DCCRPG - Return to Slither's End

Going Home

We took a brief break from the Sunken City Omnibus series of adventures last night to tie up some loose ends within the campaign.  Our characters have been through twelve adventures so far, and before moving on to Lair of the Mist Men I thought it only fair to give the players a turn to affect some change in The Free Company's adopted home base of Slither's End.  

The player characters first traveled to Slither's End in part one of The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, and it was decided that the original members of The Free Company remained there when we started with the "B-Team" in A Gathering of the Marked.  So what happened to those members of The Free Company?  What have they been doing the last several weeks, before joining up a group of "marked mercenaries" from the swamps of the Sunken City?

Let's find out!

The Great SCOT Continues

The Free Company, our adventuring party happily enjoying the Great Sunken City Omnibus Tour, completed Perils of the Sunken City and last month moved onto the The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk.  If you're interesting in starting this story from the beginning, here are the previous tales:

• Perils of the Sunken City, Part One
• Perils of the Sunken City, Part Two
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part One
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Two
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Three
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Four
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Five
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Six
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Seven
• A Gathering of the Marked, Part One
• A Gathering of the Marked, Part Two
• A Gathering of the Marked, Part Three

This is an open door campaign, so we can always have new players join our group.  Here are our only rules from game to game:

• Schedule five players for each event
• Hold a sixth seat free for last minute additions
• Players who complete an adventure have "dibs" on joining the next adventure
• Players can bow out, and rejoin later with living or new characters so long as there is a open spot at the virtual table

As always, Die Rodney!

The Free Company Roster 

• +Marc Plourde
• Floyd Pink, Warrior
• Mayor Razoul, Psion
• Roge, Halfling Mariner/Wizard's Apprentice
• +andrew lyon
• Ssof Rehtaf, Cleric
• Lil Hammy, Tiny Pig Paladin Statue (advances as Paladin)
• Ferd, Dwarven Blacksmith/Wizard's Apprentice
• +Craig McCullough
• Garik, Warrior
• Gordon, Halfling Burglar
• Watson, Wizard
• Anderson, Dwarven Stonemason
• +Paul Go 
• Wayne (or Worm), Thief
• Imric, Elf
• +Jonata Sodre 
• "Screaming" Otto, Warrior
• Steve, Guild Begger/Wizard's Apprentice
• +Alex Perucchini 
• Nicodemus, Thief
• Gastronomix, Dwarf
• Ezekial, Woodcutter/Wizard's Apprentice

Return to Slither's End

Since we were last in Slither's End the following has occurred for The Free Company:

• In Lord Beecham's absence, Razoul the Psion was elected to the position of town Mayor.  Lord Beecham continues to flex his muscle over the region, perhaps to a sinister end.  
• The Free Company hired some additional mercenaries to help protect their 107,000 coins (mostly silver) buried in the basement of the Gralk family home.  These are the "Marked Mercenaries" from the latest series of adventures (Floyd, Lil Hammy, Garik, Gordon, Wayne, Gastronomix, and Screaming Otto.)
• Cleric Ssof Rehtaf has been working to convert the citizens of Slither's End to the ways of Aristemis the Insightful One, demi-goddess of true seeing, strategy, and wood-fired pizza.  

For last night's adventure, I went around the "virtual" table, and gave each player the opportunity to take control of the adventure and talk about their member of The Free Company.  Here's what we came up with:

Ssof Rehtaf & Razoul

Desiring a change of religious loyalty in Slither's End, from the chaotic snake-god Salissak to lawful, hearth protecting Aristemis, Ssof Rehtaf gathers the townsfolk together for a great speech.  After paying Mayor Razoul the permit fee for this kind of assembly, Ssof climbs atop the metal arm that was used by the prior mayor to lower poor citizens into the swamp waters as sacrifices to Salissak.  Ssof cuts the cage away, letting it fall into the water, and curses Salissak and his evil ways.  The act is so dramatic, that the majority of townsfolk instantly switch sides, and start to cry out the name of their new goddess.

That's when Salissak shows up.

The snake god slithers up the platform and demands praise and worship.  Nicodemus is the only party member to call out in favor of the snake-god, but once the rest of The Free Company decides to throw down, the thief follows suit.  

The battle is nearly a disaster.  Screaming Otto nearly drops his axe, and never lands a hit on the beast.  Razoul takes some wicked-bad psionic backlash causing his ears to bleed.  Gordon loses his axe after it turns to rust when it strikes Salissak.  At least Ssof is able to stand toe-to-toe for a while with the magical Fairystomper, but eventually a nearly-deadly tail swipe takes out the party's cleric.  

Fortunately for the group, Nicodemus and Gordon are able to retreat and lob arrows at the wounded snake-god, whittling away its health.  Finally, Razoul launches a telekinetic blast at the foul being that both obliterates the snake-god and gains the psionicist-mayor some serious respect throughout town.

At least Lil Hammy is able to revive Ssof at the end of combat.  

Once the battle is over, the town is freed from the bonds of Salissak.  Most of the town commits themselves to Ssof's new church of Aristemis (located in the town pavilion), but there are many who start referring to someone else as a god: Razoul.  

Behold, Razoul... the God-Mayor of Slither's End!

Following the battle, Razoul needs a well deserved break from public life, and takes a couple days off to rest his brain and heal the bruising from his backlash.

Nicodemus

After seeing both Ssof and Razoul get some power within the town of Slither's End, the great chaotic thief Nicodemus wants some street-cred.  So Nicodemus convinces God-Mayor Razoul to bestow the title of deputy mayor on him.  Fortunately for the town thief, this job also comes with the duty of being the chief Tax Collector for Slither's End.  

Nicodemus is informed that Vokas the Fire Mage, aka the "Man Ape", owes 400 gold pieces with of fines to Slither's End.  Vokas had gone mad over the past several years, and believed himself to have transformed into a giant, hairless, tailless, upright-walking ape.  This just means that he spends a lot of time walking around town naked.  Well it turns out that Vokas pays a weekly fine of 100 gold pieces for lewdness, and this has become an important part of the town economy.  It's said that most of the repairs to infrastructure in Slither's End are financed by Vokas' exposed rear end.  

Nicodemus assembles a team and heads over to Vokas' tower.  After picking the front door's lock, Nicodemus marches into the tower and finds Vokas tied up on the floor, naked.  Vokas claims that he was forced to "pay up" to Lord Beecham, who still claims to hold power over the town.  He also states that he has no money to pay the God-Mayor.  

Nicodemus wasn't going to return to the God-Mayor empty handed.  So the thief starts going through Vokas' magical items and steals a pair of magic fezzes.  The legendary Fezzes of Binding!  He places one upon his head, and tosses the other to Lil Hammy.  Instantly the two characters have a deep emotional connection.  The Fezzes of Binding allow each wearer to feel the emotions and surface thoughts of the other.  This leads to much tender hugging, and cathartic crying between the party's thief and paladin.  

It's awkward for everyone but the naked man bound on the floor.  

Watson

Flashback, two days prior...

Watson is working alongside Vokas the Fire Mage, pouring through the old wizard's worn tomes and newer editions of the Encyclopedia Great Cityica.  It is the party wizard's desire to uncover the mysteries of a bird-based patron, so that he can swear his loyalty and unlock the greater powers of screaming eagle magic.  

Also working in the tower as wizard's apprentices are Roge, Ferd, Steve, and Ezekial (Judge's Note: these roles were played by the other PC's during this scene.)  

The entire team of researchers work together to uncover the secrets of an ancient patron known as Aquilia, the Great Hawkheaded One!  It is said that Aquilia requires three gifts and offerings to bestow her magic upon a mortal:

1. A guava
2. A meercat
3. A halbard

(Judge's Note: I let the other PC's come up with these items in "Mad Lib" style.)

The legendary ritual went as follows:  the petitioner must travel to the top of the highest mountain in the region, and then slay a meercat with a halbard while simultaneously eating a fresh guava.  

Once the ritual is uncovered, Watson thanks Vokas' team and leaves.  

That's when Lord Beecham shows up!  

(Judge's Note:  Lord Beecham now looks and sounds just like Xerxes from 300.)

The Lord demands that Vokas pays him for the lewdness fines.  When Vokas tries to speak out against the injustice, Lord Beecham unleashes a devastating kick to the naked Man Ape's groin.  Lord Beecham's goons (one of whom is played by Craig), slay all of Vokas' apprentices save for Steve, who declares his undying loyalty to former mayor.  Steve claims that he was tired, oh so tired, of constantly seeing the Man Ape's nakedness, and proves his worth to his new master by tying up Vokas.  

As he does so, Steve whispers to Vokas, that he'll return with help.

Steve never returns

Floyd

After all of the craziness that occurred over the last several weeks, we come back to Floyd pink, the Warrior and Marked Mercenary who survived the Gathering.  Floyd still has the Stone Demon's Shell, and he wants it made into a shield.  Yuri the blacksmith offers to create a fine shield out of the shell... for 1,000 gold pieces!

Floyd feels the price is too steep, so he asks for a trade.  Yuri thinks a bit, and then gives Floyd a perilous mission that could determine the fate of the entire Sunken City...

... a mission to hunt down and defeat the Mist Men!

Yuri claims that the Mist Men have been harming his blacksmithing business by capturing merchants along the southern passage of the Sunken City.  The lone survivor of the last expedition, a bizarre and shrill hunchbacked trapper named Mingus, successfully fought off one of the Mist Men, and gained his artifact: a silver tube.  It was said that Mingus could use the tube to track the Mist Men back to their lair.  

Floyd agreed to accompany Mingus to the Lair of the Mist Men as trade for the shield.  Accompanying Floyd were Gastronomix, Lil Hammy, Otto, and Watson.

After two days of travel the party arrives at Korik's Heart, a great hill that juts up above the rest of the swamp.  At the top of the hill is a cave entrance that Mingus says is the lair for which they search.  The trapper then bids the party adieu and heads back to town.  

While the trapper is walking away, the team hear him arguing with something under his shirt.  Mingus wore a giant cloak, presumably to cover his hunch.  But it appeared that Mingus was arguing with part of the hunch!  

"Hey, I know that guy!" the hunch called out.  "Watson!"  

Watson walks over to investigate, and discovers that Mingus bears the parasitic skull of Cedric on his shoulder.  Cedric demands that Watson free him from Mingus' shoulder, but the wizard doesn't seem interested in dealing with a mouth, lying skull.  Since Cedric's old host Nicodemus was back in town, Watson tells Mingus to look the thief up one he arrives.  

Adventure Notes

• Salissak (Created using the Purple Sorcerer Dragon Generator)
• Init +2; Atk bite +7 melee (1d12); tail slap +7 melee (1d20); AC 16; HD 6d12 (62 hp); MV 40 (slither); Act attacks d20, spells ; SP see below; SV Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +6; Al C.
• Breath Weapon: Type (Poison gas); Save (Fort 16); Damage (1d16 or no effect with save); Shape (Cloud, radius 1d3 x 10’, aimed up to 90’ away)
• Level 1 Spells: Color Spray, Ward Portal
• Martial Power 1: Rusting hide. The Salissak hide causes rust in all normal metal objects. As a result, its treasure horde consists primarily of gems and magical items. Weapons used to attack Salissak crumble to rust upon touch (although magic weapons are immune).
• Unique Power 1: Speak with muck melons (1/hour). Salissak can designate one animal and communicate effectively in that animal’s native tongue for the remainder of the hour. The animal still cannot communicate beyond the limits of its intelligence and physical abilities.
• Unique Power 2: Swamp growth (1/hour). All swamp growth within 100’ grow to twice their current size in 1d4 rounds; targets within growth are entangled (half speed, -2 to attacks).

 

Quotes?

"Until we get the town budget balanced, I'm the closest thing that comes to law and order." - Marc discusses Razoul, the new God-Mayor of Slither's End.

"Aristemis has come to rid them of your taint." - Ssof Rehtaf demands the town convert.

"No no!  I'm the new guy!  I don't know anything about that!  I'm only here to work and cut wood!" - Screaming Otto screaming.

"In the name of Aristemis, I vanquish this foul beast and cleanse this town of its... demon taint." - Ssof Rehtaf tries to land a killing blow on the snake god.

"You need a permit for any grievances filed for... eh... uh." - Mayor Razoul tries to lay down some serious paperwork for Salissak.

"Hey fruit loop, open the door!" - Nicodemus calls out to the Vokas the Man Ape.

Andy (as Lil Hammy) - "We are the law!" - Lil Hammy
Craig - "Andy now becomes Judge Dredd."

"I don't like this man, he's so naked.  All the time he is naked!" - Steve to Lord Beecham, begging to join his crew.

"Do you know that boil?" - Floyd to Watson, after the party discovers that Mingus bears the parasitic skull of Cedric.  

In Memoriam 

• Ezekial - Stabbed by Lord Beecham's goon
• Ferd - Hammered to death by Anderson the goon
• Roge - Stabbed by Lord Beecham's goon

Family Game Knights - Sour Spring Hollow

Opening the Chained Coffin

This week we started a new, regular gaming group in our house.  In the past we've done games as a family, and occasionally we invite some other friends and family to come join me, +Jennifer Walls, and the kids.  But these have usually been one shots.  So, as a new experiment, I thought we'd try doing a regular, as close to weekly game as possible, with open invites to many of our friends.  Some of these friends have kids of their own, and some don't.  

Some face their fears of my crazy children and still choose to roll dice with us.  

For our very first session of something I plan on calling Family Game Knights I grabbed my copy of The Chained Coffin and caught up on my Shudder Mountain setting knowledge.  I've been to the Shudders before, but it's been a few months.  Late last year I ran Sour Spring Hollow for my old D&D 4E group as a reunion game.  You can catch up on that tale here.  

For those uninitiated with the Chained Coffin box set, 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, 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.  As is typical of the wonderful G+ DCCRPG community, when I asked for tips on what other adventures to throw into the Shudders, I got a ton of recommendations.  Fortunately, I own a lot of the adventures suggested, and those that I don't... well... I may have some shopping to do.

For now, this is the order we'll be following for Family Game Knights:

1. Sour Spring Hollow (from The Chained Coffin)
2. Moonricket Bridge (from Tales of the Shudder Mountains)
3. Doom of the Savage Kings
4. Attack of the Frawgs

I don't want to add too many to the list, as I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can keep this thing going.  But I have a lot of hope!

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

The Adventuring Party

• Jen
• Warwick Anheiser - Halfling Brewer
• Wize Wizard McBride - Sage
• Dave Chappelle - Herbalist
• Evie
• Jefff - Wheat Farmer (yes, that's 3 "f's")
• Lyrica - Musician
• Bob the Savior - Hunter
• Carie
• Mullet - Turnip Farmer
• Erp - Halfling Brewer
• P. Specs - Prospector
• Andy
• Waldon - Orphan
• Jerald - Herder
• Faldoon - Corn Farmer
• Jeremy
• Huey - Woodcutter
• Dewey - Smuggler/Bootlegger
• Louie - Halfling Farmer
• Melinda
• Ebbonly - Halfling Farmer
• Kadabra - Miller/Baker
• Kathar - Halfling Brewer

Quick Report

When I say "quick" I'm not kidding!  

After enjoying some kind of tainted brew at a wedding in the foothills of the Shudder Mountains, the adventuring party awakens in the center of what appears to be a dead farm. They are surrounded by dried up grass, corn, and dilapidated buildings under an ominous sky.  Immediately the party is beset upon by strange, cackling spirits that turn all they touch into tiny corn dolls.  Some of the party members run and hide, and others attempt to fight off the spirits unsuccessfully.

After the attack, the party explores the dead farm:

• Kathar finds out the hard way that the cemetery is no place for a halfling, and is devoured by Earth Hounds.
• Huey finds that one of the buildings bears a Devil's Thorn that protects the building from the spirits.  Unfortunately it only works when affixed to a door.  No problem for Huey!  He carries around the door from building to building, protecting the party whenever it's attached.  I think he's taking the door into the next adventure.
• Speaking of buildings, one of 'em eats some of the party members!  The Gardinel, a black-magic infused living house, gobbles up Bob the Savior, Dave Chappelle, Waldon, and Huey.  Fortunately, the latter two are able to escape before getting digested.
• One of the houses contained a child's drawings depicting a nice, white-robed priestess coming to an evil family's farm, having her holy symbol get thrown down a well, and then getting tossed onto a scarecrow's pole.  
• Jefff, ever the future Paladin, battled several of the spirits with a frying pan.  
• Waldon's dog (what was his name?) collected some human bones from the cornfield that the party attempted to set on fire, but it was full of bloody stalks.
• Ebbonly learned to play an out of tune fiddle, and continued playing it the entire time.
• Kadabra gained a spellbook from one of the homes, but reading it caused some corruption, causing her to get the chills forever (and forcing players Andy and Jen to sing "You're the One That I Want" repeatedly.)

After several more attacks by the cackling spirits, and more party deaths, the team decided to follow the breadcrumbs and escape the cursed farm.  They went to the well, sent Ebbonly down in a bucket to retrieve the lost holy symbol (unfortunately this cost her her life), and headed up to the scarecrow in the corn field.  There they found a desiccated priestess with an outstretched hand.  So they placed the holy symbol in her hand, and the farm started to change.

Instantly the party was attacked by a series of raving spirits, but these were defeated.  

(GM's Note:  If I left out any great stories, I invite my players to let me know and I'll include them in the recap.)

Campaign Crematorium

• Jerald - Turned into a corn doll
• Lewe - Turned into a corn doll
• Faldoon - Turned into a corn doll
• Kathar - Eaten by Earth Hounds
• Warwick Anheiser - Killed self by trying to run with a barrel over his head
• Erp - Eaten by a goose
• Bob the Savior - Eaten by a house
• Dave Chappelle - Eaten by a house
• Ebbonly - Killed by the Deadfall in the well

Golden Michael Phelps on the Starless Sea - a DCCRPG Road Crew Event

I wasn't going to blog this adventure recap.

Seriously.

It wasn't that I didn't want to capture last night's events.  Definitely not it.  I rather enjoy going back and reading some of my play reports from previous games.  Hell, I'd go as far to say that these summaries are more for me the game master than for you the reader.  Blogger gives me a nice and tidy repository for prior victories behind the judge's screen.  

I made the decision to not write a blog post about last night's game as soon as I started getting players.  Eight of my Norwin Game Knights sat down for this event, which was originally going to be a Mutant Crawl Classics take on Sailors on the Starless Sea.  When I remembered that two of my players (Craig and Carrie) had played Sailors I felt that I needed to do something crazy and bizarre.  So crazy and outlandish, that I didn't want to bother keeping track.

See, when I know I'm going to do an adventure summary, I take notes and log events in ways that make it easier for me to write about them later.  Again, since I know many of you aren't the biggest fans of these recaps, these still mean a lot to me and my players.  But when I don't have to "blog" the event afterwards, I feel a bit more free.  I feel unrestricted, capable to do just about anything in the game session, at any time.  

By the adventure's end, however, looking out at eight smiling faces, I felt bad that I didn't write much down.

"You gotta put that on the blog," my friend +Craig McCullough stated.  He and his son Dylan were two of my players.  So I grabbed a piece of paper and we quickly jotted down some notes.  At the very least I could share some of the outlandishness that occurred during our session.

So here's what we got... a big hot mess, but maybe... maybe... you can pluck a few tidbits and ideas out for your own sessions.  

By the way, I'm calling this adventure...

Golden Michael Phelps on the Starless Sea

So here's how it all went down:

I think I remember the Spellburn crew talking about running a "reverse" Sailors on the Starless Sea, where the players were the beast men.  I liked the idea of reusing this classic Dungeon Crawl Classics (super-extra classic!) adventure in a new way.  To date I've run Sailors three times: twice with DCC, and once with the Cypher System.  I've also been through it as a player.  So yeah, a mix up would be great.

So here's how I changed it:  I set the adventure in some weird future beneath the city of Paris.  A cult of well-dressed, steampunky dudes were using a 3D printer to print out fantasy characters (the players).  Then they'd cut them down, throw them on a boat, and take them to the surface to be consumed.  

Yes, the plot was weak.  

Perhaps there was a Soylent Green problem going on up in Paris, and these 3D printed fantasy characters were the only possible source of food.  Sure, it doesn't explain the ziggurat at the end of Sailors but cut me some slack.  We started with the ziggurat, because I was literally "reversing" the adventure, starting at the back of the book and just reskinning parts of it as we moved backwards.  

The cultists commanded the 3D printed fantasy characters to march in order towards a dude with an axe that had the words "sleepy time" written in blood on its haft.  When the PC's noted that the cultists were just hacking up others in line, it was combat time.  I let the players keep their weapons and gear... I guess that was printed too.

When one of the players got near the water, I decided that the sea creature needed to be something terrible and ferocious.  Like a bass crossed with a gorilla.  Carrie's friend Ella named it the Gorbass, and the name stuck.  By the end of the adventure, Ella's character would be a Priestess of the Gorbass, making several attempts to invoke the creature (some successfully!)

Since I was going wild during the game, I decided to let the players go wild too.  If they asked for something, I'd roll dice and typically give it to them.  That's how Michael Phelps would get involved.  Wait, we're not there yet.

Fight, fight, battle, battle.  We don't need to talk about that part.  But what I should note is how I dealt with character death.  To add a crazy, unnecessary complication and drawback to character death, I came up with a totally random rule for the table.  When we started, each player had one character.  But when a character died (at least during the first part of the adventure, when everyone was 3D printed) I made everyone rotate their characters.  Pass them to the right, pass them to the left, pass them across the table.  

Lots of players ended up playing someone they didn't create.  And this is how +Craig McCullough got stuck playing a killer crab with a knife, who had to shout "You mess with the crabbo you get the stabbo!" whenever he attacked:

Moving on, when the players killed the guys on the ziggurat, they tried boarding one of the 3D meat hauling boats.  Well this particular boat was protected by non other than Al Pacino's Scarface wielding an M-16.  We just treated the M-16 as the Magic Missile spell, and this all worked out.  Pretty epic fight here, but in the end, the party had a machine gun...

... ho, ho, ho.

Deciding to get the hell out of Dodge, the party boarded the boat and followed a light (another boat) to a small, underground shore.  There, they found another boat, with its crew offloading 3D printed fantasy character meat into a Dodge Durango.  This boat was protected by another Al Pacino Scarface...

... because in this future, 3D printed Al Pacino Scarfaces are the ultimate security guards.

So, shoot, shoot, bang, bang, battle over.  

Oh, by this point I was no longer handing out fantasy characters for dead PC's, but instead I gave out Mutant Crawl Classics 0-levels.  No real reason for doing this, other than that look of pure joy when someone named their plantient Groot.  One of the 0-levels had already been played in a previous game, and was named Prince Charming.  We ruled at the table that Prince Charming's player had to talk about his character in the third person at all times. No reason for doing this.  Just felt right.

When the Dodge Durango fled the battle, the party pursued it on foot, but couldn't keep up.  They followed a network of tunnels and caves until they made it to a large pool, which I declared to be the size of an olympic swimming pool.  Adam, my youngest player, asked if he could find Michael Phelps.  

I rolled a die (for no reason) and announced "yes!"

A giant, twenty-foot tall, golden Michael Phelps god erupted from the water.  His ams were outstretched, and on those long, beautiful limbs, hung sixty-six gold medals.  Michael Phelps had all kinds of magical powers, and his gold medals could be flung at opponents causing 8d6 damage.  Sort of on the fly we decided that Michael Phelps could also turn people into mermaids and mermen.  

He did this to Evan's character, and then turned Ella's character into a reverse merman (head and torso of a fish, legs of a human.  When these two characters touched fin to hand, they blended into one PC, shared by both players:

The only fair way of letting Evan and Ella play the same character was to force them to speak every other word.  This got complicated.  So during their actions, they had to share their sentences, each taking turns stating their words.  A terrible calamity would befall them should this rhythm be broken.  

After bidding the Michael Phelps god adieu, the party followed a path into the slums of Paris.  It was there that they were jumped by a street gang of Macklemore-worshipping minions: the Macklemorons.  

When the PC's went to war with the Macklemorons, the six remaining thugs made a circle, pointed their rings towards each other, and in true "Captain Planet" fashion, summoned Macklemore into the battle.  

Ella and Evan's Mer-Mer character challenged the Thrift Shop singing, ratty coat wearing musician to a rap battle, which was quite interesting given that the two players had to rap every other word.  But they pulled it off!  Macklemore was left terribly injured, and found himself dead only a few moments later.

With only a few Macklemorons remaining, Alex's character grabbed a saxophone and started playing.  Alex wanted to play a note so powerful that it would destroy all of the badguys.  I told him that this was fine, and to give me a roll.  Alex got a seventeen on his twenty-sider, and then spent some luck to get to a twenty-five.  I ruled that everyone in the area (including other PC's) took the damage. 

This almost became a TPK, as only two PC's (Alex and Adam) survived.  But they were free, and Macklemore was dead.  

#Winning

*     *     *

The moral of this game is two-fold yet simple:

1. Sometimes the best games happen when everyone just wants to go crazy and have a good time.  
2. The Golden Michael Phelps God can turn you into a fish.  

Jim & Jen & Gary Con

Our Trip to Lake Geneva

Gary Con... wow.  So many amazing moments and emotions.  So much planning, preparing, fretting, organizing, traveling, and before we knew it we were there.  It's really hard to put this all into words, so I thought I'd do it with pictures.  

Let's start with the packing!  Here's our pre-Gary Con organization area.  Lot of good it did me!  I ended up forgetting some of my monsters for Star Wars DCC.  No worries though, as I was able to access Google Docs during the game.  Very grateful that the Grand Geneva had WiFi!

A little pre-Gary Con iced tea with +Jennifer Walls' stress relieving wizard.

If I was going to hold the wizard, I was holding my special d20 as well.

The view from our hotel room balcony.

This one was hard to look at and not get emotional.  A table of honor for Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax.  All of these items could be found at his table during gaming sessions with friends and family.  A touching tribute to an incredible human being.

It wasn't hard to find after-hours gaming.  I managed to get in on a little of +Doug Kovacs' Inferno Road DCC game.

I made sure to bring my silver cake mist so that someone could get shiny and chrome during the adventure.  +Marc Plourde considered it, but it would be +Craig Stokes that would go all in.

ALL IN!

+David Baity's Dark Trails session was a weird western roller coaster of awesome!  I got to play an Occultist and +Jennifer Walls was a spirit talking Calavera... not sure if I spelled that right.  But wonderful classes!  Really hope to see more of this... and maybe buy a shirt off of David.

Jen working out her character sheet.

My character, Doctor O, lopped his hand off mid-session and replaced it with a goaty hand.  This was me doing the goat hand with +Craig Stokes.

The Growing Up Gygax panel with Gary Gygax's children was informative, touching, and warmly humorous.  So glad that there are people who can tell Gary's story.

Just me and my legendary buddy +Marc Plourde being badass together.

I brought stuff to run a quick, one-hour player vs. player session of DCC Roman Gladiators. This turned into four straight hours of battling in the blood and sand.  

Believe me, this game was off-the-charts crazy!  Expect to see more gladiators soon...

 

The DCCRPG community really knows how to take up some room in the bar!

Friday morning began with +Harley Stroh's Warlords of the Purple Planet.  This game needs to become something that I can spend a ton of cash on!  Play a roving band of wasteland kith collecting green shards and battling worms?  YES PLEASE!

I became quite the worm killer!  No one killed as many worms as me!

Okay, this worm did me in.

The banner of the "Loathing Purplish Breeze."  Note the three worm kills on top of the three "C's".  Each one of those reflected me killing one of Connor Skatch's warbands.  Dude, that kid can PLAY!  I was lucky to keep the same warband until the end of the game.  Then I died.

Running DCCRPG Stormtroopers of the First Order.  Special thanks to +Sean P Kelley for the picture!

What a great table of players!  Two of the gamers even kept their original character the entire game, never succumbing to PC death.  Pretty epic for a funnel!

While I played Star Wars +Jennifer Walls and +Marc Plourde explored the Caverns of Thracia.

I don't know why Jen wanted to do Marc in... 

In downtown Lake Geneva you can find a tiny plaque to Gary Gygax.  A poignant and touching monument from the friends and family of Gary.  Lake Geneva needs to do more for this man's memory.

+Doug Kovacs teaching the rules to Dogstorm.  Imagine a miniatures combat game in a post apocalyptic world where dachshunds and rhinos can rain from the sky.  That is Dogstorm.

Ready to weather the storm!

 Holy crap, it's +Jarrett Crader!!!

My warband of elves led by Luke Skywalker.

Check out this terrain!

Check out +Jennifer Walls playing a miniatures wargame.  What the heck, Gary Con!  How did you turn Jen into a mini's gamer!?!

Got to spend a little time with +Jason Hobbs of the Hobbs & Friends of the OSR podcast.  Got some podcasting tips to help my new "career" on Glowburn.  Jen and I listened to Jason's podcast during our trip home, and really enjoyed it.  You should check it out too, just follow this link.

Doug quizzing Joe Goodman on Lankhmar at the What's New with Goodman Games seminar.  Joe didn't do so well, but fortunately he still kicked off the DCC Lankhmar Kickstarter for everyone!  Go check it out and pledge today!

Jen witnessed the Judge's Guild Strongman contest.  I still don't know how +Tim Deschene didn't win, after all those bodybuilding posts he puts up on Facebook.  Shame!

The highlight of +Jennifer Walls' con experience was Mall Maul, the Crawling Under a Broken Moon tournament funnel with Judge +Jarrett Crader.  I hope the foam wizard behaved itself!

DCCRPG Wrath of the Gungan Horde on Saturday.  A perilous game, as this was the one where I forgot the monster stats!

Tamara named her Bounty Hunter "Sean Spicer."  It drew a few looks from other tables throughout the game.

It was a game full of PvP action, double crosses, zombie gungans, and Jabba karaoke.  Thanks for playing!

Although you can't tell from this pic, while I was talking with +Reid San Filippo, +Jennifer Walls got to play with Ernie Gygax's super-sweet dog.  They had quite the game of fetch!

Got to play a halfling in a quick, 7th level pickup game with Judge +Michael Thompson.  Sorry if I was in and out, dude!  Thanks for the game and letting me experience higher level play for the very first time!

Speaking of this game, it was the first time I ever witnessed a PC break open a mech's cockpit and then take a dump on the pilot.  You can guess who the player was... 

... it was +Marc Plourde.

+Jennifer Walls and I enjoyed the alcohol based "Cultural Exchange" late Saturday night.

Goodbye Gary Con, Lake Geneva, and the Grand Geneva Resort...

... we'll see you next March!

PS:  Thanks Gary...