The Demon of South Hollow

I finally broke out Four Against Darkness again and ran a quick dungeon to get reacquainted with the rules (not hard at all). What follows it the account of Thorbin (dwarf), Dantrag (warrior), Arthrallan (elf) and Brandall (wizard):

Introduction

The party has been sent to investigate tales of a nightmare fiend hunting the townsfolk of South Hollow. Actual sightings are more rare than the disappearances and remains, but those who witnessed attacks in the dark describe a grotesque silhouette with leathery wings and burning red eyes.

Ancient ruined fortifications with a sprawling underground complex are not far from town. This is the most likely place for such a beast to make its lair. Several hunting groups have come to the same conclusion and entered but none have returned. The party accepts the blessings of the townsfolk and sets out on a bright clear morning to investigate the dungeon.

The Dungeon

The entryway is quiet. Thorbin smells treasure to the left and leads the party onward.

Arthrallan the elf agrees that the healing water in the hallway fountain is a rare treasure and the party presses on.

Through the next door the party is surrounded by the animated skeletons of another adventuring party!

Arthrallan shatters a skull with an arrow, Dantrag crushes three with a massive sweeping stroke, and Thorbin cuts down the last one.

It appears these skeletons were recently picked clean by something... And that question is answered in the next room where a swarm of fat rats threatens to envelope the party (15x).

The rats are vanquished without incident.

Choosing the North door takes the party through an empty room to another room with a healer. None need his services, and he is directed to the exit along the path which was just cleared.

Moving through another two empty rooms at the top of the dungeon, the party turns South and encounters some hobgoblins. [I actually bought some retro style Hobgoblin models from Reaper for exactly this purpose.  I need to paint them!]

One of the hobgoblins was carrying a staff of sleep which Brandall the wizard is quick to pick-up.

Moving through two more empty corridors. the South path connects back to the already explored part of the dungeon. Turning East is a branching corridor where the party is not surprised to find a small band of goblins.

And more Hobgoblins in the next room.

Moving North, there is a massive room filled with orcs. Brandall is ready with an epic sleep spell, but it completely fails and Thorbin is lightly wounded in the exchange with the orcs.

Not wanting to leave a room in the middle of the dungeon unexplored, the party turns West and encounters a statue in the hallway.

The dwarf smells gold in the area and searches the statue. Suddenly the stone statue is a hulking jet black crimson eyed gargoyle which rakes two razor sharp talons at Dantrag and landing with one of them!

The narrow corridor allows Arthrallan cover to draw and shoot his bow over the dwarf, and he does with great effect. Brandall senses the magic resistance in the creature and lifts his lantern high to help the only way he can.

It is then that Thorbin lands a mighty blow with his two handed battle axe, sending the creature reeling backwards. But the gargoyle recovers with a supernatural speed borne of its magical nature and is immediately on top of the dwarf raking painfully with both claws.

Seeing the exposed flank, Dantrag lunges at the gargoyle with his sword and runs it through. And with that the combat is over as suddenly as it had begun.

On his feet now, Thorbin digs up a small cache of gold from behind the statue base while Brandall gives a small dissertation on the nature of gargolyles. This mighty gargoyle bares the marks of being in the service of an evil sorcerer and no doubt the gargoyle was the boss of this dungeon. The gargoyle likely called upon his master to animate the undead skeletons encountered near the entrance, and was gathering the goblins, orcs, and hobgoblins for some kind of larger conquest in the service of his master.

Epilogue

The party exited the dungeon without any further encounters and the the full map is here.

It is likely that had I played the rules correctly, the statue monster "Boss" was not supposed to be the "final boss" monster. It was not encountered in a room and not actually from the boss tables...  However, I did check if he was the final boss and after rolling a natural "6" I was not about to back-track on my decision. And I think I ended up with a decent story as well.

4AD: Catoblepas Hunting

Introduction

While traveling a lonely stretch of the King's Road, Dantrag (warrior), Thorbin (dwarf), Arthrallan (elf), and Brandal (wizard) are diverted to a remote village being terrorized by some supernatural beast.

Upon arriving Dantrag and Arthallan spend time reading the signs of unnatural decay, bite marks, and footprints. Both conclude it to be the work of a large Catoblepas, a basilisk like creature with a scaly hide whose gaze can wither crops and kill livestock. Thorbin gripes that such creatures are unlikely to hoard much in the way of treasure and his assessment is that the villagers do not have money to pay for monster hunters. At this, Brandal ruefully suggests that they set out immediately to hunt down the beast so that the dwarf does not incur the cost of lodging and supplies (not that there is anywhere in the small village to spend any money!).

Following the tracks leads to a newly formed region of fetid water which is slowly killing the surrounding vegetation and trees.  Unfortunately tracking the beast through the morass proves difficult and results in a wider search for more tracks and the beast's lair. During this search, the four stumble upon the entrance to an underground ruin. Thorbin immediately pronounces the presence of treasure, Brandal lights the lantern, and all follow Dantrag through the entrance to the underground complex.

Presented with several branching corridors Dantrag puts his right hand on the wall and starts walking...

The Dungeon

The explored section of the dungeon is mostly abandoned and filled with swarms of Giant Centipedes, rats, and even skeletal rats. A small breed of goblin is also encountered in large numbers suggesting the presence of a larger threat hidden elsewhere and responsible for the spear trap which surprised Thorbin and Brandal.

In the depths of the dungeon the heroes encountered a rare Oxidation Beast (or Iron Eater) and quickly dispatched it before it had a chance to ruin any of their valuable equipment.

In a hallway filled with rats, Brandal and Arthrallan were happy to be in the back!

Conclusion

In the near corner room of the dungeon, the Catoblepas was found to have burrowed its way in from the outside and established a lair. The beast was dispatched without complication and some treasure recovered.

On the way out of the underground complex, the party was ambushed by Orcs and it seems that a return to this dungeon will be necessary to keep the towns people safe from a growing threat beneath them...

Four Against Darkness - Beginnings

I recently started adventuring against the darkness.  I never would have considered this game if not for DM Jim's videos (Tabletop Engineer) over on YouTube.  I was never a fan of Hack, NetHack, or Dungeon Hack and this is basically a clone of that with dice.  But DM Jim was on to something...

Four Against Darkness is not a miniatures game, yet.

The mechanics are so simple and generating a random dungeon is surprisingly fun.  With a few small modifications, the player is challenged not only by the dungeon, but also with a story telling element both written and visually.

The Table

Map, dungeon generation guides, character sheet (4 on one), some six sided dice, and a miniatures combat arena.

The Map

Using a laminated dungeon terrain mat, you can draw your dungeon as you randomly generate it from the tables and dice rolls. Here I'm using one of the Paizo Pathfinder Flip-Mats and held down with sticky tack.  My dungeon doors add a nice 3D component to the game and you can do something similar if you own a game like HeroQuest.

I push around a single pawn representing my party and populate the map with furniture for any permanent fixtures like fountains, shrines, armory, etc.  At the conclusion of this quest I dropped the monster miniatures on this map to make a nice picture / record of the adventure.

The Arena

I built a miniatures display diorama /book end a few years ago and I'm using it here both to visually display marching order and represent combat.  I have miniatures for most of the monster's appearing in the first book and reasonable proxies for everything else.  It takes a little extra time but the result is very satisfying. Above, the heroes are ambushed in a room by a group of orcs.

Narrative Changes

I do not like randomly entering a dungeon to grind and gain experience points (in fact I abhor the ubiquitous leveling systems synonymous with RPGs). So I have decided that I will roll the "final boss" in advance and put together a story.  This story is a mission or situation with real stakeholders, and piecing together why certain elements are present in the dungeon to tell a cohesive story can be a lot of fun.  Having rolled the final boss in advance, the only thing left to do is to modify the boss / weird monster encounters such that the FIRST thing you do is check to see if it is the final boss.  If it is, then you place the pre-rolled boss instead of a random monster.  You can have some more fun with this as well if you encounter the same type of monster elsewhere in the dungeon as a monster or wandering monster.

Conclusions

I'm having fun with Four Against Darkness.