Dwarrowdeep #17

In the month of Bloomingtide Lord Khundrar returned from his embassy to Orzammar. Prince Bhelen's effort to try to convince the Assembly to recognise Khundara Thaig was defeated by Lord Harrowmount, who argued that the proposal was moot as the Deep Roads between Khundara Thaig and Orzammar remained close. As a result, Lord Khundrar ordered the district of East Gate be explored and the lost route to the Deep Roads be found.

When the company of scouts sent on the mission failed to return after the appointed time, our heroes (see PC profiles here) were sent to find and recover them.

The party tracked the dwarven scouts to a royal tomb in the East Gate district, where they were besieged by darkspawn. Our heroes slew the darkspawn and freed the scouts, and learned that they were attacked by darkspawn not long after arriving, and several of their members had been captured, including Ethel, whom the party had rescued several months earlier.

Although they were weak from hunger, the scouts insisted on joining the party in finding and rescuing their compatriots. But before they could leave the tomb, a large party of darkspawn, led by an ogre, attacked them. While our heroes held the ogre off at the entrance to the tomb, several shrieks entered the tomb via a tunnel at the back of the tomb, but were held off by the dwarves.

After a hard fight, our heroes were able to slay all the darkspawn. Examining the remains, our heroes noticed that the darkspawn appeared to be smaller than the ones they had faced previously.

Led by the scouts, our heroes returned to where they were first attacked by the darkspawn, and followed tracks from there to a tunnel that led out of the halls and into natural caves.

Still following the tracks, they soon came upon darkspawn sentries guarding a small cave, where they witnessed one of the scout being dragged from within and into another tunnel. Our heroes attacked the sentries and slew them. Inside the small cave, they found some of the captured scouts, who told them that the darkspawn had held them there since their capture, but had taken them away one by one, starting with Ethel.

Sending some of the scouts to take the rescued prisoners back to the halls, our heroes ventured down the tunnel with the rest to find where the prisoners had been taken.

At last they arrived at a large cavern. At the far end of the cavern they saw a grotesque giant humanoid, which gave out a piercing shriek, and then attacked them with long tentacles that emerged from its sessile body. The creature's shriek drew darkspawn, who flooded into the cavern from other tunnels.

While the scouts held off the darkspawn, our heroes battled and eventually struck down the creature, whereupon the darkspawn fled.

Searching the floor of the cavern, our heroes found the bones of the captured scouts, their flesh gnawed off their bones.

In a small cave to the side of the cavern, they found Ethel, her face pallid and her body and limbs bloated.

She revealed that she had been force-fed darkspawn flesh, which caused her body to be corrupted and her mind to be linked to those of the darkspawn. She realised that her body was slowly being transformed into that of the creature in the cavern, which ate flesh and gave birth to darkspawn, and she begged the scouts to kill her.

The scouts were unable to bring themselves to do so, and so Boggart dealt the merciful blow.

In another cave, the scouts found juvenile darkspawn, which they put to the sword. And then they set all the darkspawn corpses on fire, and left.

Prepping and Running the Game

At 17 sessions over 7 months, this campaign was one of our longer ones. We didn't do as much domain play as I had hoped to, but I think for a megadungeon campaign it had enough elements of that to give some context for events that took place.

The session itself was straightforward, with a couple of big fights. The chief purpose of the session was to reveal the secret of how the darkspawn, well, spawned, and to give a conclusion to the whole thaig-building enterprise: with the broodmother slain, the darkspawn threat would recede for a time, perhaps enough for the dwarves to reopen the Deep Roads to Orzammar.

This was the second Greg Gillespie megadungeon I have runned. Of the two, I think Barrowmaze was the better one in terms of the premise and playability - the sheer size of Dwarrowdeep and the number of enemies made it hard for me to believe that there is any chance for the PCs to "clear" the dungeon.

Our next fantasy campaign will likely by Blood Sword, which I plan to run using the new edition of Fantasy AGE. But I do think we will return to Dragon Age in the future, perhaps after the release of the computer game later this year.

Dwarrowdeep #16

The day after Captain Gauldrin was escorted back to High Gate, Bertil and Zunn received a message from Boggart asking them to return there too (see PC profiles here). Upon arrival at High Gate, they learned that Lord Durrow had died from poisoning while in custody. Together with Lorca, who had now recovered, they trio went to join Boggart, who had gone to seen Shaper Dromin to learn the cause of Lord Durrow's death... only to find him and Shaper Dromin also poisoned in the latter's office!

Bertil was able to stabilise Boggart, but unable to revive Dromin. It seemed, however, in his dying breath, Dromin had scribbled the words: "my sarcophagus" on his tabletop.

Our heroes searched Dromin's office, and found inside a secret compartment in his drawer ancient Shaperate records which documented the discovery of the red lyrium they had seen in the mines. It was recorded that the dwarves at Khundara Thaig had tried to refine the red lyrium, but exposure to the substance had caused madness in those who worked with it, and the king had given orders for the section of the mines to be sealed off and the records of the work done of red lyrium to be sealed too.

Our heroes then sought out Dromin's sarcophagus, and within it they found a letter apparently from Lord Harrowmount of Orzammar, instructing Lord Durrow to put into action the plans they had hatched together to destabilise Khundara Thaig before it can gain the recognition of the Assembly.

The party mulled over the information they had gathered, and the next day they decided to confront Captain Gauldrin with the letter they have found in the barracks which implicated his involvement in the attack by the shadow demons. Gauldrin admitted that the handwriting in the letter resembled his, but that it was a forgery made to frame him, as he would not had given any such order in writing, or that his co-conspirators would have destroyed the letter before carrying out the attack even if he had done so.

Convinced by Gauldrin, our heroes decided to follow-up on Dromin's involvement with red lyrium. They made their way to the old tomb complex, accompanied by Balkis the Junior Shaper, where they hoped to investigate the embalming rooms, to see if they could find traces of red lyrium there.

Soon after they entered the old tomb complex they were attacked by a shadow demon, whose deathly touch produced symptoms of the mysterious poison Bertil had not been able to identify. Venturing deeper into the tomb complex, they at last arrived at Dromin's resting place... to find that he had turned into an undead. Lorca was able to draw Dromin into a conversation and made the undead Shaper reveal his involvement in the chain of events: it seemed that the Shaper had come across records of red lyrium and was able to obtain some of the substance from the mines. The red lyrium allowed Dromin to communicate with demonic spirits, and he soon struck a bargain with a demon - for hidden knowledge, he would do the bidding of the demon. Sensing that Dromin was working for Lord Durrow to destabilise the thaig, the demon induced Dromin to put into action the plans to release shadow demons in the thaig, and to frame Captain Gauldrin for the attacks, and eventually arrange his own death so he can become an "immortal" undead.

After they made certain that Balkis had heard the undead's confession, our heroes leapt into attack, but as Dromin appeared to fall to their blows, his body began to shift and blur... until he assumed the form of a huge winged demon. A desperate battle ensued, and our heroes were eventually victorious. They then returned to High Gate, where Balkis reported the tale to Captain Gauldrin.

Captain Gauldrin gave orders for associates of Dromin to be hunted down and arrested, and for the curfew to be lifted. Things, it seemed, would finally return to normal in Khundara Thaig...

Prepping and Running the Game

Once again, one player (Boggart's this week) was unable to make the session, and I had to invent a reason for the character to be out of action.

The players were obviously running into a lot of dead-ends, and I was unsure how to provide them with a clue that didn't seem like a gift... and then they rolled really well on searching Dromin's office, which made me pause for a few minutes. I decided that they would find some evidence of Dromin's involvement with red lyrium. That was eventually enough for them to investigate his resting place once more, and reach the concluding scene.

I think I did not execute the module well enough to make it a satisfactory investigating experience for the players, but the tension in dwarven society brought about by the events did allow them to act heroic, which for me was worth the time we spent.

Next session should see the finale of the campaign.

Dwarrowdeep #15

It was two days after the attack of darkness on the thaig, and the curfew was still in force, which made our heroes worry when Lorca had not returned from his meeting with his Surface Dwarf merchant contact. Their fears came true when they received word that he and his contact had apparently been poisoned at a tavern, but a search of the premises revealed no trace of the poison or the perpetrator. Bertil was able to surmise that they might have been drugged by the same poison that killed the two dwarven guards; he was able to stabilise Lorca, but his contact succumbed to the poison.

That night, while Lorca laid in a coma, our heroes received a messenger from Lord Durrow, who braved the curfew to bid them and The Foxes to come to the King's Hall fully armed as soon as curfew broke. A suspicious Boggart followed the messenger back, and confirmed that he had indeed come from the King's Hall (see PC profiles here).

The next morning our heroes and The Foxes arrived at the King's Hall as requested, and learned from Lord Durrow that Captain Gauldrin had demanded he give the order for movement between the quarters of the thaig to be restricted so that an effective search for the "demon stones" could be conducted. Lord Durrow had asked to have the night to ponder the issue, and asked Captain Gauldrin to prepare the order for him to sign the next day, but he feared that the latter will force the issue with arms, and had therefore asked the party and The Foxes to help him arrest Captain Gauldrin instead.

Before the adventurers have had a chance to discuss the issue, Captain Gauldrin arrived with six armed gaurds and the order to be signed. The gathering of so many armed men in the King's Hall made the tension rise. The Foxes decided to literally sit the conflict out and sat by the side of the hall with their hands away from their weapons. Lord Durrow ordered our heroes to arrest Captain Gauldrin for treason for attempting to seize power, while Captain Gauldrin asked his men to arrest Lord Durrow for impeding investgation of the attack. Bertil and Boggart stood down, while Zunn fled with Lord Durrow deeper into the hall, and barricaded themselves inside Lord Durrow's chambers.

Boggart asked Gauldrin his plans, and the latter declared that he would close the passages between the quarters of the thaig, and have his men conduct a search of all dwellings for the demon stones or evidence of collusion with demonic forces. Boggart then offered the adventurers as independent observers to legitimise the searches, which Gauldrin accepted. Meanwhile, Lord Durrow was able to negotiate amnesty for Zunn by surrendering himself, and he was taken into custody.

The search began at the High Gate quarter, and our heroes were given permission to search the barracks. There in the chest belonging to one of the slain guards they found a letter written in Gauldrin's hand, which read:

"Execute the plan at noon on the first day of Cloudreach. Show this letter in my hand as proof of my order."

Our heroes kept the letter, but decided against revealing it to all.

The next day the search began at the Quarters quarter, where most of the populace dwelled. When some of the common folk protested against the searches, Gauldrin ordered them to be tied up and left outside their homes as an example to others who would resist.

This did not sit well with Boggart, a Ferelden Freeman, and he cut one of the dwarves free in front of Gauldrin and the guards. Seeing him do this, Zunn and Bertil followed suit. The dwarven guards looked silently at their captain as this happened, until Gauldrin announced that as the adventurers were independent observers of the search, their suggestion to free the inhabitants after their dwellings had been searched would be taken. There was a collective sigh of relief, but all the tension were too much for The Foxes, who told our heroes that they would secretly leave the thaig that day.

That night, Gauldrin asked the party to eat with him as the guards made camp at the plaza. The strain of the events of the past few days told on the captain, and he expressed his frustration at the lack of result from his search... before he fell over - their dinner had been poisoned. Our heroes too began to feel their strength ebb from their limbs...

Channeling a healing spirit, Bertil was able to purge the effect of the poison, but it was clear that the place was too dangerous. Leaving Sergeant Fimar in charge, Captain Gauldrin made his way back to High Gate, accompanied by a few guards and Boggart.

Prepping and Running the Game

The game was a natural extension from the events of the last session.

As I did not know which faction the players will side with during the first scene of the session, I could not plan the session in detail. Rather, I decided to just react to what the PCs did. This worked out well as the players rose to the occasion and did unexpected things like trying to flee with Lord Durrow and "embedding" themselves into the search process. Then as I described the scenes they asked me questions which helped me add details and vignettes, which resulted in the high point of the session (and perhaps the whole campaign) when Boggart defied Gauldrin in the presence of his men.

There was not a single combat during the session, but I think the players enjoyed the role-playing and the mystery.

Dwarrowdeep #14

As the wealth of the thaig grows, so did its fame, and Lord Khundra was invited back to Orzammar as a guest of Prince Bhelen to once more plead his case for recognition by the kingdom. In anticipation of arrival of more settlers, Lord Khundra had ordered that the offices of the thaig be moved into the High Gate district, the work of which was left to Herald Lord Durrow, who was made regent in his absence.

It was a week after his departure that our heroes (see PC profiles here) witness a strange darkness envelop the main square at High Gate, which the torches could not penertrate. Lighting his Veilfire lantern, Bertil could see a shadowy form looming over a fallen child. The party sprang into action and attacked the shadow, who was soon joined by two more of its ilk. But our heroes prevailed, and when the last shadow fell, light returned, and they saw two more children on the ground, pale and near death. Bertil healed the children, and afterwards the party was summoned to meet Lord Durrow, when they learned that two other similar attacks occurred in the other districts at the same time: one was fended off by The Foxes, the Orlesian mercenaries, and the other by Zunn and the dwarven guards. Two dead dwarven guards were found at the attack where Zunn was at, and Zunn himself barely survived, and was much weakened by the draining touch of the shadows.

At all three scenes, broken red gems were found on the ground - gems which Zunn recognised to be the same as the cursed rubies which he pried out of the eyes of a demonic statue in the lyrium mines.

In the wake of the attack, Guard Captain Galdrin proposed that a lock-down be imposed, and that the power to search all dwellings be granted to the guards, but Lord Durrow agreed only to a curfew.

With Lord Durrow's assent, Bertil, Boggart, and Lorca decided to travel bck to the lyrium mines to find more clues. At the docks, they learned that the guards had lost a boat a week prior. Just before they set off, they were joined by Balkis, an apprentice Shaper, who was assigned to record their deeds as his prentice-piece.

The four then rowed the boat across the underground lake, piloted by Boggart, who skillfully steer the boat out of a whirlpool, and gained himself the epithet of 'the Mariner'.

Arriving at the dock at the lyrium mine, they found the missing guard boat, with guard provisions inside, but no oars. Retracing their steps, they found evidence that someone had spent considerable labour in establishing access to the mines, clearing cave-ins and repairing bridges. Following their trail, they entered the tunnels of the lyrium mines, where they were attacked by darkspawn, which they routed after a hard fight.

Here, in the mine chamber they found the dead bodies of two dwarven guards. There were mining tools next to the bodies, and in their packs our heroes found a few of the cursed gems. There were no wounds on the bodies of the guards, and Bertil did not sense the touch of the shadows on them, leading him to suspect poisoning as the cause of their deaths.

Venturing a little deeper into the mine, they came across veins of lyrium, as well as what appeared to be a red form of lyrium. Our heroes dragged the bodies of the dwarven guards back to the docks, and then returned to High Gate, where they reported their findings to Lord Durrow.

Afterwards, our heroes visited Guard Sergeant Fimar, where they learned that the two dead guards found at the mine had gone missing a week ago, with no apparent reason.

Our heroes then went to the thaig's tomb, where with Shaper Dromin's permission, they examined the bodies of the two guards found dead at the attack, and Bertil determined that they too did not bear the touch of the shadows and could have died from poisoning instead...

Prepping and Running the Game

The idea for this arc of the campaign came from a trio of scenarios by AAW Games, the first of which is Dark Days in Stoneholme. I had to of course change several details about the plot, but by coincidence the "dark-heart rubies" in the module matched the "cursed rubies" which I rolled up as loot in an earlier session, and which I have had difficulty finding a call-back to. This set up the lyrium mines as a location that we had to revisit, and of course the discovery of red lyrium, which will tie in with the final arc of the campaign.

My players are generally not good at mystery scenarios, and I suppose this one isn't too easy for them either. They have given me no indication of whom they suspect to the mastermind behind all the attacks and deaths, which means the next session is wide open and will be difficult for me to prep for.

Dwarrowdeep #13

Our heroes were having their midday meal at the Quarters District one Drakonis day when they were summoned to Gund Felek, which in those days was not yet occupied. The Foxes - an adventuring band from Orlais - had apparently triggered some sort of arcane ward while exploring the district, and become frozen.

Our heroes (see PC profiles here) were unable to to disable the ward and free The Foxes, but with the light from their veilfire lantern they were able to see a the magical glyph that surrounded the Orlesians, and a warning written in Elvish: Here are our leaders Falos and Harel entombed. Begone lest you disturb their rest.

Zunn surmised that the ward was left behind by the Dalish elves perhaps five centuries ago, and that for it to be still active it must be connected to an artefact of great power. Sure enough, the light of the lantern revealed an arcane thread on the floor leading from the glyph to deeper into Gund Felek.

Following the arcane thread, our heroes found it led to a set of stone doors with the relief of a dwarven warrior upon it. Written under the image were the words, in dwarven runes: Emulate the Paragon. Taking the words literally, Lorca imitated the pose of the dwarven warrior, and the doors opened.

The doors opened into a large hall of many pillars. The arcane thread on the floor led to another door on the far wall. When our heroes crossed the threshold, the door closed behind them, and once more they saw the warning in Elvish written on the floor. Our heroes ignored the warning and stepped forward, whereupon the ethereal forms of two elven warriors sprung forth from the arcane line; simultaneously, two of the pillars began to shift and take on the form of giant dwarven warriors, and the four began to attack them.

For a while it seemed our heroes would fall to the combined attacks, until Zunn came upon a pedestal in a corner of the hall where a glowing blue orb was ensconced. Zunn lifted the orb, and the dwarven warriors froze, and the others were soon able to despatch the elven warriors.

Proceeding beyond the door in the far wall, our heroes entered into a tomb where they found sarcophagus of the paragon and his wife. The arcane thread on the ground led to a large standing mirror at the end of the room. Shining the light of their lantern onto the mirror, our heroes saw several glowing spots on the top of the mirror's frame that Bertil recognised as a constellation which the Avvar used for navigation by night. Judging that the hour when the constellation would rise in the horizon was near, our heroes waited. When the hour arrived, the mirror's surface began to shimmer, and it soon became a portal that led into a cave.

Passing through the mirror, Boggart entered into the cave. Here, upon stone plinth, he found the remains of two elves, which the inscriptions upon the plinth told were Falos and Harel. One of the elves was still clad in a mail shirt made of Red Steel, which indicated that he was an Arcane Warrior. Zunn claimed the mail shirt as his heritage.

When Boggart attempted to explore beyond the cave, he drew the attention of a blighted bear, and was forced to retreat back through the mirror. The bear followed the party back to the mirror, but was unable to pass through. Our heroes allowed the bear to destroy the mirror, whereupon the portal was closed, and the arcane thread leading from it vanished.

Returning to where they left The Foxes, the found the Orlesians sitting down to a dinner of roasted chicken, which they offered to share with their saviours.

Prepping and Running the Game

This scenario was cobbled together using a few puzzles and encounters from various GM guides I have accumulated over the years. The chief goal was to allow Zunn to get the Red Steel armour, which will allow him to take advantage of his Arcane Warrior specialisation.

I felt that this and the previous few sessions have been a little disjointed, and I asked my players at the end of the session what they would like the direction of the campaign to be, and one of them suggested some political intrigue.

We have a break of three weeks between sessions, which will give me some time to prepare for the next arc of the campaign.

Dwarrowdeep #12

Prepping and Running the Game

This session was mostly role-playing, with just one single combat, so I have decided to skip right to the commentary.

I based the session off the adventure Under Dovla Mountain, found in The Malady Chronicles compilation.

With the coming of spring, more immigrants - both the casteless Dusters and dwarves from the craftsmen caste - from Orzammar have arrived.

Our session began with the PCs being asked to investigate the death of a dwarf from the miner caste in the Ore District. The Ore District had been retaken from the Darkspawn recently, but due (ostensibly) to a lack of skilled miners, mining had not begun at a large scale; at the current moment only a single mixed crew, comprising of members of the miner-caste House Oskar and members of the Duster clan Fingal were working there, with the former providing the expertise, and the latter supplementing the manpower.

When they arrived at the site, our PCs (Bertil, Lorca, Varosh (formerly Dave the Dwarf) and Zunn) found that the dwarves had not been mining, but were in fact excavating a large relief that was believed to be a portal to the buried treasures of an ancient dwarf king. A week ago, Rhinn Oskar, son of the head of House Oskar, had fallen off a scaffolding to his death. Bollol Fingal, a young dwarf from the Duster clan, was the belayer for Rhinn, and although the incident was accepted by all as an accident, there was an underlying resentment among the Oskars, particularly in Rhinn's two sisters.

I had meant this to be a chiefly role-playing session, aimed at exploring the dwarven caste system, and their relationship with outsiders; Vorash was a Duster, while Lorca was raised by dwarves, and was together with Bertil and Zunn greatly respected by the dwarves of the thaig. I had hoped that they will use their standing to reconcile the two families.

However, my players thought this was a murder mystery session, proceeded to grill the dwarves from Clan Fingal, alienating them and eventually causing a public falling out. Soon afterwards a blighted giant worm attack caused a cave-in and cut the community off from the rest of the thaig, and an infectious disease struck the community, quickly incapacitating most of the members and making self-rescue impossible.

When it seemed liked the two families would both die out without reconciling, the head of the House Oskar asked the PCs if they would help. It was Varosh who proposed they did so over ale, and so Oskar broke out the good ale that he had reserved for celebrating the completion of their work, and invited the Fingal Clan to join them.

The community was eventually rescued by the next supply convoy coming from the main thaig.

This was not a "successful" adventure or session, but I think I could have steered the players better, but I have since come to accept the outcome as being thematic to the Dragon Age setting. Heroes sometimes make the wrong choice and others suffer the consequences. Perhaps it showed the players that although their characters were respected in the thaig, as humans and elves they will still be viewed as outsiders.

Dwarrowdeep #11

In the month of Guardian, after the spring equinox, more migrants arrived from Orzammar, drawn by news of the thaig's success. Among them was Dave, formerly a petty thief in Dust Town, who now joined our heroes on their venture (see PC profiles here).

The latest venture took Bertil, Boggart, Dave, and Zunn back to the Foundry district, where scouts have found what they believed to be the resting place of King Khertil, who had the title of Paragon, but was more commonly called 'the Paranoid' behind his back. Records recovered from the halls had indicated that the king was a skilled craftsman and inventor, but in his later years had become paranoid and fearful of his tomb being plundered. As such, he gave orders for him and his family to be buried in a tomb protected by various traps - unfortunately, the records did not speak of what these traps were, or how they might be overcomed. The scouts had reported pooling of water outside the door of the tomb, and fearing that the water may damage the treasures within, Lord Khundra had ordered our heroes to enter the tomb and recover the famed weapon and armour of King Khertil.

The party was able to find the stone doors of the tomb following the directions given by the scouts, but when they arrived they could not find a means to open the door. While the party searched the surrounding areas for a means to open the doors, they were attacked by darkspawn, which they repelled. Finally, Zunn was able to unlock the doors by means of a magnet he had found in a forge in an earlier venture, and the party entered the tomb before more darkspawn arrived.

Inside, the party found themselves in a large hall, in the middle of which stood a statue of King Khertil. The King wore armour, but his hands were empty. Behind the statue were a set of double doors that were locked. On the left and right were corridors that led deeper into the tomb complex.

Our heroes examined the statue, and found that the arms of the statue pivoted at the shoulder joints. The hands were made open, as if to receive a weapon and a shield. Surmising that the proper item had to be placed in the hands to open the doors, our heroes proceeded down the passage to the right to see if they might find the items.

The corridor led to an antechamber, in which the party found jars of sweet-smelling oils upon stone benches. Proceeding to the room beyond they found themselves in another hall, this one containing several sarcophagi. on the wall above one ornate sarcophagus they saw a golden shield. The inscriptions upon the sarcophagus indicated that the sarcophagus held the remains of Khertil's queen.

When our heroes lifted the shield from the bracket that held it, there was a grinding sound as the door to the hall became locked, and the ceiling began to descend. Our heroes desperately sought a means to stop the lowering ceiling, but to no avail. Finally, Dave the dwarf threw off the lid to one of the sarcophagi, and leapt inside. The others quickly followed his example. The ceiling continued to descend, but as they came to the level of the sarcophagi, the stone blocks that made up the ceiling directly above the sarcophagi separated and stopped short of the sarcophagi, while the other parts went past the sarcophagi and crushed the lids that our heroes had thrown off. After a few minutes, the ceiling began to lift, and our heroes quickly made their escape.

They returned to the first hall, and took the passage to the left. The corridor led to a small chamber, which was bare except for a pedestal, upon which stood a stone bowl. An inscription on the pedestal read: Those who are loyal to the king will drink to his honour.

Zunn, ever confident, filled the bowl with wine he had brought, lifted it, and drank, but nothing happened. When he returned the bowl to the pedestal, however, it began to fill with mead. Zunn once more lifted the bowl, and drank the mead. As he once more returned the bowl to its place, he saw the outline of a door on the wall to his left - it was a hidden door.

Passing through the secret door, our heroes came upon a set of stone doors that opened into a mead hall with a stone throne at the far end. Upon the seat of the throne was a magnificent golden axe. Wary once more of traps, our heroes tied a rope around the shaft of the axe, exited the room, and then tried to drag it out. But the door slammed shut, breaking the rope, and the sound of stone shifting could be heard behind the doors. When the sound stopped and the doors could be open again, our heroes found the axe once more upon the throne, with the rope still tied to the shaft.

Our heroes reattached the rope, and this time they jammed the stone doors with a spear that Zunn had with him. Once more they dragged the axe off the throne, and once more the doors tried to close by themselves, but were prevented from doing so by the spear. As the axe clattered along the stone floor, the stones on the walls on the sides peeled off and took the forms of warriors, who moved to grab the axe. But our heroes were faster, and just as the axe cleared the threshold of the hall, the spear broke and the doors closed before the guardians.

Returning tot he first hall, our heroes placed the axe and shield in the hands of the statue. The arms of the statue shifted to the weight of the axe and shield, and when they had settled a click was heard, and the doors behind the statue were unlocked.

Passing through the doors, our heroes found themselves in a cavern divided by a chasm 40 feet wide, A narrow stone bridge with no parapet spanned the chasm.

Wary of more traps, but unable to discern any, the party decided that Boggart would tie a rope around his waist and try to dash across the bridge. As he did so, he found that the bridge rotated upon itself, and he was thrown off, and would have fallen to his death if not for the rope he tied around himself.

Now aware of the danger, Boggart was able to make his way across the bridge more slowly, and tie the rope to the other end, which the rest of the party then used to keep their balance as they also crossed over.

Beyond the bridge our party came upon another set of doors. Wary of more traps, Bertil remained behind as the others opened the doors and entered the burial chamber of King Khertil. A pair of large cisterns in the form of stone urns stood on either side of the door. In the far end of the chamber was a platform that rose six feet above the floor, and upon the platform laid a sarcophagus and two stone chests.

As our heroes crossed the chamber to climb onto the platform, Boggart noticed the presence of what he thought was fine sand on the floor.

The party opened one of the treasure chest, and found within it various trinkets and devices, the purpose of which were not immediately obvious. Simultaneously, the doors to the chamber slammed shut, and our heroes heard a gurgling sound as water began to overflow from the cistern onto the floor.

As the water level began to rise our heroes sought to find a means to stop the water flowing, including opening the king's sarcophagus, but found nothing besides his remains, clad in golden armour. Outside, Bertil likewise could find no means to open the doors. In panic, Dave the dwarf jumped off the platform onto the floor, hoping to reach the doors, but found his soles stuck to the ground, and had to be pulled to safety by the others. The water continued to rise, but mercifully when it reached the level of the platform it began to recede.

When the water had ebbed, the doors unlocked, and our heroes made their way back with their packs laden with the treasures they have recovered.

Prepping and Running the Game

This adventure was based loosely on another one of Nerzugal's scenarios. As there was no Warrior PCs in the session, I thought a trap-based, Indiana Jones style dungeon was a suitable challenge to my players.

Once again I prepped for the session on the day itself, and I used an older edition of Tome of Adventure Design to design the traps, adapting them to the features in the maps which I use.

Dwarrowdeep #10

In the month of Wintermarch Bertil's teacher Elorn, the augur of Red Lion Hold, came to the thaig to seek his aid. Along with Boggart and Zunn (see PC profiles here), they traveled to a hovel where Elron sometimes sued for his rituals, a half a day's distance away.

Here, Elorn explained that Owyn, the thane of the hold, had begun behaving erratically a few months ago, become more suspicious and paranoid. He had accused several of his men of treachery, and threatened them with exile. His behavior was causing concern among the people of the hold, and Elorn feared that if word spread to the neighbouring holds, this may be perceived as a weakness and prompt an attack on the hold.

Through his rituals, Elorn had learned that Owyn's mind had been influenced by a demon in his dreams, and that to rid him of the demon, someone would have to travel into the Fade to destroy the demon. He proposed to send Bertil and his companions into the Fade by means of a ritual, while he would watch over them and return them to the realm of the waking if there were signs of trouble. Our heroes agreed to undertake the mission, and after imbibing a potion Elorn had prepared, they immediately fell asleep...

And woke up to find themselves in a cell inside a cave, without their equipment. Through the bars of their cells they could see that there were many other cells along the sides of the corridor outside their cell, but they could not see the faces of the people inside those cells. In the distance they could hear the sobbing of a man.

Boggart broke the party out of the cell, and they followed the sound of the sobbing to a cell, within which they found a disheveled Owyn cowering in the corner. There were bars over the cell, but there was no door. The party called out to Owyn, but he did not reply. Instead, a disembodied voice taunted them for attempting to save him. The bars over the other cells melted away, and they grey, faceless prisoners within moved towards our heroes (who suddenly found themselves with their equipment on them) and attacked them.

Our heroes made short work of the attackers, but when they had despatched the last of them, they were blinded by a bright light which caused them to shield their eyes...

When they opened their eyes, they found themselves inside a small room. On one wall of the room was a portal that led to a hill in springtime; on the opposite wall was a portal that led to Red Lion Hold, but in the midst of winter. In three of the corners of the room were pedestals, upon which laid a stone miniature of a bear, a hawk, and an otter.

Our heroes each took one of the miniature, and stepped through the portal that led to the hill in springtime... and found themselves transformed into the animals whose miniature they took! They realised that despite their animal form, they could still communicate with each other telepathically. They explored the hill, and found a pond at its top, inside which was a catfish who wore a pendant with an emerald figurine around its neck. In the side of the hill there was a hole, inside which was a snake that similarly wore a figurine around its neck. Finally, in a burrow at the base of a tree was a fox that also wore an emerald figurine around its neck.

By each of themselves our heroes were not able to catch the animals, whose figurines they surmised were what they needed to proceed to the other portal, but by co-operation, they were able to one by one catch the creatures, and recover the figurines. With the emerald figurines in their jaws, our heroes stepped back into the portal, and found themselves restored to their forms.

They now passed through the other portal, to find themselves before Red Lion hold, which was under attack from another Avvar hold. A bereskarn, a Blight-tainted bear, was charging towards the gate, and in its path was a young Owyn, who stood frozen in fear. Our heroes sprang to Owyn's rescue, and after a hard fight slew the beast. They then turned to encourage Owyn, but as their backs were turned the bereskarn rose again, and attacked them from behind. Caught unaware, our heroes thought themselves doomed...

But they awoke to find themselves once more in Elorn's hovel. Learning that they had failed in their quest, Elorn began to question them, eager to find out with whom the fault laid. Zunn, in panic, pointed to Bertil. Elorn grew stern, and said that with the demon now forewarned, they could not hope to save Owyn through the Fade, but to preserve the hold they would have to kill Owyn so another strong warrior could take over the hold, and as Bertil was the cause of the failure, the task fell upon him.

Bertil baulked at the idea, and said that Elorn had taught him to use his gift to heal people and not harm them, and so the Elorn before them could not be the real Elorn.

At this Elorn began to laugh, as his form shifted to that of a demon, and the hovel transformed into a hellscape of darkness and lava. Although weakened from their earlier battle, our heroes were able to destroy the demon, and as the last blow of their weapons fell, they found themselves once more in Elorn's hovel, but this time for real.

Prepping and Running the Game

The premise for this session was based on the one-shot adventure Descent into Dream from Nerzugal's Dungeon Master Toolkit 2, which is a treasure trove of adventures, puzzles, and bestiary, and what's more, available as a 'pay what you want pdf' now. The scene where the PCs were turned into animals came from a puzzle in Nerzugal's Game Master Toolkit, which again is available as 'pay what you want'. Both are excellent products, and I just learned that the 3rd and 4th instalments are also on sale now, and I will be buying them.

For this session I tried the GMing advice of not prepping too early, and only started prepping on the same day as the session. It was in some way liberating to put together an adventure using ideas from pdfs of adventures and random tables I already own, if a little stressful.

Oathmark Dwarf Light Infantry

Here are a few Oathmark Dwarf Light Infantry I painted as ghosts for our Dwarrowdeep campaign. They were simply primed white, and then given a coat of Citadel Contrast Aethermatic Blue. This seems to be a quick and effective way of making ghostly miniatures.

Dwarrowdeep #9

In the month of Wintermarch, as the snowmelt began, the thaig received a visitor from Nevarra - Auric Pentaghast. He told the tale of how he had tried to slay a young dragon in his home country, who fled after killing his apprentice. For months he tracked the dragon, until at last he found her in a ruined tower on an island in the middle of a frozen glacial lake in the Frostback Mountains. The dragon had made her lair in the middle of the tower, where there was a breach in the wall. Pentaghast had tried to take on the dragon alone, but she was guarded by a pack of drakes, which made approaching her undetected impossible. Hearing of the thaig, he had come looking for adventurers who will aid him.

Now news of the dragon roosting near the thaig caused concern among the dwarves, for a dragon roosted to raise her brood, and when her eggs hatched she would no doubt begin hunting for food to raise the dragonlings, and her hunting could quickly strip an area of prey and drive her to attack man and dwarves alike. The records found in the halls of records indicated that the tower found by Pentaghast was likely the High Gate of the thaig, which of old was where the dwarves had their trade with nations west of the Frostback Mountains. Rolf Khundar thus gave permission for Pentaghast to take the Long Stairs to reach the High Gate, on the condition that he would keep the head of the dragon.

Pentaghast tried to recruit the adventurers, but the Orlesians considered the venture suicidal. Our heroes (see PC profiles here) were skeptical of Pentaghast's credentials, as although he came from a famous family of dragon hunters, no one had slain a dragon in more than a hundred years. Nevertheless, when they were offered each an equal share of the value of the gold that the carcass of the dragon would fetch, they agreed.

But before they embarked on the quest, our heroes wanted to test their mettle against the drakes, which the Avvars told them were taking prey in their lands. They laid the carcass of a deer out as bait, and when the drakes arrived they attacked, and quickly slew three of them. Their confidence boosted, they began preparation for the hunt, and had an arbalest fashioned for them by the dwarves, from which they purposed to launch a harpoon to catch the dragon to prevent her from fleeing.

Venturing east from the Quarters District, they came upon the High District of the thaig, which did not have the signs of carnage they witnessed in the other districts of the thaig - it seemed that the higher caste dwarves had evacuated the district in good order before the thaig fell. They soon found the long stairs - its stone steps wide enough for four dwarves to walk abreast - which ascended some five hundred yards over three thousand steps to reach the base of High Gate Tower.

As soon as they entered the tower they were attacked by drakes, which they overcame. Venturing further, they came across more drakes, guarding the stairs that led up into the tower, and by means of a sudden assault were able to slay all of them before they could flee and alert the dragon.

Ascending the tower, they at last came to the chamber where the dragon laired, sleeping atop the clutch of eggs she had laid. With Lorca's aid, Boggart launched the harpoon at the dragon. The bolt pierced the hide of the beast, but only barely; yet the barb had taken, and did not come free. The dragon let out a mighty roar and charged at the intruders - all but Lorca and Zunn turned and fled, and the two were engulfed in dragon breath. But the others soon regained their wits, and returned to aid their friends.

With so many attackers, the battle soon turned against the dragon. She severed the rope attached to the harpoon, and then turned her breath onto her own eggs, choosing to burn them than to have them fall into the hands of men, and fled through the breach in the wall.

Lorca had fallen to the dragon's breath also, and despite Bertil's magic the burns on his skin and his throat would not heal. Pentaghast told our heroes that the burns from a dragon's breath did not easily heal by magic, and instead told them to feed Lorca the blood of the dragon that remained on the tip of the harpoon. This they did, and instantly Lorca began to breath better, and they began their long trek back to the thaig.

Prepping and Running the Game

I have foreshadowed the dragon hunt by prefacing the previous few sessions with news of dragon sighting. When Lorca's player reached level 4 and took the Reaver specialisation, I asked him to delay the features he is supposed to receive until we could play this session, since the rules suggested that a ritual involving the drinking of a dragon's blood be required.

According to the lore, dragons were though to have been extinct for more than a hundred years by the time of campaign, hunted by the famed dragon hunters of Nevarra. I thus decided to involve one of them, specifically a Pentaghast, of the royal house of Nevarra. However, as no one had slain a dragon in more than a century, I reasoned that he was probably learned in the theory of hunting dragons, but lacked practical experience. As such, I played my as a pompous middle-aged nobleman who sought to overstate his abilities. I had a lot of fun roleplaying him, while the players were (probably just as their characters would have been) both annoyed and amused by his pretensions.

I left the preparation for the hunt to my players, and they rose to the occasion, suggesting a practice fight against drakes to gauged their threat level, and commissioning an arbalest.

The next session will take place in a couple of weeks, but we have a wargames session scheduled, so stay tuned.

Dwarrowdeep #8

The Upper Halls was retaken with heavy losses, and afterwards the dwarves took control of the road north, to the point where the road turns into a bridge that crossed a chasm, before entering another hall.

Our heroes (see PC profiles here), the party of dwarven adventurers called The Outcasts, and the Orlesian party called The Foxes were sent to scout out the hall, and to see if the darkspawn were planning another attack.

The three parties crossed the bridge to find themselves in a cavernous hall that was once the site of the dwarven foundry. Here it seemed that coal from the south and ore from the north was brought together to be smelted in three large furnaces that dominated the main hall. There was evidence that the furnaces were once worked by bellows driven by waterwheels, now long in disrepair. The Outcasts found signs that the furnaces were until recently being used to smelt iron, likely by the darkspawn for the production of their weapons. Curiously, there was no sign of the darkspawn.

The three parties decided to split up, with the dwarves taking one avenue from the main hall, our heroes another, while the Foxes would stay in the main hall as sentry and back-up, and summon the rest with a whistle if there was trouble.

Our heroes explored down one avenue, finding as in other halls the remains of long dead dwarves and darkspawn and abandoned dwellings and stores, but no sign of the darkspawn.

Suddenly the silence was broken by a shrill whistle. Our heroes rushed back to the main hall to find The Foxes missing. Before they could find out what happened to the Orlesians, they heard cries of fighting coming from the avenue that the Outcasts have gone down, and so they ran towards the sound.

Arriving at what was once a meeting hall, our heroes found the Outcasts on the floor, add dead from wounds. As they moved into the hall the doorway collapsed behind them, and darkspawn come out of a doorway on the wall to their left.

Our heroes were able to despatch the darkspawn warriors after a quick fight, but then another darkspawn warrior, wearing a horned helm and wielding a large axe arrived, and he seemed proof against their spells and their blows.

Our heroes fled out of the hall through a door in the far wall, and they could hear the helmed axeman following them.

The party arrived at what was once a feasting hall, and here Milgrim became ensnared in the webs of a giant spider. It was with much effort that Zunn and Lorca were able to free him, and the trio were able to flee just before the axeman arrived with more darkspawn warriors.

The next entered an ancient armoury guarded a living statue, and were able to use the guardian to fight the pursuing darkspawn warriors while they fled deeper.

Eventually they came upon a forge with heavy steel doors that were lifted and closed by the means of a chain attached to a winch on the outside. Our heroes were able to lure the axeman into the forge and flee through the door and trap him inside.

Retracing their route, they arrived back at the hall where the Outcasts were slain, and dug their way through the collapsed doorway. But when they returned to the bridge across the chasm, they found the axeman on the bridge, blocking their way. Lorca threw caution to the wind and charged at the axeman, and so ferocious was his blow that he pushed the axeman off the bridge, sending him plunging to the darkness below.

Soon afterwards they heard the sound of The Foxes coming from behind them - they had been attacked by darkspawn and had to flee into one of the avenues, and had just shaken off their pursuers.

Vowing to return to reclaim the bodies of the Outcasts, our heroes cast one final glance upon the foundry hall, and turned back south.

Prepping and Running the Game

It being Halloween, I decided to make it a themed session. I started by having the PCs have the same nightmare where they were immobilised and hearing that they had to be burnt because they had been tainted by darkspawn.

I tried to play up the horror factor but slowing the pacing of the introductory part of the game until the PCs met the main character for the session: the slasher. My players were quick to catch on to the theme, and fled from the slasher when it appeared that he was immune to their spells and weapon damage - in truth he was not immune to weapon damage; the PCs just haven't done enough damage to kill him until the very final scene.

For the locales I had a list of rooms with features, and let the players roll to see which one the party arrive at next, with the encounter on the bridge over the chasm being the last one they would face before the game ends.

After the end of this session four PCs have reached level 4, which is the level I have set for their first specialisation. As part of the story for Lorca becoming a Reaver, the next session will feature a dragon hunt.

Dwarrowdeep #7

In the month of Haring sightings of the dragon ceased. It was not known if this meant she had moved to another region, or that she had roosted in preparation to lay a brood.

The Upper Hall north of the coal mines had been retaken, and now our party was being sent to explore the route north, following the tracks of the mine carts.

But when they arrived at the Upper Hall from the Lower Hall, they heard a great commotion. Dwarves were fleeing towards them: the Darkspawn had launched an attack!

They were urged to flee south, but our heroes chose to remain to help. A guard asked them to go to the Hall of Many Pillars, where many warriors who were wounded during the taking of the hall had been convalescing, and to lead them to safety.

Bertil, Milgrim, and Zunn (see PC profiles here) sped towards the Hall, fighting off a group of darkspawn in their path, and arrived at the doors of the Hall to find that the casualties and three dwarves caring for them had barricaded themselves inside the Hall. Several of the wounded were too weak to walk on their own, and Legnan, one of the carers, argued that they should remain in place and wait for the attack to be repelled. It took the party some time to convince the dwarves that they should flee, with those able to helping those unable to walk, but by then it was almost too late: a party of darkspawn accompanied by an ogre was coming down the corridor towards them.

The party barricaded the door once more, but it was clear that the door would not hold the ogre for long. But the three mages had a plan: they prepared their spells, and threw the doors open, and held the ogre in place with magic, so that it prevented the other darkspawn from entering the Hall, while our heroes attacked it. Bertil and Zunn were wounded by the ogre's powerful attacks, but eventually it fell to Milgrim's gauntleted fists; the rest of the darkspawn fled when they saw their champion fall.

The whole party then made its way towards the main square, where they would be able to flee south. Their pace was slow on account of the wounded, but they managed to avoid parties of darkspawn roaming the corridors.

Their hopes lifted when they neared the plaza, but were as quickly dashed when they found it occupied by a dozen darkspawn, under the command of a genlock emissary. They had no hope of defeated so many darkspawn, but once more our mages came up with an audacious plan: Zunn would cast a spell sealing the emissary inside a forcefield together with Milgrim, who would try to strike him down and so cause the rest to once more flee; meanwhile, the dwarves would try to cut their way to the south while the darkspawn tried to aid their leader. To help them get to the emissary, the three dwarf carers volunteer to don armour of slain darkspawn and infiltrate the darkspawn and to clear a way for our heroes.

The plan almost worked - the darkspawn were surprised by the sudden attack, and in the confusion the dwarves were able to cut their way to the south while the darkspawn were focused on Milgrim, but as they surrounded the emissary and Milgrim it became clear that the elven mage would not survive...

Then just as suddenly, there came a dwarven war cry from the south as warriors from the Lower Hall arrived. The darkspawn were driven off in the ferocity of the attack, and our heroes would survive to fight another day.

Prepping and Running the Game

I had planned for the party to explore the hall to the north of the Upper Hall this session, but as two other players were unable to make it, I decided to run something that was more appropriate for a smaller, all-mage party.

Once again, the challenge was to introduce some human (dwarven?) interaction in a dungeon crawl, so I decided to have the party do a rescue mission instead of a purely combat one. I needed a large enough number of casualties to make it a challenging scenario, but to make the role-playing manageable, I only had names and personalities for three of the NPCs, one of whom was Legnan, a pessimistic dwarf who would advocate staying instead of fleeing.

I was once again impressed by the players' heroism, with them essentially sacrificing themselves to allow the dwarves to escape in the final scene. No doubt their reputation among the dwarves would be much elevated after this episode.

Dwarrowdeep #6

In the month of Firstfall, in the deepest winter, sighting of the dragon from West Gate became regular. It was not yet known where the dragon was roosting, and she seemed to ignore the goings-on at the thaig.

The hauntings of the coal mines had prevented the miners from working, and so our heroes were sent to find the cause of the hauntings, and see if they could end them. In this venture they were led by Master Miner Berius, and accompanied by the bearer Lennard.

Berius led the party northwards through the mine tunnels, towards where the sightings of restless spirits was most common. As they passed through the passages, the party found the remains of many dwarven miners, killed either by darkspawn, or by the fire that had swept through the tunnels during their attack centuries ago. When they were crossing a bridge over a chasm, our party was attacked by ghostly apparitions of long-dead miners, who seemed to ignore those heroes who used magic and focused their attacks on Lorca and Boggart (see PC profiles here). When the party had driven off the spirits, Lorca was much weakened by their attacks, and Bertius proposed that Lorca remained at the site to rest and that Boggart remained with him to ensure his safety, while the rest carried on, but the party was determined to remain together.

The party then continued northwards, until at last they came to a large chamber that once served as depot for mine carts. Before they could all enter, there was a tremor, and the tunnel into the chamber caved in, leaving Boggart and Zunn trapped inside the chamber. A demon in the form of a statue appeared out of the darkness in the chamber, praised its "servant" for brining a sacrifice, and began to attack Zunn.

By the time the rest of the party had dug a hole through the cave-in, Zunn had fallen. The demon then turned its attention to the main party, who retreated back towards the chasm, luring the demon after them. Eventually they were able to lure the demon to the edge of the chasm, where together they were able to push it over the edge.

By now the party had become suspicious of Bertius' role, but they had no proof of his complicity, and despite Milgrim's interrogation, he confessed nothing. They party returned to the Lower Halls, where they reported their findings. Soon afterwards parties were sent in to recover the remains of the dead miners to give them a proper dwarven burial. A few days afterwards, Bertius absconded from the thaig. 

Prepping and Running the Game

The plot for this session is inspired by A Town called Mud: the Haunted Mine. I had originally planned to run this section of the dungeon as a simple exploration and combat session, and was looking for a module to provide a map and some encounter ideas, but the story of a miner luring the party to a demonic entity gave the setting an extra dimension and some role-playing opportunities.

I also introduced a few NPCs to the campaign to go with the PCs' specialisations, which I have moved forward to Level 4 instead of Level 6. Bertil is taken under the tutelage of the Augur of Stormhold, the clan trading with the thaig, while Boggart is learning fencing from an Orlesian party that had joined the thaig.

Dwarrowdeep #5

Prepping and Running the Game

This session saw the party (Boggart, Bertil, Mulgrim, and Zunn; see PC profiles here) and the Fearsome Five (a fellow adventuring party of Avvars) return to the lyrium mines via the underground river. This time the docks were defended by the Scaled Ones, which the Fearsome Five defeated, after which they remained to guard the boats.

The party proceeded on back to the spider cavern, where they killed the giant spider and then burned the eggs she was guarding. There they also found the remains of two elven warriors, and took off them two pairs of gauntlets. These are linked to the story arcs for Mulgrim and Zunn, both of whom wish to take the Arcane Warrior specialisation later, and specialise in unarmed combat - typical players: you run a campaign set in a dwarven megadungeon, and two want to play elven monks...

Passing the spider cavern, the party entered the cavern guarded by the Rock Wraith. Bertil attempted to bargain with it for passage, and was told that the party could pass if they left behind the dead body of one of the three mages in the party. This was of course unacceptable to the party, and a fight ensued, resulting in the destruction of the Rock Wraith.

The party crossed the stone bridge that led deeper into the cavern, driving off more Scaled Ones as they did so. They were then drawn by a moving blue light down one of the smaller tunnels. They followed the light for a while, until at last they came to a dead-end at a sinkhole. Suddenly the roof of the tunnel collapsed, trapping Boggart and Zunn. Before they could begin to dig through the rockfall, the party was attacked by ghosts of dwarven miners. By the time the ghosts were defeated Bertil laid dead on the tunnel floor, and Mulgrim was unable to revive him.

Meanwhile, Bertil's spirit floated above his own dead form. He was soon joined by a spirit, who communicated with him telepathically. Learning of Bertil's distress, the spirit led him down back into his body, and Bertil found himself alive again. This encounter is linked to Bertil's character arc, as the player wants him to pursue the Spirit Healer specialisation.

Looking into the sinkhole at the end of the tunnel the party saw the calcified skeleton of a long dead dwarven miner. The skeleton crumbled when they tried to fish it out, but they were able to recover a silverite dagger from the sinkhole, which Boggart kept.

The party decided to carry on with their exploration, and returned to the main tunnel, until at last it opened into a large cavern. Waiting them there were a group a Scaled Ones warriors, led by a champion who could breath fire. A hard fight followed, and the party were planning to flee when a lucky shot brought down the champion and caused the other warriors to flee.

After the bound their wounds, the party proceeded further, and found that the Scaled Ones have abandoned the area, likely by diving into a sinkhole. They found that the site was likely used for the storage and refining of raw lyrium by the dwarves until the thaig was abandoned. In one of the rooms they found a burning statue of a demonic form like that of the Rock Wraith which they defeated. When the fire subsided they found a sticky charred substance on the statue, which Bertil identified as burnt blood.

The party took the head of the Scaled One champion as proof and trophy, and returned to the dock.

==

In the post-game Organisation phase the players failed their roll, and the roll on the Misfortune Table indicated an enemy attack. Continuing the thread from the previous session, I decided that some Fereldens have decided to launch an attack on the thaig's Great Hall outside the mountain hold as retaliation for the dwarves trading with the Avvar.

There followed a tense negotiation as me playing the Arl of Redcliffe, and the player as Rolf Khundar. Rolf demanded the perpetrators to be handed over to him, but I refused, as the Great Hall stood on Ferelden land which was leased to the dwarves and still subject to Ferelden law.

Rolf then backed down, but required compensation for his losses, which I gladly agreed to - I would rebuild the Great Hall, and levy the cost from fines imposed on the perpetrators, which would allow me to resolve the situation with the dwarves, while still keeping my own authority over my subjects, and impose a just but not harsh punishment.

This session allowed me to advance the story arcs for two of the characters. In the next session I plan to introduce a new element to advance Boggart's character arc.

I will also be following up on Rolf's attempt to poach lyrium miners from Orzammar.

Dwarrowdeep #4

Prepping and Running the Game

As is now customary, we began the session with a recap of the progress of the thaig so far, as well as the consequences/repercussions of the progress.

The reopening of the West Gate a month prior had allowed the thaig to establish trade with the Avvar, exchanging dwarven tools and weapons for some food. The volume of the trade is not high, but news of it had traveled to the Fereldens, who are occasionally the victims of Avvar raids to the lowlands. Some elements have begun to call for a trade embargo with the dwarves.

Meanwhile, the discovery of the lake has provided another source of food supply, and work is in progress to re-establish the aqueducts to channel the water to the Lower Hall, which will further reduce the thaig's reliance on outsiders.

On the production front, the recycling of the old weapons found in the thaig has progressed slowly on account of a lack of smiths, as well as coal. The reopening of the coal mines has been delayed by a lack of miners, and the complaints from the miners that the mines haunted.

In this session, our adventurers were sent to follow the river flowing out of the underground lake to learn where it led to.

The party - Lorca, Boggart, and Bertil (see PC profiles here) - and the boatman Boran sailed down the underground river, and after some four hours came to a crumbling, dis-used dock right before a waterfall. The dock led to a cavern which was lit by bioluminescent Deep Mushrooms, which Boran informed them were dwarven delicacies.

The party disembarked and began to explore the caverns and its passages, and had to fight off a pack of Deepstalkers - small velociraptor-like creatures that inhabit the Deep Roads. Bertil began to develop a sense of unease and a headache, which he later realised was due to the presence of lyrium ore in the area. It soon became evident that the dwarves had carved rooms and shelves in the caves, and used the area as a sort of warehouse.

Exploring deeper, the party passed through a cave inhabited by a giant spider, which they fought off. Proceeding on, they were attacked by tall, reptilian humanoids. While they were fighting these strange creatures, they were attacked by the animated statue of a demonic form, and had to flee.

On their return through the spider cave they noticed a glint of metal reflecting the light of their lantern. With torches in hand, they set the webs covering the passages on fire and drove off the spider, and found some relics from centuries past: a dwarven axe with a Rune of Paralysis, an elven helm, and an elven lantern.

==

This session introduced two major plot threads: the discovery of lyrium in the thaig, and evidence of a Dalish Elf mission to the thaig.

Rolf Khunda has taken the decision to try to poach smiths skilled in the mining and processing of lyrium ore from Orzammar. To Orzammar this would amount to a declaration of war, although how this war can be prosecuted will require a lot of thought. The travel time between the thaig and Orzammar means I will have a gap of two sessions to think this over.

The second thread relates to the personal goals of the three Dalish Elf PCs in the group. Two of the players have indicated that they wanted their characters to pursue the Arcane Warrior specialisation. The Arcane Warrior specialisation is a very specific one in the fluff of the game, and it was a bit of a stretch to try to fit that into a campaign set in a dwarven megadungeon, but I think I came up with a believable reason, which will be revealed in the upcoming sessions.

Dwarrowdeep #3

Prepping and Running the Game

Once again I am running late and have to combine the AAR and the commentary.

In this session the party (see PC profiles here) was sent along with The Badgers, a fellow group of adventurers, to explore the passage that led northwest from the Lower Halls. When they arrived at the hall at the end of the passage they found signs of a conflagration that had occured a long time ago. The two parties split up, with our PCs exploring the left hand side of the halls while The Badgers explored the other side.

Our PCs fought an Ash Wraith and found an underground lake that was used as a source of water supply by the thaig, as well as docks indicating that the dwarves once navigated the waters. The lake would provide a secured supply of water and some food for the thaig, which would strengthen its chances of success.

Our PCs returned to the rendezvous point but The Badgers did not show up at the appointed time. Following the chalk markings left by them, our PCs tracked them into what used to be a coal mine. After a while they came across the prostrate bodies of The Badgers, bleeding and dying. Bertil rushed forward to aid the closest one of them - Brannoc the Avvar - and simultaneously the party was ambushed by darkspawn from all sides. Zunn and Milgrim used their magic to keep the darkspawn at bay, while Lorca fought his way to Brannoc to drag him to safety, and Boggart cleared the party's route of escape

The party had no means of rescuing the remaining three members of The Badgers, who in all likelihood have bled out by then, and so had to retreat. Once out of danger, they were able to revive Brannoc.

This session had the same format as the previous two: the main activity was combat, with the exploration providing exposition and moving the narrative of the thaig's progress; there was minimal role-playing. This is a major problem with a dungeoncrawl where there are no intelligent monsters/enemies. Hopefully as the thaig's fortunes progress there will be opportunities to explore encounters outside of the dungeons involving the allies and rivals the thaig will make in the future.

I am most of all very impressed by my players' decision to try to save The Badgers. The fight was challenging, and I did not give any indication that they were required to do so, but they nevertheless risked their characters' lives to do so. Had I not told them that they other three members were likely already dead, they may have continued to fight and died.

Dwarrowdeep #2

Prepping and Running the Game

I am a little behind in my AARs, so I will just roll the AAR into the commentary.

This session had the party explore the (what was of old) West Gate of Khundara Thaig. The dungeon crawl itself was rather straightforward. We had a new player (new to TTRPGs) join us, and he gave me one of the most satisfying experience as a GM when he said he wanted to have his character "aggro" the monster; I smiled and ask him: how do you do that? His eyes widened, and I think at that moment he truly realised the difference between a computer RPG and a TTRPG.

The combats were pretty deadly as we had no warrior/tank for the session, with most PCs going down at least once. A lot of this is due to me not having a good sense of the durability of monsters with armour, and the infamous hit point slog of the Dragon Age system. This is an area I will need to do more work on.

During the strategic part of the session I revealed to the players that the West Gate opened high up in the Frostback Mountains, and was of old the gate through which trade with the Avvar took place. Soon after the gate was opened the Avvar made contact, and began trading food for dwarven weapons and tools. While this gave the fledgling thaig another source of food, it will lead to complications down the line...

Dwarrowdeep #1

It was the month of Kingsway when our adventurers arrived at Khundara Thaig. Then, it could hardly be called a thaig, for the dwarves had just taken the halls of South Gate not two weeks prior, and at great costs in lives.

Lord Rolf Khundar had need of men, and he offered generous terms: a roof over their heads, a warm hearth, a full belly, coins, and what loot you could find that was not dwarven grave goods.

Now of old the South Gates opened to the realms of men, and the dwarves built the halls within to impress the younger race, and even in its current state, a thousand years after they were abandoned they were still a sight to behold. Now the halls held stores of grain, salted meat, and stores to supply many men for many months, for the dwarves were once again going to war.

Formed into bands, the adventurers that had flocked to the banner of Lord Khundar were sent north deeper into the thaig, crossing the Chasm of Karak over Thurdin's Bridge, at last reaching the Lower Halls after a trek of nine miles. Here the captain sent them out in their bands, bidding them to survey the lay of the halls, noting where the darkspawn gathered, and noting where all the passages were, that the battalions will not be surprised by sudden ambush when they came to take the halls.

Exploring to the west, our heroes (see PC profiles here) were almost immediately set upon by a lithe darkspawn, which was called a Shriek, but they were able to slay it.

Proceeding on, they came upon a burial hall, which turned out to be a false crypt. When they searched the walls of the hall, they discovered a hidden door, but when Boggart passed through it, a portcullis came down and cut him off from the others. Then the stones of the wall on the chamber beyond formed into a golem, and began to attack him. Boggart attempted to restrain the golem by entangling it with a rope, the ends of which he passed to Bertil and Lorca. But the golem was too strong, and could not be restrained; but when it strained again its bonds the rope lifted the portcullis where it passed under the bars, and so Boggart was able to slip under the portcullis and escaped certain doom.

When Bertil had rendered healing to Boggart, the party then continued with their exploration, coming upon another chamber, wherein was a plinth, upon which a untarnished warhammer of great beauty was placed. Boggart attempted to remove the hammer from the plinth by means of a lasso, but when the lasso fell upon the hammer the pillars of the chamber, which were shaped like dwarven warriors wielding hammers, came to life and struck the plinth - the hammer was but a phantom!

The party proceeded on, and came across a hall of records, wherein was found many records concerning the common folk of Khundara Thaig. Near the hall of records was an ossuary for common folks, the entrance of which was protected by a magical barrier which our heroes could not pass through.

Finding no other passages, the party turned back, but was attacked by a patrol of genlocks, which they managed to defeat.

Prepping and Running the Game

The first session of our campaign was a simple dungeon with a few keyed areas. The map of the area was based on the Heroic Haps Abandoned Dwarven Hold tiles which I made, with the descriptions based on the entries from Dwarrowdeep.

Dwarrowdeep "as written" is too vast to run, and I have no practicable way of representing the dungeon on table, since our style is to use grid maps and miniatures. As a result I decided to let the players explore just one section of the dungeon, with the assumption that other parties are likewise exploring the other sections; the section that the PCs explore will be a composite of the more interesting keyed areas from the module, which I will translate onto the dungeon tiles which I have.

We had three combats this session, which is the usual number I try to aim for. Combat is slower than 5E, due mainly to the time needed to add up the sum of 3d6, as well as the dreaded "choice paralysis" when a player gets Stunt Points - I expect this to resolve after a couple more sessions though.

Dwarrowdeep #0

(see campaign background here)

PC Profiles

• Bertil, Avvar Apostate Mage

Formerly from the Red Lion Hold, Bertil was an apprentice to the Hold's augur, until he made the mistake of leading a raiding party to attack a Ferelden village and killed the son of an arl and several Chantry priestesses. The arl led a punitive attack that wiped out Red Lion Hold and scattered its surviving members, and Bertil sough refuge at Khundara Thaig.

• "Boggart", Ferelden Freeman Rogue

"Boggart" was once under the employment of a minor noble house in Ferelden. When the house fell, he turned to a life of crime, which got him declared an outlaw.

• Milgrim, Dalish Elf Apostate Mage

Earmarked to become the Keeper of his clan, Milgrim has taken the journey to gain better knowledge of the world outside the forests.

• Lorca, Ferelden Craftsman Warrior

Lorca's parents were caravan guards for a Surface Dwarf merchant. After they were killed during a darkspawn raid, the dwarven merchant adopted him and raised him as his own. He joined Khundara Thaig to take revenge on the darkspawn, and to make a name for himself.

• Zunn, Dalish Elf Apostate Mage

Previously the apprentice to his clan's First, Zunn had undertaken a quest to find the relics of an Arcane Warrior from his clan who five centuries ago set off on a quest to find the lost Khundara Thaig, but never returned.

• Elion, Dalish Elf Rogue

A companion to Zunn, Elion hopes to aid him in his quest to restore the glory of the Dales.

• Varosh (aka Dave the Dwarf), Dwarf Duster Rogue

Formerly a petty thief in Dust Town in Orzammar, Dave had joined the thaig to seek his fortune.

Return to Thedas: Dwarrowdeep [Spoilers for my players]

(image source)

A few months ago I started thinking about continuing the Dragon Age campaign which was the first campaign I GM'd when I started our weekly sessions. 

Well, in the months since I have decided to go ahead with that, and have bought a copy of Dwarrowdeep as the template for the campaign.

The basis of the campaign is that Rolf Khundar (a PC in our first campaign), heir to the throne of Khundara Thaig lost to the darkspawn almost a thousand years ago, had discovered the gate to the lost thaig, and had petitioned the Assembly to help him recover the thaig. When the Assembly voted to deny his request, he denounced the Assembly, and declared that he will recover the thaig without the aid of the Assembly, but with the help of any dwarf, man, or elf who will join his quest, promising them a place in his new kingdom.

While his move was condemned by many of the dwarven nobles, many casteless dwarves decided to throw their lot in with him, hoping to escape the caste system in Orzammar. As his party of exiles traveled south, overland, news spread, and many Surface dwarves and adventurers joined him.

The band was granted the use of a small area of land near the discovered gate by the Arl of Redcliffe, where Rolf built a great hall and began gathering supplies and more men to stage his mission. Eventually they were able to drive out the darkspawn in the halls of the South Gate, and retake the area. Their success cost them many lives, but drew even more adventurers to Khundara Thaig. Now, with their stores filled with supplies bought by the riches they have recovered and newly harvested grain and preserved meat, they begin their campaign to retake the rest of the thaig.

The idea of dwarves retaking an underground kingdom from evil humanoids isn't a new or uncommon one - in fact, I learned from one of my players that Return to Moria is going to be released in 2023 - but the politics of Thedas makes the situation a little more complicated and therefore interesting.

The recovery of a dwarven thaig will have major economic and political consequences to several major players in Ferelden.

Firstly, there is the issue of its relationship with Orzammar. The High King and the Assembly have chosen not to back the mission, but once Khundara Thaig is restored, their pride will not allow the existence of an independent dwarven realm, and they will no doubt demand homage and allegiance. Adding to this is the fact that Prince Bhelen, son of the reigning High King and a contender to the throne, is secretly sympathetic to Rolf's cause, believing that expansion, trade with the surface, and granting more rights to the casteless is the only way to save the declining dwarven race. If Bhelen can secure Khundara Thaig's allegiance by giving aid to Rolf (secretly), it will no doubt help in his bid for the throne. At the same time, the king's Second and also contender to the throne, Lord Harrowmont, is a traditionalist who has the support of the majority of the nobles, and someone who has reasons to want the mission to fail. No doubt both men are keeping a close eye on the success of the thaig, and will intervene when they feel they need to.

Then there are the local Fereldens, to whom the land nominally belong to. Rolf was granted small plot of land to build his great hall on, with no rights to build fortifications, due to the aid he rendered the Arl of Redcliffe during the darkspawn incursion during our first campaign. While it was convenient to the Fereldens to have a friendly armed force guarding a known gate to the Deep Roads, the presence of a new dwarven kingdom at one's doorstep is another matter altogether. If the thaig thrives, then the silver made from taxing the trade of goods to and from it will make the Arl more powerful. But if the thaig fails, then having so many armed and dangerous men with no money and no prospects is just a disaster waiting to happen.

Among these desperate men are apostate mages, who have fled persecution in Ferelden to seek a new home in a dwarven kingdom. While the land outside nominally belongs to Ferelden, their authority has not traditionally extended into lost dwarven kingdoms. If the thaig thrives and draws more apostate mages to its ranks, then is only a matter of time before the Chantry can no longer turn a blind eye to the existence of so many apostate mages in the realm of Ferelden.

Finally, there are the Avvars, who deem the mountain realm their own. While relationship between the Avvars and the Dwarves have always been cordial, the success of the thaig will no doubt draw more and more lowlanders to the region, creating more opportunities for tension and conflict.

On top of all these is the issue of lyrium, the mineral that possess magical properties. Currently, Orzammar has a monopoly on the lyrium trade, with the Chantry being the sole legitimate buyer. If and when lyrium is discovered and mined in Khundara Thaig (spoiler alert: it will be), this will cause a disruption in the market that will have major consequences.

I assume the lyrium trade to be a major source of income for Orzammar, so any competitor in the market will be a major threat to the kingdom. Orzammar will either have to gain control over the supply of lyrium from Khundara, or else shut it down.

For the Chantry, the source of lyrium outside of their control also poses an existential threat: the Chantry relies on lyrium to train and control its military arm the Templars. While most templars are loyal to the Chantry, the risk of losing control over their warriors is one the Chantry may decide they cannot afford. This puts the Ferelden Chantry in a difficult position: how can they make a deal with Khundara Thaig to control the supply of the lyrium when the latter are openly sheltering apostate mages?

As you can see, there are multiple factions which the players will have to interact with on top of the business of exploring the thaig and killing darkspawn.

Fortunately for me, Dragon Age RPG actually has rules for organisations, which I think I will use to adjudicate some of the interactions.

As for the actual dungeon-crawling, I am not yet certain how I will run that. I do know for sure that I will not run the dungeon "as is" (something which I think is actually impossible to do). That will require more thought and will be the topic of another post.