2nd Campaign, Meet 3, 9/5/11

Labor Day Weekend and my daughter wanted to sit down and play some D&D. So we continued with Lina and Thimbles in the elusive search for the goblin general and to bring him to justice. We were in the crypt still and she wanted to stay and check out all the doors to make sure we didn't miss anything. Plus it would be fun. Her words, not mine.


I think I saw tears when Thimbles went down at -4 hit points. Scared the hell out of her. She was so proud when her next blow was a 15 and she rolled a 7 for damage - doing 9 points (+2 to her str checks due to a 17 str) of damage to the 5 hit point skeleton that had just killed her friend, companion, and father. High fives followed and she was beaming.


It was in the fight with the boss undead fighter guy that she asked, "Why did you roll the 8 sided dice 3 times for hit points instead of once?" I was showing her what went on on my side of the screen and rolled all the hit points before the first blows would fall of the baddies we would be fighting. I explained the undead warrior was more powerful than a regular skeleton (3 hit dice) and would have better hit points and better ability to hit us.


She thought about it briefly, noted that the undead warrior ended up with 15 hit points, and said, "Then lets make sure we hit him more often than he hits us! Let's roll for initiative!" she grinned with the bright yellow 6 sided dice in her hand.


I cannot tell you how proud I am and how great she is.


Write up follows:

Lina and Thimbles looked further down the corridor, noting more doors on both sides of the hall. They approached the next one and it was with a stout should and firm push that the elven warrior was able to shove the heavy stone door open.

The back of the room had four alcoves set at 1 foot above the ground and then 2’ successively above the former, in each cubby was the skeletal remains of some humanoid being with heavy skulls. Otherwise the 10’ square chamber was featureless. Lina wanted to check out the alcoves but the two friends were a bit nervous about doing so. She approached the lowest one and poked the body inside with her sword twice. Nothing happened.

After that she began sweeping out the bones, the clattering noise filling the room and echoing faintly down the corridor. Once it was empty we looked inside – nothing. She wanted Thimbles to check the next alcove but the Halfling archer wanted little to do with that. So Lina once again began sweeping bones out and onto the floor.

It was amidst the clattering of bones that Thimbles held up his hand and asked, “Hey, did you hear something?” He glanced into the hall and gave a squeak of alarm as 4 wandering crab spiders were clack-clack walking their way towards the noisy crypt the two companions were in.

Thimbles got a nasty scrape against his leg but his armor held as Lina pulled him back from the door and blocked it with her body, sword, and shield in order to keep the oversized arachnids out of the room and at bay. Her blade rose and fell while Thimbles shot at the closest spider. It was a few short strokes later that she split the crab spider almost in half and it slumped over with a guttering squeal. The ferocity of the blows and sputtering fire from Thimbles torch must have stolen the fight out of the other 3 spiders as they turned away and scuttled down the corridor, fleeing the fight.

We waited a few minutes but the spiders did not come back. Feeling safer, Lina went back to the alcoves and finished number 2 and 3 – coming up with nothing in either. The last alcove was 7’ off the ground. She braced herself on the bottom of the 1st one, using it like a ladder, and pulled herself up to prod the skeletal remains in the top cubby – when the figure within grabbed her sword blade and stopped her.

She jumped down, pulling her blade free, avoiding the walking skeleton that dropped to the floor and pulled a rusting short blade with him. Thimbles was first and ready and fired a sure shot – the arrow hitting the skeleton in the chest. And doing nothing what-so-ever. “Damn, Lina,” he groaned, pulling out his own shorter sword, “I think we have a problem.” As he was trying to get it ready though the undead pulled back its arm and thrust the Halfling full in the chest. Thimbles groaned and fell over, bleeding terribly as his breath grew weak and still. Then the undead turned to face the red faced and furious elven warrior.

As for Lina she ducked the skeleton’s directed blow, wound up her hips, arced her sword over her shoulder and uncoiled. The heavy sword swung around like a steel pendulum and smashed the skeleton to pieces in a single blow! She then dropped to her knees, used one of her healing potions on her friend to stabilize him and another from his pack to bring him back to life. As he coughed and choked and she helped him up she said, “No problem, Thimbles!” with a cheery voice. We checked over the wreckage, the skeleton had nothing on him of value, the sword was badly rusted and pitted, but in the alcove it had resided in Lina did uncover a large brass key.

We left the crypt and went back to the hall. There was a 4th crypt that we were able to open but outside of an old sarcophagus holding nothing but the remains of some long dead person there was nothing to keep our attention.

We had a problem with the next two doors; the ancient crypts long unopened did not budge from our efforts regardless of anything we tried. Giving up for now we went on to the last door. It was unlike any of the other crypt doors, situated at the end of the corridor. There was a carving on it of an angelic figure with its arms raised and a sword in his hand, fancy designs cut into the edge of the door frame. We tried to open it but the door refused to open.

Lina looked over the door carefully and between the angel’s carved hands was a deeper hole – shaped like a key hole. She took out the brass key and turned it. Long unused tumblers clattered in the lock and the great door opened.

The crypt was larger than any of the others. A heavy stone chair sat on the far side of the chamber, a skeletal figure sat in it, clad on moldering chainmail and its bony claw holding the hilt of a silver tinged sword. Offering crates and boxes were on either side of it. Neither companion wanted to enter. “Shoot at it,” Lina said.

“Why?” Thimbles asked. “If it is alive, my arrows don’t do much against skeletons.”

“If you shoot it and it moves, we’ll know it’s alive. Also it’s not like the other skeletons we fought – it’s wearing armor and has lots more flesh on it.”

Unsure at first, Thimbles drew back his bow and fired. Dead shot. The arrow hit the chainmail with a sharp report, and sure enough the skeletal warrior DID stand up and hiss at us, storming over with little red flames in its eyes and its silver sword shimmering in the air. It made a nasty humming noise and the two companions were momentarily stunned as it stalked closer and struck at Lina.

Thimbles backed up a step and shot, his arrow hitting the undead and making it hiss again. Lina struck, solidly slicing into the horror. But unlike before her blow did NOT drop the walking dead, only made it stagger back and come forward swinging.

The two friends sweated a few close hits with the undead until it connected twice on Lina, cutting her forearm open on one blow and mortally wounding her on her upper chest with a second. Thimbles risked getting brained to pour a healing potion down Lina’s throat, blocking a few of the undead warrior’s blows with his own sword until his friend was able to stand once again.

Then the two of them struck the undead figure again and again until it fell over and the fires in its eyes went dim and guttered out. As for the sword it was wielding, it glowed faintly on the floor, silvery light coming from its blade. Lina bent down to pick it up, reading the words “Silvercut” written across its mirrorlike surface. She smiled as she slipped it into her belt.

The two friends looked around the chamber for a few minutes, sat in the throne once or twice just to see, and decided that enough was enough. They were going after the ‘General’ in the goblin area next after eating some dinner. We still had Lina’s unused sleep spell and she also had a web scroll that we could use to help even the odds should we need. So we squared our shoulders, took out our trail rations, and sat down to a meal before heading off to bring the ‘General’ to justice.

2nd Campaign, Meet 2, 7/17/11

My daughter and I were alone this weekend and she wanted the opportunity to play D&D again, even though my wife was currently in Florida. So we took out the original two characters, the ones that had gone into the guard tower in the back of the basic red book, and continued where we left off.


In my desire to keep it simple and still true to the same sort of fun adventures I had done when I was first playing, I this time took her to the dungeon below the guard tower - which I used from the AD&D ruined monastery found in the DM's guide.


I did not prompt her on what to do or where to go or how to do it, trusting in her to make critical decisions. She decided to burn the webs overhead. She jumped into the pool of water to get the scroll tube. She recognized that her character was immune to ghoul paralysis. And she came to the conclusion that if the goblins had bags of flour and grain, then someone in the town above was working with them and is a traitor.


I could not have been any more proud. :)


Write up follows:

Lina Inverse, elven warrior-mage and Thimbles Mooserider, Halfling fighter, both went to the general store the next day and geared up on fresh arrows, oil, and other sundry required goods. By 9 AM they had stowed all their gear into their backpacks and headed off to the old keep on the edge of Brevoy in an effort to find and bring the “General”, a shadowy figure controlling the goblins and their latest kidnapping schemes against the townsfolk, to justice.

We had already been to the guard tower of the keep before and it was only a few minutes to verify that nothing new had been set up there since our foray into it yesterday. We worked our way to the back and once more went down the hole in the floor to the basement. To the north were a series of cells that we had already cleared and to the south was a locked door that went to a set of wide steps running down. Thimbles lit a fresh torch and we went down the steps with careful feet.

At the base of the steps was a largish room with a vaulted 20’ ceiling where cobwebs hung in heavy sheets. A dozen or so thick bags were in the south corner and there were three decently wide corridors that allowed exit from the room, one to the east, the south, and the west. Lina looked at the ceiling with a squinted eye, untrusting of the many webs hanging there. She held Thimbles back for a moment and then asked for his torch. Climbing back up two of the steps she reached up to the nearest thick canopy of dusty webbings and ignited them.

The fire crawled with surprising speed across the ceiling, sweeping up with a faint “whoosh” as it moved across the room. Clods of cooling ash filtered down, along with dozens of tiny charred spider bodies. However it was with some surprise that the two friends beheld a huge spider, just about the size of a cat, hit the ground just ahead of the racing flames. It turned towards the two of us and scampered forward eager to bite us.

Thimbles was just a split second faster as he tugged his short sword free and speared the arachnid with a single blow, killing it. Lina looked the spider over and said, “That’s the biggest spider I’ve ever seen! I want to get its fangs!” She then proceeded to spend a few minutes struggling to get the spider’s fangs free using the edge of her sword, rope, even her boot, but it was when Thimbles said that if she slipped she could wind up getting poisoned that she gave up trying. We did pick through some of the crud on the floor, finding a goblin skull that Lina turned over to dislodge a garnet from within. The Halfling shrugged, “I guess he was swallowing the gem when he got his head cut off?”

We then went towards the bags and the elven warrior prodded them; nothing came out to assault us. It was obvious after a short look that the bags were filled with both ground flour and grain, and there were many of them. Lina said that there was no place to grow the grain down here and it was obviously the goblins’…so someone from Brevoy must be working with the goblins and most likely the General. There was a traitor somewhere above.

Filing this information away for now and knowing that once we leave we’ll take care of this problem, we looked over our situation. Lina took one of the torches from the wall and helped her Halfling friend check out the exits from the chamber. Three other ways out, and looking down each of them, the east and south went as far as our torch light while the west ended at a stout oaken door. We decided to check out the door first.

Listening to it we both were able to faintly hear some sort of low moaning beyond. She lowered her torch to the ground, readied her sword, and pulled the door open. A stiff breeze blew in, making the torch dance wildly before guttering out, plunging us into darkness. Lina’s infravision kicked in and she beheld the rough walls of a cavern beyond with a swift flowing stream coming from one hole in the wall, ponding, and then flowing out another hole. There were some barrels of some sort in the middle of the room. Other than that, the room was uniformly cool.

They could not get the torches relit and Thimbles was nervous not being able to see. Lina remembered that she had oil and we had a plan, going back to the entrance room we set a few of the bags of grain and flour on fire and tossed them into the windy cavern, allowing us to see. While the light lasted Thimbles checked over the barrels and Lina looked at the water.

In the middle of the pond was a skeleton of some sort, lying flat, very rough and craggy looking. And in its hand was a scroll or map case. As the light was fading, Lina stripped off her packs and weapons, waded into the water, and dove down for the case. She grabbed it and came up cold and sputtering, the cotton gambeson under her platemail was soaked and freezing. The two friends left the chamber, shut the door, and returned to the entrance room.

Once there Thimbles ignited a few more sacks and made a small fire while Lina took off her armor and cotton under clothes, doing her best to wring them out while she dried herself off. Thimbles looked over the case and broke the seal, unfurling a single piece of paper. It was a map of some sort and after showing it to Lina the two of them recognized the entrance room as well as the stream and cavern chamber. It was a partial map of the dungeon they were in.

The noted that the path south led to something marked ghouls, which Lina informed Thimbles were dead people that attacked you and paralyzed you. She didn’t have to worry about that since she was an elf and could not be paralyzed. Thimbles retorted, “They can still attack and eat you. I won’t go towards any room where the people within can attack, paralyze, and eat Halflings!!” The map did indicate the eastern path had a few turn offs, something referred to as the crypts, and then eventually a goblin sign with two marks underneath it. Thimbles pointed to that and said, “That mark means someone important.”

They decided that that area was where the “general” was and should go there to take care of him. On the way they would pass the crypts and Lina suspected that if they were undisturbed, the two of them might find a little treasure in there. They went east, watching where they were going as they walked along. The passage turned to the left and there was a “T” to the right. The map indicated that to the right was the direction they wanted to go (even though looking further down, they did see two doors at the end of the corridor).

After 20 paces they came to a passage to the right, and 20 more paces to come to another one. Even though the corridor did continue on, it was this right option that led to the area marked as the crypts. Torch held high and sword at the ready, the two friends walked on. A stout door was here on the right, and then 4 more paces another on the left, and the same 4 paces beyond that on the right again. Lina pressed her back against the door, but even her considerable strength wasn’t enough to budge it.

They went to the next door, this one giving way. The crypt beyond was about 10’ square, with a stone sarcophagus on the far wall. Tentatively they approached the box, noting that it seemed undisturbed. Thimbles stepped back, his bow out and an arrow at the ready while Lina shoved the cover off.

SNAP!

A hairy black claw snapped out, just barely missing the elven warrior. A large back and red carapaced spider with two humongous crab claws scrambled out, trying to bite Lina’s arm. She snatched it away barely in time. Thimbles fired, hitting the spider and causing it to skitter sideways. She poked it with her sword and another crab spider came out from the casket.

The two of them were grabbing at Lina, pinching her armor, snapping at her wrists. Thimbles shot again and again, causing the spiders to stagger and weave dangerously as they took damage from his arrows. At one point Lina got a lucky blow and her sword sheared one of the spiders in half, turning the tide of the short desperate fight and in a hail of sword cuts and arrows, the last spider went down with a shudder.

We checked Lina out, finding no real wounds to worry about, and then looked in the sarcophagus, snagging double handful of silver and copper coins. Bagging them up, Thimbles picked up the wavering torch from the floor, took out a new one and lit it, and the two friends turned to go further explore the crypt area of the dungeon.

2nd Campaign. Meet 1, 4/23/11

The first game with my daughter took place 5 minutes after character creation and like all good Basic D&D campaigns, took place at the guard tower in the back of the rule book. Ran it as written except for the prisoners located in the basement. She did not clear it out but that's ok.

She was most proud of the green slime and EVERY where we went, she wanted to search for traps (after hearing the normal game for years she had picked up on that trope very quickly). She also had only 1 spell and after going through the list of 12 available, she wisely chose sleep without any input from me. I will admit she was very close to taking Charm Person but opted to go for the better choice instead.

All told we got the mission done, a pile of coin, and immediately got hired for the next one - leading us back to the gatehouse of the keep and to the next level down.

Write up follows:

The old keep on the edge of Brevoy had been rumored to be haunted over the last 2 decades, strange sounds echoing from within, odd lights now and again. Most of it had fallen to ruin but a few of the outer gate towers still stood. Lord Rasmus the Fifth had made noise over the years to have it razed but nothing had ever come of it.

There have been strange sightings in the streets at night, cowled and hooded figures skulking about, the stinking rotten banana reek of unwashed golbinflesh redolent in the air from their passing. And as of this morning, there were 12 counts of missing persons. The baker’s daughter, two pages, old man Jenkins the well house guard, two journeymen cobblers, a dairymaid, the bell maker’s wife, Squithic the elven puppeteer, and two beggars – all disappeared between 6^th hour and morning walk.

Lord Rasmus the Sixth (newly lorded and running the lands since his father’s passing two months ago) was beside himself and a call went out for daring personages who would risk investigating the old keep. And it was here that Lina Inverse, Elven warrior mage from Greenholm and her Halfling companion, Thimble Mooserider, stout and doughty fighter from Erylond took up the quest from Lord Rasmus. He promised them 100 crowns total if they were able to find the lost townsfolk and bring them safely back.

Mounting up on their steeds the two adventurers rode to the edge of Brevoy where they dismounted, made sure there was feed and water for their horses, and tied them up at the edge of the keep’s perimeter. Up close the keep looked just as bad as people had said. They took the time to explore the area around and the two of them did find numerous goblinoid tracks near the eastern guard tower. Lina dared to creep up to the door and peer through the crack, her elven sight allowing her to see the cooler interior of the keep’s short entrance hall.

Pressing her shoulder to the portal she shoved hard and the heavy door slid with a scrape to the right, lodging itself open against the dusty floor. A plume of grit and dirt billowed in briefly, showing a short hall maybe 15’ long. There was enough light filtering in for now to show the corridor all the way to the opposite door frame. Lina held Thimbles back and eyed the floor critically. “We should check for traps,” she said. The two companions carefully probed ahead, thimbles with the butt of his short bow, Lina with the edge of her boot. And sure enough, they felt a gap in the floor.

With a firm stomp, they opened the 5’ pit trap that went down about 10 feet, old bones and bits of scrap metal on the bottom. The Halfling uncoiled his rope and hook, set it on the edge of the pit, and climbed down, the elven fighter-mage followed. At the bottom they goosed the grapple off and flung it up to the other side, climbing out of the pit again.

At the door the two companions checked it out carefully, hearing nothing on the other side. It seemed stuck so Lina once again forced it opened. There was a hall running to the right and the left, both short, both ending at a closed door. On the left side there was also a turn to the right. We hissed some ideas back and forth, deciding to check out both doors first. Thimbles lit a torch from his pack and the two friends moved on.

The right most door opened up to what had once been a barracks but had now flooded. The floor had dropped away and the ceiling bulged downward, resulting in a pool of murky water in which a single bed floated serenely along with the rusting hulk of an iron statue showing a female warrior. A door was on the opposite of the chamber but the two companions opted to go and investigate the other door from the main hall first.

Lina shut the door behind us and we walked quietly down the hall. A look over the door showed no obvious traps and they once again heard nothing. There was some pushing and we looked in on another room, some sort of sleeping chamber. Two beds, couple of chairs, a table. A layer of fine dust was sitting on everything.

The two friends went in and looked around, carefully checking over the entire chamber but found nothing. Once satisfied of the situation, they ventured back in the hall and thought about their options. Option 1: continue north from this hall or Option 2: go back to the sunken chamber with the pool of water in it and skirt around to the other side. They opted for the 2^nd choice.

Once here the two friends gave the room a once over, avoiding stepping in the pool but having no problem with shining a torch down near the surface or probing the depth with the tip of their swords. Thimbles noticed the torch was guttering out so he withdrew a new one and lit it.

They found nothing so went across the chamber to the other side, gave a cautious listen and look at the door here and then dared to open it. A short hall ran to the left where at the corner there they had a door on the left, a door on the opposite wall, or a turn to the right. Strange sounds seemed to echo in the distance, setting the two of them on edge.

Lina led the way, inching down to the corner where she looked right. The corridor went a short distance and turned to the right again. Many footprints littered the ground here as well as some damp drag marks. We felt we were on the right track. However, the two companions did not want to risk leaving the two doors here untouched so they opened the one on the left first after verifying it was not locked or trapped.

The room beyond was dull and gritty in the torch light. Before entering they looked around with care and this time Lina’s concern was rewarded with a revelation. The ceiling had some foul muculant greenish slimy mass adhering to it, just on the inside of the door. Drips of ichor fell from it, hissing on the floor where they hit.

Neither one wanted to enter the room but they didn’t want to leave the slime just hanging there. Taking Thimbles torch, Lina held it to some of the small drips and was satisfied to see them hiss and pop, turning from fibrous green to desiccated brown. She stood up and held the torch to the mass of the slime and it began to burn, dropping from the ceiling in wet chunks where the smaller pieces were also burned.

Once satisfied we had done what we could, we checked out the room only to be dismayed on finding nothing of value within. The two friends went on to the 2^nd door and performed the same actions, only this time the chamber did not have a green slime on the ceiling.

They were growing hungry so they went into the room, shut the door, and ate what dinner they had packed with them: salted pork, noodles, fresh vegetables, and dried fruit. It was at the end of their meal that they heard voices in the hall getting closer. Lina felt it was reminiscent of hobgoblin but the dialect was all wrong. Most likely was goblin. She drew her stout sword and Thimbles backed up a few steps with his short bow out, an arrow nocked and ready. Just as the voices were outside the portal Lina tore the door opened and sliced down at the lead goblin.

It screamed as he was hit, the pale greenish creature twisted away as it fell. The goblins stunk of old socks and rotten bananas, their skin was covered in strange lumps and sores, and they wore what seemed to be scavenged bits of clothing and armor. Thimbles shot past the goblin at the 2^nd and although the Halfling did hit the creature, it was a glancing wound and did not fall down.

The two goblins remaining entered, both plying their crude spiked clubs against Lina, but the elven warrior’s platemail and shield were more than enough to turn aside the greenskin’s blows. A few more arrows were shot and then Lina got a lucky strike, dropping the 2^nd goblin and then the third in short order.

Our elven warrior-mage was lightly wounded, more likely just winded from the short fight, while Thimbles was out of the direct melee. They checked over the 3 enemies finding 12 gold crowns for their efforts which they split and pocketed. Then they dragged the goblins into the room, lit a 3^rd torch from Thimbles’ pack, and shut the door behind them. The idea was that if there were a patrolling trio, their presence would be missed sooner rather than later so it was best not to waste any more time.

The two companions continued on their way up the hall, following the drag marks on the floor. The corridor came to the end and turned left and left again. There were two doors here, one close and the other at the end of the hall. Some faint noise was heard from the nearest door and Lina confirmed it was goblin voices, only this time a lot of them.

Since we still had not found the prisoners yet, we decided to do the same as we had done last time with Lina ripping the door opened and Thimbles right behind with his bow. It was the sight of the barracks room with 6 bunk beds and home to 12 goblins within that gave the two friends pause. Most of the goblins were asleep but the closest 4 were staring at the two with shock and growing hatred. We had to act now – attack or flee.

Lina took matters into her own hands. Calling on her elven heritage she recited the arcane words of a sleep spell and put all the closest goblins still awake right to sleep! Then the two friends entered quickly and using their swords they one by one dispatched all the sleeping goblins until they were all slain. Huzzah!

It was a few minutes afterwards that they had gone through the bodies and found almost 50 more crowns which they split and pocketed. Feeling very bold from their endeavors, the two friends readied their weapons and went on to the next door in the hall.

Thimbles thought he heard something down the hall but it seemed to have been nothing since no one became visible. Outside the last door Lina’s keen hearing finally picked up some voices a few moaning in Common and a handful snarling in Hobgoblin. Alright – this should be it!

Our tactics had been working so far so it was a quick pull on the door and we attacked, Thimbles getting the first shot this time and pegging a Hobgoblin in the shoulder. The Hobgoblins were taller than the 5’ goblins, almost 6 and a half feet tall, still greenish cast to their skins but they all sported thick wiry orange hair on their heads, arms, and chins and to a one they each had almost baboonish like flattened blue noses. Holding their spears and sword up high, the 4 hobgoblins stepped forward to attack.

Lina took a nasty swipe on her arm and then a 2^nd one across her stomach. She returned the blows by hitting one of the hobgoblins so hard that he crumbled across his torn up thigh and went down with a silent wail. There were now only 3 and Thimbles pegged another one, wounding the tall monster and causing it to hiss in pain.

We had been given a healing potion each by Lord Rasmus before we had left and Lina was sweating very heavily as she tried to keep the hobgoblins from surrounding her, her sword whistling about like a scythe. When he had the chance, Thimbles stopped firing long enough to open his own healing potion and pour it down Lina’s throat, the magical elixir closing up all of Lina’s many scratches and breathing new life into her swings and blows. She thanked her Halfling companion and her every waving sword struck the wounded hobgoblin and ended his life.

Lina tried to convince the Hobgoblins to give up and their lives would be spared but the two remaining monsters wanted nothing to do with her words and commenced their attacks. But it was for naught for in a few short minutes the last two were slain and Lina was sheathing her sword once more. Thimbles had fired about half of his arrows but only a few of the feathered shafts were still salvageable.

The two friends shut the door and went to the 2 prisoners on the floor. They rummaged around the Hobgoblins and found a ring of keys, a fancy necklace, and a box of gold and silver coins that we pocketed for now. As for the keys, one of which opened the manacles. The prisoners said that they had been brought up for sport (pointing to a capped area of the floor where a ladder went down to a basement) with the other 10 townsfolk still down there. There were supposedly other goblins and hobgoblins down there and they were waiting for someone called “the General” who was going to come and take the prisoners somewhere else.

We talked about what was to happen next and Lina wanted to go down into the hole and rescue the other 10 down there. We helped up the two that we had saved and instructed them under no circumstances were they to open the door. She then took one spear and one sword from the fallen Hobgoblins and armed the two townsfolk.

We went to the stairs and Thimbles opted to go down first. Holding his torch with one hand and picked his way down the 20 feet to the basement where we reported to Lina there was a room here about 30’ square with two doors, one on the north leading to some 11 cells and the one on the south was dense heavy wood with bands of iron running across it.

She climbed down and the two friends made their way to the north door where another key on the ring opened it. There were cells here and moaning prisoners that we freed one at a time until we had way too many townsfolk milling about. Lina instructed them all to be very quiet and to climb up the ladder rungs to the floor above, making no noise to the goblins that might be nearby and could hear them.

We were lucky and the two friends knew it as they were the last out of the basement and commenced their way back up to the main floor. Once here we gave the last two swords to the strongest looking of the prisoners and then listened to the door back into the hall. And Thimbles this time heard goblin voices.

Lina wanted to make this quick as most of the prisoners were not going to be able to help in a fight. So we opened the door and hit the three goblins there with all we had. Arrows flew and swords sliced and even two of the prisoners helped out with wild spear thrusts and swings of their own weapons. Lina took another crack on her shin for her efforts and her shield was getting very dimpled but the three goblins went down at long last.

Thimbles lit a third torch from his pack and handed it to one of the prisoners, telling Lina to lead them out and he would take up the rear. The group now numbering 14 snaked their way out of the guard room, past the barracks, around the corners and through the sunken pool filled chamber.

It was past here that things did not go well as Lina was surprised by a pair of goblin scouts walking. She was hit but unwounded and the elven warrior-mage pushed and shoved and hit the two goblins, her mighty strength more than enough to drop a single goblin in one blow. The 2^nd one was surprised at this, took a look behind him, and ran with shouts echoing ahead of him.

Most likely getting help.

Lina urged the prisoners to go fast through to the exit, the townsfolk bottlenecking as they picked their way along the edge of the pit. She called for Thimbles to hurry as goblins were most likely coming, the Halfling at the end of the line of prisoners and unable to push his way past yet.

As she had feared the goblin had gone and gotten two of his friends who came back down the hall in a mad dash to hit the elven fighter. She set herself up near a corner so that she could only face one of the three at a time and made her stand to protect the fleeing townsfolk. She traded blows with the first and he fell, getting a slice across her shoulder from the 2^nd as she struggled to hold him off. When she had a chance she took her own potion of healing out and drank it down, smiling as the enchanted fluid restored her vitality again.

The 2 goblins were dismayed at this but even more so when Thimbles arrived and shot arrows past Lina, killing one of the two still standing here. It seemed like the last goblin was going to break and run but he didn’t and he was slain as well within the next few seconds under sword and arrows.

Not wanting to get caught they left the fallen foes here and Lina and Thimbles ran out to the waiting ex-prisoners and mounted up, urging them to move quickly back towards town. It was around 7 that night that the tired troupe arrived back at Brevoy. Lord Rasmus the Sixth was very pleased and awarded the two friends the 100 crowns as promised. He heard their tale and that of the captured people and then asked Lina and Thimbles if they would seek out this “General” and bring him in for justice; offering them 150 gold crowns if they succeeded.

The two friends agreed they would do so and expected to leave on the morrow after a good night’s rest and some shopping at the trading store for some more goods.

2nd Campaign! Background

My daughter has been bugging me ever since my friend Mike C gifted her her 1st D&D set at age 6. Ambitious, yes, but he wanted to make sure the groundwork was laid early. I promised her that she could play when she was 8 (incidentally the same age that my cousin Jeff had come to my house one summer attempting to teach me how to play – but I did not take him up on it at that time) – and somehow she became 8!

It was a rainy weekend and she had already broken her teeth on Heroquest and various other similar games so after allowing her to convince me I told her that we would roll up characters. Over the years I had introduced probably 20 or so people to the game but honestly, no one as young or as important to me as my daughter. I wanted to think about this and do it right so I had to think about WHY and HOW we play and explain it in such a way that an 8 year old 3rd grader could understand and appreciate. I took some time to think about it

So below are the 7 policies regarding Dungeons and Dragons and what I talked about with my kid before we even cracked a book or picked up a pencil. They are worthwhile to repeat and it does not matter what age or experience your players are.

1) Winning at D&D means you show up. That’s the most important lesson – unlike Chutes and Ladders or Monopoly – there is no end game and the game ends when you stop playing. As long as you come and come with 3 things: 1) A willingness to listen, 2) Respect for others around the table, & 3) A good attitude; you will always win at D&D.

2) There is only one Rules person at the table. Being the DM is hard and you should always respect him or her. That means that if a rule is made or something is told to you regarding how an action plays out, there is no clamoring for a change or a reroll or can I instead do this. This goes back to the 1st point in which there is NO winning. Sometimes your character will die and sometimes you will get hurt – but there are also times when you will do the same to the foes arranged against you.

3) Teamwork – This is not a solo endeavor, there will be other people in your group. Some will be players, some will be characters the DM is controlling – but the long and short of it, it is a group effort and there are going to be times that your character can shine and times when someone else will be the main focus. Be respectful of both instances. Share the spoils always and always remember that no one should be left behind.

4) Good Sportsmanship – Sometimes the dice are going to be in your favor, and sometimes they won’t. What matters is how you compose yourself at the table. Cheering when the results are good and not complaining or calling out “not fair” when the results are poor. There is going to be the desire to cheat or fudge a dice roll – but a good player will refrain from doing that.

5) Social Gathering – This is a social event, just like a party or play date. It’s a chance to get together with friends and family and do things with them that everyone enjoys doing together. There will be shared laughter and joys and groans and stories. And when you see these people again even if it is not a game day, there will be that shared experience that binds you together.

6) Math and Reading skills – There is much to be learned in regards to statistics, addition, subtraction, estimation, probability, how to read a chart, as well as learning new words, definitions, sentence structure, manners of speaking, and further personal enrichment of this and other similar topics. (Words I had to define just during character creation: Alignment, Class, Constitution, Wisdom, Charisma, Paralyzation, Ventriloquism, Portal, Pole Arm, Platemail Armor, Tinder Box, Waterskin, Morale)

7) Historical Facts – Although it is a fantasy game, there are hundreds of things to learn about the past that you would most likely glean just from casual play even the first night. What’s the difference between bows and crossbows? What’s a Keep and why was it used instead of castles everywhere? What’s a dairymaid? What’s a cobbler? Why are some roads cobbled and others dirt? What IS a cobbled road? Why doesn’t everyone own a horse?

Another thing I did that I don’t normally do is I dropped the DM screen and rolled all dice in front of her. When able to, I allowed her to roll her own dice as well. Kids love dice, heck we all love dice, so seeing how it plays out and telling her what number she was looking for to achieve what goals she wanted was not only a kick but very appreciated.

As for systems, I went back to my 1980 red book Basic D&D set – the same one that I had used and learned when I was a kid. It meant jettisoning most everything I’ve tacked on over the years but it was a pleasurable experience to go back to the basics and play as it was originally inferred. Things I was happy to relearn – healing potions do 1d6+1, all 1st level characters need a 10 to hit AC:9, Initiative maxes at +2, short range on missile attacks get a +1, Halflings hide at 90% when outside and 2/6 when in a dungeon.

And lastly, I kept the actual game play time down to about 2 ½ hours. A short goal, defined solution, and a trip back to town all wrapped up in 1 fell swoop. We could have played longer but I did not want to burn her out and instead wanted to leave her hungry (if she was interested) for more and to come back when she wanted to.

Allow me to say, she very much wanted to (and still wants to!) come back and play again.