Mike Lung Gallery #97 - Gnome Horror

I'm a little amazed I didn't post these pics from friend-of-the-blog and AWARD WINNING GM, Mike Lung when we originally sent them to me.  

A Gnome Wars horror game (I'll bug him about system ASAP) with a lot of his own hand-sculpted gnomes.

(Gamma World) Not a Test #126 - Downriver Guardians

Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, have decided to embark on an epic quest to reach Lathar's long-lost father, Harkonn.  After side-quests, distractions, and backtracking, the group made a multi-day stop at K.I.A. Academy.  With some important info obtained by questionable means, they must leave... quickly.

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Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend.  He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters.  Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does.   Looking for trouble in all the right places. The two-time champion of the Fair-Town Queen's Joust.  Recently married to the now-pregnant Thunnelda Haycock.   Just received a letter from his long-lost father, and has convinced the others to accompany him to the Wildlands.

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.   Apparently addicted to his newly uncovered yellow powder found at "The Pool House"

Sonny Helianthus: an over 10' tall sentient sunflower artifact examiner with four arms, and trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable,  but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades.   Sonny may have recently detonated an atomic device in the petrified woods... although no one else knows. 

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble in all the wrong places,  and finding it often.   He  has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair.  Recently attacked and kidnapped then left for dead by an unknown group, looking for revenge 

Poppy and Speedy: Two of Squiggles' offspring from his first... litter(?) They're now teenagers in worm years, old enough to grab diminutive muskets and help their Manchi and his friends on this epic quest. 

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Sonny Helianthus, 10-foot tall mutant sunflower, was always conspicuous by height, but this time he looked worried and anxious as he left the lobby and back to Level 0.  It took far longer to locate the rest of the Explorers, but each one was unquestionably on board as he told them each, "We need to leave." 

Despite a sense of paranoia, and plenty of looking over their shoulders, they emerged out of KIA without incident, and turned downriver on The Overpass.  Sonny still wouldn't divulged his reason for the group leaving.  

"The bridge... where we helped rescue the Kirothians... If that's safe, I'll tell you everything.

From the view of the long empty Overpass running parallel with the Big River, they got a better view of the great expanse inland beyond KIA.  The woodlands and rolling grasslands they had explore, the periphery of KIA's influence, the ruins of the Toard Jakey, the first  (and bad) encounter with the Kirothians.  Much of it was ruined, layered with new roads, trenchworks, and wire fences.  Hundreds of soldiers, the conscripted of the sub-levels and certainly regular above level folk, patrolled and trained in it's stead.  Like something had happened already.

Like they were preparing for something to happen again. 

Once they arrived at the bridge, the last shred of KIAs technology and influence, they rested.  Sonny provided the documents from Dr Kallex:  The test results of the syringe that was used on Squiggles, and full file the KIA had on Harkonn Bracken, Lathar's father.  

Lathar paged through the report, dropping to the ground, leaning up against the concrete wall of the bridge.  

"He didn't even care about me.... He didn't want to come back... Why are we even going?" 

The rest of the Explorers gave him space.  None of them had the emotional capacity to support their friend.  

After awhile, the wave of grief and sadness ebbing, Lathar stood up and brushed himself off.  

"He sent us a letter.... the raccoon handed it to my mother... That's what matters now.  Not what some file says.  KIA probably used him in Parr like they're using the people in the sub-levels as cannon fodder.  Let's go find him..."

The road below the last real KIA bridge varied wildly, from broken up asphalt to narrow single file trails through the woods.   No one was down this way, and the scouts were on their constant alert. 

It was Pete who caught a glimpse of them first, pulling up his binoculars to get a closer look:  

Two large figures, eight, maybe nine foot tall.  Black armor, red lights still glowing, even if they were motionless.  The woods in this area had been subjected to some large titanic fighting, with craters doting the landscape, and many of the trees stripped, or even partially exploded.

Still these two guardians, living metal or human armor, they did not know.  They stood firm.  

There was much concern as the Explorers held their ground.  Should Pete put a laser blast in one of their chests?  Would it even work?  What if it activated them?  Where would they run?  

It was finally decided to circumvent the pair, traversing away from the river, praying they didn't encounter anything wore, Pete or Squiggles on a vigilant guard behind to ensure they didn't come to life and follow them.  

Travelling a mile or two from the river, the woodlands were even more destroyed, and they started seeing portions of the armor... the broken pieces also had... human(?) remains in some, scattered around.  Sonny found a hand, incredibly heavy... unsure whether it was a gauntlet or living,  he took the piece with him.  

Along with the pieces, they stared finding human bodies, or the parts of bodies that had been in explosions.  They looked human, dressed like monks, in white robes, with varying blue decorative trim.  At some point, someone had positioned the bodies so all of their feet pointed upriver, and all had their left sides closest to the river.   No weapons, no items, no personal possessions could be found.  

Sometime during the third day, the trail was finally three men wide, with Pete leading from the front as the advance scout.  Around another river bend, the trail appeared to stop at a chain link fence, eight foot high, with a series of building.   Within... 

It appeared abandoned and empty.  

Of course, they needed to go check it out.  

Next: #127 - Savory Finds

Historicon 2026 AAR

It's just after midnight as I try to put into words this past weekend at Historicon.  I'm slowly rehydrating, I've snuck in a nap, and I'm still trying to weigh the awesome moments with a lot of ho-hum, but ho-hum at Historicon is so much better than most cons...

Wednesday: The underlying theme of the con wasn't inside the convention center, it was outside, in the form of the smoke and haze drifting down from the Canadian wildfires.   When I left work on Wednesday, I had watched the orange skies roll into Northeastern Pennsylvania around 4pm.  The level of eeriness never reached Lancaster, but it was disconcerting the entire weekend.

As has been tradition, my daughter Maja came down from Albany to spend the weekend with me.  In a major change, I can safely say... we took her car.     Her first Historicon was the "emergency" Valley Forge.  She's now 17. Suffice to say, it didn't make anyone feel younger.

It's a little sad..  If I only had the opportunity to visit Wednesday night, hang out with friend and have a few drinks, I would consider this con a success. 

Thursday: I'm soooo not used to NOT running a game on Thursday.  It was a chance to sleep in, grab a coffee and a spinach breakfast sandwich at La Dolce Vita Courthouse Bakery - and sitting around talking with folks.  

La Dolce Vita Courthouse Bakery

 

Battle of Trenton

Maja and I have our systems, and we decided to try one of our usual spots at the Southern Market,  Unfortunately, we not only discovered the pizza place had relocated, but that the soul food place closed up as well.  We immediately ventured back to our other default metal, Plough, the hotel restaurant.   Fingers crossed, we've never had a bad Plough Burger, and that streak continued. 

Test of Grit

Test of Grit

Even More Test of Grit

Fistful of Lead - "First They Came for Our Cows"

All Quiet on the Martian Front

Token 40k, outside of the tournament. 

Heavy Gear.

After dinner, we helped set up the first Gnome Wars game "Treasure Island" run by Jim Stanton, and stayed around long enough to cause the proper chaos.

A glowing volcano, thanks to "Award Winning GM" Mike Lung. 

We were able to leave most of the board up for the Friday morning game, and headed down to close the bar.

Star Wars

Friday:  An early morning an a run over the Central Market from our Mennonite breakfast sandwiches, heading back to the Commonwealth Foyer for Maja's crack at running Treasure Island.  

A few minor revisions and a good time was had by all.  

Star Wars 15mm(?)

The high point of Friday was supposed to be our Gnome Mega-Game.  Three tables, three separate games, and the ability to move across the boards.   That was beat out by the appearance of Maja's BOYFRIEND to the con (insert all the stereotypical reactions here.)  He and a friend made it down, per Maja's behest, played in her game, picked up some 40k from Wally's and participated in the Joust. All was good.  

We couldn't spend too much time scrutinizing:  There was a mega-game that needed to be run.  

The objective was pretty straightforward:  Find the treasure on Treasure island, meet up with their ship on the second board and used them to safely get past the British fort and into town.   Let's just say the cannibal gnomes were fast on their tales. 

Hawaiians on Diabolical Terrain Outriggers

The docks at New Providence were busy in the waning minutes of the game. 

Starship Troopers

Our group normally hosts the Gnome Joust on Friday night, with Maja as the GM.  Usually 90 minutes of unadulterated chaos, stowed far enough away from other games to not annoy other games.   That would have been incredibly effective, as we had kept our New Providence board up for the following morning. 

Except that there was a game of "What a Tanker" scheduled mere inches from the chaos.  

The good news was, we left the con on good terms with the poor fellow trying to compete against our tomfoolery.  

By college roommate made an appearance at the con for the joust, and his record was pretty epic, but for a select few, the father-daughter joust drew a pretty decent crowd.  

Dad remains victorious

Saturday

After finishing her GMing obligation, I gave Maja freedom for all of Saturday.  

No surprise, she slept in.

I ran over to he Central Market for breakfast, but the girl on Kom Esse were slammed, so one Spicy Jamaican Empanada  and a latte later, and I was ready  from by 11am Saturday game. 

Most of our games were centered around a) the Mega-Game concept and b) promoting the Hawaiian Gnomes that were released last Historicon.  

My game was the first real test of all the unit's abilities, and I'm happy to report that everything that's currently online will need a little tweaking on the Island Spirit, and the Pineapple Catapult.   Now I just need to stat out the massive Tiki God figure that arrived at the convention this weekend....

Silver Bayonet, with Undead Moose!

With Maja painting, swimming, and galavanting, sans boyfriend, I made the poor decision to walk outside to the Southern Market, to try the Pork Belly Sliders at Philthy Good

The sliders were the best thing I've eaten all month, and the unlocked doors at the HAWKS new room gave me a short foray in the smokey and sticky air outside. 

Lego Pirates! 

The HAWKS Armies for Kids game.  Every kid who played got two 54mm armies, rules, and terrain.

By 5pm, we were running the final Gnome Wars game, and by 10pm, we had packed everything up and hoofed it to the car....

Sunday - Loaded up the car well before Maja even attempted to wake up, did an early lap at Wally's and we left early enough to reach my mother's by noon, and back in Wilkes-Barre by 3:30 to unload the car, and she could get back to Albany before dark.  Success!

Overall:    Talking with people, it seemed like there were moments of transcendent greatness,  with a lot of ho-hum stuff.  Don't get me wrong, ho-hum is better than 98% of the world today. 

Lancaster Convention Center:  Outside of lighting issues with certain areas, the site was fantastic, and the elevators and escalators appeared to be fixed in a timely manner. 

Hotel:  After the snafus regarding the hotel, it is beyond convenient.  It's easy to navigate, housekeeping was great, 

Parking: The broken elevator for the on-site parking garage would have been a nuisance for me, had I not come Wednesday night and got a primo spot.  

Tournaments:  

On-site Food:   Really, it's not much more than a #4 at your favorite fast food place, and no horror stories of the Borg meatloaf cube that went out the same shape it went in..  

Off-site Food: All off-site food was great, including a $5 Nutella donut that created a stream of $5 milk shake Pulp Fiction quotes.

Gnomes:

Vendors:  Still missing a lot of folks over the years, but none of them are ever coming back.   I really enjoyed the back row of sorts, with the reenactor groups, the War Department Archives and Flagbearer games.  

Swag: 

Nations and Cannons

Rifts: Mechanids

Star Trek RPG (Last Unicorn) needs a lot of TLC for the spine.

More Pegasus Banana Trees.

2 Green army men tanks. 

3 Adult banthas 

5 Diabolical Terrain outriggers.

a bag a bases (non-Chinese container, but...)

a pile of barrels, cacti, treasure and other miscellany.

dollar store toys I actually use for my Gnomish Space Marines here and here

2 Kryomek walkers. 

Next Historicon is July 14-18, 2027 back at the Lancaster Convention Center.

The Next HMGS con is Fall-In!  November 6-8, 2026 back at the Wyndham (formerly HOST).