AD&D with the kids

I've had this post in backburner as a draft for a while and I think it's time to wrap it up. 

On the weekend of May 21st three of my nephews stayed for a sleepover. One is 10, one is 11, just like my son, and the oldest is 14. He was the one that asked me if I could run some D&D for them. I said yes right away and went to gather all my AD&D 1e stuff: PHB, DMG, MM, battle mat, miniatures and dice tower. I also took from my bookshelf the module B1-9 "In Search of Adventure" which I've never used before. 

This was not the first time they've played D&D. I've already ran a couple of one-shot games for them, but that was long ago. They loved it, but I guess they were too young to really appreciate the game. 

I started like it was the first time they were playing, explaining the attributes and rolling some dices to created their characters. I used the 4d6 drop lower method and maximum hit points at 1st level. Then it was the time for the races and classes. After a while they had Jibbeth the elf fighter, Rip the gnome fighter, Gurk the half-orc cleric and Eduardo the elf thief. 

I distributed some armor and weapons suitable for their race/class choices, and the asked them what would they put in a backpack before going adventuring. Food, water, beer and rope were their choices. I had them note that, even if all could see in the dark, they would need some light source for certain tasks. Torches, flint & steel and oil were then added to the equipment list. They were ready!

I put some choices on the table about what to do next: 1) A wealthy noble had acquired a ruined castle near the town and wanted it cleared of critters. 2) An elven merchant needed to send a message to his town deep in the woods. 3) Rumors of a renegade cleric and a band of orcs were harassing the border farms. Which way would they go?

After a brief discussion, and pondering of pros and cons, they decided to explore the abandoned castle. So off they went into CASTLE CALDWELL. They explored the upper works and found some goblins that they tried to talk to, with little luck. A fight followed and ended with a couple of dead goblins, one escaped with the last one surrendered and promised to serve the half-orc cleric. Then they found some giant mosquitoes (stirges) from which they fled after the goblin was attacked and killed. I threw in a large furry humanoid (bugbear), leader of the goblins that went to see what was all the ruckus, to see how they did, and after some lucky rolls they managed to defeat it. They left the castle back to town with some treasure to spend and some wounds to heal.

On their second foray into the castle they found a female cleric, that posed as a prisoner of some bandits (I didn't use the traders), but was actually their leader. She was thankful and sought revenge, so they agreed to help her. They found the thieves and when combat broke she turned on them! The thieves were slain but the cleric escaped. They took the bandit's treasure and continued exploring. The group came across some small dog-men (kobolds) that the half-orc quickly subdued into his service. The creatures told them about the fire-spitting beetles (I didn't use the wolves) and they decided to investigate. The hungry beetles attacked them on sight, but they managed to defeat the monsters. They cleverly took their fiery glands to sell in town. The party left the castle with more treasure and a retinue of kobolds.

After recovering from their wounds, selling some treasure and getting better equipment, they went back to the castle to finish exploring, only to find there were some dungeons below. They went down and were puzzled by the clean rooms and corridors. A cubic mass of semi-transparent jelly (gelatinous cube) surprised them but they managed to escape.

We ended the session here.

Virtual Greyhawk Con 4

 

Greyhawk campaign update

After running Robert J. Kuntz's "Dark Druids", module "I1 - Dwellers of the Forbidden City" and Carlos A. Lising's "A5 - Kill Marquessa!", the first two set in the Suss forest and the last one on the northern coast of the Pomarj, in which the party discovered clues, but not explored, of a lost Temple of the Eye, recovered the Urn, killed one of Markesa's clones and raided one of her strongholds (where they killed Sturm Bucholtz but Markesa managed to escape), they returned through Celene to their lands in Verbobonc. Oh, by the way, I made Markesa a drow, as if all her wickedness and evil were not enough. 

During their stay in Celene they became acquainted, through Countess Tillahi, whom they've rescued from the Temple of Elemental Evil in the past, with Melf Brightflame. They left with them the Urn and a map they've captured from Markesa's stronghold for further study. Not long before they received a letter to travel back to Celene. Melf had devised the possible location of two other Temples of the Eye, one in the Jotens Mts. near SW Sterich and the other in the Hellfurnaces Mts. to the SW of the Yeomanry. The party agreed to investigate them and they traveled to the neighborhood of the first site through a magical mirror at Countess Tillahi's estate.

The idea behind the different Temples of the Eye (under the Temple of Elemental Evil, in the caverns of the Dark Druids, in the dungeons of the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief and bellow the Halls of the Fire Giant King) come, except the one in Dark Druids, from Greyhawk Grognard's series of posts about the Elder Elemental God.

Now I'm running a kind of "Return to..." of module "G1 - Steading of the Hill Giant Chief", in which the place above has been raided by a previous party and killed most of the giants (some escaped), and below the ogres and orcs revolted against the remaining giants and bugbears. The orcs chopped the heads of the hill giants and put them on pikes around the steading. This has been loosely inspired by a short fiction story called "Return to the Steading" by Bart Carroll that appeared on Dragon+ issue 11. 

So far the party has killed the ogres, charmed one of the three orc leaders and bribed the other two with part of the ogre's treasure (mostly copper coins, copper ingots, cheap jewelry and false gems). That way the orcs, that are able miners, agreed to clear the path to the sealed temple. Meanwhile a frost giant envoy mounted on a mammoth and escorted with two winter wolves showed up with a message to Chief Nosra. 

An epic battle ensued with the party victorious, although some gravely wounded, with one of the cavalier' retainer unconscious and his warhorse dead. The thief managed to decipher the message: a conclave of giant chieftains will take place next full moon in the Halls of King Snurre, and Chief Nosra should attend "using the gift and following the instructions". The party will now have to find out what that gift is and how to use it.

Greyhawk campaign update

Campaign continues with the addition of a new player character, Meriven Davers. She is a Patriarch of St. Cuthbert and also a veteran from the Temple of Elemental Evil in another campaign. Meriven is from Verbobonc and was assessing the situation on the Wild Coast when the party arrived to Narwell, travelling from Safeton on their way to their possessions in Hommlet, Nulb, Twilight Falls and Sobanwych.

I am running "Lord of the Scarlet Tide" from Dungeon Magazine #85 by James Jacobs. Even though it's an adventure for 3e, I'm using it anyway with a few alterations for 1e. I wanted to introduce the Underdark and its inhabitants (kuo-toa, drow, mind flayers and deep gnomes to name a few) to the players as a foreshadow of what's coming next. 

The party have managed to reach an abandoned kuo-toa city and must now retrieve a powerful item from a temple dedicated to Bilbdoolpoolp to put an end to the deadly red tide that's affecting the town of Narwell. 

Rionna

This character was created for another of Aron Clark's D&D Holmes games. This time he ran the adventure "The Black Tower" (1981) by Midkemia Press. Rionna is a thief and the rest of the party members are:

Ademor the Minotaur (Justin)

Bel-Shaar, cleric of Set (Nick)

Chet the Wizard (Brian)

Balthos (Peter)

Melisar (Aaron)

S 10, I 15, W 9, D 17, C 17, Ch 8