Post by diogenes on May 29, 2023 9:26:42 GMT -6
Hello everyone, here is the eighth “Session Report” from the ongoing Viper Archipelago campaign.
The players for this eighth game were:
R: An experienced player.
L: An experienced player.
G: An experienced player.
M: Not sure of their experience level, but seemingly familiar with OD&D.
F: A new player, no experience with OD&D.
In this game, R was playing Colby (W-P 1), L was playing Langham (F-M 1), G was playing Davlan (F-M 1), M was playing Thorvald (M-U 1), F was playing Alius (F-M 1).
Prior to this session, we had an influx of new players, so I pointed out a location on the map that would provide a classic “dungeon crawl” experience, suitable for a band of new players to get their first taste of OD&D. Further, this would provide a more manageable “first session back” for me as I return to the referee’s role after a three-week hiatus. As the session time rolled around, we ended up with three of our experienced regular players, and two new players, so it didn’t end up being as “new player heavy” as I was expecting.
Without further ado, we got stuck right into the game, and the party travelled west through the jungle, reaching a large ruined city, with a strong Aztec / Mayan / Incan aesthetic. The buildings were in ruins, badly damaged, and completely overgrown with verdant jungle flora. It was plain to see that the surrounding jungle had reclaimed this city over centuries of abandonment. Interestingly, there appeared to be a number of great “blast craters” all around the ancient city, as if the city had been shelled by modern artillery. Very strange indeed. Other than that, the party noted that there was a lot of “serpent-themed” engravings on the various stone structures that made up this city.
The party headed up to one of the central ziggurats, one that loomed up larger and more prominently in the “central plaza” of this ruined city. The party ascended the steep flight of stairs that led up to the top of the ziggurat, finding a sacrificial stone altar at the top, and behind the altar, there was an enclosed room, the “temple proper”. Heading inside, the party saw that there was a bas-relief against the back wall, depicting a great serpent. The bas-relief was gilded, so that the carved scales that made up the body of the serpent glittered gold in the torchlight. In true old-school D&D fashion, the eye of the carved serpent was a large polished gem, a golf-ball sized half-sphere of lapis lazuli.
The party inspected both the carved bas-relief, and the surrounding room. The observant T and L noted that there were some irregularities in the floor, some evenly-spaced lines or “cracks” in the tiled stone floor near the carving. T poured some water over the cracks, and it seemed to drain away, as if there was a hollow space underneath. This was confirmed when L gave the floor a hard blow with the pommel of his sword, and was met with a hollow sound in response, indicating an empty space underneath.
Meanwhile, R was inspecting the bas-relief. Despite the obvious value of the gem in the carving’s eye socket, none of the party dared to pry it out, and so there was no re-enactment of the cover illustration of the AD&D 1E Player’s Handbook, at least not presently. R did note that a particular section of the gilded scales seemed to be particularly worn, as if that small section had been repeatedly caressed or touched over a prolonged period of time.
After a moment, R pushed the worn section of scales, which depressed into the wall with a click, as if they were a button. With a grinding of stone, the aforementioned irregularities in the floor began to descend, revealing a stone staircase leading down into darkness.
As the party crowded around the top of the staircase, they heard the sound of heavy, loping footsteps outside, and a moment later, eight brutish-looking humanoids appeared at the entrance to this temple chamber. Eight hulking ape-men, looking like a rough mix of gorilla and chimpanzee, but standing more upright like a man. These ape-men were wearing a hodgepodge of strange armour, with Ottoman-style pointed helmets, Spanish-style steel breastplates, and sabres and round metal shields in their hands. Despite their high-quality equipment, the creature’s primitive gait and savage features made it clear that there was no sophistication about them.
The ape-men started hooting and beating their chests, beating their shields with their weapons, stomping, and putting on a threat display. Initially, it appeared that the party were going to stand their ground and fight against these beasts, but there was a quick change of plans, and the party fled down the stairs. The creatures did not appear to be pursuing, seemingly hesitant to enter the depths below.
The party descended a long flight of stairs, finding themselves in a large circular room, the ceiling of which was supported by four pillars, each decorated with a statue of a Serpent-Men looming out of the pillar’s stonework. Quickly, R inspected the nearest of the pillars, immediately spotting a fist-sized stone “button” projecting from the side. Without thinking twice, R pressed the button, inadvertently activating the dungeon’s self-destruct system, with the ensuing explosion causing an immediate TPK.
Just messing with you, readers, that’s not what really happened. When the stone button was pressed, there was the sound of grinding stone from up the stairs, and there was a loud “boom” of a stone door slamming shut, and the sound of the howling, hooting apes was cut off. The players correctly theorised that this switch controlled the hidden door that they had just passed through, and it had now been closed behind them.
From this point, there were three ways forward. To the south, a set of wide stairs led further downwards. To the east, a smaller set of stairs also led downwards, and finally, there was a straight corridor leading west. The party wanted to stay on their current dungeon level, so they headed to the west.
The western hallway was long, and was decorated with an engraving of a winding serpent on the floor. This engraving stretched the full length of the corridor, and presently, the party were standing at the furthest “tail end” of the snake. Suspecting a trap, L tossed his sword forward into the corridor. The sword clattered to the ground, but nothing else happened. L stepped forward to retrieve his sword, and made an almost-fatal mistake. In order to pick up his sword, he had to take a single step forward into the corridor. When I asked him where he was putting his foot down on the flagstones of the corridor, he tried to backpedal at first, but I ruled that he had already expressed that he was stepping forward to pick up his sword, and so he was committed to that initial step into the corridor.
L said his character, Langham, was putting his foot down on the stones that were not part of the serpent engraving. The stone depressed under the weight of his foot, with a click. A moment later, there was a grinding, grating sound from the wall to the right of Langham. And then nothing happened. A few nervous moments later, the party drew back to the corridor entrance. The players theorised that OD&D’s “2-in-6” chance of trap activation rules may have just saved Langham’s life. In this post-game review, I can confirm that this was the case, and Langham narrowly avoided being on the receiving end of a deadly poisoned dart.
Suitably chastened, Langham began carefully poking the floor ahead of him with the long blade of his two-handed sword, which was described as a proper “zweihander”. M had Thorvald carefully move up with his hand axe, tapping at the corridor walls with the back of his axe. Thorvald uncovered a narrow tube set into the wall, which a dart or other projectile could easily be projected through. A moment later, Langham was able to push down a tile with the tip of his long sword, and with a metallic “chunk” a dart was launched through the air ahead of Langham, striking the opposite wall and clattering harmlessly to the ground. Langham kept up this probing, and was rewarded with a few more darts being fired across the width of the corridor. It became apparent that in order to pass through safely, you had to walk along the back of the snake engraving on the floor.
The party walked along the snake, coming to an open entrance to a room at the end of the corridor. Peering into the room beyond, the party saw that the walls of the room were covered with ceremonial jade masks, hundreds of them. Before entering this room, there was one more set of tiles to be passed over, which was engraved with the head of the snake. F had Alius advance forward, passing over this set of tiles, which immediately opened up under the character’s feet, sending the unfortunate new adventurer plummeting to the dark depths below.
This was a cruel trick, in the sense that the pit trap was placed just where someone might think they’re safe, after having overcame the hallway rigged with poison darts. The fall was fatal, and Alius was killed as he struck the hard stony ground at the bottom of the pit trap’s shaft, the first casualty of the night. This death put a healthy dose of fear into the remaining players, and they were hesitant to advance into the next room. Eventually, however, greed overcame their fear, and they shuffled around the edges of the pit trap, entering the room beyond.
The party noticed that there were two huge urns in this room, each about the size of a man. The party gave them a wide berth, and certainly had no desire to go up and tamper with them. The regular readers of these play reports will know why this particular group of players has an aversion to tampering with such receptacles. Indeed, the players momentarily heard a dry rattling sound from inside, but there was no further activity or sign of life.
The party began loading the jade masks on the walls into the treasure sacks they brought. In addition, they began filling their own personal inventories with as many masks as they could pack in. L even went to the extent of discarding his shortbow and arrows in order to make room in his inventory for some more masks.
After the game, I remarked that this felt like a very cool "risk vs reward" moment, it felt like something you'd see a greedy bunch of tomb robbers do in an old sword and sorcery story. Of course, if it was a pre-written story, there would likely be a moment where the tomb robbers really need a piece of equipment to save their lives, but they don't have it, because they dropped it so they could carry more treasure.
This time though, luck was on the party’s side. Carrying multiple sacks of treasure between them, and with even more masks packed into their inventory, the party made a slow, laborious journey back to the dungeon’s entrance. They made it back to the surface, and back to the pirate camp without further incident.
This was a very successful session for the players, they brought back a massive treasure haul. The players have been pretty active during downtime, buying property in town to store their treasure, hiring mercenaries to guard their houses, and overall making sure their treasure was safe. Overall, I’m really happy with how the game is progressing, and the players seem to be enjoying the game as well. I hope that those of you who are reading this are enjoying these regular session reports.
Until next time, players.
The players for this eighth game were:
R: An experienced player.
L: An experienced player.
G: An experienced player.
M: Not sure of their experience level, but seemingly familiar with OD&D.
F: A new player, no experience with OD&D.
In this game, R was playing Colby (W-P 1), L was playing Langham (F-M 1), G was playing Davlan (F-M 1), M was playing Thorvald (M-U 1), F was playing Alius (F-M 1).
Prior to this session, we had an influx of new players, so I pointed out a location on the map that would provide a classic “dungeon crawl” experience, suitable for a band of new players to get their first taste of OD&D. Further, this would provide a more manageable “first session back” for me as I return to the referee’s role after a three-week hiatus. As the session time rolled around, we ended up with three of our experienced regular players, and two new players, so it didn’t end up being as “new player heavy” as I was expecting.
Without further ado, we got stuck right into the game, and the party travelled west through the jungle, reaching a large ruined city, with a strong Aztec / Mayan / Incan aesthetic. The buildings were in ruins, badly damaged, and completely overgrown with verdant jungle flora. It was plain to see that the surrounding jungle had reclaimed this city over centuries of abandonment. Interestingly, there appeared to be a number of great “blast craters” all around the ancient city, as if the city had been shelled by modern artillery. Very strange indeed. Other than that, the party noted that there was a lot of “serpent-themed” engravings on the various stone structures that made up this city.
The party headed up to one of the central ziggurats, one that loomed up larger and more prominently in the “central plaza” of this ruined city. The party ascended the steep flight of stairs that led up to the top of the ziggurat, finding a sacrificial stone altar at the top, and behind the altar, there was an enclosed room, the “temple proper”. Heading inside, the party saw that there was a bas-relief against the back wall, depicting a great serpent. The bas-relief was gilded, so that the carved scales that made up the body of the serpent glittered gold in the torchlight. In true old-school D&D fashion, the eye of the carved serpent was a large polished gem, a golf-ball sized half-sphere of lapis lazuli.
The party inspected both the carved bas-relief, and the surrounding room. The observant T and L noted that there were some irregularities in the floor, some evenly-spaced lines or “cracks” in the tiled stone floor near the carving. T poured some water over the cracks, and it seemed to drain away, as if there was a hollow space underneath. This was confirmed when L gave the floor a hard blow with the pommel of his sword, and was met with a hollow sound in response, indicating an empty space underneath.
Meanwhile, R was inspecting the bas-relief. Despite the obvious value of the gem in the carving’s eye socket, none of the party dared to pry it out, and so there was no re-enactment of the cover illustration of the AD&D 1E Player’s Handbook, at least not presently. R did note that a particular section of the gilded scales seemed to be particularly worn, as if that small section had been repeatedly caressed or touched over a prolonged period of time.
After a moment, R pushed the worn section of scales, which depressed into the wall with a click, as if they were a button. With a grinding of stone, the aforementioned irregularities in the floor began to descend, revealing a stone staircase leading down into darkness.
As the party crowded around the top of the staircase, they heard the sound of heavy, loping footsteps outside, and a moment later, eight brutish-looking humanoids appeared at the entrance to this temple chamber. Eight hulking ape-men, looking like a rough mix of gorilla and chimpanzee, but standing more upright like a man. These ape-men were wearing a hodgepodge of strange armour, with Ottoman-style pointed helmets, Spanish-style steel breastplates, and sabres and round metal shields in their hands. Despite their high-quality equipment, the creature’s primitive gait and savage features made it clear that there was no sophistication about them.
The ape-men started hooting and beating their chests, beating their shields with their weapons, stomping, and putting on a threat display. Initially, it appeared that the party were going to stand their ground and fight against these beasts, but there was a quick change of plans, and the party fled down the stairs. The creatures did not appear to be pursuing, seemingly hesitant to enter the depths below.
The party descended a long flight of stairs, finding themselves in a large circular room, the ceiling of which was supported by four pillars, each decorated with a statue of a Serpent-Men looming out of the pillar’s stonework. Quickly, R inspected the nearest of the pillars, immediately spotting a fist-sized stone “button” projecting from the side. Without thinking twice, R pressed the button, inadvertently activating the dungeon’s self-destruct system, with the ensuing explosion causing an immediate TPK.
Just messing with you, readers, that’s not what really happened. When the stone button was pressed, there was the sound of grinding stone from up the stairs, and there was a loud “boom” of a stone door slamming shut, and the sound of the howling, hooting apes was cut off. The players correctly theorised that this switch controlled the hidden door that they had just passed through, and it had now been closed behind them.
From this point, there were three ways forward. To the south, a set of wide stairs led further downwards. To the east, a smaller set of stairs also led downwards, and finally, there was a straight corridor leading west. The party wanted to stay on their current dungeon level, so they headed to the west.
The western hallway was long, and was decorated with an engraving of a winding serpent on the floor. This engraving stretched the full length of the corridor, and presently, the party were standing at the furthest “tail end” of the snake. Suspecting a trap, L tossed his sword forward into the corridor. The sword clattered to the ground, but nothing else happened. L stepped forward to retrieve his sword, and made an almost-fatal mistake. In order to pick up his sword, he had to take a single step forward into the corridor. When I asked him where he was putting his foot down on the flagstones of the corridor, he tried to backpedal at first, but I ruled that he had already expressed that he was stepping forward to pick up his sword, and so he was committed to that initial step into the corridor.
L said his character, Langham, was putting his foot down on the stones that were not part of the serpent engraving. The stone depressed under the weight of his foot, with a click. A moment later, there was a grinding, grating sound from the wall to the right of Langham. And then nothing happened. A few nervous moments later, the party drew back to the corridor entrance. The players theorised that OD&D’s “2-in-6” chance of trap activation rules may have just saved Langham’s life. In this post-game review, I can confirm that this was the case, and Langham narrowly avoided being on the receiving end of a deadly poisoned dart.
Suitably chastened, Langham began carefully poking the floor ahead of him with the long blade of his two-handed sword, which was described as a proper “zweihander”. M had Thorvald carefully move up with his hand axe, tapping at the corridor walls with the back of his axe. Thorvald uncovered a narrow tube set into the wall, which a dart or other projectile could easily be projected through. A moment later, Langham was able to push down a tile with the tip of his long sword, and with a metallic “chunk” a dart was launched through the air ahead of Langham, striking the opposite wall and clattering harmlessly to the ground. Langham kept up this probing, and was rewarded with a few more darts being fired across the width of the corridor. It became apparent that in order to pass through safely, you had to walk along the back of the snake engraving on the floor.
The party walked along the snake, coming to an open entrance to a room at the end of the corridor. Peering into the room beyond, the party saw that the walls of the room were covered with ceremonial jade masks, hundreds of them. Before entering this room, there was one more set of tiles to be passed over, which was engraved with the head of the snake. F had Alius advance forward, passing over this set of tiles, which immediately opened up under the character’s feet, sending the unfortunate new adventurer plummeting to the dark depths below.
This was a cruel trick, in the sense that the pit trap was placed just where someone might think they’re safe, after having overcame the hallway rigged with poison darts. The fall was fatal, and Alius was killed as he struck the hard stony ground at the bottom of the pit trap’s shaft, the first casualty of the night. This death put a healthy dose of fear into the remaining players, and they were hesitant to advance into the next room. Eventually, however, greed overcame their fear, and they shuffled around the edges of the pit trap, entering the room beyond.
The party noticed that there were two huge urns in this room, each about the size of a man. The party gave them a wide berth, and certainly had no desire to go up and tamper with them. The regular readers of these play reports will know why this particular group of players has an aversion to tampering with such receptacles. Indeed, the players momentarily heard a dry rattling sound from inside, but there was no further activity or sign of life.
The party began loading the jade masks on the walls into the treasure sacks they brought. In addition, they began filling their own personal inventories with as many masks as they could pack in. L even went to the extent of discarding his shortbow and arrows in order to make room in his inventory for some more masks.
After the game, I remarked that this felt like a very cool "risk vs reward" moment, it felt like something you'd see a greedy bunch of tomb robbers do in an old sword and sorcery story. Of course, if it was a pre-written story, there would likely be a moment where the tomb robbers really need a piece of equipment to save their lives, but they don't have it, because they dropped it so they could carry more treasure.
This time though, luck was on the party’s side. Carrying multiple sacks of treasure between them, and with even more masks packed into their inventory, the party made a slow, laborious journey back to the dungeon’s entrance. They made it back to the surface, and back to the pirate camp without further incident.
This was a very successful session for the players, they brought back a massive treasure haul. The players have been pretty active during downtime, buying property in town to store their treasure, hiring mercenaries to guard their houses, and overall making sure their treasure was safe. Overall, I’m really happy with how the game is progressing, and the players seem to be enjoying the game as well. I hope that those of you who are reading this are enjoying these regular session reports.
Until next time, players.