Clerics & cosmic powers in Old Aalia

When I was initially thinking about running a Labyrinth Lord campaign, in around December 2010, one of the original conceptions which I wanted to include in the game world was that of "petty gods". (Actually I was originally thinking I'd use the book of that name as the list of deities in the world. I had to come up with my own in the mean time ;)

The concept was that the entities which people name "gods" are highly localised, in no way omniscient or omnipotent, generally alien or non-benign, and that while they may be immortal and may command miraculous magical powers, they are not the kind of beings which can grant the powers which a standard D&D cleric wields. There may be an entity which can bestow gifts of healing, curing diseases, or even raising the dead, but that same entity will have no ability to grant blessings in battle, create light or food or water, detect evil or magic, and so on. In that context the cleric class, with its grab-bag of miraculous biblical abilities, makes no sense whatsoever. So at the dawn of my imagined world it was clear that there would be no clerical adventurers.

Since that original conception it's been a long road of back and forth where clerics are concerned. When the first characters were rolled up I made it clear: the cleric class is out -- you can worship cosmic entities, but there's no concept of a priestly adventuring class. Then for a time I allowed clerics, initially due to not being able to think of a decent way of handling PC healing in the absence of the class. Recently it became once again clear to me however (after there having been two major cleric PCs in the campaign) that the class still really didn't make sense in the setting, that it was preventing me from properly portraying the world I had imagined*, and that I should have stuck with my original feeling -- the clerics had to go!

Now I would never be so dictatorial as to tell a player "your class doesn't exist any more so your character will have to change or retire". I told the cleric's player that his character would not be affected by any changes I might decree, even if it made him the "last of his kind".

However as fate would have it (and it really was fate, lest I be accused of deliberate PCicide!), the party's cleric died a horrible death last session, so the coast is now clear, so to speak. Old Aalia is free of clerics once more!

Now, I realised, I just have to give the players some nice details about what these petty gods of their world are like, and, in the absence of clerics, what they can do for adventurers. I'm going to be using the impetus of the April A-Z challenge to produce a bulk of material to this end. I've also written a short introduction to this topic, which you can read below.

* Pretentious DM-speak, I know :) But when one puts in so much effort to run a weekly game, things like this are important (they are to me anyway)... I want there to be some kind of integrity to the imagined world in which the games are set.

About Cosmic Powers
Commonly given titles such as “gods”, “demon lords”, “arch-devils”, “elemental princes”, “lords of nature”, “animal kings”, “saints” and so on, a vast number of cosmic powers have influence in the world. (When describing these entities and the influence they have, the word “cosmic” is used to imply a connection to vast and fathomless dimensions beyond mortal comprehension. Some cosmic energies also do indeed originate in outer space, but the majority have a terrestrial root.)

The total count of cosmic powers which are worshipped or known to have influence in the world is, despite extensive study, unknown. It certainly reaches into hundreds of thousands. Every known nation of men has many dozens of gods whom it appeases. Every race of demi-humans has its cosmic masters. Great cities are often home to thousands of shrines to different cosmic entities. Powers of limited local influence are venerated in towns, villages and wayside shrines throughout the world. It is thus that even the most favoured of gods in one nation may be completely unheard of in the next.

The variety of nature of cosmic powers is also vast, ranging from cruel and bloodthirsty to abstract and aloof, from benevolent and magnanimous to alien and unfathomable. They typically have an extremely specific and narrow area of interest and dominion, and their range of influence in the mortal world is often very localised, being centred around a location or series of locations in the physical world.

In many places where such beings are found, mortals gather to worship or appease them. Thus, shrines, temples and oracles abound, along with the attendant ranks of priests, cultists and devotees. Such worship takes many forms, as the whims and desires of cosmic powers are many. Some powers are adored for the miraculous blessings they can bestow upon their followers. Others are worshipped rather out of fear of their wrath.

At locations on Earth where only a single cosmic power has influence, this entity is typically worshipped universally by the inhabitants of that region – an example of such a place is the town of Holt, to the south of Harln, where a single cosmic power known as “Vardilli, the spinning god” has dominion. On the other hand, in places – such as the great city of S'raka – where there exist a multitude of cosmic powers, mortals commonly make offerings to a large number of these beings throughout their lifetimes. However in either case, those who devote themselves loyally to a single cosmic power are often promised a great reward upon death – a special paradise being set aside for the faithful.

Rituals
Those of a less devoted outlook still find dealings with cosmic powers to be beneficial, on occasion. The miraculous energies which emanate from these entities are often sought out, and are, as is the way of things, equally often monopolized by the surrounding priests and cults. Thus, many shrines and temples, especially those found in larger settlements, offer a variety of miraculous services for a price. These services usually take the form of some kind of ritual, wherein members of the priesthood perform certain sacred rites in order to bring forth the power of their cosmic master for the benefit of the paying customer. The price demanded varies greatly, based on the nature, magnitude and rarity of the effects of the ritual. Commonly the price is a simple sum of gold or silver given to support the temple and the priesthood, but some cults may have other demands in addition to or instead of money.

Rituals bring about one-off magical happenings with immediate effect. Rituals of curing, raising the dead and removing curses are some possibilities which are commonly sought by adventurers.

Blessings
An alternative form of boon can be granted by many cosmic powers – a blessing which has no immediate effect, but which can be called upon at some later date. Again the means of payment and the process involved may vary depending on the whims of the cosmic power involved, or those of its priesthood. Examples of some common blessings which may be of benefit to adventurers are blessings of curing, detection of enemies, success in battle or protection from harm – all to be activated when needed.

Due to some cosmic law which is not fully understood, each person can receive only a single blessing at any one time, which lasts until it is called upon. If a second blessing is sought, it will simply have the effect of nullifying and replacing the previous.

April A-Z preview: Shrines & cosmic powers of S'raka

I mentioned a while back that I was thinking about doing the April A-Z blogger challenge again this year, and that I was considering a theme of clerical spells. Well, the idea has now crystallised.

I'll be doing a write-up of 26 alphabetically named cosmic powers (gods, devils, demons, animal kings, etc) which have prominent shrines or temples in the city of S'raka, where our Labyrinth Lord campaign is based.

As a little preview, here's the kind of thing I'll be writing. (This won't be the H for April, there'll be another that day.)

The Forge-Shrine of Hegg, God of Blades

The southerly district of Irkham, known as a centre of industry – especially of smoke-belching steel works – is also home to the shrine of a cosmic power of some importance to adventurers. Hegg, the god of blades, has small shrines scattered throughout Old Aalia, but his central place of worship is in Irkham. At first glance, the place appears to be simply a series of small smithies and metal-crafting workshops arranged around a central plaza. However the presence of the 20' high statue of the cosmic power Hegg soon alerts visitors that this is no ordinary marketplace. Hegg is portrayed, in a scintillating metal of unknown origin, as a man skewered with hundreds of blades, and with arms held aloft as if in jubilation of the sky.

The devotees of Hegg are of several kinds. Firstly are the array of metalworkers who are bound as apprentices to the shrine from a young age, and spend their whole lives there perfecting the arts of blade-crafting. The blades of Hegg are known as some of the finest available, and are highly in demand, often being commissioned by noble houses. Secondly there are the blade-maidens, white linen-clad girls and women who oversee ritual sacrifices in a specially designated sub-shrine, and the processing of the resulting animal meats into especially fine sausages. The blade-maidens also offer a blessing and a close-shave for 1sp.

Lastly are the blade-blessed, those strange and few individuals who have devoted themselves not to the practical crafts patronised by the god of blades, but rather to the unusual spiritual pursuits which please him. Little is known by outsiders of the exact activities of these few seldom seen priests, but it is clear that they are regarded as the most beloved of Hegg, and are believed to conduct private rituals in the catacombs beneath the shrine. They can be recognised by the scars which cover their bodies and faces, and by their habit of wearing as little clothing as permitted by the season, presumably in order to further emphasise their scarification. Rumours tell that the blade-blessed practice a bizarre art of self-impalement, in imitation of their lord, and that they are granted wondrous visions while they lay skewered by sacred blades.

Apart from the mundane services of the blade-maidens and the craftsmen devoted to Hegg, the following more specialised services are available at the shrine.

Enchanted blades: The artisan smiths of the temple produce blades of exquisite quality whose craftsmanship is enhanced by being imbued with the cosmic power of Hegg. Such blades are +1 magical weapons. A dagger from the forge-shrine costs 500gp, a short sword 1,500gp and a long sword 2,000gp.

Spiritual weapon: By sacrificing a silver dagger and receiving the blessing of the shrine, the benefits of this spell may be gained. The dagger is translocated to the cosmic armoury of Hegg, but can be called upon in times of need (as per the spell) by invoking the name of the god of blades. This blessing costs 100gp, in addition to the cost of the dagger.

Bless blade: A special ritual which can be performed by the blade-blessed of the shrine bestows a temporary magical enchantment onto a bladed weapon. The ritual entails the blessing of a portion of the blood of a sacrificed animal (typically a lamb). The blood is placed into a metal tube, marked with the rune of Hegg, and should be applied to a bladed weapon to invoke the effects. The anointed blade gains +1 to hit and damage for one hour, and counts as a magical weapon. The ritual costs 80gp.

Blade divination: This more unusual and expensive ritual is not often performed, but is sometimes sought by adventurers who have come across magical weapons of unknown origin. The power of Hegg can be invoked to grant a vision giving details about the origins of and enchantment which lies upon a magical bladed weapon. As preparation for the ritual, the owner of the blade must spend three days of fasting in one of the underground sub-shrines. On the night of the third day the character must take part in a ritual with the blade-blessed. An intricate and intensely painful series of cuts is inflicted upon the bodies of all present – including the character, sending them into an altered state of consciousness. At the culmination of the process one of the priests plunges the blade into himself and enters into an ecstatic trance, during which he gains information about the enchanted blade. 1d4 facts about the blade are revealed by this ritual, typically including its “plus” to hit, if possessed. The ritual costs 750gp.

House rules - written in stone

Following some recent wrangling with house rules and character creation options, and a lot of discussion with the players in my campaign, I've come up with a finalised house rules / chargen document. I have had it both tattooed onto my face and carved into a huge stone altar from which I conduct my games.

It's been a long process, going from basic Labyrinth Lord plus some additional per-class character options plus quite a few house rules, to full-blown Advanced Labyrinth Lord, to the current state of moving back to basic(s) and gradually eliminating a lot of the house rules!

The character options (class specialisations, as I've called them) remain, as does the advanced concept of separate race & class. Aside from those points though, the house rules are very minimal.

It's a good feeling to have gone through that process and eventually come to a set of character creation rules which I'm happy with (and which hopefully the players are too, or can bear at least! ;).

For anyone who's interested, here's the final PDF: Character Creation in the Realm of old Aalia.

It also contains some encouraging OSR philosophy, in an attempt to explain the flavour of basic D&D.

Multi-class vs mixed-class characters

As I mentioned recently, after starting purely with basic Labyrinth Lord, we've had several "Advanced" style multi-classed demi-human player characters created in my campaign in the last few months. I've been thinking about the introduction of these characters and how it's changed the game.

The main influence they've had, I feel, is an unfortunate one. Their ability to do two things well has tended to overwhelm the single-classed characters, with very little downside. A thief / magic-user is equally as capable as a normal thief and a normal magic-user. As they have to split their XP between two classes, multi-classed characters gain XP in each of their classes at half the normal rate. However, while a 50% reduction sounds like a big deal on paper, due to the exponential nature of the XP progression charts this effectively means the characters are only one level behind their single-classed companions. This in my experience makes little difference (a single spell per day for MUs, or a few percentile points for thieves, for example), and is more than made up for by the fact that they are all round so much more capable. This, in combination with demi-humans' substantial racial benefits, makes multi-classed demi-humans far and away more powerful than their single-classed human brethren, at the low to mid levels of play, at least.

So I've been thinking about why players might want to create multi-classed characters. Several reasons come to mind:

1. To try something different. In a game with only three or four classes, allowing them to be combined in pairs greatly increases the number of possibilities.
2. To play a character of mixed class.
3. To counteract the level limits applied to demi-humans, by effectively slowing down the race towards the end point.

Today I want to address the second of these points -- the desire for a character that's "a bit of a thief, a bit of a wizard" or something like that. I think that players with such ideas in mind (the dabbling bard or magical assassin archetypes, for example) don't expect their character to be as good a wizard as a single-classed magic-user, or as good a thief as a single-classed thief. They simply want to have a mixture of abilities -- an option which is not presented by the strictly separated classes of standard D&D. Ignoring the odd dual-classing rules of AD&D, multi-classing is traditionally the primary way to create a character with mixed abilities.

I've been contemplating an alternative. Instead of giving a mixed-class character the complete abilities of two different classes, how about giving them half of the abilities of each of those classes? I think in essence this is actually more what players are imagining when creating mixed-class characters.

Of course what exactly constitutes half of a magic-user's, fighter's or thief's abilities is open to interpretation, and would depend very much on the rules set being used.

Here's an example of the kind of thing I'm thinking of, in terms of the standard Labyrinth Lord classes.

Mixed-Class Characters
Characters can choose two classes, and gain roughly half the abilities of each.

Mix-classed characters have the following characteristics in general, modified by the chosen classes:

• XP progression: as magic-user
• Hit Dice: d6
• To hit rolls: as thief
• Saving throws: best of two classes
• Weapons & armour: as thief

Half a Magic-User
Cannot create magic items.
Can use magic-user specific magic items from 5th level.
Labyrinth Lord's call as to whether mixed-class magic-users can cast spells while wearing armour.
Use the following spell progression:

Level    1    2    3    4    5
1    1*    -    -    -    -
2    1    -    -    -    -
3    2    -    -    -    -   
4    2    -    -    -    -
5    2    1    -    -    -
6    2    2    -    -    -
7    2    2    -    -    -
8    2    2    1    -    -
9    2    2    2    -    -
10    2    2    2    -    -
11    3    2    2    -    -
12    3    2    2    -    -
13    3    2    2    1    -
14    3    2    2    1    -
15    3    3    2    1    -
16    3    3    2    1    -
17    3    3    2    2    -
18    3    3    2    2    -
19    3    3    3    2    -
20    3    3    3    2    1

* A 1st level half magic-user must make a successful INT check on 1d20 each day to learn a spell.

Half a Thief
Choose three of the following (advancement as normal thief):

1. Pick locks & find / remove traps
2. Pick pockets
3. Backstab
4. Climb walls
5. Move silently & hide in shadows
6. Hear noise

Half a Fighter
Can use all weapons.
Can use fighter specific magic items from 5th level.
Choose two of the following:

1. d8 Hit Dice
2. Fighter attack progression
3. Use any armour
4. Use a shield

New vivimancer spell: Chimera

One of the players in my campaign has just rolled up a vivimancer character, and asked if they had any kind of summoning magic. Looking at the spell list for the class, we realised that that is actually a bit of a gap in its abilities, so I got to thinking about what sort of summoning magic they might have. Here's what I came up with.

(Image by Manticoress)

 

Chimera I
Level: 4
Duration: 2 rounds, +1 round per level
Range: 30'

In the round this spell is cast, a formless, throbbing blob of flesh appears at the chosen location within range. Over the course of the next two rounds the blob grows, mutates and finally forms into a bizarre hybrid creature which will do the caster's bidding. The creature is genetically unstable, and will dissolve into a pool of protoplasm when the spell's duration expires.

The mutant creature has 2d4 HD, an armour class of 2d4, and a movement rate of 90' / 30'. Its form and abilities are determined by rolling a d12, d10, d8 and d6, and consulting the following tables.

Body (d12) 1. fungoid, 2. furry, 3. scaly, 4. blubbery, 5. mossy, 6. worm-like, 7. segmented, 8. insectoid, 9. transparent, 10. ribbed, 11. serpentine, 12. ooze-like.

Head (d10) 1. wolf, 2. bear, 3. bull, 4. lion, 5. rat, 6. frog, 7. lizard, 8. insect, 9. spider, 10. snake.

Head attacks (d8)
1 - 2. Bite or ram attack for 1d6 damage.
3. Gaping maw -- 1d6 damage bite, plus swallow attack on a natural 20.
4. Giant tongue -- may attack up to 10' with tongue, doing 1d4 damage. A successful attack indicates the target is dragged to the mouth on the next round and suffers a bite attack for 1d6 damage automatically, unless it can successfully attack the tongue before then.
5. Breath attack (fire, cold, gas) causing 2d6 damage. Can be used once.
6. Poisonous bite -- 1d4 damage plus save versus poison or suffer 2d6 additional damage.
7. Two heads, each with a bite or butt attack for 1d6 damage.
8. Three heads, each with a bite or butt attack for 1d6 damage.

Appendages (d6)
1. Two claws which can attack for 1d6 damage.
2. Many legs -- 120' / 40' movement rate.
3. Wings -- can fly.
4. Tentacles -- 1d6 tentacles which can each attack for 1d3 damage.
5. Suckers or grippers -- can climb walls.
6. Springing -- can make a jumping attack up to 30' distant, gaining +2 to hit.

Chimera II
Level: 6
Duration: 2 rounds, +1 round per level
Range: 30'

This spell works in a similar manner to the 4th level Chimera I, creating a blob of tissue from which mutant life will emerge. This enhanced version may either be used to create a single monster with 2d4 + 4 HD, or two identical 2d4 HD creatures.


Chimera III
Level: 8
Duration: 2 rounds, +1 round per level
Range: 30'

This spell works in a similar manner to the 4th level Chimera I, creating a blob of tissue from which mutant life will emerge. This enhanced version may either be used to create a single monster with 2d4 + 6 HD, or three identical 2d4 HD creatures.

The sorry fate of Mr Slippums

Oh dear.

Following the death and hoped resurrection of Slippy, our longest standing PC, the players had several options, as discussed here.

A further option was discovered, actually at Slippy's player's suggestion: reincarnate. So they made a visit to the School of Biomorphology in S'raka (where a bunch of vivimancers hang out) and inquired if it was possible. And it was, for the bargain price of 3,000gp. They jumped at the offer (2,000gp less than what the Temple of Orcus were asking! what a bargain!).

So Cagliostro, the party's necromancer, cut off an ear of the deceased rat man (the vivimancers only needed a small sample of tissue to work from), and set about boiling down Slippy's corpse to produce a skeleton and a nice bar of soap.

Two weeks later, Slippy emerged from the regenerative vats... The reincarnation tables came into action, and... a female goblin archer was born! Slippy's player was, I got the feeling, none too pleased.

I gave him the option of re-rolling his hit points: 3d6. He took the risk and rolled 8, having previously had 11.

I also gave him the option of re-rolling his comeliness (an attribute which we semi-jokingly use). He again took the risk and rolled 6, having previously had a respectably dashing 12.

So, such is the sorry fate of Henry Slippums. He had the idea of saving up for another reincarnation, committing suicide in the regenerative vat and taking his chances with what might come out next time. I suggested that wish would have the power to turn him back into a rat man.

Edit: see here for an insider's report on the Slippums situation.

The tweaking DM

I was thinking the other day about how DMing seems to involve (at least) two quite different sets of skills. On the one hand are skills of imagination, expression and improvisation -- the "art" of DMing, if you will. On the other hand are skills of systems, rules and judgement -- the "science" of DMing.

Nowadays, my "sciencey" side tends to focus on the tweaking and re-working of core rules and house rules. The new classes I've been posting recently are a perfect example of the expression of that urge. I see something I'm not so keen on in the core rules, play around with tweaking it, and finally come up with my own variant (house rule). Or sometimes I come up with a new idea that just doesn't fit neatly in any of the existing mechanics.

Whatever the case, "tinkering" is, I believe, the phrase.

I've noticed that in my Labyrinth Lord campaign I've gone through a few eras in regard to the rules:

1. We started off with just the basic LL rules (i.e. not using the AEC) + quite a few house rules tweaking various bits & pieces.
2. Gradually stuff from the AEC was introduced. Separate race & class. Attribute modifiers due to race and age. Multi-classing. Secondary skills. (This phase was, interestingly, completely player-driven. They basically saw cool stuff in the AEC and asked if they could use it. I said yes.)
3. After a while I began to pare back the house rules, seeing that some of them made no impact as they were never used, and that some of them were just tweaks for the sake of tweaking, and didn't really add anything to the game. The idea of playing as closely as possible to the core rules became very appealing, partly due to the fact that several of the players also have the rule books, so it makes sense to stick to what everyone has a printed copy of.
4. Now I'm in a phase again where I'm getting itchy feet and creating new classes all over the place and thinking about radically different systems of clerical magic.

So, a real oscillation between periods of the rules being very static and periods of wild splurges of modification / addition can be seen.

Firstly: is it just me? I get the feeling a lot of DMs do this. Do any / many DMs not do this?

The main point I want to raise here though is: what is this all about?

I don't really have an answer to that question at the moment. Maybe it's just fun to play in the sub-world of game-mechanical creation? Partly, for sure -- I love that.

I think it's also connected to the process of imagining a world though. What kind of characters, monsters, magic and adventures exist in that world, and how do the rules of the game support / restrict that?

Anyone else out there got any thoughts on this matter? Either from the DM's or the player's perspective.

City building resources

I've recently been giving some more thought to the city in which the PCs in my campaign live. It's been a pretty vague entity up until now, but I'd like to start putting a bit more detail into it, and maybe run some more urban based adventures in and around the city.

So I've been on the look out for any good guides to city building.

Surprisingly, one popped up on the Wizards of the Coast website. It's D&D 3.5 oriented, but the meat of the document is system neutral. Seems like it'll be pretty useful. Check it out: Building a city.

Anyone else know of any good resources for city building? (I'm thinking along more "traditional" lines, rather than the "urban crawl" style of Vornheim.)

More classes! (?) -- Brute & Archer

Character classes, that old cornerstone of D&D... As a DM I've always been a "more is less" kinda guy, of the school of thought that who needs a ranger, paladin, cavalier and barbarian when you have the basic fighter. But something has been shifting... I've been thinking about what the players in my campaign might want, and the main thing I think players desire for their characters, in the context of an adventuring party, is for their character to be able to do something that no one else in the party can. And this something should be of a mechanical nature, that is, not purely a role-playing / behavioural difference.

So I've got to thinking about what additional classes I could allow. Thus far we've just had the classic four -- with cleric constantly teetering on the edge of being disallowed due to me as grumpy DM not liking it and claiming it doesn't fit with the setting. The obvious course of action would be allow some or all of the "advanced" classes from the Labyrinth Lord AEC, but I have problems with all of those classes.

The paladin, druid and ranger come with too strong a role-playing / background restriction, and cause problems of how they integrate with the rest of a party -- why exactly is this druid (who's supposed to be hanging around protecting balance in a grove somewhere) keeping the company of scoundrels and joining them on expeditions to steal treasure from dungeons?

The monk I just find too Asian -- which wouldn't be a problem if I was running an Asian-themed campaign ;).

As for the assassin, I like the idea of the class, but am not keen on some of the mechanics.

Oh and of course there's the illusionist -- I love the illusionist, and have amalgamated it into the magic-user (along with my necromancer and elementalist classes) as optional areas of specialisation.

So that's all of the AD&D classes struck off the list. What I want is some classes which provide some different abilities without any required background baggage. I've been brainstorming a few ideas, and have come up with a couple of fighter variants to start off with which I'm going to run by the players to see what they think. May I present, the brute and the archer.

Brutes
Requirements:       STR 9, CON 9
Prime Requisite:    STR, CON
Hit Dice:                1d8
Maximum Level:    None
XP Progression:     2,200 for 2nd level

Brutes are warriors who rely on sheer physical power, rather than expertise with weapons and fighting techniques. Brutes are able to use all melee weapons, though favour two-handed weapons, and suffer a -1 penalty to hit when using a one-handed weapon. They are likewise not trained in the use of missile weapons, suffering -1 to hit with thrown weapons, and being unable to use bows, slings and crossbows. Brutes are able to wear any armour, but cannot use shields.

Brutes with a 13 in both prime requisites receive a 5% experience bonus. Those with a 16 in one or both prime requisites receive a 10% bonus. Brutes' saving throw and attack advancement is the same as standard fighters'.

Humans or dwarves may be brutes. Dwarfish brutes may advance to 9th level, and are permitted to use two-handed battle axes and war hammers.

Despite their weapon and armour restrictions, at 1st level brute characters gain several advantages over normal fighters.

Firstly they are able to increase either their STR or CON attribute by one point, to a maximum of 19.

Secondly, due to the force of their attacks, they add an additional 1d6 damage to any melee attack which succeeds with a natural roll of  20.

Finally, due to the vigour with which they fight, brutes are able to continue attacking even when their hit points go below 1. A brute can continue making melee attacks (and no other actions) until his hit points are reduced to the negative value of his experience level (for example, a 5th level brute can keep fighting until -5 hit points). At this point, or if no further opponents are nearby, the brute dies.

Reaching 3rd level: Upon reaching 3rd level, brutes gain the ability after making a successful melee attack, to make a second attack against another nearby foe.

Reaching 5th level: At 5th level a brute may again increase either his STR or CON by one point, to a maximum of 19.

Reaching 10th level: At 10th level a brute may again increase either his STR or CON by one point, to a maximum of 19.

Reaching 15th level, and higher: Like fighters, brutes gain an extra attack per round at 15th, 20th and 25th level.

Archers
Requirements:       DEX 9
Prime Requisite:    STR, DEX
Hit Dice:                1d6
Maximum Level:    None
XP Progression:    1,900 for 2nd level

Archers are warriors who devote their whole training to the mastery of the bow. They are able to use any missile weapons and all one-handed melee weapons, though suffer a -1 penalty to hit with the latter. Archers can use any armour up to chain mail, and are not trained in the use of a shield.

Archers with a 13 in both prime requisites receive a 5% experience bonus. Those with a 16 in one or both prime requisites receive a 10% bonus. Archers' saving throw and attack advancement is the same as standard fighters'.

Humans, elves and halflings may be archers. Elvish archers may advance to 12th level, and halfling archers to 7th level.

Archers gain several advantages over standard fighters.

Firstly they gain +1 to hit and damage when using a long or short bow.

Secondly, an archer with STR 13 or greater can purchase a specially commissioned composite bow to take advantage of his strength. Such a bow enables the archer to add his STR bonus to damage on a successful hit. The cost of these bows is shown below. They can only be used by archers.

Reaching 5th level: Upon reaching 5th level, archers gain the ability to make two attacks with their bow every other round.

Reaching 7th level: At 7th level an archer gains the ability to make precise and deadly shots when attacking by surprise. Any successful attack made with a bow upon a target who is unaware of the archer's presence (usually due to a surprise roll) has its damage multiplied by two.

Reaching 10th level: At 10th level an archer is able to make two attacks per round with his bow

Reaching 15th level: At 15th level an archer is able to make three attacks per round with his bow.

Archer Composite Bows
Shortbow (up to +1 damage bonus) -- costs 100gp
Shortbow (up to +2 damage bonus) -- costs 200gp
Shortbow (up to +3 damage bonus) -- costs 400gp
Longbow (up to +1 damage bonus) -- costs 150gp
Longbow (up to +2 damage bonus) -- costs 300gp
Longbow (up to +3 damage bonus) -- costs 600gp

The death of Henry Slippums

My Labyrinth Lord campaign has been running for just over a year now. About half of that time I was running games every two weeks, and more recently we've gone to playing every week. Over the course of those games, many characters have come and gone. I'm not one to shield PCs from the brutality of old-school D&D. Of the characters who featured in the first session, only one has survived all that time -- Henry "Slippy" Slippums. Until two days ago that is.

The death of a PC is always a shocking moment, but even more so when the PC in question has been the only constant of the campaign from day one, and, indeed, the self-styled "boss" of the party.

Really the death was an un/lucky fluke. I rolled three natural 20s against him, giving whatever armour or precautions he'd taken no chance of helping him.

But whatever the cause, we now find ourselves in a very interesting position -- the first time in the history of the campaign where raise dead is seriously being discussed. As luck would have it, following a recent suggestion from Alex, I'd decided several days previously that Orcus is the main cosmic power to whom adventurers may turn when seeking to raise a dead companion.

So, on the spur of the moment I was presented with the task of deciding how that works. Visiting the temple of Orcus in S'raka, here are the choices the PCs were presented:

1. Pay 5,000gp for the ritual.
2. Pay 2,000gp and provide a bunch of live sacrifices to "butter up" the lord of the dead. A total of 17 humans or 32 "little people" were the figures recommended.
3. Accept a group quest to return the favour.

The party's necromancer Cagliostro also offered up the option of re-animating Slippy as a zombie using animate dead.

This has presented a very interesting situation to the party, as they don't have 5,000gp between them, so cannot simply pay the lump sum. They could probably just about scrape it together if they sacrificed all the wealth they have, and sold Slippy's magic sword. This would leave them penniless, a state which they are not at all keen on.

The live sacrifices option has been discussed, either by buying slaves for the purpose (which is past the edge of taste & morality for some of the PCs), or venturing underground and capturing several dozen kobolds whom they encountered recently and have taken a (completely unwarranted, it must be said) disliking to. It sounds like this would be a rather amusing exercise in bad taste.

Interestingly, the least favourite option (apart from zombification, which only the necromancer is keen on) is the quest. As DM I am rather keen on this option, as it would give a nice excuse for some fun missions, but I suppose they don't trust the lord of the dead :)

It'll be fascinating to see what they end up deciding on. Slippy's player Yves is hoping they'll be overcome with loyalty to their "bold" "leader".

The Sentient Races of Old Aalia

Here's a little summary of the main sentient races that have featured in my LL campaign so far, mainly for the benefit of the players.

Humans (any alignment)
The usual deal.

The natives of Old Aalia are olive-skinned, like the people of the Mediterranean. Pale, blond-haired northerners, and dark-skinned southerners are also seen from time to time.

Mongrel-folk (any alignment)
The strange radiations which permeate the vaults of the great city S'raka have caused the accelerated and haphazard evolution of those down-trodden people who inhabit the region. Mutations, ranging from the completely debilitating to the potently novel, are rife among this folk.

Rat-folk (any alignment)
Rat-folk, sometimes called "halflings", are another race which has evolved in the warping influence of S'raka's vaults. They are half the size of humans, and appear to be a 50/50 cross-breed between humanoid and rat. Most rat-folk spend their lives in the vaults of S'raka, where they live as scavengers. A few of the more gifted members of this race sometimes venture to the surface, and may find a way to make a living as adventurers or business-owners. They are generally regarded as vermin, in the same social class as beggars or mongrel-men.

Dwarrow (typically LN, N, NE)
The dwarrow are a race similar to the standard D&D duergar. They live underground in labyrinthine cavern complexes which they constantly expand and mine for minerals. Dwarrow have jet black eyes, and skin that is gnarled like old tree roots and coloured in hues of earth or stone. Although they are important trade partners, the dwarrow are seldom trusted by humans -- they are exceptionally avaricious and scheming, regarding all forms of precious metal and gems as the sole property of their race.

Dwarrow are known for their contempt towards other races, and are fond of slavery. Kobolds are commonly kept as mining slaves by Dwarrow -- the fortress city of Minitol, in particular, maintains a very large population of the creatures. The Dwarrow of the Glaarm mountains in the far north of Old Aalia harbour a hatred and resentment of the race of Kobolds, with whom they have been at war since a slaves' revolt succeeded.

Swine-folk (typically CE)
Sworn enemies of human-kind, the swine-folk of Old Aalia are a detested race of carnivorous beast-men created centuries ago by a demented god. Wherever the swine-folk go they leave destruction in their wake.

Kobolds (typically L)
A diminutive race of snivelling wiry-haired dog-men, kobolds are equally at home underground and on the surface. They dwell primarily in the forests in the east of Old Aalia, though some kobold settlements are known to exist in the deeper vaults of S'raka. They are also often found in the company of dwarrow, who keep them as slaves. When left to their own devices, kobolds tend to roam around in large packs, and generally show little respect for other races, though among themselves they have a rigidly structured social hierarchy.

Forest Gnomes
A meek and homely race who live in burrows and caves among the roots of forest trees. They are friends with burrowing animals such as moles and badgers, and primarily enjoy the pleasures of a quiet life in a cosy home.

Svirfneblin (typically L or N)
Subterranean relatives of the forest gnomes, svirfneblin are a pale and almost hairless race who make their homes deep underground wherever gem deposits can be found. The race is so rarely seen (except by dwarrow, who encounter their communities in the course of their own delving) that rumours abound about their nature and their existence. A common conception among humans is that the svirfneblin cosmically manifest around mineral deposits.

Elves (typically N or C)
Tall, thin and ephemeral, elves are a fey race native to a magical dimension which exists in parallel to the world of men. They are of diverse appearance, being basically similar looking to humans, but always have one or more unusual features that mark them as obviously non-human, such as: pointed ears, silver or violet hair, cat-like eyes, sharp pointed teeth, extra fingers, etc.

Often Neutral in alignment, elves are fickle, mysterious and mischievous. They enjoy music and song, as well as fine food and drink -- but all their pleasures have a strange otherworldly quality, which other races can find both intoxicating and eerie. They have a talent for magic, and many individuals have some degree of innate magical potency.

Although they seldom co-habit, elves and goblins have a mutual respect for each other. Their kings perhaps have some kind of alliance.

Goblins (typically N, NE or CN)
A mischievous fey race, goblins are of diverse appearance. Typically they are half human size, hideously or comically ugly (by human standards), and have black or dark green skin. Though they seldom have any regular or organised contact with other races (apart from elves), they have a habit of appearing out of nowhere, causing trouble, and then returning to their own dimension via whatever subtle path they arrived by.

Alternative halflings

As I first read the Labyrinth Lord rule books, and began to conceive the campaign I'd like to run, one of the first decisions I made was to ditch hobbits and to reskin the halfling class / race as rat people. This simple change has worked out marvellously, and has really helped to add a bit of unique flavour to the setting.

I've been thinking recently about the word "halfling", and its possible use for a whole swathe of other half-sized folk, some of whom could quite possibly be adventurers.

Similarly, I thought that the standard halfling class or race could easily be used for these other races, perhaps with a slight tweak to give each of them some unique ability. So, mechanically speaking, the halfling races have all the abilities granted by the standard LL halfling race or class, apart from the hiding ability, which is replaced by a unique racial ability as described below. I have also given them all infravision, as they usually dwell underground.

Rat-folk: Humanoid rats, complete with fur, tails and twitchy noses. Actually do have the hiding ability (as per hobbits), which works 3 in 6 in any environment.

Kobolds: A diminutive race of snivelling dog men. Tend to hang out in packs. Kobold adventurers have the ability to track with their excellent sense of smell. In my campaign, kobolds are a wretched and cowardly race, although intensely loyal to their companions. Although their respect for other races is minimal, among themselves they tend towards lawful alignment. Their societies display the full range of good and evil, similar to any human culture.

Goblins: In my campaign goblins are a fey race (the same as elves), meaning that they originate from a parallel dimension, where they typically spend most of their time. Some however may become adventurers and choose to explore the physical world. As a special ability they know additional languages (the tongues of fey elves and pixies), can identify dimensional portals, and are 90% immune to charm effects. In my campaign, while goblins are mischievous and tend towards chaotic alignment, unlike the standard D&D goblins they are in no way inherently evil.

Deep gnomes (svirfneblin): Yet to be specifically encountered in our games, but having been referred to, this race dwells in deep subterranean caverns, and are sometimes encountered by the dwarrow as they delve for metals. They have the ability to know their depth and orientation underground, and to detect sloping passages. These abilities work 2 in 6 of the time. They also speak the tongue of the dwarrow.

Forest gnomes: A meek and homely race, unlikely to produce much in the way of bold adventurers. Nevertheless, if such an individual were to exist they would have the ability to speak the languages of burrowing animals, and a 2 in 6 chance of detecting decrepit or unstable structures underground.

Note that all of these races have the standard restrictions of the halfling race, as regards to minimum / maximum ability scores, and level limits.

Doing without the cleric class: Blessings & pacts

[Players in my Labyrinth Lord campaign, don't worry, I won't be changing anything, as we've already agreed you can use the cleric class as written. This is just musings, but actually is more in line with how I would see such things working in this setting.]

The cleric class is one which I've never been that keen on. I think in the right setting -- one in which militant and hierarchical religious organisations are very influential -- they can be great, but somehow none of the settings I tend to be attracted to have much emphasis on such institutions, making clerical adventurers an odd fit. Actually, in general I tend to baulk against all classes which come with some kind of built-in moral imperative or social background (clerics, druids, assassins, rangers, paladins... even sometimes the humble thief!), preferring to stick with a more neutral tone where adventurers can simply be adventurers, without having some exterior agenda. Given this, I sometimes find myself musing about how some of the important abilities of the cleric class, such as healing and turning undead, could be maintained in a setting without clerics as a class of adventurer. My latest musing have led me to something like the following.

Cosmic Blessings
Any character can visit the myriad temples devoted to weird cosmic powers which exist throughout the world. Many of these temples have priests who can perform various rituals, channelling the power of their patron to bring about miraculous effects in the physical world. It is also possible for individuals to make offerings to the patron of a temple or shrine in the hope of receiving a blessing.

Blessings take the form of imbued clerical spells. Any PC can be imbued with a single 1st level clerical spell, and those with higher WIS can receive additional blessings according to the normal chart for extra clerical spells. (Characters with low WIS may also have a percentage chance of not receiving a blessing when making an offering.) Once a blessing has been received from a cosmic power, it is imbued in the character until used / cast.

Naturally, all blessings come at a cost. I imagine something like 50gp for a 1st level spell, then 100gp per spell level for 2nd and higher level spells.

Also note that each blessing must be attained from an appropriate temple -- for example, cure light wounds from a healing power, spiritual weapon from a deity of battle, and so on. This could lead to interesting campaign possibilities, where a journey to a shrine in an attempt to receive a specific blessing could become an adventure in itself.

Cosmic powers are fine with general promiscuity of worship -- they are quite happy to bless someone who has already been blessed by several other powers.

Cosmic Pacts
Another option, again open to all characters, is to make a pact with a specific cosmic power who patronises an appropriate area of influence. Such a pact is regarded as lifelong, and monogamous -- a marriage, so to speak, of a mortal soul with a cosmic power.

This is the point at which my musings get a bit fuzzy... what exactly would be the benefit of a lifelong pact? Possibly one or more (appropriate) clerical spells "for free" per day, and possibly even using some kind of spell progression based on character level or something else.

There would, however, also have to be some kind of downside -- the cosmic power is going to want something in return. The only thing I've specifically thought of so far would be the mortal's soul, to be claimed immediately upon death (making PC resurrection difficult or impossible). This would be a fairly severe option, but would lend an appropriate weight to such pacts, and would make it an interesting and somewhat risky choice for PCs to make. The choice of which power to make a pact with would also be an interesting roleplaying opportunity, as each power would, presumably, grant completely different abilities to its followers, perhaps domain-specific abilities like I've discussed before here and here.

If anyone has any further thoughts or ideas for such a system please feel free to comment!

Spells of the god of gold -- part 1

I previously developed, in collaboration with one of the players in my Labyrinth Lord campaign, a set of new spells available to clerics of the god of blades. Now there's a new cleric in town (/ in the party), a fellow called Obadiah, who is a staunch follower of a cosmic entity known as "Assedh, god of gold and precious metals". So we've been putting a bit of thought to some special spells for worshippers of that god.

Here's what we've come up with for the low level spells. (One is, obviously, a Labyrinth Lord adaptation of a classic from AD&D.)

The rest of this post is designated Open Gaming Content according to the Open Gaming License.


Assedh's Pick
Level: 1
Duration: See below
Range: Touch

This spell has two possible uses, which may be chosen as it is cast.

Firstly it may be used to enchant a pick for 2 rounds per level of the caster. The weapon gains +1 to attack and damage, and is able to harm beings which can only be affected by magic.

Alternatively, the spell can enchant a pick as a cosmically enhanced digging aid. The enchantment lasts for 1 turn per level of the caster, and enables a 5' cubic area of earth to be dug out in one turn.

Deeppockets
Level: 2
Duration: 12 hours, +1 hour per level
Range: Touch

This spell places an enchantment on a specially constructed garment, allowing its pockets to contain an increased capacity. The selected garment must have at least a dozen small pockets sewn into it, and must have golden thread woven into it, costing at least 100gp. When enchanted, the garment's pockets are collectively able to contain up to 100 pounds of weight (1,000 coins) as if it were only 10 pounds. In addition to the weight reducing capability, the enchanted pockets show no visible bulge, even when completely full. Items larger than 1 cubic foot cannot be placed in the pockets.

If the spell ends (either due to its duration expiring, or due to being dispelled) while there are items inside the pockets, the wearer of the garment must make a saving throw versus spells. If the save succeeds, the items in the pockets are dumped at the subject's feet. If the save fails, however, the contents of the pockets are lost in some alternate dimension.

Locate Precious Metals
Level: 3
Duration: Instant
Range: 120'

Upon casting this spell the cleric becomes instantly aware of all quantities of precious metals within range. The caster gains an approximate knowledge of the value of precious metals present, as well as a precise location in terms of distance (for example "30' north, 20' east").

Underground, this spell only detects metals on the same dungeon level as the caster, thus it cannot be used to detect treasure on higher or lower levels.

Adventure Log PDF

I thought I'd share this very simple adventure log sheet which I've just knocked up for my Labyrinth Lord games.

Get it here.

Pick pockets results charts!

I've been doing a spot of musing lately on what  sort of things could result when a PC thief attempts a bit of petty pocket picking on the side in between adventures. This comes up every so often, especially now we have three thieves in the party, and I'm never properly prepared for the event. Unprepared no longer!

I present my lovingly crafted pick pockets results charts! (Players in my campaign, please don't look at the charts, unless you love spoiling fun that is ;)

This is the second draft of these charts. The initial version I came up with included a lot more extreme results -- including being able to pilfer some pretty valuable items, and the accompanying possibility of severe punishment (incarceration or execution!). After some discussion with the players we decided that, while this was realistic, it wasn't much fun. So the final tables have been kind of smoothed out. Items of moderate wealth can be stolen, and moderately bad consequences of failure may occur, but nothing at either extreme.

I hope some other DM out there might also find these charts useful!

DM info sheets: Specialists

I've recently been putting a bit of thought into the kind of specialists living in a big city which PCs might want to consult or hire. As a result of this I've knocked up some simple info sheets to print out and fill in the details of such characters, which I thought I'd share, in case they're useful for anyone else.

They contain a very small amount of mechanical information, and are otherwise just convenient tables with blanks to fill in.

So far I have: Sages, Magic-Users, Shrines and Alchemists.

The devil is in the details - Many Fey, Some Fey

Some time ago I created (and posted) a set of tables of random racial characteristics for Dwarrow and Ratfolk characters in my campaign. Following last week's PC massacre, there have been some new character being rolled up. Among them are two Fey (not coincidentally, as the party was decimated by ghouls, and Fey are immune to their paralysis!). So this morning I came up with similar tables for Fey (including a few entries from the original Elf "Devil is in the details" article in Fight on!).

Many Fey

1. Have an unusual number of fingers (roll 1d6 + 2, re-rolling if you end up with four!).
2. Have hair which animates or changes colour depending on their mood.
3. Lie as a matter of course.
4. Are 90% resistant to sleep and charm person.
5. Guard their true name with their lives.
6. Have the attention span of a gnat.
7. Feel a great affinity to one type of animal.
8. Love games of chance.
9. Apparently sprang into existence fully formed, having no memory of a childhood or family.
10. Have an irrational hatred of one specific thing (gnomes, horses, moonlight, etc), and fly into a rage when encountering it.
11. Love all forms of art, especially pieces which other races would regard as incomprehensibly convoluted.
12. Find humans and dwarrow endlessly boring.
13. Are terrified of spirits and undead.
14. Refuse to have anything to do with cosmic powers, including acceptance of cleric spells being cast upon them.
15. Only have a 1 in 6 chance of needing to sleep each night.
16. Carry an array of small charms to protect against all manner of things.
17. Have a 30% chance of reflecting sleep or charm person back onto the caster.
18. Are prone to addiction, and start play with a penchant for: 1. alil, 2. fine spirits, 3. yellow powder, 4. exotic pipe-weed.
19. Have silver, gold, or violet hair.
20. Suffer from fits of insanity (10% chance per day, lasting one day, roll on the table in the DMG p.83).
21. Can detect subtle psychic impressions in objects, getting a feeling of the appearance and mood of the last person who touched the object.
22. Actually physically disappear when they sleep, vanishing to a dream dimension.
23. Have an imaginary friend (though of course they claim it is real) with whom they converse.
24. Find water distasteful and will only drink wine or fruit juices.
25. Can generate minor electrical shocks.
26. Have eyes of an unusual colour (violet, pure white, silver, etc).
27. Are able to cast a single 1st level spell once per day, selected from the list of fey sorcerer spells.
28. Have a deep love and respect for the ancient line of fey nobility.
29. Find humour in almost anything, even at totally inappropriate moments.
30. Are deeply superstitious, having a long list of things which are supposed to bring good or bad luck.

Some Fey

1. Have a sadistic bent.
2. Have almost no concept of self-preservation, making them completely reckless.
3. Speak to themselves in a private language which only they understand.
4. Will not die from ageing.
5. Insist on things (people, items, plans, etc) being assigned numerical values.
6. Harbour the desire to mate with a being of another (perhaps unusual) race.
7. Have detailed memories of a past life (possibly as another race).
8. Are incredibly avaricious, but only seek wealth of a very particular kind (emeralds, pearls, platinum, gold rings, etc).
9. Are completely hedonistic and do not care a whit for the future.
10. Prefer to not enter the fey dimension, for reasons of their own.
11. Have a habit of pronouncing personal names backwards, and will not reveal the reason for this.
12. Both fear and desire to know the deep places below the earth.
13. Value logic and rationality over all else.
14. Breed new animals in pursuit of a singular vision.
15. Can detect the influence of cosmic powers, as a cleric. If successful, become terrified, enraged or sick (equal chance).
16. Find books and writing to be delightful curiosities.
17. Have a twin which resulted from a spontaneous division. The two twins' personalities are usually radically at odds.
18. Refuse to use a personal name of any kind.
19. Shower friends with gifts.
20. Will only dress in a specific colour.
21. Study an ancient spiritual text which is written entirely in indecipherable code which generations of fey have failed to crack.
22. Have star-shaped pupils. The number of points on the star is deemed auspicious.
23. Are fascinated by light, and will spend long hours gazing into prisms or beams of sunlight.
24. Are strange and silent.
25. Study a complex system of astrology which can only be applied in retrospect.
26. Are unaffected by all but the most extreme changes in temperature and weather.
27. Trace their ancestry to another world.
28. Are haunted by animals of a certain species, which they believe are spies.
29. Cannot conceal their emotions.
30. Will swiftly die if imprisoned.

Slippy's adventuring log -- in memorium of a near TPK

DM's note: I've not run a session (yet) where a true TPK has occurred. I have however "participated" (shall we say) in the almost complete destruction of two parties of adventurers. Once was a group of 1st level scummers who perished battling lowly fire beetles. One character escaped with his life -- Slippy the ratman. In our game two days ago it happened again. This time with a more competent and experienced party, who met their doom at the hands of a co-ordinated attack of ghouls and gnolls. Again one character escaped with his life, and again it was Slippy the ratman.

Following are Slippy's notes on this grisly occurrence. The facts are, in places, grossly exaggerated, but as he says "a truer telling of the events that transpired there today will never be heard".

Written by Yves, Slippy's player.

Slippy didn't speak a word to the gatekeeper Olob when he returned to Lembde in the late afternoon, clad in his dented plate mail which seemed to be missing a few pieces, his trusty bowler no longer on his head at a jaunty angle. He pushed by the guards inquiring about his fellow travellers and made for the village tavern. Roughly throwing open the doors he flung some silver pieces in the direction of the bar and sat himself down at the nearest table while shouting: "Inkeeper! Ale for everyone!". He then looked around the tavern, his gaze shifting from one Red Man to the next, and then started yelling to no one in particular: "Gather round ye folk, for I have a tale of woe and sorrow to tell, a story of the bravest companions a ratman ever did lay his eyes upon." Without waiting for the Red Men to react he continued: "The story of Skarr, a finer ratwoman the sewers of S'raka haven't produced; of Blade, a fine and goodly fellow, blessed in the sight of men and gods; of Hjalhir too, a clever, scholarly man, brother to the great warrior Beomir of whose exploits even you must surely have heard; and Tal Copperhand the Dwarrow, known as Deepingdale to his friends, and to some as the drunken fool of Dreg. Employed by the Imperial Cartography Guild were we, as you well know, and for the greater glory of the Empire did we go to the cursed place known as the Chasm Deeps. We ventured far, ignoring the risk to our own lives, coming across such marvelous sights as the statue of Breets, and such bizarre spectacles as the magical mirror, undoubtedly the work of the treacherous Yellow Men, when we reached a large room, a barracks or dormitory it might have been, seeing as it were filled with bunk beds.” Here Slippy paused, for added dramatic effect as well as gulping down the pint of ale the innkeeper had put in front of him.

„It were in this very place we came upon a rough barricade, thrown up by vile Gnolls to bar our further exploration and mapping. While the warriors among us took up defensive positions, my good companion Tal the Dwarrow threw down some flaming oil, were it to frighten away the Gnolls or to deter their approach I do not known, for at that very moment much confusion arose and all hell broke loose. It was that fine fellow Blade who first spotted the roaming band of Ghouls - even more despicable since they were once Yellow Men - who caught us by surprise in the back. Blade was quickly beset by them and succumbed to the paralyzing nature of their cruel claws. At this moment yours truly nocked and loosed an arrow, but due to the shoddy craftmanship of the bow - which he purchased here in Lembde and for which he expects the bowyer will provide him full compensation, seeing as by this first event everything that followed transpired, and if the man can live with four deaths on his conscience and keep my gold then my hat is off to him, what a black soul he must have - anyhow this bow lost its string and fell to the floor. The Dwarrow rushes forward, taking no heed of the danger, to protect his scholarly fellows, while my brave halfling friend Skarr also unleashed a volley, unfortunately to little effect. Our scholar Hjalhir meanwhile kept working on his maps, because that's what he does, and nothing else, especially not accursed magicks. The fight turned sour quickly, my companions one by one succumbing to the Ghouls' crippling touch, which left your narrator on his own, warding off three Ghouls with naught but a dagger.“ Slippy continued, as he gulped down the remainder of the second flagon.

„Fortunately Blade, blessed he be, as I have mentioned earlier, by divine intervention recovered his wits and set about reviving the others of our little group, and it seemed the tide of the battle had turned in our favour. 't was around this moment however that fate spit us squarely in the face, for a group of ravenous Gnolls then entered the fray, jumping over the smoldering remains of the barricade. Your faithful Ratman took it upon himself to engage these vile curs, allowing Blade to see to the fallen. By very selflessly sacrificing a very expensive gold necklace I bought us preciously needed time. Then the story admittedly takes a slightly odd turn, as for reasons not entirely clear to myself - though I suspect the combat fatigue and large breakfast I had this morning to be the culprits - I fell soundly asleep, which my foes seemed to think was a very excellent idea because three Gnolls followed my lead.“ Slippy paused, cleared his throat and emptied the third pint before moving on.

„Next thing I remember I was being dragged away by one of the Gnolls who didn't feel quite so nappish, looking around to see, to my dismay, my companions once again struck down, being torn apart by the remaining Ghouls - at this point I should note there were probably a dozen of them, of which we killed perhaps ten, six of those I did in single-handedly - and my Gnollish captor continued to drag me off while yapping gleefully. Waiting for the most opportune moment, I then broke loose of his grasp, and, seeing that my comrades were in dire peril indeed, became so ferociously enraged that the Gnoll thought the better of it and set to running for his life. In my bloodlust the recollections have become a bit of haze, but I distinctly remember grabbing a long sword and tearing up their dung-covered lair, decapitating Gnolls left and right while I strategically beat a retreat to the exit, as to alert the rear guard which remained behind to look after our mules. According to them at least three Gnolls ran out of the cave with me in hot pursuit until I lost track of them, and collapsed quite exhausted, physically but mostly emotionally, struck by the loss of my equipment and also those guys I told you earlier about. So in short, as a truer telling of the events that transpired there today will never be heard, let it be recorded for posterity and recounted throughout the ages, the tale of brave Henry Slippums! Cheers!" And with that Slippy drank deep of his fourth pint of ale and he felt a whole lot better for it.

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 9

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members Present
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Venser, 3rd Lvl Human Thief Rear Guard*
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Hjalhir, 3rd Lvl Human Wizard Rear Guard*
Blade, 2nd Lvl Human Cleric of Hegg, God of Blades
Deepingdale (Tal), 2nd Lvl Dwarrow
Skarr, 1st Lvl Female Ratfolk Thief
Stignarr, 1st Lvl Human Fighter Rear Guard*
(*Absent)

Starting and ending locations: The Chasm Deeps returning later to the Red folk’s village of Lembde, 2 hours east of the Chasm Deeps (5 miles).

Session 9 (26/10/11)
After cleaning ourselves up after the fight with the spider, Hjalhir decided that he was in no fit state to continue and so we escorted him outside to join Venser, Stig and the mules at the camp that they had set up in a small hollow in the cliff face, just around the corner from the entrance (hopefully away from prying eyes and noses).  The remainder of the company apprehensively returned back to the deeps.  We returned to the spiders room and after listening, John the animated skeleton opened the door opposite on the northwest wall.

This lead into a large room 40’ x 55’, which was both strangely and quiet disturbingly, very clean.   Immediately Deepingdale became a little anxious about possible traps, but after an extensive search, nothing could be found.  3 other doors lead off from this room, one on each wall.  We decided to move north first and when John opened the door it revealed a dark corridor ahead.  Cagliosro’s animate undead spell ran out at this point and John collapsed to the floor, his work done for now.  As the Necromancer started to collect up John’s inanimate bones and return them to the coffin which he strangely carried on his back, suddenly out of the dark, shot a web thread and entangled Johns ulna (lower arm bone).  Before Caglisro had a chance to grab it, the sticky web thread shot back into the darkness along with John’s lower left arm.  Caglisro, in fear, quickly shut the door in front of him, thinking that another giant spider was about to do the same to him.  The party quickly assembled with Deepingdale acting as a shield guard at the front and Scarr and Slippy with bows with Blade with his Glaive set to receive.  We cautiously opened the north door and peered into the darkness.  All along the corridor ceiling hung a deep blanket of dusty old spiders webs.  At this point Caglisro heard a wooden creaking sound to the south of us and we closed the north door and prepared for our visitor.

Scarr had the plan to surprise however was sneaking up on us and we pretended to leave the room back to the east, but instead stood still very quietly and waited with weapons poised, but nothing happened.  10 minutes later we decided to proceed through the southern door to investigate.  Using Deepingdales brute strength he managed to wrench the door off its hinges when trying to open it.  This would prove a problem later.  The room to the south entered into another large oblong room 60’ x 30’ with a large 20’ stone statue of a frog in the centre of it within what was once clearly a fountain.  A number of double doors lead off from this junction hall.  The doors to the west and south where both slightly ajar and spots of fresh blood lay on the floor leading through the western door.  A strong smell of dogs (gnolls?) hung in the air.  The doors to the east hung off their hinges and through these we could make out day light from the entrance.  Deep looked through the doors to the west and could see a carcass of a dead deer lying on the ground. 

An additional door lay on the northern wall leading back into the dead spiders room.  We decided to check this first as another door which we had not opened yet lead to the east and looking at our map we wanted to know if this room contained gnoll guards as the smell seemed very strong from this area.  After hearing nothing, we opened the door to reveal a small 20’x20’ room, its floor seemed to look exactly like the nights sky, brilliant black with shiny stars that looked up at us.  Deepingdale asked Cagliosro to check it out and the Necromancer started casting a detect magic spell.  Whilst he did this, from the door way Deepingdale dropped one of his stone marbles onto the floor into the room.  For a moment the marble rolled around and once it settled it disappeared through the floor.  Deepingdale then took out his 50’ rope and dangled 3’ of rope into the room.  The rope settled on the floor, then like the marble, slowly sunk into the floor and disappeared.  Deep was unable to retrieve the rope and began cutting the section off with his knife.  It is at this point that the party came under attack and Cagliosro's spell was detect magic spell was interrupted.

From the room to the south with the Frog Statue in it, we saw a grey humanoid hand push open the door on the southern wall.  Scarr who was standing guard shot at the hand with his bow, but the arrow embedded into the south door and the hand quickly withdrew.  Perhaps this was our earlier stalker we thought.  Deep dropped his knife and the rope, withdrew the Azure Serpent Sword from his scabbard and quietly moved into the room behind him to see what the fuss was.  Slippy and Blade joined Scarr and at the same time from the east we heard a terrible humanoid dog like cry and from the corridor charged two 7’ Gnolls carrying large spears.  Slippy and Scarr let loose their arrows and Blade attacked with his Glaive.  The Cleric of Hegg and the Ratfolk soon dispatched the foul dog men and just when we thought all was safe, from the door to the south three ghouls charged in.  Scarr managed to leap onto the Frog statue just as an undead red man ghoul leapt up at him clawing with both hands and biting with his teeth.  The little rat women was badly scratched in the back, but managed to resist the diseased paralysis from the ghouls dirt ridden claws.  In a state of shock and surprise, Scarr’s arrow missed completely.


Deepingdale, Slippy and Glaive prepared to receive the three ghouls.  Combat was chaotic and confused.  Deepingdale skewered the Ghoul in the back who was leaping up at Scarr, but before we knew it, despite managing to strike the Ghouls with Hjalhir’s magical dagger, Slippy lay on the floor paralysed from the unclean claws and bite from one the Ghouls who was now lying on top of him trying to eat him.  Deepingdale was also hit, but his Dwarrow endurance was no match for the filth of the ghouls and he took nothing more than a small flesh wound.  Blade then tried to cast a sanctuary spell to rescue Slippy, but just before the spell incantation was complete, a ghoul scratched him and disrupted the spell.  Despite this, Blade bravely tried to pull Slippy from under the attacking ghoul but instead was bitten and clawed himself and ended up also lying paralysed next to Slippy near the door.  Deepingdale seeing that the situation was turning dire, backed off, retreating slowly to the north east door and stood over the two paralysed bodies of his colleagues defending them from the ghoul claws eventually killing his own assailant, but not managing to do anything more.  Scarr in the meantime shot arrows down from his safe vantage point.  After failing to earlier cast control undead on the attacking ghouls, Cagliosro at this point managed to successfully cast an animate dead spell and raised the dead spider and the two Gnolls who proceeded to enter the battle just as another 4 ghouls appeared through the south door.  The undead gnolls and spiders made quick work of the last two ghouls before their comrades could join them to reinforce their attack.  Meanwhile, Cagliosro managed to drag our paralysed companions back into the dead spiders room and summoned a new John the skeleton from a scroll to support the ensuing combat.

Unfortunately it was now becoming very clear that with only three remaining party members left in combat, one of which was seriously injured and potentially cut off from the rest of us, we decided it was time for a fighting retreat (or running for our lives).  Deepingdale opted to prepare burning oil to try to dispatch the four new ghouls who had entered the chamber, but through the pressure of battle he lost the initiative and ghouls poured in and pursued poor Scarr as he leapt down from the frog statue just before one of them jumped up at him narrowly missing Scarr.  Scarr ran like the wind through the broken door to the northwest, into the clean room, pursued by ghouls.  The undead gnolls and spider helped Cagliosro to carry our paralysed colleagues towards the exit.  Meanwhile, through the south door we heard the howling cry of more Gnolls.  Deepingdale tried to attack the ghouls who were now chasing after Scarr.  Whilst watching the door to the south, Deep slung the flaming oil flask into the room with the ghouls, but it went in too far, missing the undead.  Recognising that the situation hung in the balance Deepingdale ran to join Cagliosro in the dead spider’s room, just as the Ghouls were trying to force the door open to the west.  Deep managed to spike the door shut, but the door to south now burst open with more Ghouls and something else behind them.  The party then ran for their lives and headed for the exit and daylight, with the angry sound of pursuit we did out best to carry our colleagues to safety.  Fortunately, as we emerged into daylight we noticed that we were no longer being pursued.

We joined Venser, Stig and Hjalhir in the camp by the cliffs and quickly packed away our stuff and fled to the village to rest.  Again, fortune shown on us as we encountered nothing during our return trek and after two hours we arrived safely in Lembde to be greeted by Olob, our friendly gatekeeper.

Deepingdale enquired about possible sources of healing and we were directed to the village herbalist, Meerka, where we were able to purchase some non magical balms and tonics to help speed up natural healing process and assist in removing ghoul paralysis.  We then retired to the inn to rest and recuperate after a lucky escape.  Praise be to Assedh