Kickstarter for Ingenium Second Edition - Epic Fantasy RPG

There is a Kickstarter for the Ingenium Second Edition from Silver Gryphon games.  I am a backer and I own the 1st Edition rules.  It is is a pretty cool system but time is running out for the second edition to get funded.  I just wanted to do my part to promote it.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/38245749/ingenium-second-edition-epic-fantasy-rpg

Crypts and Things: The Angel's Wings and the Angel's Sword.

It has been a long time since I posted anything and it has been even longer than that since this group played this.  I don’t think that anyone really follows this blog but if there are a few people that do, I do apologize for my long absence.  I can’t really remember specifics but I can still put together a general overview of what happened.

The Setup

Exploring the caverns of the Valley of the Forgotten Gods

Our not so noble band of adventurers and henchmen descended into the Valley of the Forgotten Gods.  In the center of the valley were a number of stone pillars in a circular formation.  Among the stone pillars were more of the dreaded Golgoth .  The party engaged the demon knights and defeated them.  From there, they explored the caves.  In the caves they found two pairs of keys, battled a mummy that nearly killed Torvir, a portal that a hydra stepped out from (they ran) and an altar with two key holes.  While battling the mummy, Torvir was nearly killed and infected with mummy rot.  It didn’t help that Motard the some of the men at arms set him on fire with Molotov cocktails.  Granted, they were aiming for the mummy but he wasn’t exactly pleased.  Luckily for Torvir, Zardoz had memorized remove disease on him to get the mummy rot off of him. Torvir really become the party punching bag while they explored the caverns of the Valley.  It was he that got “volunteered” to go back into the cave with the summoned hydra.

Torvir getting his ass beat

Retreat and use fire!

Debacle 

  Armed with arrows tipped with scorpion poison, Torvir entered the cave and drew the hydra out.  Fortunately for him, the hydra died with one of the first arrows.  As soon the hydra had been dispatched, Zardoz dispelled the mass invisibility spell that he had running to reveal that the entire party had been there to back him up all along (Although no one had bothered to help out at all.  Motard could have thrown an axe or the henchmen could have fired their bows or Zardoz could have used his sling but I guess that Zardoz had to enjoy his petty torments.Hell, I enjoyed them too.)  With the hydra dead, the party was free to explore the rest of the cave.  In the room where the hydra had first appeared, they found a large pair of feathered wings…..

The last cave

I found the hydra guys!

I'm bad!  Hell yeah!

With the wings now collected, the party decided to use the two keys that they found on the altar.  Upon doing so, the far wall disappeared, revealing a long corridor which ended at an ornate door.  Cautiously, the group approached the door and eventually opened it.  Behind the door was a red stone room.  Motard and Torvir entered to find the sword….

The Door of Death and Doom!

Suddenly, a beast of myth and legend appeared:  A dragon.  Zardoz stuck with spells, the men at arms fired their bows and Motard and Torvir attacked with axe and sword.  The dragon unleashed a cone of fiery death down the hall.  Torvir and all of the men at arms screamed and died.

Oh sh*t!  

Everyone but Motard and Zardoz are toast

Both Zardoz and Motard were seriously injured.  Zardoz fled.  Motard, in a desperate moved, grabbed the Sword of the Green dragon from the charred hand of Torvir, hopping that the swords deadly poison would help him slay the beast even though the poison was a threat to him as well.  Motard struck a mighty blow with both hands.  The sword wound and the poison was enough to put down the beast.

As the dragon died, its body disappeared in a puff of smoke and Motard was shocked as Torvir and the men at arms started to get up, their wounds from the dragon’s breath.  Zardoz determined that the dragon, and the damage that it had inflicted, had been the result of powerful illusion.  (OK.  I know it was kind of a cop out to bring Torvir and the henchmen back but there was only one adventure left in the campaign and believe me, I was not going to hold back in that.  I just seemed pointless to have Torvir roll up a new character for one last game.  Some purists may call me on it but I wanted story continuity.)

It was just an illusion.

In  the center of the room, there was a large sword:  The Sword of the Angel.  Our band of anti-heroes now had everything that they needed for the white wizard Yazd to summon the Angel of Oblivion in the coming battle with Ragnor the demi-god and his undead and demonic horde.  Now if they could just get back to City of Zul-Bazzir in time….

Next time, the final chapter and the end of the campaign:  The battle of Zul-Bazzir as our “heroes” battle Ragnor and his monstrous horde.

Crypts and Things: Chimera attack and Motard the Barbarian's Homecoming.

Zardoz, Torvir, Nivhaca and Fenngar and their retainers headed to the the mountains to seek the Valley of the Forgotten Gods were supposedly the artifacts that were necessary to summon the Angel of Oblivion could be found.  Along the way, their expedition was attacked by a Chimera.

The Chimera swoops in to attack!

The beast is slain but at a cost.

The beast was slain but not before it killed one of the men at arms.  

Later on the trip, the expedition was attacked by mysterious warrior decked out in ornate plate mail, wielding two handed swords.  At first, the warriors appeared to be human, but up close, their glowing red eyes, fangs, horns and green skin showed that they were not.  Zardoz recognized them as outsider race called the Golgoth, also know as Demon Knights. Fighting together as a group, the Demon Knights were defeated.

The Demon Knights attack!

The Battle wraps up.

In the mean time, Motard arrived at his home village to find his tribe in turmoil.  The Chieftain of Bear Clan tribe had fallen under the sway of strangers and the tribal champion had been slain and new champion, one in league with the newly arrived outlanders, had been crowned.  Moreover, the Chieftain now wanted to have Motard’s tribe attack the city of Zul-Bazzir and to join forces with the monstrous army of Ragnor, the living god.  Motard left his parent’s yurt and made his way to the Chieftain’s Hall.

Upon arriving at the Chieftain’s Hall, Motard found his tribal leader with a glassy look in his eyes as one of the robed fanatic priests of Ragnor held sway over him.  Along with the priest, a mysterious cloaked figure was alongside the Chieftain.   The cloaked figure was identified to Motard and Fenngar as the new champion.  Motard immediately challenged him.  The priest hissed that the challenge was accepted.  A circle was formed and the fight was to begin.  The cloaked figure removed his cloak to reveal the identity of the new champion:  Darius Khas!

Motard and Darius Khas square off in fight to the death.

 With the pained look of madness in his eyes, Darius drew his twin longswords and moved to attack.  Motard let out a battle cry and charged.  Eying the priest, Fenngar moved to take out the foul priest.

Motard and Darius Khas clash once again.

Although Motard was seriously injured, he managed to defeat Darius Khas, unlike the last time where Darius would have killed Motard had it not been for the assistance of Motard’s companions.  Once again, Darius' body dissolves into the mist. Motard is sure that he has not seen the last of Darius Khas.  During the fight, Fenngar moved in and slew the priest of Ragnor, breaking the spell that the priest had placed over Motard’s Chieftain.

Motard defeats Darius Khas while Fenngar avoids the Chieftain's body guard and kills the priest of Ragnor 

With Motard as the new tribal champion and the Chieftain happy to be free from the spell of the followers of Ragnor and being hungry for revenge, it was agreed  that the Bear clan tribe would move south with their allies to defend the City of Zul-Bazzir.  As the tribes made ready for war, Motard and Fenngar rode south to the Valley of the Forgotten Gods to join up with Zardoz and his expedition.   Sadly, Fenngar got lost in the wilderness, never to be seen again but Motard arrived just in time to join Zardoz and the others as they entered the Valley of the Forgotten Gods.

Next time, the quest for the Angel's Wings and the Angel's Sword.

Crypts and Things: Minotaurs in the Street! An Invading Army! A New Quest!

Zardoz was in the thick of the fight when he stuck by arrow and fell the ground unconscious for the arrow had been laced with a strong sleep poison.  When he came to, he found himself in the caverns beneath the city surrounded by serpent men and Aetius.

Aetius informed Zardoz that he had nothing to fear from them…for now.  The Serpent men did not want the city of Zul-Bazzir destroyed any more than he did.   He warned Zardoz that Ragnor, the living god, would now strike against the city, now that it had been devastated by the Red Zombie Plague.  Zardoz noticed that Aetius still worn the crown that he had seen in the drawings in the temple of the serpent god.  Aetius explained to him that the crown had transformed him from a human to a serpent man over a period of years.  He also told him that he and his serpent brethren would be waiting in the shadows.  Suddenly a gas cloud appeared around Zardoz and he once again found himself in darkness.  He awoke to find himself back in the streets of the city.  He quickly went forth to find his companions.

Zardoz told the other party members of his meeting with the now serpent man Aetius.  He also contacted the now awake Yazd and consulted with him conducting the ceremony for summoning the Angel of Oblivion if the forces of Ragnor the living god should breach the wall.  Yazd also began to create walls of thorns around the city to make it harder for Ragnor’s land forces to reach the city.  Everyone else began organizing the defense of the city with Thayne Blackblade and them men still under his command.  Zardoz then decided that it was time to unlock the mysteries of the Horn of Bull God to find out if it would be of any use in the coming conflict.

Zardoz, Motard, Torvir, Fenngar, the vile and evil female sorcerer Nivhaca, along with Zardoz’s henchmen, found an abandoned section of the city and got on a roof top and blew the horn.  There as a brief flash and the street below was filled with Minotaurs.  The Minotaurs attacked immediately.

The battle was relatively brief and the Minotaurs were dispatched (one was actually polymorphed into a horse by Nivhaca) but there was one thing that Zardoz noticed: The Minotaurs would not attack Torvir, who wore a Bull God ring and was a member of the Cult of the Bull God….

Through experimentation in the catacombs beneath the city, Zardoz determined that wearing the ring was not enough:  The Minotaurs that were summoned by the Horn would not attack someone if they wore one of the rings of the Bull God and if they had gone through the initiation ceremony to become full members of the Cult of the Bull God.  The experiments resulted in the deaths of a number of slaves and also introduced a large number of Minotaurs to the environment of the city’s catacombs.  Dealing with them would have to wait for now for a small army was spotted heading towards the city.

The new leaders of the city of Zul-Bazzir approached the oncoming army, surrounded by as many heavily armed warriors as they could find.  As it turned out, this was a group of mercenaries that had fled the city of blank in disgust, no longer willing to work for Ragnor, the self-proclaimed living god for any price.  A price was quickly negotiated and terms were reached and the mercenary army joined in the defense of the city.  It was at this time that Zardoz noticed that a number of the mercenaries, including their commander, wore the same ring as Torvir did.  If anything were to happen to Torvir, there would be others that also blow the Horn of the Bull God.

After the negotiations with the mercenaries were complete, Yazd informed Zardoz the in order to complete the ritual to summon the Angel of Oblivion, they would need two artifacts:  The Angel’s Wings and the Sword of the Angel.  In his research with an ancient book, Yazd had found a map that marked the location of an abandoned temple in the mountains know as Valley of the Forgotten Gods.  If the map and the ancient manuscript were to believed, both the Wings and the Sword would be found there.

Despite the addition of the mercenaries, the city was still lacking numbers for an effective defense of the city.  Motard agreed to travel north to attempt to recruit some of the rugged tribes of his homeland.  Fenngar went with him as well.  They left the city on the fastest horses that they could find.  After attempting to recruit more allies, they would join up with Zardoz and his expedition at the abandoned temple.  With Motard and Fenngar on their own quest, Zardoz, Torvir, and Nivhaca sent out to find the artifacts that were necessary to summon the Angel of Oblivion.

Crypts and Things: Red Plague

Outside the city, Zardoz quickly organized a group of the city guards and a number of the city’s more capable refuges, joining them to his two members of the Eagle Claw clan of nomads and went back into the city with the purpose of re-claiming it from the hordes of undead, cultists, necromancers and wizard priests in the service of Ragnor, the demi-god ruler of the other city that had invaded his home.  Motard, Torvir, Fenngar, a warrior that fought with two short swords and a witch joined them.  The first place that Zardoz targeted was the home of the Slave master Aetius who had apparently betrayed the party by vouching for Belcore who turned out to be a disguised serpent man and who attempted to offer of the “heroes” as sacrifices to the ancient Serpent god Yigthrahotep.

Zombies!

Fighting zombie in the street

Taking the streets back

After fighting their way through the streets, Zardoz’s small army came upon the mansion of Aetius.  The mansion had been turned into a fortress by Aetius’s right hand man, a warrior known as Thayne Blackblade, a man armed with a magical sword made of black steel who had a reputation as the most deadly swordsman in the city. The mansion was one of the few areas of the city to hold out against the undead onslaught.  After a brief discussion, Zardoz and the characters, along with a number of their henchmen and nomad allies, entered the mansion.

Thayne informed the party that Aetius had been missing for over two weeks.  He also admitted that his long time employer and friend had been acting strangely for even longer.   With Aetius out of the picture, Thayne opened Aetius’ vault of magical items and handed over the sword of the green dragon to the party which Torvir wielded.  His intent was to use all means necessary to cleanse the city of its undead infestation.  Thayne warned Torvir character that the magical blade, much like the black steel blade that he wielded, almost certainly carried a heavy price.  Torvir would find out later…

The small army, now re-enforced by guards from Aetius’s mansion, now set out back in the city. Their first target was Zardoz’s whorehouse in the foreign district.  Zardoz wanted to make sure that his investment was intact and they would clear out any undead that found along the way.

By nightfall, the combined adventurer\nomad\guard army reached the brothel, killing and burning any zombie that they came across.  Zardoz’s brothel had weathered the undead plague rather well.  Many of the clientele were hardy adventurer types that had quickly barricaded the brothel, turning it into a heavily armed fortress that also acted as a place of safety in a city overrun by zombies.  A large defensive parameter was setup for the night and the many of the party took advantage of the “gifts” offered by the brothel’s grateful employees.   In the morning, a number of the patrons joined the small army and joined the effort to reclaim the city.
The party then made their way to home of Yazd, the white mage and healer.  There were rumors that his home had held out against the hordes of zombies that were wandering around the city.  Upon approaching the home of Yazd., the group observed that the undead did not even appear to approach the house, as if an invisible barrier had been set up.  After destroying all of the zombies in immediate vicinity, the party knocked on the door.

The man that opened the door looked like a younger version of Yazd, as well as a number of children and refugees that had sought shelter in the home of the white mage.  The young man introduced himself as Yazd’s son.  Most of the children where the Yazd’s grandchildren.  He told them that his father had cast a protection spell around the home but the task had been a tasking one and it had left Yazd in coma that for once, was no induced by his opium habit.   Realizing that Yazd would be of no help at this point, they party moved on to their home, the House of the Dragon.

As the party approached the House of the Dragon, the party was attacked by three deadly insect swarms.  These insect swarms were demonic in nature and three henchmen died horribly as they were torn to pieces. Despite the loss, the swarms were defeated and the group of adventurers entered the once grand mansion.
All of the guards that had been left behind to guard the mansion had been slain but not by zombies.  They had been killed by someone wielding a sword.  Whoever had killed the guards that he had left behind had also opened his basement laboratory.  Apparently, something large had used the zombie corpse of the captured necromancer that Zardoz had experimented as an anchor to gate in the basement.  From the basement of the House of the Dragon, the plague Red Plague of undeath was unleashed upon the city.
According to reports, the zombies had taken over ruling palace at the center of the city.  There were also reports of other things, things far worse than zombies that had taken the palace.  With most of the city retaken, and believing that Ragnor himself was currently at the central palace, Zardoz commanded his small army to attack the palace.  Zardoz would command the Eagle Claw nomads while Motard, Torvir and Fenngar would attack on the opposite of the wall.

Upon climbing the wall, Motard and company, including fifteen henchmen, encountered zombies, necromancers, priests of Ragnor and a large demon.

Taking the wall

The Plague Demon and his Zombies

Demon with Wizard Priest of Ragnor!

Motard fighting to get to the Demon

The Demon Falls

Fireball!

Swords flashed, arrows were fired, and fireballs cast.  In the end, all fifteen of the henchmen were killed as the fireballs cast by the priests of Ragnor inflicted heavy losses upon the player character’s forces.  Motard, due to the mark of the dark elder gods that was placed upon him all though years ago when the attempt to sacrifice him as a infant was stopped by his father and other members of his tribe, was able to harm the demon.   Torvir was also able to harm the demon with the blade of the Green Dragon but when he used it, he found the side effect of using the blade: Every blow he struck would release a cloud of poisonous gas in twenty foot radius.  While the demon was immune to the poison, neither he nor Motard were and both men were lucky to survive the encounter. Despite the poisonous cloud, the demon was slain but the remaining characters were exhausted and wounded.  Suddenly, a winged being appeared above the party and everyone was healed.  Apparently Yazd had woken from his comma.


The characters then spotted a covered litter being carried by zombies.  Over twenty Eagle nomads charged it but a blast of greenish energy slew them all. Despite the danger, Motard, Torvir and Fenngar all attacked. What they found in the litter was a Crypt Fiend a deadly and powerful undead monstrosity.

What is hiding in the Litter

Crypt Fiend raises the fallen henchmen as zombies!

The Crypt Fiend Falls!

The three warriors managed to slay it and with that, the rest of the resistance fell apart.  That battle was won but at a heavy cost.  Most of the rulers of the city were dead, among them Grey Eyes whose zombized corpse had been put down.  Of the two hundred Eagle Claw nomads, only around fifty remained.  The city would be ripe for invasion.  Also, Zardoz was missing…..

God, I want to run another Beasts and Barbarians game

Last Saturday, I was at my monthly Pathfinder game where we playing the Carrion Crown Adventure Path. Not that it is remotely relevant to this blog but I play a Paladin named Vors.  Anyway, two of the players in the group, Chris and Amy, are a married couple that were in my Beasts and Barbarians game.  I was talking to Amy and we both agreed that we both missed her character Hawk, the Amazon warrior that slew the only man that she felt was worthy of sharing her bed.  It got me reading the Beasts and Barbarians supplement Beasts of the Dominions.  Good stuff.  Hopefully, in the not to distant future, I can return the land of the Dread Domains and I write of the adventures of Hawk and Sylyph once again.

Crypts and Things: The Temple of the Serpent

With Ludaius no longer possessed by the shade of Ikhtanabu Xu, things return to “normal” in the city of Zul-Bazzir.  Motard the northern barbarian and the warrior Ludaius turned to drinking and whoring while Zardoz continued his experiments on the necromancer that had been captured by party on their return trip from the Temple of the Bull God. Zardoz had seen the necromancer slay one of his trusted henchmen Chellick with just a touch.  Removing the necromancer’s hand, Zardoz was determined to use it to create a magical rod or wand that was capable of duplicating the “death touch”.

One day, Zardoz went to down to experiment further on the necromancer only to find that he had died in the night.  Not considering that death would prevent him from learning more from the necromancer, he kept the body.  By the end of the day, the body had re-animated as a zombie with red boils and red patches on his skin.  Still not deterred by this (rather, he was intrigued) Zardoz keep the zombie tied down to slab in his lab for further experiments.

Soon, the party was contacted by the merchant Belcore, a man known to the party as an associate of the group’s occasional patron and ally Aetius, the master Slaver of Zul-Bazzir.  Belcore offered the party a very large sum of gold if they would accompany him on an expedition to the southern deserts in search of a forgotten temple to a god known as Yigthrahotep.  The offer being far too much gold to turn down, the party readily agreed, despite the fact that they had been unable to speak with Aetius regarding Belcore.  According to Thayne Darkblade, Aetius’ captain of the guard and right hand man, Aetius was unavailable and he was uncertain as to when that may change. Motard, Ludaius, Zardoz and his henchmen assembled horses, wagons and supplies and headed south, with a new hire, the “scout” Torvir, who had been recruited by Motard.

Realizing how dangerous the zombie necromancer would be if he were to escape, before leaving, Zardoz placed wards over his laboratory and left a number of heavily armed guards back in the House of the Dragon with strict instructions not to enter the laboratory under any circumstances.  Nor were they to allow anyone to enter the laboratory either.

After traveling south for some time, the group arrived at a water well and oasis.  While there, they party also broke bread with nomads from the Eagle Claw clan.  While they were eating with the nomads, the group was attacked by a number of giant scorpions.  The party and nomads fought off the scorpions but not before Zardoz’s henchmen Seth was struck down by the poisonous sting of one of the scorpions.  Only the intervention of the nomads saved Seth from dying from the toxins.  Having fought together and shared salt and bread, the party forged a blood alliance with the Eagle Claw clan. The enemies of the party were the enemies of the Eagle Claw and vice versa.  With Seth still disabled by the scorpion poison, the party left him with their new allies and continued south.

Scorpions Attack!

Following Belcore’s map, the party arrived at a cave opening in the side of a cliff.  Motard scouted around and discovered that there were fresh prints leading in and out of the cave entrance.  Judging from the prints, the creatures living in the cave were some kind of large ape.  The party took positions and watched the cave from the bushes.  They waited all night but in the early morning, they watched as a group of large apes left the cave, obviously to hunt.  The characters then setup an ambush in anticipation of the apes return.
The apes returned carrying the corpses of deer and antelope and party sprang their ambush.  Motard charged in with his axe while everyone else unleashed a barrage of arrows and crossbow bolts.  (Ranged attacks are not Motard’s style.)  The Apes were dispatched with relative ease and the party entered the cave.

On the first level, the party discovered that the cave was indeed an ancient temple.  The walls of the temple had pictures that depicted hordes of apes and primitive humans bowing down to images of serpents and humanoid serpent beings.  There were stairs leading down on the far end of the temple and in the center of the main room, there were vines hanging down that lead into a chamber above.  A group of apes jumped out from the vines and attacked.  After a brief fight, the apes were dispatched.

Motard and Talos climbed up the vines and could hear that there were indeed more apes in the chamber above and quietly climbed back down.  Deciding not to climb the vines, party took the stairs, descending further into the temple.

Deeper in to the temple, the motif of serpent worship continued.  Zardoz noticed that many of the pictures of the humanoid serpents showed the serpent men as wearing crowns.  He remembered that he had seen a crown like that before….on the head of Aetius, slave master of Zul-Bazzir….

Using hammers, the character broke through a wall into a burial chamber that was guarded by a number of animated human skeletons. These were also easily defeated and the party found itself in a altar room filled with gold artifacts.  As the party ran down to gather the massive amount of treasure, Belcore went to the altar, turned to party with his hands held up high and spoke.   “Oh, great Yigthrahotep, I have come to awaken you from your slumber and release you from centuries of imprisonment! I now offer you these humans as a celebration of your freedom!” From the altar rose giant serpent with dazzling eyes and humanoid arms with a scimitar in each hand.

Yigthrahotep Rises!

Never truly trusting Belcore, Zardoz had his men immediately open fire on the Belcore while Motard and Ludaius attacked Belcore’s flank.  Before Belcore could unleash his fowl magic upon the party he was slain and his true form reveled.  Belcore was a serpent man!  The party then turned its attention to the newly risen Yigthrahotep.  Yigthrahotep was nearly defeated when he unleashed his hypnotic gaze at the party.  Although Zardoz, Motard and Ludaius resisted the gaze, Torvir and all of the henchmen did not and they immediately turned on the characters.

Belcore assumes his true form in death

His spells exhausted and after being stuck by a number of arrows, Zardoz fled the temple, leaving Motard and Ludaius to their fates.   Yigthrahotep slew Ludaius but the badly wounded Motard managed to kill Yigthrahotep, breaking the hypnotic spell that had taken over Torvir and the henchmen.  The survivors gathered up their much deserved gold and left the temple.

Zardoz did not wait around to see what happened to his companions and fled with all the horses that he could.  Eventually, he allowed the rest of the group to catch up.  They had the treasure after all.  Fully believing that they had been betrayed by Aetius, Zardoz vowed vengeance.

Upon arriving at the Eagle Claw camp, Zardoz immediately began recruiting as many of the nomads to return to the city of Zul-Bazzir to raid the home of the slaver Aetius.  One hundred and fifty of them eventually agreed.  Now with a small army on their side, the party headed back to Zul-Bazzir with vengeance on their minds.

However, upon arriving back at Zul-Bazzir, all was not well with the city.  From a distance, smoke and even fire could be seen coming from the city and a number of refugees had fled the city.  The characters approached what appeared to be a makeshift fort occupied by all manner of city dwellers.  The fort was guarded by a mix of city guards, merchants, artisans, beggars, prostitutes and even slaves.  Zardoz demanded to know what had happened.  One of the guardsmen told them of the Red Plague.  A disease that turned all it killed into the walking dead.  The Red Plague spread by both claw and bite.  The Shrine of the Keepers had been infected and the zombie horde spread from there but there were demons and hordes of flesh eating insects infecting the city as well.  He also told them that the epicenter of all of this was not the Shrine of the Keepers.  The true outbreak started from the House of the Dragon, the mansion that the characters called home...

Next time, Red Plague Part One.