Saturday afternoon, I hosted the first of two B/X-OSE games.
First of all, I gotta figure what to run. My usual M.O. is to have a selection of adventures, and depending on the number and vibe of the group, I'll pick something. One thing I had this year that I didn't have prior years is a set of pre-run abandoned fortifications and other structures for the party to clear - the "Nodes" of my campaign. So a few of those maps ended up in my bag, as well.
Who showed up?
- John: "Ahairak" - dwarf (John is a repeat offender)
- Mike: "Ward" - Magic user
- Wayne: "Lefty" - thief
- Sean: "Elbolas" - elf (Sean has also played in a con came with me before)
- Ben: "Brother Bartholomew" - cleric
We got everyone equipped from the "Random Headgear" table and set off. I forgot to write down the headgear, but I know that the mage ended up with an open-faced samurai helm.
It just so happened that I had a copy of the campaign's "Snake Map" tucked into one of my rulebooks. Well, that's a sign.
We're going to clear a Node. And, yes, it's going to be the Ha'Tak Temple. Because I want to mess with a party using Cormac MacGiobhan!, bomb-throwing hermit.
Brief scenario intro - the map is provided as a rubbing taken from a standing stone, and the party being recruited by the local temple to investigate the suspected location near the "tail" as a location within a string of fortifications or watches. Oh, and twisted things have been raiding in the wilderness.
Off they go.
Twisted thing. Of course it's a Tumorous Spider.
A crippled, lurching spider should be easy prey for a crack adventuring party, right? Not based on the number of whiffs that occurred. Thankfully, the spider sucked just as bad.
Everyone catches their breath, and the dwarf spots a step pyramid rising through the trees.
The party wisely circumnavigates the pyramid. With some goading, the thief scrambles to the second level, spotting the small battlements and accessways into the main pyramid level. After some poking around, he lowers a rope and everyone else clambers up.
As they descend stairs to the main level, they are assaulted with a scream of 'CORMAC!" and a tossed grenade. Cormac flees into the heart of the pyramid somewhere.
The party lands in a chamber with three doors. The one they choose to open is occupied by a skeletal commander of the place an a couple of his sturdy skeletal warriors. The cleric's god forsakes him, and they have to defeat them the old fashioned way.
Entering the main central chamber of the pyramid, the PCs investigate the friezes of the goddess Khador, and map the various exits from the room. CORMAC! attacks again, this time with chromatic orb. Fortunately, only one PC is disabled by its effects, other than the magical shrapnel.
The party pursues Cormac and eventually finds his quarters. As they are rooting through the belongings and grenade-making supplies, the elf hears steps. He preps a charm, but is confronted by another skeletal warrior. However, his keen elven senses discern this to be a illusion, and he casts his spell. Cormac fails the save.... (If my campaign party members are reading this, press this).
Successfully charmed, the mad hermit spills the beans, or what beans he has. He reveals the presence of a wyvern and ghost in the pyramid, but has little other information on its provenance. After all, he's just used pilfered library books to scrawl his own conspiracy theories. Would you like to hear some? ...
The party is pretty beat up at this point, and decides to hole up for the night. Cormac shows them the old barracks, and they secure the doors and pick through a few salvageable arms. Nothing attacks them.
Somewhat refreshed, let's go mess with the wyvern...
The wyvern nests in a collapsed corner of the pyramid, and theoretically, the party could make good tactical use of a breach that the wyvern couldn't enter. One would think. Well, they tried. The dwarf charged it because that's what dwarves do. The wyvern responded with a fear-inducing scream and a bite. Most of the party skedaddled, leaving one or two party members to round them up and calm them down. But they had grenades! Many are tossed at the creature, with throws failing as bad as the Mariners' bullpen. By now, the wyvern has gotten its head through the breach and is snapping at the party. Finally, she gets ahold of the elf, biting him in half. The mage, likewise, takes injury and ongoing poison damage. Between a cure wounds and a poison save, he hovers at 3hp.
Finally, the wyvern is defeated, and the party clears its nest.
Let's go talk to the ghost. The survivors find the library, and the dwarf impersonates a member of the guardian sect to get information.
Someone wonders if Cormac is still charmed, now that the elf is dead. CORMAC! and a grenade. The mage is now at 1hp.
Again, a brief chase, and Cormac falls to yet another charm spell, this time from the battered mage (Again, if my campaign party members are reading this, press this).
DM Notes:
Good, fast play. The party got to work, and played well together. This is the first time I've had someone actually pick up a magic user in a game, and he played well, staying back, mostly cheerleading, spending his spells appropriately. And getting wrecked...
As noted in my prior play reports, this scenario has multiple pathways for Cormac to assault the party, as well as multiple other encounters of the monstrous and undead variety. We had time to encounter both, but this scenario is flexible enough that satisfying play is possible without hitting all of the points.
I'm glad to have been able to run it for a random party after using it in the campaign. As the PCs were 2nd level, I did soften a few of the undead, but not the wyvern. I thought they would wear it down much quicker, but between poor rolls and the wyvern making her morale (defending nest), it was bloody fight to the end, including macerated elf.
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