Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 1)

We played the first real session of our In Search of the Unknown AD&D 2e campaign last night. My session 0 report is here.

For this session, we were missing Matt (Bathalo-gnome), so the roster was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 1 (Adam)
• Millisant, LE human mage 1 (Aidan)
• Pommernar, CE elf mage 1 (Nael)
• Rory the Small, LN human fighter 1 (David)

I started the session with a bit of housekeeping. First, I explained that we'll be using gold for XP. I'm not sure when exactly XP is meant to be awarded in AD&D, but I really like B1's suggestion that it's not awarded until the treasure is actually safely returned to town, not just in the character's possession. This incentivizes the players to leave the dungeon and return to town to collect XP and level up, which allows me to do all sorts of nasty tricks with the dungeon while they're away.

I'm also intending to use 2e's individual XP awards based on class:

Thus, in addition to getting XP based on monsters overcome, Rory the Small, being a fighter, will get an extra 10 XP per HD of monster defeated in battle. Millisant and Pommernar will get an extra 50 XP per spell level when they use their spells to overcome problems (or, much later on, when/if they create magic items). Llombaerth gets 200 XP whenever he uses a thief ability successfully. Since I'm already awarding XP for gold and rogues get 2 XP for each gold piece of treasure obtained, Llombaerth will get instead get double XP for treasure.

In our session 0, I also had the players roll to determine what additional languages their characters knew. This was amusing, as the characters started out speaking water naga and white dragon, but I decided to roll it back. It's not so much the silliness I object to, but more so the fact that these languages won't be useful in the sandbox I've prepared.

Instead, the additional languages granted by the character's Intelligence score represent languages the characters have the capacity to learn. This is informed by AD&D's suggestion that characters spend downtime with any speaking creature to learn that creature's language:

Naturally, characters have the option of capturing a monster and forcing it to teach them its language:

With all that out of the way, we got to playing.

I explained to the players that they had come into possession of a map pinpointing the location of Quasqueton (the ruin to the south), the former stronghold of Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown, who had disappeared while on campaign in the barbarian lands to the north. The stronghold was reclaimed by the wilderness and lost to time, and the characters had reason to believe that the treasures of its mazelike dungeons had yet to be plundered.

I had determined that the town or city nearest to the play area was 150 miles away. The characters had been on the road for six days. I actually rolled up the weather for those six days so I could provide a brief synopsis of their journey to that point. It is Spring (I always start my campaigns during the Spring, because it seems like a natural time to embark on an adventure). The rivers are engorged with rainwater and snowmelt. It had been blustery and had rained for a miserable two days, but had cleared up for the final day of the characters' journey. As they broke camp for the final time, the town of Timbershore was in sight, just over the horizon.

Timbershore is a large walled town of about 5,500 people. It had once been a humble village within Rogahn and Zelligar's domain, and paid homage to Quasqueton in exchange for nominal protection. When the valley was threatened by barbarian hordes, it was Rogahn and Zelligar who turned the barbarians to flight. Many decades had passed since, and the village had grown into a bustling town. Rumor is that the town is now ruled by a powerful wizard.

Inspired by AD&D's section on ESTABLISHING THE CHARACTER, I decided to roleplay the party's approach to the town's gate. The guards hailed the characters and demanded they state their business, informed them of the fee to enter (5 copper pieces per head, including the mule), and opened the gates. 

Keeping in mind AD&D's robust system of taxes and fees, the guards looked over the characters' possessions and asked if they had any goods for sale to declare. Since the party is just beginning adventuring, they have very little. Normally I would also point them towards the money changer, but since they were traveling from a city which is presumably part of the same domain, I assumed they are using the local coinage.

The party asked the guard where they might find a tavern to gather some information. The guard gave them rough directions. They had entered town in the High Ward. To the northeast was the Chapel Ward, to the southeast the Timber Ward, and to the south the River Ward. All have taverns. The High Ward is home to town officials and wealthy merchants. The Chapel Ward is mostly clergy. The Timber Ward is home to hunters, loggers, and trappers. The River Ward is traders, dockworkers, and others just entering town from upriver.

The party decided to head to the River Ward in case they could secure passage on a vessel to carry them downriver. As they moved through the High Ward, they wandered through courtyards and gardens and passed courthouses, administrative offices, shops, and guard barracks. They noted a high hill with many rich villas along its slope. At the very top, they could see a large castle overlooking the town.

The party passed through the River Ward en route to the Mooring Post, a tavern and inn which had been recommended to them. The River Ward is noisy and bustling, with many keelboats and barges docked along the wharf. Dockworkers unload the boats' cargo and mercenary guards escort caravans of goods to warehouses for storage. The party passed merchant guildhouses, sawmills, caravan yards, and flop houses before arriving at the Mooring Post.

The tavern was loud and rowdy, but not out of control or dangerous. It was crowded with traders, dockworkers, fishermen, ferrymen, and caravan guards, all drinking dark ale. It smelled strongly of fish stew. Pommernar focused on inquiring about passage downriver while the rest of the party gathered information. They bought a round of ale for the house.

Llombaerth, Millisant, and Rory the Small gathered a few rumors:

• A fearsome spirit haunts the ruins of Quasqueton. It is the ghost of Zelligar, demanding intruders surrender his stolen treasure!
• Quasqueton's stronghold houses a trophy room full of unimaginable valuables.
• A beast or beasts has been stalking the Timber Ward at night. Hunters believe a pack of wolves from the forest to be responsible.

Pommernar met a river boat captain, Colton, who offered to take the party downriver to the southeast lake for 18 silver pieces per head (including the mule, of course), plus 2 gold pieces per day for him. Here I used the 5e rule of thumb. In 5e, passage aboard a ship costs 1 silver per mile, and skilled hirelings (like a ship's captain) cost 2 gold pieces per day. I had not especially prepared for this, so I neglected to use the AD&D rule:

Thus, the smallest river barge or raft would have a crew of 20, plus a captain, a lieutenant, and two mates. It's not clear if the crew is meant to be sailors, oarsmen, or marines, but in this case I would assume simple oarsmen. That's 100 gold pieces per month for the oarsmen, 60 gold pieces per month for the mates, and 100 gold pieces per month each for the lieutenant and captain (360 gold pieces total). I imagine the intention is that these crews are only hirable on a per-month basis, much like other expert hirelings in AD&D, but in this case I would allow them to be hired for just the two days, which would be about 24 gold pieces total. 

This would be more costly if the party expected the crew to wait for them while they explored the dungeon, and in that case the crew would be entitled to shares of any treasure recovered - 25% for the captain, 5% for the lieutenant, 1% for each of the mates, and 5% for the crew. Considering all of this, my lack of preparation allowed the party to get away with a pretty good deal!

In the end, they decided not to take the boat for their first trip. Instead, they would hoof it on foot to Quasqueton, and reconsider the river passage once they had more gold to their names. While they were there they hired Bronson, a strapping young dockworker, to be their torchbearer and porter.

They had only traveled for two hours that morning to reach Timbershore, so they had 6 hours left of travel in them. It was 10 am. They decided to set out immediately, exiting Timbershore through the River Ward's south gate.

The first day of travel passed without incident. The party crossed the bridge an hour south of town and traveled through the southern farmlands for two hours before coming upon the southern river bordering the forest. This river had no bridge, so they spent another hour searching for a crossing, which they found in the form of a fallen tree. This left them just enough time to plunge into the forest before making camp. It was 4 pm and they had plenty of daylight.

They had just begun to make camp when they heard the sound of stomping boots, rustling armor, clattering weapons, and harsh voices in a language they did not understand. Pommernar correctly identified it as hobgoblin. There was dense growth in the area which would grant the party 75% concealment (I rolled d100 and got 75 exactly, otherwise I would round up or down in increments of 25). Most of the party scrambled to hide, but Pommernar had another idea. He cast dancing lights.

Here's the description of the spell in 2e:

Pommernar decided to create the "faintly glowing, vaguely manlike shape...similar to that of a creature from the Elemental Plane of Fire", then sent it flying towards the hobgoblins (they were 70 feet away, so well within range of the spell). To the hobgoblins, I imagine it looked like a flaming ghost or fire elemental coming towards them. They loosed their arrows at it, which of course had no effect. I called for a morale check, referencing the table below:

With a -8 penalty to their morale check (2d10, roll under) and a morale of "Steady (11-12)", they had a very slim chance of succeeding. The "fire elemental" terrified them, and they fled in the opposite direction, sparing the party from a potentially dangerous encounter.

I really liked the way this played out. It didn't even register with me that the spell was capable of this, and Nael came up with a very ingenious application of it which saved the day - exactly the kind of thing a 1st level wizard should be doing with that one precious spell slot.

On the other hand, I can't help but mull over some failed considerations. For one, the hobgoblins were only 70 feet away - well within earshot of a spell being cast. Also, while the lights took the shape of a creature from the Plane of Fire, they were in the forest, and it wasn't setting fire to anything. It also didn't radiate heat. They probably should have suspected something was up. Perhaps I could have made an Intelligence check to determine if the hobgoblins were able to put two and two together, then a saving throw versus spell to determine if they could disbelieve the "illusion".

Things to consider for next time, but no harm done. The whole party got experience for "defeating" the hobgoblins, and Pommernar got a little bonus for using his spell in a useful situation. The rest of the day and night passed without incident.

The next day, the party continued on through the forest for two hours, then spent three hours hiking through the forested hills where they hoped to find Quasqueton.

They found an overgrown, ruined tower atop a black crag, tall enough to see over the tops of trees, but mostly collapsed, its stone blocks tumbled down the hillside in all directions. It did not look like a proper fortification, but more like a simple watchtower. A treacherous path wound up the crag to a cave opening beneath the tower, choked with roots and vines.

The party wanted to scout around the crag for secret entrances, but the other faces of the hill were too sheer from where they were. It would require perilous scrambling around narrow rock ledges and along knotted roots for handholds. I suggested that they could try approaching the ruin from a different side of the hex on a return visit. It wouldn't be feasible right now because it would require another three hours to hike back down the hill.

The party had Bronson hack away the overgrowth which closed off the cave mouth, allowing them enough room to head inside. They found a wooden door that looked like it had been forced. Carefully proceeding inside, they found a long hallway which stretched into the darkness, lined with alcoves. As they lit a torch, they heard something about 100 feet down the corridor scamper off in the opposite direction. They called out to it, but got no response.

Inspecting the first set of alcoves, they found a pair of stone busts which seemed to depict Rogahn and Zelligar. Upon further inspection, they seemed totally ordinary. At the second set of alcoves, they found muddy footprints leading to and from the alcove on the right. The floor in front of the alcove's rear wall worn down. Nael asked if it was worn in a half circle or quarter circle shape, which I thought was a a very good question (it was a quarter circle). The floor of the alcove to the left was also worn, but less so, and there were no footprints near it.

The party spent some time trying to figure out if there were secret doors here and how to open them, but found nothing. Rory grabbed the bust of Rogahn and tried to use it as a battering ram on the rear wall of the alcove to the right, but only succeeded in damaging the bust and making a lot of noise.

They continued down to the third set of alcoves, whereupon a pair of magic mouths appeared. They yelled: “WHO DARES ENTER THIS PLACE AND INTRUDE UPON THE SANCTUARY OF ITS INHABITANTS? ONLY A GROUP OF FOOLHARDY EXPLORERS DOOMED TO CERTAIN DEATH. WOE TO ANY WHO PASS THIS PLACE - THE WRATH OF ZELLIGAR AND ROGAHN WILL BE UPON THEM!” The mouths cackled madly in unison and then gradually faded from view. This again made a lot of noise, and rattled Bronson, who suggested that maybe they should listen to the mouths. The party attempted to assuage his fears, but didn't seem to help.

At the end of the corridor, they found the site of an old battle. Three adventurers and two barbarian warriors laid in disarray on the floor (except for the wizard, who was impaled to the wall by a sword). The party began searching the bodies, when suddenly two goblins burst emerged just ahead, with weapons drawn.

The players' map of the dungeon

Pommernar spoke to the goblins in the language of Evil. The goblins warned the party to leave, as this was goblin territory. Pommernar warned them that one of his companions was a powerful sorcerer, at which point the goblins called their boss, Grilk.

Grilk was more congenial, and spoke the common tongue. He told the party that he wanted no quarrel with them, and agreed to let them plunder these corpses in exchange for their services. Some of Grilk's companions had fallen under the sway of a tyrannical orc priest to the southeast, who turned the goblins into fanatical slaves. If the party would help Grilk's companions, then things could be copacetic between the party and the goblins.

The party collected some minor treasure from the corpses (7 gold pieces and a ring worth 10 gp). Grilk invited them to share the goblins' ale and stew ("mostly rat meat and moldy cheese").

We had played for 30 minutes longer than we had agreed to, so we ended the session there. Overall, I think we had a good time. I've never played with any of these people before, so I'm simultaneously learning the players' names, the characters' names, and also learning to recognize the players' voices so that I know which character is doing what. Honestly, that has probably been the biggest hurdle so far!

We're on a roughly every other week schedule it seems, so hopefully I will be back with another play report in two weeks!