Playing Dice with the Universe

Summary:   Witch Hunters visit the city. Chapter 106 ~ The Return of Magnus Wolfclaw. The latest news from the Empire was that witch hunters had found chaos taint in several temples around Nuln, particularly those of Shallya and Manann.  It seemed Maddoc, whom we had abandoned , may have finally been rescued from his fate.  Many in the Empire were focusing on Sigmar as the one true god and shunning worship of all other deities.   As we worked on building the towns infrastructure Hayley sent several letters to our allies, and acquaintances, offering them safe haven in Ryazan should they want to travel hear.  She invited the Wizard Tokamak from Hurlack, Dagmar the Outlaw and Maruge's orc tribe. A couple of days later our old friend Magnus Wolfclaw and his troop of Witch Hunters arrived.  They talked with the Countess and wanted to ensure Ryazan was a stronghold for Sigmar worship.  We convinced him that was the case and offered to open a temple.  Magnus was delighted saying he would

 Magical Grimoires for D&D Ben over on Mazirian's Garden recently posted six spellbooks for Wizards.  What struck me was the wonderful descriptive text for each of them.  The original idea was these were books for starting characters to have in a Basic D&D game.  However I wanted to take this idea and update them to be spell books that were found by characters as part of treasure horde while adventuring.  What Wizard does not want to find a volume of new spells to add to their own spellbook? These give great background and help build up the illusion of a world where long dead sorcerers are still talked about and discussed.  I also found some wonderful alternative spell names over on the  Halberds and Helmets page and used those as inspiration for chapters in the book. Quality of the Grimoire Make an Arcana (Int) test to uncover each spell. Target based on the quality of the volume Roll d4 1 - Poor quality with pages missing. Target DC of 15 + Spell level to deciphe

Introducing - 2023 Mega Dungeon  12 levels. 365 rooms. What is this project?  You may well ask.  Sean McCoy posted this as an idea on Twitter .  Create a Mega dungeon for 2023 with 12 levels (one per month) and 365 rooms. One room a day and keep it all in a journal. My journal is this blog.  I shall post a set of rooms once a week and build up my Mega Dungeon over the course of the year. I have already come up with a basic concept to get started. Level 1 will be a White Dragon Wyrmling and his kobolds minions living in caves around a volcanic vent on an island.  These caves will carry on for a couple of levels deeper and then the players will find a portal, or gate, taking them to the bottom of a second complex.  They can work there way back up to the ruined city on the surface through levels 4-7.  Then I will have a third complex to take them back down into the depths of the earth.  Finally having some sort of appropriate boss monster with level 12 being on another plane.  Accessed th

Summary:   Making our home in a deserted city. Chapter 105 ~ An empty city. Having around at Ryazan we found a manor house for the countess and several cottages for her retinue.  We left Hayley and Zena arguing about who should have the manor house and the rest of us went into the town to look around. The place was mostly deserted.  We saw a few peasants moving around but there only seemed to be too shops open.  These were the General Store and Ferrari Forestry.  We installed Dr Fleming into one empty house and the Walton family into the large inn where they set about restarting their business.  Going into the Sherriff's office Tayy found a pair of badges for the Sherriff and his deputy.  In the name of the Countess he appointed Gwyn and Rangrim to the positions. Talking to Ben at the General Store he told us the old count had not been keen on modernisation and improving trade and most people had moved away looking for work elsewhere.  He got a weekly delivery of goods, mostly food

Summary:   At last Ryazan. Chapter 104 ~ More wilderness travel. Leaving Obelheim we travelled north toward Uckrofurt.  Rubinifer continued on with the Walton family when we had to fix a loose wheel.  Hurring to catch up with them a group of Ogres and Goblins came out of the trees in an ambush. Hayley's mount was so startled at the fearsome sight of the Ogres it turned and bolted in Terror in the other direction.  Zena and Rangrim fled with her as well.  Thinking she much have a cunning plan Tayy and Gwyn abandoned the cart and followed after. By the time Hayley had got control of her mount the Goblins had taken our cart, loaded it up with their human prisoners and headed out of sight.  Easy come easy go it was not as if we had paid for the horse. Finding a possible camp sight we saw strange Dwarven runes carved into trees and a nearby cottage.  There was no answer when we knocked on the door. Fearful of witches we decided to walk through the night and stumbled into Uckrofurt exhau

Summary:   Bandits on the road. Chapter 103 ~ Moving Further North. Planning to keep ahead of Rothchild our party continued north.  Reaching Wurtbad Rubinifa was able to find a shop with a pistol in stock as he started collecting the new trappings for his role as a highwayman.  Tayy and the others chipped in to buy some power and shot; it seems keeping a working pistol is very expensive! We we had fifteen people and a pair of carts the few outlaws we saw gave us a wide birth as we travelled north from Wurbad through Lieske and on towards Obelheim.  Here we had to camp out on the side of the Old Forest Road. We were disturbed in the night when a man and his dwarven companion tried to steal our horse and cart!  It seemed they were running from a gang of outlaws who decided to attack us just as we stopped the first set of thieves getting away with the cart. Armed with his human bane sword Rubinifa quickly cut through most of the minions while Xena just managed to take out the leader but t

Summary:  Picking up pioneers as we travel north . Chapter 102 ~ Moving North. Having met up with the rest of our friends we decided to give up on going to Nuln and changed our plans.  The best way to travel to Ryazan looked to heading north to Talabheim and then taking the river to our final destination. Taking our new cart and horses we all headed north travelling through Vigaun and then on to Worden the following day. Hear there were two inns the Lovely Inn and the Old Inn.  We got a room at the later but it was very expensive five crowns rather than the two we had paid the night before in Vigaun.  Talking with other patrons and we ate the poor quality stew they told us armed med had turned them away from the Lovely Inn and paid them come to this one. Seeing an opportunity to gain some coins we wandered over to the other establishment.  Four armed men warned us off and paid us five crowns to go to the other inn.  Taking the cash and leaving we looped around to the other side.  Here

Summary:  Travelling to Averheim . Chapter 101 ~ The Path less travelled. With  Having survived the night in the abandoned crypt we resumed our journey east to Hurlach.  We spent the night at a farm where Tayy paid for us to sleep in a barn by cooking a wonderful meal for a farmer and his family.  They enjoyed it so much he was invited to come back another time! On the following day Tayy got lucky at the shops and was able to replace most of his armour in Hurlach.  We also visited the local wizard Tokamak.  He told us the grimoires we had were evil and should be burnt or buried.  He was impressed to meet Countess Hayley and she offered him a job as court wizard once she reached her estates.  He was a worshipper of Verena and had left Nuln after it became dedicated to Sigmar.  He told Hayley to send for him once she was established at her estates.  As we were leaving Gwyn popped back and made a private transaction to get his ring recharged. We went into the woods to burn the books but g

Summary:  Fleeing assassins the Countess's entourage finds themselves a Mummy . Chapter 100 ~ One step closer to, or further from, Nuln? With repairs were still underway on the Angry Beaver Hayley booked passage on another barge to get four of us to Nuln.  She set off with Zena, Gwyn and Tayy leaving Rubinifa, Sarah and Jenson to lay down a false trail for her uncle. On the journey Zena sold her protective cloak to Countess Hayley but unfortunately our Nobel leader was not able to attune to the mystical energy and it turned to dust in her hands. It seemed the false trail had failed as only a few hours into the journey a figure stepped out on to the bank and called to Zena.  He offered her, and then the captain, money to pull the boat over to the shore.  Zena offered the captain more and with the threatening presence of Gwyn standing over him the captain ordered his men to keep on rowing. More men came out of the bushes and started shooting arrows at the crew.  One of them also thre

Background A nostalgic dungeon delving Moldvay Basic D&D game which we have now been playing once a month for several years. It was an open table format but this time it turned into a mini campaign to travel the metropolis and purchase magical items.  The game is currently socially distanced being playing using Discord. Party:  Ugli & Heedor Dwarfs; Brigham Cleric of U'ta; Halvor Cleric of Yrt; Jade Elven Scout. Chapter 60 July 2022 - Goodbye to the Rift Unable to purchase magic items locally we began our quest to find another city which may have some for sale.  We discovered there was a weekly caravan that made the four day journey to the city of Selen.   Initially we negotiated to join as guards.  Having done that we were faced with the challenge of how to carry our wealth!  It seemed just at the point that we wanted lots of gems and jewellery the local shops were short of product.  We had to trek all round Rift City buying up everything we could find and then still h

Summary:  Spiritual Restoration ( what could go wrong... ) . Chapter 99 ~ Party with a Priestess Our barge limped its way into Heisenberg.  Captain Jamerson said we would have to hold up hear for a couple of days while repairs were carried out; turns out we had sprung a leak after the Goblin attack.  Fortunately the rest of our friends had arrived the day before.  All that back and we had done resulted in them getting ahead of us even though they had left later! Filling them in on the troubles with Hayley's uncle Zena and Rubinafa went off to scout the area and make sure they were not nearly.  The rest of us, including Sarah, checked into the inn needing time to recover from the serious wounds taken in the previous battle.  Tayy had to use almost all that remained of the companies funds to pay for two nights. Tayy half carried and half dragged Maddoc down to the Apothacary.  She could not heal wounds but did have potions for sale.  They were more expensive than Maddoc could afford

Summary:  Running away from our problems ( before they kill us ) . Chapter 98 ~ Funeral for a friend We stood in the graveyard as the priest said a final blessing for Flendac and his coffin was lowered into the ground.  A few of the local villagers were there offering condolences on our loss. Then one of the figures pushed back her cloak and stepped forward.  There was a sharp intake of breath from Madoc as he recognised Dagmar, the local outlaw chief and remembered he had tried to kill her . His hand tightened on the staff he held, the final gift Flendac had given him.  A light frost formed on the wood as he tensed expecting a fight.  Dagmar gave a wry smile as stepped in close to him.  " Given your in mourning I will let you live today.  After tomorrow though you will be joining him ".  Her hand scattered earth into the grave as she spoke.  Then she turned her back on the failed priest and strode away followed by her lieutenants. Everyone shuffled off to the Black Eagle for