Tuesday Magic Item – Table Cube

“Why does the general want this block of wood?” asked Voddick, tossing it from hand to hand.

“It is not out place to question a general’s orders, at least, not when such orders do not risk our lives,” replied Gollaon.

Arriving at the general’s tent, they handed the block over to a general’s servant who set it down, spoke a few soft words and it unfolded into a full-sized table.

“That’s handy,” whispered Voddick as the pair slipped away.

Table Cube

These cubes are three inches (7.5cm) on a side and made from hard wood that has been carefully oiled and polished.  They are very difficult to harm and almost impossible to burn.

Leaving for GenCon on the morrow and where to find me there

My friend Howard and I head off on the long drive to GenCon tomorrow, via Cave City.  We will be in Indianapolis from Tuesday on, helping with AEG’s booth setup mostly so not sure what free time I will have on Tues or Wens.  Once the convention starts, I have two L5R RPGgames again this year:

Saving the Oinari Shrine, an introductory action-adventure scenario featuring all Younger Clan (minor clans for those being less polite) characters.  Playing at:

Thursday, 9am / Friday, 7pm / Saturday, Noon/ Sunday, 10am

Death at Snow Peak Spring, an advanced investigation/intrigue scenario featuring the yoriki of the Imperial Magistrate Doji Akira.  Playing at:

Thursday, 2pm / Friday, 1pm / Saturday, 5pm

While each session is listed for six player, I always have seven characters prepared and I am always happy to accept generic tickets to fill the seventh slot (along with any unclaimed slots) if you think you will have the time and interest to play.  I should also have a little time to talk before each game if you want to drop by and chat.

I will also by doing other tasks as assigned by AEG.  But feel free drop me a note and we can try and catch up.  (And my GenCon travel advice here for those who are interested.)

PinkCat: Running in the Shade “Pirates of the Pacific (Coast)” (A different sort of SR campaign report)

To understand what is going on here, you had best read the first PinkCat: Running in the Shade post, but short summary, this is a campaign report for our Shadowrun campaign set in NorCal through the filter of a cartoon made by one of the team members.

Episode Twelve: Pirates of the Pacific (Coast)

Guest Starring: Bladez, DD and Ichi-kun.

Pink and Company are hired to protect a ferry from coastal pirates let by Captain Ursa Major and her first mate, Ursa Minor, the pirates are a mix of classic pirate and Russian stereotypes with cyberware, brave, tough, roughly honorable, and mildly incompetent (as cartoon villains tend to be).  The pirates are trying to retrieve a chest hidden on the ferry, to which (of course) they have a map.  Initially, Ursa Major and Minor use increasingly absurd disguises (from tourists to police to nurses to clowns and so on) to try and sneak aboard and locate the chest only to be foiled.  Finally, they are fed up and mobilize the whole pirate fleet.  Meanwhile Pink and Glitter have found the chest and opened it.  So when the pirates appear, they present it to Ursa Major and it contains a birthday cake to her from Minor.  All is happy and a big party follows.

What really happened:

Tuesday Magic Item – Medallion of the Shadowed Doorway

Voddick looked around the corner and then stepped around.  “She’s gone.  And it is a dead end.”  Voddick scanned the high walls.  At the end of the alley all there was a bricked up doorway, deep in shadow.

Gollaon followed.  “No hidden passageways either.  I checked this area the other day.”

“It sounded like she walked to the end . . . then nothing.”

Gollaon paced and then paused.  The shadows around the sealed doorway are wrong.  Voddick looked.  His and Gollaon’s shadows stretched down toward the doorway from which the shadow reached out toward them.

Medallion of the Shadowed Doorway

These medallions are made of silver alloyed with the ashes from the unhallowed dead, inscribed with incomplete prayers to the dead, and set with a  shard of obsidian polished to a mirror sheen with funerary oils.  The silver chains for these medallions always have square links.

Tuesday Magic Item – Gymir’s Tooth

“What an odd war-hammer,” said Voddick, looking at it.  “Look it has a massive tooth as its head!”

“Hide that, you fool,” hissed Gollaon looking around to make sure none of the other looters picking over the dead had heard.  “It is made from a giant’s tooth, I have heard of such,” he said in a whisper.

Voddick slipped it under his tooth.  “Valuable?”

“Worth your life if a dragon catches its scent.”

Gymir’s Tooth

The first of these was made by the dwarven smith-venturer Elsain Emeraldsign using a tooth taken from the giant Gymir’s body from the Yotenschlachfeld shortly after that battle.  The weapon made from that tooth retained Gymir’s hatred of the dragon that slew him.  The shaft is made of dark oak reinforced with blackened steel and the tooth is mounted in a steel harness ending in a vicious back spike.

Sean’s GenCon Advice, 2015 Edition

The start of GenCon is only three weeks away.  So, I thought I would share my hard-earned experience and try and help out people who are going.

Preparation:

Tuesday Magic Item – Copper Caltrops

“Get him!” yelled the Duchess standing over the prone form of her partner.

Voddick ran. “Well, that was a short bodyguard job,” he muttered under his breath.

Ahead they heard the sounds of coins ringing on stone and coming around the corner, saw that dozen of shining coins were scattered down the corridor, a few still rolling.  “Just copper, not worth stopping for,” Voddick said.  But Gollaon caught him by the arm before he rushed forward, another pair of Ducal guard ran forward and cried in pain, finding their fine boots pierced by spikes when they stepped on the coins.

“I recognized that trick from my time in Cavitiki,” said Gollaon.  “Now let us move carefully.”

Voddick nodded and did so, wincing in sympathy as the limping guards continued ahead.

Copper Caltrops

These bags of polished copper, well usually copper alloy brass or bronze, coins with a mocking face on one side and a three pointed star on the other.  The bags are designed to flip their contents out once opened and the polished coins can, in poor light, be mistaken for gold.

Shadowrun 2071 Campaign Report and New Seattle Scream (#48)

For various reasons, the Seattle Shadowrun game has been scattered and updates have been few and far between but here is one at last.  However, the NorCal adventure of PinkCat (latest one here) have been moving forward on a slightly more than monthly schedule and the reports for that have been much more timely.

We have another Seattle game tomorrow, but I will be missing August’s usual scheduled game due to GenCon!  (And if anyone want to meet up and talk Shadowrun there, I would be happy to oblige.)

Thack, of the now most wanted status, is one of the longest played (though now on the run -and out of play-) PCs of the Seattle game, read about his manhunt and more in the latest issue of the Seattle Scream (#48)!  Happy shadowrunning.