11-09-2023, 02:10 PM
Day 2: Evening: Greyhawk/0D&D
After Braunstein I was pretty beat, thought I might be done gaming for the night. There was an Irish pub kitty-corner from the hotel, so I grabbed dinner there figuring going to an Irish pub counts as LARPING =)
After dinner, I dropped by the hotel bar to see if anyone from Arnecon was around. No one was, so I decided to watch some of Paul's Greyhawk game, which was based on unpublished maps of and notes on the "real" Greyhawk dungeons, not the version TSR published. (I guess the material Paul used was supposed to be published by Castles and Crusades as Castle Zagyg but only the above-ground levels were ever published?). I showed up mid-way through the time slot, but Paul just said "Hey, roll up a character" when I walked in, so I did. We were playing with just the OD&D Men & Magic booklet (though some of the Paul had out on the table copies were longer and said "Convention Supplement" or something like that on the cover and had extra pages). I ended up as magic user.
Maybe it's because I came in late and was less invested, but I was less into this game than I was Paul's DA5 session. But I still had fun. I had some notes on an index card (my notebook was in my hotel room), but I can't find the card so my notes might be lost to time. Here's my recollection of what went on:
Most of the sessions involved exploring the area around a large underground lake. We fought some harpies and (I think) manticores. Then we encountered a foreboding cavern. That's where the fun began. The line of the night: "I reach into my bag of tricks and pull out a bear." Yes, dear reader, a magic user rolled "Bear" on a bag of tricks roll, and she sent it into the cave for reconnaissance. It never came out. I forget how, but another PC discovered that there was a turtle dragon in the cavern. There was no way forward without crossing the body of water it called home.
The magic user with the bear proposed using Phantasmal Forces to project an illusion of "a giant puritan making a batch of turtle soup," but Paul ruled that that was too complex an image for that spell, so she settled on just a giant puritan to distract the turtle. My favorite plan was concocted by two players: a magic user would open a dimensional door inside of the turtle dragon, and then a fighter would burst out from inside of it. Sadly they abandoned this idea.
We used spells to make the entire party invisible. Unfortunately, it turns out that dragon turtles can see through invisibility. It let out a mighty steam attack that killed several party members, including the MU with the bag of tricks and puritan illusion. My character also died so I was an observer from here on out.
The turtle dragon was eventually defeated by using Polymorph Others to turn it into a koala bear and then killing it, making it the saddest victory ever.
The surviving PCs moved on to discover a tower within the cave, with an evil cult doing rituals within. Most of the remaining party members died fighting the cult. One ran away, pillaging treasure and a few magical items from dead comrades. He barely escaped from the dungeon alive. The only other survivor, a magic user, died but came back to life thanks to a ring of regeneration, and teleported himself to safety.
After Braunstein I was pretty beat, thought I might be done gaming for the night. There was an Irish pub kitty-corner from the hotel, so I grabbed dinner there figuring going to an Irish pub counts as LARPING =)
After dinner, I dropped by the hotel bar to see if anyone from Arnecon was around. No one was, so I decided to watch some of Paul's Greyhawk game, which was based on unpublished maps of and notes on the "real" Greyhawk dungeons, not the version TSR published. (I guess the material Paul used was supposed to be published by Castles and Crusades as Castle Zagyg but only the above-ground levels were ever published?). I showed up mid-way through the time slot, but Paul just said "Hey, roll up a character" when I walked in, so I did. We were playing with just the OD&D Men & Magic booklet (though some of the Paul had out on the table copies were longer and said "Convention Supplement" or something like that on the cover and had extra pages). I ended up as magic user.
Maybe it's because I came in late and was less invested, but I was less into this game than I was Paul's DA5 session. But I still had fun. I had some notes on an index card (my notebook was in my hotel room), but I can't find the card so my notes might be lost to time. Here's my recollection of what went on:
Most of the sessions involved exploring the area around a large underground lake. We fought some harpies and (I think) manticores. Then we encountered a foreboding cavern. That's where the fun began. The line of the night: "I reach into my bag of tricks and pull out a bear." Yes, dear reader, a magic user rolled "Bear" on a bag of tricks roll, and she sent it into the cave for reconnaissance. It never came out. I forget how, but another PC discovered that there was a turtle dragon in the cavern. There was no way forward without crossing the body of water it called home.
The magic user with the bear proposed using Phantasmal Forces to project an illusion of "a giant puritan making a batch of turtle soup," but Paul ruled that that was too complex an image for that spell, so she settled on just a giant puritan to distract the turtle. My favorite plan was concocted by two players: a magic user would open a dimensional door inside of the turtle dragon, and then a fighter would burst out from inside of it. Sadly they abandoned this idea.
We used spells to make the entire party invisible. Unfortunately, it turns out that dragon turtles can see through invisibility. It let out a mighty steam attack that killed several party members, including the MU with the bag of tricks and puritan illusion. My character also died so I was an observer from here on out.
The turtle dragon was eventually defeated by using Polymorph Others to turn it into a koala bear and then killing it, making it the saddest victory ever.
The surviving PCs moved on to discover a tower within the cave, with an evil cult doing rituals within. Most of the remaining party members died fighting the cult. One ran away, pillaging treasure and a few magical items from dead comrades. He barely escaped from the dungeon alive. The only other survivor, a magic user, died but came back to life thanks to a ring of regeneration, and teleported himself to safety.