HORROR ON THE HILL - SESSION 1

Gilleegan, a hobbit thief, & Devedos, human monk of the Guiding Star, visit Guido's Fort, on the wide, Mad River, where they've heard possible adventure awaits.  At the fort, they enter the Lion's Den, a mellow establishment, it's 10 AM...  The party is greeted by Guido himself, a happy, go-lucky chap w/ a Charlie Chaplin-esque mustache.  Guido proves to be a rather strong & charismatic fellow.  Gilleegan & Devedos ask him about the sinister looking Hill across the river & a Kushdarian cleric, named Howel, pipes up from a nearby table that man-eating ghouls are known to hunt the hill.  G & D walk up to the bar & are directed toward the Old Timer in a corner who tells them a few other tales as they buy him a drink, a double.  1. An evil witch lives on the hill, etc. 2. many centuries ago, an old monastery was located on top of the hill, & 3. repeats the same info about ghouls.  G & D enlist both Guido & Howel & begin to make plans to cross the river.  Amazed by price of hiring a fisherman to boat them across, Gilleegan decides to drop 60 gp & just buy a boat for the party.  Before long, the party finds themselves moving west across the Mad River.

As they cross the river, they spot two "landing" spaces, north & south, they move toward the north space, a narrow clearing along the riverbank, the ground is muddy, lots of marshy plants, buzz of mosquitoes, the party pulls their boat up, moves it well onto land & covers it as much as they can.  Noticing trail heads to the NW & SW, they take the SW & after a bit, Gilleegan scouting ahead, comes upon a Killer Bee hovering over the path a ways ahead...  The party drops back a bit to figure it out, but Gilleegan is noticed, the Bee hovers down a bit & Devedos gets the aim on it w/ his bow & fires, hitting w/ precision, the bee, about a foot long, drops dead in the trail...  They continue down the path to the SW & enter a lush glen, shady on the edges, beautiful, quiet, peaceful, wildflowers everywhere among the grass...  The party notices a trail to the NW & another to the SW, they decide on the NW & after just a bit, though the path continues, they see a path that turns SW & they see that it has a sharper incline up the hill.  They decide to head up hill & just as Gilleegan, who is still scouting a bit ahead (about 10' ahead), comes upon the steepest part, he sees an Ogre sitting to the side of the passage.  Slipping back to the party, a plan is made.  Missile shot to lure the ogre down the passage where a trip rope is rigged to trip the ogre & Gilleegan will jump out for a backstab...  Devedos sends off an arrow that hits the ogre in the arm for a bit of damage.  Pissed, & as planned, the ogre he rises & runs down the trail toward the party, but as he gets to the trip rope held by both Guido & Howel, his stride totally misses the rope...  Gilleegan jumps out anyway & plants his sword backstab-style for nice damage, then, whiled rattled a bit, the ogre is surprised by both Guido & Howel jumping out & attacking, chipping away @ the ogre, they both do a bit of damage, the Ogre, totters, about to retaliate, but then Gilleegan, gaining initiative on the next round, slashes his the short sword, bringing an end to the Ogre...  The party is pleased to find a large pouch hanging from the ogre's belt that holds 300 gold pieces.

The collect themselves & continues down the trail to the SW, passing another trail head that turns SE.  They keep SW for some time, finally meeting up w/ another trail that runs NE & SW, they take it to the SW which takes them higher up the hill, to about 160' elevation above the river.  Continuing W down the trail, after a short bit they come into an opening that reveals a cave-mouth between two large boulders where the contour of the hill elevates sharply.  Thick bushes choke the entrance to a height of about 2'.  The party moves a bit of brush out of the way & Gilleegan goes in a bit just to get an idea of what's inside...  From just the sunlight, he is only able to gauge about 20' inside, seeing that the cave expands rapidly, many boulders on the floor, stalactites & stalagmites in the distance.  The party decides to go further in & Guido takes the lead w/ his lantern...  It is slow going, but they move west into the cavern to find that it opens up a bit & heads N-S.  They first go south, but ultimately come to a dead end sidechamber choked w/ rocks & stalactites & doesnt look to be passable.  Turning back, the party then heads N & down a NE passage bringing them to a small side passage containing a pool of stagnant, brown water.  The party is still & Devedos listens for anything that may be in the water.  They then probe it a bit, but nothing happens.  They turn back & moving SW, coming around some boulders, are surprised to see 2 Neanderthals, who are also surprised.  The Neanderthals do not seem hostile, however, & quickly go about trying to communicate w/ the party.  They signal for the party to follow them out of the cave, which the party does.  Back out in the opening the neanderthals try to communicate, but it is rough going, at times they find the party humorous.  One of them acts angry @ the other & does a stabbing motion.  The neanderthals then lead the party up a stepping incline that leads to a clearing up over the cave.  In this clearing is ancient statue, a hideous idol, carved from granite, by some forgotten race.  The statue depicts a fat, squatting, vaguely humanoid figure, whose face is twisted into a hideous leer.  The party does not recognize what race this creature may be.  Standing near the idol, the neanderthals begin doing the same "skit" as before.  One of them acts angry & does a stabbing motion @ the other, who then acts injured & sad.

Next, the neanderthals signal for the party to follow them, entering a trail head @ the S of the clearing that heads SW.  The party follows them down the trail which climbs higher still...  Once the trail seems to level out, the party comes upon 6 Stirges that are hovering in the road...  Seeing the party, the stirges attack...  Both of the neaderthals soon find stirges attached to their necks, & one of them dies before the rest of the party can kill the stirges.  The only member of the party affected, is Guido, who takes 4 damage in blood loss, but ultimately, the party bests the stirges, Gilleegan w/ an impressive showing, as well as Devedos destroying one of the striges w/ only his hands...  The neanderthal that lives is beside himself in regard to his friend, he begins dragging the body, but then stops in crying fits...  Devedos lifts the body onto his shoulder & the wounded neanderthal begins back down the path, to the SW, once more.  The party follows...

It is 5:30 PM

SESSION 5 - CRACKENMORE

Still within the room w/ the crystal outcropping, the party talks through what they have just experienced, not sure if this is the same room or not.  Leif takes out his waterskin & pours a bit of noticeable water on the ground.  At the same time, Amadi holds the gnoll map up to the crystal while shining his lantern at it, but nothing happens.  The party files out into the corridor around 2:20 PM, & once again find themselves disoriented.  They could have sworn that they entered this room northward from an E-W passage, but now, as the door closes behind them, they find themselves standing @ the south end of a N-S passage w/ a slight dead end to the east.  Their immediate reaction, while once more consulting their map, is that the room must be turning.  They decide to wander a bit through the corridors, taking careful notes, trying to trace back to something recognizable on their map.  This proves to be more difficult than they first thought as things just seem too different the further they get...  Moving northward, they soon enter a corridor leading to a turn eastward.  As they enter this short corridor, Leif senses something off about the western wall of the corridor.  The party halts as he searches the wall further, ultimately locating a secret door, the ridges well hidden within the smooth, black rock.  The party notes the door on their map, but choose to continue on w/ the task @ hand:  getting back to something noticeable.

They cut eastward for a good 100' before it turns south.  They follow the corridor, ultimately turning west once more which wraps them around inwardly until they funnel into another E-W passage.  The passage dead ends to the west.  The party decides to examine the dead end & go about throroughly searching it.  They locate nothing.  As they get ready to move on, turning eastward, they  notice 2 Orcs, one w/ a morning star, the other w/ a club, headed their way.  Though the Orcs dont look necessarily hostile, once they see the party bracing for battle, they ready themselves as well.

First out of the gate is Djarel, as a sudden hate for his orcish side seems to be surfacing, despising the chaotic strain of his blood, he swings his hammer w/ wild abandon @ the Orc w/ the club, getting a solid hit in there, but for only 1 damage...  At the same moment, the other Orc plants his morning star w/ a nasty thud into Magus' chest, knocking him back for a brutal 6 damage, he's just hangin on, tries to swing his battle axe in reply but misses dreadfully.  Leif then skirts around for position & feeling he has the shot, flings off an arrow @ the Orc w/ club, but things dont go as planned, & the arrow actually comes close to both Magus & Djarel but hits the rock  & splinters out.  Amadi then runs @ the Orc w/ the morning star, swirling his staff in a cyclone motion, landing a killer blow to the orc's head; it crumbles dead...  Gnollan, seeming a bit confused, rushes to Amadi's side.  The remaining Orc then swings his club @ Djarel, but misses.  Leif then having moved a bit further over, looses off another arrow, but again, this one misses, crashing into the rock wall, breaking.  Djarel has now regained his steady hand, but his rage is apparent in his face as he once again focuses his hammer on Orc flesh, this time w/ a disgustingly righteous hit the hammer folds into the Orc's face, so that when he yanks it out, the Orc's face pulls off & stuff goes everywhere, it is nasty, but effective.  They search the bodies surprised to find quite a bit of gold among them (35 gp), as well as a yellowish liquid in a vial.  Leif, still down a number of hits from the gnoll battle the day previous, grabs for the vial, remembering Magus quick drain of the last.  He smells it, the soft scent of daffodil, & then sips it, feels invigorated, then nothing.  He then drinks half of the potion, which is indeed a potion of healing, & he gains back 3 (or was it 4?) HP.  Djarel then nears Magus & begins humming & saying words no one can understand, moving his hands around, he touches Magus & suddenly Magus feels a good bit healthier, gaining back 4 HP from the Cure Light Wounds spell.

Collecting their things, the party continues east down to corridor to a door they noticed when entering the passage.  Amadi kicks the door open & they file in.  What they find is an Implement Room of sorts, everything from large iron vises, ropes, chains, mallets, unfinished arrows, wooden pegs & hacksaws, the party glances about, taking it all in.  They discuss items they may wish the leave w/.  Magus wonders over to the SW corner of the room, searching a bit deeper, where he sees a shiny shield behind some long iron bars, leaning over, reaching for the shield, he pulls it up, & while lifting it, also unrevealed is the tentacled face of a Carrion Crawler that is hidden along the base of the room behind stacks of empty barrels...  Leif gets a jump just as the Carrion Crawler slithers up, rearing up from it's prone position & pokes it in its body w/ his knife for 1 damage...  But this does not keep the Carrion Crawler's 8 tentacles from swarming & slapping Magus' dwarf figure numerous times, though he drops the shield, he is frozen otherwise, paralyzed...  But then, it's...  Gnollan! swinging his sword, missing [I cant remember if it was Leif or Gnollan that first hit the CC.  Do yall remember?] & also Amadi, sliding up, brandishing his staff once again & planting it solidly into the back of the Carrion Crawler's "head" knocking it out, dead, w/ impressive damage.  Leif congratulates Gnollan in gnollish for his efforts.  The party inspects the shield closer, noticing its exquisite craftsmanship, & also, in Common, toward the bottom, an inscription that reads, "Kinchen Forever".  The party decides to rest a bit, & so they take a load off, inspecting the items in the room, packing some of them, while watching for any change in Magus' condition.  It is about an hour later, @ 4:30 PM, when Magus begins to slowly move once more, grumbling something in Dwarvish, not happy in the slightest...

SESSION 4 - CRACKENMORE

So the party acquaints themselves w/ their new party member, the charmed gnoll & Amadi christens him, Gnolan.  They spread out & search the room, but find nothing of interest except for the other features of the room: a dais on the north wall, & lots of tables, the ones in the south of the room mainly turned over, where the battle against the gnolls took place.  The party decides to rest in the north section of the room, far from the door, w/ discussion of staying the night so that in the morning, both Amadi & Djinnger can refresh their spell abilities.  Also, there is concern for Magus' & Leif's wounds.  Discussion brews regarding the murky potion vial they found on one of the dead gnolls & Leif decides to smell it.  It smells of roses.  Magus asks to see it & takes a small sip from the vial.  He feels invigorated for a moment, but it quickly wears off.  Next thing they know, he turns the vial up & drains it.  Magically, his wounds heal up & he feels full HP once more.  Leif seems a bit irritated that he downed the entire thing, but talk turns back to whether to stay the night or not.  Djinnger in the meantime has secluded himself to the NW corner to meditate on the the Great Tulip, Dawnbringer.  Amadi on the other hand is bothering Leif to teach him some gnollish so he can start ordering Gnolan around, but Leif on the other hand is busy studying the map they found on one of the gnolls.  Leif ignores Amadi & asks Gnolan what he can tell him about the map.  Gnolan, quite simply, tells Leif that they actually just found the map in this room.  Magus & Leif then brew over the map a bit, until it is decided they will stay the night here in Crackenmore & take their chances w/ whatever lurks in the night.  They spread out & nibble @ their rations in the north part of the room & then plan a nightwatch...  But they hear something @ the door, @ the SE corner of the room, & watch as an Orc busts through, carrying a shield & a morning star.  Immediately, Djinnger, in orcish, asks, "Who goes there?"  The orc stops mid-room, grunts & then says, "What are you doing here?"  Djinnger begins threatening the orc.  Finally taking in the entire party sitting around, the orc seems confused.  Djinnger continues his threats, telling the orc if he doesnt leave now, he is in for it.  The orc backs up a bit & darts for the door.  In an impressive chain of events, Leif suddenly has his bow @ hand & almost flicks off two arrows @ the orc.  The first misses, but the second is quite a blunder, his hand slipping & the arrow not even making it off the string.  The orc gets away unscathed.  Djinnger moves to the south part of the room & spends some time barricading the door w/ a few of the overturned tables.  The party goes into sleep mode & rotate watch.  First it's Magus, then Gnolan, then Amadi, then Djinnger, & lastly, Leif, who wakes the party @ 6 AM.  For the next hour, after slight rations, Djinnger prays to Dawnbringer for Cure Light Wounds while Amadi studies his spell book for Charm Person once more.  The party collects their belongings & moves back through the SE door & into the corridor.  It is around 7:30 AM.  As they are doing this, Djinnger informs the party that he will no longer go by the name Djinnger, a nickname he never liked.  He will now go by his real name, Djarel.

The next FOUR & ONE HALF hours prove to be quite frustrating for the party.  As they exit the room, go south, & then west, coming to a south door, Leif begins using the gnoll map, but what they are seeing doesnt seem to jive w/ what is on it.  They keep on west until they spiral a bit & come upon a door, they open the door, spike it & pass through to the west, & for the next few hours, find themselves passing this spiked door, either from the east or west side, passing back through it, until @ one point they come upon a dead end...  Amazingly, they encounter no wandering monsters during this entire time, or during the remainder of their current delve...  After the dead end, they try to back track but keep getting confused by the door & @ this point arent sure which map is correct: theirs or the gnoll map, or possibly both are wrong?  The party begins to question Amadi's judgement @ this point, as he had been the keeper of their own map.  They then decide to shift the duties to Djarel, who also frustrated ["I feel like I'm playing Zork.  I have no fuckin' idea what's goin on!"], decides to pass the door versus going through it.

This eventually finds them @ another closed door on the south wall.  Leif busts it open, they spike it, & then move west until it turns north & they find themselves traveling north for quite a bit, whether it's NW, NE, a curvature, etc, they keep north wrapping around to the NE & down until they come to more doors.  Amadi busts one open they pass through, to more corridor, so they pass back through the spiked door to a pair of ornately carved oaken doors on the north wall of the corridor.  Again, Amadi busts the door open & Djarel spikes the door.  They walk into a room.  The floor is covered w/ dust, but as they tread up some of the dust they can see that the floor is of shiny substance, polished red granite.  The stone is inlaid in large blocks & extends uniformly to within a foot of each of the walls.  In the very center of the room within the floor surface are blocks of white granite within the red stone, & these form the letters K & Z w/ an ampersand between...  There is a strange reddish glow to north wall of the room when the party enter, what Amadi finds to come from some fire beetles moving around within cases that are inset in the wall.  He cannot figure out how to open them.  From the rest of the items in the room: relaxing chairs, tables, books, etc. they can deduce that this was a Library.  The party searches the room, going through the books, & also through a rack of deteriorating scrolls on the east wall.  Leif comes away w/ a book about Cosmetics.  Amadi a book on Mathematics, as well as a scroll w/ magical writing from the rack.  Magus locates a book on Weapons & Tactics, written in his native language, dwarvish, & lastly, after some deep digging, Djarel locates a curious volume titled, the Cult of the Black Dog.

Next, the party moves back south through the doors & then to the west, through an already spiked door, further west & to the north.  Here, they enter a door after Magus busts it open.  It's a room about 20' x 30'.  They file inside & Amadi's lantern sparkles off of something in the NE corner of the room.  Inspecting it, they find an outcropping of crystalline rock.  They touch it, but nothing happens that they notice off hand.  Amadi then pulls out his scroll & holds it up to the sparkle, but nothing happens.  The party then files back out of the door, but when they come out, they are confused by what they see.  Instead of what they are expecting, they are now in corridor headed N w/ a short 10' bit to the east into a dead end.  Also, as they reorient themselves, it seems the door they just left is actually to their west.  They decide to head north & then to the west & south, wrapping around more to the south until they come to a door on the north wall.  Amadi kicks the door in & they enter.  As he gets into the room & his lantern illuminates it, & the rest of party files in, they notice a sparkling in the NE corner that seems eerily familiar, like deja vu, & sure enough, they find an outcropping of crystalline rock, just like the previous room, or is this the same room?

It is 2:20 PM

YOUR MAGIC-USER IS A WANNABE RANGER

So I wanna speak a bit more in depth about Magic Missile...

First, let me spray some thoughts about magic in general regarding Wild Earth, i.e. Furthermoor, Kush & beyond...  As I've mentioned before, the Hooded Periscope blog game I have been running for over 1.5 years now has been a Moldvay/Cook/Labyrinth Lord (B/X) game from the outset.  I have a binder w/ Moldvay Basic & Cook Expert inside & that is basically what I have used exclusively (plus a few LL additions here & there, like 1st level clerics having spellcasting abilities, plus I have introduced NPCs of various classes/races not found in B/X, etc).  The text on that blog in the ruley reference sections for players - Items, Magic, Spell Descriptions, Monsters, etc. - is generally straight from Moldvay, or Cook in some instances.  When I started this blog for our Google+ game, I basically just copied & pasted the Spell Descriptions & Magic Items sections from HP into this blog.  In other words, what you are seeing
in those sections @ right, due to time-saving reasons on my part, are descriptions from Moldvay (there are a few descripts from AD&D & possibly Holmes, but basically right now what's there is Moldvay by majority).  Also, the Magical Items descriptions section only has descriptions for items that have come into play during the HP game, in other words, I was adding that stuff to the blog as the game went along, so these sections are incomplete.  Likewise, the spell lists are not complete either.  And though they are not straight from Moldvay - I'm about to get to this so please bear w/ me - they currently only include low level spells b/c right now in the game everyone is playing a low level character.  So in other words, I just havent gotten to the higher level spell selection yet.  All of that said, when the HP game began, back in April of 2010, I was using the Moldvay spell lists as they are printed in that book.  It actually was not until we had an elf character join the party that I started fiddling w/ the spell lists, & here is why:

I didnt like the fact that magic-users & elves use the same spell list.  In my mind, I felt that the two races would have encountered magic in different ways, or more succinctly, would each have a different relationship to magic.  Whether humans existed before elves, or vice versa, wasnt really the issue.  In the most basic explanation possible, I just felt that elf magic should be more tied to nature & possibly more inherent in some ways as the elf grows in experience, while human magic was more of a learned, "tapping into something"...  I/o/w, there is a reason any ole elf can cast magic, but humans knowing magic are limited to those that dedicate their lives to it.

W/ these thoughts, I began playing w/ the spell list just as the new elf was wrapping up their character.  For timeliness, since he would only be choosing two spells for his spell book, I just referred him to the Moldvay MU/elf spell list to get acquainted, while telling him I was working on a separate elf spell list & would give him a few more choices specific to elves.  Around this time I saw a discussion taking place in the OSR blogosphere regarding the use of Magic Missile.  It began with this enlightening post (which has some sweet ideas for using Enlargement, btw) that came to my attention through this post [I would highly suggest reading through these if you get the time].  And then, of course, I got an email from the elf saying he wants Magic Missile...  Though I'd never really liked the idea or image of the Magic Missile, the above posts had me thinking.  I never really thought to just remove it from the list altogether!  Keep in mind, we're talking about the Moldvay Magic Missile here, the one that is basically a magic, "glowing arrow".  The spell that Bargle, in Mentzer Basic, casts on you, or your lady cleric friend, as you go through the tutorial.  The hovering, glowing arrow.  It just seemed a little hokey then, & still seems sorta silly now.  Why an actual arrow?  A good discussion of the genesis & evolution of the spell can be found here.  I was glad to learn in the comments of these posts that most players abhor the Moldvay image of the "glowing arrow".  But now I had even deeper issues w/ it in regard to my elf vs. magic-user.  Not to stereotype the elf class, but since in B/X they are fighter/magic-users (they do not have any other class distinctions outside of that), many of them are known to carry a bow-and-arrow.  Unless they spend all their starting cash on a two-handed weapon, or whatever, they usually will go for a decent missile weapon.  So I couldnt help but ask myself, if your player has a short bow w/ arrows, & you have spellcasting abilities, why would you fill one of those valuable spell slots w/ what is basically just a bow & arrow but flashier?  I answered my own question.  Magic Missile is flashy.  Esp. to a new player when asked to "pick one of these".  So anyway, I was in a bit of a quandary.  I didnt plan to include Magic Missile on the elf list, but that was the spell from the Moldvay list that the elf wanted.  I knew also that to deny its use, now, would surely have adverse effects on the elf player's view of the game I was presenting.  So first, I tried trickery!  Rolling out the elf spell list, I explained my view of elf magic in the world & then tried to sell him on trading in his Magic Missile for the elfy version, Elvish Spears (a spell I made up, & actually like the idea of, that is modeled after MM).  This was a version of MM I could live w/, esp. for an elf.  But the elf didnt buy it.  He didnt like that to cast it, he would have to be around a tree or trees.  So in the end, I let him go w/ Magic Missile.  Since it wasnt on the elf list, the conclusion was that the elf was raised by a human magic-user & therefore one of the first spells he learned was Magic Missile.  It fit well as he joined the party while they traveled through a hollow hill wizard strondhold called Sunhillow.  FWIW, the second spell he chose was Dancing Lights, which was on the new elf list.

So, wiping the slate clean, w/ the Google+ game, I decided to start w/ the same spell list as the HP game, but just remove MM altogether, then add a few spells found in Holmes & AD&D, but not Moldvay.  Interestingly, the rule set I decided to reference to you all, Swords & Wizardry: White Box, does not include MM in its lists either.  That is b/c MM was not in the first OD&D books.  You can read about that here. 

That said, since you all are experienced players, & we have already had the conversation about using spells creatively (keep in mind that doing so will earn you XP), while I dont plan to add MM to the 1st level M-U spell list, I am open for discussion in regard to its inclusion in the 2nd level M-U list.  It seems clear to me that Amadi is concerned that the power of certain high level monsters may be difficult for the party to overcome if the M-U does not have access to MM & this seems like a valid argument.  While I dont totally agree, hopefully my initial exclusion of MM has caused you all to think about other spells in ways you may not have previously.  Anyways, as of now, I am sort of leaning toward the Holmes version that requires a "to-hit" roll (thanks for the heads up, Zenopus Archives), & if your magic-user can cast off more than one MM, they would roll a to-hit for each.  We can talk about it.  But please, oh please, can we lose the glowing arrow?

HOLMES vs. MOLDVAY (the major diffs)

In reply to Magus' query, here are the "big" differences, & when I say, "I may start using Holmes alone", I mainly mean in regard to stats, i.e. Monster stats, Treasure stats, etc.

vs.

1. In Holmes, a Halfling can be a fighter or a thief, an Elf can be a magic-user, etc. In Moldvay, you can be either a Halfling or a Thief, an Elf or a Magic-user. I/o/w, there is no race & class blending in later Basic.  Races ARE your class.  Only humans can be fighters, clerics, magic-users & thieves.  Take away?  Holmes is more tuned to AD&D w/ "character types," saying, "At the Dungeon Master's discretion a character can be anything his or her player wants him to be...  Thus, an expedition might include...  a centaur, a lawful werebear, & a Japanese Samurai fighting man."  Holmes' perception of the game is definitely DIY & appealing.  Make your own supplement!

2. In Holmes, the Magic-user spell list is bulkier (an additional 14 spells between 1st & 3rd level MU list than Moldvay & Cook) & the difference of spells are all spells that show in AD&D but not in subsequent Basic editions.  Moldvay sticks more to OD&D "basic" spells, trimming off many from the Holmes edition, for whatever reason.  Unfortunately, both have Magic Missile.*

3. In Holmes, there is no "initiative" as we know it.  Instead, the character w/ the highest Dexterity goes first in combat.  In Moldvay, each "side" makes an initiative roll before combat, or there is the "Pair Combat" option where opposing sides pair off & each pair rolls for initiative.  For me?  Going by dexterity every time seems unrealistic, & pairing off seems much too formal for true combat... Face it:  high DEX characters may not "always" get the jump (but they always get a modifier!), so rolling for initiative (each character individually per round) seems better when imagining combat.  Long aside aside, it was Moldvay's lead that got me here (throw in some intense Civil War games & perhaps Arkham Horror).

*Regarding Magic Missile, first of all it shouldnt be a 1st level spell, secondly it shouldnt be a spell @ all.  A magic-user should have to craftily work their magic not have a weak way to turn into a ranger.  The spell is a way to give magic-users an "attack" but the problem is that @ low lev they learn to just be like any other character @ the time of combat, which is sorta lame.

MISSILE WEAPONS IN MELEE COMBAT + FRIENDLY FIRE

In discussion of rules surrounding "Can I or Can't I fire off an arrow, etc," I flipped through various books & pdfs & here's what I came up with:

CHAINMAIL (combat rules used for OD&D)
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"Missiles cannot be fired into a melee...  Missile troops interspaced w/ other footmen forming a defensive line may refuse combat & move back 3" out of melee range."

HOLMES BASIC
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"Once the party is engaged in melee, arrows can not be fired into the fight b/c of the probability of hitting friendly characters."

AD&D DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE
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"discharge of missiles into an existing melee is easily handled.  It is permissible, of course, & the results might not be too incompatible w/ the desires of the discharging party.  Assign probabilities to each participant in the melee or target group according to sheer numbers.  In the case of participants of varying size use half value for size "S", normal value for size "M", and one & one-half value for size "L" creatures which are not too much larger than man-size.  Total the values for each group & ratio one over the other.  [Seriously? ed.]  If side A has 4 man-sized participants, & side B has 3 smaller than man-sized participants & 1 size "L" bugbear, the ratio is 4:3.  Then, according to the direction of the missile discharge, determine hits by using the same ratio.  If 7 missiles were loosed, 4 would have a chance to hit side A, 3 side B...  [there's a bit more of the same, then] You may assign a minor chance of the missile striking a friend if you wish, but this writer [Gygax], for instance, always allows archery hits to hit a giant or a similar creature engaged against a human or smaller opponent."

MOLDVAY BASIC
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"Missile fire is a type of combat used when the enemy is too far away to fight hand-to-hand (more than 5 feet away)...  is fought @ a range beyond 5 feet but still within sight...  The DM must check for surprise (or initiative) to see which side fires first...  If the distance between enemies is reduced to 5' or less as a result of movement, hand-to-hand combat may take place."

MENTZER BASIC
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"Devices cannot be used in hand-to-hand combat, or against targets within 5 feet."

Interestingly, there seems to be an actual evolution of thought here.  First, it's no missiles where there's melee then no missiles once melee begins b/c then there seems to be a bit of a sea change on the topic when Gygax works up AD&D strangely stating "it is permissible, of course..." & then goes on to spell out how to do it which proves to be a royal pain in the ass to execute in any decently sized battle...  He then refers to the older rules about friendly fire, but tries to simplify the thought by saying, basically, make it easy on yourself, if the monsters you are firing at are much larger than the bowman, dont sweat it...  THEN, w/ the following editions of Basic, unless I missed something, you dont see "you can't fire into melee" anymore...  Now, it appears permissible, but you must be at least 5 feet away from the target to do so, & also, you must have the initiative*, not be surprised, etc.

My general ruling on this will always have a lot to do w/ what exactly a player tells me they do, how the initiative falls, & if there is any question as to whether there can be success of actually getting an arrow or missile fire off...  If so, a Dexterity check may come into play...  HOWEVER, if a player gives me solid info to go on beforehand, e.g. I move a bit away from the party, toward the monsters' rear & jump on a table, etc.  Generally there will be no questions asked.  But when assumed melee combat begins, initiative starts being rolled & a player just says, "I fire my bow" when it gets to them, there are just too many variables that cannot be determined, therefore, it cannot even be an option, especially when the player does not have initiative*.  It is mainly just a role-playing thing.  If a player has thought out their attack then I should hear about it, but if they havent, it becomes obvious, & therefore their character shouldnt be able to suddenly do so.

So anyway, what if a player is able to fire their missile into melee combat per above? What about "friendly fire"?  As the threat should be real, any miss where the to-hit roll (w/ modifiers) is lower than the discharger's DEX score subtracted from 20, has a 10% (1 on 1d10) chance of hitting a friendly PC or NPC; generally the closest to the missed target. Here's an example:  Legolas in an impressive feat of dexterity, skirts the melee & lofts himself into the air from a treetrunk, firing off an arrow @ an Orc that is surrounded by 2 friendly fighters.  Legolas rolls a 5 to-hit (rolls a 3, but gets +2 for DEX bonus; NOTE: in this instance, missile fire does not get a to-hit bonus for close range - only so when discharger is stationary when firing).  Legolas has missed the Orc, therefore you take his DEX score of 16 & subtract it from 20.  That tells you that if Legolas' to-hit was below a 4, then there is a chance he has hit one of the friendly fighters.  As his to-hit is a 5, he hits no one & battle resumes to the next w/ initiative.  That said, no matter what one's DEX or modifiers, if the discharger rolls a natural "1" to-hit, they will always hit a friendly unit (no 1d10 roll necessary), though in some situations a GM may devise another situation they find more appropriate.



*as for Initiative, I do it a bit differently than most I'm sure, perhaps it's my experience w/ other games, but the closest D&D "option" would be Moldvay's "Pair Combat" rule.  In that variant, instead of each "side" rolling for initiative & one "side" attacking after the other, you pair off one member from each party attacking another member of the opposite party & then each "pair" rolls for initiative against one another.  The way I do it, however, is w/o the pairing.  Instead, every character & monster rolls for initiative, adds any modifiers, & then the combat executes from 6 down to 1.  Personally, I feel this gives a more visual flow to combat.  Someone may get a jump that usually doesnt, etc.  (However, two-handed weapon wielders always go off @ 1, unless they have DEX modifier - that is, if using variable weapon damage)

MAP FROM GNOLLS

[CLICK TO ENLARGE]

SESSION 3 - CRACKENMORE

[I cant do this everytime, but since we were having a bit of mapping transition, here ya go]

The star is where ya'll are @.  ANYWAY, somewhat here's what happened previously:

The party, now w/ Djinnger, made a beeline for the cemetery in search of the statue of Dagwood Talbot where in a tangled convo @ the bar Magus had heard Crackenmore could be located, if lucky...  The party moved in, still early day, glancing around, they notice some fog has moved in, they pass Sloppy Jims' grave & move across to where Leif randomly scans D. Mineral's grave...  As there is nothing odd the party moves on, noticing a statue in the distance in front a grove of trees.  However, on their way, they notice a random grave that appears much like Sloppy Jims', a newish pile of dirt w/ older dates...  Magus takes a whiff of the dirt & concludes that it is not dirt normally found in these parts, like the other dirt, the amount of minerals is only reasonable in the southern part of Furthermoor...  B/c of this the party decides to dig below the pile where they locate a wooden crate holding another midget freak, this one wearing a habit & donning a necklace w/ a spiral/tempest charm around its neck.  Amadi grabs the necklace as the others decide to toss the box back & move on their way.  The statue is indeed Dagwood Talbot's & there is an inscription that reads, "My eyes are closed only for a little while" - he seems to have once held a lantern w/ his left hand but the lantern has long been broken off & w/ his right, he is gesturing outward, as if orating, as his mouth & face match, a leader in his best moments perhaps...  The party looks around but notices nothing & heads to the grove of trees...  On the way they pass the mausoleum of Gabriel Solar which they search only to inspect the interesting engravings on two sides, one of Gabriel doing carpentry w/ large finished constructions behind him, the other, him performing on a stringed instrument of some kind, a crowd appreciative & a circle dancing behind him...  The party spends some time searching the mausoleum but find nothing peculiar.  Next, they move into the woods to find dead trees & nothing particular, stepping back on the path, a lychgate around the plot across the way to the NW...  After some discussion, the party decides to return to the statue b/c of Magus' hazy lead recollection.

On returning to the statue of Dagwood Talbot, Amadi goes to lengths of resecuring the eyeball from his pouch after cutting it out, climbing a bit on the statue to poke the eyeball @ the statue.  Nothing happens.  Amadi retreats, nods, then returns the eyeball to his pouch where it slides back into the stitching.  In the meantime, Djinnger has been studying the left hand of Talbot's statue, where it appears a lantern may have once hung.  Djinnger notices a nice gap that goes through the hand & decides to place Kumiss, his Great, Great, Grandfather's War Hammer into the hole to see what happens.  The hand of the statue grips the war hammer & the party hears a scraping noise in back.  They walk to find a passage now open @ back of the statue leading down a stone staircase.

As they move from the staircase into the passage, the first thing they notice is a splash of healthy vegetation, abnormal since the cemetery, outside of that plant monster & a strain of particular vine throughout, seems to be dead...  Secondly, they notice the black rock that the corridor is cut into...  it smooths out into something quite impressive, something none of them have ever seen...  The party moves down the corridor & coming to a heavy, wooden door, move through it, as Magus realizes it has been hacked open previously, chips falling away where a lock used to be...  Passing another alcove station, the party comes to another & suddenly from the sides come magic mouths from the walls:  "Who dares enter this place & intrude upon the sanctuary of its inhabitants?" says the east mouth, then the west mouth, "Only a group of  foolhardy explorers doomed to certain death!", then both mouths together, "Woe to any who pass  this place - the wrath of Zimbo & Kinchen will be upon them!"  The mouth then erupt in mocking laughter & then fade from view w/ no trace as suddenly as they appeared.  A short set of stairs is before them, & a number of dead bodies are sprawled about:  4 humans & a dwarf - a little coinage is had searching the bodies (7 gp & a pouch of garlic buds), & Djinnger - after catching a Detect Evil spell & sensing something off - feels tghe pull of evil to the NW...  Also, Djinnger equips himself w/ a war hammer from the dead dwarf & returns Amadi's staff.  The party moves up the stairs & looks around...  Noticing paths north, east, west, doors to the NW & NE, direct east & west passages...

They go west & follow the passage south for some time, eventually landing on a thick, wooden door.  Again, Djinnger sensing evil, this time directly to the west of the party.  Once the door is knocked in, the party moves through & Djinnger decides to wedge it w/ a spike.  The party moves south a bit then turns west until coming upon another door they enter to north, rattling it, they then move east & north until they come to the door of a Meeting, or Situation Room, it would seem.  The party busts through the door & 4 Gnolls are waiting, crouching behind tables.  Somehow, either b/c of Djinnger, or Knolls confused, the gnolls stand w/o attacking...  Djinnger begins a conversation w/ them, speaking in orc, but while @ first it seems they understand, it becomes obvious they dont.  They spread a bit examining the party.  That's when Amadi starts humming & casting off his Charm spell toward the larger of the gnolls, to the far left.  The other three gnolls then attack in a frenzy, the party moves to the south part of the room to defend.  Battle ensues, & though Leif & Magus take considerable hits/damage, no one dies.  The charmed gnoll does not join in the battle, but looks on w/ confusion.  Afterward, the party searches the dead gnolls & first off, Amadi locates a map of some kind, rolled behind the belt of one... It is crumpled a bit, but the image intact...  The others, after a deep search locate a few items & some lose gold: a bone pendant in shape of cloisonne elongated dog for 9 cp + 2 sp, an armband of silver for 6 gp & a medal ring of substantial electrum for 18 gp, also, among the pockets 23 gp is collected & finally, a potion vial of some sort is found containing a brown liquid...The charmed gnoll still seems confused, seeing the others dead, but stays nearby Amadi.