Labyrinth Lord: Session 1

Dungeons and Dragons returned to our gaming table this week in the guise of Labyrinth Lord (classic flavour to start with and no house rules).

The Characters
Kilburne the Doughty (male dwarf), Brad
Songara** (female Red-Sonja style fighter), Jane
Sparrow (female thief), Emma
Urnst Hoblinger* (cleric), Mike
DM (or Labyrinth Lord), Me

*Urnst is a cleric of Wodan the god of war, winter and wolves. Each day he must conduct a sacrifice before his god will grant him the magic he needs.
** It’s clear Songara doesn’t like dwarfs, she refers to them as tunnel-dwelling rat-eaters which Kilburne does not dispute (despite his limited height, he seems above such things).

The session begins with the characters returning to their homeland, a small community on the edge of the ‘civilised world’. The main settlement is Blackwall Manor and it is there they find their first adventure.

On the manor’s green, the characters espy a tall but bloodied pavilion flying a wolf’s head standard from its peak.

At the tent two soldiers explain that their party was travelling the Grand Road when they were ambushed. First by goblins and then by ‘other’ spindly things that called forth evil magic. Indeed, their captain, Isen, fell under a terrible curse. He is stricken with a hideous disease and drifts in and out of consciousness.

Urnst wipes the crushed frog from his gloved hand (this morning’s sacrifice) and offers to try some healing magic on Isen (Urnst sees the wolf flag and assumes that like many in these parts, the man is a worshiper of Wodan). The soldiers readily agree, as best they can since one of the Northmen speaks no common other than his name “Yorg” and the other speaks haltingly; Urnst enters the tent alone.

Meanwhile the Northman Halfnir explains the situation: Isen has gathered a band of skilled adventurers to assist in returning an ancient relic of some long-forgotten god to its rightful resting place. Halfnir calls the god the Lightbringer but knows little else of Isen’s deity. The temple Isen seeks is a ruin hidden in the region referred to as the Barrow Lands, a place where it is believed, many non-humans, goblins and worse, bury their kin.

In the ambush along the Grand Road, two of their number were lost, a third (a rough spell-slinger called Hurkinbrow) returns to the tent (he’s been in the tavern) and is immediately worried that the PCs are trying to muscle in on the mission. He manages to insult Kilburne, exclaiming: ‘Ooh, you’ve got a dwarf, does it talk?’

Songara tries to calm him down (by telling him to shut up and do as he’s told - it’s her way) and makes a reaction roll. Even with a CHA bonus, the roll is an epic fail and Hurkinbrow storms off back to the pub promising to loot their crow-pecked bodies in the very near future.

Halfnir offers the characters the opportunity to join their group and attempt to complete Isen’s mission without him - perhaps doing so will ease Isen’s passing or perhaps offer a divine cure? The purse is 25 gp upfront and a big chunk of any treasure recovered.

Meanwhile, Urnst is in the tent checking over Isen. The man is deep in fever and covered with rashes and puss-stained bandages. It doesn’t look good but Urnst is game to try his spell regardless. However, Isen struggles to raise a hand and whispers that terrible dark magic is eating away at his flesh and petty magic cannot save him (Brad and Mike consult the rulebook and quickly discover that the spell required is Cure Disease; out of their league for now).

Urnst joins the gathering outside in time to vote in favour of joining Halfnir’s journey to the hidden temple (although he does struggle with an inner voice telling him to ask for more money upfront).

Even though we began with pre-generated characters it took a while to get started as I gave them a little information on the area that their characters should be familiar with and Jane was enjoying flexing her character’s uncompromising STR 17 muscles and taking the Micky out of poor Kilburne.

Anyway, the journey gets underway and it turns out the Northmen have a pair of mules pulling an ornate wagon that holds excavation equipment, travel rations, Isen’s relic and a good many other useful items - at this point, the thief Sparrow quietly returns all of the stuff she’d just stolen from the cart - ‘Easier to let the mules carry it’, she says...

After heading East for a few miles (one hex on the map), a group of goblins is seen approaching across a dusty track.

‘Will they be unfriendly?’ Asks Sparrow.

‘Shortly,’ says Kilburne as he loads and fires his heavy crossbow (but misses).

The goblins start to spread out as Sparrow knocks an arrow and kills one instantly. Kilburne waits a round to reload then wounds a second. Urnst fires a sling bullet and no one is surprised when he misses. The goblins rout and scatter, they are not seen again that day.

As night falls, the party approaches the Barrow Lands. They know from bitter experience that a great and powerful (if ancient) bear called Old Black lives in the hills and they hear his roar as dusk settles. As night is falling they decide to press on since it looks like they have stumbled upon a barrow that matches a map Halfnir has.

Inside they find worn stone steps leading down to a broad, dark chamber. Kilburne declares he will advance alone, relying on his infravision.

Kilburne’s heart skips a beat as he spots five heat signatures in the room below but then he realise they aren’t looking at him. Kilburne employes his tried and tested strategy, he fires a crossbow bolt into their ranks with a cry of ‘Have at you!’ Or something like that... But misses.

Songara lights a torch and secures it in a wall sconse, the others spend the first round preparing for battle.

The characters win initiative with Kilburn and Urnst taking out a pair of revealed goblins. Three goblins attack Kilburne and, amazingly, all of them miss! The battle is finished in a further two combat rounds with the good guys not taking a single hit! Urnst is most upset, he had hoped to keep one goblin alive for tomorrow’s sacrifice.

Riding high on the adrenalin of the first battle, Kilburne walks straigh to the back of the barrow where Halfnir’s map indicates a secret door will be found, and it is (I roll a ‘2’ for Kilburne’s detect secret door ability). More worn stairs are revealed and Kilburne heads down (instructing Halfnir to wait at the top with a torch, so he can scope the area below with his infravison). Brave or stupid I wonder? Nope, definitely stupid.

I did warn the players that first-level D&D is deadly, don’t get attached to your character just yet... I think Brad is testing the statement.

Meanwhile, Sparrow and Songara realise that they completely failed to loot the fallen goblins, they rush to redress that error but find Urnst doing just that (he liberates a paltry 23 electrum pieces). Next Songara wonders at the sealed doors that Kilburne walked straight past. It is agreed to do a little exploring (Brad groans that already the party is splitting up - he declares that ‘no good will come of such folly’; he’s so right).

The first room is empty and appears to have once housed long stone sarcophagi - definitely not goblin size - which puts paid to the myth that goblins and their ilk bury their dead here. The second room contains a group of exploring morlocks; Songara rushes in to attack. She wins initiative but misses. I rule that only 3 of the 5 monsters can attack in the confined space; two misses and a nasty hit. First blood!

In the next round Sparrow and Urnst join the battle, Sparrow is knocked to one hit point and immediately regrets the decision, Songara takes another hit and Urnst offs one of the pale critters.

A few rounds later the morlocks are dead and both Sparrow and Songara are down to their last hit point. Urnst can’t decide who shall get his healing spell (Songara is demanding it!) so Mike asks Jane and Emma to each roll a six-sided die with the high roller getting the boon. The spell goes to Songara and she is restored to 6 hit points. Urnst promises to heal Sparrow in the morning.

In the darkenss below, Kilburne follows a long and winding natural passage, he spots some lifeform on the ceiling (fungus or somesuch he guesses) but continues with Halfnir hanging back, his torch out of view...

There we left it for the night with the party split and wounded and Kilburne wandering off into the unknown deeps...