[D&D v1.0] Expedition to Barrier Peaks

[Bill Cook]

Alright, I can't stand it anymore. I have to post about last night's session with my regular group.

We met at the place where I stay. I invited Kevin to attend. (Dale, a player from Kevin's Halting War Campaign, canceled the second session the night before, so Kevin had missed a chance to role-play. He's graciously agreed to GM a beta of Story Steps, my RPG, using a vanity Sci-fi series he's written.) Other players were Cory, myself and Jason (DM).

I thought we were going to boardgame a bit, but instead, we went straight into chargen. Just seeing those covers and the full set of dice (instead of just d6s or just d10s) about made me swoon. Here was something I knew how to do like riding a bike. Jason directed us to the list of pregens provided for the original tournament, and the thought was to use them as a starting point to save time. He asked us to play two and three characters, saying, "There will be big death." Ha! Bring it on, said I.

I quickly discarded the starting point and just did what most pleased me. Being so much older and such a better reader, I speedily crunched the various tables and descriptions in the forward chapters of the PHB. I never noticed the spell learning rules described by the columns in the Intelligence table. After I groked it, I leaned back in my chair and said, "You've got to be kidding me. That'd take all night!" I agreed to play the party mage, BTW. And I also wrote up one of those least niche-protected of classes, the thief. Skimming through the class descriptions and related tables of x by class brought back the silliness and horror of class-based restrictions. And after getting permission from the DM to switch ability scores about, I shamelessly put the 17 under Constitution to get the +2 hp per HD bonus and the 15 under Dexterity to get a -1 defensive adjustment. (Which also applies to dodge-based saving throws! Who knew?)

Jason insisted that I declare entries for my spellbook, and I finally picked the slots he awarded (after much childish complaining on my part). There were so many, I just picked by interesting-sounding names. During play, I skimmed a few entries. Anyone remember Evard's Black Tentacles? Geez! A mage should have to contract with an arch-devil to cast it. [Shudders.]

My mage was named Enron. The thief was name Anderson. [Dodges tomatoes.] Unlike in my teenage years, I actually listened to the introduction. Apparently, some overwhelming horde of monsters had sacked four strongholds and left unrecognizably burned corpses of alien origin, presumably from the conquering host. The dutchy king sent us into a savage land of stalking horrors to investigate a steel cave. This guy had an army at his command, but he sends us. And promises that we'll be richly rewarded. And directs us to fairly divide spoils. [Sniggers.] Yeah, right.

So a score of men hold camp while our party of eight scales the craggy peaks. The whole time, I'm thinking, how many men does it take to guard camp? Why wouldn't we bring the king's soldiers with us as we brave unknown peril?

Jason showed us a picture of the "steel cave." Of course, it's a dang spaceship. Enron says, "Behold! A forge of the underworld god, erupted from the heart of the mountain! We must parley with this smithy of the gods lest we tempt his wrath." And that was just the beginning. Somehow, in the moment, I had found my motivation to play Enron. Every opportunity I had after that, I had him boss everyone around and use his "forbidden knowledge of mystic lore" to explain what the party was witnessing. When we walked into a gambling casino, I cautioned everyone not to disturb the god Vulron's golems (aka slot machines). The box-shaped, flat-screened devices were used for mystic scrying that might drive an inept bungler completely insane. Best left to a master of arcane arts. Sure.

I played Anderson very similiarly. When he inserted a flat crysal into a door lock, he interpreted the "unathorized access" siren as the voice of Vulron, summoning an undeworld guard. And when it came, he fell prostrate and made many genuflections to its lord. It looked like the robot on Lost in Space, but with tentacles. It promptly laser stunned him, wrapped a tentacle around his leg and dragged him off.

Meanwhile, Enron was making an ass of himself in the cafeteria. "That is a magic artifact for delivering gems to other-worldly beings and thereby currying their favor." Of course, it was just a microwave. He insisted on inspecting the desktop lunchables thingy and tasting every sample. His mouth clamped down of its own will and he fell over, dead.

Kevin, never having played D&D before, tried to ressurect me. Cory, having played a lot of D&D, stripped all my clothes off and pocketed my Ring of Protection +3. When I came to (after surviving my system shock check and permanently reducing my Constitution by 1), Jason explained that servants of Vulron had struck from behind, stealing all my personal belongings. "Noooooooo!"

I made a game of trying to cast every spell I'd memorized for that day. So when another spiritual servant speedily opened a chamber door (not really, of course) and we came upon five pineapple-headed underworld demons and their glowing mushroom-eating canine equivalents, I cast Sleep. The dogs fell; their masters stood. Kevin's cleric, Malyyx, Commanded me to stop spelling the natives and come along. I got back at him by Suggesting that he return and moon them. Since he was wearing plate mail, it took him a minute to get into position. The dogs bit into his bare ass, one on each cheek. I used Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound to join the fight. What an awesome spell! 10 HD, 3d6 damage and it can't be attacked. You can only dispel it. The only restriction is that it has to attack from behind.

In another room, I Cone of Colded a skin-wrapped humonculous of metal that fired blasts of mage energy from a curious wand (which was a laser gun). Ambrose, Cory's hulking Paladin, stove in its skull, which emited magic energy and exposed strands of wire. "Behold! Their arteries are not mere flesh but are made of metal. And lightning courses through their veins!"

During breaks, Jason and Cory shared comments about how stodgy and time-consuming the system was. It seemed fine to me. At one point at the table, Cory suggested that we split the party into pairs and open as many doors as we could in every direction. Cool! Let's do it! I said. But he retracted, and I got voted down. But I ended up splitting off Anderson to try the door card, anyway.

Towards the end, I started to worry a bit that I might be overdoing the role-play. Aside from the pretense of mastery, I also passed a number of combat rounds, waiting to see how things developed. I'd forgotten how attempts to negotiate during combat are generally met with dismissal if not derision. How far the gulf between D&D and TSOY. A few times, I intentionally announced bone-headed actions based on role-playing Enron's misunderstanding .. which, of course, I (Billy) did understand. e.g. I had him try to Dispel Magic the effects of the laser gun. Another funny thing we did was use Nick's PCs as redshirts. Just treatment since he was a no show;) So I'd say something like, "Nick's character jumps into the darkness of the gaping shaft," and Cory would say, "Nick's other character leaps in front of me, taking the brunt of the spear thrust." Very silly.

[Jaycenn]

Hello -  Jason signing in.....(DM)

After playing a slew of various games from TROS to WOD to Billy's 'Story Steps'.  We were at a bit of a loss on what to do next, so I suggested a trip to the past back to most of our roots - D&D.  It seemed like a good idea.  Although the night was smattered with occasional comments (most from myself) about how the old D&D (or actually AD&D) tends to bog down in areas.  It was fun to visit the past, but it also reminded us of why we ventured on to other systems in the first place.  None-the-less, we enjoyed ourselves.

Contrary to one of Billy's statements - his frequent plunges into over-role playing the mage added spice to the adventure rather than distracting from it.  Humour is always welcome.  Besides - it was funny because it was very in-character.

This is a module unlike most in AD&D.  A wrecked spaceship (or part of one) that came from a civilization on the other side of a black hole had found it's way to crash on this world.  The crew long since dead from a strange disease, various parts of the ship with or without power, and inhabited primarily by whatever automated systems, some robots which are still functional, and the occasional android as well as creatures which were captive or more appropriately "specimens" on the ship prior to it's demise. 

Kevin surprised me at one point - in describing to him what a microwave looked like from the point of view of an AD&D character (he played the Dwarven Cleric) - he gave me a blank expression and indicated that he had no idea what it was.  His expression and character play was so thorough that I actually thought for a moment that he did not pick up the description & hints I had set before them. 

Quote from Billy:
In another room, I Cone of Colded a skin-wrapped humonculous of metal that fired blasts of mage energy from a curious wand (which was a laser gun). Ambrose, Cory's hulking Paladin, stove in its skull, which emited magic energy and exposed strands of wire. "Behold! Their arteries are not mere flesh but are made of metal. And lightning courses through their veins!"

That skin-wrapped humonculous of metal - was a female android gone beserk.  Undoubtedly something damaged in her programing.  As they approached an open room they see this femail laying on the floor (dead or unconscious?).  The Paladin rushes forward to "lay hands" (I see grins on a few faces at this point) on this female.  he gets about 15 feet away when she hops up firing a device at him that looks like a glass bottle on a handle with wires & prongs inside it.  It  sends sparks flying - strikes Cory's Paladin (save vs. paralysis) and he falls to the ground.  The other 2 fighters advance, the Cleric(Kevin) and the Mage(Billy) both cast a spells to no avail.  The android fires another shot striking Sam(the other fighter) who also falls to paralysis.  Cory's other fighter ("Stan-the-Man"), and Kevin's Cleric move in to melee.  The woman drops the paralysis pistol & starts swinging a long lead pipe.  Two attempts to disarm her finally succeed, but she proceeds to smack "Stan" upside the head causing 16 pts of damage with her bare fist!?! - ouch.
The cleric strikes with his Staff of striking & Stan as well - together they cleave her head in - sparks fly, and she falls motionless.  The mage cries out ""Behold! Their arteries are not mere flesh but are made of metal. And lightning courses through their veins!" ....   (I had to repeat Billy's comment)

Later ... making his way to a door with his trusty black key-card to gain access - the Cleric is suprised by a "Lurker Above" dropping onto him and proceeding to smother him.  Basically trapped and unable to breath - the rest of the party jump in to cleave into the Lurker.  Damage is dealt in the first round & they are making progress as the Mage (Enron) steps up and says "Stand back ! -  I will blast it with a cone of cold!!!!"  This destroys what is left of the Lurker, and the Cleric emurges from within the wrappings of the Lurker with chattering teeth....  "Who turned the A/C down!" -  ok, he didn't say that - I added it.

We zoom ahead through some exploration & decided to call it a night.  With a late start & one no-show.... we were content to leave the rest for next session....

Ok guys - you CAN all read this ........Preview of session II -
  So, whatever did happen to the thief Anderson?  After he snuck away to check out a door - set off an alarm, was subsequently paralyzed & then toted away by a security robot?  Everyone else was in the casino room at the time & later started asking - "where did Anderson go?".....
Tune in & you will find out....     as Anderson comes back to consciousness he finds himself in a small cell.  There are no bars holding him in, but some strange wall of force keeping him in.  There are other cells, but the cell-mates offer little comfort, as they are all dead.  The outer hall only shows to contain some strange panels & glass screens with rivits & buttons - and a door at the end of the hall.
Low and behold.... he has all his belongings!  Alas - perhaps there is a chance to escape.....     Then the door to the outer room opens and in enters...........
ah-ha - thought you'd get more?  you'll have to wait .......

Jason