[Session Report 13 - 12/30/24] Return to the Dungeon of Darkness

The Old Bridge

    After the party rested, gathered rumors, and resupplied in Dragonwrath, they set off on their adventure to return to the Dungeon of Darkness in the hopes of retrieving more treasure.  Their journey began on the 21st of Sun's Warmth and they quickly made their way to the Old Bridge which would lead them to the Outlaw Forest.  The party came upon a pond along their path and decided to stay for a day to fish.

    Our heroes had finally went off trail, leaving behind the well-traveled route of Bandit Pass.  Unfortunately, Silnth, who was familiar with the area, had died in the previous expedition which led to the party getting turned around a couple of times.  Despite the setbacks, they quickly got their bearings and were able to locate the dungeon once again.

    Once inside the subterranean structure, the party headed east, then south, down a passage they had not been able to fully explore the previous time.  After a few minutes, they heard what sounded like strained breathing and coughing coming from a chamber up ahead.  They cautiously entered the room and came upon a dying elf who had been crushed by a loose stone that fell from the ceiling.

Rocks fall, you die.

    The party gathered round the unlucky adventurer and tried to speak to him but the elf could only mutter a few, strained words.  Norik, attempting to help the elf, lifted the stone but to no avail.  The elf's torso was totally crushed and much of his entrails were splattered onto the stone.  The party tried to ask the elf more questions but all he could get out was "Do... not... return..." before finally succumbing to his grievous injuries.

    Fairly shaken up, the party steeled themselves and continued on their with their adventure.  After some time, they came across a door and Peter made quick work of opening it.  Inside the room were 7 orcs but they were surprised by the party and unable to react in time!  Seizing this momentary advantage, the party's medium, Hag, immediately went on the offensive and cast sleep on the group of humanoids, dropping each one of them in an instant.  Kratos then slit their throats and the others searched the room.  They realized this was their living quarters and found another door leading south.

    The party opened the door and traveled down a short hallway, eventually coming to another door which Norik opened.  They got the drop on the room's inhabitants and again went on the defensive, this time charging the group of orcs all at once.  Norik seemed to enter a frenzy and slew several orcs in quick succession.  They weren't completely unscathed after the battle though, since both Hag and Norik sustained some damage.

Torture Chamber

    After the battle, the party saw a torturer's rack with a dwarf tied to it.  They quickly cut him loose and he thanked the party for their help.  The dwarf collected his belongings from a nearby chest and introduced himself as Ingott of the Mountains.  The party and Ingott became fast friends and they decided to join forces.

    The adventurers continued down a winding passage and empty room until they eventually entered an incredibly strange area that was like nothing they had ever seen.  Instead of a black stone floor, the flagstone tiles were replaced with an olive colored shag carpet.  In the center of the room was a small coffee table in front of a couch, with a strange, transparent material covering it.  Atop the table was a peculiar box which lit up the dark room.  In front of the box was a small rectangular object.  The party examined the room and objects and decided to slide the small rectangular object into a similarly shaped slot underneath the large box.  The strange black, white, and grey flickering lights that emanated from the front of the box quickly changed into an image.  Then they saw motion.  A strange shape, crawling like a spider was seen moving within the box.  It must be some sort of portal or magic mirror that allowed them to witness the happenings of some faraway location.  The shape appeared to be humanoid and began growing larger.  Not sure what they were actually viewing, the party remained glued to the screen until a pale and deathly-skinny woman came crawling out of the TV and into the room!

Wight

    The party did battle with the undead creature from another realm but quickly realized that most of their weapons had no effect on the monster.  Remembering her magic dagger, Hag lunged forward and sunk her blade into the wight's side causing it to shriek in pain.  Then the others grabbed their torches and brandished them.  The clerics tried to turn the monster but failed, causing them to fear that Ohm had forsaken them.  Then, Ingott of the Mountains grasped his magic battle axe and rushed the wight.  He called out to the dwarven lords of yore and hacked away at the villain.  The wight screamed and croaked and crawled on all fours.  Finally, Hag the Medium attacked again and killed the creature.

[Session Report 12 - 11/30/24] Exploration of the Dungeon of Darkness

A trapped door handle

    The adventure began with the party opening the doors of the dungeon and descending down its dark, stone steps.  Immediately, the adventurers were overcome with a sense of dread and were faced with a choice - to go left or right.  They walked left and after a few minutes, came upon a wooden door with a strange handle.  The handle was in the shape of a curved snake with its tail and face facing forward.  Laying in front of the door was a corpse of an adventurer who had met an unfortunate end, although his body, surprisingly seemed to be mostly unharmed.

    Norik of the Jagged Peaks knew something was amiss and started to examine the body, first checking the hands as he thought the handle must've released some kind of dart but found nothing.  Further searching of the body showed a small prick and needle located on the man's torso.  Norik then ripped two strips of cloth, one to wrap his hand and the other to stuff the mouth of the serpent handle.  He then forced the door open and a "pffft" was heard.  The party overcame their first trap.

    Entering the room and searching amounted to nothing besides finding another doorway to the north.  They opened it, followed the passage west, and encountered another door.  This door seemed particularly stuck and took the adventurers a few attempts to open but when they were able to enter the room, they found a fear-stricken man. crouched in the corner, aiming his crossbow at the party.  After realizing that the man's mind was nearly, if not completely, gone they left him a copy of their map and a ration before continuing their adventure.

    After leaving the room and exploring a bit further, the party came across 3 corpses and figured that these were likely the poor man's companions.  Their bodies were maimed but not looted, the party was able to find 200sp, 40gp, and a well-crafted dagger (dagger +1).  They had a brief discussion about whether or not the party should leave now that they found some treasure.  Norik, Silnth, and Fern were dangerously low on rations and feared that starvation would set in but the rest of the party wanted to press on.  They decided to continue exploring the dungeon.

    Soon after, they came upon another door and forced it open.  Inside the room was a group of kobolds, surprised by the party's sudden entrance.  In a matter of seconds, the party hacked their way through the humanoids.  Then the kobolds attacked and struck down Silnth of the Tangled Woods.  More kobolds were killed and panic started to set in.  Fearing for their lives, the kobolds tried to flee but they were too slow and were cut down!  The party rested and took a look around the room and were horrified by what they saw.  Dismembered bodies hanging from hooks and chains connected to the ceiling.  The smell was overwhelming.  The only relieving thought for the party was that most of the bodies seemed to be of humanoid origin, likely goblin remains, rather than from humans or demi-humans.

    The party continued on and entered a chamber and saw that a man had been decapitated.  His head sat atop a sword, now wedged into a section of wall.  Norik heaved and managed to pull the sword out and the head fell.  They searched his body but found nothing.  They then walked several feet eastward and entered a room of pure gore.  The floor, walls, and ceiling were covered in slimy, bloody, flesh and fused into the wall was the remains of a man who still drew breath!  Among the forced and guttural noises that escaped his labored breathing was a plea for mercy - "Please... kill... me..."  After locking eyes with the mutilated man, Norik ended his suffering.

    Disturbed and shaken up, the party left the room in a hurry and entered another room.  It was quite large but also quite empty.  The only things of note in the room were a golden statue with ruby eyes resting on a plinth and several rectangular holes in the ceiling.  The party quickly came to the conclusion that this place was trapped but weren't quite sure what the trap was specifically.  Someone suggested arrows, then another said that the room would likely fill with gas.  Stricken with greed, the party devised a plan - they would lasso the skull from outside the room and pull it to them so that if arrows, gas, acid, etc poured out of the vents that they'd be out of harm's reach.  They threw the lasso and caught the skull and pulled it towards them.  Instantly, the skull let out a maniacal laugh and 8 stirges flew out from the holes.  Hag the Medium held her arms out forward and cast sleep, causing all 8 stirges to drop.  The rest of the party dispatched the monsters quickly.

    Now that they had defeated the trap, they looked around the room.  The adventurers began to discuss the value of such an idol and whether or not they'd be able to pawn it off back at town or if they'd have to search for a buyer, perhaps some eccentric wizard or the lord of Dragonwrath himself.  Insulted by this, the golden skull began speaking to the party.  Initially, the skull and party were quite annoyed with each other (the skull was particularly sarcastic and critical) but after one of the party members threatened to leave the skull facing a corner of the room, he began to be more agreeable (although still quite sarcastic).  Norik cut two eye holes in his small sack and placed the skull in.  The party spoke with the skull for quite a while and learned several things - it was at least a thousand years old, his favorite color is ruby red (he had initially answered "power" but Fern questioned him further), and that most humanoids that have encountered him either ran away or worshiped him.

"...my favorite color... hmmm... POWER!!!"

    Our heroes left the room and continued their adventure, eventually entering the living quarters of some goblins after walking through a winding corridor.  An all out battle broke out and the party was victorious.  The skull admitted he was impressed with the party's combat ability, but still maintained that he was still their superior which annoyed most of the party members.

    They traveled down another hallway and encountered more goblins, making quick work of them.  The goblins had been busy getting drunk and gambling, leaving them ill-prepared for an attack from adventurers.  The party searched the room and collected the stacks of gold coins set on the table and in the goblins' purses.  The party was now fairly content with their treasure and were ready to leave, but wanted to return to check on the lone survivor that they had met before.  They opened the door and saw his lifeless body slumped over in the corner of the room.  He had shot himself.

    Saddened by this, and not wanting to press their luck, the party left the dungeon and made their way back to the safety of Dragonwrath after about a week of overland travel.  They finally arrived at the town on the 18th of Sun's Warmth.

  

[Session Report 11-11/29/24] Journey to the Dungeon of Darkness

The party's traveled path

    The adventuring party consisted of 9 characters, 3 of whom were new members.  Sir Peter, Kratos, Thorfinn, Potato the Cleric, Hag the Medium, and Gobas the Canny were controlled by my cousin while the new members, Silnth of the Tangled Woods, Norrik of the Jagged Peaks, and Fern the Acolyte, were controlled by my sister.  Silnth was a particularly valuable addition to the group as she was familiar with the Tangled Woods and was able to act as a guide for most of the adventure.

A skilled archer, no doubt.

    The session started on the 15th of Midyear and the party decided to head into The Bottomless Tankard in order to get a drink and gather new information.  The adventurers heard about a dungeon located within the Tangled Woods that had been found by a group of rangers.  Some villagers claimed that the dungeon itself was a physical manifestation of evil while others seemed more focused on the supposed treasures hidden within.  This was enough to gain the interest of our heroes so they set off in search of the dungeon on the 17th.

A popular source of information, and ale!

    They traveled across the Old Bridge that led into Outlaw Forest along the Bandit Pass.  Along they found a small lake where they decided to rest and forage.  After 2 days of foraging, they continued on their journey and made their way into the Tangled Woods.  The party decided to head towards another lake located by a trail so that they could recover more rations as some of the party members were quite poor and were quickly running low on supplies.  As they were foraging, they encountered a pit viper!  Silnth drew her bow as quickly as an elf and shot an arrow into the beast.  The snake lunged towards her, hissing and bearing its venomous fangs at
her.  Silnth dodged out of the way but before the party could react, the snake fled.

A man of the wilderness.

    Another day of foraging was interrupted by a menacing pair of Tuatara lizards but luckily the party saw them first and was able to hide and remain undetected.  Somewhat tired from these encounters and being in the wilderness, the party had to rest again and witnessed 11 griffons flying overhead.  Eventually, the party encountered a band of 20 brigands and not wanting to risk a confrontation, elected to evade.  Despite the party's initial surprise, the cover of the woods and the encounter distance allowed them to slip away without being followed.  They weren't out of the woods yet though (pun not intended) and several dire wolves spotted the party but they were just as surprised as our adventurers were and decided to go their own way.

    Finally, after several encounters and multiple weeks of exploration, the party came across a stone structure hidden within the forest.  The dungeon entrance was guarded by two gargoyles atop pillars, and had two large stone doors, each decorated with a large, intimidating skull.  Above the doorway was an engraving of a phrase written in an unknown language.  Kratos took point and pressed on the door to open it, and to his surprise it opened with incredible ease.  They felt a sense of dread, like the dungeon wanted them to enter...

Entrance to the Dungeon of Darkness

[Lore] Worldbuilding Part 4: The Great Kingdom & The Great Church

     The two parts of my setting that I really want to flesh out some more are the Great Kingdom and the Great Church.  Really generic names I know, but for now they work.  The main thing I want to do is use the Great Kingdom and Church to really emphasize and develop the alliance between the humans and demi-humans.  Now that I've already established that the races are pretty friendly towards each other, I have to come up with some good reasons as to why that is.

    One idea is that the Great Kingdom is not just a single realm but it's actually made up of several minor kingdoms.  This idea seems really cool to me because originally, I had wanted to make a confederacy of some sort as opposed to a kingdom and this option is basically a combination of those two systems.  The human kingdom would be the most dominant and the rulers of the demi-human realms would swear fealty and pay taxes to the Overking.  I'm not exactly sure how many minor kingdoms I would create.  My first thought is that each race would have a kingdom but I might group some up with each other (dwarves and gnomes, for example).  I also read a blog post a while back about a campaign where all of the demi-humans were all considered to be part of "Faerie" and they were ruled by an elf prince which I think is really cool but it might be too fairytale-esque for my tastes.  Although, I have been thinking about classifying halflings as a type of elf, probably of the wood variety, and regular elves would just be high elves or something but I'm not 100% sold on the idea.  I do like that halflings get a bonus to ranged weapons though and that feels pretty elf-like imo.

Perhaps performing last rites prevents the dead from rising again.

    The other idea to lean into the Lawful alliance is to have them all share the same religion or god(s).  This is a bit different from what I've done since I typically just go with racial deities but after getting into the idea of having one god and many saints, a universal religion doesn't seem that far-fetched.  Something about dwarves, elves, and men all worshiping the same guy just felt off to me but it's slowly feeling less weird.  This is actually something I noticed in the example of play in the Basic Rules where Sister Rebecca, the cleric, performs the last rites of her church for Black Dougal upon his death but doesn't when Fredrik the Dwarf died.  I could be reading way too into this, but to me, it implies that humans and demi-humans don't follow the same religion.  It also implies that alignment isn't necessarily tied to religion since Sister Rebecca, who is Lawful, was willing to perform last rites for Black Dougal, who is most likely Neutral.  I'll be honest, part of me really wants to run with the implications of the rule books (and some modules, primarily B1) even though this particular one would go against the whole alliance aspect I'm focusing on.

Clerics from B1

    Anyways, one of the ideas I had for the Great Church (formerly the Church of Radiance) is that it is no longer only about Ohm.  Instead, what I had in mind was that the Great Church could serve as a religion of Law.  My earlier post about the Church of Radiance already plays into this idea with the demi-humans having their own patron saints but now, instead of having saints, their deities would be recognized as allies to the god(s) of humans.  I also liked this option because it would give a solid reason as to why there is an alliance between these races and why they are (potentially) part of the same kingdom.  When these races met each other and were able to speak in Lawful to each other, they realized that they were on the same side in this cosmic struggle between Law (good) and Chaos (evil).  The lack of demi-human clerics could also imply them being either godless or misinformed in their worship of their god(s).  A human cleric could've come along, done some miracles in the name of god and convinced the demi-humans to convert.

    Again, I feel like I could go either way with the monotheistic or polytheistic Great Church.  I also feel like I could just be incredibly vague and say that characters worship "the gods" and leave it at that until my players start asking questions about who they worship.  That is pretty boring though, at least for me.  Mystery is good but not knowing anything about my own world isn't really what I'm after.

    Maybe a shared religion isn't necessary to justify an alliance and them all being threatened by the forces of Chaos is enough to become fast friends.  That could work and I could just chalk up each race as being henotheistic so that they can still have their own, individual god(s) to worship but it doesn't immediately create hostility between them.  At that point though, why wouldn't the Great Church just include each Lawful deity.  Is it because the human majority doesn't see the utility in worshiping the dwarf gods?  I guess there could still be sects of monotheists but idk how common they'd be.  One benefit of going the henotheistic route is that conversations like that of Conan and Subotai would be pretty commonplace, which is cool.  The cleric could speak of their devotion to some ascetic saint while the dwarf shrugs it off, claiming that his god of gold and ale is a much better deity.

    I think part of my problem with worldbuilding these religions is that I wanted to establish an official religion for the Great Kingdom and have all the clerics be a part of it but maybe that shouldn't be the route I take.  There could still be a popular religion that would exist in all the main towns but maybe as you travel into the villages, you encounter more folksy religions that worship the "old gods" or something like that.  That could be pretty cool.  There could even be a sect of the Great Church that is much more intolerant of other deities that could try to root out these "heathens."  Maybe the priests of the Great Church teach that there is only one god and that the demi-humans have been deceived by the demons of Chaos.  The demi-humans themselves would be Lawful, due to being created by the one true god but they are currently separated from the truth due to these evil beings tricking them.  In my previous post on religion I said that Ohm was simply the most powerful god, so that could be another source of tension if I don't go the monotheistic route.

    Also, I've changed my mind on the saving throw bonuses I wanted the saints to give out.  While kind of a neat gimmick, I think it would be better to just have the gods and saints not really do anything for the characters, besides the occasional vison/dream or punishment.  In the most extreme and dire of circumstances, the god or saint might come down to help but that would be a one of a kind event.  Holy relics and artifacts, on the other hand, would give bonuses and various abilities to whoever found them.

    I'm gonna end the post here.  This ended up being mostly a brainstorming session so I'll have to think it over some more but I just wanted to get my thoughts out there.  I'd be interested in hearing how anyone who's reading this has handled gods in their game.

[Lore] Worldbuilding Part 3: Generic Fantasy & One Shots

    Lately, I've been thinking about the lore of my campaign setting and how it's already started to change from how I had initially planned.  The main reason for this is that my current campaign began out of playing one-shots that I only placed in the World of Dragonwrath after a handful of sessions already occurred.  This isn't a huge problem or anything but it has made me rethink a lot of the things I previously established.

    The main difference between session lore and what I had typed up on my pc is that the various good races (humans and demi-humans) are much friendlier than I had initially wanted them to be.  There's been some changes on how I view the gods and alignment as well.  Originally, what I was going to do was restrict players from playing demi-humans until they had met one so that they'd have a general feel for what they were like and I wouldn't have to give them a handout on racial descriptions (I tried that before and nobody seemed to read it).  

    The problem is that I still wanted to run games while I was developing this campaign setting so I chose to run one-shots.  However, these one-shots naturally grew into a campaign because the same cast of characters would return for different adventures.  Eventually, I placed the characters in the World of Dragonwrath since I wanted the players to be able to visit the town, explore the wilderness, etc instead of just starting at the dungeon but by that time the World of Dragonwrath had become something else. Essentially, I retconned the lore that I had typed up on my pc.

    So now my campaign setting has become much more generic since I've just been using the B/X rulebooks to run my game and haven't established many details about the world.  Right now, the campaign scope is incredibly local and only 2 settlements have actually been visited, those being the town of Dragonwrath and the village of Badwater.  Outside of this, the players have been kept in the dark regarding a majority of the lore other than what is implied by the rulebooks (elves like to frolick in woods, for example).  This actually helps me quite a bit though since even though my setting has technically changed for me, to them they will have only known this version of Dragonwrath. 

    Another reason why I haven't had to establish a lot of my own lore during sessions because so far, the party has pretty much just been concerned with survival (and treasure) and when your primary objective is survival, you aren't always the most interested in the specifics of your religion or why humans get along with elves.  All you're trying to do is to make sure you don't end up like one of the various corpses you find throughout the dungeon.

    One more thing is that I've actually really enjoyed leaning into the generic side of fantasy.  I read a blog post a while back about the implied setting of OD&D and I can definitely understand what they're talking about since I'm basically playing through the implied setting of B/X (although maybe not, since the Expert Rules do include a wilderness map that I'm not using but you get my point).  I think the main benefit of it is how easy it is to just start playing.  Before when I tried to run campaigns, I'd get caught up in trying to explain different things so that my players' characters weren't complete blank slates upon character creation and would understand parts of how the world worked.  This way has been much more successful for me though and it's a lot of fun developing the setting both through and alongside play during sessions.  

    Plus, if I don't know all the details about the world it means my players definitely don't and so there's a bit more mystery to the world which I really like.  Something I feel like a lot of really cool media ends up getting ruined by, is the lack of mystery.  Eventually everything gets explained and there's nothing left to wonder about.  Now, I don't want to have the setting be completely vague but I'm definitely learning to worldbuild in a different way than I normally have.  Another thing I should point out is that my players and I are still pretty new to D&D so the generic or implied fantasy setting we're playing in is probably more fun for us than it would be for rpg veterans.

    In the next blog post I'm gonna talk about some of the new ideas I have about the setting that I think fit a bit better with the way I've run the game so far.

[Session Report 10 - 10/14/24] Return to the Crypt

A zombie waiting patiently in a sarcophagus

    On the 1st of Midyear, the first month of summer, the party left Dragonwrath to further explore the areas of the crypt beneath the ruined church that they were unable to explore beforehand.  After 2 days, they arrived at Badwater and encountered a thief attempting to flee after stealing some gold coins from a merchant.  Hag, the fastest of the group, chased the thief down.  The thief pulled out a dagger and threatened the young magic-user to not step any closer should he wish to keep is entrails inside his body.  Hag tried to talk the panicked thief down, asking him why he stole the money.  After the thief explained that he had stolen the coins to buy some food, Hag offered him his own gold in exchange for the merchant's.  The thief accepted and Hag returned the coins to the merchant and the thief went on his way.

    After a few more days, the party reached the ruined church and descended the staircase into the crypt.  They turned right after doing a bit of scouting and came across a room with a single sarcophagus in the center, with the lid opened.  Along the walls were several shelves with urns.  The corpse of a cultist lay motionless on the flagstone floor.

A zombie biting the neck of Ermer the Dwarf.

    Ermer the dwarf decided to inspect the sarcophagus and saw a decayed corpse inside, wearing a silver crown.  Stricken by greed, the dwarf reached into the sarcophagus and grasped the crown.  Immediately, the corpse inside the casket jolted up, surprising the dwarf, and sinking its rotted teeth into his fleshy neck.  Ermer screamed in agony and fell dead.  The zombie rose up out of his burial chamber and the party's cleric quickly held out his cross and invoked his Lord's name "In Ohm's holy name, I rebuke thee!"  Unfortunately for the party, the cleric's faith was tested and came up short.  The zombie was unaffected.  Trusting in his blade instead of a deity, Gobas the elf leapt forward and drove his sword into the zombie's skull, killing it.

    After searching the room some more, the party moved onward and explored a few other rooms.  Some time had passed and they began to hear whispers, not wanting to stay around and see who or what was the source of the whispers, the party went back to grab their companion's body and left the crypt.

    Once they reached the surface, they buried Ermer and the cleric performed last rites.  After they rested, they started their journey back to Dragonwrath.  After a few more days, and narrowly avoiding 2 roaming lions, they were greeted by the gatehouse guards that welcomed them inside the town of Dragonwrath where they'd be able to sell their treasure and rest.

[Session Report 9 - 10/13/24] The Cult of Zellek'ur

The Ruined Church

    The adventure started in the town of Dragonwrath with the party resupplying and listening to rumors.  They heard more talk about the strange group of men that had come to town a while back and decided to search Attercop Forest in the hopes of locating a ruined church, which was the likely base of operations for any nearby cult activity.  The party gathered their belongings, donned their black robes that they had commissioned from the town's tailor and headed out into the wilderness once again.

    After a few days, the party arrived at the village of Badwater, a small settlement located just on the edge of the Swamp of Dread and nearby to the Attercop Forest.  The party, relieved to be able to sleep in a bed, stayed at the local inn for the night before continuing their adventure.  On the 1st day of the Summer Festival, they left the village and could see the edge of Attercop Forest where they encountered a group of mounted men-at-arms traveling along a trail that led out of the forest.  Our heroes could see that the leader was likely a local lord due to his appearance so they quickly took a knee, to show respect to their superiors.

    The nobleman took notice and introduced himself as Sir Brufen, son of Lord Branif of Dragonwrath.  He asked the party what they were doing and they explained to him that they trying to hunt down a group of cultists.  The nobleman was pleased to hear this and bid them good luck on their adventure saying "By the light of the flame, you shall succeed in your quest" before leaving.

    Finally, the party found the ruins of the old church within the Attercop Forest.  They steeled themselves and entered the once holy structure.  The room was dark and the only light inside was a ray that shone through a hole in the ceiling which highlighted the dust that filled the air.  The party of adventurers lit their torches and continued to explore.  They walked past rows of pews and came across a door at the back of the room.  It was rotted and easy to open.  The party entered and descended down a set of stone stairs cautiously into the crypt.

    Ermer the Dwarf and Gobas the Canny scouted ahead and led the party down the eastern passage.  They came across a medium-sized room with 4 black robed cultists collecting bones from the many piles stacked along the walls.  The cultists were surprised so the adventurers explained that they were "new recruits" into the cult but were never given a tour of the lair.  Drebb the cultist, fully believing their lie, offered to take show them around.  The party, glad that their disguises worked, asked to see the store room so that they could drop off some of their gear.

    Along the route to the storage room they had to enter a guard room.  Drebb opened the door and was prepared to take the party further when a guard asked who the new guys were.  The situation was explained but he remained unconvinced and asked the party to state the pass phrase to make sure that they were legitimate.  The party members blanked and their ruse was up!

    After a few brief rounds of combat, several cultists were dead and one attempted to retreat.  Not wanting him to sound off an alarm, Hag the magic-user, rushed after the cultist and tackled him to the ground.  Hag, who was unarmed, resorted to bludgeoning the cultist to death with his bare hands.  The party then collected the bodies and dumped them into the various crates and barrels within the storage room, which the fleeing cultist had ran away to.

    Not long after, the 3 cultists from the ossuary room came across the party questioning them why Drebb hadn't returned, until they noticed the blood stains on the stone floor.  The adventurers first tried to accuse the cultists of being imposters but that failed.  Then they tried to come up with a lie but the cultists weren't fooled.  Peter and Kratos made quick work of hacking down the religious zealots and this time the party took care to not only hide the bodies but clean up the blood stains as well.  They then searched the room and swapped out their damaged robes for some fresh ones they had found in a crate.

    The party came across an altar room where a group of 8 cultists were preparing the space for a sacrifice.  The leader of the cult quickly asked the party to identify themselves and speak the pass phrase, since he didn't recognize them.  Now that they knew the pass phrase after having accused the cultists of being imposters, the party answered "I am Zellek'ur."  The leader, figuring that Ton'chor the Acolyte, a cultist infiltrator of the Church at Dragonwrath, had been productive and recruited more converts.  He ordered them to get the guards in a nearby room to bring the young girl they had kidnapped to him for the sacrifice.

Sapheera

    Once they reached the guard room, they kicked down the door surprising the cultists and Hag cast Sleep on them.  Then they made quick work of slitting their throats and found the key that one of the guards had on him.  The party made their way to the room where the girl was being kept and explained the situation to her.  After looking around for a bit, they grabbed Sapheera and went to the altar room in order to confront the cult leader.

    Once again, the party busted open the door and surprised the cultists.  They immediately rushed the leader and his underlings were unable to respond since they were sitting in the pews awaiting the sacrifice.  The cult leader was killed and the cult's morale broke, causing the remaining 7 members to flee for their lives.  The party, not able to catch up to them decided it best to leave so that they could return Sapheera back to the safety of her family in Dragonwrath.

    The party arrived back at Dragonwrath on the 6th day of the Summer Festival where they were celebrated as heroes for returning the young girl to her kin.  The party outed Ton'chor as an infiltrator and brought him, along with his ally who he had given up upon further interrogation carried out by the town's guards.  The next day, the party joined in the celebration of the Summer Festival and enjoyed a well earned day of rest.

[Session Report 8 - 10/12/24] The Redfang Hideout

Kratos dealing an excessive amount of damage to kill a lowly 2 HP goblin.

    The adventure began on the 15th day of Second Seed, with the party resting in town, resupplying, and gathering rumors at the local tavern, The Bottomless Tankard, where they learned of strange activity occurring within the Attercop Forest, likely connected to the strange group of black robed men that had come to town a number of weeks ago.

    Not really interested in dealing with the cultists at this time, the party decided that they wanted to further explore the mountain caves that they had fled from just a few days ago.  They left the safe walls of Dragonwrath and set out for adventure.    On day 19, the party got turned around while exploring the mountains and ended up seeing some rocs fly overhead that thankfully didn't take an interest in their small group.  The next day, as they were getting closer to their destination they saw a sizeable retinue men on horseback.  The party thought it best to stay low and hide and were able to evade the strangers.

    Now the party was at the cave entrance and were eager to see what treasures awaited them.  They entered cautiously, not knowing how many goblins (or any other monsters) were in this cave system.  As they traveled, Sir Peter fell down a pit but as it was the only way forward, the party dropped down into the pit and they climbed out on the other side.  Eventually, they came upon a group of 8 goblins that got the drop on them.  After a few rounds of combat, Gotas the Elf was killed, 2 goblins were dead, 2 asleep, and the remaining goblins surrendered.  In a fit of rage, Kratos executed Gotas' killer and the rest of the goblins were bound.

    Kratos and the dwarf both spoke with the goblins to see if there were any traps, treasure, or other goblins that the party should know about.  Quickly, the goblins explained that their leader Gribbnuk, an exiled son of the tribe's chieftain, was in a nearby room along with his 2 wives.  The party gathered the goblins, with the intention of using them as a bargaining chip, and walked to the leader's quarters.

    They met with Gribbnuk and a deal was made.  In exchange for letting the goblin prisoners leave, the party would be given the goblins' treasure (3,000 sp and a single gem).  Soon, the party was on their way out of the cave and headed back to Dragonwrath.  The travel back to town went by fast and on day 23, they were once again greeted by the welcoming gates of civilization.

[Lore] Worldbuilding Part 2: The Gods!

    As I mentioned in earlier posts, the people of the Great Kingdom belong to the Church of Radiance which is a universal, monolatrous religion centered around the worship of Ohm the Almighty. The Church also canonizes many saints, particularly martyrs, who are prayed to for assistance and guidance by followers.

    Ohm is a Lawful and jealous god among several, but his powers are greater than any god the people of the Great Kingdom has ever encountered so they elected to worship him alone, while still acknowledging the existence of "lesser" gods. This insistence is one of the causes of strife within the alliance between man and demi-human. While the Great Kingdom does claim that their god is king of all others, the fact that they are able to accept the existence of other gods allows for alliances to be made with other cultures and races that follow different Lawful gods. Still, the clerics of the Great Kingdom are encouraged and commanded to spread the faith and convert as many people as possible.

    The Church holds honesty, selflessness, fairness, obedience, compassion, justice, and keeping your promises as virtues. While most followers are human, they are (mostly) accepting and encouraging of nonhuman converts. They strive to do good and help their fellow brothers and sisters. Their holy symbol is a cross, often made of wood or precious metals. The cross symbolizes Ohm the Almighty and his outreaching arms that protect all of His followers.

    Unless stated otherwise by the player, human characters are all assumed to be members of the Church. The Church of Radiance has a strict hierarchy and canonizes many saints, whom followers are expected to pray to for guidance and help. Player character clerics must choose (or create) a patron saint to dedicate themselves to. A saint might have a different holy symbol than the cross but a cross will always suffice. Each saint has at least one domain and can be invoked against certain things (such as plague, death, famine, etc) in times of need. Characters can also donate money, in addition to being a devout follower, to the Church in the name of their patron saint in order to gain a blessing (such as a +1 on saves vs death) from their patron saint. Characters are only allowed to have a single patron saint (and therefore only a single blessing) at a time and it should be rare for a character to change their patron saint, although they are allowed and encouraged to pray to any and all saints.

List of Saints & Blessing Rules:

In order for a character to receive a blessing, they must donate at least 10% of their level XP cost in gold coins, per month and follow the teachings of the Church.

St. Omes the Old, forced to take iocane powder, patron saint of elders and hermits, invoked against death, poison, and plague. (+1 to Saves vs Death Ray and Poison)

St. Zernmet the Pious, burned within a wicker man, patron saint of elves and magic users, invoked against magic wands, witchcraft, and heathens. (+1 to Saves vs Magic Wands)

St. Yorrana the Merciful, stoned to death, patron saint of dwarves, invoked against paralysis, turning to stone, cave-ins, and greed. (+1 to Saves vs Paralysis and Turn to Stone)

St. Arik the Bold, beheaded, patron saint of men-at-arms, justice, and bravery, invoked against dragon breath, cowardice, and impotency. (+1 to Saves vs Dragon Breath)

St. Erazell the Pure, killed by the iron maiden, patron saint of women, chastity, and the family invoked against rods, staves, spells, and demonic possession. (+1 to Saves vs Rods, Staves, and Spells)

St. Moldvay the Wise, burned at the stake, patron saint of clerics and children, invoked against the undead. (+1 to Turn Undead)

St. Zeb, exiled into the wilderness, patron saint of halflings, travelers, and reformed thieves, invoked against getting lost, banditry, and restlessness. (-1 to Lost Chance)

Other Gods

    The various tribes and clans of humans and humanoids worship too many gods to count.  If a player character wishes to be of a tribal ancestry, they are free to create their own god(s) as they desire.

    The elves worship several celestial, musical, and nature based gods.  The dwarves worship gods of mountains, smithing, gold, axes, and alcohol, etc.  Halflings don't really have organized religions but will generally make offerings to whatever spirits are in the area.  Again, player characters are free to design their own gods if they play a demi-human, but even a player-made god should fit thematically with the general domains already listed.

    In the next post (hopefully), I'll have a way for characters to call upon their gods and goddesses in their time of need.

[Lore] Worldbuilding Part 1: The Campaign Area & Political Divisions

The Wild Reaches (aka Outdoor Survival)

    The campaign area is set in the wilderness region, known as the Wild Reaches by the people of the Great Kingdom, which is the most dominant, Lawful human realm. The Wild Reaches is a vast area of largely untamed wilderness with a handful of Lawful settlements scattered around. The region is mostly populated by tribal humans, savage humanoids, and plenty of monsters. The majority of "civilized" people come from the Great Kingdom who go out into the wilderness in order to protect the realm of mankind. There are some areas within the Wild Reaches that are occupied by some non-hostile (towards humans) demi-humans, but they aren't super common. It also helps that the ruler of the Great Kingdom, King Grognard, in an effort to incentivize the taming and settling of the wilderness, has granted titles and land rights to any person capable of building and maintaining a stronghold.

    There is currently an alliance between the Great Kingdom and some of the various demi-human realms within the Wild Reaches however, there are some demi-human settlements that aren't so friendly to humans. Even within the alliance, tensions exist due to a variety of reasons (racial, religious, territorial, etc) but the alliance is still maintained because each member realizes that their chances of pushing back against the forces of Chaos is significantly higher if they work together.

    The people of the Great Kingdom are generally Lawful, good natured, and honest folk. While generally good, people of the Great Kingdom are also wary of outsiders due to the dangers present on the frontier. Despite this, they will let outsiders enter their gates if a tax is paid upon entry as well as if some questions are answered. The same can be said for the demi-human settlements although some of them might have stricter policies, such as requiring a member of their race present within a party to act as an escort. The average man in the Great Kingdom stands at 5'9, weighs 175 lbs (1750 cn), and has brown hair and eyes, as well as a fair complexion. Other skin, hair, and eye tones exist but are less common. The official religion of the Great Kingdom is the Church of Radiance, a monolatrous religion whose members view Ohm the Light Bringer as the most powerful deity. In the next post, I will elaborate on the Church of Radiance but for now I'll leave it at that.

[Lore][Homebrew] Gods and Saints

St. George slaying a dragon

    In order to incentivize characters interacting with the Church in my setting, which I will go into more detail in a future post, I thought it might be cool to give patron saints specific domains that directly tied into game mechanics like turning undead and saving throws.  Originally, I was going to keep the gods and saints fairly distant from the player characters but when I was creating some saints I had remembered the stories about St. George killing dragons and thought that a devout follower of his would likely get a bonus on saves vs dragon breath.  That's when I edited my saints to directly tie into game features and mechanics.

    Basically, how it's gonna work is that a character, of any class, can select a patron saint whom they can pray to for assistance.  The actual mechanical benefit comes at a cost though.  Characters are expected to not only be devoted to their patron saint (you know, following their teachings and actually roleplaying your character's beliefs) as well as a payment in gold of a value equal to 10% of their XP cost.  The donation to the Church would be a monthly thing and the price only goes up as the character levels up so a 1st level cleric who's devoted to St. Carr the Vampire Slayer would only need to pay 150 gp per month to the Church in order to get a +1 vs turning undead (or maybe turning vampires specifically).  

    I might also add specific requirements for each saint that is somewhat independent of the religion as a whole.  Right now all I have for a code of conduct is a set of commandments (given to humanity on a golden scroll) but it could be fun for saints to have their own little objectives.  St. Carr the Vampire Slayer might require his followers to never leave an undead... alive.  I'm not sure the right word for that but basically he could have a rule where his followers HAVE TO kill any and all undead they come across and if they don't, they'd lose the blessing.  This could make for interesting religious orders but it could be a bit much imo.  I'll have to work on it some more.

    I want to keep the blessings useful but also somewhat minor.  Basically I want them to just be in the background as something that's kinda cool and useful but isn't too complicated for players to the point of making them disinterested.  That's why I feel that a +1 bonus to a saving throw or something similar could be a cool mechanic, plus it encourages the players to interact with the setting's religion a bit more.  One thing I find really lame is when a player chooses to play a cleric simply because they think the party needs a healer as opposed to actually wanting to run a character who is devoted to god(s).  To me, a cleric should be similar to Sister Rebecca in the Moldvay Basic example of play.  They've sworn an oath to their deity and are willing to take a stand, even against their own party members, to stay true to their beliefs.  From what I've seen, a lot of clerics (and paladins) are all too willing to turn a blind eye to the evil committed by their fellow adventurers because they don't want to cause any friction or conflict.  Clerics, imo, should be some of the most annoying people as well as some of the most beloved people by their party.  Sure, it might be frustrating riding with a cleric when all you want to do is kick in doors and kill monsters but you'll be glad they're with you when you come across hordes of the undead or if you need your burial site to be consecrated so that you don't end up rising up again.

    Currently, I'm still fleshing out my starting saints (players will be able to make their own and I'll make more as the campaign progresses but I wanted to have a handful of options for players to select from to start off with) and once I'm done with them I'll make a post about them.

[Homebrew] Cyclops Race-as-Class

Krull

    Inspired by one of my favorite science-fantasy movies, Krull, I decided to make my own cyclops class for B/X based off of the cyclops character Rell.  I used the BX Options Class Builder to determine the XP requirements and feel that it turned out pretty good, hopefully you think so too.

Rell the Cyclops

[Session Report 7 - 9/1/24] The Cave of the Owlbear

The party surrounds an owlbear.

    This was another shorter session with my cousin.  His party had heard some rumors from the local town guards about a tribe of goblins who were spotted nearby the northwestern portion of the Dragon Peaks.  The adventurers gathered themselves and set off on foot into the wilderness, hoping to slay some goblins and get some treasure in the process.

    It was the 11th of Second Seed when the party left town and almost immediately, they stumbled onto some ruins.  The party made a note of it in their map but pressed on towards the mountains.  After a few more days of travel, they finally found a cave entrance in the Dragon Peaks.  They searched around the entrance before descending and saw several tracks.  "This must be where the goblins live!" thought the party members.    They lit their torches and made their way down the natural steps of the cave.

    In the first room they entered, they saw some bloody remains and a blood trail that led to an eastward passage.  They followed the trail and tried to listen for anything or anyone that could still be inside the cave.  One of the adventurers thought that some kind of ogre or troll must lurk in these tunnels because of how gruesome the remains were.  The party heard heavy foot steps further down the passage but they kept going.

    They entered a room and were overwhelmed by the disgusting smell coming from a mound of dung.  The dwarf of the party decided to search it and one of the fighters in the group vomited from the sight and smells.  After about 30 minutes, the dwarf was actually able to find some treasure hidden in the dung.  "Whatever made this mess must've eaten some adventurers." said one of the party members.  The party kept going and entered another room that was a ways off.  Inside was an owlbear and it stood on its hind legs and yelled out a frightening roar.

    The party, getting the drop on it, quickly surrounded the beast and started attacking it.  The owlbear clawed and bit at their cleric, Fredrick, killing him.  The rest of the fighters continued to attack and finally slayed the monster.  The dwarf, Ermerer, took the valuables from Fredrick's bags before departing.  Now, the party was starting to worry.  They still haven't encountered any goblins yet and started to wonder if the owlbear had beaten them to the punch.  They double backed, wanting to explore other areas of the cave.  Unfortunately, they were not as cautious as before and fell into some pit traps.  One of the fighters, Kratos, died in one of the pits but fortunately they weren't spiked or else more could've died.  The other party members pulled Peter the Veteran up out of the pit and retrieved Kratos' body, only to immediately loot him for valuables too.

    Deciding that they had taken enough punishment, the party elected to leave the dungeon and return to Dragonwrath with the treasure they found.  It didn't take too long before they were back within the safe walls of the settlement where they could sell some of their loot and rest before their next adventure.

[Session Report 6 - 8/31/24] Wandering Around the Wilderness

Druid Circle of Standing Stones

    This session was quite a bit shorter than the previous ones but was still quite fun.  After celebrating the execution of the bandit leader, Dantar, the party decided to hang out in town for a few days to gather some intel.  They spent their time mostly in the tavern, inn, and market where juicy gossip was bound to be and were able to find several rumors regarding a recently discovered ziggurat located in the Swamp of Dread.  According to the locals, the ziggurat resembles a famous structure previously thought to be only a legend.  Upon hearing these rumors, the party elected to travel elsewhere in the hopes of encountering something that was a little less frightening.

    So, the party gathered their belongings and set out into the wilderness in the hopes of locating the lair of a goblin tribe that the local guards have been complaining about.  They knew from the rumors that the goblins were spotted near the Dragon Peaks, northwest of the town of Dragonwrath.  Unfortunately, they were unable to find it but did stumble upon a druidic circle of large standing stones.  They inspected the stones and saw strange markings on each one, and the clerics of the party were able to recall that the Highland Clans are known to sometimes use runes and other pagan symbols.  Our adventurers then realized that they needed to take a rest since they've been travelling for several days.  

Black Dougal's Bandit Keep

    On their day of rest, they spotted a gorgon about 160 yards away.  They tried to flee but were noticed by the metal bull and it kept chasing them.  Now the party was starting to worry, they weren't able to rest and now were being forced to continue running.  Eventually the monster lost sight of them and they tried to catch their rest but then a gang of 75 bandits saw them.  The bandits were immediately hostile, no doubt due to the party accidentally entering in their territory.  The party had tried to evade but failed and the pursuit was on!  After another day of chasing the party, the bandits decided that the party was a sufficient distance away from their bandit keep and ended their pursuit.  Now the party was really beat and weary but they knew that they could reach the safety of Dragonwrath in just another day of travel.  Not wanting to rest in the wilderness for 4 or 5 days to regain their stamina they forced themselves forward until they were greeted by the welcoming gates of Dragonwrath where they stayed at the Wayfarer's Inn and were able to rest without fear.

Discovered Hex Features

Hex Features

1: Bandit Keep

2: Druidic Standing Stones

3: Halls of Ghuldesh

4: Dragonwrath

5: Grujek the Cruel's Tower (Formerly Mezhag the Imposing's)

6: Bandit Hideout

7: Fenhor the Fearless' Stronghold

[Session Report] A recap of where the party has traveled so far

 

Outdoor Survival Game Board

    In just under 2 months of in-game time, the party has explored several locations, met quite a few NPCs, and had a few encounters with mythical beasts.

Key

A: Dragonwrath

B: Tower of Mezhag the Imposing (now currently controlled by Gujek the Cruel and his orcs)

C: The Halls of Ghuldesh

D: Fenhor the Fearless' Stronghold

E: Dantar of the Dread Wilds' bandit hideout

[Homebrew] Gathering Information

A prime location for gathering rumors

    The main way that player characters learn about the various things going on in the local area is by "purchasing" rumors.  Now, at first it might seem silly to spend money on characters talking to NPCs but the way I explain it is this: the gold spent represents buying drinks, shopping at the market, bribing locals, etc so instead of playing through each individual encounter I just speed it up by having them purchase the rumors.  

    Originally, I used rumor tables and players would roll to see how many and which rumors they would learn about but I have recently changed my method.  Instead of creating tables of rumors, I create some rumors that everyone will know that gives each person at least some idea of what is going on lately.  Then, I create 4-5 rumors that explore those initial "free" rumors a little bit more in depth, print them out, cut them into strips, and place them in a bag for players to blindly take.  I also make sure to print multiples of the same rumor so there is a chance that a character could hear the same rumor several times.  When a player buys a rumor they can then take a rumor from the bag.  For example, one of the "free" rumors I gave to my players the other day was that "a strange group of men, wearing black robes, came into town a few days ago."  I then made 5 other rumors that tied into that first one, including a rumor about a local acolyte who was allegedly seen talking to the group of strangers.  Another method for gaining rumors is through hiring harlots, although this is not guaranteed.  Each harlot has a 2 in 6 chance of knowing a few rumors.  Player characters are also able to add their charisma bonus (or penalty) to their rumor rolls.

My rules for rumors