Just another Dragon

 Last weekend in my Swords & Wizardry campaign the players entered the Tomb of the Lizard King based on the classic adventure of the same name that was published in 1982. The first encounter they have is with the legendary Black Dragon Aulicus - the terror of the Cursed Marshes.

It took them a few rounds to kill Aulicus and none of the characters were really in any danger. So a bit of a letdown. Every time I include a Dragon in this campaign I put a lot of thought into it because the players love interacting with Dragons. They named their group the Company of the Black Dragon after an early kill. Dragons are just special. But how they are handled in Swords & Wizardry is a little odd. I keep rereading the rules to see if I am messing it up.

From the rules:

"Do not roll hit points for dragons as normal. Instead, determine the number of hit dice and the age category of the dragon. The age category indicates both the dragon’s hit points per die and how much damage the dragon’s breath weapon inflicts, given as points per hit die."

As I understand it an adult Black Dragon would have:

"Adult: 4 hit points per hit die; 4 hit points per die inflicted by breath weapon."

Here is how the dragon statistics came out:

Aulicus, Adult Black Dragon (1): HD 7; HP 28; AC 17; ATK 2 claws (1d4), 1 bite (3d6); Move 9, Fly 24; Save 9; AL C; XP 1,100; Special: Spits Acid in a line 5 x 60', Spells: Charm Person, Shield, Detect Magic, Read Magic.

The 28 hit points made him fairly easy to kill. Now he does make up for this by having a very good armor class and a breath weapon that does 28 points of damage. But the party killed him using spells that could not miss (magic missile).

The rules do make note of this:

"Note that dragons, while they are dangerous opponents, are not by any means invincible. In a medieval-type fantasy world, dragons are a common problem rather than godlike creatures of legend—so the statistics for dragons reflect a deadly but not mythical foe."

Perhaps for the next dragon encountered I will make note of this one more important comment from the rules:

"The Referee is, of course, free to create stats for a more “mythical” conception of dragons. Since dice are not rolled for dragon hit points, it is possible for a truly mythical dragon to have more points per die than it is actually possible to roll on a hit die."

Next time I might just give the Dragon more hit points because I can.

Session 55: The Tomb of the Lizard King

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alonso (human fighter), Aashdoshan (human necromancer), Vervork (human fighter), Domago (human cleric NPC), Lantosh (human fighter NPC), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC).

The Company of the Black Dragon poles their three rafts up to the stone temple rising up out of the swamp. Unbeknownst to them, a man watches their approach from the cover of the nearby trees. This is Vervork Merwin, a new adventurer out of the west who has tracked Lizard Men into the Cursed Marsh looking for kidnapped villagers from nearby Tahn. He is uncertain of the companies intentions and watches from cover.

Fenris scouts ahead first. He quietly makes his way across the platform past a blood-splattered stone altar and reaches the open door of the Temple. Fenris makes his way back and reports that he can hear the deep, heavy breathing of some enormous beast inside. Excited that their quest for the bounty on the head of the Black Dragon might be ended so quickly - the Company makes plans to attack. Alonso is wearing armor made of Black dragon scales and is thought to be protected from the Dragon’s acid attack so he is to lead the way followed by Eathwund and Lantosh.

Alonso enters the temple and sees an empty chamber. A few carved drawings on the walls but he steps past them to another open door. Looking in through the door, Alonso spots a sleeping Black Dragon. Just then the dragon opens its eyes and peers at Alonso. The Dragon rises up and begins to speak but Alonso immediately attacks, followed shortly by Eathwund and Lantosh. A furious battle ensues. The dragon immediately breathes acid at Alonso but what does hit him splashes off his dragon scale armor harmlessly. The dragon concentrates all of its attacks on Alonso while growling out in common that Alonso is wearing the scales of his daughter. Lakima takes up a position in the first chamber and tries to cast Confusion on the dragon but it fails. Aashdoshan sends his zombie minion up to attack but it misses. Most of the blows to the dragon come from Alonso and Eathwund. After only a minute of combat, the dragon starts to falter, in desperation, it tries to leap past them to escape to freedom and it crashes down on poor Lantosh. Alonso strikes the killing blow as the dragon collapses.

Once it is clear that the dragon is dead, the men of the company get distracted butchering the poor creature. Lantosh removes its head as a trophy. Lakima collects a few pints of blood in a sack. They also remove some of its leathery wings. While this is going on Fenris and Eathwund explore the dragon’s chamber and find a large pile of coins and some gems.

Distracted by the butchering of the dragon, the adventurers’ are almost surprised when six Lizard Men emerge from the swamp at the edge of the platform. The lizardmen are just starting up the steps behind the heroes when Domago shouts out a warning. Spotting the danger the heroes turn and defend themselves. They kill the Lizard Men one by one.

Fenris complains that the dragon’s horde seems small for a full-grown black dragon. Lakima agrees and tells Fenris to start looking for a secret door. He finds one after a short search. A concealed trap door behind the altar. Fenris opens the trapdoor and reports a set of stone steps leading down into the darkness. The adventurers begin to debate whether to continue exploring or turn back since their mission to kill the black dragon has been accomplished. As they are discussing this, they are hailed by a man in the cover of some trees. The adventurers set themselves in defensive positions as the man slogs through the mud and water to the temple. He introduces himself as Vervork Merwin. He claims to be an adventurer tracking Lizard Men who attacked the village of Tahn and took several villagers as prisoners. The adventurers can see that the man is already wounded from a recent encounter with Lizardmen. The adventurers decide to follow the stairs down looking for treasure and rescuing any villagers they might come across. The newcomer, Vervork is given one of their potions of healing. Aashdoshan busies himself raising one of the dead Lizardmen as a zombie servitor.

The entire company (plus a lizardman zombie) descends the stairs into a small chamber beneath the temple. The chamber does not appear to have been entered in a long time and there are no apparent exits. Not believing it is a dead-end, Lakima asks everyone to look for a secret exit. After many minutes of fruitless searching, Fenris is finally able to locate a lever that opens a stone doorway. Beyond is a large, dark chamber lit in the distance with the faint red glow coming off of braziers of hot coals. The adventurers file into the large chamber with Eathwund, Alonso, Vervork, and wounded Lantosh in the lead. Suddenly, a number of Lizardmen rush out of the darkness and attack. These lizardmen appear fairly primitive, not wearing clothes or carrying any weapons or armor. But they attack ferociously with teeth and claws. Alonso and Eathwund bear the initial brunt of the attack. Aashdoshan sends both of his zombies forward to aid them. The battle rages for several minutes. Alonso is bitten and clawed several times, Lantosh is bitten again, but Eathwund chops down several Lizardmen. Emboldened, Eathwund pushes forward and is soon surrounded and fighting off a horde of lizardmen. Lakima casts Mikda-Err’s Practical Tilt causing many of the Lizardmen to fall to the ground. Aashdoshan’s Lizardman zombie tries to aid Alonso but it is torn to pieces. Just as the tide seems to be turning in the adventurer’s favor another horde of Lizardmen join the attack. Lakima uses his Pearl of Power and recalls a spell and casts Mikda-Err’s Practical Tilt again to even greater effect. The lizardmen fall one after another until only a few remain. One runs away but the rest fight to the end.

They move to explore the rest of the chamber and are again struck by a number of lizardmen coming from a side passage. After this group is defeated, Lakima spots a shrine down a side passage. Four lizardmen shamans in brown robes stand on guard to protect the shrine. Alonso, Eathwund, and Vervork are sent down the passage to attack them followed by Lakima. They see a Lizardman shaman casting a spell and silence falls over them. Then the lizardmen attack. The rest of the adventurers waiting in the main chamber also come under attack by more lizardmen coming out of more side passages. Eathwund begins to fight the lizardmen shaman when another spell is cast. This one fills the entire area with a cloud of poisonous spores, Domago is overcome by the spores and collapses retching on the floor. Alonso pulls Domago to safety. Vervork and Lakima also abandon the area of the spore cloud to fight the lizardmen in the main chamber. But Eathwund charges into the chamber and kills two of the shamans, the rest run away. He then confronts the high shaman of the lizardmen. Lakima casts web spells from his wand immobilizing two groups of lizardmen but one manages to claw Fenris in the throat and Fenris falls unconscious. Aashdoshan sends his remaining zombie servant and one skeleton into the cloud of spores to aid Eathwund. A minute later the spore cloud dissipates and Domago recovers. He goes to check on Fenris. Eathwund emerges from the temple with the head of the lizardmen’s high shaman held high. The remaining lizardmen are trapped in webs and are killed.

Domago is able to heal Fenris with a potion of healing. Eathwund and Fenris then search the temple and find a closed chest. Fenris checks it and tells everyone that there is something slithering around in the chest. Eathwund opens the chest by kicking it open but only sees a silver bowl and ceremonial dagger. When he flips the bowl over with his sword, a deadly viper emerges and strikes at him missing. Eathwund chops it in two with his sword. They also find several clay jars that are stoppered and full of a muddy-smelling liquid.

As all of the heroes explore the temple chamber they take note of a crude stone statue of a crocodile-headed demon. Lakima asks Lantosh to destroy the statue. Lantosh cracks the statue with iron spikes and with help from Eathwund topples the head onto the floor where it strikes the altar - pushing the altar forward. Beneath the altar is an opening and a set of stairs leading down. All of the heroes sit down as Domago tends wounds. Everyone is seriously injured by this point and all but one of their healing potions have been used up. They debate whether to continue downward or leave. Vervork speaks passionately about rescuing the villager’s taken prisoner and convinces everyone to continue. Aashdoshan tells everyone that he is out of magic - but Lakima gives him a Wand of Magic Missiles.

They continue down the stairs into a chamber lit from the fires smoldering in two braziers. Before them is a stout wooden door banded with iron. The first door they have encountered in this primitive lizardman temple. Fenris checks the door and then opens it. Ahead of them, they see another large chamber lit dimly by more braziers. They move cautiously forward and see another stone altar.

Four large, lizardmen leap from the darkness and attack. These lizardmen have more bestial, almost crocodile-like heads and they are heavier and taller than any lizardmen they have previously encountered. There is a quick and vicious fight. These lizardmen creatures are tougher than those previously encountered but Aashdoshan uses the wand of magic missiles several times to great effect. Once only one remains - it flees behind the altar and opens a secret door to escape. Fenris finds the release for the secret door and Eathwund leaps through the opening door - right into the waiting lizardman. But Eathwund is able to prevail and the lizardman is killed.

The secret door has led to a narrow, stone hallway that heads south to an intersection. They open a door down a side passage and find a primitive alchemical workshop. Aashdoshan makes note of several bowls filled with human blood - taken recently and wonders about all of the human blood they have found. Lakima declares that this must be the shaman’s workroom and since he is dead it should be safe to rest here. The exhausted heroes pause and set watches.