Playing AD&D!

I'm very excited, as a friend here in Berlin is starting up an AD&D (1st edition) campaign! We're starting tomorrow evening with character generation. (I'm hoping for an illusionist.)

The really cool thing for me is that, though I've owned copies of all the AD&D 1e books for years, I've actually never played it! I've played loads of basic D&D (Mentzer / Labyrinth Lord), and loads of AD&D 2e, but never the Gygaxian masterpiece.

Very much looking forward to it. Maybe I'll post my character when he's made :)

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 9

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members Present
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Venser, 3rd Lvl Human Thief Rear Guard*
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Hjalhir, 3rd Lvl Human Wizard Rear Guard*
Blade, 2nd Lvl Human Cleric of Hegg, God of Blades
Deepingdale (Tal), 2nd Lvl Dwarrow
Skarr, 1st Lvl Female Ratfolk Thief
Stignarr, 1st Lvl Human Fighter Rear Guard*
(*Absent)

Starting and ending locations: The Chasm Deeps returning later to the Red folk’s village of Lembde, 2 hours east of the Chasm Deeps (5 miles).

Session 9 (26/10/11)
After cleaning ourselves up after the fight with the spider, Hjalhir decided that he was in no fit state to continue and so we escorted him outside to join Venser, Stig and the mules at the camp that they had set up in a small hollow in the cliff face, just around the corner from the entrance (hopefully away from prying eyes and noses).  The remainder of the company apprehensively returned back to the deeps.  We returned to the spiders room and after listening, John the animated skeleton opened the door opposite on the northwest wall.

This lead into a large room 40’ x 55’, which was both strangely and quiet disturbingly, very clean.   Immediately Deepingdale became a little anxious about possible traps, but after an extensive search, nothing could be found.  3 other doors lead off from this room, one on each wall.  We decided to move north first and when John opened the door it revealed a dark corridor ahead.  Cagliosro’s animate undead spell ran out at this point and John collapsed to the floor, his work done for now.  As the Necromancer started to collect up John’s inanimate bones and return them to the coffin which he strangely carried on his back, suddenly out of the dark, shot a web thread and entangled Johns ulna (lower arm bone).  Before Caglisro had a chance to grab it, the sticky web thread shot back into the darkness along with John’s lower left arm.  Caglisro, in fear, quickly shut the door in front of him, thinking that another giant spider was about to do the same to him.  The party quickly assembled with Deepingdale acting as a shield guard at the front and Scarr and Slippy with bows with Blade with his Glaive set to receive.  We cautiously opened the north door and peered into the darkness.  All along the corridor ceiling hung a deep blanket of dusty old spiders webs.  At this point Caglisro heard a wooden creaking sound to the south of us and we closed the north door and prepared for our visitor.

Scarr had the plan to surprise however was sneaking up on us and we pretended to leave the room back to the east, but instead stood still very quietly and waited with weapons poised, but nothing happened.  10 minutes later we decided to proceed through the southern door to investigate.  Using Deepingdales brute strength he managed to wrench the door off its hinges when trying to open it.  This would prove a problem later.  The room to the south entered into another large oblong room 60’ x 30’ with a large 20’ stone statue of a frog in the centre of it within what was once clearly a fountain.  A number of double doors lead off from this junction hall.  The doors to the west and south where both slightly ajar and spots of fresh blood lay on the floor leading through the western door.  A strong smell of dogs (gnolls?) hung in the air.  The doors to the east hung off their hinges and through these we could make out day light from the entrance.  Deep looked through the doors to the west and could see a carcass of a dead deer lying on the ground. 

An additional door lay on the northern wall leading back into the dead spiders room.  We decided to check this first as another door which we had not opened yet lead to the east and looking at our map we wanted to know if this room contained gnoll guards as the smell seemed very strong from this area.  After hearing nothing, we opened the door to reveal a small 20’x20’ room, its floor seemed to look exactly like the nights sky, brilliant black with shiny stars that looked up at us.  Deepingdale asked Cagliosro to check it out and the Necromancer started casting a detect magic spell.  Whilst he did this, from the door way Deepingdale dropped one of his stone marbles onto the floor into the room.  For a moment the marble rolled around and once it settled it disappeared through the floor.  Deepingdale then took out his 50’ rope and dangled 3’ of rope into the room.  The rope settled on the floor, then like the marble, slowly sunk into the floor and disappeared.  Deep was unable to retrieve the rope and began cutting the section off with his knife.  It is at this point that the party came under attack and Cagliosro's spell was detect magic spell was interrupted.

From the room to the south with the Frog Statue in it, we saw a grey humanoid hand push open the door on the southern wall.  Scarr who was standing guard shot at the hand with his bow, but the arrow embedded into the south door and the hand quickly withdrew.  Perhaps this was our earlier stalker we thought.  Deep dropped his knife and the rope, withdrew the Azure Serpent Sword from his scabbard and quietly moved into the room behind him to see what the fuss was.  Slippy and Blade joined Scarr and at the same time from the east we heard a terrible humanoid dog like cry and from the corridor charged two 7’ Gnolls carrying large spears.  Slippy and Scarr let loose their arrows and Blade attacked with his Glaive.  The Cleric of Hegg and the Ratfolk soon dispatched the foul dog men and just when we thought all was safe, from the door to the south three ghouls charged in.  Scarr managed to leap onto the Frog statue just as an undead red man ghoul leapt up at him clawing with both hands and biting with his teeth.  The little rat women was badly scratched in the back, but managed to resist the diseased paralysis from the ghouls dirt ridden claws.  In a state of shock and surprise, Scarr’s arrow missed completely.


Deepingdale, Slippy and Glaive prepared to receive the three ghouls.  Combat was chaotic and confused.  Deepingdale skewered the Ghoul in the back who was leaping up at Scarr, but before we knew it, despite managing to strike the Ghouls with Hjalhir’s magical dagger, Slippy lay on the floor paralysed from the unclean claws and bite from one the Ghouls who was now lying on top of him trying to eat him.  Deepingdale was also hit, but his Dwarrow endurance was no match for the filth of the ghouls and he took nothing more than a small flesh wound.  Blade then tried to cast a sanctuary spell to rescue Slippy, but just before the spell incantation was complete, a ghoul scratched him and disrupted the spell.  Despite this, Blade bravely tried to pull Slippy from under the attacking ghoul but instead was bitten and clawed himself and ended up also lying paralysed next to Slippy near the door.  Deepingdale seeing that the situation was turning dire, backed off, retreating slowly to the north east door and stood over the two paralysed bodies of his colleagues defending them from the ghoul claws eventually killing his own assailant, but not managing to do anything more.  Scarr in the meantime shot arrows down from his safe vantage point.  After failing to earlier cast control undead on the attacking ghouls, Cagliosro at this point managed to successfully cast an animate dead spell and raised the dead spider and the two Gnolls who proceeded to enter the battle just as another 4 ghouls appeared through the south door.  The undead gnolls and spiders made quick work of the last two ghouls before their comrades could join them to reinforce their attack.  Meanwhile, Cagliosro managed to drag our paralysed companions back into the dead spiders room and summoned a new John the skeleton from a scroll to support the ensuing combat.

Unfortunately it was now becoming very clear that with only three remaining party members left in combat, one of which was seriously injured and potentially cut off from the rest of us, we decided it was time for a fighting retreat (or running for our lives).  Deepingdale opted to prepare burning oil to try to dispatch the four new ghouls who had entered the chamber, but through the pressure of battle he lost the initiative and ghouls poured in and pursued poor Scarr as he leapt down from the frog statue just before one of them jumped up at him narrowly missing Scarr.  Scarr ran like the wind through the broken door to the northwest, into the clean room, pursued by ghouls.  The undead gnolls and spider helped Cagliosro to carry our paralysed colleagues towards the exit.  Meanwhile, through the south door we heard the howling cry of more Gnolls.  Deepingdale tried to attack the ghouls who were now chasing after Scarr.  Whilst watching the door to the south, Deep slung the flaming oil flask into the room with the ghouls, but it went in too far, missing the undead.  Recognising that the situation hung in the balance Deepingdale ran to join Cagliosro in the dead spider’s room, just as the Ghouls were trying to force the door open to the west.  Deep managed to spike the door shut, but the door to south now burst open with more Ghouls and something else behind them.  The party then ran for their lives and headed for the exit and daylight, with the angry sound of pursuit we did out best to carry our colleagues to safety.  Fortunately, as we emerged into daylight we noticed that we were no longer being pursued.

We joined Venser, Stig and Hjalhir in the camp by the cliffs and quickly packed away our stuff and fled to the village to rest.  Again, fortune shown on us as we encountered nothing during our return trek and after two hours we arrived safely in Lembde to be greeted by Olob, our friendly gatekeeper.

Deepingdale enquired about possible sources of healing and we were directed to the village herbalist, Meerka, where we were able to purchase some non magical balms and tonics to help speed up natural healing process and assist in removing ghoul paralysis.  We then retired to the inn to rest and recuperate after a lucky escape.  Praise be to Assedh

It lives!

Alex & I have been on a frenzy of creativity, and the result is the shiny new Old-school Monster Wiki!

So far all the monsters from Labyrinth Lord + the AEC are in there, all tagged up by creature type.

All it needs now is:

• More monsters! Get in there and add your crazy home-brew monstrosities! (Alex is looking into how to import more monsters from various tomes automatically...)
• More tags! Get in there and get tagging... wilderness environments especially needed at the moment.
• Spread the word :)

Enjoy!

A database of old-school monsters?

I've recently been musing on the possibility of creating encounter tables for specific dungeon environments -- in the same way as there are tons of tables for various types of wilderness environments, from swamps to arctic tundra, I thought it'd be very useful to have tables for things like fungoid caverns, volcanic rifts, lost tombs, etc. There's loads of prototypical dungeon environments which could easily have their own table.

I had in mind using these tables as an aid while stocking dungeons, for which I often use the normal dungeon encounter tables. I tend to find these a little limited and generic though, hence the idea of different tables for different types of dungeon.

But: I just had what seems like an even better idea, and one that could be immensely useful for all sorts of things.

An online old-school monster database, with tags.

The tags are the important thing. The fact that monsters are usually only indexed by name is what makes coming up with suitably themed collections of them tricky. I realised this when looking at the extensive monster lists in the AD&D Monster Manual II. There's this huge list of monster names, sorted alphabetically or by hit dice or by wilderness environment. But to use the lists successfully you really need to know what the monsters are like, just from their names. For instance, I came across quite a few stumbling blocks in the list of 1st level dungeon monsters: rothe, vilstrak, vulchling, tween...? A lookup in the fiend folio and I now know what these things are, but it's slow work.

But what if there were a database where you could just search for monsters of 1 to 3 HD with the tags "fungus" or "whimsical"? Such a tool could be used to whip up encounter tables in a jiffy, or to get quick inspiration for encounters of any sort. I think this could be a seriously useful tool, if set up right.

So, a couple of questions:

1. Does anyone know if anything like this already exists? (I've never heard of anything like it, but you never know... I imagine possibly a resource like this may exist for 3.5th or 4th edition.)
2. Any thoughts on what software / system would be good for something like this? A freely available, easy to use, multi-user, wiki-style, online system would be perfect, but something that works as a database as opposed to a page / post based wiki or blog.

I'd imagine including a foundation of monsters from the OSR clone books (LL, AEC, S&W, OSRIC), supplemented with links to any freely available old-school OGL stuff that could be found online. (Possibly also stuff from the AD&D monster books, though that's not freely available.) The idea is that at the beginning it'd simply be a list of all the monsters (their names, hit dice and source -- either a url or a page reference in a book), but that then people could add tags to them, gradually increasing the worth of the database.

Any thoughts?

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 8

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player. 

Company Members Present
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Venser, 3rd Lvl Human Thief Rear Guard*
Cagliosro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Hjalhir, 3rd Lvl Human Wizard
Blade, 2nd Lvl Human Cleric of Hegg, God of Blades
Deepingdale (Tal), 2nd Lvl Dwarrow
Scarr, 1st Lvl Female Ratman Thief
Stignarr, 1st Lvl Human Fighter Rear Guard*
(*Absent)

Starting and ending locations: City of Bolaar (Yellow Men area of Chasm of Nayellem), proceedings down the river west to the village of Lembde and then on foot via the old road to the Chasm Deeps.

Session 8 (19/10/2011)
After considerable carousing in the yellow mens city of Bolar, in the Chasm, Deepingdale eventually managed to train up to gain warrior hood (2nd lvl Dwarrow).  Henry and Venser had an eventful few days, meeting a strange Frog Cult in Bolar and after getting considerably drunk they managed to glean some information about the whereabouts of three of the Breets Relics, the Aquamarine Raven, the Blooded Shield and the Eye Stone.  All three of which are said to be found in the Chasm deeps.  However, what did Henry and Venser offer the Frog Cult in return for the information, we all wondered the next morning in the sober light of day, only time will tell?!  Our mage Hjalhir is still not well and although the herbs from the Rim help with his concentration, it is clear that sometimes he is unable to cast his spells correctly.  Before our departure we were unsuccessful in finding a suitable temple in Bolar to heal him.  Our inquiries about a temple of Hegg were met with disbelief.  These are a godless folk or are they?  We have decided to travel under the guise of a group of Imperial Cartographers (Clever idea of Henry’s), Venser and Hjalhir forged some suitably important looking papers with fake wax seals and the spell casters will act as our scribes and the fighters in the company as security.  After finishing our preparations, we regrouped and managed to get passage on a river barge for 8gp each, travelling west for 5+6 hours through the forest of Lensirrik (apparently it’s old name, now called Lensk).  Before catching the barge we were warned by the yellow men to disguise or spell casters as the Red Men are very warlike and hate all spell casters and see them all as witches.

After an uneventful river journey, the barge dropped us off on the river bank near the last human habitation in the Red Mens area, a village called Lembde on the far western edge of the chasm forest.  The earlier advice from the Yellow men was well served and on our arrival at the gates to Lembde, a small fortified village, a large yellow painted eye (the witch eye as it is known by the locals) looked down on the company.  On introducing ourselves as the Cartographers Company from the Imperial Cartographers Guild, we struck up a conversation with one of the gate men, a trusting fellow called Olob.  The village had never been visited by outlanders before.  After some charm from Henry (aka Slippy), he told us that this was the domain of King Mab, beyond imperial control and the deity Mox, watched over the Red People checking for any witches and that the Yellow men were their most despised enemy who they had warred against for years, although now an uneasy peace has lasted between the two peoples for the last 100 years, but they were still very weary of magic users or witches as he called them.  Olob also warned us of the numerous ferocious Owlbears in the forest of Lensk.  A pleasant enough chap, despite his bright red skin and blue hair, he was welcoming and granted our group entry into the village and directed us to the inn, he also suggested speaking to one of the local hunters, a man called Boleg, known to have defeated an owlbear and familiar with the monsters ways, he could perhaps offer some advice with our mapping.

Caglistro, Venser and Stig remained outside the village, the Necromancer, not convinced by the warm welcome, refused to enter and instead set up a small camp beyond the stockade.  On entering the village we spotted a 20 foot tower, at the bottom of which was a large cage with 3 ferocious looking Owl Bears inside it and some men stood around, clearly their keepers.  On enquiring we were told that the Owlbears were the villages “Protectors”.  When Hjalhir passed the cage, the Owlbears became very aggravated!!!

On entering the inn (and several beers purchased for the locals and 10gp later), we quickly made many new friends and many friendly locals contributed to correcting our apparently, very out of date maps that the Dax women and the one that Mol had provided us with.  The Cartography Company proved to be a great cover.  We also had a very useful talk with the Hunter Boleg, who reassured us that we were unlikely to encounter any Owlbears, as they mainly stayed in the forest and our journey by foot, west of Lembed towards the Chasm Deeps was on the old road that lay beyond the woods.  But he said our main concern should be for the large group of gnolls who inhabit the area west of the village, near the cairn and chasm deeps.  A few beers later, Boleg also told us about the chasm rifts, a poisonous volcanic area and finally, he then shared with us the tale of the legendary chasm Dragon, Meerka, who he described as a large black shadow who in the past had attacked the village and is still seen flying overhead at least once a month.  Meerka has been present in the Chasm area for many years and is thought to live in the chasm cliffs above the chasm deep.  Finally, Slippy enquired about Boleg’s facial scar and his own run in the Owlbears, we bid Boleg fair well, with the challenge of returning with an Owlbear beak, in return for a free night on the ale!

Buoyed up by such expectations and with our adventuring juices flowing, after a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast, we set off early in the morning, down the old road into the west.  The first thing we came across was a huge run down 20 foot stone cairn with an inscription at its base, in imperial common (which Slippy couldn’t read, much to our hilarity) “Sacred Eye of the Overseer Breets the Great”.  The Sacred Eye was marked on the Dax map as relic number one, however, despite our meticulous searching; someone had already removed it from the Cairn.

We continued on, encountering nothing, seeing steam rising, probably from the chasm rifts that Boleg described, off to the North about 1 mile from the old road and eventually we arrived at the farthest west end of the chasm, where a entrance fronted by two large stone pillars, decorated in memory of past overseers, greeted us, along with a pile of old bones and a strong smell of dogs and fresh blood coming from the cave entrance (Gnolls?).

Stig and Venser kindly offered to wait outside with the horses and mules.  The humans lit their torches and bows were drawn and we cautiously walked forward.  Ahead of us lay a 40’ wide entrance which eventually narrowed to 30’ and a 60’ long entrance hall with 5 stone columns on each side, also carved depicting the overseers.  This hallway lead into a large 80’ large cavern with natural corridors leading off to the north, northwest, west, southwest and south.  Again, a pile of bones greeted us along with the sound of frogs from the Northwest passage.  Scarr scouted ahead and noticed the smell of dung coming from the northern passage.  After considering our options, we decided to try to avoid being attacked from the rear by laying marbles and caltrops at both the northern and western passage way entrances.  From the western passage a strong smell of blood and dogs emanated.  The company, especially our Necromancer, was interested in the frogs, so we headed up the northwest passage where another passage lead off to the east.  Scarr, Deepingdale and Slippy went off to explore, the little rat women thief crawled up the wall of the natural passage way which lead into another small cavern, suddenly from the darkness we head a scream and Scarr suddenly disappeared into the cavern ahead of us.  Nightwing  the owl reported that a large creature was devouring the rat women and so we cautiously entered the cavern to find a giant toad had swallowed Scarr.  Hjalhir failed to cast his magic missle and battle ensued, the toad spat Scarr out, who was fortunately saved at the last moment by a healing spell from Blade.  The giant toad was dispatched by arrows, slings, pole arms and swords.  Scarr removed the giant toads tongue, she thought it might come in handy one day!?

We returned to the passage after finding nothing of note in the giant toads beautiful stalagmite adorned cave and headed into the frog room, a circular 30’ room with an ornate pool in the centre.  Surrounding the pool were 8 statues with carved frogs on top, from inside each stone frog came the sound of real frogs.  The statues were hollow and we thought they were connected to a passage way below, where the sound was coming from.  In the pool lay crystal clear water, with no apparent source.  Scarr decided to take a quick bath in the pool and was very refreshed and whilst we waited for Scarr, Slippy had a quiet religious moment.  We managed to convince Caglisro not to piss into the pool as it may be the only source of clean drinking water available to us.

A passage way lead off to the west, which 20’ later opened up into a large oblong man made hall 20’ wide by 80’ long with a 20’ high vaulted ceiling.  Directly opposite the entrance to the hall on the west wall was a wooden door with an iron ring door opener.  As we entered the room,  Deepingdale and Scarr moved forward to listen at the door opposite and the keen eyed Scarr spotted a shadow shifting in the vaulted ceiling above us.  On careful further examination we could make out a large spider’s web and behind it sat a giant spider.  A single bulls eye shot from Deepingdales heavy crossbow downed the beast and before it could stop twitching in its death throws; Scarr had removed its poison sacks, fangs and any other useful type ingredients that rogues find useful in their strange trade.      

On examining the hall, we could see that at the southern end on the southern wall another door and a final door at the southern end on the eastern hall. In the middle of the east wall lay a large pile of rubble, old broken furniture etc.  Using our company, non-extendable (Patent pending) 10’ poles we found a yellow man skeleton with a small leather pouch with 90sp in it.  At this point we decided to rest and collected our comrades from outside.

Here, have a dungeon

Spoiler warning: Players in my campaign, this is the map for a dungeon are you may explore at some point. Best not study it...

For everyone else, here's a blank map I recently drew, which I quite like and thought others may enjoy too. Do with it what you will, if you will.

A dungeon level: Part 1

Spoiler warning: Players in my campaign, this is the map for the dungeon under the old oak tree, which your characters long explored. I guess you most likely won't go back there, but still I'd suggest not looking at the map, and especially not reading the key, as I think this would spoil some of the magic, so to speak.

Inspired by a comment from Brendan on an old post of mine where I shared a dungeon map I'd drawn, I thought I'd post another map, and the accompanying key for it. The map you see is actually the first level which leads down to the map I posted previously. The latter was only partially stocked, and the party never ventured into it, so it remains unfinished and unexplored. The 1st level was however almost fully cleared out, explored over the course of probably almost a dozen play sessions -- I'm really surprised how long it lasted!

So here's the map, and the first part of the key, typed up from the notes I used to run it. The notes are very rough, so a dash of imagination is required while reading! Still, I hope it proves entertaining, interesting and / or useful for someone. I'll post the rest of the key as I find time to type it up.

The Dungeon Under the Old Oak Tree 
1. A large glade in a forest. Huge oak tree in middle, hollowed out. Shaft leads down. Sides of shaft covered with tree roots, like ladder. 1 in 10 chance to fall. Sandy floor at bottom, walls still riddled with roots. One root has "NOLLY'S KINGDOM" carved into it.

1a. Roots covered in moss, crawling with worms & insects. Old leather glove laid over root (left). From east comes whooshing sound. Faint glow and warmth from south.

2. In passageway tree roots reach out to grab items from PCs as they pass. If anyone fails a DEX check they lose an item. Can be recovered by cutting the roots -- at which an ominous rumbling is heard.

3. Muddy floor, mossy walls (glowing). Three 5' deep nooks. One has cosy cloaks & coats (in pocket of one is key to 28). One has a portrait of a gnome-like creature. One has a hat stand with red & purple felt hats.

4. Low round roof. Round cobblestoned floor. Neat wooden table & chair. Small bell and plaque "PLEASE RING". Walls still mossy & rooty.

5. Bookshelf full of nonsense. Sack of bones behind bookshelf. Two comfy upholstered chairs. Chairs attack if touched: AC 7, HD 1 (5, 6hp), Att
2 x 1d3 (clawed arms). Books fly out.

6. Cute kitchen. Sheep-headed faun called "Ramius". Acts all Mr Tumnus but tries to feed PCs sleep tea (save vs spells) and then eat them. AC 6, HD 2 (12hp), Att butt 1d6, knife 1d6.

7. Ramius' lair of horror. Skulls & bones. Chest with fresh human remains and 87gp, 192sp, 202cp, sapphire worth 400gp. Four sheep skulls which Ramius can command: AC 8, HD 1 (4hp each), Att 1d6.

8. Cobblestones. Round roof. Door carved with tree motifs. Large red patterned rug, concealing magical circle. Teleports to 32. 2 in 6 chance of stepping on rug by chance.

9. Stone walls. Small table with glass jars. Inside are tiny dead people (1" high). Two scrolls -- one of MU spell reduce, one (written in fey tongue) a page from a story about a journey to another world of micro-people.

10. Stone. Statue of two dogs and their master, a hunter. Mirrors on west & east walls, anyone looking in sees the hunter's face instead of their own, mad look in his eyes. Hear barking and a horn somewhere distant. Each turn 2 in 6 chance of being attacked. Hunter: AC 6, HD 2 (10hp), Att 1d6 + 1 (axe). 2 x dogs: AC 7, HD 1 (3, 5hp), Att 1d6 (bite). Hunter has a pouch of ancient silver coins (300sp), worth five times normal value to a collector.

11. Archway formed of serpents. Giant crab spider lurks. AC 7, HD 2 (8hp), Att 1d8 + poison, 1-4 surprise.

12. Decrepit statues of ancient kings. Old leather boot rests behind one (left foot). Chalk arrow drawn by south-east door. Rotten stench coming from 13 / 18. (There may be a troglodyte in this room.)

13. Three troglodytes. One is bigger then the others and bullies them. Fish hanging from ceiling. Piles of fish bones. Never sleep. Either here or at the river or prowling in 12. AC 5, HD 2 (12, 7, 8hp), Att 3 x 1d4, F2, 1-4 surprise, stench. Secret doors: buttons hidden in giant gawping face carvings.

14. Giant fish skeleton hanging. Pile of trash -- clothes, leather, rusted weapons. Small wooden chest (trapped, save vs poison or die in 1 turn), contains: 492gp, 1017sp, 128ep, silver bracelet (200gp).

OSRIC player's guide

I just downloaded the OSRIC Player's Guide from RPGNow. I've only scanned through the first dozen pages, and so far it looks great, as expected. What I wanted to point out was that, as James also mentions, the artwork is really something -- the piece on page 3 is a special favourite so far, laugh-out-loud funny!

Well worth a download.

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 7

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Deepingdale, 1st Lvl Dwarrow Fighter
Skarr, 1st Lvl Ratfolk Thief
Stignarr, 1st Lvl Human Fighter

Session 7 (28/09/11)
After a restful night sleep in the ruins of Caan, clarity and the wisdom of Assedh seemed to take hold of the situation.  It became apparent to Deepingdale that Stig was behind the business with the Silk Merchants horses and after convincing Stig to take him into his confidence, Stig revealed that he had been quested by the deity of despair to wreak havoc in the surrounding area, as a result of his temple visit in Yelleth.  This explained much as Stig had not been himself since that day, what with the sacrificing of one of his hounds and his general strange demeanour, even for a man folk.  Kallac the Merchant needed a lot of convincing not to take the matter into his own hands and after some reassurance and a promise that Blade would heal the horse, the matter was closed.  Blade and Deepingdale agreed that Stig should in turn make a contribution of 100 gp during the first opportune visit to a temple of Hegg.
The party then preceded, without further occurrence, to travel to Rim, the strange Fey town on the edge of the chasm of Neyellem.  The town was a weird mixture of stark basic black wooden buildings, tall and narrow, with narrow and few windows.  As Stig intelligently observed, these were clearly a people not wanting contact with sunlight.  As for the Rim themselves, they appeared tall and thin, with any unclothed appendages covered in bandages and each wearing an ornate wooden mask.  The party was escorted with other merchant caravans to a large simple barn as night fell.  After talking with some of the more experienced caravan hands who had made this trip before, it was clear that at night, the Rim were not to be seen, literally disappearing, perhaps like the Fey Goblins we had encountered in the Forest of Harln.  One of the merchant baggage handlers had explored the small town, but found no one around, all of the buildings where empty and he had a strange sense of being continually watched.

Clearly, with no options for a pint in the very much absent inn, we settled down for some well earned rest after being paid by Kallac for our services on the outward stretch.  A few games of cards were underway amongst the merchants however Skarr had other ideas and tried to make a fast buck the easy and unlawful way, through light fingers.  Caught red handed, a brawl ensued and Skarr narrowly escaped the barn alive.

The next day we checked out the wooden items the Rim sell (tourist crap, unlike their own masks). Hjalhir tried ESPing one of them but this gave him the paranoid sensation of being watched continuously so he broke it off.  Stignarr bought various herbs from the Rim in an effort to help Slippy recover faster (with some effect).  Cagliostro paid a guard to go up and down the lift into the chasm, which proved to be uneventful but the Rim charge per person/animal for use of the lift.  We then all went down the lift, going westward through the canyon, passing a statue of a long dead human overseer of Nayellem City (whose name I can't recall at the moment). We also learned that Breets was the first of these overseers, back when humans ruled over Nayellem.  Eventually we reached the small town of Giw, another Rim settlement like the ones at the top and bottom of the lifts. After a meagre dinner of smoked fish we rented a barge to go to Nayellem City by river, as the surrounding area just consisted of treacherous swampland.

Nayellem City is the largest town in the chasm, with heavy fortifications and walls, guarded by, as far as we've seen, the puce men.  The party then split up to explore the city of Nayallem, carousing, rumour gathering ensued.  Considerable information was gathered on the different factions in the chasm and some information too on the whereabouts of three of the Breets relics, Slippy and Venser, during their carousing and asking around about the relics & so on, met an old man who took an interest in them. He seemed to know quite a lot about the relics, and told the pair that the aquamarine raven, the blooded shield and the eye stone were all taken into the chasm deeps (a network of caverns which lie at the far western end of the chasm) when the last overseer was killed and the wars started anew.

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 6

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Venser, 3rd Lvl Human Thief
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Hjalhir, 3rd Lvl Human Wizard
Blade, 1st Lvl Human Cleric of Hegg, God of Blades
Deepingdale, 1st Lvl Dwarrow Fighter
Skarr, 1st Lvl Ratfolk Thief
Stignarr, 1st Lvl Human Fighter

Location: Road to the City of Rim, North West from the City of Yelleth, near Chasm of Neyellem, Encounter point: ruined City of Caan in the desert of East Riding.

The company completed its business in Micmar and proceeded to head North West along the well used commercial road towards the City of Yelleth where we hoped to join a caravan to Rim.  Considerable party funds were used to purchase expedition equipment, mules, from the Dax advance and wages for the salvage of the Breet relics.  Before our departure a small band of Dwarrow security guards from Deeppockets Bank arrived with Stignarr in chains, they had found him at Uncle Nori's request and returned him to me.  Fortunately for Stig, I was able to release him from my charge after he revealed that he had the chalice from the Sunken Palace on him, this fetched a pretty coin at the market in Micmar and the 400gp that he got for it was enough to repay his dues to the bank.  Stig has decided, of his own free will, to stay with our company and join us to travel to Rim.

A final discussion with Mol, the learned Sage of Micmar, revealed further information about the chasm and its inhabitants, plus a further detailed map of the whole chasm.  Visits to the sage are money well spent.  Mol explained that three human factions exist in the chasm, constantly at war with each other, the yellow folk, the puce folk and the red folk.  The Rim seem to have established a neutral relationship with all three factions and openly trade with all of them.  Mol knew nothing of the relic of Breet.

Our Acolyte priest of Hegg, Blade, managed to progress with his studies and reach the rank of Adept before we departed from Micmar.  I long to complete my training and progress from Veteran to Warrior, hopefully Assedh's gold will shine on me and our travels to Rim will enable such good fortune.

The company travelled safely for just over 2 weeks to Yelleth, the closest city to the chasm, here we sought merchants who needed a security entourage and we were fortunate to meet Kalac, a silk merchant who was in such need.  Henry managed to strike a good deal with him (70gp each) for the outward journey, half paid upfront, half on his caravan's safe arrival at the City of Rim on the eastern edge of the chasm.  As we ventured further from Micmar, Hjalhir's health seemed to take a turn for the worse, he appeared preoccupied at best and at worst, drugged!

From Yelleth, ahead of us lay a 10 day journey, accompanying two horse drawn wagons, two drivers and Kalac the silk merchant.  Both wagons were apparently laden with tonnes of silk, ready to be sold to the Rim.  On the 5th day we reached the ruined desert city of Caan and it was here that we met with mixed fortune.  As we entered the city, Kalac warned us to be on our guard and explained that the ruins were dangerous.  To our left on the opposite side of the fast flowing river of Mallong, a ruined tower rose up as a high point in the deserted city and as we approached a large swarm of what looked like black birds, rose out of the towers broken roof, followed by two giant birds.  The birds proceeded to fly towards our scouts, Venser and Skarr.  I managed to mount Hjalhir's horse and ride with him towards the attacking birds, it was only when we approached them that we saw that they were in fact a swarm of stirges and the giant birds looked like Rocs.  Battle ensued, I dispatched the first Roc with a bolt from my heavy crossbow and the second, when it had landed, I removed its head with the Azure Serpent Sword.  We were to have less luck with the Stirges.  Aside from Venser and Skarr, our scouts and Stig, how remained back at the wagons with Kalac, every member of our company was set upon by the blood sucking stirges, in a matter of minutes our situation turned dire and Slippy (Henry), despite being one of our hardier company members, succumbed to the stirges blood sucking attack.   It was only due to Cagliostro's intervention that he didn't die.

For myself, I was lucky not to also suffer a similar fate.  Whilst I was able to dispatch two stirges with the help of Blade, I received terrible wounds from the damned creatures.  After what seemed like an age, we managed to turn the tide, again with the aid of the Necromancers dark magic and a few arrows and darts from our scouts, we managed to slay the remaining creatures.

The return from deaths door spell, although successful, seems to have permanently aged Henry and he is lucky to still be alive.   It is a shame that the same can't be said for Cagliostro's familiar, Jack the Raven, only three weeks old, sadly killed by a stirge.  The Necromancer's brief attachment, seems to have caused him considerable pain.

Once we recovered from our wounds, thanks be to Hegg, we proceeded to explore the nearby ruined tower and low and behold, at last our efforts were rewarded.  Clearly these beasts have be praying upon caravan companies for sometime, we retrieved a chest, a large bundle of silks (with Kallac's mark on them) and several pouches of gold (323gp).  Within the chest, we found 10 ingots of gold (1,000gp), a scroll tube (Haste and Dimension Door) and a magical potion flask, yet to be identified.

After some magically assisted bargaining, Kalac kindly agreed to buy the salvaged silk off us for 400gp.  All in all, despite Slippy's bad luck, the money, 1,723gp and the items have made up for our trouble.

On regrouping, it now looks like perhaps our misfortune is not yet through with for today, mysteriously one of Kalac's caravan horses, whilst sheltering from the combat in the ruins, has had its let badly cut by what looks like a knife.  Suspicion within the company, strangely fell upon Stig, who was supposed to be guarding the caravan.  It is unclear at this point what the motive is, or whether these suspicions can be proven.  Stig pleads innocence and points the finger at the other caravaneers, however his past record is not one that can be trusted and I am yet to decide, but not yet quick to judge.  I hope we can get to the bottom of this before we reach Rim.  We have enough to contend with, without trouble from within our own.  With the extra gold, my goal of reaching Warriorhood is now in my grasp and I will be glad of the extra training before we descend into the chasm.  Time to rest after another narrow escape. 

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 5

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Venser, 3rd Lvl Human Thief
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Hjalhir, 3rd Lvl Human Wizard
Blade, 1st Lvl Human Cleric of Hegg, God of Blades
Deepingdale, 1st Lvl Dwarrow Fighter
Skarr, 1st Lvl Ratfolk Thief

Location: Ling (West from Forest of Harln, Old Aalia)

Prior to the social events, Hjalhir returned and tried to identify the magic prism, the Azure Serpent Sword and the Fey Goblin Horn.  After failing on the prism, he successfully confirmed the Azure swords water breathing and magical sharpness (+1 to hit and damage) and also identified the horn as being heard in both the real and Fey dimensions.  Not sure yet how this item will be helpful.  Cagliostro failed to write up the Necromancers spell copied from the Sarcophagi from last weeks jaunt.  Both the mages managed to summon familiars, a Raven, Jack, for Cagliostro (very appropriate) and an Owl, Nightwing for Hjalhir.

Supplies were restocked in Ling and the company had a rare respite from dungeoneering this week, a social date to attend the funeral of Hjalhir’s brother, Beomir, a past company member, killed by an Ogre in the Dungeon of Garm.  The funeral took place in Ling, west of the Forest of Harln.  Good ale and ox was had by all and the event was attended by some past patrons of the company, Xathania of Dax, a local well-to-do Merchant, rumoured to also be a sorceress, who past company members (Slippy and Hjalhir) had run errands for.  In addition, a mysterious Wizard, Maxanimus, with his Fey vallet Vex.  Due to previous business dealings with the Dax women, Hjalhir had a run in with the Wizard, after being paid to successfully steal his hat.  It looks like its payback time for Hjalhir!  After suddenly disappearing at the funeral (he was magically transported by Maxanimus into a void), Hjalhir was forced to take a strange yellow crystal powder as part of a bribe to force him to search the Dax women's home for two of the Serpentine Swords, in order to copy the inscriptions of the swords for the wizard.  In addition, the Wizard was also interested in the inscription on the Azure Serpent Sword which I have in my possession.

Fortunately for Hjalhir, an opportunity arose to visit the Dax home.  Before the run in the wizard, Skarr and I tried to avoid arrest by some imperial guards who turned up at the funeral looking for the dropped Prism from last weeks encounter.  Apparently, after Hjalhir used ESP on some bloke with a detecting wand, it looks like the prism was something important belonging to the Archprismists.  The guards forced us to hand it over.  Probably best for all of us, who knows what trouble we would have got into if we would have managed to keep it!

The company was invited to meet with the Dax women, over at her swanky mansion in Micmar.  She made an interesting business proposition to the company, asking us to explore the Chasm of Nayellem near Yelleth (two weeks N/E from Harln), in order to retrieve several relics (7 again!).  She has offered to provide us with a treasure map of the area and to pay us 4,000gp for each of the retrieved relics and a further 500gp up front for travel expenses etc.  Xathania’s father is apparently a relic collector.  Note to self, we need to find out more about this family before we blindly do their bidding.  Knowing that the very people looking to kill me are from the Chasm, I was initially put off by the idea.  Since then, perhaps getting closer to this place isn’t such a bad idea after all.  I will write to my Uncle to seek counsel on this matter. 

We explained to the Dax women about Hjalhir’s predicament, she seemed not to care and denied any knowledge of the Serpent Swords in her possession and felt that her previous payment of 900gp for the hat job released her from any responsibility for Hjalhir.  It is all a funny business and I have a bad feeling that we are pawns in a bigger game.  My colleagues don’t seem to care, expect for the promise of gold in their back pockets.  Gold is no laughing matter, but I ain’t no cat and I have used up two of my 9 lives already!

After the visit to the Dax mansion and failing to find the swords, Hjalhir seemed to weaken and pale, we think he has been cursed by the Wizard.  The company seems hell bent on finishing our business at the Dungeon of Garm and heading straight for the Chasm with Xathania’s fathers map.  I am not in such a hurry and feel led by my nose.  Slippy’s money lust is clouding his judgement.

I will use my remaining time in Micmar to write to my Uncle and try to find out as much as possible about the Dax family, Maxanimus the Wizard and the Chasm of Nayellem, perhaps the Sage, Mol in Micmar can assist me.  Only Assedh knows who we can trust!

It has only just crossed my mind that this whole thing could be a lure by the Dark Fey to get me to come to them!

Encounters: Imperial Troops
Treasure(less): The magical prism was retrieved from us by the guards.

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 4

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Blade, 1st Lvl Human Cleric of Hegg, God of Blades
Deepingdale, 1st Lvl Dwarrow Fighter
Skarr, 1st Lvl Ratfolk Thief

Session 4 (07/09/11)
After disastrous carousing in Dregg, I lost 200gp and gained no experience due to over confidence in gambling and too much ale, I now have a reputation as a drunken fool!  So much for listening to my Uncles advice about keeping a low profile.  The party, minus the Wizard, Fighter and Thief set off, along with a new companion, Skarr, an acquaintance of Slippy’s, for the dungeon by the old oak tree in the Magic Forest of Harln for more salvaging.  The Necromancer is intent on copying the text from one of the sarcophagi, he believes it contains the formula for a powerful spell.  I am happy to accompany him, it is the least I can do to return the favour for his last actions.

On our way, I tried the Goblin Horn, it has a residual of Fey Magic.  It seemed to summon a strange large disc in the sky along with some Ariel beasts (A Giant Eagle and some half mixed flying beasts) mounted by people who seemed to fight each other.  The disc was bigger than a ship and made a terrible din and passed overhead.  Our new companion, Skarr spotted one of them who dropped an ornate leather satchel containing an apple, a bread roll, a small purse with 16pp and a magic glass prism.

This time we took a different route through the dungeon, as recommended by the Gnomes and Slippy showed us a strange room with a tilting floor and a large rolling bolder.  In the centre of the room was a stone pillar with six levers, some of which triggered either the floor to move or a strange magical experience (The Cleric of Hegg apparently swapped consciousness with John the Skeleton for a short period).  It is unclear what our random pulling actually achieves and the local Forest Gnomes warned us not to mess with such things.

We headed directly to the sarcophagi with the magic runes and left the Necromancer to copy down the spell.  On exploring nearby rooms, previously unchecked, we found several more sarcophagi, one of which, when opened seemed to trigger a magic ward which stunned all the party members except for myself.  After some time my companions returned to there old selves.  We need to be more careful in the future, especially when we are such a small group.  This sarcophagus also contained some runes on the lid.  The other 3 sarcophagi contained 3 zombies and with some good tactics from Skarr, we managed to burn and slay them before they could attack us.

As we ventured further, along corridors which we had previously been missed, we came across a long narrow passage with an archway, on further examining and using my Gnomish Stone Trickery skills, I spotted a possible drop trap.

Again, the smart thinking of our new companion would later help us avoid being trapped.  On proceeding, we were set upon by a giant, spiky scaled lizard.  We were able to slay it with the mighty Azure Sword and some burning oil and well placed arrows.  Time to collect our Necromancer and return to Dregg to replenish supplies before our luck runs out.  We also need to identify the magic prism that was dropped from the air.

Encounters:
Giant Fire Beetle x 1
Skeletons x 2
Zombies x 3
Giant Tuatara Lizard x 1
Magic glyph paralysed party (except Deepingdale & Cagliosro)

Treasure:
16pp
Magical Prism

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 3

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Venser, 3rd Lvl Human Thief
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Hjalhir, 3rd Lvl Human Wizard
Deepingdale, 1st Lvl Dwarrow Fighter
Bozan, 1st Lvl Human Cleric of Demogorgon

Session 3 (24/08/11)
Bedridden for two weeks, recovering in Micmar from my serious wounds from the Snake poisoning and Wight energy drain attack.  After recovering fully and avoiding constitution damage, I purchased some exotic equipment (Flaming oil and tonic) and a new set of Full Plate Armour (no thanks to the lack of generosity from my tight arsed family), traded in old suit of chainmail.  Hopefully, the investment will avoid my future demise!

On the way to the dungeon, visited Sage in Micmar (Mol), to identify the Magic Long Sword.  The Sage provided extensive background to the blades history, identifying it as the Azure Serpent Blade, one of Seven blades created by the High Priests of Garm to defeat the Reptile Sect 500 years ago.  The blade has an Azure Glow and Reptile Script which is an exert from a poem describing “A watery dark, underground”.  Afterwards we experimented with the water breathing ability, clearly it only works when holding the hilt and for one person.  1 sword down, 7 more blades to collect!  The others are Yellow, Red, Black, Green, Blue and Purple.

Whilst on our way to the dungeon, in Harln forest we encountered two humans, clearly some sort of travelling tradesmen or merchants, with a small cart.  They had been ambushed by a large gang of Fey Goblins.  One man was already dead, filled with arrows and the other, a rather heavy set chap, was tied up and hung from a tree.  A ill conceived plan eventually led to us releasing the fat chap and receiving a small reward.  However Bozan the Grumpy Cleric died of wounds from the Fey Goblin attack and the party was saved by Cagliostro’s animate dead spell (and my Azure Serpent Sword).  Slippy almost bled to death, we were lucky to kill so many.  The rest of the goblins disappeared, literally.  With reduced numbers, we decided to return to Dregg to await our missing companions.

On our return to Dregg, the Party decided to formally come together as a company.  A constitution is yet to be formed; although some lose agreements were discussed around sharing loot and distributing magic treasure based on the items ability and the needs and skills of party members and establishing a war chest to cover usable items like flaming oil and tonic/healing potions.

Encounters:
Fey Goblins x 12 in Harln’s Magic Forest attacking traders’ wagon

Treasure:
Small gold reward from Traders
Goblin Horn (Fey Magic)

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 2

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Venser, 3rd Lvl Human Thief
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Hjalhir, 3rd Lvl Human Wizard
Blade, 1st Lvl Human Cleric of Hegg, God of Blades
Deepingdale, 1st Lvl Dwarrow Fighter

Session 2 (10/08/11)
We returned back to the dungeon, minus Stig (where is he!) after a short stay in Dregg, there followed a wild day of combat and although we managed to find the long lost legendary magic sword, the cost of this adventure was perhaps nearly too high for me.  Clearly my new companions are either more experienced and able or just lucky, as I nearly succumbed to wounds of which, one was almost fatal, a touch from an undead warrior seemed to drain the very life blood from my body.   Due to quick thinking and action, I was saved by the Necromancer who cast a return from deaths door spell, I am in his debt and grateful to both he and the Cleric of Hegg for saving and healing me.

The Wizard also needs mentioning, as he enabled our save withdrawal as he fired a lighting bolt from his wand and fried the last two Wights who were pursuing us.

Where is Stig, perhaps his presence would have resulted in a better experience.  I now know why Uncle Nori insisted on him joining me.  I must write to Nori and let him know of his disappearance, it is most inconvenient, Nori will not be happy.

Encounters:
Large 5' Poisonous Snakes (Nearly died from snake bite and energy drain from Wight)
Wights x 4 (Saved by the Necromancers return from deaths door spell.)

Treasure:
Found the Azure Serpent Long Sword (+1 of Water Breathing)

Deepingdale's adventuring logs 1

Campaign logs written by Steve, Deepingdale's player.

Company Members
Slippy, 3rd Lvl Ratman - Founding Member
Venser, 3rd Lvl Human Thief
Cagliostro, 2nd Lvl Human Necromancer
Hjalhir, 3rd Lvl Human Wizard
Blade, 1st Lvl Human Cleric of Hegg, God of Blades
Deepingdale, 1st Lvl Dwarrow Fighter
Stignarr, 1st Lvl Human Fighter

Location: Dungeon “Nolly’s Kingdom” (Near Sunken City of Garm) in the centre of the Magical Forest of Harln

Session 1 (27/07/11)
After meeting an adventuring party in the local Ale House in Dregg, I have decided to take my manservant, Stig along with me to help do some salvaging in a nearby dungeon, in the middle of the magical forest of Harln.  A magical sword has been mentioned along with other opportunities for loot.  It will be good to get underground and away from the prying eyes of these town folks.  Not sure what to make of this rabble yet, I wonder whether I can trust them, but one thing is for certain, it does looks like they need the strong arm and intelligence of a Dwarrow.

After a heavy day of combat, where I hope I was able to show my worth to my new companions, we returned back to Dregg with a few hundred gold pieces and some precious metals to cash in, not a bad start.

Encounters:
Friendly Forest Gnomes
Black rabid flying babies with yellow eyes x 6
Shadow x 1
Wights x 2

Treasure:
110gp Gold Goblet and Bowls

Deepingdale's adventuring logs

Some time ago I posted a couple of session reports from the very beginning of my Labyrinth Lord campaign. I enjoyed writing the reports, but to be honest, when I sat down to write something game-related, session reports were at the bottom of the pile of things to do, so I didn't keep it up.

Recently a wave of new players have joined our group, taking us from a meagre and somewhat tenuous count of 3 or 4 to a mighty sum of 8 or more! One of these new players, Steve, has been writing some excellent campaign logs from the point of view of his character, Deepingdale, 1st level Dwarrow.

So I thought it'd be nice to share these logs here, for anyone who enjoys reading such things. I don't know how many session passed between the last log I wrote in January, and Steve's first log, but I'd guess maybe in the region of 8 to 10.

I'll post the session reports as individual posts, beginning with a catch-up batch for the last 7 sessions, and hopefully to be continued in the future as Steve (or otehrs) write more...

Mapping idea: dungeon quarters

I just had an interesting idea for how to manage the map & key for an evolving dungeon. The assumption is that each time a bunch of adventurers go in there and cause trouble, a substantial number of facts about the dungeon (e.g. what monsters live where, what treasures exist, and so on) will be altered. Traditionally I've had two separate things: 1. the dungeon map with numbered rooms, 2. the dungeon key, describing what's in each of the numbered rooms.

I've found that two problems arise with this system of separate map and key. Firstly, the simple issue of having to flick back and forth between various sheets of notes, and of having to correlate the map to the descriptions. Not a huge deal, but there might be an easier way. Secondly, the problem of what to do when things change in the dungeon -- treasures are looted, monsters killed, etc.

So the idea I had, which should help with both these issues, is the following: make a dungeon map as usual, but without numbering the rooms. Then scan the map and divide it into four quarters. Zoom each of these quarters up so that it fills a whole page, print these. So you'll end up with one large scale map (at a normal scale of 10' per quarter inch, or whatever), which is the one you can stick to the back of your DM's screen for an overview of the level as a whole, and four zoomed in quarter maps.

The descriptions of what's in the dungeon should be written straight onto the maps of the dungeon quarters, in pencil so it can be modified as the place is demolished by zealous adventurers.

Here's an example dungeon quarter map I scanned in and quickly stocked to see how it works out. I wrote the key on this one digitally, for the sake of speed, in 12pt text (I think it's reasonable to be able to write legibly at that kind of size by hand). Of course it depends how much detail you want from your dungeon notes, but I find that for a self-written dungeon most of the work is done in the imagination, and I could totally run this example dungeon quarter purely from the minimal notes it contains. Note that there's also loads of blank space on that quarter, for more detailed descriptions if needed.

I reckon this'd be a really nice way to work with dungeons, would enable quick & easy restocking / modifications to the dungeon in response to PC actions, and would encourage an anti-perfectionist attitude where the dungeon is a living play-aid, rather than a publishable document. I'm definitely gonna try this out for my next dungeon!

(Another way, of course, might be to just map in the first place at a greatly zoomed-in scale. I guess I'll try both methods and see which works out best for me.)