Session Log: Palace of the Vampire Queen 2

Got to run more Palace of the Vampire Queen, with a slightly shorter session this weekend. I've been loving playing one-on-one, its been a really great change of pace!

While Vampire Queen (1976) was written post Greyhawk (1975), and expects its use, we have been playing with flat od&d, only converting stats backwards as needed. This also means we are using od&d's XP for monsters slain, which is far more generous then in Greyhawk. I think this has been working well, since treasures on the first floor are rather sparse. 

Without further ado: 

The Party

Giblet. A feathery halfling; leather armour, shortbow and dagger.

Leyol. Dwarf; chainmail and shield, twin bone daggers.

Cinamon. Fighter; chainmail and shield, flail.

Powder/Pollen. Cribswap (Lunar/Solar); chainmail, sword and shield or light crossbow.

The Delve

Jeordi, the rescued warrior, rests in town, intending to join the party on a future delve.

Powder is in her lunar aspect, she prepared Hold Portal.

The party return to the dungeon, entering through the long tunnel. They briefly check the room which housed the card-playing muppet-things, finding only stains where the bodies had been. The table remains, the chairs knocked over.

Leaving that room, they hear a wet shape gliding down the stones further down the hall. Leyol and Cinamon take the lead, heading to investigate.

Rolled a random encounter, 60 ft. down the hall. Vampire Queen does not have a prepared list of encounters, so I made my own using mostly the monsters on the floor. In this case, it was a Gelatinous Cube.

Something oozes down the tunnel, like a trundling wall. It is fleshy, translucent, and drips rancidly.

Giblet and Powder start firing arrows, before melee begins. Leyol passes her torch to Cinnamon, getting ready to throw oil and light it.

The ooze lurches forward, thrusting its form into Leyol, who gushes blood, twitches violently, then dies. Her body is engulfed by the ooze.

The ooze glistens with oil, from six vials on Leyol's person. The party lose initiative, the ooze fails to strike Cinnamon. Cinamon pulls back, Powder and Giblet fire arrows. Cinnamon throws her torch at it.

I rolled a 1-in-6 to see if the torch went out while in the air. I also made Cinnamon roll to hit. Both were successful.

The torch goes dark as it gulps into the ooze, darkening to embers. The oil catches, and the ooze writhes and bubbles horribly, melting from the inside.

The party pick through the ooze's remains, finding some coins and a silver crucifix within, as well as managing to recover Leyol's bone daggers and helm. Most of her other gear had been destroyed.

I rolled a d6 for each item on Leyol's character sheet, giving each item a 1-in-6 of surviving acid and fire.

The remainder of the party pressed deeper into the dungeon, poking around a few suspiciously empty rooms before deciding to retrace their steps and check out some previously explored areas. They stop short of returning to the room where the skeletons were fought last session, deciding to turn back.

On the way out, they also decided to check if the rust monster was still about in the area it was lurking last delve. It was, and the party, winning initiative, cast Holt Portal once again and left the dungeon. 

Delve Summary

Losses:

• Leyol, the dwarf. 

Foes Slain:

• 1 Gelatinous Cube. 

 Treasures Found:

• 6 gold pieces.
• 80 copper pieces.
• 1 silver crucifix (worth 15 gp)