Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 8)

We played the eighth 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)

Last time we played, the party wandered into the territory of the Stonespeaker Clan, the band of orcs and goblins led by Drak who control a large corner of the dungeon. The party captured a goblin sentry, Pigmug, interrogated him, and brought him back to Grilk for further questioning. They found the other side of one of the one-way secret doors that connected back to the dungeon's main entrance corridor, then delved deeper into orc territory.

There, they found a carrion crawler attempting to batter down a door at the end of a long corridor. The party's man-at-arms, Booker, fled with the lantern when the carrion crawler charged. Rory took a wound but resisted the carrion crawler's poison. After a tense battle, the party managed to burn the crawler alive with flaming oil. Behind the door the crawler was attempting to batter down, the party found another goblin, Numbnuts, searching a bedchamber. They managed to convince Numbnuts that they were powerful Stonespeakers themselves, and persuaded him to draw them a map of the orcs' territory.

We picked up from there. With Numbnuts now friendly to them, the party began to search the bedchamber. 

A nice tapestry depicting a handsome warrior rescuing a beautiful woman from a burning village hung on the wall in a wooden frame. A message embroidered in gold cloth at the top read "Melissa, the most dearly won and greatest of all my treasures." The party removed it from the frame and rolled it up to take with them.

Malkara found a single gold piece in a tortoiseshell dish atop a red cedar chest of drawers. Inside the chest, she found a silver-plated comb buried beneath some old clothing, which she kept.

While the embroidered green cloth canopy hanging above the bed was dusty and moldering, the headboard was carved and inlaid with gold leaf which read "Melissa". Numbnuts had already begun scraping some of the gold leaf from within. The headboard and baseboard was innately carved rosewood and looked valuable, but it would take time to disassemble and would need several people to carry.

Knowing that the secret door leading back to the dungeon's exit was nearby, the party decided to disassemble the bed and carry it out. They asked Numbnuts to recruit Lumpknuckles, the goblin next door, to help. Numbnuts left briefly and returned with the other goblin. It took some time to convince the goblins that a bed could be turned into gold, but the party managed to persuade them that humans are silly and sometimes want their bed to be beautiful, and will pay good money for it.

The party quickly realized that it was too difficult to show the goblins how to take the bed apart carefully, so they decided to do it themselves, instead using the goblins as sentries at the door. Before long, a third goblin, Slug, came along. Slug was the goblin who was good at counting, so the party asked him how many orcs there were. Slug demanded a gold piece in exchange, but eventually told them there were seven orcs, with more downstairs, though the two groups weren't friends.

To test Slug's counting ability, Llombaerth laid 14 copper pieces on the floor and asked Slug to count them. Slug proudly declared that there were 10 copper pieces and demanded another gold piece. Llombaerth refused to pay up, things escalated, and Slug drew his blade. The party attempted to talk him down, but failed. Robbernar drew his own blade, and things fell apart.

Numbnuts failed his morale check. Since he was in the doorway, he turned and fled down the hall. Slug and Lumpknuckles stood and fought. The party's porter, Walgretor, hid under the half-disassembled bed. 

Robbernar slashed at Slug with his longsword, but the attack glanced off the goblin's armor. In close quarters, Malkara moved into melee and smashed Lumpknuckles in the head with her quarterstaff, nearly killing him with one blow. The party's remaining man-at-arms, Armstrong, the goblin Slug, and Rory all flailed at one another ineffectively. Lumpknuckles recovered from Malkara's attack and countered with his mace, hitting an AC of 9 (against Malkara's AC 10) for 4 damage, the exact number of hit points Malkara had. Lumpknuckles cracked her over the head and she fell to the floor, dead. Llombaerth, who meant to pursue Numbnuts, instead stayed put and fired a pair of arrows at Lumpknuckles. One missed and the other glanced harmlessly off the goblin's armor.

At the top of the next round, Lumpknuckles's morale broke, and he turned to follow Numbnuts. Slug stayed to fight to the bitter end. Armstrong struck him with his longsword, killing him with one blow.

Rather than pursue the goblins, who had retreated deeper into orc territory, the party decided to flee. Walgretor grabbed Malkara's corpse. As they fled, Llombaerth spiked shut the door to the hall which led to the orcs' lair, hoping to deter their pursuers. The party fled down the hall, past the burned corpse of the carrion crawler, as they heard drums pounding through the walls. They fled down the long, twisting corridor towards the intersection with the secret door back to the entrance.

As they reached the intersection, they spotted two orcs in the corridor to their right, arrows knocked and bows drawn. The orcs fired into the party's flank. An arrow whizzed by Robbernar's head, and a second glanced off of Rory's armor. The party chose to charge the orcs while Llombaerth opened the secret door and prepared to spike it shut once the party retreated through it.

The orcs drew spears, and one charged to meet the party, missing an attack against Robbernar. Armstrong slashed at the orc, but missed as well. Rory hacked at the orc with his halberd, cleaving into the meat of its shoulder and killing it instantly. Robbernar charged the second orc. They flailed at each other, but both missed. On the next round, the orc's morale broke and it retreated down the corridor and through a door back to orc territory.

The party retreated through the secret door, dragging the slain orc behind them. With Grilk's goblins in sight at the end of the entrance hall, the party coordinated with them to make a plan. They laid caltrops on the floor on their side of the door, then used a piton to create a doorstop so that the secret door could only open halfway, forcing any pursuers to pass through single file. Two of Grilk's goblins would man their barricades at the end of the two halls (one on either side of the secret door), and Grilk and a fourth goblin would run around the long way to flank any attackers from the rear.

Since this seemed like it could be a big climactic battle and take some time to resolve, we ended the session there. Next time, we'll find out how the orcs respond and whether the party's plan will work.