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.

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

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

The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 2 (Maya)
• Zommernar, CN elf fighter 2 (Nael)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Wilros Wackledeckle, gnome (NPC)
• Indur, gnoll (NPC)
• Zhukk, orc (NPC)
• Four friendly zombie adventurers (NPCs)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here's the map the players came up with:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 2 (Maya)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Indur, gnoll (NPC)
• Four friendly zombie adventurers (NPCs)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 2 (Maya)
• Rory the Small, LN human fighter 1 (David)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Indur, gnoll (NPC)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Play Report (Into the Oddish): In Search of the Unown (Session 1)

Yeah, I'm committing to the bit.

I recently converted Dungeon Module B1: In Search of the Unknown to Into the Oddish. It's B1, but with Pokémon. I even created a sandbox for it, just as I did with the original B1. I've been running B1 in AD&D 2e since March and have been writing play reports for the campaign more or less every week. Our ongoing Into the Oddish game (in which I am but a humble player) is on hold for a bit, so I thought why not? Why shouldn't I run the same adventure in two different systems at once? Why shouldn't I write play reports for each of them? So, I recruited my fellow Into the Oddish players to embark with me on this mirror world experiment.

The Pokémon in our current game are Stage Two, and this adventure is for Stage One Pokémon, so I had the players start by creating new Pokémon. We ended up with a Bellsprout (realbagel), a Geodude (Zin), and a Pidgey (Tuck), which is awesome because none of those Pokémon are in our other game. Bellsprout has a Paralyze Heal, Pidgey has a Potion, and Geodude knows Strength. I believe we decided that Bellsprout was a wild Pokémon, while Geodude and Pidgey are trained. With that, we were off to the races.

The party's Pokémon adventure began in Leekfield, the Pokéthorp in the southeast corner of the region. I explained that the player Pokémon had ventured to this region because they had come into possession of a special Town Map which indicated the location of a long lost gym - Quagsqueton, the seat of the Black Belt Rogahn and the Psychic Zelligar.

Rogahn and Zelligar had a mixed reputation among the humans. They were known to be insular and perhaps vaguely evil. They built their gym far away from civilization in a well hidden location, using their trained Pokémon as laborers in the complex's construction. Nonetheless, as human civilization declined, the pair were a source of protection for the people of the region against hordes of marauding Pokémon. This culminated when the pair and their Pokémon turned back a wild Pokémon army. They then took their army of Pokémon into the northern wilds to launch a counterattack, never to be seen again.

The gym's location was lost even to human knowledge. With the humans gone, its location became double lost. Until now... Who knows what vast riches of badges, TMs, Pokédollars, and Potions remain unclaimed in the ruins? Only one way to find out.

The player Pokémon arrived in Leekfield, a small community of Pokémon inhabiting simple shelters on a grassland surrounded on four sides by a lake and a river. The water's edge was overgrown with leek-like reeds from which the community derived its name. Several Flying- and Normal-type Pokémon inhabited the place, with Water-type Pokémon in the lake and river.

The player Pokémon were harangued by some curious Pidgey who wished to know their business. The player Pokémon expressed an interest in trading and in learning the lay of the land. The Pidgey eventually brought them to their leader, a female Farfetch'd named Mallow.

Mallow assumed that the Pokémon had come to the region to journey to Pinecrest Lodge to the west and challenge King Aegon for the Evergreen Badge. The Pokémon were surprised to learn there was a king here. Mallow explained that the Lodge used to be a resort for humans, and that its owner, Myrtle, was a gym leader. Since the humans disappeared, Myrtle's Exeggutor, Aegon, had claimed the Lodge as his seat of power and styled himself a gym leader in Myrtle's place. He is known as a capricious ruler. One of his heads always lies, another always tells the truth, and the third does a secret third thing.

The player Pokémon expressed an interest in meeting Aegon. Mallow explained that the road to the southwest led into the forest and would eventually take them to the Lodge. Along the way they would find Old Needleroot Town, a small human settlement which was now overrun by a gang of outlaw Pokémon led by a Poliwrath.

I don't remember how we got on this line of conversation, but somehow the Pokémon ended up talking to Mallow about Pokémon Natures. Mallow suggested that, back in the Age of Humans, Pokémon with unsavory Natures were locked up in institutions to keep them away from more well-behaved Pokémon. If it were up to her, such Pokémon would face the block, where their necks would meet the sweet kiss of Mallow's sharpened leek.

This all was very disturbing, so the Pokémon decided it was time to be on their way. Mallow reminded them to beware of the outlaw Pokémon. She also mentioned that some of her people had been kidnapped by the outlaws and were being held for ransom. If the player Pokémon did something about it, they could be friends.

A group of Pidgey escorted the Pokémon to the edge of the community and sent them on their way. They followed the road across the plains, over a river crossing, and into the forest. In a couple of hours, they made it to Old Needleroot Town. The town was a small collection of simple dilapidated houses slowly being reclaimed by the forest. In the center was an old Pokémon Lab. There were little burrows and mounds scattered about the ruins.

The Pokémon investigated one of the burrows and could hear movement within. Pidgey took to the air to survey the Lab, spotting a half dozen or so Spearow roosting on its roof, with several dozen more visible on the second story through a hole in the roof. Fortunately, the Spearow did not spot Pidgey.

Pidgey flew back down to report his findings to the rest of the group. They heard a voice behind them, and turned to find a Rattata had emerged from one of the tunnels. They asked the Rattata about the outlaws and found out that in addition to dozens of Spearow and a Poliwrath, the group consisted of an Onix, a Haunter, a Magmar, and others. 

The player Pokémon decided that they did not, in fact, want to mess with the outlaws. This was a bit of a miscommunication on my part, as I had not adequately explained to the players that they knew the precise location of Quagsqueton, so they were trying to find more information (which would be fruitless, because no one in the area knows exactly where Quagsqueton is except for them) and latching onto any hook that presented itself. I explained that this is an AD&D sandbox but with Pokémon - "bandits causing problems" is not necessarily a 1st level adventure hook!

Resolving to get out of here and hustle to the dungeon, the player Pokémon accepted Rattata's offer to escort them through the underground to the edge of town. Squeezing into the cramped tunnels, they found a mazelike Warren home to dozens of Rattata. They learned of a Nidorina and Nidorino to the south who preyed upon the Rattata and the outlaws alike. They also learned that south of Pinecrest Lodge is Frost Witch Barrow, an old haunted Pokétomb which is off limits to all except those who get permission from King Aegon. They were also offered to come back sometime to meet Gnash, the Rattata's Raticate leader. If the player Pokémon wished to confront the outlaws some other time, the Rattata could help.

At the edge of town, Rattata informed them that the road led to a Tamer's cabin at the edge of the forest. The Golduck that lived there was okay - a bit of a weirdo but he probably wouldn't kill them on sight. They continued on the road.

A few hours later, they arrived at the cabin. They found a trio of Sandshrew playing in the dirt in the yard. They approached the Sandshrew, who told them that the road to the southeast led to Pinecrest Lodge. The Sandshrew seemed anxious for the player Pokémon to get a move on. Apparently, they were supposed to be battling to gain experience points so that they could evolve, and they didn't want to get in trouble for talking to the player Pokémon instead, because Golduck would whip them. Their trainer was a cruel master with his whip, and Golduck had gotten pretty good at using it too. 

The player Pokémon explained that to their knowledge, Pokémon evolved by going on dangerous expeditions and earning badges. The Sandshrew weren't sure about that, so they thought they should ask Golduck. The player Pokémon did not want to meet the Golduck with a whip. Okay then, maybe Persian would know. Who was Persian? Persian was Golduck's mistress.

The player Pokémon decided they also did not want to be here. They told the Sandshrew never mind and they'd be on their way. They headed north into the wild forest, towards Quagsqueton. The Sandshrew reminded them that the road to Pinecrest Lodge was to the southeast. The player Pokémon said that there were some berries over there they wanted to check out, then ran off.

They made it to the edge of the forest by the end of the day and made camp for the night. The evening passed uneventfully, and they rose the next morning to continue their journey. They saw an expanse of plains before them, with a wooded crag to the northeast. They knew that this is where they'd find Quagsqueton, so they set off in that direction, hugging the northwest edge of the forest.

They made it to Quagsqueton without incident, finding a narrow, perilous path winding up the black, wooded crag to a cave opening in the cliff's face. Atop the cliff was an old, partially collapsed watchtower, its stones tumbled down the hillside and overgrown with vegetation.

Inside the cave opening they found a door, overgrown with roots and vines and showing signs of forced entry in the past. They cleared away the vegetation and went inside. Beyond the door, they saw a long corridor lined with alcoves.

There was a bit of discussion as to whether or not Pokémon can see in the dark. I imagine that Pidgey cannot, while Bellsprout maybe has some ability to sense pheromones, and Geodude can either see in the dark or has something like tremor sense. This is I guess what the Flash HM is for, but since Into the Oddish isn't exactly a "torches and rations" game and because I don't want dungeon exploration to be entirely dependent on an HM (that only an Abra player can know at the start of the game), I decided that yeah, Pokémon can see in the dark.

The player Pokémon proceeded down the corridor. 20' ahead, in the first alcove, they found statues of a Black Belt and a Psychic. They were carved of mundane stone and without special value. They continued 50' to the second set of alcoves, which appeared empty. 40' down the corridor was the third set of alcoves, and 20' beyond them was a small landing at the top of a short flight of stairs. The player Pokémon could see the aftermath of a Pokémon battle, with Pokémon bodies scattered about on the landing.

They inspected the alcoves and found Pokémon tracks which seemed to emerge from the walls themselves. The walls at the back of the alcoves appeared to be of unusual construction compared to the other walls in the area. The player Pokémon deduced that these must be secrets doors and searched for a way to open them, but found none. Geodude decided to use Strength to batter down the wall on the left.

In B1 as written, these doors can't be opened from this side. However, I really like the idea that a Pokémon can use a once per day HM to just obliterate a 10' section of wall. So Geodude came in like a wrecking ball, smashing through the wall to the other side. This made a lot of noise, but no wandering Pokémon appeared.

On the other side of the wall was a T intersection with corridors to the left and right. The player Pokémon went right 60', made another right turn, and 30' beyond that found themselves at the top of the landing littered with dead Pokémon. There they found a Weedle torn asunder, the segments of its body rotting and oozing on the floor. They found a strange glowing puddle of goo, a Nidoran female which seemed to have burned to death, and a Charmander and Ekans which had killed one another in a desperate struggle.

They searched the area and found that the Charmander carried a satchel containing 7 Pokédollars. Score!

From the landing, the corridor with all the alcoves was to the right. 10' to the left was a pair of doors opposite each other. 10' beyond the doors was a corridor to the left, then another to the right 10' beyond that. Beyond that, the corridor continued straight. Straight ahead from the landing was a corridor which went 30' and turned right. It took a very long time for me to communicate this accurately to the players. That's the B1 learning curve, baby! It made me reflect on how the players in my AD&D game have gotten pretty good at interpreting my description of the space. 

The player Pokémon decided to inspect the doors. They smelled a tantalizing aroma beyond the door on the left, and heard the hustling commotion of hurried footsteps, clattering pots and pans, and the hiss of fire and steam. They opened the door and to their surprise found a group of four human chefs in a kitchen preparing a delicious smelling meal. The chefs greeted them warmly and welcomed them inside to rest their weary feet and have some lunch.

We wrapped there. This was a fun session, although a bit rough around the edges, as first sessions often are. Part of that was definitely on me for not adequately communicating to the players what knowledge their Pokémon had. Part of it was that I literally just sketched out this sandbox last week and was kind of just riffing on all the non-dungeon parts. Part of it is that B1's dungeon map is totally bonkers and the players need to get settled in a bit before they're able to really imagine the space.

We had a good time, and I'm excited to see how this game unfolds in parallel to more or less the same content being run with an entirely different group of players in an entirely different system. This is something I've always wanted to try, so we'll see where it goes.

Finally, here is the player drawn dungeon map after the first session (I'm kicking myself a bit for not regularly including player maps in my AD&D play reports, so I want to start the practice early with this one):

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

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

The roster for this session was as follows:

• Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
• Mirkle, N human fighter 2 (Maya)
• Rory the Small, LN human fighter 1 (David)
• Zommernar, CN elf fighter 2 (Nael)
• Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
• Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
• Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
• Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
• Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
• Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
• Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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