Daemons/Black Legion vs Astra Militarum/Imperial Knight, 30.08.2016

I haven't had a game since the tournament, and it was time to make a comeback. Also time to find an opponent I haven't played against yet, and to try out something I haven't played yet.

Mission: Cleanse and Control, Dawn of War Deployment

Points limit:  1500 points

Lists:

Chaos Daemons: Combined Arms Detachment

• Pink Horrors 
• Herald of Tzeentch, lvl 3 Psyker, Grimoire
• Nurglings
• Herald of Nurgle, lvl 2 Psyker, Doomsday Bell 
• Seekers of Slaanesh
• Kairos Fateweaver, warlord

Black Legion:

• Chosen of Abaddon
• 3-man Terminator squad, 2 combi-meltas, all power mauls
• Terminator Sorcerer, lvl 3 Psyker, Spell Familiar, Melta bombs, Power Staff
• Cyclopia Cabal
• 3x Terminator Sorcerer, lvl 3 Psyker, Spell Familiar, Melta bombs, Power Staff

My plan of action: minor daemons with attached heralds camp on objectives, Kairos flies around and functions as psychic artillery, Seekers grab objectives. Terminators deep strike in as single death star, with Kairos helping on any mishaps. Terminators should get at least Invisibility.

Astra Militarum: Combined Arms Detachment

• 2x 10-man Guardsmen
• 10-man Veteran Squad with heavy flamer and 2 plasma guns in Chimera with multilaser and heavy flamer
• 1 Platoon Command Squad, with Medic
• Ministorum Priest with plasma gun
• Valkyrie (heavy bolter, multilaser, 2x cluster rockets)
• Pask & elite tank with exterminator autocannon, 3x heavy bolter; extra stubber on Pask
• 3-man heavy weapons squad (lascannons)

Imperial Knight

• Knight Paladin: rapid fire battlecannon, reaper chainsword, 2x heavy stubber, icarus autocannon

Opponent's plan of action: tanks and Knight hold the two flanks (so my Cabal can't make them shoot each other), while the blob runs up the middle.

Deployment

Horrors and Nurglings each in ruins, on objectives. Night Fighting in effect. I seized the initiative.

Battle

Daemons, turn 1.

Kairos flies up and does some damage to the blob. Unfortunately, they are Fearless due to the Priest. I drop Molten Beam on the Chimera and forget that it has melta, so only roll a glance.

Astra Militarum, turn 1.

Everything moves up. The soda bottle is NOT a Carnifex.

Tanks fire into the Horrors, which go to ground for 2+, rerolling.

Blob fires into Kairos, who shakes it off with 2++, rerolling.

Daemons, turn 2.

Reserves: Terminators do not come on. I do not reroll with Kairos because then I couldn't help any mishaps. Seekers come on of course, unsupported on the flank with the Knight.

I do not cast Grimoire on Kairos, because he should be safe, right?

Then I do Perils of the Warp (reroll), he takes a wound and fails a grounding test (no more reroll). I do manage to stun Pask.

Astra Militarum, turn 2.

Reserves: forgotten. Oops.

Chimera advances and Veterans get out.

3++ with Grimoire, so only a couple die. One Veteran dies to his own plasma gun. Queue "We burn" by Sabaton.

Concentrated firepower takes Kairos down.

Priest rolls double gets hot, but does not die.

Knight annihilates the Seekers. Should have brought them in on the other flank, but I thought I could run through the heavy weapons teams.

Note that at this point the score was 5-0. I kept pulling the objectives on the other side of the table. Opponent was luckier, also had first blood and warlord kill.

Daemons, turn 3.

Terminators arrive. With no Kairos to help rerolling scatter, I chose a "safe" spot. A good choice, as I scattered off a bit. Now, on to the Psychic phase.

I managed to get off Invisibility on the Terminators. The Horrors did well too, annihilating the Veterans squad down to 1 plasma gunner. The Herald then Possessed himself to become a D-thirster. Maybe I can turn this around?

Combi meltas didn't do anything by the way.

Astra Militarum, turn 4.

Valkyrie arrives. Queue "Ride of the Valkyries".

You know your warp smiths suck when two tanks firing snapshots take down 3 Terminators.

Grimoire failed last turn. Knight and Chimera kill the last Pink Horrors and wound the D-thirster down to 3.

Daemons, turn 5.

Time to make my move. Terminators advance on Pask, get off Hammerhand. Hallucinations target the blob, but fail to kill the priest. Tanks fire at the Valkyrie in their confusion caused by the Cabal, and make it Jink.

D-thirster advances.

The Chaos Gods observe my struggle and deem me unfit for favors. The Herald dies to the Warp Storm.

S10 Power Staves? Yes please.

I could have charged the Chimera with the D-thirster, but that wouldn't have accomplished much. I saw my only chance in thinning the blob and taking over one half of the table. It was a reasonably desperate plan, and the charge, of course, failed by 1 inch.

Astra Militarum, turn 5.

Fire everything!

With the Bloodthirster rolling double ones on armor saves, I conceded.

Conclusion

• If you are using psychic powers, use them at least well. Molten Beam is melta for a reason.
• Grimoire always goes on Kairos. Otherwise, use his reroll better.
• Aegis Defence Line with Comms Relay could have helped with reserves. No other reserve-roll-shenanigans for the poor Chaos Space Marines otherwise.
• Gorgeously painted Guard army, and the Knight is an awesome centerpiece. It was a pleasure getting beaten into the dirt by it.
• Expertly deployed, too. The Shroud of Deceit was meant to not do much this game.

M.A.G.U.S. - garden adventures

Introduction

Once again, the adventurers were hired by a wizard. This one had issues with a certain runestone, which caused giant growth all across his garden.

First challenge - ants

The adventurers started towards the tree in the center of the garden, where the runestone should be found, according to their employer. Soon, they came across an obstacle - a long queue of marching ants. The warlock thought of a concoction to make them invisible to the ants, but he needed some dead ants, so let's do that!

Wilborin and Phempheus block the ants, while Aegon bombards them with lightning. The beer bottles represent grass.

Wilborin used up his Psi for an enhanced charge - making the first ant very, very dead.

A short fight saw several ants fall, but other kept coming - and they were growing ever larger before our very eyes. We picked up a couple of corpses, then ran away. At a safe distance, Aegon got to work. We smeared the stuff all over ourselves, and proceeded to walk between the ants without any problems.

Stag-beetle

Naturally, we couldn't just climb up the tree. A stag beetle was patrolling below. We tried to lure it away, but that didn't work, so instead we managed to turn it on its back with clever use of ropes and the halberd. Hey, we don't know maths - but our characters do!

More ants

We were climbing up the tree as we met more ants coming our way. Some did not notice us - the concoction was still in effect - but we still had fight the others. I managed to run one through with the halberd, but it was now too much for it, and the haft broke. Oh well, at least I brought a sword.

Giant spider

There was a spiderweb right where we needed to cross to a branch. We were already in pretty bad shape, so we decided to burn our way through with torches and fireballs instead of fighting the spider. We managed to keep it away, and cross to the branch.

Giant giant ant

An ant the size of a horse greeted us on the branch. Furthermore, its mandibles were turning to metal, almost like if it were adapting to our previous attacks. We had a tough fight ahead of us, but in the end, we chopped off its legs, and a well-aimed lightning bolt electrocuted its antennae. It fell off the tree.

The stone

Aegon had the instructions on how to defuse the stone. He completed the ritual, which caused the world to shift and turn around us. It would be hard to get down - unless we spot some dragonflies! A few successful dexterity checks later, we landed our mounts on the ground. More precisely, on a leaf in a stream.

Row, row, row your boat

We rode the leaf, nursing our wounds. We were attacked by giant bees. I parried a stinger with my chest (thankfully, no major damage to the armor), and we fought the bees until they were all chopped up or thrown in the water.

Safety

Soon enough, the effect of the runestone dispersed, and everything was back to its old size. We gave the stone to the wizard, who in return promised us some enchanted arms and armor. Excellent! Now I just have to look up the remains of my halberd...

M.A.G.U.S. adventures - in the land of the Six Cities (2)

Introduction

Again, some time had passed since the last session - but at least, we had time to come up with a sensible plan. We fleshed out the details, then swung into action. We relied on the help of the friendly inkeeper. We threw enough gold at him to secure his "friendship", and hoped that our employer would return our funds.

Getting into the fort

We dressed up as peasants, and we brought fowl to the kitchens. Of course, we didn't have time to gather enough pheasants, so we arrived carrying all manner of assorted birds. We got what we deserved from the kitchen wenches.

By the time we got rid of our payload, it was getting dark. Phempheus had the job of creating a distraction, while Aegon and Wilborin dug out the weapons hidden in the vegetable garden (thanks to the help of the innkeeper). We had at our disposal: 1 sword, 1 halberd, 2 vials of combat drugs, 10 poisoned throwing daggers. No armor.

Diversion

Our first choice was the firewood, stored near the kitchens. The firemage had to light it up. He managed to conjure lots of small fires among the wood, which had successfully spread, before someone alerted the guards.

Rescuing the prisoners

Taking advantage of the confusion, we made our move on the dungeons. There were 2 soldiers on guard; we charged at them. With an augmented Psi-charge, Wilborin swung his halberd, running one of them through. The others killed the other guard. I tried to torture some information out of him before he died, but he had suffered heavy brain damage, so I was unsuccessful. We put on the armor of the dead guards, then opened the door and got the prisoners out.

Getting out of the fort

The inner courtyard was filled with soldiers desperately trying to put out the fire. It was an excellent distraction, but it did not offer a way out. Every gate of the double stone wall was shut.

To increase the time at our disposal, Phempheus applied more fire magic. The fire grew by several meters, engulfing several nearby buildings.

The guards of the inner gate were awed by the fiery spectacle. We managed to lift the keys off of them, before they ran to join the fire brigade.

The outer gates had another two soldiers on guard. Wilborin drank a vial of combat drugs, then charged at them, screaming wildly. Yet again, a soldier was run through immediately. The other one soon got reinforcements, but the adventurers handled them, and managed to open the gates - but not before Phempheus received a large cut to his side. Carrying the unconscious firemage, the party ran out of the fort.

Escape

We didn't know how would we exit the fort, so we had reserved two separate avenues of escape. If we had found a way to exit towards the noble quarter of the city, we had a safe house at our disposal, disguised as a noble's mansion. Alas, we had found ourselves in the sewers instead. We met up with a guide hired by the innkeeper, who led us to the poor quarter, outside the city walls. We took shelter in an empty hut.

Unfortunately, we managed to drop Phempheus on the way, and his open wound got infected.

A hard night

During the dark of the night, in an unknown city, we did not brave the streets. We had to wait in the hut until morning. We had no medicine at our disposal. We tried to keep the firemage warm with our own body heat, so that at least he couldn't get worse. Of course, this meant that neither of us slept well. (And by that I mean that we didn't regenerate anything, as one normally would during a long rest.)

Escape from the city

In the morning, we met up with our guide. He and Aegon brought our gear and medicine for the firemage while I stood watch. Then we realized that the stonemason, who was supposed to join us, had no idea where we were. Furthermore, we had no means of escape without a cart or horses. We gave some money to the guide to warn the master mason (who had indeed reached us at nightfall). Then we sent him to buy a cart. To assure that he wouldn't run with the money, Aegon cast an imaginary (though very scary sounding) curse on him. He found an ox instead of a donkey, but at this point, we were happy with basically anything.

The journey home

We kept travelling at night, resting during the day. Phempheus was recovering well, lying in the cart. Thanks to our carefulness, we had a single run-in with the soldiers searching for us. We spotted the riders from afar, and stood near the wagon, awaiting the charge. The ox is grazing peacefully to the side.

Wilborin successfully "halberded" a rider.
Phempheus launched a fireball, which made a horse buck and throw off its rider. Close combat followed, but the soldier managed to escape.
Aegon conjured lightning, also managing to confuse the horse. The thrown-off soldier had a short fight with the warlock, who kept throwing daggers at him from the safe cover of the cart. They held off each other, until Wilborin put the man down with his halberd.
Of course, we couldn't afford to leave survivors, so I jumped on a horse and hunted down the escaped soldier.

Arrival

We were well received by our employer. He immediately put the stonemason to work, and we were rewarded for a job well done.

M.A.G.U.S. adventures - in the land of the Six Cities (1)

After a while, we got sick of learning and training (and getting drunk each night, adds the DM), so it was about time to get involved in a new adventure. Fortunately, we needn't look for long. Our wizard had already called upon us for another task. What's the worse thing that could happen?

The wizard was looking for a stonemason to repair his tower, previously damaged in the earthquake. Of course, it wasn't as simple - with wizards, it never is. He needed the best and most renowned mason in the land. He even had his eyes on an individual - but he was far away on a commission, working for a baron in the land of the Six Cities. Furthermore, this particular baron had once caused some minor slight to the wizard. Poaching the stonemason was his way of getting revenge. Never mind that the mason was constructing a great temple, meant to forever inscribe the baron's name in the book of history!

On the road

We had several weeks worth of travelling ahead of us. We tried to take the high roads to avoid any mishaps, but we couldn't stay out of harms way altogether. On a forested part of the land, we were ambushed by bandits. Thanks to my danger sense, I have been able to anticipate the attack, and we were prepared for the charge. Luckily, the bandits were armed with woodcutting axes, and wore no armor. Phempheus drew his sword, while Aegon threw poisoned daggers at the attackers. I stood my ground and chopped a bandit in half! The remaining attacker lost his nerve, and ran away. We looted the fallen, then continued on our merry trip.

Arrival

We had done some documentation before leaving, so we mostly knew what to expect when we arrived. Still, the local customs bedazzled us, as we made our way to an inn. Fortunately, the opportunity arose to make new acquaintances.

First of all, we made friends with a dwarf, who was drinking pitcher after pitcher of ale. We just had to admire his drinking expertise, his beard, the dwarven expertise of building in general, etc. Naturally, we got drunk way faster than he did, so we decided to spend the night there.
In the morning, we managed to get acquainted with the inkeeper. The inn was festooned with plants and leaves, so we deduced that he's an alchemist - a great starting point for Aegon to talk with him. He also did some backroom healing jobs, where my own medical expertise would come into play. Soon we learned that he had contacts in the local criminal underworld. Great! Straight road to accomplishing our goals. Well, at least the first step.

The construction site and the stonemason

The innkeeper got hold of some dusty mason's outfits for us, and bribed some guards. Meanwhile, we spied upon the construction site, and tried to come up with ideas (including threatening the mason, and kidnapping his family). Wilborin immediately refused all plans that included the killing of the baron.

Our preparations were in place for us to infiltrate the construction site. We did manage to get some more info out of the innkeeper. It seemed that the whole 'kidnap his family' thing had already occurred to somebody: this was exactly how and why the baron 'convinced' the mason to work for him. Well, at least we got an attack vector.

For the beginning, we prepared for the first. Phempheus and myself went in with daggers in our boots. Aegon had throwing daggers prepared with poison; he had even prepared a small amount of special sleeping poison, in case we needed to drag the mason out against his will. So let's see how this plan survives contact with the enemy.
After lunch break, we mingled with the returning workers, and soon enough, we managed to get close to the master mason. We let him know that we are in the employ of a powerful personage, and we can get him and his family to a safe place, in return for him accepting a job. As far as we could tell, he was convinced; still, he asked for a day to think about it. We spent the rest of the day among the workers. We even met the dwarf again, around the smithy; he was convinced that we took the odd job for money.

The morning after, we slipped in to the construction site using the same disguises. Fortunately, the master mason was convinced; however, the execution of the plan was not going to be easy. He gave us a map of the fort where he and his family were kept, but we didn't have enough time to come up with a reasonable plan. It had to be that night. The mason would need to go to the baron to give a progress update on the temple, drawing away some guards from the prisoners and the fort in general, leaving us room to get the family out. We barely had a couple of hours to come up with something.

Up next: the rescue mission.

Basing Flesh Hounds of Khorne

I decided to finish another project: Chaos Warhounds painted as Flesh Hounds of Khorne.

Basing

Putty

As always, I filled the central hole of the washer on which the miniatures are mounted with home made putty...

... which I then painted black.

Flocking

I first added grey soil (ash?) on some parts of the bases. I then added black rocks (coal?) to the rest of the base. Then, I sprinkled more grey soil over and between the rocks so as not to let the base be seen. Note that the larger rocks need more PVA glue to stick, so don't water it down.

Seal the bases.

Bushes

I already departed from my own Khorne basing convention established with the Bloodletters - but truth to be told, I now find it lackluster. To further the effect of desolation and lack of life where my Khorne daemons go, I decided to add some dry bushes for contrast with the grey soil/ash. As with the Chaos Marines and their ruined cityscape bases, I wanted to avoid large amounts of grass/bush, so I cut them down to 1/4 size and stuck them into crevices, flat areas, places where the flocking did not stick.

Finished!

M.A.G.U.S. adventures - the road to level 3

The wizard's tower

Introduction

The adventurers were partying in a local tavern as usual, when their next adventure found them in the person of a mysterious wizard. He told us about some kind of trouble in his nearby tower, which he cannot solve right now, and offered a substantial reward for the adventurers to take care of. Now, any sane man would sent him off to hell - but we were adventurers, so what's the worst thing that could happen, right? His summary description mentioned a string of challenges to be solved, a kind of puzzle designed for apprentice wizards. This would grant us access to the tower, and the possibility to investigate the problems.

So we got to the tower, passed through a wall, and found ourselves in a round chamber. Many doors opened from the chamber, each marked with different symbols and inscriptions. So why does the team need a knight with basic training in high magic? So he can deduct that the passages each lead to a puzzle in a certain area of high magic. These were to be our challenges.

By the way, a new member was added to the team. A waiter, eager to become an adventurer, joined us in the tavern. We were happy to accept him - someone needs to go in front and absorb the traps, after all.

First challenge - elemental magic

We entered through a random door. The hall bore the inscription: "Gallery". In the four corners, there were four elementals, isolated in their own mini-realm: fire, water, air and ground. We spent some time experimenting, until we found out what they like and dislike. The fire elemental immediately made a move on living tissue entering its realm. The earth elemental tore my cloak to shreds when I used it as a fan on it. The funniest moment was the waiter entering the air elemental's corner. All of his metal objects immediately rusted, including all weapons!
Armed with such knowledge, we headed towards the exit and ploughed through the challenges without much difficulty. Well, almost. The firemage extinguished a huge flame wall. We crossed an icy pool by raising our body temperature with Psi (except the waiter, who used ropes and pitons to climb the walls instead). High order mathematics helped us compute the exact sequence of the spikes coming out of the walls in the earthen corridor. We illuminated our path with torches in a totally empty room, while an unknown entity - perhaps a demon - was lurking at the edge of the light.
After all this, feeling very content with our progress, we crossed the last threshold - and found ourselves in the original round room. A faint glow on the symbol above the door signaled the completion of the elemental challenge. Just great. Do we have to solve ALL of this?

Pause

This adventure was followed by a one-year-long pause (or was it more?). We could no longer count on the waiter boy (who turned out to be a cleric of a night god), as the player was no longer in town. The three of us continued to unravel the mysteries of the tower.

Second challenge - necromancy

We remembered quite well the frustration caused by all the puzzles, so we went somewhere were we hoped to engage in some combat, as well. We got what we came for - but of course, not the way we wanted.

In the necromancy gallery, a number of undead were standing around, each in its own runic circle. Aegon and Phempheus sat down to play chess with a mummy (which seemed a good idea at the time), while I took the time to look around. I got a bad feeling when the lich offered me to save my life in exchange for his freedom. Then I started feeling sick. In a few moments, I managed to faint, with the cause immediately apparent. The werewolf spirit escaped its runic circle, and possessed me!

My friends tried to tie me up, and I also got a dose of sleeping poison, but the transformation was too quick, and combat was upon us. I rolled very, very well playing the werewolf. The firemage barely managed to hold me up. The warlock went to ask the lich for help. He got out of his circle, then started casting a dark spell that hurt all of us. This was getting better and better. Finally, Aegon picked up the silver sword next to the werewolf's runic circle. He attacked me from behind, causing enough damage to knock me out. 

So far, this seemed to be going well. We didn't even get past the gallery, and already my armor was ruined due to the transformation (I tied it up using some rope, heh). The werewolf spirit was exorcised, but it escaped. According to the description, it will take one month before it becomes strong to possess someone again. The lich simply blew up half a wall, and walked out of the tower.

After recovering, we pressed on. We killed some zombies (finally! honest combat), we chopped up another one and threw its parts through a grating to activate a trapped tile. We had a jolly good time, and then we got back to the round room.

Third challenge - sympathetic magic 

I hope I got that right. It's magic based on the link between similar objects.

Anyway, choosing this challenge proved to be our biggest mistake. 

We realized in the gallery that you link different object through magic: if you extinguish the candle, the stick discharges electricity and knocks out the warlock. Yay. On to the challenges.

First task: a nail half-hammered into a door, a haft and a stack of hammerheads. I picked up the haft and tried to fit it into some hammerheads. The first one electrocuted me. The second one burned me.  The third one got me a frostbite. Oh well, a knight can take it. The fourth puts a spike through my palm. The fifth crushes my fingers. There goes my right hand. Phempheus manages to get it right with the next, and hammers in the nail. We move forward.

We see a long corridor, overgrown with spiky vines. The firemage deliberates on how to put it to fire. The warlock is still out. I try to go in, hoping that my armor will protect me. The vines start moving. I protect my face with an arm, but a vine slips past, with a spike stopping at a hair's breadth from my eye. I pass out from the pain. Phempheus pulls me out, and takes out the spike. 1 more on that die, and there goes my eye. Then he puts the corridor to flame, and we move on after recovering.

After that, we had quite enough of the challenges, so we check whether we can move on. We can. Yay!

The mystery of the tower

We have successfully deduced that the tower was damaged by an earthquake. It damaged the runic circle of the werewolf, enabling it to escape. As we climbed ever higher, it became apparent that it was part of a targeted attack (top investigation skills! also, burned corpses). Soon, we became targets ourselves, as we were greeted by a fireball on the next floor. All our equipment burned, my rope-held armor fell to pieces, and we were damaged ourselves. No matter, we can sit down and meditate. We get another fireball. OK, no sitting down anymore.

Finally, we got to the living quarters, were we found two dudes just sitting there, looking at a wall inscribed with runes, their faces expressionless. Phempheus was unaffected by the runes due to his superior willpower, and he walked into the room, covering up the runes. Immediately, the dudes jumped up and started attacking.

We fought desperately. I swung my sword left-handed, to little success. Not to mention that I was also affected by the runes, engulfed by both abject fear and the desire to kill. This was also making our opponents fight ferociously. In our weakened state, it looked like we would perish. Still, we managed to hold on until the effects wore off, and we soon ended the pointless fight.

Soon, we got the two dudes talking. They realized that an attacker altered the tower's defensive systems, making them turn against the inhabitants (and us). They created the runes on the wall as a form of defense of their own, with the tower unable to detect them in their mindless state. We proceeded together to the final floor, where we disabled the defenses. Mission accomplished!

Rewards

We found out that our employer was living in the tower, and that he was the only one to successfully escape by teleportation during the attack. As we had suspected, he was a powerful wizard. As our just reward, we each got magic items. Phempheus got a gauntlet that enabled him to draw more mana from fire; my new armor was self-donning as well as self-repairing. Aegon, like all warlocks, only wanted more knowledge - he got training in gem magic instead. Besides, we had our employers funds and extensive network of acquaintances at our disposal for whatever training we desired. This is how you get a knight with 95% danger sense!

Basing a Daemon of Slaanesh

I decided to finish one of my older projects: a Chaos Spawn painted in the colors of Slaanesh. Following the aesthetics established with the two squads of Daemonettes, I went with a verdant green base.

Basing

Putty

I used a large lump of home made putty to fill in the hole in the middle of the washer. Then, when it dried, I painted it a bright, deep green.

Flocking

As with the Daemonettes, start by adding soil, then grass.

Seal the base, then leave it to dry for the night.

Extras

I had a large base here, so I had space to work with. I added some green moss I had lying around. I covered up the spots where it was glued to the base with leaves.

So nothing overly complicated, but it looks lush and verdant.

Finished!

M.A.G.U.S. adventures - the road to level 2

It's been at least 3 years since we met our GM in what was then the Red Goblin store in the city (the place where I learned of all the fun stuff, including Warhammer and DnD). We got off to a rough start, with frequent and long pauses. After a while, however, we started playing more frequently. In this post, I go back to the beginning of the road...

First adventure: the bandits' camp

The two players, a friend and I, picked up an announcement posted by the GM and turned up without a clue on how to play. He gave us a choice of pre-made characters, so we chose a knight and a warlock specialized in lightning magic.

The adventure began with the adventurers reaching a small village, plagued by bandits. Naturally, we took up the task of ridding the world of the bandits, and started out towards their supposed hiding place. They were living quite well, in an abandoned mansion, in the middle of the forest. We found two guys standing guard, killing them (obviously), but not before torturing some information out of them. We found out that they are actually members of a sect belonging to some kind of prophet. We started exploring the mansion, but immediately got shot at with poisoned darts. We retreated into a dormitory and barricaded the doors, resting a bit to recover.

After a short rest and lunch, we continued exploring the mansion. Obviously, the bossman seemed to be hiding out in the basement. We bypassed some traps (more precisely, I blundered into them, but my armor protected me), eventually reaching the main rooms of the basement and confronting what turned out to be the prophet's bodyguard. The well trained and well equipped bandit gave us a hard time - I spent the latter half of the fight retreating and barely fighting him off, waiting for the warlock to kill him with poison.

After another short rest, we decided not to stop there, and entered the inner sanctum. There we met the "prophet". He turned out to be a stray warlock, who succeeded in convincing the bandits of his own divinity using all kinds of party tricks. He was, of course, reluctant to give up his position without a fight. We were showered by lightning, and attacked by animated undead. I left the zombies to my companion, and charged at the warlock.

In the end, we managed to win by a hair's breadth. The warlock enclosed me in a cage of lightning. Seeing my last chance, I charged at him. I lost consciousness due to the lightning - but the last thing I saw was the warlock's head, flying off his shoulders. Polearms for the win!

In the meantime, my companion had his own problems. He tried electrocuting the zombies, but to no avail. In the end, he exploded their necks, but the shrapnel-like bone fragments caused enough damage for him also to lose consciousness.

The adventurers awakened after some time. Luckily, they have defeated all of the bandits before confronting the warlock, and noone was around to take advantage of their unconscious forms. They looked around the dungeon, finding treasure and clues to the story above. 

In the end, they retreated to the village, received their reward, and threw a party in the local tavern.

Second adventure - the goblin association

As I mentioned before, we just sort of happened into the first adventure, without knowledge of the rules, and with premade characters. It turned out to be loads of fun, so we decided on continuing the adventures. We read through the rulebook first, though. I found my knight to be fun enough, so I only gave him a proper name: Wilborin. My companion, the warlock, changed his subclass, respecializing from lightning magic to necromancy instead, naming himself Aegon.
We were joined by a firemage and a ranger.
Our second adventure was to be less fighty. We gathered at our old friend, the innkeep at the Prancing Pony. There we discovered that the inn had become cursed. All the food and drink spoiled - including the one we already ate! Cue speed test to see who reaches the bathroom.
We left our quarters in a hurry, but promised the innkeep to look into the situation. The curse was cast by a long dead goblin shaman, who used to live in the poor quarter. We followed every possible trail through the city, while the inn looked worse by the hour. Finally, we found a goblin who could undo the curse, but the price of his services was to be ridiculously high. He was a member of a goblin association - the Bloody Victory - which aimed to create a goblin quarter in the city. This was, of course, laughable - who has ever heard of anything like that? We had no way of accomplishing this, but he saw it sufficient if we cause enough damage to the local authorities while drawing attention to his cause. We did not want to be responsible for any terrorist activities, but we apparently had no choice. We promised the goblin to ruin the coming of age ceremony of the son of the local lord, the following day.
My knightly upbringing prohibited actually harming the young noble. Nevertheless, we were annoyed enough to come up with ruining the ceremonial stage. During the night, we... got hold of some poor man's clothes, and pretended to be woodcarvers, working on the stage. We had actually fiddled with the ropes, enabling us to bring down the covering of the back wall of the stage at any moment. We decorated the back wall itself with the initials of the goblin movement - BV. Of our rather unorthodox methods, more below.
On the following day, we awaited for the ceremony to be going full swing, before putting our plan into  action. The firemage, mixed in with the crowd, alighted the fuse that would burn the necessary knots. The ranger stood as backup in a sniping position, atop a nearby house, ready to shoot at the knots should the fire be discovered. Alas, everything went according to plan, and the cover - along with all hanging flags and decoration - was brought down in the middle of the ceremony. On the black wall, written up in goblin poo, the letters: "PV" (we didn't see quite well in the dark).
We enacted a quick retreat after the deed was done. The goblin proved true to his word, and lifted the curse. Immediately after, we vented our pent up frustration on him - he burned, he was electrocuted, his heart was pierced by an arrow, and his head was cut off with a halberd - AT THE SAME TIME.
...
At the end of the adventure, we said good-bye to the ranger. The player was a friend passing by, who could not continue alongside us. However, the firemage Phempheus was now a permanent addition to the party.

M.A.G.U.S. - kerti kalandok

Why is this post not in English?

Bevezető

A kalandozókat ismét egy varázsló fogadta szolgálatába. Ezúttal egy különleges rúnakő okozott gondokat - a varázsló egész kertje szédületes növekedésbe kezdett miatta.

Első kihívás - hangyák

A kalandozók megindultak a kert közepén levő fa irányába, ahol a rúnakő a varázsló leírása szerint rejtőzött. Rövidesen akadályba ütköztek - masírozó hangyasorba. A boszorkánymester bevállalta, hogy összekotyvaszt valami hangyaferomont, ám ehhez szükség volt pár tetemre. Ideje elcsalni pár hangyát a menetből!

Wilborin es Phempheusz elállják a hangyák útját, míg Aegon varázslatokkat bombázza őket. A sörösüvegek: fűszálak.

Wilborin szokás szerint az első rohamnál lemerítette pszi-pontjait - de az első hangya nagyon, nagyon meghalt.

Rövid küzdelem árán sikerült legyűrni pár hangyát, ám állandóan újabbak jöttek, és egyre nagyobbra nőttek - a kalandozók szeme láttára. Gyorsan felkaptuk az addig kifasírozott tetemeket, és elrohantunk velük. Biztos távolságra aztán Aegon nekifogott "sebészkedni". Alaposan bekentünk magunkat, majd gond nélkül átsétáltunk a hangyák között.

Szarvasbogár

Természetesen nem mászhattunk csak úgy fel a fára - alatta egy szarvasbogár cirkált. Megpróbáltuk elcsalni, de mivel ez nem ment, ügyesen kicseleztük, és megfelelő matematikai ismereket használva (ha mi nem is, de a karakereink értettek hozzá) a hátára fordítottuk, emelőnek használva az alabárdot.

Még több hangya

A fatörzsön felfele újabb hangyák jöttek szembe. Nem mindegyik vett észre - még hatott a feromon - ám néhánnyal így is meg kellett küzdeni. Egyet szerencsésen kibeleztem a beakasztott alabárdommal, de a lendülete kettétörte a már megviselt nyelet. Eh - elő a lovagkardot.

Óriáspók

A pók hálója ott várt minket, ahol az a faág nőtt ki a törzsből, amelyiken a rúnakövet sejtettük. Már eddigre eléggé meg voltunk viselve, úgyhogy fáklyával es tűzgolyóval égettük a hálóját direkt csata helyett. Sikerült távol tartani magunktól, és átaraszolni a faágra.

Gigászi óriáshangya

Ez fogadott minket az ágon - egy lóméretű hangya. Mi több, a rágói fémes elváltozásokat mutattak - a kert őrei alkalmazkodtak harcmodorunkhoz. Kemény küzdelem árán sikerült legyőzni - végül levágtuk a lábait, és vilámot vezettünk a csápjaiba. Szerencsésen leesett az ágról.

Megvan a kő! 

Aegon hatástalanította a varázsló utasításai alapján, amire persze minden elkezdett változni körülöttünk. Egy éles szemű kalandozó kiszúrta az alattunk cikázó szitakötőket. Mi a legrosszabb dolog, ami történhet? Leugrottunk, és egyre zsugorodó szitakötő-háton landoltunk, majd többé-kevésbé épen a földön.

Csónakozás

Vagy inkább levelezés. Egy falevélen sodródtunk a biztonság fele (vagy legalábbis reméltük), amikor méhek támadtak ránk. Hősiesen védtem egy fullánkot a melkasommal (szerencsére a páncélnak nem lett komoly baja), majd sorjában szétvágtuk és vízbe löktük a méheket.

Biztonság

Hamarosan elmúlt a rúnakő hatása, és minden visszavette régi méretét. Átadtuk az átkozott követ a varázslónak - cserébe megígérte, hogy egy-egy fegyvert vagy páncélt megvarázsol nekünk. Tökéletes! Már csak az alabárdom fejét kell megkeressem a kertben...

Painting miniatures for M.A.G.U.S.

My latest painting project consisted of four miniatures, representing the heroes of our M.A.G.U.S. group:

• the Soldier with torch (used as a warrior firemage)
• the Warrior (used as an elf warrior mage)
• the Mage (used as a warlock)
• the Knight (representing my own character, who is actually a knight)

Here they are, from left to right: Phempheus, Daramin, Aegon, Wilborin.

Painting a Mage

Introduction

The fourth and final figure painted for one of my RPG (MAGUS) groups. He will be used as a warlock.

Planning phase

Ever since I laid eyes on this guy, I envisioned him in the blue robes of Deckard Cain. 

Painting

With such a dark color scheme, I went for a black primer.

Lay on the basecoat: dark brown, skintone. I also coated the robe in dark blue (barely distinguishable from black)...

... a couple of bronze charms, bonewhite paper...

... the face...

... and the backpack in the usual style.

Generous black wash on all surfaces, except the robe:

Edge highlight the skin:

Along with everything else.
Edge highlight the leather just like for the previous figures. Highlight the robe with 3 layers of successively lighter blues, then apply a light blue trim.

Basing

This guy looks to be travelling so peacefully - let's place him on a green field!

First, fill out the base with home made putty:

Basecoat that in brown, so as to avoid any white seeing through.

Apply soil, then grass, similar to the Warrior:

This base is smaller, so I didn't want to cram it full of stuff. After sealing the flocking, I placed a single bush on the grass:

Finished!