Been a while since I’ve done « A note on » post, but it’s been slow on the ttrpgaming front over here those last few weeks so I’ll put out this little filler.
Troglodytes in Heroes 3
I’ve been playing the venerable computer game Heroes 3 with my sons for the last few weeks and we’re having great fun. My youngest is fond of the Dungeon faction, mainly for their strongest unit, the dragons unsurprisingly. Their weakest unit, the troglodyte, is MY favorite though. I love their design!
They don’t have eyes!or the « improved » stronger version
Contrast it with the current D&D version:
Not bad but it looks like some kind of ugly lizardman, nothing special here.
The one thing that differientate troglodytes from other monsters in D&D is their horrible stench. It’s okay, I have nothing against it but I think I can offer alternative features that are more interesting.
Now, troglodytes, as befit the name should be a mostly subterranean species. Making do without eyes could actually make a lot of sense (pun intended).
damn, the stuff we can find on the internet
New features for D&D
Anyway, yeah, I think eyeless troglodytes should have echolocation like dolphins or bats for that matter. The adventurers would hear the eery screams of the troglodytes coming for them, wouldn’t it be scary/cool? That could be a fluff thing or it could also means mechanically that Trologodytes are simply immune to anything that need eyesight to be affected (i.e illusions, or blindness obviously) AND would be vulnerable to silence effects (would be effectively « blinded »).
Now, a more audacious feature I would give troglodytes is darkvision camouflage. As in modern D&D something like three quarters of people have darkvision for some reason, what about the one species that would have evolved to mess with this sense? Be it low body temperature à la Predator, or some special skin pattern, the Troglodytes are basically invisible to darkvision users.
You hear the screams of those awful troglodytes adventurer? Hope you didn’t only banked on your darkvision and brought ye ole torch!
I’ve mentionned last session that I thought that the boys relied a bit too much on their aunt when we play together so here’s a session with only the group’s two younger players, my sons, just to remind them how to be more active in the decision-making process.
short session, 1hr
Player Characters (PCs):
Aracyne (Isaac), Elf Hunter, Guild Leader
Forka (changed his name), (Edmond), Dogman Knight
Alfred (Me), Hobgoblin Fighter
Last time we ended up with the party having explored a good chunk of Level 2 and standind beside another flooded area. Three adventurers (I’ll be playing Alfred the Hobgoblin to help them a little) will continue to explore while the two others are resting or something.
Level 2
They can see another passage beyond the water but don’t have an easy mean to get across without getting wet. Whilst they think about it, two Walking Puffballs come on sight from the other side ot the water but Aracyne quickly dispatch them with two arrows.
They decide to backtrack a little and explore more to the south.
They get to the passage where they’ve fought a rats swarm, a Fire-Beetle is busy devouring a fireballed-crispy rat. The insect monster is kind of blocking their way so the PCs decide to attack it. Forka miss with his big hammer but Alfred plunges his dagger in a weak spot and kills the Fire-Beetle. Forka remoces its hard chitin carapace and takes it with him, not without some difficulty.
They get past the glowing mushroom area and take the south-east passage. They’re in a small room with crystals on the walls reflecting purple light. There’s a sense of calm in the place but the adventurers are worried that they’ll fall asleep if they linger. Aracyne takes one crystal and they move on.
They go further south in a large rooms with boulders here and there. Once they take a few steps in they’re suddenly ambushed by three Vilstraks.
That’s a Vilstrak in case you don’t know what it is. I didn’t.
These bipedal insectoids are not very strong but they’re well-armored. Forka misses his first swing and bend his hammer on the hard rock floor. He’ll have to fight with a weird-angled weapon from now on. Alfred slays one foe with a well-placed dagger hit. Aracyne dodges on attack. Three more Vilstraks get out from behind the boulders and several others within the next rounds. Fortunately, Forka, despite his damaged weapon (or because of it we’re joking), is very efficent and smash one foe after the other. Alfred hits more often than not and kill his share of opponents. Aracyne has to focus more on dodging as he’s already wounded from earlier. The last two foes try to flee but are quickly cut down.
« Hey boss » Alfred says, « we bleedin’ all over the place, might be a good idea t’make a strategic retreat? » Aracyne takes notice of their many wounds and gives the order to start their way back to safety.
They get to the grand hallway’s door without incidents but they can hear the humming of the stirges behind the door. They open the door, shoots down a few flying stirges and then dash to the stairway and upstairs into Hobgoblin territory.
The PCs made some dealings with the Hobgoblins. Aracyne paid a 10 gp fee to stay one more day in the territory (plus a room to rest). Forka paid a weaponsmith to unbend his hammer. They also learned that the hobgoblins don’t have food stocks for very long and are worried about that. The fact that they’re cut off from the outside (by the goblins) and don’t have easy food sources inside the dungeons is problematic.
Closing comments:
Fun session. There was one dangerous fight against the Vilstraks. Armor in Dragonbane substract damage, something that I’ve always preferred to the usual making you harder to hit. Combat is very fun in Dragonbane, I’m happy with it.
Edmond was very happy of his character’s martial prowess with his 2-h hammer. He kept hitting his target despite having a disadvantage with his damaged weapon.
Having more than one weapon become a lot more important in a system when damaging one’s is possible.
Isaac has thought of a clever plan to help the hobgoblins go through the goblin barricade. That’ll be interesting to see!
There’s three minor factions on Level 1 of Gunderholfen: the kobolds, the goblins and the hobgoblins, all hostile to each other. The hobgoblins are closer to Level 2 but are stuck inside the dungeon as they don’t have access to any exit (in my version, as written their area has its own entrance). My own explanation for the presence of these three groups is that the goblins were serving the hobgoblins mostly as cannon fodder for exploring the lower level until they had enough, revolted and claimed a part of Level 1 for themselves, The kobolds simply invaded in the ensuing chaos. Of course my players didn’t know any of this but learned of it in this session.
For this campaign we’re using Free League’s Dragonbane as the rpg system and we’re spicing up the whole thing with a Ryoko Kui’s Delicious in Dungeon flavor so to speak.
It was decided that Alfred the hobgoblin would be Lebeau’s hireling, paid by him, and not a full member of the guild for the moment.
Aracyne pays some gold pieces to Cedric the Sage to learn of the history of Gunderholfen in broad strokes.
Ganfal Swamp:
The PCs leave town, cross through farmlands and reach the Ganfal Swamp. This time, two-third of the way in they have a fight against giant poisonous toads. Alfred is wounded and poisoned but survives. The PCs make camp to rest a moment.
While they lunch they ask their new hobgoblin companion, what he knows of Gunderholfen (about time) and they learn a few useful things.
He was outside the dungeon with a hunting party, came back after a few days and he and his companions were surprised to find kobolds at the main entrance. They tried to force their way in but were outnumbered. He was the only survivor and was thrown in prison.
When he left the hobgoblins controlled almost all of Level 1, so something happened to change that.
Negruf is the hobgoblin chief.
The hobgoblins were in the process of exploring Level 2, cautiously, using goblin patrols. Level 2 is made of natural caves and there’s some monstrous critters roaming around.
There’s two entrances to Level 1 (not quite true), the Snake Door and another tree shrouded gully entrance on the northern side of the hill.
(Unbeknownst to him, things changed a lot since he left hunting)
North Side Entrance (Level 1B)
The party goes around the hill and reach the entrance that their new hobgoblin companion told them about.
There’s five goblins guarding the entrance and they tell the PCs that this is goblin territory now. Alfred tells them to stop messing around but they’re serious, they no longer take order from any damn hobgoblins.
Seeing that Aflred can’t make them enter, Hédralynn comes forth and show the goblins the dead kobold chief’s headdress and tells them that they (the PCs) could be useful to the goblins. One of the goblin go fetch their chief.
Chief Yurt arrives with his bodyguards. Hédralynn makes it known that they wish to get to Level 2. After some discussion between them it’s agreed that the adventurers could pass this one time through goblin territory in exchange for 30 gp now and more gifts on their way out.
10 goblins (including the chief) escort the PCs to the eastern end of goblin territory. Behind a reinforced door, beyond a long, dark passage with columns and corpses (both goblins and hobgoblins) littering the floor, is where the hobgoblins are now confined.
As Chief Yurt says farewell to the party, Hédralynn executes her plan, she lobs two fireballs at once, one at Yurt and another to the goblin in charge of this guard post! The latter dies instantly but Yurt survives just to be finished by an arrow from Aracyne. The surviving goblins, still outnumbering the PCs 8 to 5 yells angrily and try to take advantage of their superior number. One lucky goblin pierces Malique’s boot with his spear and cuts his big toe off (injury). But three more fireballs from the mage definitely turns the fight to the adventurers’ advantage, not too soon though as more goblins are coming in.
Malique snatches Yurt’s body from the floor, Alfred takes back the gift of gold and then they all flee through the passage to the east. The last two in the passage, Lebeau and Alfred, are hit by stones from goblin slingers and almost don’t make it but they see the hobgoblin guards and Alfred yells at them to open fast and they do.
After a discussion with the hobgoblin guards, helped a lot by the fact that they are accompanied by Alfred, the PCs are escorted to chief Negruf. They tell him of their objective of going down a Level and explore. They give him the corpse of Yurt, whom the hobgoblins sees as a traitorous rebel, and the gold. They tell him of how they saved Alfred from the kobolds too.
Negruf is pleased and allows them safe passage and also let them have a room to rest.
Closing Comments:
Olivier’s love of hirelings and Marjorie’s usual craftiness led in this session to their party shortcutting a big chunk of Level 1 and they’ll be able to go to Level 2 next session. They also have a potential alliance with the hobgoblins already in the going but they’re now enemies of the goblins.
Eventually they’ll have to figure a way out of the dungeon but all in due time…
How Negruf should see the adventurers? They can help him with his goblin problem so I think he clearly has something to gain out of it for the moment.
First session of what should be the main dish ot this new campaign: the Gunderholfen megadungeon. It’s mostly vanilla fantasy (less so the deeper you go!), but after years of kinda atypical D&D I think it will still feel refreshing. We’ll see how it goes.
For this campaign we’re using Free League’s Dragonbane as the rpg system and we’re spicing up the whole thing with a Ryoko Kui’s Delicious in Dungeon flavor so to speak.
We start in Longfelt. The PCs hear that the mutants that they had saved are slowly getting back to normal at the town’s sanatorium. Hédralynn sells a scroll of diminution to a gnome magic-user and buys some goods in exchange. The characters leave town, walk through farmlands until they reach the Ganfal Swamp. They have several hours of walking on a treacherous path but they manage to reach the ancient dwarf hold without incidents (no encounters rolled).
Snake Door Entrance (Level 1A)
There’s a lot of small, clawed footprints and piles of damaged bones around the entrance. The interior is dimly lit with flickering light.
Three kobolds stand guard and threatens the adventurers with their spears. One is slain quickly and the two others flee inside, side-stepping one area on their way.
The PCs ran after the fleeing kobolds but took care of not stepping on the suspicious area themselves. Aracyne broke his bow trying to shoot down a kobold. Malique managed to catch one and slew him with his warhammer. The other suffered from the same fate soon after.
This wasn’t discreet at all however and now the PCs could hear kobolds coming from the east and from the north at the same time. Aracyne borrowed Hédralynn’s bow and killed an incoming kobold as Malique got in melee against two others. Malique is very efficient with his warhammer but also got stabbed by a spear but nothing serious.
Meanwhile Lebeau was facing two other kobolds that tried to bait him into a trap but weren’t subtle enough. One even fell headlong into the hidden pit when he tripped on his own feet in the course of the fight.
After taking care of the last kobold together, the adventurers inspect a half-rotten blue curtain and find a passage behind.
They get into the chief’s hall. A fearsome kobold, as fearsome as a kobold can be, is flanked by three large weasels and there’s also 5 kobold guards.
A big fight ensues. Hédralynn starts to lob fireballs (dragonbane’s fireballs are single target 2d6 dmg, or more if boosted) with abandon. Aracyne finishes a giant weasel with a well-placed arrow. Malique does his best to block spear thrusts at the front. The adventurers prevail but Malique sports many wounds now. Hédralynn does her best to heal him with her magic.
Lebeau finds a door behind a wall hanging, this leads to the chief’s modest treasure of copper pieces.
Another door in the chief’s hall leads to a larger room that smells of charred flesh. A kobold shaman starts to casts a spell at them as his guards charge the adventurers. Lebeau has a hard time fighting as the shaman unleash a swarm of insects at him. Fortunately the shaman isn’t long for this world as he gets a fireball and an arrow from the elves PCs. One kobold surrenders after his colleagues die and gives some information on the lair’s layout, where the jails are after being asked.
Backtracking a little, the adventurers go the kobolds’ jails but a portcullis is blocking their way. The two dogmen manage to force it open. There’s a brief fight thereafter against two kobold guards.
There’s two prisoners still alive, the daughter of Clement the tailor and one severely wounded hobgoblin. For some reason Lebeau is convinced that the latter will be a fine addition to the party and asks Hédralynn to spend her last bit of magic on healing him. Lebeau offers a full treasure-part to the hobgoblin if he joins the guild but it will be up to the Aracyne the guild leader to make such a contract or not.
The adventurers leave Gundeholfen, go across the Ganfal Swamp safely and get back to town.
Closing Comments:
Dragonbane characters start as capable adventurers but they don’t really ever have access to game-changing spells or abilities, unless they find magic items that is. I’m not sure how it wil impact the game later on to be honest.
I’ve shortened the walk to the dungeon through the Ganfal Swamp but nonetheless I have to remember that crossing the swamp should be seen very much as an irritating and serious logistic issue to solve before long i.e having a base nearer.
They’ve gone through a big chunk of the Kobolds lair and killed 2/3 of them but it wasn’t that easy either. Malique got almost injured despite being the most heavily armored until Olivier reminded Edmond that he could try to block one Kobold’s fatal spear attack with his shield and he succeed in doing so.
As we’re not playing a gold>>xp game I’m cutting dramatically on the amount of treasure they find. In fact, most creatures won’t have anything of value. Sorry, but not sorry!
The first kobolds that have fled should have alerted 2-3 more kobolds immediately in the next room instead of going farther on the lair. My first mistake of the dungeon happened really quick! I have to look at a few adjacent rooms whenever they advance into a new one just to be sure. I’ll prepare an enemy roster per area next time and won’t be caught off-guard…
The start of a new thing for us. This time we’ll have a megadungeon called Gunderholfen as our campaign tentpole. You’ll learn about it soon enough. But not now, in our first session the players have chosen instead to go into the Magical Forest to explore The Hole in the Oak.
TTRPG system used: Free League’s Dragonbane instead of OSE
Aside: Yes, once again I’ll be running adventures within a system not intended for them. This is the way I’ve been doing things for a while now, a bit more complicated as I have to adapt quite a few things, but there’s an intent behind this… Huh, yes, there’s an intent I’m telling you!
Furthermore, I’ll be borrowing some concepts from Ryoko Kui’s Delicious in Dungeon.
Player Characters (PCs):
Aracyne (Isaac), Elf Hunter, Guild Leader
Malique, (Edmond), Dogman Knight
Hédralynn (Marjorie), Elf Mage
Jean Lebeau (Olivier), Dogman Fighter
We start in Longfelt. The party meets with the town’s high constable Vandemaut who wants them to go check on the dwarven ruins of Gunderhlofen, see if there’s monsters inside or just humanoids. « Oh, I almost forgot », he said, « there’s the daugther of Clement the taylor missing, probably held captive into the ruins. There’s a reward if you manage to save her ». The adventurers buy a few goods and leave town.
They don’t go to Gunderholfen though, they go explore a place that Aracyne had found earlier while roaming the Magical Forest.
The Hole in the Oak. Dungeon Type: Natural (Pertubed).
The PCs enter a passage at the base of an ancient oak. They see hoof-prints and boot-prints on the ground. NOLLY’S KINGDOM is carved on a root.
They manage to slip through the roots and go left at a junction. A purple-robed man appears from thin air and delivers a semi-coherent message before disappearing.
They get into a circular room with a rug in the middle. There’s a rune under the rug.
Thence, the PCs open a door west and find two scrolls and numerous jars with tiny dead persons floating in them. They take the scrolls.
Going north, they are blocked by a locked door and then open another one into a room that has a pit filled with grimy water and a suspicious pile of gold on the other side. They don’t fall for it and go elsewhere.
Going on they hear the subtle sound of a door opening behind them, the one that they found was locked. Three foul-smelling troglodytes are coming at them! The two dogmen have a hard time because of their sensitive sense of smell. The adventurers prevail but Malique is wounded.
In the big adjacent room through the now open door, the PCs find a secret door and a chest full of silver pieces.
Thence, the PCs go north, they hear the sound of running water. They turn a corner and stumble upon several naked corpses on the ground. A beast lore check tells Hédralynn that they’re most likely ghouls and the PCs retreat silently.
Backtracking a little, the adventurers find another access to the underground river and even take the time for some fishing with the fishing canes readily available. They catch several fishes that will come in handy later on.
A bit further, they get into a large room with some statue and with several doors and passages going in every direction.
In the nearest passage they find a dead dwarf with a coil of nasty black vine around his neck. They see the same black vines hanging from the ceiling a bit further.
They try another way. Listening at a door they hear loud snoring. They open the door and see an ogre, terribly malformed and sleeping on a large chair. A makeshift jail hold 4 prisoners, barely human mutants. The adventurers want to free them and Hédralynn opens the jail’s door with a spell. The Ogre doesn’t wake up luckily but the mutants eye the adventurers with a look of hunger. They receive fresh raw fish that they devour instantly Gollum-like.
Fed mutants in tow, the PCs go explore a strange metallic room nearby. There’s a huge metal ball on one side and 6 levers on the wall. That doesn’t hold the interest of the adventurers and they go further south along another passage.
To their left is a huge widening natural cave but they go right, near the entrance in fact, into a small room with all sort of root faces. The faces speak in unison and offer knowledge in exchange of payment. Cordélia give some silver pieces and learn of the « treachery of the gnomes ». Another go and this time it’s « the fruits of the underworld are magical but can twist the mind of the weak-willed ».
Going further they enter a spiralling passage. They also see hoof-prints going in. They find bright-colored hats and cloaks hanging from roots and Jean takes one of each. But seeing that there was 12 hats the PCs get a little anxious to encounter their hoof-footed owners and decide to call it a day.
They exit the dungeon and escort the mutants back in town to see if someone could help them with magic or something.
Closing Comments:
I’d only skimmed through the adventure prior to running it but it has a very user-friendly layout and it went smoothly enough.
The players had more positive comments about the new system than about the adventure itself. in particular they liked how xp gains is attached to the use of skills in Dragonbane.
So we have a party of two elves and two dogmen, that’s a bit weird haha! The Dogman kin is not even a thing in Dragonbane but it replaces the Wolfman as a throwback to Kobolds (that are bipedal dogs) in Delicious in Dungeons.
The Mage’s magic trick Open/Close isn’t supposed to work on locked doors so I could have retconned the Mutants and Ogre situation but I’ve let it go this time.
Session impromptue de D&D 5E alors que ce qui était prévue était plutôt la session annuelle de Vampire: Dark Ages (qui avait déjà été remise à plus tard ce printemps) mais deux des joueurs ont laissé tombé à la dernière minute. Le problème c’est que tous mes efforts de préparations des dernières semaines ont été mis au placard et en remplacement je me retrouve à faire une session d’une campagne quasi-abandonnée! Mais au minimum je pouvais me rabattre sur ma préparation antérieure (principalement celle-ci).
Personnages Joueurs (PJs)
(Marjorie) Kalohan, (level 11) High Elf Wizard (evoker), Inheritor, doit trouver un sort inconnu jusque là avant de pouvoir obtenir son héritage
(Isaac) Anfi, (level 11>>12) Locathah Fighter (eldritch knight), Outlander, venu sur la terre ferme en passant par la Caverne-Tunnel, là pour découvrir ce nouvel environnement + Salamandre Géante
(Olivier) Léon, (level 9) Human Monk (way of shadow), Outlander, revenu à la vie grâce à Zotzilaha, maintenant libre de faire ce qu’il veut
(Edmond) Vingt, (level 8>>9) Myconid Druid (circle of spores), Acolyte, envoyé de Zuggtmoy, la Déesse du fongique + Fourmi Zombifiée
(Chris) PaxDouble-Poches, (level 10), Halfling Rogue (arcane trickster), Criminal, fuyant un passé criminel, a vu de ses yeux les trésors merveilleux qu’a rapporté le ranger Flyzus de sa dernìère expédition et s’est immiscé dans le groupe depuis
(Chris) Rufb (level 10), Half-Orc Barbarian (berserker), Mercenary Veteran; capturé par des pterafolks, seul survivant de sa bande de mercenaires, délivré par Flyzus au sommet du Firefinger
(Jason) Shin, (level 10) Tabaxi Fighter (arcane archer), Outlander, veut devenir le plus grand chasseur de tout les temps + Vorn, Shield Guardian
Intro: Coup d’État à Port Nyanzaru
De retour de leur dernier périple dans les jungles de Chult, les aventuriers ont pris connaissance des bouleversements politiques dans la ville principale de la péninsule, Port Nyanzaru. En effet, un membre du conseil de gouvernement, Ifan Talro’a, s’est emparé du pouvoir avec l’appui de mercenaires étrangers et d’un mystérieux chef criminel (Jobal).
Les aventuriers étant à peu près en guerre ouverte contre ces mêmes mercenaires, il ne leur sied pas du tout de les voir placer leur marionnette en tête de la ville…
Entrée et Retrouvailles
Avec un bateau-volant sous la main, faire le trajet jusqu’à Port Nyanzaru depuis leur repaire ne leur a jamais été aussi facile et rapide. Le capitaine Flyzus les dépose à une distance raisonnable de la ville pour ne pas trop afficher leur arrivée. Ensuite, profitant de leur réputation bien méritée de sauveurs, ils se dirigent vers le quartier des pêcheurs (Tiriki’s Anchorage) où les locaux favorisent leur entrée discrète.
Art: Mehmet Ozen
Pax et Léon surveillent les patrouilles des mercenaires, puis à l’aide d’un contact, le groupe s’infiltre à l’intérieur des murs de la ville par un tunnel de contrebandiers. Après quelques essais infructueux, Pax réussit à entrer en contact avec des membres de la Main Mauve, des teinturiers/gang de rue à la solde de Jessamine, une membre du conseil abolit et opposante du nouveau gouverneur. Dans le repaire de cette dernière, ou est aussi présent le magicien Wakanga, les PJs en apprennent beaucoup sur la situation. Après quelques hésitations, les aventuriers décident de s’en prendre à la partie cachée, mystérieuse, de leur ennemi en tentant de sortir Jobal de l’équation. Ce dernier à sa base principale quelque part dans les tunnels sous les antiques ziggurats de la Vieille Ville.
Un bâteau de pêche dépose les PJs près de la Vieille Ville, une illusion programmée de Wakanga les aide à passer inaperçu. Kalohan utilise un sort de True Seeing et trouve une entrée secrète dans un endroit nommée le Gauntlet où des spectacles sanguinaires ont lieu couramment. Les aventuriers s’y engouffrent…
Sous la Ville
Après une première salle bourrée de pièges et une deuxième pleine d’ennemis morts-vivants, les aventuriers s’enfoncent plus avant et affrontents d’autres morts-vivants, cette fois juchés sur un système de passerelle surplombant du bétail en contrebas. Un usage judicieux du sort Shatter de la magicienne accomplit une bonne partie du travail en précipitant les ennemis dans le troupeau, un piétinement s’ensuit….
Plus loin, une grande salle contient de nombreuses cages avec toutes sortes de bestioles à l’intérieur, le tout gardé par des cultistes (des guerriers et une mage). Les PJs ont un plan redoutable: laisser s’échapper des monstres tandis qu’ils s’occupent des gardes les plus proches. Kalohan brise la cage d’un wyvern, la bête s’empresse de terrasser la mage cultiste tout près et prise au dépourvu.
image: Rhadov
Une deuxième cage d’ouverte, cette fois par Pax, voit des Ettercaps cavaler vers la liberté après avoir empêtrés dans leurs toiles leurs geôliers .
Une fois les cultistes éliminés il y a un moment tendu alors que le wyvern semble hésité à les attaquer aussi mais finalement la bête part dans la diretion opposée (au hasard). La suivant à une certaine distance, les aventuriers voient le wyvern confronté à des adversaire morts-vivants et être submergé sous le nombre. Des flèches explosives de shin ont tôt fait de faire le ménage après la mort du wyvern.
TBC
Notes du DM:
Marjorie penchait davantage pour organiser une guérilla contre le nouveau pouvoir mais le manque d’enthousiasme des autres joueurs pour cette idée a fait tourner vers une implication plus directe des PJs (baston!).
Pour faire vite, j’ai « emprunté » la section Blood Pens du donjon Doomvault (Tales of the Yawning Portal) et l’ai présenté presque tel quel pour une fois.
Les joueurs ont bien apprécié d’avoir des monstres dans leur équipe en quelque sorte.
Our second session of the campaign outside of the Château. This one was a bit laborious in the going as the three boys were out of their zone of comfort in how to approach a somewhat subtle objective. It also led to an absolutely major change of the campaign further on, one that I’ve hinted was possible but I thought was unlikely to happen.
The action this time is set into the city of Ximes, in Averoigne, with a backstory as it turned out heavily inspired by The Holiness of Azédarac by Clark Ashton Smith and, as is my fancy with this campaign I’ve used material from Gabor Lux to help me flesh out the setting a little more.
TTRPG System used: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford
Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)
Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, has a repeating crossbow and a magic sword called Scrupulous, Expert lvl 6
Cordélia Lenoir (Marjorie), using the dark arts for Good (probably), Necromancer lvl 5
Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 6
Paul Nareff (Olivier), friend and sponsor of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 6
Rumors:
There’s an extensive network of tunnels below the city of Ximes. Smugglers who makes the run on the Ysoulde river use the tunnels to hide their stuff.
Bishop Azédarac is often seen with merchant Jehan Mauvaissoir, a shady individual whom, like the bishop, nobody seems to have known a few years ago.
One important piece of information was obtained in downtime has Cordélia has finished deciphering the notes of the late Rogat Demazien. The latter had some kind of a deal with the « Holy Man »: find a way to create and control gargoyles in exchange for the recipe of a powerful time-travel potion. Could this saintly man be Bishop Azédarac? Certainly all the rumors they heard about him made it sound likely.
Could be useful as for now the adventurers have to work for the Bénédictins monks and the Church in finding incriminating evidence against the infamous bishop to pay off their debt.
Arriving in Ximes
Cordélia sends her homonculus at the cathedral to spy on Azédarac’s entourage. She finds a mark in the person of a young nobleman, one Boudevoy, who’s to become a churchman and is now a protégé of the bishop.
The adventurers manage to join a game of cards with Boudevoy at the Gamesman’s Court, Cordélia uses her natural charm on naive Boudevoy and convince him to show her (and her friends) where he works, at the cathedral.
Inside the cathedral, with the information gathered by the homonculus and with Boudevoy as a laissé-passez of sort, the party manage to find a door leading to the undercity.
They get into a large room lit by two braziers, armed men block their way, They get their weapons out and the fight is on! Even if the thugs prove no match for the battle-hardened veterans they still fight to the last one.
Thence, the PCs get into another large room and choose to follow the more visibly well-trodden path on their right, ignoring many others.
After a few turns this leads them to a locked, reinforced door. Noah starts to try some of his false keys but someone from the other side of the door says that whoever is there better leave very soon.
The adventurers retreat no further that in the corridor behind the angle and goad the threatmongers into coming to them. The door opens, furtive footsteps, almost inaudible. Noah advances, crossbow in hands but gets jumped upon by three assassins and almost die. Fortunately his companions rush to help him and manage to prevail.
Cordélia, Paul and Monmon then disguise themselves with the assassins’ clothing (bloodsoaked as they are) while Noah will wait back with most of their equipment.
They open the door into a large, dimly-lit room with other likewise clothed people and try their best to be inconspicuous. They get to the other side after uttering a quick explanation and get through another locked door.
Thence, they get lost for some time in a network of confusing corridors before finding a secret passage. They go North and open a door into a large plush hallway with a dozen thugs playing cards or sipping beverage. There’s a heavy curtain on the northern wall, the adventurers want to check it out but are stopped « did the Boss asked for you? » to which Cordélia replies that indeed they are here to make their report on the intruders situation. The PCs are eyed suspiciously but are brought forward nonetheless (and pretty much trapped).
Behind the curtain is a small room with arrow slits on each side, a set of bars blocks another area with and a vague human shape can be seen behind a veil: « Do you think you can fool me? Men, bring the other one » And here comes Noah, with his wrists tied together.
« Certainly not » replies Cordélia, thinking fast. And acting on her strong suspicion that it was Azédarac himself behind the veil: « We’ve been sent by the church but we’d much rather make a deal with you, something that could benefit us all and allow my special, frowned-upon talents to flourish… »
And so, after a bit more discussion between the adventurers and Azédarac (because indeed it was him), they reached some kind of understanding. Through his powers he would endeavor to get himself and his new allies into another epoch entirely no less…
Closing Comments:
There was many ways to approach the (ultimately discarded) mission. The most likely I thought would have seen the party explore a good chunk of the undercity, with possibly many sessions to do so. It did not happen like this at all and I was a bit disappointed quite frankly. I wanted encounters with hanging snagworths and slimecones and dubious characters but instead my players managed, part by inspiration and part randomly, to get the shortest route possible to the hidden domain of Azédarac.
Of course Azédarac doesn’t feature in Gont: nest of spies, I’ve switched him over with the assassin leader Grave-Wight. Likewise, the cathedral took the place of keldor’s manor.
I still feel a bit of an impostor when I cut open an adventure or setting, discard unwanted stuff, add some other, switch characters and so on and sew it back together to run at my table but at the same time I think it’s the next best thing if I don’t take the time to create my own.
It’s the end of this Castle Xyntillan run, big hanging threads and all, just like that.
It’s the beginning of something else if we choose so, I’m not quite sure myself. Do we hear the call of Khosura?
This is the long overdue second part of my review (that virtually no one was waiting for) of this mostly forgotten TSR adventure The Sword of Roele, for the Birthright setting. In the first part I’ve talked about how it has an absolute mess of a scenario, hilariously bad. But now I’m gonna talk about its main dungeon which I find, as the title says, pretty good.
The Sword of Roele, Wolfgang Baur, 1996, AD&D2E, levels 5-8
So you’ve gone through the arduous process of the module’s disjointed, scene-based nodes and finally found the adventure’s main dungeon where the macguffin, I mean the Sword of Roele is. You stand in front of:
The Great Tomb of the Order of the Sun
Mid-sized dungeon, 2 levels, 53 rooms
funerary complex of knights do-gooders and some of their major figures
designed by an evil magic-user architect to accomodate his own needs in his plans to achieve lichdom
The tomb’s only entrance is collapsed with only a narrow path to get in (shown as the « goblin path » on the map even though there’s no goblins in the dungeon, a obvious sign that the dungeon has been refurbished and changed from its original purpose). The PCs will immediately have to confront the troglodyte sentries and do some tunnel fighting.
There’s an whole tribe of 41 trogs in the rooms near the entrance. The trogs are also intruders to the dungeons.
Here’s a great bit:
« If the troglodytes lose 10 or more of their number, they retreat into Areas 3 and 6. In the storage area they climb up the tunnel into the audience chamber (Area 8). They are cold-blooded so they suffer only one-quarter damage from the brown mold’s cold. In the hall, they hide in the shadows behind the statues, waiting for a chance to ambush foes. »
The trogs take advantage of their resistance to brown mold, that’s great!
When the PCs are in they’ll see large double-doors at their left (upper right on the map), they’ll feel a draft of cold air coming from the right (caused by the brown mold) and see an impressive hallway in front with rows of stone statues/caryatids on each side. They’ll probably notice the corpses of dead thieves on the floor too, at the limit of their light source. Good telegraphing for what represents the main gimmick of this dungeon: of course some caryatids are monsters (circled in red below)! As written the caryatids are the equivalent of lesser stone golems and are perfectly beatable. When I ran this dungeon I’d upgraded the stone statues to full stone golems status, they absolutely have to constitute a proper threat to force some hard choices (and clever ideas) from the players IMO.
a caryatid ready to crush your skullAn « optimal » run to reach the second level could look something like that, with some tense moments of crossing the hallway with the help of diversions. (huh, you may want to include room 21 and 22 if you feel confident! 😉 )
Apart from the troglodytes and caryatids the main denizens are of the undead variety with some constructs sprinkled here and there. The dungeon definitely suffers from a gygaxian naturalism syndrome where things make sense for a tomb but there’s a lack of wonder involved.
Aside: Funnily enough there’s several mention of a resident vampire in the tomb, he’s supposed to be a big deal but he’s in fact nowhere to be found, he’s not even statted! Oops!
The rooms themselves are a mixed bag.
Some are great, like the Chamber of Shadows:
« Three of this chamber’s walls are covered with an abstract pattern of black lines. The fourth wall depicts a black bridge over a misty chasm to a gate of light. Words are carved into three of the four stone walls. »
[…]
« The painted bridge at the far side of the room is the Bridge of Sighs and Shadows, a magical link through solid rock between this room and the Divination Room. Only those who know its secret can cross it. »
Other rooms are pretty boring. There’s several rooms in a row that are just filler; here’s a room with undead falcons, here’s a room with undead hippogriffs, the next one with undead griffons…
The second level is smaller and is designed essentially to confuse the players. It’s heavy on teleportation tricks, traps and of course it has more undeads and constructs.
There’s no faction play in this dungeon, the troglodytes are immediately hostile and other than them there’s few sentient beings. There’s an imp to be found who actually gives good advice as it serves his purpose, that’s nice. There’s also an homonculus but if you’ve met the imp he’ll feel kinda redundant. As written you may also be accompanied by the ghost of the order’s high priest that you can meet before entering the tomb and he does have useful information to provide (and some big secrets) but he’ll get angry if you fall into the usual adventurer’s tomb-robbing habbits and most people will be happy to put him to rest one way or the other before long.
So all in all, this dongeon has several weaknesses, even a few gaffes, but it has also several strong points, the hallway with the caryatids being a favorite of mine. It’s not a great dungeon but it’s good and it certainly doesn’t deserve to be completely forgotten as it is now.
We played two short sessions to date in Edmond’s own dungeon, le Château d’Éfaurmaje.
Here’s the Dungeon Master with his homemade books.
I’m playing a Magic-User that has a mix of protection and attack spells, Isaac is playing a Warrior that can summon beasts to help us in combat. We basically proposed character concepts to Edmond and he invented our character’s powers on the spot.
We’ve rolled our character stats at random down the line and we’re mapping our progress in the dungeon, the old-school way!Here we see a tower with a portal of teleportation that we hurriedly jumped into after taking a beating at the hands of an ogre.
The monsters are mostly vanilla fantasy: zombies, goblins, orcs, etc. We’ve also encountered « pyrymies », invented by Edmond, small (smaller than goblins) humanoids that fight with a knife in each hand and are very adept at dodging.
We’ve heard orcs talking (while we listened to a door) about how it was this time of the year when they changed every door of the castle. Very funny!
Edmond has prepared a table of rumors (not all true I’ve been told) that potentially lead to treasures and other sites.
There’s also another random roll at the start of a session and Isaac got a Sick condition from it that diminished his strength score until resolved. That’s an interesting addition, clearly something else that Edmond came up on his own.
We’ve fled from an ogre as I’ve said but also from a Hydra that we had tried to beat with the help of pyrymies (!), it was way too strong for us!
It’s quite fascinating to me to play in a TTRPG without any rules constraints – Edmond is improvising 90% of the rules along the way and it still works perfectly fine!
We’re getting back from four days at the cabin where we managed to slip in several hours of tabletop gaming in-between our outdoor activities. Speaking of which, we found morels on our land! So, all in all, a very profitable time indeed…
Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 5
Paul Nareff (Olivier), friend and sponsor of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 5
Paul-Jean Paul (Olivier), apprentice alchemist, don’t confuse him with Jean-Paul Jean, Warrior lvl 4>>5
Constant Jean (Olivier), vigorous member of the Jean clan, heavily armored, Warrior lvl 3>>4
Retainers:
Raymond (Isaac), Man-at-Arms, gruff, vassal of the Comte de la Frenaie, Morale 7
Raoulet the Pimp (Marjorie), undead pimp with a semblance of life, Morale 12
Georges (Edmond), militia man, Morale 7
Valentin (Isaac), shoemaker, Morale 7
Crypt
Zachary, Elementalist, electrocuted in front of the Anteroom (corpse in castle)
Pierre-Jean Pierre, ex-monk, clawed to death by a dark monk (RIP)
Edgar, daytaler, throat slashed by a dark monk, (corpse in castle)
Charles, daytaler, skewered by a drunken skeleton (corpse in castle)
Hercule, caravan hand, seized off the raft by the Lake Monster (MIA)
Pierre Laroche du Rocher, mason, pierced by the Huntsman’s arrows (corpse seized by Charon, RIP)
Alphonse, crusader, savaged by Count Giscard’s Children of the Night. (corpse in castle)
Jacques, daytaler, got hit in the face by an Empty Armor’s halberd (corpse thrown in the lake)
Stuffed Jean-Paul killed by stuffed animals, stuffed himself, bursted into flames (RIP)
Previous Infractions in the Château:
Eliminated Tristano Malévol the Love-Lost. Eliminated Merlerik the Ancient. Eliminated Aranéa Malévol. Eliminated Runcius the Dark Man of the Woods. Eliminated Countess Maltricia Malévol (+1)
Smoked the Ruined Quarters: 1/2 Angered a werewolf washwoman: 1/2 Stole the Reliquary of Bygone Kings: 1 Failed to convince Jean-Honoré the butler of their lies: 1/2 Stole a treasure chest full of gold from the Lake Grotto treasury: 1/2 Interrupted Runcius Malévol’s pagan ritual: 1 Slightly annoyed Count Giscard Malévol while he drank « wine »: 1 Stole the Scepter of the Merovings: 1 Defaced living portraits with holy water: 1 Bullied Jean-Honoré the Butler: 1/2 Smashed the busts in the Bust Gallery: 1 Stole the Oil of Cleansings: 1 Stole the Crown of the Lost: 1 Burglarized Count Giscard’s room (+1) Put holy water in Count Giscard’s « wine » (+1) Total: 12 1/2
Vanquished Aranéa Malévol’s retributory patrol -5
Played ball with the werepups -1
Current Infractions rating: 6 1/2
Rumors:
There are multiples libraries and laboratories in the Castle. A magic-user’s delight… or doom.
Some strange folks still pursue the work of the Heretic.
A small return on the end of the last session: the PCs had met former retainer Jacques fortuitously, as unpleasant as ever and now a zombie – as he was roaming in the corridors of the Château. As they got out though – after maybe a hundred yards from the gatehouse – poor Jacques faceplanted on the ground, dead as a rock. The cold-hearted adventurers decided to dump his corpse in the lake with the idea that the monster would make him disappear.
We start in Ximes. Paul-Jean, with the help of Luc le Chaudronnier, prepares another dose of lethal poison. Also, the master alchemist has finished analysing the mysterious flask of Oil found earlier: is has astounding properties – when applied on one’s eyelids it enables to see 10 minutes of a probable future. This Oil of Revelation will come in handy!
The PCs then proceed to hire more retainers. Monmon hires Georges who was part of the townwatch until recently. Noah hires Valentin, a shoemaker.
Grand Entrance
The PCs would like to reach the third floor of the Gothic Wing for the first time and they enter at the Grand Entrance. The two statues do their usual thing but nothing special happens.
Waiting for them in the Vestibule is the horrible Béatrice the Jilted. She’s accompanied by Agénor, a tall, gaunt pale-looking old man who seems a little lost. There’s also the late Countess’ galant knight, now undead, surrounded by four flirtatious undead ladies. Quite the sight.
Béatrice tells the adventurers that they will pay for having slain the Countess. Unless… Would any of them accept to be her suitor? No? Noboby? You can die then!
Béatrice is supernaturally fast (always acts first) and jumps on Monmon claws first. She rakes him twice, wounding and paralysing him. Noah hits her twice with his repeating crossbow, hurting her. Pierrot swings an axe at her, connects and she’s down! Is she really dead? Georges is asked to stab her some more to make sure. Paul does a whirlwind attack and slay all four of the undead courtesan ladies. Constant and Paul-Jean attack the zombie knight but he’s a more resilient foe. After a brief moment of hesitation the decrepit Agénor joins the fray and attacks Paul with his bare hands but misses. Paul, Paul-Jean and Noah all try to hurt the old man but to no avail, normal weapons don’t affect him! But Monmon shakes off his paralysis and pierce him with a mighty stab of his spear. Paul hits him with his magic dagger but Agénor touches him in return, wounding him and draining some of his strength. Several hits later and Agénor is incapacitated and gets a stake through his heart (as he’s evidently a vampire) and is hurled outside to be burned by sunlight. The undead knight, surrounded, is the last to fall (he had a backstory but, well… too bad!).
Béatrice though doesn’t seem to be able to stay dead for very long. The PCs decapitate her and burn her corpse for good measure. They looted her body prior to that and found a pearl necklace and an amber brooch.
They continue with their exploration plan and go to the stairway west of the Vestibule and go up into the Gothic Wing.
They’re trying to find the stairway leading to the 3rd floor (the highest). They go through the Feasting Hall and go north into a zigzagging corridor, find the latrine’s « throne » and then open a door to the west.
They’re inside a boudoir. Inside a closet they find a silver mirror and a puzzle box. There’s also a dressing screen and something behind but at that moment they hear a very angry Béatrice shouting at them: « You killed me and now you’re stealing from me! » and more that is lost in a primal scream as she runs towards them, claws at the ready. She hits Monmon (again) but this time he resists the paralysis. Noah pierces her with two crossbow bolts and then Monmon pierces her through with his spear. They wander briefly what to do with the unkillable crazy Béatrice but then they find a casket with chains behind the dressing screen and just proceed to toss her corpse in and lock it up. Without her head. Her head is thrown through the window and into Tristano’s pond.
Thence the PCs resume their search for a way up. Checking their map (Isaac) they figure that the 2×2 square space in the middle could well be what they seek and indeed, it is the stairway leading up!
In front of the stairway the party hears some noise coming from the east, several creatures are coming up from the 1st floor.
Constant uses the Oil of Revelation to see a probable future. Thus, he sees another party of adventurers, rough men armed mostly with axes. The leader asks the PCs to leave the Castle, it’s their turn to loot the place. Battle ensues, the PCs have the upper hand but suffer some losses. Still in the vision, the party go to the 3rd floor, breaks open a stuck door and gets into a library.
With this knowledge in mind, the PCs hurry to the 3rd floor (Gothic Wing II). Monmon breaks open the door and the group wait in ambush as the newcomers, alerted by the sound, come after them. The PCs win initative, Noah kill two adventurers just like that with his crossbow. Monmon kill another with his spear and then Georges jumps into the action and wounds another but he’s struck in return and dies. Paul takes his place and kill the wounded man and then gets into a duel against the leader who’s no match for him. The two remaining opponents fight to the death (morale check) which is not very long in coming.
The PCs loot the bodies and find a few hundreds gold pieces.
Thence, the PCs get into a library, don’t look much at the books but find a secret door on one corner with the help of Noah’ sword Scrupulous. Once opened they see a man standing right in front of them. He looks just like the one on the dead or alive wanted portrait of Claude Malévol. The PCs tell the man so but he denies being Claude, he claims to be his twin: Olivier Malévol! After a short deliberation the PCs decide that as the spitting image of a 3000gp reward, well… he would do. Of course, that doesn’t go very well with the would-be ransomed and, in a weird turn of events, the latter’s body melts and turns into a Slime! It lashes out at Monmon who was in the process of seizing him. The pseudopod hurts Monmon and ruins his mail hauberk. This is quite disconcerting to the adventurers and they decide that caution is the better part of valour.
They retreat and soon leave the Castle.
Closing Comments:
With the current Infractions level, first encounter rolled was to be with the retributory patrol (1d4+1 encounters together). With how the results went I figured that Béatrice was the more strong-willed opponent and would be the leader. She’s not much more than a beefed up ghoul but she’s very persistent…
And it so happened in one of those amazing emerging coincidence that they found Béatrice’s Boudoir and put her back inside her very own chained casket!
Very clever reading of the map by Isaac to find the stairway, I’m very proud. They’re getting good at this dungeon-delving stuff.
XP: Participation: 1 Treasures: 2 Secrets: 2
Treasures: Pearl Necklace, Amber Brooch, Silver Mirror, Puzzle Box
Fatalities: Georges, struck by a rival adventurer’s axe
Streets & Spores 