Haunted Halls Delve 9 – Day Shall Come Again!

A leaner, meaner party returns for the second raid on the Shrine of Evil Chaos. In the front rank:

• Trigg Sunbold, fighter 2

• Ivy Almyr, fighter 3 (NPC)

• Berrybert of Molehill, halfling 3 (NPC)

• Tansybell, halfling 2

Behind them with spear, bow, and pole-axe:

• Old Dolf, thief 3

• Sassaran, elf 1

• Taravol, elf 3 (NPC)

• Gimwort, dwarf 2

And holding the torch in the rear, it’s Leegild of Molehill, halfling 2 (NPC).

Sassaran and Taravol each carry one of the scrolls that they’ll need to destroy the temple’s cursed treasures. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Berrybert has one of the cursed goblets in his pack, and has fallen under its spell. He is dangerously possessive of the treasures and will fight to claim them or to prevent their destruction. In two more days he will turn “wholly evil” and become magically bound to the service of the temple and the treasures, a kind of living barrow wight.

THE LOG

TURN 1

The combined party enters the underground temple and turns North. The light of their torch reveals a file of undead warriors waiting for them at the end of the hall. In their front rank is the reanimated corpse of Welleran of the North, still clutching his greatsword.

TURN 2 – Combat!

Ivy’s thrown axe takes the zombie Welleran in the neck, a blow that would have killed a mortal man instantly. In the next round she draws her second, enchanted hand-axe and puts it through her former party-member’s skull. Bert too is fighting like a demon, trying to reach his treasures.

Suddenly Leegild hears the sounds of another group of zombies advancing up the corridor behind them and screams out a warning. The elves turn and loose arrows into the dark, hoping to slow the undead down. With only moments to spare, the party’s front rank puts the final zombie down and repositions to face this second group, which they can see is led by the corpse of Alho Rengate! Once again Ivy destroys the undead mockery of her fallen comrade. Tansy burns one of the creatures with Eldred’s ring of shocking grasp, and Trigg and Dolf have become a surprisingly effective team, with Trigg holding the line and Dolf spearing any zombies that he wounds.

When the dust settles, the party has killed 14 zombies without taking a wound.

TURN 3

The party advances down the hallway towards the chapel (area 55) and runs headlong into a horde of skeletons advancing silently to meet them.

TURN 4 – Combat

Their shieldwall is now a well-oiled fighting machine. While the front rank all sustain minor wounds, the party grinds its way through 20 skeletons with surprising ease.

TURN 5

Having destroyed a small army’s worth of undead, the party’s route to the chapel seems clear. They advance.

At the intersection Berrybert tries to convince Trigg and the others to head North while he and Leegild go to “secure” the treasures. He seems to have forgotten that their object is to destroy the cursed vessels, and that he would need the two elves in order to do this. When Trigg reminds him of this, he grows angry and begins to shout. Before the argument comes to blows, the two surviving adepts and three armored zombies fall upon the party. The iron bell begins to toll once more.

"Doom! Doom!"

TURN 6 – Combat

R1 – In the surprise round Taravol is blinded by greenish witchlight. Berrybert takes advantage of the confusion and sprints for the chapel, taking Leegild with him.

R2 – Bert reaches the altar and begins shoveling the treasures into his pack. Trigg, yanking his sword Scalebane from a zombie’s chest, yells over his shoulder “Sassaran, Gim! Stop him!” Gimwort turns and runs to the chapel. Sassaran and Taravol are delayed by the fact that the blind Taravol needs to relay the instructions to Sassaran, who doesn’t speak Common. She leads him down the tunnel by the hand.

R3 – Gimwort plants his feet in the entrance to the chapel. “Stop! They must be destroyed!” Berrybert draws his mace with a snarl, his eyes shining with avarice. “You’ll never take my treasures, dwarf! Stand aside!”

Back in the hallway, one of the evil clerics touches Tansy with the Cause Fear spell, but fails to daunt her hobbit courage. Despite taking grievous wounds, all three armored zombies are still on their feet.

R4 – Berrybert springs upon Gimwort and cracks the dwarf a vicious blow with his mace, reducing him to 3 HP. The shieldwall holds, but Trigg takes a bad wound. The fighters are momentarily overwhelmed as a cloud of sickly smoke rushes down the hallway.

R5 – The crazed halfling strikes again, and Gimwort is nearly slain (1 HP). He’s done his worst, however: Gimwort hews him nearly in two with his axe (he rolled a 20 followed by maximum damage with the polearm, which with his Strength bonus was exactly the result needed to kill Bert with one blow). The cursed treasures scatter across the floor. Leegild’s shortsword clatters to the ground as he surrenders.

"For I am too strong for you, halfling!"

In the hallway Trigg and Dolf strike heroic blows as well, finally dropping two of the zombies. The tide of battle has turned!

Over the next three rounds Sassaran and Dolf gather up the fallen treasures, being careful to only handle them through thick wads of their folded cloaks. Sassaran recites the words of the Remove Curse scroll, followed by the Bless spell. The ancient bronze vessels – goblets, bowl, and ewer – first corrode to a sickly green, then seemingly rot away, as if they were made of flesh rather than metal. At the heart of the temple the iron bell falls silent.

While Tansy was badly wounded and Trigg nearly killed in the fighting, the party is victorious. Leegild escapes while everyone else is occupied, but as he seemed to have been duped by his cousin rather than a willing participant in the treachery, nobody is particularly concerned.

At this point I knew that they’d emptied the shrine of residents: all of the creatures in the lower level remain in their tombs unless disturbed, and the evil priest had sent his adepts and guards zombies to confront the PCs while he made his escape (that was him passing by the fighting in Round 4, having used his Potion of Gaseous Form), so I handwaved the looting of the rest of the temple. The party heaps the shrine’s treasures in the grass outside and divides it.

The gems! The jewels!

THE TALLY

Enemies Slain

• 17 Zombies: 340 xp

• 20 Skeletons: 200 xp

• 2 Adepts: 50 xp

• Berrybert of Molehill: 50 xp

Treasures Found

• 4 copper belts ornamented with skulls: 160 xp

• 620 gold pieces: 620 xp

• Copper dishes: 175 xp

• Gold flagon: 500 xp

• 9 gold cups: 900 xp

• 70 gems of various sizes: 6,500 xp

• Bert’s jeweled ring: 700 xp

• Bert’s silver belt: 160 xp

• Bert’s magic shield: 0 xp

Total: 1,472 xp/character

Sassaran is raised to level 2! Tansy is raised to level 3! Trigg is raised to level 3!

The High King of All the Isles

One of my favorite conceits for a Tolkienesque setting is to combine Gondor/Numenor with the archipelago of Earthsea, which aesthetically feels like a slam dunk to me. Enjoy this little gazetteer of my version of this idea.

The Isles

Serd

A grand island, where once dwelt the High King of All the Isles. Serd is rich and beautiful, with pale sandy beaches and towering white cliffs, against which the bright flags and colorful tile roofs of the port city stand out. Many a seafarer longs to hear the merry bells of Serd calling their ship home. Serd also boasts a grove of ancient olive trees, one of the wonders of the isles. The eldest of this grove is the White Tree which grew from the archmage’s staff, planted in the Court of the Kings.

The Lord of Serd is known as the Keymaster or Keeper (as in “Keeper of the Keys”) of the Sea-House of Serd. The Keepers are descended from the stewards of the High King, and keep his house ready for his return.

The Tower

Not truly an island, the Tower is an ancient structure that rises from the sea just off the coast of Serd. The wizards of the isles learn their art here.

The rule of the Tower is given to the Archmage, who is chosen by the masters of the school.

Stoneships

The stone ships of Stoneships are one of the wonders of the world. Were they built in place? If so, how, and for what purpose? They are positioned as if run aground on the stony shore, but how could such vessels ever have floated?

The rule of Stoneships is given to the Master of the Map-House, where it is said that a copy of every sea-chart, sounding, and ship’s log in all the isles is kept.

Haunted Halls Delve 8, pt 3 – Knee Deep in the Dead

Continued from HERE.

To summarize the situation, the PCs gathered up all of their NPC allies to mount a combined assault on Keep on the Borderlands’ the Shrine of Evil Chaos. The larger NPC party (led by Ivy Almyr) went South while the smaller one (led by Berrybert of Molehill) went North. Ivy’s party put a big dent in the shrine’s contingent of undead troops but suffered two deaths and one serious injury. Meanwhile the PCs found the evil relics they were on a quest to destroy, but things went sideways. Berrybert fell under the relics’ spell and is fleeing with a cursed goblet in his back. Another NPC, Elfarran Half-Elf, had her leg shattered by an evil cleric’s mace and can now only hobble slowly with another character supporting her. 

Every zombie and skeleton in the place is currently marching down the hallway towards our PCs.

At this point in the combat I stopped to look at the map and consult OSE’s rules for movement rates. Moving at Elfarran’s snail’s pace, the front rank of zombies would reach the PCs in three rounds. It would take the party 12 rounds to successfully exit the dungeon. The odds weren’t great. 

In the party’s favor: 

• The first ranks of undead were all zombies, who automatically lose initiative in OSE. This meant that they would always get to move backwards in their fighting retreat, and could flee at any time (either to make a dash out of the cave once everyone else got clear, or to abandon Elfarran and run for it).

• Trigg and Tansybell both have very high armor classes. If Ivy was able to reach them then they’d have another fighter with 18 AC for the front rank.

• Dolf’s spear and Gimwort’s pole-axe meant they were both able to attack from the second rank, while none of the undead had polearms. The PCs would be able to put out more damage per round than they’d be receiving.

On the other hand:

• They were facing down 20 zombies and 20 skeletons.

• The corridors are wide enough for four fighters. If the party can’t maintain a solid fighting line they could easily be split up, cut off, and killed.

"Each must die some day!"

TURN 8 – Combat

As Berrybert flees the dungeon and the two elves shepherd the limping Elfarran around the first intersection, Gimwort and Dolf step up beside Trigg and Tansy. With a cry of “ELDRED!” the four friends prepare to sell their lives dearly. The endless ranks of the dead march steadily down the corridor.

Suddenly a clear voice rings out, singing the words of an elvish song. Taravol, glowing with fairy light, steps in front of the PCs. Warded by his Protection From Evil spell, the undead cannot attack him unless some hostile action breaks the enchantment.

Meanwhile at the southern end of the shrine complex, Bert’s cries and the tolling of the iron bell have alerted Ivy’s party to the danger. Ivy tells Flarkin to leave the bodies of their fallen comrades and get the wounded Ringlad brothers out of the dungeon. She starts running North.

For several rounds Taravol dances across the zombie’s front rank, preventing any of the undead from slipping past his guard to attack the others. Given the width of the hallways I was rolling Dexterity and Constitution checks for him every round to see if he’d either slip up or tire out, but the elf seems tireless. For a moment it seems as if everyone might make it out safely.

Ivy reaches them just as the elf begins to flag, hauling Tansy behind her to take the halfling’s place in the front rank. Then battle is joined. Taravol draws his jeweled sword, his song of peace turning to a keening war-cry. 

For six more rounds the party fights a grueling rearguard action. At round 10 the wounded are clear of the temple. On the 11th round Tansy and Dolf peel off and run for the exit while the front rank of Trigg, Ivy, Gimwort, and Taravol continue to hew dead men. In the 12th round they break off and run as well. The exhausted and bloodied survivors break into the golden light of day while the undead stand silently in the tunnel behind them, unwilling to step into the sunlight.

THE TALLY

Ivy’s Party

• 8 Zombies: 160 xp

• 12 Skeletons: 120 xp

• 4 large garnet gems: 2,000 xp

Total: 570 xp per survivor

Fallen in Battle: Alho Rengate (fighter 1), Welleran of the North (fighter 1)

PCs & Berrybert’s Party

• 4 Acolytes: 40 xp

• 2 Adepts: 40 xp

• Amulet of Protection from Good: 0 xp

• Cursed Goblet: 1,000 xp (Berrybert only)

Total: 10 xp each

The Rearguard

• 8 Zombies: 160 xp

Total: 27 xp each.

Ivy and Berrybert both advance to level 3.

Haunted Halls Delve 8, pt 2 - Why Shouldn't I Keep It?

Continued from HERE 

THE LOG

TURN 1 – Entry Tunnel

The two parties formed up and marched into the temple. At the fork Trigg and Berrybert turn North, while Ivy turns South. We heard what happened to Ivy’s party last time. We’ll follow Bert and the PCs in this entry.

TURN 2 – 54: Acolyte’s Chamber. “There are 4 acolytes dressed in rusty-red robes, with black cowls. Their room contains four hard pallets, a brazier, a table, four stools, a cabinet for clothing, a water pail, a waste bucket, and a flagon of wine and four cups”.

“Who dares enter the shrine of our dark master?” Trigg ignores the question and orders his troops to advance, face grim.

TURN 3 – Combat!

The combined party makes short work of the acolytes, although the PCs do most of the fighting. Two of them fall to Scalebane, Trigg’s magic sword, but Trigg himself suffers a blow from a mace.

TURN 4 – 54: Acolyte’s Chamber.

Berrybert pulls an amulet from around the neck of the lead acolyte and pockets it. Sassaran casts Cure Light Wounds on Trigg. They debate whether to head down the dark and narrow staircase to the East, continue down the wide hallway to the West, or to divide their forces. Berrybert refuses to split up, seeing in the offer an attempt to cheat him, and Trigg is wary of entering the tunnels where they will be unable to fight in a proper shieldwall. The two parties continue West.

TURN 5 – Hallway.

The party turns left at the intersection.

Gygax's usually tedious room descriptions suddenly pop off whenever he's talking about his favorite Lovecraft/Mordor blend of evil temples

TURN 6 – 55: Chapel of Evil Chaos. “This place is of red stone…. The south wall is covered by a huge tapestry which depicts a black landscape, barren trees, and unidentifiable but horrible black shapes in silhouette… A gray sky is torn by wisps of purple clouds, and a bloody moon with a skull-like face on it leers down upon the scene. Four black pillars support the domed ceiling some 25’ overhead. Between these columns, just in front of the tapestry, is a stone altar… Upon it are 4 ancient bronze vessels - a shallow bowl, a pair of goblets, and a ewer…”

What luck! This is clearly the evil shrine that the Abbot told them of, and there are the vessels they need to destroy. The quest seems completed almost as soon as it has begun.

With a laugh, Berrybert strides forward to pick up a goblet. Trigg (forewarned of the relics’ curse by the Abbot) grabs his arm to restrain him, and the halfling begins to shout angrily. Nobody hears the four adepts coming down the hall until they are almost upon the PCs, chanting the words of their dreadful spells.

I'm trying to lean into it b/c a level 2 cleric with AC 17 and a Light spell is actually pretty dangerous in OSE

TURN 7 – Combat!

Round 1 – Surprised, the two parties are scattered around the chapel as the evil clerics fall upon their back rank. Fortunately Sassaran and Elfarran dodge the outstretched hands of the two adepts reciting the words of the Cause Light Wounds spells. Sickly lights flash around Gimwort’s head, but he shakes them off. The sturdy dwarf is used to the uncertain light of tunnel-fighting. Alas, Trigg is suddenly overcome with supernatural fear and turns to flee.

Round 2 – The party struggles to form up into proper ranks, with Sassaran and Elfarran attempting a fighting retreat. Taravol turns to run, hoping to reach Trigg with his Remove Fear spell before things turn disastrous. Sassaran and Elfarran are both struck by Cause Light Wounds spells, and Sassaran crumples to the floor, pale and unmoving. The nimble Taravol weaves through the press and his gentle elvish song chases the shadow of fear from Trigg’s mind. Trigg moves to stand over the fallen Sassaran, and Scalebane clashes against the ancient bronze scale and sable shields of the warrior-priests.

Meanwhile, Berrybert seizes his chance and rushes to the altar, grabbing a goblet and greedily stuffing it into his pack. He falls under its ancient spell: in three days he will have become wholly evil and enslaved to the power of the dark shrine, but for now he is merely possessive of the treasure.

Round 3 – Trigg kills his man. Elfarran, fighting shieldless, strikes a mighty blow, but her opponent returns the favor. A mace shatters her thigh and she collapses. Moments later Gimwort’s poleaxe goes crashing through the evil cleric’s bronze helm.

Round 4 – The two surviving adepts back into the corridor, beating their maces against their shields and commending their fallen brothers’ souls to the Ruinous Powers. Trigg, Tansy, and Dolf advance to meet them. Gimwort stoops to administer his potion of healing to Sassaran and she revives, looking somehow pale and unearthly (a lucky roll on the Death & Dismemberment table: Heroic Scar – +1 HP). Sassaran has the party’s other healing potion: Gimwort points to the fallen Elfarran, and she moves to aid the half-elf.

Round 5 – A file of 10 undead warriors advances down the corridor from the North. The clerics move to let them pass, still beating their shields and chanting. “Taravol! Destroy the relics!” Trigg calls. “There’s no time!” Berrybert replies, desperate to protect his treasures, “we need to get out of here”. Taravol is not particularly brave, and the situation looks grim. He agrees, and says so in elvish for Sassaran’s benefit. The elf-maiden helps Elfarran to her feet. With her shattered leg she can’t move without support, and the two of them will be forced to hobble slowly.

Round 6 – Trigg can hear the frantic calls for retreat. Almost crying with frustration, he orders his front line back in a fighting withdrawal to cover the others’ escape. The adepts turn to go and rouse the rest of the shrine’s troops. The zombies advance, with uncaring eyes and axes in their haggard hands.

TURN 8

Berrybert and Leegild turn to run, saying they’ll “lead the retreat”. From deep within the shrine comes the tolling of a terrible iron bell.

Haunted Halls Delve 8, pt1 – Swords Against Darkness

Order of Battle

The three parties, assembled, constitute a large force.

Our Heroes:

• Trigg Sunbold, Fighter 2 (+1 sword "Scalebane", +1 mail)

• Gimwort of Greydelve, Dwarf 2

• Sassaran, Elf 1

• Tansybell of Merry Meadow, Halfling 2

• Old Dolf, Thief 3 (Shimmering, his +2 spear)

Ivy’s Party:

• Ivy Almyr, Fighter 2 (+1 hand-axe, +1 shield)

• Flarkin of Toadmarket, Dwarf 3

• Oak Ringlad, Ranger 1

• Elm Ringlad, Ranger 1

• Alho Rengate, Fighter 1

• Welleran of the North, Fighter 1

Flarkin is lightly armored but carries a big two-handed axe. An unexceptional dwarf in late middle-age, he has survived to 3rd level by taking on easy work. The Ringlad brothers are untried rangers, eager for adventure. So far Ivy has led them to victory in battle against the goblins, where they rescued some prisoners and enjoyed high praise. Oak wields a bow while Elm guards him with spear and shield. Alho and Welleran are former caravan guards who joined the party in gratitude after Ivy rescued them from the clutches of the goblins.

Berrybert’s Party:

• Berrybert of Molehill (shield +1), Halfling 2

• Leegild of Molehill, Halfling 2

• Elfarran, Half-Elf 2

Leegild is Berrybert’s cousin and torchbearer, lured to Eveningstar by Bert’s promises of easy money and descriptions of the jewels he’d already won. Elfarran is equipped with crossbow, mace, and heavy armor.

There is also Taravol (Elf 3). Taravol is not permanently attached to any party but has temporarily joined the PCs out of his attachment to Sassaran.

The plan is to split into two groups and scour the temple for the relics. Berrybert doesn’t trust Trigg and insists that his party joins the PCs, so he can keep an eye on any treasure acquired. Sassaran carries a scroll of Bless, and Taravol a scroll of Remove Curse, both written by the Abbot. To destroy the evil relics their curse must be lifted and then the objects immediately blessed to prevent their evil from returning.