Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 8 Notes

Map A (1 square = 5 feet)

The Cast
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, 2 Lvl Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Duncan Kern (Gnome, 1 Lvl Wizard/Thief): Dan
Dante Rathburn (Human, 1 Lvl Warlock): Bard (The Clash of Spear on Shield)
Larramore “Little Larry” (Kobold, 1 lvl Marksman): NPC
Diana (Human, Torch Bearer, Goat Driver): NPC
3 cave goats

The Session
Session 8 began with the brave adventurers in Room 1 (Map A above). They had just killed two tall scary humanoids, both armed with halberds, and their hooded companion at the end of Session 7. There were also four cowering naked humanoids, chained together and cowering in the corner.

The party tried to converse with the chained up group but it only frightened them further, leading to lots of babbling and squealing. The party discussed whether or not they should lead these pathetic creatures to the surface and let them go, but then decided that they would die for sure. In the end, the party unchained the four, left them with some food and water, and headed out of the room.

They went across the hall and explored Room 2 (Map A above) and found a few small treasure items buried in the debris on the floor. Then they went west to Area 3 on the map. There was a portcullis in the corridor but it was raised so they were able to head north. The corridor sloped downward and a curious wide shallow groove had been worn in the floor. There was some concern that this was the sign of a trap but Duncan was able to discern that it looked like an area where barrels were rolled along the floor.

As they turned the corner into Area 4 (Map A above), they heard a metallic thud behind them and concluded (correctly) that the portcullis had dropped. And, more importantly, they were face to face with 3 ghouls. A Web spell, lots of oil, and a torch made for quick work with the ghouls. The party also found a lever in the wall in Area 4 that raised and lowered the two nearby portcullises (Areas 3 and 5 on Map A above). One portcullis is raised while the other is lowered.

The party moved on and explored a few small unexplored corridors, which eventually led them to Room 6 (Map A above). The room had a pool in the middle, with a thick column at each corner of the pool to support the ceiling. The water looked to be about 10 feet deep and was crystal clear. At the bottom, the group could see a shiny object. The temptation was apparently too much for Duncan and he did a little gnome cannonball into the pool. At this point, the group remember Duncan's affinity for jumping into things (in Session 1 he famously stated "I'm a gnome, I wanna go in the hole"). Lots of laughs all around.

As soon as he jumped into the pool, three water elementals formed on the pool's surface and the party's laughter was cut short. Dante was able to fish Duncan out of the pool before the elementals fully formed. There were three water elementals...two small ones and one that was a little bigger. A fierce battle ensued and, after a fair amount of swinging and missing (plus some poorly tossed daggers), the party finally prevailed. Duncan, on hunch, decided to inspect the columns and was rewarded for his efforts. He found a small compartment in one of the columns. There was a some gold and silver tucked away, along with a Cloak of Protection.

Duncan dove into the pool once again and was rewarded with a shiny key. Using the key, the adventurers unlocked the iron-bound door on the west wall of the room. Heading west from there through a narrow corridor (Area 7 on Map A above), the party found a secret door that provided access into a large cavern (Area 8 on Map A above). There they encountered four giant ants (3 workers and 1 warrior). The workers were stacking some sort of cube-shaped stuff into piles. The party didn't have much time to take it in as the ants were intent on defending their territory.

The ensuing melee saw Little Larry going down for the count. Dante and Adzeer also critically failed and each of them had their weapons slip from their hands in mid-swing. Adzeer's mace sailed off towards Area 9 (on the above map) and Dante's battleaxe spun off into Area 10. Once the battle started to turn in the party's favor,* Adzeer rushed over to Little Larry and poured a healing draught down his throat. Duncan and Dante finished off the four ants.

Adzeer walked a bit west to get his mace while Dante went north to get his battleaxe. They were set upon by more ants. Dante went down but Little Larry rushed to his aid to keep the two worker ants off him. Duncan cast a Color Spray on the three ants that attacked Adzeer, knocking out two (workers) and blinding the third (a warrior). Duncan and Adzeer quickly finished them off then went over to rescue Dante. They made quick work of the two ants and used one of their last healing draughts on Dante.

They explored the room a bit further and found that there were piles of cubed material all around the room. The cubes were about 1' on a side and turned out to be pieces of giant mushrooms. We ended the session at this point. The map below (Map B) displays the area explored so far.

Map B (1 square = 5 feet)

Elf, a Haiku (Haiku 11)

pointy ear pansies...
prance under moon with bow and sword;
dancing with the stars

Awarding Experience in My Montporte Dungeon Campaign

My Montporte Dungeon campaign started out as a one-shot, using a dungeon that I had started creating a few years ago with something different in mind. The groovy thing is that the repurposing of the dungeon worked and we are now adding some Montporte sessions in between Rob's (Bat in the Attic) Majestic Wilderland's GURPS campaign. However, I still playing catch up with things like basic house rules and a lot of setting creation stuff. I actually think the campaign is going well because I didn't prepare much in advance. Even so, I have to catch up on a few things, including how I award experience points.

We started with AD&D 1e and then switched to Blood & Treasure, but I have continued to use a simplified version of the AD&D 1e experience award rules (such as they are). I want to modify that approach a bit, using the following thoughts:

• Experience points awards will be given equally to each party member who is part of that session, although I will prorate things if people come in late or cut out early.
• Experience points will be based solely on what happens in play and not on the experience level of the character. In other words, first level characters and third level characters will get the same x.p. in a given session.
• The number and involvement of NPCs will not affect the amount of experience awarded to player characters.
• Dungeon play is based on exploration, encounters, and extraction. Therefore experience points will be awarded in all three areas.

I want to expand on that last point. Experience points will be awarded in three different categories:

• Exploration: X.p. for finding new rooms, new areas, and new levels. X.p. will also be awarded for finding hidden objects, compartments, secret doors, etc.
• Encounters: X.p. awarded for killing opponents, overcoming opponents, wooing or gaining info from important NPCs, solving puzzles, opening locks, removing or avoiding traps, etc.
• Extraction: X.p. for currency, items with tangible value (including livestock, pets, etc), profit from trade and transactions, magic items, etc.

Even as I wanted to expand things for which I am awarding experience, I wanted to avoid some things as well:

• Awarding experience based on individual player role-playing and other things that put me in the position of making excessively subjective judgments. 
• Giving out individualized experience awards, based on what individual characters do. This seems like a lot of bookkeeping for me and possibly punitive for guys in our group, depending on their character classes and ability.
• Too slow or too speedy of a pace for level advancement.
• Rewarding only killing and taking. Not that it isn't rewarded, but it is not the only thing rewarded.

I will post more details after I test this out. There is nothing radical here. I mainly wanted to ensure that player characters get experience for all aspects of dungeon play.

Awarding Experience

In the earlier editions of D&D--and the current retroclones/simularica--the management and attrition of hit points are the core element of the game (more about that in a later post). The ability to avoid, withstand, and inflict hit point damage forms the most fundamental aspect of the game.

A key facet of hit point attrition is the ability to increase one's own hit points and also increase the ability to inflict hit point damage. This, of course, is done through moving up in experience levels. This, in turn, is the resulting of gaining or earning experience points through play.

Giving the importance of awarding experience, I am baffled at the lack of attention this gets in the many rule sets. When I was playing Castles & Crusades, I was at a loss as to how to award experience. Well, not really at a loss, I just used my systems from my AD&D 1e days. When I started using Blood & Treasure, I discovered that the guidelines for awarding experience were not included . While that is a publishing gaffe, I have been using the x.p. awards for monsters overcome plus 1 x.p. per gold piece of treasure (nothing for magic items). I plan on tweaking that as my first "official" house rule for the Montporte Dungeon campaign.

Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 7 Notes

The Cast
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, 1 Lvl Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Duncan Kern (Gnome 1 lvl Wizard/Thief): Dan
Leif (Half-Elf, 1 Lvl Mage/Cleric/Trickster): Josh
Luven Lightfingers (Human, 1 Lvl Thief): Rob (Bat in the Attic)
Larramore “Little Larry” (Kobold, 1 lvl Marksman): NPC
Diana (Human, Torch Bearer, Goat Driver): NPC
3 cave goats

The Session
The last session, Session 6, ended with the party climbing out of a narrow tunnel into Room 1 (above on map) via a trap door in the floor. The adventurers, battered from their encounter with the gibbering mouther, decided to spike the door shut, lay out some caltrops, and take some time to rest and heal up. Their rest was briefly interrupted by some scratching at the door, but otherwise their time in the room was quiet.

The party moved south out of the room and found themselves in an east-west corridor. They opened the door on the south wall and found a room with the rotted remnants of some wood crates, three much newer barrels, and four giant centipedes (Room 2 on the above map). The centipedes were quickly dispatched with flaming arrows and a few arrows. The party suffered a serious mishap when Little Larry accidentally shot an arrow into the middle of Adzeer's back, but the centipedes themselves did no damage. Adzeer healed himself after the battle.

The three barrels bore the marks of the Montporte trading guild. One was still sealed...it contained an odd mix of salted meat (still quite edible) and rough cloth. The other two barrels had been opened, with the lids just laying on them. One contained an assortment of rotted kobold body parts. The other contained a collection of peasant clothing.

The adventurers moved back into the corridor, headed west, and found an orc corpse (Area 3 on the map above). The body was badly decomposed but the rib cage and skull looked like they had exploded outward. The floor, wall and ceiling were stained by an enormous amount of blood...far more than should have come from one orc.

While part of the group was looking at the orc body, Luven went further west and found that the corridor turned north. He found a portcullis similar to the one that had blocked the party at the beginning of Session 6, only this one had already been raised (Area 4 on the above map). Luven could see that the corridor sloped downward as it headed off to the north (Area 5 on the above map).

After finishing their examination of the dead orc, the party attempted to go into the door on the south wall (Room 6 above). Duncan found and disarmed a trap on the door. He then listened at the door, but heard nothing. When Adzeer tried the door, he found that it wouldn't budge. The door didn't open, even with a fair amount of banging and shoving. They decided to dismantle the door hinges, which allowed them to break loose the door from where it was spiked to the frame.

Room 6 contained two large human-like guys, each about seven feet tall, armed with halberds. Behind them stood a slightly smaller guy in a black robe and hood. There were also four naked humans, chained together and cowering n the corner.

The guy in the black hood shouted, "Did the elf send you to get us?" The two brutes with the halberds then attacked. Duncan had the jump on everyone and cast a Color Spray, knocking out the two guys with halberds and blinding the hoodie guy. As he staggered back, the rest Adzeer and Luven attacked him. Leif slit the throats of the two unconscious guys. Little Larry and Duncan slid to the west in order to shoot arrows from the flank. Blind and overwhelmed, the hooded guy never had a chance. As he fell to the ground, mortally wounded, his hood fell back and the party was able to see his bug-eyed but otherwise human-like visage.

In searching the bodies, the party found some gold and silver. More importantly, they found a magic dagger and a magic ring. The dagger, the Blade of Ung, is a +1 dagger that can also do an additional 1d6 of electrical damage (once per day). Using the Lens of Melnar, the group discovered that the ring had an evil aura. It also has the ability to create an incredible amount of water inside a living being...typically causing that creature to explode outward from the pressure. This explained the orc corpse in the hallway.

This is where the session ended for the night.

The Montporte Dungeon (so far)
The "U" symbols represent corridors and doors leading to unexplored areas.

Monday Moodsetter 20

By Ming Fan

RPG Rorschach: What is the first gaming thought that pops into your head?

Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 6 Notes

I haven't had much of a chance to blog...work has been crazy (we are rolling out a merger which, thankfully, doesn't involve job losses but it involves job changes plus working with hundreds of staff, clients, and thousands of donors, but I digress). I have 4 sessions of gaming to blog about--3 Majestic Wilderlands GURPS sessions and 1 Montporte Dungeon session. Today's post will cover the short Montporte Dungeon session we had on Monday night (using Blood & Treasure).

Cast of Characters
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, 1 Lvl Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Duncan Kern (Gnome 1 lvl Wizard/Thief): Dan
Leif (Half-Elf, 1 Lvl Mage/Cleric/Trickster): Josh
Larramore “Little Larry” (Kobold, 1 lvl Marksman): NPC
Diana (Human, Torch Bearer, Goat Driver): NPC
3 cave goats

Map A (1 square = 5 feet)

The Session
At the end of Session 5, the brave adventurers had just finished off a group of giant rats (Room 1 on Map A above). The room looked like a kitchen. The corridor heading south out of the westernmost part of the south wall sloped downward, possibly promising access to a lower level. Unfortunately, the way was blocked by a very heavy portcullis. They continued to search for a way to open the portcullis, a search that had started in the previous session. Not finding a mechanism, they opted for brute strength, using a crowbar as a lever under the lowest portcullis crossbar. The portcullis budged but then stopped, as if it were locked in place or stuck.

Just as the party was giving up on the portcullis, two skeletons wandered into the room from the east. Little Larry and Adzeer quickly dispatched them. Adzeer then went east himself to make sure there was nothing else more dangerous behind them.

The party decided to move north out of the room. Duncan checked for traps on the door and, detecting nothing, moved aside so that Adzeer could open the door. A heavy stone swung from the ceiling on the other side of the door, but the rope snapped before the stone could do any damage. Based on the condition of the rope, the trap had been placed there quite a while ago.

Adzeer and Duncan moved north into the room (Room 2 on Map A above). There was a large sudsy puddle on the floor and Adzeer and Duncan were both overwhelmed with the stench of stale beer. Both became nauseous and struggled to draw their weapons. Adzeer noticed that the puddle was moving and rolled the large stone (from the door trap) into the room and through the puddle.

The puddle struck back at the stone and the party was confronted by two beer oozes. Adzeer and Duncan attacked but were hindered by nausea and weakness. Despite their condition, they were able to overcome the beer oozes, thanks in part to the initial damage done by Adzeer's bowling with the stone.

The room was filled with barrels, many of them rotted and broken. They did find a small bar of silver (worth 50 silver pieces) in one of the intact barrels. The barrels were otherwise empty. Of more interest was the door in the floor in the northeast corner of the room.

Adzeer lifted the door and could see a small 3' wide shaft descending down about 25 feet. Small metal rungs had been installed, which beckoned the party to descend. At the bottom of the shaft, the party found themselves at the north end of a narrow passage that headed due south (Area 3 on Map B below). The group discovered just how dexterous cave goats can be, as they descended down the rungs with no difficulty.

Map B (1 square = 5 feet)

The party moved south, noticing that the floor was slimy and covered with all sorts of rotting refuse and bones. As they continued south, the slime on the floor turned to mud then muck then a putrid pool. Duncan opted to take the lead by riding a goat into the water. The floor had a very shallow slope, creating a very shallow pool as a result.

As Duncan led the party south, he noticed a slimy brown pile of refuse about 3' tall, almost completely blocking their path (Area 4 on Map B above). He decided to shoot an arrow at it. The arrow glanced off the pile, doing no apparent harm. The pile, however, was not happy. Opening its many eyes and many mouths, it let loose with horrible gibbering sounds. Yikes! A gibbering mouther!

The gibbering din left Duncan and Little Larry confused and standing in a daze. Worse, Duncan's goat was also affected and, becoming enraged, started bucking to throw Duncan off. Adzeer rushed forward to attack. By the end of second round of combat, Adzeer had done no damage and had three mouths attached to him. The gibbering mouther was about to pull Adzeer down into the water when Duncan and Little Larry snapped out of their stupor.

Duncan let loose with a Color Spray. The spell left the gibbering mouther blind and stunned. Diana rushed forward with oil and a torch. The resultant fire severely damaged the creature and snapping it out of its stunned state. The gibbering mouther began to move north up the corridor, still blind but very much alive. A well-placed arrow by Little Larry and a Magic Missile from Lief finished off the scorched monster.

The Color Spray left Adzeer unconscious. After recovering his wits, Adzeer searched the muck around the corpse of the gibbering mouther. He stirred the water and mud with a spear butt and turned up a ring (still on the finger bone) and something that looked like a pane of glass. A Detect Magic and the Lens of Melnar identified the ring as the Ring of Elsot, a +1 protectiveness ring (+2 versus elementals) that also gives the bearer the ability to see up to 40' in total darkness (including darkness spells).

The mysterious "pane of glass."

The "pane of glass" was another story. A Detect Magic revealed only that the object possessed a very bizarre form of magic and the Lens of Melnar gave no additional information. The object looked like it was made of glass, as it was transparent, but it was lighter in weight. It felt like a small piece of wood (it was about 3" x 5" in size). It had three silvery disks embedded in it. On closer examination, each disk looked like it had considerable depth to it, despite being embedded in a 1/4" thick object.

Not finding a quick answer to the problem of the mysterious object, the party opted to move south and found themselves on dry land at the south end of the corridor (Area 5 on Map B above). There, they found another set of rungs and a shaft leading upward to another door. This door was on the floor of another room (Room 6 on Map C below).

Map C (1 square = 5 feet)

Conclusion
We ended the session at this point, with the adventurers entering the room via a door in its floor. The map below (Map D) shows the the starting point for the session (Room 1) and where it ended (Room 6).

Map D (1 square = 5 feet)