MOOR'S END - 3

In which respects are paid to Devedos @ the Church of the White Widow - Locals of Moor's End take notice of Kruger's burning shop - The party returns to the Caves at sundown...

PARTY CAST:
Gileegan, hobbit thief - MN
Jin the Cautious, monk - RM
Farley, dwarf fighter - MF
Renfro the Regarded, magic-user - MIA
Mattie the Mournful, cleric of the White Widow - NPC
Link, neanderthal - NPC

ENCOUNTERED NON-PARTY NPCs:
Brother Lennox - Church of the White Widow
Random townsfolk on street

Feeling a ripple in the Order of the Guiding Star, Jin the Cautious arrives in Moor's End just in time to help Gileegan, Renfro, Mattie & Link transport & bury their friend Devedos @ the Church of the White Widow. Brother Lennox performs the ceremony & the party donates 30 gold to the church. It is a solemn affair. So much so that Gileegan is moved to remind the party why they were first called here: to help the church locate the diamond spider that was stolen & moved into the caves @ the edge of the moor. After the ceremony the party walks for a bit down the strip of town, many townsfolk coming out & watching the smoke envelope Kruger's shop. The party asks one man what is going on, & sure enough, he simply confirms the rumor that Kruger's place is up in flames, etc. Renfro assures the party that he has discretely hidden Delilah (Kruger's two-handed sword) under a bed in the common room of the Forgotten Worm Inn. As darkness descends, the party decides to return to the caves. Jin wishes they had a fighter among them, & as if the Guiding Star was listening, the Furthermoor Adventure Express (FAE) screeches up & out tumbles Farley the Dwarf, eager to join the party for a crawl.

It's around 8 PM by the time Mattie is locating the secret entrance to the cave, the party moves into the narrow cave single file, Link, Farley, Jin, Renfro, Mattie w/ lantern, & Gileegan in back. After a bit of weaving through narrow cave passages, they come to a dead end, where they search around for a good thirty minutes, but notice nothing, they then search the walls as they backtrack when Link signals back that something is there ahead of them...  A goblin has turned around, walking away from them.  Gilleegan pushes through & sneaks after the goblin & backstabs it, easily taking it down. He searches the body to locate a small pouch holding 11 sp & 1 gp, also in the pouch is a scrap of paper w/ something in goblin written on it. Jin reads the note: MARKET, 16TH DAY, BEFORE SUN, OUTSIDE CAVES - the party backtracks a bit more then moving south & coming to the room they previously fought the giant rats, the opened chest on the ground.  They are reminded of Devedos.  They pass the room & move west where they come into a circular room, about 15' in diameter, cave room w/ a large cone of white rock in the middle of the room w/ smooth rounded bottom. Gilleegan pushes the rock & it teeters a bit, then sways & then stops back in original position. Farley pushes the rock harder, noticing that it is chalk.  W/ the harder push, when tottering, the base reveals a gap below where they notice something shiny. They use Farley's crowbar to hold the chalk over to where they are able to pull 300 sp & 30 gp from below. Farley chips off some sizable pieces from the top. Others follow suit. Farley crushes some into a dust & puts it in a pouch. The party moves on, traveling west, the cave corridor growing a touch wider, they come into another similar cave room, about 15' in diameter. There is a pool of dark liquid in the western third of the room, surrounded by a thin strip of cave. Jin probes the water w/ his staff, & about 2-3' down the staff pushes into something. He tries jiggering it out, but nothing gives. He decides to simply step into the water & reach down for it. He pulls up two bags filled w/ silver, 250 sp each. The party redistributes the silver from the soaked bags & decides to move into the northern passage which narrows & winds a bit until it narrows to almost 2 feet wide & then opens into a fairly massive, compared to what they have seen up to this point. Also, this room, though still "cavey" shows signs of construction/manipulation. It is a sizable room, about 30' wide in places. Two passages lead from the room, to the NE & NW, & between these passages are two closed door on the NW wall. Also, as the party moves into the room, they notice about 20 large, clear bubbles floating about the room, moving slowly & erratically. Farley moves to one of the bubbles & pops it w/ his rope. Nothing seems to happen, the bubble just disappears w/ little noise or effect. Farley then goes about whipping around half the room until only about ten bubbles remain. Moving closer to the doors, he finishes off the rest of the curious bubbles & the party focuses on one of the wooden doors that is stuck shut. After numerous tries, Jin does a cartwheel & kicks the door open. They move into a narrow cave passage & into a small 10' cave room beyond where lining the walls & ceiling is a strange, silver fuzzy growth of some sort. Farley scrapes @ the growth w/ his crowbar & suddenly finds himself holding a solid, silver crowbar. For the next thirty or forty minutes, the party goes crazy on turning various items to silver & while this is going on, Farley takes watch down the opening when he notices a Giant Gecko slithering in he throws his electrical spear, kills the Gecko, then chops its head off & throws it @ the silver mold therefore now having a solid, silver Giant Gecko head. W/ all their new silvery stuff, the party moves back out into the large room & then goes to work on the other door. Farley busts the door in & doing so hears some rattling & then sees a skeleton w/ a sword quickly moving his way down a narrow passage. He holds his shield up & tries to keep the skeleton at bay but takes one stab, 3 damage, in doing so. The party then, one-by-one takes turns as they kill one skeleton @ a time, everyone crucial, Gil, Jin, Link, even Mattie, until theyve destroyed 4 of them, Farley doing in the last, removes its skull from the rest of the bones & takes it into the silver room & turns it to silver. In the main room, Jin & Gilleegan relax & split one of the mushroom caps that Devedos found in the Jungle Room...

10:40 PM, Thursday, 14th day of the month of the Hummingbird, Moor's End, Furthermoor

THE SMOKING LEPRECHAUN: FURTHERMOOR SUPPLEMENT 1

A ways to go, obviously, but this looks pretty tight...

 

GOT A LIGHT?

 So as our game's been on hiatus for a few weeks due to sicknesses & schedules I been working on a "supplement" of sorts to help folks drop smokables into their campaigns. Though I've littered my OSR circle on G+ w/ some of the rough drafts, I recently turned in an article to Fight On! w/ a solid sample of ten. I'm not sure how I want to prepare the full on supplement though, whether I wanna go cut-and-paste zine style, or PDF; Futura, or good old typewriter like The Hooded Periscope*? Also, as I've thought more about it, I've had some creeper ideas that may expand this sizably... More as I have it, but here's something for now:

*The Hooded Periscope is a typewritten zine that I've done two issues for over the past two years in support of the two games I was DMing. I will put up a way to download those two issues here shortly.

MONKS

So after much thought & comparing everything from Blackmoor to AD&D to Nod, I have decided for now, to go w/ the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion version of the monk. Main reason is b/c it is more Blackmoor than AD&D while also incorporating the best parts of the AD&D monk, like getting 2HD @ 1st level, as well as lowering the XP limits for levels just a bit, though moreso than AD&D, actually. I really dont care to get into too much nit picky stuff right now as the monk is a difficult class all around, for those that play them & the DM. There are a lot of nuances. After looking through these all though, I felt this was the best "balance" w/o having to cut & scrape, so for now, here you go:

SESSION 10 - LEIF MAKES LIKE A TREE & LEAVES AN EMAIL ON SOME ARMOR

RANGERS

"But in the wild lands beyond Bree there were mysterious wanderers. The Bree-folk called them Rangers, and knew nothing of their origin. They were taller and darker than the Men of Bree and were believed to have strange powers of sight and hearing, and to understand the languages of beasts and birds. They roamed at will southwards, and eastwards even as far as the Misty Mountains; but they were now few and rarely seen. When they appeared they brought news from afar, and told strange forgotten tales which were eagerly listened to; but the Bree-folk did not make friends of them." - Fellowship of the Ring

Rangers are humans that have left civilization in order to protect it from chaos & evil lurking in the forests, therefore they are always Lawful in alignment. If a Ranger ever does any action outside of this alignment, he immediately becomes a Fighter & loses all Ranger specifics. Rangers start out w/ 2 hit dice b/c they have already gained experience & heft in their relocation to the woods. Though they do not see eye-to-eye w/ Elves in all matters (if they are not themselves an elf), they usually become familiar w/ Elves & can speak Elvish by 2nd Level & read & write Elvish by 3rd Level. In addition, beginning w/ 4th Level, a Ranger has access to magic from the Elf Spell List (though it is limited to specific spells). The Ranger accesses this magic through primitive means (as the Elves first did), ie. communing w/ the forest, learning its wild laws, meditation, etc. They memorize their spells similarly to a cleric. Due to their stealth, Rangers cannot wear plate mail & also, when using missile weapons within the forest & w/ surprise, gain an additional +2 to hit.

 for now...

SESSIONS 9 & 10 - THESE AREN'T THE GNOLLS YOU'RE LOOKING FOR

In which the party untraps zombies from a cell - Djarel gets rushed to the Church of the White Widow - The party tries to convince Goody that thieves killed Shadow - A day of rest is in order - Unrest in & outside Talbot Outfitters - Gnoll Too leads the party into the rolling fields north of Talbot - Inside an old tree Leif senses a secret door & the party investigates...

PARTY CAST:
Leif, elf ranger - LE
Djarel, cleric of Dawnbringer - RM
Telal, thief - JT
Amadi, magic-user - MN
Gnolan, charmed gnoll - NPC
Mellon, freed gnoll - NPC
Magus, dwarf - MIA

ENCOUNTERED NON-PARTY NPCs:
Chill Deeter - holy man @ Church of the White Widow
Goody Threeshoe - barkeep @ the Green Lantern Inn
Dashdalian - traveling bard
Leonard Loonberry - hobbit owner of Talbot Outfitters
Farmer John & 4 of his friends - 2 w/ shovels, 2 w/ spears, FJ w/ sword

Before heading up out of the jail below the Gambling Hall, the party weighs their options & decide to try one more of the remaining jail cell doors... One of the gnolls beats down the door & four zombies move about. Djarel forces entry, brandishing the symbol of Dawnbringer, but the zombies keep on toward the door. They start clawing into the two gnolls who end up crunched over in a corner outside the door, a zombie on top of them & before the party can get the best of the 4 zombies, Djarel takes a serious blow that puts him @ Death's Door. Once the zombies are bested, they lift Djarel, rush out of the Gambling Hall & move west to the Church of the White Widow. It is late at night by this time, & inside the church, where they see a massive, sparkling spider @ back upon a dais, sits a man, quietly. He offers his services for a contribution of 20 gold. Leif is quick to hand over the $. The holy man, Chill Deeter, casts a spell upon Djarel who begins to groan & flounder a bit. Everyone is happy to see he hasnt kicked the bucket. They return him to a bed in the common room @ the Green Lantern & go in & speak w/ Goody who is cleaning up. Though they speak of Shadow dead down in the bottom of the Gambling Hall, killed by thieves, Goody doesnt quite seem to buy it & asks them why exactly he should believe them. They retire for sleep & in doing so, cause a bit of a controversy as a few others there, like a bard named Dashdalian, are not so psyched on their gnoll friends. The next day the party stays the entire day @ the inn, resting. The inn seems oddly quiet all day, which is fine w/ them. On the following morning, they leave the inn & go next door to Talbot Outfitters so that Leif can purchase items to replace those he lost when captured. Like the inn, the town seems rather dead except for a handful of men standing down the strip, in the road, watching the party as they enter the Outfitters. The owner/clerk, Leonard Loonberry, refuses to do business w/ them & after a while agrees to sell the items if the gnolls leave the store. He tells them that word around town is that they killed Shadow & rescued this other gnoll. Leonard tells them this gnoll they rescued robbed his shop @ one time. The party calms him down w/ their purchases & assures him they are trying to do the right thing & are actually trying to get to the bottom of who killed Shadow, saying they are being wrongly accused. Though Leonard doesnt seem to totally buy their story, he gives them enough slack to get what they want & get out of there...

As they exit the shop, they find that the men from down the strip are now just outside the shop, in a semi-circle surrounding the gnolls. The two on the outside have spears, the two closer in have shovels & the guy in the middle has a sword. He's the one that starts taunting the party, waving his sword. Farmer John says they better get the hell outta town & never come back. They are convinced the party killed Shadow & they dont like these gnolls they're runnin' w/. After a bit of a stand-off, the party simply walks through their line, calling their bluff. Farmer John & his lackeys dont do anything, but Farmer John keeps telling them they better not come back to Talbot, or else.

By mid-morning the party is north of Talbot walking through the fields - they are being led by Mellon (gnoll 2), who finally noticing a few dips in the plain, inside a slight valley, brings them to an old, gnarly tree. The tree is extremely massive @ its base, though not that tall; a bit stunted it seems & dying. About five feet up, there is a broken, hollow branch that looks to lead into the tree. Gnoll Too says this is where he hid the bags of silver. The party tells him to go in & get it & Telal lends him his rope. After about 5 or 10 mins in the tree, the gnoll shows his head out the hole & is irritated. He tells the other gnoll & Leif that the bags are gone & says he knows this is the place b/c he specifically disarmed a pit trap the last time. The party decides to enter the tree to check it out. Telal lights up a torch. Sure enough they see the pit trap & spikes & a skeleton down there. But as Leif looks about the hollowed out room, which is about 10 feet high & 10 feet in diameter, he senses something about the north wall. He goes over & lays his hands about, & sure enough, feels the crease of something there. Telal comes over & helps investigate & before long they are opening a secret door which once opened, reveals a stair that suspends up into darkness... They can hear the slow slosh of water somewhere. In order, the party climbs the creaky stair, reaching a dirt landing of sorts, but as Djarel, who was last, gets close to the landing, the stair wobbles & snaps & Djarel falls...  hitting something rubbery he pops off & into the water which is not very deep but next something whips around, what he landed on & an alligator is swinging it's jaws @ him, missing, two other alligators can then be heard splashing from each side, further away... Telal shines his torch down there & then tries pushing Mellon over ledge, but it backfires when Mellon simply grabs his hand & tosses him off, his torch landing beside the water, but not in it... Telal takes 1 damage from the fall...& everyone can hear Amadi chanting something, he's reading from a scroll & then suddenly the alligators are asleep, snoring, hacking up water...It takes a bit but the party heals the rift between Telal & Mellon & Telal & Djarel are hauled back up to the landing using the rope.

Another torch is lit & the party moves forward down a corridor, away from the stairs & the snoring alligators. They come to a 10 x 10 ft. clearing where another stair leads off upwards to their left, a passage also leads straight ahead, they head down the passage & enter into a 15 foot wide, 25 foot long room w/ webs about & as they move in they notice a large, golden key sticking down into the floor. After some talk, they turn the key. When doing so, a section of the north wall spins & opens. They pass through the opening in the north wall & come out into a 30 foot long hallway that smells of mold, about 10 feet wide, armor statues stand to each side, six in all... The armor is a funny cast as it looks to be armor for a crawfish-shaped man, long arms of armor opened for pincers, etc. Telal gets out front & searches for traps, scanning the armor, notices that the 2nd on the left has a pole arm attached to a trip wire. He is able to disarm it. They move in further & Magus slowly examines the armor, telling everyone that the second set on the right seems made of especially fine metals. The party takes time to bag up the suit of armor... They then notice a large collection of gray/black mushrooms growing up from the red rug running down the hall, 12 total, @ the center point of the room, they collect them all... They look down the hall to the other side & the doorway there, about 10 feet in front of them... They get back into a marching order, ready to move on...

3:40 PM, Friday, 15th day of the month of the Hummingbird, Talbot, Furthermoor