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Post by GRWelsh on Jun 2, 2020 16:23:25 GMT -5
A few weeks ago I started DMing for Scott online. The idea was half to start a new campaign and half to collaborate on creative ideas. I wanted to start with only one player to get used to the software functionality and iron out house rules, so I hope nobody feels left out. We started with Scott rolling up a party of six 1st level characters: paladin, cleric, magic-user, dwarf fighter, elf fighter/magic-user and gnome illusionist/thief, with six ability scores each, 4d6 drop lowest die arrange as desired. For hit points, I used the minimum in UA, but for the most part I'm doing core AD&D only -- first three books: MM, PH and DMG. Scott's magic-user, Masric, had inherited a scroll marked with the location of a legendary dungeon... the Endless Tunnels of Enlandin! From their various origin points in Furyondy, Veluna, Highfolk and the Yatils, this party of companions met up and made their way to Nibblott, a town in the western part of the Viscounty of Verbobonc, where they gathered some rumors and hired two crossbowmen. About 8 miles south of Nibblott, up in the Kron Hills is where they found the ruins and entered the dungeon. After two sessions, they've fought kobolds, giant ticks, and orcs. They also evaded reptilian humanoids and got past some traps after being teleported to the second level by a magic room. Luckily, no one has died so far but unfortunately they have not found much treasure, either. I'm using "The Endless Tunnels of Enlandin" by Stefan Poag, which was published on Dragonsfoot and originally written for Holmes Basic. I've made some alterations, but so far I haven't removed any treasure. I'm documenting all of my changes and the reasoning for them. I love this module for being so much like a dungeon I would have drawn and keyed at in 1981 when I started playing. Most of the tunnels are 10' wide and run north-south or east-west, and most of the rooms are of regular shapes, and so it easy to map -- and Scott has been mapping. It's very much the classic sort of dungeon stocked with monsters, treasure, tricks and traps, and that seemed like a good way to begin a campaign.
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Post by Scott on Jun 2, 2020 21:19:25 GMT -5
Yeah, it's got a real old school dungeon feel, which is exactly what I've been looking for. We went random spell selection, so we're rolling with no real effective attack spells. A sleep spell or a color spray and it's a whole different party.
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Post by GRWelsh on Jun 16, 2020 7:39:07 GMT -5
The campaign began with one of Scott's characters, Masric the magic-user, having inherited a scroll with a map showing the location of a dungeon and the legend of the Endless Tunnels of Enlandin: Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, the Mage of Enlandin built a dungeon complex beneath his castle to protect all of his treasures and to serve as a last defense. The army of a neighboring country attacked, pounding the walls with catapults and blasting his defenses with spells. The Mage and his faithful companions fled into the dungeon as the castle collapsed. Believing the Mage of Enlandin to be buried with his treasures, the attacking Lord ordered his men to dig through the rubble. Before they could finish the excavation, news came of an invading army of orcs to the North. The Lord, vowing to return, rode north to fight the orcs. The orcs caught his army in a narrow pass and slaughtered them to the last man. Weeds grew over the ruins and people forgot about the Mage of Enlandin and the dungeons. A few years ago, a scroll was found that showed the location of the entrance to the tunnels of Enlandin. An enterprising group of dwarves dug out the entrance and entered the dungeons; they were never heard from again. Since that time, dozens of adventurers have tried their luck in the tunnels of Enlandin. Most never come back, though a few returned with fabulous treasures.*
Masric and his companions made the journey to the town of Nibblott, in the western part of the Viscounty of Verbobonc. According to his map, the ruins were about 8 miles south of the town, up in the Kron Hills on the border of the Viscounty. Nibblott is a propserous farming and trading community of about 1,500 humans. There are three inns, several trading posts, and alchemist, horse traders, armorers, etc. in town.* The party of novice level characters is:
Masric, human magic-user Sagravin, human paladin of Heironeous Feydrin, human cleric of Pelor Hagar, mountain dwarf fighter Therion, high elf fighter/magic-user Zim, gnome illusionist/thief
Starday, Planting 1, 575 CY: The party arrives at Nibblott and establishes themselves at the Copper Mug Inn, and hires two crossbowmen men-at-arms, Tam and Harg.
Sunday, Planting 2, 575 CY: Early in the morning, the party leaves Nibblott and goes up into the hills and find the ruins and the entrance to the dungeon. Descending the steps they see a statue of a warrior with a sword and shield, and as they reach the bottom step, the mouth on the statue moves and loudly says, "WHO DARES ENTER THE DUNGEONS OF ENLANDIN?" The party cautiously examines the statue, but not finding anything, proceeds around the corner. From behind an illusionary wall, four kobolds ambush the party but are easily slaughtered. Further on, they find a room with eight kobolds around a fire eating rats on a stick. The party makes a tactical withdrawal and fire upon the kobolds with missile fire before defeating the little humanoids in melee. Exploring the dungeon further, they find a large room with the dead body of an elf, and two giant ticks drop down and nearly kill two of the characters. Lucky to be alive, they retreat back down the hill to Nibblott. [5/17/2020]
Moonday, Planting 3, 575 CY: The party returns to the dungeon on a cloudy day and kills two orcs before finding a room that teleports all but the men-at-arms to another room. Unsure of where they are, the party avoids some reptilian humanoids and shuts the door on a room when a seven headed hydra charges at them. They kill four orcs, and escape from a magically trapped room, and find steps leading up... getting past a room trapped with the statue of a gnome that fires a crossbow, they are lucky to escape the dungeon with their lives and a bit more treasure this time! [5/22/2020]
Godsday, Planting 4, 575 CY: As it rains outside, party takes and day to rest and heal up, and Sagravin gives a tithe to the local church of St Cuthbert. The priest gives him four vials of holy water. The party hires two more men-at-arms, the footmen Mot and Shar.
Waterday, Planting 5, 575 CY: At dawn, on a clear spring day, the party returns to the dungeon and kills six skeletons, four kobolds and five orcs and finds a chest of many silver and gold pieces. Zim also takes mercy on a giant rat the kobolds were using for target practice. [6/12/2020]
*Taken from DF 17: THE ENDLESS TUNNELS OF ENLANDIN (2003) by Stefan Poag.
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Post by GRWelsh on Jun 23, 2020 11:31:14 GMT -5
Freeday, Planting 7, 575 CY: The party trudges back up the hills through drizzling springtime rain and re-enters the dungeon through an apparently long-unused secret passage they found previously. It is a long tunnel that exits in a 4' x 4' hole in the weeds and bushes east of the ruins with an old door that has long since fallen in. Back in the dungeon, the party finds a circular room with an iron statue of a grim reaper holding a scythe in the center. As they enter the room, they notice a skull on the floor with a headless skeleton next to it along with an old sack with silver coins spilled out around it. When they walk around the statue, it suddenly animates and swings its scythe around the room at neck level! It whooshes over the dwarf's head, and the paladin ducks in time but the elf and cleric are grievously wounded but alive. After swinging, the statue returns to its inanimate form. The party retreats to town, miserably, through the rain.
Sunday, Planting 9, 575 CY: After resting for a full day, the party re-hires the crossbowmen for another week and buys two guard dogs. Sagravin learns from the local cleric of St Cuthbert that another party of adventurers who were staying a different inn in town went to explore the ruins a few days ago but have not returned. They included a priestess of the East Wind, as well as other humans, and elf and a pair of gnomes. The party returns to the dungeon on a cloudy, warm day and re-enters through the secret passage once again, and this time they discover a room with a door ajar and inside they see a gnome holding a pry bar before a stone chest locked and chained shut. But the gnome is unmoving and paralyzed... and a many-legged monster like a giant cutworm with tentacles coming out of its head writhes around him! The party releases the dogs to attack, and both are paralyzed by the tentacles. Others charge into the room and flank the monster, and Zim also is paralyzed. The men-at-arms who were hanging back in the doorway are surprised by another monster of the same sort scuttling down the wall above them! Its tentacles wave forth to touch them, and several of them are paralyzed as well. Luckily, a few telling blows are enough to kill both monsters before the entire party gets paralyzed. Spiking the door shut, they wait for the paralysis to wear off. Prying open the chain on the stone chest, they open it to find a rat skeleton on top of a a huge pile of coins of mostly copper but some electrum... Once separated they turn out to be 1000 ep and 6000 cp. The paralysis wears off of the gnome stranger first, who turns out to be Osli from the nearby Kron Hills, and seems a decent enough fellow. Osli tells how he was separated from his own party, and asks for help look for them. They load up on the ep, leaving the cp in the chest to come back for later, and agree to help the gnome. Osli leads the way to the second dungeon level, and they begin exploring the passages and rooms there, encountering ghouls, a zombie wrapped in bandages, a pit trap, and a golden spider statuette that animates when prodded. After killing the spider, it reforms and quickly scuttles back onto its pedestal where it turns back into gold. After prodding it again, it reanimates again and this time bites one of the dogs and Osli before the party manages to kill it, once again returning to gold form atop the pedestal. Poor Osli and the dog both fail their saves versus poison, and froth at the mouth and fall to the ground convulsing and within a few rounds both are dead. After retrieving the copper coins they'd left behind earlier, the party takes the gnome's body and returns to town, spending the next day resting again. [6/22/2020]
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Post by GRWelsh on Jun 23, 2020 13:49:00 GMT -5
A few gaming notes...
I use a house rule that magical healing negates the need to rest for a week after being brought to zero or lower hit points from taking damage (DMG, p. 82). I used to impose this rule as written, but now I treat all magical healing the way a heal spell is treated in regards to this particular rule. The reason is that otherwise it slows down the game and I like characters to get back on their feet and adventuring again as soon as possible. If you're not dead, get back in the game!
Like Scott, I use group initiative with d6 for each side and lowest goes first because it is a way to work in casting times for spells. I don't use weapon speed or weapon damage adjustments versus armor types.
In the MM, the duration of paralysis from monsters like carrion crawlers and ghouls is not given, but Scott reminded me it is listed on the Monster Cards: for ghouls is is 2d6 turns and for carrion crawlers it is 2d6 turns. For gelatinous cubes it is 5d4 rounds. In T1, ghoul paralysis duration is listed as 3-12 turns.
I'm not being stingy with treasure. There is plenty of treasure in this module, but Scott hasn't found much of it yet. The only changes I have made to the module so far are to reduce numbers and hit points of some -- but not all -- monster encounters.
Of course, Scott knows what all of the monsters are, but I have a habit of describing them rather than naming them when characters encounter monsters for the first time. To the average denizens of the Flanaess it is common knowledge what rats, ticks and spiders are, and even orcs and kobolds, but not so much other monsters not usually encountered except in dungeons or deep underground.
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Post by Scott on Jun 23, 2020 15:42:53 GMT -5
My fighters' attack rolls have been beyond pathetic, which has made the dungeon much more challenging than it should be. They barely rolled a double digit number all night. In one round I rolled a 1, 2, 3 in succession for the party muscle attack rolls.
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Post by GRWelsh on Jun 23, 2020 16:08:05 GMT -5
Sagravin is close to getting a reputation as the paladin who couldn't hit a hog-tied kobold lying in front of him, even though he has a charismatic and impressive appearance. Perhaps he is a bit like Gilderoy Lockhart from the Harry Potter books.
Actually, the paladin's protection from evil aura has probably saved the party several times. That -2 to hit for all evil creatures against all party members has made a huge difference. I haven't DMed for a paladin in a long time, and forgot about how powerful that ability was. If Sagravin never hits a thing, he's still invaluable to the party just for his impressive aura.
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Post by GRWelsh on Feb 9, 2021 7:57:50 GMT -5
I've fallen behind in my campaign updates, but we're still playing and Scott has been joined by another player, Mark. I have notes from each session and a log of all monsters and treasure slain or found for XP purposes, and I will post another update soon. It looks like we've had 10 sessions total and most of the characters are 2nd level with some close to 3rd.
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Post by GRWelsh on Feb 28, 2021 22:48:01 GMT -5
Some brief write ups based on my notes just to get the timeline down -- I may polish this up later:
Planting 11, 575: Party returns to the dungeon, destroys 2 ghouls and rescues a woman from being sacrificed by four troglodytes to their lizard god idol. The woman is the priestess of the East Wind, Aniria, who joins the party as an NPC 2nd level cleric. The glowing dagger they were using turned out to be magical +2, and they pried two gem eyes out of the idol worth 500 gp each [July 2nd, 2020].
Planting 13, 575: Party slays 12 goblins, finds a secret door with dwarf skeleton and inscription: "Beware of the dragon." A spider drops on them but they kill it. From the goblins they took a magic shield of dwarf make +1 of fortitude (+1 hit point while wielded), and among the dwarf remains they found a battle axe +1 of strength (+1 strength while wielded). They also find a secret chamber which is a bedroom with chest of treasure including 300 gp, ivory comb worth 50 gp and three magic items: a robe of useful items, and two scroll tubes with magic-user spells [July 24th, 2020].
Planting 15, 575: Party explores 2nd dungeon level, kill two wandering troglodytes and later in a room encounter men in hooded robes guarded by two orc zombies. While the party fights the zombies, one of the men casts darkness on the party and they flee. The party sees them flee into what appears to be a columned temple lit with an eerie greenish glow. Finding some treasure, the party retreats. When counting up their treasure it includes 600 gp, 4 cups and a jug worth 350 gp as jewelry, a dagger +1, a clerical scroll with 7 curse spells on it, and 12 vials of unholy water. [September 5th, 2020]
Planting 18, 575: Party makes effort to map out the rest of 1st dungeon level and kills 5 orcs, 3 zombies, and then finds room with a fighter and man in robes in it. The man casts a stinking cloud and then gathers up some things and retreats through a secret door in the south wall, with the fighter covering his retreat. Meanwhile some bones rise up from the floor and attack the party as four skeletons. The party destroys the skeletons and once the stinking cloud wears off they find the room has many tables and chairs with scrolls and alchemical gear, but nothing too valuable [November 15, 2020].
Planting 20, 575: In Nibblott, the party is joined by two old friends of theirs: Ren a halfling thief, and Stympy a gnome illusionist/thief [both played by Mark]. Together they explore the 2nd level of the dungeon and slay two ghouls, a gelatinous cube and 3 troglodytes, as well as overcoming some magical traps of an illusionary hydra and a weird room with a fire in the center which disorients explorers until they try walking through it to get to the exit door. In the gelatinous cube was 150 gp and a potion of aid (as the cleric spell) [1/24/2021].
Planting 22, 575: The party gets surprised by three giant ticks while descending the steps into the 2nd dungeon level. They kill two but one escapes, sated on the blood of an adventurer. Later, they return to a room Scott's party had viewed but not entered before. It was a creepy looking room lit by torches with a painting of a weird, demonic face on the west wall bordered by thick curtains. When they entered, they were attacked by two shadows. Stympy cleverly drove one off with a dancing lights spell, allowing them to fight one at a time. With magic weapons they slew both shadows. They found a secret door in the east wall, beyond which was room which appeared to have not been entered for decades or perhaps centuries... The room had three huge iron chests on the east wall, with several weapons mounted above them: a long sword, a long bow and a quiver of arrows. The north wall was covered with mouldering curtains. Sagravin the paladin was able to detect evil in the direction of the curtains, and Zim the gnome was able to detect traps in all three chests. Sagravin ran in and drew the long sword from the scabbard and it glowed with bright light -- obviously magical! At the same time, a horrid figure emerged from behind the curtains -- a corpse-like figure with wild scraggly hair and eyes that gleamed with a cold light. Other party members came in to help fight the monster, but it hit Sagravin and drained the life out of him. The paladin fell to the floor as a withered husk. The others were able to bring the wight down with blows from magical weapons and spells. Knowing all three chests were trapped, one at a time the thieves entered the room to attempt to disarm the traps and open the chests with everyone else outside of the room. Zim went first, and failed to remove the trap. When he opened the chest a billowing cloud of poison gas filled the room, but he made his save, opening the chest to see 3000 gp! Stympy went next, also failing to remove the trap and setting off another poison gas trap, but he also made his save, opening the chest to see another 3000 gp! Ren went last, also failing to remove the trap setting off yet another posion gas trap but he failed his save! Poor Ren fell to the floor dead! Once the poison gas cleared, the others opened the last chest to find inside a short sword with a red leather scabbard and ancient looking helmet of black metal and silver. There were so many gold coins that the party had trouble carrying it all in one trip, but then Masric remembered his robe of useful items and conjured a pack mule equipped with saddle bags and so they were able to carry all of the treasure as well as the bodies of their slain friends back to town [February 7th, 2021].
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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 8, 2021 12:21:05 GMT -5
Flocktime 1, 575 CY: After spending a few days in Nibblott inscribing spells into their spell books and enjoying their new found wealth, the characters are joined by two old friends: Alfan, a paladin from Furyondy [Ray] and Nelaros, a high elf magic-user from Highfolk [Brian]. Each brought a man-at-arms: Quinn the squire with Max and his body shield for cover. Stympy hired a teamster to take care of his pony and donkey, and Masric brought his pack mule back to the dungeon. The teamster and Masric's men-at-arms stayed in the tunnel inside the secret entrance with the pack animals while the rest of the party descended into the dungeon. Making use of Zim's maps, they made their way to a part of the second dungeon level they weren't sure they had previously explored. They found a room that appeared to be empty except for a few piles of straw, but upon closer inspection they could see some sleeping forms camouflaged to match the color of the flagstones. The scaly skin of the troglodytes had changed color while they were sleeping. The trogs woke up and stood up -- there were six of them including one pygmy-sized one! The trogs attacked with stone axes and stone maces, and one of them began throwing wide-vaned metal javelins. It was a long combat with the fighters hardly scoring any hits, but with the gnomes stealthily backstabbing and Nelaros and Masric casting magic missiles the party was finally able to prevail. They found a loose stone in the floor and carefully searched for traps before removing it to reveal three large stone jars with stone lids sealed in wax for what appeared to be centuries... Not finding traps, they pried the lids open to reveal a pile of old bones in one, 1000 gp in another, and in the last jar a sack of 500 sp and three potions colored blue, green and red. A bit later they come to a door and hear voices arguing beyond it. Opening the door they see four huge black orcs in chainmail. They charge each other, and the party slays the orcs finding a key on a cord around the one orc's neck. The key unlocks a wooden chest with 401 ep. Mostly out of spells, the party decides to call it a day and head back to town. Sipping the potions, they guess they are potions of heroism, strength and healing [3/7/2021].
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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 22, 2021 8:20:32 GMT -5
Flocktime 2, 575 CY: In town, Masric is busy copying spells into his spell book, and posting notices for potential henchmen. Nelaros the elf lights a bronze brazier and after 23 hours of casting find familiar gets a toad.
Flocktime 4, 575 CY: A smaller number of characters decide to explore the dungeon while Masric and the others are unavailable [i.e. Scott couldn't play in this session]. The party is:
Aniria, 3rd level cleric of the East Wind [NPC] Alfan Lightblade, 1st level paladin of Heironeous, from Furyondy [Ray] - Quinn, man-at-arms [Alfan's 'squire'] Nelaros, 1st level elf magic-user from Highfolk [Brian] - Max, man-at-arms [bodyguard for Nelaros] Stympy, 1st/1st level gnome illusionist/thief from Greenway Valley [Mark] - Frank, man-at-arms [hired and named by Stympy] - Henry, man-at-arms [hired and named by Stympy] - teamster [hired by Stympty] - pony - donkey
The party enters the dungeon by the secret tunnel, and once again leaves the teamster, pony and donkey there. Without Zim and his map, the party has to begin mapping the dungeon anew. Quinn does the mapping. They come to a large room with a pile of something in the center of it. Stympy sneaks up on it to get a closer look, and six skeletons rise to attack! Aniria turns them and the skeletons go to the south wall where there is another door. Nelaros finds a gold ring in the pile of debris in the center of the room and picks it up. Since the party wants to go through the door in the south wall, they begin attacking the skeletons which breaks the turning effect. After a few rounds of difficult fighting, they are able to destroy all of the skeletons. They go through the south door and into a hallway and listen at another door they come to. Stympy hears the high pitched yips and barks of kobolds. Kicking open the door, the party sees eight kobolds huddled around a fire in the center of a room. Nelaros hurls a flask of oil onto the fire with a direct hit and it splashes several of the kobolds who begin to burn and shriek. Simultaneously, Stympy casts color spray that puts the kobolds not on fire to sleep. Soon, all the kobolds are dead and the party finds a sack with 96 copper pieces nearby. The party continued to explore the tunnels beyond, and found a statue of a warrior with a sword and shield facing a set of stairs leading up to the surface. Upon stepping on the lowest step the statue asked in a booming voice: "WHO DARES ENTER THE DUNGEONS OF ENLANDIN!?!" Stympy replied, "We're already here." When the statue did not animate, they surmised it was just a magic mouth spell at the main dungeon entrance. Continuing to explore the tunnels, they came to a door with orcish runes scrawled on it that read: "Danger! Death!" Opening the door they only saw a room with stacks of boxes, crates and barrels at the far end. Stympy went in to scout around. The door slammed shut! When the rest of the party opened it, they saw no sign of Stympy but everything else was the same. Alfan cautiously entered, after propping the door open with one of the men-at-arm's spears. Once he was inside, the door slammed shut, breaking the spear! Opening the door once again, the entire party entered, and once inside the door slammed shut again! From Stympy's point of view, it had appeared as if the boxes, crates and barrels disappeared when the door slammed shut. A round or two later, Alfan popped into being next to him. "How did you do that?" Stympy asked. "Do what? I just walked in here after you disappeared," Alfan replied. After another round or two, the rest of the party popped into being next to them. "What is going on?" they all wondered. Upon opening the door again, they saw passageways completely different from what they had mapped. After listening at another door and entering, they saw the illusion of the hydra they had encountered on a previous adventure. They guessed the earlier room had teleported them down to the second dungeon level. They tried re-entering and shutting the door to see if it would teleport them back to the first level, but to no effect. They began to map out the second dungeon level, with the goal to get out of the dungeon. They came to rooms with corpses of troglodytes and large black orcs that they'd slain on the previous adventure, so they had a vague idea of where they were. They came to a room that opened up into a cavern with a swiftly flowing underground river but decided not to try to cross. They asked Aniria if she knew the way out, and she replied she knew there were stairs up to the southeast but wasn't sure of the exact route. After passing through the room with the golden spider statue, and not tampering with it, they passed through several chambers and passageways until finally discovering steps leading back up to the second dungeon level. At the top of the steps, they saw a bas relief of a warrior in armor with a rusty flail. As they passed the top step, the flail jingled but did nothing more. They guessed it was a trap that was no longer functional. Back on the first level, they found a room full of spider webs with what looked like bones wearing robes with a few pouches on his belt. Cautiously entering and cutting away the webs, they were not surprised that a large spider jumped on one of the men-at-arms. Alfan grabbed it and threw it across the room and they hit it with several missile attacks, but it kept coming. It jumped on the man-at-arms Henry and bit him! Henry failed his save and fell to the floor, convulsing. Another blow killed the spider, and they took the pouches from the skeleton's belt, seeing gems of various colors in one, and sparkling sand in the other. Aniria cast slow poison on the hapless man-at-arms and two others carried him -- they were eager to get out of the dungeon, but still didn't know the exact way from here. Further along they came to a room with the statue of a grinning gnome holding a crossbow. When exiting the room, the statue spun and there was clicking sound from the crossbow but nothing came out of it [in an earlier adventure, Masric's party had disarmed it]. They came to a store room with spoiled wine and foodstuffs and six vials of oil. After leaving this room they narrowly avoided falling into a pit trap at a turn in a passageway, and later came to a circular room with a black iron statue of a grim reaper holding a scythe. They also saw a decapitated skeleton with skull nearby and many bloodstains. They guessed it was a trap and Stympy did what he could to remove the trap of the spinning base. A bit further on, they came to a room with eight kobold corpses and a fire in the center of the room... "We know this room!" they said excitedly. "We know the way out from here!" Making it back to the teamster with pony and donkey, they exited the dungeon and made it back to town without encounter. At the church, they asked the cleric Pius if he could cast neutralize poison on their man-at-arms. "For an appropriate donation to the church of 1000 gp, I will perform this service." Pius replied. "I don't have that much," Stympy replied. They asked if there was an herbalist in town, and found out there was an alchemist shop, which they visited to ask if he could sell them something to counter the poison. "I have potion of sweetwater I can sell you for 250 gp," the alchemist answered. "I hate it that I can afford it..." Stympy grumbled but paid over the coins. With the potion administered, the man-at-arms Harvey was brought back from the brink of death, and grateful for it. The party asked Therion to cast detect magic on their treasure, which he did, revealing that the gold ring and the sparkling sand radiated magic, but he was unable to identify the exact nature of the magic. Stympy evaluated the gems found to be worth at least several hundred gp worth in total [This was from the game played on 3/21/2021].
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Post by Scott on Mar 22, 2021 11:32:22 GMT -5
I was hoping you'd run the game.
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Post by GRWelsh on Apr 5, 2021 7:23:04 GMT -5
Flocktime 6, 575 CY: Masric's attempts to find a henchman fail on this attempt. The party plans another expedition to the dungeon. This time, they are:
Masric, 2nd level magic-user [Scott] Feydrin, 3rd level cleric of Pelor [Scott] Hagar 2nd level mountain dwarf fighter [Scott] Aniria, 3rd level cleric of the East Wind [NPC] Alfan, 1st level paladin [Ray] - Quinn, Alfan's 'squire' a man-at-arms Nelaros, 1st level high elf magic-user [Brian] - Max, Nelaros' shieldman a man-at-arms Stympy, 1st/2nd level gnome illusionist/thief [Mark] - Frank, man-at-arms - Henry, man-at-arms - Sancho, teamster - pony - donkey
It is a warm spring day with clear weather and the party hikes up to the hill where the ruins is. This time before entering they discuss the possibility of other hidden entrances into the dungeon. They decide to search the ruins first, but all they find are burnt and shattered stones from a long ago battle except they do come across an inscription of what seems to be a message between dwarves who had previously excavated and explored this place. Circling around the hill just below the ruins they find no other hidden entrances, although there is plenty of scrub: bushes and weeds that could easily conceal another way in. They enter again by the familiar secret tunnel, and leave the teamster, pony and donkey there. Using Zim's map, Masric guides them down to the third dungeon level where they find a chamber with a door that is locked and bound in chains. It also has a message in dwarven runes: "WARNING. DRAGON." Stympy picks the lock, but is only able to pull the door open a crack to see a dark passage beyond with a dim red glow in the distance. The party decides breaking the chains would cause too much noise, so Stympy closes and re-locks the door. Exploring east, they find a room with three human bodies partly dissolved and covered in a slimy substance, with a slime trail going north of them. The dwarf looks up and sees an ochre-colored pseudopod coming down towards him It misses, and Hagar and the others pull back as an ochre jelly plops down from the wall above the doorway onto the floor in front of them. They consider throwing oil flasks to light it on fire, but do not. It advances on them, swinging its pseudopod and missing, as they cut and smash it apart with their weapons. In the room beyond, they find the remains of three humans: one with plate mail, shield and a footman's mace, one with leather armor, a short sword and silver dagger with two gems in the hilt, and one in robes with pouches of spell components on his belt and a golden chalice in his backpack. Alfan removes the plate mail from the one body and Stympy uses a clean cantrip to wipe the slime off of it so that Alfan can put it on. Leaving the room, they explore south through some passages and come to a large empty room. Searching it for secret doors they do not find any but do find writing in chalk on the east wall that says: "The door that is not a door may only be opened by the key that is not a key." [This was from the game played on 4/4/2021... More later]
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Post by GRWelsh on Apr 18, 2021 15:41:59 GMT -5
Flocktime 7, 575 CY: The party rests and recovers in town. They sell some jewelry they found in the last adventure and split it up. Nelaros hires two link boys and outfit them with padded armor, wooden shields and backpacks, and they buy two guard dogs. Max gets the plate mail armor taken from the evil priest captured in the last adventure.
Flocktime 8, 575 CY: A thunderstorm confines them to town. Nelaros experiments with his magic ring by holding his hand over a candle flame and does not burn himself, so guesses he has a ring of fire resistance.
Flocktime 9, 575 CY: The weather clears up and the party hikes up into the hills for another return to the dungeon. They are:
Alfan, 1st level paladin [Ray] - Quinn, man-at-arms, Alfan's 'squire' Krastarg, 1st/1st level half-orc cleric fighter [Ray] Nelaros, 1st level high elf magic-user [Brian] - Max, man-at-arms, Nelaros' bodyguard - Two guard dogs - Two link boys Aleros, 1st/1st level high elf fighter/thief [Brian] Aniria, 3rd level cleric [NPC]
Deciding to use the main entrance in the ruins, the party looks for tracks in the mud from the previous day's rain. They notice tracks of small humanoids with clawed feet which they guess are kobolds. Descending the steps into the dungeon they avoid setting off the magic mouth on the statue of the warrior. But as they proceed around the corner, they are ambushed from behind by six kobolds who appear to come right through the wall. They kill the kobolds rather quickly, and experiment with the one way illusion of a wall. Nelaros marks it off with chalk and leaves a warning... Later, an ochre jelly, a gelatinous cube, three zombies and a large spider. Rolling randomly for treasure type, the gelatinous cube had coins of various metals as well as eight potions inside of it! They also found a scroll of protection from lycanthropes [More detail to be added later... from game played on 4/18/2021].
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Post by GRWelsh on May 2, 2021 6:14:49 GMT -5
Back in town, Nelaros writes a new spell into his book: enlarge, and Masric writes a new spell into his book: web. Masric casts detect magic on the potions the party found in the last adventure, and he can tell the school of magic a few of them have but in the end they decide they'll have to sip each one to try to get an idea what they are.
1. Gray, opaque. Potion of undead control: skeletons (Nelaros) 2. Gray, opaque. Potion of undead control: wraiths (Nelaros) 3. Brown, opaque. Potion of climbing (Stympy) 4. Colorless, clear. Potion of ESP (Alfan) 5. Red, clear. Potion of healing (Nelaros) 6. Green, clear. Potion of hill giant strength (Aleros) 7. Pink, opaque. Philter of love (Masric) 8. Blue, clear. Potion of clairaudience (Krastarg)
Flocktime 12, 575 CY: The day is cloudy but not raining, so they hike back to the dungeon and enter via the secret tunnel leaving teamster, donkey and mule there. On this jaunt, the party is:
Masric, 3rd level magic-user [Scott] Feydrin, 3rd level cleric of Pelor [Scott] Aniria, 3rd level cleric of the East Wind [NPC] Stympy, 1st/2nd level gnome illusionist/thief [Mark] - Frank, man-at-arms - Henry, man-at-arms Alfan, 2nd level paladin [Ray] - Quinn, man-at-arms Nelaros, 2nd level elf magic-user [Brian] - Max, man-at-arms
The party decides to head down to the third level. By this time with their combined maps, they know the way well. On the first level, they randomly encounter six skeletons and Masric suggests Nelaros use his potion of undead control on them, but Nelaros says, "Nah, just turn them!" Aniria turns only one but Feydrin turns the rest and makes a quip to her about that's how it's done. On the second level they randomly encounter ten orcs who charge the party out of the darkness, with some firing arrows from the rear. Aniria and Max get some minor wounds from orc arrows but a sleep spell from Masric puts the orcs down. After dispatching the orcs, the party gets some electrum coins. Descending the stairs to the third dungeon level, they once again ponder the door with lock and chains and the beware of the dragon message, and decide they just have to see what is beyond. Stympy fails to open the lock, but Nelaros casts the reverse of enlarge to shrink the door enough to allow them to slide through. Single file they go down a narrow passage that opens up into a large natural cavern lit with a red light. The light comes from a pit in the center of the cavern from which emits natural gas and occasional gouts of flame and a noxious smell... Cautiously, the approach the smaller cave to the north, and they see a boulder blocking a passage to the east with some dwarven runes on it, and a deep, clear pool of water to the west. As Masric examines the pool, he sees a dark shape coming up to the surface, something long and sinuous. [This was from the game played on 5/1/2021. More to come].
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