What if it were being used as tactic?  Maybe as a means of surprise or getting a shot at the soft underbelly of a beast?  Possibly something like this:   
 

Dogs and wolves have been straight ahead biters for pretty much all of D&Ds and it's descendants history but I started thinking about the way a dog finishes off it's prey (at least the smaller prey) with a vicious shake.  So to give wolves, hell hounds, war dogs etc. a special bit of damage in line with the hug of a bear, rending of the carnivorous ape, or the back claw rake of a big cat how about if on a 18 or better the dog shakes for an additional bit of damage equal to or even double it's normal bite damage?  This would only apply to creatures smaller than the dog or wolf.  Since Hyperborea doesn't host a great deal of gnomes or halflings most PCs would be pretty safe from this attack from normal dogs and wolves but it would give dire wolves, hell hounds and winter wolves one more reason to be feared.  

It'll be great to have you guys back!  I'm going to try for your Sunday game - I should have slept off Saturday night by the start time!

Dropping some more mini-recaps.  Next session will be the 100th of this campaign! 

The Players have been:
terry – Sparky, Keltic Pyromancer, (Level 7)
tellion - Rogue Wolf, Keltic Barbarian, (Level 7)
wind – Snake Eyes, Neshfal Abomination (human combined with snake) Fighter,  (Level 7)
joel - Kerryan, Kimmeri-Kelt Ledgerdemainist, (Level 7)
josh - Zarathia, Common Fighter (Level 5)
hobie – Xarial, Keltic Cleric of Apollo (Level 6)
EOTB – “Nameless”, Ledgerdemanist (Level 4)
gabe – Venecius, Keltic Grocer (Assassin) (Level 4)

NPCs (along for the ride at various times)
Klaen - a one legged old minstrel.  Head may have been removed at least once
Skur Dye - a drummer
Tistaine - a woman who turns into a cat
Authmir - warrior daughter of ancient sorceress
Flatnose - a caveman shaman
Valsuul - a warrior and liegeman of Snake Eyes

Not all PCs or NPCs present in each session of course.

Session LXVII:  Memorial of Ice
Wherein the Party:  discussed whether to take head of trussed minstrel, decided to allow him to guide them to an overgrown garden, heard tales of blood drinking fiends, opened a door without a latch, battled a brace of vampiric apes, entered a pyramid, found respite from the heat, sipped libations and donned multicolored furs, entered a depiction of a frozen landscape captured a statue, caught sight of a spectral panther, and began to explore further. 

Session LXVIII:  Breakfast of Champions
Wherein the party:  were presented with reinforcements by a piscine demoness, explored a freezing tableau, caught a blue eyed cat, glanced at a series of murals, found a seed bank,  tried to figure out a golden belt, watched Sparky immolate and then reconstitute, rested in relative safety, passed through a misty veil, kept Snake Eyes from a watery grave, defeated a maned crocodile, sliced a jewel from its crop, viewed and were viewed by a column of fire, lost the attention of an heiress, found a slice of home, saw

Big Shiny wrote:

Ghul wrote:

Had a great time, and it was good to see you, Big Shiny! Where was Mr Manowar! I looked far and wide, but my brother in metal was not to be found...

Ah, yes. Mr. Murder, Death, Kill (or something like that) was unable to make the trek so far south this season. I did hear murmurings of a possible trip to Texas one of these years, though. So, you never know. 

It was great to chat with you a few times again sir! We rarely get to play in your GC games, but hopefully we can manage to sneak into another at a different venue again someday. 

Always great to hang out with all our Hyperborea brothers and sisters at these events! Can’t wait for the next one! 

I missed seeing that guy too!  A lot of people I look forward to seeing didn't make it this year.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for next year.  Great seeing all of you who were there!

Well cannons have been in play!  In the next to last session one of the players rode up to a fortress to draw the enemies fire while the rest of the party executed the rest of their plan (causing some discussion of the first scene of Dances with Wolves and then the rest of Kevin Costner's oeuvre).  Unfortunately for him they had a small cannon and got a shot at him as he was riding away.  I've decided to go with the 10x10 area of impact from Hyperborea combined with the HR4 save vs parylyzation (I used a straight avoidance save in this case) or take big damage.  Well it hit and he failed his saved but survived!  His horse wasn't so lucky.  He ended up sending out this clip to the group after the game(thanks wind!):   


I've attached my rules, they're basically a mash up of the DMG, HR4 and Hyperborea.  I really liked the area of effect concept but I didn't want to have to roll to hit everyone within it.  I also wanted a resolution that would work ok with a TotM sort of setup.  I added some mishaps to discourage the casual use of these powerful weapons (who am I kidding we're talking about PCs!).  My wild shots table is a first cut.  I'd love to hear if anyone has any thoughts.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6vm37cozt2pbji9/Cannons%20%26%20Catapults%20Rules.pdf?dl=0

So my campaign is entering a land where there are some early modern type fire arms.   I'm thinking of using the rules from the 2E sourcebook HR 4: A Mighty Fortress (I've used these rules before and thought they worked fine) but just wondering if any one else had any rules recommendations that would mesh well with Hyperborea.

Big fan  myself.  When I was in high school I found the entire run at the local comic store for like .25 or .50 an issue - it was great an awesome mix of history and S&S.  It really felt like a labor of love by Roy and Dani Thomas.  

I actually was inspired by the first (I think) Arak comic for an early adventure in my Hyperborea campaign.  This was the one where the two bands of Vikings fought over the corpse of a whale.  It turned into a pretty great battle as my players fought Viking raiders and their thralls to gain needed sustenance in the midst of Nightfall and emerged victorious (unlike Arak they also found the still living Krakens' Daughter in the whales stomach).

I could see bringing in the man himself as he looks for a lost friend or enemy who disappeared on a western voyage and being sent to Hyperborea through his father's magic.  There finding the trail long cold but still traceable on Vikland.  The question would be long hair or mohawk Arak?  And has he gained his full shamanic powers?

gizmomathboy wrote:

Some spells are more likely to know/learn than others. I mean magic missile, sleep, fireball, hold person, etc are very likely to be know but having some variation creates flavor and memorability.

That's an interesting point.  Ghul are you thinking of a flat distribution for the spell % charts or will some spells be more common than other?
 

I had definitely never seen it before!  A good use of a spell and totally foiled the swoop, grab, and drop from great height tactics (the party was standing atop a structure halfway up a steep mountain) the griffons had been planning on.