Roleplaying Game

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

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

Lightning struck a transfo nearby early in our session and we finished it at candlelight. Not bad for the vibe!

2 hrs session

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

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

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

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

  • Green Imps: training in Longfelt
  • The Protectors: Resting in Longfelt, resurrection of Delevan succeed (convalescent)
  • Black Axes: somewhere in Ganfal swamp, lost?
  • The Musers: adventuring, left Longfelt but kept quiet on their objective
  • The Ravens: newly-arrived in town, reputation for being brutal veterans

This session’s main goal: Search the Great Cave, the lair of the defeated orcs

Level 4A

  • After a rest at their Level 4 outpost, the Battle Brothers are ready to pay a visit to the orcs and see if those have accepted their (harsh) terms. They get to the Great Cave without any problems and announce their presence to the orcs. The orcs still have guards in place but the PCs can see that half of them look like barely-trained teenagers.
  • The orc sub-chief arrives to meet them and anoiunces that the tribe accept the terms, paying a tribute of 100 gp immediately. He then proceeds, dejectedly, to show the adventurers around starting with the western part. The PCs look briefly at the food storing area and move on. They arrive at a living area where there’s some training of youngsters going on, not nearly a show of strength. Then they enter a larger living area where’s there some wounded warriors and some female tending to them. The next area has more female orcs and many kids, some crying, all very much terrified by the (bloodthirsty) adventurers.
  • They’re in a loop circuit that joins back the Great Cave from the North-East and have seeminlgy visited it all but then Aracyne asks to see where the dead chief lived. The sub-chied reluctantly brings them back to a living area with an open dormitory and points the chief’s place. There’s a rudimentary chest there and Aracyne opens it and takes the remaining gold (46gp) of the tribe. The orcs now destitute.
  • As his leader is busy stealing from the orcs, Jedri searches the area a bit more and finds a paler spot on the western wall and, pressing it, opens a secret door!
  • It leads to a brick corridor, the air is stale, there’s no sound of anything but they can see a strange statue at the limit of their vision. The PCs coerces the sub-chief into going first. Approaching, they see that this is representation of the Bat-Toad god Tsathoggua. It has topaz for eyes.
  • Just as they decide to ignore the temptation of the precious stones, the statue suddenly animates and sucker punches the orc sub-chief with a powerful backhanded slap, sending him sprawling several meters away.
  • The statue then stomps the ground mightily, sending several of the PCs to the ground as well. Jedri didn’t fell though and he attacks with his two weapons, his sword not doing any damage but his morningstar connecting with a good hit. Forka hasn’t time to attack before the statue slams its head into his face, wounding and dazing him. The dogman knight is disheartened but still manages to attack right after with a mighty blow of his 2-h hammer that does suitably impressive damage. Grimoire then does his part with a very successful (crit) Mental Strike that slams the statue onto the back wall, pieces of it flying all over the place. It still stands though but Jedri the ratman finishes the job with another well-placed morningstar blow.
  • Aracyne picks up the topaz from the broken statue. He then sends back the wounded orc sub-chiefs but asks for another orc to accompany them and the orcs reluctantly sends another.
  • They continue their exploration of the secret area, going west and north, with a slope further north. The new orc, the first in line, suddenly stop and makes an odd gurgling sound. He’s got a spear through his throat, from a trap, and he’s very dead. Congratulating themselves for having put cannon fodder in front of them, the PCs get back to grab another orc for the task, much to the dismay of his fellow tribesmen. « Don’t be sad, he died a hero’s death » says Aracyne to the wide-eyed orcs.
  • The adventurers resume exploration and get past the « heroic » dead orc still on his spear and get into a room with a large stone sarcophagus flanked by two (smaller) statues of Tsathogga. Forka immediately smashes one statue with his large hammer, and the other. They then order the orc to open the sarcophagus but he only manages to move the slab a few inches. Forka helps him and the two together succeed in movind the slab aside. There’s a human skeleton inside, wearing a black chainmail visible through his tattered robes and holding a scepter (of Tsathogga) made of copper and ivory. The adventurers orders the orc to take everything, which he does (with some efforts to take off the chainmail from the corpse). They also take the 4 emeralds that served as the statues’ eyes. Nothing bad happens.
  • Having finished over there, the PCs go south until they reach an impasse. Close inspection reveals another secret door, it leads very close to the stairs going up to Level 3. Aracyne ponders the irony of having a way to attack the orcs so much easier and so near all this time…
  • They get back to the orcs for one final speech by Aracyne: « thank you for your cooperation, thank you for the gold, much appreciated, sad for the dead guy *snickers*, necessary sacrifice and all that… See you soon. Yes… Rest assured, we’ll come back! » *silence (except for crying babies) and horrified stares*
  • Leaving the Great Cave behind, the party still in good shape, Aracyne decides that now’s the time to eliminate another annoying threat in the vicinity: the Giant Cave Lizards nearby. They walk in their lair and sure enough, there’s three of the beasts, one with visible wounds on it. Grimoire is first to do violence, he hurls 3 fireballs at the wounded lizard, wounding him further. Jedri finishes it. Aracyne shoots another with his bow. Forka hits this one too. They’re tough cookies though, they don’t go down easy. One try to bite Forka but don’t get part the armor. The other one charges Jedri but the latter evades and then achieves a killing blow. Two good arrows from Aracyne soften the surviving one. It’s killed soon after. The adventurers search through the bones and excrements afterward and get a surprisingly good haul (gold chalice and gold pieces) for their troubles.
  • The Battle Brothers decide that they should go back to Longfelt. They talk briefly with two ogres fetching water on Level 3, telling them a bit of their recent successes . They make a quick stop at the gnomes’ shop on Level 1 and buy a few consumables, and then leave the dungeon.
  • Trip through Ganfal swamp goes well even if the place seems more menacing by the day.
  • They buy some food to farmers near town.
  • Back in longfelt they go enquire to the Protectors, Bayard’s guild, and find out that Delevan has survived the ritual of resurrection. They also learn that there’s a new adventuring guild in town, the Ravens. Not rookies at all. Experienced and a ruthless bunch if the rumors are true.
  • They sell the Tsathogga scepter to Calmund, a rich collector in town, for 40gp.
  • Forka asks around for maybe the eighth time if there was any magic helm to be bought in town (to go with his excellent new magic chainmail). There was none. But there was a possibility of doing a mission in town, in a wizard’s tower, where something went awry, and gain such an item in the process…

Closing Comments:

  • Very profitable session for the BBs this time, reaping the benefits of having defeated the orcs.
  • Yes, turns out this a game with orc babies, and orcs with emotions. But also, orcs that would have been ruthlesse themselves if the situation have been the other way around. I found my son’s speech to the orcs funny as hell.
  • Level 4A is the more thorouhly explored level of the dungeon to date.
  • The new adventuring guild in town means trouble, I made it obvious, and Edmond wants to fight them as soon they meet them in the dungeon.

Dungeon ecology, gigaxian naturalism is just the beginning

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

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

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

Food Web

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

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

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

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

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

Stable or Disturbed Ecosystem

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

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

So, stable ecosystem at first but…

Player Characters acting as a Wildfire

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

More half-baked ideas:

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

Gunderholfen – Counter-Attack! (session 21)

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

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

1h30

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

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

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

This session’s main goal: Invade the Dark Creepers’ village

What the other adventuring guilds are doing at the moment:

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

Level 4a

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

Closing comments:

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

Palantir Quest (1994): wild goose chase (review part V)

David Skelector jeux de rôles, middle-earth, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

We’ll now be going through all five remaining chapters of the adventure. It looks (to me at least) like the adventure from now on has really overstayed its welcome for no good reason at all. I feel like adding more layers/depth to the previous chapters would have been a lot more profitable than this endless sightseeing tour that we get instead. Honestly, I think someone on the writing team decided that they had to use as many previously published sourcebooks as possible and include them in this adventure in some fashion, no matter how cumbersome it was to do so.

Anyway, Palantir Quest is too much of a railroad and as hinted in the title it has some very questionable design choices but there’s also some good bits here and there. Read on!

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Having survived the frigid north, the player characters slowly get back to civilization on foot. Empty-handed to boot, as the two palantiri they barely had time to see are now in the possession of an Easterling named Vacros and his hired band of smugglers.

When they reach Tharbad to report their failure what they get is an hostile greeting. In fact Commander Cilis is « bitterly angered by the news of his lost men.  » And the PCs « are not encouraged to dwell long in Tharbad. » YOU HAVE DISAPPOINTED THE COMMANDER! Well, I’m all for roleplaying and it could be an understandable reaction from this NPC but it’s not like the players could have done anything differently!

Now, based on the flimsiest of clue that they got weeks ago in-game ( before their very strenuous arctic ordeal), they’re supposed to push on and investigate the Juggler’s Hall in a desperate bid to find a way to restore their honor.

Upon reaching the Juggler’ Hall (again) they find that the place isn’t open to visitors at the moment, they’ll have to find a way to get in. A frontal assault is unlikely to succeed, what the player characters have to do is to infiltrate and investigate. Or, a nice alternative that is provided by the book is to talk to the ambitious wife of the « Master Juggler » whom could be persuaded to betray her husband and give information to the PCs. Eiher way, if they’re competent about it they’ll learn of the rendez-vous point of the smugglers, as stipulated in the delivery contract by the yet to be seen true villain of the adventure.

This leads them (after some minor events) to the Wold, right on time to be participants in a big four-way fight. It’s a great setup, somewhat lessened by the usual flaw of this adventure of forcing things too much.

What begins as a fight between the smugglers (Jugglers) and opportunistic bandits is soon complicated by the simultaneous arrivals of the PCs and an orc raiding party! There’s a fully statted roster, an okay map (below) of the site, several steps to what each sides are doing, all good. Less good is this advice: « The Gm should attempt to manipulate all of the PCs into the lair. » Because as written the adventurers have to get into that nearby cave, huh, in order for a landslide to happen automatically, thus forcing them onward to explore the (linear) underground system.

I’ll note on the plus side that there’s a very nice cursed sword to be found in the lair, a potent weapon that has the significant drawback of animating any nearby statues with hostile intents towards the wielder. Great item!

Stashed in the cave are two heavy boxes containing the palantir!. All the PCs have to do now is to bring them to the king to get their well-earned praises and rewards…

Except that NO! Once in Minas Tirith and upon closer examination by the royal seer it is revealed that those artefacts are fakes! YOU HAVE DISAPPOINTED THE ROYAL SEER! YOU HAVE DISAPPOINTED THE KING (Aragorn)!

How do you feel about that? Damn, I really hate these GOTCHA twists… And what’s that about, guilt tripping the players?

Anyway, The PCs are arrested and then subsequently released after it is established that they really are innocent, just a bit oblivious. Get back on the plot thread will you!

« It is recommended that the GM award a bonus of 10,000 XPs for the recovery of what the characters believe to be the true Seeing-stones, but then retract 80% of that bonus when they find out that what they have recovered are fakes. They should regain this 80% when they recover the real Stones (in addition to a bonus for achieving their goal). »

As the greatest glass makers in Middle-earth are right here in Minas Tirith and they’re the most likely to have crafted somewhat convincing fakes, the PCs can get on their path to redemption immediately and investigate the Glassworks. And the next part is actually quite well-made I’ll say. There’s three clues to be found, they make a lot of sense in context without being too obvious and, more importantly, it is up to the players to piece it together. No dumb spoon-feeding this time around. Hurray!

They should be able to discover a lead on someone called the « Green Man », and their next stop in order to find him is all the way north to Lake-town.

(some minor events on the road: a pair of trolls under a bridge, an haunted tower – serviceable filler)

This part is unfortunately way less well-conceived. Nobody knows who the « Green Man » is in Lake-town but the adventurers will stumble upon/be offered a job that leads to his discovery anyway. Call it Fate if you will. The captured smuggler (there’s just too much smuggling NPCs in this adventure) can tell the PCs where his men (now missing) were bringing the fake palantiri (before they reached the cave where they found them) but he knows nothing useful of his mysterious employer. But they get UNEXPECTED ASSISTANCE in the form of an old woman who tells of this evil sorcerer Taladhan « He came out of them woods, he did. » Yeah, right, thank you old woman, onward we go.

Oh and this Taladhan hired an assassin who’ll most likely kill at least one player character while he sleeps at the inn in Lake-town. That’s it *checks the list of replacement*, here’s this new character for you, keep going!

The adventurers leave Lake-town and follow the smugglers’ trail into Greenwood (Mirkwood was renamed with its ancient name after the end of the War of the Ring). They’ll have to fight some giant spiders and, after about six days of travel, will reach the spot where the smugglers were ambushed by Taladhan’s half-orc minions. They’ll also encounter a Silvan Elf that will conveniently brief the players on the current situation, which is as follows:

  • He has located Taladhan’s tower in the southern part of Greenwood.
  • He has seen « ugly men » with two crates a few months ago (the fakes)
  • He has seen another band a few days ago (the real palantiri)
  • Elves attacked this last band and took off with the smaller palantir to their tree fort
  • Those Elves are being attacked right now by the sorcerer’s minions (« ugly men » and Black Trolls)
  • The defenders can’t last long

But despite knowing all this the adventurers, as written, aren’t expected to go help the endangered Elves immediately but, instead, for some reason to do so only after they’ve dealt with Taladhan at his lair. Talk about odd prioritizing…

I would hope the players would insist on getting out of the railroad at this point but if they don’t they’ll go to the sorcerer’s lair, a sort of Orthanc-type tower carved inside a stone spire, and a symbol of the times surely, whereas the villain is a pale imitation of Saruman who was himself a pale imitation of Sauron who as a pale imitation of Morgoth…

Conveniently for the adventurers, the 25th level sorcerer Taladhan is one obsessive dude and he will only intervene if 80% of the current garnison (25 half-orcs and 2 Olog-hai Trolls, nothing to scoff at) is killed, otherwise he’s too busy playing with his new palantir toy to even care. But then the tower « is reached only by air across the violent spume of the waterfall that engulfs its foundation. » It’s a very nice site by the way. But I have no idea how the PCs are supposed to enter the tower, across the waterfall and get past the solid black iron doors (closed by « huge metal bars » from the inside), or how the baddies themselves are getting in and out without any bridge contraption for that matter. Climbing the vertical 165′ up to the balcony doesn’t seem like a feasible option. A Trojan Horse-style ploy maybe?

It’s mini-Orthanc alright, impregnable, so unless the players are really clever about it (or have just the right spell available, that’s a possibility), maybe the GM will have to put in a Wormtongue lookalike to untie the tactical impasse…

Whichever way it is achieved, it leaves the tree-fort battle to be resolved afterward. Dozens of half-orcs fighters with some trolls and twenty Elves on the adventurers’ side (not included: what if they came immediately, are the defenders more numerous? if they come 3 days later, are they still alive?). A hard fight unless (also not included) a crafty player character shows the cut head of the dead sorcerer for his minions to see or something like that I would think.

The adventurers finally have the real palantiri in their hands and will get back to the King’s court after some minor events (giant spiders, bandits).

One last unnecessary scene happens whereas Vacros and his accomplice have kidnapped the royal seer. Whatever, let the royal guards deal with this I say.

With that, the adventure FINALLY comes to an end:

And that’s it, that was Palantir Quest, ICE’s Middle-Earth most ambitious adventure, too ambitious perhaps as in my opinion it couldn’t deliver true quality content within such a lenghty journey, all in only 159 pages. I have some ideas on what I would do with this book, there’s something to be done with it undoubtely – cutting two-thirds of the journey and removing the railroad plot (making it a sandbox, yay!) would be a good start, but that’s for another post (if I gather the will to do so).

Palantir Quest (1994): look at those ballz (review part IV)

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Lord of the Rings, middle-earth, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

We’re now covering chapters seven, eight and nine of the adventure. With the first two doing all the wrong things in a rpg book and with the latter being actually interesting.

Part I

Part II

Part III

The adventurers have found the locate spell in the Royal Library of Annuminas and upon reading it, they get a strange vision whereas one player get to make a bunch of rolls, of course, and then learn three things:

  • There’s in fact two palantiri to be found!
  • They’re in a cave near a rocky shore.
  • Somewhere in the Bay of Forochel in the North.

The Plot Must Go On

Now they must get back to Tharbad as instructed. Commander Cilis requisition a boat, a crew and twenty fighting men to go with them. Before they can leave though, their boat will be the target of sabotage. The player characters can try to pursue the arsonists but as written they’re just impossible to catch. However, a Medium perception roll reveals a document detailing the plan for sabotage and written on a concert program coming from the Juggler’s Hall. Hilariously, if the PCs failed to get this clue they’ll automatically find: « Three, round, wooden balls uncomsumed by the fire also serve as a clue (they are juggling balls) […] ». Just to be sure that the players make the connection (or more likely, shrug it off).

And that was the whole of chapter 7, showing the players that they do indeed have opponents, the kind that bring their juggling balls everywhere they go, whatever they do.

« The Evenstar leaves Tharbad with sailors still repairing the fire damage resulting from the efforts of the saboteurs. »

After 12 days and a check on the seasickness table, the boat is now on the open sea north of Forlindon and gets caught in a tempest. The Evenstar manages to take shelter on a natural bay of the Isle of Himring. Why don’t the PCs go explore a bit while the crew make the necessary repairs?

On top of the steep cliffs lie the remnants of the fortress of Himring, which has an impressive backstory (taken from the silmarillion) as it was built in the First Age by the Noldo Elf Maedhros, the eldest son of Fëanor (and almost a demi-god really), as part of the defences against Morgoth. The structure, originally 900′ feet tall, is almost erased aboveground and what the PCs get to explore is that:

So, hmm yeah, a bit underwhelming isn’t it?

This is chapter 8.2.1 and it’s rightly titled « Digression on the Isle of Himring ». This « digression » it must be said is haunted by the 60th level (!) ghost of Uldor the Accursed, a First Age man who sided with Morgoth and is paying in his afterlife for his bad life choices. This Uber-ghost does have a stat block provided and, unsurprisingly, he’s a beast with 145 hit points, a +205 scimitar attack , +55 defensive bonus and can only be harmed by Elven made weapons, hugely outclassing the adventurers. Except that he’s been nerfed, his sword attack does no damage but inflicts a 1-5 temporary constitution loss (don’t forget that it’s Rolemaster, a character has most likely 60+ constitution) on the target. They still have to harm him with an Elven weapon though but serendipitously, this 7’8 »’ elven dude Maedhros has left his 12′ practice 2-hands sword there to be picked up millennia later. A very unwieldy weapon to be sure, even for a super strong character, so what we’ll be getting I think, is the most inefficient duel of all time. Just picture this ghostly warrior howling in frustration with his sword going through his adversary without apparent effect and his opponent just having a hard time swinging his final fantasy weapon around…

That resolved, there’s many other very strong magic weapons and other precious items to be found in fact, if the adventurers get part the locked doors on each side and get their hands on them.

Hmm, a totally uncharacteristic amount of treasure, including magic items, in one haul. Something fishy going on?

Leaving the Isle of Himring behind, there’s a few more days of travel before arriving at the Ice Bay of Forochel. The read-aloud says that the bay is a full 100 miles long and the plan is simply to follow the shoreline until there’s something worth investigating.

Which happens a few hours later, the PC who read the locate spell and received its vision recognizes the headland. It’s the spot!

They enter a cave:

The adventurers found the palantiri! Hurray!

And then they get screwed BIG TIME.

Because you see the bad guys are already there, hidden. Remember the guy with the disturbing laughter from the Juggler’s Hall? His name is Vacros and he’s here with 60 men, his damaged ship now sunk and the plan is to capture the PCs’ ship and leave with the palantiri…

« The GM is warned that Vacros’ success is crucial to the plot of the campaign: the ruffian should obtain both Stones and leave the PCs stranded in the Ice Bay. This does not mean that a fair fight won’t ensue, merely that Vacros must win. »

So a rigged but fair fight. Huh huh.

There’s nothing the PCs can do.Their boat is gone. Their equipment is gone and bye bye the cool stuff you just found like an hour ago.

Okay this is like all the worst sins a GM can do combined into that last scene but at least the coming chapter is interesting.

It’s about surviving.

And making allies of distrustful locals. Fighting dangerous beasts. Exploring lairs. Making a deal with a dragon.

All very nice.

And a somewhat restored agency to the players. Of course, the chapter is only nine pages long, it could have benefitted from being a bit more meaty.

Which way will you go?

Next, we’ll witness a wild goose chase going all over the place because clearly 3000 miles is not enough for an epic adventure. And then I might have some suggestions on how I would do things with the more interesting concepts of Palantir Quest.

Part V

Palantir Quest (1994) – dungeon à la sauce Rolemaster (review part III)

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Lord of the Rings, middle-earth, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

I’ll be dividing my review of Palantir Quest in something like 7-8 parts I’m thinking (edit: took me 5). Yeah I’ll be quite thorough with this one, I’m not exactly sure why I feel the need to do so to be honest. On the one hand I don’t think there’s ANY real review of this product that exists at the moment. On the other hand I would be really surprised if someone was waiting for it at all. So that’s one of these things, just for the heck of it…

Part 1

Part II

We’ll now be examining the content of chapter five and six of the book. The player characters are leaving behind the kingdom of Rohan and should reach the reconstructing city of Tharbad into the Eriador region after a journey of about seven days.

There’s one fixed event on the road whereas the PCs have the opportunity to save a wounded Eriadorian guy and defeat some hostile nameless Dunlendings. In similar fashion to the earlier chapter, the rescued NPC will ask if he can be escorted to the next point on our map, in this case the town of Larach Duhnan. There, the PCs will have to take the soul-rending decision of which of two inns will they sleep in for the night. As there’s nothing to do (and no npc roster), I suppose the Game Master will encourage the PCs to leave asap and get to Tharbad not that far away.

Maybe it’s time to address somewhat of a big flaw of the book: there’s no side–quests hooks anywhere to be found to go along each chapter’s background history, truly excellent maps with keyed locations, nice buildings layouts and a « People of Note » section. Of course a GM worth its salt can add his own but it’s still a glaring omission.

Then, the player characters reach Tharbad and, as they were told to do so by the Royal Seer back in Minas Tirith, meet Commander Cilis in the restored Royal House. The latter expresses his doubts that there’s any books left in the library, he has seen it a few years ago and it is « no more than a moss-covered ruin ». They also meet Chief-Engineer Hearon who brings them on a tour of Tharbad and we get: « this is a good opportunity for the GM to adlib some meetings with the multi-cultural work force enjoying a well-earned drink in the cool evening air. » Nothing else from these two NPCs, not even a if you happen to find a… or a be on the lookout for… You know, something signaling opportunities, danger, anything!

I’ll note that Tharbad, with a bit of work, would make a very interesting homebase for adventurers as it should have a central role to a resurging kingdom of Arnor (northern Eriador) with its strategic location and afflux of newcomers.

So after after this talk with two NPCs and a rest at the Royal House, the adventurers will leave Tharbad behind and go further north.

Fortunately things will get more eventful in this next chapter.

It takes about 10 days from Tharbad to reach Annuminas, with a stop in-between at the town of Bree. But before reaching Bree: « The air is oppressive. You notice standing stones and strange monoliths littering the downs to the west. Strange, unnatural hillocks deform these western ridges. As you contemplate the scenery, a small figure runs across the hills waving its arms frantically and shouting in a high-pithced voice. »

The player characters have the opportunity to save the hobbit’s friend who was foolish enough to enter a barrow (as in Barrow-downs) – as a great pastiche from The Fellowship of the Ring (the book, it’s absent from the movie). The barrow, Lord Ravenor’s tomb, is a small eight-keys dungeon. There’s two wights within in one corner of the dungeon performing their morbid ceremony on the poor unconscious hobbit. There’s some treasure to be gained too: a few pieces of jewelry, gold coins, a nice magic ring (not powerful but useful) and some magic arrows.

Serviceable and, like I said, a nice pastiche.

After that, the PCs arrive in Bree. It is assumed that they relax a bit at the Prancing Pony, of course, I mean why not, and then continue on their way.

Top-notch art, as Middle Earth/ I.C.E. products were known for.

And now in Annuminas.

The city is completely in ruins, has been for centuries. The map (below) provides us with 10 keys but except for one (the Royal Library), they’re only for ambiance (i.e. « King’s Star Tower. A half-ring of stone remains from the royal observatory. It provides a sheltered camp site. »). There’s no encounters table provided either, though I suppose one could use the Old Arthedain‘s table of the Roadside and Wilderness Encounters found with the others at the end of the book.

Annuminas is not completly empty as there’s a family of seven trolls (3 males, 2 females, 2 youngsters) having a camp, guess where? Right at the PCs’ objective: the Royal Library! But I’m not really complaining, players must have challenges to overcome after all. The trolls would be quite dangerous to fight without a solid plan, probably impossible to beat in a fair fight in fact. Which is fine by me.

The trolls dealt with in some way or the other, the adventurers are free to explore the Royal Library. There’s not much aboveground anymore, a building with half of its walls ruined, but stairwells lead underground. An undergound library? That’s a terrible, terrible idea for books conservation! But, er, yes, maybe there’s some magic involved, let’s not delve on that too much.

« The most valued records and documents were removed from their ordered resting places to occupy the largely vacant shelves of the buried lowest floor of the library. Hasty but deadly traps were contrived and armed to protect the wealth so carelessly assembled. Then the last, brave, hopeless men turned to fight and fall to the hordes of the Witch-King. »

The Royal Library is a single Level dungeon with 29 keys, the only « real » dungeon of the adventure, such as it is.

(Side note: Not surprising, dungeon-crawling isn’t a primary feature of the I.C.E./MERP books. There is certainly some to be found of course and you know, there’s this little thing called the Moria fortress in the series. I guess you could also include Dol Guldur, Mount Gundabad and Angmar. Well, it’s more like stealth missions than dungeon-crawling as a real assault on either of those places would be suicidal even with high-level PCs.)

So, the closest thing to a dungeon in a MERP book let’s say. Let’s take a brief look at it.

Now the first thing that strikes me is that it doesn’t look like an underground complex at all. Yeah I know we must be lenient with dungeon architecture but this isn’t what I mean. The room at the center that you reach with either stairs is the Central Dome. Now, height isn’t mentionned anywhere for any locations so maybe there’s enough space for a dome. But way more revealing are rooms 5 and 7, East Garden and West Garden (which are in fact North and South on the plan, oops): « broken glass allows the filtered rays of the sun », « Prolific greenery has overflowed », « A reflecting pool filled with rainwater, sketchily mirrors the green splendor surrounding it. » This seems obvious to me, this is a refurbished dungeon (not the first time I see this), for an aboveground structure and the authors didn’t changed everything (or much?) from its original purpose.

With that out of the way, lets get back to the entrance.

The two stairs are both on the verge of collapsing and won’t support the weight of more than three men at a time. The way the Rolemaster system works, it’s odd but this is considered a trap and you have to detect it (Very Hard -20 and Extremely hard -30 for the other staircase) and somehow you can disarm it (?) (Sheer Folly -50 in both cases). One of the two staircase has also a (+10) fireball trap set off by the mere presence of intruders. That’s weird design. Shouldn’t the PCs just see that the staircases are damaged and take precautions if they wish so? Even more problematic is that there’s no way to know about the fireball trap – any dungeon designer worth his salt will give some realistic hints – a visible rune, some traces of burning or an incinerated badger maybe? Something to induce players agency you know.

So, a roll for this, roll for that unfortunate tendency I’d say.

But the PCs are now inside (and a bit crisped if they chose the wrong stairs). They already have the Royal Library’s master key from the start of the adventure, convenient as almost all the doors are at least « Extremely Hard -30 » to lockpick or will set off a spell if forced open. They have to find a specific book within the library with 20 out of 29 rooms having books in them. The objective is like sixty feet away from the entrance but the PCs will have to search randomly room by room, or maybe they have the right Seer spell available and will find the right room and the book in like 5 minutes, that’s a possibility. If not, what they have to contend with is mostly a handful of animated statues and hostile spells at almost every door. There’s also a 10% chance per hour of a ghost of one of the deceased librarian to appear and simply attack the PCs.

The books they’ll be finding everywhere are mostly abstracted (this section has lore on beasts, this one on astrology and so on) except for a few canonical ones (i.e. the silmarillion). No value is given to any books and nothing else can be found in the vicinity. Well, this isn’t a gold for xp game but still, unfun.

I’d say overall, the dungeon has good texture (rooms descriptions are nice if impractical), but it’s severely lacking in interactivty.

To be blunt, I don’t think this dungeon is worth it as is nor is the work of adapting it to one’s campaign unfortunately.

Adventure-wise, we have reached the next milestone, the PCs have obtained the spell to locate the palantir and will be sent to retrieve it.

Coming up, after a digression or two, we’ll see the adventurers become arctic explorers!

Part IV

Palantir Quest (1994) – players are actors (review part II)

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Lord of the Rings, middle-earth, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Just to be clear, I’ve never ran this adventure (nor played in it).This is a 3 decades late, external look at it we might say.

Part I

At page 14, after having informed the Game Master of relevant background information, the adventure begins with… extremely long read-alouds.

Well-written mind you, interesting for a true Tolkien aficionado perhaps, but boy if my mind would drift away as a player if I was read all this by someone!

But notice, between two grey boxes, a first challenge for the player characters! On how to deal with a « ten-foot portion » of muddy road. Yeah, well, small beginnings and all that…

Railroading into Middle-Earth’s 4th Age

(Side note: There’s a big hint on how the adventure will present itself on chapter 1.0 Guidelines: « Fantasy role playing (FRP) is akin to a living novel where the players are the main characters. Everyone combines to create a story which is never short of adventure. They help forge a new land and strange new tales in which the characters are forever immortalized. » (bold emphasis is mine)

After their mission briefing by the Royal Seer, the Player Characters (PCs) are ready to leave Minas Tirith.

The utlimate goal is to retrieve the lost palantir but in order to do that they first have to reach the Royal Library in ruined Annuminas in the north, to find a tome of spells that will help pinpoint its location. First stop is in Rohan in a place called The Juggler’s Hall.

It takes 10 days of travel to get there and somewhere in the middle we get this fixed event: upon arriving at the Inn of Greys the PCs see that it’s being attacked by bandits and the adventure just assumes that the PCs will intervene (and to be fair, why wouldn’t they?). Upon defeating the bandits the PCs meet Turibor the minstrel who’ll ask if he can accompany them on their journey north. This guy is a key NPC, I mean key as in unlocking another scene kind of thing. He’s the one who will bring the PCs to the Juggler’s Hall and if you had players that were expecting to go to Edoras and meet rohirrim riders they’d better forget about it, aside from taking new horses nothing happens in Edoras. No, instead you get the Thespian Intrigue in the Juggler’s Hall, involving the PCs in a theatre play (about the kin-strife that happened in Gondor, again. not really a nice fit for Rohan). The leader of the Wandering Conscience Company will offer 10 silver pieces and a choice of nice clothes to each character, for participating (acting) and help guard against sabotage from a rival company.

I’ll add that the Juggler’s Hall is oddly, really in the middle of nowhere, but it’s also a base for smuggling operations so there’s that. Talking of smuggling, there’s a bit of foreshadowing in this chapter as it’s mandatory that the PCs witness two NPCs shaking hands in « business-like fashion ». One of these NPC « may draw attention to himself by way of his disturbing laugh ». BUT: « However the PCs should be given no grounds to become suspicious of him ». Well, good luck with that Game Master! Hey players, here’s this fixed scene involving two shady NPCs, one has this disturbing way of laughing, y’know like a cartoon villain would laugh just sayin’, but don’t be suspicious! No no no, no reason at all!

And then the Thespian Intrigue.

The play itself is nicely conceived I’ll say, with a nice plot as mentionned taken from the kin-strife period (a Cromwell-like usurper gets hold of power in Gondor) and plenty of stuff happening (including a real knife stab (instead of a fake one) that the PC victim should try its best to go along with so that the play isn’t disrupted!). Of course the whole thing is nonsensical and out of place (irrelevant to the mission) but I’m pretty sure it could be great fun for the players. The Game Master though, in true Rolemaster fashion, has the cumbersome job to evaluate which + and – to use in the provided chart and get the results for the « Audience Appreciation Level » (AAL): « Having totalled the appropriate modifiers, the actor should roll on the appropriate column. The result is the number to which the GM must roll equal or less than in order for the AAL to increase by 5. If the GM rolls over the number, the AAl decreases by 5. At any time, an AAL of 0 means that the audience boos the company off the stage and leaves, while an AAL of 100 means that the audience immediately rushes the stage in a frenzy of hero worship and adulation. If the play end naturally, then the AAL should be added to an open-ended roll on the Hard column of the maneuver table, and the result is the number which the GM needs to roll under in order for the critics to like the play. »

Phew. I wonder why Rolemaster isn’t a popular system anymore!

Anyway, the PCs can get a substantial bonus reward (or not) depending on how well the play went and also experience points based on what happened so far or « as we recommend, he or she may just award points in a subjective fashion corresponding to how well the players are able to cope with the stress of being onstage ». How well the players cope with the stress of being onstage. Wow, that’s a weird thing to say. I thought the players were like, around a table with pens & papers & dice, not onstage.

This concludes this chapter, a weird one for sure. Next the PCs will leave to continue their journey to Tharbad, en route to the ruined city of Annuminas where they will get to explore a dungeon! Yay!

Part III

Palantir Quest (1994) – tunnel vision (review part I)

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Lord of the Rings, middle-earth, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

I’ve been rummaging through my collection of (twenty-something) I.C.E. middle-earth books lately. I could get good money for them – last time I checked Palantir Quest in particular was on sale for 175 usd on ebay despite being in terrible condition (mine isn’t much better!). But y’know, I’m quite sentimental about these, they are the first rpgs books I’ve bought, some thirty years ago, at age fourteen-fifteen with my hard-earned money as a field hand at the time.

So, no selling.

Paid for in sweat and sore knees.

Palantir Quest is in fact an unusual one among this collection as being the only long format Adventures book among much slimmer adventures compilations. All the others in the line are sourcebooks, or « citadels » as far as I know. Incredibly detailed and well-researched sourcebooks I must add in case you haven’t heard of them, something that doesn’t exist anymore in rpgs I think, that required an entire team of dedicated people to do. Something to be nostalgic about no doubt. Keep that in mind if you please, because I’ll be a bit harsh with this one: I.C.E’s sourcebooks were absolutely great.

But back to our current subject.

From the book’s back cover: « Strange portents in the great Seeing-stone of Minas Tirith give promise that one of the lost palantiri of the North has returned to the lands of Men. Can the adventurers find this legendary treasure and bring it to King Elessar? Rogues of the wilds, blizzards out of the Forodwaith, and the greed in Men’s hearts all conspire against them. »

Adventuring into Middle-Earth’s 4th Age

The premise is quite interesting, unlike most of what has been published by I.C.E. this adventure takes place some years AFTER the events of the Lord of the Rings. Sauron has been permanently defeated, what remains of his forces has been scattered away and Aragorn, as the ruler of both Gondor and Arnor is now known as King Elessar. This is the begininng of a new era, the 4th Age of Middle-Earth, and what better news to go with this time of triumphant joy than the resurfacing of a long-lost palantir that could help unite both halves, North and South, of this new victorious kingdom?

Elon: « Imagine holding this super heavy bowling ball in your hands, straining your mind in a superhuman effort, and talk to ONE other person in the world … »

Yes, thank you Elon, very impressive.

But you need two palantiri to do that.

Aragorn/King Elessar has the one from Orthanc of course and the one that Sauron had has been destroyed (or is lost, buried under the ruins of Barad-Dur presumably) and Minas Tirith’s palantir (this book says) has been unfortunately imprinted by Denethor’s last moments of agony (a rather unpleasant sight to behold), this is why finding this other palantir would be incredibly useful.

Enter the PCs.

(Side note: Suggested starting level is 4, the PCs are presumed to have some prior accomplishments. There’s also a provided list of pre-made characters as well as suggested eventual replacement, one for each chapter.)

They’ve been convoked to Minas Tirith by NPC Tarquillan, the venerable Royal Seer, to do the king’s bidding and find the lost palantir of the North. Or not exactly that way – they’re told that a spell from a tome called « A Treatise on Subtle Magika » has been discovered to exist and (much faith has been put into that it seems) it could be used to locate the palantir that has only been glimpsed at. (a written spell? a bit peculiar to me thematically speaking but okay, let’s get on with it). The most likely location of the tome is in the Royal Library of the ruined city of Annuminas.

Unbeknownst to the PCs and their employer, Taladhan, a powerful evil magician no one has ever heard of (he apparently hasn’t got the memo that evil has been defeated) who’s scheming from his hideout in faraway Greenwood, knows everything about the plan to recover the palantir because the Royal Seer’s assistant in fact spies for him. Very astute of him to have put a spy there I must say, just in case there would specifically be news from a resurfacing palantir. But anyway.

Thus begins one of the most Tangential Fetch Quest in the history of RPGs. Probably.

Palantir Quest – Contents:

  • 1.0 Guidelines
  • 2.0 Introduction
  • 3.0 Minas Tirith
  • 4.0 The Juggler’s Hall
  • 5.0 Tharbad
  • 6.0 The Royal Library of Old Arnor
  • 7.0 The Docks of Tharbad
  • 8.0 The Ice Bay of Forochel
  • 9.0 Return to Civilization
  • 10.0 Return to the Riddlemark
  • 11.0 Search in the Wold
  • 12.0 The Fourth Tier
  • 13.0 Lake-Town
  • 14.0 Into the Forest
  • 15.0 Return to the King
  • 16.0 Master Tables
  • 17.0 MERP/Rolemaster Tables
  • 18.0 LOR Tables

Part II

My son’s dungeon, Dungeon of Kargen part II

David Skelector aventures d'Edmond, Dungeons and Dragons, Homebrew, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, Roleplaying Game, RPG

I gladly accept that the most interesting thing I can put on this blog is being made by my son, so here’s another chunk of what is transpiring within Edmond’s own megadungeon:

Part 1 here.

  • The adventurers (solo played by Isaac as usual) explore a bit more the City of the Imps, fight some Living Armors. They get inside a sumptuous room and fight Greater Imps and kill the King of the Imps who was getting annoyed of all the killing & stealing & stuff made all over his domain. The new king of the imps is more reasonable, this is what regime change is all about, and accept a truce with the adventurers.
  • They go back in the Maze, find several libraries (the Minotaur is an avid reader?), they find a secret door and fight the Minotaur again. This time they manage to kill him, except that they he’s not really dead and changes into an upgraded version, again they kill him and again he gets back but the third time’s a charm – the Minotaur is finally vanquished! The adventurers liberate some prisoners, recruit some of them and loot the place.
  • They explore more of the Mixtature. They flee after a round or two when they encounter an (non-trademarked) Evil Eye and find out that they’re obviously overmatched. In another section they find a golden sarcophagi, opening it they find a set of stairs going down and down…
  • Level 2 has Trolls and Slimy Skeletons as wandering monsters, mostly.
  • They are in the Crystal Grottoes, natural caves with large areas that are flooded. They dive into an underwater passage and get into a cave with several chests filled with gold, and with the walls adorned with valuable crystals. They take everything they can and get into another area with a locked chest that they couldn’t open but they do find a crystal armor. After that they get in front of a large door, locked but there’s instructions nearby explaining how to craft the key (!), which they manage to do, and thus gain access to a new area.
  • While exploring they stumble into a lever that opens up a trapdoor, leading into secret passage and eventually, into a large room that has a desert environment (sand and cactus included) and get into a fight against poisonous snakes. Several characters get poisoned during the fight but fortunately they soon find an antidote when they search a corpse in the room. There’s also an arch, six pillars and six bowls which are there to receive offerings. Through trial and error they discover that placing 6 identical tokens, repeated for the six bowls, opens a magic portal inside the arch.
  • They walk through the portal and get into a new area but they also find out that the portal is one way into Level 3!
  • They arrive at an intersection with four passages, they get into one and find a room with a bassin & fountain with coins into it. Throwing a coin gives healing.
  • Just as good as they get into a big fight against 10 trolls, including a chieftain, but the adventurers are victorious.
  • Another intersection, signs indicate: Firengulph, Agony, Suffer in Suffering. Nothing quite tempting in all that and they finally choose the Suffer in Suffering direction.
  • Apparently this section is full of traps and indeed, there’s really a lot of suffering involved… Notwithstanding all the pain, the adventurers make progess and after more exploration they find another portal room, with a similar arch but this one with only two bowls. One is engraved with a dragon and the other with a knight. They don’t find the solution at the moment so they continue to explore.
  • There’s more flooded areas in this section. They evade a fight against a Crystal Octopus.
  • And then they find a Potion Shop (the enterprising owners have put ads all over the dungeon I’m told, often giving tips (not always accurate) on monsters as a marketing ploy!)!
  • After that, inside another room, they find some scrolls that offer some explanations on the magic portal. One has to offer something associated with good in one bowl and evil into the other. With that knowledge they go back to the portal and open it.
  • This get them back into Level 2, into a new area, but they soon find their way to known territory and get back to town. A few more characters are hired to replace some that are dismissed for their lack of competence (adventuring is a fiercely competitive world!). One newly-hired, Roger, is a skilled craftsman, that will come into play very soon.
  • They go back into Level 2. They find an area that is essentially a dormitory (for whom?). Later on they find a guy who’s doing an ad for the aforementionned Potion Shop and he recruits the adventurers for the ad, earning them one healing potion.
  • They flee from a big fight with many Living Armors and a Colossal Living Armor. Not much later they find a weapon that does great work against these foes.
  • Exploring a new area they fall into a pit trap. Directly into lava. They’re all dead…
  • Unless… No! It was only water with the appearance of lava! There’s an extensive underwater system accessible from this pit trap.
  • The adventurers get back in town and come back to this place with enough materials to craft… a submarine!
a 200 hit points submarine upgraded with a ballista
  • There’s a whole new world down there in the water and they even find an impressive Submerged Castle and surrounding village.

TBC…