THE PRYMPTOWN COURIER
Vol. 1, No. 2 (October 1998)
__________________________________
EDITORIAL
Hello all! Welcome to the second installment in yet another
of my ambitious projects. For those of you who know me best, you may be
surprised to see I've made it to a second issue. I am, admittedly, prone
to setting goals for myself I have trouble keeping. However, if there is
anything I do well, it is run a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. And,
perhaps, because the beginning of this new campaign has been fairly straightforward
and traditional, I must look elsewhere to bring new innovations to my field.
Of course, modesty is not one of my virtues. So before I
pat myself on the back too hard, let me lay out what is in store for you this
time. First up, a letter from a fan on the Greytalk listserv. Then, a
short article (perhaps the first of an ongoing series?) on Web resources for
THE WORLD OF GREYHAWK. Next, an errata section correcting snafus
from the previous issue of the COURIER. Following that will be two
installments of my campaign updates. The first will be from the latest
(the fourth) playing session, and will cover the first half of the
session. The second update is a "flashback" to an earlier (the
second) playing session, to aid those who missed it. Truthfully, although
the first playing session would be a better place to start my flashback column,
I can't find my first two write-ups saved on the computer, and am NOT looking
forward to writing them again.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Thank you...And your campaign updates rock... I can't wait to go
over this morning's installment....
Anthony "Looney" Toohey
Theryn of Nowhere
NEXT PLAYING SESSION
Ideally, I want to DM at Mr. Janik's
house in
WEB RESOURCES
The best site, bar none, for the WORLD OF
GREYHAWK campaign setting has got to be the Codex of Greyhawk. This site has
certainly been around longer than I've been on the Web. Just recently, the
Codex went away for awhile to be overhauled. Now it's back at
www.greyhawk-codex.com. The site is a compilation from various online
sources, covering the following subjects: Geography, History, Religion and
Metaphysics, Organizations, Magic, Creatures and Characters, Adventures,
Errata, Players Guide, Artwork, Maps, and Fanzines. Coincidentally,
something new to the site under Geography is a 10 page essay on Ahlissa -- which may or may not become canon for the
ERRATA
At the last playing session, Ron Janik
pointed out that I had made two errors when I was writing up what happened in
the previous playing session. The mite that fled from the mite lair did
not make it into the next room. Alexander had brought the mite down with a
single dagger hurled at its back. I also forgot to mention that in the
battle against the hobgoblin and his warriors, who Abraham tried to shoot a
sling stone over the melee, and wound up hitting Alex in the back with it.
UPDATE FROM THE FOURTH PLAYING SESSION (Part 1)
Quote of the Month: "You know we're in trouble with Vladamir casts a spell." (Perpegilliam
Brown)
Cast:
Alexander Petrok, Lawful Neutral male Oerdian human templar of Zilchus
(1st level paladin variant).
Perpegilliam Brown, Neutral male Hairfoot hobniz rogue (1st level
Thief).
Hristo, Neutral Good male Wesevud
("Central") noniz ex-town watchman and
rogue (1st level fighter/1st level thief)
Vladamir Kostitov,
Lawful Good male Oerdian human prestidigitator for
the governor's guardsmen (1st level
Illusionist).
Abraham the Radiant, Neutral Good male Oeridian human acolyte of Pelor
(1st level Cleric).
Barada,
Neutral male Flannish human mercenary (1st level
Fighter) (NPC today).
Ragnrr,
Neutral male hobgoblin mercenary (1st level Fighter) (NPC today).
Readying 12th.
In the dungeon beneath Skull Keep, the Band of the Grinning
Gargoyle gave a cursory examination to the room they had just slaughtered five
more goblins in. There was an archway to the left and to the
right. Alexander offered to take Vlad and Ragnrr through the arch to the right while Abraham went
back to look for Perpegilliam, who had slunk into the
shadows earlier and had not been seen since.
A short hallway took Alex, Vlad, and Ragnrr to a small kitchen. The room had three
lid-covered cauldrons of varying size in the room. Alex looked in each,
but when he opened the lid to the smallest cauldron he found that it stuck, and
then released a cloud of dust around him when the lid came free. He and Ragnrr, who was standing too close, fell to the ground.
Perry remained in the corner of the large cleared-out mite lair,
and watched as Abe walked through the room. Perry stopped the cleric
before he could wander off far on his own. The two did not have long to
talk before they encountered Vlad, who came
running. Vlad related to the others how Alex and
Ragnrr seemed to be sleeping, but would not wake
up. The three companions moved to the kitchen where the two fighters still
slumbered. Slapping them around proved ineffective. Abe produced
water to splash on their faces. This too failed. Abe slumped Alex over his shoulder, while Vlad
and Perry carried Ragnrr between them. They
planned to return to a room they had cleaned out before, a brigand lair with
only one door for an exit, and set up camp there. En route, Ragnrr awoke and was quickly briefed on what
happened. He and Abe carried Alex between them the rest of the way, and
they now made good time back to the designated room. Alex woke up just
before reaching the room, and he too was informed about what had
happened. Weary from battle, and with their magic powers depleted, the
party planned to sleep for eight hours before leaving. Perry hammered a
spike into the floor inside the door to prevent unwanted visitors, and so that
no one would have to stand guard.
Hristo and Barada
had been walking for several hours since they agreed to transport five brigand
prisoners back to Prymp and turn them over to the
Town Watch. The brigands were forced to march with their hands bound and
rope linking their legs. After dusk, they stopped to rest for just an
hour, as they had started out so late in the day that they were still very far
from Prymp, and they wished to keep going. About
two hours later, however, Barada was weary from a
forced march in chainmail armor, and both of them
decided it was time for some sleep.
About an hour into Hristo's watch,
while Barada slept, Hristo
noticed the prisoners were restless. Hristo knew
it had been a mistake to let the prisoners sit so close when the five of them
began lunging and crawling towards Barada and
himself. Hristo woke up Barada
before trying to dodge the brigands and lead them away. But the brigands
instead threw themselves on top of Barada and
grappled with him for his sword. Barada and the
brigand, Kerrik, rolled around on the ground, which
pulled the other four brigands to the ground in a tangle or rope. Hristo slew two of the brigands before the remaining three
prisoners would calm down and surrender again. Two things were quickly
decided -- graves should be dug for the two dead prisoners, and it was too
dangerous to travel with the remaining three prisoners. The gnome got down
on all fours and dug like a badger in the sandy beach farthest away from the
shore. Stone cairns were built reverently over the shallow
graves. Then the three prisoners were lashed face-down to a large rock and
left there with the promise that the Town Watch would retrieve them the next
day.
When the band in the dungeon awoke, they decided to wander the
halls and do some mapping. They discovered another corridor that hooked up
with the kitchen, and passed four other doors and two side passages on the
way. The only door on the right side of the hallway led to a privy with a
stone seat in the middle of it. The wall to the left in the privy had a
mural on it showing a man apparently looting some dead bodies outside a
cave. Perry was convinced that there was too much empty room on his map,
and that there must also be a secret door somewhere along the right side of the
hallway. Though several members of the party agreed to help search, no
secret doors were found.
Upon returning to Prymp, Hristo thought he remembered Alex tell him that the
Back at the dungeon, Perry crept down one of the side passages
from off the main hallway, and found himself in the goblin guard room he had
peered into the day before from one of the entrances in the cliff face
outside. Perry had time to hide in the shadows before the goblins noticed
the armor-clad fighters rattling down the hallway. Alex and Ragnrr moved quickly enough this time that they were able
to melee the goblins inside the room. Abe, feeling particularly valiant,
sidestepped the fighters and joined the melee. Between the three of them,
they managed to take down the three of the goblins and forced the remaining
three to surrender. Alex and Abe commanded them to lie down. However,
when Abe looked down one of the hallways leading out of this room, he spotted
six more goblins trying to sneak up on the party! And then Vlad, still in the first hallway, noticed a human in
leather armor sneaking up on him!
Alex stepped forward so he and Abe could meet the oncoming
goblins. Vlad stepped back into the room, and
Perry tumbled towards the leather-clad man wielding a quarterstaff. The
man and halfling swung at each other to no avail, but
the human managed to push Perry away just as a man with a light crossbow
stepped around the corner and winged Perry. Vlad,
deciding that he was finally needed, cast his Color
Spray spell into the hallway and knocked Perry and his two combatants
unconscious. Two more humans peeked around the corner, guessed they
were facing a spellcaster, and ran.
Meanwhile, Alex, Abe, and Ragnrr had
succeeded in slaying the other goblins, except for the three they had already
captured. Ragnrr had been increasingly
distressed, as he was forced to kill goblins he had known personally from when
he had worked amongst them. He asked that they be spared. Vlad wanted to slit their throats right then and there,
arguing that they were a menace they couldn't afford to let run free. Alex
was torn between feelings of mercy and justice. Perry was able to suggest
several means of offing the prisoners. Finally, Abe and Alex led Ragnrr away, and Perry and Vlad
forced their prisoners to march up one of the two flights of stairs leading
from this room. The stairs led to tunnels that ended at "eyes"
-- eyes one sees from the bay, belonging too a giant skull-like face in the cliffside here. Perry and Vlad
pushed two of the goblins over the side of the cliff, but the third turned and
grappled with Vlad. Despite a height advantage
on the diminuitive goblin, Vlad
still found himself pulled side-by-side with the goblin at the edge of the
cliff. Perry tossed marbles on the floor underneath both of them. Vlad managed to keep his balance, but the goblin didn't and
plummeted to his death as well.
And back in town, Hristo had parted
from Barada so the gnome could return to his hostel
room and get some sleep. However, he was later awoken by someone pounding
on his door...
To be continued...
FLASHBACK: FROM THE SECOND PLAYING SESSION
Setting: Various locales in the free town of
Readying 11th.
That morning, Alexander told his father, Phillip Petrok, about his mission to clear the brigands from Skull
Keep. Phillip, the Captain of the Town Watch, was proud of his son and
wished him well.
Everyone met at the west gate in the palisade surrounding the
Except for Abraham the Radiant. Since this was Godsday, he was expected to be at the shrine and perform
services. So attractive was the lure of adventuring though, that he asked
Cassandra Milnov, wandering priestess of Pelor, to take his place for the day. At the last minute. Before leaving.
Cass was POed.
In a half hour, Abraham managed to catch up with the band, who had gotten fed up and left without him. They spent
the day following the sandy beach. They talked throughout the day,
comparing their abilities. They could hear birds frequently in the
distance, but encountered nothing. Their sleep was uneventful as well,
though they had been wise enough to post watches.
Readying 12th.
The shoreline gradually grew higher and rockier as they marched
on to Skull Keep. At last, Alexander spotted a lone tower in the
distance. This was all that remained of the upper levels of Skull
Keep. They approached the tower warily, noting that the single door
leading into the tower was already bashed in. They circled south around
the tower, looking for the Pit.
The Pit was as impressive as Laird Tapinov
had described it. It was 40' in diameter, and deeper than could be
seen. Abraham through a pebble into the Pit, that fell for a few seconds
before hitting something. A plan was made that the gnome, Hristo, would be lowered by rope into the Pit. Two 50'
lengths of rope were tied together, but one length of rope was snapped as
everyone took turns testing each others knots. Hristo
became disheartened about the idea, and Ragnarr lost
patience and stormed off to the tower.
The ground floor of the tower was gutted and empty, with a
rubble-choked stairwell going up, but also with stairs going down. Abraham
lit his lantern, and the party descended the spiral staircase. Soon they
came to a landing with two doors, with the option of descending further. Ragnarr bashed each door in turn, and the humans in the
party waited in darkness while Ragnarr peered down the
hallway beyond each door. The party chose the western corridor, which lead
them to a side door. Ragnarr also bashed this
open. The room inside was a barracks, and standing there were five human
brigands picking up their shields and longswords.
Between the party's shield bashing, longsword
thrusting, and back stabbing, the brigands fell quickly -- especially since
they had been caught without their armor on. Two brigands
surrendered. One of them was knocked unconscious. Hristo
and Abraham went out into the hallway to stand guard. Barada
closed the door, while Alexander and Ragnarr
interrogated the terrified brigand remaining. The brigand quickly revealed
that there were several dozen men left, and an equal number of
goblins. They worked for pirates, and were there solely to defend the
entrance. He identified his leader as Demonkos,
and gave them a description, after which they knocked him out and tied him up.
Meanwhile, Hristo and Abraham were
beating on the door wanting to come in, because twice as many brigands were
running down the hall towards them. Barada and
Alexander held the brigands off at the doorway, after letting one into the room
for Hristo to backstab. Fighting one-on-one, the
brigands were no match for Barada and Alexander, and
after five of them fell, a leader in the back shouted for them to
retreat. Ragnarr raced out into the hall to
pursue them, with the others following. The leader, a man in splintmail armor, matched the description of Demonkos.
Ragnarr barreled past the two brigands left to
defend the archway at the end of the hall, and Alexander and Barada engaged the two brigands in melee. Demonkos was running through a doorway, and Ragnarr shield-bashed one of the two brigands guarding the
doorway. Barada quickly felled his opponent, and
rushed ahead while Alexander had trouble with his foe. Barada
had taken some scratches, and now changed weapons to his short bow. Ragnarr found himself facing Demonkos
and four more brigands in the new room, so Ragnarr
backed off. Demonkos took advantage of this by
shouting for his men to follow him to the goblin room, and they all fled down a
corridor leading east. Barada used his bow to
pick off the brigand on Alexander from behind.
Complicating matters, the thieves, Hristo
and Perpegilliam, had decided to circle around to the
other side of the stairwell room, thinking that way might connect to where the
brigands had fled. They convinced Abraham to accompany them. The
thieves, scouting ahead of Abraham, turned a corner and saw a room with five
more brigands getting crossbows ready. Perry began throwing caltrops on
the ground behind them as they snuck back to Abraham. Perry shouted, and
sent Abraham running back to the stairwell room with the lantern, while Perry
and Hristo hid to either side of the intersection
waiting to backstab. The brigands were badly injured by the caltrops, but
they spotted the hiding thieves by light reflecting off their short
swords. The ambush was foiled, and Hristo took a
nasty hit from a crossbow. Perry tripped up one with marbles, and the
others fell slowly in a prolonged melee against the three
adventurers. They left one conscious, and were questioning him for more
information when the rest of the party found them. Abraham healed their
captive, and then Hristo. It was decided that
they would round up their prisoners and return to the surface to rest.