Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Session 15

We were surrounded by satyrs.  Fortunately, I had enough time to push Bram off his horse and one of the satyrs not knowing that Nightwind was effected closed to engage in melee with him.  The satyrs had shortbows, but most of them were in melee with us and used there heads, literally, to attack us.  One closed behind Ja'Lil on his horse, but Ja'Lil used his horse to try and get away and ended up attacking the one preventing him from leaving with his horse.  Nightwind dropped the first one and soon after Ja'Lil was knocked from his horse and fled through the brush and rocks surrounding the road we were on.  Bram, having woken up from being dumped off his horse, used his magic missile wand after using his spell of the same name to get rid of some of them.  I told everyone at the beginning that they needed cold iron weapons to defeat them faster.  My longsword didn't do much damage, but when there was only one satyr left Nightwind and I flanked him and a was able to sneak attack him and drop him.
   After we stacked there bodies and found their treasure, a large chest full of silver and a masterwork wooden harp, we set up camp for the night on the other side of the road.  While resting for the night, we scared off a black bear scrounging around looking for something.  I was happy we were lucky in only having one black bear show up.
   We continued towards the ruins at first light and had an uneventful lunch of rations.  We started towards the ruins afterwords until we were about an hour away from the bridge.  We hear some noise from our left and find ourselves being attacked by some large owlbear skeletons.  All we knew was that they were undead creatures.  Ja'Lil was the man of the hour with his cleric training.  He destroyed three of the skeletons before Nightwind and I could get the fourth wobbling on his feet for Bram to use his wand and blast the last one to dust.  Apparently, skeletons have no treasure, but when I uttered these words, Ja'Lil, the cleric replied,"that's because they have no pockets."  We all have a good laugh after that.

That's where we left off for the night.  We'll be back on in a month since we are participating in the World's Largest Trivia event in two weeks and preparing ourselves with note gathering.  Until next time; safe gaming and have fun.

Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Session 14

We knock on the door to the small cabin where Stand lives; definitely meager in appearance.  There was a vegetable garden to the rear of the cabin, a scant stable for his warhorse, and a stonewall drawing well with a large wooden bucket behind the garden.  The scenery was very picturesque.  We hear a response from inside the cabin, "Yeah."
   Nightwind pipes in,"We are here to talk and we brought some friends."  We hear some shuffling from inside and about five minutes later the door opens.  Filling the large door frame in front of us is the figure of Stand, the paladin of Chauntea.  He is wearing his plate mail armor with his holy symbol prominently etched into it with oak filigree.  He is the biggest human that I have ever seen.
   "I see you brought some friends," Stand utters while he turns to face the drow Druid,"I am Stand Doffersteen and who might you be?"
   "I am Syllanna Darklight of the Darklight family, but I am now known as Lightwater, my Druid name.  I am pleased to meet you."
   Stand nods approvingly and sidesteps evacuating the door and leaving a halfling that it seems nobody noticed was standing behind him.  Stand announces,"This is my friend and partner; introduce yourself Rolo."
   The halfling shuffles his feet a bit and then seems to gain his self-confidence as he erects himself and bows formally towards Syllanna,"I am Rolondo Trackfeet, but I am known as Rolo the Tracker.  My friends call me Rolo."  He rights himself and immediately sidesteps behind the paladin.
   At that moment, the army mage-cleric, the human that we rescued from inside the orc encampment, stepped forward,"I am Sir Staven Misthaven.  It has been my privilege to know you, but after what has happened at Po's Inn, I need to be back on my  way to Reka Padaet.  I must first speak with the stable master at Po's to procure new horses for me and my countrymen.  Fare thee well."
  We learn a few interesting things from Stand while we watch Sir Staven and the three other soldiers head off to Trynt.  We then inform him off the pending doom coming from the Black Tree Ruins and he informs us that we need to go back and count how many leaves remain on the tree.  He tells us that he will go into Trynt and investigate what happened at Po's Inn.  We head off towards town; Stand and Rolo said they would be arriving tomorrow.
   We go to Korgle's and Syllanna comes with us, though she says she is leaving in the morning.  Once we arrive at Korgle's we hear obnoxious tales inside, which is packed full, about a dragon, a vampire, and some lizardfolk group.  We find a table in the corner with three chairs and two more chairs along the wall.  We all sit down.  After awhile, I notice Syllanna paying attention intently to the rumors.
   "You're not believing everything they are talking about, are you?"
   "Well, I don't believe what they are saying about how they all showed up at Po's Inn, but I wonder where they came up with a dragon, a vampire, and lizardfolk."
   "What do you mean?"
   "I mean, why those three particular villains, why not bugbears or orcs that killed everyone at Po's."
   "Oh."
   We ask a passing barmaid about the dragon and the other rumors.  She tells us about a dragon seen about one year ago flying overhead and a story about lizardfolk from the southern marsh swamp three years ago and finally a story about livestock being drained of blood near the lake to the east.  She ends up serving us our food.  While eating, we remember about the little boy we found at Po's.  We go to Po's to check on him after we get done eating.  We notice a small light coming from inside Po's, the door was unlocked, so we go in and say "hello" to see if anyone was there.   A woman comes from in back towards the kitchen and she tells us that the boy was from a visiting family and that he is staying with Mary at Mary's Market.  Ja'Lil says that she looked like she was crying.  The floor of Po's was stained red and looked wet and water-logged.  We go back to Korgle's and sleep.
   When we awake, Syllanna is gone.  We take our horses and ride north towards the black tree ruins and everything was fine until twilight when we were ambushed with magical music.  First Bram, his horse and Ja'Lil's horse fell asleep.  We then heard another melody different than the first.  Ja'Lil had kicked his horse, waking it, but then it seemed that he was affected by this music.  After that music was done, a third tune started up and I heard some leaves rustling to my right and saw a hiding monster in the brush.  I yelled out,"It's a satyr."

That is where we left off.  We will be playing this next week if all goes well.  Until then, game safe and have fun.

Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Session 13

Bram, Ja'Lil, Nightwind, and I left the Black Tree Ruins and headed back to Trynt on our horses.  We made the trip in two days without any problems, but when we got into Trynt and had arrived at our room at Korgle's Karriage we were just getting ready to sleep, already out of our armor and lying down when there was a knock on our door.  Nightwind blurted out,"Who is it?"

We all heard the door open and close.  We then grabbed our weapons which were always close to our beds and noticed after a little while a shadowy figure sitting on a chair near the table in the room.  Nightwind asked Ja'Lil to light a candle.
A deep female voice said,"There is no need."  I ball of light emerged from her hand and illuminated the entire room brightly.  There sat a hooded figure; the light not penetrating the hood concealing her face.  She asked if we had discovered anything at the Black Tree Ruins.  We all looked at each other with dumbfoundedness.
Nightwind replied,"Where?'
She responds,"The place you just came back from."
Nightwind asks,"How do you know where we came from?"
She says,"Because that is where you were going the last time we talked."
We all look dumbfounded until she lowers her light and removes the hooded cloak concealing her face.
We instantly recognize her as the female Drow that helped us awhile back.
She asks,"Did you find anything new out on the Black Tree Ruins?"
We show her the map and tell her we found it in Phrum Castle.  She asks us if and where we found any other information about the ruins.  We tell her of Grimml, the gnome.
She gasps,"A gnome mapkeeper.  You met a gnome mapkeeper here in Trynt?  I would like to meet him.  We'll go in the morning.  I'll sleep here."  We all sleep and travel across the street to Grimml's in the morning.  We knock loudly on the door since we remember how long it took last time we were here for him to answer the door.  She said that she should be the one in the front of the door since he hadn't met her yet.  We didn't argue.  She approached the door as Nightwind stepped away after knocking loudly.  She knocked on the door with a slight single tap and the whole building shook and dust came out of every nook and cranny.  About three seconds after she knocked, the door swung open and Grimml was standing there and was yelling,"Can I ..." and as he noticed her he became quite distraught and whimpered the last little bit " ... help you?"
She replied,"I am sure you can."
Grimml bowed and swept the door open for her to enter and as he did we followed her inside.  While stepping inside, we noticed low clouds of dust being swept outside into the street.  The place was clean and organized as far as we could see.
She leaned down and whispered into Grimml's ear,"Are you a Lorekeeper as well?"
Grimml simply nodded his head.  She sat down and we around her while she asked Grimml for anything he had on the city of Shyvalti.  Grimml went to a bookshelf toward the back of the room, moved a book and part of the shelf swung in to the right, he entered and about fifteen seconds later and after some noise of things being shuffled around, he emerged with a stack of five books and a couple maps.
She simply said,"Show me."
Grimml started opening the books and laying out the maps on the table nearby which was cluttered the last time we were here.
Nightwind says,"Looks like you cleaned up in here and organized."
Grimml nods no, glances towards the Drow and replies,"It was a gift.  I'll try to keep it this way from now on."
He opens the first book and Grimml says,"Most of the books say the same thing, but this one says it the best."

THE BOOK READS:
Shyvalti was created by Magister Elwynn Nightshade in the year of the moon at harvest time (about 250 years ago).  The population reached a peak of 3,000 individuals before it was destroyed by an unknown entity 200 years after its creation.

Grimml then points at the maps showing that they all have the city of Shyvalti listed on them.  The map he shown to us earlier is not among the ones he is showing and we whisper between ourselves about this, but he overhears us and states,"The one I showed to you was stolen about 6 days ago."
He points to one particular map and says,"This map has Shyvalti* listed, but has an asterisk after the name.  I looked on the back of the map and there is an asterisk there."  He points to it.

THE WORDS AFTER THE ASTERISK:
   *Believed destroyed because it cannot be found.

We are about to leave when Grimml points his index finger towards the sky and shouts,"Ohh!, I just remembered."  He rushes to the open bookshelf he used before and closes it, moves a different book and the bookshelf opens the other direction.  He enters and all we can see is his illuminated backside.  We hear rustling and then he emerges with a book.  Grimml brings the book over and we notice that the binding has Elven script written in gold while it also has common scratched into it as well.

THE COMMON PHRASE:  "Prophecy and Poem"
THE ELVEN PHRASE:   "Prophecy in Poem"

We ask if the translation is correct and tell him its not, but he insists that it is correct because he translated it.  His tone implied that he knew the translation was wrong and that he had done so on purpose.  The page he opened to listed a poem with no title.

THE POEM:

     When Xarrax still slumbers
           and the black tree loses all leaves
   he will awaken and take all he sees
           into the depths of hell
   from the gate they made
          in the Runes of Shyvalti.

We get up and leave, but I notice that Grimml bows onto one knee and holds his arm out towards the Drow and says to her,"Thank you Mistress Syllanna and may the Darklight family guide you."

We leave and head towards Po's Inn where the army we saved is resting, but once we get to the center of town near the fountain we hear a blood curdling scream and Bram's ears actually bleed.  People are running away from the inn.  While Bram stays back near the fountain with the Drow, Nightwind, Ja'Lil and I rush towards the front entrance to Po's.  Once inside, we all almost lose our stomachs.  The scene is horrific with dead bodies strewn about the place and a pool of blood in the common room.  We see broken wine casks and the sweet smell permeates the very skin we wear.  Ja'Lil attempts to find any survivors in the common room, we counted ten soldiers, while Nightwind and I go upstairs to find survivors.  The inn has three floors, and on the second we find five dead bodies in the hall and two dead bodies in the first room and two dead bodies in the second room, but also find a slumbering four year old human boy stashed on top of the drapery on the bed.  We continue our search for the Army magic user that we saved.  The first room on the third floor, no bodies in the hallway, has two soldier bodies on the floor and a third standing there staring out the window.  His body suddenly falls to the floor and we see a shadowy figure with a dagger.  The figure seems to fade under the bed and Nightwind hurries to the next room, but yells,"Trouble!"  So I follow him to the next room.  Inside the room we see a soldier grabbing his stomach with a look of pain on his face while the Army mage is holding a sword and pointing it towards the soldier.  Suddenly, the soldiers body flies forward and we see the shadowy figure standing there again with his black dagger in his hand.  Nightwind draws steel and steps to engage the shadowy figure while I step in front of the Army mage in his nightgown and face the shadowy figure.  The shadowy figure looks at Nightwind, then at me, then at Nightwind, then at the mage and points angerly at him with his dagger while barking in Goblin,"It's your luck day, Mage!"
The shadowy figure then phases out in a wisp of cloud and shadow completely disappearing.  We try and save as many as we can, but in the end, only three soldiers survive along with the mage.   We then decide to leave town, we all check Po's stable and find that every animal in the stable is slain.
Nightwind says,"It seems they were efficient."
I say,"No, it means they were thorough."
The mage replies,"It means they don't know who I am or what I am."
We agree to head out to the Paladin's place, a half a day away by foot.  On the way, I ask the Drow,"So Syllanna, what's your last name?"
I am not quick enough to dodge the slap she has for my face and I am not fast enough to land on my feet.  The force of her slap lands me on the ground.
I reply,"What, I only asked your last name?"
She replies,"It's not what you asked, but how you asked it.  You should learn to talk."
She tells of how the name she was born with is Syllanna Darklight, but when she became a Druid seven years ago, that she chose a new Druid name for herself and that she is also known as Lightwater.

We arrive at the Paladin Stand's home, we knock and he is home.

This is where we left off and we had a lot of fun doing some role-play tonight.  Well, until next time, safe gaming and have fun.

Dungeons & Dragons Session 12 (2.5 converted to 3.5)

Well, Nightwind, Ja'Lil, Bram and I, Solon, were standing inside the cave entrance of the Temple of Gruumsh preparing to leave when we noticed a magical wave falling over the world.  I noticed a slight change in all my abilities, gear, and knowledge.  The others said that they had noticed similar changes as well.  (This was the effect of converting from 2.5 edition to 3.5 edition)

Right before we departed the cave, we heard an alarm sound from the orc village tower and we all heard an orc-language coming from that direction.  Nightwind translated for us what the voice was saying.  The voice said,"Owlbears attacking from all sides.  Battle positions.  Battle positions."  We saw groups of orcs leaving the village going north and south and one group, lead by some orc, was coming towards us.  I think they saw us.  There were ten orcs all together, but I couldn't tell which one was the leader.  They all wielded falchions and each had two javelins.  They all wore studded leather armor.  It was a quick fight for the four of us.  We looted what gear we could find and quickly left.

After defeating the orcs we made it out of the village and headed towards our horses, but we heard some growling before we got there.  Bram, Nightwind and I spotted two owlbears hiding by our horses, which they must not have seen or heard or smelled, but they noticed us when we moved closer.  The owlbears charged us and we had a hard time getting into position for a good attack.  Nightwind and I took the fight to them and once I got my flank on them, we defeated them quite quick, but it was touch and go there for a while.  I think I lost consciousness once after receiving a blow from the one owlbear.

We rested the night nearby under cover of the smell of dead owlbear and departed for Trynt in the morning.  We were a slow moving group, especially with the seventeen survivors of the Temple.  We made it to Trynt in four days.  Found out that the full moon was in three days time.  We made plans to make toward the Black Tree Ruins the next day, but for now we'll rest and get some needed gear and maybe do some upgrading on our gear.

We left the next day, and had an easy two days travel to where we think the ruins were according to the map.  Luckily, Ja'Lil found some shiny stones that turned into a trail.  We couldn't have found it without his help or the full moon's light.  We followed the trail, which turned into a paved path and led straight to a covered wooden bridge, but the moonlight didn't shine inside.  Nightwind, Ja'Lil, and I were all kinda weirded out by this, but Bram didn't seem to notice and walked straight inside the covered bridge with his lit up staff and disappeared.  We called out and he answered back, like nothing was amiss.  Apparently there was a magic field of glamour at the front of the bridge protecting what was on the other side.  When we walked through, I noticed right away that the glamour field extended further than just the mouth of the covered bridge.  We didn't see anything from outside the entrance that we could see now.  First was the silvery path inside the bridge and extending up the thirty-foot hill with the ruins where the black tree could be seen.  All of this was visible from this side of the bridge.  The path was wide enough for one horse and it zig-zagged all the way up the hill.  We entered the ruins through an archway wide enough for one horse.

Inside the ruins, we discovered a guard station, a ruined building, an old, torn-up, worn-down stable and a circle of stones around the awe inspiring black tree.  I searched the guardhouse and told the others that it was recently built within the last three years, but hadn't been used for the last year.  I hypothesized that maybe something lived here, but was now dead or gone.  I then told the others of a story I had heard from the merchants back in our village of the people of the south who had gardens of rock and how they only used rakes to keep them clean and organized.  I told them that these ruins reminded me of a garden of rock.  How all the leaves were gone from the ground, no tracks anywhere, and that the only leaves were black and inside the circle of stones around the black tree.  Nightwind investigated the circle of stones around the tree and then stepped over the circle of the stones.  Outside the circle, the black tree appears to be only about thirty feet tall, but inside the circle, which I entered after Ja'Lil and Nightwind, appeared to be over one hundred feet tall and while it was only five feet from the circle of stones outside the circle it was now thirty feet away from us and it was almost thirty feet in diameter.  It was maybe two feet thick on the outside of the circle.  I immediately left the inside of the circle and was amazed to find that I could not see Nightwind or Ja'Lil inside the circle, but I could still talk to them like they were next to me.  I convinced Bram to try and he couldn't step over the stones to get inside the circle.  The others couldn't even hear his voice.  Bram started investigating the stones around the tree.  I translated what he said to the other side of the circle.  I witnessed Bram studying the stones when he pulled out this little broom and started sweeping the stones.  He wasn't saying anything and was going from stone to stone around the tree.  He got to the last stone and passed out.  I told the others and Ja'Lil came out to check on Bram.  Ja'Lil woke Bram up and asked him what was going on.  Bram then remembered what he had been doing and relayed the story of the symbols that were engraved into the stones to us.

Long ago, there was a beautiful Elven city here called Shyvalti.  Many lived here and all were welcome.  One day a traveling person entered the city and vanished.  People remembered him entering, but didn't remember what he looked like or where he had gone or if he had left.  Other people started vanishing.  The royal court's investigators came in and searched high and low for the missing people.  On the eighth day, the investigators found all the bodies, forty-seven in all underground in the cavern that supported the city's well.  They also encountered the evil that had started living there.  It was a very powerful Troll ************.   The Royal Court's wizards came in and bound the evil inside the well and put five wards on the tomb of this evil.  The first ward was the iron tomb that sealed the body of the monster.  The second ward was the tree on the tomb around the body.  The third ward was the invisible force field around the tree preventing any from touching it.  The druids had come in to plant the oak tree on the tomb, but the evil inside the tomb made the tree black.  They used their magic to make the tree grow, but the evil eventually made the giant tree all black including the leaves that fell from it.  The fourth ward was the field around the circle of stones that prevented any non-Elf from entering near the tree.  The fifth and final ward was the field around the city preventing all from seeing inside.

Bram also told us of the stone after the symbol for troll that was eroded away.  He told us that magical symbols don't erode away.  He also told us of the last stone he read before passing out.  He told us that the last stone was in a different hand and that it was extremely evil.  He said that the words on the stone were: I'm coming back.  SOON!

After hearing this story, we all decided to go back to Trynt and send word to the Druids and hopefully prevent disaster from coming again.

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised to 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons

We met on our regularly scheduled Tuesday Night and began the process of converting the old 2.5 characters to the 3.5 edition.  The process took longer than expected which means that we had less than an hour left for combat.  This wouldn't work, so we called it a night.  The conversions are done and the next time we meet we will be starting combat.  As it stands, we rescued 15 prisoners that belonged to the army and the paladin and rogue that we had gone to find in the first place.  Also, in 3.5 edition, Bram cannot use a wand of fire since one doesn't exist, so now it is a wand of fireball and he isn't high enough level to use it.  The Bracers of Dexterity are now Bracers of Dexterity +4, and his cloak is a Cloak of Protection +3.  He has a Wand of Fireball and a Wand of Magic Missile which both have 50 charges.

As a side note, I haven't decided if Bram will be a Wizard or a Warmage.  I am leaning towards a Warmage, but maybe I will Multi-class him.

Until next time, safe gaming and have fun.

AD&D 2.5 to Dungeons and Dragons 3.5

So, I have looked at my game and I believe that it would be far easier to convert the existing characters in my AD&D Revised game into 3.5 D&D characters than it is to convert 3.5 D&D Monsters into 2.5 D&D Monsters.  I looked at the books and thought "NO."  Originally, it was my plan to convert some of the monsters in the five Monster Manuals into terrifying monstrosities for 2.5 D&D, but the conversions were not consistent with the Conversion Manual PDF I downloaded.  So, just gonna start the game where the characters left off, maybe after one last 2.5 game and then convert to 3.5 and just keep rolling.  I feel and hope this transition will suit me better and my players, plus, on the positive side, if I do convert to 3.5, I will hopefully gain another player on hopefully a permanent situation.

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Session 11

After moving on from the cemetery, we traveled towards the Temple of Gruumsh that we have on one of the maps we possess.  We arrived on the outskirts of the temple and I did a little scouting and found a village of orcs and the temple.  We decided to sneak in after Bram used the scroll of sending.  Through the scroll, we discovered that the mage was being held in the cave on the far side of the temple ruins and that there were some bad guys in there as well.  We snuck in hugging the wood palisade and made our way towards the cave where we encountered four Orog guards blocking the entrance of the cave.  While moving forward, a twig snapped under my foot and since they heard it, we were discovered.  We dispatched the four with ease.  We then proceeded into the cave, knowing that the ones inside were aware of our presence since one of the four guards grunted something inside alerting the other guards.

Temple of Gruumsh and Village of Bloody Skull

We made our way inside to see a cave with a 40 foot ceiling and nine iron cells, one with a large double door and one makeshift wooden shack with a door.  Since we knew that there were guards inside the cave, we thought they had gone into the shack and hid.  So we surrounded the entrance to the small shack and opened the door.  As soon as we did though, to cell doors clicked open and there were six other guards bearing down on us.  One of them shouting orders.  We fought them as best we could, however, I fell down twice, Bram fell down, and Nightwind died even after he consumed the whole potion of growth, but when his huge form fell, it knocked one into the fire and he burned alive.  Fortunately, his fall caused the one large cell that held the humans, the other cells held other demi-humans that were slaves, and the mage that we had encountered before noticed the door was unhinged and made his way out with two other humans.  The other two looked like fighters.  The mage made his way towards the shack while the other two tackled the one Orog while Ja'Lil battled the leader of their group.  There were only two left when the mage emerged and when he exited the shack he took out both the leader and the other Orog with a ring he possessed.  He raised Nightwind from the dead and healed me and Nightwind.  We then looted what we could find.  We are now leaving the cave hoping that Bram, who was healed by Ja'Lil, can cause a distraction with his wand of fire.

This is where we left off.  Until next time, good gaming and play safe.

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Session 10

We started out by rewinding time a little.  While we were in the camp of the army we had cure disease cast upon Bram and Solon.  Bram had his affliction of rabies cured while Solon had his debilitating disease cured.  It took one week for Solon to heal.  We missed the full moon.  We then decided to search out the Black Tree Ruins anyways.  That is when we defeated the Ogre.  That is where we begin.

We decided to set up camp and Ja'Lil caught some fish while I, Solon, foraged for some berries and greens.  Nightwind gathered firewood and cooked a delicious meal.  We then set out and about one half a day later we found a place to start our search.  We noticed the lack of any game or edible anything.  I, Solon, created signs along the way so we could find our way back to this place.  We then headed back to Trynt.  On our way, we defeated a group of four ettercaps.  We made our way back to Trynt, sold the items we found in the Ogre's cave and decided to get cleaned up at the bath house.  I got an ugly, fat, human girl and was upset to see Bram the Oblivious, which is what I am calling him since he burned us with his firewall spell from his fire wand while we battled the ettercaps, who had gotten the elf lass I had last time.  When we dropped off our stuff at Korgle's we noticed a yellow ribbon on our door and a letter inside saying:

To All Members of the Security Class

    We the Guild of Security have
changed the policy regarding
    the telling of colors and have
decided to hang the ribbon
    of the chosen color on your front
door.  However, we are raising
    the protection fee from 50 gp
to 100gp per year.

                                      - Thanks for being faithful
                                         MANAGEMENT

We decided to go and check on our Paladin friend since nobody had been to his temple in the last two weeks other than us that we noticed.  Ja'Lil seemed very upset by this.  So we set out to the Shrine of Gruumsh, the patron god of Orcs, hopeful that we could find him.  Besides, we kinda were working for the army people.

We left Trynt the next morning and paid Korgle for the rooms and boarding of my mules for one month.  It was 10 gp for one month for us and 20 gp for the month for the mules.  We took our horses and went to see if we could find our Paladin friend.  We traveled the road and passed the encampment where the army had camped and Bram and I were healed and while we passed a cemetery late on the third day, we were attacked by undead zombies.  Ja'Lil turned most of them and slayed the one he missed.  We will continue on to rescue our friend.

This is where we ended the session.  Everyone is having fun, so until next time.  Safe gaming and have fun.

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Rules and Hints

These rules and hints are for AD&D 2nd Edition (Revised).  Hopefully, I can actually start doing these on a regular basis since I play a lot of games.  Anyways, to the reason I am writing this.

The first hint is for DM's running giant rats and DISEASE in General.  If a giant rat bites, it has a 5% chance of inflicting a debilitating disease for each wound inflicted.  Meaning, for every time a character is bit by a giant rat start accumulating this 5% chance.  For example, say you have a fighter and a thief, the fighter is bit once during the entire encounter, but the thief sustains three bites during the entire encounter.  This means at the end of the fight the thief has a 15% chance of acquiring a debilitating disease while the fighter only has a 5% chance.  This is only one interpretation and frankly, the nicer one.  However, another way of reading this "wound" can be interpretted as one wound equals one hit point or hp.  For example, say the fighter above took 4 hp worth of damage while the thief only took three hp worth of damage overall (one hp worth of damage from each bite).  Now this means the fighter has a 20% chance of catching the disease while the thief has the same 15% chance.  This is just an example.  Now where to find this debilitating disease, well I looked in the Monstrous Manual (Revised), the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) and the Player's Handbook (PHB).  Couldn't find it anywhere under disease.  Then I looked one last time in the index and the effects of debilitating disease are actually under the Priest spell for Cure Disease when it's reversed into Cause Disease.  Cause Disease and cause debilitating and fatal diseases.  A third way to look at this would be to use the worse or best of the two ways or a combination of the two.

Next, some conflicting news on scrolls and spells.  Given the books I have, and I haven't skimmed them looking in evey nook and cranny for the answer, but I have looked some and I didn't see anyplace that said a wizard has to be of such a level in order to use a scroll, but he has to be of a certain level in order to memorize a spell.  The chapter on magic in the DMG page 61 has some rules on transcribing spells and learning spells.  There are some other useful rules on page 119 of the DMG which cover creation.  The most useful information on scrolls is on page 196 of the DMG.

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Session 9

So we made it back to Korgle's Karriage and had some dinner and as Korgle was serving us he asked if we had heard the news.  We asked what news and he explained to us about the troop of men who had come through town.  Marched right through and only one of the three men on horseback stopped and talked to the wizards at the Wizard's Guild then walked across the road and nailed something to the door of the town hall.  We said we'd check it out after dinner.  We finished eating and headed towards the town hall.  Ja'Lil and I, Solon, were the only ones who can read, so we told the rest of the group what the note said.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

To all who can read this message
within the city.  We are calling all
who are able to track.  All those who
are willing, meet us two days ride
North of the city.  We are camped
there.

Commander Grimm

We went back to Korgle's and told him what the note on the door said.  The message itself was on very fine parchment attached to a leather flap with an iron ring in the center which is what the metal spike nailed to the door of the town hall went through.  We stayed the night at Korgle's and left in the morning on our horses.  I left the wagon and mule team at the inn.  We have paid for ten days worth.

We left through the North Gate and followed the rode.  We came across some hiding kobolds, just three, and since they were trying to hide, we just frightened them off.  We then travelled further and rested the night without incident.  Before we rested, we sprinkled the salt on the old map we had found in Phrum Castle and it changed before our eyes.  The riddle of Shyvaltis is now present and the compass direction has changed.

The Riddle of Shyvaltis

Follow the
moonlit path
under the full moon
Until you see the door
that leads you down

The second day we were taking our mid-afternoon break and were surprised by a group of six rats.  I was bit pretty hard and I don't feel very good.  I feel very weak.  We continued on and ran into the men's encampment later that evening.  I was cured by a cleric there.  We exchanged information with the wizard and commander of the group by giving information we had attained from the maps we had.  The commander asked us to scout for the orc group, which according to him is like 500 strong.  We informed him that there might be a village near the ruins on his map which correspond to the Temple of Gruumsh that we have on our map from Grimml.  The wizard then gave a scroll of Message to Bram and was told to use it if we find the orcs.  We also got a map of the area that the wizard had used scrying on.  We spent the evening in the camp.

We left the next day and traveled towards the Black Tree Ruins, which isn't on the scrying map.  The Dry Well is also not on the scrying map.  We traveled the first day without incident.  The second day we encountered an Ogre, but he seemed pretty dumb.  We followed his tracks back to his cave and found some interesting loot.  He only had a couple gold coins on his person, but his cave turned up a gold snuff box worth 1200 gp, a wooden box with a set of real silverware worth 150 gp, a jade statue of Ilmater worth 4000 gp and a Ornamental dagger with an antler hilt and sheath.  We also found about four gems.

This is where we left off.  Next time we'll hopefully be at the Black Tree Ruins.  Until next time, game safe and have fun.  The following pictures are the treasure map from Phrum before and after the transformation, which isn't much, the map from Grimml on the treasure map area and the Scrying map that we received from the wizard at the encampment.

Treasure Map from Phrum Castle

Treasure map section containing transformation changes

Map from Grimml

Scry Map Overview

Northwest Scry Map corner

Southwest Scry Map corner

Southeast Scry Map corner

Northeast Scry Map corner

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Session 8

So we headed back to the room that had the Giant Toads in it and Nightwind bent the bars to get into the last tunnel and I, Solon, bent the bars to get into the last corner of the sewers.  Nightwind lead the way and we discovered a Giant Rat Lair that had a big yellow rat thing with gigantic teeth seemingly calling the shots.  We dispatched them quite quickly and gathered their heads to add to the amount of gold we would get from Mary at Mary's Market.  We searched the area and found some copper coins and a magical javelin +1 and a periapt of health.  It was quite a find.   We then headed back to the fourth tunnel and headed to the right.  The tunnel curved sharply and the water started getting deeper when we entered into a small room with a concrete slab that had a set of stairs leading up.  The stairs lead into a basement that was being used as a cellar.  The stairs in the corner lead up to what was a wooden barn that was used as a hay storage for animals, but it didn't look like it was currently being used by anyone.

We were on our way out when we were ambushed by some watch spiders.   We dispatched the spiders, but they were quite powerful and when we searched the barn, we found some coins and a gem worth about 50 gp.  We then headed outside and noticed the walls of Trynt to the north of us.  The barn trail that was used by the wagons hauling the hay looked like it hadn't been used in quite some time.  We headed into town and went to Mary's Market where she marveled at the yellow rat with the big teeth.  However, she paid us the 20 gp per rat head that she said she would and gave it to us in platinum.  We then visited the Temple of Helm for healing and noticed that they had a supply of potions that could be had for a small donation.  We stocked our gear with the potions and donated about 1300 gp to the temple for healing potions and antidotes and four potions of extra healing as well.  We then went to Korgle's  and asked where we could take a bath and he said that there was a place about two miles out the east gate that would do the trick.   We decided to walk since it was such an early morning thing.  On our way out of town, we stopped at Grimml's Maps and Books and bought another map that he had searched for that was similar to the treasure map that we had found in Phrum Castle.  His copy of the map he found, we purchased for 10 gp and left to go take a bath.  Grimml turned out to be an elderly gnome.  He also tested the paper the map was written on and told us that it was trapped paper and we needed to sprinkle salt onto the paper under a brightly lit moon-sky at least half-moon or better and clear sky, no clouds.  To unlock the map and show the key, we must do this.

We arrived at the bathhouse, which happened to be a three-story manor house with a ten-foot white wooden gate around the property.  The house had 5 large chimneys that were spouting gray smoke.  There were two guards with halberds at the entrance of the fence and the told us that we would need to take our armor off and give our weapons to the man inside.   We were also told to keep a civil tongue.  We entered and found a pavilion that had lock boxes to store our armor, weapons, etc.  We also could disrobe and redress into white robes in order for our clothes to be cleaned.  Bram the wizard was taken to a special room and we heard him exclaim, "Oh my God!"  He then walked out wearing the white robes and a belt with the red pouch that was storing the maps and his money.  We then went inside the house and were greeted by a slender beauty with blue skin and green hair.  She clapped twice and three elven beauties and one human beauty descended the huge stairs and each took one of their respected race to a room on either side of the stairs.

Time passed blurry and slowly, for it seemed like hours of being pampered and massaged.  Each lady, after the massage, asked if there was anything else that they could do for us.  Nightwind, Ja'Lil, and Bram answered no, but I, Solon, was intrigued and whispered sweet nothings into the elven beauty's ear.  The next thing I remember is walking our the door and seeing the guys staring at my face.  Apparently I had a large red welt from what appeared to be a hand on my face.  We left, got dressed, and paid 5 gp per person to the man in the pavilion.

We then went and re-visited the Temple of Chauntea, where the paladin lives, to see if the symbol we drew had been answered.  It hadn't, so we headed back to Trynt and when we arrived were astonished that it was only 4 in the afternoon, we had left at nine in the morning and it takes 3 hours to walk the distance.  It seemed like six hours that we were at the manor house.   Something weird definitely happened.  We then went to Korgle's and asked if he knew where we could get some salt.  He pointed across the road and said,"You see those two houses, go right behind them and you'll see Lenny's Lamentations.  We went there, bought one pound of salt for one sp and noticed that Lenny was a halfling and that this was a general store/grocery store/restaurant/bakery all in one place.  We then headed back to Korgle's and had some dinner and rested for the night.

This is where we called game.  So until next time; safe gaming and have fun.

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Session 7

Since our torch had been put out, Ja'Lil searched his backpack for a dry torch.  Nope, it would take about 20 minutes for the torch to dry out enough so we could light it.  Being elves, we could see in the sewer dark enough to make out about 30 feet in either direction.  Behind us, the water started moving faster after the walls seemed to become stone and dirt instead of the concrete walls that surrounded us and there seemed to be a definite downward angle towards the passage.  We looked up and saw that the entrance that had transported us into the sewers had closed shut behind us.  We travelled the other way and viewed what seemed like tunnels to the left and right, however, they were blocked by rusty iron bars.  We decided to continue on and the humming that had been heard throughout the sewers was growing louder.  We finally saw what was making the sound as we glanced upon a huge turbine that kept the water moving, but unfortunately the water was being pushed towards us and we couldn't find a way pass the giant turning wheel.  We went back and Nightwind tried to bend the bars to get passage to what lay beyond, but he was unsuccessful.  However, Ja'Lil must have had the strength of Corellon Larethian himself when he easily bent the bars that  Nightwind couldn't.  We slipped in and continued on, Nightwind leading Bram the human wizard who couldn't see in the darkness.  We made it to a room, but when we were all inside, we were attacked from above.  Large Bats who weren't really large size started attacking us.  They would land and bite, then they would fly off again, then start doing it over and over.  Since it was predictable, we easily wiped them out.  We continued on and had to bend bars again.  Again, Ja'Lil had the strength to bend the bars.  We entered into another sewer tunnel and looked to the left and noticed the same kind of exit that the previous tunnel had where the walls turned to rock and dirt and the water sped up as it descended to someplace.  There was another exit covered by iron bars.  These must have been stronger because it took all of us trying in order to have Nightwind succeed on his second attempt.  We squeezed through the bars and was carefully walking forward.  Ja'Lil noticed a secret door on the wall that led back towards the middle of the sewers.  I, Solon, was the first through and we were quiet so as to not be noticed.  There was a large concrete slab above the water and was dry.  We made our way to the slab and noticed that this room had some ambient light.  Enough for the wizard to see.  We could see that there were four tunnels, all blocked by the rotating wheels and some pipes leading up towards the center of town, probably for the water fountain that occupies the center of Trynt.  However, when we were going to leave, Nightwind must have forgotten to be quiet for when he splashed down into the water towards the exit, the same secret door we entered from, we were surprised by a large-sized Giant Slug that spit slime.  We bested it as fast as we could.  It took a little longer than previous battles since this was the first large-sized creature we had ever encountered.  Again, no treasure.  We need to start making a living instead of relying on our semi-rich wizard friend, Bram.  We left, and went back through the secret door, which was pretty much a old dry hallway covered on the one side with camouflaged sheet that was covered in wet, black, slimy moss-like substance which made it difficult to see from the other side.  We lit the torch at this point.

We started towards the far side of the room and was delighted when there wasn't any bars blocking the entrance into the third tunnel.  We looked across the tunnel and noticed another un-barred side tunnel.  We took that and when we entered the room there, we were ambushed by some Giant Toads which were medium-sized.  We dispatched them quite readily, but it was a challenge since they outnumbered us six to four.  The exit to the room was barred and as far as we could tell, the other entrance to that corner was also barred, so we decided to get some rest on the concrete slab in the middle of the sewers since it was dry.  Ja'Lil cast some healing spells on us and drank a few potions that we had gotten from the wheel merchant that we met on the road to Trynt.  We slept well and now we are deciding what to do.

This is where we left off.  Until next time, safe gaming and have fun.
As promised, below are the maps for the city of Trynt.  Any building that doesn't have a number is either residential housing or something to be decided in the future because a business may be needed.

Northeast corner of Trynt

Northwest corner of Trynt

Southwest corner of Trynt

Southeast corner of Trynt

Sewer entrance/exit for Trynt

List of locations in Trynt

I added the sewers and sewer trap-door on the next couple of maps along with the entrance/exit above after the PCs had already sprung the trap.  However, it was fun coming up with a sewer system.  The TD is the trap-door and yes, there are two of them.

Northwest Trynt Sewer corner

Northeast Trynt Sewer corner

Southeast Trynt Sewer corner

Southwest Trynt Sewer corner

Trynt below.  I also have a treasure map coming soon which they found in Phrum Castle.

Trynt Overlay

Trynt Cardinal Directions

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Session 6

As we passed through the mountain pass we came upon a sight that we thanked the heavens for.  The city of Trynt lay before us with its twenty foot stone walls and its large wood and metal doors.  We approached and didn't notice any guards outside so we just walked in.  We then noticed the guards, two sets of two on either side of the road which was 15 feet across; wide enough for two wagons to squeeze by each other if the need arose.  However, Nightwind approached one of the guards and asked where an Inn was.  The guard replied that there was a fancy one down the road on the right and one he trusted on the left side of the road after we took the left turn.  Said the name was Korgle's Karriage.  Went there and noticed a forge and a farmer's market some guild houses and a nice fountain in the center of town where people came to get there water and children can play.  We saw the tallest building in Trynt and wasn't surprised when it turned out to be the Wizard's Guild House which was really a tower.  Bram left us there since the guard said the rules of Trynt were:

1.  No Murder - Anyone caught murdering would be tried and hanged.
2.  No Stealing - Anyone caught stealing would be tried and hanged.
3.  No Casting of Magic while within Trynt unless you had permission from the Wizard's Guild.
4.  No Divine Magic while within Trynt unless you had permission from the Temple of Helm.

So Bram left to get the permission of the Wizard's Guild.  He said he'd meet us at the Inn afterwords.  We continued on to the Inn and met a balding Dwarf inside with a grey beard that had five or six braids in it.  He stared at us and asked us what we wanted, how long we were going to be here and if we wanted anything special for dinner.  We said no, and he said ten gold pieces.  For two nights, stabling for six animals and food included, we thought it was a good deal.

After getting our rooms we asked him who we could sell our goods to.  He replied that we should see Torq for the weapons and helmet.  The wizards for anything magical and Hood's Hides and Leatherworks for the armor and such.  We said thank you and left to go see Torq.  We were completely shocked when we saw Torq.  He was a bear of a man, literally.  He was all hair, at least 10 feet tall, the deepest voice we ever heard.  We think he is a half-giant, but we're not sure.  Torq is the friend that Jud in Stout said he had in Trynt.  Jud was small by comparison.  Torq told us that the wizards should be able to switch over the enchantment on the magical armors we had to the armor that we were wearing and that the Mercenary Guild would take the Splint Mail off of us afterwords, but he would take the Goblin Plate.  He also took the torn helmet from us for two gold pieces (gp).

We then went to Hood's Hides and Leatherworks to sell the studded leather that the orcs we encountered last time had worn.  He gave us 60 gp for six studded leather armors and gave us some info on an impending and rumored war on the Sword Coast which is why his shop was full of hides and armor.  Caravans had stopped going west towards the Sword Coast and that the last Caravan to go to Stout was about five months ago.  We thanked him for the information and headed towards the wizards.

We headed towards the wizards tower and knocked on the front door when we arrived.  We asked if we could sell a cloak and he directed us to the Merchant's Guild.  We told him it was magical and he said to let him see it.  We brought the box forward that contained the cloak and when we opened it to show him, he asked us what cloak.  The box was empty.  We immediately heard a scream from behind us.  We looked to see a collapsed person in the street.  We went over and looked at the figure and discovered a dead gnome that had all purple skin that was starting to fall off.  We turned to the wizard in the door way and shouted, "This cloak!"  We removed the cloak from the gnome and discovered that he was wearing all dark clothing.  We asked the wizard if he knew and he replied that he belonged to something that doesn't exist.  He offered 5gp for the cloak and explained when we asked if he could just disenchant it that the cost of disenchantment would be more than the cloak was worth.  We asked how much it was to transfer enchantments and he said it was 300 gp per item per enchantment.  We asked him if Bram was still here and the wizard replied that he was still on the third floor being interrogated.

asked him if he knew who would buy some fine boots
Said that if we were selling anything, to get a merchant's badge from the Merchant's Guild
Nightwind bought two badges, one for Ja'Lil and one for him for 50 gp for each badge
Solon decided to keep the  boots
Ran into Bram
Asked if we could have 600 and he gave us a pouch of coins
went to the wizards and asked for the transfer of enchantments onto Solon's and Ja'Lil's armors from the goblin plate and the splint mail
paid from the purse that Bram gave us and realized that he  gave us 600 pp instead of gold, so we paid 120pp which is 600 gp
We then checked out the map place and he said to come back in two days
We then went and slept, but someone was in our room and we chased them out the window, but lost them.  We came back and while in the room preparing for sleep, we had a knock at the door.  Nobody wanted to answer it so we drew straws or something and I think Bram opened the door and the housekeeping lady was there.  she said,"oh, they really are elves." and left.  we started to close the door and a walking cane stopped the door from closing all the way.  We opened the door and the leader of the non-existent thieves guild came in.  He actually apologized for the incident with the gnome earlier and extended us a one-time offer of protection from the thieves in Trynt for 10 pp and we took the offer.  he told us about the colors and stuff, so we hung the color he told us too on the door and hopefully no worries.  the rest of the night went uneventful and we went and got our armor from the wizards and sold the plate to Torq and the splint mail to the mercenaries.  We asked where we could find something and we were directed to the Fool's Chance, but before we went there we were at the map place.  Said it would take him 2 days to find what we needed and we left.  We then found the billboard with job listings and decided to check out the jobs.  The first one we checked out was a caravan guard job to Baldur's Gate, but it only paid 10gp per person.   Not worth it.  The next one was to pick rock for one gp per day.  Not what we wanted, so we looked at the third one, it was to kill rats for Mary's Market.  Went there and she said she'd pay us 20 gp per rat head.  We killed the rats in the basement of Mary's Market and found a secret entrance.  We had to squeeze through, but we triggered something cause we ended up sliding on a slippery surface into the sewers.  Our torch was put out when we fell into the water in the sewer.

This is where we ended the session.  I will have maps of Trynt and the sewers in the next post.

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Session 5

We started by selling the goblin leather and hide armor we had collected from the monsters at Phrum Castle to Kram the saddler who said he would take it.  He didn't have enough gold, so we accepted trade.  In exchange for the 4 leather and the 4 hide armors we received 10 gold pieces and a masterwork riding saddle worth 30 gold pieces and the promise of another masterwork saddle in a month or two.  We then went to Jud's Forge sold the two suits of chainmail, six short swords, three battle axes, one bastard sword and one scimitar along with a suit of field plate for two sets of chainmail barding, shoeing two horses, and a bit a bridle for two horses along with 100 gold pieces.  We then went and talked to Kram again and got 4 light war horses that were underfed for 75 gold pieces each along with two riding saddles, saddle blankets.  We then went to Gab's wines and he paid us 50 platinum pieces for a case (24 glass bottles) of elven wine.  We then went to Dirgg's Bazaar and sold two red gems and two ivory tusks to him for 126 platinum pieces.  One hundred for the gems and 26 for the ivory tusks.

We then left Stout and headed to the Stone ruins to find the Druids.  We had to remove a Giant Toad from the road in order to get there, but that was easy.  We made it to the ruins and Nightwind and Ja'Lil meditated the first watch while I remained awake.  Bram the wizard just slept.  A druid appeared on the second watch, she didn't give her name, however she was a Drow.  She helped us with the map we found and told us how to find the Black Tree ruins.  We had found the map after defeating the spiders in the lower level of Phrum Castle.  Anyway, she left after that and we headed out the next morning.  I sent a message attached to an arrow in a parchment case flying towards our city saying:

Defeated monsters at Castle
Gave coin to Stout
Heading to Trynt

We were on the road for a little over a day and were ambushed by some orcs.  Six orcs dropped me, Nightwind and Ja'Lil, but Bram was untouched.  While we were unconscious, the Drow Druid came and helped Bram defeat the reamaining orcs.  His wand is very helpful.  She cured us with her magic all the way to tip-top shape.  She has some powerful spells.  I asked her if she lived in the Stone Ruins and as she faded from view, she said, "Not in, under, I live under the ruins."

We continued our trek towards Trynt and encountered a merchant selling clothes and potions.  I was able to find one healing potion, Ja'Lil found three and Bram was able to find four.  We should be in good hand until Ja'Lil's deity grants him some powerful spells.  We had one last run-in with Giant Toads before passing through the mountain pass to Trynt.  We sent them on their way by coercing them off the road.  We made it to Trynt the following afternoon.  It took us about one week at the speed of mules, but at least our horses were rested.

This is where we left off.  I have to make the city of Trynt map.  I will have the map we found and Trynt map loaded for all to see by next week.  Happy gaming.

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Session 4

We head down the stairs and find ourselves in a small room with a door.  We check the door and find it untrapped and unlocked.  We open the door and it leads into a large room.  We see some boxes on the far side of the room and a door to the right.  After entering the room, we see another statue.  This one is an elephant with tusks.   The tusks are 100% ivory.  We search the boxes and find some wine and water and some tools and gear along with some food stuffs.  The door to the right is locked.  We unlock the door with the keys after I failed to unlock it with my tools, it doesn't seem trapped.  Nightwind opens it carefully and I peak inside.  I see movement inside.  Nightwind swings the door open and it knocks over a chair that had been placed behind it.  It clatters to the floor alerting the beings inside to our presence.  We defeat two hobgoblins and two orc guards.  We loot the room and see a large door with big holes in it.  This must be the door Mishin warned us about.  We use the keys and the trap is disabled and the door unlocked.  We step into another room and find a large cell with a locked door with two chests in it.  The cell is made of iron bars, but one of the keys on the keyring unlocks the cell door and we find a cloak and ring in one and two potions and a suit of magical splint mail armor for a human.  We identify the potions to be a potion of growth and an oil of slipperiness.  The armor is a suit of splint mail +1.  The fireplace in this room is searched and found that the chimney goes all the way up to outside, but only a small person can squeeze through.  We go through the door that leads further and find a set of stairs leading down.

We follow the stairs down and notice that the walls seem to shift.  The wooden walls blend into stone and the light only carries enough to see that we are in a small room with a door the leads to the north.  We check the door, but nothing is found.  No trap and it is unlocked.  We open the door cautiously and see a hallway with no lights.  We find a goblin corpse outside a locked door at the end of the hallway.  We search him and find a gold key in his hand.  We move his corpse and unlock the door and head in.  We see some beds and while searching find the corpses of 3 more goblins barricading a door that leads further into the castle.  We move and search the bodies.  All the bodies seem to be in tack, but for some reason they are dead.  We look closer and see puncture wounds on them.  Poison.  As we move the last body away from the door, we can see that the latch has been damaged and the door swings freely.

We enter the final room and with the torch the wizard carries, we see an old room.  We search the room and find two piles of bones, mostly goblin in two different corners.  We look up and see nothing but webs for a ceiling that is pure white.  We notice that there is a secret door, but no way of opening it from this side.  We also find a locked door.  We unlock the door and enter, but we find a small room.  We figure that there is something not right about the length of the rooms here and we search the small room for a secret door.  We find a secret door, but also find the concealed door in the other room at the same time.  That is when we get ambushed.  We encounter a Large Spider, but it calls for help and 2 Hairy Spiders and a Huge Spider come from above to help.  The hairy spiders and the large spider are all the size of men while the Huge spider is the size of a horse.  Apparently they've eaten well recently.  Fortunately, nobody got bitten while we cleared the area.  We found three chests in the concealed room and opened them with the gold key we found on the one goblin.  We found a set of field plate in one chest, a magical +1 longsword in another chest and we found +1 Goblin Plate and Slippers of Spider Climbing in the final chest.  We get everything together and haul it upstairs.  I get my wagon and we load it up and head back to town.  On the way back we encounter three orcs that run away after we confronted them.  We continued onto town and gave the mayor 10% of the coin we found.

This is where we left off.  See the maps of Level 3 (underground) and Level 4 (underground) of Phrum Castle.
I made an error on the Level 4 map because the stairs went down from Level 3 in a different place than the corner where I had the stairs show up on Level 4.  That is why I had the walls shimmer and go from wood to stone, kind of like a magical vortex or residual magic left over from the combat 30 years ago when a mage tried to clear the castle of bugbears or more recently trying to clear it of something that is no longer there.  Also, I waited to blog this and I regret it.  This is close to what actually happened, as best as I can remember.  In the future, I will blog right after we conclude our gaming session.  Thank you and have fun gaming.

Phrum Castle Level 3 (underground)

Phrum Castle Level 4 (underground)

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Session 3

We travelled up the wagon road to the castle of Phrum and had no trouble getting there.  We left the wagon and the mules tied up so they could graze and to not get too much attention.  However, we had been spotted and the Goblins had laid a trap for us.  Two were on top of the tower throwing their javelins downward at us.  They hit Nightwind, but missed everyone else.  Thank the gods that goblins aren't excellent marksmen.  Alas, I jump ahead.  We had just crept up to the front door, which were heavy wood with metal bindings and ajar they were.  The opening wide enough to get a wagon through.  We could not see any movement inside, although Nightwind had noticed some earlier.  We thought, maybe they hid, so we slowly moved in and when we were just inside the doors we hear the Goblins yell,"Now!"
We see the two on top of the tower pop up their heads and ready their javelins; at the same time, two goblins run out of what we find out later is the kitchen.  but they don't move too fast so we have plenty of time to move up to them and attack before they can, but the javelins come first and one slices into Nightwind's leg.  Bram the wizard Magic Missiles into the two on top of the tower and kills both of them and I slice into the two on the ground.  We search the kitchen and find a partially eaten rat and some kind of meat soup.  Still warm.  Find some old horse shoes in the stables.  We look for the secret door that is shown on the map, but can't find it.  We take the stairs down into the lower levels.
There is a heavy metal door that leads into the deeper levels of the castle, we know that there is four from Brad the engineer in the village.  Its not locked, but I stop Nightwind from opening it cause the hinges need oil.  I give him some oil and we put it on the hinges.  I tell him to open the door slowly.  There is only minimal squeaking from the rusty hinges.  We see wooden interior walls, thick, but wooden.  the walls around the metal door were stone, even though they were interior walls.  Perhaps it was the owner's idea of security.  We proceed cautiously.  We come to a small wooden door.  It is unlocked, and not trapped.  Nightwind opens slowly, but opens all the way.  We see a fire going in the fireplace, four nice beds.  We all go and stand by a bed, Bram takes some pushing to go and do his, but he goes and searches the bed that is left for him.  We all search the beds in front of us.  Nightwind takes off the mattress and looks under the box spring.  He sees a goblin.
"You dead or alive?" He yells in goblin.
"Don't hurt me," the goblin whines.
Nightwind asks, "Why are you here?"
"Ask Mishin," the goblin replies and points to the bed that I am searching directly placed parrallel and a couple feet over.
Nightwind walks over by me and yells,"Mishin!"
The taunt works and Mishin yells back, "What?"  He pokes he head out the side as he yells.
"Why are you here?"
"Don't know why here.  Hobgoblin bring us.  Grack bring us," replied Mishin.
We also find out about a trapped door with circles on it and that they have been raiding the village for food.  We also know that Grack is one level down and that they don't go down to the next level cause they don't come back up.  We found out that there use to be 40 goblins.  Mishin also tells us about their treasure.  Mishin pulls out a small chest and opens it to reveal 300 silver pieces (sp).  We let him keep 50 sp and their weapons and armor, but they have to leave.  They go, but Mishin gives us the key to the chest, and a keyring with three skeleton keys on it.  He tells us that he has tried to kill Grack before, but he couldn't because Grack is smart.
We check the door that leads away from the entrance and its locked.  We try one of the skeleton keys and it opens the door.  Inside we find a large chest and two boxes.  Each box is filled with 24 iron rations.  We open the chest and see three bottles inside.  Two are identified as healing potions and the third is unidentified.  We don't know what it is yet.
We leave and start heading towards the other door to the room with the stairs.  We find a statue inside the room that has red eyes, and get a 10 gold piece (gp) gem and a 50 gp gem.  Lucky the goblins are short.  We start down the stairs to go below.

This is where we called it.  We had some rule look-ups about combat and had to find them before battle.  Next is the third level of the castle of Phrum.  See below for the pictures of level 1 (ground) and level 2 (underground).

Phrum Castle Level 1 (Ground) - need to rotate 90 degrees left

Phrum Castle level 2 (underground)

General Overlay of Area (Original Sketch)

AD&D 2nd Edition Revised Session 2

While sitting in Brad the builder's home, he regaled us with a story of Lord Phrum.  Mostly the Lady and how she was "pushy."  Brad's a cool guy.  Left Brad's and went to see Slim at Slim's Bakery.  He had to walk sideways in order to get through the door, but he sure can make some good treats.  Ordered some elephant ears and a dozen sugar cookies.  Slim said it would take him about 40 minutes and they would be done.  Went outside and wondered across the street to the saddle makers.  Kram sure knows his trade.  The saddles he had were some of the best looking saddles I've ever seen.  Told us that if we were going to be bringing trade, that he would give us an offer on any hides or leather that we had.  Left Kram's and wondered down the lane and saw about half a dozen riding horses, a little on the scrawny side, but healthy and high spirited.  The horses were in a fenced in pasture right next to Kram's.  We looked around for a caretaker, but didn't see any.  Kram came out the back of his place and told us that the horses were his and that it was his brother who fed them.  Brought in hay from his farm.  There were some wagon wheel ruts that lead up to the feeder under the lean-to.  Said that he has been out of the world a spell and that he doesn't know the going rate for horses.  Said the last time he checked, horses were 100 gold.  Said he'd check with his merchant pal that comes through every once and awhile.  We then visited the vintner, we walked in and there was a moan emanating from the back.  A half-elf emerged red from drinking.  Said his name was Gab.  Well, Nightwind (Jayson's character), picked Gab up and carried/hauled him over to the horse trough in front of Kram's shop and dumped him in back first.  Gab tried talking, but Nightwind pulled him out and dunked him again, just his head, while he was trying to say something.  Nightwind pulled him out again and  he said he had something in the back of his shop.  We then escorted Gab to the back of his shop inside and he pulled a vial of something out from a concealed and hidden compartment.  The tincture was a brown color and he filled an empty shot glass, without spilling, half full and then filled the rest up with some wine.  Gab's composure changed almost instantaneously from the complexion of a drunk to that of a man who never drinks.  Apparently it is something his mother taught him to make.  The effects of alcohol were no longer apparent with Gab.  He mentioned that his mother, an elf, had used this on his father, a human.  Gab said that he never understood how his mother could love a man like him.

Everyone that we talked to we also questioned on what they knew of the goblin attacks, but it was nothing new.  Except for when Kram mentioned that the Goblins had tried taking his horses and had only taken the best ones.  After talking with Gab, we left and went back over to Slim's Bakery.  He had the elephant ears and the cookies all done.  He had only charged 4 copper, but Nightwind had tossed him a silver.  Never got any change back.  Didn't expect none neither.  Left Slim's and went back to the Inn.  Noticed a man in robes and a small person wearing dark clothing and hooded.  The hooded man was eating some kind of soup and the robed man had his nose in a book.  We sat down at one of the smaller round tables while the robed man sat at the large rectangular table and the hooded man sat at a smaller table under the stairs.  Five tables in all at the Inn.  Nightwind pulled out his elephant ears and Ja' Lil (Luis's character) pulled out his dozen cookies.  The aroma from the fresh bakery filled the common room.  The robed man's head rose and he turned to look, but did so without noticeably doing it.  Almost as if restricted by a wall, his head turned enough to see the hooded man under the stairs and acting like he had a crink in his back, turned full view and looked directly at Nightwind, and then dropped his eyes to look at the elephant ears.  He turned around quick enough when he noticed we were looking at him.  The robed man exclaimed, "Blast it."  He stood up and came over to Nightwind and asked if the baker had any of the elephant ears left.  Ja' Lil seeing this, put his tray of cookies under the table and held them there.  Ja' Lil had eaten about 4 of the delicious cookies.  Nightwind responded in kind and said that we had special ordered the baked goods.  The robed man then asked what the chances were that he could purchase one of the elephant ears from Nightwind.  While Nightwind was contemplating, the robed man said, "Ahhh, I'll give ya 2 silver for one of those ears."  Nightwind jumped at the offer since he had only paid a silver.  The robed man exchanged the money for the ear and greedily started devouring it on his way back to his table.  At this time, Ja' Lil brought his cookies back out on top of the table and noticed that there were only six left.  Ja' Lil then noticed that the hooded figure was gone.  He instinctively blamed the person and greedily ate the remainder of his cookies.  Nightwindish, so that left us with two hours to do stuff before dinner.

We left and went to visit the bazaar across the way.  He was taking inventory on parchment.  Said he had to cut his prices cause the Goblins stealing everything not nailed down had caused all the townsfolk to make purchases on supplies needed to do their everyday tasks.  He couldn't be the only one making a profit.  Well, at least not like this.  Well, Ja' Lil asked if he had a scythe to borrow.  He said he didn't, but perhaps Jud at the forge did.  We left him to work and walked across the way to Jud's Forge.  Jud was still in the forge area.  Went inside, no walls, but had a good roof, no ceiling, but plenty of rafters.  Very clean.  Ja' Lil asked if he had a spare scythe that he could borrow.  Jud asked him what he wanted it for.  Ja' Lil said that he wanted to get some extra hay for the horses.  Jud snickered.  "They get enough hay and oats, not enough treats.  If you want to get the horses something extra; why not get some of the apples from yonder tree or even some of those orange thingies from behind the Inn.  He means well, but he always throwing scraps back there."  We looked at Jud amazed, a smart blacksmith, huh.  Anyways, we looked and saw the biggest apple tree across the river and about three smaller ones.  The smaller ones been picked clean cause they low to the ground, but this beg apple tree was the size of an oak of about 50 years.   Never seen something so pretty, and full of fruit.  We decided to go to the pile behind the Inn cause it's a whole days walk to the apple tree, half to the bridge and another half to get to the apple tree; and that's just to get there, not even come back.  Anyways, went to look at this scrap pile behind the Inn and saw cabbages, carrots, celery, all kinds of vegetables, and egg shells.  Everything a horse can eat, except for the egg shells I think.  So we grabbed some and cleaned them off in the river and went to go feed the horses.  The horses liked the treat.  Apparently they gets apple cores from the kids in town sometimes. (See picture of the Village of Stout below)

So, about an hour and a half has gone by and we decide we should go and get this awesome dinner we paid for.  So on the way to the Inn, Nightwind stops off at the Temple of Chauntea and speaks to an acolyte there and asks if the tracker has returned.  The acolyte looks puzzled and asks, "You mean Rolo."  Nightwind looks at the acolyte and holds out his arm while he says,"Is he about yay tall and wears dark clothing?"  The acolyte smiles and nods.  Nightwind seemed to get kind of huffy and stomped off towards the Inn.  Ja' Lil and I followed after him.  We get inside the Inn and we don't see the small hooded figure anywhere.  We take the remaining open small table and wait for our meal.  We see Kram, Jud and his wife, Gab and Slim at the big table.  The innkeeper brings out their food first.  It seems that they have all ordered the chicken.  Slim gets two chicken dinners for himself, Gab and Kram each get one chicken and Jud and his wife split a chicken dinner.  He then brings out to their table two bowls of some kind of steaming potato salad and two baskets of biscuits.  We then get served.  We get a leg of lamb, glazed carrots and a broccoli and asparagus steamed medley.  We get a bottle of wine and a basket of biscuits.  After everyone has been served and dinner is done, we look again for the hooded person.  I, Solon Moonshadow, spy the hooded figure running upstairs.  I point it out to Nightwind.  He chases upstairs after the hooded figure.  We get upstairs and I hear noise coming from our room.  Nightwind draws his steel and we edge closer.  I ask him if he is sure we need that, but he doesn't hear me.  The door is ajar and light is coming from inside.  Nightwind kicks open the door and we see the hooded figure sitting on one of the beds eating a cookie.  It looks strangely like one of Ja' Lil's cookies from earlier.  No sooner does this realization hit me than Ja' Lil shouts out,"Hey, you owe me for those from before!"  The small man, who we can see as the halfling he is and much younger than any of us thought, flipped Ja' Lil a silver coin.  He says,"I hear you guys are lookin' for me.  Why is that?"  Nightwind replies that it was him that was tracking the goblins that were attacking the village.  Where are they and how many are there?  Oh, is your name Rolo?  "It is," replies Rolo, "and there was many, but now not so many.  They go into the castle, but don't come out.  There's something evil inside.  I followed about 5 or 6 different goblinoid footprints inside and a two sets of Hobgoblins and two sets of Orc.  There use to be almost 40 goblins, we killed 5, now less than 10 left.  The numbers don't add up.  Something evil inside for sure." 
"Well, would you want to help us get rid of that threat?"
"I would, but can't.  Other temple getting desecrated by orcs a little farther north and east of the castle near the base of the mountains.  Why don't ya ask the wizard, you was all chummy earlier?"
"Who?  What wizard?  There's a wizard?"
"Yeah, I thought you knew from the robes he was wearing.  Yeah, the guy from this morning that distracted you and bought your ear?"
"Really, he's a wizard.  Makes sense.  Yeah, we'll see if he wants to join.  Thanks for the info."
And with all the pleasantry dispensed, Rolo the Tracker takes off.  We go downstairs and see the wizard with his head in a book.  We talk him into coming with us by promising that he can keep the spell books we find.  With that we go to bed and take shifts.  Ja' Lil and I sleep the first shift while Nightwind sleeps the second shift.  Ja' Lil has time to prepare his spells before leaving and we meet Bram the Wizard downstairs.  We are going to go and meet Kram's merchant friend who's been described to us as travelling on a warhorse with barding, has shiny armor and a big sword.
We walk down the lane towards Kram's and see a large warhorse with barding tied up to one of the posts near the trough and it is breathing hard.  Ja' Lil tries to feed it some of the vegetables from the day before, but Nightwind reminds him that warhorses are trained not to accept food from strangers.  The warhorse starts stomping his feet.  Nightwind tells Ja' Lil to back away from the animal.  We hear clinking coming from the back of Kram's and getting louder and closer.
Nightwind says,"Here he comes."
We see a very muscular man, a little smaller than Jud, but the same build, and he's wearing a shiny suit of plate mail with a holy symbol of Chauntea on his chest.  He is currently carrying his helmet under his arm.  We ask him if he would like to take care of the evil at the castle and he says no because he's going with Rolo to take care of the Orcs desecrating the other temple.  We see Rolo behind him.  We didn't see him before.  Weird.

I believe that is where we left off.  Next we are going to the castle.  Yeah!

A MAP OF THE VILLAGE OF STOUT