The adventurers have rested in the mansion’ safest place, surrounded by floating candles, they’re now resuming exploration of the missing wizard’s home.
Jedri, Ratman Thief, rather enjoys 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)
What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:
Green Imps: adventuring in Gunderholfen
The Protectors: leisure in Longfelt, resurrection of Delevan succeed (convalescent)
Black Axes: somewhere in Ganfal swamp, lost?
The Musers: back in Longfelt, resting
The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen
The Mansion of Uzul Balashi
The PCs go back inside thew darkness-engulfed room. Checking their map, they’re convinced there should be a secret door in this room. Slowly, carefully patting the walls, they manage after a while to find the contour of an hidden door. With a bit more efforts they find a keyhole. It appears to be impossible to lockpick unfortunately.
They get out and go to an unexplored room nearby. It’s a taxidermy workshop. Among the paraphernalia they spot a blue opal key.
They immediately set out to test the key in the just-found keyhole and it’s a fit! The door opens into a small corridor with its walls covered in glowing runes. Tests, with some stuffed animals from the taxidermy workshop, reveal that intruding in the corridor activates powerful electricity discharges. Not seeing any easy way past that, the adventurers decide to go elsewhere.
They decide to go back to the ground floor. Forka picks up a small silver ringbell on the altar of the shrine of Death.
Back into the Banquet room, they find four more ringbells and start to try them one by one. Several have no apparent effects. One rings everywhere in the mansion all at once (they hear a door opens somewhere not very close). One puts some kind of beneficial effect on Aracyne. Another makes every PCs deaf!
Deaf as they are, the PCs still continue exploration and open a door to the east.
They enter the curiosity room. There’s shelves and cabinets filled with various assorted items. There’s a demonic-looking statue in one corner. The PCs move one cabinet aside and find a secret door behind it.
Torch enters a small vestibule and finds a trapdoor on the floor, he opens it, revealing a ladder. He starts to descend but the ladder breaks under his weight (he’s a goblin but in full armor), making him fall 15′ below. Torch is dazed (condition) but not too badly hurt. He’s in some kind of natural cave below the mansion and something is moving nearby. The tentacled beast just glimpsed at before, a Carcass Crawler..
Forka throws a rope down but at this very moment there’s a commotion behind him – Jedri is being attacked by the statue, it’s a gargoyle!
Jedri is severely wounded by the gargoyle’s claws. Torch manages to climb the rope fast enough (but get exhausted, pushed his roll) and slam the trapdoor shut before the wall-climbing creature got to him.
Forka switches place with Jedri to fight the gargoyle and he starts with a big attack with his 2-h hammer that does good damage to the monster. The gargoyle’s claw attacks doesn’t get through his magic chainmail. A mighty hit of his hammer and the gargoyle is now severely damaged but it counters with a claw attack on forka’s face (crit) and another one (another crit!) and the knight is down!
Fortunately, the gargoyle is near-death enough that Grimoire and Aracyne can finish it in no time. Grimoire casts Heal Wound on Forka and the dogman gets back on his feet.
By now though the adventurers are worried, their mage has depleted his mana and can no longer heal them. Following an intuition they open a door n-e, into a dining room and find a shuttered window that they can open from the inside. They get out of the wizard’s mansion and go rest at the Hare & Hound inn.
Closing Comments:
They spent nearly an hour of in-game time in the dark room. Something is obviously important in this area but they can’t go further for the moment.
Torch falling on the Carcass Crawler lair and Jedri being attacked by the gargoyle SIMULTANEOUSLY was a indeed a dire situation for the PCs. (I « activated » the gargoyle at this moment as it made sense for it to do so) They came out on top but it was a close call.
I was a bit suprised that my description of a demonic-looking statue didn’t elicit more suspicion from the players but I guess it’s a mistake they won’t do again.
A nice change of pace as the kids chose to do a mission outside of the megadungeon for once. Working for Longfelt’s high constable, they have to infiltrate a wizard’s house and find out what happened to the owner who hasn’t been seen in public for half a year at least. (And as everyone knows, probing into a wizard’s home without invitation is a surefire way to get into trouble, better to send foolish adventurers!)
Jedri, Ratman Thief, he rather enjoys 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)
What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:
Green Imps: adventuring in Gunderholfen
The Protectors: leisure in Longfelt, resurrection of Delevan succeed (convalescent)
Black Axes: somewhere in Ganfal swamp, lost?
The Musers: back in Longfelt, resting
The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen
Rumors:
Uzul Balashi’s garden has many wonderful herbs and flowers, including spicy Purple Habanero, an exotic and much sought-after delicacy.
The Mansion of Uzul Balashi
The Battle Brothers arrive at the wizard’s mansion and are stopped by two guards at the main entrance. The guards are members of the Olores Domago gang, enforcers hired by Uzul Balashi a while back and now mainly into gambling & drinking & womanizing & banditry on the side.
A talk between Aracyne and Olores Domago’s leader, Dominguos de Bellehache, quickly degenerates as the latter refuses acces to (their side of) the mansion (they’d be welcomed to the courtyard though) and Aracyne calls him a « thug ». Seconds later, Dominguos’ men are on their feet, weapons in hands and the situation is within an hair’s breadth of getting violent but the adventurers finally choose to leave. (Unbeknownst to the PCs Dominguos orders a footpad to follow them at distance afterward.)
The Battle Brothers then go around the block, get on the back of the mansion and throw a rope over the outer wall (in broad daylight) to acces the overgrown courtyard. Forka climbs first, attach another rope and get down on the other side. Grimoire joins him soon with a levitate spell. There’s a large, sinister tree shading the area. There’s something going on with the weeds, forcefully entangling Forka and Grimoire. Forka lifts the goblin on his shoulders and start to cross the courtyard, fighting the weeds strenuously all the way over there. Grimoire then casts levitate on his three other companions, one by one, so they can reach the mansion without going through the weeds. (a lot safer but costly in magic points)
Forka smashes an adjacent window with his hammer and everyone extirpate themselves from the weeds as fast they can and get inside the mansion.
They’re in a large banquet room but don’t really explore it, they open a door west and get into an ominous room dedicated to Death, with a Grim Reaper in a stained glass window and an altar with a skull on it and some other stuff. Aracyne takes a book from the altar.
The PCs don’t linger and open a door south that reveals a set of stairs going down. After some hesitation they choose to descend.
They’re in a large room with many crates. They try to open a door west but it’s locked and a few seconds later they hear banging and howling coming from the other side.
They leave it be and go north through an ossuary. There’s six standing skeletons but they don’t react to the adventurers’s presence when they cross the area. They open a door north.
The PCs are now inside a smaller room from which emanates calmness, serenity, with candles gently floating around.
Forka inspects a brick wall and finds a secret door. It leads to a small corridor with an acrid smell in the air. The source is soon apparent as a Gray Ooze attacks Forka and inflicts a burning wound on him. Grimoire does massive damage to the ooze with a (crit) Mental Strike. Jedri damages his light mace with a left-handed attack on the acidic monster but his magic sword, Perseverance, is fine after it finishes it.
The ooze slain, the adventurers find another secret door at the end of the corridor and get into a room with a dry fountain and a corpse with a badly-damaged armor and a broken sword.
There’s furnitures blocking the door from their side and they remove it all and enter a room littered with bones. They see a tunnel carved high on the wall and going east but they choose instead to open a door south into a fetid room with a small hole on the ceiling (they found the latrines yikes!).
They get back and they hurry away as they see a large tentacled beast exiting from the tunnel.
They leave this area and get back once more to the storage room and open a door east.
They enter a room engulfed in darkness, Torch’s torch is barely visible. Something is moving in the dark, a cackling laughter and then Torch yelps in pain as sharp teeth plunge onto his leg. A chaotic fight ensues as Torch and Jedri (who can still fight decently without seeing much as a Ratman) go against two monstrous wolves with skulls for heads. Jedri quickly kills one with a sword through the heart. The other beast tries to rake Torch with its claws but fail to get through his armor and the combined efforts of Torch and Jedri are enough to dispatch it.
The PCs get out of darkness by where they came and enter a room to the south. There’s a diminutive creature half-organic half-mechanic (an homoncubold) sitting on a carpet. It’s mute but it gestures at some wares it’d like to sell. Aracyne buys a dagger and a folded paper from this odd merchant. The paper turns out to be a note written by Uzul Balashi – the wizard is complaining bitterly that his wife doesn’t approve of the experiments he’s doing on their house staff (they’re starting to get ugly and smelly…). The PCs also manage to learn from the merchant that Uzul Balashi can be found somewhere above, not underground.
Going in another room close by, they find boxes filled with women clothes and some jewels, They also find a music box and Aracyne turns its lever until the music ends and then the box explodes in a powerful fireball! The three closest adventurers suffer greatly, jedri is badly wounded and Aracyne and Grimoire are both down and in a critical state. The Elf’s face is a charred mess and Grimoire has one leg nearly torn off (injuries). Forka manages to revive Grimoire and then the mage casts his recently-learned Treat Wound on Aracyne, saving his life and then on himself and Jedri.
The Battle Brothers, a bit discomfited by this ordeal, get back limping to the Floating Candles room and get a good rest without any interruption.
Closing Comments:
I have about ten modules attached to the Gundeholfen tentpole at the moment. I was really impressed by Slug House when I came upon it and was eager to run it. A really nice urban dungeon, there’s not many of those that are so well-conceived. Highly recommended.
The kids did a pretty good job of exploring. They still rush things a bit too much and don’t ask questions nearly enough but they’re getting there.
The music box was one brutal curveball I must say. It does make sense in context though.
The kids guessed quite rightly, and by themselves, that the candles room was a great place to rest.
Jedri, Ratman Thief, he rather enjoys 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)
What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:
Green Imps: training in Longfelt
The Protectors: Resting in Longfelt, resurrection of Delevan succeed (convalescent)
Black Axes: somewhere in Ganfal swamp, lost?
The Musers: adventuring, left Longfelt but kept quiet on their objective
The Ravens: newly-arrived in town, reputation for being brutal veterans
This session’s main goal: Search the Great Cave, the lair of the defeated orcs
Level 4A
After a rest at their Level 4 outpost, the Battle Brothers are ready to pay a visit to the orcs and see if those have accepted their (harsh) terms. They get to the Great Cave without any problems and announce their presence to the orcs. The orcs still have guards in place but the PCs can see that half of them look like barely-trained teenagers.
The orc sub-chief arrives to meet them and anoiunces that the tribe accept the terms, paying a tribute of 100 gp immediately. He then proceeds, dejectedly, to show the adventurers around starting with the western part. The PCs look briefly at the food storing area and move on. They arrive at a living area where there’s some training of youngsters going on, not nearly a show of strength. Then they enter a larger living area where’s there some wounded warriors and some female tending to them. The next area has more female orcs and many kids, some crying, all very much terrified by the (bloodthirsty) adventurers.
They’re in a loop circuit that joins back the Great Cave from the North-East and have seeminlgy visited it all but then Aracyne asks to see where the dead chief lived. The sub-chied reluctantly brings them back to a living area with an open dormitory and points the chief’s place. There’s a rudimentary chest there and Aracyne opens it and takes the remaining gold (46gp) of the tribe. The orcs are now destitute.
As his leader is busy stealing from the orcs, Jedri searches the area a bit more and finds a paler spot on the western wall and, pressing it, opens a secret door!
It leads to a brick corridor, the air is stale, there’s no sound of anything but they can see a strange statue at the limit of their vision. The PCs coerces the sub-chief into going first. Approaching, they see that this is representation of the Bat-Toad god Tsathoggua. It has topaz for eyes.
Just as they decide to ignore the temptation of the precious stones, the statue suddenly animates and sucker punches the orc sub-chief with a powerful backhanded slap, sending him sprawling several meters away.
The statue then stomps the ground mightily, sending several of the PCs to the ground as well. Jedri didn’t fell though and he attacks with his two weapons, his sword not doing any damage but his morningstar connecting with a good hit. Forka hasn’t time to attack before the statue slams its head into his face, wounding and dazing him. The dogman knight is disheartened but still manages to attack right after with a mighty blow of his 2-h hammer that does suitably impressive damage. Grimoire then does his part with a very successful (crit) Mental Strike that slams the statue onto the back wall, pieces of it flying all over the place. It still stands though but Jedri the ratman finishes the job with another well-placed morningstar blow.
Aracyne picks up the topaz from the broken statue. He then sends back the wounded orc sub-chiefs but asks for another orc to accompany them and the orcs reluctantly sends another.
They continue their exploration of the secret area, going west and north, with a slope further north. The new orc, the first in line, suddenly stop and makes an odd gurgling sound. He’s got a spear through his throat, from a trap, and he’s very dead. Congratulating themselves for having put cannon fodder in front of them, the PCs get back to grab another orc for the task, much to the dismay of his fellow tribesmen. « Don’t be sad, he died a hero’s death » says Aracyne to the wide-eyed orcs.
The adventurers resume exploration and get past the « heroic » dead orc still on his spear and get into a room with a large stone sarcophagus flanked by two (smaller) statues of Tsathogga. Forka immediately smashes one statue with his large hammer, and the other. They then order the orc to open the sarcophagus but he only manages to move the slab a few inches. Forka helps him and the two together succeed in movind the slab aside. There’s a human skeleton inside, wearing a black chainmail visible through his tattered robes and holding a scepter (of Tsathogga) made of copper and ivory. The adventurers orders the orc to take everything, which he does (with some efforts to take off the chainmail from the corpse). They also take the 4 emeralds that served as the statues’ eyes. Nothing bad happens.
Having finished over there, the PCs go south until they reach an impasse. Close inspection reveals another secret door, it leads very close to the stairs going up to Level 3. Aracyne ponders the irony of having a way to attack the orcs so much easier and so near all this time…
They get back to the orcs for one final speech by Aracyne: « thank you for your cooperation, thank you for the gold, much appreciated, sad for the dead guy *snickers*, necessary sacrifice and all that… See you soon. Yes… Rest assured, we’ll come back! » *silence (except for crying babies) and horrified stares*
Leaving the Great Cave behind, the party still in good shape, Aracyne decides that now’s the time to eliminate another annoying threat in the vicinity: the Giant Cave Lizards nearby. They walk in their lair and sure enough, there’s three of the beasts, one with visible wounds on it. Grimoire is first to do violence, he hurls 3 fireballs at the wounded lizard, wounding him further. Jedri finishes it. Aracyne shoots another with his bow. Forka hits this one too. They’re tough cookies though, they don’t go down easy. One try to bite Forka but don’t get through his armor. The other one charges Jedri but the latter evades and then achieves a killing blow. Two good arrows from Aracyne soften the surviving one. It’s killed soon after. The adventurers search through the bones and excrements afterward and get a surprisingly good haul (gold chalice and gold pieces) for their troubles.
The Battle Brothers decide that they should go back to Longfelt. They talk briefly with two ogres fetching water on Level 3, telling them a bit of their recent successes . They make a quick stop at the gnomes’ shop on Level 1 and buy a few consumables, and then leave the dungeon.
Trip through Ganfal swamp goes well even if the place seems more menacing by the day.
They buy some food to farmers near town.
Back in longfelt they go enquire to the Protectors, Bayard’s guild, and find out that Delevan has survived the ritual of resurrection. They also learn that there’s a new adventuring guild in town, the Ravens. Not rookies at all. Experienced and a ruthless bunch if the rumors are true.
They sell the Tsathogga scepter to Calmund, a rich collector in town, for 40gp.
Forka asks around for maybe the eighth time if there was any magic helm to be bought in town (to go with his excellent new magic chainmail). There was none. But there was a possibility of doing a mission in town, in a wizard’s tower, where something went awry, and gain such an item in the process…
Closing Comments:
Very profitable session for the BBs this time, reaping the benefits of having defeated the orcs.
Yes, turns out this a game with orc babies, and orcs with emotions. But also, orcs that would have been ruthlesse themselves if the situation have been the other way around. I found my son’s speech to the orcs funny as hell.
Level 4A is the more thorouhly explored level of the dungeon to date.
The new adventuring guild in town means trouble, I made it obvious, and Edmond wants to fight them as soon they meet them in the dungeon.
That’s a fancy title innit? Gigaxian naturalism refers to a concept developed into this article by James M at Grognardia, something of a fundamental OSR blog post in my opinion. It has to do with the idea that D&D founder Gary Gigax was getting out of his way to include such mundane, unglamorous things like latrines, food storing, detritus piles and also, more generally, the idea that monsters weren’t only waiting for adventurers to come by (and that they had babies) and so on in his dungeon-crafting and world-building methodology, and for the explicit purpose to get closer to some kind of realism in his game.
Now, I’m writing this mostly as a thought experiment & for the fun of it, I wouldn’t myself feel the need to implement most of this in my game. But the experiment is to try to add some biological/ecological layers on top of standard gigaxian naturalism and see how it could possibly be used for an elf game, specifically in a megadungeon environement.
Food Web
Do monsters need to eat? In this approach they do.
Life is all about energy and energy transfer. Autotrophs manage to get energy more or less autonomously, transforming light or chemicals around them for their needs. Decomposers and scavengers eat dead stuff. Heterotrophs eat other creatures and unless, it’s at the top of the food chain, a creature in the dungeon is probably prey to something else.
(Right to Left)- I’d be remiss not to include Dungeon Meshi from Ryoko Kui, the most potent work of dungeon ecology I know of.
If we’re a bit serious about it, it would seem important to determine what’s the trophic base of the dungeon or in other words, what are the first things (that produces energy) to get eaten. A classic I’ve seen in many rpgs is some form of mushrooms. Which is fine, it’s a classic for a reason even if I once argued that it’s a bit unnecessary to have mushroom and mushroom-creatures limited only to the underdark in D&D. The truth is that a dungeon-environment would be a rather poor ecosystem. However, we’re doing fantasy over here and let’s handwave some of the real world in order to create something new.
One could imagine carpets of bioluminescent microorganisms « grazed » by small oozes that are in turn eaten (siphoned?) by stirges, that are eaten by fire bats, that are killed by harpies because they compete for the same ecological niche…
Stable or Disturbed Ecosystem
Most probably, the player characters will first enter a (mega) dungeon and find it as a somewhat stable ecosystem wherein groups of non-sentient creatures as well as factions of sentient ones have more or less defined territories for themselves. These territories can vary, overlap – there can be encroachment or raiding across certainly, but there’s still some kind of equilibrium in place.
There can even be some active agents or driving force that ensure that this equilibrium stays in place. A good example is the sun-scarred knights in Richard Barton’s Arden Vul, a neutral faction that has ambassadors in other factions and (seemingly) strive to keep the balance.
So, stable ecosystem at first but…
Player Characters acting as a Wildfire
PCs are not part of this dungeon ecosystem – they intrude, they bring chaos, they lit the powderkeg or, in keeping with the natural theme, they’re like wildfire. After them, or with enough delves anyway, it’s tabula rasa. But nature abhors vacuum, aka. the Game Master re stock the dungeon. Not with the same creatures that just got obliterated obviously. With something opportunistic that benefits from the demise of the previous inhabitants.
More half-baked ideas:
Manatrophs, the trophic base thrives on magic that suffuses the dungeon. Anti-magic zones, devoid of magic, would also be mostly devoid of life: dead zones.
Ruderal Species: or pioneer species, what are the most likely creatures to find a dungeon that is empty for some reason?Probably goblins, easy choice. And like real-world ruderal species, they’ll have a hard time once more dominant species come along.
Dungeon as a vivarium. A twist on « the wizard did it » trope. The dungeon is not the place where the archmage experiment his magic, it is the experiment.
Monsters that goes through metamorphosis. What if an ankheg had a larva phase? Or IS the larva?
This scenario follows Explosive Descentas we try to capture another part of the Coral Crown.
We have to destroy objectives but doing so « awakens » (spawn) Lurkers or other bad things happens. Finally, we have to defeat the Seeker of the Abyss, a dangerous foe.
Characters
Zam Boni the Frozen Fist (David) lvl 5, big dude but very graceful on ice
Anaphi the Fallen Lion (Math) lvl 4, got out of the sewers to find some coins
Hail the Irritable Enchanter (Guillaume) lvl 5, will she get irritated enough to care?
So where is it? Is it under that rock?GAAH! That’s not what I was looking for!Anaphi’s rats will help us in our search.Another lurker, a big one! Anaphi’s, huh, tentacle, whips at it from a distance.Amazing all we can find under some rocks!I feel like we’re getting closer…Zam Boni freezes the sea’s floor right under another lurker.And then we all slide until we reach…The Seeker of the Abyss. It lashes out at us but we finally manage to surround it and kill it. Another coral crown part for us, still missing one.
Closing comments:
Great scenario, well-balanced as we were very close to defeat in fact. We were all very low on cards at the end.
A dramatic moment happened in the game when Hail missed a massive attack 12 on the brittled Boss (so 24 damage + card bonuses). Took us a few more rounds to kill it.
Hail is a killing machine, no doubt about that, but I think she badly needs an item that gives her advantage on her biggest attacks.
It was tough scenario for summon-heavy Anaphi as summons in general in this game have a tendancy to attack when they shouldn’t and in this case, revealed more monsters at the wrong timing.
The Frozen Fist has quickly become one of my favorite character to date, his ability to dash forward among enemies is very satisfying.
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: Invade the Dark Creepers’ village
What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:
Green Imps: training in Longfelt
The Protectors: adventuring in Gunderholfen, joined the Battle Brothers at Level 4’s outpost
Black Axes: adventuring, try to find a lost tower in Ganfal swamp
The Musers: adventuring, left Longfelt but kept quiet on their objective
Level 4a
The Battle Brothers and the Protectors take a meal and talk together at their shared outpost. They evaluate the benefits and risks of adventuring jointly (1) and decide not to do it this time.
Aracyne examines his maps and hesitates on what his guild should do next, finally leaning on fighting the Dark Creepers. But before they’re ready to depart MAYHEM suddenly erupts on the outpost: the Orcs (around two dozens) are attacking!
Making short work of the main doors with a makeshift battering ram, the Orcs get inside! The adventurers, the two guilds together, with no way to escape, will have to fight for their lives.
The adventurers are outnumbered but at least won’t be outflanked in the corridors and they quickly get in position to fend off the attackers. Forka and Bayard, both heavily armored, will be frontline. Torch will be behind Bayard and will attack with his spear, Grimoire will cast spells from between the legs of Forka or something like that.
Orc archers (and one crossbowman) shoot at their enemies to start the fight, Forka is wounded by a well-aimed (crit) arrow. Grimoire does a Mental Strike on the crossbow-wielder, hurting and making him fly backward several meters away to crash into his fellow Orcs.
But then warriors with falchions or spears swarm inside and get into melee. One orc goes down almost immediately after getting hit by a spear thrust from Torch and a mace blow from Bayard.
A moment later, Aracyne, with fellow hunter Adalbert and Delevan the mage, attack from a side-corridor, with 10′ open pit-trap, half-filled with refuses, between them and the Orcs. Letting go of arrows and fireballs, the trio inflicts much pain (two more kills in this second round) on their opponents.
But things on the main corridor gets a little hairy as Forka is severely wounded by two consecutive blows. The Dogman manages to kill the Orc in front of him and then he retreats behind the fighting line while Jedri quickly takes his place. Efram, the other Protectors’ mage, begins to heal Forka. (Both Jedri and Efram were put in reserve but were quickly put to good use)
Grimoire hurls two fireballs and kills one Orc. Jedri Taunts an Orc into attacking him and then swiftly kills him with his two-weapons attack. Just as things start looking good on this side, the Orc Chieftain jumps over the pit-trap and badly hurt Aracyne (who failed to evade) with a big swing of his bardiche. The two Orcs following him are a bit short on their jumps though and sink thigh-deep into the pit-trap’s refuses and will lose some time getting out. The Orc Chieftain is on the receiving end of several arrows and fireballs but is still in fighting shape.
Orc archers support their leader from the entrance and one arrow grievously wounds Delevan the mage and he’s down.
Jedri and Bayard kill two more Orcs and Forka, fully healed now from Efram’s efforts, charges between them, killing another one. The few remaining Orcs on this side have had enough (failed morale check) and flee!
The Orc Chieftain swings his bardiche… at the proned mage on the ground and finishes him! The killer doesn’t enjoy this success very long though and Adalbert, the mage’s companion, slays him with another arrow. Following this the Orc archers turn tail also and the Orcs that just got out of the pit-trap surrender as they’re now surrounded.
This is Victory!
The Protectors gather around their fallen comrade and will leave the dungeon soon to bring him back in town and pay for resurrection.
Aracyne deals with the two Orc prisoners and tell them his conditions for peace to convey to the surviving sub-chief back at their lair: a tribute of gold and also, free passage inside their territory.
Closing comments:
The (randomized) arrival of the Protectors was really fortuitous to save the PCs from the Orcs’ counter-attack I must say. And the NPCs were the ones to pay the price!
After the recent events, I had created a quick random table for how the Orcs would be reacting to the PCs multi-sessions aggression. The roll resulted in a counter-attack (instead of leaving the area or being defensive), a further roll told me when it would occur, a good process I think. That’s nothing extraordinary, I know, but I’m still learning how do to this properly.
(1) Adventuring with more than 6 characters (6 being the arbitrary number from the Wizardry crpg that I’m taking for my own use) doubles the dice of random encounters, with two 6 rolled meaning a dangerous special encounter. This is due to a larger group being less discreet but also, somewhat abstractly, to the disturbance created by too many adventurers together in the dungeon and it (or its master) reacting to this in some way.
We’ll now be going through all five remaining chapters of the adventure. It looks (to me at least) like the adventure from now on has really overstayed its welcome for no good reason at all. I feel like adding more layers/depth to the previous chapters would have been a lot more profitable than this endless sightseeing tour that we get instead. Honestly, I think someone on the writing team decided that they had to use as many previously published sourcebooks as possible and include them in this adventure in some fashion, no matter how cumbersome it was to do so.
Anyway, Palantir Quest is too much of a railroad and as hinted in the title it has some very questionable design choices but there’s also some good bits here and there. Read on!
Having survived the frigid north, the player characters slowly get back to civilization on foot. Empty-handed to boot, as the two palantiri they barely had time to see are now in the possession of an Easterling named Vacros and his hired band of smugglers.
When they reach Tharbad to report their failure what they get is an hostile greeting. In fact Commander Cilis is « bitterly angered by the news of his lost men. » And the PCs « are not encouraged to dwell long in Tharbad. » YOU HAVE DISAPPOINTED THE COMMANDER! Well, I’m all for roleplaying and it could be an understandable reaction from this NPC but it’s not like the players could have done anything differently!
Now, based on the flimsiest of clue that they got weeks ago in-game ( before their very strenuous arctic ordeal), they’re supposed to push on and investigate the Juggler’s Hall in a desperate bid to find a way to restore their honor.
Upon reaching the Juggler’ Hall (again) they find that the place isn’t open to visitors at the moment, they’ll have to find a way to get in. A frontal assault is unlikely to succeed, what the player characters have to do is to infiltrate and investigate. Or, a nice alternative that is provided by the book is to talk to the ambitious wife of the « Master Juggler » whom could be persuaded to betray her husband and give information to the PCs. Eiher way, if they’re competent about it they’ll learn of the rendez-vous point of the smugglers, as stipulated in the delivery contract by the yet to be seen true villain of the adventure.
This leads them (after some minor events) to the Wold, right on time to be participants in a big four-way fight. It’s a great setup, somewhat lessened by the usual flaw of this adventure of forcing things too much.
What begins as a fight between the smugglers (Jugglers) and opportunistic bandits is soon complicated by the simultaneous arrivals of the PCs and an orc raiding party! There’s a fully statted roster, an okay map (below) of the site, several steps to what each sides are doing, all good. Less good is this advice: « The Gm should attempt to manipulate all of the PCs into the lair. » Because as written the adventurers have to get into that nearby cave, huh, in order for a landslide to happen automatically, thus forcing them onward to explore the (linear) underground system.
I’ll note on the plus side that there’s a very nice cursed sword to be found in the lair, a potent weapon that has the significant drawback of animating any nearby statues with hostile intents towards the wielder. Great item!
Stashed in the cave are two heavy boxes containing the palantir!. All the PCs have to do now is to bring them to the king to get their well-earned praises and rewards…
Except that NO! Once in Minas Tirith and upon closer examination by the royal seer it is revealed that those artefacts are fakes! YOU HAVE DISAPPOINTED THE ROYAL SEER! YOU HAVE DISAPPOINTED THE KING (Aragorn)!
How do you feel about that? Damn, I really hate these GOTCHA twists… And what’s that about, guilt tripping the players?
Anyway, The PCs are arrested and then subsequently released after it is established that they really are innocent, just a bit oblivious. Get back on the plot thread will you!
« It is recommended that the GM award a bonus of 10,000 XPs for the recovery of what the characters believe to be the true Seeing-stones, but then retract 80% of that bonus when they find out that what they have recovered are fakes. They should regain this 80% when they recover the real Stones (in addition to a bonus for achieving their goal). »
As the greatest glass makers in Middle-earth are right here in Minas Tirith and they’re the most likely to have crafted somewhat convincing fakes, the PCs can get on their path to redemption immediately and investigate the Glassworks. And the next part is actually quite well-made I’ll say. There’s three clues to be found, they make a lot of sense in context without being too obvious and, more importantly, it is up to the players to piece it together. No dumb spoon-feeding this time around. Hurray!
They should be able to discover a lead on someone called the « Green Man », and their next stop in order to find him is all the way north to Lake-town.
(some minor events on the road: a pair of trolls under a bridge, an haunted tower – serviceable filler)
This part is unfortunately way less well-conceived. Nobody knows who the « Green Man » is in Lake-town but the adventurers will stumble upon/be offered a job that leads to his discovery anyway. Call it Fate if you will. The captured smuggler (there’s just too much smuggling NPCs in this adventure) can tell the PCs where his men (now missing) were bringing the fake palantiri (before they reached the cave where they found them) but he knows nothing useful of his mysterious employer. But they get UNEXPECTED ASSISTANCE in the form of an old woman who tells of this evil sorcerer Taladhan « He came out of them woods, he did. » Yeah, right, thank you old woman, onward we go.
Oh and this Taladhan hired an assassin who’ll most likely kill at least one player character while he sleeps at the inn in Lake-town. That’s it *checks the list of replacement*, here’s this new character for you, keep going!
The adventurers leave Lake-town and follow the smugglers’ trail into Greenwood (Mirkwood was renamed with its ancient name after the end of the War of the Ring). They’ll have to fight some giant spiders and, after about six days of travel, will reach the spot where the smugglers were ambushed by Taladhan’s half-orc minions. They’ll also encounter a Silvan Elf that will conveniently brief the players on the current situation, which is as follows:
He has located Taladhan’s tower in the southern part of Greenwood.
He has seen « ugly men » with two crates a few months ago (the fakes)
He has seen another band a few days ago (the real palantiri)
Elves attacked this last band and took off with the smaller palantir to their tree fort
Those Elves are being attacked right now by the sorcerer’s minions (« ugly men » and Black Trolls)
The defenders can’t last long
But despite knowing all this the adventurers, as written, aren’t expected to go help the endangered Elves immediately but, instead, for some reason to do so only after they’ve dealt with Taladhan at his lair. Talk about odd prioritizing…
I would hope the players would insist on getting out of the railroad at this point but if they don’t they’ll go to the sorcerer’s lair, a sort of Orthanc-type tower carved inside a stone spire, and a symbol of the times surely, whereas the villain is a pale imitation of Saruman who was himself a pale imitation of Sauron who as a pale imitation of Morgoth…
Conveniently for the adventurers, the 25th level sorcerer Taladhan is one obsessive dude and he will only intervene if 80% of the current garnison (25 half-orcs and 2 Olog-hai Trolls, nothing to scoff at) is killed, otherwise he’s too busy playing with his new palantir toy to even care. But then the tower « is reached only by air across the violent spume of the waterfall that engulfs its foundation. » It’s a very nice site by the way. But I have no idea how the PCs are supposed to enter the tower, across the waterfall and get past the solid black iron doors (closed by « huge metal bars » from the inside), or how the baddies themselves are getting in and out without any bridge contraption for that matter. Climbing the vertical 165′ up to the balcony doesn’t seem like a feasible option. A Trojan Horse-style ploy maybe?
It’s mini-Orthanc alright, impregnable, so unless the players are really clever about it (or have just the right spell available, that’s a possibility), maybe the GM will have to put in a Wormtongue lookalike to untie the tactical impasse…
Whichever way it is achieved, it leaves the tree-fort battle to be resolved afterward. Dozens of half-orcs fighters with some trolls and twenty Elves on the adventurers’ side (not included: what if they came immediately, are the defenders more numerous? if they come 3 days later, are they still alive?). A hard fight unless (also not included) a crafty player character shows the cut head of the dead sorcerer for his minions to see or something like that I would think.
The adventurers finally have the real palantiri in their hands and will get back to the King’s court after some minor events (giant spiders, bandits).
One last unnecessary scene happens whereas Vacros and his accomplice have kidnapped the royal seer. Whatever, let the royal guards deal with this I say.
With that, the adventure FINALLY comes to an end:
And that’s it, that was Palantir Quest, ICE’s Middle-Earth most ambitious adventure, too ambitious perhaps as in my opinion it couldn’t deliver true quality content within such a lenghty journey, all in only 159 pages. I have some ideas on what I would do with this book, there’s something to be done with it undoubtely – cutting two-thirds of the journey and removing the railroad plot (making it a sandbox, yay!) would be a good start, but that’s for another post (if I gather the will to do so).
An underwater mission where we have to defend an explosive device long enough for it to reach its objective. I guess we take a big breath, leave our bathysphere and fight the baddies?
This is a Defend the Objective with a Timer scenario with monsters spawning every round after the first.
Characters
Zam Boni the Frozen Fist (David) lvl 5, big dude but very graceful on ice
Anaphi the Fallen Lion (Math) lvl 4, got out of the sewers to find some coins
Hail the Irritable Enchanter (Guillaume) lvl 5, will she get irritated enough to care?
–The large, spiky, black tentacle is on our side, doing the bidding of Anaphi.–––––Time’s up, things will go BOOM! Or maybe not, does a psychic blast makes noise?
Closing Comments:
The device lost only 1 hp, our defence was efficient!
The Frozen Fist can endure a LOT of punishment, very useful in this scenario.
Hail can inflict really impressive damage, a good fit for the brittles I put on the board.
Anaphi is a low hp summoner, that’s tricky to play. I’m sure Math will find a way to make it work though.
This scenario is linked with Frozen Treasure (90). Last time we were exploring some icebergs and, it was bound to happen, our ship have sunk. Again. Seriously, I think it’s like the third time.
We’ve managed to reach the coast but there’s a bunch of Lurkers blocking our way.
To win this scenario we simply have to escape by reaching the end of the fifth map tile. Going over the edge of the starting tiles unlock the next one and then again for the last one.
Characters
Zam Boni the Frozen Fist (David) lvl 5, big dude but very graceful on ice
Satha the Mayor of Frosthaven (Math) lvl 4, taking matters into her own hands
Hail the Irritable Enchanter (Guillaume) lvl 4, will she get irritated enough to care?
Closing Comments:
You don’t have to fight anything on this one. Some crowd control and good movement cards helps a lot of course..
Beware the elite Lurker Wavethrowers though, they have an immobilize on their attacks that can really complicate your escape.
Not included in my « glimpse »: Book 2 ended with a great cliffhanger, cruel in every possible way, and Book 3 starts with an awesome scene resolving it. Really gruesome stuff, very dark I’ll say without going into spoiler territory. I love it.
After their ordeal they’re back in the spiral stairway.There’s people coming the other way. But sometimes people can be worse than monsters, are they dangerous?Turns out they’re not.They’re all the way up to Level 59, but now there’s this little problem.Indeed.An echo? There’s a vast area ahead.Looks like a Boss Level…This winged insect-like monster is this world’s version of a Basilisk. Has the same turn-to-stone gaze as usual and has very good protection with its carapace. Nice monster design.
That’s it for today.
There’s five books published (and translated) to date. It’s an awesome dungeon-exploration manga, I really like it.
Streets & Spores 