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Character Portrait: Nignus

Nignus was my dwarven cleric of Oghma. A traditional gold dwarf of Faerun from the Great Rift, he made his journey north where he joined the companions to explore the dark heart of Nightfang Spire. His goal was to seek tomes of wisdom and knowledge to add to the Temple of Oghma’s great library in the Rift. Sadly, the journey of Nignus was a short one. Not long after he entered the domain of the vampire Gulthias, the fell to a monstrosity of magic, a construct made of flesh.

Friday, May 4, 2018 | 1 minute Read
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Character Portrait: Rem

image credit: Cthulhu, by dano-h on DeviantArt One of my many clerics was Noremus Toffli. Rem was a human cleric of Pelor tasked with finding a cure for a mind plague afflicting the people of Stormport. Little did he know when he joined the heroes that his quest would take him far from home, to the very stars themselves. Rem’s story is tightly coupled with that of my paladin of Helm, Terun.

Sunday, March 4, 2018 | 2 minutes Read
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Character Portrait: Khorzhad

Khorzhad is a half-elven ranger. Caught between two worlds, both of which hate him, he decided to hate them all back. He was a secondary character for a while, from a time when we were running both a main character and then a background character a few levels below the main characters. He has nearly died on any number of occasions. His hatred of all things makes him reckless. Some think he’s trying to end his own existence through battle. Some hope he succeeds. When the companions found a home for a time, he took up a role as leader of the city’s scouts. They would explore the surrounding countryside watching for enemies and providing early warning of impending attacks.

Friday, February 9, 2018 | 2 minutes Read
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What to expect at your local train show

Train shows are one of the great community experiences across the world. Little kids and big kids alike can see some truly amazing things and have a lot of fun taking in a train show. If you’re even considering model railroading as a hobby, there’s no better first step than attending a local show. With the train show in Columbus this weekend, I figured this would be a good time to discuss what you’ll see at a typical show.

Friday, January 19, 2018 | 4 minutes Read
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Character Portrait: Venjor, Cleric of Pelor

Venjor Carix was a cleric of Pelor. I brought him in for a module that Andy ran a few years back. This was a bit after I had run the Speaker in Dreams module, set in the town of Brindinford. In the Wyrmfang Chronicles, I placed Brindinford in the region west of Cormyr, just the other side of the Stormhorns. Venjor was a background NPC during the Speaker in Dreams (Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Module). He was a minor cleric in the temple of Pelor. At that time in the Wyrmfang Chronicles campaign world, the Black Talons had supplanted the Purple Dragons as the soldier force of Cormyr. The surviving Purple Dragons who would not covert and hadn’t already been imprisoned fled the land. Some fled east to Silverhall. Others fled west to Brindinford.

Sunday, January 14, 2018 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W4D5 – Divine Magic – Fixing the Cleric Class

Divine magic is a part of Dungeons & Dragons that I think many of us have a love/hate relationship with. Running a cleric in an adventure can be both the most enjoyable and the most frustrating thing, sometimes at the same time. Clerics have an interesting feature set associated with them. They are the primary healers of the party. They excel in defending against undead creatures. They also have decent capabilities in melee combat.

Sunday, December 31, 2017 | 3 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W3D6 – Sigil/Planar – The Slaadi

Got a bit behind with the Holiday weekend. One thing the Dungeons & Dragons does not lack is things planar. There are hundreds of planes in the D&D cosmos and planes within these planes and monsters upon monsters that call each of these planes home. Some of these monsters are ridiculous, but some of them are not. One of my all time favorites among the planar creatures are the Slaadi.

    Friday, December 29, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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    D&December 2017 – W4D1 – Magic Weapons

    Magic weapons have been a part of Dungeons & Dragons from the beginning. They are the prized possessions of virtually every character class. Even wizards love to get their hands on a magic dagger or staff to up the odds of a favorable outcome. Sword Magic by Conor Burke - source: DeviantArt Throughout my years and many characters across D&D, Pathfinder and so forth, the quest to find a magic weapon is the first priority more often than not. There are just so many foes in game that are only able to be damaged by a magic weapon. So it becomes an obsession for most of us to find the biggest, baddest weapon that we can get our hands on.

    Friday, December 29, 2017 | 4 minutes Read
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    D&December 2017 – W4D2 – Traps

    Since I’ve talked about talked about Boxey before, I’ll talk about traps. Oh, how i hate traps. Well, as a player I hate traps. I’ve had several characters die as a result of traps over the years. The most memorable was my monk, Chojen Morg. He died within Nightfang Spire. A trap door opened, he slid down over several blades and was flung out into open space halfway up the tower. He didn’t have feather fall ring… or even feathers. And so he died. He had a rather short life. Not even a few months.

    Friday, December 29, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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    D&December 2017 – W3D7 – House Rules

    One of the things that’s as constant in the history of Dungeons & Dragons as the official rules are each group’s house rules. In the group I’m in, the Wyrmfang Chronicles, we have a few of our own. Here’s a couple of ours plus a few that I’ve seen elsewhere. Wyrmfang Chronicles House Rules The Werebear I don’t recall the origins of this rule, but we created a rule that applies at character creation. When you create a new character, you roll percentile dice. If the result is an 01, your character is a werebear. It’s happened exactly… never. There was a character in our campaign who was a werebear, but via other means.

    Thursday, December 28, 2017 | 3 minutes Read
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    D&December 2017 – W3D5 – Cities, Castles & Tomes – The Castle Guide

    Castles have fascinated me for as long as I can remember. As an American, I grew up having no real castles anywhere near that I could visit. At least, nothing even close to what I pictured the word castle to mean. So I spent my time reading any book I could get my hands on and watching any show that talked about castles. The Castle Guide TSR2114 - The Castle Guide

    Saturday, December 23, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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    D&December 2017 – W3D4 – Sword Coast

    The Sword Coast is an interesting area. Our adventures in the Wyrmfang Chronicles never ventured that far west. We mostly kept to the Dales, Cormyr, Evereska, and the areas between those lands. There were a few trips elsewhere, mostly to the far north or the far south. But never really to the west. The only exception to that general statement is a couple of adventures that occurred in Undermountain, beneath Waterdeep. Those were usually one-off adventures, however, and not associated with the primary Wyrmfang Chronicles plot line.

    Friday, December 22, 2017 | 2 minutes Read