Beyond Endurance (B/X) Session 1

 Background:  I been having a on again, off again group playing on the weekend, we where going to go with 1st/OSRIC, but I thought the group was dead when one player work schedule changed and another will be gone for a month.    24 hours before playtime, one of my players said he met another player who wanted to play "old school" D&D and had purchased a copy of OSE Classic.  After discussing it with various players, we decided to play a B/X game that is a drop in game.   (IE we will be flexible about who shows up, and anyone can drop in/drop out of play, and we will play as long as we have two players, who may be playing more then one PC at the time) 

DM note: the "adventure package" is always a nice idea to speed up purchases, I have a "Adventure pack" that is a backpack, a hammer, 12 iron spikes, 1 week of food, 2 water skins, 6 torches, a flint/steel, 50 foot rope, and 2 large sacks for 20 gold, (which is a discount) which helps speed up equipment of the player, which is many times the longest task of making a new character. 

The players wanted a "guided sandbox" and "Big world" so I generated a hexmap late last night, put a few cities on it, and deemed the hexes to be 30 mile hexes.   Then got some sleep as I knew I was going to wing it with just a few notes and so on.   I had three show up, so each person generated 3 PCs and picked two as their PCs (the third being a backup in case of death.)   The other fun note was the various rulebooks, A Ombibus,  OSE, and BE of BECMI with a notecard on the thief skills was seen outside of the usual red and blue of B/X.

World Map I made in 1 hour

PCs Session 1

Rognar (Fighter-1: 5 HP, 0XP)

Valis Hardstone (Dwarf-1: 4 HP, 0xp)

Amleth (Cleric-1: 4 HP, 0 XP) (God: Thor)

Olga of the Birch (MU-1: 5 HP, 0 XP): Memorized Sleep

Bobby Stinkfoot (Thief-1: 1 HP, 0 XP)

Ewon Greenleaves (Elf-1: 7 HP, 0 XP)

All are lawful outside of Bobby and Amleth, who are Neutral

As you can tell, one player had watched "The Northman" recently, and Bobby Stinkfoot is just a classic case of poor rolling, no stat above 12, 1 hp, and couldn't even buy armor.   

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The party arrived by ship to "Endurance" a small town established by the Imperial authorities to colonize a large island off the major landmass.  They arrived in chains, and where interviewed and then released by the authorities, as the empire empties it cells on a island across the sea.  They quickly see work (money  is tight for all the party except Rognar) and quickly learn that beyond the walls, not much is known.  but they hear of a complex of caves and dungeons about a day travel, they decide to visit.

They hire a local kid to guide them, and they get to the complex easily enough, there is a dirt path one can follow into the woods.   They see a group of caves and what is clearly the main entrance,  but decide (perhaps wisely) that looting the smaller sections might be good before going though the main staircase.

They have a lot of grunt power, so they are able to roll a stone away from one of the mounds, and entered.  They walk into a chamber, and quickly start searching while Bobby checks for traps on the door to the south.    They don't find much other then usual burial stuff, and Bobby opens the door to find another one.  He listens at the door, doesn't hear a thing, and opens the second door, and they find a Sarcophagus.  The party spent a fair bit of time discussing how tog get the lid off, and it was decided that Bobby and Olga, who sleep spell would be likely useless to any undead, would take ropes to the next room and pull off the lid, while the Elf, Fighter, Dwarf would stand weapons ready, and the cleric ready with his holy symbol.   The Lid fell off, and a zombie appeared out of it, the party made quick work of it.  They found 40 worth of treasure (200 SP in coin, and two silver cups worth  10 gp each) and while that is small sums, the party was so poor it made them grin.  

Heading to a cave, the party saw frog like humanoids rising, 5 Tibbirs (a monster of my own creation, that is reskinned Goblins as frogmen) came out of the grass to attack the party.   Due to the nature of the attack, while most where met by front line troops, one cornered Bobby, our cutpurse with 1 hp and no armor.   Most of the party thought he was doomed.

We should not be so concerned, one did slash Rognar for 2 points, but the talk was Bobby, who rolled a natural 20 with his dagger, gutting the frogmen in front of him, and then in the next round rolled another natural 20 to kill another Tibber.   The party was highly amused and the party defeated them,  and found a few CP.   Among them was a short sword, which Bobby took off of them.   

They found another Barrow, and used a sledge hammer and grit to move the stone out of the way to gain access.  They entered into a chamber that had 3 ways, east, West, and south.  They went west first, finding a door, after careful inspection it was opened, it was trapped, but Bobby made his save.   They found two more Sarcophagus, and the party quickly decided to pull off the top the same way, bobby and olga pulling, and the others ready for action.    The first was just a body, no treasure, the 2nd a high HP zombie arose, but 4 on 1 it really didn't have a chance.  12 GP and 38 SP where found.  The party collected it, and then went east, finding a mirror of what they found, except the door was not trapped.   The Party pulled the same plan, and the first one had yet another zombie, which the party pounded down, finding two potions.   The 2nd one something much darker and more powerful arose, Amleth tried to turn, and rolled a 12, and it still did not flee. (It a Wight)

His response was the very logical "RUN you Fools!" and the party quickly fled, Olga and Ragnar putting Iron spikes to close the door from the powerful undead.   Then  they explored the south, finding a pool.   The party spent some time poking around with it, till Valis bit the bullet and drank.  It was just water.  

At this point, time was a issue, so the party went back into town to heal and find out what the  potions where.

Treasure:  12 GP 238 SP 15 CP in coin, and two silver cups worth 10 GP each for a total of  55 GP,8 silvers, 15 coppers

Two potions of light healing (1d4+1 HP)

one short sword.

Each party member got 9 gold, 8 silver, 3 copper in treasure.

By DM ruling I gave everyone 500 XP.

Post Game 

PCs Session 1

Rognar (Fighter-1: 5 HP, 500XP)

Valis Hardstone (Dwarf-1: 4 HP, 500xp)

Amleth (Cleric-1: 4 HP, 500 XP) (God: Thor)

Olga of the Birch (MU-1: 5 HP, 500 XP): Memorized Sleep

Bobby Stinkfoot (Thief-1: 1 HP, 500 XP)

Ewon Greenleaves (Elf-1: 7 HP, 500 XP)