We had our annual CliffCon gaming convention with the group. You may notice some names below that you haven’t seen before in the course of the site. In the past, I didn’t post about gaming like I do now, although, I decided it was definitely time to include those events in my gaming adventures. The festivities did put a bit of a hold on the computer games I played over the course of the week, but it was certainly worth every single minute! Even still, I managed some game time prior too the event and even a bit after. This was again, a fantastic week, chalked full of gaming adventures! My thanks goes out whole heartedly to all our gaming groups for the great memories, food, time, and fun that is always had with family and friends! Game on my friends!
Days played: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday
Players: Qvaid, Hobbit & Error, Hobbit
Comments: Qvaid and I decided it might be best to skip the remaining Ornate Chests in Abrassar and head back to Caldera on Monday evening, when we started our Outward adventures. We had a spell where we got wrecked by some Obsidian Elementals at some point. It would seem our desire to explore had finally caught up to us. We managed to take down a few, but ultimately we were over powered when we ended up with a couple too many on us and got cornered trying to escape. On the plus side, that is what allowed us to finally craft, Gep’s Longblade for Qvaid. Not long after we finished up that process, we did end up calling it a night after the usual inventory management and other New Sirocco based shenanigans.
On Tuesday evening at some point, the construction of the 3 resource buildings we had going completed, and we received a quest from Dorion to acquire a Myrmituar egg and to take it to the Sulphuric Caverns to eventually become fertilizer for New Sirocoo’s designated farm lands. Qvaid and I rushed to start the task. We did manage to get the egg, and even found the Sulphuric Caverns, but we decided given the time, we would have to stop there, and camped right outside of the dungeon after a very brief dip into it to see what it was about. We wanted to continue our adventures, but time had unfortunately caught up to us, and it was getting to close to the time we needed to turn in. We are ready to hop back into the caverns as soon as our next adventure starts though!
Wednesday evening, Qvaid and I managed to make our way to the Oil Refinery and cleared it completely. We encountered a Djinn at the end of it, and spoke with him to get out of his area. Prior to that, every time we tried to leave we just appeared back in his room facing the ramp to his platform. It was some crazy magic trickery! We did a bit more exploration of Caldera, before making our way back to New Sirocco. While in town we managed to get the materials to start construction of the City Hall and Food Store. Albeit the Food Store is a bit behind the City Hall construction at this point. We performed some intense inventory management and called it for the night.
Thursday, I was off of work to prep for a gaming convention we attend yearly. Qvaid and I managed to get a bit of adventuring done in Outward. We cleared the Ark of the Exile again. Unfortunately for us the Ark of the Exile was again in the wrong place so we couldn’t access the lower portion of it. We also managed to clear the Underside Loading Dock, although we’re note quite sure if we might have missed something because it was a very short dungeon and didn’t seem to have any samples at all. Again, we explored a bit of Caldera, and seem to be learning that area a bit more, which has us hopeful. We headed back to New Sirocco to check on the construction again, but it was certainly a bit premature. Still quite a few days pending on even the first phase. We knew we had a break coming up for dinner, and a bit of family time, so we finished up with some inventory management, some repairs to our equipment, and some much needed rest in New Sirocco. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it back to the adventures again, before the night was coming to a close.
On Sunday afternoon, Error and I had a bit of adventure in Outward. We picked up where we left off, and managed to get the tribal favor needed to save the lighthouse in Cierzo! There were some slight interruptions and a bit of a slow start, but we faced off against some foes, and cleared the Blistering Burrows of the Trogs there as well! After making it back to town to do some inventory management and rest, he ended up having to call it for a bit. Given the scheduling for later in the day, we never got back to any other gaming adventures. Most of us called it rather early Sunday evening.
Days played: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Players: Error, Falken, Iron, SoSirius, Kilogre, Cold_Cheese, Hobbit
Comments: Thursday evening kicked off our annual CliffCon 5! Due to scheduling, Error and I had to show up considerably late, and effectively arrived with Falken and Kilogre already turned in for the evening (it was late).
On Friday after some breakfast, the entirety of the group gathered together at the table to face off in a one-shot campaign against the legendary Godess, Tiamat! Kilgore, grand Dungeon Master, gave us a fair warning at the start of the adventure, that Tiamat is in fact a Goddess, and this fight would be no easy task. There would be three total phases on which we’d have to face off in our to come out victorious and the chances of just such a victory were indeed slim. Never-the-less, we were ready for the challenge, and Error, Falken, Iron, SoSirius, Cold_Cheese (Jaro), and myself were ready. Or…so…we…thought.
Cold_Cheese (Jaro) did start the fight off with a few crushing blows to the Goddess, almost taking half of the health of Tiamat we needed to end phase one at the start with two exquisite critical hits right off the bat! Error, Falken, Iron, and SoSirius all dug their weapons into the fiend as well. Hobbit (me), playing the role of Zephlin (our Life Domain Cleric of Lathander), handled the majority of the healing and before long we were at the start of Phase 2, where the group took a break to eat some lunch, and relax a bit before we would dive back into round 2.
Once everyone was refreshed, Phase 2 began, with us facing off against 5 chromatic dragons: Red, Blue, Green, White, and Black dragons all ready to tear us to pieces, while Tiamat had phased out of our view in Phase 2. One by one, we managed to bring all of Tiamat’s minions down, until none were left and we closed out on the end of Phase 2, and the beginning of Phase 3. At that point another break was in order, and we all left the table to relax, snack, and prepare for the start of the next battle to once again face off against the mighty Tiamat when we returned.
After some dinner, and rest, we all returned to the table once more in Phase 3 to continue our quest to take down the Goddess of Chromatic Dragons, Tiamat. It was indeed a glorious battle! The over all time frame it took us to face off was something over 12 hours in total, and exhaustion was starting to show on the faces of all of us around the table. Sadly, there was not a victorious ending for our lot of adventures as someone was starting to drop every round Tiamat went by this point. In a last ditch effort to save the group, I used the Rod of Security to teleport our group away to an extraplanar paradise, to recoup and recover from our wounds, and broken pride. We all survived the destiny lost in defeat. Surprisingly the group in it’s entirety was spared the horrendous death to the Goddess of Chromatic Dragons. Even still, given the nature of the one shot we were participating in, that is where the story came to it’s end in the early morning of Saturday as we came to a close for the night.
Saturday, we once again started out with some breakfast, than gathered to the table for a few rounds of Dungeon Mayhem. From there, Kilogre feeling a bit under the weather had to bow out for a bit, and the remainder of us continued on with some Zombicide. Our small group of zombie slaying adventures did come out victorious, but it was not without some loses. Falken, Iron, and myself had succumb to the Zombie Hordes in a somewhat sacrificial manner that did insure the safety of those that remained and triumphed! From there we took an extended break, while Error and I headed to the store after a bit, and the rest of the gang either napped or watched the ebil foosball games on the magical picture device hanging above the mantle in Iron’s living room. We had a wonderful, healthy dinner, and settled down for a movie or so, before taking the annual picture of all of us threatening Kilogre with some wonderful gifts he bestowed to us to celebrate the 5th Annual CliffCon. It was decided that the night would be finished out with a bit more movie watching. Prior to that due to scheduling and the fact that Sunday is usually just ‘check out’ day so to speak, Error and I decided we would probably be heading home after the festivities on Saturday, to get a jump start on the ride home. Which in earnest we’d prefer to do at night to avoid the hot Alabama heat, and horrendous traffic along the way. We had already let the gang know, and given the remainder of the night would be movies, we decided to skip out a bit earlier than intended to start the trek home.
On Sunday, I don’t really have any information on how the remainder of CliffCon 5 transgressed, as Error and I were home later Saturday evening. I suspect that since on most Sundays everyone is just packing up to head home, that might still be the case. Could also be that perhaps with less people they may have had the opportunity to play some more board games either Saturday night or Sunday some time before calling it.
Ultimately, the event was a huge success, and an absolutely incredible time! There is of course so much more to the story of the battles with Tiamat and even the board games we played, but there is only so much space to dedicate to it here my friends. The most important part for me was the opportunity to hang out with some of the best friends I’ve made through out my life time in a manner that I truly love so much. Gaming has always been a favorite past time for me, and to have friends that love it so much as well, is certainly a blessing in the heart and mind of this Hobbit!
