Dungeons of Lastwall [IX]

[GRWelsh]

I've fallen behind in my updates, but we're still playing. We missed the past two Game Nights due to illnesses all around, but tonight we're ready to get back into it! The party has been making day trips to explore the dungeons below the ruins of an old castle in the Stark Mounds southeast of Gorna. They heard a rumor that there was a gold crown set with diamonds of immense worth hidden somewhere in the dungeons... Over the years, generations of adventurers have gone there to explore it but have never found the crown, only traps and creepy, crawling monsters. So far they have found two entrances into the dungeon.

On the first trip, they went in through what must have originally been the main entrance, below the ruins of a central keep, and took stairs down into the dungeons. They were attacked by a large spider and Krak failed his save, but Dain had a scroll of neutralize poison. They found a torture chamber with an animated skeleton jumping out of an iron maiden when opened, which Brakazar smashed. They found a rusty iron cell with bones and old manacles. A store room revealed old wooden boxes filled with valuable liqueurs... Some characters unsealed the bottles and filled their waterskins with them. Through cracks in the wall, some giant rats attacked the party but were driven back. Finally, exploring a hallway, a giant lizard came at them running along the wall, but they killed it. [Goodmonth 14-16]

On the next trip, the party explored around the hill and upper ruins, searching for another entrance into the dungeons. They found a trapdoor but could not open it. They brought one of their horses up and attacked a rope to it and were able to get the trap door open. It had been barred from beneath with an iron cross-piece, which was now bent and broken. A ladder descended into the darkness. One by one, the party descended into a small room. They saw a door, but Dain's spell of find traps revealed a trap behind it. They searched for secret doors and found one to the south. As they went through the secret door into a tunnel going east and west, they heard high pitched voices from both sides and found themselves flanked by kobolds. But the kobolds were not alone... two pet giant weasels came up to join the fray, and then finally, a giant 8' tall kobold with a spiked club came up to attack as well. The party thought it was a kobold demigod! It was a tougher combat than they expected, but they prevailed and found a treasure chest that was unlocked by a key worn around the neck of the giant kobold. There was a large hallway with double doors barricaded with old furniture and debris... The party wondered what the kobolds had been afraid of, that was on the other side? That was where we left off... [Goodmonth 17-19]

It is now late in Goodmonth, 575 CY, and the party is back in Gorna having been prevented from travel for the past few days due to heavy rains and a summer storm... [Goodmonth 20-26]

[GRWelsh]

CURSE OF THE BLACK DAGGER

Saturday's game was like "night at the improv." I had a lot prepared but we ended up role-playing mostly in the town of Gorna and its nearby surroundings. We didn't do the classic dungeon delving as I expected, but we still had a good time. We had a slow start since I was behind on dinner -- roasted potatoes, seared pork chops and caramelized onions -- and there was a lot of talking since it was the first time we got together in nearly 3 months. Eric and Cindy brough a cheese board with Cheddar, summer sausage and Bavarian mustard. Brian brought pumpkin pie. It was quite the feast!

- Aeray, 4th level paladin of St Cuthbert (Randy)
- Dain, 5th level cleric of Pelor (Eric)
- Tory, 4th level magic-user (Cindy)
- Krak, 4th level mountain dwarf fighter (Mark)
- Balul, 5th level mountain dwarf thief (Ray)
- Brakazar, 2nd level half-orc fighter (Brian)

I gave a brief recap of the past few games for those who had missed them and informed the players that some game time had passed and as heavy rains and storms rolled in... Usually they camped outside, but to avoid getting drenched they sought lodgings at the various inns within the town walls: the Boulder Inn, Sign of the Green Griffon or Red Roof Inn. Different player characters did different things over the next couple of days. Tory spent time with the Green Wizard brewing diminution potions using powdered kobold horns, tiny mushrooms, and mustard seeds. Tory also successfully brewed oil of fiery burning from sulphur and pitch and a minor strength potion using ogre blood and ox dung. Aeray visited the local chapel of St Cuthbert and heard stories about the Lost Crown of Rholand, from a kingdom that had once existed alongside Keoland but was destroyed long ago. Balul and Krak went to visit the Boulder Inn which was named after a large boulder in the front yard that had been there ever since a giant threw it in a past attack upon Gorna. Inside, seven dwarves were playing various instruments, not being enjoyed by the human patrons. Balul joined them with his bagpipes which did not improve their overall sound. But Balul and Krak did make some friends, as the dwarves told them they had to take up their picks and hammers and head back up into the mines on the morrow. Brakazar wanted to know what entertainment there was and asked if there was any boxing... He found out in the cellar of a tavern named "The Pit" there was some bare knuckle boxing with gambling going on. In the cellar was an actual pit that the fighters got into. The only rules were to not kill each other, i.e. use subdual damage only. Brakazar the Bold challenged Soric of the Mountains! Early on, Soric connected with three punches in a row as Brakazar missed all three attempts. Soric gloated and said "Have you had enough, boy?" and Brakazar landed his first blow. Then he landed three more as Soric missed all of his subsequent attacks. Brakazar finally kicked Soric in the balls, sending him to the ground! The crowd gave a mix of cheers and boos, and Brakazar collected 30 gp for betting on himself. Father Dain found out that the Grand Duke had been impressed by the story of "Pelorfest" held outside Gorna in which so many poor people and beggars had been fed. He ordered shelters to be built inside the town walls for the poor beggars and asked the Fellowship of the Blinding Light to help feed them... The priests of Pholtus grudgingly agreed. Dain asked the Green Wizard to get him an audience with the Grand Duke, and the wizard said he would try. The next day, he told Dain he got him an audience at Noon up in Grandcourt Castle which was on a hill above Gorna. Ganter Gall the Green Wizard, the Traveller, Dain, and a beggar went up the hill and saw a griffon flying overhead with the glint of metal on it... Was that a rider? It flew to a tower at the castle. "That would be the Grand Duke!" the Green Wizard said. Master Gall led them into the front gates of the castle, past outer and inner baileys where many knights and men at arms were jousting or practicing melee, and up into the inner keep and the highest tower in the castle known at the Griffon Tower. Near the top of a circular staircase in the tower they came to a door and Master Gall said, "Let me go in first and do most of the talking, and then each of you can come in one by one." Master Gall introduced them as Grand Duke Owen was dismounting his griffon in the staviary, with valets attending to him. [more happened, and I'll post it later... There was a big stand off as the rest of the party tried to remove curse on Tory to try to get the black dagger away from her]

EDIT: The party had a scheme to try to cast remove curse on their magic-user Tory. For some time they suspected she was cursed by a black dagger she had found a long time ago, and recently they saw her casting spells she didn't know. Tory suspected the party's plans and rode off into the hills on her own, planning to join the party after they rode past on their way to the dungeon. The party got word that Tory rode up into the hills alone and rode after her. When they made camp, she joined the camp, trying to act as if nothing was wrong. This is when Dain the cleric set his plan in motion. He cast sanctuary on himself first, and then tried to cast hold person on Tory just as she was trying to get away on her horse. Dain pulled Tory off of the horse and laid her on the ground and prepared to cast a remove curse. She was held but still could mentally control her crow familiar, and she had it fly against the Dain to try to interfere with his spell casting. Krak tried to capture the crow by throwing a large sack over it and succeeded. Brakazar felt Tory for the dagger and took it off of her, thus becoming cursed himself. Dain cast remove curse on Tory, so that she no longer felt compelled to get the dagger back. Exasperated, they all realized that now they would have to go through a similar process later with Brakazar.

Below is a photo taken by Randy during our last game at my house. I set up the terrain to set the mood that we were in town, but we actually didn't use the miniatures -- it was all theater of the mind. I am standing behind the DM screen and wearing a blue "CBS Radio Mystery Theater" T-shirt. I usually stand while DMing as I notice it draws attention and cuts down on the side chatter. The lower link allows you to view a larger image. Eric is in the left behind me in the kitchen. The green figure is the NPC wizard Ganter Gall. The cutaway inn set up using Warlock Tiles has a boulder in front of it representing the Boulder Inn.



hosting.photobucket.com/images/f293/grwelsh/IMG_9453_ko9tDskEFGJ8uMBZj6qyZw.jpg?width=320&height=320&fit=bounds

[Scott]

My clerics. need to be asked to do more. The responsibilities of clerics beyond murder hoboing is something I've neglected to use regularly when running games. A cleric really had to do something egregious to have any consequences. There's a ton of role playing opportunity there. The Pholtus/Cuthbert rivalry is a classic Greyhawk element that should be taken advantage of whenever possible.
Lately I've had Maylin's cleric henchman start making regular comments about the poor life choices Maylin makes. I know how to bait my cousin and recently he snapped on the cleric for becoming such a wussy.
In my face to face game I want to have Corbek be much more engaged with the faith once he gets back home. If he wants the 50% of a stronghold paid for by the church, he will have to earn it.

[GRWelsh]

CURSE OF THE BLACK DAGGER (Part 2)

We played again last Saturday, and had a full table: Eric, Cindy, Ray, Brian, Mark, Randy and Wes.

- Aeray, 4th level paladin of St Cuthbert (Randy)
- Dain, 5th level cleric of Pelor (Eric)
- Tory, 4th level magic-user (Cindy)
- Krak, 4th level mountain dwarf fighter (Mark)
- Balul, 5th level mountain dwarf thief (Ray)
- Brakazar, 3rd level half-orc fighter (Brian)
- McGalen, 1st level half-orc fighter (Wes), identifies himself as a "half-gnome."

We picked up the game with them in the town of Gorna in the Grand Duchy of Geoff, which is where they have been adventuring from for the past few months. In the previous game, the party successfully removed the curse Tory was under. This time, they came up with a plan to remove the curse from Brakazar. They went to consult Ganter Gall and told him they'd removed the curse from Tory but that something went wrong. "Of course!" he exclaimed. The Green Wizard was annoyed since their interruption of his spell research caused him to misfire and his eyebrows and beard were still smoking. "I have better things to do than to constantly attend to the affairs of you people!" They suggested a scheme to levitate the dagger from Brakazar so no one would have to touch it. "Yes, that sounds like a good plan -- you should do it!" he said. "But we don't know how to cast levitate, we were hoping you could do it... And help us dispose of the dagger," the party replied. Ganter Gall told them to remove this curse their on their own, but did advise that as long as no one touched the dagger directly with the intent to take possession of it, they could probably avoid the curse. "You could use rope or..." He held up a pair of tongs from the hearth. "This!" He gestured to an empty chest in his laboratory. "Drop the black dagger in a sack and put it in this chest and latch it shut, and then I will take care of it later." He helped them a bit further with providing a dark blue drop from a powerful potion of slumber. Their plan was to have an outdoor feast and to put the drop into Brakazar's food or drink. They had a pig roast in a fire pit at their camp outside the walls of Gorna, and all sorts of vegetables, cheeses, and sausages, and a barrel of Brakazar's favorite beer: Dragon's Milk. After Brakazar had been drinking for a while, and was a bit tipsy, Tory put a drop into a flagon and handed Brakazar a refill of Dragon's Milk stout. He drank it, failed his save, and was out for 24 hours. Dain cast remove curse, Balul cut Brakazar's sword belt where the dagger was, and belt and dagger were dropped in a sack and taken to the Green Wizard's building inside Gorna and put into the chest as instructed. After this, the party heard from some mercenary guards that they didn't want to go up in this hills... "Not while it's mating season!" Inquiring about this, the characters found out no one with plate mail or expensive metal weapons wanted to travel around outside for at least a sennight... until rust monster mating season was over! The party decided to hold off travelling back to the dungeon for a week. Krak and Brakazar stayed at inns within the town walls, but the others decided to camp outside the walls with their wagon and tents to save money. I had them roll one random encounter roll per night. On the second night, Balul the dwarf heard some buzzing on his watch, then saw a giant dragonfly buzzing around into their camp. Just then, a giant toad hopped at the dragonfly and caught it in its mouth. Four other giant toads that had also been pursuing jumped into the camp, one on Dain's tent, partially collapsing it. For the next few rounds, the party fought the toads who got in a few bites but were soon all slain. Having heard that the scintillant dragonfly hides could be valuable, the party examined the one that was bit by the giant toad, but unfortunately it was mangled. The next day, one of the town cooks helped the party create a feast of grilled giant toads! Once again they helped to feed the poor! After the party rested the full seven days, they deemed rust monster mating season should be over and headed up into the hills to the dungeon. On the way they had an encounter and saw a party of cave men walking by on a ledge with a rust monster on a spit -- they'd killed it with stone spears! The party arrived at the base of the hill the ruins of Lastwall were on, and made camp. That night Balul the dwarf spotted several figures in the shadows and alerted the party. Dain cast light which revealed seven men attempting to steal their mounts. A melee ensued with the party killing five of the brigands and taking two captive by tying them up with ropes.

[It is now early in Harvester 575 CY]

Treasure from bandits: 22 sp, 76 gp, 1 gem worth 500 gp, gold ring worth 60 gp, potion of extra-healing (400 xp for individual who gets it)

[Scott]

Four fighters, that's a lot of beef. And only one cleric to try to heal all their wounds. I guess the paladin can help too.
I haven't DMed a paladin in a long time. I like DMing them almost as much as I like playing them.
Dwarf thief seems like a switch for Ray.

[GRWelsh]

I like lots of player character fighters at it negates the need for henchmen and men-at-arms. Henchmen, men-at-arms and other support NPCs work best in parties with fewer players, but I have an average of six players with sometimes seven. They're at the levels now where they don't need the support. Combats and encounters go quicker and are more fun with fewer individuals. I always thought AD&D hit its sweet spot at around 4th-8th levels. That is the mid level range when they are survivable, have decent spell selection and abilities, and can do a wide variety of adventures, but aren't yet so powerful that low level monsters feel like no threat and exorbitant amounts of XP are needed ("the king's treasure vault... This should get us halfway to 11th level!"). I use your rule for Pelorian clerics to cure a minimum of their level, so Eric's cleric now cures a minimum of 5 per spell. I also use the house rule that clerics can swap out spells of a cure/heal spell of the same or lower level. I like for clerics to have the genuine option to cast spells other than cure/heal/remove curse/neutralize poison/etc. -- i.e. merely "party support." There will be opportunity to get more curing magic to help with this, such as scrolls, potions, staff of curing, etc. I was glad to see a dwarf thief since that is a rarity. Ray has played thieves in the past and he's good at it. He played a halfling thief named Fleetfoot Grey in Eric's longest running AD&D campaign in the 1990's. That character started with 1 hp and Ray joked about wanting to make him recklessly brave so he could kill him off but Fleetfoot survived and went on to about 12th level and become one of Ray's favorite characters.

[Scott]

Oh yeah, I remember playing with Fleetfoot a few times, but didn't remember that was Ray's character.
Henchmen and hirelings aren't as much of an element of the game when you have a good size, consistent party and you don't have to deal with "the machinations of rival player characters", but a few men-at-arms at low levels always come win handy. Henchmen are essential in the games I've been running.
That level range is definitely fun, it's also where the rules seem to work best. But i need more experience running and designing higher level stuff. I can see some great potential there, it's just fine tuning the encounters I think.

[GRWelsh]

For Game Night I made London Broil in a crock pot with carrots, garlic, black pepper and sea salt, and served it with seasoned potatoes... Everyone liked the dinner, as the beef cooked for 9 hours and was very tender. We also had chips, cheese triscuits and two kinds of cookies Brian baked himself and brought... All very good! After the usual pre-game feast and chatter, we picked up where we left off last time...

- Aeray, 4th level paladin of St Cuthbert (Randy)
- Dain, 5th level cleric of Pelor (Eric)
- Tory, 4th level magic-user (Cindy)
- Krak, 4th level mountain dwarf fighter (Mark)
- Balul, 5th level mountain dwarf thief (Ray)
- Brakazar, 3rd level half-orc fighter (Brian)

The party questioned their two captives who claimed to have run afoul of a larger group of bandits in the hills. The captives gave a sob story about falling in with the wrong sort and not really being evil or wanting to kill anyone -- they just wanted to get away! Father Dain cast know alignment on them and determined they were true neutral. The cleric took mercy on them and the party escorted the captives to the town guard at Gorna. They returned to the dungeon a day later and began exploring it by opening the trap door they'd used previously. Upon opening it, a waft of rotting air came out from the kobold corpses that had been rotting down there for weeks... When the characters descended, they had to make saves versus poison or retch and temporarily lose a point of con. They returned to the double doors that were blocked by debris such as tables, crates, and other old furniture... The kobolds had blocked off this door for some reason, and the players wondered what was on the other side that they feared so much. When I told them it would take six man-turns to clear the detritus, we joked around how it would take six more turns since a woman was present and she'd have a lot of decorating ideas about rearranging the furniture (Cindy is currently our only female player and she can take a joke). Once cleared, all tried open doors rolls on the stuck double doors and failed. They got out the axes and started hacking through! The heavy oak and iron reinforced doors took about an hour to get through, and on the other side was a passage with a turn after 10'. As they entered, they were ambushed from around the corner by three emaciated humanoids with vaguely canine like heads... The party correctly assumed they were ghouls. Aeray successfully turned the ghouls who retreated through an open door to their nest. Inside, the party could see a nest of bones, rags, with glints of metal and gems shining through... treasure! They came up with a plan to break the turning and kill the ghouls by shooting the ghouls with missile fire and then letting them come through the doorway one by one. Dain also dropped an oil flask to make a puddle in the doorway. Brakazar shot one of the ghouls in the back which broke the turning affect. Dain dropped a torch into the oil puddle, and so the ghouls couldn't get to them! With their low cunning, the ghouls hid to either side of the doorway and did not blindly charge the party. The characters taunted the ghouls by saying how living and delicious they were... I had the players make charisma checks and Krak's was the best... A ghoul charged through the doorway... "Such a delicious dwarf.... Must eat!" It clawed and bit the dwarf who failed his save versus paralysis. The others killed the ghoul in the same round. The other ghouls followed up by attacking through the doorway and were killed one by one. The party found coins of gold, electrum and silver as well as gems in the ghoul's nest. While they waited for the paralysis to wear off (110 minutes) they spent a lot of time searching the immediate area. They didn't find secret doors but did notice one of the 'bones' in the ghoul nest wasn't actually a femur but a scroll tube. Examining it, Tory could see it had six sheets of vellum written with a magical script. She saved it to examine later. Once the paralysis wore off of Krak, they began exploring the dungeon again, and moved along tunnels going north where they saw another door that was shut with long passages going beyond it. Dain moved ahead to peer around one the passage turns while Balul listened at the door and heard indistinguishable muttering. Just then Dain heard clicking and skittering from the tunnel ahead and soon saw three black beetles, larger than man-sized. The party had a round of missile fire but all projectiles bounced off the plate mail like carapaces of the boring beetles (AC 3)! The party set for a charge and what followed was a difficult melee with the cleric, fighters and thief all taking damage. Although there was a brief scare that this might be a TPK, once Aeray killed his beetle soon after that the beetles went down in a round when the characters all hit and did high damage... They were covered with ichor ("Beetle juice! Beetle juice! Beetle juice!"). They spent four or five rounds doing nothing but healing themselves up, as they were nervous about being attacked by whatever was muttering behind the door or other wandering monsters. They even used up a few healing potions to try to rapidly get their hit points back up.

Treasure from ghouls: 54 sp, 13 ep, 34 gp, 2 gems worth 100 gp, 1 gem worth 500 gp, 1 scroll with 6 magic-user spells (message, melt, protection from evil, scare, feign death, animate dead).

[Scott]

Sounds like a good old time trip to the dungeon.

[GRWelsh]

Two weeks ago I had to cancel due to a power outage after a storm, but we played again last Saturday night. Dinner was chicken breasts with Italian dressing, sauteed onions, oven roasted potatoes and asparagus. Ray brought me coffee, Randy brought eggs (he has chickens) and Brian brought me some hard foam to use for carving into terrain. Cindy brought a veggie tray with spinach dip. At a previous game Eric and Cindy gave me as a gift the book HEROES' FEAST: THE OFFICIAL D&D COOKBOOK (2020)... I haven't made anything out of it yet, but it looks pretty fun with interesting recipes!

I've fallen behind in my updates, but in the past three game sessions the party has been exploring the Dungeons of Lastwall. After fighting the beetles, they opened a dungeon door behind which they heard some muttering. Hiding behind some crates were two figures: the cowardly paladin of Pholtus, Sir Duddelos, and his squire Rogar. They told the tale of how they had been separated from their party when they encountered a troll and ran away. The party knew a way out of the dungeon and led Sir Duddelos and Rogar out, and Rogar updated the party's dungeon map to show where the troll lair was in the east side of the first dungeon level. Sir Duddelos and Rogar were reunited with their own NPC party who had been camped to the north of the ruins -- the player party was camped at the base of the cliff to the south. The other NPCs were: Lucien, a cleric of Pholtus; Soric of the Mountians, a big fighter; Tara, a warrior woman; and Manfred the minstrel, a thief. His comrades chided him for being a coward (Manfred sang a tune: "Blinded by the light! Retreating like Duddelos running in the night!") and said he was a disappointment to his uncle, Pater Mithravus of the Shining Cathedral of Gorna. The players inferred that the others were also searching for the Lost Crown of Rholand rumored to be in the Dungeons of Lastwall... The two parties did not really consider joining forces, as they had the Pholtus versus St Cuthbert and Pelor rivalry, and they didn't want to split the value of the crown if they found it. They went their separate ways, but Duddelos was grateful and did reward the party with a pouch of 100 gp for helping him get back to the surface to reunite with his party. The player party returned to the dungeon and considered going after the troll but started exploring the west side instead. As they walked down a dungeon corridor they saw a boring beetle floating in the air and slowly moving towards them. They also noticed the glint of metal floating around the beetle. They figured out it was a giant beetle with coins inside a gelatinous cube and began attacking it. As they were fighting it, the giant beetle inside began to shake off its paralysis! As they killed the gelatinous cube, the beetle shook gelatin everywhere and began to attack! They killed it rather quickly, and retrieved the treasure (11 cp, 8 sp, 8 ep, 4 gp, 2 pp and 2 gems) as well as potion with clear liquid. They opened a door and found four skeletons in a room and killed them. They opened another door and found a room with a table, chairs, a barrel full of spears, and a cabinet. Balul the dwarf opened the locked cabinet and found a secret panel in, which was trapped but he made his poison save -- which was a good thing since Dain had not prayed for neutralize poison! In the secret panel he found a small box with 100 pp, a gold bracelet and a gold ring. Going further north in the dungeon they found two other rooms: an armory, and a room full of ballista bolts. Searching the rooms carefully, they found a secret door in the room with the bolts, and it led to a room with ballista that was set up to fire if anyone opened the door to the south... Luckily, the party had seen this door from the south earlier, but did not open it! Tory used her wand to detect magic on the items they had found so far, and she found the vial of clear fluid, the gold ring and a hand axe radiated magic.

EDIT: In the last game the party continued exploring the dungeon finding various storage rooms. They avoided the troll when they got a whiff of its stench... They killed two centipedes and found a pouch of 22 ep, 30 cp, and in a locked pantry found a potion of hill giant strength (black) and a potion of heroism (brown) and a loose block with a leather bag insides of it that had 200 gp and 200 sp. Dain also started using locate object to search for a crown, and detected something to the southeast section of the dungeon, diagonally below them! They ended up barricading and camping in a large dungeon room that seemed to have once been a barracks, and found a footlocker with 250 ep.

[GRWelsh]

Last night we played and everybody had fun. For dinner I made bone-in chicken thighs in the crock pot with onions, carrots, celery, vinaigrette, poultry seasoning, French herbs and white rice, which everyone liked. The juices poured over the rice really made it in my opinion.

- Aeray, 4th level paladin of St Cuthbert (Randy)
- Dain, 5th level cleric of Pelor (Eric)
- Tory, 4th level magic-user (Cindy)
- Krak, 4th level mountain dwarf fighter (Mark)
- Balul, 5th level mountain dwarf thief (Ray)
- Brakazar, 3rd level half-orc fighter (Brian)

The game picked up where we left off last time... The party had decided to sleep in the dungeon in a large room that had once been a barracks. They barricaded the door to the hallway with tables and bunk beds, and set three watches through the night. They heard skittering noises in the hallway at once point that came near and then moved away. After sleeping and back to full hp and spells, they examined the south door in the barracks room that was locked. Balul opened it and they found what appeared to be an officer's quarters with bed, table, chair and wardrobe. In the wardrobe they found old tunics with the old coat of arms of the red lion of Rholand, and in a false bottom they found some treasure and a scroll tube marked with the sun face symbol of Pelor -- it contained seven clerical spells. Then the party continued exploring and mapping the southeast part of the first level of the dungeon. They found a storage room with barrels of beer and wine and with crates of valuable bottles of Keoish brandy. Brakazar partook of the aged beer and became moderately intoxicated after failing a poison save. Krak also drank some but his dwarvish constitution kept him sober! The party then explored a dead end passage, which Dain was sure must have a secret door. They slowly advanced down the passage with the two dwarves up front checking for stonework traps every 10' and that paid off for in the final 10' they set off a pit trap but avoided falling into it. They lowered Balul by rope down the 30' deep pit, which opened up into a room a level below. Balul could see the bones of a skeleton with broken legs along with tattered clothing and rusted metal armor and arms.. It was a 30' room with a closed door to the north. Deciding they wanted to explore a passage above on level one, they hoisted Balul back up. They advanced down a 20' wide passage and heard familiar clicking and skittering and then saw a group of boring beetles gathering in front of them making strange gestures with their legs, mandibles and antennae. "Run!" Dain cried, and the characters turned tail and ran away. Dain was thinking they may be casting spells, but the party made intelligence checks and noticed the motions were much like sign language... Cautiously, they approached the seven beetles who were no longer threatening but continuing to make the movements. Tory slowly approached and cast comprehend languages and touched a beetle who met her halfway. Then she could understand their language. The beetles said "I/we are the hive mind and we mean you no harm. We apologize for attacking you earlier, but when some individuals from the hive get far enough away they become stupid and act on instinct. The more of us there are together, the more intelligent I/we are." They understood the boring beetle hive-mind was neutral and did not want to fight them and was only scavenging for carrion. It told them of the danger of the troll to the north in the dungeon, and it also offered them the 'shiny things' in its nest which mean nothing to it (gold and gems). Tory tried to ask about the crown, but the hive-mind didn't understand her sign language attempts. They parted on good (or at least non-aggressive) terms. The party headed west and found double doors of oak reinforced with iron and checked for traps and founding a flagstone on the floor that would have set off a falling stone trap from above. They avoided it, picked the lock and entered a room that was lined with bookshelves and had a table below a pillar that had a lantern hanging from it that had a continual light crystal permanently glowing inside of it. To the north was an arch way with a passage going north. As they were examining the room, Brakazar stood guard at the archway and noticed a giant snake slithering down the passage towards them... "Snake!" he shouted throwing a hand axe and hitting but it continued to advance. Aeray and Krak rushed forward to help. Dain cast two light spells on the eyes of the snake, and first time it saved, but second time it was blinded. Krak and Brakazar chopped it apart. Tory used her wand of magic detection on the library and found a scroll of protection from magic. They also found a few non-magical scroll tubes of bronze, copper and wood that appeared to be worth something and took them. The books all appeared to be mouldering apart and worthless. Brakazar took the snake corpse back to where the boring beetles were and threw it to them, and they took it back to their lair for a feast. The party found a secret door in the passage north of the arch and discovered it connected up the dungeon near where they had entered... They decided to leave the dungeon and go back to town to rest, divide their loot and get xp. They had no encounters returning to town, but the weather turned colder and windy and they heard the flapping of leather wings overhead as a dragon-like figure flew over them! It was grayish-brown color and some of them noticed it had a stinger tail and only two legs, so they assumed it was a wyvern. Descending into the valley they made it back into the walled town of Gorna, safe again for the moment.

It was notable that everyone really liked this game session... Everyone in the party contributed or was engaged, they encountered something unexpected and novel with the beetle hive-mind (even though that was straight out of the MM!), they acquired decent treasure including magic, and they got to do classic dungeon exploration and discovered a way to the second dungeon level which they had been searching for... Also, we used miniatures and custom terrain pieces for every area explored including the pillar with LED lantern light, and a miniature snake and beetles. It was one of those games that just played out very well even though there was only one combat and not much danger.

[It is still early in Harvester 575 CY as the past four game sessions have had compressed time since the party either stayed in the dungeon or camped just outside at the base of the cliff where the ruins is.]

[Scott]

Sounds like a great night of gaming. A nice combo of classic features used in innovative ways.

[GRWelsh]

Two weeks ago we played and picked up back in the town of Gorna. The party sold their gems and jewelry so they could divide up their loot. Tory paid the Green Wizard to identify the magic ring, which turned out to be a Ring of Shielding Protection (+1 protection all of the time and when the wearer touches the shield emblem once per day it can activate a shield spell as if cast by a 12th level caster). McGalen buddied up with Manfred the minstrel at the Boulder Inn, trying to get some information about the other NPC party, and Manfred kept trying and failing to pick McGalen's pockets. Soric of the Mountains recognized Brakazar and challenged him to a rematch of bare knuckle fighting in The Pit, a tavern in the seedier part of town... Many bets were placed, and Soric wore a metal cod-piece since in their last fight Brakazar won by kicking him in the balls! This time it turned out differently and Soric knocked Brakazar out after a few rounds of boxing. After a few days of rest they started back for the dungeon and this time Dain hired a few men-at-arms and asked some of the poor to accompany them. At a narrow point in the hills of the Stark Mounds, the party spotted what appeared to be men hiding behind boulders on each side of the road... An ambush! After a brief exchange of words, the party charged the brigands on the right and caught them by surprise using jump potions and slaughtered them, including a magician with a wand that was shooting magic missiles at the party. Krak killed the magic-user in two hits with his battle axe! Still, he took some wounds from the magic missiles and several brigands got in hits by flanking and attacking characters from the rear... The party was never really in danger of losing the battle, but they were surprised that they took so much damage from mostly 0-level brigands. Meanwhile, the brigands on the other side of the road retreated to a higher point in the hills... After this, the party looted the bodies of gold, arms and armor and returned to town.

- Aeray, 4th level paladin of St Cuthbert (Randy)
- Dain, 5th level cleric of Pelor (Eric)
- Tory, 4th level magic-user (Cindy)
- Krak, 4th level mountain dwarf fighter (Mark)
- Balul, 5th level mountain dwarf thief (Ray)
- Brakazar, 3rd level half-orc fighter (Brian)
- McGalen, 2nd level half-orc fighter (Wes), identifies himself as a "half-gnome."

Cindy's magic-user, Tory, got the wand of magic missiles and is now very close to 5th level.

[GRWelsh]

THE LAST LORD OF LASTWALL

Back to the main party with last Saturday's game... For dinner we had pork chops marinated with raspberry vinaigrette, sauteed peppers and celery, and rice. Mark brought his Hirst Arts modular Gothic Dungeon pieces, glued and painted, to show off before the game. Very impressive!

- Aeray, 4th level paladin of St Cuthbert (Randy)
- Dain, 5th level cleric of Pelor (Eric)
- Tory, 4th level magic-user (Cindy)
- Krak, 4th level mountain dwarf fighter (Mark)
- Balul, 5th level mountain dwarf thief (Ray)
- Brakazar, 3rd level half-orc fighter (Brian)

The party returned to the dungeon and descended into the 2nd level through the pit trap they'd discovered earlier. Using locate object spell, Dain tried to locate a crown and picked up something to the west. Balul failed to pick the lock, but several characters drank minor strength potions Tory had brewed earlier, and they were able to knock the iron bound door off its hinges. They found a room with a wardrobe made of black wood, and a portcullis gate. They searched the wardrobe and found it was empty, but when they moved it they found a concealed stone door behind it. Pushing the door open, they found an old passage that lead to a room with four pillars and a sarcophagus. Aeray detected evil at the sarcophagus. Dain cast bless and they got holy water ready before pushing off the lid of the sarcophagus. A black miasma rose up and they all had to save versus poison. Only Krak failed and he coughed and felt a bit ill from the foetor (-1 to hit, -1 to save). Inside they could see the bones of a warrior in plate mail holding a bastard sword and wearing a gold crown with diamonds and rubies. The holy water Tory threw hissed on the plate mail... In the dark eye sockets of the warrior's skull they could see two narrow lights gleam as his dusty voice roared... "You shall not have it!" The undead warrior, with supernatural speed, drew its bastard sword and jumped up to stand upon the sarcophagus. As it did this, all who saw it had to save versus magic. Only Tory failed and she cowered with dread, unable to take any action that round. The melee ensued. The undead warrior hit Brakazar and the wound was extremely painful. The party got in a few hits but they were worried. The next round Tory shook off her dread and pointed her wand and uttered "Zarat" an ancient Suloise word for "twice" and two magic missiles shot through the undead warrior's armor! The undead struck Dain with the sword and boasted "I will make you all bleed with my sword, Painstaker!" Brakazar and Dain continued to bleed and take damage each round after being struck by this sword, and they realized it was a sword of wounding. Dain tried to cast spiritual hammer but his spell casting was interrupted by the wound effect. By the third round, they were piling up damage as Aeray's Hammer of the Holy (+1/+4 vs. undead), Krak's battle axe +2 and Brakazar's dagger +2 all landed blows, and it was staggered. The undead warrior's eyes gleamed coldly as it said, "Now one of you will die!" It looked about them and then fixed a death stare on Brakazar, who made his save versus death magic! The many blows from the party finally destroyed the undead warrior, and it collapsed in a pile of rusted armor and bone dust... Brakazar caught the golden crown as it fell (dex check). Aeray tried to lay on hands Dain but it had no effect. When they bound their wounds that stopped the bleeding but no magic would cure their wounds. They decided to take the crown and get out of the dungeon and head back to Gorna. They got outside and camped overnight, and a giant lizard attempted to eat their mule, but they killed the lizard. With no other encounters the next morning they made it back to Gorna. The game left off with the players deciding what to do with the crown, since they believe it has a lot of historic and symbolic value as the Lost Crown of Rholand...

Side note: the players were trying to figure out what undead this was, and were guessing skeletal warrior and death knight, but it was just an undead monster I made up. It had AC 0, HD 8, 80 hp, only hit by magic or holy water, and some special abilities like crypt foetor, cause dread and death stare. I should have gave him 3/2 attacks per round for being an 8th level fighter. It seems like the party won easily, but it could have gone differently with more failed saves. Its weapon was a sword of wounding that itself did not radiate evil. The crown did not radiate magic or evil.

[GRWelsh]

THE CROWN OF RHOLAND

On Saturday we had the game. For dinner I served chicken thighs made in the electric skillet marinated with Teriyaki and served with Jasmine Rice and sauteed Jalapeno peppers and Asian Sesame sauce. Everyone liked the dinner and Eric even wanted seconds.

- Aeray, 4th level paladin of St Cuthbert (Randy)
- Dain, 5th level cleric of Pelor (Eric)
- Tory, 5th level magic-user (Cindy)
- Krak, 5th level mountain dwarf fighter (Mark)
- Balul, 6th level mountain dwarf thief (Ray)
- Brakazar, 4th level half-orc fighter (Brian)

BACKGROUND: In my campaign Rholand is the name of an ancient realm that was a sister kingdom to Keoland, but it did not survive. As Keoland grew up around the Sheldomar River, Rholand grew up along the Javan River and included parts of what would later become Geoff, Sterich, etc. Rholand existed for several centuries and became a close ally to the mountain dwarves and helped them fight giants. In gratitude, the dwarves fashioned a beautiful gold crown set with diamonds and rubies and presented it to the king. But Rholand was not to last... Undead hordes from the Stark Mounds and Rushmoors weakened the realm in what were remembered as the Wars of the Dead... Rholand was finally defeated by giants who crushed the capital of Rhola Dra and slew the king and his final knights in battle... According to the legend, his squire got away with the crown and fled to the hills... Years later, the lord of Lastwall, one of the castles that had once been part of Rholand and now ruled independently, was said to have found the crown and hidden it in a vault below his castle. There was talk of restoring the realm of Rholand but it never happened. Later his castle was reduced to rubble by uprisings of his own people as well as giant attacks. Yet, the lower dungeons remained intact. For generations, adventurers had explored the dungeons of Lastwall in search of the lost crown of Rholand... None ever found it -- until now.

After the last game, four characters went up in level. This game took place in Gorna and was almost entirely role-playing and intrigue, yet everyone seemed to enjoy it. We rolled hardly any dice and only one attack roll was made the entire night. The party picked up from last time... The players spent a lot of time debating what to do with the crown of Rholand... Some ideas were to break it down and sell its parts (the dwarves estimated the gems would be worth about 15,000 gp), while others talked about giving it to the Grand Duke, or travelling to Niole Dra to give it to the king of Keoland, or giving it back to the dwarves of Albarak who supposedly made it. Krak even had an idea to use it as a lure for the brigand chief, Lord Devin. They had trouble deciding. Dain and Brakazar needed over a week of complete rest each to recover from the wounds given to them by the sword of wounding. Brakazar got a new weapon proficiency and took bastard sword so that he could wield the sword of wounding. Tory brewed several minor potions of strength and fiery burning, and wrote feign death into her spell book and "figured out" sepia snake sigil, her new spell (rolled randomly). The party stopped camping outside the walls and moved into the Boulder Inn, and parked their wagon next to the stable. They had trouble deciding. Inside the locked wagon was a secret panel in the floor that had the Crown of Rholand... Tory cast the sepia snake sigil on the secret panel. At the Boulder Inn Balul ran into Manfred the Minstrel and bought him a beer. The two made small talk and Manfred asked what the party found in the dungeon, and Balul declined to provide any details. Later, they spotted Manfred and Lucien the cleric of Pholtus standing near the wagon outside. Balul used one of the doses of his potion of invisibility to sneak up on the duo and could overhear what they were saying ("I think they found it..." "I have located something of that sort in this wagon..." "Well, one of us is good at finding things, so maybe you should come back at night to confirm... Pater Mithravus would love to crown Grand Duke Owen as King Owen of the restored Realm of Rholand... Just think of the prestige!" "Yes, and he would be beholden to the Fellowship of the Blinding Light who would then have special status!"). As Lucien stepped behind the stable to cast a spell (find traps), Balul punched him in the back of the head ("Hey! What was that for? Where did you come from, dwarf?"). Other members of the party came out to the stable to join Balul and confront Manfred and Lucien. Neither side wanted to admit what they were doing or what they knew ("Well, if you don't have it, then you will have nothing to complain about it if we present it to the Grand Duke tomorrow!" Lucien said slyly). This encounter prompted the party to try to get an immediate audience with the Grand Duke, so they took the wagon up the hill to the castle. Dain and Aeray went into the Hall of Justice to get a general audience, and hinted at what they had. The Grand Duke told them to come back with "it" and gave them a private audience in the gateway of a tunnel under the castle. Ganter Gall the Green Wizard showed up to confirm the crown was indeed the one of legend. There was a humorous moment as the players negotiated and both the paladin and cleric failed their charisma checks... Eric made "kissing up" noises as he described what his character was saying. They came across as ingratiating and having their hands out for a reward which was off-putting to the Grand Duke ("Did you just make kissing noises to me?"). In the end, he gave them 25,000 gp as a reward and confirmed he had no ambitions to be crowned as a new king of Rholand, which was a relief to the players. He would hide the crown in a vault below his castle above Gorna. It is now Brewfest CY 575 and everyone is ready to celebrate with the fall harvest and locally brewed beers, including Brakazar's favorite: Dragon's Milk!

[GRWelsh]

After six weeks, we finally got back to the game on Saturday night. For dinner, I made shake and bake pork chops, fingerling potatoes and sauteed onions and jalapeno peppers.

- Aeray, 4th level paladin of St Cuthbert (Randy)
- Dain, 5th level cleric of Pelor (Eric)
- Tory, 5th level magic-user (Cindy)
- Krak, 5th level mountain dwarf fighter (Mark)
- Balul, 6th level mountain dwarf thief (Ray)
- Brakazar, 4th level half-orc fighter (Brian)

After celebrating Brewfest in Gorna, the last merchant caravans departed for home. The party accompanied the caravan heading through the Stark Mounds back to Sterich, and departed from them to take the side road back the dungeons of Lastwall. The party's plan was to go after the troll they had heard about in the past. They made it through the dungeon and did not have encounters getting to the cave with the horrible smell coming out of it. They entered the large, limestone cave to see many stalagmites and stalagmites and dripping water. Near the center of the cave they could see what looked like a bones and wool, and they could also see a narrowing at the far end as if leading to a smaller, side cave. As they moved to examine the pile of bones, three piercers dropped upon them and a large one hit Dain doing a fair amount of damage. As the piercers tried to move away and pull themselves back up the cave wall, the party slew them. They could see the pile of bones and wool were the remains of many dead sheep.
Then they entered the smaller side cave which was only wide enough for one to go through at a time. Aeray went first, and as he went around the corner he could see the cave widen again where a large troll loomed up over him roaring, "Mutton last week, mutton yesterday and I thought more mutton today... But today it seems I am lucky!" The troll hit the paladin with a claw and bite. Krak moved but there was only room enough for one character to move in next to the troll per round. Krak tried to taunt the troll to attack him, but the troll was focused on the paladin. Brakazar came in next. They had buffed themselves up with potions of strength and heroism. Aeray, having taken some hits, made a fighting withdrawal, and was pretty low on hit points. Dain cast some cure light wounds as Aeray lay hands on himself, but he was still down in hit points. Brakazar hit the troll with a mighty blow from his sword of wounding and Krak hit it from behind with his battle axe. Just before the troll was about to start regenerating, the three fighters brought it down. Krak brought out an oil flask and burned the troll remains to ashes. At the back of the cave they could see a pile of gold, silver and electrum coins, as well as gems and jewelry which they took. Later, Tory cast detect magic and found among the treasure a magic scroll, bracelet and silver necklace with gem-like globes that looked like they were made of ice.

[GRWelsh]

Dinner on Saturday was improvised from what I had available... I marinated chicken thighs in Hoisin sauce mixed with soy sauce and 5 dragon spice, and then realized I was out of potatoes and rice, so I decided to use spaghetti noodles for a sort of Lo Mein dish with onions and Asian Sesame sauce. Everyone seemed to like it. Mark did not show up, but Wes stopped by and gave everyone free corn! After some pre-game chatter, we got back into it. The player characters were:

- Aeray, 4th level paladin of St Cuthbert (Randy)
- Dain, 5th level cleric of Pelor (Eric)
- Tory, 5th level magic-user (Cindy)
- Balul, 6th level mountain dwarf thief (Ray)
- Brakazar, 4th level half-orc fighter (Brian)

Early in the month of Patchwall, in the town of Gorna, the players discussed what they wanted to do. This episode was in-town role playing with NPC's with very little action, but everyone enjoyed it. I'll add more details later.

I've noticed my players like the contrast of old school dungeon delving in one session contrasted with more role-playing and campaign development in another session... Going back and forth seems to keep the campaign fresh where the the players don't always know what to expect from a game session, but also they can do what they want. One of my favorite things about the more role-playing oriented adventures is that players who think of charisma and wisdom as the 'dump stats' always feel this come back to bite them since these are the important abilities for social interaction. I always imagine a cartoon with a caption like "Charisma is just a dump stat" showing a D&D party where everyone has that 'ugly guy' or 'fat kid' look from THE FAR SIDE by Gary Larson. The paladin is of course the exception and I try to make it so that NPC's at times react positively even when other players already got a negative reaction ("Now when HE says it, it makes sense!").

[Scott]

What have you done to Gorna, locations and NPCs? Give me something to steal the next time I have PCs in the area.

[GRWelsh]

I'll start a separate thread to post my notes of Gorna and the Duchy of Geoff.

[GRWelsh]

Our last game was on Saturday, 9/2. For dinner I made chicken and sauteed onions with roasted potatoes and chicken gravy. Mark texted me that he's going to take a break from the game for a while. The player characters were:

- Aeray, 4th level paladin of St Cuthbert (Randy)
- Dain, 5th level cleric of Pelor (Eric)
- Tory, 5th level magic-user (Cindy)
- Balul, 6th level mountain dwarf thief (Ray)
- Brakazar, 4th level half-orc fighter (Brian)

10 Patchwall: After being in Gorna for about a week, the party had gotten the magic necklace identified and found out it was a Necklace of Icy Missiles, and they decided Tory should get it. The scroll had magic-user spells, and she got that as well. Balul took the magical bracers. The party was thinking of returning to their home town of Hochoch before winter set in, but for now the weather was still fair and they wanted to continue exploring the dungeon, so they hired some men-at-arms and set out. Their journey was uneventful and their only encounter on the road in the Stark Mounds was with 12 dwarves marching to work with their picks and hammers.

11 Patchwall: After camping near the base of the ruins as usual, the party left their horses and wagon guarded by the men-at-arms, and entered the dungeon via the trapdoor they had found and kept covered and hidden each time they left. They used Tory's map to plan out exploring the sections of the first dungeon level that were still unmapped: parts of the west, and northeast. They headed to the west part first, going south to explore a store room with old foodstuffs and wine in crates and barrels, all dried up or turned to vinegar. At the next door the dwarf listened at the door and heard some muttering voices. Brakazar kicked open the door and burst in, to see a pile of crates, and behind it were hiding three kobolds. Brakazar attacked and one of the kobolds, a shaman, cast darkness which dispelled the continual light that had been on Brakazar's shield. The shift from bright light to darkness temporarily blinded the combatants as their eyes adjusted. From the doorway behind, Dain cast another continual light on his bullseye lantern, to shine it in the room. In the next few rounds, the huge half-orc cut the kobolds apart, and found on their bodies some copper coins, as well as pouches with gems and material spell components for the kobold shaman. The wine barrels still had good wine so the party loaded up their wineskins, before moving out to explore to the northwest.