The Hill Giant Chief - Nosnra's Saga - Part 97

They wandered down the trail to where Gytha stood beside Ghibelline. The ranger talked with them, straight and tall, the grievous wounds he'd received healed by the cleric's faith and prayers.

"...be more." said Harald.

"I know, they will be hunting for us, those wolves of theirs will track us down," Ghibelline said.

"There are a few tricks to throw them off our trail," Harald glanced up and down the path. "But this place, they may lose our scent among all these bodies and blood."

 * * *

Telenstil had been right. The moons were up and still the party was on the move. It was slow going, and despite Harald's best efforts they were leaving an easy trail. They were heading north and west, away from the hills and up into the mountains, but they hadn't left the woods behind.

Low branches slashed at them, roots and stones caught their feet, made them trip and stumble; they followed a deer trail that weaved through the underbrush. The ground was rough and uneven, the trail narrow and lined with thornbushes, they moved with a slow and awkward pace.

Harald had gone ahead, some said that he had the elven sight but it wasn't true. It was Talberth and Gytha who had the worst of it, neither could see far in the dim moonlight. Gytha at least had some woodscraft, she'd lived within the hills and mountains of Geoff all her life, but Talberth had been born and raised in Greyhawk, the hub of the Oerth as he called it. The young mage knew much about the arcane crafts, had served as an apprentice to Telenstil and seen the world beyond his city's walls, but he had never been far from a campsite or an inn. He was not used to wandering through the woods at night, looking for a place to camp, forced to sleep out under the stars, his pack as a pillow and his arms folded about him for a blanket.

They traveled single file, the orcs last in line carrying Derue, the thief and young orc leading the others over the trail. The two humans were kept at the center of the file where those with the nighteyes could keep them from falling in the dark or straying from the path. There was a hiss, low and subdued, it came from the halfling and it brought them to a halt.

"There is a clearing up ahead," Harold whispered to Telenstil and Ivo.

"Where is Harald?" the elven mage asked.

"I have no idea," Harold snapped back. "What do you want us to do?"

"Did you see something?" Ivo asked him.

"Nothing but the end of this trail," said the thief. Harold was not pleased to come upon a surprise when his friend the ranger was somewhere ahead and nowhere to be seen. "He should have come back to warn us. I don't like this."

"Can you circle the clearing?" asked Telenstil.

"I can," said Ghibelline speaking over the gnome's head. "Let me go, I'll see what has happened to the ranger."

"I can do it," Harold said with a huff.

"You're as quiet as a mouse in slippers," said Ivo, "but Ghibelline has the woodscraft."

"Shhh..." hissed Ghibelline.

"Yea, quiet down." a voice said from nearby. Harald worked his way slowly from beneath a thornbush.

"Where were you?" demanded the thief.

"Sorry, you made better time than I expected," Harald replied. "I found us a decent spot. There is a spring up here and a small rise just beyond the clearing where we can camp."

"We nearly had to go looking for you," complained Harold.

 The ranger shrugged. "Good practice for you, out here you never know, scouting ahead is dangerous work, sometimes you don't come back."

"Harald," said Telenstil, cutting off the thief before he could say anymore, "Show us this place. We can all use the rest."

"Come then, follow me," Harald lead them down the last few feet of the trail into a small clearing, its western end held a small pond, but he took them to the northern edge

Review - The Manor #1 (repost)

NOTE: Reposting this old review because I will finally be sitting down and reviewing the other issues of The Manor (I'm only a few years delayed, but I've been busy)

The Manor Issue #1

(24 page digest-sized 'zine

Cover Art: Jason Sholtis

Interior Art: Jonathan Bingham

Contents:

Introduction: By Tim Shorts

The Salt Pit: By Tim Shorts

There's Something Shiny in the Troglodyte Dung Heap 1d12: By Jason Sholtis

Rural Pennsylvania: Ghoul House: By Tim Shorts

Poetry Slam: By Rusty Battle Axe

20 Random Forest Encounters: By Tim Shorts

Street Vendor: Oren's Boots: By Tim Shorts

There are a few things that always please me in a 'zine. A good cover, a few good ideas and a little of the magic that takes me back to the days when TSR meant Gygax and Co., Dragon Mag wasn't glossy and Judges Guild was just starting to crank out their first guidebook supplements/adventures and Dungeonneer was itself a digest-sized 'zine. Tim Shorts' The Manor succeeds in all of this for me.

To start with, I love the red and black troglodyte cover. It is begging to be used as an adventure hand-out and I intend to write a suitable encounter around it. That clawed hand is reaching for you! And note the pointy teeth. Definitely some claw/claw/bite headed the player's way.

And that is just the cover. Tim has managed to stuff his 'zine with a nice amount of material without making the font too small for me to read. As I get older the more I appreciate non-tiny font. The first article is tiny, a micro-adventure. On its own it is an itsy-bitsy adventure but it ties in nicely with other aspects of the 'zine and can be easily expanded. Just reading it over I can see several ways to run it and provide a few surprises to spring on the players. The Salt Pit would be handy as an encounter near the Village of Hommlet or somewhere near The Keep on the Borderland. With all the talk about zero-level funnels dropping a group of them down the Salt Pit is definitely an idea.

Jason Sholtis of roll1d12.blogspot.com comes up with excellent and varied random tables. His 'There is Something Shiny in the Troglodytes Dung Heap' is another of his short and amusing offerings though I needed to replace the car keys.

Rural PA: Ghouls House is a good inspiration for fantasy horror or somewhere that Lovecraft should have included in his stories. Pennsylvania is home to number of mines, abandoned farms and even towns that need very little work to use as an rpg setting. Tim has a found an excellent spot, the photos and description are good idea sources, though perhaps a little heavy on the ghouls.

Sadly the Poetry Slam did nothing for me, though I did like the Umber Hulk illustration.

20 Random Forest Encounters is a useful little table of encounters for a mostly low level part. There is a nice balance between those that could hurt, help or amuse the player characters.

Street Vendor: Orsen's boots presents a trio of useful NPC's and a trio of adventure hooks to go with them. These characters can be used as toss-away one time encounters or NPCs that can be used again and again.

The Manor Issue #1 is a successful entry into what seems to be a growing world of 'zines. I'd recommend going for the subscription.

You can find Tim Shorts at:

gothridgemanor.blogspot.com

Characters - #3) Gizurr - Berserker - Northman

#3) Gizurr - Berserker - Northman

-Ftr 6th Lvl - HP 56 (94 when Berserk) - AC 9 (4 when Berserk) +1 To hit (+3 to Hit/ +3 Dmg when Berserk). Immune to all spells and effects which attempt to slow, bind, charm, transmute or render unconscious while Berserk.

Gizuur lives in the hills above the fjord. He has been blessed by the Raven God with the red strength that comes from the old blood of bears. He is a sworn man to Rolfr and accompanies him on raids or when called upon at the settlement around the Fjord. When not raiding or fighting for Rolfr he works as a miner in the old caves and sells the red iron ore to the local smiths.

Once per day he can choose to go berserk (see Note). As a berserk wearing armor or even clothing is difficult as his muscles increase in size and he can split seams or cause damage to himself from the leather straps or chain links. He chooses to wear no shirt and only a loose kilt-like wrap of animal fur around his loins. For a weapon he wields an old axe called "Skull-Splitter" which can split a man from pate to breast bone on a natural '20' (double-damage on a save versus death magic otherwise an instant kill). Only those in a Berserk state can wield 'Skull-Splitter' properly and it is considered a holy weapon blessed by the

Raven King.

Note: Those blessed by the Raven King can go into a wild state called Berserking once per day. They can summon this state in a single combat round and it will last for 2 combat for every point of their constitution.

Their strength becomes exceptional and they are at +3 to Hit and +3 to Damage. Their AC becomes AC4 unless they are wearing armor of some sort which raises them to AC6 till it is removed. Many berserkers fight in the nude and at the very least fight bare-chested. Wearing metal armor causes 2HP of damage per combat round and leather armor will split and fall from their arms and chest.

 Berserkers gain HP equal to their maximum for both their level and their constitution bonus with a 10HP bonus. Thus a 6th level fighter with 18 constitution would have 94HP while berserk. If a berserker is injured beyond his natural HP he will collapse after leaving the berserk state, if he is injured to a point more than 10HP below his natural HP he will die immediately upon leaving the berserk state.

While in a berserk state the berserker is immune to all spells and effects magical that would cause him to be bound, lose consciousness, be hasted or slowed, charmed, or transmuted. He is immune to natural poison, pain, or injuries that would render him unconscious.

Once all enemies are dead a berserker will turn on his friends and most save versus spells to keep them for every combat round that the berserk state is in effect. A berserker cannot control the length of his berserk state (2xConstitution in combat rounds) and must remain berserk for the entire duration. Once a Berserker has left his berserk state he will be at -4 to Hit and -4 damage till he has rested for at least 12 hours.

New blog for archiving images

I am starting a new blog to archive images while I keep this blog for creative work. Here is the link to the new blog

http://vaultofthemountainking.blogspot.com/

Since I will be posting a considerable amount of material on the new blog I will not be sending the posts to G+ but just posting them to the blog so as not to overwhelm the stream of anyone following my posts.

Bosch, Hieronymus - The Garden of Earthly Delights (detail)

Baron Festeburt's Manor

Baron Festeburt's Manor

NOTE: Inspired by Tim Short's map and adventure work I've decided to throw my own hat into the ring and try to do some rough map work of my own. To start off a new campaign I want to have some local areas a group of players can use as a source for training, plot hooks and adventure ideas. The local lord or squire's manor is a good place for adventurers to find all three so here is my first sketch of Baron Festeburt's manor. More detailed maps and descriptions to follow.

Wormy's World - Characters - Irving - From Dragon #10

Wormy's World - Characters - Irving - From Dragon #10

Irving can hear the dwarves singing their song of revenge for their stolen bowling balls outside of Wormy's door and wonders if he is going to burn them to a crisp or 'Stump' them. Wormy plans on stumping them alright, but with a riddle.  Irving's not sure if the dwarves are going to buy the old dragon riddle game, but Wormy isn't worried. He didn't buy the dwarves bowling balls in the first place. He stole them. Irving chuckles appreciatively.