Session 3: Team Burghast and the Return of the Cabbage man

  

what do these do?

Welcome to session 3.

This session was played on 23/Sep/2021 and the PCs adventured for 1 day.

Session Report

Three players available for session three: Clyde Foot the Dubiously Strong (Half-Elf Fighter) and Dorf, just Dorf (Human fighter), and a new player: Kevin the 53rd (Dwarf Thief)

Between sessions Dorf and Clyde had spent their down time on their side jobs which incidentally turned up the following information;

• Fishermen travel by cart daily from Castleport to Lake Vostorn to fish in boats there. At the south western tip of the Lake, the south eastern edger of Briar Village, is a tavern they use called the Carp'eel Tunnel

• 2 Travellers paid for a room at The Badger and Serpent for a whole week and asked not to be disturbed. Fineli has not seen them since; but he knows they are still there since he slides a tray of meagre food under the door for them daily, which he finds later slid back empty.

• The Mercenaries Guild in the Old Quarter brokers contracts for well paying jobs that are posted by the city's luminaries.

Downtime Happenings

• Arlina's condition remained unchanged. Sometimes she tries to get up and walk out of the infirmary. Arlia spends most days and nights by her side.

• While fixing tiles on the church roof, Clyde overheard a group of adventurers; two wizards and two fighters, come and ask questions of Thomias. It seems they had heard of the PC party's exploits and have also explored below Briar Mansion, or intend to.

• The four farmers, cousins of Farmer Giles, thanked the party for finding his wife and daughter and explained that they must now return to their farms.

• The four adventurers who the party rescued in session 2, who had now recuperated in the Church infirmary, offered to serve as henchmen.

Recent Happenings

• Father Thomias and Arlia have been unable to do anything about Arlina's condition. Thomias thinks there is some evil force, still in the labyrinth under the ruins of Briar Mansion, that is influencing the amulet and through it, Arlina. He thinks if the thing is destroyed, she might be freed of its influence. He gives the party a vial of holy water for this purpose. Arlia is prepared to brave the dungeon once again to help her sister.

The players decided to continue exploring under Briar Mansion and take on the new henchmen; but, although they had weapons and shields, they had no armour for the new guys. Also, the party had two potions they wanted to identify, so they decided to spend the start of the day in the busy streets of Castleport, to deal with both of these issues.

This time they were recognised at the Eastern Gate by the sergeant there, who greeted them as "The party who had solved the case of the recent kidnappings in Briar Village." Fame, of a kind, at last! (yet, had they really solved it?)

They navigated the now more familiar streets of the East Quarter of the low city, and had a random encounter with a lost girl, Jenny, who asked to be taken to the nearest watch tower; but, after they accepted this and neared the inner gate, she ran off into a dark alley. The PCs are still very wary of the alleys in Castleport, as they should be, and so did not pursue.

They managed to remember the location of Alchemy to go on Eye of Newt St and returned to the shop and its proprietor, Myzarn, without getting lost. He offered to identify the two potions the party had obtained in session two; but, with a bit of a twist. He offered 50gp per potion, or, if they sold him the blue cloudy one for 300gp, he would identify both for free. The party was leery of this arrangement and ended up haggling for identifying both for 50gp. What they had was a Potion of Healing and a Potion of Water Breathing ("Not much use in a dungeon", Myzarn opined. Though what he wanted it for he did not say). When they went to pay Clyde realised he was missing 20gp!

Now, following Myzarn's directions, they made their way to the low city emporium to upgrade their armour and get additional armour for their new henchmen. Just as they had the stalls in sight two wagons, loaded with produce, collided, and (randomly, I swear) it was the the cabbage man again!

After this they spent freely from their recent earnings and then returned to Briar after spending half a day on this side trip again this session, and began to rustle up their supporters.

The new Henchmen looked impressive in their metal armour, more impressive than the farmers had in any case.

They climbed back up the hill and went down the stairwell, using much the same marching order as last session. Everything seemed to be the same as when they had last visited, the large entrance chamber filled with stone pillars and lit by a magic fire in the mouth of a giant toad statue, a rat skittered away from them as they entered. 

This time the party chose to search the room at the end of a short corridor to the north. They found the door to be quite stuck, and even the dubiously strong Clyde foot could barely get it to budge (due entirely to bad rolls). But the noise invited a random encounter check and I rolled a 6! 

Who wouldn't want these guys on their side?

NPC Party! Now, having followed the advice of BDubs to roll a few random encounters in advance, I had already rolled these guys the other day. They were 2 Mages, 2 Fighters, and 4 Henchmen. Additionally, I'd rolled to see if they were in the dungeon today, or somewhere else. They were in the dungeon and had come to investigate the noise the party was making trying to open the stuck door. 

The party were very dubious about this turn of events, and somewhat jealous of the superior equipment in evidence; but, after being assured by Arlia that these were good guys, who Father Thomias vouched for, the PCs happily accepted their support. The party chose to communicate only with the leader, Burghast. Team Burghast made a formidable rear guard.

Resuming their exploration the party found the room behind the stuck door to be full of dust and silk-like strands, running from wall to wall, which disappeared into the high ceiling. They heedlessly explored anyway and soon had a Giant Spider in their laps or, I should say, on one of their new henchman's neck. Before they could do much of anything the poor guy had succumbed to poison and the spider attempted to lift him back up into the rafters. The was not going to happen on Clyde's watch though and he cut the arachnid down before it could get away. Alas, the henchman, whose name they had not gotten around to finding out, was dead.

Watch out Henchman One!

The PCs felt that this turn of events was not a good look for their new companions, who pretended not to notice as they decided to leave their now former henchman where he was and get his body on the way out. 

They returned to the main hall and exited via the eastern door and found themselves in a series of corridors. They rounded a corner and inexplicably decided to spend 30 in game minutes checking three consecutive ten foot sections of corridor for traps. I think this sort of thing can happen when you suddenly have a Thief in the party. They found no traps; but, all at once, the half-elf thought he found a secret door to the north and spotted goblins skulking just around the corner to the south.

Ignoring the secret door they charged into the room with goblin warriors and one shaman and routed them with missile weapons before the enemy knew what was happening. Immediately, the survivors turned and started slapping at a mosaic image of a dancing girl which was on the wall in the south of the room, and soon the wall pivoted like something out of scooby do. The remaining 4 goblins ran through the doorway, with the 2 wounded ones bringing up the rear.

The chase was on and the party piled through the secret door before it could close. They found themselves in a large room that their torches could not illuminate the entirety of. The section they could see was dominated by an ornate marble staircase going down into darkness, while on the western wall was a set of double doors and on the opposite side in the eastern wall was a corridor; one goblin could be seen going that way. They turned that poor goblin into a pin cushion with their ranged weapons and then ran up to its position and charged into the corridor. The other wounded goblin could be see rounding a corner going north again and he too became a pin cushion. They kept going and found around the next corner the last two fleeing goblins standing in front of a door and practically daring the PCs to come and get them; which they did, but only after they filled them with arrows and crossbow bolts.

The party advanced in single file to examine their front, relying on the NPC party to keep an eye on their rear. Kevin the 53rd lightly slid forward down the corridor, followed by the heavier step of Clyde which set off the pit trap the wily goblins had been leading them towards and whose plan was, posthumously, successful. I swear I heard Kevin chuckle.

Not for the first time, Clyde found himself down to 1 hit point after the fall, which, though softened by a strange layer of pulped mushrooms at the bottom, also inflicted some sort of poison/corrosion damage  from the noxious fumes emanating from that pulp, which threatened to take his last hit point in another round or two. Dorf was going to lean down to grab Clyde's hand; but, thought better of it, and started rummaging for rope to lower lest he too take poison/corrosion damage. 

Dorf managed to fish Clyde out, Kevin chuckled and jumped back over the pit trap, and Arlia healed up Clyde's wounds. While this was happening the party could hear some sort of commotion back the way they had come in and they soon found that the source of this noise was their NPC party rear guard getting jumped from behind by a force of goblins and giant rats.

Was some greater-than-goblin intelligence directing this series of events? Who knows.

Now Goblins and rats should not have been too much trouble; but, they achieved complete surprise for 2 segments, and had the luck of the dice. Before Team Burghast could respond two of their henchmen were down and their two plate clad fighters had been hit (with natural 20s!) and were close to collapse.

Now it was time for team PC (they need a name) to respond. Even with theatre of the mind going on, it was clear that staying where they were in the corridor and shooting would be impossible with all the friendlies between them and the smaller goblins, so they piled out and went left, resumed formation and flanked the goblin line, and then started shooting. 

"How do you like fighting this many of us? Dumb humans!" Shouted a somewhat familiar looking goblin. And his buddy answered, "Hey! Those are the guys who captured us last week!"

Yes, the previously captured goblins were free somehow and bent on revenge. However, things turned bad for the little buggers almost immediately as they lost initiative in the next round and all but one were killed, causing the rats to scatter and the talkative goblin to flee west into the room with the double doors (which were now open). There was a chimney in there and he shot up it, though somewhat hampered by the arrow and cross bow bolt stuck in him, and fled through this alternate exit to the dungeon before anyone could catch him.

At end of the session everyone had made it back to the village with some meagre goblin loot that covered the burial costs of three henchmen. 

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Treasure and Experience Total 705XP

Monsters 1 Giant Spider, 20 Goblins, 1 Goblin Shaman

Treasure

After splitting with the NPC Party and after paying for a decent burial for the 3 dead henchmen; 117 gp

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Session PCs

Clyde Foot (10% XP Bonus) Half Elven Fighter Level 1 132 XP Gained. Total 653

Dorf (10% XP Bonus) Human Fighter Level 1 XP 145 Gained. Total 684

Kevin the 53rd (10% XP Bonus) Dwarf Thief Level 1 XP 132Gained. Total 132

Supporting Characters

Arlia Human NPC (10% XP Bonus)  Cleric level 1  66 XP Gained. Total 171

Team Burghast; Burghast & Glasses: Mages Level 2, Thigru & Danha: Fighters Level 2, 2 Henchmen

Garion Human Henchman (10% XP Bonus)  Fighter level 1  66 XP Gained. Total 66

Flevion Human Henchman (10% XP Bonus)  Fighter level 1  66 XP Gained. Total 66

Waxxion Human Henchman Fighter level 1  66 XP Gained. Total 66

Campaign Grave Yard

The Unnamed Henchman, Fighter level 1 DECEASED. Killed by spider poison in session 3.

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Session 2: A Grapple in the Dark

 

The local map so far

Welcome to session 2.

This session was played on 16/Sep/2021 and the PCs adventured for 1 day.

Session Report

Two players available for session two; Clyde Foot the Dubiously Strong (Half-Elf Fighter) and Dorf, just Dorf (Human fighter)

Between sessions the players had spent their down time on information gathering and many other tasks;

The village of Briar, named for Briar Mansion, a ruin that marks the north eastern extent of the village and the location of the dungeon explored in the first session, is a staging point for merchants who pass through on the way up the road in the direction of Caster Oren, a fort to the northwest. The village boundaries are two watch towers, one in the south and one in the northwest, and fields that stretch away to the east towards Lake Vostorn.

Dorf started his nights drinking at the local tavern, and had been offered a bouncer job by the owner. This not only payed well (1gp per night, with a 2gp bonus if he busted up a fight) it also was a great place to pick up, umm, rumours. Yes, rumours, and there were lots;

• Briar Mansion is a ruin the village was named after. Supposedly an eccentric wizard lived there many years ago and created a labyrinth beneath his mansion which was destroyed when the Great Kingdom first conquered the region.
• A veteran soldier shared his observation that front line troops being rotated into the city are not being replaced but are returning to the main land. He has no idea why.
• A traveller claimed that the mountain range directly north of the Castleport is home to an Ancient Dragon.
• There have been a number of disappearances in the village of late. In fact, three more people disappeared this week after drinking at the pub! Dorf found a single boot belonging to one of them.
• Dorf specifically asked about the existence of a Vorpal Sword, which no one had heard of, but several patrons mentioned a potion maker in the Old Quarter of lower Castleport who makes strength potions; his name was Myzarn and his shop is Alchemy to Go.

Clyde Foot had offered his physical prowess in service to the local Church of Saint Istra (minor god of healing); run by a crotchety old human priest called Father Thomias. The priest had Clyde do all sorts of menial tasks about the place; but, after a few days, he met a young woman cleric. Sister Arlia was a timid but capable girl who spent her days helping to heal people who had come to the infirmary for help. 

Thus, stage one of Clyde's cunning plan to recruit a cleric to accompany them on adventures was a success. It turned out that Arlia's sister, Arlina, had disappeared over a month ago. Clyde's tale of helping Farmer Giles' find his missing loved ones prompted her to pluck up the courage to offer to accompany him the next time he went to the dungeon. By this time Father Thomias was also beginning to warm to Clyde, and he told him about the existence of ancient caves hidden at the bottom of the cliffs to the east of Castleport. Clyde added this location to his map.

Even with all of the above to go on, I still figured the players would pick up with the dungeon; but, rather than immediately head there, they were interested in trying to acquire potions from the store Dorf had found out about during down time; Alchemy to Go. And so it was back to the bustling city.

Again, a single bored sergeant greeted them with “Name and Business in Castleport?” and they hurriedly gave their names and business of "shopping" and were let through.

They navigated the busy streets of the East Quarter of the low city, retracing the steps Farmer Giles had shown them, and they reached the Old Quarter without incident; but, now, how to find the shop they were looking for? Clyde stopped a random stranger who gave them (accurate, as it turned out) directions.

They found the shop and its proprietor, Myzarn, on Eye of Newt St. What followed was a readjustment of expectations as there was nothing on offer they could afford. A series of rebuffed bargaining attempts were successful enough that the old wizard offered them an alchemy-seconds minor healing potion that "Definitely would heal some hitpoints." for a modest 46gp (by chance the exact amount Dorf admitted to having). 

So, having returned to Briar after spending half a day on this side trip; but feeling as though it was worth the time, they refreshed themselves with some of Farmer Giles' best milk and began to rustle up their supporters.

Once again, when they arrived, Clyde was not impressed by the look of the four farmers. Again, would they be more of a hindrance than a help? Dorf forestalled another pummelling session with the reminder that the four had been very useful previously when they had been jumped by skeletons, at least as additional targets for the enemy, which Clyde had to agree with.

So down the stairwell they went, same marching order as before, with the addition of Arlia sheepishly following right behind Clyde Foot. Everything seemed to be the same as when they had last visited the place, the large entrance chamber filled with stone pillars and lit by a magic fire in the mouth of a giant toad statue. Dorf did discover a single boot, tucked under the last stair in the stairwell. It seemed to match to one he had found from the missing tavern patron!

After a brief discussion, they decided to retrace their steps from last time, once again avoiding the north and east exists from the Toad statue room. They carefully skirted around the trapped flag stone that would drop the portcullis and were were soon back before the room that had held the six skeletons they had previously defeated. Immediately, they saw that the skeletons were back, at least two were visible as John peered around the corner.

In the hope of achieving surprise, which failed, they all charged into the room to find three skeletons that sprang to attack them. The skeletons were armed with short swords and shields, and three other sets of short swords and shields were set on the ground in the niches, presumably to be used when more skeletons were available. The battle was ugly but ended quickly and without the party taking any damage.

Realising that the skeletons must have been created since their last visit, and that they were using the same weapons of the skeletons the party had previously defeated, this time they gathered up the weapons and shields and distributed them between the farmers.

Soon they were at the solid door that marked the extent of their previous delve. It was locked and once again they carefully examined it. It was wood reinforced with iron, much of it rusty, particularly the hinges, and it was locked. Clyde listened through the key hole, thought he heard voices on the other side, and decided a frontal assault was call for. Just as he was getting a run up, the Cleric NPC Arlia asked timidly; "If there are more skeletons in there, do you want me to try to turn undead on them?" and there was much smacking of foreheads amongst the PCs over them not thinking of this earlier.

Clyde resumed his run up and, in a moment, his muscular half-elf body had bashed the door down right off its hinges, and it lay like a bridge over the trapped floor they had unknowingly avoided!

The party piled in behind Clyde and they found themselves facing a pair of goblins, four more skeletons, and an evil looking young woman. She had long, braided hair, wore an otherworldly green-glowing amulet that was matched by her eyes, and was holding a whip. She had apparently been in conversation with the goblins. "Get them!" She yelled, and prepared for battle. The PCs were up for obliging her; but then, Arlia, in reply, gasped, "Arlina!"  

I don't recommend googling 'Evil Female Cleric with Whip'

Yes it was Arlia's missing sister! The PCs plans to kill everything in sight were quickly shelved.

Now I had all sorts of fun things planned here, this combat could go anywhere. She had spells, she had options, she had a whip I ruled could be used to land touch spells. Oh hoh! I was ready for a tense battle.

"I charge and grapple her!" Clyde's player declared.

No way. Does this guy think he's Macho Mandalf or something?

Anyway, the party lost initiative; but, as we all know, for grappling;

So Clyde should go first. But, how does this rule interact with the others who are doing regular combat?

I ruled that the two goblins Clyde had to get past also had weapons ready, and Arlina had her whip ready; so all three could attack first before the grapple attack could resolve. All three missed! So, with a whip crack resounding in his ears, Clyde grappled and rolled well. His bear hug immediately stunned the target and she went limp. The follow up attack left her unconscious.

Now the rest of the round of combat could be resolved. Arlia turned the skeletons (with the exact number required to do so) and by the end of the round there was but one goblin still standing. He immediately, and enthusiastically, surrendered. He then spilled everything he knew, which was quite a bit;

• He was involved in a kidnapping squad financed by a "Tall man who wore a dark hood."
• The dark mistress (Arlina) could use the horrible altar in this room to transform people into undead skeletons, which she had done to some of the kidnap victims; but others were taken away somewhere.
• The dungeon contained more goblins, a huge stair case going down into the darkness, talking statues, and giant ants, lots of giant ants.

The room held several chests, which the PCs demanded the goblin open. Not the brightest fellow, he happily obliged, and fell down dead from a poison dart trap. They opened the other chests from a distance using their spears.

By now Arlina was starting to recover from the sleeper hold, and the amulet, which had gone dark, flared with a green light. Arlia was certain the amulet had to come off to free her sister from its evil influence; but, as they tried to take it off, Arlina reacted badly and again lost consciousness.

Resolving to deal with this back in the village, they gathered up the loot and the PCs eyes lingered on some ugly; but, expensive looking, tapestries on the eastern wall of the room. Behind the middle one they found a secret door, and past there found a prison cell. Inside was Farmer Giles' wife and daughter, along with some unfortunate adventurers. There was much rejoicing.

Time to leave; but, not so fast, I had rolled a random encounter (finally)! The roll indicated a squad of goblins supported by a shaman. I abduced* that they had been approaching the Dark Mistress TM and worked out what had just happened by listening from the next room, which they could easily do thanks to the door being knocked down off its hinges by Clyde. They then pulled back to the skeleton room and waited in ambush. And the party were certainly poorly disposed to deal with it. Dorf was out front, followed by Clyde half carrying Arlina with help from Arlia, then Farmer Giles' wife and daughter, then the four fighter type prisoners wearily dragging one of the heavy tapestries, then, in pairs carrying a tapestry each, Hewy, Dewy, Loui, and John. 

Somehow failing to achieve surprise against the wary Dorf, the goblins did win initiative. They completed a round of attacks and then the shaman cast darkness. It was pitch black, not even Clyde's infravision helped. The wounded Dorf swung his two handed sword blindly in the direction of the spell caster and rolled a hit! Given the situation I gave him a random chance of hitting any of the three goblins, including the shaman, that were in the area. He hit a goblin warrior with enough damage to easily kill it. Now, AD&D 1e doesn't have a cleaving rule like, say, ACKS, but I ruled that in this situation there was a chance for a similar thing to happen. Dorf hit again and this time it was the shaman who also lost his head. And just like that the lights were back on, Dorf bellowed at the remaining goblin warriors to surrender and they failed their morale check by enough to do so.

At end of the session everyone had made it back to the village with the loot and the goblin prisoners were handed to the authorities. As always when the rolls go the way of the PCs it seemed all too easy, but soon enough the rolls will go the way of the monsters and then we'll see what happens...

* it's a word, look it up in this context here

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Treasure and Experience Total 1734 XP

Monsters 7 Skeletons, 7 Goblins, 1 Goblin Shaman, 1 Human Cleric

Treasure (This week the party was interested in the skeleton’s weapons and shields, one of high quality)

2*Potions, 3 Gems, Silver Ceremonial Dagger, Silk Cleric Vestments, 3 Tapestries, Golden Candelabrum

50gp

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Session PCs

Clyde Foot (10% XP Bonus) Half Elven Fighter Level 1 477 XP Gained. Total 521

Dorf (10% XP Bonus) Human Fighter Level 1 XP 495 Gained. Total 539

Supporting Characters

Arlia Human (10% XP Bonus)  Cleric level 1  105 XP Gained. Total 105

Hewy Fighter level 0 95 XP Gained. Total 115

Dewy Fighter level 0 95 XP Gained. Total 95

Lewy Fighter level 0 95 XP Gained. Total 95

John Fighter level 0 95 XP Gained. Total 115

Campaign Grave Yard

Empty (so far...)

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Session 1: A Humble Beginning

Welcome aboard! After many years I'm starting a new AD&D 1st edition campaign from scratch. I'm intending to play in the BrOSR sandbox style with use of:

• 1:1 Time
• Random encounter tables and generators
• Theatre of the mind
• GP = XP 

Many thanks to Jeffro Johnson, BDubs, and Chanticleer whose ideas and session write up formats I will be shameless copying drawing inspiration from.

This session was played on 02/Sep/2021 and the PCs adventured for 2 days.

Session Report

Two players available for session one; Clyde Foot the Dubiously Strong (Elf Fighter) and Dorf, just Dorf (Human fighter)

After some technical issues (all mine) the session started with a quick intro to the setting.

Castleport is an ancient city on the southern tip of a continent on the far side of the Argyle Sea. It is the Great Kingdoms’ most northerly outpost, having conquered, reduced its walls and taken the survivors into captivity at the beginning of the century, after a siege by the forces of the previous Great King. Twenty years ago the current Great King had a vision in which he was asked to allow the descendants of those survivors, whose name translates into common speech as people of the scroll, to return and rebuild the city. It has since grown to be an important part of the foothold the Great Kingdom holds in this land.

I’m sure I have no idea how well I described this as the session began, I was too excited at DM-ing again to remember.

The PCs arrived at the docks at lunch time, the weather was fine and they disembarked to join a large crowd of fellow travellers, adventurers, and merchants entering the low city through the port gate. A single bored sergeant greeted every single person with “Name and Business in Castleport”. I picked up this idea from Keep on the Borderlands but the effect here was only minor as both PCs had already teamed up by this stage and did not need any introductions to facilitate this.

Inside the gate was a square teaming with people heading off down several main thoroughfares. Within the square, built into the side of the watch tower/gate house, was a long stone bench. On the bench were a number of people looking to offer opportunities to new arrivals. The PCs watched as several adventurers were invited to go with these people; but, the only one who approached them was Pip, a tout for the local inn the Lucky Halberd. He immediately started selling them on staying there; and, at first, the pair listened to him. Then Clyde noticed another fellow sitting on the bench with a diffident expression, not looking quite game enough to approach anyone.

Clyde decided to see what was up with the fellow, who identified himself as Farmer Giles. Well Giles has had two of his family members go missing, and he had found traces of tracks which he followed to the ruins of an old mansion not far from his farm a couple of miles out side the city walls. Here he cleared away some rubble and found a stone staircase disappearing deep into the earth. All through this tale Pip tried to convince them to stay at his Inn; but, in the end, it was to no avail. Giles’ offer of a free place to stay in his barn and all the milk they could drink was enough to win them over.

The PC’s were keen to leave the city immediately; but, the city is a big place and very crowded. So, even with Giles to lead them, about an hour was taken just to reach the eastern gate, with twenty minutes lost after a merchant's cart over turned sending cabbages everywhere. It was then another half an hour before they reached the farm.

Once there Farmer Giles showed them around and the PCs were finally convinced he was on the level. It was at this point he introduced them to four of his cousins who had previously done stints in the army. They would be willing to help, but were too scared to do so without good leadership. They reacted well to the PCs and were soon off to fetch leather armour and spears.

However, when they returned, Clyde was not impressed by the look of them. Would they be more of a hindrance than a help? He wanted to test their mettle. I asked if he was going to draw his sword and have at them right there; but, no, he saw that would be too dangerous, so it would be test of hand to hand fighting.

I never would have thought that the first fight in my new campaign would be using the pummelling rules!

It was at this juncture that I discovered that the character generator Clyde’s player used had served him up an 18:83 strength (for an elf!) so the former army man turned farm hand went down faster than the Sorceress of Glovermore. Not having gained a better idea of the usefulness of the farm hands; but, now feeling quite sorry for one of them, the PCs agreed to take them on.

So down the stairwell they went. I struggled with theatre of the mind descriptions of room sizes etc and I’m not sure if they were mapping; but, in the end, they managed to get around with out getting lost. As a squad of six fighters they were of course handicapped when looking for traps and things but both players were prepared to do this the old fashioned way, feeling around and hoping for the best, at the cost of time and drawing some (harmless damn it) random encounters.

There was one solid fight with undead skeletons who achieved surprise while the party were examining a portcullis that had shut behind them. 

It was quite like this, except underground

The PC’s weapons were not suited to this enemy and two of the farmers were soon reduced to exactly zero hitpoints; but, the other farmers, wielding their spears like staves, caved in the heads of couple of skeletons between them and soon victory went to the party. Clyde and Dorf explored ahead and, after dealing with some giant rats, found a mechanism which Dorf quickly judged to be the means of opening the portcullis. Dorf bravely activated the mechanism to test his theory, which was correct, and then they decided a retreat was in order to allow everyone to heal up their wounds. 

At end of the session I explained the BrOSR concept of 1:1 time between sessions. I was amazed that both players jumped at this and suggested really solid downtime ideas considering there was so little in the campaign to work with so far. Big thumbs up for that ELITE level play right there.

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Treasure and Experience

Monsters 121 XP

Zero Treasure (party not interested in the skeleton’s weapons and shields)

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Session PCs

Clyde Foot (10% XP Bonus) Elven Fighter Level 1 44XP Gained. Total 44

Dorf (10% XP Bonus) Human Fighter Level 1 44XP Gained. Total 44

Supporting Characters

Hewy Fighter level 0 20 XP Gained. Total 20

Dewy Fighter level 0 0 XP unconscious. Total 0

Lewy Fighter level 0 0 XP unconscious. Total 0

John Fighter level 0 20 XP Gained. Total 20

Campaign Grave Yard

Empty (so far…)

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