The Creature of Rhyl

As I mentioned last week the players in my Swords & Wizardry campaign are currently adventuring through a classic adventure called The Creature of Rhyl (Dragon Magazine 55, 1981, Kevin Knuth). It won a dungeon design contest to get published. I had some misgivings about the dungeon once the players got into it.

Like many dungeon maps of the era, it is designed to be hard to map on the tabletop. Since we are playing using Roll20 this just became annoying to the players. Their characters had to do endless walking. My group does not create maps as they play trusting the Roll20 visual interface so they got lost all of the time.

The other odd thing about this dungeon was that there were very few location-based encounters. There was a handful (20 some for a dungeon with 2 levels is not a lot) but most of the encounters were meant to be random. I rarely rolled an encounter with the dice. Eventually, I just threw some in to make things more interesting. This dungeon was designed for levels 1-3 B/X but I found it easy to convert to levels 8-10 Swords & Wizardry. I just used similar but more powerful monsters. Orc jailors became ogre jailors and there were more of them.

I originally created the maps in Blender as 3D maps with the image taken from directly overhead. It took me a dozen hours to create. Before we reached the adventure I bought Dungeondraft and re-made the maps in the latter software in a matter of an hour. I preferred the Dungeondraft map. Now that the players have left the dungeon I will post the Dungeondraft maps soon.

One more thing, this adventure highlighted my annoyance with Dragons in Swords & Wizardry. They are too easy for a group of players to overcome. They have too few hit points. I put them up against three White Dragons at the maximum age and strength. They killed all but one Dragon in the first round of combat because they won the initiative. Even if the Dragons had won the initiative they probably would only have done 14 points of damage to each character with their breath weapons (because the players likely would have saved).

Session 97: The Creature of Rhyl

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Domago (human fighter), Flora (elven thief), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Lantosh (human fighter NPC).

The adventurers wander about the abandoned halls for a while before it becomes clear they are walking back over their own path. They can make out their footprints from earlier in the dust. Trying a new direction, they run into the Black Pudding again. Lakima orders the efreet Khisa to block the slime creature with a wall of fire. It works, but the creature just moves away from the fire. Fed up with the creature following them, Lakima casts a fireball and tosses it through the wall of fire directly onto the creature. There is a large, blast of flame that billows through the corridor coming close to the party. But the creature while clearly injured continues to follow. Lakima then asks Alrix to use his fireball ability. A second fireball explodes engulfing the slimly black mass. The floor seems to rock and shift, and pebbles and sand rain down from the ceiling. The creature is still there moving steadily towards them.

“Efreet! Raise your Wall of Fire directly on top of that creature!”

The efreet raises another wall of fire, this time directly on top of the Black pudding. It slowly succumbs and its mass burns away into a greasy stain on the stone floor.

After that, the group does not encounter any more creatures. But they just move around in circles in the dungeon. They decide to return to the octagonal room with the statue that they have christened the “elevator room”. Once everyone is inside and the doors closed, Eathwund turns the statue to face the western door. They open the door and see a new opening in the corridor wall leading west into a new area of the dungeon that they have not explored.

They check some crates in a store room and release a carrion fly that tries to poison Fenris who opened the crate it was trapped in. Fenris manages to dodge the creature's spit attack and Domago and Eathwund kill it. A hallway leads to a laboratory with a stuffed Griffon resting in one corner. Lakima picks up seven bottles filled with strange liquids and puts them into the bag of holding. They find a chamber with a writing desk, some empty shelves, and a cloudy mirror on the wall. In one corner are a cold fireplace and a stone lion head statue on the wall. Lakima searches the desk and finds a magic spell scroll (Part Water). He also finds what looks like a wand in a drawer of the desk. Eventually, his curiosity gets the best of him and Lakima looks into the mirror. An impassive face with vague features stares back at him. The eyes in the face are pools of darkness and Lakima feels himself being pulled into the mirror. He quickly blinks and looks away. The face disappears and the mirror goes back to being cloudy. Lakima orders the efreet to wrap the mirror in a large rug and to carry it.

Fenris checks the lion head statue and discovers it has a silver tongue. While trying to pry the tongue out of the statue he triggers a mechanism and the fireplace slides to one side revealing a passage behind it. Following the passage, they come to another chamber. This one appears to be the bedroom of a wizard. Lakima finds a sketch of the octagonal elevator room on a table. In the closet, Fenris finds a wooden box. Inside is a stuffed owl, a skull, and a small cage. The owl is sliced open to reveal a magical dagger.

They leave the chambers and return the way they came encountering a lone goblin. The goblin is easily subdued and Lantosh questions it in the goblin language. The creature tells them it was looking for anything that had not already been stolen. The master wizard went missing a few weeks ago and most of his minions have left having already taken everything which was valuable. After questioning the creature, they let it go on its way.

Certain now that the octagonal room is the key to finding the wizard Asylis and the Earl of Lockeland, the group returns to the chamber and waits for the doors to shut. Eathwund turns the statue to face the same way it faces in the diagram they found. The familiar rumbling noises are heard. Eathwund notices that the arms of the statue might move. He pulls up the statue's sword arm and there is a rumbling noise and this time they feel the unmistakable sensation of descent.

The chamber finally stops after descending for half a minute. Fenris checks some doors and reports that they are now false doors. A stone wall is behind them. But one door opens onto a corridor. The adventurers cautiously walk down the hall and enter an enormous chamber with almost no lighting. They cannot distinguish the extent of the walls or how high the ceiling is above them. In the distance, they see sunlight streaming down from a point above and behind some rock pillars. Nearby they can hear the peaceful breathing of some enormous-sounding creature. Could this be the Creature of Rhyl?

Alrix changes form into a couatl flying serpent and the rest of the group fan out so as not to present a single target. Fenris hangs back by the hallway they entered from. Flora moves forward to the edge of the light from Lakima’s Staff. Domago decides to cast Continual Light on his sling. Slowly, more features of the chamber are revealed as they move forward. To their right flows an underground stream. In front of them under a pool of sunlight, they spot two large, sleeping White Dragons. The Dragons appear almost identical. Then Flora and Alrix spot another sleeping White Dragon at the other side of the chamber resting on a pile of bones. Lakima quietly asks Flora to scout the chamber looking for exits. Flora agrees and heads off into the darkness out of sight.

Flora scouts the perimeter of the chamber finding no exits but does confirm that there are three white dragons here. She also finds that the two under the pool of sunlight also have stone pillars between them and the party. She returns to the group to report.

The adventurers briefly debate what they should do. Three dragons seem like a considerable challenge – possibly a suicidal challenge. The fact that White Dragons are together in the same cave and all appear the same size, age, and appearance is suspicious to them. They decide to attack hoping to gain surprise.

Lakima fires a lightning bolt at the two sleeping dragons under the sunlight. It strikes both dragons and kills one instantly. Alrix fires magic missiles on the single dragon on the pile of bones. Flora and Eathwund fire arrows at the latter dragon as well. Domago blows the Horn of Valhalla summoning five berserkers. Lantosh blows the Horn of Blasting deafening the dragon lying on the pile of bones. Alrix confronts the White dragon and strikes attempting to poison it. The strike hits but the poison he injects does not seem to take effect. Alrix uses the Figurine of Wondrous Power and summons the Woolly Mammoth. The magical construct charges and gores the White dragon twice before it even has a chance to attack. The white dragon is gored to death and flops to the ground.

The last remaining White Dragon, who is itself badly injured, roars in anger and charges the group of adventurers. It breathes out a freezing cloud of vapor enveloping Domago, Eathwund, and the berserkers. All of the berserkers are vanquished and returned to Valhalla. Domago and Eathwund manage to avoid most of the freezing mist.

The entire group turns to confront the last White Dragon. Lakima yells for everyone to hold and he casts Charm Monster on the White Dragon. Incredibly, the dragon falls under his charm. It turns away from Lakima and makes to attack Domago and Eathwund. But Lakima orders it to stop and calm down. Lakima tries talking to the White Dragon in draconic. It appears to understand his commands but it is unable to respond in kind. Domago looks up at the enormous dragon and places a hand on one of the wounds it received from the lightning bolt spell. He heals much of its wounds.

Alrix reverts the Woolly Mammoth back to a figurine. Eathwund begins rooting about the pile of treasure and using his sword to detect magic. He notes two sources of magic but they are under the corpse of the White Dragon. The Efreet is ordered to roll the 30-foot-long corpse to one side. Underneath they find piles of gold, silver, and platinum coins. They also find most of the items taken from the treasury of Lockeland, a scepter, a crown (now badly dented), and the two magic items, a rod and a medallion. They do not find the Earl of Lockeland, his remains, or his signet ring. But they do find the flattened corpse of what they suspect is Astylis the Wizard. Fenris busies himself with filling the bag of holding with the treasure. Eathwund quietly inquires if they think he could cut the head off of one of the dragons without upsetting the charmed sibling. The group almost unanimously tells him that this is not a good idea.

Lakima suggests sleeping the night in the chamber. He asks Alrix to scout the source of the sunlight. Alrix flies up to the top of the chamber and finds an opening big enough for the dragons to fly out. It leads to a ledge on the mountainside. Far below he can see the trail leading to the stronghold. He flies down to report. They decide to make camp in this chamber figuring it will be very safe. They do set watches but nothing disturbs them during the night. The White Dragon appears to have taken a shine to Domago. Licking his face with a cold wet tongue whenever Domago is near to it.

Domago casts Speak with Dead on the corpse. He speaks with the shade that rises and is able to confirm that it is Astylis. The wizard admits that he captured the Earl and left him in the care of some ogre jailors a few weeks ago. Unsatisfied with the three answers. The adventurers decide to rest again so that they can ask Astylis more questions.