Dungeons and Dragons Session Log 06

This post is about Session 06 of my Classic Dungeons and Dragons Campaign. This session was played on March 29, 2015 which was PalmSunday. We are playing with the Moldvay Basic Dungeons and Dragons book with some minor house rules. The log for Session 04 and 05 is on this sign while the logs for sessions 1 through 3 can be found here.

I am running the Keep on the Borderlands (B2) with new stories added to the sandbox for players to explore or ignore as they wish. The players opted to trek to the Caverns of Thracia which I placed in the mountains about 2 weeks away from The Keep in B2 on a hex map. The hex map was of the western portion of the Yeomanry in Greyhawk as per the B2 instructions on placement of the module in the setting.

The Cast of Characters were as follows. Levels of the characters are as of the beginning of the session:

Player Characters:

Rita: She’s an elf from a level 1 magical forest. She can speak many languages, such as Hobgoblin and Gnoll… and medusa, but she doesn’t trust the creatures whose language she knows. She will kill any poor sod that she doesn’t trust and begrudges the humans in the party for bossing her around. So watch out! (Player: Leybel)

John Henry: He’s a level 3 thief from Loftwick. He’s looking for easy money and some high stakes poker games to cheat at, I mean play in. He steals from the Keep when he thinks he can get away with it and hasn’t been caught (yet). He travels with Kate and their romance in the stuff of legend. (Player: Bryant)

Rita.

Kate: She’s a level 2 cleric of Norebo, the god of gambling. She is John Henry’s woman and tags along with his gambling expeditions since it pleases her god. She has no fear, broad shoulders, and wades into battle with her mace and heavy armor. (Player: Heather)

Heime Stein: He’s a level 2 Magic-User from Ekbir. He’s whip-smart but will blurt out a rude comment now and again (who in this party doesn’t?). He’s an accomplished silver-smith and known about the Keep for his skill. He has a tendency to cast Sleep spells as soon as any serious danger arises. (Player: Carl)

Theo Greyjoy: He’s a level 2 cleric of Xerbo, the god of the sea. He is a grandmaster fisherman and misses his home by the ocean in the Hold of the Sea Princes. Why he left is a mystery but likely not by choice. He is quick to judgment and to insult others; except for the ladies. He loves the ladies. (Player: Robert)

Tar-Tar: He’s a level 1 Halfling from the nearby shire. He was named their Champion and given instructions by their Sheriff to travel to the Keep and find out what might be done to stop the attacks from orcs and bandits on their wagon trains. It’s unclear if he takes this quest seriously or sees it as an excuse to be a murder-hobo like the rest of the party. He comes off as friendly and eager for adventure. (Player: SB)

Retainers (NPCs):

Brother Giles: Level 1 Fighter retainer for Theo Greyjoy. He is an acolyte of Geshtai who wanted to be a cleric but his goddess never answered him.

Kanye's glasses give him power.

Kanye: Level 1 Kobold retainer for Theo Greyjoy. Theo raised Kanye after slaughtering his family. He beat Kanye mercilessly until the boy would ‘act right’. Now Kanye is grown and ready for battle.

Virgil: Level 1 Kobold retainer for John Henry. Virgil is weak and John Henry is disappointed in him. Virgil wishes to fight for his master but John Henry found him too pathetic to even hand him a dagger. Kate still loves the useless pup and is proud of his doggie tuxedo.

Session Log:

The session began with the party in the midst of Cave K of the Caves of Chaos. The Priest of Evil Chaos was at large having fled a battle with the player characters. Our heroes followed his tracks and came to a chamber with two doors exiting out into the large 20 foot wide hallway they had fought their grand battle with the undead army.

While they were investigating the room a group of 7 Troglodytes came wandering up from behind with some broken pieces of gold from the Chapel of Evil Chaos that John Henry had attempted to loot in the previous session. Tar-Tar and Rita were there to greet the trogs and made small talk regarding their general stank. When the rest of the party came out into the hallway the trogs got scared by the party’s numbers and fled.

Troglodyte

Our heroes continued exploring the cave and came to the temple of evil chaos. The place had pews and an evil looking altar. The walls were covered with black drapery and the floor was polished black stone. It was a creepy place. But the party didn’t search the place too closely as they wanted to catch the fleeing priest. His trail of blood led to a sitting room and bedroom that jutted off from the temple.

The bedroom and sitting room was swanky. It had a red carpet and black wood furnishing with purple pimp upholstery. Was he the fabled Latin Joker?  His bedroom had a statue of a demon looming over his bed with ruby eyes that John Henry appraised at 100 GP each. He was able to finagle it off the wobbly floating shelf without taking any Arbitrary Gygax damage.

Rita the elf finally found a secret door in the back of the priest’s wardrobe. Gems and gold poured out of the secret door when they opened it! (500 GP and 50 Gems worth 10 GP each) Another secret door behind this doubled back around to the large corridor they had fought the undead army and the evil priest in. They realized he had got behind them and ran out the way they had come in.

Following clues such as a ripped piece of fabric from the priest’s robe and his footsteps in the mire from the aftermath of the battle with the undead, the party tracked his pace back to the passageway filled with a cave in of rubble and boulders. They assumed he may have made his way through the boulders through means of magic.

The party argued for a while about whether they should clear out the boulders and follow the priest. Theo was the only one in the group who was really behind the plan but he was quite loud. He eventually lost out in a vote and the party hustled back to the cleared out Kobold Cave to get their mule and leave the Caves of Chaos. Who knows what became of the Priest of Evil Chaos? (Hint: Re-Occurring Villain)

It took the party about a week to get to The Shire of Tar-Tar’s birth. He was excited to show his new friends his old home until they moved close and saw smoke and desolation in the distance where the Shire used to be.

It didn't look like this :(

Investigation of the Shire led the party to believe that the White Dragon that had attacked the rangers of the Keep had attacked the Shire. Freezing snow covered large tracts of land and dead Halflings lay here and there. Tar-Tar knew that the Sherriff would be the most likely Halfling to have survived the attack.

Going to the Sheriff’s hole the party was attacked by 5 Snowy Zombies (AKA “A Song of Fire and Ice” White Walkers TM) all about the Sherriff’s home. They dispatched the zombie’s easily with a combination of turning from Kate and Theo and wet work by the others.

Looting of the Sherriff’s home revealed the following goodies:

-Dagger of the Bat (Magical): equipped by John Henry

-Spellbook: taken by Heime

-Scrolls of Invisibility and Water Breathing: taken by Rita (read later while at leisure)

-Potion of Cure Light Wounds

-Potion of Cure Disease

A chest and wardrobe had been opened and rifled through by the town’s attackers. The Snowy Zombies had obviously looted the rest of the Sherriff’s home in search of something which appeared to have been found and carried off. The zombies (and dragon?) were not interested in the loot that was left behind.

The party searched the Shire for a while looking for survivors but only found tracks. They guessed the tracks went towards the dwarven town of Rockward. Some rough travel through the mountains (with no road) brought them to Rockward many days later.

The door to Rockward was a large steel thing 20 feet high leading right into the mountain. When they knocked on it a small door opened high in the sheer wall. A dwarf popped his head out asking what they wanted. Tar-Tar knew that the Halfling Sherriff, before he died, used to bring his adventuring loot to the dwarves for sale. The dwarves had deep pockets. They asked for the Dwarven Lord who subsequently popped his head out.

Dwarf City!

The party told their tale and the Dwarven Lord was happy to see the group. He let them into the city quickly and informed them that 10 Halflings (5 men, 3 women, 2 children) had arrived some days before seeking safety. The party met with the Halflings and Tar-Tar crowned himself the new Sherriff. His new Halfling followers didn’t argue. If Tar-Tar was to rebuild the Shire or set up a new one he would become a Sherriff with followers. He didn’t have time for that since the party was on their way to the Caverns of Thracia.

The Halflings told the tale:

A white dragon had come from the sky and cast spells all about the Shire making dozens of Snowy Zombies grow from the ground. While the zombies waylaid the Halflings and stormed houses to loot the place Ferguson Baltimore style, the white dragon made flyby attacks shooting freezing breath across their farms and homes. The Sherriff fought until his dying breath, making a fighting retreat towards his home to protect something. The surviving Halflings don’t know what he was protecting or what the dragon was after. They were told to flee, being the weakly and women (redundant). They were all lucky to have escaped and sang the praises of their fallen Sherriff.

White Dragons are out for blood.

Tar-Tar knew these Halflings would be useless in a fight so he didn’t recruit them for adventuring. He assured their stay with the dwarves until he returned from his adventures in the nearby Thracia.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party was getting to know the dwarves of Rockward; who were an odd by delightful creation of a particularly creative DM.

-This clan had no women.

-They bred by use of the Great Furnace which was fueled by gems worth 500 GP or more.

-Each such gem would create a fully grown Rockward Clan dwarf in one day off cooking.

-The dwarves numbers were severely dwindled (44 total) due to the gem mine attached to their city being overrun with magma creatures, shadows, and Horrors hundreds of years ago.

-The dwarves locked the great doors to their mine, for protection, and kept guards at it at all times.

-The dwarves would pay 1,000 GP for each gem worth at least 500 GP. This was the place to sell your expensive gems!

John Henry had many such gems (about 6? The DM can’t recall.) So he visited the Furnace Keeper. This was a very old gray dwarf who studied the gems to assure their usefulness. He agreed and gave John Henry a scrip for the price of the gems which the party cashed at the well defended bank.

The party spent two days in Rockward so Rita and Heime could study the scrolls and spellbook that they looted in the Shire and add some spells to their respective spellbook. Theo found a mountain stream an hour away from Rockward and spent his days fishing with the Halflings who still considered him a Grandmaster Fisherman from Session 1.

The day before they were to leave John Henry awoke in the morning to discover he had great bat wings springing from his back. Kate was shocked and horrified…and intrigued? It turns out that the Dagger of the Bat gave him these wings and they enabled him another 15 feet of movement during battle rounds. John Henry hid the hideous bat wings under his coat so that his handsome look wasn’t disturbed.

Travel to the Caverns of Thracia took 2 days. Thracia as a lost and crumbling city and the party investigated the place slowly. The first crumbling building they came to had wild native humans in it. These humans were dressed in plate mail and wielding spears and swords. They seemed crazed but held off on attack. Tar-Tar spoke with them in their alignment language. It was not very effective. The party was able to glean that the humans were in the cult of Thanatos and that they hated the demi-humans (lizards, gnolls, etc).

Heime thought it would be swell to team up with the natives and egged Tar-Tar on to convince them. This didn’t work and the crazed natives threatened the party stating that they were not to come down the stairs into the caverns where the natives lived. The two groups dispersed without combat (for now).

Next the party came to another ruined building with large columns and stairs leading up onto a raised platform. Lizardmen were loitering who attacked the party on sight. The party took down a few of the lizards quickly. The surviving beast’s morale failed them and they fled down some stairs in the building and into the caverns.

The party explored further but was unable to find any other entrances into the Caverns. Heime thought it wise to carry around the head of a lizardman to prove to the human cultists that the party hated lizards as much as them. The party debated and eventually decided to follow the native warrior men, despite warning, right down the steps and into their chambers.

The party went down deep into the Oerth and came to a wooden bridge. A guard man across the bride blew a whistle as warning and ran off into a nearby room. The party crossed the bridge, dodging attacks from giant bats, and came face to face with many cultists. Battle commenced!

Heime put a large group of men asleep with a Sleep spell. The rest of the party fought with the other group with bow and blade. It was a long and wicked battle with Theo’s retainer Brother Giles showing his moxy, and the party was eventually victorious.

The DM ended the session here due to time constraints knowing that the subsequent looting could lead to many roleplaying opportunities.

Tune in next time at the same bat time and same bat channel!

Dungeons and Dragons Session Log 05

This post is about Session 05 of my Classic Dungeons and Dragons Campaign. This session was played on February 7th, 2015. We are playing with the Molvay Basic Dungeons and Dragons book with some minor house rules. The log for Session 04 is on this site while the logs for sessions 1 through 3 can be found at this site.

I am running the Keep on the Borderlands (B2) with new stories added to the sandbox for players to explore or ignore as they wish. I placed a strong hook in the game for the party to trek out to the Caverns of Thracia during this session.

The Cast of Characters were as follows. Levels of the characters are as of the beginning of the session:

Player Characters:

Wyngate, Gerald: He’s a strong tough, charismatic level 2 fighting man who wears heavy plate mail armor. He wields the Blood-Drinker Blade which is a sword that sucks the blood from all enemies he kills in battle; healing Gerald after the fight commences. It drips blood everywhere, elsewise. He arrogantly refers to himself as a golden god. He is quite pragmatic when it comes to life, death, and adventuring. (Player: Chris)

Rita: She’s an elf from a level 1 magical forest. She can speak many languages, such as Hobgoblin and Gnoll… and medusa, but she doesn’t trust the creatures whose language she knows. She will kill any poor sod that she doesn’t trust and begrudges the humans in the party for bossing her around. So watch out! (Player: Leybel)

John Henry: He’s a level 3 thief from Loftwick. He’s looking for easy money and some high stakes poker games to cheat at, I mean play in. He steals from the Keep when he thinks he can get away with it and hasn’t been caught (yet). He travels with Kate and their romance in the stuff of legend. (Player: Bryant)

Kate: She’s a level 2 cleric of Norebo, the god of gambling. She is John Henry’s woman and tags along with his gambling expeditions since it pleases her god. She has no fear, broad shoulders, and wades into battle with her mace and heavy armor. (Player: Heather)

Heime Stein: He’s a level 2 Magic-User from Ekbir. He’s whip-smart but will blurt out a rude comment now and again (who in this party doesn’t?). He’s an accomplished silver-smith and known about the Keep for his skill. He has a tendency to cast Sleep spells as soon as any serious danger arises. (Player: Carl)

Theo is not about sowing.

Theo Greyjoy: He’s a level 2 cleric of Xerbo, the god of the sea. He is a grandmaster fisherman and misses his home by the ocean in the Hold of the Sea Princes. Why he left is a mystery but likely not by choice. He is quick to judgment and to insult others; except for the ladies. He loves the ladies. (Player: Robert)

Tar-Tar: He’s a level 1 Halfling from the nearby shire. He was named their Champion and given instructions by their Sheriff to travel to the Keep and find out what might be done to stop the attacks from orcs and bandits on their wagon trains. It’s unclear if he takes this quest seriously or sees it as an excuse to be a murder-hobo like the rest of the party. He comes off as friendly and eager for adventure. (Player: SB)

Brumhilda: She’s a level 2 fighting woman who worships an odd unknown god named Freya. She speaks in long monologues about how all of her actions are to glorify “her lady” Freya. Some think her a bit touched. (Player: Renee)

Retainers (NPCs):

Raggle: Level 1 thief retainers for Gerald Wyngate. He’s a guard at the Keep but the Captain dismissed him for being a useless old senile drunk. He has a positive and respectful attitude (while sober) and Gerald has designated him as Torch-Bearer. Quite an honor.

Brother Giles: Level 1 Fighter retainer for Theo Greyjoy. He is an acolyte of Geshtai who wanted to be a cleric but his goddess never answered him.

Kobold retainers ready for battle! (Except Virgil... he didn't get armor)

Dead Mike: Level 1 Kobold retainer for Gerald Wyngate. Gerald raised him as a pup (after killing his mother and family) and stuffed him in a backpack until he was old enough to fight. The time is now.

Kanye: Level 1 Kobold retainer for Theo Greyjoy. Theo raised Kanye after slaughtering his family. He beat Kanye mercilessly until the boy would ‘act right’. Now Kanye is grown and ready for battle.

Virgil: Level 1 Kobold retainer for John Henry. Virgil is weak and John Henry is disappointed in him. Virgil wishes to fight for his master but John Henry found him too pathetic to even hand him a dagger. Kate still loves the useless pup and is proud of his doggie tuxedo.

Session Log:

Brumhilda the fighting-woman arrived at The Keep on Wealsun the 8^th (low summer). She met the guards and told a tale of her liege having been waylaid on the road en route to The Keep. She was hired to protect The Collector; a magic user of 5^th level, but The Collector’s entire guard unit was obliterated by bandits near the Abandoned Village. The Collector’s magical spells were somehow suppressed by a steam machine that the bandits wielded. Brumhilda was released by the bandits to bring their ransom notice to the Castellan of The Keep: 5,000 gold pieces worth of refined steel.

The Castellan couldn’t spare such an expanse and he couldn’t send his men to attack the bandits as more than half of them were out ranging, ironically enough, for the bandits. He introduced Brumhilda to our intrepid adventurers who were busy stuffing their face at the Frolicking Fox.

After some hijinks where the party refused to dismiss their kobold buddies from the tavern at the insistence of the Castellan’s honor guard, the party went about hatching a scheme to save the Collector and collect some phat stacks. The Castellan tired of the party’s general disrespective attitude and retired to his chambers.

Brumhilda, between monologues about the greatness of her goddess Freya, relayed to the party that The Collector was coming to The Keep to meet with the party and offer them grand rewards for any artifacts they brought back from the Caverns of Thracia.

Worth Phat-Stax.

Minor Artifact: 250 Gold Pieces

Major Artifact: 600 Gold Pieces

Epic Artifact: 2,000 Gold Pieces

The bandits were actually in the process of trying to unlock and de-trap the three chests full of riches that The Collector was travelling with. To no avail, for his locks and magical traps were quite serious and sinister, respectively.

Their eventual scheme (the planning time of which allowed the DM to mix a delicious rum and coke) involved filling wooden crates three-fourths full with junk and them placing some fine steel on top of that. Their assumption was that they could bluff their way through a meeting with the bandit leader, have The Collector freed, and be long gone by the time the bandits realized the depth of the party’s shenanigans.

The next morning, they set off, arriving at the Abandoned Village around second breakfast of the following day.

The party approached the bandits on horseback and ass-wagon on the road towards the Abandoned Village. Brumhilda took the lead on guiding the diplomacy as she had already dealt with the bandits before.

John Henry snuck off with his thief skills and skirted the edge of the Abandoned Village hiding in the high grass. The bandits didn’t notice him because their attention was on the very large crew of adventurers gathered just outside the village in front of them.

Bandits are always  Counting money and looking ragged.

Brumhilda demanded to see The Collector; the bandits obliged. She demanded they hand him over; the bandit leader scoff that he wanted to see the steel first. He got annoyed enough with Brumhilda to mention that if she didn’t hold her tongue he would rip out her heart and use it to power his mechanical man. One imagines he wanted all of the refined steel to build said man; or perhaps it was already built and waiting for a heart? The bandit leader was called The Crooked (because of his crooked teeth) and his second in command was a former barbarian from the mountains called Drago. The Crooked was intimidating due to his twisted intellect and apparent sadism and Drago was intimidating because he was huge and tattooed across the neck with a fire breathing dragon.

John Henry, for his part, had gotten to the back of the Abandoned Village and found the steel horse that the bandit leader was rumored to have. There was one mentally challenged looking bandit oiling its joints.

The bandit leader sent one of his men to check out the party’s ransom of steel. Brumhilda made her bluff check and the bandit red-shirt gave a thumbs up to his boss across the windswept field. Soon-after The Collector was released, hands tied, and urged across the field. The party unloaded the crates from the wagon because the cost of the wagon and mule had left them dangerously close to starvation (apparently).

John Henry didn’t get the memo that a peaceful solution had been found to the hostage stand-off

Steel Horse pictured above. Bon Jovi sold separately.

and he proceeded to murder the slope-head oiling the steel horse, scatter the 6 regular horses in the bandits' possession, and ride off laughing on the steam spewing steel horse. He left a playing card behind so the bandits would know who ripped them off. It was some slick thievery.

The party caught up to each other about a mile down the road towards The Keep. They arrived back at the Keep the next day because they road through the night. One can assume the bandits couldn’t make chase because they were too busy rounding up their horses that John Henry had scared off. The thief spent the travel time seeing what the steel horse could do and flaunting its ability in front of The Collector with the attention of selling it to him at a later date.

The party arrived back at the Keep and the Castellan was happy to see The Collector safe. He praised the party they received a decent reward of 100 gold pieces each from the Castellan and then the same reward (100 GP each) from The Collector. (That’s 200 experience points each for you kids keeping track at home.)

John Henry was able to convince the Collector to purchase the steel horse for 800 gold pieces. (The DM gave John Henry 100 of the experience point value and the other 700 to the rest of the party split evenly, rationalizing that the slick feat of thievery skillfulness wouldn’t have been possible without the party. It takes a village.)

The Collector met with the party the next day at the tavern to enlighten them as to his purpose of being there.

The Collector’s Crafty Classy Climactic Hooks:

The Collector.

1. He used to adventure with a great magic user named Tazimack the Red. On their first ever adventure they found the Caverns of Thracia.

2. All of the party except Tazimack and The Collector were killed. But The Collector was fascinated by the Caverns and the artifacts there. He wears some metal gauntlets depicting the image of Zeus, the king of the Thracian’s gods. The Collector will reward the party with gold (see above for values) for artifacts from Thracia. Some may be quite large, some quite small.

3. Thracia was a grand civilization in the mountains long before the Twin Cataclysms. They fell when their mongrel-men guards turned on them and killed or ran off the humans. The mongrels infest the caverns and the place is dangerous.

4. Tazimack has a home in the forest east away from the Keep and closer towards civilization. The Collector is certain that there are many magic items there and Tazimack recently died, leaving it unguarded (by him at least). The place is called Shadowbrook Keep.

5. The Collector will remain at The Keep until the middle of Harvester. He wants to depart back for Loftwick before summer ends.

A collector.

6. Brumhilda witnessed the Collector teleport his three chests of (assumedly) great coinage wealth just outside the door of the bank. The bankers then hustled it into the building and safety. The bandits were unable to deduce the chests’ locks or traps.

7. The Collector won’t join the party because he is over a hundred years old. His soul is still hanging on but his body is a mess. His teeth fell out and were replaced with a gold grill. Bling!

7. The Collector gave the party a delightfully colorful hex-map of The Borderlands. Useful!

After The Collector departed the party debated what sort of adventure they should partake on. Many options still lay in their path.

For Instance*:

The players can't say "No" to all my hooks, right? RIGHT?!

A. The Caves of F#!@ing Chaos!

B. Shadowbrook Keep

C. White Dragon on the Loose: somewhere in the forest to the north of The Keep.

D. Crazy Elf Girl Named Toxic on the Loose: somewhere in the swamp

E. Mermaids Gone Wild!

F. Shrine of Geshtai that is infected with some sort of poison

G. Talking Fish that Grants Wishes near the Shrine of Geshtai

H. The Caverns of Thracia

I. …and much much more!

*(some of these hooks are according to rumors that may be unsubstantiated.)

The party chose a combination of A and H, planning to “make a pit stop” at the Caves of Chaos on their way north towards the Caverns of Thracia. One hopes the denizens of the Caves can make a good cup of coffee. Heime and Rita petitioned the party for two days of study with The Collector so they could stock their paper-thin spellbooks with spells that would confound their future enemies. The party agreed to rest a few days for the purpose.

The Collector happily hung around the Frolicking Fox Tavern (and Gaming Emporium) for two days to allow Rita and Heime to copy spells from his book. Rita copied Shield and Light from the Collector’s book. Heime took different spells so that the two of them could trade spells between each other at a later date. (DM Note: I am using a house rule where a spell can be copied to a Magic-User or Elf’s spell book for 100 Gold Pieces per level of the spell. Each spell copied in such a way takes one day of work regardless of the spell’s level.)

Theo spent the two days of down time searching for retainers as he had become jealous of Gerald Wyngate’s many red-shirts. Theo found a retainer named Brother Giles; a fighting man who worships the goddess of Geshtai and wishes he could be her cleric.

Team Kobold!

Theo gained an additional retainer because his kobold pup, Kanye, had come of age. So did Gerald’s kobold (Dead Mike) and John Henry’s kobold (Virgil). John Henry was very disappointed in Virgil who had seemed to gain no results from his extensive weight training. One assumes Virgil worked too often on glamor muscles; ignoring his core and skipping leg day. As such, John Henry refused to even buy his kobold a weapon. Kate was still in love with Virgil and made certain his puppy tuxedo was in a fine state at all times.

The party departed north along the road. Their first destination was the Caves of Chaos then The Shire. Both locations were on the way to the Caverns of Thracia. The Caves of Chaos would be their last stop this session, however.

Three days after leaving the Keep the party came upon the Caves of Chaos. The climbed up the hill towards cave K. A few feet into the cave revealed a long and wide passageway going north and south. The floors were well travelled and smooth. Their boots echoed their steps all through the cave system. They were certain they would sneak up on no one in this eary place.

They went all the way south until they discovered two large chambers without doors at the end of the hallway. There was also a large pile of boulders and rubble blocking another passageway. This rubble could be dug out given enough time and would almost certainly lead to great adventure and treasure! The party decided against manual labor and explored the open chambers.

In the first chamber they were attacked by 8 zombie guards hiding along the walls in shadows. The group dispatched the zombies without much trouble thanks to Kate and Theo turning undead. Most of the zombies were turned and the rest were sliced and diced into mush. The zombies were wearing amulets which the clerics believed made them resistant to turning. But not resistant enough.

The next chamber was the Hall of Skeletons. A dozen skeletons lined the walls of the hall and a throne stood at the other end. The throne was encrusted with 4 huge gems (500 GP each) which John Henry coveted immediately upon seeing them. The rest of the party encouraged John Henry to go on up to the throne and pry out a gem because they had his back…way back. The skeletons sprung to life when the thief got close to the throne, of course, but the party had little trouble turning and smashing the bony minions into dust. The party looted the gems.

They turned north up the wind and echoing hallway and came to three decisions: a door on the north wall, the east wall, and a left turn of the wide passage turning west. John Henry heard a slight hissing sound from behind the door to the east; lots of snakes? The party saw lamplight flickering under the door on the north wall. They opened the northern door and the lamplight turned off suddenly. Someone was trying to pretend they weren’t home.

Rita will shoot you right in the face.

Gerald hollered into the room “is anyone there?” and some human men responded. The men appeared to be acolytes of some cult where they all wore red robes and amulets (the same as the ones the undead wore). Gerald shot the breeze with the insane evil cultists who seemed under the impression that the party might join the cult (sign me up!). Gerald convinced them to let the party all join them in the small quarters and the party filled the place up. The cultists were asked about the hissing sound and they were proud to inform everyone that a medusa lived beyond the door to the east. The cultists were likely stupid enough to ramble on some more about Cave K but Gerald gave the high sign and the party all pulled out weaponry and executed the cultists simultaneously.

Heime was a bit disgusted about the party murdering un-armed humans and started for the door to leave the room of their unfortunate brush with homicide. Tar-Tar the Halfling grabbed Heime’s arm when he heard some echoes in the hallway on the other side of the door. It seemed someone was planning to ambush the party when they exited the room.

Before entering the room to converse with (murder) the cultists the party had laid combat oil all about the floor just outside the room. Heime realized that the would-be ambushers were likely standing right in the oil. He lit a torch and dropped it down in the oil that was leaking from under the door. Great barking and angry pained howls were heard on the other side of the door. The door itself set up in flames and smoke filled the small chamber and the hallway beyond.

The door swung open and burnt up gnolls came barreling into the room with vengeance on their mind. Tar-Tar and the rest of the party easily killed the injured gnolls that had survived the fiery sneak attack before they could lay a hand on any of our heroes (murderers). There were 4 gnolls set to ambush the group. Two died from the flames and the other two died soon after. The gnolls were looted but no gold was found on them.

She looks friendly, right?

The party left the room, finally, and travelled west down the wide hallway. They decided against opening the door to the medusa’s abode despite the fact that Rita the elf was certain she could strike a deal with the medusa and get her to work with the party. What party of adventurer’s doesn’t want a pet medusa, am I right? Rita was adamant but she was voted down. No one in the party was anxious to become a statue.

Travelling west then south the party came to an evil looking chapel. It had a bloody altar, bloody goblets and pitcher, and a disconcerting tapestry on the back wall. The tapestry depicted “a black landscape, barren trees, and unidentifiable but horrible black shapes in silhouette – possibly demons of some sort –holding aloft a struggling human” (great description, Gary). John Henry quickly realized that the goblets and pitcher were worth thousands of gold so he shuffled on up to grab one. And the fun began.

John Henry failed his save versus magic and decided that he REALLY liked the evil looking blood-stained goblet that he had picked up. He was certain that he would never sell it. He started getting images of human sacrifice and of an atropol in his mind. These waking nightmares should have horrified him but, instead, he thought they were pretty sweet.

Kate had never seen John Henry with such a wild and evil look in his eyes even though she had been at his side for years. The party asked her what they should do. “I don’t know!”

Theo tried to exorcise the evil from him by pressing his holy symbol to his head. The symbol burned John Henry’s forehead with pain, leaving a red mark in the shape of Theo’s holy symbol (the god of Xerbo, god of the seas).

John Henry left the party to go and find the corpse of the cultist he had personally killed earlier, got some of the victim’s blood in the goblet, and returned to the evil chapel. The party had had enough when John Henry began some bloody cultist ritual with the goblet and they slapped it from his hand and smashed it.

John Henry got a massive jolting headache as the goblet was smashed and a large gong sound quaked through the halls. The bad guys would be here soon! (John Henry may stay have lingering effects from dabbling with the possession of dark artifacts...)

The party scurried up to the T intersection they had come from and set up a defensive position. It was their intention to fight back whatever came from the north (the only un-explored direction) with great tactics and planning. Just for a change of pace.

It worked. The Priest of Evil Chaos sent wave after wave of skeletons and zombies at the party and Kate and Theo drove them away or destroyed them with the power of their gods Norebo and Xerbo. The plate mail wearing party members kept the waves at bay since the undead had much trouble landing a damaging attack on them. Gerald and the fighters blocked and absorbed the undead attacks with little injury.

This fight was easy. But we had trouble with the kobold cave...

When the Priest and his cultist followers joined into the action the bow wielders in the group, Rita, John Henry and Tar-Tar, shot them down with no quarter. The Priest saw that the party was holding off his massive assault and fled north deeper into the caves. He left his cultist followers to die at the party’s hands (some leader). The undead were either broken or turned away. Some of the turned away undead might come back to harass the party if enough time passes.

The session ended with the party still in the midst of Cave K with the Priest of Evil Chaos still at large but injured. Will he come back for revenge? Will the party find him huddled in a corner begging for mercy? Only time and session 06 will tell.

Dungeons and Dragons Session Log 04

This post is about Session 04 of my Classic Dungeons and Dragons Campaign. This session was played on All Saints Day November 1^st, 2014. We are playing with the Moldvay Basic Dungeons and Dragons book with some minor house rules. If you wish to read about sessions 1 through 3 you can find them at this site.

I am running the Keep on the Borderlands (B2) with new stories added to the sandbox for the players to explore or ignore as they wish.

The Cast of Characters were as follows. Levels of the characters are as of the beginning of the session:

Player Characters:

Wyngate, Gerald: He’s a strong, tough, charismatic level 2 fighting man who wears heavy plate mail armor and sports a shield and sword. He arrogantly refers to himself as a golden god. He’s quite pragmatic when it comes to life, death, and adventuring. He travels with his twin sister. He owns a kobold pet named Dead Mike who he often stuffs unceremoniously into his backpack. (Player: Chris)

Wyngate, Lady: She’s a level 1 fighter and Gerald’s twin sister. She lives life with boldness and never misses an opportunity to brag about herself or her brother Gerald. Her charisma makes it easy for her to find retainers and people willing to listen to tales of her adventures. (Player: Renee)

Rita: She’s an elf from a level 1 magical forest. She can speak the language of many of the creatures the party fights (Hobgoblin, Gnoll, Orc) but she doesn’t trust the creatures. She has no problem killing if it keeps her safe. She seems to begrudge the humans in the party bossing her around. So watch out! (Player: Leybel)

John Henry: He’s a level 2 thief from Loftwick. He’s looking for easy money and fights primarily with a bow and arrow to keep out of danger. He loves playing cards for high stakes even though no one in the Keep plays for high stakes He took on a kobold pup in session 2 whom he named Virgil. He is putting Virgil through Cross Training and P90x to assure that he grows up strong. (Player: Bryant)

Kate: She’s a level 1 cleric of Norebo, the god of gambling. She seems to be John Henry’s woman (begrudgingly) and tags along with his gambling expeditions since it pleases her god. She has no fear and wades into battle with her mace and heavy armor (if the money is right). She has a soft spot for John Henry’s kobold pup Virgil whom she bought a sharp tuxedo for. (Player: Heather)

Heime Stein: He’s a level 2 Magic-User from Ekbir. He’s whip-smart but will blurt out a rude comment now and again. He’s also a silver-smith and is known around the Keep as the best at his trade around. (Player: Carl)

Theo Greyjoy: He’s a level 2 cleric of Xerbo, the god of the sea. He is a grandmaster fisherman and misses his home by the ocean. He’s quick to judgment and to insult others. He has a soft spot for the ladies which gets him into trouble. He has a kobold pup named Kanye whom he's quite mean to. (Player: Robert)

Tar-Tar: He’s a level 1 Halfling from the nearby shire. He was named their Champion and given instructions by their Sheriff to travel to the Keep and find out what might be done to stop the attacks from orcs and bandits on their wagon trains. It's unclear if he takes this quest seriously or sees it as an excuse to be a murder-hobo like the rest of the party. He comes off as friendly and eager for adventure. (Player: SB)

Retainers (NPCs):

Raggle: Level 1 thief retainer for Gerald Wyngate. He’s a guard at the Keep but the Captain of the Watch has little use for him because he is an old senile man and a drunk. He has a generally positive and respectful attitude towards the party (while sober). Gerald has designated him as the torch-bearer.

Roddy: Level 1 Fighter retainer for Gerald Wyngate. He is a pretty loyal young black haired man who used to adventure with an elf woman named Toxic. She abandoned him, Travis, and Mike once she was poisoned by the lizard men. Roddy still speaks of her in hushed tones and seems scared of Rita. He fights well with a sword, bow, and medium armor.

Jeremy Jamm the Fighter retainer, ready for battle!

Jeremy Jam: Level 1 fighter retainer for Lady Wyngate. He is a tall balding middle aged man seeking riches on the frontier. He talks in constant sexual innuendo and prefers to be called Jamm.

Session Log:

Revenge of the Halfling!

Tar-Tar the Halfling came traveling up the mountainside towards the Keep at sundown on Flocktime the 22^nd. The low summer evening was hot and muggy. The guards stopped Tar-Tar at the drawbridge which was pulled up for the evening. The guards had been doing so most nights due to the higher amounts of danger around the countryside as of late. It’s possible the party had been rousing up the local orcs and such into anger with their exploits in the Caves of Chaos.

Tar-Tar told the guards his name and his business at the Keep. He was from the nearby Halfling shire and he was there to help destroy the Caves of Chaos and the surrounding forces of darkness. The guards liked the answer and let him in.

Upon entering the Keep Tar-Tar made his way to the tavern: the Frolicking Fox. Here our heroes were at rest and play.

Gerald Wyngate, Rita, Heime, the Theo were relaxing at a table with their beer and food. John Henry was playing a very low-stakes game of cards with some of the guards, including Jeremy Jamm who was losing copper pieces hand over fist. ("I don't like to brag but I've lost more copper pieces than anyone in town!") 

Lady Wyngate was regaling the tavern with tales of the party’s last expedition into the Caves of Chaos. Her story left out the fact that Lady Wyngate didn’t accompany the party on their last trek into the caves…

Tar-Tar grabbed a beer and joined the crowd that was gathering to listen to Lady Wyngate’s tale.

“So there we were: surrounded on all sides by Gnolls and an Ogre coming at us angrily. The great beast was prepared to smash us to bits and then pick his teeth with our bones! I tell you my friends it is amazing we made it out alive…”

Tar-Tar talked up Lady Wyngate after she took a break from weaving her partial falsehoods to whet her pallet with booze. He told her about his past few weeks of sneaking along the road and felling orcs by himself. She wondered aloud if he was also telling tall tales but it didn’t fret her enough to turn down the Halfling’s offer to join the party on their next expedition into the Caves of Chaos.

During the days since their last trek the party had heard a great many rumors about odd goings on around the Borderlands. They discussed these rumors at length that night before bed. Some of the rumors were as follows:

-There is a great fish many leagues long that will grant you wishes. He lives near the Shrine of Geshtai in the river.

-There is something hidden in the tapestry depicting sailing ships that the party brought back from the Caves of Chaos recently. This rumor was told to Rita by Mop-head the Privy Boy of the Guildhouse. The smelly privy boy seemed to have taken a shine to Rita and follows her around like a lost puppy.

-The bandit leader rides a mechanical horse made of steel. He’s wanted dead or alive.

-There is a dragon in an icy cave in the forest to the northeast of the Keep. He has a HUGE pile of gold.

-A crazy guard ran off into the woods years ago because he didn’t get along with the Castellan. Word is he has a pet lion!

-The Castellan is rich and his chamber is full of expensive items.

-A huge firefly flew over the Keep a year ago. It burned like fire and landed deep in the forest to the northeast.

-There are some Dwarves running around in the forest near the keep looking for something...or someone!

-There is a lake in the swamp that is home to beautiful mermaids. This rumor was told to Theo who believes every word of it. He spent the evening elaborating on why it would be a great idea to go to the swamp and look for the beautiful mermaids. The party tried to talk him out of it.

-The leader of the bandits will only talk to you if you bring him flowers.

-Gnolls love rotten fish.

Robbing the guildhouse!

Robbing the guild house for fun and profit!

John Henry took interest on the rumor about an item being hidden in the Guildhouse inside the tapestry. He moseyed on over to the Guildhouse after sundown to rob the joint. He was able to find an open window in the lobby the he hopped into between patrols of the many guards. He cut into the tapestry and found a scroll case inside with a letter inside. Eureka! He also went ahead and grabbed a small chest the Guildhouse has stashed behind their Welcome Desk. He felt welcome to it. It had a bit of gold inside that John Henry didn’t share with his friends. Selfish.

The letter hidden in the tapestry was a ship’s log from a Captain Rory Barbarosa of Port Joli in the Baron of the Sea Princes. The Captain’s log weaved a tale of his time spent at sea and discovering the Isle of Dread. The Captain heard rumors from the natives of the Isle of Dread that there was a Lost City and great treasure hidden there in the center if the island. He decided not to take his crew deep into the isle since he was the only professional adventurer. His letter did, however, contain a map of the coastline of the Isle of Dread which Theo was given for safe-keeping. The letter was months or even years  old.

Theo had heard of this Barbarosa and believed that he had drunk himself to death in Port Joli at a tavern called The Cut. Other rumors from around Port Joli were that Barbarosa was murdered for refusing to give his knowledge of a lost treasure to the Port Joli Admiralty.

The party discussed traveling to the Isle of Dread but realized that just reaching Port Joli, a city on the mainland, would take many weeks or months. After getting there they would need a ship to get to the Isle of Dread. Plans were made and some of the party members were of the mind that their expeditions into the Caves of Chaos were going to be done to acquire seed money for their sailing ship to the Isle of Dread someday.

We’ll see.

Finishing off the last of the Hobgoblins!

Staring at his mace he didn't notice the party coming...

On the next day the party equipped themselves for their next trip to the Caves of Chaos. Some bought armor and weapons while Gerald prepared their majestic donkey cart.

The Caves of Chaos are three days of travel along the road and into the wilderness and the party traversed the distance without any incident or run-ins with monsters or NPCs. Upon arriving at the Caves they pulled their donkey cart into their clubhouse at Cave A Room 6 that they had fashioned with a strong oak door and level 2 lock for which John Henry held the key. The donkey’s leavings from his last stay in the room gave their clubhouse an earthy smell.

The party prepared themselves and climbed the hill towards Cave F. This cave was locked with a huge heavy wooden door. Tar-Tar investigated it and was able to find a secret mechanism that opened a small hand sized hole in the door. Through this Gerald was able to reach in the door and move a metal bar blocking the door out of the way. The party had succeeded in the Quest of the Big Wooden Door.

Upon entering Cave F they saw bloody graffiti all over the walls depicting scenes of torture and dismemberment. They realized they were in the cave of the Hobgoblins for the first time since Session 1. They came to a four way intersection and took a right. A chamber (Number 26) was on their left which held 6 hobgoblins who were busy failing at their task to guard the entrance at the Big Wooden Door.

They appeared shocked to see the party. Their eyes widened when they realized how large the party of humans and demi-humans actually were (11 in total!). A handful of party members could speak the phlegmy nonsense of the hobgoblin language. The hobgoblins were suited in medium armor and holding axes.

“Don’t attack, pitiful humans," the whined, "we would hate to have to hurt you!”

Rita spoke up first asking the hobs where their leader was located. They revealed that he was deeper into the caves in the direction they were traveling. They also revealed that they were petrified of their leader because he wielded the Blooddrinker Blade. They spoke of the evil blade in awed and jealous tones.

The party tried their hand at diplomacy a bit more but ran out of tries after threatening and demanding about 5 times in a row. (DM to DM Note: I am using Courtney Campbell's outstanding "On the Non-Player Character" supplement for diplomacy.) The hobs attacked!

The battle was fast and fierce with Gerald taking a minor axe wound to the arm. But it was Roddy who took a much deeper wound.

***RETAINER DEATH 03***

Roddy! No!

Roddy the fighting man was felled like a tree by the sadistic blood splattering axes of angry hobgoblin guards. His last words were apology to Lady Wyngate for failing to kill more monsters in her honor.

The party was spurred on by righteous vengeance for their longest running gag, um, I mean retainer. Three hobgoblins died to various missiles and cutlery from our righteous heroes! The remaining hobs begged for surrender. The party promptly killed two of those surrendering wretches and put the third on a leash to lead the party to the hobgoblin leader. (The dead hobs had about 36 gold between all of them. Score.)

Trouping down the hall they all came to a door. The party asked the hobgoblin if the hob king was on the other side of the door and he said yes. Gerald used the hobgoblin’s face to open the door. His face quickly caught a crossbow bolt from 2 hobs in a chamber on the other side of the door. The fight was on…again!

This fight went more quickly than the first with no serious injuries to the party. The chamber, however, had no exits except the one the party had entered. Our intelligent heroes realized there must be a hidden door. Searches commenced!

Most in the party looked for secret doors and some counted the large array of weaponry and armor in this armory room. (1 suit of man sized pate mail, 1 suit of dwarf sized plate mail armor, 3 suits of man sized chain mail armor, 2 suits of elf-sized chain mail armor, 7 suits of man sized leather armor, 11 shields, 6 daggers, 1 battle axe, 4 maces, 3 swords, 2 short bows, 1 longbow, 13 crossbows, 11 score of arrows, 9 score of bolts, 51 spears, 19 pole arms, 42 helmets of various sizes).

Kate put on a suit of plate mail armor once she found a set with broad enough shoulders. Tar-Tar the halfling traded in his short-bow for the longbow because he has a great sense of humor. Gerald scratched his chin and made plans to get the whole armory back to town for sale once the coast was clear.

The coast was not clear now according to John Henry who heard boot steps from behind the western wall. All surmised a secret door must be beyond it, despite all of them failing to have found it in their extensive search. The party tried to move into a defensible position but the wall swung open quite quickly. Behind it was a hallway with 9 angry hobgoblins poised to strike. With them was the hobgoblin king. He was a large chunky green skinned thing wielding a red sword that looked to be made of muscles and tendons dripping with blood. Egads! The Blooddrinker Blade!

The battle roared! Until Heime cast a sleep spell successfully on 7 of the hobgoblins. The battle snored!

Rita at work.

Gerald, Kate, Lady Wyngate engaged with the Hob King in melee while the rest of the party fired volleys of arrows, bolts, and rocks (from a sling, you know) into the fray! Kate bashed one of the hob flunkies about the face, uglying it up before sending it to the hells. Gerald chopped the head off the other.

But the proud Hob King was taken down with a final arrow from old man Raggle. He hooted and hollered his pleasure at downing the king. “I showed you whippersnappers how it’s done!”

The Hob King was quite proud of his silver and gem studded belt (valued at 1,000 GP) and the party was quite happy to loot it off his bleeding corpse. They also took the Blood Drinker Blade, which was given to Gerald Wyngate. He felt strange holding it but knew he would have to use it in battle before its magic would become clear.

Going deeper into the caves the party found the Hob King’s chambers, and that of his lieutenants, where they found another 70 GP. Evidence that the Hob King had some hobgoblin females (as did his tribe) was found in the chamber but these females (and children) were not seen. One assumes they fled at the sound of battle.

The party also came to a staircase going down deeper into the caves but decided that discretion was the better part of valor. With many in the party injured and one retainer dead, the party exited the blood-painted hobgoblin cave and traveled back to the Keep.

Making a beer run!

"Do helmets help my AC in Basic?" "No." "Why are you selling them?"

Three days travel back to the Keep passed without incident and the party was able to offload and sell their various treasures. The Keep was, once again, eager to hear of the party’s escapades into the Caves. Lady Wyngate did not disappoint and regaled them with tales of high adventure.

The party, meanwhile, enjoyed some drinks at the Frolicking Fox tavern and considered the possibility of pursuing other adventures rather than returning to the Caves of Chaos. At this point they were aware of the Shrine of Geshtai and a magic talking fish said to be near there and a dragon hidden deep in the forest which was sure to have a hoard of coins and jewelry piled high as their heads. The Isle of Dread also sang its siren song with promises of treasure on the open seas.

A bard also entered the tavern and sang songs of Castle Greyhawk re-opening. A poisonous gas had hung over it since Iuz had escaped the dark and deep dungeon but it had recently blown away. This massive place was built by the Mad Archmage Zagyg some hundreds of years ago when he was in charge of the City of Greyhawk. Is he still alive?

The bard also had some very vague stories about a ruined city of treasures hidden in the nearby Crystalmist Mountains.

Gerald showed great leadership by leaving the decision up to John Henry. The thief shuffled a deck of cards and considered his options. He thought out loud and seemed about to advise the party to go kill the dragon and loot its hoard… but then he decided on the “sure thing” to return to the Caves of Chaos.

The party set out the next day with mule-cart in tow to carry back all the loot they were sure to pile up.

Meeting the Flintstones!

At the end of their first of three days of travel back to the Caves they were approached by a group of 10 cavemen. The wild men carried big clubs and were clothed with animal skins. Perhaps they were from the mountains? The party didn’t have time to ask them since, after a very general threat from Theo that the cavemen keep their distance; the dumb slope-heads ran off into the wilderness in fear of our intrepid heroes. The party shrugged and went back to sleep.

Attacked by the Rat Pack!

ProTip: the Rat Pack can be distracted by cheese. And dames.

The party arrived at the Caves of Chaos two days later without any further incidences or random encounters. They handed Raggle a lantern and went back to the Hobgoblin cave (Cave F). Once inside they travelled straight ahead up some stairs. They took a left and came to a dead end. While they were searching for secret doors at the dead end they heard some giant rats scurrying from behind them in a hallway that they had yet to explore.

The party prepared for battle with the large pack of rats but Theo had an idea and tossed some kobold cheese down the stairs they had just climbed. Apparently rats love kobold rat cheese and they scurried down the stairs to eat.

The party hoofed it down the unexplored hallway and came to a large chamber. This chamber was decorated with blood graffiti of gruesome murder scenes and filled with tables carved with much the same. It seemed to be a very macabre dining area for the now departed hobgoblins. The party set about searching the room for secret doors and secret treasure. The Hob King (RIP) had nice taste in silverware as the party realized the set of pewter dishes at the head table was worth about 50 gold pieces. They bagged it up for sale back at the keep.

John Henry came across a chest that was filled with 2,000 electrum pieces. While the party was counting it they heard the rat pack scurrying back up the stairs towards them. The party prepared for a ratty battle by pushing a table in front of the chamber’s doorway. The rats reached the tossed over table and turned around to scurry back down the stairs. One assumes they were looking for a tasty treat that was easier to get to.

The party departed the chamber and climbed back down the stairs carefully, eyes peeled for rats about. As they reached the intersection at the base of the stairs, on their way out of Cave F, a zombie Roddy lurched out from the darkness to the left passageway and took a swing at John Henry. The thief dodged the attack and tumbled to the back of the party for safety.

Never leave a man behind. Because he'll eat you.

The party sliced Zombie Roddy up quickly and smashed the head of the giant rat that had been gnawing at poor Roddy’s face. They could hear the rest of the rat pack gnawing at corpses down the same hallway so the party rolled out of Cave F and into the sunshine outside in the canyon.

Can’t bear an owlbear!

Once outside the party pondered their options and decided to explore Cave G since it was the last cave they had yet to explore that was low on the hillside.

They approached Cave G and their nostrils were stung with an assaulting odor. It smelled like dead creatures decaying, and a diaper filled with Indian food. The floor of the cave was covered with dead leaves and old branches. John Henry spotted an electrum piece among the carpet of leaves and pocketed it. Then another electrum piece… then another. Different party members grabbed these up since John Henry got a bad feeling about the place and hid in the arms of his muscly lady friend.

They followed the naturally formed rough-hewn cavern to the left for about 2 turns and came to a dead end. Inside the dead end cave was a sleeping Owlbear. The creature was huge like a black bear but covered with filthy brown feathers and sporting a heinous beak.

Theo had taken the lead at this point and was the first to spot the beast. They were lucky that it hadn’t awoken from their lantern light. Theo told everyone to get ready for battle as he lit a bottle of Alchemist’s Fire that he had bought from the general store back at the Keep. He tossed it at the filthy beast and it shot up with flames… for just a few seconds. It appeared more angry than injured.

Gerald Wyngate, Kate the Strong, and Lady Wyngate ran up on angry Owlbear with melee weapons drawn. They all attacked the owlbear leaving severe wounds and feathers flying but the beast was still alive and angry. Many in the rest of the party shot the owlbear up with missile weapons injuring it further. It was staggered but was able to attack with a claw/claw/bite attack.

***PLAYER CHARACTER DEATH 02***

Claw claw bite of doom.

Both of the owlbear’s claws missed Gerald Wyngate as he smacked them away with his shield. The beast turned on his sister and struck at her with its long sharp beak. It succeeded in striking her and grabbed at her eyeball with its beak plucking it out. Lady Wyngate fell to the leaf covered ground screaming. Her heart beat stopped as she rolled over onto her side dead and disfigured.

Jeremy Jamm (Lady Wyngate’s retainer) saw his lady die gruesomely and his bravery failed him. He cowardly ran down the hall to escape from where the party entered.

**RETAINER DEATH 04***

Screams were heard down the hallway where Jam fled. Tar-Tar peered down the hallway and saw the cowardly fighting man get jammed as he ran smack into a strange cube shaped ooze and his armor and flesh melted like he had jumped into a pool of acid. Tar-Tar and Rita shot the ooze full of arrows and it melted and died with Jam’s bones splaying about.

The rest of the party finished the owlbear off quickly with no further injury. Even so, all were shocked and stunned that their hip-hop hype lady was dead and gone at the beak of a vicious owlbear. Gerald wanted nothing more than to flee the odious cave but the rest of the party quickly looted the owlbear’s nest. Inside the nest they found a scroll tube with a scroll of Protection from Undead. This was given to Heime.

A tragic return!

The party fled the Caves of Chaos as soon as possible and carted Lady Wyngate’s corpse back to the Keep on their donkey cart with their loot. They arrived at the Keep three days later with no random encounters.

The Curate of the Chapel helped Gerald give Lady Wyngate a proper funeral service.

The party sold their loot for a solid return and mourned their losses by drowning in booze at the Frolicking Fox.

That evening John Henry got a case of the sticky fingers and investigated the high end private apartments. Casing the place he saw that there were 7 private apartments but only 3 currently had residents.

The Jeweler lived in one there but his door had two guards posted. The Priest also lived in the private apartments but John Henry decided not to mess with his place since the Priest seemed a bit psycho from his dealings with him a few weeks back.

John Henry decided on the apartment that was rented out to an unknown party (perhaps a craftsman’s guild member). He was able to unlock the door without being noticed by the guards and pocketed some gold from a small chest. He did so without being caught and returned to his room at the inn.

The rest of the party prepared themselves for their next adventure. Would it be back to the deadly Caves of Chaos or perhaps to some new and mysterious dungeon?

Only time will tell…