At last - my AD&D campaign has started!

[MerricB]

The Characters
Five players this time: Chris, Rich, Jackson and Tait returning, with Greg joining us for the first time with an elf Fighter/Magic-User.

Chris - Bjorn the human Cleric 4
Tait - Grak the half-orc Fighter 1
Jackson - Rathralen the human Cleric 1
Rich - Human Thief 4
Greg - Elf Fighter 1/Magic-User 1

10 Wealsun CY
Chris was still against going on Baron Sigmund's voyage, and so the group resolved to explore the dungeon more - especially that area around the rainbow portal. Chris is currently using an application on his iPad to map - in my megadungeon games, it's very good idea having a good map, especially with all the little tricks they have to disorientate the players!

Their first expedition saw them making their way westward from the starting chamber into the lair of the Bloody Tongue orcs (so much less objectionable than the Severed Hand orcs of the level below). Ten orcs were waiting for them, but they were swiftly slain by the party and their treasure - a hefty lot of electrum and silver pieces - was taken. Following a passage north, they discovered steps leading downwards. Halfway down the stairs, there was a click and the entire stairway turned into a slide, which deposited them in a short corridor leading to more of the Bloody Tongue tribe: 18 of them!

Greg used his sleep spell to negate 10 of the orcs, and Chris cast hold person to negate one more, but Jackson, charging unsupported into combat, was swiftly surrounded and knocked unconscious (to -8 hit points). The four remaining party members were able to slay the remaining orcs, but it took too long for Jackson's character, who expired - mostly unmourned - on the floor, under a pile of orc corpses.

It had been a hard fight, and the group returned back to town and their rewards (489 XP each). Rathralen was buried, and Jackson rolled up a new character; I think it's a half-orc fighter, but I'll need to check next session.

14 Wealsun CY
After a few days of resting, the group (with its new member) returned to the dungeon. This time they used the elevator room to explore that part of the dungeon better. Much to their surprised, they found a withered pot-plant in the chamber. Who'd put it there? What was it used for? They couldn't work it out (though their theories were very entertaining to hear).

Making their way to the room of four statues (Thor, Freyr, Freyja and Frigg, in fact), the headed east into unexplored territory. Turning south at the crossroads led to a dead-end with a 10' pit, which Jackson fell into (hooray!), but only took 1 damage. North led to a room in which stood a table made of ash, upon which the dust indicated something had once stood (perhaps orb-like) but had been removed recently. "Ah-ha!" the party exclaimed, "This is where the pot-plant came from!"

So, they returned to the elevator room, then carried the pot-plant back to the table. It proved to be bigger than the object that had been removed, but they left it on the table nonetheless. No boulders appeared to crush them, either, though I was tempted.

Further north brought them to a shallow flight of stairs leading to an underground stream with blind cave fish swimming in it. (And yes, they tried to catch the fish). Wading the stream (with Greg's elf being carried), they went up another shallow flight of stairs and found - of all things - an oracle, which appeared to be a woman sitting in a throne. It proved to answer one question per petitioner, and the questions included such gems as:

"What is the Rainbow Door?" "It is a portal to the land of the gods."

"How do we open it?" "You need the seven rainbow keys?"

"Where are they?" "Scattered around the dungeon and the lands of men."

"Where can I find magic treasure?" "Follow this map." (That was Greg's question).

"Can you tell us more about the Door?" "Yes."

I enjoyed that last one.

The map led the group back to the pot-plant room and off to the east, where twenty orcs of the Severed Hand tribe lived - then a further ten in the next chamber. These were overcome by their magic, and the great loot of 11,000 copper pieces seized! (That was hilarious to give the party). A secret door, easily located by Greg, led to the treasure chamber, where it waited inside a trapped chest. Amazingly, Rich managed to disarm it easily - he's been very good at making his thief rolls.

Within was a magic-user scroll with stinking cloud and phantasmal force, and a ring of warmth - that last very nice for a campaign in the lands of the Frost Barbarians!

At this stage, it was time to return to the village; another 400 XP gained by all, as well as some rare magic loot. It had been a good session. Let's see what happens next session!

 

[grodog]

Sounds like a good time, Merric!

So, what was the story with the plant, eh?

 

[MerricB]

Sounds like a good time, Merric!

So, what was the story with the plant, eh?

I'll let you know when they find those responsible.

Cheers,
Merric

 

[MerricB]

I've got three session reports to get through, but I've managed to forget (again) the book with my notes on this session, including the players. As usual, the rotation of available players continued, so Chris took advantage of this to troop all the new characters down to the Oracle to ask some additional questions about the keys to the Rainbow Portal.

He learnt three the location of three of them:
* One was in the level below, guarded by a minotaur.
* One was in the vault of the Overking of Rauxes
* One was on an island far to the south where ancient monsters lived

Obviously, the first would be the easiest to find, so the group went to the stairs to the next level and descended. They then had an incredibly difficult time fighting Orcs of the Severed Hand (much to Chris's disgust). They had to retreat out of the dungeon when injured and depleted on spells.

Then they met the Tax Collectors: Baron Sigmund had been sent some of his lieutenants (7th and a group of 5th level fighters) to take half the treasure gained by the party on their dungeon exploits. The players were *not* happy about this, but having paid attention to Chris's lack-of-a-hand, paid up. They began scheming for ways to get around this - burying treasure outside of town, for instance - but the fact remained that they were much weaker than the tax collectors.

The next expedition to the dungeon proved *far* more effective, with them finally cowing the orcs into submission and forcing them to reveal the location of the minotaur: in the mazelike corridors to the south.

I'd actually put the two minotaurs in a secret room (which the party moved right past), but there were plenty of other traps and hazards for the group, including a lot of dangerous fungi, plus giant ants and a couple of ghouls. As the group dealt with these, they ran into one of the minotaurs, out hunting. For a large creature, it went down very quickly from their combined fire - it didn't help that its attack rolls were in the realm of 1-5.

The next minotaur then came hunting them in vengeance for its mate; it too was hurt badly very quickly, and ran away - but the blood trail it left took the group right back to the secret chamber, its treasure and the first key: a ruby wand.

Reece got back at the tax-collectors by using some of the poisonous fungi spores he'd collected, and is now wanted for treason(!). The group planned now to leave for the isle of ancient monsters... little knowing it was the Isle of Dread!

EDIT: Characters for this session
Rich - Zarlac - Thief 4
Chris - Bjorn - Cleric 4
Shane - Edward - Magic-User 2
Reece - Xury - halfling Thief 1
Montie - Xabo - half-elf Fighter 1
Tait - Graak - half-orc Fighter 1
Jesse - Loqut - Cleric 1

(On second table: Callan DMing, running Jackson, Cosmo, Ben, Paul, Josh and Lee)

XP gained per character: 831 XP. And Chris got a Staff of Healing.

Dates: 21st-27th Wealsun

Cheers!

 

[grodog]

Nice summary, Merric. Thanks!

 

[MerricB]

I'm terribly behind on session reports, so I'll summarize the action:

To the Isle of Dread!
The group sought advice from the Frost Queen as to the location of the isle of old monsters, and were given the map and journal entries written by Rory Barbarossa. All they needed now was a ship - luckily, thanks to the expeditions into the dungeon, they were wealthy enough to buy one, which they did upon reaching Krakenheim, the capital of the Frost Barbarian nation.

Very glad to be avoiding the tax-collectors (until they return, heh-heh), they sailed south. Far south. I hand-waved away the voyage so we could get back to the action, just stating it took about two months.

Once the group reached the isle, I treated them to a description of the village of Tanaroa, and the great wall across the peninsula (built by the Ancestors). A feast was held in the honour, and - true to the spirit of drinking films - Jesse woke up to find he'd been married to an unattractive tribeswoman.

The group then made their way into the heart of the isle. The group fought a variety of wandering lizard-creatures and animals, but did a really good job of staying on track. They eventually befriended a group of Neanderthal cave-men, which they befriended using sign language and healing spells, who led them to the plateau at the centre of the isle. On a great rope-bridge that led to the plateau, they fought against three pteradons, with Jesse leaping to his death when he grabbed a pteranodon in mid-air. Jesse was wearing plate-mail, so the 200' drop below for his 1st level-cleric was rather assured.

With the group reaching the plateau, we ended the session.

This was a big session, with TEN players:
Josh - cleric 3
Rich - thief 4
Chris - cleric 4
Jesse - cleric 1
Jackson - magic-user 1
Shane - magic-user 2
Lee - Cleric 4
Callen - fighter 2
Dakota - magic-user 1
Cosmo - cleric 2.

Chased by a Dinosaur
I managed to use the wrong wandering monster table, and so set a Tyrannosaurus Rex against the party. And then it surprised the party. Yeah, I don't think Callen is going to let me live this one down. Eventually, he and Lee threw their backpacks into its mouth and it was persuaded to let them go.

The group then made their way to the crater lake in the centre of the plateau, where they befriended the villagers there, who told them of the head-hunters that lived on the Taboo Island in the centre of the lake.

Agreeing to deal with said head-hunters, the group travelled to the island, where they ended up fighting a massive battle against the head-hunter tribe, which eventually culminated in the head-hunter leaders taking the field against the group. That was not enough, though, with good spell-use and fighting from the group, and the remaining head-hunters fled with their leaders slain. The PCs returned to the village to rest.

After a couple of days, they returned to their investigation of the head-hunter lair: some kind of ancient temple. In the flooded corridors, they found fought rats and eventually a giant clam (that last wasn't hard) that held a great black pearl - surely the one that Barbarossa had written about. A few of the PCs were almost swept away when opening doors that had water behind them, but the group survived the explorations and returned to the native village successfully.

The Party
Callen - dwarf Fighter 3
Tait - half-orc Fighter 2
Rich - Thief 4
Paul - half-orc Fighter 3
Reece - halfling Thief 2
Lee - Cleric 4
Cosmo - Cleric 2

 

[MerricB]

Under the Temple
The next session was spent exploring more of the tunnels underneath the temple. In particular, they were able to kill a few sharks and make their way to more of the flooded tunnels. The exploration was made tricky by the water, but not impossible, and a few giant piranha fish hardly deterred them.

As some of the water had drained out by this stage, when they found a deserted torture room with a lot of broken metal and glass on the floor, they weren't in as much trouble as might otherwise have been the case.

Searching a flooded altar room netted them a magical mace, and some other minor treasure.

However, the real danger came when they descended to a cavern of bubbling hot springs and foul fumes, in which lived two Kopru. The group found themselves in dangerous territory in the ensuing fight, especially as they were low on spells. The group were forced to retreat and recuperate.

Their second expedition was more successful, although Chris's cleric found himself subjected to the Kopru's powerful Charm ability and had to attack the group - however, he failed to save against Cosmo's cleric's countering hold person and was restrained from doing any more damage save for knocking Jesse's magic-user unconscious.

Further exploration revealed a throne with a skeleton that held various magical items, and a passage leading deeper into the earth - goblins were the first monsters encountered but they proved little threat for the party, and were quickly slain. Returning back to the village, the group reflected on a goodly amount of loot and XP - about 2,300 XP for the session.

The Party:
Chris - Cleric 4
Stephen - Fighter 1
Jesse - Magic-User 1
Tait - Fighter 2
Rich - Thief 4
Cosmo - Cleric 3

The Missing Session
I was absent for this session - playing some Game of Thrones LCG - and Callen took the group through a dungeon of his own creation; some further ruins on the plateau. As I understand it, it was very successful for both magic items and xp.

The Deeper Tunnels
The group went on an expedition into the deeper tunnels under Taboo Island - which meant they went off the printed adventure and into an adventure of my own devising. It also meant that they went into an entirely improvised adventure, as I was drawing the map as they went and stocking it with encounters that seemed appropriate. I've done that a number of times in this campaign, and this was a particularly successful session.

The map I drew for this adventure was nothing like what I would have drawn in my youth, but when I added description to what the players found, it worked a treat.

(click to enlarge)

The adventure began with the party reaching the goblin room from a couple of weeks ago. The goblins had been mostly devoured - gnawed upon bones filled the room.

The Party
Rich - Thief 5
Tait - Fighter 3
Josh - Cleric 3
Jesse - Magic-User 1
Jackson - Magic-User 1
Michael - Magic-User 1

Investigating to the south allowed the group to surprise three Ogres (with just a small resemblance to the trolls of the Hobbit) sitting around a cooking fire. The party attacked, and soon the Ogres were slain, and 1,000 electrum pieces were taken.

No other exits were from visible from that chamber, so the group travelled west, to a cave where crystals covered the walls and several passages left it in various directions. Perceptively, the party discovered a hidden passage in the south wall which the light-play of the crystals made hard to detect. Heading in that direction, they heard the sound of hammering ahead, which indicated that duergar were present! Indeed they were, a great double-cavern in which twelve duergar could be immediately seen (although there were likely many behind). The group retreated and was followed by six of the duergar, who they slew, but they were loath to take on the full might of the dark dwarves and did not brave the lair again.

Instead they made their way back to the initial (goblin bone) chamber and headed north, this time finding those responsible for the bone gnawing: five giant lizards. Two of them were slept by two separate sleep spells, and the rest were eventually slain. The body of a human wearing splint mail (magical) was found, but no-one took the armour... as I didn't describe it as being magical!

Two exits beckoned, and they went north-east, into a large cavern through which a swift-flowing stream flowed. A giant crab emerged from the stream (8+1 HD, I was making it up as I went), and my dreadful rolling for attacks and damage continued - it wasn't able to hit Tait with both claw attacks and grab him! It eventually retreated under a hail of combined attacks from the group.

Unable to easily cross the stream, the group returned to the lizard chamber and then headed north. About 40' along the passageway they found a bamboo 'porticullis' set into the passage and blocking further travels north. It was fairly easily removed, and its creators were soon discovered: a tribe of five troglodytes in a room of many pools. Sleep spells were fairly ineffective, and the group had to eventually fight three of the troglodytes, coming out of the fight with a most amazing find: a ring of regeneration, which Josh's cleric took. They then returned to the surface to recuperate.

The next expedition took them far west, to a room of stalagmites and stalactites. To the north of that room they found a great door carved with the images of human slaves bowing down before Kopru, through which they were not prepared to go. Instead they headed west from the stalagmite room, into a cave with 4 ogres - slaying them and taking their reward, a scroll of charm person.

Back to the previous chamber and then south, they came to a cave with three exits: west, south or south-east. South-east led to the sound of hammering - back towards the duergar! - and they chose not to take on the dwarves. To the west they found a massive gallery of 300' in length and very high above. Tait, getting the idea of how I run my dungeons, made a point of looking up and noticed the spider webs and the giant spiders. The group left that room as well!

Instead they went south, into a cave that housed six bugbears and a pretty challenging battle, although the magic-users helped turn it in their favour. Three paths led from there, and heading south they came to a great chasm in the floor that they couldn't cross easily. To the south-west, the passage sloped downwards dramatically, and then headed east, until terminating in a round cave that went high out of sight. Rich climbed 80' up the wall to find a passageway high above going NW-SE, but finding no other takers for the climb, returned to the group.

Back to the bugbear cave, the party headed south-east... and realized they were in the passageway that Rich had found (the SW passage ran below this one). Continuing on, they eventually came to a cave with at least 12 troglodytes in it, and recognising they were outmatched, retreated, chased by four of the troglodytes. Josh led the group in the wrong direction, into the spider gallery, and the group was forced to turn and fight the trogs, but with only some of them present were able to win it fairly easily.

At this point the group returned to the surface and the session ended - about 2,400 XP was gained from this session, which put Michael's character just shy of his first level-gain in Michael's first session of D&D ever.

 

[MerricB]

Players and Sessions

Here's an approximation of the players and the session they've played in, along with levels at the beginning of each session. An "x" represents a PC death.

[b]Players    Class    #Sessions    1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9   10   11   12  (13)  14[/b]
Rich       Thief        13       1    1    1    2    2    3    -    4    4    4    4    4   (4)   5
Chris      Cleric       10       1    1    1    -    2    2    3    4    4    4    -    4    -    -
Jackson    Fighter       7       1    1x   -    -    -    -    C1   1    -   MU1   -    -   (1)   1
Lee        Cleric        6       -    1    -    1    -    2    -    -    -    4    4    -   (4)   -
Reece      Fighter       6       -    -    -    1    -    2    3    -    T1   -    2    -   (2)   -
Tait       Fighter       6       -    -    -    -    -    -    1    1    1    -    2    2    -    3
Shane      MU            5       -    1    -    1    -    -    2    -    2    -    -    -   (2)   -
Adam       F/MU          4      1/1  1/1  1/1   -    -   1/1   -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
Nash       F/T           4      1/1   -   1/1   -   1/1   -    -    -    -    2    -    -    -    -
Callen     Fighter       4       -    1    -    -    -    -    2    -    -    2    3    -    -    -
Paul       Fighter       4       -    -    -    1    -    1    2    -    -    -    3    -    -    -
Jesse      Cleric        4       -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    1    1x   -   MU1   -    1
Cosmo      Cleric        4       -    -    -    -    1    -    -    -    -    2    2    3    -    -
Ben        Ranger        3       -    -    -    1    -    1    1    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
Josh       Cleric        2       -    -    -    -    -    1    -    -    -    3    -    -    -    -
Matt       Ranger        1       -    -    -    -    -    -    1    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
Greg       F/MU          1       -    -    -    -    -    -    -   1/1   -    -    -    -    -    -
Montie     Fighter       1       -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    1    -    -    -    -    -
Dakota     MU            1       -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    1    -    -    -    -
Stephen    Fighter       1       -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    1    -    -
Michael    MU            1       -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    1

 

[MerricB]

Players & Characters
Rich - Thief 5
Reece - Thief 4
Tait - Fighter 4
Paul - Fighter 4
Josh - Cleric 4
Callen - Fighter 3

The First Expedition
I'd designed the adventure on the day (rather than on-the-fly) during the hour I spent waiting for a Heroclix tournament to start, and in the hour after it finished before AD&D got underway. I used the old Dungeon Geomorphs (Lower Levels) to help me draw the dungeon, and the area explored by the PCs looked like this:

The characters began in the entry hall (1), where a crackling energy field protected the temple's interior. Reece and Rich gave it a good look, and various items were thrown through it, before Reece tried putting his toe through... and succeeded, with no ill-effect. He then went through fully, and it was then that the full nature of the energy field was discovered: it was a one-way door; you could enter the Temple, but you couldn't leave.

Sadly, no-one started humming Hotel California at this point. They're all too young!

Beyond was the Grand Entrance Chamber (2), which had four statues of kopru wielding various items (whip: NE, staff NW, scythe SE and key SW), but the party's attention was taken by the 4 ghouls creeping down from the north passage. Josh turned them, but they were all dead by the end of the first round so it really wasn't much of a problem - though Tait and Josh were paralysed by their claws, lasting 20 minutes for Josh and 40 minutes for Tait (the Monster Manual actually doesn't list the time of paralysation... I took the times from the Moldvay Basic book).

Reece examined the statue holding the key in great detail, hoping it would get them out of there, but the statue was just a statue.

The group then headed down the west passage, eventually reaching chamber (9), which held a pedestal with a very large ruby surrounded by a group of six or eight arguing gnolls. Josh cast Silence to shield the approach of the thieves, and Reece and Rich crept down to attack... the twenty gnolls. Oops - not all of them could be seen from the passageway!

After getting in their backstabs, the two thieves fled back down the passageway, the gnolls in pursuit. The gnolls ran into the rest of the party - it was a big fight, but the gnolls were really disadvantaged by the width of the passageway, and the fighters of the group were able to hold them off. Eventually all twenty of the gnolls were slain, and the group took the ruby. I'd intended it to be 1,000 gp base value, but it ended up being worth 7,000 gp after some very good variation rolls!

Reece celebrated, as he now had enough XP to level up, and was all for returning to the surface... until he realised that they couldn't leave. I found that very amusing. Reece muttered something about my parentage.

The group was rather hurt at this stage, so they holed up in the small closest off the gnoll room to rest - nothing disturbed them in the night.

The group then opened the door to a small chamber (6), which was mostly undisturbed, before heading south to a room (4) with several pits in the south and a great mural on the east wall of slaves being forced towards a gate by kopru slavemasters with whips and keys. The pits - once full of water for the amphibious kopru - were now dry, and were now inhabited by four huge spiders, which attacked the group. Three were slain and the last retreated into the pipes below the pits, and the group used the antivenin it had bought in the village at the start of the adventure to treat the spider bites. A stone container in one of the pits yielded 400 pp and 3000 ep, though a dart trap hurt Reece. (He then disassembled it and took the parts for later use).

Investigating the mural closer the group detected the secret door behind it, and from there made their way into the control chamber (3) for the entrance energy field. Guarding it were two living statues made of rock that became molten when Reece went up to the controls - they were destroyed in the ensuing combat, but Reece took some nasty hits first.

Realising they'd disabled the block on the way out, they returned to the village and gained their reward: 2,225 XP each, which was enough for a few of them to gain a level.

The Second Expedition
About a week later (after rest and training), the group returned to the dungeon and continued their explorations; the energy field had not returned. Returning to the deserted room (6) they'd glanced into before, Reece discovered that they hadn't properly searched it when a great pendulum blade trap swung from a secret compartment in the wall, striking him for a lot of damage. Rich disabled it and Reece swore a lot. (And Josh healed him a bit).

The next small room (7) also appeared empty, but Reece and Rich made sure - yes, it was empty! The final room in that area (8) held a magic circle surrounding a pool of water, and many shelves that were now bare of items. The pool really interested Reece, and he investigated it thoroughly, eventually getting Tait to take a drink of the water. This was a mistake, and soon Tait was feeling really, really ill - basically incapacitated.

Despite Tait's incapacity, the group continued on under the "one more room" theory before returning home, taking the passageways east that lead them to a room with many robes for humanoid slaves (18), and its counterpart (17). A room with many copper jars (21) proved to have a lot of treasure stored within the jars - 3,000 silver pieces in total - and the group were smart enough to make lassos to pull over the jars rather than triggering the electricity traps on the jars.

They then proceeded to explore the south-east section of the dungeon, with empty rooms of (11) and (12) proceeding to a room that held a great iron throne with a iron crown set above it (13). A lever could lower the crown onto whoever sat in the throne, and Reece's halfling happily stood on the throne as the crown was lowered onto its head. In fact, the throne had been constructed by the kopru to increase the efficiency of their slaves, and gave Reece a +1 Strength at the cost of a point of Intelligence! Both half-orcs (Tait and Paul) were very interested in using the machine, while Callen just shook his head at the enthusiasm of his fellow adventurers to get their brains fried, but the machine would not work again. (They'll likely try it again on their next trip into the dungeon).

Having not found anything to fight, the group proceeded to a room with a great clear pool in it which contained a large amount of gold - about 400 of it. Reece dived into the pool to retrieve the gold, only to have a great shock: it was a pool of acid! The group had been *very* good at checking the nature of all the other pools, but with familiarity comes contempt, and Reece dropped to -8 hit points and almost died - a grappling hook was used to quickly retrieve him and Josh used his spells to stabilize the idiotic halfling.

The group then returned home, gaining another 200 XP or so for their experiences.

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

After a break forced by Easter, we were back to our AD&D campaign. Two sessions ran this evening, with Callan running one group (Josh, Ben, Reece and Jackson) with me taking the other group (Jesse, Rich, Paul, Shane and Jahred).

My group had a big spread of levels:
Rich - Thief 6
Paul - Fighter 4
Shane - Magic-User 3
Jesse - Magic-User 2
Jahred - Fighter 1

No clerics - with Josh having the one cleric being played tonight at the other table. As a result, the group were forced to return from the dungeon when they were badly hurt, and sought healing from the native village. For the first time in the campaign, I allowed them to purchase healing from the native priest (100 gp per cure light wounds) as well as having a small stock of healing potions that could be bought (10 potions at 400 gp each).

One of the effects of the removing of the protection from the Kopru Temple was that I was making more frequent wandering monster checks, and soon enough as the group made their way back to the Slave Machine, they were attacked by a group of five gnolls - which didn't survive very long.

The Slave Machine failed to activate upon Paul trying to use it, and the group got bored and headed into the winding corridors to the north, meeting ten gnolls which surprised them and inflicted some significant damage before Shane and Jesse were able to put them to sleep. 1,000 gp were taken from the gnolls, and the group retreated to town to rest. (375 XP each)

The next expedition discovered five most dangerous ogres in one of the chambers to the north: this would prove a very short expedition, with the group taking a lot of damage, and the sleep spells of the magic-users proving mostly ineffective (one ogre slept from three spells!) It was up to the fighters and thief, and they did well indeed against the ogres. The treasure proved to be well worth the danger: 1,000 gold pieces, and a vorpal sword, which Paul appropriated. (I couldn't believe it when it came up on my random roll for treasure, but I was very much in favour of letting the group have good items). The group returned to the village for further rest (2,291 XP each).

The next expedition explored the chambers in the east of the map, with the group finding a great tribe of 36 goblins. This gave us one of the most enjoyable combats of the evening - at least for Paul - who was getting four attacks per round, and his vorpal sword was slicing off goblin heads again and again and again.

The group found stairs down to the next level, but were wary of going down, and so continued to explore the chambers: finding an illusionary kopru that repeated anything they said in the language of the kopru (a translator!) and a school-room for young kopru.

Moving around to the west side of the complex, they were quite confused by the layout of the corridors. Attacked by two werewolves, the group dispatched them without much difficulty. With the treasure gained from the werewolves and ogres, they were happy to return home, but they first had to dispatch a group of eight gnolls in the steam vents - this was easily done with the aid of the magic-user's sleep spells, and the group arrived safely back at the surface. (1,643 XP)