Weds evening (930PM-midnight)
Foolsgrave off-grid with ligedog (and his buds Ernesto and Jeff), Cloak n' Dagger, Ancalagon, Josh and three of Handy Haversack's crew (Kevin, Ross and Emily). We had a great time! Moved pretty quickly despite group size. We had some exploration (room with a 12 foot tall iron automaton; soot-filled room with a trapped chest; room that looked like a safe campsite, but had a puzzling "Don't camp here" warning written on the wall; room with some wild boars eating zombies; room with a pentagram and some meat hooks hanging from ceiling - the group then hung the boars from the hooks, which magically created rubies when their blood dripped into the pentagram; several empty rooms), some battles (iron automaton, black robed guy with skull amulet, jeweled snail, wild boars, zombies) and two deaths (Jeff cleaved in two by an iron automaton; Ernesto incinerated by the trapped chest that exploded), treasure (gold, gems, skull amulet). Ross picked Ernesto's pocket as Ernesto was leaning over to open the trapped chest. Later, Ross also resorted to "spanking the pigs." Lots of beer, laughs and fun!
Thurs afternoon (2PM-6PM)
Crash at Corpse Creek with BigPerm, djcheshirecat, Ross, Bracton, stratochamp, Noah, Patrick and Patrick's son. This group operated like a SEAL team in Corpse Creek's very first running! They slayed a 20' praying mantis, stole a hydra's treasure right out from under its nose, used a Fly spell to find the crashed object (a giant space bug), ensorcelled my monstrous "kidnapper" centipede (underbelly exoskeleton opens up to store victims for slow digestion), fended off the yellow moths (that shoot concentrated yellow), disarmed the bug swarm trap, rescued the surviving trapper (and killed his spore-man cell mate), then used Sorcerer Eye to gain valuable intel and Fireball and strategic attacks to kill the sorcerer and his mutant bugs in like one round. Pretty awesome textbook case of patiently gathering info, developing a plan, getting the treasure and saving the day to make Hyperborea a better place. Nice work!
Thursday night (930PM-130AM)
Foolsgrave off-grid with JoeMac (assassin), his two friends Dave (warlock) and Dave (ranger), and Josh (playing his same necromancer from Weds night). These guys really kicked ass! Smaller group than Weds, and very efficient (despite much liquor!). They explored maybe two dozen rooms, avoiding/fleeing several wandering monster encounters along the way (yellow moths, metal monitoring sphere, green slime, evil adventuring party, Thaumagorgon cultists, giant vampire bats), found two chests of gold and ultimately made their way into the overgrown tunnels to the north, where they killed the fucking shambling mound that guards the portal to the insectoid dimension! I rolled for shit for the mound's hit points (21/80 possible), then lost initiative almost every time, whereas Dave's warlock rolled two natural 20s, Dave's ranger had a few arrow hits, JoeMac's assassin had two backstabs and Josh's necromancer's skeletons had a couple hits. Of course, the best part was warlock Dave mocking JoeMac and ranger Dave the whole time for not doing as much damage "limp dick mother fuckers." Might have been the booze talking! They recovered about 4,000GP worth of loot and 2,000XP. Pretty badass for three Level 1 and one Level 2 adventurers! I totally keyed that room with a "too tough" monster thinking it would slaughter whoever found it. Never know what can happen!
Fri afternoon (2PM-6PM)
Crash at Corpse Creek with Guy Fullerton, Josh, Dennis and Dan (from Ghul's home group), Paul and Eric. This group brought a different mojo than the Thursday group, LoL! Although they killed the giant mantis, snuck into the gargantuan space bug corpse, found the sorcerer's inner sanctum and took him out, when they recovered the Spawn of Yog, the adventure didn't end. They decided to see if they could use it to turn the space bug into a gargantuan, hill-sized slime. And they did. And then this enormous, 250 tall x 500 long slime slithered off into Corpse Creek to make Hyperborea a worse place. We all had a good laugh! It actually felt more like a CAS or HPL ending than anything I've ever run. Good work!
Fri night (830PM-130PM)
Foolsgrave off-grid with ligedog, Ernesto, gizmo, Jeff, Josh, Del and francisca played from 830PM-130AM, with Ernesto again quickly setting the tone by barrelling through a door and into room with 24 big-handed zombies that pummeled him dead in one round (everyone else watched from the hall, laughed, shut the door and left!). They soon found three adjacent teleportation rooms: one returned Josh to the entrance, one sent them all into the 24 zombie room (luckily they pushed through the corpses, fleeing unharmed) and one teleported them onto the meathooks in the pentagram room (their draining blood created some valuable rubies). They happened upon a walking treasure chest, but it fled after too much damage and was too fast for even ligedog's barbarian. We ended in a high note, with Ernesto defacing a demonic idol, which invoked a powerful demon with two pincers, two claws, a wolf head and a tentacle zapper - it slaughtered Ernesto, gizmo and francisca almost immediately - everyone else fled back to the surface, happy for the bigger shares.
Sat morning (10AM-2PM)
Strange Tale of Crystal Point with Ernesto, mrmanowar, Welleran, Brian (Welleran's bro), Dex and Scott (from Welleran's home group) and Emily. This game marked the tenth time I've run this adventure and I have to say this group did really well. They explored the sea caves and defeated the mutant sorcerer (though first Emily became enthralled with his crab-slug idol-sculpture, which Cory's pyromancer burned up to free her) and his mutant barnacle-crab-men henchmen (which nearly sliced Dex's laser pistol wielding fighter to ribbons), recovering the Black Claw of Chalak (which made poor Scott's features wither and sink, and his mouth reform into a crab-mandible). From there, they destroyed my giant four-clawed crab (Emily and Scott's casting ice storm and lightning), gathered its valuable magical eggs and hiked to the cliff top. They then descended an old silo shaft, found a damaged reactor control room and... then it was time to go. Too bad we didn't have more time. Still, they did slay both the sorcerer and also the giant four-clawed crab, which no other group has done. Congrats!
Sat night (830PM-1230AM)
Foolsgrave with Noah, Noah's Son, Kevin, Kevin's Son, grodog, Guy, Scott and Tom, all new to the dungeon, played from 830PM-1AM. Lots of carnage (Guy 1 sundered in two by the iron statue [-24 HP]; Guy 2 and Tom 1 obliterated by a floating metal monitoring sphere's green energy ray [Mike's berserker killed it, grodog found some crystals inside]; grodog's skeletal servants Guy 1 and Jeff 1 incinerated by trapped chests) and a couple fun rooms (they found the teleportation rooms [ended up on the meat hooks over the pentagram, but got the rubies]; a room with a multi-faced floating object asking them "GUILTY or INNOCENT?" [scared, they left]). They also found gold in two chests (killed some dark blue giant beetles guarding one), destroyed a walking treasure chest (lots of gold inside!) and found two potion bottles (one filled with white mist, the other heart-shaped with red liquid). Again, finished on a high note, with Kevin topside in the Laughing Skull tavern, opening the mist-filled bottle - a ghost emerged and the patrons all fled in terror!
