Gunderholfen – The Wight of Nharzed (session 31)

2 septembre 2026 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.

Gunderholfen – Through Claws & Teeth (session 30)

31 août 202631 août 2026 David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

The battle with the Ravens having resulted in a bloody stalemate, the Battle Brothers and Protectors try to regain some strength in the middle of barely-explored Level 5. It quickly becomes clear that they need to get out of the dungeon and get proper resting in town. But the way out is a bit complicated, the hobgoblins at the Forge hate the Protectors and won’t let them pass without a massive bribe, if they even accept. Another way is through Balor’s Rent and then into the Dark Forest…

2 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)
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: 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: Get back in town

Level 5 East

The adventurers fought off swarms of giant rats on two occasions but finally managed to get some rest.
They proceed to get to the long, main corridor and go east. Nothing stops them and they reach the exit in the canyon.
Grimoire casts Flight on everyone, allowing them to fly but only very, very slowly as casting the spell to so many people is quite taxing.
Their slow ascent soon attracts a pair of griffons, they’re under attack! Fortunately, their flying ability, however slow it is, protects them from the griffons’ favorite tactic of seizing a prey and letting it drop from high height. Still, it’s a ferocious fight but once the adventurers manage to kill one of the beast, the other flies away, disappearing into the canyon’s mist.
They reach ground level.
They get across some hills and soon enter forested terrain. Aracyne is a great guide but even he can’t evade attention from some of the forest’s denizens, a pack of worgs has picked up their trail. The adventurers prepare for a fight.
It’s chaotic. The Worgs do their best to separate the adventurers from each other, charging there, grabbing and pulling someone by the leg there. But the adventurers see the risks and help each other effciently. Forka, Bayard, Jedri and Torch do their best to get in the way of the Worgs and attack them when they can. Aracyne and Adalbert shoot arrows after arrows at the beasts and Grimoire spends his last bit of mana with some devastating fireballs. The few surviving Worgs have seen enough and get away to lick their wounds. Efram gives some healing to the group and then march on.
They manage to get through the forest without further incidents. They have a few miles to do in Ganfal Swamp and after that they get into farmlands.
They meet a merchants’ caravan, buy & sell some stuff and then reach the town of Longfelt.

Closing Comments:

Nothing extraordinary for this 30th session. Simple get-back-to-town session, so no exploration this time. Getting out alive was all that counted.
There’s much worse than griffons in Balor’s Rent but the dice gods smiled upon the adventurers.
The Protectors got out of this whole thing (the Ravens business) with two members with majors injuries (Bayard severely burned, disfigured and Bodil with a smashed jaw, also disfigured). Going along the Battle Brothers doesn’t seem to bring them much good…

Gunderholfen – Guilds Showdown! (session 29)

11 août 202624 août 2026 David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

The Battle Brothers have lost the trail of the Ravens but have discovered an entrance to Level 5 via Balor’s Rent, a monster-infested canyon.

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 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: 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 a big chunk of Level 5

Level 5 East

The Battle Brothers and Protectors leave the Trolls Cave and enter Gundeholfen via the newly-discovered entrance on the cliffside.
The large corridor goes well beyond the light that enters from outside. There’s piles of rubbles nearby and, in one of them, Forka fishes out a skeleton in damaged armor wearing a nice, intact great helm. Forka takes it.
They reach a large room with a basin in the middle. There’s two Bugbears, wounded and they accept to talk. They say their lair was attacked by other adventurers and most of their clan was exterminated. « Led by a crazy dwarf? » says Aracyne. Yes, they were. The Ravens, the Ravens are on Level 5 too, somehow! The Bugbears are happy to give directions to enemies of the Ravens.
A bit further, 6 harpies are feasting on a dead Bugbear and are angry to be interrupted. A fight ensues but the harpies are quickly overmatch and killed except one that fled.
Thence, they reach an entrance to a large round vertical shaft, one that goes up and down (mostly down), with several visible passages linking with it. They don’t have much time to wonder at the sight. two greater Gargoyles attack them. There’s a tense fight as the Gargoyles try to grab targets to throw them on the emptiness and claw and headbutt them when they parry their attempts. This time the fight isn’t going great and Aracyne orders everyone to back off. Fortunately, the Gargoyles let them go when they’re far enough from the shaft.
Taking a side corridor, they reach another one with several small rooms on each side, an armoury among them. They quickly search those, not finding much and continue on their way to the Bugbears territory.
They reach a 5-way intersection. Forka’s nose come in handy again, they go north-north-east and find another corridor. Aracyne hear voices from close by, the Ravens are just over there. The group quickly convenes and set on a plan: Aracyne will sneak upon a sentry, followed closely by Forka and Bayard flying behind so they don’t make noise, followed by everybody else from further away.
The attack plan quickly derails when they turn the corner and see a barricade made of rubbles and spears, with an halfling and a large bastard-sword man very much not surprised by the would-be attackers.
Aracyne let go of a special lighning arrow but the halfling dodges the shot targeting her and yells for her other companions to join the fight. Forka and Bayard, flying over the barricade, start to attack the sentries. Grimoire casts flight on Jedri too. A woman in plate casts Dispel on Bayard and he crashes down on the spears and rubbles. The halfling thief seizes the opportunity to put the oil-soaked barricade on fire and Bayard is being immolated and soon falls unconscious. That’s a hard blow for the allies but they soon manage to overwhelm the big Ravens warrior and his halfling companion has to retreat behind. The dwarf Ranfurly, the leader of the Ravens, jumps into melee against Jedri and Forka, with the woman in plate next to him and their party’s mage lobbing Fire Birds from behind.
Forka falls to Ranfurly’s blows despite Torch’s best efforts to block incoming attacks. But then well-placed arrows (crits) from Aracyne and Adalbert and a Backstab from Bodil gets Ranfurly on his back, severely wounded. Right after though, the woman in plate smashes Bodil’s face with a mace blow (crit) and he’s down. Jedri is also downed when, after dodging several of them, he’s hit with a Fire Bird from the Raven’s mage.
At that point, the woman in plate, Eloisa her name is, asks to parley and the battered allies accept. How about each takes their wounded, heal them before they die, and call it a day? Aracyne hesitates for a moment, victory is so near, if everything goes well… Aracyne accepts Eloisa’s deal and each side, eyeing each other, cautiously proceed to pick up their wounded.
The Battle Brothers and Protectors retreat to a nearby room and Efram, who still has mana left, casts Heal Wound on Bayard, Bodil, Forka and Jedri. Everybody is on their feet now but still overall in bad shape so they decide to try to rest somewhere. Their best bet is an armoury they saw earlier, there’s no door to the room (few rooms have doors in the vicinity) but they can use weapons and armors’ racks to barricade the place, which they do. The noise do attract Giant Rats though but they manage to fend them off. They set off to rest but it’s interrupted by the Giant Rats coming for more. Jedri the ratman tries to convince them to go get the Ravens instead but the sneaky rats attack him (bad persuade roll) and almost devour him before his companions save him and kill a bunch of rats.
It’s Forka’s turn to guard and he hears and smells Harpies approaching but they’re just here to eat the dead rats.
The adventurers finish their rest. The Protectors are not very keen on continuing, with Bayard still badly burned and Bodil having his jaw all messed up. The allies, having reached a stalemate against the formidable Ravens, will try to get out of the dungeon together.

Closing Comments:

A lot of fighting this session.
Fortuitous encounter with bugbears led to learning where the Ravens have established a base.
Great fight against the Ravens, the allies had the numerical advantage but the barricade did a lot to prevent them from using it. I wasn’t sure at all if it wouldn’t end in a TPK for the players, if not in the fight, in the aftermath in unkown territory with depleted hit points and mana.
Great move to barricade the armoury to allow resting, it wasn’t foolproof but it was good enough.

The Gates of Power – The Dwarven Realm (session 28)

4 août 20268 août 2026 David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, Ruins of chult campaign

We’re playing through an area that I’ve grafted to the dungeon. It’s 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. I’d wished to see how this dungeon would go but as it is, my boys only explored a small part and beelined the exit. Which is a good thing for their present objective of trying to find the hated Ravens.

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)
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: job in Longfelt, dealing with an infestation in the Crystal House Inn’s basement
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: Find out where the Ravens have gone in Gundeholfen

Level 4 (Gates of Power)

The Battle Brothers, along with their allies the Protectors, have gone down the dwarven elevator from Level 1 all the way to Level 4. They’ve found another part of the ruined dwarven realm.
The gates are smashed open, have been for centuries. Before them is a large dusty room with a lot of footprints and traces of recent fight(s).
The adventurers enter the room, there’s murderholes on the walls, ten skeletons (of dwarves) in old chainmails and with rusted weapons start to enter the room from two corridors at the back of the room. A big fight ensues as crossbow bolts are shot at the adventurers whilts they go through the skeleton warriors. Forka makes good use of his custom-made 2-h hammer and Bayard is frontline on the on other side, smashing enemies with his magic mace. Torch does his best to block bolts with his oversized shield. The group’s archers can’t do much to help though.The fight goes well with only a few wounds and some fatigue (willpower) paid for the win.
The hidden crossbowmen are still active though and the adventurers leave the room on their right to try to reach them, going through a narrow corridor. There’s another dozen skeletons and it takes a while to defeat them because of the cramped area but they manage to do it.
There’s a locked door, Aracynes lockpicks it open. There’s a small armory and they can see that the place was used to rest by a previous group despite the locked door apparently. The drawing of a raven on the wall leaves no doubt, the Ravens were here. Further inspection reveals a secret sliding door. Opening it reveals a stairway going down.
The adventurers go down the stairs and at the bottom are met with angry hobgoblins sentries. Aracyne talks to them and soon find out that they’re part of the clan that he befriended on Level 1C and now moved there after the brutal invasion of the adventuring guilds on their previous territory. They now control the ancient dwarven Forge, along with ogres, It took about a month but they’ve been found out again. The Ravens inflicted heavy casualties as they passed through them they say. The hobgoblins hate the Protectors so it takes a lot of diplomacy from the Battle Brothers to get safe passage for their two guilds but they manage to obtain it from Nerulf, their leader.
Reaching the old abandonned Mines, and after some exploration and a fight against Giant Wasps, the adventurers are surprised to feel a breeze of air and then, further ahead, daylight! The tunnel they’re in cuts abruptly and leads to a giant, disquieting open-air canyon. They’ve found an exit to Balor’s Rent…
They’re eyes adjusting to the light, they can see another entrance on the cliffside but with no easy way to reach it. Except that Grimoire has learned recently the Flight spell and casts it on Forka so he can scout ahead.
Forka reaches the entrance, there’s a large and long corridor leading into the darkness. He also spots some kind of long-necked monster further ahead on the cliffside. He gets back to his companion.
Grimoire doesn’t have enough mana left to cast Flight on everyone and after some discussion they decide to go down a stepladder nearby.
The mist is heavy, visibility is very limited down there, but they soon reach a ledge and there’s a path going along the cliffside. Following the path they reach the entrance of a cave with three Cave Trolls almost immediately coming out after them.
It’s a hard-fought battle, with cave bats joining the fight on the Trolls’ side, but the adventurers emerge victorious. Some are badly wounded though, and most have depleted willpower. It’s time to rest. Efram casts Clean to remove the awful Troll stench and they get in the back of the cave, roll over a boulder and get some well-deserved resting time.

Closing Comments:

The skeletons fights were only attritional. The Cave Trolls were more dangerous but nothing that 9 adventurers together couldn’t handle it seems. The Troll Cave was also excised from Path of Glory. I’ll say that the module is worthwhile, it can certainly be plundered to good effect if nothing else.
Another entrance to the dungeon found, two in fact. But it’s not clear yet how going through Balor’s Rent is feasible.
The Flight spell is a game-changer, we’ll see it used quite often in the future, no doubt.

Gunderholfen – In pursuit of the Ravens (session 27)

24 juillet 202624 juillet 2026 David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

The Battle Brother have convinced the Protectors to join them in their new delve in Gunderholfen for the explicit purpose of teaching the Ravens a lesson. But those are not simply waiting at the dungeon’s entrance.

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 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: seek job in Longfelt, need quick cash
The Protectors: adventuring in Gunderholfen, except Delevan (convalesent)
Black Axes: Widowmakers: Longfelt, new leader>> gnome Havelock, new guild name
The Musers: adventuring in Gunderholfen
The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen

This session’s main goal: Give the Ravens a taste of their own medicine

Gunderholfen, entrance 1A

Travel through the swamp went smoothly. The two allied guilds arrive at the main « kobolds » entrance. They spot the banner of the Ravens and Forka, with his acute sense of smell, thinks that it’s been 2 to 3 days since they were there. Aracyne orders the banner to be burned, a raven flies away.
The adventurers go through Level 1, the gnome merchant is away, his shop is closed. They reach the rope bridge and Torch, who’s first, has a plank breaks under him and he almost fell! The bridge has been sabotaged!
They reach Level 2, they remove their shoes to get through the corridor of wind-blowing and Torch walks on caltrops and hurts (lightly) his foot. They sweep away the caltrops and soon reach the room split by small chasm, Forka is attacked by a cave scorpion but his armor protects him. Jedri stabs the creature with his sword and kills it.
They get through the inundated room, one way ot the other, and get into the room with a campfire and goblins graffitis. There’s a drawing of a raven added to the wall, that Aracyne quickly deface. The scent trail isn’t really better than before, still 2-3 days old.
The allies go further on Level 2, they’re spotted by a Giant Ant worker but that doesn’t lead to a fight. The dogman loses the scent trail though, seems like the Ravens did not go past the graffitis room.
Befuddled, the allies go back to Level ‘s entrance, trying to lure the Ravens out of hiding somehow. They attract something else, a Basilisk from the swamp, it thumps the ground when it sees them. The adventurers attack the beast from each sides. Bayard is almost turned to stone but Torch reacts quickly and protects him with his shield. The Basilisk’s snake head bites Torch but the goblin is resistant to poison (becomes exhausted instead of worse). Forka delivers the final blow to the monster.
They get back inside and kill a lone ghoul skulking in the « goblins » section.
They go to the « hobgoblins » section and soon reach the vertical shaft. There’s a spent torch on the ground. It must be where the Ravens went… They decide to send Forka and Adalbert down the dangling chains to inspect the bottom of the shaft. The perilous operation (Forka gets disheartened in the process), descending about 300 feet along the chains, is successful. Forka picks up the scent of the Ravens (still not fresh though)! There’s also a dwarven-made elevator at the ready and they use it to get all together at the bottom.
They seem to be in another part of the dwarven city. There’s a big, lighted room ahead. And a lot of bones on the floor…

Closing comments:

Not a lot happening on this session, some easy fights (they were on Level 1-2 after all), a bigger one against a dangerous Basilisk that went well. A lot of head scratching as they tried to figure out what the Ravens were up to. Quite fun for me.
My sons, Isaac in particular, really hate the Ravens, what with their bullying and the traps they left behind them and their FAST progress. Sure to lead to high drama some day.
I’ve said it before, but a good nose and good ears, are quite a must in a large dungeon.
The (this) vertical shaft isn’t in the module. From the beginning I had decided to replace an alternate entrance to the dungeon in order to graft another dungeon to Gunderholfen. The whole, together, is linking Level 1 to Level 5 ultimately.
I have a timeline at the ready (where the Ravens are at each time) and 2 days is a big head start. Rushing things in order to catch up with the Ravens would be risky in an unexplored area though. We’ll see how it goes next session.

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

18 juin 202623 juin 2026 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.

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.

Dungeon ecology, gigaxian naturalism is only the beginning

16 juin 202630 juin 2026 David Skelector Delicious in Dungeon, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, gygaxian naturalism, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, musings, Roleplaying Game, RPG, world-building

That’s a fancy title innit? Gigaxian naturalism refers to a concept developed into this article by James M at Grognardia, something of a fundamental OSR blog post in my opinion. It has to do with the idea that D&D founder Gary Gigax was getting out of his way to include such mundane, unglamorous things like latrines, food storing, detritus piles and also, more generally, the idea that monsters weren’t only waiting for adventurers to come by (and that they had babies) and so on in his dungeon-crafting and world-building methodology, and for the explicit purpose to get closer to some kind of realism in his game.

Now, I’m writing this mostly as a thought experiment & for the fun of it, I wouldn’t myself feel the need to implement most of this in my game. But the experiment is to try to add some biological/ecological layers on top of standard gigaxian naturalism and see how it could possibly be used for an elf game, specifically in a megadungeon environement.

Food Web

Do monsters need to eat? In this approach they do.

Life is all about energy and energy transfer. Autotrophs manage to get energy more or less autonomously, transforming light or chemicals around them for their needs. Decomposers and scavengers eat dead stuff. Heterotrophs eat other creatures and unless, it’s at the top of the food chain, a creature in the dungeon is probably prey to something else.

(Right to Left)- I’d be remiss not to include Dungeon Meshi from Ryoko Kui, the most potent work of dungeon ecology I know of.

If we’re a bit serious about it, it would seem important to determine what’s the trophic base of the dungeon or in other words, what are the first things (that produces energy) to get eaten. A classic I’ve seen in many rpgs is some form of mushrooms. Which is fine, it’s a classic for a reason even if I once argued that it’s a bit unnecessary to have mushroom and mushroom-creatures limited only to the underdark in D&D. The truth is that a dungeon-environment would be a rather poor ecosystem. However, we’re doing fantasy over here and let’s handwave some of the real world in order to create something new.

One could imagine carpets of bioluminescent microorganisms « grazed » by small oozes that are in turn eaten (siphoned?) by stirges, that are eaten by fire bats, that are killed by harpies because they compete for the same ecological niche…

Stable or Disturbed Ecosystem

Most probably, the player characters will first enter a (mega) dungeon and find it as a somewhat stable ecosystem wherein groups of non-sentient creatures as well as factions of sentient ones have more or less defined territories for themselves. These territories can vary, overlap – there can be encroachment or raiding across certainly, but there’s still some kind of equilibrium in place.

There can even be some active agents or driving force that ensure that this equilibrium stays in place. A good example is the sun-scarred knights in Richard Barton’s Arden Vul, a neutral faction that has ambassadors in other factions and (seemingly) strive to keep the balance.

So, stable ecosystem at first but…

Player Characters acting as a Wildfire

PCs are not part of this dungeon ecosystem – they intrude, they bring chaos, they lit the powderkeg or, in keeping with the natural theme, they’re like wildfire. After them, or with enough delves anyway, it’s tabula rasa. But nature abhors vacuum, aka. the Game Master re stock the dungeon. Not with the same creatures that just got obliterated obviously. With something opportunistic that benefits from the demise of the previous inhabitants.

More half-baked ideas:

Manatrophs, the trophic base thrives on magic that suffuses the dungeon. Anti-magic zones, devoid of magic, would also be mostly devoid of life: dead zones.
Ruderal Species: or pioneer species, what are the most likely creatures to find a dungeon that is empty for some reason?Probably goblins, easy choice. And like real-world ruderal species, they’ll have a hard time once more dominant species come along.
Dungeon as a vivarium. A twist on « the wizard did it » trope. The dungeon is not the place where the archmage experiment his magic, it is the experiment.
Monsters that goes through metamorphosis. What if an ankheg had a larva phase? Or IS the larva?

Gunderholfen – Counter-Attack! (session 21)

29 Mai 202618 juin 2026 David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Another short session, much like the last one, with some planning at the beginning and then one big fight happening.

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: Invade the Dark Creepers’ village

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

Green Imps: training in Longfelt
The Protectors: adventuring in Gunderholfen, joined the Battle Brothers at Level 4’s outpost
Black Axes: adventuring, try to find a lost tower in Ganfal swamp
The Musers: adventuring, left Longfelt but kept quiet on their objective

Level 4a

The Battle Brothers and the Protectors take a meal and talk together at their shared outpost. They evaluate the benefits and risks of adventuring jointly (1) and decide not to do it this time.
Aracyne examines his maps and hesitates on what his guild should do next, finally leaning on fighting the Dark Creepers. But before they’re ready to depart MAYHEM suddenly erupts on the outpost: the Orcs (around two dozens) are attacking!
Making short work of the main doors with a makeshift battering ram, the Orcs get inside! The adventurers, the two guilds together, with no way to escape, will have to fight for their lives.
The adventurers are outnumbered but at least won’t be outflanked in the corridors and they quickly get in position to fend off the attackers. Forka and Bayard, both heavily armored, will be frontline. Torch will be behind Bayard and will attack with his spear, Grimoire will cast spells from between the legs of Forka or something like that.
Orc archers (and one crossbowman) shoot at their enemies to start the fight, Forka is wounded by a well-aimed (crit) arrow. Grimoire does a Mental Strike on the crossbow-wielder, hurting and making him fly backward several meters away to crash into his fellow Orcs.
But then warriors with falchions or spears swarm inside and get into melee. One orc goes down almost immediately after getting hit by a spear thrust from Torch and a mace blow from Bayard.
A moment later, Aracyne, with fellow hunter Adalbert and Delevan the mage, attack from a side-corridor, with 10′ open pit-trap, half-filled with refuses, between them and the Orcs. Letting go of arrows and fireballs, the trio inflicts much pain (two more kills in this second round) on their opponents.
But things on the main corridor gets a little hairy as Forka is severely wounded by two consecutive blows. The Dogman manages to kill the Orc in front of him and then he retreats behind the fighting line while Jedri quickly takes his place. Efram, the other Protectors’ mage, begins to heal Forka. (Both Jedri and Efram were put in reserve but were quickly put to good use)
Grimoire hurls two fireballs and kills one Orc. Jedri Taunts an Orc into attacking him and then swiftly kills him with his two-weapons attack. Just as things start looking good on this side, the Orc Chieftain jumps over the pit-trap and badly hurt Aracyne (who failed to evade) with a big swing of his bardiche. The two Orcs following him are a bit short on their jumps though and sink thigh-deep into the pit-trap’s refuses and will lose some time getting out. The Orc Chieftain is on the receiving end of several arrows and fireballs but is still in fighting shape.
Orc archers support their leader from the entrance and one arrow grievously wounds Delevan the mage and he’s down.
Jedri and Bayard kill two more Orcs and Forka, fully healed now from Efram’s efforts, charges between them, killing another one. The few remaining Orcs on this side have had enough (failed morale check) and flee!
The Orc Chieftain swings his bardiche… at the proned mage on the ground and finishes him! The killer doesn’t enjoy this success very long though and Adalbert, the mage’s companion, slays him with another arrow. Following this the Orc archers turn tail also and the Orcs that just got out of the pit-trap surrender as they’re now surrounded.
This is Victory!
The Protectors gather around their fallen comrade and will leave the dungeon soon to bring him back in town and pay for resurrection.
Aracyne deals with the two Orc prisoners and tell them his conditions for peace to convey to the surviving sub-chief back at their lair: a tribute of gold and also, free passage inside their territory.

Closing comments:

The (randomized) arrival of the Protectors was really fortuitous to save the PCs from the Orcs’ counter-attack I must say. And the NPCs were the ones to pay the price!
After the recent events, I had created a quick random table for how the Orcs would be reacting to the PCs multi-sessions aggression. The roll resulted in a counter-attack (instead of leaving the area or being defensive), a further roll told me when it would occur, a good process I think. That’s nothing extraordinary, I know, but I’m still learning how do to this properly.
(1) Adventuring with more than 6 characters (6 being the arbitrary number from the Wizardry crpg that I’m taking for my own use) doubles the dice of random encounters, with two 6 rolled meaning a dangerous special encounter. This is due to a larger group being less discreet but also, somewhat abstractly, to the disturbance created by too many adventurers together in the dungeon and it (or its master) reacting to this in some way.

A glimpse of Tower Dungeon 3

7 Mai 20267 Mai 2026 David Skelector Books, manga, megadungeon tower dungeon

Not included in my « glimpse »: Book 2 ended with a great cliffhanger, cruel in every possible way, and Book 3 starts with an awesome scene resolving it. Really gruesome stuff, very dark I’ll say without going into spoiler territory. I love it.

Book 1

Book 2