Citadel by the Stream [III]

[GRWelsh]

I had a full house last night and seven players showed up. This time we started "Citadel by the Sea" from DRAGON #78 which I adapted to the Dim Forest and Realstream River region just northeast of Hochoch as "Citadel by the Stream."

Flocktime 26, 575 CY: At the village of Farstead, Tory reads through the book of legends they found in the cellar of the Manse of Kanos. One of the legends is about a ruined citadel once inhabited by elves along the Realstream River famed for its jewelry: delicate silver necklaces, brooches and rings set with sparkling gems of green, blue and violet -- some even said to be enchanted! Enticed by the possibility of treasure, the party sets out east from Farstead to make the journey to the region known as the Dim Vales northeast of Hochoch. Osoric comments that his brother, a ranger, has been living in the Dim Vales region as a hunter and scout so he could pay him a visit. Hearing upon the party's intent to depart, Sir Calyton the lord of the manor and Asmath the village priest of Pelor thank the party once again for their help, and Asmath gives Dain a clerical scroll with three cure light wounds, slow poison and neutralize poison.

Flocktime 27: On a partly cloudy day, the party heads east on a road in the fields south of the edge of the Dim Forest. Having no encounters and making good time, they arrive at a guard tower maintained by the town of the Hochoch. The guards recognize the paladins as men of Hochoch and allow the party to sleep in the common hall near the stables. It was good that they found shelter as dark clouds rolled in and it rained overnight!

Flocktime 28: By morning, the rain had mostly stopped and the party sets out along the muddy road east and comes to the edge of the Dim Forest where the Realstream River flows out of it. The road heads into the forest going along the edge of the river to the northeast, and it is here that Osoric meets up with his brother, Osgoth the ranger, who decides to accompany them. The party is:

- Aeray, 2nd level paladin [Randy]
- Osoric, 1st level paladin [Brian]
- Balul, 3rd level dwarf thief [Ray]
- Krak, 2nd level dwarf fighter [Mark]
- Dain Lortmill, 3rd level cleric of Pelor [Eric]
- Tory Brewster, 1st level magic-user [Cindy]
- Osgoth, 1st level ranger [Wes]

Further along the road they encounter a train of carts coming in the opposite direction -- several families of peasants fleeing from their village of Awad five miles upriver. The peasants are in a state of panic, and say that a curse has been brought upon their village! The party gives the families some coins to help them, and continues on to Awad where they find a village in disarray. More villages are loading up their carts and wagons and abandoning their homes. At the center of the village on a raised, circular rock a mob has gathered and is angrily accusing an old man in robes of bringing a curse upon their village. Rescuing the old man from the mob, the party finds out he is Crommard the sage and came here a week ago with his friend Sethus and about twenty workmen to explore the ruins of the citadel. This morning, Sethus showed up at the village with green spots on his face, saying he got a disease from the cursed ruins and telling the villagers to save themselves before stumbling off into the forest to die. The party agreed to accompany Crommard to the citadel to find out what happened. As they approached, the sage spotted a large, wild-looking orc at the entrance to the citadel before it saw the party. Balul the dwarf, drinking a shot of his potion of invisibility, stealthily approached to scout the ruins. Climbing up an outer wall, he was able to see down into the courtyard since there was no longer a roof or upper works. In addition to the sentry, he could two orcs with bows behind arrow slits guarding the passage beyond the entrance. Returning to the party, Balul told the party what he saw, and they formed a plan. Balul would sneak back in and attempt to backstab one of the orc archers while the party rushed the sentry. Leaving the sage behind with their donkey, the party sprinted towards the entrance. The sentry saw them, and retreated while calling out: "Intruders!" Balul's backstab failed and he became visible. He found himself in melee with two orcs who dropped their short bows and picked up scimitars. Balul had trouble hitting them, and they wounded him a few times. Meanwhile, the party could hear this combat behind the arrow slits, and they rushed inside. Behind another set of arrow slits, orcs shot crossbow bolts at them, but couldn't get past the plate mail and shields of Krak, Aeray and Osoric. The party rushed around inside the courtyard, finding a way in to help Balul slay the two orcs. Meanwhile, the sentry had alerted the other orcs in the area who came out into the courtyard to face the party. The party was wondering at first if they bit off more than they could chew, as they were now facing nine orcs, three ogrillons (that is what the wild-looking orc sentry was), two trained giant rats and a venerable orc shaman chanting a spell behind them. But Osoric threw a hand axe hitting the shaman and stopping his chant spell, and Dain the cleric cast a hold person spell that affected an orc and two ogrillons. The orcs didn't really have a chance because they needed 20's to hit the three main party fighters who had plate, shield, protection from evil aura, and penalty of fighting in the sunlight. the only one that was hitting consistently and doing damage was the single, un-held ogrillon and the fighters ganged up on him. While fighting, the old orc shaman ranted about how "My son will be king!" He was dressed in full shaman regalia, with black plate mail, horned helm, an iron-shod staff, and an unholy symbol of an evil eye. But he proved to look more impressive than he was, and the party took him down as well. Nearly all foes were beaten when the hold spell wore off of the orc and two ogrillons, so the party was able to gang up on them also. Tory the magic-user who was unable to do much during the melee other than cast some useless cantrips was upset with herself for not attacking the monsters while they were held, but it was just as well that she didn't come forward into the melee. In the end, the party was a bit scraped up but no characters were unconscious. They proceeded to loot the bodies and explore the rest of the courtyard and rooms around the perimeter. They found some cowering kobold slaves and a sole survivor from the slaughtered work men. A scrap of paper written by Crommard indicated a map with note about where he thought the entrance to the lower works was. After securing the area, the party brought up Crommard the sage and the donkey into the ruins. At the space indicated, the party found a secret door but one that would take much strength to open. Three of them put their shoulders to it, but failed to open it [At that point, we called it a night and will pick it up here again in two weeks].

[Scott]

The party has a lot of muscle, and two paladins with their protection from evil auras. That's a good party for this adventure.

[GRWelsh]

I finished my journal entry to describe the rest of the action. Yes, this party is well suited for combat scenarios. I like this module so far, but I would say it is definitely not for an all 1st level party. The extra hit points of a few characters above 1st level and the good AC of several fighters with plate and shield plus some crowd control with the hold person spell has made all of the difference. I love having a party of players large enough that relying on NPCs isn't needed.

[Scott]

I never really thought about that region of the map, but it does have a lot of great opportunities for a long term campaign.

[GRWelsh]

I'm not sure I follow about the trigonometry. What do you mean?

[Scott]

lol, spell auto correct. Fixed.

[GRWelsh]

Flocktime 28, 575 CY [Later in the same day]: Having failed to force open the secret door, the characters are exhausted. Storm clouds roll in and they hear the crack of thunder nearby. The ruins have walls, but no longer have roofs, so there is no shelter if it rains. Crommard the sage examines the area around the secret door that the kobold slaves of the orcs had been clearing away and he sees a dim inscription in elvish that says, "Speak once and enter." The characters all begin saying "Once" in elvish and various other languages but nothing happens. They recall from the legends that before the elves lived here, the citadel was originally built by humans, so Tory tries saying "once" in ancient Suloise -- and the secret door opens. It is a heavy, stone slab that pivots and when it opens they can smell stale, bad air coming from within. Lighting a torch and a bullseye lantern, and with Aeray brandishing his brightly glowing magic sword, the party enters the dungeon... The party is:

- Aeray, 2nd level paladin of St Cuthbert [Randy]
- Osoric, 1st level paladin of Heironeous [Brian]
- Balul, 3rd level mountain dwarf thief [Ray]
- Krak, 2nd level mountain dwarf fighter [Mark]
- Dain Lortmill, 3rd level cleric of Pelor [Eric]
- Tory Brewster, 1st level magic-user [Cindy]
- Osgoth, 1st level ranger, brother of Osoric [NPC]
- Crommard the sage [NPC]
- Sid the kid, the sole surviving worker from the dig [NPC]

Entering the dungeon, the party finds steps leading down to a depth of 30' underground which comes to a landing and an intersection. Just as they get at the intersection, orcs spring out from both sides in an attempt to ambush them and cut them off! Since Aeray and Krak are up front, only they can fight the six orcs and the melee goes on for several rounds as many misses are made. Finally, Krak slays the largest orc but not before it boasts, "My brother will be king!" Eventually, they finish off the other orcs and loot the bodies for a total of 35 ep. Examining the intersection, they see passages to the side, but a large 20' wide passage going forward. With the bullseye lantern, Dain peers ahead to see webs and orc skeletons. Examining the floor, Osgoth finds a single pair of human-sized boot tracks in the dust, avoiding the webs and skeletons. The party follows the tracks. They bypass a door and another side passage, and see wall hangings on either side of the passage ahead. Prodding behind the wall hangings, Osoric finds an alcove with four giant rats in it. They slay the rats rather easily. Behind another wall hanging is another alcove with an indent and they find another secret door but are unable to open it, and the secret word does not work this time. After being in the dungeon for about 30 minutes, everyone in the party had to make a saving throw versus poison due to the stale, bad air... Osoric, Krak and Dain each lost a point of strength and constitution. They immediately began discussing a retreat, but decided to press on as Dain said if they left and came back in they'd only start the process over again and they'd lose time following the tracks. So, they decided to continue. Following the tracks they came to another intersection, but could see the tracks went past some shattered wooden doors into a vast hall with eight pillars and a throne on a dais. The hall had orc skeletons in armor all over the place, leaning against walls and pillars -- 33 in all, including one large one sitting on the throne holding a spear. Expecting the skeletons to animate, the party proceeded cautiously with Dain attempting to turn undead with his holy symbol but failing his roll. They began to smash in the skulls of the skeletons as they passed, with no effect. Growing in confidence, they approached the throne and could see the skeleton on the stone throne had a glint of gold on each hand -- matching gold rings! Osoric smashed off one arm with his axe, sending the arm and spear clattering to the ground. The characters recovered the gold rings and decided to leave the hall through the single exit which had steps going deeper down. Advancing cautiously, the dwarves searched for traps. At a bend and a landing, beyond which were more steps going down, Balul spotted a trip wire. Motioning the others back, he attempted to disarm it but failed, and set off a ballista trap which hit him from behind and sent him tumbling down the steps before a slightly open door with only one hit point left. After making sure the ballista wouldn't shoot again, the others rushed to lay on hands and cast cast cure light wounds on Balul. Ahead was an iron door with orcish inscriptions on it. The door was slightly ajar, opening inward. The inscription on the door read: "Here is the hall of He-Who-Watches, The War-God of Alhurmus, his torch and spear, The servants and slaves he has judged. Great is the Eye, That Sees All, for It Sees You." Pushing open the door, the party could see another great hall, this one lined with orc skeletons in armor holding spears and with many orcish and human skulls set upon shelves to look out upon the room. Around the orc warriors were fus, pelts and other grisly trophies of orcish warfare. This long hall is completely paved with slabs of polished black marble, on which the party could no longer could see tracks. At the far end of this hall they could see steps descending into another chamber in the east, and a passage exiting to the north. They moved forward to examine the steps, and could see they descended five feet into a room with a floor covered in bones, before which was an oval altar with the top painted to look like an eye, and behind it a raised platform with a huge throne upon it. Seated on the throne was an enormous armored orcish skeleton clutching a 10' long spear laid across its knees. It was so hideous that it caused them to make saves versus spells, and two of the party cowered in fits of trembling and shaking (a scare spell). The dwarves, looking for stonework traps, spotted lines in the ceiling which could be a stone slab that could possibly descend. Avoiding this, they explored the northern passage and came to another iron door. This one read in orcish: "Flames devour thieves who Seek the riches of the tomb. So is the judgement of He-Who-Watches." Find the door unlocked, they entered into an octagonal shaped room with murals depicting orcs in triumph over dwarves, elves and men. A passage to the east went past flanking alcoves, each with another armored orc skeleton, beyond with was another octagonal room with three stone biers that could distantly be seen to have bodies on them. The party advanced, and Aeray and Krak in the lead triggered a glyph of fire. To them, it looked like a glowing red lines shaped like crossing scimitars, that flashed then exploded -- both failed their saves and took 12 points of damage. This ignited the flanking orc bodies... bladders of oil concealed within their armor began exploding, covering the passage in flames and black smoke! Quickly retreating, the party decided they'd had enough and tried to make it back to the surface. Several had failed three poison saves due to the bad air in the dungeon, and they had suffered enough damage on top of their loss of hit points from the constitution drain that they felt they needed to get out. Having no encounters they made it back to the surface where they could see it had stopped raining. Never had the air after a spring rained smelled so fresh and sweet. Within 30 minutes, the effects of the bad air had worn off. With the sun setting in the west under dark clouds, making a rainbow to the east, the party made it back to the village of Awad to rest and decide what to do next...

[Scott]

That's a pretty old school party, nine characters, and a pretty old school dungeon. Sounds like a very vintage game night.

[GRWelsh]

I have a few notes on how this adventure played out. This is definitely not a 1st level scenario. Three of the fighters in my party have plate mail and shield, and with their paladin aura of protection, this makes them almost unhittable by orcs and lesser monsters. That made a world of difference to all of the melees they've been in. Still, that couldn't protect them from traps they set off. The traps did a lot of damage, and it could have been worse if they didn't have dwarves -- and one of them a thief -- constantly searching for traps, stone work and otherwise.

In the module as written, the bad air in the dungeon automatically causes all within it to lose a point of each strength and constitution every thirty minutes. I changed that to allow everyone a saving throw versus poison. I set the timer on my microwave so that when not in combat, every 30 minutes of talking, moving and exploring equated to the 30 minutes of game time. When the timer went off, they all knew they had to make a save! This, along with the tracks they were able to follow, did create an interesting tension that I liked. They were trying to balance hurrying along with being cautious about setting off traps.

The background information and goal setting for this adventure is a bit ambiguous. It isn't clear what the players should know and when. I had Crommard the sage reveal to them that Sethus became very excited when the sage first told him about the spear Alkarg, to help tip them off. In the module as written, it is implied the sage only reveals such information if befriended for more than a day, or if charm or ESP is used on him. My players don't do well with uncertainty about what their goal is.

In the Black Hall, the party lost Sethus' tracks because the floor was paved with black marble. He was there, hiding behind one of the armored orc skeletons under a pelt along the north wall. They could have found him if one of the paladins had cast detect evil, but they didn't.* Sethus himself was not affected by the bad air due to having a necklace of adaptation. I now have to decide what happened... Did Sethus get the spear Alkarg, or will he still be hanging out in the dungeon? It seems to depend on whether he can find the secret door between rooms 33 and 37.

*This was an example of player fatigue affecting party actions... Brian was tired and went to lay down on the couch for a bit, when normally he is very engaged and may have used his detect evil ability.

[GRWelsh]

One thing I like about this scenario is that it creates a sense of the players being hot on the pursuit of somebody through the dungeon. They can still see his tracks in the dust, avoiding some traps and obstacles. But if your players set off a trap and retreat out of the dungeon to come back the next day, how would you handle that? My players set off the fire trap and left as smoke filled the dungeon. Would you rule that a failure, with the half-orc Sethus successfully acquiring Alkarg and getting away? Or would you allow them a second chance, perhaps deciding the half-orc was unable to open the final secret door to get into the chamber with Alkarg, and is still lurking around in the dungeon a day later?

[Scott]

I would base a second chance on ow well the group played. At low level, retreating is often unavoidable, so I wouldn't punish them for that, but if they had to run because the missed something they really should have seen, then I'd probably rule it a failure.
When I ran my Blackmoor OD&D game a couple years ago where the PCs had to find the wizard in the dungeon before he completed a ritual, I didn't set a hard time limit. I ruled it a failure after too many days had passed as a result of bad decisions and lack of focus on the mission.

[GRWelsh]

Thanks for the advice. I agree there doesn't have to be a hard time limit. They've played well, didn't get distracted, and frequently searched for traps. They deserve a second chance. I'll use the sage NPC, Crommard, to create a sense of urgency to focus them. But if they don't go back to the dungeon within a day I'll rule it that Sethus got away with Alkarg. This is one of those scenarios where failure is perhaps more interesting than success, as there can be consequences later in the campaign when they find out someone has united warring orc tribes under the legend of Alkarg!

[GRWelsh]

Wealsun 1, 575 CY: After staying overnight at the Broken Barrel Inn in the village of Awad, the party cures their wounds with spells and laying on hands. Crommard the sage is still concerned to find out the fate of his friend, the cleric Sethus, and also wants to return to the citadel's dungeon as he believes the magic spear Alkarg is there. So, the party sets off through the drizzling rain... They start out by trying to follow the tracks of Sethus from the previous day and notice they weave unsteadily through the forest for a few hundred years but then straighten out and become more steady, heading back to the citadel -- joined by other indistinguishable tracks. At the citadel, the party camps and rests again just inside the secret door that leads down to the dungeon. The party is:

- Aeray, 2nd level paladin [Randy]
- Osoric, 2nd level paladin [Brian]
- Krak, 3rd level dwarf fighter [Mark]
- Balul, 3rd level dwarf thief [Ray]
- Dain Lortmill, 3rd level cleric of Pelor [Eric]
- Tory Brewster, 1st level magic-user [Cindy]
- Osgoth, 1st level ranger [NPC]
- Crommard the sage [NPC]

Wealsun 2, 575 CY: The party descends the stairs into the dungeon, noticing that the air doesn't smell as bad -- or smoky -- as when they were last here. Once again they tried to follow the tracks they'd seen previously, but soon lost them at the bottom of the steps. They proceeded down a 20' wide hallway intending to get back to the 2nd dungeon level again. At a bend in the hallway, the paladin Aeray saw an amoeboid form -- an ochre jelly -- advancing upon him! But only Aeray could see it! Backing up, it advanced after him flowing along the wall. It struck with a pseudopod and hit him upside the head! Aeray attempted to disbelieve it, but failed. After hitting a few times, it dissolved into a yellowish-brown slime. The party noticed across from them was a side passage they had not explored previously. Advancing into it, the paladin Osoric looked around. He could see a table with a candle on it, bedding or a nest of straw and grass, and a stone tub in the corner. Peering from around a corner, a man with dusky skin wearing robes said to Osoric "It wasn't me! I didn't do it! I just want to be left alone!" Osoric detected evil on the man, and immediately threw a hand axe. The man ducked behind a corner as giant rats began to flow out from behind him and towards Osoric... over a dozen. The robed man cast a wall of fog which poured out to fill the side passage and into the 20' wide hallway where the rest of the party was. None of them could see more than few inches! Advancing through the fog, Krak, Dain, Aeray and Osgoth moved forward to join the fray, slaying giant rats as the robed man continued to cast illusions. His blurred form made him difficult to hit with missile fire, and he cast two more spells of color spray to great effect, stunning Osoric and Krak. In the end, however, the party was able to slay all of the giant rats and Dain was able to cast hold person on the illusionist, allowing them to kill him. They found his treasure including an elven brooch and his spell book. Continuing down to the second level of the dungeon, the party found a secret door in the hall of black marble tiles which led into a side passage. To the west they found a tall black iron statue of an orc with a large ruby for an eye, which they pried out and took. To the east, they passed more alcoves with armored orc skeletons and double doors. Beyond was a large hall full of orc corpses and with a throne at the far end with a huge armored orc skeleton with a spear across its lap.

[Scott]

Did the session end here, or is there more coming?

[GRWelsh]

There is more coming. I've just been busy with work, but I'll finish the write up in the next few days. In short, they had an epic battle and stopped the half-orc Sethus from recovering the spear but just barely. The players thought their characters were all going to die since he caught several of them with hold person spells from behind while they were fighting monster skeletons, but they all survived and killed Sethus! It was a close call as he used a sanctuary spell and tried to slip past but enough made their saves that they were able to attempt attacks on him. The key factor was Eric's cleric using up all of the charges on his staff of striking to put the half-orc down.

[Scott]

Sounds exciting. I wish our gaming schedules didn't conflict.

[grodog]

I was considering this as a possible adventure to use in a solo campaign for Henry, but think I’ll hold off on it a bit to see if it can fit better with some more Highport/Slavers-related orc context.

Thanks for the write-ups, Gary!

Allan.