Return to the Old School: How to kick ACKS (or die trying).

[Sable Wyvern]

So, I had planned to get ten or a dozen sessions under my belt before I started this thread. But I'm excited. So I'm starting now.

If you are a player in this game, you should not be reading this (unless the game has reached it's glorious conclusion, in which case, have at it).

Introduction

This thread is to be an account of my ACKS game. It is not a “story hour”, or any sort of attempt to turn the events of the game into high literature. Instead, it will cover my thoughts on the game, the players, the characters and the rules. It will chronicle the process of running the campaign and, at times, will involve me rambling on about whatever semi-relevant topic comes to mind. Really, it should probably be a blog. But I don’t blog. So, here I am.

I did this with my first foray into the OSR, using 1E AD&D over a decade ago, and it went over fairly well. This game has similar goals to that first one, but I hope to use what I learned the first time around to run an even better game this time.

Anyone interested in the original thread can find it here: https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/1e-ad-d-kicking-it-old-school.464723/

One of my players also ended up doing one from their own perspective, which can be found here: https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/1e-ad-d-being-kicked-old-school.485065/

The last game fizzled out after nearly three years, mainly because the group became a bit burned out on the centrepiece dungeon, and I wasn’t properly prepared to deal with significant events beyond the dungeon.

This time around, I hope to avoid the same problems via three main methods:

1. Dungeon variety. I have dropped Dwimmermount, Stonehell, Barrowmaze, the Caverns of Thracia and my own large dungeon into the starting region. In addition, numerous smaller dungeons and adventure opportunities are scattered around.
2. Life outside the dungeon. For the first time ever, I plan to incorporate hexcrawling into the campaign. If my previous, AD&D game was a discovery of old school dungeoneering, I’m hoping this one will be similarly enlightening when it comes to hexcrawling.
3. I am also more prepared for general politicking at higher levels; I very much hope we have a chance to engage in domain-level play, mass combat and the like later in the campaign. As I will elucidate below, the planned scope of this aspect of the game is also going to be something new for me.

Why ACKS?

For no especially compelling reason, when I made the decision to go back to the dungeon, I decided I was going to give B/X or BECMI a spin, or use a clone of that lineage. I had played very little AD&D prior to my last old school campaign, and I’ve had even less experience with this part of the D&D family (maybe three or four disconnected sessions of BECMI Basic, back in the mid-80s).

As I read up, I became enamoured of B/X, and I essentially grabbed ACKS because it appeared to be a B/X clone with more detailed rules for domain level play. A couple of players from AD&D had been disappointed the game ended just before they got to start building their temples and strongholds, so ACKS seemed like the ideal choice.

Imagine my shock and disappointment when I opened up my brand-new hardback and found FEATS staring me in the face. WTF had I done?

On further inspection, ACKS won me over, though. While superficially similar to feats, the proficiencies are not nearly as central to the character as 3e+ feats, mainly providing colour and minor benefits. The game is entirely playable without them, but they fell (just barely, with some minor adjustments) within my threshold of acceptable charop and skill-gating for an oldschool game, so I left them in. It does indeed have strong support for high-level activities, spell research, mad-wizard wizarding, waging war etc… The core systems are, for the most part, close to B/X, and there are a bunch of interesting classes that appear to play true to original game. I don’t have the aversion to race-as-class that I once did (I actually think, done properly, it offers a number of strengths), but I did find the traditional one-class-per-race a little boring. ACKS fixes that. So, good, I haven’t just dropped a decent pile of cash on some feat-ed up, 3e-fied , “OSR-in-name-only” pile of crud. While withholding final judgement because I haven’t actually played the game yet, I think this might, in fact, be just about right at the sweet spot of what I want for my personal take on OSR gaming. (With a few, relatively minor, personal tweaks. Like bringing back the REAL fireball. Yes, that’s right: your fireball sucks, Alex.)

Campaign Prep

It was a couple of years ago when I suddenly went, “I want to run another dungeoneering game”. I settled on ACKS fairly quickly, devoured the rules, started making a few adjustments, and planning the campaign. Initially, it was going to be Dwimmermount-focused (and, now that I think about it, that probably also played into my somewhat-impulsive initial decision to settle on ACKS as the rule system). Then I came across Stonehell, and thought, “that’s cool”. And a lot of people speak highly of Barrowmaze. And I still want to make my own dungeon. And that was the beginnings of realising I can probably help myself run a dungeon-centric game by providing a bunch of thematically different dungeons for the players to play around in as they see fit.

I also picked up Worldographer, just for something different, to start making a world. In the past, I’ve always used hand-drawn maps. Choosing Worldographer instead was to turn out to be brilliant decision. After quickly ditching my first attempt, starting over, spending a couple weeks working on the next map, having to ditch it again because I’d completely screwed up the scale, I’ve ended up spending vast amounts of time over years putting together a map far, far larger than I have any call for. Then I spent time laying out the core region according to the ACKS economic principles. With some diversionary time spent making a faux-Egypt the players will never see, because it’s fun.

Then, a while ago, I stumbled across the The Alexandrian’s Hexcrawl system. This blew me away. Hexcrawling never really made any sense to me (albeit, I had never investigated it particularly closely). But here was a system that I read, and thought, “I can see how I could use that to make hexcrawling interesting. This actually clarifies what hexcrawling really is, and how it can work.”

This is where my decision to grab Worldographer suddenly proved to be a stroke of unknowing genius. Because I already have a hex map to serve as the foundation of the hexcrawling segment of the game. And away I went, keying my wilderness, drawing regions so I know which wandering monster tables to use for where. And, I was just recently sold on the Forbidden Caverns of Archaia, so I now have a fourth commercial megadungeon, although this one has been broken up and scattered across my wilderness.

All up, I’m probably more prepared for this campaign than anything I’ve run previously.

I have a massive pile of dungeons either ready to go or under construction. I have a solid wilderness hexcrawling zone I’m steadily expanding on and fleshing out. I have daily weather pretty much sorted for the length of the campaign (thanks, dwarvenautomata.com). I have three separate big, bad threats in the wilderness that might come into play, plus seeds relating to the wider world from Stonehell (hobgoblins) and Dwimmermount (Thulians, Termaxians, Eld etc), as well as a menacing threat ready to rise in the West. I’ve worked hard at not overdetailing most things I might not need, but I’ve developed enough details of the political situation in the starting realm and its neighbours that those things can come into play if/when the players show interest. I have extensive rumour tables to keep adventure seeds flowing and create a sense of events happening around the players, taking stuff from half-a-dozen different modules in use, plus things of my own invention.

Two years of on-and-off prep work have got me to this point. If I can’t run an awesome sandbox with all this at my disposal, I suck and deserve to fail.

Campaign Objectives

The copout answer here is to say the plan is to run a sandbox game, let the players do what they want, and see what happens.

That’s not really true, though. If the players immediately decide to pack up and head to a completely different part of the world to engage in corporate espionage, the campaign crashes and burns, because I have no interest in that.

So, the first objective is to have enough interesting things to do (right there, in your face) that they don’t want to go elsewhere, at least for a good, long while. I think I have that covered.

Beyond that, what I really want is for the game to cover the three formal phases of ACKS – Adventurer, Conqueror, King.

I want dungeoneering to be fun, and interesting, and exciting. Either players that are interested in exploring each dungeon for a while, moving onto the next, cycling back as the mood takes them, or players who become extremely enthralled by one of them and wanting to spend as much time as possible discovering it’s secrets.

To be honest, up until relatively recently, I would have said that if we have a full campaign of just that, I’ll probably be satisfied.

However, I’m also really looking forward to finding out what this hexcrawling thing is really all about. Heading into the wilderness isn’t going to be viable initially (it’s too dangerous), but I expect the players to give it a shot at some point, and I want to create a genuine sense of danger and actual exploration. Again, I want the players eager to press ever deeper into the wilderness, whether it’s in search of something specific, or just to see what’s there. And I want to add, “I can run an awesome hexcrawl” to my GM CV.

Finally, I want to give the players a chance to build to genuine domain play. I’ve only recently come to really understand the depth and scope that ACKS offers at domain level. The “King” part is intended literally. The “menace in the West” that I mentioned above was actually a recent addition to my plans, because I needed something that could trigger a reason to start conquering/uniting the squabbling principalities of my setting (and even if a trigger isn’t necessary, how the players deal with (or ignore, or whatever) the threat should prove interesting).

To some extent, this means some of my initial planning may be thrown into disarray as, until recently, I didn’t have any real expectations for the scope of the game to move beyond the starting principality and surrounds. But, when I started to internalise the fact that the game is designed so that the players can actually become kings, it also became apparent that they’re going to have to interact with kingdoms.

This is something else that will be new to me, and I have at least a couple of players that I know want to get there. I’m looking forward to pulling out Domains at War to run some mass combat. See them overthrow existing rulers, or establish new domains, or both. Engage the forces of Evil with armies numbering in the thousands, mighty heroes and foul lords of chaos stalking the battlefield, while soldiers clash about them.

Essentially, I want the campaign to be a shining example of everything I think traditional D&D is designed to be good at. Will I achieve my goals? Fucked if I know. But I won’t die wondering.

***

Comments, observations, questions, queries, feedback, thoughts, encouragement or whatever are all welcome.

 

[Simon Hogwood]

This sounds like a fantastic time. Are your players going to be playing face-to-face, or online?

You may want to check out a blog called BDubs and Dragons, which is chronicling a similar 1E-style campaign using ACKS.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

All my gaming is face-to-face, with friends. We did a few sessions online when wrapping up a Rolemaster game, but that was due to Covid lockdown. After that, we did some online boardgames, but roleplaying didn't resume until we were out of lockdown.

I've seen a bit of BDubs' stuff. I'm not going for a West Marches style as he is, but he definitely seems to know how to run a sandbox.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 0

6 Nov 2021

Introducing The Players

De: The longest serving member of the group, we were acquainted in our hometown, and when I decided to start putting a group back together about 20 years ago, I reached out to him. He is extremely risk-averse, gets extremely attached to his characters and is one of the most dedicated members of the group. Takes a firm hand in promoting a “let’s make decisions that benefit the group, and don’t involve unnecessary risk” approach. Paradoxically, I believe his risk averse, high-attachment position actually means he gets a lot of enjoyment from surviving extremely dangerous situations he would have avoided completely if he could have.

Da: His first ever roleplaying experience was in my AD&D game of just over 10 years ago. He loved much of it, hated some of it and, after the game was over and we played a lot of different systems and styles, he decided OSR-style gaming is what he wants, and missed it a great deal (although, he wouldn’t have the faintest clue that the term “OSR” even exists). A man of simple needs, with hidden depths, and definitely a casual gamer.

Tr: Often contrarian just to get a reaction, which rubs some people the wrong way, but also the player most likely to make decisions on the basis of, “will this lead to the other players having fun?” Not usually reckless, but can be a little impulsive. Makes an effort to ensure everyone gets spotlight time when he’s in a leadership position. Along with De, the most dedicated member of the group.

Ag: A man of many facets, Ag seems like a casual gamer, just as happy turning up just to catch up and shoot the shit as he is to actually get some gaming in. But he’s also the player most likely to get me scrambling to improvise as he suddenly starts interacting with random NPCs or going off on some unexpected tangent. I’m endeavouring to be prepared to accommodate his random whims, as the game will likely be much more interesting if I do.

Jo: I don’t believe Jo did any gaming prior to joining our group. He’s been a bit disappointed with some of his characters from previous games, but it’s my understanding he has very fond memories of AD&D, and thus I believe he is excited for this return to a similar style. Depending on his investment in a game, he can either be mostly a spectator, or heavily involved. In the latter situation, he’s a strong asset to the group.

La: Has a background in Earthdawn and D&D, I believe, and has gamed with us on-and-off over the past couple of decades. Vastly prefers fantasy to sci fi; sometimes has a bit of a “I must play a special snowflake” mentality with his characters, although usually not to extremes. Seems inclined towards ruthless characters, although he’s capable of keeping that mentality in check when it’s not appropriate.

Ro: Will usually come up with the most ingenious plan to deal with a challenge. On those occasions he doesn’t come up with the most ingenious plan, there’s a reasonable chance he has a fatally flawed plan. The opposite of La, he prefers sci fi to fantasy. Always involved and active. Does a great job managing the group whenever he’s in a leadership position.

Ri: New to the group, I’ve chatted to him briefly online a couple of times prior to today. He has played and run some D&D (3e and later I believe, currently running a 5e game). Has been vouched for by Tr. Is apparently ok joining a new group, with an unknown DM, in a game where you’re only ever one failed save from death, so props for that. He has mentioned that the idea of not being able to rely on character stats and abilities is a little disconcerting, but is willing to give it a go.

* ** *** ** *​

As one might expect, this gathering was about character gen and making sure everyone was on the same page regarding the rules, setting and style.

My initial introductory information was written when the campaign was being planned to be dungeon-centric, and was updated a little prior to distribution when I decided I also wanted to include the opportunity for extensive hexcrawling. Domain management was also always intended to be a part, but I’ve only recently begun to clarify exactly what that means in my own mind, so it may not have been clear to all the players. All details were ironed out so that everyone has a clearer idea of what to expect, and what kind of opportunities the players can expect to see. I made it very clear that they will have the freedom to do pretty much whatever they want.

If he had his way, De would have the group skip past all the low- and mid-level stuff straight to Domain management (which isn’t remotely an option, and not something he actively campaigned for).

In the leadup, La (while eager to get back into a fantasy game) seemed mildly skeptical of the whole idea of using a B/X-derived ruleset rather than something more modern, but seems to have come around. I linked everyone to Principia Apocrypha earlier this week, and I think that both created some nostalgia for him and did a good job showcasing the strengths of OSR.

Ag, whose previous exposure to D&D is limited to 3e and other d20 games of the era (and maybe some 4e) also found the Principia Apocrypha an eye-opener.

Everyone seems happy and eager.

Character gen was relatively quick and easy (slowed down only by the size of the group and coming to grips with a new system). I had them roll five sets of ability scores in order – two sets are discarded, the other three will be used for their first character and replacements. Even with the few minor fiddly bits ACKS adds to B/X, the use of random templates (which determine starting spells, proficiencies and equipment) kept the process fast and easy. Picking a set of stats and class is the most time consuming part.

Initial characters are:

• De: Dwarven Craftpriest (Dwarven cleric, although I’ve modified it to remove turn undead and replace it with some augury/commune abilities linked to runestones. He picked up the proficiency which gives some turning ability back, which I suspect made him happy.)
• Ri: Dwarven Delver (scout/thief; with a couple of hunting dogs from his random template, which he seems happy with.)
• La: Fighter
• Da: Dwarven Fury (think WHFRP trollslayer)
• Jo: Paladin
• Ro: Elven Spellsword (standard B/X Elf)
• Ag: Mystic (ACKS monk. Ag isn’t sure he’s happy with the class though, as he was expecting something closer to the AD&D monk. He may switch classes.)
• Tr: Elven Nightblade (Mage-assassin. I was a little surprised when he first expressed interest, as he played a Magent in a 2.5 year Rolemaster game in the recent past, and I thought he would be more interested in something different. Clearly, he’s decided at some point he really enjoys that sort of character.)

A fairly balanced party, albeit short on healing. That can be fixed with some henchmen, though, or replacement characters after the inveitable deaths. They are certainly capable of handling a fight, in any case; they’re almost all melee-competent, with the Mystic being the only especially fragile one.

Looking at their hit points (no one has less than 6), I’m almost thinking I should have had them roll, rather than allowing max at first level. However, any of them can still go down in two good hits, and most of them in one, so I don’t think they’re going to be brute-forcing their way through a dungeon any time soon.

They’ve all agreed to make Dwimmermount their first point of call (no surprise there, I’ve started them out on Muntburg, six miles away from the main entrance). Ri is already expressing interest in the Ancient Caverns [of Thracia, although I haven’t made that known. It’s possible he has made the connection, but I’m assuming it’s just randomly piqued his interest].

I compiled all the rumours from Stonehell, Barrowmaze, Dwimmermount, Thracia and Eyrie of the Dread Eye, added a bunch of my own, and let every player pick one category. On top of this, they each get two random rumours.

This is what they have started with (the last listed for each was their chosen category):

De

• Rathluk: The temple is currently infested by kobolds.
• Elderwode: The Elderwode is cursed -- which is plain to see for any who have been there.
• Dwimmermount: Every locked door is trapped, and can only be safely passed by those bearing the correct seal

Tr

• Elderwode: Sleep in the trees, for the ground will swallow you during the night.
• Stonehell: A large settlement of Vrilya exist within the depths.
• Ostwood: After the cataclysm, an empire of powerful mages quickly rose in the region, but it was struck down by its own god.

Jo

• Stonehell: There is a great cube, and spinning it summons a djinn who grants wishes.
• Ancient Caverns: Some of the statues are actually guardians.
• Dwimmermount: A group of dwarves entered recently, and have not returned

Ag

• Stonehell: A giant cave swarms with scores of carcass scavengers.
• Dwimmermount: There is a secret back entrance to the first level.
• Cult of Mythyr: The cult is home to the Grandmaster of all assassins.

Da

• Stonehell: A holy man living in an ancient crypt offers solace and healing to weary adventurers.
• Mazen Kurz: The mad necromancer Verruckete Leiche made his home in the depths of Mazen Kurz after fleeing the wrath of Duke Torban of Middenstien.
• Local Principalities: Elves are stalking Niflasecht, stealing human children to raise as slaves and servants.

Ro

• Elderwode: The trails through the Elderwode are hazardous, but leaving the trails is far more dangerous.
• Onderlach: Many barons of Leuchtenberg are unhappy with the Count.
• Ancient Caverns: Some of the statues are actually guardians.

La

• Dwimmermount: Skeletons with bones of metal are not undead, and cannot be turned.
• Eyrie of the Dread Eye: Something sleeps in the Eyrie, and it is able to touch the dreams of others. It's been felt by people in Onderlach.
• Eyrie of the Dread Eye: The Eyrie has already been looted, but those that were successful took the goods elsewhere with no one knowing.

Ri

• Barrowmaze: The spirits of the dead will not harm you if you leave an offering at each barrow.
• Sorrelblight: Raiders from Sorrelblight seek to capture slaves along the borderlands of Onderlach.
• Ancient Caverns: There is a collector in High Sonderberg willing to pay for artefacts taken from the temple.

I ran through the combat rules, and we discussed a few other technical details, but there wasn’t a great deal of rule-related material that warranted discussion, as ACKS is pretty much a very lightweight B/X game until you get into higher-level activities. There was a decent amount of reminiscing about the old AD&D game.

Everyone seems eager for session one in two weeks’ time.

* ** *** ** *​

As a final note, I ordered the offset print edition of Worlds Without Number earlier in the week, to add to my mountain of support material. On a quick skim through of the PDF, it was immediately apparent it was going to be money well spent. I’ve already used some of the world building tools to help flesh out some of the nearby nations while finishing off my starting rumour list, and I’m pretty sure I’ll make use of some of the magic item concepts (in combination with cosmetic effects from the “Make Magic Items Magical” ACKS Patreon extra) to help give a lot of the magic items a little more character.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 1

20 Nov 2021

NOTE: For the foreseeable future, posts are likely to contain Dwimmermount spoilers, varying from mild to extreme.

Pre-session discussion

In the lead-up to the session, we did a bit of background work and group prep.

Jo wanted to investigate a couple of Dwimmermount rumours:

• Every locked door is trapped, and can only be safely passed by those bearing the correct seal
• A group of dwarves entered recently, and have not returned

I let him know the following:

Getting some basic details on the dwarves is easy: there were at least five, possibly as many as eight, and they set out from Muntburg about four days ago.

As to the seals, most people have no idea, or respond with fanciful tales. Not a seal, a key. You can open them, but ancient weapons disintegrate you if you pass through. Attempting to open them teleports you to Areon, where you will be tortured for the amusement of Red Elves. Getting real answers will most likely require considerable research and/or employing a sage.

Jo is clearly settling well into OSR-mode, because he immediately checked on prices for a rat or bird in a small cage, to push through previously locked doors prior to PCs braving passage.

Since he was asking around town about Dwimmermount, I decided to throw another rumour at the group as well. I rolled up the one about a secret back entrance. The group already heard this one and, while there’s no particular reason to avoid duplication, one of the purposes of randomly rolling for things in sandboxes isn’t to get answers, it’s to kick-start the imagination. Since Jo had been asking about dwarves, and the secret back entrance is actually dwarven, I decided to go with this instead:

While asking about the dwarves, an old dude repeats the rumour you've already heard about the secret back entrance, but adds it was created by the dwarves. He says there have been Dwarves in Dwimmermount ever since the Termaxians left, coming and going even when the mountain was sealed, carrying on ancient tasks in veneration of their makers.

Tr was interested in equipping a couple more party members with spears in order to fight from the second rank. This was my first time engaging with the ACKS economic and market class system, and it works nicely.

There is typically one spear available in Muntburg per month, but the group could commission up to 10 more, with a production time of 2/3 day each. Whipping those numbers up takes seconds. Seeing the author discussing the market system, he’s mentioned he’s working on the assumption of limited middlemen – most purchases are direct from a manufacturer, and sales are to an end user (no general stores). The system does a good job representing that. Someone in town has a spear for sale; if the players want more, a pole turner makes hafts, a weaponsmith makes blades, someone assembles them etc … This takes time, and the number that can be commissioned is limited by available materials and labour. It’s not a big thing, and it’s probably not going to have a dramatic impact mechanically most of the time, but it’s nice colour. I’ve also established one day per month that’s the local market day, when buying and selling is easier.

Ri was asking questions that will mostly require detailed investigation or retaining the services of sages. He did continue on the dwarf questions though, so I elaborated on what I’d already told Jo.

If you speak further to the guy Jo found (let's call him Elterer Mann) he says, about sixty years ago, or thereabouts, he spent a night drinking with a dwarf, who didn't provide him with too many details, but indicated that he was part of an ancient and secret order that maintained the Great Machine (or something like that) since the time of the Ancients, even through the dark days of the Eld, and the Thulians and Termaxians at their worst. No one took him seriously, and assumed the dwarf was telling him tall tales, but he's adamant the dwarf was sincere and honest.

He also got a bit more general info:

There is some talk around town of an invisible/magical trail up the mountain somewhere, but it's all pretty much tenth-hand accounts of unreliable provenance.

Dwimmermount has been sealed for 250 years, and any accurate details of what's currently inside, or it's state of repair, are well and truly lost to common knowledge, but people came and went freely throughout past ages, and no one is aware of any special requirements for entry or behaviour within.

Initial forays beyond the main entrance are not reporting fantastic technology or awe-inspiring displays of vast, powerful magic, leading some people to suppose the place is now an empty, broken ruin no longer holding anything of interest (this seems unlikely).

Tr perked up at this, seeking more information about who’s been in, and what they found and a few more history questions. He got the following back:

Hundreds of years ago, rebels seeking to overthrow the Termaxians marched on Dwimmermount, and arrived to find it silent, and the doors sealed (magically). No explanation has ever been settled on.

A couple of months ago, strange lights were seen from the mountain, and tales spread of unusual, mysterious, shadowy comings and goings.

The Count of Muntburg hired some adventurers to investigate. They reported no signs of traffic on the stairs, or signs that the doors had been opened, but did not venture in. The Count Prelate of Mitteldurchgang sent his own team, who encountered skeletons that they could not turn, and lost a considerable number of men.

Several groups have been in since. A few returned with much wealth, and reported little resistance and quiet halls. Some (such as the dwarves) have not returned at all.

Tr then wanted to ask around for advice on dealing with skeletons; word on the street seems to be a typical undead skeleton has no unusual weaknesses or resistances, and they usually cannot stand before the truth and power of Law. I’m not sure if anyone has actually picked up on another rumour they already have: skeletons with bones of metal are not undead, and cannot be turned.

De’s main concern is finding somewhere to leave his lapidarist’s tool kit, as it’s encumbering and unlikely to be of use in the dungeon. Conveniently enough, there’s a dwarven gemsmith in town, who I expect to be amenable to helping out a craftpriest jeweller, but we’ll play that out in the actual session.



The Actual Session

Present:

• De: Obsidian Gemcutter the Craft-Catechist, Level 1 Lawful Dwarven Craftpriest
• Ag: Waramayl the Aspirant, Level 1 Lawful Mystic
• Tr: Aldaval the Arcanist-Avenger, Level 1 Neutral Elven Nightblade
• Da: Kant* the Grudgebearer, Level 1 Neutral Dwarven Fury
• Ri: Gofret Degginson the Caver, Level 1 Neutral Dwarven Delver
  • Two dwarven hunting dogs (Dash and Ripper)
• Ro: Malgath the Arcanist-Guardian, Level 1 Lawful Elven Spellsword
• La: Grendel the Man-at-Arms, Level 1 Lawful Fighter

*Vowel changed for public consumption.

One absentee for the first session. Most of the admin and prep was done in the lead-up to the session, as discussed above. At the start of the session, Obsidian arranged for the local gemsmith to look after his tool kit, in return for two days of work a month, some spears were bought, and the party was heading up the mountain.

They are definitely intrigued about the possibility of a secret rear entrance, and kept an eye out for anything obvious, but nothing turned up.

The first room of the dungeon involved a bit of confusion and coming to grips with new processes. I had wanted the group to use a caller, for two reasons – one, it allows me to being doing my own thing while they work out a plan of action, and then have one person report clearly to me on what they want to do. Second, having a player in a position to report group activities means that player is likely to feel more comfortable pushing for a decision/consensus to be reached when there is disagreement and the group is wasting time in the dungeon doing nothing.

Unfortunately, the nominated player (Ag) didn’t really see the point, and didn’t seem to be taking the role particularly seriously, so I just went back to dealing with things on a player-by-player basis.

Time was spent by the players just getting a feel for how the game would work, how I expect information to be passed along, setting up operating procedures and all that sort of thing. The whole process seemed more awkward than the last go around with AD&D, but eventually everyone seemed to start to get a handle on things and they started to run more smoothly.

They were definitely cautious, but not terrified of interacting with the environment, which is a good sign. The entry-hall to Dwimmermount contains a number of statues of Thulian gods, with the heads replaced by that of Turms Termax, the demigod behind the successor-religion. One of the heads was eventually removed, and left by its statue. (I think they wanted it off just to confirm it could be done, and possibly also to see if anything was hidden within).

Exploring further passageways, they came across some dwarves – the only time, in about 15 rolls over a 4 hour (in-game) delve, where a wandering monster check actually produced monsters. The dwarves weren’t too happy to see people wandering around “their” dungeon. They passed on a bit of information about kobolds to the south and orcs to the west, told the group not to mess with any machinery and grudgingly advised their presence on this level (the Path of Mavors) would be tolerated. As I recall, the group was left with the strong (and accurate) impression the dwarves actually reside some considerable way below.

When I’m making my own megadungeons, I tend to put a fair bit of work into furnishings, dressing, etc…, ensuring there is plenty of stuff for the players to interact with, and things that can happen when they do. The first level of Dwimmermount is a bit sparse on that front. I definitely need to work at adding more detail in my room descriptions, but I also want to avoid situations where the group spends time interacting with interesting-sounding things that don’t actually do anything. So, overall, that side of things is a bit disappointing, and I’m still working about how I want to deal with it.

However, the history, background and factions are a strong point in the dungeon. The group is definitely intrigued by all this talk of machinery, of dwarves still hanging out in the dungeon over all the centuries and, in general, it’s clear that there are things actually going on. At the moment, it’s still just rumours, vague comments and grumpy dwarves, but I get the sense that the players can feel there are interesting things to discover.

After the dwarf encounter, they found a room with bestial masks hanging on the wall, and a clear clue to danger, with a corpse lying near a mask that is no longer on the wall. A painfully obvious clue that there is danger. A small hole is found in the wall just under where the fallen mask would have been hanging, and darts or poison are immediately seen as possibilities. Ri uses his ten foot pole to knock another mask off, and then everyone skedaddles as a cloud of vapour hisses out from the wall.

While the poison clears, they head elsewhere, and hear what sounds like orcs behind a door. They decide to burst in and attempt to intimidate them into providing information. The orcs don’t attack, and are willing to hear party out. Ro demands intelligence on everything going on, telling them they’ll all be killed if they don’t share what they know about the dungeon. The orcs scoff at that, but are happy to let the group go their own way without any conflict. As seems to usually be the case with players, failing to get exactly what they want is considered unacceptable, so Ro just continues to demand the orcs submit to his demands. He eventually decides to cast Choking Grasp on the leader, just before the orcs were about to attack themselves. An orc goes down, the leader dies to Ro’s black magics shortly thereafter, the rest run, and the group manages to tackle one to the ground and capture it.

The captured orc gives them a bit of information about where they’re located, and mentions the kobolds as well. This confirms the information they’ve already received from the dwarves. They get the impression the orcs have come from the next level down, where they are in conflict with gnolls, and have possibly headed up to this level because things aren’t going well. The orc advises that, if the PCs want to help them fight the gnolls, their chieftain will treat them well. I think there were some demands for the orc to go bring the chieftain to meet them, and comments that they might help with the fight against the gnolls in their own time (no time soon). When they felt they had gathered all the useful information they could, the orc was released.

Later, a call for paralysation saves scared a few players, who were relieved to discover failure just meant they were doubled over coughing and sneezing after kicking up a lot of dust. I did enjoy seeing that the fear of death is real, though.

A locked, iron door stymied them, and created a lot of concern about traps. They currently have no one who can even attempt to pick locks, so it’s something to come back to.

A fight against skeletons with bones of iron saw Kant get wailed on. Anyone else in the party would have gone done, but his high hit points and damage reduction saw him end the five still on a healthy 5hp. After the fight, which occurred in a chapel dedicated to Turms, the group didn’t spot the markings on the floor that suggested the altar could be moved. However, they did attempt to remove the marble top, and ended up moving the entire thing anyway. This led them to a room where they got the bulk of the delve’s haul – a decent amount of silver, and a few gems. They also found a nice-looking jewelry box containing a broach crafted to resemble an iridescent beetle. I don’t believe they opened it until safely back in town, but the damp sheen of what appears to be blood over the beetle’s carapace was enough to prevent anyone from actually handling it. They’re waiting on Obsidian to cast his rune stones a few times, and maybe do some more investigation. This is wise, because it is in fact a scarab of death.

With Kant low (relative to his normal hale self) on hit points and a semi-decent amount of treasure for a first expedition, it was decided to start heading for home. They made a few guesses about where some hallways would lead, and mapped out an alternate way out, explored a couple more rooms (deciding not to meddle with the controls in a room that appears to have mobile sparring mannequins on tracks in the floor), and also went back to recover all the masks.

In the book, the masks are just regular (albeit hideous) masks that (due to tradition or something) give a +1 bonus to reaction rolls with beastmen (orcs, goblins, kobolds, etc …). I decided to make them a bit more magical and, while they look wooden at a glance, on closer inspection they feel fleshy, and have pulsing veins. This left me in a bit of a conundrum because I discovered that, by the book, they should probably be worth at least 10,000gp each if it requires magic to create them and they provide the equivalent of a proficiency bonus. In the end, I decided not to worry about it too much. They can get 500gp each for them if they make an effort, which would still be an excellent haul far greater than the gems and coins they pulled out, and who really cares if it would cost them a lot more to make such things themselves.

In the end, they walked out with about 900gp, not counting any value for the masks or scarab of death. They were a bit disappointed to only walk away with about 140xp each from this, but it’s early days, and more will come. As I said at the time, it’s all about working towards the really big hauls (and, if they can sell those masks anywhere near the value I’ve given them, they do actually have a pretty decent haul, they just don’t know it yet).

The also pulled a strange waterskin from a dead dwarf. Back in town, Ro was able to work out that inking the leather cover (which had strange, stained patterns on it) and rolling it on paper provided them with a map of the first level. This was a moment of some joy.

No PCs died, which was a little surprising, but there were definitely some tense moments and they’re not taking their survival for granted. They also got off really lightly with wandering monster checks, and may find themselves having to deal with a few more challenges in future.

Also, the online mapping software worked pretty damn well. This was what the secondary mapper produced:

 

[CRKrueger]

What mapping software is that?

 

[under_score]

What mapping software is that?

Dungeonscrawl.com
It's pretty cool for making quick maps.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Dungeonscrawl.com
It's pretty cool for making quick maps.

That is indeed the one. I was extremely skeptical, but it actually works quite well for mapping on the fly. (As long as you have a space bar, which makes it of limited utility on a tablet.)

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 2

4 Dec 2021

Pre-session discussion and random musings

There was a little talk of investigating the properties of the scarab and the masks, possibly joining a mages’ guild to facilitate this, but not much actually done by the players between sessions. For some reason, no one thought to suggest upgrading anyone’s armour with the funds earned on the first expedition.

I provided the group a bit more background on the town of Muntburg, and some of its key figures and organisations, which leads me, in a roundabout way, to a segue about level titles.

A lot of genre fiction (and games based on it) presents leaders, officers, etc ... as naturally and inherently more talented and gifted than their underlings. This tends to annoy the shit out of me when it’s treated as a simple reflection of reality. D&D, in general, tends to support this mentality, and ACKS certainly does, with a system that (among other things) assumes a ruler of a certain-sized domain is typically of a particular level. A thieves’ guild of X size will generally be run by a thief of Y level. The ruler of a duchy should typically be of Z level. Instead of fighting this, I decide to embrace it, which has had interesting consequences.

Taken to logical conclusions as an actual fact of the game world, it has interesting metaphysical implications, potentially supporting a “Might makes right” philosophy, or the Divine Right of Kings. I don’t have any plans to explore those concepts, but it is an idea in the back of my mind that may come up at some point. It also enables justification of the implied (and extremely extravagant) default living expenses in ACKS, because if most people consider power, wealth and station to be inexorably intertwined, then there is a need for conspicuous consumption in order for higher level characters to be taken seriously and accorded the respect they feel their level deserves.

Finally, it means that most people in the game world will have a fair idea how powerful another individual is simply by observing their wealth and station. That, in turn, means there is no reason for me to be particularly coy about the levels of NPCs; and that, of course, means I was able to throw official level titles around when describing many of the local NPCs. I’m not sure if anyone has actually picked up on it yet, but I’m sure they will eventually. I always found the level titles a nice concept, but also mostly unsuitable for practical use. This time around, I’m comfortable making good use of them.

And, returning back to the monthly living expenses, it was thinking about the implications of those that actually started getting me into the right headspace for the intended nature of the higher-level game in ACKS. To meet the monthly expectations as they rise in levels, PCs are going to have to build, buy or rent villas, employ staff, spend money on all sorts of luxuries. In doing so, it is my expectation that the players are going to start getting a real sense that their characters, as they grow in power and wealth, are actually powerful and respected/feared/envied members of the wider society. It’s a really excellent way of avoiding the whole murder hobo schtick, and transitioning smoothly into domain play.

This little side discussion also has me thinking about what I did with the cleric this time around, where I took a similar approach to buying into setting concepts implied by mechanics, but I’ll save that for another post.



The Actual Session

Present:

• De: Obsidian Gemcutter the Craft-Catechist, Level 1 Lawful Dwarven Craftpriest
• Ag: Waramayl the Aspirant, Level 1 Mystic
• Tr: Aldaval the Arcanist-Avenger, Level 1 Neutral Elven Nightblade
• Da: Kant the Grudgebearer, Level 1 Neutral Dwarven Fury
• Ri: Gofret Degginson the Caver, Level 1 Neutral Dwarven Delver
  • Two dwarven hunting dogs (Dash and Ripper)
• Ro: Malgath Virqin the Arcanist-Guardian, Level 1 Lawful Elven Spellsword
• Jo: Hektor the Bulwark, Level 1 Lawful Paladin

There was a decent amount of time spent on administrative tasks at the start of the session. The group have started renting a small villa and staff to act as base of operations and storage facility, using most of the funds earned from their first foray to pay up the first three months’ rent.

Malgath visited the local head of the Bastion of Knowledge, a mages' guild with a presence in town, paid his membership fee, and arrange for casting of detect magic, confirming that the insect brooch is definitely magical, and the masks have a very faint magical aura. He spent some time in the guild library reading up on Thulian history.

Obsidian conducted a number of auguries on the scarab (with the result being the group was quite confident they do not want to handle it) and on the masks (with the result being Hektor tried one on, and there did not seem to be any ill-effects, other than wearing it is a little disconcerting. He tried issuing commands to Obsidian (who did a silly “I’m being mind-controlled” routine) and Waramayl, determining that it did not seem to be a mask of commanding dwarves or humans.

I overheard a few comments from Ri who seemed to find the whole, “we can’t just do a simple identify on this stuff” mildly interesting, at least. I’m not sure, overall, whether he thinks the more modern approaches are better, but (for the moment, at least) he seems to be getting some enjoyment from the novelty of seeing an alternative way of doing things.

Tr didn’t want any of the masks to be used or sold until they could take them somewhere they could be reasonably confident they would get good value for them. They decided not to offer any for sale on market day (had they done so, they would have got an offer on one, at less than value, but also with a comment they could almost certainly find buyers in the much larger city of Burgensdorf). There were some concerns about the ramifications of selling someone something that could still turn out to be an evil, face-eating mask, so I can understand their reluctance to even try. It was decided (at Tr’s formal but not strenuous objection) that Hektor would wear one on their next delve, thus meaning they could not earn XP from the sale of that specific mask.

They picked up more military oil, rations and torches. I don’t know why they’re buying rations, they’re not going into the dungeon for more than a couple hours at a time, and they bought enough to get everyone up to a two-week supply. Not one person made any mention of the vaguest of thoughts about maybe upgrading some armour.

There were some idle comments about eventually “clearing” the first level of the dungeon, which I found mildly amusing.

I had made a decision between sessions that I wanted to start presenting the dungeon as dynamic, and since they spent several days in town, I had another group return from a less-than-successful venture, where they found orcs in the entry room and barricading the stairs. This other party (Solinor’s Fists) cleared the orcs from the foyer, but had to withdraw back to town afterwards to lick their wounds.

Tr had a chat to the group leader, a fairly arrogant and pious cleric by the name of Jehan. Aldaval took an interesting approach to suggesting a group effort – since the Fists were primarily interested in destroying any possibly Termaxian influence in the temple, while the PCs just want loot or treasure, it would make sense for them to work together, each for their own goals. As if, somehow, the Fists wouldn’t want any financial reward for their efforts. Jehan advised he would be happy to bring them along as servants of the Church, and maybe as partners for a “fair share” of the treasure.

* ** **** ** *​

Eventually, the group set off. Using the ink-roller map, Tr had identified some secret rooms he wanted to check out. In the entry hall, they found signs of the recent battle, burned and broken furniture from the barricade. In the gloom to the west, they heard ratlike sounds. They had plans to try placing the head they found in the chapel on the female statue on the foyer. As they discussed this, they heard a piercing shriek, then scampering, then quiet and maybe some munching.

Heading west, they found orc corpses, stripped of their gear, with three giant centipedes enjoying a snack (including one dead rat). Ag wanted to hurl flaming oil, but was talked out of it by other players not seeing any reason to antagonise monsters, especially ones presumed poisonous.

Somewhere along the way, they completely forgot about the statue head plan, and set out to find the first room Tr had identified as worth checking out.

Listening at doors along the way, they heard the hum and clank of machinery behind one door, and also began noticing sounds emanating from behind the walls in places. I didn’t do anything much with auditory cues in the first session, but I think some descriptions of ambient noise, especially noises that speak to the secrets (even relatively benign ones) of the dungeon are helping create a better atmosphere.

Along the way, they ran into an orcish guard station. They heard orcs beyond a door, opened the door, gained surprise. The orcs were actually in a room down a short stretch of corridor, and neither group had line of sight on the other, so I didn’t say, “you have surprised them,” or anything like that, I simply noted to myself the orcs were not yet aware of them. The PCs decided to continue eavesdropping on the conversation; the orcs were discussing whether they should be staying on the first level, or taking the fight to the gnolls below. One commented they couldn’t beat the gnolls due to the warlock. Eventually, an orc noticed the PC’s torch and lantern light, bellowed a challenge, sent one member off for reinforcement and the rest moved to confront the threat. Ro again decided to try browbeating the orcs into submission. They were having none of it this time, and charged the PCs.

This fight did not go well. Hektor went down in one hit in the second round, which I think was quite a shock. The orc that killed him then cleaved into the already injured Malgath, who also went down. Things were looking extremely grim, and I was seeing the possibility of a TPK. The group was adamant they were going to fight through; retreat or surrender were never considered out loud, not even by De.

Ri hadn’t forgotten his dogs the previous session, he had just been holding them in check. At this stage, he knew he had to release them, and did so. I continued a run of really good rolls, but was no longer getting high damage to go with my constant hits, so the tide eventually turned, although there were few rounds of fairly desperate action. The orcish reinforcements had been watching the fight from further back, and decided not to get involved when their friends all went down, fleeing back the other way instead.

Waramayl attempted to treat Hektor, but his wounds were too severe (one leg severed, the other mangled) and he died moments later. Obi checked on Malgath after the orcs were dealt with. He wasn’t quite as badly off, but one leg was severely injured and we was bleeding out. With no access to any magical healing, it was clear he was done for. Bravely, he volunteered to try the mask before passing from this world, just to see if it had any special (or terrible) effect when worn by an elf. It was disconcerting, and he certainly he had no wish to die with it on, but there were no other effects, so he removed it, and the group remained with him until he passed.

In an adjacent room, the orcs had left Balfur, a dwarven prisoner they’d been interrogating/torturing for the past week-or-so. He didn’t have much to tell them, although they confirmed the dead dwarves they’d encountered were part of his group, who had heard talk of dwarves in Dwimmermount and, with it’s opening, had decided to investigate.

After some searches of the two rooms, the group decided to head back home, with nothing to show for their efforts except a rescued dwarf. However, as they headed out, the came across orcs heading their way, who called out that they were surrounded and should surrender. The orcs were indeed attempting to surround the party, but the group had moved quickly enough that they weren’t trapped yet. They made the wise decision not to backtrack, but to take a more circuitous path they hoped would allow them to bypass the orcs. This path got them back to a door opening onto the entry hall, but based on where they were coming from now, they knew they would also have to get past the centipede feast.

At this point I know I was having a lot of fun. This is the stuff that makes me want to run OSR-style dungeoneering. I have orcish reinforcements trying to arrange a pincer movement, and PCs using their own existing knowledge of the layout to try and find a way around indeterminate threats. They’re battered and bruised, they have left friends behind, they know they’re being pursued, and they have another potentially lethal threat ahead. Fuck, yes.

Gofret had cracked the door open and it seems like there were no orcs waiting for them, but they could still hear centipedes munching away. With the group gripped by fear and indecision, Da made the decision that Kant was just going to head out, and stick to the wall as he made his way fast to the exit. A moment later, he realised he was heading out alone without light, but Ri had already decided that Gofret was following, so the rest of the group went along. They never needed to get really close the centipedes, and I saw no reason for them to do anything other than defend their food, so it was never as big a threat as they thought it might be. They were away.

Balfur was pleased to have been rescued, and had spare coin in town, so the group was paid 500gp for helping him get away, making the whole thing at least not a complete loss.

Ro’s new character was a Dwarven Vaultguard, so it was decided he was Balfur. Jo whipped up a cleric.

Some more quick admin, a few cure lights at the temple and the next game day, they were back off into Dwimmermount again.

* ** **** ** *​

Part 2 of session two should be up tomorrow.

 

[Luca]

This sounds like a blast...

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 2, Part 2

While back in town, a pre-rolled random rumour/event came up, which was that the Marquis of Aisonwech was offering a 300gp reward for anyone clearing the kobolds out of the Temple of Rathluk. There was some talk about maybe heading there instead of back into Dwimmermount (kobolds sounded safer than orcs). However, I hadn't expected as much time to pass, and I let the group know I wasn't properly prepared for them to take up the offer right that moment, so they stuck with a return to Dwimmermount.

There was some concern that the orcs had fled through into the secret area Tr had wanted to investigate and, if they already knew about it, it was likely any treasure had been found already. However, in the interests of thoroughness, they decided they were going to complete the investigation anyway.

One area within the secret region appeared to possibly be completely separated from the main halls, so they had come prepared with a crowbar and pick. However, when the dwarves investigated the area, they found no sign of any hidden passageways or unusual construction. They took to the wall with the pick anyway, confirming that it appeared to be the solid rock of the mountain behind the dressed stone.

The group had assumed the copy of the map I had provided was official. Instead, if was a copy of a normal DM’s map, edited by me to make it a bit scratchy, remove the key etc … The intriguing special area was actually the map title crudely scrubbed out by me. Ri decided to check the actual waterskin roller directly, and I confirmed that when he located this part of the map, it appeared to be random damage to the leather, not the same sort of embossing as the rest. I was a bit disappointed there was nothing for them to find there, because it was good observation by Tr that had led them on this course, and some reward for that would have been a feel-good moment. Such is life, however.

They continued exploring in the same direction, when Waramayl, guarding the rear, saw a very large wolf spider squeezing through the secret entrance that had given them access to this part of the dungeon. The group made haste passing through the next room and closing the door behind them.

While investigating another room a short while later, more wandering monsters were rolled, and it was the same spiders again. This time there was no escape route, and they were forced to fight. They did surprisingly well, with only one spider getting a hit in. This was on Jo’s new cleric, and he was straight into making a Poison save. As I recall in AD&D, pretty much everything with poison kills on a failed save. Some of the minor monsters in B/X (and thus ACKS) aren’t quite as lethal, but neither Jo nor the rest of the group knew that, so it was another tense moment.

Ri initially didn’t want to release his dogs, as he didn’t want them dying, but he was talked into it by the others. I like that he's attached, even though it's probably foolish not to be making use of them (I think there is also a concern that they may go charging off after fleeing enemies, never to be seen again, which is not an unreasonable fear).

After the fight, they investigated a large iron face in the wall, with the jaw moving slightly, squeaking and creaking, and letting out some unintelligible sounds. Ri thought to oil up the hinges, at which point the jaw could move freely and it said something in High Thulian. There was a quick check as to how Tr and Ro had divided up languages between them during character gen, and it was discovered that it was poor, departed Malgath who had gone with High Thulian. The face went silent after speaking once, but a few characters noted down the phonetics of what had been said, to the best of their recollection.

It was time then to go check Tr’s second secret area. Having come into conflict with adventurers on several occasions, and coming off second-best every time, the orcs had withdrawn back towards the stairs where they could consolidate their remaining numbers. The group was heading to exactly this region, and a posse of ten orcs came out to confront them across a room, advising them to either withdraw or surrender. Da protested, but it was an otherwise easy decision by the party to not get into that fight, and they promptly pulled back.

Fortunately, there was another way to get to the objective room, and they headed around the back way, where they past through a room where magical, floating bubbles had been emerging from a fissure in the floor. One exploded when it came close to Balfur, but the group was able to carefully make their way through without disturbing any more.

Arriving at the destination secret door, Ri checked another door to make sure nothing was going to come at them from behind. Opening it and peering into the room behind, he saw glowing red light at various locations in amongst junk and broken furniture, then noticed the glows seemed be moving. He hurriedly pulled the door shut, moments before something banged into it and there was a scraping and scrabbling at it from the other side.

With someone keeping a careful watch on the evil glowing red death beast door, the secret door was opened, and they saw a tall, demonic creature in Eldritch armour, with a flaming sword. It beckoned them to come forward and fight, chuckling mockingly when they refused. Several players had the idea that it might be an illusion, and were wondering if it might be on a loop, but it didn’t appear to be. After a short while of indecision, Da had had enough, and Kant charged in to fight. When he was hit for actual damage, there was concern from the group, but the angry dwarf swung his axe through the demon and it vanished.

Checking to the north, they found gems and coins, although still not the vast hoard they’ve been hoping for. They also acquired a brass rod, about two feet long, with a pattern of “F”s etched into the metal.

Gathering their loot, they decided they’d done enough for now, and made their way back out and home to Muntburg.

There were some mildly sarcastic comments from a few players about how they're already 20% of the way to level 2! (I don't believe the slow advancement will be a major issue, or that there is any serious angst about it yet. There will be slow periods, and then sudden bursts when there's a highly successful session.)

Obituary

• Malgath, Level 1 Elven Spellsword, slain by orcs, session two.
• Hektor, Level 1 Paladin, slain by orcs, session two.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Updated player-made map.

 

[Andrew J. Luther]

This is a joy to read. I like how you summarize the events in a clear, concise, but conversational manner. Please keep it up!

 

[Sable Wyvern]

This is a joy to read. I like how you summarize the events in a clear, concise, but conversational manner. Please keep it up!

I'm not sure I would have put it in those terms until you did, but I think that what you described is probably what I was going for. I'm glad it's going over well, and plan to keep it up for quite some time.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 3, Part 1

18 Dec 2021

Pre-session discussion and random musings

Very little happened between sessions. The group had the idea that a trip to the Temple of Rathluk would involve wandering the wilderness, so I clarified that the region is relatively civilised, and there are plenty of hamlets and communities not shown on the main area map. They still ultimately decided to stick with Dwimmermount for now, as the 300gp reward on offer wasn’t sufficient to entice them to try their luck elsewhere.

Aldaval sought someone who spoke high thulian to try and work out what the iron face had said, based on his memory of the words. Aldaval is smart, but he hadn’t been expecting to memorise words spoken in a foreign language, so I put the correct statement through some google translate cycles and provided the following possible interpretations based on his recollections: “Ask, but if your answer is wrong, we finish,” or “If your answer is wrong, are we not finished with this?”


The Actual Session

• De: Obsidian Gemcutter the Craft-Catechist, Level 1 Lawful Dwarven Craftpriest
• Tr: Aldaval the Arcanist-Avenger, Level 1 Neutral Elven Nightblade
• Da: Kant the Grudgebearer, Level 1 Neutral Dwarven Fury
• Ro: Balfur the Sentry, Level 1 Neutral Dwarven Vaultguard
• La: Grendel the Man-at-Arms, Level 1 Lawful Fighter

The session opened with a man approaching Aldaval in the bar at breakfast, with an, “Excuse me, Mr Elf,” and then seeking confirmation that he was one of those bold adventurers that had been braving Dwimmermount. Once this was confirmed, the man introduced himself as Fungari, and offered Aldaval a bowl of hot mushroom soup, which smelled pretty good, so Aldaval gave it a go and confirmed it was pretty damn tasty.

Fungari then explained how his sister and brother-in-law had developed a process for preparing and preserving mushrooms, and were sure to be able to make a fortune selling them, if only they could afford the expenses involved with transporting them to the larger towns nearby, sourcing clients, etc… He suggested 100gp as a suitable investment, sure to be well rewarded.

Aldaval was intrigued, and asked about town, confirming that goth Fungari and his broth were well regarded, although there were some people who didn’t think much of his sister, suggesting that she was a witch, and up to no good. The elf went out to visit their home and take a look at their set up, confirming that they had an ample supply of mushrooms ready to transport. It was noted that the brother-in-law seemed quite subservient to Salessa, the sister, but there were no obvious signs of human sacrifice or other foul goings-on, so Aldaval agreed to front up the money. Fungari is confident he’ll see his investment double in value within a year or two.

The much smaller group of Aldaval, Kant, Balfur and Grendel then set off back to Dwimmermount. Their first plan was to revisit the face, see if it spoke again, and this time pay careful attention to the phonetics so they can hopefully get a clearer translation. This accomplished, they moved on to check another nearby door, finding it locked. Grendel attempted to batter it down, but his initial attempt failed. It was decided to take the time to keep at it but, the noise attracted a small horde of centipedes, who surprised the group. Several of them were bitten, with Aldaval failing his save and collapsing to the ground twitching and jerking wildly, also dropping the group’s only torch. Grendel, a small distance away dealing with the door, just knew there were yells of fear and sudden darkness, and approached to find out what the commotion was. Kant grabbed the torch and used to smash a centipede that was intent on going at Aldaval again, noting that they seemed wary of the fire, while Balfur was bitten, red hot pain shooting up has leg as he collapsed and began to retch uncontrollably. Kant began to wave his torch, keeping some centipedes at bay, but Grendel too went down to their poisonous bites. As all seemed lost, Kant continued to try to drive them off with flame, and finally they failed their morale check, retreating some distance but still circling hungrily. The group was gladdened to discover no one was dead yet, and carefully limped their way back out, pausing occasionally for Balfur to retch violently. There was talk of waiting just outside the main entrance to see if they got better. I made it clear the three victims were violently ill and in extreme pain, and the party could do as they wished, but it was entirely possible that just waiting around would result in people dying. They decided to make the slow trek back to Muntburg and seek assistance.

At the church of St Solinor, they were advised that the poisoned characters would most likely survive, but they would require a week or more of rest. The Rector would be available to cast a neutralise poison the next day, if they wished – 100gp for Grendel or the dwarves (Grendel clearly being a sincere follower of St Solinor and dwarves, as everyone knows, being staunch defenders of Law (not at all true for Kant, but such is the stereotype)), 325gp for Aldaval the elf (wild and inconstant creatures that they are). Since a single cure would be expensive and only get one of them back up, they decided to wait it out.

During the ten days they were laid up, they heard word the Duke of Burgensdorf is marrying his daughter to one of his vassals, and has a week of celebration planned in about a month, in the lead-up to the marriage. They also heard some people talking about how the Duke is secretly (although perhaps not that secretly, if everyone is gossiping about it) a Termaxian cultist.

Kant spent time hanging out looking for rumours in general. He heard that the Archprince of a neighbouring domain had apparently reneged on a marriage arrangement with the local Prince of Onderlach, that unscrupulous merchants willing to brave the wilderness to visit the nearby Chaotic domain of Sorrelblight can make a small fortune and that the Prince of Sorrelblight resides in a mountain fortress he calls the Anguish of Man. Being a dwarf completely uninterested in political gossip, he then made an effort to find something a little more immediately useful, but the best he came across was someone swearing black-and-blue that the valley of Dread Eye was populated by manticores, not wyverns like everyone ignorantly claims.

In other news, Aldaval was able to get a much better translation of the face’s words: “Ask a question if you one, I'll answer true but then you're done.”

The group was not happy they had been stymied by a locked door. They bought a crowbar and, when they had all recovered, returned. This time, Grendel was able to force the door with relative ease, but they were disappointed to find and old, empty cell; manacles bolted to the walls and a broken bucket on the floor.

They decided to head for the locked iron door and try their crowbar there but, as they got near, turned a corner to find a small group of orcs ahead. A little annoyed by the lack of achieving anything to this point, the decision was made to charge ahead and let out some frustration in a spot of mindless violence. A few extremely short, bloody moments later, all four orcs were dead, as was Grendel with a grievous head wound, and Balfur was stable but had a nasty wound to the knee. Somewhat despondent, the group turned back for town, where Balfur made the decision that Dwimmermount, and adventuring in general, were not for him, deciding that it was time to retire and tell stories about what could have been, had it not been for the spear to the knee that ended his career.

One dead, one retired, a bit of information gained, no treasure.

La thought about coming back with a bard, but the best set of stats he had for this included a Con of 5, so he settled on a mage. Ro was also planning to go with a mage but, on learning of La’s decision, went with elven spellsword again. At this point, De also arrived to the session, so the numbers would be bolstered for their next foray.



Session 3, Part 2 will be along soon.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 3, Part 2

Oh, I forgot to mention that during their centipede recovery period, the group heard that Solinor’s Fists had been back into Dwimmermount, and apparently met with much more success this time. The group is unhappy, and does not like the Fist’s at all. At one point when Da was gathering rumours he said, “surely someone else has been in.” I said, “Yes, Solinor’s Fists.” “Well, I’m not talking to those mother fuckers.”

By some freakish and completely unexpected coincidence, one of the new PCs just happened to speak high thulian. They had plans to head back to the face, but first they wanted to check out some nephelite doors at the southern extent of the main hallway (they already knew more about them than they should, as I accidentally describe them at one point when I got my map orientation mixed up). Investigating them properly now, they confirm they are made of a pearlescent, creamy white nephelite, covered in grime. There is a tight seal where the two doors meet, and no obvious way to open them. Attempting to push or slide them yields nothing, although the group does spot an X and an O lightly engraved on them.

They head back to the face and this time get the fully correct words: “Ask a question if you have one, I’ll answer truthfully but then you’re done.”

Malkath, the new high thulian speaking elvish spellsword (and, one assumes, relative of the deceased Malgath), asks how to open the nephelite doors. The face advises, “To open the elevator doors, magic is required.” They’re a bit grumpy at the vagueness of this, but it’s something. Malkath is not willing to ask a second question, worried what will happen if he angers the face, but there is a theory that maybe everyone gets one question, so Malkath quickly teaches Aldaval how to ask, “Where is the greatest treasure on this level of Dwimmermount.” Malkath listens, from near the entrance to the room, hopefully out of range of any violent, “you’ve asked too many questions” response.

The face answers, “That which is the greatest treasure will depend on that which you value, but the Vault of Spoils, which lies at the northeast extent of the Path of Mavors, is a room that could be considered thus.” They immediately noted that this refers to whatever lies behind the locked, iron door.

Someone else then asked, “How do we open the door to the Vault of Spoils,” and the face advised “The key to the vault of spoils is held by the Magister of Military Conquest.”

The group decided to hold any further questions, in part because they had not yet determined the extent of the faces knowledge, and if they only get one question each, it’s likely to be worth saving some (although, at current rate of PC turnover, they are likely to get a good number of questions before the end of the campaign).

It’s decided to go find a way to the back entrance of the complex, through the kobold caverns. Along the way, they find rooms with things written in relatively fresh red paint in various locations. On one door, “Library, nothing of value now.” On another, “Kobolds, driven off” (some kobold corpses beyond). Above some strange brass boxes with levers and dials, “Caution, steam, dangerous”. “Everyone having fun following in the footsteps of fucking Solinor’s Fists?” Da asks. I can’t take any credit for the idea of a rival party leaving notes like this, but it worked far better than I had anticipated, definitely building the sense of rivalry. The group does not like the Fists (even if it saved them from the steam trap).

Beyond a door marked, “Oil on floor, suspicious”. They indeed found a large area of a room covered in military oil leading to a door. It was decided to ignite it and, when the flames burned down and some of the smoke had cleared, they opened the door to look down a smoky hall with the sounds of kobolds. After standing around for a bit, Aldaval stepped out of the doorway just before an arrow whistled past.

Obi yelled out that they just wanted a way to the back entrance, and the kobolds advised they could pass through for 50gp. There was some dickering among the players, who didn’t really want to pay, but were considering doing so anyway. Obi tried to make some kind of threat about coming back with orcs, and said the party had a deal with the orcs, but when the kobolds asked what deal, he refused to say. Eventually, the group worked out that there was nothing currently to be gained by paying 50gp a trip just to use an alternative entrance, and they didn’t fancy charging down the corridor, so it was decided to leave. Just before going, someone called out, “What do you know about the Magister of Military Conquest?” and the kobolds replied, “He pays 50gp too!”

The group headed west; I’m not exactly sure what their intentions were, but they passed through the exploding bubbles, found the illusory demon had returned, worked out an arrow through it was enough to make it disappear, and emerged via a couple of secret doors in a room where they had previously retreated from orcs. They noted that the very large table that had occupied the room was now gone. I had thought they planned to head south, into unexplored territory, but they went north instead.

This soon brought them to an orc guardpost, where the orcs were using the table to barricade part of the corridor. The group, however, was on the orcish side of the barricade, and the orcs were clearly flatfooted and not clear where this group had come from. Seizing the moment, it was all in. Malkath let rip with his magic missile, and La’s new mage summoned berserkers. As with the Fist’s graffiti, I now stole from others who have come before me, and the berserkers appeared with the scent of ale and vomit in the air, one hurling a half-full tankard away as he drew his sword, all four of them whooping in delight at the opportunity for battle.

Four orcs quickly went down, and the two survivors in retreat. As the group began to take stock, nearby doors opened, and more orcs came out. There was rapid manouevring to get vulnerable characters out of the way and shift the frontline to the back, and things were a little dicey, but the berskers made the difference. However, just as the PCs again thought they had one, more orcs arrived from the north. I expect them to take one look at the orc bodies strewn about and decide, “fuck this”, but their morale roll was excellent, and they were clearly sick of being defeated in this part of the dungeon. In they piled. Now the tide was starting to turn against the PCs. Obi went down, and the berserkers were dropping one by one. Malkath pulled Obi out of the fray for La’s new mage to tend, and De’s perusal of his backup stats stopped when it turned out Obi would actually live, albeit with a notable scar. Before it was all over, Kant went down as well but, thanks to his resilience, he was back on his feet in no time, albeit short one finger. And, it was over. No more orcish reinforcements, and somehow they had survived. The berserkers had been the difference, and each one had exulted in his new death before returning to the afterlife to feast and party on.

About 1,000gp was gathered from the dead, so they actually had something to show for their efforts for the night, and it was time to return to town.

At the end of the session, they also remembered that they have the brass rod found the previous session. Paying to have detect magic cast on it, they found magical script in elven. At one end, it says “Open” and at the other, “Open Safe”. It immediately occurred to them that it may open the nephelite doors, or the iron door. Ro also realised the F pattern etched all over it may not be F’s at all, but could be representing keys (I made sure I showed them the pattern again while discussing it, exactly so someone might reach this thoroughly correct conclusion).

However, if this rod of opening is used to unlock the iron door, things may not turn out exactly the way they’re hoping…

* ** **** ** *​

There was a bit of frustration early on with lack of progress. Having only four members to the party necessitates a very different approach, and there is some pretty tough stuff on level one of Dwimmermount. For the most part, I believe everyone is still having fun, but the slow advancement is looming as something that might become a problem. So far, the PCs have earned about 650xp each, and few of them have fast-advancing classes. At current speeds, it will take ~12 sessions to hit level 2, which even I can acknowledge is too slow. There is treasure to be found that will give them a nice bump, but it is going to require them taking on some tougher threats, and I’m not sure if they will feel confident enough to do so. Certainly, if they try their luck, experience a TPK and end up back at square one, it’s not going to be good for morale.

At this stage, I’m not going to give them a leg up or throw additional treasure at them, but it’s something I’m definitely keeping an eye on.


Obituary

• Malgath, Level 1 Elven Spellsword, slain by orcs, session two.
• Hektor, Level 1 Paladin, slain by orcs, session two.
• Balfur, Level 1 Dwarven Vaultguard, suffered orcish spear to the knee and retired, session three.
• Grendel, Level 1 Fighter, slain by orcs, session three.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Current PC map

 

[Sable Wyvern]

So, this idea that some players may be unhappy with the rate of XP gain has been weighing on me. I decided that rather than ignoring it, or worrying about it, I should find out how they actually feel.

At this stage, it looks like it's not actually a concern for most of them, and the process of working out how to survive to level two is being actively enjoyed by some.

De seems to have the greatest concerns and, even in his case, it's not so much that the advancement is slow, it's that advancement is slow combined with the fact that what gains they have made so far could be wiped out in a brief moment of unexpected violence.

All that being the case, I am now content to continuing watching and seeing how things play out.

In other news, the next session will probably not be until mid-Jan, so it may be a while before there's a new update.

Well, it seems as though you did put a lot of effort into this game.

A reasonable amount, yes.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

So, there has been some interesting discussion in the light of my questions about advancment speed.

A number of players have noted that they could have handled their interactions with the orcs differently earlier on. In their first encounter, the captured orc was suggesting the PCs could work with the orcs against the gnolls, and I think the same thing came up in a later encounter. The PC's response amounted to, "Sure, we'll think about helping you in the future, when it suits us to do so."

It has been observed that after that point, no further effort was made to establish any kind of peaceable relations.

From my own perspective, in almost every encounter their negotiating tactic has consistently been, "Do/tell us what we want and we won't kill you." When that doesn't work, they continue to push, "No really, do/tell us what we want or we will kill you," and this ends when one side or the other has had enough and initiates combat.

I also get the sense that the players want to be the clear "winners" in any negotiation. Any signficant compromise, or giving something up now for a possible gain in the longer term is considered a humilating defeat, and unacceptable.

I had seriously considered bringing this up myself, but am loathe to interfere in their decisions. I was pleased, therefore, to see that members of the group are now seeing longer-term effects from their decisions and actions, and beginning to understand that taking a big-picture attitude may be in their interests.

As it stands, the orcs are suffering serious losses from roving adventurers, and I've been working on the assumption that, without outside aid, they're not going to be able to do more than manage a slow and steady retreat from the gnolls below. That being the case, they've now been driven to forming an alliance with the kobolds on level one, which will certainly suit the plans of the power behind the kobolds.

I did mention to the players that one option for speeding advancement is to just say, "screw it" and try taking on tougher challenges (eg, heading down to level two). I doubt that's going to actually happen any time soon, but it did result in some discussions about how they could do it. This has led to some ideas about how they can more safely gather intelligence and creep about, including the possibiliy of using lanterns instead of torches as light sources, meaning they can be shuttered when necessary, and are somewhat more directional. I always find it fascinating to watch this whole "player skill" side of the OSR style develop through play.

Other than that, the group definitely seems to have settled on getting into the Vault of Spoils as their immediate goal.

 

[Bourbonjack]

This sounds like a fantastic time. Are your players going to be playing face-to-face, or online?

You may want to check out a blog called BDubs and Dragons, which is chronicling a similar 1E-style campaign using ACKS.

I recently picked up ACKS after reading BDubs and Dragons. My current group is well into year two of a PF1e game, and I wanted to go with something simpler after this campaign wraps up.

ACKS looks like a great option for OSR style game. I’m looking forward to reading SaboeWyvern’s rake on an ACKS campaign, and including Dwimmermount is a bonus.

I do have one comment on the approach of this party as it relates to advancement - IMO the current party is probably being too safe at in the early stage for this style of OSR game.

For games where character creation is fast and it’s assumed their will be lots of character turnover, I adopt a “go big or go home” (where “go home” = dead) strategy at first. A big score of treasure can outweigh losing characters with a few small sessions of grinding under their belt. Brand new characters with 0 XP are practically disposable. Just my $0.02.

You have a great setup going and hopefully a critical mass of characters advance far enough to move into ACKS high level options.

 

[Baroco]

Registered to say that I loved the Kicking It Old School thread and am loving this one too.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

I recently picked up ACKS after reading BDubs and Dragons. My current group is well into year two of a PF1e game, and I wanted to go with something simpler after this campaign wraps up.

ACKS looks like a great option for OSR style game. I’m looking forward to reading SaboeWyvern’s rake on an ACKS campaign, and including Dwimmermount is a bonus.

I do have one comment on the approach of this party as it relates to advancement - IMO the current party is probably being too safe at in the early stage for this style of OSR game.

For games where character creation is fast and it’s assumed their will be lots of character turnover, I adopt a “go big or go home” (where “go home” = dead) strategy at first. A big score of treasure can outweigh losing characters with a few small sessions of grinding under their belt. Brand new characters with 0 XP are practically disposable. Just my $0.02.

You have a great setup going and hopefully a critical mass of characters advance far enough to move into ACKS high level options.

I think you're at least partly right, and I did suggest a more aggressive approach as a possible option. But, I'm doing my best to remain hands-off and let them decide for themselves how they want to approach the situation.

Registered to say that I loved the Kicking It Old School thread and am loving this one too.

A pleasure to have you back.

* ** **** ** *​

In other news, Ri has decided to withdraw from the game. He did make some comments during session zero that made it pretty clear that my entire GMing approach in this particular game is utterly contrary to the way he would run a game. Despite that, he seems to have made a good faith effort to enjoy this game for what it is but, ultimately, decided it's not a fun enough way for him to be spending his time. Fair enough.

 

[Bourbonjack]

So Ri did not enjoy the sandbox style game?

 

[Sable Wyvern]

So Ri did not enjoy the sandbox style game?

I haven't discussed it in any detail, but my general impression is that the whole OSR philosophy (or, at least, my take on it) isn't really for him. I think it's entirely possible he would have ended up enjoying it, but there's no guarantee that would have turned out to be the case, and I understand not wanting to commit further time to something that doesn't have a sufficiently high fun-quotient.

 

[Bourbonjack]

I haven't discussed it in any detail, but my general impression is that the whole OSR philosophy (or, at least, my take on it) isn't really for him. I think it's entirely possible he would have ended up enjoying it, but there's no guarantee that would have turned out to be the case, and I understand not wanting to commit further time to something that doesn't have a sufficiently high fun-quotient.

Well, not everyone has the same gaming interests, but that's too bad you lost a player.

I have now acquired most of the ACKS catalog via DTRPG, and started pitching a Borderlands campaign to my current gaming group last night.

The immediate reception for an old school sandbox style game was very enthusiastic.

Now, my group is probably biased because I've been gaming on and off with these guys for 35 years. One of my current gaming group members was a founding member of my Middle School D&D group, and all of them cut their gaming teeth with the Red Box and AD&D. So trying out ACKS isn't anything "new".

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 4

15 Jan 2022

Pre-session discussion and random musings

I already covered most of what was discussed in the previous posts, so nothing to really add here.



The Actual Session

• De: Obsidian Gemcutter the Craft-Catechist, Level 1 Lawful Dwarven Craftpriest
• Da: Kant the Grudgebearer, Level 1 Neutral Dwarven Fury
• Ro: Malkath the Arcanist-Guardian, Level 1 Neutral Elven Spellsword
• Jo: Cyril the Catechist, Level 1 Lawful Cleric
• La: Malek the Unencumbered, also the Arcanist, Level 1 Neutral Mage

The session started with Malketh wondering whether he could upgrade his armour. There should have been a 25% chance plate was available, and 25% chance a buyer for his chain, but I messed up and gave him auto on both. No big deal. I did laugh and mock the group, though, as they all realised how cheap armour upgrades were, and came to understand that some deaths may have been avoided if they’d given this any thought at all previously. De’s excuse was that he had thought the pricing would be similar to AD&D, where plate gets very expensive.

Obsidian placed an order for plate for himself, while Cyril was waiting for market day.

The group had received some advice that a local mage called Gustav Koch may know something about their items, and went to visit him. He couldn’t offer any great insight, but he did offer 2,000gp for the blood bug and 300gp for a mask (stating up front they both may be worth more). He also pointed the group in the direction of an antiquarian in High Sonderberg who was likely to be interested in the masks.

Stopping in at the Bastion of Knowledge in High Sonderberg, Malketh spoke to several of the local mages and showed off his items. It was suggested that the bug maybe a scarab of protection. However, when Malketh shared the discouraging auguries the group had done, it was decided it was likely to be a scarab of death – something that will burrow into someone who wears or handles it, seeking the heart and killing them.

The group immediately started considering nefarious uses for such a device. Mostly, they were just thinking about using it as means of bribing or paying off someone they didn’t really like, just for the schadenfreude, but I was happy to see them immediately viewing the item as a tool and recognising it has uses, rather jumping straight to, “It’s cursed, it’s just there to fuck us over.”

La wanted to know if you get a saving through vs the bug’s attack. I gave him a look, and someone else was kind enough to say what needed to be said: there’s an easy way for him to find out, if he really wants to know.

They were offered 1,000gp for the bug by a local guild member, but also advised it’s probably worth about 3,000gp. They decided to leave it with the guild to try and sell on their behalf, for a 10% commission. There was some thought about travelling onto the larger city of Burgendorf, where they were more likely to get a buyer, but they decided against it. One of the mages also paid 850gp for a mask.

The antiquarian confirms that the masks are designed to assist the wearer in getting obedience from beastmen. He offers 500gp each for them; they sell four of their remaining five, and keep one for themselves.

With the mask sales, Obsidian, Kant, Waramayl and Aldaval suddenly have an extra 713xp. Things are looking up.

Kang and Obsidian, flush with cash, both drop 1,000gp on high living to give themselves 900 reserve xp.

Cyril is also able to upgrade his armour at this time.

I was asked what kind of magic items they could buy with their cash, and the answer is “not a great deal.” However, 2,000gp would get them a scroll of knock, to get access to the Vault of Spoils. There was serious thought given to it, but no decision made yet.

While in High Sonderberg, they picked up the following rumours:

The Temple of Rathluk is infested with kobolds

The Prince of Sorrelblight is a master of both magic and martial arts.

The Temple of the Iron God has closed its doors and fallen silent.

In the Ostwood, a clan of werebears controls the hills northeast of the great, red, crystal monument.

On their return back to Muntburg, Obi cast the runestones to gather more information about the vault, seeking answers to three questions:

• Is the Vault guarded? Yes.
• Is the door to the Vault trapped? No.
• Is the key to the Vault on the first level of the dungeon? Yes.

The last put to rest the question of commissioning a scroll of knock; the group wants to find the key.

* ** **** ** *​

The party heads back to Dwimmermount, making their way to the room of the face to try and gather more intelligence on the vault. The room is occupied by goblins, who want 100gp to allow the party access to the face for question-asking. The group doesn’t like that idea at all, attacking and killing the goblins, although Kant takes a few hits. De is confused by the presence of goblins, as there has been no hint of them in the Dimmwermount so far. That’s logical thinking, but the goblins are all dead, so there is no intelligence to be gained.

They ask the face what guards the Vault of Spoils, and it advises them that it is guarded by whichever troops are on duty. Initially, they’re a little confused by this response, as it seems far less useful and precise than the previous answers they’ve received. I believe it was De who, after thinking about it, suggested that the face may be working on old information, dating back to when Dwimmermount was active.

Kant points out that he’s not in great shape, and they head back to town.

De doesn’t really want to try the vault without confirming what’s inside it. They’re assuming it’s either undead or a construct, and appear to be assuming it’s probably going to require magic weapons to take out (Malketh can enchant two weapons). Since they have no easy way to actually gain entry, and have information suggesting there is a key somewhere on the level, De is able to convince everyone the best course of action is to keep exploring the rest of the level.

The return trip clears out the northwest quadrant of the first level. There is nothing of great interest in the rooms they clear. The most notable is a low, basalt pillar with strange inscriptions on it. Malketh touches it, makes a save vs spells and feels something reaching out from the pillar to affect or influence him, and they give it a wide berth after that.

They find their first sign of complex machinery in a room filled with pipes, tanks, spigots, valves etc … They asked if there were labels on anything, and I initially said no, but that didn’t make much sense. Instead there were plenty of fairly mundane descriptors (inlet, outlet, etc…) but I also gave them some more obscure labels: “Laboratory”, “Reliquary”, “Reservoir” and “H.P.” There wasn’t much useful information they could pull from that, but it definitely got their imagination ticking over (and does actually relate to elements of the dungeon).

Next, the decision was made to try clearing the southwest, which did not prove as simple. Heading down a corridor approaching unexplored rooms, they see figures ahead. While deciding what to do, spears come hurtling down, at least one striking Kant. The group quickly withdraws, and a shouted discussion with orcs ensues.

Malketh goes back to the, “we have an arrangement to help you fight gnolls at a later date” argument, suggesting that this means the orcs should thus let them pass through. I do not understand why the players are continuing with this line of reasoning. However, despite the fact that the orcs have no reason to see the PCs as anything other than crazy, rampaging, lunatics, they would like help with the gnolls, so they provided a simple counter-offer based on Malketh’s argument: you can leave, you can stay and die, or you can come with us to fight gnolls.

The following discussion was basically Malketh treating the orcs as if they were being unreasonable for protecting their territory. He did offer to pay for passage and eventually the orcs agreed to 50gp. After the cash was left in the corridor and retrieved, an orc envoy comes out a short while later, approaches the PCs looking extremely nervous, and says the gold isn’t real. Malketh insists the gold is real, and an argument ensues. The orc, who really doesn’t want to be out here on his own having this argument with the party, still manages to keep up the charade, handing several coins back to Malketh and getting replacement coins. Several party members are certain the whole situation is just the orcs stalling, but not everyone is entirely sure. The courageous orc does milk them for quite a bit of time, before Kant has had enough and lunges at the orc, who manages to avoid the angry dwarf’s blow and sprints back to the safety of his friends (with the 50gp).

Malek summons berskerkers, and the group set off in pursuit. The giant table that had been set up in the main corridor is now back in the room where it started, but is being used as a wall behind which the orcs are arrayed defensively. It essentially blocks of the room, forcing any invaders to turn and run a gauntlet towards more orcs set up behind rubble, while other’s fight over the table with their spears.

Two berserkers soak up spears on the initial charge, while more protect the group from flanking fire by acting as targets. It quickly became apparent to the players they weren’t likely to win this fight. There is a bit of confusion among the players about the layout; there haven’t really been any complex engagements yet, so I haven’t been in the habit of drawing any diagrams. This caused a bit of angst among the players as the disengagement became a bit confusing, with some player’s ideas of the situation not matching the intended reality. Something to keep in mind moving forward.

Various attempts by the group to use oil were ineffective. Da was rolling poorly, and Kant managed to splash his oil over himself; fortunately, it had not yet been lit.

Eventually they had pulled back, with the remaining berserkers doing enough to prevent an immediate orcish counter-attack.

Negotiations resumed, with the orcs now advising the fee to pass through will be 200gp. Additionally, as the orcs sent an envoy out, showing trust, and their trust was betrayed, this time the party must show trust, and they can send an envoy forward with the money.

At this point, the group spotted some red, glowing shapes to the east, and decided to get out before they were engaged on two sides. Stupid fire beetles turning up before the flanking orcs and kobolds and ruining the fun. It’s the second time the group has managed to evade a flanking manoeuvre they weren’t aware was happening.

It was decided to head for home.

I remain perplexed and annoyed by the group’s negotiating tactics. For over a month in game time, they have been meeting orcs every now and again and saying, “we will help you fight gnolls at a point in the future when we feel like it,” and expecting that to be sufficient to create favourable responses. Between these events, they fight and kill orcs, sometimes leaving survivors who can tell others, “When they don’t get their way, they attack”. I also noted at one point that Malketh said or asked something that would have made no sense at all to the orcs, as it was predicated on the assumption that the orcs would have no problem with the PCs just meandering through their territory as they see fit. There was also a comment from Da afterwards wondering why the orcs were fighting so hard to defend this area.

I’m honestly not sure what the players think the orcs are actually doing in the dungeon. It’s as if they think the orcs are just passing through. If the biggest numbers and the attempts to create defences weren’t always in the same area, that might make sense, but I don’t think it requires any massive intuitive leap to recognise that this part of the dungeon is their territory.. It’s very confusing to me.

* ** **** ** *​

Post-session discussion and random musings

At this point, the group has four options if they want to stick to Dwimmermount:

• Get into the vault
• Deal with the orcs
• Head into the kobold caves
• Go downstairs

The orcs have been pushed back into a defensive position, and aren’t going to be easy to dislodge. Their alliance with the kobolds has helped them get some of the rubble and debris they used to fortify, and they will endeavour to trap and flank any invaders; fortunately for the PCs, they’re not aware of the secret passage that would allow flanking forces to get into place fairly quickly.

Ro has started asking the right questions about the rod of opening. Unfortunately, when he got Obi to do some auguries on what would happen if he tried to open a lock using the “Open” command word, it came back Woe, Woe, Woe. There was about a 2.4% chance of that extremely wrong outcome. Fortunately, he hasn’t given up, and now wants auguries on the same thing, but using the “Open Safe” command word. It takes a day for Obi to perform three auguries, so I’m currently waiting to confirm if the group is happy to take the amount of time in town.

Meanwhile, the Solinor’s Fists will be back in the dungeon soon. I’m actually a bit annoyed I decided to have an active NPC party in Dwimmermount, as level one isn’t really big enough to have two groups wandering around, and I’m having to restrict how active they are to avoid having too much of the place cleared out before the PCs get there.

The Fists are almost certainly capable of getting into the vault; it would be quite distressing for the player’s if they clear it out, but I did mention in my pre-game material that dawdling can mean others seize the day. The four options open to the players are also available to the Fists so I diced to see which way they go next – they will be heading down to level two. The vault still stands, for now.


Obituary

• Malgath, Level 1 Elven Spellsword, slain by orcs, session two.
• Hektor, Level 1 Paladin, slain by orcs, session two.
• Balfur, Level 1 Dwarven Vaultguard, suffered orcish spear to the knee and retired, session three.
• Grendel, Level 1 Fighter, slain by orcs, session three.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

I think I may have worked out what's going on with their negotiations.

My suspicion is that they've essentially burned their bridges with the orcs, have basically nothing to offer them, but they still want to parley if they can ... so they're fumbling around looking for some way to get benefit out of negotiation.

Looked at from that perspective, it's an effort to do the smart thing, but they've missed the steps where they work out what they want to gain from the orcs, or seriously think about how they might go about obtaining it.

 

[Bourbonjack]

At this point, I think your party has destroyed any credibility they might have had with the orcs.

 

[CRKrueger]

In other news, Ri has decided to withdraw from the game. He did make some comments during session zero that made it pretty clear that my entire GMing approach in this particular game is utterly contrary to the way he would run a game. Despite that, he seems to have made a good faith effort to enjoy this game for what it is but, ultimately, decided it's not a fun enough way for him to be spending his time. Fair enough.

Heh, what did he say? What do you think is the way he would run a game?

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Heh, what did he say? What do you think is the way he would run a game?

He was commenting that he absolutely fudges the dice, and that it's essential to do so, because the PCs shouldn't have their plans ruined by the dice etc ...

He voluntarily backtracked a little on the absolutism in his initial statement a bit later, but it's pretty clear he's a fan of PCs starting the game as destined to greatness, and sees it as the GM's job to help them realise said destiny. Nothing especially controversial there, really, but it's definitely not an OSR mindset.

At this point, I think your party has destroyed any credibility they might have had with the orcs.

That's probably true. But it may be that no credibility is required ... let's find out.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 5

29 Jan 2022

The Actual Session

• De: Obsidian Gemcutter the Craft-Catechist, Level 1 Lawful Dwarven Craftpriest
• Da: Kant the Grudgebearer, Level 1 Neutral Dwarven Fury
• Ro: Malkath the Arcanist-Guardian, Level 1 Neutral Elven Spellsword
• Tr: Aldaval the Arcanist-Avenger, Level 1 Neutral Elven Nightblade
• Ag: Waramayl the Aspirant, Level 1 Lawful Mystic
• La: Malek the Unencumbered, also the Arcanist, Level 1 Neutral Mage

As they discuss their plans, Da voices a bit of displeasure at the sneaking around avoiding things. At the same time, he accepts it’s not necessarily unreasonable the group is doing so, it’s just not what he enjoys. He’s definitely a man of action, and tends to have a love-hate relationship with the game. I keep my thoughts to myself at this point, because I can see the group making it over the hump and I expect he’ll be satisfied with the direction the game is going. I am hopeful they go into the dungeon with a fairly clear plan tonight and, in the end, they do.

There is a bit of talk about commissioning a scroll of knock again, but they are a little short on cash and have enough other things to check out that the idea remains on hold.

They return to the low basalt pillar they discovered last session, and Aldaval carefully copies down the strange script inscribed up on it. They then make their way to the nephelite doors. Holding the brass rod of key symbols by the “Open” end, pointing the “Open Safe” end at the doors, Malkath speaks the elven words for “Open Safe”. Some dust and grime flakes away from the doors as they slide back into walls, revealing a circular passage around a large adamantium cylinder, maybe twenty feet in diameter. Another set of doors can be found in the cylinder itself. After carefully exploring around the area, and pressing the O and + symbols carved into the doors, Kant tries forcing them, and is able to slide them open, revealing a shaft extending up and down into the distance, covered in slimes, fungus and vinelike growths.

Lowering a torch down the shaft, then dropping a coin (“Fool of a Took!”) leads them to estimate the depth to be around two hundred feet. Aldaval is tied to rope and then climbs down to test the sturdiness of the vines, but when he uses them for support, they pull away from the wall and then snap. He’s hauled back up the rope, smeared in slimy residue. I’m somewhat surprised by the eagerness of the group to potentially head down the shaft – if there was an easy way, it seems likely they would have done so. In the end, the haul the adamantine doors closed again, and head off to explore the last, non-cavern part of the level.

Along the way, the encounter some more ghostly apparitions, old Thulian soldiers discussing duty rosters. Just short of the stairs they encounter a room of pedestals, which they are instantly very wary of. Malkath slides some debris from the previous room between two of the pedestals, and is please to see it isn’t disintegrated. Obi casts his runestones, which indicate it would be safe for the Malkath to pass by. The group decides not to investigate further, however, and the decision is made to see if something can be done about clearing out the orcs.

At this point, someone again asks a nonsense question about what the orcs are doing in the area they are usually found. Tr immediately points out they clearly live there, and I am quietly content that someone has spoken some common sense.

The group has access to secret passages that will place them behind defences that stymied them last session, and they head to make use of them. Along the way, the meet a posse of dwarves, who indicate they ran into unexpected kobolds on the way out, and are wondering if the front entrance is clear. In the ensuring conversation, the group learns that Eld, Termaxians and Thulians have all appeared within the lower levels of the dungeon – the dwarves know not from whence they have come – and the situation is dire. Some of their kin remain below, but this particular group, shamed by their cowardice, nonetheless have decided their task of generations, guarding and maintaining the machinery has become futile, and they are leaving the dungeon. The group learns that there are vats below being used to create beastmen, and generally get the impression that things seem grim. The dwarves suggest that the various apparitions the group has encountered are the result of Azoth, the magical liquid of which Dwimmermount is a repository.

Shortly after moving on, the group encounters centipedes, which are despatched without casualties (to much relief).

Gathering behind the secret door, that opens into orc territory, a plan is hatched, and they prepare flaming oil, summon berserkers, and enchant some weapons. The berserkers, ever eager to fight, begin chanting war cries, hammering the hafts of their weapons into the ground and generally making noise. Some players question whether I've unfairly sprung this on them; others point out that it is entirely consistent with berserker behaviour to date. In any case, as a result of the ruckus, instead of treating the orcs as automatically surprised, I roll a surprise check for them. Fortunately for the group, they are still surprised.

The plan, though carefully hatched, still seems a little unclear, and appears to involve Waramayl hurling burning oil blindly into the room as soon as the door opens. He follows this plan to the letter, yet somehow manages to hit an orc squarely, engulfing it in flame. Berserkers charge out to engage a group of five orcs, including the one being immolated, while the PCs turn to the flank to engage three more manning the table-barricade (the PCs coming at them from behind).

The PCs direct efforts are mostly futile, but the berserkers take down all the orcs they’ve engaged, and the three at the barricade throw down their weapons to surrender. In general, I’d say my players are pretty good about accepting surrenders. In this case, however, they’re angry with the orcs for causing them so much trouble and frustrating them, and ruthlessly cut them down. Instead of calling them a bunch of mean and nasty bullies, I keep my thoughts to myself.

More orcs emerge from the south, and the berskers charge. Four orcs go down, two others flee. Unfortunately for the PCs (although not known to them), the dice indicate that one of the fleeing survivors has the group’s treasure.

Eager to make use of their berserkers while they have them, the group rushes ahead in pursuit, quickly checking from room to room. They eventually work out the orcs appear to have entered the kobold cavern area, and decide to end pursuit. They then go back over the areas they’ve just explored, in more detail. In so doing, they find a suit of fancy chain armour and some valuables. They also establish that something a little strange seems to be going on in one room, as the furniture is in excellent condition (apart from the heavily axe-damaged desk, which they had asked the berserkers to “check”) and, when they return to go over the room in fine detail, it is noted that their torches don’t seem to be burning down. It is noted that this may be a suitable location to hole-up and rest at some point down the track.

The group also encounter an iron door with a keyhole, leading towards stairs according to their dwarf-roller map. They are immediately on alert.

According to the text, this door is locked and has a poison dart trap. I had noticed this some ago, and really don’t like it, but had not done anything about it, so now I needed to quickly improvise.

This door lies in the middle of orcish territory, and they must be using it fairly frequently. How is it locked? Why are they leaving it locked? Who has the key? What’s the nature of the trap, exactly? Did the orcs bypass it untriggered? If not, how did they reset it? As written, it makes little sense to me.

I decided that the door is not locked. It has a vertical handle, with a thumb-latch above it. Pressing down on the latch, in the normal fashion, causes a poison dart to fire from the keyhole. Lifting the latch, instead of pressing down on it, opens the door safely.

Kant carefully examined the door. He was unable to see in the keyhole, but I did point out that the slot for the thumb latch had room for the latch to be raised, as well as pressed down. No other clues were apparent. Aldaval stood to the side and pressed the catch, and the group watch a dart fire across the room to end up in amongst the detritus. Hoping the thing was now disarmed, Kant moved forward to operate the door, carefully keeping his body to the side of the keyhole. As he pressed the latch, another dart was ejected. He then heard a whirring and clicking from inside the door, and it was clear to all the trap was resetting. Aldaval suggested lifting the latch, which Kant did, and the door was opened.

A short corridor led them to warm, humid room. I let them know that the smell of mildew emanates from the wet dungeon walls. De asked if there were any ogres, because he has an ogre slaying knife. There was a little confusion amongst those unfamiliar with Dead Alewives or Summoner Geeks.

Having now explored through all the non-cavern areas shown on the dwarven map, and with Malek the Unencumbered heavily encumbered by the suit of chain they’d collected, it was decided it was time to leave.

Back at the site of the main fight, they found centipedes feasting on the dead orcs. They avoided these, then were later hailed by a kobold patrol. The group advised they wanted to pass by peacefully, the kobolds offered to let them for a fee. The group reverted to, “No, you let us go past and nobody has to die.” When this strategy (again) failed to have the desired effect, they instead detoured again. (In the players defence, on this occasion, it was specifically, “Both sides can avoid casualties,” rather than, “do what we want or you will die.”)

As they crept their way out at heavily encumbered speeds, I kept rolling kobold encounters, and had them tailed by kobolds, but not engaged. They ended up reinforcing the rear just in case, but eventually made it out of the dungeon safely.

* ** **** ** *​

With their new haul, they now had enough coin to easily afford the knock scroll, and it was decided to commission it. Aldaval, Malkath and Malek agreed to assist in the process, which would also earn them a few bonus XP.

In his down time while this was going on, Malkath started dancing around in the armour, seeing how he felt when heating it up, looking for any special powers. Obi cast the runestones and divined that it protected as well as banded mail, as well as having other powers. Malkath stuck his head in a basin of water and attempted to breathe, and was laughed at by others as he spent some time recovering.

Fungari, the mushroom farmer, approached Aldaval, someone nervously, advising that the warehouse space he was using in High Sonderberg belonged to the chandlers, and he needed to pay guild fees to the chandlers’ guild to avoid losing his stock. He apologised for allowing himself to be tricked like this, but Aldaval was happy enough to pay the extra 9gp required (he also advised that if Fungari needed some muscle to go knock some heads together, he would help in that way, too).

Meanwhile, word spread that the Fists of Solinor had been down to level two, encountering zombies and hobgoblins.

Just as the scroll scribing was complete, the party also heard that the Count was offering a reward to anyone who could deal with disappearing people and cattle. No one asked any questions about this at the time.

Aware of the fact that the chain armour they recovered is +1 chain at the least, the party knows they should be able to get about 5,000gp for it if they sell it. This may require a trek all the way to Onderlach city; if they do this, they’ll pick up the scarab on the way through High Sonderberg. I am fairly certain they will hit up the vault first up next session though.

Spirits are fairly high – between loot they just need to sell, and whatever they might pull from the vault, level two is very close for most of them, and they’re seeing the light at the end of the level one grind tunnel.

As an amusing anecdote on that topic, Da became quite excited when he learned that hitting level two will mean he gets two cleaves per round. De, meanwhile, was roundly jeered for being a Negative Nelly when he immediately responded to Da’s eagerness with “and this is why we should avoid fighting 2HD monsters, because they get it too.”

Within a couple of days, travelling west is going to be more interesting than the realise. I look forward to seeing where things go.


Obituary

• Malgath, Level 1 Elven Spellsword, slain by orcs, session two.
• Hektor, Level 1 Paladin, slain by orcs, session two.
• Balfur, Level 1 Dwarven Vaultguard, suffered orcish spear to the knee and retired, session three.
• Grendel, Level 1 Fighter, slain by orcs, session three.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 6

12 Feb 2022

Pre-session discussion and random musings

I forgot to mention at the end of the previous session Ag expressed interest in having Waramayl start working towards establishing some kind of cult/commune/fellowship. His first step along that path was to put 300gp towards construction of a timber longhouse to serve as his home and a monastic base. He explicitly decided he wasn’t going to put any cash towards reserve XP; he is going to survive, and invest in this character’s future.

A lot of the time in traditional D&D-derived, gold-for-XP games, there is a tension between the vast amounts of gold required to level, and the supposed problems of PCs that are too wealthy. Various solutions exist to combat this perceived problem: exorbitant training fees, XP only for gold that is wasted, moving to a silver standard etc … ACKS is the first game I’ve come across that actively buys into and promotes the idea that PCs become genuinely wealthy, and gives you explicit tools to deal with what that means.

Not being entirely clear on what his intended endgame is, I let Ag know that if he wants his disciples to be minions he can utilise for nefarious tasks, he should go check out the rules on hijinks and thieves’ guilds. Alternatively, he might use the people he attracts to filter for possible mystic henchmen candidates. The latter is closer to what he was thinking of, although he’s aiming to get a Priestess henchman (one of his early, pre-game thoughts was to try for a Stannis Baratheon and his Red Witch thing).

Assuming he wants his household/commune to work towards self-sufficiency, this is also an opportunity to use the rules on investments, which will provide a very simple way to keep track of the financial side of such an endeavour, while also throwing up a few hooks, quirks and events from time to time.

All-in-all, encouraging players to find things to actually spend their money on, instead of just finding ways to make it vanish, should offer a lot of interesting opportunities.

Meanwhile, the group has been planning to tackle the vault, as well as make a trip to Onderlach city to try and sell off their spoils. Ultimately, it was decided to try the vault first, as they’re concerned the contents might not still be there if they take weeks away from the dungeon – word that Solinor’s Fists have been poking around on level two served as a clear reminder that the dungeon doesn’t exist for the benefit of the PCs.

That does lead me to the observation that Dwimmermount is not, in my opinion, anywhere close to a true megadungeon, for the simple fact that it really isn’t big enough to have multiple adventuring parties wandering around on the same level.

I think it’s important, due to the intended style of the game, to have other parties around but, IMO, the dungeon itself really isn’t built to support it. A skilled, disciplined party could, with a little luck, essentially clear the first level in a relatively short space of time. However, having the PCs find everything they explore has already been ransacked and the cool shit taken isn’t likely to be much fun. As such, I have been using a fair bit of GM fiat with the Fists, generally using them for flavour as I remember they’re there, rather than making any effort to fairly and constantly simulate their activities. The result is that I’ve kept them predominantly at the level of an annoyance rather than a significant threat to successful wealth extraction (albeit, they did beat the PCs to some good loot, and they did have a chance to beat them to the Vault). I am planning to be a little more simulationist and keep a more accurate record as to their specific exploits on the second level, but this area is twice the size of level one, so they’re far less likely to be stepping on each other’s toes constantly.

I have seen other Dwimmermount players commenting that they feel constant, extremely strong time-pressures and stress, to the point where any downtime activity isn’t really tenable, and I can see it wouldn’t take much to get to that point. Two or three competent, rival parties would make the opportunity costs of any downtime appear extremely prohibitive.

The group’s thought processes on what may be guarding vault have been interesting.

Being sealed for a long time, they quickly concluded it must be either a construct or undead. Beyond knowing that most golems would tear the party to bits, the players don’t have much knowledge of constructs, and thus haven’t planned for that possibility. On the other hand, they decided that if it’s undead, it’s probably something they can turn.

Some people would probably consider that line of reasoning horrible metagaming. I have no problem with it because, even though they’re actually correct in this instance, there is no particular reason they had to be. Next time they make an assumption like this, and it’s faulty, they end up in over their head. So be it. I think there may also be an unstated assumption that, if it’s an undead that is unturnable at their current level, the specifics don’t really matter, and they flee/die. That’s actually a perfectly reasonable in-character thought process.

I also had someone point out the other day that characters acting on incomplete metagame knowledge is an excellent simulation of superstition. Sometimes it may lead to beneficial behaviour, even if it’s not for the reasons the superstition may suggest; at other times, it results in nonsensical, unhelpful or even dangerous behaviour.

Wights being the most dangerous standard undead critter that could possibly be turned by them at 1st level, they’ve essentially been working on the assumption it will be a wight. This led them to look into procuring silver weapons, and De has suggested they get some clubs dipped in silver to hand out to Malock’s summonable berserkers.



The Actual Session

• De: Obsidian Gemcutter the Craft-Catechist, Level 1 Lawful Dwarven Craftpriest
  • Malok the Unencumbered, also the Arcanist, Level 1 Neutral Mage.
• Da: Kant the Grudgebearer, Level 1 Neutral Dwarven Fury
• Ro: Malketh the Arcanist-Guardian, Level 1 Neutral Elven Spellsword
• Tr: Aldaval the Arcanist-Avenger, Level 1 Neutral Elven Nightblade
• Jo: Cyril the Catechist, Level 1 Lawful Cleric

In preparation for finally attempting the Vault, Obsidian cast the runestones again, learning that the guardian is not a construct, that silver weapons will provide an advantage over normal weapons, and that burning military oil will not be effective.

The group buys a silver dagger, which they plan to affix to a pole in order to avail themselves of an impromptu silver spear. They then spend some days converting some of their wealth to silver in order to silver up some clubs. During this period is the high day of the Festival of Love, one of the high holy days of Ishanna, and there is much feasting, dancing and revelry, with free food and wine courtesy of the Count of Muntburg.

Malketh also speaks to local officials about reports that the Count is seeking adventurers to investigate disappearances in the local area. It turns out some people are disappearing, not just cattle. The Count is offering three potions of healing to someone that can resolve the threat. As Malketh and his group are known in town as a genuine and capable group, he’s offered one such potion up front if they take the job.

Malketh indicates they would be happy to investigate, but may need to take a break in a few days (due to the plan to travel to sell their spoils after breaching the Vault). This dismissive attitude does not ingratiate him officials. No further action is taken on this plot hook for now.

A few days later, as the group is about ready to head to the vault, word starts filtering into town that strange and terrible things occurred at the wedding of the daughter of the Duke of Bergensdorf – initial reports indicate that the Duke was assassinated, or his daughter was, or a demon appeared, or that his daughter turned into a demon.

That was neither here nor there for now, however, and group set out to breach the Vault and make their fortune.

Following well-trodden paths, the group has defaulted to maintaining exploration speed. Despite this, there was definitely a sense of complacency in the way they were going about things, and everyone was clearly far, far more interested in being at the door to the vault than getting there. In addition, they had rarely, if ever, made any efforts to check ceilings throughout their dungeoneering efforts to date.

As such, when green slime showed up as a wandering monster, and the group passed their surprise check, I decided that this meant the slime would have to make an attack roll when it dropped from the ceiling, rather than hitting automatically. Obsidian was the target, the slime made its roll, and the craftpriest felt something go splat on his helmet and shoulder. The others, seeing what had happened, backed up, eyeing the ceiling, calling warnings.

Ro realised quick action may be necessary, and with no hesitation at all, Malketh had his water skin out and was trying to wash the goop away. Meanwhile, the slight hissing sound and the smell of ozone made it clear this certainly was a potentially dire situation. Obi quickly got his helm off, but ended up with goop on one gauntlet in the process.

Unfortunately, although Malketh had the presence of mind to act immediately and decisively, he discovered the pouring water on the goop appeared to have no effect. Obi carefully took his tainted gauntlet off, without touch the beslimed portions, but he felt growing heat in his shoulder, and fumes were coming off the area.

At this point, Kant took his axe and began to try scraping the goop from the shoulder, but moments after this, Obi cried out as the slime had eaten through the around and undergarments and was now beginning to consume his flesh. As the afflicted dwarf began to scream in agony, Kant thrust his axe into someone else’s hands, telling them to scrape, while he pinned Obi down. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that they were scraping slime out of a hole where flesh and bone had once been, and the entire arm nearly fell away from the body. It was decided to attempt dragging the dwarf back outside, but they soon noticed that they were leaving a trail of slime behind, and the dwarf’s screams turned to whimpers and then ceased completely.

The dwarf was abandoned, the group continued to the entrance, and milled about in shock.

De was pissed. As mentioned early on, he always gets extremely attached to his characters and does not deal well with their loss. He stated that he had psyched himself up to live with character death for this campaign, but was very angry with the arbitrary way Obi had died. At the time, I wasn’t convinced he’d have been any happier with a less “arbitrary” death; however, Obi had gone down in a fight previously, and De had believe him dead, and was more deflated than angry on that occasion, so that may well be the case.

His other complaint was that doing a new character interrupted the session, just as they had finally finished their planning and preparation. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for this, as everyone else is capable of whipping up a new character in 5-10 minutes.

Overall, I do have sympathy for the fact that the real, fundamental issue for De is actually that low-level OSR play of this sort really isn’t what he wants to be doing. He wants to be playing higher-level stuff, and having to scratch and claw his way there first is a grind he accepts with some reluctance. I want to think that it will be a little more satisfying for him when he’s there, having had to earn it, but even if he believed that, I have no doubt he’d still prefer to skip it.

Eventually, he had Tannek the paladin ready to go, and had calmed down. By the end of the session, he was quite sanguine about the whole thing.

The group was going to head back to town, but it was decided to first head back down and see what they could learn about the slime. Where Obi had been was now a large, thick smear of green goop. Carefully approaching with torches, they confirm it burned, and then doused it in military oil before igniting. They then moved into the room where it had been accounted, saw some more still on the ceiling. Oil was hurled at it, causing most of it to drop to the floor, and this patch too was ignited.

The group was now satisfied that they should have applied flame to Obi, and this would indeed have burned the slime off (while damaging him as well, so it wouldn’t have guaranteed his survival, but it would at least have seriously increased the chances).

I also would have rewarded prompt efforts to cut his armour strapping and remove it before the slime ate its way through.

While I think De still considers the death completely arbitrary, the rest of the group seemed satisfied that there was a way it could have been dealt with and survived, and they are now armed with knowledge that will help them handle a similar situation in the future.

* ** **** ** *​

 

[Sable Wyvern]

After returning to town and meeting up with Tannek, the group returned to Dwimmermount the next day. I pre-rolled a couple of random encounters based on their expected route (I assumed they would bypass the slime room). Instead, they headed to the slime room again, so I decided they avoided the first encounter (rather than shifting it their chosen route). I think I was partly influenced by the knowledge that if a fight ensued and went poorly, and they were kept from the Vault again, morale would ebb.

Based on the second (not yet active) wandering monster result, they also discovered a warning painted (in fairly fresh paint) on the slime-room door. The group was divided as to whether this made the Fists decent, helpful people, or arrogant arseholes. In any event, carefully bypassing the small patch of slime still on the ceiling, the group made it the rest of the way to the Vault without issue. They summoned berserkers, handed them silvered clubs, form up, sharpened some weapons … then, saw people coming around the corner.

They immediately and correctly assumed these were the Solinor’s Fists. The group’s charismatic new paladin hailed the Fists, making sure to clearly display the iconography of Solinor on his own shield. Jehan responded positively, letting the PC’s know the Fists had been down below and were on their way back out. It was fairly evident that the PCs were about to breach a door, so an offer was made to assist them. As this would naturally involve splitting the loot, this was politely declined. Jehan took this well, and offered to remain anyway as security for their rear, and ready to offer healing after any fight that ensued. This offer was accepted graciously (and with, surprisingly, no suspicion at all that I could detect).

Tr suggested that instead of using the scroll of knock, they should see if the rod of open/open-safe does the trick. This was good thinking, except that said rod had been turned to slime the previous day. Scroll of knock it is, then.

There was clunking, whirring and clanking, and the door swung in. The berserkers were sent charging forward, with the group close behind. The wight within was overwhelmed and beating to a bloody pulp in mere seconds by the silvered-club wielding berserkers. De was congratulated by others for coming up with the silver-club-berserker plan.

The party looked around the room, seeing piles of curios, jewellery, statuary, furniture. There is stuff piled everywhere. “Who’s carrying sacks?” I ask. The answer appears to be, “no one”. Malketh races after the Fists, who have just left, yelling out that he’ll pay 20gp for whatever empty sacks they have. He is rewarded with two large sacks. Cyril and Tannek remove their cassocks to act as makeshift sacks, backpacks are filled, a shield is piled with items and carried between a couple of them. Most hands and arms end up full (they had enough free hands for two torches and one or two weapons out, I believe). Fortunately, the slow, awkward procession out of the dungeon proceeds unmolested.

The group is able to treat 1,000gp of the captured treasure as spendable wealth, and accrue XP immediately. They also decide to use 2,000gp of it as furnishings for their HQ villa, so that turns into XP as well. That leaves about 5,000gp worth of stuff that they will need to travel to High Sonderberg to sell.

A friend at the local tower of the Bastion of Knowledge casts detect magic for them, and they identify a curved, single-edge sword, a length of bone with a golden tip, and a golden eagle clasp as magical.

Over time spent sparring over the next week-or-so, they will determine that the sword most likely confers a +1 bonus. It is certainly the finest weapon any of them have ever wielded. With Obi gone, they will end up paying for a number of auguries before deciding the eagle clasp is safe to wear, but are unable to unlock any powers it may contain.

Malketh spends some time researching the makers mark on the sword, and determines that it appears to have been made in Volmar, which was one of the last territories conquered by the Thulian empire, a colony far to the south and long since out of contact with the local area.

Tannek catches up with Jehan of Solinor’s Fists back in town. He surprises everyone by appearing quite reasonable when speaking to Tannek. They learn that the Fists descended to level two via the Hall of Memories, which is not via the formerly orc territory, and have been encountering hobgoblins and zombies, but not gnolls. There appears to be some kind of zombie lord or king. Jehan believes there are intruders, and almost certainly Termaxians, somewhere below stirring up trouble, and they have arrived in Dwimmermount only recently.

The group travels to High Sonderberg, where they liquidate the remaining 5,000gp worth of takings. Kant, Aldaval and Cyril all make level two. Thanks to his reserve XP, Tannek also levels up.

The trek to High Sonderberg takes the group through Mitteldurchgang, where the Count Prelate rules from his mighty fortified cathedral. Cyril convinces the group to stop there so that he can marvel at this edifice to Solinor and pray. The Count Prelate invites the young cleric to a private audience, where they discuss matters of faith, the fight against Chaos, the strange dangers of Dwimmermount and the ever-present threat of Termaxians.

More information is gradually filtering out of Burgensdorf. By the end of the session, the story appears to be that various parties rose up during the wedding and attempted to assassinate by the Duke and his daughter. His daughter was killed, and he escaped. The Duke managed to muster forces and fight his way back into the temple of Solinor just before the traitors were about to cremate his daughter. This rescue enabled her to be raised from the dead. For several days, there was rioting in the streets as various factions fought for control, but the Duke came out on top. The Duke is currently in the process of raising troops in order to teach his traitorous vassals a lesson, with the Count of Dunklerwald believed to be the ringleader.

Many highlanders of eastern Onderlach are not fans of the western, lowland nobles, and the Duke is one of those who was essentially given the dukedom by the Prince to keep the locals in line, after a civil war some fifteen years ago. Additionally, rumours continue to spread that the Duke, a known mage, is a Termaxian cultist, and supposedly his daughter is too.

The group’s plan is to head to Onderlach city to sell the scarab and the chain armour they’ve acquired, but this will most likely require passing through Burgensdorf, so they’re not sure exactly what they want to do.


Obituary

• Malgath, Level 1 Elven Spellsword, slain by orcs, session two.
• Hektor, Level 1 Paladin, slain by orcs, session two.
• Balfur, Level 1 Dwarven Vaultguard, suffered orcish spear to the knee and retired, session three.
• Grendel, Level 1 Fighter, slain by orcs, session three.
• Obsidian Gemcutter, Level 1 Dwarven Craftpriest, consumed by green slime, session six.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Oh, they also found a map in the Vault.


It's common knowledge that Winterburg is a former (now ruined and unoccupied) fortress town at the other end of the pass Muntburg guards, so the map appears to offer directions to a temple in the wilderness to the east.

By coincidence, my random events table had given me "Adventurers return from Ostwood" as an event, and the PCs would have been able to ask some questions about where the map might lead ... but the group set out for High Sonderberg on the morning of the day said adventurers would arrive in town.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

I have some catching up to do.

Session 7

26 Feb 2022

Pre-session discussion and random musings

As I recall, not much happened between sessions.


The Actual Session

• De: Tannek the Warden, Level 2 Lawful Paladin
• Da: Kant the Punisher, Level 2 Neutral Dwarven Fury
• Ro: Malkath the Arcanist-Guardian, Level 1 Neutral Elven Spellsword
• Tr: Aldaval the Seer-Enforcer, Level 2 Neutral Elven Nightblade
• Ag: Waramayl the Aspirant, Level 1 Lawful Mystic
• Jo: Cyril the Acolyte, Level 2 Lawful Cleric

This session was mostly travelling, admin and shopping.

The group headed first to Burgensdorf, a little wary of what they would find after all the rumours of assassinations, conflict and civil war. As it turns out, order seems to have been restored by the time they arrive. The duke is raising troops, and the guards at the gate are unusually attentive, but otherwise it seems business as usual.

Burgensdorf is home to the Bastion of Knowledge, the mages’ guild to which all the party casters have decided to join, so they take the opportunity to make use of their membership and hire some mages to study the chainmail they recently recovered from Dwimmerwmount. The group managed to work out it confers a +1 AC bonus, but the late Obsidian, via use of his rune stones, had determined it also had other properties, which they have not been able to identify.

While they wait for this work to be done, they have some time to spend in town. Over the course of the week they gather a variety of information and rumours.

• Stories are going around the Bastion of Knowledge that some young mages from the Purple College (a rival guild) are conducting investigations in the local rat population. Some think they have a weird obsession with eliminating all rats from Burgensdorf, others that they are some rat cult.
• Of the Duke’s seven vassal counts, it appears three were directly involved in the assassination attempt. The loyalties of the other counts and lesser lords is unclear. A number of people believe the rebels were also tacitly supported by the Count Prelate of Mitteldurchgang (who owes fealty to the Duke of High Sonderberg, not the Duke of Burgensdorf).
• Some of the locals believe the Duke and his daughter are evil Termaxians, although no one is saying so openly. There are rumours that criminals and those who displease the duke are used in vile experiments.
• The Countess Mariella, the Duke’s daughter, has been seen in public, confirming that she was successfully resurrected.
• While researching the Ostwood, the group finds some scrappy records about a group of adventures who befriended werebears living northeast of the “great crystal monument”. They find a map to the monument.
• The chainmail research is completed, and the group is advised it confers a +1 bonus to saves vs spell.

Needing a larger market to sell their magical loot, the group mounts up and heads for Onderlach city, a journey of over two weeks.

One the way, while passing through a village, they encounter a group gathered around a young woman speaking excitedly. Stopping to investigate, they see an armoured man – likely to be a paladin – standing protectively nearby, while the teenage girl talks about a great evil rising from the sea, warning the black waters of death and the end times will wash across the Principalities, all the way to the mountains. She exhorts all those listening to heed her warnings and to fight and the evil and depredations of Chaos. She then breaks down into wailing and weeping over the terrible horrors that are to come.

At this point, the armoured man wraps her in a cloak, comforting and protecting her, and lets those gathered know that this concludes the day’s prophecy.

Some of the PCs approach, and the man introduces himself as the Guardian Dunverk. His ward, Carilla, has been touched by the power of Law, and sees things that have not yet occurred. Most of her visions are of things of relatively small import, but they have come true, so he does not doubt that her occasional visions of impending doom are equally true. He then dismisses the PCs, indicating that he must tend to Carilla, and leads her away.

Several days later, the group comes across about 700 troops, marching under the Prince’s banner to Burgensdorf. The duke was placed in Burgensdorf by the Prince after civil war, to keep the eastern lords under control, so it is no great surprise the Prince is sending some troops to help deal with the current situation.

The group’s arrival into Onderlach city coincides with the Summer Solstice, and there is much celebration going on. The armour and the cursed scarab are sold in the markets in a matter of days, for considerable sums of money.

Malkath heads to the Purple College, who have one of the best libraries in the city, conducting research on Dwimmermount and Termaxians. He doesn’t find a great deal, but there is one fragment of interest:

In Truth, the end of Termaxian rule was brought about by the same woman who accidently began it: Sarana. Having set up a false god far worse than the gods of the Great Church, decades later, seeing that Termax had become a great threat to both Man and Terrim, she made a second expedition to the surface to right the wrongs she had caused.

Sarana was the lover of Turms Termax, and the Terrim are mythical, demigod-like beings said to live in a vast Metropolis beneath the earth somewhere. The group couldn’t make a great deal of sense of the information, but found it very interesting, and immediately started hypothesising about this and that.

Tannek and Waramayl go hunting for henchmen. I’m being a little stricter than the official ACKS rules on henchmen, and ruling that PCs need to be 3rd level before 1st level henchmen will generally take service, but both the PCs in question are reasonably charismatic, so they may be able to overcome this.

Tannek, who is seeking a fighter-type henchman, first interviews a bard, who seems quite competent and Tannek is happy to offer him a position, but the bard ends up declining. He later finds a Jutland warrior going by the name Karl. After conversing and sparring with him, De is fairly certain Karl’s a barbarian, which is the one warrior class he didn’t particularly want to take on (as it’s not a class he wants as a backup PC). However, he ends up offering him a spot anyway. Karl is initially unimpressed with Tennek’s offer, but when offered an additional signing bonus, agrees to join up. He is indeed a barbarian, of passable (but not certainly not exceptional) ability.

Ag wants to do a Stannis and the Red Witch type thing, and thus wants some kind of priestess or witch henchman. When, after two weeks, he gets no expressions of interest, he drops 100gp on an advertising blitz, and makes it known he is offering double normal wages. After weeding out the obvious chaff, he finds Sircini, the regal-looking priestess of Ishanna, who agrees to serve as his spiritual advisor.

Meanwhile, a magical engineer has been employed at the Bastion of Knowledge, and the wand is identified as one of magic missiles, with 12 charges. This is then sold. In a shower of wealth, levels are suddenly being gained everywhere. Everyone is now level two, many approaching level three, and Kant and Aldaval actually are level three.

Some of the group’s cash wealth is funnelled back into more magical research, and they are able to determine that the final unidentified item they’re carrying is brooch of protection from magic missiles, worth a considerable sum. Unfortunately, they can find no buyers, even at reduced value, as they have exhausted the local funding/interest for exorbitant magical purchases.

Tr seems to find the whole market system extremely fun and immersive, but De remarks later that he is quite unhappy with it. From his perspective, they have to toil and extract loot in order to gain XP, but then they can’t convert their loot to gold in order to earn the XP. That’s not an unreasonable position, except I think it’s built on an incorrect assumption that the sale of magic items is going to continue to be necessary in order to advance. After this one big round of sales, I’d say the group is already at a point where they are going to want to start keeping items rather than selling them, so if it’s hard to sell particularly powerful/expensive items in order to convert them to XP, I don’t think that will be a problem.

In any case, the decision was made to leave the brooch in Onderlach with an agent to attempt the sale.



Obituary

• Malgath, Level 1 Elven Spellsword, slain by orcs, session two.
• Hektor, Level 1 Paladin, slain by orcs, session two.
• Balfur, Level 1 Dwarven Vaultguard, suffered orcish spear to the knee and retired, session three.
• Grendel, Level 1 Fighter, slain by orcs, session three.
• Obsidian Gemcutter, Level 1 Dwarven Craftpriest, consumed by green slime, session six.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Map to the Great Crystal Tower (I had not expect the players to go looking for this. I did a quick hack-job during the session, then whipped up this slightly cleaned up version with a bit more detail.) There were some comments that it's "not really a map". However, I think both this and the earlier map they have discovered will prove useful prompts to the players that, once they're out in the wilderness, mapping by landmark is going to be the way to do things.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 8

12 Mar 2022

Pre-session discussion and random musings

There was some talk about heading into the Ostwood. No one wants to hunt down werebears, and the existence of a Great Crystal Monument has elicited basically no interest whatsoever from anyone, but there was some interest in seeking out the temple-by-the-lake. As the map to said temple was taken from the Vault of Spoils, the group is assuming it contains Termaxian/Thulian goodies.

However, as the group has every reason to believe no one else knows anything at all about the existence of said temple, while other people are busy looting Dwimmermount, it was decided to head back to Dwimmermount.

I assumed the group would be heading down to level two. As they know the Fists took the path via the Hall of Memories and had already begun clearing it, I also assumed they would instead take the stairs past the former orcish zone, and studied/prepped appropriately.


The Actual Session

• De: Tannek the Warder, Level 2 Lawful Paladin
  • Karl the Hunter, Level 1 Neutral Barbarian
• Da: Kant the Repriser, Level 3 Neutral Dwarven Fury
• Tr: Aldaval the Theurgist-Torturer, Level 3 Neutral Elven Nightblade
• Ag: Waramayl the Novice, Level 2 Lawful Mystic
  • Malkath the Warrior-Seer, Level 2 Neutral Elven Spellsword
  • Sircini The Novice, Level 1 Lawful Priestess
• Jo: Cyril the Acolyte, Level 2 Lawful Cleric

While they researched and went shopping, no one made any efforts to get up to nefarious activity or hunt for adventure leads in Onderlach. Instead, they head back to Dwimmermount, empowered by their wealth and with new underlings in tow.

Rumours about the goings on in Burgensdorf had been fairly outlandish – talk of the duke razing whole swathes of the countryside, mass executions and the like. As they get closer to home, the truth becomes clearer – the duke marched on and besieged the castle of the Count of Versteit. The only other rebel who came to Versteit’s aid was the original ringleader, the Count of Dunklerwald. However, the duke defeated Dunklerwald in the field. Versteit refused to surrender and, as a result, the entire township ended up being razed. Numerous rebellious nobles have been executed, and there are many bounties – the largest being 65,000gp for the Count of Hochburg. Ears did prick up at that number but, at this stage, no one seriously pushed for the group to move into bounty hunting.

Back in Muntburg, they learn that a group of adventurers calling themselves the Five Delvers have apparently cleared out the Temple of Rathluk, killing many kobolds and an evil priestess. Apparently, another group responded to the count’s call for adventurers to investigate local disappearances, found a cave, ventured in, and weren’t seen again. The Fists of Solinor were apparently back in Mitteldurchgang for the moment, having had success on level two of Dwimmermount.

Construction was completed on Waramayl's longhouse, and he now commenced building a roundhouse nearby for Sircini.

As you probably guessed from the introduction, the players did not honour my prep, instead deciding to head down the staircase that they knew the Fists of Solinor had been taking. I swapped a few maps about and hoped I wouldn’t find myself missing any important player aids, descriptions, information etc …

In the entrance hall below, the find bits of bone and black metal, appearing to be from the same sort of skeletons they have fought previously (in this case, killed by the Fists). The group is keeping an eye out for Fist paint markings, but they head off opposite the direction that I had been working on the Fists operating (although, being surprised by the overall decision-making, I hadn’t gone over the level in any detail to determine how the fists had affected it).

Exploration leads them to a stuck door. It does not budge in the slightest when Kant tries to kick it in, and they guess it may be magically barred. Then, there is sudden scrabbling and scraping against the door from the far side. They guess someone may have locked something dangerous inside, and decide to head another way.

They end up in a large pillared hall, with a vaulted ceiling displaying stars and planets. There are six pillars, each of a different material, and with a let inscribed. Glass (V), marble (E), limestone (R), granite (I), concrete (T) and brick (A). There is a puzzle here, that relies on someone knowing that verita is the High Thulian word for truth. I had not established that High Thulian corresponds 1:1 with Latin (and was not personally aware until this moment when I analysed nature of this room properly for the first time). I decided to avoid some potential timewasting, and just let them know the letters would form such word. In any case, they had no interest in unravelling any deeper mystery, although they were impressed by the glass pillar. At the far end of the hall was an abstract statue, that no one showed any particular interest in.

Heading off down a wide corridor, they find a door and hear voices behind it, but can’t make out a language or what is being discussed. The assume it will be orcs or gnolls, with some players wanting to work with them if they’re orcs, others if they are gnolls. In the end, they burst in to find half-a-dozen hobgoblins, who leap to their feet demanding to know who encroaches on their territory. The initial reaction roll has the hobgoblins fairly well disposed towards the interlopers (just short of friendly).

Aldaval, being the only hobgoblin-speaking character whose player is present, takes the lead, and a lengthy discussion ensues.

It appears the hobgoblins see themselves as soldiers of Dwimmermount, which apparently means they fight for the Lords of Dwimmermount and the Great Church. It’s clear the hobgoblins know nothing of the world outside the mountain. They tell the PCs that they believe there should have been zombies stationed as guards across this level, but many of them have been slain recently.

Aldaval indicates the PCs serve the Church outside Dwimmermount. The hobgobs insist the Church’s highest authority is that which lies within Dwimmermount, and thus they are superior in authority to the PCs. After initially trying to work towards a more even footing, Aldaval agrees with this assessment.

The hobgoblin sergeant indicates that things seem stable in the Reliquary (from context, the region where the group is now), and the hobgoblins wish to establish control over the Hall of Portals. There is some confusion after this point, as getting to the Hall of Portals requires returning to the Path of Mavors (Level 1), then descending through the Laboratory (Level 2). The players all (fairly reasonably, but incorrectly) assume that there is a single “Level 2” when, in fact, the Laboratory and the Reliquary share no direct connections. It takes them some time to get their heads around the fact the hobgoblins (who are clearly proposing a joint venture at this point) are talking about going up to go back down.

The text indicates the hobgoblin plan is to establish control of the Hall of Portals. I suspect this may be an error, as they are actually perched above the Reservoir, and the Hall of Portals is well out of their way. As a short-term goal, it would make much more sense if they were interested in securing the Reservoir. However, long-term, the Hall of Portals makes sense, as they can secure the birthing pools on the way, and the pools plus the portals makes for some very important territory that, used correctly, would certainly help with taking control and exerting influence on a wider scale. (There’s also the bonus that it is pushing the players back to zones where I’ve actually done prep.)

The group agrees in principle to participating in a joint operation, and the hobgoblins escort them to an audience with their king. Along the way, they pass some other hobgoblin guard posts, estimating they see about 20 in total. They also noticed the hobgoblins, while they sometimes have light, seem ok in pitch blackness.

The King, a fine and powerful looking physical specimen, supports his underling’s suggestion of combined ops. The group learns of the birthing pools (although they don’t query what they are), and learn that the portals in the Hall of Portals are apparently links to various planets and realms of existence.

The King agrees to send six of his soldiers with the PCs in an attempt to explore and secure the Hall of Portals. The King makes it clear that he who controls Dwimmermount controls the Church. Interestingly, the PCs don’t really ask any questions about where the hobgoblins have come from or exactly what’s going on. I suspect this is at least partly to maintain a charade of being knowledgeable allies.

While crossing from one side of the level one to the other, the group runs into the Five Delvers, who are on their way out of the dungeon after fighting a group of kobolds led by a dwarf. Said dwarf was an interesting fellow I was looking forward to playing, but the PCs never went his way, and it would appear his time was up. Some players do raise the possibility of ambushing the NPCs while they’re in a weakened state, but it’s not mooted as a serious option.

Just short of the stairs, the PCs come across a cluster of giant centipedes just hanging out. They stand around indecisively until the centipedes catch wind and attack. The group finds out just how powerful cleaves are when Kant takes down four centipedes. One hobgoblin is bitten, but passes his save, and the centipedes are despatched without issue.

It’s back down the stairs to level two, this time to the Laboratory. Before they emerge on level two, they hear calls in orcish demanding they identify themselves or stop. Instead, the group picks up the pace, and soon emerges into a room where they are engaged by four orcs, who are quickly despatched.

One orc has already run off to alert others, however…

As they begin to explore this level, several things stand out. First, while the main crossroads making up the Path of Mavors are cut smoothly from the earth with clean, sharp angles, the rooms off the main passages were of a slightly cruder dressed stone. Down here, everything appears built clean, smooth and precise. Concave depressions, in the ceilings mostly, but also in the walls in some places, suggest to the players some kind of lighting system missing bulbs. Finally, the doors, while oak as above, are all bound with areonite rather than iron.

Setting out, the group stops to carefully inspect a door for traps. This door happens to lead to the orcish HQ, and the orcs are busy preparing a flanking operation. I get clarification that Kant is definitely doing an extremely careful search for traps, willing to take a full turn, so before the job is done, they hear orcs approaching from down the corridor.

The group smartly pulls back so that the door they were checking is between them and the new foe, but then, bolts are being launched at them from the distance, and they’re forced to push forward to engage in melee.

Kant takes a hit, but is cleaving through the orcs, when the door (now at the group’s rear, since they had to push forward) opens and more orcs come out. Things look a little dire, but the hobgoblins at the rear with Tannek help take down the orcish chieftain quickly, and Kant the Dwarven Fury has discovered that levelling up has turned him into a blending machine (the fact that he’s rolling consistently well is helping; he has had a couple sessions of consistently poor rolls, so I’m sure he enjoyed the change of luck).

In the end it’s a reasonably comfortable win, although three of their hobgoblin allies were cut down.

Searching the dead and the orcish lair, they find gold and gems, very nice crossbows, and a lightweight, spiked shield of adamantine. The group quickly agrees that Kant should take the shield, as he needs all the AC help he can get. I was pleased to see there was basically no debate about maybe selling the shield for gold and XP instead.

Further exploration in nearby rooms reveals a secret door operated by moving a wall hook, and the group finds two bronze chests and a wooden coffer. They initially want to leave the chests and come back for them later, but the hobgoblin sergeant doesn’t like this idea. Someone then suggests if he wants to gather the treasure now, the hobgoblins should open them. He directs one of his underlings to stand by a chest, and then says those who open chests, thus accepting the danger, should get the reward. After some discussion, it’s agreed the hobgoblins will open one chest and take possession of what is within. The PCs will get the other two (plus one already found in the orc lair). It’s not entirely a fair deal for the hobgoblins, but they’re down to three and have just seen how well the PC’s fight, so the sergeant isn’t about to complain.

In the end, the hobgoblins end up with silver coins, plus a small statue of gold and ivory, while the PCs get gold coins, a bit of copper, and a decent amount of expensive looking jewellery, along with two crystal flasks.

Discussion among the players after this made it pretty clear they intend for none of the hobgoblins to make it back home. This, I feel is a little short-sighted, as the hobgoblins are not likely to continue an alliance under such circumstances. On the other hand, Aldaval can now cast charm person, so perhaps the hobgoblins can be convinced the loss of their seconded troops really was just bad luck.

In any event, we called it a night at that point, the group quite satisfied with their newfound power and good progress.

Obituary

• Malgath, Level 1 Elven Spellsword, slain by orcs, session two.
• Hektor, Level 1 Paladin, slain by orcs, session two.
• Balfur, Level 1 Dwarven Vaultguard, suffered orcish spear to the knee and retired, session three.
• Grendel, Level 1 Fighter, slain by orcs, session three.
• Obsidian Gemcutter, Level 1 Dwarven Craftpriest, consumed by green slime, session six.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

PC maps from the session.

The first is the area explored via the hall of memories. The weren't able to map their way to the hobgoblin King, and the top section was done as best they could at hogoblin marching pace on the way back.



Then there is the area explored past the orcish stairs.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 9, Part I

Mar 26 2022

Pre-session discussion and random musings

It seems I rushed to judgement. The players actually had a good discussion about their options with the hobgoblins, weighing up the pros and cons of establishing a long-term relationship, and even went as far as to note that actively working towards keeping their current companions alive would be likely to assist them in future negotiations. They tentatively agreed to keep the hobgoblins alive to keep their options open.

My initial disappointment was predominantly that they hadn’t even considered any options other than “cool, we have expendable assets”. After seeing them actually weighing up various pros and cons, I’m not going to judge them for any final decision, I’m just happy they’re making decisions with an awareness of wider possibilities. It bodes well for the future.

The Actual Session

• Tr: Aldaval the Theurgist-Torturer, Level 3 Neutral Elven Nightblade
• Ag: Waramayl the Novice, Level 2 Lawful Mystic
  • Sircini The Novice, Level 1 Lawful Priestess
• Ro: Malkath the Warrior-Seer, Level 2 Neutral Elven Spellsword
• Jo: Cyril the Acolyte, Level 2 Lawful Cleric
  • Kant the Repriser, Level 3 Neutral Dwarven Fury
• La: Malok the Unencumbered, also the Seer, Level 2 Neutral Mage.

Continuing their exploration of the Laboratory level, the group passes through a room filled with bioluminescent moss that the humans in the group find painfully glaring. Malok decides to stride boldly into the room, intent on gathering some of the moss (albeit, the container he’s using is a recently emptied flaming oil flask; not exactly the perfect specimen jar). When no great catastrophe befalls him, the rest of the group joins him in the room.

Eventually they move on, discovering hints of some foul stench wafting towards them. The small leads them to a room with smashed furniture, and a large portion of it filled with a foetid morass of rotting meat, faeces, urine and who knows what else.

Aldavel hears some kind of noise in a corridor just beyond the room, so one of the hobgoblins utilises it’s infravision to peer around the corner, reporting 4 – 6 figures (most likely orcs) some way down the corridor.

It’s decided to form up and charge, but the bogeys have pulled back, and the group’s advance stops at a staircase down, and a door to their right. They’re fairly certain their targets retreated down the stairs, and they decide to clear the door. However, while Kant is checking the door, a large black widow drops from the ceiling and bites Malok. He fails his poison save, and is reduced to negative hit points, all at once. As the spider scurries about wildly, the hobgoblins are pulling away from it instead of fighting, but the other PCs are able to take it down without further casualties.

After the fight, Aldavel loses his shit at the hobgoblins, questioning their valour and their value. The sergeant is unimpressed, pointing out that they have lost three of their own fighting (quite effectively) against the orcs, and they are not under Aldavel’s command. The elf is not happy.

Cyril casts a cure light on Malok in an attempt to save him, but is forced to declare him thoroughly dead.

Through the door, the group finds a communal toilet, with rusted iron cisterns. The bench seating conceals advanced plumbing, with s-bends and flushing systems. However, before this information is revealed, the assumption is they are simply holes leading to cesspits, so Aldavel directs the hobgoblins to go take a look and see if their infravision reveals anything down the holes. When they comply, he gives his companions a look, waits until the hobgoblins have moved ahead, says, “Do it!” and leaps ahead to cut the hobgoblins down. Malketh and Kant join in quickly slaughtering the hobgoblins. Cyril doesn’t mind them being killed, but is discomfited by doing it in such an underhanded fashion, and does not assist. As an aside, this was the first time Aldavel got to use his backstab [not that it was needed]).

The general feeling on Aldavel making a unilateral decision on killing the hobgoblins was ambivalence. No one really thought he should have, but no one was particularly upset either. Some of the elf’s friends are possibly looking at him a little differently, however, having seen his bloodthirsty and somewhat petty side. No one has really been thinking of Aldavel as a mage-assassin, except, it seems, Tr himself.

While searching the room, there is a clunking sound, and the group detects some stirring of the air, which they work out is an air circulation system up on high. It runs for a about fifteen seconds, and shuts down again. This was a purely random event that could have happened anywhere, but given where they were at the time, they decided it wasn’t just AC, but an old bathroom-stink-removal system they’d accidentally activated somehow.

They decide to leave, and as the emerge back that top of the stairs, voices call out in orcish, from back the way they came, that they are surrounded. The orcs ask for 2,000gp (they know the group has looted their chieftain’s stash and has the money), in return for safe passage. They consider this option seriously, but decide against it. Instead, they plan to charge the orcs blocking their way out, fighting through and escaping, while Aldavel summons berserkers to guard their rear against orcs coming up the stairs.

The charge is highly successful, with Kan again acting as the dwarven blending machine. The plan is to run on through and out, but they succeeded so easily, it’s decided to turn back and help the summoned berserkers clear the orcs to their rear. All the orcs are despatched, and this allows them to take the time to loot the corpses, as well as re-raising the question of Malok’s corpse.

Waramayl had asked Sircini for her position on the matter, and she advised they should definitely carry Malok out for a proper cremation if possible, to ensure he wasn’t returned as undead. Carrying the corpse in fight wasn’t practical, but with the orcs dead and no immediate threat, they agree they aren’t just going to leave him there.

This does necessitate working out how they are going to carry all their loot out. I must have been far to lax with encumbrance when I last ran AD&D, because I don’t recall any hard decisions ever being made. This was the second time the group had actually had to work out how they were going to carry everything, and make decisions about what to dump. It most likely helps that ACKS has a pretty simple encumbrance system, further streamlined by the character sheets we’re using. In the end, to get the corpse plus everything else out the group had to work with two heavily encumbered characters. To try and mitigate the slow pace, it was decided to make haste out, rather than move cautiously at exploration speed.

There was also a discussion about the hobgoblins. The group agreed that returning to them to say, “Oops, your friends died, wasn’t our fault, how are you today?” probably wouldn’t go over well. However, they seriously considered handing some of the loot over (and not the copper, or something petty like that; actual, valuable loot) and saying, “This was their share, they died valiantly”. In the end, they decided it was probably time to cut ties and move on, because if they were going to maintain relations, they would be best to head back to the hobgoblins now, not in a few days, or weeks, when they next visited Dwimmermount, and their heavily encumbered state made that impractical.

One the way out, the wandering monster checks indicated a grey ooze had found it’s way into the luminescent moss room. Non-cautious movement meant a greater chance of surprise, but I rolled a one anyway, so cautious movement would not have helped. Cyril was the randomly chosen victim of the initial attack, and I prepared myself to report his death.

Instead, even with the surprise bonus and the glaring light hurts my AC penalty, the ooze missed. A caustic smelling pseudopod of wet concrete lashed out, Cyril somehow ducked aside, and the group was aghast the bubbling, wet patch the clearly wanted to eat them. Fortunately, grey ooze is even slower than the heavily encumbered PCs, and they won initiative next round, so they were able to skirt the threat safely and continue out.

Just before reaching the stairs up to level one, they also came across some bombardier beetles. I rolled a 12 for the reaction roll so, as the PCs pulled up to contemplate their options, the beetles also stopped, then decided it was best to avoid the strange creatures ahead, turned and ambled away. The rest of the trip out was uneventful, and they were back to town.

Part 2 should be up relatively soon.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 9, Part II

On returning to town, Waramayl decided that he would ensure that Malok received a proper funeral, presided over by Sircini. He was willing to spend a consider sum, but Muntburg does not have a ready supply of feasting items available for purchase on short notice, so he made do with 50gp for a grand pyre and hearty food for the locals. As it turns out, the mystic also had several other ideas in mind about what was required to lay further foundations for the future, but that was to come later.

Meanwhile, Aldavel was sought out by Salessa, the wife of his erstwhile business partner Fungari. She was very nervous, and explained that Fungari had made some poor decisions, and somehow managed to sign over his entire inventory (including items that had already been sold) to the Chandlers Guild. The nightblade’s investment was gone, and Fungari had been forced to sell himself into debt slavery.

The money meant little to Aldavel, who had accumulated thousands of gold dungeoneering, and he was satisfied that he was not being scammed. In a show of compassion, he made an effort to convince Salessa that she should encourage him to break Fungari free. She declined to do so, for he could not return to her as an escaped slave, and she would not uproot herself to flee with her husband. While Fungari’s grand ambitions were no more, she still had her home and was capable of supporting herself. As it turn out, Aldavel quite liked the idea of having a wanted criminal owing him a favour, but Salessa seemed to be aware there was something more going on that what Aldavel was letting on. She appreciated the fact Aldavel wasn’t holding her accountable for what happened, but wasn’t about to risk digging herself a bigger hole than the one her husband had already put her in.

Waramayl, meanwhile, was looking for someone to manage a market garden for his future commune, and offered the role to Salessa. However, Waramayl wanted a live-in farmer, and was she was content in her cottage, thus declining.

The day of the funeral, a group of dwarves arrived in town, trading gems and metals for various items their vault needed. Some of the party sought them out, and they indicated they would be willing to purchase any dwarven aretfacts or items of historical interest the party happened to pull out of Dwimmermount in the future.

Shortly before the funeral itself, with many locals gathering to pay their respects and have a feed, an official approached Waramayl and Sircini and indicated the Count would appreciated the opportunity to address the congregants prior to Sircini’s final words and the lighting of the pyre. Sircini gave a nod, so Waramayl agreed.

When the moment came, the Count stood before all, giving a reasonably rousing speech about the dangers and evils that assail all, and how heroes such as Maldek (sic), who died heroically battling orcs (sic) are an inspiration to all, both the powerful and those toiling to provide all those things society needs, etc and so forth.

On completing his speech, the Count had no plans to hang around with the riff-raff, and began to depart. Waramayl, who considered it critical that he be seen hob-nobbing with important people, intercepted the Count and was able to do so sufficiently smoothly that he was not snubbed or otherwise brushed off. The Count thanked him for his industry and work in the community, and indicated that he should expect an invitation to dinner at some point. The mystic was quite chuffed.

Malok was then ushered to his glorious afterlife in flames and on Sircini’s prayers.

Aldavel decanted a small portion of potion they had discovered, noting that it had a golden hue with purple striations, and seemed to be slowly sublimating into yellow vapour that, when sniffed, created a buzzing in his ears. On taking a sip, the buzzing ceased, and he felt a moment of clarity and centredness. The group debated what it might mean (resist fear, maybe?). I was impressed that Tr was just going around sipping potions.

Aldavel buys some wine to share at the local tower of the Bastion of Knowledge, and chats about the magic items they’ve found. He is put in touch with a alchemist who should be able to identify the potions.

The group also tested a ring which radiated magic. Jumping, running, hanging out in the dark, dodging, sparring and like eventually convinced them the ring had defensive properties. On the assumption it was a ring of protection, it was given to Kant who, together with the shield +1 discovered last session, now has AC 16. He is absolutely turning into a tough little motherfucker.

With valuables they wanted to convert to cash, the group decided to head back to High Sonderberg. They weren’t able to sell much there, but some investigation in the Bastion of Knowledge by Malketh shed some light on the azoth-infused, silver caduceus they had obtained. Apparently, such devices were a symbol of authority at various times during the Thulian Empire and, specifically, they were sometimes wielded in Dwimmermount in order to bypass guardians and barred portals. At that, Jo immediately perked up, and mentioned the “every locked door is trapped” rumour. Everyone else said, “one has nothing to do with the other.”

Jo decided it was time to recruit a henchman, and went looking for a fighter-type, advertising for someone who was a staunch believe in Solinor.

His first prospect was a young woman by the name of Tatiana, with some attitude and what appeared to be some serious skills. She claimed to have been blessed by Ishanna but, sure, she would give thanks to Solinor if it meant she got to go fight and take names. Jo was umming and ahing about whether or not he wanted her, because he really wanted a devout follower of Solinor. Meanwhile, the others were saying, “offer her double pay, we want this girl on the team,” except for Ag who was jealous and demanding that if Cyril didn’t want a feisty Ishannic warrior woman on his side, he’d damn well better refer her to him.

In the end, Jo offered her a position (for double pay), which Tatiana accepted. On checking her stats, he was very pleased (13Str, 10Int, 8Wis, 16Dex, 13Con, 16Cha), and considered running off to commit suicide so he could take her over as his primary character.

Ag also decided he wanted another henchman; specifically, someone to act as a bodyguard, as he felt extremely vulnerable in combat. Tr wasn’t happy about the XP-dilution that comes with more henchmen, but the others felt another party member would more than pull their weight. Ag also advised if he was vetoed on this, Waramayl would be leaving the party, as having some improved protection was the only chance he felt he had at long-term survivability. Tr relented, grudgingly.

Waramayl had no luck in High Sonderberg, but the group moved into to Burgensdorf to sell some remaining high-value items (and also decided that, in future, instead of wasting a couple weeks in High Sonderberg, they should bypass it and go direct to Burgensdorf). The session basically ended there, although Ag stuck around, and did recruit a fighter in Burgensdorf.

I had an interesting chat about the game in general with Ag at the end of the night. As I believe I mentioned in one of the first couple of posts, he’s very much a casual gamer, who turns up to be social as much as anything. He likes doing off the wall things to keep the game interesting. He had not been particularly invested in his character or the game, until he started to see his plans developing. Partially, that was probably because he expected the character to die. Partially it’s because he can’t contribute much directly in a fight. However, it seems he’s reached the point now where turning up to sessions is a fairly high priority, and he wants to see where everything goes.

Interestingly, as he increases in level, he’s also starting to see the potential of the class. Unfortunately, he still has low hit points and AC, but the potential for offensive output is there, and he’s worried he’s going to get too gung ho too quick and get the character killed. A good hit point roll next level, to provide something of a buffer, will probably make a big difference in how the character is played.

Speaking of which, the haul from the recent delve was quite substantial, and most of the group has hit level three, with Kant not all that far from fourth.

Obituary

• Malgath, Level 1 Elven Spellsword, slain by orcs, session two.
• Hektor, Level 1 Paladin, slain by orcs, session two.
• Balfur, Level 1 Dwarven Vaultguard, suffered orcish spear to the knee and retired, session three.
• Grendel, Level 1 Fighter, slain by orcs, session three.
• Obsidian Gemcutter, Level 1 Dwarven Craftpriest, consumed by green slime, session six.
• Malok (aka Maldek) the Unencumbered, Level 2 Mage, poisoned and carotid severed by giant black widow, session nine.