Law Vs Chaos + The Double Doors of Doom!

Greetings Delvers!

40 hours to go on the Law Vs Chaos Kickstarter campaign and more craziness has appeared!

Here is a heavy piece of (resin) terrain for your next dungeon crawl. There are times in a sculptor’s life when they do something completely different. I blame Murray. Functions as a temple entrance (Dagon or Cthulhu?), or the throne room of a benthic king, or the janitor’s closet at Star Hat University, or as an inter-planetary gate. Travis loves the versatility.

The Double Doors of Doom! 120mm tall, 165mm wide and 80mm deep!

The Double Doors of Doom!

“The Double Doors of Doom,” Nika whispered in hushed tones, “you open them.”
Nanook stared up at the ornate doors with an uneasy feeling, “It’s your turn.”
“What, again?”
“Yeah, I opened the chest in the last room,” he said.
Nika coughed abruptly, “chests don’t count.”
“I think we’re being watched,” he said quietly, “and not in a good way…”
“Is there ever a good way?”
“It’s moving!”

Dungeons and Dragons + NZ Festival of MindSports 2015

Mark Thornton runs a Game of Dragons!

Week two of the NZ Festival of MindSports was a resounding success in Thames this weekend. The North Island Wargaming Convention was held on the previous weekend, making the main hall eerily quiet. Not so our gaming room!

Richard Morita and his new Edo Jidai - Duelling Samurai game for a grand tounament complete with Japanese ritual bells ringing. Mark Thornton ran a new creation called Game of Dragons. Darren from Auckland brought Magic: The Gathering and a boardgame he purchased from a Kickstarter campaign called Cthulhu Wars which included all the expansions (for around 450 NZ$) and looked amazing. Cthulhu Wars is a strategy/horror board game from Lovecraft's classic Cthulhu Mythos.

I ran a game of D&D on the Saturday evening at Mark's place and then another game on Sunday at the Festival. The night game was reminiscent of how I began playing, with no miniatures or terrain, now often termed Theatre of the Mind. As Dungeon Master this is incredibly liberating and allows for a higher level of spontaneous creativity but in my experience works best with a smaller group. The next day I brought out the DWARVEN FORGERY™ terrain, which certainly helps keep focus on the game when running for sixteen players! 

Gorbraxis III

Edo Jidai

Edo Jidai

Cthulhu Wars

The Dragon Warriors!

My first roll of the day!

Cthulhu Wars

Cthulhu Wars

Edo Jidai

Dungeons & Dragons: Day Two

The final roll of the dice.

Wrapping things up.

Winners: Patrick (Gold, red shirt), Mathew (Silver, green shirt), Kamea (Bronze, blue shirt)
and my mum Marlene (Organiser, purple hat).

Magic: The Gathering

Cthulhu Wars

Congratulations to the winners: Patrick (Gold), Mathew (Silver), Kamea (Bronze). Thanks and blessings to all those who helped make it happen again for 2015, especially my mum Marlene.

God bless you and have a great week!

The New Zealand Festival of Mind Sports

I'll be running D&D sessions over the weekend.

February 28th - March 2nd, 2014

"MindSport Festivals and Competitions are mainly held in Europe - and now - Thames on The Coromandel is championing the first of its kind in New Zealand. Along with serious competitors, the event will provide a fun environment for anyone who plays a sport of the mind to compete equally and fairly in the spirit of good will and sportsmanship."

Website: http://mindsportsfestival.co.nz

The festival opens with a free Street Party in the oldest part of Thames - historic Grahamstown - on Friday evening (6-10pm) with live bands, featuring Radiobaby, The Heaters, Boom City, and the Darcy Perry Blues Band.

Apart from helping to open the festival with a bang, I'll also be running D&D sessions over the weekend. Happy Birthday D&D!

Dungeons And Dragons + The Haunted Keep

The Campaign continues... after an unsuccessful barter for some horses with Post-Apocalyptic Pete, the party leave the Comeback Inn and relative safety of the village to find the root of strange occurrences at the nearby abandoned keep. On route, beneath a full moon, they discover they are not alone. Hundreds of undead are also shambling towards the keep! Outrunning the skeletal menace, the Haunted Keep soon looms above. An impressive monument to dwarven stonework, the keep stands short and squat, like a lego block dropped from the heavens. The party cut a track through the purple sward.

Your host for the day, Lewis! Welcome to the Haunted Keep. Stay a while... stay forever!

Running from the hordes of undead amassing around the keep, our intrepid explorers solve the riddle above the entrance (thanks Fingers!), scoot inside and bolt the double doors (after failing to climb the back wall).

The moans of the living dead can be heard outside as the keep is explored. Alyssa finds a lever but decides not to pull it. 

Bones of fallen soldiers are scattered throughout the rooms.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

A small regiment of skeletons springs into action, upturning tables and firing finger bones that explode on impact.

Erin, a Paladin of the Order of the Horse, hurls a flask of oil at the table and retreats to the door. Fingers MacGee offers his pyrotechnic skills and soon the room is alight. A fight begins at the doorway. Meanwhile, Alyssa opens a chest and starts pulling out linen and blankets. Ariel Axemaiden loots the skeletal remains of a long dead warrior. The Bard discovers a hidden bottom with coins and a surprise! At the bottom of the chest was a three-headed snake with strange markings. Ariel made short work of it with her axe, cutting the viper in half.

Someone's at the door! The 'Bard' stops her looting to throw a sheet over the skeleton, while Ariel the Elf boots the blanket of bones back into the burning room.

When the fires die down, the explosions cease and the smoke clears...

The party ascends to the next level. Please note the amazing modular design... brought to you by DWARVEN FORGERY™.

The obligatory kitchen and stores level.

Some cleaver action. When the Head Chef is sent back to the land of the dead, his animated utensils fall lifeless also.

An armoury. Now we're talking!

Top right room (food store) is filled with strange scarab beetles. Sacks, boxes and barrels full of the blighters. More on this later.

Onwards and upwards. Another level, another battle with bone warriors.

Erin hacks and slashes, while Fingers and Horsepuncher Jones fire deadly missiles.

The Elf and the Bard fight a hooded spectre with Tourette syndrome. Use is made of the bed, blankets and flaming oil. Alyssa notices afterwards that the green hood is unmarked by the flames. She wears it and starts swearing profanities!

Horsepuncher Jones manages to damage one of his hand crossbows. The fight is finished with a longshot from Fingers MacGee.

Like a d6. Oh look, a hidden door.

Which leads to a hidden treasure room. With fake treasure! It's a trap! When disturbed, the floor tiles give way and send poor unfortunates down to the storage room filled with hungry scarab beetles! The scarabs seem strangely attracted to Horsepuncher Jones, who starts eating them. Yummy. Alyssa throws down some rope and the party regroup and head upstairs once more.

"Go back!" says the statue at the end of the corridor. Then it blasts Alyssa with a bolt of lightning!

Lord Fortesque! Or something like that. His introduction is somewhat similar to chattering teeth. For a death knight that wields an eldritch blade, his etiquette is sorely lacking. After the fierce battle, Blackrazor (the sole-sucking sword) is wrapped carefully in Erin's cape. It talks! "You are what you eat. I suck through the feet."

Pop!

A Wizard's laboratory, owned by the Liche Loboticus. His vague history lesson helps to explain the brown goo, skeletal soldiers and guardians of the keep. They are the last bastion of order keeping the realm of Chaos at bay... and he needs a hammer... 

...to smash this magical mirror. Why? Not really sure. Anyway, the hammer is somewhere beneath the keep. Back to that lever on level one guys! 

Returning to pull the lever on the first floor of the keep, a stairway is revealed and the party descend into the depths of the unknown. Note the awesome stair design. Yes, more DWARVEN FORGERY™.

Many of the antics on this lower level can be explained by the above photo.

Idols bearing Jade stones and mysterious tentacles abound!

The source of the tentacles is found. Horsepuncher Jones charges at the purple monstrosity. Note: a classic 1980s Grenadier miniature superbly hand painted by Lewis. No plastic pre-painted miniatures here!

Horsepuncher Jones goes down. Closely followed by the Elf and Paladin. Oh, yes, Fingers MacGee drinks a potion. He disappears from sight but a thump is heard soon after, as he too falls over, paralysed. The quick thinking Bard throws the urn from the Death Knight's chambers at the monster. It shatters and explodes in a magical cloud of sparkle-dust, giving all who breath it an unhealthy dose of the mind-altering powder.

Too graphic for your mortal eyes. Suffice to say, drugs are bad. Mmm, k?

All in the corridor succumb to the powerful hallucinogenic effects of the narcotic. Alyssa the Bard, wrapped in her Hood of Tourette, is immune. Feck! Almost tripping over the paralysed and invisible body of Fingers MacGee, she borrows an axe from Ariel to finish the creature. Hack. Hack. Hack. 

The party discovers the final idol and retrieve another piece of Jade.

But wait, there's more.

"Wow, I love what you've done with the place!" A new dilemma for the group. How to best these Champions of Chaos and unlock the portal?

"Who do you serve?" In order to save her comrades, Erin wields the powerful Blackrazor, sacrificing her own humanity.

Given her new perspective, Erin dons some Chaos armour while the party proceeds to insert the Jade 'keys' into place and disappear through the weird portal.

"We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto!" The party gaze in wild-eyed wonder at their new armour and equipment.

Mega City One!

Waiting for the hammer to fall.

Lock and key.

Hatchet Higgins celebrates in the new Temple of the Axe, built with a generous donation from the party!