The Demise of Lefzer of the Silver Cloak (OD&D/Holmes Solo Play Report)

 

The Demise of Lefzer of the Silver Cloak

This is an OD&D solo play report inspired by Smoldering Wizard. I’ve been doing a lot of solo role-playing lately, but this is my first time using the random dungeon generation rules from Strategic Review #1, and I’m curious how it will go.

My character is Lefzer of the Silver Cloak (name generated randomly using the Zenopus Holmesian Random Names. He is wholly underwhelming, with low average scores except for CON and DEX, which are both 5 (giving him a penalty on hp and missile attacks). I rolled well for hit points though, so he can at least take one solid hit and survive (7 hp).

I rolled with dice (3d6 in order, as per the rules) rather than using one of the character generators to enjoy the sound of the bones rattling.

Tools

• BLUEHOLME Prentice Rules

• Wandering monster table from BLUEHOLME

• Random dungeon generation tables from Strategic Review #1: Solo Dungeon Adventures.

• Dungeoneering Reference Sheet (Zenopus)

• Character sheet by jasperrantings.wordpress.com

House Rules

• Shields shall be sundered

• As close to RAW as possible using BLUEHOLME Prentice, turning to BLUEHOLME Journeymanne, Holmes, or OD&D if necessary

Into the Dungeon

Lefzer of the Silver Cloak has had few opportunities to get ahead in life. He’s quite ordinary, to be honest. After years as a low-paid bodyguard (and some other less savory careers) he’s ready to make it big or die trying. When he hears that a dungeon has recently been unsealed near town, he’s eager to seek fortune and glory – or an ignoble death.

He lights a torch and descends into the darkness…

The first room has five heavy doors bound with iron, and after listening to the door in the north of the room (and hearing nothing) he opens it. A gloomy, dripping passage runs east/west into darkness. He passes through a chamber with a glittering pile of gold in the center. He is savvy enough to assume that it is a magical trap, and stays well enough away, lest he fall prey to some fell creature. He follows the passage west until he reaches a strangely trapezoidal room. 

Out of the darkness slides a quivering cube of clear gelatinous matter! It makes a disgusting squelching noise as it moves, trembling at the scent of a victim. Silver and gold coins are suspended in its near-invisible mass. Terrifying in the dim flicker of a torch!

Lefzer has never heard of such a creature, but it properly freaks him out and he sprints down the corridor the way he came. The cube follows him closely down the hall, but he manages to slam the door behind him, and he is back in the entry room. So much for the north door!

He carefully opens the door heading to the east and finds a 10x10 room with another door to the east, this one opening onto a long hallway. He follows the passage, his torch casting wild shadows on the walls, and lets out a shout as the floor gives out from under him! A spike pierces his thigh, but he manages to extricate himself again. He struggles to escape the spiked pit for almost and hour and a half, and at last a party of elves coming from the east rescues him. They bind his wound and offer him a sweet Elvish drink that revives him somewhat.

The leader of the elves warned him that it is too dangerous to explore the dungeon alone. Lefzer warns them in turn about the gelatinous cube patrolling the northern passage, and the elves thank him for the information. Lefzer limps back to town and rents a room for a week to heal.

Feeling better after the rest (even though the inn he is staying at has poor accommodations), Lefzer sets out for a second sortie into the depths. He again explores the same eastern passage that he tried before, this time easily avoiding the already-sprung pit trap. At the end of the hall, behind another closed door, he finds a room about 30x40 feet across.

After entering the room, the door closes behind him and the floor begins to sink with a vast sound of grating stone and steam! He finds himself on the second level of the dungeon, and there seems to be no way to tell the room to take him back to the higher floor. He’s trapped! His only hope is to find a stairway up in another part of the dungeon.

He follows a short passageway to the northwest and enters a medium triangular room with no exits. It’s like being on the inside of a pyramid, and the walls are covered in deep geometric carvings. There are a half-dozen gnomes in the room: a heavily-armed party with spears and crossbows wearing scale armor. Sadly, the gnomes don’t speak Common and Lefzer’s attempts to communicate are met with aggression. He doesn’t stand a chance in a fight against this warband, and so he sets all his weapons on the floor and raises his hands, kneeling down in surrender. This saves his life, but he is tied up as a captive of the gnomes.

There are no obvious exits anywhere – just the two rooms and a short hallway – and the gnomes seem perplexed. They spread out and search for hidden passages, first in the pyramid room and then in the elevator room. As they’re searching the latter, a secret door (they didn’t find) opens in the passage and four brutish gnolls stomp out carrying huge axes. The gnomes and gnolls seemed equally surprised, and scrambling and shouting ensue as they ready for battle.

The gnomes get into formation, with a front rank of four spearmen and two in the back with crossbows. The gnolls plow forward, chopping through the front rank of gnomes with ease, their mighty axes cleaving brutally through the gnomish armor. Lefzer (still tied up) struggles and shouts for the gnomes to release him so he can fight. One after another, the gnomes fall until only two are left – and no gnoll has yet fallen. The tide of battle has tipped decidedly against the gnomes, and death is nearly certain.

One of the short warriors has proven his skill in battle. We will call him “Foare” although Lefzer never learns his name. He parries and dodges blow after blow, drawing blood with the sharp point of his spear. (It is only fitting that you should hear his tale, because he fought a battle worthy of the Sagas!)

Seeing few choices, Foare rushes over to cut Lefzer free while his last remaining comrade bravely holds off the gnolls for a few seconds with his spear before being cut down by a vicious axe-blow. His sacrifice gives Lefzer the time he needs to climb to his feet and recover his short sword and shield. The warrior rushes in against four bloodied but fearsome gnolls, with Foare defending at his side. Lefzer slashes and hacks at the foe, and Foare’s spear strikes again and again, but after a valiant battle the gnome is cut down with a mighty blow.

Alone, surrounded by the fallen gnomes, Lefzer faces the four furious red-eyed gnolls who now surround him! He stabs one through the heart, kicking it backwards. It is the first of the enemy to fall. He is wounded, but trades blood-for-blood with his sword. A gnoll deals a blow that shatters his shield, and Lefzer staggers backwards, unable to defend himself from the next swipe of the axe. He is cleaved and dies on the dank floor of an unknown dungeon.

The gnolls eat well: gnomes for appetizers and manflesh for the main course.

Thus ends the story of Lefzer of the Silver Cloak. He died well with his sword in hand, no richer in gold, but certainly richer in glory.

Mechanical Notes

First of all, this was incredibly fun to play, and it exceeded all of my expectations. Almost everything about the unfolding of this adventure was decided randomly. Here are a few notes:

• Reaction rolls as per BLUEHOLME page 53 decided almost everything related to encounter behavior. There was some obvious extrapolation, but it all started from a random dice roll.

• I rolled the trap RAW, so 1:3 chance of triggering the trapdoor to the spiked pit trap – and of course, Lefzer fell in. I wasn’t sure how he would get out of the pit, but I gave him a small chance to climb out (1:6) and rolled until he succeeded – which determined the time passed, and triggered wandering monster rolls. Luckily, it was friendly elves who showed up and I ruled that they helped him get out of the pit.

• Since the elvish reaction roll was Friendly, I decided that meant they would give him some boon. It seems to make sense that if a bad roll means deadly battle, a good roll means the potential of aid. In this case, Lefzer needed help!

• I adapted the rules for secret doors very slightly, in that there was a 1:12 chance of finding a secret door on any section of wall, but also a 1:12 chance of a wandering monster. This rule was intended for rooms with no exit, but I like the idea that a secret might be anywhere just waiting to be found (and the tradeoff is danger).

• Creatures only have a 20% chance of speaking Common, and the gnomes did not (I swear I read that rule somewhere, but I don’t see it in BLUEHOLME now that I looked for a reference to it). This plus a bad reaction roll set up an interesting situation. Rather than have the gnomes attack Lefzer outright, becoming a prisoner seemed more interesting than outright death.

• I didn’t see the gnolls coming, and neither did the gnomes! Both sides were surprised. The gnomes rolled poorly, and the gnolls just cut a swath through their front line. It might have gone differently if Lefzer hadn’t been tied up – but what a great fight! Gnome #4 (Foare) had me cheering at points – he seemed to be the only one of those guys who could hit anything.

• The decision to untie Lefzer was all using reaction rolls. The gnomes couldn’t understand Lefzer, but they could see the reality of the situation. I rolled a reaction roll each combat round until it came up friendly, and then I had one gnome (Foare) break away to free Lefzer in a desperate gambit to survive! Lefzer had a much better AC and the gnomes had already bloodied all the gnolls but had failed to take any down.

• I tracked torches and wandering monster checks using d6 as counters. Each turn, I incremented them: 1-3 for monsters (roll when it loops to 1) and 1-6 for torches (burned out when it loops to 1). I pretty much skipped encumbrance, but it’ll be something that I add in a future session.

• I ruled that any door had a 20% chance of being stuck or locked, but never rolled one.

• I was thrilled to use the sundered/splintered shields house rule. I really enjoy rules that give a last-ditch option to change fate. In this case, it didn’t save Lefzer but if the dice had fallen favorably, it might have been a different story. The gnolls were down to 3, 3, and 6 hp by the end.

Lefzer’s death was totally satisfying. For having had nothing planned and generating everything just-in-time, I’m shocked at how well that played! I can’t wait to do it again.

Special thanks to Doug at Smoldering Wizard for the inspiration and Michael Thomas for creating the BLUEHOLME™ rules. I’m a big fan of the Holmes rules, and usually break out my original blue book for games with the family. I’ve not properly inaugurated my print copies of the retroclone BLUEHOLME™ and I was pretty delighted with it in this session.