Citadel of the Severed Hand - One Page Dungeon

The One Page Dungeon competition has been going for a few years now. Each time it rolls around my head is in a different place inspiration wise.

In 2011 I had finished a marathon reading of the Lord of the Rings and had hobbits on the brain. That and I had spent a lot of time in Paris cooped up in an apartment in the dead of winter trying to keep warm. Unable to understand the most basic French I spent a lot of time reading and thinking about RPGs. I would sketch out game ideas late into the night. The end result was Vermin Hollow.

In 2012 I had just finished teaching, a job that slowly drove me crazy. At the time I had been reading Raggi’s dark fantasy Lamentations of the Flame Princess and a grimy port city wracked by war was bubbling away in the back of my mind. From this sprung Rot Tower. I had originally intended to post my work on the Rot Tower campaign setting to this blog but I never wrangled my writing into something I thought I could share.

A recent RPGsite thread: players as colonists, seized my imagination and I set about creating a settlement style campaign with a dwarven focus. A band of dwarven misfits reclaiming the holds long ago overrun by orcs. The first adventure involved taking a citadel that watched over a bay, with the dwarf resettlement expedition arriving by boat. Seizing the citadel would provide a foothold in their ancestral lands and a place for the initial band to settle in relative safety. From there they could look at reclaiming other sites and clearing lower levels as things moved towards a hex crawl exploration dungeon crawl style game. From these ideas my 2013 One Page Dungeon Citadel of the Severed Hand was born. Here's a blog post about the Citadel play test.

Citadel of the Severed Hand was to have included a random orc table, inspired by the John Blanche artwork of the early Citadel Compendiums. The injuries were intended to have been inflicted by the sadist demoness who lords it over the orcs. I picture her as a female Joffrey from Game of Thrones. Unfortunately the table was cut as I ran out of space. I thought I would add the table to the blog instead.

Severed Hand Orc Table

Orc name	Appearance/injury	What are they doing?	Treasure
Tizog	Severed hands nailed to shield.	brawling	Shrooms (see shroom table)
Lutnob	Keeps small rat in empty eyesocket.	dozing - half awake	Decorative dwarf beard rings.
Brugzod	Lost hand replaced with crude hook, wears necklace of small humanoid skulls.	ill - likely drunk on rotgut	Enchanted false beard. When attached becomes luxurious braided dwarven beard.
Nazram	Two heads, one is desperate to befriend the party.	eating something small and alive.	Dwarven house signet ring.

Dyson’s Delve in play.

The party was joined by a giant ferret. I think it lived.

Dyson Logos is a giver. His blog is full of maps that beg to be used. Dyson does this for free which is why he's a champ. I figured I would show my appreciation and bought his book Dyson’s Delves. I ran the micro dungeon from this book last month at Good Games. Playing at Good Games meant we only had 3 hours. It was another frantic paced AD&D fest.

• Mallaga the half-orc assassin and Leif the halfling warrior, fresh from raiding the Caves of Chaos, recruited Sprite Zero the gnome illusionist and Aide Powers a human cleric of the dark and terrible god of carbonated beverages. They set off for the Unnamed Caves.
• Mallaga pointed out that most of their hirelings die. The gnome made the point that he and the cleric weren’t like most hirelings and should instead be treated as equal partners. Mallaga promised to try not to treat them like fodder.
• Arriving at the Unnamed Caves the players promptly gave the location a mundane name so that henceforth they would be known as something like Bunnings.
• The caves lay beneath a ruined tower. The surrounding woods were searched and a midden heap picked through. Goblin, ferret and rat droppings provided a clue to the foes that lay ahead.
• The first level was full of goblins dressed in ratskins. The gnome snuck ahead and was spotted by guards. He was lucky not to have been hit with a spear and killed in the first few rolls of the game. Scouting with a lowly mage is a rash move and one that Sprite would repeat.
• Goblins were killed, tricked with creative accents and overcome. The hobgoblin leader was blinded by a timely light spell. He was later coerced into helping the group telling them what lay ahead.
• The blinded hobgoblin boss lent the band his remaining forces which unbeknownst to him amounted to no more than two goblins and a giant ferret. Together they would assault the Beetle tribe in the level below.
• Their rat tribe allies perished in an early skirmish and the momentarily masterless giant ferret was then adopted by Sprite the gnome.
• The group sought the Beetle Tribes leaders and slaughtered them in the dungeon corridors. During the battle their adopted ferret battled the Beetle tribes own ferret in a duel to the death. Fortune favoured the party and their ferret prevailed.
• Leif and Mallaga were puzzled by the ease with which they dealt with their foe and sought greater danger and reward in the lower levels.
• On the way down they encountered a grizzled goblin survivalist who tried to set them on fire with burning oil. The party butchered him and gleefully took his oil.
• While exploring a lower crypt level the groups ferret raced ahead chasing rats. They were then set-upon by ghouls that burst from alcoves. Once dispatched party robbed some tombs and set off a trap or two.
• Heading ever deeper they dismantled an obvious gas trap before battling a manticore and its mate. The first manticore went down under a hail of flaming oil flasks <sigh>. The second beast put up more of a fight. Leif, normally a sturdy fellow, had been seriously mauled and was close to dying. I think the group has finally run out of burning oil!
• Low on everything including time the party headed out. Before doing so they went back to retrieve the blind hobgoblin and proceeded to prod him ahead to set off traps which he duly did. A blade trap severed his arms and he rapidly bled out. The group then placed his head (still glowing from the light spell) on a 10’ pole and used it to light their way. His severed arms were thrown ahead into rooms to see if a) they attracted monsters or b) set of traps. Even in death the hobgoblin leader found ways to be useful.
• On the way out the gnome spotted some unsafe ceilings to avoid. The group also ran into some zombies. The black hearted priest seized control of the undead through his turning attempt. His mindless slaves were pushed ahead and were promptly crushed by falling rocks before they got to do anything interesting.
• The band made it to the surface laden with treasure and XP. Success!

We managed to cram all of the above plus character creation in 3 hours. To keep things quick I write which monsters are in which room directly on the map. That way you can tell who is where and have them join in any battles at a glance. I heartily recommend Dyson’s Delve, it gives you just enough information to wing a memorable dungeon expedition and the maps are gold!

Oil shortage hits Keep on Borderlands

How could anyone hate Gelatinous Cubes?

Preparing to run a game can be a chore. Writing your own scenario takes time but in return the session will be easy to run with little need to look things up. Running a written adventure smoothly can be tricky depending on how the adventure is presented. Format is the key and here I find Paizo adventure paths too dense to run at the drop of a hat while a one-page dungeon format like Stonehell’s is perfect. Friday nights game was at short notice so I had to fall back on something pre-written. I printed an easy prep one-page dungeon winner, but when the game started Pete and Optimus Prime were eager to get back to B2 Keep on the Borderlands. The prior session had clearly left an impression. I know this classic adventure well so there was no drama running the monster bashing sandbox / petting zoo. Here’s what happened:

When searching a medusa most folk don't look for contraband amongst her hair.

• Last time I blogged about B2 I mentioned that I’d make hirelings a finite resource. This session I did and there was much grumbling and attempts to recruit stable boys. The fragility of level 1 made the players feel like they needed fodder. I think their current level and accompanying buffer of HP make disposable meat shields unnecessary. I also figured the guards and barkeep had warned folk against adventuring with the pair as all who did had not returned. In the end a jolly cleric, Darius Train (inventing names on the spot is fun!) signed up for a tour of duty.
• Optimus Prime never fails to apply logic to things. He mounted a convincing argument to recruit/bribe some guards into joining the group for their foray into the Caves of Chaos. I was tempted to have a charisma check determine the results but his arguments were convincing and he role-played it well enough that I ran with it. He did this last session convincing an Orc Warlord to lend him some warriors. Even when I reluctant to give them things the party eventually find a compelling way to convince me.
• Pete’s Halfling found a young stable boy to bully. Leif the halfling has a bad case of small man syndrome. The group is no longer welcome in the inn as a result.
• The keep was fleshed out. I hate starting adventures in town but given that the group spent a lot of time at the keep looking for hirelings and oil it made sense to give them the lay out. There was some discussion about looting the keep but this was dismissed as the defences looked too great.
• Oil was still very much desired by the players. I didn’t give them any as the few supply caravans that had reached the keep were not carrying supplies of oil. They got by with the flasks they had from last session using them to kill the majority of foes they faced in the caves. Medusa – doused in oil and burnt alive. Gelatinous cube – burnt by fire. Wight  - set alight while emerging from its sarcophagus.
• Optimus made the call ‘I bet it’s a Medusa’ while rescuing a ‘maiden’ whose upper half he could not see. He was right, promptly failed his save and turned to stone. It was for a limited time only as the medusa had a vial that would reverse the stoning effect. We had to puzzle out the hiding place for this vial, as the medusa had been a prisoner of a Chaotic Cult. In the end we figured she had hidden it amongst the nest of snakes that served as her hair.
• The hero’s finally cleared the Temple of Chaos section of the caves. They killed a medusa, torturer, wight and gelatinous cube before breaking in to the neighboring Gnoll’s caverns.
• The players weren’t keen on the Gelatinous Cube considering it a lame monster. I see it as iconic but agree it is a bit crap to fight. It’s AC is horrible, it tends to have few HP, dies quickly and it’s slow. It's not terribly useful though it did eat an ‘off duty’ man at arms.
• A secret door led to the Gnoll Chieftain’s room. Optimus' Half Orc assassin snuck in, with newly found elven boots, and struck. Once again the assassination check was failed. With the element of surprise the group all but slew the chieftain who promptly surrendered. Once again Optimus Prime surprised me by taking the Gnoll Chief's son as a hostage / front line fighter to ensure against Gnoll treachery. Brilliant stuff that reminded me of the taking of sons as hostages in medieval Europe. 

The great thing about running a site based adventure with no 'script' or planned course of events is that you never know how a session will work out. Its the surprises along the way that make role-playing great fun.

Sri Lanka narrowly avoids killing party

Just another Snake Cult

A Google+ Hangout game is not the same as a face to face game. It’s not as real. There is no pizza, no clatter of dice and less ‘table talk’ as you try and cram as much game as you can into 2 to 3 hours. The stakes aren’t the same and so you can be forgiven for not taking it seriously. Milgos the mage/thief, a long standing PC, nearly perished in combat with a Dragon when he was reduced to just ‘attacking’ as the Sri Lankan’s closed in on Australia’s total. Milgos has a potent wand and an arsenal of spells all of which were forgotten as the excitement of a close finish in the cricket overcame the excitement of a combat with a dragon.

Events from the last game included:

• Encountering a camp of Goblins who had moved into the vacated Mountain Troll halls and scaring them off with the old Ring of Invisibility + booming voice trick.
• Joining forces with a band of ‘rogues’ whom I based on the group in Jule’s fortnightly Dragon Age game. This gave them enough character to allay suspicion. Which was just as well as the group were happy to recruit them to assist in the battle with the Dragon.
• A temple to Yig the father of serpents was searched. A fiendish trap was outwitted and the Cobra Codex liberated. The priest Chuck contemplated destroying the relics of Yig but reconsidered and during a particularly hectic and desperate battle reluctantly called on Yig to send serpents to aid him.
• A wall of crystals was bludgeoned and a Dragon, in the guise of an elf confronted them. While in elf form the Dragon was ambushed and pummeled badly. Losing the initiative, his carefully laid plan fell apart and he reverted to dragon form and began the killing.
• The rogues turned on the party and were revealed to be Dopplegangers causing Chuck to cry “WHAT FOUL BETRAYAL IS THIS?”  The monsters teamed with the Dragon and looked to be on the verge of destroying the party. A single Dragon can be isolated and worn down quickly, in this situation he lasted a turn or two longer.
• Milgos was saved from the Dragon’s bite by his Cloak of Displacement. This has proven to be a very potent item.
• Milgos was reduced to muttering “I attack” when the battle hung in the balance. Chuck was surrounded by Dopplegangers and one good hit from dying. Betty had been felled by acid breath. Chuck’s henchman was running and Milgos chose to stand toe to toe with a Dragon and simply swing his swords? Fortunately Milgos snapped out of his cricket induced befuddlement and used his Wand of Frost to snap freeze first the Dragon and then a Doppleganger. The tide had turned.
• The Dragon fell unconscious once bested as it had taken some subdual damage while ambushed in elf form. Milgos stabbed the incapacitated beast in the eye ending the scheming creatures life. With the Dragon defeated much treasure was gained.

The Dragon's lair was guarded by a wall of crystals

Minotaur smack-down and a choice - Drow or Dragon?

 Just like the party but with more powers

Players are right to fear the Drow. AD&D traditionally starts hard. You have a handful of hit points and have to scramble for your wins. Then you hit mid level and a buffer of hit points protect you from mistakes. The beasts of the monster manual fall before your might, particularly creatures that are sacks of hit points with no powers. Things seem easy. Which is why Gygax introduced Drow. Drow, like players, don’t play fair. They cast spells, use poison, have magic resistance and allow the DM to indulge in mean underhanded tactics. The kicker is their sweet loot, like Drow cloaks and adamantium chainmail, decay in the sunlight. The pay-off for battling them isn’t always great. Drow were Gygax’s leveler, they make things tough again.

Which is why I was a disappointed when the group decided to avoid drow territory preferring to take their chances dragon hunting. The group love killing dragons and rightly so, they tend to be rich!

Things that happened last game were:

• Milgos the mage thief, Betty the swordswoman, Chuck the priest and Ratnik the barbaric tribesman ventured into the silent halls of the Mountain Trolls. The signs of the Troll purge obvious to all. Great piles of burnt bones lay where the heroes had stacked them in pyres and the walls remained scarred from the assault of both magical fire and ice. Nothing was foolish enough to assault the band in this place.
• A Minotaur outpost was discovered with the beasts seizing the initiative, charging into the narrow confines of the tunnels to do battle. This made casting area effect spells a risky proposition. Milgos fled and was head butted twice by great bull headed men who pursued. Betty barely withstood the barrage of axe blows and Ratnik fell. Chuck kept folk alive by channeling Dunethain’s power into healing spells. Soon Ratnik was back in the fight, three Minotaurs were caught in a web and the tide turned. The party had been horribly mauled by their first encounter and retreated to the city of Khare to lick their wounds.
• In Khare Chuck scrounged some healing scrolls from the curators of the library which served as Dunethain's temple.
• The second venture saw Milgo’s scouting and as soon as he heard the lowing of Minotaurs he let fly with a devastating fireball into the darkness. The burning Minotaurs fled in panic, setting off a crossbow trap. Those not killed by the trap had their throats slit.
• The parties own dark elf assessed the trap and determined it was of Drow manufacture. He retrieved a number of bolts from the device then decided to leave what lay beyond the traps protection alone. As far as he knew the trap marked the beginning of Drow territory.
• The group turned north as Milgos recalled a tale of a dragon lairing in that direction. The northern tunnels where part of an abandoned mine. Many of the tunnels looked dangerously unstable with one collapsing before their eyes.
• Shrieking fungus sounded the alarm in a fungus covered chamber. Lizard like rooster creatures raced in to investigate. Chuck hurled a mine cart into the chamber disrupting a patch of yellow mold at a critical moment slaying two of the monsters.
• Past the abandoned mines and fungus the group found a snake temple. In a pillared hall a huge constrictor attacked them and at one point swallowed Ratnik. The henchman was spared the indignity of dying in a snake’s stomach as the party eviscerated the creature. Chuck was so incensed at the snakes audacity for swallowing one of the Dunethain's favoured that he hacked off the head of the beast, Conan style!
• An ominous pair of double doors was discovered beyond which the party suspect lairs the dragon. The dragon they hunt had defeated the party very early on in their careers, though Ugh is the only character to have survived that initial encounter. The band retreated to plan their next move.

Snakes often get chopped in the head

Nostalgia, Cave Demons and Sorcery!

I ran an AD&D game on Google+ recently. Part of running older games is recapturing the wonder and excitement I experienced as a kid, nostalgia I guess. I had pondered creating a sandbox setting for the game I’m running and figured that I should draw on the things that inspired me when I was growing up. The major influences were Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf books, games of Talisman, Warhammer 3e and countless readings of D&D Red Box. Visually Gary Chalk and John Blanche were huge influences on me. While I am reminiscing, Callum an old DM and friend, joined the game calling in from NSW. Excellent!

Gary Chalk illustrated my childhood.

Callum had rolled up Chuck the dwarven cleric/fighter and zealot of Dunethoin. Dunethoin is the god of secrets and mysteries. Brendan brought Milgos and his henchwoman Betty. After a substantial Google+ hic-up killed about an hour of game time we got underway and achieved the following:

·       Chuck met Milgos in one of Khare’s many taverns and immediately made all present aware of his zealous unwavering faith. Milgos was not impressed by the dwarf's fanaticism. He had recently taken up the title of 'Milgos the Glum' as he brooded on the loss of his dark elf form.

·       Chuck was looking to explore the location of some cyclopean ruins that were held by a band of Slaang worshipping marauders. Slaang is the chaotic god of malice.

·       Upon arriving at the caves they were questioned by a man concealed in the undergrowth who insisted he was a hermit and that the group had to leave as there were “definitely no cyclopean ruins here to explore, thank you very much.” After a drawn out conversation Chuck became suspicious and peered into the cave. While the ‘hermit’ had stalled for time a band of marauders had gathered at the caves entrance. Combat was swift thanks to a hold person spell and some terrible rolls.

·       Efforts to push the ‘held’ marauders off a cliff face were interrupted by the main marauder group led by a Witch of Slaang. Once they were dispatched a marauder was spared and brow beaten into forsaking his god Slaang and instead worshipping Dunethoin.

·       Chuck’s new ‘ally’ spilled the beans on the caves layout and features mentioning some tunnels that were too small for the bulky marauders to explore. These tunnels would be ignored.

·       The witch’s body turned to mist and began to float away but was frozen solid by Milgos’ magic. The frozen chunks were then scooped into a bag of holding.

·       A cave demon was found and dispatched. Milgos’ displacer cloak gave him the confidence to enter melee.

·       A giant stone head was discovered in the cave demons lair. It was said to allow direct communication with the god Slaang who would grant a wish to any who bested him in a contest of wits. Milgos was torn but would have no truck with dark gods despite his desire to return to his drow form. Chuck got out his chisel and defaced the head ruining it.

·       Further exploration found a survivor of a prior expedition, Mad Mord, who gave them some extra information on the cyclopean ruins which the players didn’t really pick up on. Probably because at this point we were rushing things.

Sorcery! The feared Cave Demon turns out to be a manticore. 

The adventure I ran was a homebrew influenced by the Sorcery! series of books, specifically the Shamutanti Hills, with an eye to fine tune it into a one page dungeon entry. No adventure survives contact with the players and despite my fatigue on the night I picked up on a few things that didn’t really work:

·       The adventure needed more detail as the caves were overshadowed by combat. Callum thought they were moving through a dungeon when they were moving through natural caves. This could also be because the fighting started well before any exploration.

·       More build up was required. There was a big fight at the entrance and then some rushed and muddled exploring.

·       Some other sort of opponent beyond the marauders and the cave demon was required. Is there room in the caves for another faction if I space things out?

·       The puzzle, which led to the portal concealing a cool encounter and substantial treasure, was either too well hidden or simply not picked up on by the players. The primary goal seemed to be clear the dungeon of monsters first and if there's any play time left explore.

·       I got the impression the players weren’t impressed with re-skinned humanoids preferring to battle the classic creatures. The players searched in vain for the spell book of a witch after she was killed. They became disheartened and queried how she could cast spells. It’s hardly my job as a DM to explain that she was a re-skinned ogre-mage.

·       The marauders were re-skinned minotaur’s with a random mutation. Thanks to the random mutation roll one of the marauders could psionically cast sleep. I think this met with raised eyebrows that he cast a spell without a spell book and do it while wearing armour. This is probably a bit of the old 3e fairness/monsters built like players mindset creeping in. 

I’ll keep working on this adventure and the Sorcery! setting as I think both have potential. It was great gaming with both Brendan and Callum. It has been far too many years. Nostalgia is a good thing.

Caves of Chaos, burning oil and how we roll.

Pete, Optimus Prime and I have gamed together for most of our lives. We tend towards farce, mucking around and disrupting the DM’s plans at every turn. Yet we keep coming back. When someone runs a pre-written adventure like Optimus Prime's Barony of the Damned or Pete’s Power Behind the Throne we take things seriously for the most part. 

These adventures worked for us.

But if its one of our written adventures look out. Perhaps this is due to their one-shot nature. Lately I’ve been thinking about doing the following to prevent frustration on my part as the DM:

• Discourage disruptive PC’s like Halflings. Halflings are inevitably played as squeaky voiced Mickey Mouse clones. The voice will eventually drive you mad. One occasion saw the group play Barbarians as cavemen that don’t play nice with society. Which makes sense but made the city based adventure planned for the night problematic.
• Curtail oil. It’s rules effectiveness sees it used till it becomes a monotonous crutch. I have seen oil flasks ruled as alchemist fire as opposed to lamp oil. This makes sense given the flammability and raw damage and I should reduce availability accordingly. It was amusing to see it used as a tool for assassination though.
• Hand wave as much ‘town’ as I can. My problem with the ‘town’ is that one person does their own thing for a bit leaving the others bored. I have been in this position many times. Bored or frustrated players tend to set things, like taverns, on fire. Therefore I hand wave the whole thing “gain d3 hirelings each and buy whatever you like off the equipment list within reason.” To me the adventure happens at the adventure site, be it a ruin or dungeon, and not in the village.
• Hirelings are a finite resource. Players become frustrated at not being allowed to hire a dozen hirelings post expedition to replace losses.  I have come to see the pool of hirelings as a finite resource but my players don’t see things this way. 

Last Friday we gamed. I wasn’t sure what to run and had been speed-reading Tomb of the Iron God and Dwimmermount. I settled for something I knew. B2 Keep on the Borderlands. After swift character creation we began at the ravine’s entrance with the players facing a series of caves. I decided to pick things up from where the last group had left off. A Halfling fighter, Half Orc assassin and a mob of hirelings headed straight to the Temple of Evil Chaos. There was much burning. The following happened:

Goblins always show up as wandering monsters.

• A reaction roll dictated that a wandering group of goblins was friendly. A roll on the Monster Business chart saw they were rock painting. They offered to serve as guides in return for a shovel and ’magic’ whistle.
• Booted feet caused loud echoes in the temple corridors and so all footwear was abandoned. The Half Orc and Halfling crept ahead with the Halfling abandoning his armour, favouring stealth. Before going into combat the Halfling would have a hireling strap him back into his armour.
• A horde of skeletons were delicately roped together and their weapons deftly stolen. They would only animate if the gem they guarded was touched or if assaulted. Ultimately they animated and promptly fell over each other becoming tangled. They were easily dispatched. Had this been a straight up fight they party would have been butchered.
• A horde of zombies was lured into an expansive field of oil laid out as a trap by the adventurers. Their brainless shambling approach saw them badly burned and then simply dispatched. Another TPK avoided.
• A band of acolytes were interrupted as they complained about a ‘priest’ who was not sending enough victims their way. The players found out the usefulness of maces as we again used the AD&D Weapon verse Armour charts. Pete wasn’t impressed and I am reconsidering it’s use.
• Excursion number one was a great success and the Half Orc assassin levelled up!
• A trip to town saw the heroes desperate for oil. They went door-to-door begging for supplies and offering ludicrous prices. They also hired a Priest of Thunder and his acolytes.
• Further exploration of the Temple of Evil Chaos saw the group barge in on a second band of acolytes. During the melee the Priest of Thunder betrayed them. All the hirelings, including the goblin guides, were slain. The high priests efforts to cast powerful spells like hold person were disrupted by lucky blows before the spells could be completed. The dice were running hot for the players.
• Powerful chaotic artefacts were cautiously liberated, being lassoed onto a cloak before being bundled up. They would later inflict their curse when touched while being cleaned. The curse was seen as a frustration to the players and honestly was better resolved quickly and painlessly with a shabbily role-played trip to the priest back in town. There they blatantly hinted that they were cursed till the priest cast a remove curse spell.
• A second horde of zombies was lured into a field of burning oil and suffered greatly for their brainlessness. The arrival of the Temple’s High Priest saw the Halfling fail his save verse spells and become paralysed. The Half Orc grabbed him and legged it, lighting several flasks of oil behind him to cover his retreat.
• Excursion two was a great success, despite all the hirelings being butchered, as the traitorous Priest of Thunder was loaded with magic gear. Everyone levelled! No one would hire on with them nor was there additional oil for sale.
• With no one in the tavern willing to join them the players looked to recruit from the monstrous populace for their next assault on the Temple. A wandering monster roll determined a band of goblins setting snares in the woods; the reaction roll said they weren’t immediately hostile. The Half Orc’s appearance helped and soon they were directed to the orc caves. Some solid role-playing saw the recruitment of 10 orc warriors and an ogre mercenary.
• The Temple High Priest was caught by surprise as he organised an ambush. The ogre cut him down and his zombies were dispatched. While prior hirelings had not been used as fodder the orcs certainly were.
• The main temple was discovered. The Halfling failed a save and was hypnotised by some pretty temple lights. A horde of skeletons descended upon the group. It was a dramatic and close fight but once more the dice favoured the hero’s. A bloody ogre was their only ally left standing.
• With the battle over the assassin put a war hammer into the ogre’s eye. The assassin had had a few attempts to assassinate creatures and on every occasion he had failed his % chance of success roll. This attempt was no different. He did automatically hit on each attempt and, thanks to another lucky roll, the damage inflicted was just enough to kill the ogre outright. The two heroes’ then looted the temple and the ogre’s lair.
• Excursion three was a great success and everyone levelled again! The treasure in the temple is insanely high and the pair now has impressive magic armour, shields and weapons. As both characters are now level 4 I suspect the Caves of Chaos may not be as much of a challenge going forward.

Ogre 'ally' prior to war hammer to face incident.

It was 3 am when we finished gaming. Once again the Caves of Chaos produced the goods. It thoroughly deserves its status as a classic. There is just so much you can do with the module.

B2 - Quick play Caves of Chaos

The Keep on the Borderlands holds fond memories for many

Keep on the Borderlands is held as a prime example of how to set-up a sandbox and run an action packed game. Some label it a meat grinder, it can be. I wanted to run a pick-up game while the regular DM was overseas. I selected Keep on the Borderlands and started things where the action is, the Caves of Chaos. It worked great.

Pacing in a game is critical, particularly for a pick-up game. We game from 6 to 9 on Wednesday nights. That's three hours to cram as much D&D in as possible. I wanted to include character generation. Normally character generation slows everything to a crawl, particularly if you don't have enough books on hand. Things get worse when you start buying equipment and look to hire men at arms. So I used Jeff Reints character generation as a party game. Jeff makes judicious use of index cards and I had bought a stack on my lunch break. They proved handy. Each character managed to fit on a single card! 

Owlbear wins

Inspired by this blog entry at Hill Cantons blog I produced a random starting equipment chart to speed things along. The random weapons were modified to account for Weapon v Armour Class. This is something I have never used before as it adds a layer of complexity to the game and slows combat down. Stuart from Strange Magic inspired me to incorporate the bonus/penally different weapons had against various armour directly into the hit roll. His post about it is here. The group ended up as a band of elves accompanied by a Paladin. Their adventuring highlights include:

• Adam naming his hireling Rob in the hope that I would not kill him. As it transpired Rob was the first to die. His next hireling was called Bob <sigh>.
• Negotiations with Gnolls saw them directed to a bears den.
• The Paladin called out a challenge from the entrance to the bears lair asking it to fight them in fair combat. The band then set about preparing an ambush.
• The bear turned out to be an Owlbear. The party fell one by one to the creatures claws and hug. As each character died they took on the role of a plucky hireling. Adam's elven cleric/mage was the last man standing and was unlucky not to land a killing blow with his hammer. Instead the elf was decapitated by a swipe from the beast as he desperately attempted a sleep spell.

Everyone is Half-Orc

I was a little crestfallen about the TPK but the group took it in their stride. In fact it had been a lot of fun for all. The advantage with Jeff's party game creation method is that no one was that attached to a character. Lightning fast character generation produces some odd results you wouldn't have come up with on your own. 10 minutes after the TPK a new group was ready to face the Caves of Chaos. In the secret allocation of Race and Class everyone had selected Half-Orc fighters. Some had a dash of Assassin and one did a reasonable impersonation of a Cleric. Highlights for the second group include:

• Shane has a d30. It was used to generate the first letter of the PC's. We ended up with Half-Orcs called Zerbo and Xerxes.
• Tracking their first batch of 'good' characters hoping to kill them and take their stuff. Everyone knows parties are at their most vulnerable on their way out of a dungeon and these Half-Orcs were a cunning lot.
• A battered Owlbear was put to the sword. The bodies of their first party were looted and the equipment redistributed. This is the first time I have seen a group loot their 'own' bodies. Bizarre.
• One of the Gnolls who'd mislead the group was found half eaten in the Owlbear's lair. He had headed into the caves to see how the party had fared before falling to the raging monster.
• Grey Oozes were smacked off ceilings. They proceeded to corrode halberds and armour before being dispatched.
• After conquering the Owlbear lair the group headed to their next randomly selected cave. It just so happened to contain the biggest bad in the place. The Minotaur gave them a run for their money.
• Noting the bovine smell at the cave entrance, Chris determined that whoever lived within the cave owned cattle which in turn meant that they would be rich. Thus the group should enter and take everything. His rational explanation for the bull manure smell was perfect in its naivety.
• Shooting into combat is a bad idea. A luckless hireling disrupted the Half-Orc cleric's command spell at a crucial juncture. To make up for it the hireling discarded his crossbow and waded into close combat. He was impaled on the minotaurs horns the following round. 
• The hero's overcame the Minotaur and found a substantial amount of treasure. In all likelihood enough to level despite their multi-classing.

Minotaur - the true source of the bovine smell

Thanks to Adam, Chris and Shane for an excellent game that I had a blast running. In 2.5 hours we went through character generation twice and completed some tough parts of the Caves of Chaos. That's a lot of game for a short period of time. The perfect amount of time for a drop in and have a go game.

Oldhammer - Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition - Orcs verse Chaos

Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition was a staple of my high school years. This time we figured on a bigger battle than our chaos warband skirimishes. We would field over 100 models on each side. Optimus Prime suggested we put everything on the table, points be damned. I fielded my Orc army, most of which was painted in highschool. It was light on goblins as I had stolen their bases for another project. The Orcs opted for big solid blocks of infantry while Chaos went with many smaller bands to set-up flank attacks. As my army was horribly outnumbered we wracked our brains for a scenario that would make for a satisfying battle. Flames of War had me thinking about objectives and so we set some bottle caps on my side of the board representing the nectar of the gods that the Goblinoids would have to defend for 6 turns. We would do battle on a heavily forested board.

Smaug and his Orc army Smaug - small winged firebreathing dragon - 250 points Smaug's Buddy - Manticore - 200 points 12 Orc arrer boys 20 Black Orcs with halberds 20 Orc boys with halberds (Ruglud's armoured orcs) 15 Gobbo's with 3 Goblin Fanatics 12 Wolf riders 1 Wolf drawn chariot (without scythed wheels)

Ravening hordes of Chaos 3 blocks of 10 Maruaders 2 blocks of 10 Beastmen 3 stupidity prone Trolls 6 Ogres 5 blocks of 10 Chaos Thugs Tiberius the feeble - Chaos Warrior serving as General

SETUP AND DEPLOYMENT

Tiberius keeps a watchful eye over the Trolls and his horde in general.

Starting positions. The bottle caps are the objectives while the abundance of trees will prove more of an annoyance than anything else.

UNITS IN RESERVE
Mini Smaug and his Orc army	Ravening hordes of Chaos

DEPLOYMENT SUMMARY

Mini Smaug and his Orc army: The Dragon and Manticore anchor the lines with the aim of holding the objectives. Each is supported by a block of solid orc infantry. Ravening hordes of Chaos: Small groups of elite troops spread wide. Maximum coverage that ended up being hindered by the terrain and saw forward units blocking the advance of those behind.

TURN 1

The chariot rattles forward, the Orc boys march over to the objective. Manticore takes to the air.

COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
Mini Smaug and his Orc army	Ravening hordes of Chaos Smaug got lucky and toasted a Chaos Thug with his fiery breath.

TURN 1 SUMMARY

Mini Smaug and his Orc army: General advance. We consult the flying rules. By the end of the night we still don't know how the fly-by attack rules work. Animosity rears it's ugly head as the Black Orcs spend the turn hurling abuse at the neighbouring gobbo's. Ravening hordes of Chaos: Another general advance hindered by forgetting to reserve move. We then adopt a 'march' rule that came to be the norm in later editions of Warhammer.

TURN 2

The chariot crashes home and we learn the wierd and unique rules for chariots in hand to hand

COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
Mini Smaug and his Orc army	Ravening hordes of Chaos 1 unit of Chaos Thugs A handful of Chaos Thugs crushed under a chariots wheels. 1 Troll killed by a gobbo fanatic

TURN 2 SUMMARY

Mini Smaug and his Orc army: The chariot crashes home then gets mired in combat. The Goblin fanatics are released and combined with Smaug's breath destroy a unit of Chaos Thugs and a Troll. The regeneration rolls were unkind to the Chaos General all game with not a single success. Ravening hordes of Chaos: The horde continue to advance. The powerful Chaos Mauraders are delayed by the units ahead and find it difficult to get into combat.

TURN 3

The Goblin fanatics whirl back into their parent unit killing 5 and routing the gobbo's

The Beastmen learn that it's hard to wound an Orc. The Ogre's lurk in a nearby wood.

COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
Mini Smaug and his Orc army 5 Gobbo's. 1 wolf rider chariot	Ravening hordes of Chaos 1 unit of Chaos Thugs A handful of Chaos Thugs crushed under a chariots wheels. 1 Troll

TURN 3 SUMMARY

Mini Smaug and his Orc army: The fanatics, lured out by a screen of Chaos thugs, now whirl around uncontrolled. One ploughs back into it's parent unit causing carnage. The Manticore does a fly-by on the beastmen killing one. It will spend the rest of the day puzzling out the intricacies of the aerial rules, banking slowly to the right and playing no further part in the game. Ravening hordes of Chaos: The beastmen charge into the block of Orc Halberds. They are ground down and slowly pushed back and yet they will not break. Tiberius the Chaos Warrior herds his trolls into the cover of a nearby wood. The wolf rider chariot is swamped and pulled apart. The rules said it ran amok but it made more sense to say it was smashed to pieces.

TURN 4

The Black Orcs charge a troll, drive it back into the forest and then are swamped by Chaos Thugs and Ogres!

Orc Halberds push back the hordes and delay more powerful units from getting involved.

COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
Mini Smaug and his Orc army 5 Gobbo's. 4 Black Orcs 1 wolf rider chariot	Ravening hordes of Chaos 1 unit of Chaos Thugs A handful of Chaos Thugs crushed under a chariots wheels. 3 Trolls 1 beastman

TURN 4 SUMMARY

Mini Smaug and his Orc army: Smaug charges into the forest and tears apart a troll which fails to regenerate. The Black orcs charge and are counter charged by Ogres and Thugs. The Thugs are hurled back by the Black Orc General and his troops but the flanking ogres prove a difficult proposition. Ravening hordes of Chaos: A troll tears down 3 Black Orcs before succuming to halberd blows. The Ogres and Thugs fell another Black Orc while the Orc Halberds on the left flank are slowly surrounded.

TURN 5

Tiberius the Chaos Warrior and General of the horde is incinerated by Smaugs fiery breathe

Halberd wielding Orcs surrounded by a herd of Beastmen.

Panic ensues as a unit of Thugs charge Smaug and are butchered.

COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
Mini Smaug and his Orc army 5 Gobbo's. 5 Black Orcs 6 Orc Halberds 2 Gobbo wolf riders 1 wolf rider chariot	Ravening hordes of Chaos 2 units of Chaos Thugs A handful of Chaos Thugs crushed under a chariots wheels. 3 Trolls Tiberius - Chaos Warrior General 4 Beastmen - killed by Halberd wielding orcs

TURN 5 SUMMARY

Mini Smaug and his Orc army: The wolf riders charge on the far right flank and get bogged down in a fight that goes no where. The Orc Arrer boys fire volleys into the horde and turn back an assualt by Chaos Thugs. Smaug incinerates the enemy general and destroys a unit of thugs single handedly. Ravening hordes of Chaos: The Black orcs are slowly pushed back and wrapped around by the ogres. A suicide charge by some thugs into Smaug and their predictable anihilation causes ripples of panic throughout the Chaos forces. The Beastmen swarm around the Orc Halberds charging them in the rear. The Orcs nerve holds and they hurl the Beastmen back.

TURN 6

It all comes down to this. Halberd Orcs swarmed by the Ravening Hordes.

COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
Mini Smaug and his Orc army 5 Gobbo's. 5 Black Orcs 8 Orc Halberds 4 Gobbo wolf riders 1 wolf drawn chariot	Ravening hordes of Chaos 2 units of Chaos Thugs A handful of Chaos Thugs crushed under a chariots wheels. 3 Trolls Tiberius - Chaos Warrior General A handful of thugs torn down by wold riders 1 Ogre 6 Beastment butchered over many rounds by the Halberd Orcs

TURN 6 SUMMARY

Mini Smaug and his Orc army: The left flank and the associated objective was held thanks to those brave Orc Boys who defied the odds and pushed back the Horde time and time again. In the final turn they were surrounded on all sides and refused to panic. Ravening hordes of Chaos: Everything is thrown at the left flank but the dice gods are cruel and the Orcs hold.

The dragon proved too tough for the right flank. Aerial rules are painful to understand and the manticore would have been better spent on the ground. It's ineptitude left it's flank ripe for the taking. However the dice gods were not on the side of the Ravening Horde and the Orc Halberds did surprisingly well. The Orcs were equipped as their models were, with halberds. This gave them a slight edge in pitched battle as the Ravening Hordes came to the table with only standard equipment. Every little bit counts but in the end Orcish endurance won out. The objectives were held for the required 6 turns. A good game and a reminder of just how crunchy the rules for the 3rd edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle are.

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