Rainbowland Chronicles: The Dread Machine

After our journey through the canyon and desert we stood facing the closed gates of a singular dungeon. The etire structure was clearly ancient, slowly being swallowed by the desert. It was a wonder that the doors were out of the sand at all. A large room welcomed us into the dungeon. In an alcove to the far right we found a mysterious swirling vortex. It had an eerie interplanar feel about it, so we decided to test it by throwing all matter of stuff in there. In the name of science.

Our studies found that inanimate objects would return, though brittle and with much lower density. Animals thrown into the vortex would be truned into machine simulacra, almost capable of performing as their organic cousins once did. After satisfying our curiosity we set about exploring the place further. There was a railing covered in slime. The slime was very reactive upon contact, but with cunning use of mage hand and mason jars we captured some of it. For now we left the railing untouched.

Opposite to the vortex we found a wynding staircase guarded by a statue. We recalled similar statues from the quest through the old dwarven mines. With some apprehension Yolo made his way up the stairs. After wynding his way up he stairs, close to the final door he heard a creaking in the walls. Wanting to depart from the stairs quickly he made for the door. He battered down the door the same time a metal statue broke throughthe wall behind him. Yolo lead the statue on a chase throughthe hall above and downthe stairs where grungar crushed the metal machination.

With the way free the party proceeded up the stairs. There we entered into a chamber housing a great engine. The engine was guarded by a host of undead priests and paladins. They bode us to stay away from the machine. We spotted a hallway next to our entrance and a ladder upwards next to the machine. Fearing what an undead intelligent enough to have a conversation, albeit a short one, we headed down the corridor. The locked door at the end of the hallway lead into a comfortable sitting room. An unnatural fire crackeled happily in the hearth. The walls covered in bookshelves made the place feel comfortable. Along a wall stood a one handed man, he seemed to be both owner and target of our six fingered compass. He introduced himself as the artificer of the hated pretender and gracously accepted our gift of his hand. In return he lend us the help of his ghoulish thralls to fight the priests and paladins outside. Not being too comfotable with the unsavory nature of either sidew e were happy for the combat and immediately backstabbed the ghouls. The one handed man was unhappy about that, but whatever we feared from him was cut short by Grungars sword slicing right through the man. Our actions earned us the trust of the intelligent undead by the machine, and thereby passage to the next level.

Before venturing onward we looted the single handed bandit's rooms. There we found another tablet of the dread machine. Next to it Dougal found a transparent orb , gazing into it he lost hs mind for a spell. He beheld a vision of a lone traveller in the desert. Sensing Dougals ephemeral presence the wanderer turned and asked, "What is my name?"
Dougal found that Benjamin befitted the traveller in the desert.
"Yes, Benjamin, that is may name" agreed the hated pretender.
Having answered a question Dougal saw it fit to ask "And where arey you travelling, Benjamin?"
"I ... I don't know. I was looking for seeking Alice. She lifes in the swamps i think."
And so Dougal emerged from his reverie with news for the group: The hated pretender is called Benjamin, and he is heading for the Blue land marsh to find the woman called Alice.

After this revelation we moved on to the chamber above the engine. This crowded storage room had a wall made entirely of glass. It overlooked a great hall. The hall housed a massive machine, the dungeons namesake. A door to the left opened onto a landing leading down i to the machine room. Curious about the poweful arcane forces at work here Dougal quested forward. On the landing he found a small shrine. Where you would expect a statue to your god, saint, spirit, orther deific creature there stood a cylinder of gold. It was machined and preserved with inhuman precision, clearly defining the unit volume and weight. Dougal could not resist picking it up. Sir Boring rescued Dougal from the expected trap, and Molly healedthe two.

Venturing into the depths of the machine room we found an access hatch on the face of the machine. A set of stairs opposite to the machine lead downwards. The wall by the machine was made of steel and covered in alchemical symbols. Dougal pinched the Iron and Mercury symbols, effecting a transformation of the wall into liquid. The liquid dissapeard through grating in the floor opening the way to a hidden door ....

Rainbowland Chronicles: The Oasis of Laurence and the Living Stone

The few day journey from Pueblo di Mesas to the Oasis of Laurence went by uneventful. This could be because Yolo. The fighter turned Zookeeper now enjoyed the company of a four-tusked, wooly mastodon and a baby chimera. Those two must have discouraged wondering monsters from approaching our camp. Though keeping those two alive and tame is a full time occupation. Once we arrived at the Oasis of Laurence Yolo chose this as a good location to stop and train the two.

Dougal, the wizened wizard, immediately made a romantic connection with the local shaman. She turned out to be Grungar's great aunt. This made Grungar a bit grouchy around Dougal. With her as a willing ally though we learned that our six-fingered hand was pointing towards a known dungeon of evil denizens about a weeks travel into the desert. It was rumored to be the home of some dreadful machine. The week long trip would first take us along a river canyon. Beleagued by bandits the journey was dangerous only to be followed by a trip across the desert. After a few days in the desert we should arrive at the dungeon. We were also advised to be on the lookout for ambulant cacti, who at the slightest provocation would fire their stingy spines at passerby.

Knowing that we had a long trip ahead of us we stocked up on provisions. We also learned a bit about the aggressive, migratory, local fauna. Prepared for a long journey with set off. The travel along the river was pleasant. The ancient path crossed the river at three places. Here strange stone bridges conveyed us across the rapid river currents. Curious how such ancient constructions could remain in perfect shape lacking all maintenance Dougal investigated further. The bridges were clearly magical, and at the second crossing we found the bridge destroyed. It had been affected by some necromantic magic, so Dougal deduced that these bridges were clearly made from some sort of "Living Stone". He set out to learn the secrets of Living Stone. At each of the other bridges he spend significant time studying the material.

We found an ambush set by the river bandits: the way was shut by a hedge of ambulatory cacti. We investigated carefully to avoid a battle. With some cunning combination of invisibility and minor image, Dougal managed to fool the cacti into believing he was one of them. His ploy was interrupted as some bandits approached. They noticed the party and sent the cacti after them. Dougal pretended to be the lead cactus to warn our group. In our studies at the Oasis of Laurence we had created a serum that would repel the cacti. Using our reserves of this material we warded of certain spiky doom. I don't exactly recall what happened after that, maybe the cactus repellent was mildly intoxicating, but we seemed to hit it off quite well with the bandits. The robbery had apprently been a misunderstanding and they were happy to let us take shelter in their camp for the night and buy more provisions. So we set off again after a good nights rest. The next morning we were on our way following the six fingered hand.

At the last river crossing we found the bridge crippled, some massive blow must have been struck here in the past. Its few remaining arches hung over the river from each side. Our pondering was interrupted by a group approaching the other side. Brave as we are we hid to assess the scene: A gathering of town folk were following a priest. The priest lead a child dressed up for sacrifice a child to appease the desert gods. After some discussion about freedom of religion, we decided that even if this child wanted to be sacrificed it had clearly been indoctrinated and needed to have a proper education before reconsidering her options. Spurred by the humanitarian spirit we leaped into battle: Bloodthirsty, Grungar ran straight for the battle. While he ran through the churning river below I cast a web between the arches under the bridge. The child sacrifice was thwarted by this web as the priest threw her off the bridge. This let Grungar focus on what he does best.

Grungar pacified the townsfolk with his treatment of the priest. This opened ear their ears to hear Mollies teachings: party and be merry. No sacrificing children. On account of being much more fun this new belief structure was quickly adopted by the townsfolk. Hopefully their lives now involve more parties and less sacrifices. Dougal, his old bones too weary to climb up the bridge, and wanted to rescue the child. He relied on his magic to levitate down the chasm from one side, pick up the child and land safely by the townfolk. Celebrating our rescue of the child, more importantly that we managed to do so without murdering the town population, we trudged onward through the desert.

After a days journey (or so) we arrived at a lonely wizard tower. Since I was missing for the session I don't recall what happened here. To my knowledge wizard towers have an uncanny ability to host monsters and/or villains. I am sure there was a fun encounter here. After a good nights rest here we arrived at the dungeon of the Dread Machine ...

The Rainbow Chronicles: Mephistos and Laurence the Yellowlander

... as Dougal and Yolo enter our story the rest of the party had made it's way to a secret entrance at the back of Zhur Botu, an old dwarven mine.  We are tasked to route a camp of bandits under the leadership of Laurence the Yellowlander, and their camp happened to be around the front entrance. Zhur Botu had been abandoned after unearthing some strange horror in the depths (gasp!). What this horror was we did not know - but how bad could it be? So, instead of facing the bandits head on, the group had decided to look into entering the mine by this side entrance. Maybe we could turn that strange horror against the bandits? Maybe we could surprise them by entering their camp from the dungeon?

The secret entrance lead through a small grotto to enter a the dungeon through a cave system. The mines were deserted except for some strange sort of mechanically enhanced zombie. The dwarven machinery was of course still fully functional. Through experimentation we learned that the dwarven technological innovation here was spurred by a bureaucracy that shuns short lived media such as paper for their documents for words written in stone and metal. Delving into the mine we found our way to the main control complex. An unhealthy looking elf had taken up residence in these quarters. Assuming that is pallor and odd mannerisms were simply a result of an extended time being locked underground thanks to the bandits without and zombies within the mine we started a friendly chat with Mephistos. He was indeed happy to hear that we were panning to make our way out the mine and was happy to join us, as long as we subjected to a test: we must agree to be checked against corruption by the unholy machine god. We all passed his scrutiny except Grungar, the blood-thirsty fighter played by Konrad. He offered help to "purify" Grungar via a simple operation. Grungar volunteered, not wanting to be tainted by any strange machine evil. So he had his leg removed, and replace by ones that looked an awful lot like some steam-powered driven machine contraption. On the plus side the new leg doesn't get tired, so Grungar calls it a win. Yolo started suspecting that maybe not all was light and right with Mephistos.

We had also learned that the strange machine zombies emerged from a luminescent vortex deep in the mine. To aid our departure we played with the lighting system of the mine to guide the zombies to the main entrance. With minimal problems play one enemy against the other. Then the group together with Mephistos depart the mine. Yolo, feeling all is wrong here leaves the party and darts ahead to warn the bandits. Sneaking, or just running past zombie hordes Yolo makes it to the bandits a short time before the rest of the group. Met at first with skepticism he manages to convince the bandit leader, Laurence the Yellowlander (the Yellowlands are not Arabia, but rather more a spaghetti-western landscape, why not add spaghetti Arabia?). Laurence marshaled his forces just in time to meet Mephistos and the group. At this point it becomes clear that Mephistos is either a mage sufficiently powerful to turn into a dragon, or a dragon who had adopted a strange human. Judging by the time he must have spent in the mines, I choose to believe he is not human. Also he had pointed ears, silver hair, silver chainmail and silvery skin. Coincidence, I think not? At least there seems to be a metallic theme.


With this powerful "ally" we crushed the bandits. Yolo did manage to save and tame a mammoth that was kept by one of the bandits in the camp. With an awesome new mount we headed back to the Pueblo di Mesas. For your reference here is a map of the Yellowlands, all credit for the awesome map goes to Luka. We dropped off the few captured bandits to collect our bounty, though facing the uneasy truth that Laurence was a Robin Hood to the Yellowlands. Certainly an outlaw, but regarded widely as a freedom fighter. The same was true for many of his companions: there seemed plenty of evidence for their crimes of the past, but there were also many good things they did for the people. After some deliberating Sir Boring, our paladin of the Green god won through arguing that we had signed a binding contract to deliver Laurence and that we needed the money. Mostly so he could "invest" it for the party. Still not sure exactly what nebulous paper machination he employs to safeguard our monies. We did have an encounter with some Chimera's while our bandits had escaped (my memory is a bit spotty here). We defeated the mother chimera, and while having to put down one of her children, Yolo managed to tame the other. We were well on the way to make a better traveling zoo and freak show, rather than an adventuring group.

From previous adventures the party was in posession of a strange six-fingered hand. Contained in a jar, it was pointing the way towards the Oasis of Laurence ... where we would probably have to kep quite about our relationship to Laurence the Yellowlander. So after a respite at the Pueblo di Mesas we set off for the Oasis of Laurence, to see where the six fingered hand would lead us ...

The Rainbowlands

When I first moved to Geneva Michael and Carly introduced me to a group of gaming friends in Lausanne. I joined them for the seventh session of their 5th edition based game, a fondue featured Christmas special, and met a great group of gamers: Luka the DM and our host, Steve who introduced me to the session, and fellow players Ula, Konrad, Vincent, Oscar, and Alban. In the previous session the group had set up the world for the game, The Rainbowlands. As I joined the group found itself in the arid landscape of the yellow lands. Yes the world has a land for each color arranged around a central sea. Each such land worships a deity of that color, who are all aspects of the unicorn riding Jesus Thor who rules the skies from the great mountains rumored to be in the middle of the central sea. I took gleeful amusement from the open ironic take of religion: much like the pythonesque Gawds of Erf Chris threw together in his game, but also taking a piece out of the bigotry towards the LGBT community. Keep in mind this cultural and religious backdrop as our characters lean about the eldritch machine gods of order and chaos.

Since Luka, our kind and merciless dungeon master, runs an old school campaign where death is a likely consequence of an adventurers life-style I was encouraged to create two characters. Dugal is an aged fisherman who attended an arcane university late in life. Dugal did not enjoy the cloistered life at the university and his teachers frowned upon his dismissal of authority and dangerous ideas about the arcane. So Dugal went off to learn the interesting corners of the arcane arts he was forbidden to study at university. For my second character I imported Yolo "#Swag" Tumblefoot character from the  games at the Penny Arcade Expo and Caitlin's practice sessions back in Victoria. Yolo is not exactly greedy, but certainly in the adventuring business for the money. Think like a half size Conan with extra attitude to make up for the size difference.

As we begin our story paladins of the rainbow gods had tasked us with rooting a camp of bandits, who were camped outside an old dwarven mine ...

Rebuffat

Geneva, much like the rest of the world it seems, has been very warm of late. To escape the heat Dorota, Pawel, Gianluca, Kacsper and I decided to head up to the Aiguille du Midi and hang out on the Mer de Glace. Sitting on some ice, we agreed, should help to cool off. Kacsper and I planned to climb Rebuffat, the south face of the Aiguille. Since we didn't have any pressing plans for Sunday we also agreed to camp out on the ice field for the night, allowing us lots of time for a relaxed climb. Since Dorota, Pawel, and Gianluca climbed Rebuffat in the past they set off for another peak, Gianluca with the plan to head home that evening.

Since Gianluca and Kacsper and I were feeling pretty relaxed we dallied a bit while the other took off quickly. We dropped out gear off by the camping spot on the ice and packed out things to climb. I decided to take along my ice axe and the big camping backpack, plus 1.5L of water and some snacks. The rest of the food and gear we left in bags and packs reserving ourselves a spot. From there we went off to find the start of the climb, just at the bottom right of the rock face in the picture. We quickly found that while some gear was in place it was good we had brought, nuts, cams and friends. Since I have no experience placing gear, Kascper had to lead the whole way. Good thing he is a fantastic climber :)

Once of the ice, even exposed to the breeze, it was hot up on the rocks. Since most of the 9 pitches had a rating between 3-5 (camptocamp) I expected this climb to be fairly easy. Turns out the climb was harder that I expected for a few combined problems: my big expedition backpack kept getting in my way, the ice axe and crampons were extra weight and also in the way, and I got winded quickly climbing in the high altitude. All of this together stressed me out and after taking a tumble on the 6a (think low 5.10a-b by the North American scale) it took me a moment to get my nerves back in order. Even with some scrapes and bruises this was a really great climb, and thank you to Kacsper for leading all the way. He was smarter than me, bringing only a bare minimum of gear in a more compact pack.

We could see that we were going to be fairly late with our climb by the fact that half way through the route we encountered a friendly couple who were rappelling down, past where we were climbing up still. We also had the Rockface more or less to ourselves, which made the climb very enjoyable. I had feared that there would be a lot of traffic since we could see many climber on the route while we were dropping off the camping gear.

 

Once art the top of the climb it is easy to abseil down to a tourist platform on the other side of the rock face.  By the time we had gotten there the station on the Aiguille du Midi had closed down and there were no tourists around. So we spread out and soaked up some evening sun while having a little lie down on the platform. A great climb indeed!

Eventually the sun started hiding behind some mountain peaks and we found it was time to make our way to the camping spot. Unfortunately the doors to the gondola station were locked, and we could not get to the exit leading to the ice field. Having a look around we spotted some other climbers who had come of the Cascade des Cosmiques and where in the gondola station on the other side. With some waving we got their attention and they let us in - I don't know your names, but you guys saved us from miserable night in the cold without food or shelter, thank you! After having a friendly chat with the three guys that let us in, we made our way to the ice field. Here we had an entertainingly hard time setting up Kacsper's tent, and snacked on some bread, cheese, and meat we brought along. Dorota and Pawel, the intrepid campers they are, had already had a warm supper and made us some tea on their stove. Gianluca was also hanging out with us since he had missed the last gondola off the mountain. He had a spot in Pawl and Dorota's tent but without a foamy and sleeping bag it must have been a miserable night for him.

Kacper and I slept in the next morning and lazily broke camp. We stopped at the Aiguille du Midi for our first breakfast and in Charmonix for second breakfast. We found a fantastic little bar/restaurant here. Google says it is called "The West" but there is a different place in the same spot now. I can't recall the name. They made an excellent pulled pork eggs Benedict. Since I had a craving for a Cesar I was trying to explain how to make one to the friendly bar staff. They countered by offering me the Bloody Mary they make there: a concotion very similar to a Cesar since they add some ghost pepper sauce. Very spicy, very tasty. After lounging for a while we took off with the goal of shopping for some gear. On of the waitresses advised us to check out the aptly named "Mountain Store" in Sallanche. Since we were on our way to Sallanche to visit Au Vieux Campeur anyway we decided to stop by there also. Turns out on a Sunday they are both closed x.x

Having failed in our shopping desires we slunk back to Geneva. It was still as hot there as we left it. Kacsper had some pland involving a man with a GPS unit so he dropped me off at home and went on his way. I enjoyed the end of the afternoon relaxing by the shore of lake Geneva. What a great weekend :)

Mouseguard At Last

A long time ago in a town far away ...

It was a hot summer. I was home-sitting for my supervisor. Carly came for her second visit to Victoria.

During the visit, Carly managed to find the rulebook for an role playing game, Mouseguard, a friendly game where you pretend to me part of a civilization of mice.

In pursuit of work after the PhD Carly find herself in Switzerland. And she is still the custodian of those rulebooks, so we gathered fellow nerds for a game this weekend ...

...

enough

...

The first four words made we want to try writing in some sort of suggested syntax. I am terrible at both prose and writing, so back to normal sentences. Those are challenging enough for me.

Carly and Michael came to visit me in Geneva. Their original plan was to stay with Steve, a common friend in Lausanne. Unfortunately Steve's apartment has been invaded by the lake, so they crashed at my place. I was very glad to play host, actually making use of my luxurious domicile. They arrived late on Friday, and after a short welcome and friendly chat we decided to call it an early night.

After a comfortable breakfast on Saturday morning we went about acquiring provisions for the game that afternoon. We prepared some tomato soup and let it sit in the slow cooker for the afternoon. We purchased much snacks and drinks, as one these are essential for a good RPG session. Around 2pm folks started arriving at my place: Steve, Jon, and Ant joined as fellow players, Vincent as our kind dungeon master.

Our mice were an interesting collection of characters: Mike played a paranoid guard veteran, Carly an idealistic gullible scout, Steve the bee-keping pacifist, Jon was our healer with a keen sense for herbs, and I a mouse supremacist carpenter (inspired by the game making me thing of the Maus comics and some encounters of my past). I am ashamed to admit that I don't recall Ant's character concept, please post a response below if you do!

This rag-tag group of mice was tasked with delivering some bees to a city about a weeks journey away. Once there we should secure honey and wax production as well as establish order in the city. After gathering supplies we set out for our journey, braving early spring weather. The first few days were pleasant travel and we made good progress, then the weather turned on us and we were caught in a late snow storm. We did what we could to protect the bees and weather the storm. It became obvious however that we needed to push on such that our precious bees would not freeze in the cold. The game provides very nice rock-paper-scissors style mechanics for role-playing through challenges: be these combat, environment, or social. There is also a emphasis on role-playing the actions your mice take in these confrontations. It was pretty fun braving the road beset by slush and ice, dealing with a caved in bridge, and a wild ferret on the other side. The ferret only ate half our bees. The rest the group managed to sneak past a gang of outlaws, while my mouse foolishly confronted them. Finally we delivered our cargo.

At the new city we organized a militia, which we lead to take those outlaws prisoner. Having captured the outlaws we did a good-mouse bad-mouse routine to get them to give up the hide-out of a local gang of rebels. With this new intelligence we plotted various ways to attack the rebels. A group of us was disguised as a group of merchants, transporting a load of ale. We had of course poisoned the ale hoping the rebels would attack us, take our stuff, and then get drunk. The sneakier group of mice shadowed us and followed the rebels as they made off with the ale. Sure enough, soon the rebels were merrily getting sloshed. We returned to town and raised the militia. When we arrived the rebels were weakened by the poison, and we managed to overpower them with some cunning military maneuvering.

Back in town we caroused with locals celebrating the victory and bringing peace and prosperity to the far ranges of the mouse kingdom. From here on our reputation can only grow! What a great day of fun and gaming. Thank you for DMing Vincent, and thanks to everyone who came out to play!

Climbing Into the Wild

Kacper, Kasia, Gianluca, Julia, a friend of Gianluca's, and myself went climbing. We drove to a small parking lot near the Hotel du Buet between Argentiere and Vallocine. There is a campground near the parking lot as well, and the hotel looks inviting with a rustic charm. After biking about the Jura all day yesterday my legs were pretty tired, so I almost felt like skipping the climbing and sitting down for a beer fist thing in the morning. Kacper was much in the same predicament having cycled around lake Geneva the day before. So we lamented our foolishness, formed a weak legged climbing team, and packed our gear for the trail. After some discussion with Kacper and Gianluca I decided to leave most of the lunch I braught with me with the cars, except for a few snacks. I should have known better :-)

From the parking lot it is a short walk though rugged country roads through some small buildings. Just follow the markers towards Mount Buet. The road continues to a cafe situated on the side of a cliff with a terrace over a mountain stream at the Cascarde de Berard. The train starts by the cafe following a beautiful valley stream. It takes about 75 minutes of hiking to get to a small cairn marking a trail to Mount Oreb on the right hand side of the path. It is a steep scramble up to the base of the two climbs on Mount Oreb: L'Ete Indien and Into the Wild. While scrambling up the slope to the climb we were greeted by a group of mountain goats. There were already a couple of climbers at the bottom of the climbs, so we queued up. While waiting we snacked on some Nuss Stängli, some stick-like hazelnut cookies I had spied on my previous visit to Klosters and promptly located at the local Coop. They were delicious.

After a short wait we got to start on the climb. Since Kacper is the better climber I started the first pitch since it would lead me to naturally climb the easier pitches. None of the climbs were very hard, though it was still early in the year for the sections where we walked through soil were muddy. Some of the dock was still we also, making it slippery. While the climb itself was clear, there was still a fair bit of snow around the same altitude we were climbing, though it will probably be gone soon. Once we got to the 6th or so pitch we were rewarded with a beautiful view of a glacier across the valley. The beautiful scenery of the mountain valley below giving us some idea of how high we had climbed.

By the time we made to the top we had precious little daylight left to rappel down and hike out. Since Gainluca and his friend were right in front of us we decided to rappel as a group of four: One team setting up the current rappel with one set of ropes, the other one taking the old one down. Second person heading down the next section took the ropes from the previous rappel, so the setup for the next one could get started as quickly as possible. We could have made record time on the way down except that one of our rope sets got stuck, so we had to climb up and retrieve it. After rappelling down we hicked out at a fairly brisk pace, with just enough light left to see by as we got back to the parking lot. We met the Julia and Kasia at the Hotel bar, where they had already established themselves as veteran climbers enjoying beers and the local company. We enjoyed a beer and some snacks before heading back to Geneva. That you to everyone who came out for yet another fantastic day in the mountains!