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.
The adventurers have rested in the mansion’ safest place, surrounded by floating candles, they’re now resuming exploration of the missing wizard’s home.
Jedri, Ratman Thief, rather enjoys his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:
Green Imps: adventuring in Gunderholfen
The Protectors: leisure in Longfelt, resurrection of Delevan succeed (convalescent)
Black Axes: somewhere in Ganfal swamp, lost?
The Musers: back in Longfelt, resting
The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen
The Mansion of Uzul Balashi
The PCs go back inside thew darkness-engulfed room. Checking their map, they’re convinced there should be a secret door in this room. Slowly, carefully patting the walls, they manage after a while to find the contour of an hidden door. With a bit more efforts they find a keyhole. It appears to be impossible to lockpick unfortunately.
They get out and go to an unexplored room nearby. It’s a taxidermy workshop. Among the paraphernalia they spot a blue opal key.
They immediately set out to test the key in the just-found keyhole and it’s a fit! The door opens into a small corridor with its walls covered in glowing runes. Tests, with some stuffed animals from the taxidermy workshop, reveal that intruding in the corridor activates powerful electricity discharges. Not seeing any easy way past that, the adventurers decide to go elsewhere.
They decide to go back to the ground floor. Forka picks up a small silver ringbell on the altar of the shrine of Death.
Back into the Banquet room, they find four more ringbells and start to try them one by one. Several have no apparent effects. One rings everywhere in the mansion all at once (they hear a door opens somewhere not very close). One puts some kind of beneficial effect on Aracyne. Another makes every PCs deaf!
Deaf as they are, the PCs still continue exploration and open a door to the east.
They enter the curiosity room. There’s shelves and cabinets filled with various assorted items. There’s a demonic-looking statue in one corner. The PCs move one cabinet aside and find a secret door behind it.
Torch enters a small vestibule and finds a trapdoor on the floor, he opens it, revealing a ladder. He starts to descend but the ladder breaks under his weight (he’s a goblin but in full armor), making him fall 15′ below. Torch is dazed (condition) but not too badly hurt. He’s in some kind of natural cave below the mansion and something is moving nearby. The tentacled beast just glimpsed at before, a Carcass Crawler..
Forka throws a rope down but at this very moment there’s a commotion behind him – Jedri is being attacked by the statue, it’s a gargoyle!
Jedri is severely wounded by the gargoyle’s claws. Torch manages to climb the rope fast enough (but get exhausted, pushed his roll) and slam the trapdoor shut before the wall-climbing creature got to him.
Forka switches place with Jedri to fight the gargoyle and he starts with a big attack with his 2-h hammer that does good damage to the monster. The gargoyle’s claw attacks doesn’t get through his magic chainmail. A mighty hit of his hammer and the gargoyle is now severely damaged but it counters with a claw attack on forka’s face (crit) and another one (another crit!) and the knight is down!
Fortunately, the gargoyle is near-death enough that Grimoire and Aracyne can finish it in no time. Grimoire casts Heal Wound on Forka and the dogman gets back on his feet.
By now though the adventurers are worried, their mage has depleted his mana and can no longer heal them. Following an intuition they open a door n-e, into a dining room and find a shuttered window that they can open from the inside. They get out of the wizard’s mansion and go rest at the Hare & Hound inn.
Closing Comments:
They spent nearly an hour of in-game time in the dark room. Something is obviously important in this area but they can’t go further for the moment.
Torch falling on the Carcass Crawler lair and Jedri being attacked by the gargoyle SIMULTANEOUSLY was a indeed a dire situation for the PCs. (I « activated » the gargoyle at this moment as it made sense for it to do so) They came out on top but it was a close call.
I was a bit suprised that my description of a demonic-looking statue didn’t elicit more suspicion from the players but I guess it’s a mistake they won’t do again.
A nice change of pace as the kids chose to do a mission outside of the megadungeon for once. Working for Longfelt’s high constable, they have to infiltrate a wizard’s house and find out what happened to the owner who hasn’t been seen in public for half a year at least. (And as everyone knows, probing into a wizard’s home without invitation is a surefire way to get into trouble, better to send foolish adventurers!)
Jedri, Ratman Thief, he rather enjoys his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:
Green Imps: adventuring in Gunderholfen
The Protectors: leisure in Longfelt, resurrection of Delevan succeed (convalescent)
Black Axes: somewhere in Ganfal swamp, lost?
The Musers: back in Longfelt, resting
The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen
Rumors:
Uzul Balashi’s garden has many wonderful herbs and flowers, including spicy Purple Habanero, an exotic and much sought-after delicacy.
The Mansion of Uzul Balashi
The Battle Brothers arrive at the wizard’s mansion and are stopped by two guards at the main entrance. The guards are members of the Olores Domago gang, enforcers hired by Uzul Balashi a while back and now mainly into gambling & drinking & womanizing & banditry on the side.
A talk between Aracyne and Olores Domago’s leader, Dominguos de Bellehache, quickly degenerates as the latter refuses acces to (their side of) the mansion (they’d be welcomed to the courtyard though) and Aracyne calls him a « thug ». Seconds later, Dominguos’ men are on their feet, weapons in hands and the situation is within an hair’s breadth of getting violent but the adventurers finally choose to leave. (Unbeknownst to the PCs Dominguos orders a footpad to follow them at distance afterward.)
The Battle Brothers then go around the block, get on the back of the mansion and throw a rope over the outer wall (in broad daylight) to acces the overgrown courtyard. Forka climbs first, attach another rope and get down on the other side. Grimoire joins him soon with a levitate spell. There’s a large, sinister tree shading the area. There’s something going on with the weeds, forcefully entangling Forka and Grimoire. Forka lifts the goblin on his shoulders and start to cross the courtyard, fighting the weeds strenuously all the way over there. Grimoire then casts levitate on his three other companions, one by one, so they can reach the mansion without going through the weeds. (a lot safer but costly in magic points)
Forka smashes an adjacent window with his hammer and everyone extirpate themselves from the weeds as fast they can and get inside the mansion.
They’re in a large banquet room but don’t really explore it, they open a door west and get into an ominous room dedicated to Death, with a Grim Reaper in a stained glass window and an altar with a skull on it and some other stuff. Aracyne takes a book from the altar.
The PCs don’t linger and open a door south that reveals a set of stairs going down. After some hesitation they choose to descend.
They’re in a large room with many crates. They try to open a door west but it’s locked and a few seconds later they hear banging and howling coming from the other side.
They leave it be and go north through an ossuary. There’s six standing skeletons but they don’t react to the adventurers’s presence when they cross the area. They open a door north.
The PCs are now inside a smaller room from which emanates calmness, serenity, with candles gently floating around.
Forka inspects a brick wall and finds a secret door. It leads to a small corridor with an acrid smell in the air. The source is soon apparent as a Gray Ooze attacks Forka and inflicts a burning wound on him. Grimoire does massive damage to the ooze with a (crit) Mental Strike. Jedri damages his light mace with a left-handed attack on the acidic monster but his magic sword, Perseverance, is fine after it finishes it.
The ooze slain, the adventurers find another secret door at the end of the corridor and get into a room with a dry fountain and a corpse with a badly-damaged armor and a broken sword.
There’s furnitures blocking the door from their side and they remove it all and enter a room littered with bones. They see a tunnel carved high on the wall and going east but they choose instead to open a door south into a fetid room with a small hole on the ceiling (they found the latrines yikes!).
They get back and they hurry away as they see a large tentacled beast exiting from the tunnel.
They leave this area and get back once more to the storage room and open a door east.
They enter a room engulfed in darkness, Torch’s torch is barely visible. Something is moving in the dark, a cackling laughter and then Torch yelps in pain as sharp teeth plunge onto his leg. A chaotic fight ensues as Torch and Jedri (who can still fight decently without seeing much as a Ratman) go against two monstrous wolves with skulls for heads. Jedri quickly kills one with a sword through the heart. The other beast tries to rake Torch with its claws but fail to get through his armor and the combined efforts of Torch and Jedri are enough to dispatch it.
The PCs get out of darkness by where they came and enter a room to the south. There’s a diminutive creature half-organic half-mechanic (an homoncubold) sitting on a carpet. It’s mute but it gestures at some wares it’d like to sell. Aracyne buys a dagger and a folded paper from this odd merchant. The paper turns out to be a note written by Uzul Balashi – the wizard is complaining bitterly that his wife doesn’t approve of the experiments he’s doing on their house staff (they’re starting to get ugly and smelly…). The PCs also manage to learn from the merchant that Uzul Balashi can be found somewhere above, not underground.
Going in another room close by, they find boxes filled with women clothes and some jewels, They also find a music box and Aracyne turns its lever until the music ends and then the box explodes in a powerful fireball! The three closest adventurers suffer greatly, jedri is badly wounded and Aracyne and Grimoire are both down and in a critical state. The Elf’s face is a charred mess and Grimoire has one leg nearly torn off (injuries). Forka manages to revive Grimoire and then the mage casts his recently-learned Treat Wound on Aracyne, saving his life and then on himself and Jedri.
The Battle Brothers, a bit discomfited by this ordeal, get back limping to the Floating Candles room and get a good rest without any interruption.
Closing Comments:
I have about ten modules attached to the Gundeholfen tentpole at the moment. I was really impressed by Slug House when I came upon it and was eager to run it. A really nice urban dungeon, there’s not many of those that are so well-conceived. Highly recommended.
The kids did a pretty good job of exploring. They still rush things a bit too much and don’t ask questions nearly enough but they’re getting there.
The music box was one brutal curveball I must say. It does make sense in context though.
The kids guessed quite rightly, and by themselves, that the candles room was a great place to rest.
Jedri, Ratman Thief, he rather enjoys his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:
Green Imps: training in Longfelt
The Protectors: Resting in Longfelt, resurrection of Delevan succeed (convalescent)
Black Axes: somewhere in Ganfal swamp, lost?
The Musers: adventuring, left Longfelt but kept quiet on their objective
The Ravens: newly-arrived in town, reputation for being brutal veterans
This session’s main goal: Search the Great Cave, the lair of the defeated orcs
Level 4A
After a rest at their Level 4 outpost, the Battle Brothers are ready to pay a visit to the orcs and see if those have accepted their (harsh) terms. They get to the Great Cave without any problems and announce their presence to the orcs. The orcs still have guards in place but the PCs can see that half of them look like barely-trained teenagers.
The orc sub-chief arrives to meet them and anoiunces that the tribe accept the terms, paying a tribute of 100 gp immediately. He then proceeds, dejectedly, to show the adventurers around starting with the western part. The PCs look briefly at the food storing area and move on. They arrive at a living area where there’s some training of youngsters going on, not nearly a show of strength. Then they enter a larger living area where’s there some wounded warriors and some female tending to them. The next area has more female orcs and many kids, some crying, all very much terrified by the (bloodthirsty) adventurers.
They’re in a loop circuit that joins back the Great Cave from the North-East and have seeminlgy visited it all but then Aracyne asks to see where the dead chief lived. The sub-chied reluctantly brings them back to a living area with an open dormitory and points the chief’s place. There’s a rudimentary chest there and Aracyne opens it and takes the remaining gold (46gp) of the tribe. The orcs are now destitute.
As his leader is busy stealing from the orcs, Jedri searches the area a bit more and finds a paler spot on the western wall and, pressing it, opens a secret door!
It leads to a brick corridor, the air is stale, there’s no sound of anything but they can see a strange statue at the limit of their vision. The PCs coerces the sub-chief into going first. Approaching, they see that this is representation of the Bat-Toad god Tsathoggua. It has topaz for eyes.
Just as they decide to ignore the temptation of the precious stones, the statue suddenly animates and sucker punches the orc sub-chief with a powerful backhanded slap, sending him sprawling several meters away.
The statue then stomps the ground mightily, sending several of the PCs to the ground as well. Jedri didn’t fell though and he attacks with his two weapons, his sword not doing any damage but his morningstar connecting with a good hit. Forka hasn’t time to attack before the statue slams its head into his face, wounding and dazing him. The dogman knight is disheartened but still manages to attack right after with a mighty blow of his 2-h hammer that does suitably impressive damage. Grimoire then does his part with a very successful (crit) Mental Strike that slams the statue onto the back wall, pieces of it flying all over the place. It still stands though but Jedri the ratman finishes the job with another well-placed morningstar blow.
Aracyne picks up the topaz from the broken statue. He then sends back the wounded orc sub-chiefs but asks for another orc to accompany them and the orcs reluctantly sends another.
They continue their exploration of the secret area, going west and north, with a slope further north. The new orc, the first in line, suddenly stop and makes an odd gurgling sound. He’s got a spear through his throat, from a trap, and he’s very dead. Congratulating themselves for having put cannon fodder in front of them, the PCs get back to grab another orc for the task, much to the dismay of his fellow tribesmen. « Don’t be sad, he died a hero’s death » says Aracyne to the wide-eyed orcs.
The adventurers resume exploration and get past the « heroic » dead orc still on his spear and get into a room with a large stone sarcophagus flanked by two (smaller) statues of Tsathogga. Forka immediately smashes one statue with his large hammer, and the other. They then order the orc to open the sarcophagus but he only manages to move the slab a few inches. Forka helps him and the two together succeed in movind the slab aside. There’s a human skeleton inside, wearing a black chainmail visible through his tattered robes and holding a scepter (of Tsathogga) made of copper and ivory. The adventurers orders the orc to take everything, which he does (with some efforts to take off the chainmail from the corpse). They also take the 4 emeralds that served as the statues’ eyes. Nothing bad happens.
Having finished over there, the PCs go south until they reach an impasse. Close inspection reveals another secret door, it leads very close to the stairs going up to Level 3. Aracyne ponders the irony of having a way to attack the orcs so much easier and so near all this time…
They get back to the orcs for one final speech by Aracyne: « thank you for your cooperation, thank you for the gold, much appreciated, sad for the dead guy *snickers*, necessary sacrifice and all that… See you soon. Yes… Rest assured, we’ll come back! » *silence (except for crying babies) and horrified stares*
Leaving the Great Cave behind, the party still in good shape, Aracyne decides that now’s the time to eliminate another annoying threat in the vicinity: the Giant Cave Lizards nearby. They walk in their lair and sure enough, there’s three of the beasts, one with visible wounds on it. Grimoire is first to do violence, he hurls 3 fireballs at the wounded lizard, wounding him further. Jedri finishes it. Aracyne shoots another with his bow. Forka hits this one too. They’re tough cookies though, they don’t go down easy. One try to bite Forka but don’t get through his armor. The other one charges Jedri but the latter evades and then achieves a killing blow. Two good arrows from Aracyne soften the surviving one. It’s killed soon after. The adventurers search through the bones and excrements afterward and get a surprisingly good haul (gold chalice and gold pieces) for their troubles.
The Battle Brothers decide that they should go back to Longfelt. They talk briefly with two ogres fetching water on Level 3, telling them a bit of their recent successes . They make a quick stop at the gnomes’ shop on Level 1 and buy a few consumables, and then leave the dungeon.
Trip through Ganfal swamp goes well even if the place seems more menacing by the day.
They buy some food to farmers near town.
Back in longfelt they go enquire to the Protectors, Bayard’s guild, and find out that Delevan has survived the ritual of resurrection. They also learn that there’s a new adventuring guild in town, the Ravens. Not rookies at all. Experienced and a ruthless bunch if the rumors are true.
They sell the Tsathogga scepter to Calmund, a rich collector in town, for 40gp.
Forka asks around for maybe the eighth time if there was any magic helm to be bought in town (to go with his excellent new magic chainmail). There was none. But there was a possibility of doing a mission in town, in a wizard’s tower, where something went awry, and gain such an item in the process…
Closing Comments:
Very profitable session for the BBs this time, reaping the benefits of having defeated the orcs.
Yes, turns out this a game with orc babies, and orcs with emotions. But also, orcs that would have been ruthlesse themselves if the situation have been the other way around. I found my son’s speech to the orcs funny as hell.
Level 4A is the more thorouhly explored level of the dungeon to date.
The new adventuring guild in town means trouble, I made it obvious, and Edmond wants to fight them as soon they meet them in the dungeon.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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: find 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: leaving for Gunderholfen soon
The Musers: leisure in Longfelt
Longfelt
The BB buy a lot of food rations, put them into a small barrel, with the idea of leaving it inside their newly-acquired Level 4 outpost.
While taking their breakfast at the Hare & Hound Inn they are visited by a gnome merchant (and magic-user) named Frinywyd who has an offer for them. He wants to open shop into the liberated Level 1 of Gunderholfen and asks for the BB if they would escort his caravan to get there and they gladly accept.
Ganfal Swamp
The crossing is slower than usual, leading the caravan on the treacherous road half-eaten by the swamp. Halfway through, one side of the cart slides into muddy waters and it takes great effort from the group to get it back on firm land. (Forca get disheartened in the process)
Fortunately they reach their destination without further hindrances.
Gunderholfen
The BB advise the gnome merchant to occupy the room of the late goblin chief in Level 1B and he does so. They also take a look at his wares and Aracyne buys an amulet of spell focus. They see that the gnome sells bottled elementals that can help in fights but the asked price is a bit too steep.
They then go down to Level 2, have to defend themselves from several hungry Stirges and then take the secret ladder to Level 3. From there they cross the dead kiigoths’ territory and go down (very cautiously) the slippery stairs to Level 4.
They find their outpost undisturbed, door still staked, and they leave their rations inside. They write a quick message on the door: « The Battle Brothers are here » with a cray and leave to explore.
They first go nearby, just south of their outpost, and entered a warm area with low visibility due to steam. They hear a high-pitched laughter and a loud PLOP and see, barely, a small winged creature flying above them – a steam mephit. Aracyne has time to shoot an arrow at it and manages to hit it despite the obscuring vapor. Forca is convinced that the nearby stalagmite is a creature and hits it with his hammer, breaking a chunk of it but with no further result.
The wounded mephit avenges himself by creating a rain of scalding water on everyone below. Torch protects himself with his shield but the other adventurers are wounded (fortunately I rolled very low on damage). Another mephit sends a jet of hot water at Jedri, who fails to evade and is wounded. But then the PCs act. Aracyne finishes the wounded mephit with another well-place arrow. Grimoire casts a fireball at the other, hurting it ligthly. He then casts Levitate on Forca who smash the mephit with an hammer blow and kills it. With no further threat, Grimoire casts Treat Wound on Jedri and then PCs search for treasure and it takes some time but they finally find some ancient dwarven coins (10 gp each) that were stashed on top of a stalagmite.
Thence they go back at the intersection and go south and soon get in another fight despite their attempt at stealth, this time against a juvenile ankheg. An arrow from Aracyne is deflected by the insectoid’s carapace and the creature try to hit Jedri with one leg but he evades. The ratman then counters with two powerful hits from his light flail and morningstar, wounding the ankheg. Next, Forca delivers a massive blow of his hammer, so powerful that it detaches the monster’s head from its body, killing it instantly. The close by lair lair of the ankheg is littered with bones but nothing else.
The PCs continue on the path that they’ve been told leads to the the dwarven city, going east and south generally, and after that west, inside a long and warm natural passage that debouche in a large, even warmer cavern. The air is dense with mist.
Forka the dogman, even with his helmet on, hears some kind of high-frequency sounds emanating from somewhere above and, through the mist, the PCs can see several glowing spots. They soon see what’s the meaning of all this when creatures plunge towards them: Flaming Bats!
5 Flaming Bats (with some other « warming up » above) get near the PCs. Two of them belch clouds of black smoke, partially obscuring the adventurers’ vision. Another try to rake Aracyne but he dodges. Same with Jedri. Another let go of a jet of fire on Forka but his armor protects him. The adventurers make quick work of all but one bat, but 3 more are coming to the fight! One makes a fiery dive towards Jedri but he dodges. One comically latches on Forka without managing to hurt him in the least and the knight body slams the bat on the ground (brawling attack), crushing it under him. Meanwhile, Aracyne concentrates his shots on the bats flying too high and kill several. Jedri kills a bat but then he inadvertently throws his flail several yards away and also bends his morningstar (two mishaps in a row)! Grimoire casts Levitate on Forka and the latter smashes another bat midair. A bat bites Forka and this time, pierces the armor. Another one painfully burns Jedri with a fire jet. But before long there’s only two Flaming Bats remaining, still on the ceiling, that seem more interested in perpetuating the species than to fight.
Victorious in this big fight, the adventurers have a look at the passage to the south, a bit further peek at the gate of the dwarven city and call it a day, having numerous wounds and depleted willpower for almost every PCs (and some conditions) and return to their Level 4 base to rest.
Closing Comments:
Escorting the caravan meant increased chance of random encounters but none occured, only a DB ‘s journey mishap.
I did not really convert the steam mephit for DB but it worked fine nonetheless, with the first mephit summoning another and then trying to keep away from the PCs and attack at range.
Forka’s heavy armor is very handy in fights, no doubt about that, but that makes sneaking for the group virtually impossible (they could still split and scout ahead). I like how it balances overall.
The fight with Flaming Bats was finished within 6 rounds, a pretty big fight and really fun I’d say. I made it easier because I ruled that 1d6-1 bats joined the fight each round, so not the whole14 bats of the room all at once. But it was challenging and the PCs had to spend a lot of ressources to win so I think it was good.
Just a quick shout-out to dripton from DF Whiterock as he consistently offers the best rpg play reports out there on his blog, in a category of his own really. Way better than what I’m doing over here I must say, my dear readers. He includes an impressive level of details for one, and never to the detriment of entertainment – not an easy feat to accomplish when writing play reports.
His present endeavor is a campaign of Dungeon Fantasy (a GURPS variant), he’s indeed a DF guy – within the Halls of Arden Vul mega dungeon (which as a bonus I’m also a big fan of).
So, what can I add? The best play reports ever, precise and humorous. Also, a lot of behind the curtain to be appreciated by dungeon masters or would-be dms.
Streets & Spores 