Pirate Borg – Smuggler’s Spit (sessions 1 & 2)

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Pirate Borg, pirates, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Here’s a quick recap of the start of our Pirate Borg campaign set in the Secrets of the Black Crag mini-setting.

3 hours + 3 hours

Player Characters – Crew of La Galère:

  • Captain Squid – Swashbuckler – (Olivier)
  • Ombralynn Brunantis – Rapscallion – (Marjorie)
  • Tetracid – Sorcerer – (Edmond)
  • Zelaquin – Zealot of the Great Old Ones – (Isaac)

Port Fortune:

  • The crew of the small tartane ship La Galère disembarks at Port Fortune.
  • Ombralynn takes a stroll in town, a way of saying she picpocketed several people. She stole (random) a treasure map!
  • Meanwhile Captain Squid and Zelaquin do some interviews at the Sultry Siren tavern to recruit a few more hands for their crew. Out of about ten persons, they choose Beckett who often talks to his pistol, a young woman named Anne and Handsome Pete, who only has a broken bottle for a weapon but knows a good shanty song (Fire Down Below).
  • Ombralynn makes a deal with a fille de joie named Thalia, they’ll split share when they find a mark together.
  • Ombralynn observes an odd scene, an old captain seemingly loses his ability to walk as soon as he steps on the docks and has a devil of a time reaching his boat. Rumor is he’s been cursed by Mama Fortuna, the local witch/fortune teller.
  • Intrigued, Ombralynn wishes to meet this Mama Fortuna. Her hut is on the other side of town, seaside.
  • Entering the hut, Ombralynn talks to Mama Fortuna and receives fortune-telling. The Tarot cards flipped are in order: Tower/Wheel of Fortune/Strength. (Her past life is in tatters, it is true – she has left everything behind in one desperate move, and will learn a lot about herself in the process.) Mama Fortuna also has a quest: bring back the corpse of a man that was indebted to her. He’s dead but that doesn’t mean he can’t pay her in some fashion…
  • Some provisioning and the crew leaves town on board La Galère. Their goal is to find the treasure from their treasure map.

At Sea:

  • They rescue a deaf woman named Carla from some harpies on a island.
  • They see that the pirate ship The Revenge, a large black-sailed galleon, is stuck on a sandbar. They keep their distance.
  • They see a lone, slow-moving imperial galleon, no escort, but way beyond their current ability.
  • They spot flotsam and have to fight some kind of diseased gulls. They find a few trinkets and a nice necklace with an emerald.
  • They arrive at Smuggler’s Spit island and with their map, find a stash of about one hundred bottles of rhum!
  • As they’re getting their haul on the boat they’re attacked by Old Red Eyes, a large, infamous shark. Handsome Pete falls into the water at some point but they manage to hurt and fend off the beast.
  • They’re still alive and they drink a few bottles of rhum to celebrate.
  • They start their way back, changing a bit their itinerary so they’re not too much against the winds.
  • The crew reach Darksand Isle and disembark in a small fishing village that has seen better days. There’s a lighthouse close by and also a strange coral tower. They exchange some bottles of rhum for salted fish and harpoons. They leave but Carla stays there.
  • They spot a wreck trapped on rocks off the coast. They manage to get close to it without paying the same price and start to investigate. Two cannons on deck. No corpses but signs of struggle. A layer of ash on the walls. One strange handprint of a webbed hand. Runic writings in several places.
  • They see all that but also spot two sails at a distance, approaching. The crew get very active, some transfer the cannons, one after the other, with pulley and ropes, along with some cannon balls. Tetracid works on copying the runic writings so he can study this afterward. Captain Squid and Anne work on the first cannon moved to put it in place while the second is attached. The two incoming ships have matching sails and flags, black and red, and each have one half of a figurehead, cut vertically. Having barely one cannon to defend the ship, Captain Squid takes the only sensible decision, FLEE! Tetracid gets at the helm and he manages (Devil’s luck) to zigzag through the reef and lose the pursuers.
  • Going south, in open sea now, they encounter jetsam and flotsam. There’s a sea chest in which they find a pirate captain’s fancy clothes and tricorne and a skull with four gold teeth. Captain Squid is happy to wear the dead man’s clothes and hat.
  • Two days later La Galère gets back to Port Fortune, selling about half their rhum to the Sultry Siren’s owner, keeping some for themselves.
  • Time for carousing!

Closing Comments:

  • A success with their first expedition! I kept it simple with the treasure map this time, no wandering about searching for such and such marker.
  • I have a rough idea on how this campaign will go on. At first the players will have to work hard to obtain a real pirate ship. The Black Crag, which hides a mythic pirate’s treasure, isn’t easy to access and is clearly the end goal. In the mean time we’ll surely see a lot of naval action, islands exploration and pirate politics (aka. backstabbing), with much of this randomly generated.
  • The wreck was the result of a few dice rolls on the Pirate Borg random tables. As it was, there was supposed to be Deep Ones below deck and probably a fight against them. But I think it’s too soon, I prefer to keep them as an hidden threat for the moment and have a proper buildup – so I went for a little foreshadowing instead.
  • I’ll write about the Pirate Borg book before long, highlights and quibbles and stuff.

Gunderholfen – Narrow Corridors of Level 5 (session 37)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

We’re back with the main dish of the campaign, Gunderholfen proper, as the boys pretty much completed (98%?) dragonbane’s Gates of Power.

2 hours session.

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

Player Characters (PCs) – The Dragon Brothers– guild roster:

Adventuring:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, rather likes his curse (Isaac)
  • Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, fanatically loyal to Forka, (Edmond)
  • Trimbo, Human Arcanist, wields both crossbow and lightning (Edmond)
  • Brondrack, Hatchling Dragon, rescued from the dungeon (Edmond)

Not adventuring at the moment:

  • Bumwild, Gnome Mage, wants to become a summoner (Isaac)
  • Letraquan, Human Necromancer, has a talking, evil sword (Edmond)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing:

  • Green Imps: adventuring in Gunderholfen
  • The Protectors: adventuring, not in Gunderholfen
  • Widowmakers: leisure in Longfelt
  • The Musers: adventuring in Gunderholfen
  • The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen

Main Goal for this session: explore a big chunk of Level 5

We start in the chapel, in the City of the Smiths. After resting and saying goodbye to Kaldur the undead dwarf, the Dragon Brothers decide to see if they can reach Level 5 via the canyon, this time by getting through the hole in the collapsed area. With a bit of climbing they manage to get outside and see that they are some 50 meters above the mines’ exit. They proceed to get down carefully – Grimoire casts Flight on himself as he’s exhausted and it would be risky for him to simply do it physically. From there, they go down a bit more and go west and reach the dungeon’s cliff entrance.

Gunderholfen – Level 5 East

  • The adventurers check their map and decide to explore a nearby, narrow side corridor from the Main Thoroughfare.
  • They enter a room with many crates, many broken. They find a flask of oil. They go south.
  • It leads to a room with a mound of sand in the middle with some bones and pieces of damaged armor protuding from it. There’s also a lever in a corner. Torch pokes the sand mound with his spear, nothing happens. Pokes it a bit more, no, still nothing. They decide not to touch the lever and go into another corridor.
  • Small room with boxes filled with sand, rusty shovel. South again, there’s a giant spider web blocking the way. They start to burn the spider web with a torch and this attracts the resident giant spider. Torch in front with Aracyne shooting from behind. Things are going well, with the Elf peppering the spider with arrows while Torch defends from the spider’s attacks. But then the spider manages to spray web on Torch and his frantic evading attempts just make it worse (bane). Aracyne saves his goblin companion with an arrow so well targeted that it both liberates Torch AND kills the spider all in one shot (crit/dragon)!
  • Finishing burning the web in the corridor, they get to the spider’s lair, floor is littered with bones. One hanging dead bugbear. They find a good quantity of coins and a few trinkets. Grimoire finds a dagger on a dessicated corpse and cuts himself accidentally. The dagger was poisoned but Grimoire’s natural goblin resistance protects him from the worst of it.
  • Backtracking a little, to the west, they enter a room with its floor entirely filled with clay jugs (many broken) and barrels. Searching a bit, they find a clay filled with honey.
  • Another room, walls plastered in green. Bas-relief of a dwarven war god.
  • Next, they open a door to a closet. Theres’ a rack with crossbow bolts, arrows and throwing spears. The adventurers fill their quivers as much as they can.
  • They cross and inspect a room with a rope hanging from a hook and pigeon holes in the walls. They find nothing special, they go on.
  • Next room has containers filled with charcoal. They go north.
  • This leads them back to the Main Thoroughfare that crosses a big chunk of Level 5. They open a door north, It smells odd. Torch spots a goblin-ish creature that gets out quickly of their torchlight, darker and with longer arms than himself. They don’t see the creature anywhere. There’s a makeshift barricade blocking the way north. Torch says hello in goblin speech, says they’re not here to harm any goblins. He’s answered with laughters and unfriendly comments on his odd way of speaking (said in deep goblin speech dialect).
  • The adventurers retreat back to the Main Thoroughfare and go west.
  • From the central room with a basin in the middle they open a set a of double doors to the north, into the Hall of Veneration. There’s three 10′ high statue on the eastern wall. There’s also a weird droning sound coming from there. Jedri is asked by the party to go first. He warily does, keeping an eye on the statues. The droning sound turns into a screech and everyone is dazed at the same time as a great shadow dives towards Jedri from behind a statue. The ratman manages to evade the attack even in his dazed state. His companions unleash hell into the monster, a Cloaker. It tries to fool the adventurers with mirror images of itself, duplicating into four but the illusions are quickly dispatched by arrows and bolts and the true monster is finally slain. Unfortunately the room is devoid of riches.

Closing comments:

  • Fun session, there’s a lot more things to ponder in Gunderholfen than in the Gates of Power I must say. Even when there’s nothing but background noise in a room in Gunderholfen, you never know when there’s something hidden or not.
  • Two interesting Monster fights in this session. I’ve used the Giant Spider from the Dragonbane bestiary and it was nice. The Cloaker is a complex monster in D&D, with a lot of special abilities and unsurprisingly isn’t in the DB Bestiary, I’ve statted it on the fly and it did the job. By the book, it emitted a droning sound and I kept it like this. It should be more of an ambush predator and keep silent until it attacks honestly.

Gates of Power – So Many Spikes (session 36)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

The boys want to change their guild name for Dragon Brothers. They already have their Dragon Ranch, will there be a Dragon Kingdom someday? Quite possibly.

2 hours session.

Featuring Path of Glory’s main dungeon: The Gates of Power.

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers The Dragon Brothers– roster:

Adventuring:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, rather likes his curse (Isaac)
  • Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, fanatically loyal to Forka, (Edmond)
  • Trimbo, Human Arcanist, wields both crossbow and lightning (Edmond)
  • Brondrack, Hatchling Dragon, rescued from the dungeon (Edmond)

Not adventuring at the moment:

  • Bumwild, Gnome Mage, wants to become a summoner (Isaac)
  • Letraquan, Human Necromancer, has a talking, evil sword (Edmond)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing:

  • Green Imps: adventuring in Gunderholfen
  • The Protectors: leisure in Longfelt
  • Widowmakers: adventuring, not in Gunderholfen
  • The Musers: adventuring in Gunderholfen
  • The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen

Main Goal for this session: Kill the Manticores and finish exploring this section.

We start at the Dragon Ranch. The Dragon Brothers receive news from gnome alchemist Fryniwid, he’s coming to the ranch in a few days.

They pack their stuff and leave for the dungeon.

It’s mosquito season in the swamp, irritating (angry condition), but nothing too dangerous happens.

Gunderholfen

  • They enter Gunderholfen and quickly go through level 1 to reach the dwarven elevator.
  • They go down to the city of the smiths, cross the Halls of Council and get at the stairway to the City. Aracyne cast Enchant Weapon on his bow and the party descends.
  • Downstair, they go south, get close to some statues and rubbles. Jedri and Brondrack spot a Manticore to the east perched on top of the library. Aracyne shoots at it with his bow, wounding the manticore with two good arrows.The monster sends a volley of spikes at them. Torch blocks many with his shield. The young dragon is hit by a few spikes and the poison makes it sleepy. Trimbo does a Lightning Bolt, further wounding the manticore on the library. Another volley of spikes, this time from the south, Trimbo is hit but mostly resists the poison (exhausted). The wounded Manticore charges at Aracyne but the latter deftly evades. Jedri attacks the monster in melee with his two weapons and Grimoire finishes the job with a powerful (crit) Mental Strike spell. The other Manticore loses interest in the fight and flees in the darkness. The PCs take all the Manticore spikes they can find.
  • The adventurers examines the statues nearby and find a few coins and a good shield.
  • Further south they find public baths and Jedri, the first to enter the area, is targeted by an Undine who wounds him severely with a water jet. Grimoire eliminate the Undine with well-placed Fireballs.
  • East from the public baths they find a dwarven monument with 4 colums and a colossal statue (of a dwarf). And treasure. The statue warns them of behaving properly though.
  • They hesitate a bit but then decide to go north into a large corridor that they saw earlier. They enter a large chapel, someone is praying on their knees. It’s a dwarf in full armor. They speak with him. His name is Kaldur, he’s an undead. He kept his mind somehow. He tells them of the civil war of dwarves against dwarves, with the losing faction stooping so low as to ally with elves in order to reverse the situation. And they won those vile betrayers, now called the Gray Dwarves and inhabiting Level 7.
  • Saying goodbye to Kaldur, the adventurers finish exploring the City, they find out that the eastern part has totally collapsed but there’s an opening that reaches into the canyon.
  • They go down to the Forge to speak with the hobgoblins but find out instead that a massacre occured, they’re all dead. Some crushed to a pulp, some killed by weapons. They meet the new owner of the area, Jand the hill giant. Jand isn’t too hostile and explain that he made some friends and together with them he killed the hobgoblins. Were his friends led by a dwarf? asks Aracyne. Yes, they were. A giant in friendly terms with the Ravens, that doesn’t sits well with the Dragon Brothers.
  • They attack Jand. Ligthfooted Aracyne starts the onslaught with two quick-shot arrows. Grimoire hurls Fireballs at him. The giant picks up an anvil throws it at Grimoire, who would have been smashed if not for heroic Torch that got in front of him and absorbed the damage (his magic shield mitigating it). But now the giant is swarmed from all side and is taken down.
  • He doesn’t have much, except for big bags of weird meat.

Closing comments:

  • The undead Kaldur could be a great ally but won’t take well to the plundering of dwarven treasure.
  • Kaldur is from the Path of Glory mmodule but I’ve adapted his lore dump to Gunderholfen.
  • The Ravens tried to protect their rear in placing the giant in the Forge but the Dragon Brothers quickly spoiled the plan. There was a possibility of encountering the Ravens as they’re also in Gunderholfen at the moment (along with 2 other guilds!), maybe at the same time as the giant but the dice decided otherwise.
  • I wouldn’t have been so sure 10 sessions ago but the adventurers are strong enough to explore deeper levels.

Gates of Power – Crystal Pillaging (session 35)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

The boys have already a lot of ideas on how to expand their Dragon Ranch. One is to convince Fryniwid, a gnome merchant and alchemist, to establish his shop on their domain. He would be convinced, he said a couple of days ago, if he was sure to have a good starting stock of mana crystals, the kind that can be found in dungeons. There’s those natural rock formations but what about the crystals embedded in the walls of the City of the Smiths, many of which still emitting light after all those years?

1,5 hours session

Featuring Path of Glory’s main dungeon: The Gates of Power.

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers – roster:

Adventuring:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, rather likes his curse (Isaac)
  • Bumwild, Gnome Mage, wants to become a summoner (Isaac)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, fanatically loyal to Forka, (Edmond)
  • Letraquan, Human Necromancer, has a talking, evil sword (Edmond)
  • Brondrack, Hatchling Dragon, rescued from the dungeon (Edmond)

Not adventuring for the moment:

  • Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
  • Trimbo, Human Arcanist, wields both crossbow and lightning (Edmond)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing:

  • Green Imps: info gathering in Longfelt
  • The Protectors: leisure in Longfelt
  • Widowmakers: training new recruits in Gunderholfen
  • The Musers: training in Longfelt
  • The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen

Main Goal for this session: explore the area north of the entrance to the Gates of Power and steal any light crystals they see

Gunderholfen

  • Having fled from a pair of Manticores, the Battle Brothers check their map and change their plan to go to the (second) nearest non-explored part of the City of the Smiths. This is right at the entrance, north of the large room with murder holes. They steal the crystals and go north.
  • They take a small corridor that leads to a room lighted with crystals, with a fountain in the middle. They steal the crystals and go west.
  • They see a larger room with a reddish pillar at the entrance, there’s an hobgoblin corpse near the pillar. It’s horribly burned. The adventurers decide to explore somewhere else.
  • Going east from the fountain room, they see another hobgoblin corpse, this one beheaded. There’s a message in dwarvish on the wall which Bumwild translates as something like « walk with humility on these halls, friends of the dwarves ». The Battle Brothers get the general idea and crouch to go through, feeling a breeze of air above them halfway. They all keep their head attached to their body fortunately and get into a perpendicular corridor. Two locked doors on the east side. Aracyne tries to lockpick one but fails. He perseveres but is interrupted by an anguished voice: « Elves! Elves invading my halls! » and a scream of rage for good measure. The hardened adventurers are mostly nonplussed, except Torch who gets disheartened. Aracyne finally manages to unlock the door, it leads to another stairway that connects with the Forge below.
  • Having explored this section (except one obviously-trapped room), with many crystals collected, the Battle Brothers call it a day and decide to go home. One last thing to do though, they go to the dining room with the crystal pillar, and with some time and efforts, manage to topple it over and take the dislocated middle part. It’s cumbersome, they must roll it on the ground but it’s feasible.
  • They take the elevator to Level 1 and get out of the dungeon without incidents. They then take some time to craft a stretcher as rolling the large crystal cylinder wouldn’t work in the uneven swamp path. Before they’re finished with their construction they get the visit of fellow adventurers: it’s the hated Ravens! Their leader, the dwarf Runfurly is quite jovial but his words are threatening: « my my, quite a haul you have there… Y’know what we’ll let you do the hard work but ye have to give us somethin’, with you attacking us outta nowhere like ye did last time… » Aracyne doesn’t argue and throws a pouch with 4 rubies to the Ravens and it’s enough to buy peace for the moment.
  • They finish the stretcher. Travel through the Ganfal swamp is slower than usual.
  • Aracyne yells a warning, an evil tree, an Ur-Fang, is targeting the party. It swipes at them with piercing branches. Letraquan is struck harder than the others but he resists the (soporific) poison. The monstrous tree proves resistant to their weapons but fortunately Bumwild’s Fire Blasts and their dragon’s fire breaths are more than enough to win the day. They grab some intact seeds from the burned carcass of the Ur-Fang and continue on their way.
  • They reach the Dragon Ranch and send Trimbo with a message for the gnome alchemist, they have crystals!

Closing Comments:

  • Not a lot of exploration but a profitable delve despite having to pay a tribute to the Ravens.
  • The traps in this section were well-telegraphed, maybe even on the easy side but probably fair for one that was lethal (beheading a la Indiana Jones).
  • The Gates of Power is something like 85% explored now, with the bigger part of what is left being the lair of the Manticores. It seems like the next delve will be focused on that.

Gates of Power – Dragon Ranch (session 34)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

The hatchling dragon they found last session in the abandonned dwarven brewery is now officially a member of the party. The adorable beast is horse-sized, with wings too weak to fly for the moment and it eats like ten men. How fast does a dragon grow is now a subject of heated debate over here…

2 hours session

Featuring Path of Glory’s main dungeon: The Gates of Power.

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers – roster:

Adventuring:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, rather likes his curse (Isaac)
  • Bumwild, Gnome Mage, wants to become a summoner (Isaac)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, fanatically loyal to Forka, (Edmond)
  • Letraquan, Human Necromancer, has a talking, evil sword (Edmond)
  • Brondrack, Hatchling Dragon, rescued from the dungeon (Edmond)

Not adventuring for the moment:

  • Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
  • Trimbo, Human Arcanist, wields both crossbow and lightning (Edmond)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

  • Green Imps: info gathering in Longfelt
  • The Protectors: leisure in Longfelt
  • Widowmakers: training new recruits in Gunderholfen
  • The Musers: training in Longfelt
  • The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen

Main Goal for this session: explore the area beyond the Halls of Council in the Gates of Power.

Gunderholfen

  • Dragon in tow, the Battle Brothers leave the City of the Stonemasons and the dungeon altogether to get back in town. Travel through the swamp and farmlands is uneventful.

Longfelt and Cyril’s farm

  • The city guards at the gates are alarmed when they see a dragon, young or not. The Battle Brothers try to convince the captain to let it in but to no avail.
  • Still outside the gates, they see some refugees, peasants displaced by the expanding Ganfal Swamp. There’s one they know, Cyril, with his family. This gives an idea to Aracyne, he offers to purchase Cyril’s farm. Cyril is overjoyed with this opportunity, even at discount price as he had written off his property entirely.
  • The Battle Brothers split up, with some of them going with the dragon at their newly-purchased lot.
  • Aracyne hires lumberjacks to cut trees and build a palissade.
  • He talks a bit to Maeve at the Hare & Hound inn to get recent news about rival guilds.
  • Grimoire trains his healing magic at the Temple of Persephone, helping and learning at the same time.
  • Trimbo goes to a locksmith for the metal chest they found a bit earlier. It takes several hours to open, the lock was good – there’s five pink potions, an headband and ruby inside the chest.
  • Some more shopping and item identifying and they’re good to go. They all join up at their newly-acquired Dragon Ranch, make themselves home and then the next day, leave for Gunderholfen.

Ganfal Swamp

  • They encounter a Calydon, a fire-breathing dire boar. Aracyne hurts it with two good arrows. Jedri evades the charging monster. Bumwild hurts it further with a supecharged Fire Blast (half damage) and Letraquan, protected from a tusk attack by Torch’ shield, slashes the Calydon’s flank with his evil 2-h sword. Brondrack the dragon jumps on the boar monster and finishes it with savage claw attacks on its neck. Calydon meat seems to please the dragon very much. (two fire breaths per stretch/combat until next day instead of one).

Gunderholfen – Gates of Power

  • The Battle Brothers go through Level 1 without any incidents. They reach the dwarven elevator and go inside the Gates of Power to the City of Stonemasons once more, going through the Halls of Council to reach the stairs at the eastern end.
  • They go down (sub-level) and enter a vast room with Grimoire’s light spell not reaching the ceiling and only revealing a small part of the place it seemed. There’s two set of double-doors and also close by, a whole building that fitted easily inside the room.
  • They approach the building and see two corpses near a door. Hobgoblins with several jagged spikes piercing their bodies.
  • They enter the building, it’s a dilapidated library with the content mostly ruined. Someone’s been there recently-ish though and has left a paper among unfolded maps, a drawing of subterranean lake with notes on inhabitants and dangers and, on the other side, a drawing of the Scepter of Harvest.
  • Leaving the library behind, the party sees some debris and statues further south but now hears something too far to be seen by torchlight, something heavy with claws clicking on the stone ground. At the same moment Jedri, whom has superior low-light vision, spots a large shape above gliding towards them from the east. The ratman yells just before a volley of spikes falls among them. The ratman’s awareness saves the group from the brunt of the projectiles attack, with only the dragon being hit (and making its save vs poison).
  • The Battle Brothers dash to the stairs behind them, that’s only a strategic retreat of course!

Closing comments:

  • I like the idea of the Dragon Ranch that the boys came up with. A good solution for keeping a dragon pet with them.
  • The Calydon monster isn’t a weak monster at all and they dispatched it in one round. Didn’t have time to do its more dangerous attacks.The party is quite strong now (even without a dragon), I have to revise what I thought early on about characters scaling up in Dragonbane.

The Gates of Power – Sword & Dragon (session 33)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, OSR, Roleplaying Game, RPG

We now have dragonbane’s Book of Magic and yes, suffice to say, we like it. Edmond hurried to create a necromancer character as he ‘s been playing this kind of character often enough in our couch-coop video games (Stolen Kingdom, Barony). I cannot fault his enthusiasm, I’ve introduced his new character right in the dungeon with the flimsiest of excuse. Hey, we’re here to have fun aren’t we?

2 hours session

Featuring Path of Glory’s main dungeon: The Gates of Power.

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
  • Bumwild, Gnome Mage, wants to become a summoner (Isaac)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, fanatically loyal to Forka, (Edmond)
  • Trimbo, Human Arcanist, wields both crossbow and lightning (Edmond)
  • Letraquan, Human Necromancer, found lurking in haunted halls (Edmond)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

  • Green Imps: leisure in Lonfelt after saving the Wizard Uzul Balashi
  • The Protectors: adventuring in Prickly’s End forest, except Delevan (convalesent)
  • Widowmakers: training new recruits in Gunderholfen
  • The Musers: leisure in Longfelt
  • The Ravens: depravity in Longfelt

This session’s main goal: finish exploring the upper part of the City of the Blacksmiths

  • The Battle Brothers have just defeated the Death Knight, servant of Sethid the Archmage in the dwarven City of the Blacksmiths. As they were recuperating from this big fight they get the visit of a stranger, a lone adventurer named Letraquan. With Forka’s death, they have a free spot and welcome him to the group. Letraquan claims the Death Knight’s 2-h sword for himself without any objections from anyone, except from the sword itself, which considers its new owner a step below a miserable crawling vermin.
  • The adventurers resume exploring. They enter the large throne room with a large U-shaped table, with dead (unmoving) dwarves still sitting at it. They find a number of trinkets and silver and gold coins among the dead.
  • Lethraquan decides to sit on the large, ruby-adorned throne. He immediately gets visions of the area’s inhabitants (skeletons) wherabouts. Testing the power of the throne, he orders all of them to regroup on a room south-west and indeed, the undead obey and get there after some time.
  • Freed from the skeleton patrols the adventurers can explore a lot more calmly. They go north into a dining room, kitchen and food storage area and don’t find much.
  • Thence, they go west and get into a large brewery with a magical fire still going on. There’s a scaly beast, large as a pony, curled around an heated vat. The Pcs think about slaying whilst it sleeps but then decide to see if it’s hostile first. A simple hello wakes it up and it seems more afraid than anything but Trimbo persuades it of their good intentions with some dried meat. The beast, a very young dragon, is clearly smart but don’t know their languages. More dried meat convince it easily to follow the group.
  • After that they enter the abandonned room of the master-brewer. In the room’s cabinet they find some silver coins and a nice gold bracelet engraved with the brewers’ mug emblem on it, worth 100 gp or 150 if sold to a dwarf.
  • They continue eastward, go through an already visited dining room and then get into some kind highly-decorated room with tapestries, several marble tables and more interestingly for the adventurers: three metal chests. Unfortunately two are empty, the third is locked. Torch fails to force it open. Letraquan wants to smash it with his 2-h sword but is painfully rebuked by said weapon; such a lowly task is beneath Aleth-Kheloch the Death-Giver, the Destroyer of Kingdoms, whom tasted the blood of countless people, including a good deal of innocent ones which of course is the best blood to taste…
  • Trimbo and Letraquan lift the chest together and the party prepares to leave the area.

Closing comments:

  • An evil, intelligent sword and a good-aligned, young dragon – two powerful new assets for the Battle Brothers but that each come with several risks and drawbacks.
  • No combats this time, with the skeletons out of the way and no random encounters despite a dozen rolls. They finished exploring the upper part of the Gates of Power.

Dragonbane/Gunderholfen campaign- DM comments

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR

(I started this post some time ago, around our 20th session maybe, about time I finish it.)

I’m putting on writing some ideas I have and how I see the dungeon & the campaign so far, from my point of view as the dungeon master.

The game started with 4 players but I’ve decided after a few sessions to keep it for my sons and I only. Makes it easier to play as often as we please and also gives them the opportunity to be in charge.

Using Dragonbane for an OSR Megadungeon

I’m really glad that my Dragonbane walkthrough posts have generated THOUSANDS HUNDREDS of clicks on my blog. Err, yes… Anyway. Dragonbane is totally a viable option to run one of the gazillion of d&d adventures out there. Conversion is not much harder than using a closer-to-original-d&d retro-clone Not only that, but you can also run DB in what I shall call d&d’s purest form: the megadungeon.

That said, Magic is imo the weakest part of the DB system and that’s not insignificant. I’ll get my hand on the brand-new Book of Magic soon enough and see if it resolves the matter.

Also worth saying is that I’ve houseruled many things, from a faster initiative method (still using cards), to the experience points management and how to gain heroic abilities and so on. I’m fairly satisfied with how it works now but it took me a while to figure it out.

So is it worth it? I think so but your mileage may vary.

Some quick thoughts on Gunderholfen

As far as published megadungeons go, Gunderholfen is the most generic, vanilla megadungeon I own – for its upper levels at least and it takes a while to get weirder. But y’know, sometimes solid generic fantasy is all you need.

I would have liked for the very beginning of the dungeon to have a little more polish. The dungeon’s main entrances are mostly handwaved (how do the entrances look from the exterior, how about the surrounding area? Give me a nice handout please!) and I’m not a big fan of the first Level either, whereas the players have to contend with kobolds, goblins and hobgoblins, most likely in this order. It feels, I dunno, too clustered? Not organic enough? Let the players ponder the mystery of the place a little before they get into hack & slash territory I’d say.

I could find some other minor quibbles here and there, I’m good at finding minor quibbles (ask my wife about it), but really that’s about the end of my complaining on Gunderholfen. One big advantage of being not too thematically-wild (idiosyncratic) is that it makes it easier to make it my own and adapt to some themes I had in mind. The maps are excellent. Interactivity is good. The homebase town (Longfelt) is well-done, with provided random tables for detailed encounters, great stuff. Everything is useful for play.

And the Middle and Lower Levels… We’re getting there now, with a first foray in Level 5 a few sessions ago. It’ll be fun.

The Ever-Expanding Swamp, the Dungeon as a Festering Wound

An idea I had, not right at the start but early on, was to add a physical, tangible threat of having an active (mega) dungeon on the region. The swamp that surrounds the dungeon is EXPANDING, it’s like some kind of magic-osmosis phenomenon. Fast enough so that farmers can see their lands being swallowed by the day. Poor farmer Herménégilde that the PCs have got to know, buying food from him on their way to the dungeon at a ridiculously low price, is worried for his future and has a personal interest to wish good luck to the adventurers.

Leave it be and the entire barony will be one big swamp. And a dangerous, monsters-infested one at that.

I’ve linked this to a provided mission in the book of retrieving the Scepter of Harvest, a powerful relic stolen from the town’s main temple, from the dungeon as (in my version) it has the power to stop or even reverse the process.

This is now a central theme to the campaign; adventurers, as chaotic in nature as they often are, are fighting the good fight on behalf of civilization. The dungeon then, is the manifestation of a hole in the fabric of reality, threatening to expand, spreading chaos (but also magic) in its wake.

(Side note: active dungeons awakening other « sleeping » dungeons could be a great concept to include in one’s game).

NPCs adventuring parties as another pressure device

Another of my BIG IDEAS that I’d wanted to explore with this campaign was trying to integrate adventuring NPCs parties in a way that that felt believable (not just dungeon dressing). Rumors in town often gravitate on what this or the other adventuring party is doing/faring. I’ve also established where each party likes to spend time in town (between adventures) so they can be found (or spied upon) more easily.

Of course, the whole thing gives me more prep to do, I roll a bunch of dice for each delves the NPCs do in order to determine how well they’re doing. And if they do well that tends to put pressure on the players – who understandably wish to be the main explorers of the dungeon and the ones to find the aforementionned Scepter of Harvest.

To date, my sons scoff at the Green Imps’ misfortunes and general lack of progess, are glad to have the Protectors as friends and allies and are really angry at the newcomers, the Ravens, ruthless veterans that progress very fast. All very entertaining for me.

In this manner, retrieving the Scepter and the rivalry with the NPC adventurers offer two big incentives to be efficient in exploring the dungeon. Treasure is good, it can be spent on useful things, on less useful things (carousing) to remove conditions from the characters, it can even offer a safeguard to resurrect a character if you have enough of it, but it’s not the main incentive for exploration in this campaign.

The Gates of Power – Death in its many forms (session 32)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

My friend Chris visited us and I’ve introduced him to our Gunderholfen campaign and he created a character for the occasion to become a temporary member of their adventuring guild. My son chose to explore the Gates of Power or what I call myself the City of the Smiths, a counterpart to Nharzed, the City of the Masons, two of several broken remnants of the underground dwarven kingdom.

The Gates of Power is basically the big, main dungeon (section 2 of 3) of the Path of Glory adventure module from Dragonbane, now only a small part of the megadungeon. They dipped their toes into it some sessions ago but now we’ll see a good chunk of it.

3 hours session

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, he rather enjoys his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
  • Bumwild, Gnome Mage, want to become a summoner (Isaac)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
  • Trimbo, Human Arcanist, wields both crossbow and lightning (Edmond)
  • Magnus, Dogman Thief, cautious dungeon explorer (Chris)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

  • Green Imps: adventuring in Uzul’s Manor
  • The Protectors: adventuring in Prickly’s End forest, except Delevan (convalesent)
  • Widowmakers: adventuring in Gunderholfen
  • The Musers: leisure in Longfelt
  • The Ravens: depravity in Longfelt

This session’s main goal: explore a big chunk of the City of the Smiths

En route

  • Right before entering Ganfal swamp, the Battle Brothers encounter the returning Musers. They look exhausted and wary, even if they try their best to hide it. The two guilds talk about their progress so far in Gunderholfen, both clearly hiding many things. They say goodbye to each other, those going in and those going out.

Level 4 (Gates of Power)

  • They go through Level 1 swiftly and reach the dwarven elevator, going down directly to Level 4.
  • As before, they have to fight skeleton warriors when they enter the Gates. The adventurers take care to keep close to the wall so the skeleton crossbowmen can’t shoot them. Using a few bottles of holy water, they dispatch the skeletons and go do the same with the crossbowmen to the south.
  • They then come back to the entrance, examine a bit the dwarven statues each side but don’t find much and Magnus do some reconnaissance upstairs but can’t go very far as there’s more skeletons blocking the way.
  • They all go up. More holy water, some lightning bolts from Timbo and they shatter the ranks of skeleton warriors, with only a few remaining. But all this fighting attracts the attention of something else, something horrible: a Death Dog. A huge two-headed, undead hound. Forka, Jedri and Torch are frontline against the monster but can’t flank it because of the remaining skeletons. They manage to hurt it with several good blows and evade its claw attacks but then the Death Dog let go of a poison breath attack and Forka, who’s right in the middle of it, inhales a lethal dose. He still fights, and he and his companions defeat the monster soon after, but he’s not feeling good. At all.
  • The PCs decide to go see if the hobgoblins, not very far at the Forge, have some antidote. The fastest among them, Jedri and Magnus, don’t wait for the others and rush to go there as fast they can. The others follow behind. But it’s all futile, the hobgoblins don’t have any antidote (5-6 on d6). Poor Forka dies in agony. The Battle Brothers ask the hobgoblins if they can leave their friend’s body temporarily to them and they accept. And so, they go back to exploring…
  • Back where they fought the Death Dog and skeletons, they go south in a narrow corridor and explore a series of rooms along another, long corridor.
  • One room as a charred (dwarven) skeleton and traces of fire on a wall. Another as more (unmoving, dwarven) skeletons on the floor with obvious signs that they fought and killed each other.
  • Next, there’s a peaceful room with sea motifs on the walls, some kind of ambassador room.
  • They get into a library and a ghost librarian appear when the PCs start messing around with the books. They dispatch the ghost quickly and take some books with them, some tome of spells among their findings.
  • Thence, they go north on a long, narrow corridor. They open a door halfway into a vast banquet room but decide not to explore it and go further north. They disturbed something from the banquet room though and they a hear chilling (nazgul-like) scream.
  • A signal to which skeletons seem to be attracted, many get out of the northern door. The fight in the narrow corridor is a slog but the adventurers try their best to use a side corridor to their advantage.
  • Just when they think they’ve finished they hear loud iron boots coming from the south and soon they see a frightening figure appearing in the torchligh: a Death Knight. The adventurers brace themselves for another fight. The Death Knight can’t swipe with his 2-handed sword in the narrow space but he’s obviously a formidable opponent. Aracyne switches places with Jedri as the latter is the best suited to fight him. He’s quickly put on the defensive, trying to evade all incoming attacks. This leave time for Timbo, and then Bumwild, to cast offensive spells at the undead commander. Jedri is becoming exhausted though (no more willpower) but fortunately the Death Knight, severely wounded by now, decides to retreat but one last fireball from Bumwild leads to his demise. His corpse and armor disappear, leaving behind only his evil-looking sword.
  • The adventurers can feel that the sense of oppression they felt earlier is greatly relieved with the end of the Death Knight.

Closing Comments:

  • Turns out lethal poison is indeed lethal (if you miss your save). Second character to die in this campaign and Forka is a major component of the team as the best frontline fighter they have. Edmond was understandably distressed of his main character’s death and we rolled in advance his resurrection roll (75% of success) and succeed. Recovery is d4 weeks though and he rolled 4, starting when the ritual will happen, that’s a lot of in-game time.
  • Unfortunately Chris’ character was not very useful most of the time, as a light-armored, sneaky type put in undead territory. He’s not the kind to complain but I would have liked to offer him a better experience.
  • This session was also a kind of test for me. The Gates of Power, this Dragonbane dungeon, isn’t bad but it’s not excellent either. I find in particular that the rooms are too light in interactivity, there’s just not enough things for the players to mess around.

Pirates Campaign (under construction)

David Skelector Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Pirate Borg, pirates, Roleplaying Game, RPG

So my dear nephew, who’s turning 18 in a few days (time flies), had this special wish to play a pirate-themed ttrpg and I’ve decided to go along with it. Yeah, pirates, not something I had in my mind in the least and now I have this sudden impulse to buy a good bottle of rum but, also, rummaging (oh! the pun) through my drivethrurpg library I saw that I had this interesting module that I’ve bought a couple of years ago:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/425300/secret-of-the-black-crag

It’s a great mini-setting, with the mysterious, eponymous Black Crag has an end goal.

It’s also old-school D&D.

And I gotta say, and I went back & forth on the subject until the last minute, but I don’t think D&D, retro or otherwise, is a very good fit for a pirates campaign. Sure, it’s doable and I know it has been done plenty, but I can’t wrap my head around the basic premise of an adventuring party of fighter, magic-user, thief and cleric (or any other d&d classes for that matter)… well, it doesn’t cut it for me.

So, I’ve searched far & wide (not) and came upon an alternate system and bought the pdf (and ordered a physical copy afterward) of this game:

This is still d20-based, but very much different in every other aspects.

I didn’t have previous experience with those Borg rpg books, I find the look of the line a bit too artsy for my taste to be honest but now that I’ve opened the book I must say I’m quite impressed. And, to my earlier point, with Pirate Borg you can play a brute, a buccaneer, a swashbuckler, a rapscallion or zealot and sorcerer if you feel magically-inclined (or some even more fantastic options like the accursed or tall-tale if you want to go there).

Check out for yourself: https://www.limithron.com/pirateborg and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC6DmNex9l0&t=18s

So I’ve got a mini-setting and a cool rpg system to implement it – I’m also grafting a few other short modules to this, not a lot because I don’t think we’ll be able to play very frequently:

Other resources:

Now, I do have a copy of Stevenson’s Treasure Island somewhere if I can find it…

(We’ve played this saturday, me, my boys, my sister and nephew and had great fun. Quite refreshing as a ttrpg experience. And playing the role of vilainous scumbags seem to suit some of the players very well ha! ha!)

Gunderholfen – The Wight of Nharzed (session 31)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

The Battle Brothers hire two new members at the same time as the party’s mage, Grimoire the goblin, is taking a short break from adventuring to work on improving his magestaff. They don’t want to risk Level 5 without their main mage but they feel ready to further explore the city of the (un)dead dwarves on Level 4.

1,5 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 rather enjoys his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
  • Bumwild, Gnome Mage, studies to become a summoner (Isaac)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
  • Timbo, Human Arcanist, wields both crossbow and lightning (Edmond)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

  • Green Imps: Longfelt, adventuring in Uzul’s manor
  • The Protectors: adventuring in Gunderholfen, except Delevan (convalesent)
  • Widowmakers: Longfelt, recruiting
  • The Musers: adventuring in Gunderholfen
  • The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen

This session’s main goal: Explore more of the city of the masons

Longfelt

  • Back in town, the adventurers rent the best rooms and have the best meals & wine of the Hare & Hound inn.
  • Grimoire starts work on upgrading his magestaff, will take a week or so.
  • Maeve, the innkeeper and ex-adventurer, has found two rookies for the Battle Brothers to hire, Bumwild the Gnome and Timbo the human arcanist. Both can do a little bit of magic.
  • The Ravens show up at the inn! Ranfurly the Depraved, is in a good mood and praises the Battle Brothers for their boldness (on attacking him), but not without a quip on how they needed to be two guilds to fight his. He wishes them all the best and leaves, onward to a long week of carousing & depravity.
  • Some basic shopping, some less basic holy water buying at the Temple of Persephone and they’re good to go.

Gunderholfen

  • Travel to Ganfal swamp is uneventful.
  • The Battle Brother go swiftly through Level 1, take the secret stairs in Level 2 to Level 3, go through Level 3, say hi to the Ogres and reach Level 4.
  • They inspect their outpost, it hasn’t been disturbed.
  • They go south from there, don’t have any encounters, reach the Flaming Bats’ cave and the surviving couple isn’t interested in a fight.

Level 4C

  • They daydream for a second on what they could do with the dwarven ballistae on the wall at the entrance of Nharzed.
  • They go directly east.
  • A dozen zombies get out of the ruins but the adventurers just walk faster until they reach their objective: a set of double doors they had spotted in an earlier delve.
  • The doors are very heavy but with Forka on one side and Timbo and Torch on the other, the PCs manage to open them. They open into dusty room – the air is stale and there’s an unnatural cold. There’s also two ranks of (standing but unmoving) skeletons (dwarves) with spears and wearing rusty chainmail.
  • The PCs hurry to close the doors behind them as the (slowly) pursuing zombies are closing in. This activates the skeleton warriors though.
  • Those are tougher than the standard skeletons by far, armored and they still know how to fight efficiently in close ranks, using their spears to good effect.
  • Fortunately, the adventurers have spent a good deal of money on holy water and now use it generously, throwing bottles on the compact mass of the undead in grenade-like fashion. Timbo tries a Lightning Bolt on the undead and damages two but also harms Forka in the process as the electric shock jumped on him too. Bumwild helps with (single target) Fireballs.
  • The PCs got a few wounds from spear thrusts but are victorious and push on.
  • There’s another set of double doors, cold to the touch.
  • They open the doors to reveal a large ominous room – an ossuary with a tall monument in the middle. On top of the monument, sitting in a stone chair, is evil incarnate: a Wight. The undead foe whispers ancient curses. Aracyn shuts it up with a thrown bottle of holy water right on its face. The Wight screams and then seizes Forka (who was starting to climb the monument) with an invisible force and throws him away like a doll. But then Timbo and Bumwild, one after the other, cast a supercharged Lightning Bolt and Fireball at the undead, destroying him before it had time to make good on its curses…
  • Three treasure chests can be found at the base of the monument with a great haul of gold coins and nice dwarven-crafted jewels. The BEST treasure the Battle Brothers have found to date! Very happy with their find, the adventurers get some rest in the ossuary, the cold and evilness of the place having diminished in large part since the demise of the Wight.
  • They fight some zombies still lingering nearby and then proceed to leave Gunderholfen and they manage to get back to town without any further hindrance.

Closing Comments:

  • The guild had 6 members for this expedition, 7 in total, this means that we might see something of a roster play in the future (to comply with the 6 members threshold). That’s interesting.
  • No random encounters rolled, zero, and the boys were laser-focused on one area of their map – so they got there and out fast.
  • The wight in the Dragonbane Bestiary is a middling foe, similar in strength to a D&D one I’d think, and per the book this one could summon undead minions each round, but the PCs didn’t mess around and BLASTED him with all they had. Good move.