Time-Travel Mishap – (The Wandering Glade) – Session 17

18 décembre 202518 décembre 2025 David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

My nephew Olivier, now seventeen, suggested we return to our Castle Xyntillan campaign.

Last time we played in this particular campaign was more than a year ago and the session led to a most dramatic change as the characters chose to flee Averoigne (through time-travel no less), teaming with the bishop/sorcerer Azédarac instead of fulfilling their mission for the Bénédictins monks and bring incriminating evidence to them. I told the players afterward that we could continue to play with these characters but in another setting entirely. I had in mind something closer to Zothique than Averoigne (still firmly inside Clark Ashton Smith’s cycles stories). But, well, I never came around to put together something satisfying for me and more or less let go of the idea.

But now is time to stop messing around and go back to something that was quite formative for us: Gabor Lux’s Castle Xyntillan. But! Before that, an interlude into a module of the same author – The Wandering Glade, that will, I think, do a proper transition for the events of the campaign.

The general idea is that the adventurers got caught in a trap that was meant for Azédarac…

The Wandering Glade is a point-crawl adventure from Echoes from Fomalhaut #06, by Gabor Lux. https://emdt.bigcartel.com/products

The author’s blog: https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/

Set in Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne

TTRPG System used: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford

Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)

Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, has a repeating crossbow and a magic sword called Scrupulous, Expert lvl 6
Cordélia Lenoir (Marjorie), using the dark arts for Good (probably), Necromancer lvl 5
Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 6
Paul Nareff (Olivier), friend and sponsor of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 6

« He [Azédarac] was the wisest and the mightiest of sorcerers, and the most secret withal ; for no one knew the time and the manner of his coming into Averoigne, or the fashion in which he had procured the immemorial Book of Eibon, whose runic writings were beyond the lore of all other wizards. He was a master of all enchantments and all demons, and likewise a compounder of mighty potions. Among these were certain philters, blended with potent spells and possessed of unique virtue, that would send the drinker backward or onward in time. » (The Holiness of Azédarac, Clark Ashton Smith)

The Wandering Glade:

The PCs wake up in a clearing surrounded by some majestic oaks lording over the dense forest. The light of day is already starting to fade. There’s no trace of Azédarac nor of his acolyte Jehan.
There’s a statue of a woman, beautiful and proud-looking, and a plaque under it. It says: « Oh Azédarac! Not the place you expected to arrive perhaps? Where were you fleeing this time? Did someone caught you lying and cheating again? We’ll see if you can escape this green labyrinth of mine… »
There’s a big boulder nearby but nothing else so they leave the clearing by the only visible path, it goes west.
They see another large boulder, this one covered in wild flowers. A faded inscription says: << Wandering Glade >> Clearing of Secrets.
They turn right at an intersection and enter a meadow. The pleasant scent has attracted giant butterflies. The PCs turn back and takes another path.
They go through an area with old-growth forest, dead wood covered in moss everywhere. A dozen Mossmen jump up from the ground and threaten the adventurers with sticks and stones. PCs gets some light wounds from thrown stones but then obliterate half of the Mossmen very quickly and the surviving ones start to flee. Noah shoots some more with his automatic crossbow.
Thence, they go northwest but are soon surrounded by some celtic warriors. The PCs manage to bribe them with gold, they learn that they serve the Enchantress Moriannis and leave peacefully.
Going due west now, they get ambushed by several deadly archers. Noah is hit by an arrow. The group start to sprint further in the path and Cordélia gets hit by two arrows in the back and is severly wounded but then both her and Noah shoots back and down one archer and wound another, making them retreat.
After that, they walk another 20 minutes and now they can see some sort of big camp and a lot of activity ahead, with fires and tents, and are soon intercepted by the lookouts. Cordélia uses her magic and takes the appearance of Moriannis from the statue they saw initially. She then speaks with the leader of the warriors, Brughaft, and explain that she’s only an « aspect » of the Enchantress and thus lacks the knowledge of her real « self ». Brughaft accepts her explanation and tells her of one way to get out of the Wandering Glade (and abstains from telling another one) – they must follow the spiral path called Morag’s Way, go to the end of the path and offers 3 things to the magic pool: the sap of roots of the night, petals from flowers of winter and blood from lovers. He also gives his bronze key. The adventurers for their part gives him some jewels and precious stones to ensure his loyalty.
The PCs also learn of several key locations in the glade but their exploration will resume next morning, after a night of sleep in the warriors’ camp.
Next day, the PCs want to find the « wall of trees » somewhere in the southeast. They’re not quite sure which paths will lead there though. They manage to take a shortcut and not get lost and find one of the tallest oak of the forest. There’s a cave mouth that opens between its roots.
They enter the small grotto, there’s a pool of silvery water with some rocks emerging with non-precious rocks, small crystals and trinkets laid on them. Paul look more closely onto the pool and sees a vision of black roots hanging from the ceiling of an underground area.
Leaving the grotto and great oak behind, the PCs go east in a path. They suddenly hear much noises at their right in the forest, small trees falling, a big claw marks appear on a boulder but no sign of what creature is doing all this damage. They hurry away.
They reach the Wall of Trees, impenetrable at first look. Cordélia attempt a spell of Extirpate Arcana (contested against the place’s magic) and succeed but knows it won’t hold very long. They enter the clearing and search the area. Monmon find 10 magical arrows, Cordélia finds a golden sickle and Paul finds delicious berries that seems to have healing capacities.
Leaving the clearing they decide to go north along the path, cross the area where they killed Mossmen, turn right and come across a burial site of a sort with thirteen mounds of earth, each having a green sapling on top. Paul puts a spade in one but then corpses start to emerge from every mounds, with each apparently having a sapling’s roots through its heart. Unpertubed, Cordélia goes right in the middle and casts Smite the Dead, slaying all of the undead at once.
Further north and then west, the adventurers go to the next area they wanted to investigate – a den of monsters they’ve been told. Sure enough when they approach they can see a cave and bones littering the entrance. Two big Sabretooths get out leisurely of the cave. Cordélia casts her last spell of the day, a Compel the Flesh on one Sabretooth, forcing it to attack its mate. Paul and Monmon both attack it too. Paul is wounded by the big cat’s claws but it soon is slain under the attacks from all sides.
Entering the cave they see 2 nervous cubs and Cordélia sends them the controlled Sabretooth mother so they stay calm. There’s not much in the cave except some faded cave paintings showing a vertical shaft and then stick figures seemingly fighting against trees.
From there the adventurers go west to get back to Brughaft’s camp because Cordélia wanted to rest to get her spells back, even if it was still quite early in the evening and with much disgruntled comments from Noah, Monmon and Paul.
The three non-mages decide to try to explore a bit more whilst Cordélia is resting. To the north, they find strange mossy boulders graven with mesmerising patterns. Monmon feels sick looking at them and they leave the place.
They then decide to try to reach the old well that they had heard of, first taking a path going west and south. They fight some other overmatched Mossmen and then reach a stone circle containing heaps of antlers. There’s a runic inscription: « SIGN SHOW, KINSMEN GATHER ». The PCs try a few things, mostly on the silly side, but without results.
They leave and, not very far from there, they find the old well. Noah uses his grappling hook & rope and begin to descend after having thrown some rocks in the water at the bottom to see if anything uncanny happened but nothing did. He saw four stone snake heads and was a bit wary but couldn’t see anything dangerous so he continued his descent and reached a bearded face crowned with a wreath of oak leaved, very druidy in appearance. Inspecting it closely Noah finds a keyhole and immediately thinks about Brughaft’s bronze key but unfortunately guess whom has the key, Cordélia! Cursing their 5-minutes day mage, they call it off and go back to camp.
Next day, the adventurers go back all together this time, to the old well. The bronze key indeed matches the keyhole, opening a secret door that leads into darkness. Into the Druid Grave.
TBC..

Closing Comments:

I’ve adapted a bit the adventure for my purpose, added the premise with Azédarac and Moriannis, made the module’s bandit gang as the latter’s followers instead, made them less hostile but also added a bit more stringent characteristics to the ingredients necessary to exit the Wandering Glade. Not much else really.
I had half a mind to send out the characters naked or without most of their stuff maybe, going a little Against the Slavers-style, but finally opted to be a non-cruel DM for this rekindling of a campaign.
Most of the fights were on the easy side, with one harder (against the « evil scouts ») ending in a stalemate. They didn’t stumbled upon the more dangerous stuff we could say (yet).
I think we’ll find a moment in the christmas holidays to continue this one hopefully.
XP = Participation 1, Treasures 1, Secrets 2, Total: 4

Frosthaven – Call of the Harbinger (56)

4 décembre 20254 décembre 2025 David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

This scenario is linked with Carrion Ridge (21) in the algox sub-campaign which was pretty easy and straightforward (no play report). This one is neither of those things.

This is a Defeat the Boss scenario but with said Boss being physicaly split in two and defeating it forced to be made in three parts, each time having to destroy an altar so one of us (only one) can hurt the Harbinger for a third of its hit points. Phew.

Characters

Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 7, a crab that goes stab stab stab
4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 5, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 5, no, no, not this kind of teabag or is it?

We start with an invincible and shadowy beast breathing down our necks and monsters ahead.

Black imps are protecting an evil altar.

The Infuser gets munched a little by the *Harbinger*.

The Deepwraith destroys the altar and get pulled into the Harbinger’s realm, the duel is on!

Meanwhile his companions go further into this hellish place and find more enemies and a second altar…

The Deepwraith has reappeared, none the worse for his duel and will have to help quickly, the situation is perilous.

The poor Infuser is yet again the target of the *Harbinger*.

Now is the turn of the Hive to fight ~~one on one~~ Hive-Assembly vs Harbinger + summons.

Yet another altar and more monsters to boot.

Let’s finish this… (Deepwraith stabs the Harbinger a gazillion times)

Closing Comments:

Hard one, and quite a bit cumbersome as a scenario I feel, jumping in every hoops at the right moment-style.
The Deepwraith was especially well-suited to kill the Harbinger really fast, that helped a lot I think.
The Hive took on himself to do it once but in retrospect it wasn’t the greatest idea as it took (understandably) several turns to do the job.
And with that the Deepwraith has achieved his Personal Quest and will retire. Very strong character, with a very high ceiling. Really enjoyable too, he’ll be missed.

Frosthaven: Collection’s Capstone (88)

4 novembre 20255 novembre 2025 David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

Our fiftieth scenario of our frosthaven campaign! The three of us are each at our fifth character and there’s not many left to unlock. The eponymous town of Frosthaven is now pretty advanced in buildings/upgrades. On the other hand we still have many scenarios available (dozens?) and we haven’t put much time on the main puzzle recently so we still have a long way to go to finish the game if we wish to be completionists.

This scenario follows our actions last time against a villain called The Collector whereas we messsed up his collection pretty good. This time though we’ll be fighting him and try to put an end to this evil hobbyist.

Characters

Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 7, a crab that goes stab stab stab
4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 4, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 4, no, no not this kind of teabag or is it?

First room we’re against a savvas icestorm and a savvas lavaflow, two powerful summoners.

They’re not the only ones to bring reinforcement though, the Hive brings out his *Arcing Generator*.

One summoner down but the other has brought forth an Ice Demon.

We push forward and now face two lurkers.

We open the door and find *The Collector*. Oh, you want to add us to your collection? We’ll see who collects whom.

Teabag engages the enemy, helped by the 4H2 but what’s Schlurkt doing? Looting, really?

Teabag: « It’s not working, he’s too tough! »

But the Deepwraith finally joins the fray and he stabs the Collector a gazillion times!

One round of utter carnage. It’s not long after that before we overcome the Collector.

Closing Comments:

Easy scenario, the savvas are strong foes but without much time to summon they weren’t that bad.
The Collector had 75hp but no shield or retaliate and so was a prime target for my Deepwraith. 8 attacks in one round boosted by a power potion, that was satisfying.
Yet another scenario where we couldn’t pick the special item that was buried at the bottom of the loot deck.

Frosthaven – The Collection (87)

27 octobre 20252 novembre 2025 David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

A girl from town wants us to save her two brothers. They’ve been taken prisoners by this weird savvas dude, the Collector, as subjects for his experiments.

This a kill them’ all random scenario but with a twist at the end. It figures a mad scientist/evil genius villain but we won’t see him until next (linked) scenario. We’re accompanied by this enthusiastic militia man named Ormi (road event).

Characters

Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 7, a crab that goes stab stab stab
4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 4, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 4, no, no not this kind of teabag or is it?
NPC Ormi (Math)

Seems like the Collector has hired algox as guards for his abode.

Schlurkt kills the archer in no time and is joined by Ormi and Teabag in melee against the unlucky, poisoned guards.

Meanwhile 4H2 deploys his first apparatus of many, his Sniper Turret.

With the last guard poisoned and on its last leg, Schlurkt opens the door to the next area but takes a step back as two more archers are aiming at the intruders.

We’re ready to fight them now but the Steel Automaton behind is a tough cookie.

Reinforcement from the Hive, with an Armored Tank. Superior numbers will see us through.

Schlurkt opens the left door and comes face to face with two ferocious bears. No worries, he’s got help from 4H2 from afar.

On the other side, Teabag will have to fight two fierce lurkers all by himself.

About time, the Infuser is battered and bloodied.

Final area, two more algox and one bladespinner.

We see the captive brothers in the back and we’ll have to act fast before they’re shredded to bits by the bladespinner.

Ignoring the dumbfounded algox for the moment, Schlurkt and 4H2 focus on saving the brothers.

Teabag is probably taking sips from an infusion or something.

With the bladespinner destroyed and the brothers out of danger, we finish the last guards onward to victory!

Closing Comments:

Not an hard scenario by any means but made way more complicated by two annoying town challenges cards and also, by the fact that me and Math were both going for masteries on our characters and thus were restricted on our actions.
This scenario figured monsters from all 3 major factions, a rare event and a boon to Guillaume for his personal quest.
Getting invisible is a big part of the Deepwraith’s abilities but that meant risking the NPCs lives (and getting penalties if they died) so I had to eschew doing it a few times in this scenario.
The Infuser managed to fight two lurkers almost all by himself, a testament to this character’ strength certainly.

Frosthaven – The Lurker Problem (78)

15 octobre 2025 David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

Hey, we’re back playing Frosthaven! And we’re having two new characters in the team as last time we played we had two retirement at once. Math is reprising his role as the unfettered Hive, a character that was as long-standing as a fart in the wind, so maybe we’ll see a little more of it this time. Guillaume on the other hand will play a brand new character, the Infuser, a character that plays a lot with elements. I’m still playing Schlurkt the Deepwraith; high level, well-equipped, impeccable deck, very efficient, feels good to be a killer crab.

Okay, so in this scenario we’re helping this guy, this Trenchcoat NPC and huh… Who the hell are you again and why does it matters to us? A cavern, an artefact you say? Gyah fekkit, just point us in the right direction…

Characters

Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 7, a crab that goes stab stab stab
4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 4, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 4, no, no not this kind of teabag or is it?

No matter what, never turn left he says. Yeah, yeah, we can do that.

We let the lurkers make their move and they make the best of it. But then it’s our turn and we make the crustacean monsters pay dearly.

We ignore the left door and get into a larger area. We have to kill these monsters in a particular order for some esoteric reason.

Be kind missus eel, it’s not your time to die yet.

You pest, not killing you is the harderst part, I mean it.

Hey 4H, your legs are wandering around again.

« Schlurkt, go into this room, we’ll wait behind the auto-cannon… »

*Gasp* Oh, only a statue. And what’s that in that chest, a fish hook weapon?

Final room. The Elite Lurker Soldier is calling for reinforcement.

Things are brutal but the Deepwraith let out an Ink Cloud to hide himself and the Infuser so they have a brief respite.

All is in place for the final moment of the fight.

Closing Comments:

We’re at our last few town challenge cards and they’re the most annoying as it’s those we kept delaying to do. We still picked two but it ramped up the diffulcty of the scenario quite a bit.
But we went on not opening doors at our left and that probably saved us a lot of trouble.
The gimmick with killing the monsters in a certain order in the second room, aside from being very gamey, made things a lot more complicated and one misplaced 2x hit on a bleeding (wounded) lurker meant that we had to rush killing the 2 others that were earlier in the order. We managed to do it but it was a close one.

Gunderholfen – Meeting Bayard the Bold and his guild (session 14)

11 septembre 20254 décembre 2025 David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Battered from their last expedition, the Battle Brothers are back in town to recuperate and do some training afterward – before going back to the dungeon. They bring their new member, another goblin named Grimoire, a friend of Torch that can do magic.

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)
Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (me)

Longfelt

Rumor

-There’s a monstrous rat disguised as a person going by night in the thieves’ quarter – hey (pointing at Jedri) wait a minute, y-y you’re a rat!

Hearing of this « disguised monstrous rat » they immediately think of their friend Tlali and they go see her at her house. There’s a nice reunion, she explains that she started the process to get back her human form but there’s powerful magic involved (Sethid’s, the Master of the Dungeon) and it will take a while.
They do some training and are living at the Hare & the Hound inn for the moment.
They buy some supplies, Forka buys a great helm and then, after 9 days in town, are ready to go dungeon-delving once more.

Gunderholfen

Travel through the Ganfal swamp is uneventful.
They enter the dungeon and when they approach Level 1C they start to see a trail of dead hobgoblins – all missing their ears. The corpses are fresh – recently killed for sure.
Forka pick up the scent of non-hobgoblins and tries to track where it goes – more dead hobgoblins on the other side of the (cut) rope bridge that leads to the exit of Level 1. They spend some time reparing the bridge and continue their tracking down in Level 2 and then it goes south and west in an area the PCs already explored (and had a bad time against both zombies and giant ants).
They’re near the giant ants’ nest, the insects are clearly agitated. The PCs quickly cross the area and further south, they hear some voices coming from the room with the aforementionned zombies.
The Battles Brothers decide to go back the room with broken crates and wait there for the other guild to come their way (there’s no other path). They soon hear the sounds of a battle between adventurers and giant ants though.
It seems like the other guild is retreating in order, with a rearguard fighting in the narrow tunnel. The Battle Brothers see an elf, with short sword and buckler in hand, emerging from the tunnel. The latter is surprised and maybe a bit alarmed but then he asks for their help against the giant ants – they’re coming in great numbers.

Aracyne hesitates an instant on what his best for his guild (even contemplating murder!) but then he decides to help the other adventurers IF they accept to give his guild some money… The two elves quickly negociate and settle for 80gp to be given after this fight. The other members of the rival guild come into the room one by one, two mages, a hunter and the last being Bayard the Bold, their leader, brandishing a glowing mace and his plate armor covered in insect juices – an impressive sight! His companion informs him that the Battle Brothers will help the Protectors and already the first giant ants enter the room.
The ensuing battle is intense, with the fighters type holding the line, at least at first, against both normal worker giant ants and bigger, meaner soldier giant ants. Another wave of monsters arrives though and some get past the frontline and one mage of the Protectors get nearly bitten in half by a soldier ant. The other mage hurries to keep him alive with healing magic. Forka makes good work of his two-hand hammer, delivering massive blows left and right. Aracyne and his hunter counterpart shoot arrow after arrow on the incoming ants. Grimoire, their new goblin mage, proves to be a good addition and incinerates ants with fireballs. Two dozens dead ants are littering the floor and the two guilds seize the opportunity to move away from there, going east and south, with the Battle Brothers knowing their way around, and soon getting behind a door where the ants horde won’t reach them.
Now in safety, the Elf from the Protectors (their treasurer named Bodil) counts 80 gold coins and gives them to Aracyne with Bayard frowning at the sight but not saying anything. The two guild leaders then exchange a few compliments, talk about their recent delves and then Aracyne has this idea, he offers to the Protectors to do a joint expedition into Level 4. Bayard, not one to decline a challenge less his reputation for bravery takes a hit, doesn’t think much and accepts.

Closing comments:

I had decided when I started this campaign that I would put some emphasis on adventuring guilds interactions. I have written some random tables, erased them, re-written some more, to help me get a sense of what NPCs guilds would likely achieve as competing explorers (the PCs still having a decent headstart, of course it’s still about them). I’m not quite satisfied with this tool yet but it did indeed lead to this, I think, interesting session.
Now, dealing with so many NPCs, adventurers with all their abilities to boot, is certainly cumbersome for me as a the DM. In fact, I’m pretty certain it’s the reason why in most campaigns rival adventurers don’t seem to accomplish anything ever and are reduced to discreet appearances here and there.
Isaac’s first instinct was to ambush the Protectors while they were fighting the giant ants. A sound plan strategically speaking. Also quite ruthless. I let him choose his course of action but I’m happy in the end he chose to help (with a price attached) instead of killing.

Gunderholfen – Between a harder place and a bigger rock (session 13)

3 septembre 20254 septembre 2025 David Skelector Dragonbane, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

The Screaming Devilkin that the PCs killed last session wasn’t that dangerous in itself but the ruckus he made sure attracted attention!

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

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

Aracyne, Elf Hunter, Guild Leader, (Isaac)
Jedri, Ratman Thief (Isaac)
Forka, Dogman Knight (Edmond)
Torch, Goblin Torchbearer, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
Ghardeet, hired Hobgoblin Mage/Shaman (me)

Level 4A

The Battle Brothers go back at the entrance of Level 4 nearby and there they see someone coming from the south. It’s an orc, grievously wounded but still standing. They decide to capture him so they can interrogate him at their leisure and get more information about this level. They jump on him but right at this moment there’s much noises coming from the ogre lair just the other side of the eastern door.
The orc isn’t happy either at the idea of meeting with ogres and they all flee together southward and then east into natural passages – unexplored territory yet for the PCs.
There’s boiling sounds coming from the east and it’s also noticably warmer the more they advance. The orc says it’s not a good place, better follow him and get to his home he says. The PCs accept to follow him.
They backtrack a little and now they see several ogres (five of them) coming their way. They hurry and turn south and then east, fleeing away from the brutes. After more than an hundred feet they turn north and soon get at the entrance of a large cavern (dimly lit).

There’s a lower section in the middle of the cavern with an island in the middle. To the left and right are also elevated sections and five orc archers stand on each side, bow at the ready.
The wounded orc shouts: « don’t shoot, it’s Snagrat! » They shoot anyway, the orc get hit by a several arrows and dies. Torch the not-expendable-goblin-anymore blocks many arrows with his nice dwarven shield.
The PCs hear the ogres behind them and they decide to they’d be better taking on the orcs and they all try to jump on the eastern section (I’ve messed up with the difference in elevations, that shouldn’t have been possible, oops o_O).
They all succeed to jump, except Ghardeet who didn’t react quickly enough (slow iniative) and gets caught by a massive blow from an ogre’s club from behind and he’s down! Aracyne shouts to Ghardeet to get up already (rally) and get with them and the mage makes an ultimate effort, get on his feet and tries a levitate spell but fails, falls down all the way to the bottom of the cliff and dies…
The Battle Brothers have lost their hired mage and are now fighting against 5 orcs in melee. The 5 archers on the other side concentrate their fire on the ogres for the moment and kill the closer one, the one who clubbed Ghardeet, forcing the remaining ogres to turn tail. The archers then switch their focus on the adventurers and shoot at them but, in the confusing melee, they hit their comrades as often as not.
Aracyne isn’t in melee though, he stays behind his companions with his bow and he kills two orc archers and disable another over the course of the fight. He manages to evade several arrows aimed at him too (good evade skill and fast footwork).
Meanwhile, Forka, Jedri and Torch slowly gain the advantage despite being initially outnumbered. They eventually kill all 5 orcs on their side but they’re also all pretty banged up from this fight, with heavily-armored Forka being the least wounded.
But now they see a throng of orc warriors coming from the west and they don’t have much choice but fleeing the way they came, with the remaining orc archers shooting at them (but missing fortunately). Forka throws Torch moria-style across the chasm (as his acrobatic skill his poor and he suffers from a condition making it even more difficult) and then himself, Jedri and Aracyne jump back on the southern section.
They hurry down the passage to get away from the orc arrows. The ogres don’t seem to have lingered fortunately.
They want to go back at the level’s entrance and they go westward but then they see a giant lizard (pretty much like a komodo dragon in my mind, bacteriological-hazard bite included) coming at them from a side-passage (random encounter) and they now sprint to escape.
They’re in sight of the entrance, the stairs, with the giant lizard breathing down Aracyne’s neck (last on marching order) and they can see an ogre sort-of keeping watch nearby. They dash for the stairs. Aracyne dodges a bite attempt from the giant lizard and then also manages to get into the stairs. Now the ogre and giant lizard face each other and start fighting harryhausen-style and the adventurers climb up not looking down. Halfway, Aracyne throws up from exertion (sickly condition) and almost fall to his death but he wills himself and soldiers on.
From Level 3 they get to Level 2 pretty quickly with the ladder that leads to the secret room and then they’re down to Level 1 in no time.
There their hobgoblin allies complain that the blockade of Level 1 isn’t doing that great, the adventurers are inflicting heavy casualties on them. But they also trapped one party into the special room, they’re there right now but one adventurer mage have blocked access with a magic stone wall. By the time the hobgoblins manage to enter the room the adventurers are gone, the portcullis trapping them smashed open. There’s one dead adventurer left in the room, it seems like the Black Axes don’t care that much for each other.
Chief Nerulf is in a bad mood and he tells the Battle Brothers that since they lost his mage (Ghardeet) he’ll keep theirs (Hedralynn) as his warriors need a healer.
The Battle Brothers leave Gunderholfen to go back in Longfelt and, apart from a few stings from angry wasps, don’t have any troubles crossing Ganfal Swamp.

Closing Comments:

Very near tpk territory here. In fact if I hadn’t messed up with the elevation in the orc cavern I don’t think they could have survived.
I’m a bit disappointed by myself for that mistake really. Not that they haven’t been killed but I very much like verticality in dungeons, something that is often lacking, so to mess this up is annoying. Less skimming through the rooms’ description I guess.
The rally mechanics in Dragonbane allows for a fellow characters to « persuade » another to still act even getting down to 0 hp. I was on the fence about that but I think it makes sense narratively speaking and I’m all for it now. There’s also a « 3 failures- 3 successes » count (borrowed from D&D 5E no doubt) and that I don’t like that much and I’m replacing with the grittier Frail feature from Worlds without Number where one is kept at just another hitpoint from dying unless he receives magical healing.
Fleeing in unkown territory is very very risky. Their orc « guide » had his own motives for sure. The issue of whom to trust is maybe a bit too much to ask from my young players though. They have a nice childhood, why wouldn’t they be trustful? Well ttrpgs are good for a variety of reasons, one is to simulate non-favorable situations and learn from those perhaps (i.e not everyone has your best interest in mind).
I like the concept of the Screaming Devilkin monster. More of an alarm system than a real threat, it does only light damage but is hard to kill (27hps as per the book). The real threat of course is in having a good chance of provoking a random encounter and possibly alerting nearby denizens too. I’m thinking about making them somewhat more prevalent in the dungeon, that may be a bit evil…

Gunderholfen – Into the Darkness (session 12)

28 août 2025 David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

With the kiigoths dead, the entrance to Level 4 is freed. However, the PCs will get to discover that Level 4 is not so easily conquered…

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

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

Aracyne, Elf Hunter, Guild Leader, (Isaac)
Jedri, Ratman Thief (Isaac)
Forka, Dogman Knight (Edmond)
Torch, Goblin Torchbearer (Edmond)
Ghardeet, hired Hobgoblin Mage/Shaman (me)

Level 4

The Battle Brothers (their official guild name now) go down the long slippery stairs to Level 4A.
They get into a rectangular room, there’s a stuck door east, with deep ogre voices coming from the other side.
The PCs go south down a slope and into a natural passage. They look into a small cavern on their right and find several dead orcs, hard to tell what they died from.
They go south and ascend a little now and come in front of a 10′ wide chasm barring their way. They all jump over on the other side without any special precautions.
They’re inside a large cavern and further south into a smaller one with no exits and suddenly their torchlight diminish to only the faintest of glow. From the darkness a small, stunted-built humanoid comes at them with a wicked dagger but Jedri the ratman reacts quickly and stab him first, with both his daggers, the Dark Creeper dies and his body releases a dazzling flash of light.

Inspecting the room further Forka feels a slight draft of air from the southern part of the cavern and the party soon discover a secret door (that lead to Level 4C).
They follow a long, sinuous passage and get into a small cavern where they’re immediately ambushed by 3 other Dark Creepers (their torchlight almost extincted again). One Dark Creeper place himself behind Torch and is going to slit his throat but Forka saves his underling by rushing to his help (Heroic Ability: guardian) and takes the hit instead (mostly blocked by his superior chainmail). Jedri gets stabbed and is hurt. Aracyne kills an opponent with a well-placed arrow but the ensuing burst of light dazzles Ghardeet. Forka kills another with a big blow of his two-hands hammer and Jedri kills the last one.
The PCs get a bit further and Aracyne spots two Dark Creepers standing on ledges on each side above the floor. He shoots and kills one. The other jumps and dash towards the PCs but he quickly meets his demise.
They then fail to spot a well-concealed trap and Torch falls into a spiked pit trap and is fatally wounded. Only magic can save him but Ghardeet doesn’t see any value in saving the still (for him) expendable goblin. He’s finally convinced with the gift of a wine jug. Torch is saved.
Thence, they get to the entrance to a large cavern but before they get in another Dark Creeper jumps on them from somewhere above. Jedri, the fast-footed thief, manage to evade the blade that targeted him and his own hit connects efficiently. A flash of light but everyone cover their eyes in time.
Other Dark Creepers come out from somewhere inside the large cavern. Aracyne kills one with a well-placed arrow. Ghardeet kills another with his magically-augmented staff.
With no immediate danger the PCs come across a hut furter into the cavern, search it but nothing much of interest.
There’s a rope bridge that goes over a large chasm and the PCs get across. On the other side they follow a reddish cobblestone patway that lead to another cavern with several huts. There isn’t anyone there but the adventurers do some good looting in coins, jewelry and semi-precious stones.
Further south the adventurers hear a piercing whsitle sound and then fight against 3 more Dark Creepers that they vanquish without much trouble.
There’s a guard hut nearby and a large palissade south-east with large double doors. The doors are slowly opening and large throng of Dark Creepers, dozens, emerge from the palissade.
The adventurers can’t hope to win against such numerous foes and flee the way they came. They have to be quick, any delay and they’ll get a blade between their shoulders. They manage to get across the rope bridge and they quickly cut it down from their side, this is met with nothing more than threatening whispers from the other side of the chasm.
The PCs get all the way back to the entrance of Level 4A.
They go north into a corridor and then west. They spot a skeleton (unmoving) inside a small room, adorned in chainmail and his skull crushed.
Next room they get assaulted by a monkeyish Screaming Devilkin that took surprisingly many blows to kill, and yes, screaming devilishly loud all the while. Troublesome situation.
TBC…

Closing Comments:

A series of fight that went really well and then a desperate flight. Things can change fast!
There’s a whole village of Dark Creepers and the book specifies that since it’s their home they try to kill the intruders instead of just stealing from them like they would do elsewhere in the dungeon.
I’ve changed a bit the effect of darkness, or at least the fluff, the way I describe it – the Dark Creepers aren’t casting the spell Darkness in my version, rather their bodies just absord light (and release it upon dying). I don’t know, not important but I prefer it this way, like it’s something of a quasi-natural biochemical effect. Furthermore I think a 5 or 10′ radius of faint light, a torch reduced to a candle let’s say, with shadowy figures dancing just outside, isn’t that much more reassuring than foes shrouded in darkness I would think.
But this time either the Dark Creepers missed their sneaking checks or the PCs succeeded their awareness checks (even with bane), surprise attacks just did not happened in any of the ambushes.
Good reaction from the boys to cut the bridge, twas the only way to survive I think.
Ended in hostile territory this time and lot happening in next session…

Gunderholfen – Against the Kiigoths (session 11)

26 août 202515 septembre 2025 David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

There’s officialy 5 parties of adventurers (including the PCs) in our campaign that have been given permits to explore Gunderholfen. Being the first one in place gave the PCs a huge headstart, particularly with their alliance with the hobgoblins. But now comes a dilemna, do they help their allies against other adventurers and be complicit on such a dubious course of actions or do they let them fare for themselves onward to their incoming annihilation?

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

Player Characters (PCs):

Aracyne, Elf Hunter, Guild Leader, (Isaac)
Jedri, Ratman Thief (Isaac)
Forka, Dogman Knight (Edmond)
Torch, Goblin Torchbearer (Edmond)
Ghardeet, hired Hobgoblin Mage/Shaman (me)

Longfelt – Gunderholfen Level 3

Leaving Longfelt and all went well with getting across the Ganfal Swamp.
In Gunderholfen, they talk to Nerulf who informs them that the Hobgoblins are taking heavy casualties againts adventurers, most recently against a party with 3 magic-users. This party has installed itself in Level 1A for the past few days and is still there. With current rate of losses, Nerulf will remove patrols outside of 1C except the nearest exit in 1B.
Unmoved by the hobgoblins plight, the PCs hire Gardheet, the hobgoblin mage (30gp and 10% cut) and go to Level 3, taking the shortcuts they know.
Down the ladder in Level 3 they go west where they hear sounds of grunting and growling and open a set of double-doors and come face-to-face against 7 kiigoths.

They kill a few quickly but as much as 15 others rush from the 2 adjacent rooms!
The PCs take a few steps back to get into the corridor behind them in order not to get immediately surrounded.
A long and violent brawl ensues. Kiigoths often keep fighting even when mortally wounded and get more ferocious while doing so. Jedri gets wounded by a club attack but Ghardeet casts stoneskin on him at maximum power and the protected thief is able to stay in the fight and, with one knife in each hand, stab foes left and right. Forka’s chainmail deflects most attacks from the crude weapons but is still getting bruised after getting hit by numerous blows. Aracyne shoots arrows from behind and Torch even manage to burn a couple of kiigoths here and there. With several of his own now dead the bigger, meaner kiigoth leader gets into melee against Forka and has one good hit with his deadly-looking, not-crude-at-all battle-axe but is smashed to pulp by the knight’s 2-h hammer in return. The death of their leader isn’t changing the savage kiigoth’s will to fight unfortunately and the adventurers eventually have to kill them to the last, not without being severely hurt themselves in the process.
The fight over, the PCs go to Jedri’s place nearby and Ghardeet heal all their wounds. They then get back to to the big pile of dead kiigoths, but there’s not much else other than the very nice battle-axe (nobody is very proficient with axes though).
They then go at the big room south and find big non-locked chests that contain coins, a nice chainmail (taken and wore by Forka) and a big, sturdy dwarven shield (given to the less and less expendable Torch, who’s overjoyed by the gift).
Going to the west now, they find a lot of broken, useless stuff and also an intact clay jug of wine. A bit further they also find an okay helmet (to Jedri).
They get into a very long and narrow passage going south, there’s also a side-passage going west with a brirge going over fast water. There’s a really bad smell coming from that way though and they decide to go further south instead.
They open a door into a room with a statue of a dwarven warrior. They spot a depression on his extended hande but can’t do much with anything and right then, an ooze drops from the ceiling on Forka’s head! Torch burns the ooze a few times with his torch and saves his boss from asphixy. Forka looks at the ceiling fearfully for a while.,
Nearby, they see a Sun Face carved into a wall and messing with it, manage to obtain a ruby from its opened mouth. It’s exactly the rigth size for the depression on the statue’s hand and they put it in place. An aura of virile dwarven energy surrounds them and they all feel a bit more competent. Except the elf, virile dwarven energy isn’t for elves obviously.
Next room, looking for it, they spot an ooze suspended on the ceiling and they send Torch with his shield up to bait it to drop down, which it does but it somehow slides on the shiels and target Torch’s head and it’s the turn of Forka in coming to the help of his sidekick.
The PCs now have found their way to the Level 2 stairs coming from the other way around and connecting their map in the process. They decide to go to the lair of ogres in the central corridor but the door is stuck and that’s enough to dissuade them for the moment.
They get back into the long passage west and Jedri, who’s walking a few steps ahead, sees an ogre coming the other way. He’s dragging a kiigoth corpse along.
Aracyne tries to cast Augment Weapon on his bow but only gets a nosebleed for his effort. He shoots nonetheless and hurts the ogre. The latter try to bum-rush the elf archer but Forka valiantly gets in front (guardian) and takes the hit instead. He gets slammed hard against the wall but still manages to take a big swing of his hammer at his foe. Jedri then plunges his dagger in the ogre’s chest and gets the kill.
Leaving the dead ogre behind but picking up the dead kiigoth, the party goes back to the ogre lair and boldly shouts at the inhabitants that they want to make a deal. Or more of a fait-accompli, since they killed the kiigoths, the enemies of the ogres, they ask that they show them the way to Level 4. The ogres (there seem to be 3 of them) are surprisingly amiable (excellent persuade and reaction roll) to this non-deal and Glorm, their leader escort them to the stairs to Level 4. He also tells the adventurers that there’s an ogre colony in Level 4 (not in good terms with himself) and also an orc colony.

Closing Comments:

The players chose to explore and let the hobgoblins fight alone, that’s probably the thing to do. I’ve built an okayish random table to see how goes the protracted fight between the hobgoblins and adventurers and let the dice decide, mostly.
Big fight against the kiigoths, close one too. Forgot one major thing on my side though, the squares on the map are 10′ wide, so that was a 20′ wide corridor not a 10′ one like I had in mind. Fighting there wouldn’t do much to prevent encirclement in fact. Bad DM, bad!
The ogres of Level 3 were amiable at that moment but will find their dead kin before long. With an arrow protruding from his chest, even an ogre will make the link…
They found the entrance to Level 4! The last of the Upper Levels and more complex than what they’ve seen so far, no doubt about that.

Dragonbane – rulebook walkthrough pt 1: character creation and magic

30 juillet 202525 septembre 2025 David Skelector Dragonbane, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Play reports, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

I’ve been using the Dragonbane ttrpg system (DB) for several sessions now- testing the limits of it in fact, with a megadungeon campaign, but I think for the moment I’d do something between a walkthrough and a true review. Suffice to say I like Dragonbane a lot but like every other systems, it also has some flaws.

First thing first, I’ve seen it often called an « OSR » game but I don’t think that’s quite accurate. It’s a fairly light system (the rulebook is slim at 112 pages) and there’s also many random tables (i.e magic mishaps, injuries, etc.), but here the comparison ends as I think the implied style of play is a bit different than OSR (i.e all the different actions you can do in combat).

Character creation:

You have the classical humans, elves, dwarves, halfings and then you’ve also got those guys, the duck-persons *mallards* and also *wolfkin*.

Choosing your Kin, you get an ability from it, a small power that you can activate spending willpower points (your wp pool is equal to your willpower score), for example the mallards get « ill-tempered » giving them a boon (advantage, roll twice take best) on attacks at the cost of getting angry (a condition, more on that later).

Choosing a Profession (the complete list: artisan, bard, fighter, hunter, knight, mage, mariner, merchant, scholar and thief), you get an Heroic Ability, another thing you can activate spending willpower points (the fighter for instance gets Veteran, something that lets him play with his initiative order a bit).

If you choose the Mage profession, you don’t get a Heroic Ability but instead get access to three Rank 1 spells and two Magic Tricks from one magic School. Others can also learn magic but not at the beginning.

Next step is rolling your attributes (the same 6, or thereabouts, willpower instead of wisdom, 4d6 take three, assign to one attribute at a time.

Lastly, based on your attributes numbers, you’ll have scores on skills, which are either free or trained (chosen from your profession’s list and a few you can choose as you wish), the minimum is 3, maximum is 14. thus if you have a 17 or 18 score in an attribute on a trained skill, you have 14 for that skill that will be used with a d20 roll under or equal. So, it’s a Roll Under system.

The whole character creation is pretty easy and fast as apart for Kin and Profession most of the choices are already made for you. A few more customizations, rolled randomly (i.e starting gear, a memento), and you’re ready to go. Nothing to complain there, all good.

Magic:

Spells are ranked from 1 to 5, with most within the 1-3 range, with each rank from 2 and above having a lower-ranked spell as a prerequisite.

There’s four magic schools: General, Animism, Elementalism and Mentalism. Everyone that has the Magic Talent heroic ability (from being a mage most probably) can access General magic and also choose one of the three other schools.

You can remember a finite number of spells depending on your Int score but can have more into your Grimoire. The magic system is somewhat Vancian (memorizing spells, spending them and getting to choose anew after resting) but with the addition that you can cast any spells that you have in your Grimoire if you double the casting time (2 rounds instead of 1 for most spells). That’s a nice touch, a bit more flexibility is good.

Spells also take magic points to cast (from you wp pool, as determined by your willpower score) and cost 2, 4 or 6 points depending on how strong you want the effet to be.

So both memorized spells and spell points, a bit cumbersome in my opinion.

But something pretty big is effectively missing from the whole thing: how do you acquire new spells? As it stands, it’e pretty much up to the DM to decide, that’s weird.

I would add that the spells list to choose from is a bit limited, some offensive spells are just stronger versions of lower-ranked ones, making the latter completely obsolete (which also feels wrong). There’s seventeen Rank 1 spells to choose from initially, with not too bad a variety of effects but it could also be better.

There’s also a nice (optional) Magical Mishaps table in case a character roll a 20 (remember, it’s a roll under system) whereas they could vomit a frog the moment they tell a lie for some time or some such.

Addendum:

There was a KS going on recently for financing two more Dragonbane books, one being the Book of Magic… They clearly recognized the need, that’s great, because as it stands the magic part of the game is the weakest.

Part 2 – character development and conditions