Tales from the Tower

The Thief Class in AD&D verses B/X D&D and Labyrinth Lord

2012-02-13T00:02:00.056-05:00

We've been having an ongoing discussion about the B/X D&D Thief Class in our Averlorn campaign since we started playing Labyrinth Lord two years or so ago. The general consensus is that B/X Thieves are pretty weak, particularly in melee combat compared to the other available classes. This is particularly noticeable in Labyrinth Lord (a B/X D&D clone) when you add in the Advanced Edition Companion and all of the AD&D classes associated with that (Paladins, Rangers, Assassins, Illusionists etc.). Another player and I (the one that's played most of the stealthy types in the game) have repeatedly pointed out to the GM that thieves (and to a lesser extent Assassins) need an edge of some sort in combat in order to survive and contribute to melee combat in the sort of melee heavy hack & slash type of D&D game that he runs.

His usual reply to these pleas is that Thieves have always been weak in B/X from a melee standpoint because they suffer from a low THAC0, a low AC, and may have a hard time pulling off the backstab at lower levels but can contribute to the group in other ways (stealthy scouting, information gathering/spying, trap detection and disarming, scroll casting at higher levels etc.) and he points out that the general consensus in the OSR is that the thief class is looked at as the unwanted stepchild of that particular flavor of D&D. My usual reply to that is that I never played B/X D&D as a kid so I wouldn't know but AD&D Thieves can be pretty effective in combat if used correctly (mostly by backstabbing, throwing oil/holy water and using archery) and are not nearly as weak as their Basic D&D younger cousins. He also points out correctly that there is no thief class in 0e D&D (we play White Box 0e D&D occasionally) and that all characters in that rule set are assumed to be rogues and thieves and should have a basic proficiency with some thieving abilities and that the game doesn't suffer from the lack of a Thief class.

This last point is punctuated by the fact that in our last Averlorn game (the one that ended up playing G2 and that most of the current recaps are about) got by fine without thieves for quite a while. Clerics can cast the spell Detect Traps, Wizards can cast Unseen Servant and there are other ways to circumvent the need for a thief to find and remove traps and the class is not necessarily required to have a successful adventuring party. We originally had some thieves but all three died and we went without one for quite some time until we added an assassin more recently to the group. Of course, Assassins are a different matter entirely - a base percentage chance to just outright kill an opponent is incredibly powerful in melee, assuming you can set it up and pull it off without being detected first (no small feat in your typical dungeon environment but do-able).

When I first started playing D&D back in the 7th grade (sometime around 1978-1979) we used the Holmes Basic Rules in our initial games supplemented by various 0e small rule books. Shortly thereafter, the AD&D books became available and our group and everyone that I knew that played D&D switched over to the 1st Edition Players Handbook, The Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual as our core rules of choice. Later, a few of us even had Unearthed Arcana but I don't remember how much, if any, of the rules out of that book that we actually used. For instance I don't recall using Weapon Specialization at all but I do remember little tidbits from it like field plate and small details like that. So the Basic D&D I played never even had a thief class.

Fast Forward from Holmes Basic D&D to AD&D where thieves (a new class for us at the time) could be extremely deadly in melee combat if they could pull off a backstab since you start off with double damage and as you progress in levels it can be increased to triple damage and even quadruple and quintuple damage at 13th to 16th level. Of course you still had to manage to pull off both a stalk and a hide maneuver in order to backstab your foes but once you did, you could literally murder opponents with that combination especially at higher levels.

The other thing is that we almost never used house rules - the way our DM ran the game is that if it was written in any of the three above mentioned rule books, then that rule was valid. So this meant a thief could also attack with two weapons, with the penalties to hit as outlined in the DM's guide of course. We also used the weapon damage by size rule so that when fighting large opponents, a longsword would do d12 damage and a two handed sword would do 3-18 (3d6) but we didn't use the "Weapon Type to Hit Adjustments" verses different armor types found in that table since it was clunky and just slowed the game down quite a bit. So we were a little selective in the rules we used but for the most part, if it was in the book, it was adopted into our game (we gladly used Psionics as written in the DMG for instance).

So a 13th level thief wielding a dagger and a longsword verses a large opponent would get 5X the normal damage for both weapons and the longsword could do d12 base damage (plus any bonuses for strength or magical weapons) which can get quite deadly. Of course, the thief would have to have some pretty serious cahonoes to really attempt to backstab say, a dragon or a giant, all by himself because the likely end result, of course, is that said creature would kill the thief on the next round if it was still alive and won initiative.

So our usual maneuver was for the thief to hang in the back of the group and when the party entered a room, he would stay out in the hallway until the group engaged whatever opponent might be dwelling there. Once the enemy was engaged, he would then attempt his stalk and hide maneuver in the available shadows outside of the radius of the group's torch light (assuming the room was large enough and dark) to attempt to surprise the enemy from the rear and get in a good backstab with his longsword which would at minimum do 2-16 points of damage at lower levels assuming there are no other damage bonuses involved. This proved to be quite the effective way for thieves to contribute regularly to melee combat often with deadly results for our opponents and wasn't terribly risky since the rest of the group was there in the room with him. In other words he had backup because he wasn't scouting ahead of the group and alone - attempting a backstab solo is incredibly risky for the thief on the other hand and would often result in his demise.

Another thing that I remember from back then (and I don't know if this is written into the DMG or PHB or not) is that we took the term double damage to mean that you also doubled the bonuses to damage as well from strength or a magical weapon since it doesn't really specify whether to do that or not in the description for thieves in the character class section. It does say "twice normal for the weapon used" so that might imply that you only double the dice but if so it isn't explicitly spelled out as meaning that unless its buried in the DMG somehwere.

The other thing that made thieves a bit punchier in our games is that we were playing through lots of TSR modules back then (I know we played through the Village of Homlett and T1-4 ToEE but can't remember the others) and those modules were typically handing out magic items like candy on Halloween, more often than not to offset the inherent difficulty of the module or to help overcome a particular aspect of it. The result was that our characters were festooned with magic items and were usually more powerful as a result (it was not uncommon to have several magical swords or weapons stashed away in a bag of holding for instance not unlike a bag of golf clubs LOL).

Despite the abundance of magic items for all of our characters back then and the increased power level as a result after playing through several modules, we still had characters die all the time owing to the deadly nature of TSR modules (particularly the ones written by Gygax but others as well). But the nice thing about that is that we could get by with fewer characters in our group because they were more powerful (usually only 4-5 at the most with few if any henchmen).

So while a thieves’ AC might be too high to survive in melee in other lower magic settings without so many magic items, in an AD&D high magic environment like the one we played in a high AC could be overcome and lowered with bracers of defense, magical leather armor, rings of protection etc. and in combat, if he had a really nice sword it meant he was more effective in melee as a result even without a backstab. There were also other magical ways to raise one's DEX as well (tomes, magical fountains etc). So in light of the amount of killing power that thieves had in AD&D and later editions of the game, in B/X they are literally the weakest class in the game from a killing power standpoint in my opinion unless they regularly use poison or have some powerful magic item or something (mages are weaker in melee but more powerful in other ways because of area of affect spells that kill or disable multiple foes for instance).

I have been wanting to run a thief in our Averlorn campaign for quite some time but every time I consider it, I just imagine how horribly he is going to die in our combat heavy game and how little he will contribute to the eventual outcome of battle where he will really be a soft target that just needs to be protected all of the time by the fighters and do his best to avoid melee in most situations. You just can't play B/X thieves the way you could play the AD&D thief class. You could play them fairly aggressively in AD&D without being killed frequently if you were smart about how you did it particularly by using their back stab ability.

We have been using the B/X Companion's weapon damage by class rules for some time, which at the time seemed like a no brainer since it is a very cool rule and means you can pick a weapon to use because its cool or "fluffy" for your character rather than because of the amount of damage it does. It was only after some time went by that we realized that the Thief class in Labyrinth Lord gets hosed by that rule if you were using the weapon damage by type optional rule before that (which we were). So now, instead of being able to backstab with a longsword and do 2d8 damage, all weapons that a thief employs (even two handed weapons) only do 2d6 damage which is a far cry from the amount of damage that thieves could do in AD&D.

So effectively, weapon damage by class as written in the B/X Companion when combined with Labyrinth Lord or straight up B/X D&D makes what in my opinion is the weakest class in the game in terms of killing ability or power, even weaker. So in summary, thieves have a much harder time killing stuff and not being killed when engaging in melee in a combat heavy hack and slash type of B/X game like the one we are running. Where they excel of course, is in situations where stealth and information gathering is critical such as in a city based campaign or even in a scouting role in a dungeon or elsewhere as long as they adhere to the "see and don't be seen" doctrine of reconnaissance used by military recon types of forces or special forces throughout history.

I'd be interested to hear any comments from the many members of the OSR on this topic as we've been discussing it for quite some time and often reference the opinions of the many members of the Old School Renaissance in our discussions. I never played B/X D&D as a kid and my recollections of playing a Thief from back then were that they were both fun to play and deadly with a long sword. In our current Labyrinth Lord B/X game using the Advanced Edition Companion, they are a far cry from the murderous rogues that we used to play back when I was a kid.

Averlorn Campaign: G2 Into the Lair of the Frost Giant Jarl

2011-11-12T03:25:00.023-05:00

Recap from 8/26/2011

Once the group had returned to the city of Medea’s Gate, we took a week off for a nice long rest and sold some of our treasure and exchanged the rest for more portable gems. Then we saw to our provisions and more importantly, bought every healing potion we could find in town since we were going through them like water fighting against the giants. Once we were ready, we boarded the airships again and returned to the snow capped mountains for a follow-up raid on the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl in order to complete our mission – to return the magical tome to its rightful owners in the Surgeon’s Guild. When we arrived, the ranger led us to our ice cave hideout and base where we spent the night and prepared for our next raid. The following morning, we left for the Rift of the Frost Giants once again.

Rather than risking another ambush on the ice ledges on either side of the entrance to the rift, we decided to use our knowledge of the place from our previous forays to our advantage. Asclepius cast his fly spell on himself and he proceeded to ferry us one by one through the air over the rift floor to the ledge outside of the cave where we fought the Fire Giants previously. We decided to go in from this ledge because it was a place that our opponents wouldn’t be expecting us to enter since it bypassed the primary entrances on either side. Once we were all on the ledge we went in to the former den of the Fire Giants and found it to be completely empty – even the bodies of the three dead giants were gone. Gone as well was the Wall of Stone that Teth-en-Aire had cast over the entrance to keep the Frost Giants out. Apparently, the Frost Giants had been busy cleaning the place up during the week that we were gone. At this point things were going as planned since we managed to gain entrance to the complex without raising the alarm.

We went into the hallway towards the guard cave where we had been ambushed previously and immediately started getting hit in the hallway again by boulders from the guard post. Rather than hesitating or trying to take cover, Lucias, Taleth and Bellinorn charged the two Frost Giants in the room to put a stop to their dangerous missile throwing as quickly as possible. These same giants, or others like them, had hurt us badly with thrown boulders from this location on a previous foray so we were determined to close with them as quickly as possible so they couldn’t do that again. Once the fighters engaged them in melee with the rest of the group backing them up, they went down pretty quickly without raising the alarm. The group continued past the guard room down the hallway to the passage that turned to the right and started sloping down.

We descended the sloping passage cautiously to the second level for quite some time as it twisted and turned, and without a dwarf in the group, we had no idea where we were in relation to the rift and the other caves above relative to our current location. The large cavern at the bottom was empty and eerily quiet. This is the chamber we had visited once before while Lucias and Evelyn the assassin were invisible but there were two guards present at that time. She had scouted it out a bit and there was a passage on the left blocked by a very large boulder that she had squirmed through into the cavern beyond. There she felt the presence of and most definitely smelled what she was pretty sure was a large dragon in the cavern somewhere guarding its lair no doubt. Because she was invisible she slipped back into the passage without alerting it to her presence. So we knew what was behind the left hand passage and decided to leave it alone for now (let sleeping dragons lie says I).

On the walls of the cavern were several intricate bas relief carvings of hunting scenes and scenes of dragons fighting monsters of all sorts. Also, the place was lit up with caged fire beetles set into sconces on the walls giving it an eery glow, but we were glad that it was illuminated for a change. Evelyn had also explored further into this cavern on our previous visit and found a large group of ice toads in one of the caverns beyond the end of the large entry cavern. We knew Ice Toads were dangerous foes since one had killed one of our henchmen on a previous trip through the Pass at Hell’s Peak near Herrari (see recap Day of the Ice Toad). So rather than disturbing the Dragon or the Ice Toads we decided to search this cavern for secret doors to see if there was a hidden entrance that we had overlooked before. On the right hand side of the cavern, one of the adventurers found another tunnel blocked by a large boulder similar to the one on the opposite side, except that this one was cleverly hidden to look like the natural wall of the cavern rather than an entrance to a passageway.

The strong fighters, including Teth-en-Aire the Elf with his Girdle of Giant Strength, shifted the boulder out of the way and we were immediately confronted by a pair of frost giant guards at the end of a narrow but long entry foyer cavern. They were standing near a large bell (obviously an alarm) so we sprang into action to prevent them from sounding the alarm and alerting the complex to our presence. Apparently, we had found the entrance to the Jarl’s underground lair! The fighters rushed the one that was heading towards the alarm while the wizards and archers hit him with magic missiles and arrows. Meanwhile, the rest of the group that was backing them up engaged the other guard. After a fierce but brief melee, it was over and the giants were slain before they could sound the alarm.

At the opposite end of this space, the cavern narrowed down into a 20’ wide cavernous passage that we cautiously entered. On the left was a passage leading into a room and on the right were three passages and the hallway kept going straight ahead past all of the side passages. We turned into the left hand passage and came into a large cavern full of a large group of ogres that we managed to surprise! There were around twenty of them and we let them have it with a fireball, a lightning bolt, several magic missiles, and some arrows while the fighters went in to mop up. It was over pretty quickly but we made a lot more noise than we wanted to with the fireball and lightning bolt – it wasn’t really planned but more of a spontaneous attack and we weren’t really trying to stay quiet.

As we turned our attention to searching the room for loot, four Frost Giant Guards showed up at each entrance (there were two entrances to the chamber that branched off of the entry corridor). These giants started throwing rocks at us and we quickly turned our attention to them but were caught off guard by this counterattack. When the fighters engaged the giants, it prevented the wizard and elves from being able to launch any more of the heavy firepower spells at them to take them out quickly and it quickly turned into a desperate struggle.

To make matters worse, two Ogre Magi appeared from being invisible behind the giants, one in each entry passage, and they both cast Cone of Cold spells on most of the group hurting us badly! While we were reeling from this attack, we finally managed to take out a couple of the giants and the wizard and Elves killed the Ogre Magi on the right side with magic missiles and arrows before he could disappear again in the next round. During the next round we managed to take down the last of the giants on the left side but the other Ogre Magi turned invisible and was nowhere to be seen.

Cyrcla cast Invisibility on herself and stepped out into the hallway to search for more invisible opponents – she still had a fireball left and was itching for some payback. Meanwhile, we were badly hurt at this point and Kaira started casting curative spells on some of the wounded group members. That’s when the other Ogre Magi turned visible again and threw a fireball at the group that was all gathered around the cleric! Not only did she lose her spell but we got hurt even worse. Unfortunately for the Ogre Magi though, we now knew where he was and the wizard and elves hit him with magic missiles and arrows and finally killed him.

Lucias went over to his body to search it because he appeared to be their leader but then two Drow flew into the room and cast Charm Person on Lucias twice! He made one saving throw but failed the other and started heading towards the rest of the group to slay them at the command of the evil Drow wizards! Fortunately, Teth-en-Aire had a Dispel Magic spell on a scroll and cast it on him negating the Charm Person spell which effectively ended the combat. Cyrcla began casting a fireball at the dreaded flying Drow but they flew out of the room and down the hallway to the larger cavern outside to escape before we could target them and she stopped casting the spell before it went off.

So once again, we managed to stir up a Hornet’s nest and got badly hurt in the process by the denizens of the complex. The odd thing was we were coming up against creatures that you wouldn’t expect to be in the lair of a Frost Giant leader. It was obvious that something bigger was afoot in this place, especially with the appearance of the legendary and mysterious Drow that supposedly didn’t exist. Later on, the GM told us (speaking as our NPC ally Teth-en-Aire the Elf) that Drow didn't really exist and that the two were most likely also Ogre Magi who used their polymorph self spell like ability to change themselves into Drow in order to scare us. So maybe they weren’t Drow after all (or were they?). We did manage to find some treasure and a Necklace of Fireballs on the Ogre Magi leader so it wasn’t a total loss but once again, we were pretty badly chewed up from the combat. We decided on the next foray to hit them from an unexpected direction again to keep them off guard in order to avoid slipping into a predictable pattern. So our next raid of the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl started off with a brainstorming session to figure out how to go about doing that.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: G2 A Narrow Escape and a Precipitous Ambush

2011-10-16T21:35:00.021-04:00

Recap from 8/12/2011

The session started off with the group in a bit of a bind. During the previous session, after the Frost Giants in the guardroom threw rocks at the frontline fighters from the hallway and beat them up so bad, we inadvertently blundered into the Fire Giant’s lair and were almost wiped out. Fortunately, our Elven friend Teth-en-Aire acted quickly and pretty much saved the group from a TPK (total party kill) when he cast Wall of Stone off of a scroll to seal off the Frost Giants in the hallway so we only had to contend with the three Fire Giants. They were tough but we eventually overcame them and found ourselves trapped in their lair with only one way out of the room which was off of the ledge and into the rift beyond. We sorted through their belongings and gathered up their loot and then contemplated our escape.

Fortunately, Asclepius had memorized the Fly spell so he decided to reconnoiter our possible routes of escape. First, he cast Invisibility on himself and then Fly and flew over to the ledge on the opposite side of the rift and explored the caves and tunnels over there for a bit. He found them to be occupied by many Frost Giants and some Ice Toads. After he reported this back to the group, we decided that that was probably not such a great way to escape, since we were so beat up and out of offensive spells and healing that we really didn’t want to have to fight anything else on the way out. He also flew over the area where we had encountered the Winter Wolves to see if we could scale down to the rift floor and escape back up onto the lower ice ledge that led upwards, but they were still there guarding the access point. So after he flew back we discussed it for a bit and decided that the best course of action would be to have the elf ferry over the others on his back while flying to the ledge we had travelled across before on the way in. Soon enough, the whole group was safely on the other ledge past the barracks and we travelled back through that area and out of the rift to our hideout without any further encounters or problems.

Once we were all healed up and ready for action the next day we returned to the entrance to the rift and went down the right hand path as we had done on the previous two forays. When we went past the caves where we had previously fought the Yetis and the Snow Leopards, one of the front line fighters set off some kind of a tripwire and we knew we were about to have company. Appearing from the direction of the opposite end of the cliff in the direction of the barracks were four frost giants who began throwing rocks at us. We were still bound together with rope at this point to traverse the slippery ice cliffs, and the front line fighters started getting pounded with boulders so we ducked into the cave were we had previously fought the snow leopards. This afforded some cover from the barrage and we untied ourselves from the rope, but Taleth the ranger quickly realized it wouldn’t be a great place to stay for too long because all the giants would have to do would be to move one of the large boulders they used as doors for their hallways into the entry tunnel and seal us into the cave!

So, knowing we couldn’t stay there and that we needed to find a way to fight back, Lucias, Taleth and Bellinorn made a mighty yell and sallied forth from the cave to attack the giants on the ledge. Despite the icy conditions, they found that as long as they didn’t run and hugged the icy wall on the right that they had little danger of slipping off of the ledge and into the chasm below. Unfortunately, as they moved forward slowly and tenuously, the giants resumed their barrage and fell back as we approached and the fighters started getting beat up pretty badly from the missiles. What this did do however, was allow the arcane spellcasters and others a chance to get out on the ledge and fire back at our attackers with spells and arrows. So Teth-en-Aire, Cyrcla, Asclepius and Ferris started throwing lightning bolts, fireballs and magic missiles at the giants while the others fired arrows onto the other end of the ledge at the giants which pretty much took out the first group of four giants there. They were quickly replaced by six more coming from the direction of the barracks after the alarm had been sounded, and they resumed the barrage and kept falling back before the fighters could close with them.

The fighters were almost dead at this point but the spellcasters and archers resumed their barrage and whittled our opponents down to two giants left standing when Kaira the cleric hit them with a nasty little surprise. Kaira quaffed a potion of Polymorph Self and transformed herself into a small white dragon and Ferris the wizard cast his Enlarge spell on her as well and she suddenly swelled to the size of a large white dragon! The giant beast quickly flew to the location of the last of the giants and fell on them rending them with her dragon maw and two claw attacks essentially finishing off the last of the ambushers! Unfortunately, the fighters were hurt badly and we were pretty close to being out of healing and offensive spells again, but with the aid of our newfound dragon friend, we moved forward with the attack to press our advantage.

We went down the hallway off of the ledge past the wall of stone we had previously cast outside of the fire giant lair and towards the guardroom where we had been bombarded from so badly before by the four frost giants there. Having learned our lesson about just sitting there and getting shelled, Lucias, Taleth and Bellinorn let out a battle cry and charged down the hallway right towards the guardroom with the white dragon leading the way! We encountered two Frost Giants there who sounded the alarm but quickly fell under our onslaught. We knew pressing on was probably a mistake since the alarm had been sounded and they were aware of our presence, but we wanted to do a little bit of scouting ahead to see if we could find the Jarl’s lair so we could recover the book we were sent to retrieve. So the arcane casters cast invisibility on Lucias and Evelyn the assassin and the two scouted ahead and found a tunnel which turned sharply to the right and descended downwards! So it appeared that we had found the way to the Jarl’s lair after three very difficult forays into the glacial rift of the frost giants!

The two cautiously followed the tunnel trying to be as quiet as possible with the assassin leading the way and moving silently. When they got to the end of the hallway it opened up into a large chasm that was lit with cages containing fire beetles. Standing on either side of the chasm were two frost giant guards – presumably, the other two from the guard room who had fallen back to defend their leader’s lair and sound the alarm to the rest of the complex. So rather than stir up yet another hornet’s nest, we turned around and made our way back up the hallway to give the others the news. Once they returned to the rest of the group, the group decided to fall back to our ice cave hideout to rest and recoup and decide what to do the next day.

After some discussion, we decided that our best course of action was to head back to the airship drop zone and signal them to pick us up so we could fall back to Medea’s Gate to rest, resupply and purchase more healing potions which we were now out of. It had been three days since we arrived and the Surgeons said they would send a ship for us every three days until we had been picked up. We had enough food to continue our assault but at this point, we were so beat up after the last three forays that it would have taken several days of healing just to heal up the group’s fighters to be ready to go back in again, and we were out of healing potions. So we decided that the best course of action would be to head back to the city to recover and come back for another assault once we were ready. We had enough information now that we had a pretty good idea of where the Jarl’s lair was located and about some of the other dangers and defenses of the place. We also surmised that if we gave it a rest for a little bit, that they would probably let their guard down somewhat and it might be easier to go in again undetected this time, at least initially anyway. So we loaded up the treasure onto the airships, including the massive mammoth tusks from the Yeti’s lair, and returned to Medea’s Gate the next day.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: G2 The Frost Giant Barracks and an Exciting Cliffhanger

2011-09-15T02:52:00.019-04:00

Recap from 7/29/2011

After resting up for the night, we set out the next day for the glacial rift of the Frost Giants. Once again, we went in on the right cliffside up against the icy mountain and roped ourselves together to keep from falling over the edge into the rift floor far below. We decided to skirt the sloping path down to the rift floor and continued along the main icy path until we came to more ice caves cut into the right side of the cliff. We untied the ropes and decided to send the assassin in to scout ahead of the group. One of the elves cast invisibility on Evelyn and Lucias lent her his magical dagger for light (magical daggers shed less light than magical swords and are better for sneaking around) and she went into the cave moving as silently as possible to look for any signs of trouble. We waited at the entrance for some time until she came running out yelling that she was being pursued by lots of Frost Giants! We found out later that she encountered a few frost giants, some of which were sleeping and then decided to keep going instead of turning back to warn us and found even more giants. In Labyrinth Lord and B/X D&D high level monsters have a very small chance of spotting invisible opponents (like 5% per giant) but the more opponents you try to sneak through, the larger the chance of one of them eventually spotting the invisible character, and apparently, one of them got lucky and noticed her.

So the jig was up and multiple Frost Giants started coming at us up the hallways. There was one large group of giants coming at us through the right hand passage and a couple on the left hand branch that eventually turned into another large group! Apparently we had stirred up a hornets nest and inadvertently alerted the entire Frost Giant barracks and things were about to get very interesting. While Lucias and Taleth fought to hold off the ones in the front, the arcane spellcasters in the back (three Elves and a Magic User) started throwing fireballs and lightning bolts on the large groups of giants coming out of both corridors behind the ones that were in the front battling the fighters. To top that off, our cleric Kaira pulled out a scroll of Flame Strike and cast it on the group on the right and quite a few of them died or were badly burned by the magical attacks. The burned giants kept coming and the fighters in front were cutting them down as fast as they came while the spellcasters kept up the fusillade of fireballs and started throwing magic missiles when their heavier firepower was exhausted.

After an epic struggle, we eventually managed to cut down fourteen Frost Giants in that melee and only suffered relatively light casualties. Kaira healed up the wounded fighters and we decided to search the barracks for loot. We entered several caverns and found very little until we entered a large cavern with a crystal clear pool of water babbling in the corner. One of the players spotted something shiny at the bottom and then we were attacked by a lone Frost Giant that we cut down without too much trouble. We searched the pool and retrieved 200 low value shining gems worth 10 G.P. each. After having searched the Barracks of the Frost Giants, we returned to the ledge and roped up to continue exploring the complex. We were mostly out of offensive spells and had little healing left at this point but decided to press on anyway.

We continued down the icy ledge and had another close call with one of the characters slipping over who had to be hoisted back up with the rope. The last cave on the ledge led to another tunnel into the icy mountainside. The tunnel eventually branched and one branch led to a cavern with some runes written on the floor. Taleth the Ranger knew how to speak giant and told us that it was a warning to the giants of some unknown danger and that they should avoid the place. That was good enough for us and we went the other way. We continued down the tunnel and quickly found ourselves confronted with another pair of frost giant guards that were throwing rocks at us from the cavern ahead. Lucias, the Ranger and his hireling fighter Bellinorn the Sun Elf charged them and engaged them in melee while the spellcasters in the back cast what few magic missiles they had left on them, or fired missile weapons. The two giants were quickly dispatched but we were starting to get pretty beat up at this point.

We continued down the hallway past this guard post and once again came under attack from a fusillade of boulders and both Lucias and Taleth were hurt badly this time. The giants were so far away that they could see us with their infravision well enough to hurl stones but we couldn’t see them. They shouted an alarm and charged down the hall towards us. Since we were in bad shape at this point we decided to turn into a left hand branch of the tunnel to take cover from the barrage of boulders – this turned out to be a huge mistake! Suddenly, we were confronted by three fire giants that attacked us from the left hand tunnel while the four giants on the right were charging at us up the other hallway!

This quickly turned into a desperate situation as our two front line fighters were so badly beat up as to be useless in melee and we were under attack from two sides. Teth-en-Aire, our Elven NPC ally, saved the day when he pulled out a scroll of Wall of Stone and cast the spell to seal off the right hand passage so that we would only have to fight one group of giants at a time. Cyrcla the Elf cast invisibility on Lucias who only had a few hit points left at this point and he fell back to the newly created wall of stone to quaff a potion of Extra Healing. Taleth also fell back to heal as best as he could while the rest of the group fought off the three very tough Fire Giants in a desperate struggle for survival. They eventually killed them but only after several of the other characters were similarly beaten down including our other fighter Bellinorn and Teth-en-Aire who ended up fighting off the giants with the help of the others.

Once the fight was over, we realized that we were trapped in the cavern by our own wall of stone! Since the Frost Giants to our rear had gone past the “Y” intersection into the passage we had just come from, Teth-en-Aire had to cast the spell on the entry to the Fire Giant cavern and effectively sealed us in. After quaffing healing potions and using the last remaining healing that we had available, we explored our new accommodations. The cavern held several large braziers that burned with fiery coals to keep the fire giants nice and warm and we also found a considerable sum of gold (9,000 g.p.) and a bear figurine with topaz eyes as well which appeared to be worth a great deal of gold. We also found a thick and long rope in one of the giant’s bags.

As we searched the cavern further we realized that there was an exit but that it led out onto another icy ledge with no apparent way off of it except down or through the air. We could see the ledge we had just come from not too far away to our left, but it was several hundred feet away and the rift floor appeared to be further down below than it was towards the entrance (in other words the rift floor was at a lower elevation here). We also spotted other ledges on the opposite side of the rift as well that we hadn’t noticed before, that presumably led to other ice caverns on the opposite side of the rift.

In retrospect, we made several mistakes this session – the assassin pressed on into the barracks rather than falling back which ended up stirring up the hornets nest but the end result of that fight wasn’t so bad (we killed some 15 frost giants there and found some loot). The real mistake was pressing on when we were mostly out of healing and arcane spells. When we were assailed with the rocks, our third mistake was to turn into the Fire Giant’s lair rather than just falling back – that nearly wiped out the entire party. The amazing thing was that we found a decent amount of loot and killed some seventeen Frost Giants and three fire giants and somehow managed to survive the session without anyone being killed. All in all, it was a very exciting session as well due to the element of uncertainty and desperation.

We made a resolution to learn from our mistakes if we could only figure out a way out of our current predicament. We knew the Frost Giants would be back and if they could manage to break through the wall and attack us in the Fire Giant cave we could be finished, so we had to find a way out through the rift or onto one of the other ledges before they could do that. We ended the session there as a true cliffhanger as we contemplated our options and began to plan our escape…

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: Dungeon Module G2 The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

2011-09-12T21:33:00.013-04:00

Recap from 7/22/2011 (Part 2 of 2)

Taleth the Ranger led our adventuring party towards the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl through the deep snows of the Pillars of Defiance mountain range at the southern end of the Anvil. It was easy for him to locate the way to the rift due to the many frost giant tracks left on the trail in the snow by the giants and other creatures moving to and from it with regularity. When we arrived at the entrance it was really just a break in the snow capped peaks with a path leading to the left and a path leading to the right and a steep drop off down to the floor of the rift far below straight ahead which was obscured by wind driven snowy mists. So we debated which way to go and went with the conventional wisdom that when confronted with such choices in a maze like labyrinth, that right is right and left is wrong. So we went down the right hand path which was really just an icy ledge up against the sheer mountain and glacier wall on the right with the steep drop off to the rift floor on the left. Since it was so slippery, we took the added precaution of roping ourselves together in the hopes that if someone fell over the edge that we could catch them and pull them back to the ledge with the ropes.

As we went further along the path, we eventually came to a cave mouth on the right and decided to explore it. We untied the ropes and entered the cave and were surprised by a band of six Yetis! A fierce melee ensued and several of our number were paralyzed with fear from the giant white ape like creatures including Lucias. As we started cutting them down, another one attacked us from behind that was bigger than the rest and was wielding a glowing white sword. After a brief but intense battle we eventually overcame all seven yetis and searched their lair. In addition to the obviously magical sword, we found eleven huge ivory mammoth tusks hidden away in their cave which were worth a great deal of gold. We pressed on and retied ourselves together to brave the icy ledge once again and again found another ice cave on the right face of the glacier and mountain.

We entered this cave and found that it was filled with an icy mist mixed with steam that issued forth from a thermal fissure somewhere deep below the ground making it very hard to see. It also made the floor very treacherous and slippery and we all had to fight to maintain our balance to keep from slipping and dropping our weapons and shields. Unfortunately, Kaira slipped onto the icy floor and dropped her magical spear which tumbled across the slippery surface and into an icy chasm never to be seen again. We decided to leave this room before we lost anything else and went back out onto the icy ledge where we roped up again and gave the newly found magical sword to Kaira to replace her lost weapon. As we continued our march along the treacherous ledge, one of the adventurers slipped on the icy surface and nearly tumbled over the ledge to their death on the rift floor far below. Fortunately, the rope saved that character’s life and he was quickly hoisted back up to the ledge by the rest of the group.

We continued along the ledge and noticed that there was what appeared to be a path/ledge leading down to the rift floor on our left in addition to the ledge that continued on straight ahead. There was also another ice cave on our right that we decided to investigate. As we entered the cave we were surprised by a pair of snow leopards that attacked us from their perch on a ledge above the room. A quick but fierce melee ensued and the ice cats were quickly dispatched. After this encounter, we decided to try the path to the left that led to the rift floor in the hopes of finding the entrance to the Frost Giant Jarl’s lair so we could retrieve the tome for the Surgeons of Hecate. We went down the winding trail and eventually ended up on the rift floor below. On the rift floor, vision was obscured and limited to 30’ due to the high winds and snow drifts that prevailed there on the snow and ice covered valley floor.

As we started forward we ran into what looked like a pack of seven white wolves. We moved to engage them and then they breathed frost on us! This caught us completely off guard since we thought they were just normal wolves. They turned out to be Winter Wolves and hurt us badly since all seven of them had an icy breath weapon and most of the characters failed their saving throws. During the second round of combat they breathed on us again and several of the lower level characters were nearly killed so we were forced to withdraw back up the icy ledge. We threw some of our rations down to distract them as we made our getaway. Had we realized how dangerous they were, we would have hit them with ranged attacks including fireballs but as it was, we were lucky to escape that encounter without any fatalities. We eventually made it back to the safety of our ice cave hideout far away from the rift to rest and heal up our wounded comrades. So we rested up and prepared for our next foray on the following day into the glacial rift. The odd thing was, on our first outing, we didn’t encounter a single Frost Giant. This was about to change however...

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl Prologue and Background

2011-09-11T04:41:00.018-04:00

Recap from 7/22/2011 Averlorn Session (Part 1 of 2)

After our second foray into the Halls of the Blind we took some time off for the winter for a much needed rest. After we split up the loot from the foray, each of the group members went back to their city or town of origin to ride out the winter before the anvil was completely snowed in. Beorn the Bahkshanni dwarf returned to the deep Dwarven halls hidden away in the mountains of the anvil. Gradwin, Evelyn, Asclepius, Cyrcla, Taleth and Kaira returned to the city of Medea’s Gate where they were originally from while Teth-en-Aire and Lucias returned to the city of Ptoleph on the northern edge of the Anvil to winter over. It was here that Lucias was granted lands and a title having finally attained named level (9^th level fighter).

Lucias was granted the title of Baron by the Duke of Ptoleph. Previously, he had been granted the title of the Marquis of Stormcall Ridge in the Gorgon’s Trench for taking part in the events that ended up saving the region from being overrun by a horde of undead zombies (see previous recap The Midnight Opal of Shadar from the Barrow Mound of Gravemoor module by Expeditious Retreat Press). The land was not worth very much except for the occasional turnip farm so he hadn’t spent much time there afterwards as a result. Besides, it was so far away in a remote backwater of the trench that it was hardly worth the trip.

The land that the duke granted him was north of the great city of Ptoleph off of the main trade road in the hills near the giant statue of Hephaestus that marks the northern boundary of the Anvil. The main population center of the Barony of Dunweilding is located in the last village near the King's Road (the main north-south trade road) before one reaches the lands of the elves to the north. This hilly region is close to the Fossmoor Grove to the northwest and the Whisperwood Hollow to the northeast which are the forests of the elves wherein reside the three great castes of elven society - the Star Elves, the Sun Elves, and the Moon Elves of Averlorn. The village is known as Cool Rock Springs and is a very small town sporting only one tavern. The previous lord of this region was deceased and the Duke granted the Barony to Lucias so that he could represent his interests there and act as the protector of the region which is also the northern border of the Duke's domain. About four miles away from the road further into the hills is the site of the ancient Iron Age hill fort of Dunweilding that is still used from time to time for the local defense due to its strategic placement on the hill top. It was also placed there to protect the nearby mines and is ringed on three sides by limestone cliffs making it very hard to assault since there is only one logical approach for an attacker. The mine is an ancient Gnomish copper mine and it is not known if it is played out or not so it may yet contain additional mineral wealth. Lucias was also granted a Manor House in the city of Ptoleph as is the custom of the region to take care of his affairs while representing the Duke in the city in the House of Lords.

During this time, Lucias heard that the nearest neighbor to the Dunweilding Barony is a Marquis to the south. Lucias and Teth-en-Aire were staying at the Emporium in Ptoleph while all of the official business of the granting of the Barony was taking place. The proprietor of the establishment, one Argus Norviadras, told Lucias to keep an eye on his neighbor to the south. It was being taken care of by a Marquis who was the brother of a Knight who was usually away on quests and military missions for the Duke. He told me the Marquis has a black heart and is in fact a petty villain who was using his title for personal gain at the expense of others but that his brother the Knight was actually fair and just when he was around. He went on to say that their father was the Baron of the region but that he is now dead. He explained further that should the Knight come to an untimely demise, the younger brother would undoubtedly become a greedy and avaricious neighbor.

So during the official ceremony held by the Duke of Ptoleph Lucias was granted his official baronial title. He was to be thereafter known as Lord Lucius Artorius Petreius the Baron of Dunweilding north of Ptoleph in the service of the Duke of Ptoleph, and the Marquis of Stormcall Ridge in Spirythol. The last bit of official business to attend to was to name his younger brother as the Marquis of Dunweilding to manage the affairs of the region in the event of his absence. This was a happy day for the Petreius family who had moved to Ptoleph when Lucias was a youngster to get away from the rat race that is known as the city of Grand Oryx. His father was particularly proud as he was just a simple merchant who had built up his business from nothing in the City of Grand Oryx to rise above the squalor. Once his business was established and prosperous he eventually relocated to the city of Ptoleph after he had made a name for himself as a successful and wealthy merchant. Seeing his son named as a Lord was more than he could have hoped for from one of his offspring.

So after all of the official business had been taken care of and he had been given a tour of his new lands at the end of the winter in early spring, it was apparent that in order to earn enough money to build a keep, as was now his right, he would need to continue adventuring for the foreseeable future. Once the group was rejoined afterwards in the city of Medea’s Gate, we went to see Marut of the Surgeons Guild to inquire about the debt they wanted us to settle with them. When we fought the three Chimeras outside of the Shrine of Zingalis during the previous adventuring season, our NPC ally Teth-en-Aire the Elf had been slain (see recap Of Baked Ham, Horned Devils and Chimeras). We all contributed gold to having him raised from the dead by the Surgeons of Hecate but such services were not merely financial transactions for them since they usually only cast them on members of their own order. In addition to financial compensation, they required a debt be repaid which usually entailed some kind of quest or errand of the adventuring kind to be completed by the recipient(s) of the powerful magic.

So when we went to see Marut to settle up this debt, he told us they still had not found the book that they lost previously and required our assistance to recover it. More than a year ago the surgeons had contacted us about possibly hiring us to attempt to recover a very powerful and dangerous tome that had been lost when an airship went down on the way to the city of Harbor Reach on the eastern coast. The ship is believed to have been downed near the village of Chapoi across the Forger’s Runnel River in the Anvil. The Ancient Tome has beaten brass covers and is 16” x 12” x 6” thick and was stored in a chest with a latch. To the west of Chapoi, a two days hike, the Wild Moon tribe of goblins holds sway and may have had something to do with the downing of the ship. They ended up sending someone else out to try and locate the book but it was never recovered. We ended up turning down their offer of employment at the time in order to explore the Tower of Zingalis instead and the other group never managed to locate the tome. This was before the Ranger Taleth Flavius joined the group and we were ill suited to attempt an overland adventure of this type at the time. We would have had a hard time just trying not to get lost, much less trying to locate a lost book in the wilderness.

So through divination spells or perhaps even with the assistance of the Oracles, the surgeons managed to locate the tome and it had been moved a great distance from the original wreckage of the dragon ship which was later found near Chapoi. The information they had discovered revealed that the book was to be found in the treasure trove of a great Frost Giant leader located high in the snowy peaks of the Pillars of Defiance – the great mountain range far to the southwest of Medea’s Gate which marked the southwest boundary of the Anvil of the Gods. He also told us that we were forbidden to even open up the great tome as it could be dangerous to us. Marut arranged for the group to receive a number of healing potions and we purchased enough provisions for two weeks and winter clothing so that we could survive the extreme temperatures of the snowy peaks. We were then flown via dragonship to a site near the glacial rift and dropped off at the drop zone where we were lowered down to the snowy ground below. We were told that the ships would return to pick us up every three days and were given the means and method to signal them at the site when we were ready to be retrieved from the barren snowy peaks one hour after sunrise on the pre-designated day of retrieval.

So, with our quest at hand we trudged our way through the snow to find the rift of the frost giants. The ranger managed to find an ice cave nearby which we would use as a base for our forays against the frost giants. The cave was highly defensible, particularly against giants because it had a small entrance and was hard to locate from the outside. From the ice cave it was another 3-4 hour hike using snow shoes through deep snows to the glacial rift itself hidden within the valley of the glacier. So after resting up from our first hike from the drop zone and establishing our base camp, we set off to explore Dungeon Module G2 the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Swords and Wizardry White Box City Campaign: The Entrance to Hollowheim

2011-08-20T18:30:00.034-04:00

RECAP from 8/19/2011 S&W Session

We played Swords and Wizardry White Box last night at Scadgrad's house since we were missing too many key players to continue in G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl in our usual Friday night Labyrinth Lord Game. It was the same campaign I played in a few times at Gen Con in the Devil's Breakfast Table neighborhood (a really rough part of town) as the Weaselly Ferrets gang with a slightly different cast of characters. The events take place in a large city setting that is heavily influenced by Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing's default setting (flint lock firearms, chaos enemies, Skaven, Beast Men etc.). It was a blast like before at Gen Con and below are the hilarious and gruesome results.

A contingent from the Weaselly Ferrets Gang consisting of Franzen Conner the Cleric, Vortigern the Wizard, and his henchman Snit the halfling (amongst others), descended into the depths of the Sikorsky Delve (SPOILER ALERT - this is actually Dyson's Delve modified for the setting) and retrieved a huge sum of loot which was distributed afterwards to those present and a generous cut was given to the two bosses in the interest of full disclosure. 10% was given to Big Slick, our Ogre boss, and 10% was given to the Big Boss Oranishi (also an Ogre) so that they wouldn't think we were holding out on them (which could have gotten us concrete galoshes). We also discovered what we think is the entrance to Hollowheim which was a set of stairs leading down from the Arch Wizard Sikorsky's abandoned lab which is where a good portion of the loot was found. Following is a brief recap of events:

The group descended through the abandoned tenement and into the sewers without a hitch after evicting a few homeless vagabonds from the tenement while en-route. When we descended into the first level, we encountered a large group of Skaven accompanied by two Storm Vermin which we quickly overcame. We descended the stairs to the next level below. The halflings were scouting ahead of the group (we had another one now) and when they got to the intersection where we had previously fought the fire beetles, they were attacked by four of the tough chitinous critters. The halflings tried to flee back to the group but were caught in the hallway by the beetles and a fierce melee ensued. The beetles were dispatched and then we searched their lair (the room with all of the junk in it) and found a locked coffer with 2000 g.p.!

We went back out into the hall and instead of heading back to where the other group had fought the Skaven, slave rats and Storm Vermin, we went the other way instead (down the left hand hallway). We opened a door in that area and were attacked by an old Skaven Sorcerer! He zapped a couple of the front line guys with some kind of lightning spell and we pounced on him and killed him. He had some loot and a +1 suit of halfling sized leather armor that went to Snit. We also fought a large group of giant rats which were quickly overcome and went through a temple which had been re-dedicated to a Skaven god. There were bodies impaled on pikes all over the place. We went back into the hallway and it led to steps down! We went down to the third level and ended up in a catacomb with niches every so often that held old mouldering and dessicated bodies. We searched them methodically and found a large sum of loot in one and lesser sums in several others (we searched about eight of them) and also found a secret door in one of the catacomb burial niches. While searching a few of the last niches, we were attacked by four ghouls. Since we had three clerics in the group, they had no problem turning the ghouls and we decided to head into the secret door before they returned.

The secret door turned out to lead into a tunnel that went on for about a half of a mile. At the end we found the Arch Wizard Sikorsky's lab! There was all kinds of equipment all over the place and two tables. One table had what looked like some kind of watermelon like pod thing on it and the other had a similar pod that had been opened and was empty. Then we were attacked by a spider like crab critter that was hiding under the table that looked like the thing in the first Alien movie! (This was actually a Xenomorph Face Hugger from Digital Orc's Blog) As it attacked, the other pod opened up and another one attacked Snit too! As the first one attacked, its victim tried to disengage from melee but it was way too fast for him and scurried after him along the ground like a crab on crack - there was no escaping these nasty little tick like parasites! We were horrified at the prospect of what would be birthed from our stomachs should they attach to our faces so we did our best to defeat them as quickly as possible. We killed them fairly quickly (in one round really) but they sprayed us with acid as they died and a couple of our weapons got damaged and were useless (they required repairs) and snit and the other fighter henchman got burned badly as well.

Then we searched the room and found 4,000 g.p. and a nice stash of gems including five that were worth 500 g.p. each! That was a major jackpot. We also found stairs leading down through the door on the other side of the room which we presume is the long hidden entrance to Hollowheim! Hollowheim is the massive and ancient dungeon below the city, that was previously only accessible from several other gang's turf. If our assumption is correct, it can now be accessed from Weaselly Ferret turf for the first time! In the interest of full disclosure, we told both bosses about our discovery but nobody else outside of the gang.

Afterwards, we threw a big block party for our little four block area to try and win over some local support with our new found wealth. The next day as we were recovering from our revelries, we were summoned to Big Slick's office where he promptly told us that Goldfag was a problem and should be dealt with at our earliest convenience (meaning immediately). Goldfag was the Ogre mercenary who originally told us where the entrance to the Sikorsky Delve was, and that it probably contained an entrance to Hollowheim. Obviously, the bosses thought this was a problem now and decided that he needed to be permanently silenced lest others discover our new found secret. We consulted our information sources and found out where he was likely to be found and where he was last seen. We then went out into another portion of our big boss's territory that was outside of the Weaselly Ferret's turf and beyond our four block area of control to look for him. We found him arguing with a street merchant over the price and quality of goods he had eaten and was refusing to pay for. One of our hirelings decided to talk to them in an attempt to try and mediate the dispute while the others maintained a low profile elsewhere on the block.

The fighter hireling and our other wizard offered to buy him a drink and he gladly accepted so they headed off to a tavern. We quietly slipped in, two at a time to avoid his notice but he was obviously suspicious of the offer. While he was greedily gulping down his ale and ordering food to try and make the most out of his benefactor's offer, one of our compatriots just outright clocked a nearby bystander and started a huge brawl. Most of the women and others that didn't want to get involved fled out the door, but a good twelve or so tavern goers, along with our group of 9 thugs got into a robust tavern brawl complete with breaking chairs and mugs over each other's heads and general fisticuffs - it was a downright donnybrook! One of the tavern wenches went outside and blew a whistle to summon the city guard as well.

In two rounds, we slowly managed to coerce the brawl into Goldfag's direction while he was still eating and drinking at his table and then we let him have it! Two of our group fired their flint locks at him but both missed (and one accidentally killed our fighter henchman that had started up the conversation with him), the two wizards fired magic missiles at him and Snit threw a dagger at him as well wounding him badly. He struck back hard though and walluped one of our number before we finally jumped him with daggers and rapiers and dispatched him. Meanwhile, the bartender had pulled out an blunderbuss to keep people from trying to rob him in the brawl and once we started attacking the fat ogre, he let us have it and killed the other halfing hireling with his gun (not Snit, the other one). With our foe dead and two of our henchman also lying on the floor in pools of blood and obviously no longer with us, we beat a hasty retreat back to our turf before the city guard showed up. The GM told us aftewards that the bartender was actually a 5th level fighter and not one we wanted to tangle with so much. And that's where we ended the session...

GEN CON Indy 2011 Wrap Up...

2011-08-18T23:00:00.023-04:00

Well, I went to Gen Con in Indy a couple of weeks ago and had a blast. Its only the second time I've ever gone and made the trip from Richmond with Scadgrad, our GM from our regular gaming group. We met up with one of the guys in our online Averlorn game and a few of their friends in Indy. I went to Gen Con once before in Milwaukee back in the mid nineties while I was freelancing for ICE and had a blast then too. During that time, I played in a bunch of RPG events, acted as an assistant GM for ICE for a few of their Rolemaster RPG events and manned the ICE booth several times to help them out which was really cool and added a lot to the experience.

Legotaur!

I have to say that Gen Con 2011 was very crowded but there was lots of stuff to do, things to see, things to buy and games to be played. I signed up kind of late so missed out on most of the good game events but did manage to get into a few good seminars. One seminar was put on by the guys from Xtreme Dungeon Mastery and it was hilarious - I haven't read their book yet but Tony tells me it is quite good. It was all about throwing out the rule book when necessary, and doing what you have to do to have fun in the game which is, after all, the whole point of playing any game.

We also went to the PDF Publishing Seminar put on by Wolfgang Baur, Steve Russell from Rite Publishing and I think the third guy was from Super Genius Games but I didn't write his name down. Tony and I went to this seminar because we have been contemplating doing some self published PDFs for a while now (he's an artist and graphic designer and a very good and creative GM and I'm a published game artist, architect and amateur writer) and wanted to get a bit of info on how to go about it and what's involved. What amazed me from the seminar is that there are people out there (like Steve Russell among others) who actually publish PDF RPG products for a living. They have actually turned this pursuit into a viable business and a full time job! I never even thought that was possible but it is an interesting revelation. They talked about all kinds of aspects of PDF publishing like frequency of publication (weekly, monthly or whatever), turning your PDFs into actual printed works through print on demand verses larger publishing runs, business aspects such as legal protection of your personal assets by setting up an LLC, accounting issues (don't overlook this important aspect of the business), price points for the sale of your product, marketing, subscription models, and distribution platforms such as Drive Thru RPG and the IPR (for Indy games) among others. All in all it was a very insightful, informative, and well done presentation.

Joseph Browning at The OSR Booth

We also went on our daily tours of the convention floor and auction hall and visited all kinds of booths in search of new or used game products, dice, and gaming accessories or to find out about all of the cool new games being published or produced which was a lot of fun. I spent a lot of time at the OSR booth and checked out a bunch of new games and products from a number of established publishers and some newer ones as well. I also had the opportunity to meet Joseph Browning of Expeditious Retreat Press. We played through one of his modules in our Averlorn Campaign - you can read the recaps here: The Barrow Mound of Gravemoor. Several of the guys bought new board games and we tried them out in the hotel room or the public areas of the hotel. We also had a chance to play Swords and Wizardry White Box a few times and I have to say, I was impressed with it. It was a lot of fun and seriously simple to play rules wise. I was a bit skeptical about playing a 0E system at first but once you get over that and realize how easy it is, it really makes the game play fast, so we managed to get a lot done in only a few sessions. Plus character creation is a breeze - we had new characters up and running in about 15-20 minutes.

I also spent some time networking and scouting out game companies in an effort to find some cartography work and met some really cool people in the RPG business. I even ran into a few old friends from back in the ICE days. All in all it was a lot of fun and I would really like to go again in the future if possible.

ICE Merp Layouts from the Palantir Quest and Minas Tirith Modules

2011-08-02T04:06:00.010-04:00

The first ICE MERP 2nd Edition modules that I did artwork for starting in March of 1994 were the Palantir Quest adventure module and the city module for Minas Tirith. I was just developing my drawing style at this point and the CAD drawings weren't as nice as the first hand drawn ones so I'm posting the hand drawings here now for this blog post. I may post some of the CAD drawings from this module at a later date along with some of the other hand drawn illustrations that aren't shown here. The coolest one of the bunch has to be the town of Larach Duhnnan map that I drew by hand for the Palantir Quest. I remember spending a lot of time on this one and it shows (there's a lot of ink on the page).

The Town of Larach Duhnnan Map from ICE's MERP 2nd Edition module for the Palantir Quest

The next illustration is also from the Palantir Quest and depicts an architectural floor plan of the ruins of the Royal Library at Annuminas. The ruined portions are represented by the dash-dot line hatch and the intact portions are represented as solid walls by the black poche (the solid black fill). Again, there is no text on these pre-press layouts as it was added later for the area/room keys, the graphic scale, the north arrow and the legend which is typical of most of these scans.

Palantir Quest ruins of the Royal Library at Annuminas

The final drawing I'm posting here from the Palantir Quest is the Smuggler's Cave and Lake Town hideaway where some important clues for completing the quest are located. Note the larger scale waterfront lake town location map at the top and the close up view of the Ruins and Smuggler's Cave below.

Palantir Quest Lake Town Smuggler's Cave and ruins with water front site plan

All of these layouts were drawn using ink on vellum which was my usual medium for the hand drawn illustrations that I did back then. The next illustrations were done for the MERP Minas Tirith Module. I did quite a few more city dwellings and other structures for that module but these were the two nicest ones of the bunch.

Minas Tirith Walled Manor House

The final layout in this series is an upscale dwelling with a pool on the first floor and elaborate rooftop gardens above the second floor accessed from the spiral staircase. I did a number of other simpler dwellings for this module but none quite as elaborate or interesting as these two.

Minas Tirith upscale dwelling

Copyright notice: All original artwork on this page is displayed for self promotion purposes only and is copyrighted by the original artist, Daniel Cruger. This artwork may be downloaded and used for personal use only and may not be reproduced for commercial purposes in any way without the express written consent of the owner.

Averlorn Campaign: Return to the Halls of the Blind - Part Two

2011-07-29T03:39:00.045-04:00

Recap from 7/15/2011

This is part two of a two part recap and picks up where part one left off. The stealthy scouting party on the left with the ranger and assassin leading the way had just opened up the door into the fountain hall of Athena within the Halls of the Blind, and managed to surprise a large group of twelve of the goat like demonic Beast Men and six Minotaurs and things were about to get very interesting. Some of the Beast Men and Minotaurs were actually blindfolded and we presumed that they were indeed blind but that their other senses were heightened to make up for it (they had blind fighting abilities). We were convinced that there was something in this place that made some of them blind but had yet to ascertain what that was.

So Evelyn the human assassin waded into the room and headed towards the right to attempt to carve a path to the other group and link up with them. She successfully assassinated one of the blind goat men on the way and it blinked out of the prime material plane and was transported back to its plane of origin. Since some of the Beast Men were already blind and she was carrying the dagger with the silence spell cast on it, she automatically succeeded in her stalk and hide roll and had no problem dispatching one of the blind ones with her bow as she waded into the fray. Taleth also waded into the Fray and headed off to the left to try and draw some of the creatures away from the rest of the party. Meanwhile, since Ferris couldn’t cast any spells because of the silence spell, he headed back the way they had come to inform the other invisible group at the main entrance that they should move into the fountain room and start the attack from that side as well. Kalaneikos and Kaira waded into the room after Evelyn and formed a line with their backs to the door while Teth-en-Aire headed deeper into the room surrounded by foes and hacked away with his sword Cold Cleaver. As he did so, he bellowed “I’m heading for the fountain” as he eyed the magical waters thirstily, even though it was still beyond his reach due to the beastly occupants spread out throughout the room.

Meanwhile, Ferris reached the silent and invisible group of adventurers waiting for the signal and motioned for them to start their attack. Gradwin dropped his coin of Silence so that he and the others could cast spells and the unseen group slipped in and attacked the unsuspecting creatures from the main entrance side as their attention was directed to the threat to their left. As they entered the room and attacked, this group became visible (the Invisibility 10’ Radius spell was dispelled) and they formed a line with Cyrcla on the right next to the wall with Lucias to her left and Bellinorn to the left of him as they faced off against their opponents and started hacking away with their swords. The spellcasters in the rear began to lend their magical assistance to the fray as well and hurled magic missiles and fired arrows into the opposing throng. Gradwin cast the cleric spell Sticks to Snakes on a handful of sticks he had picked up outside and cast them amongst the hapless creatures and they sprang to life and began to crawl towards our foes and bit some of them with their poisonous fangs.

Meanwhile, Taleth quickly found himself in a fine pickle as about four or so Beast Men and one or two Minotaurs quickly surrounded the ranger and he found himself being attacked from three sides at once. Quickly seeing the predicament he was in, he withdrew from his attackers around the corner into an alcove and fought with his back to the wall so that he couldn’t be flanked by his foes. He was still outnumbered three to one and was sorely pressed despite his impressive armored protection. Back at the door, Teth-en-Aire managed to cast a lightning bolt across the room through the group of monsters that was stacked up against us several layers deep and killed and badly burned a number of them as the acrid smell of burnt ozone filled the dank dungeon air. Evelyn threw her silenced dagger across the room so that the spellcasters in the first group could cast spells and it landed on the floor next to a door across the room from the fountain. Kaira was not in a spellcasting mood though as her and Kalaneikos were pressed from all sides by the throng but they held their position and fought on with their spears.

Back on the right side at the main entry, the main force was starting to make some headway through the mob due to the exertions the three strong sword arms of Cyrcla, Lucias and Bellinorn and with the magical support and archery of Asclepius, Ferris and Gradwin behind them. Gradwin continued to direct his little poisonous snake swarm into the midst of our enemies and their poisonous fangs began to take a toll on them. Evelyn had managed to cut down a few more victims and met up with Bellinorn who likewise had hacked his way to her to link up the two groups even though the group at the door was still not quite fully in contact with the group on the right side yet. Teth-en-Aire finally managed to hack his way past the giant statue of Athena to the fountain and jumped in screaming “come in after me you dogs!” while swinging his sword Cold Cleaver wildly in the air. We knew that the water of the fountain was somehow poisonous to the evil inhabitants of the place since a couple of them had been turned to stone previously when they had tried to drink from it, and their stone statue like forms still remained standing next to the pool in the midst of all of the fighting. It was a smart move on his part as they would be reluctant to enter the enchanted waters of the fountain and it wasn’t likely to harm him since he was of a lawful nature.

There were still more than half of the original number of occupants fighting in the room but the Minotaur bodies were starting to pile up and the Beast Men that were cut down merely vanished when they died and returned to their plane of origin in Hades or Tarterus. Taleth the Ranger was still holding his own with his back to the wall but was starting to get pretty beat up and the two characters at the door were still desperately trying to hold back the mob which surrounded them on all sides. Eventually, the group on the right felled more foes and began to swing their way towards the others at the door and towards Teth-en-Aire at the Fountain. The tide of the battle was finally turning in our favor as it ebbed and flowed like the churning waves of a tidal sea of steel and bloody carnage.

Evelyn, Bellinorn and Gradwin finally managed to link up with Kaira and Kalaneikos at the door. The rest of the group on the right including all of the other arcane spellcasters made their way to the fountain as the remaining Beast Men and Minotaurs either fell back or were cut down where they fought. Lucias hacked his way past the group at the door and around the corner to link up with Taleth and helped him to dispatch the three remaining creatures that still had him hemmed in around the corner. One of the Beast Men who saw that their plight was desperate at this point ran away from the group and went into a room on the left of the fountain through a door and promptly closed it behind him. Another one ran into a room opposite the main entrance to the right of the fountain on the far wall. Meanwhile, Ferris cast Summon Monster I on the door on the left in the hopes of ambushing the Beast Man and any reinforcements he brought with him through the door. We knew the evil Maenad was here somewhere but didn’t know which door she would emerge from.

With most of the arcane spellcasters now either standing at or in the fountain (Teth-en-Aire, Asclepius, Ferris and Cyrcla), Cyrcla took the opportunity to cast Mirror Image on herself as a precaution against reinforcements and suddenly there were five Cyrclas standing there. As if on cue, the door on the right far wall opened up and five demonic looking bestial creatures with acidic spittle frothing from their cruel fang filled mouths came out of the room and three surrounded Cyrcla on three sides. The other two Acid Beasts headed towards Gradwin, Kaira and Kalaneikos near the door.

At about the same time, the door on the left opposite the fountain opened up and the Maenad emerged with a few Beast Men escorts and started singing her horrible song of enchantment. The song was the spell like equivalent of Confusion but we got lucky and everyone but Asclepius and Gradwin made their savings throws to ward off its affects. The group was also fortunate that Gradwin turned to face the two Acid Beasts to fight them rather than turning on the group and engaged them in melee as they belched forth noxious and corrosive acid all over him wounding him horribly and burning most of his belongings including his armor and sword as it smoked and sizzled along with bits of his flesh.

Gradwin did manage to do one thing for the Maenad though while under her spell – he directed his swarm of poisonous vipers into the fountain where Asclepius, Teth-en-Aire and Ferris were now standing. Asclepius just stood in the fountain gibbering like a madman while the snakes swarmed all around his legs and the other two, startled at this development, jumped out of the fountain just as fast as their happy feet could take them (they did the snake dance LOL). Meanwhile, Cyrcla who had been facing the three Acid Beasts single handedly, withdrew to safety on the far side of the room after they eliminated three of her four mirror images and Ferris managed to cast web on them which kept them from attacking Asclepius in the fountain or any of the others at least for the time being.

The group was also fortunate that the two strongest fighters in the room were around the corner where Lucias had just helped Taleth to eliminate the last of his attackers and so they were spared the affects of the Confusion spell. The two quickly sprang into action along with Bellinorn and Kalaneikos to attack the Beast Men who protected their master the Maenad. It didn’t take long for the four fighters to cut down the escorts and finally, the big bad boss monster Maenad. The rest of the group directed their fire on the five Acid Beasts and quickly dispatched them with a combination of arrows, magic missiles and sword strokes to finally end the massive swirling melee. In all the group managed to defeat some twenty or more Beast Mean (including some blind ones), six Minotaurs, five Acid Beasts and a Maenad in a brief but savage melee that lasted no more than fifteen minutes or so of game time (but 2 ½ hours of action packed melee in real time). We were fortunate to have taken no serious casualties as well – once the Maenad was dispatched Asclepius came to his senses and jumped out of the snake filled pool and Gradwin likewise came to his senses and stopped concentrating on his Sticks to Snakes spell as well.

The three elves, the wizard and the cleric wizard all turned their attention to the fountain at this point. Before we entered the Halls of the Blind, Kaira had cast a Divination spell on the place to ask her god Athena for information about the Temple of Athena and Hall of the Fountain of the Confessors. Athena had replied with a booming voice in her mind “Our Temple has been infested by Minotaurs and their hellish cousins the Beast Men. Beware the Maenad, she is a powerful spell caster and is a creature that is native to the plane of Faerie. Only those who are of a good nature should drink from the fountain.” So with this warning in mind, Teth-en-Aire read the inscription on the scroll held by the giant statue of Athena that stood before the fountain.

The inscription instructed the reader to recite the Litany written on the scroll in Promethean (the language of the Angels) before drinking from the water that flowed out of the horn held by the Dryad statue that was the source of the water that poured into the fountain. So Teth-en-Aire read the Litany and drank from the fountain and his Intelligence was increased by one. He was followed by Asclepius, and Cyrcla and they were likewise rewarded. Ferris was reluctant to drink from the fountain since he was of a neutral alignment but threw caution to the wind and read the litany and drank the flowing water from the magical fountain as well. As the pure, cool and cleansing water washed through him, his body and spirit were purified and he was swept with the lawful will of Athena – he did not receive the benefit of a raised intelligence but instead, his alignment was changed from Neutral to Lawful and all of the dark and shadowy fears, motivations, inhibitions and thoughts that had resided in his mind were swept cleanly away as if by a refreshing spring breeze. Kaira also read the litany and drank from the fountain as well and was rewarded by her god Athena for helping to free the place of the vile infestation with an increase to her Wisdom score.

So the group searched the Maenad’s room and found a rather large hoard of gems and jewelry. It was obvious that she was quite fond of fine jewelry due to the large number of precious jeweled items that were found there. We also found a few potions as well along with an enchanted longsword which was given to Gradwin to replace the one that he had been carrying that was destroyed by the acid. We opened up the door to the Acid Beast room but quickly closed it when we discerned that it was full of the corrosive acid and was dangerous to both our well being and to our equipment and magic items. So with our immediate quest at an end, we fell back to the safety of Slagford for a well deserved rest and revelry for our successful second foray into the Halls of the Blind.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: Return to the Halls of the Blind - Part One

2011-07-28T01:07:00.021-04:00

Recap from 7/7/2011

During a previous session, while the rest of the group was busy carousing in Medea’s Gate, Kaira and Asclepius instead sought out the Oracle in Herarii run by the Confessors Guild in that sleepy mountain town near the pass at Hell’s Peak. They traveled here to seek the advice of the Oracle prior to the events that took place when the group traveled to the Vault and Caverns of the Dweomerblade. The question that Asclepius asked of the Oracle was where he could go to find a way to magically increase his intelligence. He had failed to learn several key spells and having his intelligence raised through some magical means was the only way he could attempt to learn them again short of attaining named level. So the mortal mouthpiece of the gods, also known as the Oracle of Herarii, told him to seek the magical fountain within the Halls of the Blind to find that which he sought. We knew a little bit about the fountain having seen it once on a previous trip to the Halls of the Blind that almost ended in disaster: The Halls of the Blind
Kaira also asked the oracle where she could go to find a similar way to increase her wisdom and the Oracle told her to seek the Chasm of Nightstone.

Since we had previously journeyed to the Halls of the Blind and knew where it was, we decided to go there since a magical fountain that could raise the intelligence of those who drank from it would benefit the elves and our newly met friend the human Wizard Ferris as well. So we purchased provisions and set out towards the Halls of the Blind within the complex known as the Maw of Torment near the small village of Slagford. Slagford is a small Hamlet which sits in the shadow of the giant statue of Hephaestus on the Limus Town side of Hell’s Peak pass in the mountains southeast of Medea’s Gate. It is only a few hours hike from the village to the ruins below the giant statue. The Deer’s Perch Inn is the only Inn in this small farming community and we supped there the night before our departure before we left the following morning.

The first snows had already fallen in the lands far below the heights of the pass, but up here the snows had been falling for some time and it made for slow going. As we neared the giant statue of Hephaestus, we were attacked by a pair of Frost Giants traversing the snowy terrain with their giant pet polar bear at their side. The great icy brutes sicced their pet polar bear on us, then threw their boulders at us from a distance and withdrew to the edge of the woods. Taleth, Bellinorn and Beorn were in the front so they skirted the bear and gave chase, while the archers and spellcasters attacked the giants with magic missiles and arrows. We were withholding our heavier magical firepower in an effort to save it for what was awaiting us in the Halls of the Blind but it became apparent that without magical assistance, the giants would take a heavy toll on the group. Taleth was gravely wounded by a couple of boulders and had to withdraw and the other fighters were taking a pounding too as they tried to close with them.

Meanwhile, Lucias moved up to engage in combat with the Polar bear with the aid of the mighty spear of Kalaneikos and a few of the others. This group eventually overcame the polar bear staining the snow and its great white fur coat red and then started moving towards the Frost Giants that were still some distance away at this point. Finally, Cyrcla and the Wizard Ferris grew tired of watching the giants get the better of our fighters with the boulders before they could even close with them and hit them both with a fireball and a lightning bolt and wounded the giants badly. When Bellinorn, Beorn and the others finally did close with them they had little trouble in slaying the two evil giants with their swords. So after Taleth was healed up and we recovered the giant’s loot, we continued on to the Halls of the Blind. We had no trouble making our way through the numerous snow and ice covered petrified stone monsters leftover from some previous battle fought long ago. This scene was even more eerie in the quiet of the icy snow covered pass. It was obvious that some wizard long ago sitting atop the now destroyed tower where we were going was responsible for the strange scene. Numerous orcs, trolls, ogres, giants and even a dragon were turned into stone as they attempted to retreat from the savage magical onslaught of the wizard’s tower and the statues were all that was left to tell the tale.

We walked through the forest of spooky denizens of the pass to the hill overlooking the area that was our destination. The tower was mostly destroyed and all that remained were a few walls and piles of rubble, a stone floor and the foundations of the once mighty tower that had been reduced to a meaningless pile of rocks. We searched through the snow covered floor of the ruin until we located the secret trap door that we knew was there and opened it up in order to descend the winding spiral staircase that led to the Halls of the Blind below. Our plan was fairly simple but designed to make the most of our knowledge from the previous foray. When we went in before, once we engaged the numerous Goat Men and Minotaurs from the front in the larger hall, we were waylaid by a flanking force that hit us from the rear and nearly killed Asclepius and Kaira with arrows. We decided to have Gradwin cast invisibility 10’ radius on the main group that would wait before the entrance to the large hall of the fountain. They would not enter or attack though until they received a signal from the other group that was tasked with taking out the flanking force.

Both groups carried an object with the cleric spell Silence cast on it (a dagger carried by Evelyn in the group on the left and a coin carried by Gradwin in the other group) so as to not give away our presence too early. The group on the left that was to take out the flanking force was led by the Ranger Taleth and the Assassin Kaira with the rest of the group a short distance behind them so that they had the best chance of surprising the flanking force. They went into the first room on the left and found it mostly empty except for some kind of a summoning circle on the floor and all manner of offal and filthy excrement – they had no doubt found the latrine of the Beast Men. The next door they opened was occupied however, and a pitched but strangely quiet battle ensued. They fought about twelve or so of the demonic beast like Goat Men in the guard room and eventually slew them all. They went through the next door and Taleth was stung by a poison needle trap mounted in the door jamb but luckily made his savings throw against poison and was unaffected. This room also contained a summoning circle inscribed on the floor which they skirted before opening the door on the other side of the room.

The two stealthy scouts crept to the door with the rest of the group still some distance behind and opened it up. Milling about in the large fountain hall were some thirty of the goat like Beast Men and Minotaurs who hadn’t noticed them open up the door. The plan had succeeded far better than we could have hoped – we had taken no casualties thus far, eliminated the flanking guards and achieved total surprise against our foes! Unfortunately, it was getting late at this point and we had to call the session. With the group poised to engage in a massive melee from two directions, we had to wait another week to resolve the tense cliffhanger in the Halls of the Blind. There were thirteen of us, counting the henchmen and at least thirty opponents that we could see and some that we couldn’t see such as the evil Maenad that we knew was there somewhere.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: Return to the Surface World

2011-07-10T19:29:00.014-04:00

Recap from 6/24/2011

So after the big battle with the lizardmen in their lair, we moved into the adjacent caverns to search for loot. We didn’t encounter any more of the creatures, but every now and then we saw one or two swimming around in the water and watching us. Our assumption was that the lizardmen that we saw moving on the opposite bank were actually their women, children and elderly and that they escaped through a hidden door or perhaps jumped into the safety of the pool to hide underwater until we went away. So after we gathered up the loot we found in the leader’s lair, we decided that it was time to return to the surface world since we had been down here for a while, and were fully loaded with treasure at this point and moving quite slowly.

The challenge of course was getting out of the caverns alive – the limited form of access (the Levitating Disc platform) meant that we would have to leave people behind while we moved the others up three at a time. So we decided to leave the strongest characters in the cavern until the last lift came down to retrieve them, including Taleth and Lucias with Teth-en-Aire or Gradwin acting as the lift coordinator (the one controlling the magically levitating disc). The first problem we had though was that there was no way to summon the disc from the bottom of the cavern, despite what appeared to be a similar glyph covered circle on the cavern floor where the disc eventually ended up. So Gradwin, who still had his fly spell going, flew up to the hole at the top and through to the control cavern far above to summon the disc back so we could get out.

Shortly after he took off, the Stone Giants attacked. We were standing on the peninsula waiting for him to return when suddenly, very large rocks started landing amongst us. Nobody was hit at first so we ran for cover which consisted of many very large boulders ringing the perimeter of the peninsula sort of like Stonehenge or something. We couldn’t see what was throwing boulders at us but we suspected they were giants of some sort. They were out of range of our infravision but their eyes were accustomed to the darkness and they could see us just fine using their “monster vision”. We were between a rock and a hard place (quite literally) and it was just a matter of time before we started taking casualties.

Evelyn hid amongst the darkness of the boulders and Asclepius the elf cast invisibility along with Teth-en-Aire, and then cast fly on himself and flew out in the direction of where the missiles were coming from to see what was hurling boulders at us. He confirmed that there were six stone giants standing way out in the river away from shore about eighty feet away, and that they were actively bombarding us. He didn’t attack them with magic missiles or anything because he would have become visible if he had done so, and returned to the group at the boulders to report his discovery. Meanwhile, the protection of the boulders proved to be inadequate to keep the lightly armored and visible members of the group from harms way. Both Cyrcla and Bellinorn were hit with boulders and hurt but not too badly at this point.

The quandary that we had was that we were only moving 10’ per round because we were fully laden with treasure and would be exposed if we made a run for it towards the cover of the waterfall and tunnels beyond. Then both Bellinorn and Cyrcla were hit again and hurt badly at this point and determined that in order to survive the encounter, they would have to drop their packs and the loot contained therein and make for the safety of the cliff face and waterfall as fast as they could. Cyrcla removed her spell book from her backpack and her and Bellinorn left their burdens behind and made it to the tunnels behind the waterfall without any problems.

The others were still on the peninsula huddled behind the rocks and the boulder missiles kept coming in but nobody got hit. We couldn’t charge the giants to engage them because they were chest deep in the water, though it only came up to their shins. The cliff face along the river bank was also too steep to move towards them along the bank to engage them with spells or missile weapons, so we had no other option but to fall back and join the other two elves at the cliff face. The rest of the group, except for Evelyn who was hiding, moved as fast as they could while carrying their loads to the safety of the waterfall and managed to make it without getting hit by boulders.

As we were there taking cover, two of the giants moved onto the peninsula towards the two backpacks. Our ranger Taleth who spoke giant, heard one of them say “We take offering and go away” as the giant waved towards us. Cyrcla was still angry about being smashed by boulders and forced to abandon her pack containing treasure and even a Potion of Levitation, and started casting a spell before the giants left the rocky peninsula and returned to the river. Teth-en-Aire did likewise and both elves hit them with a fireball and a lightning bolt and burned them badly but they managed to survive. Evelyn, who was still hiding nearby and crouching by a rock waiting for her opportunity to strike, was fortunate to have been out of the way of the spell’s area of effect and was unharmed. After Teth-en-Aire became visible to cast his lightning bolt and Cyrcla cast her spell, Taleth heard one of the giants say “Elves – run!” and they high tailed it back into the river and disappeared into the cavern along with the other four.

So after our close encounter with the Stone Giants, Gradwin finally re-appeared with the disc after what seemed like an eternity. We managed to load everyone up and get them out of there two at a time, plus the lift operator until everyone had safely returned to the surface world so very far above. We knew once we arrived in this underdark like area that the most dangerous part of getting in and out would be that we would be vulnerable when using the lift since some would have to remain behind. This encounter made that perfectly clear – Gradwin was our primary wizard and one of our healers (he’s a cleric/wizard) and was completely unable to assist us in that encounter. The other thing we realized is that while waiting for the lift, we would have been better off waiting within the shelter of the tunnels behind the waterfall because the peninsula was far too exposed to attacks from the river.

The giants kept looking over their shoulders behind them towards the river as did the other lizardmen we encountered previously. One member of our group spoke with a captive lizardmen that was captured after we first arrived, and it told us that there was a very large lizard or even a dragon of some sort living nearby in or on the other side of the river. That just makes the entry and exit to these caverns all the more dangerous but this is the subject of a future tale...

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: The Caverns of the Dweomerblade

2011-07-10T02:43:00.013-04:00

Recap from 6/17/2011

The next day when we awoke, the arcane casters learned the spell Read Magic and took another look at the glyphs carved into the stone circle around the 6’ diameter hole in the floor. They confirmed that it was a spell and that it was a variation of Floating Disk combined with elements of Levitation (more like Levitating Disc). We surmised that it was used as an elevator of sorts to gain access to the caverns below. We did not know who the masters were, and knew nothing of their realm below that we had been warned about in the inscription on the wall in the other room. Nevertheless, we decided to check it out.

Gradwin read the glyphs to cast the spell and sure enough, a 6’ diameter floating disc appeared over the hole in the floor. We debated a bit as to who should go down first and finally, Gradwin volunteered with a pair of his animated skeletons. First, he cast Invisibility on himself as a precaution. He stepped on the disc with his undead companions and said the command word, and the disc began to lower itself into the shaft with the trio aboard. Then the group above waited for some sort of signal that we should follow.

Gradwin slowly descended into the darkness for a seemingly long time. When he got past the first 120’ of the shaft through the solid stone, the disc continued to lower itself magically into the open area of the cavern below. He could hear the sound of rushing water far below that got louder as he descended further into the darkness. Finally, he got close to the floor of the cavern and suddenly, he was under attack! Arrows began whizzing by him obviously aimed at the visible skeletons. When he got further down, he could discern several creatures on a ledge overlooking the peninsula below that were firing arrows at the skeletons. One of the skeletons was destroyed and went tumbling off of the disc to the bottom of the cavern with a rattle of bones.

When the disc got to the floor, he stepped off of it and moved away doing his best to stay quiet. He ordered his remaining skeleton to play dead (or undead) and fall to the cavern floor as if it too had been dispatched. He then said the command word to make the disc return to the surface world and it started going back up through the air of the cavern. He watched in silence from behind a boulder as three large lizard men crawled down the rocky cliff where they had been firing at him from, to investigate the skeleton that was on the ground. It was carrying one of his backpacks and the lizard men immediately started rummaging through it.

Meanwhile, after about ten minutes or so, the disc reappeared at the top without Gradwin or his two skeletons. We took this as the signal to send down the next group and Lucias the human fighter and the two elves, Cyrcla and Teth-en-Aire jumped aboard and said the command word to lower the floating disc into the cavern below. Again, it took about five minutes for it to descend and again, the trio on board the disc came under attack from the archers on the ledge and at the bottom of the cliff on the peninsula. Lucias couldn’t do much but the other two spellcasters cast mirror image to protect themselves for the rest of the descent. As they got to the bottom, they cast a few magic missiles as well and then hopped off the disc to engage the three lizardmen at the bottom. At about this time, the other three on the ledge scampered down to join in on the fray.

Gradwin, still invisible, commanded his skeleton to come to life again and attack the lizardmen. During a brief but fierce melee, the two elves and the fighter then made quick work of the remaining lizardmen but the skeleton was destroyed. We set up a perimeter and sent the disc back up with Teth-en-Aire aboard to retrieve the others. After a few more trips, the adventure party was whole again and included around ten or eleven total party members including the henchmen. We decided to scale the cliff to see where the lizardmen had come from. It wasn’t too difficult but it was steep and there was a smaller tributary to the main river that was cascading down the cliff face as a waterfall to make the footing a little slippery.

So about halfway up, we found the platform that the lizardmen had been firing at us from which was at the edge of the waterfall. Behind the waterfall, the ledge continued into the cliff face through a tunnel that went on for a good distance. We decided to keep going up to the top of the rocky outcrop. At the top, the small stream leveled out beyond the waterfall into another rocky tunnel with a path on both sides of the stream. We moved into the tunnel and went down it a little ways, when suddenly, another group of lizardmen emerged from the water and attacked! There were about twelve or so this time and after another fierce melee, the group of adventurers dispatched them without too much trouble.

We continued down the stream tunnel until the path on the right side ended and the adventurers on that side had to switch over the stream to the path on the left side which continued. The water wasn’t that deep at this point and they crossed the stream without any difficulty. Eventually, the path opened up into a larger cavern with a large pool in the middle, a ledge on the opposite side and another waterfall at the other end of the cavern and pool where the stream was dumping its water into the pool. The group was stretched out in a long single file line at this point and when we were about halfway into this chamber, the water started boiling and about thirty or so lizardmen emerged and attacked the group of adventurers!

The back half of the group was still in the narrower tunnel on the ledge and the front half was stretched out on the narrow ledge next to the pool in the cavern we had just entered so they had us at a bit of a disadvantage. Bellinorn and Kalaneikos were in the back and were nearly surrounded by a number of lizardmen while Lucias and the ranger Taleth were in the front and similarly surrounded on two sides with the wall at their backs. During the melee that followed, much carnage ensued in the cavern and tunnel next to the stream. Kalaneikos and Bellinorn were hard pressed but the two stalwart warriors held their own at the rear of the line and slew many of their attackers. Lucias and Taleth also wrought much carnage on their attackers in the front but the characters in the middle didn’t fare as well since they were the vulnerable ones the fighters at the front and back were usually trying to protect.

Asclepius was sorely wounded but Kaira stood by his side to protect him, and once Cyrcla killed the lizardmen that she was fighting, she came to their aid. Evelyn was also hard pressed because she was lightly armored but managed to hold her own. Gradwin was still invisible at the start of the melee and cast fly on himself to rise up above the scrum. He noticed a group of shadowy figures moving on the ledge on the opposite side of the pool that appeared to go behind the waterfall and disappear from view. He flew up above the pool to scout it out and make sure they weren’t attempting to reinforce their comrades in the fight.

So after a wild battle, most of the lizardmen were slain, including their leader who was killed by Kalaneikos and his body started floating away from the group down the now blood red stream. Gradwin had the forethought to try and keep his body from sinking or being swept away in case he was carrying loot or magic items, but couldn’t catch him before he was swept away by the current. He did manage to grab his shield though before it sank into the stream and it turned out to be magical. Gradwin then flew to the opposite ledge and behind the waterfall and discovered the leader’s lair there along with some loot. That’s where we ended the session.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: The Vault of the Dweomerblade

2011-07-09T22:24:00.013-04:00

Recap from 6/10/2011

So after dividing up the loot we did some trading and then took some time off for a well deserved rest. During this time, several of the party members went carousing with the usual zany results. Cyrcla and Gradwin both met their soul mates and fell in love (not with each other but someone else) but managed to put off the weddings until the winter. Taleth had a fling with a tavern serving wench and narrowly avoided getting the clap (fortunately, he made his CON save). Bellinorn got completely smashed one night and woke up naked somewhere in an unfamiliar place with no idea how he had arrived there. Apparently, he thought it would be fun to streak across the town while inebriated which earned him a well deserved reputation in Medea’s Gate as a drunken lout.

And last but not least, Teth-en-Aire went to a gambling house and once again lost all of his money – he even had to empty out the money he had in his savings account with the Devoted Brothers of the White Caduceus to repay his gambling debts. This is the second time that he has had such a result at the gaming table (it also happened in Limus Town while carousing), which either makes him incredibly unlucky, very gullible and easily taken by card sharks, or perhaps he imbibed too much during the game which could have befuddled his wits.

So after all of the drunken revelry and shenanigans, we purchased provisions for a return trip to the Vault of the Dweomerblade. Before we left, Gradwin contacted Wilfred, our Surgeon’s Guild contact in Medeas Gate. He wanted to know when they wanted us to repay our debt to them for having Teth-en-Aire raised from the dead after our disastrous encounter with the three Chimera’s outside of the shrine of Zingalis. Wilfred told him that it was too late in the year at this point for us to undertake that task, so we would have to do it in the spring after the snows melted.

Once we were ready, we set off through the woods to the ruined tower which was only a day or so away from the City of Medea’s Gate. We arrived at the ruins during a light snow which was a bit early this year. We knew little about the wizard who built the tower aside from what was whispered in ancient legends and stories. Three to four centuries ago in the period before the Republic was united, a powerful wizard named the Dweomerblade disappeared and his final whereabouts were never fully explained. The Dweomerblade was a strange figure from the distant past that was active in and around Lykaedia during "the struggles" – the wars between Grand Oryx and the men of Lykaedia and the Trench.

Apparently, we stumbled upon one of his vaults during one of our previous trips back from the Tower of Zingalis: The Forests of the Anvil Come Alive and a Surprise Revelation

The tower itself was almost completely destroyed but the ruins of the structure remain. We found out later that the tower was destroyed during the struggles by the forces of Grand Oryx as retribution for the Dweomerblade siding with the men of the Anvil during the wars. We ventured into the ruins of the tower and searched a bit on the snow covered floor until we located the hidden trap door that we knew was there. We opened it up and went down the stairs to the room below. Previously, we had looked into the room from the staircase and had seen the statues but didn’t adventure further into the complex.

We entered the room and took a look at the statues. They were of strange looking creatures and one of them depicted an alien being with tentacles on its face. One of the clerics recognized it as the visage of one of the Elder Gods (Cthulhu no doubt). As we searched the room, we noticed that there were strange glyphs carved into the right hand wall opposite one of the statues written in a strange dialect of Brimbahri (demonic). When translated, the glyph said “Greetings worthy journeymen and followers. Congratulations on your daring journey to the Vault of the Dweomerblade. Your reward for daring can be found behind you. Go no further for you will be entering the dire realm of the masters.” We then searched the statue directly opposite the glyphs and found it to be hollow. We broke it open and found a large stash of gold and silver coins and some gems hidden within which we promptly placed in the Bag of Holding.

We continued searching the long rectangular room, in particular, a small 10’ x 10’ niche in the back left corner where we found a secret door. We opened the secret door and it led into a rough stone cavern. On the floor of the cavern, there appeared to be some sort of summoning circle or something with glyphs carved into the circle at different points. The circle also surrounded a 6’ wide perfectly cut circular hole in the floor. The dwarves took a look at the stonework and couldn’t determine exactly who or what made the circle and stone shaft.

Kaira cast detect traps and we determined that the stone circle was not a trap so Gradwin peered down into the shaft to have a look and all he could see was darkness below as far as he could see. So he pulled out one of his stones that had continual light cast on it, and lowered it down into the shaft using his Ring of Telekinesis. The shaft appeared to be a perfectly carved cylindrical hole that went through the rock about 120’ until it opened up into a larger cavern. He let go of the rock to see how far down it would go and it appeared to travel another 120’ or so before he heard it splash into some water below and disappear.

The arcane spellcasters looked at the glyphs and determined that they were written in Brimbahri and contained some sort of spell, but couldn’t determine what it was without casting read magic on them which none of them had learned that day. We also found a rectangular panel mounted on the wall at about shoulder height with bas relief sculpture on it in the shape of raised dots and dashes. It appeared to be some sort of control panel for the summoning circle, although we had no idea how it was supposed to work. Since there were no other doors in the chamber, and we didn’t want to just start randomly pushing buttons on the panel, we decided to rest up for the night so we could cast read magic on the circular glyphs carved into the floor to try and determine what they said or were for. So we returned to the previous chamber, setup our lookouts and went to sleep for the night.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Averlorn Campaign: Viking Zombie Warriors from the Great Beyond

2011-06-25T20:23:00.025-04:00

Recap from 6/2/2011

After a brief period of rest we commenced with some trading to prepare for our return journey to the shrine of Zingalis to retrieve the last of our hard won loot that was stashed in the catacombs below the temple. Rather than braving the Dormant Lady Lake and Lady’s Finger River via raft, we opted for the safer tried and true method of transporting our loot via baggage train overland. We set about purchasing riding horses for each character, a spare horse to carry feed and four mules to carry the treasure back. After purchasing horse feed and provisioning for the journey, we set out through the forest to the northeast of the city of Medea’s Gate towards the Tower and Shrine of Zingalis once again. The trip through the woods to the tower was relatively uneventful, but that soon changed when we arrived.

As we approached the clearing of the shrine and tower, our ranger Taleth, held up his hand and motioned for us to halt and take cover. He sensed something was amiss and crept up to the edge of the woods to have a look. It was dusk and rapidly approaching evening, but in the clearing he saw a disturbing site. There were eighteen Thugee warriors (basically Vikings) camped out in front of the shrine and the doors of the temple had been bashed in and were lying on either side of the temple entrance. He also saw, far above in the sky, two Thugee airships (dirigibles) moored above the site as well. He crept back to the group to report the surprising discovery and we debated our next course of action.

We unanimously agreed that we wouldn’t allow them to make off with our hard won loot and planned to attack them to make sure that they didn’t. We weren’t sure how many more warriors there might be within the temple or in the two airships above, but didn’t think we would have a problem taking out the warriors in the camp. By the time we decided on a course of action, it was fully dark and they had no idea what was about to hit them. First off, Gradwin cast both invisibility and silence on our assassin hireling Evelyn (he was a multi-classed cleric/wizard) and then we sent her into their camp to do what she does best. Our plan was to wait until the assassin had done her work and the alarm was raised, then she was supposed to flee and the two elves would then light ‘em up with fireballs.

So things went fairly smoothly, at least initially. She slipped into their camp undetected and managed to assassinate their shaman (actually a wizard) without being detected, despite now being visible because of her attack. She also managed to grab his backpack and then made her way to the one that appeared to be the leader as he slept. She attempted the next assassination roll on him while he dozed but failed, and he awoke screaming in pain and alerted the camp. She wounded him badly but also managed to poison him so he wasn’t going to live long anyway. The leader and one of his sergeants attacked his would be killer, and managed to wound her, but she wisely disengaged from the melee and withdrew from the fray once she realized the jig was up. The two elves who were waiting at the tree line, took the alarm as their signal and lit the camp up with a pair of fireballs. The leader was dead anyway before this from the poison, though he didn’t know it at the time, but the fireballs finished him off along with all of the rest of the Thugee war band.

Amazingly, and luckily for the group, the two airships tethered above didn’t take notice of the brief conflagration below. Gradwin, thinking on his feet, cast animate dead on a half dozen of the Thugee warriors and the newly created Viking zombies from the great beyond resumed their sentry duty without delay to allay suspicion from the Thugee in the ships above, in case they peered down into the camp below. While our undead sentries paced back and forth through the camp visible in the dim firelight, the rest of the group stuck to the shadows of the campfire and loaded up the gold and silver stashed below the temple. Not only was all of our loot still stashed in the catacombs below the giant statue of Hecate, but there was also additional loot piled up there as well that had been added by the Thugee warriors. Gradwin cast speak with dead on one of the warriors to speak with his departed soul, and found out that they had defeated a large Orc war band previously which is where the additional loot came from. We were fortunate to have arrived when we did, otherwise, they would have left the next day with all of the loot, including ours.

So we loaded up the horses and mules with the remaining silver and gold and made a forced march in the darkness to avoid any possible pursuit from the Thugee in the ships above. Evelyn had found a spell book and a pair of scrolls in the backpack that she took from the camp’s wizard and we considered ourselves lucky to have retrieved it before the camp went up in flames. We also found a magical broadsword and some magical Elven arrows on the leader’s body which survived the fireballs, so we ended up with quite a haul of loot from the encounter. We then set off through the woods with our baggage train and Gradwin brought the six zombies along controlling them with his control undead ability as extra protection, even though this was a bit disturbing for the rest of the group.

So once we made it a good distance away, we stopped at a suitable campsite and rested up for the early part of the day before resuming our march. In the afternoon, once we were fully rested and had re-learned spells, we set off through the woods again. We encountered a large group of about twenty gnomes who looked at us and our undead companions with disdain. We said hello to them but they didn’t reply as they eyed us suspiciously, and we heard one of them mutter under his breath to another in Gnomish “I wonder what evil necromancer these guys work for?” It was only then that we realized how bad having undead human zombies amongst our number made us look to others.

At first, the Elves were quite happy to have not only toasted their Thugee rivals (Elves hold a deep racial animosity towards Thugee and view them as murderous slavers in the World of Averlorn), but also to have seen Gradwin animate them as zombies and perhaps condemn their souls to purgatory rather than allowing them to ascend to Valhalla. But once they realized how we looked to the gnomes, and even perhaps to the rest of the outside world, they were deeply embarrassed and felt ashamed for being a part of that whole affair. Lucias and the rest of the group also felt embarrassed and deeply ashamed to be seen as working for or with a necromancer as well, and Lucias resolved to have a talk with Gradwin about the use of that spell later once we returned to town. Despite, Gradwin’s assertions that he was not using zombies and skeletons to commit chaotic or evil acts which was generally true, he was in fact committing a chaotic act by animating them in the first place. For a neutral character committing a chaotic act now and again is no big deal, but for the lawful characters in the group, and especially the two other lawful clerics, this particular chaotic act was deeply troubling and extremely problematic.

So we resumed our journey and eventually made camp for the night. The following day, we resumed our march, and our toasted zombie friends were starting to smell really bad and attract flies, and we were really starting to wonder if using corpses like this was really necessary since they were so unpleasant to be around. That’s when the two Chimera attacked, obviously drawn to the group by the stench of rotting cooked zombie flesh. They surprised the group and attacked the two characters in the back of the line – both Lucias and Cyrcla. They both breathed fire on the two characters from their dragon heads and killed the two horses that they were riding. Cyrcla was also burned badly but Lucias wasn’t hurt so much in part because of his Ring of Fire Resistance. They attacked again and pounced on the two characters before they could act. With five attacks each (three bites and two claws) the first one only managed to land a few blows on Lucias due to his heavy field plate armor and wounded him lightly, but the other one seriously mauled Cyrcla due to her lighter armor. To make matters worse, the dragon head also breathed fire on her again. She was nearly dead and withdrew from the combat into the woods to get out of the trajectory of any future fiery breath attacks.

Lucias landed several strong blows on the Chimera that he was fighting but the other one breathed fire again on the rest of the group, and the zombies in the middle of the baggage train and two more of the horses were killed instantly. The Ranger and Dwarven fighter in the front of the baggage train came to the rescue of the beleaguered characters in the back, and the rest of the group also attacked with weapons and magic missiles and managed to finally kill the two monsters. We healed up the injured elf and resumed our journey to Medea’s Gate down four horses and the zombies, but no worse for the wear. We finally made it back to the great city with our loot as dusk was approaching which was cause for celebration.

So the next day, we sold all of the remaining horses and pack animals and divvied up the loot and prepared for a much needed rest. Lucias also had several heated discussions with Gradwin about his use of the spell Animate dead and Gradwin reluctantly agreed that it was probably not such a great idea to use that spell with regularity lest he be branded as an evil necromancer and give the group a bad reputation. Having such a reputation could not only have ended badly for him (he could have been thrown in prison or even executed for practicing necromancy), but it could have had bad consequences for the reputation and well being of the group as well. This was an image and trouble that we didn’t need especially with several characters approaching named level.

He was also creating chaotic monsters with negative energy that had a desire to kill all living things which didn’t help us rest easy at night, since the only one keeping them from attempting to kill us or others, such as innocent villagers, was Gradwin and the powers granted to him by his god Hecate. Hecate is known to be a dark god who has a certain amount of power and control over the dead, but she is also widely feared by the local populace and is only really worshipped in secret, and for good reason. Gradwin wisely chose to not continue to be tempted by such dark and chaotic powers that she offered lest he become one with the dark side. He was tempted by such dark power once before in the shrine of Zingalis and it nearly drove him mad, but in that case it was the evil sorcery of the Elder gods rather than that of his own deity.

TO BE CONTINUED…

d20 List of Lairs and Owlbear Iillustration at the Savage Sword of Scadgrad

2011-06-15T22:04:00.013-04:00

Tony, a.k.a. Scadgrad and the GM for our current Averlorn Campaign, has posted a most excellent d20 list of typical lair descriptions for use in any sandbox or wilderness adventure campaign on his blog The Savage Sword of Scadgrad here:
Random d20 List of Lairs for the Wilderness Sandbox

His most excellent blog includes other illustrations recently completed for Pete Spahn's The Chronicles of Amherth projects by Small Niche Games, some of his other illustrations, and the current house rules for our ongoing Averlorn campaign which includes the original table top game and even an online game group using Map Tools now as well and can be found here:
The Savage Sword of Scadgrad

He also drew up an illustration of our campaign adventure which shows the group's encounter with the Owl Bears as described in the recap that I wrote up for that session some time ago. The original recap for that session can be found here:
Averlorn Campaign: Run Aground and Trouble in Medea's Gate

Scadgrad's Owl Bear Illustration from d20 List of Lairs post

At the end of the session we also made our first use of Jeff's Carousing table from Jeff's Gameblog with hysterical results:
Jeff's Game Blog Carousing Table

I have to say that that table has not only enhanced the experience points of all of the characters in the game, but has also been a hoot to use in our campaign and I strongly recommend its use in any swords and sorcery type of game. It is not only a lot of fun to use but adds a serious Swords and Sorcery vibe to the game - after all, why would Conan or Fahfrd and the Gray Mouser have a reason to adventure at all if they hadn't blown on of their loot on wine, women and the gaming table in the first place? They were usually penniless after having caroused the night away in the local tavern which gave them a strong incentive to go on further adventures in search of more loot!

Averlorn Campaign: Thar Be Dragons...

2011-06-12T02:45:00.023-04:00

Recap from 5/27/2011

After we finalized our trading from the previous session, some members of the group decided to attempt to hire some additional muscle to aid us during our further adventures and to retrieve the remaining loot from the shrine of Zingalis. So we paid to hire a crier and put up flyers announcing that we were looking for hirelings and spread some money around in the local taverns to further spread the word. We were surprised at the response that we got – we had ten adventurers of various stripes respond to the ads! This was probably a result of a few things. Word of our success could have gotten out as witnesses saw us return to town from our last adventure with full bags of clinking coins and saw us head straight to the money changer’s shop. The following day we returned to the woods to retrieve what we had stashed in the Stone Giant’s lair, and then returned once again to the city with even more money.

The other reason we got such a good response is that we have consistently treated our henchmen well and the group has a good reputation in this town for doing so. We not only give them all a fair share of the loot, we also give them magic items from time to time to keep them happy and the healers take care of their wounds when they are injured. We even went as far as to bring one of them, our female Elven warrior Cyrcla, back to life after she was frozen to death in the pass at Herrari by the frosty breath of a giant Ice Toad during the previous fall. So Beorn ended up hiring a female cleric of Zeus by the name of Tienette Pagonas, Taleth hired a Sun Elf Swordsman (fighter) named Bellinorn and Gradwin hired a female “handler” (assassin) by the name of Evelyn. So after equipping them further and purchasing provisions for the return trip to the tower, the group began to discuss how best to retrieve the remaining loot.

This was no small task – there were close to 31,000 coins stashed in the temple (7,400 G.P. and 23,250 S.P.) with a total combined weight of 3,100 pounds! This was far more than could fit in the bag of holding even fully loaded so we had to devise another way of transporting it back to Medea’s Gate. We decided that with a couple of successful trips, we would be able to transport it back to town on two 10’ x 20’ rafts navigated downstream along the shallow banks of the lake and Lady’s Finger branch and poled along the banks upstream on the way back. So we purchased the rafts and set off.

The way to the headwaters of the Lady’s Finger was an easy and uneventful trip along the placid waters of the Lake and was made easier by the fact that we merely had to use the poles to navigate, and really didn’t have to fight the current. We poled our way up the branch to a suitable landing spot in an area we recognized as having traversed before, and pulled the rafts up onto a sandy beach. As we were doing so however, figures began to appear on the riverbank above us. They were Crognar warriors (Neanderthals) who weren’t sure what to make of us or our rafts. We had encountered their kind before during our frequent forays to the Hill at Limus Town (B5 Horror on the Hill) and knew that if we gave them simple gifts and showed no open hostility towards them, that they would probably leave us alone.

So Lucias walked toward them, held out his hand in a greeting and pulled out his sword and laid it on the ground to indicate that we meant them no harm. They approached and gestured eagerly towards the sword Hope Blighter, indicating that they thought he was offering it to them. Taleth the Ranger offered them a dagger and the dwarf Beorn gave them his spear instead (these weren’t magical) and they were happy with these offerings and excitedly left us to our tasks. So we camouflaged the rafts with branches and leaves from the surrounding forest and set out towards the shrine. We arrived uneventfully and began loading up the loot from the temple which we found exactly as we had left it, behind two wizard locked doors and hidden in the area of continual darkness in the catacombs below the temple.

So we were loaded down pretty heavily and made it back to the rafts with as much of the gold as we could carry. There was still a considerable sum of gold but mostly silver that remained stashed in the temple which we would have to come back for later. So we made it back to the rafts with no problem and loaded them up and set off upstream towards Medea’s Gate. We poled along the banks for the rest of the day and eventually landed the rafts at a suitable camping spot along the bank of the lake where the branch emptied into the larger body of water. We pulled the rafts up onto the shore and made a cold camp to spend the evening. Gradwin took the added precaution of casting Invisibility 10’ Radius on the area where we were sleeping while we set up the watches.

About two hours into the first watch, we were awakened by a loud crashing sound. We looked up and saw a huge green dragon sitting on the fractured remains of one of the rafts! This was not just a normal adult green dragon – this was an ancient one and was absolutely enormous. We stood dumbfounded and weren’t sure what to do because it appeared that it hadn’t seen us yet. It was sniffing the air, however, and looking around towards the copse of trees where the group was camped out in and was obviously looking for the owners of the rafts that it thought were still nearby. While we watched and waited and prayed that it would go away, it took to wing again and flew up into the night sky. As it did so we hurriedly prepared ourselves as best as we could for battle and grabbed swords and shields and put on what armor we could (the odd breast plate really) for the fight we knew was probably coming.

Then suddenly there was another tremendous crash as the dragon swooped in again and landed squarely on the second raft shattering it into a thousand splintered wood fragments! We decided that today was as good a day as any to die and the ranger and the three fighters let out a war cry and charged the giant beast waving their swords wildly. As they did so, there were two sounds that sounded like the crack of thunder and the report of lightning hitting home as Gradwin and Teth-en-Aire let loose with two thunderous lightning bolts which hit the giant beast squarely only slightly singing a few of the fighters on the way in and making their hair smoke and stand on end as the acrid smell of burnt ozone filled the air. Their sword strokes did little damage but the beast had had enough after having been attacked by foes that seemed to spring out of thin air. It had been burned badly by two powerful lightning bolts and a magic missile and was facing four strong and fearless warriors that had both the courage and audacity to charge a huge and powerful ancient green dragon, so the giant reptilian beast took to wing and flew away. Apparently, the gods were smiling on us that day and the dragon decided to flee the bold attack rather than risk being killed or captured by the courageous adventurers. We were tremendously fortunate to have had the wherewithal to attack before it could unleash its chlorine gas breath weapon upon us, which would have probably killed half of the party (in other words, luckily we won the initiative roll).

So with that crisis averted, we now had a quandary. We had a huge pile of gold and no way to get it back to civilization now that our mode of transportation had been destroyed. We were also wary of the return of the giant green dragon but we were fortunate enough to have injured it to the point where it left us alone for the rest of the trip. So the next day, we decided that we needed to find a ship to rescue us and help us return to town with our load of treasure. It was really the only way we were going to make it back with our hard won loot. So first, Gradwin cast fly and flew out over the lake looking for a river boat to flag down and pick us up but found none. Our next plan was to send the ranger alone back to the city to find a rescue boat to hire to return with and pick us up. We gave him two potions of invisibility so that he could make the trip back without being detected by adversaries.

Taleth was traveling light and was alone so he made the trip in two days and after a third day, finally a ship showed up along the shore to rescue us and we returned to Medea’s Gate with our shiny cargo. We learned a few things from that trip. The first thing we realized was that the dragon would have most likely never spotted our camp had we camouflaged the rafts during the second night like we did when we first arrived. We also realized the perils associated with traveling the lake on rafts – dragons weren’t the only danger but were a tangible one. We hadn’t even considered that there were pirates on the rivers and lakes in this region until the sailors mentioned it. We would have made easy and tempting targets for them with two simple rafts loaded with silver and gold. We also learned from the sailors that the boats generally stayed towards the center of the lake far away from the shore lines to avoid ambushes and to leave them room for maneuver when they encountered marauding pirates or flying attackers. So with our recently returned loot we went to see the money changer and prepared to return to the shrine for the rest as soon as we were ready. This time, however, we vowed to take a simple baggage train of horses and mules overland and leave the perils of waterborne travel to those who knew how to navigate Poseidon’s waters better than a group of simple and foolish adventurers.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: The Forests of the Anvil Come Alive and a Surprise Revelation…

2011-05-27T05:29:00.025-04:00

Recap from 5/20/2011

We began the session with a quandary – we now had far more coinage than we could carry once we gathered up all of the loot from the Bone Devils, the Ice Devil, the animated amber statue and the hidden compartment in the fountain. So we formulated a plan and set about transporting it to the temple some distance away from the labyrinth where we began the session. One potential problem was that there was a magically trapped area of the hallway with the black and white floor tiles. We didn’t know exactly what the trap was or where it was since both characters that set it off during the previous session made there saves and we didn’t’ see the affect actually go off. So Kaira cast her Detect Traps spell on the area and we could clearly see a 3’ wide portion of the hallway extending from the wall on the left to the wall on the right that glowed with a blue light indicating it was trapped. So once we found out where the trapped floor was and only had to step over it as we began hauling the coinage out of the room with the wishing well, into the bone devil's lair and then out the gate and into the temple beyond.

Things went fairly smoothly for the first three loads but as we were bringing the third load to the temple, Taleth the ranger noticed a few very large creatures nearby that had not yet seen us. They were huge bull like monsters with red scales that stood over six feet tall at the shoulder and appeared to measure more than eight feet from snout to tail – they were Gorgons! We quickly made our way to the temple without attracting their attention and closed the doors. We debated what to do – we were safe in the temple for the time being but the creatures were keeping us from hauling our last load of loot from the labyrinth to the temple and if we tried to wait for them to leave, we risked our loot being stolen by something else within the labyrinth.

So after some debate and the formulation of a plan, we decided to go out and try to take them out. Our plan was to cast slow on them and try and keep our distance so we could pelt them with arrows and ranged spells. This had worked for us in the past outside, but the last time we tried it against the three Chimera in this very temple, it turned into a disaster since all three of those creatures made their saves and Teth-en-Aire had been killed afterwards though he was later raised. So of course, our plan went awry when both Gorgons made their saves and they came charging at us full steam ahead! We tried to spread out as best we could so they couldn’t unleash their petrifying breath weapon on a large group of us and let loose with our first barrage. Teth-en-Aire hit two with a fireball (but one made its save) and Gradwin hit one with a lightning bolt but failed to kill it. Asclepius cast mirror image as well and the other characters fired missiles but failed to bring either of the huge charging beasts down before they could reach the adventurers.

Taleth broke off in the direction of Beorn the Dwarven fighter and Lucias and Cyrcla were spread out to the right. This left Kalaneikos, Asclepius and Kaira in the center closest to the temple and Teth-en-Aire spread out a bit to their left. Of course the one on the left unleashed its stony breath weapon on both Beorn and Taleth, but both characters managed to make their saving throws to avoid being turned into stone. The second Gorgon charged straight ahead at the lightly armored Asclepius as it charged past Kalaneikos and attempted to gore the elf with its horns. Luckily for him, his mirror image spell saved him from a potentially deadly wound and the image disappeared as the beast tore through it and was clearly surprised that its savage attack met with no resistance and the elf still stood there off to one side - it was like he used his red cape in an expertly timed bull fighting maneuver or something.

The dwarf and the ranger quickly jumped on the heavily wounded Gorgon on the left and dispatched it with their swords and Kalaneikos attacked the other one with his spear while Asclepius hit it with a triple magic missile blast wounding it further. The rest of the group then came to their aid with more spells and arrows and Taleth and Beorn charged the beast bringing it down with their swords. The ranger then managed to track the bullish beasts back to their lair where we found a considerable sum of silver, more gold coins and several magic items including two rings, a battle axe, a potion, and a scroll.

With that crisis averted, we stashed the new loot in the temple and headed back to the labyrinth to attempt to retrieve the last load of loot which consisted of silver and copper coins at this point since we had removed the gold first. By the time we returned to the chamber where the wishing well was located, the remaining coinage was gone – obviously, some creature in the complex had made off with our loot! We resolved to get it back later when we could and headed back to the temple. On the way back we ran into a giant grisly bear which we quickly slew. Gradwin eyed it as a potential zombie to be created using his animate dead spell while we joked about how “evil” our dwarven "necromancer" friend had turned out to be. He countered by arguing that creating an “evil” creature and using it for “good” purposes was not necessarily an evil act. Kaira and the others shrugged it off with comments like “yeah, right…”

We debated how best to transport the loot to Medea’s Gate since we had about 3-4 times more treasure than we could carry without seriously slowing us down. We decided to put as much as we could in the bag of holding and load up the newly animated grisly bear with a litter that was rigged up for the purpose and to make our way back to town through the woods as best as we could. The rest of the treasure was stored in the lower catacombs below the temple in the permanently darkened room and the secret door above was newly wizard locked as an added precaution. The main doors to the temple were already wizard locked from a previous foray so our treasure was theoretically safe behind two wizard locked doors and hidden in a permanently darkened chamber.

So, with our loot safe for the time being or loaded up and ready to carry, we set off once again through the wild and wooly forests between the tower of Zingalis and the city of Medea’s Gate. On a few similar trips in the past this had been a harrowing journey fraught with peril as we had to fight for our lives against the many vicious creatures of the forest. On other trips, it had been a breeze and largely uneventful aside from the occasional random encounter. This trip turned out to be both perilous and eventful for the group of bold adventurers.

The first night as we were looking for a suitable camp site, we started hearing loud noises off in the distance like the sound of trees falling and a slow “boom..... boom..... boom.....” at a slow but steady measured pace. We assumed it was a very large giant of some sort (or maybe King Kong) and our assumption turned out to be correct. Off in the distance we could see a huge giant knocking down trees and stomping through the woods accompanied by several very large dire wolves. It was even larger than the Cyclops we had encountered previously and the ranger identified it as a cloud giant – the largest of their kind. The giant paused for a few moments and appeared to notice the group and then said something in its own tongue as if speaking to his wolves. A few members of the group could speak giant and told us that he said “these little ones are not worth our time” and it resumed its steady and destructive march through the forest.

With yet another crisis averted, we resumed our march through the woods the next day with our burden and undead beast of burden. During the first watch of the second night spent in the forest, the group was accosted by a very large dragon like creature that had a whitish appearance, a lizard like body and tail and six legs - a frost salamander was attacking the group! Taleth, Asclepius and Gradwin sounded the alarm and the two spellcasters hit it with a salvo of magic missiles while Taleth engaged it in melee. It answered the attack with an attack on the ranger and managed to rend him and tear at him with a few of its four claws as it emanated the hoarfrost of the north around itself. The rest of the group scrambled to arm themselves with what armor and weapons they could as they awoke while those on guard duty attacked the creature again. This time, it turned its attention to Lucias and tore and rent him with all four claws and bit him as well ripping him savagely with tooth and claw! He was badly hurt and withdrew from combat as the others closed in and finally slew the icy creature with their swords.

We healed up as best we could and continued our sleep after our rude awakening. The following day, we resumed our march towards Medea’s Gate and once again ran into more members of the giant race. This time it was a pair of stone giants and the arcane spellcasters and archers managed to finish them off before we could even close with them to engage in melee combat. The group burned them badly and brought the giants down using a fireball, a lightning bolt and a barrage of magic missiles and arrows. Fortunately, the fireball didn’t melt the gold that they were carrying and we added it to our loot haul. Taleth tracked them to their lair and we actually stumbled across a ruined tower that we had never seen before. Amongst the ruins, we found signs of their lair and an additional haul of loot including a copper ring with garnets that detected as magical!

So we searched the ruined tower for secret doors and actually found a hidden trap door on the floor that led down a set of steps into an apparent dungeon below! This was an unexpected find since we had traversed these woods several times in the past and had missed this place on every previous trip. We briefly scouted ahead down to the bottom of the stairs. The ancient complex appeared to have not been disturbed in quite some time due to the large amount of dust present. At the bottom of the steps was a large room with three statues in it that was otherwise empty. So we went back up and stashed the new loot at the top of the stairs behind the secret trap door to be retrieved on our return trip. We were within a day of Medea’s Gate at this point and made it back to town uneventfully. Once we arrived, we took our loot to a money changer to have it converted to gems and then went back to the giant’s lair to retrieve the other loot that was still stashed there.

At this point we had managed to retrieve a good portion of our earnings but there was still a considerable sum of gold and silver stashed away in the temple at the tower of Zingalis. Teth-en-Aire wanted to take a break and go on a carousing binge for a week or so in Medea’s Gate to celebrate our earnings. Fortunately, Lucias talked him out of it because we had pressing business ahead of us – to retrieve the loot stashed in the temple before some other wizard could come along to open the doors and make off with our hard earned treasure. The funny thing is, he is the young elf who is always so concerned about pinching a copper piece and garnering wealth whenever possible, but his foolish youth had him convinced that it was safely hidden in the dark behind two wizard locked doors – Lucias knew better and the group prepared to depart as soon as we were ready…

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: Be careful what you wish for...

2011-05-21T20:02:00.025-04:00

Recap from 5/13/2011

The session began as the group awoke in the Temple of Hecate after resting, healing and recovering from the wounds suffered from the cruel and malicious Bone Devils the session before. As we awoke and prepared spells, we heard someone or something banging on the magically wizard locked double doors to the temple as if trying to open them through brute force. We also heard a voice on the other side cursing in Dwarvish as he tried in vain to force his way through the magical ward, so we opened the doors from the inside to see who or what awaited us on the portico of the temple beyond. It was a lone Bahkshani Dwarven adventurer seeking shelter within the safety of the Temple from the wild and dangerous creatures dwelling in the hilly forests nearby.

We greeted him and he told us that his name was Beorn and that he had recently been dropped off by a boat on the Lady’s Finger River off of the Dormant Lady Lake with a group of Adventurers that were seeking the famed wizard’s tower of Zingalis. He went on to tell us how his adventuring group had been ambushed by a group of monsters as they slept in their camp and had all been killed a few days before. He was the lone survivor and being a determined and capable Bahkshani warrior, he decided to press on to try and find the tower. He wandered for a few days in the general direction of the supposed location of the structure and eventually stumbled upon the tower and the temple which was a very lucky coincidence since the place was not easy to find. He was even luckier to find a group of adventurers camped out within the shrine to join up with - a single dwarf in these woods probably stood little chance of surviving the trip back to Medea’s Gate through the monster infested woods surrounding the place.

So once spells were prepared and we broke our fast, we returned to the southern gate to see if we could find more treasure in the Labyrinth of Zingalis. Once again, we passed through the illusory gate to the hallway beyond and were confronted by the large double doors at the end. We had opened the doors with the Chime of Opening the session before and they had slid up into the ceiling above. Previously, Gradwin had set off the magic missile trap after pulling on one of the levers on either side of the door. So Lucias tried to push the doors up since they slid into the ceiling above through brute force. The wizard eye device in the corner above the doors that had been following our movements, suddenly turned towards the fighter and fired a salvo of five magic missiles which hurt him badly. He turned to Kaira the cleric and said “medic”! Kaira then cast a few healing spells on him so that he could recover somewhat but he was still hurt so he let the ranger and the Bahkshani dwarf take the lead. Since attempting to open the doors this way and with the levers was clearly not working, Taleth used the chime of opening to open up the doors once again as we had done before.

During the previous session, we had found a large sum of gold coins behind an invisible wall on the left end of the room beyond the doors after the fight with the Bone Devils but that was all we found. We surmised that they may have had more loot hidden away somewhere beyond the room in the complex. There was a door on the opposite side of the 10’x10’ niche behind the false wall so we opened it up and walked down a short hallway to another door. We opened this door and went into a 30’x30’ room with a statue in the left corner that appeared to be completely made of amber. There was also a door on the opposite wall and a pile of rubble in the far right corner of the room.

As we approached the amber statue to investigate it, we started discussing the value of amber. As we were discussing this, as is often the case with statues hidden in dungeons underground, it magically sprang to life and attacked the group. A brief melee commenced during which the animated statue was dispatched into a pile of broken amber pieces including severed limbs and appendages from its body. It was now clearly quite worthless so we searched the room and found that there was a hidden compartment below the base where the statue once stood. Within we found several magical elvish arrows and a small sum of valuable gems.

The group opened the door on the opposite side of this room and proceeded through another short hallway with a door on the opposite end. We opened this door and were confronted by an unexpected creature – it appeared to be a dog of some type, like a lab or something, sitting at the opposite end of a narrow but long room. It sat there wagging its tail with its tongue hanging out as if it was happy to see us and wanted our attention. The group was immediately suspicious since we had fought so many devious devils in this labyrinth before, some of which had used their polymorph spell like abilities to change their form. We prepared ourselves for combat in anticipation of the expected fight – weapons were drawn and arrows were knocked. As the “dog” saw that we were girding for combat, it slowly transformed into a giant 12’ tall devilish creature with an insectoid body, multifaceted eyes, and powerful mandibles on a mantis-like head. In its devilish talons it held a huge evil looking spear. The eeriest thing that happened as it polymorphed itself back from a dog to a devil, was that the whole time, its barbed thorny tail continued to wag and its wicked forked tongue still hung out as if it was anticipating some sort of twisted play session.

The group of adventurers were not in a playful mood however, after having suffered from the talons and devilish special abilities of numerous other devils in Zingalis’ lair – we said “here Fido” and let him have it. The elves and Gradwin bombarded the giant ice devil with a powerful barrage of magic missiles while the two fighters and the ranger charged the giant insect looking devil creature to send it back to the icy demi plane within the plane of Hades, Tarteras or Hell from whence it came. Despite its size and power, it could not withstand this fierce onslaught and disappeared in a chilling puff of freezing mist as it was bombarded and hacked to pieces thus returning it to its place of origin. Had the creature been able to act first, the outcome could have been much worse for the group based on past experiences. So we searched the room for loot and found a small sum of gold and copper coins and some gems hidden under a loose stone in a small niche at the far right end of the narrow chamber. It wasn’t much loot for a greater devil of such power, so we continued to search for its main treasure hoard.

We opened the door at the end of the room and proceeded down a hallway that kept going straight but also turned sharply to the right shortly past the door. We went down the right hand branch and after a little ways the hall ended in a door. We opened the door and were greeted by three more of Zingalis’ crazy creations – these chaos spawned creatures were things of madness and horror. They had segmented limbs, some of which had crab like claws in odd places, an oddly shaped head with rows of sharp nasty teeth, eyes appearing on its grotesque contorted body in seemingly random places and all manner of tails, extra limbs and appendages protruding from their nightmarish bodies giving them a very chaotic appearance. The group set aside its initial shock of seeing these abominations of nature and quickly dispatched them in a brief but fierce combat. Such things were never meant to live and we made sure that they didn’t in short order.

The room was otherwise empty after a brief search so we went back out into the previous hallway in search of the Ice Devil’s treasure. We turned right and went down the other hallway that hadn't been explored yet and found that it ended in a dead end. The group made the assumption that there was more than likely a secret door at the end of the hallway somewhere and searched for one. Unfortunately, no secret door was found so Taleth expended a charge from the Chime of Opening which made a singing metallic chiming sound as it rang out. Low and behold, a secret door opened up at the end of the hallway that we had missed in our search. Within the small chamber beyond were several empty sacks and an apparently empty treasure chest – it appeared that our loot had already been taken by others! This would not do at all so we searched the room thoroughly for other secret doors or secret compartments and found that the “empty” chest had a hidden compartment in the bottom which contained a large amount of silver and gold coins! So we set forth with the task of removing the contents of the chest to the room where we had encountered the Bone Devils and continued our search of the place.

There were two more doors in another niche in that room that were opposite the invisible wall where we had just come from. We went into the niche and opened the door on the left. Beyond was a short hallway with another door at the end. The hallway had rubble on the floor and rat tunnels carved into the walls. At the end of the hallway was a smallish room where we encountered a very large Otyugh. After a fierce but brief combat with the filthy and vicious creature, we searched the room and, after finding nothing of interest, went through a portal on the right hand wall into a hallway with a checkerboard pattern on the floor. The odd thing is that when the characters in front stepped on the floor, the tiles started lighting up in a seemingly random pattern. We assumed there was some sort of trap there so the Bahkshani dwarf and ranger strode forward only stepping on the black tiles.

As they got towards the end, they felt some sort of magical affect go off but they both made their saves and were not affected by whatever it was. They warned the others to jump over the trapped portion of the floor there and we did so without being affected by the unknown magical affect on the floor. In the room beyond was another fountain with the water coming out of a carven statuesque face on the left hand wall of the small room. Asclepius stuck his pinky in the water and in his head he heard the voice of Zingalis say “chose the language that you wish to learn”. He chose a language (giant) and instantly, he knew how to speak, read and write giant! He told the others what had happened and Gradwin, Taleth and Beorn also put their fingers in the fountain and similarly, learned new languages instantaneously.

After hearing about this, the rest of the group put their fingers in the fountain but this time they had a different message in their heads. The voice of Zingalis boomed in their thoughts and said “What is it that you wish?” We started contemplating what this meant – could it be that Zingalis had just granted four party members wishes after having given them new languages as well? The message in the shrine said “The true path to enlightenment lay beyond the southern gate” which was consistent with learning new languages for the “supplicants” enduring his mad and deadly “wizard’s challenge”. But would such rewards actually include granting wishes? We contemplated this and then Teth-en-Aire said “I don’t trust this – he has killed two of our number in the past with his deception and cruelty. Surely, this can’t be what it appears”. He pulled his finger out of the fountain and wished for nothing and slowly but reluctantly, the others did likewise sharing the Elf’s fears about treachery and deviltry at the hands of the mad wizard.

Then we turned our attention to the fountain as we searched it and the rest of the room. We found a hidden compartment behind the fountain containing an absurd amount of silver and gold coins – far more than we could carry. Jackpot! Now we had the task of figuring out how to transport our recent finds of wealth from the Bone Devils, the Ice Devil and the Amber Statue out of the labyrinth of Zingalis and back to the safety of Medea’s Gate. All in all though, it was not a bad problem to have.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: Of Devils, Dragons and the Keys to Zingalis’ Castle

2011-05-14T19:56:00.022-04:00

Recap from 5/6/2011

We started off the session facing the secret door in the fountain room of the Labyrinth of Zingalis. Taleth used the Chime of Opening to open the door and we proceeded down the long narrow hallway to the chamber beyond. There we found the remains of the animated statues that were destroyed the session before lying on the ground and the room was pretty much the way we left it. We once again cast the spell detect magic on the wall and it once again revealed the arrows and the pulsating magical force. We debated whether or not we wanted to use our one Dimension Door scroll to cast on the wall here to see if it opened up a door or a gate of some sort.

Lucias had made a realization about the shrine which was relevant to the discussion. He made the observation that there were four inscriptions on the frieze above the walls inside of the Temple to Hecate. There were also four spells inscribed above the green demon mouth sculptures in the four rooms below the shrine. There were also four gates that appeared to have some sort of magical key required to open them, perhaps by casting one of the spells written on the wall of the shrine below the temple. He deduced that maybe if we were to determine which cardinal compass points the litanies in the temple and the spells in the shrine were facing, that either reciting those litanies in the appropriate language (Promethean, Brimbahri or Ellise – a.k.a. Angelic, Demonic or Elven) or casting those spells on the gates or secret doors found at the same compass points in the labyrinth would open them up.

So we decided to hold off on using our only copy of Dimension Door on the wall here for now at least until we knew if it was the appropriate spell to cast there for this part of the labyrinth based on the clues found in the Temple and Shrine. So we back tracked out of the labyrinth and made our way to the shrine. As we were traversing the clearing between the two, two distant flying figures starting getting closer as they flew towards the group – they were young blue dragons! One of the two swooped down upon the group and the other veered off and headed back towards the tower. As it passed over the group, the characters spread out as best they could and braced for the impending breath weapon attack. The arc of lightning came down with a boom and hit both Cyrcla and Lucias. Since they were now wounded, they figured that this was as good a place as any to fight and pulled out healing potions and quaffed them down.

The others continued to run and tried to make it to the cover of the temple when the giant beast swooped down and attempted to land on Taleth the Ranger with all of its weight and claws to crush and rend him into with the full force of the landing. Taleth was faster though and deftly stepped out of the way. One or two of the elves then cast their triple magic missiles on the dragon hurting it badly and Taleth pulled out his longsword and with one savage blow slew the fell creature where it stood before it could attack him.

With that crisis averted, the group continued making its way to the shrine and entered through the wizard locked door. Once inside, Naas climbed up the wall over the front door and attempted to learn the secret inscription carved into the stone there. Despite the fact that it was invisible, he was able to slowly feel the carving with his fingers and discern the letters there. Using his thieves’ ability to read languages, he was able to discern that it was written in Promethean and said:

“The wise supplicant will shun the jade demon in the catacombs below. Only those who master the southern key will achieve true enlightenment”.

This was a revelation indeed if it was to be believed. The jade demon mouths had previously been responsible for the deaths of two of our number (both thieves) and we decided to avoid messing with them from this point on. We then turned our attention to locating the cardinal points in the catacombs below. We kept a few characters above in the temple that could read the litany to Hecate in Promethean, so that they could open the secret door on the foot of the statue to let us out later. Then the spell casters descended into the shrine below to try and figure out which way was which and unravel the secret to the keys to Zingalis’ labyrinth.

The stair hall was on an angle and the central room between the four individual shrines had continual darkness cast on it which made it exceedingly difficult for Gradwin the dwarf to determine the cardinal direction of each shrine underground. So we determined that in order to figure this out we would need to somehow turn off the continual darkness affect in the central room. None of the living group members had explored the central sphere and disk that one of our dead comrades had told us about before walking to his death through one of the green demon mouths. So Gradwin decided to explore it for himself. He went to the center of the room in the dark and felt around with his hands looking for the device that was described to him.

He found that there was a 3’ tall central stone pillar, almost like a table, with a smaller round sphere set into the center of the table top area. When he spun the sphere with his fingers, it spun freely but didn’t really do anything else. Our previous associate had told us that if you pushed it down it closed the secret door above. Rather than doing that, he continued feeling around the cylinder to see if there were any other hidden devices or compartments to be found. He found under the “table top” like upper surface, that there were two hand holds below the top. He gripped them firmly and rotated the table top in the direction that it yielded and managed to spin it one quarter of a turn or ninety degrees. Once he did this, the continual light spell went off and the magical torches came on – he had found the light switch!

The other thing that happened was that a magical inscription appeared on the floor in glowing runic letters and the voice of Zingalis suddenly boomed into the chamber “Congratulations – now you may have your reward”. Gradwin cast read magic to try and read the magical writing but couldn’t make it out. Since that was the only ritual that anyone had for that day for a first level spell, we had to rest overnight to re-learn spells to try again the following day. The next day, two of the arcane casters cast read magic and tried again but failed to read the inscription. Cyrcla finally cast her read magic and was able to make out enough of it to determine that it contained a spell of the deep magics (a 9^th level spell of some sort) but couldn’t discern any more than that aside from the partial phrase:

“For the worthy supplicant…”

but the rest was unintelligible.

Gradwin was however, able to now determine the cardinal points of the shrines to help us unlock the magically locked gates and doors in the labyrinth of Zingalis. He determined that the gate that we had previously explored faced West and the appropriate spell in that direction was in fact Dimension Door (we only guessed this spell by a lucky coincidence). He also determined that the Hold Portal/Brimbahri shrine faced north, the Arcane Lock/Elder God/Creepy room shrine faced east, and the Knock/Elisse/Elven shrine faced South. We also had the clue about south being the “path to true enlightenment” so we decided to test our newfound knowledge on that gate.

We left the temple and locked the door behind us with the Wizard Lock and headed to the southern gate. One of the arcane casters cast Knock at the gate and the bars suddenly vaporized and disappeared. The spell casters determined that the bars weren’t real all along and were merely illusions – we could have stepped through them at any time! So we went into the 20’ wide hallway beyond that was very similar to the one in the western entrance. At the end was another one of the wizard eye devices and a large double door with two levers on the left hand wall and one on the right. Gradwin pulled one of the levers down to see if he could open the door with it and was hit with a powerful series of five magic missiles that came from the wizard eye device! He was hurt badly and required some healing magic.

Taleth decided to use the Chime of opening to avoid the traps and the door opened right up but it went up into the wall above, instead of opening in or out like a normal door. There beyond the door was a 20’ wide by 30’ deep room with a hallway branching off to the right at the end and another lever on the left of the recently opened door. As we were observing the room, five Bone Devils that were previously invisible decided to spring their ambush. Unfortunately, we were surprised and to top it off a few of us were still slightly wounded and had learned spells for exploring the shrine rather than for combat. So a savage melee commenced in which the group of adventurers was very hard pressed.

The Bone Devils started off with two of their number managing to use their hooks to catch both Taleth and Teth-en-Aire so that they could then drain their strength with their scorpion like tails. We managed to hurt one of their number badly but another one managed to gate in a sixth bone devil and things were not looking good for the group. Despite our best efforts, two of our number were trapped and our opponents were barely hurt. Lucias managed to hurt the injured one further and Cyrcla managed to cast her web spell on the one holding Teth-en-Aire with its cruel hook. Naas then managed to cast continual light on one of the devil’s eyes which blinded the other devil that was attacking Teth-en-Aire. The group was still sorely pressed however, and the ranger was close to death after having been stung by the scorpion tail which drained some of his strength as he was held with the hook. So after a gut wrenching few rounds of combat, Gradwin finally pulled out his scroll of Dispel Evil given to him by Brummbar the session before, and read the fifth level spell intoning the evil devil creatures in the room to return to hell.

Four of the six devils exploded in a blinding flash of bright white light and the only two that remained were the webbed one and the blinded one which the rest of the group quickly finished off. So with our foes dispatched and a crisis averted, we turned our attention to searching for loot. We found a large amount of gold coins hidden behind an illusory wall in the left rear corner of the room and then fell back to the safety of the shrine. We considered ourselves lucky to have made it out of that scrape against yet more Devils in the labyrinth of Zingalis with our lives. Fortunately though, we now perhaps had the keys to the Castle so to speak.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: The Hounds of Hell

2011-05-14T18:16:00.007-04:00

Recap from 4/30/2011

The group returned to Medea’s Gate through the forest from their last foray to the wizard’s tower of Zingalis without meeting any resistance. Once back, Naas and Gradwin took some time to get their heads together and gather their marbles and Lucias took it easy so his hand could heal back up from putting it in the cursed fountain in the labyrinth of Zingalis. We sold and distributed loot and went to the Dominion’s local guild house to see what magic items we might be able to acquire. Asclepius bought a magical sword for his faithful fighter henchman Kalaneikos, and Teth-en-Aire managed to acquire a Girdle of Giant Strength for a very reasonable sum of money. This had the ability to turn him into an engine of destruction when he engaged in melee (it grants the wearer double damage with a melee weapon and the THAC0 of a 9 hit die monster). Once we were rested and healed up we purchased provisions and once again set out for Tower of Zingalis through the forests near the Lady’s Finger River northeast of the city of Medea’s Gate.

On the way there, we encountered a pair of hill giants that were quickly dispatched and we gathered up there traveling loot sacks although we were unable to locate their lair to find the rest of their loot. After that encounter we made it to the tower without any further issues. Once there, we returned to the southern gate that we had explored before and started making our way back to the pool room with the secret doors and cursed fountain to try and unravel the mystery of the pulsating wall beyond the second secret door. Before we could make it to the pool room, we were surprised in the steamy room by a large group of Hell Hounds! The seven devil dogs breathed their fiery breath upon the group and many were singed by the very fires of hell. We fought back though and slowly managed to whittle them down. Teth-en-Aire and Cyrcla threw caution to the wind and engaged the hounds without casting mirror image and a pitched battle commenced. Teth-en-Aire was particularly impressive against them and slew many of their number because his sword cold cleaver (a +3 frost brand) was glowing more than usual (+6 vs. fire using/dwelling creatures) and he was doing double damage because of the girdle of giant strength as well.

We once again, entered the secret door where the pool was located and heard the voice of Zingalis coming from one of the wizard eye devices say “Only the bold may pass through this portal”. We once again tried to open the secret door without the chime of opening and it wouldn’t yield. We looked briefly for other clues in the room that might help us to open it but found nothing that hadn’t already been revealed in the previous session. We took another look at the fountain and Gradwin managed to pull out some coins from it with his ring of telekinesis. Lucias tried to discern where the water was coming from to look for an opening or hidden compartment but it was just coming out of a low hole in the wall and nothing new was revealed that we hadn't seen the session before.

Then we focused our attention to the second secret door and Asclepius cast knock to see if that would open it and it didn’t do anything. He then tried just walking through it believing it to be an illusion and bumped his face on the door. We discussed other options for opening it (other spells revealed in the shrine and so forth) but finally determined that our best option was to just use the Chime of Opening since we couldn’t figure out its secret. And that’s where we ended the session, discussing our options for opening the second secret door in the fountain room.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: Mind Bending Cosmic Truths Best Left Alone

2011-05-13T18:32:00.007-04:00

Recap from 4/15/2011

The group of adventurers decided to explore the one area of the Labyrinth of Zingalis that we hadn’t previously checked out. There was a hallway leading out of the room where we fought the giant dragon headed snake that was as yet unexplored. So we set out to explore that area in the hopes of finding more treasure or perhaps a way into the tower. After about twenty feet, the tunnel ended in a caved in area straight ahead and a door on the left. We opened the door that lead into another longer hallway which then turned to the left. At the corner stood two formless statues that appeared to be made out of clay or some other earthy material. As the group tried to walk past them, they started moving and attacked!

After a brief combat, the creatures melted into a pile of muck on the floor after they were destroyed. They didn’t really put up much of a fight and the GM told us afterwards that they were Muck Golems. We turned left and went down a long hallway with a checkerboard tile pattern on the floor that ended at a doorway. We opened that door and entered a room which was full of steam. As we walked into the room we were attacked and charged by a Nightmare which attempted to push Lucias into a pool of boiling water (a hot tub) on the other side of the room. Lucias managed to move deftly out of the way and avoid being pushed in and the melee commenced. It breathed its devilish fiery choking breath towards the group and some of the characters were covered with and inhaled the noxious vapors and were temporarily blinded but were otherwise able to fight on. After a fierce combat, the group managed to slay the Devil Horse. We found no treasure in the room and only briefly looked at the tub and decided to leave it alone. Since the Nightmare was trying to push us into it we assumed it was trapped or something.

One wall of the room was angled and next to it was a door that led into a short hallway that ended in another door. On the floor of the hallway were a bunch of small river rocks. We opened the second door and it led into another room with an angled wall and semi circular niche on the left side and three Caryatids depicting Eryines in the other corners. There was another door on the same wall as the one we entered the room on, so we opened it and went into what looked to be a looted treasure room. There were empty sacks on the floor and an empty chest as well inside of the small room. We searched it for secret doors and found one in the left rear corner. As we opened it up we heard a mysterious voice say “You have come far. Are you sure you don’t want to leave? Only the bold may pass through this portal”.

So being a group of bold adventurers, we opened the secret door and entered the room of course. In this large room was a round fountain with a small stream course feeding it from the far wall and several semi circular niches on three of the walls. The room was otherwise empty so we searched it and found a secret door in one of the niches. We were curious about the fountain as it appeared to be clear and sparkling clean water so Lucias put a few of his fingers in it to see if it was indeed fresh water. He recoiled in pain as some sort of poison, curse or spell afflicted his hand with a palsy – he couldn’t open the fingers of his right hand! Fortunately, he made his saving throw so apparently it could have been much worse. Brummbar bound the hand with a poultice of herbs to reduce the inflammation and he was forced to use his sword in his left hand and sling his shield on his back for a while. We heard the same eerie voice as before say “You chose poorly and are not worthy of the wizard’s challenge”. We also noticed another one of the wizard eye camera things in one corner following our movements around in the room.

So we turned our attention to the secret door but it would not open using normal means. So Taleth used his chime of opening on it and we heard the sounds of tumblers and locks moving and it opened right up. We heard the voice that we presumed was that of Zingalis say “Curses”. Beyond the door was a long narrow 5’ wide corridor that went for as long as we could see. We entered the tunnel single file and followed it for about sixty feet until it entered into a small room with three more of the Eryines caryatids in it – one on each wall. As we entered the room they started moving and attacked. They appeared to be some sort of animated statues because as we hit them with our weapons, chunks of stone flew off of them and what appeared to be molten steaming rock started pouring out of the wounds. After a brief but savage melee, the group managed to destroy all three statues.

We searched the room and found three arrows pointing to a spot on the wall of the room. There was no secret door there or anything that we could find but when Naas cast detect magic on it, he could see some sort of pulsating area on the wall. The GM described it as pulsating as if it was a heart but he was the only one who could see it and it was some sort of magical effect. We debated this for a little bit and decided that since it was a magical affect, maybe casting one of the spells indicated above the green demon mouths in the Shrine would open this portal and perhaps grant access to the tower. We guessed that the spell might be Dimension Door since it was conceivable that that spell could be powerful enough to open the magical portal if it was indeed a dimensional gate of some sort. Gradwin cast Augury using a ritual and asked his god the question “Will it be good or bad if we cast Dimension Door on this spot of the wall” and the answer that Hecate gave him was “Weal”. We debated this for a bit but decided that since we only one copy of Dimension Door on a scroll and it was above our ability to cast normally (it’s a fourth level spell) and Augury is unreliable, that we would go back to the Shrine to try and determine more info about the secrets contained therein that might give us clues to solving this puzzle.

So we went back to the shrine to investigate some of the spells written on the walls in the catacombs below it. Both Gradwin and Naas went to the room below the temple to Hecate that contained the Magic of the Elder Gods written on the murals and the walls. This was the same room that gave Asclepius nightmares when he copied the creepy familiar spell off of one of the murals in the room. The other mural contained scenes of non-Euclidean geometry and architecture and the grinning green portal opposite the entrance had Arcane Lock written above it in the alien and cruel tongue of the Elder Gods. Naas attempted to learn the Bind Familiar spell (from RoCC) off of the other mural but failed and got a little crazy – he was all twitchy and babbling incoherently about ancient secrets and truths that mortals were never meant to know.

Gradwin attempted to learn the spell on the other mural which he discerned was Spatial Travel a fifth level spell from Realms of Crawling Chaos. He successfully read it and then cast his scribe spell on it to copy it into his spell book but failed and took a certain amount of damage. Then he just sat there as if contemplating something. We waited because we assumed he was working – and we waited, and waited and still he stood there. We decided that something was wrong and removed him from the room. That’s when he started talking to his animated skeleton as if it was talking back to him and carrying on a conversation. He kept saying “I was so close” and things like “only one more phrase”. So with our two mentally disturbed spellcasters in tow, we decided to return to Medea’s Gate since we had been at the tower for almost a week and were starting to run low on food. That’s where we ended the session.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: The Devils of Zingalis

2011-04-23T17:54:00.019-04:00

Recap from 4/8/2011

After resting up in the Cyclops’ lair in the Labyrinth of Zingalis, we set off down the hall past the summoning circle in search of more loot. The treasure finding potion that Lucias had quaffed during the previous session indicated there was more treasure to be found off in that direction somewhere. At the end of the hall past the prison cell blocks was an empty room with one angled corner wall and an archway on the right wall that led into another rectangular room with tapestries on two of its walls. This room, however, was not empty – staring at us with wicked smiles from the other side of the room were four Eryines! The winged female Devils were somehow strangely attractive and yet had a cruel, alien and wickedly evil look to them at the same time. They hissed obscenities at us, promising to return our souls to Hades, and then the melee commenced.

We weren’t surprised but unfortunately, they had the initiative and acted first. Two of them teleported across the room using their Teleport Without Error ability and jumped the dwarven cleric Brummbar in the back left end of the group's line. One of them managed to land a hit with her evil poisoned dagger but the dwarf made his save against the poison affects of the blade. One of the others attacked Kaira to little effect with its dagger, as Kalaniekos and Asclepius came to her aid. The other one stood where it was and used its enchanted Rope of Entanglement to try to ensnare its opponents, and managed to tie up Taleth the Ranger who was stuck and couldn’t move. She snarled “I’ll turn you into a Lemure once we return to Hades!”

Then the group struck back and managed to kill the one holding Taleth with weapons, arrows and magic missiles and he was free once again. Lucias came to the aid of Brummbar and between the two of them they managed to slay one of the ones attacking the dwarf. It was looking like the combat was going well when suddenly things went horribly wrong. The devil that was fighting Brummbar and Lucias used her rope of entanglement and managed to ensnare the fighter – he was helpless to act from that point on. To make matters worse, the other one used her Cause Fear spell like ability and a number of the party members fled the room including Brummbar, Cyrcla, Taleth, and Asclepius.

Things weren’t so easy with our primary fighter and four other characters effectively taken out of the melee and in the next round it only got worse. The one holding Lucias in the rope also used her fear affect along with the other one and then Kaleneikos and Naas also fled screaming in terror from the room but not before they managed to kill the one in front of them. This left the one devil holding Lucias in the rope, fighting against Kaira the cleric and Gradwin the Cleric/Mage. Kaira tried in vain to cut the magical rope to no avail. Gradwin picked up Brummbar’s magical short sword that had been dropped as he fled, and attacked the she devil doing a small amount of damage. The lone Erinye tried to summon more of her kind to the fray unsuccessfully as she hissed obscenities at her attackers. Both of the clerics now focused their full efforts on slaying the evil devil creature. Before attacking her, Gradwin intoned to his deity “Oh mighty and powerful Hecate, grant me strength against this foul abomination to send her back to the hell from whence she came” and he struck her with a powerful blow (he invoked the d30 for his damage roll – once per session, any character can roll the d30 for a single roll for emergencies such as this).

She reeled and was hurt badly (he rolled 20 points of damage plus other bonuses) and was suddenly not so sure of her victory anymore. She once again attempted to summon more of her “sisters” from hell but they did not answer her call fortunately (it would have been game over if they had). Then Kaira managed to land the killing blow with her enchanted spear and the battle was over. As the magical ropes disappeared and returned to hell, Lucias thanked the two priests for freeing him from the ropes and certain doom. As the remaining characters in the room took stock of their surroundings, slowly the others started returning to the room as the fear affect wore off. Fortunately, they didn’t encounter any wandering monsters in the labyrinth as they fled as that could have been disastrous for them. They slowly filtered back into the room and picked up their discarded weapons littering the floor. We had to go back to the hallway with the permanent sleep spell cast on it to retrieve the two fourth level characters that had succumbed to the sleep spell in their flight in order to revive them since they were asleep.

Once the group was re-joined, we searched the room and found the Erinyes treasure hoard then decided to open the large bronze double doors in front of us. These led into a long rectangular room with caryatid columns on either side that was otherwise empty. At the end of the long hall like chamber it opened into a much larger chamber beyond with three elliptical steps leading down a few feet lower to the floor below. At the other end of the room was a group of fourteen very odd creatures. They looked to be yet another example of Zingalis’ crazy experiments. They were some kind of abominable cross breed between humans or humanoids and devils but they had lobster like claws instead of hands. The DM referred to them as "infernal mutants" but we had never encountered their like before.

They rushed at the group and we formed a line across the top of the stairs between the columns on either wall so that they couldn’t get into our rear ranks. Behind the front line stood the spellcasters who hurled magic missiles and fired arrows into the crazy looking lobster devil things. The front line consisted of Cyrcla on the left side, Lucias and Taleth in the middle and Teth-en-Aire on the right side. Before they could come to grips with the adventurers, both Cyrcla and Teth-en-Aire cast mirror image so there were suddenly many more images of the elves to conceal their actual locations. As the others stood in the back and cast spells and fired arrows, Kalaneikos stood behind the front line and attacked them with his spear to bolster the line as needed. Brummbar and Kaira cast a combination of Prayer, Holy Chant and Bless simultaneously which not only bolstered the group’s offensive capabilities, but also bolstered their defensive capabilities as well with positive energy from their deities.

The characters in the front line slew the beasts as they came at them and suffered very little in the way of damage from their opponents while the characters in the back of the line helped to whittle them down as well. In this manner, the group managed to slay all fourteen of the abhorrent creatures in a slow grinding battle that diminished their numbers until they were all dispatched. These beasts were not true devils but were some kind of cross breeds between humans or humanoids and devil kind. This fact was ascertained by the clerics, because they didn’t wink out and disappear to their home plane when destroyed like devils would have, rather, they bled and died like normal humanoids. After the last creature was killed, we searched the room thoroughly and found their treasure piled in one corner. Aside from more of the evil looking demonic caryatids lining the walls and a few other statues, the room had no other exits or hidden features that we could discern.

So, after two long grueling combats against the spawn of Hades and Zingalis’ crazy creations, we decided to call it a day and headed back to the Cyclops’ lair for a much needed rest.

TO BE CONTINUED…

ICE MERP Layout Illustrations from the Lake Town Module

2011-04-18T23:32:00.011-04:00

The layouts below were drawn for Iron Crown Enterprise's MERP 2nd Edition module of Laketown. I drew over 40 illustrations for this module most of which were drawn using AutoCAD. Most of these were building layouts and were unremarkable aside from the sheer volume of them. Below is a small selection of some of the more interesting ones. You will note that most of them are shown with a wood texture type of rendering and also show timber framing members in the walls. This was per the original writer's rough designs since he wanted to stress the wooden nature of Lake Town which was to be its detriment when Smaug attacked the town in the events detailed in J.R.R. Tolkien's book the Hobbit.

The map for Lake Town is shown below. It was drawn by hand using ink on vellum.

Map of Lake Town

The Citadel of the Maestas plans below were one of the few buildings in the module that wasn't made of wood and was built on the shore near the town. The layouts were drawn using AutoCAD and were inspired by my architectural history background with all of the niches, vaults, windows and arches to looks somewhat like a set of European abbey plans.

Citadel of the Maestas First Floor Plan

Citadel of the Maestas Second Floor Plan

The layouts for Vodagar's Tavern below include four floor plans featuring the first floor, a balcony/mezzanine level, a floor for guest accommodations and Vodagar's widow's watch, office and quarters at the top. It has the potential to provide a great backdrop for all kinds of dockside carousing, wenching, drinking, trouble-making, general role playing and tavern intrigue for a party of adventurers. These drawings were drawn using AutoCAD and feature the wood structure and wood grain rendering for the furnishings as noted above.

Vodagar's Tavern First Floor Plan

Vodagar's Tavern Second Floor Plan

Vodagar's Tavern 3rd and 4th Floor Plans

The plan for Erranun's Dockside brothel is shown below. It was drawn using AutoCAD.

Erranun's Brothel

The typical Lake Town merchant ship layout below was drawn by hand using ink on vellum.

Lake Town typical Merchant Vessel

ICE MERP Layouts from the Mirkwood Module

2011-04-10T05:05:00.016-04:00

The illustrations below were drawn for ICE's Middle Earth Role Playing Second Edition book of Mirkwood in 1995. I think this was the third book I did illustrations for and all of the illustrations shown here were drawn with ink on vellum using technical pens. The black and white map of the southern half of the forest of Mirkwood was used to key locations found in the module. Towns or villages are shown with three dots, towers are shown as spires and the locations with flags on them are fortresses. This was the largest scale map I ever did for them. I'm not sure why but there is no north arrow or graphic scale drawn on this illustration - they were probably added later by the ICE staff as was the rest of the text.

Map of Southern Mirkwood

The next map is the map of the ruins of Dale after it was destroyed by Smaug. Note the location map in the upper right hand corner showing the Lonely Mountain. That was drawn by referencing the map in the book "the Hobbit" that shows the Lonely Moutain. I did another CAD map of Dale in better times when it wasn't a ruin but didn't show it here because it isn't as nice as this one.

Ruins of Dale Showing the Lonely Mountain

The next three drawings are of the Dwarven Halls of Erebor carved within the Lonely Moutain. These were rendered to look like maps carved in stone in a similar style to the maps I did for Moria. Note the dwarven runes. Also note that on the first map, the river runs alongside the entry road as described in the book.

Erebor the Lonely Mountain First Delving

The next level is the Under Delving or Second Level where Smaug resided before and during the events described in the Hobbit.

Erebor the Lonely Mountain Under Delving

The next drawing is just a closeup of the previous one showing where Smaug resides. It is the rectangular chamber roughly centered on the image below and was labeled as Room #47 in the module.

Erebor the Lonely Mountain Under Delving Chamber of Smaug

The final layout from the Lonely Mountain is the King's Delving of Erebor where the royal apartments of the King of Erebor are located.

Erebor the Lonely Mountain King's Delving

The next layout shows the plans of the tower of Sarn Goriwing. The great black spire rises out of the center of the waterfall called Goriwing near the headwaters of the enchanted river (S. Guildin). Lachglin the Animist resides here.

Tower of Sarn Goriwing - Lachglin's Residence

The next layout is a plan of Rhosgobel, the enchanted home and refuge of Radagast the Brown. It is located on the western edge of the narrows of Mirkwood and is a celebration of the the abundant forms of Endorian life.

Rhosgobel, the enchanted home of Radagast the Brown

The layout below is a plan layout of the Holy Carrock. It is a large stone shrine sitting in the middle of the river that was hollowed out of a large natural rock formation. It is a sacred site to the Beijabar who reside along the western edge of Mirkwood. The manor house of the high shape changer of the Beijabar is also located nearby.

The Holy Carrock, a Sacred Beijabar Site

The following layout is of the hill fort of Ursh Lana also known as "the Defiant Hill". It is the westernmost of the Asdraige Easterling outposts.

Ursh Lana or "Defiant Hill" - Easterling Hill Fort

The final layout of this series is of a typical outpost of Gondor, one of many built in the region. They were primarily built and manned by the kingdom of Gondor in order to keep an eye on their Easterling neighbors.

Typical Outpost of Gondor

Averlorn Campaign: Beware the Tarp of Zingalis

2011-04-10T03:43:00.018-04:00

Recap from 4/1/2011

Taleth the Ranger managed to successfully follow the werewolf tracks to their den and we gathered up some copper and silver pieces they had stashed in their lair. Coupled with the loot from the Ketch’s lair it was a reasonable amount of coinage, but overall pretty disappointing since we had to turn back without even reaching the Labyrinth of Zingalis. When we got back to Medea’s Gate, we dropped off Rena with a doctor and used the loot we had gathered to buy healing potions. Then we went to the Dominion’s local guild house and traded Shadaar’s traveling spellbook that we found in the Barrow Mound of Gravemoor for some magic items. It contained three 5^th level and one 6^th level wizard spells (mostly having to do with summoning and binding demons) so it was worth quite a bit of cash. We never sold it thinking we could use it one day but realized it would be better to sell it to purchase more magic items for the group. Taleth got a +2 longsword that was +3 against giants (handy for a ranger) and a matching set of +1 Banded Mail with a +3 shield. This improved his AC quite a bit making him a much better front line fighter and the sword gave him quite a bit more punch in melee as well. We also acquired a ring of Telekinesis (50 pounds) and gave it to Gradwyn, another magical sword that we gave to Naas the Elven Magic User/Thief and a few other potions that we handed out to the other party members.

Thus re-equipped we provisioned up and got ready to set off for the tower once again. We asked Brummbar the Dwarven Cleric to accompany us because our other clerics weren’t feeling well. We had no trouble making it to the tower this time and went back in through the smashed gate and the Cyclops’ old lair behind the secret door. We went down the hallway past the summoning or transmuting circle on the floor and made a point to stay to the left of it, lest we get turned into goats or worse. Since we were badly in need of loot at this point, having been to the tower many times before and come out almost empty handed, we decided to focus this expedition on finding the treasure that we knew had to be there. Lucias had a potion of treasure finding and decided that now was a good a time as any to use it, since we knew that the Horned Devils we had fought on our previous visit had to have a lair and loot in the complex somewhere. It showed the strongest reading straight ahead of us through one of the doors at the end of the hallway and a couple of other indications of treasure in a few other directions that weren’t as strong.

We opened the door and went in. The room was empty except for what looked to be a manhole cover sized trap door on the rear of the floor of the room. It was surrounded by three sets of arrows inscribed on the floor that were all pointing to the hatch and there were also Brimahri runes carved into the floor around it as well. The spellcasters translated the runes to read “TARP”. This was odd because their was a similar warning also written in Brimbahri on the floor next to the summoning circle in the hallway but that one said “TRAP”. So we figured that either the laughing mage had a sense of humor or he was dyslexic and accidentally inscribed the wrong letters on the floor unless it was some sort of trick or even an anagram for trap. Since the crazy wizard’s ham had given us a pleasant surprise on the last visit, we assumed it was some sort of whacky joke or something. Taleth used the Chime of Opening to open the trap door and sure enough, there was a tarp inside the hold covering a mound of treasure!

We gathered up the loot from the lair of the Horned Devils and kept exploring the complex. We went back into the hallway and opened the next door which was next to the one we had just opened. In this room was another oubliette in the floor with a grate over it and as we walked up to it to have a look, a giant snake like creature with a dragon’s head slithered out of a gap in the wall above the grate and attacked! This was obviously one of Zingalis’ crazy abominable creations. There was a brief combat and the group managed to slay the creature and found more treasure in its hidey hole over the grate. There was also a statue of Zingalis in another corner of the room. Upon further investigation, it appeared to have grooves in the floor where it had been previously moved. Lucias grabbed a hold of it and pulled it sideways and it slid to one side revealing a small hidden compartment under it carved into the floor. The compartment also held a small amount of treasure. We gathered up the coinage and continued to search the room.

One of the adventurers found a secret door in one corner which led into a small room. Inside the room was a chest and three barrels. Naas started checking out the chest and the rest of the group went back into the other room in case it was trapped to explode or something. As we were milling about shooting the breeze, we were surprised to hear Naas exclaim, "what the…" and then we heard a loud thud! When we turned around and looked into the room, he was invoking a spell and cast a magic missile on the chest! We were surprised by this and it took us a little while to realize that the chest wasn’t a chest at all but was a Mimic, and that one of his hands was stuck to the “chest” while he cast the spell on it with the other one. The group belatedly came to his aid and attacked the sticky chest shaped monster and eventually, Lucias killed it with a fierce blow from his sword. Right before it died it said “wait, I’m willing to negotiate” and then its guts were spattered all over the wall behind it in a gooey mess.

We found a little bit more loot in one of the barrels and decided to rest up for the evening and that’s where we called the session. We started out saying we were going to focus on finding loot and we managed to find a decent amount of it for a change including a magical broadsword that was under the “TARP”. We still aren’t sure what to make of the laughing mage – his insidious traps killed two of our comrades but so far he does appear to have an odd sense of humor. Between the baked ham reward for opening the double doors and the beware of “TARP” warning, we were starting to see why he was called the Laughing Mage.

TO BE CONTINUED…

ICE MERP Layout Illustrations from the Moria Module

2011-04-03T02:43:00.011-04:00

Several people have requested these illustrations so following are drawings I did for the MERP 2nd Edition module for the Mines of Moria back in 1994. The first drawings are of the first level of the huge city. I would have liked to have drawn these with a more realistic and detailed dungeon map type of presentation but that was really impossible due to the huge scale of the city. Rather, the maps should be looked at as schematic "road maps" for the city with detailed layouts shown elsewhere in the module to augment them and show close up views of particular areas. The street and tunnel layouts with their many halls, caverns and mines are pretty much the same as those found in the original 1st Edition module of Moria except that ICE wanted to give them a new "stone map" rendered look. The art directors wanted them to appear to be maps chiseled into the walls of the giant city - sort of a "You Are Here" kind of road map if you will.

The maps shown below are both the left and right side of a two page spread of the First Level and Deep of the Dwarven Mines and City of Moria. The "Say friend and enter" secret door is on one side of this level at the rock face of the mountain above. I'm not sure which side its on but its probably described in more detail inside of the module. I scanned this level rather than the other levels because the other ones shared the same border which was drawn once on a separate sheet of vellum and pasted onto the sheet for each subsequent level. In other words, the same stone border was used for all subsequent levels but added to the map by the ICE staff when they did the final page layout, paste up and type setting. I would have to do some copy and paste Photoshop work and create new image files to merge the seperate stone border with the other maps (or obtain copies of the original final images) in order to post those layouts here as they appeared in the original book. The first level and deep was drawn with a unique stone border on the original map layout sheet which was not repeated on the other levels which is why its shown here. Again, these are pre-press layouts so there is no text - this was added later by the ICE page layout staff.

Dwarven Mines and City of Moria First Level/Deep Left Side

Dwarven Mines and City of Moria First Level/Deep Right Side

The next drawing is of the deep mine known as the Mine of Khulakal. This drawing shows an upper terrace level connected by bridges with a lower excavated area below the higher plateau. The lower excavated area shows contours and ridges depicting the topography of the stone floor below. Below this lower excavated area are the deep chasms shown in black that descend even lower into the depths of the earth. This whole mine area may have originally been part of a natural cavern but was widened, deepened and expanded by the dwarves in their never ending pursuit of precious metals such as mithril, gold and silver and other valuable mineral deposits.


The Mines of Khulakal in the Mines of Moria

The next two drawings are of the Bell Hall and the Whispering Hall. The bell hall is a means of sending signals and/or music throughout the complex and the whispering hall is an ingenious method of communicating throughout the massive stone city.

Mines of Moria Bell Hall


Mines of Moria Whispering Hall

Averlorn Campaign: The Wild and Woolly Forests of the Anvil

2011-04-03T01:31:00.032-04:00

Recap from 3/25/2011

The carousing which took place in the City of Medea’s Gate last session was a celebration of the return of Teth-en-Aire to the land of the living through the use of powerful magic by our friends from the Fraternal Order of the Surgeons of Hecate. Afterward, we waited for him to fully recover, did some trading, bought provisions and once again set off through the wild and woolly forests of the Anvil to return to the Wizard’s Tower and labyrinth of Zingalis the Laughing Mage. Taleth the ranger led the way and we eventually made it to the hill region of the forest and found a suitable camp site to bed down for the night. We set up watches as usual with the spellcasters on the first and last watch so they could learn spells the next day, and with Lucias and Kalaneikos, the fighters, taking up the second watch.

During the second watch, the camp was attacked by six Griffins! Lucias and Kaleneikos moved to engage the giant bird like creatures and did their best to awaken the others who scrambled to arm themselves and grab their shields and what armor they could. Aside from the two fighters, most of the group was not fully armored and were very vulnerable. A fierce combat ensued and things were not looking good for the group due to the grievous wounds inflicted by the large beaks on the giant bird like heads of the creatures and their bird like claws. Lucias finally managed to slay one of the creatures with his sword and both Cyrcla and Teth-en-Aire managed to cast Web spells and ensnare two of their number in the sticky magical webs produced by the spells. The group then concentrated their sword strokes, missile fire and magic missiles on the ones that weren’t entangled and managed to dispatch them before the stuck ones could break free, and then focused their attention on those two. At that point, it was over pretty quickly but the group was pretty badly hurt and the clerics cast what healing spells they could to help the party members recover from their wounds.

The next morning when we arose, the spellcasters learned their spells and the group decided to see if we could find the lair of the Griffins and their treasure which we thought could be nearby. This was a difficult task for the ranger since Griffins will typically move on land and through the air leaving no tracks for anyone to follow while they are flying. While he was circling around trying to pick up the lost trail again, we were attacked by a group of three Kech – giant white evil monkey like creatures. We had encountered these before the first time we traveled through these woods, and they gave us a hard time then as well as this time. They are highly intelligent and cunning opponents and set snares for the characters in front to try to trap them first when they sprang the ambush and then fell on the rear of the single file column of adventurers.

Kaleneikos and Renna were the last two in the line and were beset by the evil white monkey creatures. Two of their number attacked Renna, the low level ranger hireling, and before the others could come to her aid, she had fallen with a grievous wound. Lucias and Taleth quickly moved to the aid of the characters under attack after successfully avoiding the snare traps, and with the help of the rest of the group managed to kill the abhorrent evil creatures. By the time Kaira got to Renna, she had been savagely mauled and was near death (she rolled poorly on the death and dismemberment table). The cleric managed to save her life with a tourniquet but she had a debilitating wound that effectively ended her career as an adventurer.

This was bad news for the group indeed because we not only lost a trusted henchman, but had to turn around and return Renna to Medea’s Gate so that she could recover from her wounds. Before leaving the scene of the gruesome combat though, the Ranger managed to find the tracks of the Kech and he led us back to their lair where we found their treasure. We gathered up their loot and set out to return to Medea’s Gate afterward.

After some time while traveling through the woods, the ranger noticed that we were being followed by what appeared to be two or more packs of wolves but they were keeping their distance from the group for the most part. We found a defensible location to make camp for the night but most of the players decided not to sleep because of the obvious threat, so they wouldn’t have to take their armor off. Eventually, the wolves attacked and the group managed to slay most of their number without any problems. Then the other group attacked and we discovered to our horror that they were not wolves at all but were actually three werewolves!

Both Teth-en-Aire and Cyrcla cast Mirror Image on themselves and there were suddenly many duplicate magical images of the two elves in the fray. The demi humans were particularly cautious because instead of contracting lycanthropy they would have just died since only humans can contract the disease. Subsequently, most of the elves and the dwarf opted to use their bows or magic missile spells rather than engage in hand to hand combat. The group then engaged the werewolves and killed two of their number in a brief but fierce combat and wounded the third one badly without taking enough wounds to contract lycanthropy (none of the characters lost 50% or more of their hit points). The third werewolf retreated and to our astonishment, the corpses of the other two slowly turned into the bodies of naked men laying on the ground before our eyes!

We surmised that the wolves and werewolves had followed the group because of Renna's recent wounds - they probably smelled the blood and were looking for an easy kill. The ranger had no problem finding their tracks and we resolved to find their lair the next day (probably a wolves den) to see what treasure they may have been hoarding. That’s where we ended the session.

TO BE CONTINUED…

ICE MERP Illustrations from the Kin Strife Module

2011-03-27T04:17:00.024-04:00

I drew a group of illustrations for ICE's Middle Earth Role Playing module for the Kin Strife back in 1995. The Kin-strife presents the people, politics, and armies of Gondor under the repressive rule of Castamir the Usurper during the civil war of the Kin-strife in 1437 of the Third Age. The six largest cities of the South-kingdom - Pelargir, Umbar, Lond Ernil, Osgiliath, Minas Anor, and Minas Ithil - are described along with their administrative structures, military organization, and legal systems.

Map of the City of Osgiliath near Minas Tirith

The map of Osgiliath shown above was hand drawn on 11x17 vellum paper with technical pens and again, has no text because it is the pre-press version without the final page layout. It was photographically shot down to fit on a single page for the module. I was given a previous rendition of the map as a starting point that only had the lower half of the city shown and traced this to draw half of the map, including parts of the bridges. I think that the map that half of this drawing was traced from was a color original and I created the other half in a similar style but in black and white. This was fun because I got to design half of the city and some of its features like the street layout, the canals and some of the additional fortified manor houses. The dotted lines in the river represent the chains used to keep enemy ships from entering the river that runs through the city. This map also represents the city before it was later ruined in the civil war and conflicts with Sauron's forces even later.

Unfortunately, the original 11x17 drawing was lost when ICE closed its doors. They gave me all of my original artwork at the time and I assumed it was in the package but when I went to look later all I found was an 11x17 copy and some 8 1/2 x 11 reductions which is what this scan was made from. I may be able to track down a better quality scan but I have no idea who ended up with the original or if it even survives to this day. It is my favorite of all of the city maps I did for them and I really wanted to frame the the original drawing but its gone at this point. This scan is not that great of a quality because it is a scan of a photocopy reduction and is missing some of the fine lines of the river but is otherwise not too bad. If I can obtain a better quality scan from some of the old crew or if the 11x17 copy I have is of better quality I may re-scan it and post a better quality image later.

The Tower Dome of Osgiliath Great Hall First Floor Plan

The Tower Dome of Osgiliath also known as the Dome of Stars was built on the bridge of Osgiliath after Gondor was founded in the year 3320 of the Second Age. It was built to house one of the larger Palantir which was placed in the domed chamber of the stars at the top of the tower. During the fighting of the Kin Strife when Osgiliath was captured by the rebel leader Castamir, the Dome of Stars was destroyed and the Stone of Osgiliath was lost in the waters of the Anduin river. The front view of the tower can also be seen on the cover of the module (painted by another artist) right before it is about to fall into the river.

The layout above was drawn using AutoCAD and represents the lower great hall level below the tower itself. The tower is situated above the throne room between the two square towers at the south end of the great hall and is accessed from the second floor and the stairway leading up to the door from the terrace level below. You can see the complex on the large scale map of Osgiliath drawn on the bridge on the upper middle right hand side of the map.

The next two maps were drawn in a similar manner to the Osgiliath Map above but I used the original color maps for both cities from previous modules (which were both complete) to trace the black and white images onto the translucent vellum. The first city is the city of Umbar, also known as the Gray Haven and Home of the Corsairs.

City of Umbar Map

The next map is of the City of Minas Ithil with its spiraling plan layout not unlike the layout of Minas Tirith.

City of Minas Ithil Map

The next layout shows the small shanty town that was built up outside of one of the gates as often happened in fortified medieval towns after their was no real estate left within the walls to build on.

Minas Ithil Shanty Town

The next layout is of the Sea Lord's Tower which is in the middle of the City of Pelargir. This was drawn with AutoCAD as well.

The Sea Lord's Tower in the City of Pelargir

The final layout in this series of illustrations is a plan layout of Margalad's manor house in one of the cities in the module. I'll post a better description when I have had a chance to take a look in the module. My assumption is that Margalad is one of the nobles embroiled in the intrigue and struggle of the Kin Strife civil war.

First and Second Floor Plans for Margalad's manor house

These more formal building plans gave me a chance to draw upon my architectural design and history background for inspiration and I came up with all of the vaults, niches and cool plan features shown outside of the basic layout of the building provided to me by the writers.

For a brief background and introduction on my time working for ICE as a freelancer go here:
Game Art and ICE Illustration Background

Copyright notice: All original artwork on this page is displayed for self promotion purposes only and is copyrighted by the original artist, Daniel Cruger. This artwork may be downloaded and used for personal use only and may not be reproduced for commercial purposes in any way without the express written consent of the owner.

Averlorn Campaign: Of Baked Ham, Horned Devils and Chimeras

2011-03-26T19:17:00.015-04:00

Recap from 3/11/2011

The next day after the encounter with the Otyughs, we decided to explore the labyrinth further and try to find out if any of the rooms we had been to previously contained traps. As we opened the door from the Cyclops’ room to the hallway with the summoning circle, an odd spectacle awaited us. There was a sheep walking down the hallway away from us past the summoning circle! We thought this was very odd indeed for such a place but then Gradwyn had an “aha” moment. He speculated that the summoning circle may actually polymorph its victims into sheep or other creatures and that the proximity of the rat tunnels to the circle could serve as a “monster generator” for the complex (or a sheep generator for food)! He surmised this because we had learned that Zingalis was actually a transmuter of great renown.

Since the summoning circle had the word “TRAP” spelled out on the floor in one of the magical languages, we decided it would be prudent to search for traps in the hallway and some of the rooms we had visited before that were suspicious. Kaira cast the cleric spell Detect Traps and looked down the hallway. The summoning circle was clearly illuminated in a magical blue light by her godess Athena indicating that it was an obvious trap. The section of floor to the left of the circle, however, was not trapped meaning it might be possible to walk around the trap.

While the spell was still running we returned to the area of the Labyrinth where the oubliette was located and Athena’s power showed us that the lever on the wall over the oubliette on the right side of the room was a trap. We also had a feeling that we were once again being watched and Taleth the Ranger noticed that there was another one of the rotating eye surveillance devices cleverly hidden in one of the upper corners of the ceiling which was moving around and following our movements as we walked through the room. While the spell was still running we returned to the room where we fought the Otyugh’s and she didn’t see any traps in there, so we went to the room with the locked doors and the hallway with the mosaics on the floor. She didn’t see any traps at either location but Gradwyn cast detect magic on the doors and they detected as magical.

Since the hallway wasn’t trapped, we walked to the end of the hall and found a doorway with a circular room beyond that was empty. The circular room had a few doors in it but we returned to the previous room with the locked double doors that detected as magical. Asclepius cast knock on the doors and the magic detection abated and we smelled a familiar smell – it was the smell of a finely cooked meal of baked ham! That was really strange but the doors opened from the Knock spell and low and behold there was a small dining chamber within with a round table, four chairs, silverware, four full wine glasses (two with red wine and two with white), and four plates with cooked carrots and freshly cooked and savory baked ham sitting on them that was still warm as if from the oven! The group thought that this was surely a trap or the food and wine was poisoned but Gradwyn thought that maybe it was a reward for the students of the Laughing Mage for figuring out that in order to open the locked doors, the young wizards would have to cast a knock spell on them. Everyone else was suspicious that it was trapped or poisoned though Kaira’s spell didn’t indicate a trap was present.

Since Gradwyn was a dwarf and was highly resistant to poison he tried it out. He choked as if he was stricken and said this is obviously poisoned and greedily ate a few mouthfuls of ham and carrots and washed it down with the red wine. Teth-en-Aire sat down next to him and started eating as well and then the rest of the group devoured the rest. Somewhwere the laughing mage was cackling with delight! We had heard he had a sinister sense of humor but this was funny in a good way which was more than a bit odd.

So we decided to return to the Shrine outside and see if we could learn some of the opening spells that were inscribed within on the walls since it would obviously make it easier to navigate the wizard’s gauntlet if we were armed with the right tools. As we went through the oubliette room, we smelled the smell of fire and brimstone and were confronted by three Horned Devils! Two charged us to attack and one stayed in the back by the exit and summoned forth a wall of fire right across both Lucias and Taleth! Both were burned by the devilish sheet of flames but Lucias wasn’t burned as bad because he was wearing a ring of fire resistance.

The archers and the elf managed to kill the one that had summoned the wall of fire in the back with magic missiles and arrows from the archers that had magical arrows. The others without spells or magic weapons couldn’t do very much but Kaira cast prayer to aid her allies. The two combatants managed to kill one of the two remaining devils they were facing until Taleth was forced to withdraw due to his injuries but Lucias fought on despite his burns and wounds. The last remaining devil teleported himself to the rear of the room right next to Taleth and Asclepius. Asclepius withdrew because he had no magical weapons and Taleth fought on despite being wounded. Lucias moved to engage the last devil and Gradwyn cast a cure light wounds spell on him which helped him recover somewhat from his wounds. The remaining devil tried twice to summon another one of his number from Hades but was unsuccessful and the group finally managed to slay the evil creature.

After this encounter we returned to the Cyclops’ room and the clerics cast healing spells on both Taleth and Lucias. We decided to rest up for the night rather than risk finding the lair of the Horned Devils to find their loot, since we were pretty badly chewed up at that point and needed to recover spells. The next day, Gradwyn wanted to explore the shrine with its hidden secrets that he had heard so much about, so we left the labyrinth and returned to the shrine to deal with the Chimeras that had taken up residence there. We formulated a bold plan – Lucias and Teth-en-Aire would get their attention at the shrine doors while Asclepius cast slow on the creatures, and we would try our skirmisher tactic once again to pelt them with arrows, magic missiles, and other ranged spells while the two at front fell back as necessary.

It seemed like a good plan at the time but immediately started to unravel as is often the case with plans – no good plan survives first contact with the enemy! We thought there was one or possibly two Chimera in there but there turned out to be three, and only one of them was slowed by the spell since the other two made their saves. To make matters worse, one of the ones that wasn’t slowed went after Teth-en-Aire, while the slowed one and another one went after Lucias. Teth-en-Aire tried to withdraw but the creature followed sensing desperation and the dragon’s head breathed fire on the stricken elf. Since he didn’t have his Frost Brand drawn at the time (I’m not sure why – it was part of why he was up there in the first place) he took full damage from the fiery breath weapon.

Meanwhile, Lucias managed to slay the non-slowed Chimera with the aid of the arrows and spells of the rest of the group but he got burned a bit when he was breathed on by the dragon head’s breath but was otherwise holding his own. Teth-en-Aire wasn’t so lucky – as he tried to withdraw again, it again followed him and attacked with its five attacks (three bites and two claws). He was hurt badly at this point and getting desperate. Gradwyn wanted to cast lightning bolt on the evil creature but would have killed the elf so he and the others continued pelting it with magic missiles and arrows but it got another round of five attacks on the hapless elf and he went down before the group finally managed to kill it. Lucias finally overcame the one he was fighting as well and was hurt but not too badly.

Teth-en-Aire was mortally wounded at this point however, but took a long time to die (50 minutes per the death and dismemberment table). He said, “I… feel… so… c-c-cold” and then said “I see a light up ahead” and we told him to “walk away from the light”. He then got delirious and passed out for a while. Then he awoke again and kept saying "I... have... plans". First, he told Lucias to take his spell book and sell it and have the Surgeon’s Guild raise him from the dead and if that wasn’t enough money he told him to sell his Frost Brand Sword for the transaction. Later he said “I… c-c-can’t… feel… my… legs” and then he died. It was overly dramatic as is usually the case with our young and aloof Elven ally but he went out in style and his comments were hilariously funny for such a sad moment. We decided that the shrine could wait and that we had to return him to Medea’s Gate to have Raised before we ran out of time for the spell to work. Asclepius cast Wizard Lock on the Shrine doors after we determined that the Chimera had no treasure, since they had only recently taken up residence there.

We returned to Medea’s Gate and contacted the Surgeon’s Guild and Marut once again came to see us. He said that they could raise him for a price and that we would owe them another favor as well in return, unless Teth-en-Aire would join the guild. Since we weren’t sure if he wanted to do this, Gradwyn cast Speak With Dead and asked him. When he asked Teth-en-Aire’s spirit if he wanted to do this, he said in a ghostly voice “NO”. Since Teth-en-Aire had been a reliable and faithful ally since we had been adventuring, we decided to use the loot we found form the orcs on the way to the tower to pay to have him raised.

He was returned to life by the Surgeon’s of Hechate with no problem and very happy to be alive. We celebrated by doing some carousing in Medea’s Gate while we were waiting for him to recover. Nothing too bad happened as a result but Taleth got involved with some local woman who wanted him to marry her right away but he successfully rebuffed her entreaties. Renna ended up getting in over her head with some gambling debts and Kaira had to help her out with her debts. Everyone else who took part in the carousing did so without any mishaps from the carousing table.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: Cities and Towns of Thebos

2011-03-26T17:01:00.025-04:00

The country of Thebos is home to numerous cities and towns varying in size from large urban centers like Grand Oryx, Ptoleph and Medea's Gate down to the the many smaller cities and towns and even smaller hamlets. The cities and towns described below are primarily located in the anvil but a few are on the outer fringes of the region.

Chapoi – This is a town south of Ptoleph on the main trade road which is near the Forger’s Runnel River. To the west of Chapoi, a two days hike, the Wild Moon tribe of goblins hold sway.

Demeteros – A small village south of Ptoleph on the main trade road. Demeteros is one day to the north of Medea’s Gate. It is also where one of the most powerful known wizards in all of the Anvil resides in his wizard’s tower outside of town – Ornaskar the Intrepid.

Herarii – This small town between Medea’s Gate and Limus Town is where one of the Oracles to the Theban gods is located. It is near the pass at Hell’s Peak and the giant statue of Hephaestus is visible off in the distance from the town. Hera is the patron goddess of Herarii and an ornate tower at the top of a hill at the edge of town is the location of the venerated Oracle of Herarii and is a site which is regularly visited by pilgrims seeking the wisdom of the Oracle. The Feral Daughter is the local Inn which is noted for its wild game dishes. People regularly make the trip to Herarii in order to consult the Oracle and dine at this fine establishment.

Grand Oryx – Soot darkened Grand Oryx, the City of the Gods is the Capital of the City State of Thebos and the largest city to be found on the volcanic plateau. Its inhabitants live under the dour countenance of its colossal image of Hephaestus, the smith god and patron of this the most advanced city in all the lands of Averlorn. This is the Victorian London of the setting. She has public transport, indoor plumbing (especially baths), and several districts of town that have a local flair related to the race that dwells there. As grand as it sounds, it's actually a nasty place with filthy air, massive poverty, and other dystopian elements. A nice place to visit as they say and an even nicer place to have your purse lifted. You will never find a place more inundated with "scum and villainy." The senate is working hard though to clean the place up.

There are ten guilds in Grand Oryx which have over the years, proven themselves to be committed to the betterment of the Theban way of life and the common good. Thus, they have been given charters granting them considerable political power. They are very competitive with one another and vie for control over the eight boroughs of the great city. Since no guild may control more than one borough and there are only eight available, two guilds are left without a territory and will typically form a loose alliance. The Oryxian guilds have over the years constructed massive sprawling fortified complexes containing their guild halls and living quarters within each borough under their control. Most of the Guild boroughs in Grand Oryx are well run, safe and very accommodating.

The City of Grand Oryx takes pride in its military prowess and has managed to conquer the surrounding regions and bring them into the fold of the kindom of Thebos. The true military power of Grand Oryx arose with the invention of the Dragonship. This technological development meant that they could deploy and supply an expeditionary force that could by dint of numbers, crumble the mighty hoplite formations of Thebos and even subjugate the far away lesser kingdoms of the trench, the Pangaeus and other realms within their empire.

The Theban military makes good use of the condemned supplied to them by the Surgeons of Hecate. These plate-wearing monsters are automatons of superior construction and are powerful, remorseless combatants. They are used in the Grand Oryx navy as foot soldiers and as elite shock troops. Most of the Oryxian Dragonships also have a pair of them and a handler, to work around the cooker in heat that would kill most mortals. The cavalry of Grand Oryx is reputed to be the best in the land, drawing upon the horsemen and superb riding skills of the plainsmen of the Pangaus for the bulk of their numbers. They are not truly knights in the European sense though and are more akin to light cavalry armed with spears, shields, and their excellent short composite bows.

The Long Walk: Most criminals in Thebos receive the unthinkably cruel punishment of eternal servitude to the empire via the institution of The Reborn, a specialized sort of undead created by the Surgeons of Hecate. In the distant past, before the practice was perfected by the Guild, criminals would be gathered in Medea's Gate and there they would have a cross chained across their shoulders. Forced to make The Long Walk to Grand Oryx, those who collapsed beside the road where crucified where they fell. Today, the cross is much lighter, ceremonial even and there is far less whipping involved. The criminals are even given a degree of celebration and ceremony along The Grand Oryx Way as it is seen as a way of ensuring the favor of the Gods for their families and loved ones. Even so it is a powerful deterrent and crime is mostly well-controlled except in the more lawless regions such as the Gorgon's Trench and elsewhere.

Limus Town – A medium sized river mining town located to the south of Zademis and to the east of Herrari and Medea’s Gate on the outskirts of civilization. The city sits astride the Kuoros River and the old trade road that runs east to west. The largest corbitumite mines in all of Thebos are located near the Lykaedian backwater towns of Limus Town and Zedemis along with other vast deposits of other mineral wealth. As a result, Limus Town and Zedemis are becoming subtle nests of devious plots and espionage though only to those who go looking for it.

Poseidon is the Patron Deity of Limus Town due to its location on the Kuoros River and there is a temple to the deity in the temple district. One can charter a boat from Media’s Gate to Limus Town on the river and Dormant Lady Lake due to the abundance of river traffic resulting from all of the commerce generated by the mining operations. The area across the river is called “The Hill” and is reputed to be the home of two powerful witches and a tribe of Hobgoblins. It is about a two day hike from the town once across the river. The old trade road continues to the east of Limus town accross the river into the lands of the Gorgon’s Trench but was built in better times and has long since been abandoned.

The worst part of town is the Tanner’s District which has a cemetery of the poor near it. There are six competing groups of organized criminals in this bustling river mining town full of wickedness and sin. As a result its a favorite location for carousing and revelry of all types having somewhat of a wild party atmosphere (think Mardi Gras). The Lion’s Den is a prominent local tavern that is a favorite with travelers, adventurers and locals alike. Mosaics is a club in Limus Town were one can find strong drink, escorts and even musical entertainment. Bards and musical troupes often perform here.

Medea’s Gate – This is a city in the hill region south of Ptoleph on the main trade road and is one of the two largest cities in Thebos. It is a large lakeside town with the Dormant Lady lake on the east side (the Dock District) and the Market District on the north side of town where the open ground and horse stables are located. The city of Medea’s Gate is a low lying, sprawling affair where the buildings are typically not as tall as the temples. It is a little larger than Ptoleph but has no major guild presence aside from a few local guilds and representatives of the larger guild houses of Grand Oryx.

The Oryxian guilds here tend to keep a low profile due to competition from the local guilds and there are no guild house fortresses in evidence like the ones found in Ptoleph and Grand Oryx. Instead, the guilds here have small shops instead of the sprawling fortified complexes found elsewhere. There are also numerous monuments in the city’s squares dedicated to its heroes and noble families including the one dedicated to the Hero Landishar Demiri of the noteworthy Demeri Family, a once prominent but fallen family of nobles.

The Chessman Inn provides free room and board to anyone who can beat the proprietor in chess and is a reputable establishment. The Scepter and the Rose is the finest eating establishment in Medea’s Gate. Medea’s Gate had a royal charter once long ago and this establishment is a remnant of those better times for the city.

There are many elements of organized crime in the city which control different areas of town. The Ophidian Hand is a thieves' guild that controls the Market District and there is another one that controls the dock district. The Iron Urn Inn appears to be a nice establishment at a glance and is also a gambling hall as well as an inn and a tavern. This place is notorious for its card sharks and con artists that prey on patrons that gamble here that aren’t among the “in” crowd. It is frequented by people who are involved in the seedy underbelly of organized crime in Medea’s Gate and is rumored to be a front for one of the local thieves’ guilds.

Ptoleph – The City of Ptoleph is nestled among a rough stretch of hills in the northernmost portion of the Kurous Valley. The Kurous river flows through the city in a southeasterly direction to the lower lands below. The city sits astride the intersection of the great river and the Grand Oryx Way making it a prominent center of trade and commerce. Grand Oryx lies to the north, about 150 miles through the hills and to the south of the great city is an area of dense woodlands. Traveling to Grand Oryx by dragon ship is a far easier affair and takes little more than a day and a half with good winds.

Most of the major Oryxian Guilds have a presence in Ptoleph due to its proximity to Grand Oryx and have constructed guild halls and quarters within elaborate sprawling fortified complexes, similar to those found in Grand Oryx but on a smaller scale. Five of the great guild houses are actually fortified and crenelated. The Emporium is an Inn in Ptoleph run by the retired adventurer Argus Norviadras. He displays trophies from his adventuring days here, some of which are for sale. The Stone Mason’s Inn is another fine local establishment located in Ptoleph.

Spirythol – A small town that is the capital of the Kingdom of Cephasos in the Gorgon’s trench. This is the location of the dreaded Gravemoor swamp and can be reached by traveling overland from the old abandoned trade road across the river from Limus Town. The area recently suffered a devastating civil war and the population has been thinned out considerably. The Surgeon’s of Hechate have a small presence here and have local interests. The Fallen Star Inn is a tavern run by the Surgeons of Hecate’s representative in Spirythol.

New Artemia – This is the village where the tomb of the burning priest is located. It is located south of Ptoleph on the main trade road and east of Old Artemia which is now abandoned after it was determined that the temple and tomb below were haunted.

Silverton – This is a small hamlet beyond Shepoi where three silver mines are located.

The korbidimite was mined out here years ago but there is still silver to be found in the mines. Hurin Oralease was a great warlord who held sway here three generations ago. He was reputed to have been poisoned by the guilds on his stance over the reborn. The ruins of his castle are located south of Silverton.

Slagford – A small Hamlet which sits in the shadow of the giant statue of Hephaestus on the Limus Town side of Hell’s Peak pass. It is only a few hours hike to the ruins below the giant statue. The Deer’s Perch Inn is the only Inn in this small farming community.

Winterholm – This small town is west of Medea’s gate and nestled in the Mountains. The town is the location of the venerated Oracle of Winterholm which is regularly visited by pilgrims seeking the wisdom of the Oracle. There is also a ruin of some kind that is rumored to be located nearby.

Zedemis – This is a large mining town along the Kouros river. It is larger than nearby Limus Town and is a large trading center due to its location at the confluence of the Forger’s Runnel and Kouros Rivers. The largest corbitumite mines in all of Thebos are located near the Lykaedian backwater towns of Limus Town and Zedemis along with vast deposits of other mineral wealth. As a result, Limus Town and Zedemis are becoming subtle nests of devious plots and espionage though only to those who go looking for it.

The Lands of Averlorn

2011-03-26T16:58:00.034-04:00

Most major kingdoms found in the world of Averlorn sit on top of volcanic plateaus that rise above the level of the scourge which surrounds them. The scourge was once a vast inland sea that was turned into a great lifeless and uninhabitable wasteland long ago during the wars between the gods and the titans much to the dismay of Poseidon. This lifeless and barren land consists of vast salt flats that surround the lands of Thebos, Chalcyx, Manthinea, Ertris, and fallen Leutra in the distant Northern Reaches.

The World of Averlorn Map by Scadgrad - Work in Progress

Lykaedia - The Anvil of the Gods – The Anvil of the Gods is the higher plateau that sits upon the lower plateau of Thebos. It includes mountains, hills, a valley and its largest cities are Ptoleph and Medea’s Gate. There is rumored to be a mysterious tribe of xenophobic barbarian dwarves who live in the mountains west of Ptoleph but not much is know about them.

The Archipelago - On the seas of the Archipelago, the Thugee often find themselves at odds with the sea elf culture and the Volkyr (human culture of the Archipelago). Currently, there is no state of war, but that's primarily because the Thugee are so disorganized and lack a central governing body. Throw in the occasional pirate ship along with the vicious sea devils and you can see that the seas of the Archipelago are quite lawless. The Thugee's chief antagonists are the sea elves, and occasionally, mountain elf raiders (sky wolves) who see themselves as the masters of the sky.

There are a few relatively large and xenophobic Elven communities in the Archipelago. These realms are feudal and ruled by a monarchy chosen from one of the castes (they have a rotating monarchy not unlike what you see in Brusts' work). In that society, a Sun Elf would be seen as a soldier or perhaps a minor noble.

Chalcyx – The lands of this distant kingdom are surrounded by the Scourge.

Ertris – This City State is the principle rival of Grand Oryx. Though considerably smaller in populace than Thebos, the Adroisian city state of Ertris wields surprising military might. The superior natural resources of Ertris which exists in spite of her relatively small geographical area, allows the Ertrisians to field a formidable fleet of dragonships. Tensions between the Ertris and Grand Oryx are always high and the occasional conflicts occur typically in the skies over the Scourge.

Fallen Leutra – This land is in the distant Northern Reaches and its primary inhabitants are the Thugee tribes of Leutra, the Northmen of Averlorn. In the distant past, the Serpent Men Empire in Leutra stretched over much of the known world. Their greatest cities and temples were swallowed up by the vastness of the Scourge long ago but many ruins of their once great empire remain in the region of Leutra along with scattered populations of serpent men and lizard men.

Kingdom of Erythros in the Trench

The Gorgon’s Trench – The Trench is a low area of rough scrubby hills to the south of the settled lands of Thebos (off the campaign map to the south). It is populated by the men of the trench or trenchmen (a small but hardy breed of humans), dwarves, some elves and many tribes of humandoids.

The Gorgon's Trench is roughly defined as that land that lies below the Anvil and Pangaeus, so not necessarily to the South. It is decidedly lower in altitude. The four ridges that run in a southwardly fashion and fall away into the Scourge are what most would consider the Trench. In the ancient past, it was divided into 3 kingdoms and those boundaries yet remain. Cephasos is a large landmass established by the Kuoros River to the west and the Maiden's Crossing in the North. There is an active king there now as you've seen, but it's not much of a kingdom really. The remaining two realms are Enea and Thonaxos neither of which have an acknowledged King as the Dukes in those regions are quite hostile to one another. Kephi lies in the realm known as Enea and the Duke is actually the Duke of Erythros, not The King of Enea as he claims to be, not yet anyways.

The land around the rivers at the level of the Scourge is a series of deep canyons with terrain much like what we see in the American Southwest. There is life there, but no communities. The Scourge is all but lifeless as far as civilized life, or at least that is a commonly held belief. There are no doubt strange life forms that exist there. Think Death Valley.

The Great Banks – These savage jungle islands start east of the Archipelago.

Manthinea – This distant kingdom lies far to the west and borders on the Scourge.

The Pangaeus – The City of Grand Oryx lies on the southern fringes of what is known as the Pangaeus. This region is far more civilized than the lands of the Anvil but possesses less quality land being mostly flat and open plains and grasslands but it is well suited for herding and agricultural pursuits. The plainsmen of the Pangaeus were originally tribal nomadic people before their current civilizations arose and are noted for their equestrian traditions including riding and horse breeding. The warriors of the plains of the Pangaeus are known for their light cavalry armed with spears, shields and their excellent short composite bows. These warriors are the source and inspiration for the fine light cavalry fielded by Grand Oryx and Thebos and are reputed to be the best horse warriors in the land.

The Northern Reaches – The ancestral lands of the Thugee raiders who make up for their primitive ships through shear numbers and tenacity. The Thugee (norse-like culture) are raiders, not invaders (which assumes that they make a camp and stay in a land grab a la the late vikings of our world). Their dragonships are not as advanced as the other races, though their naval power is quite potent, though not focused in any groups larger than a clan squadron. There are other inhabitants in the Northern reaches besides the Thugee tribes including other humans and demi humans.

Thebos – Ancient Thebos is the country that sits on the volcanic plateau that rises above the scourge. The Theban plateau includes the great City State of Grand Oryx and the planes of the Pangaeus to the north, and Lykaedia (the Anvil) and and the Gorgon's Trench to the south.

ICE MERP Towers from Dol Guldur Module

2011-03-18T22:17:00.023-04:00

The tower layouts below were drawn for Iron Crown Enterprises for their Middle Earth Role Playing module of Dol Guldur back in 1995 using AutoCAD. The mountain where the citadel is located is in southwestern Mirkwood and before Sauron's occupation it was called Amon Lanc or "Naked Hill". After Sauron came to reside there, it became known as Dol Guldur or the "Hill of Sorcery". Dol Guldur is first mentioned as "the dungeons of the Necromancer" in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

This module was written for ICE by author David Woolpy who provided me with preliminary layouts to base these drawings on. The layouts shown here are pre-press layouts and are missing some of the descriptive text including drawings titles which was added later, although the room numbers, north arrow text, and graphic scale text is present. If you want to see what the final layouts looked like you will have to refer to the module.

The layouts below only represent the outer fortifications of the massive citadel - there are a whole slew of levels some of which I may end up posting later but the towers are the coolest drawings of the bunch. The fortress citadel is honeycombed with seven levels cut through the volcanic mountain, three precipice levels cut through the upper opening of the volcano itself at the top of the mountain and five stratum levels descending down into the earth below the first level. The level numbers go up in ascending order (they increase in number the higher up you go) and the first level is accessed from the front gate below. The stratum levels go down in number from the first level into the earth below and are also accessed from the front gate.

Dol Guldur - The Front Gate

The second level is home to two Kragor Lug watchtowers cleverly hollowed out from rock outcrops on the side of the mountain by the orc guards of Dol Guldur.


Dol Guldur - 2nd Level with Kragor Lug watch towers

There are many outer works and towers surrounding the mountain istelf some of which are connected to the citadel by underground passages. Most of these towers are guarded by orc or goblin guards and were built in order to keep an eye on the approaches to the citadel. The first of the outer works is the Smalug watch tower. I think there are supposed to be several of these around the mountain but again you'll have to refer to the original module if you want more info on that.


Dol Guldur Smalug Watch Tower

The next watchtower type of the outer works is the Lugash. These are very gothic looking with the buttresses and gargoyles perched atop the battlements and are my favorite of the bunch. I actually drew the evilly smiling faces on the gargoyles if you zoom in real close to them in AutoCAD. I'm not sure why I did this because you'll never see them in these layouts but I guess it was just a desire to fully detail the evil guardians or something. I'll post a close up of the gargoyles later.

Dol Guldur Lugash Watchtower

The last of the watchtowers is the Lugdom which I think served as a fortified postern gate for the citadel (the back door). Note the Cthuloid looking balcony support at the front of the upper tower.

Dol Guldur Lugdom Fortress

You've probably noticed that all of the towers have the word "Lug" in the name. I can't say for sure but my guess is that this is the orcish word for "watch" as in watch tower. This is the first of a series of blog posts that I plan to make in order to showcase the game art I did for ICE back in the day. More to come...

For a brief background and introduction on my time working for ICE as a freelancer go here:
Game Art and ICE Illustration Background

Copyright notice: All original artwork on this page is displayed for self promotion purposes only and is copyrighted by the original artist, Daniel Cruger. This artwork may be downloaded and used for personal use only and may not be reproduced for commercial purposes in any way without the express written consent of the owner.

19th Level Wizard from my early D&D days in the Monty Hall Dungeon

2011-03-16T17:46:00.027-04:00

I found this character sheet while looking through the storage container that has all of my old D&D stuff in it. There are also some old dungeons that I wrote back then in there that I'll probably post at some point and may even publish for real if it's a worthy project. Anyway, this is my 19th level Wizard Elroy that I played in the Monty Hall game I was in back then when I was a teenager sometime around 1980 or before:

I elaborated on this a little in this post:

Re-discovering Old School D&D

A few things I have observed and recall about how we played back then from looking at the character sheet:

1. I can't believe all of the magic items and treasure he's carrying around with him - its obvious that we didn't care about encumbrance back then. I remember bags of holding getting a lot of use but Elroy didn't have one. He also has what amounts to a dragon's hoard worth of gold and platinum pieces which one can only assume he has stashed away in his stronghold or something because he certainly isn't carrying it all.

2. The amount of incredibly powerful magic items he has in his possession is staggering. Several artifacts and several really powerful items can only be explained by the fact that it was a Monty Hall game and we went down into a 20 level deep dungeon and killed Demogorgon at the bottom where we found some of the artifacts and the 1,000,000 gold piece gems and crown.

3. Yes, you heard that right, not one but two 1,000,000 g.p. gems each with a demon trapped inside and a crown worth 85,000 gold pieces! This can only be explained by the Monty Hall nature of the dungeon and the fact that once you are that high of a level this is probably the only way you are going to level up - its certainly not going to happen by killing kobolds! Keep in mind that these items were in Demogorgon's treasure horde so its not like we just found them laying around - we had to kill the Prince of Demons to get this stuff! And behind door #1 Monty is this beautiful 85,000 g.p. crown!

4. His AC is -5 mostly due to magic items but having a 17 Dex doesn't hurt.

5. He has 73 hits! I'm not sure how he got this many unless either we were using Basic D&D for the +1 CON bonus per level with a 14 CON and we didn't stick with hit point limitations for higher level characters (thru 9th Level per Rules Cyclopedia). If he rolled 2.5 hits average each die +1 hit point per level for CON that comes out to 66.5 hits (average). So if this is what we did then 73 hits is plausible and only a little above average.

If we were using 1st Edition AD&D he would have had to have rolled fours on just about every roll without hit dice limitations for higher level characters since there is no CON bonus to hit points in the AD&D PHB for a 14 CON. So either I fudged the numbers or we were playing Basic D&D and weren't playing with reduced hit dice at higher levels.

6. No pre-generated character sheets here - we just used a piece of paper and rolled with it. Remember this was somewhere around 1980 (maybe earlier) and there was no internet and you had to buy the character sheets just to Xerox them. If you are a kid with a limited budget why bother...

7. His stats are pretty darned good. I'm not sure if they got bumped through play (wishes, tomes of whatever or other magical effects) or he got rolled up this way but I actually didn't roll this guy up, he was inherited at first level on the first level of the dungeon so I can't say for sure.

8. Rather than selling all of the non coin treasure that we found and dividing up the total which is what we do now, we just handed out the spoils as fairly as we thought possible and didn't worry about it if one guy got more g.p. worth of stuff than the other. This explains why he has all of the elaborate gems and jewelry written out on his sheet rather than just a pile of cash. Again, one can assume that most of this stuff is piled up in his keep somewhere. That's a dungeon that's just screaming to be written up at some point (Elroy's Tower) and I even started it back then but never finished it.

9. I guess the two magical shields were just excess loot to give to my hirelings or something.

Not every game we played in back then was this Monty Hall but I do remember that there were magic items a plenty in most games and that plenty of characters died. Elroy even died once on one of the upper to middle levels of the twenty level dungeon he was adventuring in when he foolishly put on a Necklace of Strangulation without casting Identify on it first. The other party members boiled the flesh off of his bones in a massive cauldron located somewhere in the dungeon to remove the necklace and then had him resurrected and he returned to the land of the living to complete the massive dungeon crawl!

Averlorn Campaign: The Gauntlet of Zingalis

2011-03-11T17:13:00.016-05:00

Recap from 3/4/2011

We left the tower of Zingalis and made it back to Medea’s Gate with no problems. Since both of our thieves went missing in the last session and presumed dead, we had a need to add a trap finder to the group. We asked around at some of the taverns and eventually met a Guild Dwarf named Gradwin who was both an arcane spell caster and a clerical spell caster. He wasn’t really a thief but since he was a dwarf and had access to a large number of utility spells he could help us to deal with the many perils of the Laughing Mage’s gauntlet. He agreed to join us on our next foray to the labyrinth below the Tower of Zingalis in exchange for a cut of the loot. After that we did a little bit of trading and bought provisions and set off through the woods for the tower with the Ranger leading the way.

The first thing we came across was very odd. We surprised a group of giant weevil looking creatures that appeared to be wearing saddles that had swords and shield strapped to the sides of them but their riders were nowhere to be found. We decided to evade this encounter lest we run into their unseen riders and the group pressed on towards the tower. As we were getting close, we ran into a group of eight orcs including two black orc leaders. These orcs wore the same face paint and symbols of the household troops of Zingalis that we had encountered previously outside of the tower. They quickly assaulted our single file line from all sides before the group could get off many bow shots and a savage melee commenced.

It didn’t take long for the group to kill them and we found that they were carrying a large haul of loot much to our surprise. We discussed this and came up with some ideas about where they got the loot from and where they may have been heading to but couldn’t really say for sure. Then Gradwin had a little bit of a surprise for us. Since he took ritual casting for some of his Cleric spells he was able to perform a ten minute ritual to cast Speak with Dead on one of the deceased orcs to ask its spirit some questions. He asked it where they had found the large haul of loot that they were carrying and it replied in a ghostly voice “we killed a couple of hill giants back near the lake and though they slew some of our number, we prevailed and took their treasure”. Then he asked it where they were going to and it said they were headed to their lair to the northwest of our current position which is about a half day’s hike northwest of the tower of Zingalis. So we finally found out where the orc’s home base was and then the spirit returned to Hades or wherever orc sprits go when they die.

After that we made it to the tower after a bit more traveling through the woods and noticed a few things had changed. We noticed that the sheep within the courtyard of the outer wall were fewer in number which was not much of a surprise given the hostile environment. Also, the body of the Hydra was no longer next to the shrine and the body of the Cyclops was still there but looked like it had been partially eaten. The ranger looked around for tracks and said that there appeared to be both lion and goat tracks near the body of the Cyclops. Later, when he examined the tracks near the shrine he said he thought that maybe some Chimera had taken up residence in the shrine now that its former occupant was no more.

So we went into the ruined gate at the tower once again and through the hallway with the sleep spell where our lower level henchmen kept passing out until we made it into the Cyclops’ lair beyond the secret door. Once again, we saw the large fur that the Cyclops had been sleeping on and the three large casks of wine in the room. Then we went through a door at the other end of the room to explore the tower’s labyrinth further. We passed through a hallway that appeared to have several rat tunnels in the side walls and then the hall ended in a door. Beyond the door was another hallway and an opening on the left. The hallway beyond had a summoning circle inscribed on the floor and some runes on the floor in one of the languages of magic that said “Trap”.

Since we didn’t want to mess with the summoning circle and the possibility of a magical trap, we turned left through the open archway into a large room. The room had two circular grates in the floor on the left and right both of which had levers next to them on the walls. These appeared to be oubliettes of some sort (holes in the ground/floor where you throw prisoners to die) and the one on the left had a skeleton at the bottom. We didn’t mess with the levers and opened up a door on the far side of the room to enter into another small chamber. The room had a broken lantern in the far right corner but was otherwise empty.

There was an alcove on the left rear wall that contained a door straight ahead and another archway to the left so we went through the archway into an “L” shaped room. There was a pair of doors on the far wall that were locked and a hallway beyond the door on the right that had some sort of tile pattern on the floor. Since we feared these were trapped, we went back to the alcove and through the other door into an odd shaped room with a circular wall on one side and an angular wall on the other. This room was also empty so we retraced our steps to the door to head back to the Cyclops’ room to rest up for the night.

As we opened the door we were confronted by two Oytough’s! A desperate battle raged as one of the creatures attacked Talus the ranger and the other one attacked Cyrcla the elf while the others came to their aid by attacking the horrible carrion eaters. Both characters were hurt badly and forced to withdraw while Teth-en-Aire cast mirror image and waded into the fray and Lucias started hacking on the one that had attacked his elf henchman. Eventually, Teth-en-Aire managed to kill the one he was fighting while Talus fired at it with his bow and Cyrcla managed to cast Web on the one that had attacked her making it much easier for Lucias to slay the horrid beast. Both Talus and Cyrcla had been bitten by their mouths though and contracted some sort of rotting disease! So the dwarf cast some healing spells on the ranger (Cyrcla had quaffed a healing potion previously and was already healed up) and we decided to head back to the Cylops’ room to rest up for the evening.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Guilds, Religious Orders and other Nefarious Organizations in Thebos

2011-03-09T17:26:00.046-05:00

THE ORYXIAN GUILDS

Anywhere there is a city in Thebos you will find the presence of Oryxian guilds. They are an important aspect of the setting and players are more likely to curry favor with guilds rather than join them. Most guilds do not permit the wayfaring lifestyle of the typical adventurer with a few exceptions. For more information on the Oryxian Guilds see the article entitled Ten Things About Lykaedia and the Anvil. Six of the ten principle Oryxian Guild Houses that the player character are most likely to interact with in the Anvil are described below.

The Devoted Brothers of the White Caduceus – A priestly Order of Clerics
They are money lenders, couriers, and financiers. They do offer some clerical assistance (they worship Hermes), but of a limited scope. They also offer some banking services but only in the larger cities of Thebos. They may be able to help adventurers by casting high level clerical spells like Raise Dead or others but often require some service or quest to be completed in return in addition to appropriate compensation.

The Dominion – A Powerful Wizards Guild
The Dominion actively recruits PC and NPC arcane spell casters, but it is very competitive. Becoming a Mage of this group grants no small degree of power and prestige, but it is a path that is fraught with peril. Due to the amount of competition within the wizards of this guild, there is often in-fighting which sometimes results in their members killing one another due to the serious nature of the rivalries.

The Fraternal Order of the Surgeons of Hecate – A Surgeons and Healers Guild
The Surgeons of Hecate are only rarely found away from Grand Oryx and are very skilled at all forms of healing. One would presume that the application of leaches is a favorite past time. Consider these fellows to be the healers of choice for those who don't want any messy questions or background checks. They also administers the after life punishment ordained by the state to create "the reborn" from condemned prisoners at “The Factory”. The reborn are some combination of zombie and simulacrum or golem. Despite their power and high status within the state (or maybe because of it) people from the Anvil and in particular around Medea's Gate, Limus Town, Zedemis and the surrounding towns and mountains, simply hate the Surgeons of Hecate and generally view them as necromancers. The appearance of the Surgeons of Hecate often takes on a gaunt and sickly visage, sometimes including open sores. Their skin is usually pale, their facial features are usually drawn and they are seriously creepy in the way that only an undertaker is creepy. They often hire Bleaker Goblins as assistants which does little to improve their image.

They run a borough in Grand Oryx that is well run, safe and very accommodating. You'll never find a more peaceful, well-behaved and law-abiding citizenry than those poor wretches who live and toil in Ghoultowne. The borough is near the Northern edge of the city on a series of small hills and is dominated by three very disturbing temples to Hecate and of course, The Factory. That massive edifice perches on one of the hills and overlooks the rest of the borough. There are no beggars in the street, no hucksters, no whores, no street urchins. At night, when the Reborn come out to roam, patrolling the streets with the Skullguard, most that don't live there beat a hasty retreat to other more accommodating locales.

Following is an eye witness account described in detail by someone who has undertaken nefarious work there on occasion: “Though most think it only a rumor, the Masters really do wander the inky black streets, inns and taverns of the borough after the sun has set. I'm not convinced that they're vampires as the simple folk insist, but they're certainly creepy as Hell, and unlikely to be human. Maybe they once were, I don't know. I do know that taxes are very low there, at least "monetary taxes". The rumors of the blood tax are true though, for I've seen it with my own eyes. I've done some work there and it's a creepy damn place, but this stuff about zombies and skeletons everywhere, I don't know, maybe in the temples, but not on the streets. Honestly, we try to avoid the buggers and I was a bit taken aback to find out how chummy you fellows are with them. That's your business though.”

The Grand Oryx Mining Guild – A Guild of Miners in the areas around Grand Oryx
The Grand Oryx Mining Guild has a presence in most mining towns in Thebos in order to manage their mining operations and holdings. They control most of the mining operations of Thebos that are run by humans and compete primarily with local mining operations and those of controlled by demi human earth dwellers such as dwarves and gnomes. The largest corbitumite mines in all of Thebos are actually located near the Lykaedian backwater towns of Limus Town and Zedemis along with vast deposits of other mineral wealth and the guild has a large presence in both towns. They also have a presence in many other smaller mining towns in the region such as Silverton among others.

The Monastic Order of the Three – A religious Order of Hospitallers
This religious order of monastic hospitallers is a well-respected organization and a fine group to associate oneself with. They hold virtue and the rule of Law above all else. From time to time, healing potions and clerical scrolls can be purchased here. Also, they may be able to help adventurers by casting high level clerical spells but will often require some service or quest to be completed in return in addition to appropriate compensation.

The Promethean House – A very select Wizards Guild
Although very few of them are actually nobles, they simply see themselves as vastly superior to the great unwashed general population, largely due to their wealth, holdings and power. This is a frustrating group to be sure, but not one to trifle with.

OTHER RELIGIOUS ORDERS, GUILDS AND ORGANIZATIONS

The Confessors Guild – A Holy Order that seeks to determine the truth in all matters

The Confessors of the Gods are a holy order of Confessors and Oracles (consisting of NPCs) that seek to determine the truth in all criminal matters. They are both judge and jury but leave the executions to the law enforcement community of the state and locale. The confessors venerate all gods in the primary Greek pantheon and are an integral part of the network of Oracles throughout the land like those found in Winterholm and Herrari.

Secret: Long ago, the guild didn’t have such a lofty station as they do now and were known to deal in wizardry. Since that time, the guild’s relationship with the republic has been elevated and they have risen above the petty squabbling of the other guilds.

The Fellowship of the Aegis – A Religious Order of Paladins

This religious order of paladins worship Athena and aspire and revere wisdom and skill in arms and battle or martial prowess above all else not unlike the samurai warriors of old.

The Hoplites Guild of Athena – An Adventurer’s Guild

The Hoplites is a small select adventurer’s guild that is highly thought of on the Anvil. The guild holds radical beliefs of a rebellious political nature that are not popular in Grand Oryx. The guild has representatives in most major population centers.

Prophets of the Sun – A Zealous Order of Paladins

The Prophets of the Sun are a knightly order of Paladins who worship Apollo and aspire to seek out and destroy any and all evil doers and creatures when and where they are found. The destruction of all that is evil is there reason for being. They pursue these ideals with a feverish recklessness and single mindedness of purpose even at peril to life and limb for they are following the wishes of their god.

OTHER NEFARIOUS GUILDS AND ORGANIZATIONS

The Black Cloister – A Money Lender’s and Thieves’ Guild

The black Cloister has its tendrils of organized crime throughout Thebos and usually has a presence in most cities and larger towns in the region. They are a money lenders guild and a good source of information about the more nefarious activities within many urban population centers if payment is forthcoming. They are also involved in many rackets including protection and gambling. Their symbol is a block tattoo script on the underside of the forearm.

Gatherers of the One True Text – An Evil Cult of Fanatics

After the Elder Gods were put down by Zeus, their religions were stamped out, persecuted and spread to the four winds. The worshippers were forced to give up the open practice of their religions but many continued to worship in secret. During the persecution, their primary religious tomes were destroyed by their enemies whenever they were found. The surviving worshippers managed to save odd bits and pieces of these tomes although very few intact copies of these works are known to have survived the purge.

The Gatherers are a cult of fanatics who are actively seeking out these bits and pieces of what they call “The One True Text” in order to piece it back together in an attempt to bring back the Elder Gods (a.k.a. the Old Ones). One of their symbols is a black onyx goat and their religion often involves unspeakable rites and human sacrifice.

Ivan’s 40 – A small criminal gang in Limus Town

Ivan’s Forty are one of about six small criminal enterprises in Limus Town.

The Lamp Lighters – A small criminal gang in Limus Town

The Lamp Lighters are one of about six small criminal enterprises in Limus Town.

The Ophidian Hand – One of the principle Thieves’ Guilds in Medea’s Gate

The Ophidian Hand is one of the two principal local thieves’ guilds in Medea’s Gate. The group trains horses in the Market District which serves as a front for the Thieves' Guild. They control the north side Market District of town where the open ground and stables are located. They frequently buy and sell magic items among other illicit wares. The competing thieves’ guild is located in the dock district.

Gods and Religion in Averlorn and Thebos

2011-03-08T00:27:00.014-05:00

The world of Averlorn turns to Greek, Egyptian, and Norse Mythology for inspiration. True to those sources, the Gods are a scheming, active bunch here as you will no doubt notice at some point. In Averlorn, as in ancient mythology, bold warriors are chosen by the Gods in their eternal game of heroes and villains.

Open hostilities between faiths are uncommon except along lines of Good vs Evil. On the whole, most of the folk in Averlorn are quite polytheistic, though they might poke fun at the strange views of those who differ from them. The Gods here are far too active to directly insult the faithful or their rituals.

In Thebos where the prevailing human culture is Ardrois (similar to both Greek and Roman), the Greek Gods are most common. Few if any temples to the other Gods can be found with the exception of the demi-human deities which are somewhat less popular even among their own racial groups. Elves being the exception in that they tend to cling to Corellon and other racial deities. The Egyptian Gods hold sway in the Archipelago which lies far to the East.

The Egyptian gods are sometimes worshipped by the remaining populations of Lizard Men or Serpent Men as well, especially the Serpent God Set. In the distant past, the Serpent Men Empire in Leutra stretched over much of the known world. Their greatest cities were swallowed up by the vastness of the Scourge long ago and their once great temples of Bahamut and Tiamat have long since fallen into ruin. The remaining Serpent Men of old have also been known to worship the Elder Gods as well practicing their unspeakable rites often involving human sacrifice in return for the powerful knowledge of the dark and vile sorcery granted to them by the Old Ones.

The religion of the Thugee is based upon the Norse pantheon of old with Odin being the primary deity. The Thugee hold a deep resentment for elves of all sorts and their hatred for giants is unrelenting. Both of these beliefs seem to stem from deeply held religious principles.

The Elder Gods, also known as the Old Ones, were once revered more widely throughout the lands but long ago, they warred with the Titans who defeated them and stamped out their open worship scattering their priests, shrines and worshippers to the four winds. The Titans were in turn put down by Zeus and the rest of his pantheon in another great war that changed the face of Averlorn and created the Scourge and the other land masses that remain today.

Zeus also put down those of the Elder gods that survived the wars with the Titans although some of the remaining Titans and Elder Gods are still worshiped to this day. There still remain some priests and worshippers of these dark gods who practice unspeakable rites and rituals in secret enacted in their hidden shrines. These dark and mysterious cults and other pagan religions can be found in some urban areas, and their followers may worship more openly in distant and more remote rural communities that still follow the old pagan ways.

Averlorn Campaign: The Shrine of Zingalis

2011-03-03T23:00:00.023-05:00

Recap from 2/25/2011

The group made its way back to Medea’s Gate uneventfully with the aid of our new found ranger henchman Taleth Flavius. He suggested the direct route through the forest to the Southeast was the quickest and safest route. Once in Medea’s Gate we met back up with the other adventurers who had to stay behind last time and immediately started planning our next foray to the Wizard’s Tower of Zingalis armed with the knowledge gleaned from our successful scouting mission. We purchased ample provisions and healing potions and set off with the additional members and henchmen to the tower once again.

When we arrived at the tower we immediately noticed that the Cyclops was not at his usual perch next to tower on the inner terrace level inside the circular curtain wall. Asclepius the Elf decided to do some scouting and first cast Invisibility on himself and then cast his Fly spell and took off to reconnoiter the area to see if he could locate the Cyclops or identify any other threats. He flew within the radius of the outer walls of the castle and was careful not to get too close to the oddly shaped black basalt tower in the center in case there were defensive wards around it. He saw no sign of the Cyclops below but did spot what looked like a trail of large footprints heading away from the tower into the woods. He then got a closer look at the Temple or Shrine of Zingalis. He flew inside the open doors to see if he could determine what its occupant was and saw a large Hydra sleeping inside. He returned to report the news to the group.

We decided that since the Cyclops was away it was a good time to take out the Hydra in the temple and set about formulating a plan of attack. We decided that Teth-en-Aire would walk up to the door with Lucias next to him for cover and would cast a magic missile at it in order to lure it out of the shrine. Then the archers would hit it from the flank off to one side while Lucias engaged it in hand to hand combat and the thieves would have an opportunity to back stab it from behind the doors while it was focused on the others. The plan went off without a hitch – the Hydra was burned badly by the first magic missile and was enraged enough to come storming out of the shrine. At that point it knocked Arceus away from the door he was hiding behind thus revealing him but our archers peppered it with arrows from the side and Lucias managed to cut off one or two of its heads and was only being bitten once in return for some damage. The Hydra was dead outside of the steps of the shrine in short order.

So we went through the great bronze doors through the portal into the temple to seek out its treasure within its lair. Soon we gathered up the coins, gems and jewelry that were found inside where the creature was nesting. A giant statue of the Goddess Hecate stood inside the temple at the far end holding a living blue flame torch in one of her large stone arms. On the frieze above the many columns lining the walls was written a litany in the three languages of magic – Brimbahri (Demonic), Promethean (Angelic) and Elvish. It was a prayer to the goddess Hecate the goddess of magic. We found a secret door on one of the heels of the giant statue but couldn’t figure out how to open it. When one of the elves read the prayer aloud in Elvish, the secret door mysteriously opened.

The door led to a narrow staircase leading down deep below the level of the shrine. When we got to the bottom and went down the hallway there, it was completely shrouded in magical darkness after a little ways. We tried lighting torches and pulling out glowing magical weapons to no avail – the darkness remained. So we continued on feeling the walls to the right in the dark until the hallway entered into a room also shrouded in darkness. We followed the wall of the new room a ways until it led into another hallway to the right which, after a ways, was not hidden by the magical darkness anymore. This hallway eventually led into a large rectangular room with a smiling horned demon face sculpture surrounding what appeared to be a blackened portal of some sort. On the frieze of the room above was written a set of runes this time in Brimbahri.

We continued our exploration and found that there were four such rooms of almost identical layout surrounding the central darkened room laid out in a symmetrical fashion. In each was the same smiling demon face and portal but each held a different set of runes written on the frieze of the walls above. The second one was written in Promethean, the third was written in Elvish but the fourth was written in some alien cruel language that none of the elves recognized. This room was also slightly different in that it gave the occupants a very uncomfortable feeling. We found something unusual on the walls of the fourth room as well. It appeared that there was a mural on each side wall that was somehow hidden by an invisibility spell. Arceus blew two doses of his dust of appearance on them and revealed a scene of mind bending horror of a cosmic nature on the first one and a scene of non Euclidean architecture on the second. Also, both murals appeared to contain similar runes to the other alien runes found in this room. This last hall in the shrine was apparently dedicated to the Elder or Outer Gods and the language was no doubt the kind of thing that the Cult of the Gatherers of the One True Text sought after. When Asclepius first tried to read the text on the first mural he was stricken with a cosmic revelation of some sort but said nothing further of the matter – he didn’t sleep well later that night.

There were three Elves present in the group and they agreed that the words were magical in nature and that they would need to cast Read Magic to determine what spells were written there on the wall. So we would have to wait until the next day when they learned that spell to decipher the runes. The group continued searching the shrine, especially the central room that was concealed by the darkness spell. In the center of the room, the rogue Sicarius found a sphere about 12” around that appeared to be above the level of the floor. The odd thing was that when he touched it appeared to move. When he touched it a second time it receded into the floor and then we heard a noise up above that sounded like a door closing. We sent someone up the stairs to investigate and indeed the door above had closed – we were trapped within the shrine!

So we had nothing to do but wait for the Elves to re-learn their spells to try and figure out a way to get out of the shrine of Zingalis. We rested up and the elves learned Read Magic in the morning and Asclepius learned Knock to try and open the door above. When they cast read magic on the magical runes, they found that the Brimbhari runes spelled out a Hold Portal spell, the Promethean runes spelled out a Dimension Door spell, the Elvish runes spelled out a Knock spell and the Elder/Outer god runes contained an Arcane Lock spell. We also determined that the first mural’s runes contained an Initiate Familiar spell – this was a very powerful and little known signature spell of great value to Elves and Wizards alike. Unfortunately, we were out of read magic spells at that point so we couldn’t determine what was written on the second mural.

We were stuck there for another day and spent the night in the shrine uneventfully. The following day, Asclepius learned knock and scribe to try and open up the door to the shrine and to record some of the spells written on the walls in his spell book. After he wrote a few of the spells in his book we discussed our dilemma. Cyrcla seemed to think that the only way to safely travel through the portals and part of the Wizard’s challenge was to learn and cast the spell written above the mouth on the frieze on the portal itself. She also thought it could teleport the caster out of the shrine to some other destination or perhaps just open the way to a room beyond. So rather than cast the knock spell on the secret door above, Aslepius cast it on the portal in the room with Knock written above it in Elvish and then Arceus stepped through the portal. About five minutes later, we heard a grating noise and Arceus came back down the stairs from above informing us that it was him and he had opened the door from the outside. He had been teleported next to the disciples of Zingalis outside the shrine and struck a pose as if he was worshiping him like the orc statues. He was able to open the secret door above because he spoke one of the three languages that the prayer to Hecate was written in.

With a sigh of relief, the group was freed from what may have otherwise been its tomb. We discussed the portals further and some of the others thought that maybe the portals were safe and casting the knock spell on them didn’t really make any difference. So the Cleric Kaira decided to cast an Augury spell to see if Athena could offer any advice on the matter. She cast her spell and asked the question: "If someone were to walk through this portal (in the room with Elvish runes) what would be the outcome?" The goddess would usually answer “Weal” for good or “Woe” for bad but the spell is never really foolproof until the caster is of a very high level. So her goddess answered “Weal”. Sicarius thought this was good enough for him and decided to brave the portal without the aid of any magical castings.

Five minutes went by – then ten minutes and nothing happened. Fearing the worst, Kaira once again cast Augury on the portal and asked the same question and once again her god answered “Weal” indicating a good result if someone were to go through. Arceus was getting concerned for his fellow rogue at this point and asked the question “what if he is hurt or getting attacked and needs our help?” The others didn’t know what to say but feared the worst. So Arceus threw caution to the wind and stepped through the portal putting his trust in the word of Athena. It would be his last act as a mortal for he entered Elysium at that point and found Sicarius also there. They both remarked how peaceful it was and were happy at the amount of treasure that they found – it appeared to be everywhere! The two thieves were in heaven having fallen to one of the Laughing Mage’s fiendish traps!

The group was horror struck – after about twenty or thirty minutes of waiting we determined that they were both probably dead and weren’t coming back. So we headed back up the stairs and made our way to the woods near the shrine to see if we could see the Cyclops again. It had returned at this point but we decided we were going to try and sneak into the smashed gate on the other side and see if we could find its loot in its lair without arousing its attention. We snuck back around through the woods and approached the wall on the opposite side of the keep from where it was sitting and started circling around the wall to the open portal. That’s when we noticed the Cyclops standing outside the wall beyond the gate and looking right at us with its giant eye!

We hadn’t planned for this encounter but knew it was a possibility. The Cyclops appeared to be motioning us away as if telling us to leave his home turf with his giant arm. Some of the others started talking about running and Lucias decided he needed to bolster the confidence of the group by being brave so he found his courage in a bottle. He quaffed his potion of super heroism and thus fortified took off at a dead run right at the Cyclops. He was effectively now a 10^th level fighter and had little to fear from the Cyclops as long as the group had his back. Teth-en-Aire started running behind him and then the archers followed. When Teth-en-Aire was in range of his fireball spell he let it fly and it was a good one – it burned the Cyclops badly. The archers started firing their longbows when they were in range and the Cyclops found itself being hurt before its attackers had even closed with it. It pulled a large creek rock from its bag and threw it at the charging fighter and hit him but it really only took away some of his temporary hit points from the potion so he kept charging undeterred. The second rock missed its target.

The group continued pelting it with arrows and a couple of magic missiles and the Cyclops was hurt badly at this point. He realized his predicament now and started to run but Lucias caught up with him and slowed his retreat landing a powerful blow with Hope Blighter. After another volley of arrows and magic missiles the giant beast fell to the ground with an earth shaking crash. So with the Cyclops defeated we went through the smashed in portal and through the secret door and found the treasure it had hidden away in its lair. We decided that this was a good note to end on after the deaths of two of our compatriots to the fiendish trap of Zingalis the Laughing Mage and started heading back to Medea’s Gate. As we left we thought we heard laughter off in the distance…

TO BE CONTINUED…