Note: This is probably my longest post ever. You’ve been warned.
Summary
I re-calibrate xp for my heroes after updating xp tables. I take them into a new map area, the catacombs (behind the secret door). They explore two rooms. In the first, they defeat two spiders and recover the gear of a fallen paladin, which they divide up. In the second room, they face many encounters. They open 8 sarcophagi, fighting some ghouls, a ghast, and a constrictor. They recover some valuables and magical bracers of might. When they touch the statue, a gem in its helm animates skeletons. After a long battle with skeletons animating each round, the heroes destroy the gem and defeat the skeletons.
Actual Play
I re-worked the xp tables, so I want to re-calibrate their xp (and split three ways with Garek, because that is how the xp works- I shouldn’t modify the rules to help my mains progress faster. And who knows? I might have Garek stick around longer than I expected…).
3 zombies 1 (4 xp each)
1 bat 2 (8 xp)
1 ghoul 2 (8 xp)
1 gibbering mouther 2 (8 xp)
1 spider 2 (8 xp)
1 rot creeper 3 (16 xp)
1 trap 1 (4 xp)
And found a secret door 1 (4 xp)
68 total xp means that each hero has earned 23 xp. With the 10 xp that’s 33 each, putting the two mains one third of the way to level 2. That’s reasonable.
Onward
I looked at some catacombs maps that others had made, and of course Dyson Logos had an awesome catacombs map that I’ve used for inspiration. The catacombs themselves are relatively small, but the priests dug far enough to hit a natural cave that is flooded, and which has two points of egress. I kept the basic idea of the map, but made changes to the layout to personalize it. I still wanted a decent-sized catacomb area to explore, but this gets me into the Vault of the D’Ro a little quicker.
They descend the stairs into the catacomb entry. They can hear the sound of water pouring at the far end of the chamber, and they investigate, seeing the stairs descend into the water beyond. They do not see the two spiders (natural 12 on the sneak check), so 2 tomb spiders drop on them. One attacks Garek, and one attacks Mim.
Round 1
A spider lands a natural 12 on Garek, dealing 8-3=5. He’s at 15 hits. He makes his might check, and ignores the poison. The second spider misses Mim, despite its +1 edge.
Mim casts an eldritch arrow and gets 11. He deals 9 hits, but the spider makes its reflex check, suffering 5. It is at 15 hits.
Brand attempts to strike the one on mim, swinging his new magical sword… and he promptly misses. He has to get used to it, I guess.
Garek also misses his. Quality.
Round 2
Both spiders roll natural 1s. I would ask what the odds are, but I already know that they are 1 in 144. Everyone gets +1 edge against the spiders for this round.
Mim casts another eldritch arrow, and hits for 8. The spider gets a 1 on its reflex check, and suffers the full 8, leaving it at 7.
Brand gets a 12, dealing 12 hits and finishing the spider off. That is a lot of damage.
Garek hits with an 11, dealing 9 hits, and leaving the spider at 11.
Round 3
The remaining spider hits Garek for 7-3=4, leaving him at 11.
Mim uses an arcane dart, but the spider evades it.
Brand attacks with another 12, dealing 12 hits and slaying another spider. Wow. Brand Spider-slayer is his new moniker.
And they find another corpse high up in the webs, against the 30’ ceiling. They manage to pull the corpse down, and it is another paladin. It was carrying a normal longsword, an enchanted small shield, and wearing a suit of enchanted chainmail armor 3/1. NICE. It also has a potion of fire resistance and 10 gp.
They agree that Garek should get the armor (since Brand got the sword last time), and he will hand his chainmail down to Brand. Brand wins the shield (they draw straws for it) and Mim gets the potion and longsword (to sell). They split the gold.
Garek is able to heal himself to full. The group decides to examine the western chamber.
They descend the stairs (checking for traps and finding none) and come into a crypt with 8 sarcophagi, a 10’ statue on the western wall, and human bones littering the floor. Garek attempts to detect evil, and the whole chamber radiates evil. Mim detects magic, and the statue, specifically the gemstone in its helmet, radiates magic. The bones all radiate faint evil and magic.
They decide to deal with the sarcophagi first (so they don’t get surprised by them), and then to deal with the statue. For each sarcophagus, Mim will stand towards the middle of the room (about 20’ away); Garek will open (with his sword at the ready), and Brand will stand near the head, with his sword ready. A combined might of 3 is required to open a sarcophagus lid. Garek can do this solo. They light a candle of blessing, which Mim will carry. They will burn through the candle while opening the sarcophagi (it will take about 9 minutes to get through them all).
Sarcophagus 1 - Normal body. No treasure.
Sarcophagus 2 - Normal body. No treasure.
Sarcophagus 3- Ghoul! The heroes win initiative.
Mim casts arcane dart. The ghoul evades it.
Brand swings his sword. He hits for 10-2=8, leaving the ghoul at 8.
Garek swings his sword but misses. He uses his bless to try again and hits, and deals 8-2=6, leaving the ghoul at 2.
The ghoul attacks Garek, hitting with 1 claw for 8-4=4. Garek is at 16.
Mim casts an arcane dart, and this time the Ghoul fails to evade. The 4 damage destroys it.
They recover a ring worth 2 gp.
Sarcophagus 4- A normal body with a Dread Python nesting on it. The python wins initiative, attacking Brand.
It misses with its first attack.
Mim casts an arcane dart, which the snake evades.
Garek hits for 9-2=7, leaving the python at 13.
Brand hits for 10-2=8, leaving the python at 5.
It attacks Brand again, hitting for 4-3=1. Brand is at 13. It did not roll high enough to wrap around him.
Mim casts an arcane dart, hitting for 4. The snake is at 1. It makes its morale check with a 12 - it’s staying until the end!
Garek hits for 9-2=7, cutting it in half.
The body in the sarcophagus has a chain worth 2 gp.
Sarcophagus 5 - Ghast! The heroes win initiative. This should be a difficult fight for them… but they have the candle going, and they are in good position for this fight.
Garek misses.
Brand hits with a 12 for 12-2-10, leaving it at 14. Good start.
Mim casts an eldritch arrow, hitting for 8. The ghast makes its reflex check, suffering 4 and down to 10.
The ghast attacks Brand. It hits with one claw for 6-3=3, leaving him at 10.
Brand hits with a 12 for 12-2=10, hacking the ghast’s head off. Wow. I thought that fight would be more difficult.
The ghast is wearing a pendant worth 12 gp.
Sarcophagus 6- A ghoul. It wins initiative.
The ghoul attacks Garek, who is at 16 hits. It misses with both claws.
Mim hits with an arcane dart for 4, and the ghoul fails its evade. It’s at 12.
Garek hits for 8-2=6, leaving the ghoul at 6.
Brand misses.
The ghoul attacks Garek again, missing with both claws.
Garek finishes it with a natural 12.
The ghoul wears a pair of gauntlets of strength. Garek and Brand flip for it, and Brand wins. Wow. That dude is jacked for a level 1 character.
No treasure.
Sarcophagus 7- Normal body. No treasure.
Sarcophagus 8- Normal body. No treasure.
They have recovered a total treasure valued at 16 gp. They split this, with Garek getting the extra 1 gp.
Mim casts Vestments on himself (barely successful with a 2) and goes to examine the statue, while Brand and Garek stand 30’ away, at the base of the stairs. As soon as Mim goes to check for traps, the gem on the statue’s forehead pulses once, and 3 skeletons arise from the pile of bones and attack. Each of the three may check mind to realize that the pulsing of the gem caused the skeletons. Mim realizes it right away, and calls this out to the group. The blessed candle has burned out.
Round 1
Mim uses an eldritch arrow against his skeleton, dealing full damage - this 8 points destroys the skeleton.
Brand uses his sword against his skeleton, hitting for 12-2-10, destroying it.
Garek deals 8-2=6 damage, leaving his skeleton at 2.
Garek’s skeleton attacks Garek with a natural 12, dealing 7-4=3 damage, leaving Garek at 13 (he was still at 16 from before - forgot to have him heal himself).
The gem pulses, and 3 more skeletons arise.
Round 2
Mim turns and attacks the gem. He hits it for 8-3=5 damage. It is at 10 hits remaining. Garek runs across the chamber and attacks (-1 edge), hitting with a natural 12 for 10-3=7, leaving it at 3. Brand also runs across the chamber, swinging (at -1 edge) and missing.
One skeleton attacks Mim, but misses. One skeleton attacks Brand as he runs by, but misses. Two skeletons attack Garek as he runs by, and one hits with a natural 12, dealing 7-4=3 damage, leaving Garek at 10.
The gem pulses. Three more skeletons arise. There are now 7 skeletons (one at 2 hits).
Round 3
Mim casts eldritch arrow at the gem and hits for 9 damage. It soaks 3, but 6 is enough to destroy it. It crumbles to dust.
Garek attacks one skeleton, destroying it with a natural 12. He also casts healing word on himself, recovering 7 hits because he rolled an 11. He is at 17.
Brand attacks one skeleton, but misses. Six remain (one at 2 hits).
1 skeleton attacks Mim. It hits for 5-2=3 damage, leaving him at 5. This is the last round for his Vestments spell (since there was a round before combat where it was active.
2 skeletons attack Garek. One hits, dealing 5-4=1 hit. He’s at 16 remaining.
3 skeletons attack Brand. One hits with a 12, dealing 7-3=4 damage, leaving him at 6 (he was at 10).
Round 4
6 skeletons remain. Garek casts healing word on Brand, restoring 7 hits (he rolled 11 again), and Brand is at 13.
Mim attacks his skeleton with an eldritch arrow, dealing 8 hits. It fails its reflex check, and he destroys it.
Garek attacks one of his skeletons and hits for 8. He destroys the injured one.
Brand hits one for 12-2=10, and destroys it.
One skeleton attacks Garek but misses.
Two skeletons attack Brand, and both miss.
Round 5
Mim casts eldritch arrow at one skeleton and succeeds. It fails its reflex check, and he destroys it.
Garek hits one for 9-2=7, and it is at 1 hit remaining.
Brand misses.
Garek’s skeleton misses, but Brand’s hits with a natural 12, dealing 7-3=4 damage, leaving Brand at 9.
Round 6
Mim holds his spell until he sees how the melee guys do…
Garek hits and destroys the damaged skeleton.
Brand hits for 12 and destroys the final skeleton.
Whew. That was just two rooms, but that was a LOT of fighting. Time to divide up some xp. They defeated…
2 spiders (at 8 xp each) = 16 xp
9 skeletons (at 4 xp each) = 36 xp
2 Ghouls (at 8 xp each) = 16 xp
1 dread python (at 8 xp) = 8 xp
1 ghast (at 16 xp) = 16 xp
92 total xp (that’s pretty good). They also destroyed the gem (that’s another 16 xp), so a total of 104. Each earns 35 xp. Two rooms was a third of a level of advancement. Nice.
Notes
I really liked how the mechanics worked in that skeleton room with the pulsing gem. That encounter worked the way I hoped it would, with the idea of 3 more skeletons popping up each round quickly getting out of hand for the players.
I think I’m getting closer to being able to publish these rules. I’m going to say that if I go three sessions without making any changes, I’ll do a final edit and publish the rules. They are very, very close to being ready. I like the rule that a hit always deals at least 1 damage, an 11 always deals at least 2, and a 12 always deals at least 3. This helps to offset high armor and magic resistance ratings a little bit. I also like the new xp tables. They feel reasonable. The heroes are two thirds of the way to level 2 after 3 sessions. That means they should hit level 2 around session 5, which seems fair to me. Besides, their improved gear every session is a form of advancement. They are far more capable than they were when they started this adventure.
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