So we made the switch from AD&D 1e to Blood & Treasure after deciding to add a once-a-month dungeon delve to our Monday Night Gaming Group, with me as GM/DM/TK/LL/CK/Ref. You can read my notes from the first session here. If we were playing every week, I might have been tempted to try GURPS Dungeon Fantasy but that seemed like a lot of work for 3 hours/month of playing (as I am a GURPS newbie, which would mean lots of additional prep). Anyway, I digress.
The Cast
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, 1 Lvl Hunter): Tim
Duncan Kern (Gnome, 1 Lvl Illusionist/Thief): Dan
Leif (Half-Elf, 1 Lvl Mage/Cleric/Trickster): Josh
Spensol (Human, Soldier 1 Lvl Fighter): NPC
Ian (Human, Soldier 1 Lvl Fighter): NPC
Diana (Human): NPC
The Session
The brave adventurers had just finished killing a black floating amoeba type creature plus three orcs. They found a young woman, about 20 years old, lying on the floor in a catatonic state (Room #1 on the map above). After several unsuccessful attempts to revive the woman, Leif scooped up some of the cytoplasmic goo from the floating amoeba and wiped it on the woman. Much to the surprise of everyone (including me), the woman stirred and then slowly came to her senses (I gave this a 1 in 6 chance of working and then rolled a "1").
The woman's name turned out to be Diana. She remembered very little of her ordeal, only that she and some others were taken captive by a band of orcs. She had no recollection of being brought underground and had no useful knowledge regarding the orcs or the rest of the human captives. The player characters tried in vain to convince Diana to return to the surface, where she could wait with a few members of the adventuring party who were guarding the horses. She was unwilling to wander the dungeon alone so she the group assigned her the role of torch bearer.
The party then left Room #1, passed through Room #2, and encountered two orcs standing guard near the east end of #3. The orcs charged and were quickly dispatched. Leif discovered a trap attached to the door to the east--he was able to disarm a weighted axe designed to chop into the chest of the unwary.
After disarming the trap, the party continued east through the door to the statue in area #4. They checked the approach to the statue for traps and found a trigger in the floor. Upon closer examination, they discovered that the statue (made of bronze) had a lot of discoloration around the nose and the nostrils were actually openings of some kind. They guessed that the statue discharged acid or gas and that it was connected to the trigger in the floor.
The party moved north into Room #5 and surprised a group of giant rats who were feeding on the almost skeletal remains of two kobolds. The rats were put to sleep, dispatched to Cheese Factory in the Sky, and the kobold remains were searched.
The group continued north into an east-west corridor (area #8). They first opened the door into a small 10' x 10' room with two stone chairs against the far wall. Each chair had a hole in the seat with a ceramic bowl on the floor below it. They had little chance to ponder the potty chairs as there were two animated skeletons in the room.
The fight with the skeletons turned out to be the party's toughest encounter so far on this adventure. Rather than attempt to turn the skeletons, the party figured that they would make quick work of two skeletons. Because of the small space, the party couldn't go "all in" and so it was an even match. While the skeleton attacks were non-lethal, the party had no luck even striking the skeletons. Leif was able to toss a net over one of the skeletons, giving the party tactical advantage (-2 to the skeleton's armor class and attack role). The skeletons were finally dispatched.
The party then turned their attention to the door on the north wall. No traps were discovered and Adzeer opened the door, only to have a bolt zip by him and stick into the door on the south wall. A close call, meriting quick glare from Adzeer towards Leif and Duncan, the trap removal guys.
The room (Room #7) had a remnants of wooden barrels and crates, plus a small iron chest. Leif checked for traps and found a trap trigger but was unable to disarm it. He picked the lock and carefully opening the trap. His caution rewarded him with a near miss from a small dart. The box contained 5 rolls of silk. The bottom and top roll had some rust damage, but were partially salvaged. The middle three rolls were in great shape.
While searching for a false bottom in the box, a group of jinomes entered the room and surprised the characters. Jinomes are undead gnomes, with the ability to weaken their opponents through hideous songs and crazy laughter. Immediately, they got the jump on the party, paying particular attention to Duncan (the party's gnome). Recognizing the peril and fighting back his desire to destroy the jinomes in combat, Adzeer opted to turn the jinomes. His supplications were answered and the jinomes scurried from the room.
Leif went back to the iron chest, found a false bottom, and uncovered 10 silver bars. The party then prepared for the jinomes return, with Leif littering the floor in corridor (area #8) with caltrops.
Sure enough, as predicted, the jinomes returned and failed to notice the caltrops. The caltrops took their tool, which allowed the party to make quick work of them. This is where the session ended for the evening.
We had a late start and an early finish, but the party was able to do a bit of exploration this session. They only discovered two orcs and they failed to find any more humans, so they have a lot of work left to do.
Check out Tim's post on this session.
