The party started off worried about Oiax's wound. A squarish bite had been taken out of his left ear. They were going to make Oiax eat PecklePickle's Belladonna, but Oiax chose not to. If the thing that bit him was some form of WereBeast, the only reason they took a sample of his ear was to track him down, should he fail to obtain that for which they were sending him.
[DM note: the rules for Lycanthropy are in the DMG p22, as well as the Monster Manual Lycanthropes entry. If you lose half of your hp to lycanthropic bites, there is 100% chance of the disease being passed on. You have 25% chance to prevent the change by eating Belladonna - a poison, don't do this in real life!- and saving against a 1% chance of dying. But you must consume the poison within an hour of being bitten, and it will put you on your back for a few days even if it works. There are other remedies listed in those good books.]
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| Oiax doesn't turn into a WereRat at this time. The WereRat disease doesn't get him. I'm explaining because you look nervous. Oiax is an Elf and only humans can get lycanthropy. |
Menetheren and Neit then shared the information about the Mad Knight's diary that they found during downtime in the Temple of Aslan's Scriptorium. Oiax got everyone up to speed on his kidnapping.
And they also talked about what Cigam had revealed about the identity of the face in the frost (not the Mad Knight, not Brother Glastonbery, but an old schoolmate of Cigam's named Mordrecht!)
The party spent about half an hour kibbitzing about the Present Knight, and whether he has fallen to the weird magics of the page ripped from the dark and mysterious book. They aren't sure if they can trust the Knight or his son. They weren't sure which course of action to take: go steal the page, get the Knight's son to steal it, go kill the brigands, or give the 1,000 gp to them?
They decided on going for the Brigands. The party wanted to kill these Brigands and bring the Knight's Son's money pouch straight to the Brigand headquarters, blame the loss of the patrol on a drunken housefire and pay off the Brigands directly. Then come back, collect the 600 gp from the Knight's son and use the invitation to try to gank the page from the evil book. What could possibly go wrong with this plan????
Neit, the Monk wanted to rescue the Gravedigger if he could. Oiax, the Assassin wanted to burn down the Gravedigger's house around them. Oiax had to buy new weapons as his were still in the WereRat burrow. Neit also bought a flask of oil.
They somehow made it down to the Gravedigger's house unnoticed. (I rolled surprise and the party won. Not sure if that's the right way to handle it, but the party was being stealthy on approach.) The Brigands must have been drinking and singing the whole time the party was coming down the switchback road from Folton on the Hill. This would turn out to be absolutely disastrous for them.
Menetheren the Cleric and PecklePickle the Illusionist hid behind tombstones in the graveyard. Pecklepickle cast Phantasmal Forces (the most OP spell), creating a fieldstone wall, snug up against the North wall of the Gravedigger's house, which sealed the exit from the first level as well as the windows on the second from that side. Only the tiny dormer cupola thing on the top had a window that was unblocked. Then Oiax and Neit went to the hole in the tunnel that lead to the basement. They had some negotiations, but it was decided that Niet would guard the opening of the tunnel, while Oiax would go through the tunnel into the house. This would prove disastrous for the Gravedigger.
Oiax faced down his inner trauma from this very tunnel, and got to crawling. When he got to the hole in the basement, it had been widened and the bookcase was pushed out of the way. Oiax wanted to light the bookcase on fire, but it was too far away. He didn't want to enter the basement and kept trying to light the bookcase from the tunnel, but again, it was too far away. Menetheren's character helpfully suggested: "You could listen!" We all laughed, thinking he was snapping on Oiax's player for not getting it about the distance, but M's player really meant that Oiax's character should listen for sounds in the house.
He declared he was listening, and I got to roll on the Unexplained Sounds and Weird Noises table in the Dungeon Dressing appendix I [DMG p217] and it came up 48, humming. "You hear somebody humming." He silently exited the tunnel and peered around the scooched-out-of-the-way bookcase and saw the Gravedigger, tied to a chair, slightly inebriated from the Brigands pouring bourbon in his mouth, humming to himself.
Following that, Oiax poured oil on the bookcase, but not before rescuing a scroll, and lit the place on fire, booking it back out into the tunnel.
The fire started in earnest and the Brigands panicked and ran to the front door. They threw it wide and found the entryway sealed with a stone wall. I rolled save against magic for their disbelief, but they would have needed a 19 or 20, and none of the four on the main floor made their save. I rolled up their HP (1-6), a quick glance at the Flaming Oil rules let me surmise that fire that hasn't been directly thrown on someone or splashed them will do 1 hp of damage PER SEGMENT! Brutal. Well two of the jokers only had 1 hp so they were gone, and the rest burned up when they couldn't get out. There were 6 on the second floor, and again, two had only 1 hp and succumbed to the smoke and fire immediately. The other four smashed the windows and jumped out the second story. One of them died instantly from the 1d6 falling damage. The other three were hurt at varying levels of badness. In the third story the Sergeant opened the window and jumped out, Feather Falling to the ground harmlessly. He is a Lvl 3 MU based on the GI Joe Dreadnok "Torch." He rallied his guys and came around the burning house just as Oiax was getting out of the tunnel.
Here was the lay of it: Menetheren was standing in the open in the courtyard, while Pecklepickle hid behind a tombstone. Oiax was hidden behind the house to the South and Neit was beside him.
The bad guys ran, well hobbled really, around the house and Menetheren immediately healed the 6 hp guy who had blown out his knees in the jump back to max and told them a Robed Magic User with a Giant Wolf had attacked the house and he was there to save them. Neit and his giant charisma bonus came around the house to help convince them and they rolled high on reaction. For the THIRD TIME in this campaign, the roll came up Uncertain, but 55% likely to be positive. And then 36 so they were inclined to believe the heroes.
Then Oiax tried to assassinate the leader by shooting him in the back with an arrow. The Assassination didn't work, but he did knock 2 hp off him and another 4 with his second arrow (I ruled that he could only make an assassination attempt on the first shot, the rules being unclear on in-combat assassinations with a weapon that can fire multiple times in a round).
The fight was on. We play Initiative by Round, which means, that first the party announces their intentions, then the DM announces the badguy's intentions and then you roll for initiative and everyone is locked into doing what they said they would.
The party told me what they wanted to do and then I told them what the Brigands wanted to do. PecklePickle, Oiax and Menetheren wanted to delete Torch. Neit wanted to kneecap the guy who Menetheren had just healed with his staff.
For their part, the Brigands did not have any weapons in their hands. Torch put his thumbs together and fanned out his fingers toward PecklePickle and Menetheren. One of the Brigands wanted to pummel Neit. The other wanted to grapple Menetheren, and the final one wanted to run around the house to see where the arrows had come from.
It was time to roll for initiative. The party rolled a 3. The Brigands rolled a 3. Oh crap, simultaneous initiative!
[DM note: Why does it always seem we have to do the hardest thing first in this campaign? I'm still learning these rules, and I got a Monk and a stinking Psionic in my first party and now, the first combat I've ever run the initiative is TIED, with pummeling AND grappling!!!]
So we went to weapon speed, and I hope I got this right. Everyone started on segment 3. The Burning hands spell would go off in segment 5. First PecklePickle got his dart attack then Oiax got his arrow (+1 to hit, being an elf). Then the Burning Hands would go off. Then the pummel, then the grapple, then Neit's staff, then PecklePickles' second dart, then Oiax's second arrow, then Menetheren's mace, and finally PecklePickle's third dart. I think that's right?
Pman missed with his first dart as did Oiax with his first arrow. The Burning Hands did 3 points damage to Menetheren and CX PecklePickle. The pummeler missed with his attack, but the grappler got a bear-hug on Menetheren for 3 more hp! Neit whiffed his staff strike, but PecklePickle's second dart landed home and brought the Magic User to zero points. Oiax's second arrow was already declared so he shot the downed man, and hit for max damage (6!) killing him deader than a hammer. This caused a morale check which the remaining Bandits failed. They turned their backs to run for the horses and were shot, maced and staffed down like it warn't no thing! Oiax sadly informed the players that the Gravedigger had been dead when he arrived.
From the bodies 17 g.p. were looted in treasure. Those inside the house had more, but it was all incinerated in the housefire! Bwahahahaaaa! Torch had a ring of spell-storing with three gems on it. Two gems were still loaded with Burning Hands. Torch's spell book contained Read Magic, Burning Hands, Feather Fall and Write. Oiax's scroll was a spell scroll with one level 1 clerical spell on it. They wound up with 11 horses with saddle and tack. They have decided to sell the horses in town.
XP for the Brigands: 416 xp
Brigand Gold Pieces: 17
Horse, Saddle and Tack: 1,793 gp 198 sp
Horse, Saddle and Tack XP: 1,802 xp
Total Brigand and gold XP: 433 (in AD&D 1e you get 1 xp for each gold piece in value that is brought back to society)
Extra for Oiax only: 18 for assassinating the GraveDigger, 3 for the g.p.
Extra for PecklePickle, who ended up with the ring of spell storing: 2,500 x.p.
Oiax's Scroll of Level 1 Clerical Spell (Cure Light Wounds): 100 x.p. to a cleric or 500 gp on the open market, and he did elect to sell it instead of giving it to Menetheren.
The party agreed to give Torch's Spell Book to Cigam.
Total XP: 2235
Total Wealth: 1810 gp, 198 sp
Also, it is the DM's job in 1e to grade how well each player played their class. The ratings are as follows: E - Excellent, S-Superior, F-Fair, P-Poor. The average of the rank you receive during sessions impacts how long and expensive it is for you to train to the next level.
So here's the breakdown:
Caltrix CX PecklePickle (E): 3,058 XP (ring of spell storing: 2,500 XP!), 452 gp, 59 sp
Menetheren Arauglor (E): 559 XP, 452 gp, 60 sp
Niet Trieye (E): 559 XP, 452 gp, 60 sp
Oiax Lockdin (E): 1059 XP (sold the scroll), 452 gp, 59 sp
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