Realm of the Free King ( solo dungeon adventure) - The Trigger

 Issich Crier: A rare goblin raid, only last night at the South end of Issich left citizens reeling...

Pursuing the goblins to the South thru the ruins, and then West along the foot of the mountains, the party, ( all first level ) sees smoke filtering thru the trees up on the side of a hill. In a clearing there is a cooking fire recently extinguished along a foot trail that continues up the hill. As the trees and brush thicken the foot trail ends at an open stone archway.

The party sets the entry as a rally point and moves down the stairs. Ered the fighter leads with Bertin close behind bearing his sword and a torch. Ernan is next, also bearing a torch, and going over the sleep spell execution in his mind ( He's never had to do it under pressure!). Robern the cleric is last, covering the rear with shield and mace.

The steep stairs file down about 20 ft making 1 turn to the right and open into a 20x30 room. The room is empty aside from scattered pieces of rock, wood and other small debris. After a cautionary glance down the hallway to the left, the party proceeds across the room and down the hallway to the North. 

The hallway leads to a left turn and 10ft ahead is a closed wooden door. They move West down the hallway 40ft and it opens into a 30x30 chamber with 3 exits, North, South, and West. The chamber is empty. 

The party backtracks East to the closed door, and pauses to listen. Rustling, grunts and metal on stone sounds can be heard thru the door. With a quick thumbs up all around Bertin throws his weight against the door and it flies open with ease. Torch light reveal a gang of goblins scattered thru out the room!

Dice roll indicates the goblins are suprised and Ered and Bertin close the gap and strike quickly at the closest goblins. Ernan moves into the room with his torch to increase the light and Robern, in the rear, steps around him to get into the fray.

Ered and Bertin both score hits on the goblins and dispatch 2 in a spray of black goo. The party beats the goblins on initiative and both fighters, and Robern the cleric, all strike. Only Bertin scores a hit, but it results in a kill, and the goblins strike back. Ered defends with ease, but one of the two goblins on Robern scores a hit, and he takes 2 pts of damage (absorbed by his shield). 

Ered and Robern strike and kill 2 more goblins, leaving only 1 remaining. Anticipating surrender by his foe, Robern is shocked when the sole surviving goblin lunges with his spear. A roll of 20! and double damage to the cleric brings him down to one hitpoint! Quarter and mercy fly out the door with that result, and the party quickly dispatch the final enemy. 

The party regroups from combat and ready themselves at the closed door on the West wall of the room. All listen, but don't hear any noise. The fighters stay ready at the closed door, and the Ernan searches the large bundle the goblins were carrying, while Robern rests after the deadly strike he took. 

The goblins were using a shield as a cradle to carry a suit of chainmail armor. Both pieces are too big for goblins to use, and must have been stolen on their raid on the town. The goblin bodies are dressed in the orange tunics of the Hell Pumpkin tribe, but a search reveals nothing of worth on them, crappy weapons, stinky food, no coin, etc. 

After some deliberations the party decides to stay in the room for an overnight rest period. No one wants to head back to town and have to cross thru the ruins outside Issisch at night. Although they now have a new shield, which is what Bertin is needing, they anticipated returning with some gold to line their pockets (all are first level and can barely afford living expenses, not to mention adventuring equipment). They can't keep moving thru the dungeon until Robern recovers.

The bodies of the goblins are piled in the middle of the room and both doors are spiked shut to prevent intruders. Ered changes into the chainmail they recovered from the goblins and Robern takes the new shield, giving his shield to Bertin. All eat, snuff the torches to low burn, and Ernan takes first watch. While on watch he will search the room thoroughly for secret entries. If one is discovered it will be spiked if possible, if not the goblin bodies will be stacked to inhibit entry while the party rests. 

Sweet dreams!  To be continued.......

NOTES: I've decided to use The Black Hack (edition 1) as the base rule set (which is new to me) for this campaign. It's very scaled down, but easy to implement and covers the basics quite well. A role below stat number, and armor absorbing hitpoints are things that will take getting used to. Since this is a solo project, anything not covered in The Black Hack will be sourced thru OD&D volumes, and I'm using Strategic Reviews Vol 1 No 1 to generate the dungeon. I'll note any additions or outright changes as the campaign progresses. 

             The goblin raid was the trigger these guys needed to begin adventuring. Prepping and practicing for months to travel East for a grand adventure, who knows if they ever would have really gone through with it. This occurrence right in their own locale was "put up or shut up" time. All of them are level one with just the bare essentials for adventuring, hence the need of Bertin to find a plain shield, as he couldn't afford to purchase one. 

              A few unexpected things from the random generation. I thought they would make it farther into the dungeon before a major melee. When I rolled room 3 with monsters and treasure I thought "Hey, this might fill the coffers pretty quick", and then proceeded to roll a 98 on the treasure table - Magic-roll on D&D table. Newbies with magic? This could get out of hand pretty quickly! Luckily a rather tame roll of 27 then 68 resulted in +1 armor and shield.