We played the twenty-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 4 (Adam)
- Mirkle, N human fighter 3 (Maya)
- Rhonodel, NG elf cleric 1 (Jack)
- Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
- Brazile, halfling hound master, his dog, Ripper, and the party's three war dogs, Huey, Dewey, and Phooey (NPC)
- Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
- Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
- Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
Last we played, the party resolved to try to relocate Quasqueton's library. They wanted to find out if it had any record of Zelligar's past apprentices, so that they could fact check Lambrecht's claim to being Zelligar's heir. Unfortunately, there were some giant weasels in the way.
The party did battle with the weasels, killing two of them as a third one fled deeper into the dungeon, but not before one of the weasels killed one of their dogs, Huey. They claimed the weasels' pelts to sell back in town, then continued their search for the library.
They found an opened secret room where some giant centipedes were chowing down on a dead ogre. They killed the centipedes and harvested their venom. There were a bunch of construction materials in the room. The party claimed an empty sack and a length of rope.
The party continued down a series of winding corridors going left, left, right, right, left, and left again. They were confident that they were not heading towards the library at all, but back towards the dungeon entrance. Through a door on the left, they found a three way intersection, but decided to disregard it. They continued past the door and eventually ended up on the other side of the second secret door connecting to the entrance hall.
We picked up there. Continuing their search for the library, the party returned to the former goblins' territory and went back down the hall where they had fought the weasels, ending up back at the three way intersection with the 135 degree slanting passage on the left and two parallel passages on the right.
They went down the nearer of the two parallel passages, which turned right after 40 feet, with a 10' alcove beyond it. Peeking around the corner, they a side passage on the right, 60 feet ahead. The passage continued beyond it. They were confident - based on one of their maps - that if they were close to the library, they would see a passage that curved to the left. Thus, they decided not to explore this route. Suspicious of the 10' alcove, they searched for secret doors, but found none.
Backtracking to the passage entrance, they went down the second of the parallel passages. This one went 30 feet and turned left. Peeking around the corner, they saw the passage went 40 feet ahead and curved left. Aha!
They followed the passage, which curved gently to the left for about 80 feet, forming a U shape, before straightening out again. It continued another 40 feet beyond that, with a door on the right and a passage on the left. They proceeded to the door and looked down the passage, which went 60 feet and ended in a dead end. There was a pair of ornately carved oaken doors on the left, halfway down the hall.
The party threw open the doors and found themselves back in the library at last. The room was dimly illuminated by the reddish glow of fire beetles, kept in terrariums set into the far wall. The floor was dusty red granite with white granite blocks in the floor forming "R&Z". There were three bookshelves, a scroll rack, and furniture scattered about the room.
Llombaerth and Rhonodel went to work searching through the various books and scrolls while Mirkle searched for secret doors. The first time the party had come here, I had told the players that there was nothing but mundane books in here. This felt like a missed opportunity, so since the players were making it a point to come back here, I decided to retcon it and flesh out the contents a bit more (this is why I posted about Hack & Slash Compendium II's tables for determining the contents of libraries over on Bluesky a while ago).
The first shelf contained twenty scholarly volumes discussing traditional Dwarven sculpture, metalwork, architecture, musical instruments, and composition. Some were reference works; others were critical commentaries on particular artists and musical traditions. Llombaerth, being skilled at appraising, determined that these would have value to a sage interested in demihuman-kind, specifically their arts and culture. The whole collection weighed about 100 pounds and was worth 1,000 gold pieces (determined by referring to AD&D's robust rules regarding sages).
The second shelf contained ninety scrolls of common accounting instruction and practice: ledgers, bookkeeping methods, inventories, commercial arithmetic, and sample business accounts. Most were practical instructional texts, but a few were written in a familiar hand and bore a recognizable sigil - a black, bisected eye.
The handwriting and sigil were comparable to those found in several books recovered from what the party believed to be Zelligar's chambers. The party recalled that they were still in possession of a diary presumably belonging to Zelligar, written in a magical cypher which they had yet to decode. Egbert would be able to decipher it with magic, but did not have the spells prepared at the time.
Scrutinizing the ledgers, the party found more in Zelligar's hand - records of payments for stone, iron, glassware, inks, and laboratory materials, which suggested the presence of a laboratory somewhere in the stronghold which the party had yet to discover. The ledgers also recorded payments made to an unnamed apprentice. Whether this was Zelligar's apprentice (and if that was in fact Lambrecht) or an apprentice to a blacksmith or other craftsman was unclear.
The third shelf contained forty scrolls containing philosophical manifestos, discourses, and rants. Their subjects were varied, and the collection included contradictory positions rather than a single coherent school of thought. Some works were measured arguments; others polemical attacks on rival philosophers, established customs, or the nature of society itself.
A common theme was the nature of life, death, rebirth, and identity - a rant about death as an arbitrary moral boundary, a debate about whether a person remains who they were after every part of their body has been replaced, an argument that identity survives through the continued use of one's name, and the like. Several scrolls were heavily annotated in Zelligar's hand. In the marginalia, Zelligar repeatedly challenged the claim that a copy, successor, or remembered version of a person is necessarily inferior to the original.
Strange. The party began to question whether Lambrecht was Zelligar's clone. Preposterous! ...Right?
Finally, the scroll rack contained fifty scrolls of erotic poetry and lyrics, ranging from sentimental love songs to bawdy verses and elaborate celebrations of physical desire. Some appeared intended to be sung or performed, with occasional musical notation. A common theme was lovers promising to recognize one another in every future life, regardless of what forms they take or how many centuries pass. This resonated with Rhonodel, whose pantheon is itself concerned with some of these themes, so he pocketed a few scrolls.
Deciding that they could not currently carry the sage texts, but confident that they could find the library again once they returned with their mules, the party left the library and returned to the door at the end of the hall. Beyond it, the passage extended for 40 feet and went both left and right. At the intersection, to the left was a passage that continued at least 60 feet, and to the right was a door 10 feet ahead. The passage continued to the right of the door. That passage went 30 feet and turned left.
The party opened the door and found the room with the crystal formation in the far corner. The crystal had a chunk removed from the last time they had been here. Llombaerth decided to take another chunk while the rest of the party waited outside. As they stood around waiting, they noticed that behind them there was now a 10' deep alcove where once there had been a passage, and the passage to the library was gone. They took some chunks of crystal and drew an A on the floor in chalk.
They exited the room and reentered, hoping to be teleported again, but it didn't work. There was still a passage to the right of the door, so they followed it. It went 30 feet and turned left. 10 feet beyond the turn was a side passage to the right. 20 feet beyond that, the passage turned left. They took the left. Beyond the turn, the passage continued 50 feet and turned left again. Beyond the turn, a side passage 10 feet ahead on the right led to a 10' dead end alcove, which the party concluded was just on the other side of teleportation room A.
Beyond the side passage with the dead end, the passage continued 20 feet to a T intersection. At the intersection was a 10' alcove to the left. To the right was a 30' passage that turned right. They followed the passage to the right and saw a door 30 feet ahead on the right and a passage on the left. Opening the door, they found another room with a crystal formation, but no A on the floor. The crystal had one chunk removed, rather than two.
The party concluded that this was the room they had initially entered, which had teleported them to the other room. They check down the hall and through another door and saw the library doors again. Reoriented, they decided to explore down the long passage opposite the door to the teleportation room.
The passage went 90 feet straight ahead from the passage leading to the library, then turned left, went 20 feet, and turned right. 30 feet beyond that was a door, and the passage continued to the right. Proceeding to the door, they saw that the passage to the right went 20 feet and turned left, and that there was a door on the right 10 feet ahead.
They entered the first door and found a smithy, about 30' x 20' with a 20' x 20' annex behind them and to the left. In the annex was another door in the bottom right hand corner. There was a faint whistling sound in the room, which seemed to originate from a ventilation system in the ceiling.
Beyond the door in the annex was a 20' x 20' room with a pile of logs stacked to the left of the door. There was a 3' diameter hole in the floor in the far left corner. A rope was secured to an iron ring affixed to the wall, dangling down the hole. There was another door straight across from the one they had just entered through.
The party concluded that this was where the gnomes had climbed down to the lower level. They went through the far door. Beyond it, a passage went right for 40 feet and turned right. They followed it and found themselves back at the door to the smithy, with an unexplored door ahead of them. Opening it, they found a 20' x 20' room full of soot and dust. There was a pile of wood stacked against the far wall and a door to the left.
The door was stuck, but with the help of Llombaerth's crowbar, Rhonodel forced it open, finding only a bricked up wall on the other side. Annoying! There being nowhere else to explore, the party backtracked all the way to the teleportation rooms and the side passage just outside room A, which they had not explored.
The passage went 20 feet and turned right. Beyond the turn, it continued 100 feet and turned right again. Beyond that, they saw a side passage 10 feet ahead on the left, and another 20 feet beyond that on the right. The main passage continued beyond the light of their lantern.
The side passage on the left went left at a 45 degree angle, then right at a 45 degree angle and off into the darkness. The party was confident that this led to the corridor with the trio of empty bedchambers and the maze where they had found Rogahn's gym and battled the giant tick. They did not want to go that way.
The side passage on the right went at least 60 feet. 40 feet beyond it, they saw another side passage on the left, and the main passage seemed to continue. At this point, the party was pretty confident that if they followed the main passage, they would end up back at the intersection with the 135 degree diagonal passage and the two parallel passages. They continued.
60 feet beyond the further side passage on the left was a T intersection. At the intersection, there was a 10' alcove on the left. To the right, the passage went 40 feet and opened up into a larger intersection. At the far side of the intersection was a passage which went 45 degrees to the left. Sure enough, they had ended up back where they started.
We concluded the session there. The highlight of this session was definitely the library. It was awesome to see the players consulting their maps and comparing notes to orient themselves and experimenting with the teleportation rooms. They found the smithy area, which was unexplored to this point. It was super satisfying to see them figure out where they were and how to get around, which passages to ignore, and finally navigate back to more familiar territory.
We talked a bit about what they might get up to next. They are nearly done with Quasqueton, but there are a few iconic areas of the dungeon which they've yet to find. They have some ideas about which areas they still need to explore.
Beyond that, dealing with Lambrecht is first and foremost on their minds. He is presumably a powerful wizard, and getting to him won't be easy, but once they're in the room with him, it could be as simple as stabbing him with some centipede venom and getting a lucky roll. There's also Blanchefleur and all the horned demon/devil stuff to untangle. They discussed installing Albertyna as the town's ruler and claiming Quasqueton as their own seat of power.
Likely, those ambitions will have to wait. There's more of the sandbox to explore yet - wilderness monster lairs, town adventures, and the like. We discussed the possibility of a TPK if they get in over their heads too quickly, which at this point would be disastrous, as Quasqueton has been plundered, so new characters would have little treasure to extract to level up. We will see how it unfolds!
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