The Sorcerer's Labyrinth Second Anniversary

 

On February 10, 2024, I rolled up a good ol' B/X dungeon on the fly for an impromptu pick-up game on the OSR Pick-Up Games Discord server. After a year-long campaign and 46 sessions, the players cleared the dungeon, slew the white dragon, defeated the red manticore, and dethroned the evil sorcerer, Mallacar. We had a blast! 

The first level of a multi-level dungeon of epic proportions was complete. Several months later and players are ready to return.  

Tonight is the fifth session of our second play-through, and the second anniversary of The Sorcerer's Labyrinth. The session starts in an hour, and I'm as excited to run it as players are to play it!

Melan's Favorite Judge's Guild Products

 

Quote from the Classic Adventure Game Podcast
Discord Server

Some Rando's Compilation of Natural Healing Rules in D&D

Mummy, Expert Set, p. 36

Mummies are great enemies for beginning player characters. Against five or six first-level or second-level PCs, a mummy can make an awesome solo "boss" encounter. Later, their dreaded "mummy rot" keeps them threatening. 

Recently—Session #68, Oct. 22, 2025—the PCs in my current Gorefest Dungeon campaign were attacked from behind by three mummies. They were already drained of spells and down some hit points. 

They felled two of them, but their Cleric 4, Lokian, was down to only one hit point—and he was engaged in a furious melee with the last mummy. 

Their Fighter 4, Essarian, was down 12 hit points (to 16), and everyone at the table knew mummy rot meant these grievous wounds weren't going to be healed any time soon. 

The two Magic-User 4's were both out of spells. Hobart was atop his Broom of Flying and Sarath was Invisible. Both had Wands of Magic Missile drained empty of all charges! 

Thankfully, they were able to retreat and escape. They had one Scroll of Remove Curse . . . but two victims. Down to his last hit point, they chose to cure Lokian, leaving brave Essarian to remain afflicted and grievously wounded. Magical healing won't work and natural healing was slowed by 90%. 

But at what rate does natural healing occur? 

The rules are easy to find in the 1981 Basic Set, p. 25: 

However, as luck would have it, as I watched a random video about Mystara, I scrolled down a little through the comments. 

A certain Verpalorian310—I guess that's how we identify people in the dystopic, cyber-punk future of 2025—made a wonderful compilation of natural healing rules in Basic D&D. I was shocked to learn BECMI and Rules Cyclopedia omitted any rules for such, but I also felt so vindicated. I thought for sure it was 1d4. Now, I see that it was 1d4 in the rules I first learned and played—the 1991 Black Box! 

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Natural Healing in Basic D&D

'77 Holmes Basic p. 7

Each day of rest and recuperation back "home" will regenerate 1 to 3 of his hit points for the next adventure.

'77 B1: In Search of the Unknown p. 5

The passage of a day - or 24 hours - will mean the healing of 1 hit point of damage for each character.

'81 Set 1 Moldvay Basic p. 25

To cure wounds by resting, the wounded creature must relax in a safe place, and may do nothing but rest. Each full day of complete rest will restore 1-3 hit points ... If a day's rest is interrupted for any reason, no healing will take place.

'83 Mentzer BECMI p. 4 mentions natural healing in several places, but omits the rules for it. "The damage your fighter has taken can be healed by a few days' rest."

'84 BSOLO: Ghost of Lion Castle p. 4 resting 1 day heals 1 HP.

'86 B10: Night's Dark Terror, pull-out sheet I

As well as healing wounds by means of spells it is also possible to regain 1 hit point per day by resting. In order to regain a hit point, your rest must be undisturbed both during the day and the night. Any strenuous activity such as fighting or traveling more than a very short distance will stop you from healing.

'89 B11: King's Festival p. 23

The bugbear is 50% likely to leave for good, and 50% likely to ambush the PCs later-together with 1d4 orcs it bullies into serving it-when the PCs finally make their way back to Stallanford from this dungeon. By this time it will have regained 1d8 hit points from natural healing.

'91 Denning Basic p. 28

For each full day a character spends resting, which means doing nothing but lying in bed, he recovers 1d4 hit points.

'91 Rules Cyclopedia mentions natural healing, but omits rules for it.

'94 Stewart Classic D&D p. 46

For each full day a character spends resting, which means doing nothing but lying in bed, he recovers 1d4 hit points.

'98 Grubb Fast Play doesn't mention natural healing at all.

Factors affecting natural healing: 

Cause Disease

Cureall

Cursed scrolls

Healing skill

Mummy rot

Raise Dead

Starvation

Veterinary Healing skill

Frostfire's Demise

Tonight, it was my birthday. Had a great day!

It was also game night, Session 43, and players took on Frost Fire, the white dragon. 

We lost two player characters, a C5 and an M4, but the delvers were victorious!

Nine Months in The Sorcerer's Labyrinth

"Gorefest Dungeon" is just what I call whatever I'm running online at the time, but this year, I began designing a multi-level dungeon called The Sorcerer's Labyrinth. The dungeon shares its name with the first level. 

We just finished Session 36. Virtually all of Level 1 and almost half of Level 2, The Undercrypt, has been explored.

The first-level map has changed a lot over the months. Here are some key versions:

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Version 1.0. Session 1, Feb. 10, 2024 

Session 1 was ran impromptu for an open table on the OSR Pick-Up Games Discord server. After calling for players, I generated a map on donjon, but generated the dungeon's content live by rolling on the Dungeon Stocking Table on page 52 of the 1981 edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set.

Room 1 was rolled as "Special, Treasure," so I pulled out my trusty ol' "water weird in a fountain with coins" encounter. I blacked out the door in the top left and bottom left of the Enchanted Fountain room, so that strange downward dead-end passage right after the entrance stairs has always had a secret door there.

The area below it, the Statuary was "Special, No Treasure," and I put a bugbear "assassin" in it that hid on the ceiling and waited for players to pass by before pouncing on the back rank. Players were quick to examine all the statues, but never mentioned looking up. It's the second room of a beginner dungeon, so it's a good time to get this kind of procedural conduct out of the way. It's just a normal bugbear surprise roll if players don't say "I look up." It's good to establish how the table handles these common situations like crab spiders crawling on the ceiling.

The area with the sarcophagus on the dais and the burial niches in the walls would later become the Pyramid. I rolled "Monster, Treasure" on the stocking table and then rolled 12 skeletons. Players rolled their own treasure (Type D) live for the last area of the night—and they rolled a stunning, spectacular 11,800 gp total, a Sword +1, a Scroll of Light and Hold Portal, and a Potion of Healing!!!

Before the game, I made one of the skeletons a wight able to cast Darkness. Not knowing how awesome the player's live treasure roll was going to be, I gave it a Staff of Snakes and a healing potion. I called it a Spellwight.

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Version 2.0. Session 2, Feb. 20

Sessions 2-7 used what's now the odd duck of the map versions. That area with the 70'-wide round pit at the top with the floating platforms was going to be a vertical battle map. Still an idea I want to use. The octagonal room in the center was what it is today—a lever/door puzzle—but for some reason I didn't use gate/portcullis doors. Session 3 used map version 2.1, and it had gates.

Players during these early open-table sessions were much more investigative and experimental. They would always try diplomacy first, or to look for a way to circumvent dangerous encounters. Players of the group that formed from the open-table sessions are much more aggressive.

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Version 3.0. Session 8, April 2

Version 3.1

Version 3.9. Session 26, Sept. 24

Version 3 was a real workhorse for the first half of the campaign. I was never happy with that awkward space on the bottom-right (Area 20/23)—never did figure out exactly how I wanted to use it. It was where I debuted my Pitslither monsters: Sarlacc-like maw-pits with lamprey teeth and a tentacle for a tongue. Players never went back after that, so it never did really matter.

Through 26 sessions of play-testing, it was clear what areas were the most popular, and some of those areas needed more room—a lot more room in the case of the Arcane Library (Area 4) and the so-called "Orc Prison" (Area 29).  

I knew I needed more room, so I increased the size of the map from 390' × 390' to 500' × 500' for Version 4.0 . . . 

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Version 4.0. Session 27, Oct. 1

 Version 4.3. Session 36, Dec. 8

Treasure Map I

Treasure Map I is found in the Arcane Library, just to the west of the Pentagram Dome on Level 1, The Sorcerer's Labyrinth. 

I've play-tested the dungeon's first level all the way through, but as I'm running an open-table game, I've had multiple groups go through parts of it three, if not four times. 

The Arcane Library has what's very likely the first "big score" of treasure players will find in the dungeon. 

So, it's of note that this map is given to players very early in the game—most likely the first session. 

For the first level, I wanted to increase player agency for when they choose their directions at intersections between blind passages—a common occurrence. 

In order to make informed decisions—to have agency—players who enter a new, large, labyrinthian dungeon like The Sorcerer's Labyrinth will need at least some sort of information at nearly every turn. Otherwise, it's just "Left or right? Who cares. Flip a coin." Or, "Left for loot!"

As intended, this is a very maze-like dungeon, and there's only so many "Left or right?" hallways you can add distant torchlight, wall graffiti, foot prints, whispers, chitters, glowing eyes, blood spatters, spider webs, broken daggers, orc dung, etc.

Giving a map straightaway increases player agency giving them points of interest rather like town rumors, a win-win in my book!

Gorefest Dungeon Level 1: The Sorcerer's Labyrinth

Ready for Session 12

1 square = 10'

1. Enchanted Fountain. A water weird (serpentine water elemental) guarded coins in the water basin. (Looted.)

2. Statuary. Monsters and people; realistic statues or victims of petrification? (Empty.) 

3. Summoning Chamber. Pentagram will hold summoned demons. Players have a scroll of "Summon Merchant Demon," and have used one here before. (Empty?)

4. Magic Library. Spell books, scrolls, and treasure maps were found here. (Looted.)

5. The Arena. Orcs and ogres—sometimes with a spell-casting shaman. The players have fought lots of bloody battles here. (Empty.)

6. Ruined Crypts. Skeletons (3d4 of them) will rise if grave goods (e.g., a sparkling ring) are disturbed. (Looted?)

7. Iron Maiden. A rotating gargoyle statue presumably protects an iron maiden behind bars. Black sludge drips from the eye shutter. (Undisturbed.)

* No number (north-west corner): The Minotaur's Maze. A minotaur with a golden axe stalks the maze. Respawns: PCs have killed it three times, but not without taking losses.  

8. Bone Guardian: A bone golem with four magic swords (and attacks per round!) guards a set of stairs to Level 2. (Retreated from guardian.)

9. Dragon's Lair. A dragon guards a magic weapon that if drawn, the dungeon will "reset." First time it was a Flame Sword +1/+3. After players drew it, the weapon is now a crackling, arcing spear.

10. (Not Pictured. Players haven't re-visited this area since the dungeon reset in Session 6.)

11. Empty. 

12. Gargoyle Antechamber. On the west wall, a relief of a gargoyle's face with a hinged jaw. Inside its toothy maw: a pull-ring. Pulling it snaps the mouth closed, but operates the gate to Room 13. (Empty?)

13. Rotating Gargoyle. Inside the rotating gargoyle statue's mouth burns a fiery glow. It will breathe fire on anyone lifting open a gate. (Empty?)

14. (Not pictured. Never visited.)

15. Treasure Chest. A treasure chest sits in the center of the room. (Never visited.)

16., 17. (Not pictured. Never visited.)

18., 19. Empty. 

20. The Ravine. (Changed since dungeon reset.)

21. Empty. 

22. Reflecting Pool. Rumor: There are ghostly fish swimming inside the pool. They say they can be caught using a living pixie as bait. (Changed since dungeon reset.)

23. Spellwight's Crypt. Rumor: A spell-casting wight and six zombies guard the greatest hoard of treasure on Level 1. (Undisturbed.)

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Session Log

Session 1

Went through Enchanted Fountain room with a Water Weird and into crypt with 6 skeletons, one of which cast Darkness on the Fighter. Rolled a lot of treasure.

11,800 gp total,  Magic sword +1, Tome of Light and Hold Portal

+2,950 gp/xp each

Session 2

Players killed an ogre and 7 pig-faced orcs ("The Razorbacks"). Captured one orc who led players to treasure and then was let go. Killed two more ogres and got the treasure, a giant ruby. 

+2,666 gp/xp each

Session 3

Fire Beetles killed three characters—Almec E2, Korlan F2, and Sartath, T2—then they went to the Library where they found scrolls, treasure maps, and grimoires.

Session 4

Players opened a locked and sealed iron coffin so the berserk undead inside—a wight—would attack the 8 orcs that were advancing. They then dropped a gate on the same wight like a Rancor in the pit in Jaba's Palace. They met the orc they spared from death in session 2, who then killed Schnozzwald (M1) before being killed by his own magic axe by Blunder (D2). Earning Blunder the title "Blunder the Avenger!"

+1,250 gp/xp each

Session 5

Summoned the merchant demon Zuul. Defeated 6 "Shadow Warriors" to sanctify a corrupted altar, lifting their curses (afflicted at the end of session 4). As treasure, each statue had a glowing Weapon +1: a sword, a warhammer, a spear, a greatsword, a greataxe, and a halberd.

+834 gp/xp each

Session 6

Killed the minotaur in the maze, slew the dragon, and drew the flame sword! Players learned that drawing the sword resets the dungeon. 

+714 gp/xp each (7 PCs)

Session 7

After tricking the water weird in the enchanted fountain out of some coins, the delvers slew some orcs and an ogre led by a shaman who cast darkness. After Korgul was envenomed by a crab spider in the Arcane Library, the delvers hauled back magic scrolls, maps, and grimoires—the same ones they found in Session 3 before the reset!

+650 gp/xp each

Session 8 

A wandering encounter—a rock python (5 HD)—killed Emgrin (E1) and nearly killed Lokian (C1), but with only 1 hp left, Lokian killed the snake! Later, they recruited three retainers—Finn (T1, crossbow, leather) and the brothers Alistair (M1, Read Languages), and Magnus (M1, Detect Magic). The delvers explored until they reached a cavernous chamber with a mist-covered, muddy floor. They were cautious and retreated from the tentacle monster that attacked from below.

+83 gp; +250 xp each (6 shares; 2 for the 3 retainers.)

Session 9

A short session. Players battled the orcs in the Arena, then found a secret passage (in a wall drain) that led back to the Enchanted Fountain room. 

+108 gp; +250 xp (6 shares)

Session 10

The Minotaur of the maze surprised the party from behind and cut down Lokian (C1). Blunder and Sarath returned to town with Lokian's unconscious body, but Lokian's curse kept him trapped inside the Sorcerer's Labyrinth. Down three comrades, the others pushed forward. They arrived at what was the dragon's lair in Session 6, but in place of the dragon was a four-armed, serpentine Bone Golem (HD 6) guarding a staircase to the second level! After testing how close they could get without triggering it, they decided to retreat once they found out! 

+833 gp/xp each (6 shares; was 7, but Cleric is trapped in the dungeon.)

Session 11

Killed 8 skeletons in the ruined crypts (Room 6). Slew the minotaur and sold its axe for the third time. 

+1,250 gp/xp each (6 shares)