Session 6: No Plan Survives Contact With Appendix A

Session report for December 14, 2023. Three players adventured for one day.

Characters

Mustacha, human ranger level 2
Tony D, human assassin level 2
Brother Flint, human monk level 1

Only three players this time. To make matters worse, none of those classes are permitted to employ hirelings at this level. To help manage the challenges, the party decided to stick to the first level of the dungeon.

The first result on the AD&D dungeon generator was trick/trap: elevator room down 1 level! Disaster!

In previous delves, the party mapped out quite a bit of level 2, so it took a few minutes for me to determine where the room would go. Here's what I did.

First, I generated exits for the elevator room: one door on the east wall and one on the south wall. Then I referred to my level 2 map and identified the location of the room after it descended. It would be right in the middle of a long hallway going east to west. To resolve the discrepancy I shifted the room north 10 feet and decided that the doors would move with the room. And so the south door lined up with the hallway as a one-way secret door.

At this point Brother Flint had intuited what was going on and he asked if they moved laterally during their descent. Sigh. Yes.

In spite of that, they chose to explore the west and east doors first. One hallway led to a room with giant badgers sleeping off their latest meal. The opposite hallway wound around to the northwest and intersected two perpendicular hallways.

They heard the grinding of stone as the elevator room returned to the first level and their fates were sealed.

Down the hall they came to a medium sized chamber with a stone fireplace where they surprised 21 goblins pouring out of a secret door. For the second encounter in a row they had three rounds of surprise, thanks to the ranger. But they were outnumbered seven to one. They chose violence and killed seven goblins in two segments before retreating down the hall. Tony D'Angelo secured a choke point with caltrops encrusted with spider venom. The surviving goblins retreated in shock.

A staircase up led them back to the first level. They were relieved to be back on the first level, but according to their maps they were far away from the known exits.

The game became very tense at this point: the players realized there was a good chance they would not make it out of the dungeon, and on my part fatigue was setting in. They pressed on.

A huge hallway with a gallery 20 feet above opened before them. They ignored the door in the alcove on the west wall and headed to the chamber at the end of the hall. Another door led to a long hallway.

A pit trap opened under Tony. He fell and took 1 point of damage and was quickly rescued.

They entered a room with a fountain that hadn't had water in ages (if ever).

Monster: piercer. With a 95% chance of surprise, Mustacha's ranger bonus did not save them. Tony drew the short straw. It was a large piercer and did 3d6 damage. Tony never knew what hit him.

Mustacha and Flint realized they'd certainly die if they kept crawling around looking for the exit, so they beat feet back to the elevator room with Tony's body. The door opened to a wall because the room was still on the upper level. When they examined the wall they found magic runes that activated the elevator. They took the room back up to the first level and barely escaped with their lives.

[The elevator room in Appendix A does not describe the nature of the elevator room other than that it goes down one level and returns after 30 minutes. I reasoned there might be a "call button" of some kind on the lower level. Was I too kind? What would you do with an elevator room?]

THE VANQUISHED
7 goblins - 96 XP
1 piercer (3HD) - 110 XP

Tony D'Angelo - killed by a piercer ambush

THE SPOILS
65 silver

THE SCORE
Mustacha (NG Ranger 2, E): 104 XP & 33 sp
Brother Flint (?? Monk 1, E): 104 XP & 32 sp

Session 5: Spears of Justice

Session report for December 7, 2023. Four players adventured for 2 days.

Characters

Bastion, human fighter level 2 (leading 4 men-at-arms)
Mustacha, human ranger level 2
Deadleaf, elf assassin level 2
Tony D, human assassin level 2

The brave adventurers of Fort Fenrir spent their treasure on training and enjoyed a well-earned rest for the months of October and November. But they became restless as their funds ran dry and decided to head back to the dungeon. Maybe they could get revenge on those orcs for their mockery!

During the break I thought about the rulings I made in previous sessions and decided to make some changes.

First, about Deadleaf's string connecting him to the party as he scouted more than 90 feet ahead. Originally I decided it would cause trouble for the party the next time I rolled an encounter. It made sense but it added to my mental load, so I simplified it: a flat -2 penalty to surprise checks. This would effectively eliminate Deadleaf's advantage for being an elf. He wisely gave it up.

Second was the "triple rate of fire" during the surprise round. I announced that I would raise the bar very high to qualify for a triple rate of fire: you need to be prepared with sufficient ammo at hand, and a bow and quiver was not sufficient. Deadleaf (played by the formidable Macho Mandalf) thought it was a fair ruling but suggested that he could hold six arrows between his fingers as he prowled around. Well. That should get him through the first combat round at least.

Finally, I am still evaluating my ruling on assassination with a high rate of fire. I haven't made the change yet but I am leaning toward permitting only one assassination attempt per segment. We'll see.

Bastion and his mercenaries

The party set out from Fort Fenrir and arrived at the old ghoul cave with no encounter. Deadleaf took the lead again and headed into the first level of the dungeon. He quickly made his way down the hall towards the spiral staircase to level 2. Lucky for them I used Mr. Wargaming's technique to restock the dungeon: check Appendix A, Table V.F. for monsters, ignoring results of 18+, and came up with nothing in the first several rooms.

When the party gathered at the door that leads to the staircase, something interesting happened. Group leadership shifted back to Bastion (played by Brigadine) without a word being said. They continued to switch roles every time the party went from scouting mode to group/combat mode. Got to love elite players.

The torchlight borne by the mercs revealed graffiti that evaded Deadleaf's infravision. Orcish writing across the wall and door: GO HOME TO MOTHER, COWARDS! On the door was drawn a fang like a tall 'V' dripping from the tip. The message spooked most of the players. The team retreated down the hall to a different staircase they discovered in their first delve.

Around the corner and down the stairs they went. Beyond the landing the hallway forked left and right. The right side led to a four-way intersection. The left hall went 60 feet and turned left. Deadleaf brought the party down the left hallway, handed his backpack over to Tony, and backtracked to the right side to take advantage of his stealth and infravision.

Back at the four-way intersection, Deadleaf crept around the corner to the right hall. Just 40 feet ahead two orcs stood guarding a chamber for the rest of their crew - and they spotted him!

Note that this result, and every other orc encounter so far, was generated by the tables in Appendix C. You can't make this stuff up. Or you could, if you put orcs in every room.

Decision time. Without the element of surprise Deadleaf was in big trouble. He decided to fire on the orcs and retreat. What else was he going to do? It all came down to initiative: his high Dexterity gave him the ability to fire off his arrows before the orcs acted. One dead, one wounded. The survivor called for his squad, but a miserable morale result (85) meant he was going to hang back and wait for greater numbers rather than engage the elf. Deadleaf sped down the hall and up the stairs while 2322 orcs pursued! (Movement: 12" vs. 9" because he had the foresight to leave his gear with Tony)

The party heard the commotion and returned to the Y-intersection just in time to engage the orcs before they could reach the stairs. Bastion and his men-at-arms held the line while Mustacha chewed through orcs with his two-handed sword. Tony rained fiery death with burning oil. Caught in a choke point and reduced nearly to half their numbers, 14 remaining orcs surrendered after dealing only 2 points of damage. Another bad morale check over 100.

The orcs begged for their lives and said they'd give up treasure if the party let them go. Deadleaf and Tony wanted to negotiate but Bastion and his mercs just tied the orcs up and made them spill the beans.

Now this was an interesting scenario to judge. The orcs wanted to bargain for their freedom but Bastion wasn't interested in giving it to them. Every time the party tried to get the orcs to do what they wanted I made another morale test: failure would mean they gave in to their demands, success means they would resist. I did not apply all the various combat modifiers, but a modest penalty based on their situation.

So they tied up the orcs instead of granting them their freedom. Morale failure: the orcs relented. "But you'll let us go when we give you the treasure right?"

Back in the room where the orcs rested there was a couch with an iron chest being used as a coffee table. Tony tore up the couch and found a small bag with four gems in the cushions. The orcs were enlisted to open the iron chest with no promise of release (morale test failed). Inside was 2000 silver pieces.

Time to go. The orcs were tied to each other to be walked back to town for a proper execution. Morale check: 02. Revolt! An orc who had suffered the indignity of being splashed with burning oil, not once, but twice, was enraged by the party's betrayal. He partially broke his bonds and tried to escape, shoulder-checking Bastion into the wall.

Bastion: I hit him with my mailed fist. I don't care if it kills him.
DM: Okay make a pummeling attack.
Bastion: Never mind I cave in his skull with my mace.

Some people will never appreciate those pummeling tables. Maybe next session.

A careful reader might accuse me of using a "roll to failure" method in that situation. Not so for two reasons: each roll was made to get a different benefit, and each new benefit was an escalation of tension between the two groups. Each time they pushed the orcs, there would be a chance they'd be pushed back.

The party walked the remaining orcs back to Fort Fenrir without incident and I had another awkward situation to play out. You see, they arrived well after sunset with 13 orcs in tow. It seemed to me that the night guard might not trust the party or want to be responsible for letting a baker's dozen orcs in. So I followed my intuition and let the reaction dice guide me. The initial result was low, in the 30s, so the guards balked at letting the party in. I put Bastion on the spot and he made the case that they were safe and he personally knew the captain of the guard. The result was still underwhelming, but a neutral reaction thanks to his Charisma bonus.

After a short time arguing with the guard, a watch captain came out to investigate the commotion and they sorted it out. The party was let in and the night watch took the orcs into custody. Some were executed immmediately to Bastion's chagrin.

The next day, the party rested up while Tony found a buyer for the gems. At lunchtime they were treated to an execution of the remaining orcs. The guard captain asked Bastion what he should call the adventurers. Bastion waxed poetic about the party being the bulwark between order and chaos but Mustacha jumped in.

"You want to keep it short and snappy," he said.

"We're the Spear of Justice."

THE VANQUISHED
23 orcs wearing the insignia of a long fang dripping blood (326 xp)

THE SPOILS
2000 silver
139 electrum
4 gems worth 620 gold
23 halberds
23 scale mail

THE SCORE
Each player gets: 153 gp,
500 sp,
34 ep,
and 277 xp

(Everyone gets an E rating for 'Everyone Is Awesome At D&D')