Irendi continued

After spending the night in the Shield and Shingle, I meet High Priest Forgrim in the morning outside the Church of Ilustree.  I talk with him about getting property to start a temple to my deity, Hiteh.  He tells me that the church across the way is no longer in use.  I ask what the price on the temple would be and he replies that it would be 6000 gold.  I asked what they would take as down payment.  He said ten percent, so Fugelsang and I came up with the deposit and received the keys for the church and went to go check on our acquisition.   We searched inside and noted the improvements to be made.  Went and hired laborers skilled in carpentry and woodworking to build pews and St. Andrew crosses for worship to Hiteh.  Also hired some menial labor to clean the place.  Received a generous donation to help get the Church of Hiteh started of 500 gold.  The Church is located in the temple district of Ford North.  After procuring the temple, we went to investigate South Spur and ended up finding a place with Hiteh's symbol upon the doorway.  While I went inside to investigate, my party was attacked by a group of grimlocks, about 5, and they defeated them quite easily.  I picked up a cat o' nine tails at the shop.  After I left the store and met with my fellow adventurers, we watched the king or duke or leader of the city give a talk from his residence in the Baron's Keep.  He was probably the Baron.  Noticed a strange creature behind him, found out later that it was an illithid.  Went for a stroll after Fugelsang departed and the rest stayed discussing something.  Ended up being attacked within some kind of concealed or shady area by an aberrant creature which was summoned by a female summoner, who got away after the others showed up.  Fugelsang had been caught in the same shroud, but on the other side of the creature and we met up during the combat before the others arrived.
After searching the area where the summoner had vanished, we discovered the Temple of Lathidus surrounded by shadow and dark mist.  Met Concha, aka Shelly, being dragged away from the temple by two cultists.  Dispatched the cultists and headed to the Owlbear Arms, afterwards headed to bookstore, The Reality Wrinkle, and was beset by a gibbering mouther, which we defeated and encountered an even larger one downstairs and ended the weary fight by killing the bookstore owner, who was controlling the mouthers.  We now control a bookstore.  That night while resting, I have a dream of Hiteh talking with an Elvish women and a dwarf.  The words I remember from the dream simply say, "Must find Anya before chaos gets out of control."

At this point, I believe the Church of Ilustree burns down.  We also defeat some were-rats in the Clock Tower.

We go looking for the Fiendish Elasmosaurus in the Brinding River by the halfling village contained upon some river barges.  Stonedrake crosses the river and gets some amulets that hide us from the invisible Hellhounds from the Druids camped on the other side.  Defeat the Elasmosaurus.  Find out about a merchant hired to leave town to do something, finding out what's going on.  While we were in the halfling village, the baron passed a decree locking the entrance and exit of all people in the town, we just got back into town.

I ended up doing some research in our bookstore, and found out about Fort Sunnydale (Opportunidad), found a smut book with pictures, very graphic, a cookbook for squid, thought it would be great for preparing illithid, and the book on theology and cosmology I was originally looking for.  I learned the following from that last tome:

Anya is the bastard child of Arden, mother unknown

Legend that mother is mortal

Anya is a kleptomaniac and if she stays in one place for too long, one day or more, chaos ensues

Anya is demure, has straight light-colored hair, petite build

Stonedrake shows up while I'm doing my research and tells me that the creature behind the baron was an illithid.  I tell  him I just found a cookbook on how to make squid.  We leave together and walk towards the church of Arden.

We enter the temple, see a huge pillar of fire which is a portal to Hell Plane.  We find two closets, leave, enter the south wing, coup-de-grace  a hell-hound, defeat two clerics of Azhull, moving on, find another cleric of Azhull and I slit his throat, found two privies, went upstairs, defeated a tiefling, found balcony, closed the fire portal with my turning undead power (DMs call on that one).  After closing, encountered a large Bone Devil and defeated him, but was one hell of a fight.  We rested in the room where we defeated the tiefling.

Next morning, Stonedrake is gone, cannot find, go searching.  We see his dead body on the street and meet Cyrus, an Ebon Saint.

That is where we have left off.  I will have this game this Friday and hopefully will be able to update this story on a more regular basis.  Some parts of this story are blank, either I didn't take notes or don't remember what happened.  I do apologize for that.  It doesn't seem any of my fellow gaming group care to read much on the blog, and I do have the worst memory.

Living Forgotten Realms ABER 4-2 (Spoiler)

It all started when we received a letter from Father Thorn, the leader of the Scions of Amber, inviting us to the Salty Wench Tavern in Marrauk, which is one of the Dusk Ports in Returned Abeir.  Our journey to the city is uneventful, but can see why Father Thorn had warned us about the weather.  The city is in the middle of a windy plain where sand has scoured every exposed surface of the city.  We put on our hoods and cloaks to protect us from the elements and make our way to the Salty Wench.  The people in town keep to themselves and shy away from anyone nearby, but we eventually find someone who's willing to point out the direction of the tavern.

Inside is clean and warm which we welcome from the sand outside.  We are directed to a private booth near the back by the barkeep when we inquire and meet Father Thorn.  With the wind outside howling, it is going to be difficult to overhear our conversation.  He explains that when the Spellplague, he calls it the Blue Breath of Change, erupted, there were deposits of an element known as dragonbane amber unearthed throughout the region.  He tells that it is known that the element can be used to defeat dragons and help end their rule.  Legends spouts that the amber is a powerful and near instantaneous poison against dragons.  It can be used to make weapons and holds the best chance the Scions have of overthrowing the dragons.  He also tells of a stronghold once held by rebels known as Djerad Kusold in Melabrauth containing a massive amount of the element.  The dragons actually feared this outpost.  Melauthaur the Undying One, ruler of Melabrauth performed a ritual that caused the outpost to be swallowed by the earth which earned it the title of The Swallowed City.  Since that occurred, hordes of dragonborn have sought these ruins, but none ever return.  No book, including the ancient history books which the dragons didn't destroy, mention not where this fabled city lies nor what dwells within.  Father Thorn mentions a dragonborn who died soon after entering the town and collapsed right in this very tavern.  His possessions were a scroll that was used as a journal, and if believed, details his journey to Djerad Kusold.  He doesn't offer payment, but tells us that the Swallowed City undoubtedly contains treasure, which we can use to compensate ourselves.

After agreeing to the mission of finding this amber, he gives us each a prism, to change an elemental attack to a different element.  We head out to find Djerad Kusold after reading the journal of the dead dragonborn.  We pass through jungle and rough terrain and a day out, we are beset by chuuls, one for each of us, though they be of different kinds of aberrant.  We defeat them and press on through the wilderness, finding a body of one held dear in town, we make note to tell of his death.  We find ourselves in front of two dragonborn skeletons within arms reach of a door, torn and burned.  The journal mentioned a red dragon.

We enter the chamber behind the door and make our way to the temple grounds within.  Massive doors block our way, but insignia helps guide our path.   Each door it seems has a certain key, which happens to be an element related to the inscription in draconic.  Luckily, we were not surprised when the dragon headed chimera, with her young, happened upon us.  We lost one in our fight, but after defeating this beast, we raised him from the dead.  We finished opening the remaining two doors and alighted to find some magic gear, weapons and the Dragonbane Amber.  We leave and report our findings.  The person we tell about the death of her brethren was relieved and promises a boon while Father Thorn, first overjoyed by our return and report of finding the place, loses that steam when we inform him that the place although containing a small quantity of the element probably wasn't Djerad Kusold.  We part ways for now.

This adventure was short, but the fights were both difficult and the skill challenge wasn't exactly a piece of cake.  Watch out for fatigue if you fail, it doesn't not suck. (yes, I know, a double negative)

Until next time, safe gaming and have fun, which is exactly what we did that day.

The real first episode of the CoC home campaign

The investigators are as follow, Luis is playing Artie Gumshoe, Sarah is playing Rachel Hemingway, Jayson is playing Dr. Warren Bedford, and finally, Andy is playing Dr. Thomas Hooper.  Since Andy had to work, he didn't arrive until they were ready to enter the house.

Beginnings

Now being a prominent private investigator as he was, Artie Gumshoe had worked with Rachel Hemingway before on one of her newspaper stories for the Boston Globe, where she works.  She had also worked with Dr. Warren Bedford on some occult thing in the past dealing with a cult from Europe, and since Dr. Bedford is a Professor of European History at the University of Massachusetts, she asked him for help researching the cult.  Dr. Bedford knows of Dr. Thomas Hooper, who is also a professor at the university, and asked him for help researching as well on that story.  Now Artie actually has met Dr. Bedford before on a case he was investigating.  The four of them regularly socialize at the Coconut Grove, a jazz club in Boston.  Artie tends to talk a lot when at the club, so it isn't unknown that he's a private investigator for hire.

Now, Jackson Worthington also frequents the Coconut Grove and overheard Artie one night and one of Artie's stories stuck in Jackson's mind.  So when a Mr. Anthony Worthington, Jackson's uncle, called Artie to hire him to investigate the Corbitt house, a newly purchased residence of Mr. Worthington's, Artie and the group accepted Worthington's offer to investigate and examine the old Corbitt house in central Boston.

Worthington set up a meeting with the investigators at his office in an apartment building across the street from the Coconut Grove via a telephone call, but gave the address to the house accidentally.  He told that he had recently purchased the house, a really good deal, and wanted the investigators to examine the house to squelch the rumors of the house being haunted.  He also let the investigators know that the last owners, the Macario family, were currently hospitalized at Roxbury Sanitarium where the husband and wife were and the two boys were staying with relatives.  Mr. Worthington says he'll pay $20 per day and $100 when they finish their investigation.  He also gives them a $50 retainer and leaves the rest up to them.  He tells them that they can contact him at his office if they need to.  Mr. Worthington also gave the keys to the house to Artie.

Artie drove by the house before meeting with Mr. Worthington and the others, he didn't see anything special.

Investigations

Now the investigators had an idea to search for news and records on the Macario and the Corbitt names.  Dr. Bedford searched the main library at the university while Ms. Hemingway searched the morgue, the place where the newspaper kept their clippings files.  Ms. Hemingway found stories on the Macarios, but it didn't contain any information that they didn't already know, however, she found clippings on a 1918 feature story that was never published stating that in 1880 a family of French immigrants moved into the Corbitt house, but after a bunch of violent accidents killed the parents and maimed three children.  The house had long stood empty.  Rachel also found a story about another family that moved into the house in 1909 whom fell ill right after moving in within a few days.  The oldest brother of that same family killed himself after going mad with a kitchen knife and the family moved out, heartbroken.  The final story that Rachel found was about a third family that occupied the house in 1917, but they left within a few days after everyone got sick at the same time.  Rachel tried bribing and flirting with the male clerk that was working in the morgue organizing and performing duties such as a librarian would, but ended up pissing the guy off so much he helped her just to get rid of her.  The clerk told her that although there weren't any files older than 1878, there might be records of it elsewhere from before that year.

Meanwhile, Dr. Bedford searched the main library at the university and found that a Mr. Walter Corbitt was sued by his neighbors, who petitioned to make him leave the area "in consequence of his sic habits and unauspicious demeanor."  After he found this file, which took him four hours, he contacted Rachel to come help him do research.  Rachel showed up and helped Dr. Bedford search, but only found out that a prosperous merchant built the house, but got sick and sold the house to Mr. Walter Corbitt, esquire after eight hours.  Dr. Bedford had better luck in those eight hours though.  He found that Corbitt won the lawsuit and that his obituary in 1866 states he still lived there.  It also stated that a second lawsuit was filed against him to stop him from being buried in his basement, which was stated in his will.  Dr. Bedford also found out that there was no outcome to the second lawsuit filed.

The investigators end up going to the Hall of Records, they pass through security and find civil court records that state that Reverend Michael Thomas was the executor of Mr. Corbitt's will and pastor of the Chapel of Contemplation & Church of Our Lord Granter of Secrets.  The register of churches, also located in the Hall of Records, shows that the Chapel of Contemplation closed in 1912.  They look for the chapel in criminal court records, but don't find any.  Artie chirps in and tells the rest that serious crimes would be handled in the county, commonwealth, or federal court system and those records would probably be kept at the Central Police Station and High Court House, both in the same building.

The group finally makes their way to the Central Police Station and end up having to bribe the security guard to the records room $10 each.  After getting into the room, which is huge, they are surprised by a female secretary who tells them how the room is organized and that the Cs are in the corner which she pointed to.  In the records they find out about a secret raid on the Chapel of Contemplation that was occasioned by affidavits telling that members of the church were blamed for the missing neighborhood children.  In the raid, three cops and seventeen cult members were killed by guns or fire.  There were no autopsy files that stated anything significantly outstanding since it almost looks like they didn't even perform any, such is the quality of the autopsy reports.  Though 54 members of the chapel were arrested originally, only eight were held.  The records hinted of illegal procedures performed during the proceedings that intervened by officials who were important locally which sort of explains why the biggest criminal action the cops have ever done never was written about in any media, ever.  The records also stated that Pastor Thomas was arrested and sentenced to 40 years in prison, but escaped in 1917.  He was charged on five counts of second-degree murder.

The Neighborhood

Being ready to check out the house now, the investigators go to the house and see a newsstand down at the corner of the block.  Dr. Bedford went and talked with the newspaper and cigar vendor and found out that he didn't know anything about the house, except that it was recently purchased.  Rachel went and talked with him and found out that the Chapel of Contemplation was a couple blocks up the road.

Dr. Bedford had called Dr. Hooper and told him to meet them outside the house.  He gave the address.

The Chapel of Contemplation

The investigators drove up to the chapel and immediately started feeling ill.  They investigated the grounds and found the symbol of the church.

The symbol in the Chapel of Contemplation

Two of the investigators fell through some rotten floor boards and discovered a rotten copy of Liber Ivonis bound in animal hide, upon further inspection, it is deduced that it is actually bound in human flesh.  A journal of cult activities is also found that states that Walter Corbitt is buried in his basement "in accordance with his wishes and with the wishes of that one who waits in the dark."

The investigators go back to the Corbitt house.

The Old Corbitt Place

The investigators go to the house and park in front on the road.

The Corbitt House
The road is towards the bottom of the page.

They investigate the front of the house and find all the windows nailed shut from the inside.  The front door, which is located on the side of the house and leads into the hallway on the ground floor was locked.  Luckily, Mr. Worthington had given the keys to Artie.  They entered through the door and Artie was the first through and went straight into the living room.  He notices an unusual abundance of crosses, images of the Virgin, and other Catholic religious artifacts, but is intrigued by a painting on the wall that makes him feel uneasy.  He makes out the name of the artist, Nelson Blakely.  Followed closely by Dr. Hooper who went straight into the dining room.  Thomas removes the cover of the tureen on the table and the smell is enough for him to vomit.  He feels the need for fresh air.  Rachel was next, who stopped in the living room to investigate all the religious icons found by Artie.  Finally, Dr. Bedford went and searched the the first door in the hallway.  Amongst the storage boxes, rusted water tank and old bicycles, he finds three leather journals.  Artie continues on to the kitchen through the hallway, the smell of the dining room deterring his passage through that room and finds a wood stove and a larder with some edible canned foods, spoor of rats and some bottle of wine.  Dr. Hooper leaves the dining room and goes into the hallway and gets some fresh air by the front door and jams something into the door jamb preventing it from closing.  Rachel takes a look at the picture.  Dr. Bedford heads to the second door in the hallway and finds another storage closet mostly filled with pieces of wood for burning.  Artie then picks up the wood stove poker and heads out to the hallway.  Dr. Hooper heads to the third door in the hallway and finds the mud room where hung upon hangers are overcoats, some galoshes on the floor, some hats on the top shelf and a few umbrellas along with several bags of coal for the living room's free-standing  stove are on the floor opposite the boots.  Rachel and Dr. Bedford come up and form a line behind Artie.  Just then, while they are discussing on whether or not to head upstairs or see what's behind the door, assuming stairs down to the basement, Rachel hears scratching sounds coming from upstairs.

The group goes upstairs and investigates.  Artie goes first, and finds himself at the top of the stairs and heads to the first door on his left.  It opens up into a bathroom.  Dr. Hooper comes up next and heads to the first door on his left in the hallway (I reversed the order of the rooms, so that room 3 was actually room 1 and vice versa).  He found the master bedroom that belonged to Vittorio and Gabriela Marcario.  Rachel came up behind him and searched room two, finding it containing toys suitable for little boys.  Dr. Bedford brought up the rear and went straight to the final room.  He found some weird scratches on the floor under the bed frame with the bare bed springs and called out for the group to look at them.  Artie, being next up in the initiative, headed for the last room in the hallway.  Meanwhile, Dr. Hooper heard something coming from the bathroom and headed there.  He was looking in the lavatory and noticed a dark substance starting to pool to a point on the ceiling.  He pulled out his pocket camera to take a picture of it, and right when he was to snap the picture, the liquid fell on the lens of the camera.  He looked at the liquid on camera and saw that it was red and smelled of blood.  He nearly fainted by the thought of blood dripping from the ceiling and called for reinforcements.  All the while Rachel, eavesdropping on the conversation between Artie and Dr. Bedford, heard scratching coming from the window in the room she was currently in.  Dr. Bedford remained in the last room discussing with Artie and searching for a trap door in the floor.  Artie, hearing the calls of Dr. Hooper, heads to the loo and finds nothing wrong.  Dr. Hooper asks Artie if he can see the blood on the camera.  Artie replies that he cannot.  Rachel stares at the window that's making the scratching sounds.  Meanwhile, the bed in the third room starts vibrating and shaking uncontrollably on the floor, slowly moving towards and blocking the door.  Dr. Bedford, being unnerved by the bed, moves towards the window and looks out to see how far a drop it is, thinking about climbing down, and is surprised when he is pushed out the window and falls to the ground below.  Hearing the crash, Artie runs to the room and sees the broken window and looks to the ground where Dr. Bedford fell and is pushed out the window as well, failing to cling to the window ledge, barely misses falling atop Dr. Bedford.  Dr. Hooper, having heard the commotion, heads down the stairs and out to where the two have fallen, planning on performing some first aid.  Rachel, being alone upstairs now sees the walls with streams of blood flowing up to the ceiling defying gravity which bewilders her and as she runs out of the boy's room, heads to the last room instead of towards the stairs and looks out the window to see how everyone is doing when she is also pushed out the window, landing on Dr. Bedford.

Suffice it to say, they were in pretty bad shape at this point, but were loving the game, so I allowed them to roll their own characters, which we'll do in two weeks and the proverbial torch will pass to the new investigators while these recover in the hospital.  This is what happened.  I apologize for my earlier rant.  I was upset.

Until next time, have fun and game safe.

Call of Cthulhu, home editon, episode 1

Well, I did it.  I ran a Call of Cthulhu scenario after playing only one game of it online and my players loved it.  Now I didn't do anything original, but it was still pretty awesome.  I actually ran The Haunting, the first scenario for Call of Cthulhu.  Now, I had a print out of the scenario from Chaosium.com titled the Quick-start Rules which has a copy of the scenario in it and is free to download on Chaosium's website, however, the discrepancies between the quick-start guide and the scenario written in the 6th edition CoC core book are slightly different.  One includes weird things you can find in the house, and the other doesn't include them.  The quick-start guide fails to mention the free-standing furnace in the living room, but you know its there from the mud room where you find the bags of coal for it.  It actually states for the free standing furnace in the living room, but the description for the living room doesn't mention the furnace at all.  The painting in the living room isn't in the 6th edition book, nor the clipping that describes a raid at a different church that's similar to the one that you know about at the Chapel of Contemplation.  There's one about a visiting doctor at the Roxbury  Sanitarium from Arkham, but only if you visit the sanitarium, which isn't part of the scenario unless you read ahead and make sure not to give them the information about the Marcario family, nor the business card that leads to Dunwich.  I understand that the painting leads to Dreamlands and the clipping leads to Kingsport.  Now Kingsport is not available as a pdf for download at the Chaosium website, but the others are or available in hard-copy, you can buy them from Chaosium.  Kingsport I can only find via book buying websites, which I kind of don't understand.
I've tried getting in touch with Chaosium, and not even an email saying we'll look into this.  I've had some issues, but the lack of response makes me feel like my business isn't appreciated.  I really love the game, and want to get these older out of print scenarios on pdf and then hard-copy so I have everything that's been published.  Granted, some of the scenarios aren't Chaosium's, at least one is by Grenadier and its called the Secret of Monhegan Island, not positive on the spelling, but pretty sure.  Now I don't know how much the gaming community has broadcasted their demands on the game companies as to having them actually act like a company that cares about your business with them, but its the principle of the matter that I'm talking about.  My reasons are my own and I'm not trying to get anyone in trouble or start anything, but it just seems like good business to make the customer happy so they'll come back and do repeat business.

Call of Cthulhu online, episode 1

So, my first Call of Cthulhu game where I am playing an investigator who is a Criminal.

I started by picking up one of my friends from the Asylum in Arkham, and went out to an old farmhouse to help my other friends investigate something strange that an acquaintance of ours, a Mr. Rupert Merriweather had asked us to finish on his death bed.  I had just arrived in Arkham in time to talk to him before he passed and he begged me to go out to this farmhouse in the middle of nowhere and help the guys investigate something he did when he was younger.  He showed my a list, and he was the last alive, said that they were keeping something bound in that farmhouse, but since he was dying, it would escape and he didn't want it to escape, they had done some kind of magic summoning thing at the farmhouse years ago.  Anyway, I said yes  to the request of a dying man.  Just because I break the law sometimes, doesn't make me a bad person.

So I picked up James, I think his name was James, from the Asylum and drove out to the farmhouse.  Saw the rest of the guys standing outside staring at a corpse of a raccoon.  I said, "Hi, what's going on?"

I was answered with shrugs and a recap of what exactly was going on out here.  Something about a murder, and trying to stop something from killing, and looking for a translation of a ritual to perform so we can stop the something from killing.

We went into the house, and looked in the front room, saw a couch and it smelled like rotting something coming from the couch.  Me and Zach, we'll call him Zach, moved the couch against the wall and found a nothing, but some rats.  Looked around the room and found a trap door that lead down to a cellar and another door leading into the attic.  Heard some noise coming from under the floor boards, like scurrying, stomping on the floor didn't stop it completely, just temporarily.  We moved on, there was five or six of us all together, but I don't we were all there.  Anyway, we moved on into the kitchen or back room, there were only two rooms.  Searched the back room, found the translation in an old cigar box, along with two containers with powder, one white and oily and the other brown and sawdust-like.  I pocketed a box of wooden matches, don't know why, maybe they'll be useful later.  The guys were talking like we found the powder of Ibn Ghazi.  I had no idea what they were talking about, but it burned in the fireplace after igniting the embers with an old wool blanket that was lying there next to an open can of beans, which were eaten by what we assumed to be a squatter or hobo, anyway, heard the noises again from under the floor and we went to go look in the cellar.  Found the hobo hiding.  Said he had leave or something, but we held him there and questioned him, he didn't seem all there in the head.  Said he had to get his things from the other room.  I said,"What, your can of beans?"  I don't think that is what he was talking about.  We let him go into the other  room, he bolted to and through the back door, we let him.  Nothing but field for thirty or forty yards, don't think that far, since he kinda disappeared while we was talking.  We should have been able to see him still, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen.  Thought he fell in a hole.  Nope, no hole, his tracks just stop in the grass, don't know what happened.  We started talking about what might of happened to him, and we came up with some pretty far-fetched, but logical ideas.  We can't see him, so he's invisible, but he doesn't leave tracks, so he can fly, but he's got to be able to fly and turn invisible at the same time, otherwise we would have seen what happened to him since we was pretty much staring right at him run away, couldn't have looked away more than two seconds.  Heard a noise, this one came from up in the attic.  Went to go up in the attic, take a picture with my camera since the only picture I did take was of a warding symbol that was drawn or carved all over the house.  So we was talking about what we were gonna do, and we heard something out in front and it was the hobo getting a ladder to go up in the attic.  He had the cigar box, don't know how he got it, but he did, and he was gonna give the cigar box back to what was in the attic, we helped him, didn't know he had the cigar box at the time, and I followed him up the ladder, but he said the door was stuck, told him to put some weight behind it and force it open, probably just snug.  He did, and he was overcome with some kind of mental thing and slammed the door open and threw the cigar box in the attic, and he must of slipped or something hit him, but he lost his balance and fell and broke the ladder.  He then ran out the back door again (which this might actually have been when he disappeared, not remembering correctly right now) and disappeared.  We then discovered that we needed that cigar box and something  about a murder victim missing a heart, the raccoon missing its heart, and something in the translation I think said something about needing a heart, not sure.  Anyway, we dragged the table up from the cellar and fixed its leg and used it to reach the door in the attic and I think Zack hoisted me up or held the table sturdy, anyhow, I poked my head up into the attic and ducked just in time to miss getting charged by something up there and the door closed, somebody tried again, same result as the door slammed shut, the guy with the shotgun, who may have Zack or Zetel, not sure, but he shot a hole in the ceiling.  I noticed something run past the hole and the cigar box was just sitting there within reach of the hole.  So I grabbed at it quick like, but held my hand back while something ran past, big enough to block out that hole, so I grabbed the box quick before it had time to turn around.  Said i was gonna lock it in my truck so we'd have it when we needed it.  As soon as walked outside to my truck, this thing jumped and ran towards the woods, looked like a shadowy fox.  Didn't know nothing, crazy looking thing, anyways, we went to the village after and bought some supplies to make amulets to put this warding symbol on and I picked some stuff up and some copper to melt into amulets.  We went back the next morning and prepped the house for the ritual we all needed to do at midnight, started that, saw the farmer's wife, thought she was dead with a missing heart and a hole in her chest, but she was there, hurting and calling for help, someone went outside to help, but then she attacked him, he pushed her away and came inside and locked the door, then that hobo came back, he was at the front door, he had a hole to where his heart was suppose to be.  All the while we was completing this ritual, finished it when that shadowy fox appeared in the middle of the symbol carved into the floor, it was the same symbol they used to summon this thing, so we had to say the summoning in reverse to get rid of this thing so it didn't kill anyone else.  After finishing, I think we departed to go to Arkham or someplace to rest.

****That's as best I can remember without cheating and looking at the scenario in the book, the only thing I looked at was the name of Rupert Merriweather.  So, don't know if this is exactly how it happened, but its close and that's really good enough for me.  Well, until this next Sunday when we meet again and we start episode 2 with I haven't foggiest idea.****

Until next time, safe gaming and have fun.

Blogs to come, sooon!

I've been busy, sorry, but the time was well spent.  I will have an update on the Call of Cthulhu game I started on Sundays via Skype, Mumble and Google Hangout with Roll20.   Next I will be continuing the Irendi game update and since an accident prevented our game to meet on Monday for another exciting 4th ed. Living Forgotten Realms game, which is sad since somebody died, there won't be an update on that game, but I will be in the near future starting a new game which will happen this upcoming Friday with a Call of Cthulhu scenario.  I will be the keeper, the person running the game, and our normal Friday night gaming group will be the monkeys, I mean players, who might go insane.  That's all I'm saying, except that I don't know what scenario I'm going to run yet.  Any suggestions?

If you could say the name of the scenario and what book it is from, that would be most appreciated.  Thank you in advance.

Until next time, safe gaming and have fun.

Living Forgotten Realms ABER 4-1 (Spoiler)

I am playing my 13th level Rogue named Zarkon Darkwater, my friends are Chris, Brian, and Laura.  Chris has a 12th level Sorcerer named Alan, Brian has a 12th level Fighter named Stormson, and Laura has a 14th level Cleric named Shava.

 The adventure starts when we are invited to Returned Abeir for the Scions of Amber (a meta-org within LFR) and when we are to meet our contact in the city, we are attacked by the Green Duchess Orlarrakh and Prince Maroon in the middle of the festival in Tarsith.  We were enjoying the different vendors and merchants in the festival when people started screaming and yelling.  Low and behold, two dragonish figures are seen flying towards the festival square.  People are busy getting out of the way, but there are still some kids that are scared stiff and we try to rescue them by blocking the attacks of the monster, what we know as a hydra with three heads, and take the damage instead.  We could only save three of the kids as the last one kinda suicided himself by not quite making it out of one of the hydra's zones.  After whittling down the hydra past bloody to less than a surge value, it leaves, but it took a long time and we almost died, however we didn't and we were escorted from the square to the building where the children had shuffled off to by the leader of the Scions of Amber, Father Thorn.

We are then asked to train their men in case the headquarters is attacked, help extend the duration of  some potions of mimicry, help cast a ritual to prevent scrying and oversee the excavation of an escape route to the docks.  We succeed in all aspects except casting the ritual to prevent scrying.  Our escape is ready, since we were identified by the hydra before it flew away and need to flee, but so is Orlarrakh who ordered the Tarandar to lead an assault on the Hive, the headquarters of the Scions of Amber.  We make it to our ship, the Emerald Glory that was procured for us and meet the Tarandar.  He says some words about this working out for the both of us and we stow ourselves in the lifeboats of the ship headed to Dusklan; with us is Drogen, Father Thorn's nephew, and Father Thorn himself.  Not long after we set out, around dusk, there is an explosion above deck and we swim to a nearby shore.  We set up tents and a campfire and Father Thorn suggests three-hour shifts to stand watch.  During the third watch, Stormson alerts us with a shout as we are attacked by creatures out of the sea.  We almost die a second time, but manage to defeat them.  It turned out that Drogen was a mimic, but we capture him instead of killing him like the sea monsters.

We make our way to Dusklan and Father Thorn leads us to a dusty house that looks like its been unoccupied for years, but it provides much needed rest.  In the morning he thanks us, asks us if we are ready to repay the deaths of the members who drank the potions mimicry to pretend to be us so the Green Duchess thinks we're dead, he says the time for such is soon.

Onward towards Doom

After finding the trap door, Lili-Aiune searches to make sure there are no traps and finds the door trap free and unlocked.  The door is opened by Nightwind and he is the first to descend.  Following him is the courageous cleric Ja'Lil, followed by SpurPot and Lili.

They find themselves in a underground room with roughly the same dimensions as the ruins up above.  The room is about thirty feet wide by forty feet long.  The spiral staircase that descended behind, the room which is made of stone floor and walls contains four support pillars and an iron cage.  The roof is approximately ten feet high and the cage goes all the way to the ceiling.  SpurPot notices the cage first and moves over to investigate, he hears nothing coming from the cage, but notices a weird door in the cage and piles of cloth on the floor.  The door has no hinges and no lock to pick.  He touches the door and is shocked to find the iron bars flexible like rubber.  He goes through, nobody knowing what the door was, and as he steps through the door and into the cage he is surprised by the pain induced by the door, truly a devious attack.  While in the cage, he searches the piles of cloth on the ground and finds a half-rotten, half-eaten, fully dead body of either an orc or the ugliest woman he has ever seen.  He yells out to the group his discovery and hears a moan coming from the other side of the cage.  He goes over and gingerly pulls back the cloth from where he heard the moan emitting and is overwhelmed with the sight before him.  He sees three naked bodies, human, barely anything left to them.  They look like skeletons with skin on them and he is amazed that they are still alive.  The bodies are of two men and hopefully a woman, or the man's penis has fallen off.  SpurPot uses caution as to not catch this horrible disease.  He steps forward and pours some cider into his hand for them to drink and sees them lap at it, like a dog laps at a bowl of water.  SpurPot bends down to hear the weak man mumble, "It's almost feeding time."
SpurPot looks worried and asks, "You get fed, or you are fed to something?"

Meanwhile, Ja'Lil finds that the torches in the room are the magical everburning torch and is called over to cast create food and water for the three, what seems like horribly starved humans, and a fourth body is discovered near the dead body found earlier.  This one is of a male dwarf, the skinniest one SpurPot has ever seen and completely naked except for the hair suit the dwarf has grown.  Ja'Lil casts the spell and enough food for 21 people is created in the corner of the cage nearest the stairs, a mere fifteen feet away to the right diagonally.

A loud clang erupts a few seconds after SpurPot enters the cage and all but Nightwind hear it and the humming coming from the back wall.  They act quickly, SpurPot leaves the cage, taking more damage from the door and Ja'Lil moves all the way up to the corner between the far wall opposite the side with the stairs while Lili discovers a floor trap and sets it off delibrately, which sets of a thud sound near the stairs, a sort of buzzing sound turns off near the cage, and draws her crossbow.  Nightwind moves towards the wall from the stairs the thirty feet and moves into the space between the far left pillar and the center of the far wall.  Another loud clang is heard by all this time and the walls start to slide open revealing large owlbear zombies.  The doors concealing the owlbears slide close after the owlbear vacates, the group can see tunnels running behind the monsters that head deeper into the earth. The fight takes longer than it should've since Ja'Lil was unable to turn them, but they vanquish them all the same, the bodies turning to dust before there eyes when the creatures die again.  After the fight, they are amazed that the male dwarf, wrapped in cloth, is outside the cage standing.  The others are wrapped in cloth as well.  SpurPot gives them each a gold piece and they escort the group out to the entrance of the cave.  They tell them that they are a couple hours from Trynt.  The group also explains that there is an old man in the cave and he might not even be there since he left a couple hours ago.  The survivors tell the group that they are from Trynt and think that they have only been gone for a week.  They were part of a caravan that was ambushed by lizardfolk and ended up here, but don't know how.  The survivors depart.

The group rests so Ja'Lil can regain his turning abilities and spells above ground.  They continue there trek down, since after the fight they discovered that the stairs continue down.  They make there way down the stairs which lead them into a tunnel eroded into the earth by water that leads them to another set of stairs carved into the stone.  The stairs lead down towards a cavern after about twenty feet and wrap around towards the floor carved into the sides of the cavern walls.  They reach an old iron spiral staircase that descends the last twenty feet into a makeshift cellar.  They discover some fresh foodstuffs in the cellar and make the call that they are not alone.  Another iron wall with the same kind of door, which they have come to know as a void door, leads into the rest of the cavern.  SpurPot goes through this door and nothing happens, the cavern is lit by a everburning torch that Ja'Lil has from the room above, one he had from before that which he gave to SpurPot, and a rock that Nightwind has from Bram.  They investigate the cavern and discover large clawed tracks that seem to come from a pit in the floor and circle around and lead towards the back of the cavern to the other side of the stone wall that was in the cellar that went to the ceiling.  SpurPot leads to the back stealthily, but not quiet enough for he is surprised when an umberhulk attacks.  Nightwind goes to his aid and Ja'Lil and Lili cover the rear.  Ja'Lil and Lili feel the ground shaking and Nightwind hears a clawing sound.  While Nightwind and SpurPot are defending themselves against one umberhulk, another one burrows up from the ground on the other side of the cavern supporting piece which is around thirty feet by thirty feet.  The rock wall being between the supporting piece and the cavern wall on the left of where the stairs came down.  Ja'Lil and Lili cannot see the other umberhulk, but know it is there.  They move to a better position and are attacked by the second umberhulk.  The group dispatches the umberhulks, but almost die in the process.  The wand of cure light wounds that Nightwind had purchased for Ja'Lil came in quite useful.  After defeating the umberhulks, they search the cavern and discover a pit, dark and deep, they drop a lit torch and see the bottom of the pit is more than fifty feet from the rope that they had dropped.  They go back to the cellar and stand watch while they rest before delving into the deep.

This is where we stopped.  Until next time, safe gaming and have fun!

Call of Cthulhu online

So, yesterday was a great day.  Worked a little in the morning, left early cause it was slow, came home to have brunch with my Mom and two sisters, then I get online and go to the forum for Call of Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, and I have two private messages.  I'm like, "What's going on?"

I open the first and it's an invite to play Call of Cthulhu online.  I am literally jumping up and down in my chair at this point.  So I message him back saying, "Would love to, when?"

Then I open the other message, its for the GM, the one they call Keeper, and he's like message me, this is my Skype.  I'm like, "Sweet!"

So I go to download Skype, and because I am so happy, I totally click on the wrong link and like 5 different programs were installed on my computer.  So another hour uninstalling crap and installing the real Skype.  After getting that done, I get in touch with the Keeper of the Call of Cthulhu game and I download Mumble, which we are using for voice with a push to talk option.  So far so good, now I get invited to the Hangout on Google+ and go to the Roll20 option and then because of Adobe update, too much shit running on my computer at the same time, old 2004 Acer with Vista and 2GB of RAM,  system crash.  After waiting for 30 minutes for it to catch up, I said, "screw it!"

I shut it down by pushing and holding the button.  A big no-no if you know computers.  Anyways, last resort,  after the computer shut down, started it right away, another no-no, gotta wait like 20-30 seconds before hitting the power button to turn it on again.

Computers on, Norton wants to update, what the crap!

So, turn Norton off and shut down all unnecessary background programs, and start all over again with getting into mumble server, starting Skye, get the invite for the hangout, no problems so far, start Roll20, system crash.

I hate my computer.

Ended up using my Mom's faster and 4GB RAM computer, no problems, all I had to do is download mumble and load an update for google+ and hangouts, which didn't even need cuz her default browser is Internet Explorer.  She hasn't joined the Chrome world yet, even though Chrome is on her computer.

Anyways, long story short, I finally got my Character rolled up for next Sunday and he's a criminal.

Until next time, safe gaming and have fun!

Irendi

The name of the post is the name of the campaign.  It is being ran by my friend Sarah.  It's her first time running a campaign for us and first time ever, I think.  The names of all her NPCs are based loosely on Disney films, anime, and cartoons.  Her naming convention leads to a lot of eyes rolling and laughter, but the fact remains that it is a good game.  The genre is D&D 3.5 and I am playing a cleric of Hiteh.  I wasn't very familiar with this pantheon, but it is interesting.

The Story so far... a summary.

We started out in our adventuring group of four being sent into a Sunken Fortress to find and rescue if possible a previous group that had gone to the fortress to recover a white apple.  My group consisted of a dwarf named Malechite, an elf named Stonedrake, a human named Renault, and me, a human cleric of Hiteh named Chance.  Malechite is a fighter, Stonedrake a warlock and Renault is a rogue.

On our way to the fortress, we encountered some twig things, and defeated them quite easily, but rested afterwards before finishing our jaunt towards the fortress.  When we arrive, we come across two giant pillars with a crevasse between them.  At the bottom of the crevasse, we face a dire rat on an outcropping.  From there we see the sunken fortress in ill repair.  The fortress has a large wooden door while the attached tower is broken with no door.  We search the tower first so we don't have to worry about surprises and find a secret door and 3 wooden doors. --E--

We open the secret door first, my party members being eager and come face to face with three skeletons.  While they rush forward and surround one of the skeletons, I turn undead and destroy two.  We entered the next door, going in a clockwise fashion around the tower, and find a door with the face of a dragon upon it.  We push it open and find four gems, blue, light green, pink, and purple, fist-sized with the blue gem screaming.  The gems fit nicely into the belt pouch.  We discover a plate trap and jump over it and find a gold dragon statuette of red-veined marble ten feet tall.  We hear the dragon's voice saying in common: "We come at night without being fetched, we disappear by day without being stolen."  I notice the statue looks like it is actually speaking.  We enter the room behind the statue and see more marble statues of plate-mailed elves and see tracks with claw-like nails head into a floor pit.  The pit is about twenty feet deep with rat bones laying on the floor and blades protruding towards the sky.  The elf discovers a hidden passage behind one of the elf statues next to an empty alcove.  We end up jumping the pit and enter a room with a 9' x 20' sarcophagus.  A quasit is watching over the sarcophagus and when we ask what he is doing says that the binding was broken, his watch over the Dragon Priest done, he flees across the pit and out of the room.  We interpret his words to mean the thing in the sarcophagus isn't bound there anymore.  We open the sarcophagus and find what looks like a troll.  We defeat the almost troll, it didn't need fire or acid to kill, and search the sarcophagus.  We find 220 sp, 50 gp, and 4 scrolls.  The scrolls were all divine and had the following spells written upon them.  One of command, one of cure light wounds, one of inflict light wounds and one of magic stone.  We rest by the sarcophagus to regain our energy for the trek back to the tower. --E--

After recovering our strength, we left the room using the secret passage that the elf discovered and bypassed the pit trap.  We then discovered another pit, which only appeared when the rogue, almost falling on it,  accidentally discovered a weird looking stone in the wall which he pressed and the floor slid open, in the antechamber and found one of the party members from the previous excursion.  We rescue him from the pit and he then joins our party to help find and rescue the others.  His name is Fugalsang and he is an illusionist.  We depart from the tower's last door and find a hallway with doors.  Behind the first door, on the left, lays a room with an iron keg in it.  Completely sealed, with a tap to drain its contents, but the tap will not open.  I use a piton from my climbing kit to punch a hole into the iron keg.  Water drains from the keg in a manner not becoming of water and we face a water mephit.  After destroying the water mephit we search the keg and find five small sapphires.  We leave and enter the room across the hall by opening the door on the right and find a room filled with rocks and rubble.  We continue down the hallway to the third room with a floor covered in caltrops and a barricade with goblin sounds coming from behind. --E--

The goblins should have been chanting,"Blah, blah, black sheep.  How far can you leap? Now it doesn't matter.  I've gone up the ladder.  Hop and jump like we said, you'll end up getting deep.  We'll cut out your bladder and watch you bleed until we're ready to feed and eat until we're dead," but were not chanting.

***Here it gets a little disconnected and my notes get iffy and don't make much sense***

Jafar was looking for us.

Three people of original party left.

Divine Scroll of Faerie Fire. --E--

Opening magic chest.

Slightly glowing.

Fighting Bugbear and 2 dire rats.

Bugbear named Balsak.

Black Pug

White Bull Mastiff

Spotted Chihuahua

Staying in room with Dragon Shrine --E--

In 2nd to last room.

Received 2 scrolls

- entangle

-slow poison

In last room

Enter Cavern - glowing fungus

See Jafar -

Wand of Entanglement (13 charges)

****The dogs refer to a doorway that healed us, but changed us into dogs****

We arrive in Kider, the city, after receiving our payment for recovering the white apple and finding out what happened to the last party.  We purchase some equipment and magic gear after selling our loot and reward in the marketplace.  We stay at the Shield and Shingle in East Gate part of town where we entered Kider.  We are told not to go to South Spur if we value our purse and temples are located in Ford North.  Westhill is for enchantments and arcane musings, while Silverhill is Nobility and Chatter Street Market is where we sold our wares and found our dwarven master smith, her name is Shooma.

When we entered Kider, there was an old lady at the East Gate and she looked like a beggar.  I gave her 23sp and 7cp.  I was warned of "Dreamers who hear whispers from the Speaker."  Whatever it meant, only the old lady knows.  We hear rumors in the Shield and Shingle of the Belltower being infested with rats, that the former owner, Tooloo, is no more and the new owner, Cheesus, may be a wererat.  Warned about missing people in South Spur with lots of blood, but no bodies.  We here tell of the laughing ghost of Westhill.  We stay the night at the Shield and Shingle, although we here that the Stony Gaze Tavern is a better tavern, but not an inn.  We receive a writ from the guards allowing us to have non-peace-bonded weapons.  I have a meeting with High Priest Forgrim in the morning. --E--

There is a little more, but I will continue after our next game.  Until then, safe gaming and have fun.

The Alternate Friday Night Game

Every Friday, our group meets and plays any number of games.  The original group was Tuesday night, but some of the players that showed up for Tuesday stopped showing up or moved too far away to commute with the current economical crunch.  So then we were just three and we played the Star Wars games, some Rifts games, a new World of Darkness game and I think we had a Pathfinder in the mix as well and a few Dungeons and Dragons version 3.5 games, however, our group expanded again and moved to Friday nights.

Since moving to Friday nights, we have had a Star Wars game, and currently two D&D 3.5 games.  Now the game I am running the players tend to enjoy, or at least that's the feedback I get and have been preparing them for the last couple of months, since we didn't play my game and they asked me when it was coming back, I've been telling them that I've been trying to kill them off.  We finally have enough players where I can actually stop playing my characters as PCs and run them as NPCs so they don't have to be there for the combat anymore.  Anyways, the reason I have brought the game back is because they asked and now I actually have a reason as to why I am trying to kill the PCs, I want to run Call of Cthulhu.

I have actually started writing my very first scenario for Call of Cthulhu and hopefully, when finished, will submit to Chaosium to see if they can or will publish it.  So, I like running the 1920s era since it's actually easier from the lack of computers.  People actually had to figure shit out and not just go,"I'll Google it."  No offense Google, I love you guys.  However, as a keeper for CoC, I prefer running in the 1920s.  I guess its just personal preference.  Classic they call it, and classic it shall remain.

I figured I owed everyone an update and being as I have today off and am at a stepping stone, that I would write a quick little blog explaining on what should happen in the near future.  If by some miracle, the monsters I have lined up for my players in my D&D game don't survive and the players once again find themselves skirting death, I will do a one shot CoC game to test out the waters and put the D&D on the back burner until after the one shot CoC.

Until next time, Safe gaming and Have fun.