[RPGs] The Trouble with Trolls

Last weekend, we resumed our AD&D game after a brief hiatus.

The party had discovered a pair of enchanted jars which transported a person from one jar to the other. One jar was located in the dungeon under the old ruined town of Poulcatte - we had moved it from where we had first discovered it to a more defensible location - while the other had been in an abandoned house in the new town of Poulcatte, until we moved it to our house (which we were forced to sell to the Temple in return for some Resurrections due to a partial TPK) and then to our lodgings at the Sleeping Dragon Inn. We had had some plans to use the jars to give us ready (and secret) access to the dungeon but, on the occasion of the partial TPK, we had discovered that the Trolls who had caused the partial TPK could also pass through the jars into the basement of our house.

 After a fierce battle, and some blind luck, the invading Trolls were dispatched, the dead members of the party were carted off for Resurrection, and the house - still reeking of burnt Troll - was handed over to the Temple to settle the outstanding bill.

A few days later (ie at the start of the latest session), the party decided to return to the dungeon to explore some more and, hopefully, recoup some of their financial losses.

Bayern finds two Trolls in the Jar Room - 15mm fighter figure from Splintered Light Miniatures, 15mm Trolls from Alternative Armies HoT Fantasy range, 15mm door from Ral Partha Europe, dungeon tiles from Hirst Arts

On our previous excursion - the one that went rather pear-shaped and nearly resulted in a TPK - Asingel the Mighty, Half-Elf Fighter, had been the first to pass through the Magic Jars into the Jar Room, and had then been surprised by the Trolls. This time, Bayern the Ranger decided to lead. Popping  out of the Magic Jar in the Jar Room, he discovered two Trolls peering down the hole at the far end of the room, which lead to the Giant Mushroom cavern.

Same scene, different angle - My first opportunity to use the dungeon tiles I had painted up. Very pleased with the result.

As he had Surprise on the trolls, Bayern was able to leap back through the Magic Jar to warn the rest of us of the presence of Trolls. Undeterred by the danger, we decided to attack! We discovered that by carefully positioning ourselves around the Magic Jar, multiple people could pass through the Jar at once.

The party enters the Jar Room and the Trolls attack.

Halbeard the Dwarf Fighter, Bayern the Ranger, and Asingel the Fighter formed the front rank, with Caine the Magic User/Cleric and Arloc the Fighter/Assassin in support. The Trolls obliged by charging.

After defeating the Trolls, the party debated which way to explore - through the large room at the end of the corridor, or further down the small passage that ran off to the left.

After a brief, yet fierce, battle, the Trolls were dispatched in the time-honoured fashion. During this process, it was noted that both Trolls had an oddly deformed ear. The party then debated as to which direction to explore.

Bayern spots another Troll - this settled the direction in which to explore. Each tile square is 6' so the Troll in the far room is just on the edge of Bayern's IR vision range.

At this point, Bayern scouted the hall outside the Jar Room and spotted another Troll lurking way down the passage in the next large room.

Bayern chases after the Troll as the rest of the party trail along behind.

As Bayern rangered his way down the hall, the Troll moved out of sight towards the door to the right. Giving chase, the party fought and dispatched this Troll as well. Again, it had a deformed ear - very puzzling.

Through the door to the right, we found a Magic Jar wedged in the ceiling of the next room. Periodically, a blob of flesh would drop through the jar, land on the floor, and then grow into a Troll. Ewww! We suspect that a Troll is trapped against the other end of the Magic Jar and as it regrows the damage inflicted upon it by the Jar, a piece of Troll flesh is removed by the Jar and dropped into this room, where it becomes a clone of the original Troll.

Bayern managed to wedge a piece of dungeon detritus into the mouth of the Jar, which seemed to stop the Troll pieces coming through. There is a possibility we have set up a feedback loop where the piece of Troll flesh will bounce backwards and forwards between the Magic Jars until a, rather confused, Troll regenerates and breaks out one end or the other.

Beyond this room, we found another series of corridors, and another Troll. This Troll was dispatched by Arloc who sneaked up and assassinated it.

To be continued ...

This was the first opportunity I have had to use my new Hirst Arts dungeon tiles. We were all pleased at how well these worked, and looked, on the table. I need to get another set, and some more doors and doorways.

[RPGs] A Funny Thing Happened while Down in the Dungeon

In a wave of nostalgia, my friend John started running an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D) game just before Christmas. Now, none of the Usual Suspects had played AD&D in upwards of 20 years, so it seemed like a good opportunity to introduce John's son, BJ (10 years old) and my wife, SJ, to the fun.

An Otyugh - the Orcs affectionately call him "Crapeater" 

The early sessions were a bit of a disaster from an experienced player's point of view - we all had heaps of fun but we had forgotten all the munchkinny things we used to do in dungeons to survive and make off with heaps of gold. We are, however, relearning these tricks. So far, we have met orcs, trolls, rats, spiders, skeletons, skeleton orcs, an otyugh (who nearly cleaned all our clocks!), more skeletons, some more trolls, some more orcs and .... some more freakin' skeletons.

Last night's session was a case in point. Having defeated two trolls, and having got messed up a bit, we decided to find a safe room and rest up for a day or so. On our way to the safe room, we met another troll whom we defeated, but not before he messed us up some more. We then staggered out of the dungeon and headed off to the temple to get BJ's character resurrected. After much financial shenanigans and robbing Pedro to pay Pricilla, we ended up back at the tavern to rest up for a few days.

Heading back into the dungeon, we checked out a hall near where we had defeated the two trolls, only to discover some nasty jelly things on the floor. Bayern the Ranger said, "Let's not go near these, they're nasty" and convinced us to try another corridor.

We looked into the large room and saw serried ranks of ...

 We headed down the corridor and opened a door and looked into a large room. In the middle distance we could make out humanoid forms, covered in dust and cobwebs, and standing in serried ranks. Bayern the Ranger fired an arrow at one, knocking off the dust and revealing ... a skeleton warrior!

Kane, SJ's Magic User/Cleric, attempted to Turn Undead and succeeded in making ... one ... skeleton turn and shamble away into the gloom.

The skeleton warriors attack!

The remaining 44 skeletons shambled towards us with hostile intent. Bayern the Ranger and BJ's character, Asinger the Fighter, held the doorway (as they had the best armour) while Kane the Magic User/Cleric and Arloc the Fighter/Assassin cowered behind their doughty friends and prepared flasks of oil to use as fire bombs.

Asinger (L) and Bayern (R) hold the door while Arloc (L) and Kane (R) rain firebombs on the Skeletons

 The warriors' blades went "snicker, snack", and the fire bombs went "wheeee, wumpha", but as soon as we drove the skeletons back, they would charge in against our line again.

The Skeletons surged in to attack again.

 As the room and hallway filled with dust and smoke and the smell of burnt bone, we could see the number of our foes dwindling. But our stocks of fire bombs were dwindling faster, and every wound our warriors took was one wound closer to seeing us over run.

And then ... there were two!

  At last, our firebombs all spent, our warriors weary and wounded, there were only two skeletons to stand against us. "Whack!", "Smack!" went the swords, and the last two skeletons were cloven in twain.

After that, we picked up some loot and found a corridor swathed in darkness and a Magic Mouth on a wall advising us to "Go Back".

At that point, it was nearly midnight and we oldies had to go home to get some sleep. I think BJ would have happily kept playing, given half a chance. Best moment was when BJ said "That was epic, Dad" and gave John a big hug.

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed AD&D. It's great to be playing it again. Thanks to SJ for the photos, taken on her phone.

[15mmFantasySkirmish] Oops, another diversion

Around the tail end of January, I succumbed to the siren call of 15mm Fantasy.

A few years ago, I had thought about getting into 15mm Fantasy as I've always had a hankering to play something Tolkien-ish, and even bought some Irregular Miniatures Orcs. These, I was rather disappointed with, especially as I then discovered Eureka Miniatures own, very Lord-of-the-Rings-movie-ish, Orcs from their own 18mm Fantasy range. The project, and the Irregular Orcs, ended up tossed in the back of Lead Mountain.

Recently, I've seen such excellent work in 15mm on the G+ 15mm Fantasy Miniatures group that I decided to revisit the scale and genre for myself. I ordered four warbands from Ral Partha Europe's Blight Haven range - Wood Elves, Dwarves, Dark Elf Ronin and Human Mercenary Warband.

While these were winging their way from Old Blighty to West Auckland, I recalled that amongst the Irregular Orcs I had put away were two trolls. I dug them out and painted them up.

Irregular Trolls

Back view

There is a certain asymmetry about these figures that is both annoyingly crude, and vaguely LoTR-movie-like.

Since the RPE figures have arrived, I have started painting the Wood Elves, and have undercoated the Dwarves. They are very nice figures and I'm very pleased with them.

A couple of weeks of work-madness has stalled the project but, on Friday, two little orders from Splinted Light and 15mm.co.uk arrived.

Cleaning up and basing new figures

I spent an hour this evening cleaning up and basing my new arrivals.

HoTT Griffin from 15mm.co.uk with Splintered Light Orcs and Goblins.

From Splintered Light, I received some very nice Orcs and Goblins, as well as a set of Adventurers. From 15mm.co.uk's HoTT range, I received a Griffin and a party pack of skeleton warriors.

HoTT Skeleton Warriors from 15mm.co.uk

I'm really looking forward to painting these guys up.

For Skirmish rules, I'm currently looking at Swordplay from Two Hour Wargames, as well as beta tests for Dungeon Crawl from Two Hour Wargames and Splintered Light's David McBride's Fantasy Skirmish Rules.