Welcome back for some more Basic Fantasy RPG goodness!
Feel free to read through the earlier posts if you want to see how the party got to where they are!
Before we started the session in earnest we went through some of the rules. At the previous session we had rolled in the ability to dual wield weapons. However after discussion on the BFRPG forum I discovered I had misinterpreted the rules. After a discussion with the group we decided not to go for the whole hearted version as the rules described. Rather we decided to bring in a house rule. Dual wield will be classed as a skill that can be selected by the players (I need to think of a downside). The player who dual wields receives +0 to their main hand and -2 to their off hand. I recognise some may feel this is over powered. However I am a great believer in seeing how changes work then re-tweaking as necessary. So for the moment that is how the skill is working. [Update. At the end of the next session the player who was dual wielding decided it was not a good enough boost to warrant and so is swapping back to a mace and 1 attack.]
At the start of our latest session I took a hint from one of my friends, and an excellent GM (Steve), and got the players to recap what had happened during the previous session. This allowed me to see what they were taking in, how they perceived the session, and allowed me to look to tailor the sessions to better fit the players.
Once the recap was complete we jumped back into the dungeon.
The party moved cautiously down the corridor; at the end of the corridor they could just make out a faint waxy light. Using his Elven Slippers (that was a lucky random roll a few sessions back) the Thief crept up to the corner. Peering around he could make out the shadowy forms of two bandits standing either side of the entrance to a rope bridge; a lantern on the ground by their feet casting the waxy light. Creeping back silently to the party the Thief relayed the information. After a quick discussion the Mage crept forwards to the corner. Using Mage Hand he picked up the lantern and waved it in front of the bandits. Turning pale they made to run across the bridge; then suddenly remembering themselves, and the dodgy nature of the bridge, they grasped the rope guide rail and did a panicked power walk across the bridge while casting furtive glances over their shoulders.
Having cleared the way to the bridge entrance the party advanced to see how things stood. The Thief crept out to the middle of the bridge, taking things very steadily as the rotten planks creaked and groaned under his weight. Once halfway across he could make out 4 bandits. One of the original bandits who had power walked to safety was on the ground, being towered over by a burly bandit who had, from the looks of things, struck him on the nose.
The Thief crept cautiously back to the party and relayed what he had seen. Also remembering he had DarkVision and really didn't need to go on the bridge decided to take a shot with his bow. Notching an arrow he drew back, steadied his arm, and released. (Natural 1) The fletching had obviously become loose as the arrow buzzed loudly in the cavern and flew wildly off target. The bandits took this as a clear sign to retreat behind the cave walls out of sight, before calling out, "we only want the cleric... let us have him and the rest of you can go."
The party had another (see previous posts) discussion on whether Gilgan really ought to just be given up to make all their lives easier. However they decided there was definitely something "up" with Gilgan, and they wanted to know exactly what it was. Instead of handing him over they decided they would cross the bridge and clear these bandits out of the caves. The adventurers came up with the excellent idea of tying their rope around each of them. They did debate whether that included Gilgan, but in the end again decided they better try and keep him alive.
[So I had decided to cross the bridge I would make 3 d6 rolls per character. Any rolls of a 1 would not bode well for the player that roll happened to.]
The adventurers tied the rope around themselves so they were stuck into the following marching order:
Fighter
Cleric
Thief
Mage
Gilgan
Holding onto the guide rope with one hand, and their respective weapons with the other, they proceeded to edge out across the bridge. Edging their way across, the rotting planks creaked and groaned; with a sickening soft crunch the Mage disappeared from view, the rope pulling taught caught Gilgan by surprise and pulled him into the hole behind the Mage. The Fighter, Cleric, and Thief slid backwards towards the hole. Digging their heels in and grasping the rope they hauled, their combined strength hauling the Mage back up to the bridge. The party then dug in to pull Gilgan back up. However their plan was foiled by the Mages slippy feet as he slid straight back into the hole. Finding himself dangling above a chasm for the second time in as many minutes was leaving the Mage not in the best of moods! Digging in again the Fighter, Cleric, and Thief managed to pull the Mage up, then before he could fall in, also hoisted Gilgan to safety. It should be noted that while all this was going on there were 2 critical things occurring with NPCs.
Firstly Gilgan was quite enjoying the whole swinging sensation and was not put out in the slightest. Secondly the Bandits, having peeked round the corner and seeing what was happening, could be heard crying laughing from their position of safety. Watching the party they had concluded they posed no threat, and watching them try and cross the bridge was too much fun to interrupt.
As the party gained the far side of the bridge the bandits moved back out into the open blocking their passage.
Bandit 1: "All we want is the cleric ... you lot can go"
Party: "Why do you want him"
Bandit 1: "Our boss wants him. We went to his temple for healing and he made us all get naked. Said it was fer is God. Den wen we stripped e just laughed. Well boss wa'n't 'appy. So we need im"
The party (again) discussed whether they should just hand Gilgan over. The main points were that he was massively irritating, and really had brought this on himself, and the party could more than sympathise with the bandits. However, against their more mercenary feelings, they decided to help him. The Cleric lent in and whispered in Gilgans ear "Trust us".
Party: "Ok fair deal. You can have him."
The Bandits parted, 2 one side, and 2 the other. The party proceeded to walk between them. Just as they came level with the last bandit they span and attacked. The Cleric whirling his hammers, and the Cleric firing off Magic Missiles. The blue energy shot from the Mages fingers and struck the bandits; the first screamed in agony as his skin blistered and burnt under the magical energy; the second Magic Missile wrapped and warped around the bandit, its blue flame flickering and dying before it could do any lasting damage.
The bandit in charge was taken down by the angry Cleric. Swinging his hammers, he struck the bandit a solid blow into the gut, and as he doubled over the second hammer swung up into the bandits face and taking his jaw clean off.
A second bandit took several ringing blows from the Clerics hammers. The blows span him into a huge double handed swing from the Fighter: his sword taking the bandits head clean off.
Watching the pure butchery on their fellow bandits, the remaining two quicky dropped their weapons and surrendered. The Mage decided to strike one of the kneeling captives. Taking a swing, the Cleric pulled him back at the last second his swing going inches wide of the prisoner. Shaking off the Clerics hand the Mage swung again, this time his hand made contact sending the man sprawling to the ground; his temple connected with a rock cracking open his skull. Lying still blood seeped into the cavern floor. (He was on 1HP when the Mage hit him!)
While the party discussed what to do with the remaining prisoner (the Cleric holding back the Mage who was rather slap happy at this point), they noticed movement from the corner of their eyes. Turning to the centre of the room they watched as 5 troglodytes moved clear of the rocks. The party held firm, neither attacking, nor moving. One troglodyte moved to the front and pointed his spear at the kneeling man.
The party entered into a discussion on whether they really should give the bandit up, but in this instance erred on the side of "better him that us" and dragged the man to his feet, before giving him a shove towards the lead troglodyte. They watched in horror as they saw the troglodytes spear emerge from between the mans shoulder blades. Withdrawing his spear, the troglodytes moved off into the tunnels and disappeared.
At this point the party decided a rest was in order. The Mage had burnt out all his spells, and everyone had taken some beating in the fight.
What I am finding interesting, is that the more we play, the more the players are choosing their battles. Knowing when to run and when to fight is key to staying alive, and they are pulling it together really nicely. They are also getting into the spirit of their characters which is great to see.
The next sessions brings this first adventure to a close and prepares the players for being transported to the Midderlands... but more on that next time!
Showing posts with label osr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label osr. Show all posts
Thursday, 14 December 2017
Sunday, 19 November 2017
RPG, a nights play, in The Midderlands Setting
Last night I was fortunate enough to be invited to a Midderlands one off game, run by none other than Mr MonkeyBloodDesign, Glynn Seal.
For anyone who isn't aware, MonkeyBloodDesign ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to bring the world of The Midderlands to the world. The books are in from the printers, and once the custom pledges (special one off covers) are all sorted, they will be shipped. The Midderlands is compatible with the Swords and Wizardry rules, which makes it an easy convert to a huge array of OSR systems. Or you can just take the setting and ideas and maps and use those. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to write a brief introductory adventure that is included in the book, a disclaimer I should make sure is nice and early in this post!
If you read this, and would like more information, please contact MonkeyBloodDesign directly, just google for them, or search on g+ you will find them! My understanding is that once the Kickstarter backers have the book in their hands that there will be copies available to purchase (they come with an awesome map), but you would need to contact MonkeyBloodDesign for more information.
However this isn't a review, I will leave that to others. This is all about our game last night. So without further waffling; at the table we had:
GM: MonkeyBloodDesign - Glynn Seal
Horatio: A Human Magic User played by Lee
Jerry: A human thief played by Pete
Chopper: A human cleric played by Phil
Quinn: A dwarven fighter played by Scott
Kesh: A human ranger played by Dunc
Monkey: A human monk played by me
Before we started there were a few items we needed to cover. The GM gave us an overview of The Midderlands environment. Our cleric selected the God Mephistophael (P.19 in the book) for his deity (lets just say he isn't like on the "nice" side of things). It should be noted that the Gods in the Midderlands are apathetic towards the populace, so don't go expecting large deity interventions. We were all started as level 3 characters which had been pre-rolled. Finally for this adventure were were using the Swords and Wizardry complete rules.
As the sun set, the murky green day, darkened into a murkier greener evening. The party found themselves drinking in The Juicy Carp Inn, in the town of Tamewort. The party settled in to drink as much beer as they could, figuring this was as good a job as any other. Horatio made a bet with Jerry to see if he could steal beer from the bar. Jerry accepted and headed purposefully towards the bar. Kesh went to use the outside shitter and bumped into Donald Fairbairn who exclaimed, "Yowl not b'lieve tis, I foond a Centidemonpede in the shitter". Kesh agreed to meet him inside the inn for a game of Centidemonpede Racing .. a game that is as likely to get you dead as rich.
As Jerry returned to the Inn, bowels evacuated, a skull masked Gloombugger walked past the window. Gloombugs are used in lanterns in the Midderlands to light specific streets during the night. The party decided, after more beers were quaffed, that seeing how many gloombugs it would take (eaten) to make your piss luminescent, may be the way to pass the evening.
At this point Jerry reached the bar, ordered 6 beers, and as Boris the Barkeep's back was turned, put one under his cloak. Horatio yelled, "Yow theivin b'stard, ee swiped a beer" pointing at Jerry. Before Boris could really complain the door opened, allowing a little Midderfog to roll into the inn, followed by a rotund man with a tricorn hat and tarnished bell. His girth stretched his green coat to bursting, patches of shirt visible between the buttons.
Our arrival introduced himself to the inn at large as John Hitchcock, an employee of Lord Ebben, who wished to hire mercenaries to sort some trouble in the nearby countryside. Speaking to John revealed that cows and people had disappeared, and that a pack of dogs had been seen in the vicinity. Obviously the more worrying was the cows as they are worth a lot more when bartering! The barkeep asked John to make the party take the job just to make sure they wouldn't spend the following day in his establishment. John squeezed one fat hand inside his jacket … not something the party needed to see … and retrieved documents that could be turned in, with proof, to claim the bounty on the work. The job itself was worth 25 gold quids, 2 sheep, and a barrow of turnips. As everyone knows turnips don't grow on trees, so the party accepted.
The following day we departed the town, and following the directions provided by John, made our way slightly North East of the town (to Hex 3111 if you have the map/book). The day was green, damp, dark, and drizzly. Or was Midderlanders would probably describe it "Nowt tay bad".
Eventually after plodding through the damp morning we discovered a cave opening in the side of a mound. Although the entrance looked natural in origin, it had the look of being enlarged by some animal or other.
Being a bunch of suspicious buggers, we held back eyeing the cave entrance nervously. Eventually Kesh, who really wanted to tame "the dogs", approached the cave entrance with a rope lasso in hand. As they got closer the ranger could discern animal foot prints in the mud in the cave entrance. Given the size of the prints they drew their sword. Quinn, seeing Kesh draw their sword barrelled forward making a lot of huffing, puffing, jingling, and thudding noises. Kesh turned to make him be quiet, and they spent the next few minutes arguing over why Kesh had drawn their sword when there was no fight to be had!
Further inspection allowed Kesh to identify several sets of what looked like human heavily clad boot marks in the mud. The party decided this was either a sign that someone was in "cahoots" with the dogs, or another adventuring group had gone in, and not returned. There were also a variety of bones littered around; most of the bones were larger than human size so could well have come from cows, however they were all very definitely gnawed.
Only Quinn could really see in the cave, so he headed in first, followed by the rest of us, who as humans were a little poor with bad lighting. Jerry fortunately had a lamp, and after agreeing with the GM, angled it downwards providing light for the humans to see by, but not ruining Quinns dark vision.
Slowly edging into the cave system, Quinn quickly came to a junction, the tunnel branching off to the right, and continuing roughly straight on. Deciding to forge on into the depths of the system, Quinn headed straight on. We hadn't gone much further when a second branch presented itself. After a quick discussion we decided that heading back, and avoiding anyone coming up from behind, was the best course of action.
As we approached the original tunnel, that forked off, a ratdog (P.134 in the book; barrel chested, with horns where ears should be) charged out of the shadows directly at Kesh narrowly missing them with a headbutt. Spinning around the ratdog snapped at Chopper, just missing his leg, but tearing a huge gash in his trousers. Looking in indignation at the gash, Chopper swung round his mace and crushed the ratdogs head against the tunnel floor with one massive blow.
We debated how to prove they had killed the beast when back at town, and decided that taking back paws would suffice, so removed the deceased ratdog's paw.
Moving forwards carefully, the tunnel opened up into a large cavern. To the left was some form of bed the ratdog had made from scavenged bits of clothing, hair, and skin. At the back of the room was a large hole. Peering in we could just make out a faint dirty green luminescent glow, somewhere in its depths. Lowering the lantern on a rope still didn't let us see the bottom … that is a very very deep hole!
After finding nothing else of note in the room, we returned to the original corridor and the second junction. Taking the left fork, the tunnel opened up into a second large cavern, with three ratdogs staring straight at us.
Springing to the attack I let fly with two arrows, both spectacularly missing their intended targets. However Horatio wiggled his fingers and all three ratdogs fell to the ground asleep. The party quickly dispatched them, taking a paw off each as evidence. While heartlessly hacking off paws from the beasts three more ratdogs surprised us from behind. Seeming to come from no-where two ratdogs headbutted Jerry and me leaving us both prone on the floor. A third ratdog tried to bite Horatio, but missed flesh, as his billowy robes robbed it of a good solid bit of leg.
The ratdog standing over me bit my leg, infecting it with a nasty disease. Quinn managed to distract the ratdog attacking Jerry and dodged its snapping jaws as it tried to bite him. Horatio was not as lucky, as the ratdog, getting wise to his billowy robes, found a good bit of thigh and bit in, also leaving Horatio with a nasty disease ridden wound.
While his ratdog was distracted with Quinn, Jerry managed to land a good blow on its flank, before Quinn finished it off with a solid strike, leaving several parts of the animal no longer attached.
I struck a ratdog on a nerve bundle and rendered it stunned for 9 rounds, allowing Kesh to move in and finish it off with a deft thrust of their sword.
Chopper swung at the last ratdog, which despite trying to dodge at the last minute, was caught a glancing blow on its shoulder. Spun around from the glancing blow the ratdog leapt forwards biting my throat and leaving me twitching on the floor. While distracted with my jugular Jerry leapt forward and skewered the ratdog on his sword.
Taking in the bloody scene Chopper quickly stabilised me, and muttering words to his god, healed me back to 6HP.
While searching the room we found:
Onions (good for Rat Dog Broth)
9 Brass Tuppences
A hand sized Old Hob Idol carved on bone (Summarily crushed by Chopper)
2 Potions, after a quick sniff, and taste, Chopper declared them Potions of Health (Extra Healing 3d8+3 HP)
Scroll of mirror image
98 gold quids.
We discussed whether we should just cut our losses and run at this point, having found a small fortune in onions! However the adventuring spirit won out, and we returned to the unexplored corridor, which opened up into a cavern with 3 normal rat dogs and a double sized Alpha.
The ratdogs charged the intruders, however in their eagerness to rip them to shreds, the alpha slipped on faeces and bones temporarily losing its footing, however recovering it swiped one large paw, leaving great gashes along Quinns arm.
Up close we could see the Alphas horns were longer than normal and slightly twisted, they also seemed to be twitching and giving off a faint green glow.
Jerry darted in with his thief quick reflexes and skewered a ratdog killing it outright as his sword appeared out the other side of its ribs. Kesh followed up with smashing another ratdog killing it outright, and Quinn, outraged at the Alpha raking him with claws, hit him back, leaving a great cut against the alphas flank. I dove in and totally missed.
Unnoticed by the dogs Horatio stood at the back of the cavern, beads of sweat on his face as he concentrated, his lips moving silently as he repeated an incantation. Successfully casting Phantasmal Force, Horatio created a ratdog bigger and meaner looking than the Alpha. Diving forwards the remaining ratdog sank its teeth into me rendering me unconscious on the floor. As I kindly held the ratdog in place with my throat, Chopper swung his mace in a great arc and smashed the ratdog off my unconscious form, killing it. The Alpha now besieged on all sides, and quite nervous of the Phantom ratdog didn't notice Jerry sneaking around behind it, allowing him a successful backstab. The Phantom dog finally diving in and finishing off the alpha.
Muttering prayers to his God, Chopper healed me (again).
A search of the room revealed:
Armoured boot prints leading into a tunnel leading off from the back of the cavern.
93 gold quids.
A small green glowing stone containing a small gloombug, just visible inside the hard green gem.
We had to call it there due to already being close to midnight.
The game was fantastic fun. We spent a good hour in the inn at the start making general Midderlands comments and really enjoying the scene.
I look forward to more Midderlands adventures in the near future! If you don't have it winging its way to you soon I really would recommend buying a copy of the book, you even get a fantastic map which shows the Midderlands in all its glory.
For anyone who isn't aware, MonkeyBloodDesign ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to bring the world of The Midderlands to the world. The books are in from the printers, and once the custom pledges (special one off covers) are all sorted, they will be shipped. The Midderlands is compatible with the Swords and Wizardry rules, which makes it an easy convert to a huge array of OSR systems. Or you can just take the setting and ideas and maps and use those. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to write a brief introductory adventure that is included in the book, a disclaimer I should make sure is nice and early in this post!
If you read this, and would like more information, please contact MonkeyBloodDesign directly, just google for them, or search on g+ you will find them! My understanding is that once the Kickstarter backers have the book in their hands that there will be copies available to purchase (they come with an awesome map), but you would need to contact MonkeyBloodDesign for more information.
However this isn't a review, I will leave that to others. This is all about our game last night. So without further waffling; at the table we had:
GM: MonkeyBloodDesign - Glynn Seal
Horatio: A Human Magic User played by Lee
Jerry: A human thief played by Pete
Chopper: A human cleric played by Phil
Quinn: A dwarven fighter played by Scott
Kesh: A human ranger played by Dunc
Monkey: A human monk played by me
Before we started there were a few items we needed to cover. The GM gave us an overview of The Midderlands environment. Our cleric selected the God Mephistophael (P.19 in the book) for his deity (lets just say he isn't like on the "nice" side of things). It should be noted that the Gods in the Midderlands are apathetic towards the populace, so don't go expecting large deity interventions. We were all started as level 3 characters which had been pre-rolled. Finally for this adventure were were using the Swords and Wizardry complete rules.
As the sun set, the murky green day, darkened into a murkier greener evening. The party found themselves drinking in The Juicy Carp Inn, in the town of Tamewort. The party settled in to drink as much beer as they could, figuring this was as good a job as any other. Horatio made a bet with Jerry to see if he could steal beer from the bar. Jerry accepted and headed purposefully towards the bar. Kesh went to use the outside shitter and bumped into Donald Fairbairn who exclaimed, "Yowl not b'lieve tis, I foond a Centidemonpede in the shitter". Kesh agreed to meet him inside the inn for a game of Centidemonpede Racing .. a game that is as likely to get you dead as rich.
As Jerry returned to the Inn, bowels evacuated, a skull masked Gloombugger walked past the window. Gloombugs are used in lanterns in the Midderlands to light specific streets during the night. The party decided, after more beers were quaffed, that seeing how many gloombugs it would take (eaten) to make your piss luminescent, may be the way to pass the evening.
At this point Jerry reached the bar, ordered 6 beers, and as Boris the Barkeep's back was turned, put one under his cloak. Horatio yelled, "Yow theivin b'stard, ee swiped a beer" pointing at Jerry. Before Boris could really complain the door opened, allowing a little Midderfog to roll into the inn, followed by a rotund man with a tricorn hat and tarnished bell. His girth stretched his green coat to bursting, patches of shirt visible between the buttons.
Our arrival introduced himself to the inn at large as John Hitchcock, an employee of Lord Ebben, who wished to hire mercenaries to sort some trouble in the nearby countryside. Speaking to John revealed that cows and people had disappeared, and that a pack of dogs had been seen in the vicinity. Obviously the more worrying was the cows as they are worth a lot more when bartering! The barkeep asked John to make the party take the job just to make sure they wouldn't spend the following day in his establishment. John squeezed one fat hand inside his jacket … not something the party needed to see … and retrieved documents that could be turned in, with proof, to claim the bounty on the work. The job itself was worth 25 gold quids, 2 sheep, and a barrow of turnips. As everyone knows turnips don't grow on trees, so the party accepted.
The following day we departed the town, and following the directions provided by John, made our way slightly North East of the town (to Hex 3111 if you have the map/book). The day was green, damp, dark, and drizzly. Or was Midderlanders would probably describe it "Nowt tay bad".
Eventually after plodding through the damp morning we discovered a cave opening in the side of a mound. Although the entrance looked natural in origin, it had the look of being enlarged by some animal or other.
 |
| Game in progress ... just look at that map! |
Being a bunch of suspicious buggers, we held back eyeing the cave entrance nervously. Eventually Kesh, who really wanted to tame "the dogs", approached the cave entrance with a rope lasso in hand. As they got closer the ranger could discern animal foot prints in the mud in the cave entrance. Given the size of the prints they drew their sword. Quinn, seeing Kesh draw their sword barrelled forward making a lot of huffing, puffing, jingling, and thudding noises. Kesh turned to make him be quiet, and they spent the next few minutes arguing over why Kesh had drawn their sword when there was no fight to be had!
Further inspection allowed Kesh to identify several sets of what looked like human heavily clad boot marks in the mud. The party decided this was either a sign that someone was in "cahoots" with the dogs, or another adventuring group had gone in, and not returned. There were also a variety of bones littered around; most of the bones were larger than human size so could well have come from cows, however they were all very definitely gnawed.
Only Quinn could really see in the cave, so he headed in first, followed by the rest of us, who as humans were a little poor with bad lighting. Jerry fortunately had a lamp, and after agreeing with the GM, angled it downwards providing light for the humans to see by, but not ruining Quinns dark vision.
Slowly edging into the cave system, Quinn quickly came to a junction, the tunnel branching off to the right, and continuing roughly straight on. Deciding to forge on into the depths of the system, Quinn headed straight on. We hadn't gone much further when a second branch presented itself. After a quick discussion we decided that heading back, and avoiding anyone coming up from behind, was the best course of action.
As we approached the original tunnel, that forked off, a ratdog (P.134 in the book; barrel chested, with horns where ears should be) charged out of the shadows directly at Kesh narrowly missing them with a headbutt. Spinning around the ratdog snapped at Chopper, just missing his leg, but tearing a huge gash in his trousers. Looking in indignation at the gash, Chopper swung round his mace and crushed the ratdogs head against the tunnel floor with one massive blow.
We debated how to prove they had killed the beast when back at town, and decided that taking back paws would suffice, so removed the deceased ratdog's paw.
Moving forwards carefully, the tunnel opened up into a large cavern. To the left was some form of bed the ratdog had made from scavenged bits of clothing, hair, and skin. At the back of the room was a large hole. Peering in we could just make out a faint dirty green luminescent glow, somewhere in its depths. Lowering the lantern on a rope still didn't let us see the bottom … that is a very very deep hole!
After finding nothing else of note in the room, we returned to the original corridor and the second junction. Taking the left fork, the tunnel opened up into a second large cavern, with three ratdogs staring straight at us.
Springing to the attack I let fly with two arrows, both spectacularly missing their intended targets. However Horatio wiggled his fingers and all three ratdogs fell to the ground asleep. The party quickly dispatched them, taking a paw off each as evidence. While heartlessly hacking off paws from the beasts three more ratdogs surprised us from behind. Seeming to come from no-where two ratdogs headbutted Jerry and me leaving us both prone on the floor. A third ratdog tried to bite Horatio, but missed flesh, as his billowy robes robbed it of a good solid bit of leg.
The ratdog standing over me bit my leg, infecting it with a nasty disease. Quinn managed to distract the ratdog attacking Jerry and dodged its snapping jaws as it tried to bite him. Horatio was not as lucky, as the ratdog, getting wise to his billowy robes, found a good bit of thigh and bit in, also leaving Horatio with a nasty disease ridden wound.
While his ratdog was distracted with Quinn, Jerry managed to land a good blow on its flank, before Quinn finished it off with a solid strike, leaving several parts of the animal no longer attached.
I struck a ratdog on a nerve bundle and rendered it stunned for 9 rounds, allowing Kesh to move in and finish it off with a deft thrust of their sword.
Chopper swung at the last ratdog, which despite trying to dodge at the last minute, was caught a glancing blow on its shoulder. Spun around from the glancing blow the ratdog leapt forwards biting my throat and leaving me twitching on the floor. While distracted with my jugular Jerry leapt forward and skewered the ratdog on his sword.
Taking in the bloody scene Chopper quickly stabilised me, and muttering words to his god, healed me back to 6HP.
While searching the room we found:
Onions (good for Rat Dog Broth)
9 Brass Tuppences
A hand sized Old Hob Idol carved on bone (Summarily crushed by Chopper)
2 Potions, after a quick sniff, and taste, Chopper declared them Potions of Health (Extra Healing 3d8+3 HP)
Scroll of mirror image
98 gold quids.
We discussed whether we should just cut our losses and run at this point, having found a small fortune in onions! However the adventuring spirit won out, and we returned to the unexplored corridor, which opened up into a cavern with 3 normal rat dogs and a double sized Alpha.
The ratdogs charged the intruders, however in their eagerness to rip them to shreds, the alpha slipped on faeces and bones temporarily losing its footing, however recovering it swiped one large paw, leaving great gashes along Quinns arm.
Up close we could see the Alphas horns were longer than normal and slightly twisted, they also seemed to be twitching and giving off a faint green glow.
Jerry darted in with his thief quick reflexes and skewered a ratdog killing it outright as his sword appeared out the other side of its ribs. Kesh followed up with smashing another ratdog killing it outright, and Quinn, outraged at the Alpha raking him with claws, hit him back, leaving a great cut against the alphas flank. I dove in and totally missed.
Unnoticed by the dogs Horatio stood at the back of the cavern, beads of sweat on his face as he concentrated, his lips moving silently as he repeated an incantation. Successfully casting Phantasmal Force, Horatio created a ratdog bigger and meaner looking than the Alpha. Diving forwards the remaining ratdog sank its teeth into me rendering me unconscious on the floor. As I kindly held the ratdog in place with my throat, Chopper swung his mace in a great arc and smashed the ratdog off my unconscious form, killing it. The Alpha now besieged on all sides, and quite nervous of the Phantom ratdog didn't notice Jerry sneaking around behind it, allowing him a successful backstab. The Phantom dog finally diving in and finishing off the alpha.
Muttering prayers to his God, Chopper healed me (again).
A search of the room revealed:
Armoured boot prints leading into a tunnel leading off from the back of the cavern.
93 gold quids.
A small green glowing stone containing a small gloombug, just visible inside the hard green gem.
We had to call it there due to already being close to midnight.
The game was fantastic fun. We spent a good hour in the inn at the start making general Midderlands comments and really enjoying the scene.
I look forward to more Midderlands adventures in the near future! If you don't have it winging its way to you soon I really would recommend buying a copy of the book, you even get a fantastic map which shows the Midderlands in all its glory.
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