AD&D Session 4 - Orcean's Eleven

Today's contestants are Edward Hallows the CE crackhead raid-boss dwarf fighter (level 2) with 18/93 strength, Zamzibal the OG thief (level 3) and Fabio the magic-user (level 2).

Due to the players' inexperience with fully comprehending and executing successful dungeon delves, they decided to try their luck at gaining a level in Blackbird prior to any underground expeditions. After questioning me on the black market dealings in this Lankhmar-clone, I decided a casino for the rough of society would be all but certain to exist and most suitable to fun interactions.

Thankfully, hearing my friend explain how he would seek employment as a naive magic-user confirmed this. Very luckily, the previous janitor quit a few days ago. The magic-user was graciously allowed to go on janny duty with his Mending spell for minimal pay. Simultaneously, the GMO known as Edward Hallows got a repairman job, so the party had two sets of eyes on the inside.

A few days of familarising themselves with the layout and the plan was in motion.

Step 1: Gather intelligence on the casino including patterns, location of safes, and deposit times

Step 2: Ensure both inside men are nearby when the manager deposits profits

Step 3: Bull rush the manager and his guards as they enter the office with the safe and hope for the best 

Step 4: Simultaneously use Fabio's Ventriloquism to draw away and/or confuse as many guards as possible42 heavy foot (sessions 1-3)

5 crossbowmen (session 3)

The crew decided to attack near the early hours of the morning as management was wrapping things up and patrons were leaving. Therefore, steps 1-2 were relatively easy. The sound decision to execute steps 3 & 4 at the same time meant of the ~8 guards on duty, 4 were sent to the other side of the casino and effectively indisposed until the end of this heist.

The dice were on the parties side as 2 segments of surprise meant that of the 4 remaining guards, 2 were dispatched cleanly and quietly enough that patrons didn't instantly notice. Ventriloquism helped a lot here. However, the manager and his two goons noticed and locked the door behind them, safe(?) in the office.

Fortunately, being a dwarf stronger than most mortals meant that the door would be broken down. As he launched his ICBM of a shoulder into the door, the other two PCs moved the bodies further down the hallway. Nonetheless, patrons noticed the attempted break-in. While some mobilised, the other two PCs returned and threateningly blocked the passage towards the dwarf. Eventually, the office door stood open and the manager's two guards were killed by the PCs. The manager left on low HP, he was cowed into submitting and revealed the hidden way towards the safe, down a narrow passage in the wall. Thankfully for the PCs, sending him first meant he cracked and exposed the location of traps along the way, right to the safe.

Retrieving the loot inside, not an amount to sneeze at, the PCs killed the manager and set fire to the office. The customers outside heard and smelt the way the wind was blowing, so to speak, and made a speedy exit. The PCs escaped with the dice unfortunately dictating no other encounters on their way home. They found 10,000 e.p. and numerous gems, take-home pay of 6497 e.p. in coins and 900 g.p. in gems. The next 4 days were spent resting.

To cut a long story short, the next hit was an assassination on some bozo. It turned out to be a level 3 thief and his wife. The instant assassination failed and too much noise was made breaking in to their house. As such, the thief stayed behind while his wife took some emergency valuables and legged it down a secret passageway below the house and under the streets of Blackbird.

After killing the thief, searching the room was not immediately fruitful. It took about 20 minutes of searching to find the secret exit, by which time the woman had escaped. The party called it quits and took a 14 day rest (the target put up a good fight). Fabio levelled up to 3 during this time.

Meanwhile, the woman had used the funds she fled with to put a target on the one figure she had seen clearly through the window: the dwarf. And so it was that 7 days after the hit, the dwarf was found with a shiv in his throat. The player took it like a champ and I rolled the instant assassination attempt in the open, informing him a lower result would kill him. It did roll low and we said goodbye to the beefcake manlet.

This session was an experimentation in trying to gain levels without going into the dungeon. Everything was improvised which was refreshing but intensive.

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28/05/2022: Day 50 - Party spends 3 days achieving employment and gathering intel on a black-market casino in the underbelly of Blackbird

Day 53/54 - Party heists and receives 6497 e.p. in coins and 900 g.p. in gems. Rests for 4 days

Day 58 - Party finishes resting, goes to assassinate a man and his wife. She escapes, places a hit on Edward Hallows

Day 65 - Edward Hallows assassinated by NPC assassin.

19/06/2022: Day 72 - Zamzibal finishes resting. Fabio finishes levelling up to level 3 (Conjurer)

Survivors:

Zamzibal the Thief (Cutpurse 3). HP: 17

Fabio the Magic-user (Evoker 2 --> Conjurer 3). HP: ~14 

Graveyard: 

Edward Hallows the Fighter (2)

Samir al-Haid the Cleric (1)

Zarkaos the Assassin (1)

42 heavy foot (sessions 1-3)

5 crossbowmen (session 3)

AD&D Session 3 - Dungeon & Dragon

The player of the paladin decided to condemn his character to the laundry realm as he left his character sheet in the washing. He rolled up a disgustingly offensive chaotic evil dwarf fighter with 3 18's (including 18/93 strength), 1-2 16's and psionics which I had no idea how to run. He was named Edward Hallows after the real world Anglo-Saxon juggernaut. 

He was recruited by Fabio the magic-user and Zamzibal the thief from the first session.

Emboldened by stories of high risk high reward dungeon delving thanks to the party from Session 1, more mercenaries flooded Blackbird where the party was more than happy to spend 2 days recruiting. Deciding to reward their success from the Chainmail battle, I allowed two rolls per day spent searching on the man-at-arms table (DMG p30) to reflect the increase in available mercs. I thought it was a neat way to reward victory and the passage of time, let me know if you disagree.

With 15 heavy foot and 5 crossbowmen, they forayed into the dungeon, with no encounters on the 2 day trek there. I immediately thought of a way to punish such a large expedition.

Luckily, the first random encounter were also dwarves, stumbled upon in the ruined court room where the Chainmail battle took place. Edward smooth-talked some info out of them, namely that there were two stairs down, one going down "at a steeper angle than the other", meaning one goes down one level, the other two levels.

Eventually the circus party reached the 2nd level via an elevator, missing out on some cunningly disguised treasure along the way. They reached a stream 30' wide, which was filled with a "tar coloured substance". The first instinct of the PCs was to stick a lit torch in there, promptly lighting the stream ablaze.

After much deliberation and thanks to a fairly high ceiling, the party used some iron spikes as makeshift steps in a bell curve shape above the fire. It took some time and they were lucky no other monsters arrived, but everyone made it across. After a left 135 degree turn, the stream continued (flowing east-west) but only at 10' wide in this passage. Repeating their procedure, they crossed this one more quickly.

Down the passage a door on the right to a room contained 2 shriekers. As the party set up outside the door, listening, I deemed it impossible that neither shrieker would be unable to hear the ~20 men outside and began shrieking.

I designated this level as a hobgoblin patrol area and sure enough 2d4 = 5, of which 20% (I rolled for each, 2 in this case) had bows. They could only have come from the direction the party was heading and the lights of the PCs were dead giveaways. Two shots later and one dead mercenary later, the hobgoblins got surprise and fled easily. The shriekers continued but were soon cut down.

The party continued down the passage reaching one then two X shaped intersections, eventually reaching a door which they opened. Inside was a very young white dragon's throat, which heard the storm of armour outside and was prepared, breathing damage onto most of the ~20 strong expedition. Google suggested the damage to be equal to HP, so a small (MM 29) very young white dragon (MM 34) did 5 damage per breath and 2 on a successful save. This meant a chunk of heavy foot were dead, the others injured, and the party hurt.

The dragon surprised the party for 2 segments, breathing twice more, leaving two PCs very injured and one critically so, but nonetheless alive and 12 or so heavy foot dead. The remaining mercenaries miserably failed their morale check and fled in a panic, where the hobgoblins were unable to miss the sight or sound of scattered men running away. All were butchered.

White dragons are the leading cause of heart attacks in my campaign.

Initiative was rolled, both sides rolling a 3. The magic-user's magic missile, dwarf's strength, and thief's dagger were enough to fell the dragon but the magic-user dropped to 0 too. Soon stabilised, the party rushed inside and waited for a hobgoblin reaction. None came, assuming the party dead with their man-at-arms.

The magic-user was in a coma for 10 minutes while the party hacked up scales, teeth, the tail, and the horns. In addition, 1000cp and a +2 shield was inside. The dwarf's absurd strength was enough to carry this and the magic-user, albeit at 3". 40 minutes after the dragon's death, the party cautiously left, the magic-user fireman carried by the dwarf. They relied on the dwarf's infravision. The way back to the stream of fire was a perfectly straight southwest-northeast passage. I rolled an encounter as they left and you guessed it, more hobgoblins. Since so much time had passed, only 1d4 = 2 were here, picking up loot from the crossbowmen right next to the stream of fire.

With (un)lucky dice rolls to finish looting, the hobgoblins didn't see the party until they were charged by the desperate Edward and Zamzibal. Rolling for hobgoblin equipment, two shortswords and morning stars meant the dwarf went first. One was cut down while the other reciprocated vs the thief, dropping him to exactly 0, leaving a 1v1. A tense 2 minutes of sparring led to a dwarf victory with 2HP to spare.

Eventually, they escaped, very luckily without meeting any wandering monsters on the first level. Out of the dungeon but into the woods outside, it was 16 hours march to the nearest town. Thanks to STRICT Time Records, it was 2pm outside so around 4 hours of daylight left. The dwarf marched for 4 hours, no encounter, and set up in a tree along with his two companions and their magical loot. Very not chaotic evil...  Anyway some very tense rolls in the open later and the safety of the town was reached.

They decided to sell the +2 shield for 5000gp, which I awarded 1:1 XP as it seemed apt. I only awarded 3:2 XP for the sale of dragon parts because it seemed like a good compromise. Let me know if this seems wrong. Everyone had enough XP to level but only the dwarf had enough money to do so. 16 days were required for everyone to heal to full.

This party will probably gain a reputation for successfully leading only 20% of hires out alive across two delves.

As an aside, the party had to make a fantastic decision I have no doubt Gygax fully intended: Do we sell the +2 shield or keep it? It improves someone's AC by 3 and we get 500 XP, but we could sell it for 5000GP (minus fees) and get 5000/3 = 1667XP each. It was about as much fun to watch the players make this difficult decision as it was to watch them fight the final hobgoblin before their escape. 

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30/04/2022: Day 22 - Party spends two days in Blackbird recruiting 20 mercenaries for re-entering their dungeon.

Day 24 - Party spends 2 days travelling northwest to dungeon. No encounters.

Day 25 - Party enters dungeon, losing all mercs and Fabio the magic-user falls in a coma. 

Day 27 - Edward Hallows drags two PCs and loot to the town of Grove.

21/05/2022: Day 43 - Everyone finishes resting.

Edward Hallows the Fighter (Veteran 1 --> Warrior 2). HP: ?

Zamzibal the Thief (Cutpurse 3 - XP CAPPED). HP: 17

Fabio the Magic-user (Evoker 2 - XP CAPPED). HP: 11 

Graveyard: 

20 heavy foot (pikemen)

Another 7 heavy foot

Samir al-Haid the Cleric

Zarkaos the Assassin

15 heavy foot (this session)

5 crossbowmen (this session)

AD&D Session 2 - Trip to Ikea

The session started with the players deciding to roll up a new party as the thief was still levelling up to level 3. We were playing on a different day than last session so the level-up duration didn't line up like they usually would. We ended up with an assassin, a bard, and a cleric (Samir al-Haid).

They started in a town near Blackbird and were hired to escort a caravan to the main city the next day along with 4 other guards. No encounters along the way, but a city encounter revealed 11 ruffians including 1 level 6 assassin nearby.

A narrow road, split up guards, and surprise led to a couple of dead guards and the party surrounded. Samir al-Haid was killed in the fighting, unable to spread the word of Allah. The assassin and bard made a speedy exit, leaving the caravans to be ransacked.

Samir al-Haid was tragically killed before he could spread his god's word

The two remaining party members decided to find leads elsewhere while the 3rd rolled up a magic-user. The bard did nothing while the assassin tried to find his guild in the city. After 7 days of searching, he found them and was assigned a simple spying mission lasting 8 days. Just barely earning enough to scrape by, the 3 decided to try the dungeon 2 days to the southwest of the city, with around 12 man-at-arms in tow.

A random encounter revealed a small gnoll party of 8 who attempted to quietly pick off the two sentries, but failed. After the gnolls tried to charge the sleeping party, a quick rally despite the lack of armour soon turned the way of the humans, killing all but 2 gnolls and losing 1 man-at-arms

I decided the gnolls would return with a significantly larger band to snuff out the party the next evening, as they camped near the Viking village. It turned out there was another night encounter, and who else could it be but a Viking patrol?

I rolled some dice and the Viking patrol's lights attracted the gnolls, who decided this was probably the party and attacked. 23 gnolls + leader vs 14 Vikings + leader led to a one-sided fight, were not the party nearby. As they barrelled into the back of the gnolls, they managed to kill all but the leader + one. There were casualties, only 4 heavy foot and 1 crossbowman remained.

A reaction roll headed by the group's face, the bard, plus the circumstances meant the Vikings were very pleased to see the party. The party, safe in the Viking village, looked for something to do. It turns out that the Viking chief wanted a tribesman chief nearby dead for previous grievances and commissioned the party to kill him. It had to be at least somewhat discreet, to ensure nominal non-hostile relations could continue. As an aside, one of the 4 heavy foot rolled a 100 on his reaction roll to the Vikings, so he chose to assimilate to the Scandinavian lifestyle and marry one of their women. 

Viking chief Ingvar cares very much for his people.

The party was desperate for something to do so seeing as an assassin was present, I assigned a percentage chance for Ingvar to want the nearest notable NPC, a tribesman chief, dead. After the dice agreed, the party harvested some poison with the help of an undercleric (aka shaman). I really should've made this harder to handle since poison is such a maligned topic in the DMG, requiring special training, time, and payments through the nose. Just like that, the party was off to assassinate a tribesman chief with 3 Viking scouts as guides.

Since the tribesman were in a swampy wetlands area to the northwest of the Viking village, the plan was to light a fire to the west of the tribesman houses at pre-dawn, which were protected by a log palisades. After narrowly avoiding a patrol on their way there, the party got started lighting a fire. Dice indicated another patrol coming (very unlucky) from the west, so the party scattered. The patrol didn't notice any tracks, fortunately.

They decided to try the same from the northwest side, 1-2km from the walls. A fire was soon blazing and the wind declared it moving to the south, potentially threatening the tribe. At the same time, they rushed to the east and the assassin scaled the walls from this direction.

He eventually reached the chief's hut after nearly being caught twice, leaving two corpses. Finally, he entered the chief's house after seeing him leave through the front door. He sprinkled poison into some food he found then got into position above his doorframe and waited about 40 minutes before the chief returned.

As the chief came in, the assassin got a 70 on his d100 so he failed to roll the 35% needed for instant assassination, but managed to hit nonetheless. The following brawl meant the level 5 fighter chief killed the PC, but he was left on 2hp. When he went to go eat a well-earned meal, the resulting poison was enough to finish the job. Over the next 3 days, the party found out about the death and received their reward.

They rested for 5 days then returned to Blackbird, where they nearly got killed by a giant skunk that ambushed them. One useless skunk pelt later, the two surviving PCs reached Blackbird.

Forgot the exact XP and gold. Should keep better track of this stuff.

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Day 15 - Bard, Samir al-Haid (cleric), and Zarkaos (assassin) secure a contract at the town of Grove to escort 3 carts to Blackbird.

Day 16 - The party is ambushed and loses Samir al-Haid (RIP). The assassin begins searching for the assassins guild in Blackbird.

Day 23 - The assassins guild is found and Zarkaos joins, agreeing to give a portion of his earnings relating to assassinations and spying to the guild. He is assigned a simple spying mission.

Day 31 - Zarkaos fails his spying mission (unknown to him) and the party begins travelling southwest.

Day 32 - Ambushed by gnolls

Day 33 - Gnolls return and mistakenly attack Vikings, party flanks and crushes gnolls, earning Viking respect. They rest for 4 days, departing to assassinate on the 5th day of arrival.

Day 38 - The chief is assassinated.

Day 41 - News of the chief's assassination reaches the Vikings and the party, who leave for Blackbird having made new friends.

Day 42 - Ambushed by skunk

Day 43 - Arrive at Blackbird and rest for 5 days.

Day 48 - Rested.

Graveyard: 

20 heavy foot (pikemen)

Another 7 heavy foot

Samir al-Haid the Cleric

Zarkaos the Assassin

About me

 I don't know how to use this site so I'll just post this here.

I started my adventure into D&D when I was around 10 years old. My dad had kept his AD&D books and by chance I saw them when he was cleaning out the garage. Seeing the Easley DMG & PHB was absolutely magical and reserved my interest in the books for the next few years alone (I would think the Easley covers were the original covers for the next ~10 years!). Included with these two books was the Monster Manual (unicorn cover), as well as the Monster Manual 2, Fiend Folio, and Unearthed Arcana. I estimate I read through the core 3 books (PHB, DMG, MM) at least 10 times each from ages 10-16. The other AD&D books were read about 5 times each.

I chose the name STR (Strict Time Records) because it was the rule that stood out the most to young me and coincidentally this rule was making shockwaves throughout the #BrOSR via Jeffrogaxian timekeeping. My pfp the rakshasa was my favourite monster growing up, mostly because of the art.

The core 3 books captivated me like nothing before or since. I just cannot explain it. I read lots of fiction both before and since my discovery, but these stories were not even close to Appendix N (when I got to Appendix N in my initial readings, it occurred to me to read them, but I never did).

I spent the next couple of years dreaming about playing D&D, but being in Australia, the scene was not something I thought my friends would be interested in. By chance I saw a 5e D&D starter set in my then-girlfriend's room, and eventually got a group going with our friends.

I consoomed hours of Grifter Online™ material about worldbuilding, storycrafting and other inane garbage. Eventually, I found the OSR and then via Twitter, the #BrOSR.

I re-read the core 3 AD&D books and listened to what the BrOSR taught. I read Jeffro's Appendix N book, then read many of the books, but the biggest revelation was yet to come.

I managed to pure luck my way into patroning as Elric for Jeffro Johnson's #Trollopulous. No one else had offered to play him and I thought why not? Since I had never actually played AD&D before, I was flying by the seat of my pants. It was here that I was sold on at least trying out AD&D RAW. Travelling to the Cavemen's lair involved waiting real life days and the tensions, suspense, and intrigue was electric. The 1:1 time rules alone fully animated a world I couldn't believe actually took place. A charming coincidence given my chosen name!

As the platonic ideal of a pinhead, I managed to get Elric killed post-haste, which was my most important lesson: Everything you do really matters. The Trollopulous campaign will NEVER be the same thanks to me. And this kind of gaming should not go unattempted by anyone playing modern D&D.

Currently, I am looking to initiate 5e players, most of them redeemable. 

AD&D Session 1 - AD&Chainmail

The session began with 2 hours of character creation. Embarrassing, but it was our first time. Everyone here had only played 5e D&D, except for me who had also tried out some solo dungeon crawling. The party ended up being a paladin (!), magic-user, and a thief. Encumbrance was by far the trickiest thing to wrap our heads around. Almost everything we saw was backwards to what we were used to, which will be a preview of things to come.

The session started with the magic-user on 5 hit points and the paladin & thief on 3 hit points. Ideal!

I'll be honest I was a little eager to get things rolling so after the party was generated, I plopped them in the dungeon, ready to get going. 

Real picture of me

 

Our not-so-main characters entered the dungeon with 3 pikeman and 3 short bowman, managing to blindly sniff their way straight to the main attraction, a secret door at a dead end, opening into a 6000 sq ft U-shaped dilapidated court room, inhabited by some humanoids.

Advancing relatively quietly towards the centre, the group was alerted to a handful of humanoids wielding axes and spears, squealing and charging them. A couple of arrow shots later left 3 monsters standing, checking morale and succeeding, continuing their charge. And simultaneously alerting the camp behind the monsters...

Because their movement was equal to their pursuers, the party reached the door, comfortably set up their pikemen, and nervously waited for the charge. Thanks to my reading of Gygax's Unearthed Arcana, Appendix T: Pole Arms, I masterfully deduced that a pike was longer than a spear without even consulting the book. A true savant.

I forgot to mention that in this edition, orcs were pig-headed, so me mentioning their squealing was not expected.

3 fresh shish kebabs later and the drove of orcs behind the initial charge caught up to our group in the door. Succeeding their morale check, they too politely spring boarded onto the sharpened pikes. Another 5 dead orcs later and the party was sitting pretty, not at all expecting the 2 ogres and 20 orcs which were the 3rd wave. Wisely, they withdrew and closed the secret door. It turned out it was a 1-way entrance and the orcs didn't even know of this door! Well now they did...

Our party went to Blackbird and inquired on their ability to hire mercenaries for an army. I was stunned that we would play out a Chainmail battle in the FIRST SESSION! In order to snatch this opportunity, I told the party they could roll 7x 1d100 (DMG p30) to see the available mercenaries and it would take 1d6 + 1 = 7 days to find them all.

A few lucky results gave something like 80 potential mercs, of which they could afford 20 heavy foot (pikemen) and 10 shortbowmen, the latter of which had 1 serjeant. The paladin could command the 20 footmen, being a level 1 fighter. Because the original 6 mercenaries had time to spread rumours of a small army of monsters, a condition of employment was the promise of 25% of all treasure found in the chamber (remember this wording).

All too fast, they return to the dungeon. They announce their actions: Open the secret door to the megachamber, quickly rush out the footmen and then the archers. The paladin would be on the left half of 10 footmen, the thief on the right half of 10 footmen, and the magic-user between the infantry and archers. Sound idea, lets see how it works.

Well as we found out, how it works is that the orcs also get 7 days to prepare. Being very linear in thought, they would expect enemies to come from the same door they left. Extremely correct. As such, a huge boulder was placed above and after the secret door, ready to be released on any intruders. Which is what happened, resulting in ~7 pancaked pikemen, all from the right half.

No time to waste! The paladin shouted orders to continue and thankfully with his +30% from charisma, managed to get the army into position. The orcs were arranged similarly, two stands of 10 orcs each, with an ogre on each wing. Roll for initiative!

Disclaimer: I was relying on my memory for the Chainmail rules. The only thing I really forgot was the morale rules, which I improvised by using the AD&D morale rules. Oh well.

So this was it. A real Chainmail battle, fought on session 1, on a table, with figures, all completely randomly generated! The humans won initiative, finalised preparations and mostly just prepared for a charge. Which was wise, as the orcs' blood was up and although many died from those pikes, pig-instinct demands revenge. Arrows rained in from the shortbowmen as the orcs charged. What were these animals thinking?

The dice explained that the orcs somehow squeezed through most pikes, annihilating the rest of the human's right flank, leaving the thief alone. To be fair to the thief, there wasn't much backstabbing to be done in this situation. Because this was such a small scale, I allowed some light casualties from a charge into 15' pikes, around ~2 in this turn. The human's left flank matched the orcish right, so I ruled ~3 casualties on each side.

I decided to 'zoom in' on PCs, who would be singled out by the ogres. Now, the ogre on the left swung and missed at the thief and the ogre on the right copied his buddy vs the paladin.

A couple more turns resulted in the human's entire footmen unit being wiped out, leaving around 7 or so orcs on the right. Smart positioning launched arrows into the left orcs' side while the infantry was engaged, so only the orcs' right wing remained. The left ogre also fell under the arrows, having only 13HP. The orc's right flank finally succumbed to arrows, leaving the right ogre (24 HP) vs 3PCs and 10 shortbowmen who couldnt shoot into melee. 

A couple more rounds left the thief and magic-user on -1 and 0, both from the same hit, which I interpreted as bleeding out. The paladin cinematically launched his goedendag at the ogre, killing it.

All orc women and children in the camp were slaughtered (no XP or treasure from them)

Treasure in the chamber amounted to:

- 1000 cp

- 1000 sp

- 2750 ep

- 390 gp

For a total of 1820gp worth of treasure. XP for the 30 orcs + 2 ogres was 600 or so.

After some more exploring, the party quickly found the idol room, a 20 metre tall statue of Ghetrug One-Eye. A quick desecreation and some more exploration later (STILL no random encounters) landed them in the treasure room of the orcs:

- 5238 ep

- 48000 cp

- 3000 sp

- 100 gp

- 1x gold tiara with gems worth 5000gp

- 1x Potion of Fire Resistance (immediately & foolishly fully imbibed, so no gp and no XP for it)

- 1x Potion of Speed (not identified)

Total value: 3104gp + 5000gp tiara + potion

At this point the 10 archers were still with the party. The serjeant shrewdly set aside 25% for his men, ignoring the fact that this wasn't in the chamber and swiping much gold from the party #EliteLevelGoblining. I still counted all the found gold as XP, but they only pocketed 75% of it. Of the above loot piles, the party made off with something like 2500gp + the tiara + the potion.

All of this was sold in Blackbird, causing immediate notoriety. XP was 3053 each, the paladin got +10% because of his 17 strength. Just barely, everyone could level once, and the thief had enough XP from this adventure to reach level 3! A successful level up means the players named their characters. A stellar session. Took around 6 hours total.

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9/04/2022: Day 1 - Initial foray into the dungeon. Found 30 orcs + 2 ogres. Killed 10 orcs. Escaped.

Day 8 - Returned to dungeon with 30 mercenaries. 20 of which were killed in along with 20 orcs and 2 ogres. A lot of treasure.

Day 15 - Paladin and magic-user will finish training (level 2)

Day 22 - Thief finishes training (level 3)

Uther the Paladin (Gallant 1 --> Keeper 2). HP: 16

Zamzibal the Thief (Rogue 1 --> Footpad 2 --> Cutpurse 3) HP: 17

Fabio the Magic-user (Prestidigitator 1 --> Evoker 2) HP: 11

Graveyard:

20 heavy foot (pikemen)

Creation of Blackbird

An outline on how I randomly created Blackbird

All sources are first edition AD&D books.

 

The only major place I manually placed at the start was the main city of Blackbird, which shares its name with the setting, and 4-6km of quality farmlands around it (a big city needs to eat). Everything else you will see has been randomly generated: castles and settlements, terrain, owners of castles, their henchman, their equipment, alignment, and so forth.

 

I treated the generation as random wilderness exploration (DMG p173), as if there was an expedition mapping everything. Each hex initially equalled 4km, but this was just for determining initial major factions, the later map would be zoomed in at 1 hex = 2km.

 

Beginning at 6km north of Blackbird (BB), I went clockwise until a full circle was completed and I arrived at that starting hex again. I would then go one hex north and repeat the process. I did this 2-3 times and generated 5 castles, 3 village or smaller settlements, 1 city, and the terrain between it. This entire process took 3-4 hours but would probably take around 2 hours if you were familiar with it.

 

Procedure:

1.   Determine type of terrain from departed hex to new hex

a.    If there was only one terrain adjacent to the new hex, that would be the type of terrain considered when rolling on p173.

b.    If there was more than one type of terrain adjacent to the new hex, I would assign equal chances to come from each type. E.g. If an unexplored hex was bordered by 1 plain and 1 marsh hex, there would be a 50/50 chance of rolling on either the plain or marsh column of the table on p173.*

2.   Determine which subset of terrain types the new terrain would fall into. On p173 the plains terrain is broken down into tundra, steppe, savana, prairie, heath, moor, downs, meadow.**

a.    Because this is an agriculturally rich part of the world, I included a 1 in 6 chance of the plains hex being fertile farmlands (not a part of the DMG rules)

3.   Check for habitation (p173) and possibly population

a.    If castle indicated, go to p182, determining size & type, inhabitants, leader, henchmen (if character-types), alignment of leader (and therefore henchmen), equipment of leader and henchmen, type of followers (IF fighter, cleric, or ranger via DMG p16)

4.   Repeat

 

* I did this because it would remove bias of “coming” from a hex I’m not really travelling from, I’m just generating terrain.

** Because this part of the world is set in a Mediterranean climate, I did not use incompatible results like savanna or tundra.

 

Example of a randomly generated castle:

Ø  Castle Neocn (CN). Depression terrain. Medium size, small walled castle with keep. Inhabited by character-types. Fighter, level 10, LG. 4 henchmen: 3 x Fighter level 6, Paladin level 6. Since a paladin is a henchman, the lord of the castle is a noble (PHB p24). Leader of the Lord’s troops is a level 5 fighter with plate & shield, +2 battle axe. Followers are 80 heavy infantry. 20 with splint, 60 with leather. 20 with morning star and hand axe, 60 with pike and short sword. Castle has 2 scorpions, 2 catapults, 5 oil cauldrons. Castle garrison is 11 heavy horsemen, 9 light horsemen, 14 men-at-arms, 10 men-at-arms plus 1 leader per detachment. (DMG p183)

o   The Lord has: 1 x potion of fire resistance and 1 x of speed. 1 x scroll of Protection from Magic. 1 x crossbow of speed, +2 hammer. 1 x splint mail +4. 1 x robe of blending.

 

Now that I had a map of the area, I decided I wasn’t satisfied with it as it was and added more distance between BB and the castles and city nearby.

Unlike the castles, I didn’t purely randomly generate the inhabitants of the city. While I did get a result of a city in a marsh, I decided trolls would be an apt fit and christened their bombsite of a city as Mossmouth (M), a rickety place barely safer than Detroit. For fun, I decided they would coexist passably with other explicitly evil creatures like hobgoblins, orcs, a few ogres and ghouls (from Fritz Leiber’s Nehwon).

 

First draft:

 

Ignore the river.

 

Slightly curated version:

  

I intend for all blank spaces to be explored by players when they pass through the hex.

 

I only named inhabitations of towns or cities (>1500 people). Those with less are assigned numbers.

 

If anyone has any questions, comments, or corrections just send me a message on here or https://twitter.com/StrictTimeRcrds.