A Fantasy Adventure – Act 3.

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

The party consists of 6 third-level adventurers: a dwarf fighter, a human paladin, a human female ranger, a half-elf magic-user, a human cleric and a hobbit thief as well as Fido the dog.

Having safely returned the farmer's daughter to her family, the party were feasted; a whole pig was roasted and plenty of the best scrumpy was served.

Many of the farmer's neighbours came from far afield. When they heard about the rescue, some farmers told the party that their young sons had disappeared. At first it was thought that they had gone off adventuring but not the farmers were beginning to suspect that they had been kidnapped. The farmers asked for the party's help to return their sons and the party agreed.

A few days later, once their hangovers had worn off, the party set off. They were led by the ranger who soon located goblin and rat tracks in the vicinity of where the boys had disappeared. The tracks were followed and they came to a ruined deserted way station. In the corner of the way station was a staircase going into a cellar.

Led by the ranger and the hobbit, the party descended. The entrance hallway had a high ceiling held up by four pillars. In three side of the room their were doors, the fourth side had bowl in which a fire burnt mysteriously without any visible source of fuel.

The party decided to try the door nearest to the staircase. The hobbit listened and then picked the lock. The room was filled with cobwebs and like the previous room had a high ceiling. In a corner there was the body of a dead goblin. The party rushed in, led by the dwarf and Fido the dog.

Two giant spiders were lurking in the webs by the ceiling and jumped down surprising the in-rushing party. The spiders were defeated surprising quickly. the room was then searched and a mixture of coins from the spiders' victims worth 15 gp were found. No other exits were found in the room, so the party returned to the entrance hallway.

The second door from the entrance hallway led down a corridor which then turned left and opened into a long room with four alcoves, two on each side. In each alcove stood a statue of a soldier. The party sent in Fido first and then followed behind without waiting to see what happened. When Fido reached the middle of the room, the statues came to life and attacked the party. It was a hard fight, the statues stone-hard armour made them hard to defeat.

Having defeated the four statues, the party was shocked to see them all stand up again. Luckily for the party, they returned back to their alcoves. The party searched the room for treasure, but none was found. However the dwarf and the half-elf magic-user found a secret door behind one of the statues.

The party squeezed through the small secret door and entered another room. The room was filled with noisome trash and debris piled into the corners. Ten giant rats had made their lair in this room.They attacked as soon as the party entered, in order to protect their lair.

The party defended themselves; the dwarf and the hobbit doing the most of the killing. Having removed the threat from the rats, the party searched the room very quickly before moving on through the door in the right hand wall.

The party entered a small room. This room had the appearance of a storage room that was hit by a tornado. Crates and barrels were smashed, clawed and scattered throughout the room. The smell of rotted food and rat dung is overpowering. The room contained nothing of interest except a door in the left hand wall.

They opened the door and were met by a wererat and four rats. The wererat had heard the noise of the party fighting its way towards him so he was expecting them and not at all surprised.

It took a while before the cleric remembered that lycanthropes cannot be harmed by normal weapons. They soon noticed that the wererat was concentrating his attacks on the paladin who was attacking with a magic sword. Now aware of the challenge, the ranger opened fire with two magic arrows. The dwarf finished off the rats while the paladin and ranger did for the wererat together.

The room was searched and bags of copper, silver and gold coins worth 150 gp were found hidden among the debris.

There being no other exits from this room, the party retraced its steps to where the corridor branched. They followed this second corridor and met a party of 8 wandering goblins.

Five goblins were quickly dispatched, the remaining three fled along the corridor and into a room that was full of mushrooms.This room had a deep, earthy smell with a muddy, dirt floor. Moisture dripped from the severely cracked ceiling. The nature of the room has allowed a wild variety of strange mushrooms to grow. The goblins hid among the mushrooms, trying not to be seen.

The party opened the door, looked in and decided that it was not worth the effort to follow the goblins.

The party returned to the entrance hallway and the final doorway.

They entered through the door, with the dwarf and the paladin leading as usual.

Through the doorway their was a corridor leading straight ahead. The corridor widened into a hallway and there stood eight skeletons on guard. As the party advanced a portcullis fell, separating the leading two adventures from the rest of the party.

The dwarf and the paladin advanced to attack the skeletons and the hobbit tried to find a lock to pick or an opening mechanism on the portcullis but without success. While the dwarf and the paladin were in combat, the cleric pulled out his holy symbol, held it above his head and shouted loud and clear "Flee Before the Power of Law, Foul Undead Things of Chaos!". However the cleric was behind the portcullis and too far away, the skeletons were not affected.

When the dwarf and the paladin had chopped up the skeletons they returned to the portcullis. As no way had been found to open it, they tried brute strength. Together with the ranger and the cleric on the other side, the managed to lift the portcullis up into the ceiling again and the whole party could continue.

Fido the dog picked up a nice femur on his way past!

The party advanced until they reached another door. This they kicked in and the dwarf and the paladin rushed in. As they entered a pit trap with spikes opened under them, The dexterous dwarf continued without problem but the less dexterous paladin fell back into the pit taking damage from the fall.

Waiting for them in the room was a evil priestess, her four charmed goblin servants and four skeleton guards.

Being afraid to fall into the pit, the party sent in Fido the dog to support the dwarf. On his four legs he had no trouble making it safely past the pit. Fido was especially effective against the skeletons, he just loved playing with their bones.

The fight was a hard one, the goblins and the evil cleric doing grave injuries to the dwarf. The fight was so distracting that the party members forgot to help the paladin out of the pit. Seeing that he dwarf was seriously wounded, the cleric rushed in to heal him. Unfortunately in his haste, the cleric forgot about the pit and slipped in. The cleric was pulled out and he could heal the dwarf who was fast approaching death's door.

The skeletons were destroyed, one goblin was dead and the other three near death. Running out of spells, the evil cleric decided to use her last spell to fill the room with darkness. In the darkness she escaped through a secret door behind some tapestries hanging on the far wall.

"I will create light to dispel this darkness" cried the magic-user. However he slipped on his way into the room and landed in the pit. He was pulled out of the pit and could then cast a light spell which would dispel the evil darkness.

From their corner, the party examined the room. The far side of the room had a compass rose on the floor. Several rich tapestries hung on the walls, depicting foul sacrifices and evil acts of the Frog God. The room had furnishings for the cleric to live and worship here. There were beds and chests along the west wall, a “throne” on the north wall and an altar to the Frog God on the south wall.

The cleric had vanished and the three remaining goblins could be seen attempting to hide under a bed in the opposite corner of the room.

The party decided that the compass roe on the floor was too dangerous to tread on when they were so weakened. It was decided that they would return to the surface to recuperate and return the next day to continue.

When they returned, the goblins had gone and the room had been stripped bare. The dwarf and the half-elf magic-user suspected that the evil cleric had used a secret door to escape. They searched carefully until the door was found.

Behind the door they found a passageway leading to a cell where the two young farmer's sons were found.

There was also a room containing a pool with a fountain in the middle. The party decided not to drink from the pool or investigate it further.

The party gave the half-starved boys some food and then returned to the surface. They were rather miffed that the contents of the evil clerics room were no longer there; they would never know what was in those treasure chests! The farmers were very happy with the return of their sons. The didn't have much money, but they through a big party for the adventurers.

The adventurers now had much more money than they started the journey with, and asked the farmers for directions so that they could pass a small town or village before they reached their final destination; that way they could buy some more supplies and equipment.

A Fantasy Adventure – Act 2.

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

The party consists of 6 second-level adventurers: a dwarf fighter, a human paladin, a human female ranger, a half-elf magic-user, a human cleric, a hobbit thief and Fido the dog.

Having recovered the expensive silk cloth from the kobolds, the party continued onward towards their destination. However a problem occurred, their food was running out much faster than expected; the hobbit had been feeding all the beef jerky to his new friend the dog. When a farm came in sight, the party decided to uses some of their new found gold to replenish their stocks of food before the dog emptied their stores.

When they reached the farm building, they were met but the farmer, his wife, their older daughter and a farmhand. The daughter was armed with a kitchen knife and the other three with newly sharpened farm implements.

When they discovered that the party was no threat, they explain that while they had been working in the fields, their younger daughter had been kidnapped and stolen away. The kidnappers were seen and followed by their daughter; they disappeared off in the direction of the old ruined keep.
The party offered to return the daughter if the farmer would look after the donkey while they were doing it. The farmer of course agreed and promised a huge feast when they returned with his daughter.

The party rested the night and then left at sunrise. Pointed in the right direction, the Ranger could easily follow the trail.

They keep came in sight just after midday. As the party came nearer they could see the smoke from a camp fire in the ruins of what was once one of the keeps towers.

The hobbit and the ranger crept towards the ruined tower. They could see five kobolds cooking around an open fire. Deciding to break cover, the hobbit and ranger opened fire with long bow and sling. The kobolds returned fire. The kobolds were defeated, but the party was wounded.

The party occupied the ruined tower. They could see that it contained a stairway going down into an underground passage. They decided to camp the night in the ruins and recover. They posted guards in 3 watches.

In the second watch, a group of kobolds sneaked up from underground. Luckily Fido's nose gave warning, and the paladin when into action and attacked the intruders while Fido howled and woke up the rest of the party. Once awake, the party easily defeated the kobolds.

The next morning, the now recovered party went down the stairway into the dungeon.

The corridor was poorly lit by torches spaced along the walls. The hobbit and ranger were in the lead, followed by the dwarf and paladin, then the cleric and Fido, and finally the magic-user was hindmost.

The party came to a crossroads with doors visible down the passageways both right and left. They turned down the left passage. The hobbit listened at the door and then picked the lock.

The hobbit opened the door and looked in. Inside the room were 5 kobolds who had barricaded themselves behind storage crates and barrels. They had already been warned that the party had camped and was going to come down.

The hobbit slammed the door and the party retired.

Ignoring the door to the right, the party continued on into the dungeon. At the next door they repeated the procedure. The hobbit listened, but didn't hear anything. However he did detect a faint smell of manure. The door lock couldn't be picked, so the dwarf kicked it in.

The door flew open and the party rushed into the room, spreading out as they went. The middle of the room was a mushroom farm; full of mushrooms growing in deep manure. Two kobolds were among the mushrooms.

The party rushed forward to attack the kobolds; some of the party slipped on the manure and fell prone. But in the long run, two kobolds were no match for the party.

While the fight was going on in the mushroom farm, the kobolds from the two bypassed rooms came out and started following the party.

They caught up with the party in the mushroom farm, and shots were exchanged.

The party retired into the narrow passage behind the door and waited to be attacked.

While the fight was going on, one more kobold came out from the armoury behind the party. This kobold was easily dealt with by Fido the dog.

Having defeated the kobolds behind them, the party then checked first the room to their right which was the armoury (containing many assorted kobold weapons, targets etc.) and then they peered into the room to the right which was a dark unlit crypt. Perhaps wisely, the party decided not to enter the room so they never found out what coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics it contained.

The party came to the final room. It contained 3 kobolds and a kobold shaman. Of to the left was an alcove, the entrance to which was covered by a drapery by which stood two beefy kobold guards.

The party rushed in and attacked. The kobolds responded and the kobold shaman fired off some magic missiles.

The kobold guards entered the fray, and an ogre (the leader of the kobolds) came out from the alcove.

The cleric healed the magic-user who had taken the brunt of the shaman's attack and the dwarf who was looking the worse for wear after defending the door to the mushroom farm.

Fido the dog took out the shaman, the dwarf took out the ogre with some supporting fire from the magic-user, and the rest of the party mopped up the remaining kobolds.

The kobold guards entered the fray. An ogre wielding a large club came out from the alcove; he was the leader of the kobolds. Fido the dog took out the shaman, the dwarf took out the ogre with some supporting fire from the magic-user, and the rest of the party mopped up the remaining kobolds.

The party then entered the alcove where they found the farmer's daughter. She had been playing her lute and entertaining her ogre captor.

The room contained the ogre's bed by the left wall, a locked chest by the right and a large chair (perhaps a throne) straight ahead.

On the wall behind the chair there hung a shield and 4 arrows. The shield was round, had a battle-axe motif, its edges bound with metal etched with dwarven runes. The arrows were of extreme fine quality, the fletching bright white eagle feathers and the metal tips glowed brilliantly even in the poor smokey torchlight.

The magic-user noticed the remains of an old spell book that the ogre had been using as toilet paper. He quickly put the book into his backpack. The book contains the spells: Hold Portal, Light, Magic Missile, Read Magic, Levitate, Mirror Image, Strength and Web.

The dwarf grabbed the shield which was obviously of dwarven origin, the ranger grabbed the four arrows which were a perfect fit for his long bow. The magic-user and the cleric picked up the chest between them. The paladin escorted the farmer's daughter. Fido followed behind, rather disgruntled that he hadn't found a new bone this adventure.

On returning the party examined their spoils. the shield and arrows were all magic. The chest contained a mixture of copper, silver and gold coins to a value of 200 gp.

A Fantasy Adventure – Act 1.

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

The party consists of 6 second-level adventurers: a human cleric, a hobbit thief, a human paladin, a dwarf fighter, a human ranger and a half-elf magic-user.

The party was very low on funds and had been enlisted to transport some expensive silk cloth to another town. The cloth was loaded on a donkey. They were given enough money in advance to buy food and would be paid when they delivered the goods.

They journeyed by day and camped at night. One night, some kobolds sneaked in and stole the silk cloth while the party slept.

Luckily the ranger could track, a trail of goblin-like footprints were soon found. These were followed until the party came to a circle of standing stones. In the middle of the circle was a stone slab, up to which the tracks led.

The party pushed aside the stone slab and could see that underneath was a stone staircase leading downwards.

The whole dungeon

So they lit two torches and ventured down the stairs with the paladin and dwarf in the lead.

As they moved forward, small glowing lights could be seen down a passage to their left. The party went down to explore and discovered 3 fire beetles in their lair. These were killed. The hobbit thief searched the room which was mostly rubbish but one scroll had somehow survived. The scroll was examined by the cleric and the magic-user and found to be a Scroll of Invisibility. Very useful as the magic-user didn't have that spell.

The party retraced its steps and then went further into the dungeon. The hobbit listened at the first door, and goblin-like voices could be heard behind it.

The thief failed to pick the lock, so the dwarf and the paladin kicked the door in together and rushed in. The room was the living quarters of a group of kobolds, bedrolls and supplies littered the room. There was a second door opposite and a small side passage. Eight kobolds moved towards the two intruders.

Our two heroic adventurers hesitated, giving the kobolds a chance to attack. The rest of the party remain outside the room.

While the dwarf and the paladin fought the kobolds inside the room, three more kobolds had sneaked through a small passage and exited via a secret door behind the party. The hobbit and the magic-user fought them until the ranger turned and killed them.

Seeing their comrades being slaughtered by the dwarf and the paladin, the remaining two kobolds fled the room via the other door.

Only the kobolds' personal belongings and a few copper coins were found in the room, so the party then followed the fleeing kobolds. They traveled down a passageway to another door which was promptly kicked in. The whole party, except the magic-user, rushed in to be met by a group of eight warned kobolds; including a leader with a big axe and a shaman. The party slaughtered the kobolds, but not without taking damage, the leader's axe and the shaman's magic missiles both took their toll.

The room where the fight occurred contained nothing of great value, but the adjacent room was the chamber of the leader and the shaman. It contained their two beds plus two chests, stores and a grate in the floor.

The hobbit rushed to the chests, picked the lock and opened it. Unfortunately he forgot to check for traps and a poison needle went straight into his hand. Taking damage, the hobbit fell asleep. The cleric rushed forward and shook the hobbit until he woke up, whereupon he promptly picked the lock of the second chest, this time remembering to check for traps. The chests contained an number of small leather bags containing a mixture of all sorts of coins, which the hobbit quickly valued at 100gp total.

The party gathered round the grating as the hobbit peered in. In a pit under the grate was a dog. The hobbit threw in some of the party's beef jerky from their trail rations. This the dog seemed to appreciate, so the hobbit opened the grate and allowed the dog to jump out. The dog was happy and immediately started licking the hobbit and looking for more beef jerky.

The next door was barred from the outside. It was obvious that there was something behind it that the kobolds didn't want to get out.

So the party unbarred the door and went in. Behind was a chamber with 4 pillars and piles of bones along each wall. The hobbit went in first, accompanied by his dog close by his side. When they passed the first set of pillars, the bone piles started forming into 8 skeletons.

Just as the skeletons had formed, the cleric pulled out his holy symbol, held it above his head and shouted loud and clear "Flee Before the Power of Law, Foul Undead Things of Chaos!". This was, somewhat to the party's surprise successful, and all the skeletons fled.

The party pushed on through the dungeon without stopping to search the skeleton room. They arrived in the next room; ahead of them was a door flanked by two stone gargoyles and a pentagram inscribed on the floor in front of the door.

The party spent quite a long time, slinging stones and shooting arrows at these stone statues without much noticeable affect.

The party moved forward towards the door and as the clerics foot touched the pentagram the gargoyles came to life. Four party member attacked and two held back using distance weapons. The gargoyles were defeated.

The party now passed through the door and entered to room behind.

The room was empty except for a sarcophagus in the centre. The party surrounded it and discussed how to open it. The paladin sheathed his sword and pushed the heavy lid.

The lid opened and a skeleton flew up, clad in a flowing toga, wearing a glistening crown and wielding a vicious looking sword. It started by attacking the cleric and when the sword hit the cleric it flashed with green light.

Yet again the cleric pulled out his holy symbol, held it above his head and shouted loud and clear "Flee Before the Power of Law, Foul Undead Thing of Chaos!". Somewhat to the surpise of the party, nothing happened and the foul undead thing continued to attack.

The fight continued, but the foul undead thing was seriously outnumbered and had really no chance.

Having disposed of the sarcophagus’ occupant, the party searched the room.  The paladin picked up the sword which he determined to be magical and a good replacement for his own. The thief looked at the crown and decided it was made from metal and jewels worth 200gp, probably worth more if it could be sold in the right place to someone needing a crown.

It was however the dog who was the happiest of all, having picked up a very nice thigh bone from the skeleton.

The party headed back out of the dungeon, but before they came to the exit stairway the met a small party of kobolds carrying a newly captured sheep between them. Two kobolds were killed and the other two decided to run for it.

The party returned to their campsite and spent another night there before continuing on their way with their mission to deliver the silk. However this time they remembered to keep watch all through the night.