The Stone of An-Makeran

 A Khamen and Candorra Adventure - Part 1C of the Six Stones of Sorcery

Previously, the party consisting of our heroes Khamen and Candorra and their guide Abdul has descended to the lowest level of the tomb of An-Makeran.

They pass through a room (13) where the walls are writhing masses of human forms. These lost souls are moaning in agony. The sight is so chilling that our heroes' hearts are filled with fear (causes penalty on attacks)

In the next room (14), they discover a portal. They had been forewarned by a friendly ghost (in room 8) so they skirt away from the portal. But a demon jumps out and attacks Abdul. He is able to dodge and Candorra shoots it. It turns on Candorra. As it turns, Abdul strikes it. Stung by the attacks of our heroes, the demon retreats through the portal.

Finally, the party reaches the room of An-Makeran (15). As they enter the room, the mummy rises from its sarcophagus.

It lunges at Khamen, but he dodges and strikes. Candorra empties her quiver into the mummy, but it seems un-phased by the arrows. It begins lashing out wildly at our heroes, knocking Abdul and Khamen to their feet. He then grabs Candorra by the neck and begins choking her. She struggles but cannot break his grip. As her strength waned, she manages to croak out a spell. A ball of fire explodes into the mummy's face. It drops her and spins around, trying to put out the flames. At this point, Khamen rushes up and with a mighty blow strikes off the mummy's head.

OK, I changed things around a bit for dramatic effect. For example, Candorra actually fireballed the mummy near the beginning of the battle, before it seriously wounded her.

With their victory, they return to the djinn (11). He gives them a key.

"Wait," Khamen complains. "You were supposed to give us the Stone."

"That is the key to the Stone. Go to the treasure room on the level above and claim your prize."

The party goes to the treasure room (5). There are 4 skeletal guardians, but our heroes manage to cut them down easily. And there, in a coffer, they find the Stone of An-Makeran, first of the Stones of Sorcery.

Deeper into the Tomb of An-Makeran

 A Khamen and Candorra Adventure - Part 1C of the Six Stones of Sorcery

Khamen, Candorra, and their guide Abdul continue to search for the Stone of Sorcery in the pyramid tomb of An-Makeran.

Having survived a ghoul attack, they descend to a room (6) with walls made of bones. 

As they pass through, skulls begin biting and arms begin rending at them. One clawed arm rakes Abdul across his face while another sinks its nails into his leg. Khamen and Candorra smash the bones with the pommels of their swords.

They reach a locked door (5). Khamen fails to pick it, so they turn around, passing through an empty room (7) before descending to a library (11). As they enter, they hear a booming voice announce "Who goes there?!"

They draw their weapons and look around. A djinn materializes out of nowhere.

Candorra relaxes. "We are the adventurers who encountered you on the surface."

"You are mistaken," the djinn announces, " that is another of my kind. I am the Guardian of the Stone."

"The Stone?! You have it? We are on a quest to recover it for the Temple of the Maker." Candorra responds.

"You cannot have it. None may take it. Now begone or I shall have to slay you."

"Let's just kill him and take it," Khamen whispers.

"Shhh," Candorra replies, "you'll get us all killed."

She turns back to the djinn. "Please, the very fate of the world depends on us recovering the Stone!"

The djinn gives her a pitying look. "I would like to help, but I have been commanded to protect the Stone at all costs. I cannot disobey the command. Only the death of my master can free me."

"Who is your master?" Khamen interjects.

"An-Makeran himself. Lord and master of this temple."

Candorra announces, "Then we will confront An-Makeran and secure the Stone from him!"

Khamen mumbles, "Great, out of the frying pan and into the fire."

🎲🎲🎲

They continue through the labyrinthian halls of the tomb. In the next room (10), Candorra gets picks up a cursed dagger from a diabolical altar. The dagger compels her to discard her other weapons. Entering a room (9) with jail cells, they are attacked by poltergeists. Abdul takes another wound. Then a friendly ghost (8) warns them about a dangerous portal.

They descend to the next level (12), where they encounter a lamia. 

It leaps upon Abdul, rending him mercilessly. Candorra stabs it with her dagger. It attacks her, but she beats a hasty retreat, allowing Abdul to rise. He strikes the creature. It lashes out at him, causing another wound. Khamen and Candorra then gang up on it, inflicting more wounds. It then flees through a secret passage.

Abdul is severely wounded, while the others have also been blooded. They decide to rest. Candorra uses the last healing potion on Abdul while she bandages all of their wounds. After a short respite, they steel themselves for the remaining challenges.

What horrors will they encounter? Find out next time!

🎲🎲🎲

Game Notes

I kind of went old school with today's session. I did not use any figures or markers; just a pen, pad, and some dice. Sometimes I just want to roll dice without messing with miniatures, and RPGs let you do that.

Still using my RPG version of MicroBattle (I call this version MicroQuest).

Happy Easter

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!" (Luke 24: 1-6)

Happy Easter!

The Tomb of An-Makeran

A Khamen and Candorra Adventure - Part 1C of the Six Stones of Sorcery

It has been a while, but let us take up once again the chronicle of Khamen and Candorra. We left them, along with their guide Abdul, at the entrance to the buried Tomb of An-Makeran.

The party enters the buried pyramid and begins to descend. 

Map from the Buried Pyramid of the Undergod 1 page dungeon

On the staircase (1), they are attacked by 4 jackal-headed humanoids. One bites Khamen before his comrades manage to overcome the pack.

In the first room (2), they are attacked by a giant scorpion. 

L to R: Khamen, Candorra, and Abdul

Once again, Khamen takes the brunt of the initial attack. He is stung and poisoned, but manages to resist the effects. They hack and slash at the creature, but have difficulty penetrating its thick chitin. They begin stabbing at the joints, finally doing some damage. It grabs Abdul with its pincers, but he then finishes it off.

Suddenly, screams echo from the floor below. They rush through the door and down the stairs to a room (3) for preparing the dead. There is a rack on one wall; a man is lashed to it while a zombie is taking bites out of his flesh. They rush into the room and hack the zombie down. They release the man, who falls to the ground while screaming "run!"

At that same moment, the rack swings upward, revealing the entrance to another room (4). Out of the blackness leaps a ghoulish figure in the tattered garments of priest. It grabs the cultist and tears of his head.

Surprised, out heroes leap back from the spurting blood. The ghoul grabs Abdul and tosses him across the room. Then it seizes Khamen and bites him on the shoulder. Candorra looses an arrow, smacking right into the ghouls head. The impact knocks it back. It then charges Candorra, but Khamen knocks it aside as it tries to rush past.

Khamen then leaps into the attack. His blade slices deeply into the ghoul's desiccated flesh. It hisses in anger and lashes with razor-sharp claws, raking the side of Khamen's face.

Now Candorra comes to the rescue. Unsheathing her sword, she slashes. The blow slices into the creature's neck, severing its head. The body collapses to the ground, twitches a few times, then stops moving.

As Abdul groggily rises from the floor, Candorra rushes to Khamen's side. She gives him a healing potion while she tends to his wounds.

"You need to stop doing that," she scolds him.

"What?"

"Putting yourself in the way of their attacks."

"OK, mom. I'll do better next time."

What does the rest of the tomb hold in store for our heroes? Find out next time!

🎲🎲🎲

Game Notes:

I wanted to role some dice this weekend but was too lazy for a complete game. Instead, I decided to do a little roleplaying. It's been a year since I last posted about Khamen and Candorra; why not continue with their adventures?

As I mentioned, I was a bit lazy. I did not want to come up with a pyramid layout on my own so I did some internet searching. I found a one-page dungeon on Drivethrurpg (link is under the map). As it turns out, I was not keen on the encounters so I ended up improvising. Still, I like the map so decided to keep using it.

For rules, I used MicroBattle. I have an RPG variant, that seems to work well for fast-play gaming.

Finally, there is more to come (which you can tell from the map). I stopped early because the battle scene was so vivid in my mind that I wanted to record it before I forgot.

Temptation

 I went another week without a game so I wanted to provide an update on what's going on.

My mind has been focused on LARPing. We still cannot meet, but the time is drawing near. I get my second vaccination shot next Monday. The same day, our governor is opening up vaccine reservations to all 18+ residents. With the availability of vaccines, I foresee our LARP group returning to the battlefield sometime in May! I have been making preparations for that day, such as this new Byzantine garb (except the shoes; those are slippers)

I am also considering a new miniatures project - Byzantines, of course! My generic 3mm figures work for now, but I am tempted to get specific figures. I would probably start in 3mm, using Magister Militum's Late Romans. This way, my figures would have shields. I envision 3 armies - red Byzantines, blue Persians / Goths, and white Arabs. I know this violates my Lazy Gamer principles, but the temptation is strong. I don't plan on starting is any time soon, though. My paints are packed up for now. My brother-in-law is moving out of our spare room. Once he does, I plan to convert it to an office/game room. Once this happens, I can embark on new projects.

Stay tuned. I have next Monday and Tuesday off, so I hope to have a new Byzantine battle next week.

Battle of Dekaexi

 A Byzantine Battle Using the MicroBattle Rules

Although much delayed, I finally am posting a Byzantine-themed battle. I am using my generic, 3mm miniatures so you'll have to use your imagination that they are what I call them. ;)

A Sassanid Persian invasion force (blue/black) has crossed into Byzantine territory. The Emperor has sent out a force to intercept and destroy the enemy.

The vanguards meet near the village of Dekaexi. While the Byzantine light cavalry gets there first, the Persians have the numbers.

And they force out the Byzantines.

But the rest of the Imperial vanguard arrives. A wild melee begins around the village.

Byzantine cataphracts overrun their Persian counterpart.

Then they get cut down by a rain of arrows from the Persian archers (in the village) and light cavalry.

The Byzantine infantry advances. Persian cavalry tries to halt them, but they are routed.

Seeing their comrades flee, the remaining Sassanid forces break and run.

A victory for the Empire!

Notes

Some points about this battle:

I used MicroBattle as the rules for this game

The scenario came from my new, hardcopy version of One-Hour Wargames. I used a new technique for picking the scenario; one that I can't really do with my Kindle version. I just randomly opened the book to a page and chose the scenario on that page. I ended up with # 16 - Advance Guard. Each army represents a patrol sent out to scout the enemy. It seems like a great start to a campaign. So the Byzantines are up 1-0.

I randomly rolled on OHW's army generation charts to select my forces. I used the infantry-heavy Dark Ages list for the Byzantines and the cavalry-heavy Medieval list for the Persians. I had to supplement the Persian cavalry with some stands from my black army. All my blue cavalry are missing a strip of figures so I designated them as light cavalry. The full 3-strip black cavalry became cataphracts. I did a similar designation with the Byzantine cavalry. I used a stand of light infantry as archers, and treated archers and skirmishers the same. Overall, I felt that my army generation fudges worked quite well.

I intended to play the full 15 turns as specified in the scenario, but the Persians broke before the time ended. Because having an army morale rule causes battles to end early (OHW armies fight to the last unit), I think I need to shorten the number of turns. I may experiment with 10 turns. This battle went 8 turns so 10 turns seems about right. I'll try it with the next battle.

Keeping Byz-y

I've been quiet so I wanted to give you an update.

Over the past two weeks, I've received some goodies in the mail!

Front and center is the beginning of lamellar body armor. I purchased some plates and cord from plasticlamellar.com and am in the process of lacing the armor together. Naturally, this is taking up time that could otherwise be spent gaming.

In the upper right you can see that I have been continuing my research into the Byzantines. I picked up this Osprey from Amazon and am using it as a guide as I develop the structure for a new LARP unit, the Chimera Legion.

The chimera banner from a previous group.

We are recycling the sigil for our legion

Finally, you'll see a hardcopy of One-Hour Wargames (upper left) in the above photo. I previously mentioned an interest in getting a hardcopy. Fortunately, it is back in print and available from Amazon US for under $20. I got free shipping because I have Amazon Prime, so the overall price was very reasonable. Now that I have it I need to use it. Therefore, I am putting together a game once I post this update. Stay tuned for a battle report sometime this coming week.