Super Saturday: Kicking off the Freedom City campaign with Time of Crisis

 

Tonight I am starting off our first extended superhero run in years. I should have 6 players which means we should be resilient enough attendance-wise that we will run every week, barring GM incapacitation (or GM wife demands). It's been a long time coming, so I thought I would note down how I settled on these options.

The System:

I like M&M 3E. Yes it's crunchy. Yes it has a lot of its own systemic quirks. Also yes it plays pretty fast once your characters are built and yes it is one of the most ridiculously well-supported games out there. The combat plays out a lot like Savage Worlds in my opinion as it's not about an extended hit point beat down but about overcoming a toughness threshold and inflicting conditions and it can seem like it's going to be a long fight and then suddenly it's over! It's sometimes hard for people to grasp coming over from a d20/D&D type game when so much of the rest of the system looks familiar but it's worth that learning curve! It should feel different and it does. This is a feature, not a bug.

I did consider different systems - I'm looking at this as a longer commitment than just the one adventure run. I've been reading back through a lot of Champions books and I still love that game. I thought about doing Necessary Evil - using the aforementioned Savage Worlds. Every time I look at the Sentinels of the Multiverse RPG I get ideas on how that could go. But considering how low-mileage M&M is with us, and for this group of players in particular, and with a new edition coming, it just felt right to make this year a re-introduction to M&M and a farewell tour to 3rd Edition and then potentially after a year of campaigning, a transition to 4th edition.

No, not that crisis!

The Adventure:

As I've mentioned before I really don't like most published superhero adventures But Time of Crisis is one that I really do. It hits on so many comic book tropes in one run that it just feels right and as it's mostly set outside of your normal campaign framework it's easy to drop in to mark say, an edition change, or a major campaign change, or ... to start one off and not worry about continuity with what has gone before. While I feel most supers campaigns benefit from having adventures tied to your particular PC's - probably a throwback to the days of Hunteds and DNPCs in Champions - this one  just that good and there is plenty of room to improvise along the way to add in things like that. 

The potential for changing up the campaign in the aftermath of this event is not going to be super useful here since I am using it to start things off but I still like it as a clean slate opportunity. Some of the PC's have been in my various prior M&M efforts over the years and this will let us clean up our own "continuity" into one ongoing timeline. It may not matter to some of my players but it helps me keep things straight in my head. The action during the crisis event is also a good excuse for character tweaks as everyone figures out how the game works again and might want to make some adjustments as we go. 

The structure also lends itself nicely to an ongoing campaign. There are 5 major chapters: An intro in the existing campaign, 3 different parallel earths, and then a big finale back on your own world. Hopefully everyone can make it for the beginning and the climax but they can come and go in between and it shouldn't break anything. I have some ideas for another parallel world if I need it - i.e. if they screw up badly - but they are pretty smart so hopefully we won't need it.

The Setting:

I have liked Freedom City since it came out as a setting for 1st Edition M&M. I think it is the definitive super city setting for an RPG campaign. I have used it in the past going back to second edition before this blog ever started. 

The downside of using something like this is that there is a lot of material in that book - more with every edition - and it can look overwhelming. There are elements of it that I don't or don't find particularly compelling for the kind of campaign that I want to run despite my appreciation for it overall. There are a lot of arguments to be made for using your own homebrew super city and it's not like I don't have some of those. Not using my own place feels like a missed opportunity in some ways.

The thing to keep in mind with a work like this is that overkill is kind of the point! The trick is to pick out the pieces that you do really like and put those front and center and don't worry too much about the rest. If I'm not planning to run a school-based campaign then I don't need tons of detail on Claremont Academy but if someone wants to use that kind of thing in their background, well, I have names and places and dates for them to work with. 

The upside is that there a lot of cool, excellent elements of the city that I do like and want to use and I should, finally, be able to do that. For having played around with it over so many years we've never really had a long steady run with it to let us get our hands dirty with the place. If someone does want to tie in to some team or organization or even a particular hero I have a ready reference for them and as random as players can be I think it's handy to have details ready on the fly.

The support factor is also important. There is an Atlas of Earth Prime that describes the rest of the world - handy if needed. There is a Cosmic book for space threats/allies/adventure. The neat thing is that I can decide how much of the stuff in those is true and again focus on the parts I think are cool and ignore the parts I don't. Plus it's the main M&M setting - I need to get in there and punch it up a bit and see how much I really like it in the heat of actual play.

So there is the thinking behind the decisions for this one. I'm still working out some of what I want to focus on but since it will be a few sessions before we are actually in Freedom City I have time to think. Some of it will be driven by my players and what they want to do and I wont have a good feel for the group direction until after this first session at least. I don't have a name for it yet but I will try to do session summaries as we go this time instead of letting them stack up. 

I do love this pre-game planning and speculation so I am pretty happy right now and looking forward to starting it up.

40K Friday: Early January

 

Off to a good start here for the new year and the main focus is still the 'Nids! As I mentioned in my end of the year post I'm trying to get some of the boxed armies into playable shape and this one is the focus for now. That's 12 warriors, a pair of carnifexes, and some gargoyles all ready for the spray. With these built I have around 90 more tyranids to build between the various gaunts and Von Ryan's leapers and such. That might sound high but building them in groups of 10 at a couple of groups per night a few times a week and it actually looks achievable. Certainly by the end of the month, hopefully sooner. 

Now I'm not fooling myself - it will take me a long time to get these all painted and finished. That said though it's a tremendous improvement when they are all built and basecoated and playable, even if not completely "completed". 

Finishing the build on these will open up the question of what to build next, even as I work on painting the bugs. Right now I'm leaning towards Guard, even if it's just a squad, to make sure I can make them the way I want and that I'm not missing anything, or whether I need to do more than headswaps to make them convincingly Praetorian, and whether the various decals I am procuring will fit correctly. Answering those questions will just turn it into a matter of production and then - eventually -  painting.

I do have lingering side-quests of possibly finishing the necrons and tuning up the Orks but I'm trying to stay focused until I get the nid work completed to the next stage.

Anyway, more to come ...

NYE 2025 - Looking Forward to 2026

 

It's been a bit since I did one of these so I don't have one from 2024 to look back on but things are a little calmer this year and this kind of post helps me collect my thoughts for the future, so here goes ...

I ran 32 sessions of Tales of the Valiant in 2025, wrapping up in mid-November. My plan in 2026 is to run zero. Not because it's bad or we don't like it but because that particular campaign is done for now and it's time to do something else. 

The main focus for '26 is going to be Mutants and Masterminds. I plan to start with the oft-started Time of Crisis adventure and finally finish it this time, this year. It should only take 5-6 session at the most. Then I plan to roll into an ongoing supers campaign with it and run that as far as my players are interested. The main theme there will be "comic book type stuff that I like and that I think my players will enjoy" which is all I really need right now. 

I haven't done a real ongoing superhero game with this group of players so it's time. I've been reading a lot of Champions stuff lately as far as rulebooks go and it's tempting to use that for a campaign but they are more familiar with M&M and with a new edition on the way I want to get some good time in with it anyway. There are a lot of other good supers RPGs out now - with even more on the way - but I want some crunch and some easy supporting material and M&M has both. I would like to run it in my own city setting but today I am leaning towards using Freedom City and just tweaking and focusing on the arts I like - I'm not set in stone just yet on this.

I considered a few others - I really thought about  Necessary Evil as another campaign that has a beginning/middle/end but I'm going to hold off on that for now and stay with M&M.

I'm sure a few other games will work their way in at some point during the year as one-shots or tryouts with a starter set but this will be the main game. I may end up running DCC (a zero level funnel) this weekend as not everyone may be available for the M&M kickoff and I'd like them to be. Just have to see how that goes. 

I'm sure I will have no need of this ...

Beyond the new campaign I have also acquired a projector and so we will start trying out that whole projecting-the-map-onto-the-table thing. If I'm going to have a laptop at the table anyway for HeroLab, why not try some other new approaches? More on this as it develops.

That's also a lead-in to another potential change in how I run things as Blaster may be relocating for Career Opportunities this year which -if he does-  will be a good reason to run an online game for the first time ever. I figures I might as well start getting familiar with some digital map tools so we will go projector for now and then see about the rest later. 

So while 2025 was pretty stable I'm not sure 2026 will be but we will roll with it one way or another

40K Friday: End of the Year Edition for 2025

 

Well I did get in some games this year so that was nice. Not a lot ... probably not enough to justify the amount of money, space, and time it takes up ... but it's not going to go away any time soon. I managed to paint some more miniatures too. The Blood Angels, Orks, and World Eaters all got some things actually finished and a whole bunch more got base coated, if not finished, but there is plenty of work to be done ...

I also kept my "mini-moratorium" going to the end - no new miniatures acquired. I bought some parts to help finish some up, I bought some bases (though I mostly 3D print those now), and I bought plenty of paint and glue but no new boxes of plastic joy. I won't keep that at 100% for next year but I will try to limit it to "armies I am working on right now" and not "armies I might want to theoretically work on someday" or even "completely new armies I could start without making any real progress". 

The state of the forces report for this year:

Marines - for the various marine armies progress was decent but slow. Lots of building, lots of base coating, lots of "almost finished" but not enough "actually finished." There are plenty of dreadnaughts and vehicles in this state too, not just infantry. The focus is still Crimson Fists and Blood Angels as far as finishing new units, with the Black Templars still sitting in a pile of sprues and boxes. I agonized over my Dark Angels once again, possibly pulling them back from OPR-land to make a Ravenwing/Deathwing force. Still not sure if I'm going to commit to that. The other chapters remain unchanged.

Imperial Guard - I finally settled in on a rough structure for my long-developing Praetorian Guard army. I had been picking up options for a new guard force all through 2024 but I finally went through and worked out which of the new stuff fit and what could be used as what and which units could be reallocated from the main guard force and have something I like - now I just need to paint it, including 100+ guard infantry! And this is of course separate from the generic guard army - generic gray-painted Cadian tank force -  I have built up over the last ten years which has a lot of painted vehicles ... but in the wrong scheme for Praetorians ... which means I built up a second tank force to go with the new infantry force because I like tanks ... 

I'll have more about this in future posts but you would think I would be better at this by now and not build redundant army types ... but I am not. The one bright spot is that the tank force is largely built and base coated so it is actually usable in a game. It is on my mind that this should be a top-3 priority for next year but we will see.

Other Imperials - I made no changes to the Grey Knights, Custodes, or Imperial Knights this year. I didn't even get the codexes for some of these. 

Chaos - I mainly played and worked on the World Eaters this year and I have a few more things to work on for them. It's a nicely focused army and I don't really feel like I need to add much of anything to it. The rest:

• For the Iron Warriors I base coated some Venomcrawlers and a Defiler (just in time for a new defiler, according to rumors - of course). There are things I could work on here but I have a solid army already done. It's really just adding seasoning here until I decide to start rolling in the new, larger marines. With rumors of them getting a primarch model in 40K they might get some attention in the near future.
• For the Death Guard I painted some units - plague marines, bloat drones, helbrutes, etc. but I didn't finish anything but one bloat drone so I have a lot of things in that familiar middle ground of "kinda painted but not finished" that I really need to start avoiding. I had to rediscover my plague marine paint scheme and then re-locate the paints I used for it which I did manage to do! Knocking out a few more units would at least give me a core force that was finished. 
• Daemons - I didn't really do much with these this year.  I just sorted through them, gave each of the 4 powers their own shelf so I can easier see what I have and what I don't. The only real change I've considered here is moving some of the old ones back to square baes to use in Old World but I'm not taking that plunge yet.
• Knights - I have a lot of finished knights with a lot of unfinished magnetized gun options. This was true at the end of 2024 and it remains true at the end of 2025. Maybe 2026 will change that.

Xenos

• The Tyranids got a lot of attention this year as I realized I had plenty of stuff - I just needed to get them built. I had been paralyzed by trying to nail down a color scheme. It's a big deal to me when starting a force from scratch as I don't want to have another Guard-type situation where I have either a split force or have to repaint some painted models. So I had to get that settled to be able to move past the "building" stage and I did finally get there earlier this year. so now I have built and base coated:
• The Swarmlord
• 2xHive Tyrants
• 3xFlying Hive Tyrants
• 3xTyrannofexes with the big gun + 1 with the big flamer
• 1xTervigon
• 1xHaruspex
• 10xGargoyles
• 30xGenestealers (I like genestealers)
• 3xBroodlords
  
  So that's plenty for doing a "big bugs" army right now (+ genestealers) but I still have almost all of the Leviathan sets to get to this state and that means a lot of little bugs to build and spray to get everything to this level. This is my current project - my warriors are on the workbench now - so I hope to have it all "playable" in the very near future, ideally in January.

• Necrons - I did very little with this force in 2025 and I'm kicking myself because this is probably my best bang for the buck option time-wise here. They don't take long to paint, I have just about everything I could need for the army and the only things that are not built and sprayed are one old monolith and the Kill Team sprue which I'm not sure what I want to do with yet. I really should get these finished up so I can take them off of the to-do list completely. 
• Eldar - My Eldar did get used in a game earlier this year by one of my new players and I do like them still but with around 8000 points painted and another 2000+ floating around the house I don't feel a lot of urgency to work on them. My old metal dark reapers work just as well as the new plastic dark reapers so I don't really feel a need to replace or update them. The one area I want to work on is the jetbike contingent, which, while not being very on-theme for Iyanden, is still a very Eldar thing and with Blaster out of the house I'm not stepping on his toes by building a bike force. With the wraith units and aspect units largely handled this is the one area that's thin for my army and I picked up a bunch of them in late 2024 that are still sitting there a year later, including some Shining Spears I'd like to inflict on someone else. We will see how quick I get to them.
  
  Honorable Mention: Harlequins - they did get folded back into the Eldar book this edition, but I have a bunch of old metal ones from the RT days and I could add a few skimmers and bikes to that to have an interesting side force with these guys. Something to think about. 

• Dark Eldar - I've had some form of dark eldar kicking around since the 3rd edition starter box but I've never really prioritized them as an army either to build or to play. When they were redone for 5th I started picking up a unit here and a unit there every year and I've played them a few times but they've always been "extra" - now it's 10+ years later and those units are starting to be replaced and I really should have done more with these guys. Looking at the ridiculous amount of units I have for an army I rarely play and has always been kind of third string I am almost embarrassed. I do like the lore and the style - it might be time for a concentrated "get them all built and basecoated" program here like I did with the necrons and am working on with the 'Nids. It would be a little bit down the road but it would certainly be doable. 
• Tau - I decided last year to make a Tau army. I picked up a bunch of stuff including a lot of 3D printed battlesuits and vehicles just to have something different. Since then I have done zero with it - the entire force is still on sprue or in boxes or bags on a shelf in the closet waiting to be brought to life. It's dumb - don't do it this way kids.

• Orks - ah one of my favorite armies and supposedly one of the poster armies for 11th edition coming next summer! I have a -lot- of orks, and quite a few of them are painted - but so many are not! Or at least not finished! But so many are on the verge of being finished! Just finishing up a unit here and then another there, just going one unit at a time, would add so much to the finished pile. It's not even really the boyz at this point as so many of them are in good shape - it's more the bikes and buggies and 'nauts and vehicles in general. These are definitely a priority for this year. 

Almost forgot - terrain! I finally got the 4 Imperial Bastions and the Landing Pad to built and basecoated status which I feel pretty good about. Now on to the ruins!

So for 40K, after writing this up, I'd say my Top 3 for 2026 are Tyranids, Orks, and Imperial Guard. get those to a minimum "built and basecoated" standard and then see what targets of opportunity I can get to "finished". Necrons are probably a top target for that and then Dark Eldar are probably #4 for the B&B effort. 

Another Weird Little Thing After Playing These Games for Decades

 

I'm reading some reviews of an RPG and someone says something like "I've been playing RPGs for over 15 years so I know a good game when I see it" and all I can think is "15 years? My kids have been playing longer than that!"

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Most-Anticipated RPG of 2026

 

EN World is doing their annual most-anticipated poll right now and I figured I would post some thoughts about some of the entries. Many of them I have no real opinion on but there are a few worth mentioning. It's a long list so let's just go alphabetically ...

• 7th Sea 3rd Edition - I always wanted to like this game but I've bounced off of it hard every time I've tried it. I owned 1st edition for a while but it's one of the few RPG's I've sold off after realizing it was just never going to work for me and my crew. I know 2E had a disastrous crowdfunding situation that hurt it badly from the start - maybe this one will set things right. I think my biggest problem is that the setting is super close to history, but pushes itself just far enough away to make it weird for a history buff (that would be me) but doesn't add enough fantastic elements to make it feel truly different. Something closer to, say, "Warhammer Pirates" for a setting would grab my attention, or strongly historical pirates, like Pirates of the Spanish Main for Savage Worlds, is viable. Right no I probably would just use Savage Worlds for something like this. I wish them luck on it though and I'll keep my eyes on it. This is easily the most I have ever written on 7th Sea on this blog so I have to watch it now.
• Apocalypse World Burned Over or "3rd Edition" - I have been interested in this game since I first heard about it and I have played -briefly- some other PBtA games but I'm curious to see what the originators of the system do with it now. It's definitely one of the most influential systems of the past 20 years so I want to check it out. I backed the Kickstarter- one of my few in 2025 - so we will see how it goes.
• Dark Conspiracy - I really liked the 90's version of this game, especially once they went with a d20 over the original d10 approach - but I'm not sure I really liked Mongoose's multi-era approach so this is another wait and see for me. Could be a lot of fun with an updated approach using new/old Traveller mechanics, could just be an excuse to dust off the original version.
• Diablo - Is there really that much demand out there for a tabletop Diablo RPG? Aren't there a dozen other systems out there that could do this without a licensing fee? 
• Discworld - love my Pratchett books but I've never felt the need to run it as an RPG. I suspect most of these will be shelf-dwellers for Discworld fans but hey, if someone can pull it off more power to them. I just don't see how one could capture the energy of the books short of having Robin Williams GM your game and, well, that's not happening anytime soon. 
• Dungeon Dwellers - yeah this is that one from the Kickstarter I backed in 2023. I have the PDFs. No I'm not particularly "looking forward to it" at this point.
• Heroes of Might & Magic RPG - I love the early versions of the computer game but I never really felt it was all that compelling of a setting on its own, especially for a tabletop RPG. There were very take-able ideas in them - monsters, etc.- but so much of it came from D&D that I don't know what it adds as a standalone RPG. Maybe if it emphasizes building/running/defending a kingdom as its main differentiator it could stand out but short of that ... I don't know. 
• Horus Heresy RPG - I'm a huge fan of 40K but I don't know what they're going to do with a HH RPG game line. The era certainly has potential but I'd say it needs to be designed as a war story from the very beginning and that could be tricky. I'll watch it but I'm probably not a day 1 guy here.
• Indominant - this is a superhero RPG that might be below a lot of peoples radar but it does look interesting.  I do tend to pick these up as I am a sucker for a new superhero game. They do seem to think they are doing something really new and different but ... we will see. 
• Invincible Superhero Roleplaying - well I like the show.  I've not read the comic to avoid spoilers for the show. There's really nothing in the show that would make me want to run an extended RPG campaign in the setting as it all seems to fit in pretty easily with any superhero system. I'm also not sure Free League's system is one I would have picked for a supers game but I should probably play around with it more to get a better feel for it. The weird thing here is that in interviews the people working on it keep referencing TSR's Marvel Super Heroes. Now I love my MSH but a lot has happened with superhero RPGs in the last 40 years so I wonder if that's really their primary reference point? Anyway it could be interesting so I'll be watching it.
• Justice League Unlimited  - yes, three superhero RPGs in a row! This is an odd one as there is not a ton out there about it yet and I suspect a lot of that is because it's being developed by a Brazilian company. I'm not sure it's even going to be translated to English or sold in the U.S. but I hope it does come here at some point. The other oddity here is that despite the name it's not based on the animation - it's tied to some kind of crisis event in the DCU and then the game picks up after that. I want to see where it goes but I don't read Portuguese so I'm going to have to rely on others to keep up with this one.
• Oath Hammer might be an interesting take on the Fantasy RPG using dice pools and it also sounds fairly Warhammer-ish so it could be fun but it's another fantasy RPG when I am feeling overladed with fantasy RPGs so I'm not going to make this one a priority.
• OSE Updated and OSRIC 3E - It's weird that these things start out wanting to be a reorganization or re-presentation of an older D&D rulebook but they just cannot resist the temptation to start modifying said rules. I don't get it but it keeps happening - Labyrinth Lord just came back from years of silence and is doing the same damn thing too. Not my cup of tea at this point and I have my originals if I want to go retro.
• Pioneer - It's Expanse-level Traveller, early tech, single solar system. I'm sure someone could make a really good game with this ... but it won't be me. I'm curious about how it will do though.
• Storypath Ultra - well I did the Kickstarter on this one in September 2024 because I like the modern Trinity system and figured I should keep up with a revised version. Not sure I still feel that way but one of these days it will show up and I'll take a look at it.
• WFRP 5th Edition - I played a lot of 1st, own almost all of 2nd, skipped 3rd, and held off on 4th as I just wasn't feeling it, but I have brushed up against this RPG multiple times in the last few years so I am interested in this one. I will probably end up with it and with The Old World in spite of the likelihood being that only one of them will get played but that happens sometimes. Actively watching this one.

One thing that struck me going through this list is how many of them are crowdfunded - it looks like most of them. Given my recent experiences with Kickstarters and Backerkits and the like that does not thrill me. I know it's just how a lot of this works now but it's still disheartening in some ways. There will be a lot more "wait and see" here for this kind of thing.

The other thing I realized is that no one nominated Mutants and Masterminds 4th edition! No one! Not even me! I'm on this site pretty regularly and anyone can nominate but it just never occurred to me. Maybe because I already had the playtest document? Not sure but that's a huge miss for a lot of us as this is my most-interested-and-anticipated RPG release for 2026! 

Anyway there is my take on the list! Here is last year's top ten list if you want to compare.

Wrapping up the Year

 

Note - I will get back to posting the rest of the Temple campaign soon - it takes a while to sort those out and edit them and with a week off for the holidays I wasn't going to burn all of that time doing it. At one point I had a plan to get it all posted up by the end of the year but that will probably shift to "End of January" now. 

2025 was a good year here. I wrapped up a great campaign, worked in some other game time here and there, got some mini's painted along the way, read some good books, and watched some decent shows. What more can you ask for? I also spent real time with the wife, the kids, and the grandkids, along with most of my friends.  

Most of my gaming hobby time was spent on the ToEE in ToV campaign which was a lot of fun all the way through. There is always another game though, so I'm happy to be prepping for the next thing. More on that later. I think the only other game I ran this year was a Cyberpunk Red try-out game and that's unusual for me - I usually manage to work in multiple one-shots or some short side treks into something but this year was all about completing the temple so it was pretty focused. I need to think about that when planning the new year's objectives.

I will end the year having read about 60 books this year, about the same as last year, but only ten of them were RPG rulebooks which is low for me and roughly half of what I did in '24. Maybe it matters less when you have a set campaign going the whole year. 

Over the course of the year various Kickstarters came in so I added Adventurer-Conqueror-King 2E, Dolmenwood, and 13th Age 2E to the "need-to-read" shelf - which is a  pretty huge pile of D&D-ish fantasy RPG stuff, probably more than I needed to have coming in all at once. I do pick up smaller games on DTRPG pretty regularly and I did get Lancer, though I have yet to read it. I should probably talk about those more here but my preference has always been that I'd rather talk about a game after I have run it, at least for a session, as herding some players through character creation and then through an introductory scenario of some kind will tell you a thousand times more about a game than just reading it. Sometimes that takes a while though so maybe I should at least write something up about the read through and then refer back to it when I do run the thing. Sounds like a good policy for '26!

There were other RPG acquisitions - more for the 40K RPG, more Marvel, I'm catching up on Pathfinder 2E rulebooks, and I should probably fill in the rest of the 2024 D&D 5.5 books though my enthusiasm for it is at an all-time low. Not RPGs in general - just D&D. I liked Tales of the Valliant's take on an updated 5E so I'm not really feeling the need for another version of it which is why I haven't felt the need to dive into the other alternate takes on "updated 5th". If I run anything fantasy next year I'd say the odds are it will be 13th Age's new edition or the aforementioned PF2E, or possibly The Old World RPG. Odds are better though that I won't be running anything fantasy, at least as the main campaign. More about that later.

So so-long to 2025! I'll have some thoughts about the year in miniatures here tomorrow and then a look at plans for the year ahead as well.

Valiant Swords of Greyhawk: Session 31 - On the Road or "In Which the Chroniclers Were Absent"

 

Our Heroes:

• Sir Kentor (Human Paladin) played by Paladin Steve
• Sir Lantor (Human Fighter) played by Boom Gun Brandon
• Braeden (Human Ranger) played by Battletech Terry
• Samson (Halfling Mechanist) played by Shootist Will
• Jaric (Human Cleric) played by Variable David

 The party is level 5-6 at this point. The bard and the wizard were both out which means there is no first-person narrative this time. We begin on Day 78 of the campaign.

Xyzzifax and Malice stayed in Nulb to investigate the doors of the temple, while the rest of the Valiant Swords took the rescued prisoners to the safety of Hommlet. Along the way, Sir Kentor, Sir Lantor, Jaric, Braedon, and Samson met some fellow travelers and battled creatures on the road, the most dangerous of which were an ambush by lizardmen and an encounter with a nest of ankhegs on the journey back to the temple.

In Hommlet the Valiant Swords went shopping - for potions, armor repairs, alcohol, dresses for *someone's* girlfriend, and commissioned the construction of a War Wagon, paying 2,000 gp for its initial construction to JW Wainwright. Upon completion, we owe the remainder of 13,000 gp.

After spending a night in the village the group headed back to the temple and laired up in the tower, ready to renew their efforts. 

Valiant Swords of Greyhawk: Session 30 - All Ghouls Must be Smited ... Smitten ... Smote!

 

Our Heroes:

• Sir Kentor (Human Paladin) played by Paladin Steve
• Sir Lantor (Human Fighter) played by Boom Gun Brandon
• The Mighty Xyzzifax (Human-ish Wizard) played by Blaster
• Braeden (Human Ranger) played by Battletech Terry
• Malice (Human Bard) played by Grognard Mike
• Jaric (Human Cleric) played by Variable David

 The party is level 5-6 at this point. This account is mainly written by Malice. The mechanist was out of action for this session. We begin on Day 76 of the campaign.

On the way back to the tower, we encounter a pair of fire giants. With quick thinking, Xyzzifax intercepts them, and talks to them as if he is the master of the fire temple. He is able to give them directions to the temple, and they leave without there being a battle. We do make it back to the tower after that.

He did have the robes ... and the arrogance ...

We reset, prepare, and then make our way back into the temple, having given them another eight hours to deal with the aftermath of what has gone on here. We make our way to our normal entrance, and then up to the top floor of the dungeon. The very first room of the dungeon on this floor that we encounter is a cell, filled with a dozen chained prisoners.

Malice, with a heavy sigh, and grumpily because they can not say if there are more prisoners than the ones that are just in this room. She begins to unlock the prisoners. The door just twenty feet further down the tunnel is thrown open. A half dozen undead lizard men hungrily rushed into the hall, where Braeden had been keeping watch, and Xyzzifax had been lurking.

Lizard men? I'm pretty sure I didn't say lizard men. I even used Warhammer ghouls for the minis! Ah well ...

Braeden casts protection from good and evil on himself as the ghouls charge, and in the blink of an eye the undead creatures are on Xyzzifax and Braeden. Both are able to defend themselves well, though Xyzzifax has cast both a warding and shielding spell to do so. One manages to get past the two of them, and Malice takes a swing at it, but the room is too close quarters for her to work the glaive well.

Sir Kentor is similarly constrained, but is luckier than the bard. That ghoul that charged into the room is undone by the Paladin, who continues to the doorway and announces that “These people are under my protection!” Sir Lantor rushes to the doorway, and cleaves into the ghoul that is directly attacking Xyzzifax. It is certainly showing the damage, but it is still in the fight. Xyzzifax pulls a scroll from his bag, and engulfs all of the ghouls with burning hands. The one that had been wounded by Sir Lantor is destroyed by the flame, but the rest are merely damaged. Xyzzifax leaps and flies over the pack, and his magical ward continues to protect him from their claws. Jaric steps into the hallway and locks eyes with the first of them, and it begins to flee from him

Braedon pulls his daggers, and engages the next ghoul in line, who is looking even worse than the rest when the Ranger is done. Then, it tries to claw Sir Lantor, and connects with its long, vicious nails. It’s not a fight unless Sir Lantor is bleeding. But, in response the knight takes the ghoul’s head clean off. Another pair of ghouls attempt to mob Xyzzifax, who holds up a single hand to keep them at bay.

Malice steps into the hallway, and yells, “Are these the only prisoners!?” and firebolts one of them. Though heavily damaged by the flame, it doesn’t fall over, destroyed. But that doesn’t last long. Sir Kentor steps up to close with one of the two fighting Xyzzifax, and neatly slices it in half. Then, Sir Lantor is only a step behind and powerfully swings his massive sword through the one Malice had hit. Xyzzifax flies to the door that the ghoul that’s running from Jaric fled through, and he can see that it leads to a long hallway leading North, and then he puts a firebolt into the ghoul’s back. Jaric goes back into the room of prisoners, and provides some medical services on the worst damaged of the prisoners.

Braden moves into the room that the ghoul fled through, preparing his bow, and ready for anything to come through the other – and its ghouls! Another half dozen of them. And, once again, Braeden and Xyzzifax are surrounded. Xyzzifax does have to reactivate his magical shields, but it keeps ghouls at bay. And, Braeden’s protection has been maintained, only one ghoul claw is able to find his flesh. The wound isn’t deep, and the only thing keeping him from being paralyzed is his ring of free action. But it is enough to allow that same ghoul to bite him as well.

Malice rushes to the doorway, and holds out a hand to spray the ghouls with tongues of flame. Sir Kentor charges past her, and swings his flaming sword at their crisped, rotten flesh. One is felled, and another gravely injured by the Paladin. Sir Lantor presses the opening made by the other knight, and the ghoul only had moments to be injured before its unlife was ended. Then, he takes another step, slashing into another of the crisped ghouls. Xyzzifax says, “This is all so tiresome. Where is the real challenge?” And then he blasts the area with a fireball. Two of the ghouls are burned to a crisp, two fall over, their bodies blacked, and one ghoul remains up on its feet. Jaric comes out into the hall, and attempts a sacred flame on the last of them, but it still stands! Only for Braeden to show what he can do with a pair of arrows at him. And the ghoul is still standing! We’re all amazed, really.

More undead charge from down a hallway, more ghouls, and even more dangerous looking ghouls. The first of them are able to close with Sir Lantor, and one does manage to draw blood. And, that last ghoul standing manages to even get through Xyzzifax’s warding magic with a claw.

Malice throws the Shatter spell into the room of undead nearest to Sir Lantor. The spell is underwhelming in effect, all things considered. She then takes a few steps back, so she can keep an eye on Jaric. Sir Kentor steps to the doorway, and cuts down the first of the ghouls with his burning sword. And, Sir Kentor judges the ghast nearest to him. Sir Lantor, still having a pair of ghouls in melee with him, attacks with abandon. Zyzzifax repeats, “I say this is tiresome!” and blasts with another fireball, catching the ghoul on him, and the half dozen undead charging down the hall. The one that was next to the wizard was blown away. The four ghouls and two ghasts are all damaged by the blast, but none are pleasingly incinerated.

Jaric moves into the room, and lets loose a Guiding Bolt on the leading Ghast. Then, Braeden puts an arrow into the same one, and that ends its existence. Then, he puts an arrow into the most damaged looking ghoul, and takes it off of its feet as well. A pair of ghouls and the remaining ghast from that group all surround Sir Kentor. Even the knight’s magnificent defense isn’t perfect, and one of the claws manages to find a joint in his armor and draws blood. Though a ghoul manages to close with Jaric, he is able to fend it off. As has become usual, Sir Lantor is slashed by one of the ghouls. And, finally, the last of the ghasts attacks Sir Kentor, but still it is not enough to get through his defenses.

Malice casts a much better Shatter spell this time, and four ghouls and two of the ghasts are all in terrible shape. Sir Kentor feels a little bit queasy from the stench of the ghasts, but he is able to fight through it. The Ghast that had engaged him can not stand against the flaming, smite empowered blade, and the foul undead is destroyed. There are an abundance of ghouls, so Sir Lantor continues scything with his giant blade. With a trio of blows, including a pommel strike, that ghoul he chose as his target is still standing. These can be tough to fell! Xyzzifax, more frustrated than enraged, throws a third fireball into the crowd. None of the ghouls or ghasts survive the inferno.

Do those look like lizard men?

Xyzzifax sends Bubo down the hallway that was revealed by at least one group of ghouls. Malice goes to the room of prisoners, and continues to unhook them. The rooms in this area are designed with reliefs of demons and monsters. We do find a wooden box near the door of one of them, containing an old frayed cloak, 263 copper, and a finely crafted ivory statuette worth 85 gold. The next room is covered with rotting tapestries, and we found a sack full of clothes – which the prisoners claim as their own. And then a moldy growth covers the walls of a third nearby room. We find an iron box, with a silver scroll tube with a scroll of protection against undead, which Jaric takes.

We make a plan for the prisoners, we are going to clasp them in irons, and lead them out. If we run into anything, we will say that they are prisoners of Archmage Xyzzifax. We retrace our steps back to the down ramp. But wait, there are relatively nearby stairs that lead up to the temple on the surface. Braedon sneaks up the stairs, after Xyzzifax casts invisibility on him. With the door open, Bubo can join him. While Braedon leaves the large, bronze doors alone. There are side doors, but they are locked, barred, and spiked with bronze.

As Braeden gets close to the largest door, he finds he can’t approach it at all. He can’t even bring himself to look at it. The rest of us make our way up to the temple, but we keep our distance from the warded door. Xyzzifax attempts a dispel magic on it. He activates his arcane sense to see if he can find the source of the magic. The runes are something like an Antipathy spell, which is eighth circle. Undeterred, Xyzzifax attempts his dispel magic. And, he breaks the seal! Or… it didn’t. There is more to these wards than even an eighth circle spell! So, we are going to have to lead the prisoners back down through the temple, to the secret door, so we can get them up and out through the Tower.

As we are moving, leading the prisoners, we encounter a pair of ettins. One of them asks where we’re taking them, and Xyzziafax claims to be Alrim’s second in command, Lord Xyzzifax. As they question him, he threatens them convincingly, and we walk by. Sir Kentor does his best to keep the prisoners calm as we move within easy club’s distance of the ettins.

We head to Nulb with the prisoners, and let them go with the copper that we’d found near their clothes. Malice is pretty sure its actually their copper. And, Sir Kentor gives each of them five gold.

DM Notes

Well this ended up being a lot of ghouls, a lot of fireballs, and a lot of prisoners. This was a good exercise in "what do we do with non-combatants in the middle of a huge fight"? Also the first real encounter with the magically sealed doors that play a big part in the adventure. They managed to talk their way past two different sets of guard monsters which was also quite a bit of fun. And even Malice showed some generosity at the end ...

Valiant Swords of Greyhawk: Our Heroes - Part One

 Given the amount of time we've spent on the campaign I thought I ought to break out some talk about the party and how they function in the game. This will be more about mechanics and roles than background though I might have the players write something up about the rest of it themselves later.

In no particular order ...

Sir Lantor - Lantor and Kentor appear to be related somehow though they do not discuss it with the others. They are both from the same region (the Shield Lands) and appear to have already known each other. Lantor is the classic two-handed weapon fighter, eschewing greater protection for bigger hits. He is almost always the first to drop in a big fight, partly because of this and partly because he and Kentor are the front line and get hit the most. He doesn't lack for armor but he does lack a shield but he is pretty ferocious in battle. 

The player here is constantly upping his offensive power with little regard for defense besides the occasional magic item. By the end of the campaign he is getting multiple swings, then an extra swing if he crits, with an expanded critical range, and then a bonus action to sneak in a punch on top of that, and I don't know if there is anyone in the world who loves to shout ACTION SURGE! as much as he does, as he blenders through the bad guys.

Lantor's player is Kentor's player's son and while he is the youngest he's been playing with us since 2017 so he is not a newbie in any way. This experience does not stop him from occasionally charging into a room, greatsword swooshing, while the rest of the party is still debating, but he can't use inexperience as an excuse! We do lose him near the end as he heads off to join the Marines but he is here for most of the run and hopefully we will get him back soon.

Sir Kentor - Mysteriously tied to Lantor, Kentor is a sword and board paladin who does occasionally drop despite his ridiculous defenses. Between his magic sword - first Vermithrax, then Zwei, then finally the flame tongue - and a willingness to use every spell slot for smite, he does some ridiculous damage while also maintaining a ridiculous AC. If Lantor is all-offense Kentor is is the yang to his yin putting most of his effort into defense. This means he pushes into the mid-20's pretty early and the high 20's before the end. This is a bit of a competition with the cleric through most of the campaign as each tries to have the highest AC in the party.  By the end he is giving people close to him bonuses to saving throws, putting disadvantage on a first strike near or on him, and generally annoying the DM with interrupt type abilities.  

Kentor is a paladin of justice (subclass) and loves to pronounce judgment on his opponents, usually tying it to the "judgement" channel divinity ability he picked up at 3rd level which gives him extra damage and advantage and probably some other annoying bonuses when he uses it. See why he focuses on defense?

Early on he was the first to start using his background ability to grant bonus hit points to the party and this quickly took the form of a big bowl of chili cooked over the fire before setting forth, typically made up of whatever the party butchered in the previous fight - spiders, wyverns, carrion crawlers ... it all goes in the pot. 

As part of a deal with one of the town elders he was convinced to take on of their daughters to dinner and this turned into a romance that carried on through the rest of the campaign and their wedding was one of the big parts of the epilogue to this initial campaign (trust me we will get there).

The player here has played a lot of paladins and fighters over the decades I have known him so he figured out how to run this class mechanically pretty quick. Then it was just a matter of adding the shine - what kind of attitude will this guy have? We've known each other since the 80's so we go way back and he has played in nearly every campaign I have run since then - and I've played in a few of his. When Kentor starts his monologue there is a bit of eye-rolling around the table but we do love it as it is totally in-character for this character. 

Jaric the Cleric (no he doesn't go by this) is a - well, you get it. He is a priest of Trithereon the god of vengeance in the world of Greyhawk and is a nice mix of religion and a very practical outlook. He is pretty much third man up when it comes to the frontline and is often found in battle next to Lantor trying to undo whatever trauma the optimistic fighter has suffered. When not trying to un-kill the fighter he will typically open with a spiritual weapon and then proceed to wade in, swinging his staff of striking as needed and not hesitating to use its power at all to achieve victory. He was a war cleric (subclass)He seems less concerned with vengeance in general than in increasing his personal power and giving rival clerics some tough talk before and during battle. He is also very much concerned with his personal survivability and constantly seeks to improve it with magic.

In Hommlett he mostly dealt with Terjon and the church of Cuthbert - with some exasperated sighs along the way. In Verbobonc he met the lone priest of Trithereon who maintained the Garden of Vengeance and learned some more about the area, and who sent him off with an "alright alright alright my brother"

When he has played a cleric before he has often leaned into "healbot" but for this campaign he really broke out of that and for once I never heard a complaint that his character just didn't work. A staff of striking and a 20+ armor class will do that. The ToV war cleric gets a chance to make a second attack once on a short rest so you can imagine the amount of damage one could do with two chances to triple-charge that thing. Then of course once he discovers the awesome power of Spirit Guardians at about 5th level he can cause carnage as well as anyone else in the party. 

We've known each other and been playing together since the 90's and he is the least predictable of all of my players as to what he will play in any given game. 

Braedon is the master hunter and tracker but mostly master archer as it turned out as he was the party's back line for the campaign.  We went for many sessions without ever seeing him draw a blade, then when he finally did it was dual shortswords and he was damn near as capable with them as he was his bow! He was a hunter (subclass) so no animal companion which in party this big was not missed. He mostly stayed back, watched the rear, and shot whatever the nastiest target was at the time. 

His background bonus ability involved telling stories which quickly became the repeated re-telling of how he had lost his brother to a werewolf out in the woods one day. There were groans around the table of course, every time, but when the party met a new NPC that had not yet heard the tale of  the not-so-valiant they were quick to steer him over and then snicker as they walked away. 

In town he mostly stayed in the background, mainly befriending Jaroo the druid and taking the search for Conn Shaunnery - his apprentice - as a personal quest.

The ranger was a welcome addition as we've all heard complaints about the 5E ranger and I wanted to see if Tales did it better. I don't think he had any complaints. His character was stupidly deadly and by the end was shooting 3 or more times per round - I'm not sure what it officially ended at as he was hasted quite a bit of the time. He also got a bonus or advantage when shooting a damaged foe so often the plan was to wait for the wizard to fireball a group and then start annihilating the survivors with bow fire. 

He might be the least experienced player in the group  - I believe he played a little 5E and then joined my Deadlands game a few years ago, then Mechwarrior, then this one, so he's not new by any means - just less jaded. He's played BattleTech and other similar games for decades so he's no slouch on picking up the rules.