Last week-end I was at a local convention and had forgotten the dungeon I wanted to run. Luckily I have many of Tim Hartin’s dungeons in various folders, so I was able to improvise. I picked Dungeon Map 011 and kept stocking the dungeon as we went along. Adapting from Labyrinth Lord page 123 (which uses d100):
+-----------+------------+------------+ | *Roll d6* | *Contents* | *Treasure* | +-----------+------------+------------+ | 1-2 | Empty | 1 | | 3-4 | Monster | 1-3 | | 5 | Trap | 1-2 | | 6 | Unique | Variable | +-----------+------------+------------+
Room #1 – trap! I decided on falling stones. “The stone creaks and groans, the stairs and walls look as if they are about to burst and twisted by the forces of earth.” One player decides to protect his head with a shield, triggers the trap, and his shield is splintered – no damage taken. The players spend some time reinforcing the tunnel. All they can hear from the landing is faint howling from further down. They decide to take the first door.
Room #2 – monsters! I rolled up 16 kobolds. This is going to be rough. I decide the kobolds tried to barricade the door. The group forces the door after mutliple tries and sees the room full of critters. But they decide to talk, and their magic user had decided to take kobold as his one and only extra language. Hurray for pacifists! The reaction roll indicates “indifferent.” Very cool. The players talk and ask about the rest of the level. I quickly decide that the big room in the middle holds a toad god. My favorite. So we talk about it and the players want to see it. The kobolds lead the group past their lair which I had decided was room #6 and all the following ones.
Room #3 – no roll. I’m making shit up. The kobolds first tried to have some in front and some behind the party, but they wouldn’t have any of that. Now the party wants the kobolds to open the door instead of opening it themselves. The kobold suddenly remember that you need to bring some sacrifice for the hungry toad god. One of them is dispatched back to room #6 and gives a secret knock. One player wants to memorize it so I ask for a Wisdom check. He makes it, so they’re prepared to trick the kobolds into opening their front door later. The kobold returns with the leg of a deer.
Room #26 – the kobolds open the double door, a giant toad appears from the murky waters, they hand over the partial deer, the toad hops into the room and swallows it whole. The party has been warned! Everybody retreats and a big discussion starts outside. Eventually the party decides to kill the toad if the kobolds agree to a reward. No problem I say, having rolled up the kobold lair treasure in the mean time. 100 silver pieces if they do it! And so they do it. The fighter is hit once and healed by the cleric. Another long discussion and a break later the party decides that one of the hirelings must dive to the bottom of the murky well. The guy demands some extra for the dangerous work and the party offers a 3% share of anything they find. The guy had been hired as a treasure bearer and agrees. I had rolled up a XII treasure which ended up being 7000 sp and 3000 ep!! The hireling is going to be filthy rich and retire immediately. 😄
The party returns to the surface and hauls the treasure back into town. Too bad I didn’t have the B/X encumbrance rules with me. I quickly guestimated that each character could carry 20kg, 40lb, 8000 coins – but even with 1600 coins max, they would have been able to secure all of the treasure since we had three player characters and four hirelings, if I remember correctly.
As I said before, the adventure was astonishingly short and still it took us two and a half hours, including character creation and the buying of equipment. Another thing I should have prepared: Character sheets. Then again, I felt like showing off how quick character generation can be.
Anyway.
Tim Hartin. Awesome stuff. I have 122 of his maps on my local disk. And don’t forget the best thread, ever.
#RPG #Old School
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Excellent!
– greywulf 2009-08-25 21:15 UTC