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Dwarven Forge Dungeon: Necromancer's Apprentice

Started by Doom, March 11, 2014, 06:18:38 PM

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Doom

This dungeon is sort-of based on a Something Rotten in Kislev adventure. They've headed to this region to find a former apprentice (Gurthgano Gorthaug, an elven name that means "Dread Commander of the Dead Mound" or something like that), rumored to have taken over a long abandoned outpost called Chernozavtra.

They head out, not interested in learning about what they're heading for, and away we go.

Chernozavtra is a small walled outpost on an island surrounded by a freezing, fast flowing river. On the island is a barbarian encampment, and the sole access  is a hobgoblin encampment (they're surprisingly organized, wear a checkered armor unlike any nation in Minaria, and the captain says he's part of the "advanced vanguard" for a hobgoblin nation...the players aren't curious about it, however, and it's all they can do to not just kill everything--7th level in PF is really, really strong; repeated attempts to suggest Something Important is about a strange army appearing goes nowhere, but I digress..). The hobgoblins also mention they let a group of emissaries from the Black Hand pass through, because they're under orders not to interfere in the politics of Minaria, yet...but players had no follow-up questions there.

The hobgoblin captain offers to give the party a tour of the camp, but they're uninterested, and only begrudgingly look, a little bit. The hobgoblins are heavily reinforced by a great number of goblin wolfriders, wearing the livery of Zorn, a country recently overrun by the undead minions of The Black Hand.

Restraining their urges to not murder everything, the heroes cross the ford; luckily the cleric happens to speak the barbarian language (Thrum, the cleric comes from Lone Wirzor, that has some contact with the northern barbarians).

The barbarians explain they've been raiding the hobgoblins, but are currently trapped. Oh, the city? It's overrun with really tough zombies. Some emissaries of the Black Hand came through a few days ago; the barbarians tried to fight them, but were outclassed. The emissaries went into the city, there were sounds of fighting, then silence...shortly thereafter, the zombies returned to guard the walls of the outpost.

The game then grinds to a complete halt, while the cleric reads through every single spell from levels 1 to 4, to see what he can use; Gygax was right to keep the cleric spell list small. A quirk in the PF rules where the cleric need not memorize his spells all at once, so always has access to one spell of whatever, makes things worse. I'll be houseruling that loophole closed, as it seems to drag the game way too much.

After struggles not worth mentioning here, the party finally sneaks into the city, finds the necromancer's laboratory (looted) and quarters (looted, although there's a zombie woman there, combing her hair...the players debate whether to fry her), and sneak down to stairs leading below the outpost. This is a surprise, since their attempts to dig under the outpost hit water quickly...it's icy cold, below.

Now, we have the dungeon overview:

[ATTACH]916[/ATTACH]

And the first room (tried really hard not to shake):

[ATTACH]917[/ATTACH]

The white tokens indicate a blast of blindingly white light; the corpse is of a zombie, obviously blasted. The table clearly has been improvised to block off some of the light (which doesn't seem to affect the table).

To the right you can see the "junk room", filled with things Gurthgano had no immediate need of: furniture, mirrors, broken barrels, broken bodies...
(taken during hurricane winds)

A nice education blog.

Doom

The players eventually crawl past the white light, and pull the table back so that it fills the hall.

Pressing forward, they find a black door; from long experience, they know black doors mean trouble (you need to sacrifice positive life force energy to open it)...the wizard/rogue casually makes the DC 30 roll to open it.

[ATTACH]918[/ATTACH]

Inside is the emissary of the Black Hand, along with a pack zombie, a mummy, a specter, two ghast captains, and a wight. An incredible battle ensues, and the party takes considerable pain from the Channel Negative Energy of the cleric (seriously, 3 clerics able to do that could obliterate everything in the game...). The party's own cleric goes down, and in fact dies (at the time, we thought she'd made the roll, but forgot one of the three different modifiers in play--some negative levels she took tanking the spectre).

Anyway, after the fight, the players didn't want to press further without resting. After casting some dozen healing spells and blowing off charges from the wand and using Rings of Sustenance, the party was back to completely full after 2 hours.

The heroes head down the hall, using the table to block the light...the wizard/rogue manages to make a huge spot check roll to see the pit trap, but the table, leading the way, falls in first...turns out the light is harmless to living creatures.

A few wraiths are trapped behind a black portcullis...the dragon/bard tries to reflect the light to harm them, but they retreat to the corners of the room. The party passes them by.

[ATTACH]919[/ATTACH]
(taken during hurricane winds)

A nice education blog.

Doom

Exploring the junk room, the players find various furniture, and quickly use a mirror to blast the light into the next room,

[ATTACH]920[/ATTACH]

The undead just stands there and takes it (it was ordered to kill anything undead coming in, and its weapons were covered in gravebane).

They need to set up all 3 mirrors to blast the mini-Colossus that the apprentice built in the next room (some of my female players got together and gave it some pants).

Finally, the players come to the necromancer, and find out he's a dwarf raised by elves ("They laughed at me because I danced so clumsily, so I learned necromancy so I could raise their corpses and laughed as they danced..."). His ghost girlfriend fades, for now (had to have her around in case the players go on a murderous rampage and slaughter the plot hook for an adventure).

[ATTACH]921[/ATTACH]

They get the information that hopefully will lead to the dungeon that will hopefully reveal the secret of the Black Hand's newfound power...

(pressed for time, but that's the overview)
(taken during hurricane winds)

A nice education blog.


Bobloblah

Best,
Bobloblah

Asking questions about the fictional game space and receiving feedback that directly guides the flow of play IS the game. - Exploderwizard

Doom

It's from last year's KS. This year's KS is Caverns.

I'm pretty sure I'll plunk down for the 5-set pledge. 5 sets is MORE than enough for the 2x2 board I put these dungeons on. I'd like to not use a 2x2, but the reality is the dungeon has to be set up in advance, which means I can't put it on the kitchen table (where it might sit for 2 weeks, like last time, due to Mardi Gras). So, it has to go on a board for easy transport...maybe I'll get another 2x2.

Anyway, it's from the KS, painted. I do supplement with a few unpainted DF items (the gf bought me for Xmas, not realizing they were unpainted), Wizkids stuff, Alea Tools (those are the little disk things, darn useful), tinfoil, and occasionally some other stuff.
(taken during hurricane winds)

A nice education blog.