Adventurers

Character	Class	Description
Almaric the Legendary	Elf level 1	Very smart and quite good looking; adventuring just for the money.
Gomm	Thief level 5	Swarthy, good looking, dark-skinned thief. Sweet opium-like aroma is his fragrance of choice.
Bairstowbury the Chaotic	Halfling level 2	Remarkably muscular for a halfling.
Hartwig	Thief level 1	Hailing from Ghinor Highlands, now seeking treasure in the Barbarian Altanis.
Centuria	Elf level 1	An academic elf fond of teasing those of lower status.
Abdashtarth of the Field	Cleric level 1	A farmer clad in armour, follower of Zodraz, petty god of seeds and toil.
Ajar of the Plan	Dwarf level 1	Unbelievably strong and dexterous dwarf.

Sunstrong 15th, Spiritday

“This must be it...”

Mere days ago Gomm had accepted a mission from Leleia the Swift, headmistress of Hara's thieves' guild. The client asked for a daring thief to retrieve a pineapple sized golden egg from a temple-fortress secluded in the mountains just west of the town.

Reward?

Stunning ten thousand gold pieces.

Conditions?

Egg must be entirely intact and unopened.

The client promised they have means of knowing if the egg had been despoiled.

Gomm assembled a hit team consisting of himself as the leader; Hartwig, newest member of the thieves' guild; Almaric the Legendary, as the brains with brawn, but most importantly, Floating Disc in his repertoire; and Bairstowbury as compact muscle that can fit into tight holes. Centuria, Abdashtarth, and Ajar were recruited to act as the rearguard and step in if anything goes wrong.

Now they found the stone temple hidden between the hill tops. It was a simple stone structure with a long stone ramp leading up to the top where an opening yawned into darkness.

The party circled the temple for an hour, hoping to spot any danger before it spots them. After all, they've been informed the place is thoroughly trapped and protected by a clan of abominable birdmen.

Although they have not spotted anything dangerous, they did observe a curious set of boulders leaning against back side of the temple. Lo and behold, behind them was another opening leading into a dark corridor.

An hour of investigating the rocks led them to believe they were indeed just rocks that are entirely untrapped. Gomm scaled one, and then helped others climb on top and descend.

Illustration by IdleDoodler.

“Watch out!”

A shin-height tripwire was just ten feet ahead of the party. It was trivial to jump over. Lighting a lantern produced much needed light to see further. A t-shaped junction was just ahead, splitting to the right.

Suddenly running footsteps could be heard coming from around the corner! Bairstowbury and Almaric pulled their weapons and counter charged. Gomm and Hartwig were just behind, at safer distance.

Elf and halfling found themselves facing four entirely naked sinewy humanoids with crow heads. They had feathers for hair, protecting the duos innocence. All four were armed with spears. No side was surprised.

First exchange of blows went well for the party, and they hacked one of the birdmen down. Second exchange went well for the naked birdmen, as they skewered Bairstowbury and Almaric to death.

“Time to run!” Gomm shouted at Hartwig as he uncorked web nuts. The thieves ran out, with Gomm throwing the vial at the junction. A ball of web filled the whole passage, blocking the birdmen with their corpses.

Then the duo retreated to the nearby camp.

“Centuria, Abdashtarth, we need you to fill in two spots...”

“Let's take the front entrance this time!”

Indeed, the new quartet ascended the stone ramp to the opening atop the temple. Ahead was a sharp descent, also without stairs. Gomm anchored a rope with several iron spikes, and threw it down the slope. Then Hartwig descended and explored on. Signalling he is safe, cleric went next. As he let go off the rope and stepped forth to follow the new thief, he promptly fell through the ground on his head. Alive but bruised, he was given the hand by Hartwig and easily climbed out of the pit. Gomm and Centuria were careful to jump over the descent landing.

Adventures were now exploring a wide chamber with three doors. Each were eight feet wide, with an iron ring on the right side and an inscription on the front. First read “Dexterity,” second “Strength,” and last “Intelligence.” Flexing his physique, Abdashtarth suggested they go for the second doors. He gripped the iron ring and pulled with all his might. The doors were indeed a challenge, but he was a man of strength and resolve, a true farm-boy.

He was soon rewarded by a rabid hound leaping out of the chamber, frothing at its mouth. Centuria sliced into the charging canine. The beast jumped at Abdashtarth and bit into his neck with its mighty jaw. Farm-boy wrapped his mighty hands around the beasts neck and snapped it. Then he collapsed to the ground, and died of asphyxiation. His windpipe was in the hound's mouth.

Illustration by IdleDoodler.

Ajar of the Plan rolled down the ramp and jumped over the pit trap.

“I had a feeling you might need me!”

Indeed, at the other end of the “Strength” chamber were another doors, identical to the ones they came through. They too were heavy to open. Ajar flexed his muscles and opened them with ease. No hounds to be seen.

Instead a junction. Path forward was into a large chamber, right to doors, and left into a corridor that turned right. To their left was a door that said “Dexterity” to their right two smaller doors with no inscription, and to their far right another large doors, also without any inscription.

Forging on, the party entered a most curious chamber. A raised stone platform, ten feet wide and ten feet long, was in the center. Four statues surrounded the platform, facing its corners. Each statue was made of living stone, but without any visible joints. They resembled oddly proportioned, blocky humans.

Adventures made a wise decision to give the platform and statues a wide berth. Thus they limited their interaction to visual inspection only. Ultimately, they did not touch them and followed the norther path leading them to yet another junction.

Left path joined up with the left path of previous junction. Right path led to a dead end with wooden bench and deranged stone relief of an obese raven with baby's head sitting on a shinning egg being fed crying humans by a flock of birdmen. Forward path led to a door.

Illustration by IdleDoodler.

Unable to hear anything beyond, the party opened them and ventured forth. They were overcome with smell of dampness and rot. Gomm could spot two golden orbs levitating some ten feet off the ground in the north-western corner of the room. The party split into duos to search this sixty by thirty feet chamber.

Centuria and Ajar had the good fortune of running into a massive ball of black feathers. Atop the avian body was an oversized human-like baby head. Snot hung from its nose, and yellow teeth adorned its mouth. The abomination rocked in its nest and attempted to bite the elf. Luckily, Centuria was quicker.

Gomm struck the monster with an arrow, making it cry. Then others hacked it to death, with Hartwig delivering the killing blow. He plunged the sword straight into the soft belly, and then jerked it sideways. Obese monstrosity collapsed back into its nest.

“Is there a golden egg in the nest?”

“No.”

Illustration by IdleDoodler.

But there was another opening, leading into a circular chamber with a well. Using roped to measure depth, there was around seventy feet before the water level. Opting to lead by example, Gomm descended with the lantern.

He soon discovered that the well exits into a large water filled chamber. Some thirty feet to the east was another slope, leading up into yet another chamber. Water slowly streamed into the chamber Gomm was currently in. Descending yet another ten feet, master thief swung himself and then jumped onto the slope. Truly an acrobatic feat! Hartwig soon joined him, accomplishing no less fascinating feat.

The duo entered a rectangular chamber. A circular opening dominated the center of north wall. Water slowly streamed out of it and down the corridor they came through. A marvellous golden egg rested on a red cushion with gilded embroidery, sitting on a stone plinth at the south end of the chamber. Two large stone boxes flanked it, each on a stone plinth of its own.

Gomm prepared his backpack for the precious cargo, while Hartwig prepared a supplement for the egg to be placed on the cushion. The duo quickly replaced the egg with cloth surrogate and then fled the chamber. They could hear sounds of rushing water as they ascended the rope through the well.

“Run! Run!”

Ajar and Centuria followed the duo, albeit a bit slower given they were both in metal armour. The temple shook as it filled with water.

An army of naked birdmen rushed out of the rightmost doors by the first junction, aiming to cut off the adventurers' retreat. Centuria's quick thinking saved the day. She cast Ventriloquism, imitating the fat, baby-headed raven's call. The trick worked, and all the birdmen ran north, to the chamber where only a corpse awaited them.

Four survivors ran out, and then went straight back to Hara.

“Should we open the egg and see what is inside?”

“Absolutely not.”

And so they collected their ten thousand gold pieces.

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Adventurers

Character	Class	Description
Ambros	Cleric level 5	Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time.
Tarkus the Promising	Cleric level 3	Follower of Bachontoi, God of Red Wisdom.
Beorg the Gravedigger	Fighter level 3	Inspired to adventure after burying several adventurers.
Thorm the Dwarf	Dwarf level 1	Ashen hair, beard, and eyes. Left his own clan due to financial trouble.
Riker	Magic-User level 3	A magic-user seeking glory or death.
Gomm	Thief level 5	Swarthy, good looking, dark-skinned thief. Sweet opium-like aroma is his fragrance of choice.
Dalkanarion	Fighter level 2	A youthful specimen in full strength, full of purpose, bluster, and eagerness to prove himself.
Almaric the Legendary	Elf level 1	Very smart and quite good looking; adventuring just for the money.

Sunstrong 6th, Airday

Hagar's flesh rapidly necroticised. Nightmarish creature's venom was potent indeed. Without much to do about it, the party had decided to peek around the only unexplored corner of this accursed labyrinth.

Doors!

Forming battle ranks, the adventurers pushed forth bravely. A simple but well furnished room with several bookcases, comfortable sofa and a bed. More importantly, it was not empty.

A dark-skinned lithe man stood by the bookcase, thumbing through some of the books. He was guarded by a large, muscular man sporting well oiled muscles covered with little more than a cape, helmet, and few select pieces of armour.

After a bit of back and forth it was established that the man was Master Thief Gomm, and Dalkanarion was his bodyguard. The duo decided to assist the party in the further exploration of the dungeon.

Adventurers spent rest of the day trudging through unexplored rooms finding nothing of value. Exhausted, they retreated above and camped by the dungeon entrance. Akasi was distraught with Hagar's death, worried what will his father do to him when he finds out the bad news.

Either way, the party slept well, and Akasi's mercenaries did a solid job during night.

Sunstrong 7th, Waterday

“Let's go deeper!” Tarkus proposed, and finally everyone agreed to it.

The party traversed the first floor without any resistance. Following the stairs down led them to a rectangular chamber, fifty feet deep and thirty feet wide. There were two doors on the east side, one door on the north side, and two on the west side.

Adventurers fanned out and listened at each of them.

“Pssst! Over here!”

Loud snoring could be heard coming from the second doors on the west wall. Gomm tried to identify the source, but failed due to all the noise from his allies.

Strongest fighters took the lead, and everyone stormed the chamber.

Large, brutish figure stumbled up from a straw mattress. Groggy and weaponless, it was quickly hacked to death by the adventurers. Dalkanarion delivered the killing blow—a straight piercing move through the belly. The party then ransacked the monster's chest and chambers.

The room had a door on each side. Interestingly, all doors but the one they came through led into the same corridor. Exploring slowly, the party opted to head north.

After few turns they came to a straight corridor ending with doors. Moreover, there were two doors to the left, and one door to the right.

Sneaking, Gomm could hear sounds from the first doors to the left, as well as doors up north. Securing all the doors sans the first ones, the party formed a marching order and charged into the room.

Four hairy, tiger-faced monsters stood in the corner, seemingly arguing over something. Adventurers caught them by surprise, and encircled them in seconds. Thorm killed one of the monsters with a strong blow with a warhammer to the side of the head. Ambros was the next to draw blood with a majestic over head sweep, smashing into the monster's temple.

Dalkanarion took serious beating but stood his ground, allowing others to attack monsters safely. Almaric drove his spear straight through one monsters ear to the other. The final beastman was slain by Gomm. What an ignominious death it was! Gomm first chopped off the beast's arm. Then he sliced its face. Lastly he gouged out its eyes. The beast writhed as it bled to death.

Clerics administered healing spells, and Gomm handed out several vials of healing liquid. Restored, the party took their attention to the northernmost doors. Once again they formed battle ranks and stormed through the doors.

This time beastmen were not surprised.

Large oak table dominated the center of the room. Massive ogre sat at the north side. Two hyena headed beasts sat on the west side, and two tiger-faced beastmen on the east side.

Dalkanarion rushed forth and grabbed the table with hist mighty thews. Gomm yelled for him to wait as he uncorked a bottle with strange substance in it. He chucked it at the ogre.

The vial smashed straight on the beast's chest. A giant ball of thick, stringy web exploded forth, enveloping ogre, one gnoll, and one bugbear.

With most of the adversaries trapped, the adventurers had little trouble overcoming the remainder of beastmen. The skirmish was brief and brutal. The party had suffered no losses!

“Chop off ogre's head so we have something to show in Hara.”

And so they did.

Collecting coins in the room, the party decided to leave the dungeon and head back to Hara with all the accumulated treasure and Hagar's corpse.

Akasi was a nervous wreck, completely consumed with worry.

The party had debated what to do about Hagar all the way to Hara, without reaching consensus.

How will they explain this one?

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Adventurers

Character	Class	Description
Hagar the Hewer	Dwarf level 4	Imagine Conan as dwarf.
Ambros	Cleric level 5	Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time.
Tarkus the Promising	Cleric level 3	Follower of Bachontoi, God of Red Wisdom.
Beorg the Gravedigger	Fighter level 3	Inspired to adventure after burying several adventurers.
Riker	Magic-User level 1	A magic-user seeking glory or death.
Leticia	Cleric level 1	Extremely righteous, borderline zealot, devout follower of Rasthri, Goddess of Strength in Revenge.
Almaric the Legendary	Elf level 1	Very smart and quite good looking; adventuring just for the money.

Sunstrong 6th, Airday

“Where are some beastmen to slay?! Show them and I'll kill 'em all!”

Akasi Namelin boasted to Hagar and his crew. The eldest son followed the party shortly after they left Hara. He was accompanied by Leticia and Almaric, just to make sure no ill fortune befalls him, despite marching with three dozen light footmen.

“Remember to keep the kid alive.” Riker reminded everyone.

“I'll go first, you right behind me!” Hagar commanded to Namelin's eldest heir.

“Yes! I'll be right behind you! Let's go!”

“Let me remind you that monsters here are intelligent. Don't rush forward blindly–” Riker attempted to educate young man, but was interrupted with brash “I have hunted before!”

“You might become the hunted here...” commentary went unanswered.

Heran Marod left the dungeon and waited for the party above, overseeing a Akasi's thuggish band.

“Where to next?”

The party had three possible venues: go down the stairs and deeper into the dungeon, go east and explore the beyond the ransacked library, or go north down the corridor with exploding barrels.

Afraid to go down or to face the fiery doom, they opted for the second option and went for the library. Nothing much beyond a large kitchen with adjoining pantry, and two dead ends with smashed statues.

Having adventured for nearly sixteen hours, the party withdrew from the dungeon and camped by the tree. Surely nothing would dare disrupt their sleep with their numbers.

Sunstrong 7th, Waterday

Well rested, the adventures continued their delve. They explored kitchen surrounding in the time it takes a lantern to burn through on filling of oil. Little did they find beyond more looted rooms. In an act of desperation they caressed and tapped many walls, hoping to find any secret shortcuts.

“We will have to go through that corridor. There is no way around it.”

“There was a large dinning table in one of the rooms. Let's break it and turn it into a mantlet!”

“What a great idea! Let's do that!”

More hours went by as they put their plan in motion.

Once in the bell shaped chamber, Beorg shot a lit arrow and hit the doors out of which, supposedly, barrels were rolling out of.

Nothing.

Next Leticia stripped her metal armour, lit a torch, and sprinted down the barrel corridor. Reaching the junction she jumped left and peeked around the corner.

Nothing.

So she ran up to the doors, knocked, and ran back.

Nothing.

Remaining party formed ranks and advanced up the corridor, with Riker and Ambros ready to unleash magical and divine wrath alike.

Nothing.

Almaric brought Leticia's armour on his Floating Disc, so the lady was armoured once more.

Reunited, the party marched to the doors.

Nothing.

A dwarf and an elf decided to listen at the doors.

Nothing.

Finally they pulled the doors open!

Empty barrel rack was all there was to be found. Besides three rusty levers, that is.

“Unbelievable!”

“Let's check the corridor we passed...”

Indeed there was one unexplored corridor leading east, then turning north. Faint smell of death and rot could be felt. Marching on soon revealed the nature of the challenge: a labyrinth. Multiple dead ends, sometime empty, sometime with insulting traps. Skeletons of long dead monsters and humans alike. One of the skeletons was a large human with a bull’s head. A rusty massive battle-axe rested next to it.

Hours and hours went on as adventurers trudged through endless corridors. At one moment the stench of death became almost overbearing. By now the adventurers had learned this must mean trouble. They carefully proceeded, ready for whatever might await them.

Hagar at the front turned the corner and came face to face with a horrible creature. A human female-looking face floated some eight feet in the air. Its eyes were almond-shaped; long, lanky black hair was stuck to its pale face; fangs and long split tongue protruded out of its slack jawline.

“Purge the Evil!!!”

Tarkus yelled and charged past Hagar; the dwarf charged too. Almaric and Beorg went right behind them, while others backed them.

True extent of the creature's unholy existence was revealed with approach of light. The face was not floating mid-air. No. It was attached to a tubular body made of most horrible make—mangled, broken, and headless bodies of women.

Hacking into the monster made it ooze slimy, dark purple ichor. The creature gazed into Hagar's eyes. Stout dwarf resisted voices in his head and struck the creature. Next the monster flew up in the air and swirled in circular motion. Almaric, Leticia, and Akasi dropped to the ground, sleeping soundly.

Riker's spell had failed to produce any effect. On the other hand Riker's Awakening Palm worked quite well on the sleeping members of the party.

In a moment of shock, the ghastly creature towered over Hagar and then bit him in the neck. Dwarf's eyes turned upside down and he went limp in seconds. The monster wrapped its long body around Hagar and flew off with him into the darkness.

Ambros pursued the monster without missing a beat, with Tarkus, Beorg and Almaric right behind him. Follow purple snail trail was easy. Moments later they caught up with the abomination and hacked it to pieces.

Tarkus the Promising delivered the killing blow straight to the face of this horrible creature. Its body fell apart, leaving a pile of mangled corpses on top of Hagar.

“What a blessed dwarf he is...”

“Oh no...” Akasi muttered, distraught.

The bite marks were already necrotic-black; the flesh rotted away. Hagar's veins were dark purple, bloated and firm. His eyes were completely white, with yellow pus on the lower lid. Spittle and foam caked his angled mouth.

The future castellan of Hara had died.

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Adventurers

Character	Class	Description
Riker	Magic-User level 1	A magic-user seeking glory or death.
Tarkus the Promising	Cleric level 3	Follower of Bachontoi, God of Red Wisdom.
Beorg the Gravedigger	Fighter level 3	Inspired to adventure after burying several adventurers.
Hagar the Hewer	Dwarf level 4	Imagine Conan as dwarf.
Ambros	Cleric level 5	Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time.
Heran Marod	Cleric level 2	Bearded, aging man with shaved head. Follower of Umannah, the Sun God, The Radiant Death.

Sunstrong 4th, Fireday

Hagar led a new party to the Den. Half of the men were clerics, armed with Cure Light Wounds and Hold Person, as well as one magic-user with two prepared Sleep spells. Once again the party had borrowed six horses from the Namelin stable, allowing them to reach their destination in six hours.

Two shabby towers as well as wooden palisades still surrounded the tree. No new sentries were to be spotted anywhere. Scouting the environs revealed no traces of ambush or anything suspicious. The party descended into the dungeon, and opted to march straight ahead through the open archway.

Long corridor gently slopped upwards, something Hagar spotted after fifty or so feet of marching.

SLAM!

A loud thud of wood hitting against stone wall could be heard up ahead. A large, six feet wide barrel rolled out of the darkness and towards the party. A lit fuse could be spotted on its right side.

Luckily the party was just at the junction so there was plenty of space to evade the rolling danger. Unfortunately two members failed to jump to the side. Stalwart Heran decided to hold his ground, shield raised up while agile Riker opted to jump upwards. The former was hit by the barrel, forcing him against the wall. The latter was hit by the barrel mid-jump, landing with his belly on the top.

Due to Heran's interference the barrel changed course, turning right and getting stalled in the corridor. Lying on top of the barrel, the burning fuse was just in Riker's face. Heran sprinted around the corner, some twenty feet away, and stopped, for whatever reason.

Magic-User tried to extinguish the fuse with his palm, but only suffered burns and blisters. This was one inch thick rope, soaked in flammable oil. Unwilling to risk any further, Riker slumped off the barrel and sprinted to the junction and then left.

Heroic Beorg charged from around the corner, leading with his polearm.

“I will cut the fuse before it burns up!”

Beorg the Legend reached the barrel just in time for it to explode, suffering maximum impact and fire damage. Those that lurked around the corner were singed as well as forced to the ground from shock.

Smell of burnt flesh permeated the corridor.

Clerics rushed to heal each other. Surprisingly, charred Beorg was carbonised but alive.

SLAM!

The same sound was heard once more. This time everyone ran left and around the corner, and then burst through the doors, slamming them shut just in time. Little flames surged from underneath. Dramatic, but harmless.

Catching a moment to breath, the party realised they fled into a familiar chamber. A small altar with the symbol of three crossed swords was in the middle. Bunk beds line all the walls.

“There should be a one-way secret passageway just there...”

Indeed, the adventurers had easily found the secret doors they perused in the past. From there they easily found their way to the bell shaped entrance chamber. But their way was barred!

First, they caught an orc by surprise. Pig-faced monster was waiting with a club, facing the doors leading into the entrance chamber. It certainly did not expect a bunch of adventurers to exit from the doors behind it. Monster was hacked to pieces in seconds.

Second, the doors were nailed shut. Without equipment, Hagar spent significant time to tear down plank by plank. Eventually the party broke through and fled back to Hara to lick their singed assess.

Sunstrong 6th, Airday

Healed but hairless, the adventurers returned to the den once more. One their way out of the town, Akasi Namelin derided Hagar for putting their plans into jeopardy. The dwarf had little patience for Namelin's eldest son.

Riker the Wise remembered to bring a magical construct which had been collecting dust in the companies vault. It was a palm-sized bee which can follow simple instructions and offer one to three word description of what it sees. Scouting the dark corridor from whence barrels rode revealed little but closed doors.

Checking remaining three doors in the bell shaped chamber revealed they were all barred from the other side. Hence the party decided to go through the broken doors. From there they rethreaded some of the chambers they've been through before.

Passing the stairs down, the party decided to explore southern portion of the dungeon. Alas, they were mostly empty and junk rooms. Peak excitement were a gelatinous cube guarding a completely empty room, and a finger ring-sized snake eating its own tail resting on a pillow under a glass dome. Beorg broke the later, and then one of the adventurers grabbed the ring. Nothing ill happened to anyone, despite the warning uttered to them.

“One last doors to check” led the party into a thirty by thirty foot trap chamber. The doors slam shut behind them, and green gas begun filling the chamber as magic mouth spoke:

“Unbidden, I come at night Unasked, I am gone by morn.”

A set of glyphs appeared on the door in vertical line: a star on top, crescent moon in the middle, and a sleeping man on the bottom.

Half of the party immediately succumbed to the gas, dropping to the ground as if dead. Tarkus yelled the correct answer but nothing happened until he touched the correct glyph as well.

Gas stopped hissing and doors opened by themselves.

Tarkus dragged everyone outside and administered awakening slaps.

Once everyone got back to their senses, the party stopped to think about their further course of action. They were at the literal and proverbial junction.

Where next to conquer?

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Adventurers

Character	Class	Description
Hagar the Hewer	Dwarf level 4	Imagine Conan as dwarf.
Ambros	Cleric level 5	Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time.
Darius	Cleric level 4	Follower of Dacron, God of Craftsmen.
Hector	Fighter level 3	Balding warrior in the dwarf corpse retrieval business.
Tamren	Cleric level 3	Stoic paladin of Coriptis, the Goddess of Battle and Inamorata of Berserkers. Aventail hides all but his two piercing blue eyes.
Lucie	Fighter level 1	RPhysically competent, but mentally and socially inept.

Sunstrong 2nd, Waterday

Large chestnut tree towered above the poorly concealed entrance into the drug den. As always before, the hole had been covered with a wooden plank, which in turn was covered with bushes and brambles and soil.

Unlike before, the tree was now flanked by two shoddily made wooden towers and several rows of poorly made wooden palisades. The latter were in fact just sharpened tree trunks driven into the ground at an angle.

None of that was enough to stop Hagar and his crack team. They jumped two sleeping pig faced orcs and killed them in cold blood before either could squeal. Then they dispatched orcs on the towers.

Stupid pigs were blind as bats during the day. And even if the weren't, they could possibly not match the bloodthirsty Tamren, bent on earning absolution for his cowardice at the same place months prior. He would never stand a chance of being consumed by Coriptis eternal flame—-unless he bathes in blood of those that had broken his resolve once.

But they weren't here for Tamren's redemption. No. They were here to demolish and eradicate the beastmen that established camp so close to Hara. Not due to benevolence nor heroic aspirations, but due to Hagar accepting Namelin's offer to become their candidate for Hara's new castellan.

The party chucked the plank to the side and descended into the drug den.

Bell-shaped entrance chamber was different than before. It was cleaned. There were no impaled corpses.

Adventurers decided to head right. They swept chamber after chamber. All empty. Rotting straw mats, broken weapons, signs of being lived-in by filthy creatures. Gone.

“I recall orc and goblin barrack being around here. These were probably their rooms.”

Ransacked library housed three mutilated corpses. Hagar recognised Celeborn of Revelshire whom he had adventured twelve months ago with. Two decayed humans were unknown to him, but were probably adventurers as well.

Pushing on, the party followed a twisting corridor into a dry, tobacco smelling storage room. There another door led into a trap that failed to foil Hagar and Tamren. Upon forcing the doors open, they both noticed a corridor extending into infinity. Instinctively, both looked away.

There was no magic, only trickery of perspective using two bottom to ceiling mirrors facing each other. Averting their gaze, the adventurers pressed forth, into a sixty feet wide chamber with a thirty feet long pool.

“What a weird chamber...”

The chamber was pristine. The water was crystal clear and warm. Stone pegs jutted out of north wall.

“Look, a dagger!”

Indeed in the center of the pool a dagger rested at the bottom. The bottom was at an incline, with south side being three feet deep, and north side around ten feet.

One of the adventurers pushed the dagger with the ten foot pole to the south end. Then Hagar jumped into the water and picked the dagger up. It was a nice looking weapon, but ultimately mundane.

“The night should fall soon. We should get out before orcs come out and realise somebody killed the guards.”

And thus the adventurers rapidly backtracked, hopped on their horses and rode hard to Hara. They got lost during the night, but once they found the Farhills river it was trivial to follow it downstream.

They reached Hara on Sunstrong 3rd, few hours after sunrise.

Beastmen got to live yet another day.

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This July we celebrated the 100th session of Conquering the Barbarian Altanis campaign. Our first session was on March 8, 2022. Time flies! Below are my reflections and answers to some questions I have received about running the campaign.

Background

Our campaign is located in the Wilderlands Barbarian Altanis. We play weekly (Tuesdays evening) for three hours, online, using Discord and Owlbear Rodeo. Between the sessions we sometimes engage in play-by-post, especially for downtime activities. That way we can really focus on action in every session.

Each player makes three characters when they join the game. They pick one they begin with and start playing. They can activate another character in case the first one dies, or gets stuck somewhere (e.g. in another dungeon delve we are not continuing because more than half of the players aren't present).

I've allowed anyone interested to join us and try out our game. Since we've begun there have been dozens of players that came and went, with around twenty sticking around. Roughly a quarter of those are active non-stop, another quarter is active but joins live sessions a bit rarer, and remainder joins whenever life allows.

Our campaign is very open ended, with a lot of freedom for the players. This also puts onus on them to decide what to do, what do prioritise, and how to organise themselves. Over time this has led to players controlling multiple characters, embarking on concurrent expeditions, racing against time, causing and fixing trouble in the land, and so on.

In other words—we are playing an open ended sandbox where the world is alive and is actively shaping and being shaped by the players.

Lessons Learned

1. Don't take it personally. People come and go. Life happens. Miscommunication happen as well. When somebody leaves the game without notice or stops playing I don't dwell on it.
2. Be consistent and predictable. Game is on Tuesdays evening. Game happens as long as someone signs up. Game event is put up three days ahead, and player roll call is broadcast the day before. Game happens every week. If there is change of days, that is communicated a week before.
3. Clear boundaries. I have only two hard rules that would make me act immediately: no player-versus-player behaviour and no sexual violence. I repeat these two rules to each new player. I state them in a direct, no chance to misunderstand, manner.
4. Keep a furious pace. We are playing for 180 minutes. That isn't much time. There are no breaks. “What are you doing next?” is my most common question. For longer discussion I activate a ten-minute timer that is visible to all players.
5. Keep interferences to a minimum. I do my best to ensure players need as little as possible to play. Currently they only need internet browser with three open tabs: Discord for voice chat and dice rolling, Owlbear Rodeo for simple VTT map, and Google Slides for their character sheets. I don't want them to waste time wrestling with tools.
6. Keep the game running and review rules after. If I can't look something up within 180 seconds, and it is not a life or death situation, then I'll make a ruling and tell players that I'll look up the exact rule or numbers after the game.
7. Don't correct. If I make a mistake while running a module or something I've written down, I do not retcon it. The “mistake” becomes canon and I work it in. One such “mistake” led to fifty memorable game sessions.
8. Be generous. My default stance is to rule in players' favour when uncertain or if I made a procedural error. For example, if I forgot to ask for declarations and one of the PCs was supposed to cast a spell, I will allow it. After all, it is me who made the error. There will always be another chance for that PC to die, no matter how generous I am.
9. Don't be afraid of exceptional PCs. Scroll with powerful spells? Magic weapons with strong bonuses and abilities? Large treasure cache that would allow everyone to level up? Gasp! Who cares! Let them have it! The stronger they are, the more fun we can have! Players always find novel ways to kill their characters anyway.
10. Fun isn't always right. Long-running open-ended sandboxes require some logistics and politicking and serious intelligence gathering. Sometimes a winding down session is welcome after a series of mentally intensive sessions. A “boring” session every two dozen sessions is a welcome respite that also allows players to realign regarding their goals.
11. Take great notes. I have created three templates that I use every session: day tracker, combat tracker, and session tracker. I take notes on every character, combat, and in-game day. I maintain in-game calendar. At any moment I know where and when each and every character is. That is critical for running an open-world sandbox with multiple player characters adventuring at the same time.
12. Do the math. After every session I list recovered treasure, earned experience (in bulk, as not to reveal how much XP each individual treasure or monster is equal, which is sometimes useful), and distribution of experience (what character are eligible for experience and what is their share). I also write out how much XP is each share worth, including bonuses. Since I take great notes this takes me less than five minutes and preemptively solves many questions. Players just need to find their character, share, and update experience.
13. Don't overprepare. I have an inexpensive egg timer. My partner hates its ticking sound. So I use a watch instead. 30 minutes for a session. That's how much I give myself. If I do something more than ten times, then I either automate it with a spreadsheet or script, or create a reusable template.
14. Do the bare minimum. I prepare everything in iterations. Published material is organised so I can easily access it, while everything else has just the essential ready. For example, if players suddenly decide to take a turn into some settlement, then I'll play with nothing but one to two sentence description and procedural charts in my Judge binder. If they remain in the settlement for longer than one session, then I will sketch it. If they stay longer, I'll flesh it out a bit more. Same goes for dungeons and wilderness locales. First they are rumours, then they are entrances with areas around them, then they are fleshed out.
15. Everything beyond the bare minimum should be a reward in itself. If I decide to spend more time on something it is because I want to, and have no expectation players will do anything with it. Creating a dungeon or locale, researching rules and procedures, polishing house rules... I do them because I find them fun, and might use them in game, but without any plan or expectation to force them on the players.
16. Prune the Judge binder regularly. Every quarter I go through my Judge binder and move sheets around. Those that get used during the game go up front. Those that get used during prep go to the back, separated by a coloured divider. Those that don't get used get removed.
17. Convene community. Since we are all on the same Discord server, the discussion is always flowing. We have a generic “lobby” channel where we discuss many non-game related topics. There are players from all walks of life so there is always something new to learn from each other. Memes and jokes are shared, new products and crowdfunding campaigns recommended so we all get a bit poorer, ideas are traded and critiqued, and so on and so forth. Everyone participates, regardless of how often they play.
18. Create a space that encourages mutual support and reflection. Many players mean many different personalities and play styles. Of course, those that remains are relatively similar, but that doesn't mean there is no room for improvement. I often use plurals and ask players to think “we” and “our,” especially when discussing their next steps.
19. Facilitate players outside of the game. Love for specific type of gameplay is what brought us together. It is fair to assume there might be more mutual interests. If someone wants to run a one-shot with different rules or their own game, or recruit people for a game they are starting, or needs help with something they are working on, or anything else, I do my best to connect them together.
20. Public praise, private punishment. I do my best to congratulate and reward good play, thinking, and cooperation with a kind word and explicit praise in front of everyone. If somebody is misbehaving, then I have a one to one conversation with them. Public shaming is for military and prisons, not games.
21. Don't absolve responsibility. At the end of the day I am the person responsible for our game and community. That isn't something that can or should be delegated.

Questions & Answers

I've received some additional questions about our campaign and my style that aren't covered with above lessons. I'm including these questions and my answers below.

If you have a question of your own feel free to email me or share it in the comment below, and I'll reply when I have time.

Question

How to handle dropping players into a sandbox game without them feeling lost, overwhelmed with so much potential choice that it feels like no choice at all, or lacking direction; and about how to encourage them to seek out adventure hooks and pursue their own goals. I wasn't there for the first session of Barbarian Altanis, but I'd love to hear about how you set up that first session, and how you prepared prior to the beginning of the game. Did you begin by giving the players a clear quest to go on? Did you give them a limited number of hooks from which they could choose? Or something else entirely?

Answer

Preparation: I read the Wilderlands material and picked region I liked the most, Barbarian Altanis.

Session 0: I introduced Wilderlands, Barbarian Altanis, type of game I will run (open-ended, player driven, no PvP, no sexual violence). Then I asked players to pick a starting point. They choose Kestizar.

Session 1: we begun playing. I read hexes around Kestizar and placed some dungeons within 25 mile radius. I collated hooks and gave them out randomly during the sessions. I mixed that with random tables. There was no clear quest; purely player driven.

Reflection: in retrospect I think some of the players were a bit confused and/or lost. It took several sessions before they committed to a specific hook. Few of them led to very violent outcomes with few survivors. Our first year was a bit mudcore, to an extent because of player choices (since I never intended it to be as I placed plenty of treasure and magic items, but refused to railroad you to them). There were multiple (!) occasions where they'd give up right before hitting a big pile of treasure. But then the hydra lair changed everything. ;)

Question

Advice that worked or didn't work for you. Resources that you found useful—what books did you keep on hand during sessions and/or prep, sort of thing? Is there a book/resource that isn't made that you would have loved to have used?

Answer

Honestly, I did not seek advice beyond the rulebooks. First I spent a year or so reading B/X, then BECMI, and then Rules Cyclopedia. Then I read AD&D 1e DMG and PHB. In parallel, I spent a lot of time understanding TSR's catalogue, editions, publications, how they tie in together, what is their focus, and what are the differences. I don't remember why, but I decided to try out B/X and RC/BECMI, so I found a game of each and begun playing. I want to see the rules in action. From that experience I decided to run B/X first, so I master it and then in the future potentially upgrade into a more advanced system. After all, that was TSR's promise!

When I was exploring TSR's catalogue their main settings did not grab me. Mystara was fine, but not captivating. I liked Dark Sun, but wanted something closer to regular fantasy or sword & sorcery. Thunder Rift was cool, but felt too constrained. Then somehow, and I don't even remember when or how, I stumbled upon Wilderlands of High Fantasy. It blew my mind. It was fucking awesome.

CITY STATE OF THE INVINCIBLE OVERLORD.

BARBARIAN ALTANIS.

CITY STATE OF THE WORLD EMPEROR.

Hex one-liners with crazy hooks. Vast, but not too big. Populated, but not too dense. Ready for adventure as is, but easily expanded and filled out with anything. Setting that can take abuse. Setting that can be improvised with. I like the content, I liked the aesthetics, and I liked the ethos. That was the time I took a deep dive into Judges Guild and their catalogue.

Having picked the ruleset and setting, my next step was to get all the core books. By now I have acquired most of the TSR catalogue, so I begun hunting down Wilderlands publications. After studying the four booklets and Necromancer Games boxset, I felt like I was ready to run a life long campaign. My next step was to pick an area. I've selected because (1) I liked it so fucking much, and (2) it was in the middle of everything. My next step was to read up on adventures and shortlist a dozen or so I want to run.

I spent time making a list of best rated modules (usually starting with tenfootpole.org), and then I'd seek more reviews of publications I liked. If I was still hooked, then I'd buy and skim them. If I still liked them, on the list they would go. When the players selected their starting point on the map, I looked for few low level modules and placed them in the region.

Following all that, I made a binder with key notes on Barbarian Altanis, list of modules, empty papers for additional notes, and print outs of modules the players would be most likely to visit. Then I made another binder, the Judge binder, where I put all the procedures I use during play, including those for random procedural generation. I'm confident enough to improvise anything, but still like using good tables.

Bar none, my most references book is Ready Ref Sheets by Judges Guild. It is amazing. Some of the procedures are bad. Most are great. But the flavour is inimitable. Besides those, I frequently reference d30 DM Companion and d30 Sandbox Companion. Heck, I got d30s just because of them. I do have a collection of other tables as well, mostly from AD&D 1e and Arduin.

I don't feel like I need another book in life. With above two binders I could run a game until I die. That of course does not mean I am not acquiring more books... What can I say, I like reading stuff old and new.

Question

Did you find your preparation methods shifted, and how? and was that change from your own developing skill, or because of the length of the game? Is there anything you learned or did that you wish you'd known or done before you started, or that you wish you had done earlier in the campaign?

Answer

Over time I shortened my preparation even more, but the methods are still the same. Or at least I think they are.

Once I made a four-level tower with adjacent camp and underground dungeon with cave complex. I made it because players were dead-set on marching on it to fight barbarians there. Then, after mustering a mercenary army they decide to go somewhere else instead. I do not regret making it, but it was a good signal to maintain my usual iterative approach to developing points of interest.

Question

You've run a long open table. What are the stats on your player pool? Did trends emerge for how players played in an open table format? What sort of players should GMs of open tables look to recruit? What sort of “player stable management” did you do?

Answer

Yeah, it's been going more than two and half years now. I've been maintaining a public character roster that includes characters from all players that are still playing.

When a player leaves, I delete their character from the “Alive” list, but keep them in the other lists. In other words, I haven't been tracking exact number of how many people came and left. There was a good number that was curious to learn more about our play style, who would come play a few sessions and then leave. There were some that would join and then leave.

There are currently 21 players with 34 characters. There are more, but some of the are uncertain, so I don't want to spoil anything. Let's just say that at least two have been playing in a months long play-by-post session that still hasn't come to an end.

Regarding recruiting, I basically try to recruit more people that are like people I'm playing with right now. As I wrote elsewhere, I strongly believe that good games are to be had with good players, hence I care more about attitude than skill or years of gaming experience. The only foolproof way to test compatibility is to play a session together.

For player character “stables” I did not use anything special. Make a character sheet for each character and keep track of them. That's it.

Question

How was it putting session reports in A&E?

Answer

It is fun! It took me some time to get use to the format, and contributors publishing their reaction and comments to previous issue in the next issue. Like commenting on blogs, but with longer delay and more in depth commentary. Collating reports for A&E is another chance at proofreading, and I often cringe at mistakes I catch. Another thing I used to do much more, but haven't done a lot of it in my latest submission, is including art. Initially I'd hunt for stock images, play with Midjourney to generate something usable, and try to fill in the gaps with art. Now I just use a little bit of abstract art and maybe one or two stock illustrations. My plan is to keep publishing the reports in A&E as long as the game keeps on going and zine keeps coming out. A fun side bonus is getting fan mail from strangers.

Next 100 Sessions

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Adventurers

Character	Class	Description
Hagar the Hewer	Dwarf level 4	Imagine Conan as dwarf.
Ambros	Cleric level 5	Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time.
Foxglove	Thief level 4	A willowy human, long hair ties in a pony tail, looks a bit dangerous and dainty at the same time.
Darius	Cleric level 4	Follower of Dacron, God of Craftsmen.
Riker	Magic-User level 2	A magic-user seeking glory or death.
Tiberias	Normal human	Regretting his employment.

Longrass 12th, Waterday

Engulfed by noxious yellow gas, Hagar and Amborus could barely see. Led by Darius's voice, they retreated from the chamber where they just faced four demonic creatures.

“Shut the doors! Let 'em come to us!”

But nothing came.

Peeking into the chamber revealed it was empty. It was stained yellow from top to bottom. There was one door to the left and one to the right. Opening the former reveal a spacious chamber with two dwarven corpses. One was lying on its right side, with its back to the adventurers. The other one was torn in half.

Adventurers shut the door and went for the other door.

They moved forward, down the corridor, until they reached a hard turn. Hagar peeked around the corner, only to be dazzled by a festival of colourful lights. Unsure what to do, other adventurers passed Rorik's corpse—a third of it they still had—to Hagar. Then the dwarf chucked it around the corner.

In a split second the party had been flashed and surrounded by glimmering light. Horned dog sized bunnies were all around them! They rammed and gored few of the members before vanishing in thin air.

The party moved on, following the twisting corridor. They found a dead end with thousands of silver and gold coins arranged in small nests. Another dead end was an unfinished room with stairs leading down into nothing. Third dead end were stone doors with skull on it and two large keyholes.

The adventurers were too experienced to be lured by two matching keys laying on the stone table right next to the doors. Thus they backtracked all the way to the chamber with dwarven corpses.

It was a large fifty by fifty feet chamber. There were three corpses in total, all in horrific shape. The corpses were decomposing, but were still much fresher then other dead people they encountered so far. Doors in the south-west corner were covered with blood and gore from bottom to the ceiling.

More interesting was the curious mechanism in the center of north wall. Some five feet above the floor, a tilted horizontal disc jutted out of the wall. From it three rods—as spokes of a wheel—stood straight. On the upper face of the half-disc was an etched mask with frowning face.

Abandoning the contraption, the party backtracked to the chamber with large stone face. It had matching facial expression to the face on the disc—a frowning expression.

Illustration by kicmaniac.

The face was almost twenty feet tall and ten feet wide. Dark hole in the mouth was in fact an opening into a tight crawlspace. Tiberias volunteered to investigate it. He had to strip into nothing but loincloth and rope around his waist. Then he improvised a weapon with burning torch tied to it, and went into it.

The space was very tight, forcing him to crawl on his belly with little space for looking forward. After ten or so minutes he heard a voice speak in unfamiliar language. Ignoring it, he proceeded forward. His eyes were red and teary from the smoke coming into his eyes. At one moment he decided to pause to rest a bit. But he couldn't! In fact, he was now sliding forward, scrapping his forearms and knees.

Even worse, moments later he was in a head on free fall.

Hagar felt the rope suddenly move much faster. He dropped his body weight and held onto the rope.

Tiberias felt the rope around his waist tightening. He drop was stopped with a powerful jerk. The shock nearly made him black out. The man vomited down the chute. Then he decided to drop down his torch so he could see what lies ahead.

His torch disappeared in thick darkness.

Hagar was joined by other adventurers in pulling the rope. It was tough until it wasn't. They pulled out empty rope. The loop and knot were still there. Tiberias wasn't.

There was no time to grieve.

Party headed back to the room with weird contraption. There they investigated it for hours until one of the clerics suggested at least three characters try to push on the rods. Lo and behold! The disc rotated. Moments later frowning face was replaced with smiling face.

Running back to the room with stone face confirmed it too had changed its facial expression. This time Hagar volunteered. They tied several hundred feet worth of rope around him. They also agreed on various rope signals.

Getting on all fours, Hagar entered the mysterious crawlspace. Moving on he too reached a moment when he could hear someone or something speaking in an unfamiliar language. He too ignored it and moved on.

As dwarf he could feel several inclines. He turned right, twice. After long time he reached a dead end. But he could feel a cold wheel touching his exposed belly. Since there was so little space, he had trouble getting a good grip. But once he did, he was able to twist it with great ease. Floor underneath him gave in and he fell face first on a hard stone floor beneath.

Dazed but alive, he pulled on the rope, signalling others to follow. Everyone stripped, and made sure to carry only the most valuable items that can fit through crawlspace. They also dragged Rorik's corpse through, as well as stiff FoxGlove.

Reunited, the party lit up a torch. Unarmoured and barely armed, they rapidly moved, following a long corridor forward. They passed a chamber, ignoring whatever might be inside, moved into another chamber, and then left through archway. Here Hagar recognised the chamber with framed gold sheet.

“I know the way out! Be careful for there is a dart trap activated by pressure plate!”

Adventurers exited the ruined tower just as night was about to fall. They camped in its ruins, enjoying the smell of fresh air once again.

Survivors returned to Hara on Longrass 13th. Just in time for Hagar to recuperate and prepare for dinner with Aseti Namelin, one of the most influential people in the region.

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Adventurers

Character	Class	Description
Ignaeus	Elf level 2	A slightly weathered looking elf with dull blonde hair and chiselled features. Seeks wealth and knowledge.
Thorn the Dwarf	Dwarf level 1	Ashen hair, beard, and eyes. Left his own clan due to financial trouble.

Warmshade 3rd, Waterday

“Could we finish our investigation of the lizard caves? I am curious to know what is going on there.”

Ignaeus was the only one to answers Thorn's call to adventure. The dwarf did not rest still, and he employed two retainers, Soalain and Glamina.

Next he hired a rowboat and crew to take them downstream to the cave.

“We will wait until sundown. If pirates or barbarians appear off we go!”

The party entered the caves few hours after sunrise.

They exited just an hour before sundown.

Ten torches burnt through.

They carefully navigated natural tunnels, exploring every nook and cranny. Always tense, always ready for trouble.

Trouble did find them, without surprise, in another lizards' nest. A giant centipede nested there, but it was summarily dispatched by Thorn's might blows. Alas, the eggs were sucked dry and were empty.

A truly valuable cache hid behind a chilly body of water, past wet tunnel. There a skeleton lay, dressed in pristine chainmail. A small, round metal shield was by its side. A curved scimitar to other side. All were in pristine condition, as if unbothered by all the moisture in the small cave.

Satisfied with their thorough exploration, the party recovered these three items and returned to Hara. There they sought identification service from the Wizards' Guild.

Warmshade 8th, Earthday

Whilst waiting for the identification to be complete, Thorn and Ignaeus spent time going through all the notes and intelligence collected by other adventurers whose Company they had joined.

There was much going on in the region; and the Company had its fingers in many pies. But where to focus? Where to strike next? Who to ally with? What is true and what is not? Much was discussed, and much more has to be discussed.

Invitation came on the noon of Warmshade 8th.

“This is the Bender. It is a magical shield that allows you to deflect two mundane arrows shot at you, once a day.” Tangay of Seven Stars presented the shield.

“And this chainshirt I decided to name Zealot's Mail. Besides additional protection it also nullifies any Druidic Magic cast on the person wearing the armour.” he continued.

“Finally, the Volmorin's Blade! If the wielder points the blade at someone and yells “Freeze” the blade unleashes Hold Person upon them. Volmorin has been etched in the pommel, hence the name.”

The duo was most satisfied with their haul.

But the question remains: what now?

Discuss at Dragonsfoot forum.

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Adventurers

Character	Class	Description
Hector	Fighter level 3	Balding warrior in the dwarf corpse retrieval business.
Ignaeus	Elf level 2	A slightly weathered looking elf with dull blonde hair and chiselled features. Seeks wealth and knowledge.
Theros	Cleric level 1	EYoung idealist committed to proving himself to Sashu, God of Justice and Blind Beggars.
Thorn the Dwarf	Dwarf level 1	Ashen hair, beard, and eyes. Left his own clan due to financial trouble.
Mayonnaise	Elf level 1	Albino elf with long white eyelashes, flowing white hair, magnificent white cape, and long two-handed sword.

Longrass 14th, Fireday

“We shall recover Bob.”

Hector accepted another mission to retrieve a dwarven corpse; something he was especially gifted at. He recently arrived to Hara, along with his fellow adventurers Ignaeus, Theros, Thorn, and Mayonnaise.

He collected information from Leticia, a retainer of the named deceased. Apparently he was a member of noteworthy Company that resides in Hara, and they wished his corpse to be retrieved.

Reasons did not matter to Hector, only future prospects. So he took his party to the described cave. Thorn remained outside, by the cave entrance.

Exploring the cave system by the entrance led the party to discover evidence of fight by the slow moving stream. There they also found a dead lizard—whose tail they promptly removed for the promised bounty of twenty five gold coins.

Axe heads, fragments of shield, and other iron shavings were lodged into the stream's bed. A naked and beheaded human was thrown on the south side of the stream. The man was dead.

Poorly concealed secret doors led into a small chamber that housed a simple desk, straw-bed and demonic idol of fat humanoid with ram head. Mayonnaise cracked open small chest by the bed. Three hundred gold coins, an emerald, and vial with dark red-brown liquid.

Opting not to follow the stream, adventurers moved north, exploring various smaller caves and labyrinthine tunnels. In one of the smaller caves they found two naked corpses of pig faced humanoids and a sack of rotten grains.

Following a long tunnel, which at one moment slopped downwards, led them into another sizeable cave with five exists. Blood trail indicated something had been dragged into south west tunnel.

Tightening their formation, the party proceeded forward.

“Stop...”

Both elves heard sounds of something munching on a bone.

The party stopped to discuss what should they do next.

Alas, their ingenious planning was interrupted by a giant lizard charging them out of darkness.

Adventurers withdrew back into the chamber, where all four could strike at the reptile. The lizard stood little chance against such coordinated violence.

Mayonnaise took the spear passed to him, and the promptly jammed it into the beast's skull. Next he flung the lifeless corpse to the cave wall like it was nothing but a little toy.

“Wow, are you THAT strong?” other adventurers marvelled.

Either way, another giant lizard tail to remove and drop nearby. After all, they did not want to be encumbered before cleaning out the cave system.

Going down the south east tunnel, adventurers reached a cave so expansive their torchlight couldn't even reach the ceiling. Even the softest of footsteps echoed. Sound of running water could be heard as if it was coming from all directions.

The part soon came upon a curious sight. A slain lizard, next to a dead orc. This orc was dressed and had claw and bite marks. Some twenty feet away from them were four orc corpses, all naked. They lied with broken necks and collarbones, as if they fell from above. But all also had deep wounds caused by slashing and piercing weapons.

A rope ladder hung from darkness, leading up the cave wall.

“I am going up!” Mayonnaise announced, lit up his torch, and climbed. It didn't take him long to reach the top. He stood on the edge, overlooking large cave and his colleagues beneath him. To the south was a shallow, slow stream, lazily flowing south east.

“Come down!”

The elf ignored the calls to return, and bravely went south, into the darkness, to explore the chamber and adjoining tunnels all by himself.

Hector, Ignaeus, and Theros waited for half an hour. Then they decided to follow the blood trail leading east. They encountered two more naked corpses. The trail continued south, down the narrow tunnel. Sound of frothing water could be heard up ahead.

The trio pushed on.

The stream was falling down a series of rocks, causing noise. It wasn't too high, but with all the rocks and slipper limestone, traversing it would be difficult. After the waterfall the stream was effectively an underground river, rapidly gaining depth.

Standing at the shore, adventurers scanned the chamber.

A giant lizard came charging from their left.

Another giant lizard lunged out of water from the south.

The trio tightened their ranks in time and successfully defended themselves from the initial onslaught.

Theros landed a mighty blow. Hector followed by splitting the reptile's head with his hand axe. Ignaeus missed.

Mayonnaise appeared at the top of the waterfall. There he stood, with a torch in his hand, and no missile weapons.

Illustration by kickmaniac.

Unwilling to be useless, he hopped down the slipper stones with amazing agility, and joined the fray swinging his two-handed sword.

Theros, possibly distracted by such stupendous display of magnificence, was overpowered by surviving lizard. The beast stood on its hind legs and dropped its weight on the cleric. Then it bit sideways into his unprotected neck, decapitating him with one bite.

Hector avenged his fellow adventurer by severing the giant lizard's tail and letting it die in writhing agony.

Moments later Thorn the Dwarf joined them. He was yearning for some action.

To the south of the stream were two joined caves. A nest of large eggs indicated this was the giant lizard's lair. Close to the waterfall was dwarf corpse missing left leg, left arm, face, and scalp.

“This must be Bob. What the hell is he doing here?”

Some mysteries can never be solved.

The party picked up Bob's corpse, three eggs, five giant lizard tails, and returned to Hara to collect their bounty.

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Adventurers

Character	Class	Description
Bob the Dwarf	Dwarf level 3	Midget with big beard in search of an adventure.
Hoffman	Fighter level 1	Bold, aggressive, and ugly. But good at heart.
Leticia	Cleric level 1	Extremely righteous, borderline zealot, devout follower of Rasthri, Goddess of Strength in Revenge.
Lugh	Elf level 1	An elf from faraway secluded area, suspicious of people.
Cesar	Halfling level 1	Brawly trouble magnet, but has good head on his shoulders.

Longrass 11th, Airday

Bob has had it with Hagar the Haughty! Once again Hagar left without Bob, taking other adventurers on an expedition that will make them all rich. But not Bob!

Was it because Bob was defaced by a carnivorous giant fly? Or because he was scalped by an Altanian? No! It was because Bob now wields the mighty Wolfhammer, and Hagar surely envies him!

But Bob decided not to sit idly on his ass. No! He allowed his entrepreneurial spirit to blossom, and he recruited four promising adventurers: Hoffman the Fighter, Leticia the Cleric, Lugh the Elf, and Cesar the Halfling.

Then he found a local merchant who needs help: giant lizards laired close to where rivers Farhills and Cedarwade meet. Twenty-five gold coins per tail were sufficient to buy this newly formed party.

Bob then led the party to the described cave. They lit up a torch and descended into a dark hole overlooking the river bank.

Narrow and slippery limestone slopped downwards. It was broad enough to allow the party to proceed in single-file formation.

“Psst. Stop.”

Bob and Lugh halted the party.

Snoring in the darkness.

The party moved on slowly.

A slumped pig-faced humanoid was snoring.

A hand axe by its hip.

Snot-bubbles coming out of its snout.

Someone fired at the monster.

And missed.

The orc looked up, confused.

Hoffman gingerly smashed its head against the cave wall.

The beast slumped into eternal slumber.

The cave they descended to was quite large, spanning some forty feet wide and sixty feet long, if not longer. But the adventurers were preoccupied with the cave passaged that was lit. Low grunts could be heard coming from that direction.

Sneaking closer, Bob took a peek.

Four pig-faced beastmen sitting around a campfire.

They were blissfully unaware of the horror that is about to jump them.

The party released a volley at unsuspecting foes.

Cesar and Lugh had slain one; the rest fled east; splashing and tripping in the shallow stream.

One gasped as arrow penetrated its lung from behind.

“Onwards!”

Bob charged after the fleeing monsters.

His new recruits followed diligently.

Except Cesar. The halfling crossed the stream. Just to see what's on the other side, you know. There he found two wooden chests. Of course he took a look. The chests were filled with gold and silver coins.

Rest of the adventurers followed the stream. Bob halted the party at the narrowest point.

“We will wait for them here.”

Grunts could be heard in distance. Lugh could understand some of this primitive language. There were cries and complaints. Then somebody said “Go get the Bonecrusher!”

The party readied themselves. Weapons braced. Position reinforced.

Silence.

Silence.

Thunderous cheers.

Sounds of many feet running through the stream.

“Waaagh!”

Eight pig-faced beastmen came charging out of darkness. One towered over them, dressed in clinky chainshirt and wielding a longspear with wicked barbed top.

The ranks clashed against each other.

Bob swung his Wolfhammer, but missed the Bonecrusher.

The orc sidestepped the attack, swung his spear at the dwarf's belly, breaking his ribs. Then he quickly stepped back, rotated the spear, and drove it through Bob's back. Blood and gore splattered all over the adventurers as Bonecrusher yanked the barbed spear out of Bob's lifeless body.

The adventurers tightened their ranks; as did their anuses.

Orcs roared and pushed through the Bonecrusher.

They were eager for blood.

Hoffman stepped forth.

Oh how glorious he was in his plate armour, shield, and superior dexterity.

He deflected blow after blow.

He left no error go unpunished.

Leticia was to his left; Cesar to his right.

“Waa–”

He smashed the face of roaring orc with his shield, then finished him off with a mighty blow.

Halfling was badly wounded. If it weren't for Lugh's quick reaction, Cesar would've been gone for sure. The elf dragged him out of melee, and then he stepped forth. Despite his pathetic strength and thin leather armour.

Hoffman killed another beastmen with a single blow, dropping its lifeless corpse in front of Lugh.

Shallow stream was getting clogged by orc corpses.

Leticia screamed as she crushed her first orc.

Hoffman followed with yet another powerful attack.

Then he jumped on the pile of corpses and bellowed a war cry.

Orcs hacked him to death, and added his corpse to the pile.

Stream was now more blood than water.

Blood stained cave walls all the way up to the ceiling.

Lugh was quickly brought down.

Cesar repaid his life debt by dragging the elf out of melee.

Both were messed up, barely remaining conscious.

Leticia was the last one standing.

Until she wasn't.

She held her ground for good time.

But her blows weren't connecting.

Her shield and plate armour were dented by orcs' relentless attacks.

She slumped on her knees, bruised and battered.

Bonecrusher grunted in ecstasy as he dragged the spear along the cave wall.

Leticia gritted her teeth.

This is a good death.

Law fighting Chaos.

Nothing to be ashamed of.

Lugh and Cesar had to cover their eyes from a sudden sunburst from within the cave.

Once they were able to see again they were amazed by the sight.

Leticia standing strong; her armour perfectly mint; her hammer and shield with yellowish glow.

Cleric screamed as she leaped of the corpses.

She smashed Bonecrusher's head with a single mighty blow.

Elf and halfling threw themselves at the last surviving beastmen. Together they were able to wrestle one and hack him to death.

Rejuvenated by divine intervention, Leticia fought like a Valkyrie of legends. She crushed legs of one orc, throwing him to the ground. There halfling jumped on his and stabbed him to death.

Lugh killed the final beastman.

Leticia moved the corpses aside. Then she took Bob's Wolfhammer.

The survivors then filled five backpacks worth of coins.

Five hundred gold coins and one thousand and five hundred silver coins, to be exact.

Beats whatever that guy would pay for lizards' tails.

They left the corpses to the stream.

The trio left the cave and returned to Hara.

Thus they were welcomed to the Barbarian Altanis.

Discuss at Dragonsfoot forum.

#Wilderlands #SessionReport

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