We played the sixth 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 2 (Adam)
- Malkara, N human mage 1 (Maya)
- Robbernar, CG elf cleric 1 (Nael)
- Rory the Small, LN human fighter 1 (David)
As you can see, we had a new player joining us. Maya is playing Malkara, a human mage who, like the rest of the party, has an exceedingly average spread of ability scores. She did manage to roll a decent selection of 1st level spells: comprehend languages, magic missile, and spider climb. She should be an adequate replacement for the recently deceased Pommernar.
Last time, the party returned to town from the dungeon. They encountered another giant tick while camping in the wilderness, and it slayed Pommernar. Back in town, they were taxed heavily for their recovered treasure, but earned enough gold for Llombaerth to reach 2nd level. The party spent some time brainstorming the best way to use the few days they would need to rest and recuperate in civilization. They met Robbernar, Pommernar's father and a cleric who agreed to adventure with them.
After some number crunching, I told the players why it might be unwise to buy a boat. I reasoned that whether they bought the boat or not, they would still have to pay the crew. And if they owned the boat, they would be responsible for all its upkeep expenses. The main benefit of owning a boat would be that the party would not need to pay the regular fee for passage - 66 silver per head for a trip downriver to the dungeon and back. But the boat itself costs 500 gold, so to break even the players would need to go back and forth to the dungeon about 25 times (assuming an average party size of three - with one hireling and a donkey it's closer to 15 times, which is still pretty excessive).
So, they abandoned that notion for now. They set off for the River Ward nonetheless, as they wished to recruit more hirelings and to learn more about smuggler activity. Robbernar managed to hire a half-elf porter/torchbearer named Walgretor as well as a pair of human men-at-arms named Armstrong and Booker. Rory also decided to retain their original porter and torchbearer, Bronson. Llombaerth got a lead on a seedy tavern named the Drunken Pike, where the ward's criminal element liked to congregate.
At the Drunken Pike, Llombaerth met Malric Two Fingers, a grizzled old sailor with just one hand, and that hand with just two fingers. Llombaerth initially offended him by making thief signs with his hands - flaunting all his fingers in Malric's face - but eventually (after some bribery) the two got on the same page. Llombaerth asked if Malric knew how someone might bring goods into town unnoticed by the constabulary.
Malric told him about the Rusted Anchor, an old barge tethered to the wharf but long out of commission. Malric recounted how, back in the day, sailors would board the barge and give a special knock at the door to indicate that they were ready for work. He had heard that sometimes, out of respect for the old ship, people would board it at night and give the same knock - since Malric did not have the proper number of fingers, he had his bar boy demonstrate. Llombaerth took note. Though the barge was out of service now, Malric had heard that there are somehow still sailors unloading its cargo to this day.
With that, the party regrouped and set off into the wilderness. They were nine now - Llombaerth, Malkara, Robbernar, Rory, the men-at-arms Armstrong and Booker, the porters Bronson and Walgretor, and the mule, Hasselback. After crossing the river halfway through the first day of travel, they set Armstrong and Booker to work felling some trees to create an impromptu crossing for any subsequent trips. I told the players that this should last at least until there are some heavy rains, which are likely to wash the logs away.
At the end of the first day, they made camp at the bottom of the wooded black crag upon which sat Quasqueton. The night passed without incident. The following morning, they had a three-hour hike up the hill to the ruin, which was also uneventful. They plunged back inside the dungeon.
As they moved down the familiar long entrance hall, a goblin voice sounded an alarm. They saw that the goblins had fortified the landing at the top of the short staircase at the end of the hall with a makeshift wooden barricade, a bloody orc's head skewered atop a spear with an arrow through its eye.
Grilk emerged, recognized the party as friends, and told his goblins to stand down, welcoming his friends back inside. The party learned that a band of orcs had attacked the goblins in the night, with three groups of two attacking from different directions. The goblins had heard them coming, but not quickly enough to save Tobb, who had been wounded with arrows and carried off as a prisoner. Three orcs were slain in the counterattack, at which point their morale broke, and they retreated.
This was part of my restocking/updating the dungeon process. I made opposed reaction rolls for those dungeon factions which might be in contact with one another and determined that the orcs would launch an attack on the goblins. I looked at my map and figured out how they might go about that strategically and what numbers they could bring to bear, then roughly simulated it with surprise rolls, attack rolls, movement, morale checks, and the like. It was a fast and bloody conflict which did not go very well for the orcs, but they managed to take a captive.
Grilk informed the party that earlier, the goblins had managed to trap a horse-sized "demon worm" inside the closet in Zelligar's bedchamber, which was nearby. After the orc attack, the goblins had freed the worm and corralled it into the corridor which led to the orcs' territory. The party decided to explore that room.
The goblins had put lots of orc meat into their stew, in which the party declined to partake, but Robbernar did instruct Walgretor to fill a bucket with the slop in case the worm showed up. They entered Zelligar's bedchamber and found it in disarray, furniture overturned and broken down for the barricades outside - including a large bed (its frame dismantled) and some smaller tables and chairs.
The party had their men-at-arms bust open a nightstand which they thought might be trapped, but found nothing inside. The far wall was decorated with a long stone carving of a mighty wizard casting a fearsome spell. A door in the room opened onto a 30' long corridor, at the end of which was a pair of jeweled chests overflowing with coins, gems, and jewelry.
This was obviously a trap, so Robbernar used detect magic and determined that the chests and their contents did indeed radiate magic. The party was very careful. They threw a chair leg at the chests, then poked them with their 10' poles, then used a fishing hook and line to fish out a piece of jewelry, then lassoed a whole chest and dragged it out into the main room. Robbernar finally touched some of the treasure with his hands and noticed that everything felt and sounded like rocks, not precious metal and gemstones. It was a trick, but one the party might be able to leverage against their enemies.
Lastly, the party checked the closet. Inside, they found a small pile of slimy giant rat bones, partially crushed. Malkara claimed a cloak studded with circular bits of pewter. They looked over some papers detailing stronghold inventories, expenses, and construction, and found four books: a history of the local area, an Elvish encyclopedia of herbology, a handwritten notebook in an indecipherable language of runes and esoteric markings, and an illustrated tome describing meteorological phenomena, with similarly indecipherable scrawls in the margins. They pocketed the books.
That's where we left off. The party has explored a good amount of the dungeon, but there's still some ground to cover. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do next.
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