shifty louts

Arduin Dungeon #2: The Howling Tower Pickup Game Session Report

Players

Summary

After the sudden session cancellation of Dogs Upon the Isle (due to Ollie being sick), there was debate on what to do. A few players bandied about ideas of a quick pick-up game in an Arcade Style, and I found myself tasked to run something without any true prep time.

I decide to opt for David Hargrave’s Arduin Dungeon #2: The Howling Tower and use Idraluna’s Littlest Brown Book for the dungeon room stocking, as the Howling Tower’s first level is sparsely keyed (The Outer Ground Leve of the Howling Tower has only ten true keyed rooms. The left of the stocking is left to personal pick and preference.). I also opted for Idraluna’s brilliant Supplement 𐡠 too.

HOWLING TOWER

For additional ease of player onboarding, I created a character generator that incorporates many of my personal house rules and equipment packages, so players can press a button and go!

With that all set up, I’ve opted to fold in other Arduin table stuff like the Critical Hit and Fumble tables and Random Fog and Mist Generator to flavor the rooms from the Arduin Grimoire #1 in other games.

For the Howling Tower, I actually just rolled 1d10 and started them in one of the keyed rooms, and found that we started in Room #1. I had rolled up 13 skeletons and flavored them using The Monster Overhaul by Skerples, which I highly recommend too, as Room #1 has twelver 2+2HD dual-armed skeletons (which, in retrospect, I should have just run for the cinema and hype. Such shame upon my house)

In terms of the actual game, it ran relatively smoothly, jumping between all the books was a bit of a hassle, as the Arduin material is scattered over three books and makes it hard to track down certain information.

I also had to flip the dungeon map around given how I had players enter the Howling Tower, which made for a fun little time. However, describing the dungeon rooms that Hargrave created are difficult, given their shapes. All part of the fun!

TLDRAW

But all in all, there were some hype moments such as…

The warding away of nearly all the undead by the Black Magus Domeneka Enlever in the opening of the game.

The three undead that killed the Mendebal Deluese, Armsman (by cutting his Achilles tendon and then slicing his throat) The skeletons rolled two criticals back-to-back during combat.

Digging through dragon guano to get 400sp and 20gp in the second room.

The artful dodge done by Nere Blache against the smaller centipede’s spray!

The unfortunate surprise attack by Really Large Centipede (read 6HD), whose dragon breath-like venom cone resulted in a near party kill as they melted into one big fleshy puddle.

The finding of a blue prismatic wall by Maktaza Objet, Armsman, that hid the Skorpodillo in the final explored room.

Finally, the successful disarming of the 8’ long iron chest by Patxi Facultad, the Green Magus (trapped with 2d8 acid spray with a 25% of blinding)that held 7,750sp, 450gp, and Boots of Silent Stealth.

Some Player Doodles During the Game by Ecobolic

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Aftermath

Treasure Found:

Foes Encountered:

Rumors:

Deaths:

XP Awarded:

Notes