This weekend I ran the first game of the new year in my long running Swords and Wizardry Campaign at Gold Star Anime. When we last left off of our intrepid party they found three elves chained in the lowest level of Tegal Manor. After examination, Heimdell, the dwarven runecaster, determined that they fueled the magic being channeled through the manor and causing all the weirdness.
After a short debate the party elected to free the elves. Freed of their chains they thanked the party with their last breath and died. At which point the Manor started collapsing. Heimdell use Dimension Door to get the party out.
They lugged the bodies of Faramir, a human knight, and Hazar, a human thug and the official owner of Tegal Manor back to Goodnap where they raise the two at the Cathedral of Mitra. At which point the last session ended.
This session picked up a week later with Faramir, and Hazar recovered. Well Hazar halfway recover as he was in anguish over being the owner of a pile of stone instead of a large manor house. After meeting two new party members Argo a human berserker, and Caleb, a human Wizard. A wizard is my version of d20 Sorcerer class translated into my campaign.
The party did something shopping and Heimdell worked on some enchantments during the downtime. During this they learned that the civil war being waged in the western lands of the City-State of the Invincible Overlord has now spread to where they are.
Then things got weird. First they started seeing the elves they saved alive and well around town. But every time they tried to talk to them they disappeared. In addition in the midst of talking to people they would utter something completely weird like. "The Dark Portal will open.", "Seek the circle of stone". "At the full moon the way will open".
After leaving the cathedral the party settled at the local inn and were contemplating their next move when a royal messenger came in from Dwarven Kingdom of Thunderhold. Apparently his majesty King Nodre Ironhelm wished to reward the party with land and resources for their work in a previous adventure.
But Caleb told the party of a stone henge nearby and the party decided to head there. In addition they would reach on the night of the full moon. It took an hour for the party to gear up and as the party were leaving the royal messenger returned with a royal writ commanding the party to immediately leave for Thunderhold to receive their rewards. The group started to debate this when the realized that Thunderhold was two weeks away. When they turned to question the messenger he was gone and the guard and people at the gate acted as if nothing happened. The royal writ they were handed turned out to be a large leaf.
Suspecting something very bad was going to happen, they rode to the stone henge. While camped, the party saw a dwarf female paladin being attacked by an ancient red dragon. She ran to the party yelling to save her. In the confusion the party let themselves be bunched up in a group. As the dragon was about to breath on them it and the dwarf female disappeared.
Finally the party reached the henge, where they found it to be a interworld portal. Apparently at the full moon it is at is weakest and one can use it to travel between worlds or dimensions. As the party debated over what to do. The three elves from Tegal Manor appeared. They explained that all they wanted to do is reward the party with their heart's desire. If they used the portal they would return to the real world and to the madness of civil war.
As the full moon was raising, the party debated. The cleric of Thoth, god of knowledge, told the party of a vision he had of the two faction of the civil war fighting and darkness overcoming both. In the darkness was a black dragon, Ancelgorn the defiler of the Majestic Fastness, the ancient home of the dwarves of Thunderhold.
Finally the party declined the elves offer and stepped into the portal. They found themselves in the dungeon of Tegal Manor looking on the bodies of the three elves. This time the manor did not collapse. However with the release of the elves all the weirdness left leaving the Manor as a very large building in the ownership of Hazar.
The session ended with the party returning back to City-State. At first it looked like it would be an adventure getting back there with the civil war spreading. But Alia, a human burglar, had stuff a boat into her bag of holding. When this happened a couple of session ago, she was mocked for it but now it came in handy as the party used it to slip pass the opposing forces and sail back into City-State's harbor.
One hallmark of my campaigns is that I like to slip in a time travel adventure, alternate reality or similar weirdness. This time I decided to go with the elves trying to "reward" the party by putting them into a enchanted alternate reality.
What made it weirder is that when they came out that Argo and Caleb where with them. Two individuals they met in the alternate reality. All the stuff they enchanted or bought came out with them as well. Although nothing that the elves gave them directly like the royal decrees and writs. Everything they learned about the civil war was also apparently true.
I am always nervous when running these adventures because with shifting time lines and questions of what is reality things can get confusing. But this seemed to went over well and by the end the party has a definite sense of where they want to go.
Showing posts with label Gold Star Anime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gold Star Anime. Show all posts
Monday, January 20, 2014
Monday, October 28, 2013
Tegal Manor + the J Squad + Dwarven Forge = several hours of awesome fun.
Saturday saw the J-Squad return to Tegal Manor after a two year absence.
For those of you that are new, I been running a Swords & Wizardry campaign at the Gold Star Anime since 2010. The group has beeninflict err playtested many of my Swords & Wizardry rules and adventures. I call them the J-Squad because most of the players names begin with the letter J. Tonight I refereed, Jay, Josh, Joe, Justin, along with Todd and my wife Kelly Anne.
Josh places a Thug, see Majestic Wilderlands supplement, named Hazar and he happens to own Tegal Manor after buying it off of Sir Rump. The party managed to get through a third of the manor before getting side tracked onto other adventures.
And now they have returned. Marking this special occasion I pulled out the Dwarven Forge I recently got from the kickstarter.
Once again the party opted to enter through the main foyer and promptly encountered a Balrog.
And it turned out to be a ghostly butler who attempted to put away their wraps. Hazar warned the newer members of the party not look into the portraits hanging on the walls. Note: I need to make mini portraits to hang over the walls. Hazar consulted his map and the party headed down the corridor to the left.
At the end of the corridor was a Iron Door, when opened it revealed the Main Torture Chamber of Tegal Manor. In the middle there was a 10' pit. After much discussion it was decided to send one of the hirelings down the shaft. The hireling cried out that that he sees the bottom and promptly start screaming. The rope goes taunt and then slack again as the screaming stops.
Joe's Fighter, Faramir, begins climbing down and sees an hungry ogre coming at him. After swinging past the ogre, Jay's charcter, Heimdell, a dwarven runecaster, lightning bolts the ogre.
The party decides to explore the dungeon underneath Tegal Manor. And promptly runs into a 16th level Lich. I am not kidding when I say this was a completely random encounter. I rolled a 1 on a 6 sided and then a 39 on the random monster chart of Tegal Manor.
The lich fireballs the party killing Alia, my wife's character, along with Faramir and the two hirelings. Heimdell activates another lightning bolt rune and hits the lich who withstands the damage. It comes down to Justin's cleric who points his Wand of Polymorph at the Lich. I use Kelly Anne's baseball sized d20 and rolled a 3. Oh crap! The lich needs a 5 to save. Justin turns the dread lich into a kitten! With a mew and a swish of its tails the kitten lich scampers off into the darkness.
The party packs up the four bodies and head to Goodnap which has a Cathedral of Mitra and a cleric capable of Raise Dead. A week later they return to Tegal Manor and once again decide to continue exploring the second level.
They managed to quick find their way into third level of Tegal Manor. They entered a strange room filled with plants and stone work folige. On closer examination the stonework is riddled with dozens of two inch diameter holes. Out of which poured a horde snakes. So many that I had to use my giant frog miniatures to represent all the snakes.
Nominally low HD creatures, the fight proved the adage that quantity has a quality of its own. That is until Heimdell activated his Conjure Fire Element Rune.
The resulting 16 HD Fire Elemental quickly cleared out the horde of snakes.
The party explored much of the third level. Discovering and unsealing the tomb of a vampire lord. Then promptly sealing it with a Wall of Iron cast by Heimdall. They have two hours before it come down to figure out what to do about it.
They fireball four ancient barrow wights who barely had time to move. And finally wound up meeting a mother spider and her brood. And that where we called it for the night. Below is a picture I snapped just after the encounter with the Vampire Lord.
The Dwarven Forge was excellent to use. The main issue was the layout of the table. I need look at a different arrangement so that I can layout on two tables pushed together instead of three. Also I need to keep in mind where I am starting the layout from. I am used to not having much and tearing down after two to three rooms. During the session I was continually building out to the table's edge. Also I should have brought my resins because the Tegal Dungeons are mostly corridors. My one resin set has tees, corridor corners, and four ways.
As you can see I had some of the floor pieces painted as well as all of the doors. On Sunday I finished the remaining five big 4 by 6 pieces as well as 15 more 2 by 2. Only spent an hour painting after Friday's marathon. I laid out some corner and wall to paint.
The Porzony Paints are excellent to work with as well as the brushes he sent. I have to grab some more big brushes as I found it a lot more useful then I thought it would be. The doors are by far the more tedious pieces to paint. It is easy to get the floors, corners, and walls done.
For those of you that are new, I been running a Swords & Wizardry campaign at the Gold Star Anime since 2010. The group has been
Josh places a Thug, see Majestic Wilderlands supplement, named Hazar and he happens to own Tegal Manor after buying it off of Sir Rump. The party managed to get through a third of the manor before getting side tracked onto other adventures.
And now they have returned. Marking this special occasion I pulled out the Dwarven Forge I recently got from the kickstarter.
Once again the party opted to enter through the main foyer and promptly encountered a Balrog.
And it turned out to be a ghostly butler who attempted to put away their wraps. Hazar warned the newer members of the party not look into the portraits hanging on the walls. Note: I need to make mini portraits to hang over the walls. Hazar consulted his map and the party headed down the corridor to the left.
At the end of the corridor was a Iron Door, when opened it revealed the Main Torture Chamber of Tegal Manor. In the middle there was a 10' pit. After much discussion it was decided to send one of the hirelings down the shaft. The hireling cried out that that he sees the bottom and promptly start screaming. The rope goes taunt and then slack again as the screaming stops.
Joe's Fighter, Faramir, begins climbing down and sees an hungry ogre coming at him. After swinging past the ogre, Jay's charcter, Heimdell, a dwarven runecaster, lightning bolts the ogre.
The party decides to explore the dungeon underneath Tegal Manor. And promptly runs into a 16th level Lich. I am not kidding when I say this was a completely random encounter. I rolled a 1 on a 6 sided and then a 39 on the random monster chart of Tegal Manor.
The lich fireballs the party killing Alia, my wife's character, along with Faramir and the two hirelings. Heimdell activates another lightning bolt rune and hits the lich who withstands the damage. It comes down to Justin's cleric who points his Wand of Polymorph at the Lich. I use Kelly Anne's baseball sized d20 and rolled a 3. Oh crap! The lich needs a 5 to save. Justin turns the dread lich into a kitten! With a mew and a swish of its tails the kitten lich scampers off into the darkness.
The party packs up the four bodies and head to Goodnap which has a Cathedral of Mitra and a cleric capable of Raise Dead. A week later they return to Tegal Manor and once again decide to continue exploring the second level.
They managed to quick find their way into third level of Tegal Manor. They entered a strange room filled with plants and stone work folige. On closer examination the stonework is riddled with dozens of two inch diameter holes. Out of which poured a horde snakes. So many that I had to use my giant frog miniatures to represent all the snakes.
The resulting 16 HD Fire Elemental quickly cleared out the horde of snakes.
The party explored much of the third level. Discovering and unsealing the tomb of a vampire lord. Then promptly sealing it with a Wall of Iron cast by Heimdall. They have two hours before it come down to figure out what to do about it.
They fireball four ancient barrow wights who barely had time to move. And finally wound up meeting a mother spider and her brood. And that where we called it for the night. Below is a picture I snapped just after the encounter with the Vampire Lord.
As you can see I had some of the floor pieces painted as well as all of the doors. On Sunday I finished the remaining five big 4 by 6 pieces as well as 15 more 2 by 2. Only spent an hour painting after Friday's marathon. I laid out some corner and wall to paint.
The Porzony Paints are excellent to work with as well as the brushes he sent. I have to grab some more big brushes as I found it a lot more useful then I thought it would be. The doors are by far the more tedious pieces to paint. It is easy to get the floors, corners, and walls done.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Gold Star Anime Levels Up
Two weeks ago I walked into the Gold Star Anime to setup for my weekly Majestic Wilderlands game (Swords & Wizardry) when I find this.
Jerry, the owner of Gold Star Anime, has built three gaming tables with plexiglass tops. He has one with 1" inch squares, another with 1" hexes, and a third one with 1.5" squares for Heroclix and other miniature games. It was really cool of him to do this and proved very useful during the game. Not only for drawing out the battle map but also gave me a place to write down NPC Hit Points and other useful info.
There facebook page is here where they post upcoming events. I am there every Wednesday from 7:30pm to around 10:00pm and play a monthly Saturday game. The next Saturday game is on November 19th.
Jerry, the owner of Gold Star Anime, has built three gaming tables with plexiglass tops. He has one with 1" inch squares, another with 1" hexes, and a third one with 1.5" squares for Heroclix and other miniature games. It was really cool of him to do this and proved very useful during the game. Not only for drawing out the battle map but also gave me a place to write down NPC Hit Points and other useful info.There facebook page is here where they post upcoming events. I am there every Wednesday from 7:30pm to around 10:00pm and play a monthly Saturday game. The next Saturday game is on November 19th.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Gold Star Manor Part III
Ending our series of actual play reports at the Gold Star Anime is the in-game journal of Lady Janus, elven cleric of silvanus. This was submitted to me by Big Jerry and I thought you would all like to see a player's view of the campaign.
From the journal of Lady Janus.
De-LOUSE Hazar’s HOUSE
Human Thug “Hazar”, Elven Cleric “Janus”, Halfling Fighter “Hunter”, and the Dwarf Runecaster “Heimdell” are now traveling back towards Oakwatch.
When we hear people rushing through the brush. Followed by people running out of the brush through a clearing and entering a rocky area off to one side of our position.
We soon see the reason for their flight, as a large band of Orcs rushes into the center to the clearing!
To our surprise, we recognize the other party as consisting of the Human Assassin (Claw of Kalis) “Leon Shadowwalker”, the Gnome Wizard “Typhon”, and the wizards Orc servant.
Battle is fierce, Janus casts sleep, Typhon casts sleep, Heimdell casts a fireball and takes out most of the first Orc attack wave, at least one Orc is so disheartened that he flees the battlefield, but remaining survivors continue to attack the party.
A second wave of Orcs enters the clearing! The will be close enough to attack in minutes!
A few of the first Orcs overwhelm the Wizard, he is down and at –4.
The Orc servant is leaning over the Wizard – Hunter thinks he is going to cut the helpless Gnome’s throat, so he rushes over with his Orc-slaying sword, and decapitates the Orc with a mighty blow!
Janus tries to heal him – but only manages +2 – Wizard still down.
Hazar attacks a large Orc with his sword, but trips over the Wizard and manages to slash Hunter for –7 damage! Janus heals Hunter for +7.
Hunter launches into a series of 7 lightning fast blows, striking 5 Orcs, and killing 3!
Then Janus heals Typhon to a +4, so the Wizard is back in the action. Even though the battle is still raging, Typhon is enraged (understatement of the year) at the death of his Orc slave! A natural 20 reveals that “his” orc was not cut down by his enraged fellows, but by one of the party members! Typhon and Hunter nearly come to blows, but the battle demands they put this aside until later!
Leon casts “Suggestion” and entraps 3 Orcs.
Typhon casts “Sleep” and 2 of the 3 Orcs go down, but one large one is still standing, and still under Leon’s Suggestion. A search of the fallen Orcs finds 400 silver.
To placate Typhon, (who nonetheless is still furious!) Leon even threatens to kill Hunter in his sleep for upsetting his close traveling companion so, but is convinced to stay his temper for now. Hazar suggests that the wizard should just take the still mesmerized large-sized Orc along as an improved replacement for his lost servant. Hazar even suggests that a larger sized Orc could be more useful to the party – being able to carry more than an ordinary one. After much glaring, a liberal round of threats from Leon, and a great gnashing of teeth by the Dwarf, the party agrees to continue their trek towards the village of Oakwatch.
Nearing the town, another familiar face is met on the road! The Human Thothian Mage “Alaghazar” has completed his magical studies elsewhere, and is also on his way to Oakwatch!
Arriving at Oakwatch, the party must pass two guards at the gate. They will not allow an Orc, even one under a wizards control, to enter the town. Janus loans Typhon some shackles and the rest of the party enters Oakwatch, leaving the wizard outside the gates, and the Orc further retrained by the shackles to a stout tree.
Party again decides to stay at the “Laughing Rabbit” inn while in town. 40 silver each suffices to gain rooms and meals for a week, and then the party separates to pursue various individual matters and re-supply. Janus arranges to purchase several rune stones from the temple of Thor. She pays the temple priests 14 gold for 6 runes to be completed, however, it will also take one week to cast the proper spells for each rune. Only one rune (cast fireball) is completed before the adventures depart on their next adventure, she will have to return to Oakwatch at some point in order to claim the others.
Others visit temples, or local thieves guilds, or magic sellers, the assassin buys poison.
Around this time, the Wizard and Assassin go off on an errand of their own, leaving the other 5 to continue adventuring together.
Meanwhile, back at the Laughing Rabbit, Hazar has been approached by a suspicious individual who claims to have some land for sale. Hazar being a gullible looking sort.
The man claims to be a nobleman down on his luck, and offers to sell his family’s estate and home. Checking around reveals that others have purchased this same land, but are presumed to have perished trying to occupy it.
While checking on the deed’s authenticity, we happen to learn that it is presently the year 4453 in the Wilder lands, and the estate was granted to the Noble Rump family in 4024.
So Hazar buys the Big Rump House from the former Noble Rump owner, Gains a fancy-shamancy title, and enlists the aid of the rest of the party to help him deal with the house’s apparent pest infestation.
Alaghazar thinks this would be a perfect time to guild our group of adventurers, talking Hazar into starting something they are calling “Acquisition Incorporated” Janus reluctantly joins also – not certain why a band of crooks need a name to steal from each other under?
Nearing Hazar’s new home, we see that it is incredibly large, and is in an unusually good state of repair for as long as it has been empty.
Janus asks the plants growing along the path about possible dangers they may have seen.
Plants tell her of the presence of Undead, Orcs & Spirits!
It is decided to check out a detached gazebo first.
Two statues stand near it, both appear also to be in a remarkable well preserved condition!
Janus casts “Detect Evil”, seems that the statues are merely under preservation spells, not evil. The spell does reveal that there is something evil located just behind the nearest windows of the house!
Alaghazar peers through the window – and spies a miniature red dragon sleeping on a couch!
Hazar tries to sneak in the front door, but makes a LOUD noise! He enters a huge room, and finds 3 corpses lying on the floor near the door. Along with the title to the place, Hazar now has a huge map showing the general outline of the structure, but lacking details. Hazar attempts to add maps of the areas we explore as we travel through and under the huge structure. Presumably, the corpses were previous owners that also bought it from Rump! Hazar beheads them just in case they are actually undead lying in ambush. Large painting on the side walls of the room. Hazar goes up to the first one, but before he even gets there, a very large reptilian creature approaches him.
Hazar bravely tries to run back outside of the house, but Alaghazar has already bravely run out before him and barred the door! However, the creature simply asks Hazar if he would like it to take his cloak? Hazar attempts to hand it his cloak, but it drops right through the creature’s hands – revealing that it is actually a spirit and not a living creature at all. At which point the ghost rapidly runs away into the building
Josh goes up to the first painting on the wall. Suddenly a scythe strikes Hazar in the back, does 2 damage.
Alaghazar checks out another painting, a small rain cloud forms over his head and starts following him around – while is raining only on him!
Janus casts “Detect Traps”, 4 more painting now show an evil glow!
Hazar loves trying to set off traps, so he approaches the nearest glowing painting and tries to disarm it by throwing daggers at it from a short distance away. One of the daggers hits the painting – and all of a sudden Hazar turns around and starts attacking Hunter! Hunter takes 6 damage, before Heimdell web’s Hazar to stop him from moving, and Janus casts 4th level “Protection from Evil” spell, it surrounds Janus and extends over Hazar, breaking the evil influence connected to Hazar from the painting!
Alaghazar casts “Invisibility” on himself, but thanks to the rain still falling on him, he still is visible as a kind of clear outline of himself! Alaghazar looks down a hallway leading off from the side of the room closest to where the dragon had been seen sleeping from the outside. Suddenly he screams and falls unconscious! He is awakened by the rain falling on his face.
Incidentally, the DM’s (Rob’s) real scream is so loud that it makes both physical Jerry’s and John to jump! D&D with Rob is really like being there with your characters themselves! Josh however seems unstartled – for him it was probably no louder than one of his usual farts!
In a hurry to activate more traps, Hazar ignores the hallway that caused Alaghazar to scream and pass out, and opens another door. No sooner has Hazar opened the door, than he is seen to slump down to the floor vomiting for several minutes. (Must have been a large mirror on the other side of the door?)
Alaghazar, now recovered from whatever he saw, opens an opposite door, and sees what must have been a jail. 3 skeletons hang from manacles on the walls. Janus is detecting evil from several places nearby behind the walls the party has already passed, and a VERY LARGE evil behind a door at the end of the hall! Alaghazar enters the room with the skeletons, and finds a ring of keys on top of a decrepit old desk, but nothing else, so he tries opening some manacles and cell doors (they work) part of a false ceiling collapses just inside one of the cells. He then opens a third door and finds another room looking like some titanic struggle had taken place in it sometime in the past. Alaghazar explores and finds a bottle labeled “Red Raven” in a trunk. He also finds a dug out hole with chewed edges.
Back at the room Hazar opened, Hunter tries to go in, there is a strong stink, and Hunter is also on the floor puking! Alaghazar tries to look in, and runs away! Not able to abide such evil near her, Janus calls upon Sylvanus to aid her in purifying the room, holding Sylvanus’ silver symbol before her, and averting her eyes from some pictures hung on the walls. The pictures are so evil, that the anger the God Sylvanus! Suddenly they all burst into flame, destroying the evil images of obscenities and abominations that merely looking at had defeated three men!
The room is not yet totally clear however, as from the back corner an evil demon-headed staff rises into the air and attacks her. Janus throws holy water on the staff, doing 4 damage to it, but not destroying it. Suddenly the staff stops as it hits the edge of Janus’s still active protection from evil spell. It can not pass through, and so Janus uses it to push the staff back into a corner where it can’t move, and Heimdell hits it with a magic missile – shattering the staff! Opening another door, and continuing into the next room in pursuit of the evil she had sensed behind the wall earlier, Janus sees a pool of darkness in one corner near the floor. She then cast “Light”, and revealed the hidden spirit to be the same one that had appeared to Hazar when he first entered the building. Janus tries to “Turn” the evil shade, and luckily casts a magic 20 – causing the ghost to be shredded! This type of spirit could have caused major bodily harm if it had not been so quickly dispatched. Nothing else found in the room.
Hunter now opens the door behind which Janus has been sensing the truly large evil energy! (Alaghazar is bribing Hunter to open things and test things like manacles and this door for him!)
Revealed is a large torture chamber with pits in the floor and torture equipment and tools scattered about, and a large statue of Kalis sitting behind an alter at one end of the room.
The evil seems to be coming from above the pit in the center of the room, where chains dangle down from above. The chains start to move towards us and lash out at Hazar. Surprisingly he dodges, then Janus repeats the move with the evil staff, and moves up so that the party is shielded from the questing chains by the circle of protection centering around her. Hazar then goes over to the evil goddess Kalis’s statue, and using a rope, he manages to topple it onto the floor where it shatters without touching it. Nothing happens? Still ignoring the evil in the center of the room, Hazar goes down a trap door he finds on the other side of the room from the statue (dodging past the chains on the other side of the pit this time) Before Hazar reaches the bottom, something grabs his legs and pulls him into the room below and hurls him to the floor! Somehow Hazar gets lucky and wins the sudden fight with an Ogre! Janus hears Hazar’s initial cries for help, and she and Hunter rush to climb down to help him, but when they get there the ogre is already dead. Hazar is badly wounded, partly from being thrown to the stone floor at the beginning of the fight. Janus heals Hazar. Then Hazar goes looking for traps on another door, but amazingly none activate and strike him!
Behind the door is a maze of tunnels. The party tramps along the tunnels for what seems like a long time without finding anything. Finally Hazar finds a room, containing undead of course! Four Skeletons and 2 Wights attack. Hazar and Hunter took out the skeletons, and Janus “turned” both wights! Then back into the tunnels! Find stairs leading upward, find ourselves back inside the house, but not sure where inside! Janus is detecting evil behind the walls on both sides!
We locate a huge dinning room, with statues located all around the side walls, remains of magnificent tapestries along the back wall, and two huge tables around each of which are seated 12 skeletons! Here Hunter decides to pull a Hazar-like stunt, and instead of trying to determine a plan or course of action, Hunter starts throwing rocks at the nearest seated skeleton! The first stone misses – nothing happens?.. He throws again and hits the helmet of one – BONG! Now ALL the skeletons leap up and attack Hunter, and KILL him in the first attack! (I said it was a stupid move, only surprised it wasn’t Hazar who did it!) Heimdell casts a fireball into room, and manages to do so with such accuracy, that 23 of the 24 skeletons are destroyed! Janus then turns the final one. Just inside the room we find an active teleport circle! Alaghazar is overjoyed! While they are standing there examining it, Hazar suddenly attempts to push Hunter and Alaghazar into the circle! They manage to catch their balance, but what was Hazar thinking? Oh Wait, WHEN does Hazar ever think!!! Alaghazar is still excited though, so he ends up stepping onto the teleport circle along with Hunter after all, unable to resist seeing where it will take them!
Now we have Alaghazar and Hunter fighting 5 giant rats in a chamber they have no idea where it might be at! They killed the rats, and decided to explore further before trying to return via the circle.
Meanwhile Hazar wanders over and pokes one of the statues in the dinning room, and immediately starts screaming! His eye is blinded and in pain! Janus tries to “cure” him to no effect, then tries “Remove Curse” and the screaming stops! Cured – Hazar starts looking for more death traps to try.
Heimdell notices that around one of the pillars are triggers set to make it fall on the unwary. For some reason Hazar doesn’t go and step on these?
Investigating further, Heimdell notices a secret door hidden behind the tapestry.
Hazar and Janus join him, then they open the door.
On the other side they discover a courtyard that is open to the sky, like nothing that is shown on the map of the estate Hazar has! Statues line both sides of the courtyard, and one is set so close to the secret door, that one has to touch it in order to pass by it. Janus casts detect magic, and discovers that the near statue, and one other are enchanted.
Hazar pokes the first one. - it looks at him – then it utters something that sounds like a prophecy that might have come from Sylvanus. So Janus thanks the statue for sharing it’s wisdom. Then Hazar goes up to the second enchanted statue and SLAPS it! This releases a spell that puts Hazar under a geas – to seek out the bride of the coven and slay him. Hazar thinks it is unimportant, and goes back to exploring. Although the statue also told him that if he fails to fulfill the geas he will die!
Hunter and Alaghazar find another room, and 2 more giant rats. After dispatching them, they proceed down a 5 foot wide passage, passing more rooms, plus a bedroom with a statue at one end (The floor looks badly corroded, as if by acid, so they decide not to enter it). Looking out of a window, they are able to a small courtyard about 5 stories below them.
This was where we ended this adventure for this week.
Next Adventure sets out from Gold Star Anime on November 20th!
This being the “Gilligan’s Island” of Gaming…
New (And Old!) adventurers are still welcome to join in our quest to “De-Louse Hazar’s House!”
From the journal of Lady Janus.
De-LOUSE Hazar’s HOUSE
Human Thug “Hazar”, Elven Cleric “Janus”, Halfling Fighter “Hunter”, and the Dwarf Runecaster “Heimdell” are now traveling back towards Oakwatch.
When we hear people rushing through the brush. Followed by people running out of the brush through a clearing and entering a rocky area off to one side of our position.
We soon see the reason for their flight, as a large band of Orcs rushes into the center to the clearing!
To our surprise, we recognize the other party as consisting of the Human Assassin (Claw of Kalis) “Leon Shadowwalker”, the Gnome Wizard “Typhon”, and the wizards Orc servant.
Battle is fierce, Janus casts sleep, Typhon casts sleep, Heimdell casts a fireball and takes out most of the first Orc attack wave, at least one Orc is so disheartened that he flees the battlefield, but remaining survivors continue to attack the party.
A second wave of Orcs enters the clearing! The will be close enough to attack in minutes!
A few of the first Orcs overwhelm the Wizard, he is down and at –4.
The Orc servant is leaning over the Wizard – Hunter thinks he is going to cut the helpless Gnome’s throat, so he rushes over with his Orc-slaying sword, and decapitates the Orc with a mighty blow!
Janus tries to heal him – but only manages +2 – Wizard still down.
Hazar attacks a large Orc with his sword, but trips over the Wizard and manages to slash Hunter for –7 damage! Janus heals Hunter for +7.
Hunter launches into a series of 7 lightning fast blows, striking 5 Orcs, and killing 3!
Then Janus heals Typhon to a +4, so the Wizard is back in the action. Even though the battle is still raging, Typhon is enraged (understatement of the year) at the death of his Orc slave! A natural 20 reveals that “his” orc was not cut down by his enraged fellows, but by one of the party members! Typhon and Hunter nearly come to blows, but the battle demands they put this aside until later!
Leon casts “Suggestion” and entraps 3 Orcs.
Typhon casts “Sleep” and 2 of the 3 Orcs go down, but one large one is still standing, and still under Leon’s Suggestion. A search of the fallen Orcs finds 400 silver.
To placate Typhon, (who nonetheless is still furious!) Leon even threatens to kill Hunter in his sleep for upsetting his close traveling companion so, but is convinced to stay his temper for now. Hazar suggests that the wizard should just take the still mesmerized large-sized Orc along as an improved replacement for his lost servant. Hazar even suggests that a larger sized Orc could be more useful to the party – being able to carry more than an ordinary one. After much glaring, a liberal round of threats from Leon, and a great gnashing of teeth by the Dwarf, the party agrees to continue their trek towards the village of Oakwatch.
Nearing the town, another familiar face is met on the road! The Human Thothian Mage “Alaghazar” has completed his magical studies elsewhere, and is also on his way to Oakwatch!
Arriving at Oakwatch, the party must pass two guards at the gate. They will not allow an Orc, even one under a wizards control, to enter the town. Janus loans Typhon some shackles and the rest of the party enters Oakwatch, leaving the wizard outside the gates, and the Orc further retrained by the shackles to a stout tree.
Party again decides to stay at the “Laughing Rabbit” inn while in town. 40 silver each suffices to gain rooms and meals for a week, and then the party separates to pursue various individual matters and re-supply. Janus arranges to purchase several rune stones from the temple of Thor. She pays the temple priests 14 gold for 6 runes to be completed, however, it will also take one week to cast the proper spells for each rune. Only one rune (cast fireball) is completed before the adventures depart on their next adventure, she will have to return to Oakwatch at some point in order to claim the others.
Others visit temples, or local thieves guilds, or magic sellers, the assassin buys poison.
Around this time, the Wizard and Assassin go off on an errand of their own, leaving the other 5 to continue adventuring together.
Meanwhile, back at the Laughing Rabbit, Hazar has been approached by a suspicious individual who claims to have some land for sale. Hazar being a gullible looking sort.
The man claims to be a nobleman down on his luck, and offers to sell his family’s estate and home. Checking around reveals that others have purchased this same land, but are presumed to have perished trying to occupy it.
While checking on the deed’s authenticity, we happen to learn that it is presently the year 4453 in the Wilder lands, and the estate was granted to the Noble Rump family in 4024.
So Hazar buys the Big Rump House from the former Noble Rump owner, Gains a fancy-shamancy title, and enlists the aid of the rest of the party to help him deal with the house’s apparent pest infestation.
Alaghazar thinks this would be a perfect time to guild our group of adventurers, talking Hazar into starting something they are calling “Acquisition Incorporated” Janus reluctantly joins also – not certain why a band of crooks need a name to steal from each other under?
Nearing Hazar’s new home, we see that it is incredibly large, and is in an unusually good state of repair for as long as it has been empty.
Janus asks the plants growing along the path about possible dangers they may have seen.
Plants tell her of the presence of Undead, Orcs & Spirits!
It is decided to check out a detached gazebo first.
Two statues stand near it, both appear also to be in a remarkable well preserved condition!
Janus casts “Detect Evil”, seems that the statues are merely under preservation spells, not evil. The spell does reveal that there is something evil located just behind the nearest windows of the house!
Alaghazar peers through the window – and spies a miniature red dragon sleeping on a couch!
Hazar tries to sneak in the front door, but makes a LOUD noise! He enters a huge room, and finds 3 corpses lying on the floor near the door. Along with the title to the place, Hazar now has a huge map showing the general outline of the structure, but lacking details. Hazar attempts to add maps of the areas we explore as we travel through and under the huge structure. Presumably, the corpses were previous owners that also bought it from Rump! Hazar beheads them just in case they are actually undead lying in ambush. Large painting on the side walls of the room. Hazar goes up to the first one, but before he even gets there, a very large reptilian creature approaches him.
Hazar bravely tries to run back outside of the house, but Alaghazar has already bravely run out before him and barred the door! However, the creature simply asks Hazar if he would like it to take his cloak? Hazar attempts to hand it his cloak, but it drops right through the creature’s hands – revealing that it is actually a spirit and not a living creature at all. At which point the ghost rapidly runs away into the building
Josh goes up to the first painting on the wall. Suddenly a scythe strikes Hazar in the back, does 2 damage.
Alaghazar checks out another painting, a small rain cloud forms over his head and starts following him around – while is raining only on him!
Janus casts “Detect Traps”, 4 more painting now show an evil glow!
Hazar loves trying to set off traps, so he approaches the nearest glowing painting and tries to disarm it by throwing daggers at it from a short distance away. One of the daggers hits the painting – and all of a sudden Hazar turns around and starts attacking Hunter! Hunter takes 6 damage, before Heimdell web’s Hazar to stop him from moving, and Janus casts 4th level “Protection from Evil” spell, it surrounds Janus and extends over Hazar, breaking the evil influence connected to Hazar from the painting!
Alaghazar casts “Invisibility” on himself, but thanks to the rain still falling on him, he still is visible as a kind of clear outline of himself! Alaghazar looks down a hallway leading off from the side of the room closest to where the dragon had been seen sleeping from the outside. Suddenly he screams and falls unconscious! He is awakened by the rain falling on his face.
Incidentally, the DM’s (Rob’s) real scream is so loud that it makes both physical Jerry’s and John to jump! D&D with Rob is really like being there with your characters themselves! Josh however seems unstartled – for him it was probably no louder than one of his usual farts!
In a hurry to activate more traps, Hazar ignores the hallway that caused Alaghazar to scream and pass out, and opens another door. No sooner has Hazar opened the door, than he is seen to slump down to the floor vomiting for several minutes. (Must have been a large mirror on the other side of the door?)
Alaghazar, now recovered from whatever he saw, opens an opposite door, and sees what must have been a jail. 3 skeletons hang from manacles on the walls. Janus is detecting evil from several places nearby behind the walls the party has already passed, and a VERY LARGE evil behind a door at the end of the hall! Alaghazar enters the room with the skeletons, and finds a ring of keys on top of a decrepit old desk, but nothing else, so he tries opening some manacles and cell doors (they work) part of a false ceiling collapses just inside one of the cells. He then opens a third door and finds another room looking like some titanic struggle had taken place in it sometime in the past. Alaghazar explores and finds a bottle labeled “Red Raven” in a trunk. He also finds a dug out hole with chewed edges.
Back at the room Hazar opened, Hunter tries to go in, there is a strong stink, and Hunter is also on the floor puking! Alaghazar tries to look in, and runs away! Not able to abide such evil near her, Janus calls upon Sylvanus to aid her in purifying the room, holding Sylvanus’ silver symbol before her, and averting her eyes from some pictures hung on the walls. The pictures are so evil, that the anger the God Sylvanus! Suddenly they all burst into flame, destroying the evil images of obscenities and abominations that merely looking at had defeated three men!
The room is not yet totally clear however, as from the back corner an evil demon-headed staff rises into the air and attacks her. Janus throws holy water on the staff, doing 4 damage to it, but not destroying it. Suddenly the staff stops as it hits the edge of Janus’s still active protection from evil spell. It can not pass through, and so Janus uses it to push the staff back into a corner where it can’t move, and Heimdell hits it with a magic missile – shattering the staff! Opening another door, and continuing into the next room in pursuit of the evil she had sensed behind the wall earlier, Janus sees a pool of darkness in one corner near the floor. She then cast “Light”, and revealed the hidden spirit to be the same one that had appeared to Hazar when he first entered the building. Janus tries to “Turn” the evil shade, and luckily casts a magic 20 – causing the ghost to be shredded! This type of spirit could have caused major bodily harm if it had not been so quickly dispatched. Nothing else found in the room.
Hunter now opens the door behind which Janus has been sensing the truly large evil energy! (Alaghazar is bribing Hunter to open things and test things like manacles and this door for him!)
Revealed is a large torture chamber with pits in the floor and torture equipment and tools scattered about, and a large statue of Kalis sitting behind an alter at one end of the room.
The evil seems to be coming from above the pit in the center of the room, where chains dangle down from above. The chains start to move towards us and lash out at Hazar. Surprisingly he dodges, then Janus repeats the move with the evil staff, and moves up so that the party is shielded from the questing chains by the circle of protection centering around her. Hazar then goes over to the evil goddess Kalis’s statue, and using a rope, he manages to topple it onto the floor where it shatters without touching it. Nothing happens? Still ignoring the evil in the center of the room, Hazar goes down a trap door he finds on the other side of the room from the statue (dodging past the chains on the other side of the pit this time) Before Hazar reaches the bottom, something grabs his legs and pulls him into the room below and hurls him to the floor! Somehow Hazar gets lucky and wins the sudden fight with an Ogre! Janus hears Hazar’s initial cries for help, and she and Hunter rush to climb down to help him, but when they get there the ogre is already dead. Hazar is badly wounded, partly from being thrown to the stone floor at the beginning of the fight. Janus heals Hazar. Then Hazar goes looking for traps on another door, but amazingly none activate and strike him!
Behind the door is a maze of tunnels. The party tramps along the tunnels for what seems like a long time without finding anything. Finally Hazar finds a room, containing undead of course! Four Skeletons and 2 Wights attack. Hazar and Hunter took out the skeletons, and Janus “turned” both wights! Then back into the tunnels! Find stairs leading upward, find ourselves back inside the house, but not sure where inside! Janus is detecting evil behind the walls on both sides!
We locate a huge dinning room, with statues located all around the side walls, remains of magnificent tapestries along the back wall, and two huge tables around each of which are seated 12 skeletons! Here Hunter decides to pull a Hazar-like stunt, and instead of trying to determine a plan or course of action, Hunter starts throwing rocks at the nearest seated skeleton! The first stone misses – nothing happens?.. He throws again and hits the helmet of one – BONG! Now ALL the skeletons leap up and attack Hunter, and KILL him in the first attack! (I said it was a stupid move, only surprised it wasn’t Hazar who did it!) Heimdell casts a fireball into room, and manages to do so with such accuracy, that 23 of the 24 skeletons are destroyed! Janus then turns the final one. Just inside the room we find an active teleport circle! Alaghazar is overjoyed! While they are standing there examining it, Hazar suddenly attempts to push Hunter and Alaghazar into the circle! They manage to catch their balance, but what was Hazar thinking? Oh Wait, WHEN does Hazar ever think!!! Alaghazar is still excited though, so he ends up stepping onto the teleport circle along with Hunter after all, unable to resist seeing where it will take them!
Now we have Alaghazar and Hunter fighting 5 giant rats in a chamber they have no idea where it might be at! They killed the rats, and decided to explore further before trying to return via the circle.
Meanwhile Hazar wanders over and pokes one of the statues in the dinning room, and immediately starts screaming! His eye is blinded and in pain! Janus tries to “cure” him to no effect, then tries “Remove Curse” and the screaming stops! Cured – Hazar starts looking for more death traps to try.
Heimdell notices that around one of the pillars are triggers set to make it fall on the unwary. For some reason Hazar doesn’t go and step on these?
Investigating further, Heimdell notices a secret door hidden behind the tapestry.
Hazar and Janus join him, then they open the door.
On the other side they discover a courtyard that is open to the sky, like nothing that is shown on the map of the estate Hazar has! Statues line both sides of the courtyard, and one is set so close to the secret door, that one has to touch it in order to pass by it. Janus casts detect magic, and discovers that the near statue, and one other are enchanted.
Hazar pokes the first one. - it looks at him – then it utters something that sounds like a prophecy that might have come from Sylvanus. So Janus thanks the statue for sharing it’s wisdom. Then Hazar goes up to the second enchanted statue and SLAPS it! This releases a spell that puts Hazar under a geas – to seek out the bride of the coven and slay him. Hazar thinks it is unimportant, and goes back to exploring. Although the statue also told him that if he fails to fulfill the geas he will die!
Hunter and Alaghazar find another room, and 2 more giant rats. After dispatching them, they proceed down a 5 foot wide passage, passing more rooms, plus a bedroom with a statue at one end (The floor looks badly corroded, as if by acid, so they decide not to enter it). Looking out of a window, they are able to a small courtyard about 5 stories below them.
This was where we ended this adventure for this week.
Next Adventure sets out from Gold Star Anime on November 20th!
This being the “Gilligan’s Island” of Gaming…
New (And Old!) adventurers are still welcome to join in our quest to “De-Louse Hazar’s House!”
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Gold Star Manor Part II
Part II
Cast of Characters
Jay - Heimdell - 4th level Dwarven Runecaster
Josh - Hazar - 6th level Human Thug
John (“the other John”)– Alaghazar, 4th level Human Thothian Mage
Jerry (“big Jerry”) – Janus, 5th level Elven Cleric (female)
Jerry (“little Jerry”) – Hunter, 6th Level Halfling Fighter
In the last post we left the party in the crypt of the Undead. They wandered the dungeon for a few more turns and found a flight stairs leading upwards. Halfway up they discovered a rathole leanding south and decided to continue up. They reached the ground floors. Peering down Footsteps Hall they see ornate doors and tapestries.
After carefully checking for traps and not finding any they opened the door to reveal the Great Hall of Tegal Manor! Amid six gigantic pillars were two banquet table each with a dozen skeletons One were dressed in blue tunics and the other Red. (I used my Official Guards, Red, and the Official guard, blue, that Tim of Gothridge Manor gave me).
Hunter the Halfling thought to be funny and chucked rocks at the skeletons. When it got up his next throw beaned it in the head. At this point ALL the skeletons got up and marched in formation to the party. As they were wielding spears the second ranks was able to attack and the halflings fell after being impaled by a half dozen spears.
Hemidell the dwarven runecasters quickly cast after Hunter's fall and activate his run of fire and casts a fireball in the midst of the skeleton leaving only two. They were quickly dispatched. Fortunately despite multiple stab wounds Hunter was only unconscious and was healed after a half hour of rituals.
Investigating the room they find an active teleport. After almost being pushed into the circle by Hazar, Hunter and Alaghazar, the human Thothian Mage, decided to try it anyway and promptly disappeared from sight.
Hazar wanders away from the circle and looks at one of the statues and fall down screaming as he is blinded in one eye. Actually one eye was made extraordinarily sensitive to light to the point he had darkvision in that eye. But with it being daytime who knew the difference. Janus had a Remove Curse handy and lifted the blindness.
After evading a few traps scattered about the hall, Heimdell found a secret door behind the tapestries hanging from one end of the hall. It opened into a strange courtyard open to the sky. Janus uses Detect Magic spell to determined which one are magical. Of course then Hazar goes up and investigates each in turn. The first gave him a prophecy about the prices that yet to be paid and the choice that will be made. Janus recognized the voices of being of the god Silvanus. The second unleashed a Geas on Hazar. He must seek and destroy the Night Bride Coven or die!
Investigating the north door Janus, Heimdell, and Hazar discovered a corridor that connected back to the Torture Chamber. Hazar happily filled in his map.
Meanwhile Alaghazar and Hunter found themselves in a giant rat infested maze. Including rats of unusual size (Monstrous Rats from S&W). They were easily dispatched and they found several holes leading up back to Ground Level.
They emerged in a bedroom with two more giant rats which were quickly killed. They looked out the windows and saw a courtyard with several statues. They looked at the next door which opened up into another bedroom. However there was strange statue in there and the floor was badly corroded so they decided to leave that room for later.
So here it was ended for the next. I never ran Tegal Manor before despite owning it for nearly 30 years. It is definitely the original crazy ass funhouse dungeon. I really like how the map had notes all over place and I think it is a style that can be explored more. James at Grognardia had a recent post on the topic.
The room descriptions are really sparse and all the statues are randomly rolled on the startling statues table. For example the bedroom at B19 is written like
B19 40'x30'20' H Two Giant Rats; 2 HD, 9-3 HTK, AC 5, 1-3/bite.
Refereeing this meant I had to combine the map description with that short entry to come up with something interesting. It is a challenge but a lot of run. I don't if it would be viable as a commerical product, you paying good money not only save time but get a different vision of how an adventure can go. The authors simply can't communicate in such as terse description.
An exception perhaps when you are trying to do something of a grand scope and Tegal Manor is certainly grand.
But for the referee preparing his own material I think the terse format is all that is needed. The rest can stay in your head to use as needed.
Cast of Characters
Jay - Heimdell - 4th level Dwarven Runecaster
Josh - Hazar - 6th level Human Thug
John (“the other John”)– Alaghazar, 4th level Human Thothian Mage
Jerry (“big Jerry”) – Janus, 5th level Elven Cleric (female)
Jerry (“little Jerry”) – Hunter, 6th Level Halfling Fighter
In the last post we left the party in the crypt of the Undead. They wandered the dungeon for a few more turns and found a flight stairs leading upwards. Halfway up they discovered a rathole leanding south and decided to continue up. They reached the ground floors. Peering down Footsteps Hall they see ornate doors and tapestries.
After carefully checking for traps and not finding any they opened the door to reveal the Great Hall of Tegal Manor! Amid six gigantic pillars were two banquet table each with a dozen skeletons One were dressed in blue tunics and the other Red. (I used my Official Guards, Red, and the Official guard, blue, that Tim of Gothridge Manor gave me).
Hunter the Halfling thought to be funny and chucked rocks at the skeletons. When it got up his next throw beaned it in the head. At this point ALL the skeletons got up and marched in formation to the party. As they were wielding spears the second ranks was able to attack and the halflings fell after being impaled by a half dozen spears.Hemidell the dwarven runecasters quickly cast after Hunter's fall and activate his run of fire and casts a fireball in the midst of the skeleton leaving only two. They were quickly dispatched. Fortunately despite multiple stab wounds Hunter was only unconscious and was healed after a half hour of rituals.
Investigating the room they find an active teleport. After almost being pushed into the circle by Hazar, Hunter and Alaghazar, the human Thothian Mage, decided to try it anyway and promptly disappeared from sight.
Hazar wanders away from the circle and looks at one of the statues and fall down screaming as he is blinded in one eye. Actually one eye was made extraordinarily sensitive to light to the point he had darkvision in that eye. But with it being daytime who knew the difference. Janus had a Remove Curse handy and lifted the blindness.
After evading a few traps scattered about the hall, Heimdell found a secret door behind the tapestries hanging from one end of the hall. It opened into a strange courtyard open to the sky. Janus uses Detect Magic spell to determined which one are magical. Of course then Hazar goes up and investigates each in turn. The first gave him a prophecy about the prices that yet to be paid and the choice that will be made. Janus recognized the voices of being of the god Silvanus. The second unleashed a Geas on Hazar. He must seek and destroy the Night Bride Coven or die!
Investigating the north door Janus, Heimdell, and Hazar discovered a corridor that connected back to the Torture Chamber. Hazar happily filled in his map.
Meanwhile Alaghazar and Hunter found themselves in a giant rat infested maze. Including rats of unusual size (Monstrous Rats from S&W). They were easily dispatched and they found several holes leading up back to Ground Level.
They emerged in a bedroom with two more giant rats which were quickly killed. They looked out the windows and saw a courtyard with several statues. They looked at the next door which opened up into another bedroom. However there was strange statue in there and the floor was badly corroded so they decided to leave that room for later.
So here it was ended for the next. I never ran Tegal Manor before despite owning it for nearly 30 years. It is definitely the original crazy ass funhouse dungeon. I really like how the map had notes all over place and I think it is a style that can be explored more. James at Grognardia had a recent post on the topic.
The room descriptions are really sparse and all the statues are randomly rolled on the startling statues table. For example the bedroom at B19 is written like
B19 40'x30'20' H Two Giant Rats; 2 HD, 9-3 HTK, AC 5, 1-3/bite.
Refereeing this meant I had to combine the map description with that short entry to come up with something interesting. It is a challenge but a lot of run. I don't if it would be viable as a commerical product, you paying good money not only save time but get a different vision of how an adventure can go. The authors simply can't communicate in such as terse description.
An exception perhaps when you are trying to do something of a grand scope and Tegal Manor is certainly grand.
But for the referee preparing his own material I think the terse format is all that is needed. The rest can stay in your head to use as needed.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Gold Star Manor Part I
Two weekend ago I had another session of Swords & Wizardry at the Gold Star Anime. I didn't post about the previous sessions. To recap, the party killed the Minotaur in the Maze. Janus the Elven Cleric died when Hazar foolishly shoved the lid off of a tomb and poison gas flooded the room. The party decided to take Janus to the wading pool in the level above and after Hazar promised to pay the "price" Silvanus resurrected her. The party cleared out the rest of the temple. Discovered a passage to a section that was ruled by a demon. Killed the demon.
Cast of Characters
Bob – Leon Shadowwalker - 4th level Human Claw of Kalis
Tate - Typhon - 5th level Gnome Magic User
Jay - Heimdell - 4th level Dwarven Runecaster
Josh - Hazar - 6th level Human Thug
John (“the other John”)– Alaghazar, 4th level Human Thothian Mage
Jerry (“big Jerry”) – Janus, 5th level Elven Cleric (female)
Jerry (“little Jerry”) – Hunter, 6th Level Halfling Fighter
This session begins with the party above ground and flushed with treasure. They decided to head back to Oakwatch Keep to cash in and reequip. There was talk of reclaiming the temple as a base for the party.
On the way they encountered Leon and Typhon running for their lives from a horde of Orcs. Whatever tension existed from before were put aside as the entire party was engulfed by a horde of on rushing orcs. In two successive waves nearly 50 orcs were brought down through blade, and spells.
Unfortunately Typhon's Orc henchmen was killed by Hunter the Halfling. Fortunately for the Hunter Typhon was unconscious due to a tremendous hit by an orc shaman's magic missile. When he was revived his grief knew no bounds. While the party mouthed platitudes how it was an accidental hit. Typhon noticed that his beloved orc head was taken cleanly off the shoulder (Hunter rolled a nat 20). He secretly vowed vengeance against the unknown perpetrator.
Rob Note: Back in the day I would have rather uptight about the "unrealistic" result of a party taking out 50 orcs. This time around I just go with the flow. I have come to even appreciate how even mid level characters can feel like heroes overcoming great odds. The key elements are the powerful low levels spells like sleep and fireball. And the fighter ability to get 1/attack per level against 1 HD creatures or lower.
They came back to Oakwatch Keep and quickly refitted. Typhon and Leon had other business so made other arrangements (the players had to leave early). They spent a week training and refitting (Hazar was learning to be proficient with a long sword from Hunter, Heimdell was recharging some runes to replace the ones he expended, and the rest buying charms from the Temple of Thor).
Near the end of the week, while eating in the Tavern, the party talked with a certain Sir Runic Rump who mentioned that he had a manor to sell as he was down on his luck. (At this point I show a fancy deed I created and had printed). The party was impressed and Hazar decided that the Manor needed to bought. They negotiated a price of 20 crowns (6400 silver pieces). Heimdell was suspicious so he asked around and found out that four other parties had bought the same deed but only to return and demand a refund which Sir Runic Rump gave them. One party only had half of it's members. Even after being informed Hazar was determined to close to deal.
The next morning they left Oak Watch Keep and headed down to the Estuary of the Roglaroon. After crossing it they handed to Tegal Manor (I shifted it location for this campaign).
To say the place was huge is an understatement.
So they poked around the outside noting the strange statues that seem to be common. They investigated a gazebo on the northeast corner of the house.
However they got the first inkling that something was seriously wrong with the manor when they peeked into a window and saw a lounge room and sleeping on the couch was a MINIATURE RED DRAGON.
Taken aback Hazar decided to see what this was about and went around to the main entrance where the Master Foyer awaited them. When they opened the door they saw several pillars and the walls adorned with paintings of the Rump family. Hazar went in followed by Alaghazar. Hazar started to go the pictures on the west. When the two saw a two headed demon walking towards them. Alaghazar immediately left and shut the foyer doors leaving Hazar inside!
The demon won initiative and went up to Hazar and demanded his cloak. Dumbfounded, Hazar fumbled and handed it over only to have it fall to floor as it passed through the unsubstantial form. The demon was really only a ghost. The ghostly demon wailed and cried and stomped off in a huff disappearing into a wall.
After this Alaghazar and the rest of the party came back into the foyer. After a few sharp words with the Alaghazar, Hazar went to investigate the painting at 49. It was a pictures of a Rump in farmer's clothing wielding a scythe. As he approached the man in the painting turned and planted the scythe in the middle of Hazar's chest! Cursing his luck he backed away and proceeded to throw daggers at it until it was destroyed.
Laughing Alaghazar went to look at the picture in 40. Labeled Rushrat the Rainmaker the party saw a miniature rain cloud form over Alaghazar and started raining on him. It followed him wherever he went. Janus decided it was a good time to cast Detect Evil. From the spell she learned that beyond the east door there was a great evil. Janus also found by focusing on the painting she could sense which ones were baneful.
After hearing about the great evil Alaghazar decided to cast invisibility on himself. Almost immediately the rest of the party burst out laughing as they could clearly see the rain outlining his body. Irked he slugged Hazar, and stomped off becoming visible again.
The party decided to see what behind the east door. Opening they saw a dark corridor stretching 50' to the east ending in another door. When Hunter stepped into the hall the entire party almost ran in terror as a blood curdling scream was heard.
Rob Note: They moved their miniatures into the hallway and when they did so I let out a scream as loud as I could. I think I almost give Big Jerry a heart attack and the rest of the players looked ready to bolt.
Investigating these room revealed chambers of horror. To the south was the horrific Room of Fear. Painted in black and lined with horrible paintings it caused nearly everybody who looked in to be overcome with nausea and vomit. After discussion it was decided to lob a fireball into the room destroying the paintings. Investigating the Cells to the north found little of value except a door to the north. To the south the bedroom held a strange darkness in SW corner. When shot with an arrow it withdrew into itself and revealed another two headed demon! Janus stepped forward and called on Silvanus. The god's holy light leaped from the holy symbol and revealed the demons for an illusion.
The party then decided to look beyond the eastern door and the worst room yet was revealed. The torture chamber of Tegal Manor! Over the center pit were barbed iron chains that writhed of their own accord. Hazar went to investigate and barely escaped when they attacked him. Janus had a Protection from Evil 10' radius and stepped to the chains which were repelled by the aura of magic.
There was a hole in the SW corner that was three foot in diameter. It looked to be dug out and a strong animal smell was detected. On the North Central wall a trapdoor with a ladder going down was found. While the party was deciding what to do Hazar climbed down. When he reached near the bottom he was grabbed by the ankle and thrown about the room. (B in the map below). The party quickly scrambled down to help him dispatch an Ogre who leaving down there amid the bones of the Torture room victim which were thrown down there.
The party then decided to investigate the dungeon they found. Wandering around they found nothing at A. However at I they found six crypts. With Janus Detecting Evil the party positioned themselves as the lids were shoved off. Wights and Skeletons emerged but the party quickly dispatched them.
Tomorrow Part II
Cast of Characters
Bob – Leon Shadowwalker - 4th level Human Claw of Kalis
Tate - Typhon - 5th level Gnome Magic User
Jay - Heimdell - 4th level Dwarven Runecaster
Josh - Hazar - 6th level Human Thug
John (“the other John”)– Alaghazar, 4th level Human Thothian Mage
Jerry (“big Jerry”) – Janus, 5th level Elven Cleric (female)
Jerry (“little Jerry”) – Hunter, 6th Level Halfling Fighter
This session begins with the party above ground and flushed with treasure. They decided to head back to Oakwatch Keep to cash in and reequip. There was talk of reclaiming the temple as a base for the party.
On the way they encountered Leon and Typhon running for their lives from a horde of Orcs. Whatever tension existed from before were put aside as the entire party was engulfed by a horde of on rushing orcs. In two successive waves nearly 50 orcs were brought down through blade, and spells.
Unfortunately Typhon's Orc henchmen was killed by Hunter the Halfling. Fortunately for the Hunter Typhon was unconscious due to a tremendous hit by an orc shaman's magic missile. When he was revived his grief knew no bounds. While the party mouthed platitudes how it was an accidental hit. Typhon noticed that his beloved orc head was taken cleanly off the shoulder (Hunter rolled a nat 20). He secretly vowed vengeance against the unknown perpetrator.
Rob Note: Back in the day I would have rather uptight about the "unrealistic" result of a party taking out 50 orcs. This time around I just go with the flow. I have come to even appreciate how even mid level characters can feel like heroes overcoming great odds. The key elements are the powerful low levels spells like sleep and fireball. And the fighter ability to get 1/attack per level against 1 HD creatures or lower.
They came back to Oakwatch Keep and quickly refitted. Typhon and Leon had other business so made other arrangements (the players had to leave early). They spent a week training and refitting (Hazar was learning to be proficient with a long sword from Hunter, Heimdell was recharging some runes to replace the ones he expended, and the rest buying charms from the Temple of Thor).
Near the end of the week, while eating in the Tavern, the party talked with a certain Sir Runic Rump who mentioned that he had a manor to sell as he was down on his luck. (At this point I show a fancy deed I created and had printed). The party was impressed and Hazar decided that the Manor needed to bought. They negotiated a price of 20 crowns (6400 silver pieces). Heimdell was suspicious so he asked around and found out that four other parties had bought the same deed but only to return and demand a refund which Sir Runic Rump gave them. One party only had half of it's members. Even after being informed Hazar was determined to close to deal.
The next morning they left Oak Watch Keep and headed down to the Estuary of the Roglaroon. After crossing it they handed to Tegal Manor (I shifted it location for this campaign).
To say the place was huge is an understatement.
So they poked around the outside noting the strange statues that seem to be common. They investigated a gazebo on the northeast corner of the house.
However they got the first inkling that something was seriously wrong with the manor when they peeked into a window and saw a lounge room and sleeping on the couch was a MINIATURE RED DRAGON.
Taken aback Hazar decided to see what this was about and went around to the main entrance where the Master Foyer awaited them. When they opened the door they saw several pillars and the walls adorned with paintings of the Rump family. Hazar went in followed by Alaghazar. Hazar started to go the pictures on the west. When the two saw a two headed demon walking towards them. Alaghazar immediately left and shut the foyer doors leaving Hazar inside!The demon won initiative and went up to Hazar and demanded his cloak. Dumbfounded, Hazar fumbled and handed it over only to have it fall to floor as it passed through the unsubstantial form. The demon was really only a ghost. The ghostly demon wailed and cried and stomped off in a huff disappearing into a wall.
After this Alaghazar and the rest of the party came back into the foyer. After a few sharp words with the Alaghazar, Hazar went to investigate the painting at 49. It was a pictures of a Rump in farmer's clothing wielding a scythe. As he approached the man in the painting turned and planted the scythe in the middle of Hazar's chest! Cursing his luck he backed away and proceeded to throw daggers at it until it was destroyed.
Laughing Alaghazar went to look at the picture in 40. Labeled Rushrat the Rainmaker the party saw a miniature rain cloud form over Alaghazar and started raining on him. It followed him wherever he went. Janus decided it was a good time to cast Detect Evil. From the spell she learned that beyond the east door there was a great evil. Janus also found by focusing on the painting she could sense which ones were baneful.
After hearing about the great evil Alaghazar decided to cast invisibility on himself. Almost immediately the rest of the party burst out laughing as they could clearly see the rain outlining his body. Irked he slugged Hazar, and stomped off becoming visible again.
The party decided to see what behind the east door. Opening they saw a dark corridor stretching 50' to the east ending in another door. When Hunter stepped into the hall the entire party almost ran in terror as a blood curdling scream was heard.
Rob Note: They moved their miniatures into the hallway and when they did so I let out a scream as loud as I could. I think I almost give Big Jerry a heart attack and the rest of the players looked ready to bolt.
Investigating these room revealed chambers of horror. To the south was the horrific Room of Fear. Painted in black and lined with horrible paintings it caused nearly everybody who looked in to be overcome with nausea and vomit. After discussion it was decided to lob a fireball into the room destroying the paintings. Investigating the Cells to the north found little of value except a door to the north. To the south the bedroom held a strange darkness in SW corner. When shot with an arrow it withdrew into itself and revealed another two headed demon! Janus stepped forward and called on Silvanus. The god's holy light leaped from the holy symbol and revealed the demons for an illusion.
The party then decided to look beyond the eastern door and the worst room yet was revealed. The torture chamber of Tegal Manor! Over the center pit were barbed iron chains that writhed of their own accord. Hazar went to investigate and barely escaped when they attacked him. Janus had a Protection from Evil 10' radius and stepped to the chains which were repelled by the aura of magic.
There was a hole in the SW corner that was three foot in diameter. It looked to be dug out and a strong animal smell was detected. On the North Central wall a trapdoor with a ladder going down was found. While the party was deciding what to do Hazar climbed down. When he reached near the bottom he was grabbed by the ankle and thrown about the room. (B in the map below). The party quickly scrambled down to help him dispatch an Ogre who leaving down there amid the bones of the Torture room victim which were thrown down there.
The party then decided to investigate the dungeon they found. Wandering around they found nothing at A. However at I they found six crypts. With Janus Detecting Evil the party positioned themselves as the lids were shoved off. Wights and Skeletons emerged but the party quickly dispatched them.
Tomorrow Part II
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Straight off the Moldavy Press, The Elf Lord's Temple
On Saturday the 25th I referred the final levels of the Elf Lord's Temple at the Gold Star Anime in Edinboro. I will have a play report later this week but for now I thought everybody would like to see the raw notes I used.
In earlier posts I remarked how minimal the early dungeon write-ups appeared to be. So using the Moldavy dungeon stocking rules I decided to give this a try. The random results were surprisingly easy to make sense of. Easy to fit around the few special locations I knew had to be in the dungeon.
Speficially I generated this using the Moldavy Dungeon Stocking rules level 3 of the Monster & Treasure Assortment for the Ground level, Level 4 for the 1st level of the Temple, and Level 5 for the 2nd level (Maze) portion of the temple.
I am not sure how it work out for a novice referee but as somebody with experience it was easy to look at the entries and come up with the details based on the general theme of the dungeon and the sparse description.
I am planning on fleshing it out for publication later in the year. Basically putting in the details that I come up with during my various playtests.
You can see for yourself by downloading this PDF. If you are planning to attend Erie Days of Gaming and play my events in November don't read this.
In earlier posts I remarked how minimal the early dungeon write-ups appeared to be. So using the Moldavy dungeon stocking rules I decided to give this a try. The random results were surprisingly easy to make sense of. Easy to fit around the few special locations I knew had to be in the dungeon.
Speficially I generated this using the Moldavy Dungeon Stocking rules level 3 of the Monster & Treasure Assortment for the Ground level, Level 4 for the 1st level of the Temple, and Level 5 for the 2nd level (Maze) portion of the temple.
I am not sure how it work out for a novice referee but as somebody with experience it was easy to look at the entries and come up with the details based on the general theme of the dungeon and the sparse description.
I am planning on fleshing it out for publication later in the year. Basically putting in the details that I come up with during my various playtests.
You can see for yourself by downloading this PDF. If you are planning to attend Erie Days of Gaming and play my events in November don't read this.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Refereeing the Maze
In the last Swords & Wizardry session at the Gold Star Anime I decided to try representing the maze in the dungeon a little differently. My goal was to represent it's confusing nature better. To this end I decided to use the Dwarven Forge set that I own. I would only show a single section. Adding to it as the party advance along tearing down the rear.
This is a picture of what it looks like in action.
Another shot a little further out.
The gentleman in the red shirt is Jerry Humes. He and his wife run the Gold Star Anime and make it a friendly place. I encourage everybody in the Edinboro area to give as much business as they reasonably can. They provided the game space and the above photos. It been a lot of fun running Swords & Wizardry for everybody up there.
Also I will be up there Saturday Afternoon running a D&D 4e Essential if anybody interested in coming.
No I am not turning to the dark side. So put down those light sabers and blast pistols.
I should be running another S&W game in a week or two. Jerry and I will work out the schedule and let everybody know.
This is a picture of what it looks like in action.
Another shot a little further out.
The gentleman in the red shirt is Jerry Humes. He and his wife run the Gold Star Anime and make it a friendly place. I encourage everybody in the Edinboro area to give as much business as they reasonably can. They provided the game space and the above photos. It been a lot of fun running Swords & Wizardry for everybody up there.Also I will be up there Saturday Afternoon running a D&D 4e Essential if anybody interested in coming.
No I am not turning to the dark side. So put down those light sabers and blast pistols.
I should be running another S&W game in a week or two. Jerry and I will work out the schedule and let everybody know.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Musings on Dungeons
The dungeon I am running at Gold Star Anime involves a new technique for me. In this post I talk about minimal dungeons and with the ruined Elven Temple I am applying the technique. So far it is going good and the players seem to have a lot of fun.
One thing I thought about was how to run the maze. My experience with live action roleplaying has given me an appreciation for "out of the box" thinking to simulate different roleplaying scenarios. I realized that I could use the Dwarven Forge Master Maze set I had to good effect. In this case the limited amount of pieces I possessed was an advantage.
I have enough pieces to represent the maze 40 feet in all directions. So instead of drawing it out on the battleboard or verbal describing it I use the pieces to built one section at time. As the party moved one I tore down the area they left and built the area they entered. If they choose to do so they could spend a little time mapping it.
It worked very well as the party picked their way through the maze. The master maze set I had replicated the confusing nature of the labyrinth without giving the part hints about where they came from. Setup was not too slow and allowed the players to think about where they were going next. Mapping attempts worked as well as may experienced crawling through a few labyrinths in live-action which to say it sucked. Josh playing Hazar had a pretty good instinct about where the dungeon was going so he gets the maze master award for the session. Myself I always solved the issue with the right hand left hand technique.
The only time I abandoned the technique was during the minotaurs. To make the description as fast paced as the chase I used my battle mat and dry erase. That worked well as the player ran blindly through the maze trying to get away from the minotaur.
One thing I thought about was how to run the maze. My experience with live action roleplaying has given me an appreciation for "out of the box" thinking to simulate different roleplaying scenarios. I realized that I could use the Dwarven Forge Master Maze set I had to good effect. In this case the limited amount of pieces I possessed was an advantage.
I have enough pieces to represent the maze 40 feet in all directions. So instead of drawing it out on the battleboard or verbal describing it I use the pieces to built one section at time. As the party moved one I tore down the area they left and built the area they entered. If they choose to do so they could spend a little time mapping it.
It worked very well as the party picked their way through the maze. The master maze set I had replicated the confusing nature of the labyrinth without giving the part hints about where they came from. Setup was not too slow and allowed the players to think about where they were going next. Mapping attempts worked as well as may experienced crawling through a few labyrinths in live-action which to say it sucked. Josh playing Hazar had a pretty good instinct about where the dungeon was going so he gets the maze master award for the session. Myself I always solved the issue with the right hand left hand technique.
The only time I abandoned the technique was during the minotaurs. To make the description as fast paced as the chase I used my battle mat and dry erase. That worked well as the player ran blindly through the maze trying to get away from the minotaur.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Descent into the Depths of the Gold Star Anime Part I
Cast of Characters
Bob – The Wizard, 3rd level Human Thothian Mage
Seth – Dunnigan, 4th level Dwarven FighterJohn – Hazar, 6th level Human Thug
John (“the other John”)– Alaghazar, 3rd level Human Thothian Mage
Jerry (“big Jerry”) – Janus, 4th level Elven Cleric (female)
Jerry (“little Jerry”) – Hunter, 4th Level Halfling Fighter
Ted and two sons could not make but we picked up two new players Bob and Seth. We spend a few minutes rolling up their characters and we were ready to go. Little Jerry and the Other John returned as well providing much need manpower.
Note: Some portion of the maps below have been eliminated as not to reveal unexplored areas.
The game picked up where last left it, the part staring down a flight of stairs leading into darkness. After lighting some lanterns the descent began. First they ran into a short hallway with six doors, three on either side.
Janus immediately cast a Find Traps which revealed that the entire roof of Room #4 was unstable. The players poked around each room and finding in most nothing more than molded remains of casks, and crate. In Room 2 there were various frescoes of the god Silvanus in his healing aspect and a 20 foot by 10 foot spring fed pool filled the back. After careful examination Janus determined that the pool was slightly magical and was able to draw 4 bottles of healing potions from it. While poking around in Room #6 Dunnigan, the dwarf fighter, uncovered a dug out passaway leading deeper into the dungeon.
They passed through a large room 40' by 40' that was dug out and before them they saw the magnificence of a temple of Silvanus. At the temple's nave the party saw an altar. Caring little for the glories around him Dunnigan immediately made for the altar however a unstable pillar fell over nearly crushing him. After that the party proceeded much more cautiously with Hunter carefully checking each pillar.
Alagazar wandered the room looking at the various frescos including a series depicting Silvanus marrying one of the four handmaiden of Dannu, goddess of healing, crops, and the hearth, each season. He was heard saying, "He is a lucky guy."
While Janus and other party member examined the altar, the Wizard (Bob) decides to open the door to the southwest and take a look around. After finding a four way intersection he came back. Bored with looking at Janus praying at the altar, Hazar, Janus, and Dunnigan decide to look beyond the Southeast door.
There they found the remains of the Vestry but the over powering stench of thousands of rat droppings nearly caused them keel over in nausea. Before they could leave the room they heard the chittering of rats coming from the tunnels. Reacting instantly Hunter and Hazar exited the room and slammed the door.
Only to realize a minute later that Dunnigan was still on the other side of the door. When ten Giant Rats emerged Dunnigan bellowed and attack. However even his vaunted fighting skill could not defend against so many and he took many wounds. The party hearing the commotion came down and rushed in to help Dunnigan. However the next wave of Giant Rats emerged from the tunnels and after hacking them down still more came including some Rats of Unusual Size (Monstrously Huge Rats). The party thought discretion was the better part of valor and retreated spiking the door shut.
After regrouping and some healing the party headed out the southwest door and went to the intersection that the Wizard discovered.
The party tried the door to room #9 first and after opening they found the remains of the high priest's bedroom. After a careful search all they could find was a chest filled with the high priest's vestments and ritual items used in the ceremonies in the temple. While the rest of the party groused at the lack of treasure, Janus was very happy with the find.
Meanwhile the Wizard gets bored and wandered over to Room #10 and opens the door. In there he finds the remains of the Wizards Bedroom. Spying an intact cabinet he rushes over and opens it, while looking through it's content two Giant Ticks attack him both scoring at hit. Staggering to the door the Wizard manages to kill one with an iron spike but the other one continued suck his life blood causing to fall at the doorway. The rest of the party rushes over and kills the last Giant Tick before he dies.
After Janus' heals the Wizard with some rituals (and no encounters as they take ten minutes each). The cleric searches the room. In a pile of broken bottles he finds an intact potion of polymorph self, and under an over turned table he finds a single bottle with Vis infused water in it. Vis is magic in a pure form and allows a caster to use one of his memorized spells without losing it.
While the searching and healing is going on, Alagazar, the other mage in the party, decides to search to the south. He finds a strange circular hallway and a door in front of him.
He opens the door and see before him a circle with unique arcane symbols. After careful examination Alagazar realizes that this is a teleport circle. A mage memorizing this could use this as a target of the 4th level spell Limited Teleport. Every teleport circle has a unique design to allow the use of this spell.
Excited he calls over the party and shows the circle to the Wizard and Janus. The rest of the party decided not hang around. Dunnigan and Hunter circle counter clockwise to check the door to the west, while Hazar goes clockwise to check the door to the east.
Hunter and Dunnigan open the door after checking for traps and finds a short hallway that ends in the back of a secret door. Before they can do anything they hears the screams of terror from Hazar.
Hazar likewise checks his door and when he opened it he saw a tableau of horror, a pack of ten ghoul gnawing on the remains of humans and humanoids. He quickly shuts the door and attempts to spike it closed. But the pack of ghouls rip the door to shreds in their hunger. Alagazar quickly orders the door to Room 11 shut as Hazar come barreling in with seven Ghouls behind him.
The other three ghouls go in the opposite direction only to run into Dunnigan and Hunter leaving their hallway. Despite a valiant fight the two were brought down by the ghouls paralyzing touch. Over in Room #11, Janus order the door opened and Alagazar quickly complies. Janus presents the symbol of Silvanus and orders the Ghouls to begone. They howled and started to rush in. Dumbfounded Janus stood there slack jawed as Hazar quickly reacted to shut the door.
After a few minutes of "What the hell were you doing." and some "But, but, it should have worked." The foursome came up with a new plan. The door opened again and the Alagazar cast web binding the ghouls in the hallway. Some oil and a torch caused a small inferno the killed several of the ghouls. Maddened the remainder rushed into the room.
Even burned the remaining Ghouls nearly proved the party's undoing. After several rounds only Hazar was left standing and his agility and deftness with a dagger kept him away from the Ghoul's paralyzing touch. The last ghouls fell under his blades. Hazar retrieved Dunnigan and Hunter from where the Ghoul took them to feasted on them and shut the door.
Continued in Part II.
Bob – The Wizard, 3rd level Human Thothian Mage
Seth – Dunnigan, 4th level Dwarven FighterJohn – Hazar, 6th level Human Thug
John (“the other John”)– Alaghazar, 3rd level Human Thothian Mage
Jerry (“big Jerry”) – Janus, 4th level Elven Cleric (female)
Jerry (“little Jerry”) – Hunter, 4th Level Halfling Fighter
Ted and two sons could not make but we picked up two new players Bob and Seth. We spend a few minutes rolling up their characters and we were ready to go. Little Jerry and the Other John returned as well providing much need manpower.
Note: Some portion of the maps below have been eliminated as not to reveal unexplored areas.
The game picked up where last left it, the part staring down a flight of stairs leading into darkness. After lighting some lanterns the descent began. First they ran into a short hallway with six doors, three on either side.Janus immediately cast a Find Traps which revealed that the entire roof of Room #4 was unstable. The players poked around each room and finding in most nothing more than molded remains of casks, and crate. In Room 2 there were various frescoes of the god Silvanus in his healing aspect and a 20 foot by 10 foot spring fed pool filled the back. After careful examination Janus determined that the pool was slightly magical and was able to draw 4 bottles of healing potions from it. While poking around in Room #6 Dunnigan, the dwarf fighter, uncovered a dug out passaway leading deeper into the dungeon.
They passed through a large room 40' by 40' that was dug out and before them they saw the magnificence of a temple of Silvanus. At the temple's nave the party saw an altar. Caring little for the glories around him Dunnigan immediately made for the altar however a unstable pillar fell over nearly crushing him. After that the party proceeded much more cautiously with Hunter carefully checking each pillar.Alagazar wandered the room looking at the various frescos including a series depicting Silvanus marrying one of the four handmaiden of Dannu, goddess of healing, crops, and the hearth, each season. He was heard saying, "He is a lucky guy."
While Janus and other party member examined the altar, the Wizard (Bob) decides to open the door to the southwest and take a look around. After finding a four way intersection he came back. Bored with looking at Janus praying at the altar, Hazar, Janus, and Dunnigan decide to look beyond the Southeast door.
There they found the remains of the Vestry but the over powering stench of thousands of rat droppings nearly caused them keel over in nausea. Before they could leave the room they heard the chittering of rats coming from the tunnels. Reacting instantly Hunter and Hazar exited the room and slammed the door.Only to realize a minute later that Dunnigan was still on the other side of the door. When ten Giant Rats emerged Dunnigan bellowed and attack. However even his vaunted fighting skill could not defend against so many and he took many wounds. The party hearing the commotion came down and rushed in to help Dunnigan. However the next wave of Giant Rats emerged from the tunnels and after hacking them down still more came including some Rats of Unusual Size (Monstrously Huge Rats). The party thought discretion was the better part of valor and retreated spiking the door shut.
After regrouping and some healing the party headed out the southwest door and went to the intersection that the Wizard discovered.
The party tried the door to room #9 first and after opening they found the remains of the high priest's bedroom. After a careful search all they could find was a chest filled with the high priest's vestments and ritual items used in the ceremonies in the temple. While the rest of the party groused at the lack of treasure, Janus was very happy with the find.Meanwhile the Wizard gets bored and wandered over to Room #10 and opens the door. In there he finds the remains of the Wizards Bedroom. Spying an intact cabinet he rushes over and opens it, while looking through it's content two Giant Ticks attack him both scoring at hit. Staggering to the door the Wizard manages to kill one with an iron spike but the other one continued suck his life blood causing to fall at the doorway. The rest of the party rushes over and kills the last Giant Tick before he dies.
After Janus' heals the Wizard with some rituals (and no encounters as they take ten minutes each). The cleric searches the room. In a pile of broken bottles he finds an intact potion of polymorph self, and under an over turned table he finds a single bottle with Vis infused water in it. Vis is magic in a pure form and allows a caster to use one of his memorized spells without losing it.
While the searching and healing is going on, Alagazar, the other mage in the party, decides to search to the south. He finds a strange circular hallway and a door in front of him.He opens the door and see before him a circle with unique arcane symbols. After careful examination Alagazar realizes that this is a teleport circle. A mage memorizing this could use this as a target of the 4th level spell Limited Teleport. Every teleport circle has a unique design to allow the use of this spell.
Excited he calls over the party and shows the circle to the Wizard and Janus. The rest of the party decided not hang around. Dunnigan and Hunter circle counter clockwise to check the door to the west, while Hazar goes clockwise to check the door to the east.
Hunter and Dunnigan open the door after checking for traps and finds a short hallway that ends in the back of a secret door. Before they can do anything they hears the screams of terror from Hazar.
Hazar likewise checks his door and when he opened it he saw a tableau of horror, a pack of ten ghoul gnawing on the remains of humans and humanoids. He quickly shuts the door and attempts to spike it closed. But the pack of ghouls rip the door to shreds in their hunger. Alagazar quickly orders the door to Room 11 shut as Hazar come barreling in with seven Ghouls behind him.
The other three ghouls go in the opposite direction only to run into Dunnigan and Hunter leaving their hallway. Despite a valiant fight the two were brought down by the ghouls paralyzing touch. Over in Room #11, Janus order the door opened and Alagazar quickly complies. Janus presents the symbol of Silvanus and orders the Ghouls to begone. They howled and started to rush in. Dumbfounded Janus stood there slack jawed as Hazar quickly reacted to shut the door.
After a few minutes of "What the hell were you doing." and some "But, but, it should have worked." The foursome came up with a new plan. The door opened again and the Alagazar cast web binding the ghouls in the hallway. Some oil and a torch caused a small inferno the killed several of the ghouls. Maddened the remainder rushed into the room.
Even burned the remaining Ghouls nearly proved the party's undoing. After several rounds only Hazar was left standing and his agility and deftness with a dagger kept him away from the Ghoul's paralyzing touch. The last ghouls fell under his blades. Hazar retrieved Dunnigan and Hunter from where the Ghoul took them to feasted on them and shut the door.
Continued in Part II.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Exploring the Elven Temple at the Gold Star Anime
Another month has passed. Once again I strode into the wilds of Edinboro to arrive at the Gold Star Anime and escort a party of brave adventurers into the Majestic Wilderlands.
When we last left off the party has reached the ruins of an old Elven Temple and were beginning to explore. Unfortunately two of the players, Tim who played the Elven Mountebank, and Little Jerry who played Hunter the doughty halfling fighter couldn't make it this. But this night game brought in three new players, Ted and his two sons Tate and Bob. And unbelievably this is the night where I forgot to bring my new game player packet of sheets, and references.
But I did have two copies of Swords & Wizardry and the Majestic Wilderlands. As usual making character proved to be a snap with only delay coming with the buying of equipment. I think I need to make up some standard packs to buy to help speed up that part.
Ted made Gordo a 4th level Human Fighter normally wielding a broadsword and shield but with a Great Axe and Longbow to use when the situation calls for it. Tate made Typhon a Gnome 3rd level Mage of the Order of Thoth. Finally Bob made Leon Shadow Walker a Human Claw of Kalis. Apparently he likes playing assassin type. I was little leary of this but I decided to roll with it and see how it played out. Bob is a younger player and somewhat over enthusiastic being an assassin. I refereed players like this in the past I found they get the most enjoyment if they had a mission. In his case, the goddess Kalis commanded his chief to assign him to stop the Elven Temple from being renewed. This goal would likely him into conflict with Janus however not all what it seems.
Josh returned with Hazzar a Human Thug and Big Jerry with Janus a female Elven Cleric of Silvanus.
Ted, Bob and Tate were all pretty new to Swords & Wizardry and older editions of D&D. Along with the fact the session was starting in the midst an existing adventure I railroaded their introduction a bit. Instead of running a separate sample combat I made it part of the intro. They were a party of treasure seeker one of many such groups adventuring into the Dearthwood. They were beset by Orcs and running for their lives when they stumbled over the Elven Temple along with Hazzar and Janus.
The combat went well, it was a straightup fighter with nearly two dozen orcs including a 4 HD leader type. The best part of the combat is when Typhon the mage let loose with a sleep spell when two orcs came gunning for him. He didn't realize that it would work on every enemy within line of sight and he gutted the orc raiding party. Also Typhon decided he had to have a orc henchmen and with Leon's help cowed one into his service through intimidation.
After the fight the parties met and introductions were made. To say that Leon Shadow Walker and Janus did not hit off was an understatement. The bickering got bad and Hazzar just simply walked off and dragged Janus along with him to one of the buildings. They explored it and found it was a old meditation chamber.
Meanwhile Leon Shadow Walker, Gordo, and Typhon were checking the next building over. They became wary when the smell of a delicious feast was smelled outside of the door.
Back at the Meditation Chamber Janus decides to cast Detect Evil. This caused all hell to break loose. See Detect Evil isn't a focused spells. It detect ALL Evil within a 120 foot radius. And it happened to cover the door that Leon Shadow Walker was standing. Needless to say Janus ow knew that Leon had ill-intentions toward the Temple. As for the meditation chamber. it was infested with over 13 giant centipedes. A timely sleep spell* by Janus dispatched 8 and the other 5 were quickly slain by the two with Crossbows and daggers.
*At 6th level Clerics of Silvanus learn a limited selection of Magic User Spells.
The Goddess Kalis is the only god that doesn't have a religion. Either she appears as a figure of evil in various mythologies or the focus of small cults like the Claws of Kalis. Because of this she often has a more closer relationship with her worshipers then what is typical. Hence the reason why she warned Leon that he has been discovered.
What happened took me off-guard. Leon start running for the edge of the wood and start yelling "You all going to Die!". Now I figured that the "Leave!" part got dropped in the roleplaying somewhere. Gordo and Typhon followed him deciding that discretion was the better part of valor. I think that I was too vague in the warning and Bob thought something in the ruins was talking to him.
Hazzar look confused and Janus just about had it. Janus went to the Meditation Hall entrance and stated that if that how it is he will smite down if he showed his face. Hazzar and Janus went over to the Temple Entrance and started shooting the giant rats scurrying along the steps.
Leon was ready to leave and convincing Gordo and Typhon to come. I reminded Gordo that he needed silver to get better gear and Typhon that elven lore is a powerful aid to magic. Then it dawned on me was Leon was thinking so Kalis spoke again reminding him that if he left his mission would not be completed. And the last part was heavy in the implied threat to his well being. Kalis is NOT a merciful goddess.
So they returned to the temple to help with the last of the giant rats were being. During the conversation Leon's miscommunication was explained and the party prepared to adventuring into the temple. Hazzar went to the edge of the steps to examine a pile of debris when two MONSTROUS rats jumped him. Being 3HD creatures with 3 attacks (claw/claw/bite) they tore into Hazzar dealing some serious danger. After two rounds they were killed and the party was rewarded with over 2 thousand silver that the two rats put into the nest.
When they entered the temple they could see it's majesty despite it's ruined glory. There was six statues on sides. The six on the left were of elven warriors and the six on the right were of elven scholars. While the party went to examine them, Leon went up to the remains of the altar. He knelt to secretly pray to Kalis for guidance went a swarm of giant centipedes poured out and engulfed him. He proved resistant to their poison and in the second round a sleep spell caused them to drop away onto the floor. The party resumed looking at the statues.
At the bottom of each statues there were inscriptions.
Warriors
“He could bear the load of a dozen.”
“He outfought his enemies by his wits”
“If you saw his blade, it was too late.”
Scholars
“Virtue is healing.”
“A good offense is better than a good defense”
“A good defense helps when a good offense fails”
They found that by meditating in front both they and the statue would glow and they would received a boon. The warriors granted ability increases of 1d6, the scholars various benifits like Darkvision, healing for the party, Haste, Shields, etc. The boons last for 24 hours and only granted once for one person. The party had a lot of fun figuring this out.
There was a single door exiting the main Temple chamber. When carefully scouting it Hazzar heard the voices of several individuals carrying a large chest. The party prepared and rushed into the back room. There two evil curates in vestments of demon worshipers were carrying a chest. One casted a evil prayer causing the party to suffer a -1 penalty.
The other stepped forward and cause light wounds on the Gnome Mage. This caused Typhon to flee the fight, he spent the next two rounds finding a sword for his orc henchman and to his credit he rushed back once he found it.
During the fight one of the cleric dashed into a side room where he rousing a group of drunken orcs. It took several rounds to do so. His compatriots had the upper hand for a short while but the combined effort of the party caused his downfall. When the orc finally roused the last cleric was shot in the back and dropped like a stone (The player rolled a critical hit).
Quick on his foot Hazzar ordered everybody out and has the Orc rushed into the backroom Hazzar tossed oil flasks. Out of the 12 orcs, 3 died and the rest severely burned. The party then setup at the door and hacked down a orc as it came out. I believe the plan was to hack every orc this way but Gordo roared and with his broadsword rushed into the fray. He gained Haste for 24 hours meditating in front of one of the statues and slaughtered the remaining orcs.
With victory won they went back into the room. They found various demonic implements in the chest along with a broadsword and several hundred gold pennies. (worth 20 silver each). The mage and cleric determined that the implements where for desecrating the temple. Possibly turning it into the service of the demons.
Leon upon seeing the Sword grabbed at which point burned him forcing him to drop it. Janus stepped forward and picked it up*. It's glow brightened the room and it sang acknowledging Janus as its rightful wielder. It was a +1 broadsword of Silvanus. Apparently the cultists were going to use it as part of the ritual.
*Cleric of Silvanus are my version of Rangers and can use any weapons.
Also in the room the party saw stairs going down into darkness.
And that where it ended. At least until next month at the Gold Star Anime.
Some comments. I don't like railroading but I will do in special circumstance like a one a month game with varying players. Once the players got together I pretty much try let things goes naturally. The only time I stepped outside of being a referee was to remind Ted and Tate that their character had motivations as Bob was clearly the leader of that trio.
The interaction with Kalis are a consequence of playing a Claw of Kalis and I think Bob got into it has he was trying to use the connection at different times. I felt kinda bad for inflicting the centipede swarm on his prayer moment but that how it was written. He walked up, didn't check and bam! Dungeon crawling is not for the unwary.
But I have to say that everybody did well even with the in-game difficulties and the adventures ended on a high note especially when Bob and Tate cheered on their dad when he slaughtered all those orcs.
A final comment was the dungeon I was using is of my own creation and is an experiment. I will go into more details in the next post.
When we last left off the party has reached the ruins of an old Elven Temple and were beginning to explore. Unfortunately two of the players, Tim who played the Elven Mountebank, and Little Jerry who played Hunter the doughty halfling fighter couldn't make it this. But this night game brought in three new players, Ted and his two sons Tate and Bob. And unbelievably this is the night where I forgot to bring my new game player packet of sheets, and references.
But I did have two copies of Swords & Wizardry and the Majestic Wilderlands. As usual making character proved to be a snap with only delay coming with the buying of equipment. I think I need to make up some standard packs to buy to help speed up that part.
Ted made Gordo a 4th level Human Fighter normally wielding a broadsword and shield but with a Great Axe and Longbow to use when the situation calls for it. Tate made Typhon a Gnome 3rd level Mage of the Order of Thoth. Finally Bob made Leon Shadow Walker a Human Claw of Kalis. Apparently he likes playing assassin type. I was little leary of this but I decided to roll with it and see how it played out. Bob is a younger player and somewhat over enthusiastic being an assassin. I refereed players like this in the past I found they get the most enjoyment if they had a mission. In his case, the goddess Kalis commanded his chief to assign him to stop the Elven Temple from being renewed. This goal would likely him into conflict with Janus however not all what it seems.
Josh returned with Hazzar a Human Thug and Big Jerry with Janus a female Elven Cleric of Silvanus.
Ted, Bob and Tate were all pretty new to Swords & Wizardry and older editions of D&D. Along with the fact the session was starting in the midst an existing adventure I railroaded their introduction a bit. Instead of running a separate sample combat I made it part of the intro. They were a party of treasure seeker one of many such groups adventuring into the Dearthwood. They were beset by Orcs and running for their lives when they stumbled over the Elven Temple along with Hazzar and Janus.
The combat went well, it was a straightup fighter with nearly two dozen orcs including a 4 HD leader type. The best part of the combat is when Typhon the mage let loose with a sleep spell when two orcs came gunning for him. He didn't realize that it would work on every enemy within line of sight and he gutted the orc raiding party. Also Typhon decided he had to have a orc henchmen and with Leon's help cowed one into his service through intimidation.
After the fight the parties met and introductions were made. To say that Leon Shadow Walker and Janus did not hit off was an understatement. The bickering got bad and Hazzar just simply walked off and dragged Janus along with him to one of the buildings. They explored it and found it was a old meditation chamber.
Meanwhile Leon Shadow Walker, Gordo, and Typhon were checking the next building over. They became wary when the smell of a delicious feast was smelled outside of the door.
Back at the Meditation Chamber Janus decides to cast Detect Evil. This caused all hell to break loose. See Detect Evil isn't a focused spells. It detect ALL Evil within a 120 foot radius. And it happened to cover the door that Leon Shadow Walker was standing. Needless to say Janus ow knew that Leon had ill-intentions toward the Temple. As for the meditation chamber. it was infested with over 13 giant centipedes. A timely sleep spell* by Janus dispatched 8 and the other 5 were quickly slain by the two with Crossbows and daggers.
*At 6th level Clerics of Silvanus learn a limited selection of Magic User Spells.
The Goddess Kalis is the only god that doesn't have a religion. Either she appears as a figure of evil in various mythologies or the focus of small cults like the Claws of Kalis. Because of this she often has a more closer relationship with her worshipers then what is typical. Hence the reason why she warned Leon that he has been discovered.
What happened took me off-guard. Leon start running for the edge of the wood and start yelling "You all going to Die!". Now I figured that the "Leave!" part got dropped in the roleplaying somewhere. Gordo and Typhon followed him deciding that discretion was the better part of valor. I think that I was too vague in the warning and Bob thought something in the ruins was talking to him.
Hazzar look confused and Janus just about had it. Janus went to the Meditation Hall entrance and stated that if that how it is he will smite down if he showed his face. Hazzar and Janus went over to the Temple Entrance and started shooting the giant rats scurrying along the steps.
Leon was ready to leave and convincing Gordo and Typhon to come. I reminded Gordo that he needed silver to get better gear and Typhon that elven lore is a powerful aid to magic. Then it dawned on me was Leon was thinking so Kalis spoke again reminding him that if he left his mission would not be completed. And the last part was heavy in the implied threat to his well being. Kalis is NOT a merciful goddess.
So they returned to the temple to help with the last of the giant rats were being. During the conversation Leon's miscommunication was explained and the party prepared to adventuring into the temple. Hazzar went to the edge of the steps to examine a pile of debris when two MONSTROUS rats jumped him. Being 3HD creatures with 3 attacks (claw/claw/bite) they tore into Hazzar dealing some serious danger. After two rounds they were killed and the party was rewarded with over 2 thousand silver that the two rats put into the nest.
When they entered the temple they could see it's majesty despite it's ruined glory. There was six statues on sides. The six on the left were of elven warriors and the six on the right were of elven scholars. While the party went to examine them, Leon went up to the remains of the altar. He knelt to secretly pray to Kalis for guidance went a swarm of giant centipedes poured out and engulfed him. He proved resistant to their poison and in the second round a sleep spell caused them to drop away onto the floor. The party resumed looking at the statues.
At the bottom of each statues there were inscriptions.
Warriors
“He could bear the load of a dozen.”
“He outfought his enemies by his wits”
“If you saw his blade, it was too late.”
Scholars
“Virtue is healing.”
“A good offense is better than a good defense”
“A good defense helps when a good offense fails”
They found that by meditating in front both they and the statue would glow and they would received a boon. The warriors granted ability increases of 1d6, the scholars various benifits like Darkvision, healing for the party, Haste, Shields, etc. The boons last for 24 hours and only granted once for one person. The party had a lot of fun figuring this out.
There was a single door exiting the main Temple chamber. When carefully scouting it Hazzar heard the voices of several individuals carrying a large chest. The party prepared and rushed into the back room. There two evil curates in vestments of demon worshipers were carrying a chest. One casted a evil prayer causing the party to suffer a -1 penalty.
The other stepped forward and cause light wounds on the Gnome Mage. This caused Typhon to flee the fight, he spent the next two rounds finding a sword for his orc henchman and to his credit he rushed back once he found it.
During the fight one of the cleric dashed into a side room where he rousing a group of drunken orcs. It took several rounds to do so. His compatriots had the upper hand for a short while but the combined effort of the party caused his downfall. When the orc finally roused the last cleric was shot in the back and dropped like a stone (The player rolled a critical hit).
Quick on his foot Hazzar ordered everybody out and has the Orc rushed into the backroom Hazzar tossed oil flasks. Out of the 12 orcs, 3 died and the rest severely burned. The party then setup at the door and hacked down a orc as it came out. I believe the plan was to hack every orc this way but Gordo roared and with his broadsword rushed into the fray. He gained Haste for 24 hours meditating in front of one of the statues and slaughtered the remaining orcs.
With victory won they went back into the room. They found various demonic implements in the chest along with a broadsword and several hundred gold pennies. (worth 20 silver each). The mage and cleric determined that the implements where for desecrating the temple. Possibly turning it into the service of the demons.
Leon upon seeing the Sword grabbed at which point burned him forcing him to drop it. Janus stepped forward and picked it up*. It's glow brightened the room and it sang acknowledging Janus as its rightful wielder. It was a +1 broadsword of Silvanus. Apparently the cultists were going to use it as part of the ritual.
*Cleric of Silvanus are my version of Rangers and can use any weapons.
Also in the room the party saw stairs going down into darkness.
And that where it ended. At least until next month at the Gold Star Anime.
Some comments. I don't like railroading but I will do in special circumstance like a one a month game with varying players. Once the players got together I pretty much try let things goes naturally. The only time I stepped outside of being a referee was to remind Ted and Tate that their character had motivations as Bob was clearly the leader of that trio.
The interaction with Kalis are a consequence of playing a Claw of Kalis and I think Bob got into it has he was trying to use the connection at different times. I felt kinda bad for inflicting the centipede swarm on his prayer moment but that how it was written. He walked up, didn't check and bam! Dungeon crawling is not for the unwary.
But I have to say that everybody did well even with the in-game difficulties and the adventures ended on a high note especially when Bob and Tate cheered on their dad when he slaughtered all those orcs.
A final comment was the dungeon I was using is of my own creation and is an experiment. I will go into more details in the next post.
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