D&D: Lair of the Necromancer

Howdie.  My oldest daughter has been interested in playing Dungeons and Dragons.  Because it was what I gamed as a kid, and somehow I still remembered most of it, I chose to use the 1981 Basic Boxed Set to start her out with...

She probably will graduate onto a later version, but for now this will work just fine.  As no one else is readily available to game, I told her to make up two characters, I would run two characters also, giving her a party of 4 adventurers to rely on.  I would take no part in decisions, but would run "my" two characters intelligently.

She created a Hafling named Demetrius, and a Fighter named Romulus.  I created a Dwarf named Odae and a Magic-User named Bara.

The adventurers traveled through the village of Strossburg (note:  I am not quite sure, but its possible I might run this as a Warhammer themed environment with D&D rules, more or less).  While resting at the end, they can't help but overhear the worried villagers complaining of mysterious noises in the night, missing animals, and now even missing people.  Eager for adventure, the party decided to pursue the rumors.  They narrowed their search to the Strossburg cemetery, learning that there was once Old Strossburg (long since destroyed in a past war and empty) and New Strossburg, which survived and became simply Strossburg.  The cemetery appears to be in the midst of Old and New.  They choose to wait until the next day to investigate the cemetery, seeing no reason to do so in the dark.

 The party begins their investigation, which takes them further away from Strossburg and towards he ruins of Old Strossburg.  They are suddenly beset upon by a trio of emaciated wolves that strangely attack a well armed party in midday.  There are a couple of hasty bow shots before the beasts are upon the party.

Despite a minor wound, the party quickly dispatch two wolves, and the third flees.

About this time, the party notices what appears to be a semi traveled path.  This leads to a shrub covered mound, that turns out to be a long forgotten catacombs system.  They light torches and enter.

Romulus sustains a minor injury as rotten floorstones give way in the long entrance hall.  They enter a corridor connection filled with piles of bones.  Some of these bones rise as animated skeletons that attack.

The fight here is quickly over, but not before the party takes several wounds.  Without a Cleric with healing (a first level Cleric would have had no healing anyway), the party is forced to bind their wounds for minor healing (1-2 points... this is a bit of a DM cheat, but not a terrible idea for beginners with 1st level characters).  The party locates a silver dagger amid the rubbish.

The party chooses to enter a dusty cobwebbed corridor.  They notice whitish mounds of rubble... which reveal themselves to actually be the webbed remains of rats and other small animals..... this is no ordinary bunch of cobwebs, but the hiding place for a large spider.

 The spider itself was about the size of a small dog, with a milder venom than its larger kin. It pounces on Demetrius and delivers a swift bite.  The Halfing's roll against poison saves him from being incapacitated for a day.  He and Odae slice into the arachnid, ending its rule in this off-chamber.

They find a few coins and some pieces of crystal jewelry.

Going back the unopened door, the party continues forward.  They find a short "tee" with three more doors.  They hear loud gnashing and rending noises mingled with growling.  Leaving that one for later, thy go to the right and open a quieter door.  They have found the lair of a foul necromancer (level 3 Cleric) attended to by a pair of armored skeletons (skeletons with an improved armor class. 

The battle is fierce. Demtrius and Odae take wounds, Bara chooses to unleash her only spell,  Magic Missile, at the necromancer, then enters melee combat (she had previously voided melee in the other encounters due to her lack of armor and low hit points.  The party emerges victorious, but by now are starting to show signs of accumulated damage.  They search the quarters, finding two Cure Light Wounds potions and a cache of gold.  Strangely, no one drinks from the potions.

Deciding to save the noisy door for last, they open the other door, finding an unused and dusty catacomb chamber filled with bones which... thankfully... do not rise to attack.

Steeling themselves for whatever lies beyond, they barge through the final door, ready to face whatever horror has been greedily devouring flesh....

Ghouls!  They have interrupted the feast of a trio of Ghouls!  If the necromancer is to blame for the mysterious noises in the night, the Ghouls quite likely explain the disappearances, an quite obviously were in league with the now dispatched necromancer.

This battle proves to be very tough.  One Ghouls is quickly eliminated by a critical hit from Demetrius, and another hacked down by a combined effort... but.... first Romulus, then Odae are felled by the paralysis causing strikes of the third Ghoul.  Alone, it realizes it must keep fighting before feeding.  Bara moves into melee again to support Demetrius...

and she too is struck down with paralysis (and barely escapes being killed outright from the hit).  Demetrius is left alone to face the final Ghoul.  Too bad there were no Elves in the party....

Now, as a DM note, despite cheating with the binding to cure a couple of points of damage, I was fully prepared to allow the party to be killed by the monsters, letting my daughter re-roll new characters for another adventure if she liked.  So in this case, she would have to run Demetrius, her Halfling, to the bitter end if need be.  Also as a DM note, I thought the Cleric and armored skeletons would be the "tough" encounter (well, they were tough).... I had not counted on 3 of 4 party members being paralyzed by the Ghouls!  And they almost killed one character from their hits.

Demetrius is hit... and.... makes his save.  He strikes back on the previously wounded Ghoul... and slays it! 

Unable to carry his three friends to safety, and unwilling to leave them behind, he spikes the door shut, attends to their wounds as best he can, and stands guard until they begin to recover.

They find a mixed variety of coins, and a finely crafted dagger that is a magical weapon +1.  They return to Strossburg with their tale.  The burgomeister sends a party of villagers to the location to burn it out and seal it forever, lest it become the lair for some new horror.  The party must remain in the village for a week or two to fully recover from their wounds.

So, there it is.  A simple, short, and logically designed first time D&D adventure.  There will be more to come....

Thanks,
Chalfant

Battletech: The Novels, Oh So Many Novels!

Howdie.

So, over the past few months, I have been re-reading (or in the case for a handful, reading for the first time) the series of Battletech novels.  I have owned all of the pre-Dark Age novels, sometimes several times over.... so currently I am missing a few (like The Sword and the Dagger, which I did own, and read twice in the past).  However, I have most of them...

I read them in publication order, which is not exactly in chronological order.  I did read other things in between, as nearly 60 BT novels is hard to digest all at one time.  Lots of non-fiction, lots of historical, after every few BT books. 

Why did I do this?  I am not really sure.  A little immersion, a little bit of trying to create a firm picture of the Battletech-verse as depicted in the novels.  Maybe.  It is somewhat hard to do as there are inconsistencies related to the wide array of authors contributing to the series, and not always even contributions from the major authors.  And its a made up sci-fantasy setting with its own laws of how societies work.

Anyway.....

I tried to pick what I thought were the five worst novels in the series.  This is what I went with, your mileage may vary, and there were plenty of other stinkers lurking in the mix I could have grabbed too...

Ghost of Winter... don't buy it.  Its not just a bad BT novel, its just plain bad.  Star Lord... don't buy it, its pretty bad.  Freebirth... I should have liked, I enjoyed all of the other Thurston novels, this one is just kind of a silly (silly in an already silly genre) plot, and I could not really like it.  By Blood Betrayed, ok, not horrible, but representative of a number of other mid-series BT novels that kind of meander.  I found that several authors, even ones that did impressive earlier (and sometimes impressive later) work in the BT series, such as Stackpole, Charrete, Thursont, even Coleman, seem to have written mediocre novels in the middle.  This may in fact represent some editorial pressures, or factors related to the game side of the business that is not entirely the fault of the authors... I don't know.  Anyway, filling out the list is Far Country, which is not terrible for cheap sci-fantasy fiction, just that it is not really a BT novel in many ways.  The biggest is that it introduces a sentient alien race.  It used to be my #1 worst novel, but looks like a best seller compared to Ghost of Winter.

So what are my favorites?  This was much harder as many of them are representatives of linked books, min-series within the BT novels.

This list could change very easily, and I am going to cheat.  Decision at Thunder Rift, the first BT novel I read many many many years ago, and I still like it.  Nostalgia, or just setting up the typical BT overly complicated political betrayals for virtually every plot of every BT novel to follow... but I still like it.  Prince of Havoc... I like the Twilight of the Clans mini-series (yes, Freebirth is in that mini-series), I think this one caps it quite well.  Lethal Heritage, bringing us the Blood of Kerensky trilogy, and changing the BT universe a bit.  Falcon Guard, the cap of the Jade Phoenix trilogy... at one time I did not like this trilogy all that much, but found it to be more compelling this time around.  Threads of Ambition of the Capellan Solution binary.... probably Loren Coleman is my favorite author for BT novels (despite a couple that are so-so... again, those mid range books).  I could easily have included one of the Warrior trilogy, very good books for the BT universe.

Typical plot.... you show up, either the locals or more likely your boss betrays you, you lose someone close to you, fight against adversity, and overcome.  Main character is incredibly talented and able to outperform mere mortal peers. That is like 75% of the novels.  Still, fun to read if you like the background.

The Dying Time.... so basically Gressman is hired to write a book and kill off the entire Grey Death Legion.

Test of Vengeance... not a big hit with me, but interesting to have an Elemental focused novel.

Price of Glory... the most pivotal novel in the series as it impacts the BT-verse.  Loosing all of that lostech on the Inner Sphere.

Blood of Kerensky (yes, I liked this trilogy very much)... so in a very short period of time, a couple of centuries, you create a completely, I mean a completely, different society.  Hunh.

Anyway, taking a major pause before entering the Dark Age series.  Not sure about all of this, curious how the Jihad plays out.  I am sure to enjoy reading some of those, and sure to not enjoy some others.  We will see.

In the meanwhile, I will plan on reading a trio of non-fiction, nature-oriented books... A Walk in the Woods, The Wild (which I have read before), and River Monsters (book for Jeremy Wade's series).  More sunburn and mosquito bites, less man made lightning and betrayals.

Chalfant