Game log 27 August 2023: I've been through the woods on a Tonfa Guy with no name, and I bet his back hurts

Personae dramatis

Honsou, thief and item smasher
Tonfa Guy, doesn't speak or have a name but has a tonfa
Felcanis, elven cleric
Grignok, handsome orc druid

Quid occurrit

The next morning the heroes all wake up from the floor of the Scarlet Harlot. Suddenly with them is a guy with a tonfa and a hood who says nothing. Honsou pickpockets the tonfa guy but the tonfa guy is broke, so Honsou gets lint. Mateo finds the Tonfa Guy to be bothersome so he takes off.

The heroes chat among themselves about the spiders. Honsou gets the idea to find a sage, and after asking some blokes over breakfast, he learns there are two sages in town, Dénnos and Prainêr.  

They go to Dénnos's cottage amid the gathering storm clouds, and a middle-aged man opens the door. A middle-aged, middle-class man opens the door, and Honsou says  Honsou says the Tonfa Guy is hungry. The man at the door says, "Oh, good gravy! Your friend should go to a tavern!" Tonfa Guy looks over at Honsou and narrows his eyes. The man with the twisted ear raises his eyebrow. "Well, good gravy, why have you come here?" Tonfa Guy holds up his fingers to Honsou rubbing them together to indicate the sign for money, but Honsou, Felcanis, and Grignok tell the man about the spiders.

The man raises an eyebrow. "All these giant spiders! Where are they? I'd like to see some." Honsou says they're in the Eldalîvā Woods outside of Bóllā, and the man lights up. "You guys should be thrilled that I have had some light enter my life again and I want to get out and further my studies." He introduces himself as Dénnos, and the heroes tell him who they are. Dénnos shrugs. "Well, first meeting, I guess. Never heard of any of you." Dénnos goes to hit his books to find out about giant spiders, especially in the Bóllā area.

Honsou looks around for things to steal, and Dénnos scowls when he sees Honsou looking over his house. "Watch it!" Dénnos's lip curls, then he pulls something out of a book. "Well, I have this letter from this wayfarer coming from the woods, and it seems there's something humanoid with the spiders, at least from what hints the survivors saw. Ettercaps do often live among spiders. I'd like to study ettercaps. They're like giants, which is my area." Honsou tells them there were indeed ettercaps there. "Oh, what kind of traps did they have?" Honsou tells him about the sticky floor. "Oh, the webbing in the den is sticky? Very interesting." They leave and agree to meet up the next morning, a downpour having started while they were outside.

The next day is clear so they set forth. Dénnos has a pack and some gear, including armor and a sword, and brings along with a horse and mule. "I've kept it up from my time in the Reapers. Let's go."

The day is uneventful, and they. make it to Bóllā by nightfall. The lookout there scowls then cackles madly. "You'll be sorry again!" Then he yawns and leans back and sleep.

Dénnos wants to visit the lord of the manor, so they go to the manor, and Lady Savendótē lets them inside. "Let me guess, the spiders again, right? I hope you weren't the one who took the cow." Tonfa Guy looks at Honsou quizzically. Lady Savendótē smiles. "Oh, yes, Honsou loves the livestock. A little more than most, from what they say." She giggles. Tonfa Guy gives Honsou a friendly elbow, and Honsou says at first that he didn't take the cow, then that he sold her. Lady Savendótē says, "Don't worry, we know the spiders got your date."

Lady Savendótē says, "I do hope you don't mind picking out a campsite for the night." Honsou asks if they can stay in town again, and she says, "No, Honsou, we do not want you in town again. And you'll be able to better monitor the spiders if they show up."

Honsou sees the cheese and jerky from their rations on the ground when he goes outside after Tonfa Guy rifled through them. Grignok sets up camp, and Honsou finds that the cows are inside the serf hovels, so he cannot use one as bait. The night passes, and no spiders come along. Well, none of the big ones. There were a couple of smaller ones that spun webs on Honsou's bow. The spiders don't carry off the jerky and cheese the annoying vegetarian tossed on the ground.

Grignok leads the group into the woods. He doesn't always pay the best heed to the path, and they get to the same green glowing tree as before. Honsou checks out the tree, and hears a rattle coming from inside. Honsou steps back and throws a stick inside, and the rattle gets louder, and a hiss joins the rattle. He hears a twig break behind him as he steps from the tree.

They turn, and there are five hobbits with hobbit-sized spears behind them. Tonfa Guy waits to see what they do. One of the hobbits hisses, "Go away, and take your pet with you!" pointing at Grignok. Honsou hints at killing at all of them, and the lead hobbit moves for the others to step back. "Watch it, we're a clan. We have others." The hobbits once again step back, then step back again and again. "We don't want any trouble."

Honsou suggests they wander off, and they look at each other, then wander away unusually fast. The rest of the day is not too thrilling. Bill steps in a trough filled with badger dung not long before they stop and camp. At the end, Felcanis sets up camp.

Res aliae

Nope, Tonfa Guy has no name. Right now his character sheet is in flux (ninja, if someone wants to make a pitch), but the name "Tonfa Guy" will survive any tweaks. 

Game log 19 March 2023: Along came a spider

Personae dramatis

Mateo de Leon Garcia, stylish red wizard

Grignok, orc druid often in panther shape
Felcanis, elf cleric
Honsou, larcenous bowman

Quid occurrit

That morning, it's raining heavily. Grignok finds a trail to track the spiders. "Aye, they are coming from the east, but a bit south as well."

After a couple of hours, the rain starts to let up. The gang sees a tree that seems to be giving off a green glow coming from inside; it looks like a hollow tree about a yard wide. Mateo checks out the tree, and when his face is less than a foot from the tree, a rattlesnake springs out and tries to bite him! It misses his face and gets its fangs stuck on the armor on his shoulder, letting him back away. The snake hisses and rattles its tail, and the heroes back away and realize that the spiders are way too big to go inside this tree, so they keep going deeper into the woods.

A couple more hours later, a big branch falls from a tree onto them. Nobody gets away, but the branch doesn't hurt them too much and they can get it off. They keep following the spider tracks into the thickening woods.

After some more walking, they see a hill with a grove atop it. Honsou slowly makes his way up the hill, and sees that four trees look a little darker, its branches look twisted with few leaves, and each has a big scar on its trunk. In the middle of the trees is a hole that would be a tight fit for a man.

Honsou gets back and tells the others of what he saw. Grignok says that the trees look fine to him, and so he casts Plant Speech and walks up the hill. After walking a few feet, he tells the others that the trees say they're welcome to come up the hill and go into the hole, and that they haven't seen any spiders, but there are badgers down there. Mateo tells Grignok that they'll move on and to thank the trees.

When evening hits, Felcanis sets up camp in the thick woods. She heals everyone, and casts Watchdog, while Grignok casts Mystic Mist. In the middle of the night, Mateo hears rustling, and Felcanis wakes up. Mateo sees a spider bigger than a man poking around at the edge of the mist. The spider doesn't seem to know where it's going so it slowly moves around, giving them all time to wake up and get ready.

Honsou aims with his bow, while Mateo shoots it with his crossbow. The spider tries to move away, but the mist bewilders it. Grignok casts Beast Speech, and Felcanis casts Armor DR 2 on Mateo. All of this is moot when Honsou shoots it in the face, knocking it out.

Felcanis casts Minor Healing to heal it a little, and Grignok casts Beast Speech again. He asks the spider where it lairs, and it says that it lives nearby in then thick woods, towards the rising sun. With that, Mateo fires again, ending its life.

Game notes for 17 March 2019, 14 April 2019, and 28 April 2019: The Trifecta

Dramatis personae

Xoran, fox-man ("rúskwē") swordsman
Mayhem, pint-sized barbarian
Josiah, a wandering minstrel he
Ash, knight
Nikotsu, mercenary
Caleb, wizard
Maquia, huntress cleric
Kôštē, NPC cleric

Quid occurrit

Maquia, a cleric, and Nikotsu, a swordswoman, chance upon Josiah’s farm, having heard about the ogre and his sword. Josiah doesn’t have any armor. Maquia recognizes the goo tree. There they go into the mine and down the lit-up tunnels and find the heroes. Ash hears them as he’s on point, turns off some torches, and he and Xóran get ready.

They go back to Fort Rénnutēs. Josiah has to ask his father if he can go and take his armor. His father says sure, but he isn’t his son. Instead, Josiah came to him as a baby, and his adoptive father has some old mail armor for him. Ash tries fitting the cheap heavy mail for Josiah. Then they set forth for town, and it takes seven days. Not much happened other than Caleb twisting his ankle, but Maquia sets his wounds.

They spend a week in town. Nikotsu sells their booty, leaving with enough to live well, while the others listen for leads on work. Josiah hears of a big dungeon in Dībités Rock in the woods, Ash hears of bandits and demons at the Abbey of the Respectful Warrior in the hills (not far from where they had fought the ogres, as it happens), and Mayhem hears of a dragon to the north of the woods who sits on a bow that never misses. The gang chooses to go for the dragon, with Maquia staying behind after slapping Xóran once she learns of his wariness towards blondes.

They set forth on the road both north and west, and run into seventeen giant bees, all of whom they either kill off or send flying away. Caleb gets a meal off a bee’s flesh, while Mayhem gets a dose of bee poison. Caleb talks about going after the bees instead of the dragon, but nobody else is interested. As Xóran says, they’re not going to try to kill the dragon, but instead want to take its hoard.

The next day, they go into the woods, after Maquia, having forgiven Xóran, shows up. They go into the woods, and see husks of white rope. Mayhem and Xóran, among others, know this to be the webbing of giant spiders, so stick to the north of there. The land slopes downward, and they reach a watery spot with caves and broken tree limbs on the ground. Xóran smells something odd, but they keep going, and Caleb doesn’t see anything in the caves.

That night, they make camp, and while on watch, Maquia spots two man-sized lizards that look like wingless dragons—tarakks. She slips behind a tree, and warns the others. Xóran slips into the night, and the heroes take on the tarakks. Aside from Nikotsu taking a breath of fire, they win unhurt, and Xóran takes their flesh for food.

Mayhem is easily able to find their tracks, and thus comes up with the idea of tracking them back to their lair. The heroes easily find the lair, a burrow on a hill, and again beat the tarakks, this time four of them. Xóran slips into their burrow after getting an Armor spell from Caleb, and finds the tarakks’ loot: copper, silver, and a gold button.

That night, they again talk about what to do next. Caleb keeps babbling on about the bees, and Maquia says that they should give in just so Caleb would shut up about them. Xóran, Mayhem, and Nikotsu want to go after the werewolf, and want to get back to town to get silvered weapons, as Caleb says that’s the only good way to hit them. Either way, they think that they don’t need to take on the dragon now, as they have loot and the dragon would be suicide.

They set forth back to town. They keep away from a herd of bison in the hilly land, but while camping, Xóran and Nikotsu see four jackals skulking around their camp. Again, they make short work of them, then keep going for town the next day, staying out of the woods after they see three giant spiders in there, watching them from their webs but not springing out for them.

That evening they make it to Ābûsun. While walking into the market village, the Town Watch stops them, and tells them that they must get sleeping space and drinks at the taverns or leave the village. Much of the village is in the trees, but they stay at the Feral Daughter, a tavern on the ground. There, they listen for chatter, and Xóran hears about goblins having an uprising at the mines, and Ash about kobolds hitting Kerváron.

Old news.

An elf smoking a nasty herb does beckon Xóran to him. He and Nikotsu come to listen to him. “We don’t see many rúskwi around here,” he tells Xóran, “though Ābûsun is a little more noble, a little more elvish.”

Nikotsu rolls her eyes. “Get to the point.”

The elf smiles at her. “Young lady, your race is always so impatient.” With that, Nikotsu walks away and gets a drink, and Xóran takes the chance and beckons Josiah to bring the white-haired elf, whose name is Alinéllo, a drink. “Anyways, there is an old village which a gang of orcs, the Vile Hand, now have. What you might want to know is that a sword that was well-known in my youth called Grân might be there, and strapping youths like you might want it. You’re better folks than those damn orcs, that’s for sure.” After finding out that Alinéllo is 408-years-young, Xóran gives him silver buckle for the information.

They make it to Mīštássun the next day, and now choose to go to the Abbey of the Respectful Warrior and fight the bandits there for their loot. They follow the river into the hills, and see another campfire to the northwest while camping. However, they stay near the river, and later the next day smoke out a bunch of rattlesnake swarms.

Res aliae

Three logs in one. I'm a lazy rotter, though I did have some school projects going on. Alright, most of that was in May. My excuses suck ass.

Nikotsu and Maquia are two new PCs whose players are not new to me: they're my daughters, aged 13 and 11. Sophie, my younger daughter, did have some issues with how Xóran didn't like blondes after his bad time with the lich (Maquia is a blonde), and stormed off for the last part of the first session, already bored to tears. Amazingly, she came back. She's also played Nikotsu a little bit in combat on 14 April (the tarakks) to cover for her sister Hannah, who was elsewhere, as she'll be this session (mom and grandpa want a fishing partner).

Josiah is the new character of Brandon, who played the late Uruk.

I do have some plans for blog posts besides game logs. Namely, now that some of the Kickstarter Backers have Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 2, some of the monsters I had developed for possible publication now have Kromm versions, and if nothing else I'll share my own work.

Game logs 20 January and 3 February 2019: Binder of Glory

Dramatis personae

Mayhem, short barbarian
Caleb, wizard
Ash, squire
Kim, procurement expert
Xoran, fox man
Grymalkus, not quite as whiny as usual cleric
Attikos, holy warrior
Uruk, orc soldier

Kôštē, cleric of farming

Quid occurrit

The gang healed up until noon. Then, aside from Kim and Attikos (who was still passed out), they went down into the cave. They chose to go away from the undead, into another room. After blowing past that door (Caleb critically succeeded twice in a row with the Rive spell), they turned back. (I have no idea why.)

They went back to Fort Rénnutēs, dumping healing spells for two days into Attikos so he'd wake up without dying of dehydration. (I missed having him roll HT to wake up in the evening, though this would have been near result if he had failed.)

On the way, they saw a weird-looking chicken by a cave. As there were few settlements in the hills, they guessed it was a lone cockatrix. Mayhem made a mating call (Mimicry), making it randy and having it come near them. However, as it came nearer, it made Grymalkus and Ash ill. Caleb missed with Fireball, but Uruk shot it twice.

Back at Fort Rénnutēs, Kim, Attikos, and Grymalkus left, while Kôštē the cleric rejoined. The next day, they went a little southwest and tracked down the six orcs who ran from the attack on the fort. 

From there it was mostly a slaughter fest. Mayhem asked, “Where the orc women at?” The orcs, not having seen the gang, turned. Xoran plunked one with an arrow, Caleb started casting Blast Ball, and Mayhem said, “I want some!” The orcs pulled out their bows and falchions, and moved to fight.

Xoran shot the orc again, which rushed Mayhem and missed. Caleb got off his Blast Ball, which scorched all three orc archers, and spoiled the aim of two of them. Xoran dropped his bow, whipped out his swords, and moved to strike but missed, as did Mayhem.

Two orcs hit Mayhem, which just made him mad. Ash blocked the blow of the third, and the archers drew their falchions. Caleb fired up Sunbolt, and Xoran got one in the neck. Mayhem, now mad, took out two with neck shots. The orc archers chose to keep fighting, however, and moved to fight. Xoran took out another, and Ash poked the last one in the neck. He kept fighting, however, and Xoran missed him as he moved to fight. Mayhem, however, wasn’t so unlucky, and lopped off his head before killing the last orc.

They set went north from there. After passing a hole one day, they came to a big cave the next, where Uruk stomped a rattlesnake to death.

The day after that, they made it to the ogre cave early, but after first finding a rock covered in odd oil (which Caleb held back from burning) then a falling rock smashing into Uruk. Uruk led everyone to the room with the undead, and opened the door. He announced, "Remember me, bitches?" Nothing happened, so he smashed open the first casket.

The dead body in the casket was a draug with an axe, which it swung at Uruk, making him go berserk. The other caskets opened, and the heroes went into the room. Mayhem smacked his axe into the neck of one of the draugr near the door, while Uruk hit draug that had made him mad. The draug smacked Uruk right back, while the one near Mayhem reached up and hit Ash, who was standing nearby. Unlike most other blows, this one got through Ash’s armor. The other draugr sat up.

Xoran, Mayhem, and Ash all tried to take out draugr, and all three failed. Uruk, however, hit the one on him, while Caleb shot Acid Jet at the nearby coffin, which had the draug that Mayhem and Ash were fighting. The one by Mayhem and Ash missed Mayhem, while the one by Xoran dropped its axe as it tried to hit him (critical success Parry). The others stood up.

Mayhem at last took out the draug by him, and Xoran got in two neck shots on the draug near him. Uruk got a good whack on the draug fighting him, while Caleb started casting his old friend, Blast Ball. The draug by Uruk hit him, while the others got out of their caskets.

The draug fighting Xoran at last stood up, just in time for Xoran to take off its head. Mayhem tried hitting the hand of a draug near him, but it blocked his axe with its shield. Uruk flailed at the draug fighting him but did nothing, and Caleb lobbed his Blast Ball, but the draugr near ground zero got out of the way.

The draug on Uruk kept hurting him, while the one fighting Mayhem lost its balance from Mayhem’s parry. The others rushed in to fight, and missed; Ash at this time smashed one in the head, which didn’t seem to do anything. Xoran turned and tried to take off the leg of a draug that had rushed to fight him but didn’t get through, while Mayhem again had his try to take off the draug’s hand blocked. Ash missed the skull of the one on him. Uruk dropped his shield and axe, then grabbed the hand of the draug fighting him. Caleb again fired up Blast Ball.

The draug on Mayhem hit him and wrecked Mayhem’s grip on his axe, though he somehow held on. Mayhem went berserk, either from was the pain or the bad grip. Xoran parried both of the draugr fighting him, but a blow from one got through Ash’s armor. One by Uruk harmed him, but whose hand Uruk was holding couldn’t break free.

Mayhem got his axe ready, and both Xoran and Ash missed the draugr by them. Uruk twisted the hand of the hand of the draug up to its head, then crushed in its skull with his hands. Caleb lobbed Blast Ball and scorched two draugr from behind.

The draugr by the upset Mayhem and Uruk both hurt them, but the one on Ash met his shield and the one on Xoran met his swords. Xoran then use one sword to fake out the draug while planting his sword in its neck. Mayhem at last got his axe to the draug’s hand, crippling it and making it drop it axe. Ash feinted with his sword, while Uruk grappled the other draug by him. Caleb low on fatigue, lit up a small Fireball, while Kôštē, holding the door nearby, cast Lend Energy on Caleb.

Mayhem’s armor and Ash’s shield took the blow from two draugr, much as did Xoran’s swords from two more. Uruk’s draug was unable to break free of his grip. Xoran again tricked a draug with a feint, and then took it down with a neck blow. Mayhem, in his rage, saw this, and did the same feint and neck blow takedown trick. Ash’s feint also worked, and he gave the draug by him some nasty neck damage, though it still stood. Uruk again crushed the skull of the draug he grappled. Caleb threw a Fireball at a draug, but both it and Ash got out of the way.

The draug on Ash tried for his open face, but missed, while the one still fighting Xoran had its blow land on one of his swords. Xoran tried to hit the neck of that draug but missed, while Mayhem’s axe met the shield of another draug. Likewise, Ash also missed. Uruk then grabbed yet another draug, and Caleb cast a bigger Fireball.

The draug on Ash swung a bit low and hit him on the Armor of the Ape, not hurting him, but knocking him back a few feet. The one Uruk was grabbing slowly wiggled free. Xoran got one draug in the chest with a stab, but it still stood. Mayhem’s axe again met shield while Ash’s sword again met steel. Uruk imposed more grip on the draug he was grabbing, while Caleb’s Fireball again missed both the draug and Ash.

The draug grappling with Uruk again started to work free while the one fighting Ash lost his grip. Xoran lost his balance as he tried to stab a draug, while Mayhem and Ash both missed. Uruk grabbed the draug tighter, while Caleb fired up yet another Fireball.

The draug with Uruk tried to wiggle free, while the one fighting Ash smacked him in the face, taking him to the ground. Xoran stabbed a draug’s head from behind, taking it down, and Mayhem planted his axe into the torso of another, taking it down.

Uruk crushed the skull of the last one. He looked up, and fell down, now dead from his wounds.

Res aliae

The fight was against 8 draugr. They were helped by the first few draugr having to fight from lying down, but the ability to do 4d6+2 cutting damage has a way of equalizing that.

Mayhem and Uruk both went Berserk. Uruk took so much damage that he dropped dead of the fatigue loss at the end of combat. (He was spending fatigue on mighty blows.)

Xóran learned the worth of feinting. With two swords, this is a great idea, especially since someone with Broadsword-20 has more skill than most foes. He also didn't get a scratch on him owing to parrying with two swords.

Grappling is a good idea against draugr with 27 HP, but not foolproof. They can impose 2d6+3 control points right back. But it turned their shields into liabilities, turning their main defense from a Parry or Block of 12 +2 DB for the shield to a Dodge of 11 -2 DB for the shield.

Ash also took damage, namely smacks to the face but also 4d6+2 cutting to the body. Having a DR 14 breastplate may be great against bandits, but not against someone with ST 22.

Having these guys go down at 0 HP made this fight much easier. With their obscene HT 15, they could have functioned below 0 HP had I chosen not to call them meaningless mooks. Having said that, I see that I missed that they shouldn't have been able to parry as much as they did, having axes.

The death of Uruk

Psycho Dave: “Weasly your character is dead, since there are no clerics nearby you may add your character sheet to the binder of shame.” 

… 

Me: “What exactly is a Binder of Shame? And why is it so large?” 

Psycho Dave: “Every D&D game has many binders but each D&D game must have a Binder of Shame and a Binder of Glory. The player characters that die heroic deaths are saved forever in the page protectors of the Binder of Glory. The characters that suffer, humiliating, soul-crushing deaths go into the Binder of Shame. It’s a sign of quality GMing to have a Binder of Shame three times the size of your Binder of Glory.”

Uruk goes into the Binder of Glory.

Game log for 3 January 2016

Short session

I was tired, and I left my iPad behind, so I was going off my notes on my phone. One of the players told me the next day that I didn’t look good. Anyways, we spent awhile updating character sheets and spending points.



The day after the summer solstice, the gang set forth to go back to Dībités Rock and loot its dungeon. In the afternoon, they came into the path of eight wayfarers. After greeting each other, the leader, a gaunt woman named Grádē who talked about herself in the third person, asked the heroes if they had heard the word of Ga’an. Yémos had heard of the god Ga’an, who had something to do with a mountain, so he said they had, but had more pressing duties. Grádē told heroes that the worshippers at Fort Rénnutēs were heretics. After the wayfarers left, Caleb said that Fort Rénnutēs was a keep in the Áos Hills, not all that far from the mines.

They made camp, and the next morning, it rained. After the rain storm, Caleb, Kim, Yémos, and Kúflaug had a small tree fall on them, though luckily nobody was too hurt. That afternoon, they saw a swarm of 28 giant bees coming at them, but they held fast, and let the bees fly above them. That night, while keeping watch, Kim had a rattlesnake spring up on her, but she killed it before it bit her.