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9/17/2019 7:29 am  #11


Re: Returning to Heroes of Hellas

Wow! Just in time when I’m thinking about running HoH myself. Your posts are a gold mine for the timidly creative. I shall unapologetically steal from your glorious adventures!

 

9/17/2019 10:20 am  #12


Re: Returning to Heroes of Hellas

Please steal and plunder as much as you like - I do!

The only thing you must do is post about it!!


My real name is Steve Hall
     Thread Starter
 

9/17/2019 9:53 pm  #13


Re: Returning to Heroes of Hellas

If I must, I must!

 

10/10/2019 8:13 am  #14


Re: Returning to Heroes of Hellas

Last Sunday saw me running the latest instalment of our Heroes of Hellas game, converted to BoL Mythic Edition. The heroes, an Amazon warrior and a Thracian Bard had returned to their vineyard on Crete after the adventure on the cannibal island, and then left again as soon as they could on their partnership’s galley, to trade with the merchants of Pylos for flax and linen. They were worried their ship would be sequestered by mad King Minos, who was pursuing a war with Athens, and needed every vessel he could get. Pylos was far away from the sea battles. So, stay out of the war and make some money – easy.

However when they got to Pylos they soon discovered that King Agamemnon of Mycenae had joined Athens in the war, and his brother King Menelaus of Sparta had also joined the rapidly forming league against Crete. King Nestor of Pylos was currently receiving a Spartan embassy, who were trying to get him to join the war. (The Minoans had been the top dogs in the Aegean for many years, but now King Minos’s power was waning and the Greeks were now clearly out to break his power.) Also they heard that the King of Athens had died in a sea battle, and his son the bone-headed Prince Theseus, had succeeded him as king.

The PC’s business partner and captain of their galley was a Trojan, and they were both barbarians, but their ship was known as a Minoan vessel and so they were soon regarded by everyone as spies. The Amazon took it into her head to try to see King Nestor and try to find out if he intended to join the war on Athens side. (“We have a business on Crete, and for the moment it’s our home.”) They only managed to have a non-committal meeting with the King’s chancellor (who later sent out spies to trail them around town). As they were now being followed by King Nestor’s spies, the Spartans decided the PCs really were a problem to be dealt with.

First they ended up in a bar room brawl with some Spartan hoplites. The Amazon took on the leader of the Spartans in an arm wrestling contest, and when the Spartan tried to provoke an incident by introducing scorpions into the contest, the Thracian tried to defuse the situation by eating a live scorpion! But eventually the Amazon beat the Spartan captain in the contest, triggering the brawl. The PCs ships company bested the Spartans, and no one suffered a serious injury – aside from the Spartan captain, as the Amazon broke his nose.

When they set sail for Crete the next day, a Spartan ship tailed them and eventually caught up with them and a sea fight ensued. The Trojan captain proved a better commander than the Spartan captain and the Spartan ship was rammed twice and sunk. The Amazon and the Tracian had already killed the Spartan hoplites with arrows and javelins. (We’ve never used the sea battle rules before, and we were impressed – a very tense fight!)

On their return to Crete and their vineyard, they found their associate, the beautiful Greek assassin, had taken possession of their land with a concealed force of Athenian hoplites. This was because she wanted to ensure the safety of their estate in case there was a big battle for Crete. A large, mostly Mycenaean force had evaded the Minoan fleet and landed up the coast, and was advancing on Knossos. She also wanted the vineyard as a convenient location for a meeting between King Agamemnon and Prince Idomeneus (King Minos’s grandson). It transpired that the assassin had been secretly working for Agamemnon since the second game (this was game 6).

Idomeneus knelt before Agamemenon, who raised him up and said that kings do not bow to other kings. Clearly Agamemnon had a willing client king in the moron Theseus of Athens, and was now about to get another.
So Minos had to die, but who was to kill him. Officially it would be Idomenius, liberating his people from a tyrant – but to make sure it went the right way……Ummm?

So for the Amazon’s weight in gold (!) the PCs and the female assassin accompanied the Prince and two retainers into King Minos’s private apartments in the palace at Knossos. It turned out that the priestesses of the king’s Eastern snake cult were actually serpent people with access to sword wielding giant snakes, and so hilarity ensued.

The fight was hard and tough as the serpent women were no slouches in swordplay, but the PCs won through. The most dangerous moment was when the High Priestess threw a venomous snake at the Thracian’s face. Luckily the assassin made a terrific roll to transfix the snake with a thrown dagger. They found King Minos in his throne room. I had hardly got two words of his monologue out before he was cut down by an Amazon arrow and a Thracian javelin!

Prince Idomeneus cut off his grandfather’s head and walked out of the palace to make a liberation speech and ascend the vacant throne; pausing only to exile the assassin from Crete as she had murdered his brother (her lover) when he turned up late to the party. As she told him, “There can only be one king!” – yes, she was acting on Agamemnon’s orders.

So a mix of intrigue, a punch-up, a sea battle, politics and slaughtering monsters both human and non-human. What a way to spend a Sunday! 

Last edited by Gruntfuttock (10/10/2019 8:15 am)


My real name is Steve Hall
     Thread Starter
 

10/10/2019 2:13 pm  #15


Re: Returning to Heroes of Hellas

[Applause] another thrilling chapter! That’s pretty memorable. I may actually get a chance to run something next week. Very timely play report.

 

10/11/2019 5:16 am  #16


Re: Returning to Heroes of Hellas

Please let us know how it goes!


My real name is Steve Hall
     Thread Starter
 

10/11/2019 8:09 am  #17


Re: Returning to Heroes of Hellas

Hellas is one of 3 ideas we’re pitching for Thursday. We’ll see if it becomes the chosen one. I’ll be sure and leave a sacrifice for Apollo.

 

11/05/2020 7:19 pm  #18


Re: Returning to Heroes of Hellas

I'd like to play this setting.  I have the book.

 

11/06/2020 6:13 am  #19


Re: Returning to Heroes of Hellas

I highly recommend it! 

HoH gives a really fun S&S game, particularly if you keep Ray Harryhausen firmly in mind, along with Robert E Howard. Actually the setting is really Hyborian in feel. It's a snap to convert to running it in Mythic BoL (which is what I did), but works great in Legendary Edition BoL.


My real name is Steve Hall
     Thread Starter
 

11/25/2020 2:12 pm  #20


Re: Returning to Heroes of Hellas

I hope to be able to run this someday also.


Where's my axe?
 

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