Tuesday, 26 July 2022

Dungeondraft

This blog entry is a return to actually commenting on World Building in gaming. Something I originally planned to be the focal point of the site. But running a few campaigns at the same time takes up a lot of my free time. This week I go over two software packages that will really help a DM with preparation time.

Wonderdraft

I purchased the Wonderdraft software about a month ago. I found it a little hard to get used to at first but I was soon using it fairly well. Below is the Area Map from module L1: The Secret of Bone Hill. Making maps in Wonderdraft does not take a lot of time and the ability to overlay the map over an image makes it fairly easy to replicate maps. It is even easier to make a map from scratch. I have used it a few times and was generally pleased with the results.


Lendore Island Map

Dungeondraft

I was aware of Dungeondraft having purchased Wonderdraft from the same company but I had no real inclination to buy it because I could create just about any map of any type in Blender. But I decided to buy it and try it out. I was immediately impressed with the results.

The objects and textures that come with the purchase have a slightly cartoon-like style but I think it works with maps. Below is an example of a more realistic map with proper lighting made in Blender, and the same map in Dungeondraft. This is the map for the Creature of Rhyl adventure from Dragon Magazine 55 (1981). When I ran the adventure I decided to use the Dungeondraft map.

I have since purchased some more objects for Dungeondraft. Some do not fit the same style as the ones that come with the software. Mixing and matching these does not work very well. They look jarring. So you really should pick one asset type to use per map. I have gone on a map-making binge since getting Dungeondraft creating about 30 maps in 3 weeks. It does not take very much time at all. A simple forest battlemap can be accomplished in 10 minutes. More complex maps take more time but even complex buildings really do not take a lot of time. I am saving a lot of map-making time.

My first maps were fairly primitive, but I soon began to learn ways to add depth and lighting to the maps to make them look better. The maps also give you the option of printing in simple black and white for publishing and full colour. I usually print them using the Roll20 option so that they line up perfectly with the grid overlay in Roll20.

I cannot recommend this software enough. In fact, I have already let a few other friends who DM know about it.

Creature of Rhyl created with Blender





Creature of Rhyl created with Dungeondraft



Roadside Tavern created in Dungeondraft

The Creature of Rhyl

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

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

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

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

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

Session 97: The Creature of Rhyl

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Tuesday, 5 July 2022

Cold Iron solution

The solution that my players came up with to deal with the fey "grombel" was certainly not something that I had anticipated. But I felt it would work. You could argue that the bellows would not work as portrayed but overall I felt it was clever and allowed it.

After dealing with the stealer of children the players continued on their primary mission to locate the missing Earl of Lockeland who has been taken by the Creature of Rhyl. This adventure was published in Dragon Magazine 55, November 1981 written by Kevin Knuth. It was a winner in a design a dungeon contest. The original adventure was written for Moldvay Basic D&D for levels 1-3. I modified it for Swords & Wizardry levels 6-10 but retained the dungeon map, descriptions, and monster locations. I updated some monsters from the module with more powerful versions. But some were kept the same. It is a peculiar dungeon in that most of the encounters are on the wandering monster table. There are very few location based encounters. The map has a very "In Search of the Unknown" vibe common to the era. The dungeon map is purposely difficult to navigate to make mapping it difficult. Something that does not entirely work in Roll20 play. My players do not map the dungeon as they go. Consequently they went in circles a few times without realizing it.

The maps used for "The Stealer of Children" and "The Creature of Rhyl" adventures from this last session were created in Dungeondraft software and I do plan to write a blogpost reviewing it in the near future. I do not want to post the Creature of Rhyl maps until after the players complete the adventure.

Session 96: Cold Iron and Abandoned Halls

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

Lakima gets the attention of the Warder, Arlen Travers, and asks him to bring all of the children to the abbey before it gets dark. Arlen asks if the fey creature is still a danger and when he learns it is he agrees. Lakima also asks for directions to the local blacksmith. Then Lakima explains his plan to his fellow adventurers. He thinks that the fey creature, which he is calling the Grombel, can be trapped in a cold iron box or sphere.

The adventurers arrive at the village smithy and meet Bryan the smith. Lakima explains that he wants the smith to weld two iron cauldrons together to form a sphere. While they talk another villager arrives with news that children need to be taken to the abbey. The smith’s wife and two youngest children leave. Impressed with the importance of the task, the smith agrees to get to work on it immediately. He also points to a bucket of iron nails lying nearby. The adventurers agree to take them to the abbey.

The village is busy throughout the afternoon with rushing villagers moving their wives and children to the stone-walled abbey. The men of the village gather iron pitchforks and stand sentry about the abbey. Some men spread iron nails throughout the grass around the abbey.

The adventurers spend that evening in the chapel of the abbey, keeping a watch. But there are no disturbances. The next morning as dawn breaks, they head over to the smithy. There they find the smith and his eldest son asleep by the forge. Resting near the forge is a strange iron cylinder. Lakima wakes the smith who proceeds to show them how the sphere has one bored hole in it and an iron stopper. Lakima then asks the smith if they can borrow the large wooden bellows used in the forge. The smith is confused but too tired to ask questions. The efreet Khisa is released from his bottle and given the task of carrying the bellows and the cauldron.

The adventurers head into the Tanglewood forest and after a few hours they reach the clearing with the lightning struck oak. The large rock over the tunnel has been moved back covering the hole and the villagers have piled up smaller rocks. Eathwund and Lantosh go to work clearing everything. Eathwund tries to move the large rock but again fails. He then uses the power of his sword Wormbane to increase his strength and he easily levers the stone to one side. One by one the adventurers slide down the tunnel into the earth.

The adventurers make their way through the winding tunnel finding that nothing has changed. Once they enter the final cave they spot the grombel, sleeping on its nest of clothing. Their light awakens the creature and it starts cackling and repeating “grombelgrombelgrombel”. Quickly, the adventurers rush across the underground stream and move to attack. But they are too late, the grombel turns into its gaseous form. Lakima yells for Eathwund and Khisa to take their actions. Eathwund turns ethereal but he finds that the grombel is not on the ethereal plane. Khisa sets down the cauldron and grasps the large bellow. He pumps the bellows inhaling the gaseous mist and then blows it out into the iron cauldron. Lakima quickly places the iron stopper and tells Khisa to melt it into place. The events are over in seconds and everyone pauses and looks about. Have they trapped the grombel?



Although they cannot see him, Eathwund pokes his ethereal head inside the cauldron. But he cannot discern if there is anything inside. Then Eathwund materializes. Everyone starts asking if they have caught the creature. They search but they find that there is no sign of the creature in the caves. Khisa picks up the cauldron and they all climb back out of the tunnels and into daylight. The adventurers arrive in town and head to the blacksmith. The smith is asked to seal the stopper on the cauldron which he does, melting some wire into the gap. They also return his bellows. They then present the cauldron to the Warder. Once Arlen is told what is inside, he suggests giving it to Mother Mills for safekeeping. He arranges for some villagers to take it to the abbey.

Still unsure if they have succeeded, the adventurers decide to stay in town one more night. They return to the Red Smile Tavern. They do meet Sir Angus Goblinbane, the agent of the Lawlord of Lockeland. He seems unimpressed with their exploits. Viewing the grombel tale as “simple superstition.”

An uneventful night is spent sleeping in the common room of the tavern. The next morning, they check with the warder and learn that no children have gone missing. Believing they have solved the problems in Leandra’s Row, the adventurers set out on foot north of the village into the foothills of the Mountains of Time.

The land soon turns into badlands with twisting canyons and mesa. It would be easy to get lost but on the first day, the adventurers find a trail of many footprints marching north. They follow the trail that is leading them unerringly toward the Mountains. On the second day some mountain lions begin tracking them. Apparently only curious as they never come within bow range. That night, Lakima asks Khisa to set up a ring of fire around the campsite. The campsite is brightly illuminated for miles and it does attract the attention of a band of goblins who are quickly driven off. Eathwund charges and kills several goblins and Domago uses the Silver Horn of Valhalla to summon four berserkers who chase after the goblins. The few that survive for more than a minute turn and try to run.

On the third day, the adventurers follow the trail of footprints into a box canyon. The trail heads right up to an entrance in a cliff face. The two iron doors to the dungeon lie open. They lead to a stair headed 20 feet down into a dungeon.

The adventurers descend into the dungeon and find a number of abandoned rooms. Dust and cobwebs cover everything. There is no sign of intelligent life. They do come across a Gelatinous Cube and a Black pudding slime monster but they avoid them. In an abandoned kitchen they find the corpse of a goblin, apparently dead for at least several days. In an octagonal room with four doors, they find a gold statue of a warrior. Turning the statue to face a door causes a rumbling noise that lasts less than a minute. Then one of the doors can be opened. Eathwund and Lakima agree that the room might be an elevator. They try it a few times but the nearby halls appear to be the same.



In one chamber they find a chapel with a demon idol. Lantosh and Domago feel unsettled by the statue and Domago casts Dispel Evil upon it. After that, the altar braziers dim and go out and the feeling of encroaching evil leaves the chamber. They continue searching through the dungeons looking for any sign of the Earl of Locklande or the Creature who kidnapped him.