Tragon's Behests

  Image by upklyak at freepik.com I totally understand that Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy game in a made up universe with made up monsters.  When I was 12 we'd design dungeons where the monster would sit in the same room 24/7, just waiting for adventurers.  Now that I'm 53 and again playing with people my age, I'm worried about keeping it "real."  One of the ways to keep it "real" is the fact that if it is nonmagical, not undead, and eats it is going to have to go to the bathroom. Now, the concept of monsters going to the bathroom has opened up some great adventure plot lines.   For example, in a goblin lair I set it up so that the goblins didn't care, they just went to the bathroom wherever.  This created two opportunities for me as the DM.  First, I said the smell was so bad that everyone was going to need to make a save or be at -1 to hit for the entire lair.  Second, anyone that fell on the ground was going to have to make a ...

Image by  freepik.com 1E AD&D is pretty harsh to player characters in a dungeon crawl.  Time passes slowly.  Movement slows.  There are forced rest periods.  Hit points don't recover unless there is magic or potions present.  Spellcasters run out of spells.  Eventually, the party has to carry all the loot.  Sometimes the party has enough to level up, so there's no point in continuing due to the leveling up rules.  So in a long dungeon it's not unusual for player characters to leave and then return later. This happened in the dungeon that our adventurers played in the last few weeks (this dungeon took almost twelve hours of game time to get through).  I posted this dungeon in my last post.  After clearing two of the three levels, the party decided to leave and return later.  The party went back to the wood elf village that they had encountered on the way to the dungeon. When they left they were able to heal up, sell their lo...

This is a AD&D 1E adventure that I used with my party.  If you need a dwarf fortress that has been taken over by bad guys, feel free to use!  Overview: The last merchant convoy from the dwarves of the Vasti Colles (Waste Hills) was six months ago.  Since then there have been no shipments of iron ore from the dwarves.  As a result, iron ore has become scarce and this has driven up the prices of weapons, armor, tools, horseshoes, and anything made of iron by 40%. The party has decided to investigate what happened to the dwarves.  The dwarves have a fortress in the Vasti Colles about 160 miles north and west of the City of Greymane.  The party will take the trade road to the hills, which borders the great Tenebris Silva (Dark Forest). The party has an NPC who wants to accompany the party and can act as a guide.   NPC: “Gustav” Male dwarf 76 years old S: 17, I: 16, W: 14, D: 15, C: 18, Ch: 9 AL: Lawful Neutral HP: 28 4th level fighter / 5th level ...