Tales from the White Box, Session 5

In which the party...

• Travels north along Cidery Road with Wexley into Cider country of the Dolmenwood Tithelands.
• Arrives at the Tithelands Cidery, which numerous rotting apples being burned by the cider workers. 
• Learns that the apples having been causing nightmares, or sweet dreams with death. Offer 1000g to investigate - the party leaps on the offer.
• Notice the pigs getting riled up by evening, and plan to stake out the camp at night.
• Discover two ladies in waiting to the Lady of Spring Unending - Demozel Hazel and Demozel Olive - have taken residence there.
• Lady Hazel holds court for the pigs, wearing their teeth to ease them in, and talks of revolts against the Church and nobility by the peasantry in the cities. 
• Thumb introduces himself  humbly, and Hazel is curious and lets him know she has placed Nightmares - but is shocked to hear that people have died. She offers to show them to Olive who may know more.
• Thumb meets Olive, a human enthusiast (with human teeth necklace) who immediately peppers the duo with questions on anatomy.
• Learns from Olive that she has been removing the Nightmares and placing poisons "because they are so popular with you lot, right?" - which has been causing the deaths.
• Olive is shocked to learn poisons ARE NOT popular, and promises to stop and keep removing Nightmares where she can.
• Both Olive and Hazel refuse the leave the Tithelands, and Hazel refuses to stop placing Nightmares as it is great fun. However, Olive secretly slips a spellbook for Detect Magic to Wexley that can help identify all the apples in a bunch which are nightmares.
• Saying goodbye courteously to the elven sisters, the duo meet up with the cider masters and explain the situation - and propose a system where, since the apples are no longer to be poisoned, that they can use the detect magic spellbook on bushels of apples to remove the Nightmare ones, and have Olive help out with removal at nights in exchange for "human lessons".
• The cider masters are intrigued, and allow themselves to be introduced to Olive the next night - and a plan is in place, as apple cider production, much to the relief of the cider workers, seems back in full swing despite their nocturnal elven intruders.
• Having solved the cider crisis, the cider workers give the party the promised 1000g.
• Thumb and Wexley start heading north once more, as a weathered sign points them in the direction of the King's Road to the north.

Current level: Thumb 2, Wexley 1

Tales from the White Box, Session 4

In which the party...

• Is made of a small town thief in Malisha named Thumb, with a poor track record in the local Thieves Guild (being "all thumbs") - but with ambitions to start his own guild where he won't be mocked and ridiculed.
• Hears about the death of 2 adventurers to the southwest with a fire elemental from a bounty hunter who had carted over a mage who had caused the debacle for a reward.
• Decides dealing with the fire elemental itself might net a hefty profit, and hatches a plan to break the mage who created the elemental itself out of prison.
• Learns that a Mob of Peasants has taken the mage to the local lake- if the mage floats, he's a user of black magic and deserves to die; but if he sinks, he is innocent, and still dies but by drowning instead of stabbing of pitchforks.
• Joins into the crowd and tries to stealthily dive into the lake before the mage is tossed in - but utterly fails and creates a massive splash as onlookers notice him diving in...
• Gets lucky as the Mob is riled up enough that many peasants join into the fun and dive into the lake after him - making the task of retrieving the mage infinitely harder. 
• Manages to dive in and pull down the mage long enough that the Mob thinks he had drowned and disperses.
• Swims downstream before pulling himself and the still bound mage out from the lake muck. 
• Learns the mage's name is Wexley, and he is a strange fellow who is quite spiritual about fire magics, to the point of eccentricity.
• Learns the mage wanted to bring down the fire god Lavos to the earth, and to do this was trying to create a fire elemental with his "ball of fire" spell - which unfortunately went haywire.
• He is initially reluctant but agrees to help Thumb clean up his mess for a reward, as this could help his further his research on fire god summoning.
• Wexley notes that he was using a set of runes with read magic and he could likely reverse the summoning and send the elemental back to a plane of fire - but he would require it to be distracted so he could read it uninterrupted.
• The duo make it to the camp without incident, and start their plan by first sending a flare to lure the elemental away as Wexley read the runes and Thumb kept watch.
• The plan immediately goes awry as the elemental is wise to their trap and attacks Wexley, who luckily is only singed.
• Wexley creates a night sphere to momentarily trap the elemental, as well as blind it - and Thumb, taking advantage of the blinded monster jumps into the sphere with his daggers to distract it.
• With Thumb's distractions - despite getting burned - and Wexley's reading of the runes, the elemental is banished back to the fire plane as both adventures collapse, exhausted but triumphant. 
• The duo return to town - only to receive a paltry sum of 10 gold as a reward - just enough to relieve their rations - and a pardon as both had gone against the leadership of the town with Wexley's escape from capture. 
• Frustrated with the minimal reward, the duo decide to travel north to explore the lands there further.

Current level: Thumb 1, Wexley 1

Tales from the White Box, Session 3

 In which the party...

• Travels from Malisha to the forests southeast, and run into a bounty hunter carting off a mage captive. 
• Learn that the mage has created a fire elemental that is burning up a lodge to the southwest - and which the bounty hunter warns the party not to engage.
• Maran and Chent decide to try and find it anyways, and run into it within the forests. 
• Try to attack it - only for it to near immediately burn the duo to a crisp as they die sequentially to the creature.

Current level: None.

Tales from the White Box, Session 2

 In which the party...

• Chent the cleric, Maran the Thief, Tarbold the fighter, Eliara the Elven fighter, and Jason the mage all enter the basement of the Anvil to deal with the rats and strange monsters down there.
• They discover the bodies of Jeff and Alia, and the skull with amethyst eyes on the floor - as the teddy mimic attacks them.
• The party fends off and slays the teddy mimic intact, and manage to take the skull with the eyes to sell.
• The party explores the rest of the basement, discovering four doors to new rooms. 
• Find out 2 of the rooms are just empty basement rooms. 
• Finds poison gas trap in one room, and Jason the mage and Tarbold the fire fail their saves and die to the poison gas that is released before the party escapes.
• Finally finds the rats in the fourth room - right behind a pit trap Maran falls into - and thankfully survives the fall.
• Eliara the elven fighter and Chent the cleric fight the rats, one of which is disease, as Maran attempts unsuccessfully the scale the wall up out of the pit.
• Eliara dies to one of the rats just before Chent slays the last one.
• Maran finally scales out of the pit - only for all of the rats to be slain.
• The basement is looted for treasure, and the treasure and bodies are dragged out of the basement as the Anvil's basement rat problem is cleared!

Current level: Chent 1, Maran 1

Guardians RPG, Session 1

 In which I play the Guardians superhero RPG, which is based on the original White Box. I'm using Mythic GME and the City of Crime supplement to simulate a patrol based superhero crawl.

In which...

• Steel Hornet and Superstar enter a burning building and catch one Tarranis the Thunderer, saving “The Crab”, an “innocent” owner of the Mermaid’s Tail Bar, and claim the prize reward money for catching him.
• SH and Superstar rescue some innocent workers from the fire in the building.
• Once they leave, The Crab’s associate Damascus Steel, a radicalized terrorist and underworld boss emerges. Crab tells him to keep an eye on the duo, they may be trouble.
• Elsewhere, Senator Jeramiah Relm also watches the superheroes remotely, who may cause trouble for him as well. He is intrigued as last night he was rescued from the goons of the meta powered rival Invictus’s goons unintentionally by Steel Hornet.
• Invinctus is known to be on the campaign trail for the position of President of the United States, running directly against Senator Relm on a pro meta platform – publicly for meta equality, but privately planning an authoritarian takeover.
• Flower the super activist faces off against Invictus publicly heading into his office – and refuses to use her powers as she faces off against his security and is dragged into a cell.
• SH and Superstar watch from nearby in their civvie disguises, and plan to break her out – and have her join the team.
• Superstar rushes the building and learns that Flower has been shipped off to Invictus’s new super slave penitentiary in central America!
• Superstar gathers the location data – just as Invinctus walks into the room.
• Superstar sprints away but Invictus locks down his base Superstar fails to leave – leaving SH on the outside and Superstar and Invictus and his goons within the complex!

Current Level: Steel Hornet 1, Superstar 1

Tales from the White Box, Session 1

 In which I play White Box FMAG. I will start by playing as Jeff Abernathy the Fighter and Alia Telear the Magic User. With TPKs I will plan on creating new characters to complete exploration as the world is built. 

In which the party...

• In the city of Malisha heads down to the Anvil, a tavern for blacksmiths exclusively following a job ad to clear some rats from a basement.
• Arrive at the job and head down into the basement. 
• Discover a hole in the wall of the basement leading to a catacomb.
• Enter the catacomb and discover strange dead end, with 4 doors leading out of it, with intricate dwarven carvings they are unable to interpret in an alcove, and a strange teddy bear sitting on a dusty shelf built into the wall to the side of the room.
• Jeff searches the alcove and discovers a skull with amethyst eyes, valued at 100 gp.
• Alia investigates the strange stuffed animal - which turns out to be a Mimic!
• Jeff and Alia (mostly Alia, as Jeff consistently swings and misses) fight the Mimic bringing it to the end of its life, but it holds on and takes both of them out - and feasts on their corpses!
• Following the TPK, the strange teddy bear mimic goes back up on the shelf, grinning with a glint in its eye waiting for its next victims as the blacksmiths continue to search for adventurers to clear their basement.

Current Levels: None.

Lonesome Wanderings, Session 74

 In which Badger...

• Decides to return to the ruined town of the former elven maiden Rahasia.
• Learns the evil Rahib has gained much power and is driving a large slave enterprise based from the temple he had briefly explored before.
• Feeling guilty, decides to continue to explore the temple.
• Heads to a roadside shrine he has visited many years ago with Rahasia, and discovers a portal behind it.
• Enters the portal, only to be transported in to a cell within the slave lord's lair, as a gong rings out and guards rush in.
• Is knocked out and stripped of his belongings, and locked in a cell in the Rahib's dungeons.
• Learns from a fellow prisoner Hasan that the Rahib has locked their belongings in a room at the end of the hall.
• Tries to raise a ruckus without success as no guards show up to answer.
• Learns from Hasan the guards only arrive to feed the prisoners gruel once a day.
• Waits until a guard arrives and grabs him, pummeling him to unconsciousness - but not before he alerts 3 other guards.
• Fights 3 guards who let themselves into his cell, locking the door behind them, to beat him up.
• Grapples the chief guard, and steals his keys letting himself out of his cell and rushing to the location his weapons are stored.
• Manages to grab the Staff of the Watchful Shepherd, but only paralyzes one guard.
• Manages to switch out his staff for Knutsvar, and unarmored continues to fight the other 2 guards.
• Luck is not on his side as the other two guards manage to defeat and strike him down - as Badger dies in the dungeon, bleeding out from his wounds!
• Watches as his items are locked away in the Rahib's dungeon as he loses consciousness - and dies!

Current (and final) level: Badger 13

Post Mortem: 

And that's where Badger's story ends. He traveled a long way, made friends, made more enemies, led numerous retainers to their deaths, destroyed civilizations, ruled kingdoms, fought demigods, traveled into different planes, shirked responsibilities, and had countless adventures.

But he ended just as he started. Stripped of his magical artifacts and powers, escaping a prison cell, and getting beaten to death by a handful of guards while trying to escape. Perhaps future adventurers will travel to the Rahib's dungeon and discover the artifacts, and perhaps even find the corpse of the fallen Badger. But for now, he has become part of history.

I don't think there could be a more fitting end for our adventurer. So all I have left to say is this. 

Farewell Badger. So long, and thanks for all the fish.