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RedHandOfDoom

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> Later, I ran it again using [[Labyrinth Lord]] rules.
> <journal search tag:RedHandOfDoom>


Red Hand of Doom I ran Red Hand of Doom by Wizards of the Coast for my Kitsunemori game. The campaign then turned to Fudo.

Later, I ran it again using Labyrinth Lord rules.

2013-04-12 More Old School Red Hand of Doom

I started to run Red Hand of Doom using old school D&D rules last month because I had fond memories of the adventure. If you’re reading along as Zak S. bashes the module on his blog you will know of all the weaknesses this module has. It’s true! It’s verbose. There is a lot of useless info. There are “interesting” fights with waves of mixed enemies, but these waves are also staged, fixed, a railroad you need to adapt. So here’s what I’m trying to do:

  1. run fights with mixed enemies since that is not something I usually do
  2. use names, maps, places and pictures to show my players
  3. follow the general flow of the adventure
  4. try and avoid railroading the players

So, last session I noted that the hobgoblins should have added nearly 6000 gold pieces to the treasure of Vraath keep. Well, as I ran the module today, I forgot all about it. It didn’t matter much. :)

One player decided to abandon her elf character and pulled a fighter named Sirius from the stack of old characters. It turns out he’s third level where as the others all hover around fifth level (20k XP is what we started the adventure with).

The party lures the manticore away from Vraath keep using phantasmal force to imitate the sorcerer and bribes it using jewelry worth 800 gold. I decide that it works and the manticore goes to fight the hobgoblins. I let the kids roll dice for manticore and minotaur and the manticore won, with 7 hit-points left. The real sorceror then showed up and cast lightning bolt to kill the manticore. The party realizes how powerful the bugbear sorceror is and attack him using hold person (he saves), a poisoned needle (he saves), and a melee attack which finally kills him before he can cast another lightning bolt. Yay!

They find all the treasure as written.

  • the two elixirs of truth remain unidentified
  • the scroll of mount remains unread (none of the elves knows read magic)
  • the gauntlets of ogre power are as described in the Labyrinth Lord rules (Str 18)
  • the sword +1 turned into Frostbrand (+3, +6 vs. fire creatures, extinguishes non-magical fire within 10 ft. when drawn, glows white like the winter sun, drips fog like liquid nitrogen, causes snow to form when moved through the air)
  • the chain mail +1 turned into elven mail (speed, sneaking, swimming as leather armor)
  • a spiked forest giant gauntlet was used to decorate the inn and grants free rumors for the rest of the adventure
  • the wand of magic missiles remains unidentified (I had decided on a whim that it had some runes and required read magic or read languages to discover the command word)
  • the staff of life with seven charges uses the rules as written in the module (I had decided on a whim that the cleric would be able to identify the staff once he handled it, it also features “angles touching people” and one of the players quickly guessed that it would involve healing)

At the beginning of the session I mentioned rumors of a hydra along the main road (which they had avoided the last session). As their thoughts turned towards home and splitting up treasure, I said that they weren’t home yet. Which way did they want to take? Along the main road, of course.

“You see a six-headed hydra raising her head as you march across the wooden walk way.”
“I’m not there.”
“I’m in the back.”
“I’m not there.”
“I’m not there either.”
“Uh, the hydra raises here head as at least one of you is there. So, any volunteers? Who’s first?”
“I am.”
“Anybody with him?”
“I’m there as well.”
“Ok.”
“I shoot the hydra with my crossbow!”

In the end, the new fighter loses a leg due to the Death and Dismemberment table! As he survives, I tell them that if having a wooden leg is worthy of a pirate, then you can still fight with a wooden leg. Everybody nods.

Each character gains 476 XP due to the defeat of monsters and 940 XP due to treasure, plus a lot of magic loot.

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2013-03-01 Old School Red Hand of Doom

I’m going to run Red Hand of Doom for Zeno and the kids. Their Labyrinth Lord characters got upgraded to 20’000 XP. That makes the three elves are level four, the dwarf and the cleric are level five.

I used the standard monsters from the Labyrinth Lord book:

  • 12 hobgoblins → standard
  • 2 hell hounds (+1 summoned) → standard
  • 1 “Doom Hand Cleric” → HD 3, AC 6, ML 9, 1d6, invisibility, cure light wounds, hold person, summon hell hound scroll, two potions of healing
  • 1 “Hobgoblin Bladebearer” → HD 4+4, AC 6, ML 10, 1d6

A lot of groaning was heard when the monster line up grew in every round. One hell hound breathing fire, eight hobgoblin archers targeting the only enemy not in melee: an elf wearing leather armor… it was tough!

I left the treasure unchanged but noted that 4d6 hobgoblins come with treasure type XIX, which I randomly determined to be 6000 cp, 7000 sp, 3000 gp, 6 gems (1170 gp) and a jewel (1500 gp). I'll add this treasure to Vraath keep.

  • 2 warg riders → standard goblins on standard warg wolves
  • 4 hobgoblins → standard
  • 1 minotaur → standard
  • 1 manticore → standard
  • 1 bug bear sorcerer 6 → magic user HD 6, AC 9, ML 6, 1d6, 2 × lightning bolt, detect thoughts, blindness, charm person, shield, wand of magic missile, two potions of healing, two elixirs of truth, scroll of mount

The party killed the warg riders and set fire to the stables. Then they managed to alert everybody using phantasmal force trying to lure the minotaur away but he decided to alert the manticore instead. This is when they decided to fall back. Luckily, they had approached under a silence spell, so no problem running away. And will the wargs killed, there is probably not going to be a hot pursuit.

The treasure type III for goblins underground means that 7 ep get added to the treasure. Another treasure type XIX for the manticore and type XX for the minotaur -> a total of 3000 sp extra. No extra – treasure – for the magic user except for his spell book.

I think this will be going well!

Edit note: I marked the info I ended up not taking into account as deleted.

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