The Troubled Well - Blueholme Adventure

This adventure is for 1st - 3rd level characters for Blueholme.  It may end up being part of an expanded set of adventures.  Your comments are welcome.

INTRODUCTION

Strange noises have been coming from the old well.  The local townsfolk have been worried about the water supply.  A rash of farm animals have gone missing, which may be connected.  Hugo the local magistrate wants someone to explore the well and report back with their findings. 

All the underground area below the well is natural caverns, with rocky outcroppings and stlagtites.  A slow moving river runs through most of the dungeon.  Some of the rooms have been carved out by a seasoned miners hand, squaring up walls and flooring.  The map is 10 foot squares.  The ceilings are jagged and the heights vary.  

A.)  WELL ENTRANCE

The well is 60 feet deep.  A rickety basket holds an old corded rope for bringing up the water bucket.  The air from the well smells distinctly noxious, breathing it in makes you cough. 

    • Using the provided rope:  There is a 3-6 chance that the rope will break per PC using it.  Roll 1d6 to see how many feet they fall.  1d6 dmg per 10 feet. 

    • Using torches:  Any torch light in the well or at the bottom will cause a minor explosion of gas.  Anyone in the area of the well shaft, or bottom will receive 1d6 damage on a failed save vs breath.

    • Bottom of well:  The bottom of the well is about 4 feet deep with water, which flows to the east.  

B.)  MAGICAL MINE

The room is being excavated by large whirring machines that run by themselves.  There are belts, pulleys, levers all over the place.  The north wall has a large hole in it.  In the centre of the room is a pile of rubble that shines in any torchlight.  There are exits to the east and south.  The water flows thru this room, and is six feet deep in the middle.  

    • The excavating machines are magical, they can be stopped by dispel magic or by manually dismantling them.

    • There are a series of 6 tripwires spread out the room, above the water line.  While searching the room there is a 3-6 chance per round of setting one off, unless the PCs are being extremely careful.  Adjust to 1-6.  If any of the tripwires are set off a group of goblins will come to investigate.  

    • 4 Goblins, AC 6, HD 1d6, Att: Dagger, DMG 1d6, DEX 11, MV 15.  The goblins carry 10 SPs between them.  They won’t spill who is in charge of the machines, even if they face certain death.  

C.)  CARCASS CAVE

This natural cave is filled with rotting carcasses of woodland animals.  A web hangs from the ceiling.  The floor is bone dry.  You can hear nature sounds coming from the west passage.  

    • The west passage leads to the outside, on the outskirts of town. 

    • Giant Spider:  There is a giant spider resting down the west passage.  The passage is filled with webs.  If the PCs spend more than 2 rounds investigating the room, the spider will enter to check on its prized food. 

    • Giant Spider:   AC 6, HD 2+2, Att: Bite*, DMG 1d6, DEX 13, MV 25.  *On a successful bite the spider will secret a vast acting paralyzing venom.  Save vs paralysis.

    • Treasure:  Amongst the remains is the carcass of a human wizard, he carries 3 first level scrolls, 30 GPs in a pouch and a magical staff. 

D.)  BARRACKS & CELL

A ramshackle room containing a cell made of rusting iron bars, a few small cots and an oaken barrel being used as a table.  A few suits of leather armour hang from hooks in the ceiling.  

    • The room contains 6 Goblins, a tied up Gnome prisoner. 

    • The gnome is named “Xveev” claims to have been press ganged into helping the Goblins and a surly dwarf into opening an underground tomb.  He was the one who invented the machines, and keeps them running.  He says that his family is being held hostage deepr in the caves.  (He is lying, he is the mastermind of this operation. The reason he stays in the cell is because he prefers to have a guard near him at all times.) 

    • The goblins will be cautious, but attack if they feel threatened.  They have been told not to give anything away about the Gnome.  

    • 6 Goblins, AC 6, HD 1d6, Att: Dagger, DMG 1d6, DEX 11, MV 15.  

    • Xveev The Gnome, AC 9, HD 1d6, Att:  Dagger, DMG 1d6, DEX 14, MV 25.  The gnome has the following scrolls stashed in his pants.  Magic Missile, Charm person.  He has a key for room G.  It is brass and has a small rune etched into the side of it.  

E.)  UNEARTHED TOMB

Rubble and dust fill this room.  The sounds of pick axes striking stone emanate from within.  

    • There are two Gnomes tied up on a poll in the middle of the room.  They appear to be malnourished.  (Save VS Spell.  This is an illusion). 

    • There are two goblins and a dwarf working on clearing an area to the south.  This maybe the door to a long forgotten tomb.   

    • The dwarf wears a metallic collar.  This is a magical device that acts as a permanent charm person spell.  He is exhausted and moving slowly.  It looks as if he’s been working without sleep for days on end.  The collar can be pulled off with a feat of strength, this will cause the dwarf to take 1d3 of damage automatically.  Dispel magic will render the collar inert.  The dwarf has no recollection of how he got here and what he was doing.  

    • 2 Goblins, AC 6, HD 1d6, Att: Dagger, DMG 1d6, DEX 11, MV 15.  

    • 1 Dwarf  AC 9, HD 1d6-1, Att:  Pickaxe,  DMG 1d6, DEX 4, MV 10.

G.)  LOCKED ROOM

The door to this room is locked, and the door is quite sturdy.  

    • The gnome has the key to this room.  It can be broken down by at least 3 characters.  On a roll of 1 – 8 on a d10 they will be successful.  This will make enough noise to arouse a few more goblins to investigate. 

    • If the door is broken down rather than being unlocked, the pressure plate trap on the other side of the door will be operational.  Anyone stepping 10 feet into the room will cause the trap to go off.  Save vs paralysis for half damage.  A large wooden beam will come flying down from the ceiling doing 1d6+2 damage.  

    • Inside the room are 3 dwarves that are related to the dwarf in room E.  They are emaciated. 

    • The dwarves will happily hand over a treasure map that they found in return for safe passage to the surface.  

AFTERWARD

Xveev the gnome was trying to find a buried stone that could command elementals.  He was intending on bringing this back to his underground village.  His chieftan had commanded that it would help with their war against the dwarves.  In a previous skirmish the dwarves had killed the gnomish high priestess and this was to be used for revenge. 

Thoughts on Holmes D&D

I spent a wonderful evening last night playing some Holmes D&D with the ever amazing Jeff Cape manning the DM's role.  The one thing that I've come to realize is when playing online it's best to try and use a fairly light rules system.  Getting bogged down with mechanics and rules takes the wind out of my sails.  I recently playing in a one shot 5e game, and it really left a bad taste in my mouth.  There was far too much checking rules, rolling dice and no real roleplaying per se.  Last night was the complete opposite.  And we didn't even roll any dice!  Jeff came up with a wonderful idea.  CHITS! 

Yes that's right, we printed off Chits and used them.  We were told that if we used dice we would have a -2 penalty to any roll.  The funniest part of that was one of the players hadn't realized what a chit was, he seemed to think that was our way of saying "dice".  After his first roll, we all had a good laugh when he was told about the penalty.  He quickly grabbed a piece of paper and scissors and wrote up a basic d20 chit. 

This was the truest way to play that game.  

I've been thinking a lot about holmes latetly.  I went down a bit of a rabbit hole after buying the pdf for Blueholme Journeymanne Rules.  After reading this blog: 

https://dreamscapedesign.net/2020/07/12/blueholme-brochure-wip/

and this:

https://dreamscapedesign.net/2019/01/05/the-known-world-of-blueholme/

I started to get really excited about the baked in world for Blueholme.  Another excellent resource is the Necropolis Of Nuromen , which includes a brief gazateer on the surrounding areas and the city of blueholme.  From reading these blog posts, it looks like there will be a Blueholme Brochure coming eventually from Dreamscape Design, and I for one am excited! 

Now this post here: https://dreamscapedesign.net/2015/05/30/camlann-castle/ 

Is what started to get the wheels turning, specifically the implied OD&D setting blog from Wayne's blog http://initiativeone.blogspot.com/2013/05/od-setting-posts-in-pdf.html Which I had totally forgotten about.  Please go and read the implied setting document.  I'll wait. 

Alright, you've read it.  And I'm guessing you have a copy of the Journeymann rules and have also read the Necroplolis of Nuromen.  You've started to realize that you can mix fantasy and sci fi in a world that has had some form of apocalypse.  The section that got me really excited is Part 6 in the rules "Creatures" and the ability to use monsters as PCs.  You may have also noticed that wondeful art on page 5 with the human, dwarf and the Dreenoi.  What's that? Well it appears to be a alien! 

And here's another little bit from Blueholme, the information on the "Old Ones", that helps to paint a picture.  

Sages speculate that the vast Underworld was the effort of many civilisations, toiling over the eons, but that it began with vast underground cities built by several pre-human species that came to the lands from regions unknown. Old ones flourished for millennia, but were ultimately overthrown....

All of this information paints a very interesting picture that has got me super excited to read and delve more into the implied setting of Blueholme and OD&D.

Wednesday RPG update thingamabob blog postie

I apologize if I've been a bit quiet lately.  I keep thinking "I should do a blog, or do another podcast".  But by the time I sit down to do it, everything pops out of my head.  I suppose that happens.  In all honesty I think that it comes down to the season.  It's finally getting nice out in the land of Winter!  So there's other things to do.

I'm hoping to get the old school group together soon, to run session 2 of the Isle of Dread.  There will be a play report after that.  I'm also slowly working on a blog detailing the machinations of the Isle NPCs.

Example: 
meet Ramses, old sailor npc that the PCs met while in Specularm. He was quite happy to accompany them, as it had been a very long time since he had went on adventure. He's really a jack of all trades, he knows a few spells, is quick with a sword and can pick a lock. He has a score to settle with the pirates near the isle and the merchant clans in kamareikos.
Image via :Old-Pirate by Grafik.deviantart.com

HEXCRAWL

The other thing I'm working on is a small hexcrawl.  I had posted on mewe asking for help filling out a hexmap that I built using:

https://campaignwiki.org/text-mapper/smale

Thus far there is twenty two entries, out of one hundred.  I figure fifty entries is probably sufficient.  Currently I'm code naming it Weird Wayfaring.  Whenever it's done I'll post a link to a google drive document.

10 MONSTER SETTING

Another fun thing, there's a new entry in the 10 Monster setting:  https://savemycampaign.wordpress.com/2019/05/13/10-monster-setting/

I'm enjoying how this idea has picked up some steam.  For the complete list you can go here, and for the information about the idea here.

WRITING RAMBLE

Other than that, I've had a few random writing ideas that I've been working on, but I'm at the point of scraping some of them (as they are exciting me less than they were).  At some point I'd like to write down my small campaign world that I used for our old school group.  It may end up being a small hex crawl.  It was very traditional fantasy (almost high?).  You can read the play reports here.  "Shanes silly fantasy campaign".  This was the thought that ran thru my head last night when I couldn't sleep.  I always find when I'm having difficulty writing something to stop the big project, and work on a smaller project.  The problem becomes that I never finish the big project.  (honestly the list is endless! Remember when I was writing a mega dungeon LMFAO!).

BLUEHOLME 

There was a discussion on the Blueholme Mewe group regarding the following:

I know B/X is the bad boy on the block and S&W seems to be the OSR mainstay having long dethroned OSRIC.... I believe many of these recent Kickstarters are missing out by not using BlueHolme as the basis for their OSR product.

What is the roadblock? What can we do?

My personal thoughts on this are:

1.  Michael is an awesome cat and if you are looking for a license for Blueholme, look no further:  https://dreamscapedesign.net/compatibility-licences/

2.  There is always a "Flavour of the month" when it comes to the retro clone scene, there's not much to be done about it honestly.  Authors can take a more system neutral stance if they like (include ascending and descending AC for example).   I think part of the reason that S&W is so popular to write for is that you can pretty much use any module with it, without too much farting around.  (I'm currently running Isle of Dread with S&W Whitebox).

3.  I've done my best to try and bring attention to Blueholme, with the Baron series and Dusty Door.    I am unsure if my efforts have been met with resistance, or have fallen on deaf ears.  The possibility exists that some of the stuff I've written/worked on might be a little bit outside of the box.  That said I'll continue to write for Blueholme as I really enjoy it.  Specifically I really like writing for the Prentice Rules, because I find writing for 1st to 3rd level is very much in my wheel house.

Drama (or lack therof)

Last night, I fell down a rabbit hole of awful.  I went to a popular OSR blog site, read a post, then followed the rest of the conversation on fb and twitter (well one side of it).  It's human nature sometimes to read thru the drama.  In the end (after about a half hour of fucking around) I realized that I'm very happy that I'm seeing less drama nowadays from the circles that I spend time in. 

Partially the reason that I'm seeing less drama is that I've curated my mewe list better than my G+ list, and the fact that the OSR really did split completely when G+ died.  The only real issue I'm having nowadays is that I follow people on Twitter, FB, Mewe, Instagram and now discord! ACHK! I once again need to sit down and decide what the reason for my participation in social sites.  An example of this is I really need to trim down people on IG (because I see the same post on fb).  In all honesty I should delete IG.

Yup that got really rambly....

I hope you have a good day!

Halfway to layout city and goodies!

Alright, so we have basically finished editing "the return of the blue baron" ie volume 2.  I had originally named it "part deux", but figured that might confuse a few people.  Note that there is the Queen's English in the document however, examples include "Armour".  In those instances you should know that a Canadian may have written that section. 

As we were doing some editing we were also doing some last minute writing.  I am almost positive that there maybe a few little rewrites happen while I work on the layout.

I've sent off a copy to Michael at Dreamscape Design, to basically rules lawyer it.  I mean he's the guy who wrote the blueholme rules, so it's our best bet to get it right!

I would like to thank Scott Charlton for majorly stepping up to the plate and basically editing more than half of this! As well for coming to the table with a lot of rooms, ideas and the general concept.  If it wasn't for him, this would not have been done.  at all. 

Here's a screen shot of the cover.

Yesterday, I had a crap day.  Then I got home, and I had more crap to deal with.  It was just one of those days.  I finally walked to the front and opened up the mailbox and to my absolutely surprise, I found a package waiting for me!

This wonderful person, sent me a copy of Whitebox FMAG and Swords & Wizardry Continual Light!

Thank you very much wonderful person! That made my day.

I will be doing a review of SWCL in the next week or so.  I'm sure both of these books will find room at my table.  Thank you again!

Fun Stuff!

A whole bunch of fun stuff has been happening the last few days, I've been sharing it on my "Shane's RPG Musings" collection.  However I figured I'd do a blog about it as well.

BLUE BARON NEWS: 

First up, we are really friggin close to completing the writing of the "return of the blue baron".  I got excited on my way home yesterday and decided to make a video.   Note: The first part has a funny argument, wherein my Dog wins.

At this point I think we have about 11 rooms to go! I'm hoping I can write a few more rooms this weekend, as it's a long weekend for me.

When you get a chance check out this post about "pace in RPG design" by Scott Charlton (who is one of the writers on the baron's project).




DUSTY DOOR NEWS:
I received an excellent review from tenfootpole, you can read it here.

Dusty Door is currently version 2, however I am going to be adding one more revision, the wonderful +Denis McCarthy drew up a awesome demon image that I'm going to add! (Orenumm).  The fun thing about the demon was I created him using the random demon tables in the 1e DMG.  To my surprise Denis went ahead and drew him.  Super cool!

+Goblins Henchman went and created this super neat version of Dusty Door, that has pop ups for room descriptions and monster stats! You can download it here.  Below are some screen shots.  If you are running this game online or with a laptop at your table it would be very handy! This would also be really fun if you were doing a solo play. 

ITS PARTY TIME!
This isn't really RPG related, but our kitchen renovation is sooooo close to being done.  Tonight we are having an epic party.  Hopefully next week the finishing touches are going to happen.  Last night my wife was working hard at getting food ready, and I sorta helped where I could.  Since I couldn't sleep much last night, I created a playlist for tonight.  It's basically a social playlist, a little bit of everything.  LINK TO THE PLAYLIST.

Note: a social is a Manitoba thing, basically when a couple is going to get married they throw this big party in hopes of raising some money for the wedding.  It's a bash with booze, silent auction, DJ etc. Always fun.  If you live in Manitoba, at some point you will get invited to one. 

Room 40

40.  Deadly doppelgangers:   The door to this room is locked.
Inside is a masterpiece of engineering.  Large bronze tubes in a variety of sizes snake
the walls of the room.  Small clouds of steam erupt from the cylinders on occasion, and
there is a low whir emanating from below the chamber.  All of the tubes lead to a very
intricately designed metal chamber.  The chamber will fit one person (human or otherwise)
at a time.  Near the chamber is a large red button made from wood.

If for whatever reasons someone is standing in the chamber inside the chamber when the
button is pushed, a doppelganger of that character will be created in 1d6+2 rounds.
The doppelganger will then seek out the unknowing character and attempt to murder him/her
and take their place.  

BTW totally stole this idea from Family Guy.

Another room for "return of the blue baron"

8.  The Prize.  Hanging upon the southern wall is a battle axe, a dagger and a mace.  There is a vague inscription below all of the weapons that reads “choose wisely, as one option will be of great value the others great consequence.  Below the weapons are three individual round holes.  The centre hole seems to fit the dagger hilt perfectly just by eyeballing it. 

The centre hole fits the dagger perfectly.  The axe and mace can fit into either the west or east hole.  The incorrect order is (east to west) Axe, Dagger, Mace.  The correct order (east to west) is Mace, Dagger, Axe.  All of the weapons are a +1 and are finely crafted.  If the players pick the incorrect order a the doors will lock and the ceiling and floor will start to slowly move together, squishing the characters, this will take place in 1d4 rounds.  The players can still attempt to switch the weapons into the correct order (while the ceiling is coming down) and recieve the prize, however upon doing putting the weapons in the correct order they will not receive the prize for having done it correctly in the first place.  A evil referee may in fact decide to blast them with a good dose of acid from holes in the ceiling (1d6 damage on a failed saving throw vs poison). 

If placed in the correct order, a treasure chest will appear from a compartment in the wall.  Inside the chest is 300 GPs, 150 SPs, Two magic user spells, one cleric spell. 

A puzzle room for the Blue Baron Part Deux

31.  Mirror, mirror on the wall?  The door to this room is locked.  Inside the room is the following, There is a large wooden door to the east.  Along the northern wall is a small table with a very intricate woven picture, To the west of the picture is bare wall, and along the southern wall are two treasure chests.

The picture depicts the following:  There is a large wooden door to the east.  Along the northern wall is a small table with a picture on it, To the west of the picture is a large floor length mirror, and along the southern wall are two treasure chests.  

Both chest are trapped with poison (1d6 damage on a failed saving throw vs poison) Inside the west treasure chest is a bag of gold (100 GPs) and a piece of chalk.  In the eastern chest there is 50 SPs, a black candle, some charcoal and a flint. 

In order to open the secret door, the PCs must realize that there is something missing from the picture (the mirror), they must then draw an outline of the door where it is located on the picture.  They can use either the chalk or the charcoal.  If the PCs are unable to figure out the puzzle, the referee can have them make a wisdom check when “peering” at the picture.  Once the secret door is opened both chests will disappear into the floor via a sliding panel.  The picture will change to show a blank wall with no mirror.  The picture is a curiosity and is worth 30 GPs to the right buyer. 

NOTE:  People say that you should write the dungeons that you want to play in.  I want to play in this!  

Collaboration is good for the soul - Hirelings for blue baron part deux

Here's the thing, when I write my own stuff, I only have me to bounce ideas off of. Which is all fine and good, but it's like playing guitar by yourself (or other things) it's a whole lot more fun with more people! Pardon that stupid innuendo. The last few days I get to work, fire up google drive and see what's been happening with the blue baron project. Read something cool, and then I'm like "Alright Shane let's see what we can do this morning!" It's not that its a contest, it's just inspiration. So here's some hirelings. I hope to write a few more before the project is done. If you want to jump in on it here's the community link: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/104980520414500054316

Hirelings 

If the players find themselves with a lack of extra  muscle they can hire a few of the following peons. 

Sige The Mighty:  (Human 1st Level Fighter)  Sige isn’t actually that mighty, although he claims to be!  If met by the players he will boast about all of his previous accomplishments as a fighter.  All of which he has borrowed from legend and twisted to be all about him.  Clever players may catch on to this.  Stats:  STR 5 INT 4 WIS 12  CON 10  DEX 8 CHA 14, Long Sword, Leather Armour, Shield.   Cost:  2 SPs a day. 

Findeli Lonevris:  (Elf 1st Level  Magic User)  Findeli came to the city in search of knowledge, having exhausted the library’s from home.  He is a loyal helper and will do his best to keep any situation under control.  He is however curious, when it comes to anything ancient or puzzling.   Stats: STR 10 INT 14 WIS 9  CON 9  DEX 10 CHA 7.  Findeli is unarmoured, he carries a staff, a short bow and a pocket full of marbles.  Spells:  Magic Missile. Cost: 1 GP a day.

Riffolk Mythey:  (Human Cleric 2nd Level) Riffolk is a follower of Najin the goddess of the moons.  He is a hardy cleric, muscle bound and headstrong.  His only fault is that he never learned to speak well, and tends to drop words when talking.  Stats:  STR 16 INT 9  WIS 12  CON 8  DEX 9  CHA 3.  If the players agree to pay a tithe to Goddess (100 SPs) he will stay and help as long as he is able to. 

Heaher Leah:  (Human Thief 1st Level)  Heaher spent some time as a for hire assassin, but was kicked out for being far too brutal on her contracts.  She has since led a life of crime, just making ends meet.  She won’t think twice about stealing from her employers or running if things get bad.  Stats:  STR 10 INT 12  WIS 9  CON 8  DEX 12 CHA 13.  Cost:  3 GPs a day

Excellent evening of gaming!

First time playing online last night, and it was a fucking blast!  +God Emperor Leto II messaged me about possibly running my new adventure "Dusty Door" and I honestly jumped at the chance to play! After we get thru this dungeon, I'm going to do a bit of tweaking to the final adventure adding in Jeff's two cents and hopefully getting all the stats for the other players (so I can add them as pre gens!).   Obviously of course I'll be adding the names of the other players to the adventure as playtesters.

Alright onto the evening.  First off not to toot Jeff's ego, but he's a fucking amazing DM.  He's very engaging as you can see.  I am unaware how much prep work he does, or if its off the cuff but that gnomish NPC was a fucking riot.

Mechanically Blueholme is a lot of fun to play online, and OSR games for that matter.  Less fumbling with modifiers, dice rolls etc.  Specifically I think DEX based initiative makes the game run so much more smoothly.  As a DM once you write down everyone's numbers (barring any changes from terrible potions), you only really have to worrry about the monsters DEX after that.  I'm putting that little note in my head for whenever I run a game online.

I gotta say playing with the other two guys was a lot of fun.  They really know their old school games. It makes it a lot easy to play a game.  We had a really good conversation about OSR games after we were done. For probably about an hour! haha.  I also found it interesting what their backgrounds were.  Some of the guys had played 2,3,4 editions.  One in particular found old school gaming thru lotfp which is awesome! Just made me realize how much I enjoy playing old school games.

What was very weird, was that my wife was watching the live feed on youtube downstairs while we were playing.  At one point we went out for a quick smoke and she was saying that I was being a bit of a "role play hog", ie talking too much.  I think I was honestly just excited, not because it was an adventure I wrote but because of just playing.  At some point I think she would like to jump in on a game.
I should also note that using the Journeymann rules one of the players ran a flesh golem! So cool.

I have now officially caught the bug to play online! I will have to do a few upgrades around my house to be successful at it.  First off no wifi, run a line.  Secondly I'll need to get a better headset.

Here's the video from last night! 

O-SeRial level 1 room 15

(Room 15)  The walls of this room are lined with wonderfully painted murals.  Upon closer inspection they appear to explain the history of a dwarven city.  At the southern end is a set of stairs leading down.  A light shines dimly from beyond the stairs.  The floor is covered with marble & alabaster stones.  Frozen in place are two dwarves standing at attention, their spears pointed towards unknown intruders.

There is nothing in this room of value.  If the characters look at the murals, they can discern that a dwarven city is very close, within a few feet.  It has a storied and exciting past.  

O-SeRial level 1 room 13

13  The old wooden door to this room is locked.  From outside you can hear grunting and yelling in a strange guttural language.  (inside) Inside the lightless room is a large humanoid with tusks growing from its face, it waves a battle axe at five smaller scared creatures.

The Orc is part of a larger group trying to infiltrate the ruins found in area 19.  He is attempting to intimidate the five goblins in this room, into helping the group of orcs.  The Goblins are extremely scared of the “ghosts” that haunt the halls, and are aware of what happened in room 11.  Buried under a rug made of animal hide is 30 CPs.  

Dusty door download

New adventure for BLUEHOLME
Download
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qfCBL5MELSDQo31lRho-enXbYG7XJj8T/view?usp=drivesdk


Introduction
Halfway between here and there is a small roadside Inn. A weather worn wooden sign stands outside of the door “Adventurers wanted, apply within”. Weary from the road, you stand outside the Inn, smoke rises from the chimney promising a warm evening. The inside of the Inn is small and cozy, a set of stairs lead up to much needed beds. The small bar is decorated with old suits of rusted armour, a bookshelf with musty tomes and a large map of the countryside. The bar is empty save for a small gnome who is fast asleep at a table, smoke curls from his pipe.

O-SeRial level 1 room 5

5 The layers of dust on the floor have probably been here for centuries. The large room contains a stone coffin, the lid lying against it. There are a few bookshelves filled with musty tomes, a small open chest with coins spilling out, and two large barrels. On a small table is a book laying open, a quill and ink sit beside it.

This is the room of a dwarven vampyre named “Gaziel”. There is a 1 in 3 chance that the Vampyre is in this room. If he is not then he is wandering the dungeon. He was turned years ago, and has only recently woken up from a deep thirty year sleep. He is unaware of the recent changes that have happened in the underworld. He will not outright attack the players, as he’s recently fed on the goblin’s inhabiting the dungeon. When he was turned he fled the small dwarven city and lived in seclusion, feeding on whatever monsters lurked into his tomb.

The book on the table is the diary of Gaziel and details a lot of his undead life. Most of it seems to be ramblings of a madman, with small tidbits of truth.

If the bookshelves are searched, a few interesting tomes will be found:

Death & It’s effect on life - contains 2 - 1st level healing spells, which can be ripped out and used as scrolls (Cure light wounds, Bless). Worth 50 GPs.

The Unusual guide to the world below - A tome detailing some of the unfortunate monsters that inhabit the underworld. Worth 30 SPs.

Unruly Weirdness - Details forgotten gods. Worth 20 SPs.

Magical Properties of fungus - A interesting read regarding the use of fungus and it’s healing properties. - 15 SPs.

The barrels in the room contain a rotting fungus mixture that smells unbelievably horrible. Eating any of this will inflict 1d6 damage, save vs poison.

The treasure chest is a trap. At the bottom of the chest is a metallic machine hand, that will grab any arm that gropes around inside looking for coins. The arm makes an attack roll against the players armour class, on a successful hit it attaches itself to the players arm. It does one point of damage per round as it holds on. The only way to get the arm to let go is to find the secret button hidden on the side of the chest, a successful find and remove traps roll will locate the button. Alternatively the arm can get cut off. The coins are all fake and worthless.

Return to the Blue Baron's Palace?

It's almost getting to that time of year, when I message a bunch of people and say "let's do a collaborative dungeon!".  Well technically I've only done it once, but it's been on my mind.  Specifically a sequel. 

I had a few rambling ideas about what the sequel could be. (Once again while walking to work, and it was cold! Forced march for about 2 miles..... I dunno how D&D characters do it in the cold).

1.  The court wizard Nhoj inadvertently released a bunch of beasties into the castle.
2.  The blue baron has died, and one of his daughters has taken up the reins. She's cruel, and likes to kidnap random peasants and use them in weird torture games.
3.  The blue baron is well and good, however one of his daughter's has been kidnapped and thrown into a new dungeon.
4.  The crazy Scottish bagpipe playing goblin is going on tour! He needs an escort.
5.  The baron's enemies have had enough of his tax dodging, they have locked him away in the dungeon and have usurped his throne.
6.  The magical library in the basement has become such a major attraction, that the dungeon is filled with all sorts of tourists.  It's time to clean them out, and of course there are a few bad guys in there for good measure, trying to steal relics.
7.   The queen has fallen ill, she needs someone to find rare herbs to help heal her.
8.  Nhoj in his infinite wisdom has decided to hold a spellcasting competition, wizards from the countryside have come to compete.  The prize is 5000 GPs to the winner.

Obviously there's a few of the usual tropes in here.

If you got any ideas I'm more than willing to listen!

As a side note, If I do this again, a hexcrawl would be interesting.  Alternatively if it takes place in the same dungeon, I think I'll do a new map.  And then come up with some random explanation as to how it changed! hahah.

If you don't know about the blue baron you can download it here.

If I wind up doing this again, it'll be in January.

O-SeRial level 1 room 19

19 Magical light shines down from the ceiling revealing a horrific sight. More than a hundred dwarves are frozen in place in various acts of battle. Their skin encased in stone.  At the far end of the room is a large golden throne that stands higher than the rest of the room.  On it sits a dwarf frozen in time, his mouth hanging open yelling something, fist held high.  What is the most curious is the lack of enemies in the room.  To the east and west of the throne are corridors leading away from this awful site.

There are not a lot of clues to how the dwarves have become paralyzed.  The throne contains 10 jewels inset into the arms, each jewel is worth 30 GPs and will take one round to remove with a dagger. Most of the weapons of the dwarves are still within their grasp, however there is one battle axe laying on the ground (Silver +2) and one dagger (Silver +1 against the undead) and a shield. A chest beside the throne is trapped with a poison dart (1d12 damage save vs ray/poison or die). Inside the chest is 500 GPs, 2000 SPs, and a makeshift map to level 2.

O-SeRial level 1 room 11

11  The door to this room is ajar, the hinges barely holding on.  Peering inside you can see three green skinned bodies lying on the floor.  A makeshift table made of refuse leans against one wall.

If the goblins are examined, they are bodies are not disfigured from a fight.  However they have small puncture holes on their necks.  If a search for treasure is made, under a small flagstone is a bag of 30 CPs and 10 SPs.  The goblins do not have any decent weapons or armour.  Scrawled in goblin on one of the walls is the following:

Meet near the dwarves, infiltrate and take the gold.

Abdominal Snowman - Blueholme Monster

Abdominal Snowman

AC:  6

HD:  5d8

Move:  40

Attack:  2 Snowballs

Damage:  1d6/1d6

XP:  300

Alignment:  Neutral

Treasure:  13

The Abdominal Snowman are often found alone in the northern tundra reaches.  They will normally be guarding small caves, filled with the treasure of their victims.  In a fight the snowman will hurl large ice filled snowballs causing 1d6 damage each.  If standing within 15 feet of the snowman, they can cause the ground to become extremely icy, thus reducing anyone’s dexterity to 5.  This effect lasts for 4 turns. 

O-SeRial level 1 room 21

21.  This room is quite small and dusty, cobwebs hang from the ceiling.  A very ugly carpet lies on the floor, chewed up from bugs.  In the corner of the room is a small stool with a few scrolls of paper and a glinting small silver object.

This secret room can only be opened by a key.  The mage in room 20 has it.  In order to open the door one must use the key.  On the book shelf under a book is a key hole.  If the key is turned to the left it disengages the trap, if it's turned to the right the trap remains active.  If the trap is activated and someone steps into the room, they will fall ten feet thru the false floor that is located under the moldy carpet.  1d6 damage, save vs spell for half.

The two scrolls are “scrolls of remove paralysis”, the glinting object is a silver token with a bearded dwarf engraved upon it.  If the coin is flipped all of the PCs will travel back in time one day.  The coin will then disappear and reappear somewhere in the dungeon.  

O-SeRial level 1 room 20

20  This room contains a makeshift study, there are a two book shelves and a large table in the centre of the room.  Three figures stand over the table in the torchlight pearing at a musty map.

The Three figures are treasure hunters.  One is an accomplished magic user (level 3), the other 2 are bodyguards.  They have been trying to ransack the tomb with the help of some goblins. (room 8).  There is a secret door behind a bookshelf in the southern wall.  The bodyguards are armed with clubs (The  guards are scaredy cats and will give up at the first sign of trouble).  The mage has a key to the secret door in room 21.  On the book shelf under a book is a key hole.  If the key is turned to the left it disengages the trap, if its turned to the right the trap remains active.  

The magic user knows the following spells:  Floor Nails, Magic Missile, Read Magic.

Floor Nails:

Range:  10  Duration:  1 turn/level

When cast floor nails sprout from the ground immediately in front of the caster.  Anyone in the general 10 foot vicinity must save vs spell or suffer 1d4 damage.  At level five the spell causes 2d4 damage.  At level 10 the spell causes 3d4 damage.  The spell is remains in effect as long as the caster concentrates (1 turn per level of caster).

The magic user has a few things on his mind.  Roll 1d4

1. He believes that the hertic kings tomb may contain a world changing weapon.
2. While he has hired goblins, he doesn’t like them and is suspicious of their motives.
3. He would like to devle deeper into the dungeon, and is looking for help.
4. He has heard rumours of a goblin massacre deep in the dungeon, their bodies left with holes in them, gold still sitting on tables and in chests.