Expedition To Timbogo

Last week we were finally feeling better (or at least well enough to be playing games again...) but our friends who had joined the Greek Mythology Campaign were heading out of town. Rather than forge on ahead without them, we decided to try something a little different...

I set up a game set in the fictional African nation (or region, in this case) of Timbogo – the setting of many more modern wargames and adventures on the “Dark Continent”.

The scenario gave me the opportunity to explain foreign exploitation of African resources and colonization by Europeans. After that the kids decided they wanted to play the “good guys” (the African natives).

Central African region of Timbogo, Late Nineteenth Century.

SITUATION

The Lederhosen/Schnapps Expedition arrives in one of the last regions of Africa to be explored by Europeans. The region has thus far thought to be mostly devoid of desirable resources to be plundered combined with the fact that the area is so far from the coast or, until recently, any trains as to make exploitation of any resources not economically feasible. Also the rumours of the combative nature of the occupying tribes have thus far kept Europeans at bay. But as the map quickly gets gobbled up and colonies established the race for even the most desolate regions has picked up in pace…

SCENARIO

Lederhosen/Schnapps Expedition has to press through off the other side of the table with all of their expedition gear.

The Timbos must kill or capture the Europeans and/or their expedition gear/porters…

I had come up with a system of victory points for the scenario, but I forget what they were…

FORCES

Lederhosen/Schnapps Expedition

Heinrich von Lederhosen – Wild Card Explorer

Eric von Schnapps – Wild Card Big Game Hunter

African Porters

African Mercenaries

Local Tribesman

Kulumbo Ngonk – Wild Card Tribal Chiefan

Tribal Warriors

Young Warriors

Archers

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

The Africans make their first moves.

Kulumbo Ngonk leading the Timbo Tribal Warriors. The Young Warriors can be seen behind them.

The Lederhosen/Schnapps Expedition

The Lederhosen/Schnapps Expedition enters the jungle.

Unsure if the movement in the bushes is angry natives or angry wild animals Lederhosen and Schnapps don’t take chances and open fire!

The Timbo Archers ruch out of the bush and pin-cushion the African Mercenaries.

The Timbo Warriors move out!

Wait… what are these guys doing…?

Point blank fire fails to stop the charge!

The last African mercenary goes down in a hail of arrows.

The warriors contact Lederhosen and Schnapps.

Things go from bad to worse: the Young Warriors arrive to plunder the baggage train!

Lederhosen and Schnapps attempt to surrender… for some reason Kulumbo Ngonk accepts their surrender and spares their lives. Later Lederhosen and Schnapps secure their release with promises of fire arms for the Timbos with which they can overcome their tribal rivals the Bongos.

And things have been going downhill in Timbogo ever since…. 

Isle of the Satyrs - Part Two

We finally got back to playing this campaign last week and had some friends join us. After making up some new characters (Callimorphus, Demetrius, and Artemisia) for them we played a quick encounter.

Following on from our last game our heroes were preparing to leave the island when the brother of the head Satyr (who was killed) arrived at the town looking for REVENGE!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Dionysophenes with some of the villagers.

Callimorphus (with the gree shield) charging into the thick of it… followed (at some distance) by Athis, Demetrius, and Artemisia

The fearsome Calimorphus is injured by the Satyrs arrows!

Athis, Demetrius, and Artemisia (and Artemisia’s dog Cronos) ganging up on one of the remaining satyrs!

Their foes vanquished. There was much rejoicing….

That was just over two weeks ago now.… last week I was sick… this week the Andersons were heading out of town… Next week is Book Club…

So maybe we’ll get back to this in November!? (Unless I get in a game with just the kids sometime...)

Isle of the Satyrs

It’s been, shamefully, almost a month since our last adventure. I’d been kind of hoping I’d get a chance to finish the ships before forging ahead, but I’ve realized we could be waiting a long time for that…

In this adventure the ship (yet to be named) arrived at a small isle – which had a small bay and a village by the shore which the captain thought might be a good place to pick up fresh water and supplies and perhaps do some trade.

When they walked into the village they found it to be eerily quiet – almost like it was abandoned – though they saw the smoke rising from cooking fires and the occasional face peering out through the darkened windows.

When Athis entered a home she found a couple terrified and filled with despair. A group of Satyrs from the nearby woods had stolen all the villages children and were holding them hostage and demanding the villagers turn over half of all the food they harvested.

Our heroes said “fear not! We shall return your children! Just point us in the direction of the woods!”

Athis turned out to be an exceptional tracker (Keria just kept acing and scored raise after raise, with every tracking roll all game!). They found and followed a track into the woods that the Satyrs were clearly using to go back and forth to the village to haul away their booty.

AS they pressed on through the woods Dionysophenes spotted some lookouts in the bushes ahead (Finnegan was likewise hot with the notice rolls – despite the Satyrs being woodsmen, and in cover, and acing their stealth rolls, Finnegan just kept rolling better!? I’d initially planned to have a aroow whistle out of the bush and have the satyrs taunting/intimidating them from unseen hiding spots in the bush… no such luck)

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Finnegan (Dionysophenes) and Keira (Athis) – excited to be playing Savage Worlds again (thought yesterday we did play a game of Hordes of the Things).

As Dion pointed out the Satyrs hiding in the bush one of them scarpered and the others loosed off arrows at Dion and Athis.

Dion was hit and shaken!

Dion and Athis charged and dispatched the two Satyrs before they could even flee!

The others rushed up to try and catch the other, but he was long gone…

The though they should follow him but when I called for another tracking roll and Keira rattled out a couple more raises I pointed out that the main trail they’d been following went off in the opposite direction – should they follow the main path or chase after the fleeing lookout? They chose (wisely) to follow the main path. When I then gave them the option of following it as hastily as they could or slowly and cautiously and stealthily they chose the latter – had they chose the former I would have said they got to the Satyr camp before the lookout got back and may have taken them by surprise.

As it was they Satyrs were aware of their approach and ready for them…

Athis rushed into the clearing (having the highest card), and the Satyrs tried to turn her into a pincushion (having the next two highest cards) – after a soak roll she escaped with only being shaken… As she took cover in the bush the others rushed forward to help – one was downed by and arrow from the leader of the Satyrs. Dion had the good sense to try and skirt around the clearing under cover.

Unfortunately the sneaky Satyrs spotted him and headed him off – both hit wounding Dion grievously.  He slumped into cover and remained there for pretty much the rest of the game – unable to remove the painful arrow in his arm (unable to recover from being shaken)

Athis recovered and rushed out followed by one of their friends and attacked the leader of the Satyrs.

Athis cut him down and he tried to flee (I think doing five wounds!?) – spear through the heart. This prompted and morale test from the Satyrs which the failed!

The tables turned…

Athis and one of their friends rushed the Satyrs in the woods and cut down three of them, Their other friend the archer exchanged shots with another and eventually brought him down. The remaining two Satyr archers fled.

There was another Satyr in the clearing – who turned out to be very friendly. He had been taking care of the children and explained that it was the thuggish leaders idea to kidnap the children and most of the others went along with it. He could have helped the kids escape but it would have meant his own death and the thugs would have just gone straight back to the village and carried them off again – and they wouldn’t have been cared for nearly so well…

Our heroes friend that had been shot by the arrow, turned out to have just been knocked out and wasn’t seriously injured at all.

Upon their return to the village with the children there was much rejoicing. A festival was held in the heroes honour and their ship was provisioned with the finest foods and wines the islanders had to offer.

Of the other Satyrs one died, two were seriously wounded, and the other three lightly wounded. Though all had been taught a serious lesson and would not likely be trying anything like that again. 

Escape From Athens

I started a new Savage Worlds Campaign with the kids today. We’ve been planning it for some time, but just never seemed to get around to kicking it off. Hopefully now that we’ve got it started we’ll find time to sit down and play a bit more regularly.

Finnegan is playing Dionysophenes, a place guard in the court of King Aegeas of Athens. Keira is playing Athis, a daughter of King Aegeas who was raised among the Amazons.

Queen Medea was fiercely jealous of the young princess and plotted to kill here while King Aegeas was away. Dion happened to be the guard she ordered to do the deed. He could not and told Athis of the plot and offered to help her escape from Athens.

I gave the kids the option of simply stealing away alone in the night and by passage on some merchant ship to wherever it was going or trying to recruit some friends/followers to go along with them. I told them if they recruited enough they could steal a war ship… To recruit guards required a successful persuasion roll. Raises would recruit additional guards. Three failures (or a bust – rolling one on the persuasion die) would mean Medea was on to them and they would have to flee at once.

Now Athis had only d4 persuasion and Dion was completely unskilled at such things (and so tried at d4-2). Athis however being a Noble had +2 due to her charisma bonus and quickly recruited three followers. Dion in that same time failed three times and they had to steal away in the middle of the night.

The assasins were a bit better with the noticing than they were with the stealthing so as they turned down the last dark street in Piraeus that lead to the waiting ship their way was blocked by some of Medea’s men…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Some of Medea’s men called on the other guards to give up the princess – telling them it was futile to go against eh queens will, that she would track them to the ends of the earth if need be…. This was an attempt to intimidate the hero’s followers into leaving or rejoining them. I’d said if they got TWO raises on the intimidate roll the followers would switch sides again.

The one trying to intimidate the archer with Dion and Athis just kept acing – ending up with a total of 17 (6, 6, 5) – looked like he might be switching sides right then and there and shooting someone in the back! Then Finnegan rolled for the archer (6, 6, 6, 4) – “nothing doing” says the archer and let fly with an arrow at one of the would-be assassins….

The rushed those blocking their way to the front, two others rushed the archer taking up the rear.

Athis took out the first of the assasins with a spear to the throat.

The archer was doing well – he’s only gotten one shot off (which wildly missed it’s mark in the dark street) – he didn’t even have time to draw his sword before two attackers were upon him. he held them off for two or three turns..

The skirmish raged on – things going progressively worse for the archer – shaken…

Eventually the archer was overwhelmed and taken down.

Around that time this finished off another of the attackers and Dion had knocked down one himself.

They rushed the other two attackers (that had been fighting the archer) and took them down as well. When they checked on their archer friend they discovered his wounds were not grave and so helped him down to the ship and were away before first light…

A Good quick introduction to the campaign and refresher of Savage Worlds for the kids (it’s been a few months since we last played).

Coming soon on Savage Timmy’s Playhouse:

The Saturday Savages will, hopefully, be beginning their campaign in earnest this week. With any luck we shall see Dion and Athis in action again shortly as well! 

Athis

Athis - Wild Card Amazon (Keira)

Ag d8, Sm dX, Sp dX, St d10, Vg dX,

Pace 6, Parry 6 (8), Toughness 5 (7)

Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d4, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Investigation d4, Climbing d6, Survival d4, Tracking d4, Persuasion d4, Riding d10, Swimming d4

Edges: Noble, Attractive

Hindrances: Loyal, Minor Enemy,

Gear: Traveling Clothes, Fancy formal Clothes, Superior Medium Armour, Superior Large Shield, Short Sword, Spear,

Athis’ mother came from Thessaly originally but had left and wandered to the land of the Amanzons to raise her. When she became a woman Her mother told her of her father – King Aegieas of Athens – and gave her a dagger he had given her. She wished to meet her father and set out on a long journey over land and sea and eventually came to the city of Athens. Ageas, when he saw her, welcomed him into his palace as a daughter and princess of Athens. Medea, who he was married to at the time, was extremely jealous of the young womans and plotted to have her killed when Ageas was away. Her guard Dion, whom Medea had told to kill her, could not go through with it and offered to help her escape from Athens. 

Dionysophenes

Dionysophenes (Dion) - Wild Card Greek Hero (Finnegan)

Ag d10, Sm d6, Sp d6, St d8, Vg d6,

Pace 6, Parry 7 (9), Toughness 6 (8)

Skills: Fighting d10, Notice d6, Stealth d8, Intimidate d4, Throwing d6, Boating d6, Repair d6, Swimming d6

Edges: Alertness, Brawny

Hindrances: Code of Honour, Minor Enemy

Gear: Clothes, Average Medium Armour, Average Medium Shield, Spear, Short Sword

Came from humble origins as a sailor’s son and spent his early years working on ships. While sailing on a ship to Laconia with an Athenian diplomat they were attacked by pirates. Through quick action and bravery Dion saved the ship (and the diplomat) and upon their return to Athens was offered a job as a guard at King Ageas’ palace. Some years later, after Athis’ arrival, Queen Medea ordered Dion to kill her. This he could not do, so he offered to help Athis escape Medea… 

Dragonlance Kids Campaign Update

For those who have not been following along, I am running the old classic Dragonlance campaign adventures using Savage Worlds for TWO different groups, more or less simultaneously. One is for the “Saturday Savages” – the Saturday night “adult” group that’s been playing Savage Worlds for some time and whose shenanigans have been chronicled on this blog – but the group goes even further back than that… More on their adventures in a moment…

The other group I am running it for is my kids and a couple of other homeschoolers….

When I last updated the Kids Camapign They had just escaped the slave caravan and had made their way to Qualinost the capital of the Qualinesti – the woodland realm of the Elves. There they were charged with freeing the slaves of the Dragonlord who held them captive in the fortress of Pax Tharkas. They had followed Gilthanas – son of the Speaker of the Suns to a secret entrance to the fortress known as the Sla-Mori. They had entered there and found an ancient sword and killed a giant slug…. That was at the end of January.

We’ve had, I think, FOUR sessions since then in the intervening eight weeks… A number of weeks were cancelled due to vacations and book clubs and me preparing for the Dark Age DBA Campaign. Next weeks game will also be cancelled due to the other kids book club meeting…. Ah well, it will give me a chance to figure out what we’re supposed to be doing next.

In session #13 I made Christopher give up Wyrmslayer. He’s a Knight of Solamnia, not a tomb robber. He’s got his own (not-so-powerful) ancestral sword… Tanis now has it… Tanis… who never gets into close combat if he can help it, but rather stands just out and shoots his wimpy and ineffectual 2d6 arrows INTO close combat… I hate the shooting into close combat rules… it hardly EVER hits your own guys – especially when characters get shooting of d8 or d10 or better… Ah well…

The adventurers realized the way they had gone was blocked and went back the other way. Earlier, in the previous session, Christopher had INSISTED that Gilthanas would want to go that other way and insisted that he would split off from the group and go that way on his own…. I had him hand over Gilthanas’ card and told him they could have it back when they saw him again. They haven’t – they think they might have found his remains among the ZOMBIES!


They fought some zombies


So many zombies…


It’s been a while, but what I think we’re looking at here is someone who got a Joker… got a raise… and then rolled three ones for damage…

After that they fell into the trap beyond the hall of pillars… found the room with the cahin – while trying to divine what the purpose of said chain was Tanis went bust on his smarts roll and decided it must be the chain the secures the mountain to the ground and keeps it from floating into the sky… I think he successfully convinced a few others of this as well… Pushing on they made their way to the cellar where Sturm decided to yell “helloooo…” to see if it echoed… alerting the draconians in the guardroom beyond of their approach…

In the next session (#14) they fought those draconians…


Looks like the type that melt into pools of acid when they die…


SPLOOSH!

Also in this session they explored the lower realms of the dungeon and discovered the women prisoners and decided to go up and try to rescue the children…

They went up and things were going smoothly enough until Flint decided he’d had enough of this sneaking around business and charged out from his hiding spot and attacked some hobgoblins… around this time Tika, Riverwind, Goldmoon and Raistlin – who had been trying to herd the kids out pas the sleeping dragon, were discovered and trapped in the far back room behind the dragon – Tika and Riverwind were critically injured by the dragon.

Out at the top of the landing Sturm, Tanis and Flint were battling Draconians and Hobgoblins. Tanis and Sturm were also critically injured here and I decided to pull the old “send in overwhelming reinforcements to the bad guys so the PCs are compelled to surrender” trick.

Tanis didn’t want to surrender. I basically had to tell him that if he didn’t Tanis was GOING TO DIE (AND probably everyone else… AND the campaign would be OVER) if he didn’t… so he did…

The Next Session (#15) began with them, having been dragged out into the “courtyard” south of the Thardakan Wall. The women and children were collected up there along with all the men.

Laurana and Tasslehoff – who had been hiding in the cellar in the dungeon had to be convinced to follow the women up as they were herded out by the guards…

Dragonlord Verminarrd gave his “I’ve had it with you” speech and Flamestrike attacked Ember and the two dragons went tumbling off down the mountainside. The shattered PCs attempted to overcome the few guards hanging around them and got their stuff back. (I said the men and women and children overcame the rest of them). The slaves all gathered up all the stuff they could and off they went over the pass and off to the south.

Session #16 (this past Friday) consisted of a few skirmishes with scouts of the pursuing draconians…



We won’t be playing again until 6 April (book club, again…) and by that time hopefully I’ll have sorted out where they’re actually supposed to be going…

Qualinost and Sla-Mori (with the not-so-big kids)

Back at the campaign with the kids last week. We covered a LOT of ground!

After the Ambush of the Slave Caravan, the heroes gathered their equipment and fled into the woods with the Elves. Through the night they were pursued by Orcs and Goblins and Draconians. By morning (of Day 11) their pursuers had given up or had been picked off by Elves that had laid behind in ambush.

They marched on through the day and and made camp at a great waterfall. The next day (Day12) took them to the Elvish capitol of Qualinost where they met the Speaker of the Suns. They spent the rest of the day recovering and healing.

The next day (Day13) They met again with the Speaker of the Suns in a great council and were charged with going to Pax Tharkas to free the prisoners and create a distraction by leading the dragons armies off in a wild goose chase after them, to give the Elves some time to pack up and flee Qualinost!?

The following day (Day14) they headed off on their quest. Along the way they came across the scene of a recent battle and were ambushed by some Draconians!


The Draconians were quickly dispatched. Among the dead they found a sole survivor who decided to tag along with the group.

In the late afternoon they came to the valley leading to Pax tharkas and as they looked on a massive Dragon Army marched out from it’s gates. After the army had passed they snuck past the valley and into the next vale following an old stream up to the hidden entrance – The Sla Mori or “Secret Way”. Entering under cover of night they decided to camp out just within the entrance.

The next day (Day 15) they delved deep into the mountainside. Whenthey came to the first crossroads there was some dissent among some of the group as to which way to go. In the end most decided to head on straight into the mountain, but Christopher insisted that Gilthanas would want to go the other way and so the group was split. AS it was only one character (and an NPC) I decided to just take Gilthanas and they rest of the group went on without him.

They entered the tomb of Kith-Kanan and found his ancient blade: Wyrmslayer. Christopher quickly snatched that up for Sturm Brightblade, but I thought afterwards I probably should not let Sturm have the sword – he is a Knight of Solamnia, not a Grave Robber. He would not raid the tombs of the honoured dead and steal their sacred swords!

Passing through the corridor that led out of the room they entered a hall that was blocked with rubble – the far end of the hall had collapsed long ago. Before they could investigate and see if they could find a way through they were attacked by


A GIANT SLUG!!!

This was pretty quickly taken care of and we called it a day.

This week Bruce and his kids were at book club so Christopher came over and we played a separate Savage Worlds game (which I will chronicle as some point) and played a bit of Hordes of the Things. Hopefully next week we’ll be back to our Dragonlance Saga!

Kids Savage Worlds DargonLance Campaign Update

I’ve been remiss in updating these campaign sessions… so here is a quick update of the last three sessions:

THE DRAGON

In Session 9, after about three months of playing we found ourselves at the afternoon at the fourth day after the adventure began… Oi!? Anyway… They found and confronted the dragon!


Bursting into the Dragon’s Lair! Huzzah!


No messing about – they charged in and tried to do battle (not realizing the utter hoplesness of doing so)

As per the adventure plot Goldmoon (at the bidding of Mishakels ethereal voice) strode forth and struck the dragon with the Blue Crystal Staff and they both disappeared in flash of blinding light.


I took a picture of it… it was a damage roll… I can’t remember exactly what it was for… I think it was for Sturm Brightblade, who was hit by a falling stone as the cavern began to collapse around them. I said he was buried under a pile of stone – to prevent them from trying to save his very dead butt (following the suggestion of “obscure deaths” written right into the book). Sturm has been a favourite of Finnegan’s and a few tears were shed… but I tried to keep things moving along…


They decided to try and take the “elevator” back up but found a few draconians at the base and had to fight them amidst the falling rocks…

They eventually made it up and found Goldmoon AND Sturm at the base of Mishakels statue in the temple above! Huzzah! Everyone escaped before the whole mess burned down, fell over, and sank into the swamp creating some very good foundations for further construction, methinks!)

BACK TO SOLACE (one way or another...)

In Session 10 the group hiked out of the swamp and over the hills and started to make their way back across the plains toward Solace. The passed the ruins of Que-Shu and debated whether to carry on to Solace or follow the tracks heading south. Eventually it was decided to head to Solace first.

At Que-Kiri, along the way, they ran into some trouble…


They ran into a new kind of draconian (that melted into a puddle of acid when they were killed) and were beaten down quite fiercely and ultimately captured. They were chucked into a cage on the back of a wagon and hauled over the pass to Solace – which they found to be in utter ruins!

THE CARAVAN

In Session 11 we were joined by our neighbors - Shawn and his son Christopher (who have also decided to start homeschooling). Shawn took over playing Riverwind, and Christopher took over playing Sturm Brightblade. Finnegan is still playing Flint Fireforge, Keira is still playing Tasslehoff, V. is still playing Tanis and Caramon, C. is still playing Goldmoon, but also took on playing Tika Waylan (Who was also thrown into the cage with them when they reached Solace), and Bruce is still playing Raistlin.

Everyone was in a pretty bad way – from the beat down in the previous session. So I made the caravan go a bit slower than suggested in the book (which was probably a more realistic speed for traveling though mountain passes!) to give Goldmoon a few days to try and heal people up.

As the caravan passed by the Qualinesti Wood they were ambushed by Elves!


This was a bit of an epic battle and we ended up running out of time before the battle was truly concluded… but in the end good triumphed over evil and our heroes escaped into the woods with the Elves. Huzzah!

This week we were to forge ahead, but Bruce and co. never showed. So I started a new side-campaign for Christopher, Finnegan and Keira – more on that in a bit!