Once more into the Void Session 22

This week’s session was an old-fashioned dungeon crawl with a lot of melee. This can be a little boring to write (but fun to play) so I am going to try and do it almost entirely from the viewpoint of one of the characters.

When last we left, the heroes had stormed a ancient ruin of a keep high in the mountains tracking the evil necromancer. After clearing the above ground ruins they found a passage down under the keep.

Before starting Otrivush Oto took the time to use his knowledge of the arcane (he was a scholar of magic at Candlekeep) to identify some of the equipment taken off of the Orc Shaman. Boots of Elvenkind are identified and are given to Mukah. The shield is +1 and is taken by Talrek. The spear is +1 and is taken by Alcor. Finally a Potion of Healing is given to Mukah.

Once More into the Void Session 22 - Rumble in the Dungeon

Looking ahead I can see the staircase of stone enters a large stone chamber. The walls are carefully fitted stone blocks covered in a sheen of moisture and mold. Talrek the dwarf murmurs, “this is fine, ancient stonework”.

The chamber is large with four stone pillars holding up the ceiling. I hear Alcor call out, “Goblins!” Across the chamber are two goblins readying arrows to fire. One arrow clatters off a pillar but another strikes the drow Thyrell. Alcor, leaps nimbly forward to charge the goblins, then I watch as his foot triggers a pit trap. The entire center of the room’s floor falls away. Alcor swings deftly to safety and lands on his feet.

“Trap!” he yells in case no of us have seen it.

The fight is over quickly, before I can even ready a spell. Mukah circles the pit and strikes down one goblin with his sword. Talrek kills the second one with one of his god’s spells. I think he calls it Sacred Flame or some such nonsense.

I wander forward carefully intent on taking a peek into the pit.

“Goblins!” Yells Alcor again. More goblins are approaching from the south. One of them fires an arrow and strikes Tinda, Thyrell’s wolf. Angrily, Thyrell shoots one of the goblins with an arrow but it continues on toward us. Alcor spears and kills the other goblin. The goblin raises his bow to fire at me, but I speak the arcane words, "Ignis Pessulum!", and point at him. Fire shoots from my index finger and a bolt of flame strikes the goblin in the head killing him.

“Is it clear now?” I ask. Everyone nods. I peer over the edge of the pit. Fifteen feet below the bottom of the pit is an undulating black mass of oil or liquid. No, it is a heaving mass of rodents crawling all over each other. I step back momentarily sickened. That is not worth investigating.

“Ughh! It is full of rats!” Talrek says. I nod. My familiar Artimouse squeaks indignantly from my pocket.

“It looks like only the wolf is injured,” I say and gesture toward Tinda who is licking a gash in her side. Thyrell glares at me. “What?” I shrug.

Thyrell sits beside the Wolf and chants a healing prayer. “Damn” he says, “Didn’t work!” The drow continues on praying. “Damn!” he curses again. Everyone turns to look at Thryell who is intently going into another round of prayers. I look at Alcor who looks like he is going to say something to Thyrell, but I wave him off. “There!” Thyrell finally says with satisfaction, stands and brushes off his boots. ”Let’s go”.

Looking at Tinda I can see much of the wound has healed.

For the next hour we wander about the maze of passages, not encountering any more goblins but finding a lot of doors that we cannot open. Either they are barred on the other side or they are locked. Probably the goblin that escaped us the day before has warned his friends. Eventually, we head back to the north to a room we explored earlier that was full of wood boards. Mukah tells us he has an idea. Normally, Mukah is the last to volunteer an idea.

Reaching the room Mukah picks up a heavy board, easily six feet long and 6 inches a side. “We, ahh, take and smash the door!” Mukah broadly demonstrates swinging the heavy beam.

“You know, that is actually not a bad idea,” Talrek says, “I’ll help you swing it like a battering ram!”

“Oh, guys isn’t that going to make a lot of noise?” asks Thyrell. We all pause. Then everyone shugs their shoulders. “Oh well, whatever, let’s do this” Thyrell sighs. Mukah and Talrek carry the beam into the next room where there are two locked doors. They set up before a double door that is locked.

Mukah has an idea

On the first swing the makeshift battering ram crashes into the door but it holds. The noise is very loud and I looks about expecting to see goblins piling out of every closed door. I had better put a stop to this before every goblin in the dungeon is on us at once. I am just raising my hands when Talrek and Mukah swing the beam again.

“CRASH!” The beam hits the door with a thunderous crash and both doors fly off their hinges. The pair of door crash to the ground in the corridor beyond. Everyone leans forward to look. In the corridor beyond are a dozen goblins armed to the teeth and not at all surprised. Make that seven goblins actually. They leap to attack climbing over the door.

“Quick! Back out into a circle and hold the door! We can pin them in the doorway!” Thyrell yells and moves forward. Everyone except me moves into a semicircle about the open door. I am not really the guy for melee so I hold back and begin chanting a spell.

“Dormitabis!” I chant and hurl the spell down the corridor. I watch breathtakingly, as the the goblins shake their heads. Some stagger but continue onward. Three of the goblins fall forward and hit hit the floor in a deep slumber. “Ha!” I laugh.

Mukah, Talrek, Alcor and Tinda move up and fight the remaining four goblins. I hear a groaning creek from the north and I turn and see the northern door opening. A scimitar wielding goblin stands in the doorway. Beyond the foul pest is a large chamber, several more goblins and a huge creature. I suck in a startled breath. It looks like some kind of enormous orc and it is carrying the biggest ax I have ever seen. I start to shout out a warning but I can see Talrek and Mukah have already taken notice of the huge orc.

Overrun by goblins!

"Orog!" growls Mukah.

The next few minutes are a blur. I try to stay back from the thick of the fight, casting fire bolts. Talrek strikes the orog with Guiding Bolt and Mukah goes into a berserker rage crushing goblins and striking the orog. As the orog forces his way through the doorway, Thyrell bravely tries to stop his charge but the drow is hit twice with the orc’s ax and the falls to the floor unmoving. A sneaky goblin strikes me in the side with a knife but Tinda appears from nowhere and rips open the goblin’s throat. Just as the orog is starting to stagger under Mukah’s attack I use my last powerful magic spell and kill it with a burst of Magic missiles!

By now Alcor, Mukah, and Talrek have dispatched most of the goblins. But another four goblins appear from behind us to the south and move to attack. Leaving the others to it, Talrek runs over to Thyrell’s still form and casts a healing spell. Thyrell stirs, groans and staggers to his feet. He looks about and grimly readies his twin swords.

The four goblins charge and I find myself at the front of the melee? I cast Fire bolt at a goblins moving to attack me but in my haste I botch it and only a tiny spark strikes the goblin. The angry goblin swings at me with his sword. I get my arm up and feel it cut deeply into my forearm. I stagger back blood pouring from my arm. Again Tinda arrives and knocks the goblin to the ground tearing its throat out. Mukah, Alcor and Talrek make short work of the other goblins but one. The last lone goblin drops its sword and runs away.

“Let it go” I wave at the goblin. Mukah had been tensing as if to run after the little bugger. Mukah snorts. “With all this noise they know we are here”, I say.

Talrek, as usual is bustling about after the fight, tending wounds and checking goblins and the orog for treasure. He binds the deep cut on my forearm. “We might want to go back to the tower and get some rest to recover” he muses.  I want to keep going despite the pain. I don’t want to give the goblins a chance to regroup. But Thryrell and Talrek make a convincing argument. While we debate, Talrek casts a ritual detect magic but finds nothing. He tramps about to the north and comes back to report that the room is a torture chamber with plenty of foul remains of humans, goblins and orcs. Thus the horrible smell.

“What was that?” Talrek says suddenly. I pause my breathing and listen. “I don’t hear anything?” I look at Alcor and Thyrell. They also do not appear to have heard anything.

“I am not sure,” says Talrek, “it felt like the earth shifted. Perhaps these ruins are not very stable”.

“Or maybe the goblins are preparing something unpleasant for us!” I say.  That earns me a glare from Thyrell but Mukah just snorts.

Talrek calls us to order and we set out for the exit staircase. Carefully we enter the room with the pit trap. Nothing looks disturbed.

“It blocked!” roars Mukah from the staircase. Hurriedly we all move forward. The doors over the staircase are closed and bowed inward like there is a huge weight on the other side. Talrek moves cautiously forward to the door and places a hand on them. He pauses a moment that quickly comes back down the stair.

“We will need to find another way out,” he says. “This entrance is closed. It feel like there is a hundred tonnes of rocks blocking the doors. It must have been that disturbance I sensed.”

Everyone starts talking at once, except me. I hold my piece and contemplate the best course of action. Talrek finally waves everyone silent. I turn to look at the dwarf.

“We go back to the torture chamber. The door can be locked. Then we rest and recover our breath and get back some spells.” Talrek looks meaningfully at everyone. We all nod.

We head back to the torture chamber and lock ourselves in.

Moaning Deep

I was doodling this morning creating a Blue Dungeon map and I came up with something with a lot more rooms than I planned.  So I am not going to use it for the dungeon I planned.  I tend to write shorter dungeons that play in 1-2 sessions because I am playing online. This dungeon has 60 rooms that is a little large.

Not to waste anything I am posting it here and maybe I will come back to it someday. The concept is a single level dungeon accessed by 4 shafts entering room #1.  So it could easily be part of some larger complex or it could sit alone.

The Moaning Deep

Once more into the Void - Session 21

I climbed up onto the battlement and collapsed in exhaustion on my back. But I quickly rolled to my side and staggered upright. The sounds of sword on sword and screams filled the night around me. Ahead of me on the tower I can see Mukah driving back and killing a pair of goblins. Then from nowhere a glowing spear appears and strikes at the startled Half-Orc.

By the gods, it looks like a Spiritual weapon spell!

There must be a shaman amongst the goblins. I climb the steps to the tower and peer over the battlements into the darkness. On a raised walkway below I can see an Orc clad in ringmail waving his arms above his head. There!

The orc is directing more goblins to charge the tower. I turn to yell to Mukah; “That Orc, he is casting the spell!”

Mukah looks back at me with little comprehension, he has gone mad with battlelust. Roaring some curse or challenge in orcish he steps back runs and leaps off the battlement into darkness.

Jumping up I look over the battlement to see where he has fallen and incredibly I see Mukah land perfectly on his feet beside the orc shaman with his sword ready to strike!

Once More into the Void Session 21: Lets go in the front door.

This week the session was mainly combat followed by a little exploration. I am going to break it down by rounds. Last week, our band of heroes had located a ruined keep in the mountains that we surmised was the lair of the Necromancer. We attempted a stealthy approach but the alarm was soon raised. It took 2-3 rounds of combat the previous week to fight into the courtyard of the keep. Mukah, Talrek and the wolf Tinda are still down in the courtyard. Oto ascended to the battlements and Thyrell and Alcor followed him there.

Round 1

Mukah engages one of the worgs and kills it with his sword. Alcor finishes climbing up onto the battlements near where Oto is pinned down by archers. Talrek, fighting down in the courtyard kills two goblins - one with his Spiritual hammer. Oto casts Burning Hands towards a goblin but he ducks out of the way and is only slightly burned. Oto takes the time to apply a healing salve. Moving away from Oto on the battlements, Thyrell cruelly chops apart a goblin with his twin swords. Oto is struck in the head by an arrow fired from one of the towers. More and more goblin archers are appearing from behind cover.

Round 2

Mukah decapitates a goblin attacking Tinda, then he moves to climb up the battlements. Alcor runs up and attacks two goblins, killing one with his spear but missing the other. Talrek casting Guiding Bolt at more goblins entering the courtyard from the north. Oto casts Magic Missile and finally kills the goblin that had him pinned down, he then moves rapidly over the gatehouse to get closer to where Thyrell and Alcor are fighting. Two goblins archers spot Oto and fire at him. Oto is struck twice by arrows as he presents an enormous target. Talrek is attacked by multiple archers in the towers and is struck gravely by one arrow.

Round 3

Mukah finishes his climb and reaches the battlements. He immediately attacks the archers firing at Oto. Alcor reaches the East tower and kills one of the goblins hiding there. Talrek struggles mightily to climb up onto the battlements out of the courtyard. He manages to pull himself up near Mukah. Talrek’s Spiritual Hammer crushes in the head of one of the goblins. Oto pauses and takes the time to cast Mage Armor on himself then scrambles around a corner into what he hopes is better cover. Thyrell kills the last goblins defending the easternmost tower. Suddenly, two more goblin archers appears out of the darkness with a clear line of sight to Oto. They both fire but miraculously both miss. Mukah comes under fire from five goblins archers but only one manages to hit him.

WRONG WAY
Oto tries to find cover and walks right into an ambush.

Round 4

Mukah kills one of the archers defending the central tower. Alcor returns from the east tower and as he runs toward Oto he flings a dart catching one of the archers in the eye, killing him. Talrek kills another goblin in the central tower with his Spiritual Hammer. Oto crawls back over the gate, sees a line goblins in the courtyard and casts Firebolt at him hitting him but not killing him. Thyrell switches to his bow and leaves the east tower on Alcor’s heels. He fires an arrow while running and kills the remaining archer menacing Alcor. The goblin in the courtyard tries to scramble up the wall to get his hands on Oto, but he falls back down. More goblins join the fray from the north, pushed on by a tall, brutish orc. Oto is struck by another arrow and is bleeding gravely now. A spear appears out of thin air and strikes at a surprised Mukah on the central tower.

Round 5

Mukah, apparently lost to battlerage, makes a death defying leap off of the central tower and lands on the battlements 10 feet below and 15 feet away right beside the orc who the heroes suspect is a shaman. The shaman and 3 goblins all converge to attack Mukah in a furious melee. Mukah manages to fend off the goblins and strike the orc shaman with his longsword with a slashing blow. Talrek lights up the shaman with Guiding Bolt from the vantage point of the tower. Then Talrek strikes down a nearby goblin with his Spiritual Hammer.  Oto fires one more ineffective Firebolt at the maddened goblin in the courtyard, then he runs for the apparent safety of the central tower. Thyrell runs up to the central tower to join the fight. Tinda lunges out from the darkness and drags away and kills the goblin in the courtyard. Mukah is struck several times and starts to slow. Thyrell is hit by an arrow, but then immediately fires at the goblin archer and kills him.

SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA
Mukah makes a rash leap from the tower into the middle of the goblins.

Round 6

Mukah misses the shaman, the shaman then strikes Mukah again who is now staggered and near the end. Before Mukah can be struck again, Talrek hits the shaman again with Guiding Bolt, this time the shaman tumbles to his knees and topples dead off of the battlements. Alcor appears and kills the remaining goblins attacking Mukah. Oto casts his last spell, Burning Hands, this time he kills one goblin and badly injures another. The two remaining goblins, devoid of a leader, turn and make a run for it. Mukah flings his javelin sixty feet striking one fleeting goblin in the hip, but the goblin disappears in the distance. Alcor catches up to the other fleeing goblin (the one who is badly burned) and kills him. Tinda sets off in pursuit of the last goblin.

With the fight over, Oto collapses in a heap and starts patching up his wounds, and removing an arrow from his thigh. The heroes gather together and Talrek casts Prayer of Healing to restore several of the heroes to full health. Talrek goes to see where Tinda is and finds the wolf sniffing around a crude goblin shrine erected on a pile of rubble. In the rubble Talrek finds some gems. Talrek searches the orc shaman corpse and sets aside his ringmail, shield and spear. After casting Detect Magic it is discovered that the spear, shield, boots and a potion are magic. Alcor takes the spear and Talrek takes the shield. The heroes search through some buildings in the rest of the ruins and find a few coins but no clues to how the goblin got away. Tinda is still scratching around the goblin shrine so everyone gathers there to search. No one can find a clue so the decision is made to check again in daylight.

The heroes camp in the east tower and set watches. They are not disturbed during the night. The next day the heroes search around the shrine again but have no success until Mukah finds a concealed door when he pushes some rubble aside. A pair of wooden doors almost flush with the ground conceal an ancient stone staircase descending below the keep.

In the complete melee in the keep over 2 sessions we killed 15 goblin archers, 15 goblin swordsmen, 1 orc shaman and 4 worgs.

No Blasters

I am pretty happy with a work in progress I created this weekend so I thought I would share it. It is a location in a Stars without Number adventure I have almost finished writing. The bar located under the Montegue Hotel.

I threw in a number of the character models I have created and modified some to look more futuristic. The lighting was a struggle but once I upped the Samples to 512 for the final render it cleared up pretty well for an enclosed space render.

Captain Irina has a few things to say to Marko

Once more into the Void Session 20

I try to move cautiously and quietly at the same time. So far I seem to be managing without breaking my neck. I keep one hand gripped on the back of Thyrell's wolf to steady me.

We are right under the walls of the old keep now. I glance up nervously but I cannot see anything except the outline of the walls far above us against the sky.

I follow the wolf as we round a corner of the path toward the old gatehouse. There is a dim flickering light ahead. I can just make out... Movement! On the path head it looks like two goblins. Thyrell and Talrek exchange hand signals and I can see Thyrell notching an arrow.

Wait.  I have just the spell for this!

I wave my hands above my head, concentrate and speak the weave of magic.

"Dormis" I whisper. First one goblin and then the second slump to the ground.

Once more into the Void Session 20

It was a short session this week. We are back from the holidays but people are still busy or fighting colds.

When last we left off the heroes had traveled under the mountains fighting spiders every step of the way before emerging on a ledge on the mountainside. There is a ruined keep about a half mile away slightly further up the mountainside.

The heroes decide to observe the Keep for a few hours but at the distance of half a mile all they can discern is that there is some movement. Given the blanket of snow on the ground the opinion is that we cannot approach without being spotted. Then Thyrell offers to use his Ring of Minor Invisibility.

Thyrell puts the ring on, disappears, much to the worry of his companion wolf Tinda, and he travels up the path to the keep. Getting closer he can see that the workmanship is similar to the old ruined tower in Winterton. The keep is old, basically a ruin but there are signs of recent crude repairs. As Thyrell gets up close to the keep on the path he knocks a rock lose that goes clattering down the mountainside. Some goblins peer down in his direction. But seeing nothing, they lose interest and pop back out of sight. Thyrell decides that caution is more important and he turns back before approaching the entrance to the keep and returns.

Thyrell returns and tells his friends what he was able to see. There are several suggestions on how to proceed. Oto suggests casting jump on everyone and leaping over the walls of the keep. Talrek suggests sneaking up during the night when possibly the guards will be less active. The suggestion carries the day once Alcor augments the plan with his Shadow Arts ability. Once Alcor focuses and brings about the ability the group heads for the keep. Now there noise is muffled and they are harder to see.

Talrek had been worried that Oto, the lone human in the group, would fall down the side of the mountain in the dark but everyone, Oto included make it to the keep undetected (as far as they can tell). Approaching the entrance to the keep they make out that it is guarded by two goblins but it is just an open archway with no door or barrier. Oto casts sleep and both goblins fall unconscious. Talrek and Mukah dispatch the two sleeping goblins. Quietly the group enters the keep.

Otrivush Oto casts Sleep on the Goblin guards

Just inside the keep are two more goblins standing near a pair of fires. One of the guards spots Talrek but mistakes him for a guard. He angrily tells Talrek to get back to his post in goblin. Talrek pretends to be a goblin guard looking for a meal. The goblin is fooled by Talrek's mastery of goblin but still tells him to get back to his post. Talrek sneaks back into the dark. Oto casts sleep again and both of the goblin guards fall to the ground. Yelling in goblin erupts from one of the towers. Talrek hears, "Get up you lazy dogs!" Alcor and Talrek run up and kill the two sleeping goblins. Almost immediately the alarm is raised. A gong rings throughout the keep and a lot of yelling is heard.

Three more goblins and a pair of worgs enter the keep courtyard from the north rushing toward Alcor and Talrek. Alcor spears one of the worgs then spins and snaps its neck with his fist. Talrek attacks the other worg but misses. Oto decides to cast jump on himself and he leaps up onto the battlements in a single bound. Unfortunately, this appears to be unwise as he is immediately confronted by a host of goblins archers on the battlements. One archer hits Oto with an arrow wounding him gravely. Seeing the danger to Oto, Thyrell leaps up and grabs the battlement ledge and pulls himself up to face down the goblins. In the final action of the opening melee of the battle, Tinda lunges at the worg and bites it in the flank.

We had to stop mid-battle because of the late time. Oto is badly injured and surrounded by archers but Thyrell is now nearby to help. Talrek, Alcor and Mukah appear poised to clear out the goblins in the courtyard but they face the danger of archers on the battlements behind cover.

Lowpoint Starport

I have not managed to post so far in the new year. Not that I have not been working on things. After a flurry of activity on the Bomar domed city I decided I wanted to go back and finish off my Lowpoint Starport I have been working on for months. Armed with more ability in Blender now it did not take all that long to finish off the 50 buildings of the starport.  Given that Bomar has 500+ buildings I will need to use more general methods to complete it or I will never get it done.

I have attached a bunch of images taken in the Lowpoint render.

Distance shot from out at sea

Lowpoint is located at the end of the Logaolos Point. A desolate, rocky point of land more than 100 kilometers from the Newalter, the capital city of Tusa. The original starports for Tusa were on the continent of Atsox. After the scream there was an accident at one of the starports and the entire continent became uninhabitable. Tusa was re-discovered by starships from Kaitos in 3072. At first ships landed on concrete landing pads wherever they could be built. Eventually, it was decided Tusa needed a starport. Heeding the lessons learned by the Atsox catastrophe it was decided to place the starport on a desolate peninsula.

The Overlook Hotel

Once the landing pads were in place, offices and warehouses were built, then bars and hotels for travelers drawn to Tusa for big-game hunting. Eventually, Logaolos Point Star Port or "Lowpoint"  grew to a few dozen buildings and a population of around 25,000.

The most popular Hotel is the Overlook. Perched on the edge of a cliff. The hotel has its own landing pad for air cars to take wealthy guests hunting on the continent of Moneaux. It also has elevators down to a building at water's edge where guests can charter a deep sea fishing boat.

The Piazza

Lowpoint is built around a central, open square dedicated to growing grass, plants and trees. I stayed true to my original map in most cases. Some items look fine on a map but out of scale in reality. Once I put down the buildings I realized the square was far too big. But I decided not to change it.

Khamid Tower

The most popular spacer bar is located in Khamid Tower residences on the piazza. The "Landing Pad" is located mid-way up the tower. It is recognizable from large hologram of an overweight spacer sitting on a rocket.

The Landing Pad does a brisk business late into the night

The bar/entertainment zone that draws in the locals from Newalter and beyond is Morley's Bar. Licensed gambling on just about anything. Large holo-screens and a good location right next to the Hyper-Loop terminus.

Morley's Bar

Wealthier travelers and spacers with their own air cars usually fly to Newalter and other cities and locations on Tusa. The locals who work in Lowpoint and live in Newalter come by Hyper Loop. A much cheaper way to travel. For a few credits you can get in a capsule and zip into Newalter in just 20 minutes.

The Hyper Loop Line

The hyper loop line comes into Lowpoint right beside the twin towers of the Frontier Alliance office. FA has a major office on Tusa at Lowpoint and it has a reputation of calling in debts on star ships and impounding them at the Lowpoint Impound pads. Some spacers with bad credit make a point of not landing on Tusa because of this.

The Montegue Hotel

Moving away from the piazza are the few areas of danger in Lowpoint. Muggings and car-jacking do occur in these areas. Lowpoint does not have much of a police force. Customs officers are the only police in Lowpoint and they are more interested in checking for smuggled goods.

Low Rent shops

Smaller shops offering financing and credit advances, lawyers, weapons shops are common in the back alleys of Lowpoint. Late night pedestrians are warned to keep alert.

Landing Pad X2

Two landing pads are set aside for a government run service shuttling passengers and cargo down from Tusa Highpoint space station. Moving goods from ships not configured for atmospheric travel. From the landing pads, passengers are moved by bus and cargo goes through customs inspection. Enormous tanks of hydrogen fuel are located not far from the starport terminal.

Viewing Lowpoint from the surrounding hills. A local farm boy is warned
of the dangers of Lowpoint by his Uncle Ben.

One last image taken from the hills outside Lowpoint. To provide scale I tossed in an air car and a few locals.

New Year

This is my first post of 2018.

In 2017 I managed to post 159 times. Which I think is really good, more than I had hoped to manage. However, if you look at my posts month to month you can see that I started on fire almost posting every day. For the last 6 months I have been posting more like 1 per week or 5-6 times per month.

Part of the problem is that I felt the need to make more and more content filled posts as the year went on. Posts that took a lot more effort to create and often had map or art added to them. 

Coming soon in 2018 I hope to finally post a Stars without Number adventure. No really. I actually got it plotted out and wrote the introduction and background over the holidays. 

Here’s a picture of a Halfling wizard so that this post is not totally filler.