Margrave's Folly
A GM Adventure for T&T by Sid Orpin
The Quest for the Chalice of Enebrius
The GM and players start rolling those dice
It is, perhaps, a bit much to describe this piece of T&T action as an event but it was great fun to run a small adventure for my son and his cousins, plus their dad (my younger brother). It actually ended up being spread over 3 Saturdays from early December 2011 until mid-January 2012. All 3 of the young lads involved; Tom, age 11, Matt, age 10, and William (my boy), age 9, are just beginning to get involved in roleplaying and moving from that 'what do we do now?' stage to the 'let's try to do this, then go there, what about the treasure chest.....' stage. I've had a brilliant time watching their delving evolution as well as seeing how their own personalities are reflected in how they approach the different situations they have been faced with while they explore the few caverns of the underground complex I had created for the occasion.
Matt O looking a bit smug about his character sheet - would he still be smiling later on?
So, the party had assembled to try to retrieve an enchanted chalice for the Margrave of Solihar - the local big-wig - and a collector of such ephemera. The players ran 2 hobb and one elf warrior and to give them some magical ability I provided an urookin wizard as a guide (a sort of hireling); ably played by my little brother. Their first real challenge was to climb a slope of unstable boulders. Muckor; the urookin mage, made it to the top and offered to help the others by throwing down a rope but insisted they throw him a purse of money as reward for work that the Margrave had not paid him for. This rather upset one of the players - young Tom - and he clearly vowed revenge for what he saw as stealing his hard won gold. More of this later.
Darrgh Junior battles against a Gargoyle
Having got to the front door the delvers were a bit over cautious before they translated the runic message on the enchanted obelisks and entered the tunnel complex beyond. One of the hobbs; Gildom Croodleberry - Matt's character, managed to get run over by a stone globe 'a la Indiana Jones' but survived to follow his colleagues into a fight with an Ice Giant in his watery lair. A few brown trouser stains later they were all gratefully exploring some nice, dry well-lit tunnels once again.
The DM lays down the law - oooh scary!!
Encounters with "Deff" the dwarf gamer, a room full of serpents and a hall where the floor consisted of floating discs that dipped down into the dark plus a fall through oblivion that ended in a huge pile of troll dung added to the fun. All the time, though, the desire for revenge on the mage was simmering away and and Tom's hobb warrior kept fermenting unrest until the warriors all turned on the poor urookin. He didn't stand a chance but he ran and fought well before they chased him down. He did succeed in hiding his gold so the rest of the party never got their money back though.
Having done for their urookin helper, the delvers found themselves just a bit lacking in 'fire power' for the rest of their time underground. In a mad dash to grab as much loot as they could find, Tom's hobb; Dexter Gilbobbins, managed to get poisoned and his CON started to gradually drop towards zero. Sensibly discretion was felt to be the better part of valour and the warrior band retreated back to civilisation and a healer who could undo the effects of the toxin. A splendid time was had by all and I'm sure when their wounds have been licked these intrepid adventurers will want to explore further dungeons that may spring from my imagination.
Darrgh Tarrrho (Sid Orpin)
February 2012