Blackmoor Campaign pt. 8.

[William]

During our session on the 6th of April the players continued their exploration of the valley on foot. They did this whilst mapping the area, something that they seem to have developed a passion for!

They made their way down to the large copse of pine trees in the southern region of the valley, and began their search within. Naturally, movement within the copse was slower than outside it, even more so than within the fens, and not long after their exploration of the copse the PCs came across large, sticky spider webs. The characters are lightly armoured (leather; chainmail; no shields as they would get in the way for an exploration) which slowed down their movement somewhat too, but the players were glad they had donned the armour when two giant black widow spiders came to attack them, thinking that the PCs were going to invade their lair. The battle was over quickly, as five adventurers vs. two giant spiders gave the PCs the advantage, and luckily no one was poisoned or hurt. They found a skeleton under a pile of leaves, obviously a previous victim of the spiders, and the victim's ruined possessions too. The only thing not ruined was a dirty shield which they decided not to take.

The PCs then made their way out of the copse and continued to explore the fens, rivers, and swamps which make up a sizeable part of the southern half of the valley. They wisely stayed clear of the mound, but vowed to return the next day fully armoured and with firearms in order to explore it. There was also mention of possibly hiring some mercenaries for additional muscle. After this they then started making their way up the eastern side of the valley, passing where the river snakes through two large mounds / small hills, and into the woodlands to the east of the valley road. Finding nothing there they made their way out onto the road and crossed over into the woods on the northern side of the valley, noticing that the valley rises on the northern side and deciding that this could be the side with caves. Percival's player reminded the rest of the group that they were warned back at the Keep of a mad hermit on this side of the valley within the woodland, and that they should be on guard.

Whilst exploring the woodland the PCs had an experience with a wandering encounter - a group of five Kobolds. Negotiations soon turned hostile, not helped by the fact that none of the PCs can speak the Kobold tongue, and a battle soon commenced. The party of adventurers made mincemeat out of the Kobolds, with the one surviving Kobold losing morale and turning to flee, only to be killed by an arrow from Abbie's longbow. The Kobolds possessed only a minimal amount of treasure.
After some more exploring of the woodland, whilst simultaneously making their way upwards towards the peak of the hill, the PCs eventually found the opening to the Cave of the Unknown. The opening is based in a large clearing just down below the peak of the hill, and the PCs vowed that they would come back to the cave after checking the opening at the top of the mound in the fens. I then informed them that the sun was just beginning to go down, and that it would be dark in probably an hour or so. They then made the wise decision to return to the Keep to rest and prepare for tomorrow.

The day after the PCs went to The Traveller's Tavern and hired three mercenaries for the day, promising them a cut of whatever treasure that gets found as well as their basic pay. Afterwards they went to the Trader and stocked up on firearms and ammunition, then immediately afterwards they left the Keep and made their way on foot to the mound in the fens.
Upon making their way upon the mound the inhabitants of the burrows and dens below started making their way out - the evil Lizard Men! Their presence within the valley is unknown to the inhabitants of the Keep due to the Lizard Men's nocturnal activity cycle. A battle ensued in which the Lizard Men were defeated by the PCs, but one of the mercenaries suffered bad but non-life threatening injuries and had to be given some medical treatment by Stefan (who has only a limited amount of medical skill due to his 2nd level status as a Sage and his speciality actually being Natural Philosophy).
The PCs made their first use out of a Blackmoor campaign setting weapon - firearms. They now know how slow they are to use (three rounds to load and set up) but they have yet to experience them backfire (a 1 in 10 chance). They have discovered how powerful they can be though, as two of the evil Lizard Men out of the total of six were seriously injured through the use of the firearms.

After this battle we ended the session for the day. I am hoping that in the next session the PCs make their way into the Lizard Men lair, as it is of my own devising, and also into the Cave of the Unknown, as it is also of my own devising too (Gary Gygax left both for the DM to create for themselves as their own personal touch on the adventure). The next session will be in two weeks time as not everyone can make it next week, though the rest of us may meet possibly to play board games.

Bill

[badams30]

Cool write up! Don't know what it is about the Keep, but it's always cool to get other group's perspectives and experiences in this adventure. And firearms? Makes me think back about some of the more powerful critters in this adventure and how nice it would have been to have something like that to even the odds...

Interested too to see what you do with the Cave of the Unknown. I started thinking about it, and despite being through B2 so many times, I don't think I've ever been on an adventure where the Cave of the Unknown had been used.

Great campaign report! Looking forward to more!

[William]

Yeah I'm looking forward to more too!

The first adventure was pretty much just a primer to introduce them to OSR gaming - wilderness exploration with a (only small) chance for getting lost, dungeon exploration, mapping, resource management, and lethal combat (one of them was killed), along with some role-playing (obviously). They're 5e converts (LOL). This adventure is a bit more epic.

The firearms are Muskets and Arquebus (but no Cannons LOL). They're fairly awkward to use, requiring the obligatory lead balls plus black powder and match cord. They're also very slow but very powerful, plus if an opponent isn't a firearm using race they automatically have to make a morale check upon the firearm being shot for the first time. The Lizard Men aren't firearms users, but they passed their morale check.
Unfortunately firearms can backfire, and we shall have to wait and see what happens with that!

The Cave of the Unknown will expand the Blackmoor flavour beyond firearms plus the use of Merchant and Sage character classes. We aren't role-playing today as we can't all be present (it's board games if we meet, which we probably will), but we will be continuing next Saturday so another report is imminent!

Bill