Saturday Night SwordAndSorceryRPG Fun (21Feb SGK#53-Battle of Hellgate Pass)

[Jevenkah]

After some preliminary wargaming, we had the privilege of starting two long-time players and friends in a new storyline. One plays Gazzi-Ura, an elite orc warrior in the League of Nil-ith Horn military. The other is a human officer. A bastard son in a powerful family, Eskander Toshe was given the command of 2 units by his father and ordered to open the road from the League of Nil-ith Horn fortress of Kisevald to Rostok Hold. The League of Nil-ith Horn orcs stationed in Kisevald had been raiding the tumultuous North Gautrian kingdom west across the lake, rather than support Rostok Hold in the north.



Humans from the Upplands have preyed on the League caravans and now controlled the road between Rostok Hold and Kisevald.



The road was filled with certain danger from humans and savage orcs, and potential danger from any orc tribe that might not honor their alliance with the League of Nil-ith Horn.



Eskander and Gazzi-Ura were wary when they encountered boulders obstructing the road. As they moved the rocks, a band of Upplanders burst from the trees with volleys of arrows and javelins. Men set upon the caravan from both sides. The Upplanders inflicted what damage they could against the heavy League armor.



It was a tough road to travel for our new players. Bigger report and more pix on the website:
http://swordandsorceryrpg.com/lnhc1/

Jevenkah

[Michka]

Another great post from Jevenkah. I love the shot of the caravan stopped by the boulder. I zoomed in to it to get a good look at the figures and it holds up at bigger sizes. Well done once again.

[DeafNala]

YET ANOTHER EXCITING EPISODE! I could stare happily at your photos as the battle scenes played through my mind for hours...I think I might just do that. WONDERFUL STUFF!
It just occurred to me what looks different about you games; it's the location. I'm used to war games being played out in unfinished basements whereas yours take place in a pleasant living room.

[The Rock]

Great feel. I like the caravan. How you made it?

[elysium64]

Wow 
First time I have looked at this thread, some amazing stuff here,and very inspirational as I have just recently started a Hyborian Project, will be nicking some of your ideas when I get to the scenery building stage.
Will be following this topic closely now.

[Jevenkah]

Thanks Michka! It's fun and a bit of a challenge shooting those scenes through the trees. I've not made up my mind how big to post the pix on the website. I've been reducing them to 1000 or 1200 pixels wide so one can still get a good glimpse. I could post them at about 3 times the resolution, but I don't know if it would be beneficial or a strain on folks' bandwidth. So thanks for letting me know it worked well for you!

Speaking of shooting and challenges, I was re-reading this thread and saw my personal challenge to myself regarding comics and a new camera. I'm pleased as punch to tell you I'm the new owner of my first DSLR camera! Buyers were good to me, and I was able to fund a body AND lenses. Since April, I've had all my gear and been shooting with abandon! The shots above are pre-DSLR, those with the swamp pieces and the Fantasy Warriors battles from April vacation  (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=54368.msg800263#msg800263) are new camera pix.

Thank you again DeafNala! Please keep staring and don't blink. You never know what might happen. 

We knew when building our home that we wanted space to play. We had pretty tight parameters for the footprint, so my father-in-law got creative with everything on the inside. The playroom is designed to be adaptable so that the next morning our kids can be building a hot wheels layout from the low table you see the snacks spread upon to the floor where we were pacing the night before. The counter we sit behind and craft at has a locking door to the side where the shelves are located, though the kids are all big enough to unlock it now . And of course, the recessed eyeball spots are located over the first game board we built in the 1990s from saved building materials left over when my father-in-law built his house way back when.

@ The Rock- Thanks, I'm glad you can feel the atmosphere! Teshub built the caravan mostly from balsa wood. Click on this link for a higher-resolution picture of the large caravan which has good angles of the open wagons: http://swordandsorceryrpg.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/LNHCaravan2014_0044web.jpg They are flat beds of wood with assorted minis of boxes and barrels, and twigs as rails. The wagons are being led by two yak which are plastic and were purchased en masse from a bin at the zoo (you should have seen the look on the cashier's face as she watched us meticulously dig through armfuls of plastic animals to pick out EVERY yak they had). They are not attached to the wagons, the yoke is carved balsa that just rests on their necks. The closed wagons are a bit more complex and involved piecing together the bars in a cage shape without the top, then smoothing glue-dipped paper along the inside of the cage, then covering with carved balsa wood.

Thank you, elysium! Nick freely and frequently, and post pictures when you can. We are hugely influenced by Robert E. Howard and his writings. Hyboria is a brutal world. I love it!

Jevenkah

[Voshob]

All I know is I can't wait for "The Vangen Wars" to start in earnest.

[gazzi-ura]

The last of the puny humans, attempting to regain past glory before their ultimate slaughter.  The clock is ticking, and the fall of the humans in the Gautrian Kingdoms is a foregone conclusion!

[shadowking1957]

Always a joy to read and view , superb al of it , thank you

[Teshub]

All I know is I can't wait for "The Vangen Wars" to start in earnest.

I too am excited to get this storyline going again!

[Jevenkah]

Thanks shadowking! Glad to hear you're enjoying it so much!

And welcome gazzi-ura and Voshob! Nice to see you here.

Sagas of the Gautrian Kings continued with #44, "Winter Wolves". Wynston freed Kvig and Bleddyn from the dungeons of the keep at Timlin Town. But they needed to get to their horses and ride away from the reach of Kvig's brother Hegg, the jarl of Timlin Town. There was cavalry searching for the fugitives in the dark.



Kvig stepped out of hiding and confronted the cavalry. Honor-bound to capture Kvig, the riders asked Kvig to yield.  Kvig was unwilling to attack the men, but refused to return. The riders were equally unwilling to join Kvig’s cause and one charged him. Kvig dashed into cover of the trees. Wynston was willing, and waiting, and grappled the rider from his saddle.



Meanwhile Bleddyn had gotten their horses ready and the trio mounted. They spurred their horses through the huts and past the cavalry but couldn’t outdistance them. More Kildarian cavalry joined the chase. Capture seemed imminent when a wolf’s howl was heard.

Bleddyn’s ulfhednar screamed over a hill and engaged the cavalry.



They knocked a few riders from their horses, while the other riders broke and raced for reinforcments. Kvig ordered the injured cavalry tended to and left tied up.

The ulfhednar escorted Kvig, Bleddyn and Wynston to a place of relative safety in the hills. There Halvdan, their leader, told Kvig of a haunted ruins where the trio could winter. They had less fear of ghosts than of Hegg, so decided to wait there for the spring season.

But something evil lurked there...



More pix on the website at:
http://swordandsorceryrpg.com/sgk-44/

and the campaign since last spring:
http://swordandsorceryrpg.com/the-campaign/

Jevenkah

[DeafNala]

WONDERFUL! The report & especially the photos are INSPIRING! The thing about your games that is most appealing to moi isn't that they remind me of games long gone; it's that they are games as I wished they would have been. May your passion go on forever.

[Garanhir]

Love the latest installment. Your game world is an inspiration and you've got a great eye for a shot; it doesn't hurt that we enjoy similar historical periods!

[Jevenkah]

Love the latest installment. Your game world is an inspiration and you've got a great eye for a shot; it doesn't hurt that we enjoy similar historical periods!

Thanks Garanhir! I'm taking a photography class at the local public library and so spent a couple hours going through files of my mini photos to see what has changed or improved in my photos over the years. That was fun!

WONDERFUL! The report & especially the photos are INSPIRING! The thing about your games that is most appealing to moi isn't that they remind me of games long gone; it's that they are games as I wished they would have been. May your passion go on forever.

Now I need the teary-eyed smilie  . Teshub and I are truly blessed to have such a great group of family and friends that enjoy this craziness with us. Thanks so much.

And here are a couple of pix circa 2004, the summer after the playroom was finished:




Eerily similar subject matter, eh?
Jevenkah

[DeafNala]

It's been this WONDERFUL for quite some time. COOL PHOTOS!