Cult of Aois III

Read Part II.

Osvald the assassin was lost again to turbulent dreaming. Again he found himself hiding in a nightmare; the very dungeon the heroes are delving into. Every night this assassin found himself hiding from the Ogre while it sang it's vile rituals to summon the dead.  Were these the souls the assassin had sent to death? But one night the assassin saw Faylor burst into the room to challenge the Ogre, and so took the chance to escape.

In the attempt, the assassin was slain by the scything bones of the Ogre's skeleton guardians. In his dying breath the assassin begged for life, and a demon of these cursed halls whispered back. The assassin did not pass on. Instead he was transformed into a spirit of shadow and jealous hunger. He realized then, that he would never wake from this. I used the Wizards' World 'vampire' class as an inspiration, although I plan to modify the model significantly.

Faylor was desperate to defeat the ogre and so opened the black chest. Faylor found that for him -- the price of opening resulted in the obliteration of his connection to magic. Thus forth Faylor walked the caves as an explorer not a mage (the player wanted to change classes without sacrificing his character's backstory). But the trauma of the transforming experience knocked Faylor unconscious. In the chest, Luukol found black barnacled spear wrapped in seaweed. In the chest Aever found a shield with a gargoyle's mein carved into the front. Luukol and Aever desperately held back the ogre, but only until Faylor regained his senses, at which point the heroes retreated.

Even with the assassin reinvigorated by demonic energies, the heroes dealt the ogre a death by guile rather than brawn. The heroes retreated into the low halls and set up a spear tipped choke point in the room of the collapsed statue. Jareth's unconscious body was found here, along with his familiar who was desperately trying to drag him from danger. Luukol and Aever managed to toss and pin the ogre with polarms while the assassin and Faylor loosed their arrows from the shadows. The unconscious Jareth was treated after the ogres final howls. Seeing as the assassin proved to be a true ally in the fight, the other characters invited him to join the descent. Faylor found a crawlspace in the statue's rubble which led to the Ogre's original chamber.

The ogre's elvish accomplice claimed to be the ogre's prisoner not its ally. Faylor was particularly distrusting of the elf, but Aever managed to convince the party to allow the mysterious elf at least a weapon for defense. A spring bubbled beneath the stairs, forming a river which fell in quiet waterfalls from an open-top plateau. To the south a decrepit outpost winds further into the depths. To the north a massive kiln in the shape of a helmet sits outside a door. The door is at the base of a cliff face with numerous winding caves in the lofty heights. Listening behind the door, Jareth heard the goblin tongue.

Traveller

The other day I dropped a post on Reddit entitled, 'Classic Vs. Mongoose Traveller' to determine which edition would most adequately suit my storytelling needs. I've never played Traveller because I've never been able to decide which edition to devote myself to. The following morning the Traveller 5E Kickstarter went live. Odd timing. Now only a couple days in, the 5E Kickstarter has already raised over $34,000.

There have been some legitimate concerns about the 5E Hardback's price tag. Marc Miller suggests his tome will be the "Ultimate Edition" weighing in at around 600 pages. To get an actual physical copy of the game, Kickstarter funders must be willing to pay out $100 + s&h. Unsurprisingly this has raised a fair number of eyebrows despite the fact that Miller exceeded his pledge goal in just two days. 

To be fair a 600+ page hardback for $100 might be more reasonable than it first appears. If this Traveller 5E is complete and without the need of further supplements, then the price actually seems about right. The downside of course is that the 5E content cannot be broken into more convenient separate purchases. But that is because this new hardback aims not be the 'core rules set,' but rather the source of absolutely everything ever, one would need to play Traveller. 

I'm not sure what the Classic Traveller black book box retailed for in the seventies, but a quick kata in internet-fu allowed me to find the original box purchasable, albeit lightly used, for around $40 today. Now consider the price of supplements, there were six more (after the core 1-3) I believe. If you buy all nine, perhaps going the Classic Traveller route might be a bit cheaper, but I doubt by much. Miller notes though, that he is creating substantial never before seen material as well for this new edition. For someone like me, having ALL the content in one hardback book is appealing. And I have to admit, the black cover looks absolutely slick. 

The demand for an affordable PDF reached Miller's ears already. Added today; a pledger offering $51 receives a full PDF version of the 5E. This is still a lofty price tag, but one I think a lot of fence-sitters will be pleased with. I probably will wait to see what happens. The fact that Miller is adding such significant pledge rewards so quickly is interesting. I hope to have the hardback edition one day, but for now I'm waiting to see if Miller throws in more rewards before I pull the trigger.