Ichorteat Grottoe - Community Map

A simple map - I was at a staff meeting last week and bristling against paperwork and little blue squares and such.  I went out of my way to make sure the angles mostly aren't square and rectilinear.    What an ugly word.  Parallel. That's a lot of L's

I envision some Runequest-style demonologists and a cult or three for the big hopping toad idol at the top. Came back to the whole thing and inked the first layer of walls after reading some of the stuff in the unofficial Fiend Folio II that +Greg Gorgonmilk posted onto the G+ thread

Lots of traps and maybe a few secret passages.  Gateway drugs into demon-toad worship and the bodies of a few dozen innocents.  Mugwumps, doelms, and bullywugs. Flooded passages (haven't decided which they ought to be, yet)

This is the basic version but maybe I'll do up a thing like Dyson does with all the hatching.  It's soothing and a stress thing  and good for goldbricking at meetings.  Or while waiting for clients to arrive or fill out paperwork. Writing the odd dissonant hymn or dirge to a toad demon while waiting for the coffee to brew

Update:

If I had used the scanner I could have cleaned up some of the pencil lines but then I'd have had to clean the back desk off and... Well, I will work it out later.

solo-ing BSOLO1 The Ghost of Lion Castle

I think I mentioned some months ago that I was playing through this again after many, many years.

I have not been able to win and get back to Sarsdell with a magic-user (Eztar a pregen 3rd level) or elf (Kayen Telva - yeah, him!).  I did make it through recently with Hewer, my 3rd level Fighter. It was a close shave and my aura is not clear about it, if you get my meaning.  For one thing, it's against cannon as a Fighter could never be Sargon's heir.  I just wanted to see if it could be done.  I tried a couple of different elf and M/U roll-ups, but no go.  I don't know why they included level 1 magic-user pregens; it seems to me they'd be toast practically immediately.

"An iron ration?  Are you kidding me?  You won my Castle with an Iron Ration?"

This time, I encountered a high number of ferrets, and notably routed a Giant Black Widow Spider without being bitten.  I only survived as I took liberal advantage of the bed for exploring and went through on a treasure run the last go-through.  I thought by picking Orcish language I could avoid some fights but it didn't happen at all.  I didn't see nor smell an orc.

The first monster I encountered was a Giant Ferret, in the field just outside the postern gatehouse in which Eztar was killed (a couple of iterations before) by a Giant Ferret. Hewer kept his spell book and his +1 dagger.  I'm not sure if I re-vengeanced Eztar, and I'm not sure if his gear counts as treasure - but I like to think yes to the former and no to the latter.  It would give me a +1 dagger in the long run.

I think I will shift Hewer over to a 2nd level bald (from the barber room) Wizard in Dungeon Crawl Classics and have him be some kind of cat-conjurer with Sargon as a patron.  I gain a level by completing the adventure auto-magically, but I feel bad about the whole "I'm a fighter" thing.  I could just forswear the sword and devote myself to the study of the hunting cats and their magics.  Sargon as Patron.  Hmm.

Hmm. That's worth a thing, there.

On the random encounter chart, the lower your roll the more dangerous the encounter is.  The lion in Sargon's study almost took me to pieces in a couple of rounds.  Claw/claw/bite 2-5/2-5/1-10! with an 8 needed to hit my chain mail!.  Thank some god below for my last iron ration to distract it - cowardly, yes, but I think it's okay RAW.  I have rarely been so worried about the outcome of a battle - you can't drink healing potions in combat in these rules!  My heart rate was a little up for a couple of minutes!

Lesson:  Be wary of the beasts that skulk Sargon the Cat Sorcerer's keep!

( Following up with this thread in which a Nithian Automaton is discussed.  I don't know what that is, yet.)