[The adventurers return to the cave and work on clearing the level, primarily of goblins but also in general. I also introduce the rule “Shields Will Be Shattered” to great effect.]
[This game uses a modified version of the first ever roleplaying game. These rules will be released as Adventures in the Green RPG in the (far) future. Game session happen once a month. This is the second half of the session that happened November 23, 2019.]
Player Characters:
Bigz Bigguns of the Big’uns Clan – female goblin Village Priest
Lars – male halfling Apprentice thief
Porkins – male human Medium
Tiny – male minotaur Veteran
Tor Wind – male human Veteran
Sunday, Sextilis 17th, 523rd year of the Aegean Kingdom
The trio of adventurers, Bigz, Lars, and Porkins, located Tiny drinking in The Little Ox tavern. [Its real name is The Elk and Oak, but Tiny misinterpreted the sign out front.] The tavern is just outside the Smolberg’s South Gate. Tiny was there drinking with a human [Tor Wind] and both were drunk and speaking Mü, which the trio took as a good sign. The trio informed Tiny and Tor what they had been up to and what the plan was for the next day. Both Tiny and Tor are up for it.
Moonday, Sextilis 18th, 523rd year of the Aegean Kingdom
The ragtag group of adventurers gathered in the morning at the job board in the Smolberg market square. The job of clearing the feral goblins from the Watch Tower was still there, but also still paying 150 gold coin. This was a minor disappointment as the group was hoping the bounty had gone up again. Maybe next week.
The group went to the docks and took a ferry across the Jeetzel River to Waldrand. There they headed south on the River Road to the forest and left the road to circle the hill the Watch Tower was on. They circled around to the south-southwest corner of the hill to the cave entrance hidden by small trees and bushes there, arriving at 9:00 AM.
The adventurers entered the cave mouth. They checked the main cavern and the two side caverns to see if anything had changed. The dead rats in north cave and the skinned giant ferret carcasses in the south cave were starting to smell a bit but nothing was out of place. The group squeezed through the narrow passages in the back to the corridors under the Watch Tower. This was uncomfortably tight for Tiny, being an adult minotaur, and a bit cramped for the two humans [Porkins and Tor], but the halfling and goblin [Lars and Bigz] were completely comfortable walking through.
With a choice of directions [west to a room or east to a corner and a door], Lars snuck east to see what was around the corner. The door had faded crudely painted skulls in black paint on it [I missed this in the initial description, but this is when they would have noticed]. Around the corner the corridor continued a short way to a wide room. Lars snuck closer, using his bullseye lantern to only light the floor in front of him.
The room was sixty feet wide but only twenty feet deep. Off to the left was a set of stairs coming up from a lower level and on the stairs were two goblins with a giant ferret on a leash. They saw Lars, who turned and ran as fast as he could back to the other adventurers.
When Lars came back around the corner at speed, he whispered that two goblins and a giant ferret saw him. The adventurers prepared as they could hear the pursuers getting close. The giant ferret rounded the corner first and was peppered with range attacks from Tor and Bigz. Then Tiny chopped it with his axe, killing it. The goblins came around the corner immediately after that and attacked Tiny but both failed to connect. Tor and Bigz missed one goblin with their ranged weapons, but Lars killed it. Tiny and the other goblin traded attacks, Tiny’s killing the goblin in one hit.
Just as that fight ended, the adventurers heard two other goblins behind them say, “What the…?” The adventurers turned and saw two goblin guards peeking out of the room behind them. Tor attempted to kill one but missed. Bigz was able to kill the other goblin, but the first goblin turned and ran, calling out an alarm.
The adventurers moved into the room the goblin guard had fled into and discovered there was an open passage to the south, in the western corner, that they could hear the guard running down, and another northwest passage from the northwest corner of the room. Lars darted ahead and pursued the goblin down the southern passage by himself. The passage turned west, went on a bit and then turned north again. Lars stopped at the corner of the turn to the north to listen. He heard the goblin guard telling a group of other goblins that intruders were attacking and had already killed the other guard, Fritz. Liking how the last fight went, Lars stepped around the corner to see the fleeing guard surrounded by four more goblins and the smallest hobgoblin he’d ever seen. They looked at Lars and drew their weapons. Lars turned and ran as his plan seemed to be working.
Meanwhile, the other adventurers set up an ambush at the southern passage with Tiny waiting beside the passage opening. Tor, Bigz, and Porkins waited at the entrance to the room, Porkins keeping an eye out behind them in case more goblins showed up from that direction. When Lars returned, he quickly told the rest that five goblins were pursuing him and then stepped next to Tiny to take part in the ambush.
The goblins, not being dumb, did not charge into the room blindly – they pushed the scrawny hobgoblin in first to see what happened. Tiny cut the hobgoblin in half with his axe. Lars stepped out and attacked with his sling but missed. Thinking they know what to expect now, the goblins attacked. Lars and Tiny killed two of them as they advanced, but the lead goblins attempted to stab Tiny with their spears and missed. Tor moved from the room entrance [northeast corner] to the northwest passage so he could get a line of fire with his short bow to the goblins but his shot missed. Bigz followed but had the same luck shooting her sling as Tor had with his short bow.
Lars switched to melee and killed another goblin. Tor finally hit one of the goblins but failed to kill it. The goblins pressed the attack, splitting their attacks between Tiny and Lars but failed to hit either. In return, Tiny completely lost his grip on his axe and it clattered to the ground. Afraid he was going to grab them, the goblins turned and fled. Bigz and Lars each killed one of the fleeing goblins, but Tor tried to kill the last goblin before it escaped but accidentally shot Tiny instead. [Shooting into melee can be dangerous, especially when you roll a “1”.]
Tiny chased the fleeing goblin back to the next room where a hale and hearty hobgoblin was just entering the room through a door. Tiny grabbed the goblin who called out, “Boss! Save me!” The hobgoblin swung its longsword at Tiny but missed. Tiny turned to go back and get his axe for a fair fight, absent-mindedly tucking the goblin up under his arm. On his way back he passed Lars and warned the halfling a “big goblin” was following. Unfortunately, being warned did not save Lars. The hobgoblin came around the corner to where Lars was and cut Lars down in one blow. Tiny, axe back in hand, stepped back to the hobgoblin and attacked, but missed. The hobgoblin did not miss and dropped Tiny. [Tiny’s player pointed out that the hit would not have dropped Tiny if Tor had not shot Tiny with his bow two rounds earlier.] Tor and Bigz, wanting revenge for their friends attacked the hobgoblin and their combined hits killed the hobgoblin and ending the fight.
Bigz immediately healed Tiny, who survived the near-death experience with only some minor scars. Bigz then healed Lars who was not as lucky. Lars’ heart and lungs were damaged by the attack and he would need a week of bed rest. [I use the Fatality Table from Adventure Conqueror King System when PCs go to zero hit points or lower and Lars’ player rolled poorly if not terribly. It could have been both better and worse.] Lars now had a new goal: save enough gold coin to afford having a cleric cast Restore Life and Limb on him.
With the fighting over, the group efficiently looted the goblin bodies and the dead hobgoblin, including taking their shields. [This is when Tiny’s player remembered that he uses a shield and could have sacrificed that instead of taking the hit. He was more conscious of that after this fight.] They also spiked shut the door the hobgoblin had come through, not knowing where it went or if there were more goblins that way. After that the group was exhausted and took a rest, Lars wheezing in the background. During the rest the group discussed their options. All agreed that they had pushed their luck far enough and it was time to head back to town where they would heal up.
Half Past 11:00
The adventurers returned to Smolberg. The group dispersed, with Bigz and Tiny handling the selling of the goblin loot [which included their armor and weapons]. Shares of treasure were dispersed. Lars convalesced at an inn for a week [as mandated by the Fatality Table].
End of Part 1
Behind the Greens
[Tor Wind is a new player to the group but an old friend who has been in several of my gaming groups. One of the primary reasons for adding a fifth player is so the group has at least four players if one of the other players cannot make it, which will happen again in December. I don’t plan on adding anyone else unless someone drops out permanently. I’m happy with the current mix of players and the small size of the group and I need to remember that it’s not my group – I’m holding the place for the return of original DM for this group so we can go back to Artesia. Until then (and it may be another year or so), I’m using this group to experiment with OD&D and rules variants as I write my own set of OD&D rules.]
[I’m not certain if I’m getting too granular with my combat notes. I’m making an effort to actually record what happens in combat as it happens, but I’m not certain to what end. Previously, I kept stronger notes about the not-combat stuff and just wrote a short summary of any combat. For more complex game systems, like HERO System, this can get difficult as there are so many options and more detailed notes are required, plus there are not easy rounds to keep track of. I may change things later, but for the moment, this is mostly a dungeon crawl and this style of notes seems to fit best.]
Outcasts
Session 01, Part 1
Session 01, Part 2
Session 02, Part 1
Session 02, Part 2
Session 03, Part 2 [Not Written Yet]
[This game uses a modified version of the first ever roleplaying game. These rules will be released as Adventures in the Green RPG in the (far) future. Game session happen once a month. This is the second half of the session that happened November 23, 2019.]
Player Characters:
Bigz Bigguns of the Big’uns Clan – female goblin Village Priest
Lars – male halfling Apprentice thief
Porkins – male human Medium
Tiny – male minotaur Veteran
Tor Wind – male human Veteran
Sunday, Sextilis 17th, 523rd year of the Aegean Kingdom
The trio of adventurers, Bigz, Lars, and Porkins, located Tiny drinking in The Little Ox tavern. [Its real name is The Elk and Oak, but Tiny misinterpreted the sign out front.] The tavern is just outside the Smolberg’s South Gate. Tiny was there drinking with a human [Tor Wind] and both were drunk and speaking Mü, which the trio took as a good sign. The trio informed Tiny and Tor what they had been up to and what the plan was for the next day. Both Tiny and Tor are up for it.
Moonday, Sextilis 18th, 523rd year of the Aegean Kingdom
The ragtag group of adventurers gathered in the morning at the job board in the Smolberg market square. The job of clearing the feral goblins from the Watch Tower was still there, but also still paying 150 gold coin. This was a minor disappointment as the group was hoping the bounty had gone up again. Maybe next week.
The group went to the docks and took a ferry across the Jeetzel River to Waldrand. There they headed south on the River Road to the forest and left the road to circle the hill the Watch Tower was on. They circled around to the south-southwest corner of the hill to the cave entrance hidden by small trees and bushes there, arriving at 9:00 AM.
The adventurers entered the cave mouth. They checked the main cavern and the two side caverns to see if anything had changed. The dead rats in north cave and the skinned giant ferret carcasses in the south cave were starting to smell a bit but nothing was out of place. The group squeezed through the narrow passages in the back to the corridors under the Watch Tower. This was uncomfortably tight for Tiny, being an adult minotaur, and a bit cramped for the two humans [Porkins and Tor], but the halfling and goblin [Lars and Bigz] were completely comfortable walking through.
With a choice of directions [west to a room or east to a corner and a door], Lars snuck east to see what was around the corner. The door had faded crudely painted skulls in black paint on it [I missed this in the initial description, but this is when they would have noticed]. Around the corner the corridor continued a short way to a wide room. Lars snuck closer, using his bullseye lantern to only light the floor in front of him.
The room was sixty feet wide but only twenty feet deep. Off to the left was a set of stairs coming up from a lower level and on the stairs were two goblins with a giant ferret on a leash. They saw Lars, who turned and ran as fast as he could back to the other adventurers.
When Lars came back around the corner at speed, he whispered that two goblins and a giant ferret saw him. The adventurers prepared as they could hear the pursuers getting close. The giant ferret rounded the corner first and was peppered with range attacks from Tor and Bigz. Then Tiny chopped it with his axe, killing it. The goblins came around the corner immediately after that and attacked Tiny but both failed to connect. Tor and Bigz missed one goblin with their ranged weapons, but Lars killed it. Tiny and the other goblin traded attacks, Tiny’s killing the goblin in one hit.
Just as that fight ended, the adventurers heard two other goblins behind them say, “What the…?” The adventurers turned and saw two goblin guards peeking out of the room behind them. Tor attempted to kill one but missed. Bigz was able to kill the other goblin, but the first goblin turned and ran, calling out an alarm.
The adventurers moved into the room the goblin guard had fled into and discovered there was an open passage to the south, in the western corner, that they could hear the guard running down, and another northwest passage from the northwest corner of the room. Lars darted ahead and pursued the goblin down the southern passage by himself. The passage turned west, went on a bit and then turned north again. Lars stopped at the corner of the turn to the north to listen. He heard the goblin guard telling a group of other goblins that intruders were attacking and had already killed the other guard, Fritz. Liking how the last fight went, Lars stepped around the corner to see the fleeing guard surrounded by four more goblins and the smallest hobgoblin he’d ever seen. They looked at Lars and drew their weapons. Lars turned and ran as his plan seemed to be working.
Meanwhile, the other adventurers set up an ambush at the southern passage with Tiny waiting beside the passage opening. Tor, Bigz, and Porkins waited at the entrance to the room, Porkins keeping an eye out behind them in case more goblins showed up from that direction. When Lars returned, he quickly told the rest that five goblins were pursuing him and then stepped next to Tiny to take part in the ambush.
The goblins, not being dumb, did not charge into the room blindly – they pushed the scrawny hobgoblin in first to see what happened. Tiny cut the hobgoblin in half with his axe. Lars stepped out and attacked with his sling but missed. Thinking they know what to expect now, the goblins attacked. Lars and Tiny killed two of them as they advanced, but the lead goblins attempted to stab Tiny with their spears and missed. Tor moved from the room entrance [northeast corner] to the northwest passage so he could get a line of fire with his short bow to the goblins but his shot missed. Bigz followed but had the same luck shooting her sling as Tor had with his short bow.
Lars switched to melee and killed another goblin. Tor finally hit one of the goblins but failed to kill it. The goblins pressed the attack, splitting their attacks between Tiny and Lars but failed to hit either. In return, Tiny completely lost his grip on his axe and it clattered to the ground. Afraid he was going to grab them, the goblins turned and fled. Bigz and Lars each killed one of the fleeing goblins, but Tor tried to kill the last goblin before it escaped but accidentally shot Tiny instead. [Shooting into melee can be dangerous, especially when you roll a “1”.]
Tiny chased the fleeing goblin back to the next room where a hale and hearty hobgoblin was just entering the room through a door. Tiny grabbed the goblin who called out, “Boss! Save me!” The hobgoblin swung its longsword at Tiny but missed. Tiny turned to go back and get his axe for a fair fight, absent-mindedly tucking the goblin up under his arm. On his way back he passed Lars and warned the halfling a “big goblin” was following. Unfortunately, being warned did not save Lars. The hobgoblin came around the corner to where Lars was and cut Lars down in one blow. Tiny, axe back in hand, stepped back to the hobgoblin and attacked, but missed. The hobgoblin did not miss and dropped Tiny. [Tiny’s player pointed out that the hit would not have dropped Tiny if Tor had not shot Tiny with his bow two rounds earlier.] Tor and Bigz, wanting revenge for their friends attacked the hobgoblin and their combined hits killed the hobgoblin and ending the fight.
Bigz immediately healed Tiny, who survived the near-death experience with only some minor scars. Bigz then healed Lars who was not as lucky. Lars’ heart and lungs were damaged by the attack and he would need a week of bed rest. [I use the Fatality Table from Adventure Conqueror King System when PCs go to zero hit points or lower and Lars’ player rolled poorly if not terribly. It could have been both better and worse.] Lars now had a new goal: save enough gold coin to afford having a cleric cast Restore Life and Limb on him.
With the fighting over, the group efficiently looted the goblin bodies and the dead hobgoblin, including taking their shields. [This is when Tiny’s player remembered that he uses a shield and could have sacrificed that instead of taking the hit. He was more conscious of that after this fight.] They also spiked shut the door the hobgoblin had come through, not knowing where it went or if there were more goblins that way. After that the group was exhausted and took a rest, Lars wheezing in the background. During the rest the group discussed their options. All agreed that they had pushed their luck far enough and it was time to head back to town where they would heal up.
Half Past 11:00
The adventurers returned to Smolberg. The group dispersed, with Bigz and Tiny handling the selling of the goblin loot [which included their armor and weapons]. Shares of treasure were dispersed. Lars convalesced at an inn for a week [as mandated by the Fatality Table].
End of Part 1
Behind the Greens
[Tor Wind is a new player to the group but an old friend who has been in several of my gaming groups. One of the primary reasons for adding a fifth player is so the group has at least four players if one of the other players cannot make it, which will happen again in December. I don’t plan on adding anyone else unless someone drops out permanently. I’m happy with the current mix of players and the small size of the group and I need to remember that it’s not my group – I’m holding the place for the return of original DM for this group so we can go back to Artesia. Until then (and it may be another year or so), I’m using this group to experiment with OD&D and rules variants as I write my own set of OD&D rules.]
[I’m not certain if I’m getting too granular with my combat notes. I’m making an effort to actually record what happens in combat as it happens, but I’m not certain to what end. Previously, I kept stronger notes about the not-combat stuff and just wrote a short summary of any combat. For more complex game systems, like HERO System, this can get difficult as there are so many options and more detailed notes are required, plus there are not easy rounds to keep track of. I may change things later, but for the moment, this is mostly a dungeon crawl and this style of notes seems to fit best.]
Outcasts
Session 01, Part 1
Session 01, Part 2
Session 02, Part 1
Session 02, Part 2
Session 03, Part 2 [Not Written Yet]
