the Nightstalker

Before I publish the next Greyhame Dungeon play report, here's a monster recreated from one of my favorite games: the Nightstalker

Summoning a Nightstalker

A significant amount of my mental landscape when it comes to fantasy was laid by the old Microprose game Master of Magic (1994). Back in elementary school before I had any actual D&D rulebooks, I made up monsters according to their stats in Master of Magic; and though I may have ultimately switched rather completely to 3E in highschool, and now to B/X in 2012 onward, still Master of Magic stands as an ur-source, like The Lord of the Rings, or the Timelife Books: The Enchanted World series, or The Flight of Dragons cartoon.

The Nightstalker is a summoned creature from Master of Magic, which is in hindsight clearly a rip-off of the invisible stalker in D&D; and yet, the Nightstalker is undead, only able to be conjured with a wizard with Death spellbooks; moreover, the Nightstalker has a formidable death gaze attack, which the invisible stalker clearly lacks.

Here's the Nightstalker's abilities per Master of Magic (drawn from a PDF download of the manual):
Nightstalker -- Magic (Death) -- Upkeep (1 Mana) -- Melee (7) -- Defense (3) -- Resistance (8) -- Hits (10) -- Movement (2) -- Special (Death Gaze -2 save; Invisible)

From which I will draw this (soft) D&D version:

the Nightstalker
AC 0 (4 if one can see invisible)
HD 5
THAC0 15
damage 2-12 + death gaze
death gaze -- all characters in melee with the Nightstalker save against death or die (+2 on save, -2 "to hit" if characters look sideways; +4 to save, -4 "to hit" if characters fight with eyes closed/face averted/etc.)
save as a Fighter 6
180' movement
morale 11
immune to charm, sleep, cold
turned as an undead of HD+2 (i.e. 7 for this write-up)

------

Such a monster is, of course, terrible to use against a party that has no way to detect invisible ... and nevertheless, I wrote a small dungeon that included something along these lines as a possible wandering monster within (though that version was for 5E, rather than B/X D&D)

Naturally, I rolled its appearance a couple times, and whenever it showed up, the party was in a high dudgeon of terror given the fact that it's naturally invisible and can strike when it pleases--and with a death gaze to boot! Two lower level compatriots died under the horror of its death-gaze; and ultimately, the party looted what they wanted without ever killing the invisible monster stalking the dungeon below ...

The stats don't necessitate any particular HD, AC, or anything, I'm just spitballing according to what I know of the Master of Magic wargame system, and still downplaying the monster a bit. The Nightstalker could easily be scaled up or down depending on what you want to do with it--maybe it's semi-visible for low level parties (note that it doesn't have immunity to normal weapons, and may be struck by any old sword!); maybe it has HD 10 for a high level group that may or may not have see invisible.

Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 8

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 ...


today's roster:
Aethulfwulf (fighter 1)
Kord (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1)
with Dog 1 (a mastiff)
Little Bob (traveling-man 1)
with Marlo (a cur), Panzer (orc-mastiff), and Orion II (lion dog)
Rendorsheeg (Elf 2)

plus, a party of Elf tourists led by Elrohir and including the other Elves Cymbria, Hylen, and Alanora, further followed by a couple of charmed humans and a group of six goblin slaves packing the Elves' things for them


While Aethulwulf's player put his character together, Kord looked around town for local work and managed to get a gig laboring with the construction at the new Shrine of St. Ursula the Bear. He made 6 gold (must have been doing some heavy lifting!), bit his chaotic tongue at the lawful imagery, and put his wages toward his debt with the thieves' guild.

At that point I still only had the two players; I gave them "the pitch" (orcs in the glimmervaults, etc), but added that a party of Elves had come into town a week ago and were loitering around, looking for people willing to escort them into the Glimmervaults. They were on a pilgrimage to look upon the Ancient Stars that glimmer beneath the earth, but having heard of the troubles with the orcs, they wanted some extra muscle in their party.

Kord enthusiastically agreed to join the Elves, hoping for 60 gold for the job; the Elves responded, no, we were thinking something more along the lines of 50 gold per person. That sold the rest of the party, which now included Little Bob. Before setting out, Little Bob and Kord bought the three dogs for sale, which included an orc mastiff, a huge blue-black beast of a dog trained to murder orcs.

Thus outfitted, the party accompanied the Elves through the wilderness toward the caverns of the Glimmervaults. Fortunately, because the Elves were excellent woodsmen and passed quietly through the world, they needed roll no wilderness encounters; so they arrived at the entrances to the Glimmervaults on the north slope of a spur of the Greyhame Mountain. To the east is a worked entrance surrounded by heads impaled on spikes (including humans, Elves, and many orcs); to the west, a stone grotto that descends deeper into the slope before becoming a cold cavemouth into the underworld.

The Elves led the party to the grotto and into the caverns beyond. They then basically led the party on a long walk/tour ever to the southeast through a series of natural caverns, passing through a large number of chambers, but almost always in the same direction, south east, south east, etc. Along the way, they pointed out some interesting features, or stopped to sing or make obeisance to their own idols.

First, pointing to a formation of flowstone in one of the first few chambers, the Elves remarked on how the Galad tribe used to rule the surrounding lands as loyal vassals of the Bronding Kings, and how their dead are buried in the stone there behind; the last time Elrohir and his companions came through, the Galad tribe were not yet at their end, for the Bronding Kingdom had not yet fallen apart.

An example of flowstone

Continuing on, the party shortly came upon a large stalactite-stalagmite column carved to resemble a man coming down from above, reaching out to the image of a woman below, while the ceiling of the cave around them glittered with stones in the shapes of constellations. Here, the Elves stopped for a time and sang an ancient song in an old Elvish dialect little remembered now; and as they sang, their noise attracted the attention of some orcs and wolves! (This was also the moment when Rendorsheeg's player showed up, so I guess Rendorsheeg kind of stumbled out of the shadows at that point, out of breath from running ahead of the orcs)

Six orcs and six wolves came down the corridors from the northwest, back whence the party had come; they were armed and ready for combat, and gave a warshout as they charged into melee. What followed was a short combat in which the dogs showed their value by mauling the orcs, while the party stayed behind throwing and shooting missiles at the orcs. Two wolves and an orc went down in the first round; in the second, the party got initiative and took out two more orcs. At that point, the orcs and wolves failed morale and turned to flee, and two more orcs went down, pulled down by the vicious dogs.

Searching the bodies produced a mere 16 gp, but Kord managed to find and claim for himself a golden torc on the biggest orc before anyone else could get it.

Continuing on from there, the party went south-east, and ultimately ended up (in the second "level" of the Glimmervaults) in a vast room with two stalactite-stalagmite columns, the larger of which was carved to represent the World-Tree; and its stone "branches" above seemed not to meet the stone ceiling, but to spread into the night sky, as some kind of magic made the ceiling seem in fact to be open to the stars (strangely, for the party had entered the caves during the day). Moreover, there were two sets of double doors, one to east, one to the north, both of which were set with heavy metal bars. These doors were both marked, "These halls are polluted with the miasma of death; Galad has sealed these doors," or some such. Elrohir remarked that behind them lay an ancient shrine dedicated to Astora, Goddess-Queen of Elves, but that the halls were polluted with death in ancient times, and abandoned by the deathless Elves who do not care to look upon death.

Like this, except the tree is a flowing stalagmite, and in its
roots are carved images of Elves and other animals

The party searched ineffectually while the Elves sang their star-songs, and then everyone continued south-east. In the next chamber, they surprised a pair of many-legged insectoid horrors with tentacle-faces, both engrossed in a feast of two dead orcs; on these the party sicced their dogs, and also cast missiles at them, and rather quickly dispatched them, with Aethulfwulf pretty well killing one with a strong cast of a javelin.

Further yet, the Elves led the party into yet another large chamber, this one opening onto a large underground lake, preternaturally still in the windless deeps. The glassy water reflected the ceiling perfectly, and because of this, it seemed as if they had walked to the edge of the world and looked into a field of stars, as the ceiling, again, seemed to be filled with the stars of the night sky. The Elves began to sing a weird and ancient song in memory of the stars, and into this eerie serenity, Rendorsheeg flicked a rock into the lake, and the ripples destroyed the symmetry of the lake's mirror. The Elves gave him reproving glances, but continued their song.

Not colored like this, but the reflection on the water is a good
example of the glassy mirror of the lake reflecting the stars

Rendorsheeg, ever the one for foolhardy antics, then decided to throw poor Orion II into the water. He picked the dog up and kind of tossed him into the water, causing quite a splash and a bunch of thrashing and whining as the dog landed in the cold water; then Orion II disappeared beneath the surface, pulled down by something pale beneath the water. The Elves gave Rendorsheeg the evil eye, and as Little Bob fumed at his companion, Rendorsheeg sheepishly gave the traveling-man 50 gold in recompense.

There was another "shoreline" on the north side of the lake, on which was banked a black boat; the party briefly considered a scheme to haul it across, but when they heard that the Elves were done with their song and moving on, they followed them instead.

The Elves then led the party mostly south (through the third "level" of the Glimmervaults). They went quickly and without wandering monsters, and ultimately stepped out into sunlight once again, on the southern slope of the spur off the Greyhame Mountain. Elrohir and his companions intended to return west and north, back to town, and offered to pay the characters the second half of their fee, to which the party agreed. Then, as the Elves continued on their way, the party returned back through the caves they had just traversed to the large cavern with the World Tree and the sealed doors.

Inspecting the eastern of the doors, they determined that they could spend a turn to pry off the iron bar that sealed the door; Kord did this, and opened the door onto an east-leading corridor that further opened onto a long pillared hall. On the floor of that hall lay three desiccated corpses, which had clearly lain among the pillars for a long time. Rendorsheeg tossed a torch at one, afraid of evil fungus and spores, but nothing happened--until they stepped into the room, of course, at which point the corpses arose, and the air in the room became noticeably colder.

These corpses reached to their waists as if drawing swords, but drew only blades of shadow, and then advanced across the hall. Kord attempted to turn them, but as he held up his holy symbol and said a prayer to the good gods, the corpses only continued advancing, implacably and silently. Seeing this, the party turned tail and fled back into the hall beyond; and then decided to call it a day, and returned to town.

I don't want to deal with any more of that supernatural shit! Little Bob declared, already in a foul temper after losing a dog to the things in the water, and mindful of the terrible keening spirit in the Howling Tower.

On the way back they suffered a brief skirmish with orcs that broke one shield, a spear, expended 12 ammunition, and in the confusion left behind a backpack with one week's rations (a wilderness attrition encounter).

Back in town, Kord discovered that the torc he had grabbed was worth 400 gold, and refusing to share it with the party, he used the reward to pay off his debt to the thieves' guild in full.

Meanwhile, Rendorsheeg drank himself to full wine-madness while regaling the guests of the Black Dragon's Meed with tales of the adventure, and ultimately got himself into some trouble with the law. He doesn't remember what happened, but he is now jailed in the dungeon of Oakridge Castle (the castle of local lord Morholt), with a debt of 4000 gold, which must be paid before he is released. One gets the impression that he might have said some unwise things to an already touchy son of Morholt ...

------

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)

the Grey Pilgrims

'... "These are High-Elves! They spoke the name of Elbereth!" said Frodo in amazement. Few of that fairest folk are ever seen in the Shire. Not many now remain in Middle-Earth, east of the Great Sea. This is indeed a strange chance!"

'The hobbits sat in shadow by the wayside. Before long the Elves came down the lane towards the valley. They passed slowly, and the hobbits could see the starlight glimmering on their hair and in their eyes. They bore no lights, yet as they walked a shimmer, like the light of the moon above the rim of the hills before it rises, seemed to fall about their feet. They were now silent [having ceased their song of Elbereth], and as the last Elf passed he turned and looked toward the hobbits and laughed.

'"Hail, Frodo!" he cried. "You are abroad late. Or are you perhaps lost?" Then he called to the others, and all the company stopped and gathered round. ...'

(J.R.R. Tolkien, "Three is Company," The Fellowship of the Ring, 1955, pg 109, Ballantine Books)

This Elf turns out to be Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod, and he and his companions are members of a Wandering Company, those who sometimes come into the Shire during spring or autumn, but "'For tonight we go to the woods on the hills above Woodhall. ...'" (p. 110)

(It is curious to me to know that Gildor, being of the House of Finrod, is in fact a Grey Elf, one of the Noldor who went to see the light of the trees in Valinor, yet who returned to Middle-Earth in company of Feanor, their chief, to seek the Silmarils--and who slaughtered the Sea-Elves to take their ships in order to return! As Gildor later says to Frodo, the Elves do indeed carry their own burdens and sorrows separate from the other races of Middle-Earth)

------

In my Encounters on the Road table, one of the entries is that of Elf-Pilgrims, with whom characters may carouse (spending money and gaining experience per carousing), like Frodo and the hobbits do at Woodhall, but with the possible consequence that they pass on with the Elves, forgetting their place in the mortal world for a time in preference for the wonders of the Elves.

Two weeks ago, as the players in my regular (non-Greyhame) game traveled from their home city to the halfling land of Hopshire, they twice encountered Elf-Pilgrims (due to the vagaries of the dice). The first encounter went off without any consequences, but during the second, one of the characters failed and nearly joined the Elf-Pilgrims on their way to the Glimmervaults to look at the Stars that gleam within those caverns (hence the name)--Ronald the magic-user was so entranced by their verses in praise of the ancient Stars, the Stars that gleamed above when the Elves first stepped forth in the morning of the world, before even the Sun and the Moon were set into the heavens, that he intended to join the Elves making their way there.

Alas (?) his friends got wind of his plan and got him so stinking drunk that he was too hung over to join the Elves on the next leg of their journey, and he got over their charm as he nursed his hangover.

Obviously, these pilgrims will figure in the Greyhame game before long, as the destination of their pilgrimage is the caverns of the Glimmervaults.

In this case, a troupe of four Elfin queens and their guard have happened upon a sleeping adventurer
(William Frank Calderon, How Four Queens Found Lancelot Sleeping, 1908)

All of which is to say in a longwinded way, I was thinking of developing a table for encounters with Elf-Pilgrims or Wandering Companies, so here it is:

Where are they headed?
1) to the Glimmervaults (or some other place where the Elves can gaze upon the ancient Stars down from whence they stepped in the morning of the world); a character who carouses with them and fails his save against drunkenness will be enchanted by their vision of the Stars and accompany them, a journey which will take from 3 to 18 months before he returns to play

2) to the Grey Havens and the ships that sail away across the star-strewn Sea, out of the mortal world to halls of everlasting ease; a character may save at +2 against poison to avoid the consequences of carousing with these Elves, but a failure means that she will travel with them to the nearest ocean port and thence pass out of the world forever--once gone across the Sea, only a wish could bring her back

3) to nowhere in particular--the Elves are a Wandering Company who wend through wood and dale, carousing in the hidden vales beneath the starlight; characters who carouse with them gain the effects of carousing, but are also healed as if they had rested for 2-12 days--as indeed they have! for the Elfin feast, though it seemed to last but a night, has lasted nigh a fortnight (and advance the calendar accordingly). The Elves have all vanished and continued on to the next valley by the time the characters waken, leaving memories of starlit draughts and the apples of Avalon

4) to the Isle of Avalon (or somewhere likewise suitable), bearing the bier of a mortal warrior of such renown (or so beloved by a King or Queen of Elves) that he is to be brought back to the Sunny Isle to wait in deathly sleep for the day of his awakening. Carousing with those among this company, one hears epics of both the hero himself, and of elder days and ancient heroes, and such stirring deed-songs fill the heart with courage such that one receives experience equal to 100 times one's level above the normal carousing benefit

5) not a pilgrimage per se, but a company of Wood-Elves, wary of strangers--an Elf-banquet of the sort that got the dwarves into trouble in the Mirkwood (in The Hobbit). Attempting to carouse with these Elves, a character will wander away from the party and get lost--as an individual, they will suffer 1-6 attrition dice, and if any dice remain that would cause damage, the character is instead imprisoned by the Prince of the Wood-Elves in his secret palace-dungeon until such time as she is rescued or ransomed (1000 gp/level for a ransom as a baseline)--(that, or they're just imprisoned on failing a save against paralysis)

6) to the dressing of the idols of Astora and Anglamorath at a clear lake deep in the forests of the Dwimmerholt (Anglamorath-Astora is a dual goddess of Chaos worshiped primarily by the Elves; Astora is the Elf-Queen of Stars, the First Elf, and she is joined in worship to Anglamorath the Black Dragon, the Dark Behind the Stars, Whose Wings are the Night); carousing with these Elves one must save rather against spells as they attempt to charm and enslave the characters for a year and a day, after which they will be free to return to the mortal world


Who is among the Company?
1) Adrasteia, a Lamia (not the weird lion-type, a real Lamia who is a serpent wearing the guise of a maiden); she is accompanied by two charmed slaves, Archidamus (Fighter 3ish with a shield, spear, mail armor, and a lion cloak of courage, +1 AC, +1 morale to hirelings) and Musa (Fighter 3ish with a shield, scepter/mace +2, and mail armor)

2) Ponderous, a hugely tall pine Treant (+2 HD); unlike most Treants, he is not vulnerable to fire due to the flaky scales of his bark and the great height of his limbs--but at the same time, he receives only one attack because of his great height, and is treated as a "giant" for attacks against dwarves and halflings

3) the Elf-woman Thranduila and her halfling companion Otho Skopper (they seem a rather Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser pair); Thranduila is laconic and interested in wine and handsome fighting-men, while Otho is exuberant, often derisive, and interested in wine and pipeweed. Their motives are mercenary, such that they might be enticed away with promise of loot or gold to do some other deed, rather than continue on with the pilgrimage--maybe

4) the Goblin Blinx, chief slave (2 HD, one first level spell) over 3-18 other (normal) goblins; Blinx himself harbors a slow simmering hatred for his Elfin masters (simmered over several centuries), and is subtly eager to seek aid from mortals for his own manumission, whether that involves an exchange of coin or bloodshed; he would even be happy to instigate a goblin rebellion if he could get support outside the few goblin-slaves among the party

5) Morla of the Mists, a high level magic-user, presumably female; she is always somewhat obscured by a mist that seems to billow up from the hems of her dark, heavy cloak. Her perambulations with the Elves never takes her too far away from her dwelling in the Myrkr Fen. Why she travels with the Elves is obscure, but being a high level magic-user and some-time sage, she can answer sage-type questions for a significant offering of gp, including the identification of magic items

6) Ceor (or Ceora if female?) a mortal overcome by the burden of his or her deeds while adventuring; perhaps he cared too deeply about the plight of some orc children, only to have his spirit crushed by his comrades' murderous intent; perhaps she carried the burden of a supremely evil artefact to the pits of Hell to see it destroyed, and the toll has crushed all joy in her mortal life; either way, he or she accompanies the Elves in hopes of a finding a way out of the mortal realm and all its suffering ...


The Elves carry with them a thing of Interest ... what is it?
1) a Hunting Horn that once per week can summon 1-3 Fey Hounds (3 HD, AC 6, THAC0 17, d2-12, gaze of fear all in melee save against paralysis or unable to act for the round, 2 consecutive saves immune; look aside, +2 to save, -2 "to hit"; close eyes/look away, no need to save, but -4 "to hit"); possessed by the leader of the pilgrimage, who will not part with it lightly (but will entertain reasonable offers of gold or deeds)

2) a Ring of the Elf-Friend (protection +1, and +2 on saves against charm and sleep), granted to any one character who acts the most graciously with the Elves (speaking Elvish with them, sharing poetry, naming constellations, etc.). Naturally, the +2 bonus applies on the carousing save as well

3) the Mead of Poetry (one character determined at random during carousing gains +1 CHA, has a knack for poetry, regardless of player ability; and they may further, once per year, utter a doom which may be a geas or quest spell, or any kind of curse, quest, doom, etc. that a bard might utter in literature--think of the Icelandic skalds in particular, e.g. Egil Skallagrimsson)

4) a Philtre--on a failed save against carousing, one character determined at random is in love with one of the Elves on the pilgrimage (this does not necessitate joining the pilgrimage, but does entail other effects ...); on a successful save against carousing, the same character has instead filched the Philtre, and may use it as a love potion as they will ...

5) an Idol, either a Lawful, Clannish, or Good Idol taken in a raid; OR a Chaotic, Natural, or Arcane Idol representing the Elves' cult. Returning the former to the proper cult would provide a large experience reward, while seizing the latter would surely result in a statue worth 600 to 3600 gold (3d6 times 20) and commensurate experience

6) an Elfin Lap-Dog, a creature bred for companionship rather than war or hunting (HD 1, AC 6, THAC0 19, d1-6); and it wears a collar with soothing bells forged in Avalon (+1 to all saves for those within 30' of it, if the dog is adventuring for some reason); spending a week in its presence "back home" grants such ease of mind that one curse is removed, OR a painful love/memory/etc. may be forgotten for that week, OR all wounds and diseases are cured, even if the HP total is more than can be healed in such a time (not all at once, choose out of the three!). Removing the collar destroys the magic, alas (why would you do that Isolde??), but the dog will live for 2-20 years, being somewhat Elfin in nature

Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 7

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 ...

tonight's roster (actually played 6 November):
Baby Face (thief 3)
with Thin-Faced Tim and Jimmy the Snitch (dogs)
Kord (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1, freshly rolled)
Rendorsheeg (Elf 2)
Blackleaf (Elf 1)
Harambe (man-ape 1, recently raised from the dead)
with Orion (dog)
and Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1, who showed up for a cameo and then bit it)


We had a slow start tonight, as people slowly trickled in.

Baby Face's player showed up first, so he did some thiefing around town, picking pockets here and there, and managed to snag 5 pp, which he used to pay off some of his debt to the thieves' guild. He also talked up some peasants at the local fertility/farming-god shrine who were disgruntled with Morholt's lordship, and they promised to talk to some of their friends about maybe withholding taxes from Morholt to prevent his further payment of mercenaries ...

Meanwhile, Tore's player arrived; Tore owing, money to the thieves' guild, had asked if he could do a "job" for them to square debts, and was thus asked to accompany a thief tasked with getting money out of a recalcitrant farmer, Tore being the "muscle". Alas, Tore rolled poorly on intimidation, and the farmer sicced his dogs on the group ... the thief took off, and despite my allowance that Tore could flee too without harm, he decided to face the dogs ... and got mauled to death for his trouble. The player then began rolling up Kord, a kind of clone with better stats ...

Then finally a group coalesced, and the entire party elected to head for the Howling Tower.

On the third day out, at night, there was a skirmish with some goblins that resulted in 3 dice of attrition (per my wilderness attrition rules), which were blocked with 12 arrows, a spear, and a week of rations.

The party then arrived at the Howling Tower, which stands atop a spur coming down from Greyhame Mountain itself, above the tree line so that it stands as a dark spike over a barren ridge. As the southern half of the first floor remained unexplored from last time, the party took the south branch of the initial T of hallway, and ended up first in a room that was filled with rubble and seemed to have a rotten ceiling.

In searching the rubble, Kord, Baby Face, and Rendorsheeg caused the ceiling to collapse on them, each taking some damage; Kord was knocked unconscious by this, but was revived by Blackleaf offering him some wine from a cask previously looted from somewhere, bringing his hp back up to "conscious" from the liquid courage.

While Baby Face used his thief abilities to climb up to the next level and find a similarly shaped room with a door in a different corner, the rest of the party heard a booming voice from behind them--What in the hell is all that noise? cried a lumbering figure coming down the hallway, preceded by two lupine shapes. This was Begor, the blind ogre the party had met before.

After getting called out on some bullshit line about being repairmen (I can hear your damned Elf voices, and there ain't no friendly Elves around here! Begor opined) Rendorsheeg offered wine, which offer Begor cautiously accepted. He and Rendorsheeg repaired to the ogre's room to drink; Rendorsheeg continued to attempt to bullshit Begor, which ultimately ended with the ogre threatening, Get out of this tower, or I'll have to kill you--I guard this place for the Goblin King, after all.

With that threat ringing in his ears, Rendorsheeg returned to the party, and the group blithely ignored it by continuing to explore. To the west they found a room with a mural of barbarians worshiping an Elf-queen, probably Astora, and which also contained a slightly molded, dessicated baboon corpse. They doused this corpse in oil and set it alight, and it burst with a cloud of spores, and the party retreated back to the hall.

Unfortunately, because of their clamor in the hall, Begor and his wolves suddenly appeared in the hallway behind them, having heard their arguments. He was not dissuaded by a lame excuse of trying to find the exit (The exit is behind me, you morons!), refused to offer any reason as to his "debt" to the Goblin-King (I'll not tell the likes of you!), and as negotiation broke down, combat became inevitable.

Blackleaf attempted to sleep the ogre and his wolves (Killer and Hrapp), and managed to sleep the wolves, but Begor remained upright. He in turn slew Jimmy the Snitch--as the dog clung to his leg, he brained the poor beast with his club, while also kicking his wolf Hrapp awake. Killer was savaged to death by Orion in his sleep; meanwhile, over the course of several rounds, the party managed to kill Hrapp and pincushion Begor with enough missiles that he fell over dead. He had a sack with him, crudely sewn-together pelts containing 300 gp.

Continuing to the next room, the party found a chamber with stairs leading up, but also a troupe of 5 baboons that bared their fangs as the characters entered. Fortunately, Harambe spoke to them in Ape, asking passage, and though their dialect was terrible, the baboons moved aside.

They ended up being grumpy baboons in the end ...

Above, the party found a room that opened onto a northern corridor with 3 doors. Checking the first, the party heard clearly the eerie howling that has given the Howling Tower its name; they opened it, and found another stair up, to the third floor, whence issued the terrible keening.

Climbing that stair, the party found an old common room with three doors. They went north, and found an old armory, which they looted entirely of its various spears, axes, and bows. A ladder climbed to the roof (which was a simple fighting-platform with crenelations all around and old braziers).

Next, the party went through a west door and found an old guard post with arrow loops and such; to the south west was a door, to the southeast a bricked-over hearth. The wailing was clearly coming from the hearth; Blackleaf, Harambe, and the two living dogs were all supernaturally terrified after failing saves against the wailing. Nevertheless, Harambe went up to the hearth and started tearing down the bricks with his feat of strength ability; this presently revealed a glittering hoard, and also a body whence issued both the keening, and a weird black spirit emanating the chill of the grave. Kord's attempt to turn it failed as the prayers faltered through his chattering teeth, and the party ran will-he-nil-he back to the stairs down and all the way back down to the first floor. On the way, alas, Orion was caught by the spirit and withered and died in the moment his flesh was touched.

Think "The Cask of Amontillado"
(Poe short story, 1846, illustration Rackham)

Fleeing headlong, the party dashed past the baboons and back out into the hallway; there they found a group of 5 goblins trying to haul away the bodies of Begor and his wolves; a short melee ensued, in which the party massacred the pitiful goblins. Finally taking their time to catch their breath, the party found themselves no longer pursued by the incorporeal horror from above.

Turning back to the stair once more, the party managed to pass the baboons again as Kord threw some rations to them (after Rendorsheeg briefly provoked them by throwing a bone at them). In the corridor above, they went to the northmost door, and managed to open it quietly enough to surprise 4 white apes gossiping with each other as they plucked lice one from another.

After a confused discussion of possible tactics, the party ultimately used their surprise to just attack the apes; the melee that ensued was both chaotic and deadly. All four apes ended up slain, but at the cost of Thin-Faced Tim the dog being bodily dismembered by apes (after holding his own for a surprising number of rounds!), Kord being knocked to mere unconsciousness by a lucky (for the player!) roll of low damage, and alas! Harambe being slain while wrestling a rival ape, who lifted him up and snapped his back with its terrible brute strength.

I love Frazetta and this image, so I'll use it again;
the melee was confused, just like the full painting ...

At this point, the party was in low morale and ready to return to town. In the room, they found a bed of brass that would probably be worth something on the market, so they appropriated it as a bier for Harambe.

Heading back down the stairs, Kord tossed 3 more days of rations to the otherwise disturbed baboons; and on the way back to town, the party was attacked by some goblins in the night; but by breaking a shield, a suit of armor, a spear, losing a week of rations, and expending 12 arrows--and Baby Face taking the last attrition die for 2 damage--the party finally made it back to Brakeridge.

There, they beseeched Lailith, a high level cleric newly come to town, to raise Harambe from the dead. She offered to cast it for a pittance of 300 gp, but the casting failed--Harambe was utterly dead (he rolled poorly on my resurrection table), and there was no hope for his return to mortal life, so Lailith graciously refused to take the 300 gp (I guess she is Lawful Good). Thus Harambe was re-interred in the grave whence Little Bob had exhumed him; the gravestone reads "Dicks out for Harambe" (apparently this is a meme).

In the end, Rendorsheeg and Kord caroused, furnishing their stories to fellow patrons at the Black Dragon's Meed, and hence this post, but both were able to hold their liquor and find their beds without mishap. Unfortunately for Kord, though, he wakens realizing he is in debt to the thieves' guild.

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

Golden Bones and the Chained Guard: two new Skeletons

I told myself not to publish too many "play reports" in quick succession, so I'm posting these couple of monster-write-ups today, and I'll post the Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 7 tomorrow. So, without further ado, a couple of variant skeletons for use in any dungeon:

A particularly well-dressed skeleton

The Red Priests, a Chaotic sect of clerics and magic-users who more than dabbled in necromantic magics, created undead servants for themselves that were more than mere skeletons. Some were formed from the corpses of favored slaves; some from the bodies of guardians, sacrificed in tandem to create yet more effective guardians; and others were bodyguards duped by gifts of magic items that did more than promised upon the wielder's death (in the best tradition of Sauron granting the Nine Rings to the Ringwraiths!)

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Firstly, the Gilded Slaves (or Golden Bones):

No. appearing 1-6 && 2-20 regular skeletons
HD 2
AC 5
THAC0 18
Damage by weapon (1-4 usually, sometimes 1-6, rarely 1-8) (on a d6, results 1-3/4-5/6)
Morale -- (they're skeletons)

Turned as zombies (i.e. as HD 2 undead)

Gilded with decorations to please the Red Priests who created them. Each skeleton comes decorated with (roll a single d6 to determine):

1) 2 gems for eyes (roll once for both gems)

2) silvered bones worth 10-60 gp

3) gilt bones worth 100-600 gp

4) one piece of jewelry worth 200-1200 gp set into the sternum

5) silver death mask  worth 20-80 gp

6) scrimshaw imagery on major bones (sternum, skull, femurs, etc.) worth 50 gp, OR 300-1800 to the right buyer

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the Chained Guard

No. appearing 4-9 (d6+3)
HD 1
AC 7
THAC0 19, +1 per skeleton killed (well, -1 ... bonus +1 "to hit" per skeleton killed)
Damage 1-6, +1 per skeleton killed
Morale -- (again, they're skeletons--undead servitors have no morale)

Turned together as a single undead creature equal to the number of hit dice that remain in the group (i.e. 7 skeletons encountered on the first round are turned as a 7 HD monster; if after 3 rounds the skeletons are reduced to 4 and then turned, count the group as a 4 HD monster)

the Chain -- the entire group of skeletons is chained together at the ankles by either a silver chain (worth 10 gp/individual) or a gold chain (worth 50 gp/individual); moreover, this chain magically links the members of the group (4 to 9 skeletons) together, so that the death of any one skeleton in the group increases the "to hit" and damage rolls of each other member by +1.

That is, assuming a group of 5 skeletons, each rolls to hit with a THAC0 19 and 1-6 damage on the first round. If one is killed on the second round, the remaining 4 skeletons attack at THAC0 18 and with 2-7 damage. On the next round, if 2 more are killed, the remaining 2 skeletons attack at THAC0 16 and with 4-9 damage.

I've never bothered with the "dimensions/length" of the chain, but I'm a mean/lazy referee who wants to attack with all the skeletons regardless. If you want, you could come up with the actual line of the chain and let the Chained Guard get tangled up in their own fetters if too ambitious ...

Think these guys, except they're chain-ganged at the ankles
--and they'll hit you harder for every one that's re-killed!

Credit for this idea goes to Lloyd Alexander of The Chronicles of Prydain, in which the (living) Huntsmen of Arawn are linked together by evil magic, and all grow stronger for each one of their comrades who is slain. I've always loved that idea, and plagiarized it for several games; this is my favorite version of my own plagiarisms.

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As for a third type, the Bodyguard of the Ring, I'll let imagination stew for a time. I've used them in one dungeon yet, and to good effect! It's true that there are no rumors of any of these particular skeleton-creations lurking in the Greyhame Mountain Dungeon--but then again, one never really knows what lies in store for oneself in the deep places of the world ...

Play Report from Josh Rapp's Kalaetha

"Laurantha to Xanthos--a Missive

Xanthos, my companion-in-arms, I thought you might find this expedition edifying:

As you know, the Dreaming River and its environs are a strange place. Not only have I found myself the lieutenant of the Sorcerer of the Blue Mask in his war against the ancient Elf-king Elexus the Starchild, but I have also discovered a strange side-way into the city of Vymrrys; and only now have I been whisked away to yet another strange world, the underground city of Kalaetha!

It all started with a strange itching at the back of my neck, which distinctly grew into a 'pulling' one might say, 'pulling' me to prepare myself for some adventure. And lo! when I had done so, I found myself suddenly transported through transdimensional bizarreries and deposited in a simple single-bed inn-room, on top of an unfortunate halfling. I was there in the midst of unfamiliar companions, one Hildi (a young girl), one Frigga (a witch, apparently), and a halfling woman who claimed to be Magic Meryl, reincarnated after the return of her corpse to the Jarod Memorial Library. Alas for Meryl to be halfling-ized and stripped of her magic!

I imagine it was something like traveling
through the portal in 2001 A Space Odyssey

I rolled off him ungracefully--curse this poor dexterity of mine!--and then the halfling stood up, holding a sheet of parchment like a town cryer, and declared,

'I Elanveril, seek the aid of heroes to complete a task--let them come and hear, and if they decide "yea" reward is offered, and they will seek to complete the task, thence to be returned to their home plane. The initial offer is 100 gold pieces on arrival, and they may return whence come if they refuse, plus said 100 gp.'

We all said, 'yea!' and he continued, 'The task set is to help the captain of the guard, one Dudegrin,' (a dwarf), 'return to the barracks where his troops are stationed, the completion of which task will render a further 300 gold pieces to each hero.'

Further questioning of said Dudegrin revealed that he had come from the barracks to the inn through a secret tunnel built as a contingency, but that he had since collapsed it to prevent monsters following him. Moreover, the city of Kalaetha was in some dire straits, what with weird black oozes that had rained down from the ceiling (the city being underground, it has a ceiling), and thence devoured everyone on the streets--and beyond that, there was rumor of undead horrors and such monsters roaming the streets as well. Dudegrin had fled the barracks because of an ooze's entrance into said building, but now wished to return, hoping to find the remnants of his city guard gathered there.

Ere leaving the inn (the Comely Crock, apparently), Magic Meryl,  asked for some biscuits of the proprietors, and received several pieces of hard tack; meanwhile, Frigga summoned up a demonic monstrosity of wolf-heads all kind of jammed together into a semi-coherent form, which she called Fenris.

As for leaving the inn, it turned out that the door opened onto a street, but not the street where the inn ought to be--it opened onto a street some other place in the city! Good thing for us, Dudegrin still knew where we were and where to go.

Up the street, Meryl detected a sound kind of like the slow running of water and alerted us; assuming an ooze, we moved into an alley and Hildi climbed up to the roof; with a rope thrown up by myself, she fastened it to a chimney, and we all clambered up, and none too soon as the ooze came down the street where we had been.

At some point, I asked if the ooze was like the
death ooze from the end of Princess Mononoke
--Josh Rapp laughingly agreed that it was

On the rooftops, we continued toward our destination finding the city to be constructed in concentric rings of buildings, and at its center a great glass and crystalline tower with globes full of 'lighted' rocks, a spire held up by huge chains connected to the ceiling.

Ultimately, the city being circles, we found ourselves unable to continue 'inward' without crossing a street. At this point, the Ayatollah Goblini appeared, with 14 goblins in tow. After some discussion of building a goblin-bridge, instead, Hildi used a magic tattoo to fly across the way and set up two lengths of ropes as a kind of bridge (one above, one below, across which a person could shuffle). We used this same technique to cross a second street, and found ourselves finally across from the roof of the barracks, but at that point Hildi's magical flight was close to expired.

On the rooftop of the inn was an ooze of the same kind as wandered the streets, though a little smaller. I suggested we launch a volley of arrows into it, and the Ayatollah Goblini mentioned that he had a brace of six pistols. While he set up a goblin firing squad, everyone else used their own missile weapons ... unfortunately, the goblins only managed to divide the ooze into many smaller ones; but the silver bullets fired by Hildi's rifles, and the arrows launched by my own magical longbow managed to destroy the miniscule oozes.

Magic Meryl then scouted across the street for us, and found it largely safe (though with some ooze coming up behind us not to far off). 

Therefore Hildi used her last flight ability to fly to the other roof, while the rest of us followed Meryl down and to the doors of the barracks.

Alas! the doors opened onto a chamber unfamiliar to Dudegrin (i.e. not part of the barracks); and Hildi opened a trapdoor from above that proved to be magically linked to the same room (she dropped some shot through the trap, which fell from the solid ceiling of the room we were looking into at the same time ...). When Frigga pushed Dudegrin into the new chamber, he turned back and started mouthing at us, but we couldn't hear him; when we followed, we found that we had gone through a door into a chamber with no door whence we had come. We were trapped within some diabolical dungeon!

A single torch illuminated the room; picked up, it shed no heat, and seemed some kind of 'light' spell. Through the singular exit to the north, we found a corridor that forked, NW and NE, and I with the torch in hand spied a chest on a pillar where the point of the walls should have been. It proved not trapped, and contained but a single a cloudy potion.

To the left (NW) we found a room filled with thorns (like giant acacia thorns); turning back, to the NE we found a room with a high pillar in its center, and a door to the west that led back to the thorn room. The pillar was studded with gemstones, of which we pried out four of the most valuable (under Dudegrin's appraising dwarven eye). The pillar had bridges leading out from its top, but we didn't feel up for a free climb, so we went back to the thorn room and managed to make our way through without any trouble (my plate armor saved me here).

Beyond that, to the north, lay a room I don't know how to describe. It was large and basically empty, filled with the sound of grinding stone, and apparently containing a series of moving stone platforms (I had given the torch to Frigga at this point, and she reported the nature of the otherwise invisible stone platforms).

At this point, Frigga the witch asked if we had
been somehow teleported into Super Mario World,
beating me to that very question

There was a secret door to the west that we opened, inside of which was a room with bones and a single nice dagger. Magic Meryl entered and was immediately oozed with some kind of blue suffocating ooze; but due to the skill with my sword, Frigga's demon-wolf-thing Fenris, and the heroic strengths of Meryl and Hildi, we managed to save Meryl from second certain doom, and destroy the ooze. Frigga nabbed the dagger from the wall.

Back into the vast strange hall, Hildi managed to find a secret door that led (east?) to a platform that connected with the pillar and its bridges. An initial examination of a room on the other side of the pillar's bridge found it empty, but when Dudegrin inadvertently shut the door, reality subtly shifted, and we found a safe in the middle of the room.

It was Dudegrin's safe! Usually kept in his office. And when he turned the locks and shot the bolt back, he opened it onto a kind of portal back into his office, through his safe. Through this odd portal we piled, face first onto the floor, and each of us received our 300 gp reward for delivering Dudegring safely back to the barracks.

After that, Dudegrin handed out onyx stones which are a kind of magical gate-way back to Kalaetha whenever we wish to return--and then we vanished, each of us back to where we had been before we left (or so I presume--I returned to my rooms in the inn at Merripond, whence I had intended to return to Vymrrys to search for some Corvus Isn).

I shall keep you apprised of other such adventures, Xanthos, my friend. I hope that you find them edifying; and I hope too, ultimately to spread the Chaos of the Black Dragon to realms beyond ours.

Your comrade-in-arms,
Laurantha Akala"

EDIT: I originally misspelled the city's name as Calaitha (getting it only aurally), but the correct spelling is Kalaetha. If I missed any instances, Calaitha=Kalaetha

Turtle Philosophers

Morla, alas, came to the ultimate conclusion that
nihilism is the only true philosophy

(thanks to Arnold K. at Goblin Punch with his Tortoise Tsardoms for some inspiration here)

Turtles can live for quite a long time (or more particularly tortoises, I suppose, but whatever), and the longest lived can survive for many centuries, especially those in fey or magical environments. Those that live for such a time have a penchant for long, deep thinking, and ancient memories, and put together can become philosophers of the highest order.

No particular turtle species necessarily produces such philosophers--ancient snapping turtles in the swamps, thousand-year-old tortoises on a desert island, sea turtles grown so old and large that they resemble islands, perhaps even dragon turtles! can all become philosophers--but those grown from the lesser species of turtle have the following stats:

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Turtle Philosopher

HD 6
AC 2
THAC0 14 (for those who use it)
Attack 2-8
Morale 6 (they don't generally like violence)


Philosophize -- Turtle Philosophers obviously have a deep and abstruse understanding of the world and of philosophy, and to make their particular systems of thought even more esoteric, they often inherit or invent recondite terminologies for the various phenomena of philosophy (from long-remembered conversations with errant magic-users and Elves, perhaps). By making a great speech of these arcane understandings, a Turtle Philosopher may choose to confuse, put to sleep, or even charm characters (according to the rules for those spells, confuse, sleep, or charm person).

This ability may be used 3/day, OR without limit so long as the referee continues to spout semi-coherent philosophical arguments, explanations, or minutiae. Characters save against petrification (of thought--so a wisdom or will save for later systems), and must save at -2 if the referee manages to scrounge up something of an actual philosophical oration. But IF a player/character responds by actually engaging with the diatribe, perhaps nitpicking terms or drawing out implications, that character saves automatically, and grants a +2 on his or her comrades' saves.


Sagacity -- Furthermore, if some kind of a rapport can be developed with a Turtle Philosopher (what do they want?--new philosophies to ponder, answers to old philosophical problems, maybe something so mundane as the banishment of a nasty old troll from the local swamp-neighborhood), the Philosopher can act as a kind of sage for the player/characters. That means that for 1-6 questions per favor granted it, the Philosopher can deeply ponder and delve into memories, and produce a reasonable sagacious answer for each within 1-4 weeks. This includes identifying magic items, another thing sages do in my game.

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Alas for some of the swamps inhabited by such a creature, the turtle becomes a Turtle Philosopher-King, obsessed with its own vision of an ideal society, which it attempts to foist onto its fellow citizens of the swamp (or desert island, or what have you). The Philosopher might also have a strange obsession with universal ur-shapes, geometry, or mathematics.

You all know how it ends when Yertle envisions
himself as the philosopher-king of his swamp ...

Turtle Philosopher-Kings have the same stats as their merely philosophizing kin, but they invariably attract some kind of following:

1) a School of 2-12 would-be Turtle Philosophers who are all HD 3, cannot yet spout philosophy, and who follow their Philosopher-King's commands absolutely

2) a Republic, somewhat along the lines laid out by the Philosopher-King, with 1-6 would-be Turtle Philosophers (as above), 4-16 lizardmen or bullywug Guardians, 2-12 Craftsmen, possibly forest gnomes, and 5-30 slaves, likely goblins, gripplis, etc.

3) a Cult of 5-30 lizardmen or bullywugs who worship the Philosopher-King as a reptile god and who offer semi-regular tribute

4) a Circle of 20-200 myconids whose "King" has found a deep rapport and companionship with the Turtle Philosopher-King

5) a Dragon (or Dragon Turtle) who has taken the Philosopher-King on as a kind of "court philosopher" in its lair, and to entertain its own ancient memory

6) an Imp who literally plays "Devil's Advocate" for the Philosopher-King's arguments; their cantankerous rapport is like two old men who regularly argue for argument's sake

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Regardless as to whether it is a mere Philosopher or Philosopher-King, Turtle Philosophers sometimes attract semi-regular petitioners as a kind of oracle--or as a sage, approached by individuals seeking knowledge. Such petitioners might include:

1) peasants come seeking some kind of oracle from the Turtle-Philosopher

2) a magic-user (or an apprentice of some greater wizard-lord) come asking for advice concerning a spell, a magic-item's formula, or a magical component

3) an adventuring party seeking sagacious advice, about a dungeon or a monster, say

4) a troupe of Elves come to pay respects to an old friend, swapping old in-jokes, treading out old gossip, and sharing new rumors

5) a congress of the local animals--baboons, or finches, or a school of trout--come to ask advice about some dispute in their own affairs

6) a cleric looking for old dirt on a rival cult

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Lastly, for the Greyhame Dungeoneers, there is an old legend that the Bronding kings and their naiad friends invited a Turtle-Philosopher to the waters above the Brokenbrand Falls to dwell there as a kind of court philosopher. The legends tell of a gem-and-gold-encrusted shell bequeathed by gracious sovereigns, and quibble about whether Brondr himself or one of his successors brought the dubiously named philosopher "Chelonius" to the falls.

Legends differ as to whether this particular Turtle-Philosopher preferred playing chess against the kings, or expounding on epistemology.