New Spell: Wakefulness

The withered old hag whispered through her jagged, rotting teeth "Mustn't fall asleep on watch, deary, something with ill intent might happen by." Stritt tried to scream to no avail, the witch had him thoroughly bound and gagged.


Wakefulness

Level: 2
Duration: 4 hours
Range: Touch

The caster touches the subject of the spell granting them alertness and protection from sleep magics for a period of 4 hours. This is often used to bolster those taking watch duty.

Dungeon of Jolokia - Rooms 1 and 2

Here are rooms 1 and 2 of the snake dungeon converted into Dwarven Forge terrain. Below the pictures is the original map.

Room 1: Flanking the stairsdown into this chamber are a pair of grand statues depicting great twisting serpents with human heads. To the south double doors bear the fading painting of a screaming face with images of flames inside the mouth.

Room 2: The walls of this room are covered in mosaic tiles depicting many beings contorted in pain, their mouths open with what appears to be flames around their tongues. The floor is covered in a swirling serpent-like pattern with worn pathways from the tread of many feet.

Tapestries hide doors on the west and east walls. The tapestries show a great open mouth, a human headed serpent wrapped around the tongue with flames stretching the length of the beast.

The door to the east is locked.

Any noise of normal talking volume or above will draw the attention of the naga in room 4 who will come listen at the west door to determine a course of action. If it believes the party have passed out of room two through the east door it will pause for certainty and then quietly follow them planning an ambush later.

Messing around with some Dwarven Forge

I'll be posting some short dungeons built with Dwarven Forge pieces, typically they will be 5 to 10 rooms in size. Meanwhile here are two pictures taken of some Dwarven Forge bits thrown together for the fun of it.

I'm looking forward to doing more DF setups as the blog progresses.

Goodbye Old Game Year, Hello New Game Year

Another year of gaming has come to a close and a new year of gaming is beginning.

This waning year our group continued my campaign and introduced my brother's campaign. We alternate running our adventures which can sometimes confuse a few of the players as to which character they are playing at a given session. My brother is doing great as DM, being a novice isn't slowing him down or dampening his enthusiasm and I am proud of how well he is taking to the job of Dungeon Master.

My Hammered Game Table is back in action, having been taken out of storage and set up at my brother's house. He and his wife have fully embraced the game and went so far as to rearrange their house to create a large gaming space to fit the 8+' x 4+' table and turned an entertainment center into storage for gaming paraphernalia.

They have also been buying miniatures, and crafting their own terrain and decor for the adventures in his campaign.

The gaming group seems to have stabilized at 7 members for the time being.

I've just introduced Federation Commander to one member of the group, but it remains to be seen if any others will take to the game.

In the coming year there is a strong possibility we will add two new players to the group bringing us back up to nine which makes for a target rich environment for the monsters.  ;)

One of the possible new member played an old school version of D&D years ago, and the other, his wife, will be completely new to role playing. This will be fun rekindling his enjoyment and sparking new interest for her.

As for my campaign in the new year, I anticipate doing more dungeon crawling and less wilderness exploration. My players have begun to show greater appreciation for indoor environments than for the great outdoors. While both are dangerous, the party has lost more characters in  the wild than in the dungeons so far.

Here's hoping your games in 2019 will be grand, wild fun.

Happy Gaming!

Magic Item: Helms of the Myrmidon

Embuk slipped quietly through the concealed doorway making his exit to safety as the mahem began. The gift of the cursed helmet went into effect as his Lordship donned it and screamed a war cry. Drawing his dagger and leaping into the crowd of sycophants the despotic Baron stabbed and slashed at his new enemies laying low several of his most loyal friends.
"To a job well done and a curse well deserved" Embuk toasted to his companions.


Helms of the Myrmidon

These cursed helmets were created to take revenge on high ranking officers of the King's defenders and given as gifts. The curse causes a berserk rage driving the wearer to see all about him as enemies and immediate threats. Victims of the curse will fight until no enemies remain in line of sight and will renew the attack upon anyone that comes into view.

Example helmet.

Magic Items on the Borderlands

Keep on the Borderlands remains a popular adventure module for starting campaigns and introducing new players to D&D. As such it contains a good variety of magic items to allow players to experience the fun these toys bring to play. Here then is a rough list of how many items of various types populate the module.

TL/DR list =

7 Scrolls, 20 Potions, 2 Wands, 3 Staves, 1 Helm, 34 Amulets, 7 Swords, 3 Spears, 2 Hand Axes, 1 Rope, 8 Armor, 6 Shields, 2 Maces, 7 Daggers, 5 Rings, 19 Arrows, 1 Elven Cloak, 2 pair Elven Boots.

A portion of the items are located within the friendly/safe Keep and are unlikely to become available to the player characters without them risking a vigorous reprisal from higher level combatants and expulsion from the only safe place to rest and recover. This includes most of the armor which seems to be all Plate Mail +1, most of the swords +1 and +2, most of the +1 daggers, and most of the +1 shields.

The amulets are mostly worn by skeletons and zombies and increase the difficulty of turning by clerics. Other amulets are Protection From Good worn by evil priests.

Two cursed items and a couple of Potions of Poison are hidden about the Caves of Chaos.

Nine Healing Potions as well as some Cure Light Wounds scrolls are available.

Four of the Rings are Protection +1.

The magic rope is an odd item to be included since it doesn't call to mind any immediate uses in the adventure, but later adventures may have plenty of opportunities to employ the rope.

If the inhabitants of the Caves put their stashed magic items to use the adventurers would face a much tougher task of clearing the caves and it would reduce the amount of available magic items a fair bit. Can you imagine an invisible Ogre surprise attack?!

Merry Christmas and Happy Gaming!

Yes, there actually is a Santa Orc (from Warmonger Miniatures).