Fantasy

Gates of Power – Crystal Pillaging (session 35)

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

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

1,5 hours session

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

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

Adventuring:

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

Not adventuring for the moment:

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

What the other adventuring guilds are doing:

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

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

Gunderholfen

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

Closing Comments:

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

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

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

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

2 hours session

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

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

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

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

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

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

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

Closing comments:

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

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

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

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

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

3 hours session

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

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

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

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

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

En route

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

Level 4 (Gates of Power)

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

Closing Comments:

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

Pirates Campaign (under construction)

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

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

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

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

It’s also old-school D&D.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other resources:

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

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

Gunderholfen – The Wight of Nharzed (session 31)

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

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

1,5 hours session

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

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, he rather enjoys his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
  • Bumwild, Gnome Mage, studies to become a summoner (Isaac)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
  • Timbo, Human Arcanist, wields both crossbow and lightning (Edmond)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

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

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

Longfelt

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

Gunderholfen

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

Level 4C

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

Closing Comments:

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

Slug House – End of Investigation (session 26)

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

Lot happening in the adventuring guilds’ world. The city council wants them organized under a single entity. Also, the Green Imps have been forced to give tribute to the stronger Ravens, angering the Battle Brothers and Protectors when they learned about it. The Black Axes have apparently lost their leader but are now back in town after being away for a while, with rumors of them having been lost in Ganfal swamp. Speaking of Ganfal swamp, it’s expanding through farmlands at an alarming rate, day after day, with only the retrieval of the Scepter of Harvest from Gunderholfen having the power to stop it, it is said. For the moment though, the Battle Brothers are still investigating a wizard’s manor in town.

4 hours session

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/491255/slug-house

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • 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: back in Longfeft, complain that they’ve been preyed upon by the Ravens
  • The Protectors: leisure in Longfelt, Delevan convalescent
  • Black Axes: back in Longfeft, Kegan the Black is dead (left behind?)
  • The Musers: adventuring in Gunderholfen
  • The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen

Longfelt

  • The Battle Brothers start the day at the Hare & Hound inn. They take time to listen to rumors and hear about the plight of the Green Imps whom have forced to give tribute to the Ravens. They talk to innkeeper and ex-adventurer Maeve and they learn a few things about the Ravens and their leader, the dwarf Runfurly the Depraved. They go talk to the Protectors and ask for their support for teaching a good lesson to the predatory guild as soon as they can.
  • Having done that, the PCs start their adventuring day and access Uzul’s manor the same way they did previously, through the window on the eastern side.
  • They see that the corpse of the Giant Slug is no longer there and there’s a fresh trail of mucus on the floor leading through the door and then north. They follow it.
  • They get into a library. There’s tiny floating motes of light in the room, some hovering above a wrting desk, others around… the Giant Slug. The creature is alive apparently but is visibly afraid of the adventurers. It exits the room as soon as it can. A floating mote starts to follow Grimoire.
  • The PCs follows the Giant Slug. It goes at the end of a long corridor and up a set of stairs. Into another long corridor with another staiway at the end that goes down. And again… These two corridors are connected by magical stairs!
  • The PCs stop following the Giant Slug in its perpetual circuit and explore a side door on the newly-discovered corridor. They’re in a large, dusty room and with the view through the windows they can see that they’re on the west side of the manor. With that revealed, they backtrack and resume exploring the eastern side of the 1st floor.
  • They get into a room in great disorder with a strange array of furnitures and scraps made into a « fortress ». They hear small creatures scampering away to another room.The PCs search the « fortress » and find two teared papers, notes from Uzul Balashi no doubt, in the same vein than the previous one, of him whining that his wife badgers him on his mistreatement of the staff and his reckless experiments on himself.:

« Thou shall drink one too many potions my dear » she said « and find thyself crawling around like an overgrown earthworm. »

  • In the next room they find homoncubolds hiding under the bed. They reassure the frightened creatures and barter for another note from Uzul. They find more clues of the wizard’s demise on the bedside table. They also find a secret door behind a cupbpard.
  • It leads to the manor’s tower and into an Herb room, wherein Torch gets a strange sensation but is fine due to his natural goblin resistances.
  • Going up the stairs they get into a wizard’s laboratory, with a complete set of alchemy and many potions. They don’t touch anything.
  • Going up again, reaching the top, they get into Uzul’ Sanctum and find his spellbook on a pedestal. They take it and this activates the Wood Statue from the room’s corner. The Wood Statue is very resistant to Forka’s hammer blows and Aracyne’s arrows doesn’t do much either, but Jedri’s sword slashes and more so, Grimoire’s fireballs do good damage and with some work, they defeat the dangerous guardian (forgot to activate the Splinters final detonation as per DB monster ability, oops).
  • With the wizard’s spellbook in hand and acting with all the clues they got, they go downstairs and manage to find the Giant Slug again, still on its circuit. They show it the spellbook, it seems to recognize the thing but doesn’t seem to be willing or lucid enough to get a clearer reaction than that.
  • The adventurers leave the Giant Slug, the unfortunate wizard Uzul Balashi most likely, behind and start to explore the western side of the floor.
  • They soon get into the presence of some manor’s ex-staff, now ugly, all lizard-like and having the most horrible stench to them.
  • They’re having a lot of fun rummaging through their ex-employer haversack, they’re clearly intoxicated and in very good mood. They’ll trade Uzul’s journal in exchange for the best tacos in town, from Biffro’s Bistro.
  • The adevnturers proceed to get out of the manor and buy some tacos from Biffro. On their way back they get pestered by the inivisible imp but mostly ignore hi and try to evade his tricks. They give the tacos and get the journal. One final search nearby reveals a secret door and a treasure chest in a small room. The chest has a decent amount of coins.
  • Satisfied with their gains and the clues they found, the PCs decide to leave the manor for good. They take an appointment with Merrick the High Constable and present him their evidences. Uzul Balashi foolishly experimented on himself and was turned into a Giant Slug. He probably killed his wife but no proof was found about that. Their investigation is concluded. Merrick would have liked a bit more but he’s okay with their work and he upholds is part of the bargain, giving them a nice knight’s great helm.

Closing Comments:

  • That’s the end of Slug House for this campaign. They explored about 2/3 of the mansion (82 keyed entries), missing several secrets and treasures.
  • At the same time they did accomplish their objective and taking more time outside of Gunderholfen was out of the question for them.
  • For me this adventure module was near-perfect, I would barely have any quibbles to hold against it and that doesn’t happen often at all. I’ve checked another published adventure by the same author: the heretic’s grave, and it’s also very good. An author well worth to keep an eye on for sure.

Slug House – Slaying of the Giant Slug (session 25)

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

Nature interlude, a few hundreds meters from our home in Québec City. No Giant Slugs were slain on this specific expedition.

The real-life Battle Brothers.

And now, back to our program:

Some negociations, some shopping, a big fight and that’s all the Battle Brothers could squeeze in this session.

2 hours session

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/491255/slug-house

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • 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, Delevan convalescent
  • Black Axes: somewhere in Ganfal swamp, lost?
  • The Musers: in Longfelt, resting
  • The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen

Longfelt

  • The next morning at the Hare & Hound inn, the Battle Brothers find out that Dominguos (with some of his men and a woman named Phrynia) was waiting for them in the common room.
  • Dominguos talks about starting on the wrong foot but offers to come to some kind of understanding with the adventurers. How about they share some of the plunder if his gang don’t interfere with their investigation? The Battle Brothers accept, not committing to any set share though.
  • The PCs go find their thief friend Tlali, now mostly cured from her rat-form curse, and ask her if she could discreetly find out if the window form which they got out the day before (and left not quite closed) was still the same. It was still open, but it was also trapped with poison needles (which she removed).
  • Forka orders a custom, a bit heavier, warhammer from a local blacksmith used to provide for adventurers. Half the money now and should get the new weapon in three days. The PCs buy a crowbar and some other gear.

The Mansion of Uzul Balashi

  • The Battle Brothers reach the wizard’s manor and enter the front courtyard and ask Dominguos if they can explore his gang’s side of the manor. He reluctantly agrees and shows them around except for his own room (that he shares with Phynia). The adventurers manage to spot a secret door that the bandit leader swears he knew nothing about. Unfortunately the door doesn’t seem to open from this side and there doesn’t seem to be another way to access the rest of the manor from this aisle.
  • The PCs are tempted to break the door open but finally opt for the window.
  • Forka is the first to enter into the dining room and is surprised to find a strange creature already there: a Giant Slug!
  • Forka’s 2h hammer don’t seem to do much against the slug but piercing and slashing attacks from his companions, and fireballs from Grimoire, ultimately do the job of slaying the beast. The monster did spit acid on Forka, hurting him (but his magic chainmail was okay). It also produced a powerful lighning bolt that downed Torch and badly hurt Jedri and Grimoire at the same time. Once the Giant Slug was slain Grimoire proceeded to heal his companions with his magic. The Battle Brothers chose to be cautious and leave the manor without further exploration.

Closing Comments:

  • The Battle Brothers rested for the night at their usual inn, a big advantage of adventuring in the city proper for sure. But their habbit of using always the same inn also means that ther’re easy to find if someone wishes so… Plus, they were followed by a footpad.
  • The eponymous Giant Slug was obviously a big deal, could cast some spells (in my modified Dragonbane version) and was hard to defeat. It had 8 possible starting locations (and moved around afterward), at random, here it was at the dining room, their chosen entry point.
  • 3 days for this mission to date and more to come as they still don’t know what happened to Uzul Balashi.

Slug House – Curiosity Room (session 24)

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

The adventurers have rested in the mansion’ safest place, surrounded by floating candles, they’re now resuming exploration of the missing wizard’s home.

2 hours session

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/491255/slug-house

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • 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.

Slug House – Forced Entry (session 23)

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

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!)

3 hours session

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/fr/product/491255/slug-house

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • 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 Heal 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.

Gunderholfen – He died a hero’s death (session 22)

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

Lightning struck a transfo nearby early in our session and we finished it at candlelight. Not bad for the vibe!

2 hrs session

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

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, he rather enjoys his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
  • 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.
Idol of Tsathoggua by The Lone Animator
  • 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.