Night's Dark Terror 5: The Wilderness Beckons

This is part of a series of posts with a scene-by-scene critique, appreciation, and improvement of the 1986 TSR module B10, Night's Dark Terror. 

The siege of Sukiskyn is over. The party has won - else there's no point reading this. Some of the weary all-night defenders sleep, others make plans. The honored dead to be buried in the little cemetery in the woods. The scores of dead goblins are to be burned on a pyre in the meadow, like they do in Rohan. The goblins have been carrying coins (p. 10) which Pyotr will likely divide with the heroes. He would give it all away in gratitude, but lean times loom ahead for his family, now that the hope of great profit contained in that herd of white horses has been rustled away.

So, the next urgent task is to get the horses back. That in turn means overland travel. This kind of play can be handled three ways: as paths between pre-specified encounters, the open-air dungeon approach that we've seen in the adventure so far; or, as free travel between pre-specified encounters, the "hexcrawl" way; or finally, as procedurally generated content, random encounters all the way. For now, the horse quest takes on the first, pathed kind of play. Random encounters don't play a part in the recovery of the herd, if we follow the adventure as written.

Public domain licensed image from pxhere.com

Much is made here in B10 of the party finally acquiring horses from the Sukiskyn stable, and using them to truck around the wilderness. You'll recall that it's an important enough point that the DM is encouraged to deny the party horses before they reach the homestead. But this is where Mentzer-edition B/X D&D and 5th edition diverge. In Mentzer's Expert rules a riding horse is a veritable Harley-Davidson that can carry its rider 48 miles a day, twice the movement rate of an unarmored footman and almost three times that of a character weighed down by metal armor. 

But the 5th edition rules are skeptical of this advantage - the only reason in 5th edition why horses might give a travel benefit, other than acting as visible status symbols and keeping the mud off your boots, is if you gallop them for double-fast speed an hour each day and then rest them = a paltry 18% bonus per day of normal travel.

These rulesets give rise to huge differences in the daily travel rate, with B/X riders making 12 more miles a day then 5e riders over trails and clear terrain, and going over twice as fast through forest and hills. The truth about mounted travel, according to this writer's site, is debatable but probably somewhere in the middle (foot travel +50%, with no bonus in very heavy swamp, mountain, or forest. For the equipment investment in a mount to give benefits, and for B10's horse obsession to make sense, I recommend that 5th edition DMs house-rule a little.

 (An oft-neglected factor in mounted movement seems to be the availability of good grass or fodder in town for the horse to eat. If fodder is poor, the horse needs to spend more time per day grazing and will not be in good condition to trot or canter. Taking horse rations on the journey is not easy; a stabled horse eats 15-20 pounds of grain and hay daily. But if towns and plains allow the best feeding opportunities, that roughly works out to "roads and grassy plains good, other terrain bad" much like the present system.)

In any case, the hoofprints of forty horses are not easily missed, and they lead to the east. I recommend that the eldest son of the family, Taras, come along with the party as the module suggests. There's a part for him to play in the flawed. but fixable, action that follows.

Next: Tragedy and treachery in retrieving the herd.

Night's Dark Terror 2: Surprise on the Volaga River

Image by leafbreeze7 on DeviantArt

This is part of a series of posts with a scene-by-scene critique, appreciation, and fan improvement of the 1986 TSR module B10, Night's Dark Terror. 

However long the wait, we are now at the eastern docks of Kelven in the gray dawn of 7 Thaumont (the Thyatian calendar's March), looking for Kalanos and his boat to take us upriver. But hold on a minute! Even if Eastern Karameikos is a temperate climate with little snow, and the rivers seldom freeze over, Thaumont -- "thaw month" -- should be the worst time to travel upriver. The Volaga, whose watershed is fed by mountain runoff, ought to run fast and swollen with melting snow.

Not to blame B10. It's just choosing not to apply part of the Expert D&D travel rules, which give a fixed rate for river travel, but state the movement up- or downstream may be reduced or increased, respectively, by 7-12 miles a day. River boat = 60' = 12 miles a day (close to 5th edition's 10 miles for a rowed keelboat), so strong currents can completely prevent movement upstream (and see 5th edition's rule, "These vehicles can’t be rowed against any significant current").

What's the problem with this slow pace, or even the no-current pace of 12 miles a day? For one, the timetable of the module's action requires the boat to get to Misha's Ferry, 27 miles from Kelven, by "late afternoon" on the very same day. That, plainly, is not happening. It's odd that in a module so dedicated to promoting naturalism -- "Everyday matters such as travelling long distances, finding food and shelter, and so on, need to be taken care of" -- this detail goes by the wayside.

Let's say with the current, the boat progresses 6 miles a day - we are talking late afternoon on the fifth day (11 Thaumont), or on the third if the current's disregarded. To keep up with the planned events, a better DM's choice might be to push the initial departure back to 3 or 5 Thaumont.

But before then, we have our first encounter, which should take place "a few miles upriver" of Kelven where the river narrows, and woods crowd the southern bank. It will happen in the morning if you're going at the module's motorboat speed, or midday at the more realistic pace.

It's an ambush by mysterious black-clad goons! They're hiding in "the woods on the south bank" - well, the map shows no such woods but we can assume it's a small local thicket. In a clearer failure of editing, though, their numbers are ambiguous. The text lists one figure and the stat-blocks list another. As this is only the first encounter I suggest using the less challenging numbers in the text if playing old-school rules, and the larger numbers if playing 5th edition.

First. the boat hits a chain pulled across the river, blocking the way. It's not clear how in broad daylight the boat's pilot misses seeing that chain. We can assume it is just below the waterline, enough to stop the boat's keel, with the ends secured and hidden under brush and sand on the bank. You can further set this up by remarking on the murky and turbulent water.

Then, archers in the trees open up, 80 feet away on the bank -- implying that the boat cruises up the middle of the river, the deepest spot, which is natural for a keeled boat. Also, swimmers with daggers approach to try a boarding. When they do - surprise! - one of the rowers on the boat reveals himself as an enemy agent and joins the attack.

This is a terrific setup, with many moving parts that individually look easy to handle but join into a tough tactical dilemma. The archers may pick off one or more boatmen or wound a party member (if you want to play them extra smart and cruel, have all of them target an unarmored spellcaster!) But once hidden behind the walls of the boat, the defenders are safe, unless they want to return shots. If it were just the boarders, they would be easily decimated by shooting as they approach the boat. They swim at half their movement rate by the Expert rules, so it will take four combat rounds for them to get there, or (swimming at half move but using Dash) three combat turns in 5e. The survivors, once there, lose another round in boarding. However, the suppressive archery from the bank makes both kinds of defense dangerous. The temptation is to hunker down and minimize risk until the boarders are at the boat, but then the odds shift as the agent aboard reveals himself.

Some details that are not obvious from the writing:

* The ambush is led by a higher-level goon who, as a card-carrying member of the Iron Ring bad villains club, should stay hidden and flee if failure is impending. He has a role to play in waking any archers who are felled by any sleep spells heading their way, if he is not felled himself by a lucky sleep roll, which is quite possible in Basic, less so in 5th. It is also in-character for him (but none of the minions) to have a horse ready to make a getaway.

* A DM who wants to play the minions to the fullest might consider having some of the swimmers proceed underwater and out of sight. It is completely in keeping with the ethos of their organization to have four expendable splashing guys head for the front of the boat as a distraction, while five others slip into the water behind a bush and proceed underwater to the stern. We've already established they can't see very well underwater, so they might pop up at random places within 20' of the boat.

* While the rowers are hiding and not rowing, the boat naturally drifts downstream. Working backwards from the amount it slows upriver travel, the river current is "stealing" 6 miles of travel from a 8-hour travel day (with frequent rests) in our generous interpretation, so it's running 3/4 a mile per hour, about .4 meters per second. So, drift is 8 feet per 5th edition turn (6 sec) and 12 feet per Basic D&D combat round (10 sec). This, again, makes a case for the distraction swimmers to approach from the prow (losing a round as the boat slips away) and underwater swimmers to approach the stern.

* Advancing or retreating to get off the boat might be rational. The archers will be hard to reach and their 20 arrows (or 12, if you're merciful) can last a long time. We can assume they're smart and don't shoot at hiding defenders they cannot hit. The problem with landing is that, to row or maneuver the boat to the bank, the rowers need to expose themselves, and they're paper-thin. 

* Even if the boarders and false oarsman are defeated, the encounter might end up in a stalemate as the boat drifts down the river. If the archers' cover is only a small thicket, they will want to keep to it. Eventually, the party will drift to the bank and can proceed to engage the archers.

* Terrified of their boss, the archers are likely to stand their ground in the final act of the encounter, serving as a screen even if they're out of arrows, as the leader makes his getaway. Even if one is captured, they know little of the mission, which was evidently called up when an armed group of adventurers was seen consorting with Stefan and taking passage upriver. The Iron Ring wants no interference with their plans!

* Remember, the river water is icy cold. This should reinforce that the swimmers are toughened and past caring, as they emerge from the river with gray and clammy flesh. The cold water might also test characters who happen to fall in without preparing, maybe with a few HP damage if they fail a Poison/CON save.

The aftermath of the combat is not spelled out in the writing. It's likely that several boatmen will lie dead from the combat. Worse, and especially if they're 2nd level, the less sturdy party members are at risk from the surprise archery and backstabbing thief attack. Don't sell the Iron Ring short - the agent on the boat will be out to kill. Party members may have to pull an oar to make speed if more than one rower is dead. Replacement characters can always join up, looking to cross from the north side of the river at the next encounter - Misha's Ferry.

Hex Crawl 23 #272: Mehershal's Caravanserai

Eleven hexes northwest, two north of Alakran.

 

Merchants and wayfarers have stopped at the point where the road to Eryptos calves from the great Road of Flowers forever, it seems. But the place truly became amenable when an archmage by the name of Mehershal was persuaded to command a djinn of water to open up an ever-flowing well at the spot. Now, a complex of buildings has sprung up around the watering place: eight great stables, a feasting hall, an entertainment tent, a house of booths where private business may be conducted, places with rooms great and small for lodging, a modest place of devotion, a hot and cold bathhouse, all connected by arched arcades that cast deep concealing shadows in the evening.

It is free to stay there and to draw water; the family that runs the place has other ways to extract money from the business, some as innocent as selling food and renting more comfortable furnishings. Shifty-eyed informers stalk the public areas looking for people who might be interested in a little profit, a little trouble. Their rumors start at 2 gp for vague suggestions, and run up to 25 for detailed blueprints of adventure.  Other carry dice and other games, which they pretend at first not to play very well for money. Some of the worst hustlers eavesdrop on prayers at the temple, and use them against their marks. 

The patriarch of the operation, mountainous, merry, effusive Bezaz, simply beams and shakes his head and says, "People and their damn human nature! What can be done about them, eh?" But he and his staff of eight burly trouble-squashers can be induced to administer rough justice if it would be in their interests.

Those who retire directly to a private room or dormitory corner, have their stew brought to them. and depart betweem waking and dawn, seldom find any of the troubles listed on the faces of a d6 below:

1. You're offered 40 gp to start a diversion while something unsavory goes on in another building. Not just any brawl - something that will truly attact every eye, and have people running outside to fetch their friends. Something memorable.

2. One player character has random people eyeing them oddly, demanding money they're owed; they're slapped by an angry woman, accused of selling inferior wares by another, challenged to a duel by a Dharvi sword adept. It will emerge that a rogue has, by cunning art, impersonated the general appearance of the character and committed a string of indicretions under such cover.

3. A trained monkey steals something from the player characters, and disappears, but is seen later and can be tracked to its owner, a blind traveling beggar.

4. You are invited to judge an argument between two merchants as to whose lead camel is the most beautiful. Indeed, the white camel Pillar-of-Salt is objectively more lovely, but the owner of the plump brown camel Rolling-Beetle is wealthier. If you choose for the white, the crowd and her owner will love you but you will have gained a powerful enemy. If you choose for the brown, the rich merchant will favor you with gifts, but the crowd will disdain you, If you philosophize or otherwise avoid a clear decision, the merchants will grumble and the crowd will jeer you as a poseur.

5. Screams from the wellhouse. A long-bearded man failed to give thanks to the spirit of the well, and a vengeful water elemental has his beard gripped tight and threatens to drown him!

6. Two men start tussling over a stoppered bottle, each one claiming it as their own. In the fight the stopper comes loose and an elemental whirlwind is loosed, shooting lightning and causing great havoc. The wind may be fought, to Bezaz' great gratitude, or the players may simply take advantage of the havoc to rob and loot.

Hex Crawl 23 #248: Lost in the Badlands?

Four hexes southwest, eight northwest of Alakran.

 

Badlands are a region of steep, eroded hills with little soil or sand. In this hex, branching spurs of badland ridges coexist with gentler slopes. There is no vegetation on the crags, and precious little in the low places, vropped up by herds of goats from Ekkhusa as soon as it appears. Not just the famous greenish clay of Ekkhusa pottery, but another, beige clay with the property of growing six times its volume when water is added, can be found at the bottom of these ravines.

The region of badlands west of Targatana is known as the Khepu. This hex is only its northwestern extremity. We have until now seen terrain of this type only close by the Scarp, which provides a convenient landmark of direction. The Khepu, though, stretches for many miles, and travelers not skilled in survival lore (DC 13) risk being lost within its mazy channels as they travel through. If this happens, roll d8 for the direction of travel that, unknown, is actually being followed: 1-6 being the hexsides clockwise from north and 7-8 indicating a circle within the hex. 

One remedy for being lost is to get an higher view, either through magic or by climbing one of the precipices. The latter solution, however, takes time, can be dangerous, and generally will only reveal the way through the present hex.