Session Report: Tower of the Black Pearl

Last Night on January 1/21/15 we had our second session of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. We ran it on Roll20 for about two and half hours. Our band of adventurers are....

Lefira: Halfling Fighter
Azurith: Elven Cleric
Taurnil: Elven Thief/Mage
Rin: Human Paladin
Shnozola: Gnome Druid
All 1st level dudes and dudette

We ran the second session of the Tower of the Black Pearl. Some bullet points of the session below. If you plan on playing that module don't read ahead. The Tower of the Black Pearl is from Dungeon Crawl Classic and I have converted it over to AD&D 2nd Edition. Conversion is pretty much done on the fly. Sweet thing about 2e and DCC is the traps/monster are rules light and can be eyeballed quite easily. The group is about 80% done with the module and I have enjoyed it thus far.

-The group last session use some blood to activate a teleport sigil and appeared elsewhere in the tower. They were surrounded by bandits who were on guard. Fight commence. Bandits died. The room had walls depicting a wizard dude turning into a five head dragons.

-Group discovers room with gold plated organs painted black and a gold bowl. How nice.

-The Group explores a bit more and come across an underground lake. They meet Charon I mean undead ferryboat dude who requires payment to cross the lake. They kindly pay him. While passing through the lake they see some shiny objects in the water. Smarter then they look they decide not jump into the lake. Plus the lake is brick cold.

-The group is escorted under a rickety bridge high above and meet some more bandits at a dock near by. The head bandit tries to strike a deal with the group to open a door he can't. 

-The group suspects head bandit is a jackoff and for a brief moment entertains his truce. The gnome decides to hug the head bandit. Head bandit gets angry and fight erupts. Our thief/wizard gets one-shotted by a bandit. The group prevails though and heal up the thief/wizard.

-Group disarms the door that had some blade trap on it.

-They find a room with skeletons on the floor and high water marks. Yeah smells like a trap. Half the group enter, half the group stays behind. Trap sprung. Room is flooding. Group is panicking. Two rounds away from drowning the group is able to open another door leading to stairs upward. The trap reset and everyone get through okay.

-Going up the stairs they run into that rickety bridge. The elves, gnome, and halfling take off their gear and slowly cross the bridge. The Paladin even with no gear is a fat bastard and a broken plank almost drops him to the lake floor. Quick on his feet and a successful dex check he hold on for dear life. The group safely passes over the bridge.

-On the other side of the bridge is an immense sarcophagus. How fun. That is were we ended.

Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I, II, & III

I have a lot of monster books. From Basic to Fifth Edition and almost everything in between. Plus throw in the crap load of books from Pathfinder and D20 I probably have two whole shelves devoted to monsters. I'm always on the lookout for great books of beast. Now for most part the majority of them are pretty repetitive and boring. You do however find a bunch of gems that inspire you.

My favorite monster books are the Planescape Monstrous Compendiums. Planescape being one of my favorite setting. The three books making up the series have such a wonderful layout and art style. The writing is top notch and very flavorful. There are a tremendous amount of interesting creatures. If you like plane hopping or throwing in an occasionally outer planar creature you can't go wrong with any of these books.

If you are fan of the OSR then these three books are simple conversions to Basic D&D, AD&D 1E, and any Retro-Clone. You do have an overlap with previous edition monster books but for the most part there is new text and fluff which are worth the price of admission. Hopefully Drivethrurpg will have them up on their site soon. The first two books are pretty easy to find but the third appendix I've seen very high asking prices.

I know it's a pipe dream but maybe one day Wizards of the Coast would collect all three books plus the four 32 page compendium found in the boxsets to make a massive tome of outer planar goodness. Then again if they don't I'm sure once all the PDFs are out you could probably combine them together and create one via Lulu.

Out of curiosity what are your favorite monster books? Any game or edition. With the exception of the core book which is your staples.



                                                 

Eye of Fear and Flame

Draped in a ragged, hooded cloak, an eye of fear and flame is a skeletal figure with a gem set into each eye socket - one red and one black

Source: AD&D Fiend Folio 1E
Book of Vile Darkness 3.0

     Created by chaotic evil gods the Eye of Fear and Flame are let loose to inspire dark deeds. An Eye of Fear and Flame might approach a couple in the woods. He threatens to kill both of them if the wife doesn't take her husband life. If she decides to kill her husband the Eye of Fear and Flame will spare her life and revel in her shock and misery. The Eye of Fear and Flame seeks out individuals to commit dark deeds and hideous crimes.

     As agents of chaos they are created when Dark Gods take the soul of a chaotic evil madmen and give them an animated skeletal form in which to roam and do their will. The defining feature of the Eye of Fear and Flame is it's gems. The black gem creates a fear effect and the red gem unleashes an inferno of fire. It is rumored that only 20 of these creatures are known to exist.

Combat: In AD&D 1E the Eye of Fear and Flame is a level VII creature.

-Red Gem: Unleashes a 12 dice fireball once every three rounds.

-Black Gem: Acts as a fear wand every melee round

-Planeshift: If combat is going against the Eye of Fear and Flame it can take two melee rounds to shift to the Ethereal Plane.

-Resistances: If Blindness or Power Word: Blind is cast on the Eye of Fear and Flame they are reflected back at the caster.

The Gems are worth 1,000 to 2,000 gold pieces each.

     The Eye of Fear and Flame makes for a great villain. In a sleepy village chaos has erupted. Normal everyday folk are committing horrendous acts of evil. Killing love ones, stealing, etc. All prompted by the Eye. The adventurers must find the root cause of this evil and put an end to it. Maybe destroying the divine servant of the Dark Gods will lead to greater retribution.

Nothic

This hunched creature has a single huge eye that dominates its entire face. Its body is bloated and misshappen, and its limbs are wiry but strong, Its arms end in claws that reach the ground as it moves in awkward hop.

Source: Miniatures Handbook 3.5
D&D Monster Manual 5E

     Nothic are aberrations that live in underground lairs and ruins. Rumor has it that wizards who dabble in the arcane secrets are transformed into a Nothic when a rituals goes wrong. The Nothic retain no memory of their former selves. They do have an urge to seek out magic. They can be encountered lurking in cellars of the local arcane academy or ruins of a great wizards tower.
     The Nothic seek forbidden lore and knowledge. They covet magic items and will easily accept them as payment for lore they may possess. The Nothic hope that one day their desire for magical secrets will revert their condition.


Combat: In D&D 3.5 the Nothic is a CR 3 creature. It has relatively high hit points that average out at 42. They have two claw attacks that deal 1d4+4 damage.

-Flesh Rotting Gaze: Anyone who see a Nothic within 30ft must make a Will Save 16 or take 1d6 points of damage.

-Sight: Nothic can see invisibility and have darkvision 120ft.

In D&D 5E the Nothic is a Challenge Rating of 2. It has 45 hit points, Armor Class of 15, and two claw attacks that deal 1d6+3 damage.

Rotting Gaze: The Nothic can target one creature with it's gaze within 30ft. The victim must make a DC 12 Constitution Saving Throw or take 3d6 necrotic damage.

Weird Insight: The Nothic can target a creature within 30ft to steal a piece of knowledge from them. It's a contest between the victims Charisma(Deception) vs the Nothics Wisdom(Insight). Failure allows that Nothic to steal one fact or secret from the victim.

The Miniatures Handbook version is pretty sparse about the Nothic. It mentions nothing about their arcane past and has them as simple subterranean lurkers. The D&D 5E Monster Manual gives them some backstory and depth. I like the Weird Insight ability of the Nothic for 5E. Stealing a Secret from a prominent NPC can lead to an interesting sidetrek.


                                                         

Gas Spore

A bulbous body floats towards you. It has a central, unblinking eye, and a large maw filled with daggerlike teeth. Smaller eyes, attached to wriggling stalks, sprout from the top of the orb-like body.

Source: Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations 3.5
Original Source was AD&D Monster Manual

     The Gas Spore is a giant flying fungal ball. They were created by Beholder Mages. Since their creation they have spread far and wide. Repopulating through their infestation ability. The Gas Spore looks like Beholders and can easily deceive an adventuring party by appearing as so. They are hollow creatures filled with spores under intense pressure to burst.
     The Gas Spore main purpose is to be destroyed. The destruction of the Gas Spore allows it's Death Throe and Infestation abilities to take full effect. Having multiple Gas Spore in an encounter can wreck havoc on a party. On a positive note the spores from this creature can be harvested with a DC 20 Alchemy check. You can turn the Gas Spores into powder and it can be used as a contact poison. Harvesting a living Gas Spore can be tricky and failure could expose you to an infestation.

Combat: The Gas Spore is a CR 3 Large Plant. It's primary abilities are it's death throe and infestation abilities. For a CR 3 creature they have very low Armor Class. Perfect for blowing them up.

-Death Throes: A Gas Spore when it is reduced to 0 hit points explodes. The explosion causes 6d6 points of Sonic Damage in a 10ft Radius. A DC 10 Reflex save is allowed to halve the damage. Characters caught in the explosion are exposed to the infestation ability.

-Infestation: Any living non-plant creature exposed to the Gas Spore's slam or death throw ability must make a DC 12 Fort Save or be infested by spores. The spores rapidly grow and eat flesh. Initial effect is 1d4 Con damage and requires an additional save each hour or lose an additional 1d4 Con. If a character dies from the spores he turns into a formless mush that spawns 1d4 small Gas Spores.
Any ability that neutralizes or delays poison can cure/delay the infestation.

-All-Around Vision: A Gas Spore can see in all directions and cannot be flanked.

-Beholder Camouflage: They get +20 to disguise check to appear as Beholders.

-Flight: Naturally buoyant and can fly 20ft per round.

Returning to My Roots Part II

     Last Wednesday I had my first session of AD&D 2nd Edition since the 90s. I ran it on Wednesday Night on Roll20. The game was fantastic. It played much better then I remembered. When I last played AD&D 2e I was a teenager. The system ran quite well. I enjoyed that not everything was codified in the rules and I was just making rulings on the spot. It was refreshing from the modern versions of D&D.


     I am running Tower of the Black Pearl from Goodman games. The module is a nice short adventure about a Tower that appears in the Ocean once a decade. We completed half the module before the session ended. Should complete it by next week. The module originally appeared in The Adventure Begins Hardcover for 3rd Edition. It was recently redone for Dungeon Crawl Classic. I have both of them but converting from DCC.

Here is the cast of characters we have...

Halfling Fighter
Elven Cleric
Elven Thief/Mage
Human Paladin
Gnome Druid
*Yes I know Gnomes can't be druids but he wanted to play one so who give a crap. ;-)

Monster Tokens II

Monster tokens for VTTs using internet art and tokentools.

Air Elemental

Chain Golem

Deep Spawn

Ettin

Frost Giant

Frost Giant

Frost Giant

Goat

Gorgon

Gray Jester

Green Hag

Green Hag

Ice Elemental

Korred

Annis Hag

Lava Child

Peryton

Shadow

Leech Swarm

Bone Golem

Raven Swarm

Ice Troll

Will-o’-wisp

Shadow