DIY 30 #4: Wood Wights

Not a form of undead, in this case "wight" is meant in the semi-obsolete sense of "a human being/a living being" (per the dictionary).

the Wood Wight
AC 3 (7 for tree)
HD 5 (8 for tree)
THAC0 15 (12 for tree)
damage: 2 slams 1-6 / 1-6 + petrification (2 slams 2-12 / 2-12 for tree)
petrification -- 3/day may "breathe" a 10' x 10' x 10' cloud of pollen, those within save v. petrification or transform into wood over 2-7 rounds
piercing and missile weapons never deal more than 1 damage to a wood wight or its tree, bludgeoning weapons deal half damage, fire deals double damage
immune to hold, sleep, charm, and other enchantment-type spells
save as a Elf 5, -2 on all saves versus fire or lightning
180' movement (0' for tree)
morale 9

Wood wights are a kind of evil forest spirit, similar to a dyrad, but malicious where a dryad is shy. Like dryads, wood wights are attached to a particular tree in the forest, and will discorporate if that tree is destroyed; unlike dryads, the wight's particular tree is capable of animated movement in defense of itself and its wight (it cannot actually uproot itself, but it strikes with its limbs as a treant). Just what the relation between wood wights and dryads might be scholars are still arguing; and too, it is unknown whether the wight is a spirit that springs up sui generis within a particular tree, perhaps one struck by lightning but still living, or ancient enough to develop a will of its own; or if the wight is rather some wandering form of spirit that alights in a tree when the conditions are right, and thereafter remains attached to it and the woodland around it.

Wasn't sure just what a wood wight looks like until
a Google search for "dryad" turned up with this

Being suddenly attacked by the tree animated by a wood wight's presence is certainly a fear any seasoned woodsman might have (wood wights and their trees surprise on a 1-4 on a d6); but more fearsome is the wood wight itself, which possesses an ability similar to the gorgon (the iron-scaled bull version), that is, a wood wight is able to "breathe" a cloud of pollen in a 10' x 10' x 10' area three times per day. All who inhale this pollen must make a saving throw versus petrification or begin to stiffen as their limbs and then their entire bodies are transformed into hard wood. This transformation takes from two to seven minutes (2-7 rounds). A cure disease spell cast during the time of transformation will undo the effects; but once the transformation is complete, only a wish or a wood to flesh spell will restore the transmogrified individual. (Magic-users in areas known to be haunted by wood wights will often research wood to flesh as a variant of stone to flesh, which spells will both be of the same level, and may grant access to their spellbooks to those in need ... for a fee; without recourse to that, it is up to a magic-user to research the spell for himself).

The wooden bodies of those transformed by a wood wight's pollen make excellent base-bodies for the creation of wood golems, and can be sold to powerful magic-users for large sums of money. Prudent would-be creators, however, make sure to expel or destroy the life-force remaining within the body (just like in the case of flesh-turned-stone, the spirit of the one transformed is trapped within the unliving body until the body is restored or destroyed ... woe to those ancients petrified by Medusa of old and now forgotten!). For if the spirit is not expelled in some way from the wooden form, there is a significant possibility that a wood golem created therefrom will become self-willed and attack the creator in a berserk rage. Such free-willed golems do not possess any actual memories of their former life; but they are instinctually drawn to familiar things, e.g. family, home, or friends. And drawn there, but incapable of understanding why, it is almost inevitable that the spirit's impotent anger transforms into a berserk rage by the golem!

Travelling in the Wilderness: 20 Wilderness Traps

There's no text to quote concerning this topic that I know off the top of my head.

I'm chewing on another means of running wilderness exploration than the venerable hexcrawl. Not like there couldn't be tricks and traps in a hex or in a traditional hexcrawl, but I've been thinking of "dungeonizing" the wilderness, if I can. We'll see what happens.

But I'm stumbling. The utter freedom of the wilderness is too much, and populating any area in my map is like, "Is this a grove of trees? A boulder field? A ridgeline? A cliff-face? An area with knucker-holes? etc. etc." So I'm paralyzed by possibility, and I wanted to try to focus myself with a table of discreet ideas. Ideas for traps at the moment. So here goes.

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20 Wilderness Traps (these are a little "conservative" in scope, but they're just the beginning of what could be out there ...)

1) Tree fall -- 1 in 6 chance that a dead tree falls on 1-3 randomly selected characters. They may save v. paralysis (or using DEX) or take 4-24 damage

2) Poison ivy -- or other rash-causing plant; characters moving through the area are automatically affected by an itching rash that incurs a penalty of -1 on "to hit", damage, and saving rolls because of discomfort for 2-7 days. Characters looking out for the plants are only affected on a 2 in 6 chance.

3) Stonefish -- or other venomous animal, e.g. vipers or scorpions; characters moving through the area have a 2 in 6 chance of being stung. Those stung must make a save v. death/poison (or CON) or die in 1-3 days.

4) Rock fall -- like a tree fall, except it happens where boulder are and causes 5-30 damage. Sorry for the overlap

5) Glue-resin -- characters moving through the area have a 3 in 6 chance of contacting glue-like resin and being thus bound to the resin-tree. The resin binds quickly, but may be loosed by liberal application of alcohol ... otherwise, the character remains bound to the resin for 1-3 days and wandering monster checks ensue ... (strength based options to remove them are of course optional)

6) Strangle-bracken -- the bracken in the area reacts to movement through it by tightening; characters moving through the area must make a save v. paralysis or be stuck. One day without movement is required before the bracken "relaxes" enough to allow a character to struggle back out the way they entered (or to the nearest clearing).

7) Loose scree -- characters in leather or lighter armor may move nimbly enough not to fall, but those in metal armor (scale, mail, splint, banded, or plate) who move over scree have a 2 in 6 chance of falling 20 to 120 feet (1-6 damage per 10 feet fallen).

8) Razorgrass -- characters moving through the area without any armor take 1-6 damage per mile traveled. Those in armor are allowed a save against paralysis, +0 for leather, +1 for mail, +3 for plate armor, those who fail take damage as if unarmored, those who succeed take no damage.

9) Sandflies (diseased) -- the biting insects in the area carry a disease. Unless some means of repellent is used, characters passing through must save v. poison or contract a disease. If no other specific disease is used, it will cause -1 CON and 1-6 fewer hit points until cured.

10) Tick-nest -- the foliage in this area is thick with ticks. Characters who pass through have a 2 in 6 chance of getting bitten by ticks, which causes -1 CON and 1-4 fewer hit points until dealt with. Furthermore, 1 in 20 ticks are diseased and the character must save v. poison or contract a disease that will be fatal in 1-6 weeks.

11) Geyserhole -- entering the superheated water causes 4-32 damage, but who would do that? More importantly, there is a 1 in 6 chance that the geyser "goes off" and causes 2-16 damage to all those nearby.

12) Sleep-river -- like the stream in Mirkwood, the water of this river causes a magical sleep to all who touch it

13) Black-water -- worse than the stream in Mirkwood, the water of this river is rife with negative energy; all who touch it are drained of one life-energy level per round of contact with the water. Those who are reduced to 0 levels are killed and rise as hostile wraiths in 1-4 rounds thereafter. Such wraiths must remain within 1 mile of the body whence they sprang, so if borne downriver, downriver the wraith must go ...

14) Labyrinth-root -- a particularly pernicious kind of tree with excessive root-systems that magicall compel people who come across them to trace them like a labyrinth, save v. spell to resist; the labyrinth will take 1-3 days to complete, incurring wandering monster checks as usual (though non-flyers might also become caught in the magical labyrinth?)

15) Drawstone -- a kind of super-powerful magnetic rock formation; metal-armored characters that pass too close (1 chance in 6 when passing through its area) cannot move farther away; those who fail a save v. paralysis must move closer. Shedding armor takes enough time to allow a wandering monster check

16) Corpseflower -- flowers that smell like rotting flesh and always draw the attention of monsters that would eat such. Passing through the area incurs an extra wandering monster check; coming into contact with the flowers (3 in 6 chance unless explicitly avoiding them) continues to draw one extra monster check per day for 1-4 days

17) Hotspring slime -- it's a green or grey slime, but bigger; OR a brown mold colony that makes the hot spring just a spring, but touching the mold causes the normal 4-32 cold damage

18) Social insect colony -- stepping into an underground wasp colony is a nightmare of mine, and the characters just did it! Save v. poison or take 3-18 damage from the stinging insects, save at +1 in leather armor, +2 in mail, or +4 in plate. There are 1-3 swarms; they might pursue for a bit if the reaction roll is particularly bad, but only do 1-6 damage after that first round

19) Yellow mold (always a favorite) -- it's a wild yellow mold colony; 50% chance that the characters nearest it save v. death or die in 6 rounds as they choke to death on the spores. Outdoors, these colonies could get huge

20) Wormrose -- wildflowers with a magical worm that dwells within them; 3 in 6 chance that a character comes into contact with one if wormrose is in the area, and such a character must save v. breath weapon or fall into a coma for 1-4 days and be a hassle for their party to haul around unconscious ... it's difficult to harvest wormrose, but many magic-users, sages, etc. will pay a good price for intact flowers with the worms inside if they can be brought back safely ...

Jungles of Chult Session 2

Beware the crocodiles of the Tiryki River ...

The crocodiles will eat you

our intrepid heroes:

Sound of Distant Rain (cat-man rogue)

Terahn Atzi (human priest)

Nugiri (lizardman monk)

Takashi Kaga (human magic-user)

Nebin (halfling barbarian)

Chiratidzo (human druid)

with River Mist and Flask of Wine (cat-man guides)

The last session ended just into the expedition up the River Tiryki, after five days of travel following the river, the characters led by River Mist and Flask of Wine and porting a rowboat with them through the jungle (despite the river being right there ...)

Picking up where we left off, on the morning of the sixth day, Chira noticed a strange little creature at the edge of camp as everyone else was breaking things down. The thing looked like a root knotted into a six-inch high humanoid form, with pebbles for eyes and mouth, eagerly watching the party. It was sitting on a mess kit. Chira informed the party as to its presence, and Takashi, miffed as he realized that the thing had taken his mess kit, mage handed the kit up and as it rose through the air, the little creature jumped off and ran away.

Takashi discovered an empty wasp nest left in his bag in the mess kit's place; and Chira informed everyone that the thing was a Chwinga, a kind of nature spirit that is generally harmless though sometimes mischievous.

Continuing on, through the evening, the characters noticed eyes watching them from the river--insectile eyes from rocky carapaces. Asking their guides after these sightings, River Mist informs the party that these must be Aldani, the lobster-men the haunt the waters of Chult. "Don't take what's theirs, and they won't bother you," she says, and then continues the hike.

Day 8 -- morning -- Chiratidzo heads down to the river as camp is breaking to wash his face. As he crouches there, he gives a shout--"There's something in the water!"--as what looks like a waterlogged tree drifts toward him and the rest of the party comes nearer. Then the log surges out of the water with a huge splash, and a giant crocodile's jaws close around Chira, snap his back, and the crocodile beings to drag his body back into the river. The rest of the party threw missile weapons at the crocodile, but to no avail, and the reptile and its prey both disappear under the waters of the lake ...

River Mist and Flask of Wine shrug. "The jungle is dangerous," River Mist says, and then she and Flask continue to lead everyone on.

Day 9 -- diseased bite -- Sound of Distant Rain saves

Day 10 -- morning -- the party comes across Quinsela, or "Quin", another druid, now out hunting alone. He agrees to accompany the party, knowing that the crocodiles along the River Tiryki are deadly things to contend with ...

Later, the party comes across a kind of idol rising out of a series of rocks in a kind of calm area of the river. The idol is an obelisk, vaguely carved, dedicated to Olokuna, other than a maze-like vulva and stone phallus rising from near the water line. An altar of flat stone lies just under the water, covered at the moment with worked stone offerings (stones with carvings of hands, crabs, phalluses, mazes, vulvas, etc.); Sound of Distant Rain deposits a flask of palm wine on the altar for deceased Chiratidzo, further offering a prayer to the Cat Lord for the man's dead soul ...

Day 11 -- physical barrier -- the party runs into a cliff blocking their path; they decide to backtrack for a day rather than attempt to climb or circumvent it

Day 13 -- morning -- Flask of Wine calls Sound of Distant Rain forward to look at something--it's a dead body, half-eaten by a mouth-dragon and now abandoned in the bole of mighty tree-roots.

Day 14 -- morning -- The party enters a small mango grove and Flask of Wine (from scouting ahead) comes back with broken fruit on his shoulders. "There are mad apes ahead," he says and brushes himself off; he is immediately backed up by the sound of screaming apes from behind and another thrown fruit. Nugiri steps out and catches some thrown fruit, and also grins broadly at the two apes he can see.

The apes interpret that as a threat and charge into combat. One runs all the way forward while the other throws rocks from behind; but Sound of Distant Rain hates monkeys, as do the rest of the party, and they quickly kill both apes (though one does knock Nugiri out with its fists before dying from other melee attacks)

River Mist then points out that the swamp containing the Sailback Hill/Shrine is within a day's travel, if anyone were interested in checking it out. Everyone agrees that it sounds interesting, and so the party moves to the east bank of the river (they've been hiking down the west bank), and they find a wide swamp with both stork-men and sail-backs lurking in its midst.

The stork-men with the evil-eyes

Almost immediately, the party spies a group of stork-men between them and the sail-back hill; Sound of Distant Rain and Flask of Wine sneak out to (bag?) them, but Sound decides to talk instead. Fortunately, one of the several stork-men speaks the Common tongue, though hissing like a swan; "These are our swamps! What do you offer to move through them? Give us shiny things!" The party gave a mirror and a disassembled mess-kit, and I rolled an 11 for reactions, so that was enough. "I am Sssra," the lead stork-man declared. "You may travel our swamp. And let me say, the best place to rest is beneath the banyan outside the mouth of the sailback shrine," it adds.

---

The party deposited the boat in the banyan "grove" matching Sssra's description; they felt a supernatural sense that it would be "good" to camp there, indeed; then they headed for the dungeon in the open mouth of the sailback hill.

The mouth opened onto a stairway down (the gullet); this led down to a three-way fork; the party went west and found themselves in a stairway that ended in water. Nugiri checked under the water and didn't seem to find anything. The party then glanced down the east way, but ultimately went down the south way into a large chamber with stone pillars rising up that look like they support the stone spines of the hill that make it resemble a sailback. There were pit traps around these pillars; then entering the main chamber, the party saw a ruby, pulsing slowly, in the jaws of a small stone sailback on top of an altar against the south wall; the other walls were carved to resemble up-curving ribs. The altar was dedicated to SUCHOS, a god like an animal-headed Egyption god, but with a dimetrodon head.

A small swarm of mosquito-bats attacked the party here, but were easily dispatched ...

Furthermore, there were four other exits from the room ... the party checked one and found a collapsed corridor; checked another and found a closed door; but looking down the south west corridor, they found a series of natural caverns, of which one held a crevice in its floor filled with glittering coin. The party went for the coin, but were surprised by a "nest" of creepy monkeys with blood-red hands hanging from the stalactites on the ceiling of the chamber. Sound of Distant Rain was foremost in the party seeking the coin in the crevice, and he suddenly keeled over dead, clutching his head; Takashi also fell over, blood pooling from his nose, but not quite dead.

The creepy-monkeys with blood-red hands

While Nugiri saved Takashi and Flask of Wine ran forward to save his friend's (Sound's) body, the party elected (after a first intuition to run), to fight--and because they killed one monkey and injured two others with a variety of spells and attacks, the creepy monkeys fled deeper into the cave after failing a morale check.

"Let's loot this thing and get the hell out of here!" Nebin cried, and then the party quickly grabbed what they could of the coin (including 2 scrolls) and then fled back to the large room with the pulsing ruby-heart. They pitoned the little sailback statue's mouth open and took the ruby, but heard the grinding of stone nevertheless--the mouth of the cave had closed! Placing the ruby back re-opened the closed jaws. The cat-men thought they might be able to run fast enough to grab the gem and then make it out ahead of the jaws, but the party balked in the end and elected to return later.

So deciding, they checked one more room and found a tomb filled with sarcophagi for sailbacks. Opening the most ornate one, Teran forced open the sarcophagus and breathed in a poisonous cloud, but lived ... inside they found a sailback skeleton plated with gold, which they took ...

With a couple thousand coin (from the monkeys) and a gold-plated skeleton in their possession, the party went straight for the river with their rowboat and began to row their way back down the River Tiryki toward Nyanzaru. On the river, flowing downstream, their movement doubled to 10 miles per day (one hex per day).

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Day 16 -- evening -- rare plants, zabou, 4 "doses" of zabou mushrooms which the party collects (Quin as an herbalist can pick them without trouble)

Day 20 -- evening -- croaking of giant frogs ahead--the party decides to accept another roll on the encounter die in the future to avoid the frogs now ...

Day 21 -- morning -- as Teran hauls the boat down into the water of the river, a giant crocodile surges out of the water with a high initiative and snaps Teran up in its huge jaws. Teran is instantly killed and dragged away into the water, leaving the party bereft of a third member ...

Except the hindquarters are Tehran's, not a zebra ....

Day 22 -- back in town! (now everyone can get XPs)

In Nyanzaru, the party went to Jobal, whom they know collects hunting trophies, to sell the gold-plated skeleton to him. Jobal is sad to hear of Chira's death, but is glad to buy the skeleton off of them for 250 gold. During this conversation, Nebin brings up the mosquito-bats they killed (and the bodies they saved) trying to sell them to him too, but Jobal shows his colors, racist against "lesser" folk by "belittling" Nebin. "What, did you step on that? How cute!"

The party then also sold their 4 "doses" of zabou to Jessamine, who has been interested in rare plants.

And in the end, Nebin and Takashi caroused. Nebin ended up in debt to Jessamine 100 gold and in love with Talara, halfling wife of a local halfling merchant, Haban Widewater; and Takashi ended in debt to Jobal for 400 gold, and furthermore beaten and robbed so that he starts the next adventure slightly injured ...


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Remembrance for the Dead
Tehran Atzi (human cleric of Ubtao 1), Sound of Distant Rain (cat-man rogue 1), Chiratidzo (human druid 1)

Jungles of Chult -- Around the Head of the River Tiryki

In the first session of Tomb of Annihilation, the players decided that they would journey up the River Tiryki, which they can see entire on their copy of the hex map (much of central Chult are just blank hexes to be explored, but the Tiryki is "known territory"). They made this decision in large part because they hired two Tabaxi, River Mist and Flask of Wine, as their jungle guides, and the two mentioned that they knew directly of at least two sites near the head of the Tiryki--Firefinger and Dungrunglung. (the characters had otherwise been interested in seeking Camp Righteous and Camp Vengeance, up the River Soshenstar)

The Tiryki is the central of the three northern rivers

As a couple other reviews of ToA (at Dungeon of Signs and Against the Wicked City) make clear, the hex map of Chult is actually a kind of howling emptiness of hundreds of miles (dozens of days) of random encounters, interspersed with a sprinkling of interesting adventure locations. My intent is to create content for all those empty hexes--and because my players are headed up the Tiryki, I'll start with locations around its head.

The information is that which is known well enough locally in Nyzanzaru that rumors could be picked up just by mentioning the Tiryki, or is information directly from River Mist and Flask of Wine.

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the Pilgrims' Guide
There is a statue on the bank of the river, a great idol like a stern king, River Wind says. That is when we know we are halfway up the River Tiryki. He is a stern king, but he points to the east directing pilgrims on their way to the City of Mists. Sometimes they leave offerings at his altar, but I do not touch them because he is a god.

There are other altars too, Flask of Wine adds. There are too many gods in these jungles.


Sailback Hill
There is an outcropping in a swamp shaped like a sailback, according to River Wind. We only saw it from afar, because it stands in a swamp, and we did not wish to wade there. But I think I saw a face at the hill's base, a gaping jaw with big fangs. There were many storks in that swamp, and I did not like the way their eyes looked at us.

The mouth is a cave, Flask of Wine says, but says no more.

A sailback, i.e. dimetrodon

Firefinger
It is a pinnacle topped with fire! River Wind explains. It lies on the right bank of the Tiryki--a finger pointed at the sky, with a pyre burning brightly, day and night, at its top. The dead lie thick around it--all those taken up by the pterafolk, and then thrown down from the top. We have climbed, Flask and I, and found a cave inside the finger--but we have gone no higher. Just the two of us, what would we do against the many pterafolk that nest at its top?

Flask of Wine only nods agreement.


Ataaz Ahiya ("the Weeping Gorge")
The head of the River Tiryki is in a gorge (other gorges are also named with "Ataaz" in Chult, so I assume that's what it means), approximately 25 miles long north to south, and ten miles wide east to west. Smaller tributaries to the Tiryki pour in around the gorge, either as high waterfalls cascading down cliff faces, or as narrower streams that have cut their way down through the surrounding highland. Many tribes of pterafolk roost in the heights of the cliffs around the gorge, ruled by an ogiso or king.

The face of Olokuna is said to have been carved into the southern cliff-face, with waterfalls pouring from its eyes, and a mouth that opens into a deep cavern and shrine. Olokuna is an androgynous water god, possessed of both male and female features, and idols to it often include both an erect phallus and a maze-like vulva.

Yes, yes, River Wind says, we have seen the face of the goddess. She weeps because she is forgotten by all but the monkeys who dwell in her mouth. I too would weep if stinking apes were in my mouth. Her servants, the lobster-men, peer with cold eyes from the waters beneath her shrine.

He weeps because he has waterfall eyes, Flask of Wine adds. There is gold and gems in his mouth, but the baboons are too many.


Dungrunglung
Dungrunglung is the greatest shrine of the grungs--the frog men, you know, River Wind says. We have looked on it only from afar, because it lies in the midst of a wide swamp, and it is closely surrounded by a hedge of thorns. The head of the shrine towers over the hedge like an evil frog, grinning at the swamp, and all the while the croaking of the frogs and the frog-men is sounding around you. It is southwest of the Weeping Gorge perhaps twenty miles--who knows? It is difficult to judge distance in the jungle.

And it is filled with treasures, I am sure of it, Flask of Wine mutters, almost to himself. Riches to make a man wealthy.

I might end up calling them grippli or bullywugs,
we'll see ...

City of the Faceless Men
Somewhere in the jungles south of the Ataaz Ahiya lies an ancient and ruined city, its name forgotten and only its curse remembered in tales and old epics. It was a city of the Eshowe, perhaps, before their slaughter; or a city of Omuans, cursed by God for the pride of their ways. Regardless of the origin a curse lies over the city--all those who enter are damned to contract a horrifying disease that slowly eats the flesh of the face until only a gaping hole remains where once were mouth, nose, and eyes. The legends vary about what lies within its cursed grounds--treasures untold, or only old broken stones? But one thing that is certain is that a tribe of cursed men live among the ruins (or eke out an undead existence)--the Faceless Men, the Mask-Wearers ... in every tale, they are said to haunt the ruins, perhaps as cannibals, perhaps as undead horrors, but always wearing masks to cover the horror of their hollow faces.

It is there, River Wind says, and her ears lower, and her eyes narrow. It is an evil place. I have forgotten the way, but I have seen the obelisks that mark its boundaries. They tell its curse, because the men there have no mouths behind their masks. I will not go back. She shakes her head after saying this, going to bathe in the river, and will not talk about the City any more after that.

I remember the way, Flask of Wine murmurs. There must be something there.

Encounters in Chult -- Non-Monster Encounters

In Tomb of Annihilation, "While characters are exploring or camping in the wilderness, roll a d20 three times per day of game time, checking for encounters each morning, afternoon, and evening or night. An encounter occurs on a roll of 16 or higher." (Tomb of Annihilation, pg. 193)

On the result of an encounter (16-20), one is then directed to roll percentile dice on the "Wilderness Encounters" table on the next pages (194-5), which includes columns for different terrain types, including Beach, several types of Jungle, Mountains, Rivers, Ruins, Swamp, and Wasteland. These different terrains have different values for the various creatures that haunt Chult and its environs--but almost every entry is a creature of some kind, implying combat (6 out of 90 entries are with non-creatures, while at least half a dozen more are with neutral or friendly NPCs).

There follows a description of each encounter in pages 196-203, of the number of creatures or the nature of the non-creature thing found. These are generally good entries, though I find it irritating how many of them coyly resolve into non-encounters if the players don't provoke the creatures, e.g. of the dinosaurs, the Ankylosaurus, Brontosaurus, Hadrosaurus, Pteranodon, Stegosaurus, and Triceratops all ignore the characters unless attacked, touched, or bothered. And these aren't the only entries like that. Which is to say, if I roll an 18 on my d20 and then a triceratops encounter, inform the players, and then they walk away, nothing happens ... over the course of hundreds of hexes of travel this will become dozens of dice rolls to nothing, sapping my time and my players' interest.

All of which is a longwinded way of saying, these wilderness encounters need sprucing up!

First, because it seems to me that travel should involve a variety of mishaps/encounters not necessarily all of which involve creatures, I'd like to rewrite a table of non-monster wilderness occurrences that I use for wilderness travel in my homebrew game. (other blog-entries may include creating more specific wilderness terrains and resulting encounter tables, and/or nesting the results on the ToA tables with greater random variety)

"I hope we don't run into any mouth dragons out here ..."

So, per the rules, per day that the characters spend in the wilderness, roll three d20s. A result of a 16-20 indicates an encounter; the first and last such rolls indicate an encounter on the "Wilderness Encounters" table from the book, but the second/middle roll indicates a further roll on this table:

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Non-Monster Wilderness Encounters

1-3 -- Bad weather -- half movement for the next 1-6 days

4-5 -- Lamed mule/Sprained ankle -- cannot move forward until the injury is healed, either by magic or by 1-3 days of rest

6-7 -- Spoiled rations -- 1-2 weeks of rations are spoiled by mold, maggots, etc.

8 -- Lost supplies -- the party loses ... 1) 50' rope, 2) 100-600 gp, 3) 1 week of rations,
4) tinderbox, 5) lantern and 1-4 flasks of oil OR 2-12 torches, 6) 50' rope and roll again ((or one useful item at random))

9-10 -- Heatstroke -- a character at random is incapacitated and cannot act until they take a full day of rest

11-12 -- Wrong turn -- not lost per se, but no movement for the day as all "progress" must be retraced back in the proper direction

13 -- Venomous bite -- a character at random must save against poison or using CON, or die; neutralize poison or other such spells would naturally be handy in such a situation

14 -- Diseased bite -- a character at random must save against poison or using CON, or become infected with a debilitating disease; the character loses 1 STR per day of travel, and a week of full rest is required to overcome the disease; during the "crisis" another save v. poison or with CON is required, and failure indicates that 1 point of CON is permanently lost

15-16 -- Good foraging/hunting -- no rations are needed for the day due to plentiful game/forage

17-18 -- Bad water -- 1-3 characters must save against poison or using CON, or contract a debilitating disease per (14)

19-20 -- Physical Barrier -- the party has hiked into a box canyon, cul de sac, bog, mire, etc. etc., and must backtrack; no movement unless a thief with ropes climbs a way through, or a druid demonstrates a path, or some other rule or narrative is invoked by the player characters to pass through

Jungles of Chult Session 1

I started a new in-person game of 5e D&D with my friends this last Saturday, 13 January, in which I will run WotC's Tomb of Annihilation (2017) approximately every other Saturday, while my friend continues running his dungeon on the "off" weekends. So why not title this post "Tomb of Annihilation"? Because I decided to de-emphasize the Tomb's centrality to the game, and focus rather on the jungle hexcrawl--because that part of the book hooked my interest, while not so much the eponymous tomb.

Because there are only three players, I allowed each to create two characters, and further requested that half the characters be rolled according to +Anders H's "Into the Unknown" a B/X hack of 5e so that we can help playtest the rules (and also because I'm probably just going to run the game like B/X anyway, so it's nice to have a ruleset that backs me up on it). I'd already informed everyone that I'd be changing the XP tables, so they were down with "Into the Unknown" characters too ...


so, our intrepid adventurers:
Sound of Distant Rain (cat-man rogue)
Terahn Atzi (human priest)
Nigiri (lizardman monk)
Takashi Akaga (human magic-user and gourmand)
Nebin (halfling barbarian)
Chiratidzo (human druid)


We started in Port Nyzanzaru somewhat "fresh off the boat" (Chira and Terahn are both Chultan natives, but not well-traveled), and I dropped an info dump on everyone to introduce the game: Chult is a land where death is permanent, regardless of magic--not even a wish spell can revive a slain character within the bounds of Chult. This has been the case for several generations now, and those who were rich enough and unwilling to live in a land where death was permanent left for other shores when the "death curse" first fell upon the land, but people have been living their lives normally since. No one knows whence this curse has come, but it has lain over the land for some time. (those who are familiar with the adventure will note that I significantly altered the facts here, to de-emphasize the curse as a worldwide "time bomb" and allow more emphasis on hexcrawling)

I also outlined the history of Chult and the war between the city of Mezro and the Eshowe, the rise of Ras Nsi as a lord of undead, and the fact that a dragon turtle called Aremag extorts treasure from ships passing in and out of the Bay of Chult.

And so what were our characters interested in doing? They looked over the hex map I gave them, wondering at all the empty hexes they could explore--but their chief priority was, as players of D&D, to secure some quick money before committing to anything major.

Using his "highborn" background, Terahn secured an audience with one of the local merchant-lords, one Jessamine, who was rumored to be interested in buying certain flora from the jungle. Jessamine appeared in the courtyard of her villa silently in the midst of the characters, and then proceeded to answer their questions about valuable flora by pointing out that senda berries and wildroot are both particularly valuable to her, and there are a few other rare plants that she would pay for.

The party was glad to know this ... hearing that another merchant-lord, one Jobal, was an outfitter maintaining a stable of jungle guides, they next sought him out and managed to secure an audience with him as well. His villa was filled with trophies of the animals he had hunted and killed, and he immediately hit it off with Chira, not only because Chira was guzzling the proffered palm wine, but also because Chira is a druid and a man of the wilderness. After a few stories about the animals killed (including a "mouth dragon"), Jobal turned to business and counted off a number of guides whose services he could recommend (including a tabaxi pair he is not supposed to recommend--typo number one!--I corrected it later)--but when the party revealed that they did not have the requisite funds for 5 gp/day, 30 day upfront payment (150 gp), the wine stopped flowing. "Come back when you have some coin!" Jobal told them as he sent them out (though not unkindly).

A mouth-dragon pursuing a shield-head

Now especially in need of funds, the party asked around for quick money and heard that the Flaming Fist regularly supplies Fort Beluarian, a Flaming Fist encampment on the peninsula northwest of Nyanzaru. Rowed galleys carry the supplies across the Bay of Chult to the Fort, and then carry ingots from the mines above the Fort back to Nyanzaru, and the galleys require both rowers and guards/porters out and back. Odo, quartermaster of the Flaming Fist in Nyanzaru, was approached by Sound of Distant Rain, and offered him and his associates 3 gp/day to act as guards and porters on the next galley.

The galley set out the next dawn; because it wasn't leaving/entering the Bay, it would not be subject to the extortions of Aremag. The first leg of the trip was a short jaunt to a camp on a peninsula halfway between Nyanzaru and the beachhead below Beluarian; on the second day the galley arrived at the beachhead and the supplies were offloaded from the ship; on the third day, the supplies were ported up a path to the Fort itself. The fourth day was slated as a day of rest, and then the last three days of the trip would mirror the first three.

The only encounter seen by the characters on the way out was a flock of scintillating snakes flying through the trees near the beach on the first day.

At Fort Beluarian, after all the porting was done, the characters could rest; Sound elected to gamble with the soldiers of the Flaming Fist (against regulations, but under the noses of their superiors) and won 20 gp after staking a mere 10 gp to start. Nigiri, meanwhile (the lizardman) went forth from the fort and hunted down some local iguanas, herbs, etc., and in-fort cooked up a mouthwatering meal that gathered a number of Flaming Fist soldiers to ask for a portion (they had to jockey with Takasha, the gourmand magic-user who follows Nigiri specifically for his lizardman-cooking).

Grilled iguanas ... yum!

The Flaming Fist soldiers then laid out chests of iron and copper ingots stamped with the seal of the Fist, all of which were ported back down to the beachhead and loaded onto the ship; and then the galley set out back for Nyanzaru the next dawn.

On the first day to the halfway peninsula, the ship was buzzed by a flock of pteranodons which ultimately left the galley alone; then later in the day, a band of aarakocra (bird-men) appeared over the galley. These aarakocra were invited down by the characters, and relayed to the party that an injured comrade of theirs was on a beach nearby, having been wounded in a scuffle with lizardmen. The characters arranged for the aarakocra to carry their companion to the ship, there to be healed by a use of cure light wounds; and when this aarakocra was healed by Terahn, she told the players that her name was Skir of the Kaaraa Eyrie, and she presented Terahn with her javelin and one of her pinion feathers as tokens of friendship.

Then, on the third day, early in the morning on the beach, the characters were awakened by one of the ship's rowers, one Osuware. "Quickly!" he whispered, pointing to the treeline and to a flock of iridescent snakes basking in the morning sun in the trees. "Let us take the serpents, and we can sell them back in Nyanzaru!" Most of the party followed; they watched Osuware stuff a serpent into a sack, and then Takasha cast sleep over the rest of the nine snakes; he then demanded that he receive two of the snakes for Nigiri to cook up for him, while the other eight can be sold, and the party reluctantly agreed.

So, back in town, Osuware guided the party to the villa of Ifan Tal'Roa, another merchant lord. This Ifan is a great seller of animals, beasts, etc. both as beasts of burden and as creatures bound for gladiatorial games, and he was glad to receive a party attempting to sell him flying snakes. He first offered 25 gp per snake, which Osuware was over-eager to take, and so Sound talked Ifan up to 30 gp per snake. Osuware was glad for it, and, being bad at math, agreed to take 40 gp while the party split the other 200. Ifan advised the party to look out for other beasts in the jungles that he would be glad to buy.

The party then returned to Jobal to get his take on jungle guides; and despite his excessive friendliness now that they were in some money, and despite his protestations not to seek out his former employees River Mist and Flask of Wine, a couple of tabaxi (cat-man) guides who had just broken with him, the party of course, sought out River and Flask. These two agreed to guide the party for a lesser sum of 4 gp/day, with no upfront payment (but they would be glad for a cut of treasure after the fact!). Moreover, they are familiar with the jungle around the River Tiryki, and with two landmarks, one Firefinger (a spire with a ptera-folk tribe) and the other Dungrunglung (a shrine-city of grung frog-men).

River Mist has the eyepatch; her brother is Flask of Wine

The party then needed to actually plan their first expedition into the jungles, and ultimately decided to abandon their first plan to seek Camp Righteous and Camp Vengeance on the River Soshenstar, and to follow their guides up the Tiryki River. They bought a rowboat (50 gp) and several weeks of rations, but were confident in their own ability to forage in the jungle for food (and they agreed beforehand to boil their water). Round trip, this expedition is expected to last something like 70 days, most of it the trip there and back, but with a week at the head of the river for in-depth exploration.

We got four days into this seventy day expedition before it was 1:20 am and we needed to break for the night. Each hex on the map is 10 miles across; the travel rules in Tomb of Annihilation indicate that a party can travel 10 miles in one day, but I find that completely ridiculous for jungle travel; being generous, I cut that in half to 5 miles per day (I would have cut it further, following accounts I've read of jungle travel, but I still want this to be a game ...). I was many beers in at this point, and so didn't roll for the party getting lost, but I did roll all of the encounters for each day--and as a further modification to the rules, I'm going to devise another table of my own for non-creature "encounters" to roll on once each day, following other tables I've written for other hexcrawls I've run.

Nothing happened on the first day ... on the second day, the party was ambushed by a party of Batiri (jungle-goblins) as they traveled along the banks of the Tiryki. The goblins charged from the bush, but were repulsed by a concerted effort, and when the "boss" was slain, the Batiri rolled poorly on morale, panicked, and ran back into the jungle. From the corpse of the "boss", the party took up a painted mask they think could be worth something back in town, and then they continued on their way south.

On the third day, the party came across a shield-head (or "ytepka" or "three-horns") grazing alone in a meadow not far from the banks of the river. River and Flask were enamored of it, trying to get the party to attack and subdue it so that they could lead it back to town to sell to Ifan Tal'Roa--then they could sell the beast to him for a tidy profit (and only a few days out!) and then restart their expedition with even higher funds. Alas, the party balked at attacking such a large creature, and merely walked around it. Later that day, they provoked a troop of baboons, which attacked them, but were easily driven off with another poor morale roll for the creatures ...

One ornate species of shield-head

And on the fourth day, the party encountered a pair of giant spiders, easily dispatched without even the need for a morale roll--and this is where we quit for the night, as it was nigh 2 am and we were semi-incoherent.

So like I said, these encounters need to be spiced up with some non-monster "wilderness encounters" that will vary things beyond mere roleplaying/combat encounters (also, need some roleplaying encounters anyway). The book recommends rolling three times per day; I was thinking of rolling twice on the book's encounter table, and once on my own table each day. Ultimately, this would alter the checks from 3 encounter checks per 10 miles to 4 monster encounter checks and 2 non-monster encounter checks per 10 miles, so I don't feel like it's too much.


The next Chult game will probably be in about two weeks; I'll be sprucing up the hexmap in the meantime and probably sharing ideas and additions here--I admit, I just can't run an adventure/module without tinkering with a fair amount.

the Strangler Fig

I was in Panama for Christmas with my dad, uncle, and granddad (Granddaddy was stationed in the canal zone during the 70's, so my dad went to high school here and it definitely captured the family imagination), so I thought I'd try to come up with some D&D stuff related to Panama or tropical environments in general.

To that end, the other day I saw some pretty cool banyan trees, aerial prop roots hanging down from above, stretching for the ground, ready to create more and more trunks in an ultimate banyan grove all centered around a single huge trunk of intertwined trunks. Some quick Wikipedia research informed me that banyans are sometimes called "strangler figs" for the way that they grow around a victim tree and "strangle" it with their roots; and further that, as a fig tree, they are home to fig wasps, which developed symbiotically and cospecialized with fig trees, the fig providing the wasp a place to lay eggs and mate, the wasp pollinating the fig.

Hence the double feature of Strangler Figs and Fig Wasps ... Today, the Strangler Fig:

or Banyan Tree ...

Called a "strangler fig" because it is a parasitic organism that "strangles" its host--the banyan tree actually grows atop another tree, its seed having landed somewhere in the host's upper branches, and grown like a vegetative octopus from there. Early on, the banyan actually looks like tree roots growing down around the trunk of the host tree; later, as the banyan swallows or "strangles" the host and sends out limbs of its own, these down-growing roots actually become almost trunks themselves, creating the illusion of a small grove where the reality is one large down-growing organism (as opposed to an aspen grove, all one organism, but growing upwards).

After enough time, the banyan actually kills its host (after it has grown large enough to sustain itself), and as the host tree decays within the banyan's central trunk, it leaves behind a hollow space, perfect for any variety of spirits, jungle-creatures, or bandits to dwell within or inside which to store their valuables ...

And so, to D&D-ize the banyan tree ...

Strangler Fig
No. Appearing 1 (1-6)
AC 0
HD 8-12
THAC0 per HD, e.g. 12-10
attacks: suggestion or 7-12 roots
damage: 2-7 or charm
no movement
treasure: F

A strangler fig large enough to attack a party of humanoids has grown into a veritable grove of its own, with prop-roots resembling entire trees and aerial roots hanging down from the canopy throughout the "grove"--hence its hit dice of 8 to 12; feel free to shrink or expand the number according to the age/size of the "grove".

The grove feels to be a place of peace, which is the will of the fig attempting to lull prey into a sense of security. There is a 1 in 3 chance that from 1-4 animals of various kinds (e.g. monkeys, lions, agouti, etc. etc.) are resting beneath the banyan's limbs, subtly tapped by its roots, charmed, and succumbing to its appetite. These animals may be used by the banyan to attack intruders if the intruders are hostile.

Suggestion: All those who enter the grove (i.e. pass into the shadow beneath its canopy) must save against spells (or a make Will/WIS save), or they find the grove to be a perfect place to make camp, and make an argument for settling down for the day, or at least for returning before day's end ("Look at how peaceful the animals are here--lions and monkeys lying down together!").

The banyan being a slow-moving tree, creatures must spend at least 10 minutes under its canopy before its roots can act. At that point, those beneath must make a save against paralysis or be tapped by an aerial root. After that, 7-12 roots may act each turn, either directly attacking characters or charming them.

A root that attempts to charm a person descends and rests on their body, attempting to "tap" into them; the character must make a save against paralysis (fortitude or reflex? constitution or dexterity? choose what you want in newer editions). Characters who fail are "tapped" and cannot leave the vicinity of the grove, and can be compelled to fight against hostile intruders. Over the course of the root's accelerated growth, they become part of the banyan in 1-6 days, entombed within a new root-trunk. A cure disease spell will dissolve the root's connections inside the body, though a character thus freed will suffer 3-18 damage from separation.

Otherwise, the roots attack with slams like treant-limbs, dealing 2-7 damage per blow.

Any treasure is to be found within the main "trunk" (which may be hollow), or embedded in the down-growing aerial roots, in either case being the treasure of those entombed within--which will, of course, entail 10 minutes or more work to extract ...

Parasitic though they be, banyans are also often symbiotic homes to other creatures as well.

One half of banyan trees are home to a swarm of Fig Wasps, insects that co-developed with fig trees in a relationship even closer than that of the normal process of bees pollinating flowers.

One in three banyan trees is also home to a dryad, a bisan (from Oriental Adventures), or some other tree spirit; these are (1-2) the spirit of the host tree, desperate for help destroying the banyan, (3-5) the spirit of the banyan or some other spirit dwelling within the hollow of the "trunk" and which will rise to its defense, or (6) an unaffiliated spirit that dwells within the hollow trunk or spreading branches, but which is itself independent of the banyan.

Further relationships are eminently possible:
Consider an entire human keep, made of stone, swallowed by a vast banyan and now home the ghosts of its former inhabitants!
OR, a peaceful banyan, converted to (Buddhism) by a saint in expectation of better future lives and escape from the wheel of suffering, which holds under its branches/roots a permanently peaceful gathering of merchants and wanderers, guarded from evil by the power of the tree.
(the etymology of "banyan", according to Wikipedia, is that "banyan" meant "merchant" in Gunjurati Indian; and such merchants would spread their wares beneath the shade of certain [banyan] trees)

the Fig Wasp

I was in Panama for Christmas with my dad, uncle, and granddad (Granddaddy was stationed in the canal zone during the 70's, so my dad went to high school here and it definitely captured the family imagination), so I thought I'd try to come up with some D&D stuff related to Panama or tropical environments in general.

To that end, the other day I saw some pretty cool banyan trees, aerial prop roots hanging down from above, stretching for the ground, ready to create more and more trunks in an ultimate banyan grove, all centered around a single huge trunk of intertwining roots. Some quick Wikipedia research informed me that banyans are sometimes called "strangler figs" for the way that they grow around a victim tree and "strangle" it with their roots; and further that, as a fig tree, they are home to fig wasps, which developed symbiotically and co-specialized with fig trees, the fig providing the wasp a place to lay eggs and mate, the wasp pollinating the fig.

Hence the double feature of Strangler Figs and Fig Wasps ... Today, the Fig Wasp:

So there are two varieties of fig wasps, pollinating and non-pollinating (and many species of both). The pollinating fig wasp is pictured above, and has an elongated head with spurs, with which it burrows into the syconium (what will become a fig fruit), where it both deposits pollen in some of the female flowers while laying eggs in others. Non-pollinating fig wasps look more like other wasps, except that their ovipositors are ridiculously long, at least as long as their bodies--these they use to pierce the syconium and deposit eggs within from outside. I'm going to focus on a pollinating species.

Fig Wasps
No. Appearing 3-18
AC 9 (but they can't be hit by weapons--hands can slap them on a body, or squash them in the air)
hp 1
THAC0: 16 (they're small and pretty good at crawling through chinks in armor)
damage: 1-3 as they burrow in
movement: fly 30'

Fig wasps surprise on a 1-3 on a d6, being small and seemingly innocuous. Their attack roll is merely to land; with surprise, they can immediately begin to burrow in, otherwise a character can swat at 1-3 of them on their body before the wasps can act again.

After the wasps have landed on a humanoid, they begin burrowing into flesh using their specialized heads and mandibles. This causes 1-3 damage, partially from the painful sore, partially from the inflammation of the flesh around the sore.

Once inside, the wasp lays its eggs and then dies. At this point, the host character must make a save against poison to avoid a severe allergic reaction as the body responds to the presence of foreign bodies inside itself. Success indicates a mild reaction--itching hives above where the eggs were laid, rather like a nasty chigger-bite; failure indicates severe anaphylaxis: roll on a d6

1) eyes swell shut -- blind for 1-6 turns
2) severe hives -- penalty of -1 on all rolls for 1 day
3) swollen throat -- can't eat for 1-3 days, may grow weaker from hunger
4) ill for 1-3 days -- penalty of -1 on all rolls
5) violently ill for 1-3 days -- may not act other than to rest
6) death in 1-6 turns

A neutralize poison spell will halt the anaphylaxis, but the eggs will remain. A cure disease spell will destroy the eggs and also neutralize the anaphylaxis.

If the eggs are not destroyed, they will incubate for 2-4 weeks, during which time the eggs hatch, the hatched larvae pupate, and at the end of which time adult fig wasps split out of the pupae. The males' only purpose is to fertilize the females and then burrow a way out of the fig for the females to fly away. Unfortunately for the wasps, the females cannot survive in a human or demi-human host, and are ultimately absorbed into the body--BUT the males still burrow their way out, causing 1-20 damage as they do so (they might be burrowing out of an arm or leg, or on the dangerous side, burrowing out through vital organs in the abdomen!).

Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 13

Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults;
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower;
and the secret treasury of the ancient Bronding Kings is said to lie somewhere behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...

...

and Jaer the Windlord is said to look down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself ...


5 December's roster:
Aethulwulf (paladin 2)
Little Bob (traveling-man 4)
Finbar (half-Elf druid 3)
Baby-Face (thief 4)
Lead (cleric 3)
Aria (Elf 1)
Koko (woman-ape 1)
and a veritable army of dogs and hirelings


With seven players, set-up took a good hour of crosstalk, dog-buying, and hireling-hiring. Baby-Face snapped up a unicorn horn and a Ring of Unseen Servant, as well as buying a couple dogs; his party alone was himself and seven hirelings/dogs. Lead hired the other available hireling, Aethelwulf acquired two of the dogs, and Aria nabbed the lone orc mastiff for sale.

Recalling the offer by Jaer the Windlord of a wish for the party if they could clear the Glimmervaults of the nuisance of orcs, the party naturally elected to head there.

On the way out, my dice indicated an attrition encounter of undead on the second night, and the party was able to drive them off using two flasks of holy water, one week of rations (got burned on the fire while driving the udead off), a use of turn undead by Lead, and Baby-Face took 6 damage, promptly healed by the cleric.

Nothing else accosted them, so as they drew near the northern entrances to the Glimmervaults, the party found a secluded copse in which to secret the wagon and horses they had acquired in town, guarded by one of Finbar's wolf friends and the hireling Freyja.

The entrances to the Glimmervaults are two: to the west, a stone grotto recessed into the slope of the hill at the back of which yawns a cave entrance; and to the east, a higher opening flanked by spears and spikes driven into the ground and onto which the heads of various humanoids--humans, Elves, and a surprising number of orcs--have been impaled. The party briefly considered taking some of the heads to inflate their "kills" in their report to Jaer, until they recalled that Kaaraak the eagle accompanies Aria, and that he might snitch. So instead, Baby-Face took but one moldering head and six functional spears.

They then entered into the eastern entrance and headed immediately east at the first "T", as that way was least explored by previous expeditions. Going east, they stumbled almost immediately into a chamber containing six orc guards only sleepily guarding; nevertheless, the size of the party made enough noise to alert the six, and those awake wakened their companions. They got one round of hurled missiles off at the party's advancing dogs, and then, seeing the number of intruders, took off to the east calling, Intruders! Intruders!

The party sicced their dogs and weasels on these six and also advanced right behind in pursuit. Three of the dogs dragged orcs down by their ankles and then savaged them to death, but the other three managed to get all the way into a large eastern chamber filled with fifteen orcs. The orcs had been in varying degrees of repose, but alerted by the shouting, they were all waking each other up and arming themselves. The party charged directly in, dogs out front, and just started cutting orcs down.

Despite old school combats being much quicker and smoother than Pathfinder or 5E combats, this was still a slog, given that there were seven players, most of them commanding several dogs or hirelings. I believe this is where one (or maybe two?) dog was killed, but I didn't scribble it in my notes, alas.

Altogether, the party overwhelmed the poor orcs (I should note, by the way, just to stave off any "orc baby" nonsense, that these were all adult male orc warriors--this whole outpost is a warparty outpost); after twelve of the eighteen had fallen, the remaining six orcs threw down their weapons and offered surrender, but the players' blood was up, and, ignoring the pleas of Aethulwulf for mercy for the orcs, the six surrendering orcs were cut down. All the orc heads were then gathered for presentation to Jaer, and the party discovered 200 gold scattered throughout the room.

Continuing south-east, the party decided not to investigate the corridor that smelled of shit, but elected to go south, which ultimately turned around to the west. They passed a chamber in which a beheaded orc was impaled on a spear and set up against the wall, and then heard chanting from a chamber further along. Finbar, using speak with animals asked one of the weasels to go check it out sneakily, but alas! the weasel did not do a good job of sneaking and quickly humped its way back to the party before the orcs in the chamber could attack it.

There was some dithering as to whether to oil the hallway and lure the orcs out into an inferno, or just to attack, but ultimately the party just charged on in. In this chamber, they found a great orc-captain leading a ritual sacrifice to Agrol Orc-Father, a great wooden idol crudely carved with a terrible grimace, its feet piled with heaps of skulls and broken weapons.

But with a grimace, draped in snakeskins, and
surrounded by skulls, broken spears and bent swords

There were nine other orcs accompanying this captain, and they were in wait for the party, and hurled missiles at them as the party's army poured into the chamber. A general melee then ensued. Much like the last battle, the dogs made short work of a number of orcs. Koko the woman-ape crushed one orc's face, but then, overeager, forced her way through the melee to the orc chief's side to attack him, and was herself cut down. But the orcs were overwhelmed; and in the chaos of the fight, Aethelwulf the paladin managed to work his way around and thrust his own sword through the orc chief's breast, silencing his battle cries forever.

From the orc chief were looted a large shield decorated with a red hawk and a waterfall sword (both likely magical), as well as three gems appraised by Aria to be worth 200 gold each. The party cut off and collected the orc heads, and then tore down the idol and dragged it bodily out of the dungeon. Having slain everything they encountered on the way in, there were no encounters on the way out, and outside, after hacking off the huge head of the idol with axes, they set the great idol alight in a huge bonfire.

They then returned to the copse, loaded their wagon with sacks of orc heads (thirty-two, plus the wooden idol's head), and made their way back to Brakeridge. On the return trip, a storm blew up on the first night, destroying a spear, ruining a week of rations, and blasting Lead for 8 damage (two dice). Then, slogging through the rain and the mud, poor Freyja was bitten by a viper on the last day, and succumbed to her wound.

At last returning to town, the party sold what they could, and agreed to spend the 300 gold Lailith asks of those seeking for a companion to be raised from the dead, and so Koko was returned to life, albeit at -1 intelligence from the lingering effects of the wound. Then Finbar and Baby-Face caroused, spreading the tales of their daring. Baby-Face in his drunken exuberance promised to adopt Hilda, a 10-year-old orphan girl hanging around the Black Dragon's Meed, and now she won't leave his side as he goes through town, she telling everyone how grateful she is to finally have someone to look after her again.

------

Remembrance for the Fallen
Freyja (normal woman), Nameless Dog (1 hp cur), Hot Dog (mastiff), Cross (mastiff), Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boar hound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)

And for those Enchanted Away
Dol (fyrdman hireling)

Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 12

Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults;
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower;
and the secret treasury of the ancient Bronding Kings is said to lie somewhere behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...

...

and Jaer the Windlord is said to look down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself ...


26 November's roster:
Kord (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1)
with Freya and Ham (normal hirelings)
and the armored mastiffs Hot Dog and Cross


Only one player showed up for today's session, and so the expedition was short, but surprisingly sweet.

After hiring and outfitting Freya and Ham, the only two mercenaries available for hire; and purchasing a second mastiff; Kord elected, alone, to brave the Howling Tower, of which he heard that it howls no more, and that the upper floors have been mostly looted.

On the last night before arriving at the dungeon, I rolled a nasty wilderness attrition encounter; it was wolves, according to the dice, and the party elected to lose a shield, 12 arrows, an axe, a week of rations, Hot Dog's armor, and still take 3 damage to Ham. Fortunately for Kord, he's an AD&D cleric, not a B/X cleric, and so even at first level he has access to a spell, and so cured Ham of his wounds.

Arriving at the tower the next day, Kord and company find a pyre standing outside the tower (the same pyre found earlier by another expedition); while inspecting this pyre (and finding only ogre- and wolf-sized bones), Freya indicated to Kord that they had company--a pack of eleven wolves came wandering around, sniffing for prey.

Kord bellowed at them; I rolled a morale check in response, and the wolves backed off in a hurry, uncertain what to make of this bellowing half-orc. Nevertheless, they didn't withdraw entirely, just kept their distance, and the party quickly headed for the relative safety of the tower itself.

Once inside, Kord turned north in the first T of the corridor, intending to head for the stairs down to the dungeon. At the first door, though, he heard noise of something canine within that first chamber; opening the door, the party was confronted with a woman in a shaggy grey cloak with three wolves around her feet. She didn't immediately attack, though seemed wary; but when she asked who this intruder was barging into her room, Kord announced that he was an adventurer come to gather loot and rid the place of werewolves.

To which the woman responded, Well then, you have your chance! Howling, she transformed into a large wolf and, with her lupine companions, charged the party. Kord and company backed off into the hall to constrain their opponents; the woman-wolf went straight for Kord; and fortunately he had earlier purchased a large silver mace, which now he wielded to good effect, while his hirelings and dogs fended off the wolves.

Many shields were broken, and the combat seemed to be going poorly for Kord until one of his dogs critically hit and killed a wolf; and then Kord, after whittling the woman-wolf down in health, got a final solid blow on her, braining her with his mace. As she fell back dead, her body transformed back into a human body, leaking brains across the floor. On her corpse, Kord found a gold serpent torc, and a key; and inside the chamber, he and his companions discovered a chest hidden under some furs, inside of which was some couple thousand silver pieces, as well as three books of deed-songs that were ultimately worth a fine bit of cash.

Kord magnanimously shared this wealth with his hirelings, and then suggested they all head back to town to reequip, which offer was heartily agreed to--but the large pack of wolves still lurked outside the dungeon.

The party then considered the dangerous proposition of camping within the dungeon, but were dissuaded from that course of action by the arrival of a party of goblins and wolves on a wandering monster check. Once more engaged in the hallway, already slick with the blood of wolves, the party faced stiffer odds--both Hot Dog and Cross were slain, one by a critical hit from a wolf, the other from a critical hit by a goblin. Fortunately for the party, though, goblins are creatures of poor morale, and after about half their number were slain, they rolled badly, panicked, and fled back the way they had come.

Dogs dead and Kord and Ham both injured, the party made a hasty retreat to the entrance of the tower. Kord bellowed at the wolves again, and the few that remained without sauntered away. Alas for the party, it turned out they hadn't gone far--that night on the way back, they were again attacked by wolves, and now lost 12 arrows, a shield, Ham's suit of plate armor, a week of rations, and 4 more damage to Ham (healed, again, by Kord).

Returning to town, the party members outfitted themselves again, but Kord found himself feeling strangely ill, with an excessive amount of hair growth on the backs of his hands and arms, and with a curious craving for raw meat. Guessing the nature of this malady, he went to Lailith at the Shrine of St. Ursula for a cure disease spell, and for 100 gp was cured.

Lastly, Frey and Ham elected to carouse with their newfound wealth (Kord was more than generous with them, essentially giving each several hundred gold, and I decided to allow them to receive xp, and to advance toward the possibility of rising up from being mere 0 level normal men). Freya had a distressing religious experience as a result of drink, and will not earn xp on her next expedition, but Ham held his liquor well ... and as for Kord, even giving his wealth away, he retained enough xp to level up both of his classes.

As I said, it was short, but sweet

------

Remembrance for the Fallen
Hot Dog (mastiff), Cross (mastiff), Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boar hound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)

And for those Enchanted Away
Dol (fyrdman hireling)

Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 10

Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults;
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower;
and the secret treasury of the ancient Bronding Kings is said to lie somewhere behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...

...

and Jaer the Windlord is said to look down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself ...


21 November's roster:
Baby Face (thief 3)
with Wheskers the Weasel, Wilmander the Weasel, Frita (normal woman), Hughbert the Peacock (normal man)
Blackleaf (Elf 1)
with Johann Haybaler (normal man) and Dol (normal man, former fyrdman)
Finbar (half-Elf druid 1)
with Dorcas Kurlsdotr (normal woman) and Rubadub-dub (mastiff)
Little Bob (traveling man 3)
with Rolf Rolfson (normal man) and two dogs (I forget their names)


So, a full party ...

Baby Face's player showed up first, so he, as a thief, went and did a job for the local guild. He went "carousing" (per the ACKS rules ... basically rumormongering for his boss), succeeded at his "hear noise" roll, and learned that the rumors that Morholt, local lord, was seeking a love potion to coerce the widow of the former lord Albrecht to marry himself (to legitimate Morholt's claim to power), were true. Baby Face's guild handler thanked him for the news, paid him 50 gold; and then Baby Face paid off the 1000 gold he owed the guild with money earned last session.

(Concerning the guild, Baby Face also learned both that the guild is headquartered in Bardastead, a town a couple days north of Brakeridge; and also that the guild is considering a heist of Oakridge Castle, Morholt's seat of power, at some time soon in the future ...)

A snake-killing weasel, a mastiff, and all six hirelings were snapped up by characters prior to the expedition ... also, Baby Face and Blackleaf each bought a "dose" of Elfin willow bark (said to be healing, entry 10 here), while Finbar bought a piece of a dragon heart (said to allow one to comprehend languages, entry 2 here).

The town-game finished, everyone finally agreed to head to the Howling Tower, where a former expedition had revealed treasure and an evil spirit on the third floor (the top floor). They then all bought some last-minute holy water, and then set out ...

During the first night (using my new "concrete" wilderness attrition rules), a freak storm wrecked/destroyed a week of rations, a dagger, and 12 arrows. Beyond that, the journey to the Howling Tower was unremarkable, other than continuing rain.

Outside the tower, the party observed a couple eagles circling above, and the remnants of a large pyre. Investigating the pyre, the party found larger-than-man-sized bones, plus a pair of canine-seeming skeletons, all burned together. They presumed this to be the pyre of Begor and his two wolves; Finbar collected a large blackened femur from within.

At the door into the tower, the party managed to hear human voices and panting canines; throwing open the door successfully, they surprised a pair of ragged-looking humans (one man, one woman), and five wolves. Blackleaf cast sleep over the wolves, Finbar cast animal friendship over one of the wolves (turns out it takes 6 turns to cast! so he was out of the combat); and the rest of the party attacked, assuming these two to be werewolves. They did a bunch of damage with missiles and melee, and killed the woman; the man, winning the next initiative, transformed with a howl into a wolf-man, but missed his attack with a sword he carried; and the next round, Baby Face slew him with a silver arrow to the heart.

The wolf-man's form, right before
he was slain by a silver arrow ...

Searching the bodies, the party found a goodly amount in jewelry in a cloak and brooch, and a dangling gold necklace on the two humans; and after 5 more turns (50 minutes!), no wandering monsters appeared, and Finbar's spell went off successfully, basically charming a wolf (there was one other survivor; it agreed after a speak with animals spell also from Finbar to accompany the party with its surviving companion ... Finbar named these wolves Walter and Heisenberg, because their names were otherwise unrememberable howls).

With these two wolves added to their number, the party headed south and west to where they knew the stairs led up to the second level of the tower. They passed the baboons crouching there easily, as Finbar with the last moments of his speak with animals spell asked permission, plus giving the blackened femur to a baboon who then proclaimed himself "king". (another runtish baboon came after Finbar, begging, and received only a ratty dress stripped from the dead werewolf woman above)

Upstairs, the party decided to explore the entire second floor before seeking the treasure of the spirit on the top floor; searching around, they ultimately entered into a room with a great throne against an eastern wall, on which crouched a huge ape with a hoplite helm, ill-fitting gloves, and a sword slung awkwardly over his broad shoulders (and there were two white apes nearby, picking nits). When this ape saw Blackleaf carrying a burning lantern, he went wild and mimed his desire for fire in his hearth. (I got to roleplay an ape here, and it was fantastic ... having more apes in my game is just the best)

Okok was shamelessly based on King Louis, I won't lie

The party lit a fire in the ape-king's hearth, and he got all enthusiastic, burning a torch in it, all enamored of his fire. He then gave the party his helmet and his gauntlets in gratitude. Slapping his breast, he declared himself, Okok!

The party then continued to explore, and found an empty room that when they searched actually held a silver wine service and a gilt sword; and then they filled the map of the second level and found an area that seemed secret, and ultimately found a secret door back in Okok's throne room. Within was a great horde of thousands of silver and copper pieces, plus a few valuable items. The characters managed to give Okok 2 chests of copper in exchange for his sword, which turned out to be a waterfall sword ...

The second level explored, the party then advanced to the top floor (third level) and sought out the chamber with the bricked-over hearth and the body behind it whence issued the terrible spirit. They found the chamber as they remembered, and again from the body issued a smoky spirit-figure, which filled the room with a supernatural chill. It advanced, and the party threw a volley of holy water at it, enough of which struck that the thing hissed and flinched. Ultimately, the spirit got one attack, which it missed, and then was destroyed by the constant volley of holy water which destroyed it; and then the party found a horde of several thousand gold, plus a number of gems and magical items on the knightly corpse that had been trapped behind the hearth.

And the eerie howling of the Howling Tower ceased, and all was suddenly, eerily silent.

Exploring the rest of the third level, the party also found a cistern, a library with several valuable and magical writings, and a shrine to Chaos and the Elf-goddess Astora, Queen of Stars; and came out with even more treasure.

Thus, the entire Howling Tower (above ground) explored, the party elected to return to town. They skirmished with some goblins during the first night (and lost a dagger, 12 arrows, a week of rations, a shield, and Baby Face took 2 damage); and then on the last night back, a baboon (animal encounter) walked off with a dagger (just one attrition die was rolled for ... this was clearly the same runtish baboon mentioned above, which vaguely wishes to overthrow the new "king").

Back in town, the party found that they had acquired three magic swords, a magic staff, two potions, and three magic scrolls, and a spell-book, all in addition to the monetary treasure they had emerged with. This was the best haul yet dragged out of the Greyhame Mountain Dungeon! (But I can assure that there is much more treasure throughout, still waiting to be claimed ...)

During carousing at the Black Dragon's Meed and around, Little Bob managed to cause a minor misunderstanding with the law for himself, and paid the guard off without going to the Oakridge dungeons ... but meanwhile, Blackleaf got seriously black-out drunk and did something so bad that she owed 6000 gold to the law, or she would be imprisoned in the castle-dungeon; and yet, at the last moment, a shady thief-type character appeared and offered to pay the majority of the fines, if Blackleaf would only be in debt to the guild ...

------

Remembrance for the Fallen
Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boar hound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)

Wilderness Encounters as Attrition 2

I received a comment on a recent post inquiring if I had fiddled with my rules for "wilderness attrition" at all, and whether I had anything further to write about them. The short answer heretofore was "no" because I have been using the rules as I wrote them for the last few sessions (and they've been pretty simple and effective so far, and people are starting to carry back-up items, which is one thing I envisioned for these rules ... thus necessitating a mule and porters ... mwahaha!)

The longer answer is, I do actually have an idea for making "wilderness attrition" a little better, I hope--"concreteness".

As written so far, and as used so far, I roll the encounter chance, elucidate the results and the number of damage dice for the party, and then come up with a lame reason for it afterward (especially when prompted by the player of Rendorsheeg the Elf). This is abstract; abstraction, of course, was the main purpose for creating these rules; yet nevertheless, D&D is so often about concreteness that it pains me to just kind of handwave why a week of rations, 12 arrows, a spear, and a shield were all lost. Generally I've been calling it skirmishes with goblins or orcs ... but what if I had said it was wolves, and a druid, say, replied by saying, "I want to cast speak with animals and talk them out of attacking us"?

Moreover, of the three dice I roll for every encounter/wandering monster check, on of them is not pulling much weight in these "attrition" rules, and I think "concreteness" could be a better use of its pips on the table.

Therefore:

When I roll for encounters, I roll 3d6, one black, one white, one red:
black -- encounter chance
white -- party surprise chance
red -- monster surprise chance

I ignore the red and white dice if black comes up nothing.

For attrition in the wilderness, rather than rolling up a full encounter on a positive result from the black die, I look to the other dice:
The white die determines "attrition dice" inversely to the number rolled on the die, e.g. 1 is 6d6, 2 is 5d6, 3 is 4d6, 4 is 3d6, etc.
Instead of an extra chance to "ignore" the encounter as I originally wrote, the red die can be used to determine "concretely" just what happened, thus:

1 - animal encounter -- a bear, a pack of wolves, a rutting moose, a baboon troupe, etc.

2 - men encounter -- a group of hunters, some brigands, some local ruffians

3 - humanoid encounter -- a skirmish with orcs, goblins, ogres, etc. per what I've generally said

4 - fey/unusual encounter -- undead perhaps, or faerie trees/briars that grasp at characters, etc.

5-6 - non-creature encounter -- a freak storm, a patch of poison ivy, a nest of young ticks, etc.

These are vague, and I think necessarily. As I said above, abstractness is the reason for these rules of attrition--what I get out of them is focusing on the dungeon while retaining some of the danger of the wilderness and travel through it. Attrition is a quick way to move through the consequences of the wilderness than having to describe an entire encounter with a band of orcs transporting prisoners, etc.

And yet, having a sense of what concretely the characters have encountered allows the players to respond to it with their skills, spells, etc in somewhat of the way that they would if presented with a full encounter. The best example I have is that if the referee rolls an "animal" encounter of six attrition dice, and the party includes a druid who responds by casting the spell speak with animals, the referee could allow the druid to just talk to the animals and avoid the encounter altogether, OR allow that spellcasting to replace one (or so) of the "usual" means of eliminating attrition dice (including the otherwise invulnerable sixth die, perhaps!).

Perhaps the party encounters "animals"--the referee declares them spiders
... and the halfling of the party uses his halfling abilities to sneak around
distracting the spiders with anti-arachnid slurs like, "Hey, atter-cop!"

Maybe an "unusual encounter" is undead, and the cleric can turn undead to eliminate an attrition die; or perhaps a group of men can be charmed or slept by a magic user to eliminate dice ... etc.

And of course, if the players just blithely accept the dice that you put forth, break their items, and move on, it's no skin off the referee's back. I just felt a strong need to have a way to clearly allow more player agency in response to the "attrition".