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 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.

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.

GURPS & Pyramid Bundles

GURPS and Pyramid are available over on Bundle of Holding:

Pyramid 1 Bundle

Pyramid 2 Bundle

GURPS Essentials

Summer Vacation

Expect sporardic posts for the next month or so - I'm going into an extended vacation period.

Felltower will return in "Thunderball."

I mean August.

Magic Items Are Gone for Good - Except for Arbiter

When a magic item is sold in Felltower, it's gone. Lost. Gone for good. It disappears from the game - you can't sell something now and get it back later. It's one of a few reasons you don't see Raggi anymore - he died in two delves, and the PCs sold his Weapon Bond-linked axe to pay for bringing him back. That was the final straw for his fun and value as a character, and he'd need a replacement he wasn't likely to ever encounter.

There is an exception - Arbiter.

Arbiter was given to the church, which paid out its full value - $60,000 - for its return.

But Arbiter is a potentially useful tool for the church in the hands of a Holy Warrior. It's a Fine, Meteoric Holy Sword. That's potentially +3 to hit, +4 damage in the hands of a Holy Warrior with Holiness 6. Few weapons like it exist - there are perhaps a handful of Holy Swords in the world, and likely this is one of only one or two that are meteoric.

Therefore, the church would be willing to put it back in the hands of a PC . . . for $60,000. Naturally, PCs are totally able to use clever explanations, carefully-worded speeches to the church, appeals for charity, good deeds, and reaction rolls to attempt to get it. That's fine. Any and all of those, plus $60,000, no less, will get them the sword. Heh. Just heading off the usual "but we'd really benefit from it and the church would benefit from giving us $60K and then the sword just because" stuff I expect to come along.

So this rare weapon is still available, for now, at a high price. Is it worth the price? It will be when you're chopping at a lich unable to stop your sword with its Shield or Iron Arm and hitting for swing+5/cutting. I don't expect anyone to see it that way, not until $60K is something people have laying around.

DF Session 221, Brotherhood Complex 9 - Chop & Hannari's Excellent Adventure

Game Date: 6/29/25-7/7/25
Date: 6/29/25

Characters:
Chop, human cleric (362 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
3 guards
2 laborers

Only Hannari and Chop were on hand, so they decided to make a go of a final exploration of the Brotherhood Complex. It was known to be deserted since their last raid trashed the place, but they were sure there was loot left.

Spoiler alert - there was.

I'll dispense with the usual narrative summary. Most of the session was just Chop and Hannari wandering around, forcing doors, occasionally blundering into evil runes, and exploring like crazy.

They:

- checked all of the guard and gnoll living areas and found nothing

- explored the torture chamber and found nothing

- found a weird purple stone behind a secret door - details below - in the area they'd caused to be covered with weird mold. They warded off the effects with Resist Cold but would later need Estoteric Medicine to clear their lungs out of the heat-sapping mold.

- cleared the junk room and sorted through the junk

- found some oversized ever-burning torches that couldn't be kept out, but light immediately underground and extinguish in the outside.

- found a weird room of billowing low sanctity smoke, and tried to explore it but gave up since they couldn't see anything and felt immense menace.

- found assorted weapons and left-behind gear

- scored some loot and a secret.

The huge oblong purple stone was a big find. Hannari came close to it and saw a vision of himself and Chop leaning over a chest. He motioned for help, and a figure came from behind and knifed the two of them in the neck . . . then nothing. Chop came close and a voice in his head told him to ask any question about the complex. He asked where the greatest treaure was. Contrary to popular belief, the greatest treasure wasn't the friends they made along the way. Instead, it was in the junk room. They went down and made a thorough search. In the false bottom of a big open crate they'd dismissed last time they looked was a broadsword - it turned out to be Arbiter, a fine meteoric holy sword (see DFRPG Magic Items.)

They also found the quarters of the two leader-types they'd killed in the past, and in a locked, trapped chest with 8 large rubies in it. And they found the lair of the wizards, who left loot behind when the last of them fled.

They also found a way out, that had been coveed with magically-created stone last time. They eventually decided to leave that way. It was worked stone, and many miles long. It took 3 nights of camping underground to follow it the whole length . . . right into the gate level of Felltower near the Brotherhood area. They found their way out, figured out how to get back out the seemingly one-way passage (Hannari guessed right on how), and then headed to Stericksburg.

They paid off their henchman and brought Arbiter to the church. The church wanted it back very badly, and offered its full value for its return . . . . 60,000. Chop doesn't use blades and Hannari uses money, so they said yes. $30K each.

Notes:

- Someone is going to insist they said they searched that crate. They did not. Too bad, because there was a Holy Warrior in the party then.

- MVP was Hannari for doing all of the exploring in the VTT. Chop's player claims to have no sense of direction.

- XP was 4 for loot, 1 for exploration.

- Yes, the complex was a side area. But it's been there and waiting and coming up in rumors since the earlest days of Felltower. Why? Because they're connected.

Next game . . . not sure. I'm off on a big trip soon, so maybe August?

Friday Roundup 6/27/2025

- I have a good run going in Battle Brothers. My first run, I didn't understand how to build good brothers, so I'm kind of stuck. My second only lasted a few days before it was clear I was in a living hell - few fights I could handle, almost no recruits I could afford, and lots and lots of undead and wolves and other nasties in the area. The third playthrough, I'm around day 55 or so with the Headhunters, and they're kicking ass. I literally smashed an undead camp for a mission, took an additional mission to smash more, and then wiped out a bandit camp on the way home just because they were on the way.

Three things* turned it for me:

1) Having a better idea how to recruit and build brothers

2) Ruthless use of fishing nets and daggers early to get better armor (and I scored a pike in week 1, which was massive)

3) A policy of having as many fights as I could, much like D'Artagnan was counciled to by his pop.

Because of this, I had better armor than before, better brothers, and guys with as many fights as they have days in the company. Fun stuff.

- I didn't have much time to do game prep, because I wasted what I had on Battle Brothers. Next game is Sunday.

- Concussion sucks enough that everyone fixes it. It's broken.

* Besides surprise, fear, and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope. Ah, I'll start again.