AD&D Battlesystem Skirmishes Battle Report: The adventure continues.

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The Lost Temple of Na Kaah
System used, TSR Battlesystem Skirmish



(Previous adventures in this campaign can be found here: http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=19384.0

Part 1

After barely surviving to defeat the Necromancer in his graveyard lair, the adventuring group made their way back to the village where they could rest, heal their wounds and perform the all too familiar ritual of spending their hard earned loot having Leo resurrected to fight another day.  As they trudged along, injured and exhausted, the group discussed hiring porters prior to the next adventure so that in the future when Leo inevitably died, someone else could be responsible for carrying the party’s dead weight.

While recovering at the village inn, a grizzled warrior approached the party with a well worn map and a tale adventure.   15 years prior, the warrior had been part of an adventuring group in search of an ancient lost temple of the goddess Na Kaah.   Their search led them deep into the Vast Swamp where after fighting many dangers along the way and losing the majority of their party, the warrior and the leader of the group were successful in locating the entrance to the temple.

The two remaining warriors prepared to make a scouting foray into the temple but before they could do so they were attacked by a black dragon and in the ensuing battle, the leader of the group, a knight named Sir Geareth, was mortally wounded before driving off the dragon.  The warrior constructed a stone cairn nearby the temple entrance and buried Sir Geareth, vowing to one day return and explore the temple that so many of his friends had  died trying to find.   However, as the years passed, the warrior was never able to make the return expedition to the tomb to fulfill his vow.  Now with too many lingering injuries to make the trip, the warrior is looking for able bodied adventurers to return to the temple in his stead.

Considering themselves to be both able bodied and adventurers, the group agreed to mount an expedition to locate and explore the lost temple in addition to bringing back the bones of Sir Geareth for a more fitting burial.   While spending several days preparing, gathering supplies and securing passage across the Azure Sea, the party was joined by two companions from past expeditions, Thorak, a dwarven cleric and Kabuki, a mysterious wandering warrior of unknown origin.

The long sea journey was uneventful and following a brief stay in the port city of Naerie, the group set off overland towards the Vast Swamp.  After many exhausting days trudging through the treacherous swamp following the old timer’s map, the adventurers locate the cairn of Sir Geareth and with a great sense of relief, know they are in the right place.


Across more swampland and through blighted and skeletal trees, the party can see the hillside in which the hidden entrance to the lost temple is rumored to be located.




The adventurers prepare to traverse the last section of swamp and search for the temple entrance.


Naturally Leo assumes the lead, for some reason fearless of death despite his many unsuccessful dealings with it.




As the party moves under the gnarled trees of the swamp, several large dark forms drop silently down upon them.  Giant ticks!  One lands directly on Clarice’s back, locking on and immediately begins to feed on her blood.


More of the giant bloodsucking arachnids drop on other party members but fail to latch on to them.




The ticks prove themselves to be difficult to kill and the party teams up in an effort to dispatch them as quickly as possible.




Leo and Pluzeeben hack at the tick attached to Clarice, hoping to kill it before it drains the life out of her.


While the trio battles the tick, another hidden predator emerges silently from the murky swamp water….


…and nabs an unsuspecting Pluzeeben by wrapping it’s long sticky tongue tightly around the mage.


The mage stuggles but cannot prevent himself from being dragged ever closer to the frog’s snapping mouth.  Al’ Muric and Nigel slog through the muck to assist Pluzeeben against the ravenous amphibian.


As Kabuki and Thorak push on towards the hillside, they are ambushed by more giant frogs.




After dispatching the giant frogs, some of the party make it to the hillside and begin searching for an entrance to the temple….




…while Clarice, Nigel and Al’ Muric find themselves having difficulty eliminating the last of the troublesome giant ticks.


As Thorak searches for an entrance, he suddenly finds himself ensnared by another frog’s tongue and pulled off the hillside back into the swamp.


Leaping to the dwarven cleric’s aid, Leo helps Thorak to quickly put down the last of the giant amphibian attackers.


At last, facing no more immediate threat from either ticks or frogs, the entire group is able to turn their focus to the search for the temple’s hidden entrance.


To be continued....

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The Lost Temple of Na Kaah, Part 2

Cutting and prodding at the overgrown vegetation that covers the rocky hillside, the group searches for the entrance.  Pluzeeben the mage detects a hollow spot behind the creepers and vines and calls out to the group for assistance.  


Gathering at the mage’s location, the adventurers chop away the overgrowth revealing a cave opening leading into the darkness.  Surely this must be the entrance to the temple that the the grizzled adventurer told them about.


Cool, damp air wafts out of the opening onto the group.  They note that there has been some recent traffic in and out of the entrance and wonder what awaits them in the darkness.


Leo once again takes point and leads the party into the natural passageway beyond.


Rounding the corner, the group comes across the remains of a previous unfortunate adventurer.


Thorak and Kabuki guard the rear of the party at the first intersection.


Advancing further down the passageway, Al’ Muric is nearly hit by a yellowish mass dropping from the ceiling.   “Ochre Jelly!” Shouts Nigel, “Attack!”


Quickly surrounding the ochre jelly the party is able to kill the monster before it can do any damage.


Continuing on, the group enters a cavern with more remains and thick webs blanketing the edges of the room.  




Moving cautiously into the room, they see a small shrine or cairn in the far corner flanked by two large ominous stone statues.  


Clarice volunteers to check out the cairn and statues for traps and other hidden dangers.


Knowing Clarice’s past tendencies to get them into trouble, the rest of the party looks on in trepidation.


Not finding any traps, Clarice looks closer at one of the statues and sees a shining gold amulet around it’s neck.   Unable to resist her thieving tendencies, she nimbly and discretely grabs the amulet and slides it into her pouch before the rest of the party can take notice.


Returning to the party, Clarice informs them she found nothing of interest in the room, a claim met with much skepticism.


No sooner had Clarice finished speaking when the loud sound of scraping stone is heard from the room.  Expecting to see the statues coming to life, the party instead sees a mummy emerging from the cairn.  A dry voice, like a death rattle booms out across the room, “Thieves, vandals, desecrators, your greed has doomed you.”


As the mummy advances on the party, several members of the group including the strongest fighters Leo and Kabuki, find themselves paralyzed by the mummy’s aura of fear and unable to move.  The mummy zeros in on Kabuki and with unholy strength, batters the paralyzed warrior nearly to death.


Nigel the elf fighter manages to resist the aura of fear and press the attack on the
mummy from behind, his magic blade cutting into the ancient corpse.  




Distracted by Nigel’s unrelenting attacks, the mummy finally turns to face the elf while Leo, after shaking off the debilitating effects of fear, hurries to drag the badly wounded and paralyzed Kabuki to a safe distance.


With Kabuki out of harm’s way, Nigel and Leo are able to combine their attacks on the mummy and finally bring the powerful undead creature down.


After defeating the mummy, those paralyzed by fear recover and the group gathers to heal the wounded and berate Clarice for waking the ancient evil with her uncontrollable sticky fingers.   Searching the dusty tomb, the party gathers gold, gems and several magic items.


Finding no other exits from the mummy room, the party back tracks to the first intersection and continues their exploration of the caverns.


To be continued....

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The Lost Temple of Na Kaah, Part 3

As we rejoin our adventurers, we find Thorak and Kabuki leading the group further into the dark caverns on their search for the lost temple.



Despite advice to the contrary, Clarice insisted on investigating a narrow crevice at the back of a dead end passage.  As the rest of the party moved on, Leo backed her up as she went in for a closer look.    



As she investigated the crevice, the faint sound of rushing air was joined by the growing sound of multiple legs clacking on stone and mandibles snapping together.  A massive centipede struck like lightning from out the dark and bit Clarice before she could react.



The poison from the bite coursed through Clarice’s blood very quickly and she toppled over almost immediately.  Leo stepped in and attempted to cut the horrible creature in two with his sword, but it was much faster than he anticipated.  Once again the centipede struck quicker than the eye could follow and Leo felt the hot venom flooding through his system even before his brain registered the painful bite on his leg.  The last thing he remembered was the cavern floor rushing up to meet his face.

With both of it’s prey incapacitated, the centipede began dragging the smaller of the two bodies back to it’s lair to be devoured later.  

Seeing their companions go down, Nigel and Al’ Muric rushed back to intercept the centipede before it could drag Clarice back into the crevice.  



With a flurry of blows, the two elves quickly dispatched the massive arthropod.



Al’ Muric checked the two for life signs and determined that neither would survive for long.  The cleric realized that there was only one neutralize poison scroll available and only one of the pair could be saved.



After a quick consultation with Nigel and Pluzeeben, it was decided that it would be of more benefit to have the fighter Leo back on his feet rather than Clarice.  With the decision made, Al’ Muric read the words of incantation off the scroll and the lethal poison was instantly removed from Leo’s body.   After a few moments of recovery, the big fighter was able to stand up and shake off the effects of his near death experience.
  
Clarice’s now lifeless body was laid in a more dignified position and place at the side of the passage to be retrieved later.  Hopefully no scavengers would come along and snack on her body.



At the same time as the encounter with the centipede, Thorak and Kabuki continued to explore ahead of the rest of the group.  As they rounded a dark corner, a large shape rushed out of the darkness and lunged at them.  The terrible creature had the body of a large bear and the head of a fierce owl, it attacked them with such fury that the torch the pair was holding was dropped and went out, leaving them in total darkness.  



Despite the lack of light, Kabuki was able to sense the location of the large beast and Thorak could see his opponent just fine with his infravision.  After a brief but fierce struggle, the two adventurer’s combined attacks brought the creature down.



By the time Owlbear had been defeated, the rest of the party had rejoined Thorak and Kabuki and the group continued to explore the caverns.



Moving through the cave, Kabuki discovered the nesting area of the Owlbear.



Once again in the lead, Leo pressed on down the passage.   Suddenly a large log swung out around the corner narrowly missing Leo’s head.  But this was no simple trap, this log was connected to a huge hand, which was connected to a huge arm, which was connected to a huge two headed Ettin that bellowed a savage cry and swung it’s second massive club at Leo.



Leo quickly engaged the Ettin while Kabuki charged into combat and attacked it from the other flank.





Nigel and Al’ Muric rushed in to join the fight and soon the monster was surrounded.  With attackers on all sides, the creature was severely outmatched, even with his multiple heads.  After several tense minutes, the Ettin fell to it’s knees and breathed it’s last.







With the Ettin dispatched, it’s lair is searched and his treasure looted, Pluzeeben investigated the large sealed door engraved with mystic ruins around it’s perimeter.  Could this be the entrance way to the lost temple they had been searching for?

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The Lost Temple of Na Kaah, Part 4


Approaching cautiously the party examines the doorway.  Trying to open it reveales that the entrance is secured, but there are no obvious locks on the stout doors.   If only there was still a thief to check the doors for any traps.



The strongest members of the group line up and put their shoulders to the portal but it refuses to budge one inch.  Not seeing any other options for gaining entry through the doorway, the fighters use their weapons to chop and hack their way in, but to no avail.  The group find themselves at a loss on how to proceed against the seemingly unopenable doors.



Then after conveniently receiving a bit of divine (GM) inspiration, Pluzeeben suddenly recalled the Knock spell scroll that he had received on a prior adventure.   Reading the words from the scroll, the mage channeled  the magical energy, exerted his will and forced the portal to swing wide open.  



As soon as the doors were flung open, Pluzeeben found himself looking into a large room of worked stone.  Carved pillars held up the arched ceiling above and also provided cover for a group of orcs, several of which unleashed arrows that narrowly missed the mage as he stood in the open doorway.



With a fierce battle cry, Leo charged deep into the room and attacked one of the orc archers.  With one swing of his sword he cut the humanoid down.

The rest of the party advanced into the room to engage the orcs but found themselves bottle necked at the doorway. 







Leo hacked his way through another archer as the other party members took out the remaining orc warriors.



After a one sided battle, the orcs all lay dead and the adventurers began to search the room.   Coins and other treasures were scattered throughout the room, enough to make the group very rich.  An evil looking idol with a huge gem inlaid in it’s belly matched the description the old adventurer had given them and confirmed that this indeed was the lost temple of Na Kaah.



As the rest of the group looked through the various treasure piles, Leo took a closer inspection of the idol and noted there was much dried blood and bones at the base of the statue.  The treasure hunt was cut short by a cry of pain as several magic missiles struck Pluzeeben in the back.



Turning to find the source of the attack, those that could see through the doorway viewed a large snake like creature with a slightly humanoid head and a poison stinger at the end of its long, coiled body.   The Dark Naga launched more magic missiles, causing further wounds to the already injured group.  Pluzeeben dove for cover at the base of the stairs and Al’ Muric ran further into the room to get out of harm’s way and prepare to cast a heal wounds spell upon himself.



Kabuki and Nigel moved to positions where they could fire their bows at the Naga while Leo remained standing in front of the idol.  The evil creature cast a spell once again, this time a cluster of small flaming meteors shot into the room.



The burning meteors slammed into Al’ Muric before he had a chance to heal himself, and he dropped to the ground unconscious. 



As Pluzeeben hid behind whatever cover he could find at the base of the stairs, he suddenly detected a large shadow looming over him.  Looking up over his shoulder, he saw Leo standing there above him, sword poised to strike.  The last thing the confused mage saw was his adventuring companion swinging his sword down in a viscous arc, then all went black.



Not believing what he was witnessing, Kabuki sent two more arrows slamming into the Naga, disrupting a spell that the creature was about to unleash.  He shouted at Kabuki to stop his attack on Pluzeeben but Leo seemed not to notice and hit the downed mage again.



Done with the mage, Leo now turned on Kabuki and advanced on him menacingly.   The former allies faced off against each other and traded powerful blows back and forth.   Thorak moved in closer to the fighting pair, unsure of what to do.





As the battle on the stairs played out, Nigel continued to fire arrow after arrow at the Dark Naga, wounding it multiple times and disrupting several more spells it was attempting to cast.  Severely wounded, the ancient serpent decided that it was time to abandon the battle and live to fight another day.  Casting invisibility on itself, the creature disappeared from sight and quickly retreated into the darkness.  A Dark Naga’s lifespan was long, and it would have it’s revenge another time.



With the threat gone, Thorak ran over to Al’ Murik and checked his life signs.  He was alive, but just barely.  The Dwarf Cleric cast a heal spell on the elf and although he was still unconscious, his breathing improved and the bleeding stopped.  He would live.



As the Naga retreated, it’s hold over Leo was broken and the fighter stood in shock over what he had done to his companions.
 




The expedition had been costly for the group.  True, they had found the lost temple and gained much treasure along with several magic items, but Pluzeeben and Clarice were dead and Al’ Muric was unconscious and it would take time to recover before he could even walk.  Much of the treasure would go towards raising their dead companions, but they should still come out just enough ahead to keep them searching for more.  Such is the life of the adventurer.



The adventure will continue.

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Next up, the adventurers delve into the Dungeons of Kaldracks.

[Vauln]

'Oh Crap...'

[Ssendam]

Awesome ... looking forward to the next part!

[Cherno]

Great report and pictures! I'm curious that you used the old Battlesystem rules, from what I read on the net most people didn't like it very much 

[Limaike]

That Reaper Etin looks sweet. How long does it take you to make one dungeon tile?

[Treebeard]

Holy Crap ! That is awesome.

[Elbows]

This looks like a blast - though the lead huge swordsman looks completely blind in that silly helmet (probably why he's swinging blindly as he moves down the stairs...).

 

[phreedh]

the lead huge swordsman looks completely blind in that silly helmet (probably why he's swinging blindly as he moves down the stairs...).

He's going for the piñata. =)

[Jevenkah]

What a fun old-school romp! Fantastic paintjobs on both minis and scenery. I love the touch of comic book you used sparingly; it added to the feel I was taking part in the game.

Great job, thanks for the fun read!
Jevenkah

[DeafNala]

Ogling the photos & reading through your fine narrative was a WONDERFUL experience. It brought back memories of my AD&D group's brief fling with the Battle System Rules...I had hoped it would lure a couple of the Crew into proper gaming...no luck there.
I will be looking forward to your updates...VERY WELL DONE!

[m4jumbo]

Thanks for the comments!  Working on the next write up of the campaign.

This looks like a blast - though the lead huge swordsman looks completely blind in that silly helmet (probably why he's swinging blindly as he moves down the stairs...).

   And going by the misadventures Leo the fighter typically has, that probably explains a lot.

Great report and pictures! I'm curious that you used the old Battlesystem rules, from what I read on the net most people didn't like it very much 

I started playing the Battlesystem rules (both the mass battle and the skirmishes versions) when they were initially released, we've always enjoyed them even though they weren't the most popular set of rules.  Now there is a bit of nostalgia factor playing the rules I grew up with.   

Being based on AD&D, the Skirmishes rules do a good job of allowing for an RPG lite dungeon crawl type game that captures the feel of a miniatures focused AD&D game.