Beginners Dungeon Adventure

On August 7, 2003, I brought C and S to the Space Crime Continuum for a "Beginners Dungeons and Dragons" adventure. I've tried to capture here at least some of the flavor of the adventure for posterity. The same helpful staff person who was on duty when I came before, greeted us warming and asked us to wait a few minutes to see if anyone else was coming. We settled into the back room and then he led the dungeon adventure.

"Look through the book and pick out a character you'd like to use" he said.

C and S rolled to see who would go first.

"So we're not going to pay attention to speed. You've got to roll to see what you're going to do with that," said C.

"I'm not sure what you mean by that..." said S.

"So, like, your great sword, you've got to roll to see what you get when you attack with it," said C. "Look at your armor class. So, like, your shield. So that's what it takes for a guy to hit you. It takes a 15 to hit me."

"But my bow is a 15."

"You got that shield, but let's see what armor class I got. It doesn't say what my armor is. Oh, wait! I've got two guys! I guess I've got to tear these apart."

The dungeon master set up his books, dice, and a large graph pad, for mapping things out. The boys saw he had soda and had to get each get a bottle of soda too.

"This is a charming little adventure about a buried citadel, that you've heard about that probably has some treasure. It shouldn't be too tough, a walk through the park. You're in the village of Oakhurst and you can do some asking around to see if you can learn anything about the citadel. Do you want to do that?"

"Yeah. Yes."

"Do you have a 'gather information' skill? You don't! We'll have to improvise a little. Roll your charisma. Oh, look. You got a 20. That's special. The first thing you learn is that there was a dragon named Ashardalon that came along and basically trashed the place. The last group that went down there was a group of four -- they've never been heard from again. One of them, had a magic sword called Shatterspike. The next day you head out.

"You find pieces of old pillars, with grafiti written all over it. Most of it dwarvish -- pretty rude (chuckling), but also some goblin marks -- like a party of goblins has has been through recently. There's also a rope. Do you want to climb down it? Do you want to be really quiet as you climb down? Or make noise as you go down?

"You climb down to a ledge and there is a stairwell heading down.

"Is there anything to see," C asked."Like that a monster went down?"

"Roll your search. Yep. You can see some marks that suggest that something with big claws went down. You also see some boot prints, four sets of prints, from the last party that went down.

"You make your way down the stairs. There are a couple of switchbacks and narrow places. At the bottom is a courtyard with a few more pillars -- mostly crumbled to dust, but there is a structure about 40 feet away from you. It has a tower in front with several buildings behind. That's probably what you're looking for."

"I've got my axe behind me, holding it like this until I see a goblin or something," S said.

"Who's walking in front. You? Roll your reflexes."

"A trap? It's going to be a trap. Ten? Ten plus one," said S.

"Hmm. That's not good. That's not good at all. That's probably not good enough. You're walking along, you hear a click and a schwing sound and then you go down a hole.

"First, you fall down, you drop about 10 feet, you land hard on a somewhat abused posterior. It does a point of damage. So that's the first thing that happens. There are a couple of bodies here, but sitting on the body is a rat about this big. You're looking at the rat. The rat is looking at you, thinking about whether or not you taste better than 3 day old goblin."

"I attack it with my great sword."

"But you don't have the initiative. S has the initiative."

"I'm going to throw my axe."

"Are you sure you want to do that? OK... Roll. Hmm. The rat looks up wondering why someone threw an axe at him and attacks the guy menacing him with a sword and ... that will hit. he takes a big bite out of you, and you lose another hit point. What do you want to do?"

"I want to shoot it with my bow."

"But you aren't holding your bow -- you're holding your sword."

"Can I shoot my sword with the bow?"

"Well... You can try, but you'll be at a disadvantage."

"Can I jump on the rat and jump out of the hole?"

"Now that's the sort of stunt I like. Roll with a plus 2. That does it. By jumping on the rat, you manage to jump out of hole."

"But my axe is still down there!" said S.

After lots of discussion about pushing each other in the hole, they decide to shoot arrows at the rat. A hit! Not enough. A miss! Argh! Cries of frustration. S jumps in! The rat misses! S get's his axe! The rat hits! C throws his sword! It misses. S attacks with his war axe. It misses. C jumps in! He's injured. S grabs the rat! C attacks the rat! A hit!

Finally -- the rat is dead. They move the rat to where the hole is and then bounce on it. They search the goblin bodies and find some stuff. They find 23 silver pieces and 4 gold pieces. They agree to settle up after the adventure.

They climb out and continue toward the tower and buildings, eventually reaching the old door. Inside is a courtyard with two other exits. There are four dead goblins -- all dead about a week. They move in carefully. There is something written on the wall. The runes say Ashardalon. That's the name of the dragon! They check the bodies, but they've already been rolled.

C climbs the tower. Doesn't learn much, climbs back down providing an elaborate description of sliding down and then gripping at the bottom.

They separate and open both doors simultaneously. In the left door, is a hallway with other doors and stuff to do. In the right door, there is another hallway with a couple of doors and a door at the end. S goes in. Door on the right. Nothing in there. Door on the left. You knock it down and the wood was concealing another stone door. There is a carving that looks like a dragon swimming. That door is locked. The door at the end of the hall, there is a pit in the middle. There was a fire in here recently. On C's side, there is a stone door on the right with the relief of a scary dragon. It is locked. Back to S. There is a big cage on the south wall, but the cage has been opened and something has gotten out of it. There is writing all over the wall. There is a bench with green cloth. There are whimpering noises coming from a bedroll.

S wrestles with the bedroll and out pops a cowering kobold. After much blubbering, they learn that he was "the keeper of the dragon" and that the goblins let the dragon out.

C is attacked by another dire rat. C attacks with the bow trying to shoot a spear. It misses. More misses. C rolls a 20. Not a critical hit, but rolls 2D6 + 3 damage. The rat is dead. C pokes around in the rubble. Nothing interesting.

C and S set to breaking their doors down. C breaks through. Inside there is much dust -- no-one has been here for a long time. There are 3 alcoves to the north and to the south. In the alcoves there are globes. One on the south side is glowing and a kind of tinkling sound can be heard. S breaks through. Inside is a keg. C tries to grab the keg and that releases a very small water elemental.

The elemental attacks with acid! 3 Damage. S tries to get the kobold to attack, with no success. S attacks and hits! The elemental attacks again! It does 4 points of damage this round and will do more damage next round. S attacks again! A hit! The elemental attacks again! Two hits! S is down!

C carries S back to town and, with a little help from the DM, S is resuscitated and the game is over. The boys pack up and, after thanking the DM, talk all the way home about going back next week and playing again.