Session 84

May 12, 2026

Players:

Marc: T'Val, Fighter 2; Gormir, Dwarf 2
Adam: Mimir, Elf 1; Atticus, Magic-User 2
Alex: Sir Percival, Cleric 2; Lucky Pete, Thief 3

On their way to the unexplored Ruined Crypts, the party of six adventurers was surprised to find a slave auction run by Mallacar's orcs in The Arena (Area 6). The party decided to impersonate Mallacar's henchmen in order to sneak through the flesh market and past the orcs. 

Two noblemen in red—guests of Mallacar, no doubt—were bidding against each other to purchase a beautiful, innocent young woman. However, there was little interest expressed in freeing the slaves, only in continuing to follow Treasure Map II. Unfortunately, the orcs were also guarding the northeast gate to the Ruined Crypts, where the map pointed.

Earlier, in the Wizard's Study (Area 4), the free-willed illusion of the deposed Sorcerer of the Labyrinth, Ador Mer, revealed that another entrance to the crypts could be found by passing through the Minotaur's Maze. Weeks ago, the players—with the help of the three-member NPC Party—killed the Minotaur and hacked off his head with his own golden axe to prevent his return from the dead. So, they weren't too worried about him!

The party decided to don their red armbands signifying their allegiance to Mallacar, goose-step through the slave auction, give the salute ("Hail, Mallacar!"), and then pass north through the Minotaur's Maze, since its entrance wasn't being guarded. The impostors' plan worked after T'Val (F2, STR 18) gave the orc in front of the gate a stern dressing-down for questioning their (made-up) mission from Mallacar! No one looked back at the wails of families being torn apart as the human slaves were sold like cattle. Some heroes!

The only problem was, once they got into the maze, they got lost. Not a big surprise! They went through the center of the maze, past the statue of King Loric the Great, and eventually found their way to a large chamber lit by four braziers. In the center was what they soon learned was a circular "teleporter pad . . ." 

Right after passing it, (the DM rolled a "1" and) six figures suddenly materialized. It was the wererat NPC party from Session 82! Towering Murdock, Cleric 5—whose brother, Ignatz, the party killed—and Mathilda, Ignatz's widow, were in the front of the well-armed NPC party of six wererats. 

Fortune favored the lost explorers, and the wererats appeared with their backs to the party! The party won surprise!

Session 76

Treasure Map I
"We hid it under a flagstone . . ."

Session 76

Session #7 of Return to the Sorcerer's Labyrinth

Feb. 24, 2026

Players

Marc: T'Val, Fighter 1; Gormir, Dwarf 1
Adam: Mimir, Elf 1; Atticus, Magic-User 1
Alex: Sir Percival, Cleric 2; Lucky Pete, Thief 2

At the south door to the Minotaur's Maze, our delvers parted ways with the NPC Party. Bearing the headless body of their fallen comrade, Caedis (M1), they began their withdrawal. Before long, a patrol of pig-faced orcs gave chase. The party yanked free the spike that had been holding the secret door ajar. The ponderous stone slab ground slowly shut, sealing the passage just as the orcs reached it. With no way to force it open, the orcs could only curse them from the far side of the stone-block wall.

Back in town, Atticus (M1) joined the party. 

The delvers descended into the Sorcerer's Labyrinth once again, this time determined to find the Arcane Library by going through the south gate of the Pentagram Dome. They took the hallway west, but found only a looping passage with a door that was clearly non-Euclidean. It opened to the antechamber of The Pyramid. 

Glowing violet runes pulsated in the angular frame of the colossal stone door. A shimmering field of energy thrummed ominously, and crackled with purple arcs like lightning bolts. There were five other doors leading out of the antechamber and they chose to keep heading east, more than a little confused about their location after unknowingly being magically warped across the dungeon. The characters knew nothing of the Pyramid, and their players had only foggy recollection. 😉 

Perched at the end of a long corridor, they reached the statue of the trickster, the patron of bad luck. Formed like a satyr, both its hands were behind its back. They checked it out with a mirror on a 10' pole, but saw only cupped hands and shadow. While approaching it, the illusionary floor beneath Lucky Pete (T2)'s feet disappeared, and Alex rolled a '1' on his save! The patron of bad luck indeed! 😱

Not-So-Lucky Pete fell 10' and took 3 damage, but had 7 hp remaining. Good thing for maximum hit dice rolls and CON 16! He may not be lucky, but he's tough! Unfortunately, from beyond the shadows of a massive crack in the wall, staring at him through the slit pupils of its emerald eyes: a dreaded HD 5 rock python! 🐍

Sir Percival (C2) jumped down into the pit to face the cold-blooded PC-killer (see also sessions 8 and 14, 2024). TA viscous fight followed. The Cleric got squeezed down to 4 hit points. The python would do an automatic 2d4 damage on its round, so Percival's life hung in the balance. They won initiative, and Percival struck first with his Mace +1, crushing the serpent's skull! 💪

The party searched the crack, which led 20' to the snake's lair. There, they found the corpse of a long-dead elf. The Cleric said a prayer, and the skeletal remains turned to ash and blew away. They took what was left, including  his Chainmail +2 and  other equipment. In his satchel, they found Treasure Map 1, which they followed once out of the pit. 

The session ended in the dungeon south of the gates of the Altar of Shadows with the delvers excavating an iron lockbox from beneath a flagstone . . .

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!

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.

---

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 . . . 

---

Version 4.0. Session 27, Oct. 1

 Version 4.3. Session 36, Dec. 8

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.)

---

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)

Stonehell Claims its First

Ingrid the One-Armed Dragon Slayer
by her player, Josie

Last night's session is why I play Dungeons & Dragons!

One of the most well-known areas of Stonehell Dungeon is what I call the morgue, rooms 27 and 28 in quadrant 1A: a straight hallway with doors lining the walls. Each door leads to a 10' × 10' crypt. Inside each crypt is a monster roll and a treasure roll. The monsters are weak—especially with a Cleric, and we had two—but it's a grind. The 1d6 treasure roll is 50% nothing, but a '1' results in 1d6 × 1000 dungeon bux—that's a whole lotta dungeon bux! They've cleared half the crypts and made a fortune from great treasure rolls.

However, at the end of the hall is a big scary door. Behind that door is your average "evil temple with evil altar." Skulls and stuff. But, no real danger.

As a player, I was let down by that. So, as a DM, you better believe I put a monster in there—a giant rattler stylized as being undead. I gave it enough venom for one "save vs. death" strike—and it landed.

Ingrid the Dragon Slayer took the hit. She failed her save. Black and purple veins of rot started spider webbing outward from the horrific wound on her left arm. She was doomed. The dice said she had an hour of game time to live.

Ingrid's player took the death roll pretty well, but we all knew how much she liked her character and the players weren't ready to submit to the dice's fate yet. "Can we chop off the arm, Walking Dead style, and save the character?"

"She'd bleed out," was my reply.

One of the players offered that the instantaneous use of a Cure Light Wounds spell could "cauterize" the wound without healing hit points (similar to how it canonically cures paralysis without healing). Iver Swiftaxe, the Dwarf, would perform the surgery with a single swift stroke of Ingrid's own sword, "Dragon Cleaver."

As the rest of the party battled the snake, they performed the field surgery. It worked. The amputation cost eight (max damage) of Ingrid's nine remaining hit points. She was incapacitated but alive.

Just then, the entry doors the players had previously spiked closed started to rumble. A bunch of failed wandering monster checks were attacking from behind! The party was surrounded, caught between a giant undead snake and a squad of nine orcs bursting through the doors!

Kesshut the Magic-User's Sleep spell made quick work of the flanking orc horde; eight of nine dropped and the last fled. Our swordmaster (F3), William, rolled tremendous damage on two attacks and hacked off the rotten snake's head.

If you know the room, you know the quadrant's greatest treasure is hidden there. They were stuffing their pockets, bags, sacks, pouches, and backpacks full of coins. More than 20,000 xp worth of treasure to be divided between the six players. Everyone would level once; half would hit the one-level-per-delve limit with hundreds of xp wasted (Bolek the Acolyte went 1,118 over!). Now that's a haul!

They picked up the limping one-armed Dragon Slayer and started to make their way out of the dungeon, thoughts of the riches, fame, and power all this treasure would buy! The exit wasn't far! Just through the now-empty dragon cave, then past the sign and up the stairs—then home free.

There was only one problem. The dungeon wasn't finished with them.

Ever feel like the dice are supernatural arbitrators? I rolled a wandering monster literally right directly in front of the exit. Snakes! The save-or-die kind!

There was no way around them, only through. They fought well, but Swiftaxe got bit. His saving roll failed him. The evil serpent god would have its victim! He went down fighting, defending the rest of the team. So close to the exit, it was a bittersweet victory when the last snake was defeated.

With heavy hearts, they all escorted Swiftaxe to Snorri Broadshoulders, the NPC dwarf in the nearby dwarven statuary (Room 19). Swiftaxe would be laid to rest with full dwarven honors. Everyone said their farewells.

Missing their dwarven comrade, the party ascended, finally, back to the surface.

On Beginning the Delve Into Stonehell

Map by Erika, who plays our Robber, Nicole

Players in my B/X Stonehell dungeon crawl have explored about half of the first quadrant of its first level in the five sessions we've had. They've met the patrols of kobolds and orcs, slayed the dragon, and—after feeding it a severed arm—talked to the stone head. No one has died.

As for running an open-table, no-commitment game, we've had no "issues," social or otherwise, so far. Everyone has been friendly, relaxed, patient, conversational, enthusiastic, and proactive! When we've played, we've always had a great group show up despite sessions being mainly impromptu.

Both of our last two sessions have had five players. The table is so full of lively personality that I've lowered the limit of seats from six to five. Stonehell better caters to a smaller group, in my opinion as both as player and now DM. Usually, I find five to be the perfect number for online gaming; for this, it's four with three—normally a sparse amount—being good as well.

Of the nine total players, four have attended only one of the five sessions while five have played in three or four games. At least two or three are very enthusiastic to play. Caller is a popular position, a great "problem" to have!

---

Treasure, and thus XP rewards, have been very "feast or famine," as I expected having been a player at not one, but two other Stonehell tables. While they had a Cleric in the group, the Thief picked the lock to the stone-door crypt, but only raided one of its tombs and haven't returned since. Their robbery was rewarded with a necklace worth 400 gp. That was a random roll, and a damn good one on a table with a 50% chance of no treasure. It was the same delve in which they found a bag of 3,000 silver coins under a random flagstone in a broom closet.

All three characters that session leveled with the Thief hitting B/X's one-level-per-session limit with plenty of excess. So, we have an adept (C2), Oscar; a robber (T3), Nicole; and a warrior (F2), William. All others who weren't at that one particular session are first level.

Right now, the players are still in an early phase where they aren't making great strides of progress with each delve. Stonehell is a mysterious and deadly place; they're in no hurry to meet their unwitting doom. At the same time, I, as the DM, am by no means pulling at their leash or cracking my whip to hurry them along. A slow-and-steady pace for our first half-dozen or so sessions is fine. We're having fun and that's the most important thing!

However, a faster pace would better equalize treasure rewards. Stonhell has an organic rhythm or cadence. Its drum beats only as fast as the players move in real-time.

---

The two times I played Stonhell, both my characters ended up at the fourth level with starter equipment before the game ended. To avoid that, I knew I was going to increase and redistribute Stonhell's treasure. I multiplied the coin value of everything by 10 using a "silver standard" of currency exchange rate (1 sp = 1 xp, prices are in silver). So, that 400 gp necklace they found was worth 4,000 xp.

Also, I sprinkled generic, base magic weapons throughout the level—a +1 dagger has been found.

At the same time, I've strengthened the monsters considerably. In place of a giant gecko, there was a much more fearsome winged draco hiding on the ceiling. Importantly, unlike the gecko with 3+1 HD, A draco has 4+2 HD—making it immune to the Sleep spell. It glided down and was promptly dispatched.

You don't even have to ask: yes, of course the PC took the "dragon slayer" moniker. This is D&D! Well deserved, too. Ingrid tanked two 1d10-damage attacks!

In last night's session, the delvers were attacked by a giant black widow, a dreaded "save-vs-death" monster. It dropped from the shadows of the "spider web chamber's" high vaulted ceiling, but our Magic-User, Kesshut, nuked it with Sleep.

Earlier in the session, Kesshut had the idea to use his mirror to reflect the party's lantern light upward to a high ceiling in the "bat room." That was a good idea, and it was rewarded by finding a gold ring on a high rock ledge. The party thinks it's magic. And cursed. Or not.

As Nicole used spikes and rope to scale the wall, a band of orcs approached to the edge of torchlight. The Dragon Slayer scared them off with pure intimidation.

Who knows what they'll find if we have a session tonight!

Stonehell Dungeon April 23 Session Report: "CC's Character Got Blood in His Hair"

Do you, my dear readers and fellow game masters, suffer from anxiety before running a session? Do you cram in the preceding hours and minutes and yet still feel as if you're ill prepared at the start of the game?

From what I've gathered in my 25+ years as a GM, that's fairly common. It might even be the norm. Pre-session jitters come with the territory.

For the first time since I was a sadistic child Dungeon Master in the early 1990s, I didn't really have any butterflies in my stomach before my impulsive April 23 session running Stonehell Dungeon using Old-School Essentials, a reprinting of B/X, the 1981 edition of Dungeons & Dragons.

That's pretty amazing considering it's the first time I've ran a game in more than a year and I had no previous experience with any four of my players!

There are a few reasons I was so calm. First, I ran the game totally as an impulse. Less than four hours between "Anyone want to play some OSR D&D?" and "Stonehell Dungeon at 6:30!" I was cramming the whole time, copying the dungeon maps from the book (using Sumatra), editing them with GIMP, uploading them to Roll20.net, and setting up the dynamic lighting. My mind was occupied; I didn't have time to worry!

Another reason is that I felt at home as a player in Stonehell, at least on the first level. Of course, it's a lot different on the other side of the table, but it really helped that I had wandered the halls as a player.

Lastly, Stonehell is really easy to run. Michael Curtis's style and format is fantastic for use at the table. You don't have to remember a single thing. You don't have to read ahead. Hell, you don't have to read anything at all before playing! Room entries are a line or two at most.

We had a great time. All four players were totally cool. Erika—with whom I was passingly familiar from the OSR Discord Server—was our caller. She did a wonderful job. I could immediately tell she had plenty of OSR dungeon crawl experience. She, like her three comrades—CC, Jacob and Minalt—were all chill, relaxed, friendly, attentive, conversational, and talented players. Bravo, guys! Thank you for playing and thank you for not making my job a chore. I had fun! Zero stress.

As a DM, I was absolutely perfect and never made a single mistake. Well, maybe not perfect and maybe not "sober" by the end of the session, but pretty close. Somewhat close. Okay, I was soused by 10 p.m., but I still remember the end of the session! Mainly. I remember most of the end of the session.

There were orcs and CC's character got blood in his hair.

. . . Yes, that's my whole 3.5-hour session recap.

Oh! Speaking of CC's character—how about this, BoT readers: that son of a gun rolled an 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, and an eight-freaking-teen during character creation! Okay, so it was AD&D's default method: 4d6, drop lowest, arrange, but still! He put the 18 in CON and the 17 in STR and played a Fighter. WIS was his "dump stat," if you can call an 11 that.

Oh again! Minalt was our mapper. Check out this sweet action:

Hell yeah! No grid lines, even!

Thanks for reading!

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