Our family just did a no-screens weekend as a kind of mental detox. No computer, no tv, no cellphone, no nothing. And it went so well that the kids would do it again every other weekend!

And guess what doesn’t need any screen? You got it.

3 hours session

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

• Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
• Jedri, Ratman Thief, he likes his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
• Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
• Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
• Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)

This session’s main goal: exploring more than half of the « dwarven city »

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

• Green Imps: adventuring but not in Gunderholfen
• The Protectors: resting/recuperating in Longfelt, Bodil is concussed, Bodil and Efram have infected wounds
• Black Axes: adventuring in Gunderholfen, Level 2 and 3
• The Musers: leisure in Longfelt

Level 4A outpost

• The Battle Brother did not leave the dungeon last time but rather, they’d rested in their Level 4A’s outpost and did so without any disturbance. Rejuvenated they went back directly to the cavern of the flaming bats, the two surviving ones were in no mood to fight.

Level 4B

• From there a passage leads to a cave with an obelisk in the middle with writings in dwarvish. Nobody can read it but Forka knows (myth & lore check) that this must the entrance to Nharzed, the City of the Masons, a place renowned for its craftsmanship before the War of the Long-Lived.
• A slight breeze is coming from the south, bringing an awful stench of death to the adventurers’ nostrils.

• There’s a set of large steps leading up and a high crenated wall a bit further with a broad entrance from which mist furtively enters.
• The PCs start to climb the steps but then a stocky humanoid gets out of the shadows, a dwarf but with dead flesh crawling with maggots: a Plague Zombie. Its stench is overhwelming and its presence is frightful to behold. Forka cannot will himself to attack it. Aracyne shoots two arrows, hitting the undead square in the chest but with no great effect. Grimoire pushes it with a Mental Strike, sending it tumbling violently backward almost thirty feet. But the undead gets up, and it is fast, and dashes toward the nearest adventurers and get into melee against Forka and Jedri, who both manage not to flee. A Fireball from Grimoire finally seems to do some real damage to the monster. Forka has a hard time with the awful stench that is even worst for his acute sense of smell and he gets wounded by a claw attack. One more Fireball from the goblin mage and then Jedri gets wounded but counters with a mighty hit (crit) to the dead dwarf’s head with his morningstar, splitting its skull open, slaying it to everyone’s relief.
• Grimoire casts Treat Wound on Forka and Jedri and after that the party enters the City proper:

« Crumbling buildings from a forgotten age and cracked, worned streets stretch away through dim, gloomy mists.The cavern walls soar upwards out of sight, the space ahead vast and foreboding. Fallen walls, piles of rubble and shattered stone line the streets, the air heavy with the stench of fear. »

• The PCs are exploring the nearest buildings and attract the attention of a group of ten skeletons. Forka, Jedri and Torch gets into melee, trying not to be surrounded, and get to work. They slay the skeletons without too much troubles, Jedri needs healing from Grimoire again but Forka and Torch only have a few scratches.

• They continue exploring, see another group of undead east through crumbled walls and decide instead to go west and south. They enter an empty building and go to the next but are welcomed again by undead, this time eight Living Dead. At one point in the fight, Forka was forced on the ground and threatened by several hungry Living Dead but his companions helped him back up and the undead were defeated. They find a golden locket and silver lyre among the rubble inside the building.
• They go east and get near some kind of temple but Forka can tell that the smell of death is even more awful in this place and they decide to go elsewhere.
• Thence they go directly to a kind of central plaza with large standing stones that they can see further south and east. When they arrive there though all hell break loose as a pack of skeletal animals, 6 ghouls and 6 civic officer-garbed undead get out of several nearby buildings, mostly from the south, and all converge on the PCs. The latter choose to make a tactical retreat and run back to the building they’ve just cleared in order to benefit from the protection of mostly intact walls. Aracyne quickly perch himself up on top of a wall as the building is roofless, and start to rain arrows at the ghouls, wounding two severely, making those flee. Forca and Jedri block the entrance and fight the skeletal animals, with Torch using his spear to attack from behind. Aracyne shoot another ghoul, hurting it badly, and now the ghouls collectively have enough of the whole getting shot at thing (failed morale check) and all flee. The three fighters finish off the swarm of skeletal animals and get into melee against the « civic officers » undead but those don’t prove to be that fearsome and the adventurers have the upper hand ultimately. The fight finished, Grimoire heal the wounded.
• The PCs decide to clear the northern area of the undead they saw earlier and soon get into a fight against ten more skeletons. Aracyne put his bow aside as it’s not that useful against skeletons, and get to work with his short sword alongside his companions. Grimoire, who was staying back, spots three ghouls (some of the group they saw earlier) that were trying to sneak up on them. He incinerates a ghoul with a big fireball and burns another with a smaller one. The two remaining ghouls flee again. Meanwhile the fight against the skeletons is under control, the adventurers got a few painfuls stabs here and there but they managed to win again.
• Grimoire uses his last reserve of mana to heal the wounds. All of the adventurers are quite exhausted by the successive fights by now (depleted willpower points) and Aracyne, the guild leader, call it a day. The Battle Brother leave Nharzed behind, and go up, by their usual method of shortcuts, all the way to Level 1 where they make a short stop to talk the newly-installed gnome merchant Frinywid – who tells them that he saw another party of adventurers a bit earlier, the Black Axes. He wasn’t sure if they were going to rob him or worse at the time as they look like a bad batch he says, but they didn’t. They’re probably somewhere in Level 2 by now.
• The Battle Brothers leave Gunderholfen, the trip through the Ganfal Swamp is fortunately uneventful and they reach Longfelt before the end of the day.

Closing comments:

• Nothing happening while they rested at their Level 4 outpost between sessions. Rolled at random of course. There’s a countdown going on though (random too, but chances are increasingly higher the more time goes on), as the orcs will understand sooner or later that the ogres aren’t there anymore and they’ll want to look into their former den. The orcs, or maybe someone or something else will.
• Several big fights in this session, there’s no xp for combat so I’m not sure that it really served the purpose of the players (apart from having fun) not to try evade them. They can certainly be systematic about it and clear one area after another but this will take a lot of time.
• Level 4B, Nharzed, is a cool place, spooky and all. There is several special locations in the area but the players didn’t explore any of them this time, instead they explored one building after another full of rubbles. I think a random table of stuff to find in abandonned buildings or things happening or whatnot, would be great to make the area even more interesting. I may do just that for the next time they go there, we’ll see.
• Crossing the Ganfal swamp in their depleted state was a bit risky, another big fight like last time could have doomed them.

Hey, what do you mean my title made you expect something else? HOT. STEAMY. I mean, basic vocabulary…

Short session, 2,5 hours.

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

• Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
• Jedri, Ratman Thief, he likes his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
• Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
• Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
• Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)

This session’s main goal: find the « dwarven city »

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

• Green Imps: adventuring but not in Gunderholfen
• The Protectors: resting/recuperating in Longfelt, Bodil is concussed, Bodil and Efram have infected wounds
• Black Axes: leaving for Gunderholfen soon
• The Musers: leisure in Longfelt

Longfelt

• The BB buy a lot of food rations, put them into a small barrel, with the idea of leaving it inside their newly-acquired Level 4 outpost.
• While taking their breakfast at the Hare & Hound Inn they are visited by a gnome merchant (and magic-user) named Frinywyd who has an offer for them. He wants to open shop into the liberated Level 1 of Gunderholfen and asks for the BB if they would escort his caravan to get there and they gladly accept.

Ganfal Swamp

• The crossing is slower than usual, leading the caravan on the treacherous road half-eaten by the swamp. Halfway through, one side of the cart slides into muddy waters and it takes great effort from the group to get it back on firm land. (Forca get disheartened in the process)
• Fortunately they reach their destination without further hindrances.

Gunderholfen

• The BB advise the gnome merchant to occupy the room of the late goblin chief in Level 1B and he does so. They also take a look at his wares and Aracyne buys an amulet of spell focus. They see that the gnome sells bottled elementals that can help in fights but the asked price is a bit too steep.
• They then go down to Level 2, have to defend themselves from several hungry Stirges and then take the secret ladder to Level 3. From there they cross the dead kiigoths’ territory and go down (very cautiously) the slippery stairs to Level 4.
• They find their outpost undisturbed, door still staked, and they leave their rations inside. They write a quick message on the door: « The Battle Brothers are here » with a cray and leave to explore.
• They first go nearby, just south of their outpost, and entered a warm area with low visibility due to steam. They hear a high-pitched laughter and a loud PLOP and see, barely, a small winged creature flying above them – a steam mephit. Aracyne has time to shoot an arrow at it and manages to hit it despite the obscuring vapor. Forca is convinced that the nearby stalagmite is a creature and hits it with his hammer, breaking a chunk of it but with no further result.

• The wounded mephit avenges himself by creating a rain of scalding water on everyone below. Torch protects himself with his shield but the other adventurers are wounded (fortunately I rolled very low on damage). Another mephit sends a jet of hot water at Jedri, who fails to evade and is wounded. But then the PCs act. Aracyne finishes the wounded mephit with another well-place arrow. Grimoire casts a fireball at the other, hurting it ligthly. He then casts Levitate on Forca who smash the mephit with an hammer blow and kills it. With no further threat, Grimoire casts Treat Wound on Jedri and then PCs search for treasure and it takes some time but they finally find some ancient dwarven coins (10 gp each) that were stashed on top of a stalagmite.
• Thence they go back at the intersection and go south and soon get in another fight despite their attempt at stealth, this time against a juvenile ankheg. An arrow from Aracyne is deflected by the insectoid’s carapace and the creature try to hit Jedri with one leg but he evades. The ratman then counters with two powerful hits from his light flail and morningstar, wounding the ankheg. Next, Forca delivers a massive blow of his hammer, so powerful that it detaches the monster’s head from its body, killing it instantly. The close by lair lair of the ankheg is littered with bones but nothing else.
• The PCs continue on the path that they’ve been told leads to the the dwarven city, going east and south generally, and after that west, inside a long and warm natural passage that debouche in a large, even warmer cavern. The air is dense with mist.
• Forka the dogman, even with his helmet on, hears some kind of high-frequency sounds emanating from somewhere above and, through the mist, the PCs can see several glowing spots. They soon see what’s the meaning of all this when creatures plunge towards them: Flaming Bats!

• 5 Flaming Bats (with some other « warming up » above) get near the PCs. Two of them belch clouds of black smoke, partially obscuring the adventurers’ vision. Another try to rake Aracyne but he dodges. Same with Jedri. Another let go of a jet of fire on Forka but his armor protects him. The adventurers make quick work of all but one bat, but 3 more are coming to the fight! One makes a fiery dive towards Jedri but he dodges. One comically latches on Forka without managing to hurt him in the least and the knight body slams the bat on the ground (brawling attack), crushing it under him. Meanwhile, Aracyne concentrates his shots on the bats flying too high and kill several. Jedri kills a bat but then he inadvertently throws his flail several yards away and also bends his morningstar (two mishaps in a row)! Grimoire casts Levitate on Forka and the latter smashes another bat midair. A bat bites Forka and this time, pierces the armor. Another one painfully burns Jedri with a fire jet. But before long there’s only two Flaming Bats remaining, still on the ceiling, that seem more interested in perpetuating the species than to fight.
• Victorious in this big fight, the adventurers have a look at the passage to the south, a bit further peek at the gate of the dwarven city and call it a day, having numerous wounds and depleted willpower for almost every PCs (and some conditions) and return to their Level 4 base to rest.

Closing Comments:

• Escorting the caravan meant increased chance of random encounters but none occured, only a DB ‘s journey mishap.
• I did not really convert the steam mephit for DB but it worked fine nonetheless, with the first mephit summoning another and then trying to keep away from the PCs and attack at range.
• Forka’s heavy armor is very handy in fights, no doubt about that, but that makes sneaking for the group virtually impossible (they could still split and scout ahead). I like how it balances overall.
• The fight with Flaming Bats was finished within 6 rounds, a pretty big fight and really fun I’d say. I made it easier because I ruled that 1d6-1 bats joined the fight each round, so not the whole14 bats of the room all at once. But it was challenging and the PCs had to spend a lot of ressources to win so I think it was good.

I’ll try to have something like a weekly session, at least bi-monthly, of this campaign with my kids for the coming months until summer, we’ll see if I manage to do it.

Short session, 2 hours.

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

• Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
• Jedri, Ratman Thief, he likes his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
• Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
• Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
• Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (me)

Gunderholfen

• We start in Level 4, with the Battle Brothers and Protectors in the ogres’ den. Having slaughtered most of the adult males and ordered the survivors away, the adventurers clean up the place, using the open pit to good effect, to make it, well, less of an ogres’ den.
• After that, they block the door and camp there for the night. Forka, in his turn to keep watch, hear footsteps nearby and whispering voices. There’s the smell of orcs. But they seem to turn back the way they came.
• Next day they begin together their ascent towards sunlight. They tie themselves together with rope for the slippery stairs to Level 3. Reaching Level 3, they do a small detour to see Grom the ogre and ask him some questions. They give him a 50 gp gem and learn from him of the quickest way to reach the « dwarven city » (going south of the ogre den in Level 4, then south-east and then west in a long, noticably warmer passage into a large carvern and then south to reach their destination).
• They encounter a patrol of ant workers in Level 2 busy transporting dead giant rats and neither side is interested in fighting.
• They reach Level 1C, into what was the hobgoblin area and got to a portcullis that was always closed to them in the past. They opened it and, a bit further, got to a deep vertical, artificial shaft with chains dangling but no easy way down.
• They backtracked and then reached Level 1B and got out by the « goblins » door.

Ganfal Swamp

• Aracyne leads the group competently through Ganfal Swamp and they make good progress despite the harassing environment but then, several hours in, they see a dozen or more humanoids in ragged clothes emerging from behind an outcrop: ghouls!

• The adventurers fire a salvo of spells and arrows on the howling undead and four of them are slain and another immobilized by a spell of ensnaring roots. But the ghouls are now in melee. Bodil gets hurt by a claw attack and then tackled to the ground and is in great danger. Efram the Mage gets vomited on by a ghoul and then flees not long after, demoralized by the terrifying howling. Aracyne is dishearthened but stands his ground.
• Two more ghouls are on the approach. Bodil the elf is badly hurt and unconscious. The Hunter Adalbert also flees after another howling near him. Two ghouls are avidly pursuing Efram and Adalbert. Bayard smashes a ghoul’s face in with his magic mace and it’s killed. Jedri drops his flail inadvertently but has a dagger to continue fighting two-weapons style. Grimoire the goblin Mage casts 3 small fireballs and efficiently finish 3 already wounded ghouls. Forka team up with spear-wielding Torch to slay another. The mage Delevan cast Levitate on the ghoul on top of Bodil and throws it away, hurting it in the process, then he goes to help his fleeing companions.

• Twelve ghouls have been slaughtered, two surviving start to run away, one is stuck in place by Ensnaring roots and is finished by a big hammer blow delivered by Forka. The adventurers have won, with one casualty among them: Bodil is concussed and has infected wounds. Adalbert and Efram also have infected wounds. Fortunately they soon get out of the swamp, into the farmlands, talk to some peasants on the road and reach the city of Longfelt.
• The two adventuring guilds make a vow of friendship, decide to leave each other signs (cray writings) in the dungeon if they go separately and then say farewell to each other.

Closing Comments:

• Grom has gotten back his leadership of the ogres thanks to them, there’s that, but he thinks of the adventurers as dangerous and untrustworty and won’t be a true ally. Giving information in exchange for money to the PCs so they go explore a dangerous area is the most he’s ready to do in my mind.
• The Level 1 mining shaft isn’t there in the book (it replaces an exit to open air), I added it for some unscrutable reason…
• Rolled an encounter in the swamp and was tempted to just pick an appropriate monster in the Dragonbane Bestiary but instead I’ve rolled on the d20 table and got 20, ghouls.
• Ghouls in dragonbane don’t have any paralysis abilities as the D&D ones but, as monsters, have a d6 table to roll on to determine what they do, and also, as monsters, they always hit (it’s up to the target to try to defend if they wish). I rolled for each ghoul separately and it went smoothly enough.