#RPGaDay2025 - Day 22 - Ally

Day 22 of #RPGaDAy, and the the prompt of the day is "Ally" 

In our Star Wars d6 game, you ain't never met a friend like Abel Norrum. 

Nothing like basing your character off of a Megatraveller cover...

If we were dealing with a gray mercantile style campaign for Star Wars, that meant we needed some potentially questionable individuals who (a) worked with Ne'vets Aharo and his crew prior  and (b) did NOT want to immediately shoot his face off. 

Enter Abel Norrum, Big Game Hunter 

Take Steve Irwin, put him in Vietnam Era military green, take away most of his moral compass.  They’ve been rivals, they’ve worked alongside each other.  They’d much rather sit next to each other at the bar.  Abel respects Ne'vets enough that he's not ashamed to call him his friend.

He was very good at what he did (hosting/guiding safaris and hunting expeditions.  His crew was ultra-professional and competent, even if he seemed to go through them like redshirts in the Star Trek Original Series.  He'd rather reward business dealings with trips to pleasure planets and long-term loyalty than cold hard credits.  

He's gotten the crew of the Pretio work, and in the same storyline, warned them of potential clients that might not honor business arrangements.  

And outside a rotating cast of crew members for his ship, The Big Game, Abel's never going to change, unless it suits the storyline.  But even then, barring death or dismemberment, he's going to revert to his old ways soon enough.

(BECMI D&D) Adventures in Gulluvia #26 - Faith and Foolishness

Our heroes are now deep within the ancient mines known to the dwarves as Illefarn.  They're lead cleric, Galastria, has just been reunited with the group, after disappearing under mysterious circumstances. 

Galastia Axenmeld: Disgruntled acolyte of The Church

Gwendalyn the Bright - Another disgruntled acolyte of the Church, sent to solve issues within this podunk village, but overlooked for the parish priest role.   

Carya Illinoisis - The former merchant has joined the Baronial Guard, with a focus around Mere.  She's still a mountain of a woman that's even stronger than she lets on. 

Dim Cragmuffin -  It's unsure what relation he was to Beulah, but the halfling was ugly as a dog bashed in the face with a mace, but also old enough to have been bequeathed an old set of armor from the Cragmuffin family ancestors.  The rest aren't sure if he's volunteered for hero duty, or he's following a firefly in the same general direction as the 

Jonerir Drake - Younger brother of Belaquan Drake, who disappeared about a year ago. Fallen in with the likes of Clifford Loprete 

Hugo Swam'Pas - The popular local hedge mage from Mere known for more successes than failures in helping the village out.  

Beulah Cragmuffin - A halfling that hates adventuring, but hates seeing Hugo get any credit, whether he deserves it or not.  

21 Mai 535 - Somewhere Under Illefarn

The group was relieved to find Galastria behind, even if they had just spent hours looking for her.

Jonerir: Where the blazes did you come from??

Gwendalyn:  How do we know if she's her!  She could be some strange being disguised as her! 

Dwarf #1 - Could you guys please take the torture of your friend to determine if they're not some weird doppelganger out of our room please. Important shaft watching! 

Galastria: No need, because (pointing at Gwen), you're a moron, but we share the same religion, you crazy bitch, so I'll allow it right now.

Gwendalyn picks up her mace:  No, you're the crazy bitch.

Dwarf #1 -  I said everybody out of the room!  There's no fighting here!!!

Galastria: See, this is what I'm talking about, you're completing unhinged! I'm not a mimic!

Gwendalyn: You're a dumb fool that's not worthy of our faith....

Galastria:  That's fair, so let's fix the issue we came to solve and go back to Mother Bronte to hash things out. 

Gwendalyn:  Our faith is everywhere... and you're not worthy everywhere!

The four dwarves guarding the goblin shaft, push the group out the door, into an empty chamber, with the sounds of marching coming up a ramp.

It's King Devin, with four dwarf guards and he is not amused.

"What the blazes is wrong with you people?"   Looking at Galastria "I don't know why you came back, your friends are going to get yourselves killed."

Galastria:  They're not my friends. 

King Devin: That's a smart idea, the rest of you should get out, maybe make friends with the bandits.

Galastria: Bandits! Down here?   Where are they?

King Devin and his contingent travel back downstairs. 

Tempers calmed, Galastria recapped where she had been for the last few hours, the kidnapping by necromantic bandits, with skeleton servants.  "I told them our mission, they hadn't experienced any water problems, and I've brokered a hold to hostilities, we might be able to traverse their territory on the far side of the mines if we present peacefully.

Gwendalyn:  I don't get this... we fight those guys, they kidnap you, and yet you give them all that information.  Practitioners of the dead, and then they release you free.... and you claim you maintain the vows of the Church?  What else did you tell them? 

Galastria:  I told them where to find your mother, for a good time. 

Gwendalyn:  When we get back to town, you'll have to account for your actions.

Galastria:  I got kidnapped and got out alive, I'll take my punishment.

Gwendalyn: Yeah, but you're not part of the order anymore.

Galastria: That's not your decision to make.

Gwendalyn:  It's obvious you went against all our oaths of our church.

Galastria: This is why you got passed over for promotion.

Gwendalyn:  So you say, at least I have my honor...  You are a demon spawn posing as piety.  

Galastria: Honey, if was a demon spawn, I would have eaten you and spat your out already, because you're a bitter, delusional trollop! 

Gwendalyn raised her mace higher, ready to attack.

Gwendalyn the Bright, before she lost her damn mind....

Gwendalyn: Cavorting with undead!  Making pacts with necromancers!  Shaming yourself!  Ratting us out!  All are heresies!!! 

Galastria:  Says you.

Gwendalyn: I'm going to drag you back to the Church to face your punishments.

She downed her second and final dose of Potion of Fire Elemental Form, burst into flames and charged Galastria.

Despite the flames, neither of the women were able to hurt each other.  Galastria could feel Gwen's heat, but never took any additional damage.   Galastria still felt some sympathy for Gwen's derangement and used non-lethal blows.  

No one noticed Carya, the Baronial Guardsman attached to the party, leave the room.  No one, except Beulah, who followed the large women down the ramp, back to the dwarves....

Next: #27 - The Death of the Mountain Lord

#RPGaDay2025 - Day 21 - Unexpected

Day 21 of #RPGaDay and I shouldn't be too surprised the prompt is "Unexpected."  I am greatly amused that the most recent post from my BECMI D&D "Adventures in Gulluvia"  game is today's inspiration.  

I've mentioned on previous days that Gulluvia is a Basic D&D (Mentzer/Rules Cyclopedia) game, set in an isolated area.  Most of the campaign was run a few years ago, with a few filler sessions in 2023.  My goal this summer was to finish the storyline with one great adventure.  

I pushed the timeline forward about nine months, and resolved some outstanding plot issues with the PCs.

Gulluvia only has one halfling/human religion, "The Church."  For the bulk of the campaign, everyone knew that Father Joe ran the small temple of The Church in the village of Mere, with the help of his direct assistance, Brother Barry Manaslow, as well as a massive, deformed woman named Slothina. 

At the end of the main storyline, Father Joe had passed away from natural causes, Barry Manaslow had succumb to alleged werewolf bites, and Slothina disappeared soon thereafter. 

The filler sessions introducted Galastria and Gwendalyn the Bright, two very different acolytes of The Church, and after the previous adventure,  one of them was very likely going to be the head of the The Church in Mere. 

Galastria

Except that it didn't resolve like that.  Despite a bitter feud for the position, the High Priest Carathmus appointed one Bronte Argento to the position, sending both in a tailspin.  

Gwendalyn the Bright

A "simple" mission to solve a poisoned water, for a bunch of 1st and 2nd level BECMI D&D  characters was a massive undertaking.  I expected casualties,  I expected replacement characters coming from the edges of the dwarf, bandit (necromancer), and even goblin factions still in the mines.  

I didn't expect a theological crisis of faith and moral derail the whole thing, and (Spoilers!) prompt the death of one of my favorite characters. 

Gulluvia was always intended to be a dungeoncrawl/hexcrawl game, I had not expected a bunch of misfit characters (the entire village of Mere was just ugly and impersonal, the average PCs charisma was less than 8) get some developement... especially since players were playing 2 at a time (it is classic D&D, numbers count).  

And I certainly didn't expect a rather clean negotiation with "alleged" necromancers turn into a religious brawl.   

I should know better...  and enjoy the ride. 

International Crokinole Day

I don't know how the AI and algorithm gods now I played Crokinole at Fall-In last year, but the they casually throw info at me, like today in International Crokinole Day.

I'm even getting recommendations to podcasts like Canadaland, which covered the World Championships a few months ago.  

#RPGaDay2025 - Day 20 - Enter

Day 20 of #RPGaDay and the prompt is "Enter."   

Enter was one of the prompts I gave to my players, and I chalk it up to "fuzzy twenty year old memories."

At the end of our Hackmaster campaign, we had a great war, the forces of The Master pouring out of the desert and attacking the Barthey Empire.  

Barthey was a geographic bottleneck, but if Barthey fell, the rest of the region was sure to follow.  The problem was, no nation wanted to fight The Master, so the Empire sent the party (The Burning Trogs) as Ambassadors Plenipotentiary to try convince them to join the fight... by any means necessary.

To be truthful, they were all horrible diplomats, but when completing quests could balance out a quid pro quo, they had a chance.  

The Senators in the Republic of Danaan gave them a simple task:  The head of the hill giant chieftain Evar would be enough to convince them to fight.  That would require them to infiltrate the steading of said hill giant chief.

In all honesty, the Trogs worked with precision, scouting the complex, taking out auxiliary guards that wouldn't be missed, and finding a secure location to rest and allow the spellcasters more time to recover.  

Heck, there's even a rare entry by Ambassador-General Fonzie "The Fonz" Schlepprock while he contacted a patrol in the pre-dawn hours.  

Everything was fine, until the Trogs got sloppy.  Room after room in the basement had been storerooms, or three or four smaller humanoids they could easily dispatch.  Zorin Redrock, hero of Fort Titanicus, barged through yet another door.

But instead of a few ornery hobgoblins, he had found the door to the main chamber beneath the steading, a massive room full of bugbears, hobgoblins, and a few giants. 

Entering the room, Zorin:  "This isn't where the loo is..."   and he promptly retreated. 

This encounter set the whole complex on high alert, and the Trogs turned a running retreat into a last stand, fighting through a smaller doorway.... and winning!   A party with three Gnome Titans were literally built for this type of battle.  They repelled the mass of attackers, went back upstairs, and very quickly the head of Evar was en route to the capital of Danaan. 

At least that's how some of my players remember it.  The Actual Play from the party journal says that they released a few prisoners from the basement.  An elf in particular, one Carlino Oakland, somewhat acquired a Javelin of Lightning and began wildly attacking his captors, resulting in the last stand.  

In hindsight, I remember the loo comment somewhere in the lower level, but I definitely remember Carlino losing his god-damned mind, with a magic javelin.  Not everything makes in onto the page of a journal.  The victors get to write the history, but they also determine what's remembered and what's forgotten.

(BECMI D&D) Adventures in Gulluvia #25 - A Guest of Jorkul the Scavenger

Our heroes are now deep within the ancient dwarven mines known only as Heek-Hallak, and they've encountered undead and rogue elements, and now going deeper into an abandoned dwarven mine, but now their cleric, Galastia, is missing, probably kidnapped!   (Active characters with *.)

*Galastia Axenmeld: Disgruntled acolyte of The Church

Gwendalyn the Bright - Another disgruntled acolyte of the Church, sent to solve issues within this podunk village, but overlooked for the parish priest role.   

Carya Illinoisis - The former merchant has joined the Baronial Guard, with a focus around Mere.  She's still a mountain of a woman that's even stronger than she lets on. 

Dim Cragmuffin -  It's unsure what relation he was to Beulah, but the halfling was ugly as a dog bashed in the face with a mace, but also old enough to have been bequeathed an old set of armor from the Cragmuffin family ancestors.  The rest aren't sure if he's volunteered for hero duty, or he's following a firefly in the same general direction as the 

Jonerir Drake - Younger brother of Belaquan Drake, who disappeared about a year ago. Fallen in with the likes of Clifford Loprete 

Hugo Swam'Pas - The popular local hedge mage from Mere known for more successes than failures in helping the village out.  

Beulah Cragmuffin - A halfling that hates adventuring, but hates seeing Hugo get any credit, whether he deserves it or not.  

21 Mai 535 - Somewhere within Heek-Hallak

Galastia awoke with terrible headache.  It looked to be the same dungeon, same stonework, same airflow.  There were a number of humans in a chamber lit by only a few weak torches, the halfling was missing, but the ugly human was one of them.  She was also shocked to see skeletons two doors or passageways.  She wasn't quite sure at her angle.  

Galastria

"She's up. Want us to grab Kelthas?"

"Do you want to bother him.  Don't you think Jorkul can do the same job?

Galastria:  Do mind telling me what's going on?

Original Ugly #1:  We were going to ask you the same thing in a moment. Just waiting for the someone to get those questions out of you.

Ugly #2:  Answers... it's supposed to be answers.

After awhile another man appeared in the chamber, another ugly looking one, wearing clerical vestments that were certainly NOT of the church.

Ugly Priest:  Well, well, it's not often we get visitors.

Jorkul the Cleric

Galastria:  If it makes you feel any better, it's not by choice.

Galastia chatted with the man, Jorkul.  She was intrigued by the man, who obviously knew more about necromancy, but Jorkul seemed to use the undead to protect their gang of scavengers.  They didn't seem to be with the dwarfs, and they were very happy the kobolds had left.  Jorkul's ears perked up when Galastria mention Mere and Gulluvia and the polluted water supply.  He also suggested speaking with the goblins infesting certain levels.  "We haven't done anything to the water, and the dwarves seem foolish if they wanted to do so.  You may wish to check with the petty goblin tribes."

Kelthas was the leader of the scavengers, and acting on his behalf, Jorkul promised Galastria's safe return... blindfolded.  The both sides pledged a steady peace, passage when possible, and a flow of information if danger was found.  

Galastria didn't want any further contact with them, if they could avoid it, but there was no reason they couldn't solve the issue without making the potential evil-doers immediately pay for their transgressions.  

Galastria was blindfolded and returned to the fountain.  After twenty minutes of searching, she could hear the party down a corridor, arguing with... dwarven voices?

Next: #26 - Faith and Foolishness

#RPGaDay2025 - Day 19 - Destiny

Day 19 of #RPGaDay and the prompt is "Destiny"

Dice do not care for prophecy and destiny.  

God help me, I used a lot of role-playing tropes in my college game, and the idea of "The Chosen Ones" I did far too early.  

Because what happens when the Chosen Ones die... or just disappear. Talis vs Echellon - White Plume Mountain.

Very early on (episode #15) , our resident elf, Ashe Winnebago, purchased a giant oil painting at an auction in the capital city.  He had the 5,000gp to burn and wanted to put it over the large mantle in their chateau.

In episode #36 they had the painting, "White Plume Mountain," appraised by an art historian:

"The White Plume Mountain is a famous volcano on the border with Aragain. If the deadly steam, choking ash, and magma won't kill you, the guardians inside will. Inside is rumored to be three weapons, the Blood-Brand, a life stealing sword once wielded by the Sorcerer-Kings of Senzar, the immortals of Prythax, and the ancient Ferasean Kings. Over-Whelm, a battle-axe wielded by the warlords of the half-dwarves of Hyperborea, and a trident named Wave, deposited by parties unknown. While not the most powerful relics, there have been rumors for hundreds of years, that when mankind is in terrible peril, those three weapons will help turn the tide. If you three are looking to save the world, you're probably out of luck. Thousands have face the mountain and died, plus who in the blue blazes of Hades knows how to fight with a tri..."

The appraiser was looking at the elf ranger (Ashe - sword), a dwarf (Norm - battle axe), and a peculiar cleric who was casually holding a trident (Echelon). 

Funny thing, though, Ashe's player stopped showing up another week or so (#39). 

Echellon is psychically slain by a mind flayer in a dream state (#50)

The party bard, a lech by the name of Talis Makolin swore he would take up the mantle of the sword, to ensure the prophecy.  Finding a trident wielder this far inland was going to cause some trouble.  

White Plume Mountain itself was too much for the party (#60).  Battered and beaten, the party first went for Over-Whelm, Talis fell into a chamber of boiling mud and died, but that allowed Norm to defeat the vampire guarding it and obtain the artifact.  

When they went for the Wave, the lost Ozark the cleric to the giant crab, only for Echellon to return from the dead and help slay the beast, and obtain the trident. 

At that point, the weakened state of Echellon, and the losses already mounting, they said screw the sword and left for home....

The rest of the prophecy continued.  

Another trope that I included in this campaign was the band of rivals:  another team of adventurers, led by William of Arinka, who either ran parallel with the party, or cleaned up their messes.  

This time William's party went into the volcano later and recovered the sword (#70)  It did help kill the big bad evil dude during the finale, and by legend, helped pick the emperor for the Third Ferasean Empire.

FYI: Ashe and his brother Binklen did return for the finale, but someone else had now laid claim to the sword.