Arden Vul Commentary, Session 3
SPOILERS AHEAD:
The Halls of Arden Vul, Session 3:
The party set out from Gosterwick and climbed the Long Stair.
From there they set out directly to the Pyramid of Thoth, adjusted his arms, and descended the staircase.
At an old campsite in a bare chamber along the stairs down, they found an abandoned treasure map.
[DM Note: nonspecific treasure maps are a not uncommon find on random tables in Arden Vul. For this one, I improvised, randomly determining a floor and room, and place a randomly generated treasure cache there. In the time since then, I've put together a list of premade maps, some stolen from Judge's guild Book of Treasure Maps I.]
They continued down, reading strange graffiti, until they came into a large chamber with a huge statue of Thoth.
They mapped, examined a nearby dead body, and examined the statue of thoth, searching for secrets.
They were interrupted by a gang of halfling... entrepreneurs, who offered to sell them an adventuring license and requested an additional fee.
The party was somewhat broke, so the halflings waived the extra fee in exchange for a larger cut on the way out.
Donk attempted to pickpocket the gold they just paid, but Roskelly, the leader, caught him in the act. He demanded a higher cut (20%) and told them he'd get his ass beat if he didn't control himself.
[DM Note: The party meets Plumthorn's gang, bane of all who adventure in Arden Vul. They're off to a rocky start already, and it doesn't get much better.]
The party then mapped out some surrounding chambers, and activated two magic mouths in the southern hallway. The first spoke in an unknown language, while the other rudely disparaged followers of the Ibis in Archontean.
The party discovered another triangular pyramid room, almost an exact replica of the one they discovered the week prior, except this one had the control rod in the top. They clicked the rod downward, and found themselves in a cloud of smoke.
The room hadn't changed except for the lack of lapis lazuli in the top. The party correctly realized they had been teleported to the room they found last time, but no rod.
[DM Note: Teleport traps! So rarely seen in OSR, but supposedly common in the actual old school. They are great, in my opinion. No HP tax, no instant death, just a sudden problem that needs to be solved. Being moved around the dungeon unexpectedly is very strong tool that I want to see more of.]
The party explored the baboon hallways some more, hoping for an exit.
Down a narrow hallway to the east, they came upon a kitchen, barely stocked, and a group of 4 large albino baboons looking for snacks.
The baboons threatened them, and the party decided to try and fight. Humbert rushed in and blinded one with chili powder.
[DM Note: Chili powder bought from the curio shop, which is stocked with the table from Against the Wicked City, easily one of my most referenced blogposts.]
The rest of the party stayed back and loosed missiles towards them, with but a few scant hits.
Humbert bravely fended off baboon attacks left and right, while the rest of the band charged the back line.
Galahad was clawed severely, and poor Pérotin, pronouncing his last polyphone, fell beneath the onslaught of simian claws.
The party retreated, distracting the beasts with Pérotin's corpse, and retreated to an abandoned room.
[DM Note: One of the harsh lessons of Arden Vul. Don't fuck with the baboons. Absolutely nasty guys, but the party was saved by them eating Pérotin's corpse, which I treated just like "Dropped Food" in the pursuit and evasion rules.]
There, they found a book and a baboon skin handled longsword.
Desperately, they formed a human pyramid just high enough to get Donk up to the well of light, who slowly climbed his way all the way to the top, where he dropped a rope down to the party, letting them climb out.
The party desperately fled down the Long Stair back to Gosterwick.
The Party:
Pebble Foresthead, Druid 1
Jo-An, Elf 1
Humbert Drogan, Dwarf 1
Donk Floucher, Thief 1
Galahad, Paladin 1
Rest in Peace, Polyphonic Pérotin, Bard 1, clawed to death by the howling baboons of Arden Vul.
Treasure: Baboon-skin handled longsword (35 gp), Courtship of Julius the Exarch (60 gp)
Monsters Survived: 4 Baboons, Large Albino (140 xp)
[DM note: I recommendation I took from the old Fellowship of the Bling play reports, where simply ENCOUNTERING potentially hostile monsters was enough to get XP for them, instead of B/X saying they need to be at least tricked or outsmarted. I'm fond of this, because:
- B/X characters need all the help they can get, and monsters are pretty light on xp.
- I like the idea of adventurers becoming more hardened and experienced just by seeing terrifying monsters and living to tell the tale.
- Pushes players to go out and SEE stuff even if they have no plan to "win".]
Experience: 47 xp each!