Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 19)

We played the nineteenth 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 2 (Maya)
• Zommernar, CN elf fighter 2 (Nael)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Wilros Wackledeckle, gnome (NPC)
• Indur, gnoll (NPC)
• Zhukk, orc (NPC)
• Four friendly zombie adventurers (NPCs)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

Last we played, the party sent their zombie minions after Ghudgak's orcs, slaying two and capturing the last of them, Zhukk. They also rescued a gnome prisoner named Wilros Wackledeckle. The orcs' lair contained a stone which bestowed magical properties upon those who ate pieces of it. The party experimented with it, gaining some permanent ability score increases and a 500 g.p. gemstone, which they let Egbert keep. The stone also healed one of their zombies, turned another invisible, and caused a third's short sword to begin glowing - perhaps it had become magical?

From Zhukk, they learned of "Dead Eaters" lairing in a cave just off the orcs' lair. From Wilros, they learned of a hole in the ceiling of a nearby cavern which led to the upper level. Wilros showed them where the cave was. The party gathered itself together and decided to return to the secret entrance to regroup with their hirelings, then plan an attack against Mangug's orcs on the upper level.

As they returned to the secret entrance, they were confronted by a group of five barbarian warriors who accused the party of stealing their people's relics and demanded they surrender their stolen goods. The barbarians had already subdued the party's hirelings outside, who had apparently surrendered without a fight.

We picked up there. The players continued to talk through their options, but eventually resigned themselves to fighting. They told Egbert to read what he had written on his scroll. The barbarians drew their bows and pointed them at Egbert, threatening to fill him with arrows if he began reading. The player characters all stood in front of Egbert and told him to read.

Egbert read. Both sides prepared to loose missiles at one another, but Egbert's spell went off before anyone else could act. He cast sleep at the barbarians, but rolled low (just 2 on 2d4!), putting two of the barbarian warriors to sleep. The remaining barbarians sent their arrows flying, but all either missed or were deflected by armor. Llombaerth threw flaming oil at the enemies, scoring a critical hit on one of the warriors and splashing the remaining two. The warrior struck with the flaming oil was set alight and died screaming. Indur put an arrow through the other warrior's face for max damage, killing them instantly. 

At the top of the following round, the leader failed her morale check by 10, meaning she would surrender. She cried out towards her dead allies, threw down her weapons, and subjected herself to the party's mercy.

The party bound the leader and the two sleeping warriors. They made an offer to release the barbarians if they pledged to help the party slay Mangug's orcs and retrieve their treasure. The leader spit on the ground and said that her people would never be slaves to plundering adventurers who had killed her warriors.

The players discussed and decided to gift the leader with the barbarian chieftain's sword they had found in the museum. The leader was stunned - this was the sword of her people's greatest chieftain. Had the party possessed this all along? If they were willing to part with it now, why not earlier? She had only wanted the return of her people's relics. This bloodshed could have been avoided entirely. 

The party reminded her that the barbarians had taken their hirelings hostage, threatened them, and demanded they surrender their treasure. The party admitted that they had mistakenly assumed that the barbarians wanted all of their treasure. They mentioned that they had found the chieftain's bones, and were happy to return these.

The leader looked regretful. She glanced back towards the two dead barbarians and lamented that she had taken such an aggressive approach. She said that if the chieftain's bones were returned, her people would help the party. She introduced herself as Girthil. The party agreed to let the barbarians keep any of their relics that they found, as well as any loose coinage on the orcs once they were defeated.

The party freed Girthil and her warriors. Girthil went out onto the ledge outside the secret entrance and called to her warriors down below, telling them to free the captives. The party's mercenaries were irate at having been captured, and expected the party to slay the enemies. There was considerable tension between the barbarians and the party's hirelings. 

The party decided to leave their hirelings and four of the remaining eight regular barbarians to guard the camp. They also left Zhukk in camp, as he did not want to fight other orcs. Wilros Wackledeckle also elected to remain in camp. The party escorted Girthil to retrieve her chieftain's bones and secured those in camp as well.

The rest of the company (Llombaerth, Mirkle, Zommernar, Egbert, Indur, the four zombies, Girthil, and her four remaining warriors) headed upstairs to ambush Mangug's orcs. 

Planning the attack took a while. The players had to get on the same page about their mental map of the dungeon. The whole party would emerge from the throne room area (previously used by Drak's orcs) and turn left. Llombaerth, Indur, and two barbarians would take the first passage on the right, which they knew looped around and entered Mangug's/the goblins' territory from the rear. The rest of the party would head straight towards the intersection with the one way secret door. Zommernar and Egbert would take the zombies right to rush the orcs, while Mirkle, Girthil, and the two remaining barbarians went through the secret door to join the fray by way of the main entrance corridor.

Here's the map the players came up with:

They put their plain into action, emerging from the throne room into the hallway. Immediately, they heard orcish voices calling to them from the end of the hall, near the intersection with the secret door. The party couldn't see them yet, but the orcs could see their light source. 

The party moved closer and found two orcs guarding the intersection. The orcs were surprised to see that the party had found another way in, but assumed that they had come to treat with Mangug, as discussed earlier. The party sent their zombies forward in a charge and followed close behind them. Llombaerth, Indur, and two barbarians took the first right as planned and rushed to flank.

The orcs cried out in alarm when they saw the zombies. The zombies and orcs engaged in melee as Mirkle, Girthil, and another barbarian brought up the rear, firing projectiles and stabbing through the first rank with their spears. The party failed to score any hits in the first round, while one of the orcs stabbed the thief zombie with a spear. A third orc joined the melee, crashing into the thief zombie with its flail, which "killed" the zombie.

The following round, a barbarian stabbed one of the orcs, but managed only a minor wound. Mangug himself came to join the melee, and four orcs attacked with their flails. Two managed to hit the wizard zombie, which brought that zombie down as well. With a few zombies eliminated, Zommernar could wade into melee with his long sword.

Meanwhile, the second group had circled around into the heart of orc territory, and found two more orcs moving perpendicular to them to reinforce the ongoing melee. They had caught the orcs on their flank, and had just enough movement left to charge in, so they did. The orcs were unprepared, and could not set to receive a charge with their spears or counterattack in any way. Indur managed to kill an orc in the charge.

The following round, Zommernar tried to get the zombies to push the orcs back up the corridor to clear the way to the secret door, but the orcs held their ground. Zommernar struck and killed the wounded orc with his sword. Mirkle scored a hit with her spear, but didn't kill any orcs. 

In the other melee, Llombaerth circled around the remaining orc and struck it with his glowing short sword, killing it. The blade was light and sharp, cutting quickly and true. As the orc fell, it landed a retaliatory blow against Llombaerth with its flail, dealing 5 damage. With the last of the two orcs dead, the party continued down the hall to join the other melee, emerging at the orcs' rear.

The remaining four orcs finally saw the writing on the wall, and their morale broke. They failed the check by 3, so they made a fighting retreat. They backed towards the secret door, making attacks as they went. Llombaerth attempted to hit the whole group with flaming oil, but rolled a critical failure. The oil flew over the orcs' heads and shattered just beyond them, hitting the whole group for splash damage.

The orcs managed to land a blow on the party's burly fighter zombie for 5 damage, and another hit Zommernar for 7 damage, but then the party laid into them. Zommernar slew Mangug, and Mirkle, Indur, and four of the five barbarians landed hits on the remaining orcs. The combined damage was enough to thoroughly slay the orcs, and combat was over.

We wrapped the session there. The highlight of this session was definitely the planning phase, where the players had to use their accumulated knowledge of Quasqueton's halls to coordinate their battle strategy. It took a long time for them to get on the same page about the dungeon's layout, but it really clicked when they decided to collaborate on a map and label their hallways. It struck me as very different than the last time the party had fought orcs here, where they had been the defenders and the orcs had craftily counter flanked and ambushed their flanking party and generally foiled their carefully laid plans. It feels more and more like the players have mastered this space.

The combat definitely became unwieldy with so many moving pieces, and I struggled to reconstruct it after the fact for this report, but I think I did a reasonably fine job. At a certain point I just said to hell with initiative and declared that everyone was attacking everyone else at the same time, which was not a bad solution, but definitely eliminated some element of tactical nuance. 

I'm tempted to go through the PHB and sort the different weapons into an ordered list based on Speed Factor so that I have a sort of phased initiative to fall back on in big skirmishes like this. For example, if I went by the weapon types used in this combat, the order would be: flaming oil (Llombaerth) > short swords (Llombaerth) > long swords (Zommernar) > spears (Mirkle, barbarians, and orcs) > short bows (Mirkle and barbarians), flails (orcs), and morning stars (Indur) > long bows (Indur and orcs). That seems like it would simplify big skirmishes while still allowing for some element of strategy. Something worth testing out in the future!

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 18)

We played the eighteenth 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 2 (Maya)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Indur, gnoll (NPC)
• Four friendly zombie adventurers (NPCs)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

Last time we played, the party looted some gnoll corpses and headed back to the dungeon's secret entrance to rest. Some wild dogs bothered them right around dawn, but Llombaerth threw them some food, and they went on their way. They constructed a crude shelter to protect their camp from outside threats, and Egbert determined that the scroll they had found was a 9th level sleep scroll.

The party went back into the dungeon with Egbert, Indur, Lendeborg, and Walgretor. They returned to the cave with the pool, hoping to open the trap door in the ceiling, but couldn't get it to budge. They found more bluish ore in a nearby cave, collected a sample, and considered the possibility of mining it in the future. 

They followed a long, curving tunnel and found a secret door in the wall. Inside the secret cavern were more shriekers, which the party dispatched quickly, without attracting more monsters. Scattered about the cave were thousands of copper coins. They left these for now, but filled a sack with coins and gave it to Indur, with the promise of more if he served them well.

They continued along the tunnel and found a worked stone chamber filled with mining equipment and stairs leading up. In an adjoining room, they found a sort of museum with painted frescoes depicting Rogahn and Zelligar, a framed letter from the hamlet of Timbershore thanking Rogahn and Zelligar for their aid in the war against the barbarians, a manacled barbarian chieftain's skeleton, and the chieftain's sword, which they took.

They ascended the stairs and found that they led back to the throne room on the upper level which had been used by Drak Stonespeaker. Rather than confront Mangug's orcs now, they went back downstairs to finish exploring the lower level.

Continuing down the curving tunnel from the room with the stairs, they found four zombie adventurers trapped in a thick web. They took the zombie wizard's spellbook and, determining that the zombies had no "master" and were docile and pliable, decided to free them. They ushered the zombies before them as they continued down the tunnel. Suddenly, they heard orcish voices to their left, raising a cry. They sent their zombies shambling down the tunnel after them.

We picked up there. The party sent the zombies in front of them as meat shields. The tunnel was narrow and wound to the right and then to the left. The party did not have line of sight on the orcs. They heard the orcs talking to one another, and heard another, more diminutive male voice protesting in the Common tongue as the orcs jostled him.

By the time the party caught sight of the orcs, they were just 20' away. The orcs had a gnome they had taken prisoner and shoved out in front of them as a shield. The orcs were ready with their bows, and fired arrows at the zombie vanguard as they approached. Three arrows struck the zombie in the center, who appeared to have been a burly fighter in life. The zombie hardly noticed the wounds. 

All three of the zombies became distracted by the gnome and began to fall upon him. The party ordered the zombies to attack the orcs, not the gnome, but this only seemed to confuse them. They froze in place, wasting a round. The party told the gnome to run past the zombies and join them. The gnome, looking to the orcs and then the zombies, saw an opening and darted past the slack jawed zombies and took shelter behind the party. Llombaerth gave him a dagger.

The party rallied the zombies to press the attack against the orcs. Mirkle followed them, hoping to stab through the front rank with her spetum. The rest of the party readied to fire a volley of projectiles past the zombies. The orcs drew their spears and shields and braced for the zombies' charge. 

One orc managed to hit the zombie thief, but only for minimum damage. One of Llombaerth's arrows was just narrowly deflected by an orc's shield. The gnome threw Llombaerth's dagger at on of the orcs and scored a hit, though the orc still stood. The thief zombie scored a staggering blow against the orc which had stabbed her. The burly fighter clobbered the orc in the center, bringing it to the ground. The zombies stopped what they were doing to feed on the fallen orc.

With the zombies distracted, the remaining two orcs looked to retreat. Llombaerth threw a flask of flaming oil over their heads, which shattered and exploded behind them, cutting off their retreat and inflicting splash damage. The rest of the party pressed the attack. Indur hit one of the orcs with an arrow, and Egbert managed to bring it down with a well-placed dart.

The party offered surrender to the remaining orc, and promised it good conduct. The orc glanced at its allies being devoured by zombies and opted to throw its shield and spear on the fire. The party navigated around the feeding zombies and secured the remaining orc with rope. 

They learned that the orc's name was Zhukk. They asked Zhukk if he was affiliated with Ghudgak. Zhukk nodded to the mangled orc corpse on the ground, surrounding by feasting zombies, and sadly said "Ghudgak". The party asked how many of Ghudgak's orcs were left, to which Zhukk said he was the last. Shal, Shang, and Zorel had died in the pit trap, the party had just killed Ghudgak and Zhuk (not to be confused with Zhukk), and Bhadgak had been smote by the Stone.

The Stone? Zhukk gestured to the cavern to the party's left. There, they saw a large, glowing chunk of rock towering over the cavern. Zhukk explained that the orcs ate the flesh of the Stone. It granted boons to the worthy, banes to the unworthy, and occasionally struck down true heretics, like Bhadgak. Bhadgak had eaten the flesh of the Stone, began choking, turned purple, and died. The orcs had given him over to the Dead Eaters as a peace offering.

Dead Eaters? Zhukk gestured to the tunnel to the party's right. There was a fork in the tunnel, with one branch to the left and another which went straight ahead and turned right. The Dead Eaters lived down the latter tunnel. Ghudgak had arranged with them the exchange of corpses to allow the orcs to live unmolested.

The party questioned the gnome next. They learned that his name was Wilros Wackledeckle. He and his wife, Breela Billowbadge, had come to Quasqueton in search of treasure so that they could afford to buy a home and start a family in Timbershore. They had negotiated their way past the goblins on the upper level and eventually found an old forge. They had climbed down a hole in the floor of an adjoining room to reach the lower level, at which time they were captured by Ghudgak's orcs. The orcs had forced the gnomes to consume the Stone's flesh. Wilros had survived, but Breela had been struck dead and given over to the Dead Eaters.

The party decided to try their luck with the Stone. Mirkle tried it first, breaking off a chunk of rock and inserting it into her mouth. She gained a permanent +1 to her Wisdom score. Llombaerth went next, gaining a permanent +1 to his Intelligence score. They invited Egbert to partake as well. To their surprise, the chunk of rock turned into a gemstone in Egbert's mouth. Llombaerth took advantage of his improved Intelligence score and identified the gem as a 500 g.p. topaz. They allowed Egbert to keep it, since he had risked his life for it.

Llombaerth had the idea to conceal a bit of rock inside some orc flesh, and fed a bit to each zombie. The zombies mindlessly chomped down on the rocks, shattering their teeth, but it had an effect. The zombie thief's shortsword began to glow in its scabbard. Llombaerth took it (the zombie didn't seem to mind) and examined it. It felt lighter, its edge sharper. Llombaerth held onto it.

The wizard zombie's mortification was ever so slightly reversed. She was still an undead thing, but looked like she had been dead for less time. The burly fighter's body pushed out the arrows protruding from its torso, and the party watched as its wounds knitted together. The less burly fighter disappeared entirely, though the party could still poke her and could see bits of orc gore being torn from the carcass and fed into an invisible maw.

Indur and Zhukk had an argument, which the party had to break up. The gnolls had been enemies of Ghudgak's orcs, and Indur wanted the party to kill Zhukk. The party explained that they had promised Zhukk good conduct, and could not kill him unless he crossed them. They promised Indur that if it came to that, Indur would be allowed to kill Zhukk himself. 

The party asked Zhukk where Ghudgak kept his treasure. Zhukk reluctantly indicated the tunnel to the left (the one that didn't house the Dead Eaters). At the end of 20' tunnel, the party found an assortment of electrum and platinum, plus a black pearl worth another 500 g.p.

The party asked Wilros to show them how he had gotten down here. They backtracked about 70' down the tunnel leading to Ghudgak's lair and took a right, walked 20',  then took a left. 50' down the tunnel they saw the pit trap from earlier. About halfway down the tunnel was a small cavern on the left. There they found a rope hanging from a hole in the ceiling 40' above.

The party took some time to deliberate. Should they continue exploring the lower level? There was a tunnel just outside of this one that they hadn't explored. There were also the Dead Eaters, who the party decided not to confront. Should they go back upstairs to confront Mangug's orcs? If they were going to do that, they would want to get their mercenaries from outside. They decided to exit the dungeon and reconvene with their hirelings.

Realizing that they had left the zombies back in Ghudgak's lair eating orc corpses, they went back to retrieve them. They offered Zhukk an ultimatum: they could either leave him hogtied and defenseless somewhere in the dungeon for some monster to come upon, or, they could untie him, give him a weapon, and pay him 20 g.p. to fight beside them against Mangug's orcs. Zhukk did not want to fight other orcs (Mangug's orcs were unfamiliar to him, and he had no quarrel with them), but it seemed he had no choice. He agreed. The party brought him with them, but didn't untie him just yet.

So the party took Egbert, Indur, Wilros, Zhukk, their two hirelings, and their four zombies all the way back to the cavern with the secret entrance. As they crossed the long cavern and turned towards the secret door, they were confronted by five warriors dressed in hides and wielding spears and shields.

The warriors were led by a woman, who did not identify herself. She said that they were the people of the Black Crag, who lived in this region before the evildoers Rogahn and Zelligar drove them out and stole their relics. They had learned of plunderers selling their goods in Timbershore and had come to investigate. The party's mercenaries had surrendered without a fight, and all of their hirelings outside were now prisoners.

The party explained that they were retrieving the artifacts stolen by Rogahn and Zelligar, and offered to join the people of the Black Crag in recovering their lost relics. They explained that there were orcs on the upper level which they were trying to root out. The warriors looked at the party with Indur, Zhukk, and their zombie allies, and accused them of fraternizing with monsters and practicing black magic.

The party didn't see much of a way out of this, and with the numbers of their side, decided to fight. We wrapped there.

This was a bit of a slow one. The skirmish with the orcs took some time because there were so many pieces involved, even though it lasted just a few rounds. The party had two new NPCs to question, and spent a good deal of time experimenting with the magic stone - which was fun! A good mix of combat and social interaction with a bit of exploration mixed in. It looks like the party has another fight on their hands next session, so we'll see how that goes.

The party continues to accrue NPC followers, it seems. It's unwieldy, but fun. I love when the party starts to roll through the dungeon squad deep. I'm looking forward to seeing how things shake out next time.

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 17)

We played the seventeenth 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 2 (Maya)
• Rory the Small, LN human fighter 1 (David)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Indur, gnoll (NPC)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

Last we played, the party prepared themselves to encounter some orcs, planning to lure them onto the pit trap in the floor of the tunnel they currently occupied. Instead, the orcs stopped short, and their leader Ghudgak, attempted to negotiate with the party. The party learned that Ghudgak's orcs worshiped the Stone Below, and had been enemies of Drak Stonespeaker's orcs (now deceased) who worshiped the Stone that Speaks. 

Zommernar challenged Ghudgak to single combat and easily prevailed, but Ghudgak had set a trap. He retreated back behind the ranks of his followers as more orcs charged the party from another tunnel. These orcs did not stop short of the pit trap, and Egbert cast a reduce spell on the pit's iron grate covering to drop all three orcs into the pit. Llombaerth threw a flask of alchemist's fire down into the pit to finish off the single orc that had survived the fall. Ghudgak and his remaining two orcs retreated back from whence they came.

The party let them flee and went down the other tunnel. They eventually came upon a huge cavern filled with bat guano, with no bats to be seen. As Llombaerth, Rory, and Egbert shoveled guano into a sack, Mirkle and Zommernar explored a catacomb of natural stone pillars. There, they encountered a pair of man-sized mushrooms, which began shrieking loudly when light was shone upon them. Mirkle and Zommernar butchered the mushrooms, and the party extinguished their light sources and hid in the darkness to see if anything would come to investigate the noise.

Llombaerth spotted a gnoll which entered the cavern, looked around for a bit, then left the way it had come. They explored a raised cavern at the other end of the cavern of the bats and found that one of its walls was streaked with veins of blue ore. With nothing else to investigate, they went back the way they had come.

As they returned to an earlier cavern, they found themselves surrounded by four gnolls. The gnolls were enemies of Ghudgak's orcs, so the party managed to convince them that they were friends. The gnolls' leader, Endur, mentioned that they worshiped a Freezing Pool. Thinking it might be magical, the party asked the gnolls to show them the pool.

The gnolls obliged, and escorted the party to a cavern with an 8' deep pool of freezing water. Two dead adventurers and a mysterious vial laid at the bottom of the pool. There appeared to be a trap door in the ceiling above the pool. Endur explained that he had been trying to prove himself worthy of the pool by diving to the bottom and retrieving the vial, but had failed because of his thick, heavy fur.

Rory decided to attempt the pool's trial himself, and succeeded after three tries. He claimed that the pool had chosen him as its high priest, which angered Endur. The party managed to goad the gnoll into shaving his body and attempting the trial again himself, with Rory tossing the vial back into the depths.

As Endur dove underwater, Rory and Zommernar shoved two of the remaining gnolls into the water, while Llombaerth slew the third with a backstab. When Endur surfaced with the vial in hand, Llombaerth filled him with arrows. The party allowed one of the gnolls in the pool to drown, then fished out the last surviving gnoll, Indur. Rory convinced Indur that it was the pool's will that his friends be sacrificed, and that Indur alone should survive them to rebuild his tribe. He convinced Indur to join them in destroying the remaining Stone worshiping orcs.

We picked up there. The party fished out one of the dead gnolls and searched the bodies, finding only meagre coinage. They had been at it for almost a full day at this point, so they returned to their hirelings, who were camped at the base of the cliff beneath the secret entrance, and joined them to rest. They were pretty deep in the caves at this point, but because they travel five times as fast along mapped routes, they were able to exit the dungeon in just one turn. 

The whole camp was awakened at around 6:30 am by the sound of dogs barking loudly. Four wild dogs had approached the camp, Ripper had started barking at them, and they had started barking back. The dogs weren't menacing the camp themselves, but there was a chance that their barking would attract something else. Llombaerth tossed the dogs some his vinegared fish. They fought over the scraps for a moment, but were eventually convinced to quiet down and be on their way.

The party returned to their bedrolls for another 30 minutes, then rose to start their day. The weather remained fair for the season. The party spent a four-hour wilderness turn setting up a bivouac to guard their camp against predators, since the bulk of their hirelings would remain outside. During this time, Egbert used read magic to open the scroll tube they had found on the body of the dead wizard outside the dungeon's secret entrance. He was able to determine that the scroll contained a sleep spell.

Since Egbert is a necromancer, he cannot learn spells from the enchantment school of magic, so he could not copy this into his spellbook. However, I decided that he could still cast it from the scroll. Since the power of a spell cast from a scroll is determined by the level of the spellcaster who scribed it, and because wizards must be at least 9th level to scribe scrolls in 2e, this was a 9th level sleep spell! 

Ordinarily this is actually an interesting tradeoff - do you scribe the spell into your spellbook so that you know it and can prepare it as much as you like, or do you save it as a one-use exceptionally powerful casting of the spell? In this case Egbert can't learn the spell anyway, so the party simply pocketed it.

The player characters, Egbert, Indur, and two of their porters, Lendeborg and Walgretor, returned to the dungeon by way of the secret entrance.

They returned to the pool room, hoping to find a way to open the trap door in the ceiling. Llombaerth climbed up the rough, slippery walls beneath the door and fastened a rope. He looked for a mechanism to open the door from this side, but couldn't find one. He took his crowbar to the door to try to force it, spending nearly an hour doing so, but failed to get it to budge. 

(There's nothing in the module about opening the door from this side, but I wanted to give the players a chance to try it. I allowed a Find/Remove Traps roll to identify a latch or mechanism and how to operate it, which Llombaerth failed to do. I suggested that they could try to pry the door open with something like a crowbar, which would be an Open Doors check with a +4 bonus. Llombaerth needed an 11 or lower to succeed, but rolled a 14. He could keep trying, but each attempt would take time and would have a cumulative -1 penalty. He tried four more times, rolling an 18 and three 16s in a row. If only this were a situation in which he wanted to roll high!)

Defeated, the party decided to keep exploring. Exiting the cavern with the pool, they found a door on their left. They opened it and found a small, empty cavern with more streaks of blue ore in the far wall. Mirkle touched it and found that it crumbled easily at her touch and stained her hands blue. With no way to identify it, she collected a bit of the ore in a vial with the hope that someone back in Timbershore might tell them what it was. If it was valuable, they might be able to mine it.

The party deliberated as to where they should go next. From the room with the ore, there was a tunnel immediately to the left, and another tunnel to the left in the next cavern over, which was straight ahead. They asked Indur if he knew what lie in each direction. 

Indur told them that the tunnel immediately to the left curved right and went a great distance before coming to a worked stone chamber with lots of mining equipment and stairs to the world above. Ghudgak's orcs were sometimes there, and it was a sort of disputed land between them and the gnolls. The second tunnel led to a cave of phosphorescent fungi. To the right of it were more narrow, winding tunnels which also led to the orcs' lair and were similarly disputed. The party decided to explore the closer of the two tunnels to investigate the room with the mining equipment.

The party followed the tunnel as it curved to the right for about 15 to 20 minutes. They found several copper coins spilled across the floor. Finding this odd, they searched for secret doors and found one. A section of the tunnel wall shifted out of the way. As the party's light shone inside the cavern beyond, four more man-sized mushrooms began shrieking. Mirkle and Indur each managed to dispatch one of the mushrooms in the first round. Mirkle killed another in the second round, and Rory killed the last one.

(Shriekers have a 50% chance of attracting wandering monsters each combat round they continue shrieking - compared to a 1-in-6 chance every three dungeon turns when exploring normally. This resulted in one of the gnolls coming to investigate in our last session - and the remainder of the gnolls then getting the jump on the party when they retraced their steps. This time, I rolled gnolls again, but since the party had already dealt with the gnolls, no encounter occurred.)

With the shriekers dead, the party searched the cavern and found that the floor was littered with loose coins - thousands of them! Too many to quickly be counted. Unfortunately, it looked to be mostly copper. They filled a sack with 300 such coins and gave it to Indur, promising that he could have the rest if he served them well. This pleased Indur well enough.

They followed the tunnel for another 10 minutes or so and found the worked stone chamber with the mining equipment and stairs leading up. There was also a door to the right and another tunnel exiting to the left, on the same wall from which they had entered. The room contained rock rubble, carts, jacks, timbers, and pickaxes, but nothing especially of value. The party figured this could be useful if they decided to mine the blue ore.

They explored beyond the door to the right. A 10' wide corridor beyond it went straight for 50' and turned left, opening into a small chamber. The walls to the left, right, and straight ahead were adorned with faded, painted frescoes. Hanging next to the frescoes was a framed piece of parchment, a curved sword, and a skeleton hanging from the ceiling by manacles with an engraved plaque beside it.

The fresco to the left depicted a young boy raising a sword, a young man slaying a wild boar, a warrior carrying off a dead barbarian, and a hero in the midst of a large battle hacking barbarian foes to pieces. The fresco to the right depicted a boy gazing upward at a starry night sky, a young man diligently studying a great tome, an earnest magician changing water to wine before a delighted audience, and a powerful wizard casting a death fog over an enemy army from a hilltop. The fresco straight ahead depicted the two great men together, shaking hands as young men, winning a great battle against barbarians in a hill pass, and gazing upward together from the wilderness to a craggy rock outcropping. The fourth space of this fresco was blank. There were no hidden switches, buttons, or doodads in any of the frescoes.

The parchment was addressed to Rogahn and Zelligar, and appeared to be a letter of thanks for the two men's help in a war against barbarian invaders. It was signed by the elder of the hamlet known as Timbershore, and was dated some decades ago.

The plaque beside the skeleton identified it as that of a barbarian chieftain. The sword had runes etched into the blade. Egbert examined these and identified the sword as belonging to the barbarian chief. He could not determine whether it was magical, so the party held onto it for now.

They decided to explore up the stairs. They led up to an empty room. Beyond the door, a 40' hallway to their right led to a familiar sight - Drak Stonespeaker's throne room! The party deliberated for some time here. Should they ambush Mangug's orcs from here? Perhaps they could lure them into a trap and hit all of them with the sleep spell? Should they return to the secret bedchamber where they had stashed most of their bulky treasure and start moving it out through the secret entrance on the lower level?

They decided to return to the lower level, finish exploring, and deal with the remaining orcs there. Then they could deal with Mangug's orcs, and it would be easier to haul out their treasure through the dungeon's main entrance after that.

Before they left, they noticed that the door to the chamber with the Stone had been spiked shut from outside, but they decided not to investigate it.

Back on the lower level, the party headed down the tunnel (now on their right) which exited the room with all the mining equipment. 30' down the tunnel, they found an empty cavern on their left. The tunnel continued, turning sharply to the right. They followed it for another 90'. It turned sharply to the right again. 30' ahead of them, it turned sharply to the left, but straight ahead they found another tunnel opening which had been completely covered in thick webbing. They found four rotting humanoid corpses tangled in the webs.

As they approached to investigate, one of the corpses moaned and began to stir. The remaining corpses followed suit. Three appeared to be human - two dressed as a fighter and one as a wizard. The fourth appeared to be an elf, outfitted like a thief. 

The party wanted to set fire to the webbing and the zombies, but Egbert convinced them not to. The party had not yet discovered any "master" that would have animated these corpses, and being a necromancer, Egbert had a macabre interest in determining how that might be. Besides, the one dressed as a wizard surely had a spellbook, and Egbert didn't wish to see it burned.

Mirkle decided to try fishing the wizard zombie out using her grappling hook. It too got tangled in the webs, but the zombie grabbed onto it like a baby clutching at a set of jangling keys. Mirkle dragged the zombie out. It didn't attack, but simply stood there, motionless, moaning. The party could swear they saw it smiling faintly at Egbert. Mirkle knocked it to the ground and bound and gagged it with her rope.

Egbert searched the restrained zombie and found both its spellbook and a wooden box containing 35 gold pieces, which he handed to Mirkle. Egbert explained that, contrary to popular belief, simple undead such as this are not inherently evil, but exist solely to carry out the whims of their masters. In the absence of a master, they become more malleable, albeit less predictable. He demonstrated by commanding the zombie to "speak", to which it responded with a moan. They untied the zombie and experimented with having it "sit", "stay", and "come". 

Once they were satisfied, they freed the remaining zombies, all of which seemed docile and nonthreatening. They searched the zombies' persons and found some more coinage and a couple of gemstones. They decided to employ the zombies against Ghudgak's orcs. They ushered the zombies down the tunnel ahead of them, following at a distance of 30' as the zombies shambled along.

Because of the zombie's disorganized, shambling gait, it took 30 minutes to herd them some 180' as the tunnel turned left, right, and right again. The tunnel began to curve right again and came to a fork which led both straight and hard to the right. From the rightmost tunnel, they heard orcish voices sounding an alarm at the sight of the party's torchlight, and the party ordered the zombies to follow the sound of orcs.

We wrapped there. Pretty much a pure exploration session with a little bit of social interaction. It really feels like the players have mastered this dungeon now that they found the secret entrance into the lower level and a way back to the upper level. They've explored almost all of the lower level and a very big chunk of the upper level as well. It feels like the days of exploring Quasqueton are numbered, but we will see! It's great to see them finding new ways to reach previously explored areas and figuring out how to use those paths to their advantage.

I'll admit to being really happy that they didn't burn the zombies. When I was stocking the dungeon, I rolled zombies in the webbed cave and got an "enthusiastically friendly" result. What does that mean? Well, maybe these zombies used to be adventurers, and they have some sort of instinctual memory of adventuring and view other adventurers as allies. At times I felt like I was using Egbert as a blunt instrument to get the players to give the zombies a chance, but really, Egbert the necromancer was just the perfect NPC to be present for this encounter.

The party now has an entire river boat crew, five porters, two mercenaries, a henchman, a gnoll ally, and four zombies servants. It's totally unwieldy, and I love it.

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 16)

We played the sixteenth 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 2 (Maya)
• Rory the Small, LN human fighter 1 (David)
• Zommernar, CN elf fighter 2 (Nael)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

Last time, the party made the journey downriver from Timbershore to Quasqueton, which passed uneventfully. Their barge moored at the edge of the lake east of the dungeon while they and their hirelings set off into the forest.

In the forest, they came upon a serene meadow dominated by a huge oak tree. An elfin face materialized from the tree's bark, identifying itself as the Great Oak. The Great Oak claimed dominion over all the forest, and expected a tithe of treasure for passing through its lands. The party eventually realized that the face on the tree was an illusion, and that the voice of the "Great Oak" was coming from a burrow beneath the tree's roots. When confronted, whoever was inside the tree called their dogs to drive the party off. The party threw flaming oil into the burrow and found a rock large enough to seal the entrance, then moved on.

Returning to Quasqueton, they found the path to the entrance littered with recently constructed cairns containing the bodies of dead orcs. Inside the dungeon, they learned that a band of orcs led by one named Mangug had taken over the entrance hall, taking the goblins formerly of Grilk's gang as prisoners. Mangug knew that the party had slain Drak's orcs, and while the two groups were not related, orcish custom demanded a blood debt of the party in return. If the party wished to enter the dungeon, they must treat with Mangug's orcs.

The party decided to circle around to the rear of the crag and search for secret entrances. Llombaerth scaled the cliff and found the old corpse of a wizard on a ledge about 40' up. On the corpse he found a scroll case, which he gave to his henchman Egbert, though they would have to wait to open it due to the arcane sigils which sealed it. 

On the same ledge, Llombaerth found a secret door which opened onto a large cavern. The party left most of their hirelings in the forest below to guard their mules, which could not easily access the secret entrance, while they and Egbert went inside.

There they found a statue of a wizard pointing conspicuously to a rocky outcropping, though a search of the statue and the outcropping found nothing unusual. They proceeded down a tunnel when Egbert noticed that they were standing atop a pit trap which had failed to open. Since the pit trap was too wide to leap across, they tied themselves together before moving on. As they did so, they heard the plodding of boots approaching from a side tunnel which they hadn't yet explored.

We picked up from there. The party debated which side of the pit they wished to be on when they met whatever was approaching down the tunnel. They decided to backtrack over the pit to the side closest to the cavern of the statue, from whence they had come. Thankfully, the pit trap was not activated. It was unclear what exactly would cause it to activate. They planned to lure whatever was approaching onto the pit trap, then use Egbert's prepared reduce spell to shrink the grate covering the pit and drop their pursuers inside.

As they waited, they heard commands bellowed in orcish. Their pursuers suddenly halted, and a moment later they heard footsteps receding. Zommernar decided to taunt the orcs in an effort to goad them into drawing nearer. An orc at the end of the hall identified himself as Ghudgak, asking whether it was cowardice to avoid a foe's obvious trap. Was it cowardice to set a trap for the foe yourself?

The party stalled for time as they untied the rope which linked each of them together. As they did so, they learned that Ghudgak's orcs worshipped the Stone Below, and that they were enemies of Drak's orcs, who worshipped the Stone that Speaks. They were unfamiliar with Mangug's orcs.

Ghudgak's orcs had taken cover at the end of the tunnel to the right, while the party had taken cover beyond the pit trap. As they were at a stalemate, Zommernar challenged Ghudgak to single combat, which Ghudgak accepted. The two met in the middle of the corridor between them (Zommernar alone was strong enough to leap across the pit without stepping on it). The duel was a short affair. Ghudgak's first blow glanced off of Zommernar's armor, while Zommernar's sword sliced into Ghudgak's side. Ghudgak quickly yielded.

Zommernar demanded Ghudgak admit that his Stone was inferior. As the orc's behind him hooted and hollered angrily, Ghudgak begrudgingly admitted it, under his breath, so that the other orcs could not hear. 

Suddenly, the party heard more footsteps approaching from the third tunnel, to the left. Three more orcs were quickly closing from that direction. Ghudgak bellowed another command in orcish and twisted away from Zommernar, retreating behind his fellows, who had drawn their bows. 

Zommernar dashed back across the pit to take cover. Llombaerth prepared a flask of alchemist's fire, and Egbert began casting reduce. The three orcs approaching from the left did not notice the pit trap in their bloodlust. One had a chance to attack before Egbert's spell went off. It flailed at Zommernar wildly, but missed. Egbert sprinkled powdered iron atop the pit trap's grate, causing it to shrink ever so slightly. All three orcs fell 10' below.

Two of the orcs were killed by the fall, the third's fall cushioned by the others' bodies. Llombaerth dropped his alchemist's fire into the pit atop the third orc's head, setting it ablaze. The orc raged and wailed as it burned to death. The orc archers to the right loosed their arrows, but without a clear shot at the party, the projectiles clattered harmlessly off the tunnel's walls. Ghudgak gave another command, and the orcs retreated.

The party let the orcs flee. Llombaerth climbed down into the pit to loot the dead orcs' corpses. The party then secured a rope and piton to the wall bordering the pit trap and went around it. They planned to explore the tunnel to their left. 

Before Llombaerth went ahead, he moved to transfer the party's precious 5,000 g.p. oriental emerald to someone else for safekeeping, only to find that the emerald and the pouch in which it had been kept were both missing. The party searched the area for signs of a culprit, but found nothing. This was very troubling, but they could only theorize as to who the culprit could be. Whatever creature had been inhabiting the "Great Oak" was identified as a prime suspect. 

With nothing to be done about it now, Llombaerth scouted ahead in the darkness. The tunnel curved sharply to the right and shortly ended in a small cavern with another exit immediately to the left. Llombaerth followed that tunnel, which was long and curved slightly to the right. It emptied into a large cavern with two wide tunnels exiting, one immediately to the left and the other at the far end of the cavern on the right. A third, narrower tunnel exited about halfway down the opposite wall, slightly to the right.

The party rendezvoused in the cavern, and Llombaerth went on to explore the wide tunnel to the left. That tunnel curved slightly left before straightening out into a huge cavern which reeked of offal. Great quantities of fluffy, dusty guano littered the floor, though no bats were present in the cavern. In the bottom left corner of the cavern was a mazelike catacomb of natural rock pillars which stretched from floor to ceiling. In the bottom right corner was a set of rough stone stairs leading up.

Llombaerth brought the rest of the party to the cavern. He and Rory went about shoveling several pounds of guano into a sack, while Egbert helped them identify the choicest deposits. Mirkle and Zommernar went to explore the catacomb.

Winding through the maze of pillars, the two stumbled upon a pair of man-sized mushrooms, 4' to 7' tall. As the pair's torchlight fell upon the mushrooms, they began shrieking horribly, the sound echoing throughout the catacomb and into the cavern beyond. The rest of the party ran over to investigate while Mirkle and Zommernar stabbed and slashed at the mushrooms. 

The pair was able to slay both mushrooms in two rounds - plenty of time for some other monster to hear them and come along to investigate. While the bulk of the party hid in the catacomb, Llombaerth crept ahead in the shadows, watching the cavern's entrance. After a short while, he spotted a 7' tall doglike humanoid enter the cavern, wearing armor and clutching a pike. The gnoll scanned the cavern for a moment before going back from whence it came.

Once it departed, the party explored the stairs at the opposite end of the cavern. The stairs led up to a small cave with a 5' high ceiling, its far wall streaked with veins of bluish ore. There were no other exits, so the party withdrew and returned to the earlier large cavern to explore the other tunnels.

As they made their way to the center of the cavern, a pair of gnolls emerged from the narrow tunnel to the left. A second pair emerged from the tunnel behind them and to the right. The gnolls menaced the party. Endur, their leader, was the ruler of this cavern, and the party was trespassing in his territory.

The party learned that Endur and his gnolls were enemies of Ghudgak's orcs. While the party were also enemies of Ghudgak, that did not necessarily mean they were friends of Endur. The party explained that they had been ambushed by the treacherous orcs, who had passed through Endur's cavern in order to do so. This incensed Endur. The party explained that they had not meant to trespass, and offered to help Endur post signs in the cavern to indicate that this was his realm. Endur was impressed by Llombaerth's depiction of him using guano on parchment, and decided that they could be friends.

Endur explained that he and his gnolls worshiped the Freezing Pool. The party asked to see this Pool, and the gnolls led them through the narrow tunnel and to the left into a small cavern with an 8' deep, 20' diameter pool of cool spring water. Endur gestured to the ceiling above the Pool, where the party could see a trap door, then to the bottom of the Pool, where a pair of dead adventurers laid. A bottle or vial was visible there as well. Endur explained that heathens from the world above were occasionally dragged down by the weight of their sins to drown at the bottom of the Pool, where their treasures accumulated for only the worthy to claim. 

Endur claimed to be the high priest of the Pool, yet he had tried many times to claim the Pool's treasures to no avail. Presumably, this was because of his thick fur. Rory wished to attempt the Pool's trial. He stripped off his armor while the gnolls lit a ritual fire. Rory entered the Pool and found it quite cold. He dove to the bottom, grasping at the vial, but failed to retrieve it, gasping for breath as he surfaced. The gnolls murmured nervously amongst themselves. He tried again, and again he failed. The gnolls became more anxious. Endur explained that if Rory failed the test, they would have no choice but to sacrifice him to the Pool.

Rory dove once more - his final attempt - and surfaced with the vial upthrust triumphantly. The gnolls erupted in an uproar. Emerging from the Pool, Rory held the vial forward and informed Endur that the Pool had spoken to him, and it had told him that he must be the Pool's new high priest. This angered Endur, who was the rightful high priest of the Pool. Rory said that only one with the strength to dive three times was worthy of the honor.

Another gnoll, Indur, stood up for Endur, claiming that Endur have dived into the Pool one thousand times, shivering by the ritual fire and praying to the Pool nightly to grant him its favor. It was only Endur's thick fur which weighed him down and prevented him from succeeding in the trial. Llombaerth stepped forward with a knife offered to Endur. If he was truly so devout, he would shed his vanity and shave his body so that he was hairless. Only then would the Pool embrace him.

Endur accepted the challenge. He discarded his armor and allowed his followers to shave him bald. Meanwhile, Rory threw the vial back into the Pool and donned his armor again. The gnolls gathered at the Pool's edge to watch Endur as he attempted the challenge. 

Endur dove into the Pool. As soon as he was under, Mirkle, Rory, and Zommernar attempted to shove the remaining gnolls into the Pool. Rory and Zommernar each shoved a gnoll into the Pool. In their armor, they sunk like stones, thrashing wildly. Mirkle struggled with the third gnoll, until Llombaerth approached from behind the gnoll and drove his sword into its back, delivering a critical hit for 20 backstab damage, killing it instantly.

A moment later, Endur emerged, proudly clutching the vial, only to see one gnoll dead on the ground at the edge of the Pool, another two drowning beneath him. The party loosed missiles at him as he paddled at the surface. Mirkle's spear missed and sunk to the bottom of the Pool, but both of Llombaerth's arrows struck - one for a critical hit and another for maximum damage. Endur took an arrow to the heart and another to the eye. To add insult to injury, Rory threw Endur's own armor at his corpse, sinking the gnoll's body.

As one of the two remaining gnolls drowned to death, Rory extended his halberd to pull the second one out. It turned out to be Indur. Indur was understandably distraught by the betrayal, but Rory managed to convince him that this was the Pool's will, and that the Pool had decided that he alone should be spared. The party promised that if Indur aided them in destroying the Stone worshipers, then they would help Indur find more of his people and rebuild. Indur was born again from his near-death experience, and decided to lend his aid to the party.

The party used their 10' pole to dredge up the dead adventurers and the vial. They looted some coins from the adventurers and examined the vial. It seemed not to visibly contain any liquid, but felt as if it did. What could be the contents of this strange gift from the depths of the Pool?

We wrapped there. Another good one, with a mix of combat, exploration, and social interaction. Clever plans and a lack of moral scruples won the party a resounding victory against both the orcs and the gnolls, as well as a dubious ally in Indur. The party has been in the dungeon for several hours, and it's nearly time that they rest. They planned to rejoin their hirelings outside of the dungeon. Hopefully nothing else has gotten to them first...

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 15)

We played the fifteenth 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 2 (Maya)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

Last we played, the party had business in Timbershore. They shopped, buying more equipment and a pair of mules. They put out a call for henchmen in the Chapel Ward, then went to the River Ward to meet with the smugglers Tavin Underbough and Lethariel Vaen. They made arrangements with the smugglers to bring their ill-gotten gains from Quasqueton back to Timbershore through the town's proverbial back door. They also learned that the gem they had pilfered from the blackout drunk nobleman Ludovic Pell was in fact a 5,000 g.p. oriental emerald.

The party returned to the Chapel Ward to await the arrival of prospective henchmen. They waited around for two days and met Grilgurn Goldenbelch, a dwarf fighter. The party was looking for a wizard, so they rejected Grilgurn's application. He became incensed, but they managed to placate him with alcohol. After, they met Egbert, a human necromancer. The party offered him a 500 g.p. signing bonus plus Pommernar's spellbook, and he accepted.

They returned to the River Ward the following morning and purchased a small river barge, the Mossy Turtle, from a captain named Hadric. They paid Hadric 900 g.p. for both the boat and a month's employment of the crew. The party hired four additional porters to carry treasure and decided to set sail immediately.

We picked up from there. It was 12 pm, so the party had about 7 hours of travel downriver before it became dark. There was no wind, but the weather was otherwise fair. The boat would have to rely on its oars and the river's current to carry it through the forest.

I had spent the time between sessions determining whether there would be any random encounters on the voyage. The first day passed uneventfully. The boat's crew was made up of 20 0th level fighting oarsmen, the gruff captain, Hadric, the mean old halfling woman, Wilda Brambletoe, and her three wiry brown half-feral river mutts, and the second mates Corvin and Aelwen Riversong. Corvin is a middle aged human who doesn't like adventurers, and Aelwen is a young half-elf girl who loves adventurers.

As darkness fell, the barge moored along the edge of the forest, with the crew working in shifts to keep watch. The night passed without incident. The weather remained the same the next day, so the barge continued on. They traveled a bit farther downriver before coming up the lake deep in the forest. The barge crossed the lake and moored at the mouth of the river which flowed downhill from Quasqueton. The party disembarked with their men-at-arms, porters, Brazile's dog, and their mules, while the barge's crew stayed behind to guard the vessel. They set off into the forest towards Quasqueton. It was 9 am.

I was a bit disappointed that the journey downriver had not yielded any encounters with giant beavers, waterfowlbears, or hobgoblins sniping at them from the tree line, but it's okay. The journey back upriver will take longer, and the barge will presumably be laden with treasure, so there's still time.

The party followed the river through the forest along its north bank for about two hours, then noticed something peculiar. They had stumbled into a glade of ancient oak trees and silver birches, with a fine green moss and small yellow wildflowers carpeting the ground. The birds were singing jovially and the smell of honey and damp leaves filled the air. They noticed trinkets hanging from tree limbs - spoons, bits of ribbon, lengths of fine chain, mismatched pairs of boots, and the like. The moss, flowers, and trinkets were concentrated around one especially large oak.

Recognizing this as unusual, the party assumed that the tree might be sacred in some way, and offered up some trinkets of their own. Mirkle called out to the tree to see if it was sentient. An elfin face appeared as if carved into the tree's bark. It introduced itself as the Great Oak, thanked them for their trinkets, and asked if they had anything of real value to offer it.

Mirkle gave the tree three gold coins, which seemed to please it, but surely these brave woodland adventurers had more. The party asked what the Great Oak needed gold for, to which it responded "Acorns, which I, uh...eat! Of course." The Great Oak explained that it was master of the wood and all its creatures, and that these woodland animals great and small frequently made pilgrimage here to pay homage.

The party was confused. The woodland animals were the Great Oak's subjects, yet it paid them for acorns, which it ate? "Why yes, uh...the woodland creatures pay me homage in the form of ordinary acorns, but occasionally they bring me the choicest acorns, for which I of course, uh, compensate them...with gold!"

The party let that one go. They asked if the owlbears of the forest where also subjects of the Great Oak, to which is responded with disgust. Those creatures were nasty and formed of evil sorcery, not natural beings. They did, however, possess great treasure, which would please the Oak greatly if delivered to it. The party asked if the Oak knew where the owlbears lived, and the Great Oak told them that they made their lair in the deep forest to the north, where the three rivers met.

The party mentioned that they had encountered the owlbears themselves, and had even slain one. Llombaerth indicated his owlbear skull helm, which of course the Great Oak had recognized immediately, and certainly wasn't noticing now for the first time. The Great Oak asserted that it was well aware of the party's activities in the forest, since its leal subjects had been monitoring them closely. Nonetheless it inquired as to how they had come across these owlbears. Surely they had been on an adventure to some dungeon and were returning laden with treasure, which if it had come from the forest would rightfully belong to the Oak. The party played coy.

The interaction had seemingly run its course, so Llombaerth decided to make a final offering to the Oak. He produced one of his pickled fish and attempted to insert it into the Oak's mouth. The Oak said, "No no, the Great Oak does not desire to partake in your stinking fish!" Llombaerth persisted, and as the fish entered the Oak's mouth, he discovered that the face on the tree was an insubstantial illusion. 

At the same time, Mirkle noticed something else amiss - the voice seemed to be projected from elsewhere, like a bad ventriloquist throwing their voice. She inconspicuously indicated as much to Llombaerth, and began scanning the branches of the tree. Meanwhile, Llombaerth looked around the base of the tree. Mirkle did not notice anything unusual, but Llombaerth spotted a 4' wide burrow hidden among a tangle of roots and moss which led beneath the tree.

Llombaerth produced a flask of alchemist's fire and called into the burrow that the jig was up, and ordered whoever was inside to come out at once. The party heard a high-pitched whistle and a diminutive male voice calling on "Salt, Pepper, and Paprika" to "go get 'em!" Llombaerth heard the sound of multiple sets of padded feet and the baying of hounds coming towards them from within the burrow. Llombaerth didn't hesitate. He lit the alchemist's fire and threw it inside the burrow. 

The dogs within came screeching to a halt, yelping in fear of the flames. The small voice inside began coughing and declared that the party was no fun. He was just trying to introduce some whimsy into their lives and now they were trying to set his home on fire. The party responded that he was trying to trick them and extort them for gold. They heard whoever was inside the burrow retreating deeper within.

Llombaerth waited for the flames to die out and then crawled inside, squeezing to fit through the tunnel. The air was warm and dry, with smells of pipeweed and cinnamon beneath the acrid smoke which now filled the space. Tiny lantern mushrooms provided dim illumination within, and small stones pressed into the earthen walls had been carved with smiling faces. 

Where the fire had been, tiny bells littered the ground, and more hung from the ceiling above. Llombaerth would be unable to crawl through without ringing the bells or carefully cutting them down. 25' feet down the tunnel, he saw that it opened into a cozy-looking hearth chamber. He didn't feel comfortable trying to sneak inside without knowing what awaited him, so he crawled back out.

The party decided to leave the area, but not before finding a stone big enough to seal the burrow. The whole interaction had taken about an hour. It was noon, and the party resumed following the river to Quasqueton. They spent two hours passing through the lowland forest and another three hours making the hike to the dungeon. They arrived at about 5 pm.

They now approached the dungeon from its eastern side. The crag loomed above them, some 80' tall, the cliff scattered with rough handholds, tree limbs, and narrow ledges. Rather than make the climb, they circled around to the familiar western face. Making their way up the perilous path to the entrance, they spotted stone cairns scattered along the trail - ten in all.

The party had Egbert cast detect undead in case a nasty surprise waited for them beneath the cairns. He said the magic words, made the gestures, and scattered a handful of stinking dirt in front of him. Focusing on the cairns, he finally concluded that there was no danger of ghosts or ghoulies here. 

The party excavated one of the cairns and found a rotting orc corpse, decapitated. Its head showed signs of having been bludgeoned with a blunt weapon and skewered on a spear or sharp stick. Slices of flesh had been carved from its meaty thighs. The party concluded that this was one of the orcs killed by the goblins, but interring the orcs in this manner was not goblin-like at all. Had the orcs from the lower level come up and launched an attack?

The rest of the party stayed behind while Llombaerth attempted to sneak inside down the long hallway lined with alcoves. As he approached the second pair of alcoves and attempted to hide inside, he stumbled. He spotted an orc sentry posted at the barricade atop the landing at the end of the corridor, and the orc spotted him as well. It called out to him, claiming that it meant no harm, and told one of its fellows to fetch Mangug.

A short time later, two more orcs emerged, with one taking position at the center of the barricade, flanked by the others. The center orc introduced itself as Mangug. Llombaerth identified himself as a Stonespeaker. This did not surprise Mangug, who said that the goblins had warned him that the Stonespeakers would return to slay them. 

Mangug understood from the goblins that the Stonespeakers had aided them in slaying Drak's orcs. Mangug's orcs had no relation to Drak's, but orc custom dictated that Mangug exact some sort of blood price from those who had killed fellow orcs and stolen their treasure. He assured Llombaerth that the goblins were alive and were paying off their debt by way of service, and that he was happy to make some sort of arrangement with the party. They would simply need to bring Mangug whatever treasure they had secreted away, and they would mutually agree upon some commensurate compensation for the party's crimes.

Llombaerth tried to lure the orcs outside to negotiate with the rest of the party, but Mangug was wary to forego his advantageous position and treat with them under the harsh light of the sun. Mangug assured Llombaerth that the party would be under the protection of guest right while they treated within the dungeon, but Llombaerth preferred to confer with the rest of the party outside. Mangug accepted this. He and his orcs now controlled the entrance to the dungeon, so the party would have to treat with him one way or another if they sought access.

The party reconvened outside and decided it was time to find a new way into the dungeon. They circled back around to the rear of the crag and began searching for secret entrances, but found none. Llombaerth offered to climb the cliffside and search along the narrow ledges scattered about its face. 

About 40' up, he found an old, dead wizard lying on a ledge. He searched the body and found a wooden scroll tube with some sort of magic writing on it. He could not open it. He lowered and secured a rope for Egbert to climb up. Egbert could open the tube, but it would require a read magic spell, which he did not have prepared. Based on the dead wizard's out of fashion hat, Egbert concluded that he had been dead for a number of years.

Llombaerth searched the cliff face on the ledge and found a cleverly concealed lever. Pulling on it, a secret door opened. It led into a large, rough-hewn cavern. Mirkle climbed up to join them. The men-at-arms, the porters, the dog, and the mules remained at the base of the cliff. By this time it was 7 pm, and the darkness was settling over the forest.

The party followed the cave as it wound to the right, then proceeded straight to the end, where it tapered into a tunnel sealed by a door. They heard nothing on the other side, so they proceeded within. There, they found a statue of a wizard, its arms outstretched, pointing to a rocky outcropping immediately to their left. Beyond the outcropping, a short tunnel on the left led to a T intersection. Llombaerth examined the outcropping while Mirkle inspected the statue, but neither found anything unusual. Based on the statue's very outdated hat, Egbert concluded that it was decades old - likely from Zelligar's time.

The party proceeded to the T intersection, with Egbert in the rear. Egbert cried out in alarm that Llombaerth and Mirkle were standing atop a covered 12' wide and 10' deep pit. Fortunately, the trap had not opened beneath them. There was a chance it would open as Egbert crossed it, and he could not clear the distance by jumping it, so they used rope to tie themselves together, just in case. 

They decided to take the tunnel to their left. As they went that way, they heard the sound of many pairs of roughshod boots plodding down the corridor behind them, heading in their direction. We ended the session there.

This was another fun one. Lots of social interaction and exploring. Approaching the dungeon by a different route led to the party discovering one of my keyed wilderness locations and learning the location of another (the owlbear lair). The status quo of the dungeon has changed drastically while the party's been away, which has forced them to get creative and led them to discover the secret entrance into the dungeon (in the module as written, this door cannot be opened from outside, but that stinks, so I changed it). 

While the party has ballooned in size with henchmen, men-at-arms, and porters, they had to leave many of these behind to guard the mules, who cannot easily access the secret entrance. The group that's actually inside the dungeon is quite small as a result, and now some unknown force is coming to meet them. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next time!

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 14)

We played the fourteenth 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 1 (Maya)
• Zommernar, CN elf fighter 1 (Nael)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

Last we played, the party returned to Timbershore after their most recent expedition to Quasqueton. Before selling their treasure, they sought a wizard to determine if any of their loot was magical. They learned of a few potential candidates, but sought out Albertyna, a wizardess who ruled over the River Ward. They went off in search of her manse and encountered a drunken man and woman out for an evening stroll.

The man was very drunk, and stumbled and tore the woman's fine dress in his clumsiness. She cast a spell and levitated him into the air. By chance, the party had happened to run into Albertyna herself! They introduced themselves, and she invited them to find her at her manse in the morning. Once she left, the drunk man floated gently to the ground, unconscious, and the party robbed him. They found four gemstones, three of which were worth 500 g.p. They stole the man's fine clothes and stuffed him in a rubbish bin.

The following morning, the party went to Albertyna's manse. They dealt with one of her henchmen at the door, then met Thibaud, a lesser wizard in Albertyna's employ, who confirmed that none of their items were magical. When Thibaud learned that the party had been to Quasqueton, he threatened to expose them to Lambrecht, the wizard who rules over the whole town and who allegedly has a rightful claim to the dungeon and all its treasures. They eventually persuaded Thibaud that this would not be in his best interest, and sold much of their treasure to him.

Next, they met with Albertyna, who gave them a reward for killing one of the owlbears menacing the forest. They also told her of Quasqueton, and she informed them that it was her responsibility to report them to Lambrecht. The party quickly changed their story, and Albertyna played along. 

They exchanged "rumors" about Quasqueton with her, and she expressed interest in learning more. She also shared a "rumor" about a mercenary who had come to town bragging about having braved Quasqueton himself. The mercenary had been rounded up by Lambrecht's men and was currently being questioned about his associates. While the party expressed concern about any adventurers who might happen to have designs on Quasqueton, Albertyna explained that Lambrecht is slow to act, obsessed with signs and portents, and that he would be unlikely to take immediate retribution.

We picked up from there. The party had more business in town, so they went about it. First, shopping. They went to the High Ward and bought a pair of mules, splint mail for Mirkle, a bullseye lantern, a sack of caltrops, three spetums with which to arm men-at-arms, and a bunch of alchemist's fire.

Next, they went to the Chapel Ward and spent 10 g.p. to hire a crier and another 50 g.p. to post notices that they were seeking henchmen. Since it would take 2 to 8 days for prospects to begin showing up, they waited until nightfall and then went to the River Ward to meet with the smugglers at the Rusted Anchor, an old, derelict barge at the docks.

Llombaerth used the secret knock he had learned from "Two Fingers" Malrec, and the party was invited inside the barge's cabin, which had been outfitted into a cozy office. Standing by the door was a tall elf named Lethariel Vaen. Seated behind a comically large desk was a halfling named Tavin Underbough. 

The pair laughed when Llombaerth suggested that they were part of a Thieves' Guild. "Don't worry," Tavin said, "there is no Thieves' Guild in Timbershore. You won't get mixed up in any turf wars or stabbed in the back for plying your trade. We're just a pair of upstarts, making a living helping folks like you get around those tyrannical tariffs."

The party explained that they had treasure to move, and laid out all that they had recovered from Quasqueton and were yet to sell. They suggested that there was more where that came from, including large items like a dragon skin and a statue (prior to this, the players had spent some time discussing how exactly they were going to move the basilisk statue they had found). Tavin explained that they could bring their treasure to the riverbank opposite town at night, give a signal using a lantern, and they would send a barge to take possession of the treasure and store it somewhere safe.

The thieves would help the party get around duties, tariffs, and taxes, but they wouldn't do it for free. Basically, whatever fees the party would normally pay when bringing treasure to town and selling it, they would instead pay half that amount to the thieves for their services. The party agreed, sold what treasure they still had, and promised to bring more.

While there, the party also had the thieves identify the remaining gemstone they had pilfered from the drunken noble, Ludovic Pell. I appraised it on the spot and rolled 100 on d100, indicating a 5,000 g.p. (!) precious jewel. I selected one randomly from the list in the DMG and got a, uh...oriental emerald. We all laughed at the idea of a nobleman carrying an insanely valuable gemstone around with him as he went barhopping. 

This was a significant enough treasure for Mirkle and Zommernar to reach 2nd level. I'm pretty sure the party has gotten more XP and gold from robbing one guy in town than they've gotten from all their time spent in Quasqueton. Silly! I'm not bothered by it though. This is also, obviously a recognizable gemstone. Ludovic Pell will be looking for it. The party will have to be careful what they do with it!

The party returned to the Chapel Ward to sleep, and spent the next several days waiting for prospective henchmen to show up.

Prior to this session, I spent some time revisiting my deep dive on recruiting henchmen in AD&D. I gave the players a little synopsis explaining the different methods of finding henchmen and how the recruiting process worked. Here's what I gave them:

For advertising*:

• 50 g.p. to post notices in public (+10-40% effectiveness**; average 2 g.p. per %)
• 10 g.p. to hire a crier (+1-10% effectiveness; average 1.82 g.p. per %)
• 300 g.p. to hire agents to seek prospects (+20-50% effectiveness; average 8.57 g.p. per %)
• +1-4% effectiveness per 10 g.p. spent in inns and taverns (50 g.p./5-20% per inn or tavern), up to 10 different establishments***; (average 4 g.p. per %)

*For each method used beyond the first, -5% effectiveness to account for overlap (so all four methods would be -15% effectiveness total)

**Effectiveness is not the % chance of attracting ANY henchmen, but the % of the total # of henchmen in town who are attracted

***For each inn/tavern worked, -1% effectiveness to each per additional inn worked (so if you worked 10 establishments, each would have -9% effectiveness - the more establishments you work, the more money you have to spend in each)

With this information, the players decided to post notices in public and to hire a crier (60 g.p. total). It would take 2 to 8 days for prospects to show up, and the party had to stay put during that time, or else applicants would leave and not return.

On the first day, no one showed (because it takes at least two days). At 5 pm on the second day, the party met with Grilgurn Goldenbelch, a dwarf fighter who valued an honest day's work and smashing monsters in the head with his flail. Llombaerth explained that the party was looking for a magic-user and decided not to bring him on. Grilgurn had a racial antipathy towards elves and took offense, vowing to tell everyone that the one hiring them was a nasty little elf boy and a fancy lad. Llombaerth bought Grilgurn a bottle of fine spirits, which seemed to assuage him.

At 11 pm, Egbert, a human wizard with an egg-shaped head, walked in. While sipping brandy, he explained that he'd had trouble finding respectable patrons since completing his apprenticeship. He expressed interest in acquiring specimens to further his studies. Mirkle rightly concluded that he was likely a specialist necromancer. The party decided to hire him. They offered him one of their 500 g.p. gems as a signing bonus, plus Pommernar's old spellbook.

The 500 g.p. gem gave Egbert a 55% chance of accepting the offer. The spellbook brought this up to 70%, and Llombaerth's Charisma increased this again to 75%. I rolled a 36 on d100, so Egbert accepted the offer. He would wait in the Chapel Ward until the party was ready to depart. He would study Pommernar's tome in the meantime.

As an aside, when determining how many henchmen would show up, I rolled a 1 on d4 for the notices and a 6 on d10 for the crier, which totaled 16%. Since the party employed two methods, I subtracted 5%, so 11% of the henchmen in Timbershore would respond. There are 9 total henchmen in town, so there was a 99% chance that just one person would show up, which was Grilgurn.

I found this unsatisfying, and since the players were specifically looking for magic-users, I figured they probably would have advertised as such, so I decided to give them one more prospect and ensured that it was one of the magic-users I had rolled up, which was Egbert. This felt better than having them wait around for another six days while no one else showed up.

The next morning (now the party's fifth day in town), the party headed back to the River Ward. They had decided to buy a keelboat, and learned of a captain, Hadric, who was interested in selling. Along the way, they spotted Lethariel and Tavin, who were keeping a low profile and watching a town official collecting bribes from ship captains and caravan masters. The party exchanged a coy nod of recognition and watched the pair of thieves surreptitiously follow after the official as he made his rounds (this was a random encounter - funny how they keep running into NPCs they already know).

They met with him and his first mate, an old halfling woman named Wilda Brambletoe. Hadric was ready to get out of the game but wished to secure a nice nest egg for himself and his crew. The party agreed to buy the Mossy Turtle for 300 g.p. and would pay the crew 600 g.p. to stay on for one month. After that, they would dismiss the crew or keep them on, depending on their needs. The party gave Hadric one of their 500 g.p. gems plus 400 g.p. in coinage.

I had determined that the trip to Quasqueton by boat (mostly downriver) would take somewhere between 6 to 11 hours (one or two days), depending on whether the boat's sail could be used, and that the trip back (mostly upriver) would take between 8 to 20 hours (1 to 3 days). The players decided to set out immediately. While the crew readied the boat, the party hired four more porters (Ejiofer, Lendeborg, Steinbach, and a halfling named Brazile Springblossom) and picked up Egbert, then returned to the River Ward.

That was where we wrapped. This was another session of just town stuff, which is fine by me. Long campaigns have an ebb and flow nature to them where you might spend three sessions fighting for your life against some orcs and then the next three sessions hauling treasure back to town, interacting with NPCs, and handling the logistics of your next expedition. The change of pace serves to make the moments of high adventure stand out all the more. I handwaved as much as possible here, like shopping, getting porters, and moving from place to place, but enjoyed roleplaying the interactions with the thieves, the henchmen, and the river boat crew.

The group probably would have played a bit longer, but since the journey back to Quasqueton will take some time, I would prefer to do it all in one session. This will also give me a chance to determine if there will be any random encounters along the way and to prep them beforehand.

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 13)

We played the thirteenth 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)
• Zommernar, CN elf fighter 1 (Nael)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

Last we played, the party found the goblin Tobb imprisoned inside a chamber in the orcs' lair. The chamber also contained a carving of a fiendish looking idol surrounded by religious symbols and runes. Tobb was combative at first, but upon hearing that the party had slain Drak the orc, Tobb threw himself at their feet and offered to be their slave. Llombaerth could sense a dormant and ancient malevolent presence when he touched the stone carving. Robbernar examined the markings and concluded that they were consistent with pagan barbarian markings, older than Quasqueton itself. Fearing what power the stone might contain, the party convinced Tobb to stay there and ensure that the other goblins did not interact with.

The party left Quasqueton with their treasure in tow. Since they had been in the dungeon so long, it was now evening, and they decided to camp outside the ruins before beginning their trek. 

In the middle of the night a shambling, robed figure approached their camp. It did not radiate any heat when viewed with infravision. The party loosed arrows at it, which had no effect. It affixed them with a baleful gaze, its red pinpricks for eyes causing most of the party to flee back inside the ruin in terror. Llombaerth watched from a distance as the figure rummaged through the party's belongings and pocketed the engraved silver plaque which had once been gifted to Erig, Quasqueton's captain of guards. The figure then wandered off and vanished into thin air.

The goblins inside the dungeon told the party that they had encountered the Ghost of Quasqueton, and that they were lucky that it had not demanded all of their treasure as tribute.

The following day, the party descended the hillside and struck out into the forest. The day was uneventful, and they made camp for the night. As they were preparing to sleep, they spotted a pair of animals that looked like bears circling their camp. A pair of owlbears burst through the bushes on either side of them. Mirkle slowed the first owlbear with caltrops while Llombaerth set the second on fire. The flaming owlbear pressed the attack against Robbernar, clobbering him with a claw before tearing his throat out with its beak.

The first owlbear fled into the woods while the second continued to attack. Bronson stood in front of it, waving his troch, and got his head knocked off by a swipe from its claw. Mirkle set her spear against its charge and skewered it. It fled the next round, and Llombaerth put an arrow in its back, killing it.

We picked up from there. The party built a cairn for Bronson and stripped Robbernar of any equipment and valuables. They hung his body up in a tree to keep giant ticks away (the players decided that since elves have no souls, they have no attachment to the bodies of their dead, and are okay with them being used for purposes such as this). Llombaerth took the owlbear's head.

While the party went about their work, they heard people approaching. An elf and two mercenaries appeared. It was Zommernar, daughter of Robbernar, here to find her father. The party let her know that she just missed him. Zommernar went through her father's belongings and took what equipment she needed. The two mercenaries were Bilodeau and Graves. Zommernar had paid them for two weeks' service.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully. The light winds from the previous day persisted, and it was now unseasonably hot as well. It would normally take them an hour and twenty minutes to get clear of the forest at their current movement rate (encumbered by their treasure). Because of the heat, it would take even longer - about two hours. It would take another eight hours to cross the farmland south of Timbershore, so they would have to force march to reach town in time.

It was a long, hard trek, with frequent stops to rest and hydrate, but the party made it back to town without any additional encounters. At the gate, they paid their entrance fees and duties and tariffs on their treasure and headed inside. Not wanting to get fined for carrying foreign currency, they headed to the money changer right away. I also awarded experience points for the recovered treasure at this time, but no one leveled up (Mirkle and Zommernar received only partial XP because both Maya and Nael's characters had died mid-expedition).

The party decided to track down a wizard to determine if any of their treasure items were magical. They asked around and learned about three powerful spellcasters in town: Albertyna, a wizard who lived in a manse in the River Ward, Blanchefleur, a feared cleric who lived in the shell keep in the Chapel Ward, and Lambrecht, the wizard who ruled over all of the town from his castle in the High Ward. Since the party was already in the River Ward, and because Albertyna sounded like the most welcoming of the three, they decided to seek her out.

It was evening now. As they made their way to Albertyna's manse, they encountered a foppish dandy and a noblewoman out for a stroll, accompanied by two armed guards. The woman was tipsy and the dandy was considerably drunk, stumbling, slurring his words, and laughing at his own jokes. The woman seemed perturbed. 

The party stood aside for them, and Zommernar tipped her cap to the lady. The dandy said something unintelligible, stumbled, and reached to the lady to support himself, tearing at her dress. The woman's face reddened, she backed away, and one of the guards moved to separate the two. The woman began casting a spell, and suddenly the man began to float in the air. The woman made gestures with her hands and the man began to turn in midair. Sickened, he vomited on the street below.

The party asked the woman if she might happen to be the wizard Albertyna, to which she said yes. The party explained that they had been seeking her out just now, and wondered if she might be able to examine some items for them. She explained that this sort of work was a bit beneath her, but that an underling of hers, Thibaud, could help them. They gifted her with the pewter-studded cloak they had found in Quasqueton, which seemed to endear them to her.

Llombaerth showed her the owlbear head (which he was carrying around this whole time), which seemed to disgust her. She explained that such creatures had haunted the woods since Zelligar's time, and that there were many who believed the mad wizard was responsible for their creation. The party asked if Lambrecht might offer a reward for killing them, but she doubted it. She suggested that, as Lambrecht's agent, she might be able to requisition funds for such a purpose. She instructed the party to visit her manse the following morning. 

As Albertyna departed, the foppish dandy, now unconscious, slowly drifted to the ground. The party rifled through his clothing and found some pocket change and four gems, three of which Llombaerth identified as being worth 500 gold pieces each! This alone was enough to get Llombaerth to level 4! At this point I'm considering doing away with 2e's class-based XP rewards, because it is getting a little silly and I feel bad for the rest of the party lagging behind.

The party took the dandy's fine clothes for good measure and dumped his unconscious body in a rubbish bin, then headed back to the Mooring Post to spend the night. Lambrecht enlisted the staff there to boil the flesh from the owlbear's head and return the skull to him, intending to turn it into a helmet.

The next morning, the heatwave persisted, but the winds had let up. The party headed over the Albertyna's manse, where they were met by Janek, an ornery middle-aged fighter who demanded they state their business. After a few turns of being needlessly annoying (and accepting a bribe), he summoned Thibaud, who proceeded to be annoying as well. Mirkle wisely complimented the wizard's stylish hat (a top hat with three tiers, like a wedding cake), which earned them entry to the manse.

They proceeded to Thibaud's study, a dark chamber which the wizard dramatically illuminated with a light spell. "That is but a fraction of the power I wield!" he declared. The magical light glittered gaudily off of a large statue of a nude woman. 

The party laid out their items, including their copper and silver inlaid bronze statuette (also of a nude woman), which Thibaud lustily groped, licking his lips. "Where did you find this beautiful specimen?" he asked. The party explained that they had been to Quasqueton, and believed the statue to be a depiction of the stronghold's mistress.

That gave Thibaud pause. Apparently, Lambrecht had been searching for the stronghold, and would be none too pleased to find that some upstart adventurers had located it and begun to plunder its riches. Of course, he was obligated to inform Lambrecht of their trespass. The party explained that there was an even larger, more beautiful statue of a nude woman still in the stronghold, and wouldn't it be a shame if it were to fall into Lambrecht's hands? Thibaud coyly agreed that this would be a waste of such a priceless work of art.

The party traded the statuette in exchange for Thibaud's services in detecting any magic. No magic items were present, but Thibaud was interested in buying the bearskin (a rug would really tie the room together), plus the ring and the pearl the party had recovered in their first expedition. The party made the sale and headed to the manse's opposite wing to meet with Albertyna.

They found Albertyna in her study, brewing a hangover remedy using her elaborate alchemy set. She welcomed them in to have a seat. She had considered the possibility of a bounty for the owlbears and agreed to give the party 50 gold pieces for each owlbear slain, with the potential for a bonus if they rooted out the owlbears in their lair.

The party decided to inform Albertyna of their expeditions to Quasqueton. This troubled Albertyna. She explained that Lambrecht had a claim to Quasqueton, and that it was her duty to repossess any items recovered from there, as they rightfully belonged to her liege lord. The party had just sold the bearskin, which they were using to carry the treasure, so their arms were currently full with a looted tapestry, a pair of mounted ram's horns, and two barbarian swords. Now, if the items weren't from Quasqueton...well, Albertyna would have nothing to report. The party changed their story, instead claiming that they had stumbled upon the treasures in the woods. This pleased Albertyna.

The party asked if it would be a bad thing if Lambrecht came into possession of Quasqueton, to which Albertyna said no, of course not, Lambrecht is the rightful inheritor of Quasqueton and it would be good and just for him to be its ruler.

They asked if Albertyna was interested in hearing rumors about Quasqueton. She said yes, providing the rumors came from a veritable source. The party explained that they had "heard" that there was an ancient stone idol in Quasqueton which may or may not house some ancient malevolent entity intent on subjugating all who lived in the region. "That is a very troubling rumor indeed," Albertyna said, "if it is substantiated."

Since the party had shared a rumor with her, Albertyna felt it only right that she share a rumor with them. She had heard tell of a mercenary who had loudly boasted in taverns around town that he had been to Quasqueton and had single-handedly slain a "demon worm" within. He returned to town with a mule which he advertised as "the Mule of Quasqueton" in a desperate attempt to earn some money when carousing had left his pockets empty. Agents of Lambrecht had come for the man and brought him to the wizard's castle for questioning as to how he found the ruin, what he found there, and who he was with. She explained that most who are taken to the wizard's castle for questioning do not return.

The party asked if, by chance, some group of adventurers should stumble upon Quasqueton, whether they should avoid the place for fear of reprisal. Albertyna explained that Lambrecht is a cautious man, obsessed with portents and omens, and that he will take no action unless he determines that the stars are aligned properly for him to do so. She would never endorse the illegal plundering of Quasqueton, of course, but suggested that the party should keep their ears open for any further rumors about the place and report them to her upon hearing anything.

We wrapped the session there. This was another fun one! Lots of fun social interaction. It was good to get some of the town's NPCs introduced and to have the players learn that they really need to be careful about navigating the local politics and what information about their activities they choose to share. The encounter with Albertyna wandering the streets at night was a random encounter, and it was very fortuitous timing, so I'm happy with how that worked out. I had a lot of fun roleplaying the coy double talk interaction with her at the manse. We really got into a flow state and ended up playing a full hour longer than we had intended.

Next time, the party has a few more things to wrap up in town. They still need to sell the rest of their treasure, and they have expressed interest in recruiting some henchmen and in hiring a river boat to help them bring back more treasure from the dungeon. Then I imagine it will be back to Quasqueton for expedition number three!