Attending

• T.K.B. — Labyrinth Lord
• T.A. played Arlow (an Elf) and Grimmin (a Dwarf), and also played James (a Thief), who was created by D.B.
• E.A. played Elsie (an Elf) and Leanna (a Dwarf), and also played Hermes (A Magic User), who was created by D.B.
• M.A. played John (a Cleric) and Zedd (a Magic User).

Actual Play

1st day: They all hunted, since Mad Sammy's stores were running low. They found 20 days worth of food, which they shared with Mad Sam.

2nd day: They went back to the crypt, to the room with the orange and green painted keyholes. The two shadows attacked them, but luckily for the PCs, by this point in the adventure many had magic weapons, and they were able to land some good solid hits. The shadows faded into the gloom, and then attacked again when the PCs attention was diverted. This time the party handily disposed of the shadows.

They then used the Green & Orange Rod Keys, and the secret door opened. The climbed down the chain (a couple slipped, but caught themselves) to the lower level and opened the double doors into what turned out to be the final room of the crypt. It contained two stone coffins with statues atop each. They were talking about pulling down the statutes so they could open the coffins when the statue on the left coffin attacked — it was actually a gargoyle. They killed it without much trouble, and turned to the statue on the right. That statue was firmly fixed to the coffin and they were unable to pull it down. They turned back to the other coffin, which opened easily. They pulled out the treasure and read the note wrapped around the ring, and heard the banging and screeching start in the right-side coffin, while simultaneously the statue from that coffin fell and struck two of the party glancing blows.

Despite the noises from the coffin, they opened it with the key none-the-less — the lid was pushed back, and a medusa sat up, surprising them all. All but one of the PCs were turned to stone by the baleful gaze of the medusa. Grimmin was the lucky adventurer, and he resisted the gaze once again, while he ran around behind the other coffin, where he quickly rifled through his backpack and found the silver mirror. Standing up with the mirror before him, he avoided the medusa's gaze, while she looked full into the mirror and was turned to stone.

Grimmin was left alone, surrounded by the petrified bodies of his friends. The Stone to Flesh scrolls they had found earlier were also, unfortunately petrified, as was all the treasure they had accumulated before this room. Fortunately, there was plenty of treasure in this room. After spending a night with Mad Sam, Grimmin set off for civilization to find more scrolls of Stone to Flesh and a novice wizard to accompany him back and read the scrolls to free his comrades. Eventually he did, but it cost him all the loot from the last room. He traveled back to the crypt with Harlan, his hired magic user, but as they came down the steps they were attacked by skeletons. Grimmin, knowing that if Harlan was killed it was all up for his companions, bravely threw himself in the path of the blow intended for Harlan, and was stuck by the other skeleton as well, and luckily survived both. After that, with help from Harlan's Magic Missile, it was easy to finish off the skeletons.

Once they got to the statues, the magic user read the scrolls and the PCs were restored. After a night's rest in Mad Sammy's basement they all (except for Sammy) set off for civilization. However, on the first night out, on the sleeping Grimmin's watch, they were attacked by wolves. Once awake they fought back valiantly. When the Guardian of the Crypt, a great glowing orb with one eye, appeared they were at first taken aback, and feared the Guardian had killed Harlan when it sent a bolt of magical energy into the tree where Harlan had hidden. However, Arlow ended up killing it with one Magic Missile, and they finished off the wolves without too much difficulty They returned to tell Sammy that his nightmare was over, and then all (including Sammy, this time) left for civilization.

Loot & XP

The loot for the final room was 5930 gp, all used to buy scrolls and hire Harlan to read them. The previous loot was 3108 gp, so everybody got 388.5 gp. Total monster XP for the whole adventure was 797 XP divided by eight PCs and rounded to 100 XP. Total XP with the loot (once they got it back to civilization), per PC, was 1230 XP each. Not even James the Thief leveled!

So ended the Fabled Curse of the Brigand Crypt!

Afterward

I pointed out to the kids that very little of their final XPs came from killing monsters, that most of it came from taking their stuff, and that if they could do the later without the former they'd be better off.

We talked about what game to play next, during the school year when L.B. isn't here, and they eventually decided on Evernight, the Savage Worlds campaign, at T.A.'s suggestion. That was fine with me!

Next week, when L.A. is in, we'll work on Keep on the Borderlands. We are getting near the end, and L.A. has said that she doesn't want it to end. I'll have to see what I can do about that. Perhaps I'll populate one of the dungeon maps I've drawn recently, and make it the Cave of the Unknown…

Attending

• T.K.B. — Labyrinth Lord
• T.A played Arlow (an Elf) and Grimmin (a Dwarf), and also played Hermes (A Magic User) and James (a Thief), who were created by D.B.
• M.A. played John (a Cleric) and Zedd (a Magic User), and also played Elsie (an Elf) and Leanna (a Dwarf), who were created by E.A.

Actual Play

1st day: They found the crypt doors locked again. Pick Locks failed, so they went back to the Temple. Hermes: Red Stone. James: Key, so /bite (he immediately dropped the key, so was only bitten once), then Blue Stone. Zedd: Gray Stone. John: Key, so Bite (and dropped the key). Arlow: Gold Stone. Elsie: Green Stone. Grimmin: Key. Since some were injured they went back to Mad Sammy's, go thealed, and slept.

2nd day: Back to crypt. Door in room 2 was locked again and when they opened it they surprised 8 giant rats. R1 rats surprised, Leanna and Grimmin step forward and attack, killing 3 rats, while the rest of the party falls back and takes position in room 2. R2 Hermes casts sleep, sending the remaining 5 rats off to their last slumber, then the rest of the party coup-de-graced the rats. They decided to pick them up on the way back out to smoke-dry for rations. Off to area 4, the pit. Wandering Monster: 4 skeletons in the pit. They animate when James starts down into the pit. John turns 5 HD, so all the skeletons tried to flee over the north edge of the pit, which repeatedly dumps them back into the pit. It takes the party 6 rounds to destroy the skeletons, but James took 4 wounds and fell unconscious. Zedd had the Green Rod Key. He put it in the green-daubed hole and pulls upward. Everybody hears the click. He takes the key out. The party members in the pit climb out on the north side, which now doesn't dump them back in the pit, and the rest of the party steps around the corner from the west site of the pit. Leanna picks up James and carries him, and they all head off to the door to room 11.

They had reached the doors when they noticed, coming up the hallway behind them, a rather surly looking dwarf. After an exchange where the dwarf insisted they shouldn't be here and tried to intimidate them into leaving, he turned and left. T.A. immediately has Arlow (?) agitating for the party to attack the retreating dwarf. Upon learning that the dwarf is wearing plate mail, Grimmin and Leanna fire their crossbows at the dwarf, and Arlow joins in. They score one hit, but the dwarf steps round the corner over the pit, and Arlow, Grimmin, and Leanna chase after him. They chase him in the dark until he vanishes out of their range of sight at the bottom of the stairs in room 10. They hesitate at the top of the stairs, Leanna retreating to find the others, and Grimmin and Arlow hear a scream in the room below, then sounds of struggle, then silence. They wait, listening, and then Grimmin is surprised by the shadow and taken to –1 HP in the first attack. Arlow picks up Grimmin and flees to room 2, where they paused. The others (carrying James) are already in room 2. Here they are all surprised again when 2 shadows attack! The shadows attacked Arlow (and missed) and Zedd (and hit). In the second round the shadows attacked Hermes (and missed) and Leanna (and hit). Party fled and left crypt door open.

They spent two days just resting and healing. Every night they had wolves howling outside and clawing at the Mad Sammy's cellar door. Mad Sammy shrieked and howled, babbling that they had offended “the eye”. On the third day some of them hunted, because their supplies were gone and Mad Sammy's supplies were running low. They found enough to feed four people for the day. On the fourth day they found enough food to feed three people for the day. On the fifth day John was able to heal Leanna of the last of her wounds, and the party was finally completely healed. On the sixth day they found enough rations for 12 people, and after eating had 3 days rations to smoke dry that evening.

On the seventh day they headed back to the crypt. They went directly to room 11, where they were surprised by 2 ghouls hidden in the loose dirt near a ¾ buried chest. Grimmin was paralyzed on the first round (for 7 rounds), but the rest of the party was able to kill the ghouls in three more rounds. John cast cure light wounds on Grimmin, which also cured his paralysis. Leanna took the magic flail, and Hermes took both scrolls. Back to mad Sam's, where there were still wolves at the door every night.

Reflections

I made an effort this time to follow the Labyrinth Lord Labyrinth Play Sequence, Time and Movement, Rest, Monster Reaction, Wandering Monsters, and Morale Checks rules more closely than I have hitherto.[1] The dwarf was a wandering monster roll, straight from the Level 1 column on the Wandering Monster Table on p. 104 of Labyrinth Lord, with everything after that improvised on the fly — I decided he was another treasure hunter, upset at finding competition, and once he started to flee the PCs it seemed inevitable that he end up in the room with the shadow, and get killed and turned into a shadow himself. I thought it added a lot to the game, and made me look on wandering monsters with much more approval. I do think that I ought to make location-specific wandering monster tables, though.

Attending

• T.K.B. — Labyrinth Lord
• T.A played Arlow (an Elf) and Grimmin (a Dwarf), and also played Hermes (A Magic User), who was created by D.B.
• E.A. played Elsie (an Elf) and Leanna (a Dwarf), and also played James (a Thief), who was created by D.B.
• M.A. played John (a Cleric) and Zedd (a Magic User).

Actual Play

The characters from part 1 spent several days healing and resting. Some friends who'd had the same idea about finding the brigands' treasure showed up (M.A.'s Zedd and E.A's Leanna) and were welcomed to the party. Zedd brought his pony, who sleeps with them in Mad Sammy's cellar at night.

They went back to room 6, and decided to open one of the closed stone coffins, and while pushing the heavy lid off, Elsie, along with several others, fell into the coffin on top of the skeleton. The others managed to (eventually) exit the coffin, but poor Elsie was too entangled with the skeleton. Eventually the party killed the skeleton, but Elsie ended in the negative hit points, so they went back to Mad Sammy's with Elsie on a floating disk to recover.

After healing up, they went back to room 6 and opened coffin #2, where a couple fell in again, but got pulled out more quickly. They killed the skeleton and opened the rest of the coffins and found the treasure and a key. They move through room 7, empty since its occupants were killed in room 6 in the first session, and enter room 8, where the piercers drop, impaling Zedd & Leanna & missing Arlow. They eventually pull the piercers out (doing more damage in the process, and kill the piercers. Then it was back to Mad Sammy's to rest again.

When they returned to the crypt they entered room 9 where they pulled down the hanging bodies and were attacked by the 2 blue cave spiders. John is bit and paralyzed, but the others kill the spiders. John recovers from the paralysis in 6 rounds, and makes his save vs. poison, so lives. (Maybe here is when they went back to Sam's, instead, or also?) Next they're down the stairs to room 10. John puts the key in first, gets bit, and tries to bash the statue with his flail, and gets bit again. Finally he drops the key, which rolls to the floor after the statue releases John's arm. Next they put the stones in: Elsie the green (one of her weapons glows), Arlow the gray (and he gets gray hair), James the gold (he gets a ring from the statute, which Zedd puts on then returns to James, who puts it in the statue's mouth, whereupon it falls out again), Grimmin the red (stung for 1 HP of damage), Hermes the blue (he made his save), and then Elsie put the key in. They heard the chain beyond the wall, and got the Green Rod Key, and then were attacked by the shadow. By the time they got it off Elsie, she was in the negatives, and by the time they got it off Leanna (injuring her with their non-magical weapons in the process and figuring out they could only injure the shadow the magic) she was in the negatives took, so they grabbed the girls and fled, leaving the shadow. Each time the shadow attacked from the shadows and the party was surprised. Of course, they ran back to Mad Sam's, although they did close the crypt doors on the way out.

Attending

• T.K.B. — Labyrinth Lord
• D.B. played James (a Thief) and Hermes (a Magic User), and also played John (a Cleric) who was created by M.A.
• T.A played Arlow (an Elf) and Grimmin (a Dwarf), and also played Elsie (an Elf), who was created by E.A.

Actual Play

They reached the village of Iron City, where the bandits were supposed to have lived, in the late afternoon. They searched several of the houses, until they reached the storehouse. They broke in the door (the tongue of the lock tore out of the jamb) and questioned poor mad Sammy, who was frightened by them but called down enough to talk once they showed him no harm. He babbled about everything but several times repeated to them that they should not let “the eye” see them, and that it roamed at night. They decided to spend the night with him, and barred the door, as best they could.

The next day they searched the rest of the town, found the well, and entered the temple. They pulled out the stones and the key, and luckily pulled the key out last, so no one got bit. James pulled out the red stone, but gave it to Grimmin. Elsie pulled out the green stone. Arlow pulled out the gray stone. James pulled out the gold stone. Hermes pulled out the blue stone. John pulled out the key. After that they opened the Crypt with the key and explored room 1, and over the course of several days opened all the burial vaults in that room, killed the undead, and found the treasure and the keys. They had to rest and heal at least twice and each time took at least two days.

After clearing out the burial vaults in room 1, they went down the stairs to room 2, where T.A. insisted on searching for secret doors, repeatedly, using up almost five hours of daylight. Eventually they opened the door with the key from burial vault E. Entering, they heard the sound from the east end of the corridor, investigated, and found the pit, 4. Seeing the green-daubed hole, they decided to investigate and James slid down a rope held by Elsie and Hermes. The 2 skeletons immediately attacked, and Grimmin slid down to help, but fell. John slid down too. Grimmin blunted his battle ax on the stone wall and dropped it, while John dropped his flail after also hitting the wall. After that John turned both of the skeletons, who spent several rounds trying to uselessly climb up the east wall of the pit, while James, John, and Grimmin tried fruitlessly to hit the skeletons, seeming to fling their weapons repeatedly into the corners of the pit. Eventually they managed to kill the skeletons. James decided, looking at the green-daubed keyhole, that it was larger than any of the keys they had found so far, and probably hooked up to some mechanism, rather than a lock for a door, and that whatever it might be, it was beyond his current skill.

They crawled back up out of the pit, and one of D.B.'s characters (I think it was John) tried to step around the corner to the north corridor, which tilted and dumped him back into the pit, for more damage. Next they explored the western end of corridor 3, where James set off the arrow trap, which luckily missed. They went in to the crawlspace in 5 with Grimmin in the lead and he killed the skeleton with ease! They came out of the crawlspace into 6, a long narrow room with 12 coffins. T.A.'s characters went to look at the 4 open coffins and were attacked by two ghouls and a skeleton from room 7. D.B.'s characters, more cautious, had stayed by the crawlspace, but moved up to help their comrades. Luckily, the ghouls attacked Arlow and Elsie, who as elves were able to ignore the paralyzing effects of the ghouls. The resulting fight destroyed the ghouls and the skeleton.

They decided to open one of the closed stone coffins, and while pushing the heavy lid off, Elsie, along with several others, fell into the coffin on top of the skeleton. The others managed to (eventually) exit the coffin, but poor Elsie was too entangled with the skeleton. Eventually the party killed the skeleton, but Elsie ended in the negative hit points [1], so they went back to Mad Sammy's with Elsie on a floating disk to recover.