Storm King's Thunder: Prepare to Die Edition [Part 5]

*Last Updated: 6/13/18*

Warning:  SPOILERS ahead for Storm King's Thunder.

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5.1 The Yakfolk Village

The way is decided, and the party begins to move forward.  They will go to Ironslag, to the Yakfolk Village, and find the Conch of Teleportation.  Harshnag decides to stay behind to protect the Eye of the All-Father, and the party bids a fond farewell.

Just as they are leaving, they hear a horrible noise.  The doors burst open to the main shrine of the Eye, and an enormous blue dragon smashes its' way in.  When Harshnag and the creature lock eyes, mortal combat begins.

It becomes apparent very quickly that the party is outmatched.

Harshnag fights valiantly, but implores the party to continue onward.  Given little other choice but to escape, the party somberly retreats.  A huge rumble in the mountain is heard from above in the airship.  A mournful tone followed them all the way to the mountain where Ironslag lay, and during the trip Starman composed a tune to the memory of their only giant friend...

The cry of dragon filled the hall - in frozen depths where shadows crawl - the voice of Harshnag called us to flee - his axe and life forfeit to see us free...

The blue wyrms blows fell like death - Harshnag stood as we left - his axe like thunder, his heart so bold - stood his ground on stone so cold.

We left is fear, we left in grief - Harshnag defended us from the teeth - our hearts heavy, our friend is lost - we seek revenge at any cost.

Along the trip, the party is attacked in the air by a group of aarakocra and an air elemental.  These threats are swiftly dealt with by the party, but the dragon cultists suffer a few casualties.  The encounter does serve to remind the adventurers that their position in the air is precarious.

As the party approaches the Yakfolk village, they wonder about how to land on the precarious mountain.  As they watch the yakfolk gather, they simply decide to land in the middle, as they allowed the yakfolk to become aware of their presence.  Much to their surprise, the yakfolk are friendly!

The party meets Chief Kartha-Kaya and his wives, Nahala and Imberu.  The adventurers are invited to sit with the chief and feast.  Wine and smoke are brought, and Niv imbibes too much.  After a while, the party begins to notice the presence of slaves all around them.  For their part, the yakfolk see the owning of such slaves as the natural order of things.  The party agrees to stay overnight at the yakfolk village, after speaking with them of the giants below.


5.2 Inside Yakfolk Village

The party drags Niv's comatose form into a hut provided by the yakfolk, and prepare to bed down for the evening.  An ethics discussion ensues, where the party debates the nature of slavery and what, if anything, can be done for the naked slaves of the yakfolk.  In the end, they resolve to do what they must for the captives in the morning.

The yakfolk, however, don't care to wait that long and bust through the door, attempting to take the party unawares.  The action is swift, and soon yakfolk litter the ground, bloodied and dying.  The party presses forward, out of the hut, to take on the wider village of the yakmen in mortal combat.


5.3 Escape from Yakatraz

The party decimates the rest of the yakmen, killing Kartha-Kaya and his entire clan.  The slaves quietly look on in awe as the party begins to investigate the now-quiet village.


5.4 The Mines of Ironslag

The party descends through many levels of the mines of Ironslag, going ever deeper into the mountain towards the great forge at its' heart.


5.5 Salamander on Duty

Emerging from the mines into the smelter area of Ironslag, the party rescues several dwarf slaves from a horrific salamander taskmaster.  Upon gaining their freedom, the former captives relate to the party there are more prisoners below.  Perturbed, the adventurers weigh their options.

5.6 Intruder Alert!

Ignoring the advice of the dwarves they liberated, the party retreats a short way into the mines and attempts to rest.  However, the fire giant overseers below in Ironslag get hip to the fact that there are no more slaves loading mine carts and send out a general alarm throughout the complex.  The party's anxiety grows as they hear approaching guards.

The adventurers get the jump on a group of ogres searching the lower mines for escaped slaves, but one manages to run back into the smelting area.  Not long after, a bigger patrol made up of fire giants arrives and sees the dead ogres and missing slaves.  The giants attempt to take the party captive, but through a both cunning and lucky confluence of events the adventurers manage to triumph over their enemies, though only two of the giants were actually slain.

5.7 Captured by Giants!

The characters flee back into the mines, and narrowly avoid the patrols through stealth and cunning.  Eventually they are able to rest and ready themselves to re-enter Ironslag.  This time, however, they have a different approach.

Ikki Popp polymorphs himself into a Fire Giant.  The party them fake-binds themselves with ropes, and the faux-giant Ikki proceeds to walk into Ironslag.  Not far in, they encounter Zaltember, Duke Zalto's son.  He is enraged, and agrees to take the party to his father after being told those were the faux-giant's orders.

The party encounters Duke Zalto deep in Ironslag, after passing by many giants and other beings doing Ironslag things.  Very soon, violence erupts, and though the party fought bravely, Duke Zalto managed to shove through and wound Starman.  The party surrenders shortly thereafter.

Berry is thrown into Zalto's hammer.  Starman is taken by the Duchess Brimskarda, presumably to revive and then look after Zaltember, who was shot in the back of the head by Briar and incapacitated...to unknown effect.  The rest of the party were imprisoned in the slave pens...where they wait for their chance to get out of this mess.


5.8 Zalto Family Values

Things look grim for our intrepid adventurers.

While the duchess Brimskarda kept Starman with her in the kitchen until he regained his faculties, the others are kept in the slave pens with several other groups of prisoners. Berry is kept by Zalto in the hammer and dragged around the Vodindod most of the day.  The party is unsure how to proceed, but are confident since the giants didn't confiscate any gear.

Berry witnesses emissaries of the drow approach Duke Zalto and bequeath a gift - a primordial elemental that powers up the adamantine forge.  He offers nothing in return, and the drow leave.  However, now that the forge is hot enough, Zalto to redoubles his previously stymied efforts on the Vodindod reconstruction.  Shortly, he gets so wrapped up he pretty much forgets about the earlier intruders (the party).

Soon the daughter of the Duke, Cinderhild, pays the slave pens a visit.  She shoos the guards out, who think she plans to torture the captives.  She then engages Briar and Softhands in conversation and it leads to a deal:  pretend to take her captive and get her out of Ironslag.  The party agrees, and she releases them and the other slaves.  As they move through the fortress, the inhabitants keep their distance until they reach the kitchen area...

Brimskarda is displeased.  After a short exchange, the party tells her they want only to leave with their companion.  The duchess informs them that the priest will leave only after her son is healed.  The party agrees, and the duchess tells them to talk to her husband in the forge area while she fetches Starman.

After a short exchange in giantish with his family, and then in Common with the party, the terms of a deal are laid out.  They will exchange Cinderhild for their companions, and this is readily agreed to by the giants.  In addition, the party offers the location of a Vodindod fragment in return for access to King Hekaton.  Baffled by why they would want that, and not caring either way what happens to them, Duke Zalto agreed and gives them his conch of teleportation.  The party gave him false information twice, but he seemed to buy the second bit.

Starman healed the stricken Zaltember, and  and the party left with Cinderhild in tow.  Starman took the elevator to the Yakfolk village, where the dragon cultists had been busy feeding dead yakfolk to the chimera.  The mounted the airship, and caught up with the reset of the party below.  The party flew with Cinderhild to a safe distance, then parted ways with the young giantess.

With the conch of teleportation now in their possession, the only thing left to do is blow.



Return to Storm King's Thunder: Prepare to Die Edition?

X-Wing: Cloak of the Sith Campaign

*Updated 6/12/2018*

Image: Wookieepedia and mySWRPG.com.

Welcome to Iron Seer's first campaign!

We intend for there to be several campaigns going on at once, and because of this there may be some slow movement on some of them.  Never fear - the time limits are gone!  In fact, it's set up to be a sustained campaign.  In the past we've actually had them go on well over a year before we reigned it back to focus on one at a time, but we're opening the floodgates now.  When everything is in place, you can be guaranteed no matter which minis you want to move you can have your game recorded for posterity with Iron Seer!

Star Wars X-Wing has been a favorite since it burst onto the scene a few years ago, and pretty much everyone who's into games that I know digs this one.  For this campaign, there will be three factions vying for supremacy of the Manda-Roon Merchant Route, the Death Wind Corridor and the other space around Roon, Ryloth and Manda.

The Rebellion's Battle Fleet Tarquinas has been mustering near Ryloth for the past while, and after Imperial aggression around the Cloak of the Sith, has been forced to relocate to a remote area outside the Cloak.  From here, the Battle Group must contend with enemy fighters all along the Cloak, from Imperial TIEs swarming Ryloth or Manda to pirate scum pouring out of Death Wind Corridor.  It is the responsibility of the Alliance Flight Commanders to protect the secret of the mustering Battle Fleet, and to perform military action against the enemies of the Rebellion as it is necessary.

Imperial Expeditionary Fleet Naugrelas arrived in the sector near Manda and at least one large fleet scale action has occurred around the Cloak, though the Imperials balk at flying into it.  Instead, carriers and escort ships have been sent in for patrols looking for pirates, and hoping for rebels.  Recently, the Imperials scaled back their efforts to move more capital ships into the Cloak itself...but space stations are reportedly being built for the purpose of monitoring and attacking unauthorized ships on both ends of Death Wind Corridor and the Manda Route.

For their part, the Death Wind Cartels seem united.  They hate everyone, and they want all the big ships OUT.  Indiscriminately attacking all military vessels, it seems they are united behind one thing: the ejection of the larger Galactic Civil War so they can go back to murdering each other in peace.

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Campaign Rules

• Teams
• Signup on our Facebook Group and declare your faction.  Obviously, you'll need to be somewhat local to play in the campaign (at least for now).
• If you have a Challonge account or want to make one, you can add your name and face to our Challonge team page!
• Matches
• Matches are best of three games.  Sets are counted for each game played, and the match goes to the first player to achieve two wins against their opponent.
• 100 Squadron Points available per game.
• For 3 person games, one commander will run an allied faction squadron 'under the banner' of the other commander.  For 4 person games, two games will be drawn on the campaign record with each commander squaring off against one of the opposing commanders.
• Team and Pilot Ranking
• The team that accrues the most match wins will win the campaign and move the narrative forward.
• Individual Pilots will be given a ranking based on the number of sorties and their success rate.  The Player with the highest individual rank will be declared Galactic Fighter Ace by the Iron Seer and everyone will have to live with that until a new one is crowned.
• The player that has played the most games sets the Battle Level.  The difference between the Battle Level and your number of sorties will affect your individual ranking, meaning you will not win the campaign if you win one game.

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Note to Graphic Designers:  Mind the S-Foils.

Rogue Star Wars: Imperials

In this follow on from our Rebellion team, we take a look at the first Imperial scenario team for our Rogue Star Wars scenarios.  The team will also be 200 XP at the start of the campaign, and will be built around a core of Imperial Storm Troopers.  It will represent a hunter team first dispatched to Roon to ferret out the last remaining rebels still operating there.  More on that later...

For now, let's take a look at the actual team.

Star Cops get a neat advantage in that one member can use Intelligence gear, but I'm not going to exercise that ability in the initial build.  Instead, I'm going to be spending a lot of points on Storm Trooper armor.  Once you start handing out armor, you'll notice your troops basic cost is a lot higher...and that's to be expected.  I opted for basic gear on most of the troopers, but the squad has a rifle specialist.

As well as all that, the Bounty Hunter has a few skills to make him more dangerous, even if I didn't end up giving him a Marksman bonus or full combat dress.  I see him more as an independent operative rather than the squad's combat leader.  He's the tracker...and he wants to get paid.

To that end, this team is taking the Heavy Firepower tactical discipline.  This allows your team members to perform Hail-of-Fire attacks, which is basically auto/rapid fire, without a penalty.  This is limited to up to five times per game, but in a clench that seems really powerful.

Imperial Hunter-Killer Team (Star Cops)
Heavy Firepower

• Bounty Hunter (59)
• Veteran, Tough (2), Reactive, Lucky
• Light Combat Dress & Assault Rifle; Frag Grenade
• TK-666 (35)
• Marksman (1)
• Combat Dress & SMG; Frag Grenade
• TK-187 (35)
• Marksman (1)
• Combat Dress & SMG; Frag Grenade
• TK-138 (35)
• Marksman (1)
• Combat Dress & SMG; Frag Grenade
• TK-272 (36)
• Marksman (1)
• Combat Dress & Molecular Slugthrower; Frag Grenade
• 200 XP Total

The Heavy Firepower discipline will allow the team to keep up a withering hail of fire on any target that presents itself, even as they advance.  Following the tactics of the Storm Trooper Corps., the idea is to march forward and overwhelm anything that might think about trying to put up a resistance.  Add in all the grenades and you get a very promising-looking group of troopers that should be able to breach any resistance they may run into.

Imperial patrols in and around the Cloak of the Sith have stepped up the firepower.