10/16/22 pick-up game - Investigating Thoring Keep

I scheduled a last-minute game on Sunday night, as I was in the need to get out of the house and be sociable. I'd talked to an acquaintance who nerds out with me occasionally at the brewery, and he didn't have other game conflicts. Mike's a player since 2e and currently in a couple of 5e campaigns. I also posted up on Meetup and messaged a couple of my other attendees to let them know that a game was afoot. Ross, who's played before (relative novice) signed up, as did a new player at the table (Carmela).

We gathered, and the three picked through the pre-gens. Mike picked an elf, Ross a dwarf, and Carmela a halfling. Here we go – PCs, with Random Headgear:

• Elf: Rondel Kiebler – Ornate skull helm
• Dwarf: Pepto VonBismol – Yellow ziggurat hat (think Devo)
• Halfling: Jaynie – Seafoam green turban (I forgot to write down last name. It was amusing, as well)

Artist's depiction of Pepto's dwarven clan

Scenario spoilers, of course:

I dropped them at the gate of Thoring Keep, with the keep's background and rumors of activity and disturbing sightings. The party decided to hide in the treeline and wait until dusk to investigate. A random critter roll spotted a “Broken Thing” (very weak summoned demon) scrambling around the walls. Jaynie crept up on it and one-shotted it with her crossbow. The party looked it over, determined it to be unnatural and Pepto set it on fire as an abomination. Finding stashed gear and a pair of fire rings, they determined that a number of individuals had been camping in the ruins and possibly disturbing the place. The party did a quick reconnoiter of the keep's yard, observing the evidence of subsurface collapse, and finding the remains of a long-dead bandit.

This ain't a bad representation: Source

Descending the steps, the party sloshed through the flooded hall without incident, finding a concealed priest's chamber and recovering some small treasure. Moving east, they were set upon by a giant spider, and killed it in a brief, viscous fight. Jaynie recovered two doses of spider poison from the corpse. The party investigated the adjacent caved-in room and electrical trap room, avoiding hazards in both. I rolled a second random spider, but decided to arm-wave it off as the prior spider's burrow. Nothing of value was found within. The party followed a rough corridor south, and Jaynie was jumped by several centipedes bursting from a nest. More stabbing and stomping and the critters were pulped.

Continuing south through empty rooms and corridors, the party entered a large room decorated with embroidered banners depicting demonic figures. The party was poking around and looking to continue the exploration, when (random encounter) they were discovered by chaos priest Sulum Dag and his henchmen. Dag sent his acolytes to engage the party, who had attempted to hide behind various banners. Jaynie was successful (because halfling), the others less so. Fortunately, initiative was on the party's side, and Rondel was able to charm one acolyte, sending him out of the room, before hostilities truly began. The remaining minions reinforced the acolyte and battle began in earnest. With a tied initiative roll, I made a call that Dag and Rondel simultaneously cast their spells at one another (charm and light, respectively). I rolled a spell save for Dag to determine if he was able to successfully cast his spell with the distraction. Dag made his save, and charmed Rondel (who failed his save). Ordering Rondel to protect him, the elf spent the rest of the combat generally attempting to interpose himself between the priest and his comrades (I gave the remaining two to-hit penalties vs Dag with the interference).

Beating down the henchmen, the dwarf and halfling teamed up on the priest, who had cast blight against them (Jaynie failed, Pepto saved), and laid about with his two-handed flail. Getting fed up with the elf, Jaymie tackled him. Opposing strength rolls, and the elf was grappled by halfling jiu-jitsu (17 STR halfling). Pepto finally dealt a killing blow and they went through the priest's pockets, recovering some valuables, a scroll and a potion. The dwarf is now proud owner of a heavy flail, which he's sure is perfectly fine... (not).

Artist's depiction of Jaynie's halfling clan: Source

Calling back the remaining charmed acolyte, the party questioned him as to their activities (searching for the hidden tomb containing a book of summoning rites). Leading the party to one of their failed search areas, the elf and dwarf were able to discern mismatched stonework and soon uncovered the true location of the burial. They cautiously opened the coffin and recovered the book, carefully bagging it up without touching the tome. They were also led to a chamber with a summoning circle, which they destroyed.

Treasure recovered (I need to track this better for on-going endeavors)

• 2x25gp rings
• 3x55gp idols
• 1 poison dose remaining
• 57gp
• 290gp worth of gems
• Scroll: resist fire
• Potion: gaseous form (unidentified)
• Flail (-2 cursed for lawful characters. Oops)
• Book of summoning rites (likely forbidden)
• One charmed acolyte (one month until save – INT 8)

A good time was had by all.

This is the second time I've run the Keep, and I found some additional inconsistencies and usability issues with my original document. With that in mind, I worked up a revision, with an updated format, encounters, and augmented treasure (and another trap). 

Revised Ruins of Thoring Keep download

The whole work still clocks in at four pages, including abbreviated monster stats, so an easy print or screen read. Because it's a small complex, I don't stage the bad guys in a particular room – they are another wandering encounter on the list. In the case of this running, the dice brought them to encounter the party. That said, they could be pre-placed with no real change to the scenario. And I will admit that I am not above quantum-ogreing an encounter to conclude a scenario (this will likely get me blackballed in the community...) With three 2nd level B/X-OSE characters, the scenario was a reasonable challenge, and the final fight wasn't as desperate as it could have been, mostly due to Dag's crap melee rolls.