This time we had the combo pizza, sans pepperoni, added black olives.

Games are on Tuesdays sometime around 5:30PM at World's Best Comics, 9714 Warwick Blvd Newport News, Virginia 23601.

++++ START OF SESSION ++++

After the Party defeated the Troglodytes, they ripped out what appeared to be circular insignia poorly stitched on crude uniforms. I say 'ripped', because no one in the party had the tailoring skill. They left the Troglodyte bodies to rot, albeit slowly since it was cold in December. At least they camped upwind.

Regarding their own dead, Elefus used a Minor Raise Dead spell on Twitch, earning Twitch three character flaws, "Strange Body Odor", "Misguided", and "Trick Knee". The Party decided to wait another day to do the same for one of Huang's follower Monks who died in the battle, No Tsmo King.

That night those on watch espied a flying sleigh being pulled by eight tiny reindeer. (Yes it was the equivalent of 25 December in my campaign world.) It landed nearby and the red clad occupant was looking over a paper list marked Naughty and Nice then regarded the party. It turned out that the list was deemed to be irrelevant because the Party had not set up the appropriate Holy Shrine* before his visit. So he simply shrugged and tossed some dark objects on the ground and took off.

The dark objects turned out to be lumps of coal, each conspicuously attached with a ribbon and a slip of paper with runes of the names of a Party member. Curly, the party's Paladin cautiously performed a Detect Evil on the lumps which turned out negative. The coal was later conveniently used for the party's ongoing campfire.

(* The "Holy Shrine" usually consists of hanging socks near a fire and a sacrificial altar containing a glass of milk and a plate of cookies. Often next to a small decorated tree.)

The next Morning planned, Elefus again used a Minor Raise Dead spell on the other Monk and earned him two character flaws, of being "Obnoxious", and "Badly Proportioned", the latter should be contradictory and inconvenient for a martial arts Monk.

GM's note, why Elefus didn't use regular Raise Dead spells is unknown. He had two of those spells on hand and no one else in the Party was dead. There is no such thing has "being green" by conserving Cleric spells.

The next night a Wild Pony wandered near the camp. The party, having set a watch with two of Huang's followers, Won Hung Lo and Sum Ting Wong cautiously shooed it off. (This being HackMaster, they didn't know what nefarious plan that Wild Pony may have had.) Kudos to the two brave Monks! Having defeated the Pony without combat, they each earned half of half the experience points for a Wild Pony. A whopping 8.75! (35/2/2). Not to mention their war-story bragging rights at the bar next time they visit one. (They would have got more points for just killing it.)

The next day the party woke up early by Tujef's incessant beating on his drum to his gawd Thor. (Tujef was previously just a regular priest of Thor but recently became a Zealot. He was also inadvertently omitted from recent character lists and since reinstated.) Since it was Thors-day*, he wouldn't budge.

* There was a minor dispute over Thors-day, as HackMaster ascribes it to the 2nd day of the week. But then I checked again and HackMaster uses a different calendar on a different world with a 14-month year. Since I'm unwilling or unable to change my campaign's calendar, I'll have to relent and give the argument to the Player. (Albeit next time, as this happened on what some Europeans would call Tuesday, or the 2nd day of the Week.)

While Tujef was beating his drum (all day). The party had another encounter of a singular crested-skull, mauve colored three foot wide wingspan bat sporting a goatee that landed on a rock near the fire.

Rubbio approached the bat and started asked in a genteel manner, "How are you?"

A voice in Rubbio's head answered, "Fine, and how are you and how is your Lawful Good religious friend over there?"

Slightly taken aback, Rubbio answered "Fine".

Another question appeared in Rubbio's head, "So why does such a Lawful Evil fellow such as you are friends with him?"

Since no one could understand a one-sided conversation, Rubbio's reply was, "We're not really ... friends."

"Actually, I knew that.", said the voice in his head.

Rubbio asked another question, "What ARE you?"

"A bat." said the voice. "Aside from warming myself by your fire, I was looking for some nice tasty insects. Those Giant Hornets over there look real yummy." Referring to Elefus' spell-enlarged (and loyal) Giant Hornets that were ubiquitously present.

Rubbio answered, "I don't think that's a good idea, they'll probably beat you and have combat experience."

"You're probably right." said the voice, "I'll just be on my way."

With that statement the bat flew off to parts unknown.

Again this is HackMaster, Rubbio got only half experience points (325) for not killing it.

The next day the party continued on their road Southward and ended up at Fairfield Abbey. They were hailed outside the Abbey by a member of the church militant, who asking them to state their business. They related the story of the Troglodyte ambush and stash of round circle patches they ripped off their uniforms.

"So the enemy is sending out TRADOC cadets? Incompetent fools. In any case, come on in, you're welcome here." said the herald.

They sheltered for the night at the Abbey where the friars related all they knew of the resurgence of the local cult. Apparently they have four field units each with a different insignia. A circle, a square, a triangle, and an eight pointed star. And they don't even get along with each other which may be a good thing for us.

In return the Party related the death of Brother Richard, a senior member of their order and the regions leader before he went off adventuring with the party. He died a noble and honorable death fighting for the party and had not been turned by the zombie plants.

The party was told there are two villages along the way.

One called Tharp which seems to be holding their own even though their senior Cleric of Saint Bert moved out for reasons of her own. A Gnome priest of Pangrus moved in as a result of the religious power vacuum and has gained a following. There are also the local Druids and some Saint Bert holdouts. The town also has a good local militia irrespective of the three faiths.

The other town is called Nulb and is closer to the original evil temple. It hasn't been heard from lately.

The next day the party said their adieus and headed towards Tharp.

They were met along the way by a pair of wine merchants who sold them a dozen bottles of Elderberry wine. When the party set up camp for the night, Tujef the dwarf quaffed a bottle and passed out.

++++ OUT OF CHEESE ERROR ++++

PART 2.

++++ CHARACTER ROSTER ++++

(Double spaced in the eMail version, due to webmail eating carriage returns.)

CHARACTERS (Both PCs and NPCs)

Count Elefus, Human Male Abbot

Sir Huang - Master of the North Wind of the Stone Tiger Order, Baron of Catan

Dame Honda - Human Datai Samurai, Steward of Catan (formerly Temple of the Frog)

Numrendir - Human Conjurist

Tujef - Numrendir's sidekick and 3rd level Zealot of Thor (recently converted to Zealot)

Slade Wilson - Dwarven Professional (Left behind at Catan)

Gargoyle - Elefus's hench person (demoted from Sidekick)

Rubbio - Redeemed Footpad

Curly - Insane Keeper a.k.a 1st level Paladin and Elefus' other Sidekick (a Gargoyle really wouldn't do).

Twitch - Raised from the Dead (twice) Treasure Hunter.

Sum Dum Gai - Male 1st level Monk (a.k.a. Grasshopper)

Won Hung Lo - Male 1st level Monk (a.k.a. Grasshopper)

Bang Mi - Female 1st level Monk (a.k.a. Grasshopper)

Stin Ki Poo - Male 1st level Monk (a.k.a. Grasshopper)

Yu Too Fat - Male 1st level Monk (a.k.a. Grasshopper)

No Tsmo King - Female 1st level Monk (a.k.a. Grasshopper)

Hu Yu Hai Ding - Male 1st level Monk (a.k.a. Grasshopper)


MISSING or CAPTURED CHARACTERS (PCs or NPCs)

Junkbot Jackson - Tracker/Adept

Gerry Castagere, Human Fingersmith, and ever loving devotee of Elefus

Fundisha - Half-Elf Swordsperson

Sir Weasel, Human Guild Soldier, Warlock, & Champion and nine Pilgrim henchmen of various levels. (They wear hoodies.)


BT







BBBB

++++ RECORD KEEPING ++++

PART 3.

This missive is also posted on two forums and one blog:

viewforum.php?f=76

http://furiouslyeclectic.com/tracker/99997

Can't belive Santa showed up! :)

I'm impressed at the level of roleplaying of this party when Hackmaster actually discourages non-violent sollutions?

Is there anything unusual about Wild Ponies in Hackmaster?

What was this bat thing?

-Havard

I keep a Player calendar and the party was outside on the 25th day of the 12th month, so I improvised. Santa's description was lifted from a web site for a 3.5e deity from my phone browser during the session. I also used the "Holy Shrine" from the web-site's description. The result of the lack thereof was my idea.

Well I can't comment on the reactions of my Players. At least they didn't ignore the pony. Otherwise they would have got no points at all instead of half of 35 divided by 2 NPCs. (Oh, they're NPCs I should divide by half again.)

Nothing special about the Pony. A random "Beast of Burden: Pony" was rolled up on the Hills: Subarctic column (since it was Winter.) I simply called it "Wild" since it was out in the open. Part of the charm of HackMaster is the amount of paranoia generated by what may appear to be mundane creatures because they may be monsters. Sometimes throwing in a real mundane creature can cause a party to waste a fireball on the harmless.

The bat was an Azmyth Bat. Just another bat on the multi-column entry for bats in the Hacklopaedia Volume I. I added the manual's text description as a picture for you with 4 needful vitals as a comment. As you can see, the real failure here was to "befriend" the bat. But again my Players didn't know this and the likely-hood of then reading this Forum is small, even as an ex-post facto disappointment.

Someone from somewhere else made the comment that I had no idea about Elderberry wine. What the commenter did not know was:

The wine was a Mickey but I can't tell the players that.

They're blind copied in the original eMail.

The Player clue is the the Character is a Dwarf. He should have drunk anyone else under the table, even if it where Romulan Brandy. Typical of my Players, they did not notice.

I was also tempted to treat this Santa as the Futurama version but that would have been a side adventure to what the Players are currently doing. Secondly I wasn't prepared for it.

I texted one player (who wasn't present) asking him "What would your character do?" And I added "Think Futurama.", and he replied with "No, no, no, not cool because in Futurama everyone is naughty." That was the moment I decided not to follow that Santa theme and opted to just dump the coal.

Well, chances that Christmas will come again next year are reasonably high... ;)