Ogeny's Impressions (Once more unto the breach)

Wow, did we argue for a while on what to do. We finally settled on heading out east to join up with the Varna forces. On the way we kept an eye out for tracks of that engineer that was heading to some ruins for the other half of the artifact that the Rakshasa's had.

Amazingly, we did actually find some promising tracks and followed them.....into an ambush :(

We were pinned and blinded out in the open and had some big guys on one side throwing shit at us and archers and casters on the other side. It was a pretty brutal fight but we eventually took them out. Turns out that they were soldiers set there to protect the artifact hunting party. We actually took one of the men alive, Leftenant Jenkins. They ended up pumping him for information and were about to kill him until I spoke up with the voice of reason again. Sheesh.

After quite some time of arguing, we stripped him and set him off into the forest. We headed off in the direction of the ruins the Kobold was heading towards.

When we made camp it was decided that we would create our own ambush. So we set to work digging a ten foot by ten foot pit in a good spot on the trail. We took up our positions and slept there. Unfortunately, halfway through the night, we were ambushed again!

This time it was a bunch of friggin' ninjas. What the hell did I get myself into with these guys?!

At first it was touch and go with the fight in the dark, I even got dominated at one point :( But after that wore off we were beginning to really weaken them. And what would you know, the cowards actually fled. Full on smoke bomb and gone kind of shit. They didn't even leave any of their bodies behind.

After all of that, we eventually made it to morning. And it was around then that we noticed that the citadel was flying quite quickly towards us. We decided to abandon our attempted ambush and head for the ruins. I made sure to flag our pit trap for any unlucky travelers before we left on the Bard's summoned steeds. We took a short cut across a lake to buy us some extra time and tethered our horses a good ways away from the ruins.

Friggin' Hill Giants! Two of them were standing guard at the entrance with, like, 20 or so soldiers. We all got our disguises on and ran up, leaving the talking to our glorious leader, the Bard. It was sooo hard to not snicker while he convinced them that we had slain the adventurer's and were needed back at Point Roy, post haste. They actually fell for it! Sadly, that did split our forces, leaving myself, the Cleric, and the Halfling to hang out with Barry. Oh yeah, did I mention that Barry, was a friggin' BEHOLDER!?!

Talk about nerve wracking to be standing around with two Hill Giants, a Beholder, a Cleric, and a Halfling :(

Anyways, after some time, we see people riding back. It looks like our guys but then the Halfling is pulling a dagger while they're still a good twenty or thirty yards off. I quickly jump at him screaming "Knife!!!!" to try to bluff the Beholder into thinking I was saving his life but sadly he retreated into the ruins with the Hill Giants :( Once the rest of the group pulled up, we did a quick conference and cracked open one of the doors.

After a quick, pitched battle, poor Barry and the Hill Giants, Kevin and Timtom, were dead. We captured and subdued the Kobold engineer and recovered the second half of the Artifacte. The Bard tossed the unconscious Kobold into his Bag of Holding and we rode like mad for cover because the flying Citadal was nearly upon us.

We rode through the forest, back across the lake to lose our tracks, and then continued on to the rendezvous with the Varna people that the Halfling was working for. I can't wait to see what happens next....

Ogeny's Impressions (Further Reflections)

Ah! The joys of forgetting that you are operating on an unknowable time table! Apparently, the adventuring group cum rescuers of mine impersonated some guards to secure access to the building that the ruins were beneath! Heh heh...

Sooooo...apparently, someone figured things out because as we were about to exit the house without a care in the world, Bardy noticed that we were being surrounded! So, quietly and quickly we all attempted to sneak out the back and down some alleys. Sadly, the old woman was not as quiet and spry as she once was and brought the attention of a pack of guards to her and the Bard.

The rest of us kept to our hiding places down a side alley as the guards led the Bard and old woman off to a Sargent or something. Around this time, I noticed that the Halfling was missing. I could only assume he went off to help the Bard.

Not exactly sure what happened but they eventually caught back up with us. Then we were left with trying to figure out how to get the heck out of the city. Apparently, it was now on lock down. We started making our way towards the North Gate, hoping to get near the North Bridge. We figured the Kappa and I could walk upstream and make a hole in the chain net that prevents boats from heading upstream.

Well, let me tell you, trying to pry open some chains underwater, against a current, is not nearly as easy as I thought it might be. And due to my butterfingers, I let my head breach the surface and lost my crowbar :(. And just my luck, someone sees me! I start splashing around and pretend to drown to play it off and buy some time for the others. As I'm doing this, I start to see patches of clear, clean water drift down from upstream. I can only imagine whose bright idea that was.

Anyway, we eventually all get out of the city and low crawl it up river for a good ways until dark. The Cleric found an old run off that he was kind enough to cleanse so we could wash the stink of the river off. Then we hiked off into the woods to get a little further from the main road in case any patrols came by.

Looks like we'll be camping here tonight without a fire. And I got to pull the last four watches. Well, guess that's what this little journal is for.

Ogeny's Impressions

Wow, that knock on the head really shook my world. Stupid Rakshasa...

So, there I was, forced to dig a pit in a dungeon by a bunch of lousy undead. The others were just your average citizens but they were too weak to stage an uprising. Besides, it seemed that we were burying ourselves in with the Undead :(. After three days of nearly non-stop labor, something strange happened. A bunch of crazy adventurers barrelled into the room and started killing our captors. Too bad they didn't know about that big bone explosion thing some of the undead could do. Out of the twenty prisoners, only an old woman, a girl, and myself were left alive after those blasts. Lousy adventurers never seem to worry about civilians. Anyway, as their leader was flinging lightning around, I made my way over a chest by the re-corpsed overseer. I suited up as they were cleaning up some of the lesser undead. I introduced myself as Ogeny as I dressed and called over the other survivors to see if they could recover any of their belongings.

After some brief introductions it was revealed that some Rakshasa were responsible for my abduction and they were somehow tied to a quest these odd people were on. So, seeing as these people were my way out of this dungeon, I thought it prudent to tag along with them. We left the young girl to care for the old woman while we delved deeper into the ruins to take care of the Rakshasa scum.

We jumped two as we were investigating a hall and quickly dispatched them. Then the Kappa proceeded to blunder right into the antechamber of the head Rakshasa. A rather interesting battle ensued. The bard and the rogue kept trying to tell me to stay out of the antechamber but I didn't listen. There were enemies to whet my blade with, no way was I going to stand back and let them collect their wits to destroy us. Several fell but rose again from the mighty power the Cleric. As I was about to strike the killing blow on the Rakshasa lord, the bard called out for mercy. Sadly, grudges do not care for mercy that much, so I slew the vile lord.

After that, I cut off the hands of the Rakshasa lord as a final emphasis to sate my honor. To my surprise, the Bard and the Cleric came rushing in to bring the filthy Rakshasa back to life! I guess there is something to say about information for their quest but still...yeesh.

As they were questioning the Rakshasa lord, it came to light that the Bard was truly the leader of the party, even though the Kobold Sorceror was flashier during the battles. I also learned that there is a Lich in league with one of the other child empires and that they are using artifacts looted from ruins to create more of their flying fortresses.

Being that a lich is involved and the destruction of priceless relics, some of which might shine more light on my own past, I just had to stick with these....interesting folks. Sadly, I may soon regret my decision as to their treatment of the Rakshasa lord they brought back to life. I may respect the Kappa for his prowess in battle but his sensibilities of Honor and Right could use a lot of polishing. After they garnered the information they desired from the Rakshasa, he took him back to the pit I had been enslaved to dig and slew him in front of the innocents.

And I do doubt some of their choices as well, they were discussing all of their plans and exploits within earshot of the two innocent townsfolk. I acted quickly and bought their silence with a platinum piece each. After more discussion, we decided to head back up to the surface. It turns out the entrance to these ruins were in the basement of some house in the port.

I can't wait to see what happens next.

Mechaton: "Neo Tokyo" Battle 2

Second battle finished and were gearing up for our third! This time the action took place in Koto-Ku, port of Tokyo.

Winner was TPA....read the flickr page for a blow by blow recap. Current results:


Click to go to the Flickr page.
Click to go to the Campaign page.

Mechaton: "Neo Tokyo" Battle 1

First battle of the campaign is done! Everyone had fun, even though Gregg will be making the next scenario as well.

Pics have been put in flickr.  A chronological recap is posted on the battle 1 sheet of the Campaign doc (at the bottom there is a battle 1 link next to the MAIN PAGE link).

A secert squirrel has informed me that Gregg found the lego ship hull in my box, so next week things are bound to get "nautical"...stay tuned.

Click to go to the Flickr page.

Click to go to the Campaign page.

Mechaton: Our Campaign in "Neo Tokyo"

CAMPAIGN MAP OF "NEO TOKYO", A MECHATON CAMPAIGN

Whilst DnD takes a break for a while, 4 of us decided to try out Mechaton (www.lumpley.com).  We liked it so much we decided to try our hand at the campaign.  Now there isn't a set of definitive rules out yet for campaign play, but based on what others have published in theirs (including from the official site) we set up this a google doc page with all the pertinent information.  As we play the map will progress, and the log will be updated.  The plan is to play every Friday night, so come back soon for more updates.

Go check out the Campaign doc and battle log.

San Diego "Ultimate Game Table" part 5

Game Day test!

Its nice being able to lean on the table and not have to worry about knocking over a coke or bump into 50 mini figs. 

Close up the side of the game pit.  

A glimpse of our next big project..."paint all the terrain!"  Just a base coat on 90% of our stuff right now.

We have 4 sets of halogens.  2 are "daylight"  and 2 are blacklight for "night" and "dungeon"

extra bonus of the blacklight....our maps glow!

Shot from other side of the table.  We still need 2 more gap pieces installed, and then add the trim, but the sanding can be done before that.

Last shot.  "who wants to escape the siege through the Underdark?"

San Diego "Ultimate Game Table" part 4

After we cleared everything off it was time to begin the cutting and dryfitting.  The plan was to use wood glue and screws from underneath...and where that wasn't possible we would add a bracket.

Test fiting of the top.  We ended up just using wood glue alone.  Screws would be tricky to place and the bracket was actualy not square enough to place the pieces flush.  

Dry fitting the center edge where two edges are flush.  So far nothing has been glued down.

And so it begins.  I really wish we had more clamps.  Still weights and tape work well in strategic places.

We had to custom fit the gap pieces.  This took forever.  Notice the tape we kept on even after the weights were removed.

close up of the gap piece after the custom fit.  Not too shabby....but not glued down yet.

one end done minus the tops.  We left clamp weights and tape on for at least an hour, and decided to not sand and varnish till the next weekend.

Our perfectionist tries a different gap piece.  Nothing will fit absolutley perfect, so just a touch of putty along the edges will seal it tight before the varnish.

Xbox makes good weights...so do weights. 

3 of 10 done.  The leaf parts were done last and unfortunatly we didn't grab any pics of that.

Top is glued.  We tried to cut the top pieces to fit but left some wiggle room on a few that didnt seem to fit right.  The plan is to wait a week and sand them down flat before finishing.

All but the leaf is done.  We were just short of wood for the final two pieces so we had to take an emergency trip to Home Depot.