After a few eventful days in town, our heroes are once again on the trail from Eveningstar to the Haunted Halls. Their goal this time: head due West down the main hall beyond the great bronze doors that mark the entrance to the Inner Halls. With Eldred the Enchanter only 50 experience points away from level 2, one modest treasure haul could see them getting a big boost to the party’s capabilities.
Trigg Sunbold, Fighter 2
Gimwort of Greydelve, Dwarf 2
Sassaran, Elf 1
Eldred the Enchanter, Illusionist 1
Tansybell of Merry Meadow, Halfling 2
Old Dolf, Thief 2
Gimwort and Tansybell have a bet to see which one of them will kill more monsters on this expedition.
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| The party's route |
Areas marked “A” are from The Haunted Halls of Eveningstar. Areas marked “B” are unkeyed in the original module, and I have filled them in with a random room from In Search of the Unknown, an adventure for Basic D&D with a similar theme.
Turn 1 – A8: Welcoming Trap “a pair of closed bronze double doors, flanked by two bronze statues.”
The bronze doors are still wedged open, rendering the statues’ lightning trap harmless (I check every adventure to see if some enterprising kobold has shut them again).
Turn 2 – Hallway
The party sees a group of fire beetles down the hall in A12 (while outside of the party’s lantern light, the beetles are revealed by the ruddy glow of their light glands). The beetles haven’t noticed them and the party decides to try the door to A10 rather than risk a fight.
Turn 3 – A10: Treasury. “The corridor floor in front of this room’s door is marked with a faint dark stain... If the door is touched, a loud click is heard…”
Old Dolf checks the area for traps and discovers a sliding panel directly opposite the door, and that the door itself is under some tension that suggests a pulley mechanism. He can’t figure out how to disable the trap, so everyone hugs the wall to one the side of the door while Dolf gives it a shove with his stick. The door swings open and a spear pops out from the sliding panel. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief.
Turn 4 – A10: Treasury
The room contains only dust and cobwebs. Other thieves have been here first (presumably some of them left the bloodstains outside).
Trigg wrenches the spear out of the trap and hands it to Dolf. He has a plan to deal with the fire beetles: the party forms up in the hall just East of the Treasury door, with Tansy and Gimwort in the front rank, and Sassaran and Dolf in the second. Sassaran will shoot arrows at the beetles until they close, and then Eldred can blast them with magic while the others set to work with axe, sword, and spear. Trigg himself will hide in the Treasury until the beetles reach close with the party, and then he’ll flank them. If the battle turns against them then he’ll retreat to the Treasury and bar the door, while the others will have a clear line of retreat to the entrance.
It can’t fail.
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| Look upon the face of your enemy |
Turn 5 – Combat
Sassaran’s vaunted skill with the bow seems to have deserted her. Her arrows annoy the seven large beetles enough to get them lumbering down the hallway towards the party, but fail to do any damage. When Eldred looses the Color Spray, only a single beetle is affected, and the rest of the party struggles to pierce the fire beetles’ hard shells. They’re saved from disaster when Trigg slays a beetle with his flanking maneuver and the dead insect’s warning pheromones send the remaining five fleeing back down the corridor. Tansy rather clumsily dispatches the stunned beetle. “One!”
Trigg manages to keep his troops in line, rather than pursue into an unknown, open space where they could be overwhelmed and surrounded, and the party holds its position. It then turns out that all of the other doors in A12 are shut, and the fleeing beetles simply mill about in confusion.
Turn 6 – Hallway
The party regroups and repositions. “Places everyone! Let’s try that again!”
Turn 7 – Combat
Sassaran sinks an arrow into a fire beetle and the giant insects come charging back down the corridor. This time blood and bug guts fly as battle closes: one beetle is slain, but Gimwort and Trigg each suffer terrible wounds. Eldred is eventually forced to use his scroll of Sleep: the raging insects and the party’s front rank fighters collapse into enchanted slumber.
Turn 8 – Hallway
Sassaran grimly dispatches the beetles while Dolf shakes everyone awake. Gimwort shows Tansy how to butcher a fire beetle for their useful light glands. These are too badly damaged to sell, however: Gimwort can tell that their light won’t last beyond the day.
Turn 9 – A12: Throne Room. “The fallen, splintered remnants of once-grand, gilded double doors lie underfoot… A black table, canted to one side due to broken legs… a highbacked stone throne atop a triangular, three-stepped dais...
In the center of the south wall is a black–framed painting…shows men in varied armor fighting elves who…wield flaming swords and black spears. The scene moves constantly, in a silent, unending battle!”
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| Just an ordinary Throne Room, nothing weird going on here |
The party takes in the grandly-ruined scene. Old Dolf stoops to pick up a gold key from the wreckage of the gilded doors and spots a broken chest under the throne. He goes to poke at it with his spear. The “chest” is actually a mimic, which yanks the spear out of Dolf’s hands and insults him in an archaic form of the Common Tongue! Dolf squeals and scrabbles out of reach of the thrashing pseudopods.
Trigg knows a little of the Old Tongue from his induction into the Sunflower Order, and is able to dredge up a few polite words to placate the creature – although he also tosses it a purse of coins, just to make sure. The mimic, which seems to have been nesting in this room for at least a hundred years, gives them an odd sort of guided tour around its chamber: it directs their attention to the painting (depicting the Knights of Myth Drannor in battle with the forces of the evil mage, Whisper), boasts that the Circle of the Nine once sat at that very table while planning their battle against the Company of the Unicorn, and laughs while recounting how Lord Rivior sat on this throne they see before them to order his starving warriors out to do battle in the winter snows.
This ancient history, while interesting, is of little use to the party, who has no real context for any of it. They thank the mimic politely anyway. It does not return Dolf’s spear.
Turn 10 – A13: Audience Chamber. “The walls, floor, and ceiling of this room are all blackened, as if a great fire occurred here… A pile of blackened human bones, tangled about a stone warhammer, graces the center of the room.”
The party searches the ruins and Eldred discovers a ring, which he pockets to identify later. They do not find either of the secret doors. They return to A12 and try the door to the Southeast.
Turn 11 – B6: Closet. “several bolts of cloth are stacked, well covered with dust and partially moth-eaten… several garments are hung, mostly coats and cloaks… A wooden stand in the corner of the room farthest from the door holds several books…”
The party rummages through the junk. Old Dolf cuts a small garnet from the hem of a rotten robe, while Eldred examines the volumes on the shelf, with Sassaran’s help for a book of herb-lore written in elvish (Eldred can actually read the written form of the language better than Sassaran can: he reads passages to her out loud and she fills in some of the more obscure terms for him). Four of the books seem like they might fetch a few gold pieces, and having found so little treasure on this trip they decide to take them.
Turning to go, Eldred knocks a large, unfriendly-looking book off the shelf with his elbow. It falls open and emits an unearthly shriek (this is actually a re-flavored Shrieker mushroom, because I forgot to roll for monsters in this room) Gimwort hacks the book to bits with his axe, but the noise disturbs a swarm of bats roosting in the rafters above. There’s a lot of chaos and yelling.
Turn 12 – Combat
A kobold patrol comes to investigate the tremendous noise. They are themselves startled when the flock of bats goes flying out of the room, and the party has a bare few seconds to form up in a circle around Eldred, swords outward. Barking and yapping to each other to keep the party off balance, the kobolds encircle them. The fighting is fierce: Tansy and Gimwort both take wounds, but Tansy fells her kobold (“Two!”). Dolf is actually wounded twice (with his 4 HP it’s a miracle he’s still alive) before Sassaran can dispatch her kobold and come to his rescue. In the end, a single kobold manages to escape, its rat-like tail wriggling as it scurries out of the room.
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| I'll see you in hell, adventurers |
Turn 13 – B6: Closet.
The party loots a handful of coins from the dead kobolds. With over half the party wounded and possible reinforcements on the way, they head for the exit.
Turns 14-15 – Retreat
Trigg tosses the mimic in A12 a couple of kobolds on their way out as a gesture of friendship.
Turn 16 – A3: Forechamber
With the doors in sight, the party finds three black-clad, haunted-looking figures blocking their path. Though the party doesn’t know it, these are Curst – ancient warriors and adventurers cursed with madness and a strange form of immortality. Fortunately for our heroes, the figures seem distracted by waking dreams of things that happened long ago, and the party is able to slowly and carefully skirt around them (this took four rounds, with the curst rolling new reactions every round). Once past the undead they run out into the sunlight.
THE TALLY
Enemies Slain:
7 Fire Beetles: 105 xp
5 Kobolds: 25 xp
Treasures Found:
Garnet: 15 xp
Zelligar’s Diary: 50 xp
Loose Change: 0 xp
Bets Won
Most Enemies Slain: Tansybell 2, Gimwort 0.
Total: 33 xp/character (+100 to Tansy for winning the bet)
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