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. 

Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Begins game

I don't know why I like the easy entry tests for games. Today I found the Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Begins game on my shelf. Yeah, there is a lot on my shelf that I lose large games in full boxes from time to time. 

Adventure Begins takes the players on an adventure in the lands of Neverwinter.

It might be the tangibles that come with these sets that get me. The set includes:

• 4 mini-figures,
• 4 Boss tiles,
• 4 20-sided dice,
• 10-sided Dungeon Master die,
• damage clip,
• 4 health trackers,
• plastic deck holder,
• 20 character tiles,
• 4 dungeon boards,
• 24 gold,
• 4 adventure decks,
• item deck,
• 4 reference cards,
• 8 backpack cards,
• 12 gatekeeper cards,
• And the rules booklet.

This strikes me as being similar to the Invasion of Theed put out by WotC for Star Wars years ago. I will probably do a review in the next week or two. 

This was posted in 2020 with a link to a retailer. I removed the link and accidentally disabled the post at some point. I like this game and will be doing a review soon, so I restored it. 

Observations from The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 Sessions 2 and 3

B2 Keep on the Borderlands (A DriveThruRPG link to purchase the module) was published in 1979 and was often the first module players encountered. It was contemporaneous with B1 In Search of the Unknown from 1978. These two modules are teaching modules, designed to guide the DM and the players through the mechanics and world of Dungeons and Dragons. Both are stripped down to the bare bones of a setting, and they plug in nicely to any campaign setting. 

I find B2 to be superior to B1 because I encountered it first. That's it. It is the "Why do you think chocolate is better than strawberry?" argument. It has no answer and no end. So, here is where I drop it. If you like B1 better, that is your option. I won't even call it a choice or an opinion; you are just as right as I am. 

The great thing about these two modules is the license granted to DMs to change stuff up, to merge it with their world. 

In Sessions 2 and 3, I do just that. I gave the A-Team a ruin to operate out of. This drawing looks like an island. It is not what I was going for. 

I didn't have a good idea of what I wanted, and the sketch above is what I came up with. As the session progressed, I reworked it into this: 

It is ragged and rough. It leaves plenty of details for players to fill in, which fits with this module. 

I think DMs should always work out little maps for the party to use to make tactical choices. I don't think these maps should take much time or skill, and should rarely contain surprises. On the left side of these ruins, I imagined some sort of root cellar. I didn't add it. To the south is a collapsed cistern, also not drawn. 

Back to the actual sessions. In giving the party a ruin to sleep in, I provided them with cover, a +2 bump to armor class. It's not as good as actually wearing armor, but it does afford tactical advantages. And believably allows characters to shuck their armor to sleep. 

In Session 3, I allude to the fact that the A and B Teams operate completely differently. The A Team is a tactical unit, while Rety's Team is more strategic in thinking. Morale is more important to the Rety's team than fighting power. Lefty and Punch do some very dangerous things and are rewarded with discovery and praise, as does the rest of the party. Rety is the one holding this team together as a leader. 

The A Team is almost leaderless. They have a job, they do a job. 

I would like to take a moment to discuss a topic of great interest to me: Alignment. I like it, but it doesn't work without motivation. I think that murder-hobos happen because the player is acting with no real motivation. A lich in an impregnable fortress doesn't really have an alignment because nothing flows in or out. All NPCs and characters should have some motivation AND agency that interacts with their alignment. This makes interesting characters. 

Rety is chaotic to be sure. It's built into her nature. Rety robs from the party. She is a thief. However, she is not particularly evil. In AD&D, she would be Chaotic Good or Chaotic Neutral. Her motivation for stealing from the party was a series of slights, almost universal slights against all of the NPCs. She lashed out, and now she is probably done. Or not. We'll see.  

My choice to make Lefty and Punch Knights is based on this concept. Lefty, the former mercenary, experienced a near-death experience at the hands of the hermit. How does a mercenary become an honorable Knight? Especially when Lefty and Punch have no leige to follow? 

Well, that is where Rety's vs. the A Team's actions come into play. The A Team healed Lefty, but then forced him to stay in his would-be killer's home. That is a harsh cut. They expected the NPCs to do stuff after dealing with a near-death death. Once Rety's morale failed, so did his. Having no one to follow, Lefty followed Rety and dragged Punch with him. While Lefty was probably good and Punch was neutral, they both follow Rety.  

There is no description of liege in the OSE rules because they are so setting light. Even if there was, I would have let Lefty become a liege-less Knight anyway. A mercenary is not so different than a Knight, just the currency is different. Honor vs. coin. His Knighthood comes from an internal compass; he doesn't need a liege. Punch being neutral is simply hanging on to Lefty's compass as a good friend. 

I hope by now I have highlighted how players of differing styles can advance through the Caves of Chaos and how B2 can be an evolving moment in your gameplay. 

The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 - Session 3 Rety or Not

Yeah, I've been waiting to tell the joke in the title for a while. 

We are back with Keep on the Borderlands, session 3. If you click that link, you'll get the DriveThruRPG page to purchase the module. 

We left the A Team in the ruins of an old manor house, looking down on the valley. From their position, they're able to scope out what is happening down there. Thankfully, the B Team has shown up. 

The ruins.

I stat'd out the B-Team and made some changes. Rety is the thief, as mentioned before. Everyone else morphed into full-blown 1st and 2nd-level characters. I decided to make Lefty and Punch Knights since they have the weapons and armor for it. Thomas the Cleric is the only 2nd level character of the group. The barman Hender and his son Sonny are a Barbarian and an Assassin. They have integrated themselves with the drover family: Simon, Bela, and Liz. I made Simon a Druid, and the two young women are a Ranger and an Illusionist. 

I could be a Knight...
Or maybe not.

I used these classes so I could learn how they work in the OSE rules. I did hand myself a problem. By making family groups, I have disallowed myself Demi-Humans. I plan to avoid a TPK, so I don't see that changing unless I make some poor dice rolls.  

Rety is reasonably smart and savvy. The B Team lacks the staying power of the A Team, all being 1st level except the cleric. She has outfitted them for a long, slow slog in the Caves as opposed to the more tactical, fire-team-like behavior of the other group. Her team has horses. This fundamentally changes how they need to operate. 

Rety has split her forces. Simon, Bela, Liz, and Sonny are part of the support team, staying behind to care for the horses. Lefty, Punch, Hender, and Thomas are the adventuring group behind Rety. By doing this, the Barbarian is separated from two of the three magically powered characters. Thomas reasonably decided to give the "we are all on the same path" speech in the hopes that Hender would think of him as one of his tribe. At this point, Hender thinks "magic is as magic does" and finds Thomas to be ignorable until he acts. 

Camp is at the edge of the trees to the east of the valley. It cannot be seen from the ruins at the top of the valley, although people coming and going can be seen. Rety's stolen map shows the cave entrances and a small distance into each cave. She suspects it is not accurate. 

Punch and Lefty probe the valley floor, riding their horses along the northern edge. They encounter the kobolds in the trees near Cave A. I hate the wording of this encounter. There is a 2-in-6 chance they will come out of hiding and attack the party. Does that mean there is a 4-in-6 chance they remain in hiding, OR does that mean there is a chance they aren't there at all? I like the second option. Sometimes, the kobolds are simply not there. 

The kobolds threw rocks and garbage at Punch and Lefty. The Knights were assigned recon and kicked their horses away from the nasty bunch of kobolds. They ride south to escape along the hillside. On the way back, they note Cave E, which is not on the map. They also spot creatures inside Cave D, but they can't tell what they are. 

You never know what is in the shadows

Rety was excited about the discovery and had Punch and Lefty ride again, retracting their steps in the opposite direction. On this pass, Cave D appeared empty. They slowed near Cave E. They saw a hulking form in the back of the cave that convinced them to move faster. They wove their way through the trees around Cave G. An unwholesome smell spooked the horses, made worse by the appearance of several massive rats. They give their horses their heads, striking for the kobold caves again. 

Behind them, the striges' burst out of the cave in hot pursuit. 

The riders encountered a line of kobolds, scattering them. Although they don't know it, the Knights' ruckas brought the 8 kobold guards out of the cave, too. In turn, this brought the goblin guards and patrol out of Cave A. The Knights swung northward to escape the impeding melee, and the striges dove on the kobolds and goblins.

This is what the A Team spotted in the previous session from their perch at the top of the valley, but missed seeing Rety and the Knights due to the treecover. 

Rety was monitoring the Knights' progress from the end of the valley. She greeted them with excitement and praised their bravery all the way back to camp. Additionally, she treats everyone as if they had ridden to war with the Knights. Rety doesn't retire after a glorious dinner; she takes the first watch herself. A bunch of morale dice are thrown, and Rety wins the day. 

Thank you for sticking with me through this combat-free session. It is now time for the commercial. 

This particular image shows a list of songs, which you can find on YouTube Music. If you have an account, you can listen to the songs that make my brain go. This playlist is called "triphop by the light of the silver cords". I like to have a playlist to go along with my TTRPG games to set the mood. 

I'm not selling anything in this "commercial", it's just that it leads to YouTube Music.

9/11/25 update. 

I went on to refine the map of the ruins as a drawing. 

 

The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 - Session 2 How it Should have Been

Keep on the Borderlands is one of my favorites, you don't have it follow the link. If you click that link, you'll get the DriveThruRPG page to purchase the module. 

You can read session 0-1 here. There is also a post on observations and rationales for things here. The second post explains why I made many of the choices I did. 

For Session Two, we will follow the former hirelings, Rety, Punch, and Lefty at the Keep. They are flush with cash and ready to find adventure. Lety is in the drover's seat and knows what she wants. Punch and Lefty are all geared up and love their new equipment. They are the core of The B Team. 

Rety uses her drover skills to locate some horses. More importantly, she trades on her clan skills. She finds a family of drovers selling horses. She selects two older, but healthy draft horses for Lefty and Punch. She takes a headstrong pony for herself. That costs The B Team 150 gps. This premium cost nets them something extra. The seller was willing to tag along with his two daughters to care for the horses while the B Team adventures in the Caves of Chaos. They have their own ponies. 

This horse is 18 hands. Ponies are smaller.

Just an aside, a pony is a smaller horse. It is approximately 14 hands tall, which is suitable for riding but not for carrying burdens, such as treasure. Rety knows this and wants their speed and doesn't care about carrying capacity. That is what the draft horses are for. Draft horses are huge, suitable for a man in armor to ride, but they are unable and unwilling to let someone fight while riding. That's fine for Lefty and Punch; they don't know how to fight from horseback anyway. 

Rety is looking for something else: Security. She needs to hire a cleric or healer. Being world-savvy, she gravitates to the Loan Bank, looking for someone down on their luck. She skips over a bunch of gamblers, farmers, and other people seeking loans and targets a poor, down-on-his-luck travelling priest. Thomas of the Fen agrees to join the group for 25 gps a month, plus a share of the treasure. 

This has taken all of 48 hours, and the B Team is almost ready to leave. Throughout this shopping excursion, Rety keeps everyone well lubricated with beer. A chance happening allows the B Team to round out their party. The barman's son takes a shine to the drover's daughters, and it is decided that the barman and his son will join the party for 10 gps a month plus a share of treasure. 

B Team spends another 100 gps on supplies like boots, sacks for treasure, cloaks, rations, etc. 

All of this has taken the B Team about 4 days. They will set off for the Caves of Chaos on the morning of Day 5 since the encounter with the Hermit.

It's time to name names. B Team is made up of: 

Rety, Punch, Left, Thomas, and the Barman Hender. In order, they are a Thief, 2 fighters, a second-level Cleric, and another Fighter. Everyone but the Cleric is first level. 

Bela, Liz, Sonny (real name is Henderson), and Simon round out the party. They are the two drover girls, the son of Hender the barkeep, and the drover girl's father. 

A treed ridge-line, Mt. Prospect, NY

Back to the Original Scoobies, disaster in progress. 

Let's give them names: the Ranger is Pavel, Dunkin the Half-Elf, Dorian the Cleric, Slammer the Fighter,  Belaphon is the magic-user, and Solvo the Elf. I should have named them from the get-go. 

The A Team is not having fun. They are slogging through the forest ridge at a very slow pace. Worse, Rety took their map. As a reminder, the party thought a contour line on the map was a road. They know if they follow this line, they will get to the Caves of Chaos. Occasionally, the Ranger can sight the river or road below by climbing trees. Pavel won't let them get lost. 

The A Team ends up spending a full day on the forest ridge, unsure of how far away from the Caves they are. The next morning, they break into the clearing surrounding The Caves of the Unknown. Since they saw six deer, and the area is heart-shaped, they called it The Hart. The party breaks in two to search the perimeter of The Hart. Magic-User sacrifices one of their magic items for safety. Belaphon breaks the Eyes of the Eagle into two lenses so the groups can watch each other from afar. 

The search was cut short as they made it to the north-eastern side of The Hart, nearest the valley of the Caves. I decided to throw in a little detail, the foundation of some sort of small tower or manor house. On the western side of the ruins, they find a collapsed cistern. The ruins are a 20-foot square with two 40-foot squares to the north and south. The center section does have the remains of a low wall on the western side. The party guesses the ruins are hundreds of years old.

A cave mouth, Panama Rocks, NY.

It makes a nice camp. As the sun sets, the A Team is now 3 days out from the encounter with the Hermit. After this boring break, days 4 and 5 will involve some combat.

At around midnight on day 3, the party hears gongs and drums in the distance. This was a ceremony from cave K. They couldn't determine where the noise came from, and nothing much happened. Day 4 has the party searching the ruins and finding nothing. As the sun sets and the party settles down, they have their first encounter. 

Belaphon and Dunkin alert the party with a light spell. Giant bats or something are approaching the camp from the valley. The characters armed with bows take the four corners of the ruins, while Belaphon and Dorian take the center, with a huge pile of throwing rocks and sling stones. The 5 flying creatures scream in. 

The party has the initiative, and missiles fly. All but one arrow finds its mark, plus Dunkin scores a hit with his sling. Belaphon doesn't throw a rock due to the distance. Three creatures fall from the sky as the last two dive on Pavel. Pavel has no armor on, but receives +2 due to cover and another +2 for Dex. One of the creatures strikes for 3 points of damage, while the other wheels around for another attack next round. 

"Stirges!" shouts Pavel. The party has initiative again, but the Stirge has locked on Pavel and sucks away 3 more hp before anyone can act. Pavel kills it with his dagger. 

Three more arrows fly, but only one hits. The last stirge with one hit point left retreats over the trees. Pavel is down to 9 hp, so Dorian casts heal on him. Pavel regains 4 hp, bringing him to 13. I should have mentioned that the Belaphon was back to full health. 

About 30 minutes later, two more stirges appear wheeling in the distance. The party lights a huge bonfire about 50 feet in front of them. What the party doesn't know is that six stirges are circling, but they only see two at a time. Belaphon and Dorian do their best to study while the rest of the party stands guard. The stirges retreat at dawn. 

Slammer and Pavel attempt to track them, but lose sight of them as they enter the valley to the east. The party spends day 5 resting up while Solvo the elf brings back a deer for dinner. 

The evening proceeds the same way as the prior day, with the gongs and drums sounding at midnight, followed by the stirges buzzing but not attacking the party. Since the party was using bonfires, the B Team saw the light from the other end of the valley. It makes them very cautious, to the point of backing away and south of the valley. 

On day six, the party has used their ropes of climbing to descend into the valley and has located the entrances to K, I, and in the distance, they can make out entrances D and E. The party pushes into K, expecting the stirges. 

They are shocked to see 8 zombies shuffling towards them. No one is surprised, and the party has initiative. Dorian rolls well and turns 5 of the eight zombies. Arrows strike all three of the still advancing undead. The zombies have 2, 4, and 6 hp left as they melee the party. Pavel, Slammer, and Solvo are all hit. I decide that Belaphon can attack last and strike with his dagger, which does 2 points of damage. 

Here is the scorecard: the zombies have 2, 4, and 4 hp left. Pavel and Slammer have 12 and 19 hp, respectively. Solvo was hit for 2 hp damage, which was eaten up by his armor. 

The zombies attack last, so the party goes first again. Belaphon and Dorian miss. Slammer, Solvo, and Pavel make good rolls. Slammer splatters zombie brains everywhere. Dunkin rips down a second zombie with his sword. The last zombie misses, and in the next round, it goes down quickly. 

The fighting men sheath their weapons and move to recover their dropped bows and arrows while the Cleric and Magic User search bodies. Belaphon casts light on a rock to help in the search. The party examined zombies' amulets and meat cleaver-like weapons and believed them to be magical. 

A minute or two later, Belaphon hears something. He throws his rock, and it sails over the heads of 8 more zombies. Worse, it lights up room 53, where the 5 turned zombies are milling about. 

It will take the zombies two rounds to reach the party. Dorian attempts to turn them and is shocked to find it doesn't work at all, despite a very passable roll. The archers try a different tactic. They target just two of the zombies with arrows. All four arrows hit, and two zombies go down. 

In this round, the party backs up a bit as they target the zombies again. This slow retreat keeps the zombies out of reach for this round, too. Dorian makes a terrible turn roll again, and the 6 undead shamble on. Three arrows hit, but none of the zombies go down. 

Decision time. By backing up, the party can stay just out of reach of the zombies this round. In the next round, the zombies will be upon them. The party splits up, Dorian and Belaphon retreat to the entrance to look for anyone sneaking up on them, while everyone else readies their melee weapons and charges. Three zombies go down. The remaining three hit Dunkin and Solvo. 

Zombies: 4, 8, and 8 hp. Pavel has 12, Slammer is at 19, and Solvo has 6 hp. 

Belophon and Dorian spot two different things: first, they see a pair of knights and several attendants at the mouth of the valley. This is the B Team. Lefty and Punch are misidentified as knights since they are wearing the plate armor they stole from the party. Second, they see the stirges circling high over the valley. They back up, hoping nothing saw them. 

Two more zombies are down while the third hits Slammer. Pavel has 12 hp, Slammer is at 15 hp, and Solvo has 6 hp. 

A halfling with a bow.

The stirges dive towards the cave entrance as the last zombie goes down. The party quickly moves to the hallway leading to room 53, the guardroom. Dorian warns the party that if they threaten the zombies, they will attack. Not having much of a choice, they stay in the hall and let fly with missiles. One zombie goes down to arrows and sling stones. A second is injured by a magic missile. In the next round, two more go down, and a third is injured. There are just two injured zombies left. It only takes a moment for the party to take the remaining two down. 

Belaphon grabs the rock that is shedding light and pockets it just in time. There is a flurry of wings as stirges go by and enter Room 52. Dorian quietly heals Solvo, restoring 5 hp. 

After about 20 minutes, stirges leave the cave complex. Another few minutes... the party advances to The Hall of Skeletons. From the doorway, they see the skeletons and decide not to venture into the room. They gather the zombie weapons and amulets and beat a retreat. As they climb back up the wall of the valley, they can see some sort of skirmish on the valley floor. There are two types of humanoids fighting each other while the stirges opportunistically attack both. There is no sign of the B Team. 

The party returns to the ruins to lick their wounds. They received 452 exp for the monsters, plus they have 16 amulets and 16 battle axes. I deem all of the battle axes are worth 272 gp, and the amulets are worth 400. That is 187 exp per character. I round to 200 each. So far, the A Team has earned 240 per character by session 2. They have surpassed the B Team's 216 experience points. 

Thanks for holding on for this very, very long post.