Post by carjack on Feb 25, 2008 12:39:58 GMT -6
This past Saturday, I had an opportunity to run my first OD&D session at Gamicon in Iowa City. Despite some scheduling confusion about when exactly my session was running, I ended up with 6 players. After explanations of how to roll up characters and some minor discussion over the lack of a Thief class, we ended up with 2 Clerics, 1 Magic User, 2 Fighting Men and an Elf, all starting at 3rd level. A nice mix, I thought.
The characters entered the dungeon and quickly were stopped cold by a hallway coated with mysterious yellow grit and lined with ominous skull-topped pillars. After investigating the pillars and determining that the grit must emerge from the skulls on them, they checked a short hall adjacent that contained a carving of a skeletal warrior. Following a hint carved on the shield of the carving, the elf determined the jaw of the carving would move. One of the warriors pulled it and disarmed the choking dust trap that would have gone off as the party trudged down the main hall.
Immediately, the party surprises a group of Bugbears coming up a nearby passage. After a short altercation, the humanoids are dispatched, some silver discovered and the party travels down that passage. An ominous vibration in the floor is felt as they travel, but no source can be detected. Soon, the group emerges into a large domed chamber at the intersection of two hallways. A large carving of a 6 armed Gargoyle sits in the center, which is checked over by the elf. Immediately the carving reveals it is, in fact, a quite alive Gargoyle by attacking the elf and the nearby party. The Gargoyle causes some damage until the Magic User casts a light spell in its eyes, rendering it blind and helpless. The party easily avoids its thrashing afterwards and quickly turns it into a pile of rubble.
Unfortunately, the group fails to search for secret doors here, and thus miss finding the Gargoyle’s treasure cache, which contained some magic that would have been helpful to them later. Having some serious wounds to deal with and nearly out of spells, the party decides to retreat to town to heal and resupply.
Revived and rested, the party re-descends, this time going down a different passage. Soon, the sound of goblins is heard by the elf, who also spots torchlight coming from a nearby passage. A plan is formed to send the Magic User in to taunt the goblins and as they rush out, to ambush them in the hallways beyond. The Magic User, who speaks no Goblin, enters the chamber to discover a group of 6 goblins gambling and drinking around a table. To get them to notice him, he decides to throw his full wineskin at one of the goblins. The goblins, nearly out of wine, misinterpret this as a friendly gesture and with big smiles and gestures, invite the Magic User to join them. Not knowing what else to do, the Magic User does so. Meanwhile, the group is beginning to wonder what has happened. The elf peers in, and seeing the MU drinking with the Goblins, throws his Sleep spell over the whole group. The party wakes the MU and dispatches the Goblins, taking the gold pieces they were gambling with.
Continuing on down the maze of passages, the party comes across a Goblin latrine with and interesting door in it. The door is brass with a devil embossed in its surface and a 10’ square metal grate in the floor in front of it. Charring and soot clearly reveal that flame must shoot out from this grate from time to time. Poking the door with a spear causes the figure on the door to animate and complain about being poked, but it refuses to say what his purpose is until someone decides to step onto the grate. The MU, ever one for puzzles, steps forward onto the grate and the devil shouts “Make me laugh or face my wrath!” The MU tries telling a joke about goblins that is not well received, for a great gout of flame shoots up out of the grate, giving him quite a char as he stumbles back off the grate. Next, the Elf decides to give it a try, and tells the door a joke about a parrot. The joke is quite well received and the door allows the group to pass without any more flames.
Next the party enters a chamber dominated by a wooden desk with an enormous Brass Golem seated behind it. A large book is on the desk and the Golem appears to be writing on a scroll. It looks up at the party and says “Welcome to the offices of the Lord of the First Deep, may I help you?” Immediately, the Elf is asking if he and his group can see the Lord. The Golem asks very cattily if they have an appointment, and checking the book, shows that there are no appointments scheduled that day. He asks the Elf if he would like an appointment, and offers him a time about three days from then. The Elf bluffs the Golem by saying he, too, is an important Lord and could not the appointment be moved up to immediately? The Golem, fooled by the Elf’s lordly demeanor, allows the group to pass through the door to the next chamber.
The adventurers emerge into a set of hallways with a door nearby. After knocking politely on the door, they find a room filled with brass junk. They search it and turn up a dented horn that radiates magic when checked. The MU takes possession of it. Going down the next hallway they discover a great arch with “Lord of the 1st Deep” engraved in its stones. Tremendous boulders also block it. The MU tries the horn on them and blasts them to dust, revealing the Horn of Blasting for what it is. Entering the chamber, the party discovers a game-spinner made of gold and jewels atop a pedestal and a piece of parchment nailed to the nearby wall. The MU reads out the parchment: “Offices of the Lord of the 1st Deep temporarily moved to the 2nd Deep. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
The group then decides to investigate the spinner, much to the Elf’s dismay.
The MU spins first, and suddenly radiates magic power. He becomes aware that any attack he makes will be considered as from a magic weapon for a week afterward. He is very pleased. Next, one of the Clerics steps up and spins. With a bang and a flash, the entire party is transported to a strange chamber lined with bone containing an evil looking throne, also made of bones. Both Clerics can sense the evil that the throne radiates and urge the MU to blast it with his horn. The MU does so, reducing the chair to splinters and rousing the three Wraiths that lie in the next chamber, who rush in to attack. The MU is slain immediately, and the party discovers it has no magic to fight the wraiths with. The Elf seizes the horn from the body of the dead MU and blows it at the wraiths, causing them damage. The other party members quickly remember that the MU himself, because of his adventure with the spinner, may be a magical weapon and decide to pick the body up by the ankles and hurl it at the wraiths. This tactic so amuses the DM, that, of course it will work. Between the much-abused body of the dead MU and Horn of Blasting, the wraiths are destroyed and their treasure trove of gold is discovered. Also, a Sword +1 is found and given to one of the fighting men. The party decides they need to find where they’ve been transported to and find the way out again. Last rites are given to the MU and the party moves on. The player of the MU quickly rolls up another MU and the party soon discovers him, bound in a large sack in the middle of a hallway.
The group next discovers a series of chambers. The first contains a large crystal fountain that a large Manticore is drinking out of. The Manticore ignores the group and continues to drink. The party quickly retreats and goes to another chamber. This one contains a large mirror. One of the clerics and the new MU investigate it, but not before the party insists on tying ropes to each of them to pull them out if they have trouble. Soon, evil duplicates leap out of the mirror to attack them both. The Elf, lurking outside the chamber, throws his Sleep spell on all of them and the party quickly pulls their sleeping companions out again. Waking them up, they are unconcerned that that dupes will wake up and follow them, as they are also tied with ropes that lead into the mirror. After this encounter, the Elf wants to see if the Manticore is still in the fountain room. They investigate to find the room empty, and take the opportunity to refill their waterskins.
Taking another bend in the hallways, they discover the chamber where they fought the gargoyle. They take this opportunity to retreat from the dungeon one more time and rest and recuperate.
Returning to the dungeon, the party decides to investigate the source of the strange vibration they felt earlier. They discover a great rotating cylinder with a bright light shining out of a vertical slit, strobing the room in it’s light. At least 30 posts radiate out from the spinning vertical cylinder at various lengths and heights. The group ponders this for a while, and the MU grabs a post, only to be flung painfully against the wall. Undaunted, he times things just right and ducks in among the quickly moving posts to touch the illuminated slit. The cylinder stops spinning. Some party members climb on the posts, while others try pushing and pulling on them. They quickly discover that the posts can be increased or decreased in length and they can also be removed. They start removing posts and notice that every time they do, a grinding stone sound can be heard, sometimes very near and sometimes far off. Checking outside the door, they discover that altering or removing the posts alters or removes sections of the dungeon! They try replacing the posts properly, but end up removing the one corridor that leads to the way out of the dungeon! They need to discover another way out!
They decide to check unexplored areas on their map, and find a room with a treasure chest on the far side of the room. There are also skeletons and a half-eaten lying on the floor. The Elf discovers the floor is covered in a very sticky material and, looking up, spies the giant Glue Spider hanging from the ceiling. The large arachnid drops to the floor after being assailed by arrows and crossbow bolts and traps one of the Clerics in a gooey spray, which cocoons her securely. However, the group quickly dispatches the spider and frees her. Experimenting with the gooey floor, they discover wine will dissolve it. Using the quarts of wine they are carrying, they are able to clear a path to the treasure chest, finding gold and silver as well as a potion. The elf also spies a ring on the finger of one of the skeletons and is able to hook the bony hand with a spear. He discovers a Ring of Protection.
The group continues to explore, eventually stumbling across the body to the dead Magic User. They are now able to correct errors to their map made by the teleporting to the Bone Room. They decide to take the body with them for proper burial out of the dungeon.
Soon the explorers discover a triangular room with an even MORE enormous spider in it! (8 HD!) They fight it and are barely able to overcome without any casualties. In a closet in that room they discover more gold, a suit of +1 plate, a largish brass key and a golden sword. When the elf grasps this sword, it quickly glows with elvish runes. When handed to one of the fighting men, it instantly reverts to its non-glowing aspect. They deduce the weapon is meant to be used by an elf and let him keep it.
Down on hits and out of healing magic, the party desperately searches for a way out of the dungeon. They find a room that was apparently used for summoning, as it has a large Circle of Protection inscribed in mithril on the floor. Looking for secret compartments in the floor inside the circle, they discover that neither the Elf nor the Magic User can cross the circle. They find no hidden compartment and continue on, discovering a room with a locked iron door in it. The door is inscribed with runes warning of danger and anyone to stay out! A few in the party want to try the key here, but the others want to find a way out first. Searching another room, they find a huge pile of treasure covering the far side of the room. Suspecting an illusion or trap, they prod the coins with spears and throw stones on it before trying to take it. Satisfied, the male cleric strides ahead and takes a coin from a pile. He instantly vanishes! Next, the elf tries this and also vanishes, as does the Magic User. These individuals find themselves on a hill outside the dungeon, but without the treasure they tried to pick up.
The other half of the group, which contained the individuals who wanted to open the iron door with the key, use this opportunity to do so and unlock the dangerous looking door. They discover a cube-like chamber infused with a purple glow and having 1-inch holes perforating the entire surface of the floor, walls and ceiling. Not liking the look of it, they decide to retreat to the treasure room and, taking a piece of gold each, are teleported to their companions.
It was at this point that we had run out of time for the session. All in all, it was pretty cool, as the party nearly cleared out the entire level during the session and had the smarts to know when to retreat to town. All had a lot of fun. Everaux was present in this session, and I have to say he is one of the best mappers I have ever seen! Despite my confusing maze (derived from the Dungeon Geomorphs set) his map was very accurate.
All in all, OD&D turned out a very cool gaming experience that I hope to repeat as soon as possible! Fight on, dudes! ;D
The characters entered the dungeon and quickly were stopped cold by a hallway coated with mysterious yellow grit and lined with ominous skull-topped pillars. After investigating the pillars and determining that the grit must emerge from the skulls on them, they checked a short hall adjacent that contained a carving of a skeletal warrior. Following a hint carved on the shield of the carving, the elf determined the jaw of the carving would move. One of the warriors pulled it and disarmed the choking dust trap that would have gone off as the party trudged down the main hall.
Immediately, the party surprises a group of Bugbears coming up a nearby passage. After a short altercation, the humanoids are dispatched, some silver discovered and the party travels down that passage. An ominous vibration in the floor is felt as they travel, but no source can be detected. Soon, the group emerges into a large domed chamber at the intersection of two hallways. A large carving of a 6 armed Gargoyle sits in the center, which is checked over by the elf. Immediately the carving reveals it is, in fact, a quite alive Gargoyle by attacking the elf and the nearby party. The Gargoyle causes some damage until the Magic User casts a light spell in its eyes, rendering it blind and helpless. The party easily avoids its thrashing afterwards and quickly turns it into a pile of rubble.
Unfortunately, the group fails to search for secret doors here, and thus miss finding the Gargoyle’s treasure cache, which contained some magic that would have been helpful to them later. Having some serious wounds to deal with and nearly out of spells, the party decides to retreat to town to heal and resupply.
Revived and rested, the party re-descends, this time going down a different passage. Soon, the sound of goblins is heard by the elf, who also spots torchlight coming from a nearby passage. A plan is formed to send the Magic User in to taunt the goblins and as they rush out, to ambush them in the hallways beyond. The Magic User, who speaks no Goblin, enters the chamber to discover a group of 6 goblins gambling and drinking around a table. To get them to notice him, he decides to throw his full wineskin at one of the goblins. The goblins, nearly out of wine, misinterpret this as a friendly gesture and with big smiles and gestures, invite the Magic User to join them. Not knowing what else to do, the Magic User does so. Meanwhile, the group is beginning to wonder what has happened. The elf peers in, and seeing the MU drinking with the Goblins, throws his Sleep spell over the whole group. The party wakes the MU and dispatches the Goblins, taking the gold pieces they were gambling with.
Continuing on down the maze of passages, the party comes across a Goblin latrine with and interesting door in it. The door is brass with a devil embossed in its surface and a 10’ square metal grate in the floor in front of it. Charring and soot clearly reveal that flame must shoot out from this grate from time to time. Poking the door with a spear causes the figure on the door to animate and complain about being poked, but it refuses to say what his purpose is until someone decides to step onto the grate. The MU, ever one for puzzles, steps forward onto the grate and the devil shouts “Make me laugh or face my wrath!” The MU tries telling a joke about goblins that is not well received, for a great gout of flame shoots up out of the grate, giving him quite a char as he stumbles back off the grate. Next, the Elf decides to give it a try, and tells the door a joke about a parrot. The joke is quite well received and the door allows the group to pass without any more flames.
Next the party enters a chamber dominated by a wooden desk with an enormous Brass Golem seated behind it. A large book is on the desk and the Golem appears to be writing on a scroll. It looks up at the party and says “Welcome to the offices of the Lord of the First Deep, may I help you?” Immediately, the Elf is asking if he and his group can see the Lord. The Golem asks very cattily if they have an appointment, and checking the book, shows that there are no appointments scheduled that day. He asks the Elf if he would like an appointment, and offers him a time about three days from then. The Elf bluffs the Golem by saying he, too, is an important Lord and could not the appointment be moved up to immediately? The Golem, fooled by the Elf’s lordly demeanor, allows the group to pass through the door to the next chamber.
The adventurers emerge into a set of hallways with a door nearby. After knocking politely on the door, they find a room filled with brass junk. They search it and turn up a dented horn that radiates magic when checked. The MU takes possession of it. Going down the next hallway they discover a great arch with “Lord of the 1st Deep” engraved in its stones. Tremendous boulders also block it. The MU tries the horn on them and blasts them to dust, revealing the Horn of Blasting for what it is. Entering the chamber, the party discovers a game-spinner made of gold and jewels atop a pedestal and a piece of parchment nailed to the nearby wall. The MU reads out the parchment: “Offices of the Lord of the 1st Deep temporarily moved to the 2nd Deep. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
The group then decides to investigate the spinner, much to the Elf’s dismay.
The MU spins first, and suddenly radiates magic power. He becomes aware that any attack he makes will be considered as from a magic weapon for a week afterward. He is very pleased. Next, one of the Clerics steps up and spins. With a bang and a flash, the entire party is transported to a strange chamber lined with bone containing an evil looking throne, also made of bones. Both Clerics can sense the evil that the throne radiates and urge the MU to blast it with his horn. The MU does so, reducing the chair to splinters and rousing the three Wraiths that lie in the next chamber, who rush in to attack. The MU is slain immediately, and the party discovers it has no magic to fight the wraiths with. The Elf seizes the horn from the body of the dead MU and blows it at the wraiths, causing them damage. The other party members quickly remember that the MU himself, because of his adventure with the spinner, may be a magical weapon and decide to pick the body up by the ankles and hurl it at the wraiths. This tactic so amuses the DM, that, of course it will work. Between the much-abused body of the dead MU and Horn of Blasting, the wraiths are destroyed and their treasure trove of gold is discovered. Also, a Sword +1 is found and given to one of the fighting men. The party decides they need to find where they’ve been transported to and find the way out again. Last rites are given to the MU and the party moves on. The player of the MU quickly rolls up another MU and the party soon discovers him, bound in a large sack in the middle of a hallway.
The group next discovers a series of chambers. The first contains a large crystal fountain that a large Manticore is drinking out of. The Manticore ignores the group and continues to drink. The party quickly retreats and goes to another chamber. This one contains a large mirror. One of the clerics and the new MU investigate it, but not before the party insists on tying ropes to each of them to pull them out if they have trouble. Soon, evil duplicates leap out of the mirror to attack them both. The Elf, lurking outside the chamber, throws his Sleep spell on all of them and the party quickly pulls their sleeping companions out again. Waking them up, they are unconcerned that that dupes will wake up and follow them, as they are also tied with ropes that lead into the mirror. After this encounter, the Elf wants to see if the Manticore is still in the fountain room. They investigate to find the room empty, and take the opportunity to refill their waterskins.
Taking another bend in the hallways, they discover the chamber where they fought the gargoyle. They take this opportunity to retreat from the dungeon one more time and rest and recuperate.
Returning to the dungeon, the party decides to investigate the source of the strange vibration they felt earlier. They discover a great rotating cylinder with a bright light shining out of a vertical slit, strobing the room in it’s light. At least 30 posts radiate out from the spinning vertical cylinder at various lengths and heights. The group ponders this for a while, and the MU grabs a post, only to be flung painfully against the wall. Undaunted, he times things just right and ducks in among the quickly moving posts to touch the illuminated slit. The cylinder stops spinning. Some party members climb on the posts, while others try pushing and pulling on them. They quickly discover that the posts can be increased or decreased in length and they can also be removed. They start removing posts and notice that every time they do, a grinding stone sound can be heard, sometimes very near and sometimes far off. Checking outside the door, they discover that altering or removing the posts alters or removes sections of the dungeon! They try replacing the posts properly, but end up removing the one corridor that leads to the way out of the dungeon! They need to discover another way out!
They decide to check unexplored areas on their map, and find a room with a treasure chest on the far side of the room. There are also skeletons and a half-eaten lying on the floor. The Elf discovers the floor is covered in a very sticky material and, looking up, spies the giant Glue Spider hanging from the ceiling. The large arachnid drops to the floor after being assailed by arrows and crossbow bolts and traps one of the Clerics in a gooey spray, which cocoons her securely. However, the group quickly dispatches the spider and frees her. Experimenting with the gooey floor, they discover wine will dissolve it. Using the quarts of wine they are carrying, they are able to clear a path to the treasure chest, finding gold and silver as well as a potion. The elf also spies a ring on the finger of one of the skeletons and is able to hook the bony hand with a spear. He discovers a Ring of Protection.
The group continues to explore, eventually stumbling across the body to the dead Magic User. They are now able to correct errors to their map made by the teleporting to the Bone Room. They decide to take the body with them for proper burial out of the dungeon.
Soon the explorers discover a triangular room with an even MORE enormous spider in it! (8 HD!) They fight it and are barely able to overcome without any casualties. In a closet in that room they discover more gold, a suit of +1 plate, a largish brass key and a golden sword. When the elf grasps this sword, it quickly glows with elvish runes. When handed to one of the fighting men, it instantly reverts to its non-glowing aspect. They deduce the weapon is meant to be used by an elf and let him keep it.
Down on hits and out of healing magic, the party desperately searches for a way out of the dungeon. They find a room that was apparently used for summoning, as it has a large Circle of Protection inscribed in mithril on the floor. Looking for secret compartments in the floor inside the circle, they discover that neither the Elf nor the Magic User can cross the circle. They find no hidden compartment and continue on, discovering a room with a locked iron door in it. The door is inscribed with runes warning of danger and anyone to stay out! A few in the party want to try the key here, but the others want to find a way out first. Searching another room, they find a huge pile of treasure covering the far side of the room. Suspecting an illusion or trap, they prod the coins with spears and throw stones on it before trying to take it. Satisfied, the male cleric strides ahead and takes a coin from a pile. He instantly vanishes! Next, the elf tries this and also vanishes, as does the Magic User. These individuals find themselves on a hill outside the dungeon, but without the treasure they tried to pick up.
The other half of the group, which contained the individuals who wanted to open the iron door with the key, use this opportunity to do so and unlock the dangerous looking door. They discover a cube-like chamber infused with a purple glow and having 1-inch holes perforating the entire surface of the floor, walls and ceiling. Not liking the look of it, they decide to retreat to the treasure room and, taking a piece of gold each, are teleported to their companions.
It was at this point that we had run out of time for the session. All in all, it was pretty cool, as the party nearly cleared out the entire level during the session and had the smarts to know when to retreat to town. All had a lot of fun. Everaux was present in this session, and I have to say he is one of the best mappers I have ever seen! Despite my confusing maze (derived from the Dungeon Geomorphs set) his map was very accurate.
All in all, OD&D turned out a very cool gaming experience that I hope to repeat as soon as possible! Fight on, dudes! ;D
