Dolmenwood - Session 02

The adventures in Dolmenwood continues this week with the PCs making their first attempts at exploring the forest proper. As always below is a short recap of the events of the session with some of my thoughts at the end, enjoy!

Characters

• Modestus Ursus - Level 3 Human Cleric
• Moggy "Mog" Cottonsocks - Level 2 Grimalkin Fighter
• Pansy Strongboned - Level 2 Human Fighter

Followers

• Agnel Dregger - Level 1 Magician

Action Report

The party awake and realize that Mog had been imprisoned the previous night. As such party make the decision to sell off the magical chalice—a potion of accelerate time—they found at Droomen Knoll. Using the funds of the sale Mog's ransom is paid and the Grimalkin is released from prison. 

Preparations are made thereafter for an expedition to the standing stones seen in the vision from last session. One of the magicians of the Shadow House—a woman named Agnel—is assigned to guide them to and help explore the strange stones. The party also stock up on supplies and purchase a couple horses, a charger named Buster and a yellow-flank named Roxy. 

The party set out northwards hoping to avoid as much attention as possible by traveling through a less trodden part of the wood. As they reach the eaves of the forest they spot a couple of dark-clad figures searching through the nearby underbrush. The group conclude the two to be members of the secretive sect known as the Drune. The group also spot a familiar figure with white thistle-like hair and ice-blue skin hiding nearby—the elf Thinwhistle—that the party had encountered at Droomen Knoll. 

The party learn from the elf that the Drune are looking for him thinking that he is some sort of spy. Wowing to help the group the next they meet him, the party help Thinwhistle escape by distracting the Drune with conversation. Things nearly turn heated but the group are ultimately only left with a warning to tread carefully within the woods beyond. 

Heading into the boggy woods beyond, the party come upon a group of goblins playing a game of "toss the baby". Intervening the characters decide to pay off the goblins to return the infant to where they found it. A bit of haggling ensues but eventually the goblins take the characters back into the Tithelands where the child is returned in exchange for 70gp and a promise that the goblins won't kidnap any more children. Before they part ways pansy purchases some fairy fruits from the goblins. The fruit is delectable but leaves Pansy with a palpable longing to visit fairy and sample more of the wondrous fruits. 

As the day begins to come to a close the group reach a strange glen with an ominous aura about it. Mog and Agnel both feel a strange feeling as if the space about them is somehow broken. Nonetheless the glade is dry and as such the party decide to make camp. After pitching their tent and fetching whatever firewood they can find the party decide to take a rest for the night. 

Trudging through the boggy eaves of Dolmenwood

GM Thoughts

In a sense this session was perhaps more of an introduction to Dolmenwood than the first as this session the players interacted with more of the systems of play different from standard B/X. In practice i found the systems around camping a lot more lightweight than i expected them to be. 

Releasing Mog from prison was quite easy, as was expected. Since the party had plundered a lot of valuables last session I had no doubts they would have the funds required for the release. If the party had not been as rich I would probably not had sprung such a punitive consequence on them. 

Having a magician follower in the party now acts as both some extra firepower and a good reminder that the shadow house has a stake in this adventure. It also serves as a good way for me as a GM to provide contextual exposition should it be needed, with the added bonus of it being in character. 

Finally I would like to commend the encounter tables in the Dolmenwood Monster Book, both the encounters this session were suggestions from the book. The encounter with the Drune and Thinwhistle in particular was great as it provided the group with some continuation from their previous adventure. This is certainly not the last the party has seen of the elf. The Drune are also probably going to appear again soon, and if so they will probably not be as forgiving as they were this session... 

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?