“We All Died!” - The Legendary Greyhawk Sessions (1st Ed. AD&D)

[agentofping]

Another one from the Vaults of the CARPS' Archives: A slice of proper 'old school’ mayhem courtesy of T1: The Village of Hommlet.

[agentofping]

Adventure, peril, more peril, bad THAC0s, crap dice rolls (and an extra helping of additional peril just for good measure) add up to more new characters than you can shake a stick at. An assortment of fighters, thieves, clerics and rangers explore the monster infested underworlds of GREYHAWK. All brought to you courtesy of the Advanced D&D 1st Edition rules. Will anyone reach 2nd level? Will anyone actually survive a single evening's play? Only time, Fate and perhaps some loaded dice will tell...

The following description of the many woeful turns of event during the first sessions of play has been provided by Chris, who plays a Fighter, Fighter, Fighter, Ranger, Paladin, Cleric, Ranger in the game. Additional comments from Ben (who knows heresy when he sees it, no matter how demanding the circumstances) and the DM himself.

[agentofping]

We started the game last Monday (28th October). Steve got us to roll-up two characters each for this game, although thankfully this didn't take too long due to the simplicity of the 1st Edition rules. Digger rolled-up a Magic-User and a Cleric, Mike has a Fighter and an Assassin, and I have two Fighters (1 Elven, 1 human)!

[agentofping]

Digger, Mike and I have currently been playing Steve's Greyhawk AD&D game over the past few weeks...

In the first gaming session we learnt of the existence of this long abandoned outpost/fort/castle/dungeon and confidently trudged off to locate it within this festering swampland. This first gaming session ended after we just managed to survive an ambush by a group of giant frogs.

The following week we resumed our quest and began to explore the outskirts of the 'abandoned' outpost/fort/dungeon. Unfortunately this proved to be the premature end for Mike's fighter who was subsequently bitten by a venomous giant spider and killed. The rest of us ventured into the dungeon; only to get our arses kicked by a giant snake, a giant lizard and some bandits.

After retreating to a neighbouring village to lick our wounds we returned to the dungeon the following week to continue our exploration, only to be attacked again by giant rats. We managed to beat off the rats (but only just - the term last-man standing comes to mind) although both my fighters died during the conflict! Since Mike was absent during this particular session I took over playing his assassin and was allowed by Steve to roll-up a temporary replacement fighter. Digger was also allowed to roll-up a new fighter to join our party due to the considerable difficulty we were having in making any progress through the dungeon. We had been left so low on hit-points by this stage that we all had to retreat (yet again) to the neighbouring village to recuperate.

Once we were back up to full hit-points we returned to the dungeon to fight off some more bandits and ventured into the lower-regions... We were then ambushed by loads of zombie's. The outcome of this conflict was the complete and utter decimation of the entire gaming group. To put this plainly:

WE
ALL
DIED!!!!!!!!! (That includes your assassin Mike – sorry.)

This was according to Digger the first time in his entire gaming experience that he had been involved in a party wipe-out. Anyway, this massacre all happened in last Monday's gaming session, and so Digger and I have subsequently had to roll-up new characters (three each!! Ha ha.) I now have a kickarse ranger, paladin and a cleric, who I am certain will not to perish like my previous three characters (yes- I can't believe that I lost three characters in one game!)

[agentofping]

Thankfully we did much better this week, although at first it looked like it might go a bit pear shaped again when Digger's Ranger was killed whilst combatting some bat-creatures (lucky for Digger he was playing three characters). After this close-shave we proceeded to kick some serious arse against some Crocodiles, Zombie's and Skeletons, including the undead versions of our previous characters!

I think the key to our success on this occasion was having a much better balance of characters, and strategically utilising their strengths to our advantage. Our main strategy as we progressed through the dungeon was to send Digger's Magic-User/Thief ahead of the main party to search around and check for traps. Once the thief has done his bit, I would then send in my Paladin and Ranger to fight whatever creatures were lurking nearby. Meanwhile, we would try to leave the two clerics out of combat where ever possible, so that we could exclusively use them to cast healing spells and attempt to turn undead creatures.

We're nearly at the end of the scenario now, and so I'm expecting that we will complete it on the next occasion that we play.

[agentofping]

What can I say - it was a complete disaster!

After the outstanding success and good luck from our previous gaming session (on Monday 30th November) I had every right to think that we had turned a corner and were now on the path to glory.

Just to recap, due to the difficulty of the dungeon, (and as a result of the party wipe-out) both Digger and I had been allowed to roll-up three characters each. I now had a kick-arse Paladin (Robert de Renaut), a Ranger, (Callaban) and a handy Cleric (Gulnar) at my disposal. Digger also had a Cleric, a Magic-User/Thief (who owned a guard-dog who can enter combat as a 2nd Level fighter) and a Ranger.

Unfortunately during the last gaming session, Digger had lost his Ranger very early-on in the proceedings. However despite this minor set-back we had made considerable progress against bandits and zombie's and expected quite rightly to continue this good fortune into this week's gaming session.

Unfortunately it was not to be...

Due to the return of Mike and Ben to the gaming group this week, both Digger and myself each donated one of our characters for them to use. Thus Mike took control of my Ranger and Ben used Digger's Cleric. That then left me with the Paladin and the other Cleric, and Digger with his Magic-User/Thief (and guard-dog).

After carefully exploring the dungeon some more and being tricked with numerous red-hearings, we were eventually attacked by an Ogre after stumbling across its lair. This battle was short, but sweet and together Mike and I cut down our opponent with relative ease. The party then proceeded to rescue some captive NPCs and subsequently returned to the local village of Hommlet to rest-up.

The following day we returned to the dungeon and located a secret passage leading into a dark maze of passageways. After following the tunnels we emerged into an empty chamber containing three doors. Whilst I went to investigate these doors with Digger, we were ambushed by a party of bugbears. There were around six to eight of the things (I can't quite recall how many), and they basically pinned us in the corner and proceeded to hack at us. Mike's Ranger and my Paladin stood in front of the party to protect them, with the two clerics standing behind us ready to cast Cure-Light Wounds spells. Digger then cast Magic-Missile, and combat commenced.

And everything went decidedly pear-shaped...

Very early in the proceedings, Mike's Ranger was hit down to less than 0 hit-points, (NB: Its worth pointing out at this stage that 1st edition AD&D bugbears are tougher than their 2nd edition counterparts - they have a THAC0 of around 16, and do something like 2d4+2 points of damage). When you consider that the characters that comprise our party are all 1st Level with an average of between 7 to 11 hit-points each, you can see that we were in big-trouble.

Quickly our Clerics sprang into action and restored Mike's character back up to 11 hit points (yippee). BUT WAIT! There is a catch. Steve then explained to us the comatose ruling; which meant that despite the fact that Mike was back to 11 hit points, he would still remain comatose for six rounds (arse). To make matters worse, my paladin was then struck by a series of crap dice-rolls.

In the meantime Ben's cleric had used-up all his healing spells and so leapt into combat to replace the fallen Ranger. Digger had no magic-points left and so also proceeded to engage in combat together with his guard-dog. My cleric stayed out of the action for another round so that he could continue to cast another healing spell on the paladin before entering the fray as well.

After a long drawn-out combat session, my Paladin eventually managed to hack-down at least three of the bug-bears and I think that Digger's guard dog also took out two of the creatures. That just left one bug-bear standing. Unfortunately by this stage both Ben's cleric and mine were out for the count and Digger's guard-dog was dead. The last remaining bug-bear then made its morale check and in a blaze of fury proceeded to kill both Digger's magic-user/thief and my paladin!!

It was at this stage that Mike's Ranger finally recovered from his comatose state (hurrah). The remaining bug-bear made a further morale check which it thankfully failed. For a moment there, we all hoped that the Ranger might succeed where we had failed...BUT WAIT! Steve then dropped a further bombshell; unfortunately according to 1st Edition AD&D rules, a character who has just woken up from a coma cannot partake in any combat (or any other strenuous activity) until he has rested-up for at least a week. Since the last bugbear had failed its morale check it simply took no further notice in engaging Mike in combat and just turned its attention to looting the unconscious PC's. Ben's cleric was fortunately only on 0 hit points and so was able to recover after a day’s rest.

Together, Ben's Cleric and Mike's Ranger retreated from the dungeon, leaving Digger and myself to roll-up new characters... AGAIN (oh arse, feck, and several other expletives came to mind). Thankfully the new ones we have just rolled-up are pretty kick-arse if I do say so myself. I have now rolled-up a Ranger (Roger de Carnac) who has a strength and dexterity of 18, with 20 hit points and an armour class of -1 (bring it on man). Digger has also rolled up a Ranger who also has armour class of -1 and 20 hit points so hopefully when we reconvene next Monday we will all cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!

NB: Thus far the party has between us, lost a total of twelve Player Characters in this game!

[agentofping]

It was last week during our repeating foray into the evil keep which had claimed so many travellers lives (literally) that a hardy group of adventurers seeking fame (and money) sought out the keep; the paladin with the strength of an ox, the ranger, two druids and a thief with a smidgen of magic and of course Fido his trusty guard dog (which had the highest THACO of the group).

After entering the keep and dispatching a fierce ogre without a single scratch to anyone, the group then moved deeper down in the dungeon. It was at this time that we unearthed a hostile group of Bugbears. The party was savagely attacked and backed into a corner with the druids offering support (the healing spells were flowing thick and fast, including a spell for the trusty Fido) but the attack was relentless.

During the attack the order could be heard to the dog "Stay Back" but it seemed that the group was doomed. First to fall was the Ranger (Mike) then it seemed that we might be able to pull through when to our utter horror and shock, the order was given to the paladin to lay-on hands to the dog (madness I hear you cry) the dog did indeed regain health, but then a druid fell under the onslaught, then the second druid fell after putting up a good fight (2 hit points, wow Ben) but the end was near. The thief (Digger)fell dead as a door nail then, to the shock of the now dead thief (if the dead could show shock) his trusty dog was killed, closely followed by the paladin (Hissy).

I would like to propose to the Group of CARPS that the exploits of FIDO the dog be immortalized, as whilst I myself was shocked almost into disbelief, it made for a bloody enjoyable game. Not only for the mighty hound, but to hear Digger say "In my long years of gaming I have never lost a character, then in three weeks I have lost three!" (And that doesn't even include Fido!)

A very enjoyable evening and a good laugh.

ANOTHER PARTY WIPE-OUT TO STEVE
GM: 3
PARTY: 0

[agentofping]

I would like to second this motion to put Fido the dog into the Carps website hall of fame. Whilst many of you were shocked that my paladin bothered to lay-on hands to heal Fido the dog (rather than my comrades) it has to be said that Fido did kick some serious ass. I think he managed to kill at least two of the bugbears (which is far better than the Clerics or Mike's Ranger could manage) and would have done more I'm sure if it wasn't for some truly tragic dice rolls.

I would also like to point out that so far (and I have lost track of exactly how many weeks we have played this game) the group has had the misfortune to lose twelve characters to this scenario!

We originally started out the game with six characters between us (Mike had a fighter and an assassin, Digger had a cleric and a magic-user, and I had two fighters). Two weeks into the game and Mike's fighter had been killed by a spider-bite and the week after both my fighters were slain by some giant rats.

We were then allowed to roll-up two temporary fighter characters to bolster our ranks (one each for Digger and me). Both of these fighters along with Mike's assassin and Digger's cleric and magic-user perished the week after during the infamous TPK against a horde of zombies. This took the death tally up to eight PCs.

A new party of six characters (plus the dog; Fido) then ventured back into the dungeon to wreak vengeance a week later (a paladin, two rangers, two clerics and a magic-user/thief). It was during this gaming session that Digger lost his Ranger, after fighting off some bat-like creatures (I forget their name).

Then, after last Monday's session, we lost a further three characters - both my Paladin and Cleric, along with Digger's Magic-User/Thief, which takes our tally up to twelve dead PCs. This is truly a tragedy of epic proportions and I feel that this also deserves to be immortalized in the CARPS website hall of fame (or should that be infamy).

[agentofping]

OK. So let’s get this straight. There have only been two party wipe-outs, but think of the poor defenceless monsters.

Arachna the lonely spider, waiting for its dinner to arrive finds it tinned. Not surprisingly he was aggrieved and in trying to open the tinned meat gets stabbed repeatedly. Hissy the snake, basking in the cool of the day is surprised and turned into steaks. Uglug (or whatever his name was) woken from a very pleasant dream by constant thudding, runs out understandably annoyed at being woken and is slaughtered; leaving his pets to starve. Rizzilig and his mate the Lizard, killed without any attempt at negotiation with their superior dragon like intellect, a waste of a good brain.

There were more hideous atrocities but I won't seek to bore you senseless.

But I was saddened by Fido's loss, though it seemed mean that he had to die at 0 HP rather than -10, but only PC's get that luxury. Now if someone had been willing to play his massive intellect...

[agentofping]

At last we have finished playing Steve's AD&D and thankfully we all managed to survive by the skin of our teeth without losing any further characters. Having said that however, I should clarify that although we "finished" playing Steve's scenario, we didn't technically "complete" it if you catch my drift. Allow me to elaborate...

When last we briefly played Steve's AD&D at Ben’s house on 16th December, we arrived at the outskirts of the dungeon (with our new characters - grrr) only to find that the bridge across the moat had been removed. Digger therefore decided that his Fighter would jump across the moat (without armour in case he were to fall into the water and drown) and then to make a rope bridge for us to cross over on.

Unfortunately, fate was not smiling on him this day and he subsequently landed the other side of the moat only to set-off a booby-trapped rune which blinded him (again). To make matters worse two Zombie bugbears emerged from behind the gates to the Keep to attack him.

Digger quickly bolted back across the moat, guided by the sounds of our voices and we then all fled back to the village of Hommlet. After arriving back in Hommlet, we headed straight off to visit the local priest and begged him to restore the Fighter's eyesight. The priest agreed, on the condition that we promised to donate large sums of our cash until the debt of 1000gp is paid-off. Needless to say we were not amused one bit by this latest set-back and so it was with renewed determination that we set back off for the dungeon for tonight's gaming session.

Upon arriving at the entrance to the Keep, we decided to cut down some trees and make a bridge so that we could cross the moat. Digger's fighter went first closely followed by my Ranger and Mike's Ranger (Mike wasn't here tonight so Ben had the honour of playing Mike's Ranger and Guard Dog - Fido II).

As soon as we crossed the moat, the two Zombie Bugbears emerged again to confront us. Quickly, my Ranger leapt into action and twatted his opponent for a hefty 12 points of damage. Mike's Ranger followed through with an almighty strike but by then our opponent was already pushing up the daisies. We then all ganged up on the remaining Zombie Bugbear and quickly trounced it.

Guided by Mike's Ranger and Ben's Cleric, we followed them down into the dungeon and retraced our steps back to the room where we were previously ambushed by the Bugbears. On arrival, the room appeared to be empty and there was no sign of the bodies of the Paladin (Robert de Rainault), the Cleric (Gulnar) or the Magic-User/Thief (Wiesal) and his dog Fido I.

At the opposite side of the room were 3 closed doors in a row, and on our left, a passageway leading away into the darkness. As we carefully entered the room, Digger's Magic-User/Thief heard the sound of a bell ringing from the passageway to our left. Quickly he cast a Light spell up the passageway which revealed a further chamber from which there stood a Zombie Bugbear ringing an alarm-bell. The two Rangers let-off a volley of arrows into the creature but to little affect (NB: arrows only do half damage to undead creatures). Ben's cleric attempted to turn the Zombie but failed and so Digger sent his Fighter off to engage the beast in melee combat.

It was at this point that the shit hit the fan because our quarry was not alone. From round the corner reared a further two Zombie Bugbears who entered into combat with my Ranger, whilst Digger’s fighter attacked the one who was ringing the alarm. Then to make matters worse two of the closed doorways in the room opened to reveal small 10' rooms in which there stood another two Zombie Bugbears.

Ben sent Fido II to engage one of these Bugbears whilst Mike's Ranger and Digger's Magic-User/Thief jointly took on the other. During the first round of combat, Digger's fighter successfully killed the Zombie Bugbear who was ringing the alarm bell. I also managed to strike one of my opponents for 15 points of damage, but it was not enough to slay the beast. Fido II took a bit of a beating from his quarry but stood his ground and bravely gave it his all.

At the end of the combat round Ben's Cleric successfully managed to turn both the Zombie Bugbears that were attacking my Ranger. As they turned to flee, I doubled back with Digger's fighter to help the others. Digger managed to finish off the zombie bugbear that was fighting Fido II and Mike's Ranger soon hacked down the other. We then as a group returned to the cavern containing the two ‘turned’ Bugbears and quickly slayed them as well.

It is worth noting that after the combat had ended, only Fido the Dog and Digger's fighter had taken any hit points of damage, which is quite remarkable given our poor track record. There was only one more door to investigate in this room, and wary of traps we sent the thief to check it out. He successfully deduced that there was something wrong with this door, although he could not elaborate on the type of trap we were facing.

After some discussion it was agreed that we would prop-up one of the dead bugbears against the door and use it to set off the trap. Upon opening the door we found that it was a false doorway. A loud rumbling sound echoed from back up the corridor. We doubled back up the passageway to investigate the noise and found that a Portcullis had dropped down blocking our escape route up to the surface.

This left just one uncharted passageway for us to investigate, but a DM hint from Steve made us think twice about venturing off to investigate. Steve advised us to think sensibly before continuing otherwise there was going to be yet another Party wipe-out to look forward to. I therefore suggested that we return to the room where we killed the Bugbears and set-up camp there since it was easily defended and would mean that our enemy would have to come to us rather than the other way round. The party agreed on this course of action and on arriving back in the room we quickly set about breaking down some doors and erecting a barricade at the entranceway.

After about 20 minutes of gaming time had passed, Fido II alerted us to the fact that there were some creatures approaching our fortifications. Although we could not see the enemy, we could hear heavy breathing from around the corner. Our prey was certainly in no hurry to engage us and just stood its ground just out of sight of our characters (round the corner). Digger's Fighter therefore decided to light a Molotov cocktail and fling it down the passageway to illuminate our opponents and hopefully scare them off.

Unfortunately this led to the biggest goof of the night, when he utterly failed to throw the cocktail successfully after rolling a 1 on a D20. This failure was compounded by the fact that the miss thrown Molotov was flung into the air and impacted on the ceiling above our heads spilling boiling liquid down over our heads, (bugger).

My Ranger thankfully made his saving-throw, but Digger's Fighter was less fortunate and was subsequently set alight. Whilst it was tempting to leave him to burn and have to roll-up yet another new character, we agreed to put out the flames and heal him back up to 7 hit points.

Undeterred by this set-back Digger made another Molotov cocktail and this time managed to lob it up the corridor. After it impacted on the ground we heard some cries of pain, which Digger's Fighter translated as belonging to gnolls. At my suggestion, it was agreed that Digger's Fighter would barter with the gnolls and try to persuade them to join forces with us, or at the very least let us go on our way. Thankfully the leader of the gnolls was prepared to barter with us and agreed to let us go if we paid him 30 gp. Unfortunately we only had 2 gp between us and so we therefore tried to play for time and try to trick them into letting slip some useful information.

In due course the Gnolls let slip that there were around 8 of them waiting for us up the passageway, and that they worked for an evil Cleric (referred to as The Master) who paid them to keep out trespassers in this dungeon. They also admitted to us that the passageway which was now blocked-off by the portcullis was the only way back up to the surface and that the only person who could reset it was their master - the evil Cleric (oh arse).

I cleverly (where would they be without me?) suggested that we trick the gnolls into believing that we had discovered a large stash of around 400gp in a secret compartment located in one of the rooms on the upper-level of the dungeon. My plan was to fool the Gnolls into thinking that we would share this stash of gold with them (300gp for them and 100gp for us) if they could arrange for the portcullis to be lifted so that we could all go back to the surface together to get it.

The Gnolls agreed to my plan, but reminded us that the only person who could raise the portcullis was their master the evil Cleric and that he would want a pretty good explanation as to how the trap came to be set-off in the first-place. Through some careful negotiation we persuaded the gnoll's leader to get one of his own minions to take the blame for setting off the portcullis trap and not to mention that we were in the dungeon (otherwise we wouldn't show them where this imaginary stash of gold was).

The gnolls agreed and set off to locate their master. After they had gone we set about clearing up the evidence of our visit by hiding the bodies of the zombie bugbears (and ourselves). Digger suggested that as soon as the evil cleric arrived here and restored the portcullis trap, that the Rangers plug him full of arrows and the rest of the PCs jump out and hack him down.

Unfortunately we were quickly forced to reconsider this course of action, because when the Evil Cleric did arrive, we found that he was wearing plate mail armour and a large shield sporting a burning eye emblem (shades of Sauron anyone?) which would make him nearly impervious to hit. Not only that, he was also flanked by 12 bodyguards which quickly put us off engaging him in combat. Instead we stayed hidden and watched as the Cleric took out his anger on the gnoll who had "volunteered" to take the rap for us (he was eviscerated and covered in burning oil - ouch!).

The evil cleric thankfully did not see us and reset the portcullis trap. After the Cleric and his minions had gone, Digger suggested that we leg-it back to the surface before the gnolls returned to look for us to lead them to the stash of gold that we had lied to them about.

The rest of the party reluctantly agreed and so we all escaped back to the surface and headed back off to Hommlet. Digger then argued that the scenario was simply too difficult to continue playing because we were only a handful of First Level PCs up against an extremely powerful Cleric and should therefore call it a day for the time being and perhaps agree to return to this dungeon once our characters had reached something like 5th level.

The GM surprisingly agreed with this assessment and so the gaming session ended with us alerting the authorities to the presence of this Evil Cleric and then going on our way in search of an easier way to earn a living...

The End (for now).

[agentofping]

CELEBORN -- Ranger: 1st Level
Drained of every single drop of blood by Stirges
"Don't worry they are only Stirges, they're easy to kill"

BROTHER SCRIVENER -- Cleric: 1st Level
Ripped limb from limb by zombies
"Hah! Zombies! I can turn them!"

WYSEL -- Magic User/Thief: 1st Level
Torn to shreds by Bugbears, even after being bravely defended by Fido the Majestic Hound.
"Where the f**k did the bugbears come from?"

MAXIMUS DECIMUS MERIDIUS -- Human Fighter: 1st Level
Bitten to death by giant rats. (And then reduced to ashes via a miss thrown flaming oil flask courtesy of Digger's Magic-User, thus rendering any attempt to cure him utterly futile)

CALLABAN -- Elven Figher: 1st Level
Bitten to death by giant rats. (And then reduced to ashes via a miss thrown flaming oil flask courtesy of Digger's Magic-User, thus rendering any attempt to cure him utterly futile - I have a distinct feeling of deja-vu here)

COMMODUS -- Human Fighter: 1st Level
Killed during zombie ambush (aka: the infamous party wipe-out)

LORIMAR -- Elven Fighter: 1st Level
Killed during zombie ambush (aka: the infamous party wipe-out)

GULNAR -- Human Cleric: 1st Level
Killed during Bugbear ambush

ROBERT DE RAINAULT -- Paladin: 1st Level
Killed during Bugbear ambush

MAXIMUS BUSTIUS -- Female Assassin: 1st Level
Killed during the zombie ambush
"AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHHH"

FIDO THE MAJESTIC HOUND (Fought as a 2nd level fighter)
Killed during Bugbear ambush
"A noble heart enbiggins the smallest dog." - clk
"The more one gets to know clerics, the more one values dogs." - Wysel the Thief
"Fido; holiest dog of Homlett. Inspired by the religious healing of a Paladin, leapt into combat only to be cruelly cut down defending his Master's body." - The 'Evil' DM

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