Monsters at the palace in Bangkok

This guy and his mate prompted an in-depth conversation spun out of a Trollbridge debate on whether a warriors' bonus is excessive at 1d6 per level as against +2 per level. The contention was that at L15 it would be. We saw this guardian with MR200. The L15 warrior we imagined was pitted against two of them. They would have been the victors with the +2 bonus because of spite while on the extra dice basis things were evenly matched. Conclusion: the extra dice per level shouldn't ruin your game at that high level.

We agreed that we had not had any significant palace game as castles had dominated. Then again, I've never seen a palace like this one anywhere else.

This monster seemed pretty quirky but not one to underestimate.

We suspected this guy was wielding a Thai knobwhacker.

Now she seemed ready to charm delvers into a false sense of security.

I didn't know they had leprechauns in Thailand...

End of Day 6 Standings

(Just the front runners.)

1 - Dworphi: 3 clues solved, getting close to mountain #4

2 - Souza: 3 clues solved, on the way to mountain #4

3 - Grawp: 3 clues solved, stuck on the mountain for Day 7 after falling foul of yetis

4 (equal) - Mr. Jenkins and Meaty Mutt, both struggling to solve the third clue

6 - Sir Geoffery: fumbling about trying to find the third clue

Most of the others are on their way to the third mountain. At the back of the field are Cuddles, Rooney and Pencilvania, all failing to crack the second clue, while Chi Chi is having disaster after disaster and hasn't even got their yet. Having established a Chaos Cult shrine on the first mountain, Lepacin is now taking things more seriously.

At the end of Day 5, Gibby and Bad Boy found themsleves camped out together overnight and composed I rather endless drinking song consisting of verse after verse of all the things they'd like to see f*cked up.

Ski Race Standings

After 3 nights in the mountains, the leaderboard looks like this:

1- Dworphi (grew to immense power in the fabled Goblin Crag dungeon) - 2 clues solved, streaking on to the third mountain without raising sweat thusfar

2- Grawp (human) within striking distance of his old friend (also a Goblin Crag veteran)

3- Souza Fortescue (dwarf wizard, rescued many moons ago from enforced servitude in GC) - camped overnight on the second mountain but ready to race for the next peak on the morrow

4 (equal) - Minster (minotaur of Rainbow Castle fame), Meaty Mutt (mercenary dwarf with a 'take it on' attitude to life), Sir Geoffery de Boyks (animated suit of armour powered up in a Boozer solo), Bad Boy Bernard Michaux (human engineer-warrior, co-founder of Pythagorax and infamous bridge-saboteur) - all these fell foul of yetis after solving the second clue

8 (equal) - Mr. Jenkins (human pyromaniac four-armed servant of the demon Zorgoth) - stuck overnight on the second mountain without having solve the clue yet; Sentinel (centaur) - trying to prove that quadrupeds are fine on skis, also stumped on second clue

10 - Shoppie - businessman/politician not quite at second peak yet after breaking skis on Day One

11 - Lucky (dwarf owner of continent-wide transport business) - finding roads to be easier than snow

12 - Pencilvania (vampire animations artist) - the ban on magic has left him without any aces to play

13 - Donald Neuf-Trump (human wizard with Control ring) - again, the barring of magic is proving a big hurdle to overcome

14 (equal) - Reccardio (elf archer and all round social pariah) - not being able to shoot people leaves little left up his sleeve; Cuddles (human) - being as nice as Reccardio is obnoxious is yet to pay dividends

16 - Kangaroo Jack - bound to pick up sooner or later...

17 - Nux Fractor (ball-breaking human) - done nothing to interest spectators thus far

18 (equal) - Chi Chi (famous for escaping from Khosht and consistently annoying Reccardio) - not finding it easy to make progress in this company and now missing Day Four after falling foul of yetis; Spontanous Combustius (bad-tempered human) - troubled by ski problems on Day One and now set to miss Day Four after failing to deal with yetis (probably best not to ask for autographs at the moment)

20 (equal) - Gibby (co-founder of Pythagorax, divorced by a With-Goddess and using just one ski to go with his axe leg) - failed to solve first clue and entirely indifferent; House Elf - thoroughly distracted by Gibby at the first peak - didn't even find the clue; Lepacin (jelly-blob leprechaun high-priest of the Chaos Cult) - hasn't been able to solve first clue yet after taking more than a day to find it; Rooney (he of the magic socks, now Prince of Qadouche) - couldn't solve first clue and not in a good mood

From Stars to Snow

The Space Olympics turned out to be a triumph for the original Star Trek series - the Klingons got gold fairly comfortably with the Romulans pushing ahead of the pack for second place.

Now back to Tunnels & Trolls and a skiiing in the Mountain Kingdom. The challenge is to ski to 12 different mountains, find and solve a clue there, ward off yeti attacks without harming the yetis and make it back to Dobby's palace. The first one back might not necessarily win if they have not solved all the clues.

We have 23 contestants and the mechanics work like this:

• there is a set distance to each mountain
• each contestant can ski a distance equal to the lower of a STR and CON saving roll
• instead of using full attributes, a modifier is given based on the full attribute with a maximum of +10; 2d6 DARO are rolled and the modifier applied
• each clue has a level of difficulty set to find it; the SR is on LK with the modifier for LK added
• each clue has a level of difficulty set to solve it; the SR is on INT
• on each mountain yetis attack; the yetis get different numbers of dice on different mountains, ranging from 2-4 (no DARO); contestants get 2d6 no DARO and may add in a DEX, CHR or SPD modifier to deal with the threat; losing to yetis means a day lost
• critical fumbles on STR relate to ski damage; those on on CON relate to health problems - possible skiiing distance is reduced to just 1d6 after a c/f
• No magic is allowed

The contestants are:

Warrriors: Dworphi, Grawp, Lucky, Mr.Jenkins, Kangaroo Jack, Meaty Mutt, Sir Geoffery de Boyks, Rooney, Bad Boy Bernard Michaux, Minster, Sentinel

Rogues: Chi Chi, Gibby Honeydew

Wizards: House Elf, Souza Fortescue, Donald Neuf-Trump, Cuddles, Nux Fractor, Spontaneous Combustius, Lepacin

Citizens: Shoppy, Pencilvania

Kindreds entered: human, dwarf, elf, hobbit, vampire, minotaur, centaur, kanga-kin, leprechaun

Space Olympics

Made it out of the badlands to Krabi and the English tourists. No mvies on the flight from Chaing Mai so we started a simple game using a dice roller ap to save crawling about on the aircraft floor after misthrown dice.

We choose 10 races - Humans, Klingons, Romulans, Vulcans, Trill, Bejorans, Betazoids, Telaxians, Cardasians and Ferengi - and are working our way through from Troll-wresstling, chess, javelin, persuading miners to abandon their settlement, poker, etc.

We just assign a value to each attribute and then set about appropriate saving rolls, normally over 5 rounds.

After 5 events, the Klingons are looking good with a pure strength contest still to come while the Vulcans and Telaxians are languishing at the bottom of the heap.

C'est la guerre!