Delve 11 – A Shot In The Dark

"Be bold, be bold, but not too bold"

Gimwort remains in town, recovering from the wound he received in battle with orcs on the previous expedition. Trigg leaves Emelda and joins the party on the road – he needs to make some money soon to cover his taxes and farm repairs. Their plan is to continue where they left off, exploring the side passages off of the Room of Pools.

As a reminder, I’m rolling on this wandering monster chart.

I filled in the Haunted Halls’ many un-keyed rooms with rooms from the first level of B1: In Search of the Unknown, with a 50% chance each for a monster and treasure from the relevant tables in that module.

Rooms marked “A” are keyed in The Haunted Halls of Eveningstar. Rooms marked “B” are from In Search of the Unknown.

OUR HEROES

Trigg Sunbold, Fighter 3

Tansybell of Merry Meadow, Halfling 3

Old Dolf, Thief 3

Eldred the Enchanter, Illusionist 2

Mell of the Moonwood, Fighter 1

The party's route

The Eveningstar Gazetteer

I have a bad tendency to tinker with systems and settings so long that I never end up actually running/playing the game. To combat this, I started my solo D&D game with a deliberately zero-prep approach, relying on a module and my own particular sense of vernacular fantasy to fill in the gaps on a strictly as-needed basis. Nevertheless, lore accumulates fast, and as the game has progressed I’ve steadily built up a picture of the world (or at least this part of it). It's all Vanilla Fantasy of course, but I happen to think vanilla is a fine flavor and everyone's fantasy vernacular is a little bit different. Hopefully mine is a nice vanilla bean (it makes better rootbeer floats than french vanilla, in my opinion).

Eveningstar

A small valley province on the border of the Realm, just south of the inhospitable Stonelands. In ages past Eveningstar was a petty kingdom ruled by a line of bandit kings who used the black star as their sigil.

Eveningstar’s current ruler, Lady Winter, is the king’s former lover and was installed here as a form of soft exile from court. Fortunately for the people of Eveningstar, she is also a powerful wizard and has transformed her domain into a garden on the edge of the wild waste. 

Aided by her spells, the valley is full of flowers, fruit trees, and magical animals. The most notable of these are Eveningstar’s famous winged cats, but most of Lady Winter’s designs are less ostentatious, such as helpful bees, livestock that rarely sickens, and cold-resistant fruit trees that graft easily.

Eveningstar Abbey

The monks of Lathander own a fair proportion of the land around Eveningstar. Relations between the abbey and the town are generally good, as Lady Winter is careful to honor the abbey’s rights and privileges. The abbey’s beer is famous.

The Two Rivers

A stream of clear water, the Starwater, flows through Eveningstar from its source in Lostar Lake in the Stonelands. The stream divides Eveningstar Gorge and meanders through the Briarwood, eventually joining the mighty Realmstream River near the town of Toadmarket.

Eveningstar Gorge

The old heathen kings of Eveningstar were laid to rest in tombs carved into the gorge walls. Monsters from the Stonelands have moved in or dug new caves in the years since then. Collectively this network of dungeons is known as the Caves of Chaos.

    The Haunted Halls

The last redoubt of the old kings of Eveningstar. The last of the line, King Rivior, was killed when his army fell to starvation and foul magic in a war with a witch-queen out of the Stonelands. Old spells and cursed, immortal soldiers of that barbarous era still haunt the halls.

The Killing Keep

An old ruin that overlooks Eveningstar Gorge. A mad vampire and his small army of kobolds occupy it now, and have protected it with traps and the severed, animated hands of intruders. The keep is connected to the Haunted Halls in several places, most of which are guarded or trapped.

Delve 10 – Hobnobbing With Orcs

A reduced party sets out for the Haunted Halls: Gimwort, Tansybell, Eldred, and Old Dolf. Sassaran has left on her journey with Taravol, and Trigg is on his brief honeymoon with Emelda.

THE LOG

TURN 1 – A8: Welcoming Trap

The party heads to bronze doors that guard the inner halls and the now-routine dash past their blocked lightning trap.

TURN 2 – B31: The Room of Pools

The party turns south to explore some of the side passages of the mysterious Room of Pools.

TURN 3 – B23: Storage Chamber. “This room is used primarily for furniture storage, although it is mostly empty. There are three large oaken tables, a number of chairs, and fourteen wooden stools stacked against the walls.”

A search of the room fails to turn up anything interesting.

TURN 5 – SP31: Gaming Room. “This small, quaint little room has a game table in the center. A chess set, with a game apparently in progress (or never finished), sits upon it. A large map of a world unknown to the adventurers has been painted on the floor.”

Some of the orc survivors of Ivy’s party’s attack on the Caves of Chaos fled to the Haunted Halls. Three of them were holed up in here, gambling on chess matches and debating about what to do. They heard the PCs approaching and ambush them.

Downtime in Eveningstar 9C – The Wedding!

Hooray!

The big day finally arrives! Trigg and Emelda, wearing crowns of wildflowers, meet outside of the abbey. The Abbot comes out to greet them and asks them before the crowd of assembled witnesses if they freely consent to enter into marriage, then leads the two of them before the altar to exchange vows.

The ceremony itself is brief, but between the feasting, drinking, and dancing the affair still manages to last all day and most of the night. The Inlow’s feel that the yard of the Golden Unicorn is too small for their only daughter’s wedding, so the feast is held on the village green. There are long tables laden with food and barrels of abbey beer, all decorated with a profuse assortment of flowers (many of them magically conjured by Lady Winter for the occasion). After the main feast there is a considerable amount of less organized eating and drinking, along with a great deal of dancing lit by scented bonfires.

Emelda’s bridal chest contains her fabrics (which Emelda and her female relations have been assembling and embroidering since she was a girl), some cookware, a set of painted earthenware plates and cups, and her few small pieces of jewelry. Her father gives Trigg several sheep (nominally, anyway: they’re still pastured on Farmer Inlow’s land since Trigg lacks a sheep pen and any pasturage), along with a bottle of good wine and a bedframe. The bedframe is the most expensive item in the lot, and apart from a chest and a couple of stools is the couple’s only piece of furniture.

Downtime in Eveningstar 9B – Tale of the Black Sword

Week 2: July 11–17

The Inlows need some time to arrange the upcoming wedding. Trigg, Gimwort, and Emelda’s brothers Errol and Garlan spend the week restoring the Old Thaddath Farm.

Dolf, Tansy, and the two elves mount another raid on the ogre cave. They find it eerily silent and empty, but discover the monster’s secret treasure:

• 6 arrows +1

• Potion of Invisibility

• Scroll of Cure Light Wounds

• Scroll of Hold Person

They divide the spoils, with the arrows going to Sassaran, the scrolls to Taravol, and the potion to Old Dolf. Declining to venture further into the cave, they return to town.

Ivy Almyr: Tale of the Black Sword 1

Ivy recruits Nogi of Firedeep. Under the influence of the Old King’s Helm, she is no longer concerned about the deaths of her followers, and Nogi sees a chance for a heroic death in service to the grim swordswoman.

On the evening of the 13th, Nogi tells the story of their first adventure to Gimwort and Flarkin over ales in the Golden Unicorn. He is covered in bandages and is missing an eye.

The two went to the Goblin Cave and came upon six guards. Nogi manages to wound one before going down with a crossbow bolt and three goblin spears in him. With his remaining eye Nogi watches as Ivy kills twelve goblins (six guards plus reinforcements) without taking a wound. She walks off into the darkness. Nogi hears sounds of battle in the distance, and some time later four goblins emerge shrieking out of the darkness, running pell-mell past him. A moment later a battered and bleeding Ivy returns, hauls him to his feet, and tells him to help her loot the cave. Nogi sees the headless corpse of the Great Goblin amongst the bodies of his guards and concludes that the fleeing goblins he saw must have broken after the death of their chief. They return to town with an ornamental tapestry and a small hoard of mixed coins.

NPCs About Town

The Ringlad brothers recruit Pious Oddle to their party. They hunt giant spiders in the Briarwood and manage to kill four of the beasts, but return without any treasure.

Downtime in Eveningstar 9A – The Return of Eldred the Enchanter

He's back! And he still only has 2 HP!

 Week 1: July 3–10

The victorious party returns to Eveningstar. Trigg brings the scattered dust of the evil vessels to the Abbot and recounts the tale of their quest. The Abbot performs the magic to revive Eldred the Enchanter. Our heroes have a tearful reunion with Eldred. They explain to him (with some difficulty) the situation regarding his death, their quest, and his return to life.

Early the next day the party is summoned to Eveningstar Castle to make a report to Lady Winter. They stand in awkward silence in her solar while she works at her loom, ignoring them. The Lady’s winged cat familiar plays with the yarn at her feet while two scarred and grizzled housecarls stand guard. When she deigns to notice the party, she informs them that she is displeased. She has received a letter from the Council of Molehill informing her that the son of their Thane, one Berrybert of Molehill, was murdered by adventurers. His faithful cousin Leegild escaped their cruel blades to bring the tale. 

As Molehill supplies Eveningstar with iron ore and pipeweed, diplomatic tensions could become a serious annoyance. While she has already spoken with the Abbot and believes their tale of a curse, the party’s failure to recover Berrybert’s body makes things more difficult for her. On the advice of the Abbot she is willing to extend her protection to the adventurers, but that protection will only go so far. Lady Winter does however give Trigg her blessing to marry Emelda Inlow and to take up residence in the Old Thaddath Farm, provided he pays his taxes and swears his oath to serve in the muster at need.

Afterwards in the common room of the Golden Unicorn, the party talks to Trigg: they’re willing to help him pay for the farm and the wedding (even Sassaran, who still intends to leave Eveningstar with Taravol the NPC elf). They cough up 500 gp each, plus 500 gp from the party’s “common fund”, and the Inlows begin wedding planning.

Ivy Almyr

Ivy spends most of the week in a black mood, recovering from her wounds. Having lost two parties, she resolves not to burden anyone else with her oath: she will drive the monsters from the caves on her own.

On the morning of the 10th Ivy leaves town on her own and returns to the temple to explore the last few rooms. I ran this section turn-by-turn rather than using my NPC adventurer procedure because I wanted to count each energy-draining blow from the wight. As it turned out the wight never landed a hit, so I didn’t need to do any XP adjustment.

She dispatches the cult’s torturer in the torture chamber after taking a wound, claiming 135 gp and a gold bracelet worth 700 gp. In the crypt she is able to fend off the wight’s deadly blade with her enchanted shield, and her rune-scored axe crashes through withered flesh and brittle bone. She emerges with a sword +2, a scroll of protection from undead, a raven-winged Helm of Alignment Change, and a jewel-encrusted silver dagger worth 800 gp.

I haven’t really been using alignment in this game, so I decided that the wight was the body of the old king of Eveningstar, from the days before the land was absorbed into The Realm. The sword (Blackstar) and helm were his, and a remnant of his cruel spirit lingers in the helm. The old king’s personality merges uneasily with Ivy’s – she still intends to hold to her oath to drive the monsters out of Eveningstar Gorge, but now intends to set herself up as queen of the old king’s realm. She becomes harsh and cold, and will begin hoarding treasure.

NPCs About Town

Elfarran Half-Elf completes the Scroll of Light that she was working on as a thank-you present for Sassaran saving her life. Taravol commissions a Potion of Healing from her, and Elfarran officially opens her magic item shop:

Elfarran’s Shop

Weekly Business – 2d6

5- : loses 2d6 gp

6-8: break even

9+: gain 2d6 gp

Spells Known: Light, Read Magic

Stock: none

Commissions:

• Scroll: 250 gp, 1/week

• Potion of Healing: 250 gp, 1/week

Elfarran spends 100 gp to make the item, invests 100 gp into expanding her stock, and makes 50 gp in profit. When she has 1,000 gp banked she plans to research another 1st level Magic-User spell to improve her inventory.

The Ringlad brothers and Flarkin the dwarf go hunting in the Briarwood. They meet a strange hermit, who tries to murder them along with his giant cat. They return to town with a meager haul of coins and the hermit’s dagger +1.

The cleric Pious Oddle and the dwarf Nogi of Firedeep arrive in Eveningstar, looking for adventure.

The Smaug Dragon

It is possible to stat up a dragon in Old School Essentials by taking Smaug’s boasts literally.

“My armor is like tenfold shields”

A shield provides a +1 bonus to AC. Multiplied by 10, this gives our dragon an Armor Class of -1 [20].

“My teeth are swords”

A sword does 1d8 damage. Smaug’s teeth are like “swords” plural: our dragon has a bite attack that does at least 2d8 damage. Let’s say it’s three swords, for 3d8.

“My claws spears”

Spears do 1d6 damage and have the “brace” and “missile” properties. Our dragon has two claw attacks that do 1d6 damage, with double damage against charging enemies (the dragon feigns distraction, then lashes out with surprising speed). Obviously it can't throw its claws, but let's say the dragon can perform a flying leap with a claw attack, moving between 5–60 feet. This leap gets +1 to-hit against opponents within 20’ and a -1 to-hit against opponents more than 40’ away. The dragon cannot leap two rounds in a row.

“The shock of my tail a thunderbolt”

Paraphrasing from the Lightning Bolt spell, our dragon can lash its tail in a 60’ line. Creatures caught by the tail attack suffer 5d6 damage, with a successful Save vs Wands indicating half damage. The dragon cannot move in a turn where it uses its tail strike, and cannot lash its tail two rounds in a row.

(This is the minimum caster level required to cast lightning bolt. You could instead use the dragon’s HD as the caster level to determine the number of d6s, or the 9th level implied by the OSE red dragon’s spell selection)

“My wings a hurricane”

From the Control Weather entry for “high winds”: the dragon’s wingbeats create powerful winds that can impede lesser creatures. Whenever the dragon flies or leaps, movement rates for smaller creatures within 180’ are halved. Missile fire and flight within this area is impossible (smaller flying creatures are knocked back, potentially taking damage if they hit a solid object). In sandy areas, may cause a sandstorm, reducing visibility to 20’.

“And my breath death!”

You could use the Death Spell here, but the OSE dragon’s breath weapon is pretty deadly already. Let’s say that the dragon’s fire ignites flammable materials and anyone who fails their Save vs Breath, dealing 1d8 damage for two rounds (as burning oil).

Smaug is red, so we'll use the Red Dragon to fill in the rest of the stat block.

Dragon

AC -1 [20]

HD 10**

Attacks [2 x claw (1d6), 1 x bite (3d8)], leap [2d6 + wingstorm], tail strike [5d6], or breath

THAC0 11 [+8]

Movement 90’ (30’) / 240’ (80’) flying

Saving Throws D6 W7 P8 B8 S10

Morale 10

Alignment Chaotic

XP 2,300

Number Appearing 1

Treasure Type H

Breath Weapon: 90’ long cone of fire, 2’ wide at the mouth and 30’ wide at the far end. All caught in the area suffer damage equal to the dragon’s current hit points (save vs breath for half). All flammable objects and any creatures that fail their save are caught on fire, suffering 1d8 damage for two rounds. Can be used 3/day.

Flying Leap:  range 60’, 2d6 damage. This leap gets +1 to-hit against opponents within 20’ and a -1 to-hit against opponents more than 40’ away. The dragon’s wingstorm is active on any round where it uses its flying leap. The dragon automatically wins initiative in a round where it uses its flying leap. The dragon cannot leap two rounds in a row.

Wingstorm: the dragon’s wingbeats create powerful winds that can impede lesser creatures. Whenever the dragon flies or leaps, movement rates for smaller creatures within 180’ are halved. Missile fire and flight within this area is impossible (smaller flying creatures are knocked back, potentially taking damage if they hit a solid object). In sandy areas, may cause a sandstorm, reducing visibility to 20’.

Swift As A Snake: characters that charge a dragon take 2d6 damage (save vs breath for half) as the monster lashes out with its claws.

Fire Immunity

Pride: dragons are immensely proud creatures and will always listen to flattery.

Language: dragons speak their own language plus any languages used by creatures that live near their lairs.

Dragon Reaction Roll

2d6, no modifiers

2-: Attacks

3–5: Demands tribute. The dragon is hungry and impatient, and will attack if its demands are not met immediately.

6–8: Demands tribute. The dragon is interested or has recently fed, and will make a game of the interaction and only attacks if thwarted or annoyed.

9–11: Amused condescension. Demands tribute, but roll at +1.

12+: Asleep

Dragon Tribute

2d6 + CHA modifier

2–: your lives, everything you have, and the dragon is angry enough to go and destroy the nearest settlement afterwards.

3–5: one large animal or person per HD of the dragon, and/or 1,000 gp per HD.

6–8: one large animal or person and/or 500 gp per HD.

9–11: the dragon is open to proposals. What have you got?

12: the dragon falls asleep or wanders off.