JOURNAL ENTRY FROM DJAREL RE: SESSION 12

Sixteenth of the Hummingbird

The Dawnbringer looks upon me in Avalon this morning. Through the
strength of my ancestor's Hammer, Kumiss, we have laid flat a mighty
foe. I have tasted the blood of the monstrous 8 eye [there appears a
dark brownish/green stain in the journal after this sentence which one
could logically assume is spider blood]. The 8 eye leaked magic
words after its death and the smokey elf seemed to understand them.
There was great treasure in the lair of the 8 eye. More sun colored
metal than I have ever seen. The party has decided to keep the
treasure here and create a home for ourselves. If this be so then the
hollow tree will need an altar to the Dawnbringer. When I return I
will plant the tulips and flowers about the entrance and prepare the
remains of the 8 eye and the flying needles as burnt offerings to
please the Dawnbringer. It has been so long since I have prepared a
holy altar for the Dawnbringer. Tulips, skulls, and oh, how I love smell
of burning evil in the morning.

Taking control of the hollow tree was no easy task. Through the
greatness of my companions we over came many perilous encounters.
Early in the hollow tree the weight of my spirit caused me to fall
through an old set of stairs and if not for the wild wizard's quick
thinking, I would have been overwhelmed by alligators. The wild
wizard's control over the minds of alligators and dogmen has been a
great boon. Later, when I was blessed to find a fine set of plate
armor within the hollow tree, Telal the Cold spotted a trip wire
within the room before I walked into disaster.

For although I was looking forward to a great battle against the
owlbear, the wild wizard and the smokey elf were wise to steer us
towards leaving the beast as a guardian. The smokey elf has also
gained my favor. He has shown his strength by absorbing the wrecking
ball trap, both the Dawnbringer and I are pleased with the smokey elf.
It is also good that we found the armored female within the hollow
tree. She seems to get along with the group well enough. Let her
mend the wounds of our companions, so that I can spend my energy
making wounds in our enemies.

Last evening, while the wild wizard got into his books,  I showed
Telal the orcish custom of taking the poison sacs from the great 8
eyes. He slid his dagger up the hollow fangs and into the creatures head
with as much ice in his veins as any of my orcish brothers. By
wrapping the poison sacs inside the mucus filled stomach of the spider
and then in a scrap of fresh skin from the stirges the poison should
hold until he can find a proper container. Even our more powerful
enemies can be brought low by 8 eye venom. I hope Telal will be
pleased with this gift.

As we set off this morning, away from our troubles in Talbot, we came
across a horse drawn peddler who sold me some smokables that I will
gift to the Dawnbringer. The wild wizard purchased a particularly
potent form of the herb after considerable debate on the price among
the companions.

I have but one order of business in Avalon: to find an armorer to fit
the plate mail for me. Afterwards, I pray that we can get back to the
business of Crackenmore and search for more clues. I am grateful to
the Dawnbringer for our success this far, but everyday I feel my
ancestor's spirit dwindling like sand in my fist until his remains
rest inside the Barrow of the Rising Sun.

I have so many questions left unanswered... How did my grandfather, a
great cleric, become a slave in Crackenmore? Who was the man in the
red vest with the orcs in my dream?

I will dig deep this day and call upon the Dawnbringer to guide me
through the spell of Tongues.

Djarel

SATURDAY MORNING ADVERTISEMENT

AMADI SENDS LETTER VIA GRIFFON EXPRESS RE: SESSION 12

LETTER TO KORUN (FORMER MENTOR)

Korun,

It has been months since I left Furthermoor City. My journey has been difficult, but recently it has turned for the better. After weeks of traveling by night and sleeping in the wilderness to avoid the patrols, I made it to Talbot. There I met some fellow travelers who did not instantly see me as a servant. We have spent this last week seeking our fortune. Talbot is not unlike Furthermoor City, filled with corruption and ignorance, but no one here knows me or my past. My band of misfits have just killed a giant spider and gained more gold than I have ever seen! But gold is not what I seek; I have recently gained knowledge from the family who pioneered this township many years ago. I pray this knowledge will help me realize my destiny and reunite me with my family. Please send them my regards and let them know I will see them soon.

Amadi


*Griffon icon is lifted from a place in Virginia.

TOWN DESIGN: PART 1 - ESTABLISHED RELIGION

Note: I use the simple OD&D & Moldvay Basic alignments of Lawful, Neutral & Chaotic; so while T1 uses the more complex 8 alignment system, I will only mention this if it's totally necessary...

Within the village of Hommlet the lawful generally attend the Church of St. Cuthbert, the neutral follow the Druid of the Grove, & some chaotics are secret servants of the Temple of Elemental Evil.

There are approx. 29 households/shops/farms/living quarters in Hommlet. Two of these have folks of different religions under the same roof; however, for now, I am assigning that place to whatever the owner is. Likewise, I am focusing on those that live in Hommlet, not those that are staying @ the Inn temporarily & as for workers in a camp, I am not guestimating their wives & offspring, etc. Of the 29 households/shops/farms in Hommlet, 38% follow the Druid of the Grove, 31% follow St. Cuthbert & 3% are secret agents of the Temple of Elemental Evil. That leaves roughly 28% that subscribe to no religion @ all.

Furthermore, there are approx. 188 people that live in Hommlet (above exception also applies here). Split this way, we see that 44% follow the Druid of the Grove, 25% follow St. Cuthbert, 3% are secret agents of the Temple of Elemental Evil, & 28% subscribe to no religion @ all.

The simple reason for the increased percentage of Druid of the Grove followers by body is b/c those that have lived in Hommlet for most or all of their lives tend to be followers of the Druid & have large families. On the other hand, 56% of the households that follow St. Cuthbert are "newcomers" to Hommlet, having moved there within the last two years. One description even goes as far as saying, Having come to the village about two years ago, this family is considered as "outside" folk, and will be until their beards grow gray.... 33% are more dug into the community & of course 11% are keepers of the church.

Of the 28% that do not align themselves w/ organized religion, it is interesting to note that most of them are either loners of the community, or seem to have had tragedy in their lives (widowers, spinsters, simpleton, etc.), here's an example: These people do not follow any religious persuasion, so they are excluded from most village functions; ironically the other slice of this percentage is made up of military leaders & other hubs of the community. While these folks work w/ & may be friends w/ the church & druid leaders, they are not followers of either faith.

Overall, Hommlet is a fairly neutral place; so much so, that even the first listed followers of St. Cuthbert are said to be lawful neutral. Lawful good characters are rare in this town. But this is what makes Hommlet unique, as well. The main thing is to realize how organized religion strengthens T1 (could it even exist w/o it?) & how this approach can be used in designing your own village. Though the evil/chaotic element in Hommlet may be slight percentage-wise, it is sneakily powerful & challenging once perceived. In a game world that revolves around the tension between Law & Chaos, established religion boils it down to the community, which helps create suspense, intrigue, mystery, etc. for town adventures once players get to mingling.

[for other parts of series click "town design" label below]

SESSION 12 - ONE STIRGE, ONE CLERIC & ONE PEDDLER

In that the party battles the Stirges - becomes cordial w/ a Lady of the Faith - Mends a bridge & kills a Spider for ancient coin - Reads about Eric Talbot - Wanders north & into an outgoing peddler - Onward into the hamlet of Avalon...

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

ENCOUNTERED NON-PARTY NPCs:
Stagger Lee - traveling salesman

So around 7:20 PM, on the 15th of Hummingbird, the party is attacked by 3 STIRGES as they try to re-enter the tree... Battle ensues & though Melon Gnoll takes some stirge sucking, the party offs them fairly easily, locating a number of gems in place of the stirge eyes, 3 gems in all: 2 avg sized yellow diamonds & 1 large, chipped, ruby.

The party funnels back into the tree as darkness totally descends & finds a female cleric bedding down, but amiable. She introduces herself as Rowan, & is apparently following up on leads regarding Eric Talbot, a legend of faith in some parts. The party quickly briefs Rowan on their intentions & before long Leif is locating the secret door to lead them back into the tree, they then head back up the staircase over the water, & after an elaborate plan, are able to cross to the other side, over the 2, now awake alligators. On the other side they move up the unsearched staircase to the NW & Leif takes a mad hit from a wrecking ball swinging down after sprung from the stair.  But Telal notices a HUGER SPIDER as they begin to notice the webs, scrolling up, not used to company lately, it is somewhat surprised, the party goes & goes until it spins around & drops & Djarel races up w/ Kumiss & finishes the spider off. The party finds mad coin spread about the edges of the room, deep through webbing & dust...  1100 cp, 3000 sp, 7000 gp, 2000 ep... The party camps out in the room for the night & Amadi reads Eric Talbot's journal aloud. The beginnings tell of Eric's turn into a were-crawfish, & the struggle & his finally leaving Talbot altogether; it then mentions this stronghold he found & as well an old town just north, near where a battle took place between the Crawfishmen & the Groundhogmen called Avalon. The remainder of the book details different battles & it ends in a cut-off way, vs. any resolution or breather entry.

The next morning the party leaves the tree & heads back to the road, leaving the 2 gnolls w/ Magus, Amadi instructing Gnolan to guard the place, etc. They started heading north toward this place called Avalon until they came across a roving peddler w/ mule & buggy, heading south. Goes by the name, Stagger Lee. After propositioning his adventure wares, he flashed a few strains of weed @ the travelers, some Flying Cloud & some Lizard's Lunch. Amadi was interested in the Flying Cloud, but the price was too high. Amadi was able to haggle Stagger down to 400 gp for 2 smokes. Stagger kept sayin, "You may only see this once in a lifetime." Off to Avalon they went, entering the hamlet around 8:45 AM, a boarded up place to the left, a place w/ a swinging door to the right, some noise coming from it, The Smoking Leprechaun.

9 AM, 16th day of the month of the Hummingbird, Avalon, Furthermoor

TOWN DESIGN: ENTERING HOMMLET - INTRO

WARNING: this post ended up being more of a background than actually about "town design" hence the "intro" in the title; however, I felt it appropriate to come before what comes after, so I left the title as is...

I have mentioned this before, but the first time I ever played D&D I was seven-years-old & my fighter PC, Kron*, wandered into the town of Hommlet. I vividly remember the green cover of the module & the removable grid-papered map of the town, that the DM, who was nine (a neighbor), laid flat on the carpet to show me where I was. It took a bit of investigating, but I pinned the module down (T1: The Village of Hommlet) & bought a copy via eBay five years ago. I also remember the yellow-colored character sheet I used (another AD&Dism). That said, I dont recall seeing any other books @ all that day. My main recollection is that I found a horn of some sort (perhaps a Horn of Valhalla?) in some farmhouse & I remember John rolling 2d6 time & time again after I would tell him what I wanted to do next. The game left a huge impression on me.

But when I returned home, I was in for a strange surprise. "There's this game I played that I really want called Dungeons & Dragons," I said to my mom. "Where did you play that game? You are never to play that game ever again, you understand? That is a bad game," she said (or something like that), as if I'd just told her I'd been doing drugs & wanted her to buy some for me. I was confused & bummed (a mood mix I would grow accustomed to around this time in my life). Quite simply, I was a child of the Satanic Panic. The way I can date this rather precisely, in retrospect, is that the following Christmas, I received the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Intellivison Cartridge released in 1982 (I guess this was to appease my wishes for the real game). I also recall the Mentzer Red Box coming out not long after my interest in owning the game, due to my circumstances, had waned a bit. The one RPG I owned within this era was the Indiana Jones one that TSR put out in 1984 & it sucked. It didnt even have character generation rules. I never played it.

I mention all this for a number of reasons: 1) I am surely a bit of an anomaly within the OSR community b/c while I played early D&D mishmash a few times in the early 80's, I did not actually own the game, or play D&D or RPGs that much as a kid & 2) my interest in old school D&D comes from modern boardgaming w/ my girlfriend (now wife) & its bringing to mind that stunted desire to play D&D in the early 80's vs. any disenchantment w/ current versions of the game or modern pen/paper RPGs in general... So, as you can imagine, after perusing copies of Moldvay/Cook grabbed via eBay in 2007 & about to start up a campaign for a few friends using B2: The Keep on the Borderlands, stumbling upon the OSR blogosphere was both exciting & enlightening.  Google+, ConstantCon & FLAILSNAILS have only made it moreso & then finally there's 3) I felt that throwing this info out there would help you understand a) where I'm coming from, and b) give a solid foundation for my interest in T1: The Village of Hommlet, specifically.

I've been working on a number of towns in Furthermoor, so I felt like it was as good a time as any to do a thorough examination of T1. If you wish to play T1 one of these days & never have, I plan to give proper spoiler warning & will try not to include spoilers @ all, unless truly necessary. My plan is to zero in on specific design features that help Hommlet come alive during play, as well as highlight other peculiar/interesting things I notice in the process.

*I cant remember exactly how the name Kron came about, though I do remember I thought it was cool b/c it sounded similar to Tron. Perhaps I suggested Tron & John met me halfway w/ Kron? The reason I suggest this possibility is that "Kron" is an actual name in the Greyhawk setting, i.e. the Kron Hills, which are mentioned in T1 on pages 2 & 7 & sit just west of Hommlet.

SESSION 11 - SLEEPY OWLBEAR, SLEEPY ALLIGATOR

We had three playas back into the norm game tonight:  LE w/ Leif the elf ranger, MN w/ Amadi the m-u & RM w/ Djarel the half-orc cleric - extras were the gnolls, Gnolan (charmed) & Melon (freed), as well as two MIAs this week, Telal the thief & Magus the dwarf... ANYWAY, the quick & dirty:

3:40 PM, there's a door down the hallway, looks carved into the inside of the tree here, Telal takes a good while to check it out & eventually gets something to pop in the moldy keyhole & then nudge the door open.  The party finds a groggy & confused owlbear inside, the room is about 30' x 30' circle, 12' high ceilings, they notice a ladder going up into a hole in the ceiling across the room.  Leif casts Speak w/ Animals & starts trying to parley w/ the owlbear.  The owlbear isnt having it however & becomes hostile, but doesnt attack.  After much talk, Leif presents an offer that they could bring the owlbear an alligator to eat if he'd let them pass.  The owlbear agrees to the offer, reluctantly, & begins dozing a bit as the party goes about making this happen.  The gnolls & Djarel are sent to retrieve one of the alligators, & luckily, they are all still asleep.  They manage to secure one w/ ropes & drag it to the owlbear's lair in about 45-60 minutes...  While the owlbear dozed, the party waited @ the door & looking around the layer noticed what looked to be a throne carved into the wood on the wall across the circular room/// when the alligator finally makes it, the owlbear attacks it w/ gusto, hacking, hugging it to death, then beaking out large chunks of meat; the party moves around the room toward the throne where Melon spots his two bags of silver, they grab them, then examine the throne where below, in a hole behind cobwebs, they find a small chest, they then grab a statue of a paladin from a table nearby & then book it up the ladder, all while the owlbear still worked on his dinner...  Atop the ladder they come to a room where a hole leads down into dark, or a window to a staircase they can see; first trying the hole, they go down a bit w/ a rope, but then come back & exit the window & down the staircase, out of the tree & into the plain.  There in the grass they inspect their findings, busting open the chest, they find two books:  one a journal of some sort, quick glance shows Eric Talbot's name on the front page, then the other is a larger tome that seems concerned w/ understanding the universe, also, in a corner, is a tuft of Spanish moss.  It is 6:40, the sun setting, so the party decides to enter back in the hollow branch they entered the tree in earlier; however, as they reach the branch, & Telal goes in w/ rope, plus the two gnolls, 3 stirges appear from nowhere, perhaps in top of tree, or somewhere else, swooping down on them...

7:20 PM, Friday, 15th day of the month of the Hummingbird, Talbot, Furthermoor