Friday, July 22, 2022

Session 9 Recap July 16

 Assassin passes out a silver platter to Sandman (Romulus) and his map to Mooncake (Luna).

Broam asked if they party killed the blue gator.  Broam thanks Sandman for killing the gator since it was constantly harassing him.  He then asks if they found his gold egg.  The party successfully hid the fact that they did find the egg.  He asks them to return the egg if they find it but says he hasn’t much to offer in return if they do find it.

The party leaves the room back to the hallway and goes towards the last unopened door.  The party forgets about the trap in front of the door and triggers it.  Sandman falls into the trap and injures his foot on the spike for a point of damage.  The slime poison on the spike causes extreme thirst.  Sandman drinks an entire waterskin that he takes from Mooncake leaving her with an empty waterskin.  Mooncake uses a healer’s kit on Sandman to bandage the wound.  This time they trigger the trap again using the spear.  The party decides to climb down and back out to get to the door.  Assassin slips in the trap and falls on the spike.  He takes a hit of damage and also becomes extremely thirsty.  He drinks his entire waterskin leaving him with an empty waterskin.  Mooncake heals him with a healer’s kit.  They consider where they might find water but decide to leave it for now.

They manage to make it into the final room. There’s a huge stone idol in the room with glowing eyes.  Purple mud flows from its mouth and green slime flows from its nose.  Three toad wraiths are praying to the idol.  Mooncake walks up to the statue but the wraiths are absorbed in their prayers.  Assassin decides to climb up the idol to inspect the eyes.  He makes it up but is getting covered in mud and slime.  He pries out the eyes—which are rubies—with his bone.  He tosses one ruby to Mooncake.  This angers the wraiths.  The wraiths pull at Assassin but he manages to grab the other ruby and then jump on a wraith hurting it.  The wraiths attack the party.  One attacks Mooncake and misses.  Another attacks Sandman and misses.  Sandman attacks with his spear and hits.  The wraiths miss again.  Assassin attacks with his bone club and hits.  Sandman attacks with his spear and hits.  Mooncake attacks with her parasol and hits but breaks her parasol.  The wraiths attack again but don’t do any damage.  Assassin avoids the action for a moment. Sandman attacks a wraith and kills it.  Mooncake attacks a wraith and damages it.  The wraiths attack and miss.  Mooncake attacks and kills a wraith.  Assassin attacks the last wraith and kills it.

The party now has 4 silver platters, a solid gold egg, and two large rubies.  At this point the party decides to re-organize before deciding their next actions and the session ended.

Monday, July 18, 2022

Session 8 July 9

The session begins in the southeast room with the gator attacking Vanilla again but only manages to tear his clothing some more.  Romulus is still in the pit.  Luna is at the doorway.  Vanilla reveals he has four silver platters.

The party decides to try to lure the gator out the hallway and over the trap.  They go into the hallway and spark their flint and steel to attract it.  It works!  The gator runs through the door and triggers the trap.  It falls into the trap and dies.  They go back into the room and search the bone nest.  They find bones of all shapes and sizes including human leg bones belonging to failed adventurers.  They find three gator eggs that they distribute among themselves and a solid gold egg.  Assassin gives Luna her cloak back and has the party help carry the silver platters.  Assassin chooses a sturdy leg bone (presumably human?)  from the nest to use as a weapon.  They go back down the hallway to see Broam again. 

Broam asks the party to leave the Shrine.  They go into Broam’s throne room and volunteer that they killed the blue gator.  Broam reacted strongly but without any clue as to whether he was happy or angry and the session ended.

Saturday, July 9, 2022

Session 7 Recap June 25

Luna wakes up in the north hallway and notices her wet clothing.  A bad smell is coming from the north door, there are sounds coming from the west door.  Luna chooses the west door. She opens the door but it is very dark in the room.  There is enough ambient light to see an outline she recognizes as Assassin.  She also sees a giant pulsing mass and two toad wraiths.  The Toad Behemoth greets Luna and introduces himself as Broam Lord-Under-the-Mire.  Vanilla introduces himself to Broam as “Romulus.”  Broam asks Luna a riddle: “What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?”  Luna answered correctly; silence.  This impresses Broam.  Broam has no more information to share and dismisses the party.  The pair of adventures go through the south door into the small hallway where Romulus is.  He’s in the pit trap at the end of the hallway and is unable to reach the lantern to give it to Luna.  Romulus is holding the trap open.  Luna takes off her cloak and leaves it in the hallway and Assassin wrings it out and takes it.  She gets into the pit with Romulus.  He hands her the lantern and helps her push the door open. She goes through the southern door. In the room, Luna sees a mound of what might be sticks on the floor in the southwest corner.  She moves over to the mound and Assassin comes into the room now.  Now they both move towards the mound.  Now they see they’re bones of all shapes and sizes fashioned into a nest.  Luna runs the other way.  Assassin wants to kick the mound and dig through the bones.  But within 10 feet of the nest a blue gator comes out of the nest.  It’s aggressive.  The gator is coming towards them.  Assassin deftly avoids the first attack and then a second! Assassin tries to jump on the gator’s back but fails.  Luna runs towards the door and almost slips into the trap but manages to stop herself in time.  She’s at the doorway.  The gator attacks Assassin again with a snap but misses; he only managed to tear his clothing.  Assassin tries to Kancho the gator but misses. The gator snaps again and misses again!  Assassin tries to elbow drop the gator and misses; he falls onto the ground.  The session ended!

Romulus in pit.  Luna at doorway.  Assassin on ground.  Gator has the initiative.

Saturday, June 25, 2022

Session 6 Recap June 18

Romulus tossed his tusk spear to Vanilla Assassin to fight the wraiths.  The door then slammed shut.  This week we start with Vanilla in the dining room hearing a knocking at the door; it’s Romulus in the hallway!  They try to open the door but it’s stuck.  The door can’t be locked because Vanilla sees that the door is moving.  Vanilla Assassin pries it open with the tusk spear.  Vanilla passes the tusk spear back to Romulus.  Vanilla tells Romulus that he’s Vanilla now. Vanilla doesn’t tell Romulus what happened behind the closed door.  They’re in the hallway.  They move Luna to a sitting position so that they can move past her in the narrow hallway.  The north door is emanating a disgusting smell; they hear noises coming from the east door.  Romulus decides to try the north door.  Vanilla moves into the hallway.  Romulus leads the way.  Romulus steps in front of the door and hears a click followed by a ticking.  He tries opening the door but it’s not opening.  A trap opens beneath Romulus but he avoids it with a saving roll.  There’s a spike covered with slime in a pit under the floor tile.  He jumps back and the trap resets.  Romulus and Vanilla decide to try the east door.  Vanilla pushes the door open!  They look inside the room.  Vanilla moves into the dark room and sees a dim outline in the ambient light from the hallway.  It's a giant mass; about ten feet high.  There are two toad wraiths in the room.  The blob is pulsing as if it were breathing.  It’s smooth.  Romulus speculates it’s a giant toad and comes into the room with his lantern.  They see a Toad Behemoth!  There are four pillars in the room.  The wraiths are serving the platters of flies and slime to the Toad Behemoth.  He’s being fed but notices the party and says “Who’s there?!”  The party debates whether to answer or go get something to offer to the Behemoth.  It’s been so long since I’ve had anyone to talk to.  He’s wants the party to answer his riddles.  What can fill a room but take up no space.  Vanilla thinks “a demon.”  Romulus says “air.”  The Behemoth was thinking of “light” but the Toad acknowledges air is a valid answer.  What goes through cities and fields but doesn’t move?  Romulus says roadways and it was right!  The Toad calls the adventurers wise.  He’s impressed.  The Toad offers secrets about the shrine:  “There’s a trap in front of the door in the hallway. Also, have you rung the bell in the first room?”  He says if he doesn’t eat once an hour he’ll go on a violent rampage.  Romulus thanks the toad.  Vanilla asks how to ring the bell.  But the Toad won’t answer any more questions.  They decided to look around the room.  They check the south wall carefully using their lantern. They inspect it closely.  It looks like the rest of the wall but they see an outline on the wall near the south east pillar.  They ask about writing on the door.  The mortar looks different within the outline.  Vanilla wants to shoulder block the wall but Romulus is slightly stronger so he decides to try.  He gives the lantern to Vanilla and then runs at the door.  It barely moves.  He risks a shoulder injury but tries again.  The door is open now and Romulus didn’t sustain any shoulder damage.  Romulus wants to go back but Vanilla goes forward into the hallway.  He sees a door at the end of the hallway and runs toward it.  There is another trap in front of the door.  A pit trap is triggered but Vanilla avoids it by holding onto the walls on either side of the trap.  The trap resets.  They search their inventory for a solution.  Romulus triggers the trap with the tusk spear.  Vanilla suddenly runs back to the room with the Behemoth.  Romulus pushes down on the trap with the spear and triggers the trap.  It’s open.  There’s a pit 3 feet down.  He lets himself down into the pit carefully avoiding the slime covered spike.  He's now in the pit but can reach the door knob; it’s three feet above his waist.  The spear is wedged in the trap keeping it open. 

Monday, June 13, 2022

Session 5 Recap Saturday June 10, 2022

Romulus saw that Cutie Pie was in trouble and from the hallway he tossed his tusk spear into the room where Cutie Pie caught it. 

Cutie Pie hit the toad wraith with the spear on the neck and stunned him.  The wraith was unable to counterattack.  Then Cutie Pie swung down on the toad’s head and split his body in two releasing the wraith.

The other wraiths are still occupied with their gruesome task.  They’re not interested in losing their toad hosts like their friend did.  It’s an onerous task to find a new one and their task is more important than fighting; besides as long as the party isn’t trying to stop them or steal the platters of food there is no reason to attack.

Cutie Pie asks about how the room is lit.  There are 3 candles along the length of the table in individual candle holders.  He takes a candle and holds it up to view the room. Again, the wraiths take no notice and apparently don’t mind the loss of focussed illumination. Cutie Pie sees a painting hanging on the west wall of the room.  He examines it and can’t make out what the artwork represents since it’s caked in grime, grease, and smoke.  He takes the painting off the wall, sees that there is clean section of wall behind the painting, and, finding nothing, puts it back onto the wall.  Looking east towards the door he examines the table and sees a glint of reflected candlelight.  He approaches the table and digs in the filth and ooze to uncover a platter that isn’t rusted like the others.  He wipes it clean on his cloak and realizes he found a silver platter.  He continues along the table and finds 3 more silver platters in the same way.  The wraiths aren’t interested in the silver platters apparently; they’re not grimy enough.  They’re only preparing meals on the most rusted platters.

Cutie Pie hears a knocking at the door.  (It’s Romulus).  The door was slammed shut while Cutie Pie was battling the toad wraith and after he threw the tusk spear into the room.  Apparently, as is his way, Cutie Pie forgot about the rest of the party while he was exploring the room.  While he was there Romulus was trying to get back into the room to help but the door wouldn’t open from the outside!  Will Cutie Pie tell the party about his find? 

Tuesday, June 7, 2022

 International Tabletop Game Day is observed on the first Saturday in June which fell on June 4th this year.  Tabletop games are games played on a table and include games played with cards, dice, paper and pencil, miniatures, maps, and tokens.

Tabletop gaming dates to at least 3500BCE. Senet, Backgammon and Go are among the oldest games still being played today, but in the 20th Century, board gaming, fueled by cheap printing, cardstock, and newly minted leisure time, had a new beginning.  In 1903, Elizabeth Magie’s The Landlord’s Game (appropriated by Charles Darrow as Monopoly in 1935) kicked off a broader interest in board games.  For the next few decades board games were often roll and move games with paper money and player elimination. 

Gary Gygax made waves in 1974 when he released the first commercially available role playing game: Dungeons and Dragons.  Instead of a board, the game was played in the theatre of the mind directed by a referee who ran the adventure and applied the rules set forth in the Player’s Handbook.

Roleplaying game.  Image by C. Mitolo

A watershed moment happened when the family friendly strategy game Settlers of Catan introduced Euro style gaming to North America and gamers haven’t looked back. What followed was an explosion of new titles and reprints of popular European games. Today, Boardgamegeek.com—a boardgame database--lists tens of thousands of tabletop games.

If you’re interested in tabletop gaming and want to explore the hobby without wading through thousands of titles then try one of these gateway games that can serve as an entry into the hobby.  They’re easy to learn, easy to find, and aren’t a huge time commitment to play. Start here and cultivate a love of cardboard.


Trade goods in the bazaar in Jaipur.  Image by F. Coruzzi

For 2 Players Only

·         Jaipur.  Buy and sell in the marketplace in this card based game.

·         Patchwork.  Create a quilt by laying tiles and spending buttons.

·         Dominion.  A deckbuilding game in which you try to build your empire.

·         Memoir ’44. A stripped down wargame where actions are based on cards in your hand.

For 2 Or More Players

·         Carcassone.  A classic tile laying game in which you build walled cities in France.

·         Ticket to Ride.  Claim rail networks by collecting sets of cards

·         Pandemic.  Beat a viral outbreak in this co-operative globetrotting game.

·         Forbidden Island.  Grab the artifacts and escape the sinking island with your party of adventurers.

·         Kingdomino.  Match landscapes instead of numbers by laying down your dominos.

·         Small World.   Send elves, dwarves, and other fantasy races out to claim your territory

·         King of Tokyo.  Choose a giant monster to battle your friends in this fast paced dice game.

 

Want to try a game before you buy? Visit a board game cafĂ©!  You can visit The Bard and Bear on James St. N in Hamilton; they have many of the games listed above that you can play for a small cover charge.

Uwe Rosenberg’s 2 Player Patchwork.  Image by: C. Mitolo

So grab some friends, some snacks, your dice, and have fun!



Listen to Leave Luck To Us—Hamilton’s tabletop gaming podcast--on CFMU every Saturday at 7pm.  You can hear us chat about tabletop gaming and play a roleplaying adventure called The Forgotten Shrine of the Slime Toad.

 


 Setting Calendar


Check out our setting calendar here.

Character Table


 

Thursday, May 26, 2022

May 21 Session 4 Recap: The Party Explores the Shrine

Luna fainted in the ankle deep water.  A plan to suspend Luna above the water with a rope wasn’t feasible.  They decided to let her lay there for a moment.  Cutie Pie shows Romulus Grint’s note and Romulus tries o decipher it.  Cutie Pie reveals that he was able to read it the entire time.  He claims it says “Ring Bell.”  He’s insistent that they ring it but the rusty bell is high and heavy.  There is a rusted clapper in the middle of it.  They tried to move the bell itself but grabbing the edge of it with their fingertips (the bottom edge is about 6 feet from the ground). They leave the bell alone and re-check the anomaly on the west wall they found but couldn’t learn anything new.  They decide to open the west door.  A rope is tied around Cutie Pie’s waist as a safety harness.  Through the door they find another chamber with ten fat, fist-sized flies and what appears to be a pit in the floor.  Cutie Pie is pulled back out of the room and they close the door. They discuss killing the flies but decide against it.  Instead, they want to try and find the wraiths and go through the north door with a rope tied around Romulus’ waist this time and he takes the lantern from Cutie Pie. They find a corridor with 3 more doors. They move Luna into the hallway where it’s dry and reorganize.  They decide to open the left (west) door together.  They see a table and six toad wraiths preparing meals of frogs and flies on rusted platters.  They pour slime over each platter.  The boys go back out to the hallway to check Luna’s inventory.  Cutie Pie ponders going back and jumping into the pit using the parasol as a parachute.  Romulus has an idea to use Cutie Pie’s mirror to attack the wraiths by showing them their own reflections.  Cutie Pie goes back into the room with Romulus just outside in the hall. Cutie Pie takes the mirror and points the mirror at the wraiths but the wraiths don’t react.  Cutie Pie then calls to the closest wraith and it turns, screams, and swipes at Cutie Pie but two wraiths gurgle some strange words and the attacking wraith turns back.  He moves to the table and the wraiths carry on preparing the food.  Cutie Pie asks for a platter but is ignored.  They notice that there are six wraiths but a dozen platters.  Cutie Pie considers stealing one.  He grabs at one but a wraith attacks Cutie Pie.  Luckily the attack missed.  Cutie Pie realizes he has no way to fight back and the session ended!

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

May 15 Session 3 Recap: The Party arrives at the Shrine


Haven't heard the episode yet?  Listen now on CFMU!

Luna and Cutie Pie pressed on towards the shrine.  Through the woods they reached the edge of a massive swamp.  Miles into the swamp they considered turning back because the slog was so difficult.  They found a doorway with a frog carved above it.  They had found the shrine.  They looked through the door but the room extended into darkness . They wanted to light a lantern but realized they didn’t have a way to light it.  A plan to use sticks failed since all the swamp wood was waterlogged.  A little bit of light illuminated the first steps into the chamber.  They saw cobblestones submerged under ankle deep water.  In the water they saw hundreds of swimming tadpoles and frogs. Luna considered entering parasol first as a makeshift shield but they decided to hurl a mud ball into the room first.  The mud ball splashed aways away.  The splash elicited a “Hello!” from the darkness.  It was Romulus!  Romulus  reached the shrine before the other two and bravely decided to step inside to see if he could find anything.  Now that the three were reunited Romulus was able to light Cutie Pie’s lantern with his flint and steel.  Emboldened, they entered the flooded room and could see a rusted bell hanging from the ceiling, four stone pillars, stone walls, a door to the north and one to the west.  They also saw two albino toad wraiths in the northwest corner of the room gathering toads in wicker baskets.  The wraiths, occupied by their task, paid them no mind.  The team used Romulus’ tusk spear to check the south end of the room for pit traps but found none.

They also searched the nearby walls and found an oddity in the west wall but couldn’t determine what it might be.  They considered fighting the wraiths but Romulus suggested giving them what they were looking for (toads) in an attempt to gain their favor.  Everyone started grabbing at the fattest toads they could see but only Cutie Pie was able to catch any with an impressive nine toads.  Luna, the sneakiest, was tasked with delivering the toads gathered in her cloak.  She quietly approached the wraiths who slowly and loosed an unholy screech!  Their long fingers snatched the toads, added them to their baskets, and disappeared through the north door.

Saturday, May 7, 2022

Guys, lingering COVID is still affecting the Leave Luck To Us crew so it's another week off.  We hate cancelling the show but so far the only person to not have gotten it as of now is Vanilla Assassin and we're trying to avoid it.  We know these gaps are not fun but we hope you stick with us like you did during our two year COVID hiatus.  The Tunnel Goons RPG game will continue next week! 

Monday, May 2, 2022

 April 23 RPG Session 1 Recap

Cutie Pie and Luna are at the Moldy Unicorn.  Romulus went missing from the bar!  They’re not sure if he went on ahead or if he went back home to get something or he just got went home and passed out.  They went back to Grint to see if he might come with him but they were unable to talk him into it.  Grint reminded him of his cut and seemed to be more interested in his drinks than adventuring.  Cutie Pie and Luna decide to press on in case Romulus is up ahead; besides he might catch up with them since he did see the map to the shrine.

The Party made it to the north wall of White Feather and went through an unmanned and little used gate into the woods where they found a pathway.  Before they took a step onto the path, Grint ran up—out of breath—and gave Cutie Pie a note.  He said it was a message he found scrawled in a margin of a book on the Shrine.  Cutie Pie, Grint, and Luna couldn’t read the runes since it’s an ancient and long dead language.

The two set out, lantern extinguished so as not to attract any unwanted attention.  A few miles of feeling around in the dark, Cutie Pie and Luna find a bridge with the middle planks missing.  There was a two inch railing on either side of the bridge still intact. The bridge was over very fast and rocky rapids.

Luna tried to find another way across but gave up after sinking into the mud.

Despite the gap in the bridge appearing to be too far to jump, Cutie Pie takes a running leap and ends up hanging from the far side by his fingertips.  Luna, decides to try and walk across the railing as carefully as she can and makes it to the other side where she pulls Cutie Pie up.  No one thought to check the woods for a log or branches to try and repair the bridge but nevertheless they made it and are feeling confident.  Still no sign of Romulus but the sun will be up in a few hours.