The Grinding Gear: review

(Thanks to Daddy Grognard for the image)

Last night I ran the third and final part of James Raggi's "The Grinding Gear".

Some spoilers follow, so if you think you might play this adventure at some point, it's advisable to not read any further in case you spoil the surprises for yourself.

Despite James' advice that the module should be played in one single session if possible (and we did try!), we ended up playing the adventure in three parts, due to real world time constraints.

In the first session a small group of three adventurers explored the abandoned inn and the surrounding buildings in great detail, and ended up finding the entrance to the dungeon. The second session saw a large group of six PCs delving into the dungeon, making their way through the 1st level and finding the entrance to the 2nd. Last night's session concluded the adventure -- they found their way to the end of the 2nd level of the dungeon, and managed to escape with their lives (and some small amount of treasure).

The three sessions totalled about 20 hours of play. Admittedly, the first session involved about an hour of introduction, explaining the basic rules to a new player, and equipment buying for the others, as did the second session when two new players joined us. Nonetheless, even subtracting this "setup" time and time we took for breaks, the adventure itself must have taken us a good 16 hours to play through. Therein lies its biggest flaw, in my opinion; but I'll come to that later.

Overall I have to say I was very impressed with this adventure, and really enjoyed running it. For referees who like to present a challenging and mysterious environment and enjoy watching their players trying to puzzle it out (and knowing that there really is a rationale behind it all!), this module is a real treat.

I loved the background premise, of a trap-filled tomb designed by a devious engineer and tinker with a love / hate relationship with adventurers. My players never quite worked out what the "point" of the dungeon was, i.e. that it had been expressly designed to punish the foolish or rash, and to reward the clever and methodical, but they got a very clear feeling that there was a deliberate intelligence behind everything they were encountering, and indeed were constantly on their toes, expecting to encounter the dungeon's "caretaker" at any moment.

The pace of the adventure is very slow, encouraging a savouring of small details and the pervading sense of malice and mystery. It rewards in-depth exploration of even areas which at first appear to be meaningless. For example, even for a group who were to figure out early on how to get into the tomb, exploration of the apparently empty and abandoned surface area is essential. Fortunately for them, my group didn't explore the statue hiding the dungeon entrance until last, being put off by the pile of dead bodies around it, and went over the abandoned inn buildings in great detail. I dread to imagine the fate of a party who were to go straight for the statue and simply jump head first into the dungeon!

Some highlights of running the module for me were:

• The revelation that the PCs were trapped, at the point where, after exploring every inch of the 2nd level which was shown on the fake map, they decided to head back to the surface to rest. This really had impact, especially as it dawned on them that they didn't have much water with them (and then they realised why I'd been mentioning all along when they felt hungry, and making them cross off rations and water supplies).
• That they ignored the organ trap, going straight through the door without touching the instrument, only to return and end up activating several of its nasty side-effects by playing random tunes on it.
• Their realisation, upon reaching the first of the real electrocuting cage puzzles, that they had no memory of the landlord's wife's name (I'd even shown them a little handout of the smashed funeral urn twice!). In the end they managed to work out her name by trial and error, "hangman" style, which surprised me -- I really thought that would be their end.
• That they fell for the final trick -- a heavily armoured fighter leapt into the sarcophagus, smashing its precious contents. The evil DM part of me was extremely pleased by this. At this point the first line of James' introduction rang true -- "is it OK to have a reasonable expectation for failure in a fantasy role-playing adventure?". Sure, the PCs escaped with their lives (which was looking like a far from certain proposition at several points), and took a small quantity of valuables with them, but they clearly understood that a rash action had robbed them of the tomb's principal reward.

So, all in all, a thoroughly enjoyable module to run.

The only flaw of the module as written, I feel, is that it's just unrealistic to run it in a single session as is advised, and that it's unfair to stretch it out over several. As I mentioned above, it took us about 16 hours altogether to play through it, and I really can't imagine how it'd be possible to play through it in a single session -- even a whole day session of 8 or so hours (which is what I'd originally arranged).

Given that rushing the adventure -- especially the apparently uninteresting early parts -- would also be unfair, this leaves me slightly unsure of how to remedy this problem. For those of high constitution, an all-nighter or all-weekender would work well, but me and most of my players don't have the time or energy for such intense bouts of RPGing.

I'd be truly interested to hear if anyone has actually run this module in a single session. The introduction implies that at least the author did!

So, in conclusion, two points:

Firstly, this module presents a very special type of adventure which one would seldom create on ones own, and in that sense I would wholeheartedly recommend other referees to purchase it.

However, while we got a great deal of enjoyment from the module, personally I don't feel like I'd run it again as written. More likely I'd try to come up with a shorter adventure of my own with the same premise -- one that could really be played through in a single session.

Carcosa one-shot: Session report

Yves has risen to the occasion!

I can sort of feel a sporadic campaign of Carcosan killy-looty-humpy-party fun coming on!

The personal diary of Weebrian Jig -- part 1

Play report after our first session of AD&D 1st edition. Written from the point of view of my character Weebrian Jig.


The personal diary of Weebrian Jig, Prestidigitator of the Illuminated Order of Mesmerists, Servant of the 7th Angle.

12. Readying 579CY.

Called as a representative of the IOM on official guild business to the Guildhall of Verbobonc. Met one Alderman Crow, the chairman of the town council, and the venerable Mellium, sage of Verbobonc. Also present were an unusual group of warriors (mostly of orcish blood, I remarked) and a druid of Gnarley. It was requested that myself, the warriors and the druid travel to the village of Hommlet, some two days' journey south of Verbobonc, to surreptitiously investigate the uprising of banditry in the area. It was suggested that we had been chosen for this task as we were relatively unknown in the region, and were to conduct our investigations under the guise of a travelling band of adventurers so as not to rouse fear in the village. It was hinted that this may have something to do with events 10 years past in the area involving a "temple of elemental evil" which was defeated. We were told that Lord Rufus and Lord Burn in the village know of our planned arrival, and may be spoken to in confidence.

After the meeting I invited my companions-to-be to the Rusty Nail, which, bearing in mind their "unusual" racial stock as well as the fact that they were outsiders to Verbobonc, I thought would be a safe place to take them in the city without risking any trouble. One of the warriors, a brutal looking chap, but who apparently had some noble heritage in addition to his orcish blood (must remember to inquire after this), initially refused to enter the tavern, deeming it in some way beneath his station. Tis indeed a homely establishment, not intended for nobility, but I make no excuses for having taken them there, as I had good (aforementioned) reason and besides know nothing of upper class establishments. In any case another of the warriors, a strikingly beautiful young lady, apparently a follower of St Cuthbert, persuaded this haughty nobleman to join us.

Unsure whether the orcish heritage of my companions bodes for ill or good.

13. Readying 579CY.

None of my travelling companions reported any unusual dreams, or any dreams whatsoever, despite my request. My own dreams were tranquil and featured (several times) the unusual image of a unicorn eating potatoes.

Was pleased to note that Wilstan, one of my warrior companions, performed an augury upon the morn of our departure, casting the entrails of a chicken upon the ground. However as I stooped to interpret the divination he thrust his boot into the guts and requested that we should all do likewise. Naturally I refused, somewhat mystified at his intent. I believe he is a follower of Rao, although I have not previously heard of such strange customs among the worshippers of the god of Reason & Serenity.

With horses provided by the city of Verbobonc, we set off upon our way, with grey clouds looming overhead. Leaving the safety of Verbobonc, I wisely clad myself in a plain black cloak, covering my IOM regalia so as to blend in with the everyday travellers of the road. Intended to reach the village of Etterboek by the afternoon and to overnight there. Along the road we encountered: Dwarvish merchants heading north to Verbobonc, a horned beast of some kind (spotted in the distance by the sharp eyes of Kazhireh, a female warrior, also of Gnarley), a thunderous rain storm, soaking us to the skin.

Stayed in the Golden Cockerel inn in Etterboek. An adequate, although expensive, establishment. No specialty desserts were offered, disappointingly.

14. Readying 579CY.

Set off early, on a clear windy morning, hoping to reach Hommlet by nightfall.

The road was not busy. The only people we encountered were two laden caravans escorted by two guards, apparently in a very great hurry. They briefly informed us that the road was safe and clear. This proved to be very much mistaken. I wonder now if they were lucky, mad, or treacherous.

I believe today I experienced my first taste of this "adventure" which my master has enthusiastically recommended to me. I remain unsure of the merits of this lifestyle, but am pleased to note that my training proved adequate to meet its challenges. Here is what came to pass.

As the road passed through a region of boggy ground, we reached a point where a huge tree had fallen across, blocking easy transit. Madrak, our half-orcish escort from the distant north, went ahead to investigate it, at which point a confusion of arrows rained down upon us. I believe Madrak was gravely hurt by this initial volley. I leapt from my horse and called Rotter to guard, and I too received a glancing blow from one of the missiles. After this initial volley, our attackers (who were quickly observed to be a band of orcs) charged at us, presumably believing us to be near finished. We were greatly outnumbered. My warrior companions fought well, obviously trained for this sort of eventuality, and the tide of the battle turned in our favour. I myself was forced to wait in hiding amongst the frightened horses, with the patterns of the chromatic orb and the spook phantasm urging to be released from my mind as I have never noticed them doing before. As the orc brigands rushed towards us my chance, and the test of my training, came. Launching Rotter to savage one of them, I focussed on another, and advanced boldly towards it uttering the syllables to conjure the nightmarish phantasm. The brute turned on his heels, fled and was soon decapitated by one of my companions. I was very pleased to observe the spell's remarkable effects in the heat of battle. A second orc proved an easy target for the chromatic orb, as he stumbled towards me. The light of the pearlescent orb hit him full in the eyes, blinding him and allowing me the opportunity to cast darts into his face, causing him to fall to the ground. I now understand why my master insisted that I spend such long hours playing the game of darts with the halfling patrons of the Rusty Nail. The practice has proved unexpectedly useful.

I am thankful for the presence of Rotter, who has proved his worth as more than just a sleepy beast of watch. I shall consider attempting to acquire further such hounds, as they prove faithful and vicious if correctly trained.

Subsequent to the battle, we gathered ourselves together and set about searching through the bodies of our fallen assailants (three of whom, unfortunately, managed to escape, despite the pursuit of Alric and Kazhireh). We discovered a total of 20gp in small coinage, a pouch containing 5 gemstones, and a sack with 8 pieces of silver jewellery decorated with gems. I am unsure what exactly we are required to do with this kind of loot, as surely it has been stolen from reputable merchants and locals to the area. I think that perhaps we should hand it in to the local constabulary, although I remember my master gleefully mentioning the riches he has gained from "adventuring", so perhaps there is some right for members of the Adventurers' Guild to keep possession of items acquired in such manner. I shall have to reread my contract of guild membership, and perhaps inquire at the guild quarters in Hommlet, if such an establishment exists.

It was also noted that the emblems on the orcs' shields identified them as members of the "vile rune" clan, a name which bears little significance to me.

Hurriedly we finished our journey to Hommlet, bearing with us a single still-living orc, whom Wilstan had wisely captured. I look forward to perhaps being able to test the worth of the hypnotism spell on the brute, if we get a chance to interrogate him. I think it may also be wise to "soften him up" first with an application of the spook phantasm. I have read that its effects can be particularly spirit-crushing if the victim believes he is unable to escape.

After several more miles of travel we reached Hommlet, and head straight to the chapel of St Cuthbert on the outskirts of the village. The resident clerics were glad to heal my companions' wounds, and Chryseïs (our St Cuthbert devotee) offered them one of the pieces of jewellery as thanks.

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

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 8

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player. 

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

Starting and ending locations: City of Bolaar (Yellow Men area of Chasm of Nayellem), proceedings down the river west to the village of Lembde and then on foot via the old road to the Chasm Deeps.

Session 8 (19/10/2011)
After considerable carousing in the yellow mens city of Bolar, in the Chasm, Deepingdale eventually managed to train up to gain warrior hood (2nd lvl Dwarrow).  Henry and Venser had an eventful few days, meeting a strange Frog Cult in Bolar and after getting considerably drunk they managed to glean some information about the whereabouts of three of the Breets Relics, the Aquamarine Raven, the Blooded Shield and the Eye Stone.  All three of which are said to be found in the Chasm deeps.  However, what did Henry and Venser offer the Frog Cult in return for the information, we all wondered the next morning in the sober light of day, only time will tell?!  Our mage Hjalhir is still not well and although the herbs from the Rim help with his concentration, it is clear that sometimes he is unable to cast his spells correctly.  Before our departure we were unsuccessful in finding a suitable temple in Bolar to heal him.  Our inquiries about a temple of Hegg were met with disbelief.  These are a godless folk or are they?  We have decided to travel under the guise of a group of Imperial Cartographers (Clever idea of Henry’s), Venser and Hjalhir forged some suitably important looking papers with fake wax seals and the spell casters will act as our scribes and the fighters in the company as security.  After finishing our preparations, we regrouped and managed to get passage on a river barge for 8gp each, travelling west for 5+6 hours through the forest of Lensirrik (apparently it’s old name, now called Lensk).  Before catching the barge we were warned by the yellow men to disguise or spell casters as the Red Men are very warlike and hate all spell casters and see them all as witches.

After an uneventful river journey, the barge dropped us off on the river bank near the last human habitation in the Red Mens area, a village called Lembde on the far western edge of the chasm forest.  The earlier advice from the Yellow men was well served and on our arrival at the gates to Lembde, a small fortified village, a large yellow painted eye (the witch eye as it is known by the locals) looked down on the company.  On introducing ourselves as the Cartographers Company from the Imperial Cartographers Guild, we struck up a conversation with one of the gate men, a trusting fellow called Olob.  The village had never been visited by outlanders before.  After some charm from Henry (aka Slippy), he told us that this was the domain of King Mab, beyond imperial control and the deity Mox, watched over the Red People checking for any witches and that the Yellow men were their most despised enemy who they had warred against for years, although now an uneasy peace has lasted between the two peoples for the last 100 years, but they were still very weary of magic users or witches as he called them.  Olob also warned us of the numerous ferocious Owlbears in the forest of Lensk.  A pleasant enough chap, despite his bright red skin and blue hair, he was welcoming and granted our group entry into the village and directed us to the inn, he also suggested speaking to one of the local hunters, a man called Boleg, known to have defeated an owlbear and familiar with the monsters ways, he could perhaps offer some advice with our mapping.

Caglistro, Venser and Stig remained outside the village, the Necromancer, not convinced by the warm welcome, refused to enter and instead set up a small camp beyond the stockade.  On entering the village we spotted a 20 foot tower, at the bottom of which was a large cage with 3 ferocious looking Owl Bears inside it and some men stood around, clearly their keepers.  On enquiring we were told that the Owlbears were the villages “Protectors”.  When Hjalhir passed the cage, the Owlbears became very aggravated!!!

On entering the inn (and several beers purchased for the locals and 10gp later), we quickly made many new friends and many friendly locals contributed to correcting our apparently, very out of date maps that the Dax women and the one that Mol had provided us with.  The Cartography Company proved to be a great cover.  We also had a very useful talk with the Hunter Boleg, who reassured us that we were unlikely to encounter any Owlbears, as they mainly stayed in the forest and our journey by foot, west of Lembed towards the Chasm Deeps was on the old road that lay beyond the woods.  But he said our main concern should be for the large group of gnolls who inhabit the area west of the village, near the cairn and chasm deeps.  A few beers later, Boleg also told us about the chasm rifts, a poisonous volcanic area and finally, he then shared with us the tale of the legendary chasm Dragon, Meerka, who he described as a large black shadow who in the past had attacked the village and is still seen flying overhead at least once a month.  Meerka has been present in the Chasm area for many years and is thought to live in the chasm cliffs above the chasm deep.  Finally, Slippy enquired about Boleg’s facial scar and his own run in the Owlbears, we bid Boleg fair well, with the challenge of returning with an Owlbear beak, in return for a free night on the ale!

Buoyed up by such expectations and with our adventuring juices flowing, after a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast, we set off early in the morning, down the old road into the west.  The first thing we came across was a huge run down 20 foot stone cairn with an inscription at its base, in imperial common (which Slippy couldn’t read, much to our hilarity) “Sacred Eye of the Overseer Breets the Great”.  The Sacred Eye was marked on the Dax map as relic number one, however, despite our meticulous searching; someone had already removed it from the Cairn.

We continued on, encountering nothing, seeing steam rising, probably from the chasm rifts that Boleg described, off to the North about 1 mile from the old road and eventually we arrived at the farthest west end of the chasm, where a entrance fronted by two large stone pillars, decorated in memory of past overseers, greeted us, along with a pile of old bones and a strong smell of dogs and fresh blood coming from the cave entrance (Gnolls?).

Stig and Venser kindly offered to wait outside with the horses and mules.  The humans lit their torches and bows were drawn and we cautiously walked forward.  Ahead of us lay a 40’ wide entrance which eventually narrowed to 30’ and a 60’ long entrance hall with 5 stone columns on each side, also carved depicting the overseers.  This hallway lead into a large 80’ large cavern with natural corridors leading off to the north, northwest, west, southwest and south.  Again, a pile of bones greeted us along with the sound of frogs from the Northwest passage.  Scarr scouted ahead and noticed the smell of dung coming from the northern passage.  After considering our options, we decided to try to avoid being attacked from the rear by laying marbles and caltrops at both the northern and western passage way entrances.  From the western passage a strong smell of blood and dogs emanated.  The company, especially our Necromancer, was interested in the frogs, so we headed up the northwest passage where another passage lead off to the east.  Scarr, Deepingdale and Slippy went off to explore, the little rat women thief crawled up the wall of the natural passage way which lead into another small cavern, suddenly from the darkness we head a scream and Scarr suddenly disappeared into the cavern ahead of us.  Nightwing  the owl reported that a large creature was devouring the rat women and so we cautiously entered the cavern to find a giant toad had swallowed Scarr.  Hjalhir failed to cast his magic missle and battle ensued, the toad spat Scarr out, who was fortunately saved at the last moment by a healing spell from Blade.  The giant toad was dispatched by arrows, slings, pole arms and swords.  Scarr removed the giant toads tongue, she thought it might come in handy one day!?

We returned to the passage after finding nothing of note in the giant toads beautiful stalagmite adorned cave and headed into the frog room, a circular 30’ room with an ornate pool in the centre.  Surrounding the pool were 8 statues with carved frogs on top, from inside each stone frog came the sound of real frogs.  The statues were hollow and we thought they were connected to a passage way below, where the sound was coming from.  In the pool lay crystal clear water, with no apparent source.  Scarr decided to take a quick bath in the pool and was very refreshed and whilst we waited for Scarr, Slippy had a quiet religious moment.  We managed to convince Caglisro not to piss into the pool as it may be the only source of clean drinking water available to us.

A passage way lead off to the west, which 20’ later opened up into a large oblong man made hall 20’ wide by 80’ long with a 20’ high vaulted ceiling.  Directly opposite the entrance to the hall on the west wall was a wooden door with an iron ring door opener.  As we entered the room,  Deepingdale and Scarr moved forward to listen at the door opposite and the keen eyed Scarr spotted a shadow shifting in the vaulted ceiling above us.  On careful further examination we could make out a large spider’s web and behind it sat a giant spider.  A single bulls eye shot from Deepingdales heavy crossbow downed the beast and before it could stop twitching in its death throws; Scarr had removed its poison sacks, fangs and any other useful type ingredients that rogues find useful in their strange trade.      

On examining the hall, we could see that at the southern end on the southern wall another door and a final door at the southern end on the eastern hall. In the middle of the east wall lay a large pile of rubble, old broken furniture etc.  Using our company, non-extendable (Patent pending) 10’ poles we found a yellow man skeleton with a small leather pouch with 90sp in it.  At this point we decided to rest and collected our comrades from outside.

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 7

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Deepingdale, 1st Lvl Dwarrow Fighter
Skarr, 1st Lvl Ratfolk Thief
Stignarr, 1st Lvl Human Fighter

Session 7 (28/09/11)
After a restful night sleep in the ruins of Caan, clarity and the wisdom of Assedh seemed to take hold of the situation.  It became apparent to Deepingdale that Stig was behind the business with the Silk Merchants horses and after convincing Stig to take him into his confidence, Stig revealed that he had been quested by the deity of despair to wreak havoc in the surrounding area, as a result of his temple visit in Yelleth.  This explained much as Stig had not been himself since that day, what with the sacrificing of one of his hounds and his general strange demeanour, even for a man folk.  Kallac the Merchant needed a lot of convincing not to take the matter into his own hands and after some reassurance and a promise that Blade would heal the horse, the matter was closed.  Blade and Deepingdale agreed that Stig should in turn make a contribution of 100 gp during the first opportune visit to a temple of Hegg.
The party then preceded, without further occurrence, to travel to Rim, the strange Fey town on the edge of the chasm of Neyellem.  The town was a weird mixture of stark basic black wooden buildings, tall and narrow, with narrow and few windows.  As Stig intelligently observed, these were clearly a people not wanting contact with sunlight.  As for the Rim themselves, they appeared tall and thin, with any unclothed appendages covered in bandages and each wearing an ornate wooden mask.  The party was escorted with other merchant caravans to a large simple barn as night fell.  After talking with some of the more experienced caravan hands who had made this trip before, it was clear that at night, the Rim were not to be seen, literally disappearing, perhaps like the Fey Goblins we had encountered in the Forest of Harln.  One of the merchant baggage handlers had explored the small town, but found no one around, all of the buildings where empty and he had a strange sense of being continually watched.

Clearly, with no options for a pint in the very much absent inn, we settled down for some well earned rest after being paid by Kallac for our services on the outward stretch.  A few games of cards were underway amongst the merchants however Skarr had other ideas and tried to make a fast buck the easy and unlawful way, through light fingers.  Caught red handed, a brawl ensued and Skarr narrowly escaped the barn alive.

The next day we checked out the wooden items the Rim sell (tourist crap, unlike their own masks). Hjalhir tried ESPing one of them but this gave him the paranoid sensation of being watched continuously so he broke it off.  Stignarr bought various herbs from the Rim in an effort to help Slippy recover faster (with some effect).  Cagliostro paid a guard to go up and down the lift into the chasm, which proved to be uneventful but the Rim charge per person/animal for use of the lift.  We then all went down the lift, going westward through the canyon, passing a statue of a long dead human overseer of Nayellem City (whose name I can't recall at the moment). We also learned that Breets was the first of these overseers, back when humans ruled over Nayellem.  Eventually we reached the small town of Giw, another Rim settlement like the ones at the top and bottom of the lifts. After a meagre dinner of smoked fish we rented a barge to go to Nayellem City by river, as the surrounding area just consisted of treacherous swampland.

Nayellem City is the largest town in the chasm, with heavy fortifications and walls, guarded by, as far as we've seen, the puce men.  The party then split up to explore the city of Nayallem, carousing, rumour gathering ensued.  Considerable information was gathered on the different factions in the chasm and some information too on the whereabouts of three of the Breets relics, Slippy and Venser, during their carousing and asking around about the relics & so on, met an old man who took an interest in them. He seemed to know quite a lot about the relics, and told the pair that the aquamarine raven, the blooded shield and the eye stone were all taken into the chasm deeps (a network of caverns which lie at the far western end of the chasm) when the last overseer was killed and the wars started anew.

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 6

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Venser, 3rd Lvl Human Thief
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Hjalhir, 3rd Lvl Human Wizard
Blade, 1st Lvl Human Cleric of Hegg, God of Blades
Deepingdale, 1st Lvl Dwarrow Fighter
Skarr, 1st Lvl Ratfolk Thief
Stignarr, 1st Lvl Human Fighter

Location: Road to the City of Rim, North West from the City of Yelleth, near Chasm of Neyellem, Encounter point: ruined City of Caan in the desert of East Riding.

The company completed its business in Micmar and proceeded to head North West along the well used commercial road towards the City of Yelleth where we hoped to join a caravan to Rim.  Considerable party funds were used to purchase expedition equipment, mules, from the Dax advance and wages for the salvage of the Breet relics.  Before our departure a small band of Dwarrow security guards from Deeppockets Bank arrived with Stignarr in chains, they had found him at Uncle Nori's request and returned him to me.  Fortunately for Stig, I was able to release him from my charge after he revealed that he had the chalice from the Sunken Palace on him, this fetched a pretty coin at the market in Micmar and the 400gp that he got for it was enough to repay his dues to the bank.  Stig has decided, of his own free will, to stay with our company and join us to travel to Rim.

A final discussion with Mol, the learned Sage of Micmar, revealed further information about the chasm and its inhabitants, plus a further detailed map of the whole chasm.  Visits to the sage are money well spent.  Mol explained that three human factions exist in the chasm, constantly at war with each other, the yellow folk, the puce folk and the red folk.  The Rim seem to have established a neutral relationship with all three factions and openly trade with all of them.  Mol knew nothing of the relic of Breet.

Our Acolyte priest of Hegg, Blade, managed to progress with his studies and reach the rank of Adept before we departed from Micmar.  I long to complete my training and progress from Veteran to Warrior, hopefully Assedh's gold will shine on me and our travels to Rim will enable such good fortune.

The company travelled safely for just over 2 weeks to Yelleth, the closest city to the chasm, here we sought merchants who needed a security entourage and we were fortunate to meet Kalac, a silk merchant who was in such need.  Henry managed to strike a good deal with him (70gp each) for the outward journey, half paid upfront, half on his caravan's safe arrival at the City of Rim on the eastern edge of the chasm.  As we ventured further from Micmar, Hjalhir's health seemed to take a turn for the worse, he appeared preoccupied at best and at worst, drugged!

From Yelleth, ahead of us lay a 10 day journey, accompanying two horse drawn wagons, two drivers and Kalac the silk merchant.  Both wagons were apparently laden with tonnes of silk, ready to be sold to the Rim.  On the 5th day we reached the ruined desert city of Caan and it was here that we met with mixed fortune.  As we entered the city, Kalac warned us to be on our guard and explained that the ruins were dangerous.  To our left on the opposite side of the fast flowing river of Mallong, a ruined tower rose up as a high point in the deserted city and as we approached a large swarm of what looked like black birds, rose out of the towers broken roof, followed by two giant birds.  The birds proceeded to fly towards our scouts, Venser and Skarr.  I managed to mount Hjalhir's horse and ride with him towards the attacking birds, it was only when we approached them that we saw that they were in fact a swarm of stirges and the giant birds looked like Rocs.  Battle ensued, I dispatched the first Roc with a bolt from my heavy crossbow and the second, when it had landed, I removed its head with the Azure Serpent Sword.  We were to have less luck with the Stirges.  Aside from Venser and Skarr, our scouts and Stig, how remained back at the wagons with Kalac, every member of our company was set upon by the blood sucking stirges, in a matter of minutes our situation turned dire and Slippy (Henry), despite being one of our hardier company members, succumbed to the stirges blood sucking attack.   It was only due to Cagliostro's intervention that he didn't die.

For myself, I was lucky not to also suffer a similar fate.  Whilst I was able to dispatch two stirges with the help of Blade, I received terrible wounds from the damned creatures.  After what seemed like an age, we managed to turn the tide, again with the aid of the Necromancers dark magic and a few arrows and darts from our scouts, we managed to slay the remaining creatures.

The return from deaths door spell, although successful, seems to have permanently aged Henry and he is lucky to still be alive.   It is a shame that the same can't be said for Cagliostro's familiar, Jack the Raven, only three weeks old, sadly killed by a stirge.  The Necromancer's brief attachment, seems to have caused him considerable pain.

Once we recovered from our wounds, thanks be to Hegg, we proceeded to explore the nearby ruined tower and low and behold, at last our efforts were rewarded.  Clearly these beasts have be praying upon caravan companies for sometime, we retrieved a chest, a large bundle of silks (with Kallac's mark on them) and several pouches of gold (323gp).  Within the chest, we found 10 ingots of gold (1,000gp), a scroll tube (Haste and Dimension Door) and a magical potion flask, yet to be identified.

After some magically assisted bargaining, Kalac kindly agreed to buy the salvaged silk off us for 400gp.  All in all, despite Slippy's bad luck, the money, 1,723gp and the items have made up for our trouble.

On regrouping, it now looks like perhaps our misfortune is not yet through with for today, mysteriously one of Kalac's caravan horses, whilst sheltering from the combat in the ruins, has had its let badly cut by what looks like a knife.  Suspicion within the company, strangely fell upon Stig, who was supposed to be guarding the caravan.  It is unclear at this point what the motive is, or whether these suspicions can be proven.  Stig pleads innocence and points the finger at the other caravaneers, however his past record is not one that can be trusted and I am yet to decide, but not yet quick to judge.  I hope we can get to the bottom of this before we reach Rim.  We have enough to contend with, without trouble from within our own.  With the extra gold, my goal of reaching Warriorhood is now in my grasp and I will be glad of the extra training before we descend into the chasm.  Time to rest after another narrow escape. 

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 5

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Venser, 3rd Lvl Human Thief
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Hjalhir, 3rd Lvl Human Wizard
Blade, 1st Lvl Human Cleric of Hegg, God of Blades
Deepingdale, 1st Lvl Dwarrow Fighter
Skarr, 1st Lvl Ratfolk Thief

Location: Ling (West from Forest of Harln, Old Aalia)

Prior to the social events, Hjalhir returned and tried to identify the magic prism, the Azure Serpent Sword and the Fey Goblin Horn.  After failing on the prism, he successfully confirmed the Azure swords water breathing and magical sharpness (+1 to hit and damage) and also identified the horn as being heard in both the real and Fey dimensions.  Not sure yet how this item will be helpful.  Cagliostro failed to write up the Necromancers spell copied from the Sarcophagi from last weeks jaunt.  Both the mages managed to summon familiars, a Raven, Jack, for Cagliostro (very appropriate) and an Owl, Nightwing for Hjalhir.

Supplies were restocked in Ling and the company had a rare respite from dungeoneering this week, a social date to attend the funeral of Hjalhir’s brother, Beomir, a past company member, killed by an Ogre in the Dungeon of Garm.  The funeral took place in Ling, west of the Forest of Harln.  Good ale and ox was had by all and the event was attended by some past patrons of the company, Xathania of Dax, a local well-to-do Merchant, rumoured to also be a sorceress, who past company members (Slippy and Hjalhir) had run errands for.  In addition, a mysterious Wizard, Maxanimus, with his Fey vallet Vex.  Due to previous business dealings with the Dax women, Hjalhir had a run in with the Wizard, after being paid to successfully steal his hat.  It looks like its payback time for Hjalhir!  After suddenly disappearing at the funeral (he was magically transported by Maxanimus into a void), Hjalhir was forced to take a strange yellow crystal powder as part of a bribe to force him to search the Dax women's home for two of the Serpentine Swords, in order to copy the inscriptions of the swords for the wizard.  In addition, the Wizard was also interested in the inscription on the Azure Serpent Sword which I have in my possession.

Fortunately for Hjalhir, an opportunity arose to visit the Dax home.  Before the run in the wizard, Skarr and I tried to avoid arrest by some imperial guards who turned up at the funeral looking for the dropped Prism from last weeks encounter.  Apparently, after Hjalhir used ESP on some bloke with a detecting wand, it looks like the prism was something important belonging to the Archprismists.  The guards forced us to hand it over.  Probably best for all of us, who knows what trouble we would have got into if we would have managed to keep it!

The company was invited to meet with the Dax women, over at her swanky mansion in Micmar.  She made an interesting business proposition to the company, asking us to explore the Chasm of Nayellem near Yelleth (two weeks N/E from Harln), in order to retrieve several relics (7 again!).  She has offered to provide us with a treasure map of the area and to pay us 4,000gp for each of the retrieved relics and a further 500gp up front for travel expenses etc.  Xathania’s father is apparently a relic collector.  Note to self, we need to find out more about this family before we blindly do their bidding.  Knowing that the very people looking to kill me are from the Chasm, I was initially put off by the idea.  Since then, perhaps getting closer to this place isn’t such a bad idea after all.  I will write to my Uncle to seek counsel on this matter. 

We explained to the Dax women about Hjalhir’s predicament, she seemed not to care and denied any knowledge of the Serpent Swords in her possession and felt that her previous payment of 900gp for the hat job released her from any responsibility for Hjalhir.  It is all a funny business and I have a bad feeling that we are pawns in a bigger game.  My colleagues don’t seem to care, expect for the promise of gold in their back pockets.  Gold is no laughing matter, but I ain’t no cat and I have used up two of my 9 lives already!

After the visit to the Dax mansion and failing to find the swords, Hjalhir seemed to weaken and pale, we think he has been cursed by the Wizard.  The company seems hell bent on finishing our business at the Dungeon of Garm and heading straight for the Chasm with Xathania’s fathers map.  I am not in such a hurry and feel led by my nose.  Slippy’s money lust is clouding his judgement.

I will use my remaining time in Micmar to write to my Uncle and try to find out as much as possible about the Dax family, Maxanimus the Wizard and the Chasm of Nayellem, perhaps the Sage, Mol in Micmar can assist me.  Only Assedh knows who we can trust!

It has only just crossed my mind that this whole thing could be a lure by the Dark Fey to get me to come to them!

Encounters: Imperial Troops
Treasure(less): The magical prism was retrieved from us by the guards.

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 4

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Blade, 1st Lvl Human Cleric of Hegg, God of Blades
Deepingdale, 1st Lvl Dwarrow Fighter
Skarr, 1st Lvl Ratfolk Thief

Session 4 (07/09/11)
After disastrous carousing in Dregg, I lost 200gp and gained no experience due to over confidence in gambling and too much ale, I now have a reputation as a drunken fool!  So much for listening to my Uncles advice about keeping a low profile.  The party, minus the Wizard, Fighter and Thief set off, along with a new companion, Skarr, an acquaintance of Slippy’s, for the dungeon by the old oak tree in the Magic Forest of Harln for more salvaging.  The Necromancer is intent on copying the text from one of the sarcophagi, he believes it contains the formula for a powerful spell.  I am happy to accompany him, it is the least I can do to return the favour for his last actions.

On our way, I tried the Goblin Horn, it has a residual of Fey Magic.  It seemed to summon a strange large disc in the sky along with some Ariel beasts (A Giant Eagle and some half mixed flying beasts) mounted by people who seemed to fight each other.  The disc was bigger than a ship and made a terrible din and passed overhead.  Our new companion, Skarr spotted one of them who dropped an ornate leather satchel containing an apple, a bread roll, a small purse with 16pp and a magic glass prism.

This time we took a different route through the dungeon, as recommended by the Gnomes and Slippy showed us a strange room with a tilting floor and a large rolling bolder.  In the centre of the room was a stone pillar with six levers, some of which triggered either the floor to move or a strange magical experience (The Cleric of Hegg apparently swapped consciousness with John the Skeleton for a short period).  It is unclear what our random pulling actually achieves and the local Forest Gnomes warned us not to mess with such things.

We headed directly to the sarcophagi with the magic runes and left the Necromancer to copy down the spell.  On exploring nearby rooms, previously unchecked, we found several more sarcophagi, one of which, when opened seemed to trigger a magic ward which stunned all the party members except for myself.  After some time my companions returned to there old selves.  We need to be more careful in the future, especially when we are such a small group.  This sarcophagus also contained some runes on the lid.  The other 3 sarcophagi contained 3 zombies and with some good tactics from Skarr, we managed to burn and slay them before they could attack us.

As we ventured further, along corridors which we had previously been missed, we came across a long narrow passage with an archway, on further examining and using my Gnomish Stone Trickery skills, I spotted a possible drop trap.

Again, the smart thinking of our new companion would later help us avoid being trapped.  On proceeding, we were set upon by a giant, spiky scaled lizard.  We were able to slay it with the mighty Azure Sword and some burning oil and well placed arrows.  Time to collect our Necromancer and return to Dregg to replenish supplies before our luck runs out.  We also need to identify the magic prism that was dropped from the air.

Encounters:
Giant Fire Beetle x 1
Skeletons x 2
Zombies x 3
Giant Tuatara Lizard x 1
Magic glyph paralysed party (except Deepingdale & Cagliosro)

Treasure:
16pp
Magical Prism

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 3

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Venser, 3rd Lvl Human Thief
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Hjalhir, 3rd Lvl Human Wizard
Deepingdale, 1st Lvl Dwarrow Fighter
Bozan, 1st Lvl Human Cleric of Demogorgon

Session 3 (24/08/11)
Bedridden for two weeks, recovering in Micmar from my serious wounds from the Snake poisoning and Wight energy drain attack.  After recovering fully and avoiding constitution damage, I purchased some exotic equipment (Flaming oil and tonic) and a new set of Full Plate Armour (no thanks to the lack of generosity from my tight arsed family), traded in old suit of chainmail.  Hopefully, the investment will avoid my future demise!

On the way to the dungeon, visited Sage in Micmar (Mol), to identify the Magic Long Sword.  The Sage provided extensive background to the blades history, identifying it as the Azure Serpent Blade, one of Seven blades created by the High Priests of Garm to defeat the Reptile Sect 500 years ago.  The blade has an Azure Glow and Reptile Script which is an exert from a poem describing “A watery dark, underground”.  Afterwards we experimented with the water breathing ability, clearly it only works when holding the hilt and for one person.  1 sword down, 7 more blades to collect!  The others are Yellow, Red, Black, Green, Blue and Purple.

Whilst on our way to the dungeon, in Harln forest we encountered two humans, clearly some sort of travelling tradesmen or merchants, with a small cart.  They had been ambushed by a large gang of Fey Goblins.  One man was already dead, filled with arrows and the other, a rather heavy set chap, was tied up and hung from a tree.  A ill conceived plan eventually led to us releasing the fat chap and receiving a small reward.  However Bozan the Grumpy Cleric died of wounds from the Fey Goblin attack and the party was saved by Cagliostro’s animate dead spell (and my Azure Serpent Sword).  Slippy almost bled to death, we were lucky to kill so many.  The rest of the goblins disappeared, literally.  With reduced numbers, we decided to return to Dregg to await our missing companions.

On our return to Dregg, the Party decided to formally come together as a company.  A constitution is yet to be formed; although some lose agreements were discussed around sharing loot and distributing magic treasure based on the items ability and the needs and skills of party members and establishing a war chest to cover usable items like flaming oil and tonic/healing potions.

Encounters:
Fey Goblins x 12 in Harln’s Magic Forest attacking traders’ wagon

Treasure:
Small gold reward from Traders
Goblin Horn (Fey Magic)

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 2

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Venser, 3rd Lvl Human Thief
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Hjalhir, 3rd Lvl Human Wizard
Blade, 1st Lvl Human Cleric of Hegg, God of Blades
Deepingdale, 1st Lvl Dwarrow Fighter

Session 2 (10/08/11)
We returned back to the dungeon, minus Stig (where is he!) after a short stay in Dregg, there followed a wild day of combat and although we managed to find the long lost legendary magic sword, the cost of this adventure was perhaps nearly too high for me.  Clearly my new companions are either more experienced and able or just lucky, as I nearly succumbed to wounds of which, one was almost fatal, a touch from an undead warrior seemed to drain the very life blood from my body.   Due to quick thinking and action, I was saved by the Necromancer who cast a return from deaths door spell, I am in his debt and grateful to both he and the Cleric of Hegg for saving and healing me.

The Wizard also needs mentioning, as he enabled our save withdrawal as he fired a lighting bolt from his wand and fried the last two Wights who were pursuing us.

Where is Stig, perhaps his presence would have resulted in a better experience.  I now know why Uncle Nori insisted on him joining me.  I must write to Nori and let him know of his disappearance, it is most inconvenient, Nori will not be happy.

Encounters:
Large 5' Poisonous Snakes (Nearly died from snake bite and energy drain from Wight)
Wights x 4 (Saved by the Necromancers return from deaths door spell.)

Treasure:
Found the Azure Serpent Long Sword (+1 of Water Breathing)

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 1

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Venser, 3rd Lvl Human Thief
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Hjalhir, 3rd Lvl Human Wizard
Blade, 1st Lvl Human Cleric of Hegg, God of Blades
Deepingdale, 1st Lvl Dwarrow Fighter
Stignarr, 1st Lvl Human Fighter

Location: Dungeon “Nolly’s Kingdom” (Near Sunken City of Garm) in the centre of the Magical Forest of Harln

Session 1 (27/07/11)
After meeting an adventuring party in the local Ale House in Dregg, I have decided to take my manservant, Stig along with me to help do some salvaging in a nearby dungeon, in the middle of the magical forest of Harln.  A magical sword has been mentioned along with other opportunities for loot.  It will be good to get underground and away from the prying eyes of these town folks.  Not sure what to make of this rabble yet, I wonder whether I can trust them, but one thing is for certain, it does looks like they need the strong arm and intelligence of a Dwarrow.

After a heavy day of combat, where I hope I was able to show my worth to my new companions, we returned back to Dregg with a few hundred gold pieces and some precious metals to cash in, not a bad start.

Encounters:
Friendly Forest Gnomes
Black rabid flying babies with yellow eyes x 6
Shadow x 1
Wights x 2

Treasure:
110gp Gold Goblet and Bowls

Deepingdale's adventuring logs

Some time ago I posted a couple of session reports from the very beginning of my Labyrinth Lord campaign. I enjoyed writing the reports, but to be honest, when I sat down to write something game-related, session reports were at the bottom of the pile of things to do, so I didn't keep it up.

Recently a wave of new players have joined our group, taking us from a meagre and somewhat tenuous count of 3 or 4 to a mighty sum of 8 or more! One of these new players, Steve, has been writing some excellent campaign logs from the point of view of his character, Deepingdale, 1st level Dwarrow.

So I thought it'd be nice to share these logs here, for anyone who enjoys reading such things. I don't know how many session passed between the last log I wrote in January, and Steve's first log, but I'd guess maybe in the region of 8 to 10.

I'll post the session reports as individual posts, beginning with a catch-up batch for the last 7 sessions, and hopefully to be continued in the future as Steve (or otehrs) write more...

Labyrinth Lord session 2 - Never drink tea in a dungeon

The second session saw a slightly different group of PCs returning to the dungeon which some of them had discovered and began exploring in the last session. There were only three players present again (despite my recent attempts to enlarge our player pool!), so I once again allowed them each to control two characters -- one as their 'main' character, and one as a follower or henchman of some kind. We also had a new player this session, not only new to our group, but also very new to RPGs -- it was only the second time she'd ever played an RPG! Consequently the actual adventuring part of the session was a bit shorter than usual, due to the extra time required for character creation and explaining what on earth all the numbers meant! (In retrospect I think it might perhaps have been better to just make a selection of pre-gen characters for the new player to choose from...)

Featuring:

• Bunbery - magic-user (necromancer).
• Ismelda - dwarf henchwoman of Bunbery.
• Slippy - halfling (rat-man).
• Brock - thief, new-found friend / henchman of Slippy.
• Libelle - magic-user.
• Rocco - cleric, follower of the god of the underworld.

Returning to the hole in the ancient oak tree which they'd discovered on a foray into the magical wood, the party descended once more into the underworld. Ismelda tied a rope around one of the oak's roots, allowing them to climb down the shaft which led underground. They decided to leave the rope hanging there for a quick exit. Lighting two torches, and spending some moments bickering about who should go first, last and in the middle of the marching order (the party, as you may note, is slightly on the weak side, lacking any fighters), they set off down the twisting sandy floored tunnel. Bunbery remembered some of the sights and routes they'd taken last time, and suggested a return to the room he had dubbed 'the hall of kings'. On the way there they passed once again through the room with the animated tree root faces. Being somewhat better off this time around, the party accepted the roots' repeated offer of information in exchange for gold. 15gp were handed over, and three insights were given into the contents of the dungeon. The PCs were unsure as to the value of these insights, and in the end an angered Libelle started hitting the root faces with her burning torch, causing them to swiftly disappear, and an ominous rumbling to occur.

Taking stock of their options again after the encounter with the root faces, they decided to forgo the hall of kings in favour of exploring a small winding tunnel which they'd previously overlooked. The walls of the tunnel remained tangled with roots and glowing moss, but the sandy floor soon became muddy underfoot as they came across three deep alcoves. Ismelda, who was leading the way with a torch in hand, probed into each alcove in turn, discovering: an array of nice woollen cloaks (one with a key in the pocket, which she took), a portrait of gnome-like creature, a hat stand with several red felt berets on it. Slippy took one of the berets, and the party continued, somewhat bemused as to what all this homely stuff was doing here.

Next they came to a small round low-roofed chamber with a cobbled floor and a wooden table and chair. On the table was a small brass bell and a plaque reading "PLEASE RING". This added to the party's bewilderment, and provoked a lengthy discussion as to what kind of creature would leave such a sign, and whether evil dungeon monsters might make a ruse of being friendly. They could not come to any kind of agreement of what to do, so finally Slippy rang the bell. Shortly the sound of footsteps came from the passage to the north, and soon a tall faun-like creature emerged, with the head and legs of a ram, and dressed in a smart waistcoat and cape. Introducing himself as Ramius, he invited the PCs to join him for tea, an offer which Slippy gladly accepted, once again leading the group into a course of action they were not all entirely happy with.

Ramius led them through a chamber with a couple of comfy chairs and a fully stocked bookshelf, and into a cosy underground kitchen, where a kettle was boiling on the stove. Bunbery and Ismelda decided to linger in the room with the books, hoping to get some kind of idea as to who this fellow was. They browsed through the books, but couldn't understand a single letter. Bunbery also attempted to detect any magical presence in the books, but found none. Meanwhile Ramius and the others had settled down to a cup of steaming green herbal tea. Seeing that Ramius was drinking the same brew, Slippy drank up straight away, and Brock sipped from his cup. The others, however, declined their host's offer of tea, and once again declined his offer of crackers shortly afterwards.

Ismelda and Bunbery joined the group after their investigation of the bookshelf, and asked Ramius about what language the books were written in. He told them that it was an old forest language (Xilardian, which none of them had ever heard of), and proceeded to sing them a lilting song in said tongue. At this point the drugged tea began to have its effect. Slippy began sliding onto the floor, and Brock had to be rather severely bashed around the head to make him wake up from his stupor. A confrontation began, with Bunbery accusing Ramius of trying to poison them and telling him to begone and leave them in peace. Ramius in turn began to get very agitated, and requested that they leave him in peace, as they were in his kitchen. With the necromancer's increasing threats, the faun creature started backing away, slinking off down another passageway, but returning only moments later with four large ram's skulls floating alongside him.

At Ramius' command, the skulls hurtled towards the party to attack, and a furious battle began in the small cosy kitchen. Libelle had her brains almost bashed out by one of the flying ram skulls, and was only just saved by the healing magic of Rocco. Slippy remained curled up fast asleep under the table, while Brock dived into the shadows in a corner, hoping to get an opportunity to make a stealth attack. Ismelda fought off Ramius, defending her master Bunbery, who was readying a spell. The necromancer, having surmised that the skulls were some kind of undead, tried out his newly acquired spell command undead (the reverse form of turn undead). His surmise was, luckily for the party, correct, and the tide of the battle turned as the skulls suddenly stopped in mid-air and then turned on their master, battering the faun to death.

After their victory over Ramius the party ventured into the last room of his inhabitance, from whence the ram skulls had come. They discovered a large collection of bones and skulls, some obviously human, and a large wooden chest, which Ismelda opened with her crowbar. Inside they were confronted with the grisly sight of a freshly butchered human corpse. Ramius' lifestyle had become somewhat elucidated. They did, however, also discover a pouch in a corner of the chest, containing some coins and a very nice looking gem, which Ismelda pocketed for herself before any of the others had seen it (these Chaotic characters, I don't know! ;).

Deciding to make a day of it for the time being (and our evening in real-time coming to a close), the party retreated to count their spoils in the peace of the local tavern.

Labyrinth Lord session 1 - The hole in the oak

Featuring:

• Min - greedy dwarf.
• Slippy - halfling (rat-man) endebted to serve Min for 99 years.
• Rivain - elf (fey).
• Esalai - elf (fey), henchwoman of Rivain. Esalai almost instantly became known as 'Princess' as none of us could remember her real name.
• Bunbery - magic-user (necromancer) with an undead rat familiar.
• Ismelda - dwarf henchwoman of Bunbery.

As described in the previous post, the party discovered a shaft leading underground from a huge oak tree with a split in it. They climbed down, some daring to use the tree roots as a ladder, and Bunbery the necromancer taking the more secure option of using a rope to descend. At the bottom of the 20' shaft was a sandy tunnel winding into the darkness. The tunnel's walls were riddled with tree roots and moss, and as they lit a torch and passed by, Princess noticed that the moss was crawling with insects and worms. She pointed this out, and Bunbery immediately uttered a few arcane words and summoned a centipede to do his bidding. They soon came to a small round chamber where glowing moss covered the tree roots. As they stood there trying to work out which of the continuing tunnels to take, the mossy roots began to move around. Bunbery sent his servile centipede to investigate, and it was crushed in the forming jaws of a tree root face. Two faces formed out of the roots, and offered the PCs information if they would give them gold in return. Having nary a copper bewteen them, the PCs had to decline the offer, and continued on their way, heading south into a large cavern.

Somewhat daunted by the vastness of the cavern, they turned off into a passage they discovered. As the group filed into the passageway, the last members (Min and Slippy) were jumped by a black shape dropping opportunistically on them from above - a giant crab spider. Both Min and Slippy were very badly hurt by the spider's attack, and used up two of their precious healing potions. The beast was slain by the sword of Rivain, who was then dubbed "the spider slayer". After fighting the spider they re-entered the passage, and found a strange archway carved with skulls through which they'd have to pass, and, rather ominously, a warrior's skeleton lying halfway through the arch. Obviously wary, they began to investigate. After some ineffective probing, Slippy was ordered by his master to walk through the arch, and only narrowly avoided getting sliced in half by a scything blade trap. A couple of the party then jumped through the archway, avoiding treading on the assumed pressure plate, until Ismelda had the clever idea of jamming a bone into the slot where the blade had come from, preventing it from re-emerging.

They next found themselves in a long hall with six kingly statues, and a choice of six doors to follow. Choosing to investigate a door which had an arrow chalked on the floor next to it, they discovered a corridor with walls covered in a strange writhing thorny black ivy. The corpse of a dead adventurer laying on the ground yielded a small amount of coins and a note reading "could the river ghouls be tricked out of their treasure?". Unsure of whether to continue, as the ivy looked somewhat threatening, the party dallied for a while in the passage, allowing a lurking troglodyte to sneak up on them from behind. Only Princess' keen elven ears gave the game away and alerted them to the creature's presence. They spoke to the troglodyte, attempting to get some information out of it. It in the meantime had eyes on the smaller members of the party -- it evidently had a taste for flesh, and in the end could hold back its hunger no longer and lunged forward and grabbed Min the dwarf, who had just offered it some gold coins in exchange for help. The dwarf fought back with his pickaxe as the troglodyte rushed madly towards a nearby underground river. The party raced after, wounding the monster with missile attacks, but were too late to prevent it diving desperately into the river with the armour clad dwarf. Min was seen no more.

They soon found the troglodyte's lair, and two more of the creatures hiding in a secret room full of fish skeletons and junk. Combat ensued, with Princess being savaged by one of the creatures, before they were dispatched by the joint efforts of the group. They cremated the elf's body then and there, and Ismelda discovered a chest of coins amongst the troglodyte's junk, which she cleverly opened with her crowbar, thus avoiding the poisoned needle which sprung from the mechanism.

The party then discussed their next steps, torn between further exploration and retreating with their significant haul of treasure. They agreed to just investigate one more room and a strange red rug which they'd passed earlier, and then to leave. Complications followed. The rash Slippy stepped onto the rug and vanished into thin air. Rivain followed him, also vanishing, while the more cautious Bunbery and Ismelda avoided the rug, which Bunbery identified as having some kind of dimensional magic (presumably a teleporter), and looked into the room they'd agreed to check out. The room contained an odd mystery -- a collection of glass jars containing the corpses of tiny inch-long people, a scroll which Bunbery identified as containing the magic-user spell reduce, and a page from a book written in the fey tongue, which neither could read. Seeing no sign of the others returning, and being chaotic in alignment, the necromancer and his servant returned to the entrance and left the dungeon. They did however have the decency to wait in the forest in case their companions managed to find their way out.

Slippy and Ravain, in the meantime, teleported into the deep darkness of a huge cavern, and both, fortunately, blessed with infravision, had no idea where they were. They explored the cavern, finding a sequence of huge pillars, and then a series of carved rooms. Entering a corridor, Slippy smelled food wafting from somewhere, and his nose led him south. He knocked on a door and was greeted by a small woody gnome-like creature wearing a pointy red hat. The creature turned out to be rather friendly, and even invited the halfling to join him and his family for tea, but he declined, not 100% sure if he trusted the creature. Nonetheless, the gnome gave him good directions to the way out, which they promptly followed.

On the way they came across an odd phantasmal battle, between a warrior and a troll, which the heroic Rivain couldn't help but get involved in. He defeated the troll, with the help of the spectral warrior, who looked flabbergasted at his eternal battle finally being brought to an end. The warrior gifted them with a clue as he parted "a great treasure lies hidden over the water".

After that, Slippy and Rivain traced their way back to the surface, and found their companions lounging in the sunshine of the glade and eating a spot of lunch. The party returned to town, laden with coins, and with some interesting clues to investigate on their return to the dungeon. (The page found with the tiny people was identified by Rivain as being a small excerpt from a story about someone's journey to a land of such micro-creatures.)

By the way, I forgot to mention in the last post what a brilliant idea the inclusion of an area for a "character sketch" is on the character sheet! We got some works of sheer genius -- Slippy the halfling tipping his bowler hat, and Ismelda the dwarf with a saucepan on her head!

Labyrinth Lord - first session!

So today, at last, I got to play Labyrinth Lord! I've been absolutely gagging to give it a go since getting the books a couple of months ago, and was excited to be able to arrange a session for this afternoon. Of course, though it's the first time I've played Labyrinth Lord, I've played copious hours of basic D&D as a kid, so it's hardly new territory -- rather a return to and retreading of old territory. And I'm delighted to say it was a great success, everyone had a lot of fun, and I was revelling in the joyous simplicity and openness of the rules - no 'feats' or 'edges' (as they're known in Savage Worlds)! No copious lists of skills! (None of the PCs ended up being thieves, so there really wasn't a single skill on anyone's character sheet!) Just good, old fashioned, 3d6 ability scores in order, roll for hit points, buy equipment and off we go.

The adventure I ran was also similarly simplistic and old-school in style. The introduction went something like this: "You've been staying in a town which lies nearby to a magical wood. You've heard stories of people going into the wood and getting lost, so you know there's lots of weird and dangerous creatures living there. You've also heard legends of a great army in ancient times getting lost in the wood, and a king's hoard of treasure getting lost along with them, so you know there are riches to be found, for the brave and cunning. You journey into the wood on a sunny day, and after a couple of hours you come to a clearing with a huge old oak tree in the middle. Looking at the tree you notice that it is split down the middle, revealing an interior space which you could step into. Looking into the space within the tree you see a shaft going straight down into the earth with tree roots forming a ladder of sorts. What do you do?" As you can imagine, they ventured into the hole, and discovered a strange subterranean world filled with all sorts of weird, wonderful and deadly things.

Rather than describe the adventure itself, I thought firstly I'd write a few thoughts on the game-play and the rules, starting with character creation. As there were only three players, I let them roll two characters each -- one as their main character, and one as a henchman of some kind.

We ended up with the following assortment:

• Min - dwarf.
• Slippy - halfling (who are rat-people in this vaguely imagined campaign world), endebted to serve the greedy Min for 99 years (far longer than the halfling's expected lifespan).
• Rivain - elf (fey), rolled with that rarest of treasures - a natural 18 Strength.
• Esalai - elf (fey), henchwoman of Rivain. Esalai almost instantly became known as 'Princess' as none of us could remember her real name.
• Bamberry - magic-user (necromancer) with an undead rat familiar.
• Ismelda - dwarf henchwoman of Bamberry.

So only a single human in the group. I'm not sure why they all ended up gravitating towards demi-humans, as none of them have ever played basic D&D before, and I didn't give the demi-humans a massive big-up or anything. It just somehow turned out that way. The 3d6 in order rolling of ability scores came as a bit of a shock to two of the three players, who were experienced with D&D 3, and being able to choose what class they wanted to play, and there were some grumbles, but I reassured them that ability scores don't make so much difference (except for that 18 Strength, which really helped in battles!) and that, realistically, the characters were fairly likely to die anyway. :)

As I'd disallowed the cleric class (somehow I'm not that keen on the idea of clerics as adventurers), I let them buy healing potions for 50gp, and scrolls of undead turning for 25gp. The party had quite a few of these items between them, and though the undead turning scrolls didn't see any use (yet), the healing potions were life savers, literally. I allowed the healing potions to be used to save anyone at 0 or -1 hit points, if they could be reached by a companion within a couple of rounds. This actually happened twice during this session, so I was glad I'd invented that rule -- I hoped the first session wouldn't be too off-putting and end in a TPK! In the end four out of the six characters made it out of the dungeon -- Min the dwarf met his doom falling into an underground river while grappling with a troglodyte (though the dwarf's final fate is as yet unknown to the other PCs), and Princess was slaughtered by another troglodyte in an ensuing battle. That was a shame, they were both cool characters.

One thing which I really especially enjoyed, which is of course one of the main "selling points" of old-school RPGs, was the freedom of description and action provided by the very loose framework of rules. Rather than dry rolling of skill checks, traps were deduced and disarmed by trial and error -- throwing dead bodies onto pressure plates, wedging bones in cracks to prevent blades flying out, and so on. Each round of combat began with a simple "what do you do"? And of course the answers given were purely descriptive, never touching on the meta-tactics level of more modern RPGs with tons of mechanics-based combat 'options' -- "I move 4 squares then I use my Cleave feat", or whatever. I've been getting a bit fed up of this in Savage Worlds recently, which is a system I'm quite fond of, but still has too much of this meta-level rules complexity for my increasingly old-school tastes.

In the end though the remaining PCs escaped the dungeon with a nice selection of treasure, many areas left unexplored, and a couple of hints at what dangers and treasures lie yet in wait. What more can one ask for? We definitely plan to play again, and see how they fare on a second journey into the magical wood.

Age of Chaos - Sessions 11 & 12

We've just had two fairly slow and uneventful sessions in a row, the first due to there unexpectedly only being two players and myself present, and the second due to a rather short amount of play time available. The characters are building up for a return to the ruined manor house which they have been exploring, and the whole business of getting from the city of Aglong back to their base in the frontier-town of Keet has been getting a bit long-winded.

So the two sessions instead became a kind of addendum to session 10 - the "R&R in town" session. There were a couple of things that needed to be resolved, but not much really. In retrospect I think it was a shame I didn't have any little interesting side-events happen, or even a mini town adventure, rather than just dragging out the couple of minor tasks the PCs had to finish up in town. But then there is also an argument that that becomes unrealistic - when "adventure" follows the PCs wherever they go (like the apparently cursed Miss Marple and Jessica Fletcher), even if they choose to head away from the dangerous wild lands of Chaos!

It's a difficult point in this kind of campaign - if the players decide to just linger in town chatting with NPCs, well, that's their prerogative. It's certainly made me consider re-organising how the campaign works though, to make it a bit more cut-to-the-chase, and especially so after reading Ars Ludi's very inspiring posts on the West Marches campaign.

Featuring:

Barur son of Tharur - Dwarven noble
Arthanius Lex - Witch-hunter and hound-master
Darian - Youthful wandering bard

The main item which the PCs still wanted to sort out in Aglong was trying to talk with Lady Esmelna, the heir of the Baron who'd owned the ruined manor in Ballan. They headed through the snowy city streets towards the noble quarter, where they'd been told the rough location of her house. Finding the walled house without too much difficulty, they inquired with the guards at the gates as to whether it might be possible to speak with the Lady. The PCs didn't look or act too suspicious, so the guards fetched the house keeper, a man called Asmenius. The Lady had no time that day, but after a bit of 'haggling' they arranged a meeting for the following afternoon.

In the evening Arthanius went back to the temple of Arg to see if his superior had any news on whether he could provide any support for their explorations in the ruined village. The Eld had good news - that two of Arthanius' fellow order members were available and would accompany them to further root out the chaotic creatures which had infested the village, and to investigate the possibility of reclaiming the village or at least the manor as an outpost of Order. They arranged to all meet at the temple in two days' time, to begin the journey back to Keet.

After a quiet evening and following morning in the Serpent & Eagle inn, they headed back to Lady Esmelna's house for the meeting. The Lady, an aging and proud noble-woman, was a little cold at first, but was soon won over by their descriptions of the manor where she had spent her childhood, and the talk of possibly being able to cleanse the place of the scourge of Chaos. They showed her the painting of her grandfather, which Barur had cut from its frame, and asked her about the orb and quill which the Baron was depicted holding, but she didn't divulge any new information. (Barur didn't mention the fact that he actually had the quill in his possession.) The Lady was glad to give them permission to continue exploring the ruins, but impressed on them several times the fact that everything there is the inheritance of my estate. Meaning to say - "no looting". *

They spent another evening at the inn, and this time were joined by Erik, one of the men from Arthanius' order, who was going to join them on their mission to Ballan. Erik and Arthanius knew each other somewhat, and had some discussion of their recent doings. Erik told the story of how he had travelled to Thane's Haven in the west, braving (and barely surviving) the perils of the Fey Wood in order to take a message to the monks who live at the haven. After the catching-up Erik left to return to the temple, and Barur and Arthanius decided to get an early night in readiness for the next day's journey. At this point Darian, who had wandered off on his own that day, rolled into the inn completely drunk.

The next morning they rose (Darian only after a little 'encouragement'), breakfasted, and made their way to the temple of Arg to begin their journey. They met the other order member who was to come with them - an enthusiastic young lad called Balder, whom Arthanius was a little unsure of - most of the order members are a little older than 18. The Eld, however, assured him privately that the lad was a competent fighter, that he had sworn an oath to serve the god of justice, and that the order needed young blood.

So the five of them set off to Keet: Barur, Darin, Arthanius and his two dogs **, and Erik and Balder of the Order of the Hammer.

The day's journey to Keet was uneventful, and they arrived in the village at dusk. However as they walked along the now-familiar riverside path towards the lights of the village, they noticed a sinister black shape lurking in the edge of the forest behind the settlement. Edging closer to investigate, it appeared to be a man-sized spider-like form hanging unmoving in the branches of a tree. Creeping along the edge of the woods, they got a closer view and Barur (with his dark vision) noticed that the thing was in fact made of wood - it appeared that the branches of the trees had somehow woven themselves into this sinister shape. At the insistence of Balder they lit a lantern and Barur climbed into the tree and hacked the thing down with his axe. They gathered up the pieces, which appeared to be just normal wood, and took it to the Grinwold's Eaves inn to provide the landlord with a gift to feed to the fire. The landlord knew nothing of the spider shape in the trees, and was a little concerned about his fire when they revealed the source of the wood.

Over supper and ale the party discussed their next move - to return to the ruined manor in the morning, and to fully explore the tunnels in the cellars.

* This is developing into an interesting theme in the campaign at present, with the introduction of the witch-hunter character, who is assuredly not an adventurer or treasure-hunter. It'll be interesting to see what happens if they discover any further riches at Ballan, when they've been explicitly told that they do not have permission to loot the place.

** Arthanius' player officially renamed his new dog 'Scourge' (it was called Will when he bought it) - even changing the name on his character sheet.