First off, I will be running at least one Hackmaster Basic game on Thursday evening at 6 PM at this Con:
http://www.randomcon.org/
I hope to schedule at least one more over the weekend once they open up scheduling for those days.
As for running my home game:
The last couple fo sessions have revolved around fighting a Ghast.
Upon entering a Graveyard to the North of the Ruined Hamlet (by Barrataria Games), the party was beset by a large group of Skeletons. The Dwarven Fighter, Angus, was leading the way. The party was outnumbered. Much to their dismay they were quickly reminded that a Cleric of the Guardian cannot call on their God to repel undead, so the battle was going to have to be won the hard way.
Angus and Killix, the Cleric of the Guardian, were quickly surrounded by 3 skeletons, others only had to fight one or two, and the tail end of the 7 person group was able to gang up on 1 skeleton.
Many blows were dodged and exchanged, and Angus in particular was getting hacked on very regularly. In fact, he was soon getting close to dying. From somewhere within he pulled on new found determination to defend his friends to keep himself on his feet (He spent Honor to regain Hit points). However it was soon apparent that it would not be enough while still having to fight 3 on 1 odds, and Angus' life soon spilled from his body along with his blood. Killix, who was standing behind Angus, and already fighting 3 skeletons realized he would soon be joining Angus.
So he started praying to the Guardian to help him protect his friends from this undead onslaught that had already claimed the doughty Angus, to please empower him to do something before any more brave souls were lost!
Suddenly Killix' sword glowed bright white, and then burst like the Sun rising over the horizon in the morning, blinding everyone (they all failed the check). When everyones vision cleared all that remained of the skeletons was a pile of torn and ragged armor, the swords and shields they were using, and the dust of their bones, which were now being slowly blown away on the breeze.
(The skeletons were destroyed by holy energies released from the sword)
Killix bowed his head and went down upon bent knee giving The Caregiver thanks for answering his call. He then quickly regained his feet to attend the wounds on himself, Shaggy, Bandito, Frelda and the others.
They then realized they were not the only living beings alive in the graveyard as a child (whom they soon realized was a Halfling) and a elven woman made ugly by a horrible scar across her face revealed themselves, one from within a nearby crypt, and the woman came from behind a crypt further away to the North. The young child like person introduced himself as Will, a Cleric of the Caregiver. The horribly scarred woman introduced herself as Nightwind, Ranger of the Gold Hills.
Will told how he hand entered the Graveyard, and the Crypt from the West, looking for old religious texts he believed were hidden in the Crypts here.
Nightwind told how she lives in the Northwest corner of the Graveyard and told how the undead had recently arisen a week or so earlier. She also let them know she had seen a lot of activity of undead wreathed in the darkness of night down in the largest Mausoleum at the east end of the Graveyard.
They then looted Angus' body of his worldly goods and dug a fresh grave in which to inter Angus' body, Killix giving last rights to a fallen hero.
After some debate they decided they were in no hurry to investigate the Mausoleum to the East, so they agreed to help look for the religious scrolls in a smaller Mausoleum to the North, the one from which Nightwind had come from behind earlier.
Bandito, the Dwarven Thief checked the solid Mausoleum and found a hidden door on its eastern face. He prepared to open it as his comrades circled around the entrance, all standing about 15 to 20 feet away from the entrance.
Bandito then used his crowbar to pry the door open, releasing a weak spray of globby acidic material which he easily ducked to avoid.
He then finished prying the stone door out of its long sealed position, releasing a huge noxious gas that reached out to even the most distant of his companions (the Ghasts "cloud" has a 20 foot radius of effect and it was standing right behind the door). Everyone was overcome with the vile wretchedness of the odor (EVERYONE failed the CON check, and I rolled an explosion on the 2d4 for a final result of 10 STR to be lost), and everyone except Bandito became paralyzed with weakness (Everyone had a STR of 10 or less, except Bandito).
Bandito saw for a brief second some horrible looking creature that seemed to be the center of this horrible stench, but feeling greatly weakened he staggered away from the creature. This allowed him to quickly see that everyone had succumbed to the horrible stench to the point of being unable to move. Realizing doom was upon them all Bandito decided to flee, but could not leave his long time companion, Harold the Mage, so started to drag him away to the South and West as fast as he could.
Unknown to Bandito, the Ghast did not know it was daylight within his crypt, so was also staggered by the horrible light, giving Bandito precious seconds to drag Harold and himself beyond the Ghasts attention.
Bandito got down to where Shaggy and Frelda were resting and recovering from their wounds, and told them of the horrible threat. They then loaded Harold's weak and unmoving body onto one of their two mules, looking over their shoulders towards their doomed companions while doing so.
Horror was deeply cut into their souls as they saw the Ghoul move out of the Crypt, surrounded by his vile and nebulous cloud of foul death, and go to first Will, then Killix, then Nightwind, ripping out each of their throats in turn.
Horrified by their friends deaths, and their horrible inability to stop it, they grabbed the reigns of the Mules and started heading back South to the Ruined Hamlet.
They went no further than 30 feet before spying three people approaching them. (New PC's replacing the newly fallen).
Soren, and elven male with a lisp, introduced himself as a Warrior here to help his friend, Shylaera (Shy'Lay-ear-ah) Cirdol, twin sister to the now deceased Nightwind, and the Priestess of the Caregiver, Alora.
They told how they were looking for a Ranger named Nightwind, and the remaining party members informed them of how she and two of their other companions just died.
Turning her grief and regrets to anger Shylaera asked if they could defeat the creature.
The new comers were then told how the sword by the body of the now slain Priest Killix was a very potent weapon against such undead, and maybe if it was recovered it could be used to destroy the foul Ghast, but they were currently too injured to dare to try and recover it.
Shylaera looked at Soren and Alora, getting a nod of assent from each. "We can recover the weapon, we are unharmed." Frelda then said, "I have but a scratch or two, I can help as back up, at the very least. Lets do it, because if that Ghast takes that weapon into his lair, we'll likely never recover it without dying first."
The 4 of them then moved closer, and watched the Ghast. Soon the Ghast picked up the body of the halfling, Will, and took it into the Ghasts Mausoleum.
"Now is our chance!" Soren cried.
With that they ran forward, grabbing the sword quickly.
Shylaera then proclaimed, "This foul creature will not feed on my sister!", and then picked up her sisters slashed and bloody remains, and ran away with her.
Alora decided she also could not leave the slain cleric to feed the evil creature either, so started to drag his heavy body back as well. Then Soren and Frelda came up, and with their help they quickly carried the bodies and sword away.
When they got back to the rest of the injured they quickly threw the dead over the back of one of the mules and lashed them, and with Harolds paralyzed body tied to the other mule they quickly headed back to the ruined hamlet before the ghast came looking for its stolen meals.
They went back to the old Smithy in the hamlet. With its still sturdy stone walls and newly made wooden storm shutters that Bandito made when they last stayed here to recover from injuries, it was the safest place to stay.
Not knowing if the Ghast would come after them when the sun fell, they quickly gathered up lots of wood. Fortunately the Smithy forge furnace was rather large. Angus had told them it was likely because the former Smith probably cast his own plow blades. Whatever the reason the group quickly decided it was a perfect place to burn the remains of their friends, ensuring they would not be further desecrated by returning as undead servants of the Ghast. Plus, since the forge was still in good shape and reasonably air tight when the iron doors were shut, they wouldn't smell much either.
So they put in most of the logs as a bed for their fallen comrades and sibling, then nicely laid out their bodies side by side, and covered them with the remaining logs. Alora then gave last rites to the hero's. Tinder material was then stuffed in and the fire was started, and the doors were quickly shut. Soon the flames could be heard roaring, and everyone hung their heads, remembering those within.
Then, to distract themselves from the ghastly things going on within the forge, they then planned out their watch order for the night and set about preparing for night fall, gathering even more wood for their cook and watch fires. They then broke out their rations, which included dried bear meat, and other food stuff they had recovered from the long abandoned gardens around the Hamlet, such as potato's, carrots, onions, and even tomato's! They then broke out the last of Angus' mead stores and ate and drank to the memory of their fallen. They then ate apples from the nearby Orchard as desert.
"You know...", Frelda said, "this is still a good place to live. I am also a Blacksmith. I think I would like to make this place my home, once these damned undead are dealt with!"
The others contemplated her words, thinking of the foods they ate from around here this night, and the sturdy Smithy in which they stayed.
Shaggy then spoke up, "I agree, this is a damn good place to live. Maybe once we have dealt with these farging undead, and the bastard bandits rampant here about, we could all settle here and bring this hamlet back to life!"
Others nodded their heads in agreement, the idea gaining greater appeal within each mind as the idea of having such a good future to look forward to warmed their souls.
Harold added, "Yes, it is a good place full of natural food sources, and lots of wood. Most of the buildings here still have decent frame work at the very least. I think I wouldn't mind turning that Mill over on the river into my home."
Continuing to feed the fire of the idea, Elora then added her thoughts, "It would only be proper if I restored the Temple to the Caregiver here in the middle of the Hamlet as well. I am sure with the blessings of The Caregiver we could all have a good life here."
