HYPERBOREA / Khromarium Campaign Journal

**Posted by Ghul** 2/15/2015 9:12 pm

Somehow I missed this last entry. Great stuff! The "Flumph Guy" is excellent, of course. LOL

**Posted by Chainsaw** 2/17/2015 7:54 am

Ghul wrote:
Somehow I missed this last entry. Great stuff! The "Flumph Guy" is excellent, of course. LOL

Well...

AS&SH Campaign Session 11 (Feb. 16 2015)

cadam11 – Gadas the Kimmerian warlock (level 4) - throat slit
capitalbill – Gunnr the Viking berserker (level 4) - crushed by tentacles
ligedog – Brandoch the Kimmeri-Kelt barbarian (level 4) - gunned down
rob – Marl the Magnanimous, Kelt legerdemainist (level 2) - gunned down

Death and destruction! So, I'm really glad they all partied hard back in session 10, because tonight's game ended in death and destruction. Our gallant heroes took out the two snake-men smoking hookahs, but not before one sounded the alarm. A wave of fifteen blaster-wielding snake-men surrounded them, attacking from the west and north, but they fought valiantly and emerged triumphant. Sadly, as they explored a nearby area, a second wave of snake-men attacked, this time accompanied by two magicians, which helped turn the tide against them. Black Tentacles wrapped up capitalbill's berserker, then a flurry of laser blasts took out ligedog's barbarian, then cadam11's warlock fell to a Command to sleep, then Rob's legerdemainst was all alone, outgunned and outnumbered.. and snake-men show no mercy!

In the end, before dying, the crew took out a good 25 or so snake-man warriors and one snake-man warlock (Pagos Methakos), so they didn't go without a fight. Raise a mug in their honor!

Time elapsed: an hour
Treasure won: none
Enemies overcome: snake-man warriors (x25), acolytes (x2) and warlocks (x1)
Maidens rescued: zero
Adventurers slain: four, total party killed

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 2/17/2015 8:33 am

Man. That escalated quickly! I wonder if the assassin looking for Gunnr offers refunds.

Did they roll up new characters to get back on the (deadly mutated) horse?

**Posted by Chainsaw** 2/17/2015 8:40 am

Handy Haversack wrote:
Man. That escalated quickly!

No kidding! In my last 40 gaming sessions, I haven't had a TPK, so I think it surprised us all a little bit. When you throw a Necromancer 7 and a Warlock 5 into the mix, things can get ugly fast, I guess! They still put a hell of a dent in the snake-man crew. If they'd survived, they could have basically explored the remainder of the complex uncontested.

Handy Haversack wrote:
I wonder if the assassin looking for Gunnr offers refunds.

Heh, good question! Maybe Bill's next guy can be the assassin hired to hunt his old guy.

Handy Haversack wrote:
Did they roll up new characters to get back on the (deadly mutated) horse?

Not last night. Those three battles and the brief exploration took up most of the session.

**Posted by Chainsaw** 3/02/2015 11:31 am

For our upcoming Session 12, we've got a scout, a berserker, a shaman (cleric/illusionist) and a shaman (druid/necromancer). I'm pumped!

**Posted by Ghul** 3/02/2015 11:52 am

Awesome! The TPK (which sounded glorious) followed by new characters on the horizon is always exciting stuff.

**Posted by Blackadder23** 3/02/2015 12:22 pm

Chainsaw wrote:
For our upcoming Session 12, we've got a scout, a berserker, a shaman (cleric/illusionist) and a shaman (druid/necromancer). I'm pumped!

Nice!
It's very interesting that two people want to play shamans - so far no one has wanted to play one in my games. (What's weird is that cleric/magic-users are not uncommon IME when running AD&D. But of course C/MU's can freely wear any armor and use the full range of clerical weapons, so I guess the classes aren't exactly comparable.)

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 3/02/2015 12:54 pm

One of my players has consistently had a shaman. They are very useful but very weird characters since their stated goal is to *stop being human*. What are the totem animals for your players, Chainsaw? I love the druid/necromancer combo. Quite disturbing.

**Posted by Blackadder23** 3/02/2015 1:17 pm

I was considering requiring shamans to be druid/necromancers, since it goes along with them supplicating spirits of the dead and nature. But then I decided not to be a jerk. Anyway, it's kind of a moot point if I can't get anyone to play one.

**Posted by Ghul** 3/02/2015 7:57 pm

We've had a few shamans in the campaign. A cleric/necromancer spell combo was excellent.

**Posted by Chainsaw** 3/11/2015 4:08 pm

Blackadder23 wrote:
It's very interesting that two people want to play shamans - so far no one has wanted to play one in my game.

Feast or famine, I guess, heh. We will see how it works out. With access to four different schools of magic, the party should be fairly versatile. Plus they get they'll have healing spells, draw poison and medicine man so they should be fairly hearty too, at least compared with the last group, which had no clerics of any sort. They'll also have turn/control undead. They'll need all of it though, as this group has much less melee ability (25% fighters vs 75% before) and has to be smarter and trickier.

Handy Haversack wrote:
One of my players has consistently had a shaman. They are very useful but very weird characters since their stated goal is to *stop being human*.

I didn't interpret the shaman that way, but maybe I misread. To what lines are you referring?

Handy Haversack wrote:
What are the totem animals for your players, Chainsaw?

cleric/illusionist: "So I was thinking his small clan associated itself with the marten, a sort of tree weasel. I was thinking it has qualities of cunning, deviousness, arboreality and viciousness when called for"

druid/necromancer: "My totem is a shard from the meteorite imbued with the consciousness of some alien deity that my sect worshipped. Sort of an evil Pet Rock."

Blackadder23 wrote:
I was considering requiring shamans to be druid/necromancers, since it goes along with them supplicating spirits of the dead and nature. But then I decided not to be a jerk. Anyway, it's kind of a moot point if I can't get anyone to play one.

Don't give up hope!

**Posted by Blackadder23** 3/11/2015 4:28 pm

The party in my current campaign* also has no clerics, nor anyone who can cast basic MU spells. Two fighters, an assassin, and an illusionist. We'll see how that goes.
I really like the meteoritic shard as a totem! Really emphasizes the science fantasy angle.
* - which hopefully will finally play its first session on Saturday - %*#! weather and jobs!

**Posted by Chainsaw** 3/11/2015 4:49 pm

Blackadder23 wrote:
The party in my current campaign* also has no clerics, nor anyone who can cast basic MU spells. Two fighters, an assassin, and an illusionist. We'll see how that goes.

Haha! Well, it will be up to them to manage through things as well as possible. I usually dangle a few different options out there and let the group pick what they think suits their strengths and interests. For example, in the game coming up Monday night, I presented them some intro text in an email (excerpt below). Note, in a face-to-face game, we would roleplay this out, but we try to keep things focused and fast-paced on G+ for various reasons specific to the medium.

As the evening grows old at the Spiral Hell Inn and Tavern, a few opportunities have presented themselves:
a) joining a Woolly Mammoth hunting party;
b) a peat farmer's house has been repeatedly attacked in the night and he needs help ending the threat;
c) you overhear two men whispering that they need to find someone to rob a local merchant for them;
d) a blacksmith has recently moved his shop, only to discover a crumbling cellar wall admits vermin from the adjacent sewer, so he needs some exterminators.

They picked option d, so we will see what happens.

BlackAdder23 wrote:
I really like the meteoritic shard as a totem! Really emphasizes the science fantasy angle.

I agree!

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 3/11/2015 5:00 pm

Chainsaw wrote:
BlackAdder23 wrote:
I really like the meteoritic shard as a totem! Really emphasizes the science fantasy angle.
I agree!

Totally! And it makes the prohibition on eating the totem easier to . . . swallow.

Chainsaw wrote:
I didn't interpret the shaman that way, but maybe I misread. To what lines are you referring?

Now that I look back, I guess I'm interpreting. Or forgetting where I read it, but: "Dualism is a distinct possibility with shamans, meaning it is quite possible that the totem is speaking and acting, not the shaman; whether this is possession or spiritual immersion is a matter of conjecture."

**Posted by Chainsaw** 5/24/2016 6:17 pm

Planning to resurrect the Khromarium campaign later this summer. Pumped!

Also, perfect 1000th post.

**Posted by Ghul** 5/25/2016 6:45 pm

Chainsaw wrote:
Planning to resurrect the Khromarium campaign later this summer. Pumped!

Also, perfect 1000th post.

Excellent! I look forward to it.

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 5/26/2016 12:55 pm

Sweet!

**Posted by Chainsaw** 5/27/2016 8:38 pm

Edit: Moved content to the Khromarium Campaign Ref Notes - NO PLAYERS thread. Thanks!

**Posted by mabon5127** 5/28/2016 5:36 am

Very old school looking!

**Posted by Chainsaw** 5/28/2016 6:20 am

mabon5127 wrote:
Very old school looking!

Thanks man! If my preparations go as planned, I'll post it all online here for anyone who wants to use it.