Dungeons & Dragons Through the Versions: Part 11

Recap: The party had just defeated a band of gnolls in the dungeons of the moathouse and were pretty beaten up. They had looted the gnolls and did some exploring in the winding corridors. They noted a closed door at the end of a diagonal corridor and a stairway leading down to someplace damp. They opted to continue on to a burial chamber inhabited by ghouls who got the initiative on them. Before they could turn the undead, the two fighters in the front rank (Elmo and Gort) were both paralyzed and Gort was reduced to -1 hp! Elana then managed to turn all 4 ghouls. While the ghouls ran off, the party immediately worked out a retreat strategy involving dragging the paralyzed members with the mule. They retreated back to the gnoll chamber and poured a lot of oil in front of the doorway, lit it, and continued their retreat to the bugbear's outer chamber. The ghouls pursued, making bad decisions at every access point, until they picked up the blood trail leading to the burning oil. The ghouls were not surprised when they opened the door and managed not to burn themselves - but this was enough to break pursuit. The party, desperate to escape, recruited the gnoll they left tied up at the portcullis to help them. In exchange for his freedom, he helped them to lift the portcullis long enough to get everyone out - then let it slam down with it between the gnoll and the party! That gnoll will likely be trouble in the coming session....

"It was a hot a sweaty night...." Well, it was!

The party began back in Hommlet, licking their wounds and selling items. They would be holing up for a while until Gort and Spugnoir were mobile once more. Since the 450 gp silver necklace with gems was much more than they could split evenly, it had to be sold. Nira Melubb was in a pissy mood and unwilling to go higher than 70% of value, until Elana said that she would take part of the payment in gems as well. So the party was paid 3 50 gp gems and the balance in gold, for a tidy sum of 375 gp total. They also sold one of the greatbows from the gnolls to Black Jay for a tidy sum of 45 gp. They tried to sell the other bow and the clothyard arrows to the guard captain (Rufus), but when he saw the arrows he got really pissed off (I rolled really bad on reactions). The arrows, he said, were originally from forces of the Viscounty, lost in the Battle of Emridy Meadows (he could tell from the fletching and arrowheads, since he was there after all). The gnolls scavenged them and the party had the audacity to bring them here to make the village buy them back! (Yeah, I was having some fun with this role.) Needless to say, when Gort later showed up, Rufus was less than interested in training him. Apparently, Jaroo the Druid never mentioned the fact that the party was in the moathouse to the Mayor and his bodyguard, a point that stuck in Rufus' craw! Elmo had no idea Jaroo didn't tell them either. The party was annoyed with Jaroo, but I have to involve them somehow in the politics of the village, and the Old Faith vs. Cuthbertine Newcomers angle was an easy one to work up here.

The party reported to the druid after the "new moon" meeting at the end of the month of Harvester. They learned that the meeting went poorly, with indecision on what to do next removed when it was decided unanimously that the party be sent back to the moathouse to clear out these apparent agents of the Temple of Elemental Evil. It was then that Gort decided to look for another trainer, even though they were told that word had been sent to Verbobonc for assistance in training the party. In the meantime, Gort met with Elmo and Elmo suggested that his father could teach him (he was, after all, a retired hero!). For the price of a magic battle axe +1, Gort received his training (and got change in return). Thus was the party detained for 2 weeks (through Brewfest and the beginning of Patchwall). William, the apprentice brewmeister, was sorely missed but songs were song in his honor at the inn!

At the end of the 2 weeks, the party started looking for more financial assistance from the town. Jaroo promised healing spells when needed, as did Terjon and Calmert, but no money would be gained here in the village. The church offered a discount on holy waters (10 gp each) but that was as low as they could go, since the donations were the main source of income for the building of the keep (the efforts of which were doubled in light of the news). They stocked up on 10 bottles of holy water to confront the ghouls in the moathouse - 2 per person in the party. They restocked oil, had Terjon create continual light rods for them by cutting down a 10' pole bought at the traders (Kevin the linkboy would be in charge of these - one 7' tall to light over the heads of the party, and one 2' length to use in case the party had to split up.

Trixalix memorized his detect invisibility spell before they left for the moathouse (I had to remind his player that this was what he intended to do last time). The party returned to the moathouse and made their way back down to the ogre chamber without encounter. They had never found the mechanism for opening the 2nd secret door to the lower levels, so Trix used his spell to locate the hidden mechanism! And, according to the wording of the spell, this seems to work! Luckily the spell was still in effect when he noticed a tripwire across the stairs. The party spent many rounds here agonizing over how to defeat the tripwire. In the end they decided to cut it (they had no idea it was ONLY a tripwire, and not part of some sort of trap). They arrived at the bottom of the steps and found the ogre body to have been kicked off to the side. The portcullis was UP (and it took some time, but they noted where it had fallen so they could set up a means of foiling it). Before they descended, they spent about 3 turns freeing a collapsed timber from the rubble on the staircase leading to the rooftops. They now used this here - propping it against the wall where the portcullis WOULD fall if triggered again. They ended the session here....

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Gort actually made 2nd level as Fighter! Unfortunately, he was the ONLY one to level (poor Trixalix is still stuck with 3 hit points). Gort rolled a 9 on the d10, so he added (9+4 = 13/2 = 6.5 rounded to) 7 to bring his total to 26 hit points!!! Everyone got an "E" rating for last session. I'm not showing the work for the calculations of XP here because I think we're pretty good on how it works.

I like that detect invisible works like the modern detect secret doors spell. I never knew that it could be used that way and makes it so much more useful! The party has only 2-3 more encounters to go before we wrap up the AD&D dogma version of this experiment. This will also end the module T1. I think I'm going to give them the option for 2nd edition of continuing in T2 (essentially, Nulb, the temple grounds, and the 1st dungeon level of the Temple of Elemental Evil), or going with the quintessential 2nd Edition AD&D experience and moving on to the Haunted Halls of Eveningstar in the Forgotten Realms.

The party was being particular draggy and repetitive - I notice this more when the temperature and humidity go up, especially late at night. Argumentative, belligerent, and obstinate - some of the worst traits in people - best describe how we were feeling that night. I hope it's cooler next week since the big finale should occur. They're gonna need all their brainpower and teamwork to survive!

If anyone wants to see the breakout of experience points and treasure shares leave a comment below!