DCC Chapter 16: The trouble with Istrobian

Well it turns out the Wizard Brain in the Jar wasn't dead. And he opened a rift in time & space right inside the house of Marcus the Decent. As some of the characters were off dealing with a midnight robbery only a select few were able to handle this situation.

Chi, Garrote, Sally and Tyrrian found themselves in transmogrified landscape of twisting corridors that went niether up nor down, or left nor right!!! They were joined in short order by two stalwart employees of Marcus. The first a large Gish bodyguard named Raj and a dwarven smith called Sparks McWeathervane.

The twisted halls of the house before them the disoriented party make for what they believe is the front door. Chi opens the portal only to find herself face to face with an alien landscape and a dark rider upon a

Come back, come back...

nightmare steed that rears and begins to advance upon the small elf! "Come Back! Come Back!" hisses the rider, "To Mordor I will take you!"

Chi slams the the door and turns to her companions, "We aren't gettin' out that way fellas!"

Turning to survey the bizzare paths before them the party is surprised to see a metal and glass container that they recognize as the "dead" wizard Istrobian fly out of a doorway on the left wall. "At last! At last the time is right, all the dimensions shall be mine to rule!" screeches the brain in a jar as it circles about the hall. Just then a strange portal opens up in the air and Istrobian, laughing manically drops into it and seemingly disappears!

"Istrobian has broken free and may have harmed Alexander! Follow me to his chamber. We must be sure our Wizard is alive." Leading the way Sally navigates the wild stairs and sideways doorways. As the party enters what they believe to be the chamber of Alexander they are surrounded by a blinding white light!

WHOOOOOOOOSSSSHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In quick succession our Heroes are swept across time and space, stopping for short intervals and dealing with strange creatures, allies, and enemies! And with each jump our heroes age a random number of years.

The first stop is an ancient city where the party is met by a duo-demon. The two headed being tries to trick the group/or does it! They come face to face with a giant demon from a bottomless well before being whisked away to.....

A giant arena, surrounded on all sides by a cheering crowd of humanoids of many types. They find an ally in a wise warrior-monk that bids them to be calm and they could escape the Arena of the Death! Drawing a magical blade the monk turned to face a beast unlike any other.....

The Star Dragon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Massive beast attacked killing the friendly monk in one stomp
of its clawed foot. Sally attempts to banish the beast only to have her magic actually banish herself and friends!

Next they find themselves on a vast plain before a volcano erupting a fountain of blood! A beautiful blonde princess astride the meanest looking unicorn you've ever seen appraises the group. "None of you are worthy of the title Battle Wizard!" waving her hand she summons a portal and sends our heroes whisking away again!

In the blink of an eye the group finds itself standing along a rampart, with a rag tag army of warriors, below facing them is a vast army of swerting. Battle horns sound and the vile army charges the battlement.

Just as battle is engaged our heroes hear a voice call out in their heads, "You do not belong here."

There is a flash and they find themselves in a richly appointed salon, a distinguished Wizard gives them a meal before sending them on through the vortex of dimensions!

Landing in a thick jungle, the party soon finds themselves aiding a mighty amazon Queen in battle against a tribe of skull-men intent on sacrificing the princess to a dark god!

At the height of the battle vs. the skull-men, the shaman opens a gateway that allows our heroes to use it for their own purposes! Bidding farewell to the Amazon Queen the group travels on......

At last they track down Istrobian in a strange blasted landscape. He has hidden in a metallic and stone fortress to work his dimensional magics!

A titanic battle raged within the citadel of the Dimensional merging mad-wizard, waves of alternate reality

versions of the party had already attempted to stop Istrobian and had failed. Now our group, the last hope for the multi-verse attacked! Battling the mutant minions of the evil mastermind our heroes were able to stop his plan and everything returned to normal........

Or did they......

In the end the y made it back, some forty years older physically. Also Sparks was fatally wounded in the final battle and died in Sally's arms. Emerging from the house as a fire raged inside the sun rose on a new day, with new adventures in store......


**This Adventure is a Cross-Over with Gamma World 4E, and events in Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards!

One year ago today....

One year ago today I began this blog. In honor of the World of Eroc I present you with something that has influenced me greatly. At some point in 1981 on NBC I was lucky enough to see this pilot for a series that would unfortunately never happen. However, in my fevered brain the secrets of Lazar-Sa have remained!

If you have never seen this, seek it out. If you're one of my friends and I have yet to force you to watch this, then remind me to show it to you!

I give you:

THE ARCHER: Fugitive from the Empire!

There is really so much cool stuff in this movie, I still love it.

The snakemen! a nice departure from the standard Orc/goblin and very weird!

Messed up wizards with magic magic items that caused bad skin afflictions!

The Heroes, ones that looked more like what I envisioned my own D&D characters looked like.

The Villian, Gar the Drakian. This evil Fighter sought our hero and looked to use any and every cursed item or creature to achieve his goal. 

Gar has the Death Dealer axe, watch out!

Uh-oh! now he got some evil magic!!!

SO thanks everybody for allowing me to run a game that has lasted a year, and hopefully another.

DCC Chapter 15: The Dealer who dealt in Stardust....

  Hello, my name is Wraith Tombs. I'm a grave digger by occupation and aspiring Necromancer by night. I'd like to tell you the story of my death. It all started when I met up with some others to break into and rob the house of Ogo the Pawnbroker at the behest of a mutual employer.

  My last few night jobs had taken turns for the worst and I was a bit coin shy when Marcus found me and asked if I'd keep tabs on Ogo's place for him. I agreed as this would allow me some study time and watching a joint is pretty easy. After a solid two weeks I gave my notes to Marcus and he asked if I'd be interested in looting the establishmnet along with some very capable friends of his. All Marcus needed was a big ruby that was owed him, and his friends had a few items they were looking to get back as well, anything else was up for grabs. Ogo was known for being involved with smuggling and such, so I figured there might be some loot I could fence for gold, heck how hard could this be! I should've known it was too good to be true.

  It was raining that night, heavy clouds cover no moon. Even the watch was put off by the weather, slogging along the streets with their hoods pulled low, torches sputtering and grumbling about the rain. The ones Marcus told me about arrived about an hour after midnight, they had bribed the City Gate guards to get in and out before dawn. There were two men a woman and a halfling. I think they were part of that group that was claiming they killed a Sea-Demon or some crap. Any way the woman was the muscle for she wore fighting armor and carried a large axe under her cloak. The two men were obviously thieves, the first a handsome devil that was quite popular with the ladies I'm sure. The second wore an ostentatious ensemble of sharkskin and seemed very mysterious. The halfling seemed most out of place, yet belted at his hips were a pair of unusual weapons and I felt that his true character lie hidden behind his jovial demeanor.

 I relayed what information I had to this trio of rogues and we then set out to plunder the shop of Ogo. We evaded the nightwatchmen with little effort as the poor weather made them even less likely to want to linger on patrol than normal. We scaled the walled courtyard intent on having it shield our actions from any onlookers from the street. Much to our surprise the garden was covered in thick cobwebs and what we thought to be gravel crunching under or feet was in truth millions of small spiders!


[under construction]

Odds & Ends

Take a gander, some things are new, some are old. A hint here and there. What you do is up to you, and the story to be told is yours.

Everyone's favorite "honest" smuggler.
Lars!!!

Tarek, sampling some pipeweed.

The night was cool, and he watched the action from the corner. The Dealers Delight was definitely a place he could get used to. Knucklebones, Craps, Darts, "Numbers" games on Stadium day, and the wenches were feisty as well.

Now, what was that rumor about a thieve's guild in Modron.......

I think you have enough weapons!

They say he skinned it alive, and wears the hide.
The Scarlet Tiger!

Patrons and things, the World of Eroc grows....

  So, as those of you who follow this blog for fun or as players in my DCC World of Eroc Campaign can see the campaign world is growing steadily. Mysteries are being revealed and questions asked. In the last couple of weeks I added the "Patrons" page with a little blurb for each of the Patrons from the Core DCC rulebook. I knew I wanted to have more Patrons for Players to choose from and that is where the following item will come in:

  One of the blogs followers; Raven Crowking, a super cool guy had a hand in writing this up. Let me say that creating a patron from the ground up is NO easy task! Everybody that worked on this book deserves a Luck point or three!!! Anyway, I'll be adding to the Patrons for World of Eroc from this source, and man is there some super weird Patrons in here!!!

  If you're a Judge for DCC, or just looking for some inspiration check out his stuff from Purple Duck Games:
http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?cPath=9042

  There are some really great short adventures as well, a couple of which will be making appearances in the World of Eroc soon!

   Stay wary, and keep your weapons at hand!

Mightyeroc