In the early days this was largely due to the fact that it was one of the only adventures that I happened to own. I had picked it up at the same time as the 5.5 rulebook from a second-hand book stall, Tunnels and Trolls products where hard to come by back then and, this was long before the days of DriveThruRPG.
I still love coming back to Buffalo Castle though. It's my training ground for new delvers and, an absolute classic of a dungeon hack. So with the creation of Borador in my last post, there was only one place I could send him. :0).
What follows is a play report of what I can only describe as being my most memorable experience among my many journeys here over the years yet. I didn't delve far (for reasons that will become quite apparent, pretty quickly) but, I'm pretty sure with what I managed to achieved in those few encounters I broke some kind of record. A personal record if nothing else.
The first paragraph of Buffalo Castle places you in front of the castle itself, with the option of picking up some useful items at a knock-down price. Admittedly, this was no use to me as I was flat broke but, hey, the offer was a nice touch. So with shopping out of the question, it came down to a straight choice between three doors and nothing to pick between them. So I chose left. What's the worst that could happen?
Well considering that in the very next chamber I entered after walking along a short corridor sat a troll on a treasure chest things weren't looking great. This is by all accounts the same troll that splattered the last Dwarf to come this way.
As I saw it negotiation wasn't really an option here and, given the animosity between the two kindreds it seemed unrealistic to hope for anything other than a bloody out come, so I figured, attack! Attack!! ATTACK!! Crossbow out in a flash, I took aim and unleashed hell.
Making the L2SR on DEX seemed like a sure thing with such a high value in DEX and 4+26 was certainly going to make a dent in the troll if not kill it outright. So I rolled. I rolled a 1 and a 2! Disaster! My bow string broke and the troll looked less than impressed. Crap!
Predictably the troll spent the next few rounds bashing Borador from wall to wall, all of which thankfully got soaked up by his armor. The spite damage was beginning to add up though and 4 rounds in he had lost 1/4 of his CON while the troll had only taken one pitiful flesh wound.
Enough was enough and Borador had taken more than his fill. Considering that I had little to lose in the way of defense, I opted for all out attack, throwing myself at the troll screaming, bleeding and, yelling general abuse the trolls way that brought into question its parentage.
Boy did that ever work!! In a complete reversal of fate, the troll only managed a measly CBT of 25 (after rolling 4 1's and a 2) compared to Borador's mighty 48.
BLAMM!!
After this point it was only a matter of a couple of rounds before the troll was mince meat.. Much like my crossbow (which I had pinned a lot of hopes on). Still, it could be repaired, so I decided to I would take it with me. Certain that the troll had to be guarding something of value, I opted to loot the chest, finding a jewel worth 300GP and, my successful ransack roll revealing a small pouch of rough cut crystals worth in the region of 120GP.
So, my first encounter hadn't been the walk in the park I had been expecting but it was at least worthwhile.
From here it was another straight up choice between two doors with nothing to pick between them. One to the north and one to the west. I figured that the heart of the castle probably lay ahead... So I decided to head west. After all, I didn't want to venture straight into the maws of something nastier than a troll just yet and, there could well be more treasure to be had around the outer walls.
The door here lead straight into another chamber and, straight into another fight! This time with a giant snake. Well, it was certainly no troll, combat was swift and brutal in the favor of our hero but, he took one nasty nick and that was all it took. This giant serpent was of the venomous variety and that one small wound was more than enough to get its poison cursing through Borador's veins.
The effects of the venom caused Borador to lose half of his STR for the rest of this adventure, which also translated to him losing half of his Combat Adds. So now I had lost more than a 1/4 of my CON, Half my STR, Half of my Combat Adds and, my Crossbow was little more than fancy firewood. Only two rooms in I decided it was time to retreat. Not before i ransacked the room however, which turned up a silver ring set with a cluster of small polished stones and a solid silver crown adorned with rubies.
Nice! with a combined value of 2,480GP the hell that Borador was being put through almost seemed worthwhile. It did lead me to question just where all these gems and pieces of jewelery where coming from but, being in such bad shape I figured I would look for answers when I was safely rested up at an inn or tavern somewhere, which hopefully wouldn't be too far away as the exit was within sight. Only a few more feet...
When another snake decided to rear it's scaly head. Sword still in hand, combat was a quick affair and it was then that Borador noticed something odd. This snake had swallowed something or, at least someone wearing it. There it was, a cheap brass brooch set with a kings ransom of turquoise stones worth something close to 13,505GP.
Amazing! This has to be far my biggest find in any random treasure haul, in any solo adventure that I have played to date. I still had the room to ransack too! Which not wanting to hang around to be attacked again, I cracked on with. This search turned up another small pouch, this time containing assorted variety of studs with a combined value of 3,520GP. Another great find!
So securing all of his loot Borador stepped back out into the daylight and prepared to begin the journey into town. He would now have to broker all of the gems for coin to help repay his clans debt, seek the help of an apothecary, find a place to rest and, of course replace that bow string. ;0).
Totting this up Borador managed to walk away with 104AP and the following:
4 Mithril Studs, each set with a medium piece of rough cut Onyx (520GP, 6WU Each).
6 Copper Studs, each set with 11 medium sized pieces of rough cut crystal (440GP, 56WU Each).
Brass Brooch set with 60 big rough cut Turquoise Stones (13,505GP, 605WU).
Jewel (300GP, 1WU).
Silver Crown set with 7 medium sized polished Rubies (2,110GP, 45WU).
Silver Ring set with 40 small polished Turquoise Stones (370GP, 42WU).
Small pouch of 60 small rough cut pieces of Crystal (120GP, 62WU).
Total value: 21,125GP
Not bad for a second level Dwarf eh?
No comments:
Post a Comment