Friday, November 1, 2019

A Fantasy Adventure – Act 11.

This is a fantasy 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 fifth-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). The party was still carrying the dead and somewhat scorched bodies of FIDO and KOBBE.

The day was coming to a close and the party was just one day's march from the city. They came across a ruined tower near to the path they were following and decided to camp their for the night. They could see the remains of a fireplace in the middle of the tower, so obviously other parties had been sheltering in the ruined tower previously.

They made a camp fire, ate some rations and the settled down for the night.


While Kranoval was on watch during the night, some wolves and giant bats attacked the party. Kranoval shouted to wake his comrades and then defended himself with his staff. Gimlit, Wildbladder and Belwina were soon on their feet helping the defence.


More wolves and giant bats arrived as Frito and Bathenwells joined the fight. Frito bravely rushed out into the enemy attempting to get behind and back-stab with surprise.

Bolt, the leader of the wolf pack positioned himself on the flank. With the exception of Belwina, the party had formed a straight defensive line, and Bolt opened his jaws and out shot a lightning bolt hitting all five in the line as well as sizzling one giant bat by mistake..


Learning tactics from the enemy, Kranoval ran outside the tower to flank the wolves. He puled out his wand and shot a lightning bolt through the enemy.


The wolves did not like the lightning bolt, and a huge worg attacked Kranoval putting him down and out of action.


Now the enemy leaders appeared, two werewolves attacked Belwina and Bathenwells.


Frito killed the worg that attacked Kranoval, and Wildbladder the Paladin rushed to his aid in order to heal him. Belwina and Bathenwells were in trouble with the werewolves and Gimlit was fighting Bolt the wolves pack leader.


Kranoval used his web spell to hamper the werewolves as a monstrously huge bat appeared and dived on Bathenwells.


As the rest of the party finished off the webbed werewolves, Bathenwells fought hand-to-hand with the Bat Monster which attacked him with both bite and claws.


The party rushed to the aid of Bathenwells, all drawing their ranged weapons. After taking a few salvos, the Bat Monster flew off into the dark of the night.


The party slept for the rest of the night, but this time with a stronger watch.

The next morning the party looked around and Belwina the Ranger soon found the wolves' tracks. The party packed up and then followed Belwina into the woods. After a short journey they came upon a small cage from which the wolves' tracks emerged. Frito peered into the dark cave. Seeing nothing, it was decided to lower Frito down into the cave.


The cave entrance led to a flight of stair going downwards. The rest of the party followed behind Frito. They came to a large room which was obviously the home of the Werewolves and their pets.

On the far side of the room was a door that was both barred and locked.


Frito listened at the door, but it was dead quiet. So the party unbarred the door and kicked it in. Behind the door was a 25 ft square room in the centre of which stood a closed Iron Maiden. Above the iron maiden's doors was written the following text:

The wise and knowledgeable man is sure of it. 
Even the fool knows it. 
The rich man wants it. 
The greatest of heroes fears it. 
Yet the lowliest of cowards would die for it. 
What is this upon which I ponder?

The party discussed the riddle, but couldn't solve it!


Getting bored with riddle, Gimlit kicked down the door to the right and he and Wildbladder rushed in to be met by six Pyre Zombies.


A few seconds after Gimlit and Wildbladder started fighting, the doors to the other rooms and to the Iron Maiden flew open. Out of the Iron Maiden came a Mummy that jumped on Kranoval while 6 Pyre Zombies waddled out from each room.


Kranoval webbed most of the zombies as the rest of the party came to his aid. Bathenwells pulled out his Holy Symbol and cried out "Flee before the power of LAW, foul undead thing of Chaos!". The party then ganged up on the mummy.


The party examined the Iron Maiden, and tried again to solve the riddle. Having failed with the riddle, Frito decided to search the inside of the Iron Maiden.

When Frito touched the Iron Maiden, without first having said the riddle's answer, a fire ball shot out of its mouth exploding in the air in the middle of the party. A few party members managed to jump for cover, avoiding some of the blast, but Frito and Wildbladder took the full brunt of the blast and died straight away.


Gimlit examined the bottom of the Iron Maiden and discovered a hidden compartment containing some potions and a scroll.

It was now critical to get help from a temple, so the party left the shelter of the cave and journeyed quickly on to the City. They were heavily loaded down with the 4 dead bodies: Wildbladder and Frito as well as they somewhat more decayed Kobbe and Fido. In addition, the dwarf was carrying the party’s spoils: treasure with a total value of 2,000 GP.

When they arrived back at the King’s Road Inn they were welcomed by Barnky the barkeep who had kept their rooms for them, but demanded they pay the 7 GP per room for the week that they were away. In addition he wanted 87 GP to pay for the repairs that were needed after Kranoval’s spell had gone wild. If the party doesn’t pay up, Barnky threatens to call The Watch.

Kranoval paid Barnky for the room and even for the damage without even complaining, taking the money from the party’s common treasure pool.  Barnky was rather surprised, he had been expecting some hard bartering, so said that this was very good and he would let them stay another week in their 3 rooms free of charge because they were such good customers.

Kranoval went down to the market to convert the treasure into cash, taking with him Gimlit as a bodyguard.

Led by the Bishop of Bathenwells, the party went to the Temple of Freya which is by far the largest and most densely attended Temple in the City. Here they learn that the raise dead spell is not common and requires a high level cleric or scroll, however the temple of Freya can raise up to 3 characters from the dead. For each character raised they require both an offering of 1,000 gp to the goddess and the party must swear to go on a quest for the High Priestess Völva. But High Priestess Völva isn’t happy; it will take at least a month before the Temple can raise anyone else from the dead.

The party chose to raise Frito and Wildbladder and then after some debate even Kobbe. The raising of Frito and Wildbladder went off without a hitch, but that of Kobbe was extra difficult as this was his second time and then Temple had no experience in raising Kobolds. 

While Frito, Wildbladder and Kobbe were recuperating in the temple, the rest of the party went out into the city in search of help for Fido.

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