Slug House – Slaying of the Giant Slug (session 25)

5 juillet 2026 David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, my kids, Nature, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG Daniel Herz, Slug House

Nature interlude, a few hundreds meters from our home in Québec City. No Giant Slugs were slain on this specific expedition.

And now, back to our program:

Some negociations, some shopping, a big fight and that’s all the Battle Brothers could squeeze in this session.

2 hours session

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/491255/slug-house

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
Jedri, Ratman Thief, rather enjoys his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

Green Imps: adventuring in Gunderholfen
The Protectors: leisure in Longfelt, Delevan convalescent
Black Axes: somewhere in Ganfal swamp, lost?
The Musers: in Longfelt, resting
The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen

Longfelt

The next morning at the Hare & Hound inn, the Battle Brothers find out that Dominguos (with some of his men and a woman named Phrynia) was waiting for them in the common room.
Dominguos talks about starting on the wrong foot but offers to come to some kind of understanding with the adventurers. How about they share some of the plunder if his gang don’t interfere with their investigation? The Battle Brothers accept, not committing to any set share though.
The PCs go find their thief friend Tlali, now mostly cured from her rat-form curse, and ask her if she could discreetly find out if the window form which they got out the day before (and left not quite closed) was still the same. It was still open, but it was also trapped with poison needles (which she removed).
Forka orders a custom, a bit heavier, warhammer from a local blacksmith used to provide for adventurers. Half the money now and should get the new weapon in three days. The PCs buy a crowbar and some other gear.

The Mansion of Uzul Balashi

The Battle Brothers reach the wizard’s manor and enter the front courtyard and ask Dominguos if they can explore his gang’s side of the manor. He reluctantly agrees and shows them around except for his own room (that he shares with Phynia). The adventurers manage to spot a secret door that the bandit leader swears he knew nothing about. Unfortunately the door doesn’t seem to open from this side and there doesn’t seem to be another way to access the rest of the manor from this aisle.
The PCs are tempted to break the door open but finally opt for the window.
Forka is the first to enter into the dining room and is surprised to find a strange creature already there: a Giant Slug!
Forka’s 2h hammer don’t seem to do much against the slug but piercing and slashing attacks from his companions, and fireballs from Grimoire, ultimately do the job of slaying the beast. The monster did spit acid on Forka, hurting him (but his magic chainmail was okay). It also produced a powerful lighning bolt that downed Torch and badly hurt Jedri and Grimoire at the same time. Once the Giant Slug was slain Grimoire proceeded to heal his companions with his magic. The Battle Brothers chose to be cautious and leave the manor without further exploration.

Closing Comments:

The Battle Brothers rested for the night at their usual inn, a big advantage of adventuring in the city proper for sure. But their habbit of using always the same inn also means that ther’re easy to find if someone wishes so… Plus, they were followed by a footpad.
The eponymous Giant Slug was obviously a big deal, could cast some spells (in my modified Dragonbane version) and was hard to defeat. It had 8 possible starting locations (and moved around afterward), at random, here it was at the dining room, their chosen entry point.
3 days for this mission to date and more to come as they still don’t know what happened to Uzul Balashi.

A Most Devious Mussel

21 avril 202622 avril 2026 David Skelector Nature

Brought to my attention by my wonderful wife.

What you see below isn’t a fish but in fact the freshwater plain pocketbook mussel (Lampsilis cardium) displaying her lure mimicking a fish. This sacrificial body part serves to attract a predatory fish and, when chewed upon, will rupture and release parasitic larvae inside said chewer. These larvae attached to the host’s gills will then feed and develop and y’know, live their life at the expense of somebody (just not their parents) until they’re ready to leave.

Okay, that’s not really rpg-related but c’mon! Baiting, camouflaging and parasitism all in one? It begs to be adapted into a monster!

Alive and Well

17 juillet 2025 David Skelector Fantasy, Nature, Travel Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

I’m back from a trip to Nova Scotia with the wife and kids. It was great. We travelled along Northumberland shore with many great stops with view on the Atlantic ocean (the gulf of St-Lawrence to be more precise).

We survived going near Malignant Cove (awesome name, will steal it for an elfgame along with Folly Lake). We then went to the eastern part of the province in Cape Breton, where the locals were a bit confused with our french pronunciation of it (unwanted history lesson: Breton stands for France’s Bretagne), I’m not complaining really, the Nova Scotians are great folks, polite and welcoming Canadians through and through (a lot more than over here in Quebec I must say).

And we did the rightly famous Cabot Trail. My wife says that the Skyline trail is a bit overrated though, and in truth we all preferred our visit to the wetlands where we could see thousands of carnivorous pitcher plants among other things.

An artist view of me saving her from an excess of curiosity.

Beautiful and Gnarly. 100 yo and + trees.

I ate as much seafood as I could (and took a few pounds for it I think) but we also ate the best fire-grilled steak ever at Mother Webb’s in Antigonish. Thank god there’s no Mother Webb’s in Quebec City as my wife would be there 5 times a week I think!

We also nearly got all killed when we got stuck on the highway between a large, slow-moving farming machine and a non-slowing (down a slope) truck full of huge tree trunks, followed by another truck, but thankfully the truck’s driver reacted properly and got pass us full-speed in the gravel roadside. That was pretty frikkin close.

But hey, we’re still alive and unless you begin to think that I’m doing a travel blog, and as someone afflicted with GMS (Game Master Syndrome), whatever I do, wherever I go, I must find gameable content instead of, y’know, enjoying myself in the moment.

And so, I think Cape Breton would make for a great island, or small continent if upscaled maybe. The Bras d’or Lake is not really a lake in fact as it’s salt water and linked to the surrounding ocean in three places. A wonderful and impressive inner Sea with several strategic locations.

The name itself, Bras d’Or, Arm of Gold, is a bit incongruous but I think it has a feel of Lady in the Lake going on for it or something.

Well, come to think of it, that’s about all I have to say rpg-wise. I suppose I did enjoy myself!

Next D&D session prep – tropical waters

22 Mai 202324 octobre 2025 David Skelector D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Homebrew, jeux de rôles, Nature, Roleplaying Game, RPG, session prep Olung river, tomb of annihilation

Next session won’t be sooner than next month. Summer is Garden Time and my already sparse gaming schedule always take a big hit. Anyway, I’m still doing some prep in advance.

The PCs will be going south on the Olung river. They’ll have a few river encounters en route, one that is set with the events of last session (can’t talk more about this for the moment!). They are on board of the Inexorable Barge, a magical boat that can cross the steepest of riverfall without a sweat, so they’ll advance at a steady pace without having to do perilous portage.

One major site that can be found along the way is the Gardens of Nangalore. It’s a location that comes from Tomb of Annihilation, one of the good ones, that I’ve modified/expanded a lot (still working on this). The PCs know that explorer Castigliar lost his life while exploring the site. They also know that there’s some kind of powerful demoness or sorceress at the heart of this place. They don’t need to go there. They do have a few incentives to explore it though, we’ll see if they will be tempted…

They’ll eventually reach Lake Luo and from there, they’ll have to find the Star Princess airship or its crew kept captive by pterafolks, or both.

Does the river look like this?

It’s not very clear from the ToA book what the Olung (or any other rivers) look like.

Or like that?

A tendancy that I’ve seen often in rpgs is to downsize things just so they’ll fit a hex map or a decor prop. There’s moments when Theatre of the Mind is the way to go, but you have to first visualize what you’re gonna describe to the players!

Here’s a link that I thought was very useful:

(saw this on reddit, posted from user RaRaAcererak)

https://rainforests.mongabay.com/06-rainforest-rivers-lakes-swamps.html

I’ve learned that a section of the Congo river is called the « Gates of Hell », a « 75 miles long canyon of impassable rapids ». That’s pretty impressive. Another case of Nature being more awe-inspiring than fantasy.

Which is one reason why I’ll be gardening instead of gaming. See ya!