Old School Gaming goodness continues!

Chello!

Ok, quick update off of today's game. But first the one I missed...lol.

After the last game, my wife and my GM from my Hackmaster group joined in the fun. Add another Elf Fighter/Magic-User (Eritholos; Ramsey) and 1 female paladin (Valya; Beth). Eritholos had been sent from Verbobonc to investigate the impeded shipped on the road through Hommlet, and Valya was a paladin of Hieroneous out doing Knight Errantry. They were in Hommlet and, when the party didn't return in the evening, the village council asked them to go check on them. They encountered them at their campsite and agreed that continuing on through the dungeon.

So, they went in and cleared about half of the second level before finding (!) the trap door that dropped them down into the prison cell on the 3rd level. The elves immediately noticed the secret door in the cell and they quickly solved the puzzle and found the way into the room with the magical elven "tapestry of holding." They went back out, the Hobniz thief picked the lock to the cell and they decided to call it a night. This was Sunday, 10 Jan.

Well, life interfered (as it most often does) and we finally got around to continuing the game today. The roster starting out, looked like this:

Katherine (13.5)/ Aislinn Blasdesong, a High Olve Fighter/Magic-User, CG.
Rene' (12)/Anana of Glorsten, a Hill Dwur Fighter/Thief, NG. (and war dog!)
Jenny (10)/Elvina Everheart, a Half-Olve Ranger, NG.
Will (8)/Richard Willowgrove, a Hobniz Thief, NG.
Beth (wife)/Dame Valya, a Human Paladin of Hieroneous, LG.
Ramsey/Eritholos, an High Olve Fighter/Magic-User, CG.
GM NPC/Dalgard Nordis, a Human Cleric of Pelor, NG.

Well, they went south and found the "oven" room, but other than prodding the elven skeleton and taking it for burial elsewhere, they didn't learn or find anything. Next, going north again, they found the room with the apes, but handled them fairly well. Eritholos was dropped by the timely application of a CLW by the cleric kept him from death. They found a secret door that led to a giant tarantula's lair, but it never had a chance. Oh well.

Next, they found a room where they were attacked by giant fire beetles next and defeated them. The dwarf's trusty hound dropped to -2 hp exactly in the fight; they bound its wounds, the paladin laid on hands to bring it to 0; they stuck the dog in the tapestry to get it out and home.

The next fight was the most deadly, at least potentially. They found a room with a stuck door. Across the hallway, a gargoyle was supposed to attack the PCs from the rear as they make noise. Now, this is still a 1st level party and I'm pretty sure (I know that is!) there is no magic or silver. (I think my daughter the elf has some silver arrows.) so, I was lenient and changed the encounter to an Ogre on the fly. The Ogre gets 1 surprise round on them, and drops the female olve. The paladin and the male olve drop the ogre fairly quick, though. Damn the luck of d12 long swords vs. large creatures and the high strength bonuses! Another CLW gets the olve up to 1 hp, but, shaken, she decides that discretion is the better part of valor and hangs at the rear of the party with the cleric and the tapestry!

Deciding they need to get out of this place as soon as possible, the party tries to figure out where the stairs might be. They pass through several more rooms when they find, by the key, an empty room with a pool in it. A wandering monster check indicates a party of 6 ghouls in the room, however. The trusty NPC cleric actually managed to get a 19 on a turn check and managed to make 5 bolt for the other door. The party, of course, is having none of that so they pursue and whittle the ghouls down pretty quickly. The treasure indicated for individual ghouls is a 50% of magical scrolls, 1-4. Yep, they got them. They managed to get 2 prot. vs. undead, 1 protection vs. magic, and 1 scroll with Tenser's floating disc, shocking grasp, and polymorph other.

They then found the way up to level 2 and managed to get out of the dungeon from that point fairly easily.

Feeling generous, I went ahead and gave them enough xp to level the paladin. At the end of the night, the party now looks like this:

Katherine (13.5)/ Aislinn Blasdesong, a High Olve Fighter 1/Magic-User 1, CG.
Rene' (almost 12)/Anana of Glorsten, a Hill Dwur Fighter 1/Thief 2, NG. (and war dog!)
Jenny (10)/Elvina Everheart, a Half-Olve Ranger 2, NG.
Will (8)/Richard Willowgrove, a Hobniz Thief 3, NG.
Beth (wife)/Dame Valya, a Human Paladin of Hieroneous 2, LG.
Ramsey/Eritholos, an High Olve Fighter 1/Magic-User 1, CG.
GM NPC/Dalgard Nordis, a Human Cleric of Pelor 2, NG.

And, yes, the Hobniz went two levels up, but he's 8 y.o., so why not?

After some ruminations, I've decided not to go on to the Moathouse. I came across this wonderful little module, DC-1 The Outpost on the Edge of the Far Reaches by Paul Fini (http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/the-outpost-on-the-edge-of-the-far-reaches-download/6474363). It sounds like a good idea to expand on my earlier idea of the goblins having something to do with the Temple.

The moathouse has been done to death. I was looking at the TOEE regional map:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWIVLH9ypI2cOSOQp61ZfLLCb2EbNxNS9FAVP1jgO23UIVZpcy5aTl4TfjuD4p_E4ygqbXvSfV4a9RUUGy_K0lEQyh9G-LYTNUHxerf4YkEYP1xD90qcH9ShLWgo-iM4QZYPugDvpHXY8f/s320/scale2_1.jpg

and realized that the action focuses on the area to the E-NE of Hommlet. The south isn't even on the regional map. Well, I set [u]The Forgotten Dungeon[/u] about 5 miles south of Hommlet. It stands to reason that the forces trying to rebuild the temple would want to cut off Hommlet off and surround it. I was considering adopting the "Caves of Chaos" from B2 for the adventure, but then I found The Outpost. I think it will work out quite well.

I'll be sure to keep y'all posted. The next game is in 2 weeks.