The party explores an ancient elven tomb that has become a lair for bloodthirsty orcs.
We are playing Old School Essentials, which is another way of saying Basic D&D circa 1981.
The Party:
- Arrn, level 3 magic user
- Wumpus, level 3 dwarf
- Waverly, level 3 ranger
- Andrew Price, level 4 cleric
- Gordon Binghampton, level 4 cleric
- Fitzhugh Skitter, level 1 thief - out this week
- Lefsy of Hawkston, NPC, archaeologist and dealer in rare and exotic antiquities
Here's a quick summary of their hex-crawl exploration of the land of Jo'Ril as generated by HEXROLL.
Note - Be aware, we are playing full-on tomb plunderers. We are aware of and deplore the real-world issues of colonialism, cultural theft, etc. We are role-playing characters and situations with different cultural mores and norms than our own. This is not an endorsement on our part for such behavior in the real world. The orcs in my setting were created by the serpentines to wage war against the elven kingdoms in the ancient times. They are a created lifeform that knows only war and violence.
O. We pick up where we left off, in the "throne room" of the king of the ancient elven city of Thul'Gorah, attacked by three shadow monsters.
Note- I increased the Hit Die of the Shadow Monsters to 4HD and increased their damage to 1d6 with -1 Strength drain. This made the shadow monsters much more difficulty - resistant to the cleric's turning ability and able to take a few hits from holy water.
Arrn the wizard grabbed the wand off the lap of the dead king and waved it around. I told the player it was a Wand of Illusion, allowing him to cast Phantasmal Force spell. He could create an illusion of whatever he could think of, as long as it fit within 20' x 20' and did not leave that 20' x 20' area. He created a large fountain splashing holy water all over the room. This kicked off a night of trying to figure out what Phantasmal Force could and couldn't create or do and how it worked.
Note: I randomly rolled the Wand of Illusions treasure and thought it was a perfect fit for a dungeon with mirrors and shadows.
P. They eventually defeated the shadows only to have Grothak Bloodhand, leader of the Bloodfang orcs, order his mightiest orcs to charge and claim the wand!
The party won initiative so Arrn cast Sleep, putting all but the toughest orcs out of commission, while Gordon Binghampton cast Hold Person on Grothak, paralyzing him. They quickly dispatched the helpless orcs.
Waverly decapitated Grothak and carried his head.
They searched the chambers, certain of a secret door behind the curtains along the back wall. Note- of coruse there was one - its why I put the curtains there - but they had to find it!
Q. Gordon, in the hall of statues, was attacked by three orcs (wandering monsters) who were quickly defeated. The final orc, surrounded, failed his morale check and threw down his weapons in surrender. He offered to serve as a guide to the others, so they tied him up and carried him along.
Additional searching found 2500 gp in a chest and the secret door that led to a hidden passage.
R. The party found two giant spiders. The giant spiders caused a lot of anxiety when they scored hits on both Wumpus and Waverly, but luckily they both made their saves vs. poison. Gordon's player dismissed the concern, "what's the big deal, they just do extra damage right?" and they other players reminded him, "This is B/X, it's save vs. poison or DIE!"
They found an orc, barely alive, wrapped in a cocoon. They freed him but he lashed out in fear. The orc was quickly dispatched.
There was much discussion about going north into the unknown or south and looping around through a known passage. They decided south but Wumpus went north anyway, establishing a short cut to the stairs to level 1.
The party, out of spells and healing, wanted to leave the dungeon to rest. I pointed out that carrying the head of Grothak was a valid tactic for forcing morale checks right off the bat, but would only work today. If they retreated from the dungeon, a new leader would be chosen and Grothak's head would mean nothing. So they reluctantly chose to push on, hoping Gorthak's severed head would do the heavy lifting.
S. They climbed the stairs to level 1 and the captive orc showed them a secret door leading to hidden passages. Since no one could speak orcish and the prisoner could not use his hands to gesticulate, I communicated the orc's intentions through facial expressions which proved a challenge for the party.
T. The prisoner led them to the treasure room where they encountered an orc hunter and four other orcs. Waverly held up Grothak's head and instantly caused several of the orcs to flee in fear. The few that stayed behind were quickly defeated. This lead to a frantic chase as they followed the orcs through the dungeon.
U. They fled into the great hall. The handful of orcs preparing food joined them in their flight.
V. Some retreated to the trophy room and formed up behind the one surviving guardian warthog. Others fled north to the subterranean garden to join the shaman.
The party followed the orcs into the trophy room and encountered the orcs and warthog. Arrn created an illusion of a gelatinous cube but we quickly learned he could only create a monster he had seen before, and that it couldn't leave its 20'x20' area. I let this one stand and the orcs were quickly defeated.
The party regrouped in the great hall and followed the passage to the northeast.
W. They opened the door and found sleeping quarters with a shaman and 12 orcs waiting for them! The orc shaman cast "Hold Person" on Waverly, freezing her in place!
Note- I had the shaman from the garden room take the back way through the secret passage to the sleeping chamber and wake the orcs there.
The party, out of spells, low on hit points, and without Waverly, was ready to retreat - but Arrn had an idea.
He created an illusion of the basilisk he encountered in the Tomb of the Serpent King. The basilisk appeared and used its gaze against all the orcs.
Note - Arrn's player was in for a bit of a shock. He was not aware that the basilisk from Tomb of the Serpent King was a "nerfed" basilisk for first level characters. Its gaze power took two failed saves to turn its victims to stone!
There was a lot of debate and looking things up trying to figure out how the illusory basilisk was supposed to work.
- Did it get an attack roll on its targets as if it were a real monster or do the targets just get a save vs. spells in lieu of an attack - taking illusory damage on a failed save?
- Did the orcs get to save vs. spell once or each round?
- Did the gaze attack prompt save vs. petrification or save vs. spell for the illusion?
I made some spot judgements at the time that, upon later consideration, I might rule differently.
The next time I do it, the targets of an illusory monster's "attack" get a save vs. spell, taking illusory damage or effect on a failed save.
Two brave orcs made their saves AND their morale checks, raced forward and "killed" the illusory basilisk, forcing Arrn to expend a fourth charge from the wand to create another.
Soon, all the orcs were either "turned to stone" by the basilisk, or killed by Wumpus, Gordon, and Andrew.
Upon killing the orcs, frozen by the illusory basilisk, the party searched the chamber, finding a potion of healing.
They continued searching the dungeon, finding the underground garden of red and black flowers.
And that's where we'll pick up next week, giving me some time to work out the deal with these mysterious dungeon flowers that don't need sunlight.
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