Old School Essentials: The Forsaken Shrine of Ningudu the Sorceror (Session 1)

 

Introduction

That Old School Essentials session was quite fun, so I thought I'd try it again. This time I'm doing something a bit different - creating a party of seven dwarves! They won't be able to cast any spells, pick any locks or disable any traps. The best they can hope to do is kick down any stuck doors. I've been working on some new critical hit tables too, which should be fun to use.

Our group have left their hall in search of The Forsaken Shrine of Ningudu the Sorceror (another Donjon creation), as they heard it's supposed to be hiding a horde of treasure.

Here are the dwarves themselves, all male. The descriptions were generated using the excellent Maze Rats character generator.

Bardi

STR: 9

INT: 7

WIS: 13

DEX: 15

CON: 11

CHA: 11

Description: Ugly

Gear: Battleaxe, platemail, crossbow and 30 bolts, 50 ft rope, 2 oil flasks, backpack, 17GP

Bomli

STR: 13

INT: 7

WIS: 16

DEX: 12

CON: 10

CHA: 9

Description: Corpulent

Gear: Warhammer, shield, platemail, crossbow and 30 bolts, tinder box, 50 ft rope, crowbar, backpack, 6GP

Bomrek

STR: 10

INT: 9

WIS: 5

DEX: 10

CON: 12

CHA: 13

Description: Bullnecked

Gear: Handaxe, shield, platemail, 3 javelins, 50ft rope, grappling hook, backpack, 2GP

Borri

STR: 13

INT: 7

WIS: 16

DEX: 12

CON: 10

CHA: 9

Description: Gorgeous!

Gear: Battleaxe, platemail, crossbow and 30 bolts, crowbar, backpack, 8GP

Frodu

STR: 11

INT: 7

WIS: 6

DEX: 8

CON: 11

CHA: 8

Description: Haggard

Gear: Warhammer, shield, platemail, tinder box, crowbar, backpack, 7GP

Kharkal

STR: 9

INT: 11

WIS: 8

DEX: 8

CON: 9

CHA: 6

Description: Rosy-cheeked

Gear: Handaxe, shield, platemail, 50ft rope, grappling hook, crowbar, backpack, 5GP

Urist

STR: 16

INT: 13

WIS: 7

DEX: 7

CON: 16

CHA: 15

Description: Grizzled

Gear: Battleaxe, platemail, crowbar, 50ft rope, backpack, 37GP

OK, well... it's not that fun creating seven characters by yourself, even when using an online character generator to speed things up. Over an hour later, the boys are ready to travel to the dungeon!

The Adventure

The seven dwarves arrive at the shrine entrance after an uneventful journey. A small stone door set into a cliffside in a desolate rocky wasteland, opening it they find a flight of stone steps leading down into the gloom. They haven't brought torches as they can all see in the dark.

The stairs lead into a corridor which runs south at a downward slope, then doubles back on itself. The dwarves can only move 40 feet per turn so this will be a slow but careful dungeon crawl. Since they don't have a thief with them they decide to search for traps and hidden treasure in each area they enter.

Following the corridor as it doubles back to the north they come to an archway in the east wall leading into a large square room lit by torches on the walls. It appears empty so they begin searching it. Bomli finds a secret panel in the wall. Forcing it open reveals a small iron chest. He drags it out but it's locked, unfortunately. They discuss carrying it out of the dungeon together as they're so near the exit, but while this discussion is happening Kharkal steps onto a concealed trapdoor. It opens beneath his feet.

Kharkal: Dexterity check (8)

Failure!

He screams loudly and falls, landing hard on three long spikes that punch through his platemail, killing him instantly. Shocked at their failure to find this trap, the others lament his his death for a few minutes, then attempt to retrieve his backpack using Bomrek's rope and grappling hook (each makes a dexterity check). Bomli manages to pull up the backpack and they take out Kharkal's rope, grappling hook, crowbar and 5 gold pieces.

Two of the dwarves pick up the iron chest and the others escort them back out of the dungeon with it. Just as they reach the archway they entered through, five one foot long centipedes rush through it into the room. One of them turns around and runs away at the sight of the dwarves but the others go for the dwarves, however their fangs are unable to do much against platemail and they are easily hacked to pieces (24 XP).

They make it back out of the dungeon with the chest and leave it outside. When they return to their hall they'll take turns carrying it back, then get a dwarven smith to crack it open.

Back in the room where Kharkal died, they try the north door but it's locked. The south wall has an iron portcullis, a door, and an archway. They decide to try to lift the portcullis (Strength check). Bardi is able to lift it so he wedges his crowbar under it and they crawl through. He's about to remove the crowbar when Urist suggests they leave it there in case they need to make a hasty retreat. Then they'd be able to grab it after coming back through and trap any monsters in there.

They're in a corridor that goes south to a T-junction. They choose to go right. Part of the ceiling has collapsed into the corridor here, leaving a pile of rubble. They're able to climb over it but it takes a whole turn to do so. Following the corridor around to the west, they notice a kind of mosaic labyrinth on the floor in this section. Ornate and beautiful, perhaps it was commissioned by Ningudu the Sorceror, the original owner of this place.

The corridor turns north and they find a wooden door at the end. Bardi notices a grid of holes in the walls near the door and calls to the others to halt. He examines the floor to see if there's a pressure plate, then throws his backpack on the floor tile in front of the door. Nothing happens, so he deduces this is some kind of projectile trap triggered when the door is opened.

The dwarves hook a grappling hook onto the door handle, then walk all the way to the end of the corridor holding the rope. Yanking it, the door handle turns and many arrows shoot out of the walls near the door. Anyone standing there would have been killed for sure. They go back to the door, open it and step through into the room with the pit trap again. The corridor led them in a circle!

They go back under the portcullis and take the west corridor at the junction this time. As they turn the corner they see three men drinking from a fountain in an alcove set in the wall. The men turn round to face them. They are dressed like travelling merchants but they're not happy to see the dwarves - they draw their weapons and scream at the top of their lungs, a horrible inhuman warcry.

Bardi, Bomli and Borri have crossbows, and Bomrek has three javelins. The four of them loose their missiles at the clearly insane men as they charge down the corridor at the party. Everyone misses except Bomli, who hits the toughest-looking man in the face with a crossbow bolt, killing him instantly (Critical hit!).

Funnily enough, that enemy had 6HP, the toughest of the three, and my roll on my new critical table said "Max damage" which is 6 for a crossbow. Nice!

Frodu and Urist charge to meet the surviving two. Frodu aims his warhammer at the knee of one of the men, completely pulverising it. His leg buckles under him and he crashes to the floor allowing Frodu to club his head, killing him. This was a second critical hit! I rolled 99 on the table - double max damage and you sever or crush the enemy's leg. Fantastic!

Urist swings his battleaxe in a wide arc, hitting the last man square in the chest and killing him (30 XP). They rummage around in the men's packs and find a gold ruby necklace worth 1100GP, a large diamond ring worth 1000GP, a gold necklace worth 700GP, plus one copper piece. Jackpot! That's 2800 XP.

Urist looks at the fountain. "I'll wager that fountain be cursed or summat." he says.

"Ye don't have to wager nothin' brother," Frodu replies, "None of us'll be drinking from it to find out!"

Bardi takes a dagger off the corpse of one of the madmen and puts it in his belt as a backup weapon, then they head for the door near the fountain. Upon reaching it they find it's stuck. Bomli breaks it open with his crowbar and shudders in fear at the sight that greets him beyond.

The entire room is filled with huge strands of sticky spiderweb, and in the centre of it sits a giant black widow spider six feet from toe to toe! The dwarves have initiative, and Bardi knows what to do. He takes an oil flask from his pack and lights its taper with flint and steel, then throws it at the huge spider. If it hits it'll take 1D8 damage for two rounds plus an extra 1D6 in the first round for being surrounded by its own burning web.

The flask smashes on its body, engulfing it in fire which quickly spreads across the entire network of webbing. The whole room is soon ablaze and the dark shape of the spider crashes to the floor, barely visible (50 XP). "Fire needs air to spread, shut that ruddy door!" Borri shouts, and Bardi slams the door shut on the flames. They decide to wait until the fire's burned itself out before searching the room. Let's say it takes 2D8 turns: 13. That's six wandering monster checks.

The dwarves sit down and wait, watching wisps of smoke waft under the door. Soon they hear excited high pitched chattering and laughing, and seven goblins round the corner. The dwarves have initiative so they leap to their feet.

The dwarves with ranged weapons loose their missiles. Bomrek's javelin hits a goblin in the shoulder, badly wounding it, and Borri hits one in the chest with his crossbow which kills it. Frodu charges in and smashes a goblin's leg with his warhammer (another critical hit on an enemy's leg from Frodu!). It falls over and he brains it easily. Urist swings his battleaxe but loses his balance and falls over (Fumble!).

One of the goblins runs at Bardi and sticks its dagger into his thigh (Critical!), badly wounding him. Another chops into Bomrek between his armour plates, wounding him with its handaxe.

Bomrek hacks at one with his handaxe, almost killing it but not quite.

A goblin clubs the wounded Bomrek over the head but then he whirls around and hits another goblin in the top of its head, chopping into its brain and killing it. Borri hits another in the face with his battleaxe, putting it down, then Frodu smashes one's ribs, killing it. There are two left now. One shrieks and flees in terror but the other, the tough one that stabbed Bardi lets out a warcry and refuses to back down. It is dead in seconds, cut down by Borri's battleaxe (30 XP).

Searching the bodies they find 49 electrum pieces (24.50GP & XP). Then they open the door again. Black smoke billows out into the corridor but the fire has gone out and the room is filled with crispy black remains of webbing and a very crispy giant spider corpse. It's going to be hard to sift through the ashes to find all the treasure in here. There's a gold bracelet with emeralds, a diamond ring, and 14GP. Let's roll a D4 to see how many of these three things they find (with 4 being none).

4. Dammit!

Annoyed at finding nothing of value in the destroyed room, the dwarves examine their wounds. Bardi and Bomrek are both extremely badly injured now, and unable to fight. They curse themselves for not hiring a cleric from one of the human villages they passed on the way here, and realise they're going to need to backtrack and rest up in an inn for a few days. At least they can take that iron chest with them though and get a smith to crack it open for them. Then they can find a cleric to accompany them on their next foray into The Forsaken Shrine of Ningudu the Sorceror!