Averlorn Campaign: Predominant Races of the Archipelago

The predominant human races found in the archipelago are the Thugee and the Volkyr peoples who are also two of the three primary human races found in the World of Averlorn.  The Volkyr resemble the people of Egypt in both appearance and culture while the Thugee are a warlike race that bears some similarities to Norse Vikings found in Europe during the middle ages.  Amongst the islands of the Archipelago can be found yet a third major race – that of the Sea Elves.  Living amongst the Sea Elves are Elves of other castes typically found in Elven society.

The third primary human race in Averlorn sometimes found in the islands consists of the men of Ardrois stock such as those found in Thebos and similar civilizations such as Chalcyx, Ertris and Manthinea.  The Ardrois dwell primarily on the mainland and in coastal areas and cities such as Harbor Reach and Zarathus, and further inland.  They are modeled after the ancient Greeks and Romans and even Germanic peoples in both appearance and culture.

The Volkyr – In the Archipelago beyond the Shallow Sea the dominant culture is that of the Volkyr and their stalwart allies the Sea Elves. These two communities have lived in peace since the earliest days of man's recorded history, a situation unique among the various tribes of humanity and demi-humans alike. They share technologies, many customs and to the casual visitor it appears that the Volkyr (folk of the sea) have modeled many aspects of their culture after those found among the sea elves.  The Volkyr aren't ancient Egyptians so much as they are a fantasy culture which posits Egyptian-esque culture in a medieval setting.  They style themselves as the most civilized of the human cultures concentrating more on trade then on warfare.  The Volkyr are a Polynesian like people who originally migrated to the Archipelago from the southern islands of the Great Banks among others.

The Volkyr place a great value on learning and the arts. They consider their society to be a model of civilization and take great pride in the relative cleanliness of their cities, in considerable contrast to the squalor that can be found in the Theban cities of Harbor Reach and distant Grand Oryx. Personal appearance is of considerable importance to most Volkyr and they are fastidiously concerned with personal hygiene, bathing often and keeping their facial hair neatly trimmed. Men folk wear their hair in very short, practical styles, often displaying rather ornate goatees or smartly trimmed moustaches. Some Volkyr warriors go so far as to shave their heads and faces, thus denying enemy combatants anything to grab onto during battle. Both men and women use scents and makeup, eyeliner in particular is common. Volkyr warriors often paint fierce-looking designs on their face which adds to their reputation for being savage opponents in battle.

Physically, the Volkyr are a dark-skinned race of humans with black hair and piercing dark eyes. They are on average a bit smaller than the Ardrois folk and not as muscular as the average Thugee. They are exceptional seamen and ply the waters the Shallow Sea in their sleek triple-lateen ships. Volkyr weaponry is finely made and shows a distinct Elven influence. They favor the longer Elven spear style, the subtle curve of the Elven Sword, and the Sea Bow.

The Volkyr are a pious religious people who worship their great leader the God King along with a dizzying array of Egyptian gods – Anubis, Ra, Set, Osiris, Horus, Isis, Bast (the Cat God), Sobek (the crocodile got) among others.  The Volkyr hold a patronizing view of the Thugee people – they say the Sons of Loki are three times cursed though they are tolerated in Volkry society as many Thugee dwell amongst them in their settlements.  Blue dragons are sacred among the Volkry people, which is a long standing tradition.  Wizards often seek out blue dragons in order to learn from them the ancient Forgotten Lore spells of antiquity lost through the sands of time.  Players seeking out Blue Dragons for such knowledge may use any charisma bonus they may have while speaking with them to help determine how cooperative the ancient wyrms may be about such queries.

The Sea Elves - the other predominant race found in the Archipelago is that of the demi human Sea Elves.  The Sea elves generally live along the coast, are a nautical trading race, and are quite hardy for elves.  They usually live in small coastal villages near the Great Banks and in small kingdoms scattered about the Archipelago.  The Sea elves are far more organized than the elves found in Thebos and other areas inland and trade regularly with the Volkyr.

To the Sea Elves, the Archipelago is considered their ancestral homeland though part of it is currently under the guardianship of the Volkyr.  There exist several small Sea Elf kingdoms and holdings scattered about the Archipelago on some of the smaller islands.

The Sea Elf Kingdoms of the Archipelago - The Sea Elf King or Archmagi holds dominion over three principle realms, holding court according to an ancient schedule understood only by the elves themselves. The exact nature of governance employed by the sea elves is quite mysterious and appears to also be part of some long standing tradition of rotating kings. Within each realm lies one of three magnificent Elven Sea Towers which is the local seat of authority for each realm perched ever watchful on the cliffs above the endless waves.

The Kingdom of Alatheon is actually an island which lies to the north of the island of Rhaghaera, while the Kingdom of Golfyria lies to the west.  Lothalyn is quite distant, lying in the southwest of the Archipelago far closer in fact to the mainland. It is a single kingdom spread across a vast stretch of islands. In spite of the vast distances and their relatively slight population, the sea elves are actually the dominant political power in the Archipelago. This is due largely to the unusual number of dragons found in the islands and their deference if not outright servitude to the sea elves. The Sea Elf Court and all of their kith and kin enjoy the favor of both Io and his son Bahamut due to ancient pacts and favors from times lost to the remembrance of other sentient races.  Naturally, the preponderance of dragons in the area has resulted in far fewer Dragonships in the skies of the islands than might be found elsewhere in Averlorn.

The Sea Elves maintain a series of trading settlements, outposts of a sort. These are always found near the communities of their Volkyr allies and with names such as Tol Alatheon or Dur Alatheon, they are the source of some confusion among men. Nadsul il Alatheon is a trading outpost on a small island not far from the Ardrois city of Harbor Reach and is something akin to a military outpost given the assaults and raids it has endured over the years. The Sea Elves are quite fond of the Volkyr, but view Thugee as little better than Orcs and the Ardrois of the City States with great suspicion.

The Sea Elves are often at odds with the Thugee and there exists racial enmity between their two peoples as the Thugee seem intent on raiding their holdings and generally causing them harm when given the chance.  The enmity that exists between elves and the Thugee (the Northmen of Averlorn) is long standing and encounters are usually a “no quarters asked, none given” sort of affair.  In matters of warfare and defense, the Sea Elves favor the Elven Longsword, the Sea Bow, and the Elven Dragon Spear.  More info about the Sea Elves, the Elven cast system and Elven culture in Averlorn can be found here:

The Savage Sword of Scadgrad: Dwarves and Elves of Averlorn

The Thugee – the Thugee are a Viking-inspired race of sub-humans, strong of limb, but dim of wit, possessing brutal features and slightly pronounced canine teeth.  They are the Norse raiders of the Middle Ages raiding the coastline and islands in their sleek and sturdy long ships and striking terror into the heart of their victims.  They can be found in the Archipelago living alongside the primary native human race of the area - the Volkyr, and in a few scattered clan holdings in the north of the island chain. 

Though the Thugee often raid in the Archipelago and are viewed as savage barbarians by most civilized cultures, quite a few have actually settled in the area.  Although they are not the native or predominant race of humans, their numbers are on the rise due to continued raiding and settlement activity, not unlike the Vikings that settled in England, Russia and other places they raided in our world - in the end they were just looking for a better life than the harsh cold north.  Their ancestral homeland can be found in the distant Northern Reaches of the mainland along the coast and in a region called fallen Leutra where the ancient reptile races once held sway.

The Thugee are fantastic sailors, navigators, ship builders and explorers who ply the coasts in their long boats in search of plunder and better lands.  Their weapons of choice include the bearded Thugee Axe (hand axe – also useful as a throwing axe), the Battle Axe, the Great Sword, the Broadsword, the Spear, and the Short Bow while they typically wear chainmail, Norse helms and carry large round wooden hide covered embossed shields.

The Thugee in the Archipelago are scattered among the islands like the pebbles along the beach. They have a few permanent communities in the islands immediately off the coast of Fallen Leutra at what one might call the edge of the Northern Reaches. They are not given to city building and rarely dwell in communities larger than a few hundred families. They view any non-Thugee as inferior and a source of goods, slaves, wives, etc. A considerable number of Thugee have fallen under the sway of Ravishar resulting in a daunting presence of Northmen residing in Malithorn. Still others have found their way to Caeursetti and environs and now live in relative peace as subjects of the God King.

ICE Silent Death Spaceship Layouts

Back in the mid to late nineties while I was freelancing for Iron Crown Enterprises, I had the opportunity to draw a series of top down spaceship layouts for their Space Ship miniatures game Silent Death.  It was called Silent Death "because in space, no one can here you scream".  I worked with Don Dennis, the line editor and an assistant art director on the layouts which were initially drawn with ink on vellum and then scanned into Photoshop where I created the grey scale drop shadows underneath them to make them pop a bit on the page.

Frequently, Don would hand me an early miniature casting or prototype and say "draw this" and I would literally just lay that sucker on the copier to enlarge and use the enlarged copy to trace for the layout.  Usually I would sketch it out in pencil first on tracing paper and then go back over it in ink with technical pens on translucent vellum for the final layout.  It was a lot of fun and something a bit different than my usual castles, maps, dungeons and floor plans for Middle Earth Role Playing or Rolemaster books.  The illustrations shown here are just a small sampling of the ones I did for them but I don't have the rest of them in Photoshop format with the drop shadows but I could scan them in at some point (they are still on the original vellum).  I'm not sure which books these came out of or what types of ships these are or even what planet they are from but they are cool to look at nonetheless.  I'll drop Don a line and see if he can ID some of them.

Pulsar

Pteradon

Quark

Binary

Nova

Nebula 3

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

Gen Con Indy 2012

The Dreaded Balloon Dragon of Doom!!!
Beware the breath weapon...

Well I just got back from Gen Con in Indianapolis yesterday and it was a lot of fun as always.  I drove up on Wednesday with my good friend and GM Tony of the Savage Sword of Scadgrad and his kids and we met some other friends there where we had an adjoining room for ease of hotel gaming.  I wandered around in the exhibit hall for a bit on Thursday where I visited the OSR booth and bought a few modules and books and visited a few other favorite company booths.  Then I dropped off some of my old 3.0/3.5 books to sell in the auction and browsed the consignment area where I picked up a few things including Dungeon Module B4 The Lost City and a fairly decent copy of Unearthed Arcana.  I attended Gen Con last year and didn't play in any of the scheduled events (a big reason to go to the Con for me) so this year I vowed to sign up for a few things and/or sit in on a few games with generic tickets. 

I played in an AD&D game on Friday for a while set in the World of Greyhawk with a group of guys.  Four of these guys were there for a reunion of their old D&D group from back when they were kids who had drifted apart over the years after having moved away from each other.  We played a starter adventure available as a free download called Spider Farm by Stuart Marshall from the Knights and Knaves Alehouse.  I played a wizard (we were all 1st level) who obviously had magical darts - really I just rolled three 20s to hit in two rounds during the big fight with the brigands which was crazy lucky.  He also managed to save the day a few times with his one sleep spell and miraculously didn't die.  Afterwards we leveled up and set forth on another adventure to seek the source of the Goblin incursion within the Dreadwood Forest.  We found the dungeon that was their source which was guarded by a large group of giant spiders but unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could make it into the dungeon to where the evil Shadow Goblins had come from to attack the good citizens of the Yeomanry.

Then I sat in on a Runequest Second Edition game on Saturday for a little while with the same guys - I hadn't played Runequest since high school so that was fun too.  It was mostly a jousting tournament which was a blast (my guy got skewered but an NPC I ran afterwards nearly killed one of the player characters due to some extremely lucky dice rolling on my part (01 on my joust attack roll) and extremely unluckly dice rolling on his part (00 on the parry roll).  The healers attending the tourney healed him up afterwards though.

After that I played a Flames of War demo in the miniature game area where it was three guys playing allies in the early desert war (each guy had two platoons of light tanks - 2 with crusaders and one with Stuarts) against three guys with either three panzers (2 guys with two mark IIIs and a mark IV short barrel) and one guy with six Italian light tanks which were pretty much the same as the crusaders (fast but with very little armor or firepower and AT).  The mission was meat grinder so if your tanks got blown up, they just came back on from reserve at a random location so you could keep playing.  Playing light Allied tanks against German armor reminds me of why I like playing the Germans - not surprisingly, the Germans blew up about 30 of our paltry little light tanks and ended up winning the game but it was still a lot of fun.  This was of course made worse because in the desert there is little if any cover for the fragile little tanks to hide behind (really just some hills but mostly wide open desert terrain).

We also got in a game of the Blood Bowl team manager board game, two games of Swords and Wizardry White Box (0e D&D) and a game of Basic Action Super Heroes a.k.a. Bash (pretty much rules light Champions) in the hotel room as well which was also a lot of fun.  All in all it was a blast and a great vacation...

Averlorn Campaign - G2 The Death of Jarl Grugnar and Epilogue

Recap from 9/2/2011

So now that we had secured another way into the second level of the lair of the Frost Giant Jarl we pondered our next move.  It was decided to go in through the dragon’s cave since the giants were not aware that we had killed their two pets and had another way in.  Once in, we made it through the second floor entry hall and into the lair where we encountered two more giants guarding the entrance and managed to kill them before they could sound the alarm.  Once through that room we had another tough fight in the room beyond against four more Frost Giants and once again got beat up pretty badly once we lost the element of surprise and they summoned help. 

So at this point we realized that there were still a large number of Frost Giants defending the lair, and that it would be a tough fight to carve our way through them to get to their leader if we just went in the front door.  So instead, we decided to use stealth to locate the Jarl’s quarters and cut off the head of the snake so to speak rather than attempting another frontal assault which had been so brutal in the past.  One of the Elves cast Invisibility on our assassin Evie and then she drank a Potion of Gaseous form and she turned into an invisible mist and went in to try to locate the King’s quarters.  Being both invisible and in gaseous form she was nearly immune to detection by normal means. 

She explored through the throne room and noted the guards and then went into the areas beyond that and found what looked to be a trophy room of sorts hung with all kinds of stuffed big game animal heads with various items, weapons and armor hanging on the walls and displayed about the room.  Off of that room she noticed on the left that another passage led into what appeared to be the Frost Giant noble’s quarters and it was full of a large number of sleeping or off duty giants (15-20 or so).  She considered briefly trying to sneak through them to see if it connected up with the other passages where we had been before, but thought better of it after remembering her experience of attempting to sneak through the twenty or so giants in the barracks where one of them spotted her invisible form or the faint dagger light from her only light source.  So instead she went through the passage at the end of the cavern which led into the Jarl’s quarters.

And there was Jarl Grugnar and his queen in bed asleep with a giant hell hound below the bed which was uneasy and had possibly detected her presence.  She hastened back to the group and we debated what to do.  Lucias wanted to continue with the frontal assault so that we could thoroughly loot the place despite the large amount of treasure we had already found, but in the end the group decided to use one of the wishes on the ring of three wishes to wish the entire party into the lair of the sleeping giant King Jarl, his Queen and their hell hound pet and cut off the head of the snake without having to take on the rest of the giants which would have taken some time and considerable effort and could have led to more casualties.  In the end it was probably the right call as we were weary of going toe to toe with Frost giants and getting mauled just about every session by them.

So Evie used the Wish of the ring and the group appeared before the trio and it was over very fast.  Jarl Grugnar lie dead in his own bed along with his beloved queen and his faithful pet was no more as well.  At this point we did what we could to loot the place without being detected by the other giants in the noble’s quarters beyond.  We also found an exit passageway which was Jarl’s secret escape route out of the place so we had a way out that didn’t involve going back through the lair and the rift.  Within the Jarl’s quarters in a chest we found the magical tome that we had been hired to acquire by the Surgeon’s Guild along with more treasure.  Once his quarters had been thoroughly looted we stared looting the trophy room and found quite a few magic items but when we took a magical shield off of the wall the Shedu head hung on the wall started screaming “Intruders!!! Alarm!!! Intruders!!!” so we grabbed everything that we could and beat a hasty retreat out of the secret escape passage.

So once back to the ice cave we awaited our dragon ships to come pick us up along with the considerable hoard of wealth and magic items that we had amassed there mostly from the dragon’s hoard and the Jarl’s quarters and trophy room.  We made it back to Medea’s Gate and beyond and looked to our domains during the winter period – Lucias had been named level for a while and had a domain but had yet to start building a keep due to a lack of funds.  That was no longer a problem so he busied himself with clearing the land around the town of Cool Rock Springs and the old Hill Fort of Dunweilding north of Ptoleph of monsters so that he could build his keep and fortify the town.  Quite a few of the others also made it to named level and were granted domains as well and they were busy with affairs of state as well.  The Elves Asclepius and Teth-en-Aire were both granted domains by their Elven peers along with Kaira the cleric and Taleth the Ranger.  Evie the Assassin began working on her underworld syndicate as well.

During this time we were contacted by the nobles of Medea’s Gate to undertake a task for them to help secure their domains from the threat of further Giant raids.  Among the treasure that we found in Jarl’s lair was a map that led to the Hall of the Fire Giant King located in a volcanic mountain range not too far from where the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl was located to the southwest.  The Lords of Medea’s Gate wanted us to assault the Fire Giant Hall as well and discover who or what force was behind the giant’s uprising.  For some reason, Hill Giants, Frost Giants and Fire Giants had all united under a common banner to plague their holdings nearby by raiding human and demi human lands in the area.  This was almost unheard of as most of giant kind is usually more concerned with their own affairs and domains to unite under a common banner of cooperation like this so it was surmised that there must have been some unknown force behind the uprising.  So once everyone’s domains had been seen to, and everything was in order, the group began to provision and prepare for another foray into the mountains to assault G3 The Hall of the Fire Giant King!

TO BE CONTINUED…

Swords and Wizardry White Box City Campaign: Lock, Stock and One Smoking Wand of Paralyzation

We resumed our on an off Swords and Wizardry White Box campaign last night playing as a group of thugs, the Weaselly Ferrets who control a four block area of a really bad neighborhood called the Devil's Breakfast table in the City of Vermistdadt in the Land of Moog.  Our previous explorations had mostly centered on delving in the ruins below the Sikorsky Building (a.k.a. Dyson's Delve) and during our last visit there, the group encountered a pair of Manticores on the third or fourth level and managed to slay them in a couple of tough fights and then found a wand of Paralyzation in one of their treasure hoards (though with limited charges).  However, on occasion, we have been tasked with "missions" by our Ogre boss Big Slick or his boss Oranishi (a.k.a. the Big Boss) which always turn out to be the most comical and entertaining game sessions and last night's session was one such adventure.

So in this episode, the Weasely Ferrets went "over the river" into the Dumfries on a search and destroy mission for our boss Big Slick and the Big Boss Oranishi. The highlight was the balls to the wall play of blasting everyone with the Wand of Paralyzation and the closing scene with Mr Green knee-capping the surviving ogre instead of ganking him so that he could tell the tale of who stole their Dreamweed which was totally something out of Goodfellas.  It was a fun session and without that wand, our plan (or lack thereof) wouldn't have succeeded mostly because we were seriously lacking in the fighter department - our only fighter was Snit the 2nd level halfling henchman and the rest of the player characters consisted of a 3rd level wizard, a 4th level wizard and two 3rd-4th level clerics.  The end result was well worth the price of two charges from the wand though and the story was reminiscent of some tale told about the city of Lankhmar and other heroes and villains in another world far far away...


Here's is a synopsis of events in the seediest, nastiest and meanest streets in all of the land of Moog, the City of Vermisdadt home of that group of rascals and cutthroats known as the Weaselly Ferrets who reside in the seediest and roughest neighborhood in the City of Vermistadt called the Devil's Breakfast Table:

Big Slick our Ogre boss had a job for us - go over to the Dumfries neighborhood (no small feat - five neighborhoods away through rival territory) and the docks accross the river and disrupt a shipment of dream weed arriving for one of our rival gangs.  He said either throw it into the river or abscond with some of it if possible.  He provided us with uniforms of the city guard and suggested that travelling there through the sewers might be the best course of action to avoid detection.

So while travelling through the rat infested sewers below the mean streets of Vermisdadt in the general direction of the river, we encountered a Chaos Minotaur wandering the filth infested tunnels and defeated it in a fierce melee.  The giant beast walked upon hooved feet, was missing its right horn and appeared to have some sort of glowing rune imprinted on its forehead almost like a miner's head lamp except that it was implanted into the chaos beast's head.  Poor little Snit the halfling took the brunt of its attack before the group managed to blast it in a fusillade of flintlock and magic missile fire whereafter it fell with a crash into the slime infested sewer.

Once the halfling's wounds were bound and he was healed up, we searched the body and found its loot - some gold, a scroll, a jeweled necklace and quite a bit of silver.  We kept most of the loot but put the silver in a bag, marked the spot and dumped it into the sewer to be retrieved later if possible (since it was a lot of coinage and very heavy), and threw the body into the center of the sewer to eventually be swept downstream into the river by the torrent of excrement and rainwater runoff from the filthy streets of the city above.  We followed the sewers until we came to where they emptied into the river and exited the tunnels in Butcher Town where we found a shady alley and donned our city guard outfits.  We weren't likely to be stopped there by the real city guard since that borough had its own police force and the queen's guard rarely went there.

So we crossed over the river on the bridge into the Dumfries neighborhood and Snit located the dock and mooring of the ship the Dirty Princess moored at an out of the way side dock in the warehouse district.  We boldly walked right up to the long shoremen unloading their cargo of wool or cotton onto the docks and Vortigern boldly pronounced "In the name of the Queen lay down your arms and surrender".  The two giant ogres amongst their number initially ignored the group but when the wizards started chanting and preparing to use the wand, our enemies won initiative and fired at the two with their flintlocks before they could cast sleep or use the wand on them and then charged the group to engage them in melee.  The other wizard, Greg the Green (a.k.a. Mr. Green), lost his spell but Vortigern moved off to the side away from the melee and paralyzed the group attempting to load up and make off with the cargo (they all failed their saves).

The group managed to kill a few of the gang members in melee but hardly scratched the ogres when more gang members or long shoremen came running from the gangway off of the ship towards the offloaded cargo on the shore to make off with it or attack the group.  Mr. Green managed to charm one of the gangsters that we were fighting and ordered him to go tell the thugs on the approaching horse and wagon to flee since the city guard was here.  Vortigern cast Phantasmal Force towards the gang plank that the men were crossing from the boat to the shore over the river and "summoned" a green dragon from the river to scare off the gang members coming from the boat.

They were initially startled and frightened by the illusory dragon but they made their morale check and attacked it and dispelled the illusion with one blow.  After the dragon disappeared, they started wondering where the dragon went and began looking in the water.  The result was a successful distraction since it delayed them from their initial goal of making off with their illicit cargo or attacking the group, at least temporarily.  From down the street the horse team with the rival gang members was approaching with the aim of offloading the cargo while the fight was going on, but the horse team failed their morale check upon seeing a giant river dragon crawling out of the water onto the dock as the horses reared up and sped away pulling the wagon behind.  The charmed gang member also failed his morale check and fled upon seeing the dragon.

At this point, Mr. Green started blowing on the guard's whistle he found in the pocket of his uniform (indicating more guards would arrive at any moment) and the ship's crew started ditching the rest of the cargo overboard, untied their moorings, lifted anchor and the ship departed from the slip and the remaining longshoremen and gang members fled as well.  Meanwhile, the two clerics and Snit were having a rough time of it having dispatched the other gang members but they had only hurt one of the ogres slightly and the other was unharmed and they were taking a beating.  They were hurt badly and wouldn't last another round so Vortigern used the Wand of Paralyzation for a second time on the melee including three members of our group (two clerics and Snit the halfling) and the two ogres.  The result was that one ogre failed his save, one made his save and one of our clerics was paralyzed but the other two made their saves and were still mobile.  The remaining ogre, seeing that his men were either all paralyzed, dead or fleeing turned tail and ran down the street to beat a hasty retreat.

Since our intended mission was more to hurt our rival gang than anything and show them who was boss, Mr. Green knee-capped the paralyzed ogre with his flint lock rather than killing him (so he would remember who stole their illicit goods and rightfully fear the Weaselly Ferrets), and we gathered up the dream weed from the bails of cotton and wool piled up on the dock and headed back to the sewer to make our escape.  We made it back to our turf to report the result to big slick and give him and the big boss a cut of the merchandise (the dream weed we had retrieved).  He asked for the uniforms back and congratulated us on a job well done - he particularly liked the knee capping job - he said it was a nice touch and would teach our enemies to respect us in the future...

Averlorn Campaign - G2 The Rift Floor and a Tale of Two Dragons

Recap from 9/9/2011

After getting continuously pummeled in previous sessions by giants and other denizens of the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl (and by Frost Giants and Ogre Magi in the previous session) using the direct approach (a.k.a. a frontal assault) we decided to hit the Jarl’s complex from a different direction in order to have a less predictable pattern and hopefully catch the giants off guard.  So the plan was to attempt to take out the Winter Wolves guarding the floor of the glacial rift and go into the complex from that direction this time if we could find another entrance since we hadn’t successfully done that before or explored the rift floor at all.

During the first session adventuring in this module, the group went down to the rift floor straight away but had to retreat from seven Winter Wolves after the wolves won initiative and hit us with their breath weapons simultaneously in the first round.  Several of the lower level characters or henchmen were nearly killed so we had to fall back and hadn’t returned that way because of the danger posed by the wolves.  So we surmised the best way to take out the wolves was to have Asclepius fly over them and hit them with fireballs from the air where he was out of range of their breath weapons.  The spotters called in the air strike with the coordinates for our Smelf bomber to make his run with precision guided munitions (in this case a necklace of fireballs).  The Elf cast fly and took off for the glacial rift from just outside the entrance. 

Asclepius spotted the evil Winter Wolves roughly in the same location where we fought them before – right at the bottom of the cliffside pathway that led to the rift floor down from the ledge on the right side of the entrance to the glacial rift.  He used one of the larger fireballs from the necklace first followed by yelps of pain from the wolves and then hit them with two of the smaller fireballs from the necklace and the wolves were all destroyed.  While he had his spell going, he did a low level circuit of the rift floor and noticed a few things.  First, there was a very large ice mound at the far end of the rift not too far away from where we were trapped in the cave occupied by the three Fire Giants previously.  Next, he noticed a large sheet of ice beyond the mound which looked like it might be covering an opening in the snowy rift floor (a sink hole or something).  He also noticed some odd snow closer to the entrance on the left side in a couple of places as he flew over but couldn’t figure out from that height why it looked strange so he went in for a closer look.

He landed about where the winter wolves were killed and did a circuit on foot around the perimeter of the rift floor to get a better look at things.  There was a lot of swirling snow and ice which obstructed vision beyond 30’ in front of him but once he was on the ground he got a better look at the ice sheet and the dome but didn’t investigate them further.  As he followed the perimeter, he eventually made it to the two odd patches of snow and noticed something peculiar – the snow was moving or shifting in some way.  It was apparent that there was something living in those patches so he avoided them and reported back to the group.  With the way to the floor now clear of Winter Wolves, the group descended down the path off of the right hand ledge to investigate the mound.

When the ranger Taleth approached it, he immediately noticed that it appeared to be a lair of some sort.  Upon further examination, he thought it might be the lair of a Remorhaz – a great ice wyrm!  This was interesting indeed and if that was the case it was quite a dangerous creature.  There appeared to be an entrance on one side of the mound so, knowing there was a predator about, Asclepius cast invisibility on himself and flew in without touching the walls or walking on the snow of the floor of the ice cave (his fly spell was still running at this point).  He was concerned about causing vibrations that the creature could detect since he knew it was probably lurking under the snow nearby somewhere so he didn’t want to touch anything unless he had to.  Further into the lair, he noticed a frost covered human skeleton lying in the snow and ice.  On the skeleton’s finger was a rune covered ring and in his bony hand it grasped a very finely made rune covered long sword! 

Assuming these items were magical or at least very valuable, he slipped the ring gently off of the bony finger and put it in his pocket then pried the sword out of the skeleton’s bony rigid hand.  As soon as he pried the sword out of the dead adventurer’s hand (which took some effort and caused the skeleton to vibrate slightly) the Remorhaz struck and snapped at the invisible elf having detected his location at its trapped treasure trove from the vibrations of the skeleton!  The elf was bitten and hurt badly but not killed and he flew out of the cave as fast as he could with the icy beast in hot pursuit!  Asclepius succeeded in drawing the beast out of its lair and out into the open, like a mouse successfully snatching the cheese out of a mouse trap! 

The other two elves and the wizard Ferris attacked the creature with a barrage of magic missiles hurting it badly.  Then the dwarf fighter Beorn boldly stepped forward and slew the mighty beast with his magical broadsword in one powerful blow!  The sword hissed a bit from the heat of the creature but since it held a powerful enchantment it escaped any damage from the extreme temperatures issuing from the creature's back.  Remorhaz can generate extreme heat on their bodies and backs in particular to melt snow quickly to attack prey from below snow and ice.  As the great ice wyrm convulsed in its death spasms, the heat melted a sinkhole into the icy floor and the slain creature gradually sank from view to its final resting place.

So having defeated the Remorhaz, we decided it was best to leave the “moving snow” alone (it was obviously some kind of creature) and decided to explore the ice sheet at the back of the glacial rift to see if it might actually be covering up a sink hole that was another entrance into the lair of the Frost Giant Jarl.  When we approached the ice sheet for a closer look, it did indeed appeared to be a giant ice covered sink hole in the rift floor and another way into the cave complex!  So Evelyn the Assassin set to work cutting a hole in the ice sheet as quietly and gingerly as she could so as to not give away our presence having been trained in the arts of elicit entry.  Once she cut a hole in the ice sheet that was large enough to slip through (being careful to remove the ice as she cut it rather than letting it slip into the sink hole) we peered down into an eerily dark and quiet cave below.

We decided to send her in for a closer look and one of the Elves cast invisibility on her so she would not be easily detected by any occupants of the cave.  We lowered a rope down and she climbed down to the cave far below.  She was gone for quite some time but eventually returned to the surface on the rope.  When she returned, she verified that this was indeed the same cave that she had scouted out before during the session when the Frost Giants had ambushed us on the ledge and we had entered the second level for the first time.

Previously, she entered that cavern while invisible when she and Lucias scouted out the second level while both were invisible.  She determined at that time that she was pretty sure there was a dragon or some other very large lizard or beast in the cave since she could hear its breathing but hadn’t actually seen it.  When she emerged she confirmed that, it wasn’t a single dragon but in fact was two very large and very old white dragons!  One was on a ledge above the cavern floor and the other was cleverly situated behind a large rock pillar so as to be unnoticed if someone were to enter the cave from the opening into the cavern that she had scouted out before. 

So we set about formulating a plan.  We decided that just entering the cave down the rope and attacking from there was far too risky since we would be strung out as we entered and if we were attacked while entering, we could easily be picked off by the dragons one at a time on the rope since they could fly and hit us with their breath weapons or their claw and bite attacks.  We also didn’t really have any defenses against their cold breath attack so any kind of frontal assault was ruled out.  We surmised that our best course of action would be for the Wizard and the Elves to hit them with a number of fireballs and lightning bolts at range if we could lure them out somehow.

We started discussing ideas of how best to do this when Ferris mentioned that he had memorized Resilient Sphere - a 4^th level Unearthed Arcana forgotten lore spell he had learned.  This spell is usually used to trap an opponent inside a sphere of force and only a few very powerful spells or a dispel magic can destroy the force shield of the sphere to let someone out.  The result is that those inside the sphere are impervious to damage from the outside and vice versa.  So our plan was to cast resilient sphere on three willing recipients to act as bait and draw the dragons out so the arcane casters could blast the dragons with fireballs and lightning bolts.  The bait consisted of Lucias the human fighter, Beorn the Bahkshanni dwarf fighter and Taleth the Human Ranger who would then drop down into the cave inside of the sphere once the spell was cast.  To make it easier to control the sphere from the inside, Lucias quaffed a potion of flying that he had had for quite some time so that they could move fairly easily and prevent a hard landing on the cave floor below.  The spell is kind of like a hamster ball in that you can push the sphere from the inside or out to move it without damaging the force shield.

So the three of them climbed down the rope just past the hole cut by Evelyn, and Ferris cast his Resilient Sphere spell and they were contained within the force sphere.  They let go of the rope and Lucias flew the sphere down to the cave floor where they landed softly like a beach ball landing in the sand.  Immediately, the dragons noticed the movement and flew over to investigate.  The three fighters began taunting the fell creatures and gesticulating wildly in order to draw them closer.  The two dragons let fly with their icy breath weapons but the frosty breath harmlessly enveloped and went around the sphere to the area beyond.  When the dragons saw that their prey was still quite intact and unharmed, the fighters within began taunting them with renewed vigor – the Bahkshanni dwarf in particular (being the crude mountain dwarf barbarian that he was) even went so far as to drop his trousers and taunt them with his exposed buttocks!  (Shades of Brave heart!)  At this point the dragons were infuriated and charged the three to attack!

The arcane casters above, seeing that their opportunity was at hand, let fly with two 6-7 die lightning bolts and two similarly sized fireballs which also harmlessly enveloped the force sphere but absolutely decimated the two dragons!  The force was so great that there wasn’t much left aside from smoking and charred bones, dragon parts, and steam and melted ice at the bottom of the cave.  The rest of the group climbed down into the cave and Ferris dispelled the sphere and we set out exploring the cavernous dragon’s lair.  Again, it was a two tiered cave with only one exit aside from the one we had come in – that was the stone blocked tunnel that Evie had investigated previously that led to the lair of the Frost Giant Jarl.  So we set about collecting the massive amount of loot in two separate hoards from each dragon and gradually ferried it back to our ice cave hideout some distance away from the glacial rift with the aid of fly and polymorph self spells (Teth-en-Aire polymorphed himself into a White Dragon so he could both fly and carry more treasure).

When we returned to our ice cave hideout, we spent a day or two to identify the magic items that we found in the Remhorhaz' lair and the dragon’s hoard.  It was quite a haul of treasure and items but the real surprise was discovering what the two magic items from the Remorhaz’ lair were – one was a +2 Giant Slaying longsword and the other was a Ring of Three Wishes!  We were undecided as to how to best use the Ring of Three Wishes so we just kept it in the bag of holding for the time being, but we gave the +2 Giant Slayer to the Ranger Taleth and he gave his other enchanted sword (which was also +2 and +3 against giants) to his Elven fighter henchman Bellinorn.  So once this was taken care of, we pondered our next move to return to the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl and assault the lair one final time!

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: Notable NPCs and Guild Members in Lykaedia and Thebos

Captain Atros Grimglory – Captain of the Deft Heron a river going Merchant Vessel

Atros Grimglory is the captain of a merchant ship that regularly runs the river trade routes between Limus Towne, Zademis and Medea’s Gate.  The ship is owned by the Sorinus family and the good captain is their employee.

Argus discovers the sword Hope Blighter

Prefect Ahmet – A prefect of the Surgeons of Hecate.

Ahmet is a lean undertaker-looking fellow who was in charge of guild operations in Medea's Gate for a time.

Argus Norviadras – A guildsman of the Hoplites of Athena.

Argus is also the proprietor of the Emporium Inn in Ptoleph.  Argus is the third son of Severed Norviadras and he sometimes sells magic items found during his adventuring days.  He sold Lucias the Sword “Hope Blighter” which he said was found in a crypt south of Demeteros.

Cori the Hosteller – Horse Trainer and leader of Ophidian Hand in Medea’s Gate.

She runs the Ophidian Hand which is the local thieves’ guild in Medea’s Gate.  She also trains horses (probably a front for Thieves’ Guild) and controls the north side market district of town where the open ground and stables are located.

Dominus – A brother of the Fraternal Order of Hecate.

He often travels by caravan while representing the interests of the Order of Hecate.

Ebru – A sorceress in Medea’s Gate.

Ebru can identify magic items for a fee.

Eldrid – Eldrid is a cleric of the Monastic Order of the Three.

He is a lower level cleric of the Order in Ptoleph who is in charge of selling healing potions and clerical scrolls.

Helaku – Helaku runs the money lenders operation of the Black Cloister in Limus Town.  He is erudite and well read.

Herik Ranjera – High Priestess of Poseidon.

Herik is the High Priestess and a cleric of Poseidon in Limus Town.

Lykaos – A very talented twelve year old boy wizard and member of the Dominion.

He can identify magic items for a fee and presides over sales of magic items in the guild hall in Ptoleph.

Maeve the Enlightened – She is a member of the Promethean House in Ptoleph.

She plays violin and has a very smug and aloof demeanor.  She is a sage and specializes in topics such as the physical universe, geology, mineralogy, physics, demi humans and giants and her rate is 200 g.p. for a day’s work.

Marut – A master surgeon and guild master of the Fraternal Order of Hecate.

He is Sybilla and Wilfred’s boss and is rumored to be a vampire.  He wears a surgeon’s mask in public scented with herbs and often travels at night.  He is greatly feared and has an aloof attitude and a dark sense of humor.

Miligro Conje’ – A Courtesan in Limus Town.

Miligro is a high dollar courtesan in Limus Town who is popular with the nobility.  She is sometimes referred to as “the strumpet of Limus Town”.  She is also a singer and entertains with a “troupe” of musicians at one of the local clubs called Mosaics.  She is rumored to be a Gatherer and is sometimes seen wearing their symbol of a black onyx goat around her neck.

Ornaskar the Intrepid – A sage and wizard in Demeteros.

Ornaskar is said to be a very knowledgeable sage and a powerful wizard of named level.  He is rumored to be one of the most capable wizards in all of Lykaedia.  His research is focused on knowledge, history and issues of a planar nature including the known planes of existence and anything concerning the demonic or diabolic in particular.  He is a friend and former adventuring partner of Obberon Remik and he has a tower in the town of Demeteros, one day to the north of Medea’s Gate. 

Owen the Collector – Owen has curios shop in Ptoleph and is a master sage.

He specializes in studies and records of humankind, philosophy, politics, genealogy and flora.  He often buys works of literature or other historical records and antique curious to sell in his store.  He doesn’t charge too much and will often accept curios goods in trade for his services and is generally a very friendly fellow.

Obberon Remik – A renowned warrior and demon fighter in Medea’s Gate.

Obberon runs a school of martial training with an excellent reputation in Medea’s Gate.  He is friends with Ornaskar the Intrepid, a wizard and sage that lives nearby in the town of Demeteros.  Obberon once searched for the Maw of Torment and another ruin north of Winterholm but never found either of the fabled dungeons.

Quillan Ardmirth – An Elf Mage of the Dominion.

Quillan runs the Dominion’s shop in Medea’s gate where one can often purchase or trade magic items.  It is laid out more like a library or center of research than a shop and items are brought out upon request rather than displayed.

Quinn – the Boatman of the Hill

Quinn is a fisherman in Limus town and will ferry passengers to the far shore at the Hill or beyond in his boat for a fee.  He will also pick up passengers from the far shore as well if he sees smoke signals on the shoreline.

Rosalinda and Rosabella – They are called the Grey Ladies of the Hill of Limus Town.

They live in an enchanted house on the hill that is rumored to move from time to time and are undoubtedly spellcasters of some sort though the common rumor is that they are witches.

The Sorinus Family – A well-respected mercantile group

This prominent family of merchants has vast holdings throughout Thebos and beyond and owns an impressive fleet of merchant vessels.

Sybilla – A cleric of the Fraternal Order of Hecate

Sybilla is the order’s prefect for the City of Ptoleph.  She is a cleric and also represents the Order’s interests in the nearby small mining town of Silverton.  She usually travels with one of the “reborn” as a bodyguard and Argus is her assistant.

Torian Demeri – A Paladin Prophet of the Sun.

Torian is a zealous Paladin and Prophet of the Sun of the noble Demeri Family whose family has a statue in Medea’s Gate.

Wilfred – A brother of the Fraternal Order of Hecate.  He is a promising young prefect of the Order and was recently promoted to the position of Prefect of the City of Medea’s Gate.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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