Thursday, 2 September 2021

Sector 55 Blues - Prog 13 - The Lawman Outpost

Sector 55 Blues is a Judge Dredd Campaign using the Savage Dredd unnofficial Savage Worlds Expansion.  This is an online only game with members from Dragons Keep Roleplay Club.

No Plan Survives Contact With The Enemy

The Judges spend some time observing the mulgoons in the valley below and decide that the best plan of attack is to divide and conquer in a pincer movement.  

Sweeping down from the valley walls they thunder towards the two in two formations catching the mulgoons by surprise.  Judge Teal with Uthred riding pillion fires his cyclops laser at the front of a saloon.  The white hot beam carves the vehicle neatly in two halves like a hot knife through butter.  As the two halves peel away from each other Teal expertly guides his bike through the middle and the Judges pick off the passengers with their lawgivers.  Cully approaches the East side and deals summary justice to a van as it is accelerates towards them.  The Mulgoons are no match for well trained judges and the remaining vehicles are taken out of commission swiftly.

Rounding the 30ft high structure reveals a large 20 foot high blast door in the north wall with a sand scoured and faded number 12 painted in a familiar justice department font.  On the right hand door a small metal panel is etched with an outstretched palm print.  Placing her hand on the panel Judge Cully notices a thin green laser beam shoot out and read the barcode on the underside of her wrist.

A confirmatory bleep and then a few moments later the sounds of whirring and clanking machinery issue from the structure.  Large Synthisteel bolts are withdrawn and the doors begin to crack open.

The interior of the structure is bare with the exception of the large square cargo elevator and numerous gantry cranes and walkways which crisscross the ceiling.  A control podium stands in one corner of the elevator.  Wiping its dusty fascia clean reveals a small cross section map and three subterranean levels:

  • S1: Administration, Medical and Communications
  • S2: Armory, Barracks and Motor Pool
  • S3: Power Room    

Sub Level 1 - The Judges search the floor and find a well stocked medical center but without the customary autodocs and sleeppods that would be a staple feature of a sector house med centre.  In fact this facility looks like it has been abandoned for decades.  They patch themselves up as best they can after their recent encounter with the Rad Birds.

Sub Level 2 - It is clear that this floor has been stripped clean of the most useful pieces of Equipment.  The judges hopes are lifted when in one corner of the motor pool they discover the familiar silhouette of an H-Wagon.  On closer ispection this is but a shell of its former glory having been stripped of all its engines avionics and comms gear.  The Judges find an array of old stub guns and ammunition several bazookas and two flight cases containing mint condition MK1 Lawmasters. Cully takes a shine to one of the bazookas and packs 10 rounds just in case.

Searching the Barracks they discover a series of lockers each assigned to a previous owner going by the array of names etched into their magnetic ID plates.  Inside are vacuum packed bags containing vintage  Judge uniforms.  Noone has been seen wearing the "Ol' bubble dome" helmets in years but their current outfits have seen better days.


Sub Level 3 - The Power Room is filled with a mass of machinery, boilers, generators and water treatment tanks.  A dark service tunnel dominates the north wall and is filled with many pipes and conduits.  It clearly leads somewhere.

Cully and Hammer return to Level 1 to see if they can't ressurect the ancient communications array and get a signal out to someone back home.  The outpost seems to be running on back up power and all non essential systems are off.  

Teal and Uthred descend to Level 3 to see if they can get the power back on.  Uthred's affinity with machines pays off and he determines that the outpost has run low on fuel, in fact the tanks are almost empty.  Despite several attempts to fill the tanks using the control panel, it appears there is a malfunction in a valve.  They trace the pipes that feed the fuel tanks back into the mouth of the tunnel.  proceeding about a hundred metres into the tunnel they discover the valve whose servo appears to have burnt out.  Manually turning the valve gets the gas flowing.  Flush with success they don't notice the three hair beasts creep up on them and attack.

Meanwhile on Level 1, Cully and Hammer have realised that the transmitter power is weak.  The outposts antenna must have been damaged and they resolve to climb up the service shaft onto the roof and see if it can be fixed. Grabbing some basic electrical repair tools they begin the climb.

On the roof is a storm battered antenna mast and a broken satellite dish.  The cables from the comms room enter a junction box at the base of the mast.  The cover is loose and it looks like some small rodent got in here and chewed the cables.  An easy repair for Judge Hammer, but Judge Cully spies a dark cloud approaching from the south.  A flock of angry rad birds, approaching fast.

Teal and Uthred deal with the hairbeasts in short order and return to the relative safety of the power room.  The fuel tank fills to above its minimum mark quickly and they restore the outpost to operational power levels.

On the roof Judge Hammer frantically splices cables as the rad birds approach.  Cully fires a bazooka round into their midst and a firey ball erupts diminishing their number but not enough to deter them and they begin to swoop down.  As Cully begins firing grenade rounds at the swarm, Hammer finishes his repairs and reaches round with an incendiary round.  A white hot ball of phosphor flame catches the leading edge of the swarm and the birds wheel away giving the pair of Judges just enough time to ext the roof and slam the iron access door down as the birds slam into it.  A close call. 

Contact

Reassembling in the comms room the Judges finally manage to get a strong enough signal out to Mega City One using an old morse code unit that probably hasn't seen action in 100 years.  They punch in a request for an H-Wagon and that they have located the suspect at Black Gold Mesa.

A message comes back

 +++ ALERT CODE BLACK ALPHA CITY IN QUARANTINE NO REINFORCEMENTS COMPLETE YOUR MISSION GOOD LUCK +++

The team know that Black Alpha is a city wide threat event and that they are on their own from here.

The only thing they can do is see where that tunnel leads and maybe, just maybe they can get to Black Gold Mesa and find Nesbitt.

Next Prog ->

Back Issues

Prog 1 - Suits You Sir - Mosh 55 rob Zlooty Slute's Suits You and a body is discovered.

Prog 2 - Hair Today Gone Tomorrow - Rock Dwayneson's apartment and carnage at the Yes-A-Bout

Prog 3 - It's Ugly Out There - Fun and Games at the Ugly Pageant 

Prog 4 - Down, Down, Deeper and Down - Entering the sewers under RESYK

Prog 5 - The Big Wig - Confronting the beast below the city

Prog 6 - Last Orders at The Two Ways Pub - A shootout in Sector 163

Prog 7 - Into the Cursed Earth - Judge Ezquerra orders a manhunt 

Prog 8 - Avast Me Hearties It's the Easter Pirate Kangaroo - Black Ice Kanga 

Prog 9 - Scav City and the Pirate King - A Deal is Made

Prog 10 - On a Road to Nowhere - A mutie farmstead is attacked by Mulgoons.

Prog 11 - Just Some Good Ole Boys - A Gas Station called Nowhere 

Prog 12 - Rad Birds, I Hate Rad Birds! - Absolutely not Stirges, honestly.

 

Saturday, 21 August 2021

Sector 55 Blues - Prog 12 - Rad Birds, I Hate Rad Birds!

Sector 55 Blues is a Judge Dredd Campaign using the Savage Dredd unnofficial Savage Worlds Expansion.  This is an online only game with members from Dragons Keep Roleplay Club.

The judges are faced with 4 choices stay at Nowhere and wait for the Ships, Go back to the ships or go to bartertown or to go on their own to the lawman outpost.

Judges decide to leave the mulgoons at Nowhere and head out to the Lawman Outpost.  Against the advice of Uncle Jessie they choose to ride through the night.

Rad Bird Attack

As they thuder northwards in an arrow head formation through the radioactive desert they are suddenly attacked by a swarm of four winged bird like creatures with long beak like proboscis.

A Cursed Earth Rad Bird
A Cursed Earth Rad Bird (Absolutely not a Stirge)

A bird swoops down out of the black sky stabs Judge Hammer in the shoulder.  As he wrestles with the creature he loses control of his lawmaster which veers violently right and crests a small sand dune launching it into the darkeness.  Heading up the formation Judge Uthred is hit in the head by one of the leathery winged creatures which frantically claws at his face.

"Bike Auto!" he shouts as he desperately tries to wrestle with the avian monstrosity.  Judge Teal shoots at the creature and misses planting 3 GP rounds into Uthred's lawmaster.  One bullet hits his bike computer causing the whole machine to grind to a halt.  Judge Cully rides alongside the slowing Lawmaster and clubs the creature with her daystick.

They stop their bikes and for the first time hear the leathery flapping of wings above them and realise that Hammer is missing.  Revving the two remaining bikes into life they U-turn back down the desert road with Uthred riding pillion on Teal's bike.  The wheeltracks of Hammer's bike are easy to find in and they crest the roadside berm to discover Hammer's bike embedded in a sand dune.  Judge Hammer is lying face down in the sand and they can hear a big swarm of rad birds heading in their direction.  Teal and Uthred wrestle the bike out of the dune.  It is pretty beaten up but it starts and is rideable.  Cully administers some first aid and Hammer is revived and immediately grabs his lawgiver.

"Incendiary" he shouts and fires a single round over Cully's shoulder into the night sky.  

A huge fireball erupts illuminating the swarm of rad birds which were circling overhead.  Bits of bird carcasse fall from the sky as the fireball expands.  The birds fly off.

The Judges leave Uthred's bike at the roadside and carry on through the night as best they can.  Hammer's bike would be considered unserviceable in Sector 55, but in the Cursed Earth you have to make do with what you've got.

The Lawman Outpost

By early morning the desert road fades into tarmac and they soon realise that they are riding on a pre-atomic highway.  It is not long before the road comes to an abrubt end on a broken bridge spanning a wide valley.  On the valley floor is their destination, a squat octagonal concrete building with a telecommunications array on its roof.

Surrounding the building are 4 black vehicles emblazoned with the Skull & Scissor motif of Muldoon.


 Next Prog -->

Back Issues

Prog 1 - Suits You Sir - Mosh 55 rob Zlooty Slute's Suits You and a body is discovered.

Prog 2 - Hair Today Gone Tomorrow - Rock Dwayneson's apartment and carnage at the Yes-A-Bout

Prog 3 - It's Ugly Out There - Fun and Games at the Ugly Pageant 

Prog 4 - Down, Down, Deeper and Down - Entering the sewers under RESYK

Prog 5 - The Big Wig - Confronting the beast below the city

Prog 6 - Last Orders at The Two Ways Pub - A shootout in Sector 163

Prog 7 - Into the Cursed Earth - Judge Ezquerra orders a manhunt 

Prog 8 - Avast Me Hearties It's the Easter Pirate Kangaroo - Black Ice Kanga 

Prog 9 - Scav City and the Pirate King - A Deal is Made

Prog 10 - On a Road to Nowhere - A mutie farmstead is attacked by Mulgoons.

Prog 11 - Just Some Good Ole Boys - A Gas Station called Nowhere

Sunday, 25 July 2021

Why a Canonical D&D is the Only Way Forward for WotC

ComicBook.com reported recently that Principal D&D designer Jeremy Crawford offered clarity on the subject of what is canon in the Dungeons and Dragons RPG world.

Crawford said.

"Basically, our stance is that if it has not appeared in a book since 2014 [the year that Dungeons & Dragons' Fifth Edition core rulebooks came out], we don’t consider it canonical for the games."

Typically this got a fractured response from the RPG community who are typically divided into two camps, those who slavishly follow the product/story lines of D&D and everybody else.

Why a D&D Canon is Important to WotC

Wizards of the Coast is a business owned by toy making giant Hasbro.  Dungeons & Dragons is just one of its properties, not the most profitable one but it is the most recognised brand in the Tabletop Role Playing Game (TTRPG) sector.  Each edition of D&D has its own life span.  At the time of writing 5th edition is 7 years old and as with any games system the bulk of its sales will always come initially from the sale of its core rulebooks and as the edition ages these are overtaken by supplemental materials such as adventures, settings, campaigns and other entertainment properties.  

Older gamers like myself have seen this pattern repeat itself over many editions of many games systems.  It's similar to the way that movie and tv franchises like Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica have been rebooted multiple times over many decades.

The rise in popularity of streamed D&D game channels such as Critical Role or Acquisitions Incorporated has changed the audience dynamic,  For some their only experience of D&D is watching it being played by people on Twitch, YouTube etc.  They passively consume the content in exactly the same way as you would a movie.  It is a story from beginning to end and a history of play emerges which becomes canonized episode by episode.

When this audience wants to begin playing their own sessions their desire is to emulate what they have watched, after all it is their only frame of reference.  WotC needs to take this into account and provide a world and a shared canonical history which they can control in order to feed the various different projects that they have planned for this edition of D&D such as movies, books, TV series and merch, merch, merch. 

It's not personal it's just business - The Godfather
It's not personal it's just business - The Godfather

If WotC D&D is to make more money then they have to sell more than just rule books.  They have to control their universe to make other properties easy to write and to enable their consumption as passive entertainment.  Good luck to them I say.

So why are some people getting upset about this?

Older players might view this as just one more betrayal in a long list where WotC is taking their beloved franchise and turning it into something else entirely.  We've seen this happen across all of the rebooted movie and TV franchises in recent times but I don't think we are going to see the same voracity or backlash in D&D.

But stop, calm down, put down the keyboard and step away from the monitor...

Everyone's D&D Experience is Different.

Playing D&D is not like watching a movie, reading a book or watching a twitch stream of internet celebrities playing a game of D&D.

When we play D&D we do not play the same game, the choices we make during the game change the story and our experience becomes unique.   How the Dungeon Master brings the story to the table, the characters in the adventure, how the rolls go, how players react to events, everything becomes a unique experience.

With the best will in the world, once those books leave the store, WotC has lost all control of how they are used, interpreted, played, written about, podcasted and most importantly experienced.  Your D&D experience is a product of all the choices and decisions made around your table regardless of what the author, designer, WotC or Hasbro might say.

The D&D Expanded Universe (DDEU) vs My Exapanded Universe (MEU)

WotC is carving out it's DDEU so that it can continue to make products for the coming years.  To me this signals that 5e is here to stay for many years.  It wants to homologate these products into a framework of historical canon which helps its many writers and designers to navigate the confusing and inconsistent waters of a property that has existed across many different editions over the last 5 decades. 

Good for them.

My Epanded Universe will continue to beg, borrow and steal it's material from anything which I have read or watched in my 5 decades.  WotC can't police what I'm doing with it's product, it doesn't dictate what can happen in my games, my players do. 

Good for them.

The Only Thing that Matters is Having Fun

The concept of control strikes at the heart of the recent "Culture Wars" that are ongoing in every hobby and every social or political structure at the moment.  The incessant labelling of ist, ism and phobe being bandied about on the cesspool of social justice that is social media (mostly twitter) is a mask worn by those without imagination and creativity. 

These people play the person and not the ball because they cannot win (control) the argument.  The only way to win the argument is to not play the game by their rules.  The recent debacle with the relaunched TSR is a case in point.

What happens in your game, what rules you specify for the alignment or moral choices made by orcs and dark elves or what frameworks you implement to ensure that your games are internally consistent (or wheelchair accessible) are for you and your players to decide.        

WotC and the horde of blue check mark allies can shout all they want and try to define what is and what isn't D&D.  I am not forced to use what WotC is selling to still play D&D, those books walked out of the store many years ago.  If they sell something I like I might buy it.  If they don't I won't.

In summary the only voices I hear are the ones around my table.  If they don't like something they'll tell me.  If they like something, they will be laughing and having fun.

And that my friends, is all that matters.

Sunday, 11 July 2021

Trouble in Sommerlisse - Part 5 - The Thrymstone Curse

Trouble in Somerlisse is a Savage Worlds campaign using the Hellfrost setting.  The Games Master is Mark Hamilton and play takes place every Friday night at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club.

Examining the Thrymstone

As the night and the cold draws in Vigo drinks and dances in the firelight casting strange shadows around the room. Athura and the others sit by the fire examining the stone. It is long, flat, icey blue in colour and very, very cold to the touch. Carved upon its flat side are frosttongue runes, just a single word, POISON. 

Poison cursed Thrymstone
 Historians call this is a Thrymstone a creation of the followers of Thrym the God of Frost also known as The Ice King. During the Blizzard War, the Thrympriests used Thrymstones to curse the land and the people as they spread their influence South. Athura surmises that this explains how the quarryfolk of Lier were poisoned, but not why the Ridder’s daughter, Aylsluf shares their affliction. 

Vissarel wonders if those who died at the quarry of the poison became the zombies which attacked them. It sounds plausible but a more learned opinion from some priests would no doubt say that zombies are the bodies of those who have been cursed and occupied by Demons released by Hela.

They retire to sleep their dreams filled with ancient mysteries and a sense of dark foreboding. Athura feels the connection to her Goddess strengthen and she feels as though she is being watched, her actions scrutinised. 

A Return to Somerlisse

Thingol lights a fire and cooks a small breakfast of venison and dried fruit. They need to return to Sommerlisse with haste but he wants to secure the Forge before they leave. They cross the bridge over the small river. Winter is approaching and the river is beginning to freeze. 

They search the forge and find evidence of the work of the quarrymen. Pottery in all stages of production, mostly homeware such as bowls, pots and plates. Some are raw clay others have been fired in the kilns, their lustrous green hues dance in the light.

They find tracks of the goblins who were clearly searching for something, but find none of the foul creatures. Vigo finds a cache of seven gold shields, 

“goblins don’t know where people like to hide their money, but I do” 

he chuckles brandishing his find like a prize. Athura tells him to put it back, it’s owner will need it when he recovers from sickness caused by the curse. Vigo grumbles and makes a show of returning the money to its hiding place whilst deftly transferring it into one of his many hidden pockets.

It is time to head back to Somerlisse and our heroes retrieve their horses from the barn. Vissarel takes the time to milk the goat for the journey. 

They lead their horses out of the quarry on foot and soon leave the rocky section and mount up. As they get on to the road to Somerlisse it is still very cold and with a light snow covering and by mid afternoon they arrive back at Somerlisse. 

The Saviours of Sommerlisse Return 

Athura heads immediately to the infirmary whilst the others had for the warmth and ale of the Copper Kettle Inn.

Vigo is looking for someone to sell his loot to. The last time he was here he thought he saw a couple of Engrosi. He was right and he speaks them out engaging in loud conversation whilst secretly speaking in fingerspeak to arrange a more private liaison where they can talk business.  Thingol has never seen Vigo with his own kind and notices how animated their hands are, it's as if they are having two conversations at the same time. "What a curious folk the little people are" he muses. 

Vigo the Engro

 

Vissarel and Thingol talk to the innkeeper who tells them that the people of Somerlisse had started to give up hope. Their return has really lifted the peoples spirits and their return is the talk of the town. Some have even begun to refer to the four of them as the Somerlisse Saviours.

The Infirmary

When Athura enters the infirmary she is greeted by Ydonia who inspects the Thrymstone. Athura once again tries to appeal to the Goddess to use her as a conduit to heal these people of the sickness but to no avail. 

Runa arrives shortly after and thanks for retrieving the Thrymstone. Now that they know that they are dealing with a thrym curse they can help stabilise the sick. However, the only way to lift the curse is to kill the one that put the curse on the stone. The heroes must find and kill the Thrympriest. 

Athura says that it still doesn’t explain my Aylsluf is sick. She didn’t drink the poisoned water from the well at Lier. Ydonia says that Aylsluf frequently visited her step mother's burial mound in the Somerhlaw Valley perhaps the answer lies there.

Athura returns to the inn. “Our work is not done” she tells her comrades explaining everything that Runa and Ydonia told her. 

Somerhlaw valley lies an hours ride Southeast following a less well travelled path. They leave immediately and ride out with haste.

Among the Burial Mounds 

An hour later they are overlooking a small valley dominated by 20 or so earthen mounds. The paths between the mounds are overgrown with bushes and small trees and there is a gloomy somber feel to the whole place. The people of sommerlisse have abandoned the ancient practice of burying their dead in mounds and this site hasn’t been used for nearly 20 years.

Athura explains that Penfrick's first wife and Aylsluf's mother, died in child birth and it was his second wife Friggyth who raised her as her own. Friggyth died almost 20 years ago and that it is her name which will be carved in the lintel of the tomb.

The heroes move between the mounds searching the lintels for the name Friggyth Skalsunu. they find it on one of the newer mounds. 

In Frosttongue Athura shouts “Servants of Thrym, the Ice King, reveal yourself”.

Athura repeats her cry and Thingol booming voice ads “we are waiting!”

Still no response and so Athura clears her mind and attunes herself to the sounds of the animals whispering a prayer to the goddess. Nothing. Has her Goddess abandoned her? As she ends the prayer she suddenly feels feint and staggers on her feet. 

Vissarel watches Athura intently realising that this is some form of prayer magic and she weaves a spell of mimicry. She calls out to the beasts of the valley, their voices fill her ears and a deer bellows

“undead are near”

Lying in the snow in the doorway of the mound is a Thrymstone. Athura brush the snow off of it revealing a crude flint like knife with traces of a rune for wounds carved into it. 

"Reveal yourself murderer" she cries into the sky.

Vissarel hears the restless chatter of the the birds, "The undead are here" they sqwalk, as they launching themselves into the sky with a cacophany of cawing. 

Hurriedly, the four climb up onto the mound to get to high ground. With the birds and the beasts silent all that can be heard is the cracking of branches.

Something wicked this way comes... 

Sessions

 

Trouble in Somerlisse - Part 4 - Well, Oh Well, Oh Well!!

Trouble in Somerlisse is a Savage Worlds campaign using the Hellfrost setting.  The Games Master is Mark Hamilton and play takes place every Friday night at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club. 

Aftermath of the Goblins

At the Mill, the heroes search the bodies of the 5 dead ice goblins who attacked them. They find several bags of food which have clearly been looted from the barn and six silver shields. They find no new information on why the goblins are here. Thingol decides to check out the level above and cautiously climbs the stairs to the storage area. This has been recently used by the goblins as some sort of camp and there are five bedspaces. Judging by their excreta, they have been here for more than a day, maybe two.

Athura Magnussdottir
A Sister of Mercy


Athura hypothesises that the goblins must be working for whoever killed the ranger, perhaps they are a trap left to waylay any who returned or even an investigating party like themselves. This is too organised for goblins. The prints found at the funeral pyre are too big for goblins, they must be in league with another, possibly a human, maybe even a frost mage judging by the way the ranger was slain.

Vissarel votes to investigate the world and Athura finds a vessel with a stopper to carry a sample of well water.

Athura winds down the bucket which hits the bottom with a thunk. The well is either dry or frozen over. The steads people have left a large rock tied to a rope besides the well for this specific purpose. She drops the stone-on-a-rope into the well to break the ice and it lands with a crack. She hauls it out and it's dry.

Thingol casts 3 firebolts into the well illuminating the sides as they descend. With an echoing boom a hot shockwave of steam bursts forth and immediately turns into pretty snowflakes in the icy air.

Viggo picks himself up out of the snow and Vissarel ties her rope around his waist. Thingol casts a smite spell on the engro's tiny dagger and the blade bursts into flame. "Be quick about it, the flame will not last" the paladin says. Viggo leaps over the edge of the well and disappears from sight. Thingol grabs the rope assisting Thingol. The engro comes to a sudden stop dangling inches above the surface of the water. His mission, although not an impossible one, is to retrieve the bucket.

In the daggers fire he sees that the bucket is trapped under a strangely shaped rock. However, he does not see the huge snake that lives in the bottom of the turnip shaped well chamber. The snake strikes and misses.

Athura grabs the rope and climbs over the low wall wall as Vissarel casts a deflection spell upon her. Vigo strikes at the snake but misses and Thingol is pulled towards the well edge straining with the added weight of both Vigo and Athura. The rope slips in his hands and Viggo splashes into the water.

At that moment three frost zombies burst out of their hiding places in the snow surrounding Thingol and Vissarel. "Sorry Athura '' he sighs and drops the rope needing both hands to unleash a flurry of fire bolts at the zombies. Each hits a separate target but they just are shrugged off. Vissarel responds with her own spell conjuring tiny frozen stars of air which circle the well before slamming into their targets without effect. Digging deep into her reserves she casts again and all three hit their intended targets. The spinning stars decapitate one and slice another zombie's head in twain but the third remains it's cold, evil grin haunting the elf. Thingol strikes the hellfrost with his mace but misses.

ice zombie
An ice zombie

In the well Athura with one foot in the bucket and smacks the snake in the head with a mighty blow from her mace temporarily stunning the beast. Her triumph is very short lived and the snake strikes again, it's bite parried by the Sister of Mercy. A blustering Viggo emerges from the water with and stabs the fiery blade into the soft underbelly. The flaming blade smite is extinguished as viggo repeatedly sinks the dagger into the snake. The quiet darkness is punctuated by the snick,snick,snick of his blade and the creature lets out a death rattle.

The last zombie summons its strength and punches Thingol in the chest, denting his armour and breaking his ribs. Vissarel fashions her bolt in the shape of an air demon which arches into the sky and slams into the zombie crushing its skull.

Panting with exertion, Viggo stands triumphantly atop the snake. "We have to get out of this well before we catch our death" says Sister Athura. "Wait" replies the Engro and thrusts his hand under the water retrieving the oddly shaped rock which he stuffs in the bucket. Thingol shouts "Hold on" and hauls the pair up.

Shivering they rush to a house which has not been raided. Thingol sets a roaring fire in the hearth with his firebolts and the heroes warm themselves. Athura tends to Thingol's wound. Viggo strips off and triumphantly dances in front of the fire as Vissarel conjures air currents which weave between then all.

“Who would have thought getting a bucket of water would be such an adventure”, Thingol mutters.

 

The frozen well
An innocent looking frozen well

Sessions