Old School AD&D Game II - 7/27/2012 Recap

Our old AD&D (technically Labyrinth Lord) game continued a few weeks ago. Part 1 of the recap is here.

The story so far: A oddly eclectic group of professional adventurers, the Lucky Fools & Gloaters, have been hired by the Margrave of Bissel to scout out the location of a magical lanthorn, rumored to be resting in some caverns located in the Yatil Mountains. Other countries, enemies of Bissel, are also searching for the lanthorn and may have hired competing adventuring teams to find it. The adventurers are to locate the lanthorn, once part of Iggwilv's treasure horde, and bring it back to the Margrave. All of the rest of the treasure they recover is theirs to keep.  The location of the caverns is unknown, so the adventurers have set out to the Yatil mountains in an attempt to find them.

THE SECOND SESSION: DETAILS
Module: S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
System: AD&D, by way of Labyrinth Lord and the Advanced Edition Companion 
Number of Players: Five (Brian, Cal, Jeff Franz, Nick, and Sean)
Session 2: 7/27/2012; 7:00pm - 12:15am (actual D&D time roughly 8:30pm - 12:00am)
Food: Two extra large pizzas, Klondike mint-chip bars
Drinks: Tap Room #21 Lager, Firestone Walker Double Jack, Firestone Walker Porter, a stout my friend Nick brought that I can't remember the name of, Coca-Cola, Water
Other Games Played: None


Into the Wolves' Den

Looking at the sparse map with which they have been provided, the adventurers plotted out a course leading to a small cave opening that Dolok the cannibal druid flew over while in the form of an eagle to scout the trail ahead.

On the first night on the trail, as the adventurers made camp and set up a nightly watch, two traveling minstrels, weary from their march along the trail, asked to share the adventurers' fire, and perhaps a bit of their food. While warming their hands, they mentioned they had nothing to use as compensation for the hospitality bestowed upon them, but that they would be happy to serenade the adventurers with a ballad of their own creation.

Benedictus, the Cleric of Fharlanghn who was on-watch at the time very adamantly proclaimed that there would be no singing allowed, but that the two minstrels could share the fire. The minstrels seemed a bit taken aback and again offered that they had composed a new tune that they would be willing to share free of charge as token of thanks, but again Benedictus refused. The two minstrels shrugged their shoulders and lay down to sleep by the fire.

Later that evening, a loud howling of wolves was heard in the distance, but getting louder and clearly approaching the campsite of the adventurers. Some of the adventurers and their henchmen groggily began to awaken, and as the sound of the wolves came closer, the two minstrels awoke in a start and ran off into the bushes, screaming for help. 

Benedictus went into action, awakening Dolok and Weslocke, who were both asleep at the campfire. Andrezi, aka "Estian", the party's scout and dungeoneering expert, was busy entertaining his lady friends in his tent, and did not appear to hear anything. Lord Flemin Ormstraad Corond, the stout noble dwarf, awoke briefly from his drunken sleep in his tent, but ultimately chose to go back to sleep, hearing only wolves outside and figuring that his services weren't needed for such a minor inconvenience.

A large pack of wolves attacked the three adventurers around the campfire, who drew weapons to defend themselves. The wolves turned out to be a bit tougher as foes than the adventurers had first surmised, and as they attempted to fight them off, they noticed two much larger, somewhat human-looking wolves, sort of hybrids, running into the campsite. 

Some wolves entered Estian's tent and he was forced to cease his daliances and draw his sword. He came out from the tent and found his other three companions in combat with the wolf-pack and two human-wolf hybrids. Having taken multiple wounds from the wolves, the adventurers began calling for Lord Flemin, who eventually emerged from his tent, not at all unperturbed that his sleep was disturbed. With Flemin's help, the wolves were eventually beaten back, and the two wolf-hybrids slain; it was discovered that they were also the two minstrels who had come to the camp earlier that evening. The adventurers were not much surprised by this, having suspected something suspicious about the traveling minstrels.  

After some quick healing, courtesy of Benedictus, Estian returned to his tent, claiming that his ladies were awaiting his attention.  Dolok cleverly wildshaped into a wolf in order to sniff out the wolves' trail and follow it back to their den, and Weslocke, Benedictus, and Lord Flemin accompanied them. The den was found, with some treasure inside. A brief argument ensued over who in the party was taking which items of treasure, with Lord Flemin and Weslocke nearly coming to blows over the affair, while Benedictus stood by watching the battle of wills. Lord Flemin eventually appeared to get his way by taking a rather large, and to his mind, valuable, gem. Weslocke took some items for himself and quickly made his way back toward the camp, followed at a distance by the others. 

Back at camp, Weslocke saw one of Estian's lady friends moving through the camp and then entering Estian's tent. Upon questioning some of the adventurers' henchmen, he was told that Estian's companions were "very friendly" and that it was a good thing they had come along. They appeared to be very happy. 

An Encounter with a Kettite Border Patrol

The next morning, the adventurers set out once again toward the small cave that Dolok had seen while doing aerial reconnaissance as an eagle a few days prior. That afternoon, they encountered a well-armed and somewhat testy patrol from the nation of Ket, one of the enemies of Bissel. The commander, the only one of the Kettites who spoke the Common trade tongue, parlayed with the adventurers, demanding to know why they were in Key territory (which could be argued, as no one truly owns claim to this area in the Yatil mountains) and what their intentions were. Estian opted to speak for the party, and adopting a completely foreign accent, announced himself as Buck Baggins, simply traveling through the area. The Kettite Captain, wise and suspicious from his years as a battle-hardened warrior, immediately discounted Estian's account and asked if anyone else from the party would care to make their intentions clear before "any problems arise."
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At this point, we had to break for the evening as it was past Midnight and we were all pretty tired. Despite all of our typical pre-game chit-chat, movie talk, pizza eating, beer drinking, etc., we actually did get quite a bit of actual gaming done for a Friday night. Most of it was role-playing and in-game talk that doesn't necessarily translate well to a written recap. 

I'm looking forward to the next session, although we will be taking a break for August to play my friend Jeff Franz's Warhammer 40K RPG one-shot. I'm playing a Dark Angel Space Marine, and my wife is actually also going to play this time, as Jeff has created a special character for her.


Hanging: Home office (laptop)
Drinking: Tap water. A glass of 2006 Core "Ground Around" is on tap for lunch today in about an hour.
Listening: "You Will Be My Ain True Love" by Sting