To Rescue the Duke

 

Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued last night, with the party plotting to free the Duke of Dhoona from the curse after having killed the evil, plant priest Slekht Zaad. Luckily, Zaad was at least truthful about bringing the antidote, they just have to find a means to deliver it.

Bell and Waylon (the only two not wanted but the city guard) go into the city in disguise to buy a wagon and oxen to sneak the others back in. They return, and everyone else hides in the wagon in any illusory pill of dung.

Once back in the city, they again seek sanctuary in the Temple of Azulina. They send Shade and Waylon to invisibly scout the ducal palace. They find it strangely unguarded, but they are wary.

The group decides to create a diversion with Kully the Bard rabble-rousing against the Duke's crazy policies (most specifically his beer tax) and the rest of the part readying for an invisible infiltration of the palace at the proper time. Kully's tactics work, and a small, but dedicated mob advances to cavort rudely in the Duke's beer fountain. Predictably, guards pour out of the palace to subdue them, and the rest of the part gets inside.

Searching quickly (i.e., not stopping to take treasure), they make their way to the upstairs. The palace is mostly empty, but they first discover were Zaad's ally the Guard Captain Draco Battles and his lieutenants are staying. After a tense moment, they manage to avoid them while invisible. Finally, they discover the Duke's room. Dagmar's Remove Curse has no effect on the mad Duke, but Waylon blows the antidote powder into his eyes, and the Duke comes to himself.

The Duke is only out of the party's sight for a moment, when Draco's men try to nab him. The party rescues the Duke and slays the two.

The restored Duke makes the other guards stand down. He rewards the party for their heroism, and allows Waylon to start up a party on the palace grounds with the liberated beer.

More Classic TSR Settings as 70s Paperbacks

In comments on my last post of this sort, a request was made for Planescape and Spelljammer. I was happy to oblige.

Art by Bruce Pennington. Title typeface is Dynamo (well, actually Nougat which is an homage).

Art is by Richard M. Powers. Title typeface is ITC Busorama.

Star Trek Ranger: The Obelisk

Player Characters: The Crew of the USS Ranger, Federation scout ship:
Aaron as Lt., j.g. Cayson Randolph, Operations Officer
Andrea as Capt. Ada Greer
Billy as Lt. Cmdt. Sobek, Ship's Counselor
Dennis as Lt. Osvaldo Marquez, Medical Officer
Paul as Cmdr. D.K. Mohan, Chief Helmsman

Synposis: Still searching for the lost Burnell, the Ranger away team has encountered survivors of a Romulan scout vessel crash, and discovered a mysterious signal emanating from alien ruins. Searching for those, they encounter non-Federation mining camp.

Commentary: This was the second session of Star Trek Adventures with the Ranger crew, playing through "Signals" from the Quickstart rules, tailored for the Original Series era. This session was mostly taken up by a firefight (then fist fight) with some Romulans. I modified the adventure to encourage a fist fight, as that's more TOS as opposed to a lot phaser blasting--though we still had a lot of lot.

The party is conspicuously light on security heavy personnel--they probably should have some supporting characters for something like this. I'll have to member that for later adventures. Still, everybody got to do their "thing" which is good.

I described the miners here as dressed like the ones in the episode "Devil in the Dark."

Wednesday Comics: Comics Kickstarters

Two recent comics Kickstarters I backed have at least partially delivered.

Dan Brereton's Giantkiller Monster edition arrived yesterday and it is pretty sweet. It reprints the 90s limited series with supplemental material in a larger format. It's really pretty. 

I don't this version is available, but looks like the original collection is still available on Amazon.

Warlock 5 was an a black and white fantasy comic in the 80s by Den Beauvais and Gordon Derry. He wasn't completed at the time but the new omnibus promises to do just that. This one you can pre-order.

TSR Settings as 70s Paperbacks

For no good reason, I decided to reimagine two classic D&D settings as 70s mass market trade paperbacks.

Art by Ken Kelly

Art by Sanjulin

The World of Valerian and Laureline

I'm a sucker for "universe" books, particularly lavishly illustrated ones. Valerian: The Illustrated Treasury  by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières hits all the right notes. It's a guide to the world of the long-lived French comic series.  It's only flaw is that it's a bit thin. Check out these pages:

Wild Wild West Wednesday Reviews

Again, I'll mention that my friend Jim and I have embarked on a review of the tv series Wild Wild West to be published on Jim's blog Flashback Universe. As of today, there are 3 posts in the serious under this tag.