Some reveals and notes.
I said I'd reveal this after - Cumulon's castle layout and traps are from Dungeon Magazine #9, The Plight of Cirria. It was written by Grant and David Boucher, who wrote a few very influential dungeons in the early days of Dungeon magazine.
I repeat my amusement that the PCs weren't willing to adventure here until they could satisfy all three of the following conditions:
- everyone has personal flight ability not tied to a single caster
- their single caster has the ability to put Walk on Air on everyone, maintained for free, for self-controlled air movement
- their caster has the ability to put Flight on every PC for better combat flight speed
- and optionally, people have spellstones with emergency flight-based magic to save themselves if the first three fail.
I know, I know - I get it. No one wants to be screwed because one fails. They're still highly concerned with No Mana Zones that will potentially cause havoc with all of the above. They'd want Holy versions of all of those if at all possible, if any existed (they don't, and won't.) So for all the hand wringing about selling that carpet of flying that was found early in the game, it wouldn't have ever been seen as enough.
The SAS motto? "Who Dares, Wins." It doesn't apply here at all. This is why I don't expect, say, going through the fire gate until everyone can put level 3 Resist Fire on everyone, all the time, with backups, or expect people to go through the water entrance to Felltower without several forms of water breathing. It's a cautious group.
The Air Gate is likely a repeat-delve location, although the PCs can't always expect to find a place to stand and fight in a hallway. We'll see if they remain excited when they have to deal with flying enemies in flight. But it's a potentially lucrative exploration area - just no more safe than any other lucrative exploration area.
Monday, June 9, 2025
Sunday, June 8, 2025
GURPS DF Session 210, Felltower 135 - Exploring the Air Gate, Part III
Date: 6/8/2025
In Game Date: 5/4/2025
Weather: Wet, warm.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (362 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (346 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (322 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (358 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (318 points)
We picked up where we left off - the PCs had a knocked-out storm giant and a lot of wounds to heal.
I started the time going and they got to work. Vlad carefully searched the giant and found an alchemical amulet - a human-sized one - on a small chain attached to proper chain around the giant's neck. He took it. Chop healed and healed and healed, Hannari policed up the area and weapons, Thor took the giant's club out of easy reach, and Percy stood around guard. He also vetoed Chop's suggestion that they just kill the giant.
There was a plan to use Create Earth to make dirt manacles (seriously), then make them stone manacles, then make them metal. They forgot this until, oh, 15+ minutes in when the giant was waking up.
The giant mumbled something as he woke and sat up, and Chop put Gift of Tongues on Duncan.
Duncan chose the unusual tactic of being honest with the giant - they won, they'd win again if he tried anything, and they were willing to let him bargain for his life. The giant seemed amused by getting beaten by "children" and allowed that he'd never met such strong little ones. Amongst other things, they learned:
- the giant's name is Cumulon er-Statos (symbol of er-Stratos - two bird heads facing away from one another)
- the fairy tale castle is a neutral ground meeting area
- the giant was here for business, which isn't their damn business, thank you
- the amulet he had conveys some kind of authority or office
- the giants rule the skies, and raid and extract treasure, loot, and the amusement of battles from the little people below
The giant offered them all his available cash in return for his life, and a magic hatchet taken from some really little person in return for his amulet. He didn't want to deal with the hassle and effort it would take to regain the lost rank - or maybe it was lost prestige - from losing it.
The PCs agreed. The giant kept his end - he limped inside, wounded, came out much less wounded but with a bit more treasure than he'd said he had. It turned out to be 27,000 sp, 575 gp, and 45 gems with an average value of 100 sp each. The hatchet turned out to be a fine quality climber's hatchet with Puissance 3 on it.
All that settled, they left. The giant took to his roc to watch them go, and observed them rest at the gate for 15 minutes before going through with Walk on Air.
The PCs headed home once they made it into Felltower.
Notes:
Excellent, very short session - 2 hours?
MVP was Duncan for very effective negotiation. He managed to avoid the usual self-justification of adventuers - you know, "technically, we were defending ourselves from attack by these evildoers whose home we invaded looking for heads and plunder and they owe us everything they own." He bargained from strength but with consistent and reasonable expectations. The giant seemed amused at getting beaten up and then having to ransom himself. Naturally, he took the word of a "fellow master of the supernatural arts" and was impressed that Duncan's minions so handily trashed his summoned servitors.
Total look was ~8k each. MVP was Duncan for negotation.
In Game Date: 5/4/2025
Weather: Wet, warm.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (362 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (346 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (322 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (358 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (318 points)
We picked up where we left off - the PCs had a knocked-out storm giant and a lot of wounds to heal.
I started the time going and they got to work. Vlad carefully searched the giant and found an alchemical amulet - a human-sized one - on a small chain attached to proper chain around the giant's neck. He took it. Chop healed and healed and healed, Hannari policed up the area and weapons, Thor took the giant's club out of easy reach, and Percy stood around guard. He also vetoed Chop's suggestion that they just kill the giant.
There was a plan to use Create Earth to make dirt manacles (seriously), then make them stone manacles, then make them metal. They forgot this until, oh, 15+ minutes in when the giant was waking up.
The giant mumbled something as he woke and sat up, and Chop put Gift of Tongues on Duncan.
Duncan chose the unusual tactic of being honest with the giant - they won, they'd win again if he tried anything, and they were willing to let him bargain for his life. The giant seemed amused by getting beaten by "children" and allowed that he'd never met such strong little ones. Amongst other things, they learned:
- the giant's name is Cumulon er-Statos (symbol of er-Stratos - two bird heads facing away from one another)
- the fairy tale castle is a neutral ground meeting area
- the giant was here for business, which isn't their damn business, thank you
- the amulet he had conveys some kind of authority or office
- the giants rule the skies, and raid and extract treasure, loot, and the amusement of battles from the little people below
The giant offered them all his available cash in return for his life, and a magic hatchet taken from some really little person in return for his amulet. He didn't want to deal with the hassle and effort it would take to regain the lost rank - or maybe it was lost prestige - from losing it.
The PCs agreed. The giant kept his end - he limped inside, wounded, came out much less wounded but with a bit more treasure than he'd said he had. It turned out to be 27,000 sp, 575 gp, and 45 gems with an average value of 100 sp each. The hatchet turned out to be a fine quality climber's hatchet with Puissance 3 on it.
All that settled, they left. The giant took to his roc to watch them go, and observed them rest at the gate for 15 minutes before going through with Walk on Air.
The PCs headed home once they made it into Felltower.
Notes:
Excellent, very short session - 2 hours?
MVP was Duncan for very effective negotiation. He managed to avoid the usual self-justification of adventuers - you know, "technically, we were defending ourselves from attack by these evildoers whose home we invaded looking for heads and plunder and they owe us everything they own." He bargained from strength but with consistent and reasonable expectations. The giant seemed amused at getting beaten up and then having to ransom himself. Naturally, he took the word of a "fellow master of the supernatural arts" and was impressed that Duncan's minions so handily trashed his summoned servitors.
Total look was ~8k each. MVP was Duncan for negotation.
Friday, June 6, 2025
Restraining & Questioning a Storm Giant
The PCs in my Felltower game have defeated a 28' tall storm giant. He's badly wounded and unconscious, but not in any immediate danger of dying. In all likelihood, left alone, he'll recover enough to get up and move about on his own.
There is a very high likelihood they'll just deliver a coup de grace while he's out.
But there is a distinct possibility they'll try to restrain him and question him.
I thought I'd throw open the comments here to suggestions on how to do that.
They do have access to:
- Gift of Tongues
- Gift of Letters
- a PC with Interrogation, so their rolls shouldn't suck when they need to make them.
- probably a lot of rope, but not necessarily rope that'll hold a giant several times stronger than even the strongest of the PCs - he did 8d+11 swinging his war club.
They don't have access to:
- Compel Truth (anyway he's 5x cost to cast on, so . . . )
Any ideas people want to share? Game is Sunday.
There is a very high likelihood they'll just deliver a coup de grace while he's out.
But there is a distinct possibility they'll try to restrain him and question him.
I thought I'd throw open the comments here to suggestions on how to do that.
They do have access to:
- Gift of Tongues
- Gift of Letters
- a PC with Interrogation, so their rolls shouldn't suck when they need to make them.
- probably a lot of rope, but not necessarily rope that'll hold a giant several times stronger than even the strongest of the PCs - he did 8d+11 swinging his war club.
They don't have access to:
- Compel Truth (anyway he's 5x cost to cast on, so . . . )
Any ideas people want to share? Game is Sunday.
Monday, June 2, 2025
GURPS DF Session 209, Felltower 135 - Exploring the Air Gate, Part II
Session Date: 6/1/2025
Game Date: 5/4/2025
Weather: Wet, warm.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (362 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (346 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (322 point knight)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (358 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (318 points)
We started off with the PCs inside the cloud castle. They went down a long hallway to a door to a stairway down. They went down. At the bottom they found a complex of a few, but very large rooms.
Starting to the right, they made their way around the rooms.
- a big room with a dead-end side passage, but also a floor to ceiling cloud pillar. They approached with caution and about 15-18 little clouds broke off. They backed off and shot arrows at them harmlessly. The clouds turned into big-ass rats that rushed them. In cloud form or rat form, weapons didn't seem to affect them. Their fangs bypassed DR, and when in cloud form they choked anyone they were close to. Chop took one out with Purify Air, so Duncan and then Chop followed up with much bigger Purify Air and that finished them off.
- a "map room" - a room with a big angled table and floor-to-ceiling stackes of poster-sized scrolls. Lots of investigation here revealed they were all maps, of various scales and places. Gift of Letters let them read one, of the "Kingdom of Sindarin" - which they'd never heard of.
- an "observatory" - a magically transparant-floored room they decided was for making maps.
- a couple of storerooms, largely empty, but one had a few 1000L sized barrels of wine (one) and whatever (the others), hanging bulls and deer-like animals curing to eat, and bags and sacks of who knows what food. They decided the place was an abandoned or unused "convention center," Vlad hammered a hole in a barrel and had some wine, and they otherwise poked around.
- they found a room with cloud-lined walls and a couple more cloud pillars. Thor walked around inside the clouds to see what they concealed, and almost fell out of the castle to his potential death (his wings being damp from crawling around in the pillar) when he stepped into a chute out the bottom of the castle.
They gave up on the level after checking a few dead ends with See Secrets and their hands. They used Flight on everyone to fly out of the chute, which they discussed as a possible secret entrance. (I pointed out that a concealed chute that drops you out of a castle a mile or so to the ground below is called a "trap." I made sure to write it in the chat back so no one would get the spelling wrong.)
Once out, they flew up to the top, each person taking a different arc around. Thor spotted - and was spotted by - a gigantic bird - a roc - perched on the landing. They gathered on the top. Shortly after, Vlad decided to try an eagle cry. He did . . . and the roc answered, loud. Less than a minute later, they heard a deeper-pitched eagle cry, then the roc again.
Soon after they saw the roc flying away, with a gigantic figure on its back. They hid, and the roc wheeled away and flew off. They decided to fly, using their wings. In a few minutes they saw the roc turning back toward them. They fled back to the castle and went to the landing.
They set up there. The roc returned, and the giant on its back called down lighting on them as they stood in a combat formation near the door to the castle. Zap! They quickly used Resist Lightning on everyone and pulled inside.
The giant followed, landing the roc and coming in. It didn't come alone - it had four tiger-men with it. As-Sharak, one each of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water. Vlad shot the giant in the vitals with a critical hit and it batted the other arrow away. Annoyed by the damage, it put up a Windstorm in front of it and advanced.
The PCs drank potions by the buckletload and waited for the giant. It closed in, swinging a giant club at them.
In a nasty brawl, Hannari got beaten down by the giant and the breath weapons of the As-Sharak. Thor was wounded and blinded. Percy was paralyzed, nearly blinded (thanks Luck), and wounded badly. Chop unparalyzed Percy and put him back in the fray.
In the end, though, Percy + Agar's Wand was too much for the As-Shark - they'd account for three of the four. Thor killed one in a blinded swing when it came close. The giant was battered by Percy even as he bashed Percy up a treat, too. Eventually the giant fell unconcious and the last As-Sharak banished back to hell.
We left it there.
Notes:
- The cloud rats are basically ersatz AD&D vapor rats. They're a smaller (sm-2) giant rats with a body of air metatrait they can turn on or off, armor-ignoring bites, and a choking effect in cloud form. Obviously vulnerable to Purify Air based on the encounter. I like glass cannons like this for some encounters - dangerous enough to take seriously but neither immediately lethal or hopelessly outclassed.
- The Gift of spells say "any language." Does that mean "any and all"? The magic item versions are per language, and the spell cost is pretty cheap compared to Borrow Language if it does multiples and doesn't need a source. So I ruled it's one language. Fits Felltower better, anyway.
- The PCs are basically bingo power and FP at this point, hopped up on Strength and Dexterity potions, Haste spellstones, and a few other buffs. They have the giant out, and have to decide if they want a prisoner or just to kill him. Given their lack of information, a prisoner is more useful, but he's strong and magical. A (hopefully not-serious) suggestion was to - ahem - lop his limbs off one at a time, healing in between to keep him alive, and then gagging him so he can't cast spells. I pointed out that cutting off all his limbs was likely to be make him less, not more cooperative. We'll see what they choose. Killing is easier, but just makes the dead giant a lootable corpse. A prisoner can answer a lot of questions and potentially bribe them to keep himself alive. So what to do?
MVP was Percy for ending 4 out of 5 opponents, albiet with a lot of healing support from Chop and the assistance of his magical sword buddy Agar's Wand. "Wandy" is how Percy calls it. Several times people started to tentatively suggest backing off because one more hit could end Percy, but Percy just went right back into the fray. And won it. Pretty badass, actually, and in retrospect it's good for an Awesome Bonus, too. Thor's head chop roll was spectacular and well timed, but that was as much luck as boldness. Without that boldness it could have meant the as-Sharak was around to kill more. Still, enough for +1 XP all around thanks to the two of them.
Game Date: 5/4/2025
Weather: Wet, warm.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (362 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (346 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (322 point knight)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (358 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (318 points)
We started off with the PCs inside the cloud castle. They went down a long hallway to a door to a stairway down. They went down. At the bottom they found a complex of a few, but very large rooms.
Starting to the right, they made their way around the rooms.
- a big room with a dead-end side passage, but also a floor to ceiling cloud pillar. They approached with caution and about 15-18 little clouds broke off. They backed off and shot arrows at them harmlessly. The clouds turned into big-ass rats that rushed them. In cloud form or rat form, weapons didn't seem to affect them. Their fangs bypassed DR, and when in cloud form they choked anyone they were close to. Chop took one out with Purify Air, so Duncan and then Chop followed up with much bigger Purify Air and that finished them off.
- a "map room" - a room with a big angled table and floor-to-ceiling stackes of poster-sized scrolls. Lots of investigation here revealed they were all maps, of various scales and places. Gift of Letters let them read one, of the "Kingdom of Sindarin" - which they'd never heard of.
- an "observatory" - a magically transparant-floored room they decided was for making maps.
- a couple of storerooms, largely empty, but one had a few 1000L sized barrels of wine (one) and whatever (the others), hanging bulls and deer-like animals curing to eat, and bags and sacks of who knows what food. They decided the place was an abandoned or unused "convention center," Vlad hammered a hole in a barrel and had some wine, and they otherwise poked around.
- they found a room with cloud-lined walls and a couple more cloud pillars. Thor walked around inside the clouds to see what they concealed, and almost fell out of the castle to his potential death (his wings being damp from crawling around in the pillar) when he stepped into a chute out the bottom of the castle.
They gave up on the level after checking a few dead ends with See Secrets and their hands. They used Flight on everyone to fly out of the chute, which they discussed as a possible secret entrance. (I pointed out that a concealed chute that drops you out of a castle a mile or so to the ground below is called a "trap." I made sure to write it in the chat back so no one would get the spelling wrong.)
Once out, they flew up to the top, each person taking a different arc around. Thor spotted - and was spotted by - a gigantic bird - a roc - perched on the landing. They gathered on the top. Shortly after, Vlad decided to try an eagle cry. He did . . . and the roc answered, loud. Less than a minute later, they heard a deeper-pitched eagle cry, then the roc again.
Soon after they saw the roc flying away, with a gigantic figure on its back. They hid, and the roc wheeled away and flew off. They decided to fly, using their wings. In a few minutes they saw the roc turning back toward them. They fled back to the castle and went to the landing.
They set up there. The roc returned, and the giant on its back called down lighting on them as they stood in a combat formation near the door to the castle. Zap! They quickly used Resist Lightning on everyone and pulled inside.
The giant followed, landing the roc and coming in. It didn't come alone - it had four tiger-men with it. As-Sharak, one each of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water. Vlad shot the giant in the vitals with a critical hit and it batted the other arrow away. Annoyed by the damage, it put up a Windstorm in front of it and advanced.
The PCs drank potions by the buckletload and waited for the giant. It closed in, swinging a giant club at them.
In a nasty brawl, Hannari got beaten down by the giant and the breath weapons of the As-Sharak. Thor was wounded and blinded. Percy was paralyzed, nearly blinded (thanks Luck), and wounded badly. Chop unparalyzed Percy and put him back in the fray.
In the end, though, Percy + Agar's Wand was too much for the As-Shark - they'd account for three of the four. Thor killed one in a blinded swing when it came close. The giant was battered by Percy even as he bashed Percy up a treat, too. Eventually the giant fell unconcious and the last As-Sharak banished back to hell.
We left it there.
Notes:
- The cloud rats are basically ersatz AD&D vapor rats. They're a smaller (sm-2) giant rats with a body of air metatrait they can turn on or off, armor-ignoring bites, and a choking effect in cloud form. Obviously vulnerable to Purify Air based on the encounter. I like glass cannons like this for some encounters - dangerous enough to take seriously but neither immediately lethal or hopelessly outclassed.
- The Gift of spells say "any language." Does that mean "any and all"? The magic item versions are per language, and the spell cost is pretty cheap compared to Borrow Language if it does multiples and doesn't need a source. So I ruled it's one language. Fits Felltower better, anyway.
- The PCs are basically bingo power and FP at this point, hopped up on Strength and Dexterity potions, Haste spellstones, and a few other buffs. They have the giant out, and have to decide if they want a prisoner or just to kill him. Given their lack of information, a prisoner is more useful, but he's strong and magical. A (hopefully not-serious) suggestion was to - ahem - lop his limbs off one at a time, healing in between to keep him alive, and then gagging him so he can't cast spells. I pointed out that cutting off all his limbs was likely to be make him less, not more cooperative. We'll see what they choose. Killing is easier, but just makes the dead giant a lootable corpse. A prisoner can answer a lot of questions and potentially bribe them to keep himself alive. So what to do?
MVP was Percy for ending 4 out of 5 opponents, albiet with a lot of healing support from Chop and the assistance of his magical sword buddy Agar's Wand. "Wandy" is how Percy calls it. Several times people started to tentatively suggest backing off because one more hit could end Percy, but Percy just went right back into the fray. And won it. Pretty badass, actually, and in retrospect it's good for an Awesome Bonus, too. Thor's head chop roll was spectacular and well timed, but that was as much luck as boldness. Without that boldness it could have meant the as-Sharak was around to kill more. Still, enough for +1 XP all around thanks to the two of them.
Sunday, June 1, 2025
Felltower pre-summary
- the PCs exploded a number of room inside the cloud castle
- they fought a bunch of "cloud rats"
- they almost fell down a "secret entranceway," known in common dungeon parlance as a "pit trap"
- spotted a giant bird, and then a giant on the bird
- ended up trying to face off against the giant and bird, then fled inside
- fought said giant plus the giant's dangerous little friends.
Full update tomorrow!
- they fought a bunch of "cloud rats"
- they almost fell down a "secret entranceway," known in common dungeon parlance as a "pit trap"
- spotted a giant bird, and then a giant on the bird
- ended up trying to face off against the giant and bird, then fled inside
- fought said giant plus the giant's dangerous little friends.
Full update tomorrow!
Friday, May 30, 2025
Friday Roundup 5/30/2025
- I had a little time to play Battle Brothers. I gave up for the moment on my first game - I seem to have made just enough mistakes for long enough that I can't sustain myself in the fights I need to sustain my crew. I will try to advance the game another time when I'm more skilled.
My new game . . . not good. I seem to be in a high-danger area with tough contracts and very few recruits, many of whom are very expensive. A few days in and I've had to go back to my initial save twice already to just try to choose a better path . . . and it's not working. Hmm. I might need another restart.
Still fun.
- Game is Sunday.
- I'm still figuring out which level I'll support the Bat in the Attic kickstarter. But I'm in for sure.
My new game . . . not good. I seem to be in a high-danger area with tough contracts and very few recruits, many of whom are very expensive. A few days in and I've had to go back to my initial save twice already to just try to choose a better path . . . and it's not working. Hmm. I might need another restart.
Still fun.
- Game is Sunday.
- I'm still figuring out which level I'll support the Bat in the Attic kickstarter. But I'm in for sure.
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Bat in the Attic's new Kickstarter
This will launch very soon - a fantasy sandbox by Bat in the Attic Games.
Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms - the Northern Marches
I'm in, no question.
Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms - the Northern Marches
I'm in, no question.
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