Session 3: The Glassworks
This adventure happened in mid-November and featured:
- Kobb “One Tusk”, the half-orc mercenary,
- Toran Stargazer, the young thief from Magnimar,
- Goalrath Shadowmoon, the elven cleric of Sarenrae
- Asreal Nom, the savage human ranger, and
- Vardinil, the elven fighter/magic-user.
Summary: The party explores the glassworks, rescues Ameiko and learns a bit about what is going on.
I. Goblins in the Glassworks: Session 3 began with our heroes quickly dispatching eight goblins with the aid of a well placed sleep spell. Unfortunately, two goblins that avoided the effects of the spell fled through a nearby door. Looking around the room the players saw the body of an old man who had been killed and had molten glass poured over him.
II. Rescuing Ameiko: Continuing on the party found some stairs down into the basement where they slew Tsuto and rescued Ameiko. She told the characters that Tsuto was working for his new love Nualia and that they were going to destroy the village and slaughter the inhabitants. They found Tsuto's journal which had a number of disturbing revelations. They also discovered a passage way that led to a cave complex below the Old Light - an old ruin which looks like a huge lighthouse.
After taking Ameiko to safety, the characters returned to the cave complex where they battled a number of fearsome aberrations (Sinspawn). Kobb was seriously injured (-2 hit points, another house rule) so the party returned to the surface and found aid for him at the Cathedral.
The party then spoke with a few NPCs to try to learn as much as they could about the origins of the cave complex. The local sage, Brodert Quink, told them about his theory that the Old Light was a ruin from the ancient empire of Thassilon and that it was an enormous war machine capable of hurling fire more than a mile.
The session ends with the party making plans to return to the cave complex.
Body Count: The party killed eight goblins, Tsuto and two Sinspawn.
Treasure: Once again this session was too long ago for clear recollection but I believe that the bulk of what was recovered was Tsuto's possessions.
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DM Notes:
In the published adventure Tsuto is a half-elf multiclassed as a rogue/monk in the adventure. I don't have a good 2E monk class so I re did him as a 3rd level thief with the assassin template. He was equipped with blinding powder, a shortbow with 3 arrows with type A poison and 15 normal arrows, 2 potions of healing, a ring of protection +1, and a fragile glass vial filled with type J poison. Unfortunately, I was rolling poorly so the party quickly took him out even with a couple of goblin helpers.The other conversion was the Sinspawn - another new creature in the adventure.
Sinspawn
No. Appearing: 2-8
AC: 7
Mv: 9
HD: 3
THACO: 17
No. Attacks: 2 claws & 1 bite
Damage: 1-4/1-4/1-6 + wrathful bite
Special Attacks: Wrathful Bite - save vs poison or be affected as a Confusion spell for 1d6 rounds.
Special Defenses: Spell Immunity - immune to sleep, charm and hold spells. Sneaky - opponents have a -2 penalty to their surprise roll.
Magic Resistance: Nil
Size: Medium
Morale: Fearless (20)
That's a turn off in this adventure.
ReplyDeleteWe didnt kill Tsuto and when we interrogated him he couldnt give us information other than the ones he had in his diary (that was really lame!).
This kind of stuff motivates the players to go on hack and slash mode and jump from encounter to encounter with little rhyme or reason. Two thumbs down...
Later I gave them reason to reconsider their kill first ask questions later approach.
ReplyDeleteIt will show up in a later session summary but later the local sheriff goes to the nearby city of Magnimar to petition for aid against the goblin threat. When he returns he is accompanied by a few guardsmen and Justice Ironbriar. The Justice is quick to point out that their vigilante justice against Tsuto and a few other NPCs will not be tolerated.
I didn't mind the dairy so much as the references to demons and Lamashtu really put the fear in the PCs.
I follow your posting fairly religiously but for some reason your Rise of the Runelords has slipped beneath my radar.
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally, I'm running my daughters through this same series. We rolled up characters yesterday, and I introduced them to the town of Sandpoint. We're going to try to see this thing through using Swords and Wizardry though. It should be interesting to find out how well the modules line up in terms of level to something as far removed as the 0e rules.
I'm psyched to read your experiences though. I'll start writing up how our game is progressing and if you're interested you can read it for kicks. Compare how things transpired perhaps.
I would have loved to try Rise of the Runelords with B/X or S&W however my players voiced a strong preference for 2E.
ReplyDeleteWhile B/X is my favourite version of D&D I have played and DMed 2E the most - the longest campaign I have ran was a 2E Temple of Elemental Evil campaign that went for a few years.
It has been a while since I have DMed 2E though and I have been a bit rusty.
I will look forward to reading about your game.