A Fantasy Adventure – Act 8.

This is a dungeon crawl using dungeon tiles from DMB Games, map tiles from Red Dragon Gaming and the Swords and Wizardry “Old School D&D” rules.

The party consists of 6 fourth-level adventurers: GIMLIT SON OF GROIN (dwarf fighter), ST.JOHN WILDBLADDER III (human paladin), BELWINA (human female ranger), KRANOVAL (half-elf magic-user), THE BISHOP OF BATHENWELLS (human cleric) and FRITO BUGGER (hobbit thief). Additionally there is Frito’s dog FIDO and KOBBE the kobold who had attached himself to Kranoval.

The Bishop of Bathenwells was talking to the High Priestess when she noticed that thick hair had started to appear on his hands. “That doesn’t look good”, she exclaimed, "I can't tell for sure, but come back tomorrow and show me your hands again!"

When he returned the next day, the High Priestess explained “It looks like the start of Lycanthropy! You haven’t been near any were creatures lately?” Bathenwells told the story about the fight with the wererats. “Don’t worry” said the High Priestess, “I can fix it, it needs both a Remove Curse and a Cure Disease, but it will take me some time to get everything ready”.

“But I will need a favour from you. We have an acolyte who is annoying, he thinks he’s God and he wants to be the next High Priestess, so I have decided to send him away to another diocese. It’s an old keep a week’s travel away. The problem is that it is full of goblins. If you can clear it out for me, I will be able to get rid of the nasty little acolyte and I’ll be ready to cure your Lycanthropy when you get back”.

The High Priestess gave Bathenwells a map showing the route to take.

The party had a slap up meal at the King's Road Inn followed by a good night's sleep. The packed their tents and supplies onto their trusty pony and set out along the road shown on the map.

When the party was less than one day's travel from the keep, they were ambushed by Goblin Squid riders.

The party killed the ambushers but were badly shaken up, so they decided to camp for the night and recuperate. The next morning the carefully approached the keep.

The keep was a 50 ft high and  50 ft square tower. It had a large reinforced double door and the walls are pierced with arrow slits. On the top of the tower there were battlements with crenellations behind which they could see a small glow. Occasionally the party noticed a small Goblin head or two peek out between the crenellations.

Kranoval used a Charm Person spell to charm one of the Goblins on the Battlements and the sent his down to open the door to the keep. When the Goblin opened the door, the party left cover and rushed towards the keep.

The party made it inside without any problems.

They looked around the ground floor which was mostly empty. The floor was stone and strewn with hay. There was a flight of stairs going up in one corner and in the other a trapdoor which was both bared and bolted.

The party rushed up the stairs to be met by a band of 10 Goblins. Gimlit left a swathe of destruction in is wake with his battleaxe. The room was dimly lit from the arrow slits in the walls. A flight of stairs went up to the next level.

Having defeated the Goblins, the party rushed up the stairs to the next level without stopping to search the room.

The party was led up to the next floor by Gimlit, Bathenwells, Wildbladder and Fido where they encountered a band of 8 Orcs with a leader wielding a nasty meat cleaver in each hand. Having heard the fighting below, the Orcs were ready and closed in on the party as soon as their heads appeared up the stairs.

The Orcs put up a touch fight, but couldn't stop the party. Without delay, the party then rushed up the next flight of stairs.

The party was yet again led up to the next floor by Gimlit, Bathenwells, Wildbladder and Fido. Here they encountered 2 Trolls with their 4 pet Stirges. Having heard the fighting below, they were ready and closed in on the party as soon as their heads appeared up the stairs.

The Trolls were a tough match, the rest of the party rushed up to reinforce the advance guard.  Gimlit made short work of the Stirges before joining with the rest of the party to fight the Trolls. Kranvol used his invisibility scoll on Fritto and who then sneaked behind the Troll fighting Wildbladder and stabbed the Troll in the back.

Having defeated the Trolls, the party searched the room. Of interest was a small chest which was found to contain assorted gems to the value of 200 gp and a candelabra worth 100 gp which was lighting the room.

The staircase in the room led up to a trapdoor leading to the battlements. The lone remaining Goblin their had disappeared. So the party returned to the ground floor, barricaded the entrance door and camped for the night.

In the morning the were shocked to see the two Trolls descending the staircase. "Damn", said both Wildbladder and Bathenwells simultaneously, "we forgot to burn the bodies".

A brutal fight ensued and the Trolls were killed for a second time. They were hastily burnt before they could regenerate again. The party rested for another day, licking their wounds.

The next morning the party awoke to find their "charmed" goblin had departed. They decided that the locked and barred trapdoor was too tempting to ignore, so it was unlocked, unbarred and opened. Below the trapdoor was a flight of stairs descending into darkness. The party went down and came to a cross-roads; each of the four passageways ended in a door.

The party arrived at the locked door, Gimlit and Bathenwells in the lead. Gimlit kicked the door but it didn't open. A few more attempts and the door flew open. They were greeted by a bunch of unsurprised Ghouls.

As the Ghouls rushed towards them, the Bishop of Bathenwells pulled out his Holy Symbol and cried out "Flee before the power of LAW, foul undead thing of Chaos!". The ghouls turned away and fled.

Two Ghouls remained, ignoring Bathenwells and his raised Holy Symbol, they charged at Gimlit who chopped them into bits with his battleaxe.

Having chopped the two active Ghouls, Gimlit and Bathenwells backed out of the room locking the door behind them. One down, three to go said Gimlit as they marched towards the next door. Gimlit was getting the hang of this door-kicking business, and it opened easier this time. They were met by two Shadows. Bathenwells pulled out his Holy Symbol again and cried out "Flee before the power of LAW, foul undead thing of Chaos!". The shadows turned away and fled. See nothing of interest in the room, Gimlit and Bathenwells backed out and slammed shut the door.

Two down, two to go said Gimlit as they marched towards the next door. Again Gimlits boot did service as a key, and the party charged in. The room contained a sarcophagus, rising out of which was a Wight. Bathenwells pulled out his Holy Symbol yet again and cried out "Flee before the power of LAW, foul undead thing of Chaos!".  Much to his astonishment, nothing happened except that the Wight charged towards him.

Gimlit, Bathanwells, Fritto and Wildbladder fought the Wight, the rest of the party are outside behind a closed door! When the Wight was defeated, the sarcophagus was searched and found to contain two parchment scrolls; one containing the cleric spell Bless and the other a map of an island showing a temple.

Last door said Gimlit as they marched towards the fourth and final door. Through the door they found an empty room with an open secret door leading to a narrow passageway that in disappeared into the distance. They followed the passage way until it emerged in a wooded copse.

The copse was the lair of 2 Aranea who attacked the party. They both used mirror image so the party thought they were fighting 6 Giant Spiders.

One Aranea succeeded in "webbing" Gimlit and then gave him a nasty bite while he was entangled. He was out of the fight be the rest of the party fought bravely and the Aranea were defeated, but the party was badly wounded.

The party returned through the tunnel to the keep, there to lick their wounds. They went up to the ground floor, locking and barring the trapdoor behind them. They rested there in safety for the remainder of the day and camped there for the night.

The next day the set out on the road, for the one week journey back to the city. They arrived back without incident and checked back into the King's Road Inn. The next day the party, all except Bathenwells, went to the bazaar to exchange the candelabra for some ready cash. After the bazaar Gimlit and Wildbladder went to Albin's Armoury for the final fitting of their chain mail which they picked up the next day.

Bathenwells went to the Temple of Freya where he met the High Priestess. He was given a monk's cell to rest and recuperate in for a week. With good food, lots of temple-brewed beer, prayer and two spells cast by the High Priestess, Bathenwells was cured of his putative Lycanthropy and right as rain by the end of the week. He was even able to take part in the feast for the acolyte who was leaving for the keep with two layman followers.

AWI game at the club

I was in command of the Hessian contingent for an AWI game at the club. I had two units of Line Infantry and two of Jaegers.

The rules we used were the award winning Rebels and Patriots published by Osprey games and co-written by club member Michael Leck (aka Dalauppror).

There is more info and more pictures on the club's blog.

Great fun was had by all!

A Fantasy Adventure – Act 7.

This is a dungeon crawl using dungeon tiles from DMB Games and the Swords and Wizardry “Old School D&D” rules.

The party consists of 6 fourth-level adventurers: GIMLIT SON OF GROIN (dwarf fighter), ST.JOHN WILDBLADDER III (human paladin), BELWINA (human female ranger), KRANOVAL (half-elf magic-user), THE BISHOP OF BATHENWELLS (human cleric) and FRITO BUGGER (hobbit thief). Additionally there was Frito’s dog FIDO and KOBBE the newly resurrected kobold who had attached himself to Kranoval.

The party returned to the King’s Road Inn after having checked in at Albin’s Armoury to see how their new chain mail was coming alone. The barkeep told them "Your kobold is in deep trouble. He had been caught stealing cherry tarts by the watch at the bazaar. They were going to lock him up straight away but he told them that he was staying here, so they brought him here instead. The Mistress paid the fine and now he must work off his debt which will take years."

Kranoval discussed this with the Mistress who agreed to let him buy back the kobold for 5 gp, but only if the party also did her a favour. She explained "Recently the King’s has been having problems with rats in the cellars. Never happen before. Just started. If you can track down the source of the problem, then we’ll call it quits."

The Mistress and the Barkeep took the party down into the King's cellars and there they showed the party a locked and bolted trap door leading into the sewers. Belwina the ranger spotted some rat tracks, so down the party went (all except Kobbe who was working off his fine cleaning the Mistress' stable).

The sewers were 15 ft wide with a 5 ft walkway down each side. They party was certain that it would be unlucky for anyone to fall into the green florescent liquid flowing through the sewer.

They met a carrion crawler which attacked and paralysed Belwina. Gimlit pulled the ranger out of his way and attacked hacked into the monster with his battle axe, soon making mincemeat of it.

When Belwina had recovered from the paralysis, the party continued, but this time with Gimlit at the fore and Wildbladder the hindmost. The party came to a rickety bridge made of two old rotten planks. Gimlit led the way over without incident.

The rat tracks turned into the wall which Gimlit spotted was a rather poorly concealed secret door in the stonework. The party rushed in. The room contained a nest of normal sized rat which immediately scurried away into the corners squeaking loudly.

"They are too small to make those tracks", explained Belwina.

Frito picked the lock and the party continued onward.

Through the door the next room contained 10 Giant Rats and one Monstrously Huge Giant Rat. Seizing the initiative, Kranoval cast his sleep spell and the giant rats slept, all except the Monstrously Huge one which attacked Gimlit. Gimlit with the help of Wildbladder, Bathenwells and Fido did for the lone rat.

Not wasting a second, the party kicked down the next door and rushed in. There they found 8 ratmen, ready and waiting, having heard the fight in the previous room. A bitter fight ensued with Wildbladder critically hitting and killing one ratman. This gave Kranoval the chance to flank the ratmen and fire off his wand of lightning. The lightning bolt flew down the line of ratmen killing 6 of the 7 remaining. Fido with some help from Gimlit, finished off the last one.

Again, not wasting a second to search the room, the party approached the next door. Frito picked the lock and sneaked in.

The room was 65 ft  x 25 ft with a pentagram engraved on the floor. In the middle of the pentagram was a small golden statue of a fat man pulsating with a red glow. Two golden braziers lit the room. Two demons stood in the far corners.

Frito sneaked behind the golden statue and back-stabbed it. Stabbing the statue gave Frito a nasty wound, he knew immediately that the statue was evil. Belwina shot at the statue with her long bow, missed and hit Frito who was standing directly behind.

Bathenwells rushed forward and poured Holy Water over the statue which neutralised the pulsating red glow.

The fight with the demons was bitter. Gimlit and Wildbladder took on one demon while Bathenwells and Frito fought the other. Belwina used her magic arrows to aid the party and Kranoval fired off some Magic Missiles.

One demon used a dagger which when it hit Bathenwells burst into flames and burned him nastily.

The party searched the room but found nothing else of interest. They picked up the small golden statue of a fat man which was no longer pulsating, the put out the two braziers which a quick examination from Frito resulted in an estimation of 200 gp the pair. Frito quickly pocketed the Hellfire Dagger.

Having destroyed the rats' nest and the evil behind it, the party decided to head back to the King's for a well deserved meal and a night's rest. However on the way back, when Gimlit was crossing the bridge a Shadow appeared out of the darkness and attacked him. When the shadow hit him, Gimlit felt his strength drain out of him.

The Bishop of Bathenwells didn't like the look of this at all, he jumped onto the rickety bridge behind Gimlit, pulled out his Holy Symbol and cried out "Flee before the power of LAW, foul undead thing of Chaos!". The shadow turned away and fled allowing the party to cross the bridge with no more trouble.

The party returned safely to the King's Inn where the gave Kobbe the good news that he was now a free kobold again. Kranoval promised to give him 1 sp a day (in addition to any board and lodgings) so that he would never need to steal cheery tarts again (and hopefully serve Kranoval well).

Frito took the gold braziers to the bazaar and came back with 200 gp in cash.

The Bishop of Bathenwells took the small golden statue of a fat man to the Temple of Freya where he had been worshipping and obtaining Holy Water. The High Priestess herself examined the statue and said it was very evil and she would take it, examine it carefully and destroy it. Pouring holy water on it had neutralised it but soon it would be back to its tricks again.

Bathenwells was still talking to the High Priestess when she noticed that thick hair had started to appear on Bathenwells’ hands. “That doesn’t look good”, she exclaimed, "I can't tell for sure, but come back tomorrow and show me your hands again!"