Cauldron Con began inauspiciously: after a few weeks of European travel I won't bore you with here, we packed our bags a final time and set out from Amsterdam a day early. The party consisted of Princeofnothing, the infamously cruel dutch reviewer; Particularist, the mad autist of Ransack fame; and your humble scribe. Attempting to drive a reasonable (but fun) speed on the autobahn, we were beset by etheral windmills looming from the mists and BMWs going 200kph (our little rental was barely capable of that speed), but we made it to a small and quaint German town, apparently ripped straight from the pages of The Witcher.
Pregaming
There we met up with discord stalwart Doof and his Northern comrade Niklas, and played the harshest session of Ransack I've seen so far. Parti had converted Slyth Hive, Prince's famous high-level AD&D module, to his own system. We used 12th-level pregens created in the depths of Dave Hargrave's most feverish unconscious (Prince's M-U had 3 clone replacements, Doof's ranger was a bird-man(?), and my changeling assassin had a nuclear bomb!!).
We assailed the slyth, using Prince's knowledge of his own adventure to our advantage. My assassin was mind-blasted to hell in the first encounter, but not before killing 170 slyth with Dust of Sneezing & Choking. Delving to level 3 with my replacement PC, a monk, we managed to slay 2 froghemoths in a single round with judicious (and risky) use of our special abilities. But not before the monk was turned into a super-werewolf, tore himself from a froghemoth's stomach, and ate the magic-user, whose clone arrived in time to see the monk revert to human form.
On the aquatic level, we fried a school of piranhas using a sentient energy-blasting lichen we had befriended, and Prince knew where the best treasure was buried... We had scored big, but it didn't feel at all like cheating.
Overall, a brutal affair played at an almost incomprehensible power level. Would play again, and Ransack rules.
By this point it was perhaps 2 AM and, energy flagging, we packed it in. I spent a restless night on a cold and lumpy AirBNB couch which I volunteered for in my usual "no problem bro, I've been doing this for 20 years" fashion. As it turned out, this would prove no impediment.
DAY ONE
After an artful breakfast served by a peppery old German fellow in a restaurant far too nice for us, we were ready to drive onwards to Cauldron!
The village of Rosenthal was the perfect place to hold the event: small and picturesque. We arrived early, stowed our gear and got acquainted with the venue. The indefatigable organizer Settembrini (assisted by his whole family - incredibly wholesome to see!) was running around, talking to people and setting things up. We were greeted by one affable German after another, all helpful (contradicting the reports I'd read regarding the Teutonic personality...). Someone's labradoodle ran everywhere. A massive cooler of beer lay outside ripe for plundering, an assortment of food, coffee and snacks inside. In one corner, a gigantic Chainmail game was being set up.
I found my designated game space in a narrow, rustic-looking upstairs hall with low ceiling timbers and long wooden tables. As folks arrived, I scrambled to finish writing up the pregen characters for my adventure. In all the chaos of my European vacation, I had not had time! In fact I didn't even bring blank sheets, but had to create them by hand the day before (Prince's wife helped - my wrist thanks her!). Giving myself 2 hours was not quite enough. I heard clapping from downstairs and realized I was missing the entire opening ceremonies! The only sound in the upper hall was the scratching of my pencil, the flipping of OSRIC pages, and the blood pounding in my ears.
I went outside to smoke with 5 minutes to spare before game time. As I tried to get into "DM character" I wondered: who would sign up for my game? Would it be fun? Had I cut the adventure to the right size? Should there really be 2 Caryatid Columns in room 24, or perhaps I should add a third?
And most pressing: what if nobody liked the way I handled AD&D initiative?
I should have known what would happen.
***
Friday Block I
Gilded Dream of the Incandescent Queen
DM: Me
Players:
GusB - Edward the Scissorhands, fighter 5 and his henchman Wigmund
Prince - Torglul, elf fighter 4/M-U 4
Melan - Sir Glyptodont, paladin 4
Doof - Bluff, dwarf fighter 4/thief 5
Lynchpin - John Magic, M-U 5
Alex - Arok, ranger 5
Chris - Berek, cleric 5
I returned to the table and was faced with a motley crew of sellswords hungry for gold, glory and earnest violence... and I knew things would turn out fine.
A group of adventurers was teleported into Queen Purah's summer palace, a floating sanctum on the Plane of Air. There she conducted alchemical experiments and sought the secret of eternal life. Had she succeeded? It had been 1000 years since the Queen was last seen. The group not only had to loot the place and find out what happened, but discover a way to escape in the allotted time!
After meeting some butlers made of clouds, the party skipped the Meeting Room. Using his partial dungeon map, Bluff got a sense of the area and the group entered the Hall of Primaries where they used Edward's henchman Wigmund to test out some ideas. Bleeding from his ears, the long-suffering Northman nevertheless executed his orders [good morale check helped by some healing] and the sealed door was opened!
In what would become a running theme, Sir Glyptodont used Detect Evil on everything and instantly clocked a sinister-looking book, dousing it in oil and burning it. The group looted some nice magic items and treasure and moved on.
In a vast hall, they rescued some radioactive butterflies from a pack of bloodthirsty skeletons with a well-placed Turn Undead and some missile attacks. They explored a room suffused in magical darkness [wisely turning the undead inside, which they couldn't see but just KNEW were in there]. In a corpse's backpack they found an invitation to the palace with the Queen's seal - useful!
Emerging in another entryway, they were accosted by flickering, man-shaped lightning elementals, calling "come play with us!" Reasoning that these electric beings could be grounded out, Arok opened his Decanter of Endless Water [I should have thought this one through...]. The bottle made its saving throw and the creatures arced out with a CRACK and the smell of ozone, without the ranger being zapped himself.
The party defeated more skeletons by bashing open a pit trap and found a secret door into the stables where they met Mr. Hall and Mr. Waits, confused celestial beings who seemed friendly enough [a paladin, a good reaction roll, and not bringing along the assassin helped here]. These two agreed to lead the group to "The Stairs," apparently the path they had taken to enter the palace.
The group entered a huge jungle cave - clearly some kind of extradimensional space - where they were attacked by tropical fire-spitting birds and drank from a magical fountain [all the rolls were great here, plenty of healing].
[It was at this point that someone in the group pointed out this game's timeslot was THREE hours, not four! Like the hard-charging mercenaries they were, the whole group kicked into fifth gear. Watching them coalesce into a decisive and aggressive commando team at this point was incredibly fun.]
The party ascended to the second level and opened a few doors, but did not tarry - their goal lay on the top floor. A vast hall floating above the clouds, littered with corpses, and on a great throne of jade rested the body of the Incandescent Queen herself!
The M-U and cleric sallied forth in gaseous and ethereal form to investigate. Using Unseen Servant, John Magic began pilfering the Queen's golden jewelry and the invitation she held in her hands. When her mask was lifted she awoke, an enraged undead monstrosity [as if there was any doubt!].
The party came prepared for war. A Fireball from John Magic, a barrage of missile attacks, and clutch shots by Sir Glyptodont, Torglul and Edward made short work of the evil Queen. Out of time, with a Queen's Invitation in hand, the party was able to get the teleporter password from one of the butlers and return home safely. Not bad for 3 hours' work!
Well played, gentlemen! This group kicked rich amounts of ass, especially considering they only had 3 hours to do it in. The Queen never stood a chance. Tight, tactical and aggressive, just what I wanted to see.
[A full breakdown of treasure, kills & XP will come in its own post later, stay tuned.]
After this frenetic ending we broke for dinner, consisting of a mountain of grilled German sausages and potatoes which I shoveled into my face at high speed. I talked and laughed with my players about the session, met some strangers and heard stories of their games, and unwound after all the day's excitement.
But things weren't over yet...
***
Friday Block II
Rivers of Blood, Death and Glory
Blackrazor Cup tournament module
DM: Grutzi
Players:
(sorry, I forgot to write it all down, this is based on my fallible memory)
Me - cleric
James - halfling thief
Chris - M-U
Melan - dwarf fighter
GusB - monk
Lynchpin - elf fighter/M-U, I think
Doof - bard
Niklas - ranger
Tackling the legendary Blackrazor Cup this year was a gritty challenge. The pregens filtered down the table until Gus, stuck at the very end, disgustedly picked up a monk (sorry bud!). While he frantically looked up the rules for his class, I had a few minutes to choose my cleric spells based on the opening blurb (good thing I paid attention!) and we were off.
Our group set out into a frigid mountain dungeon. We played tightly and tactically and had initial success against a group of yetis using Lynchpin's Web spell. Disaster almost struck when we entered a large chamber and the first two ranks were paralysed for 3 rounds by the yetis' gazes!! Somehow the monk, thief and (I think) ranger managed to hold the line for 3 rounds until the rest of the group could recover. The last yeti covered in Faerie Fire was tossed into a pit, the eerie glow illuminating over a dozen bloodthirsty wights. No thanks! This fight bogged us down for a while, but once the combat was done we really took off running.
In a vast hall we discovered a throne of ice inset with giant diamonds. No problem, I had prepared Resist Cold and Melan's dwarf was happy to pry them out. After taking these we explored a room with a crystal ball [we pondered it for a while]. Divination helped here, along with demihumans' ability to detect secret doors. Peeking through one we found revealed a mighty stone golem waiting in the hall, guarding stairs upwards - uh oh!
Locate Object, searching for an item to use against the golem, led us to the south into a room with a corpse holding a weapon and wearing an ornate chain of office. Various ideas were considered, until I decided the cleric would bash in the skull of the corpse - just to make sure, you understand. This was the wrong move, as a spectre revealed itself, and laughed off my attempt to Turn Undead! The horror was dispatched but not before draining 2 levels from Melan's dwarf.
This harrowing experience aside, we looted the corpse's identifying chain, which of course allowed us to pass down the hall past the stone golem unharmed. This led into the treasure room, where heaped before us were the treasures of uncounted ages!
Players:
GusB - Edward the Scissorhands, fighter 5 and his henchman Wigmund
Prince - Torglul, elf fighter 4/M-U 4
Melan - Sir Glyptodont, paladin 4
Doof - Bluff, dwarf fighter 4/thief 5
Lynchpin - John Magic, M-U 5
Alex - Arok, ranger 5
Chris - Berek, cleric 5
I returned to the table and was faced with a motley crew of sellswords hungry for gold, glory and earnest violence... and I knew things would turn out fine.
A group of adventurers was teleported into Queen Purah's summer palace, a floating sanctum on the Plane of Air. There she conducted alchemical experiments and sought the secret of eternal life. Had she succeeded? It had been 1000 years since the Queen was last seen. The group not only had to loot the place and find out what happened, but discover a way to escape in the allotted time!
After meeting some butlers made of clouds, the party skipped the Meeting Room. Using his partial dungeon map, Bluff got a sense of the area and the group entered the Hall of Primaries where they used Edward's henchman Wigmund to test out some ideas. Bleeding from his ears, the long-suffering Northman nevertheless executed his orders [good morale check helped by some healing] and the sealed door was opened!
In what would become a running theme, Sir Glyptodont used Detect Evil on everything and instantly clocked a sinister-looking book, dousing it in oil and burning it. The group looted some nice magic items and treasure and moved on.
In a vast hall, they rescued some radioactive butterflies from a pack of bloodthirsty skeletons with a well-placed Turn Undead and some missile attacks. They explored a room suffused in magical darkness [wisely turning the undead inside, which they couldn't see but just KNEW were in there]. In a corpse's backpack they found an invitation to the palace with the Queen's seal - useful!
Emerging in another entryway, they were accosted by flickering, man-shaped lightning elementals, calling "come play with us!" Reasoning that these electric beings could be grounded out, Arok opened his Decanter of Endless Water [I should have thought this one through...]. The bottle made its saving throw and the creatures arced out with a CRACK and the smell of ozone, without the ranger being zapped himself.
The party defeated more skeletons by bashing open a pit trap and found a secret door into the stables where they met Mr. Hall and Mr. Waits, confused celestial beings who seemed friendly enough [a paladin, a good reaction roll, and not bringing along the assassin helped here]. These two agreed to lead the group to "The Stairs," apparently the path they had taken to enter the palace.
The group entered a huge jungle cave - clearly some kind of extradimensional space - where they were attacked by tropical fire-spitting birds and drank from a magical fountain [all the rolls were great here, plenty of healing].
[It was at this point that someone in the group pointed out this game's timeslot was THREE hours, not four! Like the hard-charging mercenaries they were, the whole group kicked into fifth gear. Watching them coalesce into a decisive and aggressive commando team at this point was incredibly fun.]
The party ascended to the second level and opened a few doors, but did not tarry - their goal lay on the top floor. A vast hall floating above the clouds, littered with corpses, and on a great throne of jade rested the body of the Incandescent Queen herself!
The M-U and cleric sallied forth in gaseous and ethereal form to investigate. Using Unseen Servant, John Magic began pilfering the Queen's golden jewelry and the invitation she held in her hands. When her mask was lifted she awoke, an enraged undead monstrosity [as if there was any doubt!].
The party came prepared for war. A Fireball from John Magic, a barrage of missile attacks, and clutch shots by Sir Glyptodont, Torglul and Edward made short work of the evil Queen. Out of time, with a Queen's Invitation in hand, the party was able to get the teleporter password from one of the butlers and return home safely. Not bad for 3 hours' work!
Well played, gentlemen! This group kicked rich amounts of ass, especially considering they only had 3 hours to do it in. The Queen never stood a chance. Tight, tactical and aggressive, just what I wanted to see.
[A full breakdown of treasure, kills & XP will come in its own post later, stay tuned.]
After this frenetic ending we broke for dinner, consisting of a mountain of grilled German sausages and potatoes which I shoveled into my face at high speed. I talked and laughed with my players about the session, met some strangers and heard stories of their games, and unwound after all the day's excitement.
But things weren't over yet...
***
Friday Block II
Rivers of Blood, Death and Glory
Blackrazor Cup tournament module
DM: Grutzi
Players:
(sorry, I forgot to write it all down, this is based on my fallible memory)
Me - cleric
James - halfling thief
Chris - M-U
Melan - dwarf fighter
GusB - monk
Lynchpin - elf fighter/M-U, I think
Doof - bard
Niklas - ranger
Tackling the legendary Blackrazor Cup this year was a gritty challenge. The pregens filtered down the table until Gus, stuck at the very end, disgustedly picked up a monk (sorry bud!). While he frantically looked up the rules for his class, I had a few minutes to choose my cleric spells based on the opening blurb (good thing I paid attention!) and we were off.
Our group set out into a frigid mountain dungeon. We played tightly and tactically and had initial success against a group of yetis using Lynchpin's Web spell. Disaster almost struck when we entered a large chamber and the first two ranks were paralysed for 3 rounds by the yetis' gazes!! Somehow the monk, thief and (I think) ranger managed to hold the line for 3 rounds until the rest of the group could recover. The last yeti covered in Faerie Fire was tossed into a pit, the eerie glow illuminating over a dozen bloodthirsty wights. No thanks! This fight bogged us down for a while, but once the combat was done we really took off running.
In a vast hall we discovered a throne of ice inset with giant diamonds. No problem, I had prepared Resist Cold and Melan's dwarf was happy to pry them out. After taking these we explored a room with a crystal ball [we pondered it for a while]. Divination helped here, along with demihumans' ability to detect secret doors. Peeking through one we found revealed a mighty stone golem waiting in the hall, guarding stairs upwards - uh oh!
Locate Object, searching for an item to use against the golem, led us to the south into a room with a corpse holding a weapon and wearing an ornate chain of office. Various ideas were considered, until I decided the cleric would bash in the skull of the corpse - just to make sure, you understand. This was the wrong move, as a spectre revealed itself, and laughed off my attempt to Turn Undead! The horror was dispatched but not before draining 2 levels from Melan's dwarf.
This harrowing experience aside, we looted the corpse's identifying chain, which of course allowed us to pass down the hall past the stone golem unharmed. This led into the treasure room, where heaped before us were the treasures of uncounted ages!
After transporting it all back to our boat, we had a few options: would it be possible to pass by the golem up the stairs, somehow? Scouting with Wizard Eye revealed valuable treasures. James even boldly tried to climb his halfling thief over the golem's head and got bashed with a stony fist for his troubles.
A few ideas were proposed, but it was getting late and we were running out of time. Instead, we looted the crystal ball from the previous room (good job disarming that trap James), and loaded everything out onto our raft. Victory was ours!
By my tally, we had removed over 200,000 gp worth of treasure from the dungeon. Could anyone else do better? We didn't think so at the time...
***
When the adventure was done it was already about midnight, or maybe 1 AM? Time enough to have a snack and maybe one more drink, then pass out in my bunk and set an alarm for 7:00 AM when we would do it all over again...
***
When the adventure was done it was already about midnight, or maybe 1 AM? Time enough to have a snack and maybe one more drink, then pass out in my bunk and set an alarm for 7:00 AM when we would do it all over again...
Very nicely done with the BRC. I didn't list clerical spells because my own house rules allows clerics to choose their spells "on the fly." I forget that this is unusual (probably because I've been playing this way for decades), and probably should have scribed a list for the clerical pre-gens...I hope spell selection did not take up too much time!
ReplyDeleteALSO: really ballsy of your group to take it on at the end of the day Friday...I couldn't even last past midnight without dozing off at the Chainmail table!
Driving on the German autobahn is one of the most glorious things ever invented by man.
Hahahahaha!!
DeleteYeah, Grutzi did not know that, so just gave me a few minutes to pick spells before the session - that was fine, and (not to overstate the case) I think my spell choices came in extremely handy during the game! Please allow clerics to continue spontaneous casting, or at least pick spells before the session starts, this is hugely useful.
Great adventure JB, it was tremendous fun and a great challenge!