These are all the updates from the year 2002 from June through December.

Click here for the most recent page.

The Marquis du Jarod, after circumnavigating the globe on a unicycle with a flat tire had this to say...

In Saturday's game, Amedi, Aust, Mornamil and Matthias (played by Kira, a new gamer who may or may not make reappearances from time to time) continued the search of the house to which Rishk lead them. Mornamil was attacked by a pile of laundry, and after the party put out the flames he inflicted upon the offending attire, they discovered a room in which a young woman was being held. She described those who incarcerated her as "strangely dressed men," then left.

The mystery deepens. What will the party find next week? Who are these strange people who deal in constructs? What kind of laundry detergent do they use to get that effect? Find out next week.

Sorry about that. Jarod went nuts. He's fine now. Heavily medicated with thirty-five pounds of solid iron. Have a nice day. Or a nice night if you're into that kind of thing which reminds me of a story I heard when I was in Arkham Asylum, see there were these two guys with purple puffer-fish that hadn't heard the third verse of the Star Spangled Banner and wanted to sell me a rather substantial number of Teflon coated Electrolux vacuum clea

Good night. (Note to self: Update page at more stable hour...)

The Marquis du Jarod found the following in a vat of chocolate...

There was no Saturday game, as only Sir Adrian, Lord Brad and the Marquis du Jarod were available. However, the group did jawjack extensively, and subjects of conversation ranged from contrasting views on First Person Shooters to the difference between Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy.

Nothing was actually done though...

Sunday, there will be no game, nor will there be one on Monday, so expect the next update a week from today, although I might put in some bizarre thing somewhere in the near future. I don't know yet.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and all that jive.

The Marquis du Jarod cried up from his prison in the bottom of the Well of Souls...

Well, I've been severely neglegent in updating the page, so here goes. On Saturday, the party (sans Amedi and Aust) talked to Rishk, who informed them of a group of people who specialize in the creation of constructs. They can be identified by a symbol which looks something like this: -(<(

Rishk discovered the location of one of the houses in the Nobles' Section that was being used by the group, and the party went to investigate. They discovered and battled two more constructs, much like the empty suits of armor they had been fighting before, but made of bronze rather than copper. Like the others, they appeared human until destroyed, when the illusion of humanity would evaporate like dry ice. The party has yet to discover the true nature of these strange constructs.

Incidentally, the party will soon be losing a member, as Kædrathi's player is headed out west at the end of the month. So let's all bid her a fond farewell and all the happy-happy joy-joys that traveling across the nation entails.

Sunday's game was also interesting as the party (last week) met up with a group of mutants who were being harried by a trio of giants. We took on the three fomorians who were so grotesquely mutated that they weren't even identifiable as such, and we were victorious. Dirk shined like a Uh... Barbarian... When he took one giant's head off with his keen vorpal axe. This week, we finally took on the dracolisk that had us all stoned (save for Plem and Master Ha Zing.) After Ellendria cast blindsight on all of us, we were able to blindfold ourselves and fight the monster without fear of its lethal gaze attack.

It still took some doing, and though most of the ranged fighters didn't take any damage, the meleeists were somewhat battered after Dirk dealt the killing blow, downing his second foe in as many weeks. (Way to go, Dirk!)

So, all in all, it was a good week. Except that Jarod had a back problem. But don't worry, he's alright now.

In a fit of boredom, Châtelain Rob wrote:

A great storm arose as night fell tearing across the sky lighting the hills with an unearthly glow as lightning and rain seemed to burst forth from the mouth of the angry heavens.  Alexa, Kirinth, Aiselle, and Mith waited as nature seemed to turn against them, warning them of the impending evil yet they remained steadfast and ready to face this new challenge.

From the earth rose an imposing set of doors impossibly set into a barrow which churned forth from below.  The doors, some 20 feet in height seemed impossible to open.  Aiselle suggested the party knock, and in answer Mith cast Knock and the doors opened.

Through the doors was an enormous room, far larger than the hill the party stood before.  Within the room stood a demon, and before it its master, a wizard fading in and out of view that threatened the heroes before sending his pet to destroy them. A battle ensued between the heroes and the villains powerful lackey.  In the end, the beast lay at the feet of the group, though they knew not how to stop it from rising again.

On Sunday, the party continued their fight against Borogon, who turned out not to be the enemy we thought he was. Instead, he was just as the winged girl before, a prisoner of his mother. Runes inscribed around the tower kept him from leaving. Ellendria allowed him to leave by casting an antimagic field at the door so Borogon could escape with his current girlfriend.

We then descended into the basement where the party sprung a trap which lead straight down into a big pit of green slime. Several party members took severe damage from the slime, though no one died. After dealing with the slime, however, the party turned around to realize that a "dracolisk" (huge basilisk) was entering the room. Only Master Ha Zing and his faithful companion Therios Plem managed to avoid the beast's stare, and are alone against the creature since the rest of the party is stoned. Master Zing did manage to unleash a can of whoop-ass on the dracolisk before running to Plem for healing though, and provided both keep their eyes closed, they may actually survive this encounter.

Monday's game introduced Rob L's character, Mith (amid numerous puns) the elven wizard. A somewhat arrogant evoker, Mith immediately earned the ire of Alexa, who began pummeling the poor elf with her fists. Meanwhile, Bobo shooed everyone out of the barrow, then smashed Egil's crown with his brand new mace (uttering something along the lines of "Thank you, my friend, you have served me well.") The barrow collapsed, and the party was ready for a quick nap before the third barrow.

Before settling down, Bobo and Korynthe (during Alexa and Mith's brief combat) examined a chest which they had acquired in the barrow. The chest was an opening to an extradimensional space where there was room for several people. Several items were found in the chest, though I can't remember what they were right now. Both Aiselle and our new cleric (whose name escapes me) who replaces Gregory as Korynthe's sidekick, a lot of healing spells were blown to get people back to full health. We also levelled, and are now ready to take on the third and final King of Woe.

Since there hasn't been an update in a while, the Marquis du Jarod crawled out of his hole to say...

Last Monday, Egil, the second King of Woe was destroyed along with a number of his mummy cohorts. Surprisingly, both De la Roshas survived the encounter, though both are a little shaken up by the experience. Monday also marked the addition to the game of the Châtelain Rob, a new member of the group. (Châtelain Rob will henceforth be known as RobL while Viscount Rob will continue to be known as Robh.)

In Sunday's game, the party entered the main house behind the tower to discover a guy and a woman in bed. Despite the couples' prone position, they got the drop on the party and caused some serious damage. Finally fleeing, the couple ran down a corridor and found themselves at the mercy of Qaelan and his shadows. More on this after Today's Game.

November 24, 2002

Another public service message from the Marquis du Jarod:

An extra game was played last night on Saturday, though it was the Monday night crew. Continuing the delve into the deeper regions of the second barrow, the party encountered a number of polite mummies who lead them through several rooms containing traps, mummies, phase spiders and other nastiness. We were politely introduced to Egil, the second King of Woe, who stood 12 feet tall, and who was extra-extra polite until combat began.

While Alexa and Gregory kept Egil's minions occupied in the doorway, Crombie, Korynthe and Bobo began whacking Egil with sundry weapons of war. Egil nearly killed Aiselle when he cast heart clutch upon her, teleporting her heart out of her chest and into the king's hand. A heal scroll which Aiselle had in her posession was all that prevented Steve from having to write up a new character.

Finally, the party slew Egil and bashed the mummies back into the earth from whence they came, though we ended the game before attempting to take on the occupants of the rooms which lead to the exit. Egil's crown may also need to be destroyed, but several party members have suggested that it is the massive statue of Aur, and not the crown which acts as the seat of Egil's power.

More to come on this thread Monday!

On the subject of Saturday's game, the party retured to Amalthion where they acquired several items that were needed. Mornamil had some arrows dipped by an alchemist in paralytic poison while Kædrathi went off to sell what had been found in the Temple of Eryseydyn. She returned and distributed a great deal of money to the party, though Aust got the impression that she was withholding both information and money.

The party then split up to check on a few things in town, and both Kædrathi and Mornamil discovered that they were being followed. Mornamil confronted his pursuer in a dark alleyway while Kædrathi teleported from the local General Store back to the inn. Matthias, Amedi Vak and Aust also confronted a man in an alley, only to discover that the two-rapier-weilding man was not a man at all, but a construct. Mornamil's follower was also slain, and Amedi, Aust and Matthias proceeded to cut off the constructs' arms and carry the pieces back to the inn for identification later...

November 19, 2002

The Marquis du Jarod was cleaning his apartment when he suddenly came across this important message:

The Sunday game featured a rather interesting puzzle which involved a dark room full of faces. The floor, ceiling and walls were lined with innumerable faces, all victims of a binding spell. After some conversation with various victims, the party was able to determine that the room was an entryway into the room above. One face, a demon of some sort, was banished back to his home plane where he most likely arrived as a disembodied face.

Another face, a devilish-looking one, turned out to be the key to the room upstairs. In its mouth, it held a door handle which Master Ha Zing was able to pull after wrestling with the face for a time -- (The demon was hard-pressed to keep its mouth shut). The handle activated a set of spiral stairs which lead to a trap door on the ceiling.

Beyond the trap door, a the party discovered what appeared to be an angel, bound hand and foot. She was freed and awoke to inform the party that she had been trapped there by her mother as an example to her brother. A bit of scrying by our crystal-ball bearing bard revealed that the brother was laying asleep in a bed alongside a woman.

More news as it happens, or as it is sent to me. I seem to rememeber that more than this happened, but I've hit on the high points.

Sir Nathan was not attempting to paraphrase Voltaire when he said...

The Monday game has had two abbreviated sessions, since the DM has been in a chit-chatty mood.  Crombie has been nearly catatonic for both sessions, complaining of a lack of sleep and a "rushing" sound in his ears.  On November 4th, the party opened the first of four doors, revealing another angry-looking statue of Aur, and 5 undead shadows.  Bobo (as usual) suffered the worst from the shadows' attack, losing 5 points of Strength before the party regrouped, slaughtered 4, and drove off the 5th.  The statue wore a gold ring infused with godsdust; the ring prevents Strength loss from any source.  Most of the party already being happily indoctrinated ring-wearers, Better-Late-Than-Never Bobo gleefully placed it on his finger and chortled about what he was going to do to the shadows next time.

November 11th, the party opened the center door.  Proving the ancient maxim, the early bird gets eaten by the cat, Bobo (under the watchful eye of Rob H.), rushed into the chamber, seized the rod of metal and mineral detection the glowering statue of Aur held, and unleashed the twin fiendish earth elementals.  The elementals, during their brief appearance, took Kyrinth's cohort Greg'Ory on a sudden ride, played a high-impact version of "Red Rover" with Aiselle, and successfully dismembered Bobo's heavy mace.

Needless to say, Bobo "Hit Me Again" De la Roche, now down 46 nigh-unrecoverable hit points, 2 points of Strength, and his primary weapon, can't wait to open door number 3....

Spewed forth from the hideous maw of the Marquis du Jarod:

The Saturday party (Amedi, Aust, Kædrathi, Mornamil and Matthias) met with resistance from a small group of thugs who were lying in wait for them in the forest. Kædrathi immediately teleported within five feet of one of her attackers and began close-range negotiations. The rest of the party fought their brigand attackers while across the river, a sorceress began lobbing spells in their direction. Ultimately, Matthias went down and required healing, and Kædrathi came very close to earning her angelic wings and halo.

Upon the arrival of Rishk, the halfling rogue, the tides turned in the favor of the party, as they now outnumbered their attackers by one and a half to one. Aust and Mornamil discovered what happens when two rogues flank a target and both get sneak-attack damage, and Kædrathi revealed her ability to summon monsters other than furry woodland creatures (in this case, a Salamander). Finally, the enemies were defeated, and Rishk, whom Mornamil knows from the Thieves' Guild back in Caerlon, revealed that Nod, the leader of the Thieves' Guild in Amalthion, had been arrested for allowing crime to get out of hand in town. Rishk begged for Mornamil's help, and of course the good-hearted and generous Mornamil agreed... For a price.

The high point in the game came toward the end with a wide array of puns involving the new NPC and his employer, Nod. I'm nod going to go into the nature of the puns, as the rishk to my mental stability is too great.

A party of seven (Buri Tayi, X.adour, Plem, Ha Zing, Ellendria, Dirk and our new Bard Qælan) continued the journey into the tower in John's 16th level Sunday campaign. Climbing the stairs into the tower, the party discovered a large, three bodied statue representing the three Furies. The statue, a modified Juggernaut, began to whack, grapple, crush and grind the party into mincemeat until Ellendria cast maze on it, sending it to another plane. She then cast delayed blast fireball in the position that the monster would be in when it returned from the spell, though the fireball went off seven rounds before the statue actually appeared.

Having healed itself in another plane, the juggernaut began to play hell with the party, crushing Dirk (and killing him) and causing a great deal of damage to the party until Master Ha Zing began bashing it with his fists. It was Ellendria who ultimately took the juggernaut out with Spellfire. The party looks forward to exploring the floor above and seeing what monstrosities the Dungeon Master has in store for us there...

Saturday's game has come to a pseudo-conclusion with the orcs and goblins nearly cleared out of the forest. The party followed the half-eaten map found in the Hall of Patience to a keep/temple of Eryseydyn (See Gods page) where they discovered a Guardian in the form of a Black Dragon. The Guardian, now awake, attacked the party who fought back bravely while Kædrathi bravely attempted to tell the dragon (who spoke a modified version of Draconic) that they were not a threat. Ultimately, the party was victorious, and the Guardian, now defeated, returned to her human form.

Infighting between Mornamil and Venis produced an XP bonus for Brad and Tim, though this was not for the infighting as much as it was for the role-playing (I.E. no fighting party members for extra XP!)

As there will be no game on the 9th, the party will pick up again on Saturday the 16th with a new adventure in Amalthion!

In the words of Sir Nathan:

Monday's characters suffered another rousing victory, as they advanced from the antechamber to the great hall of King Egil, the King of Despair.  After defeating the four barrowdead fighter/clerics last week, the solitary clay golem in the great hall was a welcome (?) change of pace.  Unfortunately, the golem's determination to remain in the area of a spike stones trap (concealed in a cryptic floor mosiac) inflicted some damage on the party, and the golem itself inflicted a great deal of unhealing damage on Aiselle, Bobo, and Kirynth.  Several doors were discovered behind the wall tapestries.

Coming Next Week to Monday Night Gaming Theatre: Dr Suess and "One Door, Two Door, Red Door, Blue Door"

---

And in Jarod's squeaky voice:

Also, in Saturday's game, the party has cleared out the temple of Treylynn and discovered a half-eaten map which leads out into the woods. The destination was chewed off by an orc, who was probably more worried about the party discovering the map than about the fact that it was in desperate need of garlic.

Next week's Saturday game will feature the party's foray into the woods.

Also, please note that there will be no game on Saturday, November 9th. If you happen to remember this during the game this coming Saturday, please remind me to let everyone know... The game will thereafter pick up on the 16th of November.

Having seen what I saw in Sunday's game, I wonder why so few people play monks. The Three Furies were defeated by a combination of wit, guile and Master Ha Zing's brilliant immitation of the Psycho Crusher move from the Street Fighter video games. He leapt from one cliff (wearing a ring of jumping) and plummetted at least a hundred feet to slam into his target with an unarmed attack, spinning all the way. Plowing through the Fury, he continued on his way down to the canyon floor 240 feet below. As he is a 16th level monk, he only took 15d6 from the fall, and of course the 5d6 damage from hitting the Fury.

Steven's character was also rather amusing, since she has at least 5 spells cast with Persistence which makes them last for 24 hours.

The Unhallow/darkness sphere was disenchanted, and the party chose to break for a night (in-game) rather than risk another encounter so late in the evening (out-of-game).

Saturday's game consisted of a party of five (Amedi Vak, Aust, Cinathoran, Matthias and Venis) who wandered into a room full of Athach. The Athach nearly killed Aust, but was ultimately defeated by the use of ranged attacks which whittled it down to dead. The party then healed themselves and rushed to meet death in the next room where several orcs and goblins were setting up a cathedral to Mymellia (the Orc-goddess). The orcs and goblins, fearful that the party might not be carrying adequate offerings to Mymellia, attacked in a narrow corridor and were ultimately defeated despite their having another dire wolf wearing bladed armor on their side.

The Party also discovered a back door from the temple to the woods beyond...

Today marks a milestone in the Monday campaign, as the first barrow of the Three Kings of Woe is now destroyed. The problem that stymied the party for so long was the idea of a symbol and the phrase "He could not have done what he did if he wasn't who he was." The key seems to have been the crown that the First King of Woe was wearing. Unfortunately, after Crombie stole the crown, he put it on and was affected by the mind-control function of the crown. After Aiselle cast hold person on Crombie allowing Bobo to drag the bridge troll outside, the crown was able to be destroyed. A combination of a heat metal spell with Malindrag De la Rosha's forge hammer ended the threat of the first king, and made life a little more bearable for the townsfolk nearby.

Sunday's game was also interesting as it was the first game in the 16th level campaign which John is running. Three Furies (THE three furies) attacked the party on their way to a tower (where maidens have been sent every so often, sometimes returning, sometimes not). After massive amounts of damage were dealt out (a few by a Wall of Force which one of the furies kamakazied and botched a reflex save to avoid) and Dirk (Rob's Barbarian) fell 200 feet to the ravine floor below, we had to wrap up for the evening. More on this next week.

Saturday's game, which has just been played, saw a party of four (Matthias, Mornamail, Venis and Kædrathi) take on two pair of orcs (one at a time) and a dire wolf wearing bladed full plate mail armor. While the dire wolf presented a serious threat to the party, the orcs were fairly easily dealt with, and the party did not suffer any death or dismemberment. Several more unholy scimitars were discovered, and Matthias got a whopping 15,000 gold pieces for the armor at the dire wolf was wearing.

No treasure in this particular room was discovered, though with the massive amount that Matthias acquired for the dire wolf's plate mail, there is no shortage of money in the party.

All in all, the game went well, and the party was highly victorious despite their having to spend more resources than previous games required.

In a dream about kumquats, the Marquis du Jarod said...

First of all, there are a few clarifications from Nathan about the last Monday game. In Nathan's words:

j Aiselle & Alexa chatted with the only spirit in the barrow that wasn't disgruntled.  She was actually quite good-humored, considering she was only two eyeballs and a tongue.

j She asserted the Kings of Woe were not the architects of their persistent return; that a more primal force was responding to their actions.

j The scale of the actions determined the scale of the response.

j Rearranging the bones of the skeletons would not be sufficient to prevent their return.  "The key is a symbol" was spoken several times (presumably the key to eliminating the barrow once and for all).

j "He could not have done what he did if he was not who he was" was the closest the spirit could come to identifying the symbol.  The force that dictated the return of the barrows also enforced a kind of geas that kept her from being more specific. 

This Sunday's game was a simple wrap-up in which we were told of the mad scientist who had discovered a method of combining ghostrock with steel to produce "Ghost steel" which had the property of transmitting fear as though the emotion were electricity along a copper wire. Unfortunately, his experiment blew up in his face thanks to a triple dose of trinitrotolulene care of Travis Lohmann.

Since the device and its creator were destroyed, the Deadlands D20 game is now officially on Hiatus. The characters will be shelved in case we want to come back to the game later, but we are now beginning the High-Level D&D campaign that has been planned for quite some time. This game will be described on this site as it is the new Sunday game.

More news as it happens, brought to you in part by Semtex Plastic Explosives, the world's leader in blowin' things all to Hell.

The voices in the Marquis du Jarod's head say:

Saturday's game went well this morning, and a small group of goblins and orcs were annihilated by the party who, despite Amedi Vak's and Aust's absence did exceptionally well. Mornamail skirted death until Venis managed to heal him before he lost his last hit point. Matthias also proved that a 19-20 X4 critical range on a sword is OVERKILL and all enemies in this game from this point on will have damage resistance 50/+10. (No, just kidding)...

After taking out the enemies, Cinathoran's expertise in discovering treasure revealed two secret panels behind which were found two ioun stones, a wand, a potion and a pair of bracers +4. More treasure awaits in the halls of the temple, though more death awaits as well. The game is going exceptionally well, with one door being searched and the enemies behind being dealt with per week. At this rate, the temple will be competely cleared by the first or second week of November.

From the hideous maw of the Marquis du Jarod:

Monday's game has now been played, and four more skeletons have been fashioned into xylophones for the tone-deaf. A search was conducted while Aiselle and Alexa chatted with a disgruntled spirit who suggested that there was a more sinister power at work in the barrow mounds than just the Three Kings of Woe. Bobo De la Rosha discovered a secret door on his search which opened up into another room where a treasure was visible across the floor. Then we wrapped up.

So far, all three games are in full swing, and the Deadlands game has reached a kind of climax in which the true nature of the purple flashes of light is about to be revealed (or not since we killed the only guy who actually knew what was going on.) The Saturday game is also doing well, and is proving to take slightly longer than I had anticipated, though this is in no way a problem. There are now five unexplored doors in the octagonal room beneath the Temple of Treylynn, and if all goes well, all five doors will be explored by November 1.

So good luck to you all.

In the words of the Marquis du Jarod:

Saturday's game saw the absence of not only Josh, but Adrian as well. Still, without the meat-shield contingent, the other half of the party did exceedingly well despite the fact that the only tank-type character was the NPC paladin Jalina Tivian (whom Kædrathi untied in the previous game.) Several orcs and goblins were slain by the party and the present, albeit somewhat tardy Amedi Vak and his trusty sidekick Aust. Experience awards for this adventure totaled some eleven million points of which those not present do not get a share.

Sunday's game was also interesting as the party, consisting of "Slim" Jim Peters, Travis and Sarah Lohmann and the Reverend Mannheim left Brimstone to head toward the silver mine where the flashes of purple light were seen in days before. Encountering a ravine, the party walked along its upper edge until they came to a device which looked like the spinnning ring apparatus from Contact. A purple glow eminated from its depths and a conveyor belt was dumping what appeared to be ghost-rock^† into it. Reality seemed to distort somewhat, and a large skull-like castle appeared on the other side of the ravine. Beneath it, a cave seemed to open, and two green creatures emerged. They moved toward the apparatus, and one disappeared to be replaced by a human in some kind of prison-like jumpsuit. The human dispatched the green guys with extreme prejudice and then, noticing the party, began climbing the wall of the ravine toward them. Travis' quick thinking and Slim-Jim's 50 caliber rifle ended the human's attempt to climb the wall with the help of a three-pack of dynamite. All that remained of the human was a metal skull which bore a red eye which slowly dimmed as the life seemed to drain from it. As a side note, the creator of the apparatus (and this is an assumption) is now at one with the ravine wall (due to the dynamite explosion). The device is no longer operating, and repair costs are as yet undetermined. So far, no liablity suit has been filed against the party.

Monday's game went well except for the horrifyingly brutal deaths of every single party member... No wait, that hasnt happened yet... More news as it does happen.

† Ghost rock: A substance in the Deadlands camapaign setting which burns ten times longer and hotter than coal. Commonly mined by the railroads.

In the words of the Marquis du Jarod:

First a note on a new portion of the page: To the right, you will notice a category called "CGG Campaign Settings." On Count Steven's advice I have placed this section on the menu bar to the left instead of incorporating the campaign settings into the links below its current location. You can now learn more about the campaign settings in which those games are run. Nathan's page is still referenced in the links portion, as it is not just Shadowend that it deals with, but other D&D stuff as well.

As far as the Monday game went last week, we got our asses kicked, ground into the dirt and handed back to us by a trio of harrow hounds which appeared to be huge two-headed Saint Bernards (only without the little barrels of Bourbon around their necks). They attacked with a bark attack which stunned Malin, allowing them to kill him, then attacked the rest of the party. Luckily we were able to defeat the hounds, though we were forced to use resources that were probably better saved for later.

Crombie also discovered an owlbear which he immediately set on fire and then attacked brutally until it became dead with a charisma bonus lower than the bridge troll's. The entire party was thankful that we didn't have to fight both the harrow hounds and the owlbear at the same time.

Sunday's game was eventful. The sun finally came up in the quiet town after a night of walking horrors which were apprently casting rejects from the recent Resident Evil movie. Sherriff Browning still refuses to admit that spiders grow that big and that the dead don't get up and walk around. This last game, the party and the townsfolk were attacked by a group of velociraptors. The dinos hadn't counted on the party having guns however, and a few well-aimed blasts from Slim-Jim's Sharps-Big-50 and Dr. Nell's six-guns scared the critters away. They were subsequently eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex which wandered through town and caused us a lot of grief. After plugging away at it with various firearms (including Slim-Jim's 50 caliber Elephant Gun, it was finally brought down by Travis (played by Steve) who lobbed a stick of nitroglycerin at its hindquarters. A new restaurant, "Burgersaurus" will be opening in town soon, and hopefully it will bring more live, human inhabitants to the town. Sheriff Browning is still trying to understand "how an alligator could grow that big..."

In the words of the Marquis du Jarod:

Saturday' game went quite well, and I now have a web site devoted to that campaign setting. It can be found here or in the list of links in the yellow menu bar to the left. During the course of the game, Ralph the Expendable Guard was converted to a follower of Samuris (see Gods page) by Venis (that's VEN iss, not VEE niss). Ralph told the party of a temple of Treylynn (see Gods page) in the woods with which contact had been lost. No word had been heard from the temple in some time, and as Ralph's mother is a cleric of Treylynn, working at the temple, Ralph is obviously concerned for her well-being.

The party found the temple without too much trouble, though they were shadowed at all times by a strange presence (Cinathoran stumbling through the trees and Mornamail walking gently but noticably on the dry undergrowth.) At the temple, all looked hunky-dory until the doors were opened and several goblins attacked from within.

The goblins were dealt with in a manner appropriate to the party (goblins killed, bodies looted) and two prisoners were taken for questioning: A somewhat well-dressed goblin and a goblin spellcaster whom Kædrathi polymorphed into a fish, then into a halfling, surprising everyone with her unorthodox use of a spell previously thought of as noncombat magic.


The Sunday game was just as entertaining, as the townsfolk from the town the party entered all came to see what was going on at the saloon. A burst of purple light in the distance, out toward the graveyard hailed an assault on the party by a large group of Microsoft tech support people zombies.

The zombies were dealt with in much the same way as the Saturday group dealt with the goblins. They were killed with extreme prejudice. Three deputies were lost in the scuffle, but Sherriff Browning survived. High point of the evening: Fate chips doled out for Ridicule checks against the Sherriff who stood among the bodies of slain giant arachnids and claimed that there were no such things as spiders the size of covered wagons.

Something strange is going on in the town, and we have yet to uncover the true nature of the purple glowing things that preceed assaults by nasty things.

Monday night's game had not yet been played at the time of this writing, and rather than attempt to explain it before it happens (which is difficult without the help of the Psychic Friends Hotline), I will leave it to Sir Nathan to write a treatise on the events that occur in the barrow of the First King of Woah.

In the words of Sir Nathan:

Shadowend update (the Monday night game) - The night started with a heavy boot, as the party was evicted from civilization (masquerading as the city of Shalanholt) for the crime of aiding its enemies.  Something about selling swords that kill good people to bad people, or rats, as the case may be.  Much banging of shields and baring of arms commenced, as the party plotted loudly and publicly to track down the followers of the Cult of the Rat Mother and kill them for actually using the evil weapons the party had sold them.

Plans of raticide were postponed, however, as some of the woodfolk of the Shadowend came begging aid, and using the magic words "our lords".  Some details were learned of the three undead kings that inflicted woe in the area once a year, and the party spent half the evening planning to assault the undead.  Each barrow is only open for 12 hours, so there's no chance for rest or respite.  Much attempted stocking was done of curatives and holy water, hampered only by a very abbreviated window of time.

Omens and dreams of fortelling abounded as the party approached the barrows, but little discussion occurred.  Uncertain as to which barrow would open first, the party chose a central location for their initial watchpoint, but the doorway opened up on the opposite side of the first barrow, allowing an unknown number of skeletal horsemen to exit.  Four swung around the barrows and came at the party from multiple sides, but the party's clustering increased the possibility of attacks of opportunity and cut down on the number of possible ride-by attacks.  The mounts proved easy targets, and were cut down from under their riders, who lost many of their advantages on foot.  The riders' weapons exhibited some negative energy properties, but disintegrated before they could be examined.

Next week Into the barrow

Sunday Game Update!
On Sunday, the party picked up where they left off two weeks ago. A pair of kids temporarily joined the party, and we met up with Doctor Joseph "Death" Nell, a gunfighter (played by Josh) who has two guns, tuberculosis, and a 4.0 BAC. We were visited upon by a group of monstrous spiders who nearly killed Lady Constantine (our reporter) and ate one of the kids! This has been nominated by the "Faces of Death" people as one of the Top Ten Worst Ways To Die Ever.

We did manage to dispatch several spiders, one of which was the size of a pickup truck (which ate the girl). It was icky. More news as it happens.

(The Sunday crew is John (Game Master), Bill (Reverend Manheim--Reverend), Josh (Dr. "Death" Nell-- Gunfighter), Steven (Travis Lohmann--Gunslinger), Rob ("Slim" Jim Peters--Gunslinger) and Jarod (Sarah Lohmann--Huckster). NPC's include Lady Constantine (Reporter/Gunslinger), Boy #1, Girl #1 and Jose the Headless.)

Update on the Saturday game. The party now consists of a human fighter (Matthius), a half-elven sorcerer/rogue (Mornamail), a full elven cleric (Venice Tr'Mur) and a full elven sorceress (Kaedraethi). After arriving in Amalthion, visiting guilds and establishing a presence in town, they retired to the Eagle Eye Inn where, at 4:00am the next day, they witnessed and subsequently became involved in the fending off of a small band of goblins. A local guard (whose name is apparently Ralph) was severely injured both by the enemy goblins and by friendly fire. Still, he survived and will be able to explain next week what the heck is going on.

More news as it happens.

Yet another update. The Monday adventure has come to a close (the Campaign is still in full-swing). The party defeated Slothray, a Cleric of Nevias, and destroyed the altar to the Four Evil Intermediate Gods (Ragavar, God of Madness; Nevias, God of Tyranny; Urjin, God of Death and Decay and Kajalla, the Crone Goddess. They also faced a gnome who turned out to be Bobalina Goldfetter's father, wearing a Helm of Opposite Alignment and who had been put through the process of Fiendish-i-cation. Unfortunately, the process didn't work too well with creatures of a Good Alignment, and thus when the helm was removed, he melted.

The party then found an elf (Ruok) who gave them some idea of what was going on in the adventure, and who teleported them, sans Bobalina, back to Shalanholt. Then they were kicked out of Shalanholt (details forthcoming).

Ruok gave the party a Tome of Clear Thought (+1), a Manual of Quickness in Action (+1), a Stone Horse and a Harp of Charming. This was before they were kicked out, and they still have the treasures.

Additionally, Malindrag De la Rosha picked up a new Katana which as far as he knows is a +5 Keen Vorpal katana of Danci... No, wait. It's a +1 katana.

More news as it happens.

While I should have updated long ago, I now have the necessary means, motive and opportunity to do so. First of all, Sunday was the first Deadlands game. The characters were hired by a news-reporter (with at least a level of gunfighter) to check on some strange goings-on in another town. Upon arriving at said town, the party was attacked by a zombie-woman, then shot at by a Mexican with two scatter-guns. The reverend (Bill's character) lost his beloved mule, and our reporter was nearly killed by the Mexican.

There will be no game this coming Sunday night, as our Game Master, John will be out-of-state for a few days.

Monday marks the end of the current Shadowend campaign, and allows Nathan to start up the Three Kings of Woe campaign which is scheduled to begin Monday, Sept 9th. Now that Jarod is no longer working on the Monday game, he will have more time and mental capacity to work on the Saturday game which, this week, began a new adventure.

The Saturday game (which began on Aug 31), unofficially titled A Cry for Amalthion until Jarod can think of something better, began with a party of three (Matthias, a human fighter; Mornamail, a half-elven rogue/sorcerer; and Kædrathi, an elven sorceress) embarking on a quest to travel from the capital city of Cærlon, Mythrandil, to Amalthion, a new city on the continent of Neriss. A somewhat-okay map can be found here.

The journey took them across the Sea of Îmlåss where they hit a small storm and were attacked by pirates. The pirates were destroyed by a combination of small cannon fire and Mornamail's fireball spells. Due to character generation time and a short trip to Ames for snacks, this was all that was accomplished in this time.

Next week, the party will arive in Amalthion. Other gamers are welcome to come to the game as we only have three players right now, and one may or may not be a regular.

Oh yeah, and I jazzed up the site a little.

First of all, let me apologize for not updating sooner. Next, let me fill you in on everything that's happened since the last update.

The Star Wars campaign has come to a temporary conclusion. The plot line has run its course, and according to John, we'll pick that back up at a later date. Meanwhile, he's got a short Deadlands d20 game planned for Sundays. On Mondays, Nathan will start a new Shadowend campaign at the beginning of September. This will free me up to either A) Devote more time and effort toward the Saturday Game or B) Start working on the Wheel of Time game again depending on what the players want.

That's future news. Now for a look at the last two weeks.

Saturday Game: While there was no game this last Saturday (the 10th), there was a game the week before in which a new player (who unfortunately is moving to Ohio at the end of the month) ran Medivac the Dwarven Cleric. He proved to be a highly proficient player with a quick and subtle wit, solid knowledge of the system and absolutely no dice. At least not with him. As he will not be permanently joining us, I will not add him to our roster of gamers, but will instead give him an honorable mention. During this game, the party vanquished many beasts, plundered great treasures and smote much evil.

Sunday Game: As mentioned above, the Sunday crew finished the first Star Wars plotline in which the Wookiee was captured by an evil Sith (which actually is redundant since Sith are by definition evil) after Frank N. Beinz (played by Rob) bravely and with the dignified grace of a rhino, plowed our space ship into another Sith. We're pretty sure Frank took out the apprentice, though even a Jedi Master can't quite absorb 1500 wound points.

Monday Game: Broken in the middle of combat because we ran out of time, this game featured a bizarre combat which lasted the entire evening. It began when Malin entered an upstairs room and discovered a skeleton in one corner. The skeleton (which had a snake-like appendage) stood up and attacked, attempting to lick Malin and the suddenly arriving Crombie. Together, they proved that a long, sticky tongue is no match for a heavy mace and magic axe.

The combat continued when two Bodaks began to approach. Crombie chose this moment to test a new ability that he acquired from the Cloak of Arachnidia which he wears, and shot out a web which slowed the bodaks to a crawl, preventing them from making melee attacks. Ranged attacks against them were somewhat effective, though hampered by the webbing which the cleaning lady is currently refusing to clean up.

The party also suffered their first fatality, though I can't go into great detail concerning this incident at this time. More on this later, provided my short memory retains enough information to remind me of this obligation.

Anyway, last Sunday there was no game as Baron von Bill was sick, Lord Josh and Lady Amanda were unable to don their alter-egos and only Daimyo no John, Count Steven and the Marquis du Jarod were able to play (which constitues half a party, and thus isn't worth playing unless somebody wants to run about five NPC's. Instead, we watched Terry Prachett's Wyrd Sisters...

Monday, however, the plot thickened in the Shadowend game as the party discovered a White Dragon and a Silver Dragon, both chained to the walls of their respective cells. Crombie and Malindrag performed a wrestling move called the "Double-Lightning-Two-For-The-Price-Of-One-Or-Double-Your-Money-Back-Charge-And-Richochet-Two-Pronged-Attack" discovering at the last moment the Wall of Force runes interlaced with Runes of Lightning Bolt on the floor surrounding the White Dragon. Asinarathi, meanwhile actually talked to the dragons (as opposed to outright attacking them as per Crombie and Malin) and discovered some rather interesting factoids that the party hadn't known before, which I will not list here, as I don't remember if Asinarathi has actually informed the rest of the party of them.

Finally, the party discovered a Jade Falcon statuette with a control knob on it. Actually, the Silver Dragon told them about it, and they discovered its hiding place down in the pit in the bedroom... They stepped through the portal to discover a guy with two Animated Objects on the other side. Combat ensued, and the party again was victorious. That's where we left off. They'll have to explore further next Monday.

On monday, the party abandoned a harmless little old man (who did not explode) and found a set of stairs leading down into another part of the dungeon where they discovered a room full of... <gasp!> EGGS! Then they successfully disabled another muppet stage trap (the ones where the doors open up beneath you, dropping you into a lair of hungry puppets?) and found a room with a bed, a desk and a burned bench. That's where they'll be next monday... Still, you have to wonder what's going to happen when they discover the... Oops. Said too much. Have to wait until after the 22nd to find out!

In other news, Hakushaku-Fujin Kirei joins the mailing list. This is our third player in the canned Saturday dungeon. Her online nic is used here at her preference as she wishes to remain somewhat anonymous. Incidentally, Hakushaku-Fujin is a Japanese rank of nobility which coincides fairly closely to the western "Count" title. Just a little more trivia for all you Japanese culture buffs.

Additionally, I updated the "œ" indicators to reflect the fact that Lord Josh and Baron von Bill are now members on the Listserv.

As far as the Gamers Web Page goes, I've put up little icons indicating who is a member of the Gamers Listserv. Anyone who still wants to join can eMail me and I'll send you correct instructions on how to join. Sending "join gamers <emailaddress>" to majordomo@lists.mv.net will NOT join you to the list. If this is what I told you, I was WRONG.

I also took the picture under more direct light shining from behind the camera. I think this helped.

Also, for all you painters out there, I discovered that by mixing a drop of black with three to four drops of silver produced a really nice looking gun-metal silver. That's what I used on the armor for these guys.

In other news, the Shadowend Party defeated a group of Fiendish 5th Level Orcish Fighters on Monday night. Sources say that the orcs were not taken by surprise, but nevertheless, lost badly to the better-equipped heroes. The surviving Orc, "Slush" (not his real name) was charmed and put to work shining Crombie's armor. The orc was quoted as saying "I don't know." repeatedly. Further interrogation revealed little beyond the fact that "Slush" speaks a language which the rest of the party is at a loss to understand.

Four potions, a scroll and a light crossbow (1d8, 19-20/X2 80' 6# P) were discovered in the Barracks after an exhaustive search. Several of the orcs' suits of armor were missing after the battle, suggesting extensive looting even of the dead.

The party of heroes declined to comment on the slaughter.

If you missed the Star Wars game Sunday night, you didn't miss anything. There was an ongoing discussion about Episode II spoilers and how we're going to set up the games in the future. So far, we've heard from most of the Clan, and the consensus is that most, if not all of us want to continue with Star Wars and Shadowend, and don't have a problem with dropping, or at least suspending indefinately, Rokugan and Wheel of Time.

Well, maybe not enjoyment per se, but I thought I'd attempt putting graphics into the site. Hmmm. Resolution sucks. You can hardly see the detail. Cheapo quickcams are great for driver's license photos, but not for miniatures. Come to think of it, my driver's license photo looks quite a bit like that troll mother...

Anyway, these three are from Nathan's collection, which he gave me (a long time ago) to paint. They're done. I now have less than a dozen left to paint. Hooray!

Also, I've put up a link to the Reaper's Miniatures website that wasn't there before. While it's a graphically intensive site, it's a good tool for locating not only miniatures you want to get later, but also those you already have that you want to replace, such as this one which Steve gave me to paint, and which I subsequently learned what not to do with acrylics.

I prefer the Reaper miniatures to other minis because of three factors: One, I hate the [CENSORED] little plastic bases on the D&D miniatures. They're difficult to work with, and have no texture. I don't really feel like gluing a bunch of dirt and grass to the base after I'm finished painting it. Two, a lot more work seems to have gone into some of them. While some of the D&D minis are just "Illithid #3" or "Displacer Beast," the Reaper miniatures actually have names such as "Drake Whiteraven, Heroic Wizard" or "Nachtlufte" or "Tyden, Female Barbarian." To me, this seems to give them a little more personality.

And of course, reason #3 why I prefer the Reaper Minis over others: The co$t. They range in price from $2 to $25, while the D&D miniatures seem to cost between $lightly more and $ignificantly more.

Still, to each his own.

Oh, one last thing which I found interesting. Here's a link to a site of Japanese noble titles and ranks. Might help with the Rokugan campaign.

Whew. Okay, now it's looking good...

Looks like the most recent updates will be on top. Email me if you have any events or plans or something. Oh, and anybody that's planning on going to Wizard's Tower in the near future, Let me know. Thanks.

The second-longest day of the year. No Saturday game, so I decided to start on a Gamers List website.

This may turn into nothing more than a constant source of amusement and entertainment for myself, as I like to write these senseless rants, and since I can't draw worth [CENSORED], I can't do a web-comic, which is the thing which really attracts people to the rants like this.

Still, this site may become a good source of information for the group listed at left, and might perhaps become a source of entertainment as well.

One small side note about the noble titles on the left: If they annoy you, tell me and I'll remove them. Or, if you'd rather have a different title, Let me know.