Howl and the Game Tournament

Part Two of Howl's Tales - an Amazing Tales adventure

After befriending Lucky Liam the leprechaun, Howl the white wolf and his new pal travel through the fairy wood, looking for food and gold.

They hear a banging noise ahead. Howl tries to sneak up on the source of the noise, but he only manages to frighten a fairy away. In his haste, the fairy drops a stack of flyers. Lucky Liam reads the notice to Howl.

By the Order of Queen Thomasina

A Games Tournament Shall Be Held

Today at Noon

At the Gleeful Glen

First Prize - 500 gold and a free lunch

"Five hundred gold!" exclaimed Liam.

"Free lunch!" exclaimed Howl.

They decided to try their luck at the tournament.

Arriving at the Gleeful Glen, they see colorful toadstools arranged throughout the clearing. Queen Thomasina is on a perch overlooking the scene. Fireflies are flitting throughout the glen, creating a dazzling light display.

At first, the crowd is scared of Howl, but he reassures the attendees with his friendly manner. The pair sign up and are assigned the same toadstool.

As they are waiting for the tournament to start, a smelly goblin enters the glen. The guards are ready to throw him out, but he issues a challenge.

"Five hunnerd gold sez that I win this tournament!" he bellows. Queen Thomasina nods her head. The organizers sign the goblin up, and assign him to Howl and Liam's toadstool.

The game of the day is Settlers of Catan. 

"Excellent!" thinks Howl. "My bargaining skills will really come in handy."

"Excellent!" thinks LIam. "My luck will help me win!"

Howl tries to engage the goblin in some uneven trades. "Three of his sheep for one of my logs. He's stupid enough to go for it!" thinks Howl. The goblin just laughs at Howl and proceeds to build cities with the cards he holds. Meanwhile, Liam mutters in frustration. Unluckily, he just can't get any useful cards. At the end the game, the goblin emerges victorious.

As Howl and Liam hang their heads dejectedly, the goblin dances upon the toadstool and crows about his success.

"The tournament is not yet over." Thomasina reminds him.

The goblin laughs. "'Tis in the bag! I'll even up the ante. The goblin's hoard, in exchange for yer kingdom!"

"Enough!" the queen scolds him. "Respect the game or you shall not be allowed to play."

This makes the goblin angry. "Not play?! Then I'll be takin' the winnings!" With that he leaps onto the prize table, grabs the gold and a picnic basket with the lunch, and scampers into the woods.

"Not the gold!" cries Liam

"Not the lunch!" cries Howl.

"Find him!" cries Queen Thomasina.

"With your nose for food and my sense for treasure, we should find him easily!" says Liam. Howl nods in agreement, and the pair chase after the goblin. They track him to a dark, desolate looking cave.

"Let me check it out first," announced Howl. Stealthily he creeps into the cave, following the goblin's scent. Suddenly, a swarm of goblins jump him and tie him up! He barely gets a howl out before he is dragged off!

Meanwhile, Liam is anxiously waiting at the cave mouth.

Notes

And thus ended our first session. It was made very interesting by our heroes' inability to make their rolls. For example, in the cave, Howl's stealth roll was a 2 on 2D6!

By the way, I changed the task resolution system to use 2D6. In standard Amazing Tales, players will roll a D6, D8 or D12, depending on their skill, with a target of 3+. I'm not fond of multiple types of dice so I use a straight 2D6 roll, with a target of 5, 6, or 7.

Howl Makes a Friend

Part One of Howl's Tales - an Amazing Tales Adventure.

Once upon a time, there was a friendly white wolf named Howl. He lived in the fairy forest ruled by the benevolent queen Thomasina. One day, Howl was walking through the woods, looking for some lunch, when he ran into a little man. At first the little man was frightened of Howl (who had big, scary looking teeth), but Howl reassured him and they became friends.

"I am very hungry and looking for something to eat. Do you know where I can find something?" asked Howl.

"Nay," said the little man. Actually, he was a leprechaun named Lucky Liam. "I am looking for some gold. Do you know where I can find some?" he added.

"Sorry, I don't." replied Howl. "Perhaps we can help each other look."

So the duo began walking through the woods together.

Notes
And thus begins an adventure using Amazing Tales (which I describe in a post on my other blog). I picked it up because I thought my wife would prefer it to the typical math-intensive RPG. She came up with our characters (she is playing Howl and I'm Liam) and the setting and things went on from there. It was a natural for the ruler to be named Thomasina. That's our cat's name and for years we've been jokingly saying that she is really a fairy princess.

Howl is a white wolf who is good at bargaining, stealth, howling beautifully, and making friends. Liam is a leprechaun who is lucky, is good at finding treasure, likes to drink, and can walk on rainbows.

Anyway, I will be continuing the narrative in later posts.

The Last Ring

A Khamen and Candorra Adventure
Based on the Three Rings (A Four Against Darkness module)

Our heroes, Khamen, Candorra, and Rikk the Ranger, have been searching the South Wood for the last of the three rings. They encountered a large cave and have decided to investigate it.

Map of the cave

The entrance (1) was empty. The party decided to turn right (west). In the adjoining room (2), our heroes ran into a party of goblins. They took one look at Rikk, who was renowned throughout the forest, and ran out the south door.

The party followed into the corridor (3). At the intersection stood a statue of an armed warrior. Intrigued, Rikk advanced towards it.

"Interesting," he said as he reached out to the stone figure.

"No!" warned Khamen, who rushed to stop Rikk.

But the ranger's finger made contact. Suddenly, the statue came to life and swung its sword at Rikk. With cat-like reflexes, the ranger ducked. The blade continued, and smashed into the advancing Khamen. He hit the floor, his ribs badly bruised.

Rikk wasted no time, and stabbed the statue. Candorra peppered it with arrows.

Enraged, the statue rushed forward at Candorra. Its swords grazed her but she drew her own blade and engaged the figure. Their swords clashed as they circled one another. On occasion, Candorra's sword flicked out, stabbing or slashing the statue. Finally, her blade penetrated to its very heart and it crashed to the ground.

As Candorra and Rikk surveyed the enemy, Khamen came up, rubbing his sore ribs. Gesticulating at Rikk, he gruffly commanded "Don't touch anything!" and then stomped down the corridor.

In adjoining rooms, the heroes scared off some rats (4) and dodged a spear trap (5).

In the next corridor (6), the party ran into a group of orcs. Candorra fireballed one and Rikk shot one with an arrow. In the ensuing melee, all the heroes were wounded, Candorra badly. Yet they managed to slay the enemy. Candorra had to use a heal.

After passing through an empty corridor (7), the party entered a cobweb filled room (8). Suddenly, a giant spider dropped on them from above. Khamen and Rikk wounded it, but it sank its fangs into Candorra. She could feel the venom coursing through her veins, weakening her. It then turned on Rikk and gashed him. Fortunately, he pulled free before it could inject any venom. Finally, Khamen got behind it and stabbed it dead.

Despite their wounds, the party continued on, dodging a spear trap (9) before confronting more orcs (10). Both Khamen and Rikk took wounds before the heroes finished off the orcs.

After backtracking, the party finally found the orc reaver boss (11). In a blink of an eye, Rikk loosed 2 arrows, which struck the reaver in the chest. It howled with pain, rushing at Rikk. Its twin blades both struck into the ranger. Khamen tried to assist but the reaver moved like lightning and also wounded him. Candorra attacked, scoring a couple of wounds on their enemy. The orc swung at Khamen but he managed to dodge.

Candorra stabbed the reaver again but her blade got stuck in its body yet it did not die. As Candorra struggled to free her blade, it turned on her and delivered a crushing blow. She fell to the floor. The orc stood over her, lifting its blade for a death strike. Candorra pulled out a dagger, rolled between the reaver's legs, and plunged her blade up into its groin. The stab cut open a blood vessel, and a shower of black viscous blood showered over her. The reaver stumbled and fell dead.

Rikk tended to Candorra's wounds while Khamen searched the reaver boss. In its pockets, he found the object of their quest - the last of the sacred rings!

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Days later, the party made its way from the forest and arrived at the abbey. The monks were ecstatic that the rings were back in their possession. They took care of the  heroes, using the power of the rings to heal their wounds.

"See Khamen," Candorra scolded him. 'Those aren't just some fancy jewelry we went after. Their powers provide aid to the community. We helped those people."

"Maybe." Khamen mumbled, unwilling to admit that he was wrong about accepting the quest. "But next time, don't volunteer!"