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Here is the play report from our last OD&D session. There are now five PCs:

  • Ruby the Hobbit Footpad (2nd level thief, using my S&W Whitebox Rogue/Thief Variant, which translated to OD&D directly).
  • Arsenios the Adept (2nd level Cleric)
  • Dunther the Veteran (1st level FM)
  • Drizzle the Medium (1st level MU)
  • Adrog the Dwarven Veteran

~

Myrena the Elf Warden

I our last session, Dai met an untimely demise at the hands of a horned ogre. The party returned to the Town of Fishpot and wasted no time in recruiting two new companions, Drizzle the Medium (with a 4 DEX, leading to some fun roleplay) and Dunther the Veteran. The journey back to the mine entrance was uneventful, save for the final approach to the cave entrance. Ruby was scouting ahead and noticed two humanoids laying face-down atop a small hill, just to the west of the cave entrance. They were unlike anything anyone had seen before, with pointed misshapen ears and ugly, fanged countenances. They seemed intent on the entrance and did not notice Ruby. The party devised a plan of attack but before Drizzle could ruin it, an arrow stuck in the ground next to one of the creatures, then another struck one in the chest as it rose to flee and just as quickly dropped to the dirt, apparently dead. The one remaining creature ran down the hill, and into the cave entrance, now chased from the west by an Elven warrior, who was securing her bow and drawing her sword as she gave chase. The party listened and watched intently – sounds of swordplay emanated from the cave and shortly the Elf emerged, bleeding from a wound on her arm. Arsensios rose over the hill the party was hiding behind and approached, hands open at his sides. After a few, tense moments at the point of an Elvish bow, Arsenios convinced her of his and the others’ good intentions, and set about binding her wounds with a poultice she pulled from her pack. She introduced herself as Myrena, Warden for the lands in southern Hingsford. She had been tracking the Grendel, as she called them, from their camp some leagues away. The evil creatures had been raiding villages and farms to the west, and these two were the last left alive. Her wounds bound, she returned briefly to the cave and dragged out the body of the Grendel, then whistled and was joined a minute later by a wild cat, perhaps a Mountain Lynx by his size, three feet at the shoulder with brown and white fur. The cat watched the party warily, growling if anyone approached. Arsenios attempted to recruit Myrena into their quest, but she refused, saying only that her place was outdoors and that she would keep a watch on the cave entrance for them. She then ran off to the north with her cat in tow [note: Myrena is a NPC Warden, a ranger-like class I originally developed for S&W Whitebox].

~

Dwarven Hall

Dusk was falling by the time the party re-entered the cave, and it had been a long day of marching, so they bedded down for the night, taking comfort from Myrena’s assurances that she would watch the entrance for them. The night did indeed pass without incident, and the party wasted no time returning to their previous location in the caves, the rocky beach near the swift-moving underground river. Ruby opened the secret door they had found previously, and they proceeded north down a dark, narrow tunnel.  After a few hundred feet, the tunnel emerged onto another beach, and this time an exit tunnel was noted to the west. The party proceededd cautiously, entering  into a small cavern. There were no exits, and one notable feature – part of the cavern floor had collapsed, showing a stone floor 20 feet below covered in rubble and dust. Ruby pounded a spike into the cave wall and descended a rope. Holding Arsenios’  light-wand, she could see she was in a massive hall, with finely worked stone floors and walls, and a vaulted ceiling supported by marble pillars inlaid with gold streaks. Judging by the dust in the floor and the deathly silence, no one had been in this room for a very long time. The rest of the party joined Ruby, and they took stock of their surroundings. To the south, the hall ended some 150 feet away in two massive doors, each ten feet across, barred by a log from the inside. Floor-to-ceiling stone statues of Dwarven Warriors watched in silence from either side of the door. To the north, just as far away from the rubble pile, a large tapestry covered the entire wall. It depicted a Dwarven battle in an underground cavern, one scene showing a Dwarven warrior holding a hammer aloft, while a black dragon attacked. Smaller tapestries hid open doorways on the eastern and western walls.

~

Here the group decided that since they had apparently found the Dwarven Mine, it was a good stopping point, so we paused for the night, to be continued …