Chapter 9 Farewell to a Friend

                                    NICKEL & DIME PRODUCTION'S 
                                     proudly present's 
               CONNEMARA FEENEY & TAYLOR DAVIES 
                                                 in
                          THE HEART STONE OF AFRICA
24th of July
After the attack on us yesterday I found it hard to get to sleep but feel rested none the less, we set off once again in a North-North West heading.

By mid-afternoon I sensed a change coming over our column & noticed that our pace seemed to by slowing, I'd not got a chance to ask Marco if everything was alright before we were once more under attack.

This time they came at us from both front & rear, bellowing blood curling howls.

With no real time to react the Colonel ordered the our Bearers to run to our left coved by two of the Askaris, while Marco, Taylor, an Askaris & myself faced the frontal charge, the Colonel & two Askaris stood to at the back.

Taylor cut one down, hitting the man in the chest, while one was also cut down at the rear.

 Our shooting had whoever unseen consequences & a large silver back Gorilla came thundering out on to the clearing near to the fleeing Bearers.

Quick as a flash he was on to one of them,

as the Natives closed on us, forcing us to fight them hand to hand, all this sent the rest of the Bearers into a run of blind panic,been no match for these men I had to back off, only to see the brave Askaris who had stepped into my place in the line cut down.

As I turned away I was greeted by another horrible sight, as the poor Bearer who'd be sent upon by the Gorilla,

was now also under attack by a Hyena, As I passed the poor man, making my way over to the two Askaris, he was knock from his feet

Turning I noticed that Marco had  gotten the better of one of the two savages that he was fighting & that another of our brave Askaris had been cut down.

Marco wasted no time in cutting down the another one & with their numbers now depleted the brutes turned & fled,

as the Gorilla picked up the Bearer & made off into the foliage, with the Hyena at his heels snapping at the poor soul, after we buried our dead we set off again deep in our own thoughts each & everyone of us, after about two hours we made camp a bit earlier then planed, Marco's reason for this was that we would not be able to reach the point he'd hoped & that this spot was probable the best place we're likely to find.

The last two day's have been costly in both life's, supplies & time & if I found sleep hard to come by last night I think it will be impossible tonight, I've asked Taylor to share my tent with me tonight something that been the gentleman that is he's reluctant to do, but known how upset I'm by the days events he has agreed.

 25th of July
After a fit-full night's sleep, a night for which most of could be hear the beating of drums,we set off without breakfast as we had consumed the last of our food the night before heading roughly North-Northwest, Marco informs us we shall be pasting through a village where he is hopeful we can stock up on food for the rest of the journey to the way-station.

Sadly this did not turn out to be the case, as while we did pass through a village the Natives were neutral towards us & unwilling to trade, as we made camp  we could see mountains loom up ahead of us, I retire tonight thankful for no further attacks but with a empty tummy.

26th or July
A better night's sleep but we're all starting to feel the first pangs of hunger after a day without food, our heading is North-West into the mountains & Marco knows of another village where we might secure food, on reaching the village we find it void of people.

 We're now high in the mountains but yet peaks still rise high above us, Taylor is spending all our rest breaks looking for deposit among the rocks & while he's found a few gems of worth there is nothing to make him believe that their is much of worth in this area, other then what seems to be some Primates that none of the party have ever seen before.

It seem we are bedeviled by bad-luck as the pathway Marco leading us on as been blocked by a landslide, we'll have to try to find another way through, we make camp once more without anything to eat.

27th of July
Another night of those dreadful drums, we awoke to find one of the Askaris gone, but if I thought this day started bad it was only to get worst, following along a ledge it gave way plummeting Marco & two of the Bearers to their deaths hundreds of feet below, with no way to retrieve their bodies we said a few prayers before retracing our steps to try & find another route.

As we camp for the night, lost & without food I fear that death is awaiting us all. 

Cut
As always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to be a film critic your comments would be welcomed :)

5 Parsecs from Home, The Crew

Who I am or what I am is of no importance, its enough that you know about the following people (I use the word people in the loose's of terms) who have grouped together for a Common cause, though what that cause is is still something of a mystery.

I guest the best way of describing them would be to call them Starport Scum, but even that might be to kind, they have their uses though & can be relied upon to carry out all kind of jobs, been a Patron of their's I required  an old retired scout-ship for them to get around, named the Infiltrator & when not on a quest for me they are free to work for anyone that will hire them.

Anghor Prok, Race Kroot
From the lower classes of Mega-city, a very primitive type, it was through him that I got to know the group.                                   

             

Reactions 1

Speed 5
Combat Skill 0
Toughness 3
Tech 0
XP 0

Jessie Stevens, Race Human
From the comfortable class of Mega-city, Jessie turned out been a bit to wild for that class of people & was outcast by his family he now seeks revenge but has made enemies, he has an eye implant that makes him a very good shot.

Reactions 1
Speed 5
Combat Skill
Toughness 3
Tech
XP 1

Don Floyd, Race Human
From a subjugated colony on an alien world, Don is well traveled, seeking glory.

Reaction 1
Speed 4
Combat Skill .5
Toughness 3
Tech 0
XP 0

Ross Houston, Race Ab-human
From the lower classes of Mega-city & primitive, Ross is on the run & hopes to one day buy his freedom from his enemies.

Reactions 1
Speed 5
Combat Skill 0
Toughness 3
Tech 0
XP 1

Urulg, Race Orc
From a research post, Urulg craves discovery of all things tech & has limited tech skills, been an orc he's an agitator & has enemies.

Reactions 1
Speed 4
Combat Skill 0
Toughness 3
Tech 1
XP 0

Weapons & equipment
High Tech weapons Cling fire pistol
Military weapons 2 rifles, Auto rifle
Low tech weapons 2 Handguns, 3 Rifles, Brutal melee weapon
Gear, Nano Doc, Combat armour, 3 frakk grenades
Gadgets Sonic wave emitter, Stabilizer, Seeker sight

Credits 8, as they don't seem to have many credits maybe the common cause is to get more :)

Ship & crew

Patrons, Me

Enemies
Black Ops
Roid-ganders
Bounty-hunters

That's a rap, as always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed :)

Movie Tone News, August 2018

This months news see yet another new rules set (script team) arrive at the studio's :)
                                               
Firefly was a 1 season TV show + 1 Movie that in my humble opinion should have had much more of both & if you never seen it, it's well worth a watch but watch the TV shows first, now I know there's a board game of it but don't know of any miniature gaming rules, so if there are not rules of it Frank what's the connection between it & the new rules you going to be on about ?

Fear not I'm getting to it, Firefly is about a group that with a small spaceship who move around from planet to planet looking for jobs to do, its kind of what I had in mind when I did Tricol & no Panama Jack & crew will not be returning to the screen anytime soon, but this rule set would have worked very well for it
                                                        
 Five Parsecs From Home, so whats it all about you ask ? well if I was to liken it to anything it would be Jimland as its very much a cross between an RPG & a table top game & like Jimland the gaming part is very simple & not really at the heart of it though unlike in Jimland you will have to play out a game every campaign turn, it is also a solo game but could be played as a two player on group game if you wanted.

You start off with 5 characters which make up your crew/gang or whatever, theh you roll on 3 different tables for each one, this gives you a little bit of background, rolls on other tables for things like weapons, gear & gadgets, it can also give you some credits, patrons or enemies.

Here's how it works, each character start off with the following stats.
Reactions 1
Speed 4
Combat Skill 0
Toughness 3
Tech 0
Though Tech is not use in this rules set there are others like Bug hunt & you can move characters from one to the other, so while its of no use here it is important to track.

So say I role 37 on the first table, that would give me an character from the lower classes of Mega city & +1 roll on the low tech weapons table.
Next roll on the second table say 78, his motive is faith & gives one quest clue
Then I roll on the third table say 14, he's a hacker & gets +1 tech & an enemy.

I now give him a name & come up with a little background story for him, He's Jim Stone & believes all the problems of the universe can be solved with tech-knowledge, but has made enemies from hacking, you would roll to see who the enemy is, say I rolled bounty-hunters, the store can be while hacking into some big high tech corporation they noticed him & have put a bounty on his head.
You could flesh it out a bit more but characters can die so a lot of work could be in vain & its more about what the crew/gang do from this point on then what happened in any of their past.

I would now give him these stats.
Reactions 1
Speed 4
Combat Skill 0
Toughness 3
Tech 0
Any weapons, credits, enemies or whatever I got when rolling for him would be assigned to the crew/gang, so even if he dies the crew/gang would still have bounty-hunters as enemies.


After making your crew its time to get playing so how does this work ?
Determine if we travel.
Upkeep, one credit per crew not in sickbay, if you can't pay them they won't do any jobs.
Assign & resolve crew jobs,  these are the following you can set the crew to doing, that is if you paid them :)
Find a Patron, Train, Trade, Recruit, Explore, Track.
Assign Equipment, what weapons, gear or gadgets each crew member has.
Resolve any Romours
Play out tabletop game
Resolve enemy status
Get Paid
Determine what loot the crew found
Determine injuries & recovory
Experience & Leveling up
Do your shopping
Roll on Campaign events table
Roll on Characters event table
I'll explain now these things work as I post Movie's ( AAR's)

The plan is for this to be low budget while I work on other projects, which brings us to the next point of this months news, the studio's Western project, as was in last months news & work has been on going in the makeup & props department.
The Earp's are back from makeup

From left to right Doc Holiday,Virgil Earp, Wyatt Earp & Morgan Earp

As are Billy the Kid & the Outlaws

Billy center with two outlaws

While the props department has been busy on something big

As I said in last month's news I a timber strut that I need to hide & that's what this is for, I also want to have a mine entrance or may be a cave entrance & as part of it has to be removable I can make a few different parts as to change it at need

Well that it for this months news, so its a goodnight from me & a goodnight from him & always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed :)





 

                                     

                             

Chapter 8 Into the wilds

                           NICKEL & DIME PRODUCTION'S 
                            proudly present's 
          CONNEMARA FEENEY & TAYLOR DAVIES 
                                     in
                  THE HEART STONE OF AFRICA

Marco introduces Connie & Taylor to Colonel Winston Faiweather a retired army officer.

From the diary of Connemara Feeney

On the 17th of July we set out from Livingston heading roughly North by North-West to one of the way stations that Stanley had set up on his expedition into the dark lands of the Congo, a distance of some 83 miles as the crow flies, a distance that Marco Boswel was confident we could cover within  10 days.

Our little band consisted of Morco, Taylor, an ex army Colonel by the name of Winston Fairweather, six Askaris that the Colonel had assured us were stout fellows & six strong bearers to carry our supplies & of course little old me, who's job it was to keep a record of our adventure.

The weather as we set off was ideal with it been late winter in this part of the world, it was dry & not overly warm though in Ireland it would have been a very fine summers day, the plan was to travel for 10 hours a day with a 10 minute rest at the end of each one & an hours break in the middle for a small meal.

The land as we left the town behind us soon turned into open Savannah but by mid-day we could see a head or us the start of a jungle that Marco had told us we would be spending most of the trip in, the day pasted without incidence but as we stopped for the night in a small clearing it was discovered that most of our food had turned bad.

Marco set up four of the Askaris to keep watch for the first part of the night, these would be relived after 4 hours by Marco the Colonel & the other two Askaris, after our meeting with Akmid Khan Marco was taking on chances.

As Connie was turning in for the night, Taylor"What a bad break so much of the food turning bad" I wouldn't put it past Khan to have had someone tamperer with it"
Connie"Well at least your coffee is still ok" This brought a grin to Taylor's face.

Taylor"Just as well as you know what I'm like if I don't get my quota of coffee each day"
Connie"Indeed I do,I sooner live with a bear with a tooth ache" Goodnight Taylor" she added giving him a smile."Goodnight Connie sleep well"Taylor replied.

18th of July
After a goodnight's sleep & breakfast, we'd a quick meeting & have decided it would be foolish to carry on, so with heavy hearts we are heading back to Livingston.

On our return we came across a small tribe & gave them what food we had left,

Before carrying on reaching Livingston just as night was closing in, its a bit disappointing but we shall set off again in another couple of days.

20th of July
We set off again this time hoping for better fortune,one of our Askaris has stayed behind having gotten news that his wife has just given birth to a Son, but we have been able to hire another Bearer so we can carry more food.
Once more we have tracked back to the spot where we camped on the 17th, I feel now as if I could walk to here with my eye's closed, the only thing of note was some geological feature that Taylor came across as he went to relief himself.

21st of July
After an early breakfast we broke camp & headed deeper into the jungle this time heading mainly West, I could not help but feel we were been watched &

sheared my thoughts with Marco, who to my surprise told me we were indeed been watched, but it was most likely just some curious natives & there was no need to be alarmed.

22nd of July
Our heading is now North & Marco tells me we're making good time, late into the afternoon we came across some animal that even Marco & the Colonel say they have never see before, perhaps we have discovered a new species, we made camp only to fined that bad luck has befallen us again with nearly half of our food gone bad.

23rd of July
Unperturbed by our bad luck we carry on, Marco says we should be able to obtain more food along the way either at villages or by hunting, it was just before our stop for the mid-day meal when we came under attack.

 The Colonel a man of vast warfare experience bellowed out orders, setting the men up in defensive positions to catch the enemy in across fire, while sending me forward with the Bearers.

     What seem to me like a life time took in fact only a matter of minutes.

Marco dropped the first of our would be assailants, with two more quickly followed by shooting from Askaris & the Colonel.

When a Loin that had been disturbed from it's mid-day slumber lighted on another,

 it was all to much for them & they fled, Marco & the Colonel after a brief chat decided it might be best to take our mid-day meal now & scout the surrounding area to be sure that they where indeed gone, before setting off again.

Cut
 Well that's it for this post, as always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to be a movie critic your comment would be welcomed. :)

Movie Tone News extra July 2018

Before pushing on with The Heart Stone of Africa story, I think I need to do a little update, so that is what this news extra is all about.

Connie fines the Heart Stone

                                                                                                                                    
When I decided to make THSOF it was story that I was just going to be me telling with no game play involved & while I could have carried on it that vain, I decided that to make it more interesting & uncertain from my point of view I would use a game in order that I wouldn't have complete control over what was happening.

                                               

As it's set in Africa & was planed for the hero's to end up heading for the Congo, I though why not use the Congo game ? after getting Congo & trying it out I was disappointed to fine that it wasn't really what I wanted, whoever help was at hand (my thanks to Joe  at  http://zabadakszombieworld.blogspot.com/) in the form of Jimland,, this is across between an RPG & miniature gaming & is everything I could have wished for to take control of the story out of my hands.

Well that's it from tonight's news, so its a Goodnight from me & a Goodnight from him :)
Once again my thanks to Joe for all his help & as always my thanks to you for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed :)

Movie Tone News, July 2018

With the hols fading into memory it's time to start cracking the whip & that's what this months news is all about so to speak :) in last months news I finished with a little teaser picture of a new project for N&D Studio's & now it can be reviled :)

Yes the studio's are going west, wild west & I've decided to go with Tombstone from Black Scorpion, why this one ? well there a couple of reasons, 1 it not been used by any of the other studio's, 2 it's a simple enough rule set but has enough depth to be interesting, plus it looks like it will work well enough for solo gaming, 3 I like Black Scorpion as a company & have some of their models already, 4 getting a PDF of the rules for free if you buy the rulebook is something that other companies could do with doing.

This was the teaser from last month, with the big clue been the Tombstone :)

                                       
As someone born in the sixties & having grown up on a diet of westerns both films & TV shows, add to that a Mother who is a big fan of the Duke (John Wayne) the only real surprise is that it has taken me so long to get into westerns.

A long with the rulebook I got some new stars (models) the one above is Billy the Kid, while below are some bad guys to keep young Billy company.

So who will keep the town safe from such vermin I hear you ask ?

Well who better then the Earp's a long with their good friend Doc Holiday, all of the above models are from Black Scorpion.

I've also picked up some guys from Foundry, the two models above & below are from the one set,

I'll go into who they are & my plans for them at a later time, but what I like about these sets is you get a mounted model & a foot model of the character, sadly there is a down side & its this

Northstar also do models this way as you can see in the picture above but I think they do it in a better way,

When you remove the character from the horse with the Northstar ones the saddle is still on the horse, where as with the Foundry one it isn't, I would think when a guy comes galloping into town or where ever been chased & quickly jumps from his horse to hide behind some cover he's not going to stop to unsaddle it, but I guess every cloud has a sliver lining in that the horses with no saddles can be used for pulling wagons.

Now all towns need to have people to live in them & luckily enough I've got some, the ones above &  below are also Black Scorpion.

I've other models that can also fill in as bit part players

Now I know some folk worry about different scale by different companies, I'm not one of them but here's a look at three different models from three companies

Northstar, Black Scorpion & Foundry, there is a slight difference but it's close enough for me, but then I'm not really that fussy as you can see below

The little Mexican I intend to add into Billy's gang, I'll get over his short comings by giving him a suitable name :) he came as a freebie from Foundry for another order awhile back.

Also from Foundry are the two sets above, again I'll go more into who & what they are at another time, but what I like about little sets like these is that when it comes to painting them is they like the Congo models are all different styles, which makes it easier for someone like me who has no love for painting to paint them,
So having some models already painted cuts down on some of the work I'll need to do to start making westerns, but I don't see need been made anytime soon tbh as there will be sets to be built & props to be got ready, but I'll cover all of those things as they get done.

To rap up this months news I've two names for a town I want to build & if you care to you can let me know which one you like best in the comments, it will be either Two Rock or Sliver Rock.

I've noticed that while I had my feet up that some of the other studio's have been bring out new releases & I should be catching up with them over the coming days :)

Well that it for this months news, so its a goodnight from me & a goodnight from him, as always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed :)