>What if Harry Potter was a 1st Level Magic User in old-school D&D?
You watch as Rico of Marsedorf uses a crowbar to pry open a stuck wooden to enter the dungeon known the locals of villages in the Ysrid Forest as the Secret Prison of the Gargoyle Warlord. Your cousin and the warrior of your small band, Dudley Dursley rests on his kite shield as he watches the thief finally get the door to budge. The blonde thief gives the door a kick for good measure. It falls off its hinges and lands in the dusty hall. The smell of the dungeon is musty and stale. Old Holmes Lyne, his gaunt and bespectacled frame at odds with his mail and shield. You think that's he's more likely to hurt himself than any foe with that mace of his.
Before you step in, you recall the words of your master, the Archmage Gauwin of Amswood on dungeons.
"Dungeons are not so much normal caves or even ruins. Indeed, Harry, they arise from the primordial and malevolent chaos beneath the earth. It is foolish to expect some sort of logic to their construction, as they are not structures in the traditional sense as such. They are more like a predatory plant, luring hapless mortals into their depths with promises of gold and glory. However, for those who can live to tell the tale, the rewards are both great and sweet."
"Are you spacing out there, Harry?" asks Rico.
"A little."
You enter the dungeon. The masonry of the walls is excellent. You've seen the lords' castles less well constructed than these walls. Every step you take kicks up a small cloud of the dust of ages on the flat, flagstone floor. You descend for some distance under the flickering illumination of candles; and the deeper you go, the warmer it gets. You are quite comfortable in your voluminous wizard's robes, but Dudley is already perspiring under his mail hauberk. The only sound you can hear is that of your footsteps.
Rico of Marsedorf, who takes point several dozen feet ahead, halts. As you come near, you realize that he has stopped at a crossroads. Peering around the arch, you see that the path to the left reaches another corner in perhaps twenty feet, but the path to your right extends far longer. Rico, Dudley, and Holmes Lyne look to you for a decision.
"I hear scratching down the long end," whispers Rico.
>Short path to left
>Long path to right
>>46800640
>>Long path to right
Your Party:
Harry Potter (You): Magic User 1, 4 HP, AC 8
-Weapons: Staff (1d6), Dagger (1d4), Dart x6 (1d3)
-Spells Prepared: Sleep
Dudley Dursley: Fighter 1, 8 HP, AC 4
-Weapons: Longsword (1d8), Dagger (1d4)
Holmes Lyne: Cleric 1, 5 HP, AC3
-Weapons: Heavy Mace (1d6)
Rico of Marsedorf: Thief 1, 5HP, AC 6
-Weapons: Shortbow - 12 arrows (1d6), Hand Axe x2 (1d6)
I'm actually using Swords and Wizardry with alternate rulings as needed to run this as a quest rather than as a traditional tabletop game
>>46800640
>>Long path to right
>>46800794
I cast sleep on Rico, and put on my wizard hat and robes.
>>46800640
Long path to right
>>46800878
>>46801092
>>46800656
Right it is.
Do you elect to change your marching order?
>>46801358
March as is.
>>46801358
Let's keep Rico on point, stealthing, Dudley next, then Holmes, then us, all trying to be super sneaky sneaky like
Rolled 69 (1d100)
Rolling for Rico to Move Silently
>>46801646
How's our vision/lighting? What does Rico see with his not elf eyes?
>>46801706
Shadowy. There are candles every few feet, but that does little to keep the darkness at bay.
Rico is a human, by the way.
>>46801763
As a thief, does he have a thief's lantern? If so, have him light it and press on until he perceives something, with the party 20 feet behind
You point right, and the party starts to head towards the scratching noises. You come to a corner.
"If you hear screaming, that's probably me," says Rico, before slipping around the corner. His footsteps are as still as the stale air around you.
You cling tightly to your quarterstaff with a white knuckle grip and await the thief's return
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATS! BIG RAAAAAAAAAAAAAATS!"
You hear footsteps and see Rico turn around the corner pursued by a dozen vicious rats the size of a small dog. Their fur is matted and generally disgusting.
>Roll for initiative (1d6, first result)
>What is your plan?
Forgot pic
Rolled 6 (1d6)
>>46801896
Fuck this shit. Dudley better start whacking. Everyone just start whacking shit.
>>46801990
Noice
You win initiative, what do you?
>>46802078
EVERYONE START WHACKING
>>46802078
Cast sleep on the rats.
>>46802078
Sleep and tame.
>>46802078
cast sleep on the rats, then stuff them all in a duffle bag and close it up good.
>>46802078
>>46802196
There is moment before your party and the rats clash. You step back from the carnage that is about to take place and begin your chant, an autohypnotic mnemonic to release the arcane power you have forced into your mind. Dudley and Holmes Lyne stand shoulder to shoulder with their shields readied and their weapons drawn. Arms pumping furiously, Rico slides to the ground between the shields of Dudley and Holmes. His momentum carries him past the impromptu shield wall. Seconds later, the rats slam into the shield wall, scratching and flailing. Some are rebuffed by the strong oaken barriers, and other are kicked away by the mail-clad feet of Dudley and the old cleric. They begin to swing, but the rats are small and evasive targets in the best of circumstances, let alone in the shadows. However, Dudley's sword swings true and slashes one in twain.
You finish your chant in the trance of spellcasting. From here, all you need is a single command word to pull the knot which holds back the spell. The corridor is at once filled with the sounds of snoring rats, a sound which is far cuter and more pleasant than the creatures from which it emanates.
"Let's drown them in a sack like whelps!" suggests Dudley.
"We don't have a big enough sack, Dudley," you say.
Rico is already in the process of finishing them off with precise chops from his hatchet.
"I hate rats," he remarks.
>Investigate the room the rats came from
>Proceed further right
>Go the leftward corner
>Other
>>46802522
Yeah, let's go left instead.
>>46802522
>>Go the leftward corner
>>46802522
Have dudley smear his shoes in rat blood and step to the right for a bit, then backtrack his steps carefully and clean his shoes to make a false trail.
Then proceed left.
Rico once again takes point, and you fall in behind your cousin and the cleric. Rico proceeds ahead. The corridor seems to make a U-turn within twenty paces. You explore a small detour, which turns out to be a dead end. You find Rico crouching next to a door in the candlelight, he's already packing up his set of lockpicks. Rico points out the small runes around the keyhole and on the iron bands that reinforce the door.
"This is a magic door; I don't think I'll have much luck with this one, Harry," he says.
>Retrace your path to go into the rats' lair
>Retrace your path and continue further
>Other
>>46802885
>>Retrace your path to go into the rats' lair
>>46802885
>Retrace your path to go into the rats' lair
>>46802885
>Other
Smear rat blood on the magic door, and then speak voldemort's name backwards three times.
>>46803190
We really are going back to the old ways.
I vote this
>>46802936
Switching.>>46803190
Alright, give me a moment to touch up my post to account for this choice.
Rolled 6 (1d6)
Just Thief things
A dark ritual comes into your mind. It makes your forehead prickle just thinking about it. You return to the carnage and wipe some of the still-sticky rat blood with a rag.
"Harry? What are you doing?" asks Dudley, eyeing the bloody cloth with no small measure of disgust.
"I know what I'm doing, Dudley," you say.
"Every day we do this, you remind of why mom and dad always distrusted magicians," he continues.
You smear the blood on the door and speak words that come from beyond the rational confines of your mind.
"Tromedlov, Tromedlov, Tromedlov," you chant.
Everything is silent, and your cousin has turned his back to you. Even Holmes Lyne seems rather disgusted at your failed arcane ritual.
"Let's try heading back to the rats' lair," you say, "I think we got them all."
"That would be a prudent course of action."
The party returns the way it came. You stop every dozen paces or so to fill out the map.
"I hear something," says Rico.
Dudley unsheathes his sword. Indeed, Rico of Marsedorf has an arrow in his hand. Then, you hear what he heard: frightened screeching. A large group of giant rats round the far corner. They are bloodied and frightened, and act as if pursued by something far more dangerous.
>>46803590
>beyond the rational confines of your mind
I turn to dudley, and in preparation for my imminent death, I utter the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-840keiiFDE&t=2m7s
>>46803590
Woops, forgot prompt.
>What do?
I can show you the map as well to help give a spacial sense of the events unfolding
>>46803718
No, you have the advantage of surprise in this situation
>>46803786
AH. Ok.
I command Dudley and Holmes to take point and proceed cautiously towards the sounds, while I and Rico move from the back and ready our darts and crossbow
>>46803832
There are 16 rats which are running around the corner. If they get past you, they can head out the entrance. They can also run into the lair of the previous rats.
You could potentially duck back around the corner and hope that the rats split in such a manner that you are only dealing with a few. However, you could potentially mow them down with a few segments of surprise.
>>46803964
And if you want to look at inventories, I'd be happy to show you.
"Shoot!" you cry out.
Rico doesn't need any prompting. He looses arrows after arrow. They fly like hornets into the mass. Three rats drop, letting loose blood curdling death screams. They pour ever closer. Two more arrows whiz past, one snapping on the masonry, but the other flies true -- dropping another rat. You fling your foot-long iron darts into the mass; two clatter away into the passageway and the third pierces one of the rats' skulls.
"Hold steady, old man!" cries Dudley.
"The Morningstar protects even a humble archivist like me," whispers Holmes Lyne, but his knees are shaking. The mass slams into their shields. One falls to Dudley's blade and another flies into the wall from a swing of the old priest's mace. In seconds, almost half of the overgrown rodents are slain.
The rats surge in a stampede over their dead comrades. Three of them go for a stumbling Holmes. He manages to ward off one with his shield, but the other two get inside his defenses. One pounces and draws blood, and other soon follows; they attack the prone old man who can only bring up his hands to defend himself from their frenzied gnawing. Dudley remains resolute and dodges and kicks away the attacks of the panicked animals.
"Get up Holmes Lyne, gods damn it!" he bellows.
Your distraction prevents you from noticing a rat that bowls into you. Its weight slams into your leg and drops you. Trapped under your body, it at once squirms and bites. Its teeth tear a great wound into your shoulder, near your neck. Your hands clamp down on the bleeding and extraordinarily painful gash. You already start to feel lightheaded from the bleeding.
>It is now your turn
>Run
>Fight
>Other
>>46804496
>Run
Seriously. Harry is probably at 1-2 HP; Holmes is probably in similarly dire straits.
In lieu of any more responses, I'm going to call it a night and pick it up on Friday or Sunday. Will announce in /qtg/
I'll be around for questions if anyone cares. I'd like to know what I could do better.
