Summing It Up - B2 Session 4

The characters came out of session four in good order, but I am regretting a few things. So far the characters have a grand total of 2659 experience between combat, good tactics and treasure. 

In my campaigns, I generally only have silver and gold pieces. B2 assumes that all five coin types will be used which makes experience tabulation a nightmare. Annoying. 

Second, I gave the characters several hundred points of experience for good ideas and role play. The standout events were Solvo playing dead in the ogre's lair, the removal of the ogre's body to a fake campsite, the cleric praying for the ogre and the whole party using the secret door to ambush the orcs. 

In most of these cases, a single player or character came up with the idea and should have reaped the reward. The way I handle this under play conditions is to put a number on an index card and hand it to player. These points can be added to their experience immediately, unmodified by attribute bonuses OR if they wait to the end of the session, they can add in their experience modifier. This didn't happen because we've been playing outside with just the DM's Guide and Player's Handbook as a reference. 

This game isn't following my normal play style. The players are not really thinking about "leveling" or "experience" or gain more power. They are actively attempting to outsmart me by mere survival. I don't play to kill the characters, so I need to push the players into better stats because they don't care. Maybe they will after more success. 

I need to complete this campaign by October, as my son is going into the Air Force and won't be available to play. And I don't really want to play this one without him. 

Anyway, why don't you pick up either B2 Keep on the Borderlands or my character sheets on DriveThruRPG. 

Character Sheet for AD&D

Character Sheet for AD&D

B2 Session - Standout Play during Keep on the Borderlands

I ran the kids through one session of Keep on the Borderlands. For fun, I let them use AD&D characters. They have a Cleric, a Thief (halfing), a Paladin, a Ranger, a Fighter-Magic User-Cleric (half elven) and a Magic User (elven). Each character is 2nd level, except the F-MU-C who is 1st level. 

They were less than impressed with the Keep itself and as soon as they got directions to the Caves of Chaos they set off. They also learned some gossip about the area, but disregarded much of it. They picked out a campsite to the east of the Caves and explored for the first day. They spent a lot of time checking the area to the west of the Cave complex, but finally mapped out the four cave entrances on the lowest level. Areas D, E, G and A, in that order. Since they didn't try to enter any of these areas, nothing happened. The thief tried to listen at each cave mouth, but heard nothing. Of course, everyone else tried to listen but didn't get that close. 

Out of an abundance of laziness, once they completed the circuit of the area, they went back to Cave Entrance A. All six of them entered the cave behind the thief who was prodding around for traps. He spotted the pit just as the 8 kobolds outside spot the characters.   

Everyone but the thief made a mad dash for the eastern mouth of the ravine, but pulled up short under the large tree. The kobolds don't have missile weapons, so they pursued on foot. At the tree, the MU wanted to get a spell ready while everyone except the Cleric got out missile weapons. In the meantime, the thief sprinted for the entrance to cave E. 

One volley of arrows sent the kobolds back to their cave. The party wanted to regroup and rethink their plan but this was disrupted by a horrible scream and thud from Cave E. The ogre clobbered the thief, who had one hit point left and played dead. The ogre saw the rest of the party and charged. Several flights of arrows and a magic missile routed him back to his cave.

The characters loosed 4 flights of arrows in two rounds as per AD&D rules, most missed but doubling up missile attacks makes AD&D missiles more deadly than D&D.  Out of a hail of 12 arrows, only 5 hit along with the magic missile but they knocked the ogre's hp to just 4. Strangely, the cleric didn't pull out a missile weapon for second time and stood off to one side with her mace.

In those 2 round of activity, the thief picked himself up and hid just inside the entrance to the cave. Shockingly, he backstabbed the ogre for a one shot kill. 

Impressive. 

Now here is where things went sideways. They moved into Cave E to camp for the night. The cleric threw out the idea of waiting until dark to move the ogre's body to their campsite to the east. They lit a nice fire for him and lay him out like a sleeping adventurer. The cleric prayed for the ogre out of respect for a fallen foe. 

Back at the cave, the characters mounted 3 watches. They are not simply guarding, they were watching for someone or something to investigate the body and the fire. 

That's a really nice plan and we ended on this high note. The next session will be a rare series of nighttime encounters. 

Experience awards were meager because the players don't know they are sitting on a pile treasure. They think the bag is a lumpy bed. They knocked 2 kobolds down to 0 hit, but their friends dragged them inside. I'm gonna count those as kills along with ogre. 

I have to give credit where credit is due. The cleric's idea to dispose of the body plus use it as a lure for other monsters was great. That is worth at least 200 experience. The thief's idea to to play dead to set up a backstab was turning lemons into lemonade. 

On paper that is 533 experience points. I'll add another 77 to make it an even 600 divided by 6. 

Since they made Cave E their base camp they will be pleasantly surprised when they investigate further. I will award another round of experience the moment they discover the treasure. 

If you don't already have this module, check it out on DriveThruRPG. 

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands

If Airplanes Were Shooting Stars...

Yes... Yes... Paramore is more my thing than B.o.B. but damn, can Haelly Williams sing. 

"Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shootin' stars?
"I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now."

Yesterday, I did my Top Ten Post for 2022 which I enjoyed doing. But it was straight-up math that created the post. I was charmed that a couple of posts made it to the Top Ten, but that is your top ten, the top ten created by the readers. 

Today, I will do my Top Ten Posts. A post of wishes. 

10. The "Going off the Rails" series of posts. These five posts covered the several times when I goofed as a DM, much to the delight of my players. When I think of D&D campaigns, these examples come to mind first.  

9. "Unreview - The Gardens of Ynn". I'm not sure what The Gardens of Ynn is. A module, a campaign setting, a strange detour? I do know I love it. The preface mentions that it was written to break a serious case of writer's block. That is incredible because this is a page-turner of a title. Rather than attempting to review it myself, I linked to a bunch of great reviews of this classic book. 

8. "Another Assassin Post - The Swindle Pig". Obviously, I like Assassins as a player character. The Swindle Pig is a sketch of a fun character I use as an NPC. Very often, the players never learn his name or background. But he is one of my favorite background characters. 

7. "B2 Session - Standout Play during Keep on the Borderlands". I like playing games with my kids. They really enjoyed B2 and did a ton of creative and wacky things in their very first session of this classic module. To top everything off, we played outside, between a hot tub and a garden. It was very memorable. 

6. "Live Another Day Or Buy Mac A Drink". One of the most important pieces of tech that keeps this blog going is my 1999 iBook. It survived so much in the past 24 years. 

5. Back in the early 80s, a friend of mine wanted to get us all into Traveller. I enjoyed it a lot, but I actually suck at Traveller. Do you know what makes it so interesting to me? The character generation process. In 2021, I used Cepheus Light to create a Bad*ssed Scholar Character. I really love the name Cepheus Light. It is a nerdy as it is perfect. 

Besides one or two posts like the above, you won't find any information on Traveller. I suggest you check out SAFCOcast.com for some amazing content. 

4. I gave "Star Wars: Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook" only 4 stars. I know why I did that, but I really wanted this RPG to be 5 stars. It was the rule set that got me into 3.5 D&D. I really like the mechanics and setting. 

3. Now, is the time for me to plug my all-time favorite game Star Smuggler. This was one of those ingenious games that have a lot of replay value. I've dedicated hundreds of posts to it and for one brief moment, I might have made an actual improvement to Tom Maxwell's maps by flipping them. 'Tis stupid that I feel this way but I do. 

2. You Can't Buy That! is a post dedicated to several great games, including Star Smuggler, that are now print-and-play titles. Half of it is the games, but the other half is the amazing FANactics who keep these games alive. 

1. Finally, my personal favorite post - The Moldy Unicorn Review. This is a wonderful 6-page "book" by Nate Treme that really captures the wonder of gaming for me. Every time I look at it, I am taken back to my youth when I first discovered gaming. 

Here ends my favorites, my imaginary I wish top ten. Let me know what you think in the comments. 

I would also like to thank Griffin for pointing out a dead link in my last post. There is nothing more embarrassing than accidentally dead-linking something and he caught it for me. 

Seige - B2 Session

This map is very useful for something I put together in 2 minutes for our B2 Sessions. The Party controlled areas are in green, the Orcish side is still white like the original map and the areas that the party as seen are in orange.

The party rushed into area A, discovered the pit trap and retreated. 

It certainly helps me keep everything straight. 

Our heroes are completely under siege. The combined orc tribes have been hitting them non-stop since they took the B caves from them. 

Let's look at it from the orcish side. They have 27 male orcish warriors plus the two leaders. Some of the women have taken up arms to defend their home. I figured about half of them are available, which gives the orcs a total of 40 warriors and two leaders. 

Unfortunately, weight of numbers is not helping them "win", it's helping them not lose. 

Initially, they caught the party in a pincer move by attacking both entrances. The secret door is no longer a secret. The two times this was attempted, the party was caught in room 16 and were able to foil attack with tricks and traps near the secret door. 

From that point forward, the party left a deadfall trap in room 13, which made the orcs abandon it. The party used this area to launch a surprise attack on room 12. The orcs managed to dislodge them by attacking the mouth of the C cave. As a result, room 13 is now a no man's land,  heavily trapped with oil, pits and spikes. 

The orcs have also tried to lure the dogs out to kill them but failed. 

There have been a total of 10 attacks on the cave's mouth all of which have failed. The orcs have lost 12 warriors in all of the combined attacks. They keep losing with bad morale rolls more than actual deaths. The party is shooting them in the back, from hidden positions. They are saving those +1 arrows for the orcish leaders. Thankfully they are out of magic arrows. 

The goblins and kobolds are proven themselves to be useless to either side. The goblins utterly fail to be be helpful to the party, only attacking when the orcs rout. The kobolds are equally opportunistic, attacking the goblins once they walk by. 

The party owns the battlefield and can escape almost at anytime. They did make one miscalculation. The cleric whipped out a sling and now the orcs are busying themselves copying it. Missile fire has been the deciding factor in combat. The orc leaders have been bearing the brunt of the these attacks. 

As expected, the party has leveled up to third level, with the exception of Aleric who is stuck at first level due to his 3 classes. They have also discovered the importance of healing characters. 

This is an unusually campaign as the heroes are bent on using tactics over killing. This one session covered about 13 days. They are frustrating their opponents. However, they are slowly becoming aware of the fact that they may end up fighting 3 successive battles with the orcs, the goblins and maybe even the kobolds, all in one day. They know they can't win that war, so they are thinking of fleeing the Caves of Chaos entirely.

We will see next week. 

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.

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. 

Chaotic Cave Combats - B2 Session 5

The party almost bit off more than they could chew, but got really lucky. 

I should talk about the horse swapping and gossip first. 

The goblins have been raiding the kobolds, trying to bottle them up in their cave. During one raid, Solvo the thief and Lauren the ranger tailed the goblins and got a good look at the entrance to the kobold's lair. There were some injured kobolds and goblins, but no deaths. 

As Solvo and Lauren made their way back they were followed by a half dozen goblins and all of the kobold warriors. The rest of the party fired a couple of arrows at the kobolds which routed them. No deaths, but it caused a meeting between the goblin warband leader, Brekan and the party. The goblins find their new neighbors to be useful for the moment. That and the leader, Brekan was impressed by the gift of a puppy the party bestowed on him. 

Next, I have named the leaders of the orc tribes. The orcs in B are lead by Ostro and the orcs in cave C are lead by Vis. Ostro's orcs were soundly beaten by the party when they raided the goblin caves. Vis and Ostro met. Ostro wanted to see if the two tribes could reach an agreement to combine forces against the party and the goblins. Vis suggested that all of the women folk come to his cave and Ostro should drop dead. Ostro attempted to press the negotiation, with a punch but Vis was unimpressed and became more hostile.  

The party delivered some instant Karma on Vis. The party is confused about where the orcs are coming from and believe that all of them are in cave C, Vis's tribal home. They are completely wrong, they fought off Ostro's orcs in the goblin caves. They don't realize there is another cave B of to the east. (Vis is the western leader and Ostro is the eastern leader, just like the Goths.) 

Anyway, the heroes gathered up their wargear and mounted an offensive on Vis's cave. They even brought the dogs. However, nothing went smoothly. 

Solvo had the net trap fall on him, but the dogs surged over the top of it. The party was surprised by crossbow fire because I decided there was an orc with a crossbow in each main room due to the heightened alert status of the tribe. The dogs and a few arrows made short work of the orcish crossbow men. What the party didn't know was the dogs only attacked active combatants, and many of the orcs hid or froze at the sight of the dogs. When the party passed, they ran from entrance C to entrance B. 

Vis and Ostro heard the commotion and jointly pushed the party back. The party got pinned between the guard in area 16 and the orcish leaders coming through the secret door. As the party took down the guard behind them, the orcish leaders sensed that the battle was going poorly and retreated. Aleric, Solvo and Helvani nearly died pursing them in Ostro's cave system (B). 

The goblins and the kobolds noticed all of the mayhem and attacked the entrance to cave B. They were easily driven off because the whole thing devolved into a 4 way battle between two different groups of orcs, the kobolds and the goblins. Again, no deaths. In case you haven't noticed, I don't roll dice for stuff the party isn't a part of. 

The party now controls all of the areas in green. They have seen areas marked in orange. Brekan and the goblins are glad to help the party move further from their home. Brekan would really like to drive out the kobolds, but believes he needs more dogs and crossbows to do it. 

The kobolds also have plans. Kregg, their leader has put his tribe to work mining out a small exit from his room. It's really close to the Orcs in area B, but he doesn't care. He plans to hoof it if they get hit again. They will probably escape into the wilds and return when things die down. 

Vis and Ostro have barricaded the eastern most secret door. 

The party engaged in healing, as per their usually lack of care. They healed the dogs first leaving everyone except Belaphon pretty banged up. They almost paid for it when Solvo investigated room 13 and found the money and the centipedes. Aleric and Vandohl heard the ruckas and saved him. 

A little while later, Vis and Ostro peeked in on the heroes and decided not to press their luck against the dogs, Vandohl and Belaphon. Being fearsome orc leaders, they sent in the cannon fodder. Belaphon popped them with a light spell and Vandohl gave out a war whoop that sent them running before the dogs could get in on the act. Those damned dogs... The orcs don't know how many there are because they've only seen them one at a time. They believe there is a pack of them and not just two. 

During the party's second night in cave C, the orcs attempted a second attack via the secret door. The party expected this. They has made a rather nasty hedgehog trap of sharp sticks in that hallway and they wove a stick door for the entrance to the cave system. The dogs roam the area freely. The orcs got nailed with a magic missile for their trouble and retreated. 

I have a score card for the orcs. 

In area B, there were 22 male orcs and 8 of them died in the attack on the goblins last session. There are also 18 females and 9 children. In area C, there were 16 male orcs and 5 were killed in the fighting with the party. The remainder escaped to area B with all 8 female orcs and the 3 children. One more died in the attack on the second night. 

The orcs collectively have suffered 35% causalities, or more. If something doesn't change, the party will annihilate them. 

That change? Some of those non-combatant females now have swords. They are going down with out a fight. 

I'll be doling out experience for the party as soon as they catalog their new findings. I expect several to level up.

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. 

#RPGADAY2020 25. Lever

#Lever

Not sure where to go with lever, except to give a session update. My kids are playing B2 = Keep on the Borderlands with me. All three of my kids are of the age where they make adult choices for themselves.

This tendency is playing out in the game. They took down the ogre in area E, moved into his cave and started playing house. Other than fix up the cave and spy on the other residents, they didn't want to do anything else.  

The characters are aware of the orcs and kobolds, but haven't discovered that there are two orc lairs. They know about the goblins, but don't know where they are coming from. They can hear their voices from the east and sometimes see them out and about but don't know their cave is connected to the goblin's home. 

Time for a lever. 

I had the orcs from area B attack the goblins. The goblins were overwhelmed and ran to the secret door yelling: " BREE-YARK!" The party was surprised when the door opened and bag of gold was thrown at them. After a moment or two, the party found how to open the secret door and unloaded a bunch of arrows into the orc's backs. The orcs charged them, but the party hid using the secret door and water barrel. When the orcs ran down the long hall, the party hit them again. 

The party retreated back through the secret door, leaving the goblins mystified. They have no idea the party is there and believe the ogre got his hands on a bow. 

The orcs lost 8 of 12 attackers and are thinking of pack it in and joining the second orc group. The characters were able to track them back to Area B and are thinking of attacking them. However, they are a little nervous with the goblins so close at hand. 

That was a nice lever for inaction.