Odhanan
Adventurer
Agreed. It's a very satisfying experience when you finally make it through!Nobody makes it past the moathouse without casualties of some kind.
I love AD&D
- Thread starter thedungeondelver
- Start date
The Shaman
First Post
The moathouse is why men-at-arms are part of the game.Nobody makes it past the moathouse without casualties of some kind.
Lidgar
Gongfarmer
Funny, I just started re-reading the ToEE and the preponderance of men-at-arms suddenly struck out - not only at the moathouse, but the entire dungeon. I love all the special weapons as well - like the crossbow the fires four bolts at once, and the shield that fires poison darts....
On another note, I am running a group through the 3.5 version of S1. So far, 4 deaths. It is modified a bit to fit a larger story arc - they need to reach Acererack within 3 days - but deadliness intact...
On another note, I am running a group through the 3.5 version of S1. So far, 4 deaths. It is modified a bit to fit a larger story arc - they need to reach Acererack within 3 days - but deadliness intact...
Obryn
Hero
My group finally made it into the Temple Dungeon proper last night. Quick sblock for those who might be playing it...
[sblock]
They headed to the area with the pillared hall, harpies, and ghouls. At first things weren't going so well - they had the party's beefy fighter and paladin stuck in the room, while the rest of the group was outside the portcullis.
Fortunately, the Harpies' songs didn't take hold, and they were largely ineffective as a result. So then, we came to the six ghouls... who couldn't get past the paladin's protection aura. They got the portcullis up, the cleric turned all of them, and then they worked on slaughtering the hapless undead. Not without a fight, though - the ghouls managed to paralyze the party's half-orc, and four more ghouls ran out of another nearby door... only to be blocked by the aura, themselves.
Those ghouls ran off, and the party decided to trust in the paladin's holiness and camp out in that room for a bit, waiting an hour or so for the half-orc to get back up. They smartly spiked the door the ghouls had retreated through.
...which was maybe fine in theory, until a pair of ghasts followed by the four ghouls from before exited from an unnoticed secret door and charged right up to the resting party. They won initiative, and the two ghasts charged the paladin. The first paralyzed him, and the second basically bull-rushed him and knocked the poor guy away from the rest of the party...
...which in turn exposed the party's cleric, now outside the circle of protection, along with one other PC. The four ghouls, now with a clear path, attacked the two of them, sadly paralyzing the cleric, who could now only silently pray to Tritherion.
Seeing the writing on the wall, the druid, magic-user, and ranger all ran, leaving the rest of the group to the ghouls' tender mercies, defended only by a charmed boar and a henchman. Since the portcullis was down, they figured the secret door the ghasts came from would be a good escape route. They spent a round or two working on getting the door from that room open, only to find ... that it looped back around to the door they'd spiked shut.
They finally decided to help the rest of the party, who had been hanging on. Because the paralyzed folks were in plate armor, I made a call that the ghouls and ghasts couldn't kill them instantly, but they'd been basically doing a lot of damage every round. The cleric had already been killed, with four ghouls feasting greedily on his marrow. The henchman and boar were still in the fight, but barely. The paladin had 1 HP.
So the druid threw a potted plant he'd been saving for this purpose into the mix, followed with an entangle spell. It wrapped up almost everyone, living, dead, and undead alike. The paladin was dropped to negatives, cured, and managed to live. They were able to kill the ghasts and hid out in the paladin's circle while the ghouls continued to eat the cleric. In a few more rounds, the half-orc fighter was back into the fray, and ghoul slaughter finally commenced.[/sblock]
It was an insane and completely entertaining encounter, from start to finish. One of my favorites, ever.
-O
[sblock]
They headed to the area with the pillared hall, harpies, and ghouls. At first things weren't going so well - they had the party's beefy fighter and paladin stuck in the room, while the rest of the group was outside the portcullis.
Fortunately, the Harpies' songs didn't take hold, and they were largely ineffective as a result. So then, we came to the six ghouls... who couldn't get past the paladin's protection aura. They got the portcullis up, the cleric turned all of them, and then they worked on slaughtering the hapless undead. Not without a fight, though - the ghouls managed to paralyze the party's half-orc, and four more ghouls ran out of another nearby door... only to be blocked by the aura, themselves.
Those ghouls ran off, and the party decided to trust in the paladin's holiness and camp out in that room for a bit, waiting an hour or so for the half-orc to get back up. They smartly spiked the door the ghouls had retreated through.
...which was maybe fine in theory, until a pair of ghasts followed by the four ghouls from before exited from an unnoticed secret door and charged right up to the resting party. They won initiative, and the two ghasts charged the paladin. The first paralyzed him, and the second basically bull-rushed him and knocked the poor guy away from the rest of the party...
...which in turn exposed the party's cleric, now outside the circle of protection, along with one other PC. The four ghouls, now with a clear path, attacked the two of them, sadly paralyzing the cleric, who could now only silently pray to Tritherion.
Seeing the writing on the wall, the druid, magic-user, and ranger all ran, leaving the rest of the group to the ghouls' tender mercies, defended only by a charmed boar and a henchman. Since the portcullis was down, they figured the secret door the ghasts came from would be a good escape route. They spent a round or two working on getting the door from that room open, only to find ... that it looped back around to the door they'd spiked shut.
They finally decided to help the rest of the party, who had been hanging on. Because the paralyzed folks were in plate armor, I made a call that the ghouls and ghasts couldn't kill them instantly, but they'd been basically doing a lot of damage every round. The cleric had already been killed, with four ghouls feasting greedily on his marrow. The henchman and boar were still in the fight, but barely. The paladin had 1 HP.
So the druid threw a potted plant he'd been saving for this purpose into the mix, followed with an entangle spell. It wrapped up almost everyone, living, dead, and undead alike. The paladin was dropped to negatives, cured, and managed to live. They were able to kill the ghasts and hid out in the paladin's circle while the ghouls continued to eat the cleric. In a few more rounds, the half-orc fighter was back into the fray, and ghoul slaughter finally commenced.[/sblock]
It was an insane and completely entertaining encounter, from start to finish. One of my favorites, ever.
-O
thedungeondelver
Adventurer
My group finally made it into the Temple Dungeon proper last night. Quick sblock for those who might be playing it...
[sblock]
They headed to the area with the pillared hall, harpies, and ghouls. At first things weren't going so well - they had the party's beefy fighter and paladin stuck in the room, while the rest of the group was outside the portcullis.
Fortunately, the Harpies' songs didn't take hold, and they were largely ineffective as a result. So then, we came to the six ghouls... who couldn't get past the paladin's protection aura. They got the portcullis up, the cleric turned all of them, and then they worked on slaughtering the hapless undead. Not without a fight, though - the ghouls managed to paralyze the party's half-orc, and four more ghouls ran out of another nearby door... only to be blocked by the aura, themselves.
Those ghouls ran off, and the party decided to trust in the paladin's holiness and camp out in that room for a bit, waiting an hour or so for the half-orc to get back up. They smartly spiked the door the ghouls had retreated through.
...which was maybe fine in theory, until a pair of ghasts followed by the four ghouls from before exited from an unnoticed secret door and charged right up to the resting party. They won initiative, and the two ghasts charged the paladin. The first paralyzed him, and the second basically bull-rushed him and knocked the poor guy away from the rest of the party...
...which in turn exposed the party's cleric, now outside the circle of protection, along with one other PC. The four ghouls, now with a clear path, attacked the two of them, sadly paralyzing the cleric, who could now only silently pray to Tritherion.
Seeing the writing on the wall, the druid, magic-user, and ranger all ran, leaving the rest of the group to the ghouls' tender mercies, defended only by a charmed boar and a henchman. Since the portcullis was down, they figured the secret door the ghasts came from would be a good escape route. They spent a round or two working on getting the door from that room open, only to find ... that it looped back around to the door they'd spiked shut.
They finally decided to help the rest of the party, who had been hanging on. Because the paralyzed folks were in plate armor, I made a call that the ghouls and ghasts couldn't kill them instantly, but they'd been basically doing a lot of damage every round. The cleric had already been killed, with four ghouls feasting greedily on his marrow. The henchman and boar were still in the fight, but barely. The paladin had 1 HP.
So the druid threw a potted plant he'd been saving for this purpose into the mix, followed with an entangle spell. It wrapped up almost everyone, living, dead, and undead alike. The paladin was dropped to negatives, cured, and managed to live. They were able to kill the ghasts and hid out in the paladin's circle while the ghouls continued to eat the cleric. In a few more rounds, the half-orc fighter was back into the fray, and ghoul slaughter finally commenced.[/sblock]
It was an insane and completely entertaining encounter, from start to finish. One of my favorites, ever.
-O
That is truly awesome. My party is down on the 2nd level and
[sblock]
nearly got their lunch eaten in the Temple of Evil Air Elementals, then again at the hands of the bugbears on the west side of the dungeon
[/sblock]
You are using the week-to-recover from negative HPs, right?
Obryn
Hero
I'm using something like it - but not that precisely. I implemented a house-rule that they can go down to -5 with only a day's recovery time, assuming magical healing of some kind. (And, really, they're probably taking at least a day's break after that, anyway.) -6 and -7 take a week of recovery, unless they receive excessive healing - say, a full potion of extra-healing or cure critical wounds or something of that nature.
That makes it easier on the PCs, so to counterbalance, I also decided if they get to -8 or -9, they also get a bonus, lifelong maybe-crippling injury.
Also, in regards to your story...
[sblock]My group was about five seconds away from going down the well to Level 2, but ended up taking the stairs at the last minute. Probably saved their bacons, too. Also, I would have cracked up because that'd mean they would have been to level 2 and level 3, without ever really hitting level 1.
[/sblock]-O
thedungeondelver
Adventurer
I'm using something like it - but not that precisely. I implemented a house-rule that they can go down to -5 with only a day's recovery time, assuming magical healing of some kind. (And, really, they're probably taking at least a day's break after that, anyway.) -6 and -7 take a week of recovery, unless they receive excessive healing - say, a full potion of extra-healing or cure critical wounds or something of that nature.
That makes it easier on the PCs, so to counterbalance, I also decided if they get to -8 or -9, they also get a bonus, lifelong maybe-crippling injury.
Also, in regards to your story...
[sblock]My group was about five seconds away from going down the well to Level 2, but ended up taking the stairs at the last minute. Probably saved their bacons, too. Also, I would have cracked up because that'd mean they would have been to level 2 and level 3, without ever really hitting level 1.
-O
Harumph, I say to you, you player-coddling softie! -8 or -9? It's -6, whippersnapper!
Oh, and my group has cleaned off the entirety of the first level except for the [sblock]Earth Temple; they don't know how to deal with the Elementals in the room, and were almost wiped out by them but for some quick thinking[/sblock]. They're working through the aforementioned areas of the 2nd now.
Given how the factions of the Temple hate each other, I have deemed that the levels will remain fairly un-populated after being cleaned out. Wandering monsters still apply (patrols from other levels, scavenging, etc.).
thedungeondelver
Adventurer
To point up more AD&D awesomeness (and stay with the T1-4 theme that we have going at the moment...):
Sunday's game was great because of the, dare I say, balance of players and characters that were in the mix. Clerics pulling duty as fighting men and as holy healers, thieves saving the party's butt from clever traps, and the wall of steel up front, hacking down the bugbears*.
*=to be fair, one of the thieves pulls double duty as a Ftr/Thf, but it's all good.
Obryn
Hero
Hah! I guess I am
Of course, I'm still maintaing a better than 100% character death rate after 4 long sessions, so I think I'm still okay!-O
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