In my last post, I laid out the first half of our first session of our alternate campaign that we’ll be playing when regular players are missing. RJ, Theo, and Todd each are playing two characters and spent a good portion of the session interacting in the Three Leaves to the Wind Inn in Hawk’s Nest. After a relatively quiet night (only Geth was arrested and caused any real semblance of trouble), the party headed out for Hell’s Haven, a “wall” that cuts off a valley of adventure some six miles from Hawk’s Nest. Yes, the valley is essentially an homage to the Caves of Chaos. However, I’d probably be hard pressed to say that there are really any spoilers for the classic Keep on the Borderlands below the break. For one, I’m using an alternate map and I also pretty much just made it all up as we went. đŸ˜‰
The “misadventures” of nearly getting their butts handed to them by a handful of goblins are below the break.
The “wall” of Hell’s Haven was big…really big. It stood some sixty-feet tall and was about double that in length. Although it was clear that the wall had been breached at some point in history, those areas had been repaired and it completely blocked access to the valley beyond. The original construction was quite old and, to the disappointment of Gurdis, not of Dwarven origin. A large portcullis blocked off a large tunnel leading into the wall. Another door stood a few yards away. Written in large letters (in Common) above the door were the words, “Enter here,” with a large bell hanging nearby. Oh, and at least a couple of ballistae could be seen at the top of the wall but that didn’t appear to be pointed at the party.
The group went up to the door and rang the bell. Shortly a peephole opened and a voice challenged, “What do you want?” The answer, of course, was that they were here for adventure. The voice seemed a little surprised at that, speculating that it was a bit early for adventurers to show up. Regardless, the door was opened and a rather scruffy looking dwarf stood within and ushered the group in.
He explained that the party was free to enter the valley and that it was only when they wanted out of the valley that they would be charged. The charge was a full twenty-five percent of any loot that they brought out. Each person entering would be carefully search and an inventory taken so the loot being brought out could be tallied. Gurdis started to question this dwarf about his clan and such, a topic that the dwarf was not interested in discussing. He told Gurdis to shut up but the topic was pushed followed by insults and calling them outcasts. The exit fee was increased to thirty-percent for the whole group as a result…Lavinia was not pleased by this.
After this bit of business was taken care of (including the searching and inventoring), the dwarf offered to let them have a peek at the valley…for a cost of course. For the cost of one gold piece, he’d take a couple of them up to the top of the wall so they could look out across the valley. Gurdis and Lavinia accepted the offer (and paid the gold) and were led up a long spiral staircase while the others were offered some dwarven refreshment (for a fee, of course).
The spiral staircase opened into a large metal cage on the top of the wall. Gurdis and Lavinia got a nice look at the what lay beyond the wall. The valley went for a good distance before ending. A small river/large stream ran through the valley. Various trees dotted the valley and its slopes with a few copses scattered about on the floor.
The lower slopes of the valley’s walls were not overly sloped but steeper in some places. The upper walls were nearly vertical and rather rocky, loose rocky and likely to collapse under the weight of a climber. The lower slopes were also dotted by a number of caves, nearly twenty. A couple had paths leading up to them from two main paths that traversed the length of the valley’s floor. Although the dwarf offered to give them a map–at a cost, of course–Gurdis declined, confident that he could remember the details.
After rejoining the party, the group was led through the wall to the opposite side, some fifty or sixty feet in total. The final room had a rather heavy looking portcullis blocking access to the valley beyond. The dwarf explained that when they wanted back in, they simply came to this room and, walking over to a very heavy thick door and opening a small hatch in it, put something valuable in here letting us know that your serious. After that, they’d lower the portcullis. Normally, they just leave the portcullis up.
He also made it clear that any attempts to camp in this room would be met with violence. The warriors in the party took note of the murder holes that dotted the ceiling of the room. With that, he left and the portcullis opened, letting the party to be the first adventurers to hit the valley this season.
The party spent very little time deciding where to go or looking about the valley. They headed directly to the first cave on their left, a short distance up the slope. The logic being that the lower caves would likely be those with the least danger. Approaching with all due caution, the cave was scouted but there was no sign of a sentry, hidden or otherwise. Unfortunately for the party, the “danger” wasn’t to come from the cave. Instead, a horn blared from the wall. A line of dwarves along with a massive horn could be seen atop the wall.
With that potentially awakening and alerting everything in every cave, the party dashed into the cave in the hopes that they’d only have to face what was in that cave and not hordes coming out from all the caves. Inside was a worked tunnel that led in a short distance before turning. Since there was no immediate danger inside, the party took a glimpse outside to see what the horn may have summoned but nothing had come out of the other caves.
After the turn, the tunnel led a good distance into the mountain. About halfway down was a door with a small mat sitting on the floor in front of it. The hallway was quite clean…almost like it had been swept recently. The mat had writing on it. In crude letters, it spelled Welkom Adventrrs and the k was backwards. Lifting the mat, the party found a small (but deep) pit underneath it.
Skirting the pit, they opened the door. As they did, they could hear the sound of clattering metal. An old rusty chain shirt had been leaned against the other side of the door…probably an alarm. The door opened into a small room with an old rickety chair. Sitting on the chair was small piece of folded paper, like a name tent. The room was clean, no dust, no cobwebs, none of the normal dungeon dressing.
Gurdis went and looked at the note. It read, “Suckers! Don’t look to your right!” It was written crudely and much of it was spelled wrong. Gurdis took a peek to the right and saw faint movement. He couldn’t see anyone but he kept seeing some movement. With Gurdis in the lead, they cautiously approached the movement. As they moved forward, they saw more movement. As they kept going, they kept seeing more and more movement directly up ahead against a wall but they still couldn’t actually see anyone. There just wasn’t anything there.
As they headed into this room and fanned out, they realized that the movement was them! A dirty mirror was hanging on the wall that was reflecting their movement. A little note sat on the floor over in the corner. It said, “Told you not to look! Don’t pick this up.” Gurdis, of course, did exactly that! Underneath was, well, let’s just say that someone had lost their manhood (probably a human) and had done so some time ago…it was half-rotten.
Uncomfortably checking and adjusting their codpieces, they looked behind the mirror. It was just hanging on a hook and there was nothing behind it. They opened one of the two doors leading out of this room.
The room beyond was small and empty with the only thing of interest being a painting hanging on the wall. It depicted a nobleman but someone had taken charcoal to it and had drawn on a stupid looking beard, handlebar mustache, and blackened out some teeth. Another note was tucked into the painting’s frame. It read, “No treasure behind here. Really!”
As Gurdis stood in front with his shield held before him, Aramil reached over him with his greataxe and slid the painting to the side. As soon as he started to move it, a loud click could be heard and a crossbow bolt shot out from behind the painting. It narrowly missed Aramil. Knocking the painting off the wall, the party could see that there was, in fact, no treasure behind it. Just a small niche in the wall that held an old and barely serviceable crossbow, presumably the one that had just shot the bolt.
They head back into the prior room and took the second door leading out of it. This led into another small room with a well in the middle. Another corridor also led out. On the small retaining wall around the well, sat an old rusty bucket with a rusty chain leading from it to a suit of chainmail containing a dwarven skeleton. The bucket had another note, face down, in it. It read, “I bet you r thirsty.” There was nothing else of interest in the room.
There was water in the well some twenty feet down. Gorstag removed one of the finger bones from the dwarf, cast light on it, and dropped it into the well. The well went down close to one hundred feet. The bottom was covered in debris. The shaft of the well didn’t appear to have any other openings.
The exit from this room led to another corridor. One direction wrapped back around to the original tunnel and to another corridor leading away. The other direction led to a chamber. Gurdis spotted a goblin in the chamber. It dropped a piece of paper and ran around another corner.
The party didn’t pursue. Instead, the went in the chamber which had some tables and benches. There were also two doors and a tunnel leading away. The opened the closer of the two doors and it stunk! A small depression looked to have been dug out of the floor. A depression filled with a greenish, viscous swamp with bits of rotted food and crap (literally) floating within it.
They closed the door and Gurdis picked up the dropped note and read it. It simply said, “We are already behind you!” Gurdis yelled out a warning.
At this point the party was spread out across about 45 to 50 feet and in a couple of different chambers. Although no one was surprised as both groups were well aware of each other’s presence, the goblins certainly had the advantage of being on their home turf. Most of them engaged in hit and run tactics…shooting or swinging and then ducking around a corner or outside the range of the party’s light. Whenever one of the party engaged a goblin, it deftly slipped away [i.e., one of those pesky bonus actions that a goblin gets to take].
The party kind of chased after different goblins, getting separated and spread apart even more than they had been at the start. As they chased the goblins about, they found a couple of other empty chambers…empty except for a crude trap and a pit. The goblins really used the area and the party’s separation to their advantage. Before the battle was over and the six goblins were slain by the six PCs, both of the clerics in the party had used both of their spell slots to cast cure wounds and, I think, two of the PCs were dropped to zero hit points. Others were rather low on hit points too…even one in some cases.
The bodies were looted but had very little loot…some silver and copper coins. Depleted by their first battle, the party decided that they might be better served by heading back to the Hell’s Haven and recovering from the shock of the unexpected difficulty of the battle against the goblins. Worried that something might be waiting outside the cave for them (perhaps something attracted by the horn the dwarves blew), the party burst out of the cave and ran for the wall.
As they came out of the cave running, they saw a rather large ogre coming out of another cave some forty or fifty away. As it saw the party, it grunted and yelled, “Lunch!” As the dwarves on the wall saw this, they started beating on their shields and chanting “Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!” in time to the beating as “Crunch” sprinted quickly for the party…much more quickly than anyone in the party can manage.
[And that’s where we ended the session. Rule #1 of The Side Quest is that the party is supposed to make it back to safety before the end of the session. They did not do that…first session and the already broke rule #1! I cut them some slack since it was the first session and they are very unaccustomed to this. But never again!
RJ will be missing the next session so we’ll be playing The Side Quest again. Both Lavinia and Ander will be doing nothing but running for the safety of the wall. That was kind of my compromise. One main reason for Rule #1 is because we will be playing this campaign when someone is missing the session and if they are missing, their characters are not playing in the session. So I had the choice of leaving RJ’s characters to become lunch for Crunch or just run for the wall. Even though I selected the kinder approach, it also depends on what the rest of the party does. Essentially, the fate of RJ’s characters in the hands of everyone else.
It was kind of fun having nothing but a map and a brief sentence or two for the overall description of each cave. I pretty much made up all of this as we went. Of course, I’ve already got lots of ideas for the caves and its background and all so I’m sure I’ll start prepping the caves more as time goes on.]
