The crystal ball room has been used a number of times in DF Felltower. A quick search shows it being used in at least these sessions.
DF Session 45
DF Session 114
DF Session 188
DF Session 213
I'm sure having linked them all I'll now need to field a lot of clarification questions. But it comes down a few things:
- Crystalmancy will help, but it's not necessary.
- Some areas of the dungeon just cannot be scryed with this device.
- Some areas of the dungeon can be scryed easily with this device, even if you aren't that familiar with them.
- Some areas of the dungeon can be scryed with difficulty if you are familiar with them.
- The surface area around the dungeon is probably in the second or third category.
- It's location-dependent and cannot effectively be used for finding things. Think of it more like a series of cameras on a facility and less like a magic ball of answers and you'll do better with it - and the use in the sessions above will bear that out. There is one exception to that in there . . . but was that a true vision or someone messing up badly and misunderstanding what they saw? It's unclear . . . divination is like that.
Sunday, September 28, 2025
Sunday, September 21, 2025
GURPS DF Session 213, Felltower 137 - Looking for Evil Temples in All the Wrong Places
Date: 9/21/2025
Weather: Cool, dry.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (362 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (346 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Almaric (125 points)
4 guards (62 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (318 points)
We started off in town. The PCs gathered rumors, and then set off to Felltower.
The plan to follow up on a rumor they'd heard:
"The dark cult to the demon god on the second level of Felltower has made a return, but made some new secret temple to worship at."
They'd decided this meant they needed to search the upper levels for the temple.
Long story short . . . they didn't find it. But they did find some adventure.
The PCs started to search the second level, hoping to find a restarted evil temple. So they first checked the old demonic temple long ago cleared. They found it wasn't being used, so they worked their way around to the stairs down to the burial areas for the Brotherhood and the draugr. The goal was to find "edge" areas that could have seen expansion out from the levels as they are, where a new temple could be built.
As they did, they used Seek Earth to find gold and then another to find silver. They found both a short distance away, with a vision showing a loose wall stone with coins and some gold behind it. They decided to use Seek Earth to triangulate on the gold. This time it revealed a massive hoard - a room carpeted with coins, speckled heavily with gold coins. It was some distance off the map.
So they searched the whole of the burial areas - the central draugr laid as well as the two side areas where the Brothers had been buried. Long story short, the niches of the higher-ranked guys had been totally looted and destroyed. Those of the lesser brothers - who had only 1 cp as a passage coin - hadn't. They didn't bother to despoil them, either, since they're looking at 2500 cp or so max for many hours of work. They settled for 1 cp and Vlad touching a red hand - which zapped him, of course.
But they kept after the big source of gold. No path they took got them much closer, and it was clear on the far side of the draugr crypt. They couldn't find a way to get there - no secret doors, no tunnels, nothing.
Next up they went to scrying room on "level 3." It is accessed by a button that does Deathtouch on the person pressing it, so Hannari suggested Vlad shoot it with a blunt arrow to "push" it. That worked.
In they went, and Duncan began to scry. He kept trying to scry by term - "look for the Lord of Spite" and "show me the room behind the door on the GFS" and so on - which kept failing. What did succeed was checking some local areas, including a nearby former temple. When he tried a 9th time to scry and went to look at the room where the Doomchildren had spawned back in the day. Duncan got immediately dizzy, threw up on the crystal ball mount, and was nauseous for a while.
They checked the room themselves, unspiking the shut downs and searching it. They found nothing.
Next they checked the cliff where ropers had been fought, and the cliff itself - nope, nothing.
Next they went to the flooded prison, and Vlad flew around looking for Big John the troll and other things. They found nothing - Big John was gone, all the boats were gone, and so on. Vlad did spot a "gem" on the floor and shot it when he saw holes in the floor - he suspected a trap. He hit it and it shattered, setting off a spiked trap.
They moved on, and decided to search pretty much every room they'd stumbled on in the long past. Eventually, in one of them, they found a loose stone with a sack beyond it. It was trapped with (what turned out to be) a sleep grenade, but Vlad caught it on the way down. They found 935 sp, a gold-silver-and-ivory decorated horn, 6 glow vials, and a set of dwarven lockpicks.
They took that, searched a bit more, and then headed home. No temple, no fights, no room carpeted with coins . . . but they did find some loot.
Notes:
- Seek Earth is annoying. Helpful to delvers, but annoying. And that you can use it over and over again to triangulate can also be annoying. I'm not that good at math so it's hard for me to calcuate the distance. Plus I need to keep checking all over the map and the room key to find out what's where.
- 2 xp for everyone for over 20% of their loot threshold. MVP was Hannari for suggesting shooting the secret door trigger with a blunt arrow.
Weather: Cool, dry.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (362 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (346 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Almaric (125 points)
4 guards (62 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (318 points)
We started off in town. The PCs gathered rumors, and then set off to Felltower.
The plan to follow up on a rumor they'd heard:
"The dark cult to the demon god on the second level of Felltower has made a return, but made some new secret temple to worship at."
They'd decided this meant they needed to search the upper levels for the temple.
Long story short . . . they didn't find it. But they did find some adventure.
The PCs started to search the second level, hoping to find a restarted evil temple. So they first checked the old demonic temple long ago cleared. They found it wasn't being used, so they worked their way around to the stairs down to the burial areas for the Brotherhood and the draugr. The goal was to find "edge" areas that could have seen expansion out from the levels as they are, where a new temple could be built.
As they did, they used Seek Earth to find gold and then another to find silver. They found both a short distance away, with a vision showing a loose wall stone with coins and some gold behind it. They decided to use Seek Earth to triangulate on the gold. This time it revealed a massive hoard - a room carpeted with coins, speckled heavily with gold coins. It was some distance off the map.
So they searched the whole of the burial areas - the central draugr laid as well as the two side areas where the Brothers had been buried. Long story short, the niches of the higher-ranked guys had been totally looted and destroyed. Those of the lesser brothers - who had only 1 cp as a passage coin - hadn't. They didn't bother to despoil them, either, since they're looking at 2500 cp or so max for many hours of work. They settled for 1 cp and Vlad touching a red hand - which zapped him, of course.
But they kept after the big source of gold. No path they took got them much closer, and it was clear on the far side of the draugr crypt. They couldn't find a way to get there - no secret doors, no tunnels, nothing.
Next up they went to scrying room on "level 3." It is accessed by a button that does Deathtouch on the person pressing it, so Hannari suggested Vlad shoot it with a blunt arrow to "push" it. That worked.
In they went, and Duncan began to scry. He kept trying to scry by term - "look for the Lord of Spite" and "show me the room behind the door on the GFS" and so on - which kept failing. What did succeed was checking some local areas, including a nearby former temple. When he tried a 9th time to scry and went to look at the room where the Doomchildren had spawned back in the day. Duncan got immediately dizzy, threw up on the crystal ball mount, and was nauseous for a while.
They checked the room themselves, unspiking the shut downs and searching it. They found nothing.
Next they checked the cliff where ropers had been fought, and the cliff itself - nope, nothing.
Next they went to the flooded prison, and Vlad flew around looking for Big John the troll and other things. They found nothing - Big John was gone, all the boats were gone, and so on. Vlad did spot a "gem" on the floor and shot it when he saw holes in the floor - he suspected a trap. He hit it and it shattered, setting off a spiked trap.
They moved on, and decided to search pretty much every room they'd stumbled on in the long past. Eventually, in one of them, they found a loose stone with a sack beyond it. It was trapped with (what turned out to be) a sleep grenade, but Vlad caught it on the way down. They found 935 sp, a gold-silver-and-ivory decorated horn, 6 glow vials, and a set of dwarven lockpicks.
They took that, searched a bit more, and then headed home. No temple, no fights, no room carpeted with coins . . . but they did find some loot.
Notes:
- Seek Earth is annoying. Helpful to delvers, but annoying. And that you can use it over and over again to triangulate can also be annoying. I'm not that good at math so it's hard for me to calcuate the distance. Plus I need to keep checking all over the map and the room key to find out what's where.
- 2 xp for everyone for over 20% of their loot threshold. MVP was Hannari for suggesting shooting the secret door trigger with a blunt arrow.
Friday, August 29, 2025
Random Links & Notes for 8/29/2025
- 9 and 30 Kingdoms talks a bit about mapping. I'm okay with players mapping or not mapping. It's up to them, as long as their characters can do it. If they try to use it to detect secret rooms, eh. I have lots of filled-in blocks of stone between hallways to avoid explaining line-walls that don't have any clear thickness. So it generally doesn't work. They do help to keep you from getting too lost.
- Not gaming, but this post explains historiography. I first ran into the concept in college and I wish I'd understood it earlier.
- Next game date is unclear.
- Not gaming, but this post explains historiography. I first ran into the concept in college and I wish I'd understood it earlier.
- Next game date is unclear.
Sunday, August 24, 2025
GURPS DF Session 212, Felltower 136 - Steel Knights
Date: 8/24/2025
Weather: Warm, dry.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (362 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (346 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (332 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (358 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (318 points)
The PCs started out in town, gathering rumors and taking delivery of some items ordered way back when.
The goal was to take out the iron golems, as they called them, first encountered years ago.
The armed up, with a lot of blunt weapons to potentially avoid breakage, and headed down.
Long story short, this did not work out.
The PCs found the room alright, and forced the door. Beyond it were three golems - with the appearance of knights. They were made of dull steel, two with sword and shield and one with a poleaxe. The PCs let loose with a Stone Missile and Thor and Percy moved in. The Stone Missile hit one square and dented it, but didn't stop it. Vald pinged arrows off of the golems to no visible effect. Neither did Percy - he smacked one three times, two hits, one block. His flail almost broke on the first hit, averted by Luck, and the second hit broke his flail. A Fireball didn't do much better, and the golems breathed poison gas - averted by everyone having Resist Poison, and one breathed fire and set Thor alight and wounded him badly. Resist Fire saved him.
The PCs pulled back, and the golems closed the door on them.
The PCs tried again - buffed Thor, readied Lightning, and opened the door - why? To retrieve the broken flail that Percy had dropped when it snapped in half.
Lightning didn't do much better, inflicting damage but not stunning. But the golems rushed forward, and engaged. Thor rushed them back. In a tough and short brawl, while Duncan used Apportation to get the ball and chain portion of the flail, Thor held off the golems. But then suddenly, after lots of critical successes by the PCs and none by the golems . . . they got a few. Whack. Off came Thor's leg. Then he fell, and his left arm was lopped off.
The PCs desperately managed to snag Thor's limbs - he grabbed his own leg, Percy his arm and shield - and beat a hasty retreat, chased by the golems that suddenly seemed willing to pursue. They were chased to a nearby intersection, and left the dungeon directly.
Notes:
It was a funny session more than a fun one - it cost $3200 to fix Thor's lost limbs . . . all to rescue half of a nicely made but no longer enchanted broken morningstar. Heh.
Percy broke his morningstar on his first swing at a golem. He used Luck, and rolled twice more. The next two didn't cause breakage. I said, just keep the last roll for the second swing that he hit with. The players argued that Luck needs three rolls. Okay, I said, nevermind, I was being generous, but fine, roll for the second breakage roll. 1. The flail broke. Insistance on the rules overcoming GM generosity . . . heh.
MVP was Percy for Leadership. Otherwise XP was 0.
Next game . . . TBD.
Weather: Warm, dry.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (362 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (346 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (332 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (358 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (318 points)
The PCs started out in town, gathering rumors and taking delivery of some items ordered way back when.
The goal was to take out the iron golems, as they called them, first encountered years ago.
The armed up, with a lot of blunt weapons to potentially avoid breakage, and headed down.
Long story short, this did not work out.
The PCs found the room alright, and forced the door. Beyond it were three golems - with the appearance of knights. They were made of dull steel, two with sword and shield and one with a poleaxe. The PCs let loose with a Stone Missile and Thor and Percy moved in. The Stone Missile hit one square and dented it, but didn't stop it. Vald pinged arrows off of the golems to no visible effect. Neither did Percy - he smacked one three times, two hits, one block. His flail almost broke on the first hit, averted by Luck, and the second hit broke his flail. A Fireball didn't do much better, and the golems breathed poison gas - averted by everyone having Resist Poison, and one breathed fire and set Thor alight and wounded him badly. Resist Fire saved him.
The PCs pulled back, and the golems closed the door on them.
The PCs tried again - buffed Thor, readied Lightning, and opened the door - why? To retrieve the broken flail that Percy had dropped when it snapped in half.
Lightning didn't do much better, inflicting damage but not stunning. But the golems rushed forward, and engaged. Thor rushed them back. In a tough and short brawl, while Duncan used Apportation to get the ball and chain portion of the flail, Thor held off the golems. But then suddenly, after lots of critical successes by the PCs and none by the golems . . . they got a few. Whack. Off came Thor's leg. Then he fell, and his left arm was lopped off.
The PCs desperately managed to snag Thor's limbs - he grabbed his own leg, Percy his arm and shield - and beat a hasty retreat, chased by the golems that suddenly seemed willing to pursue. They were chased to a nearby intersection, and left the dungeon directly.
Notes:
It was a funny session more than a fun one - it cost $3200 to fix Thor's lost limbs . . . all to rescue half of a nicely made but no longer enchanted broken morningstar. Heh.
Percy broke his morningstar on his first swing at a golem. He used Luck, and rolled twice more. The next two didn't cause breakage. I said, just keep the last roll for the second swing that he hit with. The players argued that Luck needs three rolls. Okay, I said, nevermind, I was being generous, but fine, roll for the second breakage roll. 1. The flail broke. Insistance on the rules overcoming GM generosity . . . heh.
MVP was Percy for Leadership. Otherwise XP was 0.
Next game . . . TBD.
Friday, August 15, 2025
Random Links for 8/15/2025
Some stuff I found interesting to read this week.
Why Magic Users Suck at Fighting. In general, I think is a perfectly reasonable explanation. It's hard to do two hard things well without a large time investment in each. The dedicated fighter and the dedicated magic-user should be more effective in their niche than a person who does both equally, given the same constraints of time, resources, etc.
OLD DM TRICK #3 - I don't know, this doesn't seem like it would work, especially if anyone maps or the party spreads out a bit.
Of Periwigs and Pallid Masks - while pre-1776 colonial America seems like an interesting place for a Call of Cthulhu campaign . . . all you get is early pre-1776 divisions and violence and political splits. That might help give players a hook, but I don't think you get to have colonial America without all of the politics that made it a rebellion. It's not like one thing happened, simplified text in school textbooks aside, that suddenly made it all explode. Still, given a group of players with a similar interest in history, it could be interesting.
Sharp Practice: The Relief of Dojjibotti! - I love minis, and I love Indian Mutiny mini battles. They're so visually interesting and the conflict is both messy and easy to understand.
Why Magic Users Suck at Fighting. In general, I think is a perfectly reasonable explanation. It's hard to do two hard things well without a large time investment in each. The dedicated fighter and the dedicated magic-user should be more effective in their niche than a person who does both equally, given the same constraints of time, resources, etc.
OLD DM TRICK #3 - I don't know, this doesn't seem like it would work, especially if anyone maps or the party spreads out a bit.
Of Periwigs and Pallid Masks - while pre-1776 colonial America seems like an interesting place for a Call of Cthulhu campaign . . . all you get is early pre-1776 divisions and violence and political splits. That might help give players a hook, but I don't think you get to have colonial America without all of the politics that made it a rebellion. It's not like one thing happened, simplified text in school textbooks aside, that suddenly made it all explode. Still, given a group of players with a similar interest in history, it could be interesting.
Sharp Practice: The Relief of Dojjibotti! - I love minis, and I love Indian Mutiny mini battles. They're so visually interesting and the conflict is both messy and easy to understand.
Sunday, August 10, 2025
When is next Felltower?
The next Felltower session is up in the air. It was supposed to be today, but unfortunately we had too many people unable to attend after all.
It's unclear when it will be.
It's unclear when it will be.
Thursday, July 10, 2025
GURPS & Pyramid Bundles
GURPS and Pyramid are available over on Bundle of Holding:
Pyramid 1 Bundle
Pyramid 2 Bundle
GURPS Essentials
Pyramid 1 Bundle
Pyramid 2 Bundle
GURPS Essentials
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