We played the fifth 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 1 (Adam)
- Pommernar, CE elf mage 1 (Nael)
- Rory the Small, LN human fighter 1 (David)
Last session, the party wandered their way out of Quasqueton's labyrinth of corridors and found three near-identical empty bedchambers. They navigated a long, winding hallway and a few more tight turns before coming upon a room with a pearl on the floor and a crystal outcropping in the wall. As Pommernar stepped inside to take the pearl and break off a piece of the crystal, Llombaerth noticed that there was a new hallway just outside the room, where none had been before.
The party investigated the new corridor and found a well-stocked library with terrariums filled with fire beetles set into the walls shedding dim red light. Inside, Pommernar found a bronze statuette inlaid with silver and gold. They followed a curving corridor just outside the library and reemerged just down the hall from Grilk's goblins' headquarters. Somehow, they had gone in a big circle.
They decided it was time to leave the dungeon and return to town. They recovered their hireling, Bronson, and retrieved two barrels of spices from the secret room they had discovered earlier. A tense negotiation with Grilk followed, but he eventually agreed to let them take the barrels from the dungeon in exchange for a barrel of ale, the chunk of crystal, and 40 gold pieces to be delivered upon the party's eventual return.
With that, we picked up with our next session. The party strapped a barrel of spices over either side of their mule and began the hike down the forested hillside. It would take 11 hours to return to town, and they had three hours of travel left in the day before they'd need to rest. After that, they could use the entirety of the second day to finish the trek.
At the end of the remaining three hours of the first day, the party had made it to the bottom of the hill and was surrounded by lowland forest. They made camp, set up watches, and settled in for the night.
During Pommernar's watch, sometime between 3 and 5 a.m., he heard a rustling in the trees above him. Gazing upward, his elf eyes caught sight of a giant tick, just like the one that had attacked them in the dungeon. It looked just about to drop onto him, but luckily the tick was surprised and Pommernar was not. He leapt to his feet, threw a flask of oil from his pack onto the fire to stir the flames, and shouted for his companions to wake.
As they stirred, Pommernar took a long stick and shoved it into the oil-soaked fire to set it alight. The tick dropped in front of him, but he thrust the flaming stick at it, holding it at bay. Llombaerth grabbed his bow, left his tent, and ducked into the undergrowth to hide. Rory grabbed his halberd and a dagger. Stepping out of his tent, he threw the dagger at the tick and missed.
At the top of the following round, I rolled morale for the tick to see if it would still attack even though Pommernar was threatening it with fire. It succeeded, looking poised to strike. Pommernar drew his dagger and tossed it at the tick but rolled a natural 1, accidentally tossing the dagger behind him as he brought his arm back to throw it. Lombaerth fired twice with his shortbow, but missed both times (the first attack also a natural 1).
Rory was moving in to hack at the tick with his halberd, but the tick struck just a moment before he could get there. Pommernar was the only target near enough. He had 4 hit points. A giant tick's bite does 1d4 damage. It could fell him in a single blow.
It scored a critical hit. At 2d4 damage, Pommernar now had just an 18.75% chance to live. He did not. The tick did 5 damage, leaping directly at Pommernar's throat, its proboscis like a dagger, killing him instantly.
Since the tick was occupied drinking up Pommernar's blood, I ruled that Rory could slay it automatically. This was maybe the best potential outcome as, like the giant tick found in Quasqueton, this one had 4 HD. Unlike that tick, who had just 12 hit points, this one had 23. With an AC of 3, killing it by the conventional means would have been a tall order.
The surviving party members burned the tick, took a moment to mourn their fallen companion, put his body safely in his tent, and returned to sleep.
The next morning, they broke camp and set Pommernar's body alight as well, then headed off back towards town. The rest of the journey was mercifully uneventful.
Upon returning to town, the party was made to pay the gate fee again. They were also instructed to visit the money changer to exchange their currency (that which they found in Quasqueton was not the sort they could spend in town). If they wished to sell their spices or any other treasures taken, they would be subject to additional fees. There was a 5% tariff on their spices and a 10% sales tax after that (because they are foreigners), costing them about 160 gold pieces on the sale.
The players asked how they might become citizens, to which I answered that they must live in town for one month and pay off many bribes. Clearly, the more reasonable thing to do would be to locate some smugglers to help them sneak items into town through the back door.
This is exactly how I figured players would respond when I wrote about AD&D's maddening system of taxes, tithes, tolls, and fees. They're a nuisance, yes, but they also encourage players to take risks and deal with untrustworthy characters to circumvent them, which may introduce complications and, dare I say, adventure.
I awarded experience for the treasure the party had returned with. Since we have players who cannot attend sessions as consistently as others, I decided to weigh the distribution of XP according to number of sessions played by each. Here was the count:
- Llombaerth: 5 sessions
Pommernar: 5 sessions- Rory: 4 sessions
- Millisant: 2 sessions
- Barthalo-gnome: 1 session
The party visited the Chapel Ward to stay at the Pilgrim's Respite, a modest hostel with more decent rooms than the Mooring Post. On their way there, they spied a shell keep of black stone, bristling with weapons and defenses, looming over the district - the second stronghold they've spotted in town.
The hostel was quiet, simple, and clean. Robed priests or monks made their way quietly about, tending to patrons' needs. Several small shrines lined the walls. The largest, at the end of the hall, depicted a cruel-looking woman with the horns of a ram and the wings of a bat. The injured members of the party would need two nights of rest to recover their strength. They had some healers look in on them, tending to their rat and tick bites to fend off disease.
During their stay, they encountered Robernar, a middle aged elf priest who claimed to be the father of Pommernar. He had tracked them down in order to settle some business with his wayward son, only to learn that he had died. Robernar accepted his son's belongings and, as is elf custom, pledged to travel with his son's former companions for a year and a day.
Robernar is Nael's new character, a CG elf cleric. Here's hoping he will outlive his son. We had a bit of a laugh upon learning that Robernar is about 550 years old, as determined by this table:
That's about where we wrapped for the night. The players expressed an interest in finding information about smugglers as well as possibly purchasing a barge and crew to take them downriver on their next foray into the dungeon. We'll see how that goes next time.
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