We played the eleventh 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 3 (Adam)
- Mirkle, N human fighter 1 (Maya)
- Robbernar, CG elf cleric 1 (Nael)
- Rory the Small, LN human fighter 1 (David)
- Bronson, human porter (NPC)
- Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)
Last time we played, the party rallied their goblin allies for a counterattack into orcish territory. They used some barrels of water to barricade one of the doors leading to the orcs' throne room, then went around the other way. Llombaerth scouted ahead but was detected by a pair of orcs, who he led back down the corridor into a volley of arrows from the rest of the party. The wounded orcs retreated, and the party pursued.
After running down one injured orc, the party found Drak, the orcs' leader, waiting for them. Another orc lost morale and broke rank. Drak fired an arrow, slaying the party's man-at-arms, Armstrong, then fled. The party pursued, but another orc stood in their way, allowing Drak to escape through a secret door. They slew the last fighting orc as well as the one who had fled and failed to escape.
The goblin Numbnuts stumbled upon the means of opening the secret door, and the party found Drak in a hidden bedchamber. He fled through another secret door and the party followed, emerging into the hallway outside the throne room again. They chased Drak down again, denying his pleas for mercy. Llombaerth slew him with an arrow and bestowed his stone shirt upon Grilk's squire, Viss.
We picked up from there. Llombaerth went about looting Drak's corpse. Mirkle unbarricaded the door. The door to the secret bedchamber had closed behind them, so Robbernar and Rory started searching for the means to open it again. The goblin Rekk managed to find it. Mirkle took Numbnuts and Viss to explore the orc lair while the rest of the group gathered in the secret bedchamber.
The four corners of the bedchamber were hung with tapestries. They depicted (1) A dragon being slain by a group of warriors, with one at the front thrusting the killing sword into the dragon’s neck, (2) A great battle in a mountain pass, with a small band of fighters led by a wizard and a lone hero putting the entire enemy army to flight, (3) A warrior and a maiden on horseback, holding hands against a backdrop of mountains, and (4) A hero and a wizard grasping hands atop a deserted hilltop against a setting sun. There was also another large, ornate bed, this one with the letter R engraved on the baseboard, and a wardrobe pushed against the wall.
The party searched for secret doors, knowing that one led back to the throne room. Again, Rekk found it. The party asked whether Rekk had considered a career in delving. He had not. He was the goblin chef. Who else would make the rat stew? He then casually leaned on a wall next to said secret door and accidentally discovered a third secret door, this one opening on a corridor. The party decided not to search the room more thoroughly in the goblins' presence, in case there were valuables to be had. They spiked open the two familiar secret doors and spiked shut the third, in case some hitherto unknown monster came crawling out of it while their backs were turned.
Meanwhile, Mirkle, Numbnuts, and Viss entered the treasure room, which had been marked on Numbnuts's map. Inside, a 40' long dragon skin hung on the far wall, its greenish bronze scales glittering in the light of their torch. A statue of a fearsome 7' long multilegged lizard stood in one corner, a taxidermized lizard chicken in another. A stout, diminutive skeleton hung from the ceiling by irons. The walls were decorated by a pair of mounted giant moose heads, two pairs of dragon claws, a giant-sized black shield, a pair of ram's horns, a pair of crossed two-handed swords, a bearskin, an entire door etched with inlaid symbols, and a trio of colorful flags on long iron poles.
The rest of the party joined them, and convinced the goblins that the moose heads would make a fearsome display in the goblins' lair - enough to ward off any would-be attackers. Robbernar and Rory helped Numbnuts and Rekk bring them down and carry them back to their lair. They weighed 250 pounds each, so it would take all four of them to move a single head back and forth.
They would be moderately encumbered (moving at half speed), but traveling along a known route (moving five times as fast). They were limited by the goblins' base movement rate of 6 (60' per turn, 30' when moderately encumbered, so 150' along the known route). The goblins' lair was 230' down some corridors and they had to make two trips. Then they helped the goblins mount the heads (one on a barricade and another on the wall in the room with the marble statue of the nude woman). In short, all of this took an hour.
You may have noticed by now that the entire time the party has been wandering around this dungeon, they've never once had an encounter with a wandering monster. Yeah, that's my bad. I am rolling for wandering monsters, but not super consistently. I'm meant to roll once every three turns, or when the party makes a lot of noise or does something else to attract attention, but I don't always remember in the moment. When I do, there often is not an encounter, and when there is, I often have a hard time justifying it in the moment. I also do a lot of my timekeeping after the session, as I'm writing the play report and reconstructing the party's actions after the fact. It's something I'm hoping to get better at, but it has made the dungeon a bit easier for the players.
Anyway, while half the party was occupied with the moose heads, Llombaerth went about appraising the items in the trophy room. Mirkle convinced Viss to come with her to loot the remaining orc corpses, leaving Llombaerth to work in private.
Llombaerth estimated that the dragon skin weighed 1,000 pounds and was worth 1,500 gold pieces. Due to its size, it would take 6 to 10 people to carry it safely.
The statue of the lizard was very lifelike, clearly the work of a master mason, its head turned so that its eye gazed balefully on the observer. Llombaerth estimated it at 2,000 pounds and another 1,500 gold pieces, but it would require a sled, rollers, crowbars, and ropes to remove it, plus 8 to 10 people or two horses to transport it.
The skeleton was that of a dwarf, and appeared to be worthless. Why it was here among such treasures was anyone's guess.
The two sets of dragon claws appeared to be from the same specimen as the hide on the wall. Each weighed 80 pounds and was worth 300 gold pieces. Two people would need to carry each between them.
The ram's horns weighed 50 pounds and were worth 40 gold pieces. The door with its engraved iconography weighed 250 pounds and was worth 400 gold pieces, although to whom it would be worth something was anyone's guess.
The giant shield was 6' tall and weighed 150 pounds. The crossed greatswords weighed 15 pounds each and were etched with unidentifiable runes. The bearskins weighed 70 pounds. The great iron flag poles weighed 15 pounds each, and the flags depicted unrecognizable symbols. Llombaerth could not determine the worth of any of these items.
The taxidermized lizard chicken weighed 60 pounds. It was clearly a fake - separate chicken and lizard specimens shoddily stitched together to resemble some fearsome monster, like a jackalope in a cryptozoology museum. Whatever this creature was meant to be, it was nothing that existed in the real world! Llombaerth rolled a natural 20 on his Appraisal check, which in this situation is a bad thing:
The entire party reconvened at this point. The goblins did not see the value in any of these items, so the party convinced them to go ransack the storage room way down the hall, where Lumpknuckles had originally been. Meanwhile, the party and their porters moved the door, the dragon hide and claws, and the shield back to the secret bedchamber. This took a few turns, mostly because of the dragon hide. They tapestries hanging in the bedchamber were 60 pounds each, and the bedframe looked to be worth something if salvaged, but the party did not attempt to appraise either.
They made a makeshift litter using two of the flagpoles and the bearskin. Inside, they wrapped the flags, the ram's horns, and the two swords. The whole thing weighed 180 pounds. Even four people carrying it between them would be lightly encumbered.
Next, they went down the corridor to the captain's chamber. The door was embellished with a brass-studded leather skin which read "ERIG". Inside, they found a chest, a crude bed, a table holding a stoneware crock, and earthenware tankard mug, and a small hand mirror. A barrel marked "SD" stood in the corner, and two shields and footman's mace hung on the wall.
Robbernar identified the liquid in the barrel as old, sour ale. Llombaerth checked the chest and found pants, cloaks, a coat, and two pairs of boots. He tossed all of these out and, underneath, found a broken dagger, a leather pouch, and a sack bursting to the brim with coins.
Inside the pouch was a walnut plaque inlaid with silver, engraved "To Erig, great and trusted fighter by my side, and captain of the guard at Quasqueton - against all foes we shall prevail!” It was signed with an embellished "R". They took the mirror, the shields and mace, the broken dagger, and the plaque. They sorted through the coins in the sack, taking 290 silver, 120 electrum, and 25 gold for themselves. They left 840 copper pieces in the sack and brought it with them.
They took the shields and mace back to their hoard in the secret bedchamber. They backtracked all the way to the storage room and found the goblins tossing it, though there was nothing there but tables, chairs, stools, a woodworking bench, a wood shavings on the floor. They gifted the goblins the sack of copper, which the goblins were delighted to receive.
They agreed to meet the goblins back at their lair, then returned to the secret bedchamber, picked up their makeshift litter, and closed the secret doors behind them, planning to return to town with their loot.
This was a good session! Lots of logistics stuff. Not the most exciting sort of thing, but after like, four sessions of chases and combats, it's a refreshing little breather. These sessions are the unsung heroes of a long-term campaign, where the players get to decompress and focus on exploring and interacting with the world. It makes the moments of tension and high octane action stand out that much more.
I tried not to get too bogged down thinking about encumbrance and movement rates and tracking time in the moment, but having figured it all out after the fact, all of this took about two and a half hours of in-world time. Here's what my time tracking looks like, by the way:
The party has been in the dungeon for nearly nine hours at this point, so the characters are likely exhausted. I'll need to keep that in mind during our next session.
I would also like to add that I added all of the treasure items in the trophy room! Or, rather, I made the items in the trophy room into treasure. Seriously, Rogahn and Zelligar have all this cool stuff in there and the module doesn't suggest that any of it is worth anything at all! Boring! I saw this as an opportunity to not just beef up the meagre treasure offered in the module as written, but also to present the players with a logistical challenge. It's a bit of a headache, but the kind I genuinely enjoy in a game like this.
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