Session 33: Tension

STRICT TIMEKEEPING creates suspense!

Session report for October 23, 2025. Four players adventured for three days.

Characters

Hilfred Castaigne, human illusionist level 3
Jude, half-orc assassin/cleric level 2/3
with animated skeleton companion, "Boner"
Bendbardo the bender, human fighter level 2
Max, human illusionist level 1

After months of downtime, the bad boys of Hartford were low on cash. They hit the local pubs in search of leads on treasure - they knew of a nearby tomb, of course, but perhaps there would be something less dangerous in the city.

Here's what they discovered:

• Green mists encroach upon the river. The same thing happened last year. Anyone travelling to or from Fenrir disappeared: some returned in November, some never did. [Brovenloft]
• A valuable manual of magical incantations was left behind by cultists from another plane who infested the city a couple of weeks ago. It is being held under tight security somewhere at Elay University. [Museum, Brovenloft]
• The archaeological dig has been off-limits for months because the last group sent out to investigate it never returned. ("Are we responsible for that?") [Dungeon]

The players were keen to find out more about this magical tome and so headed to the Nerd District. Jude put together a nerd disguise and Bendbardo played bodyguard. Hilfred and Max already looked the part.

They encountered some carpenters who were on their way home after work. They didn't know anything about any magic books, but were able to direct the party to a local pub where the students liked to gather: the Spotted Owl. It was about the dinner hour so the players went to mingle with the students. Through good role-play, generous spending, and great reaction rolls, the characters had a good night and found out what they could about the manual.

They left the pub and headed to the University campus, where they found strategically placed lamp posts with contiual light on them. The area around the museum had extra patrols. It was too soon for them to show their faces around the museum, they decided, so it was time to call it a night.

The next day they went to the archeological dig and found the dungeon entrance disturbed: was it wind? an animal? or had someone else been there?

Before the session, I had fleshed out the first level of the tomb: new monsters, secret doors, and lots of treasure. Longtime readers will know what that means: the players took the first staircase they found and dove into an unprepared portion of the dungeon. Ah well - back to Appendix A!

Level 1 was full of tombs, but level 2 was different: they found a series of medium sized chambers connected by short hallways.

They entered a chamber with three other exits: two of them were dead ends. The party explored the dead ends and found a secret door in the north passage. It led to a small room with a locked door on the opposite wall, and a ladder going up. Would they return to level one? No, they wanted the greater risks and rewards!

They returned to the starting chamber. Down another hallway, they encountered a rat's nest. The vicious creatures were hungry and attacked. The new player, Max, threw a flaming oil flask down. His clumsy throw landed under Bendbardo for a bad case of hot foot. The upside was, the rats were deathly afraid of the flame and those who survived the initial attack scattered.

The next chamber had a secret door that opened to a narrow passage. They weren't interested in seeing what was on the other side of the passage and returned. Another short hallway led to another chamber, empty except for a door. Bendbardo bashed the door in.

An NPC party had been lying in wait for whomever came through the door. A magic-user cast sleep (cast time: 1 segment) and knocked out everyone except Jude and Boner. Before anyone could react, men with spears destroyed the skeleton.

Jude attempted to parley, which was a reasonable move given the circumstances. The reaction dice came up low, modified by the differences in alignment - not normally a factor, but in this case the Good party identified a cleric in command of undead (Jude). The leader ordered his men to capture the half-orc. Three spearmen (men-at-arms) began to step over Jude's sleeping comrades.

Jude fled around the corner and attempted to set up an ambush. The men-at-arms didn't buy it, but they also weren't prepared for Jude's ferocity as he slew one with his magical blade. Jude fled down the hall with most of the NPCs, having lost their cool, in pursuit.

We switched to the evasion and pursuit rules. Jude stayed ahead of the NPCs but they matched his speed. He turned a corner and decided to use his infravision as an advantage and cast a hold person spell. I ruled that this was possible because he would be out of the NPC's torch light for a segment or two.

Five NPCs turned the corner: three men-at-arms, fighter, and cleric. The hold person spell could only affect 3 of them, and would he even get it off in time (cast time: 5 segments)?

Jude won initiative with a 5. The men were nearly in striking distance when it went off: two spearmen and the fighter all failed their saves. Reduced to 2 on 1, they were no match for Jude's magical sword and dagger and high armor class (AC 1 for Banded Mail and very high Dexterity). He slew them in a few rounds, then executed the three paralyzed men and hid in the shadows.

What happened next was created by STRICT TIMEKEEPING. I had determined that the remaining NPCs would tie up the sleeping players, who would wake up in 10 minutes. Jude's fight lasted just long enough that one of the NPCs (a chaotic evil fighter) had gone to find his companions and saw their bodies in the torch light. He retreated to the cleric and mage who were still watching over the players. Jude followed from a distance - they had the same movement rate - and looked for an opportunity to assassinate.

Jude('s player?) sensed the danger and rushed back, but he was too late. STRICT TIMEKEEPING, you see. The fighter stood over Hilfred's corpse, wiping blood off his sword.

"What have you done?"

"Everyone's dead. The prisoners are about to wake up. Kill them and get out of here while we still can."

Jude let out a battle cry and charged in. He killed the magic-user immediately. The fighter and cleric engaged while Bendbardo and Max woke from their slumber. The fighter fell to Jude's magic blade. Then Bendbardo stood up, broke his bindings through sheer muscle power, and snapped the cleric's back with a bear hug.

In the next room was a cache of coins that the NPC party had uncovered before the party arrived. They picked up everything they could and left the dungeon.

The party returned to Hartford the next day. Max used his illusions and high charisma to find a buyer who would pay top dollar for the NPC magic-user's spell book. Hilfred's hireling, Simple Jack, disappeared and stopped answering the party's calls.

This one had it all for me: rumor mongering, NPC interaction, world development, danger and suspense.

Bendbardo's player had this to say:
So, in tonight's combat we used: Surprise, initiative, charges, dual wielding, a sleep spell that dropped most of the party but one, the evasion rules, attack by ambush that killed a pursuer, a hold spell that affected several opponents, checking to see whether spell went off before a melee attack, unarmed combat, and morale, and reaction rolls. Edge of the seat goodness.

All done by and within the rules of the game. AD&D wins again.

THE SPOILS
657 gp
1500 ep
70 sp
2100 cp

XP value of treasure: 1420

THE VANQUISHED
6 giant rats
5 level 2 NPCs, with
4 men-at-arms

XP value of monsters slain: 1217

THE SCORE
Each survivor got 879 XP, 219 gp, 500 ep, 23 sp, and 700 cp.

Bendbardo, human bender, earned rank E for bravery.
Jude, half-orc assassin/cleric, earned rank E for spell support and attempting hit-and-run tactics.
Max, illusionist, earned rank E for using illusions to maximize his profits.
Hilfred Castaigne, illusionist, slain in his sleep by a rival non-player character. RIP.

Session 32: Setback!

The players catch up with recent events at Fort Fenrir.

Session report for April 25, 2025. Three players adventured for one day.

Characters

Karl the Might-Nervous, human magic-user level 2
Paddy Mane, human druid level 1
Troy, human ranger level 1

This will be a quick one because we got started late.

Karl the Might-Nervous stepped off the river ferry into Fort Fenrir for the first time in months. He was relieved to see the place was still standing after all the arson and orc attacks.

Fenrir repelled the orc invasion, but at a cost of half his army. This invasion was instigated by bdubs1776 as part of his #BroXT initiative. I gave him the scenario (orcs attack FF), he farmed it out to two wargamers, and they played it out for me "off-screen". You can read about it at HootOwl's blog. Great things happen when you open up your table to the whole club.

As a result, the lands outside the Fort were gradually reverting back to wilderness. The monsters waiting outside that bubble of civilization had grown bolder.

Karl met up with Troy the ranger and a new druid named Paddy. They figured orc armies were above their pay grade, and went for a dive in the local dungeon known as the Pig Pen.

Restocking a dungeon is fun. My procedure is to roll a d20 for every room or area of the dungeon and consult Appendix A, Table V.F.: Chamber or Room Contents. Results of 18 ("Special or stairway") are usually read as a 17 (monster + treasure) or 19 (trick/trap), depending on my mood. When stocking monsters or traps, I get to pull in information from prior sessions and activity from factions in downtime - what kinds of monsters have been here before? Has a faction from another level moved in? Has an faction from the overworld moved in? And sometimes a randomly generated monster is just what the space needs to shake things up.

or make up your own restock table

All that to say that the status quo had changed. The dungeon entrance, a 30' chamber, was the site of some grisly ritual. A magic circle was drawn on the floor in blood. The walls were covered in prayers to a dark goddess named Kali, warning that this was her domain.

The party explored the west wing of the dungeon. They followed the same route as the very first session up to a dead end room where they found another dark ritual site. They also found the secret exit that led to a dense forest only a few miles from the ruined keep.

Back inside, they continued their exploration. It was quiet work until they stopped to rest in a small room with two exits. Two fighters and a group of men-at-arms entered the room from the other exit and braced for trouble. They didn't look like the dark ritual types, so the charismatic druid offered parley over violence.

The warriors took Paddy up on his offer. They shared a rest in the safety of the room. They also compared notes and maps, which were quite complementary.

The party explored a little more. When they approached an intersection with many hallways and were low on session time, they left the dungeon with not much to show for it except their lives.

Session 31: Bonehead Maneuvers

It's not a bad play if you win!

Session report for April 17, 2024. Three players adventured for three days.

Characters

sometimes deader is better!

Bendbardo the Bender, human fighter level 2
Hilfred the Yellow, human illusionist level 2
Jude, half-orc assassin/cleric level 2/2

Jude arrived at the mass grave outside Hartford and dug deep. Eight skeleton warriors crawled to the surface to tear him limb from limb. He held out his unholy symbol and commanded them to follow. Then he gave them all funny names such as Boner.

They met up with Hilfred and Bendbardo and returned to the catacombs below an archaeological digsite. And this week, the players had plenty of session time to carefully map the area.

The dungeon began with a long hallway that ended in large doors. They took a side door to another hallway, where they had ambushed an NPC party on a previous occasion. Then they took a side passage and came to another door. Bendbardo bashed it in and stumbled into a large room - as well as four troglodytes waiting to pounce!

The trogs took full advantage of their surprise segment but could barely penetrate Bendbardo's armor. He slew one in return. Jude's skeletons were unaffected by the troglodytes' stench and filed into the room to kill another one.

The other two saw they were outnumbered by creatures without olfactory systems and bolted out the back door. The party let them run.

Bendbardo tossed the room looking for secrets. He found loose blocks underneath a piece of furniture. Under the blocks was a cache of gem stones and a scroll case!

Fire beetles interrupted their rest, but they were scared off by a show of force. The party resumed their exploration.

At this point, the players found mapping difficult because all the rooms and hallways had taken 45-degree turns. That's hard enough to transcribe onto paper and they were using app.dungeonscrawl.com for sharing. Once they came upon a trapezoidal room, they threw in the towel.

Giant rats made a nest in a large fireplace on the short parallel wall. They made a lot of noise at the intruders, but did not attack. Bendbardo did. He realized he had underestimated the size of the nest when 16 rats swarmed out to kill everyone.

Jude called for a retreat and went back down the hall with Hilfred and skeletons in tow. There, Hilfred used phantasmal force to incapacitate several rats. Bendbardo bravely stood in the center of the room and was relieved when the rats tore apart skeletons instead of him. Two skeletons on the other side of the room heard the command to retreat and ran down a different hallway, never to be seen again.

After a few minutes, the fireplace was clear of vermin. Behind a loose brick was a small coffer with a stash of platinum bars!

At this point, the characters had expended most of their resources, including all the skeletons except Boner. They retreated to their camp outside the digsite and rested for the night.

On the next day, they ignored the winding passages and went straight down the first hallway. Bendbardo and Boner fell into a pit trap at the halfway point. They could have sprung that trap with their skeletons yesterday, and I savored the opportunity to rub it in. I'm savoring it again now.

A large door stood before them. It had carvings and writing on it that warned of a great evil trapped within. The players thought such a dire warning was awesome, so Bendbardo broke in.

They entered a large pentagonal room. Inscribed on the floor was a pentagram. A sarcophagus stood at the center. It was clamped shut by iron bars. Tapestries told the story of a mighty warrior who became king and turned to dark powers before he was defeated and entombed.

The players cautiously explored the outside of the room. They tested the inscription, lest they unleash some horrible magics. Nothing stirred and no one exploded.

It was time for the sarcophagus. Bendbardo never met a bar he didn't like to bend, and so he got to work on the iron straps. It took him about an hour to break them all. He removed the lid and peered inside.

Crack! Bendbardo was struck across the face by a withered hand and tumbled to the ground. His jaw ached, but what was worse, he felt completely drained of energy! A robed wight rose from the sarcophagus, gripping an ancient sword, and glared at Bendbardo with murderous intent.

I warned them.

Hilfred fled. Bendbardo was sure to be killed. But Jude had one shot to win, with only 10% chance of success, and he took it. He presented his unholy symbol, a hand with fingers curled around a cursed coin, and commanded the ancient king to kneel.

It worked! The cursed king unloaded thousands of gold and copper coins from his own tomb and carried it to the camp site. Then he leapt into the pit trap. He glared at Jude and spoke a curse in a long-forgotten language as the trap door closed.

The party returned safely to Hartford down a level, but in one piece.

THE VANQUISHED
2 troglodytes
14 giant rats
1 fire beetle
XP for monsters defeated: 259

THE SPOILS
6 gems worth: 90, 1000, 10, 500, 80, 50
3000 gold
400 copper
100 platinum
4 tapestries worth 50 gp each
cleric scroll, 4 spells: know alignment, true seeing, aerial servant, word of recall (kept by Jude for +1900 xp)
XP value of treasure taken is 5450

THE SCORE
Bendbardo the Bender, LEVEL DRAINED, earned 1816 GP and 1903 XP and rank E for bravery in combat!
Hilfred the Yellow earned 1816 GP and 1903 XP. Rank E for using illusion magic to solve his problems.
Jude earned 1816 GP and 3803 XP. Rank E for leveraging cleric powers. (No opportunity for assassin work this week, which does not seem to be a reason to change the rating)

Session 30: Tomb Raider

That belongs in a museum!

Session report for March 27, 2025. Five players adventured for three weeks.

Characters

Fomo Bagful, halfling thief level 3
Hilfred the Yellow, human illusionist level 3
Jude, half-orc cleric/assassin level 1/2
Bendbardo, human fighter level 2
Karl the Might-Nervous, human magic-user level 1
Glinforgghen Sealeaf, elven fighter/magic-user level 1/1

Prologue

During the last session, Hilfred and Bendbardo were chatting up a young coed while casing the museum of natural history. They asked her where some of the valuable artifacts came from, so they could go do some treasure hunting on their own.

I had no idea. What would a low-prep DM do in a situation like this? To answer the question, I thought about what they were really asking.

Where did these valuable artifacts come from led to where can I find artifacts to sell to the university for money which led to where can I find treasure. Of course - they were asking for a treasure map!

Ask, and ye shall receive! I broke out my trusty Dungeon Masters Guide and used the rules on page 120 to create a treasure map for them. The museum receptionist told them the tale of an archaeological dig only eight or nine miles outside the city that yielded some of the artifacts on display - but it had shut down for being dangerous.

Hilfred hired a pack animal and a teamster for all the loot they were surely to find. Then the party headed out to find this buried treasure.

First Delve

They rode west from the city of Hartford out into the plains. By midday they entered a small desert. Just as the sun reached the horizon, they arrived at a large depression in the ground that had uncovered an old settlement. They rested for the night.

The next day, the party searched the digsite. Several spots had been cleared and examined by prior expeditions. They found evidence of an old stone road and a few buildings of various sizes, but they found nothing of value until they reached the larger buildings at the back of the site.

As they investigated a partial wall swallowed by a dune, a giant scorpion attacked from its hiding spot under the sand! The massive creature was a great threat to the party with three deadly attacks per turn. Fomo and Karl the Might-Nervous flinched, but Bendbardo led the party to attack - by attempting to grapple the scorpion's tail!

oh no!

The scorpion fended off Bendbardo's grab with its giant claw and returned with a grapple of its own. It lifted the seven-foot-tall man into the air and bashed at him with its other claw and tail. He avoided dying to the venom, but the cumulative damage from all three attacks rendered him unconscious.

Everyone else attacked and brought down the scorpion before it could make another set of attacks. Glinforgghen, in particular, dealt massive damage to the scorpion with a combination of his sword and the shocking grasp spell.

Buried in the sand against the wall was the scorpion's lair which contained a sizeable hoard of gold coins. These were loaded onto the pack animal along with the battered Bendbardo.

The party continued their search for treasure. At another site, the floor of a large building, they found a trap door leading to a cellar. Inside they found a few urns containing only dust - and a secret door that opened to a staircase going down. They decided to cash in the sizeable treasure they found and get Bendbardo back to town to heal.

Bendbardo needed to rest for a week to recover from his near-death experience. On top of that, he and a few characters were ready to level up! So the players took a few weeks off and reconvened for the next delve. Fomo dropped out because of the late hour and the rest pressed on.

Second Delve

Back to the digsite with less than an hour of session time to go. They found the site undisturbed and entered the hidden cellar.

The party entered a large chamber with burial nooks along the walls. Before they could begin their investigation, the skeletons came to life and attacked!

Jude, a Chaotic Evil cleric and freshly level 2, was ready. He presented his unholy symbol and commanded the skeletons to "kneel before me". They did so. Who needs to hire men-at-arms?

A thorough search of the catacomb yielded a little treasure and a secret door. They pushed it open and entered a long hallway, sending the obedient skeletons ahead of them.

They encountered a side door part way down the hall. Bendbardo bashed it open and stumbled into an NPC party on the other side. It was a couple of clerics and fighters with men-at-arms - and they did not hear them coming! Total surprise!

The players discussed what they would do and dithered. After a few seconds I declared they had lost the first segment of surprise and still had one remaining. That lit a fire under them. Hilfred stunned the NPCs (and Bendbardo) with color spray. Jude assassinated a fighter and the skeletons fell upon the helpless group. [At this time, I generated the NPC party's alignment: Lawful Good. Ha!]

They looted the NPC bodies - including their armor, which was placed onto the skeletons as a kind of disguise. It was not effective, but Hilfred's teamster, now called Simple Jack, was paid well enough to look the other way. Jude duge a mass grave for his skeletons so he might collect them in the future.

Time was up, so they returned to Hartford with meager treasure but a new map and possibly a whole squad of undead soldiers.

THE VANQUISHED
Delve One: 615 XP
Giant Scorpion

Delve Two: 528 XP
Skeletons
NPC Party (4 characters and 5 men-at-arms)

THE SPOILS
Delve One: 6600 GP
Gold Coins
Ancient Urns

Delve Two: 207 GP
Coins and burial gifts
NPC gear

THE SCORE
Fomo Bagful earned 1100 gp and 1223 XP and an E rating for avoiding direct conflict and prioritizing treasure searches.
Hilfred the Yellow earned 1307 gp and 1355 XP and an E rating for solving problems with illusion magic
Bendbardo earned 1307 gp and 1355 XP for being the most fearless warrior I have ever seen
Jude earned 1307 gp and 1355 XP and an E rating for use of unholy powers and assassination capability
Karl the Might-Nervous earned 1307 gp and 1355 XP and an E rating for avoiding conflict and attempting to utilize his crappy spells
Glinforgghen earned 1307 gp and 1355 XP and an E rating for using combat spells in melee

Session 29: Night at the Museum

Why leave the city when that's where all the treasure goes to?

Session report for February 13, 2025. Four players misadventured for five days.

Characters

Deadleaf, elf assassin level 3
Fomo Bagful, halfling thief level 3
Hilfred Castaigne, human illusionist level 2
Bendbardo the Bender, human fighter level 1

The perpetrators of the grave robbing in Fenrir came back from training ready for another heist. Deadleaf joined them as they laid low in Hartford, coming up with a target. Someone remembered selling a tapestry and other artifacts to the nerds at the local university.

"Wasn't there a museum in town? Let's hit that!"

Oh no. I wasn't ready for this - there are no maps for Hartford or its locations, only vague ideas. While they discussed plans and potential targets, I scrambled and put together potential maps and encounters. When I was more or less ready, I told them their target was Peabody Museum at Elay University.

Legwork

Hilfred went to the museum during the day. He posed as a wealthy university student with his personal bodyguard, the seven-foot-tall, 365-pound Bendbardo. They chatted up the coed at the front desk, paid for an admission, and toured the building. The first floor contained large rooms with various artifacts. There was a lot to note: tapestries - including one that featured legendary monsters duking it out, a small reading room with old texts and scrolls, giant saurial skeletons, and so forth. The only thing that seemed valuable to them were some carved jade idols in an anthropological exhibit. Hilfred and Bendbardo were excited by pinching those and decided to make that display their target. They noted a few other exits that were not accessible to the public and left for the day.

sure hope those things stay dead

At the same time, Fomo was in charge of setting up a fence for the sale. It would have to be someone who would be interested in fine art and artifacts, since they wouldn't be able to sell to the university. His contacts in the thieves' guild brought him some unpleasant news: after the fire at Fenrir, the lord went down to the docks and threw everyone out. The guild lost months of work and were not happy - and Fomo's trainer seems to be blaming the PCs! They insisted on taking an extra cut out of the heist. Fomo begrudgingly agreed and vowed to get even with the snitches.

Meanwhile, Deadleaf scouted the exterior of the building and watched city guard patrols. He would do the same over the next couple of nights to plot the escape route. The party paid for a safe house in a part of town where no one would ask questions: that would be the rendezvous point.

The plan was simple: smash and grab while Hilfred's phantasmal forces made it look like no one had broken in.

Heist

The night of the heist came. The museum was closed for the night. Deadleaf watched for guards from the shadows. Hilfred cast an illusion on the doorway, making it look like no one was there and the door was closed. Fomo and Bendbardo crept up to the front door and broke in.

The lobby was empty. Two different sets of doors led to the exhibits. A third door that was behind the reception desk was locked. They kept on target and went to a set of double doors that led to the anthropological exhibits.

The door opened. A man, probably some professor who was working after hours, blundered right into the pair of them! Bendbardo took advantage of his surprise and knocked him clean out. Fomo slit his throat and Bendbardo relieved him of his two gold rings. He also had a key and a faculty dining card in his pocket.

They left the body and hustled to the jade idols, which were right where Bendbardo saw them earlier. They snatched and headed toward the exit.

There they were, standing in the lobby, about to get away with it all. Then they saw the locked door and remembered the key.

"Let's keep looking," said Bendbardo.

Fomo hesitated. They debated for a minute or two and decided to go for the locked door. For those of you not familiar with the tropes of a heist movie, this is when it all went wrong.

Wandering monster result: guard patrol, party surprised. The night watch found the magic-user's body and heard the PCs talking in the lobby. They charged in and surrounded Fomo and Bendbardo before they could even try the door.

By some miracle, Bendbardo's armor held up enough that he survived the attack. They knew the situation was dire and weren't about to surrender with a murder on their hands. Bendbardo realized his only way out was through boldness, and announced he would pummel the night commander unconscious.

Fomo took advantage of his small size and went for the gaps between the guards' legs so he could make for the exit. But the guards won initiative and fended him off with their swords. He was lucky to be alive. He drew his weapon and prepared to fight.

Bendbardo's explosive action was unexpected by the watch commander. His plate mail deflected the guard's sword as he closed the distance. Bendbardo's massive frame crashed into the guard and sent him sprawling to the ground unconscious.

The guards still outnumbered the burglars, but they had lost their captain, so a morale check was appropriate. By a miracle of the dice, the guards decided that they did not get paid enough to fight off a monster like Bendbardo allowed the burglars to retreat.

By the time Deadleaf and Hilfred reacted to the commotion, the fight was over and Bendbardo and Fomo were running out of the museum. They all beat feet and arrived at the safe house without incident.

Conclusion

Fomo made the deal with his contacts in the theives' guild and got 1500 gold for the party. They took their cut, but Fomo and the party appeared to be off the hook with the guild. Hilfred sold the magic-user's beautiful golden ring to a dealer for another 500 gold. Did I say he had two rings? I'm sorry but I am writing this report two and a half months after the fact and my memory is fuzzy.

A player of conventional D&D games might have guessed this would be a disaster of a session. I had little warning, and no maps, NPCs, or treasure prepared ahead of time. So what made this a success?

After 30 sessions, the setups are beginning to pay off: wealthy buyers of ancient artifacts, a university, and the consequences of setting Fenrir on fire, for example. We are establishing a milieu organically through play.

And the players relish their roles. Hilfred and Fomo are masters of subterfuge. Bendbardo is a pure bully, and Deadleaf put in a lot of overtime plying his trade on those long nights. Top grades for everyone.

THE VANQUISHED
1 magic-user level 4
6 museum guards
XP for, er, monsters defeated: 500

THE SPOILS
3 jade idols, sold for 500 gp each
a golden ring, sold for 500 gp
XP for treasure taken: 2000

THE SCORE
Deadleaf earned 500 gp and 625 xp. Grade: E for spycraft and [REDACTED]
Fomo earned 500 gp and 625 xp. Grade: E for brazen thievery and [REDACTED]
Hilfred earned 500 gp and 625 xp. Grade: E for use of illusions
Bendbardo earned 500 gp and 625 xp. Grade: E for outstanding bravery in combat!

Session 28: Call of the Wild

Session Report for February 6, 2025. Four players adventured for five days.

Characters

Brother Flint, human monk level 1
Garth the Obscure, human magic-user level 1
Philip, human paladin level 1
Troy, human ranger level 1

The players were eager to return to the spooky keep in the mountain pass and use a key they had found amongst the treasure last week. They headed out from Fort Fenrir and went the long way again, which made sense this time - Troy new the way and wouldn't get lost.

On the second day of travel the party surprised a pack of wolves - rangers are powerful! I expected them to stay on target and evade, but they attacked. Philip and Troy killed a wolf. Brother Flint had other ideas. He charged in for an overbear and pummeled a wolf into oblivion. After another round of combat, the surviving wolves fled into the hills.

illus. Ron Spencer

What on earth did they want to kill wolves for? Flint declared he was going to keep his alive but groggy wolf and train it. We spent quite a few minutes figuring out how that would work. I read the druid spell animal friendship and did a little web search on the side.

Ultimately, I declared that the wolf was too wild and dangerous to train right now. Brother Flint knocked it unconscious again and tied it to a tree until they could return.

Finally they reached the spooky keep at the mountain pass. The gate and courtyard were empty, but there were still signs that the keep was occupied. What did it mean? (Spoiler: it meant they were out on patrol). The way to the watchtower, where there was a dungeon entrance, was still clear.

As Troy opened the door, a magical rune appeared and discharged enough electricity to kill two normal men. He sat up slowly and gave his team mates the thumbs up. Ranger hit points save the day again!

Undeterred, they ventured into the dungeon.

Brother Flint remembered that the first door was trapped. This was a historic event, you see, because they had hit the trap every single time so far. He failed to disarm the trap so I guess it wasn't all that different this time - but he took no damage with a successful saving throw.

The first room had a locked door they had never tried before. The key fit! The party moved into a large room that was empty except for a corpse lying in front of a tapestry.

The tapestry depicted legendary monsters fighting over a moutain: the monster at the top was a giant reptile with glowing eyes saw blade dorsal plates. The party rolled up the tapestry and set it aside for the return trip.

The corpse was a long dead adventurer. Its gear was mostly useless but for a dagger in a nice scabbard and a quiver of ten quarrels. There was no obvious cause of death. In DM's parlance, those are all known as "clues".

There were no exits to the room, but the guys weren't having it. They searched all around and found a loose stone in the floor near the corpse. When they stepped on it, a secret door in the wall swung open - and an arrow flew in! It plinked off Philip's armor and clattered to the floor. The tip was poisoned.

Beyond the door was a hallway. They followed it to a diamond-shaped room with another exit. A large mirror hung on the opposite wall.

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall," said Garth, "who is the fairest of them all?"

"Why, it's your mother," the mirror replied.

I don't think Gart actually expected it to speak. The players bantered with the mirror and asked pointed questions about the dungeon. This was the most fun part of the session for me. They lost interest when it was apparent that the mirror would only speak lies. They took the mirror off the wall and moved on.

The next room held a statue in one corner, and a chute down to a lower level in another. By the stains on the walls and the floor, it looked as if sacrificial victims were dumped like sacks of trash. The party were disgusted and running out of game time, so they turned back, collected the mirror and the tapestry, and headed home.

I determined that Brother Flint's wolf survived the night and did not escape. He slapped it around until it stopped trying to bite him and walked him back home. Will he tame the wild beast? Time will tell!

Philip took the ferry to Hartford. There, he could find buyers for the tapestry and magic mirror among the nerds at Elay University.

That fateful decision would lead to what are, in my opinion, our best sessions to date...

THE VANQUISHED
3 wolves for 255 XP

THE SPOILS
tapestry, sold for 500 gp
magic mirror that only tells lies, sold for 1000gp
a dagger in a nice scabbard, kept by Troy
quiver of 10 quarrels (?)

THE SCORE
Each player got 375 gp and 449 XP

Session 27: Unlikely Allies

We're on break from Machodor and our plucky heroes are laying low after last week's dastardly heist, so the C-team rolls into town looking for some evil to vanquish.

Session Report for January 30, 2025. Three players adventured for six days.

Characters

Garth, human magic-user level 1
Philip, human paladin level 1
Troy, human ranger level 1

The players knew that the first level of the local megadungeon has been nearly tapped out. They're willing to risk overland travel to get to a ruined keep discovered way back in Fenrir Session #1. So they loaded up on supplies and headed off to the mountains - the wrong way. After three days of grueling travel, they found a snowy pass up into the north side of the mountain. They followed it to a gate house, where they paused to scout the courtyard beyond.

January? Let's go to the mountains!

They crossed the courtyard (formerly a bustling keep, now all the buildings are in ruins) and inspected the main gate leading to the keep. Through the gate they saw a few horses in the yard and a plume of smoke coming from the keep. Occupied!

The party pivoted to a watch tower outside the keep where they know they can find a dungeon entrance. As they approach, they spot a group of bandits entering the courtyard from the southern gate house. They hustle inside the watch tower and decide what to do.

They saw their own footsteps criscrossing in the snow and knew it would only a matter of time before the bandits found them, so they prepared to defend the watchtower. Philip stepped out to challenge the men and intimidate them.

This is where the old DM skill of abduction came in handy. I used reaction dice (1d100) to determine the result of Philip's intimidation and it resulted favorable. What does that mean in a situation like this? The bandits saw that the party was well-defended and thought it would be wiser to leave on good terms - and set an ambush for when they emerged from the dungeon weaker. So they turned around and left the party alone. The players weren't fooled, but they decided to take their chances in the dungeon and worry about the bandits later.

Inside the watchtower floor was a trap door that revealed stairs heading into a dungeon. They followed a winding passage to the first door. Troy the ranger opened the door and soaked the acid spray with his generous hit points (2d8 + 2*[CON bonus] at first level)!

The second room had an altar to a goddess of death with ritual stains all over it. Philip the paladin vowed to destroy the altar - maybe on the way back.

They explored a new room, a large storage room with empty shelves, and full of giant rats. The rats were dispatched without trouble. They party searched for a full turn and were starting to get frustrated. Someone shook and shoved the shelves, then something crashed to the ground. There were invisible clay pots on the top shelf, forgotten to time. A score! Amongst the precious coins, they found a large skeleton key.

The party pressed on. They didn't get much farther before encountering another group of characters. This time it was a rival adventuring party! Philip spoke up, hoping to leverage his superior charisma and get them on his side.

Lucky for him, the other party was led by a Lawful Good fighter and they decided to join forces. Everyone was on their way out - the NPCs were returning from a deep delve and the PCs were running low on session time - so they headed outside, only stopping to destroy that altar and disarm the acid trap in the first door.

Once outside the watchtower, Philip explained the bandit situation. The NPC party agreed to follow his lead until they were sure there was no ambush.

Troy scouted the exit ahead. He spotted a lookout on the northern gate house and took cover behind a ruined wall [rangers surprise 50% of the time!]. He signalled the rest of the party to move forward while he took a shot at the lookout. Troy scored a bullseye and killed the spotter before he knew anyone was coming.

The remaining characters charged the gate house, spilling through and spoiling the ambush. The bandits were not equipped for a fair fight and folded after a single round of combat.

Troy was able to track the bandits through the snow back to where they came from: a cozy camp site in the forest south of the mountain. Everyone stayed the night, packed up, and traveled back to Fort Fenrir together.

THE VANQUISHED
2 zombies 80
11 giant rats 110
9 bandits 135

XP for monsters defeated: 325

THE SPOILS
292 gp
1014 sp
9 swords
3 light crossbows
60 quarrels
3 tents and assorted camping supplies

XP for treasure taken: 371

THE SCORE
Each surviving character gets 97 gp, 338 sp, and 222 XP.

Troy the Ranger earned an E rating for hunting, scouting, and doing good.
Garth the Obscure earned an E rating for attempting to charm bandits with his friends spell.
Philip the Paladin earned an E rating for fighting evil.