The Quest Begins

I guess you could call it the alpha test of Heroes of the Dungeon Crawl. We still are developing things and aren't in the process of typing the Basic Edition of the rules just yet. Presently, I have a little note pad with several pieces of paper that have rules scribbled on them. I'm pretty happy with the combat chart itself, but adjustments on everything can be made.

For this first test session, I wanted to test the 0 Level rule, rather than starting everybody at first level. Plus, only human characters were used this time. I'll get into why I like the whole idea of 0 Level in another post. So, four adventures, all Applicant (o Level) characters started out on this quest, to recover the Emerald Gem for Vanz, the Mayor of the town.

The party consisted of a Warror named Brannigan, a Rogue named Reginald, A Cleric named Andrea and Sylvia the Wizard. In the heavily gaurded basement underneath Fytertu's office at the Warrior training school, Tyranius the Wizard cast a teleportation spell, and the party were placed in a room underneath the basement. How far and who made this dungeon? Well, that's another story.

The party had a special recall gem in their possesion and needed only to return to the room they started in and rub the gem to return to the basement. There were double doors on all four walls of this room, but all but the western doors were locked to well for Reginald to unlock them.

They headed west, down a corridor, to find two Kobald Grunts guarding a door. Brannigan attempted to bluff his way past the guard, but failed. A fight broke out, and Brannigan was left lying on the floor bleeding badly before the fight was over.

Andrea bandaged up Brannigan (1), and the party proceeded into a room with three Goblin Grunts in it. Sylvia cast a sleep spell on the foes, and all three were then mercilessly slain in their sleep. Branigan's body was brought to this room, and the party continued to another door. A quick listen by Reginald revealed a buzzing sound. Giant Bee's and possibly healing honey to save Brannigan before it's too late.

Andrea headed into the room and straight to the hive with an empy flask from her equipment. She stuck it into the hive and grabbed some honey. Luckily, the two giant bee's simply flew around her, but did not attack. The party returned to the room Brannigan was in and healed him for two points. They returned to the hive, and Brannigan attempted to get another flask of honey. Unfortunately, the two bee's attacked, Brannigan was stung and fell to the ground from effects of poison. One Bee was slain, and the other flew to the other side of the room.

Rather than pursue, the party showed mercy. The honey was used on Brannigan (2), who regained consciuosness. The party's skills were tested several times. Andrea turned three Flying Skulls, but she failed to turn Skelitons on two occasions (3). Reginald found two secret doors, but he had a heck of a time picking a lock (4) on a chest that contained a couple scrolls and some gold pieces.

The party was hurting after a fight with two Kobald's, so Andrea healed (5) Brannigan with the Healing Scroll she found. Other than Brannigan's misfortunes, things seemed to be going okay for the party. They probably should have rested as Andrea and Reginald needed healing, but they knew they were getting close to the end of the quest. That eagerness would be the downfall of some of the party members.

They walked through an open doorway to see four Goblin Grunts and their leader in a room. They were suprised, and the leader ordered the four grunts to attack. Reginald and Brannigan were in front, and each had to deal with two grunts. Alas, Reginald fell as both grunts found their mark. In the back, Sylvia did the only thing she could think of, cast the sleep spell from the scroll she found. The four grunts took a nap, but Brannigan joined them.

Seeing, Andrea and Sylvia in the doorway, the leader attacked Andrea, and she went down. Sylvia still had a sleep spell memorized and used it on the leader. Thinking quickly, she hog tied the grunts and the leader. There was a chest in the room, and the leader's key opened it right up, revealing the Emerald Gem. The quest was finished. But what about the Goblins? The leader spoke enough common language to inform Sylvia of an even bigger plot.

The Goblins and Kobalds swere mereley hired guns of some Orcs and a creature known only as The Big Boss. The gem would be sold, and the money would be used to fund a raid on the town. For the momengt, those plans may have been delayed, but maybe not for long. Perhaps another quest will be undertaken to deal with some unruly Orcs (6)

Alas, Reginald and Andrea will not be going. Their next destination is that Hall Of Fallen Heroes (7) in the afterlife (The reward would have been great enough to get them resurected, but it was decided to try new characters instead). Perhaps Brannigan and Sylvia will have more adventures in the future.

Footnotes

1-In old D&D, there was no bandage rule. If you hit 0 HP, you died. I'm considering the bandage rule here.

2-A Bee's sting has poison and can kill, but I'm not sure if the Healing Honey should or will be able to cure bee poison in the rules.

3-The Cleric Turning ability may need to do sopmerning ability seems to work okay.

4-I may need to tweak the Rogue ability charts a bit.

5-Unlike old D&D, Level 1 Cleric's have a spell. Level 0 Cleric's don't, but that may change.

6-This was just a test dungeon, but it could become a maszsive Dungeon Crawl and part of the official HotDC campaign.

7-In HotDC, death is no big deal. You can always start over, and all who fall in battle take their place in the Hall Of Fallen Heroes. All who make it to Seventh (Hero) Level join the Hall Of Heroes.