It's Halloween season, and I needed a seasonally-appropriate adventure for the PCs to kick around in. I reached out to the Reddit hive-mind for some suggestions, and received a few recommendations in reply. One suggestion was "The Zombraire's Estate," available in the Basic Fantasy RPG Adventure Anthology I. Of course! I have this collection and had looked over that adventure before. After all, it has zombie chickens. What's not to love? So be it. They're fighting zombie farm animals.
Tonight's band of merry mushroom harvesters:
- Jax - Confused barbarian
- Bonk - Amnesiac fighter
- Stumbleduck - Klepto halfling
- Staive - Tested cleric
- Jaynie - Now a Gnome
In good one-shot fashion, I dropped the PCs off on a lonely road with an encroaching storm. Spotting a "convenient" walled estate in the distance, the party approached along the somewhat overgrown track to the compound. As they neared, they spotted an abandoned cart by the open gate. Rising from the cart were three human skeletons, and a skeletal mule, which proceeded to attack. The party bashed down the skeletons, and Bonk decided to attempt to ride the skeletal mule. Because of course. Adjudicating a morale roll, some cleric turn undead rolls, and a bit of armwaving, we determined that Bonk was able to mount the mule for a round or so before being bucked off and the mule clattering off into the woods. So much for undead riding animals.
The combat was observed by a raven, who introduced herself, asking if the PCs were good people? In this case, I had both an NPC name and voice model. The raven convinced the party to follow her into the woods (nothing bad can come of this) to meet her friend Lucy. Lucy (i.e. Luacia) was a forlorn dryad in a diseased grove, affected by the undead energies of the estate. Entreating the party for assistance, she got on their good graces with offers of a bless spell, and after a rest, they assaulted the old estate. Climbing a ladder to peer over the wall, Stumbleduck spotted a meandering zombie and took a pot-shot at it, sticking it. The zombie continued to do zombie things (apparently gardening...).
Not satisfied with creeping about, the fighters in the party trooped to the main entrance and laid into the zombies directly. Staive attempted a turn, but couldn't get a good signal. The gardening zombies were dispatched. The party inspected the odd undead plants of the garden, opting not to steal any vegetables.
They recovered a "shiny" sword embedded in a skeleton's ribcage and noted the miasma rising from the estate's well. Entering the barn, they observed zombie farmers milking zombie cows. As you do. Staive's turn worked this time, and the party was able to dispatch the zombies, as well as put the cows to their final rest. Jaynie found a "shiny" trident imbedded in a haystack, after being ambushed by a giant rat. Bonk took the trident, thinking it had a familiar heft to it. Jaynie also recovered a silver milk pail. Once she dumped out the grey slop of zombie cow milk, of course...
Staive discovered a coop of zombie chickens and proceeded to despondently dispatch the undead cluckers. Strange gold-filled eggs were recovered.
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Time to hit the house. Bonk provided door-kicking duties and was prying boards off a window to let in light when he was ambushed by a wraith. Taking damage and CON loss (substitute for level drain), he fell back flailing as the party rushed in to assist. Stumbleduck pierced the wraith with a silver arrow, before Jax and her spooky sword critted, sending the thing to its rest.
The party poked around, recovering some gems, and explored the adjacent rooms, finding an empty kitchen and a bedroom occupied by skeletons in maid outfits. Staive held them back, now confident in his faith, and the party beat them down. After tossing the room, the party realized that the walls didn't line up with an observed tower to the building and proceeded to tap along the wall, looking for a secret door. Jaynie located a suspicious panel and was attempting to find its catch when Jax proceeded to bowl headlong through the wall section, "finding" the door.
The party found access to the tower, as well as the house's cess-pit. They opted not to explore that feature (damn, there were rot-grubs, too!). Ascending the stairs, the group found a study and alchemical lab. The lab contained a cage full of stirges, which Bonk neutralized by covering with a tarp. Finding some sketchy looking potions... of course the party tested them... "Nothing" happened when Jaynie tested one, Jax aged several years from her draught, and Stumbleduck thought better of it and pocketed the one she had selected.
One level remained, and the party ascended to come face to face with the Zombraire himself. Catching him monologuing, they assaulted him. He was able to fend them off for a round, magic-missiling the halfling. Finally arrows and the spiffy trident brought him down. Recovering more loot, the party retreated, setting the place on fire on their way out. As you do.
They returned to the grove to rest and receive the thanks of Luacia, who was already beginning to feel less of the grasp of the estate's undead poisons. Luacia healed the beat-down halfling, and Fable gave Staive a shiny rock.
Notes:
I pared the encounters and areas down a bit to meet our time window. Likewise, some of the combat was armwaved a bit to speed things along. We still ran a bit short, so I didn't run the Zombraire as smart as I could have, which would have potentially made a running battle. The players had fun exploring the space and riffed off one another a bit in the various encounter and exploration areas. As all were repeat players, they were able to continue to explore their characters a bit and create a bit more personality. "Bonk" decided that part of his character was an amnesiac sailor, and we quickly re-skinned "Jaynie" from a halfling to gnome (I'll provide the Advanced Classes for folks who might want to try them out). Players traded out some gear with one another to prep for potential hazards of the estate. And for once I used an NPC voice that wasn't Sean Connery, although said voice is still a Scottish resident...
Regarding the Adventure Anthology:
Like all BFRG products, the supplement is available as a free download from the game's website. For those of us who like dead trees, it may also be purchased at-cost from Lulu or Amazon. The book contains 14 adventures for PCs of low to middle level. Most are suitable for one to two sessions of adventure, and depending on the scenario, can be incorporated into a larger arc, or dropped in as a one-shot, such as my session.
Although BFRPG is built using the D20 mechanic, the adventure ported over to B/X-OSE with no significant conversion. Formatting is simple, as with all BFRPG products. The adventures do come equipped with boxed text, and some descriptions are a bit too wall-of-text to rapidly cull critical descriptions and info. Because the adventures were created by multiple authors, there is some variability in content and quality, particularly introductory and background info for the GM.
The adventures range from a five-room dungeon to larger complexes and outdoor exploratory adventures. Themes are relatively standard - nothing too gonzo. Mapping is pretty basic - no professional maps or illustrations, but they are suitable to lay out the areas. One favorable detail is the monster stats blocks, as all critters have their hit points denoted by rows of boxes, allowing quick checking off of damage during battle. If you don't want to mark up your printed version, the pdf is available for selective printing as needed.
There are two additional anthologies available from the site, also containing adventures for low- to mid-tier PCs, as well as larger adventures up to mega-dungeon scale.
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