Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Iron Kingdoms Adventure Log Session 1- Bitter Medicine

Hi All,

I am currently running an Iron Kingdoms RPG game for some of my friends. We just completed session 3. I decided to keep a written record of the game (from a players perspective in case any of them see this.) I am using a published adventure. This Entry was written by my wife A. Enjoy!

The Cast



Leopold - A Human Pistoleer/field Mechanic with his helpful laborjack Old Smokey.



Prudence- A Dwarf Bounty Hunter/field Mechanic with her laborjack Cornaro



Rahl- A Human Warcaster/Tempest Gun Mage. A member of the Cygnarian Military and a true  patriot 



Evangeline (Evie) - an Iosian (Elf) - Alchemist/Mage Hunter with a penchant for throwing grenades.



Morrigan - A Nyss (Elf) - Urban Nomad/Investigator A master of the Nyss Claymore (a Big sword) and the most outspoken member of the party.

Later 



Bruce Clemons - A human Ranger/Soldier (Think Aragorn meets Gunny Highway) The quiet ones are usually the most Deadly



Sylvestra - Human Arcanist/Fire Sorcerer who is on the trail of the a fellow mage who betrayed her old team and left her to die.

Also starring (NPCs)



Alma Barlow- Human Alchemist in training. She is the assistant of Doctor Gateu


Doctor Henri Gateu - Human Alchemist one of the leading medical professionals in the country.

***




When we first meet our intrepid heroes, they are traveling on a train called “The Gilded Star” to the town of Bainsmarket in the far north of Cygnar. There has been an outbreak of Bloody Sweats and the train is carrying medical supplies that the area desperately needs.


The Bloody Sweats
Bloody Sweats is a highly contagious, airborne fever. It has a rapid incubation period of less than 24 hours. This is followed by a prolonged prodromal stage, during which symptoms begin to manifest, which can last several weeks. Initial symptoms include high fever, open sores, and frequent, heavy nose bleeds. In the final stage, the patient bleeds from every pore, which is how the disease earned its name. The longer the disease goes untreated, the lower the patient’s chances of recovery are. Once the disease is full-blown, the death rate is over 70%.


Train Layout
Engine – Coal – Staff – Dining – Passenger – Special Cargo – Regular Cargo – Caboose

The company was hired as additional guards for the shipment. The primary contingent of guards are in the sixth railcar, designated for special cargo, with the medical supplies. The company is traveling one car forward, in the passenger car, to keep a low profile. Evangeline (a.k.a. Evie) is an alchemist with some medical training. So, the company decided to use the cover story that Evie is going to the region to assist with the outbreak and Rahl, Prudence, and Leopold are there as companions and protection.
Morrigan, the fifth and most recent member of their team, considers it unwise for all of them to appear as a group. So, she distanced herself from the others during the journey, choosing to read in the opposite corner of the railcar, while the team gathered at one of the circular booths near the front. She also has medical training. So, if anyone were bold enough to ask the anti-social Nyss her business, she could use the same cover story as Evie.
 Bitter over the separation, Prudence made many sly comments about Morrigan reading her book upside down. This was, of course, pure slander, which the noble Nyss ignored.
But things were not all sunshine and roses in the front of the railcar either. A cloud was looming over the company…in the form of the smoke produced by Rahl’s warcaster armor. Despite his repeated protests that the suit was in low-power mode, and thus was hardly producing any smoke at all, many of the passengers decided to open their windows. Evie went so far as to move to halfway down the railcar and switch to the opposite side. It is suspected that she stopped at this particular bench because of the black cat sleeping peacefully there. The cat tolerated her presence, so all was well. (Except with Rahl, who was annoyed that everyone was bad-mouthing his armor.)
*~*~*
The Gilded Star started out of Steelwater Flats, traveling northeast around the curve of the Upper Wyrmwall mountains, on its way to Bainsmarket, which sits on the Cygnar/Khador border. The train made one planned stop in Fharin to re-supply and pick up a few passengers. Due to the time-sensitive nature of the mission, this was the only stop planned.
The train would soon be leaving the shadow of the mountains, and it was looking like this particular adventure would be boringly uneventful, when one of the passengers suddenly stood and cried out in alarm.
The company, and in fact every passenger on the railcar, looked questioningly at the man as he patted all of his pockets. Eventually, he found the misplaced watch and looked around sheepishly at those he’d disturbed with his absent-minded antics. Most went back to whatever they’d been doing, but the group in the corner stared at him overlong. This prompted the man to go over an apologize further.
With a surfeit of embarrassment, Dr. Henri Gateu introduced himself and his young traveling companion, Miss Alma Barlow. He made additional apologies, but gave no real explanation for his overblown distress. Then Dr. Gateu and Alma were invited to sit down at the booth. But the doctor soon excused himself to use the restroom one car up in the dining car, while Alma stayed at the table.
She explained that she was raised in a small town and that she met the doctor when he came to their area due to an outbreak of sickness, similar to their current mission in Bainsmarket. She asked to travel with him as his assistant and apprentice. He agreed and they’ve been together for the last five years.
When she ran out of things to say about herself, Alma, being nervous around such rough-looking types, continued to babble about whatever came into her head. She ended up revealing that the watch, which the doctor had thought lost, was a gift from his late wife. As such, it is extremely precious to him and he panics whenever he thinks it lost. Being an absent-minded fellow, this happens somewhat often.
Unfortunately for Alma, her willingness to reveal personal details about her employer did not endear her to the company. She immediately felt the tension increase as several members of the group became quite suspicious of her.
*~*~*
A second cry of alarm. Another misplaced pocket-watch? No. A rider, coming over the hill and kicking up a cloud of dust in his wake. Then another and another. Soon an entire line of horsemen could be seen charging straight at the train, along with a buckboard with an obviously military grade machine gun (called a mini slugger) mounted in the back.
The company analyzed the situation and immediately determined that this was not an innocent calvary charge, but a line of raiders intent on attacking the train. This notion was confirmed when the mini slugger started strafing the train with bullets.
Wasting no time, the company sprang into action….and scattered. Rahl stood up and opened the railcar door next to him, then stepped out onto the platform between cars. Leopold moved to the opposite side of the car to shoot at the raiders. Evie chucked a grenade through the open window and managed to hit the buckboard, setting it on fire and ending the constant barrage, which had already managed to kill or injure people in several railcars. Prudence moved from the front of the railcar to the back, on her way towards the cargo the company was being paid to protect. Trust a dwarf to move in the direction of the “money”. Morrigan analyzed the situation, determined that the raiders might try to stop the train, dropped her book on her bench and charged down the aisle on her way to the engine, somehow managing to avoid slamming into Prudence on the way. (Unfortunately, she did not communicate any intentions to her teammates and therefore did not earn any teamwork bonuses from the divine puppet-master known as the GM. But hey, what can you expect from an anti-social Nyss? But then again, none of the other party members did any talking either.) Morrigan moved into the dining car, leaving the doors to both railcars open in her wake.
***
Back in the passenger car…By this time, the raiders had reached the train and were climbing aboard. The first Bandit (who will be known as Steve) opened the rear door of the passenger car and tossed in a grenade without really aiming before ducking to the side of the open door for cover. It sailed over Prudence’s head and landed in the aisle between Leopold and Evie. Amazingly, neither one was injured. However, there was a large hole in the aisle floor and the cat was not seen again.
A second bandit (a.k.a. Fred) moved into the railcar and shot pointblank at Prudence, who was right in front of him in the aisle, before diving for cover in the bench seat that Morrigan vacated seconds before. It wasn’t enough cover though because Leopold managed to wound Fred badly. He was still in the fight, but not for long.
Prudence climbed up onto the bench in front of Fred, raised up her mace, and brought it crashing down on top of Fred’s head. Fred was then dead. Prudence promptly planted her free hand on the top of the bench and vaulted over the back to duck down behind Fred’s corpse, prepared to use her dead adversary as cover against his compatriots who were still coming into the car. It was very cinematic.
The third bandit (who we shall refer to as Mac) stepped into the railcar and tossed a grenade at Evie. It missed her, but hit Leopold full in the face. Apparently, he had a chance to buy a helmet with a facemask and didn’t do so. Mistake? Not necessarily. Some people look fine without eyebrows. But the railcar did NOT look fine with a significant portion of the wall missing. Leopold stayed on the train due to a judicious use of “GM magic”. Mac takes cover in the area directly across from Prudence.
Getting back into the action, Steve charged towards Evie, who had stepped out into the aisle at this point. Leopold shoots him dead.
Prudence hefted Fred’s body and tried to throw it across the aisle at Mac. She managed to get him in the air, but she’d taken serious damage by this time and her agility was suffering. Prudence slipped in the blood pouring from Fred’s head wound and pooling at her feet. As a result, his body landed in the aisle instead of slamming into Mac. Enraged, Mac stepped over his fallen comrade and came straight at Prudence. Backed into a corner, seriously injured, no support close at hand, Prudence had no choice but to make him regret that move. With some help from Evie, Mac also went down.
***
While Prudence, Leopold, and Evie were dealing with Steve, Fred, and Mac, Morrigan and Rahl were in the dining car.
On her way towards the engine, Morrigan saw Alma cowering under the table and seriously considered kicking her, but ultimately decided that now was not the time. And there was always the chance that she wasn’t mixed up in all of this. Being of a suspicious nature, Morrigan wasn’t convinced on that point, but she’d deal with it later. So, instead of kicking her, she just gave Alma a look that had the other woman scurrying back into the corner of the booth, under the bench seat.
When she stepped into the dining car, she saw two bandits manhandling Dr. Gateu off the train at the front of the railcar.
Great weapons are long. And railcars have limited headroom. So Morrigan did not ready her Nyss Great Sword, but instead pulled out her bow. “I really need a smaller weapon for close-in fighting,” she thought. “Too bad the GM decided to do me a ‘favor’ and not give me one before putting me on a train. Note to self, have ‘chat’ with GM after this.” Morrigan fired in an attempt to rescue the doctor. Unfortunately, moving railcars are not the best platform from which to fire, so while one of her arrows did wound a raider, the other ended up grazing the doctor’s arm. Two words: Hand weapon.
Rahl followed Morrigan into the dining car and also fired at the miscreants, after casting a combat spell in their direction. One raider went down, but the other got away with the doctor. During the altercation, the raiders returned fire and managed to take down Rahl’s power field, but he got it back up quickly.
A fourth raider, who shall henceforth be known as Harry, came onto the train between the dining car and the passenger car. He followed Rahl, who was not aware of him, but Morrigan’s preternaturally heightened senses told her he was there. When Harry prepared to shoot at them, Morrigan made sure she was hidden behind Rahl, which wasn’t hard, since he’s a big guy, wearing a large suit of armor that emits a cloud of smoke. Still, it was a good thing she hid, because the raider’s shot pinged off Rahl’s armor, missing Morrigan entirely. See? Teamwork.
Rahl: “How do you like my armor now?”
Evie saw Harry through the still open doors of the railcar. She stepped out into the aisle, just behind the hole in the floor, drew her bow, and fired. He went down, falling off the train and tumbling away as the train continued to roar down the track. One small step towards avenging the poor cat. It was right after this that Steve attacked her.
In the end, the raiders got away with the medical supplies and the doctor. The train began slowing down as the raiders retreated. The company wasn’t able to follow immediately, due to a need to treat the injured. Evie, Morrigan, and Alma all have medical training and began triage immediately. Many were dead or injured beyond their skills to heal. The other group of guards was decimated. Only one member of that group was alive and mobile. He identified the company and approached them. They agreed to take him along when they went hunting the good doctor and the supplies.


Each player earned 2 Experience Points and recovered all used feat points in Session 1.


I hope you enjoyed it. Session 2 coming soon...

Sunday, June 21, 2020

NOCF Blood Angels basing project


Good Afternoon All,

I am part of the 2020 artist consortium for the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation and I have been assigned the task of finalizing this years Blood Angel Army project. All of the models were painted by some of the most talented artists on the Internet. Fantastic artists like Chris Dubque, Mike Cho, Bryan Bledsoe, Lyn Stahl, AJ Thornton, Brian Moll, and Brent Amberger. My job is to attach the models painted by several different artists and attach them to the bases painted by a single artist (to keep consistency.) Here is how they look so far.

Note: I did not paint these.

So far so good.

The Boss overlooks his forces

Elite Jump Troops
Here are the individual units

Tactical Marines 


Primaris Intercessors


Primaris Infiltrators


Sanguinary Guard


Death Company


Mephiston and Little Dante (He's so tiny!)


Little Guys try harder

Rhino



Not bad for a days work.

RGH


Saturday, June 20, 2020

My First Total Party Kill experience in an RPG.






D&D First Ed around 1989-1990 or so. "Steading of the Hill Giant Chief" I was playing an old school "Double Specialist" Great Weapon wielding Fighter named Thorgrim. We were a party of 7-8th level characters (6 or 7 of us) . We had just completed the "Slave Lord" series of modules and thought we were "hot Sh*t." So when we accidentally walked into the great hall of the Hill Giants about 30 minutes into the module we decided to take them on rather than run like hell.



For those that are not familiar with this Old adventure (from 1978) That room is supposed to be a "Boss Fight from hell" The Chief and his Wife (both with enhanced stats) 22 Normal Hill Giants, 1 guest Cloud Giant, 3 guest Stone Giants, 8 Ogres, and a Cave Bear all in one room. Sometimes I think Gygax had issues.


Anyway we charged in with the Armor of ignorance and immortality of youth, figuring we could take them. As was said in the movie Zorro We fought very bravely and died very quickly. I managed to kill the chieftain's wife after she crushed the party Magic user (played by my then GF.) I was the second to last character to die. The chieftain made me his "Special project " for killing his wife. After beating my fighter to -1 HP he picked him up and threw him into the raging fire pit in the center of the room.



The Thief was the last to die trying to escape. He hid under the great table only to discover that is where the Cave bear was chilling once the fight started. That did not last long. We had been playing for about a year and the entire thing ended on a single Saturday afternoon.

Till Next time

RGH

Monday, May 25, 2020

Astral Tabletop WOW!



Hello All,

The COVID-19 crisis has had one bright spot for me. It helped me find Astral Tabletop, an online resource, that I am using to run an upcoming RPG campaign using Iron Kingdoms Full Metal Fantasy system.
Since 2008 I have been trying to find a virtual tabletop system that I can stand. I tried Fantasy Grounds back then and was not impressed. In those days it was a software solution and not internet based so I had to download and install the program after purchasing it. I also had to buy modules for any systems I wanted to use. I even had to modify my router ports to allow traffic to pass through and be able to connect with players outside my home network. Since then the system has gone online but it left a bitter taste that made me reluctant to try it again. 
In 2014 I discovered Roll20 by accident. I was at a game store (long since gone now) and some D&D folks were gathered at a table playing their weekly game. I noticed at the end of the table where one would expect the DM to sit was a 22" computer monitor with a map displayed on it. The DM was sitting to the right of the monitor using a laptop on a side table to run the combat the players going through. I was intrigued since it had been years since I tried Fantasy Grounds and did not think anything else was even out there. When they took a break I asked the DM about it and she told me about Roll20. When I got home I looked it up and made an account.

Roll20 is pretty good but I find it's tools a bit more complicated than I like for a game aid. The map builder in particular still gives me shivers from the days when I bought Campaign Cartographer and tried to figure that monstrosity out.  Though I am a tech guy professionally I am more of a Luddite for my personal tech. I prefer a book to a digital display and I used a blackberry until 2015. Like I said I like Roll20 but I have a hard time getting around in it.
In late January 2020 I decided to run my first RPG in more than 12 years. Over the next month I gathered some players (and then some more players) and prepared to run this game the old fashioned way at my house. Then COVID-19 isolation happened and I found my self stuck at home since mid March. I figured "Well I better get used to Roll20."
Then one night  while doing some research on Roll20 functionality I came across a post where a person complained about his issues with the tool and the Data breach in 2018 and wanted something else. One post suggested a relatively new tool called Astral Tabletop. I was interested right away and stopped what I was doing to take a look.

I was impressed with what I saw and signed up. As a special promotion Astral was allowing all free accounts to use all the features of the Pro (paid) account. Established Pro users were not being charged for April or May. I got to Play with the system for free and really got a grasp of how it worked. compared to Roll20 it is more intuitive. It feels more like a game aid than an engineer's tool. In the end I decided to sign up for the Pro account and that is what I am using for the upcoming game.

Till next time

RGH




Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Temp Post


Thursday, January 16, 2020

2020 wow


5:54 AM (14 hours ago)
Hello All,

It has been some time since I posted and if memory serves I think the last few posts were attempts to kick start the blog again. Honestly blog posts are difficult to write on a regular basis. I forget that I even have these things for months at a time.

That said I need to decide if I want to continue these things or just let them go.
There are good reasons on both sides of the issue. On one side I am proud of the work that I have done over the last 10 years. On the other side I don’t see myself posting very often and I never really saw any real following so from that angle it was a kind of failure.

In the end I think I will just let them exist as I have put so much into them over the years and I don’t like the idea of all that going away (if such a thing is even possible on the internet.)

Well I am glad to get that off my chest.

Till Next time

RGH