Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 26)

We played the twenty-sixth session of our Dungeon Module B1: In Search of Unknown AD&D 2e game last night. You can read past play reports here.

The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 3 (Maya)
• Rhonodel, NG elf cleric 1 (Jack)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling hound master, his dog, Ripper, and the party's three war dogs, Huey, Dewey, and Phooey (NPC)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)

Last we played, the party resolved to try to relocate Quasqueton's library. They wanted to find out if it had any record of Zelligar's past apprentices, so that they could fact check Lambrecht's claim to being Zelligar's heir. Unfortunately, there were some giant weasels in the way.

The party did battle with the weasels, killing two of them as a third one fled deeper into the dungeon, but not before one of the weasels killed one of their dogs, Huey. They claimed the weasels' pelts to sell back in town, then continued their search for the library.

They found an opened secret room where some giant centipedes were chowing down on a dead ogre. They killed the centipedes and harvested their venom. There were a bunch of construction materials in the room. The party claimed an empty sack and a length of rope.

The party continued down a series of winding corridors going left, left, right, right, left, and left again. They were confident that they were not heading towards the library at all, but back towards the dungeon entrance. Through a door on the left, they found a three way intersection, but decided to disregard it. They continued past the door and eventually ended up on the other side of the second secret door connecting to the entrance hall. 

We picked up there. Continuing their search for the library, the party returned to the former goblins' territory and went back down the hall where they had fought the weasels, ending up back at the three way intersection with the 135 degree slanting passage on the left and two parallel passages on the right.

They went down the nearer of the two parallel passages, which turned right after 40 feet, with a 10' alcove beyond it. Peeking around the corner, they a side passage on the right, 60 feet ahead. The passage continued beyond it. They were confident - based on one of their maps - that if they were close to the library, they would see a passage that curved to the left. Thus, they decided not to explore this route. Suspicious of the 10' alcove, they searched for secret doors, but found none.

Backtracking to the passage entrance, they went down the second of the parallel passages. This one went 30 feet and turned left. Peeking around the corner, they saw the passage went 40 feet ahead and curved left. Aha!

They followed the passage, which curved gently to the left for about 80 feet, forming a U shape, before straightening out again. It continued another 40 feet beyond that, with a door on the right and a passage on the left. They proceeded to the door and looked down the passage, which went 60 feet and ended in a dead end. There was a pair of ornately carved oaken doors on the left, halfway down the hall.

The party threw open the doors and found themselves back in the library at last. The room was dimly illuminated by the reddish glow of fire beetles, kept in terrariums set into the far wall. The floor was dusty red granite with white granite blocks in the floor forming "R&Z". There were three bookshelves, a scroll rack, and furniture scattered about the room.

Llombaerth and Rhonodel went to work searching through the various books and scrolls while Mirkle searched for secret doors. The first time the party had come here, I had told the players that there was nothing but mundane books in here. This felt like a missed opportunity, so since the players were making it a point to come back here, I decided to retcon it and flesh out the contents a bit more (this is why I posted about Hack & Slash Compendium II's tables for determining the contents of libraries over on Bluesky a while ago).

The first shelf contained twenty scholarly volumes discussing traditional Dwarven sculpture, metalwork, architecture, musical instruments, and composition. Some were reference works; others were critical commentaries on particular artists and musical traditions. Llombaerth, being skilled at appraising, determined that these would have value to a sage interested in demihuman-kind, specifically their arts and culture. The whole collection weighed about 100 pounds and was worth 1,000 gold pieces (determined by referring to AD&D's robust rules regarding sages).

The second shelf contained ninety scrolls of common accounting instruction and practice: ledgers, bookkeeping methods, inventories, commercial arithmetic, and sample business accounts. Most were practical instructional texts, but a few were written in a familiar hand and bore a recognizable sigil - a black, bisected eye. 

The handwriting and sigil were comparable to those found in several books recovered from what the party believed to be Zelligar's chambers. The party recalled that they were still in possession of a diary presumably belonging to Zelligar, written in a magical cypher which they had yet to decode. Egbert would be able to decipher it with magic, but did not have the spells prepared at the time.

Scrutinizing the ledgers, the party found more in Zelligar's hand - records of payments for stone, iron, glassware, inks, and laboratory materials, which suggested the presence of a laboratory somewhere in the stronghold which the party had yet to discover. The ledgers also recorded payments made to an unnamed apprentice. Whether this was Zelligar's apprentice (and if that was in fact Lambrecht) or an apprentice to a blacksmith or other craftsman was unclear.

The third shelf contained forty scrolls containing philosophical manifestos, discourses, and rants. Their subjects were varied, and the collection included contradictory positions rather than a single coherent school of thought. Some works were measured arguments; others polemical attacks on rival philosophers, established customs, or the nature of society itself. 

A common theme was the nature of life, death, rebirth, and identity - a rant about death as an arbitrary moral boundary, a debate about whether a person remains who they were after every part of their body has been replaced, an argument that identity survives through the continued use of one's name, and the like. Several scrolls were heavily annotated in Zelligar's hand. In the marginalia, Zelligar repeatedly challenged the claim that a copy, successor, or remembered version of a person is necessarily inferior to the original.

Strange. The party began to question whether Lambrecht was Zelligar's clone. Preposterous! ...Right?

Finally, the scroll rack contained fifty scrolls of erotic poetry and lyrics, ranging from sentimental love songs to bawdy verses and elaborate celebrations of physical desire. Some appeared intended to be sung or performed, with occasional musical notation. A common theme was lovers promising to recognize one another in every future life, regardless of what forms they take or how many centuries pass. This resonated with Rhonodel, whose pantheon is itself concerned with some of these themes, so he pocketed a few scrolls.

Deciding that they could not currently carry the sage texts, but confident that they could find the library again once they returned with their mules, the party left the library and returned to the door at the end of the hall. Beyond it, the passage extended for 40 feet and went both left and right. At the intersection, to the left was a passage that continued at least 60 feet, and to the right was a door 10 feet ahead. The passage continued to the right of the door. That passage went 30 feet and turned left. 

The party opened the door and found the room with the crystal formation in the far corner. The crystal had a chunk removed from the last time they had been here. Llombaerth decided to take another chunk while the rest of the party waited outside. As they stood around waiting, they noticed that behind them there was now a 10' deep alcove where once there had been a passage, and the passage to the library was gone. They took some chunks of crystal and drew an A on the floor in chalk.

They exited the room and reentered, hoping to be teleported again, but it didn't work. There was still a passage to the right of the door, so they followed it. It went 30 feet and turned left. 10 feet beyond the turn was a side passage to the right. 20 feet beyond that, the passage turned left. They took the left. Beyond the turn, the passage continued 50 feet and turned left again. Beyond the turn, a side passage 10 feet ahead on the right led to a 10' dead end alcove, which the party concluded was just on the other side of teleportation room A. 

Beyond the side passage with the dead end, the passage continued 20 feet to a T intersection. At the intersection was a 10' alcove to the left. To the right was a 30' passage that turned right. They followed the passage to the right and saw a door 30 feet ahead on the right and a passage on the left. Opening the door, they found another room with a crystal formation, but no A on the floor. The crystal had one chunk removed, rather than two. 

The party concluded that this was the room they had initially entered, which had teleported them to the other room. They check down the hall and through another door and saw the library doors again. Reoriented, they decided to explore down the long passage opposite the door to the teleportation room. 

The passage went 90 feet straight ahead from the passage leading to the library, then turned left, went 20 feet, and turned right. 30 feet beyond that was a door, and the passage continued to the right. Proceeding to the door, they saw that the passage to the right went 20 feet and turned left, and that there was a door on the right 10 feet ahead.

They entered the first door and found a smithy, about 30' x 20' with a 20' x 20' annex behind them and to the left. In the annex was another door in the bottom right hand corner. There was a faint whistling sound in the room, which seemed to originate from a ventilation system in the ceiling. 

Beyond the door in the annex was a 20' x 20' room with a pile of logs stacked to the left of the door. There was a 3' diameter hole in the floor in the far left corner. A rope was secured to an iron ring affixed to the wall, dangling down the hole. There was another door straight across from the one they had just entered through.

The party concluded that this was where the gnomes had climbed down to the lower level. They went through the far door. Beyond it, a passage went right for 40 feet and turned right. They followed it and found themselves back at the door to the smithy, with an unexplored door ahead of them. Opening it, they found a 20' x 20' room full of soot and dust. There was a pile of wood stacked against the far wall and a door to the left.

The door was stuck, but with the help of Llombaerth's crowbar, Rhonodel forced it open, finding only a bricked up wall on the other side. Annoying! There being nowhere else to explore, the party backtracked all the way to the teleportation rooms and the side passage just outside room A, which they had not explored.

The passage went 20 feet and turned right. Beyond the turn, it continued 100 feet and turned right again. Beyond that, they saw a side passage 10 feet ahead on the left, and another 20 feet beyond that on the right. The main passage continued beyond the light of their lantern.

The side passage on the left went left at a 45 degree angle, then right at a 45 degree angle and off into the darkness. The party was confident that this led to the corridor with the trio of empty bedchambers and the maze where they had found Rogahn's gym and battled the giant tick. They did not want to go that way.

The side passage on the right went at least 60 feet. 40 feet beyond it, they saw another side passage on the left, and the main passage seemed to continue. At this point, the party was pretty confident that if they followed the main passage, they would end up back at the intersection with the 135 degree diagonal passage and the two parallel passages. They continued.

60 feet beyond the further side passage on the left was a T intersection. At the intersection, there was a 10' alcove on the left. To the right, the passage went 40 feet and opened up into a larger intersection. At the far side of the intersection was a passage which went 45 degrees to the left. Sure enough, they had ended up back where they started.

We concluded the session there. The highlight of this session was definitely the library. It was awesome to see the players consulting their maps and comparing notes to orient themselves and experimenting with the teleportation rooms. They found the smithy area, which was unexplored to this point. It was super satisfying to see them figure out where they were and how to get around, which passages to ignore, and finally navigate back to more familiar territory.

We talked a bit about what they might get up to next. They are nearly done with Quasqueton, but there are a few iconic areas of the dungeon which they've yet to find. They have some ideas about which areas they still need to explore. 

Beyond that, dealing with Lambrecht is first and foremost on their minds. He is presumably a powerful wizard, and getting to him won't be easy, but once they're in the room with him, it could be as simple as stabbing him with some centipede venom and getting a lucky roll. There's also Blanchefleur and all the horned demon/devil stuff to untangle. They discussed installing Albertyna as the town's ruler and claiming Quasqueton as their own seat of power.

Likely, those ambitions will have to wait. There's more of the sandbox to explore yet - wilderness monster lairs, town adventures, and the like. We discussed the possibility of a TPK if they get in over their heads too quickly, which at this point would be disastrous, as Quasqueton has been plundered, so new characters would have little treasure to extract to level up. We will see how it unfolds!

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 25)

We played the twenty-fifth session of our Dungeon Module B1: In Search of Unknown AD&D 2e game last night. You can read past play reports here.

The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 3 (Maya)
• Rhonodel, NG elf cleric 1 (Jack)
• Rory the Small, LN human fighter 2 (David)
• Zommernar, CN elf fighter 3 (Nael)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling hound master, his dog, Ripper, and the party's three war dogs, Huey, Dewey, and Phooey (NPC)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)

Last we played, the party took Gruda, their ogre captive, in search of the remaining ogres prowling the halls of Quasqueton. They explored a passage which was new to them, where Gruda said the ogre Rugg had gone. They found a room with a desiccated husk on the floor and two insects with batlike wings clinging to the ceiling, but decided not to engage. Beyond that, they found a door and, trying to open it, triggered a trap door which dropped the player characters and Gruda down to the lower level into an icy cold pool of water.

Once they climbed out, they found Rugg waiting for them. Gruda told Rugg to kill them, then fled. Llombaerth and Zommernar teamed up to quickly bring the ogre down. The party then chased down Gruda, who Zommernar slew as well.

Since Rhonodel and Zommernar had not yet benefited from the magic rock that either kills you or does something good, they spent some time trying to relocate the rock, but got lost and turned back.

As the party made arrangements to climb out of the pit with the help of their hirelings above. Another ogre threatened the hirelings up above, but was torn apart by the party's war dogs. Regrouping at the top of the pit, the party returned to the entrance corridor and found a gigantic, 7' long weasel hunched over the body of Yamda the ogre, hissing and snarling at them.

We picked up there. The party discussed what to do next, and how to deal with the weasel. They wanted to find Quasqueton's library again. They hoped that there would be some information there about Zelligar's past apprentices. They wanted to fact check Lambrecht's claim to being Zelligar's rightful heir. 

They believed that the library was down the corridor to their right, which was just 20' in front of the defensive weasel. They decided to try it, with Mirkle, Rory, and Zommernar forming a wall in the front and the men-at-arms in the rank behind them with their spetums. The weasel was defensive and irritable, but didn't want a fight. It allowed them to come close enough to duck into the passage without attacking them.

The corridor went straight ahead 60' and then turned right. Around the bend, they could hear faint growling and wet ripping and tearing, and could smell blood and animal musk. Llombaerth crept ahead, but failed to move silently. Rounding the corner, he found a second giant weasel feasting on the carcass of the ogre they had killed near the back door to the kitchen. The weasel hissed and snarled at Llombaerth, but did not attack. He stumbled back to rejoin the party.

The party decided to deal with this giant weasel more directly. Llombaerth, Mirkle, Rory, Zommernar, and the men-at-arms would surround it while Rhonodel, Egbert, the porters, and the dogs stayed behind in the corridor to watch for the other giant weasel at their back.

They launched their attack against the giant weasel. Mirkle hit the weasel with her spetum for 5 damage, and Rory hit it with his halberd for 6, bloodying it. As they fought, the men-at-arms spotted a third weasel, which emerged from the secret storeroom at the party's back and fled down the corridor away from the fighting. 

The weasel which had been eating Yamda's corpse also came around the corner to attack the party's rear, as they had expected. Brazile loosed the dogs on it. Huey and Dewey hit the weasel for 8 total damage, which also bloodied it. The weasel seized Huey, the runt of the litter, in its jaws and dragged him to the ground, slurping down his blood as he kicked and thrashed, then fell limp. Rhonodel charged into the fray as well.

Both weasels' morale broke. The one fighting the party turned its back and fled, opening itself to attack. Mirkle and the men-at-arms all struck with their spetums, killing it. As Llombaerth ran to reinforce Rhonodel and the dogs, the weasel that had killed Huey made a fighting retreat, the dogs chasing after it. Llombaerth caught up with the dogs and grabbed them by the collar, allowing the weasel to flee down the corridor towards the trap door leading to the water pit.

With a successful Wisdom check, Mirkle recalled that giant weasel pelts were greatly valued. They would sell for 1,000 to 6,000 gold pieces each. The party eagerly skinned the first giant weasel, then went to track down the second. They found it with its back to the open trap door. Llombaerth, Mirkle, and Rhonodel formed a line and fired upon it with their bows as it leapt at Llombaerth. Mirkle scored a critical hit, shooting it through the eye for 10 damage, which killed it. They skinned it as well.

At this point, is was 11 pm in game time. The party had spent five hours on the boat, seven hours hiking up to Quasqueton, and four hours in the dungeon. They were exhausted and would need to rest. They left the dungeon to make camp out front of the entrance. There was a full moon.

Around 4 am, Rory was on watch when he noticed a family of badgers rustling around in the undergrowth, scavenging for the party's camp leavings. Bilodeau, who was also awake, remarked how they could club the badgers and sell their pelts as well. Surely someone would pay something for them. Rory declined, and Bilodeau grumbled and returned to his bedroll to sulk.

The rest of the evening passed without incident. The next morning was cloudy and warm. Rhonodel spent 45 minutes rememorizing his spells - referring to this section from the 1e DMG:

The party then reentered Quasqueton, still intent on locating the library. They navigated back to the corridor where they had found the second giant weasel. With their backs to the kitchen, then found themselves in a 20' wide corridor which went 40' straight ahead (with the secret storeroom from which the third weasel had fled on the left), then narrowed into a 10' wide corridor for another 30' before opening onto an intersection.

At the intersection, to the left was a 20' wide corridor which went back and to the left at a 135 degree angle. To the right was a pair of parallel 10' wide passages. The closer of the two went 40' ahead and turned left. The further of two went 30' ahead and turned left as well.

Zommernar was confident that the 135 degree passage to the left would lead back to the library, so the party headed that way. About 30' down the passage was an opening on the right. The passage continued for another 20' or so beyond the opening and then turned left. The party heard rustling from the room to the right.

Investigating, they found a roughly 30' by 30' room filled with construction materials - wooden beams, blocks of stone, doors, coiled rope, boxes, sacks, and the like. There was also a dead ogre on the floor. In one hand, it clutched a giant centipede it had crushed. Another two centipedes were crawling over its corpse, feeding on it.

Once again, Llombaerth, Mirkle, and Rhonodel lined up and loosed a volley into the room, easily slaying the centipedes. Rory instructed Llombaerth as he carefully extracted the centipedes' venom, giving the party three doses of venom to use as they wished.

The party searched the room and found:

• A 200’ coil of heavy rope
• A box of 50 iron spikes
• A box of metal nails
• 80 10’ x 6” x 6” wooden beams. 2 giant centipedes nest among the beams, attacking if disturbed.
• An almost empty sack of building mortar
• A stack of 400 6” x 6” x 12” stone blocks
• Six wooden doors
• A large box of assorted hardware (locks, hinges, clasps, handles, bolts, etc.)
• A jug of dried glue

They cut off a 50' length of rope and took some spikes and the dried glue. Zommernar emptied the sack of mortar and took that as well. In their search, they noted that the door to this room was constructed like other secret doors in the dungeon. They searched for other secret doors, but didn't find any. There being no other exits, they returned to the corridor outside.

They followed the passage as it turned left. The passage went another 50' or so straight ahead, then turned right at a 45 degree angle. Beyond the turn, the passage narrowed to 10' wide, continued straight for 40', then gently curved right at a roughly 90 degree angle. They followed the curving passage for 50' or so, whereupon it curved sharply to the left at a roughly 90 degree angle. 40' beyond that, the passage straightened out again. The party was pretty sure at this point that they were not heading towards the library.

The corridor beyond went straight ahead for 100', then turned left. 70' beyond the turn there was a door on the left. Beyond the door, the passage continued for 40' and turned left. They checked beyond the door. It opened onto an upside down "T" intersection. To the left, a corridor went 60' and turned right. The corridor straight ahead went at least 60', beyond the light of their lantern. To the right, the corridor went 30' and turned left.

They stepped back out into the hallway before the door and decided to continue down the corridor and take the left, thinking that it might bring them back to the dungeon entrance. After the turn, the corridor continued 30' and ended in another door.

Past the door, the corridor went 10' and turned left, then went 10' and turned right. 70' beyond that was a 10' deep alcove. 60' beyond the alcove, the corridor turned right. They concluded that the alcove must contain the secret door leading back to the entrance corridor. 

They searched the alcove thoroughly, but didn't find anything until Bilodeau, exasperated, leaned against the wall and pressed a stone block into the wall. A secret door in the back of the alcove opened, and the party found themselves back at the dungeon entrance. They spiked the door open and we ended the session there.

The players got pretty lucky with those giant weasels, which never hit any of them and only killed their weakest dog! Giant weasels are scary. The players went from wanting nothing to do with them to hunting them down as soon as they found out how much their pelts were worth. And there's still one running around somewhere in the dungeon!

This was also the first session in a long time where the players spent a significant portion of time actually exploring a new area of the dungeon. It was a great delight to sit back while they studied their maps and tried to figure out how to get back to an area they had previously visited. It's been a long time since they were in the library! I'm looking forward to seeing where they go next time.

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 24)

We played the twenty-fourth session of our Dungeon Module B1: In Search of Unknown AD&D 2e game last night. You can read past play reports here.

The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 3 (Maya)
• Rhonodel, NG elf cleric 1 (Jack)
• Zommernar, CN elf fighter 2 (Nael)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling hound master, his dog, Ripper, and the party's three war dogs, Huey, Dewey, and Phooey (NPC)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Gruda, ogre (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)

Last we played, the party reentered Quasqueton to confront the ogre now guarding the entrance corridor. They were joined by Rhonodel, an elf cleric whose goddess, Minara, had sent him to Quasqueton on a divine quest.

They lured the ogre out of the kitchen and into the entrance corridor. She attempted to snatch Llombaerth at first, but paused when she saw the large party and their dogs. They attempted to negotiate with her. Her name was Yamda, and she was holding some of the party's goblin allies hostage to eat. Yamda attempted to trade the goblins for Brazile and one elf, then for one of the party's dogs. When they refused, she shut down negotiations and began to retreat. The party sent their dogs after her, and she was promptly killed.

The party proceeded to the kitchen, where they found Pigmug and Tobb, tied up and marinating in a basin. The kitchen now looked like a slaughterhouse. They freed the goblins and learned they had been taking shelter in Quasqueton's throne room when a pair of ogres had attacked them, killing some and snatching others. The remaining goblins were likely all dead. The party convinced the goblins that they had to go somewhere else. They clearly were not safe at the entrance to the dungeon.

Rhonodel attempted to secure the kitchen, only to spot another ogre rapidly approaching from around the corner. It burst into the kitchen to attack. The party loosed their dogs on the new ogre and fired projectiles at it from afar. Llombaerth attempted to use the kitchen's back door to flank the ogre, but ran into a second ogre waiting outside.

Llombaerth set the second ogre alight with flaming oil. When it charged, Bilodeau skewered it on his spetum, killing it. The remaining ogre surrendered, but not before friendly fire had killed one of the party's dogs, Louie.

The surviving ogre was Gruda. The party learned of three more ogres wandering the dungeon - Gugg, Gurgak, and Rugg. Gruda indicated in what direction each had gone. She told them that the ogres had come here in search of the people who had stolen their treasure (a bunch of items the party did not recognize). The ogres had a lair in the forest. Someone from town had come to their lair and told their leader, Okorg, that whoever had stolen their treasure would be found in the dungeon. Based on the description, the messenger sounded like an agent of Lambrecht. The ogres had kept the messenger as prisoner along with several others they had snatched from the lands surrounding Timbershore.

The party decided to keep Gruda prisoner and use her to defuse tension with the remaining ogres, should they be encountered. They considered the possibility of visiting Okorg's den to treat with him and question Lambrecht's messenger. To assure Gruda's loyalty, Llombaerth placed a guano bomb in her pocket.

We picked up there. Pigmug and Tobb scavenged some weapons from the kitchen, then went to seek shelter elsewhere in the dungeon. Gruda had indicated that one of the ogres, Rugg, had taken a left from the kitchen and proceeded down the central corridor. The party had not been that way yet, so they decided to explore in the direction.

From the kitchen, the passage went 90 feet and turned right. 80 feet past the turn was a door on the left. 30 feet past that, the passage turned left. The party inspected the door and opened it. Poking their heads inside, they found a barren room with just the shriveled husk of a small creature - a dwarf, gnome, halfling, or goblin, perhaps - curled up on the floor. Scanning the ceiling, they saw two insectoid creatures with leathery batlike wings clinging to the ceiling, irritated by the light of the party's lantern. The party closed the door.

The proceeded down the corridor. It turned left, went 10 feet, turned right, went 20 feet, and turned left again. 10 feet past the second left turn was a door. The party convinced Gruda to open the door, suspecting that Rugg would be behind it. As Gruda pulled on the door, there was a click, and the ground fell away beneath them. A trap door opened beneath Llombaerth, Rhonodel, Zommernar, and Gruda, sending them plummeting 40 feet into a pool of icy water.

Gruda took 1 damage, Llombaerth took 2, and Rhonodel and Zomminar each took 4 - half of Rhonodel's hit points! All except Gruda were weighed down by their gear, and risked drowning unless some of it was shed. Gruda easily climbed out of the pool as the party fought to survive. They shed their packs and anything else they didn't need to carry, letting these items sink to the bottom. They crawled out with nothing more than their armor and a weapon or two, soaking wet and shivering.

When they emerged, they found another ogre slumped against the wall of the cavern but beginning to stand, himself a bit damp, partially eaten gnoll corpses surrounding him. Gruda ran to him. "Quickly, Rugg! They killed Yamda and and Grulga! Smash them into goo!" Rugg did not need any encouragement. 

Gruda fled past Rugg to the cavern's exit, then turned back to shout encouragement at Rugg. Zommernar lifted her long sword, and she and Rugg charged one another. Llombaerth circled around Rugg. Rhonodel cast sanctuary on himself.

Protected by sanctuary, Rhonodel took a flask of flaming oil from Llombaerth and chased Gruda from the room. Llombaerth slashed at Rugg from behind (though not a backstab, as Rugg was aware of him) for maximum damage (8), giving Zommernar an opening to land a critical hit for a whopping 25 damage on a roll of 2d12 (+2 for specialization)! Zommernar lopped the ogre's head clean off.

The party pursued Gruda. Rhonodel flung his flask of oil at her, but it went wide, smashing against the wall of the next cavern. Llombaerth's own flask of oil flew over Gruda's head, smashing on the inside of the tunnel which Gruda had planned to use for her escape. (Because Gruda had a bomb in her pocket, the party was flinging oil at her from a considerable distance, and so had a penalty to hit.) Gruda turned and attempted to beg for her life once more, but Zommernar charged with her long sword and drove it into the ogre's belly (10 damage), slaying Gruda once and for all.

The party pilfered some gold coins from Gruda's body, then returned to the cavern with the pool of water and found that the trap door above them had closed. Egbert, their hirelings, and their dogs were above, shouting down to them through the door. The party instructed the hirelings to tie a rope around the door handle, step back around the corner, and pull. They did so, and the door swung open. The hirelings quickly drove spiked into the hinges so it would not close again. The mechanism reactivated, but seemed to fail due to the obstruction and went silent. Lendeborg kept a grip on the rope, allowing it to dangle down into the pit.

The party spent about 30 minutes fishing their gear out of the pool using a rope and grappling hook. They decided to try to find the room with the magic rock before heading back upstairs, as Rhonodel and Zommernar had not yet had the opportunity to partake of the rock's flesh. 

They decided to take a route they had not explored yet. They went out into the cavern where Gruda had been slain, then took a left into a cavern filled with bioluminescent fungus. They took a right from there, saw an empty cavern on their left, and explored a narrow, slippery, downward sloping tunnel straight ahead, which led to a dead end. They backtracked and took the tunnel opposite the empty cavern. It curved to the left, and they came upon a door on the right. Peeking inside, they found another empty cavern, shaped like an arena or fighting pit. They exited the cavern and continued down the tunnel, taking a right from the door.

The tunnel continued for a while and forked to the right and left. To the right was the pit trap into which they had lured Ghudgak's orcs when the orcs had tried to ambush them. To the left, the tunnel continued, but also turned sharply to the right. The party was not entirely sure where they were in relation to the magic stone, so they decided to backtrack to the room with the cold pool.

Rather than climb the rope, each member of the party would hold the rope while their hirelings hauled them up. While they were planning who should go up first, they heard the dogs barking up above, and heavy footsteps plodding towards their hirelings. A deep voice said "Sounds like dogs are on the menu tonight!"

The party ordered Brazile to loose the dogs on the ogre, and for Bioldeau and Graves to follow with their spetums. Llombaerth would have to climb the rope himself, but it would take two rounds to get up there. Rhonodel cast bless high enough in the air to catch everyone up above.

The ogre struck first, hitting Dewey, the alpha of the pack, for 9 damage. All three dogs tore into the ogre for a total of 17 damage while Bilodeau and Graves flailed with their spetums. The ogre's morale quickly broke, and it turned and fled, opening its back to the dogs. Phooey landed a hit for 7 damage, and Dewey scored a vengeful critical hit for 11 damage, killing the ogre. By the time Llombaerth climbed up out of the pit, the battle was over. 

The hirelings quickly hauled the remaining party members back up. Rhonodel cast cure light wounds on Dewey, who was looking rough, healing the dog for 7 HP. The party unspiked the trap door, and Zommernar used the rope to tug on the door again, hoping to reset the trap, but the mechanism seemed to be broken. There was about a foot of clearance around the pit. They navigated carefully around it to examine the door, but concluded that it was likely a false door, and left it.

With nowhere else to explore, the party returned to the entrance corridor. Backtracking down the hall, they made the left turn and moved 40 feet down the passage. At the edge of their lantern light, just beyond the door to the kitchen, they saw a skinny, 7' long mammal feasting on Yamda's corpse. 

Disturbed by the light, the creature looked up from its meal at them. They knew what a weasel looked like, and this was clearly a weasel of prodigious size! It hunched over its prize protectively, leering at them with its ferocious eyes, snarling, with blood and flesh dripping from its jaws.

We wrapped there! The party got enough XP from the ogres for Zommernar to level up - she is now a 3rd level fighter, and gained 3 HP. 

It was another good one. I liked that the party fell into the water pit that they had discovered early, and that they were separated from their hirelings, forcing them to fight Rugg alone. Zommernar really shined this session. 

The ogre at the top of the pit was a random encounter. If it weren't for the dogs, who are proving to be worth their weight in gold and then some, the party's hirelings might have been in a lot of trouble! 

The giant weasel is blocking the party's exit from the dungeon, and they don't have much time left to explore before they have to retreat to rest, so that should be interesting. We'll see how they handle it!

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 23)

We played the twenty-third session of our Dungeon Module B1: In Search of Unknown AD&D 2e game last night. You can read past play reports here.

The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 3 (Maya)
• Rhonodel, NG elf cleric 1 (Jack)
• 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)
• Hadric, Wilda Brambletoe, Corvin, Aelwen Riversong, and 20 oarsmen - the crew of the Mossy Turtle (NPCs)
• The party's guard dog (Spot), hunting dog (Vincenzo), and four war dogs (Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Phooey)

Last we played, the party met with their wizardly ally, Albertyna, and exchanged what information they had learned since their last meeting. Albertyna filled them in on town politics. She told them about Blanchefleur, the sinister cleric who ruled the religious stronghold in the Chapel Ward, and about the Horned Mother, the deity or demon which they worshipped. Blanchefleur was, in her way, the real power in Timbershore, but Lambrecht seemed to tolerate her. Albertyna was not sure how the Horned Mother might relate to the horned demon carving the party had found in Quasqueton.

The party also informed Albertyna that they suspected that Lambrecht was scrying on them. Albertyna told them there was little they could do to prevent this from happening, but that Lambrecht's ability to spy on them was limited in terms of success, frequency, and length of viewing by how well he knew them. If he met them personally or came into possession of an item belonging to them or a part of their body, his powers would be greatly enhanced.

The  party asked Albertyna if she could call in any favors with the town guard so that they would be somewhat protected. Albertyna said she would talk to Manolito, the captain of Llombaerth's household guard. While Manolito served Lambrecht, Albertyna had a friendly relationship with him, and believed he would be able to help. 

The party had much to think about. They returned to the Mooring Post to get some rest and to wait for prospective henchmen to respond to their advertisements. That evening, Llombaerth found a pair of eyeballs in his fish stew, staring up at him, blinking. They decided to leave town as soon as possible, scrambling to gather their henchman and hirelings and animals. They would meet on the barge and depart town for Quasqueton at first light.

They did so, sailing downriver in a hailstorm. As they were moored along the river's edge at dusk, they spotted half a dozen humans - who appeared to be followers of Blanchefleur, hunting in the forest. The hunters did not notice the party, so they elected to stay hidden. They reached Quasqueton the next day, encountering a pair of giant birds that flew low overhead as they ascended the hill.

Llombaerth snuck inside the dungeon and found the entrance corridor lined with heads on spikes. First he saw the heads of Mangug and his orcs, then the heads of the party's remaining zombie followers, then the head of Indur, their friendly gnoll. Llombaerth could smell someone cooking in the kitchen. He triggered the twin magic mouths to lure whoever it was out of the room, then hid in an alcove to see who showed up.

A nine and a half foot tall monstrous female humanoid emerged from the kitchen, inspected the area, grumbled to herself, and returned to the kitchen. Llombaerth snuck back out to report this to the rest of the party.

We picked up there. We were joined by a new player, Jack, who is playing Rhonodel, an elf cleric. This is our first new player since Maya joined in session 6! Rhonodel wandered up to the group as Llombaerth was rejoining them, inserting himself into their conversation. Introductions were made. Rhonodel's deity, Minara, had sent him a vision of Quasqueton and told him he was needed here. Simple. He joined the party.

They discussed what to do about what they presumed was an ogre in the kitchen. Llombaerth would once again sneak inside, trigger the magic mouths, and hide in the alcoves halfway down the corridor, while the rest of the party hid in the first set of alcoves, closest to the dungeon entrance. Llombaerth would attempt to talk to the ogre. Failing that, the rest of the party would emerge from hiding to back him up.

They enacted their plan. The ogre came stomping out again, but this time Llombaerth called out to her, asking if the goblins were still alive. The ogre stomped towards Llombaerth and grunted, "Goblins marinating." Llombaerth tried to tell the ogre he meant her no harm, but she kept approaching at a threatening pace. Llombaerth squeezed out of the alcove and slipped away just as the ogre was closing into melee range. He ran back to the rest of the group.

At this point, the ogre noticed the rest of the party with their mercenaries and dogs huddled together in the further alcoves. She stopped in her tracks, scratching her chin. "You no mean Yamda harm? What do you want?"

The party attempted to negotiate the release of the goblins. Yamda said she would trade two goblins for one elf and the halfling - salivating as her gaze fell upon Brazile. The party declined. Yamda counteroffered with one goblin for one of the party's dogs, which they also declined. They ordered Yamda to release the goblins, or else they would loose their dogs on her. Yamda snarled, "You no want to treat in good faith with Yamda. Go away!" She began backtracking down the corridor towards the kitchen.

Brazile let the dogs loose. They raced down the corridor. Three of the four dogs landed hits on Yamda. Two were critical hits. The first dog seized Yamda by the leg and brought her low, while the second dog leapt for her throat, ripping and tearing. Here the players learned that each of their war dogs has 2+2 HD (average 11 HP) and does 2d4 damage per hit. The dogs are an insanely worthwhile investment.

It was over quickly. The dogs fell upon the ogre, tearing her apart until Brazile called them off. The party left the body and went to inspect the kitchen. 

The kitchen had been converted into an abattoir, with piles of gore splattered across every surface. A cast-iron pot hanging from the ceiling by a chain above a cookfire was roiling with a thick, fatty, rich broth. At the far side of the room, the party spotted the goblins Pigmug and Tobb, tied up and sitting in a wash basin full of liquid, smeared in a sickly sweet sauce and crusted with seasoning. Tobb had a rotten apple shoved in his mouth.

They freed the goblins and asked them what had happened. After the party had left, Tobb had reunited the goblins. They had retreated to Drak's throne room for safety. A few days later, the goblins had been attacked in the throne room by an ogre. The goblins had fled, but Pigmug and Tobb had been captured by a second ogre in their flight, whereupon they were brought here.

Where were the rest of the goblins? Tobb pointed at the gore piles around the room. It was hard to tell, but that one might be Narka, and maybe that was Viss...or Numbnuts? If the party was able to find their heads, it would be easier to identify them.

Not liking the sound of a second ogre wandering about, Rhonodel went to close the door to the kitchen. As he did so, he spotted the second ogre rounding the corner just outside. The second ogre spotted the body of the first, then saw Rhonodel, bellowed with rage, and made for the door. Rhonodel decided not to fight with the ogre over control of the door, and retreated back into the kitchen.

The party had their dogs form a line and prepared to engage the ogre with ranged weapons. The ogre charged into the room before they could ready their weapons, and entered into melee with the dogs. Huey managed to get a glancing bite for just 3 damage, but the rest of the dogs missed.

Llombaerth decided to use the kitchen's rear exit to try to flank the ogre. He went to the opposite end of the long kitchen, threw open the door...and found another ogre on the far side! He stumbled back, swinging his short sword, but missed. The party's mercenaries, Bilodeau and Graves, moved to reinforce Llombaerth with their spetums. The ogre tried to grab Llombaerth, but the long reach of the mercenaries' polearms held it at bay.

The rest of the party loosed projectiles at the first ogre. Mirkle and Egbert each got a critical hit, but in the chaos of melee, Mirkle shot Louie in the hindquarters for 5 damage, and Egbert stuck Huey for 3 damage. Huey bit down on the ogre again, this time for 6 damage. Both the ogre and Huey seemed badly wounded.

Llombaerth slipped back behind the mercenaries' wall of spetums, then tossed a flask of flaming oil at the second ogre, scoring a direct hit for 10 damage, setting the ogre alight. Maya joined the group with her own spetum. The second ogre, wishing to get to Llombaerth, attempted to barrel through the front rank. Bilodeau and Graves, who had not yet acted, set to receive the charge. Bilodeau skewered the ogre for a massive 22 damage (11 x 2), stabbing through its midsection and spilling its steaming guts on the floor. The front rank stepped back as the flaming ogre's corpse collapsed in front of them.

The rest of the party continued firing at the first ogre. Both Rhonodel and Zommernar scored hits with their short bows, but both hit Louie instead for a total of 9 damage. Louie whimpered and died at the second arrow struck him.

Finally, the ogre surrendered, begging the party to call off their dogs. They did.

The ogre, named Gruda, would trade information for her life. She told the party that she had found two chests of treasure in a room down the hall - gold coins, jeweled items, and gems. It was more than Gruda had seen in her life. The party informed Gruda that the treasure was illusory. "Of course...Gruda knew that..."

The party asked Gruda how many ogres were in her group. Gruda said there were six of them - now four, including her. Where were the rest? Gurgak had gone that way - she pointed towards the opposite door to the kitchen, where the second ogre had been slain. Gugg had gone that way - she pointed towards the door nearer to her and to the right. Rugg had gone the same way as Gruda - out the door nearer to her and to the left - but had gone straight while Gruda had gone right.

Why were the ogres here? Okorg had sent them here to find the people who had stolen their treasure. Who was Okorg? He was the ogre chieftain. He ruled the cave in the forest. What treasure was stolen from Okorg? Several small things - his silver dagger, his looking glass, his bone cup and dice, his silver horn, his drinking tankards, his collection of belt buckles, his soft cloak...The party mentioned that something had been stolen from them as well, and they suspected some sort of gnome trickster which lived in the forest.

Why did Okorg think that his treasure was here? The lady from town had come to Okorg's court and told him so. What lady from town? Gruda described someone the party did not recognize - a young lady in blue traveler's clothes with a silver emblem. The party recalled that the banners which hung from the walls of Lambrecht's castle were blue with a silver emblem.

The party informed Gruda that Okorg had been tricked. Gruda did not accept this at first - Okorg was the smartest ogre - but eventually she was convinced that Okorg could be deceived. In that case, Okorg must be informed. The lady from town was being kept with the other prisoners until Gruda and the others returned, so there was still time to eat her. 

What other prisoners? The ogres had captured several people while raiding Timbershore's farmlands, among them a dwarf which Okorg used as a truffle hound for smelling out treasure. Okorg had not trusted Gruda's ogres with the dwarf, since he knew they wanted to eat him.

When would the other ogres - Gurgak, Gugg, and Rugg - return? Was there a safe place to meet with them to discuss this? Gruda was not sure - ogres didn't really plan ahead like that. She could try to find them, but it would take a while. Maybe if the party lent her their delicious halfling and one of their scrumptious dogs, she could find the others more quickly...

No - the party decided that Gruda would be their hostage. She would come with them and help smooth things over with the other ogres if they ran into them. If the party found any of Okorg's treasures, the ogres could keep them. If Gruda's friends were amenable, the party might enlist their aid in moving a certain large statue out of the dungeon.

To ensure Gruda's compliance, Llombaerth tricked her into carrying an "oath-keeping device" in her pocket - one of two bombs which Llombaerth had fashioned in town using the party's ample supply of bat guano from the dungeon's lower level. Gruda would remain 20 feet in front of the party, and if Gruda did not behave, Llombaerth would activate the device.

Before they left, the party informed Pigmug and Tobb that the goblins' experiment in occupying Quasqueton was over. Clearly, it had been a disaster, and they should leave while they still lived. The goblins were still unconvinced and unwilling to leave their "home", but they would at least find some new area in which to hide, where monsters were less like to find them. 

We ended the session there. This was fun! I'm excited to have some new blood in the player pool. It's funny to see the players exploiting their new war dogs, which were a great pickup. This session also made the players aware of another element of the sandbox - the ogres whose treasure has been stolen, who have been raiding the lands around Timbershore and have some sort of relationship with Lambrecht. Can the party somehow use them to tip things in their favor? We shall see!

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 22)

We played the twenty-second session of our Dungeon Module B1: In Search of Unknown AD&D 2e game last night. You can read past play reports here.

The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 3 (Maya)
• Rory the Small, LN human fighter 2 (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)
• Hadric, Wilda Brambletoe, Corvin, Aelwen Riversong, and 20 oarsmen - the crew of the Mossy Turtle (NPCs)

Last we played, the party allowed a wood elf to board their barge and inspect the goods they were transporting back to Timbershore. The elf was satisfied that the party were neither brigands nor allies of the wizard Lambrecht. The elf seemed amenable to aiding the party in ridding the forest of its owlbear problem sometime in the future, and indicated where the party might locate he and his fellows at their forward scouting post deeper in the forest. 

The elf also told them that, in the past, when his people were in conflict with the Black Crag barbarians, the barbarians had worshipped a horned demon, which might be related to the ancient, possibly evil stone carving the party had found within Quasqueton. He also shared that, in addition to the brigands and agents of Lambrecht, the forest was plagued by another group of humans - zealots who wore crude furs and horned headdresses, worshipped some primordial beast or demon, and were searching for something in the forest.

The elf and his retinue (who had until then hidden amongst the trees, unnoticed by all aboard the barge) departed into the forest. The party continued on to Timbershore the next morning. Egbert spotted a pair of illusory eyes watching them from the sky. The party concluded that this was Lambrecht scrying upon them. They pretended to fish along the river until the eyes disappeared, then continued on.

They arrived in Timbershore shortly after that, but elected to continue pretending to be humble fisherfolk until night fell, whereupon they lit a signal fire to summon their smuggler friends to their location. They offloaded most of the treasure plundered from Quasqueton, paying 10% of their earnings to the Black Crag barbarian accompanying them, then disembarked in town, parting ways with the barbarian and the gnome, Wilros Wackledeckle. They impressed upon their remaining hirelings the importance of secrecy, and paid them each an additional month's salary to reinforce their point. Everyone scattered to go about their business, and the party headed to the Mooring Post to get a good night's rest.

The next morning, they set about their errands. They advertised that they were looking for another magic-user to bring on as a henchmen, reprovisioned, purchased a bunch of dogs, asked a dwarf miner about the blue ore they had found in Quasqueton (it was basically worthless), and headed to Albertyna's manse to meet with her.

We picked up there. Albertyna was pleased to see them again. They told her about the encounter with the wood elves and what they had said about the human zealots prowling the forest. 

Albertyna told them that it sounded like they were describing worshippers of the Horned Mother. The Horned Mother was the deity of Blanchefleur, a powerful cleric who ruled a religious stronghold in the Chapel Ward. The Horned Mother was either a predatory nature goddess or a demon, depending on who you asked. Her worshippers believed that all the world was prey, except for the Horned Mother and her children. Blanchefleur was the second most powerful individual in town, besides Lambrecht. There was no love lost between she and Albertyna.

The party asked about the relationship between Blanchefleur and Lambrecht. Albertyna told them that the two had an unsteady alliance. Lambrecht had allowed Blanchefleur to build her stronghold and collect tithes from the townsfolk, under the condition that Lambrecht received fitting tribute. Once the stronghold was complete, however, Blanchefleur had attracted a small army of zealous followers and soldiers, which dwarfed Lambrecht's household guard. While Lambrecht was individually more powerful, Blanchefleur's followers were more numerous, and served out of devotion, not for coin. Lambrecht was insular and rarely left his stronghold, so it was not unfair to say that it was Blanchefleur who truly controlled the town.

The party asked if there was a more secure location in which they could speak, as they feared they were being magically watched. Albertyna relocated them to her personal study, the walls of which were lined with lead to prevent such intrusions. There they told her about the eyes they had spotted watching them from the sky the day before. Albertyna said that it was rumored that Lambrecht used a magic mirror to spy on his enemies from afar.

The party asked how exactly this magic worked. If it worked as Albertyna understood it, Lambrecht had likely started looking for them based on a description provided by the man-at-arms he had captured. If it was true that Lambrecht had found them once, it would be easier for him to find them again, since he now knew what they looked like. His ability to locate them, how frequently he could attempt to do so, and for how long he could view them was determined by how well he knew them. It would be easier for him to find them if he met them personally or came into possession of an item belonging to them. And, just because he had found them, that didn't necessarily mean that they would notice.

The party asked if there was some way to prevent this viewing. A nondetection charm would achieve this, but only for a limited time, and it was not magic to which Albertyna had access. There were magic items such as certain amulets which could prevent it as well, but each of them would need to be so equipped, and such items were not easily obtained. The party asked if they could be viewed in a place such as Quasqueton. Albertyna told them there was no limit to the distance at which Lambrecht could observe them, unless Zelligar, in his paranoia, had accounted for such things in the construction of Quasqueton.

The party asked what it was that made Lambrecht the rightful ruler of Timbershore. Simply put, he was the most powerful person who had arrived there first. When Timbershore was but a humble village, it was Rogahn and Zelligar to whom the villagers looked to for protection. When the two left the region and did not return, Lambrecht arrived some time after, claiming to be Zelligar's apprentice. He erected a stronghold from which to project power, and under his guidance, the village had grown into the town it now was.

Albertyna had arrived some time later. Now, she hoped to erect a stronghold of her own, but required Lambrecht's assent. She hoped to earn it by dutiful service as Lambrecht's loyal servant.

Since Albertyna was responsible for enforcing Lambrecht's laws, the party asked if she might be able to protect them, perhaps by pulling strings with the town guard. Albertyna explained that the town guard reported to Manolito, a warrior who was himself captain of Lambrecht's household guard. Manolito served Lambrecht loyally more so by nature than by any sort of devotion to the wizard, and he and Albertyna had much in common and had good rapport. It was something she could work on.

The party considered their options. Blanchefleur and her worshippers were clearly not people to trifle with. What was the relationship between them and the Horned Mother, the Black Crag people, and the stone they found in Quasqueton? Could they be leveraged against one another or against Lambrecht? For that matter, how did Lambrecht relate to these supposed demons and their followers? What were these groups after, and how could the party use it to their advantage, if at all?

They departed from Albertyna's manse and returned to the Mooring Post, deciding to wait a few days to see if any prospective henchmen turned up. The snowy rain persisted the following day, so the party remained indoors. That evening, Llombaerth found a pair of piercing blue-grey eyes floating in his fish stew, staring up at him, blinking.

The party decided to leave town immediately and return to Quasqueton, abandoning their search for a new henchman. The split up, scurrying about town under cover of darkness to round up their hirelings and retrieve their mules and dogs. Their men-at-arms' and porters' term of employment would end in just a few days, so they paid them up front for another twenty days of service. They arranged for their hirelings to meet them at the barge first thing in the morning to depart - the last minute orders seemed to have a negative effect on the group's morale. The party themselves would sleep on the barge that night, just in case.

The night passed without incident, and the party woke to hail storms raining down on them from above. These were not ideal conditions for travel, but they had made their minds up. Once the barge crew arrived, the party set out with their hirelings, heading downriver.

The day's travel was uneventful, and they made it more than halfway downriver and deep into the forest. Around 5:30 pm, with the barge moored along the river's edge, they spotted a group of six humans in crude fur cloaks and horned headdresses stalking through the forest some fifteen feet from the barge. Somehow, the group had not spotted the barge. The party debated whether to ambush them and attempt to capture one for questioning, but opted to remain in hiding. The hunting party passed them by, as did the rest of the evening.

The weather cleared the following morning, and the barge was able to make it the rest of the way downriver and to the edge of the lake by noon. The party disembarked, bringing just Egbert, their men-at-arms, their dogs, and two hirelings - Lendeborg and the halfling Brazile, who would be their hound master. They would return for the rest once they had assessed the situation in the dungeon.

The party made their way into the forest and up the hill, following the river to Quasqueton. At around 4:30 pm, the party had just begun their ascent of the hill when two giant birds with 20' wingspans came swooping down low over the tops of the trees, screeching loudly. Loosened leaves and twigs came rustling down to the forest floor, along with several huge feathers. Fortunately, the giant birds had not intended to make a meal of them, and flew onward out of sight.

They arrived at the dungeon at nightfall. They circled around the crag to the main entrance, and Llombaerth snuck inside.

Again, the dungeon appeared differently than last they had visited. The entrance corridor was lined with spikes planted between the flagstones, with heads skewered upon them. Near the entrance were the heads of Mangug and his orcs. As Llombaerth proceeded further inside, he saw, to his dismay, the heads of the party's remaining two zombie followers. Beyond that were the heads of two gnolls. One was unknown to Llombaerth. The other was recognizably the head of Indur.

Could this be the work of the party's goblin allies? Perhaps the psychotic goblin Tobb was responsible?

Llombaerth could smell the rich aroma of a heavy broth being simmered over a fire, wafting into the corridor from the kitchen area. He decided to trigger the twin magic mouths at the end of the corridor to lure out whatever might be up ahead, then retreat to an earlier pair of alcoves to hide and see what emerged.

He did so. The magic mouths made their loud warnings, and Llombaerth retreated and hid. He heard a deep voice grumble to itself in a language he didn't understand, and felt heavy footsteps shake the floor as the creature made its way out into the corridor. A 9' tall female humanoid emerged from the kitchen and glared out from the top of the short flight of steps, but did not spot Llombaerth. It advanced to the alcove with the magic mouths, inspected the area, grumbled to itself again, and returned to the kitchen.

Llombaerth crept back out of the dungeon to reconvene with the rest of the party and share what he had seen. We ended the session there.

These social interaction-heavy sessions are always hard to recap! So much information is exchanged, and I don't take as good of notes when I'm running those encounters as when I'm running a dungeon exploration. Still, I think I captured everything.

I'm delighted to see the party graduating from simple forays back and forth to the dungeon to learning about faction politics and the complex web of NPC schemes which they're bound to get roped into eventually. Lambrecht's scrying has made the players feel an immense sense of time pressure, for better or worse. There's nothing they can really do about Lambrecht right now, and they know it, which feels a bit bad, but so long as I don't have him teleport into their camp and blow them up with a fireball, I see no harm done. Such is life when the local government is ruled by an evil wizard! 

There is a palpable feeling of tension, like things could pop off at any moment, and the party making a hasty exit from town was a fun moment. It really feels like the party's time in Quasqueton is coming to a close (the players speculated that this may be their last foray into the dungeon), so naturally the players have begun speculating as to what it is they might do next.

Ridding the forest of the owlbears seems a likely endeavor, and the players are convinced that whatever lives beneath the "Great Oak" is what stole their precious oriental emerald. There are two powerful evil NPCs in town which they'd like to be rid of, but it will probably be some time before they can accomplish that. And there's plenty more to the sandbox which they are yet to discover...

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 21)

We played the twenty-first 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)
• A barbarian warrior (NPC)
• Wilros Wackledeckle, gnome (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)
• Hadric, Wilda Brambletoe, Corvin, Aelwen Riversong, and 20 oarsmen - the crew of the Mossy Turtle (NPCs)

Last we played, the party cleaned up after their fight with Mangug's orcs, carrying loads of heavy treasure out of the dungeon with the help of their mules, hirelings, and - with a promise of a 10% share of the gold value of the treasure recovered - Girthil's barbarians. 

They found the remaining goblins, Narka, Numbnuts, and Viss, and freed them from the shackles Mangug's orcs had put them in. They learned that Pigmug and Rekk had been subdued or killed by Tobb somewhere near the chamber of the Stone that Speaks. Viss asked them to retrieve Grilk's ring, which Mangug had taken. Girthil had already taken the ring, claiming it was a relic belonging to one of her tribe's druids, indicated by the familiar barbarian runes etched inside the band. The party decided to let her keep it.

The party made the long, arduous descent down the hill and through the forest back to the lake, where their barge waited for them, which took nearly three days. Along the way, they encountered a small group of "river women" bathing in the waters. Girthil mentioned that fey beings still lived in these woods, and that the mere sight of them could blind a man or strike him dead. Llombaerth had already laid eyes upon them, but had resisted the magic at play.

The party at last reached the lake and loaded their goods onto the barge. They parted ways with Girthil and her barbarians, save for one warrior, who travelled with them to ensure the tribe's 10% due was collected. They also sent Indur the gnoll back to Quasqueton with their two remaining zombies to reinforce the goblins.

The rest of the party set sail on the barge, crossing the lake and sailing upriver. At the end of the second day of sailing, a lone wood elf emerged from the forest, asking if the party were brigands or agents of the wizard in town. They denied this, and agreed to let the elf come aboard to inspect their cargo.

We picked up there. As the elf climbed aboard the barge, the party gave him the heads up that they had items from Quasqueton in their hold, which had belonged to Zelligar, and which Lambrecht the wizard was seeking to obtain, but that they were not delivering these items to him, and were planning to sell them in town and definitely not paying taxes on them. To prove this, they gestured towards the Black Crag people's warrior. The Black Crag people hated Zelligar, and this one was with them, so surely they were not in league with any nefarious wizards.

As it turns out, the wood elves of this forest were ancient enemies of the Black Crag people. Before Rogahn and Zelligar had come to this land and forced out the Black Crag people, the wood elves had called the forest home, and it was the Black Crag people who had forced them out. The elf and the Black Crag warrior exchanged insults in their native tongues, but did not come to blows.

The party brought the elf into the hold to examine their goods. While many of the items might make fine decorations in a wizard's sanctum, there was no evidence that the party was smuggling the sort of items which the elves hoped to keep from Lambrecht. It all seemed above board.

The party asked if there might be items in Quasqueton which belonged to the elves. The elf answered that, while the Black Crag people had taken from the elves, and Rogahn and Zelligar from the Black Crag people, there were no outstanding items that came to mind which the elves would claim for themselves. They had retreated deeper into the forest as human encroachment had become apparent, taking their choicest artifacts and relics with them to save them from such plundering.

The party asked if, at some point, the elves might like to reclaim the forest as their own, and if they might aid the party in facilitating that. The elf said that it would depend on what was required of them, but that the forest was plagued by goblins, orcs, ogres, owlbears, and humans. The forest was tainted, and human civilization was eroding the edge of the forest every year. From the perspective of an elf, there wouldn't be much of it left by the end of their lifetime.

To that point, the party mentioned their intention to rid the forest of its owlbear problem, and asked if the elves might aid them in that. The elf replied that the owlbears were created by the humans' meddling with nature. They were a human problem to be cleaned up by humans. 

Llombaerth removed his owlbear helm, indicating his ears, and said in Elvish that he was an elf as well. The wood elf visibly scoffed at him, stating that the two of them were not the same kind of elf. Llombaerth replied that this was so, but to the humans - and the wizard Lambrecht in particular - they were all just elves. 

This resonated with the wood elf. He would not commit his people to helping the party at this time, but perhaps something could be arranged in the future. He said that his people kept a small scouting outpost in the deep forest to the east, and indicated this on their map. It was just northeast and across the river from where the party suspected the owlbear den to be, which was convenient.

Lastly, the party asked the elf if he was familiar with any magical, possibly evil stones in the region, particularly at Quasqueton. The elf did not know of anything specific, but said that there were a great many magical things in the forest - things from before even the elves' time. During the conflict with the Black Crag people, it was said that the barbarians' druids worshiped a "horned demon" which gave them power, and the elves' druids said that Rogahn and Zelligar had chosen the site of their stronghold because of ancient powers which dwelled beneath the crag.

There was one more thing. In addition to the human brigands and agents of Lambrecht, the elves had encountered another group in the forest - human pilgrims and zealots, worshipers of a horned goddess of some kind, who came from civilized lands to the forest in search of some ancient power. They wore crude headdresses of animal horns and antlers. Whatever they were looking for, the many monsters which prowled the forest had kept them from finding it.

With that, the elf departed back into the forest. As he left, the party spotted about half a dozen more elves, unnoticed until now, dropping from the nearby trees to join him. The elves had bows drawn on the party the entire time.

The party finished resting for the night, waking the next day to continue their journey. They had about three hours before they made it to Timbershore.

At around 9:30 am, Egbert noticed something strange in the sky. He pointed it out to the party - two faintly shimmering, almond-shaped distortions hovering in the air above them, following at they moved up the river. The party concluded that they were being scried upon. Egbert didn't know how long it would last. They ordered the barge to a halt and instructed the oarsmen to cast nets, as if they were simply fishing. They had to convince the captain, Hadric, but eventually the crew carried out their orders.

By the time the equipment was hauled onto the deck, the apparition had vanished. It had been only fifteen minutes. The party ordered the crew back to their positions, amidst some grumbling dissent, and they went on their way. 

The party arrived in Timbershore at around 10:30 am, but decided to stick to the far side of the river until nightfall. They would continue to pose as simple fishermen until dark, then signal for the smugglers to meet them on the far shore. Once their cargo was unloaded, they would dock in town with the day's catch, and hopefully none would be the wiser.

The day passed uneventfully, and the smugglers responded to their signal around 8 pm, floating a barge of their own across the river under cover of night, crewed by ne'er-do-well sailors led by a familiar face - Lethariel Vaen, the elf underling who was second-in-command to the smugglers' leader, Tavin Underbough.

The smugglers came aboard and surveyed the party's treasure. In total, they had some 200 g.p. in assorted old coinage, about 1,500 g.p. in gemstones, and about 2,500 g.p. in other treasures. The party opted to keep the gemstones and convert the remaining treasure into spending money. The coinage would need to be converted into the local currency, and the other items would require forged documents which stated that duties, tariffs, and sales taxes had been paid for each. Since the party was holding onto the gemstones, they would still need to pay sales tax and the special surtax on those if they ended up selling them.

The smugglers' cut was half what it would be if the party had gone through the official channels. The party got a few sacks of platinum and gold coins. 10% went to the Black Crag warrior to bring back to his tribe. The rest was divided five ways, with equal shares for Llombaerth, Mirkle, Rory, Zommernar, and Egbert. 

Mirkle and Rory both gained a level (Mirkle is 3rd level and Rory is 2nd). Llombaerth and Zommernar came close to leveling up, and Egbert is about halfway to 2nd level. I determine experience shares by totaling the number of sessions each character has participated in on the current expedition, with henchmen counting for half the highest number. Llombaerth and Mirkle participated in 7 sessions each, Rory and Zommernar in 3 sessions each, and Egbert counts for 3 sessions (half of 7, rounded down). The total is 23 sessions, so Llombaerth and Mirkle each got a 30% share of the experience points, and everyone else each got a 13.33% share.

With their contraband loot unloaded, the party finally disembarked for town, bringing in the day's catch of fish as a cover. Before parting ways, they impressed upon the crew the importance of not sharing any of what had transpired with anyone. If people were made aware of their activities, they were likely to be rounded up and questioned, and likely would not come back alive. This obviously troubled everyone a great deal, but their worries melted away when the party paid the entire crew a month's salary (some 700 g.p.) as a bonus for their silence. Wilda Brambletoe, the barges shrewd old halfling second mate, reminded the crew that "loose lips sink ships".

With that, the company scattered throughout town. The Black Crag warrior hefted his sack of coins and, seeing no reason to return to his tribe immediately as it was so late, wandered off to gamble and drink. I forgot about Wilros Wackledeckle (shame on me!), but presumably he also parted ways with the group. The party went to the Mooring Post to get a good night's sleep.

The next morning, the weather in town had turned for the worse. A snowy rain fell from the sky, covering the streets in cold water and slush. The party set about their errands.

They decided they would like to recruit another magic-user as a henchman, and spent 60 g.p. posting notices and hiring a crier. They travelled to the High Ward to shop. They bought some locks, thinking they could use them to secure certain areas of the dungeon, and bought two guard dogs, a hunting dog, and four war dogs! I asked them to think about what else they might like to buy and to get back to me with their final lists.

They returned to the River Ward to seek out a dwarf who might know something about the ore they had found in Quasqueton. After a brief inspection, he told them it was ordinary blue earth. A cartload of it was worth just a few copper pieces. It was somewhat useful in creating cheap pigments, but not usually worth mining. They paid the dwarf a gold piece for his time.

Next, they planned to seek out Albertyna to exchange information. They travelled to her manse and found her in her study, but we decided to end the session there.

Nothing too crazy happening in this one! The encounter with the wood elf was fruitful for the information exchange and the new potential allies, and it was fun for the players to learn that they're being magically observed from afar, but the rest was kind of standard bookkeeping stuff. It was good for the characters to get a big payout of XP and gold. I'm glad a few of them leveled up. It was also interesting to see once again how quickly those coffers get drained! The party still has a nice chunk of change in the bank (and in the form of gemstones), but we'll see how much is left once their shopping is concluded!

I'm looking forward to another interaction with Albertyna and to finding out what the players plan to do next.

Play Report (AD&D 2e): In Search of the Unknown (Session 20)

We played the twentieth 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)
• Girthil, barbarian leader, and 8 barbarian warriors (NPCs)
• Indur, gnoll (NPC)
• Wilros Wackledeckle, gnome (NPC)
• Zhukk, orc (NPC)
• Two 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)
• Hadric, Wilda Brambletoe, Corvin, Aelwen Riversong, and 20 oarsmen - the crew of the Mossy Turtle (NPCs)

Last we played, a band of barbarian warriors (the Black Crag people) demanded that the party hand over any plundered relics of their people. Due to a bit of a miscommunication, the players thought that the barbarians wanted them to surrender all their treasure. They weren't too keen on that, so they had Egbert put two of the barbarians to sleep, Llombaerth and Indur killed another two, and the barbarians' leader, Girthil, surrendered.

The party negotiated a truce. They gave Girthil the chieftain's sword they had found and promised to lead her to the chieftain's remains which they had found elsewhere in the dungeon. In return, Girthil ordered the rest of her warriors stationed outside the dungeon's secret entrance to release the party's hirelings, who they had taken captive.

The party led Girthil to the chieftain's bones and convinced her to lead some of her warriors in an offensive against Mangug's orcs upstairs. They made their plans and launched the attack. The party and their allies slew Mangug and all six of his orc underlings, though Llombaerth and Zommernar both took wounds, and two of the party's pet zombies were killed.

We picked up there. The party had agreed to let Girthil and her warriors loot the bodies of Mangug's orcs, which they did. Meanwhile, the party went down the hall to Rogahn's secret bedchamber to survey the treasure they had left there.

There, they found the a shield, a mace, and some clothing looted from the captain of the guard's chamber, two pairs of mounted dragon paws (80 lbs each), the giant-sized shield (150 lbs, requiring at least two people to carry), the door etched with esoteric religious symbols (250 lbs, requiring at least three people to carry), and a massive dragon skin (1,000 lbs, requiring at least ten people to carry). Still in the nearby trophy room was what appeared to be a taxidermized cockatrice (60 lbs) and a statue of a basilisk (2,000 lbs, which would have to somehow be lifted onto a sled or rollers to be moved).

The party checked with Girthil to ensure none of these items would be claimed by the Black Crag people. She confirmed that none of the items belonged to them. The party asked if Girthil's warriors would be willing to help them move this stuff down to the lake, where it could be loaded onto the Mossy Turtle and hauled upriver, in exchange for some 150 gold pieces.

Girthil was reticent to consign her proud warriors to manual labor for the party's material gain, and asked why the party's numerous hirelings would not suffice. Llombaerth explained that the forest was very dangerous, gesturing towards the owlbear skull helm he wore. In that case, Girthil said, it seemed her people should be entitled to some share of the treasure. They eventually agreed to give the barbarians a 10% share in exchange for their assistance.

The party suddenly remembered their goblin allies and went looking for them. They found Narka manacled at the ankles in the kitchen. The party asked her what had happened, and she explained that after the party had left the dungeon the last time, Viss had declared that a Goblins' Moot could not be held until Tobb was reunited with the group. The party had left Tobb to guard the room containing the Stone that Speaks, back in Drak's old territory.

Apparently, Numbnuts, Pigmug, Rekk, and Viss had gone to get Tobb. Tobb had not listened to reason, and had attacked. Numbnuts and Viss fled and escaped, but Pigmug and Rekk were either killed or subdued. That night, Mangug's orcs had arrived at Quasqueton. They had been interested in negotiating passage inside, but Viss understandably did not want more orcs lording over them. A fight broke out, and with the goblins outnumbered three to one, they were easily defeated.

Narka told the party that Numbnuts and Viss were in the rooms across the hall. The party found both of them and liberated them as well, but told them to stay where they were for the time being, to avoid any potential conflicts with Girthil's people. Viss asked about Grilk's ring, which Mangug had taken from Viss when the goblins were captured. The party figured that this must have been on Mangug's person, and that Girthil's people likely had it.

The party easily carried the mounted dragon paws and the giant-sized shield out of the dungeon by way of the main entrance, then circled around the crag to the secret entrance to gather their hirelings and mules. Night had fallen over the forest while the party had been inside the dungeon. They broke down their camp and returned to the main entrance.

The party decided that they might be able to use one of the mining carts downstairs to haul a lot of treasure out at once. They hitched the carts to their mules and, along with their hirelings, hauled the carts to the secret bedchamber. They were able to load the cart with the dragon skin and the miscellaneous items found in the captain's chamber (I treated this as a wagon or cart, which triples a mount's carrying capacity at the cost of halving their movement speed, allowing the two mules to haul these items out somewhat easily). They and their zombies, hirelings, and NPC followers carried out the door with religious markings as well as the stuffed cockatrice.

They hauled all of this back around the crag to the secret entrance. The party made a deal with Zhukk to release him if he promised not to return to Quasqueton. He agreed, the party agreed to give him arms and armor from Mangug's orcs so that he would not be defenseless in the wilderness, and he parted ways with them.

The party had not yet engaged in any overland movement that day, and they still had a couple of hours before they had to rest, so they began making their way down the hill, following the river. I reasoned that there was probably some overgrown, disused trail leading from Quasqueton to the lake, since Rogahn and Zelligar likely would have moved vast quantities of stone and other materials downriver to the building site, then used carts and wagons to haul it all up the hill. This was important, since carts and wagons (such as the mining cart being used to transport the heavy items) can only traverse difficult terrain if a road or trail is available.

Normally, it would take the party three hours to descend the hill. Loaded up with treasure and slowed down by their zombies, it would take twice as long. They were able to make it a third of the way down the hill before needing to make camp.

The night passed without incident, and the party woke the next morning to find a cold mist had crept into the forest. This obscured their vision and would impose additional movement cost on the day's travel. It would now take five hours and twenty minutes to finish their descent. They reached the bottom of the hill without incident.

It would normally take four hours to cross the forest and reach the lake. Their reduced movement speed and the mist meant it would take ten hours instead. They were able to make it about a quarter of the way before needing to rest for the night.

Another night passed uneventfully. When the party woke, they found the mists had cleared. The air was cold and dry. It would take another 6 hours to reach the lake.

After traveling along the river for an hour and twenty minutes, the party heard the sound of women's voices from the direction of the river, about 70 feet away, though they could not see the source. The women were speaking - or perhaps singing - in an unknown tongue. 

Llombaerth decided to sneak ahead to get a better look. He succeeded on his Move Silently check, creeping about 30 feet up to the edge of the tree line. There he saw four young graceful elfin women with sleek figures, long, thick hair, and radiant skin, dressed in lengthy, sheer robes which glowed with golden thread and rainbow hews. The breeze blowing in off the river carried a delightful, enticing scent.

Llombaerth found it hard to look away. I called for a saving throw vs spell. Adam asked if his elven resistance to charm and sleep magic would apply here, and I decided it made sense. Llombaerth managed to resist whatever magic was at work without needing to make a saving throw. His eyes burned as if he was staring at the sun itself. The women began to disrobe as they entered the river. Llombaerth quickly pulled himself away and returned to the rest of the party.

After sharing what he had seen and the danger he had felt, the party's followers had input. Egbert was curious about what sort of magic was at work. Indur was incensed that these river women had frightened Llombaerth so, and threatened to kill them and devour their smooth flesh. Girthil mentioned that certain fey beings were known to inhabit the forest and to bathe in the sacred waters which flowed through it. They were known to befriend good-looking, kindhearted men. Their kiss could make a man forget his troubles, and women who bathed in the same waters as them were said to be blessed with renewed youth and beauty. However, the mere sight of them could cause a mortal to lose their sight or be stricken dead.

The party decided not to trifle with the river women, and continued on their way. They reached the lake at about 1 pm and found the barge and its crew waiting for them. They loaded their treasure onto the barge. They decided to head back to town now, returning later for the basilisk statue. They sent Indur back to Quasqueton with their remaining zombies (Hadric did not want them on the boat), instructing Indur to protect the goblins. 

They thought to send Indur back with Grilk's ring as a sign of legitimacy, and asked Girthil if she had found it among Mangug's things. Girthil was wearing the ring around her neck. She said that it was one of her people's relics, and that it had belonged to one of their druids. She had hoped to find the druid's remains in Quasqueton, but hadn't seen them. She showed the party the ring, and they saw that it was etched with runes similar to those found on the chieftain's sword. They asked to take a rubbing of the runes so that they might identify other items belonging to the Black Crag people, to which Girthil agreed.

Girthil sent one of her warriors with the party to ensure that they received their 10% share of the treasures recovered. Girthil and the rest of her warriors parted ways with the party, wandering off into the surrounding forest.

The party, Egbert, Wilros Wackledeckle, and all their hirelings set off on the barge. Though they had traveled overland for six hours already, the barge's crew still had a full 8 hours of travel in them. It took about an hour and forty minutes to cross the lake to the river's mouth. From here, it would be all upriver. By 9 pm, they had made it about nine and a half miles upriver. The crew moored the barge along the shore for the night.

The cold and dry weather persisted the next day, and they continued sailing upriver. They reached the edge of the forest at about 1:15 pm, with Timbershore's familiar farmland stretching out to the north and west, and the forest still to the east and south. They ended the day on the river bordering town, with just three more hours of travel before they could put into port in the River Ward.

Shortly after stopping for the day, around 5:30 pm, they heard a rustling from the trees to the southeast. A lone elf emerged from the forest, and Llombaerth and Zommernar recognized him as a a wood elf. The elf was cautious, calling out to them to ask if they were brigands, agents of the wizard, or traders. 

The party identified themselves as traders of a sort, denying any affiliation with brigands or wizards. The elf asked if, in that case, he might come aboard to investigate, to see if they were who they said, and not catspaws of the wizard. The party asked how this might be proven, and the elf said that he would look for items bearing the wizard's mark, or anything plundered from the old stronghold which the wizard claimed as his own, which they might be delivering to him.

We ended the session there. This one was a doozy! In contrast to our last session, there was no combat whatsoever, but lots of logistics puzzling, social interaction, overland movement, and a couple of outdoor encounters. 

This was the party's biggest logistical endeavor yet, and the challenge of getting all that treasure out of the dungeon really manifested itself here. The overland travel math is a bit challenging for me on the fly, and I had to go back as I wrote this post and correct some of my timekeeping math, but I think it all checks out. It is a bit of a relief to finally shed some of the party's accumulated NPC hangers-on! The "river women" encounter was a bit awkward to play out. I definitely felt like a bit of a lecher as I described it, but decided to lean into it and play up the male-gaziness of it all.

Next time, we'll see how the wood elf encounter plays out. Then, hopefully, the party will make it back to town and engage in some fun shenanigans there.