[Olympia Campaign] Eleusis and Opyros

The heroes press on. They again their ship is victim of a time-distortion. After breaking it again, they made it into Eleusis, which they found besieged by a Titan army, blocking the Isthmus between the lands of Athenion and Aeolia.

They offered to sail some refugees away, in exchange for payment, sending one of their own to sail them away (someone wasn't there that day).

In town, the PCs discuss with the soldiers and their strategos, General Kassandros. The strategos struck a deal with them to help each other. He will arrange to draw the enemy force away, allowing the PCs a chance to take out Opyros, the Titan of Flame who is leading the enemy army. They gather rumors and learn that soldier's weapons cannot hurt the Titan.

In the morning, the Athenian cavalry maneuvered to draw the enemy vanguard away, leaving the PCs a straight shot against Opyros. They found an area where dead soldiers littered the ground.

Another mega-battle with the Mythic Titan damaging the party, but they managed to defeat him just in time before it destroyed them.

[Olympia Campaign] Time Stands Still

While out at sea, one of our heroes suddenly notices something strange... their ship seems to be passing along the same stretch of coast. Someone is playing with the timeline, somehow...

Making landfall, and discuss whether to continue on foot or by sea. That's when Enyale, the Titaness of Rage appears with several of her worshippers. Follows a massive battle where the Titaness destroys the shield guardian, damages the Good Vibes in a deadly battle where she pounds the heroes. After several close calls, they manage to defeat and bind her using the ritual found in the Vault of the Jade Prince.

The second picture shows the cultist emptying in pants in the middle of the action...

[Olympia Campaign] The Bridge

Our heroes reunited in the village of Kolkis where they shared their separate adventures, trying to understand the significance of what they found.

They met with the Athenian generals who requested their aid in defeating the Titan army. But our heroes chose to press on to Delfos and their main quest as time became ever-more pressing.

They decided to head back to their ship. Below is when they were ambushed by an hydra and some cyclops. The hydra withdrew but the cyclops gave them a good run for their money.

They ended the day at their ship, the Good Vibes...

[Kinda Book Report] The Red Star Vol 2

A dieselpunk Russia? Yes! A post WWII what-if tale? Yes! Interesting weapons? Yes!

I'm in.

But what I got was a wonderful sketchbook from a talented artist and a story that's hard to follow and in the end... unsatisfactory.

If this had "40k" or "Warmachine" on the cover (Khador especially), I would have rated this higher. But I'm tried to make sense of the plot, the characters, what happened before. But no. I had to read and massive two-page spreads (remember the sketchbook comment) with bits of text spread across the page.

Never heard of this? Yeah, there's a reason.

Tanks falling and people getting shot - or not. I didn't care. Then this goddess-like appears to talk to characters who I don't know. Oh yeah and there are non-linear timeline in parts of it all.

I got ripped off by the local library, having paid 2$ for this!

1/5. Garbage.

[Kinda Book Report] New Mutants 2019 Vol 1 by Marvel Comics

So you should know by now that I like the X-men! The New Mutants were a title I never got into as a child (mostly because I had to limit the number of titles I could follow). But I really liked the team and wanted to read more. They inclusion and crossover with the X-men were cool. However, there are no cheap omnibus I found...

Until this one I bought second-hand from my local library.

This is everything I hate about modern comics: Simple, predictable storylines. Shallow characters. Lack of context.

Most of the book the team "fights" against a website called "Dox" that outs mutants and their location. The first beat features a group of unknown meeting another group of unknown. No introduction to the characters or their powers. There is a lot of existential sitting around and talking. Then when the action (finally begins) there is killing aplenty.

WTF???

The only resolution we have is when the Black King (Sebastian Shaw) meets a cartel boss and slags him. The NM are nowhere involved!

The art is good. Is consistently good, but with a shitty, incoherent, and uninteresting plot. Meaningless action resolved without reason and without any forethought by the team. They're there and shit gets resolved. One time Magik arrives and teleports them all out before they get into any real trouble. It's trash.

Because of the art, I will give it a 2/5.

[Kinda Book Report] The Ships of Minos by Maciej Slomczynski

I got this book off Amazon. From the cover, I thought the author was "Joe Alex" but nope. The style within gave me the impression of a book written in a completely different language where not only the story build up but the beat itself had a different vibe. Not bad, but definitely different.

Now, this is the story of a young man from near Troy who is captured by merchants from the Levant, taken to Syria, and from there to Egypt.

The characters have surprisingly little depth and move from one place to the next in a very functional way and little in the way of internal conflicts. We are in a realm of action.

Where this book fails mostly is in setting expectation. With a title like "The Ships of Minos", you'd expect something maritime. Or that has to do with Minos. Or that deals with Crete/ the Minotaur. If you answered "Yes" to any of these, you'd be wrong on all accounts. There are two sea voyages but they happen between chapters. The only Greeks beside Whitehair, our protagonist, appear right at the end. At that time when you wonder "how is this gonna finish?"

A few things this book does real well include the descriptions of Ancient Egypt, its religion, odd religion (the faith of Sobek in particular), and the relations between the nation of Egypt and its neighbor. Another thing I found interesting was that our protagonist does not speak Egyptian and does not develop an understanding suddenly. The scenes are sometimes shown from both sides when relevant.

So this book was... not great. Will I read book 2? Nope. Did I hate it? No.

2/5 easy.

[Olympia Campaign] Vault of the Jade Prince

So this week was special. Since ActionMan and I were busy on our regular Tuesday night, I offered the team to split into two and run two distinct games.

After their escape during the Battle of Megara, our heroes ran away to find a place to rest. But they were stuck between the Athenian army fighting the white dragon Anemokrystos on one side and the forces of Nyssara and her titan forces.

The other group, composed of Aleksi, Cenathon, and Logius. This group escaped Megara in decent shape, having spent some resources but nothing a short rest couldn't get them going. Caught between two armies, they avoided getting involved.

However, when a wounded Athenian soldier called out to them for help, they learned that the Titans were digging "something" and that a Titaness was involved.

"If they want something, we don't want them to have it." So they went to see what it was about and they discovered the story of Jade Prince and several tools that might help them against the Titans. At a cost.

[Olympia Campaign] Temple of the One-Eyed Oracle

So this week was special. Since ActionMan and I were busy on our regular Tuesday night, I offered the team to split into two and run two distinct games.

After their escape during the Battle of Megara, our heroes ran away to find a place to rest. But they were stuck between the Athenian army fighting the white dragon Anemokrystos on one side and the forces of Nyssara and her titan forces.

One group, composed of Arboros, Celeste, Leth, and Topsia ran into a small olive grove where they caught their breath. They needed a place to rest as several of them were pretty tapped out on resources and low on hit points.

Without much luck until Arboros spotted men trying to hide in a nearby. They followed them down a gully where they fought the bandits and explored a small complex which turned out to be the Temple of the One-Eyed Oracle.

They left with a new item and information how to avoid the Athenian army.

[Olympia Campaign] Battle of Megara

Finally, our heroes reached the village of Megara where they met and confronted Nyssara, who offered to pay them to stay away. She offered the fantastic sum of 500,000 drachma (1dr=1sp). Our heroes knew that the chosen oracle of Apollo was nearby, in which house she was (the one with the pebble on top).

So after they used their powers and abilities to determine there were several fey (nymphs) in the ice blocks, a dragon in the ice block in the center of town (the one over which Nyssara stood), that the target house only held one woman each. And that the pillars had dampening magic.

They engaged negociations somewhat successfully, obtaining to be lodged so they could rest and discuss some more. Nyssara ordered the "oracle house" to be cleared and given to the PCs. The guard entered and left with a woman.

Now as a surprise to the group, I contacted Piper who had to bow out due to other commitments to be the oracle. So her character was Apollo's chosen. Her appearance surprised everyone. We have been in contacts for weeks at that point, with me going "They are almost heading to Megara," "Almost," "Not this week," until finally. I think everyone was surprised.

Topsia's appearance (Piper's character) changed the situation and our party went on the offensive, casting a 3rd-level inflict wounds did end the diplomacy phase. The party locked down Nyssara long enough using a variety of abilities: silence, fog cloud, and earthen grasp (from an item) as they made their escape with Topsia.

But I was not done yet... I had another surprise.

While the PCs were involved with their own issues, the Athenian army launched its attack against the village. Every turn, the PCs had to deal with the artillery barrage from their "allies."

So for a few rounds, they ran around fought a Titan-troll as they escaped. They engaged the guards.

That's when I revealed the white dragon Anemokrystos flew out of the fog cloud. It landed on the stone archways, holding two women in its claws. The party recognized NPCs from their own background... And he crushed them...

When I described what the dragon landing on the stone archway, I used the phrase Like spandex in a Wal-mart.

Tense moments in the end where poor Celeste had to choose between taking the body of her sister or rescuing Leth the cleric of Hades.

Tense stuff.

You can get the Olympia Bundle, including the setting, novels, and adventures for the setting. Get it here.

FOE at Gencon 2025: The Events

With Gencon event selection just around the corner, I wanted to let everyone know about FOE's events. This year again, FOE is offering 50 tables, which will be held at LucasOil Stadim (where the NFL's Indianapolis Colts play).

This year, FOE is offering games set in Akhamet, Olympia, Ozaka, and for the first time, in Tarsyn, our upcoming setting. Every night and Sunday, there will be specials.

But enough with the boring stuff... The Events, I conveniently made a link of all events currently available.

FOE at Gencon

[Olympia Campaign] Hera's Grove

After resting, our heroes continued towards the village of Megara, careful not to encounter Titan soldiers. They were in enemy occupied territory after all.

They encountered a diseased dryad who asked for their help against an oathbreaker.

After several encounters in the grove, including a pool that demanded oaths, and a green maze, our heroes arrived at the clearing where an armored man with blood dripping from his armor stood, defiling a broken statue of Hera.

A difficult confrontation as the oathbreaker fought them with the help of his animated chains AND his corrupted treant allies, and the PCs arriving in a staggered manner as they completed the maze (which required a number of checks, meaning our druid, Arboros completed it first). We also know that druids love to blast plants with the blight spell...

Some party members received the favor of Hera for making oaths, and the Queen of the Gods healed every PC to full as thank (they were pretty beat up).

You can get the Olympia Bundle, including the setting, novels, and adventures for the setting. Get it here.

[Olympia Campaign] The Cemetary and the War Chest

Our heroes, needed money. Having heard about the location of the Titan's war chest by the mercenary mage, they decided to go plunder it for themselves.

After going thru the cemetary, looking for an entry and not finding the magic (it was deviously hidden with mundane means). Once they entered, they found a complex with several mercenaries, skeletons, and other strange things.

The leader of the mercenaries, a necromancer trying to steal the power of the gods... He used his wonderful cloudkill spell a favorite of mine as the template I made years ago is still in use. He did down several party members with a circle of death (another favorite).

Their expedition ended in something of a draw. The necromancer fled and the party withdrew to rest and rethink their strategy.

I rolled for random encounters, and it was one of the worse rolls for the party... (I have a complex system which I will have to put on here one day) So what I did (since we were running out of time), was to say they had to run around as the Titans searched for them. They lost a day, which is problematic when the time limit is coming...

Only 12 days out of 60 left...

You can get the Olympia Bundle, including the setting, novels, and adventures for the setting. Get it here.

[Olympia Campaign] The Wilds of Athenion

Having freed the village, the heroes learned of several locations they could go to, and they saw two places: an olive grove and a vineyard.

They received an invitation to the village of Megara by Nyssara, queen of the cryoads (titanborn associated with frost and cold).

In the grove, they encountered a group of archers who rebuffed them and sent them away without telling them much.

So they chose to proceed through the vineyard where they encountered the maenads, those joyful wine nymphs that partied until others died of exhaustion. They found some great and unique magic items... Like a theater mask... And a cask of wine...

Yes, there I didn't have enough vines... But that's where the art came in handy.

You can get the Olympia Bundle, including the setting, novels, and adventures for the setting. Get it here.

[Kinda Book Report] Ayn Rand's Red Pawn

At a convention, I received a copy of the graphic novel version of Red Pawn. A book that leaves you with questions about the exact motivations of the three main characters: a devoted communist prison warden, a stoic prisoner, and a beautiful woman in the USSR.

To keep the Beast in its post on Stotsnoy Prison on an island off the coast of Russia, the Communist Party send him a beautiful woman, and a love affair. Her arrival upends the status quo at the prison.

I won't spoil the punch but we end up with a love triangle with Joan in the middle.

The art was not great, but I really enjoyed the story, it left me wondering exactly what each of the characters thought and when. Enjoyable. So, as a rating I will settle on a 3/5. Average overall

[Olympia Campaign] Under the yoke of the Titans

Having run the blockade, the PCs head to a small village where they fought the forces of the Titans. These forces included hoplites and a mercenary mage. A rather impressive battle.