Dolmenwood - Session 01

A quick little report of the fist session of my new Dolmenwood campaign played online via discord and Roll20. The house rules for the campaign can be found here. Included below are a complete action report and some GM thoughts, happy reading!

Characters

• Modestus Ursus - Level 1 Human Cleric
• Moggy "Mog" Cottonsocks - Level 1 Grimalkin Fighter
• Pansy Strongboned - Level 1 Human Fighter

Action Report

Modestus Ursus, cleric of the one true god and general do-gooder; Moggy "Mog" Cottonsocks, grimalkin stuck in the mortal world; and Pansy Strongboned, disgraced noble turned outlaw; all meet on the road looking for work.  

Traveling on their way to the city of Castle Brackenwold the group are accosted by a family of farmers asking for assistance in helping locate their missing son Arda. The youth is tracked to a long abandoned keep known as Droomen Knoll, from which an enchanting melody can be heard. 

As the group approach, the sounds of revelry mix with the music as a group of wicked crookhorns make merry in the old courtyard. Taking out a sentry with a critical shot, the group surprise and nearly slaughter the crookhorns as only one of them manages to flee into the old dungeons below. 

Following the crookhorn the group take out a mutated rooster acting as a sentry. They then square off against the leader of the corrupted breggle. Even though he is a formidable opponent he is no match against three skilled warriors. 

Finding both treasure and the captive youth the group decide to keep exploring the dungeons. They find a strange imprisoned elf matching a mural in a nearby room. The elf introduces himself as Thinwistle, he is the one who has been playing the enchanting music that attracted Arda to the keep. The party take pity and release him as he runs laughing into the night. 

Clearing the dungeon the group pilfer the corpse of dead drune cottager and find a strange frozen pool through a secret door. Although Pansy takes some damage from the extreme cold, she manages to retrieve a chalice from the bottom of the pool. 

After returning Arda to his family the group are given shelter for the night, receiving a modest reward for their help in the morning. The day is uneventful as the group travel through the Tithelands, eventually arriving in the great city of Castle Brackenwold. 

The group make a stop at the magicians of the Shadow House who offer to identify the chalice for a fee. In addition group are offered the location of some standing stones seen in a vision—something which happened when the group touched a crystal carried by the dead drune—in return for the magicians receiving a cut of any magic items found there. 

As the identification will take a day, the group then spend some time selling off their other treasures and getting cured from any diseases contracted from the crookhorns. As Mog spends the night carousing she finds herself accidentally offending some noble, who then sees to it that the grimalkin is thrown in prison on trumped up charges. Mog is given a 1,000 gp debt to work off before she can be released. The rest of the group is left scratching their heads for how to best release their new acquaintance... 

A tower on a hill in a deep dark wood... 

GM Thoughts

If there's anything to be learned from this session it's that party composition matters! Having two fighters and a cleric combined with some really good rolls—Pansy rolled three whole critical hits this session—made the encounters nearly trivial for the PCs to overcome with violence. 

I did not realize how much treasure was actually in this supposed starter adventure. Since the party found pretty much all of it they all reached at least second level once they arrived in Castle Brackenwold. Ursus especially has an eighteen wisdom and so receives 20% extra experience! 

Combined with his bonus spells and praying at the cathedral of St. Signis (which also happens to be his new order of choice), Ursus will start the second session with access to three 1st rank and two 2nd rank spells. It should also be mentioned that Pansy has a mighty 20 hit points at second level due to rolling the maximum possible when leveling up. I take this all as a feature rather than a bug, as it just means I can throw scarier stuff at the party earlier.

All in all I'm really happy to take the dive into Dolmenwood. I've been a fan since the Wormskin days, and so finally getting to see it in play will certainly be a joy. 

B/X Monk Class

As my long-running Hill Cantons campaign has come to a close I though someone out there might get a kick out of my take on the Monk class that was used for the campaign. I'm generally a fan of using the OSE acrobat as a substitute, however in my lack of wisdom I had originally written the monk down as an option for PCs without fully detailing it, thinking no one would play one i guess (hubris at its finest). It's heavily inspired by the version of the same class found in the advanced edition of Labyrinth Lord. 

Click here for the Monk class!

So Long, and Thanks for all the Halušky

A little while ago my Hill Cantons campaign ended after nearly two years of weekly adventuring due to yours truly having to move away. This game marks the longest campaign I've ever ran or played in the nine years i've been playing TTRPGs. I can now happily say I've seen a B/X party from their lowly beginnings as 1st level rat-catchers to their heroic ascent to 9th level. Calling the experience anything but wonderful would be an understatement. 

I've recapped major events since the last campaign report more than a year ago, including a slightly more detailed description of the campaign finale. I hope you can excuse some of the blurryness of the images at the end, I think candles are allergic to being photographed. 

From left to right: Sir Duke, Luka, Natalie, Lasryn, Maula, Frankopan, Puddles, and Nosewise, by William Seaton. 

The Campaign Thus Far

Since the last session report a year and a half ago the characters fully explored the undertower of the plangent mage. The party are joined by the trident-toting gullygug Puddles, who becomes a core member of the party. Eventually the group travels back to Marlinko only to find themselves exhonourated of the crimes against lady Szara due to Luka's budding friendship with the nobleman Sir Leopold. Lady Szara herself is nowhere to be found, seemingly (un)alive and having left the city some time ago. 

A hiatus follows, whereafter the party stop the town of Plisk from being destroyed in a landslide, encountering the mighty Godfish and the mechanical golem known as the laminator. Here they are aided by Maula Muppetstomp, an emo war bear and another core character. 

Later as some among the the group are busy clearing out Willowby Hall with the intent of eventually claiming it themselves, Marlinko is attacked. Eld airships batter the city, seeking out and slaying all the council members they can at the behest of Lady Szara, now allied with the strange elves. Eventually the eld retreat, leaving the city severely damaged. The party quickly retaliate by slaying some of the eld's dragon allies lairing in an underground complex near Mount Voormidreth. 

The party—joined by Glamdalf and Frank the cleric—then spend some time in the northern land of Hoimatbuch, fighting off an army of giants and pursuing a treasure map. The map leads the group into a tower atop one of the nearby alps, acting as an entrance into an ancient dwarven realm. The tower is not uninhabited however, as the party are chased into the underground by the ancient white dragon Sleet. 

While underground the party manage to avoid capture by the locals, partly thanks to Frankopan's arrow of location, as well as aid from a friendly troll. When they return to the surface the group once again attempt to claim the dragon's treasure only to fail as Lasryn is killed and thrown from the mountainside. 

Returning to the hill cantons the party reunite with Pearl who had joined the group on their adventure with the Godfish (alongside her now adult black dragon Arraksis). Luka also reappears seemingly unscathed after having been captured by Sleet. The group decide to join forces and investigate rumours of the slumbering ursine dunes being occupied by the eld. 

While there the party align with the centaurs and strike an alliance with the remnants of the crew Ondrj, now under the command of his (daughter?) niece. Together with the party's own troop of soldiers—the merry men—they all assault the glittering tower and save Medved from being slowly drained of all his divine energy. 

As a thanks for their aid against the eld, the party also clear out the glittering barge and gift it to the pirates. The group spend some time exploring the magical portals found within the ship, taking them to the enchanting realm of Elysium and the planar city of Sigil. 

Realizing that no one will ever remain safe while the eld remain allied with lady Szara they prepare an expedition to the misty isles. Luka is especially motivated as he soon celebrates the birth of his firstborn son. Jarno Ironbraid also arrives to help his old buddy Pearl. 

Puddles travels north and enlists the aid of her boyfriend—the prince of the dwarves of Hoimatbuch—who reveals that the pair are now the parents of about fourty half-gullygug half-dwarf children (puddles having laid several eggs during the groups last visit to the area). 

A second delve is made into the frog temple, this time successfully recovering the staff of the raygigi. Glamdalf who alongside Frank had left after the groups escape from the underground now rejoin the party after being gifted the staff (their reasons for leaving being not reciving any treasure themselves). 

Sir Leopold and soldiers from Marlinko and the surrounding countryside also join the party, seeking revenge for the attack upon the city. Finally Stumpy—having been lost during the attack on Marlinko–returns, now sporting mechanical limbs and a faux-hoimatbuch accent. 

The glittering barge, by David Lewis Johnson

The Expedition to the Misty Isles

Using star charts given to them by the daughter of Ondrj the mists are navigated and the party arrive on the isles, driving of the eld-men and undead opposing their landing. The group help Frank free his god—the fifth town-god of Marlinko—and are granted a wish which they use to give themselves additional experience. 

Finally leading their forces to the pagoda city the party assault the location from several sides, defeating several clones of the eldish overcaptain Kliax who had manned the defenses of the glittering tower. The undead forms of Sir Eld and the checkered mage—associates slain during the attack on Marlinko—are also confronted and defeated. 

Taking to the skies to destroy the final Eld airship, Pearl and Luka come face-to-face with Lady Szara riding upon the back of Sleet. The icy breath annihilates both Luka's tarn and Arraksis who plummet to the ground. Pearl herself is also slain but is brought back by divine miracle as Lasryns spirit performs her final act of service for the party. Sleet himself is shortly slain thereafter, leaving the group questioning how he could have appeared on the misty isles. 

The remaining party members storm the main eld tower seeking to finally defeat lady Szara before she regenerates. However they are too late and face off against her at the pinnacle of the tower. Lady Szara reveals that Sleet himself was acting under mind control as she activates Lukas sleeper signal, both the dragon and the wizard having been captured by the eld and made into agents. Luka throws a fireball into the midst of the party almost killing them, after which an undead Ace strikes from the shadows, tears in his eyes. Miraculously the party manage to hold on as Pearl uses a scroll of daylight and as Szara is stabbed in the heart with a silver stake, destroying the vampire forever. 

As the battle still rages below the party charge to the bottom of the tower. Fighting their way through an eld bunker hoping to stop the portal trough which the eld are able to enter the cantons. Hearing voices calling to him, Frankopan enters the cold hell and finds his way into a complex of vats filled with people. Finding the voices and smashing the vats from whence they come, Frankopan frees hundreds of copies of himself before attempting to lead them back into the cantons. 

At the portal the group hold back waves of incoming eld troopers. As Frankopan and his clone siblings arrive they realize the portal must be destroyed from both ends simultaneously. Luka volunteers to stay behind on the other side to make the world safe for those he loves. As the portal closes the party sees wizard ready himself as a platoon of eld soldiers come rushing towards him. 

An earth-shattering sound is heard as the tower begins collapsing around the party. They manage to escape and find the previously grey and cold misty isles transformed into a lush and pleasant land. The group gather the dead—chief among them Stumpy—and light a pyre as the night passes into the dawn.

A fortress in an icy wasteland, by Rodney Matthews

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye

I can confidently say that this has been the longest running campaign I've managed to get together. Considering that this group had a brief stint where we played Night Below before getting into the Hill Cantons, we have been a fairly stable gaming group for more than two years. Under other circumstances we might have continued, the players certainly expressed interest in other things in the world (the new continent they created as a result of their shenanigans in the undertower for example). 

Of course the majority of what happened during the campaign has been left out from the recap above. Things like Luka's flirting with Natalie, the doomguard and the expeditions to the planes, Puddles romance with the dwarf prince as well as her constant attempts to retrieve the pineal glands of defeated enemies, Frankopan inventing the bicycle, the kindly grandmother-bearling Vhelma Pesko and her grandchildren, Captain Kun and his turn to good, and the return of Huldovic Klyballe at the eleventh hour of the campaign, etc. It has been a joy to see the world react and change due to the actions of the players. Even as we played through adventures and a setting made by folks we've never met, it all belonged to us in the end. 

I do bemoan the fact that the wrap-up of the campaign happened over only about three sessions. Originally I had planned the crawl across the misty isles as an affair lasting the whole summer. Alas our combined schedules thought otherwise. Still it ended up being a great final session, continuing late into the night. Using home-made counters and a simple system for mass combat it still felt truly epic. 

Writing this some time later, I can't help but feel an immense sadness at the end of the campaign. I think it's easy for us who engage with RPGs online to forget how joyous playing them can be. At least I don't think it's emphasized enough. Sitting at the end of the session—snack crumbs and miniatures scattered about the table, watching as the candles burn out—it struck me that I might never again have this experience. Thank you to everyone who was a part of this campaign and those which came before. There is no thing which continues to bring me as much joy as my compadres. 

Luka throws spells as Natalie throws hands

Obligatory pre-action group photo

Worried about something i bet...

After all, are they not half the name of the game?

Quick Rules for Monster PCs in OD&D

"Other Character Types: There is no reason that players cannot be allowed to play as virtually anything, provided they begin relatively weak and work up to the top, i.e., a player wishing to be a Dragon would have to begin as, let us say, a “young” one and progress upwards in the usual manner, steps being predetermined by the campaign referee."

Somewhat famously the passage above can be found at the end of the descriptions of characters within the original edition of dungeons and dragons. For my own games of OD&D I decided to embrace this passage (who wouldn't want to play a dragon?), as below you will find my attempt at making the above passage into actual rules. 

from Dragon Quest Monsters

Monster Characters: The referee should work with any players who wish to play as creatures normally classed as monsters. These level up as fighters, and gain any abilities and weaknesses of the chosen creature. For every major ability (e.g. breath weapon, gaze attack) the experience required to level up is doubled. 

Monster Level Limits: Monster characters may level up as high as a fighter of hit dice equal to the monster's listed hit dice. Characters cannot have a level limit of lower than 4th level. 

Note: Any modifiers to a creatures hit dice are static and applied every level (e.g. a 1st level hobgoblin (1+1 HD) has a 1+2 HD without constitution modifiers, a 2nd level hobgoblin has 2+1 HD without constitution modifiers). A bonus of +2 or more to HD is considered a "major ability".

Lesser Level Limits (Optional): Characters may be allowed to level up beyond their level limits, requiring double the usual amount of experience points per level.

Laser (Acid) Pistols!

Recently in my ongoing Hill Cantons campaign (the same one from a year ago) the players have recently become more embroiled fighting against the Eld. I really like the eld as baddies, but i found that they really missed something like a laser pistol to make them feel truly like the science-fantasy creatures I've portrayed them as. As such I came up with the following eldish Acidblaster, following the same rules for eldish artefacts as those found within the Misty Isles of the Eld. 

Acidblaster

Artifact Category: C

Damage: 1d8+1

Resale Price: 100 gp

A sleek chrome pistol with a glass blub attached at the back. The pistol is reloaded after each shot with fresh eld blood through a syringe-like spike at the end of the bulb (whoever loads the blaster takes 1 damage). The blood then mixes with clear liquid from inside the blaster, increasing its caustic properties into a highly acidic bolt when fired. 

from Kenny Starfighter

Art Appreciation Post

Short post to show off the blogs banner art, made by my friend Emma. Made using watercolours and coloured pencils. The full image is sadly a little too large to use all of it as banner art and therefore I thought it prudent to give it its own post. I think it gives a good idea of a typical fantasy party; an elf in a green cloak, an axe wielding dwarf, a gnome wearing a pointy hat, and a tiefling, all taking a rest beneath a starlit sky. I am very happy to have the original piece framed at home. 

If you're reading this Emma, thank you for not only being a great artist but also a wonderful friend.

 

by Emma Svensson

Against the Cult of the Recap God

Following up from the adventures in the Keep on the Borderlands, that party has since continued their adventures in the classic adventure: Against the Cult of the Reptile God. For a bit of background on the previous events of this mini-campaign see the "reviewcap" of that module. It is worth noting that this campaign is set in the world of the Hill Cantons, so certain setting-specific adjustments were made during the course of the adventure. 

Written below is a recap of the events of this particular playthrough, with a brief review of the module itself at the very end. Happy reading! 

Characters

• Bear Stormpissed - Level 5 Fighter
• Jarno Ironbraid - Level 5 Dwarf
• Pearl the Reckless - Level 5 Magic-User

Followers

• Dromat - Level 3 Fighter 
• Ranulf - Level 2 Fighter
• Galdrel - Level 2 Elf
• Argo - Loyal Dog
• Mika - War Ocelot

Graveyard

• Hillcox - Level 1 Fighter
• Banjo - War Dog

Note: Character levels are taken from the end of the adventure. 

Cover Art by Tim Truman

Action Report

Following up their adventures in the Caves of Chaos the party travels northwards to investigate the mysterious village of Orlane. The group had previously heard rumours of people of the village mysteriously disappearing only for some to return acting strangely, seemingly without memories of their previous lives. 

On their way to the village the party find two dead elves. Upon further inspecting these bodies the players find a letter wherein the local boyar of Orlane asks for help in uncovering a supposed conspiracy. 

Arriving in the village the party find it to be very still and near dead place. Villagers seem to hole up in their houses and visiting the nearest inn they find it to be occupied by many unsavoury patrons. Regardless the party purchase a room though they refuse all offers of free drinks from one of the other patrons. 

Following up on the letter they found on the road, the party decide to pay a visit to the local boyar. Meeting with the man who is named Zacharias and after dispelling any suspicionsm, they are told that the village seems to be under some sort of a curse. For a year the people have periodically been going missing with only some returning, many people have also packed up and left the town due to this. Zacharias himself suspects an old sorcerer living in a nearby grove named Ramne to be behind the disappearances. 

Before heading back to the inn the party investigate the grove but are turned back after Pearl is temporarily blinded by the sorcerer himself who shouts for the party to leave. 

The groups rest is interrupted by a sudden ambush during the night, luckily both Dromat and Argo are able to hear something approaching and warn the rest of the group. The ambushers themselves are a duo of strange ill-smelling lizardmen whom the party are able to easily dispatch. 

The party leave the inn only to hear the screams of several people echoing across the nearby hills. Following the sound the party discover tracks which seems to lead from the now ransacked boyars manor all the way into a large and fetid marshland. 

The party spend their night in the manor and the next day once again decide to try and follow the tracks into the marsh. In this they are ultimately successful and the party finds themselves entering into a strange barrow-like structure dug into a mound of earth. After fighting some guards and exploring the first few rooms finding nothing, the party make their way back to the village. 

Once again the group visit Ramne the magician who learning of the partys excursion into the swamp immediately warms up to them. According to him the village is plagued by a strange cult dedicated to some sort of serpent known only as Explicitica Defilus. The village sun-dome Ramne says,is one of their headquarters and he urges the characters to mount a raid against it, offering to help himself. 

The characters take him up on his offer and together they discover what Ramne has said is in fact true, as the temple houses several chaotic monks whom the party manages to defeat before concluding their scouting mission. 

Realizing that this cult must be the very same the party faced at the end of their adventures in the Caves of Chaos they decide to leave the village and head north to the city of Dregendorf to rest up and gather supplies and men-at-arms before mounting a proper assault against the village temple. 

Arriving in the city of Dregendorf itself the party purchase both supplies and spend some time in the alehouse carousing. Finding the city much to their like they all pool their resources and buy a townhouse in the city. Through having a bit too much to drink Bear manages to drunkenly marry a woman working at a nearby "house of pleasure". Luckily for both parties the match is in fact a good one and the two fall in love. 

With their larders stocked and with three new hirelings and several animals acquired, the group make their way back to the village of Orlane to wrest it from the cult of Explicitca Defilus. 

Check out Petar Gnip for some great maps for the adventure

A Return in Force

As the group ride into Orlane they are saddened to find the grove of Ramne burnt to the ground with no trace of the wizard. As it is nighttime they all decide to immediately take revenge for the old mage and mount an attack against the corrupted sun-dome. 

Delving through the upper levels the party discover many normal amenities such as a kitchen and common room, though importantly also a trapdoor which leads the party into an underground complex. Here they fight and defeat a half-ogre and also come into conflict with a group of robo-dwarves. These almost kill the party by collapsing the ceiling on top of them, though the party are able to flee before this happens. 

Heading further down into a natural cave system, the group find two cells with a prisoner in each. One is one of Zacharias' two daughters and the other a man simply calling himself Frank. Both had been captured and taken below, being used as servants for the evil clerics above. 

Heading back up to the temple proper the party take an alternative route and come face to face with the turncoat head cleric. She is paralyzed by use of a wand and slain, but not before she is able to kill Frank. 

Finding no other routes the party take a large staircase leading up to the top floor of the temple. Here they encounter and defeat a large group of skeletons and are almost ambushed by a group of goblins throwing burning oil. As the characters are busy fighting the goblins a woman with scales and snakes eyes appear in one of the doorways, beginning to weave a magic spell. Thankfully she too is paralyzed by use of the wand and captured as the group defeat the last of the temples inhabitants. 

As the group discuss their next course of action the paralysis wears off and the woman is able to take the form of a large snake and slither out of her bonds, fleeing into the night. As they still consider the village to be hostile territory the players once again travel to Dregendorf to rest up. 

---

Returning to the the marsh for their final assault against the cult, the party are overjoyed to find Ramne waiting for them! Being a mage of great power he easily escaped the mob of angry villagers who burnt down his house, now joining the party to free Orlane of its curse. 

Delving through the lair of the reptile cult the PCs encounter many strange creatures; a caged woman with the appearance like that of a songbird, several more lizardmen, one giant weasel and several giant snakes, loosing their hireling Hillcox on the way. The party also encounter the ghost of the mayor of Orlane. Speaking with him, the party swear to defeat the reptile cult and rescue his remaining family. 

Heading through a secret door the party come face to face with the snake-eyed priestess they had previously captured. As battle is drawn she turns into a giant snake and summons undead to aid her against the party. Though Bear is bitten by her poisonous fangs he is able to resist its effects, Jarnos dog Banjo is sadly not so lucky and perishes. The party are ultimately able to slay the priestess and take from her the keys needed to open the nearby prisons. 

Inside the cells the party find Zacharias eldest daughter and wife but also a magician none of them recognize going by the name Glamdalf, claiming he had traveled north looking for an oracle to answer several cryptic dreams. All three have managed to resist the hypnotic gaze of Explicitica Defilus, and have been kept here awaiting whatever grisly end the cult has planned for them. 

After enlisting the captives the party tacitly enter the chamber of the serpent goddess, readying themselves for battle. They hears a loud hiss as the horrific creature appears, slinging a deadly fireball towards them. Realizing the grave danger the party is in, Ramne throws himself before the front line - absorbing the attack and getting brunt to ash. Little time is left for the party to grieve as the hypnotic gaze as all who are clear of mind can hear the approach of many angry lizardmen. 

As another spell puts many of the hirelings to sleep, those awake make a desperate effort to defeat Explicitica. Jarno and Galdrel are turned by Expliciticas hypnotic gaze and begin attacking their party members, leaving Bear to fend for himself in the front row. With the aid of a clutch light spell from Glamdalf, Bear is able to duel and slay using his enchanted blade Moonblood.

The party gather what they can from the hoard of Explicitica and rush their way out of the underground temple, before they are overrun by lizardmen. Arriving on the outside they let out a sigh of relief as they are greeted by the morning sun. 

As they travel back to Dregendorf the party reunite Zacharias family and say their goodbyes to Glamdalf. Before leaving he helps identify the PCs magical items, telling them to beware of events in the south. The party decide to spend their next few weeks in the city, taking some well earned rest. 

by Jim Holloway

GM Thoughts

By jove was this adventure a banger! It should be noted that as of me posting this, it has been a little less than a year since the events described herein were played through, the campaign having ended since then. In total the adventure was played through in eight total sessions, being sessions eight though fifteen of the campaign. 

Using keep on the borderlands as part of the set-up for this adventure worked really well, especially since this adventure is not as low-level friendly as you might expect (more on that later). The final battle against Explictica Defilus really felt like the culmination of a an epic quest against the cult as a result of this interweaving (one of the players even cried when Ramne sacrificed himself). I would absolutely recommend this approach to anyone else who wants to run both these modules in succession. 

As the characters were more mid-level no one had the displeasure of having their PC die throughout this adventure. In contrast to general OSR attitudes I actually do think this is quite a nice thing. It is rare that having your character die is a positive experience, though I think the risk of character death is important to establishing stakes in any given situation. A few deaths on the part of the party hirelings or animals only reinforce these stakes whilst not harming the PCs themselves. 

This is not to say that I "went easy" on the players or fudged the dice. The PCs survived the adventure mostly in part to their own burgeoning player-skills (and of course a little luck considering the high amount of instant-death poison in the adventure). The growth of the Players themselves was quite notable when put in contrast to the groups previous adventures. Considering their approach and plan of attack when encountering monsters, as well as keeping a good feel for whether they were in over their head is the biggest reason for why this adventure did not see any PC deaths. 

At the end of the keep of the borderlands i bemoaned me not throwing in more Hill Cantons specific creatures and concepts. This time around was a little better, as i filled the Orlane with various enemies emblematic of the setting. Still more could have been done, and I feel like the campaign was not really served by setting it in the Hill Cantons as opposed to some other generic fantasyland. 

The one caveat is the crossovers that were made possible by having the game set in the same world as the "main" hill cantons campaign. The appearance of Glamdalf at the eleventh hour of the adventure was a happy surprise to the player who knew who he was, as well as a fun bit of colour for the other players. I made extensive use of fantasy calendar to keep strict time records and keep track of events. This way I was successfully able to provide a sense of scale and distance between the two games, with characters in one game hearing about events taking place in the other. 

I have written about having high level NPCs in the party before, and I applied the lessons learned from then to now (both Glamdalf and Ramne were left for the party to control like hirelings for example). It should be noted that when the party found Glamdalf he had no spells memorised and the party had to expend a rare potion to generate him a set of new ones randomly, thus requiring the party to spend a rare resource. No player complained about the railroad-like death of Ramne, and I think that if he had been allowed to take part in the final battle it would have felt like a deus ex machina. 

by Harry Quinn

The Module

Against the cult of the reptile god is a module that successfully meshes an investigatory start with some classic dungeon-crawling. At 36 pages it presents both a couple smaller dungeons and a nicely fleshed out village, with better layout than other modules of a similar ilk (the Village of Hommlet comes to mind). I find that the beginning of the module is the stronger part, having a very strong hook for the party to investigate. This investigation is however not without its flaws. 

I would suggest removing one or two of the friendly NPCs in the adventure (the wizard, the mayor, the two elves), as having too much assistance at the very start of the adventure lessens the need for the players to run their own investigation. For this reason I actually think that the wizard Ramne makes for the best ally out of these three as he needs convincing to aid the party. His assistance essentially serves as a reward for the players once they have identified the village temple as the centre of the conspiracy. As an added benefit he can also help lead the party towards the main complex if the GM doesn't want to bother with the party searching the marsh. If the GM thinks that their players would feel overshadowed by having a high level NPC in the party you might de-level him to alleviate this. 

This adventure is not very 1st level friendly, regardless of what the cover might state. The troglodytes that are a main enemy in the adventure make for very powerful opponents, and even a few of them might easily overpower smaller parties. As the cult will actively send agents to combat the PCs there isn't always a lot the players can do to prepare themselves for these battles and as such they should not be able to simply crush the party. Explictica Defilus herself makes for an incredibly imposing opponent for a party who might have only reached second level, being able to potentially wipe out the party with her fireball, sleep, or web spells. 

Having this adventure be the second or third in a larger campaign solves a lot of the issues with the adventure. A lot of the scenarios are not nearly as deadly, and even the high level NPCs do not outshine the characters as much if they are of a more comparable level to the party. This way the GM can also seed rumours about the village before the characters arrive. 

I think this adventure has aged very well when put into comparison with other contemporary adventures. A lot of the mainstream discussion around RPGs these days are very focused around the story as something pre-prepared by the GM, though heavily influenced by the backstories of the PCs. This module certainly has a very strong narrative while still being a very open-ended adventure. Running this for players more familiar with 5th edition I don't think it would stand out, in fact I would say that AtCotRG shares more with Lost Mines of Phandelver than it does the Village of Hommlet. 

Running this adventure a potential second time, I would most likely run it the same as here. The focus on roleplaying in the first half will undoubtedly make any new playthrough very different than the last. This I think is what earns the adventure it's status as a classic.