The Broken Lands - Wandering Monsters

Last session, the party made a short foray back into the Undertemple of Akron. They went in with clear plans to continue exploring past the point they had previously explored in an effort to find, and hopefully kill, the god.

After the last session, I took some time to re-stock a good portion of the dungeon, and redeployed those temple Acolytes that remained. I like that this makes the dungeon feel like a dynamic place.

Shortly, after entering the dungeon the party abandoned their plans to instead investigate signs of changes to the dungeon in areas they've already explored. Near disaster, followed on the heels of that decision - in the form of wandering monsters!

I will be the first to admit that I do a lousy job of tracking resources such as torches, etc. That leaves wandering monsters as the primary provider of tension to making decisions that take in-game time.

"Do we search the whole room for secret doors, just part, or not at all?" The only reason to choose not to search the whole room is the number of wandering monster checks. The threat of wandering monsters means the party will usually look at their map, to figure out likely spots for a secret door and only search there.

To be sure the wandering monsters provides the necessary tension to those decisions, I do not make Reaction Rolls for wandering monsters. They always attack. There always has to be the threat that the wandering monster will consume resources (hit points, spells, etc).

However, I do use morale checks for them as morale provides tactical decision making - the party can take actions that trigger morale checks.

So following the wandering monster check coming up with a "1", the party was trapped in a dead-end room by three large, hairy ape-things with jaundiced, watery-eyes, and slavering tusks, armed with long, heavy spears. A fierce battle ensued and before the three creatures were killed (having passed both morale checks), two of the PCs lay dead on the floor.

Going into the next session the party is deciding if they ask Lassering Thay, the High Priest of Hades, to raise the PCs from the dead (insert evil laugh here).

The Broken Lands Session 5

Taking it up a notch - to kill a god.

The Party:

• Comtruise the Auditor (Cleric 2)
• Elu the Elf (Elf 1 - Protection from Evil)
• Steefe the Invisible (Halfling 2)
• Jakar (Fighter 2)
• Plus retainers:
• Konill the Medium (Magic-user 1 - Light)
• Dyban the Veteran (Fighter 1)
• Fallin the Veteran (Fighter 1)
• Tallus the Acolyte (Cleric 1)

The Adventure (aka there will be spoilers below; aaka if you’re one of my players don’t snoop through this adventure):
A few backstory bits from The Illhiedrin Book. Alcastra the Fairspoken sent the party to Lassering Thay, the High Priest of Hades in the City of Jekarra. In return for his aid he requested to party to kill the god Akron. For this part I am using The Undertemple of Arkon from The Dragon Horde Zine #1 from New Big Dragon Games with a few changes (including me mispronouncing the name the first time so I just went with it).

What Happened:

• After accepting Alcastra’s Geas, upfront gold, and various magic-items, the party meets with Lassering Thay, High Priest of Hades in the City of Jekarra. He tells them he can provide aid for their quest but first he wants them to enter an ancient shrine carved into the base of the Cliffs of Leng and kill the god Akron.
• Thinking that killing a god would be pretty damn cool but possibly out of their league, the party proceeds down the Tartarus Road and follows Lassering Thay’s directions to the shrine.
• Entering the shrine, the party susses out a stair-slide trap before it causes them any issues.
• In a huge chamber, they find two deep pits - in the larger one they find three emaciated, naked, and unconscious neanderthals and in the smaller one a black panther. Fearful that the panther may jump out, they decide to proceed down one of the many passageways exiting the chamber.
• Next they find an expansive chamber with a large circular symbol painted on the floor filled with arcane markings. Being very careful not to cross into the circle, the party continues to explore the room when three small creatures of a degenerate, swarthy-skinned pygmy race carrying spears come up behind them. The party was careful not to appear threatening (and a very good reaction roll), and the wandering pygmies left them alone.
• Continuing to explore, they came across a number of rooms containing skeletons. Through the Cleric’s turning ability and combat, all of the skeletons encountered were overcome. This allowed the party to find a number of secret doors. The first lead to a small room with a bronze flask full of liquid on top of a short pedestal. Promising Tallus the retainer that he could keep the obviously magical potion in the flask (and a very good reaction roll), he took a sip and died in writhing pain.
• In another secret chamber, the party is spooked by panther shaped shadows lurking on the walls despite there being no objects that would cast such things. Suddenly, a shadow panther jumped off of the wall and attacked! However, the creature was quickly defeated. After the combat the party found a chest full of treasure.
• Thinking the panther they had found in the pit earlier may be the god they were sent to kill, the party developed a plan using the poison they had found and some of their foodstuffs. Returning to the large chamber near the entrance to the undertemple, the party poisoned the great cat. Using lots of rope (and benefiting from a lot of negative wandering monster rolls) they trussed up the panther and hauled it out of the pit and back to the temple of Hades in Jekarra.
• Lassering Thay told the party they were various forms of imbeciles for thinking they could poison a god.

The Tally:
Tallus the Acolyte dead
A poisoned panther
~ 20 skeletons
3,200 gp
A poison potion (used)

What Worked Well/What Didn’t Work Well:
I was happy with this adventure so far.
I’m still knocking the rust off my DM-ing chops. Especially around combat - keeping it interesting and dynamic. I am finding that the online platform and not being able to see everyone is hindering this a bit.

The Broken Lands Session 4

To kill a spider.

The Party:
Comtruise the Auditor (Cleric 1)
Elu (Elf 1 - Protection from Evil)
Steefe (Halfling 1)
Jakar (Fighter 1)
Plus retainers:
Father Mug (Cleric 2)
Konill the Medium (Magic-user 1 - Light)
Dyban the Veteran (Fighter 1)
Rufus the Black (NM)
Gangagor the Portly Porter (NM)

The Adventure (aka there will be spoilers below; aaka if you’re one of my players don't read these):

• Continuation of a slightly modified Tower of Zenopus.
• The Vault of the Whisperer (from Black Pudding #2) as a sub-level accessed at the end of the passage going north in the north-west part of the map. Note I excised the rat tunnels.

What Happened:

• With the larger roster of characters, the party sets off through Jekarra on their way back to the cellars and catacombs below the ruined wizard tower. On the way they encounter a merchant whose slaves are rolling barrels full of torch oil. One of the barrels got away from a slave but they were able to get it back under control before any disaster but not before earning a beating.
• With all haste, the party makes a beeline for the room with the Giant Spider. However, being a bit loose of tongue in their tactical planning and taking a bit too much liberty in their expectations of their porters’ duties Gangagor the Portly Porter fails a morale check and flees. Steefe the halfling grabs the Portly Porter's arm but then gets pulled down the hallway like water skiing behind a boat.
• Having developed their plan of attack, the party kicks open the door. Elu the Elf then abandons the plan and goes running into the room. However, the timely use of Konill’s Light spell on the Spider’s many eyes and missile attacks leads to quick victory! Searching the room they find a dagger.
• Having dealt with the spider, the party decides to investigate the passageway to the north seeing it leads to the “monster with many teeth” mentioned by Grith the Sorcerer.
• They come to a large locked stone door on which is scrawled “It whispers within”. Next to the door is a barrel. Removing the lid, the party is attacked by a Barrel Snail! Deploying many flasks of oil reduces the barrel and the creature within to a burnt heap. They find a key in the burnt wreckage.
• Passing the locked door, they find a room with two statues and a door on the opposite wall. Thoroughly searching the statues and lots of trial and error allows the party to find a secret door on the west wall.
• Proceeding down the secret passageway, the party finds a small shrine with a faded mural of a sad girl. Messing with the painting eventually leads to Father Mug being strangled to death by a pair of invisible hands.
• At the end of the secret passage, the party discovers that the dead-end wall sounds hollow. Breaking through the wall they release a poison gas which (rolling on the Death & Dismemberment table) leads to Elu being knocked unconscious for a while. In the wreckage of the wall they find a strange sword. On the other side of the newly created hole in the wall the party sees a wrecked room that makes them decide this place is just too creepy.
• Retreating back to the room with the two statues, the party decides to check out one more room (famous last words). Opening the door on the north wall, the party is attacked by five humanoids with weird cages on their heads. Deciding “one more room” was stupid, the party quickly flees the Vault of the Whisperer.

The Tally:

• Father Mug and his cure light wounds spell
• Killed a Giant Spider
• Found a weird magic sword dripping with acidic ooze and a magic dagger.

What Worked Well/What Didn’t Work Well:

• First use of a random encounter in the city. I used Matt Finch’s City Encounters and ad libbed a bit. I really thought the party would try to steal a barrel of oil.
• Given how the players were talking I did NOT expect them to head to the Vault of the Whisperer so I was caught a bit unprepared.
• The use of more retainers paid off in terms of survivability.
• The Vault of the Whisperer really creeped the players out.
• The party has asked for me to refresh some of the adventure hooks for next time.
• That’s two sessions with very little treasure.

The Broken Lands Session 3

Return to the cellars and crypts below a ruined wizard tower along the Road of Tombs.

The Party:

• Vanuatu the Vegan (Magic-User 2 - now with Sleep and Charm Person)
• Elu (Elf 1)
• Steefe (Halfling 1)
• Plus an NPC retainer - Father Mug (Cleric 2 - from Black Pudding #1)
• Comtruise the Auditor (Cleric 1) is added for the second trip (replacement PC)
• For the second trip into the dungeon, the party hired a decrepit porter with a pronounced limp named Ire. The party deemed him perfect for the job as his limp made him the slowest.

The Adventure (aka there will be spoilers below):
Continuation of a slightly modified Tower of Zenopus.

What Happened:

• Consulting the map, the party decides to continue exploring to the northwest, beyond the partially collapsed room where they found treasure in the sarcophagi.
• Soon they encounter 2 Fire Beetles with vicious bites. One takes Elu down to 1 hp before they are dispatched. Unfortunately, Father Mug is bitten while trying to cast Cure Light Wounds ruining his spell.
• Reorganizing their marching order to protect Elu, the party decides to push on.
• Upon entering a new room, a giant spider drops from the ceiling. Rushing to slam the door shut between them and the poisonous monster, the party loses initiative. Vanuatu (who as a level 2 Magic-user with a good Con bonus now has the highest hit point total), is now in the front and goes down to the poisonous bite of the monster.
• Retracing their steps back to the entrance, the party encounters 7 scrawny, knee high humanoids whose features combine those of an old man and a rat in the partially collapsed room (taken from the most recent Nightwick Abbey release through Evan’s Patreon - I’m using these to replace the goblins in the adventure). A favourable reaction roll had the little creatures back away carefully and allow the party to pass unmolested.
• The party returns to town to heal and add another PC.
• Going through Vanuatu’s personal effects, Elu finds the large gem (the Blood Egg) and now it is his precious.
• Returning to the dungeon, the party develops a plan to deal with the giant spider. After stalking up on torches and flasks of oil, the party studies the map and decides to approach from a different direction and try to burn it out. Unfortunately, using their rough map they didn’t realize that the distance to the room with the spider was much greater than anticipated and that another room was in between.
• Entering this unexpected room, the party encounters over a dozen of the small wrinkled rat men encountered earlier. The party flees lighting a pool of oil  behind them to discourage pursuit.
• The party then encounters Grith the Sorcerer and his bodyguard in a workroom. Parleying, Girth invites them to share any knowledge about the dungeon that they acquire. Also, he offers them a reward if they are able to bring him a large tooth from a monster located somewhere to the northwest telling them, “they will know which monster when they see it.”
• Deciding not to mess with the Sorcerer, they take their leave and continue exploring until they encounter a giant snake in what is obviously the lower level of a tower. Quickly evading a fight with another poisonous monster, the party decides to try to tackle the tower from the surface level.
• Unable to breakdown the front door, they throw a rope and hook to the roof. Elu climbs up and, through a narrow window, spies Grith the Sorcerer returned to his tower. Continuing to the roof, Elu finds a trapdoor providing access to the top floor. However, opening it produces a terribly audible squeal from the rusty hinges that alerts Grith to possible intruders. Fleeing back down the rope, Elu narrowly avoids a conical blast from a wand wielded by Grith from a second storey window as the sorcerer screams at them for being thieves. The party then flees back to Jekarra.

The Tally:

• Vanuatu the Vegan, who just became a level 2 Magic-user, is dead (3rd PC death).
• Killed 2 fire beetles and took their red-glowing glands.

What Worked Well/What Didn’t Work Well:

• While this session was not as successful from a character longevity or monetary perspective as the previous sessions, this one was a lot of fun. To me it had more of the sword & sorcery, picaresque feel. It would have been nice if Vanuatu made his saving throw vs poison.
• I love reaction rolls! A good roll with Grith the Sorcerer leads to an interesting roleplaying encounter and possible adventure hooks. And then another roll leads to a narrow escape for the party.
• I know that some people find mapping a pain. However, they make the game much more fun as an aid in decision making.
• I’ve talked to the players about hiring more retainers.

The Broken Lands Session 2

The greedy adventures saw opportunity in raiding the cellars and crypts below a ruined wizard tower along the Road of Tombs.

The Party:

• Vanuatu the Vegan (Magic-User 1)
• Elu (Elf 1)
• Steefe (Halfling 1)
• Barak (Fighter 1) - I think I may have this name wrong
• Plus a retainer - Father Mug (Cleric 2 - from Black Pudding #1)

The Adventure (aka there will be spoilers below):

The Tower of Zenopus from Holmes Basic. I am: 1) making some cosmetic changes; 2) adding a sublevel accessed by the hallway going north in the top-left corner of the map; and 3) Since this is no longer located on a body of water, the sea caverns will be changed.

What Happened:

• Before adventuring, Van decides that there is no way he would be willing to sell the huge gem, the Blood Egg, that they pillaged on their last adventure. They then hire Father Mug as a retainer.
• Descending the stairs into the cellars below, the party heads south at an intersection - using the always turn left mode. They enter a chamber and quickly overcome 4 skeletons.
• They proceed through an empty room and enter a gloomy room with piles of rocks and rubbish. They defeat 3 giant rats and then find a silver dagger and a bag containing 50 ep.
• Cautiously exploring a hallway going north they are surprised by two ghouls that attack them from the rear (a wandering monster). Father Mug failed his turn attempt, but the ghouls are defeated thanks to the halfling’s low AC and the elf’s immunity to ghoul paralysis.
• Proceeding into the next room, the party finds two more ghouls gnawing on bones from smashed coffins. Again, Father Mug fails his turn attempt but the ghouls are defeated with abundant missile attacks.
• The party next explores a huge room where the northern wall has collapsed scattering stone sarcophagi into the room. Ransacking the sarcophagi, the party first deals with poison gas, an animated skeleton, and then an animated sword. They find a magic sword, a golden coronet, and jewelry.
• Deciding that this was a good haul they decided to head back to Jekarra.
• Taking the magic sword to a sage they learn that it is Bittercut - a sword forged from the tears from a forgotten goddess.

The Tally:

• Killed/overcame 4 skeletons, 3 giant rats, 4 ghouls, and an animated sword.
• Valuable jewelry
• Bittercut the magic sword (yoiked from Black Pudding #1)
• Vanuatu the Vegan advances to 2nd level!

What Worked Well/What Didn’t Work Well:

• The old school practice of map keeping is working well - one of the players is keeping a rough map. During this session it helped them modestly by planning the quickest escape route (thus limiting wandering monster checks) once they decided to head back to the city. However, in session 3 it became quite valuable for decision making.
• Wandering monsters are working well - I just used the tables on page B53. They provided uncertainty and tension. The fact that they resulted in ghouls just before a keyed room with ghouls was just a nice coincidence.
• I replaced the magic +1 sword with something that has a bit more mystery/backstory/interest (but in the hands of PC's not much of a mechanical impact. Go get Black Pudding if you haven't already!)
• I made a mistake on the conversion of types of coin to gp for experience point calculations. For some reason I couldn't find the table on page B47 at the time. We rectified it by the end, but I told the players not to revised their XP reward (I over awarded them).
• I am using reaction rolls to determine who and how many retainers can be hired at any time. However, I think that the players aren't aware of my mental process when we roll so I may have to walk them though it. This really impacts session #3.

The Broken Lands Session 1

We had our first session of the online Broken Lands game a while ago. Picking from the list of Adventure Hooks that had been provided the party set off for the Tower of Birds.

The Party:
Vanuatu the Vegan (Magic-User 1)
Twig (Thief 1)
Elu (Elf 1)
Buzz (Dwarf 1)
Plus two porters to carry torches and caged chickens in and hopefully treasure out.

The Adventure (aka there will be light spoilers below):
Tower of Birds by Gabor Lux in Fight On! #2
I made a few minor changes - statuary was changed to being statues of Pazuzu and I added Spectral Ravens to location #9 and toned down the laser damage (however, the party never made it to this room).
I also mis-read the map and swapped locations #7 and #8.

What Happened:
The party was dogged in driving towards the top of the tower driving a squawking and flapping chicken in front of them up the stairs (in most dungeons this would have resulted in MANY wandering monster checks).

In the final encounter Twig, the thief, sprinted for the huge gem while the other party members battled the Bird Monsters. He was able to grab it and throw it to Vanuatu the Magic-user (who was back at the stairs) before being slaughtered by the Bird Monsters (he had the magic sword and pegasus helmet). Buzz the Dwarf was also killed. Elu the Elf and Vanuatu (scooping up the gem) made a hasty tactical retreat and hauled ass after the fleeing porters (leaving behind the chickens).

The Tally:
Killed 2 Bird Monsters
The Blood Egg
A sword with a golden pommel
A small statuette of Pazuzu
A small sack with 34 gp
The pegasus helmet and a magic sword remained behind with the fallen.

2,035 XP for the two surviving party members.

What Worked Well/What Didn’t Work Well:
I tried to set up two cameras on my end - one for my face and my viewing (my laptop) and one to show the table, combat maps, drawings, etc. (my phone). However, my lack of technical know-how prevented me effectively setting this up. We defaulted to me just swinging my laptop around to show what I wanted. Also, instead of using the table map I just sketched a lot on scrap paper and held them up to the camera.

Prior to setting out, one of the players asked about a library to do some research about the Tower. I was unhappy with how I handled it.

Nightmoor Abbey - Session 1

How do you do this again?

We sat down for the first session of Nightmoor Abbey a few evenings ago. The first while was taken up with character generation which took a good while, as I knew it would. It has been quite some time since any of us had played 1E AD&D. Once characters were created we had a party made of:

• Miroslav - Human Cleric of Law
• Kazimir - Human Cleric of Law, brother of Miroslav
• Thane - Human pagan Ranger
• Thessia - Human Druid, sister of Thane
• Sir Saptac - Human Paladin
• Zi-bert - Frogling Fighter/Thief

What happened

• After collecting a handful of rumours, the party approached the ruined walled abbey from the north (the direction of approach from the village of Nightmoor). Laying between them and the crumbling walls was an old graveyard with tombstones and a small mausoleum overgrown with vines, weeds and other growth.
• Carefully investigating the mausoleum they found a sealed stone sarcophagus. Careful to leave the sarcophagus alone they discovered a narrow well in the back of the mausoleum that descended into darkness.
• Zi-bert used the vines covering the walls surrounding the abbey to climb up and reconnoissance the area inside. The walls made a large rectangle with ruined towers at the four corners and a gate house occupied the center of the eastern wall. The thorny vines left his webbed hands raw and inflamed.
• Seeing nothing too worrying, Zi-bert returned to the party and the group circled around to the east where the gatehouse and a crumbled section of wall provided two avenues through which to enter the abbey grounds proper.
• In the abbey grounds were the large stone cathedral, another well, and the old remains of a wooden stable. The cathedral was obviously once a large structure but much of it had fallen into ruin but had bits of surprising restoration. Dropping a lit torch down the well, it fell approximately 30-40 feet and landed with a hiss in water. However, they thought that the well shaft might open up before reaching the water.
• Next checking out the old stable, Thane the Ranger caught the sent of a bear den. They were careful not to disturb anything that might be laired within.
• Circling to the south of the cathedral, they found the main entrance - two large iron bound doors that appeared to be more recent additions.
• As the party prepared to open the doors a wandering monster check indicated that the black bear in the old stable was approaching. Thinking fast, Thane the Ranger was able to scare the bear off.
• Entering the cathedral, the party found themselves in the nave and choir. Graffiti covered the walls and one written message caught the party's attention - "Beware of spiders". On the desecrated altar was a severed half rotten goat head and two spent black candles. Laying on the floor in front of the altar was a severed hand. The Cleric brothers tried a simple ritual to reconsecrate the altar. Investigating the altar further the thief found a hidden compartment and discovered that it was likely trapped. He was then able to safely trigger the scythe trap that likely left the five-fingered memento laying on the floor. Inside the hidden compartment was a small sack of gold coins.
• Investigating a few more rooms, the party took notice of a graffiti

  

  Graffiti Symbol

   symbol and the party was attacked by 3 giant rats which were quickly killed.
• The party then found an archway leading to stairs descending down to the first level of the dungeon. Me not being afraid of cliche, the message "Abandon all hope" was scrawled above arch. This is where we called it a night.

The tally

• Killed 3 giant rats
• Scared off 1 black bear
• A small sack of 50 gp.

What worked / what didn't work

• I'm pretty happy with how the first session went. We were rusty and unfamiliar with some of the intricacies of 1E AD&D since we haven't played it in so long. This caused pacing to be a bit slower than I would prefer but it will pick up as we get more familiar with the rules.
• I used a reaction roll to see what the Black Bear did when Thane tried to scare it off. I love reaction rolls. However, and I am likely going to say this a lot, I prefer the simplicity of the Reaction rules in B/X to 1E or 2E AD&D. That being said, it worked well, rewarded Thane's player for some quick thinking, and likely saved the party from a tough fight. 
• We only had the one combat. I envision the first few combats taking a while as we walk through the procedures and my interpretation of how the rules will be applied. For the combat against the giant rats we walked through:
• Closing to Strike - DMG pg 66
• Initiative Ties - DMG pg 63
• Who Attacks Whom - DMG pg 70
• Missile Discharge - DMG pg 63 - specifically firing missiles into melee
• We did Surprise wrong which I will have to correct next session.

2E Rise of the Runelords - Session 7

Note that there are spoilers for Paizo's Rise of the Runelord adventure path.

Session 7: Assault on Thistletop – The Fire Goblin

This adventure was played on January 15th, 2010, and featured:
- Kobb “One Tusk”, the half-orc mercenary,
- Toran Stargazer, the young thief from Magnimar, and
- Asreal Nom, the human (Shoanti) ranger.

And also included:
- Kobb’s henchman, Kurzek Irontusk, a half-orc fighter/thief, and
- Toran’s henchman, Vicoren Shieldheart, a cleric of Desna.

And introduced:
- The Wanderer, the as yet unnamed Shoanti druid,
- Roland, the paladin of Iomedae, and
- Saphara, the female, half-elven magic-user.

Summary: The party sets off for the goblin lair of Thistletop to find Shalelu the elven ranger and to deal out some punishment for the goblin raid on Sandpoint only to come limping back to town defeated and bloody.

I. A Visit from Aldern Foxglove. While the other members of the party are defeating the Imp in the catacombs below the town of Sandpoint, Asreal the Ranger recuperates in the Rusty Dragon and idly ponders where he lost a sock. While sitting in the common room of the inn, Aldern Foxglove, the noble the party saved during the goblin raid on Sandpoint, enters the inn. The nobleman is wearing his usual finery, but Asreal notices that his pants, shirt cuffs, and finger nails are all very dirty. Aldern is very happy to see Asreal and once again expresses his gratitude for saving his life. He tells Asreal that he has been overseeing carpenters that are repairing his manor to the southwest of town. He also tells Asreal that he is returning to the city of Magnimar and would be very happy to provide hospitality to the party if they find themselves in that city.

II. The Party Returns. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the party returns from their harrowing battle against the Imp (see Session 6). While recounting their tale of heroism and valor to Asreal a pair of merchants enter the inn. They appear to be battered and bruised and ask about the location of the Sheriff. They describe to the party how they were traveling to Sandpoint from the east and were a couple hours away when they were ambushed by goblins. The two merchants were quickly knocked prone and the goblins managed to steal their prize horse. They claim that it was only the trouble the goblins were having manage the magnificent horse that allowed the two merchants to escape with their lives. They offer the party a reward of 300 gp if they are able to recover the horse.

III. Father Zantus’ Plea. Toran made his way to the Cathedral to ask Father Zantus for healing aid in the morning before the party sets out for Thistletop. Father Zantus asks Toran to return Father Tobyn’s remains if he has the opportunity and to show Nualia mercy if at all possible.

IV. A Narrow Escape. Kobb and Kurzek go on their own to make some final preparations for the short journey to Thistletop. Toran, Vicoren and Asreal go to see the Mayor. On their way, they narrowly avoid Justice Ironbriar by ducking into an alleyway. They speak to the Mayor about taking over the abandoned manor-house that was being used by the Green Dagger gang. The Mayor says that she would be happy for the party to have the house and fix it up. However, given Ven Vinder’s (who is on the town counsel) attitude towards the party (due to Toran’s dalliance with his daughter) and the recent controversy about the party’s vigilante actions on the docks (see Session 4), she is very sensitive about making the transaction appear to be fair from the town’s perspective.

V. Thistletop. After a short journey the party reaches Thistletop. The party begins exploring narrow passageways among the thick briars and nettles that grow in a dense tangle. They encounter goblins and goblin dogs which are quickly dispatched and find a lookout point that shows that the thick briar is on a Cliffside that falls 80’-100’ down to the sea below. From the cliff an rope bridge extends out to an oddly-shaped island upon which rests a fort-like structure. The party continues exploring the passages through the briars in search of a way to the rope bridge.

VI. The Fire Goblin. In a thorny chamber the party is attacked by a mountain lion. As the fighters and ranger fight the large cat a goblin shaman appears from a side passage and, using a magical wand , traps the party on this side of a wall of blazing fire. As Kurzek quickly closes with the goblin, the foul creature uses the wand again, this time to cast a fireball at the party. This magical explosion kills the mountain lion, Asreal and Kobb and knocks Vicoren unconscious. Toran and Kurzek are able to wound the goblin shaman who quickly surrenders and begs for mercy that was not forthcoming.

VII. The Rusty Dragon. Kurzek, Toran and Vicoran quickly flee back to Sandpoint and recover in the Rusty Dragon. There they are introduced by the Sage, Brodert Quink, to Saphara the half-elven mage with whom he has been in correspondence with regarding his research into ancient Thassilonia. Hearing of the party’s discoveries she has come from Magnimar to investigate for herself. She is accompanied by her half-brother Roland the Paladin. They also meet the Wanderer, a Shoanti Druid who came to Sandpoint in search of his friend Asreal.

Body Count: 10 goblins, 4 goblin dogs, a mountain lion, a goblin shaman, Kobb One Tusk the 3rd level Fighter and Asreal Nom the 1st level Ranger.

Treasure: From the goblin shaman the party recovered what were Identified as a Wand of Fire and two Potions of Healing.

========================================

DM Notes:
- I continued to stress the impact of the party’s attack-first attitude with the Mayor’s reaction and Father Zantus’ plea. We will see if it sinks in following the deaths of two of the original PCs.
- The goblins were straight 2E goblins and the mountain lion was also straight from the MM. I have a feeling that much of Thistletop will be easy encounters broken up by a few hair-raising encounters.
- I spent more time making conversions of some of the classed goblins to be found in Thistletop. Using “Altering Monsters the Easy Way” from Dungeon Master Option: High Level Campaigns, I made the goblin shaman a standard goblin with +2 toughness and 4th level cleric casting ability.

Goblin Shaman (AC 4, Mv 6, HD 1+1, hp 8, Thaco 18, #AT 1 scimitar, D 1d8+2, SA cleric spells, SD nil, MR nil, ML 12) Equipment: scimitar, Wand of Fire (8 charges), 2 Potions of Healing.

Spells: 1- Darkness, Cause Light Wounds (x2); 2- Flame Blade, Speak with Animals.

The stats for the goblin shaman turned out much weaker than the 3.5E version. However, in the published 3.5 adventure he was equipped with a Wand of Produce Flame. I toughened him up considerably with a Wand of Fire (Burning Hands, Pyrotechnics, Fireball, Wall of Fire).

I gave the party some warning however. First he appeared on the edge of the battle with Flame Blade cast, then he used Fire Wall in a position to just trap the party and finally used Fireball as the heavy artillery. In that time only one character went to engage the goblin shaman.

The reward is that the party now has a Wand of Fire, albeit with only 4 remaining charges.

- Toran the thief is the only original and frequent character. Goalrath the elven cleric is also still alive but the player has been working shift work and unavailable for a while. This has brought one of the issues of an Adventure Path to the fore as some of the future plot elements somewhat rely on developed relationships with various NPCs. Its not a fatal problem but it will take some re-jigging to either redevelop these relationships with the new PCs or figure out different hooks.

- I started using Paizo's GameMastery Item Cards. When I sat down to work on converting the encounters to 2E, I went through the cards and picked out specific cards for mundane and magical items for the big encounters which I then handed out as the items were found. I liked the cards. I will have to ask the player what they thought.

- I was hoping to get further along in the adventure but we spent the last while generating the new characters and shooting the breeze so it was all good.

2E Rise of the Runelords - Session 6

Note that there are spoilers for Paizo's Rise of the Runelord adventure path.

This was the latest session and brings the session summaries up to date.

Session 6: Return to the Catacombs of Wrath

This adventure was played on January 6th, 2010, and featured:
• Kobb “One Tusk”, the half-orc mercenary,
• Toran Stargazer, the young thief from Magnimar,

and introducing:
• Arug, the Alaghi pitfighter (the replacement character for the player of the now deceased Vardinil the elf)
• Kobb’s henchman, Kurzek Irontusk, a half-orc fighter/thief, and
• Toran’s henchman, Vicoren Shieldheart, a cleric of Desna.

Summary: Fearful that Nualia might emerge from the caverns below Sandpoint and seeking vengeance for the death of their fallen comrade, Vardinil the elf, the party re-enters to Catacombs of Wrath.

I. Introducing the new henchmen. During the party’s recovery in The Rusty Dragon following their last ill-fated adventure into the catacombs, the party is met by an old friend and mentor of Toran, Vicoren, who has come to Sandpoint to find the young lad and try to keep him out of trouble. Kobb is also accosted by Kurzek who is the brother of the half-orc that was slain by the party a couple of sessions ago. Kobb defeats Kurzek in battle but spares his life in return for Kurzek's service. DM Note: After the previous session we discussed having backup characters ready in the event of more character deaths. I use the house rule that replacement characters begin with 50% of the dead character's XP. I offered that the backup characters could be henchmen for the current characters and actually earn the 50% but the trade off is that the entire XP pool would have to be divided between more characters. A couple of players decided to go that route.

II. Sheriff Hemlock. As the party begins their preparations to return to the vile cathedral under the Old Light, they meet Sheriff Hemlock on the street. He is worried that Shalelu, the elven ranger, has not returned from scouting the lair of the goblins thought to have led the assault on Sandpoint. He also inquires if the party has asked Father Zantus about the Cleric of Nethys (god of magic) described in the ledgers recovered from the hideout of the Green Daggers. Finally, he warns the party to try to stay clear of Justice Ironbriar who views them as unlawful vigilantes. DM Note: I am trying to drive home the vigilante justice thing and may prove interesting later :)

III. Introducing the new PC and another hook. The party then proceeds to the Cathedral where they ask Father Zantus and Naffer Vosk about the cleric of Nethys. It turns out Naffer was accosted about a month ago by an assailant that matches the description. The ruffian demanded Naffer’s vestments, holy symbol and robes. Being a former pirate, Naffer fought the assailant off and managed to pull a stone pendant of red marble from around the neck of the would-be thief. Vicoren identifies the pendant as a “cairn charm”, a stone often hung inside ancient tombs found in the Fogscar Mountains. The party is also introduced to Arug, a hairy Alaghi, a race of shy and peaceful forest-dwellers. DM Note: This is from the Complete Humanoids Handbook. I was originally hesitant to allow the PC race but decided to focus on the "say yes" style.

IV. Other preparations. The group completes other preparations before entering the catacombs such as buying a vial containing an antitoxin and whatever silver weapons are available in Sandpoint. Toran also begins investigating Sandpoint’s marriage customs. DM Notes & a Spoiler: Man am I looking forward to how this plays out especially with the beginning of the next adventure in the path, The Skinsaw Murders.

V. Into the Catacombs. The party enters the catacombs and investigates a previously unexplored stairway where they are attacked by a hideous flying head with dark wings and crowned and bearded with writhing tentacles. Proving his worth to his new companions, Arug circles around the flying abomination and quickly slays it with a mighty strike with his polearm.

Exploring another passageway, the party enters a room occupied by a twisted, monsterous goblin wielding a sword, a handaxe and a dagger with its multiple twisted malformed limbs. The room contained eleven deep pits covered with rickety, fragile wooden covers and each containing shuffling undead. After a fierce battle, the twisted goblin was slain by Kobb. DM Note: My big regret from this session was that I didn't make the mutant goblin try to push someone into a pit. I focused too much on using the creatures "mutant" abilities to make him seem weird when pushing a PC into a pit would have made the encounter more tactically interesting and frightening.

VI. The Queen of the Catacombs. The party entered a strange spherical chamber with metal walls that rippled with silent black electricity that seemed to form incomprehensible runes and words. Levitating in the room were a number of objects and the Imp that had slain Vardinil the elf. A fierce battle ensued. Arug was poisoned by the Imp’s stinger tail but was saved by Vicoren and many other party members were grievously wounded. After all of the silver arrows were spent and the party was considering a full retreat, the Imp was final slain. DM Note: I thought I was taking it easy on the PCs by not using her "at will" Invisibility every round but I recently read in the 2E DMG that you can't use it and attack in the same round (pg 64) so I feel better now. I am still trying to get up to speed with some of the 2E rules.

Body Count: A vargouille, 11 zombies, a mutated goblin and a tough Imp.

Treasure: The party recovered:
• a longsword, handaxe and silver dagger from the twisted goblin,
• a scroll from an ancient study, and
• a bottle of wine, a scroll, a book, an iron wand, a magical dagger, a miniature tiara, and an obsidian unholy symbol of Lamashtu from the room where they fought the Imp.

=====================================
DM Notes:

The battle with the Imp was a tough one as it was last time as well. For the Imp I started with the standard Imp from the MM but I gave it a +1 bonus to hit points per hit dice, AC, Damage, Thaco and saving throws and I also gave it the ability to cast Monster Summoning I as a cleric of Lamashtu, the Mother of Monsters. Given that the Imp had an AC of 2 and could only be hit by silver and magical weapons and the fact that the combat took place is a room affected by a permanent Levitate spell, the party had difficulty hitting.

Other creatures encountered were a vargouille, zombies and a mutated goblin. For the vargouille, I didn't have a 2E version so I just used a 1E version. The zombies were straight from the 2E MM but they were down in pits and quickly dispatched with oil and fire during which I rolled zero wandering monsters even with all of the smoke and stench of burning zombies. The mutated goblin was a 2 HD bodyguard with 3 attacks (lots of arms wielding a longsword, a handaxe and a dagger) and an acid breath weapon that caused 2d4 damage (save for half) that was usable three times.

The player of Arug, the Alaghi, did a great job roleplaying the character's fear of magic and unnatural things. With his ability to grapple and possibly pin the Imp he could have made the combat a rather quick affair but the character was too afraid to enter the obviously magical room and greatly limited his combat effectiveness.

2E Rise of the Runelords - Session 5

Note that there are spoilers for Paizo's Rise of the Runelord adventure path.

Session 5: The Catacombs of Wrath

Session 5 took place on December 10th. This was the last session we had before everyones' hectic holiday schedules interfered with the campaign. My notes for session 5 are much more sparse than the previous sessions. It was a short session with a bunch of role-playing at the start and a short but vicious battle at the end.

This session saw our brave heroes:
- Met with a local mage and head of the village school to find out which of the items they have found to this point were magical. He offered to identify the items for free if the party would keep an eye out for leads about a large book that was stolen from the school's library. There was a number of magic items including various items of protection.

- The party then went to the Cathedral. Father Zantus was not back from visiting some of the outlying farms so the party spoke with Naffer. He recounted the sad tales about the Late Unpleasantness involving Nualia and Jervis Stoot. He also told them that Daylin from the Green Daggers had died.

- After hearing Nualia's story, the party went to talk to Hannah, the midwife, but she wasn't there. A passerby mentioned that she was often in the countryside in the mornings collecting herbs.

- Visiting the locksmith, the party pressed him for more information about the key but he insisted that he had told them all he knew.

- The party then returned to the catacombs below the Old Light. Cautiously proceeding down a previously unexplored hallway they first found an ancient shrine with a roughly carved black altar with a pool of filthy water on the top.

- They then proceeded through a set of double doors into a large cathedral. There they were confronted by an Imp.

- A ferocious battle ensued during which the Imp summoned a Sinspawn from a pool of roiling liquid, summoned a group of goblins, and displayed a number of other supernatural abilities - including poisoning Asreal with its stinger tail. Asreal fell to the ground precariously close to death (instead of save-or-die, I used save-or-nearly dead. He ended up nearly dead). All of the party's attacks appear to be ineffective. Toran heroically saved Asreal from certain death. Unfortunately, Vardinil, the elven fighter/magic-user was not as lucky as he fell before the summoned goblins' onslaught.

- The remaining members of the party quickly fled back through the Glassworks back to the surface and apparent safety.

- After recuperating for a few days, Sherrif Hemlock returned to Sandpoint with six troops from Magnimar and Justice Ironbriar, who reprimanded the party for dispensing vigilante justice.

========================================

DM Notes:

Looking back there were two key points:

1. The players and characters learned that things were dangerous. The party had been in trouble a couple of times in previous sessions but they really got their you-know-whats handed to them by the Imp. I think the players were a little stunned about how badly this encounter could have gone. They were lucky to just lose one character. The lack of much magic weaponry really hurt them. In the published adventure the Imp is actually a quaist with some levels and a template. I went with an Imp though because its ability to fly is an important part of the encounter. However, I didn't use a standard Imp from the Monstrous Manual. I will post my conversion in a future post.

2. Justice Ironbriar impressed upon the party that they could not act with impunity. We will see if this has any impact on the party's actions in the future. It also sets up other interesting aspects for future encounters!

2E Rise of the Runelords - Session 4

Note that there are spoilers for Paizo's Rise of the Runelord adventure path.

Session 4 - The Missing Key

This adventure happened on November 22nd and featured:

- Kobb “One Tusk”, the half-orc mercenary,
- Toran Stargazer, the young thief from Magnimar,
- Asreal Nom, the savage human ranger, and
- Vardinil, the elven fighter/magic-user.

Summary: While making preparations to re-enter the caves under the glassworks, the party encounters a different problem and hands out some vigilante justice.

I. Getting Ready: Session 4 began with the party splitting up and heading to various places in Sandpoint to take care of a few things before returning to the caves. Kobb remained at the Rusty Dragon Inn to have breakfast, Goalrath finished his morning devotions and met Kobb at the inn, Asreal went to the apothecary to find a remedy to the bad dreams he has been having and to help him sleep, Vardinil, after memorizing his spells, went to the village's academy and met the headmaster who is a former adventurer and mage to seek help with identifying some of the items the party has found, and Toran first went to the jeweller about buying a present for Shayliss and then went to a small shrine attended by a learned monk to try to find out some information about Sandpoint's history.

II. The Break-In: On his way to meet the others, Toran saw two ragged looking thugs ransacking the locksmith's shop. He quickly retreated to a shadowed spot to keep and eye on the thugs. When the dwarf locksmith arrived, he began shouting for the town guard and the thugs fled the scene. Toran darted after them, keeping far enough away not to be spotted but close enough to tail them. After the thugs fled into a disreputable tavern, Toran went and got the rest of the party and then returned to the tavern to try to find the two thugs.

III. A Chase on the Docks: Being unsuccessful finding the two thugs in the tavern, the party went out the backdoor and out onto the docks directly behind the tavern. After a few moments of investigating, the party spooked a nearby half-orc who quickly tried to flee. Jumping from dock, to barge, to boat, the chase ended with the half-orc turning and fighting the party. After the half-orc pushed a couple of party members off of the barge they were fighting on, the party decided that trying to capture him would be too difficult so the battle ended with the half-orc dead, a few party members soaking wet, and a number of dock workings looking on.

After explaining what had happened to the town guard, the party returned to the locksmith's shop, where Volioker, the locksmith, asked for their help to recover the only thing of any importance to locksmith that was stolen - a plain copper key.

IV. The Hideout of the Green Daggers: Following a clue they recovered from the dead half-orc, the party found an abandoned manor that was now being used as a hideout for small upstart gang of thieves, the Green Daggers. Many of the thieves were dead or dying from a "blinding sickness". After defeating a number of thieves and the thief/magic-user leader, the party found a number of clues indicating that the thieves started to get sick about two weeks ago. They were recently hired by a cleric of Nethys (god of magic) to recover a copper key from the locksmith shop in return for a cure for the blinding sickness. The cleric had picked up the key that morning left a number of doses of the cure but the doses don't seem to be working. The party also discovered a ledger detailing a transaction where the gang bought a charmed giant bird and then sold it to "Aspis".

Body Count: The half-orc on the docks, a couple of Green Dagger thieves that ambushed them in the hideout, a pair of identical twin halflings that used potions of invisibility to get the jump on the party, and Cyrathas, the elven leader of the Green Daggers.

Treasure: Most of what the party recovered was the possessions of Cyrathas, the leader of the Green Daggers.

=========================================================

DM Notes:
This was the first major diversion from Paizo's Rise of the Runelord's AP. I have been throwing some other hooks at the party but they have been so focused on Nualia's plot that this is the first one they have taken. I used the adventure from Dungeon #114 - Mad God's Key and adapted it for Sandpoint. I think it went well. It also allowed me to throw out a hook for Asreal's player to do some stuff related to his background (the giant hawk).

Conversion of the Mad God's Key
a 3.5E adventure from Dungeon #114

I typically use a very simple conversion process for NPCs to adapt a 3.5E adventure for my 2E campaign.

At low levels I keep the hit points as given in the published adventure. I higher levels I take between 50% and 75% of the given hit points.
I determined Hit Dice by dividing the hit points by 5. I then round up or down depending on how things are going or how evil I feel.
Thaco was calculated as 20-Hit Dice
For the most part AC = 20 - 3.5E AC, however if it is important I actually calculate based on the 2E rules.
And special abilities are approximated.

For example, the final encounter we had in session 4 was against Cyrathas, an elven mulitclassed rogue 1/sorcerer 2. So I wanted him to have some thief abilities and be able to cast magic-user spells.
He had 13 hp as given in the adventure

HD = 13 / 5 rounded up = 3
Thaco = 20-3 = 17
His AC was given as 15 so I used 20-15=5

Special abilities:
I used the base thieve abilities for a 1st level thief as printed on my 2E DM screen and didn't worry about making any racial or dexterity based adjustments.

For spells, in the adventure he has Burning Hands, Shield and a bunch of 0-level spells. So I just kept both of the 1st level spells as they have 2E equivalents and used Cantrip to replace the 0-level spells.

For magic items, I used the 2E equivalents for what he had in the published adventure.

Did all of this add up to a 1st level thief / 2nd level magic-user? Not exactly but he used a magic wand (Grease) to great effect, lost his Burning Hands spell when he was hit while trying to cast it, lit a pool of lantern oil on fire by knocking over a torch using Cantrip, drank a potion of healing and generally made for a fun encounter.

If you have Dungeon #114, my quick and dirty conversions resulted in the following encounters:

Chapter 1:
The Looted Locksmith - didn't convert as the two thugs fled and were not fought.

Barge End & Wharf Chase - lots of DEX and STR checks jumping from docks, barges and boats. Irontusk (AC 6, HD 4, hp 20, club & studded leather). He was killed - lots of explaining to do to the town guard!

Chapter 2:
G2 - Stirges (from the monsterous manual)
G4 - replaced Krenshar with a guard dog that was quickly made friendly by the Ranger
G9 - the Diseased Green Dagger Junior Gang Members were not converted because they were not fought.
G10 - Daylin (Half-elf, AC 5, HD 1, hp 5, shortsword & leather armour, level 1 thief skills) - he successfully hid in shadows and hit with a sneak attack on the Elven Fighter/Magic-user.
G11 - Spiked Iron Sphere trap - save vs magic wand or take 2d6 damage - this hit the thief after he opened the door without checking for traps. Fun!
G13 - Dalta Gwyn (AC I misread it in the adventure and used an AC of 7, HD 3, hp 13, shortsword, light crossbow, leather armour) and Collapsing Stairway trap - save vs breath weapon or fall taking 2d6 damage - the trap was sprung by Kobb the half-orc and he was severely hurt. More fun!
G19 - Tisa and Risa (twin halflings, AC 4, HD 1, hp 6, shortsword & leather armour) I gave each of them a potion of invisibility that they used just before the party came into the room. After the battle, Asrael the Ranger fell down one of the pit traps (save vs breath weapon or fall down to the 1st level and take 1d6 damage).
G21 - Cyrathas (conversion above).

2E Rise of the Runelords - Session 3

Note that there are spoilers for Paizo's Rise of the Runelord adventure path.

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.

=======================

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)

2E Rise of the Runelords - Session 2

Note that there are spoilers for Paizo's Rise of the Runelord adventure path.


Session 2: The Heroes of Sandpoint
This adventure happened in mid-November and featured:
- Kobb “One Tusk”, the half-orc mercenary,
- Toran Stargazer, the young thief from Magnimar,
- Asreal Nom, the savage human ranger, and
- Vardinil, the elven fighter/magic-user.

Summary: The party explores the village of Sandpoint, meets some residents and tries to figure out what is going on.

I. Noble Favours: The session picks up where the first session ended - battling goblins. The characters rescue a local noble, Aldern Foxglove, from a large goblin who was riding a fierce, hairless, dog-looking creature. Nobleman Foxglove subsequently rewards the party and take a particular interest in Asreal who stood toe-to-toe with the goblin and placed himself directly between the goblin and Aldern. He invites Asreal on a boar hunt and to his residence in Magnimar. Asreal gently but firmly declines.

II. Heroes Around Town: While investigating how the goblins entered to village, the party was received as heroes wherever they went. Word of their prowess at repelling the goblins had spread amongst the villagers.

While discussing the attack with Sheriff Hemlock and Father Zantus it is discovered that the grave of the former head priest, Father Tobyn, who died in the fire five years ago was dug up and the remains stolen during the attack. Next to the excavated gravesite was the grave of Nualia Tobyn and on it was fresh flowers.

III. Compromising Positions: The young rogue, Toran was approached by an attractive Shayliss Vinder, daughter of the owner of the General Store. She asked him to help her get rid of some huge rats in the basement of the store. When he went into the basement, her true motivation became apparent with a cot set up in the back corner. After a few amorous moments, Shayliss' large father came down the steps and discovered young Toran in a compromising position. A good tumbling check later, Toran was past Ven Vinder and fleeing up the stairs without his pants.

IV. The Protectors of Sandpoint: Sheriff Hemlock asked the party for a meeting at the village garrison. There he introduced them to Shalelu, an elven ranger and unofficial scout for the village. He asked the party to stay in the village and keep up a high profile while he travelled to the nearby city of Magnimar to get some troops to protect against any further goblin raids.

A few days later, a servant at the inn where most of the party was staying came and asked them for help. It seemed that the innkeeper, an exotic lady named Ameiko, had gone missing and a suspicious letter from her estranged brother, Tsuto, was found in her room. Following the lead in the note, the party searches the family's glassworks and finds the workers slaughtered and goblins frolicking amongst the gore in the workroom.

The session ended just as the party engaged the goblins in combat.

Body Count: Besides the opening combat this was a roleplaying heavy session. The party killed a Goblin Commando and a Goblin Dog. The party took no casualties.

Treasure: This session was too long ago for me to accurately recall what the party recovered. I do know they were paid a reward by Aldern Foxglove.

==========================================================

DM Notes: The initial encounters for Rise of the Runelords are with Goblins so the conversion has been pretty straight forward. Of course, the published adventure has a number of classed goblins and I wanted to retain some of the flavour so I have given some of the goblins special abilities. There is also a Goblin Commando riding a Goblin Dog which is a new monster in the adventure.

Goblin Warrior 1 = Normal 2E Goblins
Goblin Warchanter = Normal 2E Goblins + the ability to use the spell Taunt twice per day + armed with a whip
Goblin Commando = Goblin Leader as per 2E Goblin entry.

Goblin Dog
No. Appearing: 2-12
AC: 7
Mv: 15
HD: 1
THACO: 19 (note that for monster I use the simple formula of Thaco = 20 - HD)
No. Attacks: 1 bite
Damage: 1-6 + allergic reaction
Special Attacks: Allergic Reaction - Any non-goblinoid creature that is damaged by a goblin dog’s bite attack must make a save vs poison or break out in an itching rash. Any creature affected by this rash takes a – 2 penalty to Dexterity and Charisma for 1 day.
Special Defenses: Nil
Magic Resistance: Nil
Size: Medium
Morale: Average (10)

My 2E AD&D Rise of the Runelords Campaign

Back in November, I began a 2E AD&D campaign running Paizo's Rise of the Runelords adventure path. I have been making a few posts over at Dragonsfoot about the campaign but I have decided to make some blog posts here as well. We are now six sessions in and I am really enjoying it.

We are about 2/3rds of the way through the first instalment and the adventure is quite good. We will see how it holds up as we go as we are not far enough along to have to deal with some of the issues involved with running an adventure path.

The group is made up of two players that I have been playing with for some time now and three new players. I have to admit that I am quite happy with how the group has meshed. So far this has been the funnest group I have had in a while.

Rules, Initial Character Generation and the First Session

Rules
For rules we are using:
2E Core
+ some of the Optional rules in the PHB
+ the Complete Handbooks (all material used from these must be vetted first)
+ some house rules

The house rules are basically:
- Humans gain two additional nonweapon proficiencies
- Ambidexterity, Blind-fighting and Two-Weapon fighting (and maybe a few more) can only be taken as Weapon Proficiencies instead of Nonweapon proficiencies
- Material components for spells are abstracted. Arcane materials have been added to the equipment list. They are the catchall for material components for spells. If your wizard casts a spell that requires a 100 gp pearl, I am not going to make sure you have it on your equipment list but I do want you to make sure you have at least 100 gp of Arcane Materials on your character sheet which can be used. If no cost is given for material components the cost will be 10 times the spell level in gps.

Initial Character Generation
We used 4d6, drop lowest and each player rolled two arrays. The player then got to choose which array they wanted to use. The resulting PCs were:

- Kobb One Tusk, a half-orc fighter with the sell-sword kit and specialization with a spear.

- Goalrath Shadowmoon, an elven cleric of Sarenrae (a Sun specialty priest from Complete Priest's Handbook plus allowed to use a scimitar and a few other minor changes).

- Vardinil, an elven fighter/magic-user. I allowed him to spend a couple of weapon proficiencies to be able to cast spells while wearing chainmail. He still has to make an INT check with a penalty equal to the spell level. If he fails he loses the spell. The player has also been warned that I reserve the right to screw with his character if he rolls a "1".

- Asreal Nom, a human ranger (Shoanti for those who are familiar with Paizo's world of Golarion).

- Toran Stargazer, a human thief focused on breaking and entering instead of traps and combat.

First Session
Following character generation the players wanted to get right to the action so we began a short session.

All of the characters were in the village of Sandpoint enjoying the Swallowtail Festival. Toran and Goalrath were eagerly awaiting the dedication of the new cathedral that had been built to replace the old chapel that was destroyed by fire five year ago. Kobb was enjoying some ale. Asreal was scanning the crowd. And Vardinil was listening to the speeches.

Suddenly the festival was interrupted by goblins rampaging through the streets - setting fires, butchering dogs and terrorizing villagers. The characters quickly joined forces and battled the goblins.

The quick session ended after the characters had defeated two different groups of goblins and were about to confront a goblin riding a fierce, hairless, dog-looking creature.

An Impromptu B/X Game Report

My current 2nd edition campaign group was going to meet last night but due to some scheduling difficulties we had to scrap the plans. Two of the players still came over and instead we decided to play an off the cuff session of B/X.

I had each player roll up two 3rd level characters using 3d6 in order. What resulted was great fun. One player rolled up two dwarves - brothers - named Ping and Pong. The other player rolled up Blorg the Fighter with an Intelligence of 4 and Seth the Cleric with a Wisdom of 7.

While they were rolling up their characters I was quickly trying to find a suitable adventure for the evening. I grabbed a handful of Judges Guild modules and started flipping through them for some inspiration.

After the characters were created, I had each player roll a d20 a number of times to determine if the characters had any magic item. I usually have them try to roll under their level (3 in this case) for each of the magic item categories. They actually rolled a number of 2's and had a handful of magic items.

One of the items rolled was a treasure map! This made me quickly abandon my flipping through adventures and I grabbed Judges Guild's Book of Treasure Maps. A few rolls later to determine with Wilderlands map and hex location and the group of four brave adventures were off in pursuit of the legendary Jewel of Kallapath (I just made up the name).

Alas, the adventure was short lived. After coming upon an old keep populated with goblins and ogres, the party spent a number of days travelling with few rolls on the Ravaged Ruins table to give some flavour and a few wandering monster rolls which came up negative.

Finally, I rolled up a wandering monster which led me to the Dragon subtable. Thinking to myself, "Oh, oh...", I quickly rolled up an encounter with two fire salamanders (AC 2, HD 8, 3 Attacks and fire damage to anyone nearby) which surprised the party. Seeing as this was a oneshot and I wanted to see what the players would do, I decided to just spring the encounter on them and see what happened. A roll on the monster reaction table gave the party an opportunity to try to evade. Unfortunately, the PCs decided to charge the fiery lizards and soon thereafter we had a dead party.

What Worked Well:
1. Rolling for magic items gave a great hook for the adventure with the treasure map.
2. Rolling to figure out where in the Wilderlands the adventure would be located was quick and fun.
3. Judges Guild's Book of Treasure Maps was a great help.
4. Rolling up four 3rd level characters with B/X was fast and led to some fun characters (not a surprise here!).

What Didn't Work as Well:
1. I discovered I am rusty at running a hex crawl. Being unprepared for an impromptu B/X one shot definitely contributed to this as did the fact that we randomly determined that the party started in hex 0914 of map one of the Wilderlands. However, it has been a while since I have run a hex crawl. I would like to play in someone else's game for a hex crawl just to see how others do it.
2. It being a oneshot definitely impacted the players' decisions. Four 3rd level adventures with no offensive magic going up against two fire salamanders was a definite mistake, but it didn't really matter because it was a oneshot.

All-in-all a good time and a great way to spend the evening.

Another Northern Marches Session

We have had a good run of gaming for the Northern Marches campaign the last few weeks. Last night we had another game with three players and myself.

The party was light on manpower but decided to return to the mines and fight goblins and bandits. Wandering monsters were their downfall. Only Konrad the Fighter made it out alive and he was grievously injured.

He went to the local temple to seek aid for himself. This gave me the opportunity to try out some more subsystems I have developed. A good reaction roll with the high priest, with some bonuses for helping the community with the bandits, resulted in the PCs hearing the tale (a Key Rumour) of a self-proclaimed Duke that has a stronghold to the west who is actually an evil undead that lives off the suffering and torment of the living. Also, in return for some healing, the high priest had Konrad the Fighter swear to investigate a recently discovered nearby tomb.

Investigating the tomb resulted in the PCs finding the first large treasure trove for the campaign. They have been unlucky in that regard to this point.

My goal in the development of the Northern Marches is to use a handful of simple subsystems based on existing mechanics in the B/X rules so that the campaign is nearly usable for solo play - something akin to an open ended version of Barbarian Prince. Then I, as the DM, can just sit back and enjoy meshing the results of these subsystems into a workable campaign for the players. I have mentioned in previous posts that the thing I enjoy the most about DMing is when I get to take a few randomly generated elements and use my imagination to mesh it together into something usable. Using the subsystems allows me to determine a larger history and story to the setting without a metaplot thus keeping the sandbox nature of the campaign. By parsing out random rumours and elements of the setting the players can ignore them if they wish but still get a sense of a larger world with a past and other forces present.

I have been enjoying not only the gaming sessions but also the construction process.

Northern Marches - Session 3 and a future Open game

We had another session of the Northern Marches. There were three players, all of whom were part of the previous sessions, and myself. Some things of note:
- After running into the wraith on the first level of Castle Hareth, the party decided that the castle might be too dangerous for now.
- They developed a plan to try to capture/kill a known bandit in the area.
- They explored a bit of the surrounding wilderness and began to fill out the common "Table Map", an idea that I stole from Ars Ludi and have seen others use.
- They had an audience with the mayor of a nearby village, see my previous post about Reaction Rolls and my discussion about how I setup and use urban environments.
- The audience with the mayor gave the party enough info to begin to investigate an abandoned mine that might house goblins and bandits.
- Due to the lower number of players, the party didn't have as much muscle and the evening ended with a huge running battle against said goblins and bandits which resulted in some of the PCs severely injured.
- The magic-user proved his worth with a couple of well placed sleep spells

I have also been making arrangements to run sessions of the Northern Marches campaign at a local gaming store. It is important to me to get out and make Northern Marches an "open" game. By open I mean that if someone stops by the store and takes an interest I want to invite them to sit down. This is important to me for three reasons:
1) I want to try to attract new players into my group;
2) I want to do something to support the local gaming shop (we have had a couple of long time gaming stores close down over the past 2 months); and
3) I want to try to give something back to the game that has given me so much enjoyment over the years. By getting out and showing how much fun the old ruleset can be I am hoping to increase exposure of the old school movement.

Northern Marches - Session two

A group of five players and myself met for a second session of the Northern Marches last night. All of the players were present at the initial session last week. It was fun and everyone seemed very eager to get together.

The party returned to Castle Hareth. They were able to explore a good portion of the first level of the castle. A few observations that I find really neat and that give a great old school vibe:

1) the focus on exploration - the party thought through the best ways to explore new areas. They kept in mind paths for retreat, where was the best defensible positions and strove to discover what was in the unknown sections of the level.
2) They put their map to good use - they looked at the map to try to discover areas that they had not explored, to find areas that appeared unusual and to find gaps where secret doors might be present.
3) Learning from their previous foray, they stuck to the first level - They have learned that the further you get from the first level the more dangerous things get.
4) They ran - While ransacking a barracks room, they attracted a wraith from a nearby room. This showed two things: 1st - that even on the first level there are things that will kill you, and 2nd - that their plans and preparations about how they explored the dungeon paid off when they were able to flee (however, not before the wraith killed the elf and zapped the cleric down to 0-level).
5) They hired a bunch of retainers - the more help the better. However, one PC is getting a bit of a reputation in town about the poor treatment of his hirelings. However, this also gives an important lesson in that their actions do impact the world.
6) The magic-user is finding his place - We are using the B/X rules for magic-user spellbooks. He hired a shield-bearer and a guard dog. He has also been trying to get an audience with the local, mysterious mage. This allowed my to try out a little sub-system I put together using the B/X reaction tables and the Barbarian Prince tables for gaining audiences (I love sub-systems!).
7) They are making plans! - They are getting the sandbox nature of the campaign. They are making plans that will allow them to interact wit the wider world and pursue their own goals. I love it.

The Story Continues...

Here is the second part of the summary of the first session of the Northern Marches as written again by Jake.

Hope people enjoyed reading Carry your Own Gold here's the last part of the story which is also the end of our first session. Once again i'm sorry about any errors.

" AN ELF, A DOOR AND A POLE ARM"

characters
Ganis the Frail cleric
Belgar the Beautiful dwarf
Liam mage
Marius elf
Rinford cleric
Konrad fighter
Dotson new hireling, torchbearer, treasure carrier, cannon fodder

Well Belgar and Ganus made it back to New Hareth safe and sound selling their tapestry and splitting the fortune( 20 gp). Almost instantly these 2 seasoned veterans were approached by new people wanting to check out the ruins of castle Hareth. So i'll begin my tale of heroism and untold feats of strength at the doors to the castle.
"we have to all push together to get these doors open" Belgar growls "and there are skeletons just beyond this door". "skeletons? don't be afraid" Rinford replies.
The party already knowing whats to be expected stroll right in to the room with skeletons and arrow slits in the walls. I mean who would honestly expect anything to change. The skeletons are still there and still dead. Then suddenly the twangs of bows. "lets just run across and go into the next room".Konrad says. Thats exactly what the hereos do, getting into the next room safely. "don't go anywhere orcs, we'll be there in a hour" Belgar shouts as he runs past the arrow slits.

Now the party has a decision, do they go up the stairs or down the dark hallway. Well no one knows if it was fear or common sense but the party picks the hallway. Down the hallway they go, there are doors everywhere. Konrad kicks open a door, the room is empty. They search the room, nothing catches their eye. Next room "i kick down the door" Konrad says again. But try as he might he just can't do it. If Konrad the strongest warrior within 2 feet of himself can't open it then who can. With one mighty kick, that would make a warhorse jealous, Marius the 95 lb, skipping along, almost girlish elf kicks it down."thats how you do it" Marius whispers. The room appears to be an old barracks. There are beds and footchests everywhere. With squeels of delight the hereos begin to open the chests. They find silver, more silver than they can count. When they are eventually able to count it there is over 100 pieces. "we split it now" Belgar roars. With their new found wealth safely put away they continue down the hallway. Another door is kicked open and gold statues are found. The next door Belgar carefully listens and hears noises. "why don't you crawl under the door and see what's in there you skinny elf" Belgar says. Well time was a wasting and these hereos haven't killed a thing all day "i'm kicking the door in" Belgar declares. Well the door is kicked in and the hereos are surprised by vicious, blood thirsty, snarling giant rats. "rats phhhhhhh". Konrad says. The 6 rats attack,poor Belgar is blocking the doorway so he must bear the brunt of the attack he is wounded twice and loses his shield. Well what would any seasoned dwarf do in such a 1 sided battle?, he backs into the hallway to let the rats out so Konrad can get attacked too. "We stand side by side"Belgar and Konrad scream. Rinford and Ganus who are behind the 2 warriors start firing with thier slings. Liam begins pondering about his 1 and only spell "i wonder what the range is". he thinks aloud. " i'm gonna go get a poleaxe that we saw by the entrance" Marius whispers then goes skipping off. The 2 clerics fire their slings with accuracy easily matched by a 5 year old child. Their stones hit their marks but not doing any damage. It was a good thing their stones did no damage because they had hit both Belgar and Konrad in the back. The warriors attack killing 2 rats. The ferocious rats bite back wounding both the warriors. Slings are fired,swords are swung, the mage ponders and finally after what seemed like an eternity (30 secs) the beasts are driven off and then, and only then the elf shows up with the poleaxe. The mighty heroes decide it is late and want to head back to town. On their way out they stop and gently bash off the 2 gold statues with a mace.
Upon returning to New Hareth they sell the statues and split the money confident that they are the mightiest adventuring party in all the land. They are slayers of orcs, killers of rats and defilers of statues.

This is where i left them. I told them that they were beneath me and i did not wish to be in their presence any longer. That just the sight of them made me sick to my stomach. They begged me to stay, pleading with me, even offering me riches and weapons. I will never forget what i heard the Hereos of New Hareth say to me as i walked away " please, pleeeeease Dotson, dont leave us"

Hope everyone enjoyed this, i'm not looking for or do i want any xp for this. i enjoy reading stories like this and was laughing my ass off when i wrote this one. I just wanted people to read this and hopefully they see how much fun old D&D can be. Hopefully people outside our group can read this? Maybe then it would spark even more interest in our little group. Well, i guess that's it for me for now.

P.S. if you want to find me ny name is Belgar and i live down by the docks in New Hareth.

Great stuff!

Northern Marches - Session One - Player Summary

The following was written by Jake, as he is known in the comments to the Premier of the Northern Marches post. He is the player of Belgar the Dwarf. I have a separate blog that I use specifically for the Northern Marches campaign where this was originally posted in a series of three comments. I laughed all day as these were posted.

Played last night for the first time with all but 1 of these folks. Had a blast good bunch of guys and will play again. I aplogize now for spelling errors or any other mistakes. So here goes the story of
" CARRY YOUR OWN GOLD "

Characters
Krocker fighter
Belgar the Beautiful dwarf chr: 3
Ganus the Frail cleric Str: 5
Danan cleric
Binford cleric
Rexall mage
Shuffles hireling, torch bearer, treasure carrier, trap finder, spear chucker

The brave adventurers leave New Hareth fully equipped and ready to defeat all who stand before them. They decided to check out the haunted Castle Hareth.( how bad can it be )
They trudge up beside the river knowing they are on their way to riches and glory. They arrive at their destination with one small problem they are on the wrong side of river. " I told you we should have asked people in New Hareth questions" Rexall says. Back to New Hareth the party goes to take the ferry across the river. Having solved their first mystery the party heads to the haunted castle.

They arrive at the ruined castle walking across the bridge and up to the huge double doors. One by one each adventurer shoves and pushes at the door but it will not budge. "Does anyone have rope" "how high are the walls" the players ask. Then Rexall with a solution that is borderline genuis says "lets all push on the door together."
Into the keep they go past the double doors. They enter a room with arrow slits in the walls and skeletons laying on the ground with a set of doors opposite the entrance. Warily they search the skeletons but find nothing. "i'm opening the other doors a foot and looking inside the next room" krocker says.

Peering in they spot 6 orcs with rusty crude swords. The hereos of New Hareth charge in yelling their mighty war cry "no hitting in the face". Krocker swings his mighty two handed sword killing one and Belgar smashes his hand axe into the face of another. Binford and Danan both swing and miss. Rexall and Ganis ever viligant stay by the door while shuffles bravely holds the torch. Now the 4 vicious orcs attack, the heroes are not afraid their wearing platemail " stupid orcs". They swing missing Belgar and Krocker but hitting Binford in the throat dropping him instantly, This startles the hereos "guess we can be killed" but they continue to swing. Krocker cleaves another orc and the rest drop their weapons and beg for mercy. But no mercy is giving by these mighty warriors they slaughter 2 more but one gets away. Rexall and Ganis now stride into the room as there is no need to "gaurd the door". Ganis applies first aid to Binford saving his life and he is soon up again and ready to go ( guess we are invincible).

We'll now that the heroes have shown the D.M. that they are the chosen ones and can not be defeated they search the room. They dont find much, some old weapons but upon searching the deafeted orcs they find near to a kings treasure. Silver they scream, nervously they count the silver some 3 dozen coins. Thoughts of ale and dancing wenches fill the hereos heads. "i'll carry our treasure" Rexall offers as he grins, thoughts of his own personal tower in his mind. "yeah that's a good idea give it to the evil mage" Binford replies " we split it now and carry our own gold" Belgar growls. With much sarcasm and grumbling the party decides that Binford the ever trustworthy already died once cleric will carry the treasure. Now that the Who carries the treasure? question is sorted out the party notices 2 more doors in the room. Opening both they noticed 1 leads into a dark scary hallway and the other door has happy, well lit stairs going up. " we will always go up stairs and we will always go through double doors" decide Rexall and Binford. With out an argument the party starts up the staircase.

Getting to the top the party enters a room with 2 statues. Rexall immediately goes into the middle of the room to stand "gaurd". "i'm tipping a statue over" Krocker screams with excitement. Over the statue goes, Binford shakes his head saying" that made alot of noise". To which Krocker replies " where does the treasure come out" But there is no treasure except a picture and a tapestry. "Here Shuffles you take the picture and we will all roll the tapestry up so we can grab it when we leave." Krocker says. Although there is no treasure the party finds another happy, birds singing, well lit stiarcase going up. Up they go defiant of all common sense till they are in another room where they find and roll up another tapestry. "Where is some more stairs" Belgar yells. By now The Hereos of New Hareth are cocky. Why shouldnt they be? They have defeated hordes of orcs, found a kings treasure and solved brain destroying riddles such as how to get across the river and how do we open this door. They do not know that death awaits them up just one more happy set of stairs.

The party climbs the stairs "knowing" they cannot be defeated. They walk into a room with a huge stained glass window and large tables. Rexall deciding the middle of this room doesnt need gaurding strolls up to the stained glass window. Suddenly and with complete surprise an oozy thing comes from under the table enveloping Rexall. The room goes into complete chaos all except for Shuffles and Ganus and calmly gaurd the door. Binford kicks over the table exposing the oozy thing for what it really is.... an oozy thing. They begin to hack at the oozy thing but one by one they are enveloped until only Belgar, Shuffles and Ganus are left standing. "i have oil" the door gaurding Ganus yells. With a throw only a stone giant could match he hurls the oil. It flyes through the air end over end then smashing to the floor. 5 feet short of the oozy thing and only 10 further then Ganus. "you couldnt even hit it " screams Belgar "i'm weak its not my fault" replies Ganus. Belgar grabs another flask from Ganus and tosses it all over the oozy thing. Grabbing the torch from Shuffles he then lights it on fire. With huge smiles the remaining hereos watch the oozy thing burn. But then they notice the oozy thing getting stronger feeding off the fire. Now, Shuffles this whole adventure had bravely and without concern for his own safety held the torch. Without him the hereos would have been doomed from the beginning, stumbling around in the dark. But now he was torchless and faced with a decision. With the accuracy of an elven archer he chucked his spear severly wounding the oozy thing then calmly walked out the door. With the oozy thing slowly crawling towards them Belgar and Ganus the victorious hereos from New Hareth left the room. " see Ganus thats why you carry your own coins. Binford's got all the coins and now hes dead again and that oozy thing's got em" says Belgar. " your right Belgar lets grab a tapestry on the way out and see if we can sell it" replies Ganis " sure" Belgar agrees as they walk down the stairs.

This story was overheard at the Dancing Dragon Tavern. A man with big ears by the name of Able who had a wench on each arm and a table full of ale told the story. He was buying ale for everyone and when asked where he got so many gold coins his only reply was"I sold an ugly picture"

I think that is worth some bonus XP.