jordangreywolf

I've been trying to do what I can to support Gwendel's Warcraft guild, though her own involvement has been declining of late. Ah well. At least it gets me back in the mode of doing doodles.

Dark Iron Foreman
Part of the "Vigilants of Tyr" campaign involves base-building, and some of the quests have involved making choices about different quests to go on to acquire essential materials for particular projects. There's a whole mini-game sort of thing going on in Discord involving crafting rolls and spending of resources to build new additions to the base, but I haven't been involved (I just show up to the scheduled sessions on WoW, and don't have time to be monitoring essentially a play-by-mail arrangement during the day -- especially since I only have Discord on the game-dedicated computer).

Anyway, I at least did a doodle of one of the characters, a Dark Iron foreman, leading the way on building a new defensive fortification for the base. (I thought he had an interesting-looking helmet.)

Hallow's End Costume Contest Winner
For "Hallow's End," the Warcraft equivalent to Halloween (but it goes on for a lot longer), we had a celebration at the "Mithril Mug," the tavern originally run by "Bathildis," but which somehow Entalinval (Gwendel's character) ended up taking over ... which, in practice, meant ME taking over, because Gwendel fairly frequently doesn't feel like playing, but doesn't want to be absent (especially for events she's ostensibly hosting), so she leaves it to me to "hand-puppet" her character with a bit of multi-monitor multi-boxing and it's rather a lot to juggle. Combine that with how often nobody would show up except for a couple of diehards who would basically just park their characters in the corner and then sit there, idle, for hours on end, and I got the idea that this was a pointless exercise being done for tradition's sake, while anybody who'd actually care about it was off doing other things.

But ... eh, might as well finish off with a bang, right? So I did my best to put on a "Hallow's End" party at the unofficial last night of the Mithril Mug. (IN CHARACTER, the tavern is still open, but I'm not going to devote every Sunday night to sitting around "roleplaying" and "hand-puppeteering" into the wee hours in what is quite possibly an empty room. If someone wants an RP session using the tavern as a prop, I'm sure I could make a special arrangement.)

In any case, it went off well enough. Gwendel actually played her own character (yay!) and ran a costume contest and a "bobbing for apples" contest. A funny twist was that two of the costume contestants dressed up as ... one adventurer who showed up who was also the only one who stubbornly DID NOT wear a costume. I drew a doodle of the costume contest winner. All went well, and now for the first time in a long time, I can actually do other things on a Sunday night.

Snack-o-Lanterns & More
One of the add-ons used a lot in the "Mead Hall" community and related RP groups is "TRP 3" (Total Roleplay 3) -- and a related optional add-on is "TRP 3 Extended," which adds on a fun little toy that allows for "virtual" items. (Yeah, I know, this is a game, so it's all virtual.) You can have a separate inventory "bag" that only exists in the add-on/overlay, containing "items" that, again, only exist in the add-on (and for other players who have the same add-on installed). It's possible to program up items with their own icons, sound effects when you pick them up or discard them, and with attached descriptions, usage text, etc., to mimic the way objects work in the game. They have no actual in-game effect, but there are still a few fun things you can do with them. For instance, you could make "books," with a tree of actions to reveal "pages," with the occasional sound effect ... and technically, you could even make a sort of branching "Choose Your Own Adventure" tale as well. Mostly, I've just been using them for "food items" that you can "take a bite" of or "take a drink from" and then at the end it's either gone, or is replaced with an "empty plate" or "empty mug," etc., with sound effects for "actions," and randomized usage messages.

Alas, there's no way for me to introduce original art, or have variables associated with the item. I'd love to make, say, a "magic 8 ball" that you could shake, get a random message, and until you "shake" it again you can see the last message it gave. No, all I can do is have an "8-ball" that gives you a random message as a chat-line message, and that's it. I've been able to make "fortune cookies," but it's quite a lot of work, and the size bulks up considerably with a lot of fortunes. (One hazard is that it takes TIME to "download" a new database item from another user -- especially if it's at all complex.)

Anyway, here were some Hallow's-End-themed items for the party: Eye Scream, Snack-o'-Lanterns (pumpkin muffins), and Gingerdead Man Cookies.

Dot the Drill-Dozer Bot
"Dot" was the name assigned to a large drill-dozer bot built by a mechagnome tinker to assist in the re-excavation of a collapsed tunnel leading to the Tomb of Tyr underneath Tyr's Fall in Tirisfal Glades. Its only apparent means of control was a large, shiny, red, candy-like button on its back (which would start it up ... and the only way to STOP it seems to be either if it's so inclined, or it breaks down). Its only apparent mode of communication is in a series of machine-like noises, largely consisting of variations on "Buh-whoop." With some effort, the bard was able to discern that "Hup-Hup" must mean something like, "Get ready to go!" because it's invariably followed by the robot suddenly buzzing off at high speed.

The poor robot was something of a redshirt in the first adventure, getting clobbered by a huge stone spider-monster thing, but its head and processor were saved, and due to popular demand (and a side-quest) it was eventually restored with a rebuilt body. Buh-whoop!

Steve the Lizard
Steve is in some ways a phenomenon, a result of a fluke die roll and a GM joke. In the aforementioned tunnel-excavation "escort quest" adventure, the bard went over to investigate a strange stone and suddenly was attacked by a rock lizard. Roll to defend! (Nat 20.) The tradition in most cases was if the GM asks you to make a defense roll, and you get a nat 20, then either: a) you can use your amazing save to help someone else (if it's area effect, you drag someone else to safety, etc.), or b) you can make a counter-attack. This wasn't area effect, and the bard is kind of notorious for not being the attacky type (most of the time, except when really nasty undead are involved). The GM simply declared, "You now have a new pet lizard." (...) "Its name is Steve."

The bard promptly pulled out a battle pet lizard and named it Steve, and -- voila! New team mascot. Huzzah!

Team Creepy Crawler vs. the Creeping Sludge

After the last adventure, wherein Dot the digger-dozer-bot got clobbered, and the PCs barely managed to escape some nasty subterranean foes (the bard used an enchanted fiddle to encourage the two burrowing worms to please, please, go dig somewhere else rather than attacking the robot, but the giant stone spider wasn't so easily dissuaded), the team decided to spend some time prepping for a return -- especially since none of the enemies encountered were actually destroyed and hence might be there, perhaps even in greater numbers, for a rematch.

So, off to a gnomish scrapyard to scavenge for useful bits to use to build some new devices, or repair some old ones! Primarily this was about rebuilding Dot, but a couple of other PC teams split off to accomplish some other tasks: a) "Team Thumper" to make some devices to make "thumpy" noises to serve as decoys to distract subterranean burrowing monsters; b) "Team Creepy-Crawler" to recover some alchemical supplies to make an expanding foam weapon designed to deal with a swarm of "stone spiders" capable of combining together to make a BIGGER stone spider monster (the idea being that the foam could hinder their ability to bond to each other when combining).

Well, one nice thing about this setting is that even though it's ostensibly fantasy, we still have GIANT STOMPY ROBOTS! Yay! In particular, Gwendel's character, Entalinval -- alchemist and engineer as well as paladin -- has a big mecha suit that is somehow powered by the Holy Light. For this adventure, we had a new recruit -- a half-elf priestess -- and Entalinval got her help to act as a co-pilot for the mecha suit. After all, he normally just piloted it on open ground or even flew it, but in order to haul heavy things around the junkyard in unstable (prone to sudden surprise collapses) areas, he could use a bit of help. (It was mostly just an excuse to get a new player involved.)

This is an illustration of a scene wherein the suit was assaulted by some toxic sludge in the compound that was more-or-less animated, adding to the challenge. (Fortunately, all turned out well enough.)

REPENT!
Sometimes Gwendel's guild attends larger RP events run by larger, more organized groups -- and invariably they have their own preferred game systems to resolving things. (World of Warcraft, as presented, doesn't really have mechanisms to facilitate RP skill/conflict resolution that's not directly tied to the game content itself.)

The system was a bit of a change of pace -- accomplishing much of anything was pretty much a coin flip: roll 1d20 -- 1-9 you fail and take damage; 10 you break even (no damage but don't accomplish anything); 11+ you "succeed" if you meet the target threshold set by the GM.

So ... attack an enemy? Roll 1d20, and you either deal damage, break even, or take damage.
Heal someone? Roll 1d20, and you either heal damage, break even, or ... oops ... take damage.
Try to do something clever and tinkery with the surroundings? Roll 1d20, and you either do the thing, break even, or ... again, take damage.

Oh, and when the enemy attacks, you roll 1d20, beat the designated threshold to evade, or you take damage. (No, the enemy doesn't hurt himself if he fails.)

And any task whatsoever that could be broken up into multiple skill checks was a sure-fire recipe for YOU TAKE DAMAGE.

A bit of a detour here, but the point is just that we had this "assault on the enemy" scenario wherein we did by far much, much more damage to ourselves than the enemies had a chance to. (The bard almost got self-destructed by repeated failed healing checks.) This built up a lot of grumbling and ill will. But the paladin, bless her soul, when finally lucky enough to make a really decisive attack against the enemy leader druid, and given an option to do the "deathblow" ... instead opted to just declare, "REPENT!" and take him prisoner. He'll face the law for his transgressions, not be summarily executed on the battlefield. Very paladin-esque!

I thought I'd do a doodle to commemorate this. (And the paladin looks a lot cooler here than the multiple times she fell or was knocked off the tower, etc., because all of us were failing at so many things all around.)

The Brewbeak Twins
One funny little side-effect of the crazy things you can accomplish at any World of Warcraft "barber shop" is how it makes possible a weird RP gimmick such as this: the character "Brewbeak" plays two siblings, Mairead (the sister) and Tiernan (the brother) at the Friday night "Cask 'n' Anvil Pub Night" light RP event. Of course, only ONE of them is visible at any given time, while the other is only "spoofed" yelling from the back kitchen, or making noises "off camera" to one side. All it takes for them to tag-team out is a wild sprint to the nearest barber shop.

I decided to do a doodle of a scene we'll never see in-game: both of them visible at the same time at the Cask 'n' Anvil.

Rufaic and Maudyn
Rufaic and Maudyn, a couple of dwarven arcanists, fight off a swarm of stone spiders while returning to the partially-collapsed ruins of the Tomb of Tyr. The bard's "thumpers" managed to draw off some of the swarmers, and Entalinval's "goo gun" did indeed work to stop them from coalescing into a giant stone super-spider, but that still left lots and lots of angry little stone pests to deal with, and that's where a bit of magic AREA EFFECT came in awfully handy. I thought I'd do a picture of the dynamic dwarven duo clobbering the monsters (with the help of Maudyn's elemental buddy).

Whack-a-C'thrax
At the bottom of the Tomb of Tyr, the heroes discovered (another?) ancient prison holding a weakened c'thrax, still slumbering, but in danger of waking up, with all these disturbances. Rather than leaping into a boss fight (so late into the night and the session), the heroes opted to instead set up some perimeter wards and defenses, and see if they could go get some help. (For instance, we had a lot of investigation-focused PCs in the group, and not so much in the way of fight-focused types.) As it so happened, the Stormwind Daily was sponsoring a "Jobs Fair" (a chance for various RP guilds to promote themselves to interested players) coming up. The bard cobbled together a carnie-style game called ... Whack-a-C'thrax! All right, so it's not much of a preview of what taking on a /real/ c'thrax is likely to be like, but it was at least amusing to make. (Gameplay was something of a puzzle with an element of luck. Alas, I didn't give the players enough CLUES to work with to make it really viable to the point where skill and puzzle-solving would take precedence over dumb luck.)

We Have a Winner!
The typical score at the Whack-a-C'trax was a lowly 2 hits (20 points), but a Dark Iron Dwarf working as a Stormwind Guard decided to play, and managed to get a mighty 3 hits (30 points) -- for a new high score! Things were dying down around that time, so we played it as if the mighty dwarf had smacked the board so silly that it needed to be taken down for repairs.

Snack-a-C'thrax
To promote the recruitment booth for the Vigilants of Tyr, the baker bard also made ... cookies! And other things. Pictured are C'thocolate C'thip C'thookies, along with Tyramisus of Vigilance. Not pictured: Diggin' Dots, named in honor of the brave digger-dozer bot, Dot!