Play reports

Gunderholfen – Dungeon Hospitality (session 38)

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

Third consecutive session with the PCs staying in the dungeon. A bit more exploration and too much trust put on the wrong people…

3 hours session.

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

Player Characters (PCs) – The Dragon Brothers– guild roster:

Adventuring:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, rather likes his curse (Isaac)
  • Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, fanatically loyal to Forka, (Edmond)
  • Trimbo, Human Arcanist, wields both crossbow and lightning (Edmond)
  • Brondrack, Hatchling Dragon, rescued from the dungeon (Edmond)

Not adventuring at the moment:

  • Bumwild, Gnome Mage, wants to become a summoner (Isaac)
  • Letraquan, Human Necromancer, has a talking, evil sword (Edmond)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing:

  • Green Imps: adventuring in Gunderholfen
  • The Protectors: adventuring, not in Gunderholfen
  • Widowmakers: adventuring in Gunderholfen
  • The Musers: leisure in Longfelt
  • The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen

Main Goal for this session: explore a big chunk of Level 5

Gunderholfen – Level 5 East

  • Having just killed a Cloaker, the PCs leave the Hall of Veneration behind and go into another unexplored section.
  • Going south from the Main Thoroughfare, they enter a room with a mound of skulls. Poke Poke. They search, nothing, they leave.
  • Next room is an old aviary, rusty cages and tiny bird bones. Trimbo puts a bird skeleton in his bag.
  • Another room, an old storage, junk.
  • Back to Main Thoroughfare, go south into a larger corridor, see that it’s blocked to the west by fallen rocks. They go further south into a narrower passage with a door at the end.
  • Jedri opens the door. This startles the inhabitants, two dwarves who quickly regain their composure and welcome the adventurers, with six more dwarves joining them from adjacent rooms. The dwarves share their food with them, a bad stew with odd-tasting meat and stale bread. The dwarves are jovial but evasive in their answers. The adventurers ask if they could rest in the dwarves’s quarters later on and they’re happy to oblige.
  • Thence, the PCs go explore another area, from the Main Thoroughfare again, a bit more to the west and north. They open a door into a very small room with another door but Jedri, as he steps in, is struck by a wave of pain. He gets out, letting Brondrack gets in with the same result and then again when he opens the next door into the next (small) room with another door. They decide to leave.
  • They enter a room that is illuminated… by flaming skeletons. Fourteen with axes or spears, and six more with bows on a balcony above. Grimoire and Trimbo lob spells at the skeleton archers. Aracyne, Torch and Jedri protects them from the skeletons on the ground. The young dragon, immune to the fire from the skeletons, wreaks incredible havoc among them, stomping and tail-flailing until there’s not one left.
  • The flaming skeletons defeated, they open a door into a room filled with ranks of standing (unmoving) skeletons, forty of them. The PCs simply close the door and go to the next one. It’s stuck but they force it open, revealing a small room full of dust and cobwebs. Searching leads to the discovery of a quiver of superior arrows, a bag of slong bullets and a potion.
  • With that accomplished, the Dragon Brothers go at the dwarves to rest. They a have a room ready for them with three beds but they’re asked to leave Brondrack outside which the adventurers agree to.
  • They’re brutally taken out of their sleep with a scream from Grimoire who’s just been stabbed! The dwarves are upon them with long knives! With armors off and weaponless, with Grimoire falling unconscious, the adventurers try to survive the traitorous assault. Fortunately, alerted by the ruckus, Brondrack come to the rescue, destroying the (now locked) door to the dwarves’s quarters along with the furniture that had been put behind. Three dwarves try to block his way but one Fire Breath from the young dragon sends them fleeing for their lives, on fire. Meanwhile, Trimbo has been hurt badly but Jedri, with much acrobatic skill has managed to get out of his bed, seize his weapons and offer much better resistance. The appearance of Brondrack turns the tide on their favor and they kill the five dwarves, with the three others havind fled away from the area.
  • Death reveals the true froms of their assailants, the dwarves were in fact dopplegangers! Grimoire is alive, is healed back to consciousness but has a concussion and a pierced lung and can’t cast spells at all in this state.

Closing Comments:

  • I must say, I have a tendency to roll my eyes when I see dopplegangers in oldschool modules. There’s the Gotcha factor that they imply but also they’re just too prevalent for me to find them believable. But my boys were wholly unfamiliar with them and really got caught by surprise. We’ve talked together afterward about the clues, not too overt but they were there, about the fact that something wasn’t quite right about the whole thing.
  • And to my own surprise, they loved it! They liked the tenseness of the situation coming from this strange turn of events. And surviving it too, of course.
  • Waking up meant in this case succeeding on an awareness roll with bane (disadvantage). The PCs each have pretty high awareness by now so only one failed regardless of the difficulty. The dopplegangers succeeding on their sneaking still meant a free attack and a lethal free attack to the sleeping Grimoire. Somewhat lenient as a process but not sure they would have survived without their dragon.

Pirate Borg – Smuggler’s Spit (sessions 1 & 2)

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Pirate Borg, pirates, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Here’s a quick recap of the start of our Pirate Borg campaign set in the Secrets of the Black Crag mini-setting.

3 hours + 3 hours

Player Characters – Crew of La Galère:

  • Captain Squid – Swashbuckler – (Olivier)
  • Ombralynn Brunantis – Rapscallion – (Marjorie)
  • Tetracid – Sorcerer – (Edmond)
  • Zelaquin – Zealot of the Great Old Ones – (Isaac)

Port Fortune:

  • The crew of the small tartane ship La Galère disembarks at Port Fortune.
  • Ombralynn takes a stroll in town, a way of saying she picpocketed several people. She stole (random) a treasure map!
  • Meanwhile Captain Squid and Zelaquin do some interviews at the Sultry Siren tavern to recruit a few more hands for their crew. Out of about ten persons, they choose Beckett who often talks to his pistol, a young woman named Anne and Handsome Pete, who only has a broken bottle for a weapon but knows a good shanty song (Fire Down Below).
  • Ombralynn makes a deal with a fille de joie named Thalia, they’ll split share when they find a mark together.
  • Ombralynn observes an odd scene, an old captain seemingly loses his ability to walk as soon as he steps on the docks and has a devil of a time reaching his boat. Rumor is he’s been cursed by Mama Fortuna, the local witch/fortune teller.
  • Intrigued, Ombralynn wishes to meet this Mama Fortuna. Her hut is on the other side of town, seaside.
  • Entering the hut, Ombralynn talks to Mama Fortuna and receives fortune-telling. The Tarot cards flipped are in order: Tower/Wheel of Fortune/Strength. (Her past life is in tatters, it is true – she has left everything behind in one desperate move, and will learn a lot about herself in the process.) Mama Fortuna also has a quest: bring back the corpse of a man that was indebted to her. He’s dead but that doesn’t mean he can’t pay her in some fashion…
  • Some provisioning and the crew leaves town on board La Galère. Their goal is to find the treasure from their treasure map.

At Sea:

  • They rescue a deaf woman named Carla from some harpies on a island.
  • They see that the pirate ship The Revenge, a large black-sailed galleon, is stuck on a sandbar. They keep their distance.
  • They see a lone, slow-moving imperial galleon, no escort, but way beyond their current ability.
  • They spot flotsam and have to fight some kind of diseased gulls. They find a few trinkets and a nice necklace with an emerald.
  • They arrive at Smuggler’s Spit island and with their map, find a stash of about one hundred bottles of rum!
  • As they’re getting their haul on the boat they’re attacked by Old Red Eyes, a large, infamous shark. Handsome Pete falls into the water at some point but they manage to hurt and fend off the beast.
  • They’re still alive and they drink a few bottles of rhum to celebrate.
  • They start their way back, changing a bit their itinerary so they’re not too much against the winds.
  • The crew reach Darksand Isle and disembark in a small fishing village that has seen better days. There’s a lighthouse close by and also a strange coral tower. They exchange some bottles of rum for salted fish and harpoons. They leave but Carla stays there.
  • They spot a wreck trapped on rocks off the coast. They manage to get close to it without paying the same price and start to investigate. Two cannons on deck. No corpses but signs of struggle. A layer of ash on the walls. One strange handprint of a webbed hand. Runic writings in several places.
  • They see all that but also spot two sails at a distance, approaching. The crew get very active, some transfer the cannons, one after the other, with pulley and ropes, along with some cannon balls. Tetracid works on copying the runic writings so he can study this afterward. Captain Squid and Anne work on the first cannon moved to put it in place while the second is attached. The two incoming ships have matching sails and flags, black and red, and each have one half of a figurehead, cut vertically. Having barely one cannon to defend the ship, Captain Squid takes the only sensible decision, FLEE! Tetracid gets at the helm and he manages (Devil’s luck) to zigzag through the reef and lose the pursuers.
  • Going south, in open sea now, they encounter jetsam and flotsam. There’s a sea chest in which they find a pirate captain’s fancy clothes and tricorne and a skull with four gold teeth. Captain Squid is happy to wear the dead man’s clothes and hat.
  • Two days later La Galère gets back to Port Fortune, selling about half their rum to the Sultry Siren’s owner, keeping some for themselves.
  • Time for carousing!

Closing Comments:

  • A success with their first expedition! I kept it simple with the treasure map this time, no wandering about searching for such and such marker.
  • I have a rough idea on how this campaign will go on. At first the players will have to work hard to obtain a real pirate ship. The Black Crag, which hides a mythic pirate’s treasure, isn’t easy to access and is clearly the end goal. In the mean time we’ll surely see a lot of naval action, islands exploration and pirate politics (aka. backstabbing), with much of this randomly generated.
  • The wreck was the result of a few dice rolls on the Pirate Borg random tables. As it was, there was supposed to be Deep Ones below deck and probably a fight against them. But I think it’s too soon, I prefer to keep them as an hidden threat for the moment and have a proper buildup – so I went for a little foreshadowing instead.
  • I’ll write about the Pirate Borg book before long, highlights and quibbles and stuff.

Gunderholfen – Narrow Corridors of Level 5 (session 37)

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

We’re back with the main dish of the campaign, Gunderholfen proper, as the boys pretty much completed (98%?) dragonbane’s Gates of Power.

2 hours session.

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

Player Characters (PCs) – The Dragon Brothers– guild roster:

Adventuring:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, rather likes his curse (Isaac)
  • Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, fanatically loyal to Forka, (Edmond)
  • Trimbo, Human Arcanist, wields both crossbow and lightning (Edmond)
  • Brondrack, Hatchling Dragon, rescued from the dungeon (Edmond)

Not adventuring at the moment:

  • Bumwild, Gnome Mage, wants to become a summoner (Isaac)
  • Letraquan, Human Necromancer, has a talking, evil sword (Edmond)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing:

  • Green Imps: adventuring in Gunderholfen
  • The Protectors: adventuring, not in Gunderholfen
  • Widowmakers: leisure in Longfelt
  • The Musers: adventuring in Gunderholfen
  • The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen

Main Goal for this session: explore a big chunk of Level 5

We start in the chapel, in the City of the Smiths. After resting and saying goodbye to Kaldur the undead dwarf, the Dragon Brothers decide to see if they can reach Level 5 via the canyon, this time by getting through the hole in the collapsed area. With a bit of climbing they manage to get outside and see that they are some 50 meters above the mines’ exit. They proceed to get down carefully – Grimoire casts Flight on himself as he’s exhausted and it would be risky for him to simply do it physically. From there, they go down a bit more and go west and reach the dungeon’s cliff entrance.

Gunderholfen – Level 5 East

  • The adventurers check their map and decide to explore a nearby, narrow side corridor from the Main Thoroughfare.
  • They enter a room with many crates, many broken. They find a flask of oil. They go south.
  • It leads to a room with a mound of sand in the middle with some bones and pieces of damaged armor protuding from it. There’s also a lever in a corner. Torch pokes the sand mound with his spear, nothing happens. Pokes it a bit more, no, still nothing. They decide not to touch the lever and go into another corridor.
  • Small room with boxes filled with sand, rusty shovel. South again, there’s a giant spider web blocking the way. They start to burn the spider web with a torch and this attracts the resident giant spider. Torch in front with Aracyne shooting from behind. Things are going well, with the Elf peppering the spider with arrows while Torch defends from the spider’s attacks. But then the spider manages to spray web on Torch and his frantic evading attempts just make it worse (bane). Aracyne saves his goblin companion with an arrow so well targeted that it both liberates Torch AND kills the spider all in one shot (crit/dragon)!
  • Finishing burning the web in the corridor, they get to the spider’s lair, floor is littered with bones. One hanging dead bugbear. They find a good quantity of coins and a few trinkets. Grimoire finds a dagger on a dessicated corpse and cuts himself accidentally. The dagger was poisoned but Grimoire’s natural goblin resistance protects him from the worst of it.
  • Backtracking a little, to the west, they enter a room with its floor entirely filled with clay jugs (many broken) and barrels. Searching a bit, they find a clay filled with honey.
  • Another room, walls plastered in green. Bas-relief of a dwarven war god.
  • Next, they open a door to a closet. Theres’ a rack with crossbow bolts, arrows and throwing spears. The adventurers fill their quivers as much as they can.
  • They cross and inspect a room with a rope hanging from a hook and pigeon holes in the walls. They find nothing special, they go on.
  • Next room has containers filled with charcoal. They go north.
  • This leads them back to the Main Thoroughfare that crosses a big chunk of Level 5. They open a door north, It smells odd. Torch spots a goblin-ish creature that gets out quickly of their torchlight, darker and with longer arms than himself. They don’t see the creature anywhere. There’s a makeshift barricade blocking the way north. Torch says hello in goblin speech, says they’re not here to harm any goblins. He’s answered with laughters and unfriendly comments on his odd way of speaking (said in deep goblin speech dialect).
  • The adventurers retreat back to the Main Thoroughfare and go west.
  • From the central room with a basin in the middle they open a set a of double doors to the north, into the Hall of Veneration. There’s three 10′ high statue on the eastern wall. There’s also a weird droning sound coming from there. Jedri is asked by the party to go first. He warily does, keeping an eye on the statues. The droning sound turns into a screech and everyone is dazed at the same time as a great shadow dives towards Jedri from behind a statue. The ratman manages to evade the attack even in his dazed state. His companions unleash hell into the monster, a Cloaker. It tries to fool the adventurers with mirror images of itself, duplicating into four but the illusions are quickly dispatched by arrows and bolts and the true monster is finally slain. Unfortunately the room is devoid of riches.

Closing comments:

  • Fun session, there’s a lot more things to ponder in Gunderholfen than in the Gates of Power I must say. Even when there’s nothing but background noise in a room in Gunderholfen, you never know when there’s something hidden or not.
  • Two interesting Monster fights in this session. I’ve used the Giant Spider from the Dragonbane bestiary and it was nice. The Cloaker is a complex monster in D&D, with a lot of special abilities and unsurprisingly isn’t in the DB Bestiary, I’ve statted it on the fly and it did the job. By the book, it emitted a droning sound and I kept it like this. It should be more of an ambush predator and keep silent until it attacks honestly.

Gates of Power – So Many Spikes (session 36)

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

The boys want to change their guild name for Dragon Brothers. They already have their Dragon Ranch, will there be a Dragon Kingdom someday? Quite possibly.

2 hours session.

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

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

Adventuring:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, rather likes his curse (Isaac)
  • Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, fanatically loyal to Forka, (Edmond)
  • Trimbo, Human Arcanist, wields both crossbow and lightning (Edmond)
  • Brondrack, Hatchling Dragon, rescued from the dungeon (Edmond)

Not adventuring at the moment:

  • Bumwild, Gnome Mage, wants to become a summoner (Isaac)
  • Letraquan, Human Necromancer, has a talking, evil sword (Edmond)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing:

  • Green Imps: adventuring in Gunderholfen
  • The Protectors: leisure in Longfelt
  • Widowmakers: adventuring, not in Gunderholfen
  • The Musers: adventuring in Gunderholfen
  • The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen

Main Goal for this session: Kill the Manticores and finish exploring this section.

We start at the Dragon Ranch. The Dragon Brothers receive news from gnome alchemist Fryniwid, he’s coming to the ranch in a few days.

They pack their stuff and leave for the dungeon.

It’s mosquito season in the swamp, irritating (angry condition), but nothing too dangerous happens.

Gunderholfen

  • They enter Gunderholfen and quickly go through level 1 to reach the dwarven elevator.
  • They go down to the city of the smiths, cross the Halls of Council and get at the stairway to the City. Aracyne cast Enchant Weapon on his bow and the party descends.
  • Downstair, they go south, get close to some statues and rubbles. Jedri and Brondrack spot a Manticore to the east perched on top of the library. Aracyne shoots at it with his bow, wounding the manticore with two good arrows.The monster sends a volley of spikes at them. Torch blocks many with his shield. The young dragon is hit by a few spikes and the poison makes it sleepy. Trimbo does a Lightning Bolt, further wounding the manticore on the library. Another volley of spikes, this time from the south, Trimbo is hit but mostly resists the poison (exhausted). The wounded Manticore charges at Aracyne but the latter deftly evades. Jedri attacks the monster in melee with his two weapons and Grimoire finishes the job with a powerful (crit) Mental Strike spell. The other Manticore loses interest in the fight and flees in the darkness. The PCs take all the Manticore spikes they can find.
  • The adventurers examines the statues nearby and find a few coins and a good shield.
  • Further south they find public baths and Jedri, the first to enter the area, is targeted by an Undine who wounds him severely with a water jet. Grimoire eliminate the Undine with well-placed Fireballs.
  • East from the public baths they find a dwarven monument with 4 colums and a colossal statue (of a dwarf). And treasure. The statue warns them of behaving properly though.
  • They hesitate a bit but then decide to go north into a large corridor that they saw earlier. They enter a large chapel, someone is praying on their knees. It’s a dwarf in full armor. They speak with him. His name is Kaldur, he’s an undead. He kept his mind somehow. He tells them of the civil war of dwarves against dwarves, with the losing faction stooping so low as to ally with elves in order to reverse the situation. And they won those vile betrayers, now called the Gray Dwarves and inhabiting Level 7.
  • Saying goodbye to Kaldur, the adventurers finish exploring the City, they find out that the eastern part has totally collapsed but there’s an opening that reaches into the canyon.
  • They go down to the Forge to speak with the hobgoblins but find out instead that a massacre occured, they’re all dead. Some crushed to a pulp, some killed by weapons. They meet the new owner of the area, Jand the hill giant. Jand isn’t too hostile and explain that he made some friends and together with them he killed the hobgoblins. Were his friends led by a dwarf? asks Aracyne. Yes, they were. A giant in friendly terms with the Ravens, that doesn’t sits well with the Dragon Brothers.
  • They attack Jand. Ligthfooted Aracyne starts the onslaught with two quick-shot arrows. Grimoire hurls Fireballs at him. The giant picks up an anvil throws it at Grimoire, who would have been smashed if not for heroic Torch that got in front of him and absorbed the damage (his magic shield mitigating it). But now the giant is swarmed from all side and is taken down.
  • He doesn’t have much, except for big bags of weird meat.

Closing comments:

  • The undead Kaldur could be a great ally but won’t take well to the plundering of dwarven treasure.
  • Kaldur is from the Path of Glory mmodule but I’ve adapted his lore dump to Gunderholfen.
  • The Ravens tried to protect their rear in placing the giant in the Forge but the Dragon Brothers quickly spoiled the plan. There was a possibility of encountering the Ravens as they’re also in Gunderholfen at the moment (along with 2 other guilds!), maybe at the same time as the giant but the dice decided otherwise.
  • I wouldn’t have been so sure 10 sessions ago but the adventurers are strong enough to explore deeper levels.

Gates of Power – Crystal Pillaging (session 35)

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

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

1,5 hours session

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

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

Adventuring:

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

Not adventuring for the moment:

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

What the other adventuring guilds are doing:

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

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

Gunderholfen

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

Closing Comments:

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

Gates of Power – Dragon Ranch (session 34)

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

The hatchling dragon they found last session in the abandonned dwarven brewery is now officially a member of the party. The adorable beast is horse-sized, with wings too weak to fly for the moment and it eats like ten men. How fast does a dragon grow is now a subject of heated debate over here…

2 hours session

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

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

Adventuring:

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

Not adventuring for the moment:

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

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

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

Main Goal for this session: explore the area beyond the Halls of Council in the Gates of Power.

Gunderholfen

  • Dragon in tow, the Battle Brothers leave the City of the Stonemasons and the dungeon altogether to get back in town. Travel through the swamp and farmlands is uneventful.

Longfelt and Cyril’s farm

  • The city guards at the gates are alarmed when they see a dragon, young or not. The Battle Brothers try to convince the captain to let it in but to no avail.
  • Still outside the gates, they see some refugees, peasants displaced by the expanding Ganfal Swamp. There’s one they know, Cyril, with his family. This gives an idea to Aracyne, he offers to purchase Cyril’s farm. Cyril is overjoyed with this opportunity, even at discount price as he had written off his property entirely.
  • The Battle Brothers split up, with some of them going with the dragon at their newly-purchased lot.
  • Aracyne hires lumberjacks to cut trees and build a palissade.
  • He talks a bit to Maeve at the Hare & Hound inn to get recent news about rival guilds.
  • Grimoire trains his healing magic at the Temple of Persephone, helping and learning at the same time.
  • Trimbo goes to a locksmith for the metal chest they found a bit earlier. It takes several hours to open, the lock was good – there’s five pink potions, an headband and ruby inside the chest.
  • Some more shopping and item identifying and they’re good to go. They all join up at their newly-acquired Dragon Ranch, make themselves home and then the next day, leave for Gunderholfen.

Ganfal Swamp

  • They encounter a Calydon, a fire-breathing dire boar. Aracyne hurts it with two good arrows. Jedri evades the charging monster. Bumwild hurts it further with a supecharged Fire Blast (half damage) and Letraquan, protected from a tusk attack by Torch’ shield, slashes the Calydon’s flank with his evil 2-h sword. Brondrack the dragon jumps on the boar monster and finishes it with savage claw attacks on its neck. Calydon meat seems to please the dragon very much. (two fire breaths per stretch/combat until next day instead of one).

Gunderholfen – Gates of Power

  • The Battle Brothers go through Level 1 without any incidents. They reach the dwarven elevator and go inside the Gates of Power to the City of Stonemasons once more, going through the Halls of Council to reach the stairs at the eastern end.
  • They go down (sub-level) and enter a vast room with Grimoire’s light spell not reaching the ceiling and only revealing a small part of the place it seemed. There’s two set of double-doors and also close by, a whole building that fitted easily inside the room.
  • They approach the building and see two corpses near a door. Hobgoblins with several jagged spikes piercing their bodies.
  • They enter the building, it’s a dilapidated library with the content mostly ruined. Someone’s been there recently-ish though and has left a paper among unfolded maps, a drawing of subterranean lake with notes on inhabitants and dangers and, on the other side, a drawing of the Scepter of Harvest.
  • Leaving the library behind, the party sees some debris and statues further south but now hears something too far to be seen by torchlight, something heavy with claws clicking on the stone ground. At the same moment Jedri, whom has superior low-light vision, spots a large shape above gliding towards them from the east. The ratman yells just before a volley of spikes falls among them. The ratman’s awareness saves the group from the brunt of the projectiles attack, with only the dragon being hit (and making its save vs poison).
  • The Battle Brothers dash to the stairs behind them, that’s only a strategic retreat of course!

Closing comments:

  • I like the idea of the Dragon Ranch that the boys came up with. A good solution for keeping a dragon pet with them.
  • The Calydon monster isn’t a weak monster at all and they dispatched it in one round. Didn’t have time to do its more dangerous attacks.The party is quite strong now (even without a dragon), I have to revise what I thought early on about characters scaling up in Dragonbane.

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

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

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

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

3 hours session

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

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

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

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

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

En route

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

Level 4 (Gates of Power)

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

Closing Comments:

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

Gunderholfen – The Wight of Nharzed (session 31)

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

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

1,5 hours session

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

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

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

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

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

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

Longfelt

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

Gunderholfen

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

Level 4C

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

Closing Comments:

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

Gunderholfen – Through Claws & Teeth (session 30)

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

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

2 hours session

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

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, he rather enjoys his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
  • Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

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

This session’s main goal: Get back in town

Level 5 East

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

Closing Comments:

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

Gunderholfen – Guilds Showdown! (session 29)

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

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

3 hours session

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

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, he rather enjoys his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
  • Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

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

This session’s main goal: Explore a big chunk of Level 5

Level 5 East

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

Closing Comments:

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