Developing the Sandbox: The Campaign Calendar

This post is part of my series on developing the sandbox. You can read other posts in the series here. The series will, when necessary, go into detail on the development of my sandbox for Dungeon Module B1: In Search of the Unknown, but will also discuss sandbox development more generally. You can read play reports from my B1 campaign here.

A man of disputable wisdom once said that "YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT." This has since become a bit of a meme in the TTRPG community. It is an emphatic declarative statement written in all caps by a larger than life figure in the hobby whom a lot of people enjoy ridiculing, often for good reason. But is there truth to it?

Kinda! Honestly, I've actually never kept a calendar for any of my D&D games. They still felt pretty meaningful to me. Nonetheless, at the end of my longest-running campaign ever (a three and a half year 5e game that took the player characters from 3rd to 20th level and beyond), I felt myself regretting not having a calendar. 

How long had it taken for the characters to make their ascent to power? How long had they known each other? When did they first meet that henchman? How many seasons, moon's turns, and holidays had passed them by? I didn't know.

I was running the campaign by the seat of my pants. I randomized the weather every day. It was an NPC's birthday or the day of some festival when I needed it to be. If a PC became a lycanthrope, only then would I bother to figure out when the next full moon was. Dungeons were restocked, new monsters moved into the region, and factions moved against one another and towards their goals when I felt like they should.

It worked for me. I didn't need a calendar, but I felt myself wanting one all the same.

One of the benefits of running a small sandbox (like the one I created for B1) is that you stand a reasonable chance of, at some point (possibly even before play begins), actually finishing prepping the whole thing for play. Technically this is possible for larger sandboxes as well, but it's a more Herculean task, and you are more likely to burn out before play even begins or to fall behind during play (if, like me, your interest waxes and wanes naturally as the campaign goes on), likely resulting in a lesser quality experience for you and your players.

The sandbox is never actually finished, because running the sandbox is its own thing that requires maintenance between sessions. The benefit of having most of your sandbox prepped and ready to go is that you have more time between sessions for those more ancillary pursuits. When you're not rushing to detail the owlbear den the players intend to clear out on their next expedition, you can instead spend that time restocking the dungeon, updating your outdoor encounter tables, and figuring out if those NPCs succeeded in their most recent scheme.

This is also a great time to work on your calendar. Now, the calendar might be one of those things you want to have prepared ahead of play. Perhaps you want to generate a month's worth of weather. That's pretty reasonable. But I've run nearly two dozen sessions of my B1 campaign, and I'm only just now feeling the need to create one of these bad boys.

What made me want a campaign calendar? Well, part of it was that I just thought it would be neat. That's reason enough. Part of it was remembering the regret I felt at the end of past campaigns. A big part of it was that the party started to accumulate an absurd number of NPC hirelings and paid them in advance, and the way that I was tracking the length of their employment was totally impractical. 

So, I made a calendar.

If you like, you can go on rootring and search "calendar", read all the advice, and come up with something that works for you. Like making a dungeon, there is tons of advice on this subject, and it's impossible to summarize without conducting a meta analysis.

Here's what I did. I got a calendar template from Google Sheets (I used the first option, which is just a sheet for each month of the year and a cell for each day of the month). This is a 2026 Earth calendar. There are no fancy names for the months of the year or the days of the week. You can do this if you want, but it isn't important to me, so I didn't do it for now (I remember really liking the vanilla fantasy names for the month presented by Shamus Young on his Twenty Sided blog...21 years ago?!).

First, I went back through my play reports and figured out when the campaign began. I had already decided that the campaign began in Spring, because that seemed like a reasonable time when adventurers would embark on adventuring activities. For simplicity, Spring is March, April, and May, Summer is June, July, and August, Fall is September, October, and November, and Winter is December, January, and February (this will be important when determining the weather).

I looked at when my first session took place in real life - March 12th. Perfect! I decided that was the in-game start of the campaign as well. Then, I went through my play reports, looking for any mention of the party resting or time passing. I also noted when the party brought on their hirelings and for how long. I ended up with this:

After 20 sessions and 6 months of play, just 13 days had passed in game. Wow! You could go more in depth, noting which sessions occurred during which days and what specific activities the party engaged in - and I might do that still - but it felt unnecessary at the moment.

Since one of the main reasons I wished to start work on the calendar was to track the length of NPCs' employment, I went into the future on the calendar and marked the days when each hirelings' employment would expire. At this rate, it will be another 5 or 6 sessions before the party's porters' and mercenaries' contracts need to be renewed, and 18 or 19 sessions before the crew of the party's river barge can retire, but it's useful information to know. Time passes weirdly during a campaign. A single day might be several sessions, and the next session might cover several days.

I also liked the idea of pre-rolling weather for a month or so. In the real world, you can often tell when it's likely to rain in the coming days, and I want to be able to foreshadow that (the players might not want to embark from town if it seems like they're going to get a torrential rainstorm the next day). It also allows me to skip rolling for weather at the table, and makes me less likely to forget to do so. So, I rolled weather for the rest of the month (as well as the following month, since we're nearing the end of the current one).

I used these hex flowers to determine the weather:

I like these because they're evocative, they only require a single roll for each day, they're based on the seasons, and each day's weather affects the next day's weather. Depending on your system of choice and how weather mechanically impacts things like overland travel or encounter chances, you'll likely have to do some interpretation of the results, but it works reasonably well. In addition to marking daily weather on my calendar, I noted if the weather imposed penalties on overland movement or modified outdoor encounter chances for that day.

Since I am using a real-world calendar, I could also look up what the weather was actually like on each day in some area of the real world comparable to my setting, but in practice I found the information I was looking for too difficult to find, and the information I did find too fiddly for my uses. It would be fun to use a system where the weather can change throughout the day, as it does in real life, but I personally don't need that.

Another thing I thought would be fun and necessary to track is the phases of the moon. This information can be based on the real world and is pretty easy to find, but you can also just make it up. Pick a day during your first month that the moon is full, then have it be full again every 29 days or whatever. Or decide that full moons in your setting are more or less common if you like. You'll have to come up with that yourself. You can also track other celestial events like eclipses and supermoons the same way.

Why is the moon important? Well, don't tell my players, but my sandbox has lycanthropes in it. I want to know when there's increased lycanthrope activity. The player characters might in turn become lycanthropes, and I want to know when they're going to transform and wreak havoc, or do whatever it is werebears do (for example). The AD&D DMG has this whole table breaking down the percentage chance of a cursed individual transforming into a werebeast based on the current phase of the moon:

Clearly you will need to accurately track the phases of the moon to use this thing properly! Also note that you will need to know for how long the character has been a lycanthrope. Another win for the campaign calendar!

You might also decide that the local Evil temple does some nefarious stuff during the lunar eclipse or that magic is more powerful during that time. That seems like a fun application of this tech.

Another fun thing you can do with your calendar is track settlement events like holidays, festivals, NPC birthdays, or whatever. If the players plan for their characters to spend a week in town, it would be nice if they knew that it was the friendly wizard NPC's birthday so that they can arrange to get her a gift. If they're planning to venture out into the wilderness but they learn that tomorrow is the annual Cheesemonger Parade, they might decide to stick around an extra day to attend the festivities and rub elbows with important contacts in the cheese industry.

I roll a d20 for each day on my calendar, and a result of 18+ is some day of significance in the settlement. I like this table from the 2014 5e DMG:

This is one of the many unsung tables of that oft-maligned book, which is honestly full of useful little stuff like this. You'll have to ignore some stuff - seasonal events like equinoxes and solstices, midsummer/winter festivals, fertility/harvest festivals, and celestial events which you're already tracking by other means - but overall this is pretty good stuff!

I wouldn't bother determining events like this for every settlement in the sandbox. I simply rolled for the largest settlement - the one the PCs are most likely to spend extended amounts of time in. You can probably safely assume that the villages, hamlets, and thorps which surround your town celebrate more or less the same events as the town itself.

There's also no reason to limit this to settlements only. Do the denizens of the dungeon celebrate holidays? Is there some mutually recognized armistice day where they come together and parade through the dungeon? Do monsters in their lairs celebrate birthdays? Is a tournament being held at the fighter's stronghold?

You might also want larger events going on in the background - wars and famines and natural disasters and stuff. Joel at Silverarm Press wrote a post which highlights a neat table from uh...Oriental Adventures, on which you can roll for a single yearly event which in turn influences which monthly events are likely to occur. This is pretty neat tech. I haven't tried it out yet, but it's worth a look if you want like, a war happening somewhere "off screen" (or maybe even on it). Warren D. of I Cast Light! also reworked the table on his blog.

Just as you might do with weather or the phases of the moon, you can also pull yearly/monthly events from real life. Simply pick a real-world year that corresponds roughly to the period during which your campaign takes place, Google it, and look at the Wikipedia article to see what happened that year.

The calendar is also useful for tracking faction events. I know that the wizard that rules my town has a tenuous truce with the cleric who rules her own stronghold. The wizard also has a mutually friendly working relationship with a subordinate wizard who wishes to build a stronghold of her own. The cleric wants to kill the subordinate wizard. Will the cleric achieve her goals? Will the truce deteriorate? When does that happen? You will probably want some way of running factions.

You might also use the calendar as a simple timer. One of my biggest bugbears in adventure design is when some time-limited event is happening in the setting (a monster is growing in power, a city is being overrun with plague, or a bad guy is working on a nasty ritual), and the conditions of those ongoing events don't change unless the player characters intervene somehow. 

There's something to be said of a "powder keg" scenario where everything exists in a tenuous equilibrium, requiring some "X factor" (the player characters) to move things decisively in one direction or another, but that doesn't mean everything has to remain static. If some event is going to occur if given enough time to gestate, you should track it somehow. No more Big Bad Evil Guys waiting until the player characters show up to complete their rituals!

There's a party of adventurers camped out in the wilderness, clearing land to build their stronghold. When do they finish? The wizard in town is plotting against them, trying to recruit a band of ogres to root them out. When does he get the ogres to act? There are brigands who have usurped a stronghold and keep its rightful ruler prisoner. When do they execute her? Set dates for all of these things on your calendar. If the player characters take actions to aid or thwart these plots, adjust the timeline on your calendar.

These are the broad strokes. The campaign calendar is of near infinite utility, and there are many things both big and small which it can be used to keep track of. Here are some examples of what else you might track:

• When does a disease or parasitic infestation run its course or kill the afflicted?
• When do followers arrive at a player character's newly built stronghold?
• When does an NPC spy complete a mission and, if the mission fails, when can the characters safely employ another spy on the same mission?
• When does a slow poison kill?
• When does a character or NPC finish crafting an item (magical or otherwise)?
• When does a sage find the answer to a question (or discover that the question is unanswerable) and when can another question be asked of the sage? When does the sage finish acquiring a new minor or major field of study?
• When do henchmen respond to recruitment attempts?
• When does an unfaithful cleric finish atoning for their sins?
• When must an Evil cleric reassert control over their undead minions?
• When does an injured player character make a full recovery?
• When do effects like psionically induced comas, magical enchantments, or temporary insanities end?
• When does a character who mixed an oil of slipperiness with an oil of etherealness return from being lost in the Ethereal Plane? 
• When is a soul no longer trapped in an amulet of life protection, when does a character finish reading a manual of bodily health, and when can a character again invoke the Goat of Terror, and other magical item effects?
• When does an assassin finish their study of poisons?
• When does a character finish their training and level up?
• When is construction of a font or basin for holy water completed?
• When is spell research completed?
• When does an Evil artifact inflict its malevolent effects upon its possessor?
• When has a character known a hireling or henchman long enough to warrant a loyalty score increase?
• When does a character finish training a griffon as a mount and when do they finish training to fire a bow from its back?
• When does the next peasant rebellion occur? When does the rebellion evolve into a civil war?
• When do the characters have to pay taxes?
• When does a cleric or magic-user finish creating a golem?
• When is a paladin's warhorse or a conjured demon released from service?
• When is construction of a stronghold (and mazelike dungeons thereunder) completed?
• When does a character die of old age?

(This list was created by combing through the AD&D DMG with Ctrl+F, keywords "days", "weeks", "months", and "years". There are undoubtedly a great number of many other things you can track as well!)

The calendar is not just for the DM's benefit. Just as players can master a dungeon's layout and use their knowledge of such to plan optimal routes for exploration, treasure extraction, and avoidance or ambushing monsters, they can master the calendar and use it to their benefit. If the DM knows when it will rain, when the hirelings' contracts expire, and when the NPC's birthday is, this should be telegraphed to the players in some way so that they can make informed choices.

Do they wait another day in town to let the weather pass? Do they prioritize their next expedition, before their hirelings demand more money? Do they make sure to be back in town so they can attend the wizard's birthday? There's a full moon tomorrow night. Should they plan to patrol the streets of town and lay a trap for the werewolf? When are the owlbears out hunting versus sleeping in their lair? What can they do before the royal ball to improve their chances of getting an invite?

These are all more or less things you will have to track as a result of player actions - they are less about developing the sandbox than they are about running it. You can wait until your game is underway and until you absolutely need the calendar before creating it (as, admittedly, I did), but hopefully I have demonstrated why creating the calendar upfront can be beneficial as well.

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 21)

We played the twenty-first session of our Dungeon Module B1: In Search of Unknown AD&D 2e game last night. You can read past play reports here.

The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 2 (Maya)
• Rory the Small, LN human fighter 1 (David)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• A barbarian warrior (NPC)
• Wilros Wackledeckle, gnome (NPC)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)
• Hadric, Wilda Brambletoe, Corvin, Aelwen Riversong, and 20 oarsmen - the crew of the Mossy Turtle (NPCs)

Last we played, the party cleaned up after their fight with Mangug's orcs, carrying loads of heavy treasure out of the dungeon with the help of their mules, hirelings, and - with a promise of a 10% share of the gold value of the treasure recovered - Girthil's barbarians. 

They found the remaining goblins, Narka, Numbnuts, and Viss, and freed them from the shackles Mangug's orcs had put them in. They learned that Pigmug and Rekk had been subdued or killed by Tobb somewhere near the chamber of the Stone that Speaks. Viss asked them to retrieve Grilk's ring, which Mangug had taken. Girthil had already taken the ring, claiming it was a relic belonging to one of her tribe's druids, indicated by the familiar barbarian runes etched inside the band. The party decided to let her keep it.

The party made the long, arduous descent down the hill and through the forest back to the lake, where their barge waited for them, which took nearly three days. Along the way, they encountered a small group of "river women" bathing in the waters. Girthil mentioned that fey beings still lived in these woods, and that the mere sight of them could blind a man or strike him dead. Llombaerth had already laid eyes upon them, but had resisted the magic at play.

The party at last reached the lake and loaded their goods onto the barge. They parted ways with Girthil and her barbarians, save for one warrior, who travelled with them to ensure the tribe's 10% due was collected. They also sent Indur the gnoll back to Quasqueton with their two remaining zombies to reinforce the goblins.

The rest of the party set sail on the barge, crossing the lake and sailing upriver. At the end of the second day of sailing, a lone wood elf emerged from the forest, asking if the party were brigands or agents of the wizard in town. They denied this, and agreed to let the elf come aboard to inspect their cargo.

We picked up there. As the elf climbed aboard the barge, the party gave him the heads up that they had items from Quasqueton in their hold, which had belonged to Zelligar, and which Lambrecht the wizard was seeking to obtain, but that they were not delivering these items to him, and were planning to sell them in town and definitely not paying taxes on them. To prove this, they gestured towards the Black Crag people's warrior. The Black Crag people hated Zelligar, and this one was with them, so surely they were not in league with any nefarious wizards.

As it turns out, the wood elves of this forest were ancient enemies of the Black Crag people. Before Rogahn and Zelligar had come to this land and forced out the Black Crag people, the wood elves had called the forest home, and it was the Black Crag people who had forced them out. The elf and the Black Crag warrior exchanged insults in their native tongues, but did not come to blows.

The party brought the elf into the hold to examine their goods. While many of the items might make fine decorations in a wizard's sanctum, there was no evidence that the party was smuggling the sort of items which the elves hoped to keep from Lambrecht. It all seemed above board.

The party asked if there might be items in Quasqueton which belonged to the elves. The elf answered that, while the Black Crag people had taken from the elves, and Rogahn and Zelligar from the Black Crag people, there were no outstanding items that came to mind which the elves would claim for themselves. They had retreated deeper into the forest as human encroachment had become apparent, taking their choicest artifacts and relics with them to save them from such plundering.

The party asked if, at some point, the elves might like to reclaim the forest as their own, and if they might aid the party in facilitating that. The elf said that it would depend on what was required of them, but that the forest was plagued by goblins, orcs, ogres, owlbears, and humans. The forest was tainted, and human civilization was eroding the edge of the forest every year. From the perspective of an elf, there wouldn't be much of it left by the end of their lifetime.

To that point, the party mentioned their intention to rid the forest of its owlbear problem, and asked if the elves might aid them in that. The elf replied that the owlbears were created by the humans' meddling with nature. They were a human problem to be cleaned up by humans. 

Llombaerth removed his owlbear helm, indicating his ears, and said in Elvish that he was an elf as well. The wood elf visibly scoffed at him, stating that the two of them were not the same kind of elf. Llombaerth replied that this was so, but to the humans - and the wizard Lambrecht in particular - they were all just elves. 

This resonated with the wood elf. He would not commit his people to helping the party at this time, but perhaps something could be arranged in the future. He said that his people kept a small scouting outpost in the deep forest to the east, and indicated this on their map. It was just northeast and across the river from where the party suspected the owlbear den to be, which was convenient.

Lastly, the party asked the elf if he was familiar with any magical, possibly evil stones in the region, particularly at Quasqueton. The elf did not know of anything specific, but said that there were a great many magical things in the forest - things from before even the elves' time. During the conflict with the Black Crag people, it was said that the barbarians' druids worshiped a "horned demon" which gave them power, and the elves' druids said that Rogahn and Zelligar had chosen the site of their stronghold because of ancient powers which dwelled beneath the crag.

There was one more thing. In addition to the human brigands and agents of Lambrecht, the elves had encountered another group in the forest - human pilgrims and zealots, worshipers of a horned goddess of some kind, who came from civilized lands to the forest in search of some ancient power. They wore crude headdresses of animal horns and antlers. Whatever they were looking for, the many monsters which prowled the forest had kept them from finding it.

With that, the elf departed back into the forest. As he left, the party spotted about half a dozen more elves, unnoticed until now, dropping from the nearby trees to join him. The elves had bows drawn on the party the entire time.

The party finished resting for the night, waking the next day to continue their journey. They had about three hours before they made it to Timbershore.

At around 9:30 am, Egbert noticed something strange in the sky. He pointed it out to the party - two faintly shimmering, almond-shaped distortions hovering in the air above them, following at they moved up the river. The party concluded that they were being scried upon. Egbert didn't know how long it would last. They ordered the barge to a halt and instructed the oarsmen to cast nets, as if they were simply fishing. They had to convince the captain, Hadric, but eventually the crew carried out their orders.

By the time the equipment was hauled onto the deck, the apparition had vanished. It had been only fifteen minutes. The party ordered the crew back to their positions, amidst some grumbling dissent, and they went on their way. 

The party arrived in Timbershore at around 10:30 am, but decided to stick to the far side of the river until nightfall. They would continue to pose as simple fishermen until dark, then signal for the smugglers to meet them on the far shore. Once their cargo was unloaded, they would dock in town with the day's catch, and hopefully none would be the wiser.

The day passed uneventfully, and the smugglers responded to their signal around 8 pm, floating a barge of their own across the river under cover of night, crewed by ne'er-do-well sailors led by a familiar face - Lethariel Vaen, the elf underling who was second-in-command to the smugglers' leader, Tavin Underbough.

The smugglers came aboard and surveyed the party's treasure. In total, they had some 200 g.p. in assorted old coinage, about 1,500 g.p. in gemstones, and about 2,500 g.p. in other treasures. The party opted to keep the gemstones and convert the remaining treasure into spending money. The coinage would need to be converted into the local currency, and the other items would require forged documents which stated that duties, tariffs, and sales taxes had been paid for each. Since the party was holding onto the gemstones, they would still need to pay sales tax and the special surtax on those if they ended up selling them.

The smugglers' cut was half what it would be if the party had gone through the official channels. The party got a few sacks of platinum and gold coins. 10% went to the Black Crag warrior to bring back to his tribe. The rest was divided five ways, with equal shares for Llombaerth, Mirkle, Rory, Zommernar, and Egbert. 

Mirkle and Rory both gained a level (Mirkle is 3rd level and Rory is 2nd). Llombaerth and Zommernar came close to leveling up, and Egbert is about halfway to 2nd level. I determine experience shares by totaling the number of sessions each character has participated in on the current expedition, with henchmen counting for half the highest number. Llombaerth and Mirkle participated in 7 sessions each, Rory and Zommernar in 3 sessions each, and Egbert counts for 3 sessions (half of 7, rounded down). The total is 23 sessions, so Llombaerth and Mirkle each got a 30% share of the experience points, and everyone else each got a 13.33% share.

With their contraband loot unloaded, the party finally disembarked for town, bringing in the day's catch of fish as a cover. Before parting ways, they impressed upon the crew the importance of not sharing any of what had transpired with anyone. If people were made aware of their activities, they were likely to be rounded up and questioned, and likely would not come back alive. This obviously troubled everyone a great deal, but their worries melted away when the party paid the entire crew a month's salary (some 700 g.p.) as a bonus for their silence. Wilda Brambletoe, the barges shrewd old halfling second mate, reminded the crew that "loose lips sink ships".

With that, the company scattered throughout town. The Black Crag warrior hefted his sack of coins and, seeing no reason to return to his tribe immediately as it was so late, wandered off to gamble and drink. I forgot about Wilros Wackledeckle (shame on me!), but presumably he also parted ways with the group. The party went to the Mooring Post to get a good night's sleep.

The next morning, the weather in town had turned for the worse. A snowy rain fell from the sky, covering the streets in cold water and slush. The party set about their errands.

They decided they would like to recruit another magic-user as a henchman, and spent 60 g.p. posting notices and hiring a crier. They travelled to the High Ward to shop. They bought some locks, thinking they could use them to secure certain areas of the dungeon, and bought two guard dogs, a hunting dog, and four war dogs! I asked them to think about what else they might like to buy and to get back to me with their final lists.

They returned to the River Ward to seek out a dwarf who might know something about the ore they had found in Quasqueton. After a brief inspection, he told them it was ordinary blue earth. A cartload of it was worth just a few copper pieces. It was somewhat useful in creating cheap pigments, but not usually worth mining. They paid the dwarf a gold piece for his time.

Next, they planned to seek out Albertyna to exchange information. They travelled to her manse and found her in her study, but we decided to end the session there.

Nothing too crazy happening in this one! The encounter with the wood elf was fruitful for the information exchange and the new potential allies, and it was fun for the players to learn that they're being magically observed from afar, but the rest was kind of standard bookkeeping stuff. It was good for the characters to get a big payout of XP and gold. I'm glad a few of them leveled up. It was also interesting to see once again how quickly those coffers get drained! The party still has a nice chunk of change in the bank (and in the form of gemstones), but we'll see how much is left once their shopping is concluded!

I'm looking forward to another interaction with Albertyna and to finding out what the players plan to do next.

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 20)

We played the twentieth session of our Dungeon Module B1: In Search of Unknown AD&D 2e game last night. You can read past play reports here.

The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 2 (Maya)
• Zommernar, CN elf fighter 2 (Nael)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Girthil, barbarian leader, and 8 barbarian warriors (NPCs)
• Indur, gnoll (NPC)
• Wilros Wackledeckle, gnome (NPC)
• Zhukk, orc (NPC)
• Two friendly zombie adventurers (NPCs)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)
• Hadric, Wilda Brambletoe, Corvin, Aelwen Riversong, and 20 oarsmen - the crew of the Mossy Turtle (NPCs)

Last we played, a band of barbarian warriors (the Black Crag people) demanded that the party hand over any plundered relics of their people. Due to a bit of a miscommunication, the players thought that the barbarians wanted them to surrender all their treasure. They weren't too keen on that, so they had Egbert put two of the barbarians to sleep, Llombaerth and Indur killed another two, and the barbarians' leader, Girthil, surrendered.

The party negotiated a truce. They gave Girthil the chieftain's sword they had found and promised to lead her to the chieftain's remains which they had found elsewhere in the dungeon. In return, Girthil ordered the rest of her warriors stationed outside the dungeon's secret entrance to release the party's hirelings, who they had taken captive.

The party led Girthil to the chieftain's bones and convinced her to lead some of her warriors in an offensive against Mangug's orcs upstairs. They made their plans and launched the attack. The party and their allies slew Mangug and all six of his orc underlings, though Llombaerth and Zommernar both took wounds, and two of the party's pet zombies were killed.

We picked up there. The party had agreed to let Girthil and her warriors loot the bodies of Mangug's orcs, which they did. Meanwhile, the party went down the hall to Rogahn's secret bedchamber to survey the treasure they had left there.

There, they found the a shield, a mace, and some clothing looted from the captain of the guard's chamber, two pairs of mounted dragon paws (80 lbs each), the giant-sized shield (150 lbs, requiring at least two people to carry), the door etched with esoteric religious symbols (250 lbs, requiring at least three people to carry), and a massive dragon skin (1,000 lbs, requiring at least ten people to carry). Still in the nearby trophy room was what appeared to be a taxidermized cockatrice (60 lbs) and a statue of a basilisk (2,000 lbs, which would have to somehow be lifted onto a sled or rollers to be moved).

The party checked with Girthil to ensure none of these items would be claimed by the Black Crag people. She confirmed that none of the items belonged to them. The party asked if Girthil's warriors would be willing to help them move this stuff down to the lake, where it could be loaded onto the Mossy Turtle and hauled upriver, in exchange for some 150 gold pieces.

Girthil was reticent to consign her proud warriors to manual labor for the party's material gain, and asked why the party's numerous hirelings would not suffice. Llombaerth explained that the forest was very dangerous, gesturing towards the owlbear skull helm he wore. In that case, Girthil said, it seemed her people should be entitled to some share of the treasure. They eventually agreed to give the barbarians a 10% share in exchange for their assistance.

The party suddenly remembered their goblin allies and went looking for them. They found Narka manacled at the ankles in the kitchen. The party asked her what had happened, and she explained that after the party had left the dungeon the last time, Viss had declared that a Goblins' Moot could not be held until Tobb was reunited with the group. The party had left Tobb to guard the room containing the Stone that Speaks, back in Drak's old territory.

Apparently, Numbnuts, Pigmug, Rekk, and Viss had gone to get Tobb. Tobb had not listened to reason, and had attacked. Numbnuts and Viss fled and escaped, but Pigmug and Rekk were either killed or subdued. That night, Mangug's orcs had arrived at Quasqueton. They had been interested in negotiating passage inside, but Viss understandably did not want more orcs lording over them. A fight broke out, and with the goblins outnumbered three to one, they were easily defeated.

Narka told the party that Numbnuts and Viss were in the rooms across the hall. The party found both of them and liberated them as well, but told them to stay where they were for the time being, to avoid any potential conflicts with Girthil's people. Viss asked about Grilk's ring, which Mangug had taken from Viss when the goblins were captured. The party figured that this must have been on Mangug's person, and that Girthil's people likely had it.

The party easily carried the mounted dragon paws and the giant-sized shield out of the dungeon by way of the main entrance, then circled around the crag to the secret entrance to gather their hirelings and mules. Night had fallen over the forest while the party had been inside the dungeon. They broke down their camp and returned to the main entrance.

The party decided that they might be able to use one of the mining carts downstairs to haul a lot of treasure out at once. They hitched the carts to their mules and, along with their hirelings, hauled the carts to the secret bedchamber. They were able to load the cart with the dragon skin and the miscellaneous items found in the captain's chamber (I treated this as a wagon or cart, which triples a mount's carrying capacity at the cost of halving their movement speed, allowing the two mules to haul these items out somewhat easily). They and their zombies, hirelings, and NPC followers carried out the door with religious markings as well as the stuffed cockatrice.

They hauled all of this back around the crag to the secret entrance. The party made a deal with Zhukk to release him if he promised not to return to Quasqueton. He agreed, the party agreed to give him arms and armor from Mangug's orcs so that he would not be defenseless in the wilderness, and he parted ways with them.

The party had not yet engaged in any overland movement that day, and they still had a couple of hours before they had to rest, so they began making their way down the hill, following the river. I reasoned that there was probably some overgrown, disused trail leading from Quasqueton to the lake, since Rogahn and Zelligar likely would have moved vast quantities of stone and other materials downriver to the building site, then used carts and wagons to haul it all up the hill. This was important, since carts and wagons (such as the mining cart being used to transport the heavy items) can only traverse difficult terrain if a road or trail is available.

Normally, it would take the party three hours to descend the hill. Loaded up with treasure and slowed down by their zombies, it would take twice as long. They were able to make it a third of the way down the hill before needing to make camp.

The night passed without incident, and the party woke the next morning to find a cold mist had crept into the forest. This obscured their vision and would impose additional movement cost on the day's travel. It would now take five hours and twenty minutes to finish their descent. They reached the bottom of the hill without incident.

It would normally take four hours to cross the forest and reach the lake. Their reduced movement speed and the mist meant it would take ten hours instead. They were able to make it about a quarter of the way before needing to rest for the night.

Another night passed uneventfully. When the party woke, they found the mists had cleared. The air was cold and dry. It would take another 6 hours to reach the lake.

After traveling along the river for an hour and twenty minutes, the party heard the sound of women's voices from the direction of the river, about 70 feet away, though they could not see the source. The women were speaking - or perhaps singing - in an unknown tongue. 

Llombaerth decided to sneak ahead to get a better look. He succeeded on his Move Silently check, creeping about 30 feet up to the edge of the tree line. There he saw four young graceful elfin women with sleek figures, long, thick hair, and radiant skin, dressed in lengthy, sheer robes which glowed with golden thread and rainbow hews. The breeze blowing in off the river carried a delightful, enticing scent.

Llombaerth found it hard to look away. I called for a saving throw vs spell. Adam asked if his elven resistance to charm and sleep magic would apply here, and I decided it made sense. Llombaerth managed to resist whatever magic was at work without needing to make a saving throw. His eyes burned as if he was staring at the sun itself. The women began to disrobe as they entered the river. Llombaerth quickly pulled himself away and returned to the rest of the party.

After sharing what he had seen and the danger he had felt, the party's followers had input. Egbert was curious about what sort of magic was at work. Indur was incensed that these river women had frightened Llombaerth so, and threatened to kill them and devour their smooth flesh. Girthil mentioned that certain fey beings were known to inhabit the forest and to bathe in the sacred waters which flowed through it. They were known to befriend good-looking, kindhearted men. Their kiss could make a man forget his troubles, and women who bathed in the same waters as them were said to be blessed with renewed youth and beauty. However, the mere sight of them could cause a mortal to lose their sight or be stricken dead.

The party decided not to trifle with the river women, and continued on their way. They reached the lake at about 1 pm and found the barge and its crew waiting for them. They loaded their treasure onto the barge. They decided to head back to town now, returning later for the basilisk statue. They sent Indur back to Quasqueton with their remaining zombies (Hadric did not want them on the boat), instructing Indur to protect the goblins. 

They thought to send Indur back with Grilk's ring as a sign of legitimacy, and asked Girthil if she had found it among Mangug's things. Girthil was wearing the ring around her neck. She said that it was one of her people's relics, and that it had belonged to one of their druids. She had hoped to find the druid's remains in Quasqueton, but hadn't seen them. She showed the party the ring, and they saw that it was etched with runes similar to those found on the chieftain's sword. They asked to take a rubbing of the runes so that they might identify other items belonging to the Black Crag people, to which Girthil agreed.

Girthil sent one of her warriors with the party to ensure that they received their 10% share of the treasures recovered. Girthil and the rest of her warriors parted ways with the party, wandering off into the surrounding forest.

The party, Egbert, Wilros Wackledeckle, and all their hirelings set off on the barge. Though they had traveled overland for six hours already, the barge's crew still had a full 8 hours of travel in them. It took about an hour and forty minutes to cross the lake to the river's mouth. From here, it would be all upriver. By 9 pm, they had made it about nine and a half miles upriver. The crew moored the barge along the shore for the night.

The cold and dry weather persisted the next day, and they continued sailing upriver. They reached the edge of the forest at about 1:15 pm, with Timbershore's familiar farmland stretching out to the north and west, and the forest still to the east and south. They ended the day on the river bordering town, with just three more hours of travel before they could put into port in the River Ward.

Shortly after stopping for the day, around 5:30 pm, they heard a rustling from the trees to the southeast. A lone elf emerged from the forest, and Llombaerth and Zommernar recognized him as a a wood elf. The elf was cautious, calling out to them to ask if they were brigands, agents of the wizard, or traders. 

The party identified themselves as traders of a sort, denying any affiliation with brigands or wizards. The elf asked if, in that case, he might come aboard to investigate, to see if they were who they said, and not catspaws of the wizard. The party asked how this might be proven, and the elf said that he would look for items bearing the wizard's mark, or anything plundered from the old stronghold which the wizard claimed as his own, which they might be delivering to him.

We ended the session there. This one was a doozy! In contrast to our last session, there was no combat whatsoever, but lots of logistics puzzling, social interaction, overland movement, and a couple of outdoor encounters. 

This was the party's biggest logistical endeavor yet, and the challenge of getting all that treasure out of the dungeon really manifested itself here. The overland travel math is a bit challenging for me on the fly, and I had to go back as I wrote this post and correct some of my timekeeping math, but I think it all checks out. It is a bit of a relief to finally shed some of the party's accumulated NPC hangers-on! The "river women" encounter was a bit awkward to play out. I definitely felt like a bit of a lecher as I described it, but decided to lean into it and play up the male-gaziness of it all.

Next time, we'll see how the wood elf encounter plays out. Then, hopefully, the party will make it back to town and engage in some fun shenanigans there.

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 19)

We played the nineteenth session of our Dungeon Module B1: In Search of Unknown AD&D 2e game last night. You can read past play reports here.

The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 2 (Maya)
• Zommernar, CN elf fighter 2 (Nael)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Wilros Wackledeckle, gnome (NPC)
• Indur, gnoll (NPC)
• Zhukk, orc (NPC)
• Four friendly zombie adventurers (NPCs)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

Last we played, the party sent their zombie minions after Ghudgak's orcs, slaying two and capturing the last of them, Zhukk. They also rescued a gnome prisoner named Wilros Wackledeckle. The orcs' lair contained a stone which bestowed magical properties upon those who ate pieces of it. The party experimented with it, gaining some permanent ability score increases and a 500 g.p. gemstone, which they let Egbert keep. The stone also healed one of their zombies, turned another invisible, and caused a third's short sword to begin glowing - perhaps it had become magical?

From Zhukk, they learned of "Dead Eaters" lairing in a cave just off the orcs' lair. From Wilros, they learned of a hole in the ceiling of a nearby cavern which led to the upper level. Wilros showed them where the cave was. The party gathered itself together and decided to return to the secret entrance to regroup with their hirelings, then plan an attack against Mangug's orcs on the upper level.

As they returned to the secret entrance, they were confronted by a group of five barbarian warriors who accused the party of stealing their people's relics and demanded they surrender their stolen goods. The barbarians had already subdued the party's hirelings outside, who had apparently surrendered without a fight.

We picked up there. The players continued to talk through their options, but eventually resigned themselves to fighting. They told Egbert to read what he had written on his scroll. The barbarians drew their bows and pointed them at Egbert, threatening to fill him with arrows if he began reading. The player characters all stood in front of Egbert and told him to read.

Egbert read. Both sides prepared to loose missiles at one another, but Egbert's spell went off before anyone else could act. He cast sleep at the barbarians, but rolled low (just 2 on 2d4!), putting two of the barbarian warriors to sleep. The remaining barbarians sent their arrows flying, but all either missed or were deflected by armor. Llombaerth threw flaming oil at the enemies, scoring a critical hit on one of the warriors and splashing the remaining two. The warrior struck with the flaming oil was set alight and died screaming. Indur put an arrow through the other warrior's face for max damage, killing them instantly. 

At the top of the following round, the leader failed her morale check by 10, meaning she would surrender. She cried out towards her dead allies, threw down her weapons, and subjected herself to the party's mercy.

The party bound the leader and the two sleeping warriors. They made an offer to release the barbarians if they pledged to help the party slay Mangug's orcs and retrieve their treasure. The leader spit on the ground and said that her people would never be slaves to plundering adventurers who had killed her warriors.

The players discussed and decided to gift the leader with the barbarian chieftain's sword they had found in the museum. The leader was stunned - this was the sword of her people's greatest chieftain. Had the party possessed this all along? If they were willing to part with it now, why not earlier? She had only wanted the return of her people's relics. This bloodshed could have been avoided entirely. 

The party reminded her that the barbarians had taken their hirelings hostage, threatened them, and demanded they surrender their treasure. The party admitted that they had mistakenly assumed that the barbarians wanted all of their treasure. They mentioned that they had found the chieftain's bones, and were happy to return these.

The leader looked regretful. She glanced back towards the two dead barbarians and lamented that she had taken such an aggressive approach. She said that if the chieftain's bones were returned, her people would help the party. She introduced herself as Girthil. The party agreed to let the barbarians keep any of their relics that they found, as well as any loose coinage on the orcs once they were defeated.

The party freed Girthil and her warriors. Girthil went out onto the ledge outside the secret entrance and called to her warriors down below, telling them to free the captives. The party's mercenaries were irate at having been captured, and expected the party to slay the enemies. There was considerable tension between the barbarians and the party's hirelings. 

The party decided to leave their hirelings and four of the remaining eight regular barbarians to guard the camp. They also left Zhukk in camp, as he did not want to fight other orcs. Wilros Wackledeckle also elected to remain in camp. The party escorted Girthil to retrieve her chieftain's bones and secured those in camp as well.

The rest of the company (Llombaerth, Mirkle, Zommernar, Egbert, Indur, the four zombies, Girthil, and her four remaining warriors) headed upstairs to ambush Mangug's orcs. 

Planning the attack took a while. The players had to get on the same page about their mental map of the dungeon. The whole party would emerge from the throne room area (previously used by Drak's orcs) and turn left. Llombaerth, Indur, and two barbarians would take the first passage on the right, which they knew looped around and entered Mangug's/the goblins' territory from the rear. The rest of the party would head straight towards the intersection with the one way secret door. Zommernar and Egbert would take the zombies right to rush the orcs, while Mirkle, Girthil, and the two remaining barbarians went through the secret door to join the fray by way of the main entrance corridor.

Here's the map the players came up with:

They put their plain into action, emerging from the throne room into the hallway. Immediately, they heard orcish voices calling to them from the end of the hall, near the intersection with the secret door. The party couldn't see them yet, but the orcs could see their light source. 

The party moved closer and found two orcs guarding the intersection. The orcs were surprised to see that the party had found another way in, but assumed that they had come to treat with Mangug, as discussed earlier. The party sent their zombies forward in a charge and followed close behind them. Llombaerth, Indur, and two barbarians took the first right as planned and rushed to flank.

The orcs cried out in alarm when they saw the zombies. The zombies and orcs engaged in melee as Mirkle, Girthil, and another barbarian brought up the rear, firing projectiles and stabbing through the first rank with their spears. The party failed to score any hits in the first round, while one of the orcs stabbed the thief zombie with a spear. A third orc joined the melee, crashing into the thief zombie with its flail, which "killed" the zombie.

The following round, a barbarian stabbed one of the orcs, but managed only a minor wound. Mangug himself came to join the melee, and four orcs attacked with their flails. Two managed to hit the wizard zombie, which brought that zombie down as well. With a few zombies eliminated, Zommernar could wade into melee with his long sword.

Meanwhile, the second group had circled around into the heart of orc territory, and found two more orcs moving perpendicular to them to reinforce the ongoing melee. They had caught the orcs on their flank, and had just enough movement left to charge in, so they did. The orcs were unprepared, and could not set to receive a charge with their spears or counterattack in any way. Indur managed to kill an orc in the charge.

The following round, Zommernar tried to get the zombies to push the orcs back up the corridor to clear the way to the secret door, but the orcs held their ground. Zommernar struck and killed the wounded orc with his sword. Mirkle scored a hit with her spear, but didn't kill any orcs. 

In the other melee, Llombaerth circled around the remaining orc and struck it with his glowing short sword, killing it. The blade was light and sharp, cutting quickly and true. As the orc fell, it landed a retaliatory blow against Llombaerth with its flail, dealing 5 damage. With the last of the two orcs dead, the party continued down the hall to join the other melee, emerging at the orcs' rear.

The remaining four orcs finally saw the writing on the wall, and their morale broke. They failed the check by 3, so they made a fighting retreat. They backed towards the secret door, making attacks as they went. Llombaerth attempted to hit the whole group with flaming oil, but rolled a critical failure. The oil flew over the orcs' heads and shattered just beyond them, hitting the whole group for splash damage.

The orcs managed to land a blow on the party's burly fighter zombie for 5 damage, and another hit Zommernar for 7 damage, but then the party laid into them. Zommernar slew Mangug, and Mirkle, Indur, and four of the five barbarians landed hits on the remaining orcs. The combined damage was enough to thoroughly slay the orcs, and combat was over.

We wrapped the session there. The highlight of this session was definitely the planning phase, where the players had to use their accumulated knowledge of Quasqueton's halls to coordinate their battle strategy. It took a long time for them to get on the same page about the dungeon's layout, but it really clicked when they decided to collaborate on a map and label their hallways. It struck me as very different than the last time the party had fought orcs here, where they had been the defenders and the orcs had craftily counter flanked and ambushed their flanking party and generally foiled their carefully laid plans. It feels more and more like the players have mastered this space.

The combat definitely became unwieldy with so many moving pieces, and I struggled to reconstruct it after the fact for this report, but I think I did a reasonably fine job. At a certain point I just said to hell with initiative and declared that everyone was attacking everyone else at the same time, which was not a bad solution, but definitely eliminated some element of tactical nuance. 

I'm tempted to go through the PHB and sort the different weapons into an ordered list based on Speed Factor so that I have a sort of phased initiative to fall back on in big skirmishes like this. For example, if I went by the weapon types used in this combat, the order would be: flaming oil (Llombaerth) > short swords (Llombaerth) > long swords (Zommernar) > spears (Mirkle, barbarians, and orcs) > short bows (Mirkle and barbarians), flails (orcs), and morning stars (Indur) > long bows (Indur and orcs). That seems like it would simplify big skirmishes while still allowing for some element of strategy. Something worth testing out in the future!

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 18)

We played the eighteenth session of our Dungeon Module B1: In Search of Unknown AD&D 2e game last night. You can read past play reports here.

The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 2 (Maya)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Indur, gnoll (NPC)
• Four friendly zombie adventurers (NPCs)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

Last time we played, the party looted some gnoll corpses and headed back to the dungeon's secret entrance to rest. Some wild dogs bothered them right around dawn, but Llombaerth threw them some food, and they went on their way. They constructed a crude shelter to protect their camp from outside threats, and Egbert determined that the scroll they had found was a 9th level sleep scroll.

The party went back into the dungeon with Egbert, Indur, Lendeborg, and Walgretor. They returned to the cave with the pool, hoping to open the trap door in the ceiling, but couldn't get it to budge. They found more bluish ore in a nearby cave, collected a sample, and considered the possibility of mining it in the future. 

They followed a long, curving tunnel and found a secret door in the wall. Inside the secret cavern were more shriekers, which the party dispatched quickly, without attracting more monsters. Scattered about the cave were thousands of copper coins. They left these for now, but filled a sack with coins and gave it to Indur, with the promise of more if he served them well.

They continued along the tunnel and found a worked stone chamber filled with mining equipment and stairs leading up. In an adjoining room, they found a sort of museum with painted frescoes depicting Rogahn and Zelligar, a framed letter from the hamlet of Timbershore thanking Rogahn and Zelligar for their aid in the war against the barbarians, a manacled barbarian chieftain's skeleton, and the chieftain's sword, which they took.

They ascended the stairs and found that they led back to the throne room on the upper level which had been used by Drak Stonespeaker. Rather than confront Mangug's orcs now, they went back downstairs to finish exploring the lower level.

Continuing down the curving tunnel from the room with the stairs, they found four zombie adventurers trapped in a thick web. They took the zombie wizard's spellbook and, determining that the zombies had no "master" and were docile and pliable, decided to free them. They ushered the zombies before them as they continued down the tunnel. Suddenly, they heard orcish voices to their left, raising a cry. They sent their zombies shambling down the tunnel after them.

We picked up there. The party sent the zombies in front of them as meat shields. The tunnel was narrow and wound to the right and then to the left. The party did not have line of sight on the orcs. They heard the orcs talking to one another, and heard another, more diminutive male voice protesting in the Common tongue as the orcs jostled him.

By the time the party caught sight of the orcs, they were just 20' away. The orcs had a gnome they had taken prisoner and shoved out in front of them as a shield. The orcs were ready with their bows, and fired arrows at the zombie vanguard as they approached. Three arrows struck the zombie in the center, who appeared to have been a burly fighter in life. The zombie hardly noticed the wounds. 

All three of the zombies became distracted by the gnome and began to fall upon him. The party ordered the zombies to attack the orcs, not the gnome, but this only seemed to confuse them. They froze in place, wasting a round. The party told the gnome to run past the zombies and join them. The gnome, looking to the orcs and then the zombies, saw an opening and darted past the slack jawed zombies and took shelter behind the party. Llombaerth gave him a dagger.

The party rallied the zombies to press the attack against the orcs. Mirkle followed them, hoping to stab through the front rank with her spetum. The rest of the party readied to fire a volley of projectiles past the zombies. The orcs drew their spears and shields and braced for the zombies' charge. 

One orc managed to hit the zombie thief, but only for minimum damage. One of Llombaerth's arrows was just narrowly deflected by an orc's shield. The gnome threw Llombaerth's dagger at on of the orcs and scored a hit, though the orc still stood. The thief zombie scored a staggering blow against the orc which had stabbed her. The burly fighter clobbered the orc in the center, bringing it to the ground. The zombies stopped what they were doing to feed on the fallen orc.

With the zombies distracted, the remaining two orcs looked to retreat. Llombaerth threw a flask of flaming oil over their heads, which shattered and exploded behind them, cutting off their retreat and inflicting splash damage. The rest of the party pressed the attack. Indur hit one of the orcs with an arrow, and Egbert managed to bring it down with a well-placed dart.

The party offered surrender to the remaining orc, and promised it good conduct. The orc glanced at its allies being devoured by zombies and opted to throw its shield and spear on the fire. The party navigated around the feeding zombies and secured the remaining orc with rope. 

They learned that the orc's name was Zhukk. They asked Zhukk if he was affiliated with Ghudgak. Zhukk nodded to the mangled orc corpse on the ground, surrounding by feasting zombies, and sadly said "Ghudgak". The party asked how many of Ghudgak's orcs were left, to which Zhukk said he was the last. Shal, Shang, and Zorel had died in the pit trap, the party had just killed Ghudgak and Zhuk (not to be confused with Zhukk), and Bhadgak had been smote by the Stone.

The Stone? Zhukk gestured to the cavern to the party's left. There, they saw a large, glowing chunk of rock towering over the cavern. Zhukk explained that the orcs ate the flesh of the Stone. It granted boons to the worthy, banes to the unworthy, and occasionally struck down true heretics, like Bhadgak. Bhadgak had eaten the flesh of the Stone, began choking, turned purple, and died. The orcs had given him over to the Dead Eaters as a peace offering.

Dead Eaters? Zhukk gestured to the tunnel to the party's right. There was a fork in the tunnel, with one branch to the left and another which went straight ahead and turned right. The Dead Eaters lived down the latter tunnel. Ghudgak had arranged with them the exchange of corpses to allow the orcs to live unmolested.

The party questioned the gnome next. They learned that his name was Wilros Wackledeckle. He and his wife, Breela Billowbadge, had come to Quasqueton in search of treasure so that they could afford to buy a home and start a family in Timbershore. They had negotiated their way past the goblins on the upper level and eventually found an old forge. They had climbed down a hole in the floor of an adjoining room to reach the lower level, at which time they were captured by Ghudgak's orcs. The orcs had forced the gnomes to consume the Stone's flesh. Wilros had survived, but Breela had been struck dead and given over to the Dead Eaters.

The party decided to try their luck with the Stone. Mirkle tried it first, breaking off a chunk of rock and inserting it into her mouth. She gained a permanent +1 to her Wisdom score. Llombaerth went next, gaining a permanent +1 to his Intelligence score. They invited Egbert to partake as well. To their surprise, the chunk of rock turned into a gemstone in Egbert's mouth. Llombaerth took advantage of his improved Intelligence score and identified the gem as a 500 g.p. topaz. They allowed Egbert to keep it, since he had risked his life for it.

Llombaerth had the idea to conceal a bit of rock inside some orc flesh, and fed a bit to each zombie. The zombies mindlessly chomped down on the rocks, shattering their teeth, but it had an effect. The zombie thief's shortsword began to glow in its scabbard. Llombaerth took it (the zombie didn't seem to mind) and examined it. It felt lighter, its edge sharper. Llombaerth held onto it.

The wizard zombie's mortification was ever so slightly reversed. She was still an undead thing, but looked like she had been dead for less time. The burly fighter's body pushed out the arrows protruding from its torso, and the party watched as its wounds knitted together. The less burly fighter disappeared entirely, though the party could still poke her and could see bits of orc gore being torn from the carcass and fed into an invisible maw.

Indur and Zhukk had an argument, which the party had to break up. The gnolls had been enemies of Ghudgak's orcs, and Indur wanted the party to kill Zhukk. The party explained that they had promised Zhukk good conduct, and could not kill him unless he crossed them. They promised Indur that if it came to that, Indur would be allowed to kill Zhukk himself. 

The party asked Zhukk where Ghudgak kept his treasure. Zhukk reluctantly indicated the tunnel to the left (the one that didn't house the Dead Eaters). At the end of 20' tunnel, the party found an assortment of electrum and platinum, plus a black pearl worth another 500 g.p.

The party asked Wilros to show them how he had gotten down here. They backtracked about 70' down the tunnel leading to Ghudgak's lair and took a right, walked 20',  then took a left. 50' down the tunnel they saw the pit trap from earlier. About halfway down the tunnel was a small cavern on the left. There they found a rope hanging from a hole in the ceiling 40' above.

The party took some time to deliberate. Should they continue exploring the lower level? There was a tunnel just outside of this one that they hadn't explored. There were also the Dead Eaters, who the party decided not to confront. Should they go back upstairs to confront Mangug's orcs? If they were going to do that, they would want to get their mercenaries from outside. They decided to exit the dungeon and reconvene with their hirelings.

Realizing that they had left the zombies back in Ghudgak's lair eating orc corpses, they went back to retrieve them. They offered Zhukk an ultimatum: they could either leave him hogtied and defenseless somewhere in the dungeon for some monster to come upon, or, they could untie him, give him a weapon, and pay him 20 g.p. to fight beside them against Mangug's orcs. Zhukk did not want to fight other orcs (Mangug's orcs were unfamiliar to him, and he had no quarrel with them), but it seemed he had no choice. He agreed. The party brought him with them, but didn't untie him just yet.

So the party took Egbert, Indur, Wilros, Zhukk, their two hirelings, and their four zombies all the way back to the cavern with the secret entrance. As they crossed the long cavern and turned towards the secret door, they were confronted by five warriors dressed in hides and wielding spears and shields.

The warriors were led by a woman, who did not identify herself. She said that they were the people of the Black Crag, who lived in this region before the evildoers Rogahn and Zelligar drove them out and stole their relics. They had learned of plunderers selling their goods in Timbershore and had come to investigate. The party's mercenaries had surrendered without a fight, and all of their hirelings outside were now prisoners.

The party explained that they were retrieving the artifacts stolen by Rogahn and Zelligar, and offered to join the people of the Black Crag in recovering their lost relics. They explained that there were orcs on the upper level which they were trying to root out. The warriors looked at the party with Indur, Zhukk, and their zombie allies, and accused them of fraternizing with monsters and practicing black magic.

The party didn't see much of a way out of this, and with the numbers of their side, decided to fight. We wrapped there.

This was a bit of a slow one. The skirmish with the orcs took some time because there were so many pieces involved, even though it lasted just a few rounds. The party had two new NPCs to question, and spent a good deal of time experimenting with the magic stone - which was fun! A good mix of combat and social interaction with a bit of exploration mixed in. It looks like the party has another fight on their hands next session, so we'll see how that goes.

The party continues to accrue NPC followers, it seems. It's unwieldy, but fun. I love when the party starts to roll through the dungeon squad deep. I'm looking forward to seeing how things shake out next time.

The Kanto Pokédex for Into the Oddish

I recently went through the laborious and frankly insane process of statting out all 151 original (Kanto region) Pokémon for Into the Oddish, complete with default movesets for each.

I felt compelled to do this as I was putting more work into prepping my sandbox for Pokémodule B1: In Search of the Unown. As I was statting out regular Shellder, Krabby, Sandshrew, and the like I thought, "Gee, if I was doing this for something like AD&D I would just write 'bandit' and be done with it. That would be a heck of a lot easier."

And so I wanted to create a sort of Monster Manual for Into the Oddish so that I (and, by extension, you) would have a master document to refer to when prepping in more detail. This obviously required a lot more work upfront, but hopefully will result in a lot less work for everyone else going forward. My labor is your reward!

Now, this will be useful if you're prepping something like, I don't know, a Mt. Moon-esque cave and you want to have an encounter table with Zubat, Geodude, Clefairy, and Paras. You can just use the "default" versions of those Pokémon. I still encourage making singular Pokémon unique with curated movesets, battle items, held items, TMs, maybe even special abilities and the like.

This is similar to how if, in AD&D terms, you had a lair of say, 60 bandits with three 3rd level fighters, a 4th level fighter, an 8th level leader, or whatever, you would probably just write "60 bandits" and then detail the "leader-types" individually. You might not go through the trouble of detailing each of the lower-level fighters, but their leader would certainly get a name, some magic items, and maybe even their own bespoke ability scores. You wouldn't stat out every single one of the 60 bandits. They're just bandits from the Monster Manual.

If you have a bridge guarded by two Exeggutor, you might name them Dunk and Egg and give each of them unique movesets and items, or you might just say "two Exeggutor" and call it a day. The boldface is your cue to go to the Pokédex and find the entry for a generic Exeggutor.

I statted all of these Pokémon manually using Prismatic Wasteland's conversion guide. Would it have been easier to just stat out those Pokémon that are missing from the existing resources and copy and paste those that are not? Certainly. However I'm somewhat fastidious about this kind of stuff - if I'm doing something one way, I want to do everything that same way. I noticed some discrepancies with the results from the conversion guide and the published entries for certain Pokémon, and disagreed in places with individual Pokémon's selected movesets, so I opted for consistency and did it all my way. 

That is to say, my default Pokémon may differ in small ways from those found in other resources, including the core books. You may in turn disagree with the selected movesets for some of my Pokémon, and that's okay too. Make your own version of these Pokémon if you like! This is my resource, and it is a living document that will change if I manage to get more time with the game and my tastes change accordingly. But I wanted to share my work with you in case it is of benefit.

With no further ado, I present the Kanto Pokédex for Into the Oddish. Enjoy!

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 17)

We played the seventeenth session of our Dungeon Module B1: In Search of Unknown AD&D 2e game last night. You can read past play reports here.

The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 2 (Maya)
• Rory the Small, LN human fighter 1 (David)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Indur, gnoll (NPC)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

Last we played, the party prepared themselves to encounter some orcs, planning to lure them onto the pit trap in the floor of the tunnel they currently occupied. Instead, the orcs stopped short, and their leader Ghudgak, attempted to negotiate with the party. The party learned that Ghudgak's orcs worshiped the Stone Below, and had been enemies of Drak Stonespeaker's orcs (now deceased) who worshiped the Stone that Speaks. 

Zommernar challenged Ghudgak to single combat and easily prevailed, but Ghudgak had set a trap. He retreated back behind the ranks of his followers as more orcs charged the party from another tunnel. These orcs did not stop short of the pit trap, and Egbert cast a reduce spell on the pit's iron grate covering to drop all three orcs into the pit. Llombaerth threw a flask of alchemist's fire down into the pit to finish off the single orc that had survived the fall. Ghudgak and his remaining two orcs retreated back from whence they came.

The party let them flee and went down the other tunnel. They eventually came upon a huge cavern filled with bat guano, with no bats to be seen. As Llombaerth, Rory, and Egbert shoveled guano into a sack, Mirkle and Zommernar explored a catacomb of natural stone pillars. There, they encountered a pair of man-sized mushrooms, which began shrieking loudly when light was shone upon them. Mirkle and Zommernar butchered the mushrooms, and the party extinguished their light sources and hid in the darkness to see if anything would come to investigate the noise.

Llombaerth spotted a gnoll which entered the cavern, looked around for a bit, then left the way it had come. They explored a raised cavern at the other end of the cavern of the bats and found that one of its walls was streaked with veins of blue ore. With nothing else to investigate, they went back the way they had come.

As they returned to an earlier cavern, they found themselves surrounded by four gnolls. The gnolls were enemies of Ghudgak's orcs, so the party managed to convince them that they were friends. The gnolls' leader, Endur, mentioned that they worshiped a Freezing Pool. Thinking it might be magical, the party asked the gnolls to show them the pool.

The gnolls obliged, and escorted the party to a cavern with an 8' deep pool of freezing water. Two dead adventurers and a mysterious vial laid at the bottom of the pool. There appeared to be a trap door in the ceiling above the pool. Endur explained that he had been trying to prove himself worthy of the pool by diving to the bottom and retrieving the vial, but had failed because of his thick, heavy fur.

Rory decided to attempt the pool's trial himself, and succeeded after three tries. He claimed that the pool had chosen him as its high priest, which angered Endur. The party managed to goad the gnoll into shaving his body and attempting the trial again himself, with Rory tossing the vial back into the depths.

As Endur dove underwater, Rory and Zommernar shoved two of the remaining gnolls into the water, while Llombaerth slew the third with a backstab. When Endur surfaced with the vial in hand, Llombaerth filled him with arrows. The party allowed one of the gnolls in the pool to drown, then fished out the last surviving gnoll, Indur. Rory convinced Indur that it was the pool's will that his friends be sacrificed, and that Indur alone should survive them to rebuild his tribe. He convinced Indur to join them in destroying the remaining Stone worshiping orcs.

We picked up there. The party fished out one of the dead gnolls and searched the bodies, finding only meagre coinage. They had been at it for almost a full day at this point, so they returned to their hirelings, who were camped at the base of the cliff beneath the secret entrance, and joined them to rest. They were pretty deep in the caves at this point, but because they travel five times as fast along mapped routes, they were able to exit the dungeon in just one turn. 

The whole camp was awakened at around 6:30 am by the sound of dogs barking loudly. Four wild dogs had approached the camp, Ripper had started barking at them, and they had started barking back. The dogs weren't menacing the camp themselves, but there was a chance that their barking would attract something else. Llombaerth tossed the dogs some his vinegared fish. They fought over the scraps for a moment, but were eventually convinced to quiet down and be on their way.

The party returned to their bedrolls for another 30 minutes, then rose to start their day. The weather remained fair for the season. The party spent a four-hour wilderness turn setting up a bivouac to guard their camp against predators, since the bulk of their hirelings would remain outside. During this time, Egbert used read magic to open the scroll tube they had found on the body of the dead wizard outside the dungeon's secret entrance. He was able to determine that the scroll contained a sleep spell.

Since Egbert is a necromancer, he cannot learn spells from the enchantment school of magic, so he could not copy this into his spellbook. However, I decided that he could still cast it from the scroll. Since the power of a spell cast from a scroll is determined by the level of the spellcaster who scribed it, and because wizards must be at least 9th level to scribe scrolls in 2e, this was a 9th level sleep spell! 

Ordinarily this is actually an interesting tradeoff - do you scribe the spell into your spellbook so that you know it and can prepare it as much as you like, or do you save it as a one-use exceptionally powerful casting of the spell? In this case Egbert can't learn the spell anyway, so the party simply pocketed it.

The player characters, Egbert, Indur, and two of their porters, Lendeborg and Walgretor, returned to the dungeon by way of the secret entrance.

They returned to the pool room, hoping to find a way to open the trap door in the ceiling. Llombaerth climbed up the rough, slippery walls beneath the door and fastened a rope. He looked for a mechanism to open the door from this side, but couldn't find one. He took his crowbar to the door to try to force it, spending nearly an hour doing so, but failed to get it to budge. 

(There's nothing in the module about opening the door from this side, but I wanted to give the players a chance to try it. I allowed a Find/Remove Traps roll to identify a latch or mechanism and how to operate it, which Llombaerth failed to do. I suggested that they could try to pry the door open with something like a crowbar, which would be an Open Doors check with a +4 bonus. Llombaerth needed an 11 or lower to succeed, but rolled a 14. He could keep trying, but each attempt would take time and would have a cumulative -1 penalty. He tried four more times, rolling an 18 and three 16s in a row. If only this were a situation in which he wanted to roll high!)

Defeated, the party decided to keep exploring. Exiting the cavern with the pool, they found a door on their left. They opened it and found a small, empty cavern with more streaks of blue ore in the far wall. Mirkle touched it and found that it crumbled easily at her touch and stained her hands blue. With no way to identify it, she collected a bit of the ore in a vial with the hope that someone back in Timbershore might tell them what it was. If it was valuable, they might be able to mine it.

The party deliberated as to where they should go next. From the room with the ore, there was a tunnel immediately to the left, and another tunnel to the left in the next cavern over, which was straight ahead. They asked Indur if he knew what lie in each direction. 

Indur told them that the tunnel immediately to the left curved right and went a great distance before coming to a worked stone chamber with lots of mining equipment and stairs to the world above. Ghudgak's orcs were sometimes there, and it was a sort of disputed land between them and the gnolls. The second tunnel led to a cave of phosphorescent fungi. To the right of it were more narrow, winding tunnels which also led to the orcs' lair and were similarly disputed. The party decided to explore the closer of the two tunnels to investigate the room with the mining equipment.

The party followed the tunnel as it curved to the right for about 15 to 20 minutes. They found several copper coins spilled across the floor. Finding this odd, they searched for secret doors and found one. A section of the tunnel wall shifted out of the way. As the party's light shone inside the cavern beyond, four more man-sized mushrooms began shrieking. Mirkle and Indur each managed to dispatch one of the mushrooms in the first round. Mirkle killed another in the second round, and Rory killed the last one.

(Shriekers have a 50% chance of attracting wandering monsters each combat round they continue shrieking - compared to a 1-in-6 chance every three dungeon turns when exploring normally. This resulted in one of the gnolls coming to investigate in our last session - and the remainder of the gnolls then getting the jump on the party when they retraced their steps. This time, I rolled gnolls again, but since the party had already dealt with the gnolls, no encounter occurred.)

With the shriekers dead, the party searched the cavern and found that the floor was littered with loose coins - thousands of them! Too many to quickly be counted. Unfortunately, it looked to be mostly copper. They filled a sack with 300 such coins and gave it to Indur, promising that he could have the rest if he served them well. This pleased Indur well enough.

They followed the tunnel for another 10 minutes or so and found the worked stone chamber with the mining equipment and stairs leading up. There was also a door to the right and another tunnel exiting to the left, on the same wall from which they had entered. The room contained rock rubble, carts, jacks, timbers, and pickaxes, but nothing especially of value. The party figured this could be useful if they decided to mine the blue ore.

They explored beyond the door to the right. A 10' wide corridor beyond it went straight for 50' and turned left, opening into a small chamber. The walls to the left, right, and straight ahead were adorned with faded, painted frescoes. Hanging next to the frescoes was a framed piece of parchment, a curved sword, and a skeleton hanging from the ceiling by manacles with an engraved plaque beside it.

The fresco to the left depicted a young boy raising a sword, a young man slaying a wild boar, a warrior carrying off a dead barbarian, and a hero in the midst of a large battle hacking barbarian foes to pieces. The fresco to the right depicted a boy gazing upward at a starry night sky, a young man diligently studying a great tome, an earnest magician changing water to wine before a delighted audience, and a powerful wizard casting a death fog over an enemy army from a hilltop. The fresco straight ahead depicted the two great men together, shaking hands as young men, winning a great battle against barbarians in a hill pass, and gazing upward together from the wilderness to a craggy rock outcropping. The fourth space of this fresco was blank. There were no hidden switches, buttons, or doodads in any of the frescoes.

The parchment was addressed to Rogahn and Zelligar, and appeared to be a letter of thanks for the two men's help in a war against barbarian invaders. It was signed by the elder of the hamlet known as Timbershore, and was dated some decades ago.

The plaque beside the skeleton identified it as that of a barbarian chieftain. The sword had runes etched into the blade. Egbert examined these and identified the sword as belonging to the barbarian chief. He could not determine whether it was magical, so the party held onto it for now.

They decided to explore up the stairs. They led up to an empty room. Beyond the door, a 40' hallway to their right led to a familiar sight - Drak Stonespeaker's throne room! The party deliberated for some time here. Should they ambush Mangug's orcs from here? Perhaps they could lure them into a trap and hit all of them with the sleep spell? Should they return to the secret bedchamber where they had stashed most of their bulky treasure and start moving it out through the secret entrance on the lower level?

They decided to return to the lower level, finish exploring, and deal with the remaining orcs there. Then they could deal with Mangug's orcs, and it would be easier to haul out their treasure through the dungeon's main entrance after that.

Before they left, they noticed that the door to the chamber with the Stone had been spiked shut from outside, but they decided not to investigate it.

Back on the lower level, the party headed down the tunnel (now on their right) which exited the room with all the mining equipment. 30' down the tunnel, they found an empty cavern on their left. The tunnel continued, turning sharply to the right. They followed it for another 90'. It turned sharply to the right again. 30' ahead of them, it turned sharply to the left, but straight ahead they found another tunnel opening which had been completely covered in thick webbing. They found four rotting humanoid corpses tangled in the webs.

As they approached to investigate, one of the corpses moaned and began to stir. The remaining corpses followed suit. Three appeared to be human - two dressed as a fighter and one as a wizard. The fourth appeared to be an elf, outfitted like a thief. 

The party wanted to set fire to the webbing and the zombies, but Egbert convinced them not to. The party had not yet discovered any "master" that would have animated these corpses, and being a necromancer, Egbert had a macabre interest in determining how that might be. Besides, the one dressed as a wizard surely had a spellbook, and Egbert didn't wish to see it burned.

Mirkle decided to try fishing the wizard zombie out using her grappling hook. It too got tangled in the webs, but the zombie grabbed onto it like a baby clutching at a set of jangling keys. Mirkle dragged the zombie out. It didn't attack, but simply stood there, motionless, moaning. The party could swear they saw it smiling faintly at Egbert. Mirkle knocked it to the ground and bound and gagged it with her rope.

Egbert searched the restrained zombie and found both its spellbook and a wooden box containing 35 gold pieces, which he handed to Mirkle. Egbert explained that, contrary to popular belief, simple undead such as this are not inherently evil, but exist solely to carry out the whims of their masters. In the absence of a master, they become more malleable, albeit less predictable. He demonstrated by commanding the zombie to "speak", to which it responded with a moan. They untied the zombie and experimented with having it "sit", "stay", and "come". 

Once they were satisfied, they freed the remaining zombies, all of which seemed docile and nonthreatening. They searched the zombies' persons and found some more coinage and a couple of gemstones. They decided to employ the zombies against Ghudgak's orcs. They ushered the zombies down the tunnel ahead of them, following at a distance of 30' as the zombies shambled along.

Because of the zombie's disorganized, shambling gait, it took 30 minutes to herd them some 180' as the tunnel turned left, right, and right again. The tunnel began to curve right again and came to a fork which led both straight and hard to the right. From the rightmost tunnel, they heard orcish voices sounding an alarm at the sight of the party's torchlight, and the party ordered the zombies to follow the sound of orcs.

We wrapped there. Pretty much a pure exploration session with a little bit of social interaction. It really feels like the players have mastered this dungeon now that they found the secret entrance into the lower level and a way back to the upper level. They've explored almost all of the lower level and a very big chunk of the upper level as well. It feels like the days of exploring Quasqueton are numbered, but we will see! It's great to see them finding new ways to reach previously explored areas and figuring out how to use those paths to their advantage.

I'll admit to being really happy that they didn't burn the zombies. When I was stocking the dungeon, I rolled zombies in the webbed cave and got an "enthusiastically friendly" result. What does that mean? Well, maybe these zombies used to be adventurers, and they have some sort of instinctual memory of adventuring and view other adventurers as allies. At times I felt like I was using Egbert as a blunt instrument to get the players to give the zombies a chance, but really, Egbert the necromancer was just the perfect NPC to be present for this encounter.

The party now has an entire river boat crew, five porters, two mercenaries, a henchman, a gnoll ally, and four zombies servants. It's totally unwieldy, and I love it.