Averlorn Campaign: B5 Horror on the Hill

I have to say we had an absolute blast playing this module.  It was tough and we lost some characters but the module is very well written and very light hearted which offset the difficulties we had and made it one of the most memorable dungeon/wilderness adventures I have played in in a long time.  I never played this one as a kid so it was really cool to play and full of all kinds of old school goodness.

I'll post a condensed recap here once I get a chance...

Averlorn Campaign: Idylls of the Rat King

This was our second adventure where the group was hired by the Surgeon's Guild of Hecate in order to clear out a mine that they owned in the town of Silverton.  The mine had been overrun by Goblins and Wererats and was at the center of all of the banditry in the area around the town.  This is also the first adventure where we met our benefactor Marut of the Surgeon's Guild.  Recap to follow...

Averlorn Campaign: The Tomb of the Burning Priest

Recap from July 2010

Our first adventure started out in the town of Artemia. We were hired by a leader of the village to recover a lost artifact from the tomb nearby in the ruins of Old Artemia. The town used to be located there but was moved after the local priest and lord died and began haunting the town, the old temple and the priest’s tomb below. Our employer agreed to pay us 500 g.p. to retrieve a bejeweled golden goblet that had religious and historical significance for the town. He also asked that we give him half of the loot that we found which was kind of lame but we didn’t have another gig so we accepted his offer. It was said that the previous ruler was visited by the gods who told him to build the tomb. He went on to tax his villagers in excess in order to finance the construction of the elaborate temple and tomb below where he was eventually buried. As we found out later, the tomb and what was left there were not as wholesome as they might have seemed at first.

We heard a rumor in the local Inn that said that Father Thomas, the priest who built the temple and tomb, was still burning. We also heard that another group visited the tomb but were scared away upon entering and never returned. We had a few clues to go by – a drawing showing a foot resting on the goblet with several other symbols below including a hill, a tree, some eyes and a few others images but we didn’t know what they meant. As we entered the tomb, a ghostly specter appeared before the group – none other than Father Thomas himself! He was engulfed in fire and told everyone to leave his resting place or face certain death. Everyone in the group aside from the cleric failed their fear save and ran screaming in terror from the tomb. Brummbar stood there facing the ghostly apparition which then simply vanished. He went back outside and collected his terrified comrades who had scattered in several directions and waited until they regained their wits.

The group went back in and as we went further into the tomb we realized that the clues appeared to be coded messages to help visitors avoid the many traps and perils inside. The multiple eyes, for instance, showed the sequence that one had to step on the floor tiles found in one room, in order to avoid the traps set there. The riddle was that there were a bunch of letters on the floor, some of which were "i" so we followed the "i's" (eyes) and made it safely through. Because of all of the traps and riddles, the place had a very Indiana Jones feel. The room in the center of the complex had several murals painted on the walls depicting scenes of Artemia’s lost glory. We found a secret door on one side but couldn’t figure out the clues to defuse the obviously trapped door. Arseus checked the door for traps and didn’t find any but when he opened it he was hit with acid which burned him and some of his stuff but didn’t kill him.

The secret room held a suit of ornate field plate in the center. When we entered the room, the armor came to life and started attacking the group. Everyone was having a hard time hitting this animated armor within the room because it was field plate. We were also having a hard time hurting it when we could hit it and the group was sorely pressed. Things were starting to look grim for the group when Brummbar realized that there appeared to be a zombie inside. He started casting heal spells on the zombie which meant he only had to touch the armor the creature was wearing in order to channel positive energy through which caused it damage. He did this several times and finally killed the foul undead creature. Lucias claimed the field plate after it was cleaned up and we eventually found out that it had damage absorbing properties. This explains why we were having such a hard time killing the zombie within. The group had its first magic item and one still in use today!

We made it through a few more rooms, traps and riddles and eventually found a stone set into the wall of an open shaft with a well below that concealed a smaller shaft. Brummbar, being a stonemason, removed his armor so as not to drown if he fell into the well, and was lowered by rope with a hammer and chisel to remove the obstructing stone from the smaller shaft in the side wall. After it was removed, Arceus climbed through the shaft to end up in a rough dirt chamber that was filled with tree roots. That’s when the living tree attacked. Its roots came to life and grabbed ahold of Arceus, rending and tearing at his skin through his leather armor. Brummbar went in after him to render assistance but only one person could fight the creature at a time and we thought Arceus wasn’t going to make it. Things were looking pretty grim for him but then he rolled a 20 and killed the abomination. We later realized that the last clue on the sheet was a warning about the tree creature – the tree symbol. The creature was the guardian of not only the goblet that we sought but some other treasure as well. We met our employer outside of the tomb and gave him the goblet and half of the loot and he gave us our payment thus successfully completing our first adventure!

It was also here that we found the small locked box which has the ability to cast Protection from Evil once per day. We have ascertained that in order to open the box to find what's inside we need to have a cleric of named level do it for us (a 9th or higher level cleric). We have yet to find a cleric with such qualifications but eventually, we will unlock its secrets...

Current Averlorn Campaign Recaps

The next series of recaps are from our current Averlorn Campaign using Labyrinth Lord Core Rules and Advanced Edition Companion as the game system with some additional house rules.  PDFs of the Core Rules and Advanced Edition Companion can be downloaded for free from Goblinoid Game's web site here:

http://www.goblinoidgames.com/labyrinthlord.html

The house rules including campaign specific racial options can be found on Scadgrad's blog here:

http://savageswordofscadgrad.blogspot.com/

Most of the recaps have been written but I have a few placeholder posts in there for a few that aren't done yet.  I'll post them here when I get a chance.  Most of the action takes place in the Anvil of the Gods - the higher plateau also known as Lykaedia which sits on the lower plateau which contains the country of Thebos.  On a few occasions we have adventured in the Gorgon's Trench but for the most part the campaign is centered on Lykaedia - see campaign map on the Averlorn Campaign page along with additional setting background material located here:

Averlorn Campaign Background Info, Core Rules and House Rules

TOEE Campaign: The Air Temple and The Great Temple

Recap from 6/28/08

Our Bugbear Cohorts led us to a secret door that led to the quarters of the head of the Air Temple.  Gara and Berghoff rushed in and surprised the priest and caught him while he was having his coffee and killed him in a single round (plus the surprise round)!  We looted his stuff which included a Magical suit of armor, a Magic Cloak, a Magic Dagger, a Magical Mace and a mundane Air Temple robe.  When Kieren searched the room he found nothing and moved into another adjacent passage with a flowing fountain which contained a large pile of weapons (armor, weapons, arrows etc.).  We took the arrows and kept searching and Aelf-in-Dur found a very expensive ceremonial robe with a glyph on it (a cassock of silver cloth with gems on it) which appeared to be very valuable in the wardrobe.  At this point the Bugbears were tearing through the rest of the priest's belongings looking for valuables. 

We went into the room with the Gnolls and killed them while their cousins, the Air Temple Bugbears, quickly joined the other Bugbears that were supposedly on the side of the "New Order".  We rewarded the Bugbears with the loot we took from the Gnolls and then asked them where to find the actual Air Temple and they directed us to it.  It turned out to be a central octagonal chamber which was between the other three temples assuming the Water Temple is where we think it is. 

After the group killed the Priest of the Air Temple and the two Gnolls and took their stuff, one of the Bugbears in the newly united group of them asked us:

“Will the new order be taking over the Great Temple?”

We of course replied "yes" even though this was the first we had heard about this "Great Temple".  This created a bit of a stir and the Bugbears began to murmur amongst themselves in Goblinoid.  Most of the group couldn't hear what was said even if they could understand their language but Kieren was invisible and standing right next to them and heard one of them reply quietly:

“We will never see these guys again...”

He also said something about "The Master" but we don't know anything else about this guy yet.  When we asked the Bugbears where the Greater Temple was they said it was "down" on the next level.  It appears that there is more leadership in the complex on the level(s) below than just that of the Elemental Temples that we have been dealing with so far on this level. 

The Air Temple is a large octagonal room with four sets of staircases with short and broad steps below each bronze double door on four sides opposite of each other in the room.  Illumination appeared to be coming from everywhere at once with no apparent source.  The floor is 15' below and is partially obscured by swirling mist.  The ceiling is 40' above the level of the floor and the pierced dome above is a 20' wide circular shaft directly over center of the recessed pit in the floor below.  There is a 2' tall x 4' wide x 8' long alabaster block opposite the door where the burning corridor is which appeared to be a place where sacrifices were made by the Air Priest.  On the block lay a pair of crystal daggers, a bowl of fine crystal and two crystal braziers standing on tripods and filled with incense (all of immense value).  The chained bronze large set of double doors opposite the doors off the fire hallway appeared to have the "Antipathy spell" cast on it as Aelf-in-Dur approached it - he made his save and wasn't totally repulsed by it but felt the affect of the spell.

We explored the room and found 3 secret doors - the first one led up and into the hallway off of the Air priest’s quarters that we had just come from, the second led to a set of steps going down and the third led to a dead-end hallway that contained a Magical Censer of some sort (detected as magical). 

Kieren's miniature dragon familiar then searched the room for loot with his "locate object" ability.  The dragon informed his master that the crystal objects (and especially the two braziers) were of immense value (20,000 g.p. each or something ridiculous like that!).  Kieren started messing with the crystal objects in an attempt to learn the ritual and remove them and managed to summon a very powerful Air Elemental whose winds buffeted the group pretty badly and nearly everyone took damage.  When he stopped messing with the objects, the swirling winds ceased and the elemental went away.  He continued to try to figure out the secret of the ritual and then Berghoff got attacked by what we thought was a wraith and collapsed to the floor at that point.  Aelf-in-Dur fired a magical arrow from his magical bow and killed it with one very well aimed shot.  The fighter turned out to have only lost 20 hit points or so and didn't lose any levels or anything so it was apparently an illusion of a wraith or something that attacked him.

At this point, Kieren (invisible and moving silently) decided to investigate the stairs leading down with the invisible illusionist Faust and Ryn following along a short distance behind.  They walked into a hexagonal chamber with six doors in it (one on each face) and immediately noticed that sounds were amplified in this room.  At this point, a bunch of the doors opened and they were surrounded by four very large trolls!  In the ensuing melee that followed, Faust managed to cast Major Image and summon an Earth Elemental while Ryn was pounded down to the ground and knocked unconscious by the hungry trolls (at -1).  The Earth Elemental did some damage and the rest of the group headed down the steps to aid their beleaguered comrades.  Now that Faust was visible, he was next and knocked unconscious by the trolls (to -9 hits!) and near death.  With Gara and Berghoff barely able to hold back two of the trolls and the other two about to eat Ryn and Faust things were looking grim for the group.  At this point, the invisible Kieren threw all of his magical "Magic Mouth" marbles to scatter on the floor and the room resonated with the sounds of all of the magical voices "hey buddy, watch out behind you", "since we're invisible, we'll just sneak around behind them" etc.  This momentarily distracted the trolls from their snack and allowed Kieren and Aelf-in-Dur to affect a rescue and attempt to bring their two comrades out of the room.

Aelf-in-Dur quaffed a potion of Sanctuary and retrieved the fallen Ryn while Kieren managed to apply some Keoghtom's Ointment to the nearly dead illusionist just in time to save his life and brought him to 0 hits.  After Ryn was saved, Kieren made it through the trolls with the unconscious illusionist and there was much rejoicing.  The Gnome attempted to slay the trolls with his Flamestrike spell on the scroll from the Fire Temple but was overcasting and couldn't manage to get the spell off so the group retreated from that level and returned to the level above.  The group rested up and decided not to revisit the level below in the immediate future.

The next day Kieren returned to the octagonal chamber with the group standing out in the hallway near the Air Priest's quarters.  Kieren tried many things including trying to take some incense from one of the braziers to put into the Censer.  When he did so, smoke started billowing forth and he had to retreat from the room after taking some poison damage from the smoke.  He returned wearing the Necklace of Adaptation and was able to breath the next time he attempted this.  He then heard a spell go off in the center of the room but it took him a little while to figure out it was some sort of teleportation device in the middle of the area of the recessed floor.  We surmised you had to put an appropriate sacrifice into the recessed floor and it would be taken away to wherever but that's about as far as we got.

Kieren then poured a flask of holy water into one of the censers and that action caused a type I demon (a Vrock) to be summoned into existence!  As the two fighters started fighting it, it laid into Berghoff with its many attacks.  Of course, this only pissed off the barbarian who managed to hit it with a savage blow.  It responded by somehow grabbing her by the ankles and flinging her behind it into the room to take 5 dice of falling damage!  As the rest of the group continued fighting the hateful creature, it popped off continual darkness ability and was shrouded in darkness and was very hard to hit since it was practically invisible.  Gara recovered and took advantage of her position behind it in the room and scored another hit with her magical Two Handed Sword.  This only made it madder and it attacked her and flung her into the room behind it again and turned to face her.  Of course, this left the Demon's back exposed and the group finally managed to finish it off and it vanished just as quickly as it had been summoned...

TOEE Campaign: The Fire Temple

Recap from 6/14/08

The group gathered the loot from the Fire Temple guys that we killed last session that we hadn't gathered or recorded yet.  We went through one of the doors and into a room off of the room where the last combat took place.  This room had a fire throne with a cheesy gold painted skull on it and three doors.  We found a secret door behind the throne.  We opened the doors two of which led to the private rooms of the Fire Temple head priest and the curate who we apparently killed last session and took their stuff.  The third door led to a hallway.

We opened the secret door behind the throne and found that it opened into the Fire Temple which had lots of braziers, fire pits and a chime attached to a tube hanging from the ceiling near an elaborate altar decorated with gold (see description in loot totals - and no we didn't mess with the altar).  Before going in, we decided to explore the other passages which appeared to lead to the other bronze double doors in the Fire Temple in case there was an ambush waiting to happen outside the two sets of bronze double doors.  Kieran first did this solo and invisible and explored several large halls one of which was the Hall of Triumphal Evil (see bottom of loot totals thread for contents) which was full of war trophies.  Behind one of the doorways off of a large hall he got a warm fuzzy feeling of peaceful goodness and quickly shut that door being suspicious of anything in this place with that kind of feeling.

Once we found the hallway that led into the Fire Temple, Kieran hid behind the secret door, waiting for escaping enemies from the Temple and the group went through the other passage that led into the Fire Temple.  Faust was up front and saw a fire priest sneaking around behind the double doors looking into the fire temple with his back to us.  He closed the door but when we opened it again the fire priest was gone.

We went down the passage where he was with Aelf-in-dur in the lead who peaked through the double doors into the Fire Temple.  He saw someone peaking through the second set of bronze double doors in the Temple back towards us and melee was joined.  The chief fire priest beat the elf in initiative and got his spell off first - Aelf-in-dur was held and couldn't get his spell off.  Gara and Berghoff went into action and attacked the priest who fell back into the hallway beyond the second set of double doors which happened to be on fire (the hallway).  They took some damage but killed the priest in short order and then the fire in the hallway went out.

After killing the Chief Fire Priest and taking his stuff, we made a lame attempt at trying to figure out the fire temple ritual which involved putting charcoal and oil (which turned out to be anointing oil) into ladles which Kieran and Aelf-in-Dur dropped into the two fire pits near the alter.  This was obviously not the correct ritual because four Fire Salamanders with Mirror Image cast on them emerged from the two fire pits and attacked the group.  During the melee, Aelf-in-Dur wasn't able to get off his defensive spell before melee was joined and ended up getting knocked unconscious while Gara and Berghoff managed to chip away at two of the creatures with Kieran's help, first getting rid of the images then killing those two on the right.  Faust saved the day by casting Major Image and "summoning" a giant earth elemental (like the ones from the earth temple) which helped to kill the two in front of the fallen elf on the left side while the cleric came to his aid.  Between the summoned elemental, the two fighters and Kieran they finished off the last two Salamanders and the battle was over.

Red, the mini dragon (Kieran's familiar), found the Temple's chest hidden in the larger fire pit when Kieran asked it to look for gems in the temple using its locate object ability.  The one gem in there was on the pommel of the magical sword which gave away the chest's location.  The group fell back to Verbobonc with all the loot and Kieran opened the chest with Mage Hand and used Unseen Servant to bypass the trap on the chest (assumed fire trap?) while on the way back.  See loot totals thread for the contents of the Fire Temple chest.  The group returned to Verbobonc to sell stuff and ID magic items and there was much rejoicing...

TOEE Campaign: Into the Temple

Recap from 2/2/08

The group started off where we left it the session before – exploring the upper level of the sinister and gothic looking Temple of Elemental Evil!  We had partially explored the upper floor of the temple proper last session and so picked up where we had left off…

Remnants of the previous battle lay scattered about – glass jars, bone pottery fragments, burned robes.  There were even signs of the attackers attempting to destroy certain alters which had received strong blows and still bore the marks of them.    A huge bronze vessel 8’ in diameter was in the center of the building in front of the main alter and appeared to contain blackened lumps and bones.  A pit in front of the altar revealed a 12” wide ledge beginning 15’ down leading to winding steps leading down into darkness.  Another central stairway led down to a padlocked and apparently warded entry door which had been sealed off some time ago by the invaders.

Within one of the ruined side temples we saw bones and torn brown robes littered on the floor with burned out candle stubs and evidence of the past carnage.  After exploring the upper floor of the original Temple we decided to explore a side staircase near one or the ruined temples in the right hand wing of the building.  As we entered the tunnel complex below with the aid of torch light there was an eerie silence.  We made a few turns and ended up passing a gilded set of double doors that appeared to be bolted from the other side.  After Iggy and Golgoroth examined it and determined this we kept on going.

At this point Golgoroth noticed that the tunnel was slowly sloping downwards.  It got to a point were there was a branch to the left down a wider tunnel and straight ahead the elevation started going back up again.  At this point we turned left down the tunnel apparently deeper into the earth.  We eventually ended up another level down on the second level and turned left.  In the hallway past that point we encountered an Owl Bear that had apparently been chained up in the hallway as a guard.  The group killed the creature in a fierce battle having the advantage of being able to attack it with bows as well as melee weapons.  We searched the area and found some loose coinage stashed inside some trash in the area.

We went into an irregularly shaped room and were attacked by a solitary troll who was hiding amongst the rubbish.  The group quickly dispatched the troll and searched the room finding a barrel of wine and a leather sack containing more loose coinage including a hefty quantity of platinum pieces.  The group checked the next door in this room and eventually opened it up to be confronted by a huge troll which was practically as tall as the ceiling.  The troll said in a guttural voice “Go away and great ugly Troll Chief not eat you”.  The group continued to menace the beast and he said “Go away and I give you this ruby necklace” and he threw a ruby necklace in the direction of the group which Iggy quickly snatched up.  At this point Iggy cast an illusion of another troll using silent image and the great chief began to have a conversation in Trollish with the illusory beast.  He was a bit mystified as to why it wouldn’t do what it was told.

At this point Ryn decided to try to web the great beast.  He succeeded in immobilizing the creature and one of the group quickly threw a torch onto the webs.  The troll shrugged off the fire and the great ugly troll chief just laughed at the group and appeared to be completely unharmed.  Apparently, this troll had some kind of protection from fire or something.  The Knight engaged the troll in hand to hand with his sword and missed.  The next round the troll hit back and scored a crit with one of his three attacks and threw the knight back into Ashe knocking them both on the floor of the room.  Sir Darion was hit so hard that a hole was torn in his magical plate armor.

The Knight slowly got up and tried to resume the parley with the beast.  It noticed Iggy at that point and said something about not being hungry now and for the “sweet meats” (the Gnome Iggy) to come back later.  It went on to say “I help you destroy one of the temples for one fourth of the loot”.  Sir Darion replied “I would guess you would prefer to destroy the fire temple right”?  It said, “It doesn’t matter we just pick one.  I not hungry now so will help you.”  At this point the knight said “We will consider your offer and come back later”.  It replied “I might be hungry later but I have owl bear to eat now” since we had told him that we killed his pet out in the hallway.  At this point the group returned back up into the previous hallway and back to the first level.  Sir Darion realized that we were very deep in the complex and near some of the very temples where active worshippers were doubtless lurking about waiting to ambush intruders.

After returning to explore one of the passageways near the staircase where we had descended earlier we came into a hallway with a padlocked door on the left and another door straight ahead.  Golgoroth tried to pick the lock with no luck so the knight pulled out his mace and started pounding on the lock.  He hit it four times and then all hell broke loose – the door straight ahead opened up and the group was confronted by a group of ghouls!  Sir Darion backhanded one with his mace and Ashe joined into the fray.  We killed a couple and then one of the clerics managed to turn the remaining ones.  After the last of that group fled, anther larger group came in the door.  We fought them for a round or so and then one of the clerics managed to turn the larger group too.  We followed the retreating monsters in pursuit through several rooms that led to other rooms all with doors.

After about the third room we caught up with them.  There were also a couple of different looking ghouls in there as well.  Immediately, the group members up front had to save to resist the foul stench permeating from the newest group of creatures.  We didn’t know it at the time, but these weren’t ordinary ghouls – they were ghasts!  The clerics tried and failed to turn this group of creatures.  The knight managed to kill one of them but it turned out to be one of the last ordinary ghouls in the pack.  The remaining ghasts pounced on the knight and Ashe who bore the brunt of the attack.  They managed to hold off the creatures for a round or so and then three of them turned on Ashe and they managed to paralyze him with their claws.  He was further out in the room than the knight and was surrounded on three sides.  The knight and squire behind them tried in vain to hack at the remaining ghasts to no avail – they tore the helpless Ashe to shreds and started feasting on his extremities.

At this point, the knight didn’t want to retreat and lose all hope of recovering Ashe’s body so he stood his ground and tried to fend off the creatures.  By this time the group had turned its attention to the knight and managed to paralyze him too.  Viggo, the knight’s squire, pulled the unmoving knight from the front line and out of further danger.  At this point there were two ghasts left in the room while the other two had departed to try to outflank us in the hallway.  Seeing the desperation of the situation, the group fell back to the doorway and contemplated what to do.  Both fighters were out of action and Ashe’s body was being torn to shreds by the creatures – but it looked like they were protecting and nurturing the body two.  That’s when the true horror of the situation dawned on Aeth El Bar – he said “they intend to make him on of their number”.

As the remaining group fought off the last two ghasts and contemplated closing the door to retreat, Aeth El Bar began casting a spell.  He cast Sanctuary and walked into the room in the midst of the ghasts and pulled the mauled corpse of Ashe out of the room.  At this point, the group fought off the ghouls with Geth Rel Dane’s war dogs and managed to close the door and beat a hasty retreat.  As they hastened down the hallway, they saw the other two ghasts that had departed earlier.  The group had only narrowly managed to escape without being trapped between the two groups of creatures.

The group retreated to Nulb and immediately went to go see Mother Scring the town’s healer.  They explained that Ashe had been killed by ghouls and we needed her help.  She asked where this happened and the Knight said “in yon evil temple”.  We offered to pay her to help us keep Ashe from being transformed into one of the undead.  We paid her 300 g.p. for the spell and then returned to Verbobonc post haste.  We went to see the Druid by the river in the city and he cast reincarnation for the second time on Ashe’s ruined body.  This time, the new body that Obad Hai offered up was not humanoid but was in fact a wild boar!  The Battling Boar of Bissel!

TO BE CONTINUED…

TOEE Campaign: The Temple Grounds

Recap from 1/5/2008

The group returned to Homlett from Verbobonc and dropped off the loaned wagon to the people we borrowed it from and the horses at the stable at the Inn of the Welcome Wench.  We had a new addition to the group, a mercenary hireling fighter by the name of Morley Sorenson who had been hired in Verbobonc.  Sir Darion and the rest of the group ran into Rufus at the Inn and the Lord Protector implied that Byrn was not convinced that our group was really looking out for the interests of Homlett but in fact were just mercenary adventurers looking for loot like so many groups before.  Sir Darion tried to convince him that this was not the case and that his group was in fact here to scout out rumored evil activity at the TOEE but he said that it would take more than that to change the wizard's mind.  We stocked up on provisions and left on foot for Nulb to investigate any signs of a return of cult activity at the Temple of Elemental Evil.

We learned that the Velverdyva River, which the river in Nulb dumps into, was notorious for river pirates of all sorts.  The small river is navigable and one can go north down its course and enter into the much larger Velverdyva River where large amounts of river born commerce and piratical activity take place.  We also learned that the Boatsman’s Tavern and the Nulb Market sit right next to the port’s dock area in Nulb where most of the boat transport activity was taking place on the smaller local river.  Upon entering the godforsaken town we observed that it contained filthy and ramshackle buildings and was mostly populated with boatmen and fishermen. 

The group passed through Nulb and searched for a suitable campsite to stay at outside of Nulb and the TOEE.  After one was located we went on to the Temple itself and decided to reconnoiter the perimeter of the ruined walls and work our way outward to explore the area around the temple.  As we approached one of the corner towers which somehow appeared intact, the group was ambushed by 13 brigand archers with longbows concealed in cover near the walls!  A pitched battle was fought after we closed with them and Ryn managed to put most of them to sleep and all of the others were defeated in combat and went down except for one, their leader.  Seeing most of his men out of action he decided to flee.  The knight looked at Emran and said “go after him”.  He didn't want word of our intentions to reach the ears of our enemies in Nulb.  Those would be the last words the knight would ever say to his comrade.  Ashe and a few others followed along as best they could but couldn’t keep up with the speed of the half orc.  When he found their location he heard the sounds of a pitched battle.  By the time he found him he was dead and some of his prize possessions had been looted from his body.  The area around Nulb and the Temple is indeed a dangerous place.

The group mourned the loss and deliberated about what to do.  We didn’t want to go through the streets of Nulb with our tails between our legs carrying a dead party member so we decided to have the Ranger swim the small river with Emran’s body in tow.  He was still invisible from when Ryn had cast it on him previously.  He got across the river and stumbled into a camp of six bugbears on the other side!  Seeing the futility of trying to fight his hated enemy at such long odds he swam back across the river with the body in tow.  The bugbears saw the body being towed through the water by something they couldn't see and came closer to investigate.  They started swimming the river to get to it and at this point, Ashe let it go near the bank hoping to retrieve it later and fled.  After he got away, the Bugbears swam over to the area and searched but couldn’t retrieve it either.

Meanwhile, the group was heading back up the other bank to meet up with Ashe and Emran’s body and walked straight into the same group of Bugbears!  They caught most of the group by surprise and we were assailed from three sides with the two fighters mostly surrounded and two other bugbears threatening the two wizards in the middle of the group.  A ferocious hand to hand combat ensued and Ryn managed to fall back near Iggy while Golgroth moved up to stand beside Aeth El Bar against the monsters on the flanks of the group.  Seeing the desperation of the situation, Iggy cast Darkness on top of the Bugbears and everything went black for everyone inside the radius of the spell.  Upon seeing this (or not seeing it) Sir Darion ordered the group to fall back.  As we withdrew from the blackness we made our getaway.  Iggy even managed to cast Dancing Lights in the form of a silhouetted humanoid heading through the forest away from us to draw the Bugbears away from our trail.  We met up with Ashe at this point and he told us what happened.  We sadly made our way back to Homlett.

When we returned to the town we ran into Elmo at the Inn.  He told us he had been busy defending the town from the creatures that still inhabited the Moathouse and had even managed to recruit others of his order to help him in the fight.  The Knight asked him if he would return with us to the Temple but he said that his place was in Homlett so we departed without him.  Before leaving we stopped off to see Jaroo and asked him if he could help out with healing for those that were still wounded from the previous day’s battles.  He agreed and also introduced us to Geth-Rel-Daen, a half elven Druid who agreed to accompany us to the Temple.

We set out in a driving rain and made our way through Nulb without any problems.  While traveling through a wooded area on the way to the temple we ran into a large group of Gnolls (ten or so).  Nobody was surprised and Geth-Rel-Daen acted swiftly and cast entangle on the surrounding undergrowth which grew and managed to immobilize about half of them.  The other half got entangled while trying to get out of the living undergrowth.  Ryn also managed to put some of them to sleep as well.  The Druid issued the warning “Leave these woods and never return or the spirits of the forest will be much less forgiving.”  Rather than risk fighting them and becoming entangled ourselves, we decided to move on in the hopes that they would heed the warning.  We couldn’t fire missiles at them because the rain rendered the archer’s bowstrings useless so we continued on towards the Temple again.

We returned immediately to the tower.  There was no visible door on the outside so Iggy scaled the ruins of the perimeter wall and threw over a rope for the others to get across and into the perimeter of the Temple.  When we got to the other side we found a stout door below and two ravens watching us from above on top of the tower.  Iggy’s curiosity was piqued so he threw a stone up towards them.  To his and the group’s amazement the ravens began growing in size and then swooped down to attack the party.  After a few rounds of melee combat, the giant ravens were dispatched.  Ryn was very interested in having a giant raven feather cloak and began pulling feathers out of them.  Iggy went to peer into one of the arrow slits with the use of his darkvision and told us he saw men moving around inside.

Ashe spoke up and began to lecture Ryn on the proper way to make a giant raven cloak (by skinning the creature) and suddenly we were attacked from within the tower by arrow fire!  The group withdrew over towards the wall some distance away to decide on a plan of attack.  Ryn and Iggy went back towards the tower and took up positions on either side of the arrow slits.  Sir Darion and Morley ran to the door and started trying to knock it in but soon discovered it was a very sturdy oak reinforced door and wouldn’t budge.  The rest of the group withdrew to the cover of some stones further inside the perimeter towards the temple to avoid the arrow fire.

Ryn cast web inside the arrow slit on the left and soon we heard men shouting in frustration as they became entangled.  Then we heard them screaming in pain as their companions tried to burn them out of the webs.  Iggy quaffed his potion of Protection from Arrows and Geth-Rel-Daen cast warp wood on the door which finally allowed the two fighters to get it open.  The archers fired at Iggy who taunted them from beyond the warped door in full site knowing he was protected from arrows by the potion.  This served to be an effective diversion since they all fired at him and missed and the knight and fighter went in through the portal.  When they got inside, they faced a line of three men two deep (six total) with spearmen in the back row and many others behind them at the opening beyond the foyer (around twenty men total).

The knight moved in and was able to use his armor to his advantage in this situation to hold off six attackers at one time in the narrow opening while Morley backed him up with a spear as a reach weapon behind him.  It had occurred to Darion that ceilings of entry halls like this one often hold some kind of murder holes where defenders could pour boiling water or burning oil down on the heads of attackers.  While he was contemplating that thought, the ceiling caved in and knocked everyone in there down wounding them in the process and filling it with an impenetrable layer of dust.  As the dust cleared and the victims groggily got to their feet, the fight was resumed.

Darion and Morley managed to take a few of them down without being hurt too bad and then the Druid cast Charm Person on one of the defenders in the middle of the line.  He failed his savings throw and now believed that we were good friends and couldn’t understand for the life of him why his companions were attacking us.  So he decided to turn on them and managed to kill the guy next to him and one or two further back before being dragged down by the men in the back of the tower.  As the number of defenders gradually dwindled we were left facing two hardened leader types wearing plate armor.  They proved to be hard to hit but were eventually brought down.  As the survivors were given the “dagger of mercy”, Ryn found the one who had helped us and tied him up for questioning so that he wouldn't be dispatched with the others.  He told us that there was plenty of food in the rafters and that their leader probably had plenty of loot hidden somewhere in his chambers.  He also told us that their leader “Bob” was rumored to have had a secret escape somewhere in his room or in the tower and had left the fight before his men had been overwhelmed.  He also told us that he had some way of making the ravens on top of the tower appear smaller than they actually were.  We surmised that perhaps this was the same brigand that had killed Emran the day before and made a mental note to remember his face…

TO BE CONTINUED...

The Temple of Elemental Evil Recaps

The next round of recaps is from our Temple of Elemental Evil campaign in 2008.  We started out in the Moat House and after much tough fighting, we finally managed to clear out the Bandits and Lareth and his other henchmen and monsters from the majority of the dungeon below it.  If I did write any recaps from this period they were deleted when the Battle Buddies forum was pruned.  I didn't get a chance to save them so these recaps start up as we first started exploring the actual Temple of Elemental Evil itself.  There are gaps from the first two to the last two (probably never written) and after the final recap the group fell apart and stopped playing but it was still a fun game nonetheless.  This is the campaign where I had several déjà vu moments from playing in the Village of Hommlet and the ToEE module below when I was a kid.  See the re-discovering Old School D&D post below for more info on that...

Tales of Braxus: The Deep Places of the Earth

Recap from 1/15/2005

While adventuring deep in the bowels of the Lost City of Barakus, the group made its way into a very large and sprawling cavern.  Here, they encountered a massive multi headed Hydra and fierce combat ensued.  Hraal managed to sneak around its flank while the rest of the group engaged it and its many heads from the front.  After the rest of the group managed to cut off several of the heads, Hraal managed to backstab the creature doing double damage and finally killing the massive beast.  After the combat, the group split up to look for loot.  The wizard found a magical sword in one corner on a long dead adventurer and the rest of the group found various other items of treasure as well.

This is when the hidden Duergar chose to attack, however, catching the group totally by surprise.  We were still wounded from the encounter with the Hydra and had no idea the cruel and evil dwarves were hiding nearby, using their ability to blend into the dark and shadowy stone cavern walls so efficiently.  We found out later that they had been trapped in the Lost City, unable to return to their subterranean kingdom.  The presence of the Hydra prevented their exit to their dark underground realm through the passage on the other side of the large cavern which was its lair.  Since we hadn’t had time to heal our wounds after the encounter with the Hydra, more than one character was knocked unconscious in the initial surprise attack.  Eventually, Master Ho, Quan and Eltherian were all down while the wizard picked up the sword and tried to defend himself as best he could.  He too eventually fell to their blows and soon enough it was only Hraal the Reaver that stood against a rather large group of evil dwarves.

The dwarves began looting the fallen adventurers and made off with some of their gold and magic items while their leader, a warrior priest, pointed at Hraal and said with an evil grin “I will take care of this one”.  A fierce one on one combat ensued with the well armored priest pounding on the Hudan barbarian and the barbarian returning his blows with both broadsword and hand axe.  The blood rage of the berserker was upon him and after both opponents took blow after blow from each other, the full fury of the barbarian eventually brought the cleric down with a savage blow that crushed the priest’s skull into a bloody pulp.  Covered with blood and gore, Hraal held both sword and axe high and screamed triumphantly at the remaining dwarves with all of his primal fury.  The dwarves, seeing their leader fallen and a blood stained and blood mad berserker challenging them to fight on, decided that discretion was the better part of valor and beat a hasty retreat out of the tunnel on the opposite side of the cavern that we had yet to explore.

Hraal took stock of the situation and used a healing potion to heal Master Ho, our Spirit Shaman healer first so he could then heal up the rest of the group as necessary. Amazingly, none of the others were dead but merely unconscious and were soon brought back to life by the Balduin healer.  We cursed our carelessness at having been caught off guard by the dwarves and decided that we should pursue them to try and regain our lost magic items.  The group followed the winding cavernous hallway that they had retreated through for a long time.  The tunnel just kept on going until we thought that perhaps we had left the lost city altogether.  Since we didn’t have a dwarf with us we couldn’t tell how far we had gone or if the passage was sloping down.

Eventually, we came to a large natural stone cavern that dwarfed the previous one in comparison.  At the other end of the cavern was an old woman that begged us for aid.  As we approached, the old hag attacked us and combat once again ensued.   We eventually overcame the evil hag but a few more of us were wounded in the encounter.  We decided to push on into the next passage convinced that the evil dwarves and our lost magic items couldn’t be that far away.  It was a fatal decision that those who survived would later regret.

We entered the next subterranean cavern and were surprised by a group of four hungry trolls.  Three of the four trolls attacked the barbarian in front with three attacks each and the other one pounced on the surprised Master Ho with its claws and fangs.  To make matters worse, the trolls then won the initiative the next round and after another four claw, claw, bite attacks they were busy devouring the remains of the unfortunate barbarian and spirit shaman.  Seeing their front line go down so quickly, the rest of the group did what they had to in order to escape the hungry beasts.  Three of the trolls were busy devouring the legs and arms of the fallen adventurers but one gave chase eager for another kill to add to their grisly feast.

Quan polymorphed himself into a unicorn and distracted the troll long enough for Elthyrian to beat a hasty retreat and then followed suit while the wizard cast invisibility on himself and also retreated down the hallway from whence they had come.  They eventually made it back to the surface above the lost city and back to civilization.  And so passes Hraal the Reaver and his faithful companion Master Ho from the world of Braxus into the halls of Valhalla.  Many a tale of the brave Hudan warrior and his stalwart Balduin companion is sung to this day in smoky taverns by the bards of Braxus praising their adventurous exploits in Hammerstad and the fabled Lost City of Barakus.

Eventually, the remaining members of the group recruited a new fighter to lead them in their quest for the sword of Kel in the lost city.  His name was Wolfric the Wild, a stout human fighter from Dortland decked out in wolf skins who fought fiercely with his great axe against the denizens of the Lost City.  And thus the mighty adventurers concluded their exploration of Barakus when they finally retrieved the sword of Kel from its subterranean resting place. The fate of the sword and its finders is the subject of a future tale that is, as yet unwritten...

Tales of Braxus: The Lost City of Barakus

Recap from 10/8/04

The game started off with final conversions from 3.5 to C&C.  That didn't take too long and we started the session with only two players but four total functional characters in the group.  Since Eltherion was poisoned in the last session we decided to head back to the hamlet to rest up before returning to Barakus.  While there we found out that there was a Dortish Duke marching on Hammerstad with an army and most of the Hudan were answering the call to muster to face the invasion.  The Hyalmar were not nearly as enthusiastic being of primarily Hannite origin.  I think we know whose side they will be on.  Also, we found out that the motivation for the invasion had something to do with the Hudan desecration of their sacred Hannite temple.  Of course the Hudan priests actually blessed it with their presence!

While en route to Barakus the group was attacked by six Fomorri warriors on a side path adjacent to the road.  We made quick work of them and headed towards the ancient city.  Once inside we decided to explore the tunnels near the goblin lair which we had taken out in the previous expedition.  We entered a low ceilinged crypt room which had been looted of all valuables including the bodies.  In a false bottom in one of the sarcophagi Hraal found a recently made secret door that led down a tunnel via a ladder.  We closed it up for future inspection and kept exploring.

We followed the tunnel to the right until we heard some monstrous noises including the scraping of talons on stone.  We decided to investigate the noises and proceeded down the corridor.  Much to our chagrin we were surprised by a young black dragon!  It got the drop on us and sprayed us all with acid.  Immediately Nevyruhl collapsed into a heap on the ground.  With everyone still smoking from the acid and obviously hurt Hraal picked up the elf and withdrew from combat.  Eltherion and Master Ho promptly did the same.  We know where it lives and can come back and take it on our terms when we are ready.

After Master Ho healed the injured, we returned back to the main chamber and turned into the hallway opposite the entrance hall.  We could hear noises ahead from some inhabitant in the room.  Hraal dropped his torch and attempted to move silently down the corridor and hide in the shadows to set up an ambush.  Unfortunately he has not learned how to use his ability to hide effectively yet and he was spotted by a Fomorri barbarian residing in the room with two huge mastiff guard dogs.  He began speaking to Hraal and told him that he was an outcast from his people and came here to find some magical axe.  He also said we couldn't enter his chamber and especially didn't like our elven companions.  Hraal left his company and we resumed our exploration.

We went back through the crypt room and started exploring the tunnels to the left of where we encountered the dragon.  We explored a cave around a subterranean lake and encountered a group of giant beetles which we quickly dispatched.  After that we entered a series of tunnels off of the lake cavern.

We eventually came across a den of kobolds who tried to trap us in a net trap as we entered their lair.  Both Hraal and Eltherion deftly stepped away as the net went up.  Hraal got pelted with a half dozen missile weapons and then we closed in melee.  While we were fighting them Master Ho cast a spell in the background.  Out of the ground came a swarm of spiders that started devouring the hapless kobolds where they stood.  We finished off the remaining ones and stepped away lest we be devoured by the swarm of insects as well.  After healing our wounds from combat we ended the session - we didn't even search the room for treasure (it was getting late).

Overall C&C made the game run very smoothly - the combats took half the time they would normally take and there were very few pauses to look in the rulebook for anything.  I would have to say it was a smooth transition with very few bumps in the road along the way.

Tales of Braxus: The Queen with Burning Eyes

Recap from 10/15/04

The group went back into the dungeon located in the ruins near Old Town in the rough part of town across the river.  We moved the now familiar rock and went down through the hole in the floor of the room there to continue our exploration.  We went down some passages to an area we hadn’t explored yet and heard voices up ahead.  Our sorcerer cast ghost sound to create the sound of a large group of soldiers marching up the hall towards the room but the men in the room paid it no mind and said something to the effect of “its about time you guys showed up” meaning they were expecting others.

We sent Malik to investigate and report back with what he saw.  He quietly snuck up to the entrance to the room ahead and as he looked in, an unusual spectacle was there before him.  It was Vestan Irsimul in a large and ornate chamber chanting some unknown ritual in an obscure language in front of a hole in the floor.  It looked like he was trying to summon something.  Seeing his chance, he loosed an arrow at our former employer since it was now obvious that he was some sort of evil necromancer and clearly up to no good.  To his surprise, the arrow bounced harmlessly off of his armor worn below his robes (we found out later he was wearing plate mail).  At this point, the screams of pending combat reached the group and we charged into the room to engage the enemy.  We fought with Vestan’s cronies while he kept chanting.

Eventually, we overcame his men but at about the time the last one was killed, something started slithering out of the hole in the floor.  It was some kind of large snake with the head of a woman – he had summoned a Naga from the realm of shadow!  So the group shifted its focus to fighting the Naga and Vestan.  We fought the hideous creature taking many grievous wounds while wounding it in turn and did our best to avoid its terrible gaze.  The battle with Vestan wasn’t going as well since, as we found out, he was wearing plate mail and was very hard to hit.  That’s when our sorcerer cast his Grease spell below Vestan’s feet and he slipped and fell into the pit screaming in terror “AAAIIIYYYEEEE!”.  We turned our full attention to the Naga and Hraal finally killed it with a savage flurry of blows.

After the combat, we took stock of our surroundings.  The room appeared to be some sort of throne room but the hole in the floor disappeared into a swirling dark and shadowy mist below.  Our sorcerer pointed out that this was no doubt a portal to the plane of shadow and that Vestan was summoning the Spirit Naga from the other side.  We were just glad that he was now residing in the plane of shadow with the rest of the shadow creatures if he yet lived…

Tales of Braxus: Into the Hole Again

Recap from August 6, 2004

We met back up with Malik and decided that it was time we continue with our quest to find the body of Vestan Irsimul’s friend since he had, after all, paid us to complete that task.  We also decided that going after the green tree bandits for the reward could wait until we finished the work of our first employer.  So we geared up and headed across the bridge to Old Town with the Hudan mercenaries in a torrential downpour.  After we crossed the bridge we were approached by a familiar figure dressed in skins to protect him from the rainy weather.  It was Yorgi the Hyaalmar bard who led us to the Hovel before we went down the hole the first time.  He told us that Vestan Irsimul wanted to speak to us before we went back underground because of “recent developments”.  We had been gone for two days after all – a lot could have happened in that time especially because of all the loot we had been selling recently after returning from Old Town.  These “recent developments” could involve some form of competition.  Malik made the comment that some other group or groups could be trying to “muscle in on our action”.  He also told us that the tunnels were flooded from the recent rains and said that Master Irsimul “forbade us” from entering the ruins.

We also noticed that the whole time he was talking to us that he kept looking over his shoulder as if he suspected someone was watching him and us – this struck us as odd.  We also asked him why the lock on the hovel, which he gave us the key to, didn’t work and told him of being attacked by brigands who crashed through the bogus lock with ease.  His only reply to this implied accusation of complicity in the attack was “it’s a rough neighborhood”.  We told him we would meet Vestan at the usual Inn at the time of the evening meal and that we had to go to the hovel to “check on something”.  With our suspicions aroused about these unusual developments we decided we were going to go to the tunnel entrance and check it out to see if we could discover anything unusual.  Of course since Vestan forbid it only made us want to go even more.  We found that the rock covering the entrance had been closed and opened several times and that many people had passed through it in the last few days.  We went further in to discover that the tunnels were in fact not flooded and that whoever had engineered the complex in the past had designed it so that the water could drain out without flooding the upper room at least.

Malik dropped into the hole in the floor in the first room with the lantern.  When he hit the floor he noticed some kind of undead creature nearby so he put down the lantern, turned invisible and withdrew to the corner.  The creature smashed the lantern and started looking for him.  Meanwhile, above the hole, Hraal managed to get a torch lit and climbed into the hole followed by Master Ho and the Hudan warriors.  We quickly dispatched the ghoul or whatever it was and decided to explore a few of the other passages.

The first one led to a rubble-strewn room.  As Malik, Carl and Snurri entered they quickly became entangled in spider webs.  That’s when Malik noticed the giant spider in the corner of the ceiling.  The Hudan warriors that could see it threw their spears and Carl shot his bow at it peppering it with missile fire.  It attacked and managed to bite Carl and Snurri before we finally finished it off.  Fortunately, the stout Hudan warriors were aided by their great stamina and were not affected by the poison.  We gave Carl the antidote to help him because he was starting to look a little green.  In the webs of the room we found a bunch of copper coins, a gold plated hourglass and a finely crafted dwarven greataxe encrusted with runes.

We picked up the loot and moved on.  In the next passageway, several missiles struck Malik after he rounded a corner.  He came back to tell us that he was under attack from something that sounded like small dogs yipping.  Carl entered the hallway and was showered with missiles, a few of which struck him.  The rest of the group entered the hallway with a few of them entering an alcove with a door in it for cover.  After several exchanges of missile fire, Hraal and the Hudan warriors entered the room and slew the small dog like creatures.  While this was going on, the door in the alcove opened and poor Carl was hit with some kind of a magical projectile spell from the doorway – he staggered back into the hallway for cover barely managing to stay on his feet and the door closed back up.  Malik reached around the doorway in the alcove and kicked the door back open.  Right after he did this he narrowly avoided being chopped in half by a swinging axe trap, which came out of the walls at both sides of the alcove.

They called for reinforcements and the warriors, master Ho and Hraal entered the room to deal with the last of the small dog like creatures, one of which was obviously a spellcaster.  Hraal threw an axe at the spellcaster and missed.  The spellcaster cast his magical missile at Hraal and singed his eyebrows a little bit.  Hraal dropped his other axe and rearmed with the newly acquired greataxe.  He swung the mighty weapon and splattered the remains of the spellcasting creature all over the walls behind it – there was barely anything left.  The one remaining creature curled into a ball on the floor and began whimpering and salivating, obviously petrified.  Malik knocked it unconscious with his sap.

Master Ho cast detect magic on the remains of the spellcaster and noticed that a ring on one of the fingers of the badly mangled body was in fact magical.  He also noticed that the great axe, which Hraal carried, was magical as well.  Also in the room we found a finely ornamented chest, which alone would fetch a handsome price at the markets.  Inside the chest we found a couple of hundred gold pieces.  Since it was mid afternoon at this point we decided to return to the city with the loot and clean ourselves up before we were to meet with Vestan Irsimul to see what he had to say.  Rather than taking the bridge and attracting attention carrying all of this stuff back we decided to hire a boat to take us across the river back to the other side.

It could very well be that the “recent developments” were caused by the group returning from the underground with loot that was openly sold in the city.  This has probably aroused the interest of other “treasure hunters” who have entered the ruins in recent days.  The group decided that we would have to be more discreet both in returning to the city with treasure and with how it was sold off afterwards.  Hraal thought that we should attempt to disguise the loot and/or take a boat across the river to return to the city.  He also thought that Malik should attempt to dispose of any loot we acquired at a local fence since they are naturally more discreet about that sort of thing.  We might not get as much money for the treasure but we also wouldn’t fan the rumor mill of the city of vast riches to be had in the underground ruins in Old Town.  We also thought it was a good idea to attempt to gather information at the local taverns to try and discover what sort of rumors about the ruins, other treasure hunters and our group may be circulating in the city.  We thought that we could discover who some of our rivals were in this way.

At this point, Hraal was very suspicious of Vestan and Yorgi.  Yorgi led us to the hovel with the bogus lock and gave us the key and we were accosted that very night by thieves who could very well have been his accomplices.  Vestan on the other hand, was obviously covering something up from the beginning.  Now he is telling us that he “forbids us” from entering the ruins without his permission.  In addition, Yorgi’s or Vestan’s tale of the ruins being flooded was an obvious lie to keep us from going down there – there was no flood.  We will listen to what Vestan has to say but at this point Hraal has had about enough of his lies and deception and is tempted to give him his hundred gold pieces back and tell him that if we do find his friends body, not only will we loot it but we will let it rot in the dungeon where it lay.  So we prepared ourselves to meet our current and possibly former employer.

Tales of Braxus: The Fool’s Path

Recap from July 31, 2004

Our heroes started play by divvying up shares from the group purse (75 g.p. each including Malik)  and spending some time at the markets to sell old stuff and buy new equipment.  Tyco went to see the witch Mya in order to have the potions we found at the hovel identified.  One was a potion of invisibility, one was a potion of Owl’s Wisdom (which was given to Hraal in case we come up against a spell caster) and the last vial was an antitoxin against poison.

After the bartering and purchasing was completed the group decided to go to the Green Griffon Inn off of the trader’s road to see if we could find out some information about the reward for the bandit’s that have been plaguing the area around the fool’s path.  Hraal suggested to Tyco that he recite some of the Hudan sagas in order to gain some friends among the many Hudan warriors that frequented the tavern.  Tyco told the saga of how Cullincar slew the great bear to the delight and amusement of the crowd.

Meanwhile, Hraal struck up a conversation with a Hudan warrior named Fafnir.  An attractive young woman named Penelope eventually approached us.  At this point Fafnir told me he would have nothing to do with her and suggested the same to me and walked away.  Hraal decided to see what she wanted since she was a comely woman and he was handsome in a way that only a Hudan woman could see.  She first said that she had some skills in telling the future, giving a few examples of things she had predicted that came true.  She also said that she was soon to be accepted into the local coven of witches in the city.

Then she proceeded to tell a story of how her husband had gone missing and implored Hraal to help her find him.  She apparently had a dream that he was still alive and in distress.  Later she had another dream that he was alive but with a dark companion at the bottom of a great cavern.  She gave Hraal a description of him – 6’ tall with thinning blond hair and told him that he was very skilled in the arcane arts and taken to wandering ruins and such in search of lost treasures and artifacts.  She then offered us 50 gold crowns if we could find him.  Hraal asked her to give him some more information like where she last saw him or where he might have been exploring but all she could tell him was she last saw him at home.  He explained to her that that wasn’t much to go by and tried to assure her that the group would look for him during our adventures.  She got upset because she thought he wasn’t going to help her and ran off crying.

Meanwhile, Raghnaal was talking to the bartender Barnkey.  The bartender told him under hushed whispers that the man buying provisions at the bar was in fact the notorious leader of the Green Tree Bandits in disguise.  This was the same man that Strom Ironhand, the local Hudan Warlord who rules the Trade Road area, had posted a reward for dead or alive (500 gold crowns).  The man finished up his business and left the tavern quietly.

Meanwhile, Tyco was telling another Saga, this time about how Cullincar, the greatest warrior of the Hudan people, slew some giants in one of his adventures.  The Hudan warriors greeted this with great applause upon its completion.

The group of warriors that seemed the most interested in the sagas were friends of Fafnir’s who Hraal was talking to earlier.  The others in the band were Carl, Snurry, and Ivar.  After Raghnaal told Hraal of the recent visit by the leader of the green tree bandits we decided to try to go after him and collect the reward.  Hraal and Master Ho stepped outside to try to find his trail.  Meanwhile, Tyco and Raghnaal negotiated terms of employment for hiring the mercenaries to assist us in the chase.  After some haggling they agreed to come along after being paid some money up front for their services and a share of the reward.

The group left the inn hastily with their newfound band of Hudan warriors.  Master Ho had picked up the trail and the chase was on.  Shortly before nightfall we spotted some smoke ahead and went to investigate.  We found a burned out hovel, obviously recent victims of the bandits.  We followed the trail as far as we could until nightfall and then made a cold camp.  At first light we tried to pick up the trail but had difficulty because of the recent rain.  We made it to the Merchant’s Arms Inn in the next Hamlet up the road at around mid morning only to find that our quarry had probably left there earlier in the morning.

To avoid attracting too much attention the warriors decided to enter after the sorcerer and the bard.  Hraal offered to buy them a hot meal if they would wait a little while before entering.  When they entered, they decided that it was time to live it up since someone else was paying the tab.  Two of the men were fighting over which one would get the tavern wench, which they had forcibly detained.  As they began sparring, she ran screaming from the tavern along with the rest of the hired help.  After much raucous behavior, including the breaking of tables and chairs, we then asked the bartender if he could help us with some provisions.  He agreed to give us some bread and sausages if we would leave his establishment immediately.  We heartily accepted his offer to the dissatisfaction of our two young bear cubs who wanted to continue with their wrestling match.  Hraal had to remind them that they were under our employment and should act with a little more restraint in similar circumstances in the future.

We set off in pursuit of the bandits with little luck trying to pick up their trail.  We decided to continue until we found the fool’s path and then we would be able to try to find their trail again which we did.  We went a ways up the rough path, which was little more than a badly rutted dirt road.  We passed a group of traveling fishermen who quickly skirted our heavily armed group fearing for their lives.  After searching for the tracks with limited success we finally had to stop for the night.  We made a camp off the path and set up our watches and proceeded to go to sleep.

Tyco and one of the young warriors were on the first watch.  As Tyco was telling the warrior some of his stories they were greeted with a hail of javelins and both went down.  The disturbance alerted most of the rest of us who got up only to find the camp under attack by six Fomorri warriors.  It was looking grim – two of our number were down and we had no light to fight by.  From the ground Raghnall illuminated the camp with a Fairy Fire spell and then the Hudan warriors sprang into action.  Despite being grievously wounded, our Hudan friends fought with great courage and bravery.  One of them continued fighting even though he obviously should have been felled from his wounds.  Another of their number single handedly slew three of the brutish warriors.  Hraal went into a rage and charged two of them, killing each of them in a single stroke, while being grievously wounded as well.  Master Ho and Tyco assisted the fallen while the combat was going on.

When the combat was over half of our number lay on the ground bleeding and the other half were left barely standing but the six Fomorri were dead.  We searched the bodies and found a great deal of loot.  The leader had a masterwork greataxe, which we gave to the Hudan warriors for fighting so bravely in our defense.  They had around 250 gold crowns worth of coin mostly in silver on them as well.  Also, the leader had a pair of diamond studded ankle bracelets probably stolen from a Hudan princess judging from their excellent craftsmanship and beauty.  Tyco looked at them to assess their value and quietly told us they were worth a great deal of money, lest he alert our new found allies of their value and turn them against us.

Due to our wounds we decided to return to the Hamlet to rest up and recover rather than pursue the bandits in our present condition.  Since the value of the bracelets was so much higher than the reward for the bandits and we didn’t have adequate healing capability we decided to return to Hammerstad and quit while we were ahead.  The reward for the bandits would have to wait for another time.  Raghnaal managed to sell the bracelets for 2,200 g.p. even though they were worth nearly twice that much.  It was the best offer we received in Hammerstad, being the largest city in the country of Necrovidia.  It was likely the best offer we were going to receive without traveling a great distance to another large city so we decided to take it.

We split up the profits equally between the group, Master Ho and the mercenaries (they each got one share).  Everyone then proceeded to buy new equipment.  Hraal finally had enough money to buy the pattern-welded broadsword that he had coveted at the armorer’s shop since his arrival in Hammerstad.  The Hudan warriors all bought chainmail shirts and new weapons.  Master Ho bought a new sword and some other weapons as well.

So ends the tale of how our brave adventurer’s learned of why the road was named as it was.  The fool’s path is an appropriate and fitting name indeed because only a fool who is ill prepared for it’s rigors dares to take it.  We have learned an important lesson and the next time we venture down it’s rutted rocky surface we will not do so in such a hasty manner.

Tales of Braxus: Hard Times In Hammerstad

Recap from 7-16-04

Our heroes met up in the town of Hammerstad with one goal in mind - the pursuit of immeasurable riches!  Hraal the Reaver, a barbarian Hudan from Hybronesse, traveled to Necrovidia to hire on as a mercenary in one of the many small wars occurring in the lands around the city.  However, when he arrived he found that all of the fighting was over and he had no skill to sell besides the use of his broadsword and axe and thus he was unemployed.  Hraal befriended a small rogue named Malik Tanglefox who then introduced him to his friend Tyco the bard and Master Ho a Balduin spirit shaman, their NPC ally.  And thus, the band of adventurers was forged.

The new group decided to seek out information in the city pertaining to the many ruins rumored to be in existence in the area where large amounts of wealth could be acquired at great peril to mind, body and spirit.  It was suggested that the group split up to cover more territory so Master Ho and Tyco went in one direction and Malik and Hraal went in another.  Tyco and Master Ho soon discovered that there was a group of caves off the Trader’s Way road on the peninsula northwest of town.  The rumor had it that the caves were once a holdout for Balduin bandits.  They also found out that Hammerstad was built on the ruins of one or two previous cities.  Many of these ruins could be seen on the fringes of Old Town across the river.  They found out that Old Town was a rough neighborhood where robberies and disappearances were common.  It was also rumored to contain a way into the underground ruins below the city.

Meanwhile, Hraal and Malik headed to the wharf to see what they could find out.  Soon, however, Hraal lost track of his small companion who seemed to just disappear into the crowd in a strange sort of way.  Hraal managed to strike up a conversation with a net mender who told him that someone was hiring people to investigate a disappearance and were paying the whopping sum of 5000 g.p. as a reward!  While this was going on Hraal noticed a commotion in another stall nearby but couldn’t determine what was happening.  He decided to return to the inn where they had agreed to meet up later to share his news with the others.

Once the group met up and discussed their findings they determined to pursue the potential reward for finding the missing person.  This time they split up with Malik and Tyco trying to find the identity of the employer in the main city and Hraal and Master Ho traveling to Old Town to seek out his identity.  Malik and Tyco discovered that there was a shortcut to the caves off the Trader’s way called the Fool’s path which passed through a small town and was rumored to be very dangerous (and thus the name).  They also found out that the man who was seeking investigators to find his missing companion was Vestan Irsimul and he could be found at the Inn of the Dancing Pony.  Also, it was discovered that the reward was a mere 100 gold pieces.

Meanwhile, Master Ho and Hraal made the trip across the river to Old Town.  It was very rough indeed as they witnessed a couple of children looting what they could from a corpse that lay sprawled out in the street.  They spotted a blind man who appeared to be begging and decided to see if they could find anything out about the man who was paying the reward to solve the mystery.  After beating around the bush a little bit and getting nowhere, Hraal put a silver piece in his cup and asked for the name of the man that was hiring.  At this point the beggar told him it was a man named Vestan Irsimul.  That’s when he noticed one of the street urchins poised with a dagger about to cut his purse loose!  He snatched the urchin’s hand and picked him up off the ground.  He then gave a great yell straight at his face and tossed the little thief to the ground.  Stunned, the youth dropped his dagger and ran along with his friends and the supposedly blind beggar who could see quite well where he was going as he fled.  Having gained a dagger and the information that they were looking for a mere silver piece Hraal and Master Ho returned to meet their companions and pool their information.

The group went to the Dancing Pony seeking Vestan Irsimul to try to apply for the job.  They soon found the man that they were seeking who told them a friend of his, Ahwad, had discovered the entrance to the undercity and then disappeared some time ago.  He offered the group 100 gold crowns up front to find him dead or alive and another 100 gold crowns each if we could retrieve his body.  He told us that Ahwad was a great friend of his and was a man of arms and learning.  He also described to us a six block area where he thought the entrance to the underground ruins was located.  Apparently, Ahwad and his guides had made an attempt to conceal the entrance in some way.  The group accepted the offer and was told to meet an associate of his near the bridge in the morning who would lead them to a hovel where they could base their search.

The next day the adventurers went to Old Town and met Yorgi, a Hyalmar bard, who led them to the hovel and gave them the keys.  During the search of the hovel, Malik found several items.  Under the floorboards he found some money, a longsword and some vials containing some sort of liquids.  In the chimney he found another sword which had a hollow handle containing a small parchment map with some notes scribbled on it.  The notes read, “Must return for Shezmar’s body.  He’s a valuable mage but so was his staff.  Also, must find water breathing spell – too dangerous without.”

After identifying a few of the liquids as healing potions and securing the hovel the group decided to try to find the entrance to the undercity.  They went to the area that Vestan had described and Malik soon found a hole in the ground, which was partially covered by a rock.  After the group moved the rock out of the way, Malik proceeded into the tunnel beyond cautiously with a rope tied to his waist and his lantern in his hand.  Hraal was holding the other end of the rope and eventually it went slack.  He decided to venture inside the tunnel to see what happened to Malik as the rest of the group followed.

They found Malik poised before a closed door at the end of a sixty foot corridor.  From the other side of the door we could hear voices saying, “They are coming”.  Master Ho laid his hand on Hraal’s shoulder and told him “this will help you if you are injured.”  Hraal kicked in the door and walked into the room.  He suddenly found himself flanked by two goblins, one on either side of the door.  He attempted to bull rush one who held his ground and managed to trip him.  Hraal was in trouble, lying prone on the ground.  The goblins attacked and hit him once and missed him a few times.  Tyco cast a stun spell on one of the goblins and Hraal managed to get back up shaking off the blow with the aid of master Ho's spell.  He then went into a blind rage and quickly dispatched the goblin in front of him with his sword and killed the goblin behind him with his axe.  Master Ho entered the room and engaged a third goblin who was wielding a bow across the room along with Malik.  They traded a few blows and Hraal ran over and finished the last one off.  They searched the bodies and took stock of their surroundings.  On one end of the room was a caved in tunnel and on the other side was a pit that led downward.  They pondered their next move…

Role Playing Game Session Recaps: Tales of Braxus

The primary purpose of this blog is not to reminisce about the good old days when I was a kid playing D&D, but rather to post recaps of our current games and to have a place to post some of my game art.  When I was in high school as the fiction editor of our high school's magazine, I was tasked with providing fiction stories for the magazine.  I had no idea what to write or how to go about this so one day I decided to write up a small one player adventure and play D&D in study hall with a friend so that I could write a story about the results.  This was the first recap I ever wrote and at some point I'll try to dig it up to post here if I can find a copy.

Later on, when I started playing in Scadgrad's game in Richmond, he set up a Yahoo Group for the game where I started posting recaps of our adventures for the users of the group.  The world we played in at that time was Braxus which was basically his home brew sandbox setting for our 3.0 D&D game.  It is very similar to medieval Europe in a lot of ways but has its own unique flavor.  More on that later.  Anyway, our first campaign was Hard Times in Hammerstad and we played through a starter module based in the city of Hammerstad first that I don't really know much about.  Eventually, we moved up to the Lost City of Barakus by Necromancer games where my character, Hraal the Reaver, a Hudan warrior (basically a viking) eventually met his end.

So the first series of recaps is from that campaign, although it isn't a complete tale as there are segments of the adventure missing.  Originally, I started writing recaps when someone missed a session so they could get filled in on what happened.  This meant there were inevitably gaps in the story line.  Later, when we stopped using Yahoo Groups for our game and moved to a bulletin board, I started writing them as a matter of course and ended up with some of the other forum members (mostly Warhammer miniatures players) reading them fairly regularly.  So these will be more of a sampling of the recaps that I managed to save copies of rather than a complete saga.  I wrote the final recap for this campaign last night from memory and a few old posts just to add closure to the whole series.

Re-discovering Old School D&D

Back in the late seventies when I was in the seventh grade, a bunch of my brother’s 6^th grade friends started playing a new game which they brought into the middle school to play during lunch and study hall time.  This was the first time I was introduced to Dungeons and Dragons – it was the second printing of the basic boxed set with the blue cover showing a red dragon.  I still have a couple of copies of these books, one of which was played so much, the cover fell off and is still missing.  I thought it was the coolest game I had ever seen.  I had played board games and video games down at the arcade before but something about D&D was just too cool for a kid in the seventh grade.

The first explanation of what the game was about was given to me by the DM as I was run through the sample module in the basic rule book.  I was told it was mostly a game of exploration – you explore old ruins and the dungeons beneath in search of treasure.  In fact, back then, there wasn’t a monster in every room which gave it more of an “Indiana Jones” archaeological exploration kind of feel.  Sometimes rooms contained mundane items with evocative descriptions telling the tale of past deeds or ancient history, some contained small amounts of treasure (like the few coins that could be found exploring the rat warrens or the potion found in the pocket of the goblin cloak hanging on pegs on the wall) or were in fact empty but some contained goblins, giant rats or other creatures which had to be overcome in combat.  The whole idea of rolling up your own character to search through these old musty chambers in search of treasure and adventure was very appealing to me.

I also remember vividly the first character I rolled up to play in the sample dungeon.  It was the elf character class from basic that also had magic user spells.  I don’t remember what spell he took at first level but I do remember that I wanted the biggest sword that I could get in order to do the most damage possible so I equipped him with a two handed sword in addition to whatever other equipment he could afford.  I remember later on while playing AD&D coming to a similar realization about equipping my fighters with pole arms because they did more damage.  Thus began my first efforts at power gaming which still continue to this day but are more prevalent in later iterations of the game.

I went on to play with several other groups, the most memorable of which played through the village of Hommlet and the Temple of Elemental Evil campaign modules when they were released.  I didn’t even realize those were the modules I played in back then until recently when I played through both adventures in a C&C game I was in here in Richmond a few years ago, and had several déjà vu moments.  The first one was in the Moat House after we defeated the brigands who had taken up camp there in the corner tower.  The DM drew the map of the tower with one corner of the wall caved in and all of a sudden, I was like – “holy crap, I’ve played this module before” though I remembered only a few of the details like the collapsed corner walls of the tower.  Later when we eventually overcame Lareth and his henchmen, I remembered how tough a fight that room was when I was a kid.  Something about going up against a bunch of NPCs with spells and strong fighters like we had made it a very challenging encounter, more so than your run of the mill low level monsters.

Later, when we were playing through the Temple of Elemental Evil module, we fought several of the temples including the Fire Temple.  We cast a heat resistance spell on one of the characters who began searching through the lava pit in the temple to find the loot that we knew was probably stashed there.  When we retrieved the contents of the treasure, one of the items was a +3 Frost Brand magical long sword.  Once again, I had another déjà vu moment – I had a recollection of doing something similar when I was a kid (also using a heat resistance spell of some sort) to pull the treasure out of the lava pit and being in awe of the +3 Frost Brand sword that we found there amongst the other loot.  Our C&C game disintegrated shortly thereafter but not before having three very memorable déjà vu moments from two very memorable and well written 1^st Edition D&D modules I played in long ago.

The original group that I played those modules with as a kid was the most memorable of many I played in back then.  We explored all kinds of dungeons and battled demons, devils, dragons and all manner of foes and had a very notable arsenal of magic items.  I’m pretty sure one of us had the rod of Lordly Might and another guy had the Girdle of Giant Strength and we had a collection of all different types of swords and other items in our bag of holding to pull out as the situation dictated.  I also remember vividly that we would lose characters on a regular basis, usually to the more powerful demons or devils or to the various types of dragons we battled more than likely as victims of their breath weapons.  We always used to joke that we would pour what was left of so and so into a flask to bring back to town to have resurrected later.  So losing characters was no big deal – either you got them resurrected if you had the cash or were high enough level to cast the spell or you just rolled up a new one.  We also started toying with psionics at this point as well.

After that group eventually stopped playing I got together with some other friends who were writing their own dungeons rather than buying the modules down at the local game store.  Probably the most notable of these was the twenty level or so Monty Hall dungeon we played in at a friend’s house around the corner from where I lived.  Essentially, we played once a week and just about every week, the DM would write up another dungeon level for us to explore and we kept it up until we reached level 20 where I’m pretty sure we defeated Azmodeaous or Demogorgon (or both) and took their stuff.  My character started out as a 1^st level wizard on the first level of the dungeon and by the time he came out, he was a 19^th level wizard who owned (2) one million gold piece gems which both had a demon trapped inside, a +6 dagger, a +6 demon slaying dagger, the Hand of Veccna and the Rod of Seven Parts.  Of course those were just the best stuff he cherry picked as we went along – you’ve gotta love Monty Hall dungeons!  You can see Elroy’s character sheet here:  Elroy the Archmage.  I found it several months back and was all goggle eyed over all of the artifacts he had in his possession.

It was around this time that I started buying dungeons and running them for my friends from time to time.  I bought the hall of the Fire Giant King and ran them through it with a high level party that pretty much breezed through the module.  Then I started writing my own dungeons.  I still have a few of these tucked away which I’ll post at some point.

So that’s my reminiscence of some of the most memorable role playing experiences I had as a kid playing D&D.  In high school, I started hanging out with some guys from the VCU Game Masters club who had regular meetings to play RPGs down at the nearby campus of the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.  These guys opened up my eyes to other role playing games which I had never considered playing before such as Pendragon, Call of Cthulu and Rune Quest in addition to D&D of various flavors (home brew mostly but one was set in Thieve’s World using Chaosium’s boxed set).  Some of these guys went on to work as game designers for Chaosium or as free lancers like Les Brooks, Sam Shirley and Daniel Greenberg.

This opened up a whole new world of role playing games and eventually I discovered Arms Law, Claw Law and Spell Law by Iron Crown Enterprises and started using it in games that I ran.  I basically just played D&D and swapped out the D&D weapon, monster, and spell stats and charts with the ones found in ICE Law.  Those combat tables had very vivid descriptions of all of the horrible results that could happen to you or your foe which were not only quite graphic but were also histerical in a morbid sort of way.  I also bought a few MERP modules like Moria and Mirkwood although I never actually played or ran anything for Middle Earth, they were just cool modules to read because I had read the Tolkien books.

Eventually, when I was in college at UVA I met my room mate's cousin who lived in town and had worked for ICE at one point who told me they needed people like me (architects and designers) to do layouts for them.  A few years after I graduated I eventually moved back to Charlottesville to start my own Architectural CAD business and started doing free lance illustrations for ICE.  This is when I really got into Rolemaster (I was doing trade dress art for it and even art for MERP modules) and pretty much stopped playing D&D altogether at that point.  I remember at the time thinking that D&D was for kids and since I was a grown up that I should play a more sophisticated system like Rolemaster despite its extreme complexity.

I had fun working for ICE and playing in RPGs with some of those guys (including Rolemaster, Pendragon and Call of Cthulu) but eventually, they lost their MERP license and the company filed for bankruptcy.  Some time before they filed for bankruptcy when I was still living in C’ville, I heard that some of those guys were playing D&D 3.0 and having fun with it so I decided to give it a shot.  It was sort of like the old D&D but seemed to be more about tweaking your character with all of the feat builds and prestige classes and stuff plus, the power scale seemed to have gotten higher (more hit points, more damage, higher AC etc.) and it became evident eventually that it was really a power gamers game (which I liked for a while).

So eventually, I moved back to Richmond and around 2004 got into another 3.0 game in town at a new friend’s house.  We eventually upgraded to 3.5 and then started playing a hybrid of 3.5 and Castles and Crusades (basically C&C with feats and some 3.5 signature spells).  Once we realized how bad the power gamer creep had gotten with 3.5, we dropped it altogether and just ran C&C.  This is about the time of the Temple of Elemental Evil campaign I mentioned above but we also played in the Lost City of Barakus and the Tomb of Abysthor before that by Necromancer Games.  Eventually, this group fell apart and I quit playing for a year or two but eventually I got the itch to play again.

I started poking around online and found a BBS post written by some guy who said he was getting back into AD&D and this eventually led me to read all about the original Castle Greyhawk game run by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz back in the day in Wisconsin.  This led me to discover Grodog’s Castle Greyhawk site and several OSR blogs including the Greyhawk Grognard’s among others.  I forwarded a link to Joe Bloch’s Castle of the Mad Archmage to our old DM and suggested that this was the kind of thing that made me want to play 1^st Editition D&D again – it has a very old school module feel with the light blue maps and 1^st Ed stats and stuff.  This was when he came up with the idea of running a Basic D&D game using the old Rules Cyclopedia.  I had recently downloaded several “free” retro clone PDFs including Swords and Wizardry, OSRIC and Labyrinth Lord and suggested that maybe we should try one of those.  Since he liked the B/X variety of basic with a little AD&D thrown in for good measure, he suggested that we try Labyrinth Lord.  The rest is history – we have been playing Labyrinth Lord with some 1^st ED rules mixed in along with some house rules and have been having a blast since about July of 2010.

Its kind of funny how after having so much fun with D&D as a kid, I eventually moved on to other games, did the power gaming thing with 3.0/3.5 and eventually came to the realization that we should just play AD&D or basic again since C&C wasn’t quite the same as the old school stuff.  Anyway, that’s my entire role playing game history in a rather large nutshell.  I kind of discovered the OSR by accident after having a certain nostalgic yearning to play the game I played when I was a kid again.  It was a long journey but I’m glad I’m back to playing the game I love and I salute the Old School Renaissance for making so much cool stuff available to us old timers who want to “just say no” to Pathfinder and 4.0 D&D neither of which really capture the feel of the original game for me.