Gameplay: Dragons versus Vampires, Part 1.

Dragons versus Vampires, part the first.

Sunday Family Game Day

     Tonight's family game night consisted of the dragons Sunstar, Lavender, and Vertigo waking up from their short nap of two months to a bright sunny summer day. Sunstar was the first to awaken and she left the burrow to find a meal and survey the area. She saw some light glinting off of something down in the southern part of the forest past the fields of the farms. Curious but cautious she went back to the burrow and woke her sister Lavender. They went out to investigate and saw a large group of orcs attacking a few horses. They swooped down and hit the orcs with their breath weapons then crashed into melee claw and tooth ready. While they tore into the now frightened orcs the horses held their own against the orcs attacking them. After the initial shock of having dragons drop on them, the orcs ran to get as far away from there as possible!

     After they were done slaughtering the closest orcs the sisters turned to the horses and we're surprised to see a unicorn family. The stallion and mare thanked them for helping to save their foal and gave them permission to hunt and visit their forest any time they would like. They invited the unicorns to visit their burrow as well and the unicorns sped of into the forest. After they were done taking anything of value from the slain orcs they went back home.

Late that afternoon Lavender went to the river to find some fish to eat and noticed that the fallen castle was recently disturbed by someone. Vertigo joined Sunstar and Lavender in investigating the castle. With their superior dragon senses they were easily able to find the hidden entrance that was dug into the ground under the ruins. Sunstar could tell that man sized creatures used tools to dig the tunnel recently. When they investigated the tunnel it went down a short incline. At the end there is a room where six men in suits of armor were lounging around playing cards. Behind them was an alcove with a sarcophagus and a screen. To the right of that was a crude tunnel and tools for excavation. A few piles of dirt were heaped nearby with two wheelbarrows.

     After a short time of them looking at the scene the heavy stone sarcophagus lid moved to the side and a beautiful woman sat up and yelled at the men to get back to work. They got up immediately and started digging the tunnel. The woman laid back down and moved the lid back into place.

     Lavender snuck past to the sarcophagus and found three dead bodies wearing the same armor lying there behind the screen. She changed her form to a human and put the armor on. The other two dragons followed suit and they grabbed tools and started working as well. The humans didn't seem to take any notice. Once the sun set the woman came back out of the sarcophagus and commanded the workers to stop and sit before her. She looked the men over and picked one to follow her behind the screen. After a minute she walked out from behind the screen looking for flush and told them to rest. As everyone was lying down she left the tunnel.

The dragons followed behind the woman to find that she was nowhere to be seen. Vertigo used her skills of hunting to follow the woman by her odd scent. It led them to the town. They landed, changed back to human form and removed the armor. In the tavern of the town they found the woman talking quietly to the bartender. They say down at an empty table behind her and observed.

     The barmaid walked out of the kitchen carrying drinks to another table and then came over to serve the sisters. They ordered some ale and food then waited to see what the odd last would do. After the lady was done whispering to the bartender she turned around and gazed at the sisters. Her eyes grew slightly suspicious and she walked over to the table that the barmaid just left drinks at. The woman looked at the two men and the female at the table and spoke quietly to them.

     The barmaid came over with the sister's order and then walked to another table over by the fireplace. After speaking with the three men at that table she went back to the kitchen. The odd lady walked past the sisters again looking at them momentarily and then went to the table by the fireplace. She spoke with those men and as the barmaid came back with drinks she spoke to the barmaid and then left. The sisters dropped some coins on the table to pay for their meal and followed the woman.

     She was across the street at the general goods store knocking loudly on the closed door. After a moment a light shine through the windows as the shop keeper came to the door. He opened it and the lady spoke to him momentarily then she turned to leave. Seeing the sisters standing there she started to walk past them when Lavender decided to attack.

     Lavender polymorphed back into her dragon form and as her claws reached for the woman she dissipated into mist. Following her lead the others transformed back to their dragon forms. The lady reformed next to Lavender and was able to successfully grab her with her very strong grip. Vertigo hit the woman with her acid breath weapon, she glared at Vertigo and turned back into mist. Lavender used her lozenge breath weapon and the resulting explosion dissipated her mist widely. While the sisters regrouped the woman started trying to reform herself. When she was mostly together Sunstar used her breath weapon of seating hot bright crystal shards to harm the woman. At this point turned into a giant bat as the wolves she summoned attacked. Vertigo used her slow gas breath weapon and Lavender flew after the woman and Sunstar tore into the lead wolf. Vertigo also chased after the bat form of the woman and Sunstar follower after scaring of the wolves.

Gameplay: The Conquesodores, part one.

The Conquesodores

GOB Mini-Con 2018: Recap, part one.

For the Mini-Con I had my daughter, John, Jen, Jim (he was present for the second half), and Bob present for the adventure. I ran it in two parts. The full team consisted of Mhambi a Wanderer kit Druid, Wilhemina Bugel an Illusionist specialist Wizard, Berrina Gembiter a Breachgnome kit fighter, Sir Robyn the Brave an Errant kit Paladin, and Bob ended up playing two PCs. First was Daniel Reid an Explorer kit Ranger and Khenbish a Scout kit Thief at the start of the second half.

The first part involved getting out of the town of Claus Canyon unseen, taking out the Red Eye ogre tribe, and the Mouldbreath goblin tribe worg-riders and archers surrounding the town and keeping anyone from leaving before Cheesus arrives to convert or kill everyone there in three days time. The Conquesodores sent an ogre to make the demand and he walked out of the town. When a shepherd stepped outside of the short palisade demarcating the edge of town he burst into a pillar of flame. When his wife came out to him she was hot with a great many arrows and then burst into flames. At this point the town went a little bit crazy.

The party spoke to the refugees from further out in the countryside about what happened to them and Wilhelmina convinced two men to follow her as bodyguards. Daniel went to the highest point in town to try and survey the archer nests. Mhambi went and calmed the animals at the stablers and found that they were uneasy about the worgs surrounding the town.

When everyone met at the temple of Erron of Solitude (Goddess of Adventurers, Justice,and Vengeance) they exchanged notes and decided to go talk with the undertaker and his son. The undertaker's son, Boy (a priest of Beowa the Resurrected), showed them a secret mine tunnel that the undertakers use to haul the bodies to the canyon for internment.

After exploring the old mine tunnels they avoided a trap set near an entrance at the bottom of the canyon and set an ambush nearby for any ogres that might come. They waited patiently and we're able to get two ogres. Berrina had followed the others quietly and was able to take out an ogre with a couple of martial arts punches. Her loud kiai yell attracted more attention from the rest of the ogres camping in the canyon. Mhambi used her special whistle to call for her black leopard, Ingwe. This also called the attention of the worgs that were back around the town.

By rearranging their ambush to allow Berrina to be the focus they were able to bottleneck the ogres. Berrina held the ogres at bay with her superb karate training while Daniel fired arrows into their forces and Wilhelmina distracted them with accurate depictions of more forces flanking the ogres.

While they were dealing with the ogres Mhambi pulled back to cover the rear as worgs attacked from behind. Using her bond with nature she called upon the land to hold the worgs fast. She used the Umbulali Onkulunkulu (a +2 hunga munga) to kill as many goblins and worgs as she could until the ogres were taken care of. Berrina washed through the grasping underbrush to fight the worgs and the goblins.

As the others were busy with them Daniel used his special Explorer powers to interrogate the last remaining ogre to get an accurate idea of the Conquesodores full forces. Unfortunately the offer was not very bright or well informed, he could count to a score but no more. The did get information of where the forces were located though.

Berrina and Daniel climbed opposite canyon walls to get to the two nests of goblin archers. Berrina had no trouble clearing out the goblins from the small cave they were hooked up in. Daniel had a slightly less easy time, but found some unusual arrows. The goblins had some flight arrows with ceramic heads packed with some kind of alchemical powder and a fuse coming out of the base. Using these and his own arrows he covered the rest of the party as they snuck around to fight the remaining goblins from behind.

By the time the rest of the party had cleared out the third of five nests, Daniel fired the special arrows at the last worg patrolling between the nests. The pillars of flame coming from the arrows distracted the fifth nest as the main group took out the fourth one. Now that Daniel knows what the arrows do he used them on the fifth nest of archers. Aiming for the center of the group he accidentally blows up all of the arrows that group was carrying. This conflagration starts a massive fire in the tall grass the rest of the group is in.

The rest of the party is running away from this massive wildfire as fast as they can when they realize it should have already engulfed them. Unbeknownst to the party the goblins were carrying a special item that housed a fire elemental. The wild fire only gave it more fuel to power it.

Setting that there was something to punch Berrina turned and ran back to fight the elemental. From his perch Daniel rained down arrows into the elemental with his bow, Heartwyrm giving the sheaf arrows the power to hurt it. Mhambi was throwing her weapon at it and Berrina focused her Qi to damage the monster. After she did some significant harm to the elemental it focused all of its fury and attacks at her. With its first strike against her, it nearly killed her and Wilhelmina had to force a Topaz of Vitality into Berrina's mouth to save her. Unfortunately Berrina's clothing did not survive the flames. With the party busy fighting the elemental, they didn't notice a lone worg-rider running away to where the main body of Cheesus’ forces were at.

Once the fire elemental was taken care of the party went back into town and the first half of the adventure was over.