Post by paleologos on Aug 9, 2012 19:40:59 GMT -6
I just had a blast running Chapel of Silence for my group - a fantastic adventure. I've posted our experiences over on Dragonsfoot here and here.
It was my first opportunity to run a Holmes vampire, and it presented a few problems I was hoping to get some feedback on:
1) how far would you knock down a player who gets hit with an energy drain? Halfway between levels? A third level fighter got hit, and I think losing all of the xp accumulated at third level thus far as well as second level, placing him 1 xp shy of second level would be reasonable. Takes a bit of the sting out.
2) the description in Holmes says nothing about coffins! I found it unusual that no coffin was mentioned in the adventure, so I added one in, but now I'm not so sure that it was necessary. (Who's to say that a vampire can't sleep in a bed?)
3) 10 to 100 rats is a total creepfest. I rolled 35 rats, and used the monster description from Moldvay, which totally incapacitated 4 of the 8 party members, and killed a fifth! Basically, 1-10 rats peel off and swarm individual characters, who need to save vs. Death Ray or be knocked down and unable to fight. I allowed repeat saves vs. Death Ray on successive rounds to allow them to get to their feet, and did not make them save each round if they were successful the first round, but holy moly they are the vampire's secret weapon!
An elf in the party heard the horde approaching and cast sleep, knocking them down to 29, before 8 jumped on him. He then required 8 successful hits to rid himself of the ones crawling all over him, and only killed 3 before the first battle with the vampire was over (so was out of the picture for the whole combat). Another 8 jumped on the party cleric, 8 more on the other elf, and 5 on the dwarf - leaving only the two fighting men and the two thieves to deal with the vampire.
One of the thieves was hit and killed by the vampire, and one of the fighting-men was drained of 2 levels before they were able to bring their opponent down to single digit hit points (difficult when he's regenerating 3 hp/round) and he went gaseous and withdrew. In the meantime, 2 of the rats jumped on one of the two thieves and actually killed him (1d6 points of damage, although he only had 5 hp).
Is anyone aware of any other rules for normal rats? They're not listed in the AD&D Monster Manual.
4) finally, Holmes is lacking stats on normal wolves and giant bats, as well, so one would need some stats prior to running a vampire.
It was my first opportunity to run a Holmes vampire, and it presented a few problems I was hoping to get some feedback on:
1) how far would you knock down a player who gets hit with an energy drain? Halfway between levels? A third level fighter got hit, and I think losing all of the xp accumulated at third level thus far as well as second level, placing him 1 xp shy of second level would be reasonable. Takes a bit of the sting out.
2) the description in Holmes says nothing about coffins! I found it unusual that no coffin was mentioned in the adventure, so I added one in, but now I'm not so sure that it was necessary. (Who's to say that a vampire can't sleep in a bed?)
3) 10 to 100 rats is a total creepfest. I rolled 35 rats, and used the monster description from Moldvay, which totally incapacitated 4 of the 8 party members, and killed a fifth! Basically, 1-10 rats peel off and swarm individual characters, who need to save vs. Death Ray or be knocked down and unable to fight. I allowed repeat saves vs. Death Ray on successive rounds to allow them to get to their feet, and did not make them save each round if they were successful the first round, but holy moly they are the vampire's secret weapon!
An elf in the party heard the horde approaching and cast sleep, knocking them down to 29, before 8 jumped on him. He then required 8 successful hits to rid himself of the ones crawling all over him, and only killed 3 before the first battle with the vampire was over (so was out of the picture for the whole combat). Another 8 jumped on the party cleric, 8 more on the other elf, and 5 on the dwarf - leaving only the two fighting men and the two thieves to deal with the vampire.
One of the thieves was hit and killed by the vampire, and one of the fighting-men was drained of 2 levels before they were able to bring their opponent down to single digit hit points (difficult when he's regenerating 3 hp/round) and he went gaseous and withdrew. In the meantime, 2 of the rats jumped on one of the two thieves and actually killed him (1d6 points of damage, although he only had 5 hp).
Is anyone aware of any other rules for normal rats? They're not listed in the AD&D Monster Manual.
4) finally, Holmes is lacking stats on normal wolves and giant bats, as well, so one would need some stats prior to running a vampire.


