My Latest Campaign
Introduction
This is a page dedicated to my latest Fantasy Trip Campaign.
Gules Andrus: ST14 DX11 IQ8. Halberd, no armor. A big strong halberd-wielding barbarian from the Hellfire Mountains. Favorite tactic: leap and scream. A quote: "Can I do a sweeping attack with my halberd?"
Derek: ST10 DX11 IQ12. Wizard (and con-man "priest") from "the distant lands of the east..." Favorite tactic: Illusion of a troll. A quote: "before we get started, how much are you guys gonna tithe?"
Grimrath: ST12 DX13(11) IQ8. Broadsword, longbow, leather, small shield. Elf swordsman from Werewood. Favorite tactic: Stand back and fire arrows or leap and scream. No middle ground. A quote: "Four dice on my Dex to avoid falling to my death? No problem."
Von Trap: ST10 DX13(11) IQ10. Thief, physicker, and tracker. Also budding tactician. He’s the party leader and prefers to stand back and advise the warriors on proper tactics. Favorite tactic: Stand back and throw daggers. A quote: "Shift one hex so that you engage both of the Ogres, Gules..."
Grimm Ironlung: ST15 DX10 IQ8. Dwarf warrior from the Ikorn Hills. Uses a huge battleaxe. Dense, even for a Dwarf. Can’t hit the broadside of a barn, (starting DX was 9). He’s awfully tough on equipment. Favorite tactic: Engage largest creature, fail to hit and get pulverized. A quote: "Noooo, not another 10! My DX is only 9..."
The party is journeying to the Wilderlands in search of fame and fortune. Their destination was the city of Ardonirane, where the Emperor Dhallak is said to be hiring mercenaries. He pays well, but the entrance exam is said to be a killer.
They came upon a battle between 15-16 goblins and a BIG reptile man (he wielded a battleaxe in each hand). They pondered what to do, then unleashed an impressive but totally ineffectual missile barrage on the goblins. The party joined battle and slew the goblins. The mortally wounded reptile man told them that the goblins had Dhallak’s son (hint, hint), then expired. The most notable incident in this battle was the skillful "retrograde maneuvers" conducted by Derek the wizard when four goblins cornered him.
The party took off after the Goblins, with their expert tracker Von Trap in the lead. Von Trap saved his party from certain doom by triggering 3 traps. Such devotion to one’s comrades! Gules and Grimm rigged a stretcher so that Derek could rest and recover ST for his spells. They finally reached the goblin hideout, a cave. They unleashed another devastating, but completely ineffectual missile barrage on the two guards. An illusion of a bear settled the issue and in the cave they went.
Deep in the cave, they encountered another 8-10 goblins. Again, the impressive but ineffectual missile barrage. Grimm broke a crossbow using it to parry. He also missed a lot. Gules impaled several on his halberd. More goblins died. The party was pretty battered at this point.
Then, they found a temple where (gasp!) two goblin priests were sacrificing the young prince to the Evil Frog God. Yet again, the ineffectual missile barrage. Grimm rolled an 18 and broke his crossbow. The goblin wizards, no doubt hysterical from laughter also missed with their 5 die fireballs. The warriors charged the priests and Gules impaled one on his halberd. Grimrath slew the other. From down the hall came at least fifty more goblins. Gules and Grimm quickly barred the door.
At that point, The Evil Frog God statue came alive and attacked! Grimm broke a magical battleaxe. The Frog God battered them severely (most were at ST4 or less). The door began to give way to the goblin horde. Fortunately, Von Trap found a Secret Door (yea!). Our Heroes escaped just as the door gave in.
They went down a flight of stairs and came to an underground lake. A boat was there so they ran towards it. The GM, cackling with glee, pointed out that they also saw a nasty green troll. "It’s been a long time since I;ve slaughtered a whole party in the first adventure," he reflected.
Derek and Von Trap ran to the boat with the prince while Grimm (using his backup battleaxe), Gules and Grimrath engaged the troll. He quickly knocked Gules unconscious and was about to devour Grimm and Grimrath (average ST of 3 at this point). Von Trap, from the boat, tried an aimed shot to the troll’s head. The GM was almost saddened by this pathetic gesture. Almost.
But Von Trap rolled double damage. To the head. The troll dropped like a stone. The disgusted GM muttered darkly about the troll’s mate. Then the party heard the gibbering hoard of goblins coming down the stairs. They jumped in the boat and escaped!
Statistics:
35 goblins slain
1 troll destroyed
1 Frog God destroyed
2 Crossbows broken
1 Battleaxe ruined
1 bloodthirsty GM cruelly cheated
760 ep awarded
A Good Time
GM's Note: This account was penned by Von Trap
(curious, since he lacks Literacy). I have annotated it where necessary.
After rescuing Emperor Dhallak’s son from yet another frog cult, we were rewarded with some very posh treatment. We were also granted the privilege of rescuing the Elf Galadryl, ambassador of Werewood. Bandits led by the notorious Goram One-Eye apparently raided the ambassador’s caravan. Grimrath seemed rather excited by the opportunity to kiss some royal elf butt; little did we know.
The site of the assault was rather easy to find, circling buzzards, stench, bodies, typical bandit leavings. No Galadryl, good he might still be alive. The trail to the bandits’ stronghold is easy to follow. Pretty careless bandits if you ask me. Gules and I dispatch the two sentries with out raising an alarm thanks to a couple of invisibility potions and enter the stronghold undetected.
I find a secret door in a large outer room and in we go. As we move through another empty room we apparently spring a trap. Two stone beetles spring upon us. Both Derek and I find that We're engaged by something nasty. Something we usually try to avoid, since we're the "support echelon". We defeat the beetles, but not before an errant sword stroke by Grimrath nearly disembowels me.
I'm already thinking We're not in a bandit’s stronghold. Secret doors and traps are not easy to maintain with a horde of bandits tromping through every day.
The next encounter is with the stronghold itself. While trying to get through a door and hall we trigger an arrow trap, a falling very heavy door trap, an explosive rune trap, and a heavy crossbow trap. There may have been more but I was under a very heavy door for a while. Since this path had nearly killed us all, we decided to "go the other way".
Now I'm convinced this is not a bandit stronghold, and particularly not an orc bandit stronghold. We make it all the way down a long hallway without springing a trap. We enter a strange looking room and promptly spring a trap. This is a "lots of small falling rocks trap" enhanced with giant spiders. Grimrath is completely freaked by the spiders and is useless (Elf -3 DX for fighting crawly things), Grimm Ironlung can’t hit anything and is completely useless, and Derek is crawling away for his life and is completely useless. Gules and I dispatch the spiders.
Derek unfortunately can’t crawl as fast as he can talk so he again is engaged and is bitten by the nasties. Now I'm convinced that Emperor Dhallak is watching this on wizard vision (Kabal News Network?) and laughing his Royal Highness off. But what's one to do?
On we go, Gules in the lead. We get almost 15 feet down the narrow corridor when Gules makes the clicky thing in the floor click. I advise him not to step off the clicky thing. The giant snake advises him to step off the clicky thing. While Gules tries to decide the giant snake makes a couple of attacks, and convinces Gules to step off the clicky thing, backwards.
Luckily I managed to put one of the fallen rocks on the plate. I believe this slowed the trap down enough to cause the big heavy door to fall on the snake and not Gules. I’ll take credit for it anyway.
On we go. I manage to open a grate with a razor edge and a spring to slam it on you while you crawl through. I'm not sure if the trap was sprung or disarmed. I count it as disarmed because I only almost took damage from it.
This was a feeding hole for the giant snake.
They had found a way out of the "Trappy" portion of the bandit lair.
We come to a fork in the hall. From one direction we hear the laughter and carousing of a host of bandits. From the other direction, we hear the laughter and carousing of one bandit. We choose the one bandit. We find a locked door with a carousing bandit on the other side. I decide that I can’t unlock the door without alerting the bad guy on the other side. I direct Gules to kick the door in, and man does he ever. We get the drop on Goram One-Eye himself. He has Galadryl bound to the wall and was about to discipline her. Yes I said her. Grimrath is so excited about kissing some extremely fine royal elf butt that he decides to fight with a short sword and bow. He misses the orc with the bow.
Gules misses, everybody misses. Everybody misses again, except for Grimm Ironlung. We have been waiting for him to hit; We're not disappointed. Goram exipres rather messily.
At this point we bravely decide to bugger off. Out the way we came. After all what will the bandits think? Someone comes in to their stronghold, chops their leader in two, and leaves without making a noise. That’s got to make for some restless nights. Besides we can’t risk the ambassador (or the five ST total that we have left.) That’s what I'm saying if anybody asks.
We get back from our first mission with Orcbanditleader’s head and the unharmed ambassador, a complete success. What do we hear from our esteemed Emperor?
"Where’s my dagger?"
"Uh, which dagger, your honor, I mean your highness?"
"The jewel encrusted gift from the emperor of Werewood. (You fools)". Some times a picture is worth two words.
"Oh, that dagger. We wanted to drop the ambassador off first, my lord. It’s not far."
"Well go get it, and make it snappy."
Not the greeting I was expecting I’ll tell you. We did have to spend the night on the road. Maybe that was enough time to for all the bandits to get really scared and run away. While pillaging, uh searching, Goram's quarters I found a key and a map. What we did not find was a jewel encrusted dagger, something We're not prone to overlook. So hopes for personal enrichment all but dashed, we decide to follow the map. It’s closer than the bandit stronghold after all.
We follow the map. Find the cave. The cave contains a locked chest. The key unlocks it. This is really simple; we must have really scared those bandits off. Notice I have not said that we opened the chest, got the dagger and other treasure, and leave.
"Gee, Von I wander what made that big bloody mess all over the cave floor?" says somebody. Before I could say "You don’t want to know." Jules and Derek are on the ground dying. The Hymenoptera (big nasty spikey bugs) were among us.
Since we started this fight almost dead I was expecting a quick end for us all. Grimm Ironlung however having actually hit something the day before decided he liked it. When Grimm hits something it stays hit (+2 damage Battleaxe). He couldn’t miss. When I pass out undeserved credit, it will be to myself, so you can be sure that he saved the day. I did manage to stabilize the mostly dead, (dammit Jim I’m a doctor not an exterminator) and they lived to be mostly dead another day.
Oh, by the way, the Emperor Dhallak was probably extremely grateful to get his dagger. The servant he must have sent to get us was probably looking in the posh (just rescued the prince from yet another frog cult) quarters we formerly occupied. Oh well, the barracks are warm and dry. We’ll see what happens in the winter when it rains.
Statistics
Traps sprung: 14 (!)
Times Derek the wizard found himself in melee with something nasty: 3
Giant snakes killed: 1
Giant spiders killed: 3
Stone beatles killed: 2
Orc bandit leaders killed: 1
Elf Babe rescued: 1
Hymenopterans killed: 18
Player characters down and bleeding to death at some point: 4
Liters of soft drinks consumed: 4+
Large bags of chips consumed: 2 (including cheezy Ruffles-type chips).
Biggest change in a character: Grimm Ironlung actually hit several times and managed to break no weapons.
Gules has a serious case of the runs and won't be joining us. Well, we must have done something right; we've been invited to test ourselves in the Emperors death dungeon. I think I’ll call this adventure "Death Test". (The original Death Test adventure for TFT.) We're told this is a test of courage and fighting ability. I wonder where I fit in. If we pass or survive, maybe both, we will be allowed to join the Emperor’s Elite something or other.
The guy in charge of the labyrinth gives us rings that allow us to see what's happening to each other. I suspect that they also allow the bored and idle rich to view our predicaments.
The first room has a chest full of gold bars and spiders. The spiders are harmless, unless you are an Elf or don’t wear armor. At least I'm ok. I patch up our "Warriors" and our wizard and head to the next room.
In the second room we encounter two orcs. After a short parley they decide we must kill them. Grimm is still on his hitting streak and dispatches his orc with a glancing blow. (If he hits with a solid blow it makes a thing called shrapnel). Grimrath takes a couple of chops to dispatch his orc. This stuff is easy. Every thing is working just like it should, our Warriors are engaging the foes, the wizard is the artillery directing fire where it is needed and I get to stand in the back telling everyone where to go. There is lots of treasure. The only worry we’ve got is how to carry all the treasure out. This is great, on to the next room.
In the next room, a single robed wimp is standing all the way across the room. The warriors are really excited about chopping this guy into little bits. I'm not so excited. Grimrath misses with his bow, Grimm readies his heavy crossbow, robed wimp hits Grimrath with a 5 die fireball, and I do mean die. Today is Grimrath’s day to be mostly dead. I revive Grimrath and we heal him to a shell of his former self and continue. Oh the robed wimp disappeared before anyone could touch him. So much for easy.
Grimrath is nearly alive, Grimm is hurt badly from the sum of the little nicks he has received, and Derek is very tired from casting failed spells. Leaving me and dammit, I’m a doctor, not a fighter.
In the next room we encounter a pile of wimpy goblins, make that two goblin wizards and two goblin spearmen. Grimm, continuing his streak hits one of the wizards with his heavy crossbow. That wizard folds up like a skinny pimply face hooker punched in the stomach by a ugly fat man with a trench coat and a big cigar. (Boy that's an unpleasant image!) The rest are dispatched by less spectacular means, but are gone all the same.
Have you ever heard the saying "Better the devil I know, than the devil I don’t."? The next room contained three ugly statues. We carefully picked our way through the "empty" room, SUDDENLY, Grimrath bolts for the exit, Grimm joins making a stampede of two. Derek and I thought this was almost funny. We knew something bad would be coming to munch on us, but we did want to at least see what it was. It was a Gargoyle, no big deal except all the warriors were locked out in the hall watching us on finger vision.
Derek wasted his strength on various misfired spells, while I intentionally drew the attack away from the wizard. When Derek had expended his strength he too retreated. I then confused the Gargoyle with a deft disengagement, took the initiative and successfully slipped out the door.
Grimm Ironlung was thoroughly embarrassed by the event. In his defense he does tend to charge into battle with the same herd mentality. Grimrath on the other hand…
Well at least now we had something to talk about. This and the giant in the following room made for marvelous parlor chatter. Grimm continued his consecutive battles with a hit streak, and chopped the giant down while Grimrath, having recovered his courage and some of his dignity, pruned the giant a bit preparing him for the fall.
That was it. We were out. I had skillfully guided my party along the easiest path through the maze. The group received quite a chewing out by the captain of the guard about having never seen such a pathetic, blah, blah. Those officers tend to loose site of the objective, I had gotten us in and out and everybody was alive and we were in an elite unit of some sort. I will have to find out what sort, but I think it might be bad form to ask.
GM's notes: I have been a TFT gamemaster since
ITL came out in 1980. I've run Death Test at least a dozen times. This was
without a doubt, the most pathetic performance I have ever seen by a party that
survived the adventure. Sad indeed!
Our first assignment followed.
Well, I was placed in charge. Perhaps that captain was not as dense as he appeared. Gules still has some malady that prevents him from joining us. Grimrath has been chatting up Galadryl, about his bravery and skill in the maze. I haven’t the heart (make that decency) to tell him she probably had a finger vision ring.
Any way some brigands have made what must be called a terror attack on a farm in an outlying village. We have been charged with bringing the Wrath of the Emperor down on the heads of the attackers. To pursue the evil doers without regard, blah, blah, blah. Oh and if you find overwhelming odds try to send someone back with news of your failure and death. That would be me. Apparently there's a large army protecting the borders and they have gone on leave.
We go off to the farm, impressing everyone along the way with our punctuality. I would have preferred fierceness but you take what you can get. I find the assailants' trail and we follow it straight across the border into Werewood. I ask Grimrath if he was familiar with the area. He said he was a city elf. Lovely.
We camp in the woods the first night. I detect a group of hostiles trying to sneak up on us. I have the party completely ready for the attack. The bad guys are doomed. Seven naginata wielding "mutant elves" charged us, but come up short. Grimm tries a new toy, a ring of speed, and cuts down two with a mighty sweeping attack from the rear. Grimrath drops one with an arrow. I stun one with a dagger. The last three continue the charge mostly from momentum and I'm severely wounded. The speedy dwarf Grimm and Grimrath dispatch the last three before any further damage was done.
Very early the next morning the watch hears chanting in the trees. We pursued the chanting. I hoped to surprise the evil ones, and did. We came to a clearing where an obviously evil human/elf sacrifice was taking place. Despite being out numbered at least 4 to 1 we attacked, first with fire and arrows. Then using bear illusions to absorb the brunt of their charge. And finally wading into them with flashing blades. We killed eight before they came to their senses and fled. During the melee I manage to capture one of the mutants as he tried to flank us and attack our wizard.
At this point, the game session ended (I forgot
to set my clock back, so we actually had an hour left).
I hope Gules can join us soon for We're intent on pursuing the enemy further. I remember a saying about fighting in your enemy’s back yard. I think it said it was not a good idea.