Moley (2008-2019)

Moley, the younger of our two dogs, has been put down.

We love him and he loved us, but he was frightened of far too much in the world.  I hope we gave him a safe and secure place in it.  He seemed happy enough.

Shopping

I wandered into the City yesterday and managed to pick up a couple of things.  Nothing special, but it's a long time since I bought any figures...

First up, I picked up my pre-ordered copy of the Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed starter set.  As I said in my ramble the other night, I've been feeling pulpy.

Hopefully I'll give it a go over the next few days.

I also popped into one of the shops that sells secondhand gaming stuff and picked up these

Anything by Pulp Figures is worth getting at less than half-price, so that was a no-brainer; the West Wind Arthurian figures (not a range I knew they did) will come in for D&D.

Also, spotted this morning on Facebook thanks to Christopher Sheets, is the fact that Cold War Miniatures have a half-price sale on some rather nice astronauts.  So I've ordered some of them.  At 32mm, they may be a bit large. but we'll see.

It's not a company I was aware of before.  They have a good range of Not Flash Gordon figures (with Mong's Men just in pre-order) and zombies.  I shall keep an eye on them.

Feelin' Pulpy

Stream of consciousness follows as I'm in a restless mood...

I've been in a Pulpish frame of mind of late.  Over the last year or so, I've been picking up books by Edgar Rice Burrows when I come across them (not actively seeking them out, but...) and have got some HP Lovecraft and HLP Mythos ones.  With the exception of a couple of the Barsoom books I've not read any, but still.

Reading a novel based on Dashiell Hammett (Joe Gores, Hammett, which I'd recommend), last week reminded me that while I'd read the Continental Op stories, I hadn't read The Maltese Falcon!  That's probably because I know the film so well.  Anyway, I took the copy that I've had for 30 years off my shelf and am a third of the way through it.  First surprise, Sam Spade is blonde!

I've always liked Pulp in the form of space opera and other sci-fi.  Can anyone recommend any modern examples?  I'm not a fan of the current trend for Military Science Fiction though.  The examples I've read in the past have just been so poorly written (a surprising criticism when talking about Pulp Literature, I know!).

My favorite Pulp genre has always been Lost Worlds.  As a kid I loved Conan Doyle's Lost World and Verne's Voyage to the Centre of the Earth, and I was 12 when 'Warlords of Atlantis' came out in the pictures, which made me the target audience.  Great stuff.

As far as gaming goes, I love the minis that Antediluvian Miniatures have done based on 'Warlords' and 'At the Earth's Core'.  I just wish I had an excuse to use them.  Somewhere I have the quick rules for the Hollow Earth RPG.  I really should bone up on them and offer to do a one-shot at the FLGS, but with The Wife being ill, I have very little free time to offer at the moment and am having to miss out on our regular games as it is.

Solo gaming is probably the answer.  Dino Egg Hunt is a fall-back (I never ran the game I threatened to at Easter).  'Eat Hitler' appeals.  Another option is 7th Edn Call of Cthuhlu.  I ordered the starter pack with the store credit I won last month, and will hopefully be picking it up this weekend.

Barrowmaze #11: Return to the Skeleton Room

This may be obvious but these AARs contain spoilers for those wanting to go into the Barrowmaze.  The message is that if you're going to, don't take advantage of them.  They're called spoilers because they spoil the fun.  DON'T BE A DICK! 
 
I’ve several delves to catch up on, so there’s going to be a spate of reports.  Also, I missed a few, so there may be some disjointedness in narrative.  There were three delves on 30 June, but I only took part in (and thus have notes on) the first two; this is the report on the second, with a para appended on the third.

Barrowmaze – 30 Jun 2019: Second (And Third) Delve 

John	Dungeon Master
Player	Character	Class	Notes
Me	Decimus  Stonehythe	Gnome  Level 1	Pet badger: Dachs  Character’s 6th delve
Stephen	Moonwhisper	Magic User  Level 3	Character is a very experienced delver
Vlad	Gorgon	Ranger  Level 1	Character’s 3nd delve
Mark	Wusss	Cleric of St Ygg  Level 1	Hirelings: Clewd Wenvelman, Man-at-Arms, and Melnor Glass, Level 0 Fighter  Character’s 2nd delve

The Plan 
 
To undertake the plan we failed to address in the previous delve: that is, to return to the Skeleton Room and explore further. 
 
Pre-Delve 
 
Three days were needed to heal up after the last delve.

A visit was made to Merg’s Mercenaries to recruit hirelings to replace those killed by the zombies.  Two were hired as Wuss’ men:  Clewd Wenvelman a Man-at-Arms at 22gp per delve, and Melnor Glass a Level 0 Fighter at16gp per delve. 

Wuss visited the Church of St Ygg and paid his respects to Brother Othar.  He received a blessing and a free (!) vial of Holy Water.  The six-hour journey to the Barrowmoors was uneventful.  

The Delve

We entered via the Back Door and proceeded through the Crossroads of Death without incident.  However on turning west into the Statue Widening, the party found the floor covered in blood and hundreds of silver pieces.   

Before we were able to examine this, five Fossil Skeletons appeared from further up the corridor.  Wuss attempted unsuccessfully to Turn Undead.  In the hard fight that followed, the hirelings proved very useful, but Melno was killed.  Once the skellies were defeated, we established that the blood came from the bodies of a group of adventurers, their sacks split and cascading silver everywhere.  While Decimus searched the bodies, the others bagged up over 3,000sp.  This was cached in order to be picked up on the return journey.

We then proceeded into Necromancer territory, through the Octagonal Room and into the Skeleton Room.  

There we found the six surviving skeletons from the previous encounter. This time Wuss’ Turn Undead was successful, and five of the skeletons were picked off.  As one of them attempted to flee it was observed to be scrabbling at the wall in the back of an alcove: we surmised that there might be a secret door there.  We noted this and proceeded to loot the alcoves left over from the last time. 

While doing this, we were attacked by Sapphire Skeletons. 

A tricky spot

We were in a difficult position as we were in single-file down a narrow corridor.  One of the Turned skeletons had fled down the corridor and Wuss was holding his Turn.  At the entrance to the corridor (from which direction the Sapphire Skellies were approaching us) was a pit, which could only be crossed by one person or creature at a time.  Gorgon took up position at the mouth of the corridor, the rest of us using ranged weapons.  Gorgon fought extremely well, disrupting several skeletons (one of which fell into the pit), however, he had great difficulty in destroying the sapphires that reanimated them.  In the end his efforts weren’t enough and he was killed, Clewd being severely wounded. 

We proceeded down the corridor to the unexplored room we already knew was down there.  In it we found a funerary slab, on which lay a desiccated body with a shield and axe.  Cowering in the corner of the room was the Turned skelly that had fled from Wuss.  Wanting to avoid any more combat, we foolishly decided to leave this skelly be, and Wuss held his Turn. 

Decimus then approached the body.  Perhaps predictably, it animated when he attempted to remove the axe and attacked him.  With Melno and Gorgon dead, Wuss holding the Turn and Decimus almost immediately incapacitated, this just left Moonwhisper and Clywd to battle the creature.  They were successful, but by the end Clewd was also hors de combat.  The shield was determined to be nothing special, but the axe was retrieved. 

The party was now left in a quandary.  Only Moonwhisper and Wuss could walk, and they would have to carry Decimus and Clewd back to Helix.  As Decimus’ insistence the rest of the alcoves in the Skeleton Room were looted (though the secret door was left unopened).  As assessment of what could be carried (including the previously cached silver) was made and the party headed out of the Barrowmaze and to Helix. 

Fortunately no encounters were met on the withdrawal from the ‘Maze or the extremely slow progress through the Wilderness. 

  

Post-Delve 

The axe was identified as ‘Deepshine’, an enchanted Dwarven weapon.  In addition to its enhanced combat effectiveness, it had the ability to cast light out in a 15-foot radius.  It was allocated to Decimus. 

Deepshine - our first Named Weapon

Encounters 

Location	Nature	Casualties	Notes
Statue Widening	Fossil Skeletons  (x5)	Melno killed	All skellies killed
Skeleton Room	Skeletons   (x6)		Successful Turn Undead and picked off.
Skeleton Room	Sapphire Skeletons  (x4)	Gorgon killed  Clewd seriously wounded	Three skellies destroyed, one trapped in pit
Zombie Room	Undead creature	Clewd and Decimus down	Creature defeated

Treasure 

Location	Nature	Value	Notes
Statue Widening	Silver Pieces (c.3,000)		Large portion removed; the remainder cached
Skeleton Room	29pp  74sp  120cp  Scroll		Copper pieces left as too heavy
Skeleton Room	Sapphire fragments		From Sapphire Skeletons
Zombie Room	Axe ‘Deepshine’	Not valued?	Allocated to Decimus

Score: 3728 

XP: 409 

Barrowmaze – 30 Jun 2019: Third Delve 

I had to leave before the end of the second delve, so have no notes of the third. 

Moonwhisper, Wuss and Vlad’s new character (an illusionist) returned to the Barrowmaze.  While there they got as far as the Skeleton Room and finished off the skelly left in the pit.  They picked up the rest of the cached coinage.