project, I think it surpassed my expectations.

On a side note, I'll have the latest session report on the Gathering later today.

Mightiest Issue 4

The Avengers of Earth 926:
The Beast
The Thing
Loki, God of Mischief
Colossus
Wolverine
__________________________________
Iron Man, Black Widow and Hawkeye are searching for James Rhodes and Kitty Pryde.
Thor and Ant-Man are involved in a special project, analyzing the Tessaract and try to find Captain America.

• The team is gathered at their new headquarters, the X-Mansion in Westchester, NY and have decided to attempt to interrogate the Red Hulk, who is unconscious.  Loki, decides to enter the creature's mind and finds himself near a lake in the northern wilderness, as a mindscape.   Loki spots the Red Hulk staring at the water and circles to the other side of the lake, across from the monster.  He tries to draw it's attention, but the Rulk merely turns his back on the asgardian.  Loki, is startled by an old man, who quietly approached him.  They speak for a few minutes and the Prince of Lies decides to approach the Red Hulk, once again.  He circles the lake and the Rulk stands and confronts him, while the old man steps out from behind the monster and then fuses with it.  Loki learns the Red Hulk is a mercenary and is working for a client to determine the response time of the Avengers Initiative.  The asgardian feels Rulk is hiding things and uses his staff to force more information from the monster.  He learns that the Red Hulk works for and was created by Advanced Idea Mechanics and this version of the hulk is no mindless brute, but he doesn't reveal his true identity.  Loki uses his sorcery to share this information with the rest of the team.

•  Meanwhile, Karma notices that their airspace has been breached and gets a visual on a young man flying over the area.  Loki teleports himself and Wolverine to the roof and launches the mutant at the flying man.  Wolverine notices the young man is under 20 and probably of south american origin and that he has cybernetics that allow him to fly at high speeds.  The youth avoids wolverine easily, but slams into the canadian mutant and a vicious battle ensues.  The young mutant ends up dropping Wolvie and fleeing.  Colossus catches Logan and Karma manages to track the young man's flight path.

•  The Avengers track him to the Massachusetts Academy and as their Quinjet lands Wolverine is shocked to see Deathstrike charging at him.  Moments later, Iceman, Sasquatch, and Bevatron joined the battle.  Wolverine was shocked to see Deathstrike had survived their last encounter, and from her movements it appeared her body had assimilated the additional adamantium.  Iceman was able to calm Deathstrike and explain to Colossus and Beast that Jetstream, the young mutant had like to fly close to the mansion when he wanted privacy.  He didn't realize anyone was using it and also quickly confided that he had accepted a teaching job here to help these mutants, cope with Rogue's decision to give up her powers and temper Emma Frost's lesson, as she was the school's headmistress.  Once the fighting had ceased, Deathstrike approached Loki and demanded to know where William Stryker was, because she smelled him on the asgardian.  Deathstrike was adamant about finding and killing the man who enslaved her for over a decade.  After much confusion and threatening, the Avengers realized that the Red Hulk must be William Stryker.  Iceman promised to keep in touch with his old X-Men comrades.

•  Returning to the mansion, the group determines from file photos that the old man Loki met in Red Hulk's head is Colonel William Stryker, former head of Project: Pegasus, presumed dead.  They alert Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D because Stryker is wanted for Treason and numerous other crimes.  They also begin parsing satellite data of the 4 Hydra bases they uncovered from the HERBIE robot and are beginning to formulate a plan to investigate the base in Nova Scotia, a superyacht named Leviathan.

•  Meanwhile, Wolverine slips unnoticed to the holding cell to kill Stryker but when he opens the door, Stryker is awake and asks, "Do you still want to know about your past?" before attacking the mutant.

•  The rest of the team arrives and seem to be slowly winning, when a dazed looking Karma comes into the fight and attempts to mind control Colossus.  Loki manages to remove whatever has brainwashed her and she tells that the Leader and AIM Intelligencia are on the premises.  Loki and Wolverine teleport to the entrance hall and into a group of AIM Intelligencia agents and the Leader, himself.  Loki quickly finishes off the agents and Wolverine, in full berserker rage, cuts the top of the Leaders skull off only to be snapped from his red haze as he watches the Leader's skull regenerate, while the gamma-spawned genius laughs in his face.  The duo manages to overpower the Leader, while simultaneously the group below them overpower and stun the Red Hulk.

•  As Wolverine and Loki pause to get a situation report, Magneto drops through the ceiling wearing a strange exoskeleton and hurls the mutant and asgardian in opposite directions and through the building to the outside.  The issue ends as Colossus pleads for his teammates to report their status.

__________________________________

I took the plunge and converted the game to Classic Marvel or FASERIP.  It wasn't an easy decision, but it turned out to be the right one.  It caused some stress for 1 player and I'm not sure he's 100% on board, but he's giving it a try.

I felt far more comfortable and this was the most fun I've hard running FASERIP.  It's amazing that a game designed close to 20 years ago had so many groundbreaking ideas.

I've gotten rid of Karma penalties for violence and doll out Karma like FATE points or PLOT points.

The big difference is that I'm not dreading the next session.

I don't want to focus on system over the game, but Marvel Heroic Roleplaying is not the game for me, much like its cousin FATE.

The OSR in your FLGS

Last week The Old School Revolution posted about pointing a father and son towards Labyrinth Lord and away from Pathfinder.

I found this quote very interesting, "Reaching into a bin, I pulled up a copy of the only OSR clone I    could find in the shop – it happened to be Labyrinth Lord – and tapped the cover meaningfully with my index finger so the dad could see it. "

There is a reason LL is the only OSR clone to be found in the shop, it's the only one available through the standard distribution network that game stores rely on to stock their shelves.  By the way, thank you Dan Proctor!  Now, I'm not going to get into the argument of wether the 3 tiered distribution model we use today is still valid or even good, but it's what we have.  And this argument assumes you don't count Castles and Crusades, an option I present to customers and Dungeon Crawl Classics, which while I love it is probably more intimidating than the Pathfinder Core Rulebook.

I spend a minimum of an hour a night surfing the web keeping up with new things in games and comics, but without my distributors, I'd be even more frazzled than I am.  The average game store doesn't have the resources to place individual orders from, potentially, hundreds of publishers.  It's just not possible, even for me, and I pride myself on my dedication to my business and this industry.

And understand, I don't blame OSR publishers for not entering the distribution system.  Print runs and warehousing is the path of madness and failure for quite a few in the RPG industry, as it exists today.  If I ever seek to self-publish an RPG product, it would PDF with the POD option.  It just makes perfect sense.

However, as fans of the OSR, we need to remember that as much as I'd like to have OSRIC and Swords and Wizardry in our local stores, you'd be paying a premium to purchase them from me (at least according to my investigations) and I hate marking an item up beyond what it costs from the publisher.  It makes my stores look bad, even if my costs are the same as yours.

While I know not every Local Gaming Store is Friendly, just remember that if it were easy to run these stores there would be more of them and we'd have more customers.  And trust me, if your local store isn't doing it's job, don't give them your money.

And I'll close with asking that anyone contemplating Kickstarter or other crowdfunding projects, try to remember a funding level for Game Stores.  I'd love to have more options for both of my stores to contribute.

Duchy of St. Cuthbert: Rektor, the Warden Hammer

Nearly 2000 years ago, the dwarven High Jarl of Hammerhome, Grimshaw Blackfell was gifted with   Rektor by Moradin himself.  The Warden Hammer was given to the High jarl to protect the dwarven capital from a perilous siege.  The mountain walls had nearly been breached by Thassamar Toosmart, 1st King of Goblins, and little hope remained in the dwarven defenders of Hammerhome.  Grimshaw, wielding Rektor, cut a swath of devastation and death through the battle field until he reached Toosmart himself and bashed the Goblin King's brains from his skull.

For 1300 years, each High Jarl of Hammerhome would be given Rektor upon election to the position.

It was with great shock and a good deal of horror then, when High Jarl Feldar Ironfurrow discovered the weapon had been stolen during the reign of his predecessor, High Jarl Koll Fireplume.  Apparently, Koll decided to keep the matter a state secret and had a ceremonial replica crafted in Rektor's theft.  While Feldar was furious, he understood the decision and adopted it, fearing unrest and revolt from his citizenry.

So, for the last 700 years, the first state secret each newly elected High Jarl learns is that Rektor has been stolen and each is then placed in charge of the Anvil, the dwarven secret service pledged to find and retrieve Rektor for their new High Jarl and Moradin himself.  Unfortunately, the Anvil has not been very successful.

But much of the blame lies in the fact that Garvin the Shadespeaker, cousin to the Apostate Ori Bludnehare, hired a band of thieves known only as the Gloaming to steal his people's greatest treasure.  Garvin was convinced his Idol of Perrin would work, but wanted Rektor in case something went wrong.

Unfortunately for Garvin and all of those living in Blundenhare's Mine, the Shadespeaker was wrong about the safety of his scryings and about his people's security with the Warden Hammer.  

It would take nearly 700 years for the weapon to be unearthed by a band of hapless adventurers. 

Rektor the Warden Hammer

+3 Axiomatic Bane Keen Warhammer

Axiomatic:  This weapon is law-aligned and thus bypasses the corresponding damage reduction.

Chaotic creatures his by axiomatic weapon attacks take 2d6 extra damage.  A chaotic creature carrying this weapon is weakened for as long as it carries it and ends when the weapon is no longer in hand.

Bane:  Against goblins this weapon's effective enhancement bonus is +2 better than it's normal enhancement bonus.  It also deals 2d6 extra damage against goblins.

Keen: Whenever you deal critical damage with the weapon, you deal 2d10 extra damage.