I’m going to start this weeks weekly waffle with a gaming update from what turned out be an epic D&D session on Sunday. For some time now we have been building up to what could be a party ending encounter. An evil cabal have a continent spanning ritual underway and we are trying to stop it and dispatch the necromancer responsible. We’ve hand an encounter with him before and knew it would take all our combined skills to stand a chance of taking him down. So we have made it as far as the obsidian pyramids that is the centre of the ritual to find hundreds of cultists chanting in front of hundreds more bodies piled up against what looks like an obsidian obelisk. Each time they get to the end of a long chant black lightning strikes from the top of a pyramid hitting the obelisk and the sky grows a bit darker. Not really having a clue what to do we decide to enter one of the pyramids to see if there is anything we can break to stop the ritual.
Things start off quite well and we find our way through the maze that is the first level silently dispatching the few cultists we find. On the second level thing get a bit heated but we still manage take down the cultist we encounter with some really good rolls on our part. Our DM has given out a few special items over the adventure that only activate if you roll three fours’ on three D4’s. Which is exactly what Thramin our ever reliable Dwarven Barbarian managed to do to spectacular effect. With the second floor clear we had a good idea that with the commotion we had caused whoever was on the next level would be ready for us and we thought that would be the necromancer. So a quick chat to agree a plan. Once we reach the next floor no matter what we face the only target has to be the Necromancer. We can deal with anything else once he is out of the way. A nice simple plan that we have all agreed to so it’s to go for it.
We have a plan so time to execute it. Thramin is first up and before he’s taken half a dozen steps he’s hit with a spell that half’s his damage. Not to bad as I can still buff him being next up. Only problem is I’m hit with a second spell that is Ineffable Mind. That means I’m now effectively a zombie, I can’t communicate or cast spells. Which is fitting as the room is also full of zombies. Never the less both myself and Thramin attack the Necromancer firm in the knowledge that our colleagues are right behind us to really take the fight to him. Wrong, our colleagues are right behind us but immediately ignore the plan and attack the zombies. The result is that the Necromancer proceeds to kick our arse for about three rounds until they finally realise he is the biggest threat in the room. The real killer for me is that I can’t provide the gentle encouragement my character is so useful at because of the spell he is under and all I can do swing away at whatever is in front of me.
In game terms that makes things very easy for me as I no longer need to think about which spell to use, who buff with my witty bardic inspiration or how to cause as much trouble as possible for our necromancer. No all I can do is sing away and watch things go down the pan. When everyone finally starts to lay into him he comes out with a literal killer of a spell, Power Work Kill, and as quick as that Winky our samurai is dead. No save, not even the death saving throws, just dead. This isn’t looking good for us. Mumbles our Dwarven Cleric hasn’t hit anything yet but the one hit he does manage is a crit with all of his spell casting buffs he really rocks the Necromancer and it looks like one more hit could end this. But no he misses again and with that he uses his magic to teleport himself away to safety somewhere.
On a positive our half ork cleric manages to use revivify to save Winky but the problem now is that we are stuck at the top of a pyramid and the only way out means going through hundreds of angry cultists. Still from my perspective I don’t really care because it turns out that the spell cast on me doesn’t end when the necromancer disappears, but I can make another saving throw to see if it ends, in another thirty days. So for me I can just stand there and hit whatever steps in front of me. All in all a very interesting session and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
On the hobby front I’ve started work building the Warlord and I have to say that so far this has been the easiest in terms of build work. Granted there is a lot to build with lots of parts but it just seems to have gone together a lot easier than any of the other models so far. I don’t know if it’s just that I’ve got into the Titan building mode or some such thing, or if it’s just an easier build. I’ve taken my time to make sure I can take the armour plates off where appropriate to be able to paint them
I’ve also started work painting the knights. The plan was to with a purple as on a colour wheel the triad of colours that works with the blue and red I have used on the Titans is purple. Although the original plan was that it was going to be a much darker purple. A few years ago I paint the joker figure from Knight Models and I was going to try and go for the same effect. But it just didn’t work and you couldn’t tell the difference between purple and the black primer, but I’d used a black primer before. However last time I’d then zenith highlighted everything with a light grey before applying the dark purple. But I didn’t realise that until it was too late so they have ended up being a much lighter purple than I had intended. I still think they will be ok once I get the red accents to tie them into the Titans and with all the armour trim done in the same way I think they look ok. Although if I paint up any more in the future they may end up being from a knightly house.
And that’s it for this week. I’m going to continue to work on getting the knights painted up as they aren’t really that hard. It’s just a case of taking your time and making sure you pick out all of the details.
