Session #14 – “Wherein Go the Black Loses his Head” – 9/14/15

This was a fun session I ran for one player with a PC and several hirelings. After hearing the rumors in town about the Caves of Woe and the wild exploits of Garros the Dwarf, et al,  he decided instead to explore the nearby Caves of Discomfort.  This was not the wisest decision, read on for the details…

PCs:

Go the Black – Elf FM/M-U:  RIP Beheaded by a bandit’s sword

Hirelings – all survived!

Dingo the Hobbit: (FM level 0)
Marton – meatshield
Sturig – meatshield
Burgard – torchbearer

Monsters vanquished:

6 Orcs
4 Bandits

Treasure:

125GP
Jade lion figurine worth 330GP
80GP reward for killing 6 Orcs in the wild
80GP reward for saving the caravan

~

Go the Black, a freshly minted Elven fighter/mage, gathered a few hirelings and made off for the Caves of Discomfort in search of a bandit troupe. Reports had them raiding supply caravans from the north into Ravendale from a cave they were using as a base; the proprietor of the Dead Witch Inn, Latina, offered 80 gold in reward for anyone who could ensure the next caravan’s safe arrival.

With the knowledge of the approximate location of the caves, the party set out at dawn, under grey skies and with a late fall chill in the air. They headed north along a wagon track, the dense Ravenwood close on either side. Dingo was sent ahead to scout, and indeed, after a few hours the party heard his call from beyond a hill just ahead. It was only a minute before the party saw Dingo running towards them as fast as his Hobbit legs would carry him, his sling gripped tightly in hand. Two Orcs followed closely, snarling and brandishing a club and sword. They ran smack into the party’s front rank as Dingo slipped in behind to safety, drawing his sword.  After a few moments the Orcs lay dead, but the party’s celebration was cut short as four more Orcs came at them from atop the hill. Perhaps the two were just a scouting party? In any case, melee was joined again. Victory was theirs, however in the process Marton was wounded. Go the Black tended Marton’s wounds as best he could, while the party scavenged what they could find from the bodies (including an ear from each), along with any salvageable weapons. Go noted a black arrow tattoo sported by all of the Orcs.

Continuing on, it was but another hour before Dingo spied a cave entrance 60 yards from the wagon track, where it turned north and west. Inside he could see three men, seated around a fire, their backs turned away. Go approached the front of the cave, while Dingo and the others moved left, approaching the cave from the west. The plan was to get Dingo in the scrub brush above the cave, with his sling, while the mercenaries were to sneak attack from the west. Plans quickly changed, however, as a crossbow bolt whizzed past Dingo’s head. A lookout! The man was above the cave entrance, in the very spot where Dingo sought to hide! Dingo hurled a sling stone, which struck its mark, wounding the lookout. The man yelled in alarm, and the three men in the cave stood and ran towards Go, swords drawn. They were as yet unaware of Dingo and the others.

Go threw his handaxe towards the men (whom he presumed were the bandits they had been searching for), killing one, but the other two were upon him in a flash. Marton and Sturig were just out of range for their thrown spear and handaxe, so Go fought the men alone as Marton and Sturig rushed to his aid. Too late, a bandit’s sword wounded Go, another beheading him quickly thereafter. Marton and Sturig avenged their master, killing the two bandits and watching as Dingo slew the lookout with another well-placed sling stone.

The party searched the bandits and the cave, finding a bit of gold and a jade lion figurine. They noted the bandits had the same black arrow tattoos as the Orcs. They also saw a locked door to the east, and a large pile of rubble to the north, the latter appeared to be blocking an exit. The party gathered the body of Go, intent on returning to Ravendale. As luck would have it, the caravan they were sent to protect rounded the bend from the north at that instant, and they rode back with it, collecting their reward in town. Lord Kelby was interested in the six Orc ears, and gave the party a further reward of 80 gold for removing a clear future threat.

~

Session #13 – “Exploding things can be dangerous” – 7/19/15

PCs:

Garros the Dwarf Fighter  (level 3)
M’Segobaor the Elf MU/FM (level 3/1)

NPCs:

Farfuleg the Bold (level 3 FM)

Hirelings:

Stavros – Survived!
Freya – Survived!
Corsus – Survived!
Tal – The porter – Survived!
Aelzef – This poor lad disappeared while walking through a glowing archway, his body was found inside a portcullis-trapped room

Monsters vanquished:

22 stirges (cleverly avoided!)
4 giant toads

Treasure:

1,117 GP

Immediately after returning to town with the body of M in tow, the party visited the Holy Temple of the Mother. After some debate, they parted with 1,200 of their hard-earned gold coins and had M the Elf restored to life by the High Priestess Vaklo. They then rested a few days and returned to the Caves yet again.

The party continued exploring the southern reaches of the Caves of Woe, first investigating what they surmised was the quarters of the head Druid, killed previously while in bear form. While exploring the room, M looked behind a curious tapestry depicting naught but a dungeon door, and spied some runes on the wall. A glance was all it took – the runes exploded, injuring M but also Garros, who was nearby. A set of three ceramic urns in front of the tapestry did not fare well – they shattered, spraying their contents – gold coins, but also bits of parchment, a scroll now irretrievably lost. M applied a healing poultice and rested, soon feeling a bit better. The party decided to press on. They moved south, Garros scouting ahead as usual. When he got to some previously explored jail cells, he heard fluttering sounds and looking up, saw perhaps dozens of stirges. He backed away, leaving the room and rejoining the party. The companions hatched a clever but dangerous plan to trap the stirges in the room just to the north, by using Garros as bait, with the party waiting at an adjoining door, ready to close it as soon as Garros ran through. Amazingly, the plan worked – Garros ran to safety just in the nick of time, 22 stirges in tow. The angry stirges pecked at the door, while unbeknownst to them, the door behind them closed!

With the threat from above safely trapped, the party explored west and came to a T-intersection. Straight ahead, a portcullis barred their way into a dark room beyond. The portcullis was stubborn – it took three of the party to open it, but they did finally, wedging it halfway up.  When they entered, their torchlight exposed a horrifying sight. The body of Aelzef, their long-lost porter. He had clearly died of thirst while trapped within the room. Across from him, some 20 feet away, a skeleton wearing a heavily jeweled necklace lay propped in the corner. Garros cursed his luck as when he approached it, the skeleton exploded, wounding him. The necklace was nowhere to be found.

The party continued on, heading south, past an eastern corridor and into some natural tunnels. The air was heavy with moisture here, and water could be heard dripping in the distance from the unseen reaches of a cavern visible straight ahead. Inside the floor was thick with mud – up to Garros’ knees – and there were large, man-sized mushrooms scattered about the room. As the party debated the merits of continuing on, they were attacked by 4 giant toads, emerging from the corridor they had just passed!  The toads put up a good fight, almost swallowing Stavros whole, but were no match for the now angry party.

Note: We stopped here for the night, this is continued with Session #16.

Session #12 – “Damned Wandering Monsters!” – 7/5/15

One of the neat concepts from OD&D is that all magic swords are special, and that all of them have an alignment. Touching a sword of a differing alignment is a risky proposition. This was used by the party’s Elf to good effect, to ferret out an anti-cleric who was posing as a lawful one. I ruled that when the anti-cleric was asked to touch the sword, he became nervous, forcing his hand. See below for the synopsis.

PCs:

Garros the Dwarf Fighter (level 3)
M’Segobaor the Elf MU/FM (level 3/1) (RIP killed by a giant centipede bite)

NPCs:

Farfuleg the Bold (level 3 FM)

Hirelings:

Stavros – Survived!
Freya – Survived!
Corsus – Survived!
Tal – The porter – Survived!
Aelzef – This poor lad disappeared while walking through a glowing archway, he is still missing

Monsters vanquished:

Undead snake
Dronak the Evil Cleric of Lerix
Giant spider

Treasure:

Finely crafted ivory pipe with owls engraved on the sides of the bowl

~

Our brave band of delvers returned to the caves after a few days rest, entering via the grove entrance’s northern door, which they had unbarred in a previous session. All was dark. Garros advanced down the easterly corridor, passing the disturbing tapestry room and running headlong into the giant serpent he had killed just a few weeks ago! It, too had been raised and was a foul undead creature. It was no match for the party, however, as they made short work of it and this time cut its head off.

Continuing south into the open, pillared chamber that they had been to before, they spied a torch-wielding man in chain armor, a war hammer affixed to his belt. M wasted no time in firing an arrow at him, nicking his arm. He raised his hands in surrender and asked why Dronak, a good priest of Lerix, had been attacked in such a fashion. The party was cautious and asked him to prove his faith by grabbing onto the hilt of Hegemon’s Vengeance, the lawful sword M was wielding. He assented, but said he had to pray to Lerix for guidance first, and raised his arms, even as he began to chant. Garros and M rushed in to attack, but were too late as Dronak’s hand brushed against M, causing him to wince. It would be Dronak’s last prayer to Lerix, however, as he was cut down by the combined efforts of the group.

Finding nothing of value on the evil priest, the party moved west, into as-yet unexplored territory. The first cave they came to was empty save for a rusty battle axe on the floor. Entering to examine it, Garros was surprised by a giant spider that dropped from the high ceiling above , landing next to him. The group rushed in to help, and soon the spider was slain. The party burned away the webs on the cavern ceiling, exposing the body of a desiccated Dwarf. He had naught but a pouch on his belt that contained an ivory pipe, with owls engraved on both sides of the bowl. There was also a small packet of pipe weed. Garros took the pipe, discarding the tobacco, and the party continued south, eventually coming to a dead end. M’s Elven senses detected a secret door, which Garros opened.

Inside the large chamber, Garros saw a disturbing sight. A black, obsidian altar was against the west wall. Black vines covered the altar steps, and two twisted, black oak trees rose 20 feet on either side of altar, their roots entwined with the vines. On top of the altar was a depression the size of a humanoid, a long dagger resting on the altar’s edge. Garros cautiously entered the chamber, while M looked on. After but a minute, Garros heard a cry and saw M drop his bow and run back north! The party frantically regrouped and headed north to search for M, who had been clearly possessed by fear. Luckily he was found after a short search, cowering in the dark, in one of the evil Druid chambers. He seemed to have recovered now, so Garros returned his bow to him, wary nonetheless.

The party continued exploring south, finding another room that had probably once been Druid quarters. M and Garros searched the room thoroughly, only disturbing a giant centipede nest behind a chest. The small creatures were fast, biting both Garros and M before they could react. Garros’ Dwarven constitution served him well, however, as he shrugged off the affects of the bite. M was not so lucky, however, succumbing to the bite, dead. The party fled, with Garros carrying M’s body. They returned to Ravendale, heavy of heart. Could the High Priestess of the Holy Temple of the Mother help bring back their friend?

~

Session #11 – “Yes, I do Believe Those Stone Soldiers are Attacking us…” – 6/28/15

After resting a week in Ravendale, the party returned to the caves via the western swamp entrance. See below for the synopsis.

PCs:

Garros the Dwarf Fighter (level 3)
M’Segobaor the Elf FM/MU (level 3/1)

NPCs:

Farfuleg the Bold (level 3 FM)

Hirelings:

Stavros – Survived!
Freya – Survived!
Corsus – Survived!
Elineel – RIP – Elf who was killed stepping through an illusory floor into a pit
Tal – The porter – Survived!
Aelzef – This poor lad disappeared while walking through a glowing archway, he is still missing

Monsters vanquished:

Mysterious fleeing thief, killed from above by a piercer
1 wight
4 stone warriors

Treasure:

12 rubies – 100GP value each
A wand of fireballs with one charge
Magical Brazier of Fog
Lawful sword “Hegemon’s Vengeance”, +1/+2 vs. Undead or Enchanted creatures

~

Passing through the jail cell room, they encountered a lone wight, but luckily the energy-draining creature could not land a blow on the heavily-armored fighters – doubly-lucky in that the only weapon that could harm the creature was Garros’ magical handaxe. Garros was up to the task, however, and the party moved on after he slew the creature.

The party wanted to investigate the Kobold lair they had cleared in a prior foray, and they set out for it, but had trouble when a noisy, stuck door alerted a few wandering scoundrels. The trio the size of the party, however, and ran north with Garros in pursuit and the rest of the party close behind. The bandits passed through a cave that Garros’ had noted on his map as being infested with vines. The vines turned out to not be a threat, however – the real threat was above, from a score of piercers. One of the fleeing bandits was killed when a piercer crushed his skull. His companions disappeared, apparently more interested in escape. Garros dragged the body of the bandit back into an open tunnel, and found he had secreted a dozen rubies on his person. Where they came from was a mystery.

The brave band of explorers left the bandit and headed south and west, through an as-yet-unexplored tunnel that lead to a dead-end alcove. Garros’ Dwarven instincts saved him as he stepped into the alcove and realized something amiss with the floor – a pressure plate would have triggered a pit trap had he advanced. He attached a rope to himself and had Farfuleg and M’Segabaor anchor him. He then triggered the trap, spiked the door and descended the 15 feet to the bottom of the pit. There, a skeleton lay half against the wall, rusted chainmail and dented helm askew. A finely made sword was evident next to the skeleton, but when Garros grabbed its hilt, he felt a jolt of power and was thrown back, stunned. The sword seemed to agree better with the lawfully-aligned Elf M’Segabaor, however, so he stashed it with he intent of having the Wizard’s Guild identify once he got back to Ravendale.

The group continued on and finally reached the Kobold room, now dark and reeking of death, the bodies of the Kobolds and rotmouths evident where the party had slain them. They found nothing else of interest, so the proceeded south, into uncharted territory (surprisingly, no one wanted to examine the two stone chairs facing large statues of archers).

The tunnel south led to a well-lit room with several doors and alcoves. They saw an unlit fireplace on the north wall, a bearskin rug on the floor, two large double doors to the south, and no less than four other doorways and two archways. Opening a western door at random, the party was surprised when four stone warriors attacked from one of the alcoves. Melee ensued, with the party victorious and no one injured. Turning their attention back to the western door, they saw it opened into a small, empty room. Garros, M’Segbaor and Elineel moved in to check the room thoroughly for secret doors. None were discovered, however Elineel fell through a section of illusory floor in the southwest corner of the room, falling into a dank pit, breaking his neck. His death was not in vain, however, he had landed on an iron-bound chest, which the party wasted no time in opening. Inside the trapped and locked chest, they found a black brazier with chains attached, and a wand. With Elineel’s death the party decided they had had enough – they stowed the loot, grabbed Elineel’s body and proceeded back to Ravendale.

~

Session #10 – “There Goes the Neighborhood…” – 6/14/15

In this session, the party learned first-hand that the dungeon might change if they stay away too long.

PCs:

Garros the Dwarf Fighter (level 3)
M’Segobaor the Elf FM/MU (level 3/1)

NPCs

Farfuleg the Bold (level 3)

Hirelings:

Stavros – Survived!
Baldue – RIP Killed by an undead crab
Tal – The new porter – Survived!
Aelzef – This poor lad disappeared while walking through a glowing archway, he is still missing

Monsters vanquished:

6 Black Dwarves
1 Undead giant crab

The party, now rested and vowing to defeat the necromancer once and for all, came upon a welcome surprise approaching the northern cave entrance. Two Ogres were seated on tree stumps at a makeshift table in the cave mouth. Hanging by his neck in the entryway was the necromancer himself, quite dead and adorned with a sign “Wizurds Keep Owt”. The Ogres demanded a 50GP entry fee for the ‘market’, and told the party to “follow the signs” in broken common.

Following the arrows crudely stenciled on cave walls, the party made its way through now well-lit tunnels to the jail room, where they spied a group of six Dwarves talking near a group of prisoners – a troll, three Orcs, two Dwarves and two Human females. It was clear the Dwarves had been mistreating their captives. Having the element of surprise, the party wasted no time engaging the evil Dwarves, but had a tougher fight than expected, as after a volley of missile fire, the six charging Dwarves grew to twice their size. The party emerged victorious but badly weakened, and decided to take the Dwarf and Human prisoners, now freed, and escape through the eastern swamp entrance and make haste back to town (Duergar image from Swords & Wizardry Monstrosities).

All went as planned, with Garros in the lead scouting the way, until he rounded the corner past the giant crab pool. The party had previously defeated the crab, but clearly dark sorcery was still at work in the caves, as the now undead crab attacked! Garros, still badly wounded, ran back to the party, crab in pursuit. Again the party was victorious, but not before losing Baldue to a lucky crab pincer strike. The party limped back to town, no treasure in hand yet grateful to be alive.

~