System: Lance and Tome (AD&D clone by Rick Stump)
Players
L: Elboron, Human cleric
H: Aildun, Elven fighter/mage user
This week’s session was an ad hoc play in the middle of the week with whoever could show up, because otherwise I would not be able to play at the regular time at all this week. I had hoped to prep some materials in previous days, but wasn’t successful, and showed up to the session with only the faintest of clues of what might happen or with who.
I am vaguely transcribing these events from memory and a scrap of paper I had previously struck turn times and resources from Burmstone-Aeravir campaign.
Unfortunately, two players were otherwise occupied by the First Foe, scheduling. But L and H were able to appear, and were looking for a smaller, less dangerous adventure, but also seeking to hire some henchmen from Southshore. They started out on May 3rd, arriving in Southshore on the 4th, and completed the search for henchies on the 7th.
There was some wheedling to try and gain some advantage or freebies, which I largely rebuffed, as I fished out Rick’s henchmen rules. And then got very unlucky trying to hire the bard hench and man-at-arms hench, offering only a measly 100gp initial pay. I offered a +20% effective for church contacts that L could leverage, and discounted their initial costs for seeking henchmen. It was a good little dabble into what the rules had to offer, but also exacted on the players.
ANother thing the players were interested in was work. Rolling against my rumor chart for the sort of things you’d find on the notice board, they found notice of a tourney that would be held on the 21st, and more instances of trappers requesting help with wild frogmen of the swamps. But they also heard through church contacts that some men have gone missing after wandering into the hilly preserve west of Southshore.
DM notes: I had nothing planned as really going on in this part of the world yet. A quick call for help yielded little I could find quickly, and so I just… winged it. I had the random encounter tables of the books, which would almost certainly kill these two inexperienced and green players. So I improvised.
I vaguely wrote down 8 people had gone missing. I vaguely decided “10 bandits is enough to be an issue, out there slaving/trying to just avoid notice.” and selected a hex that would serve as a base of operations. And then given the danger in the area, the number of players, made a very quick random encounter table for the zone, ranging from escapees, to deer, to 1d4 bandits out patrolling their little block. All of this was improvised on the fly, and was … OK. A few things could have DEFINITELY been done better.
Right from the start the players wanted to wander through the wooded hills, dragging along a mule, only lightly laden, but they were still only moving about 10 miles a day. Days 8,9,10 are spent searching, in hopes of finding something. I was letting them dictate their own search pattern, and checking if they got lost once a day. On Day 11, they went to a Human/dwarven mine and asked the locals if they knew anything. I improvised a trapper who’s son was missing, and the man led them to the boy’s camp, which had signs of ransacking.
Day 12, they cut to the Great Lake, and then traveled only a little ways east, then turned north. I gave another bone, and they encounter… the camp! A small thing, in a thinner hex of pines. They sent off first the trapper to go spread word of this discovery, and then they laid in to wait. Aildun the F/MU was leaning heavily on his elven traits to avoid detection, and did a easy circular scout of the camp. During this time, the bandits led out a small work party, intent on collecting wood. Thinking quickly they had Aildun climb a tree, where he hoped to trigger an ambush from, while leaving Elboron on the ground. I rolled surprise for the bandits… and they were not surprised! Had to double check the rolls, but Aildun was not the most pleased with how this turned out. Had they had thieves, rangers, or scouts, things would have turned out differently!
Combat was over within three rounds, with Aildun lancing one bandit down with magic and the other crushed brutally by Elboron. The enslaved men were a little shocked to start, but then rushed to the adventurers and insisted they put distance, as the combat was heard, investigated, and the dead men discovered! They hasten back to the mine, and end up reuniting father with son (rolled a 1d8)
Day 13, they head down the road to Southshore and report the encounter to Sir Langley of one of the patrol groups, and then ask to tag along. An error: should have rolled a reaction roll. Ah well.
On the ride out, the patrol encounters an escapee, which one of the players successfully IDs as a prisoner who was said to be missing earlier. I awarded 5xp (yes yes, stingy) to encourage the thinking.
Day 14, the bandits were encountered, and after two surprise segments that killed one, the bandits surrendered without drawing any blades. Four bandits were taken prisoner, and a camp was pitched to ensure the cabins were burned, after being looted of useful supplies and treasures. The patrol claimed 4 of the gems and the jewelry discovered, and left the rest of the discoveries to the players. Too generous, but that’s a musing for later in the article.
The patrol and party return to Southshore on the 15th. To get the two magic items in their inventory investigated, I charged them 200gp. Once they realized the gems were randomly diced for, they were a lot less interested in the hedge mage taking the two gems as payment, shucks.
The magic was as follows:
Ring of Water Walking [claimed by Elboron]
Dust of Disappearance, 50 charges (5-50 listed, rolled 1d10*5) [claimed by Aildun]
They had also found a map with details of the western coastline, marking different caves along the shoreline.
After calculating loot divisions and experience, the party was elated to learn they could level up… and horrified of the time and expenditures required to do so. The Elboron I had rated at as 3 over two sessions, and so in L&T his base upgrade cost per week is 500gp and he will require three consecutive weeks, uninterrupted, to go from 1st to 2nd level. They were very grouchy about this, while I laughed and explained it’s three times as bad in AD&D proper.
Musings
In the future, I’m uncertain how to decide what official help will be offered to adventurers, and extent of cooperation. A 1st level party is little better than a mob of civilians. And any issue that’s passed to them means it’s now the ruling lord’s issue, and he's at risk of losing men. Not an insignificant set of treasury may be asked for. In a patron role I'm playing for a friend, I have the following chart:
I will warn, some of the assumptions of that game are weird, as it's a combination of ACKS and 5e, and so a patrol is not the mounted wall of horseflesh and various leveled fighters, and a MU or Cleric. But this is what I consider "generous" as the lord over this patrol. If that patrol perishes, I'm down 30 men, a member of the lesser nobility, and all of their gear. This is very expensive in time and silver (silver standard rules Karameikos.) So while I would love to encourage adventurer activity, I must also ensure the lord takes care of his own fiefdom. If two patrols don't come home, but the adventurers manage to survive, I'm somewhat tempted to hang them for gross incompetence. Don’t get my men killed needlessly.
Difficulty
These players are very new, and while these two are getting the hang of things a bit better than the others, I’m a bit shy at this time to roll up any/all random encounters and have them suddenly facing down a warband of orcs where they shouldn’t be. I have some ideas of the factions out there, but none are quite as dangerous as the DMGs random encounter tables.
Prep
Finally, this served as a good demonstration that I need to build up a book of maps and some adventures, ranging from small to large, beginner to advanced, that can be used for cases such as these.
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