The Fearless DM

So returning from DDXP, and at the last moment my older kid and I trashed some of the details about class and race unlocks and so on.. and came up with the campaign map (which had a place called Suldrun’s Crossing) as the central town, the tavern (“the Green Devil”) and the location of the main dungeon- the Black Key of Naberius.  We did a short one on one adventure together, and then I was ready to go. I only wish Noah could stay up later on school nights and could play with the other guys, as he really does bring a lot to the campaign.

The dungeon is a 10 level all-sorts dungeon that is being prepped for 5 4-hour events at GenCon- these will be a continuous delve sort of event, with subsequent groups able to see where monsters have been killed by previous groups. I don’t think that 10 levels of  dungeon can be cleared by even 5 groups (this is 20 hours of continuous delve by different groups) but I’m going to detail all of it.

The rules we settled on are a mashup of LabLord, Basic D&D and Advanced D&D. There were a couple of people that were a little miffed about not being all AD&D or whatever but I think everyone eventually got settled into the right place. I will probably have to make a decision about whether elf counts as a race or a class soon because I allowed an elven bard, but the one dude who adamantly wanted an elf fighter/magic user I just said “aha, your class is elf, that’s what it does!”..and then he changed to an elven thief. I’ll have to rethink certain things but I think it worked out. I think we are just going to use race guidelines as in LabLord Advanced. 

Oh we are doing skills- as in each PC got to choose one of the skills from the D&D Rules Compendium. These are a bit like non-weapon proficiencies. So like one guy has “Survival” and one guy has “Gambling (cheating)” and one guy took Food-tasting.

So LAST NIGHT, the players met, hired a pair of porters (noncombatants originally, although the fighter Hafrazyn eventually started to arm his porter) and a hapless peasant named Olaf who wore no armor and only carried a spear. As each PC was introduced I detailed a bit more of the campaign map so that we laid out some elven kingdoms and a mount Mord where the dwarves had a home.. and then they set off to the Black Key- a dungeon where “72 demons were bound by the sorcerer Goetia.”

We had several encounters! Early on they tried foraging, and encountered a herd of ostrichlike birds out on the plains. They set up a plan to disperse the herd and kill a few of the beasts as food. During the ensuing stampede a couple PCs got a little hurt, but in the end, two bords were killed and it was roast ostrich for the next two days. Once they got to the dungeon, they scouted, moved in, and fought some Quaggoths camped near the entrance.. and later some skeletons. Olaf the hapless peasant distinguished himself with several courageous attacks against the skeletons.

Later they uncovered a deadly trap and the bard was nearly burned to death, so they backed out of the dungeon to camp. That night they spotted a small group of bandits (making a delivery of gems to some demon), which Veldrin the elf followed into the dungeon, and then lost track of.

The next day they went back in en masse and explored a bit deeper. This time they eventually located a room where one of the 72 demons - a fiendish giant serpent- was bound. It surged out of a hiding place and missed it’s victim and the party took it down fairly quickly- with Olaf the Peasant once again rolling a natural 20 and killing the thing. They spent some time then extracting the fiendish poisons of the giant snake (so virulent that hit does either death (if you don’t save) or 3d6 damage if you do save. Aelfwine used his read magic to decode the sigils that wrapped the demons prison and learned the spell ‘Enlarge’. Then they delved deeper, and eventually reached a room where Veldrin the thief touched a teleporter that sent  him across the dungeon.

At that point I had a split party (or they had a split party) but they decided to keep moving assuming Veldrin’s death, mapping their way through my labyrinth, uncovering a bizarre gambling room that worked like a demonic slot machine (it would force you to keep gambling until you made a saving throw- three characters tried their luck and lost a few coins before coming to their senses) and a strange fountain to prod. “We need better gear..we need a cleric!” was a concern on everyones mind at that point.

Eventually Veldrin found his way back to the central hallway near the entrance and just waited for the rest of the party to join him. He discovered the bodies of the gem-bearing bandits he had followed that morning, all killed and no gems. They made their way out of the dungeon, having explored about 30% of the level.. and never finding the stairs down.

They returned to town and did some re-outfitting and divvying up gold. (One of the players had to leave by then, it was getting close to 10PM).  But the adventure didn’t end there!

Back in town there were rumors of Ogre road-bandits shaking down merchants and caravans travelling between Suldruns Crossing and the nearby Ft Fauzegrim. The PCs came up with the idea that they could buy a wagon and disguise themselves as travelers on the road, and then suddenly strike back at the ogres (and hopefully gain the acclaim of the townsfolk and also taking whatever gold the ogres had been stealing from the citizenry) So they bought a wagon and put together an elaborate plan that involved disguises and throwing Enlarge at Olaf at the right moment. And they set off.

Sure enough, along the road, the ogres (and 4 orcish henchmen) struck, stopping the wagon and erecting a barricade, while they demanded money. The group in the wagon attempted to stall the ogres with some roleplaying and then Hafrazyn and Veldrin struck from the woods with arrows, nearly killing the second ogre outright.

A battle ensued that left all but a single orc dead, and the final orc made a run for it. They pursued, giving chase until the orc was crossing a forest creek— The fighter started to pick him off, but Veldrin got him to lower his bow. They continued to pursue but stealthily this time.. and eventually the orc found his way to the guarded opening of what I had just been calling “Dungeon #3”, a cave map unrelated to the Black Key that I brought along as an extra encounter area- an orcish lair. The players waited for a moment and then ambushed the orcish guards outside the caves.. before hastily returning to town.

So now the players have a choice of dungeons and enough gold to at least outfit themselves a bit better, or even pursue a bit of independent research. They were talking about seeking out and hiring a cartographer as an NPC as we were headed out to our cars.