GaryCon XIII Post-Con Report

I attended GaryCon XIII virtually these past four days. I also worked two of those same days, so it wasn't a full convention for me. 

Thursday

Day 1, slot 1 of GaryCon was my first of three games I was running over Zoom. It was the classic AD&D module A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords - part 1 (getting to Suderham through the salt mines). I had eight players sign-up and eight players show, which was a great start. After three hard-fought battles, the last two just barely won, the Slave Lord Hunters succeeded in clearing their way through the salt mines.

Some fun notes about our game session:

Elwita the Dwarf was played by Jonathan, the player who had been in my Lost Caverns of Tsojconth/Tsojcanth game at virtual GenCon last year.

Karraway had a Scroll of Remove Fear, but was the only member of the party affected by Fear (and while paralyzed). He cast almost none of his spells (so he has them for next time), and was the PC who came closest to dying.

I wasn't keeping track of Blodgett's Strength loss from those shadows, but since he started at a 9, he must have been very feeble by the end of that fight. Between that and being held and chewed on by the storoper, he was likely the second closest to dying.

When we were turning shadows at the end, we forgot that Eljayess was also a cleric! Eljayess was played by Neil Christiansen, one of the early players in the Hobby Shop Dungeon campaign, who also taught us that Eljayess stands for LJS, Larry J. Schick's initials!

We also learned that Phanstern's name was combined from two Shakespearean characters, which made it, coincidentally, even more apropos that I had replaced the "to be read out loud to the players" prologue for the adventure with one based on the famous "O for a muse of fire" prologue from Henry V.  

Despite being forewarned that limited resource management was going to be critical to surviving both rounds, the spellcasters Delgath and Phanstern had to burn though a lot of spells, and in Phanstern's case all but two spells!

Design Notes (SPOILERS, if you ever plan to play this as-is!)

I took the final encounter, dissembled it, and spread it around. Wimpell Frump, instead of being the powerful illusionist masquerading as Yeenoghu, became Wimpell Frump the slave accountant (and minor illusionist, not that he ever got a chance to cast a spell) the PCs had encountered first. Instead of being an illusion of an ankylosaur (and how would Frump even know what one looks like...?), the ankylosaur became real, their second encounter, and what I thought was a logical explanation for the Earth Dragon alluded to later in the module.

As written, the salt mine had gnoll guards, but they aren't guarding any prisoners/slaves/miners, so I did add those throughout and the PCs heard some of them murmuring from the gnoll lair they didn't visit. As-is, the gnolls aren't supposed to reinforce each other. I planned on having the gnolls from one room come and aid the other, but could not have anticipated that my players would lure one group (although unintentionally) back into the tunnel with them, so they would encounter both groups in the tunnel -- probably the toughest way to fight that joint encounter you could have possibly chosen.

As-is, the map railroads you through every encounter area one after another; I shook up the map and added tunnels that crisscrossed and let them take the rooms out of order or miss some altogether (plus I had added a few more!). By then I thought Wimpell would have been able to escape, but they were way too good at keeping him prisoner.

The storoper is supposed to be able to inject that paralyzing poison that makes it look like it petrified you, with no save, twice only -- but as the storoper's most interesting attack form, I decided to ignore that limitation. To balance it, I took away how you fight for the storoper after the initial paralysis wears off. Wandering aimlessly is only supposed to happen after the storoper dies, but moving it up made the "heh heh, you're stoned, guys" joke more obvious. This battle nearly did in the party, with over half the party wandering around "stoned" before it was over.

Yeenoghu and his attendant gnolls and ghouls were illusions in the original version, but the gnolls needed a leader better than Frump, so I invented Goom the Gnoll King, a gnoll 8th level fighter, with his 3 HD gnoll vassals. As the spawn of Yeenoghu, he could save vs. spells as if a magic-user and summon his vassals' shadows (the ghouls got a little upgraded). I figured the PC clerics would turn the shadows easily. Oops! It turned out to be a very hard battle, only barely won.

Friday

This was my one all-play day, with no events I was running. And, ...well, let's take them one at a time.

In slot 1, I was supposed to play "Lowdown in Highport," an original AD&D prequel adventure to the Slave Lords modules, which seemed highly apropos for me to play. However, it was run over a new site called Fantasy Grounds, and I could not get my computer to play any sound from that site. This had happened to me before, last year, when I tried playing a game over Discord, so I was ready with backup this time and tried listening over a laptop -- but I could not get sound to work over that device either! The DM did try cutting and pasting descriptions into the chat for me, but I couldn't interact with the setting at all, so I quit in frustration. Not a good start to the day -- and NOT a good first impression of Fantasy Grounds!

In slot 2, I played another original adventure (this one for Swords & Wizardry) called "Green Fire," over Skype. Skype worked okay, but it seemed to lag more than Zoom. It was fun playing a magic-user with a 5 Charisma and everyone was very appreciative of me choosing to memorize Strength to boost the already-strongest fighter in the party. The scenario was extremely simple -- travel away from the village and find a hut that a seemingly endless number of goblins pour out of and kill them until the time runs out and our DM had a very slow, leisurely pace to him. 

To be fair, it's possible that we weren't supposed to do that; I had suspected from the start that we were supposed to interrogate the prisoners in the village and find out more information of stuff to do in-town, and that the House of Endless Goblin Spawning was a red herring that got retconned into the end encounter after my vote was overruled by the party, who all wanted to head straight after the goblins. Either way, the point of the scenario seemed to be to introduce us to the DM's campaign setting, in the hope that we would want to revisit it.

Slot 3 of day 2 of GaryCon was Tim Kask's "The Wheel of Blame." Because of technical difficulties, it started over an hour late, but still ended on time.  One of the thrills of GaryCon is the chance to play with the Old Guard, the chance to walk back in time and see what it would have been like to game with them in the Early Days. 

But. 

But....What Tim ran was five unconnected escape rooms, and I hate escape rooms. Now, some of the time he was obviously flexible about what the escape was, but other times he was more adamant that we had to think of his way or we weren't getting out.  Interestingly, I played with my afternoon DM, from "Green Fire," so that was quite the coincidence. The best part was the few minutes I got to talk to Tim one-on-one after everyone else left.

Saturday

Slot "1" was not a real GaryCon event -- I ran my OD&D campaign's 20th session, wherein the Company of the White Oak (all 1st-4th level PCs) started exploring the Temple of Elemental Evil! Brigands were fought, treasure was found, and an attack on the Town of Hommlet was averted!

Slot 2 was part 2 of the Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords. Seven players (not all the same ones as last time, plus some new ones) explored Suderham, the middle third of the adventure that is all city-based. I had planned on tweaking Suderham, as I had the dungeon parts, but I had run out of time to do so and had to run this part as-is. Well, mostly as-is; getting into the city proved more interesting, as we roleplayed out the part only summarized in the module, where they capture some merchants and then pretended to be the drivers and guards working for the merchants to get in. Once they were in the city, the players, all or almost all of whom knew the adventure already, tried real hard not to use too much player knowledge, but easily followed the clues to get to the sewer entrance in one of the bawdy houses. And, again, we spent a good amount of time -- what amounted to more than our first hour -- on roleplaying through all this.  

More SPOILERS

When they found the dungeon (and then found it again, because they had overshot the concealed door in room 1 that led to the rest of the dungeon), they had a rough go of it with the flesh golem, which I treated as an almost full-strength flesh golem and not the watered down one found in the module. This sent them fleeing to rest and heal, which was tough on the scenario because it was supposed to be timed and their ability to regain spells was supposed to be limited. I did cop out and gave them some cleric spells back, and then they felt brave enough to go back and tackle my tweaked version of the sewer dungeon. 

They found the secret door that, in the original version routes them straight to the big boss battle, but I detoured them to the minotaur maze, as we had lots of time left. They spent what felt like a lot of time in the minotaur maze; the thief wanted to search every single 10' x 10' square for traps and I had to talk him out of it, for the good of the rest of the night. Things picked up when they found their way out of there. The gelatinous cube trap I kept as-is and that was very deadly. They also encountered some extra encounter areas I had added to the scenario, including one that gave them a chance to find a much-needed healing potion -- but of two potions they found, which was the good one? The ranger solved it by mixing them together and drinking both, so it both healed him and made him sick. They dodged the shambling mound in the "Grotto of Terror" by slowing it down with a Slow spell and floating across the water. Because we were now running out of time, I skipped the last encounter areas and got them to the final big boss battle.

As written, this was meant to be the Big Boss Battle of all big boss battles, and yet I had run this fight with the Slave Lords before and they always lose. So I fixed things -- the five figures on the thrones were the hirelings of the real slave lords, all half the level on the original versions. The two sides lobbed fireballs at each other first thing and the party's fireball did more harm, killing or knocking out three of the fake slave lords right off the bat, while only two of the party were seriously hurt. Captain Feetla and Brother Milerjoi went down in round three. Thinking it was all over, the PCs went around decapitating their foes and looting treasure.

And then the first of the REAL Slave Lords started arriving. Lord Feletheus, for example, was a 9th level fighter with a -5 AC, 77 hp, and hit the ranger with a Rod of Smiting, held with Gauntlets of Ogre Power, and struck her dead in one hit, with maximum damage -- 39 points. NOW the Slave Lords were going to be a tough fight!

The real Nerelas the Assassin teleported into the room, invisible (they could tell because magic chessboard squares were serving as teleportals in the room and lit up when used; the chessboard had become a repeating motif in my tweaked version). It was getting late, I was getting tired and making mistakes and, as the party's magic-user looted the fake Mordrammo, I accidentally read off the real Mordrammo's long list of magic items to him, then said, "Oops -- that's the real Mordrammo who's coming..." This only helped to make them very afraid. Overwhelmed, they distracted Feletheus and Nerelas with an illusion and fled up the stairs -- straight into waiting cages. Trapped! And ready for the Dungeon of the Slave Lords, just the way the module was meant to end. 

Everyone had stayed 30 minutes late so we could wrap up the whole thing. I was told that my version of the ending was better than the published version -- high praise indeed!

Sunday

Day 4 had one event today, Hideouts & Hoodlums: Assault on the Aerie of the Nazi Slavers -- taking what I ran using D&D and updating it to 1945, the Ore Mountains on the German-Czech border. 

Although H&H had done well at GaryCon two years in the past, it was not popular this time; only three people signed up and two showed to play. Those two were Lee and Timothy LeMaster, both experienced with H&H. I gave them the option of two heroes each, but they each wanted to play only one character. To try to balance things, I gave each of them two really good healing pills they could take in a pinch. They chose Superman (the Czech version of Superman) and Golden Guide, a mysteryman (woman, actually). 

Both this and my AD&D version of the scenario began with a Wimpell Frump stand-in being encountered first thing in the adventure, but this time the LeMaster's missed the fact that Wimpell (or Vlastimil here) was leaving them but not heading back towards the camp. Missing the shortcut, they planned a direct assault on the German-controlled Czech mine camp outside the mine entrance, with just one big diversion for cover. It used up their one stick of dynamite, but it was a very big distraction when it blew up the ammunition supply point building. Superman wrecked them through the fence and they dashed into the main building, fighting their way past guards to get to the bridge from that building's tower that led to the ancient gatehouse that was the mine's entrance. They had to fight their way past a dozen armed guards, eating up some of the superhero's better (but not best) powers, and even then I was already going easy on them, having planned on their being twice that many defenders at the gatehouse if the heroes tried this direct route. 

Once in the mines, it was more like a straight D&D session, with them exploring two caves, running into small guard patrols in two of them (as originally planned). Superman burnt through more powers and Golden Guide had terrible luck with her guns jamming a lot, but they finally found their way to the big boss battle. This time, King Goom was replaced by Vlastimil, an ultra-mad scientist, his Nazi lieutenant, six bestial Nazis (oh yeah, in this version, the guards weren't gnolls, but they had been surgically altered to be more animalistic and 2 HD), plus six more that had been fully transformed fully into beast-men -- ghouls -- and there was a three-man crew manning a Panzer II tank in the room. The chamber was no longer an audience chamber, but had been converted into a mad scientist's laboratory (or at least the back half had). 

They played pretty smart, trying to wreck the tank (with the superhero's wrecking things) and shooting at the lab equipment to blow it up. But they were badly outnumbered and the ghouls paralyzed Superman. Golden Guide led a lot of their opponents away, got them into a fight with miners the heroes had liberated earlier, then left the miners to get slaughtered as she doubled back to save Superman. By now, Superman was being hauled away down an escape tunnel, kept chloroformed by Vlastimil and his lieutenant. Golden Guide caught up and, while a firefight went on between Golden Guide and the lieutenant, Superman recovered and broke the man's gun. But then Vlastimil used a hypno-monocle to charm Superman and set the two heroes against each other! Golden Guide kept dodging to stay alive until it wore off, but the two leaders had escaped ahead of them to warn the Slave Lords in Dresden...and there we stopped, just 15 minutes over our time slot. They said they want to play the rest some time. If they get some help next time, I won't have to fudge so much to keep things easy for them!

And now GaryCon is done for another year. It was a great experience, but really more for the games I ran for the players I had, not the games I played. I'm glad I get the opportunity to play other people's games, but I don't think I'd ever do a campaign again as a player only, just in case. 

Addendum: But wait -- it still wasn't over! At 7, there was 

Jay Scott

's Twitch show, which was a who's who of famous Greytalkers! 

Anna Meyer

, who remapped the Flannaess! 

Denis Tetreault

, who remapped the City of Greyhawk! 

Mike Bridges

, who drew the World of Greyhawk! 

Allan T. Grohe Jr.

, seen by many as the ultimate authority on Castle Greyhawk and Old School publisher! Eric Boyd and Erik Mona, who parlayed their early entry into Internet fandom into long publishing careers that extended well beyond Greyhawk! And 

Gary Holian

, who practically invented Greyhawk fandom online!

And that still wasn't the end because, while I was watching the show, 

Arch Zenopus

 messaged Facebook and revealed that there were open spaces in "Temple of Diklah and the Helm of Valasdum," the second part of the GenCon IX Dungeons, and it was starting soon!! Having long owned it but never played it, I longed to see if my assessment of how much of that tournament needed a complete overhaul was accurate. Casting the Twitch show and my laundry duties for the evening aside I jumped in! And I daresay my dwarven king was vital to keeping the game entertaining, as inexperienced gamers in the group slowed us down in a railroad of encounter areas that betrayed the primitive game design skills developed by 1976, with just occasional flashes of ingenuity. Everyone was half-asleep by the time we reached the big boss battle with the lich and, as the game dragged on past midnight, I was not prepared to reach 12:30 still in the game, so I curtly bailed on them just as the lich and two golems had two members of the party cornered!

Prymptown Courier - v. 4 no. 5

PRYMPTOWN COURIER

Vol. 4, No. 5 (Nov. 2001)

EDITORIAL

I missed getting this out in October, and the campaign write-up for the 35th session still isn't done.  At first I thought, oh no, how much longer is it going to be before I can get out a Courier?  Then another idea hit me.  Why not release a Courier without a campaign write-up in it?  It's never been done before, but luckily, I have two back-up features of some length to run this time.  One is the conclusion of the GENCON report (boy, does it seem a long time ago since GENCON 2001!).  The other is a timeline for Vladamir Kostiov, prepared by his player.  The timeline has already been of help to me in ironing out some...chronal difficulties with the campaign log...

GENCON 2001, Day 3

August 4, Saturday.  8:00 pm.

It's impressive how much larger the audience is for the Knights of the Dinner Table Live Reading year after year.  There must have been 100 people in a large room, with one man at the front organizing the event through a bullhorn.  I presume there were microphones on the reading table, though

it was still hard to hear some of the readers.  What may have been a mistake (though, logistically, they may have had no alternative) was that readers were chosen at random from those who had event tickets - not necessarily from those who were enthusiastic about reading.  Regardless, I only had time to listen to two classic strips (including the much-read "Hand of Vectra") before leaving to set up for the third and final night of Village of Hommlet.

August 4, Saturday.  9:00 pm.

Instead of my regular player Ronny, I got my regular player (and then regular chauffeur at the con) Ron to join the game this night.  The foursome who had played the first two nights was conspicuously absent.  There were three guys with a Talisman game set up in the room next door who were thinking about playing but copped out.  Then I ran into Scott Holst, a Greytalker from Chicago who I've talked to before about meeting for a game session.  He had two of his friends there, but when they learned I was running a low-level game, they took off.  Ironically, the guy who had left early the first night and missed out walked by again, and I roped him and a friend of his into playing.  Then three guys showed up from Blue Island, IL.  They claimed that they had been informed of my event from the tickets booth (and I didn't think they knew of it), and had driven back from their hotel room - in Gurnee, IL. (that's an hour away from the con, folks!) - to play.  The room we'd played in the last two nights was particularly crowded and noisy, so we packed up and moved two rooms down. 

With six players, we picked up where the previous group had left off - retreating back to Hommlet to rest and rememorize.  I filled them all in on what they'd missed. Everyone sat around the inn for a while, and gradually noticed that something was fishy in that Zert and Spugnoir had not come back to the village with the freed prisoners. 

About this time, two more players showed up - a husband and wife team.  The husband wanted his wife to see what 1st. ed AD&D was like, and we made room for them at the table. 

The band of eight proceeded back to the moathouse and, on their way down the overgrown trail, they found signs of a bloody skirmish, and tracks heading back towards the moathouse from it.  While following the tracks, they were ambushed by the brigands again.  Brigands with missile fire rained it down on the PCs from places of concealment off the path.  About three PCs remained on the path, while the others fanned out off to either side of the road.  It didn't take long before there were eight individual combats going on at once.  One of the PC clerics found the lieutenant who led the brigands, but they were so evenly matched that they battled to a draw until after all the other fighting was done.  The ranger PC wasn't the killing machine this time; it was the paladin PC.  The ranger was busy when he came across Zert, now obviously in league with the brigands.  

They too had a lengthy duel, which ended when the dwarven fighter PC managed to find them and join in.  Before dying, Zert gloated about having killed the others, and even working for the Temple of Elemental Evil.  When all the other brigands were dead and the party started to converge on the lieutenant, he ran.  The party waited long enough to loot bodies, and then tracked him down.  They

found him, on the hill by the stream, still running away, and took him prisoner. 

The whole battle had taken two hours of real time to resolve.  The husband and wife team looked tired or bored, but everyone else was still into it, and so we pressed on

back to the moathouse, where they forced the lieutenant to reveal the secret doors that led down.  After letting the lieutenant go (as per their arrangement with him), they

descended into the watery depths (I had added an inch or two of standing water in every room, since this was below a moathouse in a swamp…).  They followed winding corridors,

listened carefully at doors, got spooked every time they expected a trap, and set off the portcullis trap without even finding out what it did.  By midnight, they had just

found the gnoll lair…and we called it quits there.  The gnolls heard them coming and had the party pinned down with longbow fire right away, and I sensed a protracted battle

coming on par with the brigand ambush, and we all agreed we didn't want to keep going until 2 am.

After the game, though, the three from Blue Island stayed to chat, or at least the one leader-type in the bunch did.  His name was Greg, and in addition to being a county sheriff and

a manager of a bluegrass band, he claimed to have been an early playtester for TSR.  What's more, his group was short on players, and he was looking to hook up with a larger

group.  I got his business card, and we've talked once since GENCON, but haven't hooked up yet.

GENCON Day 3.  Saturday.  Midnight.

I had packed up all my gaming materials from DMing, and Ron and I were on our way out when we saw a family of four playing the card game Apples for Apples nearby.  I had

thought of purchasing it before, and when I slowed down to watch they invited us to join in and try it.  In Apples to Apples, one player is the judge, and lays down a card with

a word on it.  Everyone else lays down a card from their hand of cards with a word that has something to do with the judge's word.  Then everyone argues for and against the

cards on the table, until the judge rules on who's word came closest.  The winner is whoever had his words chosen the most times.  It was a fun game, though part of our

amusement came from their kids, who had no clue who Carl Sagan was.

Anyways, we didn't play long -- and that was good because by the time we made out out to the parking garage, I was feeling dizzy.  Later, Ron told me he'd overheard three

other people at the con mention they were dizzy.  He postulated that this condition was brought on by lack of sleep and dehydration.  It was hard to argue with him.

GENCON Day 4.  Sunday.  8 am.

I had to be up bright and early again, because our team had

made it to the final round of the D&D Open.  Ron and I

waited until we were downtown to eat breakfast at some

place called Eddie's, or something like that.  My friend

Bryant has avoided the place since throwing up after eating

there a few years ago, but I had no problems with my

pancakes and eggs. 

This time, instead of being late, I was the second one in

our group to show up.  Not long after, we had everyone

back.  Up a few rows in front of us, I could see Russ

Taylor.  He had the distinction of beloning to the smallest

group, because there was only him and one other from his

team who showed up.  I felt a little bad for him, knowing

that only one Greytalker could win the Open, and that meant

he was going down.

By coincidence, our DM's assistant was the same guy who had

messed up running the first round for the two Ron's so

badly.  It was funny how our DM would consistently overrule

this amateur.  If only the rest of that round had been

equally entertaining.  Everyone, including our DMs, made at

least one serious mistake that cost us the final round. 

Our spellcasters cast too many of their spells in our first

encounter, which was just against some salamanders.  We

managed to avoid a lot more just by going straight through

the tunnels and avoiding the side caves.  At the end was

the "boss" bad guy, just like in an arcade game.  This high

priest/arch-mage of the evil turnip god would have been

beatable if we'd all reached him right away and beat on him

hard enough to keep him from casting spells. 

Unfortunately, I had the sword that could dispel his magic,

and I thought just carrying it would allow me to disrupt

the Wall of Force protecting him.  Nope, you have to

concentrate to activate that effect, which cost us valuable

time.  Meanwhile, the PC sorcerors had Dimension Doored

half the party inside the Wall of Force, but the Boss

Teleported out after leaving a Delayed Blast Fireball

behind.  I was fairly impressed with some of the spell

selections, even though the whole ending was a giant

cliche. 

Anyways, half the party died right away because our DMs

misunderstood how saving throws work in 3E.  We spent a lot

of time arguing about how we could fairly rectify that,

which was complicated by one of the kids in the group mis-

quoting things out of the Players Handbook.  When the

Horrid Wilting spell left my PC with -50 hp, I figured it

was all over.  Still, two of our PCs managed to get an

important book away from the Boss and fled the dungeon with

it, and that was apparently a partial victory.  We figured

it was a long shot, at this point, for us to win.

GENCON Day 4.  Sunday.  Noon.

My next stop was the Hilton, where I paid a visit to Noel

Graham.  I wanted to sit my book bags in his room so I

could go walk around the exhibit hall un-encumbered.  Noel

graciously allowed this.  We talked a bit about medieval

research, his leftover steak, and how Noel was due to meet

Erik Larson and Gary Gygax in the exhibit hall shortly. 

Since we shared a destination, we decided to join forces. 

Sadly, the call of nature separated us, and it was a

lengthy and painful separation (try finding toilet paper at

the convention center by Sunday afternoon!).  By the time I

got to the exhibit hall, I didn't see any of them.  So

instead, I walked around on my own and shopped.  I picked

up Tegel Manor, the Gamescience release.  I hemmed and

hawed over that purchase for sometime.  I returned to the

Kenzer booth and doodled on their giant doodle wall (mine

was the Kirby-esque monster).  I then was lucky enough to

run into Noel again!  He confirmed that I had missed Erik

and Mr. Gygax.  I told him about my purchases, and all the

other goodies I'd seen but couldn't afford.  Noel offered

to loan me $100...

I've since had several occassions to regret turning down

that offer -- usually when telling others about how I had

done so.  I wound up not getting anything from Steve

Jackson, Atlas, and Necromancer Games; amongst other

diamond-in-the-rough companies.  Noel did give me an extra

dollar so I could get Kobolds Ate My Baby!  Next, I shared

my growing concern with Noel that if I left my bags in his

room, and then couldn't find him later, I might not see my

bags again!  So we went all the way back, talked about Xena

on the way, and I reclaimed my valuables.  Then we parted

company, for it was time to head back to the Arena and find

out if we had won the open.

GENCON Day 4.  Sunday.  2 pm.

We didn't.  I didn't stay to hear any other announcements. 

Unfortunately, I didn't really have anything planned to do

after that, so I went back to the exhibit hall just to mill

about.  I usually like to stay in the hall until closing on

the last day, but I also like to take a last walk around and

observe all the people gaming.  There's no other time of the

year that you see that many gamers all in one place -- at

least not by Chicago.  I had to wrap up my yearly customs by

4 pm, when I was to meet with Ronny and Bryant and ride with

them back home to Illinois.

GENCON Day 4.  Sunday.  4 pm.

I didn't find them.  I expected to see them on the gound

floor around the ticket booths, where we had planned to meet

on Friday.  They weren't there.  I had no idea where they

were parked, but I went outside.  I patrolled four blocks in

90 degree heat for nearly an hour, expecting to see them. 

Luckily, the concierge at the Hyatt was nice enough to hold

my bags for me while I looked.  I'm going to miss that Hyatt

when GENCON leaves Milwaukee...

GENCON Day 4.  Sunday.  5 pm.

I decided that they must be looking for me, and that I

should sit down and wait for them.  I sat down with some of

my new reading material and waited.  A half-hour passed. 

While reading, I was trying to think up some alternative

means of getting home.  One thing was for certain -- I was

swearing off carpooling to GENCON from then on!  Having

given up on sitting there, I had resolved to return to the

Hyatt and ask Noel to let me use his room's phone.  On the

way, I was lucky enough to run into one of the guys from my

group for the Open.  He told me that he and his friends were

waiting for the Magic tournament to get over that was

running until 7 pm.  Ah, a lightbulb went off in my head. 

The guys I was looking for were fanatical Magic players.  If

there was still a tournament going on, surely I would find

them there.

I had actually passed the room the tournament was going on

before and didn't see them, but this time I walked all the

way through the room to be certain.  Sure enough, at the far

end of the enormous room packed with people, were my

friends.  They wondered where I'd been.  Apparently, Ronny

was convinced he had told me to meet him there.  To this day

I have no recollection of such an exchange taking place. 

But all that was behind us now.  We left Milwaukee, dined at

the Country Kitchen restaurant again for supper, we all

laughed at passages from Kobolds Ate My Baby! that I read

outloud, and it was a less-than-disastrous ending to what

remains my best GENCON ever.

P.S.  I forgot to mention I met Fred "Psychlops" Weining on

Friday.  I remember nothing about him except that he had a

firm handshake and possibly sandy brown hair.  Still, it

seemed to bother him that I forgot to mention it...

VLADAMIR'S TIMELINE

Readying 8th

Met Abraham, Hristo and Barada.

Hear tale of Skull Keep from a bard, Heironymous Nod.

Decide to look into it with the others.

Readying 9th

Saved Abraham from thugs while on partol.

Decide not to accompany others on their expedition to Skull

Keep.

Readying 10th

Alexander, Peri and Ragnarr join the party.

Readying 11th

Band leaves for Skull Keep.

I'm ordered by my superiors to catch up with them and keep an

eye on Abraham.

I leave for Skull Keep and catch the others before long.

Readying 12th

Arrive at Skull Keep.

Explore 1st Level.

Readying 13th

Still in Skull Keep.

Go down to second dungeon level.

Ragnar is killed.

We flee.

Readying 14th

Back in Prymp.

Give Report to Garrison.

Readying 15th

Still in Prymp.

Rejoin guard patrol.

Readying 16th

Just did guardly stuff.

Readying 17th

Still in Prymp.

Met Alexander's Godmother in the Market, she invited me to

dinner at the Petrok house.

Gave mother money to take care of family.

Had dinner with Petrok family.

Readying 18th

Still in Prymp.

Knock out five half-orcs while on patrol.

Spoke with a priest of Zilchus about mission to Skull Keep.

Fight at Rusty Bucket with agents of the Flying Turtle Guild.

Take half-orc prisoners to Prymp Keep, they promptly escape.

Readying 19th

Still in Prymp.

Board ship in pursuit of the pirate ship the Red Zephyr

Board the Red Zephyr outside Skull Keep.

Defeat the pirates and take command of the ship.

Find a spellbook and two other books (Principles of Navigation

and Legal Distinctions in Letters of Mark)

Free Lemunda.

Scuttle the Red Zephyr.

Readying 20th

Still in Prymp.

Fellow Guardsman Nikolai found murdered outside the bank.

Have audience with Senator Gart Barlos.

Am given two guardsman to accompany me to Skull Keep

(Kelso and Fiorenzo).

Set out for Skull Keep.

Readying 21st

Arrive at Skull Keep.

Fight on 2nd Dungeon Level.

Defeat a wizard and his warrior companion.

Obtain Wand, Wizard's Spellbook and 2 other books (Marin's

Guide to Hepmonaland and The Dance of Nerull).

Sleep in the Wizard's lab.

Readying 22nd

Continue exploring 2nd Dungeon Level.

Defeat all the pirates.

Abraham and Kelso are killed by ghouls.

We flee in rowboats.

We return to Prymp.

Discover that the Temple of Zilchus was ropped while we were gone.

Readying 23rd

Still in Prymp.

Have words with Renspa at garrison.

Accept the dwarven warrior Gabriel into the group.

Knocked out while traveling through town.

Captured by the thieves' guild.

Fight our way free, killing the thieves.

Readying 24th

Still in Prymp.

Sell spellbooks to Laird.

Learn the secret of the Flying Turtle Guild.

Laird asks us to investigate a mystery concerning his daugter.

Outside the Laird's house we encounter a mage wieldling

creature with dragonish features.

I turn it into a turtle.

Reading 25th

Agree to work with the Laird.

Try to convince party to go to Galdol to battle the pirate lords.

Accept the mage Enlock into the group.

Readying 26th

Still in Prymp.

Continue to argue about next step with party.

Readying 27th

Still in Prymp.

Arrange passage on a ship as far west as Dargveto.

Readying 28th

Still in Prymp.

Have to delay our journey a day so that Peri can finish training.

Begin writing in a journal.

Coldeven 1st

Set sail.

Get information on destroying ships from the captain (Hallatan

Feldenov).

Fight the sea wolves.

Coldeven 2nd

Arrived in Shargallen.

We hear a tale about the Curse of the Sea Wolves but ignore it.

Trade for a book (Old Oerdian Primer).

Coldeven 3rd

Set sail again.

Boarded by a pirate ship (The Master Seawolf).

Defeat the pirates and capture their ship.

Cormorant leaves to bring pirate captain (Gedron) back to

Shargallen.

We remain aboard the Master Seawolf and await their return.

Another pirate ship arrives (The Bay Eaglet) and sinks the

Master Seawolf.

We jump overboard and swim to shore.

My spellbook and diary are ruined.

Rescribe Color Spray from my memory.

Meet Beccora, druidess of Beory.

Coldeven 4th

Get picked up by the Cormorant.

Learn that Gedron escaped his captors once they reached

shore.

Set sail again.

Arrive in Dargveto.

Set off for Dargvolyavi.

Alexander and Peri decide to turn the party around and head

to the abbey of Pholtus near Shargallen, for fear of the Curse

of the Sea Wolves.

Coldeven 5th

Continue back east.

Ran into a body of men heading west led by Sir Dobrev.

Suspect Prince Daven Darmen is sending some sort of tribute

to the Pirate Lords of Galdol.

Arrive back at Dargveto.

Coldeven 6th

Head east again.

Arrive in Dargvonesa.

Coldeven 7th

Still in Dargvonesa.

Have an audience with Prince Daven Darmen.

Discover that he is an illusionist.

Continue east.

Arrive in Shargallen.

Coldeven 8th

Travel to Abbey of Pholtus.

Seawolf curses removed by the Abbot (Basil Kuriv).

Andel Mooriv joins the party.

Travel to the Dream Garden for the 1st time.

Meet Countess Shadella.

Agree to try and get the party to go on her mission.

Coldeven 9th

Return to Shargallen.

Make arrangements for passage on a ship to Prymp aboard the

Sea Gull.

Coldeven 10th

Travel east towards Prymp on Sea Gull.

Return to the Dream Garden and begin my training.

Meet Pilf.

Coldeven 11th

Return to Prymp.

Learn that Vecheld Gesto is under attack.

Phillip Petrok is not communicating with the Laird.

The Garrison is locked off.

More training in the Dream Garden.

Coldeven 12th

.......

[Unaccounted for days?]

.......

Coldeven 15th

Travel to Skull Keep.

Camp in wilderness.

More training in the Dream Garden.

Go exploring a bit with Pilf.

Coldeven 16th

Return to Skull Keep

Finish off the 2nd level and descend to the 3rd.

Have a tough fight with 3 transforming hawkmen.

Head back up to the 2nd level to rest.

Coldeven 17th

Go back down to 3rd level.

Get knocked out by giant rats.

Party travels back towards Prymp.

Camp in wilderness.

Coldeven 18th

Return to Prymp.

Have audience with Nemis Coraz.

Meet Trant Eldrev, leader of the Ahlissan Fist.

Make plans to head south and disrupt the army.

Have dinner with the Ahlissan Fist.

Coldeven 19th

Still in Prymp.

Learn of the secret wizard society in Prymp.

Coldeven 20th

Still in Prymp.

Attend meeting of secret wizard society.

Get inducted into society.

Speak with a gnome illusionist (Anomo) about replacing my

spellbook.

Coldeven 21st

Head south to spy on army.

Find them half way to Prymp.

Attack their supply camp during night.

Return to Prymp

Coldeven 22nd

Call a meeting of secret wizard society to discuss Prymp's

defense.

Hristo and Peri are attacked by a lycanthrope (Snake).

Find Snake and Demonkos hiding in the slaughter house and

defeat them.

Coldeven 23rd

Battle with Herzog's army.

Watch from the curtain wall with Andel.

See him receive divine intervention.

Board a ship on the docks to help with the naval battle.

Prymp is successful in holding off the Herzog's forces.

Coldeven 24th

Still in Prymp.

Defeat patrols of guardsman in streets.

Coldeven 25th

Still in Prymp.

The Laird asks us to investigate tunnels below Prymp.

Find four dwarves to accompany us into caves.

Coldeven 26th

Still in Prymp.

Investigate tunnels below Prymp.

Upon exiting find that the Garrison has been completely sealed

off.

Coldeven 27th

Still in Prymp.

The Shrine of Pelor is burned down.

The Chapel of Fharlanghn is burned down.

Find and defeat the Hextorites responsible.

Discover the Guardsman have sealed off all the gates between

the old and new cities.

Coldeven 28th

Still in Prymp.

We assault the Garrison.

I get knocked out.

We win anyway.

The Herzog's army packs up and begins heading west towards

Porton.

Growfest 1st

Still in Prymp.

Begin making plans to go to Hexpools.

Growfest 2nd

Still in Prymp.

Have arguement with Peri in Grinning Gargoyle.

Agree to leave on the 5th.

Growfest 3rd

Still in Prymp.

Peri and Barada back out of trip to Hexpools.

Growfest 4th

Still in Prymp.

Recruit the dwarf Godrum and Marta (a scout) to accompany

me to Hexpools.

Growfest 5th

Leave Prymp to head south to Hexpools.

Meet up with Pilf on the way out, he joins.

Begin training in Dream Garden.

Growfest 6th

Continue south.

Encounter Blink Dogs.

Camp a distance away from Vecheld Gesto.

Continue training in Dream Garden.

Growfest 7th

Continue traveling south.

Continue training in Dream Garden.

Planting 1st

Continue traveling south.

Marta is killed or captured while scouting ahead of the party.

During night we are attacked by nine kobolds, Pilf charms

everyone.

Continue training in Dream Garden (training goes very slow

now that I'm charmed).

Planting 2nd

Arrive at Arogaz Avon.

Enter with Pilf.

Meet Ludmil, a noble warrior looking to attack an ogre

stronghold.

Continue training in Dream Garden.

Planting 3rd

Still in Arogaz Avon.

Get into fight with guards at the inn.

Flee town.

Continue traveling southeast.

Continue training in Dream Garden.

Planting 4th

Continue traveling southeast.

Continue training in Dream Garden.

Planting 5th

Continue traveling southeast.

Spend the night in Tabonrak.

Continue training in Dream Garden.

Planting 6th

Continue traveling southeast.

Camp outside of Ilnamark.

Continue training in Dream Garden.

Planting 7th

Continue traveling southeast.

Continue training in Dream Garden.

Planting 8th

Arrive in Hexpools.

Get locksmith to open up my uncle Boris's house.

Find Boris magically asleep.

Read a Guide to the Ethereal Plane.

Continue training in the Dream Garden.

Planting 9th

Still in Hexpools.

Find Boris's Wand, Ring, Bracers and Spellbook.

Arrive in Dream Garden near dawn.

Forced to flee the Gorgon.

Knocked out by Shadella to avoid getting eaten.

Planting 10th

Still in Hexpools.

Meet Balagros, an illusionist.

He offers to train me.

Planting 11th

Still in Hexpools.

Work out a deal with Balagros to complete my training.

Planting 12th

Still in Hexpools.

Complete training for 3rd level.

Awake on pirate ship in Dreamlands.

Planting 13th

Still in Hexpools.

Balagros has my indentured servitude extended indefinetely.

He wants to send me on a quest to find the Fountain of Health

Peri arrives in Hexpools.

Give Balagros my uncle's stone to end my servitude.

Planting 14th

Travel from Hexpools to Sulzdorf.

Camp just outside Sulzdorf.

Planting 15th

Arrive in Sulzdorf.

Meet with Lansgraf Tilman de Bourne.

Turn his dog invisible.

See traveling show.

A psychic (Madame Yamallah) foresees death and sickness

in my future.

Meet associate of Peri's father and get some answers.

Planting 16th

Still in Sulzdorf.

Turn one of the Lansgraf's men invisible for a sack of gold.

Travel from Sulzdorf to Olvanstaadt am-Graufult.

Arrive in Olvanstaadt am-Graufult.

Spend the night at the Foot of the Cliff Inn.

Planting 17th

Still in Olvanstaadt.

Have an audience with the Waldgraf Taras Cranden-Guarhoth.

He tells me to come back the next morning for more

information.

Discover the Comeback Inn.

Spend the evening there.

[Spoilers from here down!]

Planting 18th

Have another audience with the Waldgraf.

Get information on the House of Toshna in Torvald.

Walgraf sends me to Peter Cek to try and find out more about

my uncle's magic sleep.

Arrive to find Peter Cek has been put into a magical sleep.

Guards arrive and arrest me.

I am thrown in jail pending an investigation.

Planting 19th

Freed from my cell and found to be innocent.

Get into altercation with the mage Henrot and his daughter at

the inn.

Flee from Olvanstaadt.

Ride to Gerbrunn.

Giant beetle creature tries to attack us but cannot keep up.

Camp in Gerbrunn.

Defeat a score of bandits during the night.

Ride a short distance from town and camp again.

Planting 20th

Arrive at ruins of Torvald.

Discover bandits lurking in the ruins.

Peri and Godrum are both killed by dragon-like creatures.

Flee ruins.

Planting 21st

Godrum awakes from the dead.

Ride towards Olvanstaadt.

Planting 22nd

Ride to Olvanstaadt.

Godrum heads into town to sell loot.

Ride to Gerbrunn.

Camp outside Gerbrunn.

Planting 23rd

Still in Gerbrunn.

Have audience with the Lansgraf.

He lets us stay the evening in his keep.

Planting 24th

Still in Gerbrunn.

Purchase the services of 10 men-at-arms from Lansgraf.

Head to ruins of Torvald.

Fight some bandits.

Get knocked out.

Peri leads men back to Gerbrunn.

Planting 25th

Still knocked out.

Peri has audience with the Lansgraf.

I awake late that evening.

Planting 26th

Travel west from Gerbrunn back towards Hexpools.

Camp west of Olvanstaadt.

Speak to the Countess in the Dreamlands.

Planting 27th

Continuing heading west to Hexpools.

Encounter a wedding party along the road.

Decide to travel the remainder of the way with them.

Fast-talk a patrol of 60 orcs and humans into leaving the wedding

party alone.

Planting 28th

Continuing heading back to Hexpools.

Stop in Sulzdorf.

Cast another invisibility spell for the Lansgraf there.

Arrive in Hexpools.

Find my uncle dead.

Make arrangements with an undertaker.

Flocktime 1st

Still in Hexpools.

My wand is indentified to be a Wand of Archer Detection.

Meet back up with Alexander Petrok.

                .....

Prymptown Courier - v. 4 no. 3

PRYMPTOWN COURIER


Vol. 4, No. 3 (August 2001)

EDITORIAL

I want a co-DM.  I mentioned this over supper at GENCON with some of my players.  They thought the idea ludricrous.  Still, I have noticed for some time now that the implementation of game mechanics holds less and less interest for me, and I am filled with an impatience to get back to the role-playing.  It was suggested that Enlock's player could whip up a computer program to handle the math, and I'm sure similar programs already exist.  It's bad enough, I feel, that I've become so dependent on a word processing program and e-mail.  If my computer takes over anything else for me, will I be reduced to a mindless zombie?  Don't answer that.

A lot of important things have happened since the last Courier came out.  For one, GENCON 2001 has come and gone.  I'd have to say it was the best one I've ever been to, over all.  The first half of my GENCON report is part of this courier, for the benefit of anyone who's not on the
Greytalk, Taerre, or Living Verbobonc listservs. 

For another thing, Vlad's player has created a message board for playing the campaign between live sessions, and this time e-campaigning has been hugely successful.  By the time of the next Courier, I'll have polled the players and found out if everyone thinks it would be okay to open the board to viewing for our Courier subscribers.  I, for one, do not look forward to re-writing everything from the boards into the next few campaign writeups.  The message board can be found at www.geocities.com/southprovboard.

Enlock's player has revamped the South Province Website, and I'm really proud of the results.  In addition to campaign-specific articles that will be in the Gazetteer section, there will is an archive of all Courier issues.  And did some numbering snafus ever come to light while compiling the archives!  The South Province can be found at 64.193.32.161:8080/southprovince/index.html.

Lastly, the Greytalk listserv finally has its own official Website, called Canonfire!  I'm proud to announce that, as of this evening, my "Oerth Summary" article in Canonfire!'s Geography section has the sixth highest number of hits of any article on the site.  Plus I've got a mini-adventure on its way to the site that I plucked out of my classic tournament, The Rock of Aukmaugjanzimir!   
Canonfire! can be found at www.canonfire.com.

SOUTH PROVINCE CAMPAIGN SESSIONS 33
Continuing Chapter 3:  SEPARATE JOURNEYS
PC Role Call (of those present):
Vladamir Kostitov, Lawful Good Oerdian male trickster (3rd lvl illusionist).
Andel Mooriv, Lawful Good Oerdian male acolyte of Pholtus (1st lvl cleric).
Alexander Petrok, Lawful Neutral Oerdian male protector (2nd lvl templar - variant paladin).
Godrum, Lawful Good Mentherim ("Common")-Dwur male veteran (1st lvl fighter).
Perpegilliam Brown, Chaotic Neutral Hobniz male robber (4th lvl thief).
Maldrik Moonharvest, Neutral Oerdian male aspirant of Beory (1st lvl druid).

Growfest 5, 581 CY.  Waterday.  The trail to Vecheld Gesto, south of Prymp.

Andel Mooriv had walked all day from Prymp, heading south instead of west.  His goal was to circle wide around the beseiged town of Porton and the dangerous Skull Keep, and then take the Lantern Road the rest of the way to Shargallen.  What was happening to Porton was tragic, but Andel's training was his highest priority, and that meant returning to the Abbey of Vargas. 

Andel sought out a farmhouse on the outskirts of Vecheld Gesto, pounded on the door, and asked for sanctuary in the name of Pholtus.  Reluctantly, the farmer agreed, and then Andel still had to convince the family inside that he was not a bandit or soldier.  The farmer gave Andel permission to sleep in his barn, which was acceptable to the weary acolyte.

Growfest 6, 581 CY.  Earthday.  Around Vecheld Gesto. 

Andel thanked the farmers.  He was warned away from
approaching the Graf's Castle in the village, for it was now a dangerous place filled with the Herzog's orcs.  Andel moved on, taking the western trail to the village of Aluk.  As the day wore on, Andel thought all dangers were behind him.  That did not turn out to be the case.  Standing in the trail ahead of him was a huge, rust-red hound with glowing eyes.  It spoke a single word, "Die!" before the two were joined in melee.  The hound was powerful, but seemed to be toying with him.  It snatched away Andel's mace in its jaws, then smashed his shield, between nips at Andel's flesh.  Andel beat on the hound with his fists before the beast breathed fire, and Andel went down in flames. 

Growfest 7, 581 CY.  Freeday.  Porton.

Maldrik was still running from the town watch of Porton
through streets unfamiliar to him.  He came to an open door and barrelled through.  Inside, an old couple sat across from each other.  They neither spoke nor acknowledged him.  Maldrik found the situation awkward, so after a minute he checked on the street outside.  He saw watchmen down at the street corner, and failed to sneak out without being seen by them.  The chase was on again.  Finally, Maldrik managed to loose them behind the Tavern of the Mystic Arts.  A worker there was throwing out garbage and invited Maldrik in the back door.  The worker was Hugo Olinov, and the clientele of the tavern seemed to be just his circle of friends.  Maldrik entertained them by relating his problems, and impressing on them his urgent need to escape. 

Because of the state of siege, the gates leading out of the
Inner City where sealed at all times, but it was suggested that Maldrik could bribe the guards at the gates to let him slip out.  Maldrik had little of coin on his person, so another suggestion was that he go to the Chapel of Olidamarra and try to win some quick cash gambling.  Maldrik decided to give this plan a try.

The chapel of Olidammara was still a popular spot despite the seige, so much so that the clergy were bustling between tables where the holy dice games took place.  Maldrik was cautious with his bets, but still found that he lost as often as he won.  Maldrik abandoned solving his problems through gambling with roughly the same amount of coin he'd started out with in his pouch. 

Luckily, Maldrik hit upon a better, or at least cheaper, plan.  He returned to the Mystic Arts Tavern, turned as much money as he could spare over to Olinov, and asked his help in disguising Maldrik as a sickly leper.  Make-up was hurriedly acquired, and rags to complete the disguise.  Soon after, Maldrik the Leper limped towards the gates of the city.  Maldrik was again lucky that the guards did not cut him down on sight, but instead took pity on him and hurried the leper under a hastily raised portcullis.

Removing his disguise a safe distance west of the town,
Maldrik found a safe-looking spot and fell asleep for the
night.

Growfest 7, 581 CY.  Freeday.  Aluk.

Much to his surprise, Andel woke up.  The dog-like monster had not slain him, though the pain from the fire had made him black out.  Andel rose to his feet and staggered forward down the path.  As weak as he was, it would have taken much longer to reach the village of Aluk had not a farmer discovered him.  Andel was brought to a farmhouse on the outskirts of Aluk, where he could eat and rest.  Andel called upon Pholtus to grant him healing miracles, which sped his recovery greatly.  He then accepted the hospitality of the farmer and his family and agreed to stay with them for the night in their house. 

That night, asleep in a bed, Andel woke up to the sounds of
a great commotion coming from outside his room.  Andel
donned his armor as quickly as he could, and grabbed his
staff to use as a weapon in lieu of his missing mace.  Just
then, the demonic hound burst into his room.  "Found!" it
shouted before it leapt to attack.  Andel performed a tricky
fighting withdrawal, circling the beast and drawing it out of the house.  The beast had grabbed Andel's staff and snapped it in half with its powerful jaws.  Andel again brought his brute strength to bear on the dog, and succeeded in grappling it.  The beast merely ran towards the nearby barn, dragging Andel behind -- and then ran right through the side of the barn.  The impact had jarred Andel loose, and both combatants were now groggy and weakened from the vicious battle.  The beast again breathed fire, this time setting the barn ablaze.  In the midst of the blazing inferno, Andel kept savagely punching the dog as it tore into his armor with its teeth and rent it apart.  Its next bite sunk deep into Andel, and again he knew only blackness...

Planting 5th, 581 CY.  Waterday.  Aluk.

This time, Andel had company when he awoke.  The stranger was handsome, though a dark tan had deeply wrinkled his features.  He called himself Estophon, and the story he told Andel was that Estophon had been one of the villagers who came running to investigate the barn fire.  The demonic hound had fled, startled upon being discovered, and Andel had been rescued from the flames.  Estophon's own healing had restored Andel so quickly.  Now Estophon wanted answers from Andel about what the beast was and why it had attacked him, but Andel had no answers to give.  Satisfied for the moment, Andel was told he could remain in the village until he was well enough to travel again. 

Planting 6th, 581 CY.  Earthday.  Aluk.

The beast had not returned, and Andel was at last back to
his full strength.  At long last, Andel was ready to strike
out again for Shargallen.  He had no armor or weapons left,
for those had all been destroyed by the hound, but he still
had some gold in his pouch, and his backpack had come
through intact.  So he packed up his meager things, and hit
the trail that would take him to Porton.  Only he chose to
veer off the trail, far wide of Porton, to avoid the Provincial
Army.  This proved to be his undoing because, though he
was a miraculous cleric, he was a poor navigator.  He was
soon hopelessly lost. 

Planting 7th, 581 CY.  Freeday.  Trail from Prymp to Vecheld Gesto.

Perpegilliam left on his pony, intent on meeting up with
Vladamir early in Hexpools.  He was careful to travel slowly, off the trail, and avoided anything he might encounter.  In this way he managed to dodge a band of humanoid monsters moving north.  He avoided entering Vecheld Gesto as well, though he was near enough later to see the Provincial soldiers, and the blue boar's head flag of South Province flying overhead instead of the green and yellow colors that Prymp and its allies had borne.  Instead, Peri chose to head further south and camp outdoors.  There
was no road or trail leading south, but Phillip Petrok's
instructions had been to head due southeast until he
reached the town of Arogaz Avon.

Planting 8th, 581 CY.  Starday.  Hexpools.

Godrum was working the night shift at Emil's blacksmithy.
The night apprentices, led by a young, brash human named
Kliment, seemed to hate Godrum from the start.  Luckily,
Godrum was getting used to this -- people had been hating
him just for being a dwarf since he reached Arogaz Avon.
An errant chicken strolled into the blacksmithy, disrupting
the work flow as everyone watched the chicken look around
for a place to nest.

Planting 9, 581 CY.  Sunday.  Hexpools.

By the next morning, the chicken was the mascot of the
blacksmithy's night crew.  The mood had lightened, and his
coworkers had become a little chummier after the chicken
incident.  Still, it was a weary Godrum who dragged himself across the city to reach one of the few inns where he was allowed to stay.  Even weary, Godrum was alert enough to notice a new threat.  He had stumbled upon a group of over a dozen black-haired, olive-skinned men in strange garb.  He knew from Prymp that these were a disreputable type of human called the Attloi.  They surrounded him and began cajoling him.  The last group of humans to do that to Godrum were either dead or had fled, but when Godrum drew forth his warhammer this time, the Attloi backed off.  The plaza they were in was nearly deserted, but still too open a place to deal with violent Dwur.  Godrum made it the rest of the way safely, and slept half the day away in the Fountain Inn.

Upon awakening, Godrum decided to see more of the city,
starting with a return visit to the marvellous fountain square.  He could not tell if the Hexpools were some amazing feat of hydrotechnology, magic, or both -- but he decided not to worry about it.  He was distracted, anyways, by a fool who began following Godrum, pointing, and laughing at him.  Godrum left the public square in disgust, now intent on spending as little daylight time out of the Demi-Human District as possible.  He did make a brief foray to find where Vladamir was staying, and discovered the home of Boris Kostitov.  Vlad's instructions were essentially for Godrum to remain in the city until he was needed. 

Planting 9, 581 CY.  Sunday.  Arogaz Avon.

Peri stopped in the walled town along his way, but found it
not to his liking.  He made note of some of the important
-looking buildings like the inn, but since nothing of interest
jumped out and bit him, he was convinced that the town had nothing to offer.  Away he sped on the remainder of the trip to Hexpools.

Planting 10, 581 CY.  Sunday.  Hexpools.

The paladin Arkovna nearly ran into Godrum on his way out of the Bone Dry Inn.  Apparently, a woman of ill repute had flirted with him and he had fled in disgust.  He asked Godrum about going on an expedition to the Calling Mines but, not wanting to get separated from Vlad in case he was needed, Godrum again declined.

Planting 10, 581 CY.  Moonday.  Vecheld Gesto.

Andel had been wandering lost for four days, but at last
could see buildings up ahead.  Then, to Andel's horror, he
recognized them as belonging to the village of Vecheld
Gesto!  What a cruel trick, he thought, to have worked so
hard to reach Shargallen, when in fact he had made a
complete circle! 

Crestfallen but not defeated, Andel walked into Vecheld
Gesto to assess the situation.  Where half the village had
been wiped out by the army, construction crews were now
building a fortified compound.  Andel, feeling brave, went
straight into the village and found the Green Hawk Tavern.
The locals inside were hesitant to talk of specific atrocities,
but they readily informed Andel that half the village about
the Graf's castle had been burnt down by the Provincial
Army. 

While they talked, three Provincial soldiers entered and
began harassing Andel and the locals.  When Andel
made it known that he was a cleric of Pholtus, the soldiers
mocked his deity.  That was more than Andel could
stomach, and he grabbed the nearest chair and used it as
a club to beat the soldiers.  Within minutes, two soldiers
were beaten unconscious, and the third was fleeing for
reinforcements.  The villagers urged Andel to flee while
he could, and he took that advice to heart.

Planting 11, 581 CY.  Earthday.  Prymp.

Having come full circle, Andel had continued northward
from Vecheld Gesto until he was back at Prymp.  It was
evening, but Andel could not yet rest.  There was too much
he needed to do!  He raced to the Old City and the Chapel of Pholtus to consult with Curate Recar Adderal.  The gruff
Pholtite listened closely to Andel's tale of woe, and offered
a theory.  Perhaps Andel's answered call for divine
intervention during the Battle for Prymp had garnered
additional otherworldly attention, such as this demonic
hound.

Worse news Andel would yet hear.  The Ahlissan Fist,
Prymp's other adventuring party, whom Andel had hoped
might help him now, had been defeated during the Battle for Prymp when they circled around the army and tried to re-take Vecheld Gesto themselves.  And word from Porton was that the neighboring free town was free no more -- siege had broken them. 

Planting 12, 581 CY.  Waterday.  Hexpools. 

Peri finally arrived in Hexpools, and was intent on finding
Vlad.  It had become his all-consuming passion to reunite
the party once more, and surely here he could accomplish
that goal.  Like Godrum before him, Peri found the city
folk here tended to ignore demi-humans as if they weren't
even there.  Peri say fiendish possibilities in this, but filed
that thought away for later.  By day's end, he had a
discovered the Demi-Human District in the northeast, and
Boris Kostitov's house in the far west ends of the city. 
And unlike Godrum, Peri was pushier and managed to talk
Vlad into letting him stay there with him.

Planting 13, 581 CY.  Godsday.  Dreamlands.

Vladamir woke up in another dream -- but this time he appeared to be on a pirate ship, wearing a chain-coifed helmet and holding a broadsword.  And Pilf was there, clad in a white fur-lined robe and crown.  Pilf related the tale of how things had got rough for him in Hexpools, and he had been forced to flee back into the Dreamlands.  Now he was the pirate king of the Cerenarian Sea.  Pilf's uncle, the Guardian of the Dawn, was acting as Vlad's dream host.  The Countess Shadella had been brought there the same way.

Shadella listened as Vlad explained how his training had ended, and then she related a few, cryptic details as to how her dream host was not available since the Gorgon encounter.  Shadella had little news, except that she was fairly sure the Agent of Acererak had left the Rieuwood and was somewhere in the Sud Grafault region already.  She had rangers in her employ scouting the southern half of the Sud Graufult to no avail.  Vlad vowed to cross the Greyflood River into Sud Graufult soon. 

Just then, a huge caravel, bearing the name The Morpheus,
could be seen swiftly coming alongside the pirate ship.  A
booming voice from The Morpheus called over, and
demanded the pirates surrender.  But Pilf jumped up on the
rail and warned them away, or else his wizard Vladamir would blast them with spells.  The crew of The Morpheus answered with a hail of cannonfire so loud that it shocked Vladamir back to the waking world.

After getting enough sleep, Vlad arose late that morning.  He left Peri to watch over the house, and went to his trainer
Balagros to serve out the end of his temporary servitude. 
However, when Vlad arrived at the villa, Balagros met him with an evil grin and showed him a certificate he had just purchased at city hall.  Apparently, the laws in Hexpools allowed for any period of indentured servitude to be renewed indefinitely by the master.  Vlad was impotently furious, as he had no desire to have the Law in Hexpools against him.  Balagros offered Vlad two ways out.  One, Vlad could give him his uncle's magic stone.  Two, he could go on a quest. 

The Laird of Hexpools was an old man, and one obsessed with the legend of a Pool of Healing somewhere in the Province that could even restore youth.  Balagros would void the contract if Vlad would represent him on the quest to find the fabled pool.  He was even prepared to introduce Vlad to the leader of an adventuring party that was prepared to take up the quest.  But Vlad was true to the Band of the Grinning Gargoyle, and would have nothing to do with this quest.  He returned home, and discussed the matter with Peri.  They both agreed on the only solution.  Vlad returned and gave Balagros the stone.

Planting 14, 581 CY.  Freeday.  Hexpools.

Godrum had by now earned enough at the blacksmith's shop to buy new armor and weapons.  And it was just in time too, for Vlad fetched him and announced that they were leaving.  Both Vlad and Peri felt they had tarried too long in Hexpools already, and that it was time to enter the Sud Grafault region to the south and confront the Agent of Acererak.
  
GENCON 2001 REPORT (Part I)

Warning: The following contains numerous acts of name-
dropping and tournament spoilers!

Sunday, July 29th (GC-4 days)

Noel Graham, Sam Weiss, Erik Larsen, and I had all made plans to get together when Noel and Sam came to Chicago early on their way to GENCON. I called their hotel at 3 pm, and found out that they'd been there since 1 pm. I brought my wife and son with me to meet them (though Tammie had met Noel and Erik already). The three of them were already deep into a conversation about Verbobonc's agriculture that ended only when we left to caravan to the Woodfield mall. Our cars were separated from each either by traffic en route to the mall, and we weren't able to find them once there.

Monday, July 30th (GC-3 days)

Noel Graham, the world's richest gamer, invited everybody to supper at the expensive Millrose Brewery in Barrington. Sam Weiss displayed his ability to down large quantities of heavy liquor, and Noel quizzed me on what languages I knew.  My son, Tyler, became fussy towards the end of supper (though he did eat all of his hot dog), and I had to take him for a long walk around the restaurant after I'd finished my ribs. Before leaving, I showed Noel some medieval history books from my public library's collection, but they weren't academic enough for his liking.

Wednesday, August 1st (GC-1 day)

Stuck at work until five, I gleefully counted down the hours
until I could leave for Milwaukee at 5 pm. At least the four
more-academic books I had ordered through inter-library loan for Noel had come in by that day. Tammie called me that afternoon, however, and told me that she'd balanced the checkbook and found that I'd have to put one-third of my GENCON spending money back into the bank to cover bills.  The bank trip, plus stopping for gas and traffic, delayed my arrival to my rendezvous point by 40 minutes. Luckily, my roommates for the con were still waiting. Ronny ("Vlad"), Bryant ("Enlock"), and I sped our way northwards to join up with our fourth roommate, Ron ("Alex"), aleady at the convention center.

Pre-registration pick-up was a breeze this year, with the wait in line taking less than five minutes to get my tickets. While in line, I immediately spotted Council of Greyhawk ex-president Tom Harrison. Tom was enthusiastic about trying to get into a Castle Falkenstein event together, since we had been thwarted in the same effort a few years ago.

Next, I convinced my roomies to wait on driving back to our hotel until after we'd met Noel at the Hyatt next door. I went to the concierge to ask for Noel, and there Noel was!  I gave him the books, and then Noel proceeded to slyly talk my friends and I into going to a later supper with his group. Noel mentioned his recent raise to my friends and I, which I had heard about on Monday. "Alex" chided me for not introducing him to Noel. In truth, we were all famished, and the notion of dining at a brewery was irresistable to my booze -guzzling comrades. I can't recall the name of the brewery (nor, curiously, could Noel on Sunday. Apparently, Noel had visited numerous breweries during his stay...), but it had some of the most exquisite root beer I've ever tasted. Sweet and licorice-flavored, more like saspirilla.

Our table of four only sat near Noel's table, but Noel's table
included such luminaries as Denis Tetreault, Erik Mona, Sam ("I'm still important!") Weiss, and Russ Taylor.  Sam, ever the locquacious one, was spinning stories of some nature at the far end of their table. Denis, perhaps sensing we were kindred spirits of a more shy, reserved nature, engaged me in conversation for a bit (leading off, of course, with some yak-men banter). Eric Mona was sporting shorter hair than ever this year. Russ Taylor was the largest surprise of the evening, as I'd never met him before. Instead of the quick-tempered, combatitive Greytalker who once made Sean Reynolds run for the hills, this Russ was warm and friendly. "Alex" again chided me for not introducing him, and -- giving up on me -- introduced himself to the gang.

Our motel, incidentally, was 20 minutes to the south, in a
suburb called Oak Creek. The Value Inn was a rambling
collection of one-story buildings spread out so far that a
simple trip up to the front office for ice was nearly a mile-long hike. We never did get up there to see if there was a
continental breakfast. It took some time to find in the rain and the dark, but eventually we did. We slept well, for we knew from experience that we would not sleep well again until the con was over.

Thursday, August 2nd (GC, day 1)

The day I'd set aside for RPGA gaming started early with the 8 am time slot. I delayed our arrival by stopping to get
breakfast at Burger King on the way, as it was certainly not
fast food, and the French bread sticks had obviously been
reheated in a microwave. Still, we got there on time for me
to go play the Living Greyhawk Benefit.

"The Forbidden Choice" was great. It was set in Highfolk,
which was an awfully long haul from the City of Greyhawk.  Personally, I've never had any desire to play in Highfolk, but the LG people certainly are more on the ball in that region.

The highlights of the scenario were accurate GREYHAWK
information, detailed dungeon maps for the players to view
(truly inspiring!), and a dungeon full of puzzles that ranged
from okay to well done. The near constant presence of a
telepathic NPC was a useful aid for keeping the puzzles
from overshadowing the plot.

The low points of the scenario was lack of travel detail
(hundreds of miles glossed over in a paragraph?), a low
promise of reward for a mission so obviously fraught with
peril, and the potentially awkward fact that the PCs are told
to explore the ruins of Delven Brass (sp?), but then aren't
expected to actually explore them.

We had a good, energetic DM with a firm grasp of both D&D and the scenario itself. The rest of the players were a different story. I played with a family of five from Michigan/Furyondy who had the annoying habit of saying, "My character says --" instead of actually saying it in character. And I ended up with 990 xp - 10 short of getting to go up a level! And in tournament play, you can't just kill an extra orc on the way back to town to get that xp; I have to attend another tournament! Still, as previously mentioned, the DM was good, and the writers had obviously put so much hard work and preparation into the adventure that I still give it a review of GREAT.

For the second time slot, I had made plans via e-mail to join Russ Taylor in the Living Greyhawk Feature. However, the two Ron's I roomed with were eager to incorporate me into their group for the D&D Open. I had told Russ the night before that I might game with them instead, though it was only at the last moment that I decided to play in the Open. The LG Benefit had run five minutes past noon, so by the time I got to the marshalling area for the Open, the two Ron's had found someone else to replace me in their group.  After shouting some aspersions against their moral character, I was quickly absorbed into a more ragtag bunch of players. There was a turbaned occidental and his androgenous "son," a young man with an obscenity on his t-shirt, a father who had brought his nine-year old son along, and two other gamers without amusing quirks. Our DM, it turned out, was my long-time player Darren ("Abraham"/"Gabriel"), now full-time RPGA volunteer. His style of play, not well-suited for the slow pace of my campaigns, does fit well with the frantic pace of a four-hour tournament.

The scenario for the D&D Open, on the other hand, was pretty loopy. It all took place in a setting with a Hawaiian
climate and an English culture pasted over it. There was
the cliche of caravan guarding, orcish raiders attacked, and
because the PCs were all 8th level there was no problem
dispatching them. However, we learned that the orc shamans were being empowered by Anith, the evil god of turnips. I kid you not! Despite some laughable elements, the scenario wasn't really bad, and I resolved to check later and see if our team advanced.

I went over to where the two Ron's were gaming, and learned to my amusement that they had been stuck with an awful DM.  He had changed the adventure, railroaded the players along, slapped them down when they tried to do something creative, and chastised them for wanting to win in combat. Since the three of us went to the nearby mall for dinner together, I got to hear a lot of their grievances, which had been backlogging in their minds for the last four hours.

At 5 pm, Ronny ("Vlad") and I went back to the Arena to try to get into the Living Greyhawk Feature. I was bound and determined to get those 10 xp I needed for 2nd level! But, much to my sorrow, I had misunderstood the true nature of the Feature. It was a two-round tournament, but the two rounds were always back-to-back! So there was no
marshalling going on at five, because the game had really
started as noon and was just continuing. Dismayed, I
wandered back to the main building to look for some games
that were open. What I found was a Lejendary Adventures
scenario, "Castle Wolfmoon." I plunked down two generic
tickets, while Ronny went to play (shudder) Magic.

I had never done more than glance at the LA rules before,
but I quickly learned that they had more in common with
Pendragon than with Dungeons & Dragons. A lot of the
players that night had little or none Lejendary Adventures
experience, and although the DM grumbled that wasn't good enough, we went ahead with the scenario. Due to the noise in the room, the DM skipped the three-page introduction, and boiled the set-up down to this -- we had to break into a castle and kill some wolfweres. Creeping up on the castle through some bushes triggered an alarm spell, and after that I was ready to forget stealth and just charge the wall. You can take a lot of arrow damage in LA, but magic damage really hurts. When the rest of the party came to rescue me, they too were attacked by some kind of arch-mage on the battlements. We would have been toast, but a "magic-user" in the party cast some kind of battering ram spell on the curtain wall, and sent the "arch-mage" tumbling down at our feet. It was pretty easy after that to kill him off, and then the entire castle surrendered. We had it wrapped up in less than three hours, which was good, because I was not impressed with the DM, the game mechanics, nor the scenario itself.

At least getting out of that early gave me plenty of time to
prepare for running T1 The Village of Hommlet. I looked in room 201A, where my signs said I would run it, and decided that it was way too small and crowded for that. I set up in 201B, and wrote on my sign on the door of room 201A that it was my marshalling area. With half an hour until game time, I had one player show up interested in the game. The half hour ticked by, and only my friend Ronny joined us to play.  Neither of them wanted to play with just two players, so the first guy left. Then someone else came to play, and we had the same problem all over again. This time, the new guy went out in the hallway to look for more players before giving up. He ran across a party of four, told them that it was a 1st ed. AD&D game, and they came running.

Now with a party of six, we got down to business. I handed
out pre-made 1st-3rd level PCs, based on some of my own
stock, made on reproductions of the original 1st ed.
character sheets. They chose two human clerics, the human
ranger, the half-elf druid, the halfling thief, …and one guy
insisted on playing his own PC so he could have an INT of 4.  Next, I read a new introduction I had written for the
module, one that starts the PCs in the Gnarly Wood still on
their way to Hommlet. The module suggests that experienced PCs encounter a leprechaun or bandits to relieve them of burdensome possessions, so that's just the encounter we started off with. The fighters on watch were all too trusting of the leprechaun, and the party was completely surprised by the bandits. They picked up what they could and ran away.

Once in the village, I showed them a tracing of the village
map I had made, and did my best to describe the gorgeous
Trampier illustrations. They were smart and looked for
people in charge. This let me introduce them to Priest
Calmert at the Church, Rufus at the Keep (and I got to show them the Jeff Lee illustration on the back cover), and Jaroo at the Grove. Calmert had them practically ready to convert to Cuthbert. They were suspicious of Burne and Rufus, especially because of the scorpion as their heraldic device.  Rufus told them about sabotage on the keep the brigands had been responsible for (I added that part), and agreed to let the PCs investigate. Jaroo knew all about the brigands but was hesitant to share it. He agreed to do so only if the PCs could fill three baskets with red berries by dusk.  Thanks to some good dice rolling (I gave them secret door checks to find berries), they won over Jaroo and got to
learn about the Moathouse. At the Welcome Wench Inn, they met Zert and Spugnoir, and teamed up with them to explore the Moathouse.

The halfling thief snuck in first, while the rest waited
outside. The thief didn't find anything, but the rest of
the party was attacked by the giant frogs. It was a lengthy
battle, but they had fun squishing the frogs, and one of
them even stumbled across the one with the gem in its
stomach. After that, they regrouped and explored together.
They found a broadsword, the bats, and the giant adder.
Spugnoir cast Sleep on the snake, making for an
anti-climactic battle to end the night on. However, the
four recruits were particularly enthused about how it had
went, and vowed to return the next night.

TO BE CONTINUED