Moldvay Basic Episodes 30 to 33
Background
A blast from the past as we continue our Moldvay Basic D&D game. It is an open table format with who ever turns up heading into the dungeon. Classic murder-hobo's killing everything in sight and seeing how many magic items we can accumulate before we die.The only stuff we have found to spend our gold on so far is potions of healing and town property. In fact we are now stock piling magic items we cannot use and trying to trade them to the other NPC adventuring parties! On the plus side we do have a nice house.
Chapter 30: A New Dungeon
A new year and a new dungeon. Taking a different path into the cliffs we found a small cave with a statue of a a war goddess. By placing a sword in her hand we opened up a secret door leading into a new cave complex. The rooms we explored were mostly filled with Orcs. There were also a few apes guarding rotten food supplies. Having found the Throne room Karina examined the door to the west, the first time all night Gibbet had not checked out a door, and was pricked by a poison dart. She fell down dead! This allowed Gibbet to inherit her magical armour. The room beyond was filled with more Orcs; once they were dead we retreated to the city.
Chapter 31: Down to Level 3!
The next day a party of four returned. Brigham and Gibbet were absence and we had recruited a new priest - Willow. This time we went south and found a staircase up, which we ignored, and a long corridor continuing south. It was so long in fact we started to think we were stuck in some sort of teleporting trap! After 300' we found a door behind which was a room full of Bezerkers. They met the usual death spell of most hoards - Sleep!Beyond them was the staircase down to level 3! Cautiously we began exploring and found signs of an evil priest, Willow recognised the religious symbols. Having ransacked his bedroom we found him in the next chamber, his study, along with a large Fox. He began to cast a spell but Galan was quicker and light blinded the clerics eyes. This allowed us to beat him to death (basic rules blinded creatures cannot attack so Level 7 Cleric killed with a Level 1 spell). Afterwords we diced off for the doubly enchanted magic shield and Galan won.
In the Clerics workshop we found thirteen shrunken goblin heads that sloshed when moved. Willow struck one with her mace and it exploded into a fire bomb which she just avoided! We quickly put the rest in the bag of holding and left, slaying the usual assortment of wandering monsters during our departure.
Karensa increase in sorcours power and gained the power to turn invisible. This led us to some experimential magical practice. Galen blinded her with light (temporally) and she tried to use her new power, which worked! The next morning we found the spell had not worn off and she was still Invisible ready for adventure...
Chapter 32: Return to the depths
Priests from the Elven Sactury contacted Galan. They have had visions of a powerful artifact, a Sun orb, guarded by a Dragon and constructs on the third level of the dungeon and want it retrieved.Berg and Willow were still sleeping off the strong drink so this time a party of four, including an invisible Karensa, ventured into the caves heading straight for the lower levels. We battled through Orcs and Bugbears before descending to level 3. Searching around we found a room full of
Returning to level two we explored the rooms to the north west in the hope of linking back up with the Orcish Throne Room. Having explored a few empty rooms we managed too. In one of them was a jade statue of Cthulhu. Gibbet was sure it was trapped and as none of us wanted the money that badly we left it behind. We went through a room of iron doors, slayed some Lizardfolk and returned to the city.
Chapter 33: Hunting Orcs
We are now in Lockdown and it is time to try Discord & Dragons. Laptops and headphones for everyone! With Karensa busy we were back to a party of five explorers. This time, with a weaker party, we decided to focus on clearing out more Orcs from Level 2.Our first encounter was another adventuring party. We won initiative and the sleep spell said "you are all dead!". The inital thought was to just rob them but a pair of Clerics were on a convert or die mission and caved in skulls. Travelling south through the Orc Throne room we found more shrieking mushrooms, whos calls attracted Bezerkers.
Eliminating them both we got back to the room of Iron Doors; going through the first of these we heard Orcs behind the next one [#19]. Planning to use one of our Goblin Bombs to sort them out Berg kicked in the door and we threw in the head. This time it did not explode so we charged in and hacked the Orcs down. Afterwards we noticed gas coming from the Goblin. Both Willow and Gibbet felt unwell so we fled.
As we walked through the second iron door Gibbet was certain he set off a spell trap. As none of us knew a way to disarm the trap we started to look for another way out. Our scribbled map said there was another unexplored corridor to the west, if we could just find a way to join up with it...
Several empty rooms, and a dumped pile of treasure, later we found another staircase down next to a door. As Berg went through the door a sythe blade sliced into her. The rest of us slipped by while her body held the trap in pace and attacked the Gnolls whom we had intruded upon.
Having now found a passage to the areas already explored we retraced our steps and returned to the city slaying snakes and baboons on the way. We burnt the bodies of the Gnolls and Adventures to stop them returning as Zombies and Gibbet was made invisible. The next day Willow cast Detect Magic so we knew what to keep and we sold the rest of the loot. Galan then made himself and Berg invisible ready for the next adventure.
Player Characters
| Character | Description |
|---|---|
| Gibbet | Thief with Magic Armour, Displacer Cloak |
| Berg | Dwarf with magic Dagger and cursed Shield |
| Galan Foxflower | Elf with Magic Sword, Shield, Arachnid Cloak, Bag of Holding |
| Karensa | Elf with Magic Sword |
| Karina (deceased) |
A Thief with Magic Armour. |
| Willow | Cleric of Hades God of Death |
| Brigham Young | Cleric of the One God |
Image Credits
Today's deviations by stuartrobertson
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