A Hot Time

Being the 2nd Part of Sir Rudy's Adventures

After defeating the evil wizard, Sir Rudy departed on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Oswald. Despite the delays arising from his garrulous companions, our hero led a group of pilgrims past scenes of battle and bandit-infested woods. At the shrine, Rudy's wounds were healed.

Refreshed, Sir Rudy continued his travels. He arrived at an inn where he hired a warrior named Mordret. From there, he was challenged by a recreant knight in black armor. Rudy defeated him relatively easily. The shaken knight fell to his knees and begged for quarter. Rudy relented, although he required the knight to deliver himself to King Arthur and pledge his fealty.

As he proceeded on his travels, Sir Rudy encountered a villages stricken by poverty or plague. Touched by their plight, Rudy tried to help. Alas, they were not sufficient to alleviate all the villages' needs. He also came down with the plague and took some time to recover. At least, Sir Rudy reflected, he was able to do a little to help. In another village, angry peasants challenged Sir Rudy. He gave them the Unicorn Horn and won their respect.

Rudy and his companions also faced deadly challenges. One night, three hell hounds attacked. Rudy was wounded but the heroes killed the beasts. Another time they were ambushed by bugbears. These too were defeated, although the enemy killed Rudy's retainer, Edric. Rudy and Mordret also ran afoul of 3 ogres, who wounded Mordret before they were slain.

But Sir Rudy's biggest challenge came one day when the heroes discovered a smoking cave. Rudy peered in then ducked away as a massive beast charged forth.

A dragon!

Rudy charged, skewering the beast with his lance. The lance broke and the dragon soared by, gashing Rudy with its talons. Again it swooped. Rudy ducked and slashed with his sword, wounding the beast again. This time the dragon opened its mouth and belched flames, which licked about Rudy. He could feel his armor heat up and his skin burn. Yet Rudy fought on, scoring another couple of hits. Blood gushed from the wounded beast. With its last reserves of strength it flew away in a panic.

Sir Rudy was disappointed that he could not finish off the spawn of Satan. Yet he rejoiced when he searched the lair. Amidst a pile of coins and jewels, he discovered a an exquisite, magical sword. Its marking revealed it to be the Sword of the Fisher King! Rudy also discovered a human tooth.When he picked it up, Rudy could feel a surge of holy power. Clearly it was a relic, perhaps the tooth of St. Oswald himself!

Sir Rudy was pleased with his successes. He could feel his prowess increasing. Yet he felt no nearer to the Holy Grail. Would he ever find it?

Find out in future episodes of Sir Rudy's Tale

Sinister Sorcery

Another Knight of Destiny Adventure
Part 1 of Sir Rudy's Quest

Sir Rudy is another knight of Arthur's court that has taken on the Quest for the Holy Grail.

As he wandered through the countryside, he comforted a mortally wounded paladin and defeated a band of vicious dwarves. He then found an inn where he hired a merchant named Edric to manage his supplies.

He was about to leave the inn when a young, crying maiden ran up to him. She told Rudy how an evil wizard, Laamorz, had holed up in a nearby tower and was demanding tribute from the village. She heard a rumor that the wizard wanted her as the next tribute!

Incensed, Rudy pledged to end the wizard's reign of terror. He rode to the tower where he confronted Laamorz. The wizard just scowled and then launched a fireball at him! Rudy blocked it with its shield and then rushed his enemy. He managed to get in a few strikes, none fatal. Laamorz retreated to his tower with Rudy in hot pursuit. A fireball struck the paladin; Rudy could feel his skin cooking with the heat, but he did not relent. At the top of the tower, Rudy cornered Laamorz. He offered the wizard a chance to yield, but the magician launched another fireball. Rudy charged and put an end to Laamorz.

Tentacle, Tentacle, Tentacle

The Conclusion of A Can of Worms - A Kate and Kip Adventure

Kate and Kip's ambush worked. They defeated the worms and were able to move deeper into the sewers.

Finally, deep in the heart of the sewers, they discovered a large tentacled creature protected by worms and a slime.

The worms rushed them and spewed acid. Kate and Kip dodged, then blasted the worms.

The slime came racing at them but Kip blasted it.

Our heroes began moving into the room. Kip shot the tentacled thing. It retaliated by spitting a gob of acid that hit Kate. She cried out in pain as acid burned her flesh.

Nevertheless, she moved forward to the railing. This time, the monster missed. The diversion gave Kip a chance to move behind some cover.

The thing turned its attention on Kip. Fortunately he found cover; the acid splashed against the barrel. Kip returned fire and seared the creature.

Kate found cover and fired. Her shot missed. The thing spat at Kip; once again the barrel protected him. His return shot was accurate, blasting into the thing and finally killing it.

With the tentacled thing's demise, Stargaze City has been saved!

Ambush!

Part 4 of A Can of Worms - A Kate and Kip Adventure

Driven back by a swarm of worms, Kate and Kip retreated to the pumping station and took up defensive positions. Given a brief respite, they treated their wounds, although Kate was still suffering.

One of the worms emerged. Kip missed but Kate blasted it!

A second emerged. This time Kip did not miss!

Then the third. Again, it was up to Kate to win the day!

The path is now open to the bowels of the sewers, wherein lays the heart of the mystery. What will they find there?

Tune in next time!

Dungeon of Deception

A Four Against Darkness Adventure

After receiving reports of monsters issuing from an abandoned dungeon, the Temple has sent a neophyte paladin, Brother Bargor, to investigate. With him is an elf warrior, Edenil, whose tribe has been terrorized by the marauders.

Brother Bargor is armed with light armor, a shield, and sword.
Edenil has light armor, a sword, and a bow. Illustrations of his adventures show him with a shield, but that is artistic license.

Game note - To simplify my record-keeping, I played with only 2 characters. To help matters, I gave Brother Bargor a Healing scroll.

Our heroes entered the dungeon and proceeded to explore the right fork. The first few rooms were empty.

Game note - I used miniatures to record my progress. The "finished" map is shown below.

An overview of the dungeon

In the fourth room (4) they ran into a troll. Edenil quickly dispatched it. In the next room they discovered a minotaur. It bellowed with rage and charged them. Edenil dodged but Bargor was impaled on one of the creatures horns. He recovered and plunged his sword into the beast. Edenil followed with a slashing attack that opened a large wound in the minotaur. It panicked and fled. In its lair, our heroes found a Blessing scroll and jewelry worth 70 gp. After the battle, Bargor felt that this experience taught him a lesson and made him a better fighter (he leveled up).

In subsequent rooms, they found more treasure. Then they ran into an ogre (10). They attacked. Edenil hit it but Bargor missed. Off balance, he was unable to avoid the ogre's massive club. The blow crushed a couple of ribs and knocked him aside. He quickly recovered, however, and struck a telling blow. Edenil also attacked and struck. Furious, the ogre swung at Bargor. He dodged but the ogre's backswing struck Edenil! Despite the pain, he counterattacked and scored another hit. The creature swung again; this time Bargor took the brunt of it. Bruised and battered by the ogre, our heroes realized they had little stamina left. If the fight continued, they would succumb. Mustering their last reserves of strength they rushed to attack. Both the bladed buried themselves deep into the ogre's flesh. It collapsed in a pool of blood.

For all that effort, they only found 4 gold on the monster. Fortunately, they were able to heal, and continue their exploration.

In subsequent room (11, 14) they encountered and defeated vampire frogs. They discovered a strange puzzle (12) but they did not feel like they could solve it so they left it alone. By this time, they (actually me) were weary of adventuring so they began to backtrack. They passed an empty room (15) then defeated goblin swarmlings (16) and orcs (17) before making their way out of the dungeon.

While they did not find the main villain terrorizing the countryside, they managed to wipe out some powerful monsters and find some "donations" for the Temple.

Creepy Crawly

Part 1 of the Search for Princess Zenobia
A Space Templar Adventure

Once again, Lord Malgore was up to his evil tricks. This time he captured Princess Zenobia of Vespa. She had been a leading voice on her planet for stronger ties with the Federation, putting a damper on Malgore's plans to create his own empire from the scattered systems of Fringe Space.

The Temple assigned our heroes, Rugen and his android sidekick TSD-95A ("Tee" for short), to search for and rescue the princess from Malgore's clutches.

The duo began their search on Vespa itself, a prosperous world in the heart of Fringe Space. They discovered the kidnappers former hideout. As they entered the building, they were attacked by a Protectron device, but were able to avoid harm and deactivate the security system. They found no clues at the hideout, but Vespian space traffic records were able to provide a suspected course for the escape ship.

Our heroes began following the trail. On a couple of different planets, they fell afoul of Imperial agents. Rugen was wounded but they learned that the kidnappers had previously had dealings with the Imperials. They felt they were hot on Malgore's trail!

Their clues led them to a seemingly deserted asteroid in an uninhabited system. Was there a secret base here? As they explored the surface, the planet's crust gave way, revealing a deep hole. Rugen began to fall but he grabbed the edge with his fingertips and managed to pull himself back up. Taking more care, they explored the gaping cavern and discovered a pocket of invaluable isotopium crystals. So that's why the criminals stopped here.

Next, Rugen and Tee tracked the kidnappers to another populated planet. As they were investigating another hideout, a large, many-legged vehicle rushed at them. It was a SPDR class battle walker! The walker began shooting laser bolts at them. Tee was hit, and the charge from the bolt shorted a number of his circuits. He fired back, damaged the craft. Rugen leapt upon it and thrust his laser sword into the vehicle's engine compartment. Flames and smoke began to issue from the walker. The pilot panicked and fled from the battle.

Once again, our heroes had defeated one of Malgore's minions, but where was Malgore and the Princess?

Tune in next time to find out!

Game Notes

• This is a new adventure for my Space Templar heroes, Rugen and Tee. I realize that I never finished their previous adventure, but I wanted to move on. I guess we can assume they survived their prior encounter.
• I'm playing this adventure using a variant of Ganesha Games' Four Against Darkness. I explain my tweaks on my Warwell's Wargames blog.

A Deadly Encounter

The Conclusion of Rowan's Quest

After defeating Agravaine, Owen assisted a wounded Sir Rowan to an inn, the Hungry Hare. Here, Rowan healed, hired another retainer (Harar the warrior), and learned more about the rebellion percolating in the land.

From the Hungry Hare, the party set out into the wilderness. They ran into a band of Pict raiders. The raiders surrounded the party and attacked. Rowan hacked and cleaved, cutting through the enemy. Alas, he was too late to help Owen, who fell to a Pictish blade. As Rowan buried his retainer, he wept for Owen's cruel fate. However, Rowan liberated an ornate box from the enemy. Within was a finger bone - clearly a relic! The raiders had probably stolen it from a nearby monastery.

Rowan and Harar rode until they came to another inn, the Friar's Rest. It was near the friary of St. Finieous, a local holy man from days of yore. After resting and healing, Rowan journeyed to the friary to return the relic. When he arrived he saw that the friars were burying some of their members and repairing buildings. Clearly the work of raiders. The friars were delighted that Rowan had the relic, which he learned was the finger of St. Finieous himself! The friars urged him to stay for the night. During dinner, Rowan mentioned that he was questing for the Holy Grail. When they heard, the friars decided to assist him in his quest by lending him St. Finieous's Finger.

Game note - I embellished the account greatly. Once I rolled up a relic as treasure, the story of the plundered friary leapt into my mind. When I rolled an inn for the next encounter, I knew it was the perfect way to introduce the friary. Ironically, the inn's name (Friar's Rest) was rolled randomly from the tables in KOD.

After their respite at St. Finieous's, Rowan and Harar continued their travels, undergoing a pilgrimage and finding more signs of rebellion along the way. Eventually, Rowan could no longer pay Harar, who went his own way. Thus, Rowan was alone when he faced his next challenge.

He was riding along when suddenly he was struck by a spear and knocked from his horse. He staggered back up, drew his sword, and assumed a defensive stance. He turned around and around, but could not spot his assailant.

"Who goes there who so uncouthly strikes an unaware knight?" Rowan challenged.

From behind him, very near by, he heard the sound of laughter.

""Tis I, Sir Garlon," a disembodied voice stated.

"Where? I see you not."

"Here, behind you!"

Rowan turned, only to be struck from the side by an unseen attacker.

"Or is it from here?"

Again, Rowan was struck. He realized that his opponent was invisible so he began watching the ground. He could see the grass and dirt disturbed by the passage of his foe. Using this knowledge, Rowan swung where he expected the enemy to be. He connected, and Garlon fell to the ground. Rowan followed up and began smacking the recreant knight. Garlon regained his feet. Now the two knights began battering each other. Soon, Rowan could hear the panting breath of his enemy. But blood was streaming from numerous wounds in his body, and his strength was leaving him.

Rowan figured that if he could get in 1 or 2 more good blows, he could possibly force his opponent to yield. With great exertion, he charged. Garlon sidestepped and tripped Rowan, who fell to the ground. Now, Garlon rushed to his fallen foe and began pummeling him. With Rowan nearly senseless, Garlon flipped him over and thrust a sword into a chink in Rowan's armor.

Thus fell one of the Grail Knights. R.I.P. Sir Rowan.

Finis

Game note - Ow, that was painful. For a while, that battle between Rowan and Garlon was even. With Garlon's poor morale, I hoped to force him to yield. However, Rowan started rolling poorly on defense went a number of rounds in a row where he missed Garlon but was wounded in return. Finally, it was too much and Rowan died. :(