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Friday, March 3, 2017

OD&D: Ravensburg/Black Tower, Session 1

Since the Wednesday Night Group couldn't all get together this week (for something like the third or fourth week in a row), +Tim Shorts  and I decided to play a one-on-one D&D game in my Ravensburg setting, using the original three little brown books.


Tim wrote his own post about the session over at Gothridge Manor in his colorful and inimitable style.

We used Total Party Kill's random LBB character generator to create Tim's main character and two sidekicks.  And after tweaking some gear and making note of a few house rules we were off.

Tim's Characters:

Personal Character: Boneswa, the elf (F/M-U 1)
Sidekick 1: Brother Reginald (Cleric 1)
Sidekick 2: Corder (Fighting Man 1)

Boneswa and company began the session breakfasting in the Surly Dragon Inn on their last handful of silver pieces. A clerk from the Ravensburg City Council strode in and nailed an official-looking poster to the wall. Due to increased goblin activity on the road near the Black Tower northeast of the city, a bounty of 10 gp was being offered on every goblin's right hand brought in to the city guard. Additionally, because of recent unconfirmed claims of zombie, ogre and troll sightings in the vicinity, any proof of such creatures' presence would also be rewarded.


In the preceding days, Boneswa and his companions had also heard a few scattered rumors about the Black Tower:

     "Many folk don't know it, but giant rats is good eatin'!"
     "The northeastern part of level one is infested with zombies."
     "There is a tunnel in the dungeons of the Black Tower that will take you all the way to hell."

Armed with lots of courage, a few rumors, and little cash, Boneswa led his sidekicks north of town, skirting the Briars (reputed to be haunted), and then hooked back east again to climb Tower Hill.


The tower itself appeared menacing, but was harmless, and the intrepid party made their way down a stair to the first level. Boneswa directed them westward from the entrance. The band very quickly encountered a pack of giant rats – this was to set the tone for the whole delve. In all, the group would have three separate, and sometimes harrowing, rat encounters.

Boneswa held his own in these combats, slashing away with a dagger in each hand.

Corder, the fighting-man sidekick, had issues however, and at one point had two rats climbing up his body, one with its teeth plunged into his throat between helmet and armor, the other covering up the view slit in Corder's helmet, effectively blinding him, as it tried to find some area of exposed flesh to sink its teeth into.

The cleric, Brother Reginald, really shone in these fights. He waded into the rats swinging his war hammer left and right and driving limp rat corpses deep into the cheap seats with almost every blow.

The group encountered two traps as well. The first involved a dose of sleeping gas – to which only Brother Reginald succumbed (probably tired to begin with after hammering all those rats). The second was baited with a coffer atop a pedestal. Grooves in the floor and slits in the ceiling revealed the presence of a dual "pit and pendulum" trap. Corder, the fighting-man sidekick, drew the short straw and moved to flank the pedestal and approach it from between the lines of cut marks in the floor. He managed to step on a pressure plate triggering the two, blade-edged pendulums, which blew past him on either side. But no harm was done, and the fighter came back to the others with over 400 silver pieces and an empty bladder to show for it.

The only other event of note was the approach of tramping feet at one point, which Boneswa thought it best to avoid. The elf led the group on a maneuver to scoot out of the way of the approaching marchers down various side corridors. The maneuver eventually succeeded, as the unidentified marching group strode past down another corridor.

The abstract dungeon map we used -- I'll post more about this soon.

After exploring a total of thirteen rooms, Boneswa led his companions back to the stairs and south to Ravensburg.

Total Rooms Explored: 13
Total Monsters Defeated: 14 giant rats
Total Treasure Recovered: 400 sp, 40 gp
Traps Survived: 2
Groups of Enemies Avoided: 1
Total Party Members Lost: 0

Any delve where everyone comes back alive is a good delve!

2 comments:

  1. It was a blast Chris. Thank you for taking the time to create the adventure.

    ReplyDelete