Arden Vul Commentary, Session 4
The Halls of Arden Vul, Session 4:
On May 11th, the party set out for the cliffs from Gosterwick.
They rested the night at point Alpha, along the cliff face. There, during the night, they were joined by strange lizardmen who also sought shelter, and they came to an uneasy agreement.
[DM Note: Point alpha is just what they started calling one of the caves along the Long Stair.]
They got along better though after talking and sharing fish. The lizardman party, led by Gekis, explained that they come out to hunt, but they live deep in Arden Vul, and have to sneak through the territory of the Cult of Set, who have a secret elevator they run on the western side of the cliff.
[DM Note: This encounter threw me for a loop. These guys travel REAL far outside their area of the dungeon, and since they were friendly, it was pretty hard to answer the party's questions about where they came from, what dungeon entrance did they use, etc. The quick faction overview at the beginning of the book does a good job explaining their wants and plans, but not how they necessarily move around the dungeon.]
In the morning, the party continued the climb, and returned to the Pyramid of Thoth, where they descended.
Hiding the lantern, they snuck past Roskelly and his goons and explored to the northwest.
[DM Note: The chance of surprise is essentially a group stealth check for the party, as long as they hide their light. In this case, they made it.]
They found a chamber set with statues of four gods, and to the north, in a lit room, they found an altar with a glowing feather.
After taking the feather, it reappeared, and soon each of the party had a feather in hand or tied in beard.
But from the south, almost silent and invisible, a cube of slime approached, dissolving Jo-An instantly. The party was almost perfectly matched with the cube in speed, and ran away from it until it took westward.
[DM Note: Gelatinous cube + party surprised + magic-user in the back = instant death. Absolutely harsh, but sometimes that's what happens. I like to stress that PCs are just redshirts until they hit level 3.]
To the west, the party found an old dead body, and took its treasure and potions.
[DM Note: Much of the easily accessible treasure in Arden Vul is on the corpses of other adventurers. Not uncommon, but I like how it reinforces the low level party's place in the food chain.]
Further west, they found three portcullises, and the levers that controlled them. Beyond the gates were twisting halls of catacomb. They spent some time searching about 60' worth of walls, and determined that they would need more light for this venture.
To the east, they found a room painted with large ibises, and locked bronze double doors heading north. Donk failed to pick them, so they moved on.
To the north they found a passage and a room set with arrow slits. Inside were two zombies, who seemed to be turned by the feathers each of the party members bore.
Realizing they were safe, the party peppered the undead with bolts and arrows from the arrow slits, and then looted the room, finding a curious square of blue glass, and a jasper gem.
[DM Note: A useful piece of knowledge gained: the feathers (later learned to be the Feathers of Maat) repel undead in areas under the domain of Thoth. A powerful tool for low level parties to have.]
[DM Note: Also, concealed doors are weird, separate thing in AD&D. So far I don't treat them as anything involving dice rolls, they're just hidden doors that need to be correctly asked about to find. I treat them as "Hidden" things in the "Landmark, Hidden, Secret" blog from DIY & Dragons.]
To the north there was a small chamber with only one other door, but Humbert had a queer feeling, and new something was off.
After much testing, an arrow was shot at each section of wall, revealing an illusory wall that tricked their brains into believing it was real.
[DM Note: Illusions are a whole other thing. I have a unfinished blog post about them still... The gist of how I run them, is that illusions can be "touched", because your brain believes in them. However, if striking hard enough that your brain couldn't stay your hand (hard enough to break a weapon or hurt yourself if you were wrong about the illusion), the illusion will be passed through. Same as if something were to simply fall or roll through. The party quickly settled on shooting arrows or throwing stones at a wall to test.]
Beyond was an almost untouched room, with spiraling stairs upwards, save for a single set of bare, human footprints going up and down the stairs.
The party set to retreat, but on the way out were accosted by six halfling goons that wanted answers. They swindled the party out of some more money, but also offered them a job: kill the goblins causing problems for Plumthorn, and they can get their fees waived.
With more knowledge gained, the party retreated to the surface, spent the night at point alpha, and returned to Gosterwick.
The Party:
Pebble Foresthead, Druid 1
Humbert Drogan, Dwarf 1
Donk Floucher, Thief 1
Galahad, Paladin 1
Gonad “Nads” of Clan Veep-Neep, Goblin 1
Rest in Peace, Jo-An, Elf 1, dissolved to the bone by a Gelatinous Cube.
[DM Note: Sadly, Jo-An was carrying the party's arcanum, which was now floating in the escaped gelatinous cube.]
Treasure: 16 gp, 34 sp, 44 cp, Jasper gem (125 gp)
Enemies survived: Gelatinous cube (75 xp) and six nasty hobbits (90 xp)
Experience: 62 xp each!
[DM Note: Treasure was feeling very low, and it was here that I realized that AD&D assumes xp for all magic items found. I'd been holding out on my players this whole time! After this session I retroactively awarded treasure xp for the previous sessions, which due to the fair amount of potions, ended up really being the bulk of their xp. Oops.]