Attronarch's Athenaeum

Campaign journals, reviews of TTRPG stuff, and musings on D&D.

Adventurers

Character Race Class Description
Tikatu Human Druid level 3 A dirty little ma with dark and dirty skin, wearing loincloth with no back. “What will be, will be” is his favourite aphorism.
Amari Human Ranger level 1 Black hair that shines blue. Scarred like a gladiator.
Ambros Human Cleric level 6 Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time.
Drokh Human Monk level 1 A tall, lean human monk with piercing eyes, weathered skin, and a warrior’s poise—calm and charismatic, he speaks with purpose and strikes with precision, wielding spear, bow, and blade.
Tobias Lindflags Hobbit Thief level 3 A sixth-born son standing to gain nothing from inheritance, so he set out to make his own fortune in the world.
Seren Human Ranger level 1 Beardless and blinkless ranger.
Heran Marod Human Cleric level 4 Bearded, aging man with shaved head. Follower of Umannah, the Sun God, The Radiant Death.
Heinrik Human Magic-User level 1 Muscular mage with short blonde hair and piercing blue eyes.
Belegar Grimlisnev Dwarf Fighter level 3 / thief level 3 4’6”, 150 lbs; white hair; bronze eyes; pale blue skin tone; very hairy. Observant, dependable.
Dalkanarion Human Fighter level 6 A youthful specimen in full strength, full of purpose, bluster, and eagerness to prove himself.

Warmshade 5th, Spiritday

Amari, Seren, Heinrik, and Tobias rushed to a dead-end. There the rangers braced for charge. They heard a loud, angry, protracted bellow moments ago. Prepared, they waited.

“Oh yeah, you can hack this hack without any issues.” the sword cheered Dalkanarion as he stepped towards the bull-headed man. Belegar followed, shit-caked dagger ready, slinking through the shadowy cave. Ecteri gripped iron piton nervously.

“Athena protects!” the Myrmidon roared.

“Wait, listen!” Tobias the invisible cautioned the party. Bellowing was now replaced by a familiar voice echoing down the tunnels. “This sounds like Dalkanarion!”

“But which way to go?”

“Hey, let's spend a round listening closely!”

“Sounds good!”

The beast swung wildly at Dalkanarion, but the warrior dodged. Belegar delivered his coveted backstab, intended for his torturer, straight into the beast's thigh. He was rewarded with a mighty blow to the face, shattering his nose and cheeks.

“You got it! Keep swinging! Stay focused!” the sword cheered Dalkanarion on.

“This way, I think”

Amari, Seren, Heinrik, and Tobias moved through the caves and tunnels. Indecisive, they moved slower than usual.

“Even a dull blade can kill in the hands of great warrior like you!”

Dalkanarion stood over dead bull-headed man.

Belegar had curled up in a dense ball of hair and flesh.

Myrmidon checked on the dwarf.

He was dead.

“Which way to go?!”

“We can't hear him anymore...”

“DALKANARION!”

“DALKANARION!!!”

The quarter stood and yelled.

“Can you hear that?” Ecteri asked.

“Yes! Yell with me young man! Yell with me if you value your life!”

Both parties did their best to follow each others voice. Echos made it for a very disorienting experience. Without Belegar, the dwarf, Dalkanarion was much more lost.

“Wait, wait. Let's pause and listen again.”

“Sword, do you know they way out?”

“Of course! You just need to ask.”

“Please lead the way out then.”

“We should go there.”

“No, we should go there!”

“Wait, which way should we go?”

“I am invisible.”

The quarter lost round to being indecisive.

“Yes, just keep going straight. Almost there. I am, uh, quite sure. Yes, quite sure.”

Dalkanarion kept following the sword, Ecteri right behind him.

“Hey, I think I know where we are now!”

Amari, Seren, Heinrik, and Tobias were back in the cave with beheaded bull-man's corpse. Bloody head was tied to Heinrik's back.

“I know which way to go now!”

Dalkanarion could see light up ahead. He and Ecteri moved slowly.

“Yes, just straight.” the sword said.

Grunts and growls could be heard, matched with familiar sounds of screaming, pleading, and crying.

“You led us back!” Dalkanarion whispered through gritted teeth.

They turned around and ran.

“You asked for a way out! This is the way out!” the sword protested.

The rangers led the way back to the cave with three exits, the one close to the three flayed corpses.

They readied themselves as they could see the light approaching from the long tunnel.

Dalkanarion and Ecteri ran as fast as they could, but these deep, underground tunnels are quite treacherous and uneven.

Heinrik, Seren, and Amari saw a large, naked, bloodied man running towards them, sword swinging. Luckily Tobias had recognised Dalkanarion from before.

“You are alive!”

“I am!”

“Where is Heran?”

“Alas, he has been captured and broken. His god will take care of him.”

“Do you know a way out?”

“No, do you?”

“We think so but are not sure...”

There was little time to rejoice.

Wounded and spent, the rejoined party roamed the tunnels and caves.

Eventually they passed the familiar flayed corpses, and reached a four way intersection with upside down corpse in one of the dead ends.

“This is familiar...”

“Yes, you pulled me out of the cave just up ahead and then to the right.”

Meme by MLord.

“Brace yourself!”

The party was not surprised by three large bull-men rolling up behind them.

Drokh shoot arrows; striking true. Others braced for the charge.

Bull-men fell back into the tunnel.

Adventurers discussed what to do.

“They must be circling us!”

No one heeded Seren's warning. The ranger chased into the tunnel, but was checked by a single bull-man waiting around the corner.

“Behind! Watch out!”

Two bull-men came running from the opposite side of the intersection. It was a total whirlwind now, everyone fighting in the center of this cave. Dalkanarion slashed, and Amari stabbed. Little Tobias finished what others had started—he took of his ring, and stabbed the bull-man right into his heart.

Seren was duking it out with the bull-man in the tunnel, ensuring that his party does not get overrun. The beast was wearing him down, quick.

Drokh went down in one of the exchanges. Amari and Dalkanarion were consistent in their efforts. Large bull-headed men fought with ferocity. He swung his great-axe with awesome violence, caring little for who or what he hits.

Ecteri, emboldened by the fight, also joined the fray. He was promptly cleaved in half. His business plans would never come to life.

Heinrik, the Magic-User Who Should Have Been a Fighter, leaped on the wounded bull-man, grabbed his neck with his left hand, and stabbed him in the throat—repeatedly—with the dagger in his right hand.

Beast fighting Seren backed off and disappeared into the dark caves.

“Check on Drokh...”

The monk was still alive, but battered and injured. He would require some serious bed rest.

“We must go back... That must be the way out! Maybe we took the wrong turn somewhere?”

Adventurers limped back to the crossing with flayed corpses. And then they had seen the light to their left. Shouts and grunts accompanied them.

“Hunt! Hunt! Hunt!”

Ecstatic growls and howls echoed.

“HUNT! HUNT! HUNT!”

“Screw this, go back!”

“I could smell fresh air in the cave where I found this sword.” Dalkanarion shared.

“Oh. I can take you there if you wish. Just ignore that basket full of copper pieces—it is a trap for less intelligent men.”

Amari, Dalkanarion, Drokh, Heinrik, Seren, and Tobias turned around, went straight, right into the junction, straight, then right, ignored the basket to the left and went right, then left through narrow opening and into the dead end cave with fresh air.

“Hunt! Hunt! Hunt!” echoed from all directions. Growling and howling was without break. Bull roars could be heard intermittently.

“Spread out! Look for secret entrances and passageways!”

Ambros was deep in prayer.

Tikatu fiddled and fidgeted.

Decarili sat in silence.

Morning and noon passed, and Tobias and his team had not returned yet.

The trio waited patiently, hidden in the crevice an hour or so away from the Wyverns' Crag and Bull God's lair.

It was evening in a sunny, hot Altanis. The sky was clear. Sun was beating down mercilessly, showing no signs of abating any time soon.

All three men looked up simultaneously.

Decarili squinted.

Sky rapidly transformed from pinkish into bright orange.

Sun raced across the sky—as if it had been ridding a chariot of stars—until it was almost directly above the hills.

Then it became larger and larger and large until it was a blinding fireball covering all of the sky, forcing the men to cover their eyes.

It vomited a great beam of pure fire, blasting straight on top of the Wyverns' Crag.

Ghinarian hills shook violently as the sun blasted the rock.

Beam slid south-wards.

Heran was warm, content.

He was bodyless; immaterial.

Umannah had seen him; Umannah had heard him.

The burning eye gazed into his very existence.

This was Heran's final test; his final chance to prove the weight of his soul.

Discuss at Dragonsfoot forum.

#Wilderlands #SessionReport

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Comments

This report covers event that transpired via play-by-post after session 151 and until the beginning of the session 153.

Adventurers

Character Race Class Description
Heran Marod Human Cleric level 4 Bearded, aging man with shaved head. Follower of Umannah, the Sun God, The Radiant Death.
Belegar Grimlisnev Dwarf Fighter level 3 / thief level 3 4’6”, 150 lbs; white hair; bronze eyes; pale blue skin tone; very hairy. Observant, dependable.
Dalkanarion Human Fighter level 6 A youthful specimen in full strength, full of purpose, bluster, and eagerness to prove himself.

After the battle

Belegar felt a sudden jerk on his belt. Then heavy force pressed him down into the ground. He could taste a strong taste of iron his your mouth. Blood caked his beard and hair.

In a moment he realised there were multiple people pressing him down. In seconds his armour straps were cut, and he was stripped naked. Once Altanians realise he was alive, they pulled him up to his knees.

Still groggy from the beating, it was difficult for him to make sense of the surroundings. He saw two Altanians lifting naked Heran Marod. One of the Altanians picked up the Oathkeeper. In an instant he cried out in pain, as his hands burned, eyes popped out, and refuse escaped him. He dropped down dead, with the sword falling on him, cleaving him straight in half.

Remaining Altanians kicked unconscious Dalkanarion repeatedly, with a few of them stomping him brutally. Finally, they stripped him naked too, and then lifted him up. Altanian whom had remained in the light wrapped up the Oathkeeper, and then tied it to his back.

“Calves!” he roared, facing two youthful Altanians “Hunt down the fleeing coward—bring him home alive or do not return at all.” Then he turned to others, Brothers!” he announced “Mother will be happy with our gifts! We head home now!”

Although disoriented, Belegar realised they were in essence going back in the direction they arrived from. Their hands were not tied. In fact they were not restrained in any way. He was constantly kicked and dragged, urged to hurry up and follow the pace. Otherwise they threatened to de-limb him and turn him into a backpack.

Sunrise

Keeping up the pace with these mad-men, especially after nearly dying, was an arduous task for Belegar. They spent the night traveling along the hills. That was the easy part. Now they were going up. Barefeet. And one of the Altanians took a special pleasure in tripping Belegar up from time to time, just to see how much he can take. It was not a good day for Belegar.

Nightfall

Up and up and up and up and up. That was Belegar's day. Sun beating down mercilessly. That one Altanian picking up on him, time and time again. Dalkanarion proved to be heavy, so Altanians took rotations in carrying him. Heran was carried by a single Altanian. There was discussion mid-day about the value of carrying and old man to the Mother. She likes them young. What's the purpose of this old bastard then? But loud Altanian said everybody must be brought to the Mother.

Sudden outburst of roaring and yelling spooks Belegar. A vertical crevice in the hills, like a wound upon the rock, flanked by six dozen stakes driven into the ground, rotting head atop each.

They have arrived.

“Watch your step, Dwarf.” Belegar's bully grinned as he pushed him into the darkness.

Into Hell

Despite the circumstances, Belegar's keen dwarven senses kicked in. Not even thirty feet in, and it is thick, black darkness. Surprisingly little light comes through the crevice. Belegar could barely see the Altanians in front and behind him.

He did notice they grabbed a rope hanging from the cave wall to the right. Dwarf paid attention to the rope, counting. Every ten feet or so there was an iron ring, hammered into the cave wall, through which the rope passed.

From time to time other Altanians passed him. They all followed the rope. Belegar had a lapse, and got lost for a moment. He was confident they have been following the tunnel for at least an hour.

Heran opened his eyes to total darkness. He felt sick as he was poked in his belly by something sharp. His hands and legs were dangling down. The moment he showed signs of life he was dumped to the ground.

“Well, well, well, the old man is alive after all!” he heard a voice with heavy breath right in front of him. “Hold the rope and walk... Or let it go and die! What do I care! Hahahahahhahahha!” the man burst out laughing. Heran realise he was naked. Umannah did not answer his prayers.

They followed the rope, traversing a natural cave tunnel of varying width. They passed through several open chambers. Belegar felt they were mostly going down, but not at a great slope. At one moment they descend down carved stairs, and then turn left, abandoning rope. Altanians lit up few tallow candles and proceeded on, with captives sandwiched between them. Dalkanarion was still unconscious.

From there they turned right and followed the winding tunnel going down and then up. They entered a cave where Altanians suddenly stopped. The loud one blew a horn, which nearly made Belegar's head explode. Then they turned left and followed another long tunnel.

“Who blows there?!”

“Bommos! Bringing gifts for the Mother!”

“She is resting now. Go away.”

“Move aside shroomsucker or I'll disembowel you!”

Short scuffle between the adventurers' captors and the other side resulted with the former badly beaten. Belegar dropped down on all four and snitched a dagger in the chaos. He hid it in his massive beard.

The fight took place in a cave with four exits. Losers—-and their captives—-were eventually thrown out, with Bommos and his gang sulking away. The retreat was chaotic and disorderly, but eventually Belegar realised they moved south-west from the cave, heading further down, down another long, long tunnel.

An hour or so later, and they could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Into depths

They approached the light and entered a cave system filled with smoke and people. It was damp and warm. One of the caves they passed was filled with long wooden shafts over smoking fires; skins of various animals and men hanging over, drying. In adjacent chamber skins were dipped into holes and cavities filled with foul smelling acid.

Everything smelt, nay reeked, of grease and body odour. Tallow candles illuminated many caves they traversed. All were packed with Altanians, mostly naked. Men, women, children. Most, but not all, had ritual scarring covering their extremities.

“I will add the dwarf's face and back to my jacket!” Belegar's friend announced to the cheering mass. “But I want it to be a face of terror! Fear! Fear for your life, dwarf!”

Adventurers were taken past several more chambers, and Belegar felt the direction was primarily eastwards. Then they were thrown into a chamber packed with emaciated Altanians, Alyrians, Antillians, and Thabrians.

They were not chained nor tied up in any way. There were no guards in this cave chamber. In general, neither Belegar nor Heran spotted any guard posts. Due to low light and tight caves it was impossible to count how many Altanians they passed. Could be several dozen, could be several hundred. They did not pass a single empty cave.

The chamber had two exits. An opening to the west, which adventurers had been brought from to, and a tunnel slopping downwards to the east.

No water nor food was given. The prisoners sucked and licked the crevices along the south wall, through which water seeped in little droplets.

Belegar tried to talk to some of the captives. He was interested to know where the tunnel slopping downwards to the east leads to and if there are prisoners that would be willing to fight against their captors.

Dwarf counted around thirty captives. Altanians and Thabrians were more than happy to fight, but they did not take Belegar seriously at all. “East tunnel leads to the play ground where the Bull God dwells.” they told him.

He also began working on a back up plan, should all else fail. He started acting even weaker than he was. This was a ploy to fool his bully, and then stab him at the most opportune moment. To maximise his final strike, he began smearing shit—his own and of others—onto the blade. “Best case I kill him, worst case I give him a massive infection.” the dwarf though to himself.

Heran prayed for Cure Light Wounds so he could heal his allies. He also prayed for Bless, to embolden captives to break out. He spent rest of his time ministering to the prisoners. “Umannah, give me strength in what may be my final hours to bring glory to your name and destroy these, the forces of Chaos, that would wipe away your Law from the lands of man.”

Over the next three days few new captives were thrown into the chamber. Several were taken, screaming and crying, back into the cave system. Altanians taking them often described in great detail the gruesome acts they were about to perform on them.

An old crone checked in on Dalkanarion daily. She would sniff around him and then leave. Six large tribesmen always accompanied her.

On the second day of their captivity, Heran managed to pray to Umannah. That did not go unnoticed and caused a great commotion. His Bless inspired three of the captives to attempt escape. They were promptly caught, skinned alive, and then boiled in an iron cauldron. Their screams intermingled with laughter and howling of the tribesmen.

Following, the same crone that checked in on Dalkanarion regularly, instructed Altanians on how to deal with the cleric. First they broke all of his fingers, one by one. Then they broke his wrists. Then elbows. Finally, they dislocated his shoulders. Finally finally, they dislocated his jaw. He could not speak, nor could he cast spells anymore. He was crippled for life.

Belegar crouched, a dense ball of shit and hair. Other captives gave him a wide berth. His dagger was ready. He was bidding his time. He would go down fighting.

Fourth day in Hell

Dalkanarion woke up in a dank, warm cave. There was a heavy smell of sweat, offal, and human waste. He was in cave with thirty or so other captives. Belegar, the dwarf, was the only one with some semblance of (accurate) feeling for passage of time. Heran was a disfigured atrocity, his arms mangled and twisted, his jaw locked to the side, making every sound coming from his sound like a pained moan.

Myrmidon was naked, without any possessions. There were no bonds his arms, nor legs. He was free to stretch and move. His attempts to reach out mentally to the Oathkeeper yielded no response. Several hours after he woke up, a hunched crone of dark red skin, accompanied by six bulky tribesmen, arrived.

“You are a big and strong boy, unlike scum over there.” she croaked whilst waving at other captives. “Eat, eat, you will need strength.” He was served a bucket of boiled meat, seven cucumbers, and four oranges. “Tell this old woman more about yourself, Dalkanarion. Tell it all...”

“I am from the north, good lady, but found their states and laws too stifling and self-serving. Too many lords and ladies, thees and thows, but always the downtrodden paying the price. I longed for fresh air and a new start. Where a man, armed with steel and courage, can forge his own destiny. A land that can start new and restore hope to the simple folk. My Lady of the Owl represents War, Justice, and Wisdom. In service, I strive to become Champion of the people.” Dalkanarion spoke whilst standing tall and proud.

He continued “It comes to my ear that distant northern lords, especially the pompous 'overlord,' seek to spread their influence into these lands, ever grasping beyond their reach. But what do they truly know of Altanis and its vitality? Only more tax revenue and military recruits. Tell your people to push back and throw them into the sea should they come armed! Already, in a night of blood and fire, the nefarious and evil lords and guild masters of Hara have been wiped. The cleansing has started. I accept your gracious offer of food. Knowing full well that other plates have been deprived to feed my belly. To be seen as champion, though, I must advise it should be shared amongst the starving.”

The crone's eyes widened and she let out a cackle at the mention of Hara. While talking, Dalkanarion assessed her guard. He also tried to ascertain if she was wearing his medallion of ESP or if he felt a mental tug on his mind.

The crone was naked, using a bent staff to prop herself. Numerous fetishes adorned her, mostly hanging around her saggy neck, but there were plenty of bracelets on her wrists and ankles. Her wrinkled skin was covered with layers and layers of scars.

Six tribesmen don't look dissimilar from men that easily defeated Dalkanarion. Four of them were wearing leather jerkins. All had belts, loincloths, hand axes, and daggers.

“But I know there are more than one way of proving oneself a champion amongst different peoples. Let us honour the gods under their gaze from moon and stars. Light a blaze to illuminate the heavens so that all those above may watch. And give me your finest champion to fight in noble combat after much feasting and dancing. Since primordial times, this is how man proves himself. Let blood honour the almighty, and struggle of man versus man them. Would you, crone, follow such a champion into a new age?”

“Big words from a big man!” she laughed, as did her entourage. “Eat, eat, and you will get your wish. Then we will see if you are a strong as a Bull or just full of big words.”

“Do you gaze into the flames old witch? Do they whisper to you? I have been into the den of vilest evil and gazed into utter darkness. Wicked sorcery descends upon these lands from the mountains of the west, from a sorcerous stronghold within, driving down a howling band of humanoids and brigands. This I know. Would you stand against blasphemous magics and slavering hobgoblins?”

“Others come and go, but Altanians are forever. Bore me no more!” she spit rancid phlegm at Dalkanarion.

“I relish the opportunity for Owl to shred Bull old crone, as has been done before.” Dalkanarion retorted “Yes dirt-crawler, forever hiding in their holes naked, wretched, filthy. Daring not to wander free under the heavens, hiding ashamed of their wretchedness in the eyes of the gods. No dreams, no hope, no change. Forever cursed in their dark tunnels.” He stood stolidly, allowing the spit to hit him. “Now crawl away woman and leave me to rest.”

“Yes, yes, yes!” the crone cackled as Dalkanarion hurled his words at her. “You and your ink will soon be trampled by the Bull God himself!” They left you, cackling.

Others captives stared at Dalkanarion. Few of them began squaring up. Fighter knew that look very well. The look of a hungry animal ready to pounce. Four of them took a few steps towards him.

Dalkanarion look menacingly at them and growled “Advance further and there will be a reckoning...” He motioned towards Heran “Did YOU do this to him fools?”

Two of the four rushed forward. Dalkanarion lunged at them like a wild animal, knocking them both out cold in two rounds. Then he took the food given to him, and squashed it as soft as he could. His plan was to feed it to Heran, however possible.

Cleric's psyche and consciousness, now fully retreated into mind fortress, shielding him from great physical trauma, prayed to Umannah. He dedicated the pain he felt to his God.

Heran could see nothing but fire in his mind's eye. He felt nothing but fire. His flesh melted. His pain washed away. He became warm and serene.

“Burn my body with your divine light and blind the unbelieving Altanians. Umannah I beseech you! Make my body a weapon to drive out this vile corruption.”

Nothing happened immediately, but the warm sensation did not go away. Heran felt presence of something great, but that greatness was not aware of him—yet.

And thus, Heran's psyche dwelt in this presence, meditating.

Dalkanarion, having defeated the two assailants with great ease, encouraged others to back down, too starved to put up a fight.

Heran lied on his back, propped against the cave wall. He was catatonic and unresponsive. Drool dripped down his broken jaw. His mangled arms were bent and crooked. As Dalkanarion approached him, he felt increased warmth—Heran himself was emanating heat, much more than one would expect from a man, even if he was feverish.

Myrmidon knelt next to his broken friend and squeezed orange juice into his gaping mouth.

“Your words are lost on them, Dalkanarion.” a youthful but skinny man addressed him. The face did not look familiar.

“Name's Ecteri, Higman's bastard. I doubt you remember me, but I know of you and your friends. Well, to be fair, everyone in Hara knows of you. My father deals with adventurers quite often. Or, I guess, used to deal now that his establishment burned down to the ground. He is a jeweller. I pleaded with him many times to allow me to follow his trade. It was all for naught. SO I set out to make a name for myself in Ahyf. Gods did not smile upon me, Dalkanarion, and I ended up here, destined to become nothing but a clothing article. How horrible. But your words are not lost on me. Do we stand a chance to live? Is there hope? Or was all that just bravado of a doomed man?”

“Doomed, lad? Oh no. As long as we breathe there is always hope, by Athena. Stand fast and we will find a glimmer of a chance at some point. Just be prepared to follow orders when called upon. Round up any trustworthy folk and huddle together for a council of war. Tell me, also, where this downward passage and stairs lead? Is it guarded? Have you heard or smelt anything from there? Any light?” Dalkanarion spoke whilst chewing on boiled meet and slowly feeding it to Heran, who was completely unable to chew or swallow. Then he turned to the brown ball of hair “Belegar, how fare you my friend?”

“I am unsure where they lead to. That is where they take strong men like you. It is completely unguarded and I haven't seen anyone return. What I do know is that tribesmen get very excited when someone goes there.” Ecteri replied.

Belegar shared everything he learned since being captured.

Another day in Hell

Heran was still warm. In fact, he radiated even more heat, palpable at ten feet radius. Belegar reeked really bad. That dagger was caked proper. He was careful not to nick himself on it.

Sometime during the day tribesmen took three of the skinniest captives. They were taken into the caves. They screamed for hours as Altanians turned them into leather.

“If we ever make it out, I’m coming back to burn this place down.” Dalkanarion muttered to himself.

A loud bull roar echoed from the unguarded path leading down.

Heran meditated. He was nothing but charred bones in a whirlwind of fire. The roaring of flames were now nothing but background noise. There was no pain, only serenity. A titanic, planet-sized, eye formed out of flames and gazes into his being.

The gaze was unflinching; its attention constant. It was all encompassing. Everything rumbled and shook as flamed dance around Heran, forming sounds that he could make sense of.

“You call unto me in great pain, desiring death and destruction upon those surrounding you, Heran Marod.

Chaos confounds, corrupts, and cannibalises in a moment of weakness.

Would you not rather bring people salvation and clarity?

Or you wish nothing but Radiant Death to them?

Speak, and your wish shall be granted.”

“My Lord, Father of the Light that is my life. My body is ruined, and I have seen the evil of these barbarian Altanians. To be the tinder to the flame that drives Chaos from these lands has been my aspiration since I have discovered the truth of your glory. I know that all men's lives are passing, that our candles' fires are quickly extinguished. Let me be that tinder. If my fire must go out, let it shine bright in its last moments and consume those who are agents of Chaos. Let my death safeguard my companions from this place of evil. Destroy the barbarians.”

Dalkanarion knelt next to the cleric. He whispered words of encouragement and gratitude into his ear. He also promised revenge. Then he and Belegar tried to rouse captives to join them in a daring escape downwards.

“Stand tall all of you. Now is the time to be reckoned, and measure the steel of your spirit. Whatever life is left in us, it’s worth spending it as free as possible or fighting for that freedom. I refuse to simply wait here for the inevitable sacrifice. I choose to fight on my terms, whatever may come, and die like a man rather than a cowering sheep. We have an advantage of initiative and numbers. Some may perish, but that might purchase the freedom of others. I’ll put my own body first in the line. Who will join me?!? For Athena Protectress!”

Dalkanarion's words fell on deaf ears. Ecteri slowly stood up “I'll join you. But if we are captured again, then please break my neck, for those who flee suffer horrible fates.”

Belegar had a shit-caked dagger, Dalkanarion and Ecteri each had a rock. The rocks lit up, providing torch-like illumination. They thanked Heran for his gift.

The trio descended, sneaking past a chamber filled with tribesmen, and then continued deeper down, following the tunnel. Half an hour later they emerged into a cave with two exits. North exit led straight and then turned west. South exit opened up into a Y shaped junction, with tunnel splitting south-west and south-east.

They headed north, turned west and reached a four way junction. North had a broad bend before turning west. South was a dead end with three flayed corpses. East opened up in a larger cave.

Dalkanarion pulled out three iron spikes from the corpses. They were caked with blood and gore. Belegar heard loud footsteps coming from the cavern to the east.

Heavy thuds suddenly stopped. The trio went north, turned west, and followed the tunnel for some fifty feet before it turns north-east. They were now at a junction with four exits.

North-east tunnel went thirty feet and then turned north.

North-west led into a tunnel running from north-east to south-west.

South-east was the direction they came from.

South-west was a dead-end after twenty feet. There was an upside down human corpse, cleaved almost in half vertically. It was hanging by ankles nailed into the cave wall. Maggots and flies festered in its rotting flesh.

Party goes northwest, then turns northeast, reaching a Y-shaped split.

North-west was a dead-end with a hewn alcove. Inside the alcove was a basket, filled to the brim with copper pieces, reflecting the adventurers' light.

North-east opened up into a cave with exit to the north. They heard a feeble cry “help... help... I am stuck...” coming from that direction.

The moved slowly and cautiously in that direction, into the cave and further north. It was a narrow passageway, some three feet wide. It opened up in a wide cave, some thirty feet long and fifteen feet deep. The ceiling was roundish, some twenty feet above. Air was a bit fresher.

“Please... over here... get me out... I am stuck...”

It took Dalkanarion a moment to realise it was a sword speaking to them! Not mentally, but out loud. The blade was stuck in the wall at the west end of the cave. Steel hilt adorned with emeralds was jutting out.

Dalkanarion tried reaching out mentally. There was no response. He attempted to pull the sword out.

“Thank you–oh, what a strong grip!”

Dalkanarion heaved and pulled, but the sword remained stuck!

“You have mighty thews, it must've been a fluke! Oh, please try again!” the sword cries out, exasperated.

He pulled and pulled and pulled, but no movement!

“Try to push yourself against the rock! Use your whole body, not just arms! Please!”

Dalkanarion's muscles almost bursting, he finally pulled out the sword, sending him flying on his ass.

“Wow, amazing!” the sword quipped “I hope my blade hasn't dulled so much to be useless! Thank you mighty warrior! What is your name?”

Belegar heard heavy footsteps and laboured breathing approaching from south. Peeking through narrow tunnel he could see into the cave they came through.

A large, red-skinned man with bull's head and large, two-handed axe, entered. He stared in Belegar's direction.

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Adventurers

Character Race Class Description
Heinrik Human Magic-User level 1 Muscular mage with short blonde hair and piercing blue eyes.
Seren Human Ranger level 1 Beardless and blinkless ranger.
Tobias Lindflags Hobbit Thief level 3 A sixth-born son standing to gain nothing from inheritance, so he set out to make his own fortune in the world.
Somniel Elf fighter level 1 / Magic-User level 1 An elf of ambivalent age suffering from mild amnesia.
Tikatu Human Druid level 3 A dirty little ma with dark and dirty skin, wearing loincloth with no back. “What will be, will be” is his favourite aphorism.
Amari Human Ranger level 1 Black hair that shines blue. Scarred like a gladiator.

Warmshade 2nd, Waterday

Adventuring party of eight found themselves at the junction, both literal and metaphorical. After a brief discussion, they decided that Ignaeus and Mepheus of Hephaestus would escort badly wounded Somniel to Ahyf. The elf was in no shape to adventure.

Tobias used the time to chat with Decarili, the Queen's Captain of the Guard and their guide to Ghinarian Hills.

“How long have you been serving the Queen for?”

“I've served the Queen ever since she defeated the Mother of our tribe and led us into new era. That was thirteen years ago.”

“And whereabouts are you from?”

“Where from? Here. I was born on Ghinarian hills.”

“Do you know anything about this Bull God tribe?”

“Yes, I know my tribe well. That is why I am your guide.”

“Do you believe a peaceful resolution of the matter is possible?”

“Peace? Yes, peace at the end of the blade.”

“What is your take on why you were sent with us when the city received a direct threat from Racoba?”

“Why was I sent with you? Ask your High Priest, he asked for it.”

Frustrated but persistent, Tobias did his best to keep the conversation going. He was thirsting for something—anything—useful and insightful.

“Can you tell me more about the sacrifices and their significance? Are these part of the old ways?”

“We sacrifice men and women to bring the Bull God to life. He then takes us on a Great Hunt. That is what the crones say. They are full of shit.”

“Can you tell me more about the Bull God?”

“Bull God is the patron of our tribe. Every Altanian tribe has a patron. Bull God is a big, majestic bull.”

“As our guide, what do you think would be the path taken to our destination? One where we do not necessarily cross hunting grounds but we can still make good time?”

“Are you joking little hobbit? Tell me what do you see around us? As far as the eyes see? Do you want me to put you on my shoulders? Well, everything you see, and beyond, are Altanian hunting grounds. Altanis, they call it. You know, what is Barbarian Altanis to City-Folk is merely Altanis to us. Best path is usually the shortest path. Less steps. Probably better for you that way.”

Tobias smirked about the comments and after a brief pause retorted in a friendly manner. “I always fancied a nice sorrel stallion, but its not the time to break one in.”

He continued “However as the Altanians seem to be hunting for people, we actually might be better off not following the treaded path. If you want fish, you go to the river – this path here is like the river, and we don't want to be caught, do we?”

Decarili shrugged.

Adventurers decided against following the trail towards the desecrated temple. Instead, they asked Decarili to take them straight to the wyvern lair, which is supposedly atop the second highest peak. From there it should be possible to see where Altanians lair.

Maybe.

Warmshade 3rd, Earthday

Amari gazed at the sky, in the direction Decarili was pointing to. She could see two wyverns flying in her direction. Barrel-chested Altanian tapped her on the shoulder and whispered with a big grin “See, I am taking you in the right direction.”

Two predators failed to spot six tasty snacks and went on about minding their own business.

After two watches of hard trek in sweltering heat, the second peak of Ghinarian Hills was within reach. Adventurers spent the evening watch looking for a perfect spot to hole in and spend the night.

They found a horizontal crevice, positioned and bent so it is easy to observe the outsides from withing, while being nearly invisible to those outside.

There they planned and deliberated. The best plan they cooked rested firmly on Tobias's small shoulders. The hobbit would put on his ring of invisibility and then scale the peak, explore the wyvern lair if necessary, and identify where the Bull God tribe lairs.

Warmshade 4th, Fireday

Some time after midnight Seren and Tikatu, whom were on guard duty, spotted eight human-like figures running down-hill. Howla and Vannis illuminated their frames. They moved quickly and with grace. Ranger and druid remained silent. There was no light in their camp and figures were several hundred yards away. No need to draw any unwanted attention. Plus, Tobias was sleeping. The hobbit will need all the strength he can muster to complete his task.

Indeed, Tobias left the camp with the first rays of sun proper. He followed the goat trail pointed out by Decarili. He slowly moved up, despite being invisible, watching his steps carefully. Would be a pity to fall down and become an invisible corpse.

Overlooking south side of the hills was an oval opening, some twenty feet wide and thirty feet tall. Tobias took a brief peek. Broken bones of various humanoids and animals littered the cave floor as far as eyes could see. The thief steeled himself, turned around, and scanned the surroundings.

Minutes felt like hours. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Tobias was under so much stress he was unable to appreciate beautiful Altanian summer. There were no traces of clouds whatsoever. He could see sea to the east, great plains and woodlands to the south, and majestic mountain range to the west. But he could not appreciate them, for he knew there were wyverns just behind his back.

Then they appeared. The respite Tobias had been looking for.

A gang of dozen or so Altanians were running uphill, coming from south and going towards the peak Tobias was on. Then they suddenly went downwards and disappeared out of sight. At this moment the hobbit heard a deep grumbling sounds echoing from the cave behind him. He promptly climbed down, ran to the camp, and shared his observations with other adventurers.

“You see, Tobias, now you need to pull up your big boy pants and go check out where did those barbarians go. Don't forget to put on the ring!”

Encourage by great support of his colleagues, Tobias set out once more. It took him two hours to find where did the barbarians go. A narrow crevice, some forty feet tall, in the hillside. It looked like a wound upon the rock. Sixty or so stakes were planted into the ground around the crevice. Rotting corpses, broken skulls, and animal carcasses were impaled upon them.

Tobias dropped to the ground, belly down. He was several hundred yards away from the crevice, on an elevated position. He observed as his heart pounded.

There was no rhyme nor reason to Altanians coming and going from the crevice. Two would enter, seven would exit, loiter about, then four would enter, several more exit and go about... Tobias could see no disciplined guards or patrols. He did get to witness the men engage in cruel and sadistic pastime activities.

“There must be another way...” the hobbit thought. That's why he decided to search the surrounding thoroughly instead of merely lying on his belly and observing the crevice. He spent the whole noon slowly crawling about, investigating every nook and cranny that seemed even remotely interesting.

His effort paid off, for he did find another cave opening. This one was above the crevice he had found earlier, in addition to being further east. Proud of his discoveries, Tobias returned to the camp to share what had he learned.

Adventurers discussed their plans well into the night.

Warmshade 5th, Spiritday

“Listen, here is the plan.” Amari attempted to break the gridlock. Adventurers were unable to commit to a plan that did not feel like an outright death march. “Ambros, and Tikatu stay here. Seren, Heinrik, Tobias, and myself go. Tobias, you keep the ring on at all time. Don't engage. Let us die if it comes to it. You just follow us, take notes, and then live to tell others where to go!”

There was also fundamental disagreement about the nature of this expedition. Is it about recovering an Egg of Desire, a powerful artefact recovered from the Windowless Tower, or about rescuing Dalkanarion, Heran Marod, and Belegar Grimlisnev.

Seren and Heinrik accepted the plan. Tobias was hesitant but accepted in the end too.

“Decarili, will you join us?”

“My job was to guide your here and to ensure Ambros delivers the Queen's message. I stay with him.”

“Wow, was that ominous or what?”

Decarili gave his best attempt at giving a more enthusiastic shoulder shrug to encourage the Daring Four. “One word of advice. Avoid the gaze of any women you meet in the caves.” he offered as parting advice.

“Wait, what? Why?” the hobbit inquired.

“Altanian women as psionically gifted. Different tribes focus on different talents. Women of the Bull God can make your head explode. Why did you think the merchants fear meeting the Queen?”

“Wow, what is this, an anthropology lesson BEFORE we head into the den of cannibalistic barbarians?! Just now?! Anything else we should know?!”

“Don't get captured.”

The quartet left camp in the morning. Tobias led them to the second entrance he had found. Everybody hoped that this would lead them true. Heinrik filled his bullseye lantern. Then they entered.

Sprawling tunnel went on and on and on and on. They walked for hours, tense and on the edge. They walked for so long that lamp oil was nearly spent before they reached an opening leading into another tunnel.

Ahead of them were three bull skulls nailed to the cave wall. Looking right they could see the tunnel goes for some twenty feet before turning right again. Looking left they could see the tunnel goes for fifty feet before twisting.

They elected to follow the left hand path.

This led them into a confounding cave system with numerous natural tunnels cris-crossing each other. Whenever they stumbled upon a dead end they'd find horribly mutilated corpses there. One had three flayed humans. Another had a hobbit stuffed into an elf stuffed into a human.

“I hear something...”

Heinrik warned the party. They were standing at a junction, deciding where to go next. Magic-User heard heavy footsteps rapidly approaching from their right. Adventurers fell back and readied themselves.

A massive man, naked and of blood red complexion, charged them, swinging two handed great axe with ease. A bull's head was where one would expect to see a human one.

Seren was ready, having braced his spear. He cut into the charging beast, wounding it. The man-bull retaliated by slashing the ranger. Seren countered with another well targeted flurry of attacks.

Tobias followed instructions he agreed to before entering this vile place. He hugged the cave wall and watched the scene unfurl before his eyes.

Heinrik backed off just enough to cast Light at the bull headed man's eyes. The beast hollered, but kept swinging. Amari used its confusion to deliver several stabs of her own. Seren followed up with another round of thrusts and slashes. Medium dropped his staff, pulled out the dagger, and joined the fray.

Badly wounded, the beast tried to back off. It failed miserably, as Seren, Amari, and Heinrik repeatedly stabbed it. Man-bull fell down, bleeding from countless freshly punctured orifices. The beast groaned and exhaled. Adventurers stood victorious.

Amari pulled on the horns. The bull head was not a mask—it was flesh and sinew. Heinrik took the greataxe and used it to decapitate the monster. Then he strapped it to his backpack and secured it with rope.

Quartet moved on, exploring tunnels and getting nowhere.

Then they heard a loud, angry, protracted bellow. This time they were unable to ascertain wherefrom it was coming—the echo made it sound like they were completely surrounded.

Tobias squeezed his ring.

Meme by MLord.

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A zine chronicling the Conquering the Barbarian Altanis D&D campaign.

This issue details sessions 88, 89, and 90.

Adventurers explore a crypt, a barrow, and a temple.

You can download the issue here.

Overlord's Annals zine is available as part of the Ever & Anon APA, issue 5:

#Zine

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Adventurers

Character Race Class Description
Heran Marod Human Cleric level 4 Bearded, aging man with shaved head. Follower of Umannah, the Sun God, The Radiant Death.
Belegar Grimlisnev Dwarf Fighter level 3 / thief level 3 4’6”, 150 lbs; white hair; bronze eyes; pale blue skin tone; very hairy. Observant, dependable.
Dalkanarion Human Fighter level 6 A youthful specimen in full strength, full of purpose, bluster, and eagerness to prove himself.
Tikatu Human Druid level 3 A dirty little ma with dark and dirty skin, wearing loincloth with no back. “What will be, will be” is his favourite aphorism.
Amari Human Ranger level 1 Black hair that shines blue. Scarred like a gladiator.
Tobias Lindflags Hobbit Thief level 3 A sixth-born son standing to gain nothing from inheritance, so he set out to make his own fortune in the world.
Somniel Elf fighter level 1 / Magic-User level 1 An elf of ambivalent age suffering from mild amnesia.
Ambros Human Cleric level 6 Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time.
Ignaeus Elf fighter level 5 / Magic-User level 4 A slightly weathered looking elf with dull blonde hair and chiseled features. Seeks wealth and knowledge.
Heinrik Human Magic-User level 1 Muscular mage with short blonde hair and piercing blue eyes.
Mepheus of Hephaestus Human Cleric level 1 Miniature Dalkanarion with curly black hair, close-cropped beard, dark eyes and even darker hairs.
Seren Human Ranger level 1 Beardless and blinkless ranger.

Longrass 18th, Earthday

Dalkanarion, Heran Marod, and Belegar Grimlisnev packed their belongings. Having retrieved as much treasure as they could from the Windowless Tower, the adventuring company of over twenty members disbanded. Aforementioned trio gave up their treasure shares in return for keeping the mystical Egg of Desire.

“We should head straight to the Cedarwade Keep” Heran and Dalkanarion reasoned. Thus, they decided to follow along the Ghinarian Hills along the southern side. This would take them straight through the Altanian hunting grounds. At the same time, it would allow them to reach their destination three times as fast compared to traveling all the way around.

Adventurers judged this to be the risk worth taking.

Longrass 19th, Fireday

“Watch!” Belegar pointed at a slow moving mass of men several hundred yards away from the party. Adventurers hid in the scrub and bushes, and observed patiently.

It soon became apparent that the man had unnatural gait. They looked more like they were dragging themselves along than walking normally. Amongst them were four men on horseback. Two were dresses in dark black robes, while other two had grimy dark cloaks thrown over chain shirts.

Foul band marched towards south east, same direction the party had arrived from. Adventures hid and waited until they judged that the danger has moved far away. Then they proceeded onwards, until nightfall.

Adventures made a cold camp. The summer was merely two days away, and the sky was clear. Grass was fresh, vibrant, and soft. Dalkanarion, Belegar, and his two retainers Vragni and Sindri, laid down to sleep. Heran Marod took the first watch.

“YAAAA!”

“AAAAGH!”

“RRRRAGH!”

Roaring and yelling woke everybody up. A dozen Altanian barbarians had overran the adventures in a blink of an eye. Heran cast Light to see the opposition better. Vragni was brutally hacked to death. Belegar took several powerful blows and was brought down, bleeding profusely.

Dalkanarion bellowed, drawing attention to himself. He was surrounded and beaten up without any mercy whatsoever. The mighty myrmidon had slain only a single barbarian before succumbing to their relentless assault.

Heran tried to flee by untying the horses. Alas, horses broke off in total panic and galloped off into the darkness. He was promptly beaten up by two Altanians. Sindri fled for his life, sprinting away from the hills.

Longrass 20th, Spiritday

Ambros turned around in his bedroll. He rolled left and right, sweating profusely. He had a dream most disturbing. He saw bloodied Dalkanarion and Heran Marod dragged into the hills and then into some dark hole. Naked and bloodied, they were sacrificed to the Bull God. Ambros felt powerful presence of Chaos, so powerful his whole body convulsed, waking him up.

Illustration by MLord.

Without any delay he gathered all the adventurers currently in the smoldering ruins of Hara. These were Tikatu the pygmy druid, Amari the Amazon ranger, Tobias the robber, Somniel the elf, Ignaeus the elven hero, Heinrik the muscle mage, Mepheus of Hephaestus, and Seren the watchful ranger.

Ambros quickly shared his disturbing dream. Adventurers agreed that it was most likely a premonition or vision. The Patriarch General and Justice Supreme of Kingdom of Hara was adamant that Dalkanarion must be saved. He was too valuable, both for adventurers, but also for the Kingdom of Hara.

“Uh, we think you should go speak to the Queen. Isn't she an Altanian?”

“Yes, I shall do so.”

Ambros returned several hours later, joined by Decarili, the Captain of Queen's Guard. He learned that Altanians in his dreams were of the Bull God tribe, same tribe the Queen hails from. She gave Ambros a small pouch, asking him to deliver it to the Matriarchs of the tribe for her. Decarili will serve as the guide. Bull God tribe used to roam the Ghinarian Hills, but in recent years they seems to have taken a liking for caves and deep, dark places.

“Patriarch General! The castellan asks for your immediate presence at the citadel!”

A filthy, flea-infested man stood before Ambros and Marlon.

“I bring a message from the Grand Wizard Klekess Racoba!” he spat as he spoke, showing his rotten teeth “He demands surrender of the city or we will take it by force!”

Ambros turned to Marlon “You are responsible for the defenses. I trust you to take care of it.”

“Yes, High Priest.” Marlon's response was as swift as his sword beheading the messenger.

Ambros and adventurers packed up and left in hurry. They decided to follow the trail to Midway, ford the river, then follow the trail towards Ahyf, but take the right turn at the junction, so called Pilgrims' Pathway.

That was the plan.

Warmshade 1st, Airday

”...” Amari signaled to Seren to watch ahead. Large wooden box was propped up by an unstable branch wedged between two stones. Beyond it were several boulders right next to the overgrown trail they were following. Three ogre heads were peeking above the boulders, looking at the rangers hopefully.

Ignoring the traps, adventures began peppering the ogres with arrows and sling stones. Ignaeus released an arrow, hitting the left eye of one ogre. His second arrow landed true too, hitting the right eye of the same ogre. The beast fell down.

Other two ogres closed in. Seren took the brunt of the attack, while Tikatu and Tobias attacked from the sides. But it was Muscle Mage Heinrik who did true damage to it with his trust staff. “Why spend magic when you can spend sweat?” He smashed ogre's head wide open like a watermelon.

Other ogre nearly killed Somniel. Ignaeus and Mepheus of Hephaestus made a short work of the monster, hacking and bashing it to death.

“Hey, how about we check their lair? We have been here months ago. Dalkanarion and crew can wait few more hours...”

Ignaeus led the party to the ogres' lair. Investigating it resulted with the party finding 769 silver pieces, 1279 gold pieces, one pearl, one platinum pin with opal, and a necklace of electrum beads on a heavy thread. They also found owlbear droppings, left some of their own, and promptly fled the lair.

Warmshade 2nd, Waterday

“Pilgrims' Pathway” sun bleached wooden plank read. It was evening. Somniel was barely keeping up with the party, slowing them all down. Ahyf was seven leagues away. Windgod Temple some fifteen leagues up hill. A tribes' lair was who knows where.

Will adventurers escort Somniel to safety? Or leave him to fend on his own? Will they rush to the peak of Ghinarian Hills? Or take some other route? Every day is precious, and every day represents an irreversible decision...

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I finally unpacked all the goodies I brought back from the Cauldron con. Most of these were brought from overseas by a good friend of mine. Some were gifts, for which I am very grateful.

Castle Book II, Book of Treasure Maps III, Heroic Expeditions, Prey of Darkness, Shield Maidens of Sea Rune, and Spies of Lightelf:

City State of the Invincible Overlord (Mayfair Games version):

City of the Ape-Men and Four Dooms & Seven Voyages:

Valus:

Return to Perinthos (Jennell Jaquays memorial megadungeon, I contributed a level):

#Postbox #OSR #JG

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Next year's Cauldron convention will take place from 8 to 11 October, 2026:

That will be from Thursday to Sunday. Save the date and keep an eye on their website, for this year's tickets were sold out in hours.

Cauldron is the best convention to attend if you have any interest in playing old-school Dungeons & Dragons, be it any flavour of the originals from the 70s, or the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

To get the feeling of atmosphere and games that take place at Cauldron, I recommend the following accounts & reflections:

#Convention #Cauldron #OSR #FightOn

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I spent last weekend (October 17–19) playing old-school Dungeons & Dragons at Cauldron, “an OSR Euro Con.” I had an absolute blast of a time, organisers did an amazing job, and players were all great.

In this post I share my reflections on the whole experience. See this post for reports on games I either played or hosted.

Preparation

I've decided to take a night bus to Frankfurt, then a train to Marburg, and then hitched a shuttle ride offered by the organisers to the final destination, Hofraithe Rosenthal.

Everything I needed to run my games was packed in a single yellow binder: five reference sheets for OD&D, player reference sheet for Magic-User and Cleric spells, character index with eighty fourth level characters, eighty character sheets printed on yellowish paper, and, of course, module notes and maps.

Early on I decided I will (1) run three games myself—The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor on Friday night, Conquering Barbarian Altanis on Saturday night, and Darkness Beneath Megadungeon level on Sunday morning—and (2) join three other games. That, I felt, was a fair balance of supporting others and offering what I like to others.

Since I've already written about why I have chosen to run OD&D and above adventures, I point you to the following post.

Friday

Night bus was perfect for me. I've slept through most of the journey and arrived well rested. I did not get to experience the horrors of DB. My train arrived on time, and organisers greeted me on the train station as agreed upon. An hour or so later we reached nice white houses with timber beams, my home for the next three days.

First thing I did was make my bed. No way I'd be in the mood to do so at 2 am, or whichever time would my Friday night game finish. That proved to be great foresight. Next, I scanned all the gaming rooms. Organisers provided a small map and a list with all the games and associated tables and rooms.

Tables were beautiful, chunky and concrete. Beams worried me a bit, for they too were chunky and concrete. My assigned table was just between two beams and between two other tables. I worried how many player could realistically fit given that I wasn't even able to wedge in eight chairs. Second table was kind of useless because there were other beams around, so there was nowhere it could be moved without blocking passageway. And I didn't want to stand in the way of gamers trying to reach their fix.

My games were with unlimited attendance. I was committed to running a game for two or twenty players. I tried out few different layouts, but ultimately decided to pull the horizontal table behind me and place it against the wall. Then I left all my belongings on that table—now promoted to the Judge Table—and decided to have nothing on the Player Table.

There were some really great rooms, but Linde, the one I was assigned to, had the most concurrent games. I knew it'd be loud, but I was looking forward to it nonetheless because I knew the atmosphere would be great.

With everything prepared I mingled around, meeting people and chatting. It was great to connect faces with online nicknames and handles. This was also a very special convention because I met several long-time players from our Conquering the Barbarian Altanis campaign. That was absolutely awesome. I am unable to express in words how great it was to meet in person after gaming since 2022 together.

Playing in Dreadlord's game was mighty fun. Read more about it here. We smashed through the dungeon and almost completed it with great success. My character died in the process, but one of our adventuring party member's escaped with the scroll. Dreadlord is an outstanding Judge, with quick wit and great humour. Players were great too—I was impressed by the gaming skills of all present!

Hearty dinner was served. It was then that I noticed that pretty much everything was home cooked. And how awesome is that?! This made me feel like I was at a barbecue, an intimate event, and not some corporate convention with fancy catering and what not. Organisers told me there was around hundred people here, but it felt much tighter. The atmosphere was just great.

Given that I had a night game to run I elected to skip soda drinks and focused on water. Throat was to be protected. I had hours and hours of being loud ahead of me. A Chainmail game was being set up on the ground floor. It looked really great, and I was looking forward to hearing from everyone how it went. Settembrini and Dreadlord tried to convert me to figure-collector-painter-sufferer but I made my saving throw and remained committed to avoiding adding another expensive hobby to my life.

People slowly queued up for the game sign-up forms. I took a glance at the papers and they were filling up fast. Great, just how it should be! My assumptions about Linde and table setup were quickly proven true. We shimmied the table a bit to make room for everyone. Packed tight, we were ready to game!

I framed the game as simple as I could: no player versus player, your objective is to exterminate the Cult of Angall, we play until we want. I went over the core gameplay loop with two moves per turn, dexterity ranking no-roll initiative, and assigned a caller. Game time!

45 minutes into the session and players suffered a near total TPK caused by Wand of Cold. Only one character managed to escape. That was a total of 10 in game turns. New characters were distributed, and players planned a new delve, intent on getting it proper this time.

The session is described in detail here. I am not sure until when did session go, perhaps 1 or 2 in the morning. Players managed to breach the Temple, but then noped out with Beads of Escape after seeing all the opposition inside. As I cleaned up the table I took a glance at the character index. 18 characters out of 70 got used up on the first day. That was one quarter of all characters! 8 of them perished. People preferred human fighters and magic-users.

I smiled. This will be a great con.

Saturday

It was already Saturday by the time we wrapped up our Friday night game. I walked around, looking at the items for silent auction. There was some cool stuff so I added few lazy bids. Most of the games were done, but Chainmail game was still raging on. I had some tea for the throat and then retreated to the room.

Morning brought more mingling, good home-made food (cakes!). People were approaching me, pumped about the night session I were to run later that day. More about that in a moment. I drank tea after tea...

The first session I played in was the Blue Mausoleum by the indomitable Melan. It was flat out awesome. All players were great. We adopted a very aggressive play style, going straight for the grand jewel, ignoring everything else. If my count is correct we went through almost 25 keyed areas, killing and looting. Professionalism!

On mapping duty.

Next up was another game by Dreadlord, Setian Vault that will be published in one of the upcoming Fight On! issues. I politely refused the mapping and caller duty, opting to focus on drinking tea, and stabbing things. The game was chill. We barreled through the dungeon, finding secret doors to shortcut sraight to the evil artefact. Once again, iron focus won the day. We crushed evil snake-children without any mercy whatsoever. We destroyed their altar and left with great treasure, unharmed. Dreadlord was stellar as always.

Suckling pig and sauerkraut were served galore for the dinner. Auction followed, with many cool items. All my items bombed hard, getting zero bids. In fact, I only sold and traded items outside of the auction, so there was at least that.

Food of champions.

The list for the Wilderlands game was filling up fast. That was great. But there was no way Linde could take all of that. Dreadlord, or perhaps Niko, suggested I speak to Settembrini about using the dining room instead. With the organiser's blessing I changed the room on the paper from Linde to Dining Hall.

Photo by James Knight.

Theo, Mitch, Niko, and Sam rode into the hall like four riders of the apocalypse, all dressed up in Wilderlands shirts. They helped me arrange the tables. As other players trickled in they joined in on the work. Since I have experience managing large workshops and groups I made it extremely clear that one side of combined tables is exclusively mine. There were to be no tables nor anyone sitting next to me.

This is a simple trick to ensure that I have everyone's undivided attention. I am one and the players are many—and I must do whatever I can to minimise distractions. With such large group my number one priority was to ensure everybody gets to play, not spectate but play! In order for players to play they must have a clear view of me, hear my words, and understand the information I am communicating. That is why it is vital for large games to have a central spot without any additional distractions.

As more and more people poured in we added more and more tables. We were filling up the dining hall! Settembrini kindly reminded us that we still have a full tray of pork behind us. Indeed, it is important to be well nourished for peak gaming performance.

This was a session 149 of our ongoing Conquering the Barbarian Altanis campaign. What happened here is part of our regular game. Stakes are real. Consequences enduring. Choices endless. We brought our whole open-world sandbox to Cauldron, and opened it up for all those present to rock it as they wish.

I already provided a detailed in-game session report in this blog post, and now I wish to focus more on behind the scenes.

First, I did not bring any preconceived notions of what the players would or wouldn't do. Total and complete freedom. What I did bring though is a summary of intelligence player characters have so there is something to work with.

Once everyone was seated and had a character sheet I opened by framing the game. I explained it is a part of our home game and that everyone has a say in what they wish to do tonight. Regular players would get no extra voting power. In fact, I encouraged everyone to consider their own goals and not simply delegate the decision making to regular players! I repeated my two HARD NO rules—no player versus player and no sexual violence—and then summarised the in game situation. Some were taking notes, some soaking it in, and some suffered in their own way. Finally, I said there will be no breaks. Anyone can get up and leave to do whatever they can. Just inform the player next to you to take care of your character. We will play until the last man standing.

As I wrote several times before (see here or article in Fight On! #16), I prefer high-energy, fast-moving games. People came to play in Wilderlands, not sight-see people playing Wilderlands! Therefore I adopted a style that would “activate” every player every in-game turn, discussion, and decision. With large groups delegation and clear, concise instructions are key. Plus, it was already late when we started. I knew player concentration would only diminish as we played.

It was an endurance marathon. And I was about to run it as a sprint.

To begin I divided players in three teams, asked them to discuss intelligence and leads I have shared with them, and decide on which they would like to pursue and why. Alternatively, they were also free to propose an option of their own. Once they decide they must choose one amongst them to present their thoughts to the whole table. I gave them a timer and off we went.

How it started.

The thrill of that moment is something that cannot be described. I love to be challenged as a Judge. Where will they go? What will they decide on? Everything is a possibility! Theo and his team pitch to storm the palace and kill the queen. Other two teams argue for the Windowless Tower full of valuable crystals. One, they are valuable, two, they are light to carry. In less than 10 minutes we had 15 players agree, align, and commit to a specific expedition goal. I cannot stress how important that is for running sandbox games where players have total freedom.

Although I brought along laptop with me, I did not want to power it up. It is small, but it still would be a barrier between players and myself. Everything I needed was in my head. I know map of Barbarian Altanis by heart. I know distances between major spots. I could describe and draw all the directions players could imagine to go into. I referenced my material only when I absolutely had to—which was usually to double check something before wrecking player characters. Key to brutal, no fudge games, is ensuring players are not unfairly butchered. I never killed a player character out of spite or deliberately. I simply create conditions in which players get their characters killed.

During the overland exploration, I made use of the teams to discuss and align on the plans. This ensured we maintain a brisk pace and alignment. This also allowed us to split the party (more like company given their numbers) and cover more terrain. Once the dungeon entrance was located, I advised everyone should enter, simply because deciding to do otherwise would be deciding not to play.

Once they entered the dungeon proper I asked them to draw up marching order. This is a vital piece of information for me, especially given the size of the group. From then on I was rapidly calling out players, asking them to declare and describe their character's actions. It doesn't matter if they are still doing the same thing (“I keep watch,” “I guard the exit,” “I follow behind him”)! What matters is that the brain gets activated, they speak up, and they are involved. This was super important to maintain attention given we were playing past midnight after a full day of gaming.

The shenanigans that went on were beyond belief. But it was exactly the type of Dungeons & Dragons I love to play. Characters exploring dangerous environments. Characters interacting with dangerous stuff, bringing ruin to themselves and others. Characters succeeding despite the odds, emerging victorious.

In action. Photo by Gus.

Just imagine fourteen characters in a large cave, three of them trying to build a human-elf-hobbit pyramid to reach a large bronze bell above them, five of them forcing open large stone double doors, a dwarf peeking down bottomless chasm, other checking some rubble on the other side of the cave. Then one character activates magic mouth which causes a wandering monster to come. I roll a purple worm, which then burst out the cave walls, causes total chaos, characters scrambling all over. In panic and tiredness, one of them pulls the Wand of Fireballs and blasts the worm. But with limited space, fire ball fills the volume and kills half the characters.

What do we do with five players whose characters just died? Kick them out? Absolutely not! The purple worm has a blast hole in it. And it just happened to swallow five adventurers before bursting into the chamber. Keep on playing! Bell went off, roll wandering monster, FIVE FUCKING PURPLE WORMS INCOMING!

“You better run,” I advise the players. They oblige, but run in different directions. The energy of such chaotic game is incredible; something that cannot be captured in any medium. I do not think it can be described in writing, nor recorded on dictaphone, nor video. It has to be lived in the moment; experienced together.

Our hollering attracted people passing by. To be fair, we were playing in the dining hall, so people were coming for food and drinks too. I offered everyone whom approached the table or watched to join us. A simple yes and I'd give them a character sheet. Come join the madness.

Iron Golem of Wishing had me in stitches. I find it incredibly funny—not in a demeaning way—when players decide to give something a go, despite everyone being well aware that something is most likely a trap. I am incredibly grateful to the player who stepped on the copper disk and made his wish. I was in tears, laughing.

Another notable situation was when hobbit and elf detected secret doors high above the floor. They improvised a ladder by hammering in some iron pitons, which the hobbit scaled. He was in a bad spot, with poor balance, leaning backwards, pulling onto something that required force.

“Roll snake eyes on 2d6 to succeed. That is around 2,5% chance to succeed.” I declared.

Whole room erupted as Gus rolled 1 and 1 on his emerald green dice. But why 2 on 2d6? Why didn't I ask for % on d00 or something on d20 or something else? In my mind rules are more than rules. They come with certain aesthetics. OD&D, or more specifically little brown booklets, use primarily d6s. Yes, there are other dice, but d6s are rolled a lot. I know 2d6 distribution almost by heart. 8+ is around 40%, 9+ 30%, 10+ 15%, 11+ 10%, 12+ 3% (not exact probabilities, but rounded well enough for adjudicating in the moment). This was a nearly impossible task, so 12+ sounds good. But 2, i.e. snake eyes, has slightly different flavour and yet the odds are the same. So in a split moment I adjudicate the odds (cca 2,5%), the dice to be rolled (2d6), and target number (2), all congruent with aesthetics and feeling of the game we are playing.

We began with 15 players. One dropped as soon as he joined. Around 1:30 in the morning another 8 dropped due to tiredness and exhaustion. Two more joined. One vanished. Around 2:30 three more left, retreating into their bed chambers. The Final Four Titans played until 3:30 when they recovered great treasure and escaped the dungeon against all odds.

I salute their endurance and congratulate everyone on their success. They have just unleashed terrible artefact into our game. I love it.

The final four in action. Photo by James Knight.

Sunday

It was around 4:30 in the morning by the time I cleaned up the room. Players helped me and then retreated. We congratulated each other on a game well played. I put the reference sheets back into the judge binder. Character sheets were for players to keep—either to play in other games, take home as memorabilia, or both.

I was too pumped to go to sleep. I went for a walk through the gaming rooms upstairs. They were all empty, lights turned off. I lost all my bids. Oh well, at least it wasn't anything that I really desired. But losing for one euro feels funny. Anyway, I had some snacks and something to drink.

It was almost 5:00 in the morning and there was a small group of folk discussing loudly by the Chainmail table. A gentleman was tallying up the scores for best player, best judge, and whatever else was there. I realised I forgot to ask players to fill in any of those. Oops. I had a pleasant conversation about society, technology, belief systems, philosophy of science, and breaking jaws with Prince of Nothing, Oger (I think), and two more gentlemen whose names I unfortunately forgot.

I set my alarm to 7:30 and went to my room. My roommates were in deep sleep. I laid down and slept like a baby. Woke up on time and packed everything up since we were to leave the rooms.

There was an awards ceremony followed by a group photo in the morning. As one of the Judges I was granted access to the Chest of Treasure, from which I had pulled a branded notebook. Once again, the atmosphere was great as we all cheered for the best player, the best Judge, winners of the tournament, so on and so forth. At one moment I wondered “who are these people?!”

Then it hit me how packed the agenda was. I was playing non-stop since I arrived. Virtually the only time I stopped to chat and mingle was Sunday before dawn. It'd be great if the con was extended by one more day, but then again, would I simply play one day longer or actually hang out? I guess I will see next year, because the organisers announced Cauldron 2026 will be from Thursday to Sunday.

Cauldron dice tray and notebook.
FAG cap, a gift from Dreadlord.

I glanced at the character index. 20 were taken last night for the Wilderlands session, leaving around 32 more characters to pick from for the last game. There were only one human fighter and one magic-user left. There were plenty of human clerics, and hobbit fighters. Perfect for the Darkness Beneath Megadungeon session I ran for the final gaming slot. We were back in Linde, squeezing with others. Luckily, table to our left abandoned the room, so we had some extra space to accommodate all ten players that joined.

As before, I framed the game, outlining the goal and boundaries. I was also explicit on ending the session 15 minutes before scheduled ending time so everyone would have time to say goodbyes and do whatever else they need to before leaving the premises. Fascinatingly, no one showed any signs of weariness! I loved that, for this was another high-energy, fast-paced game. Interestingly, this party had the same random encounter as the last party I led through this dungeon, which was for Precognition con earlier this year. Brain rats jumping in river, boarding the coracles, and causing chaos.

By the end of the con 45 player characters from my list of 70 pregenerated characters were used. That is almost 65%! Of those, 19 died, some 40%. Of those, 25% died due to friendly fire. Great numbers.

Blue for characters that were used, red for those that perished.

Summation

An absolute spectacle of convention. Pesa Nexus and volunteers did an amazing job. There is room for improvement, but they are well aware of all the points raised by the attendees and are working on it. And I cannot stress enough how minor these issues are in the light of an awesome convention they ran.

This is the event for people desiring to play old-school Dungeons & Dragons, be it any flavour of the originals from the 70s, or the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Congratulations to organisers for their hard work, great effort, and amazing experience they have provided us. Also, a special call out for young players who were volunteering and playing in between. I was impressed by their skills— they played like pros! The game will survive us just fine.

I hope to see you there next year. You can expect another Wilderlands marathon session, and perhaps even a special romp through the City State of the Invincible Overlord. Fight on!

Until next year!

Cauldron 2025 Posts

All posts for the Cauldron 2025 convention:

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I spent last weekend (October 17–19) playing old-school Dungeons & Dragons at Cauldron, “an OSR Euro Con.” I had an absolute blast of a time, organisers did an amazing job, and players were all great.

In this post I share reports for all games I either ran or played in:

You can read more on my preparation for the con here, and my reflection on the whole con here.

Friday games

Friday Block I Temple of Doom Sidekick: Coliseum of the Lunar Lion

Game Coliseum of the Lunar Lion
System AD&D 1e
Judge Dreadlord
Player Characters 8

Five hours to get in and retrieve a stolen scroll before magical defenses and guards reactivate. Protective systems are driven by lunar power. In total we were eight player characters, myself playing Gorath Zult.

We opened by invading the titular coliseum, where we slaughtered mounted knight and six berserkers shooting at us from elevated platforms. The former provided us with a magic long sword. From there we barreled through room after room with suspicious looking items, frequently interacting with them in disrespectful manner.

Colliseum massacre.

Gorath broke evil statue of a horse, which netted him a ghostly stallion. Not to ride, but to be ridden by. It galloped right through the him. After few more turns of wandering around, our Magic-User cast Locate Object from the scroll, giving us a rough direction to go in.

From then on we constantly pushed in that direction, triggering few traps along the way. One of them was a concave floor that caved in as soon as Gorath stepped on it. Luckily for him, he did so just as he heard trot of a galloping horse—ethereal stallion charged but missed him since he was in a freefall.

Some foul mud elemental came out of water, but ultimately did nothing to our invincible party. We eventually burst into a vile dark chamber where skeletal figure cackles and teleports 6 out of 8 characters. Gorath rushes back, as do others. Skeletal figure is immune to everything but magical weapons, which only Gorath has. A quick decision is made as time tickles.

The cleric grapples vile undead while Gorath beats down on it with a magical sword. Others keep exploring, triggering more traps and mischief. Gorath and cleric take some time do destroy the undead.

In his final moments, Gorath runs after the party, past a horde of undead and into the chamber where thief, ranger, and dwarf fighter have found the scroll. Dwarf turns on the party, Gorath knocks him unconscious, and tries to drag him out, but is slain by an imp.

Friday Block II: The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor

Game The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor
System OD&D
Judge Attronarch
Player Characters 18

A party of eight champions of Law were recruited to exterminate the Temple of Angall beneath the Fortress Badabaskor. Alphabetically: Becuma the Sneaky, Bess Lindenbrook, Fork-Tongued Dragolen, Gisulf the Gray, Iaroslavna, Justin (as Jagastyr), Medr the Silent, and Squeaky Bebba.

Acting on their intelligence, the party traversed miles long cave and tunnel system, until they emerged in a large cavern. After some prodding and exploring they found a hewn corridor, and followed it. Navigating the corridors they found their way down, and followed the stench of death.

This led them to three zombies guarding battered wooden doors. They cut them down with great ease, broke through the doors, and were promptly blasted by a Wand of Cold. No one was sparred given that they were all in the straight corridor. Becuma, Jagastyr, Gisulf, Dragolen, and Bess were immediately frozen to death. Medr the Silent and Squeaky Bebba were beaten to death by an evil cleric inside the room. Iaroslavna broke her glass bead and teleported away, to safety.

TPK intermission.

New Champions of Law were recruited for the same mission, this time ten of them. Iaroslavna was the only returning Hero, providing much needed additional intelligence. Others were Aethelthryth the Cruel, Egil Goldenrod, Erif the Hapless, Gerta Gertasniz, Maranel Shasfana / Touchinglight, Side-Eye Oleg, Sophia Strongarm, Thorvald Godspeaker, and Winniperga.

Armed with Iaroslavna's insight, new party decides to explore the large cave before proceeding deeper into the dungeon. Thus they turn left and follow the cave wall, slowly going upwards. Casting Detect Evil reveals a massive red dragon napping in the gaping mouth of an even bigger dragon. Luckily, the latter is just a stone carving, and not an actual, living and breathing, dragon.

Adventurers freeze in place as the dragon opens it eyes lazily. With some quick thinking, one of the adventurers speaks Orcish, stating that they are nothing but lowly servants here to serve a mighty dragon. Old dragon began coughing violently, claiming to have a really dry throat. His only medicine? Something fatty, like a hobbit or dwarf or pig.

“We shall bring you some pigs!” the adventurers promise as they retreat and follow Iaroslavna's instructions to cut across the cavernous cave and into the hewn corridor.

“A medusa! Or worse!” one of the adventurer's gasps as they find a life-like statue of a dwarf lying on its belly, arms outstretched forward, and head looking behind it, face of mangled terror. With vengeance on their mind, the party descended, turned left, crossed the junction, and stormed the room where their comrades were blasted to death.

Alas! Nothing but shame and horror greeted them! The chamber was completely empty, sans the rotting corpses of adventurers that were slain here month ago. Backtracking to the junction, party decides to follow northern route. Two hundred feet later they experience a joy of losing a character to a pit trap. Undeterred, they moved onwards.

Labyrinthine corridors led them to a junction. Long stairs down were southwards. Dark corridor westwards. Thorvald Godspeaker felt a strong presence of Chaos. This was a foul, foul place. Unsure which route to take, adventurers reasoned that deep evil must be at deep levels. Thus, they went down.

Long descent awarded them with a four way junction. Party elected to explore the east passageway. They went straight for some hundred feet, turned right, and then progressed for another hundred or so feet before they were surprised by a child!

Paranoid and on high alert, they were incredibly suspicious of this little kid appearing in front of them. “Thorvald! Please save us, Thorvald!” the child cried, dropping on her knees. She pleaded and begged, eyes full of tears.

With generous use of ESP and Detect Evil, adventurers surmised that this child was a victim of slavers, captured in the Barbarian Altanis, and taken to the Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor. She knew Thorvald's name because he visited her village months ago.

Champions of Law lived up to their name. They consoled the child, and stormed the chamber behind her. There they found a sad sight best left undescribed. Amongst the remains was another scared child. Maranel and Egil gave up their escape beads and both kids were teleported to safety.

Exploring the chamber revealed a secret sliding doors in the south west corner. Opening them revealed a dark corridor. At the edge of light a young woman stood, asking for help. Once she was Detected as Evil she fled, hissing and laughing, into the darkness. Giving chase, Maranel spotted another secret slider, just to the left. Abandoning the pursuit, adventurers opened the secret doors, seen a three-headed fire-breathing hydra, and promptly closed the doors.

Thorvald did not feel a strong presence of Chaos as before. Therefore, adventurers decided to return upstairs to explore the corridor facing west. This led them to another junction, splitting south and further west. Growling and grunting could be heard from the latter direction.

Brisk fifty feet forward, another pit trap, and a break-in later, the party found themselves facing off against two were-boars and one were-tiger. By all accounts, they just burst in on a heated discussion on how to divide loot. A Charm Person spell later, and boars dismembered the tiger.

Reasoning that gold is better than whatever their victims previously possessed, the adventurers came n possession of Bag of Holding, Mace of Disruption, Bracers of Defence, and Ring of Delusion. Last was taken by Egil, whom immediately began forging megalomaniacal plans.

Were-boars agreed to Egil's plan to raid the Temple of Angall for more treasure and goodly loot, and shared everything they know about what lies further south.

Let it be known that the following were to the south: Priests' Quarters, Sacrificial Room, and Prayer Room. Lycanthropes of course did not know neither the names nor purpose of each room, but from time to time they loitered in each, and were thus able to inform the adventurers broadly about them.

Party decided to follow the Right Hand Path, and thus burst into the Prayer Room. There they surprised six evil Bishops deep in prayer to some weird looking plinths. Without any hesitation they charged the men in prayer, slaying them indiscriminately, Two managed to escape, fleeing south.

There was a copper ring on each plinth. First granted improved saving throws to the wearer. Second sent Egil to eternal slumber. Other adventurers were too busy with pursuit to notice that Egil was down.

Evil Bishops ran south, some eighty or so feet, then turned left and through massive copper doors plated with gold. Adventures chased them through the doors, breaking into the Temple of Angall.

Floor shimmered in white-silver coin—in fact hundreds of thousands of silver pieces were inlaid in the floor—while the ceiling was made of brass with intricate patterns and motifs. A large black diamond dominated the center of the ceiling. Massive altar emanating Chaos Beyond Comprehension rested along the south wall.

Vampires, wraiths, spectres, and flying snakes assaulted the adventurers without mercy. Champions of Law crushed their Beads of Escape, teleporting into safety.

Maranel and Egil were left behind, their fate unknown.

And thus, The Cult of Angall remains a threat to all of Wilderlands.

Saturday games

Saturday Block I: The Blue Mausoleum

Game The Blue Mausoleum
System AD&D 1E
Judge Gabor Lux
Player Characters 8

A party of eight set upon ancient mausoleum worthy of robbing. We marched in cocky, got blasted by skeletal statues by the entrance, Jimmy the Thief figured out we just need to bribe them, and all was good.

Maximus the Hero was neither the strongest, nor the most dexterous, nor the sturdiest, amongst the adventurers, but he had gumption, determination, and courage aplenty. This is his retelling of the expedition.

“Jimmy the Blade and others roped me in in yet another questionable delve. “We have treasure maps!” they said. But all the hey was a piece of parchment with Carnivorous something and another piece of parchment with some sort of riddle or something. Bah! Anyway, there was this mausoleum, supposedly full of riches.”

“So we go to this massive domed thing, and lo and behold, the entrance is guarded by skeletal statues. There is some hundred or so feet of stairs, with a pair of statues every ten or twenty feet. I don't remember exact measures. But I do remember getting zapped by rays from the statues after passing by them!”

“It was Jimmy the Knave who figured out that you have to bribe the statues. Unbelievable—even the dead desire coin! What for?! Like they can use it. Nonsense. Anyway, the bribe worked well and we were able to descend.”

“We exited in a large chamber, some eighty by hundred or so feet—like I don't know why they keep bringing me along! It surely ain't for brawn, for Sir Connor, Brocken, and Gordo all have mightier thews. Nah, they bring me along because I can scribble quick maps. Yeah. Anyway. While everyone was busy running around, I was busy taking notes.”

“This chamber had a number of egresses. Six corridors, two on each wall except the south one. Then a large hole leading some fifty feet down. And of course the entrance we came through. Anyway, the gang decided it'd be best to rappel down the opening.”

“Chamber beneath it was filled with rubble and remnants of broke statues. Why? What for? Fuck me if I know. Jimmy the Mole eventually found some secret doors leading us to series of tight corridors and burial sites. Gray ooze attempted to surprise is, but we exterminated it so quick it didn't even have time to turn around and flee. Anyway, we backtracked to explore a portion of the mausoleum that looked much older.”

“That proved to be a route most great, for we encountered a creature most disgusting and vile. Some sort of abomination, taking the worst from humans, spiders, and caterpillars. Jimmy the Bait did his job proper, and led the monstrosity to us. We gave it a proper beating. Then we looted its foul lair. Heck yea! Adventuring! Treasure! Wealth! Magic! Anyway, we pushed on and explored stairs leading up.”

“This was helpful, for we identified another way to get out from the second level without having to worry about someone or something destroying all our anchors and ropes. Anyway, we returned to that part of the complex with fancier crypts. And then we barely touched them! Fine, fine, we were hyper focused on finding this Carnivorous something something.”

“We eventually stumbled upon totally insane dwarf preoccupied with his collection of garbage. He tried really hard to explain how this were very valuable historical artefacts and items, but all I could see is broken debris arranged in weird ways. Anyway, he tells us the place we are looking for is south west. So we go there.”

“Now, listen to this nonsense. Jimmy the Scout goes up ahead alone and is jumped by a band of morlocks chucking barber spears at him. The gall of the pale inbreeds! In no time the whole clan of degenerates descended upon us. We fell back and assumed superior position. Brother Po chucked a proper fire bomb at them, making them wail and cry in agony. Anyway, I see one huge-ass albino degenerate leading this pack. He took half of the tribe and ran past them and into some corridor.”

“Little did they know I am the best mapper this party ever had. It was immediately obvious that the chieftain had split his force in order to attack us both from front and behind. Ha! Not with Maximus here! I let others finish the burning mass of morlocks, while I charged our rear, ready for the oncoming chieftain and his lackeys. Indeed, they showed up just on time. Anyway, I insult the big albino, and we duke it out.”

“Morlock tribal leader tried to smack me with his large battleaxe. No matter how many people he called to his aid, I crushed them all. In his last moment the chieftain begged, down on his knees. But I have no ear nor sympathy to those who worship Chaos. Thus I beheaded him without any doubts. Anyway, we casually genocided a whole tribe of morlocks, raided their shoddy temple, and escaped the Blue Mausoleum with full backpacks and sacks of coin. What more can one ask for!”

“Oh yes, I sold my maps to another band of adventurers. Hopefully they trip and die so we can loot them for their magic items.”

Saturday Block II: The Setian Vault

Game The Setian Vault
System AD&D 1E
Judge Dreadlord
Player Characters 5

Cattle mutilated and drained of blood. Wands of gold. Children playing in caves. In this adventure I played a Ranger, adventuring with a Paladin, a Fighter, a Magic-User, and a Druid. It was a fun romp through a well designed dungeon.

We began by exploring a long cave tunnel connecting two dungeon entrances. Whilst doing so we were almost surprised by a large snake. Druid quickly cast Speak With Animals (good thinking!) which revealed that this snake was once a human or similar. We convince it we will leave, and then turn on it in the last moment. Poor thing did not stand a chance.

Next we raid its little lair, recovering some useful items. Shiny lichen does not fool us and we find the secret doors leading to an underground water slide. I volunteer to explore it first, because why not. En route downwards I notice there is a cave tunnel and get in there. Others soon join me and we meet an emaciated Druid claiming he has been battling great evil here for long time. Centuries? More? He insists on sucking one of us in return for a magical weapon that can destroy evil fountain which transforms people into snakes. Paladin accepts. He walks away with magical sword +3 versus reptiles and weaker for a level.

The water slide led to a grate beneath which was a crypt. The water pressure was keeping the sarcophagus open. Druid had a brilliant idea that allowed us to proceed. He cast Stone to Mud and loosened the grates just enough that we were able to kick them out. Sarcophagus was well warded and we wisely decided to just leave it alone.

Adjacent room contained some sort of stone guardian we accidentally activated. We fled back in the water room, and then shoot at it while it tried to break in. The thing malfunctioned and fell apart. We followed the stairs leading up, past doors with intricate gears, and into a more regular chamber. It seemed like we just exited some well protected vault. Turns out we backdoored it! Because that is what professional adventurers do!

From then on we crawled through a number of rooms and chambers, exterminating a bunch of child-sized serpent people who spit acid and have mean bite. Eventually we found the columned corridor leading to the fountain. Magic-User saved our bacon by casting Dancing Lights and sending them down the corridor. This fooled a bunch of snake-children waiting in the ambush. Oh boy, were they surprised when we ambushed them and hacked them all down.

Paladin drove the Druid's magical sword straight through the fountain's gaping maw. The whole thing came crashing down. We picked up as much treasure as we could, fled back to the crypt with hexed sarcophagus, and then climbed up to the water slide. Gaunt Druid was where we left him, delighted to hear about our success. He invited the Paladin for one last caress. The sword disappeared, but divine warrior found himself stronger and more experienced than before. The Druid also left behind a chest filled with platinum pieces.

We rocked out of the dungeon filled to the gills with treasure. There would be no more snake-people bothering locals. We were, of course, wrong, but that was now someone else's problem.

Suffering from success.

Saturday Night Block: Conquering the Barbarian Altanis

Game Conquering the Barbarian Altanis
System OD&D
Judge Attronarch
Player Characters 24

This was an amazing marathon session that began around 21:30 and lasted until 03:30. It involved 17 players, 24 player characters, and a number of spectators. Full session report is available here, and behind-the-scenes reflections here.

Photo by Gus.

Sunday game

Sunday Block I: Darkness Beneath Megadungeon

Game Darkness Beneath Megadungeon
System OD&D
Judge Attronarch
Player Characters 10

Four dwarves, namely Duree Fathand, Gottri Smallbaily, Skorri Redgenerous, and Vikram Grimlisson, joined forces with Aldoin Xill, Bresal The Seer, Errras Valholen Pellad / Underflower, Judge Theodohilda, Sann, and Wild Thecla to rescue an adventurer captured by the Cult of Crab-Men. If they were to fail, then their friend would be transformed into an mongrel-like abominable mixture of dwarf and crab. Thus, the ten descended into the Darkness Beneath, and assaulted the Spawning Grounds of the CRAB-MEN!

Navigating the labyrinthine tunnels, the party eventually arrived in an elongated, wet cavern, through which an underground river was running. Adventurers spread out and searched all the cave walls, seeking secret doorways and passages. It was Underflower, the sole elf in the party, ho spotted two arrow slits carved some fifteen feet above the cave floor. Others hadn't found much otherwise.

Bresal cast Levitate and slowly crawled upwards. Then she covered the slits with large sacks. She heard grunts and guttural sounds on the other side, but was otherwise unmolested. Others investigated the crab-shell dugouts, or rather coracles, that were right next to the river bank. Each was large enough to fit at least four adventurers. There was six of them in total, and within each were paddles carved out of crab pincers.

Adventurers came up with a plan. They tied all crab shells with rope, forming a little train. Skorri and Sann boarded the first coracle, Wild Thecla second, Aldoin and one more in third, so on and so forth. The plan was to push in coracle by coracle, ensuring they are relatively evenly spaced.

Disaster struck by the time three coracles were plopped in! Thecla and Skorri spotted a horde of giant rats—with brains exposed in a glass jar screwed on top of their skulls—emerged from the cave on the other side of the river, jumped in the water, and swarmed all three coracles!

Wild Thecla was toppled down, and fought like a savage from her back. She was relentlessly attacked by four dog sized rats. Adventurers shoot at the rats from the river bank, reasoning there is “not great” chance of shooting Thecla in the head.

Aldoin Xill was smashing rats left and right, maintaining balance in his coracle. Beefcakes Skorri and Sann on the other hand, immediately rocked their coracle. Sann, having longer legs and more balance, avoided falling in the river. Skorri lost his footing, tripped, and fell backwards. Sann grabbed him in the last moment. Their coracle tipped over, leaning at almost 45 degrees.

The dwarf was taking large gulps of underground water, while Sann was crouching, leaning backwards, and using all his strength to hold the dwarf above water. It was total chaos.

Judge Theodohilda judged it was the right time to use her Staff of Commanding. She wrestled control of several giant rats and ordered them to chew through others. Frankly, the rats would not be so much of a threat, but given how heavily armoured most adventurers were, there was a real threat of drowning.

Bresal, still levitating, dragged herself along the cave wall. She pushed herself off, levitating above Sann and Skorri. “Here, catch this rope!” The rope landed next to Skorri. And then floated off. “I did all I could!” She levitated off, following the cave wall further down river and then south.

Witness my generosity as I reveal the map. Photo by MK Ultra.

Sann watched onwards, straining all his muscles to hold onto the dwarf. Their coracle bobbed and rocked as the stream accelerated and reached a fork. The river split around an islet upon which a ruined tower stood. They flowed left. Skorri pulled out a dagger and began cutting of the straps of his armour.

Seeing that nothing is going according the plan, other adventures began singing sailor songs. Everyone—those on land and those in coracles—began pulling on the rope right in front of them. Wiser of the crowd took out sacks to minimise hand burns.

Skorri cut off one shoulder strap just in time to avoid smashing into stone debris of broken bridge. At this moment both Sann and Skorri could hear noise of great waterfall. Sann let go off Skorri, holding him now with only one hand, while using the other to hurl grappling hook onto the islet. Alas! He failed to grab onto anything that would act as a solid anchor point.

The dwarf managed to cut off his second strap and belt. He was almost catapulted backwards as Sann pulled him out. The duo laid wet on their backs in the bobbing coracle, heaving from exhaustion. For a moment they slowed down. Then a snap was heard and they were flying mid air, rushing towards a great underground lake.

Those pulling suddenly found it much easier to pull. Wild Thecla pulled forth nothing but snapped rope. First coracle was lost. But there was no time for weeping! Bresal, still levitating, pointed to the tower at the islet. She put to Sleep three disgusting frog-like creatures. Others paddled to the islet and disembarked.

There were two bridges. One to the east was collapsed and unusable. The one to west was intact and doors behind it were broken open. Judge Theodohilda sent forth her brain-rats to investigate. A dozen or so degenerate cave-men laid in ambush, hiding atop the rubble.

Undeterred, adventurers charged in, funneled through a three feet wide corridor. Cave-men attacked with spears from above, but they were no match to the awesomeness of the party. Gottri barreled in like a wrecking ball. Bresal used her Wand of Fear to scare cave-men within clear line of sight. Elf shoot left and right. Duree was chucking her Hammer of Return, bursting heads left and right.

“Clonk! Clonk! Clonk!” cave-men chanted. Indeed, Vikram was faced off by an ogre-sized abomination, a human-shaped crab with massive left pincer and deformed human-like right arm. Creature wielded a magical shortsword. It clacked with its claw and counter charged the dwarf. With more adventurers pouring it, now it was free for all. Total madness and chaos, a swirling mass of twenty combatants.

Bresal scaled the rubble, just in time to spot four giant crabs attempting to enter through south corridor. Luckily, they were so big they had to enter one by one. She aimed her Wand of Fear down the corridor, and forced three to flee. They tore the fourth one apart for it stood in their way.

Sann laid dazed in the coracle. Skorri looked around the lake. He took the paddle out and moved them towards north cave wall. Then he followed it eastwards. He eventually found a landing in the northeast portion of the cavern. There he saw steps carved sideways into the cave wall. On top were four muscled out SPECI-MEN. Huge, bulging muscles, veins as thick as child's arm, tongues hanging out sideways, crazy hairs. Two were sitting on the ledge, while other two were striking body-builder poses.

Skorri, in nothing but loincloth, reciprocated by striking poses of his own. Suddenly one of the SPECI-MEN lunged forward, jumped, and dive bombed into the lake. Others howled and clapped. Sann, recovering his facilities, clapped, as did Skorri. They waved them up. Second SPECI-MAN rushed forward, slipped on the ledge, and fell straight on his head. His neck snapped. SPECI-MAN sat up, dazed, snapped his neck back, and cried out. Those above him cheered him one. Sann offered to rub his feet with some oil. “It will feel good, I promise.” Skorri looked on in confused horror.

Up close, they could see that SPECI-MEN had talons on both hands and feet. Their jaws were thrice the size of normal men. Their teeth were all sharp, like sharks. They blinked and twitched several times per second. Sann tried to rub the feet of injured SPECI-MAN, but even his feet were muscled and veiny. Two SPECI-MEN on the ledge above invited Skorri to join them. Dwarf obliged, and then accepted to do a jump with them. They lifted him like a baby, ran forwards, and then somersaulted forward. What a spectacular jump it was! What form!

Adventuring duo conversed with SPECI-MEN, learning they crave nothing more than LIQUID JOY. They also offered Sann and Skorri to introduce them to the MAKER who can make them bigger, stronger, and faster. And who makes LIQUID JOY! Desiring even bigger muscles, Skorri accepted and was led to a chute in the ground. He jumped down and was never seen again. Sann on the other hand claimed he know people who have LIQUID JOY.

“They are right up that waterfall, where the little island with broken tower is.”

Upon hearing that, the SPECI-MEN entered overexcitement induced frenzy, grabbed Sann and lifted him like a baby, and charged through corridors. They moved left, left, straight,left, through diagonal corridor, burst open double doors, and jumped over the broken bridge. Alas, they slipped a bit, and rammed the bridge ledge with Sann's head. The fighter was now properly concussed and dazed.

Judge Theodohilda, who was standing on intact bridge, noticed the approaching SPECI-MEN. Confused with their demand of LIQUID JOY, she offered them some red wine. They spat it out in disgust. With little left to do, she used her Staff of Commanding to subdue them.

During this time the battle inside the rubble filled antechamber raged on. Wild Thecla drank Potion of Giant Strength and was using cave-men to kill other cave-men. Gottri duelled Crazy Clonk, delivering blow after blow. Alas, at one moment the dwarf lost his footing, and Crazy Clonk punished him greatly for it. Crab-Man grabbed his sword arm with pincer, nearly severing it in the process. Then it pinned the dwarf with its great bulk, and repeatedly stabbed him with his magical shortsword. The dwarf died a brutal death.

But Crazy Clonk was far from over. He dropped his little short sword, and seized Gottri's Flaming Sword. Now that was a proper magical sword! Cave-men cheered, but not for long, for they were summarily exterminated by enraged adventurers. Bresal turned her attention to Clonk, summoned a Sea-Food Chef via Phantasmal Force, which sent the Crab-Man fleeing in terror. Wild Thecla grabbed him, pried open his shell and then ripped him apart.

There was not time to mourn the fallen. Loud chanting sounds could be heard from the south west corridor. Adventurers rushed forth, charging into the temple filled with Crab Cultists. A dwarf was chained to the alter, funnel forced in his mouth, with a naked man dressed in crab shells pouring some foul concoction down his throat.

Aldoin cast Hold Person, elf shot, fighters charged in. Wild Thecla, now armed with hear magical sword +1 as well as Flaming sword, hacked through the cultists with glee. Others did not fall behind too much. It was a sixty second massacre. They freed the dwarf, and fled back to the islet.

“How do we get back?!”

“I have an idea.” Judge Theodohilda said. She commanded that SPECI-MEN jump in the river, ropes tied to them, and swim upstream. They tied coracle to them. SPECI-MEN found this to be great fun. And so did adventurers save one of their dwarven friends, while leaving another to a fate more horrible than death itself.

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Adventurers

Character Race Class Description
Tikatu Human Druid level 3 A dirty little ma with dark and dirty skin, wearing loincloth with no back. “What will be, will be” is his favourite aphorism.
Kho Rimbo Human Magic-User level 3 A knife throwing wizard extraordinaire. Covered in ritual knife scars. Cuts himself whilst casting. Prone to being sarcastic.
Amari Human Ranger level 1 Black hair that shines blue. Scarred like a gladiator.

Longrass 1st, Airday

Tikatu and Kho Rimbo returned to ashen remains of Hara on the first day of last month of Spring. There they parted was with Dalkanarion and Heran Marod who rode forth with large adventuring group to plunder the Windowless Tower.

Kho Rimbo, now a Conjurer, hoped that he would study and learn new spells at Hara's Wizards' Guild. But Tangay was killed and Guild was burned down to the ground. Ambros informed him of powerful, but uncooperative, Wizard going by Old Crus. He lives near Ironburg, a mining thorp upriver.

While Hara was intact this would be a few hour trek upstream. But now it was a three day walk instead.

Kho Rimbo was joined on his quest by pygmy Tikatu and a stalwart Amari. Gods knew he would need any help he could get.

Longrass 2nd, Waterday

The trio followed river Farhills northwards. They reached Dontrap by nightfall, a thorp on little hill. There they found nothing but abandoned and dilapidated houses. Paranoid, they chose the one with least windows and doors to spend the night in.

Moaning woke them up few hours after they went to sleep. Looking out one of their two windows they could see a gaunt, one-armed figure, slowly walking towards their hovel.

Kho Rimbo cast Magic Missile and downed the figure. Then they went back to sleep.

Longrass 3rd, Earthday

Morning investigation revealed that this was merely an old man without one eye and one arm. His garbs indicated he might have been a priest from the nearby ruined temple. Ransacking the temple and its garden resulted in recovering three divine scrolls: Cure Disease, Remove Curse, and Raise Dead. Feeling bad about killing the man, they buried him in the garden. Amari was glaring at Kho Rimbo the whole time. Tikatu was confused. We all die and rot in the end, so what's the difference.

The trio arrived in Ironburg by nightfall. They stayed at the Hog's Head inn. There Kho Rimbo tried to entice the innkeeper to tell him more about the locals and Rall Kyle's rule, Lord Kyle's uncle. Innkeeper was elbowed hard by his wife before he could spill the beans. They did learn Old Crus lives some half an hour east from Ironburg.

Longrass 4th, Fireday

Party visited Crus in the morning. It was an arduous and punishing meeting, as it usually is with old Wizards. Kho Rimbo managed to negotiate Crus's mentorship, but what he had done to do so is best left unwritten. He decided to stay at Ironburg, for he had nearly two months of studying ahead of him. Plus, every day he spent studying is one more day he hadn't had to act on his geas to recover a monster from Woelands. The name itself sent shivers down his spine.

Tikatu and Amari left for Hara. They passed a gang of gnolls hunting game. They arrived in Hara on Longrass 7th, Waterday. What is brewing in the region?

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