Gaming Year in Review 2019-2020

Hey true believers! Ever since high school, I've tracked my gaming like the federal fiscal calendar, so it makes sense to have September 30th cover my Year in Review.

The Top Ten Blog Posts Over the Past Twelve Months

#1  (Kickstarter) Tales from the Loop - The Board Game

#2  Random NHL19 Post***
#3  3,000 Post! ****

#4  Cold Wars 2020 AAR - Pandemic Edition

#5  My Day-Trip to Fall-In! 2019

#6  What in the Sweet Name of Fantasy Wargames (Heroquest)
#7  Cold Wars Event Registration Has Been Opened!
#8  (Painting) Archaeology in the Zombie Apocalypse
#9  (Kickstarter) Planet 28 
#10 (Risus) The Search for Pumpkin Spice

Two of the top ten (***)  were victims of the focus of certain bots from Italy and the Ukraine, but they also had their own traction before the inflated views hit, so I hold them in there place after I killed the posts and re-published them.

My usual Kickstarter format for Tales from the Loop drew far more traffic than I originally thought.  Through 9/29, it's the 13th most viewed post all-time for my blog.

Other posts that cracked my Top 30 All-Time Views List were the obituary for "Uncle Duke" Seifried  (#24) and after a lot of viral traction, My Canadian Cthulhu "Fourteen Beers at Chili's" actually cracked the top 10 at #9!

The posts that dropped off my Top 30 All-Time List weren't anything special, except for a now-nostalgic look at playing Burning Plastic on Steve's bar, and literally using Beer and Pretzels for terrain.  

COVID Keeps Familes Together - My new duties at work, plus our basketball extravaganzas every night gave us little time to play, but worse yet, there was little motivation to play.    Plus we couldn't even enjoy our gamer neighbors during quarantine.

Looking back, we had just enough distractions not to break out a game at any given moment.  Damn you Netflix and Disney+ !

I can also somehow get to blame COVID that I only played 22 different games at least once this past year (Average is usually 25-27 per year). 

Gallstones for a Vacation Away from Family!
To complicate months of work from home and quarantines, I came down with a gall stone shutting down my pancreas, sending my blood sugar through the roof and my body into a horribly squishy mess.  Things are better now, slowly progressing off insulin and onto medication.  My pancreas absolutely despises giant muffins (as expected), but can handle most restaurant meals and even a reasonable piece of pizza or two. It's also allowed me to spend some an hour every other night in the basement, cleaning cat litter, lifting a few weights, and painting some figures.  Outside of a squad of four rescue kittens finding the bench to be a perfect place for them to practice the feline art of knocking things off tables, it's been a productive time, and I feel confident with the direction I'm going for next year, both gaming-wise and physically.

Triumphs!
The Saga Completed - Almost.
Lost Dispatches of Feraso will finally finish out the beginning of November with Episode #100.  With some holiday pauses, this project started over TWO YEARS ago, and has fleshed out some of the sections of my homebrew world that I haven't touched since high school.  Thanks to that, we'll have a new project on next year's goals when that posts tomorrow.

Strike it down, and it becomes more powerful than you could ever imagine.
For the first three months we were doing great, with seven sessions, and I filled in one Gulluvia session and two Risus.  After Christmas our Monday Day Online Gaming sessions just evaporated.  I wasn't quite sure what was going on.  E-mails weren't getting answered, I'd log onto our Skype/Roll20 group and only one other player would jump on.  It was getting to the point that I at least dropped a major hint on Facebook and Twitter that I was looking for new players to continue the sessions, if not a different game altogether.

One new person responded:  The Gnome King himself, Jim Stanton.   On a completely unrelated note, our GM rose from the dead the same week and appeared online, stating the mostly obvious: He was tired of GMing and would be happy to show up as a player.  I ran them through two Risus games, Bigg Melons in the Time of COVID and The Great Hall of COVIDiots, for some light-hearted pandemic fun, and to make sure everybody meshed with Jim. 

With that a success, I moved onto the my usual "What does everybody want to play?" poll, and for the first time since I broke up my Hackmaster group in 2004, it came back unanimous:

Star War d6  (West End Games) - It has been a rousing success thus far.

Risus:  The COVID themed games were big hits, but the Spice Girls espionage-esque games seemed to be an odd niche that... just.... works.  I'm a little worried that our Christmas in July game was more an homage to Kim Cattrall.  And yet it worked, and somehow became the most popular post of my #RPGaDay2020 project.

Mouslings Live!  It took forever, but we did get three Mousling games set up using Savage Worlds/Showdown.  Great little scenarios that got to showcase a lot of the painting I got done the first half of the year.

Catastrophes
Face to Face -  Thank you COVID.  We're suffering from a different type of Masks of Nylarathotep.  And speaking of CoC, this was the first time in years we didn't at least assemble for one Call of Cthulhu game.

No play, No Test:  COVID had me treading water for a looong time, but you would think I could get something together for the Legions of Steel playtest, or at least trying out the rules for Planet 28.

Maja Millie - Retired Archaeologist?:  The Pulp game suffered the same fate as many others.  Just not enough motivation, or time when the kids are around.

Gnome Wars - Only a little fluff work, like Canadian Bermuda.  Only significant painting was by Maja at the Fall-In!  The Nauvoo Legion project is indeed my new version of the German Schutztruppe.

Kickstarter Status
KS: Flying Circus RPG - It finally delivered, 20 months late, and despite some interesting concepts, I find much of it ho-hum.
KS: Legions of Steel Classic Minis - ARRIVED
KS: Planet 28 - ARRIVED
KS: Pulp Figures Dangerous Dames - ARRIVED
KS: Reaper Bones V - It's Reaper.  It's such a big project that regulars know to enjoy the long experience.
KS: 7 Space Dwarfs  - ARRIVED
KS: Space Dwarf Bikers - ARRIVED
KS: Sci-Fi Dwarves (Macrocosm) - Pending October 2020
KS: Sci-Fi Dwarf Miners (BattleValor) - ARRIVED
KS: Wars of Ozz - Pledge manager up - December 2020
KS: Cthulhu and Pulp Characters - ARRIVED
KS: Sandstorm Wars - Holy crap, it arrived!
KS: Twilight: 2000 - June 2021
KS: Steve Jackson Coasters for the Party -  June 2021
KS: Cthulhu Wars: CATaclysm -  Overdue four months. The one true joke that I pledged real money to and it funded.  Now I get some dull updates over the delays thanks to COVID, China, and other issues.  The cats should be fun to paint.

General Muckery:

Conventions
Fall-In! 2019   - Forgot how Byzantine the Valley Forge Casino and Convention Center was....Lots of walking on our daytrip, the joust, and painting.

Cold Wars 2020 - Pandemic Edition -  With COVID (and CW being the weekend they shut down all pro sports... and the state) Wargming in Education was a bust, so I was a bit happy not to take Yellowstone out of the mothballs... yet.

Still getting my feet wet with the virtual conventions, Mepacon and CyberWars in particular.  Fun was had by all, we just need more folks to attend.  Still doesn't beat face-to-face gaming, but we need to take what we can for a while longer.

Media: Baby Yoda (the Rest of the Mandalorian was top-notch as well.)  Can't wait till Season 2.

Painting:  If last year was a drought, this year at least kept the grass green.

I think this meme sums everything up quite succinctly.

Painting 51 figures isn't record setting, but it is far more than the average whiner on social media who either wishes they had time or talent.  The latter requires the first, and at the end of the day, the only person that is responsible for my time, is me.

Arl, Beaverian Brute

My Red Phase....

Easter Island Heads

The mushrooms are new, not the mouslings.

An Unexpected Encounter

Kim Jong Un

Archaeology in the Zombie Apocalypse

Apocalypse Santa and his crew, ready for Zombie Action!

Gnomish Space Marine VTOL Support, with ground crew

General Folger Sandstrom, Commander, Gnomish Space Marines

It took me a bit to realize that the first and last figures I finished this year came from the same Gydran Miniatures Kickstarter.

Kid's Painting - The Ring of Fire

2020 Gaming with the Gnomies Awards!
Best Kickstarter:  BattleValor Games' Sci-Fi Dwarf Miner Warriors beat out Macrocosm, Pulp Figures, and Brigade Games' awesome campaigns thanks to tremendous value and ridiculous turnaround time.

Worst Kickstarter:  Sandstorm Wars - It was finally delivered, but from the moment I pledged to the campaign, I regretted I didn't jump on the Macrocosm Kickstarter before they sold the molds to these guys.  There are a few figures that will get to the head of the line for one of next year's projects, but I'm not happy with the experience.

Best Game:  Bo'Non'as and Oopsa - The Legend Continues.  It's a proud moment when my players embrace and play the roles of two minor NPCs, and continue to inquire about the next time we'll leave the Star Wars d6 regular campaign and return to the forests of the Kurabanda.  A definite moment of growth from my players.

Best RPG Purchase: Star Wars d6 30th Anniversary Slipcase.  Jump-started my Star Wars d6 online game, even though I reference the 2nd Edition rulebook I already owned.

Best Minis:  7 Space Dwarves - A great year for quality minis, but these figures are so awesome I'm still ok that I over pledged and forgot to include add-ons during the Pledge Manager.  I did add those to my Space Dwarf Bikers pledge during their next campaign.

Best Other Purchase:  An LED Desk Lamp for the Painting Bench.

Next: My Plans for 2020-2021

Lost Dispatches of Feraso #95 - Privy to Some Lore

Dear Reader,

The Lost Dispatches of Feraso, the telling of all the tales of my AD&D table during the 90's, is effectively over.  All the stories have been told, retold, revised, or even re-envisioned as best I could.

There are a few more tales from Elsderth himself however, as casual onlooker, scheming powerbroker, or simply the Witch of the Nightwood Forest.  I advise you to read Ballad of the Pigeon God, or at least episode #1-15 of it, before delving into this final story.

35th of TriDec, 1069  Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes 
Another appearance by Ashe, the third time since the new year!  Usually Torm runs him out of town, but his time he let him stay.  It has been raining cats and dogs the last few days, making my walk back the shack impossible, less I slip and hurt myself again.  Haven't stayed at the cottage this many days in a row in years.  Fire making is exhausting, maybe magic has spoiled me.

Ashe was asking if anyone had seen his brother?  Did he ever have a brother?  Did anyone ever care?

...

1st of HexDec, 1069  Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes 
That damned elf is still here!

Ashe is teamed up for once, though.  The thought of a Galmar Barbarian is frightening enough, but his sheer size is enough to intimidate the entire village.

Along with them is some incompetent, lecherous rogue, plus a traveler from the distant East, well past Parthia.  Intriguing.  Don't know if I want to casually talk to him as old man Elsderth, purveyor of knowledge and quests, or a formal introduction as W.  I don't know what I don't know and Distant Eastern Mysticism is beyond anyone within or outside the circle.

The old bat Caldwell is back after a long absence.  Much to everyone's surprise, her manor was broken into again and has been used but who or whatever could get in.  I swear the Caldwells are almost as stupid as the Gadlings.  At least the Gadlings had the decency to not survive the goblin invasion!  These four new adventurers look like the right rubes to clean it out...

7th of HexDec, 1069  Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes 
Well I'll be.  The four new adventurers took care of Caldwell's manor.    Of course they fought undead in the basement.  May you finally rest in peace, poor Beourn.  They're thorough, only obnoxious to louder louts at the inn, and they hate Christina Caldwell more than I do.... let's see what I can get done.

...

12th of Hexdec, 1069 Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
Another report of bandits down by the lake.  Survivor's details pinpoint Sellman's band, way too close to Eding.  Shot off a letter to Sellman to remind him of his obligations.  His band has kept Eding safe from scallywags, lizardmen, and wandering eyes in the swamp.  I am not afraid to void our long-standing agreement.

...

15th of Hexdec, 1069 Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
Received reply to Cellowan (have I called him the wrong name since the beginning?). He very rudely told me that he and his cohort shall do as they please without fear of repercussion.   What pretentious bandit lord signs names himself "The Dread Lord."  We'll need to knock him down a few pegs...


23rd of HexDec, 1069  Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
I'm still not sure this new group of adventurers are a group, but they've fit into the village nicely.  The barbarian and the Easterner found sacks of loot from their adventure and quiet afternoons fishing sufficient for spirtiual enlightenment.  The lech, Maloran, found the the wrong end of the sword with Jenny Bricot and has behaved himself.

And Ashe?  That old elf has been my personal servant.   He's dedicated himself to some redemption crusade, like Torm had been forced to.  He cleaned out my personal stable and privy, plus helped clean up the cottage.

Old man Elsderth was quick happier than normal for the quick work, but didn't have any coin to pay him.  Ashe accepted an old box of  books as payment.  Books describing the old village of Alasku... especially the temple.

...

25th of HexDec, 1069  Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
If Ashe left for Alasku yesterday, why are Rolf and Kane returning from fishing?  What in the sweet layers of Hades is going on?...

....

29th of HexDec, 1069  Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
Ashe has returned from his plundering of Alasku.  He took the Pigeon Guy????  Apparently Ashe assembled a completely new team to visit the temple. 

The pigeon collector wields a trident?  It's been a few years since we've gotten bigger yahoos, but he takes the cake.

Talis is a more flamboyant, possibly more lecherous fool than Maloran, he just sounds more competent.

The thief and priest are pretty non-descript, although I appreciate a well-balanced party for successful adventuring...

... and they hired Timmy as a torch bearer!  This poor child has been an orphan since the goblin invasion, he's somehow survived on his own, with the generosity of some (If he's still an orphan at 18 and I'm still around, I was thinking about making him my replacement.)

But a kid that resilient should not be made a torch bearer.. or pigeon handler.  That kid's tougher than all of them.

They also brought back two beings, Carthon, who I thought was an assistant to a carvan master  "The Dread Lord" allegedly attacked a few weeks back, and a wolf!  Echelon, the pigeon guy, calls him Pathfinder and talks to him like a human!   Others tease him and call him crazy, but the look on that wolf is the same that Canisoul had with Elswyth.  How did the pigeon guy get a telepathic wolf?  What is going on????

How the hell does this Echelon have a telepathic wolf like Elswyn?

Next: #96 - Visits and Messages

The End Is Near!

I joked with my wife that we should observe the Jewish New Year, if only to end this horrible year early. 

An hour later news of Ruth Bader Ginsberg's passing appeared. 

The heck with the Jewish New Year... let's power through the rest of 2020.

Save the Dinos!

During this whole pandemic scenario, there have been two resources that I have under-used to keep my gaming sanity.   My daughters Maja (11) and Millie (9), and my next store neighbor, James, who is more of a CCG and party game type player.  By the time school finally finished, the worst was over in our area, and the social circles expanded enough that the kids were kept active in the neighborhood while I remained shackled to my home office.  James got furloughed for the first five or six weeks and has been working on a construction site two hours away since then.  We've gotten a few games of Apples to Apples, Unstable Unicorns, and Pass the Pandas in, but not much else. 

But let's add a new resource to my gaming agenda.  James (and his wife Amy's) kids. 

Little Miles and Hallie are 5 and 3, respectively, and while much of what they do falls into the "Yep, I've seen it with my own kids," one potential area that excites me is revisiting "Toddler Gaming"  after years of experiments with my own kids. 

Getting permission from the parents for a quick "babysitting" lesson, I packed up the dinosaurs, unearthed all the palm trees I need to touch up anyway, and headed next door to introduce the kids to Mr Eric's rules. 

Concept:  Everybody's figure helped discovered a Lost World of Dinosaurs and other giant creatures.  Unfortunately, a volcano is about to erupt and destroy the Lost World, so it's up to the heroes to wrangle as many dinosaurs before it explodes (aka both kids get tired of the game).

Players:  Hallie, Miles, with Maja and Millie playing/helping.  And of course, Dad (James) wanted in on the action.

Rules:  Another version of my Toddler Interactive Adventure Resolution... Adventura (TIARA).  After years of trying to use different cool types of six-sided dice, I left the rules simple. 

• Only dice they stay on the table count
• Initiative - Playing Cards.  Everyone had one number, with the other three in the deck.  Sometimes you got lots of turns, sometimes you had to wait.  Teaching patience (even with the big and bigger kids).
• 5-6 Good, 1-2 Bad
• Full Ruler - run, but can't convince the dinosaurs to leave
• Half Ruler - walk, and talk to dinosaurs (or anything else they thought of) 

 Characters: 

• Quesadilla Bill 
• Mr Jumaji
• Rose the Big-Game Hunter
• A Kitty Made Out of Stone
• Lego Nightwing (pretty freakin' sweet!)

The first wave of dinos make it to the river.

In application, the game ran nearly perfect.   Players needed to move their figures to a dinosaur/creature and make a roll to convince them to follow them back to the river.  Success and once the dino touched the river they were safe.  Failure and a number of things could happen (more dice rolls!), including getting trampled on. 

Quesadilla Bill tries to talk to a T-Rex

Right before the first wave of dinosaurs reached the river, Hallie bailed on us, for a couple reasons, but Miles kept on till the very end. 

And the T-Rex was nice enough to carry Bill to the river...

 In the last round, there was a great push to get everyone off the board, but a giant butterfly had landed on an ankylosaurus and it was up to Nightwing to save them.   

Mr Jumaji rode his dino to safety. 

Using the power of the magic stone he had brought to the Lost World, he was allowed to roll four dice (all Good!) and the Butterfly picked him and the dinosaur up into the air.  

That flight stand is a mason jar full of bones from some dissection project the kids did.  

Trying to control the butterfly was too much and the dino landed back-first on top of the volcano, stopping the eruption! 

Not scientifically correct, but great for 5-year story.    And technically, Millie's character Rose was trampled by an angry dino during the game, so the threat of death is there... if you're 9 or older.

Within an hour and fifteen minutes I had set up, played through the initiative deck twice, and had cleaned up in record time.  Next time, we might try something a bit more directly cooperative, but the race to see who could rescue the most dinos looks like a winner. 

Legions of Steel Kickstarter Launches October 26th

It seems certain that the reworked, redesigned Legions of Steel will launch with a Kickstarter for the 2nd Edition (Operation Anvil) on October 26th

One month!

Below are the G12 nightmares available in the core boxed set along with 4 commandos, each with a different pose, and the Mark VII assault Fiend. A few figures less than the original box set, but they are a slightly larger scale by millimetres and better quality sculpts.  Still doesn't mean I won't break out my original figs for some scenarios.

Two new counters for Operation Anvil. The Seismic Leveler bomb and Automated Turret.

(Painting) Jhorka - Pelegian Sapper

Progress continues to be slow and steady, even when the kids are stealing paint and brushes to work on a Mer-Unicorn of unknown origin.

This week nets us just one special character, Jhorka, Pelegian Sapper from Gydran Miniatures.

Jhorka - Pelegian Sapper

The headlining figure from a small Kickstarter by the company, I had already completed Arl almost a year ago.  The resin casts are pretty clean, and the sculpting has just enough detail for a schlub like me to paint up without much worry.

For the Gnomish Space Marine world, Jhorka is either an independent character/warlord working for the GSM, or a bounty hunter for a little extra flavor. 

Project 350: 526 (347/179) from 524 (348/176)  - After weeks of steady decline, we're going back up.  New projects, new ideas, and I continue to keep a hearty collection of posts as I'm already swamped with my work's busy season. 

With my super-limited space in the home office, I broke down from my normal paper tracking of projects and set up the same as spreadsheets on Google Drive.  

Next: Doubtful I'll get more Gnome Wars gnomes, or Gnomish Space Marines done before my gaming year ends September... and then the world goes bonkers almost through Christmas.  Still a lot of progress, but current projects are groups I need to finish.  

And if that isn't time-consuming enough, next on the individual figure part of my queue all are the character Space Dwarfs I've acquired this year.  Once the Nauvoo Legion comes off the table, I can mix things up.

A Birthday PSA from Will Smith

I don't know if Will Smith understands the finer points of the Lead Pile, but it is the Fresh Prince's birthday....

Even you don't use unit points or victory points.... paint ya backlog.

(Kickstarter) The Landing: Gallipoli 1915 by Catastrophe Games

I've dipped my toe in solo games on Kickstarter before, with mixed results.  Usually the print-and-play pledge level is cheap enough that I can support the game, regardless of the end product's quality.

Catastrophe Games has launched a Kickstarter for The Landing: Gallipoli 1915, a solo game where you play an ANZAC NCO, leading his troops from the amphibious assault further inland.

The print and play edition is $10, while the full game is $25 plus shipping.  A little steep for only solo capability, but I'll keep a close eye and see if the campaign succeeds, or needs a little boost at the end.  

(Kickstarter) Amazons 2 by RBJ Game Company

I usually don't promote the RBJ Game Company's Kickstarters, but despite not hitting on my demographics, they've completed and delivered a good number of them. 

They've recently launched a short campaign that's already succeeded to fund their Amazon 2 line of figures.

At first glance they seemed like solid figures, decent proportions, not overtly sexualized, until two glaring things nearly hit me upside the head.

Why do the Amazonians breastplates have Joel Schumacher-style bat-nipples on them? 

And a upon further inspection, what is the purpose of the belly button on the armor?  And does the armor change if the Amazonian has an innie?

Kings of War: Armada Coming This November

One of the worst kept secrets in gaming is the release of Mantic's latest rules/miniatures set, Armada. 

Certainly nothing wrong with putting a navy to match the armies for Kings of War.

I'm just disappointed they didn't go with the easiest name for the game, Mantic 'o War!

Holy Crap, Heroquest is Back!

The rumors are true.  Hasbro is bringing back the classic boardgame Heroquest... and pre-orders are available. 

Using Hasbro's own Hasbro Pulse/HasLab system of pre-ordering/crowdsourcing, you have two options to order.

The Heroic Tier is $99.99 and covers the basic game (76 minis!)

The Heroic tier ain't too shabby.

The Mythic Tier is $149.99 and contains the basic game plus two expansions, Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witchlord.

Hasbro definitely not some guy in putting together product in their garage, so the ONE MILLION DOLLAR target is expected and easily obtainable, but it's also nice to see stretch goals for a few extra figures are in place up to $2 million.

Lost Dispatches of Feraso #94 - Beourn the Paladin

14th of Quadec, 1167 - Village of Crosedes, Kingdom of Crosedes
I have returned from my visit to Draloite to signs of Eding coming to life.  Caravans no longer have mud caked onto every wagon, the Blue Wizard is full of new people, and the certain citizenry had a strong desire for Spring cleaning.

I have never understood why the manors on Manor Road were built in the first place.  They aren't relics of Old Alasku rather a recent development when Eding was still a Free Village (and probably better off for it).  The semi-rich and powerful came up to rent land to the existing peasantry, and then make a ridiculous profit off of the harvest.  It must have been ridiculous, because to have a dozen elaborate stone manors built off of those profits is no easy matter.  I have the feeling some, if not all of these structures were constructed to keep ill-gotten gains away from the royal coffers, but there is no proof.

Even before Lord Athelstane came to town, this economy was disappearing.  A few families kept their small estates, but many were sold to rich folk from Hydincal needing a spot for holiday and relaxation in the backwater woods of Crosedes.

Clifton Caldwell was such a man.  A merchant with more gold than sense, Clifton purchased the Plity estate for a king's ransom.  Not that it wasn't Plity hadn't built a beautiful structure, complete with four turret towers and a dug-out sub-level.  It was just that Caldwell had purchased the property sight-unseen, and the Plity family had left for greater ventures years ago.  Caldwell had come up to visit his new estate and found it infested with all sorts or creatures, monsters, and general rapscallions.  He quickly paid an adventuring party to clear out his "castle," and things were finally right.  Caldwell, however, was notorious for only visiting for a week or two every Summer, so every Summer he would come up, find his castle invaded again, and would pay another group of adventurers to clear it out.

Caldwell passed away recently and his daughter, Christina, inherited this "Caldwell's Castle," as the villagers refer to it now.  She looks smarter than her father, but I have my doubts.

In proper fashion, she came down to Eding from Hydincal to review her new manor and discovered the same issues  This time, she hired three adventurers to clean it out.

Eldray the Wizard -  Fresh out of the Magic Lyceum in Hydincal.  Naive but possibly the brains of the operation.

Beourn the Paladin - A mountain of a man.  Not exactly the image I had in my head of Akana's finest, especially since he butted heads with Eldray on most decisions.

Titus the Rogue - Another random fellow from Omsjik who wasn't adventuring out of the goodness of his heart.

As a whole, the trio seemed well-intentioned, and the number of vagabonds and "travelers" who wandered into town from the Manor Rd while they were cleaning out the Castle was shocking.

19th of Quadec, 1167 - Village of Crosedes, Kingdom of Crosedes
And just like that Eldray and Titus are gone.

Christina Caldwell's hired hands seemed to had made some headway in "cleaning" the manor.  There was a rumor of a hiccup, but they were back up there after a day to finish the job.    And after seeing  Eldray and Titus at the Blue Wizard for drinks, they were gone the following morning.  Still no sign of Beourn, and my contacts in the village say the Eldray had picked up some door binding spell he was quite proud of.  I think the manor is cleared out, but they left something locked up inside.... and possibly Beourn with it.

GM Notes:  Castle Caldwell, out of B9: Castle Caldwell and Beyond is my favorite module.  It's a simple dungeon, it covers combat, and many form of negotiations, and it rewards those who go the extra level while they search rooms.  It's perfect for intro ducting new players to the concepts of D&D.  

I've run it for dozens of people to teach them how to play, but only Beourn's group gets a specific mention in the campaign lore.  

Something happened to Beourn down in the sub-level, and his "friends" covered it up.  The good news is, with the Caldwell's track record with their money pit, another adventuring party will get hired to clear out the manor again, and possibly find Beourn. 

Beourn and Company's adventure into Castle Caldwell marks the last adventure for the Lost Dispatches, both in the standards I set for historical real-time and the campaign chronology.  

But Elsderth's story isn't completely finished.  I can see at least two episode creating an Epilogue.  I'll put the disclaimer right here and at the top of each of those episodes: If you haven't read Ballad of the Pigeon God, specifically episodes #1-15, read them first before continuing.

Next: #95 - Epilogue Part One - Privy to Some Lore

(SAVAGE MICE) #3 The Deserted Halfling Village

In the last episode, The Olde Farm, Wakanda had encountered a pair of halfling archers, who pleaded for someone to help them with a great evil that had befallen their village.

Unfortunately, the halfling duo told their tale of woe to the leader the Snakes, a notorious group of bandits.  Fortunately, none of the Snakes could keep their traps shut and word quickly spread to the Merry Mice and the G'ba Goblins.

The halfling village, stone watchtower already engulfed in smoke and flames. 

Tired from the fighting and wary of yet another ambush, all the leaders decidedly separately, to send an advance party to investigate these claims.

For the Merry Mice the leaders themselves, Robin Mouse, Mouse Marian, and Friar Buck took the journey (all Wild Cards/Heroes).

The front row of the Merry Mice (Maja - age 11)

The Snakes were a little short on "Hero" material, so Wakanda, Pinky the Archer, and a random Snake minion took the northern approach to the village.

Pinky and Wakanda (front) Minion is back row 2nd from left. - Millie - age 9

The Blue Goblins were a trickier situation, their leader, the shaman G'ba, hand been badly hurt in the last two raids, so the idea of him leading the advance party moments after the last raid might have sounded foolish.  It did to his second-in-command, Patches, who refused to follow.  Perhaps he was preparing to assume command of the gang once the shaman finally bit off more than he could chew.  

But accompanying the shaman was a goblin minion and the great Troll mercenary Wipes.  If the troll couldn't handle things, it would be a problem for all parties involved.

Front Row: Goblin minion and G'ba.  Back Row: Wipes the Troll (pretty obvious) - Dad - Age Too Old.

All the groups could see two things:  First, the halfling stone watchtower and smoke and flame pouring out of it.  Second, the village appeared to be completely deserted.

The Merry Mice spread out across the fields to enter the town, to not attract too much attention.  

Robin and Marion dashed over to the small mushroom farm for cover and came up with a large discovery (objective #1).  The mushrooms that they were growing were fireproof and might be used to help put out the tower fire. 

Friar Buck walked down the main road from the Olde Farm into the village.  As he passed the church, he could hear the solid *THWUNK* of an arrow lodging itself into the fence he was walking alongside.

The village was not completely deserted.

The Snakes entered from the north with completely different plans.  They liked bread, and raiding the wheat field seemed a much higher priority than saving some stupid village.

The smoke coming out of the field looked like a bad sign.  The hellhound pacing back and forth inside the field was good enough reason for Wakanda to look at other crops.

So, they hastily crossed the road, ran behind a house, prayed the creature had not seen them, and began plundering watermelons.

They're still in season?  Sweet!

 The goblin approach from the south seemed safe, no objectives, but the fire was a good distance away, and obviously no hellhounds to fight.

"We helps the stupidz halfling and we get a reward, then we take extra for the good job we did," G'ba the Shaman told the others as he passed a barn.

Suddenly the barn doors burst open in flames as not one, but TWO hellhounds emerged!

(Edit: Best picture of the game, and I forgot to add it orginally. Do'h!)

Back at the church, the Friar ran up the stairs of the belltower to investigate, only to be met by a rain of arrows coming down.  He decided retreating was the better form of survival and dashed out of the church and around a corner, out of sight from the belltower.

At the barn, G'ba's magical staff was completely ineffective as he kept stumbling back away from the hellhounds.  The troll was distracted by the scene of two giant mushrooms with feet running across the lane (The Merry Mice carrying mushrooms to the flaming tower).  His minion was far better, slaying the powerful beasts in one hit (with three raises for damage).

The second hellhound moved closer to the shaman, but two arrows from the direction of the church hit it in the head, and the creature dropped.

"Mushrooms with Legs" running across the lane.  

The hellhound from the field finally meandered over to the watermelon patch, trying to figure out the new scents it had detected.

Friar Buck stares in disbelief as the inevitable is about to happen.

 Realizing the gravity of the situation, the barbarian mousling took a watermelon, sliced it in half with his battle axe, and chucked a half of a watermelon at the monster.  It slammed into the hellhound's head, meat-side of the melon first.  The creature wailed in pain.

"It doesn't like watermelon! Chuck more at it!"

Quickly a rain of watermelon befell the beast, and before it could escape, the monster perished.

Robin Mouse caught sight of the burning barn and told Marion to continue to the tower.   There, he applied the mushroom to the fire... to no avail.

"No, no, stupid mouse," the goblin minion yelled.  "Don't rub the mushroom on the fire.  Carefully blot it out!"   Following the oddly knowledgable goblin, the barn fire was out in two rounds.

Wipes the troll was strolling up the lane when he discovered arrows sticking out of him.  Greatly upset, he walked right up to the church, climbed the tiny staircase, and yelled at the two halflings holed up in the belltower.

"Stop trying to hurt Wipes!  Wipes strongest of all!"

 Realizing the Troll was with the oddly helpful goblins, they thank him, apologized for making him target practice, and gave him two pies (their rations).  Wipes wandered out of the church, content.

A useless objective.  Obviously there was no bucket for the well.  

With all of the magical creatures dead, and the watchtower deemed a total loss, Robin Mouse ventured over to the village well to draw some water possibly save the fields.  Alas, he could find no bucket.

G'ba wandered over there to chastize the mousling, but he took could find to bucket to use to draw water.

The village was (mostly) saved and now we certainly have halflings in the game world.

Scenario notes:  Four objectives for the teams to look for were the Mushroom farm, the well, the church, and a cottage by the wheat field.  The Snakes ignored the wheat field on their weird adventure.  Everyone failed their objective roles on the well, the Merry Mice obviously got the mushroom, and those scared halfling archers in the belltower of the church were largely ineffective towards those visitors not associated with the Snakes.  Thank God they were awesome shots against the hellhoud, less G'ba could possibly bite it in three straight scenarios.  

For objective points, dead hellhounds, and fires put out (1 for each accomplished), I actually won!    The Goblins earned 3, the Merry Mice 2, and the Snakes got one for hellhound death by watermelon!

This scenario was initially inspired by "Deserted Village" on   Phil and Kati's Epic Wargaming Adventures

Here are the stats I found for a Hellhound in Savage Worlds.  I didn't use the creatures to their full potentials (I also didn't need ice to hurt them.  Watermelons did the trick.)  The Hellhounds were out of a Magic: The Gathering board game and painted by committee here.

Hellhound

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d10
Skills: Fighting d6, Notice d8, Stealth d10, Survival d8, Tracking d8
Charisma: -; Pace: 7; Parry: 5; Toughness: 9 (2)
Edges: Level Headed
Special Abilities
• Armour +2: Reddish-brown fur.
• Bite: Str+d4; Fire.
• Darkvision: No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
• Scent: Can navigate, track and detect creatures by scent (range 6", halved for upwind and doubled for downwind, doubled again for very strong scents). Only adjacent creatures can be pinpointed accurately.
• Extraplanar: Not native to the material plane, and can be targeted by Banish.
• Fast Runner: Roll d8 when running instead of d6.
• Evil: Affected by powers and abilities that work on evil creatures.
• Breath Weapon: All targets within a Cone Template must make an Agility roll at -2 or suffer 2d6 fire damage.
• Immunity: Fire.
• Weakness: Cold (double damage).

Next: Save the Dinos!