A Company of Fools - Blog

[EvilGinger]

unfortunately the embedded Vidio sequence links did not survive the RSS feed - sorry about that but the best thing is to follow the link to the blog post where they do and join in the RPG satirised hilarity.

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

A strange world of Random Doom - episode Nine

Preamble 

In the end  I  managed to make it home in time to join in after all as there was no magic tournament and our cadre of board gamers had bought all they wanted early enough that I could make a sharp exit and leave them playing till the boss got back form his race at Donnington

the region

On with the game

• we started at the Port - shown in purple on the map      on the coast  in the gap in the mountains the and having decided that      we needed to be in the swamp of Gorundy by the time all the moons where      full at the same time we rode taking Relemir to hold the horses and act as      camp servant.
• We also decided we had time to check on the state      of more of the villages in the north lands on  on our way, this the      Gnome moaned about as he was wanting to get it over with or just not      liking so much time on pony back. As is traditional in the company now we      ignored him. 
• We rode under overcast skies with the air full      of acidic drizzle and the smell of burning low grade coal. Through      untended crop fields slowly dying form neglect and the exposure to acid      rain. 
• our first night out we camped not far form the lake      in the dying crop lands where last time we had seen the shadows flying      over head. This time the night passed without incident and we pressed on      to the nearest village on the map we had taken from the bandit’s fort.
• We found the first settlement a village as far as      we could tell form the little that remained of it, the one marked      with the group icon a backpack had been scorched to the foundations.      Investigating this revealed that it had been done by ritual magic and the      ritualists or some one had gone west and perhaps north from there but we      lost the trail very quickly and where unable to follow.
• After completing what investigations we could at      the scorched village we had still day light and we reckoned we had the      time to we should check out another settlement on the way choosing the      nearest one marked within the boundaries of the woods in which the burned      bandit fort stood.
• This village proved to be more intact and we sent      Faz the gnome in to scout it out with the aid of Coradwin’s magic which      enhanced the gnomes considerable stealth skills by rendering him silent,      this also had the hilarious side effect of rendering unable to speak and      gave the company the first time free of gnomish banter since they had met      up. Oddly Faz found this unfunny well gnomes have odd senses of humour      don’t they
• The gnome’s report suggested that the village was      uninhabited but apart from one collapsed building, which radiated what the      gnome felt to be evil, it was safe so it was decided that we could      investigate more closely once the magic had worn off Faz.
  
  
  

  Naiad's Pool

• The company approached the little settlement and      found it not quite uninhabited but its one inhabitant a naiad was friendly      and hospitable, sadly the Gnomes lack of any residue of tact offended her      and she left. However before that we found out about the fate of the villagers      here they had fled after a wraith attack which the naiad had driven off      because they felt unsafe even so. More about the Dryad Gorundy and her      habits including her buying children of the slavers which explained something      which we had seen the first time on the way to the swamp and of a blood      cult which had dwelt in and possibly built the bandits fort in the first      place. We also learned who had put out the fire; it was the Naiad who did      not want her woods burning if it spread.
• After talking to the Naiad we investigated the rest      of the village avoiding the collapsed building which Faz had reported as      being in some way evil, however out new recruit was fascinated by the      place and poked about in it regardless of instructions and Faz bodily dragging      him away on one occasion. He appeared to stir up the lingering evil but escaped      with out immediate ill effects.
• The rest of us found a crystal grotto which radiated      good peace and well being and even though Faz wanted to sample the crystal      incase it might be of use powering one of the infernal contraptions he is      always planning
•  Having      partaken of the Naiads hospitality found we needed no rest but spent the      night in a warded sanctuary possibly a temple of the wayfarer or on of the      other faiths that worships in the open air.
• In the Morning we rode directly to the swamp approaching from the north as we had learned that this was the easiest way in.
• On arrival at the swamp we left Relamir in charge of the horses and continued on foot through the increasingly wet and difficult going as we headed for the village of the children which was  at the centre of the swamp

Approaching the children's Village

• On reaching the vicinity of the village the      majority of the company took cover as best as they where able and sent Max      forward to scout out the village as we considered that the children would      find him the least threatening and did not want any stand up fights with      the vine lizards which we knew to be in the village with the children if      we could avoid them. Most especially not in front of the children who we      knew treated them like pets
• Max caused quite a stir on his arrival at the      village but he didn’t scare the children and managed to report back with      useful information and based on which we decided to risk all visiting the      village
• This produced more information about the swamp      Gorundy and the children
• In the centre of the swamp we took shelter at the      warded stones and planed what to do next

Source: A strange world of Random Doom - episode Nine

[EvilGinger]

Animated KODT Strips


Once again the embedded Video did not survive the RSS feed - but it works on the blog so follow the link and view it from there, This post was cause by my doing a minor fix as two of the links pointed at the same video and I fixed that

Source: Animated KODT Strips

[EvilGinger]

Episoded Twenty two Preview

Situation report 

Two weeks have passed since every one arrived in the besieged town of Vayham and things have gone form bad to worse in all honesty. That the first serous attempt at storming the town was beaten off

Source: Episoded Twenty two Preview

[EvilGinger]

Episoded Twenty two Preview

Situation report 

Two weeks have passed since every one arrived in the besieged town of Vayham and things have gone form bad to worse in all honesty. That the first serous attempt at storming the town was beaten off but food is getting expensive and the citizens in the town increasingly restive

Source: Episoded Twenty two Preview

[EvilGinger]

sorry about the lack of blog updates today I am trying to catch up with a lot of stuff and also prepare for tonight's game - need to slot a week of time between now and then to catch up 

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Review of Kingdoms of Kalamar - Fantasy campaing setting

The Original version

the cover

Initial impressions 
the book comes as a PDF of the original work and would seem to be natively a PDF rather than a scan of the herd copy as may PDF's of books this age are. The pages are clear and easy to read as a result and are devoid of annoying scan artefacts.

It comes in two parts book one which is in black and white covers the Geography of the Sovereign lands both political and physical and the first impression at least is that unsurprisingly quite a bit of this material found its way into later source books, such as the D&D 3e Kingdoms of Kalimar - Campaign setting Source book.. The PDF is navigable and you will be familiar with this if you have any other Kenzer and Co PDF's Book two is in colour and covers a grid of large scale relief maps of the whole area again much of this was likely reused in latter products but the lay out here makes it much more usable than say the large map jolly did for roll20 or the fold out maps form Kingdoms of Kalimar - Campaign setting Source book.

There will be a proper review here very soon but at the moment this is more of a reminder for the blog Author to get on with stuff as soon as he can. I will also be including a couple of sample screen shots of the product to give the reader an idea what the thing is like inside

Source: Review of Kingdoms of Kalamar - Fantasy campaing setting

[EvilGinger]

I am going to sort the Blog out over the next week & I hope get caught up a bit

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Episode Twenty two Preview

Situation report 

Two weeks have passed since every one arrived in the besieged town of Vayham and things have gone form bad to worse in all honesty. That the first serous attempt at storming the town was beaten off but food is getting expensive and the citizens in the town increasingly restive

as a game session is is the first in which all the Player characters in the game where present in the same general area  and the first time meeting for the new ones.

We also needed to level most of the characters in the game I had already done the NPC's but some people have a couple of player characters to do and one three

Source: Episode Twenty two Preview

[EvilGinger]

Review of Kingdoms of Kalamar - Fantasy campaing setting

The Original version

the cover

Initial impressions 
the book comes as a PDF of the original work and would seem to be natively a PDF rather than a scan of the herd copy as may PDF's of books this age are. The pages are clear and easy to read as a result and are devoid of annoying scan artefacts.

It comes in two parts book one which is in black and white covers the Geography of the Sovereign lands both political and physical and the first impression at least is that unsurprisingly quite a bit of this material found its way into later source books, such as the D&D 3e Kingdoms of Kalimar - Campaign setting Source book.. The PDF is navigable and you will be familiar with this if you have any other Kenzer and Co PDF's Book two is in colour and covers a grid of large scale relief maps of the whole area again much of this was likely reused in latter products but the lay out here makes it much more usable than say the large map jolly did for roll20 or the fold out maps form Kingdoms of Kalimar - Campaign setting Source book.

In more detail book one

Sample page form book one

The sample illustrates the points I mad about book one in the preamble and allows me to continue in more detail here the The book starts with a brief introduction to the world of Telene and its history focusing on the events which occurred from the Migrations of the human ethnicities from Svimohzia to the northern continent in particular the period from  the formations of the precursors of the current nations to the present day. Most of the gist of this material will be familiar to any one who has any of the latter d&d source books as it seems  formed a basis for similar sections in those.

There will be a proper review here very soon but at the moment this is more of a reminder for the blog Author to get on with stuff as soon as he can. I will also be including a couple of sample screen shots of the product to give the reader an idea what the thing is like inside

Source: Review of Kingdoms of Kalamar - Fantasy campaing setting

[EvilGinger]

Session twenty two - an over view

Briefly

A Lot of this session was taken up by levelling up several characters  so very little got done in game terms but the two new players had some role playing chances  as did every one else as they appeared from under the levelling paper work Most importantly both parties or the majority of them ended up at the great hospital and had a chance to meet each other

They also collectivity learned of the deteriorating situation ion Vayham from experiencing it and talking to the residents and they learned of the plan the High Priest of the caregiver had to help which was that the Original company and Siskin should clear the Rot lords temple and destroy its plague pits and also allow the Vayham company to escape the town and alert the kings forces in Crandolen or Cosdolen or those of the Duke the counts over lord  in Napilido. this would also score points for the high priest of the Caregiver in an ongoing feud he had with the high priest of the True

There where however flaws in the plan as the company leader Telec failed to persuade the High Priest of the True to release either of the two dwarves he was holding, allegedly now for their own protection or the half orc Fawlit who had been persuaded to convert as half orcs are illegal in the town, and without the protection of the true he should have been hung on entry. 

Source: Session twenty two - an over view

[EvilGinger]

Screen shots from Episode Nine of A strange world of Random Doom

 Gleaning Information form the Nyiad

A peaceful interlude

The End Game

The tree of Doom

Source: Screen shots from Episode Nine of A strange world of Random Doom

[EvilGinger]

Session twenty two - an over view

Briefly

A Lot of this session was taken up by levelling up several characters  so very little got done in game terms but the two new players had some role playing chances  as did every one else as they appeared from under the levelling paper work Most importantly both parties or the majority of them ended up at the great hospital and had a chance to meet each other

They also collectivity learned of the deteriorating situation in Vayham from experiencing it and talking to the residents and they learned of the plan the High Priest of the caregiver had to help which was that the Original company and Siskin should clear the Rot lords temple and destroy its plague pits and also allow the Vayham company to escape the town and alert the kings forces in Crandolen or Cosdolen or those of the Duke the counts over lord  in Napilido. this would also score points for the high priest of the Caregiver in an ongoing feud he had with the high priest of the True

There where however flaws in the plan as the company leader Telec failed to persuade the High Priest of the True to release either of the two dwarves he was holding, allegedly now for their own protection or the half orc Fawlit who had been persuaded to convert as half orcs are illegal in the town, and without the protection of the true he should have been hung on entry. 

Source: Session twenty two - an over view

[EvilGinger]

Experience awards for Episode Twenty two

Introduction  

Not that much got done largely as the session time got consumed  in the administration of levelling up and in any event much of the session gaming was going to be consumed in setting things in place for the next session however stuff got done and experience honour and fame needs to be handed out for that

Table off awards to follow as I am working on it

Source: Experience awards for Episode Twenty two

[Family Destroyed...]

A word from the people we support

a sad tale

Family Destroyed...

This beautiful cygnet is Grace. She was hatched by her mother along  with two siblings six weeks ago on a pond located in Midway,  Swadlincote.  Sadly these ponds seem to attract a few yobs and over the  past couple years we have been rescuing animals from these ponds that have been injured as a result of appalling behaviour and cruelty.

Today we were called by a lady who regularly keeps an eye on the  waterfowl that live on the ponds which include ducks, swans and Canadian  geese. She had noticed the little cygnet sitting alone on the grass  near to the roadside and when approached she struggled to stand and  walk. The parents were nowhere to be seen but when we arrived they had  returned back to the cygnet and they were in the water.

It was  immediately obvious that the left leg was causing the youngster  discomfort. She was holding it up, out of the water, and was struggling  to swim and navigate. We lured her to the edge with bread and managed to  catch her, much to the dismay of the parents who immediately started to  try and attack. We took the little cygnet to the van and placed her  into a carrier whilst we talked to the lady who had reported it.

We  found out that, according to neighbours in the area, that the two other  cygnets had disappeared shortly after being attacked by a gang of  youths, armed with catapults and bricks, a week earlier. There was also  rumours that they may of been taken by the youths to keep as pets. 

Little Grace has a very swollen left leg and extensive scabbing. Given  the history of the behaviour of a few individuals, this may of been  caused by a brick or slab being launched at the youngster.  The cygnet  was seen to be well a few days ago and was feeding with her parents.   Another heartbreaking moment during this rescue was when her mother  followed us to the van, trying to get her baby back. Grace's current  condition means she needed to be taken into captivity for treatment and  it is unlikely she will see her parents again as it may take her a long  while to recover.

It is illegal, under the Wildlife And  Countryside Act to take, disturb or intentionally injure a swan and it's  family, destroy a nest or harm the young. This applies for other  waterfowl too. If you are aware of people taking part in this behaviour,  observe them in the act or know of people taking animals from the wild  as pets, we strongly recommend you call the local police force  immediately on 101 and ask for a wildlife crime officer. If the animal  is being attacked or targeted police have the power to intervene and  arrest those responsible. 


We will continue to rear Grace and  when she is older she will be relocated to a lake with other youngsters.  For now she has a teddy to cuddle up to so she can feel safe.

reposted with permission of Burton Wildlife Rescue





And that's why I put adverts on the Blog because treating the cruelties the orc minded inflict on animals still costs money and this is a small independent charity which depends soley on donations to do its work 

Source: A word from the people we support