The party went around Smyrmi, successfully avoiding the Grand Mockeries. The next day they met a gnomish merchant named Gwarnright Gilad and his hill giant bodyguard, Hallan. Gwarnright bought much of their loot from them, including the altarpieces from the shrine to Faedir and Arturio, and the brazier and candelabras from the shrine to Thūda. In return, Gwarnright sold them thirteen +3 spell catalysts, a length of Spinner Silk rope, 3 jugs of acid, 3 Witchwood teas, an aged but legible map of Abhata province, 25 weeks of dwarven trail rations (5 weeks for each), a spear and Gnomish fine clothes (quite Garish) for Cynthia, 2 dwarvish expanders, and 2 climbing kits. They were thrilled with the new rations, which consisted of dried garlic chicken livers, smoked and peppered cheese, spiced pork sausages, hard tack, dried vegetables, and dried wild mushrooms. The party came out ahead in the exchange, gaining 5 Wyrmgeld, 13 rubies, 1 emerald, and 54 p.
REFEREE’S NOTE: The description of Dwarven rations comes from the image below. Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I downloaded it from.
That night Anders was visited in his dreams by Thūda, God of Knowledge, who cursed him for helping to defile his shrine. For the rest of tonight’s adventure, Anders could not use his Intuition.
The next day, they rode into Baft. Cynthia tried to use the Lens Darkly, but lost all of her END temporarily in the attempt. Leaving her unconscious body in the care of Ben and Hadlof, Sunnhild found a rusty locked box, and Anders located the local church. Exploring the church, Anders fell through the floor into the crypts, where a haggard and starving vampire attacked him. He awoke later after Sunnhild had hauled him bodily up. He could not remember the attack, but was much weakened. Sunnhild examined him but failed her Medicine roll and therefore missed finding the bite marks.
That night, the vampire attacked again, this time sucking from Sunnhild. Both Sunnhild and Anders awoke still exhausted, but Anders was determined to search the crypts, despite that. Cynthia tried to talk them out of it, but Anders would not hear it. In the crypts they stole 2 rings (1 silver, 1 gold), an emerald bracelet, and a silver beaded necklace from the dead. As they began to leave, Sunnhild wandered off in a daze, heading north into the wooded hills. Cynthia and Anders followed and woke her, and then all three headed north casting Detect Life and Detect Spirits. Anders thought he caught a glimpse of a spirit but couldn’t see where it disappeared to. Sunnhild and Cynthia found a cave behind a nearby waterfall, and searched it. Anders was attacked by a Cave Terror that they quickly defeated, and then they walked into the den of a very angry cougar. They backed out without combat. They discovered that the cave had another exit at the other side of the hill. If there had been a spirit, it might have escaped that way.
REFEREE’S NOTE: I hadn’t planned on them pursuing the vampire, so I had to come up with a set of caverns quickly. I used Dave’s Mapper (https://davesmapper.com/) to which my daughter Lorna and I had contributed some tiles years ago. I quickly had the caverns I needed, and whenever they entered a new room, I rolled 1d6. On a 6, I dropped an animal in for them to encounter. Meanwhile, Orvid Weatherston (the vampire) managed to evade them.
They camped next to the waterfall, and the vampire returned to drink from Anders. This time the vampire failed his Mesmerism roll. Anders saw him and remembered him, but the vampire fled. Anders tried to Locate the creature, but fumbled and turned a shade of patina green. Sunnhild examined him and declared it was the result of poisoning, so Anders drank a Witchwood Tea and recovered. After that, the party decided to head in the opposite direction. The party still doesn’t know what attacked them, as they failed their Folklore Creatures rolls. All they know is what Anders described: a pale man with green tinged skin, wearing an ancient, tattered suit of leather armor and a sword on his hip. What Anders could not tell was that the man was no longer starving.
On the way to Durem, they stumbled into a goblin ambush that had been set for a cave bear. Cynthia nearly fell into a 12 m. pit, but was saved by her Sixth Sense. Sunnhild’s horse Lightning was not so lucky, and bolted into the pit to a grisly end. Sunnhild was surrounded by five Waelful goblins and nearly put to sleep by Wrakanx, a goblin witch, but was saved by using a Fortuna.
Fortunately, once Anders understood an ambush was underway, he shot Wrakanx in the abdomen with an arrow. The shot was a critical hit and she was no longer able to fight. The Nightmare she rode laughed and took her to Hell with him. She screamed all the way.
REFEREE’S NOTE: Wrakanx was not powerful enough to bind a Nightmare, so she had made a pact with it so it would serve her until the end. Which it did, but the end came much sooner than she anticipated.
The treasure from the six dead goblins was 6 scimitars, 6 medium shields, and 60 shillings. The date is now Aquae 18. Nearly two months have passed since the adventure began.
After running a campaign on Barsoom for some time, I got to thinking about why I enjoyed Barsoom as a kid. First, and most obviously, it was the physicality of it, the amazing abilities of John Carter. Like many of his contemporaries (Carter first appeared in 1912), Carter was a hero of white supremacy and that seemed quite natural when I was a kid. As a white kid, it seemed pretty cool. Looking back, Carter was the white man among the Other. I didn’t question it at the time. The Red Martians (which I call the Ulaan in my game) were based on a romantic view of native Americans. They were brave and more technologically advanced than Terrans, but somehow Carter came out on top. The Ulaan lived a long time, but somehow Carter’s sword work was superior to their own, a real impossibility but of course what was expected in a hero.
Carter was Lawrence of Arabia before Lawrence. Orientalism (https://www.amazon.com/Orientalism-Concepts-Edward-W-Said/dp/0140238670/) had been popular since at least the 1830s, and the sands of Mars were very much like the sands of Arabia, or of the American Southwest. The radium pistols of Barsoom were first based on the Western six gun, but by 1920, radium rifles were drawn as Jezail (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jezail), the rifle of the Pashtun.
The Jezail was part of pulp fiction already — it was the weapon that left a bullet in Doctor Watson. I considered Radium guns too fanciful, so I disguised them by writing them backwards as Muidar Guns, aka. Murder Guns. But you can find them in Fallout games.
Carter was also Superman before there was a Superman. Born on a planet with greater gravity than Barsoom (Mars), he was stronger than the Ulan, a match even for the Green Martians (which I call the Nogoon). Like the Superman of a generation later, he could not fly, but he could leap enormous distances. Superman took it further by being invulnerable as well, except against Kryptonite (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptonite), which appeared later in 1943.
Barsoomian technology was perhaps the stories’ least believable aspect. Radium guns had fantastic ranges that changed from story to story. Airships were essentially balloons, with buoyancy tanks filled with the 8th ray. New technologies were frequently invented to fill plot holes or drive the story forward. I much preferred the liftwood of Frank Chadwick’s cloudships, so I went with that as well. Sky Galleons of Mars and Cloudships and Gunboats (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/59094/Space-1889–Sky-Galleons-of-Mars-Cloudships-and-Gunboats) have a very functional system for this form of air combat, so I use that in toto in my games.
Chadwick’s Space: 1889 has Mars colonized by the British and other European powers, but I was more interested in the Martians themselves, so the Ulaan restricted the British to four bases: Syrtis Major, Meridian, Argyre, and Insidis.
Burroughs had multiple races on Barsoom: Reds, Whites, Yellows, Blacks, and Greens. The Green Martians were the most barbaric — enormous four-armed warriors with great cruelty. My version is much like Burroughs, although the great Kreed, the Gucci assassin of Nexus fame is always in the back of my mind.
Nursing their injuries, the group retreated deep into the woods to recover and regroup. They took great care to conceal themselves from the vigilant druids and their formidable guards, opting to spend the night hidden in the shadows. During this respite, they invoked restorative spells to mend their wounds before heading back south to confront the druids.
Upon reaching the hill, the group immediately noticed a significant change in the situation. Eerie chanting emanated from the lightning-scarred circle of stones crowning the hill’s peak. They proceeded cautiously, striving to avoid detection. Along the way, they dispatched a lone guard swiftly and, sensing the approach of more enemies, adapted their strategy to flush out the druids from the dense forest.
Kwik hurled fire bolts into the nearby trees, retreating upwind as he did so. Despite the ever-present mist dampening the woods, his fiery attacks caused several trees to erupt in flames, igniting a spreading wildfire. The rest of the party was initially bewildered by the arboreal carnage and tried to stop Kwik. Ultimately they understood that it was the only way — the druids were just too powerful. The party fled eastward into the hills, seeking refuge from the encroaching fire, the billowing smoke, and the druids and warriors who were likely closing in on them.
Meanwhile, atop Yester Hill, the imposing wooden statue groaned and splintered as the twisted, spongy roots of the cursed tree at the hill’s summit tore it apart. These sinister roots coiled around the remnants of the statue before uprooting themselves from the moist soil, lumbering down the hillside towards the spreading conflagration as the druids exulted in their victory.
The terrain sloped upward into the eastern hills, offering Kwik, Damon, Tiana, and Ulysses a view of the expanding inferno as it stretched northwest into the misty landscape. Eventually, they stumbled upon a narrow road running north to south, winding its way through the foothills and above increasingly profound valleys. Damon regaled them with the legend of Sangzor, or Bloodhorn, an enormous, malevolent goat that supposedly roamed these high passes. Though the group encountered no such goat, they fell prey to a bat swarm during the night. The bats assailed them, clawing at their faces until Kwik used his magic to lull them to sleep. As the swarm descended to the dark earth, everyone stomped on them to ensure they wouldn’t wake again. They assumed the swarm was sent by Strahd, so the following morning, they resumed their journey along the mountain road, ascending deeper into the rugged peaks. That afternoon, Sangzor, remarkably nimble and silent despite its size, caught them off guard. The colossal beast attempted to knock Damon off the road and into the precipitously steep ravine below. However, the legend of Bloodhorn proved less imposing than reality, and the mighty Sangzor was swiftly dispatched. The party skinned him and took his horns. Kwik kept one of the horns and Ulysses took the skin. Below is a painting of the proud, majestic, and ultimately easily slain beast.
The narrow ledge of rock supporting the mountain road began to dwindle. On their left, sheer icy cliffs soared toward ominous, rolling clouds, while on their right, the land plunged into an abyss of fog. Ahead, through wind and snow, they spotted a towering wall of obsidian stone adorned with spikes and statues of horned vultures with demonic visages. Positioned in the wall’s center was a sealed iron portcullis, behind which danced a curtain of eerie green flames. Beyond the somber wall, gripping the mountain’s edge, rose a white stone tower crowned with golden statues of formidable warriors. Approaching cautiously, they heard the grating of metal on metal as the iron portcullis reluctantly lifted, beckoning them into the emerald blaze. Kwik was about to touch the flames when Damon pulled him back and instead cast his bonded javelin through the flames, commanding it to return to his hand. It reappeared instantly, charred and ruined, confirming the reality of the flames.
Kwik cast Spider Climb and Invisibility, deftly scaling the wall to the left of the gate. He was surprised to see the horned demonic vultures spring to life, their stony countenances cracking and crumbling as they scoured the area for the intruder who had summoned them. One of the creatures lunged at him, and Kwik, after a final glimpse of what lay beyond the gate -— a colossal bridge spanning a great chasm—darted along the rocky precipice away from the wall. He evaded the demons with ease, even as the two creatures cast quizzical glances at the three diminutive figures at the foot of the gate.
Damon and Ulysses began firing at the creatures, but their arrows bounced harmlessly off the demons’ hides. The vultures spread their wings and swooped down upon the group, prompting them to scatter and flee. The angered demons for a time pursued the two, while Tiana wisely counseled Damon & Ulysses to stop their attack. Kwik was far away at this point. Disinterested in pursuing what appeared to be villagers, the demons returned to their posts. The party eventually caught up with Kwik.
Kwik’s attention was drawn to a massive bird high in the mountains to the east. Its sheer size and distant appearance fascinated him, although it didn’t quite have the serpentine qualities of a dragon. When the others inquired if it could be a dragon, Kwik, after a moment’s reflection, deemed it more avian than reptilian. Given that it lay beyond the demon gate, they collectively shrugged off their curiosity.
Faced with the prospect of having to return the way they came and possibly encounter pursuing druids, Kwik hatched a daring plan. He proposed that the group leap from the mountainside and descend gracefully to the forest below, which was barely discernible through the shroud of fog. He assured them that his Feather Fall spell would ensure a swift and secure descent. Despite their reservations, everyone took the leap, experiencing an exhilarating yet entirely safe descent through the clouds to the forest and the serene lakeshore below.
Once they had descended, they decided it wisest to approach Yester Hill from a fresh direction, first starting a new set of fires that they would follow. The lake would prevent any fire from coming back at them. With some luck, they might catch the druids off guard and do further damage. They marched through the smoking forest, bandanas over their mouth and nose. After a long trek that was at least blissfully free of tangled undergrowth, they reached the bank of a small river at the base of Yester Hill.
The only games that I write up are the ones that I am running, but we are running others as well. We are very fortunate to have a group of skilled and dedicated players and referees, enough to run 4 games over 2 weeks, each in a different campaign.
Matt is running a campaign he calls “The Outlaws Doom” in 3rd Age Mirkwood, before the great war. We’re using Navah rules but with Middle Earth modifications. Our characters are Flori Darkblade (dwarvish fighter), Rumrammr (drunken minstrel of Dimriff Dale, and possible Beorning), Airabar (priest of Varda Yavanna), Zhân-Zhur-Zhân (Drúedain hunter and companion of Airabar), and Zhân”s hunting thorn. We are escorting a caravan from Buhr Algra to Buhr Widufiras and have repelled one ambush so far.
David is running “Idylls of the Rat King” using AD&D 1e in Aerath. The party is operating out of Silverton and has delved into the abandoned silver mines several times. Our characters are Kurghal (half-orc fighter/thief), Liota Willowroot (human cleric of Meelkor), Wurkdurk (orcish thief/cleric of Crypticus), Duncan Marshal (human ranger), and Fear Runda (human druid). Kurghal is as bloodthirsty as one might imagine, and collects goblin ears which he wears as a necklace (currently made up of 68 ears). With a CHA of 3, he has somehow maintained a relationship with Thalki, a dwarf lady in Archbridge. Liota finally proved herself to her high priestess by establishing a shrine in Silverton, and was rewarded by a festival run by the visiting heavy-handed delegation from Archbridge. Wurkdurk was recently nearly killed by a horde of feral goblin children, and is seriously considering an early retirement from the adventuring biz. Duncan was always mentally unstable and considered himself a revenant, even before his recent death and subsequent restoration to life. There’s no telling what is going on in his head now. Fear is the newest member, and is even nuttier than Duncan. Fear likes to take off his socks and use them for impromptu puppet shows. He also likes to be at the front of the party, so we may not have to suffer his antics for too long.
Possible upcoming campaigns are a more dangerous version of “The Caverns of Tsojanth,” which Jack is considering, and a Traveller style game using Navah rules, which the other Matt is developing.
The party returned to the goblin town (Saindak) to rescue the pixies from the inn The Quiet Woman (whose sign showed a headless woman). As with any raid, the first hour was dedicated to sharing cunning plans (see below).
The plan was made for Anders to sneak into the second floor and rescue the pixies, while the rest of the party distracted the rest of the goblins with a ruckus. The chosen ruckus was to tunnel beneath the first floor, then create a hole and draw the goblins into the tunnel where they could be fought one at a time. This went poorly, as Hadlof closed the hole and his earth elemental created too large of a tunnel (2×2 m.). One goblin was caught in the cave-in, the rest boiled out of the first floor looking for the trouble makers.
Meanwhile, Cynthia went to a house to the north where she had detected life. Jumping into the house, she was prepared to Dominate/Sleep the inhabitant, but unfortunately it was a skunk who sprayed her and then fled. Her stink drew the attention of several goblins, led by a Geraede. She used Spray to spread Dream Powder among them, but did not know what that did (it is a hallucinogen and aphrodisiac). The Geraede was unaffected and sliced through her plate mail every round with minor wounds. Two of the Waelful behind her said “Oh Wow” and went on a merry trip. Cynthia’s spear broke but she was able to put the Geraede to sleep and then killed it as it slept. One of the Waelful behind it attacked for a time but could do nothing. Another ran away when the Geraede fell. Eventually the attacking Waelful fled as well and as the adrenalin dump ended, Cynthia began to feel the full effect of the skunking.
Sunnhild fought the other Geraede until Hadlof put it to sleep. She killed it, and three Waelful attacked. Sunnhild killed one and Hadlof used Sire to heat the codpieces of the other two, then killed them as they writhed on the ground.
Sunnhild and Hadlof finished off another two then went to look for their comrades. Hadlof went to Cynthia but failed his WILL roll and joined her on the floor overcome with the stink. Sunnhild joined Anders upstairs and they quickly put an end to the goblins there. She spared two that asked for mercy and they tied up another five. Their leader, Frilex the Glyderung, fled the scene. Anders & Sunnhild rescued the pixies, but Starsprinkle was dead and SkinnyMinny had two broken legs and her wings had been ripped off. GertieGedunk was ok. They took the three to Trotter Lively and three other Wee Folk who waited in the woods. Wanting to check on the pixies’ story, Hadlof entered the mind of one of them. However, Hadlof’s player was not paying attention to the names, and entered Starsprinkle’s mind instead of Gertie’s. All he could see at first was darkness, but then a skeletal figure with a scythe came in to view. It turned towards him as the god Deth noticed Hadlof. Hadlof exited quickly, but he had been Noticed. That may have repercussions. Afterwards, the Wee Folk took the pixies to safety through their secret tunnels, and Skinny was Restored, though her mental healing took some time.
The party’s Reputation went up one point for the rescue.
The party then headed southwest along the trail and two days later arrived in a strange village where all of the houses were complete and in excellent shape, as well as an inn and church, but no one was present. Hadlof went up to one house and cast Detect Life, whereupon the house swallowed him whole. His friends tried to burn and strike the house, but its skin was very thick. The other buildings edged towards them, as the village was an entire herd of Grand Mockeries. The horses ran away.
Hadlof thought quickly and using the scimitar he took off the goblins, he heated it with Sire and then cast Domination/Nausea on the house. It took the last of his Fortuna to succeed at the Shakti vs. Shakti roll, but it worked and the house vomited him out, whereupon all the party followed their horses. The next day they tracked their mounts and all were found alive except for Hadlof’s mount, which had been eaten by an Aykrian Tiger.
Once again, one of my players (Jack) has cleverly found a way to use the existing rules; so clever in fact, that I’m changing them again.
Domination and Transmogrification said they lasted for 1d6 turns rather than the 1d6 rounds I intended, so I’ve changed those back to my original intent. To reduce the sting of this change, I’m adding a critical roll effect for both Domination and Transmogrification, namely:
CRITICAL: Add +3 to your Shakti for Enchant or for your Shakti vs. Shakti roll. Alternately, you could add 3 rounds to the time of effect for Control Emotion & Control Person.
There is no need to use Transmogrification to restore lost limbs, as that is now handled by RESTORATION/Heal Grim Wounds. Also, since Enchant requires the loss of a stat point, I’ve also removed the idea of Transmogrification as an Imperial punishment. It just doesn’t fit with the rules.
Transmogrification now reads:
TRANSMOGRIFICATION
[Prereq: Transform & Sorcery]
“Ihlhehsihmllrihllihz sihnkhih”
TIME = 2 x (10‑Skill) seconds
Minimum time = 5 seconds
Allows the mage to turn princes into frogs, cats into women, etc., but the mage must make a Shakti vs. 2xShakti roll, which is ignored for a willing recipient. The spell might be used to get a scout past a barrier by turning him into a mouse or bird, or to carry the mage to safety by turning an NPC into a horse. It might also be used to extend someone’s life, as tortoises and other creatures live longer than do humans.
The Transmogrification will last for 1d6 rounds after the mage stops concentrating on the spell or after the mage loses sight of the target. Like any spell, it can be made permanent by using Enchanting.
If you haven’t read Delicious in Dungeon manga (2014-2023) or watched it on Netflix (2024), do yourself a favor and do so. The plot is that a group of adventurers don’t have a lot of money, so they decide to save on supplies and instead eat the monsters they find in the dungeon (a classic mega-dungeon). The setting is a lot like AD&D, but with some odd variants (the Chimaera seems very strange to me).
And here’s a stop action homage: Senshi’s Easy Cooking.
I use digital miniatures in my virtual games on Roll20 (200×200 pixel PNGs) and print those up for in-person games. I’ve started creating some for Delicious in Dungeon. Here’s the first ones…
Two of the regular party were absent, so instead of the assault on the Inn of the Headless Woman, I made a new adventure based on the map for The Deep Sepulchre from DysonLogos (https://dysonlogos.blog/2023/09/16/deep-sepulchre/). I changed the flow of the water, making it exit the cave rather than enter it, which also changed the levels from moving progressively downward to progressively upward. I also added the rule that the air got progressively worse as one ascended, requiring an END roll to avoid falling unconscious near the top.
Sunnhild, Hadlof, and Anders did the exploring. Cynthia and Ben (the absent players) guarded the entrance and swapped tall tales. It is early summer in Therrea, and game and edible plants are abundant, so there was always a good dinner waiting for the adventurers when they came out. The party did a lot of ascending and descending the tombs, so describing it all would be a bit complicated. Here are the highlights:
They Shaped a hole into the secret staircase and went straight to the top for their first effort. When the ghosts and Ghost Queen attacked, Hadlof ran for it and sealed the stairs behind him. Anders stuck around and Sunnhild fought a rearguard action, losing two years of her life but slaying the Ghost Queen with her flaming blade and several very lucky rolls (a critical hit to the head for double damage). It was, in fact, the only way they could have defeated the Ghost Queen. Hadlof Shaped a door for Anders in his wall after his colleague knocked.
The party kept spotting a Scrounger (a small Navah omnivore) and were overly worried about it.
Anders demonstrated that Awareness was a great skill to take. He was the first player ever to speak to the dead, and he saved Hadlof from having a ten ton rock dropped on his head by an Earth Elemental. Hadlof then managed to bind the elemental, whom he named Unikite.
Hadlof fumbled badly with Body Control and currently has an END of 4 as a result.
Anders made a number of dives into a flooded tomb and recovered some valuables.
Anders and Sunnhild plundered the royal tomb and gained a good deal of loot, including a golden bowl worth 40,000 p.
The party found a +1 shortsword (which no one wanted), and two magic rings. One was a Ring of Sound (Anders took that one) and the other a Ring of Stoicism (Hadlof took that one).
However, two days have passed and the party worries that the two surviving Pixies may not have lasted this long. The date is now Aquae 12.
My half-orc fighter/thief Kurghal and his colleague, the half-orc cleric/thief Wurkdurk, follow the god Crypticus in Dungeon Crawl Classic’s world of Aereth. Crypticus is the god of silence and secrets, but otherwise is not very fleshed out, so we made up a holy symbol for him. It represents a finger across closed lips. Use it if you like it.
lostdelights 