[December 26 – Moonday afternoon wrapping up the gnoles and then…wererats!]
[This game uses Adventures in the Green, a RPG based on the original rules for the world’s most popular roleplaying game. These rules are under development with Draft C available here. Game sessions happen an average of once a month. This is Part 1 of the session that happened July 3, 2021.]
Biggz’z Troop, CAC (Chartered Adventuring Company):
Biggz Bigguns of the Big’uns Clan – gender neutral goblin Family Priest (6th level Cleric)
Porkins – male human Conjuror (6th level Magic-User)
Tiny – male minotaur Swashbuckler (6th level Fighter)
Tor Wind – male human Swashbuckler (6th level Fighter)
Mannin Darkshield – male dwarf Robber (4th level Thief)
Kunigunde Gruber – NPC female goblin Footpad/Petitioner (3rd level Thief/2nd level Cleric)
Hirelings:
Larn the Linkboy – male human hireling linkboy
Isidoros of Delphis – male Tolk hireling translator [specifically, German to Mü]
Deniska – female human hireling bodyguard [for Larn]
Ivan – male human hireling bodyguard [for Larn]
Bernagi – male human hireling bodyguard [for Isidoros]
Hardkira – male human hireling bodyguard [for Isidoros]
Moonday, December 26, 523rd year of the Empire
1:00 PM
The adventurers took a rest in the very spacious and well stocked gnole larder they had just discovered. Tiny propped the paralyzed Mannin in a corner to keep him safe. During the rest the group discussed their options and decided to split the group for a period. The hired bodyguards would stay here in the defendable larder with Mannin, Isidoros, and Mannin’s gnole “friend” [the gnole Mannin's sword charmed the previous session] while the rest explored this building further until such time as Mannin recovered from the paralysis or they ran out of building to explore.
As the adventures moved out of the larder, they encountered a group of gnoles heading toward them and both groups were surprised to see the other! Biggz immediately cast Bless on her Troop while the gnoles moved into a defensible position. The adventurers moved to attack the gnoles, including Porkins stepping out of the larder to get a better view of the gnoles. A brief exchange of ranged attacks favored the adventurers as Kunigunde hit one of the gnoles twice while the two gnole crossbowmen missed entirely. Despite having the initiative, the gnoles also failed to land blows in the melee started with Tiny and Tor shattering gnole shields [I use the Shields Shall Be Splintered rules by J. Brian Murphy for both players and monsters].
Porkins cast Sleep on the gnoles, affecting all but one of his targets. That gnole and one Porkins could not see, realizing the danger they were in, started stamping their feet and yelling to awaken their sleeping comrades. Biggz and Kunigunde both slung stones at the awake gnoles – Biggz heavily wounding her target while Kunigunde killed hers. Tiny and Tor stepped forward to attack the still awake and living gnole. The gnole hit Tiny first [for 5 damage], but Tiny killed the gnole with Demonthumper. Tor hacked at a sleeping gnole and killed it.
Biggz, standing next to a sleeping gnole, started a coup de grace on the gnole. Porkins and Deniska advanced to do the same. A lone awakened gnole stood up to defend his sleeping comrades and hopefully awaken them as well. Kunigunde failed to sling this gnole. Tor called “dibs” on the gnole and stepped to attack it. Tiny moved to back up Tor. Tor attacked the gnole and missed completely. Porkins, adjacent to the gnole, stabbed the gnole with his dagger. The gnole, noticing Porkins lack of armor swung at the perceived easy target but lost his grip on his sword and dropped it. Tiny, respecting Tor’s calling of dibs, killed a sleeping gnole instead. Biggz finished the coup de grace, killing the sleeping gnole it stood over.
Kunigunde attempted to sling the still standing gnole but missed, hitting Biggz instead, much to Kunigunde’s mortification. The still living gnole yelled and kicked at the dwindling number of sleeping gnoles to try and wake them [while picking up his dropped sword], successfully waking one of the sleeping gnoles. Deniska set Tempesta Oscura for a coup de grace on the last remaining sleeping gnole. The standing gnole hit Porkins this time while the one still on the ground missed swinging at Tor. Porkins stabbed the standing gnole to death and Tor killed the one on the ground. Deniska finished her coup de grace, killing the last of the gnoles.
Several of the adventurers started looting the bodies [they have learn that gnoles carry emeralds to the exclusion of all other treasure] and collecting their shields and weapons. Tiny explored the hall the gnoles came from, locating an interior door to the east and an exterior door and stairs up to the next floor to the west. The group decided to check the interior door first. It was locked and in good repair, suggesting things of value were beyond it. Tor asked Ologbane if the door was trapped and the sword radiated an emotion of safety. Porkins retrieved the castellan’s ring of keys from the still paralyzed Mannin and unlocked the door. Tiny went to open it and discovered it was also barred on the other side. He exerted his massive strength and slammed the door off its hinges.
Beyond was a hallway with a doorway to a room immediately on the right and a door further down. Tiny stepped into the hallway to get a better look at the far door and was hit by two surprise crossbow bolts fired through the open doorway. The sounds of crossbows being reloaded quickly followed.
In the room beyond the doorway were three gnoles behind an overturned table barricade. All three fired their crossbows at Tiny, but only one found a weak point in his armor [two missed and one made a critical hit]. As the adventurers moved in, the gnoles switched to melee weapons. Kunigunde was able to hit one with her sling and killed the gnole. Tor stepped around the barricade and traded ineffectual blows with the gnole that side. Tiny shattered the shield of the gnole on the other side with Demonthumper while Biggz “thumped” Tiny on the back with her staff of healing, closing the minotaur’s wounds.
Biggz next attempted to sling at one of the gnoles and missed entirely. The second gnole readied a replacement shield, but Kunigunde got a hit in with her sling before the shield was in place. The gnoles swung at Tor and Tiny ineffectually while Tiny and Tor shattered both gnole shields.
Biggz lobbed another shot in with her sling, but accidentally hit Tiny instead [a to hit roll of 1]. Kunigunde killed the wounded gnole Tiny was fighting with a stone from her sling, allowing Tiny to step forward and flank the gnole Tor was fighting. That gnole readied another shield to little avail: Tor shattered the shield, allowing the flanking Tiny to cut down the gnole, dead.
Kunigunde and Biggz started healing the injured Tiny and Porkins [from last fight], while the others looted the bodies. This side room had a door on its east wall that appeared to go to the same room as the door in the hallway. Tor applied Ologbane to both, determining both were trapped. The door in the hallway had planks nailed across it while the one in the room was merely locked. Porkins passed the castellan’s keys to Tor for him to open the door. Tor did so, which also disabled the traps.
Behind this door was a room of shelves with a number of small boxes on the shelves. Going through the boxes, the adventurers found 3000cc, 6000gc, 6 pieces of jewelry, a wand, a map to a hidden wand of Fire Ball and a magic shield, and a potion. Porkins sipped at the potion and identified it as a potion of control dragon! He put the map in one of his scroll cases. The rest of the loot was taken back to the larder for later retrieval. They discovered Mannin was just starting to move again and took a rest, allowing the dwarf to limber up.
Having cleared out this floor, the adventurers went up the stairs that Tiny had located earlier. The stairs went up to a room with an external door and a balcony overlooking the lower entry area. With no other path forward, they opened the exterior door. Beyond was the breezeway across to the building that might hold more phase spiders. There was a break in the breezeway about halfway across with a small gap on left side, down to the ground.
Suspecting the integrity of the breezeway, the adventurers decided to move across one at a time. Tiny went first and safely crossed. Biggz followed and a small chunk fell to the ground. The rest of the group followed, one by one, with a block falling only when Deniska crossed. The gap in the breezeway now spanned halfway across the width of the breezeway.
The room on the other side had signs of dried blood on the floor but was otherwise empty. A side room was also empty, but deeper into the building the next room had a hole in the floor to the ground level with many cracks around the hole. There were two open doorways in this room, one in the middle of the long right wall and the other at the far end. Both seemed to lead to other rooms.
The adventurers did not trust the floor at all, but wanted to see if going forward here was necessary. Porkins took off his boots of levitation and handed them over to Tor, who put them on. A rope was tied to Tor before he activated the boots and levitated just above the floor level. Tiny then gave Tor a big push, sending Tor floating across the length of the room and into the next room. Tiny then picked up the trailing rope and waited.
Just past the far doorway, Tor found another empty chamber with similar cracks in the floor, suggesting the floor here was also unstable. An open doorway across this room opened to a smaller room that had webbing on the walls and floor. Tor yelled back to the rest of the group what he could see. While yelling back answers to questions yelled at him, Tor heard some rustling and observed a phase spider the size of a horse pass through the walls from somewhere beyond.
Tor started shouting out the word “retrieve!” multiple times, but Tiny didn’t know what a “retrieve" was and if it was dangerous [6 Intelligence and 6 Wisdom, right there]. The huge spider bit Tor and injected venom into him, but Tor was able to shrug the effects off [made his save]. He swung his sword and lopped off most of a leg [critical hit].
Porkins, seeing the huge phase spider, cast Magic Missile, sending three missiles unerringly into the spider before it could phase out again. The spider phased out as soon as it could while Tiny, working out that a “retrieve” was dangerous, reeled Tor back in on the rope. The phase spider, bloodied, decided this meal was not worth it and retreated through the walls, back the way it had come.
Not concerned despite his unhealed injuries [Tor was at half hit points due to accumulated battle damage], Tor was ready to investigate the next room and asked Tiny to push him through the open doorway. Tiny next pushed Tor at the open doorway on the right wall, sending Tor skimming into the next room and out of sight of the party…and into the waiting claws of four wererats. They immediately attacked Tor, two successfully slashing him with their short swords.
In a panic, Tor started yelling out to be retrieved, but in German, which Tiny did not understand. Tiny, not able to understand what Tor wanted, just listened harder to Tor's grunting words. Tor meanwhile swung his sword at the wererats, hitting one. Three of the four wererats attacked Tor back, one damaging him, while the fourth gnawed at the rope tied to him.
Tor yanked at the rope, trying to get it away from the wererat and to get Tiny to pull him back. Tiny mis-interpreted the yank to mean Tor needed more slack and feed out more rope. The three wererats attacking Tor all missed and one dropped his sword to the floor where it clattered noisily. The fourth wererat finished gnawing through the rope, letting the two ends drop while it bared its teeth at Tor. Tor failed to stab the leering wererat.
Realizing the danger he was in, Tor did the only thing he could – he levitated up to the ceiling so the wererats could not flank him. Tiny and Biggz both recognized the sound of a sword hitting the floor. Tiny immediately pulled back the now slack rope, finding only a gnawed end and not Tor at the end. Biggz alerted the rest of the adventurers that something was up. Tor got a hit in on the lead wererat while they all failed to hit him, one of them dropping its just retrieved sword again.
Tiny advanced to go help Tor and fell through the unstable floor. Porkins attempted the same and fell through as well. Both landed hard on the rubble-strewn floor below. Luckily Porkins did not drop the flask of oil nor the lit torch he was holding when he hit. Biggz tied the rope end to its belt and pulled out spikes. Mannin pulled out a hammer. Tor and the wererats exchanged blows, whittling each other down.
Biggz and Mannin started hammering spikes in the walls to tie off to and slowly advanced towards the fight in the next room. Down on the first floor, Porkins drank a potion of healing while he and Tiny tried to orient themselves. Tor finally got a solid hit in on the lead wererat and killed it. Unfortunately, two of the other wererats did the same to him, killing him and deactivating the boots of levitation. Tor’s last words were, “Wait until you see my cow…”
Biggz and Mannin continued their slow [but safe] progress to the fight, ending just outside the doorway. Kunigunde, unable to follow, moved to provide cover fire if anything came out of the next room to attack Biggz and Mannin. Tiny and Porkins, on the ground floor, ran through some doorways, hoping to find the gnole barracks and a way out of the building. What they found instead were two more rooms and a dead end. The last room contained several manacled villagers, either asleep or unconscious. Back above, Biggz distinctly heard the sounds of several carnivorous things feasting on meat.
Biggz cast Bless on herself and Mannin before stepping through the doorway and into a minor nightmare – three wererats bloodily feasting on Tor’s body. [Note, Biggz should not have been able to cast and move in the same round OD&D does not allow that, but I missed it at the table.] Mannin readied Whisperminder and followed Biggz. Below, Tiny and Porkins reversed course and moved as fast as they safely could, desperately looking for a door to the outside or stairs up. They found both in the last room they could reach. Above, Mannin attacked the nearest, unaware, wererat with a sneak attack to great effect.
Biggz used its magical sling to shoot at the wounded wererat, killing it with a successful hit. Kunigunde advanced to the room following the ropes and regretted it immediately. She turned and ran to get Deniska. Tiny and Porkins raced up the stairs and to the next room, the lair of the huge phase spider! Mannin hit the next wererat while it and its remaining partner both missed him, the partner dropping its sword for the third time. Tiny swung his sword at the huge phase spider, but it was out of phase.
Biggz slung another bullet at the wounded wererat, killing it. The huge phase spider wanted nothing of combat and fled the building entirely, allowing Tiny and Porkins to press on. Tiny reached the far end of the room with the hole in the floor and jumped across it to land in the doorway where the wererat fight was happening. Porkins, following, stopped at the unstable floor. Deniska, hearing Kunigunde calling for her, advanced to the ropes. Tiny swung Demonthumper, killing the last wererat in one blow. The wererat’s last words were, “Oh! That’s what he meant…”
End of Session
Behind the Green
[Sorry this was late - I concentrated on completing the Draft C edit of the rules to get them done. See the link at the top of this blog entry for download links of Draft C.]
[So I have Tiny roll a d20 against his Intelligence or Wisdom when dealing with things not within his immediate ken. With a 6 in both, it is easy for Tiny to get confused, which happened twice here. His player is fine with this as it sometimes takes the character in unusual directions and, as the player is the first to state, Tiny is not the sharpest tack in the box.]
[Tor’s player was disappointed that his character died here, but understood what he was doing was not the safest thing and he was already low on hit points as he was trying to conserve the groups healing magic. Also, at no point did anyone discuss a code of rope yanks in case he got into danger. Luckily the group has a good supply of coin and can pay for a casting of Restore Life and Limb. All Tor has to do is make the Resurrection Survival Roll at 90%. What could go wrong?]
Biggz’z Troop, CAC
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