More Adventures in Cuccagna!

 No, not from the previous party, but (hopefully) from a brand new one! At the suggestion of one of the Weeknights in Nightwick crew I have decided to run Cuccagna on Start Playing! Here's the pitch:

From out of the past comes a legend - a legend of a mysterious island of wizards called... Cuccagna! The greatest wizard in mortal memory, Prospero the White, created this land of eternal summer, where strange beasts and stranger people roam endless, enchanted gardens. Then, in a fit of madness, he divided himself into many parts and spread them amongst the island - a Prospero for every color! Now you have been invited to explore this strange isle. Delve into the depths of the Lapis Vaults, last refuge of wizard gone mad! Battle the cult of Apollyon, beautiful demon father of snakes! Rob the House of the Gnoles, where no other thief is brave enough to tread! Raid the Palace of the Sea King, where mermaids swim through the very air! Cuccagna is a sandbox campaign inspired by the fiction of Jack Vance, Clark Ashton Smith, Lord Dunsany, and William Shakespeare. Players will take the role of adventurers in a hex crawl and dungeon campaign on a strange island full of wonderous wizards and beasts from medieval legend. The games rules are based on Old School essentials with custom classes for non-humans and rogues. HIGH ADVENTURE IN THE LAND OF PLEASANT LIVING!

So if you're up for it, why don't you join us? 

Some Announcements

 

First there is a new preview up at the IPD Patreon if you want to see what one of our geomorphs looks like.

I also have a new game on Start Playing for anyone who is interested in doing some Swords & Sorcery gaming nonsense. It takes place in Yavana. From the copy I wrote for Start Playing:

Beyond the world we know lies a land of high adventure: Yavana! A realm of steaming jungles, barren deserts, and ancient mountains! Yavana! Where primordial beasts from the dawn of our world still roam! Yavana! Where men pray to gods thought long dead and treat with the demons of outer space! Yavana! Where a cool head and a strong arm could win a king’s ransom in treasure! Be the first to see the strange Temple of Abzu where sharks swim through the air! Plunder the tomb of the First Man, a saurian monstrocity from ancient days! Defy the nefarious necromancer whose curse threatens a city with death! This is a sandbox campaign inspired by Sword & Sorcery fiction and adventure films of the mid 20th century. Players will take the role of warriors, freebooters, and sorcerers attempting to win fame, fortune, and glory. Game rules are Old School Essentials but only human characters are available. Challenge the savage world of swords & sorcery!

Finally, if you've been missing I Cast Light's Nightwick play reports Mycelium Mischef has taken up chronicling the adventures until Warren returns from hiatus. If you're interested in joining the adventures and perhaps dying in a hole, you can sign up here.

Running Nightwick on Start Playing

Art by Chris Huth 

Starting next Thursday, I'm going to be running my world famous megadungeon Nightwick Abbey on Start Playing. If you want to try OSE or do an old school dungeon delve into a Doom Metal Mega Dungeon, consider signing up!

Wilderlands Player Handout

I wrote a players' handout for my Wilderlands FLGS game.  You may find it here.  It is also available in the sidebar of this blog.

If you have any thoughts on it, let me know!

Characters for the Wilderlands

Like this post but for my FLGS Wilderlands game. Innana has already been claimed by someone. The other players, so far, have made their own.  Cole is responsible for both finding the PC portraits and color correcting them to match my crayon-colored-weirdos vision of the Wilderlands.

Aslog

• Aslog is a Skandik hermit and priestess of Odin. Her alignment is Chaotic Good.
• She was raised in a Skandik noble house on the island of Bezal. 
• Her home was raided by a rival band of Skandiks and her family killed.
• She was thrown on a raft by the raiders before washing ashore on an uninhabited island. 
• Odin appeared to her and told her to seek out the secrets of the Runes.
• She has made her way to the City State of the Invincible Overlord to see what secrets of the Runes may have led to the Overlord's ascension and to imitate her god in a life of wandering and adventure.

Innana

• Innana is an Alryan street urchin and rogue. Her alignment is Neutral.
• She was born in some village in the Northern Wilderlands, but she doesn't remember where.
• She was captured as a young age and raised as a slave in the slaver city of Antil. 
• She was able to escape with the help of a guard that took pity on her.
• After that she traveled the cities of the Western Wilderlands, thieving and foraging, until finally arriving in the City State of the Invincible Overlord.

Morcant

• Morcant the Magician is an Avalonian sage and wizard. His alignment is Neutral Good.
• He was raised in Valon, city of the Sea Mages, by a rich artisan.
• He was sent to sea wizard school where he became fascinated with the lost history of the Orichalcan Dragon Lords.
• He was selected by a sage and wizard who specialized in ancient Orichalca to serve as an apprentice.
• However, at some point he angered one of the nobles of that fair, northern city and was forced to flee.
• He has made his way to the City State of the Invincible Overlord to learn more about its Dragonlord past.

Pakhom

• Pakhom is an Altanian outlander and fighter. His alignment is Chaotic Neutral.
• He was born in barbarian Altanis.
• His parents abandoned him in the jungle when he was a babe, but he was found and raised by another tribe of Altanians.
• He became a warrior and a smith. He even had a wife.
• During a battle with a Skandik raiding party, he maimed a witch. The witch placed a curse on him that he would bring doom to his tribe.
• Fearing this curse, his tribe forced him to leave.
• He has made his way to the infamous City State of the Invincible Overlord to win fame and glory.

Alkmemnon

• Alkmemnon is a tiefling charlatan and Warlock of the fiend. His alignment is Chaotic Neutral.
• He was born and raised in the distant Demon Kingdoms to the south of the Wilderlands.
• He claims to have been raised as a noble, but his family was ousted from power and scattered throughout the world through the use of diabolic magic.
• He has spent the rest of his life lying and cheating until he can figure out a way to return and reclaim his birthright.
• He now finds himself in the City State of the Invincible Overlord, which overflows with wealth and has a number of ships ready to sail the Winedark Sea.

Arbrannon

• Arbrannon is a wood elf ranger and spy. His alignment is Chaotic Good.
• He grew up in the forest near Caer Cadwen in the land of Viridistan.
• He spent most of his life fighting against the World Emperor, ruler of Viridistan, and his demonic satraps - helping guide rebels and spy within the city and castle walls.
• The replacing of the satrap of Caer Cadwen with a demon of great power forced him to leave his forest in fear of his life.
• He has now ended up in the home of the World Emperor's chief rival, the City State of the Invincible Overlord.  He seeks to gain money and power before returning again to defeat Viridistan's demonic forces. 

Characters for Nightwick Abbey

I plan on running a Nightwick game at my FLGS in addition to the Wilderlands game I started last week. I made some pre-made characters for it in case someone didn't want to take the time to make one and I gave them short backgrounds.  I thought I'd  share the backgrounds on here to give a sense of the kind of characters I imagine adventure in the Dark Country.

Note on alignment: Nightwick uses a 5 point alignment line: Lawful - Good - Neutral - Evil - Chaotic. Lawful and Chaotic characters must have magical abilities granted by the God of Law or some fowl devil respectively. Most humans are neutral but some may be Good or Evil.

Nestorios Parsimonios

• Nestorios Parsimonios is a sage and alchemist and aspiring wizard. His alignment is Neutral.
• Nestorios is from Zenopolis, the greatest city in the World and the last bastion of the old Empire. 
• His father was also a wizard who seems to have had a child mostly to serve as an apprentice. 
• He became fascinated by alchemy while reading his father's books. 
• After his father finally died of a strange illness - unrelated to the strange substances he studied of course - he acted as an alchemist for some years. 
• However Nestorios became bored and, after finding a text describing the strange state of the infamous Nightwick Abbey and its seeming shifting qualities, he has left for the Dark Country to observe these properties for himself.

Dame Ysentrude

• Dame Ysentrude is a Realmish noble and paladin. Her alignment is Lawful. 
• Ysentrude was born to an impoverished noble family in the Realm of Man. Her family was once storied and powerful, but now her title is laughed at by the common folk. 
•  As the youngest daughter, she was likely going to be married to a noble of another kingdom, but the God of Law has shined his light on her and shown her family that she is destined for the life of a warrior. 
• She has left her home to head to the infamous Dark Country in order to fight the Devilry there and make her name famed throughout the World. 
• Luckily, the people of the Dark Country seem to think her family still has wealth.

Ermel the Dagger

• Ermel the Dagger is a Karslish Ranger and purported hero of the People. Her alignment is Evil.
• She was born in a cave in the Karslish Isles where her family was hiding from the brutal servants of a local lord. 
• A holy man who lived in the woods near her village declared that she were destined for greatness. 
• Ermel grew up stealing from both the forces of the evil lord and her fellow villagers, knowing that it was for her destiny. 
• Finally she was caught and threatened with hanging by the Baron, but she was able to have a stay of execution on the promise that she would go on Crusade to the Dark Country.

Friar Schub

• Friar Schub is a Realmish cleric and hermit. His alignment is Good.
• He was born in the Realm of Man inside a monastery.   
• Schub's mother died at birth and his father, a trapper, gave him to the monastery rather than raise him own his own.  
• He eventually began to prefer the seclusion of religious meditation to his cell, but he would return after many days to harangue his brothers with fiery sermons. 
• Recently, the Lady herself appeared to him and told of the Great Evil in Nightwick Abbey and so he joined a caravan to the Dark Country and the village of Nightwick.

Oberich

• Oberich is a dwarf rogue and refugee from the Kingdom Under the Mountain. His alignment is Neutral. He is also a fine dulcimer player.
• He was born in the Kingdom Under the Mountain. When he was too young to remember, the Dragon came up from the mines and drove  people to the four corners of the world.
• He lived thereafter with his parents in a series of rundown shacks as his father served as mason and goldsmith to various human lords and ladies.
• Oberich became jealous of the treasures of men, but decided that rather than indulge in this jealousy that he would go out into the wilderness and perhaps learn about the world before the coming of men. 
• He traveled the forests, valleys, mountains, and especially caves of the World.  Oberich spent much of it among the pagan folk of men or fighting goblins - the descendants of his brethren who turned to Devil Worship. 
•  Recently he has heard of the hoarded gold in the ruins of Nightwick Abbey.  All gold beneath the Earth belongs to the dwarves, and he would seek to reclaim it.

Dirk

• Dirk is a Frogling fighter and criminal. His alignment is Evil.
• He was born in Hopland, the marshy home of the Froglings. 
• His father abandoned him when he was young.  While his mother could support he, he decided to turn to crime because he was bored. 
•  He quickly became a leg breaker for a local gang. 
• He tried to moonlight as a highwayman, but his gang leader found out and put a hit out on him. 
• He came to the Dark Country to find wealth in Nightwick Abbey, more wealth than he could ever have working for the van Grouch gang.

Nightwick Abbey Player Doc

A looking for players poster made by longtime online player Cole

Here is a player doc I did for the 5e version of Nightwick.

Let me know what y'all think.

Nightwick Looking for Players

My Nightwick game on G+ continues to chug along, despite occasional interruptions from wild hairs and things.  We have a quorum nearly every week, but we're still a bit thinner on the ground than I'd like so...

Do You Want to Die in a Hole?!
Nightwick Abbey has lain in ruins for almost two centuries.  Built by power hungry knights and mad wizards, it now is home to only ghosts and goblins. Peasants refuse to work in the shadow of the ruined church, and at night eerie lights issue forth from its depths.  Many have tried to wrestle gold from the crypts which lie beneath, but few have returned.  Are you brave enough to seek your fortune in a demon-haunted dungeon?

A ConstantCon game using the Swords and Wizardry White Box

Play is from 1:00 - 4:00  CT every Saturday. 

This is not a FLAILSNAILS game.  You'll need a new guy for my precious-setting-shithole-hellscape.

Email me at evanDOTvanDOTelkinsATgmailDOTcom if you're interested.

Do You Want to Die in a Hole?!

Do You Want to Die in a Hole?!
Nightwick Abbey has lain in ruins for almost two centuries.  Built by power hungry knights and mad wizards, it now is home to only ghosts and goblins. Peasants refuse to work in the shadow of the ruined church, and at night eerie lights issue forth from its depths.  Many have tried to wrestle gold from the crypts which lie beneath, but few have returned.  Are you brave enough to seek your fortune in a demon-haunted dungeon?

A ConstantCon game using the Swords and Wizardry White Box

Play is from 8:30 - Midnight CT every Monday. 

This is not a FLAILSNAILS game.  You'll need a new guy for my precious-setting-shithole-hellscape.

Email me at evanDOTvanDOTelkinsATgmailDOTcom if you're interested.

Actual Play, Nightwick Abbey, the Underworld, and Gamer ADD

Warning: this one rambles a bit, but it's the synthesis of lots of ideas that have been whooshing around in my head recently and I needed to get them out.

Recent posts over at Grognardia have got me thinking about how awesome it is to see a campaign setting develop through actual play.  I've seen this first hand with a Wilderlands of High Fantasy campaign I ran off and on for a large part of my undergraduate career.  By the end of it our gaming group created and defined a slew of new cultures, reinterpreted existing ones, had characters who achieved apotheosis, established new dynasties in certain city states, and even saw the destruction of the CSIO due to a giant robot.  These served as the basis for a very short term 4e game I ran, but it fizzled out largely due to my frustration with that system.  Still, my version of the Wilderlands is wildly divergent from "canon" and 99.9% of that divergence came about as a result of the needs of actual play.

This shouldn't be that strange to anyone whose played any RPG for an extended period.  Even if one uses an established setting -- as I did -- eventually the group will run into things that aren't cover or are only sparsely covered by the setting material.  Still, one of the most exciting things about RPGs is seeing this kind of transformation of a setting through player action and DM development.

What James M. is talking about though doesn't just include the setting but also the rules.  The above Wilderlands example pretty much used 3.5 (with the spell recharge system from unearthed arcana).  What he is advocating, and he is right in doing so, is the development of house rules, adjoining systems, and supplements from actual play.

Originally I conceived of Nightwick Abbey as such a project.  I'd start with the Swords & Wizardry White Box, build a big dungeon, a nearby, and a really rough sketch of the overall area it existed in.  Then I'd start playing and build out from there.  That changed partially when I started this blog, and then again when I ran into my current group of players.  Now I use Labyrinth Lord with dabbles from Raggi's Game, the Rules Cyclopedia, and an increasing amount of AD&D.  This was largely because the players had already played Labyrinth Lord and were currently playing AD&D, and partially because it's just the way I ended up doing it. I've discussed already the fact that I just like handling the AD&D books and that I like Gygax's prose. Stil, it's more or less by the book D&D, even if which book is a bit contentious.  

The Underworld is a whole different animal.  I'd still largely consider developing it on an ad hoc basis.  Though I'd likely use the White Box for it as well, I may hold out to see what Brave Halfling Publishing's new Delving Deeper looks like.  The main idea though is to use a skeletal version of OSD&D and build out from there.  

I'd like to do this through play.  Unfortunately it's unlikely that I'll run the Underworld in the near future.  I've got a good thing going with my Nightwick Abbey group and I think these sorts of campaigns work best if they're designed for the long haul.  I'd ultimately like to be a one setting/campaign man.  If I ever DM for your group, it's gonna be X-thing-I've-been-working-on-for-years, assuming I ever figure out what that is.

The problem here is that I have one of the worst cases of GADD in recorded history.  The aforementioned Wilderlands campaign has the distinction of being the only game I ever ran that stopped at a logical point.  Even then, another DM had taken over and I was a player for the last few months.  Just this week I've pondered running HarnMaster, Nightwick Abbey again, AD&D set in the Savage Frontier (I always seperate the Paul Jaquays book from the rest of the FR setting.  Bullywugs riding dinosaurs!), Cthulhu Dark Ages, and now I'm sitting here thinking about how cool it would be if I could ever get a handle on the Underworld.

Part of Nightwick Abbey's success has been it's staying power.  I thought of the concept about two years ago in a blinding epiphany that occurred while listening to the Black Sabbath song Black Sabbath while looking at the cover of Supplement II: Blackmoor.  While I've only recently begun to run it regularly, it's been on my mind steadily for several years and no matter how far my mind wanders down the ADD path it always comes back to it.

So what does that mean for the Underworld?  Obviously I'm not currently running it, and I'm not likely to.  Perhaps I'd be better off devoting my attention solely to Nightwick Abbey.  The thing is, that the Underworld concept is just as recurrent in my brain as Nightwick Abbey is.  It's a bit more hazy and amorphous, but thats largely because it hasn't been set through the rigors of play that the Abbey has.  The Underworld and Nightwick Abbey are permanent fixtures in my daydreams, and it'll be a long time before either of them is swept out.

So what does all this mean?  Well I don't know yet.  Perhaps the level of development I'll do for the Dark Country will make it the out and out winner.  It'll become my Blackmoor/Greyhawk/EPT.  Or maybe the party will wipe and be in the mood for something else.  Bam!  Here comes Underworld.  Maybe I'll start an online Underworld game so that I can be developing towards something.  Who knows?  I sure don't.

Nightwick Abbey Session 1

You have no idea how long I've been waiting to use this picture.

Finally we get to the actual campaign.

I had four players who had contacted me earlier when they found out I lived in Knoxville.  The party consisted of a Thief (specialist), a Magic-User, a Cleric, and a Changeling.  The Changeling's player decided he had ram horns and a generally satyr-like aspect.

Unfortunately, character creation took a bit longer than expected, but not so long as to prevent play all together. Still the actually descent into the dungeon was far less extensive than the outings of my old gaming buddies.

We decided, due to time constraints, to skip over play in town.  I won't do this next session, but I thought it was a good idea as we only had an hour left to get any playing done.  They did hire two hirelings, one torch bearer and one man at arms named Clodivec and Oderic respectively.  My players assert (perhaps correctly) that they had the life expectancy of a mouse at a cat convention.  At the shaft that lead to the entrance, the players suggested tying Clodivec with a rope and lowering him down with a barrel attached to see if there was a "nibble."

At the base of the stairs they found a small chamber.  Opening the door to this was rather difficult, and once open the found that the room was filled about an inch deep with water.  The room was otherwise empty, which deeply disturbed all of my players.  Since the ceiling was too high for their torchlight to reveal it, they elected to leave it the hell alone and crossed into the dungeon proper.

Anyway, they took much the same route of the earlier party and ended up in the torture chamber/prison.  Here, since it's a keyed encounter and they hadn't been in the dungeon before, they found the same Death Worm that had been so easily slain by the previous delvers.  It put up a much more vigorous fight here.  Its hypnotic dance immediately transfixed everyone in the party other than the cleric.  To his dismay we discovered that Death Worms are not in fact undead.  He went toe to toe with the beast but was sadly slain.  Still, he managed to hold it off long enough that it only had one round to attack before the rest of the party left their stupor.  The Magic-User pelted the thing with Magic Missile and they returned to town to bury their friend.

Not the most exciting session, but it's a start.  The players seemed to enjoy it, and have asked me to run it again.  Hopefully we're looking at the start of a regular campaign.

 Sorry I don't have the character's names, but they only got an hour of play time and I can't find where I wrote down their marching order.

Nightwick Abbey Test Session II

Again I warn any readers living in the Knoxville who may be playing in this dungeon starting Tuesday to find something else to do.  Spoilers ahead.

This session began with the party recruiting a few more hirelings before heading off into the dungeon.  That done, they sought to explore a hallway that they had bypassed the previous session.  To their surprise, they found that it was quite short and ended in a large chamber.  Here some men in red robes seemed to be at work, painting various things on the walls.

The party quickly surmised that these were not truly living men, but rather undead revnants.  Alma managed to turn them and they fled from her sight before battle could be joined.  They then set about exploring a southern corridor.  At the end of it they found a door that was rather difficult to open, but Schlog managed to force it anyway.  Beyond they found a massive chamber filled with bats and their rather foul excrement.  The ceiling was far out of their torch's range, but they could tell by the squeaking that they had stumbled into a bat cave.  Armand elected to hurl a few vials of flaming oil into the room, neglecting the fact that the party had spied a large crack in the ceiling where the sun shown in.  The floor quickly caught ablaze and they exited.

After leaving, they heard a deafening noise emanate, as if a large creature had been stirred.  They were not the only ones who heard it.  They proceeded (quickly) down a side passage and found themselves confronted with a set of fat, saucer-eyed creatures.  The Goblins, upon seeing that the party was not in fact some horrible collection of beasts, seemed rather disinterested.  They let down their guard, but refused to let the party pass. Fearing the large number of Goblins, the party elected to treat with them a bit.  The squat things referred to a master, simply called "the Boss," and they had a bizarrely long conversation about the number of whippings they received from this figure.

Realizing a deal could not be reached and that the Goblins were growing impatient, the party decided to seek down a corridor they had not yet ventured into.  This corridor lay beyond the room where they had first seen the zombies diligently painting.  The undead had since returned and continued their work in eerie quite.  The Cleric again shooed them away with a wave of her cross.  They entered and began to debate their next course of action.  Unfortunately, the zombies quickly returned and set upon them while they were in disarray.

The fighting was fierce, and though the party was triumphant they were badly injured and most of their hirelings went to meet their maker.  They wisely decided it was time to return to town and recoup.  This took a number of days, during which time Coll heard that several loggers and trappers had gone missing after entering the woods.

They soon found the source of this trouble:  several giant bats that laired in the large chamber they set ablaze.  Angered by the flames, the bats had set forth to hunt and reek terrible vengeance on men.  The party found these creatures and did battle with them in the forest outside of the dungeon.  The party made it away relatively unscathed and set forth to return to Nightwick Abbey.

This time, at the behest of Coll's player, they decided to look through the cemetery that lay near the abbey proper.  In it they found a vault that concealed an entrance to some (apparently) extensive catacombs.  These were guarded by two iron statues that looked like this.

These proved to be insanely tough, though the party was luck in that they left the Paladin and the Cleric alone.  Unfortunately Coll -- whose player had suggested they enter in the first place -- perished along with his hirelings.  The party returned to town and he rolled up a Magic-User in short order.

When they returned, they elected to not tackle the remaining statues, but instead to continue down the path they had intended before the fight with the zombies.  One of the rooms along this corridor was a storage room with miraculous properties.  It appeared as though it had recently been cleaned and occupied, and a torched blazed on its wall.  However, any material brought outside this room aged as though it went through one hundred years in an instant.  The players spent the rest of the evening conducting experiments in this chamber. My favorite of which was when they brought several books from the library inside and found that they had reformed and were almost brand new (until being removed from the room).

All in all it was a fine session.  When Coll's player had to make a new character, I realized that I need to reform certain things about the Druid before it is a viable class for my system.  LotFP:WFRPG's strange encumbrance/armor rules (which I enjoy) are largely incompatible with the requirements of a Druid.  I will also need to decide how much Scale, Banded, and Splint armor add to encumbrance.

Nightwick Abbey Test Session

Wednesday night marked the first time I've run this version of Nightwick Abbey for a face-to-face group.  I'm happy to report that it went tremendously well.  There are a few things I'll have to tweak before presenting it to the face-to-face group in Knoxville, but it hit pretty spot on.

Before I get started talking about the session itself, I want to say a few words about how I prepared the dungeon for our would-be delvers.  I'm using a strange hybrid of Labyrinth Lord and LotFP:WFRPG for my system, but I found myself consulting the AD&D DMG and FF more than those two volumes.  I got a strange joy using those to stock my dungeon levels that I find very hard to convey.  It is physically impossible for it to be nostalgia because my first game was 3e.

Anyway, first I placed the various "Saturday Night Specials" that lie in the first layer of Nightwick Abbey.  Then I used the DMG and FF to stock the first three levels with monsters and the LL book for the various treasures and traps.  The map itself was a combination of Dizzy Dragon's interpretations of Dyson's geomorphs and Risus Monkey's geomorphs.  Each level is pretty dense, with about 80-100 rooms.

We had a total of five players, but two came to the game significantly later.  The first three characters to plumb those terrifying halls were...

Alma, a Cleric dedicated to the God of Law
Schlog, a pagan Fighting-Man who has a strange obsession with bones
Coll, a converted Specialist

I mostly skipped over their time in the village, allowing them to look for hirelings.  They found quite a few, and when they were satisfied they headed through the woods to the Abbey itself.

If you are possibly going to play in the Knoxville campaign please stop reading now.

They found that the abbey consisted solely of a large church and a graveyard.  The players noted that there seemed to be no sign of a cloister or dormitories for the monks who once lived there, and found it strange that it would be so.  They church itself was mostly ruined except for the foundations of two bell towers.  They discovered the staircase down within one of these.

At the bottom of the staircase, they found a large room that seemed to be a prison of some sort.  While investigating the rather fearsome torture devices there, a large snake-like creature made entirely out of a man's spinal column and skull surprised them.  Its strange dance caused all but Schlog and Coll to be completely entranced.  Fortunately they were able to dispatch the thing on their own (I had rolled pitifully for its HP).  They were most interested in a small dais that was bloodstained.

While attempting to discern the purpose of this oddity, they overheard the approach of a number of armored individuals.  It was a patrol of heavily outfitted skeletons who attacked once they saw the party.  Luckily, Alma was able to turn them and the fighters and hirelings were able to destroy them before they could flee back down the hallway.  Schlog then broke open all of their bones to see if there was any treasure within.

After exploring a few empty chambers, they found one covered in various bits of refuse.  Coll -- fearing the presence of an Otyugh -- refused to enter but prodded about with his 10ft pole.   His pole was grabbed by a pallid tentacle, and then the horrible face of a Carrion Crawler (or Carcass Scavenger if you prefer the LL nomenclature) appeared to greet them.  At this point the hirelings in the back rank bolted down an unexplored hallway.  The party the heard a number of strange, semi-intelligent, noises echo down the corridor that the hirelings had just fled through.

Schlog and Coll's players argued over whether or not they should close the door to the room with the Carcass Scavenger in it or if they should attack it.  Schlog ran in quasi-suicidally but due to lucky rolls (and the fact that I seemed incapable of rolling high on HD the whole night) he killed it in one, swift blow.

They then turned to greet the number of deer-headed orcs that stampeded down the hallway at them.  After fierce fighting, one character lay unconscious and their linkboy had soiled himself but the party was alive.  They retreated back to town to recoup and plan.

At this point the other players arrived, and they made their characters while the original party re-outfitted.  All but one of their (living) hirelings decided to jump ship after their previous expedition, but they were able to garner some new ones before venturing forth again into the dungeon.

The new players had not quite finished their characters before this, so I needed a way to work them in.   I rolled a random encounter check and decided that these characters were the remnants of a party that had been destroyed by whatever I just rolled.  So two screaming men running as fast as they could confronted the party.  Behind them came 15 Mites.  These were dispatched surprisingly easily (due to an ability I gave Fighting Men which I need to remove immediately).

There new companions were...
Armand, a Paladin
Franz, another Specialist

After arguing a bit over the contents of the room, and some rather humorous roleplaying (Franz has an IQ of 3, but believes it to be considerably higher), they continued off through the dungeon.

They next found a large room with an immense tapestry.  This tapestry seemed to shift in the flickering light of their lamps.  When the light hit it directly it depicted a number of valiant Sword Brothers slaughtering some demonized pagans.  When slightly obscured by shadow it seemed to depict innocents running from the fiendish blades of a number of undead horseman.

Beyond this chamber they glimpsed a figure in red robes who seemed to be placing a book in a shelf.  They debated what to do about this, as the Paladin was able to detect that a number of other chaotic creatures laired within.  They hastily formed a plan and destroyed the monsters -- which they determined were zombies -- with the liberal use of flaming oil.

The room that the zombies had emanated from was once a library, though now all the books were rotten and destroyed.  The players hypothesized that the zombies were carrying on work they had done during life.

The last chamber they were able to explore contained a fiendish trap lifted from Stonehell and the only real treasure they found on either excursion.  Afterwards, due to their trap-oriented Specialist's  injuries, they headed back to the village and we wrapped up the session.

All in all it was a good session.  It was a joy to see some of their strategic and tactical discussions.

In about an hour, I'll be running the second session.  I'll probably break that report into multiple posts due to this one's length.  Sorry about that.

Thanksgiving Plans

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would be meeting with some old gaming buddies the week of Thanksgiving and playing some games.  I've finally decided that they'll be the guinea pigs for the current draft of the Nightwick Abbey campaign dungeon.  

We'll be playing two sessions, so they obviously won't be able to see much of the dungeon.  Still I want to try out some of my house rules and procedures before I meet with the face to face group.  I'll post a recap of both sessions after I return.

I've hit a wall creatively with Nightwick and its world that can only be overcome through actual play.  I fear that any further development that is made for anything outside the concerns of the table will overly limit me.  I could be wrong about this.  

I will continue to do articles like Monster Mondays and I have a few more to put out about the world in general before play starts, but there will be a bit of a slow down for the next week or so.  Once I start running this thing I have no doubt that the needs of play will cause me to generate more content that will be posted here.  I'm still very interested in this setting so don't worry about its future.  It just needs a party to muck around in it.

News from Places Deep

1. Last Thursday I met with a few people to talk about running NIghtwick Abbey.  I'm scheduled for a test run later this month, and with any luck I'll soon have a regular campaign.
2. If this works out, I'm going to have to cancel the online game I run.  I should be able to continue playing in Scott's Stonehell game, but I may have to quit that as well.
3. In discussing the campaign with them, I've decided to switch it from the White Box to Labyrinth Lord plus a copious amount of house-rules largely taking from Raggi's Game.  These will be posted whenever I have a working draft.
4. I'm working on a few entries for the Petty Gods project, and I may or may not post those on this blog in the near future.  I'm very enthusiastic about this project, and it has made me sad that my setting is more or less monotheistic.  Maybe I can work them into the Underworld.
5. During the week of Thanksgiving I will be back in my hometown.  I've already made arrangements for my old group to get together for a short OSD&D game.  This game will be set in either the Underworld, the World of Nightwick, or the Wilderlands.  I have not yet decided, but a play report will go up on this blog when it happens.

I hope to have a more substantive post later today.

Nightwick Campaign Pitch

"Nightwick Abbey has lain in ruins for almost a century.  Built by power hungry Templars and mad Wizards, it now is home to only ghosts and goblins. Peasants refuse to work in the shadow of the ruined church, and at night eerie lights issue forth from its depths.  Many have tried to wrestle gold from the crypts which lie beneath, but few have returned.  Are you brave enough to seek your fortune in a demon-haunted dungeon?

A Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game using the original rules."

This will go on the flyer, along with information about meeting time and my contact info.

Thoughts?

Two Quick Notes

1) Thank you for all of those who advised me on how to sell my campaign to potential players.  Reader Cole did this cool  mock-up for a potential campaign poster.  I'll likely be using it as inspiration for my own.

2) I've updated my campaign's appendix N.  Nothing too big, but still

Advice Sought

I'm going to be using Swords & Wizardry to run the Nightwick Campaign whenever I get some players.

I need a way to explain what the hell that is in a flyer or forum post looking for players.  It's not exactly OSD&D, but it is.

Any ideas on how to communicate this?

Pounding the Pavement

My wife is urging me even more to find a flesh and blood group.  I'm going to be using Mr. Raggi's method, but altered a bit because we don't really have any friends here yet since we just moved.

This will not affect the possibility of a skype game.  The only change you may expect to see in upcoming blog posts are updates on how the search is going.

Wish me luck.