Regarding “Story Now”

A few people have commented (and emailed me) that they have enjoyed my “session reports” and adventure write-ups, especially the recent White Plume Mountain game at the Baranof. My players have sometimes noted that the telling of the story is more interesting than the actual playing, as some of the challenges (like the ziggurat and the mud cave) have required a fairly boring amount of brain-storming on the parts of the players developing a strategy for circumvention.

Personally, I don’t see any sort of hypocrisy or “false advertising” …hell, any kind of disconnect at all!...between the actual playing and the later “story telling.” That’s how role-playing games are.

NOT that I feel RPGs are a vehicle for “telling stories.” I don’t really agree with this sentiment (or at least, I don’t support the idea that story telling is the main or prime objective of playing an RPG). Stories CAN come out of imaginary play, but the point of play is…let’s face it…PLAY. Play in an imaginary world, imagining yourself as a grim wizard or stalwart cleric of brawny fighter…or for that matter, pretending you’re a Jedi Knight or star-sailing smuggler.

Certainly, some players (including myself) have at least some nominal story-telling objective; a “narratavist creative agenda” to use the jargon of the Forge, and role-playing games can be designed with this objective in mind. But D&D is NOT a game that facilitates addressing a premise in play…at least not without a LOT of house rules and some fairly extreme tweaks.

But that doesn’t mean you don’t get something of a story from playing. No, it’s not Tolstoy; hell, it’s not even Howard usually (though it might be Lovecraft). The story you get is the same kind you bring back from a camping trip in the Pacific Northwest.

I’ll explain what I mean by that.

When I was a kid, I was both a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout (I was also a Catholic altar boy…and somehow I was never molested in all the years of my youth…go figure). As a Scout with an active/involved father, we went on a lot of Scout-sponsored camping trips. This would generally involve driving out into the middle of the wilds, hiking as a troop even farther into the wilds, setting up tents, and then toughing it out through icy, pouring rain for two or three days before hiking out again. Call me a sissy, “city boy,” but camping in the Northwest sucks. It is cold, it is wet, and it is miserable. Miserable! We’d have to sing these damn songs and try to find as much humor as we could while freezing our joints off and getting muddy as hell. I suppose it was designed to “build character,” but what it really did was give me an appreciation for my soft city life…kind of like being forced to eat Top Ramen for a couple years gives you an appreciation for having a job that puts real food on your table.

Anyway, while we certainly had some laughs (usually at the expense of our fellow scouts’ equal or worse suffering), I don’t think any of us would have said we had a “good time.” I know I would never have claimed that…and I enjoyed luke-warm beef stew cooked on a tiny propane stove. Even after we got home, we would not have claimed to have enjoyed ourselves…BUT, we always had a helluva’ good time telling the stories of our suffering!

Complaining and talking about how awful an experience was can be a lot of fun…much more so than the experience itself. What’s more, it can be downright entertaining to others when described with the proper attitude and (occasional) poetic exaggeration.

; )

I hope folks don’t take this to mean that a boring day at the gaming table should be considered entertainment because you can bitch about it later…that’s not the point. The point is, the kind of stories that get told are “war stories” about what happened in the game: “We went into White Plume Mountain, and Joe and Bob died, but at least we got this big pile of treasure, and look at this nasty scar from the giant crab, man, after we finished him off we were dipping his remains in butter…”

Regarding, “the telling being better than the playing:” that’s really not how I see it. Actual play takes time away from “what’s going on” in-game for referencing rules, kibitzing, and out-o-character strategizing. That’s the nature of the beast…and it happens in Story Now games as well (rules referencing, kibitzing, and strategizing or negotiating the story). The difference between D&D and a Story Now game is not that one tells stories and the other doesn’t. The difference is that one (D&D) tells pulpy, weird, serial adventure stories and the other (Story Now) has the ability (or potential) to tell more “meaningful” or “emotionally impactful” stories.

Not that they do, necessarily. InSpecters, for instance, has fantastic potential at facilitating the narrativist creative agenda (due to its shared narration and wide-open interpretation of dice rolls). In practice, any stories told are more loopy than anything that occurred in White Plume Mountain. That’s what it inspires: silliness. And it’s no more or less interesting than the stories that get told about a particular “dungeon delve.”

Now as I said, I don’t think “collaborative story telling” is the prime reason to play RPGs (even though it IS an objective of play for certain RPGs). Likewise (as I said), I personally have an interest in some story coming out of play…even if that story is simply a hair-raising tale of adventure and death. In fact, I find the serial adventure (i.e. the “long-term campaign”) to be the MOST rewarding because it gives you a chance to “fall in love with the characters” just like your favorite serial TV show or comic book or novel or movie trilogy.

[and I think that this love of the “on-going character” is as much the reason people want to play D&D as the ability to “pretend to be an elf or barbarian or spell-slinging sorcerer”]

Because of this (my own creative agenda), I have fairly specific design criteria for role-playing games. Not “rules light” necessarily, but “rules abstract.” And certainly NOT “rules heavy” (sorry Pathfinder/D20…you go too far in the wrong direction for my taste). B/X is just about perfect, aside from minor gripes (like the excessive treasure/XP thing). It gives the rules needed to set parameters of play (what is and is not possible and/or appropriate), but leaves a LOT to the imagination, giving ample space for creativity.

If my write-ups of White Plume Mountain were fun/interesting, it’s because the GAME was fun/interesting…at least from my perspective. No, no, we weren’t creating any chest-beating drama (that’s a different RPG, folks) but we were having a rip-roaring adventure with minimum fuss.

For a Thursday night social event over beer, that’s most of what I’m looking for anyway.
: )

Final Thoughts on White Plume Mountain

I have written more than once that S2:White Plume Mountain is one of my favorite adventure modules of all time, not to mention one of the best examples a “true” D&D adventure/dungeon. There’s almost no “plot” to the adventure, save what a DM might want to give it…really, it’s little more than an adventure scenario: go find some missing artifacts and bring ‘em back for a reward.

The small scale of adventure – 27 numbered encounters, a wandering monster table with 6 entries (and the dead ones stay dead), plus an optional “final encounter” – make it one that can be completed in a single looong weekend, or over just two to three evenings. Ours took longer (5 sessions) as we had many players that were new to the game (not to mention I was challenged to wrangle so many players). But a short adventure like this means a LOT less prep work for the DM.

At the same time, the players were plenty challenged by the encounters presented. The frictionless room, heat induction plates, ziggurat/aquarium, boiling bubble, and mud cavern all proved to be exceptional challenges for the players…not just their characters. And there were several encounters they missed completely…the floating river, the spinning corridor, and the riddle of the globes…all of which would have produced additional consternation I’m sure.

The “S” series of modules (Tomb of Horrors, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth) carry the designation of S for “Special” and they certainly are…all four modules are filled with unusual challenges and non-standard monsters. S1 and S2 are two of the shortest modules ever published by TSR, and yet there is plenty in each to make even the most experienced players pause for a moment.

Not that experienced players don’t have a leg up…the eight guys sitting at my table had a fairly easy-breezy time with some challenges; for example, all the riddles got knocked down quickly. Several times, one player found him idea stymied by the module, but a second player would offer an alternate idea that worked just fine. There was a lot of “brain power” at the table, and that made it possible for the PCs to do quite well over-all (well, except for that final challenge).

If anything, the characters’ own ability scores got in the way of their ideas. My inclination…or crutch, really…is to use ability scores (strength, dexterity, intelligence, etc.) as the equivalent of “skills” for adventurers. There’s no “grab the swinging chain” skill, so make a Dex roll. There’s no “underground direction sense” skill, so make an Int roll to see if you recognize this stretch of corridor.

Actually, I suppose I’m not THAT bad…generally, I allow any hare-brained scheme to work if it makes sense (the weird, rope pulley thing just took awhile for me to grasp). And anyway, the abilities are there to represent SOMEthing (the characters’ abilities…duh!).

However, players sometimes looked annoyed when I’d ask “what’s your strength” to try something and they only had an “8.” I suppose it’s tough to get in the mind of your Halfling character sometimes…especially when you yourself are 6’+ tall.

[interesting that I’ve also found the opposite to be true…my petite wife often had difficulty getting into the mindset of a hardy fighting man]

Regarding the challenges (and the monsters) in the adventure…I was constantly amazed at how different encounter strengths turned out to be the exact opposite of how I anticipated them. Partly this is probably due to memories of prior “runs” through White Plume Mountain. For example, I’ve always considered the Whelm section to be a pushover part of the dungeon, and here it resulted in a TPK (ok, technically there were “survivors,” but if we hadn’t been out of time the remaining three would never have made it past the mud room…).

But having no magical means of bypassing the mud cavern…no fly, levitate, dimension door/teleport, winged boots, etc…made the chamber a near-complete stumper for the party. The explosive geysers do a ton of damage (based on proximity) with no “to hit” roll or saving throw needed. There just weren’t enough resist fire spells to go around! In the past, parties have always circumvented this far easier than the frictionless room or the heat induction corridor.

And then Ctenmiir…wow! I have never seen him (or any vampire) kick so much ass. Of course, I’ve never seen any party stand toe-to-toe with him; in general, they would Turn the vampire, get the treasure, and leave. Our clerics both had the opportunity to Turn the creature, but neither tried (I’m not sure why…maybe they felt their chances weren’t good enough). Raise dead was actually an excellent spell to use, though looking back I’m sure Luke would have preferred to use Dispel Evil (it also destroys undead but singular targets receive a saving throw penalty). There was certainly some bad luck involved (Ctenmiir hitting Alster’s incredible armor class and dropping him to 5th level put a stop to the cleric as a threat, and his hypnotizing of Sexy Kevin sealed off any help from their “back-up cleric”). Without a cleric, vampires are dead-hard monsters in D&D…they WILL eventually hit you and that (ultra-fast in B/X) regeneration makes them a recurring nightmare.

[tell you what: I2:Tomb of the Lizard King looks a LOT harder than its “mid-level” range would indicate. If I were going to convert it to B/X play, I think I’d have to make it 14th or 15th level!]

Even fleeing immediately, the characters would never have made it across the mud cave before the flying, regenerated Ctenmiir arrived and cut their little rope line. Those guys were goners.

Anyway, contrast HIM with the giant crab. Sure, there was a timer-based “auto-kill” effect in play, but I figured the crab itself would kill at least one character (15 hit dice monsters tear through plate armor like tissue…and those claws averaged 10.5 damage each!). However, such was not the case…the monster didn’t hit all that much and didn’t do all that much damage (damn random rolls). I suppose in that situation the party had a little “good luck.”

Personally, I figured that Quentin and Blackrazor would be the real “party killer” of the three guardians, but he really wasn’t “all that.” Perhaps, if I had NOT allowed the scarab of protection to save Sweet Tito’s soul (and thus added the elf’s hit points and level to Quentin)…or perhaps if I’d allowed the extra levels to mean multiple attacks for Halfling (as they would have meant to an AD&D fighter)…maybe then the Halfling would have finished off the entire party. But that sure would have cut the adventure short! As it was, I was quite pleased with how that particular encounter resolved itself.

Boy, those halflings sure did prove to be resilient little cusses, huh? Like cockroaches…fairly impossible to stomp. The combination of good armor class and good hit points made them Tiny Tanks…and unlike the big fighters, they were far less often targeted in combat. The elves and clerics often suffered from a lack of hit points…there’s no minimum Constitution requirement for these classes (unlike Halflings) and several of those PCs were scarce in the HP total because of it.

And the thieves…whoa, poor little guys. Once again proving that they are NOT lightly-clad fighters. They are THIEVES…and hand-to-hand melee was a very bad idea for these chaps. Magic-users would have been even worse, of course…but none of the players played a magic-user so it’s hard to tell how THEY would have fared.

All in all, I have to say I was quite pleased with the over-all adventure, and quite happy that I had a chance to run it again with a new set of players. Even considering it a “fun house” adventure I think the module has a nice set of teeth, and certainly provided the group with mucho entertainment value. I don’t know the next time (if ever) that I’ll get a chance to run White Plume Mountain again…perhaps for my own children someday. But this was a lot of fun for a “one-off” adventure, and it sparked a ton of ideas…on the use of monsters, challenges, and intelligent artifact weapons…that I’m sure I can adapt to later adventures.

Hell, some of the stuff found in White Plume Mountain – Wave, Blackrazor, Ctenmiir, “Quentin” – would be entertaining things to have “pop-up” in other campaigns. Certainly, I could build an entire campaign setting around ANY one of the three magic weapons…if I’d had the chance, I think I would have given Whelm a cranky, dwarven personality.

Hmmm…many ideas to consider.
; )

White Plume Mountain – The Final Chapter (Part 3)

[continued from here]

Beyond the mud cavern was another corridor ending in another door, though this one seemed a bit more intricate. Gathering themselves and readying their weapons, Farnsworth once again raised a mighty foot and kicked in the portal. Darkness. Black, impenetrable darkness. The darkness seemed to smother the light from the fighter’s sword…his flame was all that was visible. Alster pushed forward with his shield (he had previously cast continual light on the thing), giving some slight illumination to the darkened chamber. [Alster rolled for surprise…success! Finally] A pale face loomed from the darkness grinning down at the party. “Does it look like a vampire?” asked Luke/Alster. Ridiculous. “Yeah, sure, it does.” “Does it sparkle like Edward?” asked AB/Farnsworth. “No.” The party rolled for initiative, got it. Alster cast Raise Dead on the creature. The vampire made his saving throw with a 17. Kevin, Bryan, and Dampwick started pulling garlic cloves out of their backpack. Baring his fangs, Ctenmiir the vampire, guardian of Whelm, hugged the cleric to his chest drinking deep of his lifeblood and draining him to 5th level. Farnsworth with Blaarthislaarv (“you know, Blackrazor would be handy in this situation,” comments AB for the 2nd or 5th time), Sexy Kevin with Wave, and Brian with a sword +1 (*ahem*) all attacked the vampire. Dampwick and Sly Jr. hung back, wishing they owned magic weapons. Ctenmiir stared deep into Farnsworth’s eyes, “You long to serve me…I am your master.” Farnsworth passed his saving throw and clubbed the monster for minimal damage while Kevin stabbed Wave deep into the creature’s back. Rounding on the cleric, the vampire tried the same tactic…and Sexy Kevin succumbed under the vampire’s control. Meanwhile, the others continued to pound the creature as best they could. Kevin turned his trident on Alster, even as the cleric fended off the vampire’s attack. “Get the trident out of his hands!” A cleric with a 13 strength and a +3 trident is a fierce opponent, but Sly and Dampwick rushed him and somehow managed to restrain their charmed friend… […somehow being “with the B/X Companion rules for grappling”] …meanwhile, Bryan, Farnsworth, and Alster were doing their best to mangle the vampire, stabbing and smashing it repeatedly, even as it (I believe) drained the heroic halfling down to 5th level. The creature was finally struck a telling blow and the creature vaporized…vanishing into mist as if it had never been. Sexy Kevin was hog-tied and left on the floor. “Master! Master!” “How long till that wears off?” “Who knows…” Alster immediately began searching the room, looking for a coffin or sarcophagus, which he found. Pushing back the lid he was somewhat surprised to find the thing completely empty…no Whelm, no treasure, and no vampire. He began searching the interior. Brian was carefully toeing Wave into the bag of holding, re-claimed from Alster (forgot to mention: the cleric confiscated the bag when the Halfling was initially trying his rope-a-batics); meanwhile Sly and Dampwick watched the door, Sly still badly hurt from his earlier fall and bashing despite being healed by the clerics. “Ho-hum…wonder what we’re watching for,” said Sly to the diminutive Dampwick. “Me,” replied the fully healed Ctenmiir, who fell on the thief ripping his throat out. The lifeless form dropped to the floor. [I blame Kevin Siembieda and Rifts: Vampire Kingdoms for the total smack-down on the players…I never realized how VICIOUS vampires were before reading up on vamp tactics. I suppose that, as a kid, I simply didn’t play vampires…when they infrequently appeared…as “all that smart.” Truth be told, I considered the Ctenmiir encounter the weakest “guardian” of the three in White Plume Mountain…however, once the clerics were eliminated, it was pretty much all over for the party. Especially considering that the creature could fully regenerate in less than two minutes…13 ten second rounds…it really was grossly unfair] Dampwick ran around panicked (I actually don’t remember what he was doing), as the Vampire flew at Alster, reducing the cleric to a lifeless husk. Farnsworth gave a roar and laid into the vampire with his flaming sword, while Brian tried to hamstring the creature. Now that I think about it, I believe Dampwick actually had Alster’s mace +2 at this point, the cleric having give it to the halfling upon finding the Lawful Whelm. The huge hammer (along with many bags of treasure) had just been found on a shelf BENEATH the sarcophagus prior to the vampire’s reappearance. Not that he ever had a chance to swing it. The characters were once more in a fight for their lives. Ctenmiir was all over Farnsworth, the vampire draining the fighter, and then draining him again despite his tremendous armor class. I openly cackled (I couldn’t help myself…sorry) as I realized how close to toast the once-badass fighter was…however, a 3rd level fighter with 18 strength and a flaming sword is still nothing to trifle with, and the remaining party members were able to drive Ctenmiir off once again, the vampire voluntarily transforming into mist. They wasted no time: Wave and Whelm were gathered into the bag of holding and everything else…including their friends’ bodies and the still-struggling Kevin…they left behind as they fled the dungeon with all speed. Two halflings and a 3rd level fighter clambered their way across the mud chamber (we “hand-waved” the spouting geysers and Strength/Dex rolls), wondering briefly what had happened to Boner (black pudding fodder), before charging down the hallway at top speed, thankful, at least, that they had removed the one-way turnstile when they had the chance. Through the bone golem room (still no attacks), hand-waving wandering monster rolls, not worried about pursuit from the flying, regenerating vampire, most definitely in full pursuit of the party…until finally, finally arriving at the three-pronged intersection, the place of the sphinx, the tunnel out of White Plume Mountain. And finding it blocked by an invisible force field. Here’s the text of the final encounter of White Plume Mountain:

A voice speaks to them from out of the air: “Not thinking of leaving are you? You’ve been so very entertaining, I just couldn’t think of letting you go, especially with those little collector’s items of mine. And since you’ve eliminated all of their guardians, why, you’ll simply have to stay…to take their places. I’ll have to ask you to leave all of your ridiculous weapons behind and let Nix and Nox escort you to the Indoctrination Center. I’ll be most disappointed if you cause me any trouble, and Nix and Nox will have to eliminate you. Don’t worry – you’ll like it here.” The force wall disappears but coming up the south passage are Nix and Nox, two efreet [stats omitted]. If the party can get past them, they’re home free!

Matt/Bryan says: “Well, I can use Wave’s invulnerability power right?” It only works once per day and Kevin used it. “But now I’m the new owner/wielder, right? So I can use it for today?” Um… Since it was already past Midnight and we all wanted to wrap up, we decided, sure, Wave can use its sphere ability (again) the two Halflings cling to the big (3rd level) fighter, and the party “hamster-balled” past the efreet. [Besides, the module says you can skip the final encounter if you feel the party is “too badly damaged.” Personally, I don’t think there’s such a thing in D&D…but that’s my opinion. Some DMs hold off on even killing folks, and where’s the fun in that?] Half-hearted “yays” and “we wins,” were (briefly) heard around the table…yeah, right. It’s just as well we decided we’d start a new campaign with our next session, as this group was pretty well demolished. Final thoughts will be in a follow-up post.

White Plume Mountain – The Final Chapter (Part 2)

[continued from here]

“Does anyone have a fly spell? Scroll? Potion of levitation? Anything?!” The answer was uniformly no…not one of the party members had a magical means of traversing the cavern. As they stood on the ledge, wondering and contemplating what they were going to do, a geyser of steaming mud exploded from the lake near the far side of the cavern. The force of the geyser was enough to knock the disks swinging wildly, and shower the party with scalding hot mud. Fortunately, they were far enough away that the splatter did minimal (1D4) damage…but it was enough to get them to retreat back from the ledge and into the corridor. They were still discussing this latest turn of events when the second, nearer geyser blew two minutes later. Being under cover, they received no damage…but to say they were a bit disconcerted would be (I think) an understatement. What followed would be the longest, and most worked and re-worked, brain storm of the entire adventure. [the players spent a loooong-ass time trying to figure out a way to conquer this particular challenge…yet another descriptive room with “not-a-lot-o-guidance.” Schick provides the dimensions of the cavern and the disk. He provides the timing of the geysers (the far one blows every 3 minutes, the near one every 5), the damage sustained from erupting geysers (based on proximity to the gusher), as well as the % chance of “hanging on” to a chain when a geyser erupts…again, based on proximity. There’s no discussion of how one might cross, what mechanics a DM might use for leaping from disk-to-disk, no information on damage should one fall into the lake of boiling mud…instant kill?...nor how long it might take to try to cross the disks. All this is left to the DM to “referee” which, while a pain in the ass, is actually pretty cool for two reasons: 1) It provides the DM with leeway to make the crossing as easy/hard, slow/fast as necessary (or appropriate) depending on the needs of a “good adventure.” 2) It prevents the DM from giving the players any “clues” as to how the chasm might be crossed. I mean, sure, it’s all well and good to say, “you can jump from disk to disk,” but landing on said disk is going to cause the platform to tilt and the chain to carom wildly. Also, how does one jump from one to the next with little to no leverage against which to push off? You’re really left just trying to grab the chain…each chain being approximately 9’ from the next, and slick with moisture and slime. With the amount of damage being dished out by the geysers, the lack of magical flying ability made the cavern a HUGE undertaking for the party!] The party made sure time out the geysers, roughly figuring that one was blowing every five minutes while the other was blowing every three minutes. I say, roughly, because folks were hitting the beer pretty hard and there were more than a few cocktails consumed (including several “rum and root beers” – don’t ask) and the counting and calculations weren’t as solid as one might’ve figured. However, they did eventually realize (perhaps because I told them) that the geysers would blow simultaneously every 15 minutes or so, and from this they devised Plan A. Plan A (my name, not theirs), consisted of casting resist fire on the thief, tying a rope around his waist, and having him try to leapfrog across the disks as best he could. I’m not sure what exactly he was supposed to do once he got to the other side, but that would become a moot point. I decided to have him make a straight Dexterity check to jump, land correctly, and catch hold of the chain for each disk. He failed on the second one. However, he only missed the roll by one so allowed him a second roll to catch the edge of the platform with his gauntlets of ogre power. This he did, and with a grip of iron, managed to claw his way up to the chain. Making it (I believe that was a Strength roll?) he continued his leaping. I believe it was the fourth or fifth disk where he missed both the first Dex roll and the second “saving” Dex roll. Having fed him only enough rope to have slack for his jumps, the length of rope between the party and Sly Jr. was only 30-some feet in length. Falling he swung nearly half the length of the cavern, before crashing into the cave wall thirty feet below the ledge on which stood his friends. Down to four hit points and with a definite sprain or two, Sly refused to try Plan A again. [actually, Sly was more like Plan B…Plan A was to see if Boner could make it across the cavern, but the party discarded that idea before giving it a shot. Boner just didn’t look like he had it in him…] The party now considered several different possible options: - Have the thief “climb walls” around the circumference of the cavern (yeah, right). - Sexy Kevin didn’t like the idea but thought maybe he could use Wave’s “sphere of invulnerability somehow to get across the boiling mud. - Fire an arrow to try to rig up some sort of “zip line” or shoot an arrow through one of the chain links on the far side, “threading the needle” (call that the “William Tell” maneuver). In the end, it was Bryan the Halfling who once again stepped up and volunteered his services; Bryan was so happy that there was another Halfling in the party they could “send down the holes” that he was feeling fairly generous with his life. Well, no not really…it’s just that Matt came up with some weird, convoluted rope insanity plan that he was totally stoked and enthused about. I say “convoluted” because it took him something like 40 minutes to explain it to me till I understood it, and most of the party STILL didn’t quite get it (though they were all amenable to Bryan braving the cavern). Remember…copious amounts of beer? The general gist (if I’m remembering correctly) is: - Bryan tied a rope around his waist that was 100’ long, then used a rope and grappling iron to hook and pull disks, still leaping from each to each. The cleric cast resist fire on him and he had his ring of water (mud) walking. - Sometimes he fell (probably two or three times) but because of the grapple, he was able to climb straight up to the disk from which he’d just dropped. He was thus able to continue making progress across the chasm without taking much damage (though shinnying up the rope cost valuable time off the resist fire duration). - Once across the cavern (on the opposite ledge), he had the other party members tie the REST of the rope…200’ worth!...onto the end of his rope, which he then pulled across, looped, and allowed them to pull back. The result: three lines crossing the cavern, one of which was taut, the other pair on a kind of “pulley system,” that allowed for swift transport of PCs. Which was great, because they NEEDED swift transpo. The spell wore off and Bryan started taking damage from geysers, even as Farnsworth hurried across the rope line. The big fighter knocked down the door on the other side and then the two were able to shelter in the corridor beyond, while still helping to “pulley” the characters across. I was, of course, rolling wandering monsters during this entire time period. The “Predator” monster showed up again [note to players…this was an Invisible Stalker, Keraptis’s main messenger and gopher guy, providing him on updates of the PCs’ progress] …but having faced violence from the creature, decided to leave it alone…and it left them alone, again. [I did make a Reaction roll for the Stalker, but it was a positive “9”] However, the next monster wasn’t quite so friendly…I believe Sly Jr. was the next across the rope bridge, followed by Alster (who first used his final resist fire spell on himself). Sexy Kevin was still pulling the rope pulley from his end while Dampwick watched their backtrail for wandering monsters. Somehow, the huge (10 HD) black pudding that cleans the dungeon managed to sneak up on them (surprise) and the two were in a fight for their lives! Dampwick attempted to shatter his lantern on the thing, but missed with a “1;” Kevin smote the slime with Wave, simply dividing it into two! Looking with disgust at Boner (who did nothing, having been left on the ledge with zero instruction from Farnsworth), they decided discretion was the better part of valor. “Hop on my back!” the cleric told the Halfling…then, activating Wave’s “force sphere” ability, the two hopped off the ledge, bouncing lightly along the surface of the mud, before “hamster-balling” across to the other side. From there, the rest of the party was able to haul the pair up via ropes (??)… [now that I think about it, they were pretty much out of rope at this point…hmmm] …and thus gathered together, continued on in search of Whelm. Having deciphered the cavern as the place of “water spouts double” from Keraptis’s riddle, they were sure the hammer must be close by!

White Plume Mountain – The Final Chapter (Part 1)

Here’s how it all went down, folks…including our “expedited” ending. Let me know what you think. Our Baranof group was reduced to only six players last Thursday as Matthew (aka “Gustav,” aka “Cod Sandwich”) had a family commitment and Heron (aka “Weasleteats”) had a dinner party. Only six intrepid adventurers were thus on-hand to brave the depths of White Plume Mountain, in search of the fabulous dwarven hammer Whelm…the actual weapon the party had been initially hired to procure. The group consisted of: Farnsworth (my brother, AB) – level 7 fighter with 18 strength, AC -1, and a flaming sword. Bryan Leftfoot (Matthew #1) – level 7 halfling with a bag of holding carrying the entirety of the party’s loot (including both Blackrazor and Wave). Alster (Luke) – level 7 cleric, Lawful. Sexy Kevin (Randy) – level 6 cleric (replacement for Sweet Tito) Sly Junior (Vince) – level 6 thief, wearing his father’s much coveted gauntlets of ogre power Dampwick (Josh) – level 6 halfling (replacement for Borgnine the Dwarf) Before we began the expedition proper, there was the slight matter of Wave to deal with. Although Wave had happily saved Bryan (a ready worshipper of Poseidon), the trident was now in complete control of the Halfling (the character’s Will score being determined by the sum of his Strength and Wisdom, both of which were a whopping “8”). Wave was ready to have Bryan use the party’s wealth to construct a shrine/temple to the Sea King, complete with a coral and ivory statue, 20’ high. Conveniently, it was discovered that Sexy Kevin was a cleric of Poseidon, and took Wave off the hands of the less-than-worthy Halfling. Having a Strength of 13 and a Wisdom of 16, the cleric was just willful enough to trump the weapon’s ego and retained full command of the item for the rest of his life (see below). With the matter of Wave settled (and Blackrazor still in the bag of holding), the PCs were ready to begin. The party got off to a “fantastic” start as they were unable to remember which of the three corridors had been left unexplored (they knew they’d been down two already). “We need to go down the left one; we always go left!” “But didn’t we go down the left one first?” “No we went down the center.” “Wait, wasn’t that the way we went last time?” In the end, they decided to take the left-hand corridor, figuring it was the most likely way they hadn’t discovered. …and discovered that it was in fact the first corridor they had explored (with the water mostly drained from the dungeon, they encountered the first pit…now just a big swimming pool…along with the holes where they had previously pounded iron pitons for crossing). After more heated discussion, they back-tracked to the initial crossroads and took the as-yet-unexplored right-hand path. After walking for 20 minutes or so, the party members all began to feel a “burning” sensation in their feet. Looking down they were horrified to discover they were covered in green slime up to their ankles…the creature had already burned through their boots and was now working on their feet! [this was yet another encounter with less-than-helpful guidance in the encounter description. A huge patch…8 hit dice worth…it remains “undetected” unless actively searched for, until the party has already passed through it and it’s started working on their toes. Should one “roll for surprise?” Make “to hit” rolls? How long does it take for them to realize the creature is on them? How much does it reduce their armor class when they’re bare foot?] Fortunately (for everyone…including the DM), Luke acted quickly to cast cure disease, wiping out the entire patch (can the thing only attack one player? If it is on multiple players is it now considered multiple creatures? Jeez!). I ruled that cure disease wiped out all slime within 30’ (the range of the spell), conveniently putting to rest all the fuzzy questions surrounding the encounter. “Don’t we even take damage?” asked Josh. Sure, I said rolling a six-sided. You each take…six points of damage. The rest of the players were none-too-happy with Josh. The next obstacle the party came to was yet another decision; the corridor branched left or continued straight ahead. Fortunately, this was an easy one and citing their “always go left” mantra, the party decide to turn up the new passage. The passage ended in a door that Farnsworth was happy to kick in. Beyond was a room, against whose far wall stood five golems made from the polished bones of a number of a multitude of creatures. [there are no “flesh golems” in B/X but there are bone golems of the same (8) hit dice. However, I did make them two-armed, rather than four-armed] The PCs stood outside the chamber, again heatedly discussing how to proceed. Eventually, Farnsworth decided he would simply “deal with them himself,” and entered the room. One bone golem stood forward, holding up his hand and commanding the fighter to “halt.” Speaking, it told Farns that if he could guess its riddle it would serve him and the golems would let his party pass. I used a riddle from the recent Green Devil Face that I thought was pretty tricky. Unfortunately, the party guessed it in (roughly) 5 seconds or so. Ugh. Not as tricky as I thought. Now accompanied by a walking behemoth (which the party, of course, named “Boner”) the party continued on…up a flight of stairs, around a bend and then face-to face with an old fashioned turnstile that, when tested, was found to only allow one-way passage. “Can Boner rip this thing out of the wall?” He could…and did upon the party’s command. Players were high spirits as they pressed onward, Boner leading the way. The next door opened up into a vast natural cavern…easily the largest “chamber” the party had yet encountered in White Plume Mountain, they found themselves on a man-made ledge built into the cavern wall. Fifty feet above them glistened a rough and natural cave roof, semi-shrouded in darkness…fifty feet below them was a lake of boiling mud. The slimy mud had a natural phosphorescent sheen that clung to and illuminated the whole of the cavern, and the air was oppressively hot and humid. On the opposite side of the cavern appeared to be a similar ledge to the one on which stood the party, as well as what appeared to be a doorway of egress. Between the two ledges hung a series of wooden disks…nine round, and slime-slick platforms, each suspended from the ceiling by a massive chain, anchored in the center with an iron staple. Each disk was about four feet in diameter with roughly three to four feet of distance between each. The platforms appeared to be the only way across the lake. You folks ever see the TV show, “Wipe Out?”

; )

I Am A Terrible DM...

It should be cardinal rule numero uno that DMs NOT be allowed to openly guffaw at the table...especially when you are energy draining the shit out of the player characters.

I am a terrible, terrible DM.

Tonight was the final night of our White Plume Mountain game. While the game was ostensibly a "win" for the PCs (three survivors made it out of the dungeon), this was only with a bit of "hand waving" on the part of the DM (at the players' request). The fact of the matter is the game was pretty much a TPK. All hand-waving aside, if we'd given the game another 30 minutes (perhaps even 15) everyone would have been toast; I don't think the players would deny that.

But we were over-time anyway, and I already blew my "fair-and-balanced" cred by laughing like a hyena at the players' misfortunes. It's just my damn brother...like many siblings, we have a semi-antagonistic relationship that goes back years, and we BOTH enjoy one-upping each other or making each other squirm (Lord knows, he needles me a lot). The expression on his face was priceless...actually, it wasn't the expression so much as I KNEW what he was thinking/feeling as his character was being taken down.

I couldn't help but laugh. Ugh! Bad DM!

So, letting the players exit without really fighting the "final encounter," let alone conducting a running battle with the vampire Ctenmiir was the very least I could do. Well, if I didn't want them to line up and punch me in the mouth.

As it was, they all want to come back next week (those who are able) and start the "new campaign," which (I hope) will be a fun one.

Hell, even my brother...the last thing he told me tonight was "thanks for being the DM," and that he had a fun time. And that was without any tea-bagging incidents. I'm glad he didn't take my laughter personal. I probably would have punched me in the face if the roles had been reversed. Fortunately, AB has a fairly good sense of humor...

More details later; I promise.

: )

And Now…Wave (P. 3)

[continued from here…I’ll wrap up and then discuss a bit about this final encounter]

Gustav and Borgnine were thoroughly dead and gone, and the others (with the exception of Bryan and Weas) weren’t out of “hot water” yet. Farnsworth and Sexy Kevin worth both protected from the heat of the water half-filling the 10’ by 10’ chamber in which they were trapped, but Allster did not and suffered a modicum of damage…though I did allow him to then cast resist fire upon himself (I suppose I could have been a hard-ass and said he was unable to “concentrate” while boiling alive, but what about all those prayerful martyrs of ancient times? I assumed his deity would give the cleric a break).

By the time the spells faded in potency, the heat of the water in which they stood had cooled to no more than a warm bath. However, there was enough water still pressed against the doors that the party members were unable to pull them open, freeing themselves.

[I had decided that it would take a combined strength of 45 to open the doors, and the trapped party members had just less than that]

Fortunately, Weasel was still “on the outside.” While the other party members stewed in their watery prison cell, the elf went back to the corridor he had initially fled. Although unable to push the doors by himself, he did have a scroll containing the spell knock. The magic of the scroll was enough to throw open the portal, unleashing a deluge of water that thoroughly soaked the elf’s fine doeskin boots.

Pounding at the second set of doors revealed the elf’s trapped companions behind it, and with Weasel’s help, the party was able to get the second set of doors open, more water emptying into the corridor.

Allster cast locate object, searching for Wave (or maybe even Blackrazor) beyond the 3rd set of doors, but nothing was found within range of the spell. Presuming the weapon had been destroyed (along with all the other treasure! Why had they let the Halfling carry everything?!), they turned dejectedly to leave the dungeon. They did not even attempt to open the third set of doors, knowing the boiling water being held back on the other side.

The party had gathered themselves and slogged as far back as the kelpie room, when they encountered the bobbing lantern of Bryan, gigantic Wave in his free hand. “Hey, guys! I’m still alive!” Thus reunited (the Halfling had run back to the dungeon as fast as his little legs would carry him), the group used the ring of water walking to traverse the kelpie pool and make their way out and down to Dead Gnoll’s Eye Socket, where they could rest and recuperate and recount their experiences.

[this is where we ended for the evening]

DM Notes:

If any Old School adventure called for the DM to put on his “referee hat,” White Plume Mountain is it. Descriptions for rooms like the frictionless chamber and the “boiling bubble” are extremely sparse: Schick tells you what’s in the room and how it acts, but after that there’s a lot of judgment calls on the part of the Dragon Master.

In this particular session, the metal doors are as described (the module states they are present to prevent a “bubble breakdown” from flooding the dungeon…kind of an airlock/failsafe mechanism), but no guidance is provided as to how this occurs. Will one set of doors suffice, while the others are their only for “back-up?” How fast does the water flood? How much damage will total immersion do?

The bubble itself is little better: the text states that a slash from an axe or sword will cause the thing to collapse in D6 rounds, though it doesn’t say what happens then. Presumably, being caught in the collapse results in instant death (i.e. “doing an Ali Baba”)…at least that’s how I interpret it based on the text regarding Wave’s ability to save the PCs. But aside from characters being scalded by a jet of water on a “miss” (that’s in the text) there’s no guidance for on-going rounds. Do jets of water continue to cook the party? I’d assume so…and don’t they end up standing in boiling water up to their armored greaves? What’s the on-going damage?

The resist fire spell is pretty clear that it prevents damage from heat and extreme temperature. The ring of fire resistance is pretty clear that it only prevents damage from fire (normal and magical). A kindly DM would probably have allowed the ring to prevent damage from the water, but I wanted to make sure ALL the characters were feeling a bit of danger. In the end, of course, it didn’t matter as Borgnine was drowned…but really the damage caused by the bursting bubble nearly saved him, as he was forced to retreat to the entrance of the chamber (and thus closer to the exit). Unfortunately, he was one of the few party members NOT wearing magical armor, and his movement rate just wasn’t enough to make it to the first set of doors.

There’s a lot of flooding and “water movement” in White Plume Mountain…including the inverted ziggurat…which can result in PCs being slammed and buffeted around the dungeon. However, the module gives no guidance as to what kind of damage or danger might result from this kind of water hazard. While this is cool for a DM…make something up instead of spending time searching for obscure “water buffet” rules…it does make me feel slightly guilty about my own rulings, especially when they result in character death.

Don't get me wrong: as I’ve written often enough, I’m all about killing PCs in a dungeon…that’s half the fun of running a D&D game as a DM (the other half is energy drain…). However, if I’m acting as an “impartial referee” and I make an arbitrary ruling on “how something works” and that ruling gets someone killed…well, it feels a bit like DM fiat and THAT’s a “death attack” for which there is no saving throw.

In the end, I just have to let things go I suppose. The game’s not a perfectly granulated model of reality, and I am not a perfect judge of how best to arbitrate abstract hazards. The players already complain when they get surprised by a pair of wights…and them’s in the rules!...I don’t think there’s a chance in hell I’d be able to satisfy them 100% with my arbitration.

Mainly, I simply strive to make rulings/decisions that make sense in light of the game at hand, while keeping the pacing steady. It doesn’t serve any purpose to strive for “fairness,” as what is fair is pretty much in the eye of the beholder. But I CAN attempt to be consistent, and use the rules already provided in the game. Hopefully, that will be enough to keep me from getting lynched by my players.

Regarding the players: how is it the Halfling ends up with all the loot AND both magic weapons? After all, this IS B/X…we are talking a standard Halfling warrior, not a Halfling Thief. I don’t get it…apparently his beneficent demeanor is above reproach. Pretty crazy though that they keep sending him into dangerous situations (with no thief present, the party wanted to task him with opening the chest and pawing through the loot, or diving underwater looking for Kelpie lairs). Matt has been fairly good about point-blank refusing crazy requests (like going down the lava chute), but I find it all fascinating: does the Halfling seem like the most expendable party member? Or does he seem like the most indestructible party member? And regardless, why are you letting him carry ALL the loot? What happens if he gets disintegrated or something?! Sheesh!

All right, that’s enough blather for one morning. Thursday looks to be Josh’s last week with us due to upcoming parental responsibilities, and Matthew (“Cod Sandwich”) is going to be taking a couple-three weeks off for the holidays starting this week. Just as well, I guess, that both their characters bit the dust. However, I have a bunch of time off myself this week (starting tomorrow!), so I want to be prepped and ready for our game Thursday…hopefully, we’ll be able to finish White Plume Mountain...one way or another.

; )

And Now…Wave (P. 2)

[continued from here]

As the party gaped around the immense, rubbery “bubble chamber” in which they stood, a huge form scuttled out of the darkness, moving swiftly on multiple legs that belied its lumbering form: the largest giant crab any of them had ever seen! Towering over them, its giant claws snapped and bashed, knocking Weasleteats ass-over-tea-kettle while scattering the other party members hither and yon.

Farnsworth, Gustav, and Borgnine were quick to react, hoping fresh Dungeness would be added to their otherwise dry rations and attacked with flashing blades and chopping axes. Weasle, perhaps a bit too true to his namesake, decided discretion was the better part of valor and cast a veil of invisibility about himself while pulling himself from the floor. Meanwhile, Brian and Kevin wondered what tactics to take and Allster changed the sticks stuffed in his belt to more than a dozen squirming snakes!

The warriors blades missed their mark more than once, bouncing off thick crab armor or being deflect by the thing’s waving arms. Each strike that missed scored the rubbery “flesh” of the chamber, opening gaping wounds that let through streams of scalding water, cooking the party members to varying degrees! General chaos ensued as the party found the chamber begin to collapse like a perforated soufflé.

The following occurred over the next several rounds:

Farnsworth was determined to go toe-to-toe with the giant crab, yelling at the others to look for treasure, while telling the monster he intended to eat it with melted butter.

Gustav, scored the most telling blows on the crab, capturing its attention, and getting the crap beat out of him. Using his warhammer he found the lack of edge was good for NOT puncturing the skin of the chamber, but he eventually dropped this in favor of his magic sword (once he realized the chamber was already collapsing).

Borgnine took a couple strokes at the crab, opening a monstrous gash or two in the wall of the “bubble,” before deciding to retreat to the chamber’s entrance. From there he could shoot the thing in relative safety with his magic-primed crossbow.

Sexy Kevin cast striking on Farnsworth, then resist fire on Farnsworth, then resist fire on himself, finding the latter spells were useful at mitigating scalding damage. As Gustav’s hit points quickly dwindled to single digits, the cleric ran forward to heal the fighter, allowing Gustav continue pressing the attack.

Weasleteats cast fly on himself and decided to escape back down the corridor, still invisible. He did stop at the metal doors…but not for long.

Allster commanded his snakes into battle which, being non-poisonous, turned out to be a fairly futile gesture [I probably should have ruled the scalding water “steamed them” to death, but they did little damage to the crab]. The cleric then made his way deeper into the chamber, where he found a large, heavy chest…and yelled for the others to come help him!

Bryan had retreated to the entrance of the chamber, attempting to pepper the crab with arrows (most of these sailed wide, puncturing the skin of the chamber). Upon hearing Allster’s yells of “Treasure! Treasure!” he forgot all about his friends and ran across the room to help scour the chest.

All the while, the chamber continued to collapse. As time wore on, boiling water did damage to the party member, hit points were tracked, and the crab refused to die. Allster decided his Lawful deity would forgive him an act of desperation and cast finger of death at the giant monster…which the creature barely saved. Meanwhile Bryan had opened the chest (it was unlocked) and seeing a gleaming trident atop a number of small bags…WAVE!...immediately ignored the magic weapon in favor of the treasure beneath it.

“What are you doing?! Grab Wave!” yelled Allster.

“YOU grab Wave! I’m scooping all the bagged loot into my bag of holding!” retorted the Halfling.

From the first round, when the first wild strokes opened gashes in the chamber, the party had a total of 5 rounds to escape prior to complete collapse. The five rounds were randomly determined by the roll of a D6; I could have as easily rolled a “1” or “2.” Towards the end of the collapse, the boiling water entering the chamber started doing some real damage to PCs not protected by fire resistance magic…the party knew that complete collapse was imminent and escape imperative.

The party killed the crab at the end of the fourth round following the beginning of the collapse.

Round five: DM asks “What are you all doing.”

Farnsworth: I’m running like hell.

Borgnine: I’m running like hell.

Sexy Kevin: I’m running like hell.

Allster: (was already) running like hell.

Gustav: I’m running like hell, but I’m going to stop to retrieve my warhammer first.

Weasleteats had already flew back to the Kelpies’ chamber when he saw the boiling wall of water coming down the corridor.

Bryan the Halfling: (perhaps knowing he’d never make it, being on the far side of the collapsing chamber) I’ll grab Wave!

DM: What’s your alignment? Brian: Neutral.

DM: Wave speaks in a booming voice: “Ho, Mortal! I am Wave, beloved of Poseidon! If you bow down and worship the Sea God, it is within my power to save you!”

Brian: Um, yeah, Posiedon is good…I’ve always been a big fan. Never have hurt a fish…um, except for some crabs…

Wave: “Ho! Good enough mortal! If you will spread the Good Word of the Sea King, we shall leave this place you and I!”

Gustav: Um…does he have the power to save your friends?

The steel doors…long down the corridor without the chamber…had been designed to close and hold against any such catastrophic collapse, preventing the dungeon from being flooded with the boiling water of the core. I had the player check to see if each dagger held in place (a 5-6 on a D6…the same chance as a person would have forcing a door open), and all three failed.

I then checked each character’s running movement (in feet per round) plus they’re relative placement (based on their final round location) to see how far they could actually “escape” before being overtaken by their watery doom. Weasel, of course, had no problem flying away. Allster, Farnsworth, and Kevin made it as far as the second doors before finding themselves trapped and locked. Borgnine and Gustav (who had stopped to picked up his hammer) didn’t quite make it to the first set; Gustav was cooked alive, while Borgnine’s ring of fire resistance could not prevent the dwarf’s drowning…their bodies floated back and down into the volcano’s still molten core.

And Bryan the Halfling? Wave created a bubble of cool protective air around him, completely shielding him from harm. As the chamber collapsed, he was cast down, down, down with the flood of water, until the water contacted the mountain’s fiery innards, changing to super-heated steam and blasting him up the shaft of the cinder cone. High above the world, he surveyed the countryside from a birds’ eye view, before tumbling and bouncing down the side of the mountain, perfectly protected, and finally coming to rest at the base of White Plume Mountain.

The lucky little guy.
; )

And Now…Wave (P. 1)

In talking about last Thursday’s Baranof game (the continuation of our exploration of S2: White Plume Mountain), let me just say a couple things up front:

1) Although the party didn’t explore all that many encounter areas this session, it still felt like a “full session.” Part of this has to do with the Wave encounter, one of the trickier ones in the module.

2) Because of the nature of this semi-climactic encounter, I’ll be discussing quite a bit of the “behind-the-scenes” DM stuff in this session report.


When last we left our heroes Sweet Tito had been killed for the 3rd time, drowned in the loving embrace of a plant-like kelpie. Farnsworth had been pulled from the water by the heroic halfling, Bryan, after Heron’s new elf character, Weaselteats, had blown big holes in the kelpies using the ubiquitous magic missile spell.

That’s where we decided we’d left off anyway. My lack of note-taking from the previous session meant a collective “jogging of the noggins” was necessary to get the party started. I hadn’t even remembered what happened to Blackrazor (answer: nothing. Left un-discussed at the end of the prior session, it was decided that the necromantic blade was still in the halfling’s BAG of holding).

We started the session by making a new character for Randy. Randy was, frankly, a bit tired of carrying a character that continued to die. “What should I make?” We need another cleric, was the group consensus. Randy than proceeded to roll up a fantastic set of stats including a Wisdom of 16, Strength/Dex/Con of 13+, and a Charisma of 6. Thus was “Sexy Kevin” born, replacing Sweet Tito.

It was decided that Sexy Kevin had been with the party “all along” since this latest foray into the mountain, having been hired at the same time as Weasleteats and Sly Junior, the latter of whom was nowhere to be found.

[Vince wasn’t present on this particular Thursday, and it was decided his character had “slipped off” somewhere…taking his much coveted gauntlets of ogre power with him]

Here’s how the week’s session went down:

Farnsworth was pulled, sputtering, from the water and retrieved his sword Blarthislarv from the ledge where he’d dropped it. The party looked at the dimly glowing light (Tito’s dagger) submerged in the depths and decided to let the elf’s remains rest in Davy Jones’ locker.

Well…MOST of the party was on-board with leaving drowned dogs lie…Farnsworth was steamed that they weren’t trying to make some effort to recover Tito’s loot, specifically his magic items and equipment. In the end, no one was going to back the fighter’s move to launch a salvage operation, and Farn wasn’t interested in diving for elf loot solo (especially with one kelpie still at large). Thus settled, the party decided to move on.

The reamining kelpie did NOT make an appearance, and the party was able to explore the chamber, mainly utilyzing the water walking halfling with a borrowed lantern (his own was a little wet from diving for Farnsworth). Tito’s 8’ pole was retrieved from where it bobbed on the water’s surface, and Allster broke it into many small pieces…these he divided between himself and Sexy Kevin, “just in case we need some sticks.” A stairway on the opposite side of the chamber had a set of stairs leading upwards to a dry corridor, while the only other door in the room led to…an empty room. The party searched this “decoy room” for a half dozen turns (finding nothing) before deciding to move onwards and upwards. So far, a fairly uneventful game session.

This would change soon enough.

Up out of the water they found themselves in a stone corridor; an oaken door of familiar style led to the party’s right, but after knocking it open and seeing only another corridor leading into darkness, they decided to stick with the corridor the road they were already on.

The corridor they were on ended in a door of a completely different sort: double, solid metal, flanged to over-lap itself and hinged to open only outward, away from the party members. After diligently checking said doors for possible traps, enchantments, and weirdness, it was pushed open…smoothly opening on well-oiled hinges. Beyond the doors, the corridor extended another 10’ ending in a similar set of vault-like doors.

Uh-oh.

The first set of doors were checked to make sure they could still be opened from the opposite side? Yes…in fact, they had large handles on the opposite side to ensure they could be pulled open. The party still didn’t trust this…they wedged one door open with a dagger, tied a rope around Borgnine, and had the dwarf investigate the second set of metal doors while the remainder of the party waited outside the first set.

The second pair of doors seemed exact duplicates of the first set in all regards, including…duh-du-du-DUH!...a third set of metal doors beyond them!

Now thoroughly spooked, one door from the second set was again wedged with a dagger beneath the jamb, and after Borgnine had again checked surreptitiously for traps (I’m probably using that term wrong), Gustav and Farnsworth pushed open the third set of doors, revealing…

…a corridor leading into darkness.

Oh, boy. One of the doors from the third set was “spiked open” with a spare dagger, and despite the sheer bulk of the door seemed to be holding relatively steady. The party did a quick ball check and decided they’d man up and continue past the strange (and disconcerting) portals.

Borgnine by now had assumed a “front row” position, checking for traps the entire length of the corridor, followed by Gustav and Farnsworth (swords in hand), followed by Weasleteats and Sexy Kevin (each carrying a long spear…they’d learned a valuable lesson about pole arms from the bugbear patrol). Last came Allster and Bryan…the latter with his bow primed and ready.

With the dwarf’s eyes on the floor, the fighters in front were the first to notice there was something odd about the corridor. At first it appeared the light from their torches seemed to be glimmering from a sheen on the wall, but as they progressed they could see that the sheen seemed to be some sort of pale, semi-opaque material lining the walls and ceiling, eventually becoming the corridor itself: a fleshy, skein-like substance stretched in a semi-circular tunnel, periodically creased and ribbed along its length. Weasle pressed his hand against the wall, finding it soft and pliable, like thin cured leather…and uncomfortably warm to the touch. Remembering that they were inside a semi-active volcano, the party quickly discarded an initial idea to “poke the wall with a knife and see what happens.”

[Allster decided to bless the entire party around this time]

And yet, they ventured on, the corridor widening into a large, dome-shaped chamber. Consulting their notes of Keraptis’s riddle (“beware the beast of the boiling bubble”) they figured they must be close to one of the final two magic weapons…probably the hammer, Whelm!

“Um…do we see a beast anywhere?” They asked. Roll for surprise, says I.

The roll came up a “1” …as usual.

Winding Down the Session (Part 2)

First let me just say that all my players are great guys…at least, that’s MY impression of them. Even Steve, who’s been gone the last few weeks (though he told me Sunday…while watching the Seahawks O-line disintegrate…that he may be getting his Thursday nights back) is a lot of fun at the table.

And I’m not just saying that because most of ‘em read the blog (hi, guys!). Talking with them before, during, and after sessions they all seem pretty cool. Well…maybe not my brother, but you know…

Smart, too. AB was just remarking to my wife that “they’re pretty smart.” I’m not sure what exactly he expected (a bunch of knuckle-heads?), but yeah, all the guys are fairly sharp, even the guys who’ve never played D&D in the past.

[actually, I do have a pretty good idea of why the players are exceeding my brother’s expectations…for the last year or so he’s been hanging out in small towns in North Carolina, where the sharpest folks are college kids that drink way too much, and where the use of “fancy words” got my brother punched in the face on three different occasions. Using big words is, apparently, adequate grounds to brawl in some parts of this country. AB spent so much of the last 18 months trying to “dumb himself down” that he’s still transitioning back to a Seattle society]

Now I would be remiss if I neglected to mention that B/X Dungeons & Dragons is NOT a game that requires a PHD in rocket science. The rules are simple enough that pretty much anyone can learn it and play it in a single evening. Well, provided they have a little imagination and that any attention deficit disorder is of a mild variety.

But smart helps. And multiple players who are on the ball make the survival rate skyrocket. Unless the adventure designer or DM decides to play dirty (un-turnable ghouls, Blackrazor-wielding halflings, etc.). Without a little dirty-play, it’s tough to rack up any TPKs on that kind of collective brain power.

Which seems to be a bit of what my players want. Quotes heard last Thursday in the Baranof included:

“I figured I’d already be dead.”
“We read your blog; we knew what we were getting into.”
“We’ve been waiting for you to destroy us.”

Hmmm…I see. Great guys, smart guys…but a little masochistic. And here am I, some sort of DM dominatrix, hire to break their balls for ‘em.
; )

In all seriousness, while I do take some satisfaction in inflicting pain and suffering on PCs, like Luke there is a definite part of me that grows a little tired of the “fun house” adventure. Or, as AB said, “the story needs more story to it.”

Here’s the Real Deal, folks: running B/X D&D in a one-off adventure like White Plume Mountain is NOT much different than running D&D Encounters for 4th Edition. Not that I would ever prefer the latter to the former: B/X is easier to run, easier to teach, leaves more room for creativity, and provides real ways to “challenge players” rather than challenging their characters’ stat blocks. However, as Gygax himself pointed out (though darned if I can find the reference), the game is at its best, and reaches its most satisfying potential, in LONG-TERM CAMPAIGN PLAY.

From what I’ve read, 4E’s not much about campaign play…but neither are one-off adventures, no matter how cool they are (and believe you me, White Plume Mountain is definitely one of the coolest). PCs die, PCs get raised, PCs (eventually, probably) succeed…after all there IS one resource that is absolutely un-limited in B/X game play: new player characters. Oh, you died? Make a new guy.

Killing players really isn’t enough (at least not in a one-off game)…and yet it can be a total drag as well, when characters get killed early in the session (as Terril and Sly and Tito did) and players have to sit on the bench waiting to get back in the game.

And yet, death really isn’t much more than a minor speed-bump once players get to mid-level. A 7th level cleric can raise dead on any player character. Unless applying AD&D rules (whole, non-mutilated bodies needed) or adding permanent-death dangers (like Blackrazor), there’s very little to prevent PCs from staying alive indefinitely…so long as they can keep the cleric alive.

If D&D is a sort of chess match between the players and DM, the cleric is the King on the board. Actually, that’s a terrible analogy…but so long as the cleric remains upright, the rest of the characters have little to fear.

- Wounds? Cure light and cure serious work fast with sleeping in between.
- Disease? Cure disease at 3rd level renders lycanthropy, mummies, and giant rats moot.
- Poison? Neutralize poison at 4th level wipes out that “insta-kill” effect.
- Curses? Remove curse at 4th level prevents hazardous magical effects from hamstringing characters.

And, of course, Raise Dead as a 5th level spell. Just about the only things still left in the DM’s “bag o tricks” is energy drain and petrifaction…and the former, being the province of the undead, is also generally defeated by the party cleric.

Anyway, the point is: death is just a part of the game, and rather small one even prior to reaching Name (9th) level…and Name level (in my opinion) is where the game REALLY picks up.

IF you’re running a long-term campaign.

If you’re NOT running a long-term campaign, than 9th level just means those challenges are all the easier. Yes, yes…a dragon will still turn you into bacon (in B/X there’s no need to “boost” dragons, as an average-to-large red will still cook the goose of most fighters up through 14th level). But consider White Plume Mountain: does the microwave corridor or frictionless room or inverted ziggurat provide any more or less challenge to characters of ANY level? Monsters can be increased in hit dice, or made more numerous, or whatever, but a funhouse is a funhouse is a funhouse…whether it’s for characters of 7th level or 3rd level or 13th. And while it is totally cool and fun to throw challenges at players…sometimes killing them, sometimes not…doing so without long-term ramifications is only fun for so long.

The campaign is where it’s at. Without it, you’re not playing much more than a glorified, creative (extremely fun) board game.

So why am I bothering to play White Plume Mountain at all? If it’s soooo “un-satisfying” why even bother running a one-off, site-based dungeon adventure?

Well, for a number of reasons:

A) One-off adventures are a good way to “knock the rust” off my DM skills (especially running the B/X system with which I have less practical experience than, say, AD&D).

B) Running one-off adventures helps teach new players the “ins and outs” of B/X D&D…something new for many (if not all) of them.

C) Running a one-off adventure lets me play a favorite mid-level adventure like White Plume Mountain without waiting months for players to advance…who’s to say they wouldn’t get bored long before 7th level?

D) Coupled with that last reason, running a one-off adventure allows players to get a taste of higher level play which (especially for players who prefer spell-casting characters) can be a real blast.

However, the Number One reason for running a one-time adventure like White Plume Mountain rather than starting a campaign is the simple fact that I don’t really know these guys and have no idea how they are going to react and play long-term.

When I was a kid, we had a tight group of friends that loved to play these games. We ran nothing but campaigns and created whole worlds and sagas surrounding the player character protagonists. As an adult…through high school, college, and later…I tried many, many times to start long-term campaigns. Vampire, Ars Magica, Mage, AD&D, 3rd Edition (D20) D&D, Top Secret, Maelstrom, Amber, Over the Edge, ElfQuest, D6 Star Wars, Rifts, Stormbringer…

Guess what? None of ‘em amounted to anything. Nothing, zip, nada. Generally we could do character creation. Often, we could get through ONE session. After that…people get bored, people lose interest, people have different motivations for play and different creative agendas and leave when those needs aren’t being met…

And I get bored, too. I have my own “agendas” when playing/running games (and NOT just killing players or “being a badass,” by the way), and sometimes when my own expectations aren’t being met I can “flake out” on a game.

But usually, it is the players that aren’t on-board for a long term game.

Now some of these cats at my Thursday night game are definitely down for a more serious, campaign-type game (1st level characters, carving names and reputations out of whatever little fantasy world I decide to put together). Others, like my brother and his tea-bagging antics, seem a lot less interested in a “serious tone.”

However, even though it appears I’ve at last gathered a group of like-minded individuals, there is a different issue that raises its head when anticipating campaign play: how does one juggle all these individuals in a long-term game?

So long as the party is just a “wrecking crew” going into dungeons and performing a smash-and-grab…you know, your basic medieval fantasy street gang…there’s not much to do besides make sure everyone has a chance to represent his own character’s persona in the party. The random relationships give the PCs some semblance of reason for being together (as reasonable as anything else, anyway), and after that the story simply becomes “how well does this group of tomb raiders work together on expeditions?” Do the players kill each other over Blackrazor? Do they force the Halfling into all the dangerous nooks & crannies they find? Will the fighter get everyone killed in his rogue quest for a polar bear hat? How many times will the elf cheat death before he meets his final, permanent doom?

These little “story lines” can flesh-out and “add meat” to the site based adventure. But that’s not campaign play.

In campaign play, characters have a real impact on the fantasy environment…on the “world” of the game. As they grow in power and experience, they acquire more than just treasure…they acquire reputations and status, territories and dominions, allies and enemies and relationships. They create the legends of their own game world.

Well…at least that’s how games USED to be. It seems to have been that way in the old Greyhawk campaign (with Mordenkainen, Robilar, etc.) and certainly it was in mine. But with many RPGs of the last 20 years (White Wolf, I’m looking at YOU), the meta-plot and NPCs of the game designers have trumped the action of characters unless GMs are willing to digress from the writers’ accepted story line. Which some have no problem doing (GM tinkers out there), but which I find exhausting…at least when there is a lot of support material that needs to be modified.

ANYway…campaign play in Dungeons & Dragons involves the characters taking a greater and greater role in the shaping of the virtual world based on both their actions AND their very presence (if an 18th level magic-user wanders into town, most people sit up and pay attention). You can’t do this if all you’re doing is running one-off adventures, site based or not.

All right, that’s what I’ve been thinking about. We talked a little bit about our “long term goals of play” last Thursday due to the imminent departure of at least one player (Josh). It was decided we would spend the next couple weeks (presumably his last two with us) finishing up White Plume Mountain. After that, we’ll “figure things out.” However, me being me, I’m already thinking ahead, trying to put together some options or ideas for that possible “next adventure.”

Because these ARE some good guys. And I’d like them to have some fun. And I want more out of the game than a series of one-off adventures, myself. We’ll see how it all shakes out.

Pax!

: )

Winding Down the Session (Part 1)

[continued from here]

I’m going to wrap up the rest of Thursday’s session pretty quickly now…not because it’s not fun to write these session reports, and not because people don’t have fun reading them, but because I want to get to some of my thoughts on the evening’s events and certain “outside the game” conversations, and my impressions of those.

Farnsworth backed down from Alster…asked if he wanted to attack a fellow party member for a chance at Blackrazor his response was almost an immediate, “No, no” (though like Gustav and his lust for a polar bear hat, I could tell AB was a little disappointed at being thwarted).

The characters gathered up all the bodies and entrails…including Quentin’s remains…and sloshed it into the bag of holding. They then continued their march out of the dungeon, loot in hand.

Turning a corner they were again surprised, this time by a bugbear patrol armed with pikes. Pole arms have an advantage in these tight corridors with their ability to attack from the “second rank.” Farnsworth took a hit and Gustav took multiple…it appears his new magic armor provided the same amount of protection as porous cloth. Uh-oh!

However, they were still able to cut down the front rank of bugbears, who promptly failed their morale check and made a break for it. The party pursued and the bugbears ended up making a last stand in the frictionless room. The two bugbears remaining tried to grapple with Brian and Farnsworth, attempting to wrestle the PCs into the pit. The PCs didn’t waver, though, and slew the whole lot, even Alster registering a kill with a sling bullet through an eye.

After THAT, it was a relatively easy walk out…no more wandering monsters and the PCs were able to make their way back to Dead Gnoll’s Eye Socket where their mounts and gear awaited them.

Over the next several days they travelled and attempted to raise their companions (and discovered that Terril and Sly were hopeless). Sweet Tito was raised for the 2nd time, and they even brought Quentin back (after first securing Blackrazor, O So Carefully). This surprised me a bit, especially as I'd given him a good bit of loot for the party members. However, I decided he was grateful enough (and remorseful enough regarding his actions) that he’d voluntarily part with some of his magical items. Quentin was a good guy…just rendered a tool of destruction by the power of Blackrazor.

The party removed Gustav's cursed armor and picked up a couple of new player characters…Heron taking up an elf and Vince creating a new thief named Sly Junior. Yes…the son of Sly. Although only 6th level, Sly Jr. had better ability scores than his father, and the party was gracious enough to present him with his father’s accoutrements including (after Matthew left for the evening) his father’s gauntlets of ogre power.

[oh, yeah…the elf’s name is Weasleteets. I don’t recall the new PC’s hats and such]

The characters, refreshed and recuped from a couple weeks in town (though no Restoration spells were available for Borgnine the dwarf), gathered up their new companions and once again embarked on their quest, braving the depths of White Plume Mountain.

This time, they chose the middle corridor of the three-way fork.

Down the dark hallway, everyone ready for whatever Keraptis threw at them next. A small alcove opened off to their right. Farnsworth decided to check it for secret doors. Farnsworth disappeared out of sight once again because of a drop-off in the floor (damn that foot of water covering everything!). Farnsworth flailed to the surface and Sweet T’s continual light-enhanced dagger was used to plumb the depths. A great iron wheel was set into the wall below. Farnsworth and Sly (our boys with the 18 Strength) managed to turn the wheel and the party was rewarded as the water began to drain from the corridors. Soon (hopefully), the lower halls would be dry and tidy.

Back to exploring…the characters continued down the corridor, the passage eventually opening into a large water-filled chamber. Sweet, using his 8’ pole, probed the floor finding another steep drop-off with a ledge running around the edge of the room. While the rest of the party stayed at the entrance, Sweet T did a circuit of the room, carefully picking a path with his probing pole.

And then the DM called for a surprise roll, which the party failed.

A pale, siren-like form broke the surface of the water near Sweet Tito, beckoning the elf to her. The elf failed his saving throw and promptly hopped in the water to meet her embrace. Over where the party waited, a 2nd nymph appeared, this time beckoning to Farnsworth who likewise dropped his flaming sword and swam to the woman’s watery embrace.

A few magic missiles from Weasleteets blasted holes in the creature dragging Farnsworth to the bottom, and Brian the Halfling dove into the pool, fighting to rescue the fighter who (underwater) seemed to simply be entangled in a man-sized clump of seaweed. Fortunately, the big guy was freed before he could drown.

Sweet T wasn’t so lucky.

“I’m dead again?!” Randy’s elf had now died three times. The knowledge he could be raised (should the party recover his body) was little consolation. So much for going soft!

; )

And that’s how the session wrapped up!

"No, Blackrazor!!! Not my legs, too...!"

[continued from here]

For those interested, here's how I designed the encounter with Quentin Nogg.

The original Quesnef is an ogre-mage with the following stats: HD 5+1, HPs 35, AC 1 due to ring of protection +3, THAC0 14, Average damage 6.5 (from 1D12). Quesnef also wore a ring of mirror images (5 charges) which, like the ring +3, has no equivalent in B/X.

Quentin's stats look like this: 7th level Halfling, HPs 35 (after reduction from wielding Blackrazor), AC 1 (chainmail +2, ring of protection +1, Dex 13), THAC0 14 (7th level halfling with Strength 13), Average damage 4.5 (from 1D6+1). He wore a ring of spell storage containing the mirror image spell, but otherwise he had none of the magical abilities of the original Quesnef...not that he needed anything more than Blackrazor.

In prepping for the evening's session, I made sure to draw up some notes, specifically because I wanted the encounter to go smoothly. A fight against Blackrazor should be a memorable experience, and I didn't want it to be bogged down with too much confusion on the DM's part.

In considering possible ways the characters could circumvent a Total Party Kill (something I considered a distinct possibility having seen a PC carve his way through the G-series of modules near-single-handedly using Blackrazor), I figured their best possibility would be to use Hold Person (and even a halfling would be challenged with that -2 save penalty).

However, if THAT failed, the main thing would be for the PCs to NOT PANIC and continue to fight in a coordinated effort. If they tried to run, chances were good Quentin would be able to take them from behind or drive them into the danger of the frictionless room. And that WOULD be a massacre.

So, picking up where we left off...

Alster's final hold spell failed to paralyze the halfling. "Who has the rod of cancellation?" Someone asked. "Um...that was me," said Randy referring to his decapitated character. Brian decided he was going to start going through the elf's belongings, looking for the item. Gustav hurtled the halfling, trying to hack at Quentin's sword arm.

Sly: "Can I use my backstab ability?"

Since the halfling HAD turned his back on the front rank party members to attack the cleric and dwarf, the answer was, "of course."

Sly leaped upon Quentin's back, stabbing relentlessly with his dagger and doing mucho damage. Meanwhile, Borgnine's axe connected with one of the illusionary Quentins, dissipating it. Based on the logistics of the situation, it would take Farnsworth till next round to get into the brawl.

In the next round, Quentin threw the thief to the ground and hacked twice, severing both his legs and taking his soul. Because of his "psychic connection" with Sweet Tito, I allowed Vince to make a saving throw of his own based on the broach of shielding. Unfortunately, he failed and his strength fed Quentin's own.

[me, being soft again. Vince and Randy are first-time players, and while death and level drain are something I feel no compunctions about hitting them with, the permanent death that comes from being killed by Blackrazor can feel a bit harsh...at least if players are attached to their characters. All-in-all, I'm glad that I gave him a save, and I'm glad he failed it (he had a chance, it didn't happen, that's the game). Randy, on the other hand, was already dealing with a severely weakened character, being unable to fight or whatnot...killing him with Blackrazor was a little too much like shooting fish in a barrel, and it would have felt like too much of a "freebie" if his max hit points and level had been added to Quentin with so little effort]

Now as I mentioned, I figured that hold person would be the party's best shot at taking down Quentin and now that Luke had used up his two shots, I figured the party would resort to fight or flight. Not quite yet...creative players will find creative ways of circumventing challenges. Alster decided to cast quest on the halfling, another spell I've often seen over-looked (I myself have a tendency to over-look it) due to it generally being the purview of NPC clerics tasking PC characters with missions of some nature.

Basically, though, quest is a fairly badass mind control spell. It IS 5th level after all. I suppose under a strict interpretation of the spell, Quentin could have refused the quest (in this case, "deliver Blackrazor over to us") and simply suffered the effects of a curse...but in the end, it didn't matter as the halfling made his saving throw handily with a roll of a 20.

Still, the party had yet to back down from the raging onslaught of the halfling...though now the NPC had the equivalent level of a 19th level fighter (however, I did NOT give him the multiple attacks of a 19th level fighter...up to this point, I had avoided using the B/X Companion rules in our play of "B/X White Plume Mountain" and I figured that giving the halfling an additional attack every round would have REALLY screwed the players). Gustav, Farnsworth, and Bornine all hammered on the halfling...Gustav still attempting to separate Quentin's arm from his shoulder. Meanwhile, Brian Leftfoot had managed to retrieve the rod of cancellation within Sweet's backpack and was trying to figure out how to get into the scrum of melee.

In the final round, Quentin again achieved initiative and hammered a bit of his own at Farnsworth who, with an 18 strength, had managed to inflict the most damage in the previous round. Alster, not yet ready to give up, hit the halfling with a remove curse spell. Since Blackrazor isn't really a cursed weapon in the strict sense of the term (it is an intelligent weapon whose Will score had exceeded that of its wielder and thus was controlling his actions), I ruled this had no effect. In hindsight, this interpretation seems a bit iffy to me...the spell description reads only:

This spell will remove the effects of a curse put on a character or free a character from a cursed magical item...

...and I think freeing Quentin from the thrall of Blackrazor would have been "okay," as well as rewarding Luke for creative thinking (bad DM!). On the other hand, remove curse has a range of 0' and I didn't require him to jump into the melee or make an attack roll (the general procedure for a range 0 spell), so it's a bit of a wash...

Farnsworth did some damage, but Gustav did even more, firmly bringing his sword down on the halfling's right arm, nearly severing the bicep (and reducing Quentin to 1 hit point). This set-up Borgnine to come in hard with his battle axe and take the fiend's legs off at the knees with a single sweep of his magically honed blade (a roll on my Random Death Table indicated the same result that had befallen Sly in an instance of "instant karma"). As the halfling tumbled forward, blood pumping from the stumps of his legs, his right arm came loose from the body, still gripping Blackrazor in a gauntleted hand.

Everyone took a moment to exhale and look at the wreckage in the corridor. Then:

Farnsworth: I'm going to grab Blackrazor from the halfling's hand before someone else can claim it.

Alster: I'm going to prevent him from doing so.

DM: Roll initiative folks.

Alster won, threw his shield over the arm/blade, and then stood on the shield.

DM (to Farnsworth): Are you willing to attack the cleric for Blackrazor?

[to be continued...]

; )

"No, Blackrazor!!! Not my souulll...!"

Thursday night's Baranof game started right where we left off the week before. That is: the part had apparently discovered the first of the three missing magic weapons...the black blade Blackrazor...as well as the halfling champion, Quentin Nogg, whom the party had also been tasked with finding.

Folks who own, or who are familiar with, White Plume Mountain are probably going to say, "what the hell is this all about?" There is, of course, no Quentin Nogg in the original S2 module, and certainly no one just hands Blackrazor over to the PCs without a fight.

Instead, the final encounter beneath the "inverted ziggurat" is with an ogre-mage named Quesnef. Quesnef has polymorphed himself into the form of a "doughty halfling warrior" in order to catch the players off-guard and hopefully do them some harm.

Yeah, right.

I've run White Plume Mountain several times over the years, generally with the straight Quesnef encounter, and guess what? No one has ever bought off in the claim Quesnef was a "halfling warrior;" certainly no one has ever considered him to be anything but a villainous enemy, no matter how straight-faced I ran it.

In my experience, ALL the adventurers that ever made it to the Quesnef encounter have drawn blade and executed a full-on Charlie Manson Special before the creature could even begin to spin its pack of lies. They made it past ghouls and crabs and manticores (not to mention microwave corridors and frictionless rooms) and now they find a friendly face? Right where Blackrazor is supposed to be? No way!

Nah, for me the encounter has always turned out to be a big, fat dud. The ogre-mage maybe gets a chance to turn invisible, possibly gets off a cone of cold, and then falls beneath the spells and weapons of a murderous group of experienced adventurers...all with little fuss or muss. Lame.

So instead I added the Quentin encounter. Quentin Nogg is an ACTUAL doughty halfling of the heroic variety. He was initially sent to recover the magic weapons, captured, and held in durance vile. Unable to escape past manticores and ziggurat, he's been rotting down here for three or four weeks, fed by Keraptis's servants and quartered in sumptuous surroundings, but still a captive whom the wizard has been unable to turn.

Placing Quentin as an objective ensured the party would at least pause before gutting him. Not that they trusted the halfling a whit...Terril the cleric still cast know alignment on the halfling immediately (I don't remember if Sweet Tito used his wand of enemy detection or not...I think the party was satisfied once they discovered Quentin wasn't some Chaotic miscreant). Even if they had, Quentin would not have been detected as an enemy...he was indeed a fellow adventurer in need of rescue.

Blackrazor was the true enemy.

The party finished gathering treasure...loot Keraptis had left trying to entice the halfling to join his forces...and then prepared themselves to exit the dungeon. As they had certain challenges they would need to navigate (not to mention possible wandering monsters) I didn't automatically rule "okay you backtrack your steps and leave the dungeon..." as I sometimes do when players are looking to retreat for some rest. The party re-traced their steps, climbing the ropes past the polar bears (who continued to honor the "non-aggression pact" previously negotiated) and headed back towards the frictionless room.

Blackrazor decided to strike once the party was in the narrow confines of the upper passages.

For those unfamiliar with Blackrazor, the blade is a sentient sword based more than a little on the Moorecock weapons, Stormbringer and Mournblade. As an intelligent sword, it has a special purpose: "to suck souls" in the words of Lawrence Schick. It does this by killing sentient beings and devouring their souls, feeding strength to its wielder, even as it satisfies its own dark hunger. Though it doesn't say so in the book, I have always taken the glowing star-like constellations of the blade to be actual imprisoned souls...a new star winks into existence with every death caused.

Blackrazor is never actually used against the players in the normal adventure module...instead it is an objective of play and (possibly) a trap: a Chaotic weapon that can turn on those of weak will, dominating them and compelling them to satiate its lust for souls through ruinous bloodshed.

Anyway...such was the circumstance here. Quentin Nogg was no enemy of the player characters, but Blackrazor was hungry after so many weeks of isolation, and it was determined to have its due in stolen lives.

The party marching order was this: Farnsworth and Gustav, Brian and Sly, Sweet Tito (still weak from his recent raising), Quentin and Terril, and Alster and Borgnine bringing up the rear. Since Terril was closest to Quentin, I had him roll the party's surprise roll. It came up a "1." I had Terril and Sweet T both dice off to see who the halfling would attack, as there was an equal chance of either, and the cleric lost.

With blinding speed (Blackrazor can caste haste on its wielder), Quentin turned on the cleric, black blade flashing. The halfling's eyes had rolled back in his head and he was obviously no longer in control. "Blood and souls!" He hacked at the cleric, inflicting severe wounds, even as Terril yelled for help.

In the following round, Blackrazor stabbed the cleric, deep through the kidneys. The cleric died with a curse as his soul was sucked out of his body. Without missing a beat, the halfling wheeled and brought the black blade crashing down on Sweet Tito's head, pulping his skull and driving his jaw deep into the elf's body cavity.

Alster attempted to cast hold person on the halfling, but Quentin made his saving throw. Brian loosed an arrow at him and Bornine hewed with his axe, but despite the wounds inflicted, Quentin seemed stronger than before as the blade fed him lifeforce. Sly tried to contact Sweet T telepathically, and could still feel his spirit hovering about his body.

[Sweet was wearing a broach of shielding which, in B/X, protects against death magic like finger of death. I decided to allow it to provide him with a saving throw versus Blackrazor's soul-sucking ability...'cause I'm such a nice guy...and Sweet managed to save. The only soul he'd permanently destroyed was the cleric's]

In the next round, Quentin again achieved initiative. A light flashed from the ring on his hand and suddenly there were TWO halflings wielding Blackrazors! Both attacked the cleric praying desperately for a miracle, but neither was able to strike home as the cleric blocked with his shield. Alster cast his 2nd (and final) hold person spell, but the possessed halfling again saved, this time with an 18.

Things were looking a might grim for the adventurers at this point.

; )