DM Yourself Phandelver

I received my hardcopy of DM Yourself (author Tom Scutt) in the mail a month ago. I was not in on the Kickstarter but I saw a review on Youtube and emailed the author to buy a copy. Delve is a handbook for Solo Adventuring using D&D 5th edition. While the principals could be of use in any system it is designed for D&D 5th edition. While I am not really interested in being a DM in a 5th Edition game (too many rules) I am fine with DMing myself. I can take my time checking to see which rules apply.

DM Yourself is a very different method of solo adventuring from what I am used to. This is not a random oracle. The booklet (running 60 pages) gives you rules, suggestions, and guidance to running a solo character (with Sidekicks) through published D&D adventures. It even gives specific guidance on many of the already published adventures. It is a chance for me to run some of the official D&D 5th edition adventures I purchased and read but never ran.

DM Yourself does this but adding in a few rules to make the published adventure survivable. This starts with the suggestion to start your PC at Level 2 for that 1st level adventure. From there the PC should get maximum hit points at every level. There are suggested additional rules like Hero’s Luck, Plot Armor, using average monster damage. Nothing is game-breaking. But if anyone has tried playing D&D 5th edition solo before they know that character death at first level is very likely. The published adventures are designed for 4-8 players.

The meat of the DM Yourself book is suggestions on how to play through a published adventure without spoiling it for yourself. How to attempt to immerse yourself in the play to provide an enjoyable experience, and how to roleplay encounters. Many of the suggestions are things that you could probably come up with yourself but it is a handy journal.

I decided to run a 2nd level cleric with two sidekicks (one expert, one warrior) through Lost Mine of Phandelver. I have read this adventure before but it was years ago so I remember nothing. I had planned to run it on a tabletop with stand-up minis, paper character sheets, and dice to go full old school. But I immediately found that less than ideal. So I decided to run it using the Phandelver module in Roll20. This gave me a partial method of using fog of war on the maps but more importantly it made tracking the character and the NPCs much easier. The first two sessions are complete and went reasonably well. I think I enjoy it more than the times I have tried solo play with a random oracle generating the plot and it is definitely better than any pick-a-path solo playbook.

Lost Mine of Phandelver

Session 1

Day one

Nate Fallcreek a cleric of Torm is in the City of Neverwinter. Nate recently left the militia after hearing the call of Torm. He is in need of work and an old friend named Gundren Rockseeker (a dwarf) has hired him and two others to escort a wagon to the village of Phandalin. Gundren has gone on ahead accompanied by his bodyguard Sildar Hallwinter to attend to urgent business in the town. Nate and the two others are each expecting to be paid 10 gold coins by the owner of Barthen’s Provisions in Phandalin once they deliver the goods. This is the first time Nate has met the female, human warrior Marit and the male human expert Arjen.

The route they are to travel with the cart is south on the High Road until they meet the Triboar Trail. Then it is east to the road to Phandalin.

Day Three

The three heroes head east along the Triboar trail moving at a slow pace. Up ahead they see something in the middle of the trail. Nate is currently driving while Marit and Arjen are dozing in the back of the wagon. Nate whistles to get the attention of his companions. Arjen jumps down from the wagon and moves ahead to investigate. He finds the horses belonged to their patron Gundren. The saddlebags have been looted. Just then arrows fly out of the forest striking Nate twice. Two goblins run onto the trail to attack Arjen hitting him. Marit runs over to help. Nate casts Cure Wounds on himself then runs over to help Marit. Arjen kills one goblin and Marit kills another then they both crash into the woods to attack the goblin archers. Arjen badly injures one goblin who turns and runs away. Marit kills the remaining goblin. They try to hit the running goblin with arrows but miss it. After the battle, Nate prays to Torm to heal Marit and Arjen.

Arjen spots a trail headed north and the three set out in pursuit. Arjen spots a snare on the trail and the trio avoids it. But Arjen doesn’t spot a pit trap that opens beneath his feet. However, he is quick enough to leap over it. Following the goblin trail north, they come to a stream exiting a cave in the hillside.

Session 2

They approach the cave. As they prepare to splash across the stream they spot 2 goblins hiding in a thicket just as the goblins spot them. Nate reacts first by rushing across the stream and storming the goblins. He kills one on the spot with a blow to the head. The other goblins darts away to the cave entrance shouting in goblin. Nate signals to Arjen who stabs the goblin in the back killing it.

Nate lights a torch and the three adventurers head into the cave splashing across the stream Arjen in the lead. Arjen spots a cave with wolves tied up in it. They quietly walk past. Up ahead Arjen just barely makes out the sight of a bridge over the stream and a tunnel off to the left. They decide to go left and run right into a cave full of goblins. Marit and Nate rush in to attack while Arjen readies his bow at the entrance. Marit and Nate are immediately surrounded by goblins. Nate calls down Sacred Flame as he advances. The Goblin immediately in front of him is engulfed in flames and staggers to the back of the cave, but another goblin steps up to take its place. Marit is attacked by 2 goblins but quickly kills them. As he fights Nate spots a goblin boss atop a ledge holding Sildar. He shouts at Arjen to get the boss pointing up at the goblin. Arjen brings down the boss goblin with an arrow. Eventually, all but one of the goblins are killed. Marit doing almost all of the killing.

Nate goes up on the ledge and frees Sildar. He also searches the goblin boss and finds some gold teeth. They tie up the remaining goblin in the ropes that were holding Sildar. Marit questions the goblin as he speaks their language. Nate questions Marit on where she learned goblin but she does not answer the question.

They learn that there are fewer than 20 goblins in the lair and they count the dead and see they have dispatched eight of them. The goblin says their leader is a bugbear named Klarg. The goblins here are part of the Cragmaw tribe. They ask about Gundren and learn that the dwarf has been sent to Cragmaw Castle. Marit threatens the goblin and gets rough directions to the castle which is in Neverwinter wood.

Nate can see that Sildar is badly injured. Sildar tells him that the goblins took turns working him over and kept promising to eat him. Nate uses Channel Divinity/Preserve Life to give some healing to Sildar. Sildar says he is ready to fight and grabs one of the goblin scimitars. Marit uses Second Wind to recover some hit points. Finally, Nate casts Cure wounds on himself. Now that they know Gundren is not in the caves they discuss whether to leave immediately and continue the journey to Phandelvin, detour to Cragmaw Castle or continue on to confront Klarg. The group vote with Marit voting to continue fighting goblins but Nate and Arjen voting to continue to Phandelvin. Sildar does not vote and tells them he will abide by their decision.

Sildar also tells them that the goblins did not waylay Gundren by chance. They were instructed by someone called the Black Spider. Whether that is a name for a goblin or someone else he does not know. He mentions his contact in Phandelvin is Iarno Albrek who has gone missing. When asked to speculate why the goblins were after Gundren, Sildar suggests it was because the Rockseeker brothers found the long-lost Wave Echo cave a famous mine.

The group sneak out of the caves and head back to the road. Their wagon is still there waiting. They set out for Phandelvin.

Resource Planning

This past weekend we played through my rewritten I3: Pharoah adventure again. I call it The Plundered Tomb and it has been adapted for Swords & Wizardry rules and for the location.  Last week on the blog I said this;

This adventure is going to be longer and requires more resource management from the players.

I could not have been more wrong.

The players blitzed through Level 2 Kordan's Master Maze going into only one room and having 2 encounters. Then they popped up to Level 3 The Halls of the Upper Priesthood and raced through just missing several deadly encounters before figuring out the Dome of Flight and making it to Level 4 Running the Gauntlet. All of this in one session (about 3 hours). They avoided anything that looked like a trap and missed most of the encounters. But they also missed almost all of the treasure.  They were really mission-focused.

I thought this 5 Level dungeon would take at least 4-5 sessions. But now it is likely only going to be 3 sessions. This means I need to get to work coming up with where next. It is a good thing the holidays have arrived and I have more time.

Session 33: The Maze and the Halls

Players: Lakima (Magic-user), Eathwund (Fighter), Carric (Elven Thief), Domago (Human cleric NPC), Lantosh (Human Fighter NPC), Dag Icefoot (Dwarf Fighter NPC).

The heroes have leaped through a magical portal in pursuit of Carric who was dragged in. They find themselves in an octagonal chamber in an unknown location. There are four exits from the chamber and each is full of swirling mists.

Lakima points to the skeleton on the floor that appears to be pointing at one of the exits. He suggests that they follow that direction. Dag looks over the large, rusted lever and declares it has two positions but he cannot tell what it does. They decide not to touch it.

Carric takes the lead into the mists. The walls are ten-feet wide and ten-feet tall and obscured by mists. Carric decides to consistently turn to the left and leads the group in a circle. Then he decides to take a right turn and they arrive at a door. Carric listens and hears nothing on the other side. The door looks very mundane so he pushes it open. They look into a 30-foot chamber, a large pile of moldy hay rests in the center. Two minotaurs snort in anger and move quickly towards them. Carric backs away and Eathwund steps into the chamber first. He tries reasoning with the creatures but the minotaur nearest swings at him with a large club. From the hallway, Lakima casts Web from his wand and nets one of the minotaurs. Eathwund and Dag attack the minotaur and back it into the chamber allowing Lantosh to move in and attack as well. Eathwund slashes the minotaur with his sword which seems to enrage it. The minotaur tosses aside its club. Then it lowers its head and gores Lantosh in the chest dropping him to the ground unconscious. Domago grabs hold of Lantosh and drags him back into the hallway. Carric moves into the chamber and strikes the minotaur while Eathwund stabs it with his sword. The minotaur falls with a feeble roar.

They enter the chamber and see the second minotaur is stuck to the wall in the webs. They dispatch it with arrows, darts, and sling stones from a distance. Taking stock they look about the chamber. The floor is littered with gnawed bones and silver coins. In the center of the ceiling, they see the opening of a circular shaft. Carric looks it over and realizes there is no way for him to climb to the opening. Domago manages to revive Lantosh with a Cure Light wounds prayer. Given the rough condition Lantosh and Dag are in, the decision is made to close the doors and rest and sleep in the chamber. Watches are set and they settle down to rest. Domago taking the time to bind Dag and Lantosh’s wounds.

Several hours later, while Eathwund and Domago are on the last watch, Carric springs awake telling everyone to get up. His sword has detected someone approaching. As they wait and Carric starts to check at the four doors, one of the doors opens and they see an elven woman in chainmail holding a spear. Lakima and Carric are suspicious of her and they ask several questions. The elf tells them her name is Ayla Resnick. She is from the nearby elven settlement of Tindell and came to the Plundered Tomb searching for a missing elven boy named Vestan. Young Vestan wanted to be an adventurer and entered the Plundered Tomb. Ayla says that she followed his tracks to the tomb and she found the portal to this maze. She tells them she has been lost in the maze for 2 weeks. She has found nothing in the maze, no dangers, but she has been hopelessly lost. She suggests that Carric and her scout the local area of the dungeon while everyone else rests. Carric and Lakima tell her they do not want to split up the party. Everyone except Domago and Eathwund goes back to sleep. Ayla says she is not tired and she stays up sitting with Eathwund talking about what brought them to the maze.

Later that evening after everyone has rested and Lakima has memorized new spells they prepare to set out again. Lakima uses Levitate to float up the shaft. He finds the shaft goes up for 30 feet from the ceiling of the chamber. At the top, he discovers a trap door. Examining the mechanism he realizes that the door is designed to swing open if weight is placed on it from above. But there is no way to trigger it from below. Lakima drops a rope down and Carric climbs up with spikes and a mallet. As Lakima instructs him, Carric attaches the spikes, rope, and block and tackle to the trap door. Then using his weight Carric descends one rope pulling the trap door open. Lakima floats up into the chamber above.

Lakima looks about a prayer chamber dominated by a 30-foot tall statue with its arms outstretched. The statue depicts the same individual as the ones they saw in the entrance tomb. Carric climbs up and starts searching the chamber. Aside from some moldy, faded prayer rugs, there is not much to see. A corridor leads away from the chamber. Lakima calls down telling Eathwund and Dag to come up. Once they are up in the chamber he calls down for Ayla. But Ayla tells Domago and Lantosh that she is staying on the lower level to look for Vestan. She doubts the young elf could have made it up to the next level on his own. She argues briefly with Domago and then departs. Lantosh and Domago then climb up the rope to the next level.

Entrance to Level 3

Dag is immediately entranced by an enormous gemstone in the forehead on the statue almost 30 feet above the floor of the room. He asks Carric to climb up and remove it. But Carric and Lakima discuss this and decide it might trigger an alarm (they would have). They want to check the area first and make sure they are safe. Carric heads up the corridor leaving the chamber. Coming from the end of the hall he can hear falling water. Once Lantosh enters the chamber with his lantern Carric is able to see the walls are covered in ancient script assembled in verses. The verses nearest the Chamber with the statue are carefully painted on the wall, but further up the corridor, they become scribbles in charcoal. The verses talk of a High Priest Nadron and his search for eternal life. The last verse is translated by Carric as saying, “What has he done to us? Cursed for all eternity. Soleth’s mercy is out of our reach.”

The party heads along the corridor checking the doors and finding each leads to a small chamber and another door. The end of the corridor is blocked by a waterfall. Eathwund attaches a crowbar to a rope and throws it into the waterfall. The rope goes slack after only five feet. They decide this means there is a chamber on the other side but they cannot see any way to pass through the rushing water safely.

Instead, they choose a door on the right and pass through it. Beyond is a maze of doors and hallways. They come to a large chamber with an ominous black rock in the center. Around the sides of the rock are upright standing sarcophagi. The faces on the sarcophagi lids have all been gouged with claws. After a brief discussion, they decide to avoid checking the coffins (monsters avoided). Instead, they continue on past a scribes chamber until they come to three chambers that are in the dome of trap rooms below in the maze they left earlier. Looking down in one chamber they spot a chest sitting on the floor. A skeleton can be seen pinned to the wall by javelins. Dag argues for going down and checking the chest but it looks too obviously a trap to everyone else. They decide to move on.

In a storage room near a kitchen, they fight an undead ooze that engulfs skeletons and ejects skeletons. With fire and weapons, they are able to destroy the undead abomination. From here they backtrack and find a hallway ending in an alcove with another statue. This one is twenty feet high. Carric climbs the statue and removes some red gems from its eyes. Nearby Carric finds a secret door in a curved section of the wall. He opens the door and shields his eyes from bright sunlight. They behold the amazing sight of the garden chamber.

Before the party stretches a large chamber. A stream of water flows swiftly down the length of the chamber. The ceiling of the chamber shines with brilliant, warm, light as if it was from the sun. In the chamber are lush plant-life, grass, bushes, and a number of tall trees whose branches are covered in strange globe-like fruits. The heroes enter the chamber and marvel at the wonders. But unlike a real forest, the chamber is very quiet with only the sound of running water breaking the stillness. Barely visible on the walls are four paintings of enormous red birds. Lakima picks one of the orange fruits and examines it. As he does a bird painting comes to life and steps from the wall. An eight-foot-tall pinkish-red bird seemingly made of plaster charges toward him with a sword-like beak. Lakima casts Mirror Image and the bird hits two of his mirrors first. Then Dag and Eathwund come to his aid and attack the bird. Dag is struck by a sword beak thrust right through his chest and he collapses to the grass-covered floor. Eathwund and Lantosh hack away at the bird until it is reduced to a pile of rubble. Domago casts Cure Light Wounds on Dag reviving the dwarf who struggles to his feet. A warning is shouted to everyone not to pick the oranges.

They follow the stream down a long hallway but Dag tells everyone that they are descending so they turn back to the room. Heading upstream they come to another chamber. This one has four trees covered in the strange fruit. There is also a waterfall at the head of the stream and a pair of altars set on either side of the stream. Carric and Lakima move over to examine one of the altars. The altars have the depression of a pair of hands in the top as if pressed into the stone. Written on the front of each altar are four words in an ancient language, “Turnim, Logra, Regra, Neg”. Carric is able to roughly translate the words. They try experimenting with the altars to no effect. Lakima picks more fruit and places them into hand-shaped depressions but nothing happens. Dag takes one of the fruit and eats it and is cured of his wounds. No paintings emerge from the walls to attack. They pick a few sacks full of fruit and everyone eats enough to be fully recovered from their wounds.

Finally, while Carric has his hands on the altar and he says the word Turnim the altar begins to hum. He quickly blurts out Logra, Regra, Neg. In a short space of time, everyone starts to float and then fall toward the ceiling before painfully crashing to the ground. Believing he has worked it out. Carric tells everyone to hold onto a tree and he says Turnim and then Logra. He floats upward and swims through the air up into the dome. Then he says Neg and as his weight returns to him he falls to a ledge above the height of the waterfall. Making his way along the ledge, Carric locates a concealed door and opens it. Beyond is a pair of passages each ending in wooden doors banded in bronze. Carric tells everyone else to come up and join him. The rest of the adventurers join him shortly after.

Carric figures out the Dome of Flight

In this next chamber, Carric sees further progress blocked by two doors. There is gold-painted lettering on each door in an ancient language Carric has seen before in the Tomb. He translates it as:

Beyond these doors lie the tests of the Land of the Dead, turn now from this doom for great and awful is the horror.

I3: Pharoah

When I first read the TSR module I3: Pharoah back in the early 1980's I was hooked and I had to get it into my game. My campaign at the time was using B/X D&D and the players were at the high end for the adventure so I re-wrote it to fit. Now that I am running a Swords & Wizardry campaign online I thought it would be a good idea to use Pharoah again.

This time I have rewritten and adapted it quite a bit more. The dungeon maps have only been slightly modified (although I have created my own maps for the Online play) but the contents and theme have been changed a fair amount. First and foremost a pyramid was not a possibility since the campaign is in a northern European climate. Removing the pyramid from the dungeons is actually very easy since none of the dungeon levels make note of the surroundings around them. The dungeon could be anywhere. I also cut down on the Egyptian style theme. Going with a more ancient northern theme. The hook was also changed. Now it is a well-known and thought to be plundered tomb with no treasure in it. The players head to the tomb to put the spirit to rest of an acquaintance murdered by bandits.

Most of the adventures I have run in this campaign (with the exception of In Search of the Unknown) have been short as that works best online in my opinion. This adventure is going to be longer and requires more resource management from the players. In the first session they made it to the 2nd level, the Master Maze and once that level is entered there is no way to turn back or step out of the dungeon to rest. Players will need to carefully marshall their resources and hit points to make it to the 5th and final level where they can escape. I did change the method of getting to the Master Maze from the Plundered Tomb. In the original adventure, this is a well-remembered magical portal located in a flaming offering bowl held by a statue. I felt there was a good chance one of my players would know of this from reading or playing Pharoah in the past so I changed it to another method. During play they did not seem to exhibit knowledge of the path so I was tempted to change it back but I decided to keep things as I had rewritten them.

Session 32: The Plundered Tomb

Players: Lakima (Magic-user), Eathwund (Fighter), Carric (Elven Thief), Domago (Human cleric NPC), Lantosh (Human Fighter NPC), Dag Icefoot (Dwarf Fighter NPC).

In the previous session, the fighter Eathwund was visited by the apparition of another adventurer killed by bandits. The adventurer, a wizard named Wella Hobba, was only a brief acquaintance but the players had been the first to stumble upon the ambush and find the body. As the session opens Eathwund tells his companions about the apparition who visited him the night before. The group is in a general agreement that they should help the lost soul (and take any loot the bandits have gathered).

Unfortunately, they are not sure where to start looking for the bandits.

Carric heads out to see if he can spot any lookouts for the bandits in town, figuring they must have had a tip that Wella Hobba was leaving the town to ambush him. He spends some time in the few taverns and Inns in Casters Ford and spots some suspicious characters but nothing definite. Back at the Blue Dragon Inn that evening Lakima suggests a plan to sneak out of town after dark and see if they can catch the bandits setting up an ambush. There is a discussion and they decide to take a small boat from the riverboat they hired. Late at night, after midnight, they set out in two groups and they are landed on the shore a short distance south of Casters Ford. Eathwund comes in the second group and sees the ghost of Wella Hobba waiting for him. He realizes no one else can see the ghost. The ghost answers that it feels that the bandit has gone to the Plundered Tomb deep in the Heroes Valley. Eathwund asks where the tomb is located and the ghost responds that they should follow the river through the valley to its source.

They trek in the dark for a few hours until they come to the spot on the trail where they found Wella Hobba’s body. The body of the wizard and his two companions are gone with little trace remaining. Carric scouts the nearby trees and finds three deadfalls that they suspect were set up by the bandits. The heroes split into three groups with two each at each deadfall. They wait all night for the bandits but do not see anyone. In the early morning, they see a few merchants headed for Casters Ford and then they spot a group of four adventurers on foot headed into the valley. They decide to follow the adventurers and use them as bait.

The four adventurers prove easy to follow, they are loud and not moving very fast. Carric stays in the treeline just within earshot while the rest of the company stays well back on the road. Carric is able to hear that the novice adventurers are headed for an abandoned Dwarven forge. In the evening they camp near the adventurers behind a hill overlooking the road. Late that night, they spot a sled pulled by two enormous goats coming from the direction of Casters' Ford.

The next morning they follow the adventurers again for much of the day until the adventurers turn south apparently toward the ruins of the Dwarven forge. Disappointed that the bandits did not put in an appearance the heroes nonetheless decided to break off and head north toward the supposed location of the Plundered Tomb. Carric relates some notes he has made in his journal about the tomb. The tomb is an ancient one of a ruler of a long-forgotten kingdom. It is called the plundered tomb because of its stripped of any items of value in ages past. Stories claim that adventurers that explore the small tomb frequently go missing.

As the evening begins to approach they spot an abandoned sled in the middle of the trail ahead. The leads of the sled are torn in half and they find a lot of blood on the ground. Carric finds footprints leading away from the trail into the hills left by a bare-footed beast with an enormous stride. They decide to follow. Lakima notes that the beast might have treasure, Domago and Lantosh are eager to help a fellow traveler if they can.  The footprints lead to a cave located under a hill in a small valley full of snow.

Approaching the Cave of the Yeti

Carric leads the way first into the cave entrance followed by Eathwund and Dag. As they come to a bend in the tunnel an enormous yeti springs from the darkness with a blood-curdling shriek. Eathwund and Lantosh are momentarily paralyzed with fear. Dag moves in and hacks away at the creatures’ legs while Lantosh tries to reach it with his polearm. Carric attacks with his sword and Lakima throws darts. After being out of action for a short space of time, Eathwund regains his nerve and attacks as well. Eathwund is struck by one enormous clawed hand and Dag is also struck. They continue pressing the attack until the creature is matted in blood and starts to slow. A dart to the eye from Lakima is the killing blow. Looking around the rank-smelling space they see two dead giant goats - one partially eaten. Behind some pine tree trunks used to close off an alcove like a pen, they find a dwarf who is very much alive. They manage to shift the logs and free the dwarf who introduces himself as Yulgrimmar a toy-maker from Casters Ford. They drag the yeti’s body out of the cave and go and retrieve Yul’s sled. That evening they enjoy a roaring fire in the Yeti cave and roast and eat goat meat.

The next morning they say goodbye to Yulgrimmar who has devised a harness to pull his sled and is headed home to Caster’s ford. The Company sets out again on the trail by the stream. They are still not sure where the tomb is located since they did not buy a map in Casters Ford. As the trail begins to turn north they see that the stream it has been following heads into the hills. Here they find a stone marker stone with ancient writing on it. Carric deciphers the script as pointing to the location of King Munera’s rest. They leave the trail and follow the stream into the hills.

Soon the entrance to the tomb rises before them on the side of a rise. A pair of stone columns, a wall, and a narrow entrance can be seen. Carric dashes between mounds of snow to approach the tomb entrance. His actions cause a pair of bandits on sentry duty to reveal themselves as they step out from behind the pillars and run back into the tomb. From a distance, the heroes can see flickering light emanating from the tomb. They lie in wait to see if the bandits will exit the tomb but nothing happens for ten minutes. Lakima decides on a plan, he summons a horde of giant rats with a spell and sends them into the tomb to attack. Soon the sound of fighting and yelling can be heard from within. Lakima yells for everyone to advance and they all run into the tomb into a large worship chamber with a tall stone statue. They see the bandits trying to fight off the rats and killing several of them. But the companions join the fight and the bandits are immediately on the defensive. One bandit runs to hide behind the statue and one runs down a side passage to their left. The remaining four are cut down by the heroes. Carric forces the bandit behind the statue to surrender. While Carric and Dag search the chamber, Lakima questions the bandit who gives his name as Bern. With a little intimidation, Lakima learns that the bandits are led by Vychan, the bandit leader who killed Wella Hobba. But Vychan, a witch named Apris, and three other men have been missing for three days. Now Haljamir leads the bandits and he is hard put to keep them from leaving while he looks for Vychan. Bern tells them that Vychan was gone one morning without leaving a note. He thinks Vychan abandoned the gang but Haljamir is still loyal.

The aftermath of the fight with the bandits

Lakima sends Bern down the side tunnel to give terms to Haljamir. After some back and forth the bandits agree to leave the tomb and not return - after paying a hefty ransom. Lantosh and Domago watch to be certain the bandits actually leave. Meanwhile, Carric has found a secret door behind the statue but he is unable to locate the opening mechanism. The heroes head down the two side passages and discover two more chambers. One chamber that the bandit Bern called the Offering chamber has a twenty-foot tall statue of the same figure depicted by the statue in the temple chamber. This statue has its arms extending holding a flaming stone bowl 15 feet off the floor. In the last chamber, they find a smaller temple and another statue. In this chamber, they discover another secret door behind the statue. Lakima twists a stone rod in the statue's hand and the door opens revealing a small chamber with a square shaft descending to glowing mists. Dag drops a copper in the shaft and they do not hear it hit the bottom.

Lakima tries twisting the rod in the main chamber and it also opens the secret door. A passage leads to another room with the same statue again. Corridors head left and right to large shafts. The bottom of these shafts is filled with water. One shaft has water pouring into it. Carric surmises that this could be the source of the stream outside. Lakima twists the rod in the statue's hand, opening another secret door leading deeper into the tomb. A corridor leads down into darkness. At the end of the descending hall, they find a small temple with seven more of the identical statues. An altar in the center of the room has a bag of copper, some sticks, and a metal flask lying on it. All look recent. Lakima casts Detect Magic and finds two of the statues have a strong magical aura. He also notes all of the stone in the walls, floor, and ceiling give off a low magical aura. Twisting the rods in these statues’ hands opens two more doors. One leads to a small chamber that looks like a long since deactivated trap. The other leads to a corridor that descends down. They head down and come across three more chambers. One is marked “Treasure Room” in an ancient language Carric deciphers. Another holds an empty sarcophagus. They see that someone has scrawled, “too late” in common on the wall.

Disappointed, they head back to the entrance looking for another chamber or clue. Since Bern mentioned that Vychan was last seen in the offering chamber, they concentrate their search here. Carric is sent up the statue to perch on its arm and check out the flaming bowl. He reports that the flame is burning without any source of fuel and is not putting off heat. He tosses a torch attached to a rope into the bowl and both torch and rope vanish. The rope disappearing right out of his hands. Eathwund figures out the clues and leads them back to the altar deep in the tomb where they find their rope and torch resting on the altar. They discuss what to do next. A few suggest that Vychan did abandon the bandits and is out in the wilderness somewhere. However, they decide to check the room with the shaft of mists one more time.

Carric lowers a torch into the shaft attached to a rope. When it sinks into the mists 15 feet down, the torch, rope, and its holder all vanish. Carric is gone. Lakima says, “Well, that decides it!”, and he directs the others to step over the edge and drop into the shaft. One after one each adventurer drops into the shaft and vanishes. They experience a brief flash of sharp pain and darkness then arrive on their feet in a small octagonal room. Four archways lead from the room. Rolling, purple-blue mists obscure their vision forward. A skeleton lies on the floor, its arm outstretched to a sword pointing at one archway. A large lever nearby.

Leaping into the Unknown

The Master Maze

Level Drain in OSR games

I am running a Swords & Wizardry campaign online with a specifically old-school focus. Despite this, I have been avoiding one common old-school element. Undead with level drain ability. I am using a lot of undead zombies and skeletons but no wights, wraiths, or spectres. 

Level drain in OSR games is scary for players. There is no save. The creature need only touch the players' character and a level of experience is drained. Once players get over 3rd to 4th level this is one of the worst things that can happen to their character. Character death would also be traumatic but in Swords & Wizardry characters are unconscious and dying for the number of rounds equal to their level before they die. As we will see in this week's session that is rarely fatal. There is usually someone nearby with a healing potion or spell.

Recovering a drained level is much harder. The clerical spell Restoration can do it but it is a seventh level cleric spell (first available at character level 17!). In my campaign, it is also possible to get a level recovered through some sort of divine intervention or quest. But this is very hard to accomplish. There are a lot of house rules available to minimize the effects of a level drain but in keeping with the campaign theme, I did not want to use them.

After reading some of the online suggestions for handling level drain I decided to just make sure the players were not surprised and understood what they were getting into. The nature of the foe and its level drain ability were made apparent well before they took on the task. Accepting the task was also optional. The players were well aware of what they faced and took as many precautions as possible. They made a lot of plans to keep the undead at a distance with ranged attacks. That all fell apart once they actually met the wights and wraith in the adventure. The creatures got about a half-dozen to hit chances on the players and through luck, I never rolled a hit.

This session's adventures are both modified adventures from Creation's Edge Games; The Well of Woe and Return of the Warlock.

Session 31: Ascent of Medamellara / The Hall of Heroes

Players: Lakima (Magic-user), Eathwund (Fighter), Carric (Elven Thief), Domago (Human cleric NPC), Lantosh (Human Fighter NPC), Dag Icefoot (Dwarf Fighter NPC).

The heroes have come to the Well of Woe and the urgings of the young apprentice Zia who lost her master to an attack from ogres. They have found the open well spewing forth mana. They have also encountered a band of ogres.

From the room with the Mana Well the heroes head down a hallway with four alcoves leading to doors. Carric checks the doors but does not hear anything. He then opens the door to the chamber marked Workroom and beyond is indeed a workroom. Lakima notes the equipment to make magic rings, wands, and rods. He asks Lantosh to gather up all of the equipment and papers. They then head to another room with an unmarked door. Inside there is a life-sized painted statue of Medamellara (goddess of magic) facing a pool of blue liquid and facing away from the door. Eathwund suggests the statue could be the goddess of magic. Zia glances over the statue and says; “It is supposed to be Medamellara, but it is a poor likeness”. She also seems disdainful of the pool calling it a cheap experiment that uses the mana well. The liquid looks unnaturally blue. Lakima takes a sample in a metal flask. Zia suggests that drinking the liquid would not be wise. Carric elbows Dag and says, “Dag drink from the pool,” Dag laughs at Carric and says, “I will drink it for 10 gold”. Carric gives Dag the 10 gold coins and Dag drinks a flagon from the pool. He reports that the water tastes sweet but otherwise he feels fine. Everyone notices that Dag is now putting out a flowery smell rather than his usual sweaty stink. There are some good-natured jabs tossed at Dag.

The heroes move down the hallway and see one door is marked Emerald Room and the other is marked Ruby room. Above each door is a damaged niche where a gem might have once rested. They open the door to the Ruby room and find a red-tiled library and workroom. A smaller ogre dressed in loose clothes is seen leaning over papers on a desk. His still large form perched on a tiny stool. The ogre angrily yells at them that he is not to be disturbed without looking up. Carric sneaks up behind the ogre but the creature whirls about and spots him at the last moment. The ogre turns invisible.

Lakima pulls out some chalk from his pack and grinds it up quickly. The ogre appears next to Carric and swings and strikes him with a spear. Then the ogre vanishes again. Everyone shouts for Lakima to hurl the chalk powder which he does. The cloud of chalk dust coats the leg of the ogre as it dashes for the back of the library. Eathwund strikes at where he suspects the ogre is standing and hits it, Lantosh also hits it. Lakima strikes it with a pair of darts. The ogre reappears looking badly injured, blood soaking its clothes. It points its spear at the group and says some magical words, a blast of snow and ice erupts from the spear. Most of the heroes manage to dodge out of the way but Lantosh and Lakima are caught fully in the blast and are knocked unconscious near death. Carric and Eathwund shout for Domago to come and help. Domago runs in and sees his two companions lying apparently dead on the floor. Eathwund and Dag advance on the ogre and kill it. Domago shouts that he has no more healing spells! Luckily he finds 2 healing potions on Lakima’s body and is able to revive both of them.

The heroes take stock. Lakima and Lantosh are now alive and conscious but badly injured. Dag has also taken a hit. As they search the ogre’s body they find a pouch containing diamonds. On the table they find notes. Zia says they look like her master Durrakis’ notes about the Well of Woe. Lakima peruses the notes quickly and puts them in his pack. Just then two ogres leave the Emerald room to the north and spot the heroes. The ogres move to attack. Lakima casts Phastasmal force and makes the image of the Ogre Mage appear. The ogre mage waves the ogres away. The ogres stop and look confused. They growl something in ogre. Lakima has the ogre mage image stomp toward the ogres angrily waving its arms. The two ogres back away from the image. Lakima keeps pushing the ogres until they are walked right out of the Temple. The ogres move north from the entrance and are attacked by a number of mana wraiths.

Lakima suggests immediately running for it. But they realize that Zia, Domago, and Dag have remained behind in the Mana Well chamber. They all move back to the mana well. Lakima asks what the hold up is - the task is complete they should be able to leave. Zia nods and walks into the Mana well. She begins to grow in size and her appearance slowly changes. She says, “I was not entirely honest with you.” Lakima quickly exclaims, “You’re the goddess!” She smiles and nods to Lakima. Her form changes to look more or less like the statue of Medamellara they saw earlier. 

“I spent years in the service of mages like Durrakis. Me! A goddess of magic unable to do anything but the most simple spells. But now I return to the realm of magic. My banishment is completed. I thank you for your service. The well should remain for a bit after I’m gone. Feed upon its energies and be blessed! You will remain free of the curse as long as you do not over-indulge!”

With that Medamellar vanishes into the mana well. The mana well flares up and then moves down to a smaller flow of mana. There is a brief discussion about the possibility of touching the mana well. Eathwund, Domago, and Lakima dissuade this suggestion. The heroes sneak out of the Temple of Medamellara and spot the two ogres still fighting Mana Wraiths. The companions walk away. They decide to avoid the trail again worried about bandits. Carric leads them across the country. 

Medamellar revealed

The heroes stick to the woods and stop as soon as it starts to get a little dark. They set up a dark, cold camp with no fire. The temperature drops below freezing and they huddle up in the tents with two on watch at a time. Late in the evening with Eathwund and Lantosh on watch, Eathwund looks over the treeline and suddenly notices a shape sitting near the entrance to the tent. He looks more closely and notes that the shape forms into that of a man in a brown, hooded cloak. As he looks more closely he notices that the figure has two arrows jutting out of its back and the front of the robe is stained with blood. The figure reaches out hands to warm them at a non-existent fire. Eathwund asks the figure what it wants and how he can help. The figure looks up and the hood falls back revealing a translucent, human ghost. The ghost says, “I seek revenge for those that killed me!” Eathwund asks who killed him. “A bandit named Vychan struck me down on the road not far from here!” Eathwund says, “We will try to help if we can.” The ghost smiles slightly and nods. Lantosh steps out of the shadows brandishing his polearm. Then the shape vanishes without a trace.

In the morning Eathwund tells everyone about the apparition he encountered during his watch. Lakima suggests it was likely the wizard Wella Hobba that they met in the Inn in Caster’s Ford and later found dead upon the road. The heroes break camp and head out for Caster’s Ford. They arrive shortly after noon and find extra guards at the gate. The guards ask them if they had any success. Lakima says they did not find much. The guard looks them over and sets the toll. They are told to stay clear of the Hall of Heroes near the docks.

The adventurers walk the short distance toward the docks and spot their hired riverboat waiting. As they near they see a crowd of guards and townsfolk outside the Hall of Heroes. A members-only adventurers hall. Lakima walks over to some local officials and asks what is going on. One of the men waves them over, “You will have to do, come here!”

They hear from Simik Sidlow the Grandmaster of the Hall that the visage of a long-dead warlock appeared in the museum killing some of the staff and taking hostages of the rest. The warlock Kalis Magefire is demanding that the heroes who defeated him be brought to meet him in battle. The Guard Captain Jarred Wittly interjects to tell them that this all happened more than 100 years ago. All of the heroes the warlock wishes to fight are long gone - most are dead and buried. They look expectantly at the heroes. Lakima guesses that they want the Company of the Black Dragon to face the warlock in place of the heroes. But Lakima does not hear about payment so he suggests they move on. Carric raises some objections but given how badly injured Lantosh, Dag, and Lakima are they move on.

Negotiating

The adventurers go to the local provisioner Lore Noski and get the diamonds they took from the ogre mage appraised. Lore offers to buy them but they decide to hold onto them. Carric asks Lore about what is going on at the Heroes Hall and they get some more back-story. Leaving the Provisioners they seek out the cleric Jerome they saw tending to a man outside the hall. The man, Arione is a guard at the Heroes’ Hall. He tells them in graphic detail what happened. He hid in the kitchen but the warlock found him and drained him. He was spared to give the message of the warlock’s demands to the town. The heroes realize that the warlock has at least two other dangerous undead with it that could drain lifeforce. They decide to take on the task.

They let Jerome know and ask for help. Jerome brings his abbot to meet with them at the Blue Dragon Inn. The abbot casts healing on Lantosh and Lakima. Lakima asks the abbot how he is at turning undead. The abbot flushes and says he is just a simple priest. They note his plump appearance and lack of armor and drop the suggestion. The heroes tell Jerome they will take the task. Jerome goes and brings back the Guard captain. Jarred looks at them skeptically with Lantosh especially clearly injured. However, they are brought before the abbot of St. Johan who heals most of the heroes and gives them 4 vials of holy water.

Before entering the Halls they go over the floorplan with Grandmaster Sidlow. He explains the layout. The guard captain persuades Sidlow that there will be a reward for the rescue of the hostages. They decide to enter through the front entrance, finding the entrance hall well lit but empty of any undead or the living. Carric quickly checks the nearby barracks and finds it empty. They pop open the door to the meeting hall room and see a tavern-like setup with a stair leading up to a balcony wrapping around the chamber. Carric moves slowly into the room and is joined by Lantosh and Dag. As they are looking about and talking about going upstairs - two wights suddenly appear and attack. Lantosh keeps one at bay with his polearm and Domago barely pushes one back with his shield. Domago, Carric, and Lakima throw holy water at the undead spirits but they miss smashing on the floor. Dag shouts, “I have the weapon, I have the weapon!” He swings his sword Lawbringer that is glowing bright blue and he strikes one of the wights. Eathwund also strikes the wight and it disincorporates. They concentrate attacks on the other wight and manage to destroy it as well before anyone is touched.

The heroes decide to head upstairs. In the upper hall Carric spots zombies outside the door to the library. Eathwund moves to the front and quickly kills the two zombies with ease. At the Grandmaster’s chamber door Carric hears a crackling noise. They decide to ignore it. The heroes step quietly through the library and listen at the door to the museum room. Carric tells everyone that he can hear several people sobbing on the other side of the door. He cracks the door open and spots seven townspeople huddled in a corner of the room looking pale and afraid. Carric crawls into the room under some display tables and looks about. He does not see anyone else in the room. He spots a stone throne with red cushions set upon it. He also notices a skull sitting on the stone throne.

Lantosh spots the townsfolk huddled in the corner of the room and signals this to the other heroes. He asks through signals what to do. Lakima, and Eathwund signal to get them out of the chamber. Lantosh makes sure the hostages can see him and he motions for them to run for the door. The hostages run across the room toward the door. As they are just about to get to Lantosh at the door the wraith, Kalis Magefire, appears on the stone throne shouting in anger. Eathwund immediately runs into the museum stationing himself to protect the hostages. Dag follows his lead. The wraith cries out, “At last, I will have my revenge!” Lakima, Lantosh, and Domago also enter the room. The wraith seems to recognize them as the long-dead heroes it once fought. Lakima shouts out, “They are not here but you have made an enemy of the Company of the Black Dragon!” The wraith appears incensed that they are not the heroes he wanted to fight. He moves to kill the townsfolk in anger but Carric steps it from behind with his longsword. Domago tries to turn the wraith but it laughs at him. Eathwund strikes the wraith with his sword and Dag hits as well with his bright, glowing sword. Carric strikes the wraith again from behind and it screams in desperation and it dissipates and vanishes.

The heroes go down and step outside the Hall and are greeted as heroes. The Guard Captain comes over to shake their hands as townsfolk cheer. Sidlow asks if the hall is clear? Lakima shrugs, and tells him they killed the warlock and his wights. Sidlow offers to pay for them to check and clear the entire hall. He sends a runner to the Town Hall to get the payment. They re-enter the halls and find that the back entrance is full of zombies. They move in and attack the zombies but find they are surprisingly tough. Dag is hit and Eathwund is struck twice. Eventually, they strike down the zombies and clear the Hall.

Upon leaving they meet with Sidlow who pays them 3,500 gold coins for their efforts in clearing the Hall. They stay the night at the Blue Dragon Inn. That night, while on watch, Eathwund is visited again by the apparition of Wella Hobba. Eathwund asks Wella Hobba a few questions but learns nothing new. As his watch ends, the apparition vanishes.

The Lure of Magic

 I am a little behind on posting sessions. Two weeks ago was our Session 30. Which is about 25 more sessions than I planned for this online campaign. But then the pandemic happened.

I was really not sure which direction the players planned to go next. I had several options open for the players. The player who plays the wizard and tends to lead took off after the lure of the Well of Woe. An adventure I ran fairly close to the published version from Creations' Edge Games.

Session 30: The Well of Woe

Players: Lakima (Human Magic-user), Eathwund (Human Fighter), Carric (Elven Thief), NPCS: Domago (Human Cleric), Dag Icefoot (Dwarven Fighter), Lantosh (Human Fighter).

The heroes of the Company of the Black Dragon have returned from the village of Whetwhistle where they killed a trio of Rock Apes that had taken over the local Copper Mine (gaining half ownership in the mine in the process). Now back home in Edgerton, a number of disparate threads of adventure beckon them. Which will they choose to follow?

Lakima is visited by the apprentice wizard Zia. The young girl tells him of her master who also had dreams of the Mana Well. Her master surmised the Well's location and became determined to find it. Zia explains that she and her master were attacked on the road by ogres who ate her master. Zia tells Lakima some of the histories of the Well. That it is also a Temple of Medamellara and that it can recharge magic items. Lakima tells her they may take on the mission (eager to get his magic items recharged) but he needs to ask his companions first. Once Eathwund and Carric return they agree to take the mission.

There is a discussion amongst the company on the best way to get to the Well of Woe. Zia tells them it is in the Valley of Heroes a short walk from Caster's Ford. Lakima thinks taking the horses overland is the best way to journey there. But going by boat will only take a day while the horses will be 4-5 days. Carric heads over to the docks to see what it would cost to get passage on a riverboat and how often boats are traveling to Caster's Ford. He asks some boat crew and stevedores about the passage and is directed to an agent named Meike Becker. The old woman tells Carric it would cost 2 sp per person to get to Caster's Ford.

Lakima goes over to Clerwin's Oddities and asks about Medamellara. Clearwin brings out an old statuette of the goddess of magic that Lakima pays 600 gold to purchase. He also buys a spent wand that has the word "Kanrikat" inscribed on it. Carric goes back to the docks again to speak with Meike. He buys them passage with Captain Iainwallon Trueworthy through Meike. He rents the boat for a week so it will be waiting for them in Caster's Ford when they return from the Well.

The next day the Company of the Black Dragon load their goods on the riverboat owned by the Captain who introduces himself as Iain. They set out early in the morning for Caster's Ford. Carric reads his Journal notes on Caster's Ford to his companions. They arrived at the small walled northern town by sunset. Freshly fallen snow on the ground. Iain gives them some advice about the town including the expected toll to enter and where to stay. The heroes decide to stay at the Blue Dragon Inn. They take note of the number of adventuring parties in the town and the number of people openly carrying weapons. After getting rooms they get some dinner in a private room of the tavern. The waitress impressed with their silver when they pay upfront. Lakima and Zia discuss what Zia knows in more detail. They then retire for the evening in three rooms.

While Eathwund is on watch in the room, Carric is awakened by his sword Everwatchful. Going to the door he hears a pair of thieves outside. The thieves pick the lock and swing open the door seeing Eathwund standing there at the ready. The thieves try to run for it. One of the thieves, a woman, gets away. But Carric gets caught up with the other thief on the stairs causing everyone to tumble. Lakima casts Charm Person on the thief. The Innkeeper comes out to see what is going on and tells them not to bloody up his tavern and to kill the thief and toss him in the street. Instead, they question the man who gives his name as Brenci Teague. He and his compatriot Gest Kestle were just planning to rob the rich newcomers. He is sent on his way with a warning.

The next morning in the tavern over breakfast Lakima talks to a fellow wizard named Wella Hobba and his two friends Kenver and Penketh. They are adventurers headed to the Valley of Heroes. While friendly, Wella suggests they leave at different times. He says they will give the Black Dragons a few hours head start. Then the three men get up and leave. The heroes finish their breakfast and discuss with Zia her story again. Lakima suggests she apprentice to him. She declines and Lakima tells a parable about his father the warrior. Then they set out on foot for the Valley of Heroes. Zia takes them on a trail beside a swift-moving mountain stream. After a few hours, they come across four bodies lying in the road. Wella Hobba and his two friends shot with arrows and another man is blackened by fire. Nervous they decide to leave the road and set out across the country. That night they have a dark, cold camp. Everyone closes together to keep warm except Zia who seems not to mind the cold.

The next morning an impatient Zia is waiting very early to get going. She suggests skipping breakfast because the Well is only a few hours away. They set out and come to battered wooden doors placed into a wall built in the hillside. Carric moves up and checks the doors. The doors are large, old, wooden doors that look to have been recently knocked down and rehung. The doors are unlocked, so Carric cracks one open and looks inside. He sees a short, unlit hallway. Near the end in front of some doors, a pair of huge ogres are fighting three flying, glowing skulls. Carric lets everyone know and they all move to look. Zia gasps, "Mana wraiths!" She tells everyone that Mana wraiths are the spirits of dead wizards. They feed on magic, especially from charged items. The heroes decide to watch the fight and await the outcome not lending either side any aid. The ogres are bitten by the skulls a few times but they soon destroy all of the mana wraiths.

As soon as the fight ends the heroes wait to see if the ogres will leave but they stop at the end of the hall conversing. Carric slips quietly through the hall in the shadows and walks right up behind one Ogre. He tries to stab an ogre in the back but misses. The pair of ogres immediately attack Carric but miss him. Eathwund, Dag, and Lantosh come to his aid and fight the ogres. In the first exchange, Eathwund is struck by a huge club. After a few exchanges, one of the ogres is killed and the remaining one shouts in alarm several times. Then more ogres arrive. Two from a hall to the north and two from a hall to the south. Eathwund gets surrounded and pummeled several times but stays on his feet. Dag and Lantosh are also struck a few times. Carric and Lakima stay back using missile weapons. Domago moves up and Casts Cure Light Wounds on Eathwund. One by one the ogres are overpowered and killed until only one remains. The last ogre flees to the south into a chamber. Eathwund and Lakima follow the ogre and kill it in what looks like a bed chamber. Eathwund tried to reason with the ogre but it lacked the ability to communicate.

The heroes investigate a room to the left of the hallway and find an empty room with a broken wall. Dag examines the wall and declares that it was a secret door now broken. He removes more of the wall and finds a concealed wine storage with three bottles of wine still on the racks. Dag gives the bottles to Lakima.

Carric listens at the door at the end of the hall and is unable to hear anything. Opening the door the heroes see the Chamber of the Mana Well. A large chamber, with a ceiling 20 feet above. In the center, a circular well spouts huge gouts of bluish mana right to the ceiling. In the chamber, three ogres stand on the edge of the wide well. The heroes move to enter the chamber and the ogres ignore them - engrossed in the mana torrent. Finally, one of the ogres notices the heroes and growls and moves to attack. A second ogre follows it. As they watch the third ogre puts his hand and arm into the stream of mana. The ogre's eyes begin to glow red as his arm bursts into blue flames.

The Well of Woe

Carric moves through the shadows and moves up behind the entranced ogre attempting to strike it from behind. He misses and the ogre turns toward him and grins. Then magic missiles shoot from the ogre's eyes and strike Carric. Across the room, Eathwund and Lantosh fight the two ogres. One ogre falls and Lantosh maneuvers into the chamber to allow more heroes to attack the ogre. Dag, Lakima, and Domago join the fight. The second ogre falls but the remaining ogre continues to fire magic missiles from his eyes at adventurers. Eathwund, Lantosh, and Dag close with the ogre and strike it repeatedly. It staggers backward toward the mana stream. Lakima tosses darts at it and it stumbles and falls into the well. The ogre's body is consumed and disappears.

With the danger passed the heroes check the chamber. Dag spots large double doors across the chamber and moves to hold them. Lakima takes some of his charged magic items and places them into the mana stream. Each item regains some charges. Carric suggests putting his sword in the mana stream but Lakima and Zia advise him not to do it. Lakima takes out his statuette of Medamellara beseeches her favor and tosses it into the mana stream. He waits expectantly for something to happen.

Nothing happens...

Rivals

A few weeks back I ran my Swords & Wizardry campaign through another Creations' Edge Games adventure. This one called "A Ring for the King". I made minor changes to the adventure as written to fit it into my campaign. The adventure is a short investigation of a Copper Mine that is now the lair of three Rock Apes. To round out the adventure the author tossed in a rival group of adventurers who have been sent to stop the heroes. This is a well-used trope in D&D and I have used it myself in the past. The danger is two-fold. Outfitting rivals at the same level as the players can result in a very difficult fight especially as it is placed after a cave crawl so the players will be down some HP and spells. Secondly, if they defeat the rivals they are going to plunder everything they are carrying. I learned this the hard way in another campaign. I designed what was meant to be a recurring group of rival adventurers with some cool magical equipment. Then the players killed them all and took their stuff.

Session 29: The Hand of Manos.

Players: Lakima (Magic-user), Eathwund (Fighter), Carric (Elven Thief), Domago (Human cleric NPC), Lantosh (Human Fighter NPC), Dag Icefoot (Dwarf Fighter NPC).

The Company of the Black Dragon has accepted a commission from the best smith in Edgerton to locate Rock Ape teeth for a ring he is making for a local noble. After speaking with the Librarians at the Library of Antiquity they have learned of a Copper Mine overrun with Rock apes in the village of Whetwhistle.

The heroes arrive at the formerly booming mining settlement and find a village that appears almost abandoned. There is a small Inn (the Goose) and four or five cottages nothing more. At the Inn, they meet the halfling innkeeper Wexley. They ask about the copper mine and end up shaking on a deal to take on half ownership in the Mine if they clear it of monsters. Wexley also asks them to find his cousin - a halfling adventurer who went up to the mine a month ago.

Wexley warns the heroes that the path to the mine is steep, so they leave the horses in Whetwhistle and take only the pack mules to the mine. The mine is initially an open area with a pair of tunnels leading off from it. Carric takes the lead and decides to try the tunnel on his right first. The tunnel leads to a cave with a wall of rubble. In front of the rubble, they spot their first rock ape. Carric tries to sneak up on it but he alerts it to his presence. The Rock Ape turns and attacks angrily howling loudly. Domago, Dag, and Lantosh rush up to attack the rock ape as Carric drops back. Dag gets hit once but they manage to kill the Rock Ape. Their goal is to return to Edgerton with Rock Ape teeth but no one thought to bring any tools to remove the teeth. Instead, they decide to chop off its head and drop the still dripping head in a sack.

Carric suggests trying the other tunnel but Dag spots a tunnel in the back of the cave leading down so they follow it. This tunnel leads down into a flooded cave. Carric goes first across the cave and he finds it is no more than 3 feet deep. At the far end, the tunnel emerges from the water. Dag grows concerns as the water level in the cave rises to the height of his shoulders.

The Flooded Copper Mine

A tunnel leads up out of the flooded cave and into what looks to be a natural cave that was not part of the mine. Stalactites cover the ceiling and a few stalagmites rise from the floor. Carric advances into the cave, suddenly a stalactite drops from the ceiling striking Carric with a glancing blow. It hits the cave floor with a wet slap rather than a crash. Carric looks down and sees the stalactite creeping away from him. He shouts a warning that there are piercers in the cave. Carric runs back to the tunnel and two more piercers fall from the ceiling missing him. The heroes discuss whether to turn back. Lakima gets an idea and casts a Phastasmal Image of a large bison. He moves the bison at a slow walk into the cave. Piercers crash to the cave floor vainly trying to gore the phantasmal bison. Then he shouts at the fighters to get into the cave and kill the helpless piercers which are lying on the cave floor. Domago, Dag, Lantosh, and Eathwund all run in and hack away at the piercers. While they are distracted and making a lot of noise a second Rock Ape rushes them from the darkness roaring in anger. Lantosh and Eathwund are hit by the ape's heavy stone fists. But eventually, they manage to kill it. Another Rock ape head goes into their sack.

On the far side of the cave, they find a mine working. Dag digs away at it for a while and produces a chunk of copper ore. He declares that the Copper Mine appears to be still viable. Heading out from the natural cave they enter more mining diggings and find the body of a halfling adventurer lying on the cave floor. A large spike-shaped hole in his shoulder. He is also emaciated. Dag tells them that piercers drain the blood of their victims. From this cave, they head down a tunnel and come to another cave with loose falls of rock. Another Rock ape is picking through the rubble. They attack it with surprise and kill the Rock Ape. A third rock ape head goes into the sack. A tunnel from this cave heads back out into the sunlight.

The mission complete, the heroes return to the village of Whetwhistle arriving in the late afternoon. Outside of the Inn, they see four horses tied to the hitching post alongside their horses. In the tavern room, they meet three strangers who introduce themselves as adventurers. Lakima brags to these adventurers about their recent exploits killing rock apes and he pulls out an ape head and plants it on a table. The strangers seem suitably impressed. The strangers introduce themselves as the cleric (and leader) Xang, Attuk Blooddragon a fighter, and a dwarven female fighter named Ada. Xang tells them that they are hunting black dragons in the swamp. Lakima tells them about the Black Dragon slain by his group from whence they took their name. Wexley seems nervous and rushes about getting ale for everyone. Carric excuses himself and says he needs to go to the outhouse. The conversation continues in the tavern. Wexley delivers some food to their table and Lakima notices there is a note under the food. Casually pulling out the note he sees it as a single word written on it.

Meanwhile, Carric did not go to the outhouse but is actually on the other side of the door to the inn listening to the conversation. He hears a footstep behind him and whirls about. A dark-cloaked woman stands behind him holding a poison covered dagger. She slashes at him and strikes him in the arm. He feels his limbs going numb. He tries to cry out but everything goes dark.

Carric is ambushed

Inside the tavern, Lakima read the word “Danger” on the note. As he turns Xang gets to his feet and picks up a dark, hardwood staff. “Hey, I want to show you this. It is really interesting!” Xang presents the staff to Lakima and mutters the word Darkstrike. The staff leaps from his hand and swings at Lakima on its own. Lakima shouts a warning to his companions as the three rival adventurer's launch an attack.

Ada strikes Lakima with her war hammer hurting the magic-user. Attuk uses an enormous two-handed sword to attack Eathwund. Xang begins to cast a spell. Lakima casts Atanzabar’s Acrid Finger and directs the spray of acid into Ada's face. Xang’s spell goes off and absolute silence falls over the Inn. The fight continues as weapons strike metal on metal without a sound. Lantosh is hit by Attuk and struggles to stay on his feet as blood pours from a wound in his side. Attuk targets Domago and stabbing the cleric in the back. Domago also staggers to the edge of the fight barely alive. Eathwund is also hit several times by Attuk who proves very hard to hit. Wexley shouts a warning to Dag as the dark cloaked woman with the poison dagger appears from the kitchen sneaking up behind Dag. Dag turns to strike her while Wexley throws food and tankards at her and Ada.

Wild melee in the tavern

Slowly the tide of battle begins to turn, the Acid from Lakima burns into Ada who shouts at Xang repeatedly for healing. But it is too late and she falls to the floor dead. The woman in the dark cloak takes the opportunity to retreat back into the kitchen and run away. Eathwund concentrates his attacks on Attuk and Lakima redirects the acid stream on him as well. Lantosh and Domago drive Xang toward the door to the outside. Xang tries to get to the door but is blocked. He yells for parlay but Lakima shouts, “No parlay for killers!” and Xang is struck down. Now Attuk is the only opponent remaining in the fight. Rather than surrender, he redoubles his attacks striking Eathwund for a wound. But it lasts only a few moments before he is also struck down.

Dag runs after the dark-robed woman but through the kitchen and out into the innyard. He stops chasing her when he spots Carric lying on the ground near the outhouse. Dag runs over to Carric and is able to shake him out of unconsciousness.

Wexley begins to talk in a stream of words fueled by adrenaline. The group of four murderers arrived at the Inn only a few hours after the heroes set out for the mine. They called themselves the Hand of Manos. They made Wexley nervous right away but there was little he could do. They asked where the heroes had gone off to and he told them they headed into the swamps hoping they would leave and go in the wrong direction. The adventurers help Wexley clean up the tavern floor. The bodies are searched, stripped, and then tossed into the river. Wexley says that the crocodiles will get them. They do bury the body of the halfling they found at the mine. Wexley says some words about his dead cousin.

The heroes return to Edgerton after an uneventful ride. They take the rock ape heads to the Smith Cromly who hired them and collect their reward. Lakima heads over to the apothecary to consult with Malyn the wizard. He finds the shop is open and Malyn is no longer in hiding. Lakima asks him if the necromancer Talmea Pak is no longer a concern. Malyn shows Lakima the Mazestone - a magical artifact that can trap people in a prison dimension. Talmea tried to use it on Malyn but he grabbed a mirror and the effect bounced back and trapped Talmea. Now the necromancer is trapped in a rock Malyn is using as a paperweight.

Lakima shows Malyn the staff he took from Xang. Malyn examines it deeply and learns there is a mage named Darkstrike trapped inside of the staff. Malyn calls him an evil-minded bungler. Lakima suggests that maybe the mazestone can free the mage. They try it and the mage is pulled out of the staff and into the mazestone. Unfortunately, now the staff is just a wood staff with no magic.

Directions

 Last week the players closed off a chapter in the on-going Swords & Wizardry campaign when they killed the Rat King. He had been a nemesis for about 14 sessions. I have a large adventure planned but I did not want to force the direction of the players so I put out some hints for several short adventures. Some of which would bring clues for the bigger adventure. For this session, the players hit on two of the hooks and decided to go after both of them. Both adventures are recognizable re-writes of adventures published by Creations' Edge Games.

I am making maps for the Roll20 interface when we play. I do not think I would have done this if this was a face-to-face game. Battle maps really help when playing in Roll20. A lot of the time I just have to describe the main features of an area and add some mood. The players can see on the map if there is something of interest. But this also means a lot of preparation time, making maps and this necessarily means that the choices will be limited.

Session 28: Bell, Book, and Candle.

Players: Lakima (Magic-user), Eathwund (Fighter), Carric (Elven Thief), Domago (Human cleric NPC), Lantosh (Human Fighter NPC), Dag Icefoot (Dwarf Fighter NPC).

As the session opens the heroes are resting after killing the Rat King in the sewers beneath the town of Edgerton. Lakima hands the scroll tube they found on the body of the cleric to Domago who opens it and finds a note.

“I am staying at the Duchess Maria Inn just outside town.

I need a safe hiding place in town that is hidden but close to my target’s home.

My patron pays well and you owe me.

Contact me soon - Tamea.”

The note details contact between the Necromancer Talmea Pak who they have tangled with before and the Rat King. It also suggests she is in Town and planning to kill their patron Malyn the wizard. Before leaving, Lakima comments they need a trophy to prove that the Rat King is dead. Domago says that no one in town knew what the Rat King looked like anyway. This gives Lakima an idea and he asks Carric to cut the head off of a dead wererat which is much easier to carry than the enormous Rat King. The gold, silver, and even copper coins are scooped into bags and they haul everything out into the daylight. Local merchants and townspeople are pretty shocked to see them emerge from the sewers. Carric pulls the rat head from a sack and openly waves it around in the Low Market letting people know that the Rat King is dead.

Everyone returns to the Chapter House. Lakima lets everyone know he is going to take the note from Talmea to Malyn. Lakima arrives at the Apothecary and finds that Malyn has a new young apprentice called Roberto. He shows Malyn the note. Malyn excitedly tells Lakima to head over to the Inn immediately. Lakima asks about the pay and Malyn becomes annoyed. Then he decides he has had enough of being held prisoner in the shop. He states, “I will take care of this myself!” and then he vanishes. The door opens and closes. Lakima shrugs to Humbert and leaves.

Carric heads over to the Duchess Maria Inn to do a little snooping. He takes in the people in the room looking for any sign of Talmea. But he does not see anyone that matches her description. After a few hours, there's a commotion upstairs in the rented rooms. A guest complains that there is a ghost moving through the rooms’ opening doors. The staff manages to convince the guest to go back to his room. Carric stays until early in the morning when he is asked to leave. He returns to the Chapter House.

The group meets over breakfast. Carric mentions the strange occurrence at the Inn. Lakima mentions his conversation with Malyn. Over breakfast, the manservant Huntley repeatedly goes to the door to chase off callers. Lakima gets up to answer the next door knock and finds a man begging. Drawn by word that this is a place the poor can come for hand-outs. Lakima threatens to curse the man with magic and chases him off. Carric decides to head off to learn more about the hangings. Lakima places a note on the door to discourage beggars.

Carric heads over to the Low Market and meets with the street urchins who roam the area. He tells them about a crate full of daggers he left in the Rat King’s Lair and lets them know the Rat King is dead. Carric asks Maik to call all of the urchins together later in the day.

Back at the Chapter House there is a knock at the door. Lakima waves off Huntley and goes to the door to chase off another beggar. But on the doorstep is a young librarian from the Library of Antiquity located in Edgerton. The librarian introduces himself as Amras. He tells Lakima that the Librarians need the help of the Company of the Black Dragon and asks them to come to meet with the Head Librarian. Lakima promises to bring the proposal to his comrades.

Eathwund heads out intent on finding a better shield. He takes Dag with him who tells him he knows just the place. The smith who made his Dwarven Ax. The smith is a human but his work is good enough to pass for Dwarven. They head together to Cromly’s Smithy. At the smithy, they find Cromly is sullen and withdrawn. Dag shrugs and tells Eathwund that he has never seen the smith like this. Cromly hears Eathwund is looking to improve his shield. He nods and asks if he is a member of the watch. Eathwund tells Cromly about the Company of the Black Dragon. Once Cromly hears that he is an adventurer for hire his tone becomes very excited. He is in desperate need of some adventurers. He needs some Rock Ape teeth. Six to be exact for a commission piece and he needs it in a hurry. He explains that he entered a contest to bring attention to his shop. The Baron Vorloi is commissioning a ring. He never expected to win. He does not normally make rings. But his design won. The jewel crafters and silversmiths in town were outraged. The problem is his design needs Rock Ape teeth. He does not have any. He tells Eathwund that he will pay 6,000 gold for the teeth. He needs them within a week. Dag immediately accepts the commission, then realizes it is not his place. Eathwund tells Cromly that he will have to check with the full crew. The conversation then returns to the shield improvements Eathwund is hoping for. Cromly tells him he will enchant the shield for 850 gold and it will be ready tomorrow.

Lakima, Eathwund, Carric, Dag, Lantosh, and Domago meet at the Chapter House and discuss what they should do next. No one has seen Kal or Grimble since they were paid the previous day. Lakima learns of the commission for Rock Ape teeth. The pay looks really good but no one knows where to find rock apes. Lakima suggests that the librarians might be able to help with this. So they agree to take both jobs. Carric and Lakima argue about paying the bounty they offered for information on the Rat King to the urchin Snipe. Carric is concerned it will bring more trouble to the urchins than it will help. Lakima is more concerned with the reputation of the Dragons. Carric meets with the urchins, finding they have taken over Fleetwing Stables. He asks them what they would do with 100 gold. Maik answers that they share everything. Many of the urchins seem unsure about that statement. Carric gives the 100 gold bounty to Snipe. He suggests the gang buy the building they are currently squatting in. He counsels them about being careful with the newfound wealth.

Once everyone returns they head over to meet the Head Librarian Dellik. He tells them that a Librarian named Marcus was cast out when he was found to be studying proscribed books. When he left he told them he placed a curse on Bell, Book, and Candle. They did not think much of it at the time but the next day when librarians entered they were attacked by phantoms and two were killed. One Librarian escaped and locked the doors. Now they are locked out. He asks the adventurers to remove the cursed items from the library with as little damage as possible. The heroes agree to do the job the next morning. They need time to prepare. He can only manage to pay 500 gold but he does offer the services of the library. Lakima asks the Head Librarian about Rock Apes. The Head Librarian does have some information and a Librarian named Vexius is called into the room who is an expert on magical creatures. Vexius mentions a few details of Rock Apes and tells of a recent incursion of Rock apes in a copper mine nearby.

The next morning the group head out to the Library with Amras. At the Library they find the doors still locked. Amras unlocks the doors and explains the library layout to them and suggests where the items might be located. They were kept in the Hall of Magic. He also asks them to keep an eye out for the caretaker Robin.

They enter the library. In the first hall, they see the bodies of the two librarians who were killed. The shelves extend to the ceiling full of books and scrolls. There are signs of disturbance. Books and loose sheets of paper lie scattered across the floor. The group head to their left with Carric in the lead. In the first room, they enter they see a lit candle in a silver holder floating in the air at a height of three feet. Carric spots three animated shadows in the shape of humans that fly toward the group. The shadows move directly through the sunlight entering the hall from the ceiling without any noticeable effect. As Carric and Dag approach two more shadows emerge from the candle. Five shadows face the heroes. Domago tries to turn them and nothing happens. The shadows also ignore his Protection from Evil spell. The shadows attack and Lantosh is hit and drained of Strength. Carric rushes the candle and tries to pull a sack over it but the candle burns right through the sack. Lakima yells for everyone to disbelieve the shadows but it does not seem to work. Lakima casts Atanzabar’s Acrid Finger on the candle but it just splatters off - some of the acid striking Carric. As Lakima approaches the candle another shadow emerges. Just when things start to get desperate, Lakima pinches out the candle with his fingers. The candle drops to the tiled floor and the shadows vanish. Everyone is relieved and a little mystified.

Lantosh and Eathwund check in the Caretakers’ room and find it empty. They find evidence that the caretaker was working on improving his language skills but nothing more. They continue on into the next hall. As they enter the Hall of Magic a gold bell raises up from a desk and rings out a sharp, ringing, tone three times. Glass vials in several of the adventurer's packs shatter. Magical potions drain out of packs. More importantly, Eathwund and Lantosh’s armor cracks and bends permanently damaged. Carric rushes forward and stuffs cloth around the bell’s clapper and puts the entire bell in his pack. As they are talking Carric is startled as he feels something brush past his shoulder. Soon several of the adventurers report near misses with something. Until Dag is struck and Eathwund feels something strike his shield. Lakima empties his pieces of chalk on the desk and yells at Domago to crush it and throw it on the invisible attacker. Domago crushes the chalk with his mace and gathers up a handful. When he is struck he tosses the chalk in the air. The chalk falls over a roughly human-sized shape. Everyone immediately attacks the shape and the invisible stalker collapses to the floor.

Lakima tells everyone to look for the Copper Book. He suspects it might be in this chamber and created the invisible stalker. But the copper book is not in the Hall or even the next hall. They find it - or it finds them in the Hall of Monsters. The book flies out of a bookshelf and it is immediately recognized as it has copper covers. The book opens and more books fly off of the shelves to the copper book. Soon a roughly humanoid shape has formed - a Book Golem. The golem lumbers towards Eathwund and attacks. Hitting Eathwund with both fists badly injuring him. Domago rushes to Eathwund’s side to cast Cure Light Wounds. With the Book Golem concentrating on Eathwund Carric and Lakima are able to attack from behind. Lakima attacks with the Staff of Striking. Carric decides to try to close the copper book. He leaps on the Golem and climbs up its back. He grabs the book covers and tries to close the book but it will not budge. The golem fights off Carric and throws him down to the ground.

The fight continues, the heroes surround the Book Golem, and with every hit, books fall off the golem or pages fall out of the books. The golem continues to track Carric and strikes the elf with both fists. Carric is smashed to the floor battered and bloodied. As other heroes step up Carric drags himself out of the fray. Finally, Lakima gets the final hit with the Staff of Striking. With a flash of power, the books collapse in a pile on the floor. Lakima grabs the Copper book and ties it shut with some cloth.

With all three cursed items in hand, the heroes start to head for the exit. They keep their eyes open for the caretaker Robin and find him hiding in the Feywild Hall behind some barrels. They take him to the exit to meet with Amras. After a brief conversation with Amras they head back to meet with the Head Librarian. He is overjoyed to hear that the threat has been removed. He does inquire about the cursed items but Lakima assures him they will take care of them. The Head Librarian does not have the gold he promised yet but he does make good on the promise of providing information about the Rock Apes. There is supposed to be some in a Copper Mine at the village of Whetwhistle about a day's ride from Edgerton along the Crescent River.

Sewer Map

This past weekend the players descended into the sewers - finally. This part of the campaign has been ready to go for four sessions but the players have been avoiding it. I believe because they were concerned about a fight on the Rat King's home ground.

I have been struggling with the right way to map the sewers. At first, I had a compact portion of the sewers mapped with the Cheese Factory Cellar and the Rat King's Lair. To prevent the players from wandering off the map I blocked the passages with narrow pipes connecting sections. Assuming the players would not want to submerge in sewer muck.

In the lead up to enter the sewers in a previous session, one player character became obsessed with finding an entrance to the sewers across town from the Cheese factory at the river. This despite their having seen an entrance in the factory. I had one of his informants show another manhole style entrance near the Factory. But he still showed interest in the river.

To cover this eventuality I came up with a map of the entire sewer network under the town. This was too big a map to load into Roll20 so I had it split up into nine pieces. But I felt this was a terrible move logistically. So I ended up creating one enormous, detailed map. Rather than loading it into Roll20 as is, I reduced the size to only 10%. The end result was of manageable size but blurry. So I took snap-shots of the key areas at full resolutions as battle maps.

In the end, the players used informants to find the location of the Rat King's Lair in the sewers and they did not spend much time on the map I spent all week working on. Oh well.

The final battle with King Rat occurred which closed out a long-running villain in the campaign. I wrote up King Rat as an intelligent Giant Rat of enormous size. With three attacks there was a good chance he might be a troublesome foe. In the session, the fighter ended up one-on-one with the Rat King for 4 rounds. He should have been mauled. For three rounds I managed 1 hit on three attacks per round. Finally, in the fourth round, the Rat King hit 3 times and almost killed the fighter. It lacked the punch I was hoping for but I think it was just bad rolls.

The session this week had another new Player. So I had five players in total and three NPCs to handle. We did have a few moments where more than one player talked at once. But it worked out okay.

Session 27: Lair of the Rat King

Players: Lakima (Magic-user), Eathwund (Fighter), Carric (Elven Thief), Grimble (Human Fighter), Kal the Bear (Human fighter), Domago (Human cleric NPC), Lantosh (Human Fighter NPC), Dag Icefoot (Dwarf Fighter NPC).

As the session opens Lakima states his intention to question the wererat that he charmed in the fight at the Cheese Factory and turned over to the Watch. Grimble says he would like to come along. Everyone else is busy watching the hippogriffs or at other places in town. Lakima and Grimble arrive at the Watch Station and ask to see the prisoner. Sergeant Frans takes them to see Grendel Orfman. Lakima tells him he meant the wererat Kirnon. Sergeant Frans tells them the wererat was taken to the castle and tried. He is due to be executed tomorrow. They do ask Grendel some questions but he has nothing to add. They head over to the Castle (Edger’s Hold) and get permission to question the wererat prisoner. The guard tells them that the man is crazy, always talking to himself. As they approach the cell in the dungeon they do hear a one-sided conversation. Once they enter the cell it is clear that Lakima’s charm spell is still holding. The man is happy to see him and tells him that he was just talking to a giant rat sent by the Rat King. They are planning on getting him out. Unfortunately, the wererat also does not know King Rat's location. He took orders from a cleric called Nat. Lakima tells the guard to move the wererat to a new cell that is not so far underground. 

Sometime later with most of the order back at the Chapter House, they begin to plan. Lantosh heads out to relieve Eathwund. At the hippogriff wagon, Eathwund is approached by a powerfully built human with a large sword on his back. The man introduces himself as Kal and says he is a mercenary looking for work. Despite the company being fairly full of hirelings, Eathwund offers the stranger a job. Lantosh shows up and Eathwund shows Kal to the Chapter House.

Kal is introduced to the other heroes and given some background on their encounters with the Rat King in Edgerton. They begin discussing ways to find the location of the Rat King. The idea is to wait for the Rat King to attack and follow them back to his lair. As they talk a man comes to the shop. He introduces himself as Dakuya and he is interested in buying all four of the hippogriffs. He offers 800 gold each. Lakima leads the negotiations for the team and negotiates the price higher. Then the merchant Simion Torenescu enters and offers more for the hippogriffs. The two merchants, who seem to know each other, set off a bidding war. Just when it appears Torenescu has won the bidding an old wizard named Arturas enters the shop and offers 3,500 gold for one hippogriff. Lakima tries to spin this in their favor but Simion is determined to get all four. Baron Lucien Vorloi enters and bids on behalf of the Castellan of Edgerton but is quickly out of the running. After much haggling, they settle on selling one hippogriff to the wizard for 3,500 gold, and the other three to Simion Torenescu for 6,000 gold. Simion Torenescu arranges for the delivery of a promissory note for the payment. He agrees to pick up the hippogriffs before noon on the next day. Arturas pays in gold immediately that he takes out of what is clearly a Bag of Holding. He also gives Lakima a wooden stick claiming it is magical. As they head over to the square to get the hippogriff for Arturas they find an altercation has occurred. Some thieves tried to distract Lantosh and the Watch guard and make off with a hippogriff. Lantosh stopped them and struck one of the thieves. Unfortunately, he killed the thief so they cannot question him. The watch has just arrived to take Lantosh's statement. The senior guard tells Lakima that he recognizes the man, he is a member of a local gang that hangs out at Fleetwing Stables in Mirdton district.

The next day Carric goes over to the low market and his contact Maik tells him one of the urchins has seen what they think is the Rat King’s Lair. The boy leads Carric into the sewers and shows him the directions to the lair. The heroes leave the hirelings to guard the house and the wagon of hippogriffs and head over to Fleetwing Stables to have a talk with the local gang. They surround the small stable. Lakima casts Monster Summoning and four giant rats appear. The rats are sent into the stables and soon the sound of fighting is heard. Eathwund rushes in and sees three armed men fighting off the rats. Lakima casts sleep and all of the three men fall asleep. Carric, Kal, and Grimble burst through the back door of the stable and confront a fourth man who surrenders. Under questioning and some duress, the man admits to targeting the wagon of hippogriffs. They would not normally mess with the Company of the Black Dragon but the pay was good. He admits that the merchant Dakuya paid them to do it.

Everyone returns to the Chapter House as it is now early evening. The night passes uneventfully. The next day Lakima splits up some of the gold received from Arturas. Dag Icefoot returns from his partying and shows them his new Dwarven Axe. Kal takes some money and heads over to a local armory where he buys a suit of chainmail.

They make plans to enter the sewers. They decide to do it in daylight hours. They calmly open a sewer grate in a small square in full view of many locals and all eight heroes descend an iron ladder down into the sewers. The sewers are a 15 in diameter brick-lined tube. A channel in the center of the bottom carries water and sewage. Dry platforms are along the walls.

Carric leads them for a long walk underground to the side passage that is supposed to hold the Lair of King Rat. He scouts ahead and spots a barrier of wooden crates. Behind the crates are two wererats. The group decides on a frontal approach. The charge forward to the barrier. The wererats and some giant rats behind the barrier are well protected. But Dag, Lantosh, Grimble, and Kal leap up on the crates and attack the wererats. One wererat whistles and a horde of normal rats pile out cracks in the walls and swarm the barrier. They overwhelm and knock Dag into the sewage. Lakima casts Sleep but only a few rats are affected. Lantosh takes a hit from a sword but Kal, Eathwund, and Carric press the attack. Lakima then casts Lightning bolt and fries all of the normal rats and burns one Wererat slightly. From there the battle turns and the rats and wererats begin to fall. The last wererat retreats into a narrow side tunnel. The heroes follow but find they can only advance in a single file. Ahead they see another corridor entering and at the end of the passage is a portcullis which is down barring further progress. Carric finds himself in the lead and fighting the wererat desperately. A giant rat appears and attacks as well. Carric manages to kill the wererat using his sword. The giant rat is killed by Eathwund.

Carric checks the side corridor and finds a small room with a table, some stools, and a pair of crates. Ahead Eathwund spots the Rat King. The Rat King is an enormous 20-foot-long, 8-foot tall rat. As they approach the portcullis, the giant rat speaks to them. Inviting them in. The portcullis rises up and King Rat invites them in to talk, calling out Eathwund and Lakima by name. The Rat King dismisses Lakima’s question about his helping the necromancer Talmea. That was just business he states. They can now do business together.

They cautiously enter the chamber and see King Rat, an enormous rat resting on a mound of green, pulsating cheese. They also spot a huge pile of gold coins. Near King Rat is a human whom King Rat refers to as Nat in their conversation. The chamber is divided by an 8 foot deep, 4 ½ foot wide channel through which sewage runs. As Lakima and Eathwund keep King Rat talking they try to form a plan. The channel is too far for Eathwund to leap in plate mail armor. Lakima comes up with an idea. He sends Kal back to get the wooden table in the nearby chamber. After a quick discussion, Kal drops the table with one end leaning over the channel, Grimble steps on the table to keep it steady and then Eathwund rushes across the table and leaps for the other side. Eathwund lands directly in front of a startled Rat King in a pile of gold, silver, and copper coins. Kal follows Eathwund but he is a little short on his jump and he hits the far wall and falls into the channel. Then Lantosh runs and jumps but trips over a table leg and the entire table and Lantosh tumble into the channel. Grimble leaps aside just in time to avoid being catapulted into the channel with them.

On the other side, the human cleric casts a spell on Eathwund but it fails. Eathwund strikes at King Rat cutting him. The giant Rat bites and claws at Eathwund. Eathwund manages to stave him off with his shield. The cleric Nat casts another spell and appears to glow bluish slightly. Lakima casts Atanzabar’s Acrid Finger and burns Nat. Dag attaches his grappling hook to the portcullis and throws a rope down to Kal and Lantosh. The two men climb out of the pit. Eathwund continues to trade blows with the Rat King, all alone in his fight. The cleric, Nat tries to run away from the stream of acid coming from Lakima but the stream just follows him around. Dag hurls his grappling hook across the channel and it wraps around a pillar on the other side. He ties the other end to the portcullis and Lantosh shimmies across the pit to the other side.

Eathwund is now struck repeatedly but the Rat King and is badly hurt. Domago crosses the channel on the rope, runs to Eathwund, and casts Cure Light Wounds. Lantosh tries to attack the huge rat with his polearm but misses. Lakima’s acid stream finally kills the cleric who tumbles into the pit and lands face down in the sewage, unmoving. Eathwund finally finds an opening and slashes out the giant rat's throat. He is covered in blood and gore but the Rat King is dead.

The heroes take a moment to check the chamber. They find more than 40,000 coins but most of them are copper. They start bagging it anyway. Eathwund makes note of the giant, pulsating cheese but decides not to take a sample. They search the cleric’s body, finding his mace and a scroll tube.