I know they call it a con, but that label does not fully do them justice. This is more like a really large club of hundred people, who have gathered to play in a rather intimate atmosphere. The food is home cooked, labour is volunteer-based, we all tend to the venue, we sleep together, and we game together.

In this post I share a bit more about my experience. See this post for reports on games I either played or hosted; and this post for how I prepared.

Arrival

Don't change a winning strategy. Or something like that. I took a night bus to Frankfurt, slept most of the way, arrived in the morning, had a walk, and then boarded a train to Marburg. Shuttle picked me up there and took me to Hofraithe Rosenthal.

I arrived too early to check in to the room, so I went for a walk around the village, returned to have some cake, and contemplated about games to follow. By the time check-in was open, roughly two thirds of participants had arrived. As last year, the first thing I did was make my bed, so I can crash into it after midnight.

Thursday

Since Thursday was also the arrival day, there were only two games, with the first being so called “Temple of Doom Sidekick” block. Regular blocks are four hours, night blocks are, in theory, unlimited, and this one was just three hours.

The first game I played was hosted by EOTB. The table was packed with talented players, pregenerated characters were distributed, and we went to work. EOTB ran a tight game, with quick answers and no-nonsense approach. I loved it. The map was exciting, with verticality, secret doors and passageways, and just enough things to interact with and get into trouble. I expected no less, since he did mention he would use a map from the Twisting Stair zine. As we ran out of time, I asked other players to take their characters outside of the current chamber so I can just grab the treasure, screw traps. Maybe I wasn't clear enough, but most stayed inside. We got the treasure, I triggered all the traps, three characters had died. Great success.

Lunch was lovely. I did my best to avoid snacks and sodas, since I had a game to run. It was great to see so many friends and acquaintances, as well as to meet people whom I had been chatting with over the years via discord and forums.

I hosted my game in the night slot. I like those the most since they are open ended. I was assigned the same room as last time, Linde, but this time they limited it to two games instead of four. Same chunky tables as last time, same immovable pillars. I rearranged the tables to form a large square, with me taking the side by the wall. This left three sides for eleven people to sit relatively comfortably, and up to eight more in the second row.

The module I ran was Halls of Viridian Mist, a megadungeon level I had written for the Jennell Jaquays Memorial Game Jam, published in the Return to Perinthos. Ten players joined, and it was an adrenaline rush from the beginning to the end. I am continuously amazed with how players adapt and adjust to the unfolding situation. In this case within few turns everything goes tits up, and rest of the session is a mad dash for survival. One character is lost to the ghouls, one sacrifices himself so others can flee, and one retires after the adventure, having lost both of their hands.

I don't remember how long it took us, but I think we were done by midnight. I took a walk around the dining hall where Chainmail battles were raging. My good friend Dreadlord was playing, playing to win! Joking aside, it was fascinating to watch, witness Settembrini ruling, and see Sarisa in action.

Friday

Nothing like a good morning game hosted by yours truly! I ran Abattoir of The Impotent Idolater, a location from our Conquering the Barbarian Altanis campaign, now also published in the Beneath the Black Pyramid con zine. We ran the game in the dining room, which was this year used as a game room as well. Last year I had to use it for one of my sessions that attracted 17 people.

That also meant we had to wait until breakfast was over, and that we had to finish a bit before the time, so the room can be prepared for lunch. That was no problem. Eleven players joined, got the main, hook and begun planning. This site depends on the time of day. Once they told me they approach at day, I rolled to determine where are the key monsters. Horrible abomination was determined to be hunting outside, to return in three hours (18 turns).

Players decided not to enter the cave, but fall back, make camp, and observe. I handed them the battle map and asked them to position the horses, their characters, so on and so forth. I gave them a timer of ten minutes—when time runs out is is what it is.

I cannot stress how important the timers are to maintain the pace. Most relevant ideas will surface within first few minutes, everything after that is just spinning the wheels. The timer's main purpose is to allow space for those good ideas to bubble up, and for everyone, or most of the players, to articulate and internalise them.

Of course, the monster returns by trampling the camp, killing men-at-arms, two player characters, and causing mess in general. Players adjust their goal to seeking revenge instead of looking for what they were paid to find.

When I design sites, especially natural ones like caverns and similar, I love playing with elevations and light. They go deep into the cave, constantly down (they have dwarves so I give them lengths, angles, everything). But they never attempt to look beyond their own light. Another thing I often play with are rooms that are mostly empty, and depend on a wandering monster. In this case, the harpies were one of the factions, which are mostly not present because they wander around. But, if they are, then they have a special place or tactic.

Either way, the players pursued the monster, slain it, and then were charmed by the harpies. Well, technically, not charmed yet, but beckoned to come to them, so they can claw and charm them. Just four character make their save, but I leave it up to the beckoned players to control how they attempt to approach their most desired targets.

I have said it before, and I will say it again—player skill at Cauldron is very, very high. The amount of intelligent malicious compliance was just insane. For example, Tamás had their hobbit attempt to gift their sentient sword to the harpy. This is perfectly aligned with the in-game logic—the harpies desire wealth, treasure, and adoration—and adventurer gives his most treasured belonging. But the player knows that grabing sentient swords causes damage to creatures of different alignment. His character is lawful. The harpy is not.

The players work their way out of it, recover the object they were hired to find, and then nearly lose it as another pack of harpies sings to them. Now another player with a sentient sword pulls off a stunning manoeuvre by asking his sword to teleport it right next to the harpy. Teleporation is an insanely dangerous spell, but here, within sight, it was all but guaranteed to work.

We finished on time for lunch, with most of the characters alive.

After having some hearty food, I played in an awesome game hosted by Gabor Lux. He ran three consecutive sessions of the Palace of the Eternal Autocrat, with each group exploring a portion of the complex. We were the second group, with one character from the first group joining us. He brought a map with him. It was useless.

Photo by Gabor Lux.

To clarify, not because of him, but because we decided to step through the above ground teleporter so we get into real action. I already mentioned the player skill. What I want to add is that players at Cauldron are quite proactive as well. They establish their own goals, they pursue them aggressively, and they are not afraid to take risks.

This game was no different in that regards. Gabor's adventuring locations are always a blast to play, and he is such a fun fellow himself. This was an enjoyable romp with an unexpected ending. Ignatius Umlaut, editor of the Fight On! zine, decided to gate us all into none other than Attronarch's Barbarian Altanis! A dozen adventures, loaded with treasure, and a burning desire to live.

Next up was suckling pig and sauerkraut for dinner, followed by a high level adventure by Ignatius himself. This was a continuation of an adventure that he ran for the Hungarians years ago. Apparently, one of the player characters had betrayed them, stolen some artefact, and then teleported away. Now he was rumoured to be a lich.

There was eleven of us, and Ignatius ran a very entertaining game. Night dragons, dark trolls, dinosaurs, it had it fucking all. I recognised the area from the legendary Darkness Beneath megadungeon, but luckily I did not remember the specifics. I was thoroughly impressed with how Ignatius managed all the moving parts, especially since we were in essence doing an underworld wilderness adventure.

During the day a word reached me that Jan, one of the players in our ongoing Wilderlands campaign, is actively lobbying people to stage an assault on the Wizard-King Racoba. He also approached me to check if that is OK, worried for what I had prepared for the session. As usual, I told him, and everyone whom had asked, to decide as they wish. I shall be ready.

Saturday

This was the day. At night slot I would run the Conquering the Barbarian Altanis session in the night slot. Last year I had seventeen people, over the span of six or seven hours. But this year everyone was talking about it. I was unsure how many people would join. Either way, I was committed to run for whatever number of people does show up.

But first I had some games to play in! Keith Sloan ran an awesome game. He had this relaxed style which lulls you in, and then he blasts the whole party with fire trap, slaps you with eight ghouls, and throws you down the pit.

What I especially appreciated it how he crafted the adventuring location. He told us it is a gnoll temple. We are playing AD&D 1e. Gnolls are described as lazy, as using slaves, as worshipping a deity which is also worshipped by ghouls, so on and so forth. By paying attention to cues, based on the knowledge of not just the rules but also the implied setting, we were able to make informed guesses on what to do next. More often than not, our assumptions had proven to be correct. That felt immensely rewarding! Keith gifted us an elegant dice for winning at D&D.

Next game I joined was by Ignatius Umlaut again. In retrospect, I realise I had mostly prioritised Americans—EOTB, Ignatius, and Keith—since they might not attend every year. Ignatius ran another high-level game, and I brought my character from the previous night. We fought and defeated Satan's minions, and won D&D for the second time that day. No really, it was a crazy adventure, go read the report.

Dinner and auction followed. I skipped the latter, opting to go for a walk, drink some tea, and mentally prepare for what is to follow.

Photo by James Knight.

Since our big game was in the dining hall, we had to wait for the for the organisers to complete all the transactions. I already had a whole set-up on my mind, given experience last year, and an experiment I suggested to Ignatius earlier in the day. Players jumped in and helped me arrange everything.

We had 13 tables in total, which was still not enough to have everyone sit by the table. So we had a second row of sitting too. I think we took around 3/5 of the dining hall. Twenty three people sat down to play. Some people later told me they gave up because the game filled up really fast during the sign up. I would have welcomed them!

Photo by James Knight.

Despite size of the set-up, one side was just for me. Not to power trip, but because that way I keep everyone within eyesight, and everyone can see and hear me best. I went around table handing out pregenerated characters, taking down names, and admin detail I need to ran a game at a furious pace.

Once we had that I divided the players into four teams, and asked them to nominate the caller. Table layout works its magic, and we had four teams of nearly identical sizes (6-5-6-6). Two teams gave me a name, while two teams gave me a colour. I guess I need to work on my pronunciation.

With teams and callers in place we were ready to begin! I presented the in-game information, where most of the adventurers currently are (Ironburg), and what intelligence about adventuring sites they have (Castle Yukanthur, Midnight Goddess Hills, Spire of the Divine Grape, The Black Monastery, Tomb of Ochandra the Earthshaker). Then it was up to the teams to discuss which of the options (or alternative) they would like to pursue.

To clarify, I ran this as a usual session of our open-ended sandbox campaign. There would be no teleporting back and forth. Anything is on the table, as long as the majority commits to it. All the options I offered were from the game, and I did my best to present them neutrally. Regular players that joined were free to share information as they see fit.

First round ends up with a draw between the tomb and monastery. Second round ends up with a draw again, but different teams. Some call for a roll. As I throw the dice, one time changes their vote to the monastery.

In less than thirty minutes, twenty three people agreed on where to go, what to do, and with which characters.

From Judging perspective, the Black Monastery was by far the worst out of the available options. Super-complex map with mapper that loves angles, eighty pages of two column 8 pt. font of dense paragraphs, with bad editing and crucial information hidden in all the wrong places (e.g. a four paragraph description of a bedroom, with third to last sentence being that here is an 10HD shadow waiting to ambush those entering; thanks).

I prepared the map on a separate page; this is a challenge for players not me. Keys I printed two pages on a single landscape page, to have four columns at glance. In general, I knew I had time to look them up whenever players ask for discussion time.

I am repeating myself with the player skill, but they did all the right things initially: scout the environment, use magic to fly over and take a look inside the monastery. They hesitated a bit to enter it proper, but once they were in, we started rolling.

Photo by Alex.

It was mostly cautious exploration, with me tormenting the team mappers with my descriptions, sizes, angles, points of reference and similar. A single fire elemental scared off the whole company, and they fled into a tight secret space, triggered a trap, and wiped out half of the characters.

Luckily, I had prepared seventy characters for the con, but now I was running dangerously low. That meant that clerics and hobbits began entering the game en masse. Exploration continued with brisk pace, with me giving specific timings, switching between asking callers and asking everyone what their characters are doing.

This switching is an important attention-resetting technique, because it was already midnight, and a third day of intense gaming. Mind wants to play, but body wants to sleep. So to keep it playing we need to give it something to do.

One thing I noticed was that the attendance was different compared to the last year. Then we had people coming and going as they became too tired, or they lost a character. This time 2/3 of the players had played until the very end!

The pace, and complexity, exploded once Titan of the Black Monastery came to life. It began wrecking the monastery and players. Two things I wish to point out here. OD&D (lbbs) worked brilliantly once more. Since its charts top at 10+ HD, this 20 HD titan still had 25% chance of missing heavily armoured characters. Second, Toby, the youngest player at the table, played with absolute balls of steel, leading the charge on the titan.

“What do you do?” I ask him.

“Charge the titan!” he answers without any hesitation whatsoever.

His character proceeds then to actually deliver the killing blow as well, which causes a spontaneous applause around the table. This raw, genuine, kind energy is absolutely awesome, and part of the Cauldron magic.

Judging-wise, from then on, I basically had to track four different parties. Since characters were all over the place, callers could not help. But players congregated physically, and we were able to rapidly resolve the combat rounds, even when close to two hundred zombies joined the fray.

Photo by Alex.

In this type of game players set their own goals. After their first wipeout, they found the safest place they could, organised around it, worked on questions for the commune spell, asked about the closest treasure hoard, and then just went for it. Once they had it, they went out.

We finished around 02:30 in the morning. Alas, I forgot to take a picture of those who stood until the very end. What I can say, without a trace of doubt, is that every single player contributed, and that every character mattered.

And, of course, I greatly appreciate them opening a portal to the Black Monastery, right next to Ironburg, at the border of the kingdom.

Special call outs go to Toby for his courage; Mike and Jan for enduring and surviving their second Wilderlands big group marathon; to Prince for controlling four (!) characters that others have given him after retreating to bed; and to Dreadlord for opening a portal to the Black Monastery, right next to Ironburg, at the border of the kingdom.

After the game I was too excited to go to sleep, but had to force myself to get to bed around 04:00. I still had one more game to run.

Sunday

Morning was all about awards and celebrations—the best Judge, best players, best tournament team, so on and so forth. It is a great way to wrap up by expressing gratitude to each other.

Since it was the last day, I wanted to run something a bit more light-hearted. Back to Linde, two-table square, eleven players, and Darkness Beneath megadungeon! I gave players the map, last remaining characters (only human clerics, hobbit fighting-men, and elf magic-users), and we went to town with it. They played so well, and we had fun messing with gods and fire balls. Frankly, they were more likely to kill themselves than anything else in the caves.

I don't know how many litres of tea I had drunk, but my throat was still functional enough to speak and say farewells to everyone.

A brief look at the pregenerated characters. 59 (~85%) out of 70 were taken, and 37 (~60%) survived. Not bad. Fighting-men and magic-users were exhausted first, followed by dwarves, elves, and hobbits. Clerics were almost exclusively taken as a second character after the first one die, and in the Sunday game because they were the last human option.

Summation

There is nothing else like Cauldron. If you are want to experience old-school Dungeons & Dragons, with people who love and play the game, then this is the con to visit. Everyone is supportive, open, and inclusive. Awesome people, awesome games.

Next Cauldron will be from October 14th to 17th 2027.

See you there?

Cauldron 2026 posts

All posts for the Cauldron 2026 convention:

• Preparing for the Cauldron 2026
• Cauldron 2026 Game Reports
• Cauldron 2026 Reflections

#Convention #Cauldron #OSR #FightOn

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Below are the reports from all the games I played in and run:

• Thursday Block I Temple of Doom Sidekick: EOTB's Convention Dungeon
• Thursday Block II: Halls of Viridian Mist
• Friday Block I: Abattoir of The Impotent Idolater
• Friday Block II: Palace of the Eternal Autocrat
• Friday Night Block: Sunken Redoubt of the Serpentine Lich
• Saturday Block I: Temple of the Gnoll God
• Saturday Block II: Return to the Storm Giant's Castle
• Saturday Night Block: Conquering the Barbarian Altanis
• Sunday Block I: Darkness Beneath Megadungeon

These reports are strictly focused on what happened in each game. Some are written from the perspective of characters I played so should be treated with scepticism. I share my reflection on the con here, and my preparations here.

Thursday games

Thursday Block I Temple of Doom Sidekick: EOTB's Convention Dungeon

In the first game of the con I ran a well oiled, barely dressed Kalinikos of Athena, a double axe wielding swashbuckler armoured with nothing but bracers of defense and cloak of protection. Adventuring party numbered nine in total, with three straight fighters, one ranger, one assassin, one cleric, one magic-user, one fighter-thief, and one fighter-magic-user. Humans dominated and we had but a single dwarf and an elf.

We begun our adventure with a descent down a long shaft leading into a third level of a sprawling complex. Several statues of warrior women greeted us. Those with nimble fingers explored them, finding little of interest. It did not take us long to find action, or rather for action to find us.

Upon penetrating the sanctity shadows befell us; as did the newly animated statues. They had proven to be most impotent in our presence, and Kalinikos crushed three of them. Our cleric made the shadows flee, weeping and wailing. They left a sticky, dark residue on the doors they fled through. One of us caressed it, and was promptly drained of their strength.

Moving on we encountered a despoiled and beheaded corpse suspended in the air. If it was suposed to be a warning sign or deterrent to discourage us from moving on, then it failed miserably for we touched it, read the plaque hanging around its neck stump, poked it, and ultimately, moved on.

This led us to an irregular chamber. Our superior senses and wicked wonder meant that we managed to ambush the ambushers whom had tried to jump us from beyond the secret doors. We had slain these pathetic mongrel-men in seconds.

Their chamber was completely bereft of anything. This arouse suspicion, for surely they couldn't have just been here all the time. We failed to find secret doors, but speculated there must be something here, perhaps a ceiling trapdoor.

We returned to the main chamber, found a penetrated skull that wanted to scream. Turned out it was head of the beheaded cleric. Moving about we discovered another ceiling trapdoor, went up, surprised more mongrel-men and exterminated them with haste. We kept one alive, but its limited communication ability meant it was of limited use to us. We learned they serve the shadow masters, there is an altar nearby, and yes, there is some treasure.

At this moment we were confident we have ascended into a separate complex, perhaps a small cult area. Thus, we roamed the chambers, removing all threats. One of the rooms had bedrolls and blankets; the floor trapdoor led into the secret chamber we had previously explored.

An octagonal room with a summoning circle and charred walls was just the place we sought. A long corridor, with alcoves every ten feet, joined it. At the end stood a grotesque altar, with statue so foul we knew there must be something there.

Given their infravision, the dwarf and elf could see bars of heat cutting horizontally across the pathway. Our hobbit drank the potion of climbing, crawled up and above the heat bars, and then dropped down. He learned that the statue is trapped, that there is a secret compartment, and that something black is leaking from its eyes. As statue rose to its unlife, he spidered back to us, and we left the chamber to regroup and prepare for this demon.

I chugged the potion of speed, while one of kind souls cast protection from evil. Then we opened the doors, hacked the demon to pieces, and drove its summoned shadows away. Seeing that the treasure was now unprotected, and that I was still lightning fast I called out to others:

“Leave the chamber! I will grab the treasure at once!”

Alas, others merely repositioned themselves within the area, instead of leaving the octagonal chamber and long corridor. I sprinted to the end of the corridor, breaking all three beams. The first one triggered a loud alarm. The second made me weak like a newborn calf. Third one did nothing.

I quickly poured acid on the trap rune, smearing it. Then I pulled the compartment open. Inside were a robe dotted with countless stars, and six magnificent, silvery tubes. As I turned to inform the colleagues of this great find, fireball exploded from within the summoning circle, kill three adventurers, and wounding the rest.

“Why didn't you step outside!” I cried out, whilst recovering treasure. We picked our dead, valuables, and left for the surface. Great success.

Thursday Block II: Halls of Viridian Mist

A party of eleven adventurers tumbled down a gigantic pit trap. They tumbled and rolled, until the landed into a foul pit full of refuse. Green chocking mist burned their eyes and obscured their vision.

In order, they were: Carmea of Tiberon, a human vicar; Cig Akgahnte, a human hero; Dacyniel, an elf hero theurgist; Ira Thorncreek, a hobbit hero; Jaki Wittyleg, a dwarf hero; Lefno Gaithh, a human theurgist; Menar Chigun, a human theurgist; Nacyn, an elf hero theurgist; Trasir Wisestorm, a dwarf hero; Ulla Valmasniz, a dwarf hero; and Zarah the Wicked, a human theurgist.

Rancid mist made everyone gag, and thus with some quick thinking everyone fashioned face covers of cloth. Their eyes were teary; torches and lanterns penetrated barely fifteen feet ahead. Quick-witted Nacyn suggested a marching order where everyone holds onto a rope. That way, even if they cannot see each other, at least then can hold onto the same object.

Milling about, they were confident that the pit was roughly rectangular, natural cavern, some forty by forty feet. Refuse poured downwards, in the south-east direction. A heart-rending, finger-curling, blood-freezing scream cut through the fog. Cig, Ira, Zarah, Trasir, Ulla, and Lefno felt courage and talent leave them in equal measure.

As if that wasn't enough, three ghouls jumped them from above, landing amongst them. Desperate melee ensued, with adventurers screaming in equal measure as the living dead. Zarah succumbed to horrible ghoulish paralysis, right after slaying one. Trasir and Nacyn each disposed of one ghoul as well.

Motivated to move quickly, the party asked Nacyn to take the lead—she was at the front of the rope. Thus, she slid down the foul refuse, then turned left. She could barely see the tunnels ahead, so she chose the one closest to her left. This one led them up, towards the screaming.

In the commotion, paralysed Zarah was left behind in the refuse pit. Unable to move, unable the see; but able to feel, able to think, and able to weep. She felt every claw, every bite, every second the ghouls had feasted on her flesh.

Nacyn followed the right cave wall, but led the adventurers into a dead end! More ghouls ravaged the back rank, but were quickly driven back. Dacyniel, elf who was at the end of the rope now found himself at the front.

“Right, right, follow the right wall!”

Indeed, they tapped the right cave wall, reached another split, and then took the right turn, climbing up. This led them to a portcullis. An attempt to discuss was cut short by intermittent screaming and fleshy footsteps echoing through the cave. Jaki Wittyleg drank the potion of giant strength. Then he held up the grates while others came through.

Stair leading up to their immediate left were enough to make them abandon the “right-hand” strategy. The dwarf tore straight through the doors, then placed them back as the elf cast hold portal on them.

They were now in a proper, hewn chamber. Flagstones were covered with gold pieces strewn all about. Viridian mist was ever present, making exploration rather difficult. By all accounts, the chamber was forty feet long and thirty feet wide. Three wells were lined along the east wall.

These wells perplexed the adventurers to no end. The water was fresh and potable. Whatever they dropped into it vanished at the same depth, at all three wells. They tied a small sack of coins and lowered it. It vanished. They pulled it back up. It was still the same sack, soaked and filled with their coins. Finally, Jaki and Menar dared take a dive. Both were surprised to emerge on the other side, their heads pointing up. They went down and were back up. And then down and back up again!

The whole party agree this is the way forward, so they all took a dive in the same well, emerging into the chamber on the other side. This one was much larger, and of angular geometry that cannot be described. It spanned nearly 6 000 square feet, most of it cloaked with the fog. It too had three wells—one in the south, one in the south-west, and one in the north-west. Doors were to the east, north-east, and north. The last ones were chosen.

Jaki the Doorbasher did his duty once more. Before them was a hundred foot long corridor, of slope noticeable only to the dwarves. The dead end had been seen through as merely a mockery for the inexperienced. Elves quickly found not one, but two secret doors. One leading further north, and one leading east.

Doorbasher took care of the sliding doors. They led to chamber unmolested by the mist. This twenty by twenty room was quite spartan, but comfortable, with a framed bed, and a large desk with attached drawers. Rummaging through the latter revealed 1 000 gold pieces, and a scroll with magic missile, wall of iron, control weather, and lower water. Lefno claimed the scroll.

Jaki proceeded to completely break the secret sliding doors leading north. The corridor split left and forward. Jaki went for the left doors, pulled on them, and a scythe severed both of his hands. The dwarf cried out in pain as others dragged him backwards. They cauterised his stumps, and used cure light wounds to stop the profuse bleeding. Cig and Ira made fun of him.

Six ravenous ghouls charged the adventurers from behind. This time the party was ready, and thus dispatched them within minutes. Doorbasher, tears streaming down his rosy cheeks, was unwilling to abandon hope. Thus, he soldiered on.

Adventurers moved further north, entering an octagonal chamber dominated with a blood stained stone platform attached to chains leading into the ceiling. A massive iron ring was drilled into each corner. A spoked wheel was in the centre of west wall. It feel out when adventurers tried to interact with it. While the dwarves investigated it, Dacyniel levitated upwards and Ira climbed one of the chains. Up and up they went, until they decided to descend sans they fall and die.

“This is the way out, for sure!”

Alas, dwarves had sad news to report—gears that the wheel was connected to were damaged. They could fix them if they had the right tools and materials...

The party continued exploring the corridors. They found another doors, Jaki kicked them and jumped back in time before another scythe took his leg. Dead end.

Portcullis blocked the advance into the cave system. They made a circle—the corridors looped around the octagonal chamber. As they discussed what to do, three minotaurs had charged them. A brutal skirmish broke out, with adventurers squeezed from both the front and the rear.

But they did not give in, and they did not give up. They fought back, tooth and claw. Nacyn leaped upwards, and decapitated one of the horned beasts. Trasir bust the kneecaps of another, while others chopped it to pieces. Cig gutted the last one as Jaki punted it up in the air. Then he Chopped its horns off, and offered them to Jaki as “new and improved hands.”

Adventurers had a choice to make, namely which way now? West-most corridor they said. What a great choice, for the elves had soon detected a secret chamber with an assortment of gears. Dwarves picked up several they thought would fit best.

Whilst dwarves worked on repairing the platform, others watched guard. But this was a horrible spot, with four different ways to approach it. They could hear the ghouls moving around, obscured by the mist.

Nearly two hours later, the dwarves reported they fixed the problem. Exhausted and bloodied, everyone rushed to the platform. Alas, a new problem had appeared. Who will operate the wheel?

“I have levitate. I can get you up, and then fly after you!”

Lefno volunteered. He cast the wall of iron to block off the northern approach, sealing them off. Then they cast invisibility on him. The wheel was heavy to operate, but the theurgist managed it. The platform slowly rose upwards, with a loud clang.

Lefno turned the wheel. And turned the wheel. And turned the wheel. He turned as he heard the wall of iron retract, having now completely smashed through the portcullis. He turned it as he heard the grunts, the retches, and the howls of the dead come closers and closer. He turned as he heard the footsteps all around him. He turned until his friends were safe; he turned until he felt them right behind him; he turned until he could turn no more.

Lefno. Illustrated by Darnok.

Friday games

Friday Block I: Abattoir of The Impotent Idolater

Eleven adventurers had been hired by the loyalists of the Broken Empire to recover the famed regalia of Legio IX. In order, they are: Aegiliel, an elf hero theurgist; Astrid Hunnisdottir, a dwarf hero; Cig Akgahnte, a human hero; Fenna Redbulk, a dwarf hero; Gromonicus, a human hero; Ira Thorncreek, a hobbit hero; Karelia Tolfind, a dwarf hero; Larana Lightstep, a human hero; Mezeth the Uncanny, a human theurgist; Uta Almonger, a human hero; and Vida Pilter, a human vicar.

The party followed the trail into deep in the woods, leading to a cave mouth ninety feet wide and sixty feet tall. Beyond it a large cave stretched further north and south. Broken branches, trampled bushes and leaves, and large, elephantine tracks suggest high traffic.

Adventuring party decided to back off and establish camp several hundred yards away from the cave. They ordered their men-at-arms to find suitable branches to sharpen for the palisades. At the same time they tended to their animals, staking them in the centre of the camp. At the third hour, horrible screams pierced the air. The voices are well known, for they are of their own men.

Battle positions are taken, facing north-west. The ground shakes, the trees scream as they are shattered under the bulk of oncoming monstrosity. It comes at the adventurers, flailing, cackling, and charging. Large, elephant-like body covered with warts, boils, and scabs. Seven deformed horse heads atop long tubular necks, adorned with yellowed square teeth, greasy, lanky long hair, and eyes of pure madness.

Gromonicus the Brave acknowledges no such horrors, as attested by him counter-charging the abomination. He was promptly trampled, but lived. The horror continued its mad charge, reaching Aegiliel. The elf dodges and parried three of the seven heads. Alas, other four bit into him—one into the left shoulder, one onto the collarbone from the right, one bit into the right leg, and one the left foot. The heads pulled all in different directions, ripping the elf apart and showering the survivors with gore and guts.

One of the theurgists cast phantasmal force and created a swarm of mice. The abomination cared not. Mezet cast sleep, and slept Uta, Vida, Gromonicus, Cig, and himself. Others closed in, bravely fighting the monster. Slashing it made them recoil with disgust, as pus and blood oozed from the horror. Gromonicus, now asleep, was put to permanent sleep when it accidentally stomped on his head.

Warhorses were calm as ever, for this was just another day for them. One of the light horses was spooked, but calmed by his master. In the brutal skirmish the abomination lost two of its heads, and fled into the cave. Aynora the Jovial, a human vicar, and Parnasselis, a human vicar, had just arrived, chasing the beast on their warhorses. Alas, the horses refused to enter the cave,

Adventurers slapped the sleeping awake, left the dead to sleep, and rushed towards the cave. They cared little for the standard of Scrituin The Pacifier of Seven Tribes. This was now about vengeance.

They entered the cave, following the trail of blood and suppuration. Into the large cave, and down the one hundred and twenty feet long tunnel; into a humongous cave broken by large columns, making it a labyrinthine experience. The trail continue straight east, but adventurers followed the south cave wall instead, slowing down to a crawl. They are heroes; experienced in the art of war, and thus, they seek tactical advantage.

A horde of giant rats do not surprise them—scrawny, hairy, bottom-feeders fight each other to lick and slurps the trail left behind by the abomination. Laran, thinking on her feet, mixes belladonna with fresh rations, and then chucks them at the critters. They gorge in darkness, as the adventurers continue their pursuit.

The trail leads them down another long tunnel slopping downwards. Astrid, Fenna, and Karelia were well aware of how deep they went, now fifty feet underground.

Weird gargling and choking sounds echoed through the cave. Stumps of broken stalagmites, and crushed bones littered the floor. Heavy stench of cat-piss and avian faeces dominated the air. Moving forth, the abomination came into light. It was sitting down, on all four legs, its dead heads submerged into the fresh-water pond surrounded by decorative stones all around. Remaining heads wept foul tears.

Adventurers cared not for its tears. They charged the monster, and hacked it to pieces. The battle was savage, but no lossess were suffered amongst the brave.

And then song, an angelic choir broke out. Everyone but Cig, Mezet, Karelia, and Fenna were enchanted by it. Wishing to see what wondrous being sings so beautifully, adventurers rose their torches and lanterns.

South cave wall was in fact a twenty foot tall ledge. Three harpies perched there, singing. Mezet cast sleep, putting two of them, and himself down. Parnasselis cast light so he could see them better, having now devoted himself entirely. This revealed that the cave extends further up, with even more harpies hiding in the natural alcoves.

Astrid led a construction effort, making stairways to heaven from iron spikes. Others joined. Cig pretended to be charmed. Fenna was having none of it, and was shooting her crossbow at the single awake harpy that was still here.

Parnasselis now cast speak with animals, and addressed the harpies, wondering how he could serve them best.

“Kill the ugly one! Kill them! Give us the crown! Save us, save us, our knight on the white horse!” cried two harpies hiding at the top. The awake one screeched back at them, but was shot by Fenna.

From now on, it was total madness. Astrid climbed up, grabbed the closest sleeping harpy, and began caressing her beak. Ira stripped naked, took his shield, and then paddled across the pond, climbed up the cave wall, then back down to fetch treasure for the beautiful sleeping angel.

Vida and Aynora bothered the catatonic giant hairy man whom they found in the harpy nest. He was nearly seven feet tall, broad shouldered and wide legged. Dark hairs covered him, sans the shoulders which were covered with moss. His chest was wide open, clawed and gnawed.

“Wake up! Wake up to meet our lord and saviour, the harpies!” Aynora shook the man. Vida healed him, twice, for he was still breathing, despite massive wounds. Ira returns to the sleeping harpy with his magical sword and tries to give it to her. Thus, he wakes her up. Cig executes the harpy caressed by Astrid; the dwarf scalps the harpy and puts it on her head.

“Now I am as pretty as her...” she mutters.

Parnasselis strikes the harpy next to Ira, and commands his staff to coil around her. Ira tries to set her free by attacking the giant snake. Large cave man snaps out of coma, begins grunting and moaning, and immediately grabs Vida with an iron grip. Aynora tries to help and nearly kills Vida in the process.

Cig beheads the constrained harpy. Astrid continues her transformation by severing the harpy's beak and tying it on. In the meantime, two smaller harpies from the above have descended and engaged the only awake one. The bigger harpy had immediately slain one of the smaller one, but then got entangled with the other. Fenna missed most of her shots, as did Karelia. Parnasselis cried out to be noticed. He ran off the edge, and performed front flip backwards, landing into the pond. No attention was given.

Vida smashes the caveman back into the coma, while those uncharmed finally bring the final harpy down. Now back to their senses, the adventurers spend good time searching the nest, rowing through avian refuse, and remains of their victims. An hour or so later, and all they find are three gems, a scroll with read languages, and a map to magical treasure. Three large harpies were adorned with jewellery—bracelets, tiaras, necklaces, rings—worth nearly twenty thousand gold pieces. Most of that was now on Astrid.

They descended and advanced further north, having remembered their original mission. Adventurers soon reached a junction splitting four ways. Vile stench of rot, pus, and body odour emanated forth from the cave to their left. Thousands of coins were strewn all over the cave floor, covered with greasy, thin, strings of dark hair and shredded scabs. Cig braved the horrible conditions and moved in. He soon spotted an intact standard—gold eagle with spread out wings atop twenty foot long redwood pole—in the west-most alcove. He recovered it.

Mezet took the standard, and cast invisibility on himself. It was large and heavy, so he had to use both hands to carry it. Having decided they have enough treasure, as well as the item they came for, the party begun their retreat.

A horde of giant rats were feasting on the abomination's corpse. Some of them looked groggy and ill. Adventurers helped by throwing some rations with belladonna, as before. Then they backtracked west, up the first long tunnel, and accross the large cave.

And then song, an angelic choir broke out. Cig, Astrid, Karelia, and Fenna resisted the call of doom. Others failed. Ira stripped naked once more. Many attempted to climb the columns, which had now been revealed to be twenty to thirty feet tall.

“Don't climb... Just follow...” the harpies sung.

Pissed off Fenna shot the closer one down. Cig attempted to intimidate them by flaunting his cloak made of severed harpies wings. It did not work.

“Teleport me to her. I want to hugh her. Teleport me right next to her.” Larana instructed her sentient sword.

“Uh, Larana, are you sure?” the sword asked back.

“Yes, yes I am.”

“KKRREEEEEEEEE–” the harpy screeched as Larana appeared right next to her and hugged her hard. The floated down, near the cave floor. Soon both Vida and Uta threw themselves there are well, all intent on hugging their desire.

Ira climbed up the column atop which a wounded harpy laid. Then she picked her up, and jumped down, trying to save her. The harpy died, while the hobbit merely suffered some injuries. Aynora cried as she poured a potion of healing down the harpy's throat.

Mezet the Invisible, took out his wand of fear, and blasted everyone piled up on his harpy. Larana, Vida, Fenna, Karelia, and Cig fled the caves at once. Astrid decided she had enough of this malarkey, picked up the standard, and left the cave as well.

Harpy fled, and Ira chased it deeper, into darkness. Parnasselis, Uta, Aynora, and Mezet managed to get out.

Survivors mounted their horses, and left for civilisation to collect their well earned bounty.

Friday Block II: Palace of the Eternal Autocrat

There was a time when I was known as Armon Targ.

A time so distant, and so murky I am not sure if it was a fever dream or reality. Last I remember is an adventure with eleven other men. Pardero, a terran fighting man. Talion, an imperial fighting man. Ugg, and Oog Booga, two cavemen. Zothar, Birakor, and Rashid, all teran magic-users. Valgard, a northman thief. Anthony, an imperial thief. Icarium, a terran thief. And one more, a hoplite servant.

We set out for some island, upon which a ruined palace of forgotten tyrant rested. Wealth. Magic. Power. Adventure. Death. All part of my life back then. I remember us disembarking. We crawled the compound, defiling the giant stone head with stern face. Must have been the tyrant himself. It spoke cryptic non-sense, as those in power usually do.

An impenetrable violet building with onion top dominated the estate. It had six glass eyes. We were unable to penetrate its double bronze doors, no matter how much we tried. Then we found a burly looking one-eyed man tending to scrawny chickens. He was cursed, or something. I do not remember.

I zoned out and followed others. From time to time I commanded my sword, “Scout,” to detect evil or gold. I miss it. It served me well back in the day. We entered some sort of magical swirl and were teleported deep underground.

Disturbing the Autocrat's gardens.

We traversed the corridors with great speed, until we found a staircase leading further down. I remember we refused to take them at the time, opting to explore foul chambers filled with refuse, both organic and inorganic. We were assaulted by nine shambling, bloated, yellow zombies. They were no threat.

This brought us back to the stairs, and its bearded guardian. We fed it gold coins, rations, and bones. I was foolish, and was soon paralysed and sucked in by a transparent mass of acidic goo. My allies saved me. Sometimes I think of them. I do not miss them.

At the bottom was a sizeable chamber with walls of shimmering gold. Twelve mosaic figures holding a candle light were upon them. Seven of them detected as evil, while the rest were good. We moved on, finding several stairs leading up. Then we found some chambers with foodstufs, water, and spices. Around this time I was able to move again.

We opened, I do not remember how but suspect one of our thieves, an iron door with a peeping hole. Before us, far ahead, was a congregation of people dressed in fantastic togas! To this day I do not know who they were, and why there were so deep underground. At that time we believed them to be evil, and in need of extermination.

I led the charge. It was a foolish mistake. We killed few of them in the initial surprise. But we underestimated how many of them there was. I was soon surrounded by their guards and servants, fighting for my life. Their pathetic warriors meant nothing. But then they brought the philosophers. That damn philosophers.

One of them had blown my left leg off. I lamented the loss of that leg for years. If only I knew I would loose much more in the future. But I digress. The situation was dire. My ears were buzzing. Strange men pounded on me, but I somehow parried. Then I asked the Scout to detect if these men were evil.

“No.”

“What do you mean no?!”

I offered that this was merely a misunderstanding, and that we should part ways. The offered to part me with my life instead. Filled with hatred, I quaffed my potion of speed, intent on rapidly crawling towards the philosopher who wounded me, and hacking him to death.

At this moment the entire hall filled with rapidly growing crystalls! This freaked out flamboyant toga men, and they allowed us to leave at once. We fled like curs. I was certain I would die, there and then. But one of the magic-users performed a miracle. He operated me for an hour. The leg was gone, there was nothing to do about that. Now I hobbled on an ill fitted wooden peg. It hurt like hell, but I was alive.

From then on my recollection is even murkier. I remember me hobbling behind others, speaking with my sword and fighting with bow. We explored some cave filled with garbage. A god of beggars roamed there. We fled.

Around that time we discovered a series of chambers where tyrant left another statue of his. It was all fake, just like himself. Nearby we encountered some vile creatures with skeletal arms and bloated bodies. They gazed in my eyes, but I spat in their direction and hobbled back. It is there we found a bowl full of treasure suspended high in the air. Must have been the lair of those two horrors we had dispatched.

Loaded with treasure we sought exit. We took one of the stairs leading up. Then we made all the wrong turns. Or right, depending on how you think about it. There were yellowed, bloated zombies which melted our flesh. Oog Booga fell down a pit trap, landing into the trash lair. I shot at everything that moved. We prevailed. Then we roamed the endless corridors, more desperate with each step.

One of the magic-users, I forget which, in a moment of desperate inspiration, opened a gate towards another dimension. We stepped through without much thought. Surely, wherever he took us would be better than here, in the tomb of this insane tyrant.

There was a time when I was known as Armon Targ.

That was before. When I was a nobody.

But now?

Everybody knows my name in the Barbarian Altanis.

Friday Night Block: Sunken Redoubt of the Serpentine Lich

I played Brother Warby Parker, a lawful good human patriarch with above average wisdom and dexterity. But his truly outstanding feature was exceptional charisma. His vainness was equally exceptional.

“We must slay Tenochli!” Gork of the Flame Lizard, a flame lizard mounted on a giant lizard, hissed. The target was a lizard druid, whom had betrayed them some time ago. They suspected him to be a lich now.

Having spent months in the Underwilds of the Darkness Beneath, I came to accept such characters as everyday occurrence. Many weird souls pass through the Cliff City of Thousand Spears. Either way, the burning lizard and his retinue could surely use my help. And I could use their night dragon to get out. All this darkness has been unhealthy to my tan.

Prior to setting out, I divined what awaits us. We were to go into some sort of fungal forest, dominated with fungal creatures. In my visions I saw fungits, floating spherical fungi with spore eyes on the tentacles; fungents, thirty feet tall walking fungi; mantis men; giant moths flying about; ancient technology; weird bushy people with mystic power; a giant slimefall; and a clearing in the fungi. The latter two felt sinister and dangerous.

We mounted the night dragon, whom then took us from the cliff rim to underwilds, a thirty mile journey crossed in a bat of an eye. We had seen obelisk shrines, triceratops munching on grass, dark trolls roaming about, marauding demihuman gangs, and more. After we landed, the dragon left us with a whistle to summon it when we want to get back home.

How it started.

Our half-elf ranger scouted ahead of us. This allowed us to hide from a dark troll gang, raptor-like dinosaurs, and a pack of wild board. We eventually reached a thick fungi forest, or rather, a jungle, with tall canopies as tall as fifty feet. The dwarf thief climbed the planar shelf-fungus and surveyed the cavern. He reported fungiwalks connecting the canopies. All of us quickly ascended.

As we marched, I quickly bonded with Dave the Demonologist, who seemed like the only serious person. My judgement has once again proven to be correct, as the man was truly a force to be reckoned with. Thus, in my infinite wisdom, I knew that my divine duty was to protect him at all costs.

Slimy brackish water, covered with rotting vegetation, criss-crossed the forest. We spotted a clearing circled by giant toadstools glowing with indigo light. Since these did not match those I had divined, we approached.

“Do you want to be a friend or foe?” little voices asked.

“Friend!” Gork grunted.

Turned out this was a circle of some small faeries whom were terrorised by giant spiders of abominable intelligence. They begged us to help them, with little to offer but their circle—which was enchanted against non-intelligent monsters—and tears. Being lawful and good, we had accepted. That, and we had a faerie knight among us as well. They provided us two of their own to lead the way.

Some hundred and fifty yards of the forest was completely webbed. Dave summoned a fire elemental. Then he sent it to sauté the fungi and giant spiders. Roaring flames and hissing sounds filled the air. It all went quiet after ten minutes. We went in. Four burnt husks, two twitching ones, and three intact spiders. The battle was quickly over. Magic-users blasted them with magic missiles, our warriors crushed them with their magical weapons, and I sent my spiritual hammer to bang them.

We kept one alive to interrogate it. There was little to learn from it, except that there is a necromancer with zombie army south-east from here. I thought we'd let it live but someone blasted it to pieces. Then we recovered treasure from past victims. Faeries threw us a feast, gifted us necklaces of crystallised tears, and complimented my looks repeatedly. We slept well. Magic-users studied their spells, while I prayed for mine.

Onwards we went, across the fungiwalks again. At one moment our scouts spotted a dishevelled man picking fungi down below. I made myself know and hailed the man politely. He seemed fine, so I asked him if it was okay if we came down to speak with him face to face.

The man was Woebegone Kernoble, a druid and former adventurer whom had been living here for who knows how long. His party had been vanquished, and he was the lone survivor. Although slightly unhinged, with my gentle guidance and kind character, I reached out to the man he once was. The druid was a wellspring of intelligence, telling us all about dangerous hundred feet tall fungemoth, the necromancer and zombies and purple worm under his control, the haunted lake, the erratic fungents, the aggressive fungits, and much more. Furthermore, I managed to persuade him to join us and lead the way to the necromancer.

On the way there I was chocked by the vines, we encountered four fungents but pacified them, and passed a slimefall, but not the one from my visions. Eventually we reached a prismatic wall preventing way forward. Magic-users used stoneshape to shape a shallow ditch underneath it. Then they sent wizard eyes to scout. This was the place.

How it ended. Photo by James Knight.

Seventy two fungal-zombies divided into twelve neat columns. Beyond them a smaller cave with evil presence and wall of thorns. Dave cast passwall and we stormed in with righteous rage. My chosen duty was to protect Dave. My sister, the high priestess, copied me, as she usually does, and we fought side by side.

Dave controlled the air elemental, magic-users burned and blasted through the hordes, the warriors charged forth, hacking and crushing everything in their path. A purple worm erupted from the ground, swallowing Gork whole. I remained resolute, next to Dave, obliterating the zombies with my Staff of Striking. I did not care for its limited charged! The magic-users had to be protected at all costs.

This strategy paid of handsomely as the lizard lich appeared, and was promptly elemental-handled by Dave's air. Warriors gutted the purple worm, and chased the traitorous Tenochli. I remained with wizards, cleaning up remaining zombies. The lizard druid lich was soon completely surrounded, locked in deadly struggle with his former allies. He beheaded Gork and the fairy knight. We resurrected the former.

Dave was high up in the air, surrounded by protective sphere. He commanded the air elemental. Others have forced Tenochli against the cave wall and were mercilessly pounding on him. I, on the other hand, was more interested in phylactery, which there were two of, hidden in the wall of thorns.

Tenochli hissed and screamed until he was no more. Phylacteries were indeed beyond the wall of thorns, their inimical evil presence oppressive beyond comprehension. Their please had no effect on me; I crushed both with my staff of striking before they could finish their offer.

Now there was one less evil in the world. But I felt something in the pit of my stomach. Something worse. The Satan returned.

Saturday games

Saturday Block I: Temple of the Gnoll God

In this game I played Amphi of Tiranos, a human swashbuckler, with good armour, some magical throwing axes, and otherwise mundane weapons. This was a straightforward temple raid—get in, find treasure, take treasure, get out. The party numbered seven characters in total.

The temple was set deep in dire hills, infested with gnolls, in a peaceful valley. Temple itself was elevated, and surrounded by man-made canals. After days of observing them, we learned of a secret entrance rarely used. We guessed this must be a backdoor, and thus went that way.

Planning the temple assault.

It was a rather long walk, straight. We noticed that the tunnel was rather well made, potentially of dwarven construction. The dead end was, as we suspected, a secret door. We heard heavy footsteps and grunts on the other side. Breaking through surprised the three gnolls on the other side, and we killed them without mercy.

This was obviously a guard room. We destroyed the halberds and severed the bowstrings. Then we spiked the east doors with halberd tips. Going west I fell straight down a pit and got impaled on some spikes. Not a good showing, I admit.

Bell shaped chamber with a demonic statue was our next challenge.

“Speak your praise to that who should not be named!” it spoke in gurgly gnollish. We took too long to think so we were promptly burned. The statue was surely of their foul god. We continued down the north corridor, passing one doors, and detecting one secret doors with subtle dwarf rune. There we found a dwarven skeleton, rusty knife or spike in its hand.

“Here I carve my last words. The revolt has failed.” one of our dwarven read the runes to us. As we had suspected, this temple must have been built by dwarven slaves.

Moving upstairs we entered another bell shaped room. The walls were covered with frescoes of gnoll shamans performing horrible deeds against men and all those aligned with Law. This time we found concealed elven scripture, a signature and message from an elf slave forced to paint this horrible vista.

Pushing further north, we broke through yet another doors, slaying six more gnolls. This was yet another guard chamber, with four doors in total. Reasoning that we are looking for the temple vault, and that we should keep moving north-west, we chose the north doors.

They led us into a spacious chamber dominated by charnel smell. Our light did not reach the ceiling. But it was sufficient to illuminate a gigantic version of statue we had previously encountered—except this one was much more ghoulish. This foul chamber had six egresses.

We were soon assaulted by eight ghouls. The clerics turned back five of them, while we disposed of the rest, but not before some of us succumbed to their ghastly paralysis. Long stairs led north. South corridor led into a cavernous chamber filled with bones and rotting remains of hundreds of poor souls. We failed to penetrate the doors to the east, them being barred from the other side.

Returning to the gnoll god chamber, we opted for the north-east passage. We found another secret dwarf chamber, with a list of names, avoided a pit trap, and then forced our way in what could best be described as a study of mad man. Or rather, mad ghoul. Hamish Westberry was a sage specialised in the antiquarian imperial vases.

Apparently he spent years, or decades, in this very room, never leaving it. He was absolutely useless. We had little choice but to terminate his research once for all. He was tough, but we were tougher, and thus walked away with a tiara, some gems, two thousand gold pieces, and two returning throwing daggers.

We backtracked to the second guard chamber, explored beyond the west doors, but found they just loop back to the corridor between the statue and corpse chambers. Therefore, we decided to take the long stairs.

Fascinatingly, mid-way up we found a secret doors on the east wall. We entered into a rectangular chamber covered with dust. Faded frescoes of demonic figures adorned the walls. Going north, we found a square chamber with most curious features. Walls were painted red with yellow runes and scripts scrawled all over. A yellow statue stood opposite us. it had two red rubies for its eyes.

Of course it animated and started blasting us. I stepped in and chucked my magical throwing axes. Magic-users and clerics cast dispel magic on it, shutting it down for some rounds. But the combat was just heating up. Doors to the sides swung open, and eight horrible creatures poured in. I knew them well. Large, tough, wicked. The thouls were here.

I focused on the statue, smashing it. Desperate melee ensued, as we dropped, one by one, to the thoul paralysis. But paladin stood steadfast, with his ring that granted him immunity. We ultimately stood victorious.

Beelining for the vault.

There was some minor treasure here and in the adjoining chambers. Our superior adventuring instincts were proven correct once more as we detected secret doors leading deeper west.

Beyond was a funnel shaped chamber filled with broken pottery. One of the magic-users fixated on it, ending up confused. There was but a single way forward in the shape of a single slab of ivory. This led us into a toroid corridor with five secret doors. Three were on the outer side, at north, west, and south. Two were on the inner side, namely north and south.

South doors led into a domed chamber some thirty feet in diameter. The insides looked like a grey matter. It felt evil as fuck. We shut the doors.

West doors led into a hemispherical chamber, seventy feet in diameter. A ball of darkness engulfed most of the chamber, roughly sixty feet in diameter. We throw some coins, and heard them rolling. Dispelling magic revealed a lantern on a pedestal, and four large shadow mastiffs chained to it. They began barking and wailing. The darkness returned. We left.

South doors led us into trouble, as five spectres came at us once we opened them. The smallest of three chambers. just twenty feet in diameter. The clerics turned them, but the bastards fled into the central chamber instead.

Going all in, we followed, forcing the secret doors on the inner rim. We faced off a spectre so grim others cried at its feet. One of our magic-users used the Wand of Wonder. The spectre commanded the lesser ones to vacate the chamber. It took us few seconds to realise that our ally and our enemy have switched bodies! We jumped the magic-user and hog-tied him well.

Our plunder was impressive ninety thousand gold pieces, eleven gems of great worth, two potions, a cloak, and a bag of holding that came in most handy. We left the complex without anyone noticing us at all.

Saturday Block II: Return to the Storm Giant's Castle

I continued with Brother Warby Parker, having escaped the Darkness Beneath and now travelled all they way up to the Storm Giant's Castle.

It had been yeas, if not decades, since I saved the baby Squall from Satan. He was kidnapped, taken into the clouds beneath his parents' castle, and presented as a moral dilemma to the orange dragon Bangalore.

Baby Squall was now a young adult Tempest. His parents were gone, and he established a silk operation on the clouds. Somehow, the Satan has returned. Or so he believe, for he was plagued with infernal visions. He offered us a harp worth one million gold pieces should we be able to check what is going on beneath and resolve the issue. After all, he worried greatly about his pigsy servants. We accepted, and were served a feast of 30 000 quail eggs. This made us bloaty enough to walk on the clouds.

Like before, I divined to learn more about the threats below us. My sister, the copy-cat she is, communed instead. We learned that there was a whirlwind of lava sent from Hell, that there are cloud people and static monsters (which I had remembered from before, but was good to have divine confirmation nonetheless), and that there would indee be major and minor devils.

From the God we learned that they are immune to fire, not so much to lightning and cold, and that most are immune to paralysation. We also learned that they are not expecting us, that solution to the problem is at the bottom of the clouds, that there are potential allies down there, and that Satan himself is not in the cloud.

I checked Tempest and the castle, just to make sure neither were penetrated by evil. Everyone and everything checked out, and we descended down to the first level.

The first level was still friendly, with servants tending the silk farms. We got mundane equipment we needed, and then we rappelled down to the second level.

The second level, like all other levels to be fair, was a series of cloudy chambers. We discovered a cloud full of balloon people freely floating around. Since they were evil we begun popping them. Our gnome scout punctured a green one, who explored and billowed out chlorine gas. That did not feel great. We blasted them all, and then seized several wands of lightning they used to fight back.

Bursting the cloud men. Photo by James Knight.

At this moment I wish to mention that I was mostly hanging out with Dave, whom I had met in the Underwilds. Our party of ten was led by a spectacular duo of most capable paladin and a ranger. There were several powerful wizard, a hyper-muscular Mr. T. And there was a gnome.

The Muscle Man recovered a twelve feet long sword—which turned out to be a sword of dancing! He was the only one strong enough to carry it around.

Third level was filled with blinding light. We rubbed some of the holy water provided by Tempest into our eyes. God protects. Eventually we stumbled upon a Ki-rin trapped in an energy web. A bald hobo in a lotus position hovered above it. He offered to release the mythical animal if we answer three riddles.

Our combined intelligence and wisdom were too much for him, and we got them all. (Although we had to use augury to increase our odds of answering the last one.) Answers, in order, were: Lucifer, death, and wind and fire. Hovering hobo attached himself to out paladin, hovering over his shoulders at all times. He kept reciting poetry, forevermore.

Square cloudhole led into the fourth level. And what a level it was! A large driving circuit, going all around, with two bridges cutting across. A fiery whirlwind of roaring flames in the centre, spewing horrible evil.

We found the problem.

And we were about to solve it.

The infernal circuit.

Magic-users, including Dave, mounted the Ki-rin and flew down. At the far edge of the race track was a biker gang made up of fallen sylphs—The Stratoside Girls—revving their motorcycles. They were covered in tattoos, and leather jackets were their only clothing articles. An infernal succubus led them.

Our magic-users failed to surprise them, and were soon driven back up. The gang begun driving around the track, mocking us, blasting their wands. Ki-rin was quick and resistant enough to carry our people back up. We revised our plan.

Mr. T held two ropes with, we rappelled down. Magic-users came down on ki-rin once more, casting ice storm and confusion. They froze several portions of the track, sending many of the biker sylphs to their doom. The confusion added to the chaos.

But the party was just about to get heated.

Three horrible storm devils emerged from the fiery vortex—blue skinned, with violet claws and ridges. We hit them with everything we had. Meteor swarms, a phantasmal dragon, fireballs, magic missiles, wands, you name it. Since I could neither fly, nor had any means of ranged combat, I limited myself to smashing an errant biker sylph here and there.

Just as we thought that we are about to win, clouds parted! The succubus gang leader returned with her boyfriend, the Archdevil Beelzebub! And he brought his two servants, true pit fiends!

I ran along the track as my allies pounded on the storm devils, vanquishing them one by one. I ran to the edge of the track; I stood there and smashed my Staff of Striking into the clouds. Then I grabbed my mithril cross with both hands, rose it high above my head and roared:

“I EXORCIZE YOU, EVERY UNCLEAN SPIRIT, EVERY POWER OF DARKNESS, EVERY INCURSION OF THE INFERNAL ENEMY, EVERY DIABOLICAL LEGION, COHORT, AND FACTION, IN THE NAME AND POWER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!!! BE UPROOTED AND PUT TO FLIGHT FROM THE CHURCH OF GOD, FROM SOULS CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD AND REDEEMED BY THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF THE DIVINE LAMB!!!”

Pit fiends shrieked and shrunk as divine light bathed the infernal race track. Beelzebub thundered with impotent rage as my allies wished for his magic resistance to wear off. I chanted divine words as my allies pounded Beelzebub like there is no tomorrow. When he begun to beg, they poured a giant flask of holy water all over him. I am happy to say they refused his gifts, and threw him back into Hell, where he belongs.

We saved Tempest once more. But what is it about him that attracts Satan so much, I wondered? Perhaps I will be needed here once more... But for now, let's go for another batch of quail eggs.

Saturday Night Block: Conquering the Barbarian Altanis

38 characters, 23 players, 17 deaths, 5 hours, and one titan. Full session report here.

Photo by Alex.

Sunday game

Sunday Block I: Darkness Beneath Megadungeon

Troglodytes have been raiding the hobbit villages in the region, capturing many of them. Alas, all suffered a horrible fate as a trogsnack. A party of eleven gathered to stop it once and for all. They were, in order: Astrid Hunnisdottir, a dwarf hero; Aurus of Nolostas, a human vicar; Aynora the Jovial, a human vicar; Dora Tallhand, a hobbit hero; Eiduariniel, an elf hero theurgist; Fyluiniel, an elf hero theurgist; Ganny Farrow, a hobbit hero; Hora Ironpan, a hobbit hero; Medor, an elf hero theurgist; Noluis the Ogre, a human vicar; and Ramdan Phillova the Furtive, a human vicar.

Adventurers descended with a singular mission: exterminate the troglodytes and eliminate their king. Well aware of their horrible stench, most drenched rags into wine and then tied them around their face. Astrid soaked hers with holy water instead.

The large cave they entered reeked of death and troglodyte stench. Several wood and metal poles were planted all along the western wall, adorned with human, dwarf, hobbit, and elf skulls. There were also giant crabshell segments, half-rotten lizard maws, and various animal parts.

They took the south tunnel leading west, bypassed a pit rap, and then slain three trog in the guard outpost. The commotion attracted a giant iguana with not eyes. It slithered its tongue and charged towards the tastiest adventurer, notably Noluis. They disposed of it too. Searching its chamber revealed little of value, besides a filthy potion and fifty feet of hemp rope in one of the foul sacks.

Spreading out, the party explored several of the tunnels, indecisive where to go next. Eiduariniel used the opportunity to fire ball a large cave with a chasm in it. The cave thundered and, booming sound echoed throughout. Suddenly the floor began shaking, and everyone bravely fled into the blasted chamber.

There, at the bottom of the chasm, they spotted a shiny arm bracelet. Medor fetched it and put it on. The bracelet was in essence two rings—iron on the inside, gold on the outside. Iron ring fused to Medor's arms. He felt great.

South of the blasted chamber was cave with a pyramid made of skulls. It burst as a mounted troglodyte knight charged on a giant iguana. Hora and Dora braced their spears at the opposite side of the chasm. Giant iguana leaped over, and landed right atop their spears, dying on the spot. The knight was sent flying, dying as well. Eiduariniel blasted the skull cave, eliminating a dozen or so trogs charging.

A pack of angry, armoured badgers, attacked from the west tunnel, tearing into adventurers. Ramdan cast speak with animals and tried to reason, but the badgers were super grumpy. Most of the time they just went “badger badger badger badger” whilst badgering Noluis. Cleric took the pounding, was force fed potions, nearly got sick from that, but the badgers were eventually driven back via violence and magic.

As expected, there was little left in those caves after the fire ball treatment. The cave furthest south was most interesting. Smoky white quartz dominated, in essence making it a crystalline cavern. Astrid kicked over a bowl of crystal filled with rank water. In the future the cave could be mined, but at the moment there was little value in it.

Fyluiniel used her wand to detect enemies. There was still work to do!

Party went deeper into the caves, exploring many tunnels. Some lead to an underground lake, some to a sun-bathed cave, some deeper yet, and some, most interestingly, into a large cave with a sinkhole guarded by two giant iguanas chained to the wall.

They stuffed belladonna into rations and offered them to the lizards, which gulped them without much thought. They were soon no more. Adventurers ties ropes on the iron rings, and rappelled down.

More tunnels, more troglodytes, albeit of sneaky nature. Three assassins attempted to jump the adventurers, but were massacred in no time.

Terrible cacophony of a primitive single string document and guttural high-pitched screaming echoed. Peeking around the corner adventurers had a sight to behold.

A large cavern with a forty feet wide and twenty feet long chasm, surrounded by a tribe of troglodytes in supplication. Adventurers were on the south side; on this side of the chasm were deformed lizardmen with painted scales and dressed in tattered robes. Opposite was an orchestra of seven trogs playing something. And from the chasm something bubbled, like a rising bread.

Eiduariniel started blasting fire balls left and right. Medor created an illusion of purple worm bursting through the chasm. Total pandemonium ensued, with numerous trogs perishing in flames. Some of the survivors threw themselves into the chasm, others burned screaming. Troglodyte knights lost control of their giant iguana mounts.

Adventurers stood victorious, amidst charred remains of their enemies.

The ground quaked as colossal Gibbering Fungus God grew out of the chasm. Imagine thirty feet long and twenty feet wide mushroom stalk that reach fifty feet upwards. Eiduariniel continued blasting, sizzling the stalk.

“Come child. Come. Let me feed you. Feast upon my flesh.”

The elf was converted. He sprinted to the edge of the chasm, took a leap of faith, and landed upon the massive stalk. He begun stuffing his mouth with delicious, delicious fungi.

Others spread out in the chamber, scrambling to save their friend. Alas, they too felt the call of the Fungus God. Astrid cut across the chamber, following a long tunnel leading east. Aurus followed. Noluis grabbed one of the crazed fungi-eaters into a headlock, saving them. Aynora hooked Eiduariniel and pulled him back.

The elf wept like a baby once he was out of the warm embrace of the Gibbering Fungus God. Having suffered a lot of damage, the stalk quivered and quaked. It begun to descend into the chasm. Fyluiniel rushed forth and jumped, landing quite deep. She began stuffing her mouth full. Dora chugged the potion of giant strength, crawled along the stalk on all fours, grabbed the elf and threw her over her shoulder like she was a little child, and then quickly climbed up before the God disappeared into the chasm.

Some were traumatised; like being birthed into cold, uncaring world. No more kind warmth of the fungus. Regardless, the party reconvened just before a cavern filled with decorative stones. They could see a four armed troglodyte frolicking on a throne made of bone and sinew.

It is difficult to put in words how much they overkilled him. From phantasmal forces conjuring flying helicopters dropping napalm to hitting him with absolutely everything available to adventures. The king and his retinue were eradicated in less time that it took them to reach it.

They plundered his lair and left for good, to celebrate their great victory.

Little did they know that the Cult of Gibbering Fungus God remained intact...

Cauldron 2026 posts

All posts for the Cauldron 2026 convention:

• Preparing for the Cauldron 2026
• Cauldron 2026 Game Reports
• Cauldron 2026 Reflections

#Convention #Cauldron #OSR #FightOn

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Next Wednesday I will be taking a night bus to Frankfurt, Germany to attend Cauldron, “an OSR Euro Con.” This year the con will run four days, with packed schedule: old-school games, Chainmail competition, AD&D tournament, you name it.

I will be running four OD&D games using little brown books only:

• Thursday Block II Halls of Viridian Mist: You fell down the pit trap. Now you are rolling in a pile of refuse while green mist is making you gag. Will you get out alive? Or will you feed what lurks beyond the haze?
• Friday Block I Abattoir of The Impotent Idolater: The Golden Eagle has gone missing. Gore-ladden trail leads to the cave deep in the woods. Tales of monstrous abominations run amok. Will you be the ones rescuing this holy regalia from the den of evil?
• Saturday Night Block Conquering the Barbarian Altanis: Do you dare leave your mark in the Barbarian Altanis? Will you feed the insatiable hunger of antediluvian ruins? Session 197 of our ongoing campaign.
• Sunday Block I The Darkness Beneath Megadungeon: Can you survive the Warrens of the Troglodytes?

Below are my thoughts and reflections on preparing for the con. They build on my previous preparations.

Selecting adventures to run

Since I knew this would be an incredibly busy year for me, I planned in advance. Three of four sessions would use adventures, while the campaign session would be emergent. Last one, technically, demands a lot of preparation, but all of it is done in weekly increments so it spreads out.

I authored two out of three adventure I will run, so that minimised the time investment as well. First, Halls of Viridian Mist, is a Jaquays tribute dungeon. It features many twists, turns, secrets behind secrets, factions, and more. I ran this twice, and it was a howling success both times. Players will be pressured to think and act quickly, for viridian mist is ever hungry.

Abattoir of The Impotent Idolater is based on an adventure site from our very own campaign. It left such a mark on the players they deemed it worthy of Wilderlands Hall of Fame and commissioned legendary Stephen Poag to illustrate The Abomination which gave them nightmares. Players will have to be both careful and daring, or else risk suffering horrible fates.

My good friend Mitch Hyde encouraged me over the years to write it down. I finally did, and it will be published in the con exclusive zine Beneath the Black Pyramid. Andrew Walter did an absolutely amazing illustration for it, capturing the vile atmosphere down to a v.

Warrens of the Troglodytes is one of the levels of the legendary, community-driven Darkness Beneath Megadungeon. If you think Tucker's Kobolds were bad, wait until you experience the Attronarch's Trogs. Hero level characters, first level dungeon, maximum level threat. Also, the chief editor of Fight On! zine will be at the con as well, available to answer questions about the megadungeon.

Last year Conquering the Barbarian Altanis session attracted 17 players, and lasted well into the night, going for some six hours or so. It was both the largest and longest game of the con, albeit unplanned. Everything that happened then impact the campaign world, leaving a lasting mark. This year will be no different. The session is open to anyone willing to endure the savagery of the Barbarian Altanis. Expedition plan will be decided on the spot, by the players who attend. Several of our regular players will be there, but everyone gets a vote. Players can expect total freedom and opportunity to leave a lasting impression on an ongoing campaign.

Preparing supporting material

Due to how I run the game, I just need a battle-mat, markers, wiping cloth, and dice. Players bring their own dice. As I wrote before, I find OD&D just perfect for con games:

One of the reasons I prefer running OD&D at cons is because of how lean and fast it is. It is mostly rolling d6s and d20s, options and spells are limited (just compare Cleric spell lists in Men & Magic to the one in Greyhawk), there are only three classes, and contains only the most essential procedures for running underworld and wilderness adventures. Perfect!

Since reference materials are re-usable, I simply printed what I had prepared last year:

• Judge reference sheets
• Cleric and Magic-User spell references
• character overview
• 80 character sheets

An attentive, eagle-eyed reader might notice that characters have suspiciously similar attribute scores to those from the last year. Indeed, I just changed the names and few optical elements. Creating new characters is the most time consuming activity, so I re-purposed as much of the work that I could. Also, I wonder how many will make it to the end of the con this year...

Choosing games to join

When I learned the con would be four days I rejoiced, because I thought it'd be easier to join all the games I wanted to partake in. Oh, how wrong I was. The agenda is absolutely packed with great sessions. Games offered span OD&D, AD&D, retroclones, Chainmail, and naval battles.

On Thursday I plan to join EOTB's Convention Dungeon's; after that I will run Halls of Viridian Mist until everyone dies or escapes. On Friday morning, after a hearty breakfast, I will run Abattoir of The Impotent Idolater, and then spend rest of the day playing. I am eyeing Palace of the Eternal Autocrat with Gabor Lux, THALANÛR: Against the Pale Citadel with Dreadlord, Sunken Redoubt of the Serpentine Lich with Ignatius Umlaut, and Army of Madness with Settembrini.

Next day I plan to join Temple of the Gnoll God with Keith Sloan, and Return to the Storm Giant's Castle with Ignatius Umlaut. The latter will surely be a blast, for it is an unofficial sequel to one of the worst Judges Guild adventures. I will finish Saturday by running the Conquering the Barbarian Altanis night session. I am curious to see where the players take it! There is only one slot on Sunday, and as usual, I will run a Darkness Beneath Megadungeon level.

Looking forward to next week. Let me know if you are attending, and come say hi even if we don't play together.

#Convention #Cauldron #OSR #FightOn

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Massive issue counting 164 pages (!)—twelve pages more than the titanic third issue—featuring adventures, monsters, classes, artwork, and essays from over thirty contributors. Scroll down for full table of contents.

I contributed 7 Contrarian Practices for Running Online Games essay, outlining practices from our long-running sandbox game. This is a continuation of the 21 Lessons Learned After Running 100 Sessions essay published in the previous issue, which resonated with many readers. Several wrote to me and asked if I could write more about how we play online.

Bigger than a bull baluchitherium barreling through Bucklebury, Fight On! is BACK! Writers and artists old and new proudly present a whopping 166 PAGES of men, magic, monsters, treasures, underworlds, and wilderness adventures for your dreamworld delectation! It’s never been a better day to Fight On!

Discerning dungeoneers and daring dilettantes alike will be DAZZLED with articles, adventures, and art by Toren Atkinson, Attronarch, Zhu Baijee, Rick Base, J. Blasso-Gieseke, Calithena, Paul Carrick, Dr. John Cichowski, Jasmine Collins, Geoffrey O. Dale, Patrick Farley, Graphite Prime, Idle Doodler, Kelvin Green, Allan Grohe, Philipp H., Dave Hargrave, Cameron Hawkey, Kesher, Gabor Lux, Ripley Matthews, James Maliszewski, James Mishler, Michael Mornard, Peter Mullen, Prince of Nothing, Steve Queen, Glenn Robinson, DeWayne Rogers, Frank Scacalossi, Daniel Scherrey, Robert Scudder, Settembrini, Dan Sousa, Oakes Spalding, Anthony Stiller, Paul Swanlund, Del Teigeler, Andrew Walter, Bill Webb, Jennifer Weigel, Alex Zisch, and many more! Don’t delay – score your copy today!

Here is the table of contents:

Back issues are available via DTRPG and Lulu.

#News #OSR #FightOn

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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:

• Attronarch: Preparing for the Cauldron 2025; Cauldron 2025 Game Reports; and Cauldron 2025 Reflections
• Dreadlord: Cauldron Convention 2025 Play Report- Part 1: Blood on the Sand (and Grass?)
• Ludic Ghoul: Cauldron Con 2025 AAR
• Der Oger: Cauldron 2025
• Ghoultunnel: Cauldron Con 2025 (battle report)
• B/X Blackrazor: Cauldron 2025; Let Slip The Dogs Of War (Part I); Let Slip The Dogs Of War (Part II); and Let Slip The Dogs Of War (Part III)
• Prince of Nothing: Cauldron Con III After Action Report
• Terrible Sorcery: Cauldron Con AAR: Day 1 , and Cauldron Con AAR: Day 2

#Convention #Cauldron #OSR #FightOn

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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:

• Preparing for the Cauldron 2025
• Cauldron 2025 Game Reports
• Cauldron 2025 Reflections

#Convention #Cauldron #OSR #FightOn

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

• Friday Block I Temple of Doom Sidekick: Coliseum of the Lunar Lion
• Friday Block II: The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor
• Saturday Block I: The Blue Mausoleum
• Saturday Block II: The Setian Vault
• Saturday Night Block: Conquering the Barbarian Altanis
• Sunday Block I: Darkness Beneath Megadungeon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Cauldron 2025 Posts

All posts for the Cauldron 2025 convention:

• Preparing for the Cauldron 2025
• Cauldron 2025 Game Reports
• Cauldron 2025 Reflections

#Convention #Cauldron #OSR #FightOn

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Coming Friday I will be in Germany, playing and running some old-school Dungeons & Dragons at Cauldron, “an OSR Euro Con.” The con will run for three days, and has agenda absolutely packed with great games.

I will be running three OD&D games using little brown books only:

• Friday Block II The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor
• Saturday Night Block Conquering the Barbarian Altanis
• Sunday Block I The Darkness Beneath Megadungeon

In preparation I have organised a Judge binder with player reference sheets, adventure notes, pregenerated characters, and player handouts. A bit more on the process below.

Selecting adventures to run

I prefer bold, energetic, and fast play, especially so at in-person conventions. Likewise, I am committed to run a game for any number of players that show up. One? We'll have one-to-one, with single player running a whole party. Twenty? Everybody gets a character and I switch gears to use procedures that are quicker to ensure underworld exploration and combat run smooth.

Following the above, I enjoy playing challenging adventures. Likewise, as a Judge I enjoy running adventures that offer challenge. On Friday night I will run The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor, an old Judges Guild classic. Completely unbalanced, surprising enemies in surprising places, and tough as nails but ultimately fair. Some have asked me how do I plan to complete it in allotted time (four hours, but since it is a night slot we can keep on playing until we fall asleep). The answer lies in the opening and where the party will be entering from. And that I will share during the game. Players should expect total violence and merciless carnage.

On the following day I will run a session of our ongoing Conquering the Barbarian Altanis Wilderlands campaign. Four players from our campaign will be attending the con as well, and this will be first time we play in person together. Of course, this session will be open to everyone willing to subject themselves to the savagery of the Barbarian Altanis. Exact focus of the session will be decided on the spot, but it largely depends on what happens in our campaign before the con. I do have two very challenging—and relatively obscure—adventure modules ready just in case. Players can expect total freedom and opportunity to leave a lasting impression on an ongoing campaign.

Finally, on Sunday I will run one of the levels from the community-driven Darkness Beneath Megadungeon. This will be an adrenaline fueled race against time, in a hostile environment that is scarier and meaner than the monsters themselves. Players should expect to think quickly, act decisively, and have little time to weep for their losses. As a bonus, everybody who attends will get a discount code for Fight On! zine.

Preparing supporting material

First, I must express total and complete gratitude to the organisers for providing me the essentials needed to run the session: battlemat, markers, wiping cloth, minis, tokens, and dice. It means a ton not having to carry all of that.

One of the reasons I prefer running OD&D at cons is because of how lean and fast it is. It is mostly rolling d6s and d20s, options and spells are limited (just compare Cleric spell lists in Men & Magic to the one in Greyhawk), there are only three classes, and contains only the most essential procedures for running underworld and wilderness adventures. Perfect!

I created four Judge reference sheets by combining material from OD&D Reference Sheets, Ready Ref Sheets, and few pages I have written myself. They contain attack matrices, saving throws, key procedures (especially monster reactions and NPC reactions), surprise rules, durations, monster intelligence, and few other pieces of miscellaneous information I find useful. To be fair, I rarely reference these sheets since I know the rules almost by heart—it is more about having them at hand to avoid wasting time going through the booklets.

Fighters are super-simple so they get no references. Players with Clerics and Magic-Users will get a single-page handout with all spells they are capable of memorising. Since all pregenerated player characters are of fourth level, that means they can only memorise spells of first and second level.

At the beginning of the year I rolled-up eighty fourth level characters (70 actual characters, since elves can pick if they adventure as Fighting-Man or Magic-User I count). To facilitate quick distribution I prepared a numbered index, so I can quickly ask for player's preference, random number, and hand them out the appropriate character record.

Since sharing a blog post is a bit inconvenient for an in-person game I made a simple original-inspired character record sheet. Top third contains class, race, level, alignment, languages, attributes (including ranking), hit points, armour class, movement, saving throws, appearance description, and traits. Everything is concise to allow maximum player improvisation. Lower two thirds are divided into armour, weapons, hirelings & mounts, gear, coin & treasure, encumbrance, and space for notes. The latter also has quick reference for dwarves, elves, and hobbits. I printed the sheets on yellowish paper for that extra touch.

Choosing games to join

Running games and playing in games is mutually beneficial. Not to mention fun too. There is a ton of games offered, most AD&D, some OD&D, and few retroclones too. Having to pick between several awesome sessions is a sweet problem to have.

On Friday I plan to join Dreadlord's Coliseum of the Lunar Lion. After that I will run The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor. I will begin Saturday with Gabor Lux and The Blue Mausoleum, follow up with The Setian Vault another game by Dreadlord, and finish the day by running Conquering the Barbarian Altanis. On Sunday there is only one slot, and I'll be running a Darkness Beneath Megadungeon level then.

Looking forward to next weekend. And if you are attending come say hi even if we don't play in any of the games together.

Cauldron 2025 Posts

All posts for the Cauldron 2025 convention:

• Preparing for the Cauldron 2025
• Cauldron 2025 Game Reports
• Cauldron 2025 Reflections

#Convention #Cauldron #OSR #FightOn

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I will be hosting two original Dungeons & Dragons games (little brown booklets only) at Precognition. Both games will be delves into the legendary Darkness Beneath megadungeon published in the finest OSR zine Fight On:

• [OD&D] Darkness Beneath Megadungeon March 14th
• [OD&D] Darkness Beneath Megadungeon March 15th

Precognition is an independently-organized virtual tabletop roleplaying convention taking place March 14th–16th:

Welcome to Precognition, your portal to an entire weekend of online tabletop roleplaying. From March 14th–16th, we’re bringing gamers together from around the world to explore a broad range of roleplaying games—from classic fantasy settings to cutting-edge sci-fi worlds. Whether you’re seeking new adventures or just looking to connect with fellow enthusiasts, we invite you to roll dice, share stories, and forge friendships in our virtual halls.

Passes (i.e. tickets) are available via Kickstarter:

• $5 for one-day pass
• $10 for weekend pass (covers entire event)
• $30 for four weekend passes

Once the Kickstarter is over, convention organisers will open up the site for backers to sign-up for games. Full list of hosted games is available here.

See you there?

#Convention #Precognition #FightOn #OSR

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Out of the dungeon and into your quivering palms, Fight On! is back again, bringing the full monty of magic and mayhem to your subterranean halls! FOUR big adventures along with classes, races, maps, rules variants, new worlds, monsters, magic items, spells, NPCs, and tables and other goodies galore will fill your fantasy campaigns with new wonders for your dark towers and demonweb pits! Dedicated to fantasy art legend David A. Trampier, this issue features contributions from great heroes old and new – from Dave Hargrave and Tim Kask to Peter Mullen and Cameron Hawkey, not to mention Sean ''Stonegiant'' Stone, Oakes Spalding, Simon Bull, Gabor Lux, Kevin Mayle, Evlyn Moreau, Calithena, Paul Carrick, Sophie Pulkus, J. Blasso-Gieseke, bät, Attronarch, Philipp H., James Maliszewski, Settembrini, Robert S. Conley, Idle Doodler, DeWayne Rogers, Rick Base, Dyson Logos, Jon Salway, Becami Cusack, Tony A. Rowe, Prince of Nothing, Jasmine Collins, Anthony Stiller, Allan T. Grohe Jr., Will Mistretta, Steve Queen, Zhu Baijee, Thomas Denmark, and many, many more! This BIG 128 page issue picks off pit fiends like a +5 pike of piercing – don't delve deeper into the darkling depths without it!

Here is the table of contents:

128 pages of awesome!

Back issues are available via DTRPG and Lulu.

#News #OSR #FightOn

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