Dungeon Fantasy Nordlond #23: “The Last”

Old enemies, and then even older enemies. “We’re not all elves, buddy!” Zen archery. Octopus air support. A reminder of the other uses of a harp-bow. Tactics and trickery. A sunbolt that was visible from space. Old friends, badly singed. Last minute wizardry from an unexpected source. All good things. Requiescat in pace.

Spoiler Warning: The campaign (which started here; the whole saga can be found here) is set in Nordlond, Gaming Ballistic‘s Norse-themed campaign setting. Today’s session carries on with a scenario taken from GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Adventure 4: Two-Page Dungeons, from Steve Jackson Games’ GURPS 2021 PDF Challenge Kickstarter, but with some tweaks. Nevertheless, beware spoilers!

Dungeon Fantasy Nordlond #20: “Maybe we should have done more prep work…”

In which our heroes get to the bottom of things – or, at least, the bottom of the castle. Some remarks on how an evil mastermind must occasionally put the cart before the horse. Echoes of Timmy, long gone but never forgotten. A battle years in the making. “You’ve got to expect that kind of thing from a bard.”

Spoiler Warning: The campaign (which started here) is set in Nordlond, Gaming Ballistic‘s Norse-themed campaign setting. This session’s events came mostly from The Dragons of Rosgarth. A lot of the pieces have been moved around, but there’s still plenty of spoilers. Beware!

Dungeon Fantasy Nordlond #15: “Darkness Falls”

In which our heroes journey deep into the Dragongrounds on a quest directed by a goddess. On the merits of using both carrot and stick when dealing with bandits. Seeing the sights, and the dangers of seeing too much of some sites. Deadly encounters, both large and small. Loyalty and courage, both put to the test; some pass, some fail.

Spoiler Warning: The campaign (beginning here) is set in Nordlond, Gaming Ballistic‘s Norse-themed campaign setting. This session has the party starting on the previously-forshadowed events of The Dragons of Rosgarth.

Dungeon Fantasy Nordlond #14: “… Where Draugr Fear To Tread”

We had nearly a full house, this session, with just one player missing. A few of us were feeling a little under the weather, so it was a short-ish session, but we were able to finish the fight from last time and get a good sense of direction for the next quest.

Spoiler Warning: The campaign (beginning here) is set in Nordlond, Gaming Ballistic‘s Norse-themed campaign setting. This session, as well as last, began as an encounter from Forest’s End pulled from its original context.

Dungeon Fantasy Nordlond #13: “Knights Rush In…”

This month, we managed to get nearly the whole gang together… and in light of the party’s expectation of a hard fight this session, Blixa’s player, who could not attend, extended “assistant puppeteer” rights to The Kid’s player. This meant that we had all the PCs in the same place at the same time, for the first time in a long while!

Last session, I expressed some frustration at the technology, and a longing to return to physical maps and counters. Due to that frustration, since then, I’ve dedicated some time to changing the technology. We’ve abandoned Roll20, and switched over to FoundryVTT, using Chris Normand’s excellent system implementation, self-hosted. It was a good time for it, since the party was returning to a map they had already seen, one that was already prepared in Roll20. If the FoundryVTT version of the map was a failure, we could easily fall back to the old solution. As it happened, though, it turned out quite well! I hope to dig in to this subject further in the future, but all the tech is in service of the game, so first, here’s the synopsis of the session itself…

Spoiler Warning: The campaign (beginning here) is set in Nordlond, Gaming Ballistic‘s Norse-themed campaign setting. This session began as an encounter from Forest’s End pulled from its original context.

Dungeon Fantasy Nordlond #12: “Faeries Wear Boots. Delvers Loot Them.”

This session, we almost had a full house. Esen wasn’t able to attend, but we did get the triumphant return of Slingshot!

We’re still playing remotely. We had our share of the usual difficulties: bad connections, folks on mute without realizing it, all the usual. We persevered, but I’m really looking forward to leaving all the gee-whiz technology and getting back to five half-painted minis and a Lego minifig versus three pieces of folded cardboard and a handful of pennies.

Spoiler Warning: The campaign (starting here) is set in Nordlond, Gaming Ballistic‘s Norse-themed campaign setting. We started off with the Hall of Judgment and the campaign has included material from several other Nordlond books. Expect spoilers, but also expect deviations from the source material – I’m changing stuff as I go. In fact, this session was based around an encounter taken entirely out of context and repurposed from Forest’s End.

Dungeon Fantasy Nordlond #9: “Boo!”

This session, we were missing Blixa. Which was weird, because if this campaign were a movie from the early 1980’s, it would be called “Blixa The Destroyer” and Blaadao would be played by Mako.

Spoiler Warning: This session uses some leftover content from Hall of Judgment, the first adventure set in Nordlond, Gaming Ballistic‘s Norse-themed campaign setting. Not much in the way of spoilers, but if you’re a purist… Actually, no, upon review, there are some “forward-looking” spoilers for several other Nordlond books. I have a feeling (hope?) that from here on out, material from the whole collection is just going to start flowing together.

In Hindsight: Taking Down The Faerie Godmother

So after last session, the big question is: How exactly did our heroes survive that? One would think she would just turn them all into winged monkeys and continue on with her day. I was wondering, the players were wondering, and even Douglas Cole, the author himself, was wondering over at Gaming Ballistic.

So, let’s delve into that question with some of that 20/20 hindsight folks talk about…

Dungeon Fantasy Nordlond #6: “Just Bearly”

The group was quite a bit smaller this time around. We’re down three players from last time, with one long-term player withdrawing for personal reasons, one temporary sit-in who is no longer sitting in, and one player concentrating on homework.

Spoiler Warning: We’re working through the last bit of the second act of Hall of Judgement, the first adventure set in Nordlond, Gaming Ballistic‘s Norse-themed campaign setting. Here be spoilers! (And also stuff I’ve tweaked for my game, as well as several outright mistakes.)

This session found our heroes finishing up the last leg of the journey into the mountains and finally coming into the vicinity of the Hall, while finally coming face-to-face with a legendary adversary.

Dungeon Fantasy Nordlond #5: “Passing Scenery”

This session, we were down one regular player, but made up for it by including another one of the kids.

Spoiler Warning: We’re working our way through Hall of Judgement, the first adventure set in Nordlond, Gaming Ballistic‘s Norse-themed campaign setting. If you might find yourself playing this adventure, beware spoilers!