ROSTER
- Elana Barzan, 3rd level human female cleric of Pelor, NG (hp 16)
- Gort Martin, 2nd/1st level half-orc male cleric/fighter of Wee Jas, LN (hp 19)
- Trixalix, 1st/1st level gnome male fighter/illusionist, N (hp 3)
- Elmo (NPC), 4th level human male ranger, LG (hp 41)
- Spugnoir (NPC), 2nd level human male magic-user, CN (hp 4)
- Marshall, 0-level militiaman hireling from Hommlet (area #4) (hp 4)
- William, 0-level militiaman hireling from Hommlet (area #18) (hp 3)
- Kevin, linkboy hireling
- Mort, Gort's trained hunting dog
After getting their meager experience points, the party decided to head out the following day to check on the prisoners they had rescued from the moathouse dungeons. They learned from the cleric at the Temple of St. Cuthbert that the gnome left sometime in the evening, taken into the custody of an elf and two other gnomes (from Greenway Vale). The two human merchants (whom I named Milton and Bradley) were very thankful for their rescue and promised to send a reward of 100 sp to the party here in Hommlet when they returned to Dyvers safely.
The party left the village at 8:30 am and traveled 2 hours down the old path to the moathouse with their mule in tow. They arrived at 10:30 am without encounters (none were rolled since it was stated in the module that nothing happens on the road, unless the evil NPCs plan an ambush). The linkboy lit the lantern and the party entered the ruins (movement through mapped areas is at 5x normal rate - the moathouse is not that big of a place). They arrived back at the entrance to the "zombie chamber" and started to organize themselves for combat. However, I happened to roll a wandering encounter with giant rats at this point. There was no surprise on either side. Six giant rats emerged from the torture chamber and started on their way north to attack the party. As the rats moved Elana cast her bless spell on the party. The following round Gort killed one rat and Elmo took out three (remember that fighters attacking less-than-1HD creatures can attack once/level, so Elmo got 4 attacks while Gort, being only a 1st level fighter, only got one). The rats could not hit the well armored party at all. The third round, the last two rats were killed by Gort and his dog. However, at the end of that round two zombies came shuffling out of the first cell (and so began the "second zombie apocalypse").
So we transitioned right from the rat fight into the zombie fight. The players were mentally prepared for this and I noticed they had better tactics. They remained at the north end of the chamber where they could not be surrounded and used the column for partial cover when possible. Spugnoir, Kevin, and Trixalix held back since they were the weakest in the group. Trix couldn't get a good shot with his bow in the beginning. Every round the zombies kept shuffling out in pairs (I ran it this time as it was meant to be run) and the party was having a hard time hitting the undead things. Sometime around round 6, Elana turned the zombies and only affected 4 (bad roll) which fled to the south wall. Unfortunately, bless only lasts 6 rounds, and three of those were wasted fighting rats, so the party lost their edge sooner than expected. Trix was able to shoot at the turned zombies in the rear but was not doing well. The others were getting overwhelmed by the approaching zombies who continued to emerge. They fell back to the north as Elana untied the mule from the northernmost column. Zombie corpses littered the floor and fighting room was getting tight, so the later zombies began leaping over their fallen kin to overbear the fighters (like on the module cover). Two failed attempts to overbear left the zombies clinging to Gort and Marshall's legs. Gort managed to free himself and kill the zombie holding him. He then retreated to cast cure light wounds on himself (rolling 7 points!). Elana started tossing holy water at the zombies and managed to splash one. Gort then got back into the fray via a leaping charge which destroyed one zombie. Elana cast cure light wounds on herself for 8 points. Elmo, who was taking a beating, withdrew and killed the following zombie. The remaining zombies were slain by Elmo and Elana as Gort's missing streak continued....
Gort took a lot of hits in that combat but he survived. Elana was able to heal him after the fight, but only rolled a 1 for cure light wounds. During the combat, both Marshall and William were slain. The combat lasted a total of 19 rounds, from the first rats initiative to the last fallen zombie. I rolled for wandering encounters (1 in 6 per turn) and luckily none showed up during or after the fight. The party pulled the bodies of their hirelings from the zombie corpses littering the floor.
We ended the session here, but the "zombie apocalypse" battle was definitely a very difficult encounter. It showcases the use of undead in modules. Typically the number of undead creatures is much more than the party because it is assumed that the party cleric will turn undead (and almost EVERY party has a cleric) and they have weaknesses against holy water (which most characters purchase). The remaining undead that are not turned are more of a match for the party numbers, even though the wizards with their sleep and charm spells are out of luck against them. We only played a 5-hour session, but part of that time was spent in the village role-playing and some of it was spent chatting, discussing, and looking up rules. The zombie battle took so long because I wanted the party to have enough time to think through their strategy options and I did not want to screw up the rules by making hasty decisions. The overbear maneuver was hard to adjudicate since the zombies were slower than normal (but not slowed as the spell) and went last every round. I used the zombie stats from the Monster Manual, since the stats in the module include some strange rule about the zombies only taking 1 point of damage from pointed weapons (I guess Gygax had a bad run with bow or crossbow wielding characters taking out the zombies as they emerged). The encounter was tough, and definitely more than a 1st level party can survive without casualties. Having Elmo in the party definitely helped, although the dice were not cooperative and most of the attacks kept missing (on both sides of the combat). I feel that the chance for wandering monsters here is too high - that much traffic passing through this place would leave much more obvious signs of passage (footprints, blood trails, dropped items, etc.) and reveal the locations of the secret doors. Perhaps that was by design! After all, if the secret doors are not located, the party ends the adventure here.
Next session includes the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse and frustrated exploration.
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