In Memorium: Priest from Dark Rituals - Malleus Maleficarum

 

Fun fact, I haven't played D&D (or any roleplaying game) as a player character in some twenty years or more. I have been DM'ing for that long. So recently one of my players wanted to DM a one-shot D&D adventure using the D20 rules light system that I use. Sweet! This was my first chance to play as a PC in ages and I jumped to it. My character was a 1st level Cleric, Father Benedictus from the Abby of St Peter and St Paul (Cadfael reference there everyone!).

My PC spent much time trying to convince NPC's of their need to get baptised and even almost managed to get a witch dunked. Turned out she was trying to trap me. So, as all evil must be destroyed, our party ended up killing her. Sadly though, we didn't get to build a bridge out of her or see if she weighed the same as a duck (Python reference there!).

Good ol' Father Benedictus found himself often in the front lines with our party fighter and never shied away from a fight when evil had to be confronted. The miniature here is the priest from the Dark Rituals - Malleus Maleficarum board game. Father Benedictus ended up spending much of his second paying session with just 1 hit point. A testament to his devotion to smiting evil.

At one point he was given two bottles of odd liquid and told never to mix the two substances. So, he dutifully wrapped them in his woollen hose and linen tunic and stuffed them in his satchel bag that was slung over his shoulder. This will be relevant later kids, so pay attention.

At one point we realised that two baddies (more witches!) were holed up in a forest and so we proceeded to set that place ablaze. One of the witches kept flittering between the trees, using her magic to extinguish the flames, before shooting long wooded stakes at us. 1 hit point by now remember.

Amazingly our party, which always seems to act as a group of individuals and never as a team, actually worked together for once in an attempt to take the hag down. On a nearby mountain side there was a giant of some description that was allied to said witch and he didn't take too kindly to us burning her forests and less so to us attempting to kill her.

With 1 hit point left, I cried out to the LORD to smite our enemies and then rolled my attack. Natural 20!!!

I torched that hag to a cinder in one hit. It was glorious!

Next thing we hear a roar on the mountain side and see a massive bolder hurled into the air. We scatter but all but one of us then got crushed under that huge bolder. Remember those bottles kids? Well, it turns out that they contained extremely volatile liquids that, when my character was crushed, shattered and mixed, setting off a small nuclear explosion. Up went the forest, the remaining witch within the forest, the mountainside, and the one surviving player character. THAT was truly magnificent!

In his death, Father Benedictus took out the remaining evil dudes, levelled and torches the forest and made a spectacular exit from this mortal coil. In heaven, he would now have bragging rights about how he saved the innocent by destroying the evils that threatened them with one final act of self-sacrifice. It was only Father Benedictus second play session, but in those two gaming sessions, he left an indelible mark on me as one of my most favourite player characters of all time. Fare you well Father Benedictus! May flights of angels carry thee to the LORD's side. You will be fondly missed.

Irradiated Radscorpion for Fallout Wasteland Warfare from Wizkids

 

This beasty is another unpainted Wizkids D&D giant scorpion miniature that I painted into an Irradiated Radscorpion. Its standard brood kin can be found in a post here, with the only painting variation being the use of three difference green paints to show ever increasing radiation emission from the carapace and a green ink wash being used before the final Gloss Agrax Earthshade wash.

So, this blighter does not only normal damage, but radiation burn damage as well from either just being close to it (if you fail a Saving Throw) or being struck by it. Nasty!

Skincrawlers of the Vivimancer for roleplaying

 

Sometime back I posted on the first of the Vivimancer's experiments I had scratch build using Kings of War Zombies, green-stuff, hot glue and wire. Well, I finally got around to finishing off three of the Vivimancer's other experimental horrors. These I call Skincrawlers and I will be stating them up for Old School D&D sometime in future for an adventure with my RPG group. For now, however, here they are in all their horrid glory in time for Halloween.

Lending a helping hand...

Trees for Tabletop Roleplaying games

 

Sometime back I posted about how I was making trees for use in our D&D game (see that post here). The project was shelved for a while given that the trees weren't needed at a game session any time soon. However, I recently finished them and so thought I would show how they turned out.

Tree bases are blank CD's textured with putty

A small hole just big enough for a PC to crawl through. Wonder what lays beyond?

As you can see from the final image above, its easy to see to the ground without the view being obstructed by foliage. This gives the illusion of a wood, whilst permitting clear line of sight to the miniatures on the table. I'm pretty happy they turned out.

Tomb of Horrors as a Zero Level Character Funnel

The TOMB OF HORRORS

I have always wanted to take a party of player characters through the D&D adventure, The Tomb of Horrors, that infamous Gygax module that has probably killed more high level PC's than any other adventure in the history of D&D.

My players (we are playing a home grown clone of OSR D&D and 5E) however are currently only 2nd and 3rd level. So it seemed rather punishing to take them through this dungeon. I was watching the Goodman Games 'Talking TSR' YouTube channel and one of the guys mentioned that he had used The Tomb of Horrors as a Zero Level character funnel. This got the brain juices flowing. How can I put my players through this dungeon without them using their current characters?

I didn't reveal the Portal or the Demon Face onto the table until they approached to torch light range. But even then, the players didn't realise what dungeon they were in.

Here's how I set the players to go through the Tomb of Horrors without risking their actual characters.

SETUP

Overview - This is a Character Funnel Adventure. That said, it is very likely that all the PC’s will end up dead. The purpose of this adventure is to have a one shot quest within the greater Campaign where the players get to experience one of the most lethal AD&D modules every devised; The Tomb of

Horrors. But don’t tell the players this. They should think that they are just actors playing out a part of the local history.

Background - As the adventurer’s escort a famous bard up river to Hommlet, the bard recounts the tail of the exploits of a desperate group of hard-up locals and would be adventurers as they search for the famous Bonesaw Blade, the prized but lost possession of Cassimire Varden, the Baron of The Woodhall Vales, now deceased. The bard sits himself down upon a barrel near the bow of the barge they are taking passage on and starts strumming his loot idly. He then stops and looks at you gathered around there:

'Shall I tell you a tale to while away the hours as we travel? Yes? Good. How about a tale from these lands. Let me see…' He stares absently out across the marshlands. 'Yes, how about the tale of The Bonesaw Blade? This is a tale from my very youth when I was but a lad of sixteen summers.'

Thus begins his tale and the players, as they listed, take on the role of those hard-ups and would be adventurers as they search for the Bonesaw Blade, lost somewhere in a forgotten tomb in the middle of a God forsaken swamp. The players have no clue that that very tomb is THE Tomb of Horrors.

Yes, this PC got separated from the rest of the party and yes, they did stick their head into the mouth of that demon sculpture. You get what you deserve dumb@$$

Running the Adventure - Give each player the following:

● Eight pre-generated Level 0 PC’s.

● Sixteen Luck Dice to share amongst those eight PC’s.

Explain to the players the following:

● PC’s are all human,

● They can name them now or later, but the first PC they use should be given a name,

● They should play one PC at a time, not all eight at once (their other PC’s are following at a safe

distance observing events),

● At Zero Hit Points, PC death occurs. NO DEATH SAVES !

● When PC death occurs, change to the next PC in their line-up, who just happened to be following behind the previous PC from a safe distance,

● Dead PC gear can be looted by the player who lost that character only, as long as they can reach the body of the PC. If that PC falls down a pit, then anyone who can get to that body can loot it,

● PC’s are all Level 0 would-be adventurers and therefore do not have an Adventuring Profession as yet,

● All PC’s want either the reward for finding the Bonesaw Blade, or the blade for themselves.

They still didn't get what dungeon they were in at this time.

Beginning the Adventure:

GM: “You stand upon the northern slops of a low bleak hill. Behind you, stretching away as far as the eye can see, is the Saltmarsh, its rotten stench assaulting your nostrils.”

GM: “Before you lay three holes into the hillside, big enough for you to crawl through. Others have ventured into these holes and not returned. But you know fortune and favour await those who can come back with the famed Bonesaw Blade. Blackest darkness lays within each hole. Which of the three do you choose?”

By chance, my players chose the middle hole to enter, and thus without realising it, entered the main entrance to the tomb avoiding the two death traps on either side.

'Is that a statue?'

'Yeah, its a statue.'

The most amazing part of the evening was when the four-armed gargoyle came to life and threw one of the PC's against the wall before charging down the corridor. It came to one of the PC's who had a stake he had salvaged from one of the pit traps to keep for a spear. The player rolled desperately to hit the enraged Gargoyle and got a natural 20!

We use Critical tables for Critical Damage whenever a natural 20 is rolled. Everyone threw in their spare Luck Dice to get the score as high as possible, resulting in a roll of 87% on the Puncture Critical Table. That resulted in the spear going through the Gargoyle's neck and severing its spine, killing it in 1d4 rounds. The beast toppled over instantly and was a goner. The cheers and high-fives from the group was very satisfying, especially given that this was a Zero Level character.

Natural 20 sucker!

How do you open these doors again?

One of the players finally started to twig as to where they were. The others had never been through this adventure before and so didn't realise the danger they were in.

The evening ended in 9 player characters dead from traps! And they only got to the basically the third real room (actually Area 9) in the adventure. Nasty!