It's All Fun and Games

Session two of my new 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game did not disappoint. Picking up where the crew left off, Reardon Gray, Fulgoth Tarneson, Alighast the Goat Wrangler, Barry the goat (or is it Jerry?), Ray the war dog, Raudel the carpenter (a Non-Player Character), and Gunner Tarneson were running from a mystery group of humanoids. However, the group of heroes were able to shake the attackers due to a combination of fortunate dice rolls. What exactly were these rolls?

***THERE ARE NO SPOILERS IN THIS POST***

Which means that there will be no explanation of why the attackers didn't catch them, only a recap of the basic story.

About 10 minutes down the road from last session's fight, the group stopped to catch their breath and listen for the sounds of pursuit only to hear approaching footfalls from the opposite direction. To their relief, the approaching creature was a 16 year old, blonde headed, banded armor wearing, lawful good paladin holding a large shield with the gauntlet hand of the deity Torm emblazoned upon it.

This paladin's name is Niall Ravenwing and he'll be controlled by our newest player Mike Imd. Niall made fast friends with the adventuring party and together they made camp for the night. Fortunately, the night was peaceful and at first light the group set out for Castle Xyntillan once more. They arrived at the previous place they had battled the party of humanoids. Once there, Reardon the ranger used his tracking ability to determine that after he and the others had fled, the aggressors had headed off toward the southeast, which was away from the castle. Relieved, the group set off again toward Xyntillan and within minutes broke the edge of the forest they had been traveling though for several days.

What lay before them was the much storied and anticipated Castle Xyntillan. A brief examination of this place indicated that it was in a state of disrepair and certain parts of the facade seemed to be a hodgepodge of workmanship. They thought the amalgamation could also be evidence of construction in stages, possibly over an incredibly long timeline. Another observation was that there appeared to be one or two additional levels above the first.

In the skies above the explorers, there were a large amount of ravens circling. Reardon, through his understanding of nature, theorized that the birds were probably looking for a meal. He took out a ration, crumpled it in his hand, and threw it upwards and toward the pile of rubble that had collected at the base of the once imposing towers. Before the food had hit the ground, several birds had caught most of it in midair. Many more birds landed on the rubble below to wrench the remaining crumbs from every stony crevice of the decaying towers. Seemingly, the distraction allowed the boys to cross the bridge and enter the castle's bailey.

Once inside the bailey, the adventurers headed for and opened the closed doors of the stables. A search of the area caused the group to find putrid hay on the stable floor that was mixed with a particularly foul excrement. It wasn't clear to any among the party what kind of animal could have made the feces or why it's consistency and smell was so horrid. Alighast the magic-user, took a special pleasure poking the stuff with a stick in an experimental and somewhat questionable manner. Searching further, they also found a saddlebag in the hayloft which contained a flask of fiery wine. 

After hearing a rhythmic clanging and feeling a change in temperature near the door in the west wall of the stables, Naill opened the door. The crew observed an iron hammer seemingly under it's own power repeatedly striking a steel ingot laid over an anvil. The intruders were apparently unwelcome in the smithy and the hammer hurled itself at Fulgoth for an exceptional amount of damage. The Tarneson brother managed to remain upright. However, once the hammer was struck by the warriors, it dropped lifelessly to the floor. After the action had subsided, there was really nothing in the smithy that interested the party other than a couple of empty metal flasks.

At the other end of this building, the players opened a door to interrupt seven animated skeletons in tattered military uniforms using the skeletal remains of a foe for spearing practice. The remains were hung from the rafters and were outfitted in plate mail armor. Several ooh's and aah's were exclaimed by the adventurers at the sight of this much sought after and probably valuable protection. With the element of surprise, Reardon used his clerical powers to "turn undead"; a power granted by his deity. All seven skeletons, without thrusting one spear, turned and ran for a dead end wall and mostly stayed there until their existence was brought to an end.. 

Four spears the foes were carrying were deemed to be in usable or salable condition in addition to the armor. There were also some wanted posters featuring the likeness of Claude Malevol - "wanted dead or alive - preferably dead", which Reardon decided to take with him. The reward for completing the aforementioned task was listed as 3000 gold pieces.

Naill began to move the plate mail back to the stable only to discover the door to the smithy had been left open and that the the iron hammer was once again swinging at its anvil. Sensing another attack from the floating tool, our paladin rushed to the forge and was able to knock the hammer to the floor once again. Having had enough of the thing, Alighast threw the seemingly cursed tool into the forge. It's unclear whether the hammer finally succumbed to the heat of the fire because the party left soon thereafter. They were sure to close the door as they went.

To the north, across the bailey, the adventurers investigated the garden lake and ventured to its island pavilion. There they pondered the grave stone of Patrice Malevol - "The Lost Love". In addition to being engraved with the name of the man there were also four engraved hands reaching from the epitaph to the four corners of the marker. The investigators were uncertain what was meant by the hands, their possible symbology, or the statue of the maiden on the lake shore that stared toward the grave site so wistfully. However, one of the Tanerson's put forth the assertation that there seemed to be a lot of these Malevol's.

Proceeding to the east, the raiders approached the guard posts only to discover skeleton guardsmen seemingly asleep at their posts. Gunner poked the one in the north tower with the tip of his (battle axe?). The undead sleeper was startled "awake", however he was put to his end fairly easy but not before squawking out an ACK to alert his partner. The other skeleton awoke and was able to bloody Fulgoth badly enough to make the dwarf see his dead relatives staring at him from eternity. The last skeleton was put down shortly thereafter.

Both of the skeleton guardsmen were armed with halberds that were in decent shape. The battle hardened crew added them to their loot.

Once healed, but having been so close to death, Fulgoth remained comatose for about 10 minutes before coming to. Suffering from a mandatory near-death weakness, he was loaded onto a makeshift stretcher made from two spears and the crew began to retreat back to the village of Savoy. Halfway there, they made camp for the night where the first watch during the night was peaceful. Near the end of the second watch however, Naill and Gunner heard a noise in the darkness that sounded like either a minotaur or hopefully something less threatening. As day broke, the early risers saw a herd of cattle accompanied by a large bull moving off to the north. 

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After breaking camp the travelers were on the road again and were nearly back to the town of Savoy when they came upon a caravan carrying... sponges and steel wool. This was the end of our session so the rest is a tale for another time. 

I do feel compelled to say I am warming to my role of referee for this rule set which I feel a kind of reverence toward, even though my adrenaline seemed to keep me steadily sweating for nearly 4 hours. The sweating is strange. A caravan of sponges and steel wool is stranger though. I'm gonna have to get a better list of caravan goods from somewhere.

No NPC's were encountered during this session but several items were collected. A saddlebag, fiery wine in a wooden flask, two empty metal flasks, a suit of plate mail, 4 spears, some wanted posters, and two halberds. 

It will be interesting to see what the guys do with them. As for me, I've got to sort out my game aides and figure out a way to be more precise with movement during combat. I hope you have enjoyed the read.