With the much-anticipated release of the 4th Edition Hackmaster Rules, Gary Jackson has truly outdone himself. The revised Player's Handbook, Game Master Guide, and the requisite Hacklopedia of Beasts will revolutionize the gaming industry once more.
With this in mind, the Northern Colorado Hackmasters Players Association will be diving into time-honored classic adventures set on the rich and detailed Garwheeze' Wurld, relishing in the glory of their quests to become Hackmasters.
The campaign will follow the classic pattern of numerous fledgling adventure campaigns:
Jump ahead to the latest installment.
Starting with the second session of Quest for the Unknown, we are keeping score of kills. The following is the abbreviations used: K indicates a solo kill (no assistance), k indicates a killing blow (others contributed), F indicates killing a party member (fratricide).
Solo kills are used to sort the leader board. In cases where there is a tie in the number of solo kills, assisted kills will be used to determine who is in the lead. In cases where assisted kills are also tied, fratricide kills are used to pick the leader.
The character who has the most solo kills in a session will earn 50XP per level of the character (in cases of ties, assists and fratricide are used as described above). Likewise, the character on top of the leader board earns 50XP per level of character at the start of a session.
| Character | Previous Rank | Solo Kills | Assisted Kills | Friendly Kills | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alanon | 1 | 743 | 146 | 0 | Active |
| T'Plani | 2 | 109 | 120 | 2 | Active |
| Dwarfholio | 3 | 84 | 121 | 0 | Inactive |
| Szargen Meduro | 4 | 83 | 90 | 0 | Active |
| Bruno Baggins | 5 | 45 | 53 | 0 | Inactive |
| Mjolnir du Sulk | 6 | 10 | 43 | 0 | Active |
| Salka | 7 | 3 | 2 | 0 | Inactive |
| Cul Tauriel | 8 | 2 | 4 | 0 | Inactive |
| Gregory | 9 | 1 | 11 | 0 | Inactive |
| Kyla | 10 | 1 | 2 | 0 | Inactive |
| Dar'ran | 10 | 1 | 2 | 0 | Deceased |
| Aphrodite | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Inactive |
| Biddy Dergle | 13 | 0 | 4 | 0 | Inactive |
| Dragonfly | 14 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Deceased |
| Walter | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Active |
| Flambe | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Inactive |
| Lucky | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Inactive |
A band of non-human adventurers met up on the way to Frandor's Keep, the Little Keep on the Borderlands. Szargen carried a map purporting to show the location of the stronghold of Rogahn and Zelligar, a famed adventuring duo who had staved off a gnome titan invasion years ago. Rumors had it that the two had gathered their troops and left the stronghold undefended. With the illustrious careers of those two adventurers, the stronghold was sure to have riches aplenty.
With some difficulty, the party was able to gain entrance into the Little Keep:
GUARD (a disinterested human male): State the nature of your visit.
LUCKY (an unattractive half-orc female): I'm an exotic dancer!
GUARD: (sighs) Must be going to work at the Burning Dawg Tavern
After a cursory visit and some GM nudging, the party set off to follow the map that claimed to point out the location of the hidden stronghold. The party found it with little difficulty, but it was certainly not what was expected. It was a cave system, not a fabulous castle. The adventurers began their dungeon crawl.
They found a small temple with a carved stone statue. There was a back room attached to the temple, so they sent Lucky to open the door (as the drow and grel had done at every door: "Lucky, open the door. We'll cover you"). Cul Tauriel decided to bring balance to the party again by pointing out to Lucky that Bruno was good at finding traps, and, in fact, that was why he had been brought along. When Bruno refused to go near the temple statue (since his excessive honor had made him the subject of a Mineral Mimic attack), Lucky tried persuasion: "Me and my war hammer say you're going to check the door for traps."
The party managed to whack a Mineral Mimic, a couple of Jaculi, a Huecuva, and an Indigo Ambusher before settling into Rogahn's mistress's room for the night.
The party spent this entire session trying to get some sleep. Thanks to a wandering orc encounter and some hijinks caused when the party tried to wake Bruno (who has a sleep disorder), little was accomplished.
Cul Tauriel realized that some fellow party members had tried to kill her last session, and she had a crisis of faith. Lucky was busy signing autographs for fans of her exotic dancing at the Burning Dawg Inn of Frandor's Keep. Short the cleric and a fighter, the party went once more to Quasqueton. En route, they encountered Kyla, a Grel Ranger, who fell out of a tree. In Quasqueton, the party found the rest of an orc guard detachment, a library, and access to the lower level.
Both Bruno and Szargen earned enough XP to gain a level.
T'Plani finally was forced to earn her keep, since she was the only fighter in the party. She also finally started doing some serious damage to her opponents -- earning six kills and an Ace thanks to some wimpy rats. Szargen and Szargen's player relished in being evil, doing a number of nasty things to fellow party members in an effort to get her Honor higher. Meanwhile, the party finished exploring 3/4 of the upper level of Quasqueton, and they got a good start on the lower level of the abandoned cave-keep.
T'Plani and Szargen earned enough XP to gain a level.
The GM activated the HackMaster Emiritus rule of allowing multi-characters without XP penalties. The party rounded out well, with a cleric, battlemage, and a melee fighter (berserker) to fill the gaps. The party finished exploring the upper level of Quasqueton before poking around the lower level. They discovered a magical column of mica, chips of which had strange effects when consumed. They also flushed out the remains of the troglodyte clan that was squatting in the lower level caves, annihilating them without mercy. The fight nearly killed Dwarfholio, so the party returned to the "safe" cave where they had camped a couple nights previously.
The party finished off the Quest for the Unknown, disappointed that there were no major treasures to be found. On their way back to the Little Keep, they found a human bandit camp that they annihilated.
The party received a tip about an abandoned mine that had an important "book" in it. The party investigated and found a ledger, as well as evidence of a gold mine operation. During their explorations, they discovered a tunnel that led to the infamous Mines of Chaos. A first foray into the Mines found a goblin encampment. After several concurrent skirmishes (including one in which Dwarfholio charged six goblins and an ogre), the party withdrew to their safe cave for healing.
The party made another foray into the Mines of Chaos, once again assaulting the goblin encampment. Thanks to Dwarfholio's good nature, they did not butcher the young goblins in the nurseries, although T'Plani made notes about returning in a few years, when the goblins were older.
The party found some slaves. Unfortunately, most of them were human, and the drow had a problem with leaving them alive. T'Plani claimed a half-elf bard for her boy-toy, but he had a sad accident with a dagger that night while the party slept. A halfling merchant was pressed into the porters' crew.
The party then worked their way accidentally, via secret passage, into the goblin chief's quarters, triggering an alarm. After a couple of brief skirmishes, the chief's lieutenants and most of the subchiefs were dead. Dwarfholio fought sans armor for those fights, since he was trying to wriggle into the goblin's plate mail when the first round of reinforcements showed up.
The surviving goblins mounted a last stand in their war room, trying desperately to stop the rampaging party. Over three dozen goblins died, unable to wound the party enough to drop anyone. However, Bruno had an incredible stroke of bad luck (nine "1"s during the fight), which easily extended the duration of the fight. The party withdrew once more to recuperate and to arrange for their loot to be collected.
Another foray into the goblin encampment, after a quick detour to whack three kobold sentries on the other side of the valley. After wandering through the area, the party discovered that any remaining goblins had left, and they left behind some slaves (a former adventuring party) that had been unfed and barely watered for two weeks. One of them, a pixie fairy, had the misfortune of an encounter with barbecue sauce, a skewer, and the grel T'Plani, who, after eating him, chose to add a ritual tatoo (Gorkrink). The other three, a human male cleric, a human male paladin, and a half-elf female ranger, all met misfortune, allegedly at drow hands. The party then followed a secret passage into another area of the mines, where they found a poorly-kept supply room and armory, along with a group of eight gnarl-rons in a barracks room. After that fight, the party retired to their caves for rest and reacquiring spells.
While T'Plani inexplicably remained behind in the cave safe-house, the rest of the party launched another foray into the Mines of Chaos. Since T'Plani had their only map, they wandered randomly into the cave of a Great Horned Owlbear that they promptly dispatched. During their cave crawling, the party stumbled across the caves of a tribe of hobgoblins. The party found the schoolroom/nursery, filled with obnoxious teenagers who practised their hobgoblin battlecry, which sounded suspiciously like "I'm gonna farking cut you, beeyotch". Alanon lobbed a fireball over the younger children, then proceeded to slaughter them with a bow. Dwarfholio waded through the teenagers. All in all, it was a slaughter.
With T'Plani back, the party finished slaughtering the lower level of the hobgoblins. They wandered through some caves to find a kobold sanctuary, where they once more butchered a future generation of humanoid monsters.
With the brief addition of a seventh adventurer, the party once more forayed through the Mines of Chaos. A visit to the strange dolomite caves ended with a major battle against the Old Egg itself, and the near-killing of the grel archer T'Plani (twice!).
A pixie fairy flying past the Burning Dawg Inn prompted T'Plani to give chase. The ensuing fight brought down guards, and a wholesale slaughter in the keep of one tower's entire garrison (along with Dar'ran, due to T'Plani's bow mishap). The surviving party wisely decided to lay low in the Mines of Chaos, discovering a bugbear encampment. After the bugbears lured the party into an honor-draining trap, the party set out to annihilate the entire bugbear clan.
The bugbears were annihilated.
After a slow start, the party made their way back to the Mines of Chaos, intent on destroying the orc clan they suspected was there. They entered one of three unexplored cave entrances to discover the upper floor of the gnolls' turf. After much chaos and some exploration of the Dolomite Caves, the party returned to basecamp to recuperate. A close contest for the top of the leader board left Alanon the night's leader by one assist. During this time, Sister Mjolnir failed an alignment check, changing from neutral to evil.
Picking up an extra hand, the party returned again to the mines of Chaos, still searching for any extra XP or GP they may have missed. They discovered the Shrine of the Ape Gawd, which led to a bit of subterfuge and a fight that eliminated the apes. Alanon, the Battlemage, came into his own, mastering the art of simulcasting fireballs.
T'Plani mysteriously took off to investigate a message from the local Grel encampment, and Mjolnir insisted on spending time at the temple in the Keep, preparing for the day she could desecrate it and turn it to a temple of evil. The rest of the party found the lair of the Highland Orcs, which they promptly annihilated. Alanon once more showed the true firepower of an unleashed battlemage. The party demonstrated, as the finished off the Little Keep, that they were ready for tougher times ahead.
With T'Plani and MJ still missing, the party accepted an invitation from a "Dame Silver". After fighting through a raiding party, the party reached her shoreside mansion. After suffering through a week of festivities, they are hired to transport a magical potion to the Dame's brother, ill in some overseas jungles. The party accepts the offer (for the gold, of course), and set out to carry the cure. They hire a ship and sail.
The party's ship is raided by slavers. The party locates the long-missing T'Plani and Sister Mjolnir, both already captives of the slavers. Through some fortuitous accidents, the party escapes when the ship puts to shore in the city of Roark. The party gets hired at a tavern (Dwarfholio becomes a bouncer, Bruno becomes the cash man for the bouncer, MJ becomes a lousy cook, and the rest become servers/gophers). During the first day of employment, they whack some highwaymen and have their magical possessions returned by a mysterious benefactor. They also start exploring the Temple of Ikka Paatang, the alleged local base of the slavers.
For reasons unknown, the party allowed a Pixie Fairy to join their adventuring company. The two Grunge elves repeatedly discussed various recipes for pixie fairies within earshot of Dragonfly, prompting repeated comments of "I can HEAR you!", to which T'Plani replied "Duh! We're talking!"
T'Plani finally snapped, and she and Dragonfly had a running battle - well, more of a siege, since Dragonfly was atop a hostile castle, using illusionary pixie fairies to taunt the grel. After a lengthy session of taunts and arrowfire, Dragonfly met her match.
The intruding party finally descended into the dungeon levels of Fort Strategerie, and, sadly, found the secret doors that allowed them to bypass the boring part of the dungeons, heading, instead, straight to the confrontation with the Boss Badgirl, Kristina.
Destruction and pillage abound as the party found a secret entrance into the secret slaver city of Strugelhauf.
The party finished winding through the secret catacombs leading to the island-town of Strugelhauf. En route, they continued their penchant for pillage, although Alanon was substantially subdued in his destructive prowess. The party ended in the Scum Slum of Strugelhauf, after bushwhacking some slavers.
Wandering around within Strugelhauf, the party found an elven bard who was being kept as a madam in a brothel. They also found a secret passage that the bard, Salka Idho, identified as a secret entrance to the Slaver's compound.
As the party entered the secret entrance to the Slavers' compound, T'Plani abruptly shouted, "Wait I have an idea!" She took off, and the party continued through the underground passages, fighting a few monsters and springing a few traps, until the party was ultimately captured in a trap by the Slave Lords of Strugelhauf.
After torture and worse, the party is discarded in the caverns underneath the slaver stronghold. Wandering about for a few hours, the party finds a tunnel out. The surface of the hidden island is in ruins, as the volcano off to one side of it was erupting violently. The party managed to sneak aboard the slaver ship (using Invisibility and Strength so the dwarf could carry everyone), re-equip, and fight their way through the Slave Lords of Strugelhauf. Relieved, the party escaped for much needed rest and level-ups.
In exchange for Dame Silver's leaning on the local mages' guild to get Al a few spells, the party set out to answer a call from the local Duke for some heroes. The Duke was having a problem with assaults from giants, and he needed someone to deal with the problem. The party answered the call, travelling to a hill giant stedding, where they charged in and commenced the slaughter.
The Butchers of the Hill Giant Villa returned for a little bit of mopping-up, looting the Hill Giant chieftain's hidden treasury. After a bit of poking around, they concluded that there was nothing else of interest. Using a magical chain found in the treasury, the party teleported to the glacial rift of the Frost Giant Karl. Wandering around, trying to find the actual rift, the party stumbled across the lair of a pair of old White Dragons. After a harrowing fight, the victorious party settled in for some desperately-needed healing.
Again the adventurers explored the frozen lair of the Frost Giants, slaughtering numerous guards while searching for clues to the next part of the adventure, more loot, and Karl himself.
To Al's dismay, T'Plani the Grunge Elf has returned... Another foray into the frozen wastes of the frost giant's glacial rift, more kills, and a fight with some drow.
The confrontation with Karl, and the slaughter of countless future generations of Front Giants...
The devastating party took a break to rest and level up prior to an initial sojurn to the Hall of the Fire Giant Prince...
Death galore as the party waded through the vast, smoldering caverns of the Fire Giants.
The party continued the rampage through the Fire Giants' lair. While there, they discovered the drow Ecalvdra, head of the house Eilservs. Using her incredible charm, she managed to seduce the male half of the party into agreeing to help her depose some of her competition in Erelhei Cinlu.
The party again continued the rampage through the Fire Giants' lair, mopping up in preparation for a foray to the drow homelands.
At long last, the party set out into the depths beneath the Fire Giants' abode, intent on raining destruction upon the drow homeland or whatever else they may encounter.
At long last, the party set out into the depths beneath the Fire Giants' abode, intent on raining destruction upon the drow homeland or whatever else they may encounter.
Carnage galore, as the party laid waste to bugbears, troglodytes, darkmen, drow, and a lich.
Back to the Northern Colorado Gamers.
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