The Hundred Millionth Day, Session 2

After session 1, the party decided to climb a cliff to avoid another encounter (the winter wolf left them a bit paranoid). Arisha free-climbed up, let a rope down and helped the party up to bed. After three fitful watches hey pressed on. Brothers Quareth and Kaith struggled to hike through the thinning air high up on the Lares Range, so the party only made half the distance they wanted. A wedged boulder collapsed under Arisha, but she caught herself at the last minute. That was Day Two.

(I asked for Dex and Str checks. A failed Dex check indicated a slip. A failed Str check represented a slowed pace. In retrospect, I should have used Con. I was envisioning more climbing but it didn’t fit the flow of the story as well. Arisha’s monk/thief Climb roll and Kaith’s unused thief abilities forced me to contemplate where they fit into my evolving hierarchy of adventuring skills. I rolled for random encounters as per the DMG, but they don’t happen too often in the mountains. That changed once they hit the area around the bandit fortress and I switched to a custom encounter table with a 1 in 3 chance of encounters per three hours.)

After an uneventful Day Three and another rest, they hiked to the threshold of the battle site. Kaith scouted ahead to find three human bandits — drunk, lazy highwaymen who immediately waved at the half-elf, asked a few harsh questions to keep up appearances, and hefted the wineskin once more. The other characters joined them, mead in hand to offer their new “friends” (good thinking Quareth!). Arisha almost ruined the ambiance with too-pointed questions, but everybody else managed to shut up, semi-pretend to drink and ingratiate themselves with the bandits, convincing them that the adventurers were hard-luck rogues looking to join the gang. The bandits weren’t too sure about that idea and alluded to unpleasant allies at a nearby fortress: an ancient structure northeast of the clearing.

(Systems wise, the bandits rolled no lower than 86 for every reaction check, making them friendly, credulous and in need of an excuse for this behaviour. That’s why they were drunk!)

One of those unmentionable allies came calling. He was an orc dressed in the cult livery of Xasu Nazarist, the Son of Tyranny. He strode into the clearing (nobody was surprised but they were at a loss for words and maybe a bit tipsy) and demanded that “his” bandits capture the adventurers. Arisha tried a friendly bluff (powered by a 7 Charisma modifying a base reaction roll of 26. That’s bad.) but that only sparked the orc’s rage. He drew a scimitar and attacked!

The drunk bandits hung back. They wanted to see how it would all turn out (and according to reaction rolls, still liked the PCs better than the orc).

The orc swung for Arisha but the monk had the longer weapon: a halberd that bit through her enemy’s scaled jack. The orc survived the blow and struck in turn, so for a moment they were connected by weapons mutually buried in flesh and muscle. The orc reeled under Eileen’s Magic Missile, but he managed to swat Kaith’s pick aside before burying his sword in Arisha’s unarmoured gut. She fell. Quareth ran to administer aid.

The orc turned to face Kaith. The half-elf spun his pick around and rent a hole it in the orc’s brain. Instant death.

(Steve rolled a natural 20. The orc had 1 hit point left. We didn’t bother to roll. Yeah, we’re going to use critical hits. Natural 20s need recognition. This is the law of D&D.)

(I rolled fresh reactions for the bandits. Oh crap. They weren’t friendly now. I figured they’d decided that they still needed to deal with these intruders, or else the party might reveal their treachery. Xasurites hate disloyalty and love torture, so letting the characters go practically put their necks on the block.)

The drunks broke into a whispered argument. Quareth heard it — especially the part where they resolved to strike! He cast Entangle, and imprisoned the three (That spell kicks ass — it’d never pass game balance muster these days. I’m keeping it as is., but they kept hacking at the vines, the party — whatever they could get. They were terrified of punishment from on high. Kaith hurled his pick at one to interrupt a blow (just colour on a failed bandit attack roll) and cut down two of them in their bonds. That left Lon the bandit, who surrendered.

Now they turned to the wounded. Two bandits and Arisha were close to death. They needed a real cleric, but they were stuck in hostile, mountainous territory. What could they do?

Lon begged for his life, said they’d taken the fort from a local religious community that might be hidden west of here, but thought it might be better if they stole a priest: a servant of Xasu who visits a remote shrine for secret rites. In digression, he revealed that the cultists lived in a lower level of the fort, demanding slaves for some sinister work even deeper down. That spoke to the party’s original mission, but now it came with a new objective: kidnap a cleric to save three wounded!

(Yes, that includes the two backstabbing, drunken bandits who Kaith knocked negative hit points. The good guys are pretty good! Speaking of negative hit points, I threw out the notion that it would take days to recover from negative hit points without a Heal spell — any curative magic is good enough.)

Final Thoughts: This session’s two system highlights were NPC reactions (and morale checks) and getting strict with as-written AD&D1e combat. Odd rolls forced me to improvise drunken, two-faced (yet strangely brave, even in the face of entanglement) bandits. One minute rounds felt much easier to improvise colour with and more strategic than seconds of flurrying. I used weapon speed, armour type adjustments, weapon length effects on initiative — the whole kit. It wasn’t too difficult! The big challenge is to flip through eccentrically organized books.

Lethal combat where positioning counts creates cautious PCs willing to flee and parley, especially when they know I’m rolling reactions, using their Charisma scores and conversational gambits. It feels pretty natural.

On a minor note, thieves’ skills need a revision.  That’s probably going to be my  next big house rule. And — oh yeah! — it’s all been random encounters so far! They haven’t even seen the dungeon yet! But it’s there, waiting on graph paper . . . .