Living 4 Crits: Family Game Knights - Attack of the Frawgs, Part 1

Exploring the Chained Coffin

Welcome to Family Game Knights, our regular tour through of the Shudder Mountains and The Chained Coffin box set.

For those uninitiated with the Chained Coffin, creative lead +Michael Curtis and the rest of the Goodman Games crew have created a wonderful and vibrant fantasy campaign setting based on Appalachian myth and legend. As someone who spent nearly every summer vacationing at Hungry Mother State Park in western Virginia as a kid, with many day trips to the Great Smokey Mountains, coal mine tours, and outdoor theater at the Cherokee Reservation, the Shudder Mountains feel right at home.

It's my intention on running pretty much all of these Family Game Knights sessions in the Shudder Mountains as a campaign.

Here are our previously spun yarns:

Also to note: I'm working on a Shudder Mountain soundtrack through a YouTube playlist. Any suggestions? Here's where I'm at so far.

The Adventuring Party

Wize Wizard McBride - Cleric

Evie

Jeffff - Warrior (she plans to add another "f" after each gained level)

Carrie

P. Specs - Thief

Andy

Waldon - Thief

Jeremy

Sir Huey, Keeper of the Sacred Door - Warrior

Ella

Quinn - Wizard

Frank

Zzizzle Fenderbender - Dwarf

Emily

Farwyn - Elf

Attack of the Frawgs, Part One

Judge's Note: This adventure is our first session of Attack of the Frawgs by +Stephen Newton. With that said, I'd like to humbly apologize to the wonderful Mr. Newton, and the rest of my faithful readers, for how off track our game went. But hot damn, it was hilarious!

I reckon we need to start this week's blog entry with the addition of a new character: Farwyn the Elf. Farwyn was a prom queen on Earth, who went to an after-party at a local amusement park and made the mistake of riding the "Dungeon Crawl Classics Ride," sponsored by Goodman Games. You can all figure out what happened next. Farwyn got teleported to the Shudder Mountains.

Crap!

The elf met up with a traveling band of brewers who lived near a lake. But when a terrible, croaking menace appeared at the lake, Farwyn (and her new friends) were tasked with defeating the fell creatures. Torfist, the only survivor of a horrible, amphibian encounter, barely returned from the lake with his life.

So that's how everything started off last night. It didn't take long to descend into madness.

Before leaving the brewers' camp, Jeffff requested some additional gear to aid in the battle. Brewmeister Smith handed over the following:

A suit of hide armor.
A piece of chalk.
A lance.

The team left the lance, but took the armor and chalk. Never know when you're going to need some good chalk. They then traveled north, and followed a trail of Torfist's blood to the lake shore. Walden climbed a large tree to reconnoiter the region, noting a watermill nearby, a giant-beaver dam to the south-east, and a floating monstrosity just beneath the lake's surface to the east.

The party decided to check out the watermill first, which turned out to be a brewery.

Entering the building, Farwyn was attacked by a madman with a bung hammer. Although clearly out of his mind, and screaming about demons, and certainly not at fault for his actions, Jeffff decided to kill him anyway. But the man had released a quartet of beer rats to attack the party. The creatures, however, were little match for the awesome might of the explorers.

Searching the upper floor of the brewery, Walden noted that a strange, fishbone was stuck in a filter by the mill. When he picked up the item, he sensed a strange surge of energy in his hand. The Wize Wizard McBride cast "detect magic" on the bone, and discovered it to be filled with accursed magic. But Walden thought he could use the bone as a weapon, and was desperate to keep the artifact.

The only problem was that it caused him to croak every two or three minutes.

This alarmed the party, and so they devised a long and convoluted plan to get the item away from Walden. P. Specs pilfered it from his fellow thief, but then he started croaking as well. So the Wize Wizard McBride put P. Specs to sleep with a spell, and Walden ended up with the bone again. Jeffff tried to stab it away from Walden, and Zzizzle attempted to tackle him. Eventually Farwyn cast "sleep" on Walden, and Sir Huey busted the bone with the bong hammer.

The party then heard a humming sound outside. Going to the door, they all saw a metal disc lower to the ground, and a four armed, four legged, three eyed, three necked alien with a Punisher t-shirt appeared. It claimed that it's name was "Halien", and that it wanted to be the team's friend, so long as they engaged in an epic battle. After some quick negotiating, Quinn offered a trade: no battle necessary so long as she gave the Halien her wrist-computer. The Halien agreed, and flew away in its flying saucer.

Weird, but that's what you get when Cooper designs part of the adventure.

Following the events at the brewery, the party headed east towards the dam and the floating thing beneath the water. Half of the party crossed the dam (created by gicasters, or "giant beavers") by carefully walking across the top, while the other half waited behind. Walden approached the floating shape beneath the water, and saw a trapped gicaster. He called for the rest of the team to approach, but Zzizzle was busy trying to rescue the Wize Wizard McBride, who had fallen into the dam's structure below, and nearly got mauled by a gicaster.

Once everyone was near the submerged gicaster, Sir Huey set it free by destroying the rope connected to the trap pinning the creature.

A Fine Selection of Quotes from the Table

"Is there any good shopping on the way? I'm gonna need a new dress." - Farwyn the Elf is always looking for a deal.

"... and MY door!" - Judge James pretending to be Sir Huey, pretending to be one of the Fellowship of the Ring.

"If they were mice, it'd be better." - Ella was right. Some blind mice attacking the party would make for more fun than blind rats.

Frank: "Do you really want to carry something cursed?"
Andy: "Seems fine to me."

Campaign Crematorium

None this session

Cooper's Creation

The Halien

Part human, part alien, four arms, four legs, three eyes, and three necks. Good Crom, what the heck is going on with this creature! I completely let Cooper come up with all the rules for this monstrosity, and it was nearly a nightmare. Here's where we stood with the Halien:

500 total hit points.
Will agree to be the party's "friend" if they can fight him down to 95 total hit points remaining.
Three attacks per round:

Diamond Sword: "Five Attack Dice"
Pick Axe: "Two Attack Dice"
Axe: "Four Attack Dice"

That's it.

That's all we had. Fortunately, Cooper was pretty rational. I'd think twice about adding this creature to one of your games...

... and be careful letting a six-year-old play it.

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Family Game Knights - Attack of the Frawgs, Part 1