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.

AD&D Session 1: The Emerging Island

The session starts with a couple remarks about the game. AD&D is set in a quasi-medieval world with monsters and magic. The world is full of adventure, and successful adventurers become rich and famous, which is the main motivation for most of them. I explained that the most important thing to me about the game is that the players have complete autonomy to do what they want in this world. They can take on whatever missions or adventures they want and they can attempt anything whey want at the tactical level to accomplish their goals.

That established, we generated characters using the quick character creation sheet. Thus, Dirty Derrick the Assassin, Mr. Jesse White the Druid, Zelda the Fighter, and Güsta Lamangüsta the Fighter arrive in the tiny fisher village of Trilo, some days away from the bigger mercantile town of Borgogazze, along the very long coast of Longuria, to investigate a mysterious event that has shaken up the sleepy village. It is Nov. 17.

Two months ago, a great eruption in the sea gave rise to a new island, about 2h by boat from the village. It is reported that adventuring parties are already exploring this island and the strange cave complex just below the surface of the sea, and some are returning with great treasure. Our party of adventurers first seek information about this in the village inn. They get to know the somewhat aggressive innkeeper Ada, the shipwright Melissa, and some soldiers and men-at-arms hanging out at the inn tavern.

After having too much beer, Güsta's pet parrot attacks the soldiers. Mr. Jesse tries to stop this by casting Animal Friendship to control the bird, but the parrot makes his save against magic (19) and continues on attacking. He gets skewered by a soldier's short sword and is instantly dead. Güsta leaves the inn with his parrot, panicking and looking for a vet.

The rest of the party remains at the inn and gathers information. An enterprising sailor, Frank, operates a ferry service to and from Ashes Island (the emerged island) for a small fee of 5 s.p. per person. He also sells dungeoneering gear for fair prices. The soldiers answer to Giorno the Lieutenant, who presides the small fortress overlooking the village and who basically rules the village, being responsible for its protection. Their main job is to preside the village.

Meanwhile, Güsta finds a church with two clerics in it, Arthur and Clark. They regrettably inform him that they're not able to resurrect his parrot, as they only know how to Cure Light Wounds. Then, the party reunites and goes to see the ferry operator. They make a transportation appointment and return to the inn to establish themselves, renting a large-ish dormitory room for the whole party, and leave their extra stuff there before going to the boat.

The ride on the barge is uneventful, and the party buys dungeon equipment from Frank. They arrive at the island and enter into an opening in a mound of light volcanic rock that has some steps carved in it, leading, of course, down. They hear grunting noises, but are not deterred. The descending passage eventually opens into a circular room with several exits, some pottery jars along the wall, and seven man-like creatures with wildboar heads wearing leather and shield and wielding spears.

The party immediately moves to attack with both ranged and melee weapons. Three of the orcs throw their spears but miscalculate the distance and the spears land on the floor. Derrick runs and picks up two spears, and Zelda charges with her two-handed sword. A general melee ensues, where Mr. Jesse is unfortunately killed by a spear, and Derrick is knocked out by the same. The party manages to KO two enemy orcs, at which point enemy morale breaks and they flee in panic.

The survivors take the pottery jars and carry Derrick and ex-Jesse outside of the dungeon. They turn around and return to the village on the barge. They split the treasure equally: 1000 s.p. and 250 g.p. from the pottery jars. They gain a total of 327 XP for their trouble.

Derrick is brought to the inn to rest, and Jesse is carried to his final rest. Derrick will need to rest for 7 days before being able to adventure again. Meanwhile a new adventurer has rolled up in town: Sir Goldborn the Paladin. He agrees to help the wounded party with healing. Healing is slow in this game, 1 HP per day, but Sir Goldborn can help by supplementing 2 HP of healing once per day. Güsta will heal up and then travel to Borgogazze and back, if time permits, in order to purchase a new pet parrot. Zelda will heal up and make a short excursion to the hills on the north of the village to see what's beyond them. Next session will be in 6 days, on Nov. 23.

DM's Notes

The game went well, there was some slowing down due to referencing tables such as reaction, morale, weapons vs. AC adjustment, and weapon damage, but I'm sure that we'll get faster as we use these tables more. Our basic combat sequence is: I write down actions for monsters, the party decides on their actions, we roll initiative once per side, and we resolve the round, the party with initiative generally acting or striking first. Hits are resolved by determining all modifiers, rolling d20, and consulting the combat table.

I got somewhat confused when referencing the morale tables, and I realize now that this was due to applying morale modifiers to the target number when they should be applied to the die roll. So, here's how morale works for future reference. First roll d100 and apply all modifiers as per the DMG. Then compare this number to the monsters' base morale. Base morale is 45% + 5% per hit die + 1% per "plus" to the hit die. If the modified roll is smaller or equal to base morale, morale holds. If it is higher, then the difference determines the row of the Morale Failure Table to be checked.

Here's an example from the game, done right: a 26% was rolled. The orcs suffered 25% casualties, so they have to check morale at +5%. Following modifiers are applied: -20% for enemies slain, +20% for friends killed. So at 31% vs 50% base morale, morale holds. If a 76% was rolled instead, then the modified roll would have been 81%, which vs. base morale of 50% means "flee in panic".

 

The tiny fisher village of Trilo.