Before meeting Médecin Diabolique, the party decides to get outfitted. Again, in my games, I hand wave starting wealth, equipment and encumbrance within reason, since I'm not particularly interested in doing accounting or other fiddly bits that can slow down a game.
The nameless Fighter selects a short sword, some daggers (for throwing) and a mail hauberk. The nameless Thief selects a short sword and leather armor. They both also pick up the Standard Adventurer's Kit.
Arriving at Chez Médecin Diabolique, the party finds that Diabolique is looking for his "son" Petit Moi:
Incredulous, the nameless Thief asks, "Son?"
Flustered, Diabolique replies, "Yes, son…" and adds, muttering under his breath, "son… clone…"
In any event, the party doesn't pry because Diabolique offers a huge pile of lucre, which they gleefully accept, and Diabolique says that Petit Moi disappeared whilst hanging out in his favorite spot, the Black Market: as you might expect, it's a place where one can purchase just about anything for the right price, and where the authorities turn a blind eye in exchange for bribes.
Doing some investigation at the Black Market, the nameless Thief & the nameless Fighter find that Petit Moi was last seen near an entrance to the sewers, of which the locals are afraid since a couple of Public Sanitation workers also disappeared down there a few days earlier. For the sewers, I used this gorgeous map by Dyson Logos:
As an introductory dungeon and teaching tool, "The Sewers of Travon" is excellent: the size is reasonable, the terrain presents various obstacles and opportunities for the players, and, as a naturalistic dungeon, there's a logic to the place that you don't always see in Olde School modules.
The party enters the sewers from entrance "A". Before they go in, I query them on a few things: In terms of hands (a key resource to manage in my games), the nameless Fighter is carrying the lantern and a throwing dagger, with his short sword sheathed, and the nameless Thief is carrying his short sword. For marching order, the Fighter goes in front, allowing the Thief to peel off to either side.
First, the party proceeds cautiously down the long flight of stairs into the dark. OOC, there's is a certain palatable tension as the party descends into the unknown. Reaching the bottom, they decide to check out the door directly in front of them to the east.
The nameless Thief listens at the door, hearing something inside. He checks for traps (I allow the players to roll their own dice, since I try to keep my die rolling to a minimum) and finds none, so the party decides to kick the door down and charge in!
Inside, the party faces a pair of humanoid creatures in leather armor rising from straw palates and drawing their short swords!
The picture spurs discussion by the players. For fairness, I let them know that while in this setting these creatures are called "kobolds," they aren't the standard D&D creatures. Rather, these guys are my stand-in for Sword & Sorcery intelligent lizard men, being much larger (5' tall), stronger and more capable than kobolds in D&D.
In the surprise round, the nameless Fighter throws his dagger (missing) and draws his sword. The nameless Thief steps out so that each matches up with a kobold. Obviously, I'm not a big stickler for map positioning.
Also, as is my wont to reduce the number of dice rolls, I use party initiative: d6 with lower being faster. The kobolds win, going first but both miss. The nameless Fighter also misses and the nameless Thief rolls a critical failure, dropping his weapon!
In the second combat round, the party wins initiative and the Fighter runs through his opponent.
Kobold #1 is slain!
Since self-preservation is top priority and Kobold #2 is outmatched, outnumbered and has nowhere to flee, he drops his sword, and holds out his hands in a non-threatening manner.
[As DM] I say, "You think the kobold might be trying to surrender…"
D says, "But we don't *know* that, right?"
K says, "Yeah, we don't speak Kobold," and the Fighter runs through the prisoner.
Kobold #2 is slain!
The nameless Fighter selects a short sword, some daggers (for throwing) and a mail hauberk. The nameless Thief selects a short sword and leather armor. They both also pick up the Standard Adventurer's Kit.
Arriving at Chez Médecin Diabolique, the party finds that Diabolique is looking for his "son" Petit Moi:
Incredulous, the nameless Thief asks, "Son?"
Flustered, Diabolique replies, "Yes, son…" and adds, muttering under his breath, "son… clone…"
In any event, the party doesn't pry because Diabolique offers a huge pile of lucre, which they gleefully accept, and Diabolique says that Petit Moi disappeared whilst hanging out in his favorite spot, the Black Market: as you might expect, it's a place where one can purchase just about anything for the right price, and where the authorities turn a blind eye in exchange for bribes.
Doing some investigation at the Black Market, the nameless Thief & the nameless Fighter find that Petit Moi was last seen near an entrance to the sewers, of which the locals are afraid since a couple of Public Sanitation workers also disappeared down there a few days earlier. For the sewers, I used this gorgeous map by Dyson Logos:
 |
| Copyright Dyson Logos |
As an introductory dungeon and teaching tool, "The Sewers of Travon" is excellent: the size is reasonable, the terrain presents various obstacles and opportunities for the players, and, as a naturalistic dungeon, there's a logic to the place that you don't always see in Olde School modules.
The party enters the sewers from entrance "A". Before they go in, I query them on a few things: In terms of hands (a key resource to manage in my games), the nameless Fighter is carrying the lantern and a throwing dagger, with his short sword sheathed, and the nameless Thief is carrying his short sword. For marching order, the Fighter goes in front, allowing the Thief to peel off to either side.
First, the party proceeds cautiously down the long flight of stairs into the dark. OOC, there's is a certain palatable tension as the party descends into the unknown. Reaching the bottom, they decide to check out the door directly in front of them to the east.
The nameless Thief listens at the door, hearing something inside. He checks for traps (I allow the players to roll their own dice, since I try to keep my die rolling to a minimum) and finds none, so the party decides to kick the door down and charge in!
Inside, the party faces a pair of humanoid creatures in leather armor rising from straw palates and drawing their short swords!
In the surprise round, the nameless Fighter throws his dagger (missing) and draws his sword. The nameless Thief steps out so that each matches up with a kobold. Obviously, I'm not a big stickler for map positioning.
Also, as is my wont to reduce the number of dice rolls, I use party initiative: d6 with lower being faster. The kobolds win, going first but both miss. The nameless Fighter also misses and the nameless Thief rolls a critical failure, dropping his weapon!
In the second combat round, the party wins initiative and the Fighter runs through his opponent.
Kobold #1 is slain!
Since self-preservation is top priority and Kobold #2 is outmatched, outnumbered and has nowhere to flee, he drops his sword, and holds out his hands in a non-threatening manner.
[As DM] I say, "You think the kobold might be trying to surrender…"
D says, "But we don't *know* that, right?"
K says, "Yeah, we don't speak Kobold," and the Fighter runs through the prisoner.
Kobold #2 is slain!
No comments:
Post a Comment