AD&D Session 14: Reclaiming the Abandoned Fortress

Today, Sir Goldborn the Paladin, Kai the Druid, and Green Gary the Druid set out to explore the seemingly abandoned fortress north of Ristoro A, among the wooded hills. They persuaded the magician Walt (NPC) to come along, together with a handful of men-at-arms.

They found the castle deserted, but occupied by a great quantity of giant rats, which they cleared out piece by piece. The castle interior is composed by several small and large buildings, with a central Keep. Many "open doors" checks were made since the doors were ruined and hard to open.

The first group of buildings are dwelling- or house-like small buildings with nothing of note inside. A family of giant rats was found in one of these, but the party opted to close the door and continue.

Next they go to the Keep, with a large ruined ground floor, a cellar, and a central tower. They climb the tower and arrive at a room just before the roof. Giant rats are living here and the die indicates that the rats are surprised. The party finds a number of them having a bath in a large bathtub while others are brushing them vigorously with giant brushes. Someone notices something glinting/glimmering at the feet of the bathtub, so this person (don't remember who) runs forward to grab the shiny thing. The rats are not amused and begin to give chase. Walt the Magic-Missile-User Uses Magic Missile, killing one of the rats and scaring them off. This session I was running Walt as an independent agent, using a d6 from time to time to decide what he should to, and this is why he fired off the spell. Anyway, the shiny thing is safely retrieved and the party quickly take a look at the roof before descending back down to the cellar.

I didn't have this room prepared, so I generated it using Appendix A. A monster is indicated, which is... roll roll... giant rats! They are easily dealt with by the party, who now opts for a more eliminatory approach. There are no exits here, but the room contains barrels of wine which has gone bad and an iron trunk with 750 e.p. and... a magic scroll! Walt eyes the magic scroll eagerly.

The party exits the cellar and explores the rest of the castle: the remaing large buildings were once probably an armory, a church/chapel, and a tavern. They find 22 rats in the tavern and one who is probably their leader wearing a silver chain with a yellow-green gemstone identical to the one the party found in the Keep.

Instead of fighting these critters head on, Sir Goldborn asks the Druids for torches and tries to set fire to the old tavern by throwing oil flasks through the windows and following up with thrown lit torches. I use the rules for thrown missiles, oil flasks, oil puddles, fire, and item saving throws to the best of my ability to determine whether he succeeds. He succeeds. The rats begin swarming out of the place and are promptly caught in the overgrown weeds, which have animated thanks to the druids' Entagle spells. Their leader is also entangled, so one of the druids carefully removes the necklace. Then Sir Goldborn goes and takes out all the rats anyway, while the Druids look on in horror (they're supposed to care about animal welfare – this will incur a grading penalty).

The party finally retreats and goes to Borgogazze to tally up the treasure. They make plans to continue clearing out the castle and cleaning it up in order to eventually establish their base there. I tell them that if they want to do this in downtime, they should send me written orders as this could take some back-and-forth to resolve. Otherwise it is possible to do this in-session, of course.

The gemstones were two Chrysoberyls worth 130 g.p. each. The initial agreement with Walt on division of treasure didn't consider what to do with magic items. Walt argues that he should be able to give up his share of monetary treasure to have just the scroll. This doesn't sound fair to our heroes, as a magic scroll is potentially much more valuable than whatever treasure they found. So we agree to roll a d6, on a 1-3 the scroll will be sold and the money split. On a 4-6 the scroll will go to Walt and he will put in a good word for the party with his wizard trainer, Waltalf the Mage of Borgogazze. The die comes up a 4-6, so Walt really is unwilling to part with the scroll, as befits a Magic-User, and the second solution is adopted.

AD&D Session 13: Orc Removal

This session, Soldier Number One, Kai the Druid, and the hireling Soldier #2 woke up and chose violence. They made a quick plan to finish off the orcs in the cave system under Ashes Island. They met in the inn for breakfast, where they asked me to roll and see who was there. I rolled the adventuring party that was previously met by Sir Goldborn the Paladin. Since Sir healed them basically for free and they had enough time to recover, I rolled a reaction check for whether they would join the party on their mission. They do!

The spearheads of the party are Kurt the Fighter and Walt the Magic-Missile-User. They command 7 hirelings between spearmen and crossbowmen. Everyone takes the boat to the island, paying Frank 5 sp per person for the service. They arrive at the entrance of the cave and go in without looking much around.

The next 3-4 hours are a blur. The party just marches through the dungeon, murdering everything in sight. They pass the now empty entrance chamber and go straight to where they know the Orcs reside. Meeting their enemy, they charge! But the 16 Orcs set their spears against the charge, so this could hurt. Kurt the fighter impales himself on an enemy spear and perishes immediately. Since he was the leader, I check morale for the 7 hirelings. Thanks to high Charisma, Walt was able to hold the troops together and seamlessly takes the leadership.

(I realize just now that as a Magic-User he couldn't command >5 men... oh well, let's say that one of our fighters temporarily served as a Sergeant for Walt).

The fight turns around quickly. The Orcs suffer casualties and must make their first Morale check. Kai helps out with Faerie Fire and Insect Swarm to summon a group of biting ants. The Orcs' Morale breaks and they flee in panic! The party pursues the Orcs deeper into the dungeon, across a garbage-filled room with giant rats. But in the end, the free attacks are brutal and the Orcs are forced to turn around and make a last stand. They are all eliminated with no further losses from our party.

Unfortunately, after the last adventure the Orcs had no treasure left, so our party marches on. They enter an open area, a big cave with a deep chasm dotted by giant stone pillars connected by wooden bridges. Here, they continue their rampage by murdering a party of six Hobgoblins that was resting on top of one of the pillars. They loot treasure of 1000 sp and 250 gp. Not really satisfied but mindful of real-life time, they turn around to go toward the exit, when they encounter a small number of wandering Skeletons. I'll let you guess what happened next.

Eventually, they make it to the exit, and everyone minus Kurt make it back to the village of Trilo. Remarkably, the in-game time spent in the dungeon, 21 turns so 3h30, matched precisely the time it took in real life.

For downtime actions, SNO tried to hire soldiers but enough time passed before we got to our next session that his funds were gone in upkeep costs. Kai tried to persuade Walt and his men to join him on whatever the next adventure was going to be, and he succeeded at that (normal reaction roll for Walt, straight no-modifier reaction roll for each one of the men-at-arms).

AD&D Session 12: Return to Ashes Island

This session, Soldier Number One is back from training and is joined by Johnny the Ranger, Temaukel the Illusionist, and a new adventurer, Buffy the vampire slayer Half-Elven Cleric.

The party decides to sail to Ashes Island in the hopes to find some treasure or answers. SNO and Johnny pitch in together to hire a mercenary, MarTony the longbowman.

They set out for the island on Frank's boat and go immediately inside the dungeon upon arriving there. It is March 1 and upkeep costs are paid.

They hear woodworking sounds inside the dungeon and cautiously approach. Buffy uses her infravision to make out 12-13 small humanoid figures. They see her as well (no surprise) and begin questioning her in several monster languages. Both parties now discover that they speak Goblin, and parlaying begins.

These are Kobolds that are employed by the Orcs that live further into the dungeon. They are tasked with making boats and sailing equipment. The party negotiates passage and promises the Kobolds that they'll kill the Orcs and share some of the loot. The Kobolds seem alright with the plan.

The party explores the dungeon further in the direction indicated by the Kobolds, passing over a bridge that hugs the wall of a deep chasm in the cave. They eventually find the orcs in their quarters. Only half of the Orcs are there, the other half being outside doing... something.

Battle starts. Buffy and Temaukel both attempt spells, an area-of-effect Curse spell for Buffy and a close-up Color Spray spell by Temaukel. We discuss area of effect, spell ranges and segments. Result: Buffy can safely cast the spell by aiming it at the furthest wall of the 30'x30' room; Temaukel will get his spell off if the very near Orcs that are charging the party at this moment don't get to him first. Luckily Johnny protects Temaukel while he's casting (the Orcs randomly target him) so the Color Spray goes off. Two of eight Orcs are downed, and the Orcs fail a morale check and surrender. A very short battle with no one injured!

The Orcs surrender their treasure (not without trying to give them less than they really have first...) and the party retreats, giving the Kobolds some of the coins on their way back.

Now Johnny suspects that the orcs are up to no good, and that they're preparing to invade Trilo by boat. He makes his case to Giorno the Liutenant of Trilo, who is not quite convinced. Giorno requires some proof of the Orcs' intention! So the party decides on a rescue/kidnapping mission to bring back some of the Kobolds to testify.

They go back to the island and actually convince all of the Kobolds to go along with them, by promising large sums of gold and the opportunity for the Kobolds to have their own cave/place to live in Trilo's vicinity. The 13 Kobolds accept and travel back with the party to Trilo (the party has to wait for the sun to set – the dice give no random encounters).

The Kobolds find temporary housing in Giorno's actual dungeon. They testify that the Orcs just intended to explore the Blue Mountain that appeared next to Ashes Island about a month ago. Seeing that they seem not to be preparing to attack, Giorno refuses to send men to deal with the orcs, to the disappointment of some of the adventurers.

The total haul this session was 230 gold pieces. Soldier Number One will search a suitable cave for the Kobolds around Trilo. Johnny will "try to convince some Scuba Divers" to explore the submerged base of the Blue Mountain. Buffy will look for vampires and paint her wooden stakes using her limner profession. Temaukel will look for mercenary soldiers.

AD&D Session 11: The Counterkidnapping

 We open the session by resolving Sir Goldborn's Mud Fight to Freedom. We use the Non-Lethal and Weaponless Combat system, which gives options to pummel, grapple, and overbear. This will be a Grappling contest in the mud pit at the Witches' Sorority, where Sir Goldborn is put up against a mason from Borgogazze. Apart from the two, the other captives are Temaukel, Pocco, and a fisher from Trilo. Sir puts his opponent in an hand lock, and the mason frees himself and bear-hugs Sir. Sir answers by freeing himself and putting the mason in a stranglehold, at which point the mason taps out. Sir Goldborn wins and is released!

At the same time, Green Gary uses his previously-memorized Entangle spell to escape, waiting for a moment where a witch freed him from his magic bond to allow him to do something, at which point Gary Entangles her with the strange roots and herbs that are lying around and flees the scene. He and Sir make their way back to Trilo.

On the way, they encounter a previously-unseeen settlement: a Hobbit/Halfling village in the soft rolling hills. It's called Hobbiton. The Hobbit leader speaks the human language and talks to Sir. But Sir and Gary don't make a good impression as they are muddy from the swamp and also, not Hobbits. So they don't get let in and must go on.

There are no other encounters and Sir and Gary arrive in Trilo, where they rest a few days. Then, it is today (Feb 23). Sir meets with Zelda and Kai the druid in the inn. Zelda was able to recruit three mercenary light footwomen (Sheeana, Steffanie, and Sandy) and equips them with basic equipment. They make a plan to kidnap one of the witches and use that as a bargaining chip to release their friends.

The party makes their way to the swamp bringing Sir's Light Horse, stopping by Hobbitville. The hobbits still don't let them in. The party continues and arrives at the swamp in the evening. They traverse the muddy waters and pull themselves up the wooden platform. Sheeana knocks on the door while the rest of the party hides, attached to the wall of the hut. A witch, Milnara, opens the door immediately likes Sheeana, who makes up an excuse for the witch to step out of the hut for a moment.

As soon as she does so, the entire party descends upon the witch. We use the Non-Lethal and Weaponless Combat system to adjudicate what happens. The party got surprise (1-3 on a d6 due to circumstances), but what should this mean with the Non-Lethal system? I rule that this means that the various attemps to grapple and overbear are unopposed, i.e. there are no negative modifiers due to opponent Strength or Dexterity. This makes the fistfight easy to win. One of Zelda's soldiers overbears the witch and knocks her prone. Sir Goldborn grapples the witch and puts her in a headlock. Zelda quickly ties her down with the 5 ropes that Kai brought. They also gag her for good measure, load her on the horse, and get on the way back.

The way back is difficult since it's soon almost dark. The party takes a rest in the nearby forested hills and prepares to spend the night there, rather than forcing another 10 hr march through the night. In they night, they have a friendly encounter with Maraké's Tribesmen. He is there with them, and helps translate. The tribe and the party agree to fight the Orcs in the West together when the time comes.

The second nightly encounter (d12, 1 = normal encounter, 12 = the witches find the party) is not so friendly. The party fight against 9 hungry giant ticks. They suffer severe damage since the ticks are so hard to hit. Several of them attach themselves to the party members and to the witch who was tied to a tree. It's highly unpleasant and may bring disease. But the party is numerous enough to destroy the ones that are still flying and I rule that since the ticks are immobile while attached, whoever spends a round trying to remove them can just kill them.

There are no other encounters in the night or on the way back, and the party hastens back to Trilo. They bring the witch to Giorno, who holds her in his jail and sends a Message Magpie to the swamp to arrange a prisoners exchange with the witches. The exchange should take place in a few days in the neutral grounds of Hobbitville, and the witches should bring a ransom, Giorno taking 10% of it for his heroic deeds.

But the situation for our party is dire. The ticks have a high chance of transmitting a fatal disease, which two party members actually catch. We also rolled a lot of times for diseases/parasites due to crossing the swamp several times. The latter rolls bring no diseases. Sir Goldborn uses his Cure Disease ability to cure Steffanie. But since it won't be available again until next week, Zelda takes the other sick light footwoman and Sir's horse and speeds to Borgogazze to find a clerical healer. The fee is exhorbitant but Zelda takes a loan from a moneylender and gets the cleric to Cure Disease. Crisis averted! They go back to Trilo.

Some days after that, the prisoners exchange actually takes place in Hobbitville. Giorno and his army keep in check the witches with their spells, and the exchange takes place peacefully. Pocco, Temaukel, Soldier #2, and the other two guys are free! The Boy Abduction Department gives up their magic item as ransom, some strange dust that reveals invisible things. It gets immediately sold for 4000 GP and split up (minus 10%) three ways. Now Zelda, Goldborn, and Kai can level up! They will go train to do so.

The events of this session covered 5 days from Feb 23 to Feb 27. Our three adventurers will travel to Borgogazze and begin training on Feb 29. Everyone will have to do extra service time with their trainers to cover for the whole of the training costs. Zelda will be occupied for 13 days (2 days hp recovery, 1 week training, 4 days service). Sir Goldborn will be occupied for 31 days (14 days service and the rest training). Kai will be occupied for 10 days (3 days service).

Downtime Results

Soldier Number One has finished his training in B'Gazze with his old commander. He used the occasion to taste-test the three potions he had gained. 

AD&D Session 10: The Witches' Sorority

We started the session by dividing up the treasure from last time. The treasure haul from the teleportation magical college adventure was 5 rings, 5 potions, and a metric ton of gold. To split it up, we implemented a share system: everyone got 3363 shares in the treasure. One share could be spent to buy one gold piece from the treasure. A ring was worth 3000, a potion 400 shares.

Since Oscar the Thief was not here at the table, we stipulated that she opted for the most advantageous piece of the cake: 363 G.P. and one ring. Rings are possibly magical, but must be identified if their true value is to be found. Unidentified magical rings will sell as the least valuable ring in the DMG.

With the XP from their treasure, Kai the Druid and Soldier Number One the Fighter went training on Feb. 3. Costs are as follows.

Kai: 14 days, 3000 GP

SNO: 12 days, 2570 GP

If funds are insufficient, characters can "buy" 215 GP worth of training costs for one extra day of service with their master. This can be stacked as needed. Characters doing this are required however to spend all the gold they can, they cannot "save" more than 215 gold for extra days of service. Service will also sometimes result in mishaps, accidents, or opportunities.

We had quite a bit of downtime from last time. There is now a whole mountain in the sea right next to Ashes Island! Here are some more of the most salient results.

Zelda went exploring the surroundings of Trilo. She discovered a mountain pass, a small walled keep in the forested hills, and a ghastly Swamp with a lone hut on a wooden plank, right in the middle of it.

Sir Goldborn offered his healing services to an adventurer party returning from Ashes Island. The party is now resting in Trilo.

Oscar finished her training. She gained knowledge of a heistable building in B'Gazze: the warehouse of Joe the powerful trader.

Maraké found 4 survivors at the ruined site of his tribal village. He decided to stay there and rebuild the village.

Finally, we come to today's cast: S. Goldborn, Zelda, Green Gary the Druid, Temalkel the freshly Lv. 2 Illusionist along with his assistant Soldier #2, and Pocco the Magic-User. During breakfast at the Inn, they interacted with the aforementioned adventuring party as well as with Giorno's armorer Boudicca, but nothing much came of it. Then, they decide to check out the hut at the swamp, convinced that it's going to be a Witch hut. It is February 14.

Travel to the swamp takes most of the day and goes without incidents. They arrive about 2 hours before sunset, and decide to cross the swamp. While Sir Goldborn mounts his freshly acquired Light Horse, everyone else has to wade through the shallow muddy waters. Disease checks will be made! Finally, they climb the wooden platform and knock on the door. A young witch named Melissa opens the door, and after some squabbling invites them in.

This is the Witches' Sorority House. It's bigger on the inside. The adventurers come into a large dining hall where 11 other young witches much like Melissa are sitting in small groups, drinking cocktails. The adventurers are invited to take a shower and join them for drinks and dinner. Temalkel and his soldier are very skeptical, refusing even the shower. Sir Goldborn (who Detected a lot of Evil in this room...) and Green Gary are more cautios, quizzing the witches for information throughout the evening. Zelda and Pocco seem a bit more trusting and socialize with the witches. The characters learn of the six main extracurricular activities organized by the sorority: the witches' ball, a makeup course, animal training activities, pest control, the B.A.D., and mud wrestling competition organizing.

Pocco makes cocktails for everyone in order to avoid drinking weird witch drinks. He then inquires about the animal training activities. He cannot become an animal trainer with the witches, but they offer him a special item if he gives up his Manticore egg from 6 sessions ago. He accepts and gets a special ornated Mace. Also a jar of Giant Spider Silk since he asked for it. He then asks for the ring he got from last session to be identified. The witches challenge him to a game of Craps: if he wins someone will identify his ring. If he loses, he'll have to stay with the witches for one week as their Resident Wizard Boy. He wins! It is a Ring of Free Action. He then flirts with the witch Melisasha for good measure.

Zelda inquires about the makeup course. The witches are happy to offer her a demonstration. The makeup is based on mud. But wait, it's magical mud! It effervescently vanishes from the skin, leaving it rejuvenated. Zelda is interested in gaining magical capabilities, and the witches teach her how to use the mud and give her a jar of magical mud.

The witches seem to be quite the gift-giving sort! But wait, all items are only granted on exit from the hut. Similarly, the larger weapons like Sir's halberd had to be deposited at the weapons rack by the door.

Green Gary just enjoys the company. His dog whose name I forget sniffs around to detect suspicious smells, but there are so many new and strange smells that he doesn't know what to make of any of it.

Sir Goldborn and Temalkel have a slightly more adversarial plan in mind. They go to the kitchen and Sir starts to talk to the cook Melisandra, who is working a large cauldron. He tries to extract information and/or trick Melisandra into visiting the Blue Mountain by Trilo. Then the plan takes place: Temalkel casts Hypnosis! The witch is distracted by Sir so couldn't react to the casting, but for the spell itself, she makes her saving throw. Temalkel formulates his Suggestion: that Melisandra's friends are secretly against her so she should put something in the soup that causes high stomach pain! Unfortunatly, the saving throw means that Melisandra sees through it. She puts Temalkel to sleep with a witchy spell, and tells his soldier to bring him to the guest rooms to rest. Sir instead orders the soldier to bring Temalkel outside. They make it outside, but only talking their way out of the door.

At this point, dinner is served. Nobody is poisoned, it's just a pleasant soup. But then our heroes are offered to stay the night. Zelda has a bad feeling, thinks it would be better to book it. But group consensus seems to be that the party should stay the night. Even Temalkel comes back inside and joins the party to the guest rooms.

In the morning, Zelda and Pocco wake up and goes to the breakfast table. A witch informs them that their companions are now being held by the sisters at the B.A.D., the Boy Abduction Department. Pocco (who actually spent the night with Melisasha) was able to avoid this because he made his saving throw. The others are held by invisible magical chains and are required to do various tasks like cleaning, housekeeping, and participating in Mud Wrestling contests. Romantic entanglements, although encouraged, are strictly voluntary, unlike cleaning and so on.

Zelda is mildly horrified by this and resolves to go back to Trilo and gather a force of female warriors to liberate her friends! She is let go freely by the witches, gathers her jar of mud and receives Pocco's ring from him. She makes it back to Trilo on Sir Goldborn's horse.

Pocco decides to stay with the witches after all, as the Resident Wizard. He doesn't think the witches harmful, and hopes to get some advantage from associating with them. He did give his ring to Zelda in case the witches do something horrible to him.

We now come to everyone elses's plan to break free. Sir Goldborn's plan is Mud Wrestle to Freedom. He also wants to get to know the two other captives of the B.A.D. Temalkel wants to bribe his way to freedom. Unfortunately he can only offer wealth that he doesn't yet have (5000 GP), but he does so anyway. Green Gary has still his Entangle spell memorized, he will try to use it in an opportune moment to break free. Soldies #2 doesn't have a plan because he's an NPC.

And that was all! I'll post the results of the downtime orders here below when I've evaluated them. Thanks to the players for an exciting social adventure!

Downtime Results

Zelda finds 10 light footwomen who would be interested in being recruited. Cost is 1 g.p. per month plus 1 g.p. per expedition day. Also all equipment must be bought by the employer.

Pocco is unfortunately imprisoned by the witches much like his friends earlier (bad reaction roll, bad saving throw).

Sir Goldborn has a chance to free himself, we'll resolve it next session.

Green Gary succeeded in freeing himself, we'll see next session whether he uses this to do anything useful. By default he'll just go back to Trilo.

AD&D Session 9: The Missing Mountain – Part 2

Continuing from Part 1 – like part 1, this session was DM'd by Sir Goldborn's player.

The Missing Mountain – Part 2

The group arrives at the huge structure at the center of the base of the missing mountain. Two huge walls stretch diagonally in front of them, and from a gap in the middle a path seems to lead inside to a big building. However, before anything, they notice someone sitting by walls. This person is the cleric Godrick, who seems to also have been teleported there by mysterious reasons from the region of Longuria. He had been on that spot praying for 5 hours to his god of Light to bring him some help. Now that the search party has arrived, Godrick joins our group of adventurers. With him is also his assistant Charles, a sort of hired bodyguard.

The group decides to go inside the compound. They don’t have much choice after all, since it appears this is the place that will hold the answers to all the weird happenings this day has offered them so far. As they enter the walls, their bodies feel as if they they have just crossed some sort of invisible barrier. Indeed, it seems they have. A ball of blue light, similar to the one they had seen at the gate, is now forming in front of them. It then forms into a creature with a snake like lower body and a female upper body with huge green braided hair, eyes gliming with blue light. It appears to be missing one arm, however, and struggling to stand. Before anyone has anytime to react, it shoots two green laser beams at Oscar and Poco, whose bodies immediately turn to stone. The creature then fades into blue smoke. The survivors must now also find a way to unpetrify their two companions.

They move on. The compound looks like a campus, with buildings that are very well ornamented in colors of blue, white and black. Connecting the buildings there are a few paths surrounded by grass, trees and other beautiful vegetation, flourishing with life. It definitely looks like someone has been taking well care of the garden. Some of the structure seems misplaced, though. Immediatly on the right they see a huge tower. It is not standing straight, however, as most towers like to be. This one is laying down, blocking the path to the right. On the left there is a circle of rock whose size seems to match the size of the base of this tower. On the right, another smaller circle of rock that looks like it matches the size of the smaller tower the group had found on their way from Feirun.

The adventurers decide to move on to explore the central building. It looks like a small square castle, with 4 small towers on each corner, and another bigger tower at the center. They find that the huge door has been left open. Going in, they are now in a big and well decorated hall, with a very tall ceiling. There are 3 doors, leading front, left and right. On the center, spiral stairs leading up. However, these stairs are not connected to the ground. The part of them that connects them to the floor seems to be missing. The group starts to hear a sound, a voice of someone singing. Well, if you could call that singing, as it sounds more like gibberish. They notice that it is coming from the center of the hall, from a young man wearing a robe that is just there sitting on the floor. Carefully, they approach him, and decide to call him.

“Oh, Loretta, you are back, finally!!!” His voice doesn’t sound normal, or his expressions. “Wait, you are not Loretta. Who are you? Have you seen Loretta?” It feels to the group like the young boy must be retarded or something. “La la la la la” he keeps going on. When inquired about who is Loretta, he says, in his retarded/drunken voice “Hum… Loretta. She is beautiful. The most beautiful girl I have ever seen. Not like your mother, eheheheh”. He also says “The stairs, hum…. stairs go the master’s chambers. What do you mean? They are right here, you stupid. Oh, wait they are not. Eheheheh, maybe they ran away when they saw your face. Also, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine…. Oh and don’t tell master anything, ok? I am good boy. Astel good.” The group concludes that it will be almost useless to try and get information about this person, at least in the state that he is in right now. The only other information they are able to get from him comes in the form of “Me? Astel. Yes, that is my name. Astel. With an ‘A’. A big ‘A’, ok? I am a magic-user of course. Eheheh. Level 2 baby!!! Yeah!” The other unusual thing about him is that he is holding in his arms a scroll. It looks like a spell scroll, but it is clearly empty. Cai uses Detect Magic on it and concludes that it’s completely deprived of magic.

The party decides to ignore the crazy guy for now, and goes on to explore what is inside of the door in the front side of the hall. They easily open it and find themselves on a huge auditorium. Well, more like a huge lecture hall, with a lot of seats and a central stand, with a blackboard. On the walls there are 3 large paintings of men with great long beards, all dressed in blue robes. There is also a number of shelves containing empty vials and books, similar to the ones they had found in the small tower. Godrick grabs 5 of the books. He also writes on the blackboard the slogan of his deity, but is causes nothing to happen. Feeling there is nothing more in the room, the group decides to leave, but approaching the door they notice that it is now blocked by some kind of blue magic barrier. From it starts to form a ball of blue light, which then shapes into 12 stirges. These are small monsters with bat wings, long beaks and 4 small legs. A fight follows, in which the monsters are defeated without much issues. Giorno Giovanna deals quite a lot of damage during the fight, but also takes some, so at the end he very unpolitely demands that he be healed by Godrick. The cleric complies, casting Heal Wounds on Giorno.

They are now able to go back to the main all, checking that the other 2 doors lead to similar lecture halls. This time they also notice that floating in the center of the hall is a smooth cristal ball, on which they can see their reflections. The crazy Astel remains unhelpful as ever in giving them any useful information about the cristal ball, about the campus or any of the other mysteries. “I want to go see the sunset with Loretta. And hey, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine…..” seems to be the only thing in his mind right now.

The adventurers move outside to this time explore a building that they had seen on the left of the lecture building. After getting close to it, they realize that it appears to be covered from the inside in a familiar blue barrier. Peeking at the window the see that it looks like a huge dinning hall. Sitting on one of the chairs is a man in a blue robe. They knock on the door to get his attention, which they get. The man approaches on the other side of the door. Fortunately, unlike Astel, this one seems to be normal and more helpful. The man, whose name appears to be Sting, informs them that he is trapped inside by the barrier, which he suspects is caused by the building’s defense mechanism system. He is also very very confused at why it is daytime. The party informs him of all the weird things that happened to them during the day, leaving him even more confused. “I can’t believe it.” He says. “I guess our academy has been transported to this place by something or someone. Oh no, the master is going the be so angry! Hey, it seems like you need my help, and I need yours. Help me get out of here and then we can keep talking!” To try to avoid another fight, they tell Jenny, Carla and Josh to climb the building and to try to pull Sting from the chimney with a rope. Carla and Josh slip miserably, but Jenny manages to climb and to then bring Sting outside without any problems.

Sting can’t believe that it’s 3pm, as he is saying that 5 hours ago it was night time for him. He informs our adventurers that they are in the campus of the biggest and most famous magic academy of the Mystic Lands. It appears to have been teleported there from the other side of the world. This event is also what probably caused the Everblue to go away. He says that most of the professors and students that day were away when this happened, as they had gone to the Anual Great Magic Conference of the Mystic Lands, but that all the younger students were left in campus. He is surprised when he hears that Astel is so crazy and uncomunicative. “Ah, you have met Astel.” says Sting. “Yes, sure, he is our receptionist. He has been at the academy for 10 years and, well, he struggles a lot with learning spells, but come on, he is still level 2. Are you sure you met him? Because I have never seen him acting the way you described. Also, no I have never heard of any woman called Loretta. In fact, we only have men at the academy and we don’t go out that often, so you can imagine we don’t get to meet many women. Anyway, here is what I suggest. First we should look for the rest of the students that were left at the academy. It’s quite weird actually that you still haven’t found any of them. Then we should deactivate this dangerous defense mechanism, which seems to be on due to the unexpected teleportation. To deactivate it we must go the the chambers of our great master. Also, there we will be able to talk with a projection of his, who will surely be able to help all of us. I am scared that he will be furious, but we have no choice. The chamber is located at the top of the main lecture hall. Let’s go, and don’t try anything funny because, remember well, you need me and you need our master.”

They check on Astel, Sting confirming that he has never seen him in this unusual, crazy and retarded state. He also explains that the floating crystal ball is like a security camera. Given that the stairs to the master’s chambers are gone, they must go outside and go through a bridge that connects it to a neighboring classroom building. When further exploring the campus, they notice that some buildings are cut in half. It appears that the weird teleportation event only caused a small portion of the academy to be teleported. They don’t see anyone around, so the group just moves on to the classroom building, climbing the stairs to the top floor.

They are now standing in front of the door leading to the bridge they must cross to reach the master’s chamber. The door is covered is a blue fog-like barrier*. The party has no choice but to cross it and face the inevitable boss battle to come. Indeed, as they cross it, boss music starts to play. A ball of blue light is in front of them and is starting to take the shape of some weird creature. Fortunately, they shoot it with arrows and kill it before it takes form. Right after, two other monsters start to form. One right behind them, a Giant Snake like creature, but with only half of its body, and another one at the far end of the bridge, a stone Gargoyle**. The Gargoyle will take some time to reach them, so they focus on the Snake and, although not easily, manage to bring it down. Gordon, Josh and the euphoric Feirun soldier are left unconscious in the process. Then they go for the Gargoyle, shooting it from afar and eventually finishing it off with melee blows. The path is now clear and everyone is alive.

Sting brings the group to the chambers of the academy’s master. It is wide and full of top magic equipment. On the wall they can see a display of spell scrolls, where one of them seems to be missing. A magic projection of an old man with a great gray beard, dressed in fancy blue robes, appears at the center of the chamber. “Ah, Sting it is you!” says the projection of the master. “Can you explain to me what you are doing in my chambers? And who are those people? You just had to interrupt me right at the middle of the Great Conference Social Dinner, didn’t you….” The situation is then explained to him. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem too angry. “Ah, I am sure there is a way to fix this” he says. ”I, Astifald the Great, have seen much worse back in my adventure days. How do do you think I managed to reach level 25, eh?”. Then he explains. “So, part of the academy was teleported. But the spell missing from the wall seems the me that it was actually a Repulsion spell. In fact we don’t keep any Teleportation scrolls in the academy. Anyway, I guess it is clear to me who caused this to happen. Who? Oh, come on guys? It’s easy. Astel. Yes Astel. Crazy? You say he is crazy? I am actually starting to think he must be a genius instead!! But well, now I would really like to go back to my delicious lobster. As a reward for your efforts I offer you the chest I have under my desk. Just don’t you dare take anything else from the academy, ok?”. *

Sting uses some academy potions to heal the people who were unconscious and also prepares two unpetrification concoctions. They head back to Astel (yes, they just left him sitting there alone in the middle of the conference hall). On the way, they notice something happening to Giorno. He starts to twitch uncontrollably and then starts floating in the air with his eyes glowing red. He starts speaking in a female voice that everyone recognizes, except Godrick, Charles and Sting. “So, is it your hobby to go around assaulting and robbing beautiful women? I am surprised. It has been a few years since someone took something from me. I guess you guys are indeed less boring than I thought. Ahah. Don’t worry, I too like to steal things from time to time. However, I am afraid I absolutely can’t let you go without getting back what is mine. I will be waiting at the bar in Feirun. Bring me my horns by the end of the day and I will forgive your insolence. DO NOT make me show you what happens if you don’t. See you my dears.” Giorno goes back to his usual state, not realizing at all what just happened.

Our adventurers grab Astel and they all head back to Feirun, including the Sting and the now unpetrified Oscar and Poco. They must return the horns to the woman, find out what is wrong with Astel and teleport over 100 people back to Longuria. Arrived at the village, they go to the main bar, where they see the blonde mysterious woman in her purple dress sitting at the counter. She is still holding her bag with something shinning from inside. “Ahh, you have arrived.” She says. “Wonderful that you decided to bring back what is mine. Just wait a bit.” Astel, who is still acting weirdly, is happy to see her. “Loretta, Loretta, there you are. I knew you couldn’t have gone far. We have to go see the sunset.” he says. ‘Loretta’ tells him to wait outside and Astel complies. She then goes back to a man she was talking to at the counter. It seems they had made some kind of bet over who can drink their beer faster. They start drinking and the guy clearly finishes it way faster. He puts his empty glass down, boosting of his easy victory, but as he looks back at it the glass is now full, while ‘Loretta’’s is empty. “Seems like I won.” she says in a tricky smile. “Do you remember what you said you would do if you lost? Oh yes, you said you would kiss a goat”. “NO NO NO” screams the man, but before he can find any excuses he suddenly realizes that Jolly is now sitting on his lap and is already starting to lick his mouth. The man runs out of the bar, runs away from Feirun and no one ever saw him again.

Godrick, who is now holding ‘Loretta’’s bag, gives it back to her. Fortunately she doesn’t seem angry that they used one of her potions, claiming that it was actually smart and that she would have done the same. “Now if you will excuse me, I have a sunset to watch.” she says, heading outside to where Astel is, grabbing him by the arm and heading off with him to the west edge of the Great Plateau. It seems that at that moment Astel was actually the most interesting person in the village for the mysterious woman. The members of the group, either because they where confused, tired or scared of the woman, forget to also go to the edge of the plateau, therefore wasting a unique chance to witness the most beautiful sunset in the world.

When ‘Loretta’ and Astel come back, Astel now appears to be in a more normal and non-intoxicated state. He remembers all that happened during the day, but he doesn’t know how he performed the teleportation. He recalls that, at the moment it happened, he simply wanted to take ‘Loretta’ to see a beautiful sunset. Also, in the state he was in he actually thought the scroll of Repulsion was a scroll of Teleportation. Our adventurers are confused, but they must find a way to go back to Longuria. What they know for now is that clearly Astel had been drinking the pink liquid from the woman’s bag, so they try to investigate that. Obviously, they start with the less obvious approaches first. Godrick drinks a bit of the liquid, hoping that it will magically give him the ability to teleport. Nothing happens. All he realizes is that it tastes of alcohol and strawberries. The mysterious woman tells them that it is simply strawberry liquor, one of her specialties in fact.

At this point a middle aged woman, a local from the village, approaches the group. She becomes very emotional when she sees Astel. “Astel, oh Astel. It is you, I know it is you. My son, you are back!!!” They hug each other for a long long beautiful moment. After that she thanks the group for bringing him back and explains what she knows. Astel is indeed her son. He had mysteriously vanished from the village 10 years ago. He had disappeared on a day he was helping her harvesting strawberries.  

The group gathers everyone that had been teleported from Longuria at the village’s central plaza, determined to finally bring them back. They feed some strawberries to Astel, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect. Godrick bravely tries to ask the mysterious woman for her horns, but immediately regrets it. She is furious at him and, had Godrick insisted even a tiny bit more, he would have suffered terrible, but maybe funny, consequences. She does provide him, however, with the remainder of her strawberry liquor.

They believe making Astel drink it will be the final missing piece, so before doing it they receive their reward from the Mayor and they split the treasure they got from Astifald the Great. They ask Astel to drink the liquor and to focus hard on sending everyone back to where they came from. Indeed, as he drinks it, glyphs of blue light start forming around our adventurers. The mysterious woman, ‘Loretta’ acording to Astel, waves and winks at them saying “It was really an interesting day. I will be keeping an eye on you!” Then, suddenly, the group realizes they are not at Feirun anymore. As the blue light starts to fade, they see they are back at the inn where the day had started. The people sitting at the tables enjoying their night beers are astonished at these people appearing out of nowhere. The adventurers head outside of the inn to confirm they are really in Trilo. They are, indeed, in Trilo, and in the middle of the sea, standing tall next to Ashen Island, is also, indeed, a huge mountain with its top covered in blue snow.

*This is a Dark Souls reference by the DM. Made unconsciously, but still, a Dark Souls reference.

**Yes, another Dark Souls reference.

***Here the DM forgot to mention that there was actually another scroll missing from the wall: a shinning scroll of Time Stop.

Timekeeper's Note

Next session will be on Feb. 14 and two weeks will have passed. At this point, everyone will be finished with their training!

AD&D Session 8: The Missing Mountain – Part 1

On the 1st of February, the day started with the adventurers Oscar, Poco, Caicai (with one of his soldiers - with a sword this time) and Soldier Number One meeting at the inn in Trilo for breakfast. Those who haven’t yet met start bonding over the fact that they all know Sir Goldborn, who unfortunately missed breakfast for some unknown reason. After a bit they decide to go explore Ashen Island for treasure, but not before Oscar goes over with the goat Jolly to try and pickpocket Trilo’s magic translator, who is sitting alone studying at the inn.

As Oscar stands up, out of nowhere a magical glyph of blue light starts forming around the table. It begins to glow extremely bright and when it finally dims down our adventurers realize that they are not at the inn anymore. They are now standing in what appears to be the central park of a countryside and simple village. Around them they notice that quite a high number of people are also standing with glyphs of blue light fading around them. Perhaps 100 people. There are also a bunch of people that are not surrounded by any lights. These all have a look of extreme shock in their faces. Some are looking mesmerized at the strangers who just teleported to their village, others at an area in the sky above the houses. The party recognizes one of the people that was teleported as being Giorno Giovanna, the commander of Trillo’s troops. He appears to have been caught by surprise with his pants down when he was in the toilet. Soldier Number One takes note of a heart shaped tattoo on Giorno’s bottom.

Looking to find out what the hell is going on, the team approaches an old lady that was teleported along with her 2 grandchildren. She, scared, tells them that she was in Ristoro A before the event, but has no idea of what just happened. In the midst of the confusion, Oscar pickpockets all that the old lady is carrying in her apron: a spatula, proceeding to then put it back. The party then approaches a local woman, who is in extreme shock and is more worried about asking questions than answering any. In extreme panic, she faints. They then go ask information to a man, whose look of surprise is directed at the sky.

“What am I looking at, you say? Don’t you see it? Well, actually, ‘not see it’ would be the correct term in this case. The mountain!!! Our mountain is GONE. Also, what the hell is happening? Where did you and these people come from?” he says. After calming him down, he is able to tell them: “You are on the village of Feirun, sitting on the west edge of the Great Plateau. We are quite a calm and uneventful (well, apart from today) village of farmers and the sort. The mountain that is there, erhm, sorry, not there, is… was Everblue mountain. Beautiful blue snow it had. I have no idea where it went now”. “Ah, Longuria? Hum…. yes yes I have heard about it. Wow you have come from really far away. Isn’t that 1000 miles to the south?”.

The group then talks to Giorno, who fortunately has also heard about them. They inquire him about exploring the site of the missing mountain, but, while he seems interested in figuring out why the hell he was teleported, right now he is more worried about getting local information and, of course, going to the toilet. They then head to the town hall, looking for the mayor. He seems to be out calming the crowd, so they head next door to the local guard barracks. They find out that Feirun seems to be a place that strives also on agritourism, welcoming many people that are captivated by it’s peace, the Everblue and the astonishing views from the top of the Plateau. Still, it appears Feirun’s most beautiful and famous attraction are the sunsets!

A while later they attend a public announcement from the mayor, who is in a hurry to organize a search party to go look for answers at Everblue’s location. Interested people are meant to gather at the local pub. Our adventures are, of course, interested. At the pub they meet a couple who was teleported from Borgogazze and a gigachad guard from Ankh-Mar.  A quiet young lady in a robe also seems to be there, as well as Giorno and 2 of his soldiers that were teleported with him. When the mayor arrives, he is happy to find these interested members and offers each 96 pieces of gold if they go and manage to come back with useful information. Worried about local security tough, he offers only one of his local soldiers. Caicai then exchanges his soldier for an additional local one. Thus a party of 14 is gathered in search of the missing Everblue: Oscar (and the goat Jolly), Poco, Caicai, Soldier Number 1, Giorno Giovanna and his 2 soldiers, Gordon the fighter, Jenny the monk, the thief Carla and her boyfriend Josh, also a thief, and the 2 local soldiers.  

They start their short journey to the base of the mountain, 2.5 miles north. The path goes through a forest and already something they do not expect happens at the midpoint. Coming from the direction of the mountain, a woman in a purple dress is approaching them. She is blonde, elegant and seems to be extremely beautiful. She also seems to be carrying two bags around her and one of them is clearly emitting a yellow light from inside. The party is confused. The 3 thieves hide in the bushes (well, Josh at least tries to), while Feirun’s soldiers draw their swords. Giorno, on the other hand, is running forward, already in love with the woman. Unintimidated, she just keeps walking with a flirty smile on her face, now with her hand on the glowing bag. She says some words and…. ZAP, she is not there anymore.

Soldier Number One, who was at the back of the group, is the first to notice that the woman has just instantly appeared in front of him. One of Feirun’s soldiers is now laying on the ground unconscious.

“Hi! Tell me, do I look that scary?” she says. “Are your friends always like this, drawing their swords whenever they see a beautiful girl? Or is there something wrong with my face?”

SNO, unfazed by her powers or her beauty, replies “What do you want me to say? They are not really my friends, I don’t know what is wrong with them. Do you come from the mountain?”

“Mountain? You could be more specific, you know. Ah, and by the way, this guy here on the ground, well…. I didn’t like his look. But it’s fine. Really, don’t mind it. You should be able to wake him up in one day.”

“The mountain is just over that direction. Or well, used to be.” SNO appears to not want to talk about the soldier.

“What do you mean used to be?”

“There used to be a mountain. There. But now it’s gone.”

“Oh, a mountain is gone?” She laughs. ”Now you could say that is some really interesting stuff, couldn’t you? Ahah this day keeps getting better and better”. At this point the others start to realize she is there talking to SNO, but are too shocked to react.

“So tell me dear, have you ever seen this mountain?” she keeps asking.

“No.” says SNO, “But the people from the village told us so.”

“Oh, so you are saying there is a village back there? Ahah, wonderful. Seems perfect to me. You come from there, but you have never seen the mountain?”

“Well, we are not from there. We seem to just have appeared here.”

“So, a mountain is gone, and you also say you just appeared here from nowhere….” She laughs joyfully. “I am sure we can agree that that is something really amazing, right? You don’t see that everyday! Interesting, interesting!!! Really interesting this day has been! Ah, you were really useful. Please excuse me as I will now make my way to the village you are talking about. Bye bye.” She starts going and waving goodbye happily, but SNO still has some questions.

“So you are not from here? Where did you come from?”

She now looks back at him with a disappointed look. “Oh please, don’t be boring asking all those questions. If I told you all of that what would be the fun of it? Gotta leave room in life for surprise and excitement, right?”

SNO’s brain has by now processed the fact that she left a soldier unconscious in the blink of an eye, so he shuts up and lets her go. However, as she starts walking back, she is caught distracted for a moment by the thieves Oscar and Carla, who quickly decide to jump out of the bushes and grapple the woman. In an instant they put her on the ground under them.

“Ahahaha!” The woman just laughs, as the thieves are surprised at what they actually managed to do. “This day really keeps getting better and better!” She then pronounces another strange words and…. ZAP. She is not there anymore. Oscar and Carla’s faces are now on the dirt and the woman is standing in front of them.

“I hope this time you actually wouldn’t mind me going. Bye”. The woman leaves, walking gracefully.

Oscar gets up from the ground, relieved perhaps. After calming down for a bit, he/she realizes that, by accident (or thief instinct), he/she has stolen one of the mysterious woman’s bags. Not the shiny one though. The party, who also calms down, is too afraid to keep following the woman. Inspecting the downed soldier they also understand that they indeed won’t be able to wake him up any time soon. Interested in inspecting the bag, Oscar tries to detect traps and doesn’t find any, while Poco uses Detect Magic on it. He detects traces of common magic, but also strange magic of some really unknown origin to him. Everyone feels suspicious and scared, except Giorno, who besides all of what happened is still in love with the woman. He is the one that opens the bag, happy with the fact that it smells really really good. Inside there are some common herbs and some potions in small flasks, but other strange things as well. The bag also contains a pair of horns and a larger flask with an unusual pink liquid inside. They also notice that there was some empty space left inside the bag.

Jenny identifies one of the potions as having the effect of keeping one awake for an entire night straight. In a stroke of genius, the group takes the potion and forces it down the throat of the unconscious soldier. Amazingly, this works. The soldier is now awake. In fact, more awake than he ever has. The party decides to keep moving on. The woman’s bag will be carried by Giorno. He really likes its smell.

Few time passes until our adventures comes across something mysterious again. Not a beautiful woman this time, but a gate. A huge huge black gate stands in the middle of the road. Just a gate, well ornamented and with no hinges or keyholes. On it there is only a sign that says “THERE IS NO INTELLIGENCE WITHOUT WISDOM”. The party members are confused. They try to push it from all sides possible, but nothing seems to happen. However, when they decide to push it all together, the letters in the sign change to “STRENGTH IS NOT THE ANSWER”. The letters starts to morph into blue light energy, which then transforms into terrible monsters. Just kidding, they were not so terrible, they were simply 6 giant rats, with eyes glimmering with blue light. A quick battle happens. In 6 seconds the rats are disposed of without any trouble and the letters on the gate return to their original form. Without much more to do here, the group goes on.

They now reach the end of the forest path. Ahead they can see the base of what used to be a huge mountain 2 miles tall. Before they proceed they notice something else of remark. Standing beside the road is a tower. It’s not to tall and it’s leaning a little bit, as a part of its base seems to be buried in the ground. It’s well ornamented with colors of black, white and blue and seems to have two floors. The door is open, so our adventurers, although cautious, go inside to explore. The tower looks as if it had been shaken up; furniture and books are scattered around. There is a bed, a fire place and clothes that all seem to belong to men. The books there seem to talk about magic, although they don’t contain spells. Poco grabs “100 ways you should not use magic”. On the bottom floor there are also a desk and chair standing directly in front of one of the windows. On the desk there seems to be pages recording names of people and times. They also see an empty and a broken flask that seem to have vestiges of pink liquid.  

Moving on another mile they reach what used to be the base of the mountain. It’s a big stretch of gray rock. Climbing it they are faced with a huge and cleanly flat rocky ground. It spreads around what used to be the 1,5 mile radius base of Everblue. It’s so flat it looks like it was cut with a giant sword. After walking for a bit they notice there is something standing in the middle of it. It seems to be some structure. They approach it without any problems and realize that it must be some kind of castle. Looking at it from the front they see two giant walls, in black, white and blue, stretching diagonally northwest and northeast. Between them there is a huge gap. On the left wall there also seems to be a hole and from the right wall there is what looks like the roof of a tower protruding from it. The adventurers approach, eager to find clues about what teleported them to this region and…..

Today’s episode ends. Some more details were given about the structure, but they will be repeated at the beginning of next session, which will resume exactly at the same point, without any time having passed. So, will they be able to find some answers about what brought them to the Great Plateau, about the missing Everblue, or about the mysterious woman??? And will they find a way to go back to Longuria??? Stay tuned for the next adventure ;)

Timekeeper's Note

The next adventure will be a continuation of this one, still taking place on Feb 1. After that, the game calendar will catch up to the real world calendar. The Timekeeper recommends ending next session at a safe place as usual.

AD&D Session 7: The Underground Church

Tonight's cast of characters:

Sir Goldborn, having just returned from the battle against the orcs. He had stayed in Borgogazze one day and discussed the situation with the military officers there. Borgogazze and neighbours are hunkering down, placing defensive outposts, and generally preparing themselves for Orc retaliation. Conscripts are being raised again.

Mad Mouse, a new character. He's a fighter, and was rolled up by Green Gary's player for the occasion.

Kai the Druid, who successfully recruited five mercenaries who are expert marksmen. The game requires you to equip your henchmen, so Kai bought them armor, shortbows and arrows, and dungeon supplies. Surely he can't have forgotten anything important...

Anyway, Kai talked to mysterious woman Xenia again, who turns out to be a Magic-User. She's not interested in adventuring, but is an expert in translations (of languages, not spatial).

The party decides to explore the village ruins to the north and the catacombs beneath them. It is Jan. 24, travel takes two days, and they arrive at the ruins in the evening of the second day. They decide to camp there and wait for the next day. But something alerts the night watch they post: strange animal-like shadows moving in the distance!

Everybody gets ready in time to react to the threat (no surprise) and they finally discern that these are wolves. 17 of them, and advancing quite rapidly towards the party. Initial encounter distance is 170', but these guys are fast. Everyone shoots missile weapons at the wolves (a shortbow with a rate of fire of two) but most shots miss, due to the agility of the wolves, and those that hit only damage the wolves, no kills.

As the wolves come upon them, the party realizes they're in deep trouble. Not only does the enemy have double the numbers, but Kai forgot to equip his soldiers with swords! So they decide to escape and retreat into the dungeon, hoping that the wolves won't follow them there. This unfortunately means the wolves get pretty devastating free attacks on them (only 8 wolves are near enough to attack). Four men fall: three soldiers and Mad Mouse the fighter. They're not dead, just KO'd, but since the rest of the party is retreating there's not much that can save them.

So, Mad Mouse's player takes over one of the soldiers, named Soldier One. If he can survive the rest of the adventure, he will be promoted, aptly, to a Veteran (Level 1 Fighter).

The party makes it into the dungeon, and once they're there the wolves stop following. At this point, I task the players to map along while I use Appendix A in the DMG (random dungeon generation) since I didn't detail this particular dungeon yet. It was a pretty interesting experience not to have a map under my nose and relying on the players for distances and things like that.

Anyway, this seems to be a sacred place/burial ground of some sort. The partly explores with torches lit. Crudely-carved stone statuettes line the walls, and foreign inscriptions decorate them. Kai dutifully transcribes these inscriptions to bring them to Xenia when (if) they make it back.

The party comes pretty soon into a big room/passage that looks like an underground church, with pillars, a sanctuary and altar, and two staircases that bring the party up a half-floor.

While exploring the dungeon, the party deals with pit traps, stuck doors, and winding corridors and comes into a larger chamber. There are two large sacks in the opposite corner of the chamber, and several exits. Two large man-sized slightly-mobile mushrooms stand in the center of the chamber, and as soon as they are sighted they emit a piercing scream.

The party is worried about monsters being attracted by this, so they make it back to the large church-room. Then for reasons I don't understand they go back and face the mushrooms again. They fire at one of the mushrooms and put it out of order; the thing begins to shiver and shrink and stops screaming.

Suddently, six figures come out of one of the exits into the chamber! The other mushroom stops shrieking. These are small, 3' tall humanlike armed guys (Gnomes). They aggressively gesture for the party to stay back as one of them goes to check on the downed Shrieker. The party stays back and observes the action. Then Sir Goldborn the Paladin offers to help. He steps forward and uses Lay on Hands onto the mushroom he helped take down just the round before. The mushroom seems to get better and starts getting back online. A faint version of his scream begins.

At this point, Sir lets the gnome take his torch, and the other gnomes gesture at the party to step back even more. They do so until they can't see Sir Goldborn, the gnomes, or the mushrooms anymore. The gnome extinguishes Sir's torch.

He is left in the dark, and decides to trust these creatures and wait.

The mushroom stops his scream. All is quiet for a moment.

Sir Goldborn starts backtracking after offering his cape to the gnomes, who don't take it. Eventually he is illuminated by his friends' torchlight and reaches them. He lives!

The party decides to explore the dungeon a little more before calling it a night. They come to a dead end covered by a painting depicting a clan of Gnomes cultivating giant mushrooms. They take the painting which reveals a secret passage. Taking the passage, they deal with another pit trap and finally come to a second dead-end where there's only a mattress against a wall, and seemingly no secret doors.

Soldier One suggests to take the painting in order not to go back empty-handed. Sir is against it; doesn't want to anger the gnomes. After some discussion, Kai decides to vote for not taking the painting, so the party retreats from the dungeon empty handed.

They make it safely back; it is still night. Their fallen friends are not there anymore, but their equipment is. So they take what they can use, and Soldier One now has a sword (Mouse's bastard sword I think).

The trip back takes two uneventful days: the party makes it back to Trilo. Kai will present his transcriptions to Xenia and use Locate Animals and Animal friendship (I think) to try and raise an army of animals over the week. Will he be successful? That depends on the entries for these spells in the PHB and on which animals inhabitate the area!

Soldier One can become a Veteran, he needs to rest, train and introspect until next session. For HP, he will roll a d10, apply constitution bonuses, and take whatever is higher: this roll or the HP he has rolled this session.

Sir Goldborn will collaborate with Frank the ferryman to offer healing services to any adventurers that explore Ashes Island or other dungeons... asking 5 gp per heal (but healing anyway if the person can't pay). And I'm sure I forgot a downtime order, please remind me!

Johnny Joestar, the Ranger from last session, will ride around on his newly-acquired light warhorse and check-out the outskirts of large fortress in the hills north of Ristoro A, being very careful and avoiding conflict.

This session was very interesting! Although not so much progress was made by the adventurers. Still, we learned who inhabits those catacombs under the ruined village, and what that dungeon is like. And also, that the wilderness can be very dangerous...

AD&D Session 6: The Cursed Cellar

This session, three of five players' characters are occupied (traveling or training), so three new adventurers turn up in town: Maraké the Druid of the proud tribe of Katu (the tribesmen we encountered last session), Johnny Joestar the Ranger, and Caicai the Fighter. They join Dirty Derrick the Assassin, Zelda the Fighter, and Q the Magic-User at the tavern of the village of Trilo.

Maraké, who knows Longuria's Common language along with his own tribal language (Katukai), tells the group that his village was raided and destroyed by marauding Orcs, and that whatever is left of his tribe is seeking a new place to resettle and from which to organize for revenge.

Our two returning characters have not been enormously busy, having mainly chilled out and enjoyed the holiday season. Dirty Derrick had been courting Tiffany the banker/thief, but she expressed only about 45% interest. Zelda has been painting every shield, shop sign, and suit of armor she could find in the village, for a nice limner's wage. As a result, everyone of Trilo's soldiers has exquisitely painted shields. Zelda did kinda exhaust the village's demand for limning though.

All this established, the players discuss what to do next. It is decided that the cellar of the abandoned pirates' hideout from session 4 will be explored. So our heroes make preparations and set off on foot. It is January 18, and the journey eastward takes the party two days through hilly terrain, with no interruptions. The on-foot journey was deemed safer than the waterborne one because Maraké foresaw that the seas will be troubled with Strong Winds (Predict Weather).

Little did they know they were being followed...

The party arrives at the ruined tower, and finds giant broken eggs inside. A bit of searching reveals the entrance to the cellars, stone stairs going down in the dark. The party establishes a marching order, lights a torch, and goes down the stairs, arriving at a square room with several exits. The cellar is cold and dry, and this room contains what look to be empty racks for holding bottles.

They enter another room and see a wooden barrel resting on a rack attached to a wall, and a small slab of marble in the center of the floor. On top of it, a sword colored with shades of red. The room contains stalactites and stalagmites here and there.

Caicai moves to grab the sword and Zelda goes to check out the barrel while the rest of the party hangs back. Caicai feels a surge of magical energy upon grabbing the sword! But two enormous stalactites drop on Caicai and Zelda, but fortunately either miss them by a hair or glance off their helmets.

The stalactites are actually alive! They are able to jump with supernatural force and try to skewer our heroes again after their first failed attempt. A few rounds of melee are fought, and the situation already looks dire. One of the Piercers pierced Caicai, knocking him clean out, sword in hand. Johnny Joestar the Ranger heroically moves in so that Zelda can retreat safely. He takes four d6 of damage! But since he rolled his own damage he was able to channel his skill at rolling low from last session and made it out ok.

Dirty Derrick moves in and goes directly for the barrel, hoping to find something useful or flammable in it while the monsters are distracted. Unfortunately, a third Piercer drops on him! He is instantly KO'd.

These things are very sturdy and hard to damage, so the party changes strategy and opts to retreat. Fortunately the doors are too big for the two big ones to pass through, although the small one might. So, they maneuver: Maraké attemps to save Caicai by lassoing him with a rope. Johnny retreats and withstands the free attack against him. Q runs back to retrieve another rope, which the party had tied to the trap door at the entrance of the cellars for some reason.

Unfortunately this gives the Piercers enough time to finish off their victims. Pour one out for Caicai and Derrick, who bravely challenged the dungeon. The Piercers also reveal some distastefully carnivorous tendencies, so the party falls back and closes the door. Then, they reopen the door and fire arrows at the Piercers and a flaming arrow at the barrel. The barrel catches fire, but the Piercers are again unharmed. Then the creatures jump up and vanish from line-of-sight from behind the door. The party closes the door and retreats.

Meanwhile, Q retrieves the rope at the dungeon entrance and encounters Green Gary the Druid, who had been following the party. But little did he know that he was being followed himself... by Kai the Druid!

So, everybody joins forces again in the entrance room. They decide to explore another way and come to a labyrinthine set of passages. Upon hearing noises coming from the end of a narrow passage, the party sends Maraké to investigate. He decides not to use light and go forward by feeling instead. As he approaches he can make out high-pitched humanoid voices, speaking a Language he does not recognize. He goes back to relate this and the party decides to trace their steps back and approach the Piercer room from another angle, from a side door.

They find the door and look carefully inside the Piercer room. The barrel is now burning and lights the room: the Piercers and their victims are gone. The sword was returned to its marble slab. Maraké grabs the lasso and tries to catch the sword with it. He succeeds! A Piercer drops down aiming to sever the rope. It misses! The sword is dragged into the party's custody, who makes it out of the cellars and starts going back home.

The uneventful journey lasts two days, during which Q Identifies the sword by grinding 100 GP into fine powder and saying a spell. It is a magic +1 sword, +2 vs. enchanted & magic-using creatures. The group decides to sell the sword upon arrival and divide the profits equally. Total score: 3000 XP.

Until next time, Kai will talk to Xenia the blue-robed village woman to find out what her deal is. He will then attempt to recruit normal soldiers for further adventuring. Green Gary will be out in the forest looking for material for his Druidical spells. Zelda will go on daily hikes to explore the surroundings of Trilo as much as possible with minimal risk. Maraké will depart from Trilo northwards reach the ruins of his village and try to find survivors of the Orc raid. Q will rest, study, and also talk to Xenia. Johnny Joestar will look to buy a horse (Warhorse?) and try to negotiate a 10% discount in exchange of some sort of sponsorship.

As for Sir Goldborn and Pocco, they will go back to Borgogazze and stay at the Pentagonal Fortress, if they are accepted back.

Another very exciting session where it felt like not a whole lot happened but also actually a lot happened. I'm definitely eager to see what our heroes will do next.

AD&D Session 5: The Battle of the Sunken Valley

We started the session with Sir Goldborn the Paladin and Pocco the Magic-User meeting in Borgogazze on January 12, after their respective training as brand-new Level 2 adventurers. Pocco learned a new spell, Magic Missile, in his training time, and became familiar with his scroll of spells.

It mostly contains higher-level spells that can be cast from the scroll at a risk, and a first-level spell (Mending) which Pocco can try to transcribe in his spellbook. He will need to make a special ink to do so, this needs ingredients such as an inexpensive gem (Hematite), a herb (Acacia), and a monster part (Giant spider silk).

Pocco's wizarding master was unhelpful in telling him where giant spiders live. He says they are all over the world, and for more specific information he will need to ask a specialized Sage (with considerable cost).

Sir's training went well without interruption, and there were no major events last month or so as Longuria celebrated Yuletide and the coming of the new year. Sir and Pocco are now broke though, having paid a lot for training and monthly upkeep.

They decide the only way to accomplish something this session is to get the help of Borgogazze's army. So they begin talking their way up the chain of command. Positive reaction rolls lead to recommendation letters for the higher-in-command, until they gain an audience with the Captain of Borgogazze's Army, Cpt. Reynolds, in his pentgonal-shaped fortress. They are able to convince him to mount an attack on the Orcish village that is troubling the region and have the two adventurers serve as guides.

The Captain builds up the army: three Lieutenants, their Sergeants, troops and conscripts join. The army composition is rolled for in the Hirelings table, and it turns out that the Captain thought best to send 10 artillerists with 5 ballistae to the mission. In total the army comprises about 100 soldiers.

As the army will take 3 days to gather in Ristoro A, the adventurers have some time to explore west of Borgogazze. They come across a 5-miles long swamp with a thin suspended wooden platform over it as a road. Crossing this carefully, they go through a forest and finally find a plain with... a giant city in the distance!

This is the city of Anch-Mar. Because it is not well-connected due to the swamp and all, it has only limited relations with Borgogazze. The adventurers can't pay the entry fee to the city gates, so are forced to spend the night in the city outskirts. There is a whole lively community of people here, who are not rich enough to pay the city's steep citizenship costs.

The party finds refuge at the wooden hut of Mr. Giorgione, who hosts them for the night in exchange of night watch service. He tells them a bit about the city: very money-oriented, the people's main concern is to swindle and rob each other for gold, and there's a marked social hierarchy based on wealth. Sometimes thieves from the outskirts scale the walls and return with some coin. There's also a sewer system accessible from outside the city, but everyone is too scared to enter it.

Naturally, our heroes go check the entrance to the sewers out, but find it barred by a rusty iron gate with an equally rusty padlock. They try to force it open by strength (lift iron/bend gates percentage chance times two) but fail. So they just return to Borgogazze and then Ristoro A to meet with the rest of the troops. On the way back, Pocco finds some Acacia herb in the forest for his ink.

The journey begins. The army is considerably slowed by the ballistae, moving at the Encumbered rate outdoors. They pass the point where the magpie was consulted and see the outline of a big fortress perching on a hill to the east, which Sir had missed last time. They go through the forested hills past the moathouse, and encounter a squadron of 110 tribesmen carrying big shields.

The tribesmen send what appears to be a chief figure to parlay. Even if they can't understand each other, the parties establish that they are friendly to each other and exchange gifts. Pocco gifts an incense rod and some belladonna and gets a small sack of lentils in return. Then Pocco tries to explain that they are to give battle to the Orcs by drawing a picture of Shrek on the floor and crossing it out. The chief frowns and steps on the picture. So it seems that the parties have a common enemy. It was too hard however to communicate an invitation to join the army, so everyone continues on their way.

The army comes to a Big Mesa that gives way to some mountains. They go around the mountains in hilly territory and see an ancient ruin of a village at the foot of a mountain. Exploring the ruins, the aventurers uncover the entrance to some ancient catacombs. But the army must march on! They close the entrance and remember its location for the future.

Arriving at the spot where the magpie suggested the orc village should be (20 miles northwest), they find... nothing. So they explore more toward the north-northwest in case the bird wasn't accurate. They find a small hamlet inhabited by battle-hardened humans. It's the village of Wide Berth. The villagers are in frequent conflict against the Orcs, and like the idea of raiding/destroying the Orc village with this big army, so 30 of their fighting men join Borgogazze's army. The villagers also indicate the location of the Orc village. It was in the west-northwest.

March and march (good that Cpt. Reynolds provided three weeks of food supplies...) they finally come to see the Orc village. It sits in the middle of a giant depression, the Sunken Valley, which extends for miles and miles. The village is defended by two watch towers, a palisade, a ditch and a gate.

Battle begins quite unsubtly as our heroic army marches in formation toward the village. At this point we set up the scene on the tabletop, using dice instead of miniatures, each die representing 10 soldiers. The battle is fought with normal AD&D combat rules (although after about 3.5 hrs of playing I didn't have it in my heart to also use weapons vs. armor adjustments...) where both HP and damage are multiplied by 10 for mass units.

Exciting tabletop action ensues. The battle starts in favour of our Human heroes as the unit of Orc footmen guarding the front of the village are overwhelmed and dispatched. Some very good shots by the ballistae are scored against the watch towers and many Orc archers up there take ballista missiles to their face. The ballista shots are easy to score, needing only a 2 on the d20.

But then the gate opens and a massive amount of Orc troops pour out, inluding elite units and the chief of the village himself bearing the village standard. The ballistae scores 1 on the d20 before being meleed by the Orc chief and his entourage. The side battles take too long to win, and as a general melee forms in the center, it is soon clear that the Human forces are just badly outnumbered.

Then the gate opens again, and a similar amount of troops storms out. The Humans decide to cut their losses and retreat, suffering free attacks against them. The Orcs decide not to press further and let them go, but they'll probably remember this daring challenge. 60 of the 130 Human troops escape and take refuge in Wide Berth to fight another day, while the Orcs lost about 50 soldiers.

This session accounted for 9 days of game time, so its events will be concluded on the morning of Jan. 21. As for XP, our heroes had some part in the battle, Pocco with a sleep spell and Sir with his halberd, so they get 145 XP each.

AD&D Session 4: Ruined Castle, Flying Beasts

This time, we had three new characters roll up in town: Pocco the Magic-User, Gaia the Ranger, and a Fighter whose name I don't remember but it was a translation of Bubbles, the blue-eyed Powerpuff Girl. They are joined by returning adventurers Sir Goldborn the Paladin, Oscar the Thief, and Temalkel the Illusionist.

For downtime updates, Sir Goldborn found that the hills to the East give way to more flat terrain, where he found two settlements. They seem to be doing well and are not being harassed by any orcs. Then, in Borgogazze, he learns of the military structure of the town: with one Captain commanding six Lieutenants, four of which were sent with their troops to protect the nearby villages.

Oscar the Thief was able to panhandle/pickpocket for some gold, getting 25 c.p. and 15 e.p. from some innocent villagers. She did get caught at some point though, and was given a warning by the town watch.

Tavern shenanigans are relatively contained this time, with the party hotly debating what they are going to do next. Gaia is wearing a top hat with a comfortably nesting pidgeon on top of it, Oscar has her goat, Pocco a hunting dog and also a goat, and Bubbles brought a piglet. Bubbles' main motivation for adventuring is a fondness for/obsession with the Illusionist Temalkel.

Anyway, the party decides to ask Frank the ferryman for information on nearby dungeons and ruins. Sir Goldborn does the talking and gets a favorable reaction, so Frank tells them of a ruined castle that once was a pirate hideout, about 10 miles to the east of Trilo. This castle is rumored to have a maze-like, never-ending cellar underneath, and also to be inhabited by some strange creatures. The party convinces Frank to ferry them over there to avoid going by land. That will cost 5 g.p. per person, but he accepts. It is Dec. 14.

The party also convinces 7 of Giorno's soldiers to come with them for this "quick mission". So everyone boards Frank's barge and sailing begins. They get favorable wind, blowing southeastward, but as they sail the wind intensifies and turns into a proper storm! The boat is shaken! Man overboard! One of the soldiers is knocked out of the boat and plunged into the stormy waters. Temalkel quickly grabs Frank's rope and hurls it towards the poor man, but he fails his attack roll against the AC 10 water, and the rope lands far away from the man, who is overwhelmed by the waves and doesn't make it.

The storm subsides and the party lands on the hills about half a mile away from the ruins. They hide in the coastal bush and see that three flying creatures are circling around above the keep. Coming closer, they see that the creatures have a lion's body, a man's head and a bat's wings. They seem to be predators who swoop down to take prey once in a while.

A plan is hatched: live bait will be used to distract and attack the flyers! But Oscar and Pocco don't want to put their beloved goats in danger. So, Oscar, Pocco and Gaia try to look for some animals. With Gaia's tracking skill and an hour of time, a group of sheep is found. Pocco unleashes his hunting dog to go after one of the sheep, and Gaia just charges another one and subdues it with his bare hands. Burdened by two semi-conscious sheep, the party goes back to the others.

Just how exactly to make a trap out of the sheep is not clear to the party as they realize that none of them brought a rope. So they decide to fill a backpack up with rocks and make one of the sheep wear it, to slow it down and so that hopefully it won't run too far before one of the manticores goes for the bait. Sir Goldborn gets the sheep to drink the wine he brought for good measure, so now it's even slower (3'').

The plan works: one of the manticores swoops down to catch the sheep, and the party goes out of the bushes and charges! They are unhappy to learn that manticores shoot iron spikes from their tails. After getting hit with those, they go through with the charge. A general melee ensues where Temalkel and a spearmen get KO'd, but the manticore is killed!!

After resting and recuperating a bit and bringing the KO'd characters to safety, they just try the same thing with the second manticore. This time the thief gets KO'd, but again the second manticore is killed by the overwhelming force of party. The party starts to make a run for the castle!

After seeing this band of wild-eyed crazy people running toward the castle with two of its friends dead, the third manticore decides to (...morale roll...) surrender the castle to the party. It just nopes out and flies away. The party enters the castle and explores a bit. They find the rumored cellars, and more importantly, a giant treasure hoard from the manticores!!

Three manticore eggs, two scrolls, one magic sword, 10 magic crossbow bolts, and 6000 e.p. are recovered. The party will sell off all magic items safe for one scroll of spells, for an absurd amount of treasure and XP. The base XP prize for all of these goodies is 18000 (three zeroes!!), divided in different ways, plus 1500 XP for Pocco who will be keeping the scroll of spells.

The party rests one night in the castle. The next day, exhausted and with two of its members limping, they go back to Trilo by foot, because Frank is long gone. No random encounters are rolled on the way, and the adventurers are greeted with admiration and envy by the village folk.

For downtime, after healing up if needed, everyone will go to Borgogazze and seek training in order to level up.

Player's Addendum

Sir Goldborn (of Astora) will be training in a temple just outside of Borgogazze under Master Senju, a wise monk who had accompanied Sir when he fled his home city. It will cost 4000 gold, a small price to pay for our hero. However, due to the fact that in the last weeks Sir Goldborn has been surrounded by crazy animals, as well as weird and evil people, a lot of meditation is required for the training. As a consequence, he will only be ready to adventure again on the 11th January. By then his maximum HP will have increased to 8, new strenghts will have been unlocked, and a brighter golden light will be shining on Longuria.

DM's Notes

This session was a blast! One thing I would maybe do differently when there's such a big haul is to end the session before computing XP, since this time it took quite a long time. I feel that I could do it faster and with less mistakes the day after the session when I'm rested; the players would just need to tell me in-session what they want to do with the treasure (how to divide it) and magic items (who gets them, who keeps them, who sells them).

Also some weirdness happened around some players foreseeably leaving the campaign, so deciding to renounce on their shares to get the others more XP. On the one hand, division of treasure is explicitly up to the characters, but on the other I have difficulty imagining that adventurers risk their life for treasure, just to give up that treasure immediately after. Maybe it's fine, or maybe we might just have to role-play it out a little bit more next time.

AD&D Session 3: Requiem for a Ferret

We started the session by making characters for three new adventurers: Temalkel the Illusionist, Oscar the Thief, and Q the Magic-User. They roll up in the inn tavern of Trilo and meet Sir Goldborn and Zelda, who fill them in on who's who and what has been happening recently.

As for these two's downtime updates, Sir Goldborn has gained some reputation among the common soldiers in Ristoro A for his healing services. Zelda has done some limning, gaining some silver pieces and now some of Trilo's soldiers have very nicely painted shields.

As for Giorno's soldiers from last time, they may go into the Ashes Island dungeon but will have to do so on their time off and the party will have to pay insurance money to Giorno in case their equipment gets lost or destroyed.

Oscar the Thief helpfully claims to have thousands of gold pieces stashed away he or she can fetch. It's not really clear whether it should be he or she, as Oscar sounds like someone with a naturally high-pitched voice trying to talk in a really low pitch. We'll just say she for convenience.

Anyway, most suspect that Oscar's way of fetching the gold will be to take it from someone else. She targets two village people talking at a table, Melissa the Shipwright and Xenia the woman in a blue robe. The paladin turns away and faces a wall. Oscar attempts to pickpocket Xenia while talking to the pair to distract them. She is discovered! She runs to the exit before anyone can really react, jumps over her pet goat that was stationed just behind the door, and climbs the wall of the inn. The few soldiers who come out of the inn to look for her don't find her and she waits on the roof until it's safe to come down again.

In the meantime, the newly-formed party decides to visit Ashes Island again. It is Dec. 8. Zelda goes to fetch Frank the Ferryman to boat them over. Zelda and S. Golborn are able to get 2 spearmen to follow the party, paying equipment insurance to Giorno thanks to Zelda's and Q's funds.

Everyone meets at the port, including the thief, and they sail away to Ashes Island. Upon arriving there, they decide to explore a bit before going into the dungeon.

The entrance is a wide downwards passage with roughly hewn steps, carved into a strange mound of grey-blackish stone. Oscar climbs the mound and is able to see the rest of the island below, with three other similar strange mounds, some folding into themselves to create caverns that go right through. There's also a depression in the center of the island and a person-sized hole a bit to the right of the other side of the mound Oscar stands in.

The party decides not to enter the hole and to go in the dungeon by the normal entrance. They hear squeaking noises. Q sends her pet ferret forward to see what's there. Now the squeaking noises intensify and fighting noises occur. The party runs forward to see the situation, and they find the lone ferret fighting against 10 giant rats in a large circular room. The ferret is quickly overwhelmed and does not make it. But the party has gained surprise on the enemy and everyone makes attacks against the rats at +4 (+2 for rear attack, +2 for stunned opponent). The thief does double damage on a hit. The rats quickly start to flee, which allows another round of attacks from the party. 6 rats in total are killed, the rest fleeing in the narrow passage in the east.

The room is full with little stone containers, which are promptly looted, and 1500 electrum pieces are recovered.

The party decides to open the door in the northern wall. They come into a large rectangular room with a door on the other side and 15 hooks affixed to the wall. After some horsing around, the door is opened to reveal a large chasm beyond it, but a bridge is fixed to the wall adjacent to the door. Sir Goldborn lights an arrow on fire and shoots it to see where the bridge brings. The arrow bumps on another wall and lands on the bridge! At this point, I consult the item saving throw rules to see whether the bridge is lit on fire by the arrow. It says that it takes some time for fire to catch on, so Sir Goldborn has time to rush onto the bridge, run toward the flaming arrow, and kick it down many feet below.

After this, the party decides to retreat with the treasure. The wandering monster check comes up negative, so they make it safely out of the dungeon and back to the safe Trilo shore, with a total of 750 XP for their accomplishments. The spearmen get a prize too: 50 electrum pieces each.

Next session will be on Dec 14 and the characters have opportunity to act until then. Oscar will disguise as a beggar and panhandle, while also attempting some pickpocketing. Q will bury her fallen ferret in the village church cemetary and pay it due respects. Sir Goldborn will explore the hills on the east for two days, then travel to Borgogazze to find out its military organization and leaders (DM's note: time to generate those details...). Zelda will countinue her limning work and take one day of rest to do some fishing at the lake in the northern hills, selling what she catches at the village.

AD&D Session 2: Looking for Orcs

We opened the session with a chat about Paladins. They're a pretty powerful class, but have some harsh restrictions on their conduct. In particular, they're not supposed to associate with characters of evil alignment. Of course they can still do it, but this may result in a "poor" rating which may lead to longer training times.

That said, we had some downtime updates. Derrick the Assassin befriended a banker in the village called Tiffany, who is also a Thief. Zelda the Fighter explored some lands to the north. But then, an unexpected development: the village of Ristoro A, between Borgogazze and Trilo, has been raided by Orcs! Güsta the Fighter witnessed this as he was traveling to Borgogazze and hastily made it back to tell the news.

The Orcish raid has resulted in increased military presence in the villages around Borgogazze. The troops are defending, mainly. The players go see Giorno the Lieutenant to ask him what they can do to help. He seems uninterested in getting too personally involved, but suggests a reconnaissance mission to the north of Ristoro A to gather information about the orcish force. How many are they, where are they camping, and what are their defenses? He grants the party a small force (7 spearmen and 6 crossbowmen) to help them safely accomplish the mission.

So, Zelda the Fighter, Sir Goldborn the Paladin, and Green Gary the Druid make off to Ristoro A with the troops. It is Nov. 30. Once there, they talk to Frederick, the interim Lieutenant who is supervising all the extra troops that came to defend the already half-burned down village. He is singularly unhelpful. The party just makes off for the hills to the north. They come to a forest, and Green Gary casts Talk with Animals with a magpie. It flies off and returns after two hours from the northwest, this means there are orcs in that direction at about 20 miles distance. The druid is not able to speak to her anymore however, so everyone returns to the village, rests, and goes to the forest again with the spells refreshed.

The party finds the same magpie again (2 in 6 chance)! She tells the druid that she had found a whole village full of Orcs! She counted about 200, defended by two watch towers and other defenses. The village lies in northwestern direction and the terrain between is mostly forest. So, the party starts trekking Northwest. They travel 7 miles because of the rough terrain, and they stop and camp in some flat territory. Unfortunately they bought only 2 days worth of rations, so they'll have to go back! They do so, and on the way they notice a tiny fort, a moathouse in the forested hills.

The moathouse seems deserted but the drawbridge is up. The party shouts for human inhabitants, and one of the trees in the ruined building turns around and speaks to them! They can't understand it but he seems angry. It's not extremely mobile though, and the party retreats safely.

They make it back to Ristoro A, then to Trilo, and think about what to do next. They decide going back to the dungeon of Ashes Island might be a good idea, and during the next few days they will try to convince some of the soldiers to come with them, as well as to convince Giorno to allow this.

The session covered four days of game time and next session will be on Dec. 8, so the characters have four days of downtime to do whatever they want. Sir Goldborn will provide healing services to the soldiers of Ristoro A and go back to Trilo in time. Green Gary will set up orc traps to the north of Trilo. Derrick will start flirting with the banker/Thief Tiffany.

This was a quiet session with no XP earned. However, we did learn a lot about the world and the importance of logistics. What will our heroes do next? Let's find out next time!

The region immediately around Trilo, with the party's explorations.