[Moldvay Basic] The Temple of Illhan - Last Delve Posted - June 30

[Dyson Logos]

Everyone I game with knows my favourite D&D is Moldvay Basic (or Labyrinth Lord if necessary - like for one group where no one has a copy of Moldvay Basic).

So, a few of us got together tonight to play it, and for once I wasn't the DM. We plan on meeting every Tuesday until I head to Mexico for the summer and early fall in a month or so.

Our first game was excellent - I love a game that ends like this, and can't wait for game two. It feels 100% old school, IMO.

 

[Dyson Logos]

Expedition 1: A TPK in one session

Our team was a little missile-heavy when it came down to it, with only one character having a Strength score over 12. One of the dwarves had a Dexterity of 17, but since we already had two(!?) thieves in the team, he went dwarf and used a shortbow instead. We also (surprisingly) had no elves on our team. In the end, our odd-ball team was... less than effective.

The leader of the team, Melhurn of Oakridge, was a cleric of the pantheon of law. A holy warrior of the church, he had gathered this motley team of rogues and young adventurers to explore the hills of Urh, where a halfling village had recently discovered the ruins of an ancient temple. The church at Oakridge knew what this meant - they had rediscovered the razed temple of the Binder, a lawful but very evil goddess of chains and bondage.

Some of us had heard rumours of this old temple - including that there is a treasure room with the regalia of a champion of good slain by the Binder's servants deep in the bowels of the structure, and that the halflings in the nearby town were actually secret followers of the Binder, keeping the religion and fell practices of this place alive to this day. Finally, three of us had heard that a massive creature like a mass of hooked and barbed chains lived in the catacombs.

We loaded up for the journey into the hills of Urh, bypassed the halfling community completely thanks to the church maps to the old temple (and our own misgivings based on the rumour of the halflings being defenders of the temple). At the razed temple proper we found an ancient set of damaged stone steps leading into the hillside, recently cleared of debris and undergrowth. We lit our torches and stepped into adventure!
And immediately found ourselves face-to-face with exactly what we had been avoiding. A full posse of halflings were in the first antechamber of the temple dungeons, equipped with mining and clearing equipment and carrying a bunch of sacks on their backs. Even for 6 adventurers, a straight fight against 14 halflings seemed excessive.

Fortunately, Melhurn took the lead and talked us out of any conflict, explaining that we were here from Oakridge after the church of law had heard about the discovery. The halflings welcomed us, explaining that they were hoping for such support as they had heard fell rumours about these catacombs themselves, and wanted them cleared and made safe now that they had been discovered only a league and a bit from the halfling village.
We explored some of the first level of the dungeon, finding mostly empty rooms and collapsed halls where sunlight and other creatures could easily have entered the structure in the years it had been abandonned.

Then we fell for a classic old-school trap - an elevator room that dropped some distance deeper once the door closed behind us. When our dwarven friend was unable to open the door, the room descended even further. Now panicking, our strongest team member (a halfling, no less) charged the door and also failed to open it, and the room ground even further into the depths. Finally we smashed the door open deep underground. There also seemed to be no way to activate the room to bring us back up to the first level, so we decided to explore cautiously for a while and come back to the elevator room every two hours or so. In our first hour of exploration we discovered that this level was truly maze-like, although many of the hallways were unusually wide. Our only encounter was with a giant black widow spider that we surprised in it's web and killed before it got a chance to even react to our presence.

Back at the elevator room, it was still stuck on our level. Attempts by the thieves to get it back into operation were unsuccessful, so we continued our explorations, nervous about what we might find. And sure enough, this time we found some much meaner opposition. In a dead-end chamber not far from the elevator, we encountered a strange acidic ooze that not only nearly killed our fighter (Ethan the Stout) in a single blow, but managed to destroy his plate mail and was splattered across his shield and face as the rest of us ran out of the room, leaving Ethan to be dissolved by the grey ooze. In our hurried retreat from that room, however, we managed to attract the attention of some other beasts and were waylaid by three massive lizards. The fight felt very one-sided initially, as the lizards tore into our group, rendering our missile weapon fighters useless and we quickly discovered that they were too big to succumb to a sleep spell (over 4 hit dice!). They tore through the party, moving far more quickly than we could, rendering retreat impossible also. In the end, one thief was left fighting toe-to-toe with the last of the lizards, the other two being dead among the rest of our slain party. The lizard finally finished off the thief with a powerful bite (ten damage, killing the thief outright). The DM was "kind" enough to let us see that the beast was down to it's last hit point also - but then again, if our lonely thief had survived, he would have still been stuck on level 4 of the temple of Illhan the Binder, with no way to the surface.

So, next week we make new characters and head back into the temple of Illhan the Binder. Hopefully with a little more luck on our side.

 

[ancientvaults]

I really enjoyed hearing about the game, I enjoy the oldschool ambiance. Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[Dyson Logos]

Thanks, I'll try to remember to update it here, but will also be updating it in my blog (see my .sig for linkage)

 

[Thondor]

Sweet. Nice story. Now I want to join that game and get my PC killed.

 

[Dyson Logos]

I have a feeling that the TPK won't be the last PC death in this game...

 

[Dyson Logos]

After last week's TPK on our first sortie into the Temple of Illhan, we gathered again this week to create new characters with a different goal in mind - the total plunder of the temple instead of trying to protect the locals and the region from the evils contained within.

Our new (and less valorous) party was once again lead by a cleric, Bethunel the Hungry, a warrior of a church of gluttony and chaos. Always at her side was Rudrick "the scout" Hault, a thief sent by the church as her aide, lackey, and trap-finder (and the only character in the group with a +10% XP bonus). They met up with Eseron of Elder Boughs, an elven swordmage and Moruth Mel-Arn, a wizard, as they travelled through the dark forests of Elder Boughs. Finally, in the city of Oakridge they met with Coruhn Nels, a warrior-priest of the temple of Rund and his travelling companion, the nearly insane swordsman Magrun di Sur.

Coruhn and di Sur were our guides to the halfling hills where the temple had been rediscovered. Most of us had heard a few rumours about the temple; that while it had been razed by the Church of Law, the treasures had been left below, undiscovered or too tainted to bring back to the surface; that the local halflings had continued the quiet worship of Illhan the Binder; and that a secret society of assassins were guarding the temple to this day.

Arriving in the late morning, we found the grounds of the razed temple abandoned, but obvious signs of activity and recent clearing of debris and undergrowth were visible on the South side of the hill, just below the walls of the burned out temple proper. Within we quickly found ourselves in a maze of catacombes, ancient tombs and abandoned shrines dedicated to this dark goddess of chains.

It took many hours of exploration in these dark underpasses before we encountered our first signs of what we were here for. In a small dead-end room we found a set of small coffers mounted to the floor. Finally excited by a change from the tedium of unrewarded exploration, no one could blame Rudrick for failing to spot the catch that triggered the pit trap beneath him as he opened the second coffer. And worse, for all his troubles all we collected from the coffers was roughly a thousand copper pieces, probably ignored by the armies of Law as being beneath their attention.

But events soon picked up, and only a few rooms further we found a chamber with a small collapsed hole to the surface, and seven shrews of terrifying size within it - obviously somehow changed by this environment. A quick sleep spell from Moruth wiped out most of their numbers, but our fight didn't proceed as smoothly as we had hoped, with some damage dealt to the fighter Magrun, and a fairly serious bite being landed on our leader Bethunel.

Once the battle was over, digging through the stonework we found a pair of small sacks with a total of 500 gold pieces within them. Now truly encouraged by our success, we decided to continue onwards with our one remaining sleep spell and knowledge that as long as we kept Bethunel clear of the worst of the fighting we should be able to survive another battle or two and reap the rewards of this complex. Our next battle proved us right, as we surprised four bandits only two rooms further in and made short work of them, not even allowing them a single blow against us (and relieving them of their ill-gotten gains of gold and platinum). We continued onwards, still holding on to that sleep spell to level the playing field in our next encounter. We found a pair of stairwells deeper into the temple and some interesting rooms, but continued on this level aiming back towards the entrance, hoping for just one more treasure find before returning to the surface.

But trouble found us instead. As we stepped into a fairly large room just off the side of a presentation chamber of some kind, a flock of stirges descended upon us, catching us before we could get the spell off. Suddenly each of us was fighting for our lives, and the sleep spell would have been devastating to us, likely taking several of our own team out as well as some of the stirges. In the initial onslaught both Bethunel and Eseron were struck and stirges attached themselves to them both, draining them rapidly of blood. By the time the battle was finished, Bethunel was unconscious on the floor and several of us were down to our last hit points. We grabbed Bethunel and the wax-sealed metal urns in the corner of the room and rapidly escaped to the surface and then made our way to Oakridge to rest and recover and examine our treasures.

In the end we earned 800 experience points each, and everyone has upgraded to the best armour they can wear. After five days of rest we are will be returning to the temple to continue our explorations - next week.

 

[Dyson Logos]

Once again our adventures in the Temple of Illhan the Binder were the subject of yersterday’s short game. We pulled our motley crew together in Oakridge now that our leader (or at least our spiritual guide), Bethonel the Hungry, was back on her feet. The entire party dynamic had changed after we dragged her unconscious form out of the dungeon last game, having slain the stirge attached to her shoulder. Instead of being our leader and employer who looked down on us as fodder and useful tools, she had learned to respect the various party members and our skills, almost as friends, and except for the thief as near-equals.

Healed and re-equipped with torches and oil, we went back to the temple, avoiding again the halfling village nearby.

We re-entered the dungeons using our usual routing, finding no new creatures having taken up residence in that area during the five days since our last outing. We proceded quickly to scouring a complex of rooms in the North-Western side of the ruins. Again we found ourselves restricted in our explorations by old cave-ins from the original razing of the temple, but a few rooms into the maze of chambers we were met by the yell of “geeeeeee-ruck!” from a squad of hostile kobolds. Fortunately, we got the upper hand quickly and all ten succumbed to the sleep spell of our wizard Moruth. Cleaning out their lair we found a pair of huge chests, significantly larger than any of the erstwhile owners that had been converted into a large bed and throne by the little dog-men. Inside them we found a collection of silver and gold.

With satisfaction, we continued our looting of the ruins, and in an almost entirely collapsed room the thief found a wax-sealed metal urn half-burried in the rubble. It looked identical to the ones we recovered from the stirge room, so the thief inspected it and discovered a trap, but could not figure out how to disarm it. Finally Coruhn stepped up and pulled the urn out of the rubble, triggering the spear trap which fortunately did not pierce his new plate mail. Within the urn we found a single golden ring with a dark unknown stone set in it (which we evaluated after the game at a value of 1,200 gp). With the new ring in hand we were waylaid by a small team of dwarven treasure-hunters but managed to come through that fight with a minimum of injuries. However, once again an encounter with Giant Shrews turned out to be a serious issue. We got initiative, but the elven sleep spell only took one shrew down, and the battle did some serious harm to the team.

With only one unexplored hallway left on the level, we decided to finish clearing this dungeon level before returning to the surface to rest and recover spells. In the final room we found a small coffer, seemingly without traps. Opening it however released a sleeping cobra on us which had to be dispatched before any of us succumbed to it’s poison. Beneath the cobra, in a secret compartment, we found more treasure, including a small silver bracelet with the same strange dark stone as the ring.

We returned to the surface, having mapped the entirety of the first level, and rested. With the extra treasure and experience, our thief, Rudrick, was the first member of the party to reach level 2.

With three sets of stairs known to get to level 2 of the temple, we chose the largest set, hoping it would lead us immediately into some of the more central parts of the ruins. While it looked promising when we first descended to find a trio of goblins defending more metal treasure urns, the rest of the section this lead us to was collapsed or empty. We had to return to the first level and seek another way down. Our second foray into the second level was also met with limited success and a lot of old cave-ins. However, the third stairway down not only uncovered a wealth of easy encounters and treasure, but stairs both leading down to level 4 and up to an as-of-yet unexplored region of level 1 which in turn had stairs down to level 3. We also encountered several traps in this region, but Rudrick’s improved skills proved invaluable and we managed to avoid them all.

On level 3 we found a significant amount of unguarded treasure, and then a stiff battle against six lizard men who successfully tore down our one fighter, Magrun di Sur. We left the dungeon with their treasure and their hides, but without young Magrun and returned to Oakridge to find another able sword-hand to replace him for our next foray into the dungeon, now all level two except for the thief (level 3) and the elf and new fighter (still level 1).

 

[Dyson Logos]

Last night's expedition was a power-delve. We loaded up with extra weapons, made sure everyone had top-notch armor, and memorized our first ever Cure Light Wounds spells (two of them - the benefit of having two level 2 clerics in the party). We approached the entrance carefully, watching for treacherous halflings and other tomb-robbers. Sure enough, someone had left a few retainers in the ruins of the temple proper with some mules and horses. Seems we were definitely no longer the only explorers here. Wanting to be the first ones down to the lower levels, we took a secret passage we had found last week to a section of level 2 that contained a chimney shaft leading down at least 50 feet - hopefully to the fourth level of the dungeon.

Fortunately the room at the bottom of the chimney was empty and seemed long abandoned. Exploring this section of the level found us against a few pit vipers and undead (ghouls at first, and zombies). Battling ghouls we had to take up defensive lines back into the corridor quickly in order to provide them with minimal access to our team - three attacks per round per ghoul makes for a lot of saves against paralysis - fortunately having an elf on the front line reduced the overall danger and a pair of clerics in the second line worked to our advantage.

We mapped out a total of ten rooms on the level and exhausted all our options except for a stairway down again to a deeper level of the temple. Before heading down, we found a fairly defensible room, spiked the doors, healed up and rested.

Down the stairs, a maze of rooms awaited, filled with a variety of foul creatures. We had to fight our way through a section that had been taken over by neanderthals of all things - but were rewarded after slaying their leader by the discovery that his fearsome strength wasn't purely natural, but was enhanced by a pair of magical gauntlets he was wearing. Now equipped with our first major magic item, we continued to encounter the probable owners of the horses we had seen on the surface - a young noble and his entourage were down here, and we walked in on them cleaning their weapons having already looted the bodies of some neanderthal guards. Before we could even talk to them, they leapt upon us, attacking with abandon. A quick blow from the noble killed our young fighter, but the course of the battle shifted quickly with a pair of sleep spells. While we were too late to save Kedrack the Axe (our fighter), we recovered treasure, jewelry and a magic shield from the bodies of the noble and his entourage.

Now wary of other explorers, we continued through this maze of interconnected rooms, listening at every door and watching for torchlight... but were just not prepared to be ambushed by ghouls who made no noise and required no light. Shy our fighter (again), and with our magic user and elf not having any spells appropriate for the undead, we quickly found ourselves in a tough spot - our leader Bethunel paralyzed along with her friend Rudrick the scout and the rest of the team engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the fell creatures. It was only a series of skillful attacks by the elf Eseron and a high-rolling Turn Undead check by the desperate and nearly dead Coruhn that ended the battle in our favor.

And then to make it worse as we were mopping up and waiting for the paralysis to lift on our friends, another noble's party attacked us while our guard was down. The battle was ugly again, fighting on the defensive but not willing to abandon our paralyzed companions. Fortunately Eseron was a one-elf killing machine assisted by his gauntlets of ogre power and the last spell from our wizard eliminated the majority of the noble's men-at-arms.

Once again we are heading back to town to find a new fighter.

 

[Dyson Logos]

Halfling Cultists & Plundered Tombs

After last week's successful delve into the Temple, we found ourselves back in Oakridge, looking for a new swordhand to flesh out our ranks. What we found was Greven of Eldar's Swoop. Greven was a pirate before turning his attentions away from the sea and towards dungeon delving. The loot we carried with us was more than enough to entice this greedy human to join us. (Since we needed a fighter, I rolled up two characters - the first one had a low Str and Con and really had no place as a fighter, whereas Greven at least has a Strength of 13, and a fair Dexterity and Charisma - a swashbuckling type of fighter.)

When we arrived at the Temple ruins the next morning, there was already a major encampment on site. A quick look and it was obvious they had set guards on the entrance to the site, and who knows how many had entered, leaving two dozen to guard the way in and protect pack mules and carts. As we approached we were hailed and told in no uncertain terms to depart.

Not wanting to have to deal with them all at once, we headed over to the Halfling village finally, settled into the common room of their inn, the Ankheg & Lettuce (one of six buildings in town with ceilings tall enough for us - and even then most of the building had halfling height ceilings, just the common room and four guest rooms were human sized). Rudrick went out into the town to check on temples and so on (to back up the rumours we had heard) while the rest of us spread some gold around the A&L and asked about the Temple of Illhan, the excavations and the latest encampment there.

By the end of the day, we found Bethunel engaged in eating competitions with the locals, our elf sitting on the floor in a halfling-height side of the room chatting about the various human nobles and "less than nobles" that were exploring the ruins, Coruhn in a philosophical discussion with the village sherrif about trying to hold to one's faith in an environment where another faith is ascendant (for the halfling it was how the village had survived during the time of Illhan the Binder even though the halflings had no love of her strict laws and stricter punishments, for Coruhn it was about being the priest of one faith while working in a team under the command of another church and it's representative). By the time Rudrick returned to the Ankheg & Lettuce with an "all clear" we were at ease with the locals and had decided to use the back entrance we had discovered to the dungeon instead of the main entrance the halflings had uncovered earlier.

We travelled back to the ruins in silence after sunset and slipped in through the secret entrance, and climbed our way back to the chimney shaft on level 1 that leads to level 3. From there we began our explorations again, fighting and negotiating our way through a colony of troglodytes and then into a long half-collapsed corridor with multiple traps along the length. After negotiating a pit trap, avoiding mechanically-flung spears (or in Coruhn's case, catching one in his shoulder) and digging through rockfalls, we found a series of old tombs. The first was occupied only by robber flies, but the next two were pay dirt.

Fighting and destroying ghouls we plundered the two tombs. One had a magical sword (+1, +3 vs undead) and a magical shield, and the other contained no less than a full set of magical plate, a magical shield and an enchanted mace. The second tomb, unfortunately had all this equipment on a powerful ghoul who fought us to a standstill. It seemed proof against our turning attempts, and between the armour and it's high hit points, we found ourselves fighting a retreat as it pushed us back into the hallway, leaving Rudrick and Moruth paralyzed in the tomb, and when we tried to fight our way back into the tomb, it slew Greven with a mighty blow of it's magical mace. Then it paralyzed Bethunel after she struck it a heavy blow, and it became a near duel between the ghoul and Eseron of Elder Baughs while the severely injured Coruhn tried to engage it with sling stones, keeping himself out of the direct combat. Once the ghoul realized that Eseron was an elf (after failing to paralyze him, but dealing him down to 4 hit points), it went back to it's mace. It was only a lucky hit from Coruhn (with his last sling stone) that finally downed the undead monstrosity. (Amazing how scary an AC 0 ghoul with maximum hit points can be).

We left the temple as quickly as we could, knowing that we had likely discovered the treasures we had heard about. We rested the remainder of the night back at the halfling village, and then returned to Oakridge the next day to find yet another swordsman (and I was roundly cursed by the party for rolling up a fighter instead of a halfling who we could have recruited at the Ankheg and Lettuce).