Tomb of the Serpent Kings, Chapter 5

Week five of Tombs of the Serpent Kings. I have five out of six players present this week. The players correctly figured there were only two rooms left. The magic user filled the people who missed last week in on everything that happened. He's also brought a "friend", a rude and abusive NPC, a lout named "Julian", who seems to be the magic user's best friend! 

I played Julian as a total misogynist asshole and everyone hated him. The magic-user said "Before we start, Julian and I have to go take care of something." The magic-user's player and I break out into a private chat room. The magic-user took Julian upstairs to the quarters of Xiximanter the Lich. The magic-user apologized for his previous rudeness and informs Xiximanter he has brought a gift. The magic-user then presented Julian for the purpose for which he was charmed. Xiximanter accepted and gave the magic-user the choice of one of his many potions: Diminution, Flying, Control Undead, Levitation, Heroism, Control Animal, Giant Strength, Speed, Fire Resistance, Healing, Poison, and Longevity. The wizard was intrigued and chose Longevity. He also noted the pile of stuff against the wall in Xixmanter's store room.

Their transaction concluded, the magic-user left, highly creeped out and a little afraid for his life. It was a good time.  

He rejoined the party and they finally opened and looted the throne room. They found the secret passage to Xiximanter's store room, but the magic-user remembered that it opens behind the pile of stuff. I described the door as a thin sheet of plaster made to look like a wall. So they worked out a plan - the thief would use a knife to cut a small hole in the thin secret door, reach in, and steal stuff off the pile without alerting Xiximanter. The thief rolled 96 for move silently. She cut the door and the plaster shattered into a million brittle shards. Xiximanter was surprised! She grabbed one random thing from the pile - a jar of seeds from an extinct plant - and took off! 

The party ran away and regrouped in the domed room with the last unopened door - a vault door that needed a key. 

The thief tried to open it but broke her picks when she rolls a 94. It was not her night! She remembered hearing something small and metal hanging around the basilisk's neck, so they deduced it had the key. 

The magic user worked out an amazing plan! They took some of the tables and wooden boards lying around and fashioned a large moveable 10' wide siege shield. They affixed every hand mirror they owned, plus the silver ones they just got in the throne room, to its front. They pushed it into the basilisk room. They attacked through small openings in the shield. Meanwhile the thief snuck up from behind to try to steal the key. 

The basilisk was tethered to a 20' long chain so they kept to the edge of that distance. The basilisk attacked the shield, tearing off the mirrors, while they stabbed at the basilisk for nickel-and-dime damage. 

The basilisk almost turned itself to stone attacking the mirrors. It failed one save but made every other.

The thief failed to pick pockets on the basilisk - another 90+ roll - and opted to just snatch the key and run away. She survived the basilisk's glare as the rest of the group withdrew with their shield and remaining mirrors.

It was a genius idea!

They returned to the vault and get a lot of treasure! 

Everyone hauled their loot back to town and the everyone is now level 2! 

After that we started our hexcrawl. They're headed to the Tower Arcane - a wizard school six hexes away - to sell the snake-man statues for a bigger profit to a collector. 

They spent the first night in an inn, heard some rumors about a cult in a nearby dungeon. The next day they encountered a group of 14 orcs! They chose to engage. The wizard put 8 of them to sleep with a sleep spell. The remaining orcs put up a good fight - the cleric had to splinter his shield to avoid a fatal blow! It was starting to look grim, then they made some good rolls and took out some orcs and turned the tide of battle - winning the day!

That's where we ended. Next week - the beginning of the Tower of the Arcane!

Tomb of the Serpent Kings, Chapter 4

Week 4 of Tomb of the Serpent Kings. 

Only three players showed up this week - a wizard, a cleric, and a ranger. The missing three player characters get what we call "the Brain Jellies" or "Crypt Cough", a kind of catatonic coma where they can mindlessly walk around with their companions. However, in this case, it was decided to leave them safe with fungus goblins. 

The three remaining PCs spent time and searched the goblin caves and found treasure! They found the stairway leading to the surface.

They figured out the rotating drum door and climbed the stairs, carefully avoiding looking in the direction of the basilisk room they already knew was there, to the lair of the lich, opened the door, met the lich - who was remarkably cordial and accommodating. The cleric produced his holy symbol and tried to turn the lich (ha ha ha!). The lich acted all afraid, then became serious, stepped forward menacingly, and crushed the holy symbol. There was a moment of "ohshitohshitohshit!" The lich turned to the others, "Did you bring this one to me? Excellent, I will feast well! You will be rewarded for your gift!" The PCs said no, which triggered the lich's suspicions. He tried to invite them in for tea but the PCs refused, slammed the door closed, and wisely ran away. 

They went to the room with the ever burning sacrifice pit and saw treasure beneath the flames. They tied a rope around the cleric and lowered him down. The cleric failed his saving throw and started to pass out so they hauled him back up. They repeated and this time he made it. More treasure!

They went up the stairs to the other side of the basilisk room, found the stone eggs, almost stepped on a trapped block in the swinging blade trap corridor, but a lucky saving throw saved the cleric. They decided to avoid the entire corridor and go all the way back around, through the slave room, and up the stairs on the other side. 

They pretty quickly figured out the rotating statue. MORE treasure! I read it wrong and thought it said 2d100x10 gp (x10 for OSE) which would have given them 7300 gp! They got super excited. But I caught my error, 2d100+10 gp (x10 for OSE), so they got 840 gp instead. Still, not bad. 

They found the succubus and were immediately suspicious. She ain't no botanist with amnesia! For one thing, the cobwebs at the entrance indicated no one had entered this room for years. For another thing, did she just say "Yes, I speak your human language!" Okay, uh-uh, bye. 

I was SO disappointed! They had her true name in their notes from two weeks ago, but no one remembered that! I told them later and they were all "DUH!"

Oh, they also took the two life-like snake-men statues. MORE TREASURE! Except, Arrn the Wizard knows a wizard who lives in a tower two days away who collects these and would pay 10 TIMES the value! QUEST!

Let's see, from there the three PCs beat feet out of the dungeon via the newly found stairway exit, leaving the three PCs behind, returned to town with their loot! They split the treasure three ways so they leveled up! 

They felt a little bad cutting the other three out of the treasure, but I told them if the remaining three clear out the remaining two rooms next week and split it three ways, they will catch up. 

The remainder of the night was spent buying a small house in town, hiring mercenaries and staff for a caravan, buying a wagon and horses, and preparing for the actual hexcrawl which should start next week!

Tomb of the Serpent Kings, Chapter 3

Week three of Tomb of the Serpent Kings. The characters carefully maneuvered the ledge of the chasm, easily bypassed the trap on the door, and fought a jelly skelly. 

Due to my description, they concluded Jelly Skelly was covered in similar black ooze from the crypt - I was trying to walk a fine line between linking them thematically as failed mummies without linking them mechanically. So they used oil and burning to try to destroy the jelly skelly like they would a black ooze. 

I feel like I should have just rolled with it and rewarded their deduction skills - but I kept it as indestructible jelly skelly. I kept trying to hint that they could use the benches to safely move it around but they didn't pick up on that. 

The jelly skelly killed one PC. They lured it out onto the ledge and used a rope to trip it while using a 10' pole to shove it over. Good job! Defeated! 

The OSE conversion notes do not specify an XP value for the jelly skelly. How much do you figure? A regular skeleton is 10 XP. What should an unkillable skeleton be worth??

Jeff's character made his saving throw and spotted the magic manacles moving towards him like he was magnetic. Trevor devised a plan to catch the manacles using a borrowed staff.

After that they found the goblin warren, and Erica's character, the only one who could communicate with them (because Chaotic) became their queen. 

We'll pick up from there next week. Only one PC death this week - they're getting better!

Tomb of the Serpent Kings, Chapter 2

Second week of Tomb of the Serpent Kings. This time with six players!

Last week they lost 3 characters. This week they lost 7 more! 

They came back to the dungeon with fresh recruits, lost the cleric with the lightning bolt trap (-1 PC), took heavy losses from the black pudding (-3 PCs) but defeated it, retreated from the dungeon, returned with fresh recruits, and lost some more against the living statue guardian (-3 PCs).  

They retreated again and will return next week with more new recruits. But some players are starting to grumble - "what are we doing wrong?" they say, "is it supposed to be this tough?" "I can't think of a way we could have defeated that thing - 2d6 damage per hit? There's no way!" 

Players are still in it, still enthused, still ready to give OSR a try, but cracks are starting to show. Losing half your party in one room, retreating, then losing half again in the next room can be demoralizing.

I tried to give them some gentle direction - maybe you could have used your rope to drag the statue guardian to the ledge and push it into the abyss - maybe you didn't have to fight the black pudding - I specifically gave you an out, you could have just walked away, but the desire for XP was too great. Even after they activated it, they could have just ran away, but they got cocky - we have a plan, we can defeat it with fire - not if you lose initiative and it kills the guy holding the flash of oil you won't.

And for those who cheered Jeff on from last week, he's still alive. He nearly died from the lightning bolt, but kept fighting! He's still in it!

Tomb of the Serpent Kings, Chapter 1

Played Tomb of the Serpent Kings using Old-School Essentials and the OSE conversion notes by Axian Spice. Although my players and me are all long-time RPG players going back to the early 80s, we've spent so many years playing 4th-5th edition that our old-school muscles had atrophied.

Especially Jeff, who is an adventurous "what's the worst that can happen?" style of player. He lost three characters in the first 30 minutes of the game! One in the very first room. Another to a trapped door. And a third to a skeleton in their first fight. 

Once they realized the dungeon was a dangerous scary place that was not playing with kid gloves, they adjusted their play style. They became more hesitant and wary, started asking questions and using ropes and ten-foot poles, assuming things were trapped, etc.

The last character to die last night was Trevor's Ranger. They had discovered a room with a basilisk. 

Trevor had the idea of using a hand mirror to reflect the basilisk's gaze back upon it. He held a lantern in one hand and a mirror in the other, shut his eyes tight, and walked bravely into the room.

The basilisk approached him slowly, sniffing, checking Trevor our. Trevor bravely stood still, his body shaking with anxiety. The basilisk examined the mirror in the outstretched hand, made its saving throw vs. petrification and bit Trevor's character's head off!

The rest of the party's survivors retreated down the corridor as fast as they could, closing the doors behind them. They got the hell out of that dungeon, but will return next week!