Just a glimpse, as advertised and focusing on the dungeon.
The trio of adventurers have to go up all the way to Level 100 of the Dragon Tower, which by the way is still very low on this oversized megadungeon.
A glimpse of Tower Dungeon 2
Fantasy
Palantir Quest (1994) – players are actors (review part II)
Just to be clear, I’ve never ran this adventure (nor played in it).This is a 3 decades late, external look at it we might say.
At page 14, after having informed the Game Master of relevant background information, the adventure begins with… extremely long read-alouds.
Well-written mind you, interesting for a true Tolkien aficionado perhaps, but boy if my mind would drift away as a player if I was read all this by someone!
But notice, between two grey boxes, a first challenge for the player characters! On how to deal with a « ten-foot portion » of muddy road. Yeah, well, small beginnings and all that…
Railroading into Middle-Earth’s 4th Age
(Side note: There’s a big hint on how the adventure will present itself on chapter 1.0 Guidelines: « Fantasy role playing (FRP) is akin to a living novel where the players are the main characters. Everyone combines to create a story which is never short of adventure. They help forge a new land and strange new tales in which the characters are forever immortalized. » (bold emphasis is mine)
After their mission briefing by the Royal Seer, the Player Characters (PCs) are ready to leave Minas Tirith.
The utlimate goal is to retrieve the lost palantir but in order to do that they first have to reach the Royal Library in ruined Annuminas in the north, to find a tome of spells that will help pinpoint its location. First stop is in Rohan in a place called The Juggler’s Hall.
It takes 10 days of travel to get there and somewhere in the middle we get this fixed event: upon arriving at the Inn of Greys the PCs see that it’s being attacked by bandits and the adventure just assumes that the PCs will intervene (and to be fair, why wouldn’t they?). Upon defeating the bandits the PCs meet Turibor the minstrel who’ll ask if he can accompany them on their journey north. This guy is a key NPC, I mean key as in unlocking another scene kind of thing. He’s the one who will bring the PCs to the Juggler’s Hall and if you had players that were expecting to go to Edoras and meet rohirrim riders they’d better forget about it, aside from taking new horses nothing happens in Edoras. No, instead you get the Thespian Intrigue in the Juggler’s Hall, involving the PCs in a theatre play (about the kin-strife that happened in Gondor, again. not really a nice fit for Rohan). The leader of the Wandering Conscience Company will offer 10 silver pieces and a choice of nice clothes to each character, for participating (acting) and help guard against sabotage from a rival company.
I’ll add that the Juggler’s Hall is oddly, really in the middle of nowhere, but it’s also a base for smuggling operations so there’s that. Talking of smuggling, there’s a bit of foreshadowing in this chapter as it’s mandatory that the PCs witness two NPCs shaking hands in « business-like fashion ». One of these NPC « may draw attention to himself by way of his disturbing laugh ». BUT: « However the PCs should be given no grounds to become suspicious of him ». Well, good luck with that Game Master! Hey players, here’s this fixed scene involving two shady NPCs, one has this disturbing way of laughing, y’know like a cartoon villain would laugh just sayin’, but don’t be suspicious! No no no, no reason at all!
And then the Thespian Intrigue.
The play itself is nicely conceived I’ll say, with a nice plot as mentionned taken from the kin-strife period (a Cromwell-like usurper gets hold of power in Gondor) and plenty of stuff happening (including a real knife stab (instead of a fake one) that the PC victim should try its best to go along with so that the play isn’t disrupted!). Of course the whole thing is nonsensical and out of place (irrelevant to the mission) but I’m pretty sure it could be great fun for the players. The Game Master though, in true Rolemaster fashion, has the cumbersome job to evaluate which + and – to use in the provided chart and get the results for the « Audience Appreciation Level » (AAL): « Having totalled the appropriate modifiers, the actor should roll on the appropriate column. The result is the number to which the GM must roll equal or less than in order for the AAL to increase by 5. If the GM rolls over the number, the AAl decreases by 5. At any time, an AAL of 0 means that the audience boos the company off the stage and leaves, while an AAL of 100 means that the audience immediately rushes the stage in a frenzy of hero worship and adulation. If the play end naturally, then the AAL should be added to an open-ended roll on the Hard column of the maneuver table, and the result is the number which the GM needs to roll under in order for the critics to like the play. »
Phew. I wonder why Rolemaster isn’t a popular system anymore!
Anyway, the PCs can get a substantial bonus reward (or not) depending on how well the play went and also experience points based on what happened so far or « as we recommend, he or she may just award points in a subjective fashion corresponding to how well the players are able to cope with the stress of being onstage ». How well the players cope with the stress of being onstage. Wow, that’s a weird thing to say. I thought the players were like, around a table with pens & papers & dice, not onstage.
This concludes this chapter, a weird one for sure. Next the PCs will leave to continue their journey to Tharbad, en route to the ruined city of Annuminas where they will get to explore a dungeon! Yay!
Frosthaven – Frozen Treasure (90)
Satha, Math’s character has the personal quest of destroying a number of undead monsters whilst using the Axe of the Abyss to do so. The axe is a « spent » item, meaning that a long rest is necessary in order to use it again. So this is one of these funny situation where in order to achieve a game goal you have to completely forego verisimilitude (i.e. resting abnormally often) to be efficient about it…
Characters
- Zam Boni the Frozen Fist (David) lvl 5, big dude but very graceful on ice
- Satha the Mayor of Frosthaven (Math) lvl 4, taking matters into her own hands
- Hail the Irritable Enchanter (Guillaume) lvl 4, will she get irritated enough to care?
We’ll be fighting on 4 different icebergs that often join together (as determined by a random counter). Unfortunately for my character who gets all kinds of benefits from ice, there’s oddly no ice tiles on these icebergs.
This is a straighforward kill them all scenario, except that the frozen corpses are not mandatory to kill but give good money if we do.
Closing comments:
- Easy scenario, fun, a bit too constrained though (no shooting across or teleporting to another area). We’ve stretched it in order for Math to achieve his PQ. And he did, yet another new character next time!
- We could afford to kill all the frozen corpses and thus earned good money.
- Satha was a flexible and useful character, she’ll be missed.
Palantir Quest (1994) – tunnel vision (review part I)
I’ve been rummaging through my collection of (twenty-something) I.C.E. middle-earth books lately. I could get good money for them – last time I checked Palantir Quest in particular was on sale for 175 usd on ebay despite being in terrible condition (mine isn’t much better!). But y’know, I’m quite sentimental about these, they are the first rpgs books I’ve bought, some thirty years ago, at age fourteen-fifteen with my hard-earned money as a field hand at the time.
So, no selling.
Palantir Quest is in fact an unusual one among this collection as being the only long format Adventures book among much slimmer adventures compilations. All the others in the line are sourcebooks, or « citadels » as far as I know. Incredibly detailed and well-researched sourcebooks I must add in case you haven’t heard of them, something that doesn’t exist anymore in rpgs I think, that required an entire team of dedicated people to do. Something to be nostalgic about no doubt. Keep that in mind if you please, because I’ll be a bit harsh with this one: I.C.E’s sourcebooks were absolutely great.
But back to our current subject.
From the book’s back cover: « Strange portents in the great Seeing-stone of Minas Tirith give promise that one of the lost palantiri of the North has returned to the lands of Men. Can the adventurers find this legendary treasure and bring it to King Elessar? Rogues of the wilds, blizzards out of the Forodwaith, and the greed in Men’s hearts all conspire against them. »
Adventuring into Middle-Earth’s 4th Age
The premise is quite interesting, unlike most of what has been published by I.C.E. this adventure takes place some years AFTER the events of the Lord of the Rings. Sauron has been permanently defeated, what remains of his forces has been scattered away and Aragorn, as the ruler of both Gondor and Arnor is now known as King Elessar. This is the begininng of a new era, the 4th Age of Middle-Earth, and what better news to go with this time of triumphant joy than the resurfacing of a long-lost palantir that could help unite both halves, North and South, of this new victorious kingdom?
Yes, thank you Elon, very impressive.
But you need two palantiri to do that.
Aragorn/King Elessar has the one from Orthanc of course and the one that Sauron had has been destroyed (or is lost, buried under the ruins of Barad-Dur presumably) and Minas Tirith’s palantir (this book says) has been unfortunately imprinted by Denethor’s last moments of agony (a rather unpleasant sight to behold), this is why finding this other palantir would be incredibly useful.
Enter the PCs.
(Side note: Suggested starting level is 4, the PCs are presumed to have some prior accomplishments. There’s also a provided list of pre-made characters as well as suggested eventual replacement, one for each chapter.)
They’ve been convoked to Minas Tirith by NPC Tarquillan, the venerable Royal Seer, to do the king’s bidding and find the lost palantir of the North. Or not exactly that way – they’re told that a spell from a tome called « A Treatise on Subtle Magika » has been discovered to exist and (much faith has been put into that it seems) it could be used to locate the palantir that has only been glimpsed at. (a written spell? a bit peculiar to me thematically speaking but okay, let’s get on with it). The most likely location of the tome is in the Royal Library of the ruined city of Annuminas.
Unbeknownst to the PCs and their employer, Taladhan, a powerful evil magician no one has ever heard of (he apparently hasn’t got the memo that evil has been defeated) who’s scheming from his hideout in faraway Greenwood, knows everything about the plan to recover the palantir because the Royal Seer’s assistant in fact spies for him. Very astute of him to have put a spy there I must say, just in case there would specifically be news from a resurfacing palantir. But anyway.
Thus begins one of the most Tangential Fetch Quest in the history of RPGs. Probably.
Palantir Quest – Contents:
- 1.0 Guidelines
- 2.0 Introduction
- 3.0 Minas Tirith
- 4.0 The Juggler’s Hall
- 5.0 Tharbad
- 6.0 The Royal Library of Old Arnor
- 7.0 The Docks of Tharbad
- 8.0 The Ice Bay of Forochel
- 9.0 Return to Civilization
- 10.0 Return to the Riddlemark
- 11.0 Search in the Wold
- 12.0 The Fourth Tier
- 13.0 Lake-Town
- 14.0 Into the Forest
- 15.0 Return to the King
- 16.0 Master Tables
- 17.0 MERP/Rolemaster Tables
- 18.0 LOR Tables
Frosthaven – The Lady in White (86)
Math, with his new character, has the personal quest of slaying a bunch of different undead monsters using his Axe of the Abyss. So here we are, with an optional scenario that got Ice Wraiths in it, among other things.
Characters
- Zam Boni the Frozen Fist (David) lvl 4, big dude but very graceful on ice
- Satha the Mayor of Frosthaven (Math) lvl 4, taking matters into her own hands
- Hail the Irritable Enchanter (Guillaume) lvl 4, will she get irritated enough to care?
We have to kill the Lady in White, an evil spirit that hides in the forest. This a simple destroy the objectives (three trees) scenario with a mini boss at the end. There’s one complication though – each time a tree is hit and not destroyed right away, they spawn a black imp.
Closing Comments:
- A real slog of a scenario, it took a long time to kill the monsters (not mandatory, to be fair), the trees and the mini boss one after the other.
- I coulnd’t do Brittle on the objectives/trees as per the rules, that cut a big part of my game right there. Annoying.
- Hail, as a low stamina character, has it relatively easy with two tanky companions to protect her at all time. She could even afford to exhaust near the end of the scenario.
Gunderholfen – Repelled by the orcs, again (session 20)
Short session with one big fight taking a big chunk of it. Very dangerous situation that they got themselves into and the PCs had to flee again.
1h30
Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen
Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:
- Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
- Jedri, Ratman Thief, he likes his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
- Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
- Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
- Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
This session’s main goal: finish the orcs
What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:
- Green Imps: training in Longfelt
- The Protectors: adventuring, left Longfelt for Gunderholfen
- Black Axes: adventuring, try to find a tower in Ganfal swamp
- The Musers: adventuring, left Longfelt but kept quiet on their objective
Gunderholfen – Level 4A – Great Altar Cave
- The Battle Brothers have just killed the 10 orc archers that were guarding the entrance of the Great Altar Cave but now they hear many more orcs coming from around the corner to the north west. Two orcs with heavy crossbows come first, one shooting at Forka but the crossbow bolt bounces off his armor, and the other misses Torch. Two other crossbowmen run across the nearby rope-bridge in order to have a good shooting angle.
- Aracyne makes a risky leap to the eastern cliff and manages to climb up to get atop the promontory. He quickly takes his bow and kill one crossbowman with two arrows (twin shot). The other plunges to his death after Grimoire attacks him with a Mental Strike (telekinetic push).
- But more orcs move to attack the outnumbered adventurers, five brandishing falchions and five with spears attacking from behind, all wearing chainmail. Forka attacked one with his two-hands hammer, killing him with a massive blow but then the spearmen jab him several times and wound him badly. Jedri jumps into action with sword and light flail and kill an orc with two well-aimed blows.
- Fearing for his life, Forka shove the falchion-wielding orc in front of him, sending him crashing into the back rank, and he gets out of his near-encirclement. Torch takes care to guard Forka’s flank and stab an orc with his spear, hurting him lightly. Jedri manages to dodge several attacks coming his way.
- Aracyne does an headshot (crit) to an orc spearman, killing him instantly. A crossbowman aims at the goblin mage and hits him, inflicting a severe wound (1 hp remaining!), the other aims at Aracyne but the elf manages to dodge the incoming bolt. Forka kills another falchion-wielder. Grimoire avenges himself with another Mental Strike, pushing the two crossbowmen off the promontory to their deaths.
- The adventurers have now the upper hand as they manage to kill several other orcs but they can hear yet more orcs coming from the same direction and only Aracyne is unscathed among them. Torch is okayish but Grimoire and Forka are both severely wounded, Jedri only lightly but is exhausted (no more willpower pts, can’t fuel his heroic abilities anymore). Grimoire does a Levitate on Torch to bring him on his side of the cave, at the entrance beyond the cliff. Forka and Jedri jump over there. A bigger group of orcs is now in sight with its bardiche-armed chieftain in the middle. Several orcs throw spears at the retreating adventurers but none hit their targets.
- The Battle Brothers run to the west to go directly at their outpost. The orcs have no way to follow quickly and press their advantage.
- En route, Jedri is attacked by a Giant Cave Lizard coming from the south but he slays it efficiently with his two weapons.
- They reach their outpost and barricade themselves so they can rest safely. Not long after, they can hear some orcs looking for them close by, probably checking. the stairs to Level 3. The orcs still doesn’t seem to know that the PCs have taken over the Ogres’ den (and aren’t eager to inspect the place as they had been enemies).
- Five hours later they hear a knock on the door, its Bayard’s guild, the Protectors! Aracyne asks if the allied guild would be so kind as to offer healing and Bayard answers that it wouldn’t be free: how about 80 gp, the amount that Aracyne once asked to the at the moment hard-pressed Protectors? No deal. But still, the allies are glad to see each other.
Closing Comments:
- The PCs had decimated the orc archers with ease the previous session but now it was a very, very close fight, with character death looming just a step away. Aracyne and Grimoire were very efficient with arrows and telekinetic pushes respectively but the three melee fighters were in a perilous situation. Good armor and good evade ability have its limits when against 3:1 numerical superiority with a back rank able to reach.
- The orcs have once again repelled the adventurers but it’s clearly a pyrrhic victory for them, having lost 21 warriors between the two sessions and 6 more if we count the first assault. They still have a decent fighting force but they’ve been weakened for sure, probably enough to warrant a change on how they defend their territory.
A glimpse of Tower Dungeon (manga)
I briefly mentionned Blade & Bastard in an earlier post and if you’ve been reading my blog a bit you know I’m a big fan of Ryoko Kui’s Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon). Tower Dungeon by Tsutomu Nihei (author of Blame!) would be another one in this rare breed of manga that goes DEEP in the dungeon aspect of fantasy.
Or maybe I should say HIGH, ’cause y’know, it’s a TOWER DUNGEON…
I should add that Tower Dungeon is kind of the opposite of something like Blade & Bastard (or most fantasy stuff really) that follows a set of fantasy conventions to a fault. Most things in Tower Dungeon are unique to this original setting as far as I can tell.
Highly recommended!
Gunderholfen – Bad Neighbors (session 19)
Edmond had this idea of acquiring some sort of ballista on wheels and I had to explain the impracticality of it inside a dungeon environment sadly. Could have said yes and he wouldn’t have get past the chasm and rope bridge of Level 1 and crushed his dreams that way…
Short session: 2 hours.
Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen
Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:
- Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
- Jedri, Ratman Thief, he likes his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
- Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
- Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
- Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
This session’s main goal: kill the orcs’ first line of defense
What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:
- Green Imps: training in Longfelt
- The Protectors: exploring Longfelt’s underworks
- Black Axes: adventuring, try to find a tower in Ganfal swamp
- The Musers: left Longfelt but kept quiet on their objective
Longfelt
- The Battle Brothers stay the night at the Hare & Hound Inn. They buy some field rations. Jedri pays to repair his morningstar. Torch would like to buy an oversized crossbow but finds it too expensive. Forca pays some rounds in taverns and listens to rumors: « The Wizard Balfour’s tower is rumoured to hold great treasure. » And: « A group of bandits is operating out of Prickly’s End Forest. They have so far been able to evade the Baron’s forces. Their leader, Uthbarth the Pike, is wanted, dead or alive. »
Ganfal Swamp
- On their way to Gunderholfen they encounter a group of four hostile Ogres and have to fight them. Forca got hit by a powerful blow and barely stands on his feet but Grimoire heals him back to health after the fight. They find suspicious meat, foul-smelling tobacco, smoking pipes and a few coins but not much else.
- Closer to the dungeon they spot some broken statues of hobgoblins in awkward poses. The elf hunter can see oversized chicken feet tracks all around. The « statues » are the work of a Basilisk it seems, but fortunately it’s nowhere in sight.
Gunderholfen
- They make a stop at Fryniwyd’s new shop. They chat a little and buy a vial of paralytic poison extracted very recently from a local cave scorpion.
- They go down via their usual shortcuts, have reached Level 3 and only have a few rooms to go to the stairs leading to Level 4 but… they can see that the series of doors leading south are all open! That means… Yes, there it is, you can see it, can you? The floating sword! The Gelatinous Cube is upon us! Torch the goblin reacts quickly and burns it with his torch and it seems that fire work amazingly well against it. The Cube counters on Torch, firing a big ball of corrosive slime but most of it didn’t touch the goblin (minimum damage). Forka is reluctant to get close to it, Aracyne let go of two arrows, doing very good damage. Grimoire channels maximum mana into a spell to send 3 Fireballs at once into the Gelatinous Cube and slays the big slime monster! The freed sword clanks on the ground. Jedri takes it, remove the scabard and everyone can see a dim purple light emanating from the blade. There’s writing on it, its name is Perseverance.
- This done, they go directly to their Level 4 outpost. It hasn’t been disturbed in their absence apparently. They add another barrel of dry meat to their emergency food stash.
- Thence, they go south and east to reach the great cave inhabited by the orcs. Exactly as the previous time there’s 10 orc archers, 5 sentries on each side of the cave entrance, on higher grounds than the invaders. The orcs act first and fire a volley, no questions asked, inflicting a few wounds on the adventurers but nothing too bad. Grimoire casts Levitate on Forka who lands on the western promontory and immediately kill an archer with a massive hammer blow. Aracyne kill two orcs with arrows. Torch wounds another with a thrown spear, finished by a thrown dagger from Jedri. Now five against six, the adventurers continue the onslaught as Jedri joins Forka with another Levitate, and kills an orc with his new magic sword. Aracyne kills another orc but then his bow almost breaks in two and is damaged. Grimoire the goblin mage is the target of a deadly arrow but he is saved by his fellow goblin companion who takes the hit instead on his armored self, with lesser consequences. The adventurers have the upper hand and finish off the orc archers who chose to fight to their bitter but swift end, their calls for reinforcement not yet answered.
- The PCs can hear a lot of commotion from further north and west. The orcs are far from defeated.
- TBC…
Closing comments:
- The past few years I’ve slowly learned to embrace random tables as a Dungeon Master, having « learned » my trade (if we can say that) in the 90s when it wasn’t a popular thing to do at all. Random encounters are simple enough to use or design, and a staple of dungeon-delving and understandably a main component of OSR gaming. But I’m still trying to improve my homebrewed random tables, specifically for the other adventuring parties’ actions. I could easily decide by myself what they’re up to but that’s not the point. Impartiality is the point. Emergent story is even more the point I should say. Anyway, a work in progress it definitely is.
- For the Gelatinous Cube I’ve used the statblock of the Giant Amoeba from the DB Bestiary, simply added a camouflage ability. It’s a pretty powerful monster in fact with 64 hp and ferocity 2, but takes double damage from fire, which fortunately the players exploited almost immediately.
- Isaac had the idea of hiring mining folks to dig a tunnel to reach the orcs from a less unfavorable direction, but he changed his mind after I said it would take at least 10 days of digging, maybe a month, with something like 6 gp per day to pay the crew in salary and food. So it had to be a frontal assault instead. Their characters are better equipped and stronger than last time but the orcs are a lot more numerous than the players suspect.
Gunderholfen – City of the Dead Dwarves (session 18)
Our family just did a no-screens weekend as a kind of mental detox. No computer, no tv, no cellphone, no nothing. And it went so well that the kids would do it again every other weekend!
And guess what doesn’t need any screen? You got it.
3 hours session
Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen
Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:
- Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
- Jedri, Ratman Thief, he likes his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
- Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
- Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
- Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
This session’s main goal: exploring more than half of the « dwarven city »
What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:
- Green Imps: adventuring but not in Gunderholfen
- The Protectors: resting/recuperating in Longfelt, Bodil is concussed, Bodil and Efram have infected wounds
- Black Axes: adventuring in Gunderholfen, Level 2 and 3
- The Musers: leisure in Longfelt
Level 4A outpost
- The Battle Brother did not leave the dungeon last time but rather, they’d rested in their Level 4A’s outpost and did so without any disturbance. Rejuvenated they went back directly to the cavern of the flaming bats, the two surviving ones were in no mood to fight.
Level 4B
- From there a passage leads to a cave with an obelisk in the middle with writings in dwarvish. Nobody can read it but Forka knows (myth & lore check) that this must the entrance to Nharzed, the City of the Masons, a place renowned for its craftsmanship before the War of the Long-Lived.
- A slight breeze is coming from the south, bringing an awful stench of death to the adventurers’ nostrils.
- There’s a set of large steps leading up and a high crenated wall a bit further with a broad entrance from which mist furtively enters.
- The PCs start to climb the steps but then a stocky humanoid gets out of the shadows, a dwarf but with dead flesh crawling with maggots: a Plague Zombie. Its stench is overhwelming and its presence is frightful to behold. Forka cannot will himself to attack it. Aracyne shoots two arrows, hitting the undead square in the chest but with no great effect. Grimoire pushes it with a Mental Strike, sending it tumbling violently backward almost thirty feet. But the undead gets up, and it is fast, and dashes toward the nearest adventurers and get into melee against Forka and Jedri, who both manage not to flee. A Fireball from Grimoire finally seems to do some real damage to the monster. Forka has a hard time with the awful stench that is even worst for his acute sense of smell and he gets wounded by a claw attack. One more Fireball from the goblin mage and then Jedri gets wounded but counters with a mighty hit (crit) to the dead dwarf’s head with his morningstar, splitting its skull open, slaying it to everyone’s relief.
- Grimoire casts Treat Wound on Forka and Jedri and after that the party enters the City proper:
« Crumbling buildings from a forgotten age and cracked, worned streets stretch away through dim, gloomy mists.The cavern walls soar upwards out of sight, the space ahead vast and foreboding. Fallen walls, piles of rubble and shattered stone line the streets, the air heavy with the stench of fear. »
- The PCs are exploring the nearest buildings and attract the attention of a group of ten skeletons. Forka, Jedri and Torch gets into melee, trying not to be surrounded, and get to work. They slay the skeletons without too much troubles, Jedri needs healing from Grimoire again but Forka and Torch only have a few scratches.
- They continue exploring, see another group of undead east through crumbled walls and decide instead to go west and south. They enter an empty building and go to the next but are welcomed again by undead, this time eight Living Dead. At one point in the fight, Forka was forced on the ground and threatened by several hungry Living Dead but his companions helped him back up and the undead were defeated. They find a golden locket and silver lyre among the rubble inside the building.
- They go east and get near some kind of temple but Forka can tell that the smell of death is even more awful in this place and they decide to go elsewhere.
- Thence they go directly to a kind of central plaza with large standing stones that they can see further south and east. When they arrive there though all hell break loose as a pack of skeletal animals, 6 ghouls and 6 civic officer-garbed undead get out of several nearby buildings, mostly from the south, and all converge on the PCs. The latter choose to make a tactical retreat and run back to the building they’ve just cleared in order to benefit from the protection of mostly intact walls. Aracyne quickly perch himself up on top of a wall as the building is roofless, and start to rain arrows at the ghouls, wounding two severely, making those flee. Forca and Jedri block the entrance and fight the skeletal animals, with Torch using his spear to attack from behind. Aracyne shoot another ghoul, hurting it badly, and now the ghouls collectively have enough of the whole getting shot at thing (failed morale check) and all flee. The three fighters finish off the swarm of skeletal animals and get into melee against the « civic officers » undead but those don’t prove to be that fearsome and the adventurers have the upper hand ultimately. The fight finished, Grimoire heal the wounded.
- The PCs decide to clear the northern area of the undead they saw earlier and soon get into a fight against ten more skeletons. Aracyne put his bow aside as it’s not that useful against skeletons, and get to work with his short sword alongside his companions. Grimoire, who was staying back, spots three ghouls (some of the group they saw earlier) that were trying to sneak up on them. He incinerates a ghoul with a big fireball and burns another with a smaller one. The two remaining ghouls flee again. Meanwhile the fight against the skeletons is under control, the adventurers got a few painfuls stabs here and there but they managed to win again.
- Grimoire uses his last reserve of mana to heal the wounds. All of the adventurers are quite exhausted by the successive fights by now (depleted willpower points) and Aracyne, the guild leader, call it a day. The Battle Brother leave Nharzed behind, and go up, by their usual method of shortcuts, all the way to Level 1 where they make a short stop to talk the newly-installed gnome merchant Frinywid – who tells them that he saw another party of adventurers a bit earlier, the Black Axes. He wasn’t sure if they were going to rob him or worse at the time as they look like a bad batch he says, but they didn’t. They’re probably somewhere in Level 2 by now.
- The Battle Brothers leave Gunderholfen, the trip through the Ganfal Swamp is fortunately uneventful and they reach Longfelt before the end of the day.
Closing comments:
- Nothing happening while they rested at their Level 4 outpost between sessions. Rolled at random of course. There’s a countdown going on though (random too, but chances are increasingly higher the more time goes on), as the orcs will understand sooner or later that the ogres aren’t there anymore and they’ll want to look into their former den. The orcs, or maybe someone or something else will.
- Several big fights in this session, there’s no xp for combat so I’m not sure that it really served the purpose of the players (apart from having fun) not to try evade them. They can certainly be systematic about it and clear one area after another but this will take a lot of time.
- Level 4B, Nharzed, is a cool place, spooky and all. There is several special locations in the area but the players didn’t explore any of them this time, instead they explored one building after another full of rubbles. I think a random table of stuff to find in abandonned buildings or things happening or whatnot, would be great to make the area even more interesting. I may do just that for the next time they go there, we’ll see.
- Crossing the Ganfal swamp in their depleted state was a bit risky, another big fight like last time could have doomed them.
Blade & Bastard (or how Wizardry 1 kicked my ass)
I’ve been reading two new mangas, published recently, both interesting and heavy on dungeon-delving but very different in style: Tower Dungeon and Blade & Bastard. Tower Dungeon is the more interesting of the two in my opinion and I’ll probably talk about it soon enough, but today I’m gonna talk about the other one, or more precisely I’m gonna talk mostly about the inspiration source of Blade & Bastard – the original video game Wizardry that started it all.
What intrigued the most in Blade & Bastard is one of its main theme that the main protagonist explains to a rookie adventurer- you can die in the Dungeon – in fact, there’s a really good chance it will happen sooner or later if you keep at it – but other adventurers may find you, bring your corpse to the Temple of Cant and you can be resurrected (paying the Dime of course) and be back to adventuring. There’s also a pretty high chance that the resurrection magic doesn’t work, in that case, it it most certainly God’s will, or so the priestess says, deeming you worthy of an afterlife instead of sending you back to your adventuring life. NO REFUND. Or maybe the ritual has been botched… Who can tell?
So one thing leading to another, in a full on autistic endeavor, I’ve decided to try the steam’s re-mastered version of the first Wizardry video game, with all the « retro » options on. If I’m to believe the game’s blurb the only difference with the original (apart from vastly improved graphics, music and sound effects) is some corrected bugs that afflicted the original, the gameplay and content is essentially the same.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2518960/Wizardry_Proving_Grounds_of_the_Mad_Overlord/
Summary of my game thus far:
- After losing several characters in the Proving Grounds’ Level 1 (they clearly didn’t make the cut!), I finally managed to have a half-decent party of level 3-4 characters and explored a big chunk of Level 1 and 2.
- There’s several monsters in Level 2 that do POISONED, a real pain in the ass, each time I have to rush back in town to lose the effect as I’ve no easy way to counter it otherwise.
- My party also encountered Rotting Corpses that do PARALYSIS, and 3 of my 6 characters were affected, including my priest that could have removed it with his newly-acquired DIALKO spell. Back in town, I see that I can pay the Temple to remove the effect but I don’t have enough money.
- I recruit a bunch of new guys, level them up a while putting them with the 3 non-paralysed characters, lose some of them, get back two of my paralysed ones in time and then I find an elevator in a darkness-shrouded area of Level 1 while bumping in the dark.
- I try the elevator, can’t really do much in Level 2 with it so I go to Level 3 for the first time, just a quick look I said to myself and then the game throws one of its NUMEROUS CURVEBALL at me: the door I just opened is no longer accessible from the other side – I’m stuck in unkown territory… That’s really bad. I defeat a bunch of « level 3 priests » and then encounter six coyotes (of all things) that wipe the floor with my party. All DEAD.
- I still have one level 5 guy that I had left in town, Bragg the dwarf fighter, and I recruit another bunch of level 1s, enough in fact to build up two parties as I now want a back-up party at all time.
- After much grinding to level up the two parties, I begin the exploration of Level 3 but from the stairs now. I find out the hard way that Level 3 has several undetectable pit traps and I lose another entire party.
- Now, I go more cautiously around with my surviving no-longer-back-up party, my priest’s spell LUMILWA helps a lot as I can detect secret doors and evade the pit traps that way. My gnome priest now has LATUMOFIS to remove poison, so that’s no longer the big annoyance it was. And she can also casts MAPORFIC, a very useful spell that lowers (that’s good) everyone’s armor class for the entire delve.
- Anyway, I manage to reach the spot where my last party was TPKed, there’s a message on the bottom of my screen « characters are present in this area » or something like that. I can take my dead companions with me! But wait, I can never have more than six characters at a time in my party for some reason, I have to leave some of my living ones behind (they will wait there) but I still need to have the strength to cross Level 3 and get back in town…
- So I go with 4 living characters and bring 2 corpses back at a time, a real chore I tell you. Some I resurrect at the Temple sucessfully, some turn to ashes and are now too expensive to be worth resurrecting, some I just take their equipement (I have some +1 armors by now) and leave them be. Sorry, but I need the money.
- That done, I level my guys up some more in Level 3 and start to explore Level 4, both by way of the elevator and by the stairs.
- My A Team has now in the front row: a level 5 human Lord (when he changed class he dropped back to level 1, his stats dropped significantly but he kept his hp), a level 7 elf samourai (a fighter with low-level mage spells), a level 8 gnome priest (got up to 9 but was drained a level by a Shade), in the back row: a level 7 gnome bishop (mix of mage and priest spells, can also Turn undead), a level 9 halfling thief (almost useless in fights but necessary for disarming traps on chests) and a level 9 elf mage (the most useful character for big fights, her spells are devastating, but she has only 22 hp).
- I’m pretty confident by now, I’ve just killed two Gas Dragons (okay I thought I was doomed in that fight but they weren’t that fearsome at all). I found the stairs to Level 5 but I’m finishing Level 4 before I go further down.
- And then I open a door to an unexplored area (just got the gold key to open it) and immediately (programmed I suppose) get into an encounter with: a Masked Man, 2 Priests, 2 Robed Men, 2 Armored Men. Competing adventurers? I have no idea, this game doesn’t offer this kind of information. Now, the « Robed Men » are obviously mages and I think they are priority targets. I select my actions for this round, my mage’ll do a LAHALITO (level 4 spell, 6-36 dmg on everyone of a row) on the mages, attack them with my fighters too and my priests will soften up the opposing Priests, my thief will hide as it’s the only thing he can do. The actions are completed, I’ve killed only one mage, the Priests are wounded and that’s it. On my side… The opposing mage had let off a MAHALITO (level 3, 4-24 on everyone of a row) on my front row, not too bad. But the Armored Men and Masked Man do massive damage, 40+ each, my Lord and Priest are DEAD. My Samourai is at half hit points. UTTERLY RIDICULOUS. I get it now, another curveball. This is a serious, serious fight. I select MADALTO (level 5, 8-64 dmg on row) with my mage on the Armored Men, my bishop will try a MANIFO on the Masked Man to try to paralyze him (this spell rarely works but I have to try something), my Samourai and Thief will attack the Mage, hopefully they’ll finish him off before he acts. The second round’s results: the mage foe dies, that’s great. My bishop’s spell fails. My samourai is slain by an Armored Man. My mage is too slow to act and is killed by a single sword swing as she’s no longer back rank. My two surviving characters are my worst in a fight, my bishop and thief. They try to flee next round, they fail, they die. I’m back to grinding if I want to continue.
- An absolute beating… My soul is crushed. I have still some characters in town, Bragg the dwarf fighter, now level 9, is still alive somehow and I could assemble another decent team if I wish. But I have enough of the game for now.
I still enjoyed a lot the game, the playful nature of the dungeon’s levels, the joy of discovering secrets, of understanding what has to be done in order to survive, of gaining new spells that offers a new quality of life suddenly, etc. Apparently I was underlevelled for this big fight too. And my whole team had some bad rng for hit points gains except my priest I think, with my front rank not that great for tanking hits. But all that said, it’s gonna take a while before I play this game again, the grind needed to win it is painful and my leisure time is limited. But you have to respect Wizardy: proving grounds of the mad overlord, both for the challenge it offers and its legacy. A legacy particularly important in Japan due to some twist of fate, where it inspired a multitude of sequels and spin-offs.
And that leads us back to the Blade & Bastard manga wherein we can see all of the wizardry’s quirky gameplay on display but with the narrative format that allows to explore its universe from other angles, as with the aforementionned resurrection in the Temple of Cant. As a player of the video game I had some incentive toresurrect some of my characters, but only if it meant keeping a good character instead of the grind of building another one from the ground. In an immersive story it can mean much more obviously, getting back your fellow adventurers, long time friends and such.
Streets & Spores 