Lacking Natural Simplicity

Attending

• T.K.B. — Labyrinth Lord

• T.A played Arlow (an Elf) and Grimmin (a Dwarf), and also played Hermes (A Magic User) and James (a Thief), who were created by D.B.

• M.A. played John (a Cleric) and Zedd (a Magic User), and also played Elsie (an Elf) and Leanna (a Dwarf), who were created by E.A.

Actual Play

1st day: They found the crypt doors locked again. Pick Locks failed, so they went back to the Temple. Hermes: Red Stone. James: Key, so /bite (he immediately dropped the key, so was only bitten once), then Blue Stone. Zedd: Gray Stone. John: Key, so Bite (and dropped the key). Arlow: Gold Stone. Elsie: Green Stone. Grimmin: Key. Since some were injured they went back to Mad Sammy's, go thealed, and slept.

2nd day: Back to crypt. Door in room 2 was locked again and when they opened it they surprised 8 giant rats. R1 rats surprised, Leanna and Grimmin step forward and attack, killing 3 rats, while the rest of the party falls back and takes position in room 2. R2 Hermes casts sleep, sending the remaining 5 rats off to their last slumber, then the rest of the party coup-de-graced the rats. They decided to pick them up on the way back out to smoke-dry for rations. Off to area 4, the pit. Wandering Monster: 4 skeletons in the pit. They animate when James starts down into the pit. John turns 5 HD, so all the skeletons tried to flee over the north edge of the pit, which repeatedly dumps them back into the pit. It takes the party 6 rounds to destroy the skeletons, but James took 4 wounds and fell unconscious. Zedd had the Green Rod Key. He put it in the green-daubed hole and pulls upward. Everybody hears the click. He takes the key out. The party members in the pit climb out on the north side, which now doesn't dump them back in the pit, and the rest of the party steps around the corner from the west site of the pit. Leanna picks up James and carries him, and they all head off to the door to room 11.

They had reached the doors when they noticed, coming up the hallway behind them, a rather surly looking dwarf. After an exchange where the dwarf insisted they shouldn't be here and tried to intimidate them into leaving, he turned and left. T.A. immediately has Arlow (?) agitating for the party to attack the retreating dwarf. Upon learning that the dwarf is wearing plate mail, Grimmin and Leanna fire their crossbows at the dwarf, and Arlow joins in. They score one hit, but the dwarf steps round the corner over the pit, and Arlow, Grimmin, and Leanna chase after him. They chase him in the dark until he vanishes out of their range of sight at the bottom of the stairs in room 10. They hesitate at the top of the stairs, Leanna retreating to find the others, and Grimmin and Arlow hear a scream in the room below, then sounds of struggle, then silence. They wait, listening, and then Grimmin is surprised by the shadow and taken to –1 HP in the first attack. Arlow picks up Grimmin and flees to room 2, where they paused. The others (carrying James) are already in room 2. Here they are all surprised again when 2 shadows attack! The shadows attacked Arlow (and missed) and Zedd (and hit). In the second round the shadows attacked Hermes (and missed) and Leanna (and hit). Party fled and left crypt door open.

They spent two days just resting and healing. Every night they had wolves howling outside and clawing at the Mad Sammy's cellar door. Mad Sammy shrieked and howled, babbling that they had offended “the eye”. On the third day some of them hunted, because their supplies were gone and Mad Sammy's supplies were running low. They found enough to feed four people for the day. On the fourth day they found enough food to feed three people for the day. On the fifth day John was able to heal Leanna of the last of her wounds, and the party was finally completely healed. On the sixth day they found enough rations for 12 people, and after eating had 3 days rations to smoke dry that evening.

On the seventh day they headed back to the crypt. They went directly to room 11, where they were surprised by 2 ghouls hidden in the loose dirt near a ¾ buried chest. Grimmin was paralyzed on the first round (for 7 rounds), but the rest of the party was able to kill the ghouls in three more rounds. John cast cure light wounds on Grimmin, which also cured his paralysis. Leanna took the magic flail, and Hermes took both scrolls. Back to mad Sam's, where there were still wolves at the door every night.

Reflections

I made an effort this time to follow the Labyrinth Lord Labyrinth Play Sequence, Time and Movement, Rest, Monster Reaction, Wandering Monsters, and Morale Checks rules more closely than I have hitherto.[1] The dwarf was a wandering monster roll, straight from the Level 1 column on the Wandering Monster Table on p. 104 of Labyrinth Lord, with everything after that improvised on the fly — I decided he was another treasure hunter, upset at finding competition, and once he started to flee the PCs it seemed inevitable that he end up in the room with the shadow, and get killed and turned into a shadow himself. I thought it added a lot to the game, and made me look on wandering monsters with much more approval. I do think that I ought to make location-specific wandering monster tables, though.