Observations from The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 All Sessions - Part 1

We are five sessions into this mess. The party has returned to the Keep after suffering several losses that were not evidenced in the last session. Run as two parties, they suffered the deaths of Duskin and Pavel, the 3 drover characters stepping away, and from session 5, Sonny and Hender were hurt badly. NPCs and characters run in a solo campaign can act in very meta ways. 

There is nothing meta about dying, but the 3 drover characters were offered a huge paycheck to take a supporting role. Simon and his daughters are very aware of how far 300 gps goes in life and realized it was much safer to stay in the background. Hender is Sonny's (Henderson) father. Having watched his son almost die, you know he is thinking about taking that secondary role, too. 

My rationale for taking these steps is to increase the types of characters while reducing the amount of paperwork to keep this project going. 

Back to looking at this series, I am assuming that you play the way I do. My campaigns are very high magic. Magic is concerning, but not a source of terror. In some cases, magic is a consumer product. Rety wanted a bag of holding, so she bought one. The challenges she has in making the purchase are that the Keep is a wayward outpost with fewer resources than normal. This might be the normal state of affairs in your campaign, but not having a magic shop is very weird for me. 

In playing through B2 Keep on the Borderlands, you may notice that the monsters come in either singletons or groups of 6-8. I think this harkens back to the Dungeons and Dragons connection to Chainmail. (That is a link to DTRPG for purchasing.) It is almost like Gary Gygax selected figurines and assembled them in unit-sized groups and stat'd them up. You'll notice that the party is 6-9 player characters of levels 1-3, against groups of monsters in 4, 6, and 8. Those are tiny units, but units nonetheless. And they are almost on part with each other. 

This messes with time and space. In session 3, I mentioned how small the valley floor is when tripling movement and ranges. I know that this was done for artistic reasons; the scale indoors was imparted to the scale outdoors, so one did not have a giant map of empty, uninteresting exterior space. It works, until it doesn't. 

A round is 10 seconds. An unencumbered player normally moves 40' a round or 120' at a sprint. That is 4 feet or 12 feet a second indoors. Outdoors, that cranks up to 12 feet or 36 feet a second. Whew!  

People are fast, and monsters are faster. Here is a clip of a football player going endzone to endzone. The clip is a little longer than 10 seconds for clarity. This guy is dodging tackles and perhaps not running flat out the whole time.  

 

Because people are so fast, as a general rule, combat is abstract. The 6 points of damage a character or monster probably isn't a single hit. Here is a 10-second clip of a fat, old ninja swinging nunchucks. 

While I only make one slashing attack transition towards the end, notice how slow I am moving and how unfocused my eyes are. I am not even trying. This is also a very confined space; my feet are rooted, and I couldn't extend my arms. It's kind of like being in a dungeon. But it is still quick. Any one of those spins could have been a slash. Imagine how fast a fencer would move and how lethal a sword point is vs. a slap from a nunchuck.  

(This is an unedited video; you should see the outtake where I hit a pipe and made the house ring.) 

In light of these observations and many more, characters and monsters can get in and out of combat or trouble quickly. By the rules, characters are limited to a fighting retreat at no penalty or worse, giving up attacks to run for it. The first doesn't allow a character to exit combat if his or her attacker presses the attack. The second is an invitation to get hit in the back. As a DM, I choose a sort of middle ground where someone can do a fighting retreat as per the rules, or choose to forgo an attack to disengage, and of course, the disastrous spin and run. Disengagement requires A) space to move back a good distance and B) remain facing your opponent. Being faster than an enemy is good enough. Having someone available to tag in or threaten a flank or rear is best. And players intuitively handle these scenarios very well when asked.  

You see this a couple of times in session 3. When Belaphon outruns the owlbear with Pavel chasing both; again, when the chase swaps Belaphon and Pavel; and finally, when Slammer tries to pull Pavel's body away while the Knights cover him. Monsters under threat aren't going to ignore an obvious threat, giving PC's extra time to do extra things. Slammer's attempt to pull a body from a creature isn't wise, but it makes sense. He traded an attack for a grab, but failed. 

In sessions 3 and 5, the characters experience blocking. Many of the missile-armed characters find themselves behind their friends engaged in melee. They can't shoot. Oddly, Belaphon does shoot. It is one of the joys of Magic Missile - you can't miss. Rety, the Clerics, or Sonny could have tried to shoot into melee, but friendly fire sucks.  

Being blocked is a give-and-take. You can't be hit, but you also can't hit back. 

I've forshadowed events in session 6, given my rationale for certain events, and explained how I use certain rules. There will be a part two where I get into alignment and motivation, plus hit points.

The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 - Session 5 Beak, Bone and Stone

Welcome back to The Keep on the Borderlands. There is your link to DrivethruRPG. I hope you click through and purchase this classic module. 

Camp

The party left the Keep at dawn to arrive in the Valley early. As Rety promised, Simon, his daughters, and their guard detail are left to set up camp near the road. The party was armed for a war, with all of the fighting men wielding spears, in addition to their regular weapons. They march west into the valley. 

A quick look around surprised everyone. The kobolds' trees were gone, their cave entrance clogged with branches. Several mean-looking giant rats were sunning themselves. Mud was churned up in front of D and F caves. Scattered bones surrounded a fire pit in the middle of the valley. 

"The goblins," muttered Punch. He is assuming the folks in Cave F were also goblins. 

As much as she wanted the owlbear's beak, Rety decided to enter Cave D to secure a flank. The party was organized into 3 groups: Rety, Sonny, and Belphon took the lead to scout; Slammer, Punch, Lefty, and Solvo, with spears ready, brought up the rear, with Dorian, Hender, and Thomas guarding the cave entrance. They move quietly with no lights. 

I have marked these teams as R, L, and T, for Rety, Lefty, and Thomas.  

I used OSR Solo to determine that the party saw no one in the east and west rooms. They saw candlelight from both rooms, and they heard voices to the east. Rety motion for Lefty's team to move eastward, while her group moved west. 

Yeah, I made this hard on myself. Lefty's team is moving to the right, and Rety's team moves left.  

As each team creeps down the hall, all hell breaks loose. Rety spotted two goblins running away. Lefty's team was confronted with 5 of 6 goblins advancing with spears leveled. By previous arrangement, the clerics and barbarians lit torches but held their position. 

Ladies first, round 1. Rety and Sonny loose arrows, one per goblin. One was killed instantly, while the other struggled on, dragging a bag. 

The fighting men and the goblins struck simultaneously, like miniature phalanxes colliding. Four goblins go down, while Solvo and Slammer were hit for 1 and 3 hp damage. 

Next round. 4 goblins sprang from the western room. Arrow flew, and a goblin fell. The attempt to close the gap, but they won't arrive until the next round, as they are moving in formation. Solvo and the goblin exchanged blows, and the last goblin went down. The four men turn to help Rety's team. 

Punch and Lefty wear armor

Round 3, chaos ensues. The party won initiative. Rety, Sonny, and Belaphon manage to slide through the fighting men's formation, and the four men met the goblin's spears. A goblin was killed. Punch took a slash to the face. Belaphon was struck from behind by the last eastern goblin's spear. 

Round 4. The eastern goblin ran back to the room for another spear while Rety and Sonny stalked after it. Two more goblins were killed, and Slammer took a good hit. Arrows clatter against walls as the archers miss. The clerics and barbarians move down the tunnel, torches lighting up the area. 

Round 5. The phalanx took empty room 18. Lety and Sonny killed the last eastern goblin with arrows. Combat ends because the party swapped sides. No one in room 18 knew the last goblin escaped through the secret door. 

This provoked an "Oh, shit!" moment for the ogre and goblin. The goblin wasn't supposed to enter the orge's cave, and it killed him. The ogre's "Oh, shit!" moment was when the bag of gold hit the ground. He took a moment to decide what to do with the body. 

In the meantime, the whole party met up in room 17. While the party searches the room, the Clerics attend to Belaphon and Solvo, who were the most injured. 

Combat sequence 2. No was surprised, but the ogre wins initiative. This beast has AC 4, HD 4+1 for 25 hp, and does 1d10+2. This is above average for an OSE ogre. I decide the rule of funny is in effect. The ogre makes two missile attacks; the bag of gold and the body of the goblin become projectiles. Punch was stuck by the gold, and Lefty by the body for 5 and 3 hp damage. 

Lefty struck for 2 points of damage while Punch missed. A magic missile hit for 4 points of damage. Sonny, Solvo, Hender, and Slammer melee. Hender and Solvo did 10 points of damage. Rety and Clerics can't strike due to the wild melee.   

Round 2, combat is simultaneous, except for Belaphon, who unleashed another magic missile for 6 hp first. The ogre was down to 3 hp. It pounded Sonny to the ground, while the ogre was cut down. Punch and Lefty get back up. All of the noise brought the roving band of goblins to the party. They came from the western doorway. 

Round 3 was again simultaneous. The Clerics snatch up Sonny and pour a healing potion down his throat, restoring him 2 hp. Six goblins exchange blows with Solvo, Slammer, Hender, Punch, Rety, and Lefty. Two goblins were felled, Hender was knocked down to 5 hp, and Sonny was KO'ed. 

Rety's prize

Rounds 4 and 5 were the party's time to shine. Thomas grabbed Sonny while the party attacked. In round 4, all but one goblin were killed. It did not survive round 5. There was a flurry of flight as the chieftain led his remaining people out of the cave mouth and up to the hobgoblin caves, taking all the treasure they could carry. Everything not in the rooms the players entered was taken. 

The party divides again. The Hender runs off to the camp for the drover cart. It will be needed. Rety and Belaphon gather up Rety's owlbear beak and bones. She offers a salute to the goblin and hobgoblins watching her. The rest of the party found the ogre's treasure. In the mouth of cave D, the treasure piles up. 

Ogre

Sonny was loaded in the cart before all the other treasures. The drovers declined to help, as it was beyond their contract, but they sent one of the crossbowmen to help. Quietly and grusomely, Rety claimed the orge's teeth. 

Back at camp, Rety wisely declares victory and prepares the team to move back to the Keep. She explains that healing would be faster in a warm bed. The drovers were somewhat put out, as they had set the camp for a week. Rety pays them an additional 10 gp each, including the crossbowmen. The drovers let Rety and the crossbowmen do most of the work. 

Rety humbly works her butt off to get everyone out of camp and back on the road to the Keep. The players earn 1500 exp from this adventure. I need to total up Experience because I think a couple of characters may be leveling up.  

One more link. The image I have labeled as Ogre is a Cyclops drawn by Jeremy Hart. He has a massive collection of paper minis and Stock Art on DrivethruRPG, all reasonably priced. I have a ton of them. 

Review - The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Tradition

Title: The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Tradition
Publisher: The Other Side Publishing
Author: Timothy S. Brannan
Year: 2019
Pages: 65 pages
Rating: 5 of 5 stars

UPDATE - It is getting a little cool outside, so let's refresh a cool product review. This was originally posted Saturday, April 17, 2021. When I originally wrote this, I don't think there was a POD option. 

This book is designed for Labyrinth Lord as part of the Back to Basic series. Originally, it started as a joke on everything Pumpkin spice-themed. It roughly follows the form of the other books in the series, except for some level limits for non-human characters. 

This is my favorite of the series. While not entirely tongue-in-cheek, it's a fun read. It comes across as the film A Knight's Tale. Popular culture is mixed up and presented in a timeless way. The idea of harvest, fall, and Halloween is in this product's DNA, but in a way that would not detract from a series of Dungeons and Dragons experiences. Yes, there are jokey bits, but they are well thought out, so they don't break the theme of D&D. If you like Angel or Buffy, these details will be right up your alley. 

This particular set calls out Labyrinth Lord, but readers will find that it is a nice addition to any basic era game, such as BlueHolme or the Red box set. (Personally, I use BX or OSE, but that is your whole chocolate vs. strawberry argument) With a little adaptation, this book could be plugged into a great many rule sets like AD&D. The author specifically mentions a desire for this title to be cross-compatible, but also noted they didn't make that the focus of this work. I suspect that Mr. Brannan wanted this book to cover a far wider range of game systems than I am familiar with using. Even if it doesn't go there, it's still a rock-solid offering. 

Usually, when I do a review, I mention the artwork. This product is loaded with art. I didn't count, but it seems like every other page or every third has something. In this book, most of the artwork is a quarter page and inline with the text, rather than being placed in the centerline like 3.5 books. Again, like the subject matter in the book, the artwork has a gothic summer-turned-autumn feel. 

Somehow, this version of the witch character class feels old, but not too old. It invokes a pleasant feeling of Deja Vu of my college days, when game night also featured a movie or TV before or after. That feeling of people just out to get together and have fun. 

Reviewer's note: The date is taken from the forward; this could be the most recent update rather than the original publication date. If that is the case, my apologies, but then that also means the author is providing an excellent experience by routinely updating his works. 

The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 - Session 4.5 Intermission

I didn't have a picture of
a gravestone,
so please pretend.

In the last session, the party lost two characters: Duskin the Elf and Pavel the Ranger, but also reunited both teams. 

This presents Rety and the gang with some problems. They took the bodies back to Rety's camp on the concept that Thomas the Cleric could do something. Sadly, he could not. 

This left Rety in a lurch. Her objection to the A Team's handling of injured people was the cause of the NPCs abandoning the party. Now that she has to deal with those people, she is obligated to treat them better. That and cover the theft of many items. 

She elects to go back to Keep, to ensure the Elf and Ranger receive proper burials. The B-Team forms a proper escort back to the Keep. Rety does not make any promises beyond a burial to her former employers so as not to disappoint. She pays for rooms at the inn, too. 

By mid-morning, they are on their way, smoke filling the valley behind them.

Let me tell you a bit of backstory on the name Rety. I encountered this name in a David Brin book called Brightness Reef. I've always liked this name despite the character being slightly unlikable at the start. She was a young Sooner woman, a tribe of people falling down the societial path. Her tribe is brutish and barbaric, but she knows there is a better way out there, some place in the 5 galaxies. 

She never really escapes her rustic roots, but becomes a force to be reckoned with. I like that sort of character and stole her. As a D&D character, she should properly be a Barbarian, but I made her a Thief due to the circumstances. 

Here is my link to DriveThruRPG for Keep on the Borderlands. I might be trying too hard. If you don't have this by now, you never will. 

Anyway, back to the Keep. 

Being a bit of a rustic sort, Rety had no problem accosting the Curate and demanded magic and rituals for the dead. She was very humble and honest, offering service, allegiance, and even money to care for the dead. While completely overboard, the Curate found it charming in a weird way. This also reinforces Lefty and Punch's loyalty to her as she has shown respect to a higher power. It also makes the rest of the A Team more amenable to her. That and she paid for proper rooms for all of them at the inn, plus food and drink to honor the fallen.  

She paid for the burials. She made an offering and hinted that Punch and Lefty should consider service to the Curate's congregation. She assisted the A Team with contacts to help them sell their treasures. 

There was a welcome but startling discovery as the party dispensed with their loot. The Curate's followers recognize the amulets as a hazard. They will pay for the privilege of destroying these evil devices. The Curate's men advise that not only do they make it hard to turn undead wearing them, but should a cleric hold or possess an amulet, the holder loses their ability to turn undead. This explains why Dorian couldn't turn undead at the end of Session 2 and why he received a couple of rolls when he should not have. This also makes the amulets slightly cursed.

Rety tries to purchase some magic items. This is not entirely accounted for in the module. I used OSR Solo to generate some answers to Rety's desire. 

First, she wants a bag of holding. The other characters are unwilling to sell theirs, so she approaches the Curate and the loan bank. The Curate has access to one, but the price is too much. The loan bank has one but will only trade for the beak of an owlbear. Hmm. That was a bust for now. 

Rety knows the potions of healing saved the party, so she repeats the process for more potions. The Curate will not provide healing to anyone outside of his congregation, so that is not an option. Rety rolls a 6 when dealing with the loan bank. They will sell her 4 for 100 gps each. He does this because he really wants that owlbear beak. Rety has essentially doubled down on this objective. 

Despite making all the right moves, Rety gained 4 followers but lost 3. She proposed selling off the horses to adventure in the Caves. The remains of the A Team liked this idea and threw in with her. But Bela, Liz, and Simon are lifelong drovers; they hate this idea and said so. Rety was understanding and paid them to stay at the Keep, venturing out on Sundays to resupply the party. The drover family agreed to this as Rety gave them 300 gps to support the party's interest in town. One-third was salary, the next 100 was for supplies, and the last 100 was to hire an appropriate guard. This was way too much money to pass on, so the drovers agreed. 

Promises made, the party rested before heading back to the Valley of the Caves of Chaos. Rety learns of the gems in the cave of skeletons and wants them. However, she will need a good plan to secure their flanks and back before striking against the shrine. 

One of the nice things about this module is that you can make it a living place by implementing changes on the fly. I introduced the ruins, the fact that sometimes the kobolds, striges, and other monsters appear to operate together without seeming to conspire against the party unfairly. 

We need to head back to the Valley and the Caves of Chaos. 

The PCs left the body of an owlbear and a horse on display for all to see. It didn't take long for kobolds, goblins, and others to decide to butcher them. The kobolds are a thorn in everyone's side. The goblins chased them off. To add insult to injury, they cut down the kobolds' trees and burned them. This was the smoke the party saw on leaving. 

While the kobolds are the weakest creatures in the Caves, they are not helpless. To make up for their losses to the party, they adventured Cave G and herded the giant rats to their cave in the dead of night. Around the top of their cave, they dug warrens for the rats and camouflaged them. As a final step, the kobolds gathered broken branches for makeshift spears. They have no heads, but they fireharden the points. All of the kobolds will be armed from here on out. 

The Clerics in the Shrine suffered worse losses. They cannot replace their zombies, but they steal the kobold bodies for future animation. They send word of the losses to the Priest at the Keep. The priest networks and burns his platinum pieces in an attempt to hire 6 crossbowmen as reinforcing mercenaries for the shrine. 

I decided to use the book OSR Solo for this hiring task because the Priest needs to assure himself that the mercenaries are evil or at least amenable to his cause. OSR Solo provides a handy table for this sort of thing. With one die, you get results of "yes" and "no", "yes, but...", "yes and...", "no and...", and "complications". 

One crossbowman turns him down flat and is "disappeared". Two sign up right away, the third signs up but demands twice the money, a fourth accepts and brings his shieldbearer along. I also rolled two"complications". 

In this case, I decided to make the complication rather simple. The crossbowmen have a bad feeling and accept a competing offer... to guard Simon and his daughters. This handy book saved me a couple of die rolls.

I really like this tool. You can pick it up on DriveThruRPG. It is super short at 19 pages, but you don't read this sort of book. As an added bonus, the examples are from B2! 

Now, the Caves of Chaos are ready for the party to return. 

The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 - Session 4 Run Away to Reunion

Welcome to Episode 4, Run Away to Reunion. 

Here is your weekly link to DriveThruRPG's page for Keep on the Borderland. If you click this link, I may receive remuneration for this. While I am at it, the Keep was revisited for AD&D, Second Edition. 

Let's check in with the parties. Rety leads her two Knights to the eastern edge of the valley, so they can select a cave to explore. The A Team is at the top of the western side of the Valley. 

In the meantime, the A Team has spotted them from their hilltop vantage point and decided to go down and attempt a meeting with the Knights. Remember, the A Team has not recognized any of these people due to the distance. They have forgotten to use their Eyes of the Eagle. They used the Ropes of Climbing on the rougher portions of the climb and descended to an area just south of cave G.

During the descent, both teams sighted each other a few times, but once the A team reached the valley floor, there were too many trees in the way. Rety and the Knights hold their position. The A Team took a moment to get out their weapons before marching east. 

On the map below, the A Team starts in the green circle while Rety's B Team is in the purple circle. The map looks large, but when people are sprinting, it's very small. I've been calling this a valley, but it's not that big. 

Round One, the set up. Pavel the Ranger and Belaphon the Mage were wearing leather armor and robes, respectively. They both move at the same speed, 120' a round, while everyone else moves 90' due to their heavier chainmail. Belaphon heard something from cave G and moved to 2. M. Pavel moved to cover him. A shadow moved to the mouth of the cave, but everyone waited for whatever to emerge. 

Sorry about starting everyone at point 2. It was an oddity that everyone moved in round one but didn't move in round 2. 

Round 2, the excitement begins! An owlbear appeared from the mouth of the cave. If the Rule of Funny were in effect, instead of shrieking, the owlbear would parroted: "Run Away! Run Away!" The party gets ready to run as the owlbear looks over the menu. 

Round 3. The party won initiative and runs for it. In three different directions. The Ranger moved to 3. R, while the Magic User bolted to 3. M. Everyone else moved to 3. E. The Knights heard the shriek. They readied their spears and dropped their visors. The owlbear loped in a zig-zag course after the Magic User. Belaphon was just as fast as the owlbear and managed to stay just ahead of it. The others watched in horror as the owlbear raced after him. 

Round 4. As Belaphon approached cave A, the kobolds popped out of the trees. This causes the Knights to swing away from them. Belaphon uses the distraction to put a magic missile into the owlbear, reducing it to 26 hp. Pavel fired an arrow as the others caught up with him. The owlbear was struck for 6 more points of damage and turns on Pavel. 

Due to all of the running and lack of combat, I was playing fast and loose with allowing movement and shooting. All of this is technically feasible, but there should probably be an extra round inserted here. 

Round 5. The Owlbear swung in a circle, dodging through the trees and kobolds with Belaphon in hot pursuit. Pavel went down under a flurry of blows. He was down to 6 hp, even with his magic armor absorbing damage. The owlbear avoided the furious response from the rest of the party. 

In round 6, things go from bad to worse. Pavel is down with -2 hp. The party rallied to his defense. Slammer struck for 7 points of damage, while everyone else missed. Belaphon readied his last spell. 

This round, the owlbear won initiative. Pavel was killed by a bite to the head, while Dunkin the Half Elf and Solvo the Elf were struck for 5 hp each. The A Team saw Punch and Lefty explode from the trees, spears leveled and pulled back to make room for their attack run. The Knights did a total of 12 points of damage, while the magic missile did 3 points. The owlbear has just 5 hp left. Slammer attempted to pull Pavel's body away and failed. 

Round 8, the party manages to win initiative. Lefty and Punch need to wheel around and come back. Slammer and Dunkin finish the beast off. Rety finally reached the battle, too late to help. 

But not too late to take charge. She decided they needed to move Pavel's body to a horse and bring him back to camp. She wanted a second opinion* from her Cleric. 

*As an aside, Rety is expressing hopes and a little superiority, instead of actually knowing something special. A second Cleric isn't going to do any better. I allow for this all the time with NPCs and player characters. No one can be 100% sure of anything in a fantasy setting. It also keeps your options open as DM. 

As the party attended to Pavel's body, the kobolds returned in force. The 8 from the trees and the 6 from the guardroom ambushed the party. It was a brutal fight with lots of targets. 

I won't run through another chaotic battle, but the party switched to missile weapons as the Knights slashed through the enemy forces. Only 3 kobolds survived to run away. 

Horse-mounted knights plus missile fire was deadly. But not quick. Dorian, Dunkin, and Solvo went down along with Punch's horse. Belaphon used the party's healing potions, but it was too little to save Duskin. 

With heavy hearts, they retreated to Rety's camp.