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DIY vs. BUY BUY BUY

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              Early this weekend I was inspired to work on a new aspect of my hobby, namely making terrain. I'd previously sprung a few pretty pennies for a set of latex brick moulds which could be used to cast bricks out of plaster of paris, and then glued together to form any variety of dungeon settings with enough time and patience, and plaster.                 I'd hedged my bets on the first order, buying the bare minimum because I wasn't sure the hobby would be for me. With the most basic moulds, working on the most basic beginner project, there was a prospective 14 casts per mould I'd have to complete to get the bricks necessary for assembly. I proceeded to put the moulds on my shelf and forget about them for about a year.                 Well, this weekend I was fired up, so I resolved to get those moulds out and make them work for me. I'd already done some prep work, purchasing the plaster for when I was ready to finally dedicate the time to the castin

Moai's Molnhem Campaign - Session 4: Bank Heist

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     The party finally attempted the bank heist this week, made up primarily of the "B Team" characters while the main group are all training to attain second level. There was a buzz around town that a notorious local necromancer, Autismo, managed to break into the bank vault and made off with half the platinum stored therein. They'd been scooped by someone else! Not to be deterred, the party proceeded to the hidden bank vault behind the waterfall of their city of Barham, based on the hot tip from Faith, who'd been present a few weeks back when the primary party was cavorting with the bandits in the mine. They approached the clerk at the front desk, and when he asked for credentials Faith passed them off as security consultants hired by the Bankers to assess the faults with the vault's defenses. The gnomish clerk was somewhat wary about this story, but when faith dropped the name of a notorious banker (Epsteinimus) who'd allegedly hired them, the clerk d

Moai's Molnhem Campaign - Session 3: The Lair of the Ma'amticore

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      In his downtime through the week, Bill the Ranger decided to get in good with the local jeweler, acutely aware of the limitation of rangers having to carry all of their wealth on their persons at all times. He exchanged his gold coinage for a few precious jewels, and in the process managed to get a lead on some wealthy strapping young knights who recently went missing up in the mountains. The group set out following landmarks towards a northern lake, around which rumors warned of flying beasts stalking and abducting travelers. Along the way the rangers spotted a procession of pilgrims heading north, led by a group of sinister looking priests. Numbering around 90 men, the party opted to skirt around them and avoid any sort of confrontation. May be worth checking into in the future what these sinister folks were up to. They found the lake and the party tracked a howling cry to a ruined tower up in the adjacent mountains. They boldly entered the tower, and came face to face with

Mr Moai's Molnhem Campaign Session 2

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     This session, the party decided to return to the abandoned mines in the mountains north of town to investigate stories of unusual activity from the eastern dwarves. On their way out, they spoke with a caravan of gypsy poachers who'd rolled into their city of Barham. The gypsies said they'd be happy to buy any exotic creatures they brought to them in chains (and some less exotic creatures under the table; more on that later). The group returned to the mines without issue, having already blazed the trail the week prior. Back in the tunnels, they soon stumbled upon an active mining operation which had been shanghai'd by bandits. 11 Bandits and 20 half-naked dwarven slaves were in the process of harvesting a new vein of silver. The party had the advantage of a choke point, and hunkered down as the bandits approached to drive them off. When the bandits set up their own phalanx for the archers to take pot-shots behind, Ramaloc the fighter hucked a jug of flaming oil at the

Mr Moai's Molnhem Campaign - Session 1

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     We began our AD&D campaign in earnest this friday. I didn't waste much time setting the stage beyond a very cursory overview of the political situation, suggesting a few hooks with murmurs of foreign dwarven activity in the nearby abandoned mines, a trade war between lumberjacks near a lake to the south, and an open bounty for bandit scarves from a notorious local gang of bandits. The players jumped at the lead for the nearby mines, and set off on the most direct path north through a heavily mountainous region. They spent a few days lost, though they weren't necessarily aware of it. One of the Rangers was on night watch and noticed a lot of wolf activity nearby. The creatures were circling their camp. They'd stopped and set up camp dangerously close to a den of wolves! The wolves were of course a random wilderness encounter in the mountains for the evening, and I rolled an appropriate score to suggest that there was a lair on the hex, therefore I ruled that the